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THE
ISLAND WORLD OF THE PACIFIC.
KAMEHAMEHA III,, KING OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
HTARPER  & BROTHERS, PIBLTITSHERS
4I Sf6
Ic. 
THE
ISLAND WORLD OF THE PACIFIC.
KAMEHAM-EHA III., KING OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
HIARPER & BROTHERS, PTUBLISHERS.
I....4,. 
I,,'  
ILAD ORLI)
OF
THE P A C I F I C::
THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE AND RESULTS OF TRAVEL
THROUGH THE SANDWICH OR HAWAIIAN
ISLANDS, AND OTHER PARTS
OF POLYNESIA.
BY REV. HENRY T. CHEEVER,
AUTHOR OF "THE WHALE AND HIS CAPTORS."
Wtb 3ngvabfngo.
The Sandwich Isles I the Sandwich Isles I
How fair on Ocean's brow they seem,
Reflecting the benignant Smiles
That from the Source of Beauty beam.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
.,,a. t; i:
leAP.OL[,L' "0?~
THE
BEINO 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and fifty, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
of New York.
..
-'5     = I
I to               -,  
P R E F A C E.
POLYNESIA, or the realm of many Islands, within
the last few years has been a rich field for the commerce, the literature, and the piety of the world. The
name of one of the groups in it has become endeared
to all Christendom, like Jerusalem or Antioch, where
the disciples were first called Christians. The bare
mention of it is enough to allure the interest of the
Protestant world, for its associations connect it with
the noblest triumphs of Christianity in modern times.
Numbers, too, of both Englishmen and Americans
are now actual residents at those Islands, and many
more are anticipating a residence there, for purposes
of honorable trade and emolument; and it is a transplanted off-shoot from the old Puritan vine, in the form
of New England missionaries, which has wrought sc
marvelous a change in Polynesian society, that mer.
chants can now abide there safely with their families,
under the vine and fig-tree of a genial civilization.
These facts originate a natural desire, not only
among sea-faring and commercial men who find a
hospitable harbor there, but throughout the whole
!f -A 
PREFACE.
English and American public, to be definitely inform
ed respecting a people and a country where the out.
lay of Protestant benevolence has been so signally rewarded.
In these considerations, together with all the interwoven associations of boundless mineral wealth, indomitable American energy, and greatness yet to be,
that come trooping into the mind with the words
CALIFORNIA and PACIFIC, the present volume has its
origin. And it is for the same reasons, also, that the
author hopes to gain a hearing for this series of reverberations from a quarter of the world that bids fair to
become the moral heart of the Pacific. After a few
introductory chapters, therefore, historic, descriptive,
and statistical, the book is made up of echoes and
glances caught by the author after leaving the good
ship Wales at Oahu.
The design of the whole is to present a true and
life-like picture of the best part of Polynesia as it is
seen now in 1850. Other writers, as Ellis in the Polynesian Researches, Stewart in his Journal of a Residence at the Sandwich Islands, Tyerman and Bennet, in the volumes compiled from their manuscripts
of travel through the South Seas, between 1821 and
1829, by James Montgomery; Jarves, Dibble, and
Bingham, in their several histories of the Sandwich
Islands, have given to the world very accurate and entertaining delineations of Polynesian and Hawaiian 
PREFACE.            xi
society, usages, and annals, both civil and religious,
up to the times when they wrote.  But such has been
the rapidity of changes in that part of Polynesia with
which this volume has most to do, that the lapse of
seven years suffices to effect a total revolution. This
book is intended, therefore, to answer a want of the
times, by affording, both to the wanderer abroad and
to the stayer at home, a correct view of the Island
World of the Pacific as it now is, just midway in the
arch of the nineteenth century.
The scraps of vernacular Hawaiian occasionally introduced and translated, will be read with ease by remembering that a is always pronounced like the English vowel a in father; e like the English a in cane;
i like ee in seen; u like oo in moon. The illustrative engravings are mostly reduced from original designs or sketches never before published, some of
which were presented to the author on leaving the
Island World for America by Rev. Lorrin Andrews.
Some writer has said, for substance, that it is a
blessed mission to write books, which abate preju dices, unlock the hearts of men, strengthen the cords
of human brotherhood, and make the kindly sympa thies to flow. The author is not without hope that this
mission may be fulfilled, in some good degree, by the
present volume. Though not a missionary, it will be
at once seen that he was a missionary's friend, which
every self-respecting and sensible man will be who
xi
PREFACE. 
xii            PREFACE.
goes ashore at the Sandwich Islands, and uses his own
eyes and ears instead of others'.
The writer publishes now what he saw, and what
he thought and felt while seeing, as a book both foi
ship and shore. But should it gain only the ear and
heart of seamen, whom as a class he loves and would
labor for, his end will be answered. To them especially, and to the missionaries who have opened for
them Bethels and Hospitals, and Homes in the Pacific, this volume is now dedicated by
THE AUTHOR.
Neto York, June 11th, 1850.
xii
PREFACE. 
CO N T E NT S.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL VIEW OF POLYNESIA.
THE Island World always Fascinating, and why-The Universe itself
a Bay of Islands-The Mirror of its Maker-Extent of Oceanica Latest Computation of Area and Population-Grand Divisions of
Oceanica-Australasia-Melanesia- Malaisia - Micronesia-Poly nesia-Ten large Polynesian Groups enumerated-Classified as
Coral, Basaltic, and Continental-Extent and characteristic Feat ures of the Coral-Extent and characteristic Features of the Basaltic
Islands-Mountain Ranges-Number of Volcanoes extinct and in
action-Theory to account for the Origin of Polynesia - Grave stones of a buried Continent -General and local Descriptions of
Island Scenery from Observation-A Sailor's Day at Rimatara Natives of the Island Paradises-Their Traits and probable Origin
-Researches of the United States Exploring Squadron-Facts and
Arguments for the common Paternity of the Families of Polynesia
-Causes of the Decay of Native Races-Crisis of their Fate coeta neous with their Discovery-Consequences of that Event-Remark able Testimony of natives-A Synopsis of all the Agencies of De population-Influences and Course of Events since their Intercourse
with Europeans-Crimes and Outrages by Foreigners-Massacres
and Cut-offs by Natives-Vices and Virtues of Civilization-The
Experiment of Christianity-Warp and Woof of our Narrative-The
Reader initiated-Key-note from the Buccaneer......... Page 13
CHAPTER II.
PENGUIN ROOSTS AND ALBATROSSES OF CAPE HORN AND THE PACIFIC.
Foul Weather Group of Islands-First Land-fall-We Lie-to in Berk l e y Sound-A  Surprise and Discovery-A City of Penguins and a
Duckery  described-Limestone Cliffs and Caverns-We touch the
Green S         ward a nd Daisies-Nature's Oratory-Memory's Hesperian
Garden-Sailor's  Sport with Ducks and Penguins-The Island of
Solitude-Peril     s       and     Conflicts of Cape Horn-How Old Salts go
through them —What we suffer and whiat we learn-How to Nav                            A 
CONTENTS.
igate between the Galley and Cabin —The Lnld of Fire and Cape
Desolation-Lee-shore of Patagonia-Fishing for Albatrosses-The
Queen of Birds-A Sketch from Nature-On Deck and on the Wing
-Pathos and Intelligence of the Eye-A poor Peruvian's Supersti.
tioni-What came thereof-The Shot from the Mariner's Cross-bow
-The Lesson he learned-Maximn from a Poet-JEsthetic Subject
fior Philosophers-Poetry and Prose of the Albatross-Its Habits and
Hlaunts-Specimens caught and measured-Description of an Eyewitness-Sailor's Yarns-Devices of Knowing Ones-An Albatross
serving as a Carrier Pigeon-Tales of the Forecastle-A Thing between a Story and a Dream-A Truth stranger than Fiction-The
Mail overboard - The Swoop of the Albatross - The drowning
Man seizes the Bird and is saved -Mid Chances and Changes
never Despair-A Commissioner of Providence-A spiritual Lesson
and Analogy-How we are made wiser and better...... Page 37
CHAI'TER III.
HONOLULU AND ITS ENVIRONS.
We issue from the Doldrums -We anchor onil the Coral Reef- A
model Voyage from Callao-Remedy for the Sea Scurvy-Helio tropic Odors from off Shore-Oahu Outside and Inside-Honolulu
Harbor-Fort-Towni-Seamen's Chapel and Chaplaincy-Some  thing had and something wanted - Difference between Blank
Cartridges and Balls for the Pulpit -The true Preaching for Sea  men-Native and Mission Premises described-A Monumental
Church of Coral-How reared-Institutions of Learning and Char  ity-A Royal Family School-Wholesale Discipline-Promise for
the Future-Punahou Mission School-Germ of a Polynesian Uni  versity-Manoa Valley-Bamboo House of Kaahumanlu-Pictur  csque and beautifill Scenery-Palm Groves of Waikiki-Remains
f a Heathen Temple-A Triple Alliance broken-Doible Monu  menlt of the Apostasy of Man and Sympathy of Nature.- - -. 64
CHAPTER IV.
HAWAIIAN HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY.
Cook's Discovery of thie Sandwich or Hawaiiall Islands-First seen by
Gaetano in 1542-Their Names, Positions, and relative Distances
to other Continents and Islands of Polynesia-Volcanlic Origin  Superficial Area and Height of Mountains-Whence inhabited, and
how-Remarkable Facts in Proof-Salubrity of Climate-Average
Templ)erature-Former Physical Health and Beauty of ilhe Aborigi 
CONTENTS.
nes-Their Complexion, Physiognomy, and other Correspondences
to the Malay Race-Relative Phrenological View of the Hawaiian
Head-Physical Superiority and Characteristics of the Chiefs-Proportions of a Skull from a Battle-ground-Aptitude and Docility of
the Native Mind-The Aboriginal Language-Cook's exaggerated
Estimate of Population-Devastating Plague consequent upon Discovery-Present Traces of extensive Cultivation-Homage paid to
Captain Cook-Hand of Providence in his Death-Visits of Vancouver and other Navigators-Disastrous Effects of Foreign Intercourse-Demolition of Idolatry and the Tabus-How inducedHorrible Oppression of the Tabus-How sustained-Detail of Particulars-Providential Overthrow in 1819-Departure of Missionaries from America- Prophesy respecting them- Reception at
Kailua and Lahaina-Early Discomforts and Difficulties-Favorable
Posture of the Hawaiian Nation-Minimum of Degradation-Facts
to turn the Cheek of Darkness Pale-A true Cause ascribed-Present and Future Results................................. Page 76
CHAPTER V.
NATURAL PRODUCTIONS AND PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.
Indigenous Fruits and Exotics-Staple Food, Arum Esculentum-Poi,
how Prepared and Eaten-Other' Products enumerated-Forest
Trees-Cocoa Palm described-Its various Uses-Beneficence and
Wealth of Nature-Animal Kingdom-Absence of Noxious Rep tiles or Insects-Paucity of Subjects-Derivation of Fleas-Mineral
Products-Materials for Building-Reef Coral and Coral Shrubbery
-Varieties described-Diving to obtain it-Unique Aspect of the
Country-Vestiges of Volcanoes-Cones and Craters-Difference
between the Windward and Leeward Sides-Bird's-eye Glances Things learned in Traveling-Religious Habits of the People out side-Cases in Point-Pious and manly Conduct of a Native Nehe miah-An indigenous Growth to be proud of and worth transplant ing-Song for a Patriotic Hawaiian......................... 99
CHAPTER VI.
HAWAIIAN RIGHTS AND WRONGS, POLITICS AND RELIGION.
Facts of the latest French Invasion upon the Law of Nations at the
Sandwich Islands-The Tahitian Game played over-A Comparison
of the French Interests there with English and American-Noble
Attitude of the Hawaiian Government in its late Conflict with the
French Admiral-Verdict of the Jury in the Court of Nation-A
1-1 ) 
4                OTNS
Triad of obnoxious Names in the Pacific-Squabbles of Forei gnerr
at Honolulu-Natural Fermentation of the Lees of Heathenism and
Refuse of Civilization-Society in the Period of Transition-Good
educed from Evil by Divine Providence-Hawaiian Embassy to
Europe-History of the Treaty with Great Britain-Copy of the
same-Similar Convention with America in 1849 -Obstacles to
HawaiianJustice-Injured Shades of Hawaiians-Natural Recrimination-An important Desideratum-Voice from Abroad-The great
Want-Foreign Acquisitiveness-Native Enterprise and Resources
to be developed-Fever of Mock Patriotism-Its true EtiologyPassion for the Gold Coast-Relation and Uses of Sandwich Islands
to California-Character and Sphere of Sandwich Islands MissionTables turned-Opposition lived down-Effects of Example upon
the Natives-The Plummet applied to Missionary Worth and Piety
-Nature of the Service and Qualifications for it-A General
Meeting described - Outlook on the Future - Aspirations from
Montgomery...................................... Page 114
CHAPTER VII.
VOYAGE TO HAWAII, AND A HOME WITH THE KUMU.
Felicities of Navigation in a Native Schoonler-Arrival at Lahaina -Novel Introduction to the King-Circle at Lahainaluna-The Star  lit Pacific-First Aloha of the People and Fleas of Hawaii-Fotund  ering of a Schooner-Unparalleled Feat in Swimming by a Native
Woman and others-Adventure narrated-Extraordinary Endur  ance-The Missionary's Life-preserver - Meeting with a Water  spout-The Phenomenon described-Speculations and Theory il
respect to it —Danger therefrom to Ship and Shore illustrated by
Facts-Happy Escape from Peril-Greetings from the Natives  Tramp to Kohala —Coup d'ceil of the Mission Premises-Disaster
to the Native-How to be repaired-First Sabbath on Hawaii  Explorations ofthe Week-Novel Aspects of the People and Country
-Curious Colloquy with Catholics-Prospects of Popery-An Old
Man's Story of his Experience with the Jesuits-A Native's Essay
on Popery - Instance of remarkable Discrimination and Corre  spondence with Scripture-Echoes, and Foot-marks, and Smiles of
the Creator-Views of Middleton and Victor Hugo compared with
those of Hawaiians-The Centre of Protestantism for the Pacific 139
CHAPTER VIII.
ROMANCE OF TOURING AND PROSE OF WORKING.
How to get round Precipices one can not Climb-Hawaiian Nymphs
4
CONTENTS. 
CONTENTS.
and Naiads-Hospitable Entertainment-An Old Man's Tempting
Offer to a Young Man-The Buxom Prize-Kaipuholo's Conscieni.
tiousness and Piety-Climbing of Cocoa Palm-trees-Survey of a
Heathen Temple-Druid Worship-Dire Traces of PaganismA Missionary's Labor in effacing them-Exercise of Church Government and Discipline-How they treat Inquirers-Onerous and
difficult Work of a Pastor-Incidents of a Sacramental Season with
the Natives described-The common Hawaiian Frailty-The People more Christianized than Civilized-Religion the only Lever to
pry up the Nations-Hawaiian Christianity compared to that which
is imported-A perplexing Question-Argument respecting Marriage - Between what Parties it should be refused -Illustrative
Facts-Facility of Divorce a Premium to Crime-General Looseness
respecting Marriage-Hawaiian Etiquette in the Matter of Courtship-Curious Reason of a Young Man for not being MarriedAmusing Scene at a Marriage in Kohala-The Bride making her
Toilet at the Church Door-An important Requisite for an Hawaiian
Beau-A Dollar's Worth of Squeak-Knight of the Squeaking Shoe
and Sir Hudibras.................................. Page 161
CHAPTER IX.
THE POETRY OF TRAVELING, AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIVING AT A
MISSIONARY'S.
Head-quarters of the old Hawaiian Conqueror-Night in a Canoe from
Kohala-Novelty and Interest of Travel in Hawaii nei-Aspect of
Kailua -How Kamehameha stopped the Flow of Lava that was
filling up the Bay-Governor Adams, his Wealth and Want-Anec dotes of him-Characteristic Traits-The veteran Pastor of Kailua
-The Missionary Homestead at Laniakea-Remarkable Cave hard
by-Claims of their Country upon the Children of Missionaries Argument for their Settling in the Places of their Birth-Benefits
that would accrue to the Native Race-Results to the Missionaries
-Facilities for Home Education-Epitome of a Day at Laniakea  Childhood at Kailua comparedwith Childhood in America-Nature's
Part in educating the Human Mind-Views corroborated by Ali  son, Byron, Bryant, and Wordsworth-Farewell to the Home of
Lucy.................................................. 187
CHAPTER X.
FRUITS OF FOREIGN INTERCOURSE, WORK OF THE MISSIONARY, AND
DISABILITIES OF THE PEOPLE.
A,, g,t,,,iq'hin.s —Crimes of Foreigners not always escaping Punish
15 
6 -OTET
ment-Prevalence of Disease and Death-Balanced Probabilities
of the Nation's Perpetuity and Decay-A History proposed of notorious Profligates and Slanderers-Its Bearing upon certainl Declarations of Scripture-Natural Love of Darkness in those whose Deeds
are Evil-Under-ground Cause of Hatred to Missionaries -Their
patient and effective Labors - Missionary Meddling defined and
defended-Their Vindication before the World-External Adornments of the Station of Kealakekua-Process of Building a Meet.
ing-house-A long Pull, and a strong Pull, and a Pull all together
-We visit the Natives at their Wigwams-Administer Medicine
-Plummet applied to Poverty and Suffering-Catalogue of Diseases-Causes thereof-Investigations of Dr. Andrews-Testimony
of other Observers -All that is done but a Drop in the Bucket
-Need of Hospitals-Who is to take the Hint-A Plea from Carlos
Wilcox........................................... Page 206
CHAPTER X1.
A BARBECUE WITH THE NATIVES, CORAL-HUNTING, AND MEMORIALS OF
KAPIOLANI.
Pleasures of a Pic-nic-A Night among Hawaiians-Native Boys and
Girls-Gray's Ode Hawaiianized-Diving for Coral-Curious Prod.
ucts of the Sea-Expertness of Hawaiian Fishermen-Supposed
Manao of the Fish-Comparative Disabilities of the Denizens of the
Sea and the Shore-Accounts squared-Barry Cornwall's Satire Mission House at Kuapehu-Fragmentary Notices of the Christian
Princess Kapiolani-The Story of Carlyle-Heroic Experiment Beardcling the Traditionary Gods-Confronting a Priestess-Bold
Descent into the Crater-house of Pele-A Scene of Moral Sublimity
at the Volcanoe's Brink-The Deed is done-Spell of Ages broken Pele's Tabu violated with Impunity-Effects upon the Nation Practical Piety of the Princess-Its Moral Power-Luxuriant Vege tation near Kapiolani's House-The Mele of Kekupuohi on Mr
Ruggle's Grape-vine-Remarkable Instance of the Art of Reading
mastered in Old Age-A Heavenly Metamorphosis-The Cause dis closed-A Ramble in the Woods-Find an original Pedagogue Reading Geography by a self-made Globe -Hawaiian Urchins
crowing over Plato...................................... 227
CHAPTER XII.
CANOEING BY SEA, AND THE SURVEY OF VOLCANOES BY LAND.
Farewell to Kealakekua —A double Canoe described-Incidents and
t
6
CONTENTS. 
CONTENTS.
Sights on the Way —Matins on the Sea-A Wreck and EscapeScaling a Pali-Necessity of being a Pedestrian to Waiohinu-New
Mission-house-A New England Fireside in Hawaii nei-Subte.;ranean Paths of Lava-Cavern explored-Thoughts started-Voicanoes a standing Prophecy of a Catastrophe to come-Probabl,
Fate of the Earth on Grounds of Geology-Conditions on whici
we tread the Soil of our Planet-The final Purging by Fire -
Naturalism and the Word of God-Fiact and Philosophy-Comparison of Milton, Tayler Lewis, and Isaac Taylor    -     -..  Page 247
CHAPTER XIII.
DIAMOND IN THE  ROUGIH-HOW IT WVAS QUARRIED; WITH NOTP,:
ON ITS LOCALITY AND ASSOCIATES.
A Niche for every One-Men finely touched to fine Issues-A I,ess)I
in Theology-Gold in the Ore- Gold smelted-Diamond tried Gem from Giles Fletcher -Village of Punaluu - Stone-begettiug
Stones of Ninole-Madness of Idolatry-Trade in Kapas-Curious
System of Makanla-Amusing Syllogisms-Hawaiian Fashion of
mutual Giving and Begging-IInstances of Christian Generosity A Minister's Quandary-A People's Joy-Coetalcous Efforts of
Jesuits-Their Means and Trials for Ascendency-Remarkable
Religious Excitement - Early and late Fruits - Statistics of the
Church-Perplexing Cases of Discipliine-Difficult Navigation be tween Scylla and Charybdis-Tribunals of State taking their Cue
from the Church —What follows to the Kanaka-Amusiug Story of
a Conflict with a Constable-Changes and Improvements in Kau  Visit of the King and a Temperance Feast-Ministerial and Royal
Speeches..............................................  261
CHAPTER XIV.
EXPLORATION AND REVIEW OF THE CRATER OF KILAUEA.
Effect of Volcanic Phenomena upon the Imagination-The Trail from
Kau-First Night with Jakobo-Mountain Meeting at Vespers  Volcanic Products and Crystals-Humboldt and Milner on the Corn position of Lavas-Facts observed by Ancients and by Modernis Crossing a petrified Sea-One of Pe]e's Sentry-boxes-AAnte-cham ber to the House of Fire-Unique View of the Volcano-Measure  ments of the Caldron-The all-engrossing Thought-Exploratio.n
of a Sulphur Hill-A Volcano-feeder-Crystallized Vegetation  A probable Catastrophe-Reservoirs of distilled Water-Tossing
of Fire-waves in the Dark-Stabling for the Nighlt-Memorable
0
7 
S               CONTENTS.
Conflicts-We descend into the Crater-An ancient AvalancheChasms and Pit-falls-Platform of the Black Ledge-Fire-spoutinu
Cones on its Surface-Blow-holes-Dikes-Canals-Cascades of
Fire-Air-vents-Excavated Banks-Ruin by Earthquakes-Toppling Cliffs-We reach the Caldron-Looking over the Brim-Precarious Foothold-Splashes and Spume of gory Lava-Phenomena
like the freezing, thawing, breaking-up, and going out of IceStartling Admonitions-Spring and Neap Tides in the burning
Lake-O)ne of the Epochs of Memory-An Image of Old ChaosAmazement of the Spectator-Fear and Boldness-Toilsome Reascent-What we encountered -Second Night by the CraterPlace where Keoua's Army was overwhelmed by an Eruption -
Final Good-by to the Wonder of the World - Future Place of Pilgrimage-Discoveries that may be made-Much Land to be explored -We leave and arrive at Ola- How we are treated-The
Way to Hilo-First Impressions of Byron's Bay-Sketches of Labors of resident Missionaries -Interesting Schools of Boys and
Girls-The Maidens of Hilo-Aspirations in their behalf.. Page 280
CHAPTER XV.
COMIPARISON OF NOTES ON THE VOLCANO.
its changing Features -New Phases to new Visitors-Phenomena
observed by Stewart and Byron-Its Aspect as seen by Ellis-No tions upon it of the Old Hawaiians-Themselves the Patterns of
their Gods-Antiquity of the Fires of Kilauea-The remarkable
Outbreaks of 1840 and 1843-Proved Fallacy of certain Theories
-A River of Lava from the Top of Mauna Loa-Narrative of Lieu tenant Wilkes-Scientific Estimates-Usual Ideas of Volcanic Cra ters contradicted-First Impressions-Elements of Interest-Dan gers of a Survey-Excitement and Hardihood-Estimates of Lava
discharged in one Night - Table of relative Forces of different
Volcanoes-Remarkable Escape-The Narrative of a Missionary Subject for a moving Panorama-Lava Jets and Explosions-Sen sations and Thoughts of the Beholder-Descriptions by different
Visitors-Night Scene of a fiery Surf-The Process of Mountain making-Bingham's Views and Illustrations-Volcanic Theories
analyzed-Humboldt on the Source of Volcanoes-Plato's Pyro phlegethon-The Uses of a Lake of Fire-Its Place in the' Econo.
my of Providence-Earthquakes and Volcanoes a Part of the Arm ory of God- End they are to answer in the winding up of the
World................................................. 317
8
CONTENTS. 
-~~~COTNS                   9
CHAPTER XVI.
EARTHQUAKES, NATURE, ART, AND RELIGION AT HILO.
A Cluster of Attractions-Sailing upon Bulrushes-Maunlla Kea flash  ing with a Snow Bank-Curiosity satisfied with Earthquakes  Shocks described-Philosophy of thie Fear awakened -Natural
Thoughts suggested-The Believer's Antidote and Strength-Sur
prisals of Faith-Behavior under sudden Danger-Recourse of
the Psalmist-God inviting his People to their Chambers-Promises
of Deliverance-Work and Reward-A Triad of extinct Volcanoes
-Cascade of the Rainbow-Alison on the Uses of the Beautiful ill
Nature-Comparative Advantages of Hilo as a recruiting Place for
Whale Ships and Men-of-war-Benign Visits of Commodore Jones
and others-Reflex Influence of the Mission upon Foreigners -
Friendliness and Hospitality of the resident Families-Bread Cast
on the Waters-The Missionary's Wife and Whale-ship Captain Boy's Boarding-school-Internal Economy and Employments Native Accomplishments-Native Teachers-Necessity of Mission ary Oversight and Assiduity-Stimulus and Motive-Trials and Tri umphs-Reasons for and against the Support of the Ministry by the
People-School for Teachers-Their poor Pay from Government
-How Treasury Pap might be better fed out than it is-Statistics
of the Hilo Church-Memorials of Old Joshua-A Review of the
Great Revival-Extraordinary first Effects of the Holy Spirit on
the Minds of Heathen-Difficult and responsible Position of the
Leader in such a Work-Wisdom in harvesting the Fruits-The
Lamp of Experience before and after-Human Liabilities-Easier
to review another than to find the right Way one's self-Difference
between Croaking and Crowing-The true Nobility-A Scripture
Sonnet-Close ofthe Book-Forecasting the Horoscope ofHawaii an Destinies........................................ Page 339
APPENDIX.
STATISTICAL VIEW OF THE RESOURCES, TRADE, COMMERCE, POPULA TION, PIETY, POSITION, AND PROSPECTS OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
Important Links of the Chain of Events in the Pacific-Seizure by
Paulet-French Protectorate at Tahiti-Settlement of Oregon and
California-The West Indies of the Pacific-Compendium of Com  mercial Regulations-Tables of Imports and Exports for successive
Years-Ship Arrivals and Departures for 1849-Entry and Exports
9
CONTENTS. 
10              CONTENTS.
of Liquors-Table of Government Schools-Official Census of the
Islands for 1849-Inferences from the Census-The true Causes of
Depopulation-Field for Hawaiian Legislation-Hints from Missionaries-Power of Religion as a Stimulant and Civilizer-Com
parison of Mortality between Natives and Foreigners-General Ig
norance of the Laws of Life-Portraiture of Hawaiians as they are
-Effect of the Market opened in California for Products of Hawaiian Industry- Fee-simple of Lands conferred by Government
upon Natives - Addresses to the People on the Occasion - Im.
provements effected in foreign Society-To what to be ascribed
-Position and Prospects of Honolulu-Tabular Synopsis of Schools
and Churches-Yearly Report for 1849................ Page 375
ENGRAVINGS.
Pag.
Honolulu and its Environs........................... Frontispiece.
Portrait of Kamehameha............................... Vignette.
Map of the Island World................................... 12
Island World Canoes...................................... 23
Monuments of Easter Island and Man of Tanna...............  27
War Canoe of the Island World............................. 31
Feejee Islander and Feejee Weapons........................  35
Patagonian Penguins...................................... 43
The Wales off Cape Horn.................................., 47
South Pacific Albatross.................................... 53
Diamond Head Crater, near Honolulu....................... 141
Kaipuholo's Bread Fruit................................... 167
View of Kealakekua Bay...................................  207
Wonders of the Deep...................................... 231
Walls of the Crater of Kilauea.............................. 287
Kilauea by Moonlight...................................... 307
Mission Premises at Hilo, and Mauna Kena................... 341
View of Volcanic Hills and Lava Stream in Puna............. 347
Cascade of the Rainbow, Wailuku, Hilo......................,353
Chart of the Hawaiian Islands........... —-------------------------.407
10
CONTENTS. 
Mt .:L;ji2
THE
ISLAND WORLD
OF
THE PACIFIC.
T ,.  I
. I
.7                                             -, -,- "  %."- , I -
7" 7 -    ,  -. --  -r I I; i —'.,i 1.,
'i ..
i,:r -1  —,
4 
I 
THE ISLAND WORLD
OF THE
PACIFIC.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL VIEW OF POLYNESIA.
The soil untill'd
Pour'd forth spontaneous and abundant harvests
The forests cast their fruits, in husks or rind,
Yielding sweet kernels or delicious pulp,
Smooth oil, cool milk, and unfermented wine,
In rich and exquisite variety:
On these the indolent inhabitants
Fed without care or forethought.-Anon.
He sat and talk'd
With winged messengers, who daily brought
To his small island in the ethereal deep,
Tidings of joy and love.-WORDSWORTH.
EVER since the revival of commerce that preceded
the discovery of America, when Columbus was sent,
according to his dream, "to unchain the ocean," the
oceanic world of islands east and west has been acting like a magnet upon men's curiosity. To the mind
of eager youth and sober manhood almlost alike, there
is an imaginative charm in the very word island;
and when you add South Sea or Pacific, the fascination is complete and irresistible. Implying as it does, 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
remoteness, isolation, solitude, separateness, and linked
as it is with romance and fable, adventure and song,
it takes a powerful hold on the human imagination.
Island, in the Hebrew Scriptures, is any distant
country approached by water. In what is called the
Bishops' Bible, we find it always written iland or
yland, from the Danish Eiland and Saxon Iegland,
composed of ie, water, and land. Our present word
island, according to Webster, is an absurd compound
of the French isle and land, which signifies land-inwater land, or rather ieland-land; and it would be
more accordant with etymology if it were always
written ieland, that is, land made up out of and surrounded by water. This is, properly speaking, true
of all land; both according to the cosmogony of Genesis and to the aqueous theory of geology, it is always
land-in-water land, or earth standing in the water and
out of the water. The great globe itself is but one of
the islands in the vast ethereal deep of space comprehended within the limits of our solar system; and the
far-reaching instruments of modern astronomy bring to
light island-universes in the depths of immensity,
whose outskirts the lightning could not reach in a
million years.
God's glorious universe, therefore, may be contemplated as an infinitude of island-worlds-say rather an
unexplored bay of islands in the vast ocean of His own
infinity and eternity. Pervading all alike, both the vast
and the minute, in an island-universe, and in the smallest islet of an earthly isle, is the radiant glory of the
Creator, always visible, yet never fully revealed. Even
as the Russian poet, Derzhavin, has sublimely written,
14 
EXTENT OF OCEANICA.
Be nIg above all being!  Mighty One!
Whim none can comprehend and none explore;
Who fill'st existence with Thyself alone:
Embracing all-supporting-ruling o'erBeing whom we call God, and know no more!
In its sublime research, philosophy
May measure out the ocean-deep-may count
The sands or the sun's rays; but God! for Thee
There is no weight nor measure: none can mount
Up to thy mysteries. Reason's brightest spark,
Though kindled by thy light, in vain would try
To trace thy counsels, infinite and dark;
And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high,
Even like past moments in eternity.
What are ten thousand worlds compared to thee?
And what am I, then? Heaven's unnumber'd host,
Though multiplied by myriads, and array'd
In all the glory of sublimest thought,
Is but an atom in the balance-weigh'd
Against thy greatness, is a cipher brought
Against infinity! 0, what am I, then? Naught
The ISLAND-WORLD of the Pacific is presented to our
contemplation in a great variety of interesting aspects
and relations. The vast ocean in which it is imbosomed, sweeping in latitude from pole to pole, and
rolling in longitude over a whole hemisphere, exceeds
the area of all the continents and islands of the globe
by ten millions of miles.  Dotting it here and there,
like stars in the air-ocean above, there are about six
hundred and eighty islands of Oceanica, exclusive of
New Holland, New Zealand, New Caledonia, New
Ireland, and the Salomons. Yet such is the relative
disproportion to the continental world of these small
islands of the deep, to which the winged messengers
of Commerce and Christianity are now eagerly flying
tin every breeze, that they are estimated to contain
15 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
but forty thousand square miles, or less than the single
State of New York; and their population, by latest
estimates, is but little over five hundred thousand.
Within ten millions of square miles the whole surface exposed above the water, exclusive of New Zealand, does not exceed eighty thousand square miles.
Latest French geographers, and the authors of the
learned quartos on the Ethnography and Geology of
Oceanica, attached to the United States Exploring
Squadron, divide this vast realm of ocean and island
into five portions.
First. Australia, including the Continent of New
Holland and Van Diemen's Land.
Second. Melanesia, comprising all that part of
Oceanica inhabited by a dark-skinned race, with
woolly or frizzled hair. It includes New Guinea and
adjacent islands; New Britain, New Ireland, New
Caledonia, New Hebrides, the Feejees and Salomon
Islands.
Third. Malaisia; the name applied to the islands
of the East Indian Seas, occupied by the yellow Malay race, including Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Celebes,
Philippine Isles, and Sooloo Group.
Fourth. Micronesia; the name given to the long
range of little groups and strips of coral rock and sand,
scattered over the Pacific to the north of the equator
and east of the Philippines, including the Pelew and
Kingmill Groups.
Fifth. Polynesia; this designates the islands of Oceanica nearest to America, inhabited by light-colored
tribes allied to the Malaisan, and all speaking in dialects of one general language.  It is with this division
16 
GROUPS  OF  POLYNESIA.               17
of Oceanica only that we have to do in the present
volume.
Polynesia proper includes,
1. The Navigator's Islands, otherwise called Samoa,
having a population of fifty-six thousand.
2. Friendly Islands, or Tonga Group, with a population of eighteen thousand.
3. New Zealand, with a population of one hundred
and eighty thousand.
4. Society Islands, or Tahitian Group, having a
population of eighteen or twenty thousand.
5. Hervey Islands. The population estimated by
Mr. Williams at fourteen thousand.
6. Austral Islands, named Rimatara, Rurutu, Tubuai, Raivavai, and Rapa, once populous, now supposed to contain but one thousand. The first of these
islands I visited and explored in a whale-ship, and
have estimated its population at four hundred.
7. Gambier Group. Population two thousand.
8. Paumotu Group, having eight thousand.
9. Marquesas, or Washington Group, estimated to
contain twenty thousand, being the least Christianized
or weaned from cannibalism and barbarity of all Polynesia.
10. Sandwich or Hawaiian Group.  Estimated population before the late decimation by measles, one
hundred thousand; now reduced, as by census of
1849, to eighty thousand six hundred.and forty-one.
The total present population of Polynesia is therefore less than half a million, of which about eighty
thousand have been gathered into the Christian Churlch
by English and American nmissionaries. 
THE ISLAND WOR 1, ).
These islands are classified, according to their origin, as coral, basaltic or volcanic, and continental
The coral islands are two hundred and ninety in number. Basaltic, three hundred and fifty. Forty are of
a mixed continental, volcanic, and coral origin, not
clearly defined.
The entire area covered by the coral islands is estimated at nineteen thousand square miles.  Area oi'
the basaltic, sixteen thousand square miles. The coral islands are in all stages of formation, from the reef
just breasting the breakers and peering out of the
water, and the barren islet of coral sand and sea-birds,
and springing palm-trees, to the verdant oasis of a
thousand years, beauteous with its garland of breadfruit, pandanus, and the all-answering cocoa-nut of
the tropics, and surrounded with its barrier and fringing reefs.
The basaltic islands are of all shapes and periods of
construction, from the simple volcanic dome or cone,
scarcely at all abraded or disintegrated, to irregular mountain heights, having vast craters, with deep
gorges between; lofty peaks, abrupt precipices, and
sharp saddle ridges of basalt, lava, clinker, scoria, volcanic sand, and debris, some more and others less recent. These volcanic traces extend throughout Polynesia, and clearly show that in ages back all that vast
ocean must have been the bed of an indefinite number of volcanoes, sub-marine or sub-aerial. Besides in.
numerable subordinate and side vents, it is computed
in the Geology of the United States Exploring Squadron, from old craters now visible, that there could not
have been less than one thousand volcanoes in violent,
ts 
POLYA ESIAN VOLCANOES.
perhaps simultaneous action, from the Hawaiian' Islands to New Zealand.
In the range of six thousand miles between New
Holland and Mexico, there are some of the most extensive mountain chains in the world, lately surveyed
and traced with precision by the scientific corps of the
American squadron. The two principal are the Samoan, running through thirty-eight hundred miles,
and the Hawaiian, through two thousand, besides others no less remarkable, all preserving a systematic regularity, which seems to exceed even that of continental chains. The height of summits in these chains, if
measured from the bottom of the ocean, would surpass, it is calculated, the most majestic peaks of the
Himalaya range. If only three miles be allowed for
the depth of the Pacific near Hawaii, the summit of
Mauna Loa, by measurement, will be thirty thousand
feet above its base, or nearly six miles high.
The volcanoes now in action through Polynesia are
confined to the four islands of Hawaii in the Hawaiian Group, Faloa and Armagura in the Tongan Group,
and the north island of New Zealand. In Micronesia
three are still smoking; in Melanesia, six or seven.
These are all that are not now extinct of the great volcanic fires that once burned over this vast region.
There are many things which concur to indicate that
the islands remaining unsubmerged are but the tombstones of a buried continent, as wide and as long as
that of South America, extending from the Sandwich
Islands to New Zealand.
This being the origin, and these the physical features of Polynesia, it will readily be seen that in no
19. 
T2ll i  ISLAND WVORI,D.
part of the world are the sublime and beautiful found
united in bolder contrast and variety. Lava-belching
volcanoes throwing up vast mountains, and then shattering them again with earthquake throes and convulsions; torrents leaping precipices of a thousand
feet; the blue, unbroken billows of five thousand miles
of ocean thundering incessantly upon their coral coasts;
placid lagoons and shore reefs beautiful with the coral
shrubbery of a genial ocean; a tropical velvet verdure
covering with its grateful mantle the steepest mountain crags; groves of the palm and bread-fruit like cedars of Lebanon; dells and valleys, and palm-covered
plains, like the Garden of Eden, with every tree that
is pleasant to the sight and good for food-these are
some of the natural features and contrasts of beauty
and sublimity in the fairy gardens of Polynesia. Their
combined loveliness and grandeur of scenery can be
appreciated only by those who have actually visited
some of the South Sea paradises,
"Round whose green shores the long Pacific roll,
By trade winds borne across the world-wide waste,
Surges unceasingly."
Well might it be said by the fair authoress of THE
PARTING SHIP, bound for that beauteous island-world,
Oft shall the shadow of the palm-tree lie
O'er glassy bays wherein thy sails are furl'd;
And its leaves whisper, as the wind sweeps by,
Tales of the elder world.
Oft shall the burning stars of southern skies
On the mid-ocean see thee chain'd in sleep,
A lonely home for human thoughts and ties,
Between the heavens and deep.
Blue seas that roll on gorgeous coasts renown'd,
By night shall sparkle where thy prow makes way;
20 
VIEW  OF A CORAL  ISLE.                           21
Strange creatures of the abyss that none may sound,
In thy broad wake shall play.
From hills unknown, in mingled joy and fear,
Free dusky tribes shall pour, thy flag to mark:
Blessings go with thee on thy lone career!
Hail, and farewell, thou bark!
I have climbed the fantastic mountains of some of
the basaltic Polynesian islands for two or three thousand feet, whose ridgy backs were so steep that I
could sit astride them as on a horse, and pry myself
along, looking down a thousand feet on either side.
And again, I have gazed upon and roamed over
densely wooded coral islets, as Rimatara, one of the
highest, without rivers, or ravines, or proper hills;
overlaid with strangely-shaped slabs and blocks and
debris of coral, from which the sea may have but
lately retreated; yet prolific in all the spontaneous
wealth of its own locality, and in the imported and
naturalized products of the volcanic isles.
It is beautiful beyond thought to the eye of the
longing mariner, as it first rises in the distance a blue
hummock from the Pacific wave; and it is grateful
beyond sense when, with a day's liberty of the shore,
he can quaff the nectar of its young cocoa-nuts, and
regale himself with a banquet of its sugary bananas
and niaa, and lie along under its palms, and kuk-uis,
and kamanis, repeating, perhaps, the lines which another has said for him, as he lists to the mighty
knocking of the ocean's great battering-ram against
the impregnable ramparts of coral that have mys.
teriously built for him this fair knoll:
Turrets of stonle, though huge and gray,
Have crumbled and pass'd in dust away, 
TIE ISLAND WVOR LD.
Cities that sank in the sea of yore
Have turn'd to slime by the fetid shore;
But when shall crumble the coral wall
That parts the billows so bright and tall?
Ho! who can fashion a work like me?
The mason of God in the boundless sea.
But the inhabitants of these divers island-paradises,
who are they? and whence did they come? As the
whole world knows, they were vicious savages and
cannibals, and their condition and character almost
the furthest possible from paradisiacal. The researches of both English and American missionaries, and
the later investigations of the scientific corps of the
United States Exploring Squadron, especially in the
department of ethnography and languages, together
with the vague traditions of the islanders themselves,
ooncur in the conclusion that they are of Malayan
origin, and that the islands have all been peopled in
one way, and from the same quarter, either by acci
dent or emigration, or both, at a period of time in.
definitely far back.
Numerous facts showing what long voyages may
be performed with safety in native canoes, and how
liable they are to be swept by boisterous winds from
their intended courses; certain marked physiological
resemblances; coincidences of manners, customs, usages, living, and arts; and, more than all, a common
Polynesian family tongue having strong affinities with
the Malay, of which every different group of islands
has its peculiar dialect, intelligible after a little intercourse to every other: these considerations establish
conclusively a common paternity to the divers families
)f Polynesia.
22 
Double Calloe of the'l'onga Islands.
e 
Is    
Pladack Island Canoe. 
I 
PROOFS OF DEPOPULATION.
Ancient songs and genealogies of Hawaiian kings,
preserved by tradition, give two  thousand and ten
years as the time elapsed since their settlement, allowing thirty years to a reign, which the linguist of
the Exploring Squadron thinks allowable.   These
genealogies, however, can not be relied upon as accurate; but significant facts in connection with both
the Sandwich, Society, and Friendly Islands show
that the periods of commencing depopulation in each
of these groups nearly synchronize with the times
of their discovery by Europeans, or but a little pre
cede it.
This melancholy decay has, doubtless, been hastened by contact with a new race, but it has by no
means been caused by it. The accumulating vices
of the Polynesian races, from bad to worse, had been
slowly digging their graves for several generations
prior to their discovery; and the crisis of their fate,
when the natural laws they had been violating by
their unnatural vices and crimes began to enforce
their penalty, seems to have arrived coetaneously with,
perhaps was precipitated by, their intercourse with
foreigners.
Mr. Ellis says,* in respect to the Society and other
neighboring islands, that, although no ancient monuments are found indicating that they were ever inhabited by a race much further advanced in civilization
than those found on their shores by Wallis, Cook, and
Bougainville, yet that race has evidently, at no very
remote period, been much more numerous than it was
when discovered by Europeans. " In the bottom of ev           * Polynesian Researches, vol. i., p. 103.
B
2o 
'rTHE ISLAN\D  VWORLD.
ery valley, even to the recesses in the mountains, on
the sides of the inferior hills, and on the brows of almost every promontory in each of the islands, monuments of former generations are still met with in great
abundance. Stone pavements of their dwellings and
court-yards, foundations of houses, and ruins of family temples, are numerous. All these relics are of the
same kind as those observed among the natives at the
time of their discovery, evidently proving that they
belong to the same race, though to a more populous
era of their history."
At the time when the nation renounced idolatry,
the population was so much reduced that many of the
more observant natives thought an old prophecy of a
priest was about to be literally fulfilled, which said,
Thefeau (hibiscus) shall grow, thefarero (coral) shall
spread or stretch out its branches, but man shall cease.
Tati, the chief of Papara, talking with Mr. Davies
on this subject in 1815, said with great emphasis,
that "if God had not sent his word at the time he did,
wars, infant murder, human sacrifices, &c., would
have made an end of the small remnant of the nation."
A similar declaration was pathetically made by Po.
mare soon after, when some visitors from England
waited upon him at his residence. He addressed them
to this effect: "You have come to see us under circumstances very different from those under which
your countrymen formerly visited our ancestors. They
came in the era of men, when the islands were inhabited, but you are come to behold just the remnant
of the people."
"6 
__                                                                                                 Yi~                                         ~
_________________________                                                                                $1!                                                 A
Monuments of Easter Island.
of Tazna Island  
CAUSES  OF DECAY. v
Mr. Ellis adds to this that he had often heard th,:
chiefs speak of themselves as only a small toea, remainder, left after the extermination of Satani, or the
evil spirit; comparing themselves to a fire-brand unconsumed among the smouldering embers of a recent
conflagration. These figures, and others equally affecting and impressive, were but too appropriate as emblems of the actual state to which they were reduced.
Under the depopulating influence of vicious habits,
the dreadful devastation of diseases that followed their
first intercourse with Europeans, and the early destruction of health thereby; the prevalence of infanticide; the frequency of war, rendered more fatal by
fire-arms and the barbarous principles on which it was
prosecuted; and the increase of human sacrifices, it
does not appear possible that they could have existed
as a nation for many generations longer.
