11-24-2008, 09:20 AM
1. Would have used a gun on Captain Cook if I had had one. I would have done this to protect the islands for another decade or two.
2. Yes, any western contact degraded the islands.
3. Some eastern contact (removal of Sandalwood forests to China) did the same.
4. Yes, the whalers wanted sex and the islanders didn't mind giving it. You do have a point about the diseases they brought, but that isn't why the missionaries wanted the women dressed from head-to-toe. It is because the missionaries were adherents of a Middle Eastern religion that required such head-to-toe modesty. What really upset the whalers was missing this: Pulling into a hot tropical port after a long voyage and having scores of naked women --and who knows maybe a few guys-- swim to them.
2. Yes, any western contact degraded the islands.
3. Some eastern contact (removal of Sandalwood forests to China) did the same.
4. Yes, the whalers wanted sex and the islanders didn't mind giving it. You do have a point about the diseases they brought, but that isn't why the missionaries wanted the women dressed from head-to-toe. It is because the missionaries were adherents of a Middle Eastern religion that required such head-to-toe modesty. What really upset the whalers was missing this: Pulling into a hot tropical port after a long voyage and having scores of naked women --and who knows maybe a few guys-- swim to them.