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Hawaiian Islands… ignorance is often the default position of the uninformed…
October 17, 2014 by GuyHeilenman 
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While many have been rightfully moved by James Michener’s account of the 1800’s Hawaiian Island pandemic, and have been forced to wrestle with and ultimately accept the albeit unintentional but horrible spread of disease and death often associated with well-intended explorers and missionaries entering new lands, an article in the National Intelligencer (December 4, 1849) takes “ignorance” to a whole new level. The image to the right expresses at least one person’s “uninformed” reaction to the wide-spread death that had befallen many of the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands (Sandwich Islands). Captain Cook and those who followed (with the intention of bringing Good News) would never have guessed they were also bringing such overwhelming human destruction. Thankfully we now know better – so as to not make such cold-hearted statements as the one made in this mid-19th century newspaper.
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