Another cause more potent, perhaps, than all others in the destruction of the Polynesian races, until
recently checked, was the introduction of the art of
distilling, and the extensive use, in consequence, of
ardent spirits.  It has been to the Polynesians like
fire-water to the North American Indians. Before
they were visited by ships they had only one kind of
intoxicating beverage, called awa, and the deleterious
effects of that were confined to a small portion of the
inhabitants. The growth of the awa plant was slow;
its culture required much care, and it was kept by
tabu for the chiefs alone, being as much prohibited to
the common people as game is to the peasantry in England. Its effects, too, are more sedative and stupefying than narcotic or inebriating. 
THE ISLAND WVORLD.
But after those native islanders had been taught to
distill spirits from various indigenous roots by demoralizing deserters from foreign ships and fugitives from
Botany Bay; and when rum was brought to the islands in abundance as an article of barter, brutal intoxication became almost universal. The aggravated
crime, misery, and mortality that have been always
consequent upon strong drink among savages, now
added fearfully to the already accumulated sorrows
and wasting scourges of the aborigines. Drunkenness put new fuel to licentiousness, provoked to unnatural wars, bred discord among families and friends,
increased the unutterable abominations of the Areoi
Society, and made indolence and infanticide still more
common and pernicious. The idol priests were in the
habit of drinking to intoxication before going to the
templcs to o.ir hi unlan sacrifices to their gods, in order that they might be the more insensible to the outcry which we can not but think outraged nature must
have made in them against that horrid work.
All these causes, brought to bear upon a people whose
simple food and habits of living, and climatic temperament laid them fatally open to violent impressions,
satisfactorily account for the rapid depopulation that
has been going on throughout Polynesia for the two
last generations.  Neither a genial climate in which
the wants of nature were few, nor the fitness and
abundance of their natural products, making but a
slight demand upon human labor for their support,
nor all the beauty and salubrity of their island abode,
as of the garden of the Hesperides, could long retard
their extermination by the vices of heathenism, when
130 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
________________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I1   W
War (;a1()o of tuc I1aod World 
,r:,.. - - 
TRIAL OF CHRISTIANITY.
once those vices had reached their acme, as it is clear
they did just before their discovery by white men, and
were then re-enforced for the work of destruction by
all the vices of civilization.
Since that period almost every islet, and bay, and
sand-bank, and coral reef throughout Polynesia has
been the scene of some thrilling disaster or romantic
adventure by shipwreck, or massacre, or capture, or
cut-off, or rescue, or conflict, or mutiny, with the harrowing narratives of which in detail, as they have come
to my knowledge, we could fill volumes. For many
years the track of whale ships, merchant ships, and
men-of-war, from island to island, was marked by unbridled license, treachery, butchery, bloodshed, murder, and almost every conceivable crime and outrage;
the latter often found to be instigated by monsters in
the shape of men, those convict vagrants from New
Holland, who in some cases made themselves very
giants in iniquity, obtaining a fatal ascendency over
the natives by their superior intelligence and resources, and teaching them to practice all conceivable
wickedness with greediness.
It was just in this crisis of their fate, tutored into
all the vices of civilization without its virtues by runaway sailors and transported refugees from English
justice, that missionaries found them from England
and America-the mother and daughter-and effected a peaceable settlement. The fame of their successful experiment is now world-wide, and it is recorded with exultation in the annals of humanity, to the
praise of God's glorious grace.
In the succeeding chapters of this work I propose
B 2
33S 
THE ISLAND WVORLD.
to give the true aspect of an important part of this
island world of the Pacific, as it appears now to the
traveler after a little more than a quarter of a century's
trial of Christianity. Various threads of personal adventure, anecdote, and illustration will be freely interwoven with the warp of our narrative; and though
the fabric come out in consequence party-colored, it
is hoped, nevertheless, that it will not fail of curious
interest and acceptance with all parties.   Let  us
then initiate our readers into this ISLAND WORLD with
a few appropriate stanzas from Dana's poem of The
Buccaneer, that may serve to exemplify our plan, and
be prophetic of the result we arrive at by means of
this book:
Inland now rests the green, warm dell;
The brook comes tinkling down its side;
From out the trees the Sabbath bell
Rings cheerful far and wide,
Mingling its sound with bleating,s of the flocks,
That feed about the vale among the rocks.
Nor holy bell, nor pastoral bleat,
In former days within the vale;
Flapped in the bay the pirate's sheet;
Curses were on the gale:
Rich goods lay on the sand, and murder'd men
Pirate and wrecker kept their revels then.
But calm, low voices, words of grace,
Now slowly fall upon the ear;
A quiet look is in each face,
Subdued and holy fear:
Each motion gentle-all is kindly done:
(rome listen, ho?vw firon crime these isles were won!
34 
(fFTr!
A  Fee~iee  I,,aiader.
... d,
...
I'
- I...
I 
I I ,  i I.: 
FIRST LAND-FALL,.
CHAPTER II.
PENGUIN ROOSTS AND ALBATROSSES OF
THE PACIFIC.
At length did cross an albatross:
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hail'd it in God's name.
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew:
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steer'd us through!
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
THE first introduction of my readers to the good
ship Wales, whereby we pass to the Pacific, is as she
is lying off and on in Berkley's Sound, at the islands
called Foul Weather Group, otherwise named Falkland, after an English lord.  Cape Horn weather here
begins, and the ship and her company put on their
Cape Horn suit; which, so far as some of our men
are concerned, is quite as unique and nondescript
as the notable " White Jacket."
This group is so near to the gate of the Pacific,
though belonging to the Atlantic side, that an account
of a ramble over the moss-covered rocks and penguin
roosts of the uninhabited land, off which we now lie,
31,
CAPE HORN AND 
THE ISLAND WVORLD.
is no inappropriate introduction to the island world
we are just entering. In the language of seamen,
this is our first land-fall after seventy-six day's sailing from New York; and one can easily guess at the
pleasure we have had in making it, when for eleven
weeks the eye has been looking upon nothing but
sky and water, with now and then a passing sail. As
Maximilian feelingly says, in the Piccolomini,
Whate'er in the inland dales the land conceals
Of fair and exquisite, 0! nothing, nothing
Do we behold of that in our rude voyage.
Floating kelp-weed, ducks, and albatrosses, the discoloration of the sea, and a peculiar fishy odor, like
that exhaled from salt fiats and spawn, had for several days warned us of our proximity to land. It was
dimly discovered this morning about three o'clock,
near the time of summer sun-rising in this high southern latitude. As the wind headed us off from our
course to Cape Horn, and was fair either to enter or
leave this Sound, the captain was persuaded to put
in for a few hours, and send the boat ashore: a favor
he was not unwilling to grant, the harbor being accurately surveyed and laid down on the chart, and
the depth of water and the boldness of the shore such,
that a ship can safely lie-to, and be ready at once for
departure without the detention of weighing anchor.
We doubled Cape St. Vincent, the easternmost point
of this group of islands, about twelve; and after dinner the boat was lowered, and nine of us in all put
off for the cliffs, which had seemed in the distance,
and through the spy-glass, studded with white stones.
Ducks, geese, and various other birds, hovered over,
8s 
EGG  HUNTING.                   39
and flew close to us. all unaware of the fatal instruments that were leveled with such cruel precision by
some of our number, that eight or ten were shot on
the wing, and many more on the water.
Selecting a small indentation or bight in the cliff
as a landing-place, what was our surprise to find
what we had thought a facing of white stones to be
innumerable penguins, standing erect, in the rank
and file of battle array, upon the declivity of the
rocks, and occupying at least two acres, in dense
columns, away back to the moss and grass. Where
the rock was nearly perpendicular, or its face jagged
and broken, on every out-jutting angle or hollow,
there was a duck's nest, with the bird sitting upon it,
and so unacquainted with man, that we could climb
up and lay hands upon them before they would move.
The limestone cliffs were in many places perforated
with caves, one of which we explored two or three
hundred feet, and found it dripping with dissolved
carbonate of lime, and giving evidence of being broken in upon by the sea in easterly winds. It was upward of fifty feet high at the mouth, and singularly
groined, like the architecture of the Goths; its roof
as if some vast force from beneath had lifted up and
ruptured in the middle the superincumbent strata.
With a basket on arm, to hold flowers and mineralogical specimens, it was no easy task to clamber
up the steep precipice. But the height once gained,
the verdant knolls, hillocks of moss, and various wild
flowers that met the eye, more than repaid the toil of
ascent. There were tufts of grass and wild daisies
in every cleft where mold could form; and higher 
40            THE ISLAND WORLD.
up, when the precipice was fairly gained, there was
a large area of many acres thickly covered with mosses and flowers, in a loose black soil of two feet depth.
There were wild honeysuckles and geraniums, a kind
of dwarf cranberry, numerous flowers of sweet perfume, with leaves like the globe-flower, and several
kinds of white and yellow heath-flowers and liverworts, of which we now have a graceful bouquet on
the cablin table.
Grateful to tread once more the soft greensward,
and glad to be alone under the canopy of heaven, after
so many weeks' confinement on shipboard among men,
I experienced a gush of joyful emotion never before
known. Leaving a basket of specimens by a large
white rock at the edge of the cliff, while the rest of
the party were intent only upon game, I proceeded
alone inland to a high rocky ridge that commanded
a view of the sea, the islands, some fresh-water lakes,
and a distant sand-beach. It was good to be again
by one's self. Christ's closet was once the mountain,
and here, where prayer, perhaps, was never before
made, it was a privilege to pour out the heart's pentup emotions, which flow more readily in the channel
of articulate expression than when limited to an internal utterance which God only can know. Home,
friends, health, Christian firmness, and the wisdom
that is from above, and, more than all, spiritual reno.
vation and healing for companions of the voyage, were
the subjects of that prayer. May it be presented with
Christ's prevalent intercession before the mercy-seat
on high! A surprisal by some of our ramblers interrupted a communion that, short as it was, shall make 
PICTURES OF THE PENGUIN.
that rugged island more verdant in memory than the
gardens of the Hesperides. One short half hour in
which the soul lives and has intercourse with its
Maker is worth more than years in which every
thing is enjoyed but God. It was after such happy
experience that the gentle Cowper wrote those lines:
There, if' thy Spirit touch the soul,
And grace her mean abode,
Oh! with what peace, and joy, and love,
She communes with her God.
After a visit to the penguin quarters, we reassembled at the boat with much spoil, and reached the
ship safely, in time enough to allow the rest of the
ship's company and passengers the same excursion,
there being light enough to read in this latitude until
ten o'clock in the afternoon.
To those who have never seen a picture of the penguin, it would be impossible to convey an idea by
description of this odd amphibious creature. It has
the head, bill, and two web-feet of a bird, and stands
erect on land, sometimes two and a half and three
feet in height. They have no wings, nor proper feathers, but a covering intermediate between fin and
feather, and two fins or flippers like the seal. Their
motion on land is by successive hops, in the most
awkward manner conceivable. When going down a
declivity, the center of gravity is often thrown too far
forward, and away they tumble and scramble, and
roll over till they get to the sea, in which they dive
and swim with great swiftness. They are often seen
singly, or two  and three together, far out at sea.
Their cry or bark is like the inarticulate human
41 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
voice; and when it is clear and calm, and no object
can be seen all around the horizon, their cry will
sometimes startle and appal one, sounding as it does
from the surface of the ocean, like the cry of a man
in distress. Near the penguin quarters of this island
were thousands of ducks sitting upon their eggs, which
sailors and passengers destroyed with remorseless cruelty, shooting and knocking down the birds by hundreds, in barbarous sport. Some of the game was
prepared for the table, but it was found too strong and
fishy by those who ate of them to be relished more
than once.
The largest species of the Patagonian penguin is
said to weigh about forty pounds, and is four feet and
a quarter in length. The bill measures four inches
and a half, but is slender. The head, throat, and hind
parts of the neck are brown, the back of a deep ash
color, and all the under parts white. When sitting
or attempting to walk, they have been compared to a
dog that has been taught to sit up or to move a minuet. Their short legs drive the body in progression
from side to side; and were they not assisted by their
flipper-like wings, they could scarcely move faster
than a tortoise. This awkward make of the legs,
which so disqualifies them for living upon the land,
admirably adapts them for life in the water, inasmuch
as they serve for propellers, and, being placed so far
behind the moving body, and worked the more swiftly
for being short, they push it forward with great velocity.
The Magellanic penguin is about the size of a goose,
the upper parts of its plumage, so called, being black,
42 
.... I
.,c I:
I:
I'll
-. 1. 
/11 
PENGUINS  DESCRIBED.'1
and the under white.   Thus, with their heads erect,
and their fin-like wings hanging down as half arms,
they look like so many children with white aprons.
Hence they are not improperly said " to unite in themselves the qualities of men, fowls, and fishes. Like
men, they are upright; like fowls, they are feathered;
and, liklie fish, they have fin-like instruments that beat
the water before, and serve for all the purposes of swimming rather than flying. They are also covered more
warmly all over the body with feathers than any other bird, so that the sea seems entirely their element."
These penguin islands lie between 51 and 53 degrees S. lat. and 57 and 63 degrees W. long. They
are at present claimed by the English, they having a
government colony at Port Egmont, on an island seventy or eighty miles to the westward of Berkley's
Sound, where American whaling ships frequently put
in for supplies and vegetable antiscorbutics. Eighty
years ago there was a French settlement twenty miles
up the Berkley Sound, but it was long since abandoned by them, and is now occupied by another colony of
English. A troop of wild horses, seen by us above
the cliffs while we were standing into the Sound,
must have originated from that colony, the only natural quadrupeds being wolves and foxes. Seals and
sea-elephants are abundant in the waters. The island
on which we landed is expressively called by the Spaniards Isla de la Solidad, or the Island of Solitude. The
weather there is said to be uniformly cold and stormy,
and all the islands, indeed, have been sometimes denominated Foul Weather Group. They produce no
trees, and only a dwarfish shrubbery, but there are  
___ ~~~              _
VmW     les off          -1"m
~                                            _~~~~~~~~~1
-. I
. I1, i  
PERILS OF CAPE HORN.
were sold for the benefit of the underwriters, aid the
voyage abandoned. The frigate Brandywine was once
fifty days off the Cape, and it is not uncommon for
vessels to make the Cape once, and after four or five
weeks' sailing, to make it again. Hope is predominant that our tempestuous weather is over, and that
a fortnight, at the utmost, will bring us to port. While
the inmates of the cabin, like birds after a storm, are
sunning themselves on deck, let my readers that purpose traversing with me the ISLAND WORLD, take a leisurely survey of our first fortnight in the Pacific.
We little thought that doubling Cape Horn in summer would have been so full of difficulty. Now we
doubt whether it would be worse in mid-winter. It
would seem as if the genii of storms ruled the realmn.
The ancients, had they known it, would have located
the cave of A3olus at the end of Tierra del Fuego, in
the side of one of those burning mountains. Auster
and Eurus, and Boreas and Euroclydon, and all the
intermediate winds of the thirty-two points of the compass, seem to have arranged their forces from the Falkland Islands to 60 degrees S. on the east of the Cape,
and from 60 to 48 on the west, so as most advantageously to dispute every inch of the way with the bold
navigator. The Dutch adventurer, from whom the
Cape is named, that first doubled this formidable barrier, was not less a hero than he of fabulous story who
loosed the dove and boldly ventured between the rocks
of the Symplegades, that were fated to close upon and
crush all who should attempt it, till the perilous pas.
sage, once safely made, should fix them forever apart.
The Latin proverb was our consolation: Quod fuit
ci
49 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
acturn potest fieri-what has been done can be done.
We knew the difficulties of the passage had been surmounted, both in mid-summer and mid-winter. Four
other ships which we caught sight of at different times
were contesting the passage in like manner with our.
selves, through cold, and sleet, and opposing seas. All
of us, we argued, could not be baffled, and our own
chance is as good as any. Patience held out with
most. At every abatement of the gales and interval
of sunshine, the sailors would cheerfully hang up their
sea-soaked clothes, joke over the perils of the storm,
and equip themselves anew for reefing and tacking.
It was truly pitiful sometimes, at the hours for changing watches, to see the top of a sea break over the
bow or quarter and wet them all while pulling at the
ropes, so that the watch just called must stay wet
their four hours of duty, and the watch going below
must turn in dripping. A landsman could hardly help
trembling for their safety, when ordered aloft to furl,
while the ship was rolling so violently, and the wind
blowing in such gusts of fury, that it would seem almost impossible for the topmasts and yards to sustain
the shocks.
For several days we were reduced to olose-reefed
fore and main-topsails, the ship meantime rolling so
tremendously that a man incurred no small risk of
breaking bones who should attempt to cross the deck
or stand for a moment any where without being firmly braced or having a rope to hold to. Even in the
cabin, when sitting on a firm chest, the lurch of the
ship will often be such that a man will be raised from
his feet and thrown with most dangerous rapidity and
50 
NAVIGATION FROM  STEM  TO  STERNV.  51
force to the opposite side. I saw this in one instance,
when the individual plunged with such suddenness
and stunning violence, head first, against the opposite
side of the cabin, that we feared for a moment he was
dead. There was hardly a man of us that did not
learn, by some woeful bruise or wrench, with what
prodigious force the body is brought up against the
bulwarks or bulkheads, when once started from its
place on the deck of a ship that is making an angle
of forty-five degrees with the plane of her upright
natural position. Putting out the arms to break the
blow only throws the center of gravity further forward, and increases one's momentum.
It was amusing sometimes to see the steward, who
has been several times round here in a whaleman, and
whose body seems to have learned the trick of bending the other way-it was amusing sometimes to see
him navigate between the galley and cabin. If caught
half way by a bad lurch of the ship, he would either
fall upon his knees, and do his best to hold on to himself and his dish, or else, if so fortunate as to get his
foot against the capstan, he would throw his body so
far forward the opposite way that on one side his person would make an obtuse angle with the deck of one
hundred and thirty-five degrees or more, and on the
other an acute angle of forty-five degrees or less.
We did not get sight of the redoubtable Cape
(which is in 56 degrees S. lat. and 67 degrees W.
long.), but were driven off to the parallel of sixty,
near the South Shetlands, and afterward made the
land of Cape Desolation, on the western side of Tierra
del Fuego. Discoverers have rightly named it, for 
52            THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
we thought land never seemed so bleak and desolate,
snow lying between the hills and in the hollows of the
mountains in this July of the South. I used to think,
when studying geography at school, and bounding the
continent of South America by that unexplored Island
of Tierra del Fuego, or the Land of Fire, that its soil
was brimstone, and the fiery materials volcanoes are
made of, " a burning marl," like that which held the
unblcssed feet of Milton's angel when risen from off
the lIzk of hell:
A land that ever burn'd
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire;
And such appear'd in hue, as when the force
Of subterranean wind transports a hill
Torn fromin Pelorus, or the shatter'd side
Of thundering Etna, whose combustible
And fueled entrails thence conceiving fire,
Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,
And leave a singed bottom all involved
With stench and smoke.
The German name Feuerland, or Fire Land, a German passenger tells me, had made him conceive the
same idea. We were closer to it than we would like
to be again as a lee shore, but saw none of its volcanoes in action, nor any traces of volcanic fire, unless
it be the blackened aspect of those ugly rocks.
While off the coast of Patagonia, what time the
weather would permit, some of the passengers, and
the watch on duty, occupied themselves in fishing for
albatrosses. They are caught by baiting a hook with
pork or blubber, fastening a piece of wood near the
bait, so that it may be kept floating, and letting it tow
astern. The noble birds would wheel and hover over
it, and at length alight on the water like a swan, and 
Soutlih P'acilic All)atross.
ei
(/,
: e   
A 1, B A  I' 1)    S     D, S C I, 1 L     )
often succeed in getting all the bait without being
hooked. But six or seven times they were taken and
hauled aboard, the unsuspected hook catching within
their long bills. They measure nine and ten feet
across the wings. The first one was killed and stuffed, to be carried home for some museum. The rest
were sacrificed for their long bills, wings, and large
web feet.  This bird is uncommonly beautiful and majestic, whether soaring sublimely upon the wing, or
seen as a prisoner upon a ship's deck, from which we
found they are unable to rise.  Their motion through
space is the easiest and most graceful conceivable. In
storm or calm, once raised upon their broad pinions,
you never see them flutter, but away they sail, selfpropelled as naturally as we breathe; a motion of the
head, or the slight curl of a wing serving to turn them,
as the course of a rapid skater will be ruled at pleasure by an almost imperceptible inclination to right or
left. It is the reality of that motion through space,
which we sometimes conceive of in dreams, when we
are borne along without conscious effort on our part,
or any means of propulsion but our own free will.
If the eagle be the king of birds, the albatross ought
to be called the queen, so queen-like and stately is her
course on the wing, and so dignified, mild, and unfearing is her expression when captured. Her eye is
full, bright, and expressive, like that of a gazelle; the
head and neck large, but admirably proportioned; the
feathers either a pure white or delicately penciled and
speckled, except on the upper side of the wings, which
are mostly black. There was an expression of pathos
and intelligence about the eye of the first one cap 
THE ISLAND WORL.D.
tured that made it seem to me like a sin to take its
ife.  Could I have had my way, that look should have
given it liberty.
A poor Peruvian, who is working his passage home,
ascribed all our bad weather and high winds afterward
to having killed the albatrosses; and he and the superstitious cook, in the height of the gale, prevailed
upon a young passenger who had taken one the day
previous, and was keeping it alive in the long-boat, to
let the noble bird go free.  Like the mariners in Cole
ridge's Rime, they said,
We had done a hellish thing,
And it would work us woe:
Stout they averr'd we had kill'd the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah, wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!
b~ stlerCStltiin always made men thus humane, we
might almost mourn that its dominion is passing
away; but our cheerful belief is that in the good
time coming it will soon be succeeded by an intelligent and pure faith, that shall make men humane
from principle and inbred humanity, and gentle from
unaffected love toward all the creatures of God
The lesson the Ancient Mariner learned from his
strange experience, and told to the Wedding Guest,
is the true one:
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man, and bird, and beast 
AN,ESTHETIC  SUBJECT.                 57
Some one says of himself, what is true of humanity at large, that when the mind is fair and open, and
the soul right, there is not a bird or flower I see that
does not move my heart to feel toward it as a child
of God; and it is a maxim of conduct I take from
the poet Wordsworth,
Never to blend my pleasure or my pride
With sorrow of the meanest thing that lives.
This glorious bird, the albatross, is the most beautiful and lovable object of the animate world which
the adventurer meets with in all the South Pacific.
Philosophers might take a lesson of it in Esthetics,
for when on the wing it is the very beau ideal of
beauty and grace. Seamen ought to love and prize
it dearly, for the drear monotony of life at sea is often
relieved by its always welcome appearance, and by
watching with admiration, almost envy, its glorious
gyrations and curves, and swoops in the elastic ocean
of air, a free race-ground, where it has no competitor.
The capture of a whale, especially on the New
Zealand whaling ground, and still further south, when
eight hundred or a thousand miles from land, will
bring them trooping from afar, as a carcass in Mexico or Louisiana will the turkey-buzzards. I have
watched them singly keeping company with our ship
for days together; the last living thing, without us,
to be seen at nightfall, and the first the eye recognized again and saluted in the morning. Again, I
have seen them gathered by hundreds when the cutting-in of a whale alongside allured them from a circuit of five hundred miles.
C2 
THE  ISI,LAND  W'ORL,D.
In some whale ships they make a practice of catching them after the manner described above, and plucking their feathers for use, and many a whaleman's
head is pillowed on them. Not unfrequently they
measure eleven feet from tip to tip of the outspread
wings, and they weigh from seventeen to eighteen
pounds. In the Antarctic Exploring Voyage, Doctor
M'Cormick met with one weighing twenty pounds,
and having twelve feet stretch of wings.
It sits upon the water light and graceful as a swan,
and I have often seen it dive under like a hawk or
pelican for something discovered by its keen eye beneath the surface. When it wishes to rise on the
wing, it has to tread water a long way, like a running
ostrich, before it can attain its due momentum and
soar aloft; but once fairly up, and its pinions free, it
cleaves the air with exceeding swiftness, and skims
the waves, like the smallest swallow, with inconceivable ease and grace.
An anonymous writer, who must have seen the
bird in its native seas, says that it flies against, as
well as before, the wind, and hovers around a ship at
sea, never outstripped by its speed. "It enjoys the
calm, and sports in the sunbeams on the glassy wave;
but it revels in the storm, and darts its arrowy way
before the fury of the gale. It seems to be then in its
element. Mocking the surges of the mighty sea, and
breasting the tempest's blast, its flight has not less
sublimity, perhaps, than that of the eagle darting upward to the skies. It is a beautiful sight to behold
this noble bird sailing in the air in light and graceful
movements. After the first muscular exertion which 
ALBAT'ROSS  ON  THE  NEST.              59
gives impulse to its flight, its wings are always expanded, like the sails of a ship, and show no motion,
as if it were wafted on by some invisible power. It
is from this cause that it sustains untired its long
and distant flight across the sea. It feeds on small
marine animals, mucilaginous zoophytes, the spawn
of fish, and blubber."
Notwithstanding its large size, the albatross does
not appear to be a quarrelsome bird, but when attacked by its enemy, the skua gull, seeks safety in flight.
It is easily captured, and was used in quantities,
boiled and roasted, by Captain Cook and his crew,
who gladly regaled themselves on it after being confined for a length of time at sea to salt food.  W\hen
breeding, the female flies to some inaccessible rock or
lonely spot of ground, lays, it is said, but one egg,
and makes a nest around it. The male watches with
vender anxiety while she is on the nest; and ever on
the wing, brings her the daintiest food from his piratical wanderings on the deep.
In the classification of Linnaeus, the albatross is tihe
Diomedea exulans, a genus which is described as
having the bill very long, stout, edged, compressed,
straight, suddenly curved; upper mandible channeled on the sides, and much hooked at the point;
the under smooth, and truncated at the extremity;
nostrils lateral, remote from the base, tubular, covered on the sides, and open in front; legs short, with
only three very long toes entirely webbed; the lateral
ones are margined; wings very long and narrow, with
the primary quills short, and the secondaries long.
From its often choosing the same places for breed. 
THE  ISLAND  WVORLD.
ing with the penguin, the albatross is thought to have
a peculiar affection for that singular amphibious creature, and a pleasure in its society. Their nests are
to be seen together on uninhabited islands, where the
ground slants to the sea, the penguin not being formed
either for flying or crying. As if for mutual protection, the albatross raises its nest on a hillock of heath,
sticks, and long grass, about two feet high; and
round this the penguins, in a circle, make their lower
settlements in burrowed holes in the ground, commonly, it is said, eight penguins to one albatross.
Sailors generally, but especially right-whalemen,
have many yarns to tell of this noble bird, which they
call by the unclassical name of gony. They have a
partiality, which is not to be wondered at, for this
superb specimen of oceanic ornithology, although
coarser ones among them are too apt to show it in
a way not so pleasing to humanity, and which I have
often tried to dissuade them from, that is, capturing
them so cruelly by hook and line. When so taken,
knowing ones often carve little billets of wood with
inscriptions, which they tie to their necks, and then
set them loose again. These birds in repeated instances have afterward been captured in different
and distant latitudes by other ships, and curious information has been so communicated.
The albatross has often served poor Jack a good
turn for grub when his larder has run low, or when
he has been cast upon some desolate sea-bird island;
and many anonymous anecdotes are told in the forecastle respecting them. But the most remarkable I
have ever heard, bordering indeed upon the marvel
60 
A DRONYNING MAN SAVED BY A BIRD. 61
ous and incredible, if not itself a providential mira.
cle, is the following, contained for substance in a
letter from an officer in the eighty-third regiment of
the English army to his friends in Montreal. While
the division to which the writer belonged was on its
way to the Orient, being at the time a short distance
eastward of the Cape, one of the men was severely
flogged for some slight offense. Maddened at the
punishment, the poor fellow was no sooner released,
than, in the sight of all his comrades and the ship's
crew, he sprang overboard. There was a high sea
running at the time, and, as the man swept on astern,
all hope of saving him seemed to vanish. Relief,
however, came from a quarter where no one ever
dreamed of looking for it before. During the delay
incident on lowering a boat, and while the crowd on
deck were watching the form of the soldier struggling
with the boiling waves, and growing every moment
less distinct, a large albatross, such as are always
found in those latitudes, coming like magic, with an
almost imperceptible motion, approached and made a
swoop at the man, who, in the agonies of the deathstruggle, seized it and held it firmly in his grasp, and
by this means kept afloat until assistance was rendered from the vessel!
Incredible as this story seems, the name and position of the writer of the letter, who was an eyewitness of the scene, places its authenticity beyond a
doubt. But for the assistance thus afforded, no power on earth could have saved the soldier, as, in consequence of the tremendous sea running, a long time
elapsed before the boat could be manned and got 
62             THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
down, all this time the man clinging to the bird,
whose flutterings and struggles to escape bore him
up. Who, after this, should despair? A raging seaa drowning man-an albatross; what eye could see
safety under such circumstances? or who will dare
to call this chance?   Is it not rather a lesson intended to stimulate Faith and Hope, and teach us
never to despair, since, in the darkest moment, when
the waves dash, and the winds roar, and a gulf seems
closing over our heads, there may be an albatross at
hand, with a commission to save us from Him, of
whom it is said, As birds flying, so will the Lord of
Hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also, he will deliver it, and passing over, he will preserve it.
There is another lesson taught me by this most
majestic and beautiful of birds, for which I think I
am a wiser man than before. We observe that when
captured and set at liberty in the ship, it can never
of itself rise from the even surface of the deck, though
outwardly unconstrained and free; but we must toss
the noble bird overboard, or lift him quite clear of the
ship's rail, before he can use his glorious pinions and
mount aloft into the air. Then he will stretch those
ample wings, and sail away through space in the very
poetry of motion, as if the elastic element of air and
the bird were one, making the gazer wonder and fairly
long to be taking the same aerial flight.
Even so is it sometimes with the Christian. He
is brought by Providence into straits and perplexities,
whence he can not rise and extricate himself alone,
where the wings of faith and love seem to be of no
avail to him, until a friendly hand lifts him up and 
THE WINGS OF FAITH.
throws him out upon the deep, where he must say,
with Peter, "Lord, save; I perish."  Then at once
he loses despair; he surmounts the difficulty; he
breaks his prison; he mounts up as on eagles' wings;
now the pinions of Faith and Love nobly sustain him,
and bear him away aloft; and he wonders at the nightmare of doubt and fear that kept him from using them
before. He is ashamed of the wrong thoughts of God
that had begun to gather and darken in his mind. He
sees that God was infinitely wise and good in appointing the discipline to which he has been subjected, and
he flies all the higher and better for it in holiness now.
Like the Ancient Mariner, who has served us for illustration once before,
He goes like one that hath been stunn'd,
And is of sense forlorn;
A better and a wiser man
He'll rise to-morrow morn.
63 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
CHAPTER III.
HONOLULU AND ITS ENVIRONS.
The constant sun
Had run his faithful round, and duly sunk
Beneath the crystal wave of this calm sea;
And centuries had fill'd their measure up
With quiet morns and peaceful eventides:
Anl unclad tawny race, age after age,
Had roved the woods and waters, all unchanged.
But men of other lip from a far land
Had brought religion, enterprise, and law.
The merchant's eye, with expectation large,
As oft it scann'd the far-outstretching point
Of this most charming isle, with anxious gaze,
Was often feasted with returning bark,
From coast barbaric, or from unknown isle,
Freighted with ocean's wealth, those pearly drops,
A growth indigenous beneath the flood;
Or laden with the spoil of mammoth brutes,
That roam the vast Pacific's liquid fields.-Anon.
THIRTY-FIVE mornings and evenings from Callao,
and our anchor is scratching the outer reef round the
island heart of the Pacific. This is a sailing distance
of more than five thousand miles. Including the time
in which we were becalmed in the Doldrums, the seamen's name for those parts of the sea directly under
the Equator, where they have neither northeast nor
southeast trades, but baffling winds and calms, we
have averaged more than one thousand miles a week;
a rate of progress which before, when we were so
64 
TREATMENT OF SCURVY.
crank and heavy at the head with those ill-stowed
naval stores, none of us would believe the snail-paced
Wales could ever make.
At times the trades have been so strong that we
could not carry top-gallant sails. It was luxurious
sailing for our disabled seamen, with symptoms of
the scurvy,* who could sleep on deck all the while,
the temperature of the air for three successive weeks
being indicated by the thermometer at eighty-three or
eighty-four, while that of the ocean was seventy-seven
or seventy-eight.
The aspect of Oahu, at first approach, is hardly
more inviting to the mariner than purgatory was to
Dante and Beatrice in the Inferno. For aught your
eye can see of verdure, you would think, if there be
* It seems to have been discovered of late that the true source of
scorbutic disease, as it shows itself in our ships and prisons, is the
want of potash in the blood; that salted meat contains little more
than half'the potash in fresh meats; and that, while an ounce of rice
contains only five grains of potash, an ounce of potato contains one
thousand eight hundred and sevenlty-five grains, which accounts for
the great increase of the disease since the scarcity of the potato.  In
patients under this disease, the blood is found to be deficient in potash; and it has been ascertained by repeated experiments that whatever be the diet, such patients speedily recover if a few grains (from
twelve to twenty) of some salt of potash be given daily.  Lime-juice
is regularly ordered in the navy as a specific for the disease, and the
reason of its efficacy is not the acid, but the amount of potash, being
eight hundred and forty-six grains in an ounce.   On these facts it
seems possible to found a slight, but very salutary, improvement in
the navy.  Let a portion of tartrate of potash be ordered regularly
to be mixed with the lime-juice that is given out for use, and let arrangements be adopted for boiling the salt meat in steam. A large
portion of the salt would thus be eliminated, and the food made more
wholesome. A similar course might be adopted in work-houses and
prisons.
65 
THE ISLAND WVORLD.
inhabitants, that the azure ocean which laves their
coast must be also the garden that yields their food,
did there not blow ever and anon, from off shore, grateful odors like the heliotrope,
"That tell you whence their frag-rance is supplied.'
Huge waves are ever breaking over the coral reef
that incloses the harbor of Honolulu, and rolling along
both sides of the channel till they are lost in deep water'inside, but not without infusing a stranger who
may be rowing in from a ship outside with the sedative fear of being capsized as he mounts the ridges of
those broad-backed rollers.
To the right, and directly in front as you enter the
harbor, rise the frowning craters of Leahi and Puawai,
now called-my readers may say whether more euphoniously or not-Punch-bowl Hill and Diamond
Point. These once vomited their combustible and
fueled entrails upon the plains and into the sea; but
they have long since gone to sleep, and "green grow
the rushes 0" in their concave and smooth basins,
where it is to be taken for granted almost every classic visitor at Honolulu has taken lessons as we have
in stone-rolling, and scanning Virgil to the sound,
Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.
On the flats at their base are the extensive cocoa and
palm groves of Waikiki, and the beautiful valleys of
Nuuanu and Manoa, verdant with patches of kalo, and
other creations of the tropics-terrace upon terrace,
and sparkling all along with squares and diamonds
of the flowing brook by which they are irrigated.
A stranger coming into port, however, sees nothing
of all this, but only a dusty, arid plain, lying four or five
t66 
BUILIDING MATERIALIS. 
miles along the shore, and from one to two miles in land, occupied in its western extremity, for about three
quarters of a mile, with a singularly promiscuous ar ray of low hay-stack houses for seven or eight thou sand people, to whose dry grass-thatching one thinks
he has only to hold a torch in order to wrap the whole
village in smoke and flame. It is the wonder of ev ery new observer that a town built of such fire-inviting materials, and the houses often so close together,
is not daily consulned in a general conflagration.
The fort, which the French, under Admiral Trommelin, have recently dismantled, is built upon a small,
low promontory in front of the town, and furnished with
fifty-two guns that command the channel and inner
harbor. It is itself again commanded in the rear by a
battery of fourteen guns on Punch-bowl Hill, at an
elevation of five hundred and fifty feet above the sea.
Some of the government offices, the custom-house, a
large four-story edifice, the Romish Cathedral, and a
few of the warehouses, stores, and dwellings of the
foreigners, are well-made structures of coral, either
shingled or covered with zinc, and furnished with lookouts on the top for descrying approaching sails and
vessels in the outer roadstead.
The greater part of the habitations of foreigners and
of natives that are looking up in the world are constructed after the style of building prevalent on the
coast of Spanish America. The common soil, pulverized and wet like clay for brick-making, is then mixed
up with dry grass and put into molds of a large size,
usually eighteen inches or two feet long, a foot wide,
and from six to eight inches thick. These are dried
67 
THE ISLAND WVORLD.
in the sun, and then laid up into walls. They are
called adobes or adobies, from the old Egyptian word
adaub, derived in Spain from the Moors.   There being no frost to heave the ground, nor long-continued
rains to crumble these sun-dried bricks, walls made of
them are durable enough for common purposes in the
first stages of civilization. When plastered with lime
and white-washed, they are commendably neat and
comfortable.
Among them the sailor's chapel is agreeably conspicuous; from whose chaplain, the Rev. Samuel C.
Damon, a warm reception and hospitable induction
into the chaplaincy-house induced that comfortable
feeling of being cordially made at home, and elicited
at once those pleasurable emotions of confidence and
love which it is necessary for a man to be a valetudinarian wanderer on the sea, and to find abroad such
true Christian hospitality, in order rightly to appre
ciate.
It must be gratifying to the friends of seamen (and
I begin to find their name is legion), as well as to the
numerous whalemen themselves that touch at Honolulu, to know of the acceptableness and wide sphere
of usefulness daily opening to this chaplain, and to
the one also at Lahaina. Though installed only as seamen's chaplain, and supported by the society at home,
yet as pastor of the Bethel church, and the only Christian minister for the increasing body of American and
English residents, his influence and field of usefulness
are by no means limited to the sea-faring class.
While it is an enviable post for the opportunities
it gives for doing good, it is also one of difficulty and
68 
THE HONOLULU PULPIT.
temptation, and far from desirable, except by a man
of Christian firmness and independence, resolved upon
the performance of duty,
As ever in his great Taskmaster's eye,
and regardless alike of the smiles and frowns of a selfapproving, haughty world.
In such a community as that at Honolulu, to a
wayfarer a few years ago, every body seemed to have
every body else by the ears, and an excessive eagerness for gain, gossiping, and news created a state of
mind, as in California now, by no means favorable
to the general inculcation of truth, or to individual
growth in intellect or godliness. The truths that are
the most wholesome, medicinal, and specific in such
a case are far from being the most liked, and unless
they be sugared and oiled, and fitted for the stomachs
of worldly-wise men, and tuned for ears polite, they
rather seem to disorder digestion, to generate acidities
and flatulence, and put fleas in the ear.
If a man, also, will use the moral probe and lancet
in the case aforesaid, it is required that he put on
gloves and magnetize his subjects, or administer chloroform, so that they shall not feel or writhe. And he
must be very careful not to operate too far or too long
at a time, lest there ensue so much constitutional irritation as seriously to affect the patient's prognosis.
The seamen, however, in whose behalf the chaplain
at Honolulu is to labor every way in his power, need
no such management or mesmeric manipulating or
etherization.   The plainer Gospel truths are shot at
them the better, though it be at point-blank aim, and
with ball-cartridges. They will testify always that
69 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
pungent words of warning and counsel, affectionately
but fearlessly spoken, to suit individual sins and states
of minds, without circumlocution or disguise, is the
preacher's best way of doing good, whether it be at
Oahu, or San Francisco, or New York.
If faithful to his trust, the chaplain at Honolulu will
be a ministering friend that shall never be forgotten,
to thousands of transient mariners. And may he be
enabled also (which perhaps needs the greater grace)
rightly to divide the word of truth to residents there;
to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine; to charge them that are rich in the
world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in un.
certain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us
richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that
they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves
a good foundation ag,ainst the time to come, that they
may lay hold on eternal life.
The location of " The Mission," so called, at Honolulu, is in the upper or southeastern part of the town,
about half a mile from most of the houses of other
foreign residents.   Here are seven dwelling-houses,
occupied by the,families of the pastor of the First
Church, the book-binder, printer, teacher, general superintendent, and two secular agents. Besides these
there are a stone building for the printing-press and
bindery, another for the depository, a large schoolhouse or conference room, in which are held the general meetings, and the capacious stone church, together
with several small adobe or dirt buildings, for housing the families from out-stations, and excellent for
70 
A CORAL CHURCH.
fleas, cockroaches, scorpions, centipedes, and tarantulas.
The coral edifice for the Honolulu First Church is a
spacious building, one hundred feet long and seventyeight wide, with an unfinished basement for schools
and prayer-meetings; and in its construction galleries are allowed for, but not yet made. It was planned
and got under way by Rev. Mr. Bingham, and most
of the materials collected at the expense of the chiefs
and people. It was completed under Rev. Mr. Armstrong, at an estimated expense, in voluntary Hawaiian labor and contributions, of $30,000. It shows
conspicuous through the spy-glass far out to sea,
and is the first object of art the eye rests upon in
coming into port; and it will stand, we trust, for ages,
a pleasing monument to the stranger of the regard
paid by this nation of emerging heathen to the institutions of the Gospel. May it never want a congregation of Christianized Hawaiians to fill its ample
courts!
In this vicinity, also, are the Oahu charity schoolhouse, a neat structure of stone, thirty-six feet long
by twenty-six wide, for the mixed children of foreigners and natives, and the buildings appropriated for the
school of the chiefs. This latter is under the care of
Mr. and Mrs. Cook; and by common consent it is a
most interesting and admirably managed family school.
It consists of fourteen chief boys and girls, whose education and habits of living are strictly American or
English.
They live and study together very happily, and ride
daily on horseback, or make adobes, for punishment
7] 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
and exercise together, if refractory. While under
suitable wholesome restraint, which the children of
chiefs were never subject to before, they have every
thing around them made so agreeable that restrictions are hardly felt; and there is, perhaps, hardly
one of the number, much as they may sometimes hanker after the indulgences of heathenism, that would be
willing to return to former barbarous liberties and
ways.  They are pleasing in appearance and deportment, and some of the girls are not wanting in personal charms, which, along with their appanage, have
already won husbands to some of them among respectable foreigners.
The salaries of the teachers of this school, while
they were missionaries of the American Board, and all
its other expenses, were paid by the chiefs.  As containing the future educated rulers of the Hawaiian
nation, it is full of promise and hope, and should have
the fervent prayers of God's people, that the noble
youth there gathered may have their minds savingly
acquainted with the Gospel, as well as properly disciplined and furnished with useful knowledge.
A mile and a half or two miles further along the
plain in this direction is the pleasant site of the Punahou school for the children of the mission, under the
care of Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Dole, and their associates,
Mr. Rice and wife. The valuable lands connected
with it were given by the chiefs to Mr. Bingham, and
he first broke ground there by putting up some adobe
buildings, which, after his departure for America in
1S40, were added to and turned to their present use.
The average number of pupils there is twenty-five;
72 
MANOA VALLEY.
of boarding scholars, seventeen. Boys can be fitted
there for college; probably it will be found to be itself
a Polynesian University in miniature, when hereafter
graduates shall issue thence with academic degrees,
and doctorates in the republic of letters be conferred
upon mission-sprung or native-born Hawaiians.
I believe the boys and girls now there to be as happy and innocent a company of youth as ever were
brought together, and they are in a fair way of being
well disciplined and taught.  None can question the
propriety and needfulness of such an institution to a
mission which has multiplied itself already, through
God's blessing, by upward of one hundred and fifty
living children. Its location at the Hawaiian metropolis is judicious-far enough from town to be out of
the way of its scandal and noise, but near enough for
the boys to have the benefit of one religious service at
the Bethel every Sabbath.
In the rear of Punahou is the delightful Valley of
Manoa, where, hidden by the trees and flowering
shrubs, and velvet hill-sides that catch the rain, and
lulled by the music of birds and purling brooks, a man
may almost forget that a tropical sun is shining, and
the stern cares and strife of life are passing upon the
plain below.   It was here that the strong-minded
Elizabethan queen, Kaahumanu, retired to die in
the faith of Christ. I have been once in the beautiful bamboo house where she breathed her last, and
often since in my dreams have I gone back to that
charming valley, when oceans have intervened.
It were well that the boys of the school, and the sunburned, adobe-walled residents often resorted there:
D
7'l 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
'twould smooth the furrowed brow of business, and
cool the fervid blood of youth, and quicken the jaded
spirits of the too studious boy or laborious man. It
is a saying of Wordsworth:
One impulse from a vernal wood may teach you more of man,
Of human nature and of good, than all the sages can.
Nor less I deem that there are powers
Which of themselves our minds impress
And we can feed this mind of ours
IN A WISE PASSIVENESS.
The valley itself, to one secluded in it, is one of the
loveliest that Nature has imbosomed in these romantic isles; the scenery bold and beautiful; the volcanic
hills on either side crowned with the rich and deepgreen verdure; a sparkling brook making its way in
a cascade over a precipice at the head of the vale, and,
meandering along through it, creating beauty in its
course; birds singing up among those bowers of verdure; watered kalo-patches, and kukui trees, with
their silvery sheen, and now and then a glimpse of
the azure sea.
