Until 1516 Havre was only a fishing village possessing a chapel dedicated to Notre Dame de Grâce, to which it owes its original name Havre (or harbour) de Grâce. The building of the harbour was begun by Francis I. who gave the town the name of Franciscopolis. At the entrance to the harbour he erected a tower which served as a lighthouse for ships until it was demolished in 1862. The town in 1562 was delivered over to the keeping of Queen Elizabeth by the Prince de Condé, leader of the Huguenots, and the command of it was entrusted to Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick; but the English were expelled within a year, after a most obstinate siege, the progress of which was pressed forward by Charles IX. and his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, in person. The defences of the town were greatly strengthened by Henry II. and Louis XIII., and under Louis XIV. it became an important fortress. In the 17th century it was several times vainly besieged by the English, who also bombarded it in 1759, 1794, and 1795. It was a port of considerable importance as early as 1572, and despatched vessels to the whale and cod fishing at Spitsbergen and Newfoundland. In 1672 it became the entrepôt of the French East India Company, and afterwards of the Senegal and Guinea companies. Its development was greatly furthered by Louis XVI., and Napoleon I. raised it to a war harbour of the first rank. Havre is the birthplace of Bernardin de St Pierre, author of Paul and Virginia, Casimir Delavigne, Mademoiselle Scudéry, and the naturalists Ancelot and Lesueur.
See Guilmeth, Histoire de la ville et des environs du Havre, 1842; Mémoires de la fondation et origine de la ville françoise de Grâce, composez par maistre Guillaume de Marceilles, first published by J. Morlent, 1847; Le Havre, son passé, son présent, et son avenir, by Frederick de Coninck, new edition 1862; Nerval, Documents relatifs à la fondation de Havre, 1875.
HAWAIIAN or SANDWICH ISLANDS, The, a group of eight inhabited and four uninhabited islands in the North Pacific Ocean, lying between 18° 54′ and 22° 2′ N. lat. and 155° and 161° W. long. The group has a trend of about N. 64° W., which is nearly the trend of all the Pacific groups. From Honolulu, the capital, on Oahu, the distance to San Francisco is 2100 miles; to Auckland, New Zealand, 3810 miles; to Sydney, New South Wales, 4484 miles; to Yokohama, 3440 miles; to Hongkong, 4393 miles; to Tahiti, 2380 miles. The first of the names by which the group is designated above is taken from that of the largest island Hawaii, and is the name adopted by the inhabitants. The other name was given to it by Captain Cook the discoverer, in honour of the earl of Sandwich, first lord of the Admiralty at the time of the discovery.
History.—These islands, the most important Polynesian group in the North Pacific, were discovered by Captain Cook in 1778.[1] He was received by the natives with many demonstrations of astonishment and delight; and offerings and prayers were presented to him by their priest in one of the temples; and though in the following year he was killed by a native when he landed in Kealakeakua bay in Hawaii, his bones were preserved by the priests and continued to receive offerings and homage from the people, until the abolition of idolatry. At the time of Cook’s visit each island had its chief. On the death of the chief who ruled Hawaii at that time there succeeded one named Kamehameha, who appears to have been a man of quick perception and great force of character. When Vancouver visited the islands in 1792, this chief being desirous of possessing a vessel on the European model, the keel of one was laid down for him. Ten or twelve years later Mr Turnbull found him with 20 vessels of from 25 to 50 tons which traded amongst the islands, and he afterwards purchased others from foreigners. Having encouraged a warlike spirit in his people and introduced firearms, Kamehameha attacked and overcame the chiefs of the other islands one after another, until he became undisputed master of the whole group. He encouraged trade with foreigners, and derived from its profits a large increase of revenue as well as the means of consolidating his power. He died in 1819, and was succeeded by his son, a mild and well-disposed prince, but destitute of his father’s energy. One of the first acts of Kamehameha II. was to abolish tabu and idolatry throughout the islands. Some disturbances were caused thereby, but the insurgents were defeated and the peace of the islands has been scarcely broken since. In 1820 missionaries arrived from America and commenced their labours at Honolulu. A short time afterwards the British Government presented a small schooner to the king, and this afforded an opportunity for the Rev William Ellis, the well-known English missionary, to visit Honolulu, along with a number of Christian natives from the Society Islands. Finding the language of the two groups nearly the same, Mr Ellis, who had spent several years in the southern islands, was able to assist the American missionaries in reducing the Hawaiian language to a written form. In 1824 the king and queen of these islands paid a visit to England, and both died there of measles. For many years the Hawaiians have continued to advance steadily in intelligence, resources, and civilization, but their progress has been at times interrupted by the conduct of the officers of foreign powers. On one occasion a British officer went so far as to take possession of Oahu and establish a commission for its government; and French officers abrogated the laws, dictated treaties, and by force of arms established the Roman Catholic religion in the country. The act of the British officer was disavowed by his superiors as soon as known; and these outrages led to a representation on the part of the native sovereign to the Governments of Great Britain, France, and the United States of America, and the independence of the islands was guaranteed by these powers in 1844. Kalakaua, the reigning monarch (1880), was elected king by ballot on Lunalilo’s death without heirs in 1874. The heir to the throne is a sister of the king, Lelia Kamakacha, and is married to an American.
