Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
Tom Davis knew how to read, write, and cipher in common
arithmetic; had been to the United States, and spoke English quite
well. His education was as good as that of three quarters of the
Yankees in California, and his manners and principles a good deal
better; and he was so quick of apprehension that he might have
been taught navigation, and the elements of many of the sciences,
with ease. Old ``Mr. Bingham'' spoke very little English,-- almost
none, and could neither read nor write; but he was the
best-hearted old fellow in the world. He must have been over fifty
years of age. He had two of his front teeth knocked out, which was
done by his parents as a sign of grief at the death of Kamehameha,
the great king of the Sandwich Islands. We used to tell him that
he ate Captain Cook, and lost his teeth in that way. That was the
only thing that ever made him angry. He would always be quite
excited at that, and say: ``Aole!'' (No.) ``Me no eatee Cap'nee
Cook! Me pickaninny-- small-- so high-- no more! My fader see
Cap'nee Cook! Me-- no!'' None of them liked to have anything said
about Captain Cook, for the sailors all believe that he was eaten,
and that they cannot endure to be taunted with. ``New Zealand
Kanaka eatee white man; Sandwich Island Kanaka,-- no. Sandwich
Island Kanaka ua like pu na haole,-- all 'e same a' you!''
Mr. Bingham was a sort of patriarch among them, and was treated
with great respect, though he had not the education and energy
which gave Mr. Mannini his power over them. I have spent hours in
talking with this old fellow about Kamehameha, the Charlemagne of
the Sandwich Islands; his son and successor, Riho Riho, who died
in England, and was brought to Oahu in the frigate Blonde, Captain
Lord Byron, and whose funeral he remembered perfectly; and also
about the customs of his boyhood, and the changes which had been
made by the missionaries. He never would allow that human beings
had been eaten there; and, indeed, it always seemed an insult to
tell so affectionate, intelligent, and civilized a class of men
that such barbarities had been practised in their own country
within the recollection of many of them. Certainly, the history of
no people on the globe can show anything like so rapid an advance
from barbarism. I would have trusted my life and all I had in the
hands of any one of these people; and certainly, had I wished for
a favor or act of sacrifice, I would have gone to them all, in
turn, before I should have applied to one of my own countrymen on
the coast, and should have expected to see it done, before my own
countrymen had got half through counting the cost. Their customs,
and manner of treating one another, show a simple, primitive
generosity which is truly delightful, and which is often a
reproach to our own people. Whatever one has they all have. Money,
food, clothes, they share with one another, even to the last piece
of tobacco to put in their pipes. I once heard old Mr. Bingham
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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