Still away to the right, past the palm-groves of
Waikiki, and at the foot of one of the extinct volcanoes, with a broad out-look on the ocean, are the remains of an ancient heiau, or heathen temple, its
walls one hundred and thirty feet in length by seventy in breadth. Unless told that they were part of the
sacred inclosure, called in Cook's voyages a morai, the
visitor might suppose them to be the remains of some
metropolitan hog-pen, like the suburban receptacles
of that sort which have graced and perfumed the city
of New York. Heathenism, hogs, and devils have
gone together since the time that the latter, when
74 
ANCIENT HEATHEN TEMPLE.
cast out of the possessed, entered into the whole herd
of swine feeding. Good will it be for humanity when
this triple alliance shall be broken the world over, as
it seems to have been at the Sandwich Islands.
Within the memory of some persons now living,
the heads of slain warriors in the battle of Nuuanu
were seen impaled on the walls of this heiau, and human blood and bones for unknown ages have manured
the crumbling lava all around it. " Hecatombs of victims," says the historian, "have perished within its
precincts, and it will remain for generations the dark
and repulsive type to the Hawaiian of what this nation once was; while the dreary and frowning crest
of Leahi, rising above, alike recalls the mind to that
period when the fires and heavings of the earth beneath spread terror and destruction among the affrighted inhabitants.  They stand well beside each
other; one, the puny and desolate monument of man's
,apostasy; and the volcano, the wrathful sign that Nature shared the curse of Adam's crime."
75 
76          THE ISLAND WORLD.
CHAPTER IV.
HAWAIIAN HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY.
Even the favor'd isles
So lately found, although the constant sun
Cheer all their seasons with a grateful smile,
Can boast but little virtue, and, inert
Through plenty, lose in morals what they gain
In climate-victims of luxurious ease.
These, therefore, I can pity; placed remote
From all that science traces, art invents,
Or inspiration teaches; and inclosed
In boundless oceans never to be pass'd
By navigators uninform'd as they,
Or plow'd, perhaps, by British bark again.
CowPERa.
THE muse of the gentle poet that indited these line.
in the last century, was then all inadequate to project the important position on the map of the world,
and on the highway of human progress, which those
remote isles, whereof he doubted if they would ever be
visited again, have now assumed. Those Hawaiian,
or Sandwich Islands, so called by the English in honor of Lord Sandwich, were first made known to the
rest of the world, at least to the commercial part,
through their discovery of it by Captain Cook in the
month of January, 1778. On the authority of Humboldt, in the late work entitled "Cosmos," Gaetano,
a Spaniard, discovered one of the Sandwich Islands in
the year 1542. But the discovery was not prosecu. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCES.
ted, and little or nothing was known of it till the voyage of Cook.
Placed far amid the melancholy main,
and lying on the direct route to India from the modern,
perhaps the ancient Ophir, this island cluster, having
eight summits, properly forms the Ararat of the North
Pacific. They lie between the meridians of 155 and
16021 west longitude, and between the parallels of 19 and
22- north latitude; about eighteen hundred miles from
California, northeast; five thousand from China, west;
five thousand from South America, southeast; twenty-seven hundred from the Society Islands on the south.
The names of those inhabited, taken as they lie in order from southeast to northwest, are Hawaii, Maui,
Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, Niihau,
embracing an area of about six thousand one hundred
square miles. They extend in a curved line four
hundred miles, and would appear to be the summits
of two parallel ranges of mountains or volcanic centers,
of which the volcanoes Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea,
in Hawaii, are the southeastern extremities. These
mountains are of nearly equal heights; Loa, according to the measurements of the United States Explorimg Expedition, is thirteen thousand seven hundred
and sixty feet above half tide; Kea, thirteen thousand
nine hundred and fifty; Mount Hualalai, on the same
island, is about ten thousand. On Maui, the next of
the group westward, Mount Haleakala, is ten thousand two hundred and seventeen feet high, and Eeka
six thousand one hundred and thirty. Oahu has two
ranges four thousand feet high, and the highest point
of Kauai is eight thousand feet.
77 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
The origin of all the islands is purely volcanic.
They were evidently formed by repeated eruptions
from the bed of the ocean, depositing layer upon layer of volcanic matter, until, by this process and the
gradual retirement of the sea, they have attained their
present elevation. That process may still be seen
going on in the largest of these islands (Hawaii), the
interior of which would seem to be a vast reservoir or
chamber of pent-up mineral fire, that lets off now and
then some of its redundant elements by violent emission, as the lancet does from the arm of a man threatened with apoplexy. Kauai, the northwesternmost of
the group, is the oldest made, as proved by the lava
there being most disintegrated and frequently formed
into basalt, like that of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. Hawaii, which Captain Cook naturally enough
miscalled Owyhee, is the southeasternmost and latest
formed, being the only one where there is an active volcano, and that in the southern portion of this large
island. Volcanic fire seems to be working to the south
and east, toward the great furnaces in the range of
the Andes, on the continent of South America.
When these islands first came to be inhabited can
not be conjectured: whence is probable. Tradition
reaches not to their origin, although curious fables of
Hawaiian cosmogony do. But the natives preserve
the genealogy of seventy-three kings, have the names
of some of the South Pacific islands, knew the direction of the Society Islands, the nearest inhabited
group, and have tales of their ancestors' coming
thence; and their language is a dialect of the one
great family of Polynesian tongues.
78 
SALUBRITY OF CLIMATE.
When but a few years ago a Japanese junk came
ashore at Waialua, on the Island of Oahu, and the natives saw the few survivors, men looking much like
themselves, who had been drifting out of their course
for nearly a year, and were five thousand miles from
their homes, the missionary there told me that the first
inference and talk of the natives was, "Now we know
whence our fathers came from." A number of wellauthenticated facts like this point to the way in which
all the islands of the Pacific may have been populated, and indicate, too, how the highly-civilized aborigines of South America may have had their beginning directly in a pair of Japanese blown off by a typhoon from the shores of Eastern Asia, instead of our
having to trace them down from Behring's Straits
through the length of North America.
The temperature of the Hawaiian Islands is equable, and the climate in every way salubrious. The
Northeast Trades fan them perpetually on the windward side, and there is a regularly alternating, gentle
land and sea breeze on the leeward side. The heat
experienced is at no place in the group so great as at
New Orleans in the summer time, or often at New
York. For the year round there is always the purest
ocean air, and a variety of climate can be commanded by change of situation that is not to be had elsewhere in the world within the same area. American
constitutions, debilitated by the uniform heat of a leeward residence, find repair and health by moving to a
station where they can be fanned by the trades; and
persons constitutionally inclined to pulmonary disease
when living at the sea-side, are benefited by recourse
to the mountains.
79 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
The highest elevation of the mercury observed in
ten years at Lahaina (the port on the leeward side of
Maui, where most of the whale ships recruit) was 86
degrees of Fahrenheit; the lowest, 54 degrees; greatest difference  in any one day, 19 degrees, a diurnal
range which is of very rare occurrence, the difference
between noon and morning, or noon and night, being
seldom more than 10 degrees. The highest range observed is in June, the lowest in January. The greatest heat noted at Honolulu for twelve years was 90
degrees; greatest cold, 53 degrees; yearly mean, 75
degrees. Sudden weather-changes are unknown, nor
are there storms of long continuance; and in every
view the Sandwich Islands may be deemed one of the
most healthful countries in the world.  Families are
reared in great safety, as the remarkable increase of
the mIissionaries shows. Children there do not yet
have to run the gauntlet of those formidable diseases
that invade families in climes less favored with genial
skies and perpetual summer.
The human constitution, it is evident, had attained
to great perfection at the Sandwich Islands, and, their
barbarism and sensuality to the contrary notwithstanding, there was high physical health and beauty
before it was poisoned and marred by the mixture of
abandoned foreigners, and the fresh provocatives to
profligacy thereby given.  The reverse is now paintllly true, for disease is rife, and there is evidence of
fatal, we fear irremediable, detriment having been done
to the native constitution. Still, the physical aspect
of Hawaiians, as a race, is pleasing. Their complexion is a clear olive brown, like that of the Spanish
80 
HAWAIIAN PHYSIOGNOMY-PHRENOLOGY. 81
gipsy, or as near in color to the kernel of an English
walnut as any thing we are familiar with. They call
themselves KA-ULU, the red skin, in contrast with the
KEOKEO race, or white skin.
Their features would make them to be classed by
physiologists with the Malay division of the human
family, from which, doubtless, they have sprung.
They have generally thick lips and large nostrils, but
the nose is not flat, nor the hair woolly, but uniformly strait and black.  They have rather high cheek
bones, like the North American Indian, and the erect
European forehead, certainly not depressed or retreating, as one of the Sandwich Island histories errone.
ously characterizes it.
The national Hawaiian head is of a good size, and
phrenologically well shaped, though it has a rather
unduly large base,* and is flattened and straight at
the back. This unnatural flatness of the occiput is
thought to be owing to the way the mother holds her
babe, which is by the left hand, supporting the back
of its head. Frequently, too, they lay its little head
in a hard gourd-shell on purpose to flatten it; and the
way of all Hawaiians, when sleeping, is to lie upon the
back, which tends to keep the skull of the form given it in childhood. It is deemed becoming to a man
to have his hair very short behind; and manly beauty,
in their view, depends more upon the plane figure
* Of three Polynesian skulls compared in the tables of Dr. Morton,
thrlargest capacity of brain was eighty-four cubic inches. Whether
either of the skulls was Hawaiian, does not appear- probably not.
We think the average capacity of the Hawaiian head would be found
larger, and to come much nearer to the mean of the modern Tentonic family, which is, by the same tab,, ninety-two cubic inches.
D2 
82             TiHE  ISI, AND  WORLD.
and breadth of the occiput than upon the height and
fullness of the forehead. We have often heard them
wonder at what they deem the fondness of foreigners
for round heads.
In person the Hawaiians are well formed, large
limbed, and somewhat taller than the average of
Americans. The race of the high chiefs especially
was large, athletic, and finely proportioned. We have
seen among the few that survive specimens of muscular power and manly beauty that might be the archetypes of Jupiter Tonans or Apollo Belvidere. The
chief women are enormously big and unwieldly; but
the impression of their greatness, as of the size of unclad savages generally, and of all people that dress
loosely, like the Moors and Turks, is apt to be exaggerated and deceptive in the view of those that are not
used to the sight of the human form in flowing robes
or the state of nature. This consideration alone may
account, in great part, for the tales of early voyagers
as to the giant size of Patagonians and certain tribes
of South Sea islanders; and it has had much to do
in originating the idea so generally prevalent of the peculiar handsomeness of Persians, Greeks, and Turks.
Let them be seen in the close coat, or strait jacket,
or fashionable corset-boards of the occidental dress, and
the illusion will straightly vanish.
Ethnologically considered, the Hawaiian race must
rank high, both in its physique and morale. The forehead, as we have intimated, rises after the European
model, and the common facial angle is nearer to the
Caucasian than the Malayan type. I have had in
possession a skull with all the teeth, which I picked 
NATIVE  PARTS. 
up from among many others near an old battle-ground
at Wailuku, on the Island of Maui; and it is judged
superior, both for size and conformation, to the average of Anglo-Saxon hleads. The native mind is docile,
quick to learn, and more than ordinarily retentive.
To arithmetic, and the arts of writing and drawing,
the youth have a special aptitude. Our American
school-book, called Colburn's First Lessons, may be
said to be a national study. Their own language they
acquire with more facility from books than boys withi
us do the English, and the volubility of almost all natives is immense. It is now a statute of the land that
no young persons are to be married unless they can
read; the want of this accomplishment is, therefore,
very rare. Their language affords a fair field for ethnological inquiry, in the new department which the
Germans have opened under the appellation of " Sprachenkunde," or "Glottology."
Now that it is reduced to writing, the language
bids fair to last longer than the race.  The stock of
high chiefs has already nearly run out; their rapid(
decay being the more noticeable than that of ordinary
natives, because they formed a large body by themselves, more distinct from the vulgar by peculiar and
time-honored privilege and custom, than the nobility
of any other land of which we have clear historic
record.
Captain Cook estimated the entire population of the
islands, at the time of their discovery, as four hundred
thousand. But this was probably exaggerated, since
the wonder-stricken natives flocked from every quarter whithersoever he landed, in order to see the haole 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
moku, the foreign island, as they called the ship, and
to lay eyes upon their returned God Lono, as they
]iniformly designated Captain Cook.  In this way the
samne persons were often likely to be reckoned twice
in his rough computation of numbers. But from other
sources we have reason to believe that the population
wvas at least three times what it is at present, a little
rising of one hundred thousand. Wide-wasting disease, as in the case of every Pacific island yet visited
by unrestrained foreigners, followed upon the first contact of the European with the native race: so far as
can be gathered from the dim recollections of surviving old men, it was much like the "wonderful plague"
that so providentially depopulated New England of its
savage warriors, just before the settlement of the Pilgrims.
It is a singular fact, which the sagacious Mr. Williams, the martyr-missionary of Eromanga, takes notice of, that ravaging pestilence, in some form or other, has always ensued upon the first intercourse of foreigners with the different islanders of the South Sea.
That the depopulation of the Sandwich Islands, in particular, has been considerable, is manifest, aside from
the testimony of aged natives, by the traces to be oftten seen of extensive cultivation where now there are
few or no inhabitants. This is especially true in the
north part of the great Island of Hawaii, in the district occupied as a missionary by Rev. Elias Bond.
There is a vast heiau or idol temple there, which we
surveyed and measured; and in all the region about
there are lines of low stone fences and inclosures for
og,s, and the dividing marks of potato and kalo patch.
es, where now there is scarcely an inhabitant.
84 
DEATH  OF  CAPTAIN  COOK.              85
It is a common saying on Hawaii, that Captain
Cook's mark was deep and deadly. In the providence
of God, he met his death by his own rashness and selfconfidence, at the very hands of the incensed barbarians whom he had wrongly allowed to worship him,
and who were restrained from injuring him when they
felt themselves wronged, by the belief that he was a
god, until a chief, whom he struck with his sword, instinctively grasped and held him in his powerful arms,
at which Captain Cook uttered a cry of distress. The
dread charm of his divinity was at once broken by
that cry, and the chiefs and people fell upon him in
anger and instantly slew him, exclaiming, He groans
-he is not a god. The Hawaiian authors of a little
text-book of history called MIoolelo Hawaii, collated
by Rev. Mr. Dibble, quote, in their simnplicity, and
apply to this event, that passage of God's word wherein it is said of Herod, when he received acclamation
as a god, that he gave not God the glory, and was
eaten of worms. Their inference is that God's hand
was in his death; in thinking of which, at this late
day, our most painful reflection is that the great navigator did not direct the rude natives to the God who
made heaven and earth, instead of receiving divine
homage himself. But we are willing to believe that
he was not aware to what extent they honored and
served him as a god.
The influence of Vancouver's visit, fourteen years
after this melancholy event, was more benign. He
endeavored to turn the thoughts of Kamehameha the
Great to the true God, left him a pair of cattle under
a promise that none should be killed for fifteen years, 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
and several useful seeds. The intercourse of his men,
however, and that of the whale-ships which now began to anchor in their waters, was sadly disastrous to
the native constitution and morals, poisoning the fountains of health, and inducing premature decay and barrenness. Details, too, might be given which have come
to my knowledge, of treacherous cruelty and wickedness, and that on the part of some of our own countrymen, so shocking to humanity and decency that
they can hardly be named.
The vicious teachings of wickled sailors that now
and then stopped among them, and of escaped Botany
Bay convicts that strayed there, and of almost all transient foreign visitors that were glad to be able to revel
uncurbed in the sensual sty of heathenism, were all
the while digging the grave of the nation, and burying in it their victims, hideous and loathsome with
disease. The first missionaries have things to tell a
visitor of early heathenism, and of the habits of foreigners in those days, "to make both the ears of those
who hear thereof to tingle." In the providence of God,
however, the looseness, the utter abandonment, and
practical infidelity of those who stopped among them
had one good effect. It was to undermine the power
of the idol-priesthood, and to loosen the oppression of
the tabus. They, the foreigners, were seen to eat forbidden food on tabu-days, to pay no sacrifices to the
gods, and habitually to break the tabus with impunity.  The natives naturally reasoned upon this-it
can not be so fatal as the priests tell us to violate the
tabus: the foreigners do not die when they break
them; why should we?
,86 
OPPRES SION OF THE TABUS.
Those tabus were many of them horribly oppressive and harassing, and it is matter of astonishment, as
well as of careful philosophic inquiry, how their despotism could have possibly obtained such a desperate
death-hold, like a permanent nightmare, upon the imagination of the people. But the history of the world
elsewhere than in those imbosomed isles of the Pacific, shows that nothing is impossible in the way of plebeian enslavement and degradation when king, priest,
and nobility combine. The tabus at the Sandwich
Islands would have been but a bugbear, had not the
powerful idol-priesthood and the chiefs that played into
their hands united to enforce them. They made it
death to be found in a canoe on a tabu day (La Tabu). If any one made a noise on a tabu day, or while
prayers were saying, he must die; if he were found
with his wife on a tabu day, it was death; if a woman on the tabu day ate pork, cocoa-nuts, bananas even,
and certain kinds of fish, she must die.
It is the statement of David Malo, one of the most
sensible and pious Hawaiians living, counselor to the
king, as was his father before him, and now a minister of the Gospel-it is his written declaration in the
Hawaiian Speetator, that " when two persons entered
the marriage state, the man must build an eating-house
for himself, another for his wife to eat in, another for
his god, another for sleeping, and another for his wife
to beat kapa in, that is, to manufacture the native oloth
from bark, which was formerly almost the sole employment of the women. In addition to this burden of building many houses, there was also another in providing
food. He first heated the oven and baked for his wife;
87 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
then he heated another and baked for himself; then he
opened the oven containing his wife's kalo, and pounded it; then he performed the same operation on his
own. The husband ate in his house, and the wife in
hers. They did not eat together, lest they should be
slain for violating the tabu."
In accordance with the genius of the Hawaiian system of idolatry, birds, beasts, and trees were the adopted gods of different individuals. If one, then, made
his idol of the native apple-tree (ohia), it was ever after tabu to him, so that he could not eat of it but on
pain of death. If his god were kalo, the chief staple
for food, then he could not eat kalo. If a hen, then
such fowls were interdicted food.  If a hog, then the
hog was sacred. Stones, even, were objects of worship, and became tabu, so that one might not sit on
them. Fish, in like manner, were idolized, and could
not then be eaten; and so of specific things too numerous to be mentioned. Mr. Dibble justly remarks, that
in this instance, at least, a state of heathenism was a
state of bondage, not only moral and mental, but that
also which toucheth the skin and bones of men, which
wears out their sinews and cuts short their lives: a
state of deep degradation and ruin, from which, even
to the present day, they are but slowly recovering.
Now an incidental good effect of the very profligacy, so depraving, of abandoned foreigners at the Hawaiian Islands, undoubtedly was to induce the nation
to abandon the system of idolatry and tabus; and it
is at the present time a notable and world-known fact,
as it was then so strangely providential, that while
the first American missionaries were upon the high
88, 
HEROISM OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES. 89
seas on their way to the islands in 1819, to try what
scoffers called a novel experiment of knight-errant humanity, the idol gods were disowned, their temples
burned, the great wall of tabus broken down, and the
way prepared, so far as that went, for the reception
of the true God.
A merchant of Boston, at that time an opposer of
what is called the orthodox view of religion, upon hearing that the missionaries were about to embark, offered to send out gratuitously for them the frame of
a dwelling, being the house in which the family of one
of those very missionaries now reside at Kailua, whose
cordial hospitality we have shared. When the merchant was asked his motives for this, he replied that
it shocked him to think of civilized men leading so
miserable a life as that of the missionaries must be if
no such provision were made for them. And he added that he had given orders to all his captains to offer
the missionaries a gratuitous passage back to this
country when they were ready to return, as they
would all be glad to do before six months.
In this he was, happily, disappointed; for although
the first missionaries, when they landed at Kailua in
1820, were without furniture, other than they made
out of their own boxes, without flour or food, except
what they could procure from the natives, and without
a tithe of the comforts missionaries now have, yet, being received with friendliness, they heroically held on
by faith and prayer. It seemed to be thought then
in America-such was the novelty of the missionary
enterprise, the poverty of its resources, and the ignorance of what was needed by a missionary family-that 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
they were to live much like the natives, and, consequently, the stores provided for them were exceedingly
scanty and inadequate. Tender women, in those primitive days of the mission, and delicate young mothers,
had to endure trials and hardships that would have
either overborne or quite vitiated persons less sanguine
and hopeful in God than they. It was that they were
chosen of God, like their ancestral Pilgrims of New
England, to be " a restorer of paths to dwell in, to
raise up the foundations of many generations." And
doubtless, that which excited and supported them was
the same holy fire that burned in the breasts of their
Puritan forefathers, whose experience, it is well said,
was a prophecy of the missionary spirit that should
come-" an inward zeal and great hope," in the language of Governor Bradford, "of laying some good
foundation, or, at least, to make some way thereunto
for the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the
kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world;
yea, though they should be as stepping-stones unto
others for the performing of so great a work."
We have heard one of the missionary ladies detail
with deep interest their early trials in a native floorless grass house, when ignorant of the language, and
subject to the constant visits of curious, unclad natives. Their cooking utensils were a kettle and something else given them by their captain, wherein she
must prepare food by a fire out of doors, surrounde,l
by brawny savages, who evinced the same undisciplined eagerness as Robinson Crusoe's man Friday did
when he thrust his arm into the boiling pot to catch
the animal that was making the bubbling below. Yet
90 
RECEPTION OF MISSIONARIES.
were they happy then, and missionary families at the
Sandwich Islands now, in the absence of some things
elsewhere deemed necessary to contentment, but not
wanting any of the solid comforts of life, are some of
the happiest in the world. And were we called upon to
point out where, in our estimate, there was a fuller
measure than elsewhere of family felicity, peace of
conscience, religious enjoyment, and true content in
doing good, we should not hesitate to assign it to the
honored missionary circles unostentatiously fulfilling
their round of duties in those remote isles of the Pacific.
They were received at first by sufferance on good
behavior, the chiefs replying to the insinuation of certain malicious foreigners that the missionaries had
come to dispossess them of their lands and make war
upon them, "If they had come to make war, would
they have brought with them their delicate wives?'"
They were allowed to settle at Kailua and Lahaina,
among a people who had just snapped the yoke of the
tabus and the blood-stained system of idolatry. The
king, Liholiho, and his chiefs, together with the common people, were just getting up from the universal
debauch in which they indulged at the death of Kameharmeha, the accession of his son, and the demolition of idol temples. It was a favorable time for the
Gospel to enter, like that in the life of a profligate,
when the edge of appetite for riotous indulgence has
been somewhat blunted by satiety and exhaustion, and
he feels the utter unsatisfyingness of sensual pleasure, which the poet Burns, alas! too well experienced,
so aptly compared
91 
'THE ISLAND WORLD.
To snow-flakes falling on a river,
One moment white, then gone forever.
But the surfeit they had taken did not operate like
surfeits of some articles of food, as honey, to give a
distaste for the repetition of those intoxicating draughts
and licentious saturnalia. Depraved nature, stronger
in the human animal than in all others, soon recovered; vicious propensities said give, give, louder than
ever; and their deliverance from the restraint of tabus,
the example of a profligate king, and intercourse with
abandoned foreigners, all conspired to make the Hawaiian nation more besotted, beastly, and miserable
in the early years of the reign of Kamehameha II.
than probably it had ever been before. " Those were
dark days, indeed (say the Hawaiian authors of the
Moolelo Hawaii), and calling for commiseration, when
even the death of rulers most venerated and beloved,
instead of producing any salutary impression, was regarded as an urgent call to the indulgence of gross
sensuality and debasement. The conduct of chiefs
and people was like mad men and beasts, such as to
forbid description. When they put an end to the ancient tabus and foolish rites, they did so with a view
merely to their own interest, that they might be relieved of a burden, and that the path of pleasure and
sensual indulgence might be less obstructed."
Intemperance and lust in those days may be said to
have run riot. Almost every ship that anchored in
their waters was made a floating brothel; and it was
a fashion set by the highest chief women to hire themselves out for iniquity; and every where they practiced all uncleanness with greediness. We have heard
92 
PREVALENCE OF INFANTICIDE.
it related by a resident missionary how at Kailua, on
moonlight nights, they used to form rings in the open
air, and shamelessly prosecute their abominable orgies with shouts and dancing. Modesty was a feeling quite unknown, or, if it ever had existed, the sex
at that time seemed utterly devoid of it. Soon after
the settlement together of the families of Messrs.
Thurston and Bishop, at Kailua, two of the highest
chief women in the nation, in order to show their
friendship, called one day at the missionary house by
the sea-side, after bathing, utterly unclad.
Where there was no female modesty, and licentiousness was quite unbridled, it is no wonder there
was infanticide. Strange as it seems to parents within the pale of Christian civilization, this dreadful crime
was notoriously common. Perhaps it had a parallel
in no other country. Mothers destroyed their own
offspring, both before and after they were born; they
regarded the care of children as a burden that contracted their pleasures and impaired their personal
beauty. In some cases an additional motive to infanticide was found in the illegitimacy of those children,
and the consequent jealousy of their husbands. Hence,
with a strange hardness of heart, as if destitute of all
natural affection, their babes were often born only to
die at the hands of the mother. There is a woman
now living at Kailua (or was when we left the islands), a reputable member of the Church, who, when
a child, was rescued by another after being buried alive
by her own mother.
Their slight care of infants, also, almost amounted
9 infanticide, when that crime was not intended. We
93 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
met with an elderly woman in Kohala who was said
to have borne twenty-five children, not one of whom
was living. " It is not uncommon," says Dr. Andrews, " to find females who have lost families of ten
or twelve children in infancy. I know one woman
who says she has borne twenty-one children, but one
of whom is living, the others having all perished in infancy. The younger class of women could always tell
me how many children they had borne; but from the
aged, those who had become mothers in the days of
darkness, I could seldom obtain any correct account.
If they had any living, they could tell their number.
If they had none, they could tell that. But ask them
how many had died, and the reply was, Ua nalowali,
ua uni loa-a great many, I have forgotten; so feeble
was the impression made by the death of a child in
those dark days."
There were other evil customs prevalent in those
bad times, saying nothing of their wars, which rendered life uncertain and dreadful. There were various games of chance, at which they gambled deeply,
and wherein they frequently lost their lives. There
were others which had impure associations, and were
practiced only in the night; and, not to enter into
painful detail of particulars, which might easily be
done, to show the horrid state of Hawaiian society,
there were unnatural crimes, as well as polygamy,
polyandry, robbery, murder, burying the aged alive,
killing offenders without trial, and various other savage usages that rendered the state of society, manger
all the sickly stuff ever told of island innocence and
bliss imbosomed in the Pacific, more like a commu
94 
SCHOOLS OF CRIME.           95
nity of devils let loose on a vacation from hell, and
eager for all the pleasure of sense they could get before being cast out again into the deep, than a society
of immortal men. "That time was very different from
the present.  Now the aged men and women walk
safely, and sleep in the path. Reader, you know the
customs of this country in days past. The land was
full of darkness, folly, iniquity, oppression, pain, and
death. A pit of destruction, dark, polluted, deadly,
and ever-burning, was the dwelling of the Hawaiians
in ancient times."*
There is a Welshman living at Hilo, Hawaii, who
stopped at the islands in the days of Kamrneharneha the
Great, and has been there ever since. He told me that
nothing was more common in those days than for a
whole village to get drunk all together and go to fighting; and for any spite they would set fire to each other's houses, burn their canoes, and pull up their growing food, and steal from each other as they could.
Killing men (pepehi kanaka) was an art into which
they were schooled; and there were those among them
who taught how to strangle, and break men's bones,
and how to dispatch a man at one blow of the fist
without bruising him.t
' Translated from Moolelo Hawaii.
t " In former times, among this people, no man knew when he was
safe. At any and every moment he was liable to be murdered, and
that, too, by his supposed friends. Often, in standing together in familiar conversation, the first warning a man would have of any evil
would be to see his own bowels falling to the earth. As they wore
no clothing, or only the kihei, the operation was instantly performed
by an instrument made of a hog's tusk, which the murderer conceal
ed under his kapa."-Rev. L. Andrews, Hawaiian Spectator, vol. ii..
p. 125.
95
SCHOOLS OF CRIME. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
This Welshman was himself once passing through
a ravine, where he met a company of men who spoke
to him peaceably; but he had no sooner passed them
by a few feet, when a rolled kapa fell over his breast
and enveloped his head; two of the men at once pulled him down and were about to kill him, when a friendly chief appeared in sight, on the opposite pali or ridge
of the ravine, and forbade his death.
Those robbers by trade were usually men of great
physical prowess, and their way was to lie in wait at
a pass near the trodden path, and have a child stationed on some eminence near by, instructed to call
out carelessly, as if in sport, kaikoo (heavy surf), if
there were several in company, so that it would be unsafe to venture an attack; or kai make (low tide), if
there were but one or two, so that he could venture.
A robber in Puna, the southern country of Hawaii,
had in this way killed the brother of a man living in
Kohala, the northern section of the same island, who
was determined to have revenge. He therefore came
all the way round through Kona and Kau, and when
he had arrived near the spot in Puna where the robber was supposed to lurk, he shaved his head close,
and smeared his arms and whole body with some oil
of old kukui nuts, so as to make his person slippery
as an eel. Then taking a staff, and slinging something upon it after the fashion of the Hawaiians, he
arranged his kapa so that it could be slipped off in a
moment, and went limping along like a sick and lame
man.
As he reached the place of ambush, the robber suddenly appeared and hailed him, "Sick, eh?"  "Ay!"
96 
THE TIGER STRIFE.
was the answer, with a cough, and one hand placed.,
as if in pain, on his stomach. So he passed on until
he had got a little beyond the robber, with an eye over
his shoulder on the look-out; and when the robber
stepped up from behind to grasp him and break his
bones, he suddenly dropped his kapa, turned, and grappled with his foe. The slipperiness of his arms and
whole body made it impossible for this notable villain
so to keep hold of him as to break his bones in the
professional way. They struggled and rolled, neither
successful, until, both alike weary, they paused and
couched upon their haunches opposite each other like
tired tigers.
The robber pointed to his wife on the hill, and said,
"You may have her, and we'll be quit." But not so
thought the brother of the dead, and again began the
mortal strife, till the avenger at length forced the
head of the robber into a fissure of the rock, which
the natives, who tell the story, point out to the traveler and sailors, and there trampled upon him until
he was dead.
At the present time the perpetrators of deeds like
these, and even the memory of them, are fast dying
away; but here and there is a man to tell you tales
of the times of Naaupo (darkness). There is a member of Mr. Coan's church who confesses to have killed
two men with his own hands; and the grandfather
of one of the school-girls at that station of Hilo was
the murderer of nine.
Now we say, without the possibility of contradiction, that the agency which could so soon transform
such a race of savages into the inoffensive, quiet peo.
E
911, 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
ple they are now, must be no less than divine; and
the benevolence of Americans is richly paid back in
the improvement effected in society, and the amelioration of man's temporal condition there, to say nothing of the souls we  believe to have been saved, and
the revenue of glory to God and the Lamb, from thousands of ransomed  Hawaiians.    History,  in  all its
annals, shows nothing like this; compared with all
other progressive improvements, it is A NATION BORN
IN A DAY.
Thus when Religion bids her spirit breathe,
And opens bliss above and woe beneath;
When God reveals his march through Nature's night,
His steps are beauty, and his presence light:
His voice is life-the dead in conscience start;
They feel a new creation in the heart.
And then, Humanity, thy hopes, thy fears,
How changed, how wond'rous! On this tide of years,
Though thle frail barks in which thine offspring sail,
Their day, their hour, their moment with the gale,
Must perish, shipwreck only sets them free.
With joys unmeasured as eternity,
They ply on seas of glass their golden oars,
And pluck immortal fruits along the shores:
Nor shall THEIR cables fail, THEIR anchors rust,
Who wait the resurrection of the just.
Moor'd on the Rock of Ages, though decay
Molder the weak terrestrial frame away,
The trumpet sounds, and lo! wherever spread,
Earth, air, and ocean render back their dead;
And souls with bodies, spiritual and divine,
In the new heavens, like stars, forever shine.
TAWNY HAWAIIANS THEN THE IYAGE WEAR
OF HIM WHO &LL THEIR SINS ON HIS OWN CROSS DID BEAR.
98 
I
CATALOGUE OF PRODUCTS.
CHAPTER V.
NATITRAL PRODUCTIONS AND PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.
In placid indolence supinely bless'd,
A feeble race these beauteous isles possess'd;
Untamed, untaught, in arts and arms unskill'd,
Their patrimonial soil they rudely till'd,
Chased the free rovers of the savage wood,
Ensnared the wild bird, swam the scaly flood:
Or when the halcyon sported on the breeze,
In light canoes they skimm'd the rippling seas.
The passing moment all their bliss or care,
Such as their sires had been the children were:
From age to age, as waves upon the tide
Of stormless time, they calmly lived and died.
MONTGOMERY.
THE nutrimental products indigenous to the Sand.
wich Islands are simple and few in number; but the
list of naturalized exotics is large, and constantly increasing by fresh imports from other lands, inasmuch
as there is scarcely a plant of the torrid or temperate
zones that will not readily make its home on the Hawaiian soil. The kalo, of several species, sweet potato, yam, brake-root, pia or arrow-root, and a plant
which the natives call ki, were the only edible roots
of consequence to be found at the time of their discovery. The two former, kalo and sweet potato, still
constitute the Hawaiian staple for food.   The natives, indeed, do not allow the name of ai, or food, to
99
::...:.:1:: 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
any thing but kalo, of which they are extravagantly
fond.
This root is the Arum esculentum of botanists, or
the plant commonly known as the wild Indian turnip.
As found and cultivated at the Sandwich Islands, it
is highly nutritious, mealy, and wholesome. It is of
'two kinds, the wet and dry kalo; the former grown
always under water, which, when there is a brook, is
let into a series of square beds or plats, sunk two or
four feet below their borders, and let out again at one
corner, when it has risen so as to cover all the plants,
thus keeping a run of water through all the patches.
It is estimated that forty square feet so cultivated wil.
support a man. The root is eleven months gaining
its full size. The natives then pull it, cut off the
tops, and reserve them for planting, and bake the root
in stone ovens made in the ground. They then peel
it with a shell, and pound it with a stone pestle in
large, flat, wooden trays, that may correspond to the
kneading-troughs of the ancient Israelites as an article of household furniture.
If it is to be kept some time or carried away, it is
then done up very neatly in bundles of forty and fifty
pounds, made of the long leaves of a species of the aloe,
and called holoai. If to be immediately used for food,
it is mixed with a little water in a calabash, or large
gourd, from the size of a bushel to that of a peck, and
set away to ferment. By that process it becomes a
slightly acid and pasty food, of a bluish white color,
called poi, which no Hawaiian would exchange for
the best turtle soup or macaroni. You will see a par ty squatting around a calabash and dipping success
100 
NATURALIZED  EXOTICS.                101
ively their forefingers into the pasty mass, and then
with certain dexterous maneuvers, which a Hawaiian
only knows, bring the poi-laden finger to a junction
with the lips, with a smack of hearty satisfaction,
such as no gourmand or toper could equal after a
dram of Rhenish or best Madeira.
Foreigners make use of the root, boiled or baked,
like a potato. The first missionaries had to subsist
upon it almost entirely for some time, and it is now
generally seen upon their tables, with or without the
potato. Tolerable bread can be made of the poi and
arrow-root mixed, which has to be resorted to sometimes at the out-stations of missionaries, when flour,
brought round Cape Horn, is so hard that it has to be
cut out with an ax, or so sour that saleratus can not
cure it. The only indigenous fruits to be named are
bananas of a very superior quality, the bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, a kind of native apple, called ohia, the wild
strawberry, and a species of whortle-berry, called
ohelo, formerly sacred to the goddess of the volcano,
the Cape gooseberry or poha, and the sugar cane.
A list of plants and fruits introduced from abroad,
comprise wheat and barley (cultivated, as yet, but
slightly), rice, raised by parties of Chinese settlers,
Indian corn, and the Irish potato; the lime-tree, orange,
lemon, fig, pomegranate, papaya, custard-apple, mango-tree, tamarind, guava, mulberry; anetto, pride of
China; then the peach-tree, coffee-tree, cotton, tobacco, and indigo plants, delicious melons of every kind,
the grape-vine, and a great variety of flowers and
shrubs, all of which, except the peach-tree, attain to
great perfection. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Forest-trees are the ko-a and ko-u; the first being
the proper Hawaiian mahogany-tree, out of which the
natives used to excavate their canoes, and which is
now worked up into very beautiful furniture. Next
are the ohia, a very hard and superior wood for fuel
and timber; the fragrant sandal-wood, now almost
extinct; the kukui or candle-nut-tree, from which
there is made a very good paint-oil; the hau-tree;
different species of acacia and mimosa, the kamoana,
laauhala, wliwili, and other sui generis trees that
have no English common name.
The ko-u is very ample and superb as a shade-tree,
found chiefly by the sea-side.   The ko-a belongs to
the mountains, where it attains to great size and longevity; when young, it is a tree of rare beauty, with
laurel-green, moon-shaped leaves, and sweet mimosalike blossoms. I have seen war canoes made of this
tree in the canoe-house of Kuakini, alias John Adams,
late governor of Hawaii, that were seventy feet long,
and more than three feet deep, and would carry seventy men. They came down from Kamehameha the
Great, and were those in which he passed with his
warriors from island to island, when this Napoleon of
the Pacific made the conquest of the entire Hawaiian
Group, and meditated an expedition to the Society
Islands also, twenty-seven hundred miles off.
Groves of the cocoa-nut palm-tree, one of the characteristic symbols of the tropics, are every where to
be found growing in the sands by the sea-side, and in
clefts of the grizzly lava, where nothing else will
thrive. When young, no vegetable product in the
whole range of nature can exceed the beauty of such
102 
COCOA-NUT PALM.
a grove; each stem supporting an endogenous growth
of fan-like glossy branches, that grow out of the central bud, as if in a Louisiana forest the top of every
cypress-tree should be plumed with verdure.
Destroy this plume or tuft of verdure, and you destroy the tree, because it is of the class of plants called
endogenous, whose stems increase by internal growth,
without distinction of pith, wood, or bark. Removing
its crown, therefore, is like laying bare the entire brain
of an animal, and death at once ensues, the trunk
speedily rotting downward. It is not easy to calculate how benign a gift of Providence this single tree
has been to the Pacific islanders. All that has been
said of it at Tahiti and the Marquesas was true of
it also on Hawaii, until now that many-fingered civilization, with its million substitutes, bids fair to supersede it.
" Year after year the islander reposes beneath its
shade, both eating and drinking of its fruit; he thatches
his hut with its boughs, and weaves them into baskets to carry his food; he cools himself with a fan
platted from the young leaflets, and shields his head
from the sun by a bonnet of the leaves; sometimes
he clothes himself with the cloth-like substance which
wraps round the base of the stalks, whose elastic rods,
strung with filberts, are used as a taper: the larger
nuts, thinned and polished, furnish him with a beautiful goblet; the smaller ones with bowls for his pipes;
the dry husks kindle his fires; their fibers are twisted
into fishing-lines and cords for his canoes; he heals his
wounds with a balsam compounded from the juice of
the nut; and with the oil extracted from its meat
103 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
anoints his own limbs and embalms the bodies of tht
dead. The noble trunk itself is far from being valueless. Sawn into posts, it upholds the islander's dwelling; converted into charcoal, it cooks his food; and,
supported on blocks of stone, rails in his lands. He
impels his canoes through the water with a paddle of
the wood, and goes to battle with clubs and spears of
the same hard material."
The fruit-bearing powers of the cocoa palm are not
surpassed by any tree of the kind in the kingdom of
nature.  An Englishman at Kealia, Hawaii, by the
name of Thornton, who had lived there sixteen years,
told me he had taken four hundred nuts, full grown,
from one tree in a single year. Two hundred of them,
besides innumerable white blossoms of others, have
been counted upon the same tree at one time, and no
two of tlihei at precisely the same stage of growth.
The location where it best flourishes is right upon
the sea-shore, as at Lahaina, Maui, and Hilo, Hawaii, where its roots, if not actually washed, are watered by the sea. It never grows large or vigorously
inland, where other trees will thrive; but, like the prison-benevolence of Howard, it is congenial with, and it
loves to beautify and enrich those arid spots which noth
ing else blesses.
The method of planting it is thus described by an
observer: Selecting a suitable place, you drop into the
ground a fully-ripe nut, and leave it. In a few days
a thin, lance-like shoot forces itself through a minute
hiole in the shell, pierces the husk, and soon unfolds
three pale-green leaves in the air; while, originating
in the same soft, white sponge which now completely
104 
ANIMALS  AND INSECTS.                 105
fills the nut, a pair of fibrous roots, pushing away the
stoppers that close two holes in an opposite direction,
penetrate the shell, and strike vertically into the ground.
A day or two more, and the shell and husk, which, in
the last and germinating stage of the nut, are so hard
that a knife will scarcely make any impression, spontaneously bursts by some force within; and henceforth the hardy young plant thrives apace, and, needing no culture, pruning, or attention of any sort, rapidly advances to maturity. In four or five years it
bears; in twice as many more it begins to lift its head
among the groves, where, waxing strong, it flourishes
for near a century.
Of the animal kingdom, the kinds found at the
Sandwich Islands at the time of their discovery were
few, the only ones then known having been the dog,
hog, domestic fowl, mouse, and lizzard, and the usual
variety of sea-birds. The dog was, and still is, the favorite animal food of the natives, although its use is
discountenanced by the missionaries. Now they have
the cat, sheep, goat, cattle, horses, asses, mules, and
all the varieties of poultry. Not a noxious beast, reptile, or insect existed on the islands when first made
known to Europeans. Now they have musquitoes,
fleas, centipedes, and scorpions.
The snake, toad, bee, and all stinging insects of the
latter sort are still unknown. One would think the
flea certainly indigenous, where now it is found so
much at home both with man and beast; but the natives have an amusing story of the first time they got
ashore from a ship, through the trick of a sailor, which
is better to be imagined than told.
E2 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Whether that be true or not, the name by which
they call the flea is pretty convincing evidence that it
has not been known as long as some other things. It
is called uku lele, or the jumping louse, the uku being
an old settler from time immemorial, and nothing else
they knew so much like the imported flea. So they
named the stranger the jumping uku: it is one of the
first aboriginals a traveler becomes acquainted with
in going about among Hawaiians and sleeping in native houses, and it is the last he is so glad to bid goodby to when he comes away, though it is ten chances
to one if they do not insist upon keeping him company
and making themselves familiar half the voyage home.
The mineral products of the islands are of course
few, where igneous volcanic fusion has melted all elements into almost a homogeneous mass. There are
crystals of olivine, obsidian, and augite often to be
met with in the lava, and quartz has been found in the
path of mountain torrents.
Salt is obtained in large quantities from a salt lake
in the vicinity of Honolulu, and by evaporation from
sea water. Chalk is also found on Oahu, and there
are hills of sandstone, evidently made by sand blown
from the sea-shore, and cemented by lime. It does
not, however, answer well for building, not being compact or hard enough. A very good building material
consists in blocks cut from the coral reef, which is found
on the leeward side of most of the islands. The palace of the king, and other government buildings, as well
as many of the stores and dwellings of foreigners on
Oahu, are formed of this substance.
The great Bingham native church at Honolulu is
106 
DIFFERENT FORMS OF CORAL.
also made of it, a noble monument to the energy of
the missionary, and the industry, perseverance, and
piety of the people and chiefs. It is the first object
that comes in sight, aside from the battlemented and
fire-worn, frowning old craters that tower above it, as
you approach Honolulu; a massive temple to worship
God in, being chiefly the free-will product of a people
that were only thirty years ago a most miserable and
idolatrous race of savages, utterly ignorant of the true
God.
The most beautiful product of the islands, or, rather, of the sea that laves them, is coral; not the coral
of the reef, but that which the little coral insect makes
upon the reef into so many curious and beautiful forms.
As found at the Sandwich Islands, that which is called brain coral is in clumps or bunches, from a few
inches to a foot or more in diameter at the top, the
stalk being sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. The
little coral polype begins his tree on solid lava, or on
what is called a coral reef, or on a separate stone cemented by lime to the bottom. In the latter case the
whole may be disengaged together, like a tree taken
up with its roots and a portion of the soil and stones
adhering. On this foundation he builds up sometimes
a single trunk, sometimes more; this spreads and grows
large at the top, so as to bear some resemblance in its
divisions and sinuses to the lobes of the human brain;
and the trunk or stalk bears just about the same pro portion to the top as the human neck does to the head.
Horned coral, on the contrary, springs up in forms
very closely resembling the sprigs of evergreen which
New England boys get in the woods in spring-time,
107 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
and sometimes dig out from under the snow. Other
still comes out from its foundation like a deer's antlers,
tr in separate shoots that intertwine, and grow small(,r at the top liklie the curious roots of the pandanus;
or, to compare great things with small, so as to remind one of the celebrated tree of the East, that lets
fall its off-shoots to the ground,
Whose bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade
High overarch'd, and echoing walks between.
