Flora Cantábrica

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Arrival of Father Damien to Molokai:

When new lepers arrived, the old ones were quick to instill in them the false maxim: “Aole kanawai ma keia wahi”, “in this place there is no longer law.”

I have heard this message proclaimed both in public and in private conversations. For a long time, I was forced to fight it

As a result of this impious theory, the majority of single people, or married people separated from their families by leprosy, lived in promiscuity without distinction of sex. Many women were forced into prostitution, to have friends who wanted to help them in their illness. Children, while they were strong, were employed as servants. When the leprosy had developed too much in them, these women and children were thrown out of the house, going to seek refuge elsewhere.

I allow myself a digression here in order to point out another source of immorality: I am referring to drunkenness. First I want to explain how they procure the intoxicating drink. Along the mountain a plant that the natives call “ki” (Dracoena terminalis) grows in abundance. The root of this vegetable, when it has been cooked and fermented and its product distilled, provides a highly intoxicating liquid.

When I arrived here, the distillation of this horrible liquor was being done on a large scale. The indigenous people who fell under their influence forgot the most basic principles of decency. Running from here to there naked, they behaved in every way like insane people.

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