It is a sad fact that white man's rum and white man's diseases have killed many of the Polynesians. Even the measles sometimes killed half the people on an island; and some islands, populous when the white men came, have again become jungle.
907. Hawaii.—The Hawaiian Islands, the largest group of the brown men's tropic isles, are as large, all together, as Rhode Island and Connecticut. Like Tahiti and Marquesas, this group was built up from the bottom of the deep sea, by the out pourings of lavafrom several volcanoes which have finally raised their heads far above the surface of the water. The decayed lava makes very rich soil and the trade wind brings much rain (Fig. 641); so the islands are a splendid place for tropical farming.
A hundred years ago, American mission aries went to Hawaii to teach the natives our way of living. Finally the people asked their queen to resign and voted that the island should be joined with the United States. It is now an American territory, with a government much like that of our own state governments. Hawaii sends a representative to our Congress at Washington.
Many Hawaiian sugar plantations are owned by American capitalists. Many of the native Hawaiians have died, and immi grants have come to work in the canefields which stretch like a sea of green across the rich slopes. The white man does not like to work under the tropic sun much more than do the Polynesians; so high wages have been paid to other workers who have been brought to these shores.
The sugar plantations are among the finest in the world. They are managed by the Americans and worked by the various im migrants. There are 1500 miles of irrigation canals, and 70 miles of tunnels, to carry water from the rainy to the drier side of the islands. (Fig. 641.) In many plantations the water is pumped up several hun dred feet to the canefields. Scores of shiploads of sugar are sent to the United States each year.
The export next in im portance is pineapples. The fruit is canned in great quantities, for it is used in the American navy and in many Ameri can homes. Bananas are also sent to our Pacific coast ports. Many kinds of crops are grown for home use. Among these is rice, which the Chinese and Japanese immigrants grow as it is grown in China.
908. Trade. — Look at the map (Fig. 9) and see if you can tell why Hono lulu, the beautiful capital of Hawaii, is called the crossroads of the Pacific.
It is a modern city with steamships, trolleys, schools, telephones, and most things that one finds in the United States. Hawaiian
trade has increased greatly since Hawaii became part of the United States; most of her trade is with us. We take nearly all of the Hawaiian sugar, pineapples, and bana nas. Ships going to Hawaii carry the manu factures that are wanted in Honolulu and in other Hawaiian places.
909. Samoa.—A part of the Samoan Islands be longs to the United States, and a part belongs to Great Britain. If the Samoans want a little extra money they can go out, pick up some coconuts, cut them open, dry the meats, and have copra to sell. Copra is the chief export. The people even pay taxes in copra. The trees grow so well on these islands that the Samoans have more coconuts than are needed to meet their own simple wants. They do not want many things. They live in grass houses and use a piece of cotton cloth called a lava lava, forty-four by seventy-two inches in size, to wrap about themselves for clothing.
910. Fiji, another group of islands, six hundred miles to the southwestward from Samoa, belongs to Great Britain. The native Polynesians do not want to work on the Eng lishman's plantations, so many thousands of people have been brought from India to work in the canefields. Sugar is the chief export of this group of islands.
911. The islands of the black men.— Between Fiji and New Guinea are the New Hebrides, the Solomon, and the Bismarck Islands. Here the native people seem to be much like the natives of Australia. They are not nearly so pleasant to meet as the Poly nesians, for it has long been their habit to eat .people. But now, since the Europeans and Australians govern these islands, the natives usually sell coconuts instead of eat ing their neighbors. Missionaries have been surprised to find how quickly cannibals change their habits when they are taught by good people.
The French island of New Caledonia has one of the world's richest deposits of nickel, and many shiploads of this ore are sent each year to Europe and America for smelting.
912. area of the Pacific Islands is not great, but if fully used they could produce large quantities of sugar, as well as coconut and other tree crops. Ha waii has a suggestive new tree crop industry in the mesquite tree. (Sec. 151.) Its nutri tious beans are picked up off the rough ground on which the tree grows, and so:d for as much as corn. They are made into meal and used as stock food.