Hawaiians will dive for coral to burn into limne,
where the water is twenty or twenty-five feet deep,
and so clear that you can see them below dislodging
the coral, or indistinctly creeping along upon all fours
like a great marine quadruped. Their surprising skill
in the water amounts almost to a new faculty of living in another element, and exploring the unknown
bed of ocean, where, dimly seen by rays of refracted
light, there is nothing, real or imagined,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Hlawaiians are said to have been known to bring
up small articles lost overboard from a ship in ninety
feet of water, and a woman who was capsized in a canoe three miles from the shore is related to have swam
the whole distance safe to land with a shark behind
her in full pursuit.
With some natural allowance for the painting of
imagination, which I found to have given a tallness
and grove-like density to coraline vegetation hardly
real, the poet Percival's description is as true as it is
beautiful.
108 
S
THE SEA AND THE SHORE.
There, far below in the peaceful sea,
The purple mullet and gold-fish rove;
There the waters murmur tranquilly,
Through the bending twigs of the coral grove;
There, with its waving blade of green,
The sea-flag streams through the silent water,
And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen
To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter.
There, with a light and easy motion,
The fan coral sweeps through the clear deep sea;
And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean
Are bending like corn on the upland lea.
And life, in rare and beautiful forms,
Is sporting amid those bowers of stone,
And is safe when the wrathful spirit of storms
Has made the top of the wave his own.
The general physical aspect and volcanic phenomena of the Hawaiian isles are such, that if a seaman's
fancy has painted those gems of the Pacific in hues
borrowed from the West Indies of the Atlantic, or
from vague descriptions he may have seen, making
them the loveliest ocean paradise, he is sure to be at
first greatly disappointed. Blackened and bare lava
rocks, steep volcanic ridges, gorges, and canyons, and
irregular, truncated cones, the work of old out-breaking fires; these with abrupt, jagged precipices, grizzly
or grass-grown, facing the sea and running inland; and
directly on the shore, perhaps, a few lank cocoa-nuttrees, with their crowns of scanty, fan-like branches,
are the characteristic features that first arrest and by
no means-satisfy the longing mariner.
The utter absence of trees to the sailor's eager eyeglance, and the apparent destitution of that vegetative
luxuriance which he has learned from childhood to asociate with the perpetual summer of the tropics-, make
109 
110           THE ISLAND  wa RLD.
the first approach to these islands on the leeward any
thing but inviting. The rightly-named Cape Desolation, on the coast of Patagonia, which the eye may last
have seen and dreaded as a lee shore, does not look any
more desolate and barren than the island of Lanai,
off which ships are commonly becalmed in approachirig the Sandwich Islands. You may possibly discover something that may be taken for human habitations, from their resemblance to gray-grown hay-stacks
that have weathered a New England winter. But
how the inmates can get their meat and drink off those
fire-caused and sun-burned arid rocks and steeps, is
more than you can tell.
The fertile vales and dewy meads, now and then
hidden between the black volcanic ridges, you do not
see, where a purling brook from the mountains is made
to meander through long successive ranges of kalo
patches, until quite spent upon the verdure it has created. This aspect of country belongs especially to the
leeward side of the islands, where it seldom rains. On
that part of the great Island of Hawaii there is not a
brook that runs into the sea for more than a hundred
miles of coast. At Kealakekua ships can hardly get
a cask of genuine fresh water for fear, love, or money.
The great navigator who met so untimely a death
there procured a small supply by natives bringing it
in calabashes from the mountains, four miles inland.
The missionaries at the station have to be supplied,
for the most part, in the same way. The natives
themselves drink of brackish springs by the sea-side,
the water of which is almost as nauseous and purgative, with a stranger, as a dose of salts. 
VIEWS AFOOT AND BY CANOE.
When we proceed from Kealakekua to the southern and middle section of this island, where the active
volcano lies, traces of recent eruption become more
frequent; and, whether coasting along in a canoe or
traveling on foot ashore, you pass great rugged cones
and oven-like blisters, deep-mouthed caves and fissures, enormous gaps and ravines, overhanging arches
and natural bridges, great tunnels and blow-holes, up
which the water of the sea rushes with every return
wave, through emboweled galleries, and spouts up
its froth and gravel into the air a quarter of a mile inland, with a ringing sound like the blowing of a huge
fin-back whale.
On the opposite or windward side of the islands,
where there is frequent rain, you may see cataracts
leaping a precipice of a thousand feet, directly into
the sea, and waterfalls hanging like ribbons fluttering in the air.  In making a circuit of the islands,
you are compelled to go a large part of the way by
canoe, the precipices being so steep, where ejected
and running lava has stiffened almost in a perpendicular before its thick, molten mass found a level,
that you can not scale them without the most painful
labor.
The pedestrian and canoe traveler on Hawaii, in
his way to the most stupendous and awful volcano in
the known world, has the best opportunity for observing the unique and remarkable features of Hawaiian
scenery, as well as the character and habits of the
Hawaiian people; and if a missionary or a missionary's
friend, and known to be such, he soon learns that he
can trust himself and his goods into their hands with
ill 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
more confidence of impunity than into the hands of
any other people the world over. He is surprised at
the practical, every-day influence of the religious
truths they have imbibed, and finds himself forced to
the conclusion that there is not in all the world at
the present time, nor in its whole past history, such
another instance of a purely moral ascendency gained
over a people by religious teachers as at the Sandwich Islands.
This is seen and proved in a thousand nameless
ways, that can only be known to the observant and
candid traveler. Hie will hear the voice of prayer in
the lowly cabins where he is a wayfarer, morning and
evening; and when there is a cluster of houses together, he will hear a conch-shell blown at the matin
hour to summon the dwellers to the rude school-house
for social worship and thanksgiving to the Giver of
all Good.
On board the native schooner or canoe in which
he may be traveling, he will hear the Hawaiian captain call to devotions every morn and even, E PULE
KAKOU, and either himself lead in an appropriate extempore prayer, or call upon another. When sitting
around their calabash of poi, he will hear them invoke the blessing of Jehovah-E KO MAKOU MAKUA MA
KA LANI. On the Sabbath he will find a scrupulous
external regard to the sacredness of the day, wherever
he may be, far above what he has been used to in
lands long Christianized; and often, perhaps, he will
find his own practical irreligion, and that of his more
civilized countrymen, signally rebuked by conscientious Hawaiians; as in the instance of the native
112 
HONOR TO THE SABBATH.
governor of Oahu, Kekuanaoa, who, when waited upon
once on the Sabbath morning by the lieutenant of a
United States ship-of-war just arrived, in order to make
arrangements for a salute to the fort, promptly answered that he was just going to the House of God
(A KA  ALE PULE), and would attend to that business
on Monday.
Now we say this -was both pious, manly, and honorable.  May the race of Nehemiah-like governors of
Oahu never run out!  And if this official reverence
for the Sabbath, which closes our present catalogue
of Hawaiian productions, be the peculiar growth of
those favored isles, who does not say, Let it be planted and propagated as soon as possible in all lands,
whether trans-Pacific or trans-Atlantic?  God grant
that the future sons of Hawaii, whether born of missionaries or scions of the natural stock, may be able
to sing of their native isle, as a patriotic Briton did
of his:
I love thee-when thy SABBATH DAWNS
O'er woods and mountains, dales and lawns,
And streams, that sparkle while they run,
As if their fountain were the sun:
When, hand in hand, thy tribes repair,
Each to their chosen house of prayer,
And all in peace and pardon call
On Him who is the Lord of all.
Can words, can numbers count the price
Paid for this little Paradise?
Never, oh! never be it lost;
The land is WORTH the price it cost.
113 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
CHAPTER VI.
HAWAIIAN RI(GHTS AND WRONGS, POLITICS AND RELIGION
Who swerves from innocence, who makes divorce
Of that serene companion, a good name,
Recovers not his loss; but walks with slmme,
With doubt, with fear, and haply with remorse.
. 1                *         O         F
As star that shines dependent upon star
Is to the sky while we look up in love;
As to the deep fair ships which, though they move,
Seem fix'd to eyes that watch them from afar;
As to the sandy desert fountains are,
With palm-groves, shaded at wide intervals,
Whose fruit around the sun-burn'd native falls,
Of roving tired, or desultory war:
Such to " HAWAIIAN ISLES" her Christian fanes.
WORDSWORTH.
THE liberties and rights of the Sandwich Islands
seem to be a ball for the bigger nations of the earth
to play with, and it is batted violently about by one
and another at the whim of rear-admirals and postcaptains. Hardly does it gain equilibrium and rest
from one shock before it is rudely struck by another.
The latest blow has been given in the name of that
once generous people, whose ambition now seems to
be, as represented in its misnamed Republican President and Assembly, to keep foremost among the nations in meanness. This last outrage is the game
over again which they played so long at Tahiti; but
114 
LATE FRENCH OUTRAGE.
it is to be hoped, this time, they will get out much
sooner than there.
The facts of the recent French outrage upon Hawaiian independence are these: By an article of the
treaty formed between France and the Sandwich Islands in the year 1846, French merchandise, or goods
recognized as coming from the French dominions, shall
not be prohibited, nor shall they be subject to an import
duty higher than five per cent. ad valorem. Wines,
4randies, and other spirituous liquors, are, however,
excepted from this stipulation, and shall be liable to
such reasonable duty as the Hawaiian government
may think fit to lay upon them; provided always,
that the amount of duty shall not be so high as absolutely to prohibit the importation of the said articles.
As an act of self-protection, without contravening
the letter of this treaty, the Hawaiian government imposed a duty of $5 a gallon on brandy. The French
consul Dillon and Admiral Tromelin demanded the
repeal of this, and the reduction of duty to fifty per
cent. ad valorem upon all brandies and spirituous
liquors of French origin, together with eight or nine
other obnoxious stipulations degrading to any nation's
independence to submit to, or the alternative of a
formal abrogation of the treaty between the two nations, and the substitution of the La Place Convention
of 1839. Three days were allowed for the Hawaiian
governmnent to comply with or refuse these conditions.
The king being absent from Honolulu, the admiral
waited until his return, when, the government refusing
to comply with the demands, the French troops landed
and took possession of the fort. No resistance being
115 
r11            THE  ISLAND WORLD.
offered, they spiked and threw from the ramparts tio
guns of the fort, destroyed the ammunition and public
stores, and took all the Hawaiian vessels that were in
port.  The Hawaiian flag was lowered, and the French
flag hoisted. After the quiet possession of the fort for
three days, the French abandoned it, and retired on
board their vessels. The king's yacht, Kamehameha
III., was manned with Frenchmen. and dispatched, it
is supposed, to Valparaiso; the steamer sailed for Tahiti; and the Poursuivante, with M. Dillon and fam,
ily, sailed for San Francisco. The American consul
and the British Consul General both protested against
the action of the French forces; and the latter offered
his services as mediator, but was refused.
It remains to be seen whether the United States and
Great Britain will quietly see the guarantee of Hawaiian independence-which these powers have mutually entered into-virtually abrogated, and a solemn
treaty declared a nullity. It can not be that the Republic of France, in 1850, will justify and endorse such
a clear breach of a solemn treaty on the part of its
agents, and thereby make it the injustice and perjury
of the whole nation, any more than England did the
similar outrage of Paulet in 1843. Significant facts,
however, in late French-Italian history, give body and
basis to the fear, that if France persist, and no other
nation interpose between the wolf and his trembling
prey, submission must be the only alternative for the
Hawaiians. Unless God forbid, the roaring lion and
ranging bear of Frenchism and Romanism, which have
nearly devoured the Society Islands, may disastrously
ravage the Sandwich. And this when the French in
116
t'l 
RELATIVE FRENCH INTERESTS.
terests vested there are, in comparison with the English and American, so trifling, that the whole number of Frenchmen (not including the French priests)
residing on the islands is twelve! Of these one is a
merchant, and probably transacts about the one thousandth part of the commercial business of the islands;
one is a hotel-keeper, and has about the same proportion in that line of business. The remainder (with
the exception of one clerk) are in the employ of Englishmen and Americans.
At least ninety-nine one hundredths of the spirituous liquors imported into the country have been imported by English and American merchants; and Englishmen and Americans have consumed them, and of
course paid the duty.
There has never been but one cargo of goods imported from France; and there has not been, for the
last five years, a French merchant ship at these islands. A few French schooners, brigantines, &c.,
there have been, but they have been mostly freighted
by English and American merchants. And while the
number of American and English whale ships that
touch at the islands, either in the spring or fall, is
from two to four hundred, the number of French
whalers in the two seasons is only from five to nine.
The attitude maintained by the Hawaiian government in its late conflict with the French has been a
noble one. The king has peacefully thrown himself
upon the laws of nations, without armed resistance,
and boldly asserted the inalienable rights of his kingdom, while its public property was being destroyed,
and the sovereignty of his Majesty, guarantied by
J
117 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
France herself, was being trampled under foot by a
military force, armed, as against a belligerent opponent. It is a remarkable fact, and one that reflects
high credit both upon the good government and character of the people of Honolulu, that during the landing
of the French troops and the taking military possession, on the 25th of August, 1849, of the fort and other
government buildings, not the least tumult occurred.
Notwithstanding that the streets were filled with
foreign residents, seamen, and natives, who had congregated from motives of curiosity to witness the
proceedings, and notwithstanding the unanimous feeling of indignation that pervaded every breast, the
known wishes of the king, that not the slightest opposition should be made to any act the French troops
were commissioned to perform, were so highly respected that not even a shout was raised, or the least effort
mnade to create a disturbance; and since the outrage,
and subsequent abandonment of the island by the military, French property and persons are as secure as
ever from molestation, although, as may be naturally
supposed, the obnoxious French name there is like
vinegar upon nitre, and as odious as eggs that have
"outlived their usefulness."
The public property in the fort was destroyed;
magazines were broken open, and their contents
thrown into the sea; the government yacht seized;
seven private vessels detained; and the business of
Honolulu temporarily thrown into confusion.   But,
conscious of having justice and the law of nations on
his side, the king did not swerve from his position,
but bore the wrong without even a feint of opposi.
118 
THE  TRUE  GROUNDS  OF  AGGRESSION. 119
tion, which the French so much courted. The result,
we trust, will demonstrate the wisdom of this masterly
inactivity. The jury in the Court of Nations will acquit the Hawaiian king, and bring in guilty the French
admiral of a plain breach of treaty; for the laughing of native boys at papal mummeries, and the constable's entering a priest's domicil to arrest a fugitive,
appear to have been the " head and front" of Hawaiian offending. To force brandy and Catholicism on
the islanders, at the mouth of cannon and point of the
bayonet, was the real object of the enterprise.
Outraged liberty and justice have spoken for the oppressed, and the indignant voice of Christendom has
condemned, as they have deserved, the high-handed
piracies that have been perpetrated from time to time
upon the sovereignty and liberties of these islands.
The names of French La Place, and English Paulet,
and Tromelin de la Belle Republique, will henceforth
go down to infamy together on the page of history.
"What can ennoble fools, or knaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards."
Neither titled ancestry, nor noble name, nor the
shield of government, nor the interposing providence
of God, bringing good out of evil, can save them from
the united reproach and shame to which, by the acclamation of the Protestant world, their career at these
islands has consigned them.
Particulars might be given of their course, and of
the humiliating dilemma to which the Hawaiian king
was reduced, which the world does not know; and
circumstances in detail might be exhibited, going to
show the extreme injustice of the claims, both of the 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Frenchman and of the Briton, which preclude all
shadow of excuse for the lawless policy they pursued.
But it is hardly magnanimous, still less necessary, to
strike a man when he is down; nor is it important that
the world should know more than is already known of
affairs here transacted.
It is seldom, of late years, that there is not trouble
either a brewing or breaking out among the foreign
Honolulites. It takes but little wind to make a breeze
there. In the intervals between the piracies of Paulet
and La Place, and when there is no foreign man-ofwar in port to divert the attention, they set-to on one
another, and make game of each others' reputations,
as they used to of the poor missionaries. The latter
has got to be rather too stale and tough a kind of scandal to swallow well. So now, like jealousy, they make
their own apples of discord, breed slanders, and hatch
cockatrice's eggs between themselves, and make what
capital they can of the unnatural offspring.
Something's always to pay among the five or six
hundred foreigners at Honolulu.  The chorus to the
witches' song might be sung all the year round:
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble:
Black spirits and white,
Red spirits and gray;
Mingle, mingle, mingle,
You that mingle may.
But all this is but the scum and smoke rising to the
top, and necessarily consequent upon the agitation of
the elements of society before settling, in a community where there is so much that is fermentative and
heterogeneous. The troubled sea of society here,
120 
FERMENTATION 0' SOCIETY.
working liklie a beer-barrel on the dregs of heathen ism, and the refuse of civilization washed ashore on
these islands like drift-wood, must, of course, cast up
a good deal of mire and dirt before getting its equi librium; but in due time it will work itself clear.
Society is in the transition state, and the Hawaii an nation itself, as one of its missionaries has well
observed, is just emerging from darlikness, just open ing its eyes in the twilight. The elements of old
Chaos have been thoroughly agitated; shadowy forms
and the misty outlines of Order are slowly appearing,
and the indistinct voices of Harmony are faintly falling on the ear. Social regeneration will duly follow
the religious, though, from the nature of things, it can
not be in a flash. This conflict of parties, and all the
smoke and d;< of controversy and steam of effervescence, do not alarm us, nor need we stop to tell of
them.
It is better to dwell upon the all-wise and beneficent
providence of God, through which the piratical capture
of these islands by the English, in 1843, was probably made to prevent a worse conquest, at that time,
by the French; and was found, in the end, to be the
necessary means of securing the guaranty of independence from England and France, for which Messrs.
Richards and Haalilio mnight otherwise have waited
in vain upon cabinets and courts.
God determined that their embassy to Europe and
America, undertaken not without much' self-denial
and a surrender of private interests and feelings to
public duty, should not be in vain; and, therefore,
these islands were suffered to be taken by the com                        F
4.2,1. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
mander of one nation, acting without the instructions
of his government to that effect, that both the rival
powers might be convinced of the importance of these
islands maintaining an independent neutrality; and
that the French king, especially, might be induced to
come into the mutual bond for their independence
with the English, when he saw them already within
the clutches of the latter; thus securing that they
should not be the possession of a rival, while reluctantly brought to the necessity of abandoning them
as a part of the French conquests in the Pacific.
The annals of diplomacy show it were vain to expect magnanimity in the policy of a great power,
like that of England or France, toward a weaker, as
the king of the Sandwich Islands, unless such magnanimity be plainly in a line with her self-interest.
Governmellts, like selfish individuals, are always for
getting, if they can, the best of a bargain.   How
far this appears or not, in the treaty effected by the
British Consul General, Miller, with the government
of the Sandwich Islands, an examination of facts will
show.
In the fall of 1842, Messrs. Richards and Haalilio
left Oahu for the United States and Europe, as accredited ministers plenipotentiary of his Hawaiian
majesty, Kamehameha III., to procure an acknowledgment and guaranty of independence to these islands, and with full power to form treaties in the
name of his Majesty. In the February following
was the forced cession of these islands to the British,
through Paulet, the news of which reached England
at the time Messrs. Richards and Haalilio were pros
L22 
EMBASSY TO GREAT BRITAIN.
ecuting their embassy at the Court of St. James.
An officer was immediately appointed by government
to repair to these islands, to examine into and settle
all difficulties, and to form a convention on the most
advantageous terms; the draft of which he carries
with him. Mr. Richards, in the mean while, is kept
in ignorance of the fact that General Miller goes to
make a treaty, being himself and Haalilio the proper
agents through whom such business should be transacted.
After much vexatious delay, especially on the part
of France, to sign the bond guarantying to the islands an unmolested independence, this important
end is at length secured, and the way opened to review and settle treaties. But, in the mean while, a
treaty was made at the islands without the concurrence of the king's best counselors, which, while it is
generally equitable, contains a provision in the third
article which may be highly adverse to the interests
of justice. The following is a copy of the convention
prepared in England, while Mr. Richards was there,
though without his knowledge, which the Consul
General said "he was authorized by his sovereign to
prepare and sign in the name of her majesty."
CONVENTION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE SAND                 WICH ISLANDS.
The differences which existed between the governments of Great Britain and the Sandwich Islands having been happily settled, the following articles of
agreement have been mutually entered into between
the King of the Sandwich Islands, on the one part,
123 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
and William Miller, Esq., her Britannic MAajesty's
Consul General for the Sandwich and other islands
in the Pacific, in the name and on the behalf of her
Britannic majesty, on the other part, for the preservation of harmony, and the prevention of future misunderstanding between the two parties.
ARTICLE I. There shall be perpetual peace and amity between her Majesty the Queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the King
of the Sandwich Islands, their heirs and successors.
ART. II. The subjects of her Britannic Majesty
shall be protected in an efficient manner in their person and properties by the King of the Sandwich Islands, who shall cause them to enjoy impartially, in all
eases in which their interest is concerned, the same
rights and privileges as natives, or as are enjoyed by
any other foreigners.
ART. III. No British subject accused of any crime
whatever shall be judged otherwise than by a jury
composed of foreign residents, proposed by the British
consul, and accepted by the government of the Sandwich Islands.
ART. IV. The protection of the King of the Sandwich Islands shall be extended to all British vessels,
their officers and crews.   In ease of shipwreck, the
chiefs and inhabitants of the different parts of the
Sandwich Islands shall succor them and secure them
from plunder. The salvage dues shall be regulated,
in case of difficulties, by arbitrators freely chosen by
both parties.
ART. V. The desertion of seamen embarked on
board of British vessels shall be severely repressed
124 
TREATY WITH ENGLAND.
by the local authorities, who shall employ all the
means at their disposal to arrest deserters; and all
reasonable expenses of capture shall be defrayed by
the captains or owners of the said vessels.
ART. VI. British merchandise, or goods recognized as coming from the British dominions, shall not be
prohibited, nor shall they be subject to an import duty
higher than five per cent. ad valorem.
ART. VII. No tonnage, import, or other duties shall
be levied on British vessels or goods, or on goods imported in British vessels, beyond what are levied on
the vessels or goods of the most favored nation.
ART. VIII. The subjects of the King of the Sandwich Islands shall, in their commercial and other relations with Great Britain, be treated on the footing
of the most favored nation.
Done at Lahaina, the twelfth day of February, one
thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
(Signed),   KAMEHAMEHA III.
(Signed), KEKAULUOHI.
(Signed), WM. MILLER.
Signed in the presence of
G. P. JUDD, Secretaryfor Foreign Affairs.
ROBERT C. WYLLIE, Secretary to Gen. Miller.
A similar treaty has lately been negotiated, in the
month of November, 1849, between the Hawaiian
minister, G. P. Judd, and the United States commissioner, Charles E. Eames, meeting at San Francisco.
These will secure reciprocal justice between the nations that are parties thereto, and the French will be
forced in honor to conclude a similar arrangement, and
125 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
to indemnify the Hawaiian government for recent
losses by the unauthorized acts of Admiral Tromelin.
With the aid derived from competent foreigners who
have taken the oath of allegiance, and the wise counsel his Hawaiian Majesty can command, this government is now more competent to try and punish crimes
in all cases than are most of the republics of South
America. Why, then, should it not be permitted to
administer its laws like other independent nations,
without the arrogance of protests on the part of foreign
consuls and commissioners, or the interference of navy
captains? It has a written code of laws, which are
singularly simple and direct: they are translated into
English, and all foreigners may know them. Why,
then, should they not be tried and dealt with for
crimes committed, according to the laws of the land?
Foreigners have helped each other out of scrapes
(as the phrase is) too long; profligacy in them has
gone unpunished hundreds of times, when, in natives, it would have been visited with condign pen
alty, as the law directs. It is high time that these
distinctions should be abolished, and that Hawaiian
justice should be meted out to all who choose to visit
or live in Hawaii nei. And let Christian states and
their agents resident there, as well as the men-of-war
that from time to time appear in the Pacific seas as
the guardians of their commerce and rights, see to it
that they put no obstacles in the way of broad Hawaiian justice.
God's providences have been too marked and many
toward this rising nation and its band of missionaries
to allow a doubt that His banner will still be held
126 
COMMERCE AND CHRISTIANITY.
over it, and that the Gospel shall be allowed to try its
efficacy to elevate and preserve this so recently idolatrous and miserable race. Is it too much to hope that'
the causes of national extinction and decay may yet
be arrested, and that the people of Hawaii nei may yet
become the joy and pride of the earth? a glorious example to all the world of a regenerated race of heathen: forming an illustrious exception to that melancholy rule of destiny by which all the races of savages
seem melting away before the arts, and vices, and enterprise of the white man. Whether or not it be true,
as some assert, that " commerce is digging the grave
of this nation," we do not pretend to decide. It is
quite certain that most of those who go there to deal
in commerce little care, provided only that a race of
intelligent, enterprising Anglo-Saxons supplant them,
and occupy the soil in which the Hawaiians are
quietly entombed.
If such shall ever be the melancholy fact, let those
remember whose contact with the race has been demoralizing and deadly, "Be sure your sin will find you
out." The injured shades of Hawaiians will meet
their destroyers in another world with stern and terrible
recrimination. Your ships and your men, will they
say, brought the vice and disease that have been our
ruin. You foreigners lent your whole influence to
make the Hawaiian Islands one great brothel!  You
opposed and slandered our teachers, and did all you
could to nullify the force of their instructions. If
"Christian merchants" came among us, what did
they more than others but make us hewers of wood
and drawers of water to themselves? When and how
127 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
were they known to help our teachers? or to consecrate the gains made among us to the Christian work
of saving our souls? Whether, intent only upon gain,
it was in your heart to do so or not, ye did but help
the process of our extermination and decay.  "The
Christian's God that paid the debt,"* whom many of
us rejoiced to find, now taketh vengeance, and pays in
eternity the wrongs of time.
In the history of the world since the Christian era,
the settlement of foreigners for the mere purposes of
gain among nations of savages, so far from being
beneficial, has been found detrimental to their growth
and prosperity. The new-comers have gradually overrun and dispossessed the native races, or they have
become the mere serfs and menials of those that were
first received on bare sufferance.
It remains to be seen whether the Hawaiians will
form an exception to this rule. What is eminently
needed is, that devoted laymen of the different professions and trades go and settle there on purpose to
do good, not with the selfish design of merely enriching themselves, but with the disinterested intention
of benefiting the nation by teaching the useful arts,
industrious habits, and ways of developing the physical resources of civilized life. Such men, with the
virtues of economy, prudence, and thrift, could any
* Anecdote of the poor African, who, anxious for his soul, and
vainly seeking for help, was at length told by a wicked sailor who
had been cast upon his shores, Why don't you go where somebody
will tell you about the Christian's God that paid the debt? He went
all the way to London, and, sitting down in one of its streets, besought the passers-by to tell him of the Christian's God that paid the
debt.
128 
THE TRUE METHOD OF CIVILIZATION. 129
where get a livelihood, and they could every where do
great good.
In a little work, called A Voice from Abroad, by
Rev. Sheldon Dibble, the author justly remarks, in the
chapter entitled Laymen called to the Field of Missions, that not only is a reform in government necessary, but an introduction of the useful arts also, to
raise up the people from their indolence and filthy
habits, and to promote thrift, order, neatness, and
consistency. " Look at a heathen family, as before
described.   They are almost naked; have a mere
apology for clothing. They live together in one little
hut, without table or chairs; gather around one calabash, eat with their fingers, and sleep on one mat.
How can you expect from them refinement or elevation of soul? How can you expect from them the
proprieties and consistencies of a Christian life? Even
though they may attend the sanctuary, and be instructed in schools; and even though the government
be reformed, and hold out motives to industry, yet will
not something else be wanting? Unless the various
useful arts and occupations be introduced, how is the
land to be filled with fruitful fields, pleasant dwellings, and neatly-clad inhabitants?"
" To introduce these improvements, men must go
forth for the purpose. They should be men who
cheerfully throw themselves and their property on the
altar of entire consecration, and go forth to labor and
toil, so long as the Savior pleases to employ them,
with the lofty design of doing good to the bodies and
souls of their perishing fellow-men. Going forth with
such a spirit, and allowing no other to intrude, they
F2 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
could do much in raising up the nation from their deep
degradation. By exhibiting in their dealings an example of uprightness, honesty, and conscientious regard to justice and truth; by showing practically the
only proper use of wealth, the good of men and the
glory of God; by conversing daily with individuals,
at their houses and by the way side, on the great subject of the soul's salvation; and by presenting, in
themselves and in their families, examples of a prayerful and godly life, and habits of industry and strict
economy, they might exert a very powerful influence,
and perform a very important part in Christianizing
the world."
But while the help of such good men, who would
go there, and keep there purposely to do good, is so
much a desideratum and a duty, we can not but question the boasted usefulness of mercantile firms and individuals whose sole object is to make money. They
may talk loudly and largely of the benefit their operations are to the Hawaiian nation; and let it be
granted that a small moiety of good has flowed off indirectly in by-streams from their selfishness.   But
when they come, vain-gloriously, to compare the unmeant good they have done with the substantial results of missionary labors, we are not alone in being
either so blind that we can not see it, or so justly skeptical as to say,
That optics sharp it needs, I ween,
To see what is not to be seen.
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes -which is, being interpreted,
I fear these   money-loving     Gr eeks,
Whose purse-strings pelf, not conscience, keeps.
130 
THE WISE POLICY OF. BENEVOLENCE. 131
Above all, we think, is to be deprecated the influence of any large company of mere money-making foreigners for agricultural operations. If successful, in.
stead of giving to the nation industry, enterprise, and
wealth, we fear it would but monopolize the best lands
and the most productive modes of enterprise, and end
in making the people, through the utter inability of
independent competition, mere tools and unambitious
helpers to foreign acquisitiveness. To teach the people to do their own government, to make and execute
their own laws, to develop their own resources, is the
policy of enlightened benevolence toward a nation of
emerging savages, the end of which will be thwarted
if foreigners are introduced to fill all the offices of government, and to improve for their own advantage all
the available facilities for enterprise and acquisition.
It was amusing, we are told, in the reign of Paulet and the British commission, to witness the patriotic grief and distress of certain foreigners whose influence and pecuniary interests were then put in jeopardy. The pious fever of sympathy with the king
and chiefs was thought by some to be owing more to
the dread of failure to certain favorite schemes of pecuniary aggrandizement than to any deep-felt, disinterested desire for the preservation of Hawaiian independence, or the perpetuity of the Hawaiian race.
So physicians, in their inquiries into the etiology of
disease, often ascribe more to causes that are occult
and indirect than to the more apparent and proximate.
Perhaps an intelligent physician, who had felt the
pulse and noticed the symptoms of some of the foreign Honolulites, both at the time of the cession and 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
restoration, would have cast about him for some other
cause than the alleged and apparent one for the phenomena then exhibited.
The California fever has proved both a counter-irritant and sedative to the totality of these symptoms,
most of the subjects of them being swept off to San
Francisco, to the great relief of the body politic. This,
and the quickening of trade by opening a new maret to Sandwich Island products, and making Honolulu a depot and place of transit for the Pacific, perhaps of residence for the families of Californian merchants, have cleared the coast for native improvement, and for the more unobstructed action of the
missionaries on the Hawaiian mind, which their teachings may almost be said to have created.
The months of May and June, when members of
the mission from the eighteen stations on the different
islands are usually together in what is called General
Meeting, afford the most favorable time for a Christian
stranger or mariner, touching at this port, to become
acquainted with the very worthy body of missionaries.
I say Christian visitor, because it is impossible for any
man who has not with them a bond of Christian sympathy, and who does not possess a Christian character
congenial with theirs, to become sufficiently acquaint.
ed to know and estimate their worth. According to
Sallust, Idem velle atque nolle, ea demunr firma ami.
citia est-To have the same moral tastes and distastes, this, indeed, is firm friendship. A community
of feelings and great principles is the only basis of
thorough acquaintance and friendship. The necessity
of morals or religion in one's self, in order to be a com
132 
MISSIONARIES  AND  BOOK-MAKERS.    133
petent judge or friend of the religious, is like the necessity in chemistry of a mutual solvent, in order to bring
into play the powerful affinities of any two substances.
True Christians and men of the world may live
side by side together; they may have much to do with
each other, and considerable knowledge of each other's affairs, but they can not combine; their natural
affinities will not act, and the latter can not judge the
former until they have a common ground of religious
motives, hopes, and fears. Hence the judgment which
non-religious travelers and book-makers pass upon missionaries and their work is of no more worth than the
judgment of the world upon the Church  generally,
whose life is hid with Christ in God; that is, of
about the same account as the criticisms of other
birds in fable upon the ingenious sui generis nest of
the magpie.
It is getting, indeed, to be fashionable and politic
now for travelers to speak well of missionaries and
their work, for their characters are at this time so
generally known, and the valuable results of their labors are so prominent before the world, as to give the
point-blank lie to misrepresentations of this sort that
were once made, and that used to pass current. A
book of travels now in missionary lands, that did not
testify favorably to missionary work and character,
would not perhaps sell. Missionaries at these islands
begin to feel that they may be in danger from this
very cause, now that the tables are turned, and governments and book-makers are commending them.
They remember the words of their Master, Woe unto
you when all men shall speak well of you. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
However, this shall not prevent my paying an honest testimony, drawn from intimate personal acquaintance with most of them at their several stations, to the
ability, devotion, and eminent usefulness of the missionary band at these islands. We do not believe there
could be found any where in England or America a
more pure, conscientious, laborious, or consistent association of ministers than the body of missionaries
there. It is not too much to say (and may it always
be equally true), that they are generally men of strong
sense, high, stern principles, patient of labor, and sincerely devoted to God's work; zealous lovers of humanity generally, but especially of this island race.
By patient continuance in well-doing, and the signal blessing of God, making the results of their labors
known to all the world, they have lived down opposition, stopped the mouths of slanderers, and put to
silence the ignorance of foolish men. Intercourse with
them is profitable, especially after a long seclusion
from Christian society on the sea, not because they
are persons of uncommon gifts or information, but
because they are generally plain, natural, well-educated, warm-hearted Christian men and women; at
the out-stations especially, cordial, hospitable, unostentatious; saying what they think, and letting you
do the same, and performing their duties from principle, in doors and out, in a quiet, orderly way, without
having to stop and consider what people will say of
them, or to cut and trim for others' eyes so much as
at home; discarding generally, certainly away from
the metropolis, the gossip, and fashion, and unsatisfying things of heartless foreign society, and dealing
134 
MISSIONARY LIFE AND RELIGION.  135
mainly in the substantial realities and practical duties
of happy domestic life within doors, and active usefulness abroad.
Becoming missionaries has not made them saints,
nor procured them exemption from the ordinary infirmities and peccability of men; nor has.it placed
them on the high vantage-ground which some imagine for the cultivation of piety.   Nor do we find the
odor of sanctity, nor that imaginary halo of holiness
with which certain memoirs, and some other things
that have been written, have surrounded the missionary's person and office.   The process of mind through
which, probably, most of them went in deciding to become missionaries, and the habits then formed, have
made, or naturally would make, them better Christians than the mass. But as to outward helps in
the cultivation of piety and a holy life, there are
by no means so many on missionary ground as at
home.
If a man has not obtained a devout mind and
habits of holy living before he enters upon the work
of a missionary, he will be little likely to alter amid
the numerous distractions, versatile pursuits, miscellaneous duties, and rapid wear and tear of a missionary life, A missionary, if he will be faithful, can
rarely be a closet man, for he has far more to do in
his own household, and more to do abroad, than the
pastor at home. His must be a life of action, not of
contemplation or study, from the time he enters the
foreign field till his bones are laid in an honored missionary's grave; or, disabled and broken in health, he
is compelled to withdraw with reluctance from the 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
most honorable service that a man can be devoted to
this side of heaven.
As fulfilled by American missionaries, I can testify from close observation, it is a service that is
no sinecure, and admits of little intermission of patient toil Even the time of General Meeting is
no vacation. This is convened once every year, or
two years, at Honolulu, for necessary business. After the choice of a moderator, and the formation of
the various committees, on overtures, for writing the
general letter to the Board, &c., &c., a day is generally
appointed for religious exercises. Then follows reading of reports from the several stations, which occupy
some days; then come up for discussion the various
matters presented in the reports of committees, in
which all the interests of the mission, and the modes
of operating advantageously upon the race of Hawaiians, are freely canvassed, and the thoughts of each
member elicited.
Meetings for religious conference and prayer are
frequently interspersed, and the children are gathered
in a meeting every morning at nine o'clock, at which
time the brethren preside by turns. They formn an
interesting company, and not a few of them are children of great promise.
Maternal meetings are'also frequent, and more or
]ess of the ladies are present with their children at all
the daily sessions. A ministerial association has been
also formed, which has its appropriate exercises in the
evening. Annual meetings of the Hawaiian Bible and
Tract Societies are held at some time during the sessiDn.   At the close is a day for thanksgiving and
136 
CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIFE.
prayer, when the sacrament is administered to the
mission church.
There is apparent much brotherly love, mutual confidence, and tender regard for each other through these
meetings, which make them times of special religious
and social improvement. While they differ often in
opinion, and use toward each other great plainness of
speech, it is not allowed to impair their Christian and
friendly esteem.   They  may have  spoken  and written of each other in'particular instances somewhat too
freely; but, if I am not greatly mistaken, they are
all mutual, confiding friends; eminently a united, consentaneous band. That may be said of them which
is hardly true to such a degree of the less favored
though older English Mission of the Society Islands,
Behold how these Christians love one another.* May
* One of the first things which impressed the people favorably in
regard to the missionaries was the union which prevailed among
them. The expression was very common, and became a proverb:
Hookahi no ano o ka na missionari hana aoli ku e kek7cahi i kekahi.
(The missionaries have but one aim in all that they do: there is no
dlivision among them.) Then they noticed that the missionaries were
industrious, toiling night and day, with no ostensible object but to
confer blessings upon others. They especially marked the meek and
unreveng,eful character of the missionaries when provoked by enemiies. A certain foreigner treated one of the missionaries with gross
insult and abuse, but the missionary took no notice of his conduct.
The foreigner was weak and staggering from intoxication. The
crowd that was looking on remarked" "This man is weak; the missionary could easily punish him, but shows no disposition to be revenged." Others said, The word of God is verified, which speaks of
meekness and forgiveness; for this drunken man insults the teacher,
but he does not resent it. Instances of this kind had great influence.
Even the heathen have their eyes open to the conduct of ministers,
and are nice judges of consistency; and there is no jealousy that can
not be lived down by a uniform and Christian deportment.-Dibble'
History of the Sandwich Islands.
137 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
it ever be so in the future history of this Mission! and
may God continue to bless all its members with entire devotion to their great and good work, until there
shall be raised within the nation, and nursed at its
own breasts, a native ministry adequate to the care
of its churches, and able of itself to perpetuate the noAle institutions planted here.
Angels unseen, as ministering spirits went,
When forth the chosen witnesses were sent,
With power from high to preach, where'er they trod,
The glorious Gospel of the blessed GOD.
GOOD ANGELS still conduct, from age to age,
Salvation's heirs, on heavenly pilgrimage:
Bright angels through mid-heaven shall hold their flight,
Till all that sit in darkness see the light;
Still the good tidings of great joy proclaim,
Till every tongue confess a Savior's name.
Hearts, harps, and voices, in one choir shall raise
The new, the old, th' eternal song of praise.
May ye who read, with him who wrote this strain,
Join in that song, and worship in that train!
MONTGoMER?.
138 
FELICITIES OF A NATIVE SCHOONER. 139
CHAPTER VII.
VOYAGE TO HAWAII, AND A HOME WITH THE KUMU.
The wild waves are my nightly pillows,
Beneath me roll the ocean's billows;
And as I rest on my couch of brine,
I watch the eternal planets shine.
Ever I ride
On a harmless tide;
Fearing naught-enjoying all things;
Undisturb'd by great or small things.
C. MACKAY.
Ships are but boards, sailors are but men: there be land-rats, and
water-rats; water-thieves, and land-thieves; and then there is the
peril of waters, winds, and rocks.  The craft is, notwithstanding, sufficient.-Shkylock: Merchant of Venice.
I TOOK my departure rather more than a week ago
from Honolulu, in a little schooner of thirty or forty
tons burden, commanded by a Chinaman. There
were ten of the missionaries returning from general
meeting, and upward of eighty natives, stowed so close
that one could not stretch himself without making a
transverse section of several others. And as to navigating from stem to stern, it was impossible, without
making stepping-stones of a dozen or more Kanakabodies, unless you chose to go round on the outside of
the craft, as the sailors did, holding on by toes and
fingers to keep you from falling into the mouths of
hungry sharks, that glided noiselessly about in the 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
blue waters a foot or two below, ready to act on the
law of freebooters every where,
That he may keep who has the power,
And he may catch who can.
There was a good proportion of native women with
infants at the breast; and when we had all got our
postures on the deck for the night, or were taking food
together after sea-sickness by day, or were instructing the monsters of the deep (in the way that seasick folks are wont to do) into the gastronomic changes and juices of animal chemistry, our deck was a rare
field for the pencil of some Cruikshank designer.
We arrived the third evening at the roadstead of
Lahaina. The signal of a white flag at the foremast
head informed those ashore of the approach of missionaries, and brought off the station double canoe,
in which we were all safely carried ashore through
the surf, and hospitably disposed of for the night by
Rev. Mr. Baldwin. We called the next day upon the
king, Kamehameha III., and were introduced to him
in a warm bath, which he was taking for the benefit
of a rheumatic or gouty knee. He afterward appeared in the reception-room in a loose dress, and we could
not help being pleased at the simplicity of his manners, and at the same time gentlemanly bearing,
while one could hardly help laughing at the Oriental
novelty of our first introduction to his Hawaiian Majesty.
John Young, the governor of Maui, a half-breed,
was also present, and for grace and elegance of de.
meanor, and personal presence, he would have done
honor to the court of Queen Victoria. There were
140 
, i) I- l:
Y'i)W of )iaitioi(l Ilead Crater, near Ilonolulu  
THE KING AND COURT.
also several huge giantess chief women in the room,
whom pork and poi had made almost as unwieldy as
Daniel Lambert.   Officers and attendants passed
through the room without parade or ceremony, or any
seeming reference to the king. He sat upon a handsome sofa, and the room was furnished with an ele
gant large mahogany bureau and center-table, as well
as convenient chairs. It was hung around with the
portraits of his father, Kamehameha II., and his favorite queen, Kamamalu, who died in England, and
of Prince Blucher and Frederic of Prussia. A large
frame-house of stone is in process of erection for the
king; but he will probably always prefer, as now, to
live in a grass house. His signing the temperance
pledge, and putting away all spirit, and the follies indulged with it, have made him a man whom frequent
drunkenness was fast turning into a brute.
I had time but for a hasty bird's-eye view of the
Mission seminary, printing-office, and three dwellinghouses of Lahainaluna. They make a pretty whitewashed hamlet, six hundred and twenty-two feet above,
and about two miles ride from Lahaina. The circle
of missionary families there is a very pleasant one,
forming sufficient society in itself, often, also, enlivened by the random visits of missionaries passing to
other stations, and transient visitors making the tour
of the islands. Mr. Dibble had a residence one thousand two hundred feet higher up the mountain, where
there is enjoyed a climate of almost unrivaled salubrity, and an invalid may comfortably prolong his days,
and make himself useful, whom another atmosphere
would soon destroy.
143 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Commended to God in prayer, and having experi.
enced the warmest Christian hospitality, we set off
again the fourth evening for Hawaii. The natives and
missionary brethren that stopped at Lahaina left us
the space they had occupied to recline in, so that we
had each as much room as most men occupy when
they come to die, but hardly more.
After two nights more under the open canopy of a
dewless, star-lit, Pacific sky, we were landed on Sabbath, P.M., at Mahukona, Kohala, the northern county of the great Island of Hawaii. It is a barren, lava
fishing village, with a little indentation between the
jagged rocks just large enough for a boat to be thrust
up. A school-house of mud and lava received us, the
people having already gathered there to bid us aloha,
and attend divine service, at the blowing of a conch.
We were ushered at once into a half-naked, squatting
assembly of eighty or one hundred persons, which was
addressed by Messrs. Coan, Lyman, and Bond.
It were foolish to attempt to paint so grotesque and
odd a scene as was offered in that school-house to the
eyes of a man, a novus homo in these ends of the earth.
To be imagined, it must be seen. After the native
service was over, and the house at length cleared of
the curious urchins and red-skinned, naked barbarians that lingered to observe us, we had a precious
meeting, at which each prayed and gave thanks, and
then ate of our frugal supper, sitting down all together upon the mats, around the Hingham bucket
that held our food. We were hardly through before
the natives again swarmed in upon us, and made one
glad to leave and walk abroad in the twilight, to med.
I
144 
NOTABLE  SWIMMING  EXPLI.OIT'.    14
itate upon the goodness of God, and the strangeness
of our situation in a land of so recent, and but now
half-weaned idolaters.
Sleep was slow to visit a frame to which the nota ble Hawaiian fleas now had their first introduction.
They were so eager and clamorous for acquaintance,
and prone, like the human kamraainas, to renew their
friendly gripe and aloha, that I turned and tossed upon
my gravel bed till dawn of day, and then arose, sorely
bestead, weary, and hungry.
