It was purchased
some years ago, and pays well as a sheep-run. Lauai, the next island,
is scarcely inhabited, and its scenery is not remarkable.
A sad interest attaches to the island of Molokai, which is situated
midway between Maui and Oahu. It is the leper settlement, and to it
all the victims of this terrible, loathsome, and incurable disease,
unhappily so prevalent in the Hawaiian archipelago, are sent, in order
to prevent the spread of the contagion. They are well cared for and
looked after in every way; but their life, separated as they
inevitably are from all they hold most dear, and with no prospect
before them but that of a slow and cruel death, must indeed be a
miserable one. In Molokai there are many tiny children, fatherless and
motherless, parents without children, husbands without wives, wives
without husbands, 'all condemned.' as Miss Bird says, 'to watch the
repulsive steps by which each of their doomed fellows goes down to a
loathsome death, knowing that by the same they too must pass.' A
French priest has nobly devoted himself to the religious and secular
instruction of the lepers, and up to the present time has enjoyed
complete immunity from the disease; but even if he escapes this
danger, he can _never_ return to his country and friends.
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