The Gifts of Civilization

In 1778 Captain James Cook made his first visit to the Hawaiian Islands. The members of his expedition and subsequent visitors brought to the previously isolated Hawaiian people new things, novel ideas, and, of greatest consequence, devastating alien germs. The infectious diseases introduced since 1778 have claimed more Hawaiian lives than all other causes of death combined. During their long isolation in space and time, Hawaiians had not been exposed to the many microbes that afflicted populati