It was on the same track, by which we have thus
gained safely our island home, that a swimming feat
was performed, a few years ago, by a native woman in
peril, which surpasses all other achievements of the
kind on record. When about midway between the
outmost points of Hawaii and Kahoolawe, or thirty
miles from land on either side, a small island vessel,
poorly managed, and leaky (as they generally are),
suddenly shifted cargo in a strong wind, plunged bows
under, and went down, there being on board between
thirty and forty persons, and a part of them in the
cabin. This was just after dinner, on Sunday. The
natives that happened to be on deck were at once all
together in the waves, with no means of escape but
their skill in swimming. A Christian man, by the
name of Mauae, who had conducted morning worship
and a Sabbath service with the people in the forenoon,
now called them round him in the water, and implored help from God for all. Then, as a strong current was setting to the north, making it impossible for
them to get to Hawaii, whither they were bound, they
all made in different ways for Maui and Kahoolawe.
G 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Thle captain of the schooner, a foreigner, being unable to swim, was put by his Hawaiian wife on an
oar, and they two struck out together for the distant
shore; but on Monday morning, having survived the
first night, the captain died; and in the afternoon of
the same day his wife landed on Kahoolawe. A floating hatchway from the wreck gave a chance for life
to a strong young man and his brother; but the latter perished before the daylight of Monday, while the
elder reached the island in safety by eight or nine
o'clock. A feeble boy, without any support, swam the
same distance of nearly thirty miles, and arrived safe
to land before any of the others.  Mauae and his wife
had each secured a covered bucket for a buoy, and
three young men kIept them company till evening;
but all disappeared, one after another, during the
night, either by exhaustion, or getting bewildered and
turning another way, or by becoming the prey of
sharks.
Monday morning the faithful pair were found
alone; and the wife's bucket coming to pieces, she
swam without any thing till afternoon, when Mauae
became too weak to go on. The wife stopped and lomilomied him (a kind of shampooing common here),
so that he was able to swim again until Kahoolawe
was in full view. Soon, however, Mauae grew so
weary that he dould not even hold to the bucket; and
his faithful wife, taking it from him. bade him cling
to the long hair of her head, while she still hopefully
held on, gradually nearing the shore! Her husband's
hands, however, soon slipped from her hair, too weak
to keep their hold, and she tried in vain to rouse him
146 
HOPEIS TRIAL AND  REWVARD.              147
to further effort. She endeavored, according to the
native expression, to hoolana kona manao, to make his
hope swim, to inspire him with confidence by pointing
to the land, and telling him to pray to Jesus; but he
could only utter a few broken petitions. Putting his
arms, therefore, around her own neck, she held thetn
fast on her bosom with one hand, and still swam vigorously with the other until near nightfall, when herself and her now lifeless burden were within a quarter
of a mile from the shore. She had now to contend
with the raging surf; and finding the body of her husband, which she had borne so long, stone-dead, she
reluctantly cast it off, and shortly after reached the
land.
But there she was hardly better off than at sea,
for long exposure to the brine had so blinded her eyes
that it was some time before she could see; her
strength was too much spent to travel, and the spot
on which she landed was barren lava, on the opposite
side of the island to any settlement. Food and water
she must find, or die. Providentially she obtained the
latter in a rain that had recently fallen, and that was
standing for her in the cups of the rocks. Monday
night, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday came and
went without relief, while she crept on gradually as
she could toward the inhabited parts of the island.
At last, on Friday morning, when her manaolana, her
swimming hope that had held its head so long above
the waves, was fast sinking with her failing strength,
by a gracious providence she discovered a water-melon
vine in fruit. Eating one, " her eyes were enlightened," like Jonathan's by the honey; soon after she was 
THE ISLAND WORID.
found by a party of fishermen, by them cared for and
conducted to their village, and the next day transported by canoe to Lahaina, whence the foundered
schooner had sailed just one week before.
Such fatal disasters have often occurred in these
seas to the crazy and ill-furnished craft that navigate
from island to island; but never before was there
known such an instance of endurance and escape, in
a woman, as that I have here narrated, derived from
sources the most reliable and authentic. The like
peril might have befallen us (and missionaries are
especially exposed to it), but for that buoyant, great
life-preserver which God is to those that commit themselves to him in the plain course of duty, whether on
journies by sea or land. How cheering it is to feel
and be sure of this, when traveling abroad for a
worthy end, or toiling manfully and usefully at home
for a competence! The all-seeing Eye that never
sleeps is watching over us for good in all the paths
of life, on ocean or earth, if we be but therein serving
our Lord and Saviour. In the exercise of duty to
God and man, and guided by providence and reason,
we can venture any where safely, sure to be immortal
till our work is done. The spirit with which one of
the sweetest poetesses of America has written these
lines, should animate us all in the different labors and
callings of life:
Ye who in home's narrow circle dwell,
Where Love's flame lights the household hearth,
Weave the silken bond, and frame the spell,
Binding heart to heart throughout the earth;
Pleasant toil is yours: the light of day
On naught holier sheds its blessed ray.
148 
MEETING A WVATER-SPOUT.
Diverse though our paths in life may be,
Each is sent some mission to fulfill;
Fellow-workers in the world are we,
While we seek to do our Master's will;
But our doom is labor, while the day
Points us to our task, with blessed ray.
Fellow-workers are we; hour by hour
Human tools are shaping Heaven's great schemes,
Till we see no limit to man's power,
And reality outstrips old dreams.
Toil and struggle, therefore, work and weep,
In God's acre ye shall calmly sleep,
When the Night cometh!
We encountered on the way, though at such a distance as to be beyond the reach of danger, one of
those singular phenomena called water-spouts, which
are of frequent occurrence in these seas. There was
but little wind with us at the time, but we could perceive a squall, and showers falling at a distance; and
directly over where the water-spout was observed, a
dense cloud was whirling around, and forming its
folds into a tube, trumpet-shaped, but bent to an
angle of sixty degrees or more with the sea. The
tube thus let down from the cloud, like a large engine
hose, joined another more fully formed from the sea,
whose position and appearance were that of a cone or
a cypress-knee. At the point of junction of the two,
I should not judge the diameter of the column to have
been more than two or three feet, but six or eight
times that at the end.
As thus formed, it seemed like a hollow cylinder
of vapor and water, extending obliquely from the sea
to the cloud, thin at the middle, and broad at the two
extremities. A whirling motion, as of fluids in cir.
149 
150            THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
culation from below upward, could be clearly seen
within the tube, suggesting the idea that this waterspout was but a cloud-feeder, like the suction-pipe of
a fire-engine, and, by some process or law in pneumatics not fully known, that water was pumped up
by it into the region of clouds, and there or on its
way converted into vapor. This idea was corroborated
by the fact that. after being distinctly observed by us
in motion three or four minutes, the pillar vanished
from below, and the upper end only remained, entering the cloud in the position and at the usual angle
of the first branch of a great oak-tree. Soon it disappeared entirely, and the surcharged clouds were
rent under the vapors which we had observed circulating upward, and a deluge of dark rain was seen
falling in that quarter where this great force-pump of
Nature had been at work.
We were too distant to observe whether there was
uncommon agitation of the sea at the bottom of this
water-spout; but I have noticed it elsewhere on the
ocean, when nearer to these phenomena, in cases where
the origin of the water-spout was clearly in a whirlwind, and began below. In the present case its formation seemed to begin in the cloud, and a connection
was gradually effected downward, whereby vapor was
conveyed to the clouds in extraordinary quantity and
quickness, which may or may not be immediately
formed into a flood of rain. When, on the other hand,
a water-spout begins in a whirlwind from below, there
seems to be reason to think that it always bursts bodi.
ly, after being wafted along and striking against some
object, or from having been fired into; or, because of
4 
BREAKING OF WATER-SPOUTS.
the wind not acting with equal force upon its upper
and lower extremities, the column is bent and speedily ruptured from the unequal velocity of its parts.
A water-spout of this latter sort once broke over the
harbor of Honolulu. It was first observed moving
along slowly, of about the thickness of a hogshead, accompanied with a violent ebullition of the water at its
base. Upon touching the reef the column broke, causing a sudden rise of the sea of three feet on the beach.*
Great numbers of fish were said to have been destroyed by the force of the falling water. Other water-spouts have at different times broken on the land
here, and have washed away houses and drowned the
inhabitants. They are experienced in the Atlantic,
where I have myself observed them, as well as in the
Pacific, and upon all maritime coasts. Trees are torn
up by them, valleys flooded, eminences plowed away,
deep pits excavated, and habitations, harvests, and
cattle borne away. If a ship be struck by one, it is
easy to see that destruction must be inevitable. Mariners, therefore, dread and avoid them. Hence the al.
lusion to it of the philosophical Latin poet, Lucretius:
Like a vast column gradual from the skies,
Borne o'er the waves, descends it; the vex'd tide
Boiling amain beneath its mighty whirl,
And with destruction sure the stoutest ship
Threatening that dares the boisterous scene approach!
These dangers of the deep safely passed, the Sabbath over, and our first flea-memorable night at Mahukona ended, Messrs. Coan, Lyman, and Wilcox set
off early on foot, Monday morning, for their long tramp
* Jarves's History of the Sandwich Islands, p. 23.
151 
152           THE  ISLAND WORLD.
to Hilo. After our breakfast of roasted sweet potatoes, Mr. Bond began preparing for the exportation of
his goods on the backs of natives, twelve miles up and
down hill, to his house on the other or windward side
of the island. His wife and child were carried on a
Hawaiian manele, or long hurdle, like a Hindoo palanquin with its set of booies, made so as to recline in,
lashed at the head and foot to a long pole running
lengthwise, that was made to rest on the shoulders
of natives, two carrying at a time. Other packages,
weighing eighty pounds, were carried by single men
on their backs, and lumber, and other heavy boxes of
books, &c., were carried by companies of four and six.
After all the goods were deposited in the school-house,
or distributed upon the backs of the carriers, we
mounted horse, and arrived at the rural mission-house
about noon.
It is finely situated on a very gentle, verdant slope,
adjacent to a cane plantation of ninety acres, belonging to some Chinamen. It stands in the center of an
area of some five or six acres, inclosed with a neat
stone wall, and having a part of it cultivated as a garden, adorned with flowering shrubs and trees, as the
pine-apple, guava, acacia, mimosa, tamarind, kukui,
mulberry, geranium, banana, Pride of China, sugarcane, &c. The house is thatched with the long leaves
of the hala-tree (Pandanus), and has a very pretty,
neat appearance, in connection with the tasteful keeping of the walks and grounds, like the pictures we
have of thatched cottages and rural scenes of Old
England.
May it long be the cheerful abode of domestic peace, 
GRASS  ME EETING-HIOUSE.
and piety, and missionary faithfulness. And may a
healthful moral radiance shine out from it into all the
surrounding realms, as a center of religious light and
civilization, till a thousand such pleasant cottages
shall gem
These russet lawns and fallows gray,
and smile out upon the Christian traveler from every
verdant ravine of this lovely land.
O!'twas not thus in ages gone!
These isles in Error's night lay dim:
God's jewels, they in silence shone
Most beautiful, yet not for Him!
My first Sabbath on Hawaii was, of course, one of
especial interest. The church,* a grass house, somewhat more than one hundred feet long, and thirty or
forty wide, was thronged with natives to the number
of seven or eight hundred, sitting upon the unmatted,
* A framed and plastered church edifice, since erected at Kohala,
with incredible pains on the part of the indefatigable missionary, Rev.
Elias Bond, was overthrown by a hurricane on the 21st of December,
1849. The hard labor of years seemed swept away at a stroke, and
the energy of the pastor was well-nigh broken.  But a knowledge of
the disaster speedily reaching New York, substantial sympathy was
enlisted, and, beginning in the liberality of the Church of the Puritans,
a plan is now being consummated, in May, 1850, to transport at once,
from America to the Sandwich Islands, the entire materials of a new
missionary meeting-house for Kohala. It is a charity the more be.
coming and necessary, now that the Hawaiian churches are made independent of the American Board; and it is but a suitable interchange
of benevolence with the Church of Kohala, which has sent to the
American Home Missionary Society, within two years, upward of
$100, inclusive of $30 just received.
The tempestuous winds that have recently devastated the Sandwich
Islands, and proved so destructive to plantations and shipping, are exceptive phenomena quite out of course from the hitherto observed
equability of weather, and comparative immunity from destructive
storms in that part of the Pacific.
G2
153 
154        THE  ISLAND  NVORLI,D.
grass-strewn floor. Three hundred and seventy-seven
children were at the Sabbath school between the
services   They recited, with very pleasing effect, in
a measured or chanting manner, by classes, the verses
from Scripture that constituted the lesson for the day.
As you look at the bright-eyed boys and girls, and
hear them chant their lesson, or say to you their
merry aloha, you long to be able to talk with them;
and, tawny as they are, you think there were never
gathered finer looking or more animated children.
Adults often look stupid, and incapable of, or averse
to, close attention. The youth far excel them in intelligence and activity. The boys of Mr. Bond's boarding-school, fourteen in number, when they meet twice
a week with the teachers from the several school districts, far outstrip them in arithmetic and other exercises; and the teachers say they can not at all stand
with them for aptness and mental agility. The hope
of the nation is there.
In the morning was a sermon by the pastor, from
"The wages of sin is death." - In the afternoon the
whole congregation, or, rather, all the members of the
church, recited by divisions some verses of Scripture
from the AO A KA LA, or Daily Food, on the verse-a-day
system, and the pastor commented upon them. Many
of the adults and children came from a distance of ten
miles. We found them holding a prayer-meeting
when we returned, after the intermission, at two
o'clock P.M. Tolerable attention was given to the
service, and the deportment of all was correct. All
the women were dressed in loose gowns, and many of
the men had pantaloons: all their kapas. Notwith.
154 
(LIMPSES OF THE PEOPLE.
standing this, there were naked limbs enough, and
the attitudes and costume of the audience were such
as to make the scene truly barbaric.
After the Sabbath, one of the good deacons having
furnished me with a powerful horse, I went, in company with the pastor, to attend meetings at four different school districts.  The people were gathered on
the grass floors of the rude school-houses in their
every-day d(ress, or, rather, undress-men, women,
boys, and girls, and nursing babes as they were born;
young eyes sparkling, and their generally sleek and
plump forms giving ample evidence of their full feeding, in this foodful region, upon pork and poi. It is
painful, however, to see so many limbs and persons
scaly and scarred with eruptions, and holes made, and
features gnawed away by the scourge that came with
licentious foreigners. Some of the men we saw are
very giants in their dimensions, and immensely strong.
When we had exchanged the usual Hawaiian salutation of ALOHA OUKOU, or love to you, Mr. Bond opened
the meeting with prayer, followed by a hymn and a
portion of Scripture, and then proceeded to call over
the names of all the church members in the district,
and to ask them each questions in regard to their religious estate, and their friends who were absent.
When this was through, he made a few general remarks, and the meeting was closed with singing and
prayer. Then followed shaking of hands, and the
parting aloha.  The different groups, with so much
that was peculiarly Hawaiian and barbaric, were to a
stranger a novel and curious sight. No less strange,
and romantic too, was the ride through glens, adown
155 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
pWilis (precipices), along kalo patches, and the edge
of precipitous ravines, that would make one friend al.
mlost shudder for another in riding over.
The face of the country is intersected by numerous
deep ravines, that are richly shaded with the verdure
of tropical trees, the bread-fruit, ohia, banana, hau,
kou, kukui, and others; their sides, even when per
pendicular, covered all over with the most gigantic
brakes ever beheld, of which a scientific Scotch traveler and naturalist (the unfortunate Mr. Douglass)
estimated that there were three hundred and sixty.
tive different species in Hawaii alone.
At one of the meetings there was accidentally present, being beckoned in as he was going by with a
back-load of laauhala, a Catholic, or, as the natives
say, one who had gone over from the Church to the
Pope. Mr. Bond questioned him at some length,
and took the occasion to give the people instruction
on popery, make them repeat the second commandment, &c. He had learned from his priest the recent
date of Protestantism; how Calvin burned Servctus;
that Catholics only were to be saved; and that the
proper name of Protestants was Kaluina, or Calvinists.
Mr. Bond thinks that every convert to popery in his
field could be brought back by promising to let them
into the Church. Men have sometimes come to him
saying, If you don't let us into the Church, we will go
off to the Pope; or we will dive into all manner of sin.
One man who had gone to the Catholics was asked by
Mr. Bond why he had done so.  "Oh!" said he," I
tried three or four times, and you would not let mc
into the Church, and I would not wait any longer."
156 
PAPIST VERSUS PROTESTANT.
Christians,* in some places, are accustomed to pray
to be kept from popery, as the thing brought in with
the gun, ka mea i lawe ia mai me ka pu.  The PoePope, or popish party, is but another name for the
adulterous and sin-loving puhi-baka, or smoking party,
that practice all uncleanness with greediness. When
a man is caught in adultery, he often turns Catholic:
and going to the Poe-Pope is merely going to get a license to commit sin, e hana hewa.  They will often
give no other reason for some things than to say, Our
side does so and so. Riding out once with another
missionary, we met two men smoking, and the missionary entering into conversation with them, "Oh!"
said the spokesman, as if that were enough, "our
side smokes"-He Poe puhi baka makou.
It would be well if things were called by their
right names every where as much as here. In the
more southern groups of Polynesia, Williams tells us,
Christians and idolaters were distinguished from each
other as "Sons of the word" and "Sons of the devil."
Here they are the Poe-Pope and Poe-Hoahana?u, or
fraternity of brothers. Popery came in here with the
guns and brandy of La Place too popish-like, and its
* At a meeting of native assistant missionaries at one of the stations,
one of them read an essay on popery, of which the following is an abstract: Popery. What has it proved to be? Has it proved to be
food, or fish, or water, or tapa, or cloth, or wisdom? No. It has introduced confusion and disorder into the government and into the
Church. It has led men astray, and disorganized families. There is
no goodness about it, no humility, no love; but opposition and rebellion. It has extorted $20,000 from the rulers. Is this the blessedness of popery? Believe it not, follow it not. It is idolatry. Believe
not that the Pope is a god; he is nothing but a man, whose dwellingplace is in Rome.
157 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
discordance with genuine Christianity is too glaring
for it ever to attain great popularity or influence with
the Hawaiians. The Bible was too long before it,
and the names of blasphemy and deceit were stamped
too deep on its brazen brow for it ever to get into
reputation here. It is not too much to hope that the
Poe-Pope and the Poe-Hoomaloka, that is, papists
and unbelievers, will soon be merged in the overwhelming preponderance of the Poe-Hoahanau.
An old man, once a member of the Church in Kau,
on this island, was excommunicated for some immorality from the Protestant Church, and united at once
with the papists. The missionary called on him some
time after, and asked him why he turned to images
again. Do you not worship images and pray to Mary?
He replied, "We do."  Why?   "The French priests
came to me, and flattered me, and made every thing
appear so smooth, that I thought I would consent to
go to their worship, though I did not like it. I went,
and they persuaded me to receive baptism, and told
me I should see the kingdom of Heaven. I consented; but saw no other heaven than we all see,
which I saw in the days of Kamehameha." Do you
not see their religion is false?  "Yes, it is false," was
his emphatic reply. My advice to you is to turn to
Christ, and repent truly, and renounce images. He
replied, "I will not worship images any more; but
you see me. I am just what I was when you excom.
municated me; I have never repented." The next
morning he came to the Protestant meeting, publicly
renounced popery, and put down his name among the
inquirers, saying, "The priests made me the arbiter
of all the papists in this part of Kau."
158 
THE  OLD MAN  AND  T'l,HE  JE UI'1.   I,)
Another fallen church member became awakened,
returned to the missionary, and told that shortly after
he was excommunicated a papist came to him and
said, "Now they have put you out of the Church, I
wish you to turn to my God."  " To your God!" he
replied; " what is your God?" The papist then held
out his image-a small bronze crucifix-which he
wore strung about his neck. The man took it, and
looking at it, said, " This is your God, is it? I will
not turn to your gods. This is the kind of gods we
always had before we heard of the true God. I will
not turn to that."
When the Jesuit missionaries first arrived, they
used many arguments with the natives to show that
their instructions and those of the Protestant missionaries were alike. -It was on one of these occasions
that an old man, who made no pretensions to religion,
replied that the missionaries had taught him about
God.  "Oh yes," replied the priest, "Mr. Thurston
taught about God, and that was right; you heard him,
and now I wish you to hear me." The old man gravely answered, " But the Bible says I can not serve two
masters." He further objected to their images, when
the priest said, " Oh, we do not call this God, and do
not pray to it. It is only a representation (shadow)
of God." The old man replied, " Let me see it; that
can not be any representation of God. It is made of
brass. If there be any shadow or representation of
God, it must be in the heart, not in an image."
A wonderful answer, truly, for a heathen, and deserving to be set down with that saying of an ancient poet, and Paul's comment upon it-FOR WE ARE 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
ALSO HIS OFFSPRING. Forasmuch, then, as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the god
head is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by
art and man's device.
This old man of Hawaii nei, taught thus by Nature
and then by Nature's God, in. the Bible, did he not
utter more true philosophy and common sense in that
saying, IF THERE BE ANY SHADOW OR REPRESENTATION
OF GOD, IT MUST BE IN THE HEART, than many an educated and would-be-philosophic babbler of the schools,
whether ancient or of our own day?
Abjuring thus the image graven by art and man's
device, but awake to the echoes of his Maker's footsteps in the human soul and throughout the visible
creation, methinks he would say with the poet, could
he speak in our Christianized English,
God's spirit smiles in flowers,
And in soft summer showers
He sends his love.
Each dew-drop speaks His praise,
And bubbling fount displays,
In all their lucid rays,
Light from above.
The tiny vines that creep
Along the ravine steep
Obey his nod.
The golden orb of day,
And ocean's crested spray,
To him due homage pay   Creation's God.
The correspondence these old men of Hawaii saw
in the rites and the heaven of popery with the paganism they remembered of " the days of Kamehameha
Nui," has its parallel in the identity between the scenes
160 
MIDDLETON AND VICTOR HUGO.               161
and the shows of Rome papal and Rome pagan, as observed by the classic Middleton, who says of himself
when visiting modern Rome, that " nothing, I found,
concurred so much with my original purpose of conversing with the ancients, or so much helped my imagination to fancy myself wandering about in old heathen Rome, as to observe and attend to their religious
worship, all whose ceremonies appeared plainly to have
been copied from the rituals of primitive paganism, as
if handed down by an uninterrupted succession from
the priests of old to the priests of new Rome; while
each of them readily explained and called to my mind
some passage of a classic author, where the same ceremony was described as transacted in the same form
and manner, and in the same place where I now saw
it executed before my eyes; so that as oft as I was
present at any religious exercises in their churches, it
was more natural to fancy myself looking on at some
solemn act of idolatry in old Rome, than assisting at
a worship instituted on the principles and formed upon
the plan of Christianity."
We say, furthermore, that notable facts warrant the
assertion that the history of Romanism at the Sand.
wich Islands, like what Victor Hugo has lately said
of Jesuitism in Europe, is written in the history of human progress there, BUT IT IS WRITTEN ON THE BACK.
Every step forward has been taken in spite of it. Had
French popery had its way, a "civilized Satan" would
now have been dominant there instead of the benign
Christian Church; and French brandy and licentiousness would have wrought for the nation's destruction
what American Protestantism and temperance have 
162            THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
done for its salvation. God's providence be praised,
which has made the difference!
It was New England missionaries, inspired by a
wisdom not their own, that carried there, in the early
opening of the island world of the North Pacific, and
before Romanism had at all invaded it, New England
religion, New England common schools, and New
England freedom. And even as Wordsworth has described the early evangelization of the British Isles, so
might it be said of the first apostles of civilization and
Christianity to Hawaii nei:
Rich conquest waits them: the tempestuous sea
Of ignorance, that ran-so rough and high,
And heeded not the voice of clashing swords,
These good men humble by a few bare words,
And calm with fear of God's divinity.
The products of New England are too well naturalized in the island soil to be uprooted now by the arts,
or the cannon, or the brandy of Rome; and what we
have called the ISLAND HEART of the North Pacific bids
fair to become such a centre of Protestantism to the
realms beyond the seas on either side of it, as Great
Britain has been to Europe and North America. 
VALLEYS OF KOHALA.
CHAPTER VIII.
ROMANCE OF TOURING AND PROSE OF WORKING.
WHO IS MY BROTHER?   Tis not merely he
Who hung upon the same loved mother's breast;
But every one, whoever he may be,
On whom the image of a man's impress'd.
True Christian sympathy was ne'er design'd
To be shut up within a narrow bound;
But sweeps abroad, and in its search to find
Objects of mercy, goes the whole world round.
'Tis like the sun, rejoicing east and west,
Or beautiful rainbow, bright from south to north;
It has an angel's pinion, mounting forth
O'er rocks, and hills, and seas, to make men bless'd.
No matter what their color, name, or place,
It blesses all alike, the universal race.
T. C. UPHAM
I AM just resting from the fatigue of a tour recently
made with the pastor of Kohala, for an examination
preparatory to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
The first day, after riding about eight miles up and
down the sides of deep ravines, fertile with kalo, bananas, bread-fruit, and ohias, and over the fine arable lands between them, we arrived at the brow of a
pali, or precipice, about one thousand feet high, and
nearly perpendicular, down which we must go to be
at the school-house in the beautiful valley at its base.
Leaving our horses in charge of the last schoolmaster,
at the rude seat of whose pedagogic sway a meeting
16;-I 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
had just been held, we let ourselves down by the zi&zag path as best we could.
The sight of the valley beneath was truly unique
and beautiful; luxuriant kalo patches, irrigated by a
crystal stream that here and there was made to form
in ponds; native houses, and trees and men in min
iature, from our overlooking, lofty position; a steep,
twin pali, of the same height opposite, its almost rectangular sides verdant and blossoming with the kukui and convolvulus vine. At one end the ravine ran
up for more than a mile, till the palis met where sprang
the living fountain from the heart of the lava rock.
Had it been in Scotland, it was a place which Sir
Walter would have chosen for the appearance of the
white Lady of Avenel; and Grecian imagination
would have made it sacred to Nymphs and Naiads,
and a recess for the sons of genius to implore the inspiration of the sacred Nine. But here in Hawaii
nei, where there are no classic gods or goddesses, it is
but a fountain of wai mnaole, as Nature and the afterthroes of her volcanoes made it, to irrigate the food
patches, and fill the huewais of common kanakas.
At the other end this magnificent avenue opened
upon the deep, with a beach of the finest black writing sand, over which the sea rolled in immense hoary
breakers, nearly up to a wall made to prevent its incursions upon the kalo patches. Boys and girls, and athletic men were sporting among the billows, diving
through the huge rollers as they'rushed in from the
ocean, and sometimes riding in upon them clear up
on the beach, the boys and girls on little surf-boards,
the men by dint of their own muscles.
164 
VIEWS OF THE  SEA-COAST.              165
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...
The meeting over in this romantic valley, it remained either to climb a precipice as high as that we had
descended, or to pass round it by the sea, subject to
be wet by the huge billows that beat, often to the perpendicular wall of the precipice. Choosing the latter,
we had to disencumber ourselves of nether garments,
and arranging our other apparel somewhat like a native malo, to watch the opportunity when the sea retreated, in order to get round a projecting point. Sans
culottes as we were, we did not pass without a wetting to the waist by a violent wave, that came near
to raising me from my feet. A company of natives
attended us, one of whom waddled to my aid and held
me by the arm, as a haole does his wahine, they said.
After passing thus the most difficult part, we coasted on over the wave-washed stones and masses of
broken lava for more than a mile, the abrupt wall of
cooled lava on one side five hundred feet high, the
raging sea on the other, washing to its base. Here
and there masses were broken off, which we would
have to surmount. Now and then we could see holes
in the face of the rock, where pent-up gases had burst
out after the great mass was cooled, and left a space
all around like a honeycomb. Sometimes the rock
was completely vitrified; at other times we would
meet with places whose solid rock seemed only cracked, not fused. Again it would be nothing but slag
and scoria; in another place a formation plainly basaltic.
A mile of such walking brought us to another valley, where were gathered the inhabitants of that and
of another valley, which we should have had to climb 
TTIl' ISLAND WORLD.
four pails to get to, and which neither Mr. Bond nor
any missionary had ever visited but once. It was a
valley yet more beautiful, if possible, than the other;
the sides higher, and more densely covered with the
hau-tree and other shrubs; the water more abundant,
and the kalo more luxuriant.  A native house-one
of a thousand-gave us comfortable entertainment
and rest for the night. We had an apartment to ourselves, and a part raised and covered with mats, called in Hawaiian hikiee, on which we lay with considerable comfort, after a supper of roasted kale and ha,
the latter being the butt end of kale tops, and very
much in taste like asparagus.
A good old man there, who lomilomi-ed my weary
limbs with a surprisingly grateful sense of refreshment, and who seemed to regard our white feet with
great admiration, kindly offered me his buxom daughter, and a kale patch for a dowry, if I would stop with
them as their kumu. Who knows but that some such
liberal offer to one of the forthcoming celibates of the
Mission will yet tempt them to abjure monastic vows,
and yoke themselves here in Hawaii into the state
they eschewed in America. Nous verrons.
The superiority of the white skin to the Hawaiian
olive was matter of long conversation to the assembled natives, who came together, both young and old,
and of both sexes, as many as could get into the house,
to see the strangers, how they looked, and ate, and
slept. In the morning, too, tawny faces were curiously peering in at our little window, and every motion
was observed with an eager, savage interest. The
man at whose house we stopped was one of uncom
166 
~1u   J s~oo~u~di.
: I.:::I-.1 1,
i
i 
*e-.e
...
*eee
~.e
eeee 
A NATIVE PATTERN OF P IETi.'
mon ingenuity and enterprise, by the name of Kaipu holo, or the Running Gourd. Growing up among the
stones in his little inclosure, where one would think
nothing could grow, he had coffee-trees, oranges, gua
vas, limes, broom corn, bananas, sugar-cane, &c. He
was, too, a conscientious, good man, whom I shall love
to remember. Long after prayers with the natives in
Hawaiian, and in our room by ourselves, I heard the
voice of our host, after all others were asleep, praying
without in the open air. In the morning, as soon as
light, the conch was blown for prayer-meeting, as in
all the islands.
We started on our return by eight o'clock, but
found the tide in, and the sea so high that we had to
climb the steep pali which we had come round the
previous day. It was a work like climbing the Hill
Difficulty, in Pilgrim's Progress. Often was I compelled to stop for breath, and recline holding on, completely exhausted. But the scenery at every stage
was so novel and beautiful, that mere turning to look
was rest. After descending another pali, and climbing its mate, we found our horses at its brow, and
reached a missionary's cheerful house by three o'clock
We stopped by the way in a beautiful cocoa-nut tree
dell, and had two agile natives climb the trees, which
they did by merely clasping hands around it and then
stepping up, the feet pressing the trunk by the balls
and great toe. A man never looked so much like a
baboon as then. They went up thus the tall, branchless trunk quicker than we should clinib:a-a:-lde;:
shook off ten or twelve, which the natives'pcdld of:
the tough, fibrous husk with their teeth; and we drank
H
169 
THE ISLAND WVORLD.
the bland milk of three or four with great relish and
refreshment, wearied and hot as we were with scaling
and descending palis.
The next day we set off anew on a tour to the leeward of the island, making a complete circuit of its
northern end. At the village where we quartered for
the night, we were met with a hearty alohIa, and a cordial shake of the hands by young and old. With hospitable intent they had prepared potatoes, fish, and
fowl for us; and there was a great scuttle-fish, with
its hundred hands, for the natives that accompanied us.
Our riding was the dreariest opposite of the route
before, over tracts of barren lava which seldom or never feel the rain, but which in summer and winter refleet and radiate the rays of the sun with fierce intensity. The inhabitants get their support by fishing, drink the brackish water found in springs at the
edge of the sea, and exchange their fish for food with
the inhabitants of the other side. There is an intermediate region between the leeward and windward,
which was formerly populous, and produced yearly
one large crop of potatoes.
An immense old heathen temple, or heiau, is standing there, which we measured, and found to be two
hundred and ninety feet long, one hundred and twenty-five broad, and the walls at the base thirty feet
thick and twenty feet high. The area so inclosed is
now a tobacco-field. In one corner we found human
bones, along with those of dogs and hogs, that were
~:aeo?.   ctd  in sacrifice.
.F'~'%:"they knelt to idols carved of stone;
To fish and fowl, to block and bone;
170 
TRACKS OF OLD PAGANISM.                        171
They enter'd hell to find a god
Worse than the rest, and gave him blood.
But the idol, the altar, and priest are gone, and
there are few surviving who can give an intelligent
answer to the question, What meaneth this great heap
:f stones? So perish and come to naught all the devices and remnants of cruel paganism! And soon
may the dark lines it has written; the dreadful characters of pollution and death which it has been burning in for ages upon the heathen constitution be effaced, and the moral image of God be every where reenstamped upon the sons of the apostasy.
"Once, while the name, Jehovah, was a sound,
Within the circuit of this sea-girt isle,
Unheard, the savage nations bow'd their heads
To gods delighting in remorseless deeds;
Gods which themselves had fashion'd, to promote
Ill purposes, and flatter foul desires.
Amid impending rocks and gloomy woods,
To those inventions of corrupted man,
Mysterious rites were duly solemnized.
A few rude monuments of mountain-stone
Survive; all else is swept away. How changed
The existing worship, and, with those compared,
The worshipers how innocent and bless'd!"
The work of raising a people like this from the dire
abyss of heathenism is a dead lift; it is no boy's work
or child's play, and whoever looks for poetry in it is
sure to be mistaken. I have learned something about
it in the preparations that have been making here
some weeks for the quarterly celebration of the Lord's
Supper. These are plain, prose labors to the pastor
of no ordinary magnitude. They consist in the examlination of Imis, or inquirers, and candidates for the 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Church; and disentanglement of cases of hihia, or difficulty and sin in the Church, and the administration
of discipline; which, in a Church of ten or twelve
hundred members, is a work of no small magnitude.
Indeed, you will hear the pastors of this Mission say
generally that the admission of new members, the
hearing and adjustment of difficulties, and the exercise of discipline are the most perplexing and patiencetrying things they have to do. It needs Briarean hands
and Argus eyes, a constitution of iron, and a brain of
more than Voltaic energy (to say nothing of the heart),
in order to do this faithfully.
The common method pursued with inquirers is, to
enter in a book the names of those whom the lunas
(deacons) present as proper subjects of admission.
With these they converse a little at every tour or
meeting of the Hooikaikas (another name for the inquirers), giving them suitable instructions. At length,
after having been upon the book for six months, or a
year, or two years, as the case may be-having run
well for that time, being well reported by the elders,
and giving evidence of sincerity in seeking the pono,
some are chosen from the list and presented by the
pastor to the company of elders (numbering in this
church upward of forty), and voted in. But it is often difficult for the pastor to satisfy himself, or give a
reason to another why he should receive this man
rather that; or to say of ten set aside or put off, that
they are not as worthy of membership as ten admitted.
Among such an unlearned and simple, or, as they
express it, naaupo people, it is impossible to fix a certain amount of knowledge to be possessed, or to estab
172 
ECCLESIASTICAL F'ORMS-DISCIPLINE. 173
lish any invariable criteria to be applied to all who are
received to the table of the Lord. The great desire
generally felt to be in the Church, its respectability,
the secret belief, oftentimes, that being in the Church
will somehow insure their salvation, will induce many
a man to live correctly, wait carefully upon his teach
er, and hooiianawanui (persevere), as the saying is,
in the good way, until they get admitted into the
sheep-fold.
Those who are successful will be often asked, How
did you get in? and inquirers will get informed by
others of the questions the missionary is likely to ask
them, and of the proper answers to be given; and stereotyped forms of expressing their manaos will get in
vogue among them, so that the missionary has to be
racking his brain to vary the mode of examination,
and in his questions is not, perhaps, half the time understood. The perplexity of the work to young missionaries, whose acquaintance with the native character and language is far from perfect, may be faintly
conceived.
The forms of Church government and discipline
are semi-Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational, a mingling of the three. Members are admitted
and discipline administered in (I believe) all the
churches only by the votes of the company of deacons
or elders. But while the pastor is much assisted by
them, and is enabled by their means, in a certain
sense, to multiply his own eyes and ears, the respons.
ibility and weight of all rest upon him. And whether under the usages of Presbyterianism or Congregationalism, every pastor is by necessity an independ. 
174            THE  ISLAND  W0 RLD.
ent prelate, and his restraining hand has continually
to be laid upon his deacons, who, in their charity, are
eager to get many in whom he would longer keep out.
However, they generally bow to his superior wisdom, and by the exercise of a little skill their manaos
(thoughts) may be made always to coincide with his.
At this station, yesterday, fifty-eight children were
baptized, and the names of forty were read as expelled
or suspended, and the names of twenty-two couples
published for marriage. In the afternoon was the
sacrament. Kaipuholo, the man at whose house we
slept, up in the romantic valley of Honokane, had
previously come to Mr. Bond to know if his wife
should come to the communion, she having the evening before, after the preparatory lecture, had a quarrel with another couple about her goats getting into
their inclosure. As we entered the house in the afternoon, the husband of the other couple was confessing his sin before the whole congregation, and
professing his repentance. His wife followed, in a
style of great dignity and self-possession, and professed the same; but Kaipuholo's wife was silent.
At the communion, when it was asked if any had
been omitted in the distribution, the wife of Kaipuholo rose to confess her sin, and profess repentance.
The pastor rather significantly nodded to her to stop;
but in a few minutes she rose again and relieved her
burdened mind by a few words of confession; and
when the element was passed to her, with considerable hesitation she partook.   The whole incident
evinced a conscientiousness and sense of propriety,
the more pleasing as it was entirely self-moved. 
SCENE AT THE SACRAMENT.
The elements of the Supper were little pieces of
kalo, about the size of the elemental bread at home,
and water. The communicants were all seated upon
the ground; but many could not get within the house,
and had to be in the frequent showers.   There was
perfect decorum and stillness, and a good degree of
seriousness apparent; and it was both affecting and
grateful to look around upon such a company of docile barbarians, and hope that so goodly a number of
them were the disciples of Christ. One longs to tell
them of his fervent desires for their improvement and
progress in civilization and grace, and to exhort them,
wayward and liable to fall as they are, to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord. You can only hope with trembling for the
best of them, so liable are they to yield to temptation,
and fall into the Hawaiian sin.
Almost all the suspensions have been on account
of adultery, and the illicit intercourse of the unmarried, some of them under circumstances painfully polluting. The people are yet but half-reclaimed savag,es; much further advanced in Christianity than
civilization; perhaps, indeed, as far Christianized as
they can be until their habits of living, sleeping, working, and dressing are more civilized. School instruction, such as it is, is general; the people are mild and
docile in disposition, and can almost all read; the Bible, or a part of it, is, perhaps, in every dwelling; the
forms of religion are established, and its saving power
felt in a multitude of cases; an excellent system of
laws is enforced; old abuses and oppression corrected.
But it is plain that the people are not yet sufficient
175 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
ly disciplined and intellectual for the exhibition of a
blameless, spiritual religion; and if a man comes here
thinking to find in the recently converted, simple islanders the brightest trophies of the cross, he will be
disappointed. Embracing the Gospel does not at once
make barbarians spiritual, conscientious, or intelligent; nor does it at once release them from the vicious habits of body and mind to which they have been
addicted for generations: it is only the necessary initial step of reform.
The English missionary, Williams, remarks of the
South Sea savages, with whom he labored, " That until the people are brought under the influence of religion, they have no desire for the arts and usages of
civilized life; but that invariably creates it. While
the natives are under the influence of their supersti.
tions, they evince an inanity and torpor from which
no stimulus has proved powerful enough to arouse
them but the new ideas and new principles imparted by Christianity." The same is true of Hawaiians.
It is the Gospel that has begun their civilization, and
that has done for them all the good that has been
done;  and to that be all the glory.  It is church
members that are foremost in quitting the ways of
barbarism, and adopting the proprieties of the civilized state.
But they are not weaned at once; nor can they be
in one generation. And living, as they generally do,
on a highly nutritious, gross food, without habits
of self-restraint; knowing no limit to the indulgence
of any appetite but satiety; still going, when away
from foreigners, half naked in the bronze of nature,
176 
NATIVE PIETY VERSUS FOREIGN.   177
or with the barest apology for clothing; generally
without apartments in their houses; all sleeping to.
gether on mats, and not abashed at bathing, or the
performance of the common offices of nature before
each other, is it to be wondered at that adultery and
illicit intercourse are frequent?
A people that live like Hawaiians can not be virtuous and pure, how far soever they may be Christianized. And yet, through the rigor of the laws, the vigilance of magistrates and constables, the discipline
and restraints of the Church, it is probable that there
is no more licentiousness than among the same number of inhabitants in cities of England, France, or
America. And as to Hawaiian piety, it may as well
be said now, once for all, that both absolutely and relatively it is brighter, purer, and wears better than
the most of that which is imported from around the
Cape, or straggles across the Rocky MJountains.
In the present transition state of society from barbarism to pure Christianity, it is often a perplexing
question to ministers, What parties shall I marry?
The law allows the clergy only to solemnize a marriage, but makes it obligatory on the parties to procure a certificate from the Lunakanawai that there
is no legal barrier to their union. Any persons may
get such a certificate who are fourteen years of age,
who can read, and who are not known to have another husband or a wife living. The same magistrate
grants divorces on the application of both- parties, on
proof rendered of adultery against either.
Among a people with whom the institution of
Christian marriage is of so recent date, who held so
H2 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
lightly to the marriage vow, whose habits of intercourse were of old so indiscriminate, and whose hearts
still have a leaning to former liberty and lusts, it
would be strange if there should not occur frequent
violations of the marriage covenant, or if it should
not be felt as a yoke. As a matter of fact, so it is.
Not a few of the people are adulterers and adulteresses. When, therefore, any of these present themselves to a minister with a legal certificate of marriage,
he knowing both or either of them to have been guilty
of adultery, shall he marry them, or shall he not?
The judgment of our Savior is, that whosoever shall
put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and
shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her that is put away, doth commit adultery. Of course, then, in His view, he that should
be accessory to the union of persons so disqualified
is accessory to their sin and condemnation. When a
man shall leave his father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife, they twain shall be one flesh.
What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not
man put asunder.
Nothing, in the judgment of Scripture, but adultery and death, can annul the marriage obligation.
The law hath dominion over a man as long as he
liveth. The woman who hath a husband is bound
by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth; but
if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law
of her husband. So, then, if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called
an adulteress; but if her husband be dead, she is free
from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
t78 
SCRIPTURAL LAW OF MARRIAGE.  179
she be married to another man. The death of one
party sets the innocent free to marry again, but adultery in either, according to the divine law reasserted
by Christ, divorces and forever precludes the guilty
party from matrimony. And by the lawgiver of old
to the Jews, it was expressly provided by God that
the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put
to death.   In other words, to invest the marriage
state with the utmost sacredness, and to keep it inviolate, the Almighty prescribed for adultery the solemn penalty of death under the Jewish law, and our
Savior the prohibition to the adulterer of ever marrying again. This is the divine law: shall the Christian minister, who is set for its defense, and to maintain the purity of society, shall he solemnize the marriage of one that is proved an adulterer?
But it is argued that marriage is a civil as well as
sacred institution, and whomsoever the civil magistrate declares marriageable the religious minister
ouoght to marry, asking no questions for conscience'
sake. To those who have conscientiously weighed
the matter, and who think we ought to obey God
rather tkan man, this argument is of no force. To
those who have not, or who think it altogether safe
and right to act as in ignorance, and on the presumption that the magistrate will not give a certificate to
any who are unworthy of it, this reasoning will be
valid, and doubtless is held so by many ministers both
here and elsewhere. But we can not help thinking
that the purity and well-being of society every where
would be promoted by the oftener asking of questions
for aonscience' sake, and by a more careful inquiry on 
THIE ISLAND WORLD.
the part of ministers as to the worthiness and right
of those who present themselves to be solemnly proiiounced man and wife.
It is objected again, that if parties so disqualified
by the divine law are not married, they will nevertheless live together as man and wife, and thus more
sin will be incurred than there would be if they were
legally united; or they will go elsewhere and get
married.   This argument will be efficacious with
those who admit in morals the doctrine of expediency,
who think we may do or allow evil that good may
come, or a greater evil be avoided, and that we may
break one law to save another. It is of a piece with
the old reasoning of rum-sellers, If I don't sell, my
neighbor will; the drunkard will still get his dram,
and another will pocket all the money.
A more weighty argument in favor of solemnizing
such marriages is that drawn from actual usage
among the Jews.  Moses, for the hardness of their
hearts, suffered them to put away their wives, and to
give a bill of divorcement, and parties so divorced
mnarried elsewhere. Why may not the same be allowed in Hawaii nei? where the people are not yet
fully used to the restraints of the Gospel; where they
are but two thirds reclaimed from the ways of old
heathenism; and where a great many must spend the
rest of their lives out of matrimony, unless an exception be made in their favor.
To this it may be replied, in the first place, that if
the Protestant clergy make this exception, the people
who have now the Bible will see it to be contrary to
the New Testament law, and will very naturally ar
180 
SAFEGUARDS OF CHASTITY.
gue that if it be right to give up or evade one statute,
it may be also to pass by another. In the second
place, there is a Catholic clergy in the land that are
glad to solemnize any marriages, whose denomination
is composed of adulterers and adulteresses, and upon
whom it would be much better to let the odium rest
of all marriages that are not strictly right and Christian.  In the third place, it is of the utmost importance that the nation's religious teachers take the high
vantage-ground of truth from the outset, and a position upon it that need not be departed from, but up
to which society may be gradually lifted. A complete
renovation of the family constitution, and a permanent establishment of the domestic system, which
heathenism has left in ruins, can only thus be effected.
