Re: Hawaiin pupulation on the decline. . .


I suspect most of the diseases were dormant or that the "visitors"
didn't
know they had the diseases.
Sometimes the disease can be transmitted before any symptoms appear and
sometimes someone
can be a "carrier" and will not have the disease themselves. It's
also a
possibility that some of the Hawaiians
that visited other places while aboard these explorer/merchant ships
brought
diseases back, probably unknowingly.
I think it would be a tremendous stretch to think missionaries and
explorers
wanted to wipe out the Hawaaian population. It was mutually
beneficial for
all to have a healthy populace.

It seems to me that underlying all of our emotional discussions about
Hawaii
and diseases is the premise that a deadly disease did not occur, or
would
not have ever occurred, until the arrival of missionaries,
explorers, and merchants. I'm no authority on this, but it seems that
people can contract diseases without coming in contact with someone else
and, not likely, but a possibility. A lack of knowledge about any
possible
diseases existing earlier could be attributable to a lack of historical
documentation other than "oral tradition." (Please -- I'm not saying
there
were any earlier diseases, but simply saying that the possibility may
have
existed. I think the consensus is that the first AIDS in humans, for
instance, occurred without human contact with other humans.)

Peace to all.

"Alvin E. Toda" <aet@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1125333301-sch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> On Sun, 28 Aug 2005, John W. Bienko wrote:
>
>> I do not believe that this type of population control
>> was the strategy of the missionaries and explorers
>> arriving in Hawai`i. There is the theory that
>> whatever does not kill you makes you stronger.
>> Thereby the deadly diseases brought to Hawaiians by
>> the missionaries and explorers may have helped the
>> native Hawaiians gain some degree of enhanced
>> immunity from future infection of even more deadly
>> diseases.
>
> I don't think this attitude would be acceptable to
> anyone in Hawaii.
>
> The possibility of deadly diseases should have been
> obvious from what happened to the American indian.
> Ships with sick aboard should not have been allowed to
> land untill all aboard were healthy. Missionaries would
> have better served Hawaiians by providing this service.
>
> But even the Hawaiian alii should have taken action. It
> would have been obvious that the illnesses must have
> been brought from the outside.
>
> --alvin
>

.