Inhabitants.—By the census taken in December 1878 the population of the whole group amounted to 57,985 persons, instead of 56,897 as in 1873. The number of natives of pure Hawaiian race was 44,088, of half castes 3420, Chinese 5916, Americans (U.S.) 1276, British 883, Portuguese 430, Germans 272, French 81, other foreigners 666, and Hawaiians born of foreign parents 947.
The natives belong to the Malayo-Polynesian race. Their reddish-brown skin has been compared to the hue of tarnished copper. The hair, usually raven black, is straight or at most wavy; the beard is thin, the face broad, the profile not prominent, the nose rather flattened, and the lips thick. The bulk of the population are of moderate stature, but the chiefs and the women of their families are remarkable for height.
“The inhabitants of these islands,” says Mr Ellis,[2] “are, considered physically, amongst the finest races in the Pacific, bearing the strongest resemblance to the New Zealanders in stature, and in their well-developed muscular limbs. The tattooing on their bodies is less artistic than that of the New Zealanders, and much more limited than among some of the other islanders. They are also more hardy and industrious than those living nearer the equator. This in all probability arises from their salubrious climate, and the comparative sterility of their soil, rendering them dependent upon the cultivation of the ground for the yam, the arum, and the sweet potato, their chief articles of food. Though, like all undisciplined races, the Sandwich Islanders have proved deficient in firm and steady perseverance, they manifest considerable intellectual capability. Their moral character, when first visited by Europeans, was not superior to that of other islanders; and, excepting when improved and preserved by the influences of Christianity, it has suffered much from the vices of intemperance and licentiousness introduced by foreigners. Polygamy prevailed among the chiefs and rulers, and women were subject to all the humiliations of the tabu system, which subjected them to many privations, and kept them socially in a condition of inferiority to the other sex. Infanticide was practised to some extent, the children destroyed being chiefly females. Though less superstitious than the Tahitians, the idolatry of the Sandwich Islanders was equally barbarous and sanguinary, as, in addition to the chief objects of worship included in the mythology of the other islands, the supernatural beings supposed to reside in the volcanoes and direct the action of subterranean fires rendered the gods objects of peculiar terror. Human sacrifices were slain on several occasions, and vast offerings presented to the spirits supposed to preside over the volcanoes, especially during the periods of actual eruptions. The requisitions of their idolatry were severe, and its rites cruel and bloody. Grotesque and repulsive wooden figures, animals, and the bones of chiefs were the objects of worship. Human sacrifices were offered whenever a temple was to be dedicated, or a chief was sick, or a war was to be undertaken; and these occasions were frequent. The apprehensions of the people with regard to a future state were undefined, but fearful. The lower orders expected to be slowly devoured by evil spirits, or to dwell with the gods in burning mountains. The several trades, such as that of the fisherman, the tiller of the ground, and the builder of canoes and houses, had each their presiding deities. Household gods were also kept, which the natives worshipped in their habitations. One merciful provision, however, had existed from time immemorial, and that was sacred inclosures, places of refuge into which those who fled in time of war, or from any violent pursuer, might enter and be safe. To violate their sanctity was one of the greatest crimes of which a man could be guilty.”
- ↑ According to the Boletin de la Soc. Geogr. de Madrid, 1877, there had been a previous discovery by the Spaniards.
- ↑ Mr Ellis was the writer of the article Polynesia, which included an account of the Hawaiian Islands, in the last edition of this work.