The practical effect of its being rendered easy for
divorced persons to get married is (there can not be
a doubt) deleterious. Who does not know that in the
two first years of the French Revolution and Republic, when the flood-gates of iniquity were thrown wide
open, the fountains of the great deep of human depravity broken up, and every lawless passion set afloat,
there were more than six thousand divorces in the
city of Paris alone; while in ancient Rome there was
not a divorce for five hundred and twenty years.
But in the change that ensued in respect to the
facility of divorce, when Rome had reached the apex
of her power and grandeur, Gibbon discovers a principal cause of her swiftly succeeding corruption and
decay; for he affirms that the sentiment of chastity,
of female honor, one of the necessary clamps and safe.
guards of society, is necessarily loosened, and falls off
181 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
by the allowance in a state of frequent divorces. The
facility with which divorces are obtained from State
Legislatures in America is a wide and dangerous
departure from the good old Puritan and English
usage; and it is an evil that ought to be steadfastly
resisted by all the virtuous, both as proving, and itself provoking the depravation of public morals. The
family compact is too important a bond of union to
the State, for the State to render it unstable by a
readiness in yielding to petitions for divorce. Marriage is made by it a loose cloak for lechery and grossness, instead of a permanent bond and mortgage for
purity.
Facts enough have come to my knowledge while
at these islands, to prove that the foreseen probability
of being able to be married again has operated as a
premium to crime. Persons discontented in their
present marriage relations have actually committed
crime in order that they might be released by divorce
from a state that was grievous to them, and be free,
after the lapse of time, more or less, to try married
life again with a new partner.
It is a pity that the principles and customs of Protestant pastors in relation to this subject should not
be uniform, as also in regard to all matters of Church
discipline. While a few, as, for instance, the pastor
at this station, will not marry a believer to an unbeliever, and will discipline his church members for
planting or using awa, or tobacco, others will marry
even the divorced, and retain in their connection both
smokers of tobacco and drinkers of awa.
There ought to be a little treatise in the language
182 
HAWAIIAN WAY TO WOO AND WIN. 183
on marriage and on the family constitution. Hawaiians precipitate themselves into the state too early
and too lightly. By the established Hawaiian custom
and etiquette, the female is generally the suitor. I
was not a little pleased by the honest reply given to
a suit of this kind by a man at Kealakekua, employed
n the family of one of the missionaries there.  He
was among the hooikaikas, earnestly seeking the
pono, and was asked in marriage by a woman, one
of the church members. His answer was, that he
must first secure the salvation of his soul, and then
he might be ready to think of her.
Another, of whom I once asked why he did not
have a wife-a strange lack for a likely Hawaiianreplied to me, with all frankness, that none of the girls
had yet asked him.
On the other hand, the accomplishments and good
looks of some of the boarding-school girls at Hilo and
Wailuku have made the tables turn, and have secured them suitors from the other sex, both from their
own countrymen and foreigners. But they have hitherto rejected them, on the ground that they had not
been long enough in school.
There occurred a case at a marriage scene, while I
was at Kohala, so provokingly droll and amusing,
that I can never narrate or call it to mind without
laughter. At the Wednesday afternoon meeting, six
or seven couples presented themselves together for
marriage.   Somewhat curious to witness the ceremony, I sat by the minister within the desk. They
stood together, opposite, in a line; and when their
names were called, and hands were to be locked for 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
responding to the marriage vow, one was found with.
out his mate; and on the pastor's naturally enough
asking for her, Oh! said the sans culottes bridegroom,
with a grave drollery all the more ludicrous for being
unmeant, E hookomo ana i kona kapa komo ma ka
puka-Shle is at the door putting on her frock! This
to tell of his bride before a whole congregation, was
more than the officiating minister or his friend could
hear and keep their countenances. A few moments
elapsed, and Mr. Bond and myself exchanged knowing glances as the just now gownless bride came in
from her toilet by the meeting-house door.
It was no fair bevy of waiting-maids that accompanied her, but only her dutiful swain that had been
out to hasten and help her in putting on her bridal
attire. They were married duly and in order, but
the ludicro-serio-comico of this original scene was long
after food for fun, when we were disposed to be merry; nor will either the missionary or his friend soon
forget the maid of Kohala that was making her toilet
outside the church door, while her lover was standing
up to be married within. Probably she had carried
her dress and shoes under her arm for some miles.
This is quite common, for the feet of Hawaiians have
not yet grown to shoes, or become wonted to such
confinement. When they are traveling, therefore,
they take them off, and only put them on again when
they have got to the church, or to the house of the
missionary.
They have a special liking to shoes that are given
to squeaking. This squeak, by-the-way, the natural
creaking of new and dry leather, they seem to think
184 
STORY OF THE SQUEAKING SHOE.   185
a part of the shoe, and they are willing to pay for it
extra; so that the shoemaker who can manufacture
the most squeak will be likely to have the largest
run of custom among Hawaiians. There was an es.
caped Botany Bay convict shoemaker in Mr. Bond's
district, that married one of his church members, and
the natives used to employ him for making squeak.
He was expected one day at Mr. Bond's, and a native who knew it left word to have a pair of shoes
made with a squeak. Willing to see how far the man's
fondness for squeak would carry him, Mr. Bond asked
how much worth of squeak he would have put into
his shoes, whether a hapaha's worth or a hapalua, a
quarter of a dollar squeak or a half-dollar squeak.
The man's love for squeak got the better, I believe,
of his love for money, and he concluded to have the
largest squeak that Crispin could manufacture, even
if it cost as high as a dollar. Now,
As rhyme the rudder is of verses,
With which, like ships, they steer their courses,
we might say of this our Hawaiian knight of the
squeak, with a slight accommodation, what Butler
did of Sir Hudibras,
A wight he was, whose very sight would
Entitle him mirror of knighthood,
That never bow'd his stubborn knee
To any thing but chivalry.
He was well stay'd, and in his gait
Preserved a grave, majestic state;
And yet so fiery, he would bound
As if he grieved to touch the ground.
Casar himself, who, as fame goes,
Had corns upon his feet and toes, 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Was not by half so tender-hoof'd,
Nor trod upon the ground so soft.
From out his soles a squeak did sound
That brought him gazers from around
But being loth to wear it out,
He therefore bore it not about,
Unless on holidays or so,
As men their best apparel do.
186 
ARRIVAl. AT KAILUA.
CHAPTER IX.
THE POETRY OF TRAVELING, AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF
LIVING AT A MISSIONARYIS.
From that lovely retreat though forever I part,
Where smile answer'd smile, and where heart beat to heart;
Yet how often and fondly, when far we may be,
Will we think, thou bless'd isle, of each other and thee.
I go from the haunts where the blue billows roll,
But that isle and those waters shall live in my soul.
Anon.
NOT without many regrets, I have cut adrift from
the quiet missionary house of my boyhood's friend,
that has been harboring me so hospitably for many
weeks; and I am here at the Metropolis of the old
Hawaiian conqueror, Kamehameha I., and at the station first occupied in 1820, just after the providential
downfall of idolatry, by missionaries from the United
States. The missionary pair that was left here then,
poorly supplied, not knowing what should befall them,
where all was rude and heathenish, and the grim idols
of decaying paganism stood guarding the bay, are
here still, in health and vigor, gathering the fruit of
their labors, and blessing God for the change they behold in the people, and for the comforts of house, furniture, children, and friends with whom they are now
surrounded.
I arrived two mornings ago, after half a day and
187 
THIE ISLAND WORLD.
the livelong night upon the sea in a little open canoe.
It was a tedious night, with but little wind, and the
three natives had to paddle almost all the time, when
so sleepy that they could scarcely keep open their
eyes, and one of them was every now and then nodding into the water and against the sides of the canoe
so amusingly as to provoke me to laughter, though it
sometimes provoked his nose to bleed.
The boatmen, also, being too fearful of the mumuku
(a blast that sometimes rushes down with irresistible
fury from between the mountains, and capsizes or
drives canoes out to sea) to venture far from land, I
had a good opportunity to observe the rough lava
shores of Hawaii, and to look into the ragged throats
of some of those yawning caves that line the coast.
We passed in the afternoon the Bay of Kawaihae,
and saw the huge heiau which Kamehameha II. went
to consecrate at the death of his father, when he boldly broke the tabus, and in his revelry and intoxication brought idolatry to its end. I watched the stars
come out one by one from their azure depths, kept
vigil with them the livelong night, and saw them
fade away again before the dawn, and the sun rise up
in his glory from over Mauna Hualalai, in the rear
of Kailua.
Here was the boundless ocean, there the sky
O'erarching, broad and blue,
Telling of God and heaven, how deep, how high,
How glorious and true.
It was new and grand also, " in the stilly night,"
to see the hoary breakers dashing and spurned against
the giant rocks, to feel our little canoe lifted by the
188 
VIEWS IN A CANOE.
backward wave, and to hear the thunder-beat, and incessant roar of the surf.
"Up through the cavernous rocks amain,
With short, hoarse growl, they plunge and leap,
Like an armed host, again and again,
Battering some castellated steep.
Great pulses of the ocean heart,
Beating from out immensity,
What mystic news would ye impart
From the Great Spirit of the sea!"
Sights and sounds so unlike the din and dust of
coaches, the booming of steam-engines, and the hissing and clatter of locomotives, have made me think a
man must come out to Hawaii nei in order to know
the romance of travel. They can never get here railroads and locomotives; but if Yankee enterprise has
its way, steamers will soon come and take off all the
shine from Hawaiian canoes and schooners.
The aspect of Kailua is sternly forbidding, and its
radiated and reflected heat exceedingly oppressive,
after living amid the verdure and grateful trades of
Kohala. If caloric be visible, you can see it going up
all over the Kailua lava, like heated air from a stove.
The harbor is only a little bight in the lava, with a
small beach, the rocks on each side covered with large
and rich coral, which they burn into lime. The northern boundary was formed by an eruption, forty-five
years ago, from one of the large craters on the top of
Mauna Hualalai, which inundated with fire several
villages, destroyed a number of plantations and extensive fish ponds, filled a deep bay twenty miles in
length, and formed the present coast.
When the impetuous fire-stream had been running
189 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
for several days, unabated in its fury by the offering
of hogs, &c., and was threatening to destroy every
thing on this part of the island, it is said that Kamehameha the Great went to it with a company of
chiefs and priests, and, as the most valuable offering
he could make, cut off part of his own hair, which
was always considered sacred, and threw it into the
torrent. A day or two after the lava ceased to flow.
The gods, it was thought, were satisfied; and the
king acquired no small degree of influence over the
minds of the people, who attributed their escape from
destruction to his supposed interest with the deities
of the volcano.
Several houses meet the eye as you enter the harbor, that at once give evidence of increasing wealth
and civilization; and there is a range of tombs, and
a fort built by Kamehamrneha the Great, in which
there formerly stood a number of hideous idols. The
church is a good structure of stone, one hundred and
twenty feet long, and forty wide, built at the expense
of Governor Adams, with an old-fashioned wooden
belfry, pulpit, and gallery. Soon after its completion,
he made an ordinance that no woman should enter it
without a bonnet-a requisition that brought into use
all the cane-blossom stalks in the country round, for
the manufacture of an odd something which they
called bonnets.
The Governor's house is a handsome two-story
building of stone; the doors, window-stools, and all
the wood-work of beautiful koa, the Hawaiian mahogany. An elegant koa center-table, the work of a
German  mechanic, veneered, finished, and jointed
190 
HOUSE OF THE GOVERNOR.
with great beauty, adorns the reception-room, or hall
of entrance. Two large bed-rooms lead out of this,
one of which the Governor occupies. But the handsome curtained bedstead he leaves to its own repose,
and sleeps on a raised platform strewed with mats;
on which I saw the luxurious appendage of a large
back-scratcher, common, I am told, with chiefs.
There is a similar hall above, and two rooms used
for stores. A tasteful Gothic window over the front
door and balcony, and in the rear a pillared veranda,
which shows to advantage in coming into the harbor.
Within the same inclosure is a long native house, for
the accommodation of attendants and other chiefs, in
which some were making poi, women stretched out
on their mats, a carpenter making a bureau, and children crawling about and squalling.
Near by, under the spreading shade of some fine
koa trees, is a boat-house, where a little schooner is
on the stocks; and not far is the house for canoes,
where they may be seen of every size, from the length
of fifteen feet to seventy. The Governor's wealth, it
is said, is ample, and his greed as great, which does
not relax in the prospect of death. All the chiefs
have been here of late to see him die. But he is getting better again, and has his portly person drawn
about in a little hand-wagon, several attendants being always by to lomilomi his limbs, which are stiff
and useless. He learned English of Mr. Thurston;
is a member of the Church, but has been under censure; and, though restored, his avarice and selfishness are so shameless, and his piety appears in " such
a questionable shape," that many challenge it.
191 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
This relic of the olden line of high chiefs, called in
native Kuakini, is a very remarkable man. Before
he obtained admission into the Church, he used to
wonder how it was that common people could get in,
while he, who had been used to have his way and
wish in every thing, was kept out. At length, on one
occasion, when there was a church meeting, he was
seen going too. His sister, the celebrated Queen
Kaahumanu, had the door shut against him; and it
is said he went home, and read the Testament all
night, till he found the secret of the pono in the first
chapter of the Epistle of James.
When  he was once under suspension from the
Church, for some misdemeanor, along with quite a
large company, he used to have them meet him for
exhortation, reading, and prayer, until restored.
When he was Governor of the Island of Kauai, some
years ago, and it was proposed to him to sell rum,
and make a monopoly of it, but only to foreigners and
sailors, thereby addressing his well-known weak side,
the love of gain, he replied nobly, "To horses, cattle,
and hogs, you may sell rum, but to real men you
must not on these shores."
In the character of this late barbarian, as in that
of many men who have figured on a larger stage than
he, there is a mingling of contrasted traits and habits, that leave even his pastor in doubt what to think
of him as a Christian. But in God's mercy there is
hope for him in that world, which it is clear he will
soon enter, and solve for himself the great problem of
life. The key to its solution we will believe he has
found in Christ, which has opened the gate of a blessed
eternity to many an evangelized barbarian before him.
4p
192 
HOUSES OF MISSIONARIES.
Hope below this consists not with belief
In mercy, carried infinite degrees
Beyond the tenderness of human hearts;
Hope below this consists not with belief
In perfect wisdom, guiding mightiest power,
That finds no limits but its own pure will.
WORDSWORTH.
Besides the residence of Kuakini, there is also a
mission-house by the sea-side, now occupied by Dr.
Andrews, an odd, planless dwelling, built in the early
days of the mission, and added to and altered since to
suit emergencies, till its original design or paternity
it would be hard to tell. Dr. Andrews is the only
physician for the six stations on Hawaii, the extremes
more than one hundred miles apart. The demands
of his profession necessarily keep him much from
home. His missionary work here, other than as
physician, is the care of schools, from which he has
sent some of the most promising girls and boys that
are known throughout the mission, to the seminaries
at Wailuku and Lahainaluna.
Quarter of a mile up the hill, standing by itself,
and inclosed by a stone wall six feet high from all
sight or ingress of natives, except at the house door,
is the residence of the missionary pastor, Rev. Asa
Thurston. It is a wooden building, its material from
America, two stories high, with a spacious veranda,
shielded on both sides by hanging blinds, the house
standing about north and south.  The front veranda
commands a fine view of the ocean, and some cocoanut groves along the coast.
By dint of scraping the rocks around, and the help
of a cow and goat pen, some soil has been gathered
I
193 
194           THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
in the yard, and there are growing there two kou
trees, the mustard and castor-oil bean plants, a flourishing cactus (prickly pear), and some grass that is
trying hard to be green. Lucy's range for play was
small, and would have been any thing but attractive
had she ever known the luxury of green fields, and
babbling brooks, and flowers that drink the dew. And
yet, I suppose, she loved her island lava home, as
much as children do theirs where Nature has been
more benignant and prodigal of her charms. What a
pity (one can not help saying) that she should not have
been kept here, as a specimen-product of the growth
of Hawaii, to take root, and blossom, and shed fragrance only here. But of this more by-and-by.
Near the house of Mr. Thurston is the entrance of
a cave, called Laniakea, which once formed a valuable appendage, a kind of donjon-keep to an old fort
hard by, whose walls have been the inexhaustible
quarry for all Mr. Thurston's building and fencing.
In times of war, the wives, children, and infirm used
to be put there, in case of assault or sally from the
fort. Mrs. Thurston used it for a while as her dairyhouse, until the shock of an earthquake one day, just
after she had come out of it, made the idea of being
buried alive there so appalling, or being struck by
some loosened fragment from the roof, that she has
since deserted it.
I have explored it to the distance of nearly a quarter of a mile, until stopped by a wide and deep pool
of brackish water, which, it is said, rises and falls
with the tide. The native guide who was with me
left his torch on a rock and boldly plunged into the 
CAVE OF LANIAKEA.
subterranean pool, whose waters splashed more at his
odd capers than ever Stygian Lake at the skiff and
paddle of old Charon.
The bottom of the cave is about twenty feet wide,
exceedingly rough with fragments that have dropped
from above, and the various shapes in which the lava
cooled below. The roof is in some places thirty feet
high; in others so low, and the passage so narrow, as
to oblige one to stoop in passing. The sides are in
many places white with an effervescence like magnesia or nitre. The roof is stalactical black lava, and
was once evidently dropping with fused earth and
minerals, while the fiery fluid ran as in a sluice-way
to the sea. A little way in, the walls are damp and
the air close; and there is a stillness and gloom in
these bowels of the earth that may be felt by more of
the senses than one.
For laughing sunshine never look'd
Into that fire-scoop'd cave.
The church at this station is one of the oldest at
the islands. The first admissions were in the year
1825. The whole number admitted up to 1848 is two
thousand three hundred and thirty-nine. Number admitted the past year, in which there has been an unusual interest at all the stations on Hawaii, is seven
hundred and seventy-nine.   Mr. Thurston's labors
are more concentrated, and the care of his church requires less long touring than any of the churches on
Hawaii. Natives assert that by long use he has become so skilled in the vernacular Hawaiian, that they
can not tell his speaking from one of themselves, except by its being more full of thoughts. Probably for
195 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
that very reason, its idiomatic exactness, his preaching is less intelligible to a novus homo than that of
the younger missionaries.
It is a pleasure to abide a while in his orderly
household.  One feels to respond most fervently to
his frequent family prayer, That the Church may endure here so long as the sun and moon shall endure,
and to add to the petition that he may survive yet
many years, to behold its prosperity, and to see his
children after him useful and happy in the land that
claims them as the place of their birth.
Although no binding rule can be established, yet we
can not help thinking that, by virtue of the bond of
birth-place, and the implied consecration of parents,
the country where missionaries children are born, and
where their parents live and labor, and, it may be,
lay their bones, has the strongest claim upon them
also. And we can not help wishing that it had been
the rule or habit from the outset, in this mission especially, to bring up families and settle them here, in
sight of the people whom they came to bless.
We are well persuaded that, with the safeguards
adopted in missionary families here, it could have been
safely done, and with incalculable benefit to the nation
of Hawaiians. If compared with the New England
Puritans, the missionaries here are far better educated, and able of themselves to educate families, than
they were; and their children need no more return to
America to be educated than the children of the Pilgrims to Old England, excepting those who are to be
liberally educated, and they only when they had been
fitted for, and were of the age to enter college.
196 
HOME  EDUCATION  AT  A MISSIONARY  S. 197
After considerable observation, we are confident in
saying that the children of missionaries here know far
less of evil and more of good than the same number of
well-educated children in America. By means of a
purely home education, and that which is to be had
at the Punahou mission school, boys and girls may be
kept safer from contamination, and from imbibing evil,
than they can be if educated in schools in the United
States, and their characters will be more unsophisticated and natural; and they will be better fitted to
perform the duties of Christian men and women in
Christian society as it should be, than they would be if
reared in the United States. And you will hear some
of the most judicious mothers of this mission, after
their experience, say that they would rather have a
missionary's well-ordered home in Hawaii to rear
young children in than the circumstances of most
parents in America.
Why, then, might not the education of boys and
girls be here completed, under the eye and affectionate
regards of the natural parents, and with all the holy
affections and sympathies of unestranged brothers and
sisters, so as best to fit them for all the duties they
would have to perform here?  By the cordial intercourse and close union of different mission families,
the intimacies formed in early life would ripen into
happy alliances at adult age, and the posterity of missionaries might settle in and possess the land as farmers, mechanics, merchants, and teachers, and incumbents of honorable offices now filled by others.
Missionaries whose health failed them, or proved inadequate to severe missionary labors, as in several in. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
stances here, could devote themselves to rearing their
families, managing model farmns, teaching the children
of other families the mechanic arts, agricultural pursuits, and forming them to industrious manual labor
habits, and skill in the management of secular affairs;
while all along showing to the natives how families can
be reared, and made industrious, virtuous, and affluent.
Instead of which, as the custom is now, just as children are getting to the age when temptations are to
be withstood, when they could have classes in Sabbath schools, and when their example in favor of virtue, and industry, and filial piety are most needed,
they are separated from country, and home, and each
other, and sent off eighteen thousand miles to America, to complete an education which, except they are
intended for the learned professions, can be better completed here.
True, in this case the system of managing missionaries must be somewhat different. They should be
allowed to own property themselves, precisely like
ministers at home, and be put, in all respects, upon
the same footing, and be made more independent of a
board legislating so at arm's length and at such a disadvantageous distance. Approved farmers, builders,
and artisans should be sent out, who could now be of
immense service to the Hawaiians, and not less to the
families of the missionaries. And there should be provision for the support of invalid missionaries and orphans out here, where it can be done much more advantageously, at less cost, and with more benefit to the
Hawaiian people, and ease to the American Church,
than in America.
198 
THE BEST  WAY OF COLONIZING.
Communities would thus have been established all
over these islands; not of profligate, runaway sailors,
or men bent only upon gain, having no part or lot with
the people, and not caring whether they become extinct or are perpetuated, so long as they make money;
but, as there is good reason to believe, communities of
the intelligent and pious, loving the country as their
birth-place, and the residence and sepulchre of their
fathers, and loving the people as those for whom their
fathers had lived and toiled, to whom God had given
the Holy Spirit, and whom they had been educated to
pity and pray for, and try to benefit.
The mental discipline and acquirements of Mrs.
Thurston's daughters, obtained here, as evinced in the
memoirs of Lucy, show conclusively that girls, at least,
need not go to America in order to get an adequate intellectual education. And it will not, for a moment,
be denied by any one that domestic virtues and accomplishments can be acquired as easily at a missionary
mother's home as at a boarding school or missionary
friends' in America. The same holds true of boys, except where they are devoted to the learned professions.
There will always be cases of some returning, in
which friends in America will desire it, and take upon
themselves the expense and care of education. And
now and then, as missionary operations enlarge, there
will be whole families to return. But we can not help
thinking that such cases ought to be exceptions; that,
both as a matter of economy and wisdom, and in order
to secure to unevangelized nations all the benign results of the missionary enterprise, missionary families
ought to be brought up and settled among them, and
19t3 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
thus little missionary colonies be formed all over the
world. And a missionary couple ought to feel, when
they go to the heathen, that they go for life, they and
their posterity.
The example of well-ordered Christian families, of
children growing up around their parents obedient and
virtuous, entering into their labors, and becoming coworkers with them, like the sons of Drs. William Cary
and Scudder, in doing good, is what is eminently need.
ed, especially at such a time as this in the progress of
the Hawaiian nation. It was just as Mr. Thurston's
eldest children had learned the native language, and
were teachers in the Sabbath school, that they were,
as the natives expressed it, taken away and put out
of their sight, by being carried to America. Ought it
so to be? Does the well-being of the parents or the
future usefulness of the children require this sacrifice?
Perhaps we are mistaken, but we honestly and earnestly think not; and we can not help wishing that the
opposite experiment might be fairly tried here.
The knowledge which the world has obtained,
through the touching Memoirs of Lucy G. Thurston,
of the household influences under which that " daughter of the isles" was reared, makes it a thing not improper, but rather to be expected, that a visitor at her
island home would speak of those influences, and of
that system of home education and discipline, under
which she was trained, since the same is continued,
and may now be seen in operation with two other children that remain at home.
Mrs. Thurston had been a teacher in the United
States, and, since the first two or three years of her
200 
THE TWO EXPERIMENTS.
missionary life out here, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to her own children-more so, perhaps, than any other mother of this mission. She
felt that her first duty was the care of her own household, and with a most commendable assiduity, and a
tact and ability that increased by use, she gave herself up to the mental and moral culture of her offspring,
with a success of which the Memoirs of Lucy, to say
nothing of her other children, the subjects of the same
experiment, are a sufficient proof.
The book knowledge, discipline of mind, and solid
accomplishments acquired under the maternal roof at
Laniakea much exceed (if we mistake not) those generally obtained at schools in the United States. And
we are of opinion that, in the case of the daughters,
their education might have been completed, and a
preparation secured for almost any station which
woman is called to fill, in the self-same place where
so good a foundation was laid.
As wives for missionaries, it is not clear but that
missionaries' daughters would be all the better for
completing their education here, and never seeing the
land of their forefathers. But on that subject no
man, or body of men, has a right to impose upon parents a rule that shall be binding. We are merely
venturing an opinion as to what we deem possible and
best. It will go for what it is worth, which may be
nothing. But we can not help wishing to see the experiment tried, of settling and educating missionaries'
children on missionary ground.
Mrs. Thurston's daily plan with her children is to
devote every other half hour from early dawn to twi                        12
201 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
light to some form of mental employment.  The other
half hours are for amusement, exercise, and domestic
avocations, the time included that is spent at meals,
and at morning and evening family worship, which is
directly after breakfast and supper, the children removing the cloth, and placing upon the table the
hymn-books and Bibles, without their parents' rising.
Some of the half hours are spent in recitation; some
by Mrs. Thurston in reading to her children; some in
study and reading by themselves. Each of them
keeps a daily journal, their mother acting as their
amanuensis till they are able to write. Their father
instructs them in music and the languages, Mrs. Andrews in drawing, botany, and ornamental needlework.
Thus employed, I do not see that life with them is
any more monotonous, childhood any less joyous and
delightful, on this black, radiating lava, within sight
and sound of the glorious azure and everlasting roar
of the Pacific, and with nothing else in nature that is
pleasant to look upon but the morning sun as he
comes up over Mauna Hualalai, and the evening canopy of stars, than it is in the sweet fields of their father-land, "beyond the swelling flood," whose "living green" there are aching eyes would be glad just
now to see.
But then I can not help thinking that they sustain
a loss, or, more properly, forego an advantage, and
that the mind can hardly acquire that purity of taste,
refinement, and delicacy of feeling, or desirable sensibility to the sublime and beautiful, which a birth and
education among the more grand and lovely scenes
202 
ALIISON ON EDUCATION.
of nature are likely to insure. Nature and the human mind are made to each other; wisely and wonderfully are they adapted; and that man is likely to
be the happiest and best (other things being equal)
who has the most of nature's beauties for his birthright and daily observation, from infancy to old age.
It is of great consequence, says Alison, in the education of the young, to encourage their instinctive
taste for the beauty and sublimity of nature. "While
it opens to the years of infancy and youth a source
of.pure and permanent enjoyment, it has consequeinces on the character and happiness of future life,
which they are unable to foresee. It is to provide
them, amid all the agitations and trials of society,
with one gentle and unreproaching friend, whose voice
is ever in alliance with goodness and virtue, and
which, when once understood, is able both to smooth
misfortune and reclaim from folly. It is to identify
them with the happiness of that nature to which they
belong; to give them an interest in every species of
being which surrounds them; and, amid the hours of
curiosity and delight, to awaken those latent feelings
of benevolence and of sympathy, from which all the
moral or intellectual greatness of man finally arises.
" It is to lay the foundation of an early and of a
manly piety; amid the magnificent system of material signs in which they reside, to give them the
mighty key which can interpret them; and to make
them look upon the universe which they inhabit, not
as the abode only of human cares or human joys, but
as the temple of the living God, in which praise is
due, and where service is to be performed."'
203 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
There is a truth of universal experience in the first
stanza of Byron's magnificent Apostrophe to the
Ocean, which no teachers of youth, nor any who are
striving to build for themselves characters of greatness, should ever suffer to go out of mind.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society which none intrudes
By the deep sea, and music in its roar.
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet can not all conceal.
Bryant, in his Thanatopsis, expresses it better:
To him who, in the love of Nature, holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness) and a smile,
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings with a mild
And gentle sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware.
And Wordsworth, better than either:
Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her;'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy; for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.
204 
NATURE'S DISCIPLINE FOR THE SOUL. 205
And again, in the Poem of The Excursion:
Wisdom and spirit of the universe!
Thou soul, that art the eternity of thought!
And giv'st to forms and images a breath
And everlasting motion! not in vain,
By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn
Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me
The passions that build up our human soul;
Not with the mean and vulgar works of man,
But with high objects, with enduring things,
With life and nature; purifying thus
The elements of feeling and of thought,
And sanctifying by such discipline
Both pain and fear, until we recognize
A grandeur in the beatings of the heart.
This has been too long a chapter of glimpses and
echoes, some readers may say of moralizings, in which
I may seem to have wandered from the beaten track
of prose, and will not therefore go back, except to bid
good-by to the Kailua Thurston household, and to
wish them all success and joy in their honorable
work. That, we are persuaded, will not be wanting,
although the situation Providence has allotted them
does not combine all the advantages of genial natural
scenery that could be desired.
May the children left to this honored pair be as
full of promise and hope as she was whom God took
so early to himself. And may the parents live to see
every bud of promise blossom and ripen with generous fruit! 
rTIIE ISLAND WNVORLD.
CHAPTER X.
FRUITS OF FOREIGN INTERCOURSE, WORK OF THE  MIIS     SIONARY, AND DISABILITIES OF THE PEOPLE.
Like the shadows in the stream,
Like the evanescent gleam
Of the twilight's failing blaze;
Like the fleeting years and days,
Like all things that soon decay,
Pass the Indian tribes away.
Ah! the Indianl's heart is ailing,
And the Indian's blood is failing:
Red men and their realms must sever;
They forsake them, and forever!
I. M'CLELLAN.
THE celebrity which Kealakekua Bay acquired by
Cook's visit and death, and its being laid down, for a
long time, more accurately on the charts than any
other place, has caused it to be more or less visited,
from time to time, by whale ships and men-of-war.
I arrived here a few days ago from Kailua, and find
the anchorage good, so that vessels of the largest burden may ride safely at all times of the year, and reeruit with wood, hogs, sweet potatoes, and bananas.
Supplies, however, of every thing but wood are often
scarce and dear, and good water is not to be had at
all.
Foreigners have left the marks of their lust deep and
destructive in the constitution of the people, from Cap
206 
-~~3~~~~
fliew of Kealakekua Bay. 
11: -. - 
IMMORALITY AND MALADY.
tain Cook's ships until the present time. Seamen now
begin to have to smart for their lewdness, and it is considerably repressed. A case was tried a few days ago,
just after my arrival from Kailua, of a man belonging
to one of the ships now in port. Notwithstandiniig his
stout denial, he was clearly convicted, and compelled
to pay a fine of $15-that is, a barrel of oil. There
were two trials of the offender, and every effort was
made by his shipmates to evade the law; but the
Hawaiian judge and justice triumphed, and the captain, unlike too many of his fraternity who have visited these seas, was too conscientious and just to set
at naught the law, and refuse to pay the man's fine.
Disease here is rife, and some forms of it, consequent
upon the taint from licentiousness, are truly dreadful.
Cases of secondary syphilis are frequent, and horrid
syphilitic ulcers, such as are seen in those wards of
hospitals devoted to this class of diseases. From what
one sees who has much to do with their maladies, his
conclusion is, that the very national blood is so corrupted, the Hawaiian constitution so deeply, venomously diseased, and the habits of the people such, in
their living, and intercourse one with another, and
with lewd foreigners, that there is little hope of their
preservation and perpetuity as a race. Unwilling as
a benevolent man feels to admit it, yet must it be
acknowledged that all facts and reasonings look that
way. Unless there speedily ensue a great change in
the habits of the people, unless the youth be kept from
early vice and untimely marriages, and the married
learn chastity, the race will run out and cease to be.
There are causes at work, which, if they are not
209 
210            THE ISLAND  WORLD.
soon arrested, will insure national depopulation and
decay. Whether it is not even now too late to apply
a remedy; whether the national stock is not already
so much impaired as to preclude recovery, as in the
case of an individual who has ruined himself by his
excesses, and whose repentance comes too late, remains to be seen   Certain it is, they are dying off
fast, rotten with disease. Like sheep they are laid
in the grave. They seem to have little or no constitutional stamina to rally against the incursions of their
maladies, which are always aggravated, too, by neglect, or the want of proper nourishment and nursing,
and frequently by the villainous abuse of native doctors, who give large doses of emetic and drastic medicines, especially the seeds and juice of a certain gourd
that has often been known to produce death. What
is done for their salvation must be done quickly to be
of any avail, or they too will be written among the nations whom the sons of Japheth have dispossessed.
It will be worth while for some one here to note the
fate of those men who have infamously distinguished
themselves by the injury they have done at these islands, through licentiousness and rum, and by their opposition to the Gospel; from early navigators and the
English whaling captains, whose crews at different
times threatened the missionaries, and fired upon the
missionary establishment at Lahaina; and the American lieutenant, who disgraced himself and his nation's flag, by a licentious defiance of the law, and insults to God's ministers at Honolulu; down to loose
men and slanderers of the present day, whose mouths,
indeed, have been stopped, but who have not yet 
THE LIBELLED AND LIBELLERS.  211
passed off the stage. The record might afford an instructive comment upon three passages of Scripture:
Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be
unpunished; his mischief shall return upon his own
head, and his violent dealing shall core down upon
his own pate.- Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein; and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon
him.-A false witness shall not be unpunished; and
he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
We  are of the opinion that the missionaries have
been somewhat too sparing in their exposure and rebuke of infamous deeds and infamous living at these
islands; while at the same time they have had to bear
the brunt of all the blows struck in men's blind fury
at the gradual leaking out and disclosure at home of
their evil lives beyond the seas. It was not strange
that there should be wrath and revenge, to find that
there is no darkness, neither shadow of death, where
the workers of iniquity can hide themselves.
Men once thought to play the libertine in these seas
as they liked, to wallow a while in the sensual sty, and
then, after amassing property, to return to England or
America, and be accounted as faithful husbands and
reputable livers, as if they had been pure as Joseph all
their days. Some have been mad to find themselves
mistaken; and others equally angry that the moral
influence of missionaries has become so great upon
chiefs and people, that they can not now try the experiment, and give full swing to passion, as men once
could. This is the well-known, though under-ground
cause of all the opposition and slander missionaries
have here met with. The stale charges of persecu 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
ting the Catholics and meddling with government
were the mere raised letters in the stereotype plate,
to take t/he ink and be p inted, while vexation and
wrath at the restraints put upon the license they call
liberty were the metal bed in which the types were
fixed, and without which they could never be steady
enough to make an impression.
As to the charge of meddling with government, we
think it would have been much better for the nation
had it been truer,* and had missionaries much ear
lier been concerned in the councils and laws of the
kingdom. Nor do we see any good reason why they
should wish to avoid the imputation of being implicated in government measures that are good, any
more than Christians any where of being concerned
* With admirable good humor and satire, Mr. Bingham advised the
Oregon Mission after this wise, having an eye to men and things at
the Sandwich Islands:
In laying the foundations of learning, and religion, and civilization,
be wiser and better than your brethren in the Sandwich Islands;
and, unless he who contended with Michael the archangel about the
body of Moses be too strong for you, do not suffer a dozen or twenty
tippling-houses to follow you into the wilderness, and set up their
shameless standards in sight of the humble temples you build for God,
to compete with a less number of missionaries fifteen or twenty years,
in the struggle between light and darkness, lest some well-bred friend
of humanity should laugh at your ill success to convert the Indians
to a pure and elevated Christianity, to raise them to intelligence, sobriety, and dignity, and confirm them in a steady practice of their
duties to one another, to strangers, and to God.
Give the dying people now, as fast as possible, or as fast as they
can receive it, if you are able, the unadulterated word of God, in some
shape, and you need not shrink and tremble if some Horonite should
sneer at what you build, pretending that a fox would break down
your wall, or that it has already fallen by its own incumbency, because he fancied it could have no foundation.-Hawaiian Spectator.
212 
THE CHURCH AND THE STATE.
in politics (in the proper sense), to be interested in
which is one of the duties of a good citizen.
For ministers any where to avoid giving good advice to rulers, or proposing salutary laws, especially
in an infant state like the Hawaiian, merely because
some graceless Jacobins, for whose countenance or
discountenance a man of rectitude (mens sibi conscia
recti) does not care a straw-because they bawl out
" Priestcraft-Persecution-Church  and  State!"
would be no less a cowardly dereliction of duty than
unwise. As if a censor of Rome should forego the
privileges of his censorship, lest he should be thought
meddling with the duties, or aiming to unite with his,
the office of consul! Or, as if a free Roman tribune
should waive the rights of his tribuneship, lest, forsooth, he should seem to be grasping at the consulate!
We hold it to be as much the duty of ministers
nowadays to instruct kings and governors in the
law of God, to inform and rebuke them when wrong,
and to advise them to what is right, as it was the
duty of Jewish prophets of old. If this be meddling,
the more faithfully such meddling is practiced, the
better; and in this sense, we take it, the missionaries
at the Sandwich Islands have meddled, though not,
perhaps, as early or as much as they should have
done, for fear of the consequences. If this be all the
priestcraft among Protestants, the more of it the better; the sooner will the laws of men b)e molded by
the law of God, and human governments be brought
to a likeness with the divine.
It was meddling in this sense for the missionaries,
at their general meeting at Honolulu in 1848, in an
213 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
interview with the king, to remind him, as they did,
of the wretched estate of himself and his whole kingdom in 1820, and of the marvelous and happy change
which had been since effected, through the blessing
of God upon their labors as missionaries. Perhaps,
in the view of the United States commissioner, who
so gratuitously placed himself in an attitude of hostility to the Sandwich Island mission and government, it was meddling for the missionaries to draw
up and give to the world so complete an answer to all
fault-finders and traducers, and so triumphant a vindication of themselves and their work, as that which
is contained in the January number of the Missionary
Herald for 1849.
We thank them for that admirable document, and
none need be sorry for the occasion that has called
forth, and put on file, in the archives of the world's
history, so convincing a demonstration of the feasibility and success of the Missionary enterprise —a success which will be none the less real and true, though,
in the mysterious providence of God, the whole native
race expire just as it is Christianized.
The Church at Kealakekua numbers ten hundred
and eighty-nine, of whom three hundred and forty
were admitted in one year (1844). A substantial
stone meeting-house is completed, one hundred and
twenty feet long and fifty-seven wide, and things are
getting into a trim, settled way, that we can not but
think is full of promise, if only the Church hold its
own. The house is strong, commodious, and airy.
It would look more secure were it made with a hiproof instead of high gable-ends, which, being of bare
214 
THE HAWAIIAN SABBATH.
stone, without cornice or coping, and running up far,
like a tall isosceles triangle, look rather toppling and
precarious, and seem to say to earthquakes, Noli me
tangere.
The audience assembled on the Sabbath varies from
six to eight hundred. Many of them have procured
rude settees and stools,
Like that on which the immortal Alfred sat,
And sway'd the sceptre of his infant realms,
where they show themselves above the popular savage
posture on the ground. The Sabbath school of children before the morning service is an interesting one,
numbering two hundred and forty pupils. There is
another for adults between meetings, and the native
services are generally through by three or half past
three, in order that people from a distance may have
time to return home before nightfall. When ships
are in port, there is an English sermon in the afternoon at one of the mission-houses, and an Englishi
meeting always. There is a native meeting also at
the church, by bell ringing at early dawn, at which
one of the missionaries is generally present.
The resident ministers occupy the desk each half
the day when both are here; but Mr. Ives is often absent at Kealia, a place twenty miles to the south, accessible only by canoe, where there is a large church,
and a Sabbath congregation of four hundred, of which
he is constituted the pastor. Mr. Ives has a select
school of twelve promising boys, with whom he spends
three or four hours daily. Mr. Forbes has a school of
deacons, whom he has formed into a sort of theological
class, and is giving them systematic instruction on
215 
THE ISLAND IVORLD.
Scripture subjects, teaching them that they may teach
9thers.  The missionary ladies have weekly meetings
when their health will permit, the one of unmarried
and the other of married females. There is here also,
as at all stations where there are two families, a weekly prayer-meeting, which is made a pleasant season of
social intercourse, and often an occasion of much spiritual edification.
The families are separated by only a narrow lane,
whose walls on e:-.,h side are covered with the nightblooming Cereus, which no one that has seen it in its
glory will be slow-to acknowledge as the most splendid of flowers. There is much more of verdure here
than at Kailua. Considerable soil has been scraped
from the lava, and brought within the two inclosures;
and fig-trees, acacias, pride of China, anetto, the passion flower, and other flowering shrubs and vines, freely exhale their fragrance and beauty, and more than
pay for their attendance in shade, and odors, and smiles.
Heaven oftener pours on them a reviving shower than
at Kailua, and sun and dews here shed selectest influence, and, with the alternating gentle land and sea
breezes, form a climate which, though warm and dry,
is singularly salubrious.
All water for common purposes has to be brought
fromn brackish springs at the sea-side, nearly a mnile
off. That for drinking is brought from pools up in the
mountains, two or three miles, except when.it can be
caught from transient rains. The village of Kealakeklua is by the sea-side, and thus at a desirable distance
from the mission-houses. The meeting-house is on
a rising ground, midway between them, conspicuous
216 
PROCESS OF BUILDING A CHURCH. 217
from the sea to ships, and to those who approach the
town inland from Kailua, over a precipice six or seven
hundred feet high, the perpendicular face of which, all
pierced with caves that have been conduits of molten
lava, and latterly depositories for the dead, forms the
head of the bay. Over it, they say, is the track of
some god in Hawaiian mythology, as he went up to
heaven from below, whence the place has its name,
Ke ala ke akua-the path of the god.
Mr. Forbes's own sketch of the process by which his
church edifice was raised to its present standing shows
the way in which missionaries have to accomplish such
works in Hawaii nei. " The building is one hundred
and twenty feet by fifty-seven on the outside, laid up
in stone and lime, with side walls twelve feet high,
and lathed and plastered overhead in the form of a
hollow half hexagon. The whole cost of the building
can not be easily computed. But I think we could not
have erected it for less than $6000, had every thing
been paid for. In the first place, every stone had to
be carried by Church-members about one eighth of a
mile to the building. This was gratuitous labor.
Our lime had then to be obtained in the following manner: The coral was taken from the sea, and, as there
are no reefs here, it was procured from the bottom, in
from ten to twenty feet water, by diving down, detaching a piece, and, if large, ascending to take breath, and
then descending again with a rope which they make
fast, and draw up the mass.
"In this way the coral was laden, then rowed ashore,
and the coral piled on the beach. Thus all the limestone was procured, about thirty-six cubic fathoms in
K 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
all. It was then to be burned. For this purpose they
had to procure more than forty cords of wood, every
stick of which was carried from the mountain, from
one to two miles, on the shoulders of Church-members.
After the wood was got and the lime burned, it still
had to be taken from the beach to the building, about
one quarter of a mile. This was done by the women,
in calabashes, each one filling her calabash with lime,
and carrying it on her shoulder to the building; in all,
about seven hundred barrels. In like manner, they
carried full as much sand, and about an equal quantity of water, carried solely by the women in calabashes.
This labor of female members was entirely gratuitous,
besides many contributions in other ways.
" Then the plates, beams, sills, rafters, and posts,
which support the work overhead, joists, lath, thatching grass, &c., were still to be got. This fell on the
men, of course; and, as we had no cattle to drag
large sticks, such things not being owned by any person who is a member of my Church, the male Churchmembers divided themselves off into companies, according to the size of the stick to be dragged down;
and taking with them ropes, each company selected
their stick, going up in the mountain by daylight.
The posts and beams required from about forty to
sixty men for each stick. Generally, they got down
the stick by dark, after much toil, over beds of lava
and ravines. The distance was from six to ten miles.
In this way all our timbers were obtained. Some.
times I went with them myself to encourage them,
and found that by the time we reached the place
where the timbers were, we had performed quite a
21S 
MISSIONARY ZEAL-HAWAIIAN DOCILITY. 219
fatiguing morning's journey, besides being benumbed
with the cold, and thoroughly wet with the dew on
the fern and underwood through which we had to
make our way.
"To pay the workmen who laid up the walls and
did the carpenter work, the members of the Church
each subscribed according to his ability, some ten
dollars, some five, some two, and some one. This
they paid in whatever they could that the workmen
would take. Some paid in hogs, some in fish, some
in potatoes, some in turkeys, fowls, and goats. Some
in tapas and malos, and a few in cloth and money.
The usual monthly contributions at our concerts averaged about fifteen dollars from the females alone.
" Thus we have a comfortable house of worship, the
fruit of the people's own industry and voluntary
effort. It has been to me a vast burden of care and
anxiety, during the two years of its erection. I have
had to superintend the whole process, and many times
to lay out and correct the work with my own hands;
and many a hard hour's labor have I spent on it in
various ways."
Unless there had been this ungrudging expenditure
of the missionary's time, and skill, and resources, I
am sure, from the knowledge I have obtained of the
people's poverty and ignorance, this Christian temple
would never have been reared. It is, then, a monument at once to the missionary's zeal and the Christianized Hawaiian docility; and great is the joy of
both in its completion. The poor people and the energetic pastor may alike be proud of it; let not posterity forget through what and how it has been realized 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
By going round, of late, into the miserable wigwams
of natives, in order to visit and administer medicine
to the sick, I have been deeply affected by the destitution and distress almost every where to be seen.
With an observing eye it is, as it were, taking the
gauge and dimensions of human misery in this part
of the world. Rev. Mr. Armstrong was right in saying, six or seven years ago, that the whole nation is
wretched and poor. The common people, he said, are
distressingly so.  "There is not one man, woman, or
child in ten, throughout my Church, that would not
be regarded as a fit subject for a poor-house, or an
object of charity in Massachusetts. More than half
of a common man's gains goes to the government, and
the other half is not half sufficient to support half his
family. Besides, the people lack skill, enterprise, and
industry to such a degree, and lie under so many restrictions, that their temporal prosperity, and even
their existence as a nation, is altogether problematical."
Mr. Forbes's testimony to the same point, his people's exceeding poverty at the time his meeting-house
was built, is yet more specific. You can have but a
faint idea, he wrote, after all I have said, of what
this effort cost us-the building of his meeting-house.
" You must keep in mind all the time, that there are
not forty families in the Church whose whole wardrobe and household furniture, taking it together, would
amount to more than twenty dollars. The whole property of a family, in this region, usually consists of a
canoe to about one family in three, worth from ten to
thirty dollars; a hog or two, and a few fowls; a grass
220 
THE PEOPLE S POVERTY.
house, worth from ten to forty dollars; a few mats,
in value perhaps three or four dollars; a few calabashes, say worth two dollars; a shirt apiece for each
male, and sometimes one pair of pantaloons; one
loose-dress for each female, with a few tapas to sleep
in. They rarely have seats in their houses, and still
more rarely any dishes or pots, except one wooden dish
for the whole family. Their mats form seats, tables,
and often beds.
" Axes are very rare. A few of them have fish-nets,
and but here and there one. A few of them own
goats; perhaps twenty persons in the whole district
of four thousand souls, who own twenty goats apiece.
There is not one native blacksmith among the whole
four thousand who can purchase bellows and tools.
There is not a native carpenter who owns a set of
tools, to my knowledge, on this island, the population
of which is thirty thousand, or more. Here and there
one owns a saw and an adze; rarely any, however,
except canoe-diggers, and the tools they have usually
belong to some chief, for whom they work. A few
of them have doors to close the entrance to their
houses. But a lock is almost as rare here as a comfortable dwelling."
Mr. Forbes adds, furthermore: " Let it not be said
I have given a highly-colored picture. I believe facts
will bear me out in all I have stated. Many a one
pays fish, fowls, or something which he values at fifty
cents, to get him a New Testament, when lie has absolutely not got clothes to cover his back. Yet it will
not do, in ordinary cases of poverty, to give books gratis. They would sell them for fish, and speculate,
221 
THIE ISLAND WVORLD.
and the next day come and buy again. The people
are poor, and lazy, and oppressed; yet they are greedy
to get work for cloth. When they know I have a
little cotton cloth on hand, they will often make application for work so often, that I am tempted to devise something for the poor wretches to do to get a
shirt; but my restricted means oblige me to say to
hundreds, I have got no work for you. They will
sometimes hang about the door for hours, in hopes
of employment, to get just cloth enough to make a
shirt.
"You will say, Let them cultivate the soil. True;
if some benevolent persons would only settle among
them, for the purpose of teaching them how to make
the most of their soil, and, when done, take the products and make a market for them, I believe much
of the laziness and poverty of this people would vanish in a few years. But missionaries can not, dare
not, ought not to enter on such experiments. It would
require too much of their time and energies, and bring
down on their enterprise a double portion of the slander already heaped heavily on them."
To this inventory of property, of correct application
to the mass of people on this island, it should be
added that most families have a potato or kalo patch,
or both, and some banana-trees growing up in the
country, which furnish them with the food not supplied by the sea. Their supply is by no means abundant or regular, through laziness and want of thrift.
Often, after feeding a few days to the full, a Hawaiian family will go entirely without food for one or two
days, or more, until compelled to bestir themselves to
222 
,C' USES O1,' MOiTtTA LIT''\-.
fish, or dig, or beg.  They are generally to be founil
either quite full or quite empty; and a poor Hawaiian's hunger has often to be stayed upon moss and
roots, and muscles or snails. The curse of the whole
nation, perhaps after all the greatest reason for its
wasting away so fast, is found in this indolence, indulged, probably, more now than when the nation was
a nation of savages, and the people had to work more
for the chiefs, and the women were more occupied
than now in making kapa.
So much for Hawaiian poverty. As to mortality
from disease, Dr. Andrews, of Kailua, made an effort,
a few years ago, to ascertain what proportion of children survive the period of infancy. The result was
to show that more than one half die under two years
of age, and a very considerable proportion of these at
a period of from six to twelve months; while the
deaths among children of the mission, of all ages, do
not exceed one seventh of the whole.
To those acquainted with the habits of Sandwich
Islanders the cause of so many early deaths is plain.
It is to be found in insufficient clothing, or, as is often
the case, in an entire destitution of covering, in improper food, and want of cleanliness. It is the practice of natives to feed their children at a very early
age, and often from birth, with poi, raw fish, seaeggs, sea-weed, and whatever else they themselves
eat. The consequence is indigestion, dropsy, diarrhea, and other complaints. Disease having supervened, no alteration is made in the diet, but a mistaken kindness indulges the sufferer in every thing
his appetite craves, until death closes the scene. With 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
such treatment the wonder is, not that so many perish, but that any survive.
As to disease among adults, with the exception of
malignant fevers, I do not see but that its forms are
as common and various as any where. The representations we had heard made in America would
make us believe that there were no diseases out here
indigenous, but only those consequent upon licentiousness, and that a prudent man need hardly die here
at all, except of old age. Too much, it is true, can
not be said in praise of the climate of certain localities of this favored group. But how wide representations like those referred to are from the truth, a
catalogue of native names for maladies and pains
would alone show. They are too numerous and specific to detail here. It is enough to say, that wherever sill is found, and especially in a rude country as
Hawaii nei, where the remedy of the Gospel is not
applied until long after the inoculation of the native
stock with foreign vice and virus, there are found disease and death in all their Protean forms, more numerous than " the monstrous crew" which Michael
in vision showed to Adam,
That he might know
What misery the inabstinence of Eve
Should bring on men.      *       *
~*  *     *  ~All maladies
Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture,
Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
Intestine stone and ulcer, colic-pangs,
Demoniac phrensy, moping melancholy,
And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy,
Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence,
Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheims.
224 
A HINT TO THE LIBERAL.
The three last of this list, together with palsies,
partial madness, dysentery, and disorders of digestion,
are especially common. Many die of induced phthisis, and consumption of the lungs is frequently the
termination of long ailments. But hereditary or tu.
bercular phthisis is, it is believed, never or rarely
known. A missionary kauka (doctor), among Hawaiians, is generally a very popular man, and has it
in his power to do much good. But one can have
little pleasure or consolation in merely administering
medicine, while their exposures are such, and their
habits of living so at variance with the laws of
health, and there is such an utter want of knowledge
and means to nurse the sick. The missionary families do in this line, perhaps, all they can; but that,
with other work pressing, is necessarily very little.
There ought to be a hospital on every island, in
which natives might be supplied with the means, and
taught how to take care of the sick. Any benevolent
man in New York or Boston, who is amassing his
thousands, could make no better investment of some
of them than in founding hospitals for the native race
at these islands.   The blessing of the poor, and of
many ready to perish, would come upon hin, and he
would cause the widow's heart to sing for joy. Such
a boon is naturally to be expected from the United
States, on the principle that the man who has once
greatly befriended us will be most likely to do so, if
need be, again.
To America, under God, the Hawaiian nation owes
the Gospel. Would that they could, in like manner,
be indebted to her benevolence for their temporal sal                       K2
225 
THE ISILAND WORLD.
vation and perpetuity as a race! Will not some generous Man of Ross that reads these pages take the
hint?  Let Carlos Wilcox, though dead, yet speaking at these ends of the earth-let the Cowper of New
England instruct us as to the blessedness of such an
investment, and urge its philanthropic realization upon
some unknown reader with whom God may have in
trusted the means, and whose heart shall be " finely
touched," like a Howard's or Lyman's, to this "fine
issue."
ROUSE to this work of high and holy love,
And thou an angel's happiness shalt knowShalt bless the earth while in the world above;
The good begun by thee shall onward flow
In many a branching stream, and wider grow:
The seed that, in these few and fleeting hours,
Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow,
Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers,
And yield thee fruits divine in heaven's immortal bowers.
-226 
HA XVAIIAN  PI C-NIC.
CHAPTER XI.
A BARBECUE WITH THE NATIVES, CORAL-HUNTING, AND
MEMORIALS OF KAPIOLANIo
DowN in the depths of the lonely sea
I work at my mystic masonry;
Ages behold my ceaseless toil,
When the sea is calm or the waters boil;
The kraken glides from my prickly home,
And there the tribes of the deep ne'er come.
I've crusted the plants of the deep with stone,
And given them coloring not their own,
And now on the ocean fields they spread
Their fan-like branches of white and red.
Oh! who can fashion a work like m e,
The mason of God in the boundle's sea.
Anon.
I HAVE been out recently with native divers, hunting for coral, and on an excursion with the missionary
families to Kealia, the diocese of Mr. Ives. Our early
departure in canoes by torch-light, hearty greetings by
naked barbarians on shore, landings in the surf, exploration of a lava-dripping stalactite cave, and pitching
in native tents, would have a pleasing dash of the romantic, were it not for the sundry inconveniences of
getting wet and dirty, flea-bitten, and robbed of rest;
all which, and other nameless items of discomfort, do
considerably abate the edge of a man's relish for such
excursions, after he has once had a little of a missionary's experience in that line.
However, meetings with the natives were pleasant,
227 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
especially with a large number of fine-looking, clear
olive-colored boys and girls. Mr. Forbes interpreted
to them my aloha, and a few words of congratulation
and counsel. How we would like to introduce them,
with their Hawaiian skin and costume, and bright
eyes, to a Sabbath school in London or New York!
They are merry as boys any where now; for in this
mild climate nature, in spite of neglect, and dirt, and
ill-feeding, will have children happy as long as they
can live. Would that they could hold their joyousness always.
My weary soul they seem to soothe,
And, redolent ofjoy and youth,
To breathe a second spring.
Different as childhood here is from childhood in
England or America, yet I often think of passages in
Gray's Ode on a Prospect of Eton College, when I
see a troop of Hawaiian boys and girls rush out of
school, whooping and laughing, and down to the sea
to play and bathe.
Gay hope is theirs, by fancy fed,
Less pleasing when possess'd;
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast.
Their's buxom health, of rosy hue;
Wild wit, invention ever new,
And lively cheer of vigor born;
The thoughtless day, the easy night,
The spirits pure, the slumbers light,
That fly the approach of morn.
Alas! regardless of their doom,
The little victims play;
No sense have they of ills to come.
No care beyond to-day.
228 
HAWAIIAN HOSPITALITY.
Yet see how all around them wait,
The ministers of human fate,
And black misfortutne's baleful train.
Ah! show them where in ambush stand,
To seize their prey, the murderous band.
Ah! tell them, they are men.
The natives entertained us with true Hawaiian hospitality, giving up for our own use one ample house,
whose owners were not at all to blame for the fleas
and cockroaches that disputed our possession, by right
of pre-emption or pre-occupancy, like a squatter in the
West. In the evening they went, literally, the " whole
hog," burning off his bristles by fire, stuffing him with
red-hot stones, and then clapping him into their oven
all buried and swaddled with ki leaf. A while after,
the porker was brought in smoking, with all his natural juices, on a large wooden tray, much, probably, like
the Israelites' kneading-troughs, which they bound up
in their clothes upon their shoulders when they went
up out of Egypt. The head and some other parts were
forthwith severed, and served up to the men that came
with us. They presented a singular, gipsy-like spectacle while eating round a fire in an out-house, of which
one end was exposed, and showed them in the reflected
fire-light like a company of banditti feasting after a foray, or a party of the vagabond tribe described by Cowper in the skirts of a wild wood in " Merrie England:"
A kettle, slung
Between two poles upon a stick transverse,
Receives their morsel-flesh obscene of dog;
Or vermin, or, at best, of cock purloin'd
From his accustom'd haunt.  Hard-faring race!
They pick their fuel out of every hedge,
Which, kindled with dry leaves, just saves unquench'd
229 
THE  ISLAIND WORLD.
The spark of life. The sportive wind blows wide
Their fluttering rags, and shows a tawny skin,
The vellum of the pedigree they claim.
This barbecue was followed by a Hawaiian hymn
and prayer, after which we bivouacked, and composed
ourselves all together for the night, so far as a constant
fight with fleas, roaches, musquitoes, and musquito
hawks comports with composedness.
We embarked, on our return, by friendly morning
star-lig,ht, and, by dint of paddles and land breezes,
reached Kealakekua by eight o'clock, hardly bested,
and hungry. A native dove repeatedly for coral where
the water was fifteen or twenty feet deep, and so clear
and still that he could be seen below dislodging the
coral, or indistinctly creeping along upon all fours on
the bottom, like some great marine quadruped. He
brought up a number of pieces of brain-coral, that were
of a beautiful carnation tinge when first taken from
the water; others of the horned and branching, and
some red and yellow, and also a number of sea hedgehogs (echini), full of little spicule, and several anomalous creatures covered all over with red blunt horns,
that used to be employed in the South Seas for slate
pencils. Others were armed with a great many long,
sharp, needle-like spines, each of which seemed endued with the power of motion.
Almost every body has dreamed some time or other, like Clarence, of being in the heart of the deep,
and seeing 
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearls,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea;
230 
WVond,,rs of tli(, Deep
,..  4
: I -.l.
I
I-.11 - __v,. 
, t.:
"I,
ee, 
*?  
tee*er
_a 
WONDERS OF THE DEEP.
And, as in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,
That woo the slimy bottom of the deep.
But dreams are realities here, for when the sea is
still, you can put your eye close to the water from a
canoe, and look down thirty or forty feet among the
knolls and copses of coral, and see, beautifully defined
in robes of gold and Tyrian blue, the various fish that
swim noiselessly, and have their dwelling among the
submarine shrubbery.
With a skill you can not help envying, an expert
fisherman will sometimes mark one of the larger fish
for his prey, suddenly dive down with his spear, and
capture the unsuspecting freeholder of the deep in his
own secluded domain; where, if fishes have codes of
laws, one of them probably is the maxim that goes so
current among men, that every man's home is his castle. With Cowper,
I never ask'd Jean Jacques Rousseau,
If fish confabulate or no.
But I have no doubt, if they do talk, that they call
the fishing kanakas worse pirates than the Hawaiians do English Paulet or French La Place. It is
doubtful, however, whether there be a fishy tyrant in
all the realms of Neptune that makes so free with
his subject's wives as the former, or exacts so heavy
a tribute as the latter. Notwithstanding all the enemies fish have, I think, if the balance were nicely
drawn at these islands between the disabilities of
those who live in the water and those who live on
the land, the latter would be found to have much the
heaviest list of grievances. So that the subjects of
Neptune may thank their stars that they are not the
233 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
subjects of men, like the poor Hawaiians, and exposed to the insults of every lewd naval pirate, whether set on by French Jesuits, and coaxed by a brandy-loving, missionary-hating party, as La Place; or
hooked in the nose by men of consular rank and Protestant name, as his English lordship; or the admirals of the magnanimous Republic of 1849, Du Petit
Thouars and Tromelin.
If the plebeian denizens of the deep on these coasts
had the right of petition, they would, probably, pro,(test as earnestly against the encroachments of Hawaiian fishermen, as Kamehameha III., and Kekauluohi,
his premier, did against the illegal acts of Hon. Lord
George Paulet, and his Lieutenant John Frere. And
they would, doubtless, hail an aquatic deliverer as
gladly as the whole Hawaiian nation did the advent
of the excellent English Rear-Admiral Thomas, and
his restoration of the AUPUNI (kingdom) to whom it
rightly belonged. Very likely it was with an eye to
some such events and acts elsewhere, as have been
enacted within late years at the Sandwich Islands
that Barry Cornwall said, satirically,
When you catch
A trout, who has the right, and who the law?
Why, you, who are the strong. If he could rise,
And shake his tail against your lawful right,
He'd say, All this is'gainst our marine laws!
You rascals on dry land invade our realms
By wrong, and by no law. Yout send abroad
No proclamations; prove no injuries;
Quote no good reasons; no specific-code;
But straight, when you desire some trout to eat,
You pounce upon us with your barbed hooks,
And treat us worse than we were Africans
We'll not endure it.
234 
REMIN  ISC ENCES  OF1   A  PRINCESS.. C) )5
About two mniles inland from the steep volcanic
cliff, at the head of this bay, where we have been
gathering coral and deriving a parable from trout,
and fifteen hundred feet above the sea, is the notable
place called Kuapehu, first chosen as the site for the
missionary station on this part of Hawaii. It has its
name from looking, as seen at sea, like a humpback.
Mr. Ruggles, one of the first missionaries, built a
house and resided there for some time; but his successor moved down nearer to the sea, for the greater
salubrity of climate, and in order to be nearer to the
majority of the people. The families now go there
occasionally for a change of air, as the inhabitants of
cities resort to the country.
The distinguished chief woman, Kapiolani, built a
fine stone house near by the old meeting-house, and
resided there for some time, living decently and in order to the day of her death, an ornament of religion,
and a wonderful trophy of the grace of God. She entered more fully into the views and sympathies of the
missionaries, and imbibed more from them, than probably any other convert ever did at these islands,
whether of the chiefs or common people, excepting,
perhaps, blind Bartimeus. She interested herself in
the missionary's American friends, shared with them
the pleasure of foreign letters, and was in all things
the sympathizing mother and friend.
She had a large and generous heart. In her tours
among the people, she would visit the hovels of the
poor and sick, and supply them with kapas, and mats,
and food.  Her soul, too, followed hard after God.
His word she hid in her heart, and by it confounded 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Popish priests and foreigners, when they dared to
confront her. They say that often in the night she
used to waken her women that were by, to pray for
the king, then dissolute and unpromising, that he
might be turned to the pono, the way of righteousness.
Captain Finch, of the U. S. ship Vincennes, when
here in 1829, called upon her one evening, and took
tea, in company with Rev. Lorrin Andrews. He was
to leave port that night, and had fixed the time when
he would be on board; but the hour came and passed,
and yet another, and found him still detained at the
table of this interesting woman, listening to the details of her history and experience, and admiring the
propriety and truly lady-like ease and courtesy with
which she entertained her guests. At length he said
he must reluctantly leave, but not without saying
through his interpreter, Mr. Andrews (from whom I
have the story), that he had not spent an evening so
agreeably since he left his own family in America.
The lives of Kaahumanu, and Hoapili, and Kapiolani should, ere this, have been written, and have become the property of the Church and Hawaiian nation, which their lives so honored after they embraced
Christianity.
Kapiolani died in peace on the 5th of May, 1841.
Her pastor then said of her that her life was a continual evidence of the elevating and purifying effects
of the Gospel. " She was confessedly the most decided Christian, the most civilized in her manners,
and the m6st thoroughly read in her Bible, of all
chiefs this nation ever had; and it is saying no more
236 
CARLYLE'S SOUTH  SEA HEROINE.   237
than truth to assert, that her equal, in these respects,
is not left in the nation. There may be those who
had more external polish of manner, but none who
combined her excellences. She has gone to her rest,
and the nation has lost one of its brightest ornaments."
It is of Kapiolani that Carlyle tells this story, in the
course of one of his volumes of Cromwell's Letters and
Speeches: A certain queen in some South Sea Island
I have read of in missionary books, had been converted
to Christianity; did not any longer believe in the old
gods. She assembled her people; said to them, " My
faithful people, the gods do not dwell in that burning
mountain in the centre of our isle. That is not God;
no, that is a common burning mountain-mere culinary fire, burning under peculiar circumstances. See,
I will walk before you to that burning mountain; will
empty my wash-bowl into-it, cast my slipper over it,
defy it to the utmost, and stand the consequences!"
She walked, accordingly, this South Sea heroine, moved to the sticking-place, her people following in pale
horror and expectancy. She did her experiment, and
I am told they have truer notions of the gods in that
island ever since. Honor to the brave who deliver us
from phantom-dynasties in South Sea islands and in
North!
The facts of this truly heroic experiment are these,
as detailed substantially in Bingham's Sandwich Islands, the best authority. Early in 1825, five years
after the first landing of missionaries on Hawaii, this
strong-minded and courageous woman, seeing the spell
ivhich held many of the people in superstitious awe of 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
the volcano, resolved, of her own accord, to visit the
great crater of Kilanea, the residence from time immemorial of the great Goddess Pele, and to set at naught
her tabus, and dare her fires.
In order to accomplish this, she must make a journey of about a hundred miles, mostly on foot, from
Kealakekua to Hilo. This bold design was, of course,
opposed by almost all around her, some fearing she
would bring into contempt the regard they sacredly
cherished for Pele, and others dreading the danger to
her own person from attempting to break the ancient
tabus of the Hawaiian Vulcan. Even Naihe, her husband, whose powerful person and oratory might be sup.
posed almost to set him above fear, yet not having his
mind wholly freed from the shackles of superstition,
was unwilling to do what she proposed, and felt an indefinable repugnance to his wife's thus exposing herself. But doing all she could to reason away their
apprehensions, she perseveringly pursued her course.
In approaching the region of the volcano, she was
met by a prophetess claiming authority from Pele herself, and solemnly warning her off from those sacred
grounds, and predicting her death from the fury of the
goddess if she should dare invade her domain with the
feelings of hostility and contempt which she professed.  "Who are you?" demanded Kapiolani.  "One in
whom Ke Akua dwells," she replied.  "If God dwells
in you, then you are wise, and can teach me," said
Kapiolani: " come hither and sit down."  After some
urging, she complied.
Refreshments were kindly offered her, but, in the
haughtiness of her assumed dignity as a supernatural
238 
PRIESTESS AND PRINCESS.
being, she said, "I am a god; I will not eat."  Hold.
ing in her hand a piece of bark cloth, she said, "This is
apalapala (writing) from the Goddess Pele."  "Read
it to us," said Kapiolani; and, when the prophetess declined, she resolutely insisted on her proving that she
had a book or writing from the god by her reading it.
Then cunningly carrying out her device, and, with unexpected presence of mind, holding the cloth before her
eyes, the prophetess poured forth a torrent of unintelligible words or sounds, which she would have them
believe were in the dialect of the ancient Pele.
Then Kapiolani, producing her Christian books,
said to the impostor, "You pretend to have received
and to deliver a message from your god, which none
of us can comprehend.  I have a palapala as well as
you, and will read you a message from the true God,
which you can understand." She then read several
passages, and called her attention to the character,
works, and will of the great Jehovah, and to Jesus
Christ as the Savior of the lost. The haughty proph.
etess quailed; her head drooped, and her garrulity
ceased. She confessed that Ke Akua had left her, and
she could not, therefore, reply. The oracle being silenced, the deluded prophetess herself joined in the
repast; the conviction of Kapiolani that she ought to
proceed was strengthened, and, true to her purpose,
she went forward.
The missionaries at Hilo, hearing that Kapiolani
had set out to visit them, were desirous to meet her
at the volcano, and one of them accordingly traveled
on foot twenty-five or thirty miles, till he joined her
retinue on the brink of that stupendous wonder of the
239 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
world. Kapiolani was much affected on meeting there
a missionary coadjutor, and, accompanied by him, with
a train of about eighty natives, she descended from the
rim of the crater to the black ledge.
There, in full view of the terrific panorama before
them, the effects of an agency always appalling, she
calmly addressed the company thus: " Jehovah is my
God. He kindled these fires. I fear not Pele. If I
perish by the anger of Pele, then you may fear the power of Pele. But if I trust in Jehovah, and he shall save
me from the wrath of Pele when I break through her
tabus, then you must fear and serve the Lord Jehovah.
All the gods of Hawaii are vain. Great is the goodness of Jehovah in sending missionaries to turn us from
these vanities, to the living God and the way of righteousness."
Then, with the terrific bellowing and whizzing of
the volcanic gases, they mingled their voices in a solemn hymn of praise to the true God; and at the instance of the chiefess, Alapai led them in prayer, while
all bowed in adoration before Jehovah, as the Creator
and Governor of all things. The great God of heaven
heard their prayer. Kapiolani and her party went
down courageously on that truly heroic mission, for
so worthy an end, into that vast fire-eaten pit, called
Lua Pele, and came up therefrom unharmed.   The
spell was broken; the dread Pele-tabu was violated
with impunity; and the death blow was given to the
tyrant superstition, which had hitherto brooded over
the Hawaiian imagination like a nightmare in a long
reign of terror.
"Here was heroism (says the historian) of a more
240 
NOBLE EXAMPLE.
sublime and immortal character than that which
rushes to the battle-field. Here was a philosophy
which puts to the blush the pride of pagan Athens
and Rome, whose philosophers would risk nothing in
suppressing idolatry, though they admitted its pre tensions were unfounded. Here was a movement
which, in its character and consequences to a nation,
was not unlike that of the sublime preacher on Mars
Hill, whose'spirit was stirred in him when he saw
the whole city given to idolatry.' What visitor to
the great Kilauea has ever gone there with a nobler
object, or to better purpose, than did this noble princess, on her first becoming established in the Christian faith?"
The narrative states, that after this transaction, so
important in its bearing upon the system of Hawaiian idolatry, Kapiolani and her party proceeded to the
missionary station of Hilo the following day. On
their arrival at night, with feet swollen, and lamed by
the long and weary traveling, this Christian princess
would not rest till she had secured lodging for all her
company and had united with them in evening worship. She told the missionaries she had come to
strengthen their hearts and help them in their work;
a practical help which they at once began to reap the
benefits of; for she went about, while there, doing
good; and not a person, it was said, came into her
presence without receiving her Christian counsel or
reproof; and her salutary influence in favor of education and reform was long felt in Hilo after she had
returned home to Kuapehu.
Here she resumed her energetic administration;
L
241 
242            TIF. ISLAND  WCORLD.
and to the day of her death she was a firm promoter
of good morals and religion, both by her own blameless example, and her impartial enforcement of the
law upon others, both natives and foreigners.   It
once happened that a sailor belonging to an Americall ship was arrested and put in prison, having been
convicted of the offense for which persons were sentenced to labor on the roads of Hawaii. The captain
of the ship waited upon Kapiolani, and threatened to
fire the village unless the sailor should be instantly
released.  " Here is my law," said Kapiolani; "the
sailor shall pay the fine of fifteen dollars, or he shall
work four months on the roads-the same as his associate in guilt. Now, if you have the force, fire the
village; but while Kapiolani lives, her law shall be executed in her country." The captain was obliged to
pay the fine, in order to obtain the release of the sailor.
For these cherished memorials of Kapiolani, and
others which I have learned of the truly Christian
princess, I love to linger at Kuapehu. All its memories are green, and its vegetation too, unlike what is
seen at the bay, is very abundant, by reason of frequent rains and lack of tendance, as in Eve's garden,
To repress wanton growth, running to wild,
And keep from wilderness.
The indigo and guava, first planted there by Mr.
Ruggles, have made a dense dwarf forest all about.
The anetto, fig, peach, mango, lime-tree, and others,
have a luxurious growth within the inclosure; but
interloper rats and mice get most of the fruits, and a
great terrapin turtle, who will walk off with a man 
AN ORIGINAL GEM.
on his back, is the LOCUM TENENS and landlord of the
place.
Near by is a luxuriant shading grape-vine, which
possesses not a little interest, when one comes to know
that it was the occasion of a beautiful Hawaiian mele,
song, from the aged chief woman, Kekupuohi, one of
the wives of Kalaniopuu, the reigning king of Hawaii
when the island was first visited by Captain Cook.
She was on a visit to Mr. Ruggles when she composed this song, the portion of which following is
found translated in the Memoirs of Lucy G. Thurston. It is worth preserving, as a specimen of the old
style of Hawaiian poetry Christianized, and suggested, probably, to the mind of this ancient survivor of
heathenism by the New Testament figure of Christ
as the true vine.
Once only hath that appeared which is glorious;
It is wonderful, it is altogether holy;
It is a blooming glory; its nature is unwithering;
Rare is its stock, most singular, unrivaled,
One only true vine.  It is the Lord.
The branch that adheres to it becomes fruitful;
The fruit comes forthfruit; it is good fruit,
Whence its character is clearly made known.
Let the branch merely making fair show be cut off,
Lest the stock should be injuriously encumbered;
Lest it be also, by it, wrongfully burdened.
This woman was said, in the days of heathenism,
to have been the wahine of some forty different husbands, and of several of them at the same time. Upon
hearing the Gospel, she was one of the first on Hawaii
to give heed to it, and to befriend its teachers.   In
her eagerness to learn to read the word of God, she
243 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
entered school as a pupil; but from her advanced age,
her dullness, and unretentive memory, she found it
difficult to get even the alphabet, so as to remember it.
Before she could read at all, the missionaries, having the supervision of thousands, advised her to give
up the attempt to learn. But not satisfied with remaining unable to read the Scriptures, and choosing
one of her younger female attendants for her teacher,
she strenuously persevered till the mystic art was acquired, and the palapala hemnolele (sacred writings)
became thenceforth her daily companion to the end of
life. Reared in the untold depravities of heathenism,
and continuing therein to old age, as if to prove that
nothing in the line of human regeneration is too hard
for grace divine, she was then chosen to illustrate the
transforming power of the Gospel, by putting on
Christianity as a conscientious Christian, and dying
at last with good hope in Christ.
How true now of this heavenly metamorphosis of a
gray relic of idolatry are those lines in The Task, that
proclaim the nature and necessity of such a change
in every son and daughter of Adam!
The still small voice is wanted.  He must speak,
Whose word leaps forth at once to its effect;
Who calls for things that are not, and they come.
Grace makes the slave a freeman.'Tis a change
That turns to ridicule the turgid speech
And stately tone of moralists, who boast,
As if, like him of fabulous renown,
They had, indeed, ability to smooth
The shag of savage nature, and were each
An Orpheus, and omnipotent in song:
But transformation of apostate man
244 
SCENES IN THE WOODS.
From fool to wise, from earthly to divine,
Is work for Him that made him. He alone,
And he by means, in philosophic eyes,
Trivial and worthy of disdain, achieves
The wonder; humanizing what is brute
rn the lost kind; extracting from the lips
Of asps their venom; overpowering strength
By weakness, and hostility by love.
From Kuapehu one may ride, by a horse-path, three
or four miles up into the mountain, through belts of
gigantic ferns and brakes, that have formed, in their
decay, a very deep and rich vegetable mold. It is
matter of curious interest to the traveler to mark the
progress and change of productions with the different
zones, till you get into the region of koa forests, from
which the natives procure their canoes, and timber for
all other purposes. One admires there the tangled
woods and mosses, and wild bowers made by the con
volvuli and other larger vines o'ermantling both decayed and living trees, as in the woods of Florida and
Louisiana. Birds, too, carol there with joy, secure
from molestation by Indian's arrow or hunter's rifle.
I have visited a little school in the woods not far
from that region, where the instructor was knowingly
teaching geography by a globe he had made out of a
calabash; covering it over with cotton cloth, then
marking meridians, parallels, and names with ink and
native dyes, and besmearing all with a coat of varnish
(to keep it from being devoured by cockroaches) made
of a native gum they call pi-lali, not unlike gum Arabic. His earth was considerably flattened at the poles,
and rather too pursy at the equator; but for all that,
it turned easier on its axis than many a fat alderman
245 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
could on his heel, whom ease and good living have
formed into an oblate spheroid, not unlike the honest
Hawaiian teacher's earth.  I have no doubt many a
bright-eyed, tawny urchin, the Flibbertegibbet of his
native village, will learn more from it of the round
world he treads on than was ever known to Aristotle
or Plato.
246 
THE PILGRIM PARTING.
CHAPTER XII.
CANOEING BY SEA AND SURVEY OF VOLCANOES BY LAN]}
WINGs have we, and as far as we can go
We may find pleasure; wilderness and wood,
Blank ocean and mere sky, support that mood,
Which with the lofty sanctifies the low:
Dreams, books are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good.
Hence have I genial seasons, hence have I
Smooth passions, smooth discourse, and joyous thought:
And thus from day to day my little boat
Rocks in its harbor or puts out to sea.
WORDSWORTH.
LIKE a bird of passage, again am I on the wing,
spirits refreshed and health recruited by nestling so
long in the happy missionary dove-cot at Kealakekua.
Four days ago, at one o'clock in the morning, my boat
and I put out again to sea from that quiet harbor, where
pen, and books, and prayer, and confiding Christian
converse, together with true hospitality, combined to
constitute one of those genial seasons in the life of a
traveler which are like a pilgrim's rest in one of the
arbors erected by the Lord of the Way.
The memory of this grateful episode in my life's
drama, and of the friends that made it so, will be always fresh and green. How could it, then, be otherwise than with reluctance that I resumed my wanderings, though under favorable auspices, and corn
mended to God and the word of his grace by those
247 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
with whom I had been so pleasantly sojourning? A
double canoe, especially when loaded with boards as
this was, affords quite a comfortable conveyance for
one or more passengers. The boards were piled on
much as they are wont to be upon the deck of a " down east" or Hudson River lumber sloop, away up above
the vessel's rail. My place was on the top of them,
where one can lie at length and sleep, if he like, and
is not afraid of being rolled off into the sea.
A double canoe is composed of two single ones of
the same size, placed parallel to each other, three or
four feet apart, and secured in their places by four or
five cross-pieces of wood, curved just in the shape of
a bit-stock. These are lashed to both canoes with the
strongest cinet, made of cocoa-nut fibre, so as to make
the two almost as much one as some of the double ferryboats that ply between Brooklyn and New York. A
flattened arch is thus made by the bow-like cross-pieces
over the space between the canoes, upon which a board,
or a couple of stout poles laid lengthwise, constitute
an elevated platform for passenger and freight, while
those who paddle and steer sit in the bodies of the canoes at the sides. A slender mast, which may be unstepped in a minute, rises from about the centre of
this platform, to give support to a very simple sail,
now universally made of white cotton cloth, but formerly of mats.
It was comfortable sailing all the day along the cavernous lava-coast of Kona, sometimes within hearing
and sight of great funnel-shaped blow-holes in the
rocks along the shore, by which the spray of a great
waves and even stones, would sometimes be ejected
248 
NIGHT AND MORNING.
with great force, and a noise much louder, but not
unlike, that of a spouting whale. At night the natives would not be kept from putting into a little bay,
between out-jutting masses of lava, and dropping anchor there-they alleging that the wind would be
ahead, and sailing dangerous, but, in reality (I think),
more to enjoy a comfortable sleep, which all Hawaiians love only next best to eating poi. I endured for
a couple of hours, unwittingly catching a nap myself; then a few repetitions of Ala! and Hoe, hoe!
broke their slumbers, and we again made sail.
Morning light found us on the borders of the county of Kau, right opposite where there rise up, a hundred and fifty or two hundred feet, several conical hills
of volcanic sand and cinders, and which seem to be
the basins of extinct volcanoes. The early hour, and
stars fading in the light of dawn, made me call to
mind those fine lines of Dana:
The silent night has passed into the prime
Of day-to thoughtful souls a solemn time.
For man has waken'd from his mighty death
And shut-up sense, to morning's life and breath.
He sees go out in heaven the stars that kept 
Their glorious watch, while he, unconscious, sleptFeels God was round him, while he knew it notIs awed-then meets the world-and God's forgotSo may I not forget Thee, holy Power!
Be ever to me as at this calm hour.
We touched at a landing-place for the natives to
eat, and to take in a new paddler before meeting with
the violent trades which are felt in coming from leeward some time before reaching the southern point of
Hawaii.   Some wild girls there seemed very glad to
L2
249 
250            THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
show their boldness in leaping from precipices into
the sea. They swam around us, as we lay off a little ways, to avoid the outrageous surf, like so many
Nereids. as much at home in the realms of Neptune
as ever the Peris were, or any of that fabulous train,
the maids of the sea, that graced the court of Thetis.
By dint of vigorous paddling against a strong wind
and current, we got to Kailikii some time before noon.
It was near this that two of the missionaries in the
year 1828 had well nigh lost their lives. They arrived in a double canoe like ours, and as they doubled
a point of land in this vicinity, the trade-winds suddenly struck them unprepared.  It was like Paul's
ship falling into a place where two seas met; for between the swell from the south and the current and
wind from the north, the waves dashed over their canoe and nearly swamped it, and they were rapidly
swept to sea. By vigorous baling and paddling, however, the natives succeeded in making the canoe buoyant and manageable again, and bringing it in to the
nearest landing-place. But there the surf was rolling ashore so roughly that the danger was imminent
of dashing the canoe to pieces, and leaving their own
mangled corpses on the jagged lava-rocks. The natives, therefore, determining to coast along further,
and the missionaries not daring to proceed, they leaped into the water as a wave retired, and through God's
goodness secured a standing on the rocks before the
sea returned.
The canoe passed on, but was soon overwhelmed
and wrecked by the furious billows; but the natives,
buoyant as a bladder, rose to the surface and strug 
ESCAPE  AND  PURSUIT.              251
gled for the shore. Through their unequaled power
of endurance in the water, and their skill in the surf,
they all escaped alive, although two of their number
were drawn out by the others bruised and insensible.
Their valuable canoe, belonging to Kuakini (Governor
Adams), was entirely destroyed. When afterward
the missionaries and captain of the canoe narrated the
facts to Kuaklini, and feared that he would demand
indemnification for his loss, he merely asked if all on
board escaped alive, and, being answered in the affirmative, he tersely replied, not surely in the temper
of a Shylock, which he has sometimes been said to
be, but in the true spirit of his noble sister, Kaahu1manU, " I A.I SATISFIED"-UA OLUOLU.
At our landing-place we descried, away over a precipice three or four hundred. feet high, a man and a
horse, kindly sent there for me by the missionary,
Rev. Mr. Paris, who was apprised of my being at
hand, and had been led to expect my arrival that day.
I forthwith started alone across a stream of ancient
lava, about a mile wide, that intervened between the
precipice and the sea, hoping to be seen and waited
for by the man with the horse. Climbing the pali,
from which the plain had been severed and sunk in
the throes of some earthquake, was a desperate work
for one fasting, and by no means well. It was so very
like a picture of the Hill Difficulty, which I remember in an old boyhood edition of the Pilgrim's Progress, where "Christian fell from running to going, and
from going to clambering upon his hands and knees,"
that, if these islands had been known, one might almost think the designer had traveled through these 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
parts. But it is doubtful whether Bunyan's imagin.
ation, or even Milton's, ever conceived of abrupt precipices, or sunken pits and plains, like those which
earthquakes have rent, and volcanic fires have eaten
here in Hawaii.
Reeking with perspiration, though as much divested of clothing as one well could be without becoming
a kanaka niaole, I at length reached the top, and was
met by a blast of the trades as fierce as if old Boreas
himself were riding them. The wall-eyed Hawaiian
who had charge of the horse had not seen us, and, supposing the canoe was not to come that day, had put
about for home. All that was to be seen of them was
their trail in the loam and sand, which I had nothing
else to do but to trudge after as best I could, with all
patience and philosophy, in the teeth of the wind and
a drizzling rain. It was twelve or fourteen miles to
Waiohinu:
Hills peeped o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arose,
before I got there; but a warm reception and a warm
bath did much to dispel fatigue, while a wheaten loaf
and a tumbler of rich goat's milk, equal to any the
patriarchs ever drank in the land of Uz, exercised the
digestive faculty enough to allay hunger and renew
the strength.
I had the pleasure of being the first lodger, and tak.
ing the first meal wifh the family in the mission house,
which is altogether the best contrived and most commodious we have seen in all the mission. It is a frame
house, of two stories, having five rooms, and an entry
through from side to side, below stairs, and four rooms
252 
MISSION PREMISES OF WAIOHINU.  253
above, besides a large garret for lumber and stowage
room. The kitchen is of stone, directly joining the
house, and of a commodious size, being the room in
which the family have been living ever since the sta tion was taken in 1842. Although the largest and
best built, it will probably prove one of the most economical houses in the mission, as there will be.no necessity of after additions, which have made almost every other house, built small and stintedly at first, on a
meagre appropriation, a constant bill of expense, and
at the sacrifice, too, of all proper plan and symmetry.
The house is situated at the head of a valley, just
at the foot of very high and abrupt hills in the rear
and on one side, and a more gentle declivity on the
other. The trades blow in upon it strongly, and, from
its relative position to the hills that attract the clouds,
it receives a great deal of rain. It is five miles from
the sea in a direct line, and twelve or fifteen hundred
feet above it. There is all about great vegetative luxuriance. A brook, from which the place derives its
name, Waiohinu, or sparkling water, runs directly
through the inclosure, but a foot from the kitchendoor. By a location one half or quarter of a mile
lower down, a better climate would have been secured, and much rain avoided, but with the loss of the
water privilege, and a fine view of the sea now commanded from the front veranda.
It remains to be seen whether health will be affected by the dampness caused by almost daily showers. The sun generally shines out so clear both before and after, and water passes off so readily through
the cavernous ground, that it may not be felt.  But 
254           THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
the climate is singularly different from that which is
found five miles off by the sea side, or even only two
miles lower down. Thus, in a ride recently through
fishing villages, and over a tract along the sea where
they make salt by evaporating sea-water in the natural pans of the lava, while we were melting in the
sun, we saw it raining heavily before us at Waiohinu, but reached the house without a wetting by a
little after six, to a well-spread supper-table, and a
cheerful fireside, whose light streamed out of the windows as we approached, and made me think more
of fireside scenes in dear New England than any
thing yet met with in Hawaii nei. May that gracious Being, who is at the same time a God near and
afar off, befriend that home in the heart of a Northern winter, which has been so vividly brought to
mind!
Probably this is the first Christian fireside whose
light has ever gleamed in Kau, and seldom will it be
needed in such a climate, except to cheer some tired
traveler, or make home more dear to the missionary
husband and father, when he is waited for by the patient wife at evening, returning, wet and weary, from
work in his wide sheepfold.  Other fire light there is
no lack of in a region like this, which used to be the
play-ground of the primeval volcanic element itself.
Old Kilauea's lurid glow can be seen here every night
from the northern windows; and earthquake shocks
are frequent enough to afford lively mementoes of the
internal fires over which this part of Hawaii is but ani
oven-like dome, whose crust may any where slump
and admit the egress of the pent-up fiery flood. 
LAVA-CAVE EXPLORED.
From the tops of the grassy mountains in our rear,
themselves once the overflow of a crater, there may
be always descried the pillar of smoke that hangs
over the volcano by day, fifty miles off. Molten rock
once flowed as freely behind the house as the sparkling
waters do now, from which the place has its name.
It would be no strange thing should it gush again in
a metallic stream from the bowels of the hill near by,
and it would find a sluice-way ready made to disgorge
by, even a cave through which it ran of old, whose
open mouth you can look into from the back door.
We visited the other day a large and deep subterranean gallery, about six miles from Waiohinu, which
was once a sluice-way to the sea from some pent-stock
of liquid lava further inland. The way to it was a
novel one, over rough, unworn lava, and for a while
through a dense growth of the wiliwili and ohi trees.
The one is a wood almost as light as cork, of which
the natives make the outriggers to their canoes. The
latter is more like the white beech of an American
forest than any thing I have seen at these islands,
where you look in vain for the majestic, pillar-like
growth of centuries, that forms one of the grandest
features in a country where all the works of nature
are in a corresponding style of magnificence.
The gallery we went to see opens at a deep pit,
made by the falling in of its roof in that part. It is
about fifty feet high at the entrance, and the descent
is steep for several yards. We found within a woman washing kapas, with her child,- by fresh water that
drops from the vault into calabashes. Proceeding further, we found a fort, consisting of a wall thrown up
255 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
across the way where it went between steep rocks.
Behind it were places leveled off and built up for sleep ing. It was resorted to by the natives in time of war.
We lighted a lantern, and explored for some rods,
finding here and there, in the crevices, shells and sea eggs, and pieces of bone, left, probably, by natives liv ing there in time of siege. Rocks have from time to
time been dropped from the roof in earthquakes, and
the bottom is the most jagged and irregular possible.
How far under ground it goes, rock-ribbed and vast,
it is impossible to say-probably several miles, up to
the place whence issued the last eruption. A quarter of
a mile nearer to the ocean the same cave opens again,
and, descending to about a level with the sea, there is
found a pool of water, as at the cave in Kailua, in which
one of our natives soon waded beyond his depth.
There is nothing beautiful, but much that is titanic and sublime, in the silence, and gloom, and vastness
of such a place, where you stand, seemingly, in the bowels of the earth, along where liquid fire has flowed ages
ago, and where earthquakes have dislodged vast fragments of rock from the ragged roof. It was, in the
language of the natives, a kupainaha, a mighty wonder of Jehovah, where a man must be insensate and
stupid indeed who does not call to mind and adore
that great God in whose hand are the deep places of
the earth; where, in view of the vestiges of Omnipotence, we can only adopt the language of men awestruck and inspired by God himself: Lo, these are a
part of his ways, but the thunder of his powuer who
can understand!  Dr. Watts, in his hymns for infant minds, expresses the idea of God's omnipresence
256 
LESSON FROM CAVES AND VOLCANOES. 257
so admirably for the maturest, that I never enter such
a place but that I think of it:
If I should find somnle cave unknown,
Where human feet have never trod,
Even there I should not be alone;
On every side there would be God.
To live almost any where upon this part of Hawaii, and especially to go to the volcano, and observe
there, as at a great safety-valve or escape-pipe, the
vast force and intensity of this earth's internal fires,
makes one feelingly realize how easily that dread catastrophe, foretold in the Scriptures, can be consummated, when the heavens being onfire, shall be dis.
solved, and the elements shall melt wvith fervent heat;
the earth also, and the works therein, shall be burned
,up.
Volcanoes may be held as a collateral, standing evidence to the senses, to render, naturally and physically, probable that dread event which the Bible makes
sure.  Herein do we see the treasures of fire KEPT IN
STORE and pent in the bowels of the earth, constituting
there
A capacious reservoir of means,
Form'd for God's use, and ready at His will,
waiting only the signal word and the predestined moment to leap out and wrap in fiery ruin earth, air,
and sea, which are said in Scripture to be reserved
to fire against the day of judgment andl perdition
of ungodly men.
Aside from revelation, it is proved, by the researches of geology, that the physical history of our globe 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
has included more than one chaotic convulsion. It
has once, at least, already undergone a fusion by fire,
as well as an universal submersion by water.* It
I What, asks Tayler Lewis, in his Phi Beta Kappa Discourse on Naturalism, what is this marred and still chaotic earth on which man
dwells, that after so many geological convulsions she should be supposed to have reached a harbor where she is secure from all danger of
any future wreck; or to have arrived at a state in which there is to be,
henceforth, an everlasting onward movement unto all physical excellence? In other words, what is there in her present anno eternitatis,
the present epoch of her paleontological chronology, to shield her from
the apprehension of any future Plutonic fires, or outburstinlg floods,
or continents upheaved, or oceans settling down, such as have begun
and ended many a cycle in the long past periods of her interminable
history?
Lecturers on astronomy sometimes attempt to prove the stability
of our world and of the universe. That may be if God wills it. A
belief grounded on the divine word or promise would be in the highest degree rational; but science never has shown it, and never can
show it. Neither does it require any great amount of science to detect the fallacy of the pretended demonstration. It all proceeds from
applying to a part of the phenomena of the universe (a very small
part, too, even when we take into the account the utmost the telescope has ever reached) what can only be sound and conclusive when
it embraces all actual and all possible phenomena, and then, too, only
by bringing in something above nature as a regulative force.  The
animalcule in the snow-flake (supposing him capable of scientific reasoning) might as rationally infer the perpetuity of his own crystallized
habitation. He has all the arguments that can be drawn from the
most perfect beauty and regularity of structure; all that can be drawn
from the laws of equilibrium; all that can be drawn from what might
seem the most exquisite harmony of means and end. Its form, too,
and its organization may have remained unchanged for long centuries
in some polar latitude; and yet how brief a transition to another climate may reduce it, together with the iceberg universe, of which it
forms a part, to a state of utter dissolution. From any objection arising out of the minuteiness of the comparison, we appeal to one of the
most rigid formulas of the pure reason. The largest differences between parts become small, beyond all commensurable ratio, when
both are viewed in reference to an immeasurable whole. The snow
258 
SPECULAIION AND SCRIPTURE.
may, then, naturally speaking, without any other evidence than this collateral line of proof furnished by
the present existence and activity of volcanoes, it may
include in its future history another period of fusion
by fire, when, by the gradually advancing vehemence
of its vast central furnace, the pent-up energy of internal combustion shall exceed its ancient bounds, and
get vent as never before. Then how easily, in the
space of a week or a day, might it destroy all the
structures of the earth's surface, and leave nothing
undissolved that is of the nature to be molten by intensity of heat.
Such, then, it is a remark of Isaac Taylor, in the
Physical Theory of Another Life, being the probable
fate of this planet, and perhaps of others of the system,
" it is what we are to be looking for; and our position
is like that of the occupiers of the vine-valleys on the
trembling flanks of Etna or Vesuvius, whom we may
imagine to have been informed, or to know on some
rational grounds, that by the slow but incessant enlargement of the fiery abyss beneath them, the entire
crust and frame-work of the mountain must, within
some calculable period, fall in, and the vast circuit of
its base be converted into a sea of flame and sulphur.
On just such conditions do the human family tread,
from age to age, the soil of their native planet."
With what reasonableness and force, then, does Peter argue, Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy
flake has a greater ratio to the earth, that is, is a greater part of the
earth than the earth is of the universe.-A Discourse on Naturalisn.
By Tayler Lewis, LL.D., Schenectady.
259 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
conversation and godliness; looking for and hastening
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, when fire
shall have purged the old. That final purge will come
(none know how soon), when all things are ripe for
the dread consummation, though it be at such a day
and hour as we think not Then, as we are instructed in one of Milton's early dramas,
Even that which mischief meant most harm
Shall in the happy trial prove most glory:
But evil on itself shall back recoil,
And mix no more with goodness: then, at last,
Gather'd like scum, and settled to itself,
It shall be, in eternal restless change,
Self-fed and self-consunmed; if this fail,
The pillar'd firmament is rottenness,
And earth's base built on stubble.
260 
THE TRUE IIAPPINESS.          261
CHAPTER XIII.
A DIAMOND IN THE  ROUGH-HOWV IT WAS  QUARRIED;
WVITH NOTES ON ITS LOCALITY AND ASSOCIATES.
No man e'er found a happy life by chance,
Or yawn'd it into being with a wish;
Or, with the snout of groveling appetite,
E'er smell'd it out, and grubb'd it from the dirt.
YousG.
He is the happy man, whose life e'en now
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come;
Who, by Love divine and perfect Wisdom,
Appointed to a state obscure but useful,
With it is pleased, and, were he free to choose,
Would make his lot his choice.
COWPER.
IN the great scheme of Providence there is a niche,
prominent or secluded, for every man to fill; there
is a circle of usefulness and enjoyment for every one
to revolve in, without infringing on any other, if he
can but find it. Happy is he who early in active life
gets into it; who traces the round of labor, where
Providence has cast his lot, with cheerfulness and
alacrity, his time divided by a wise method, and duties running orderly into duties, but no more clashing with each other, or crowded out of place, than
the hours are jostled or trodden upon by one another
in their everlasting rounds.
I have found several such niches and spheres of 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
motion exactly filled at these islands, whose occupants, if free to choose, as free they have been under
God for their guide, would make their lot their choice.
They are, consequently, useful and happy, and the
whole world of mankind feels their benign influence,
although to a casual view it might seem not to extend at all beyond the narrow circle they steadily
move round in. When Shakspeare makes Portia say
to Nerissa, in the Merchant of Venice,
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shinies a good deed in a naughty world,
he happily utters a truth, of which I have several
times been certified by exemplification, in the course
of my travels through this far land. There are candles shining here, whose rays, because we would like
to see them beaming to the ends of the earth, we do
therefore gather up as we go, and endeavor to reflect
them from the pages of this book.
Even the district of Kau, though distant and unknown to the great world, has its own  lamps, both
native and missionary, by which I have discerned
some things in mental philosophy and theology clearer than I had seen them before, and have found practical confirmation of other truths by instances of no
little value.
Thus there is a fine saying of Augustine, which I
have often pondered, and which every man who has
truly learned the Gn6thi Seauton of the ancients has
found the truth of, namely, that a man must first descend into the hell of his own heart before he can ascend to the heaven of God.  That is, plainly, a man
262 
THE ANXIOUS BARBARIAN.
must have let down the sounding lead and line into
the abyss of his own heart's depravity; he must have
done something toward taking the gauge and dimensions of its misery and sin; he must have seen how
near he is to the roaring rocks and quicksands of ruin;
yea, he must have heard the surf beating upon the
lee-shore of perdition, and have seen the white caps
gather and flash upon the gloom of his night, before
he will put his helm hard down, wear ship, and stand
about for heaven.  And then, alas! how often is it
too late: mast and yards go by the board; the ship
misstays, and becomes a fearful wreck; and, distracted with agitation and alarm, the poor procrastinating
soul is cast upon the rocks and lost in the breakers
of opening eternity.
Ah! of how many a sailor especially this is only
the condensed history. But it was not so in the following instance, which we have learned at Waiohinu.
One day, soon after his settlement in Kau, when Mr.
Paris was away from home, and his wife could as
yet understand but little of the native tongue, a very
wicked and strong man came into the rude grass house
where they lived, without knocking, and sitting down
upon the mat-floor with nothing on but his kapa
(loose blanket, made by pounding out the inner bark
of a tree to the thickness of coarse paper), he fastened his eye upon Mrs. Paris, as she was tending her
young babe and overseeing her household. He stared
upon her very strangely, without speaking, gloomy and
sullen as a thunder-cloud.
A native servant-woman with her said, " The man
wants you to speak to him." " But I know not how,"
1
263 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
said she, "or what to say;'" and there the brawny
barbarian still sat in gloom, gazing steadily, and following her with his lowering eye till she was frightened. At length the fixed, inquiring look of those
coal-black eyes, and the despairing, gloomy face of
the tawny Hawaiian, compelled her to ask him, in
his own tongue, " Heaha kona manao?"-what was
his thought. Oh! he said, with a deep groan, he was
hewa-a sinner.  " And what were his sins?"  He
was hoomanakii-an idolater; he had stolen, aihue;
he was a murderer, had spilled blood, pepe-hi kanaka;
he was an adulterer, moekolohe. " And where are
you now?" asked Mrs. Paris. He answered, trem.
bling all over, " UA LILO, UA LILO"-" I AM LOST, I AM
LOST!"
Then, taking up his word as her clew, and led, she
believed, by the Spirit of God, she told him, in the
best broken native she could summon, the good news
that Christ came to seek and to save those that are
lost-the very persons that were lilo like him; and then,
turning to her English Testament, she pointed him
to those corresponding passages in the Hawaiian that
tell of Christ as the Savior of sinners, and had the
native woman with her read them there to the darkminded, conscience-stricken barbarian, till he gathered comfort from the words and went away relieved.
He was soon hopefully converted, finding Christ,
and joyfully believing the words, The Son of Man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost, and
himself, therefore, as one of the lost. He has held on
well to the present time, and has been made a deacon
in the church, and the hand of this rescued barbarian
264 
LESSONS OF EXPERIENCE.
of Kau, now sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed, and
in his right mind, has grasped mine with a cordial
aloha.
Thus it is that all human experience shows alike,
whether Jew or Greek, barbarian or Scythian, bond
or free, that fallen man must feel himself to be ruined before he can be saved; a captive before he can be
delivered; a slave to sin and Satan before he can be
set free; lost before he can be found of Jesus Christ.
One must experimentally find himself to be blind before he can truly see; deaf, before he can truly hear;
poor, before he can become rich; sick, before he can
be made whole; weak, before he can be really strong;
dead in trespasses and sins, before he can truly live.
The thunders of God's violated law must have been
heard rolling; its vivid lightning flashes must startle
the soul; and the avenger of blood must be heard close
at the heels, before there will be a swift flight of the
awakened, immortal man to the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world.
The evil of sin must have been keenly felt by him.
Its plague spots and livid hue must have been noticed
by the sinner upon his own soul, threatening, like the
gangrene of mortification, a speedy dissolution before
he will have recourse to the only Physician that can
do him any good. Then how quickly, if not too late,
will the burdened spirit fly to Christ, just as a tired,
panting bird will to the tender hand and bosom that
offers it shelter.
Even as in these tropic seas I have seen the beautiful flying-fish, when chased by the dolphin, spring
suddenly from the water and skim along the waves,
M
265 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
and light sometimes upon parts of the ship, so must
the soul, pursued by its sins and the avenging law of
God, leap at once, as for its life, into the outstretched arms of that Savior who is able, as he is willing,
to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God
through him.
How truly, though quaintly, it was that Giles
Fletcher said of this all-sufficing Savior for savage
and sage:
He is a path, if any be misled;
He is a robe, if any naked be;
If any chance to hunger, He is bread;
If any be a bondman, He is free;
If any lie but weak, how strong is He;
To dead men life is He; to sick men health;
To blind men sight, and to the needy wealth;
A pleasure without loss, a treasure without stealth.
The county of Kau, in which this gem has been
quarried from the dark caves of depraved humanity,
forms the eighth and southern division of this island,
and it is the most remote and secluded of all the missionary fields. Not a foreigner lives here, and travelers very seldom pass through, except missionaries.
The number that will go to the volcano by this way
will undoubtedly be much greater, now that there is a
hospitable house where will be afforded the entertainment and help which travelers need, and missionaries
know so well how to bestow. The district is thinly
peopled, and the inhabitants much dispersed. Mr.
Paris is sometimes absent from his family on tours
eight and ten days, though never so far away but that
lie can be summoned, in case of sickness, by t spe.
266 
PLACE FOR A MINISTER.
cial messenger, and get back in twenty-four or thirty
hours.
At Punaluu, which is twelve miles from this by a
good horse-path, there is the largest village; and a little stone house has been half built there, in contemplation of its being a missionary station, the probable
residence of an associate missionary family, when one
shall be granted from the next re-enforcement. It is a
pleasant place on the sea-board, in view of romantic
hills and recesses inland, and having several lakes of
brackish and fresh water, that were dammed up some
years ago from the sea by an eruption of lava. It has
an atmosphere, also, of remarkable purity; and were
it not for the strong trades which generally blow, the
difficulty of getting supplies there, and its remoteness from all the rest of the world, it would be a
most desirable place for missionary residence and
service.
To some, the very objections alleged against it
would be circumstances in its favor, as presenting a
clearer field to do good in, unopposed by corrupting
foreigners, whose influence at these islands has been
hitherto so rarely of the right sort that a missionary
would, on the whole, much rather be without it. Were
I going to labor here for the native race, and allowed
to choose my field, it would be on the Island of Molokai, or in some of the secluded districts of Hawaii,
the furthest possible from places frequented by foreigners. Those missionaries may, we have thought thus
far, be deemed the happiest in their missionary work
who have the least to do with any others but Hawaiians.
267 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Not far from this village there is a beach that used
to be famous for having stones that propagated their
kind. It also supplied the stones for native adzes, before they were acquainted with iron, those which they
employed in slinging and playing at konani, and the
very idol gods themselves that presided over the Hawaiian games.   Thus, with a strange, besotted blindness, characteristic of man every where without the
Gospel, like that which Isaiah so keenly satirizes in
the idolaters of his day, with one stone they made a
hatchet to cut down a tree, or dig out a canoe; with
others they played at drafts; another they put into
slings, and its mate they made into a god and worshiped it. The residue thereof he maketh a god, even
his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver
me, for thou art my god.
Or, if the plastic, god-making material be a tree, it
is all the same.-Then shall it be for a man to burn,
for he will take thereof and warm himself; yea, he
kindleth it, and baketh bread; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied; yea, he
warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have
seen the fire; then he maketh a god, and worshipeth
it; lie maketh it a graven image, and falleth down
thereto. And none considereth in his heart, neither
is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have
burned part of it in the fire; yea, also, I have baked
bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh and
eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof an abom.
ination? Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?
He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned
268 
PROCREATIVE STONES OF NINOLE. 269
him aside, that he can not deliver his soul, nor say, Is
there not a lie in my right hand?
Ellis, on the authority of the natives, who fully believed in the procreative powers of these stones, says
that some powers of discrimination were necessary to
discover the stones that would answer to be deified.
When selected, they were taken to the heiau, and
there several ceremonies were performed over them.
Afterward, when dressed, and taken to the place where
the games were practiced, if the parties to whom they
belonged were successful, their fame was established;
but if unsuccessful for several times together, they
were either broken to pieces or thrown contemptuously away. When any were removed for the purpose of
being transformed into gods, a pair of them were wrapped very carefully together in a piece of native cloth,
and duly married.
The people of this district no longer believe in these
follies or practice these games, and the stone-begetting stones of Ninole are not sought after as they once
were. With their idolatry, they have thrown away
the most of their foolish superstitions. But the Gospel has not yet greatly bettered the external condition
of the mass of them, nor has it taught them industry
or thrift. They are, many of them, miserably poor,
while the country back is foodful; living in leaky,
narrow grass houses, hardly fit for a dog-kennel, or
sometimes in caves, and dens, and holes of the earth.
From numerous old walls, marking the former divisions of kihapais (cultivated plats), and other evidences of extensive cultivation, it has once supported a
much larger population than now. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
They manufacture here a good deal of the mamaka-kapa, and send it to Hilo and Kona. It is the
strongest and most highly prized native cloth, beaten
out of the bark of the paper mulberry (hibiscus). The
numerous specimnens sent home by missionaries have
made it familiar to almost every one, as well as the
process of pounding it out from the inner bark of the
tree. They also drive a few hogs and goats eighty
miles to Hilo, live there a while, according to Hawaiian custom, upon their maka-makas (friends), get some
of their cotton cloth in the way of presents, and then
return, to have the same friends come in due time to
live on them, and take off some of their kapas and hogs.
This system of makana, as it is called, is very injurious to thrift and enterprise.  The missionaries,
perhaps, do all they can to break it up; but immemorial usage on Hawaii, and public sentiment, make
it very niggardly for a Hawaiian to refuse any thing
to his friends, who are very sure to be pretty numerous
if a man has considerable waiwai (property) on hand.
Few yet dare be so singular as to be called mean,
though there is now and then one, and he is the man
who is familiarly said to be looking up in the world,
and getting forehanded. At sea-ports the value and
uses of property are better known, and it is, consequently, somewhat less readily parted with: individuals are more avaricious and less liberal to their
friends, and the ancient regime is almost abandoned.
But here, and at other places inland, it still holds
sway, to the no small detriment both of the giver and
the givee.
I have been not a little amused to hear it adduced
270 
SPECIMENS OF INDUCTION.
by an old foreigner, in proof that the people were growing worse rather than better, that formerly, whenever
a man killed a hog, he used to invite all his friends in
to help eat it up; but that now it was otherwise, and,
if he could, he sold some of it instead of giving it away.
It is quite of a piece with an argument I once heard,
to prove that missionaries had spoiled these islands as
recruiting-places, because, forsooth, before they came
here, a whale-ship could get a barrel of potatoes or a
good-sized pig for a few feet of iron hoop: like the admirable inductive argument of the old man quoted by
Latimer, to show that Tenterden steeple was the cause
of the Goodwin Sands, because Goodwin Sands began
to make about the time that Tenterden steeple was
erected. Or say, rather, it is like the jocose, afterdinner induction of an eminent English judge, to prove
that the cause of the prevalence of Jacobinism was the
practice of men's bearing three names, because several
leading Jacobins whom he named did actually happen
thus to bear the three appellations.
It should be noticed here, that while hospitable and
generous enough to their friends, Hawaiians are by
no means so distinguished for the exercise of these
virtues toward those whom they do not recognize as
acquaintances. A poor and strange Hawaiian, who
is so luckless as to have no rmaka-makas in a place
(a thing, to be sure, which does not often happen), may
whistle in vain for lodging and food, unless he carry
a certificate of being a hoa-hanau (Church-member),
which, to their credit be it spoken, will seldom fail, as
in the primitive ages of the Church, of securing him
entertainment from some of the Christian brotherhood
2i 1, 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
The universal Hawaiian custom is, to go to a friend
and beg whatever one wants, and, on the authority of
those who best know, it is said no man has a heart
to refuse his friends the last kapa or malo he has in
the house, if asked for it. But they begin now to see
the impropriety and disadvantage of a custom like this.
When the missionaries, a few years ageo, were first
making efforts to get the Hilo boarding-school supported by the people, one of them said to his neighbor, " This is just right.  There is some meaning in
this effort. We make ourselves destitute, it is true,
but, then, we are doing good by it. Nvot so when we
give to friends who come to beg of us."
One of the contributors at the same time said, " Put
down three dollars to my name. I have a jacket and
pantaloons not much worn; perhaps I can get three
dollars for them. I will sell them to some one." Another said, " Put down two dollars for me. I have a
pair of trowsers, for which, I think, I can get two dollars. If not, I will seek it some other way, and pay
in what I can get, to the value of two dollars." Another said he had a pig, and would sell it for his portion; and a poor woman said, " Put down a dollar
for me and my husband, and I will braid two hats to
get it."
In the same manner they pay nominally for their
books; but oftentimes such a dialogue as this ensues
between the applicant for a book and the missionary:
" I will work for it," says the poor Hawaiian.  "But
I have no work for you," answers the missionary
"you must pay for it something that will be valuable, or you can not have the book." "I have no
272 
BARGAINING  FOR  BOOKS.              273
money; will you take fish?"  "I do not want fish."
" Will you take wood?"  " I do not want any more
wood."   "Will you take fowls?"  " I have a plenty
of fowls."  "Will you let it go for kapas?"  "What
can I do with kapas?"
The poor applicant knows well enough their uselessness to a missionary; and sometimes, though I
would fain hope not often, he looks down, turns about,
and walks off sadly, unable to get the book he was
after.
One of the missionaries tells me, "Often have I
paid in books for work, and other things, merely to
get the books among the people, when for cotton cloth
I could have procured the same labor and articles for
half the price. My custom has been to contrive some
means for the people to procure books, while in multitudes of cases the avails were more trouble than
profit. And I have often said to a child, go and do
such a thing for your book, when I should not care
whether the job was done or not, were not the book
and the child's improvement by it in question."
This station of Waiohinu is separated from Kealakekua, as we have found, by a day and night's sail in
a canoe, or by a rough foot-path inland, traveled only
by natives; and it is forty miles from a neighbor on
one side, and seventy on the other. Mr. Forbes used
often to make flying tours here before 1842; and he
had several Church-members in this region. But the
mass of the people being far from any post, and but
seldom seen by their kumu (religious teacher), were
exceedingly heathenish and naaupo, as they express
it, or dark-minded, when Mr. Paris and his wife came
M2 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
to take up their abode with them. But their joy was
none the less for that, and their simple estimate of
their new teacher's love for them, in particular, as
evinced in coming so far from America to make his
nohopuana (dwelling together) with them, was very
exaggerated.
The Papists made an onset in Kau about the same
time with Mr. Paris, headed by an indefatigable foreign Jesuit, who seemed to think the field fairly his
own, and who has steadily disputed every inch of
ground with the Protestants by fair means or foul.
Pointing to the Protestant missionaries, who pay natives only for work done for themselves, and who have
availed themselves, whenever they could, of native aid
in building churches and school houses, and their own
dwellings, he accused them of oppression and taxing
the people; and by gifts of cotton cloth, and, when
his stock failed, by liberal promises of more, grounded
on the expectation of a brig from France, he attached
to himself a good many of the license-loving natives.
By loud words, and threats that the aupuni (kingdom) would soon be taken away from the Kaluinas
(Calvinists), and that they would soon have no foothold in the land, he engaged others; so that the Catholics for a while made a formidable array, and even
in one or two instances proceeded to blows with the
Protestants. Whole villages went over to them; and
they had the control of more than three hundred children, subjected to a discipline but little better than
the old heathenism.
The confident promises of the priests, and their bold
declarations, over and over again, that they were to
'k
274 
REMARKABLE  PROVIDENCES.               2
have the kingdom, and that the Protestants should
be put out, plainly shows that they were privy to a
plan of the French, of taking these islands, only prevented, in the providence of God, by Paulet's taking
them for the English.  If, now, the re-enforcement of
priests and goods do not soon appear, not a few will
declare off from the Pope as a prophet of lies.  And
the providence of God, in averting the calamity of a
French possession of these islands, will be as marked
as were similar providences in the early history of
New England.
There was a deep interest in religion soon after Mr.
Paris's arrival here. Indeed, it had commenced some
time before; and the minds of the people were greatly moved by the reports brought from Hilo, and Puna,
and Kona, of the multitudes that were turning to the
pono there. Not a few Kau men, who went there to
see for themselves, were converted, and came back
exciting the people with accounts of what they had
seen and heard; so that Mr. Paris very soon found
himself, with his slender knowledge of the language,
in the midst of a powerful religious excitement, and
multitudes pressing into the Church. It will not be
strange if many shall prove to have been received
who are unworthy members, although, so far, most
of them have run well. Some of the scenes to which
they were ushered very soon after arriving here in
1842, as we have heard them reviewed in conversation, must have been highly amusing, others deeply
interesting.
When they landed, ten miles from the station, at
least one hundred and fifty different natives took their 
276            THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
goods, and of them all, in so many hands, after the
lapse of four weeks, not the smallest article was found
missing. For several weeks, at every meal-time, the
all but naked natives would form a line a long ways
from the door of their grass house, to see them eat,
and would express the greatest wonder at seeing them
laugh and talk so cheerfully while at meals.
The necessary absence of the pastor at general
meeting, and the engrossment of his time for most of
a year in building, have proved religiously disastrous.
But few, at present, are seeking earnestly the pono;
the love of many waxes cold, and some are falling into
sin, for which they will have to be cut off. The Church
numbers one thousand and twenty-four, of whom eight
hundred and forty-five were received on examination
in one year. The Sabbath congregation is now about
eight hundred; the Sabbath school at the station, about
two hundred and fifty. The population of the entire
district is not far from five thousand.
It is now the time of reaction and stupidity, and
the pastor begins to be greatly tried (as all on Hawaii
have been, and as Paul was with his Corinthian converts) with cases of hikhia, or persons in the Church
who have got entangled, and done things worthy of
censure and discipline. The people, being unstable,
and addicted to falsehood and deception, as it is one
universal testimony of missionaries every where that
heathen are wont to be, where so many are admitted,
some plainly proving unworthy; the lines of discipline
also being drawn tighter than in the churches at home;
habits allowed there, such, for instance, as smoking,
being here generally visited with discipline; the num. 
OLD USAGES OF HEATHENISM.
ber of Church-members under the pastoral care of one
man being much greater than in the churches at home,
where also the pastor's responsibility is shared by a
company of deacons and elders more than here: for
all these reasons, the care and discipline of a church
in Hawaii nei are very heavy and trying, if faithfully
attended to.
Cases are continually coming up that greatly perplex the mind and try the feelings and patience of a
man that loves souls. Besides some cases, as usual,
of the prevalent sin of the land, there has been one
instance recently in this church, in a woman, of the
old heathenish act of knocking out teeth (kui niho).
They do it at the death of a friend. Two lovers
sometimes knock out the same tooth as a pledge;
and there are few persons over forty who are not disfigured by the loss of one or more.
There is also another case, which, as giving some
insight into the management of missionaries, and the
difficulties they have to contend with, I will detail. A
hitherto blameless member of the Church, by the name
of Ziba, having lost his wife by divorce, became infatuated lately with an ungodly woman, whom he said
he must marry, even if it were his death. He was
labored with in private and before the deacons of the
Church, and would weep when talked to; but could
not give up the purpose of marrying the woman.
There being no legal objection (and, having seen the
woman, we can not help commending his good taste
for personal beauty), he procured a certificate for marriage from the lunakanawai (magistrate); but his
pastor, it seems, could not conscientiously marry him,
277 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
his former wife still living, and warned him, therefore, against getting entangled with the woman he
loved.
He immediately, in consequence, became an object
of suspicion to the makai, or native constables, among
whose duties is that of looking out for offenses, with
a share in the fine of those found out. Ziba, finding
himself thus watched, and catching, one night, a man
prying about his premises, demanded his name, held
him fast, and made an alarm, till his friends brought
a light, and he found it was a constable. The next
day be was summoned to a hokolokolo, as it is called, an investigation before the lunakanawai, and fined
for insulting an officer.
Mr. Paris had to interpose, lest the man should receive gross injustice.* Thus it comes to pass, in some
* The religion, morals, civilization, and the administration of justice among the people of Kau, have greatly improved within a few
years. As late as June, 1849, the missionary writes from there con.
cerning a Temperance Celebration of the Protestant Schools, just before a visit from the King, that the whole number present, including
parents, children, and friends, amounted to nineteen hundred or two
thousand persons. "It was a delightful day, and we had the stillest
and most orderly feast, for so many children, that I have ever witnessed. The children were also all clothed neatly, most of them in
uniform. I could not but think how differently these children appeared, with their bright and happy faces, from what they anid others did eight years ago, when I first came among them. Then there
was scarcely a child in Kau who had a shirt, or any other article of
clothing of foreign manufacture, and many of them were more destitute of covering than the beasts of the field..
"When all had feasted and spent a little time in pleasant, social intercourse, we were marched to the house of God, where we had several short but very appropriate addresses on the subject of temperance.  These were accompanied with temperance songs and instrumental music; after which we (closed with prayer.
278 
HAWVAIIAN DISABILITIES.
cases, if a man is censured in the Church, the officers
proceed to get him before the courts, and if a man is
fined or punished for any thing before the lunakanawai, the hoahanau are wont to think he must be disciplined also by the Church. The poor Hawaiian thus
gets hung on both horns of a dilemma; or if he navigate clear of Charybdis, he is by no means sure of
saving shipwreck on the rocks of Scylla.
"On the Sabbath following the King addressed our Sabbath school,
and was followed by appropriate addresses from Dr. Judd, and Mr.
Cooke, formerly a native of Tahiti, the King's chaplain. To-day the
King has attended a meeting of the people of this district. The assembly was held in a beautiful grove. His Majesty made a speech
of about an hour, which was listened to with the deepest interest.
He alluded to the sovereign love of God in sending the blessed Gospel to his fathers; to his providential care of himself and his subjects
in past years; and he referred to this Gospel, as preached by the Protestant missionaries, as the source of all their blessings and privileges,
and the only foundation and safeguard of their civil and religious liberties. His appropriate and deeply interesting address was followed
by others from his ministers."-Miss. Herald., March, 1850.
279 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
CHAPTER XIV.
EXPLORATION AND REVIEW OF THE VOLCANIC CRATER
KILAUEA.
AN upland isle, by molten streams embraced,
It tower'd to heaven amid a lava waste;
Below, impenetrable woods display'd
Depths of mysterious solitude and shade:
Above, with adamantine bulwarks crown'd,
Primeval rocks in hoary masses fiown'd:
By noon a dusky cloud appear'd to rise,
But blazed, a beacon, through nocturnal skies.
As Etna, view'd from ocean far away,
Slumbers in blue revolving smoke by day,
Till darkness, with terrific splendor, shows
The eternal fires that crest the eternal snows;
So high it rose, so bright the mountain shone,
It seem'd the footstool of Jehovah's throne.
World Before the Flood.
IF a man come for the first time to the eastern part
of Hawaii by the way of the volcano of Kilauea, his
brain, and body too, will have gotten such an impress
from its tremendous fires, and his imagination will be
so engrossed with the novel and stupendous displays
of nature which his eyes have been beholding, that it
will be some days before he can think or talk of any
thing else. It will not be strange if he visit it again
in dreams, and stand upon the blackened brink of
that stupendous crater, and descend once more, in his
sleep, into that great pit of fire,
280 
TRIP TO THE VOLCANO.        281
Whose combustible and fuel'd entrails,
Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,
And leave a sing'd bottom, all involved
With sulphurous stench and smoke.
I have found myself thus exercised ever since arriving at Hilo, at the close of last week, and, though
suffering sorely with feverishness and general mau.
vaise, induced by exposure, fatigue, and excitement,
I am anxious to record first observations before their
vividness and zest shall have at all abated.
We left Waiohinu the first Tuesday of the year,
Mr. Paris having anticipated his quarterly communion
by one week, so bringing the sacrament and monthly
concert on two successive days, in order to accompany me and make the tour of that part of his field at
the same time. Through the favor of Providence,
we had fine weather, although it rained early in the
morning, and threatened a storm.
The horseback ride, and the more favorable climate
of the sea-side and Punaluu, soon proved invigorating,
and restored, in a measure, the tone of languid nature. The path from that village goes up very gradually to the volcano, distant from Waiohinu about
fifty-five miles, of which we went the first day about
thirty, stopping that night in a little mountain hamlet, at the house of a Church-member of the name of
Jakobo.
Arriving there before our men, we went down into
a valley that serves, in rains, for a tumbling watercourse, and, after refreshing ourselves with a bath,
we kneeled upon the rocks at even-tide in prayer to
that overruling and wise Providence, who, leading us 
THE ISLANI) WORILD.
in a way that we knew not, had strangely brought
together, in this volcanic heart of the Pacific, two
quondam class-mates in the School of the Prophets.
Returning, we found the natives of the village assembled for a meeting. Their pastor read the Scriptures, prayed and sang hymns, and addressed them
at some length on their duties and the way of salvation. It was a pleasant meeting, in the open, still
air of evening;  Mauna  Loa  towering up  to the
northwest, the evening star pouring down its mellow radiance, the blue abyss of ocean faintly visible in the distance below us, and the illuminated
cloud of the volcano just beginning to reflect its
beams.
Sleep scarcely visited me for the night, but an early departure next morning, and the fresh mountain
air, revived the spirits. Our ride was, for a long time,
through banana-trees, ohias, ko-us, and a species of
mimosa, until we came to an immense field of smooth,
flat,  unbroken lava, called by the Hawaiians Pahoehoe. It was once evidently a great upland lake of
mineral fire, seeming to have been suddenly congealed
into a vitreous black rock, while its billows were still
rolling, as if it had suddenly heard the voice of God
Here shall thy billows stiffen, and have rest.
NQt only are the large swells and hollows distinctly
marked, but in many places it is to be observed that
the surface of the great waves is ruffled by a ripple
like that seen on the ocean in a calm, at the first
springing up of a light breeze. There are interspersed a few tracts of volcanic sand, shining with crystals
282 
COMlPO(SITION OF LAVAS.
of olivine, pyroxene, and obsidian.* And the furrows
Milner, in The Gallery of Nature, says that lava is chiefly composed of the two minerals feldspar and augite, with titaniferous iron.
When the feldspar predominates, light-colored lavas are the result,
called feldspatnic or trachytic; but when the augite is in excess, dark
varieties, augitic or basaltic lavas, are produced. Other simple minerals occur, but in very inconsiderable proportions. (Humboldt says
that he found five metals among the products of existing volcanoesiron, copper, lead, arsenic, and selenium, in the crater of one volcano.)
Besides varying in chemical composition, the character of lava is greatly modified by the circumstances under which it is cooled down, compact rock resulting from cooling under pressure, but a porous, fibrous,
and light material being produced when cooled with the sole weight
of the atmosphere upon it. If we suppose a current of matter of the
consistency of honey, we shall have a tolerably correct picture of a
stream of lava, which, as it moves over a district, is not thinned, but
walled at the sides, and, a crust soon forming upon the surface, tends
still more to prevent it spreading out laterally. Hence it is sometimes possible, when the ground favors the attempt, to deflect one of
these fiery floods from its course by attacking the sides, and removing
the crust, which has succeeded in turning it away from towns that
have been threatened by it. In one instance the inhabitants of Catania assailed a lava current in this way, to divert it from their city,
when the people of another locality, who were placed in jeopardy,
took up arms to resist the operation.
Lava rapidly cools externally, but the crust formed being a bad
conductor of heat, the interior of the mass remains hot, semi-fluid,
and moves on after the surface has solidified. The stream thrown out
of Etnra in 1819 was in motion, at the rate of a yard per day, nine
months after the eruption; and another from the same mountain is
stated not to have become completely consolidated and at rest ten
years after its emission. Dr. Daubeny states, speaking of temperature, that some days after ejection lava has raised the thermometer
from fifty-nine to ninety-five degrees at the distance of twelve feet,
while three feet off the heat greatly exceeded that of boiling water;
that it has rendered a mass of lead fluid in four minutes, when the
same mass, placed on red-hot iron, would have required double that
time to enter into fusion; and that even stones have been melted
when thrown into the lavas of Etna and Vesuvius.
Obsidian, another volcanic product, is a black, glassy lava, contain
ing a large proportion o)f silica, named, according to Pliny, after its
2 S3 
284            THE  ISLAND  WORLD.
between the swells and petrified waves are filled with
the same, or with a light spumous lava, like the froth
of the sea drifted by the wind.
Across this fire-frozen sea, like a vast Alpine g]acier, there runs a high, ragged ridge, burst up and
broken, no one can tell how, till it is jagged as a millsaw, which you can no more get over, or get round it,
than you can scale one of those high walls which are
sometimes to be seen at fortified places and elsewhere,
thickly planted and bristling all over with sharp pieces
of junk bottle. Being ahead of our guides, we lost
our way there, and wandered some time in that
Dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
The seat of desolation,
like that which offered rest to Satan's feet,
From off the tossing of the fiery waves.
Once we came suddenly upon a tall, oven-like cone,
so much like a sentry-box, that, with Milton's descrip
tion in mind of the place
Eternal Justice has prepared for those rebellious,
you might almost look to see some sentinel fiend come
out from it, and hail you gruffly, " Who goes there?"
At length, by retracing all our steps, we got out of
this dreary domain into the traveled tract, and made
for the volcano, whose sulphurous smoke and stench
first observer, Obsidius.  Scorie, cinders, ashes, and stones are identical, in mineral composition, with the lava currents, and are portions
of them, abstracted while yet in the fiery funnel, and shot upward
by the explosive energies in operation. 
SKIRTS OF THE CRATER.
we now began to perceive driven along by the trade
wind, and to see the vitreous threads of Pele's hair,
caught in crevices and cobwebs, and shining in the
sun with a metallic lustre. As you proceed, the lava
is more decomposed, and the ground cracked and rent
into fissures and chasms, from which there is issuing
steam and vapor of smoke, and you seem to be in a
region of lime-kilns or smelting-furnaces. A mile or
two further on you descend two or three hundred feet,
on to a vast terrace-like, sunken plain, rent here and
there by earthquakes, and strewed with great boulders of lava, and sounding unsafe and hollow under
the tramp of your horse, who begins to show his consciousness of a dangerous proximity to the great laboratory of nature, to which this is the vast outer court
and hall of entrance.
By the time you reach the skirts of this sunken
plain you begin to get an idea of the unique Hawaiian volcano; not like the pictures we have of other
volcanoes, the truncated top of a mountain with a
broad base and furrowed sides made by the overflow
and hardening of its lava, and its summit distinguishable at a distance as the raised brim of a mighty caldron, but an immense gaping chasm, or hideous fireeaten pit, variously estimated from nine to fifteen hundred feet deep, and from nine to fifteen miles in circumference.
The scientific Pole, Count Strezelecki, thus roughly sketched the results of his observations for a friend,
in the Hawaiian Spectator: "What I remember, and
long shall recollect, as showing the mighty influence
of mighty objects upon me, are the difficulties I had
288 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
to struggle with before my eye could be torn away
from the idle, vacant, but ecstatic gazing with which
I regarded the great WHOLE, down to the analytical
part of the wondrous and unparalleled scene before
me-I say unparalleled, because, having visited most
of the European and American volcanoes, I find the
greatest of them inferior to Kilauea in intensity, grandeur, and extent or area.
"The abrupt and precipitous cliff which forms the
north-northeast wall of the crater, found, after my
repeated observations, to be elevated four thousand
one hundred and four feet above the level of the sea,
overhangs an area of three million one hundred and
fifty thousand square yards of half-cooled scoria, sunk
to the depth of three hundred yards, and containing
more than three hundred and twenty-eight thousand
square yards of convulsed torrents of earths in igneous
fusion, and gaseous fluids constantly effervescing, boiling, spouting, rolling in all directions like waves of a
disturbed sea, violently beating the edge of the caldrons like an infuriated surf, and, like surf, spreading
all around its spray in the form of capillary glass, which
fills the air, and adheres in a flaky and pendulous form
to the distorted and broken masses of the lava all
around; five caldrons, each of about five thousand
seven hundred square yards, almost at the level of the
great area, and containing only the twelfth part of
the red liquid.
"The sixth caldron is encircled by a wall of accumulated scoria of fifty yards high, forming the southsouthwest point; the Hale mau mae, to which the
bones of the former high chiefs were consigned, the
286 
I-~ 
;~ 
~,   p'<                                      {7
WValls of thc Crater of Kilauca.
i
I,
1. I
i    fl',,
"ti
x'.
: i 
k, 
FIRST VIEW OF KILAUEA.
sacrifices to the goddess Pele offered, the abyss of
abysses, the caldron of caldrons, exhibiting the most
frightful area of three hundred thousand square yards
of bubbling red-hot lava, changing incessantly its level,
sometimes rolling the long, curled waves with broken
masses of cooled crust to one side of the horrible laboratory; sometimes, as if they had made a mistake, turning them back with spouting fury, and a subterraneous, terrific noise, of a sound more infernal and earthly.
Around are blocks of lava, scoria, slags of every description and combination, here elevated, by the endless number of superimposed layers, in perpendicular walls one thousand feet high; there torn asunder, cracked, or remolded; every where terror, convulsion-mighty engine of nature-nothingness of
man!"'
The traveler does not at once behold the living volcanic fires and boiling caldron, but the sudden view
of the blackened perpendicular sides of such a vast
abyss, steaming and smoking at a million pores, and
glimmering all over like a bed of live coals-the playground of primeval fire and earthquakes-fills one
with amazement and awe at the vast force and intensity of those inward fires, that first uplifted and
then fused such a stupendous mass of rocky materials,
and after spouting over, and letting off, by its great
subterranean sluice-ways, floods of mineral blood, has
kept supplied with fuel, from age to age, its glowing
furnaces.  Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord
God Almighty! Who shall notfear thee, and glorify
thy name? He looketh upon the earth, and it trenzbleth; he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.   Theb
N
289 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the pres.
ence of the Lord of the whole earth.  Let all the na.
tions say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy
works!
No susceptible mind, though but in a low degree
religious, can survey such a scene without his thoughts
involuntarily turning to the great Author of Nature
with adoration and awe, from the new illustration of
the divine attribute of Omnipotence thence derived;
and if familiar with the language of Young, in view of
the same dread attribute, he will be likely to think,
if not to say, with him,
Oh Thou! whose balance does the mountains weigh,
Whose will the wild tumultuous seas obey;
Whose breath can turn those watery worlds to flame,
That flame to tempest, and that tempest tame;
Earth's meanest son, all trembling, prostrate falls,
And on thy boundless power and mercy calls.
Oanst thou not shake the centre? THENe, CONTROL,
SUBDUE BY GRACE TIIE REBEL IN MY SOUL!
It was about four o'clock in the afternoon that we
arrived near the brink of this mighty crater of Kilauea, at a place near the northwest end, where our
screen was to be erected for the night. It being too
late to explore the abyss that day, and our natives not
yet having come up with food and baggage, we went
to visit a sulphur bank a few hundred yards from the
crater, out of which sulphureous vapor was issuing by
various crevices, so hot in some places as instantly to
scald the hand. It is one hundred and fifty to two
hundred yards long, forty wide, and thirty or forty feet
high.
The mound seems to have been originally lava, now
290 
A SULPHUR MOUND.
decomposed by the powerful action of hot sulphureous gases, and made into a material not inappropriately called by the natives Kukaepele, or Pele's excrements, hardened into a red crust at top, but moist
underneath, and all inrterlaid with shining crystals of
sulphur, which you will hear curiously crepitate and
rustle, whenever the outside is broken and the external air let in.
This mound can be ascended. a nd traveled over its
entire length, only that it is very hot and enveloped
in mineral vapors, and will shake sometimes rather
alarmingly under the feet, like a patch of tenacious
clay in spring from which the frost is coming out.
There are apertures all along its sides, whose edges
are fringed with the finest crystals of a delicate yellow color, but so fragile and soft that a touch will
crush them. At a few feet from the apertures the
crust has somnewhat hardened and cooled, and you
may dig out with a staff some of the most beautiful
specimens of crystallized sulphur that can be found the
world over.   They are of an orange yellow, in the
form of acicular prisms and tetrahedral pyramids, attached on one side as a bed to embossed cakes of joint
mud and sulphur, that sparkle like any thing powdered or fretted with gold.
The grief of a traveler is, that he can so rarely carry away whole and safe any of these exquisite specimens. In packing or transporting, the crystals will
almost inevitably get detached from their nidus, and
after all his pains he will find some of his best speciinens spoiled. Detached crystals can be collected by
the peck, if one will have patience to gather them.
291 
Z2;2          THE  ISLAND WORLD.
On one side of the mound is a ravine to which you
can see no bottom, it being probably as deep as the
volcanic abyss into which you look,
Through caverns measureless to man,
Down to a sunless sea.
The trees and shrubs that grow on its sides as far
down as you can look are completely whitened, and,
in some cases, even crystallized over with sulphur.
The genial heat and incessant condensation of steam
there constitute a natural hot-house for those species
of vegetation that can bear it. The entire hill, and
region of inflammable matter under it, forms undoubtedly one of the great reservoirs from which the volcano is fed,
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.
It makes one think of that hill told of in Paradise
Lost, in which the fallen spirits opened a spacious
wound and digged out ribs of gold to make PandemoniuLm of.
There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top
Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire
Shone with a glossy scurf; undoubted signl
That in his womb was hid metallic ore,
The work of sulphur. Thither, wing'd with speed,
A numerous brigade hasten'd; as when bands
Of pioneers, with spade and pickax arm'd,
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field
Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on.
~*  *  *         ~ *  Soon had his crew
Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,
And digg'd out ribs of gold.
Undermined as it constantly must be by the sub
292 
FOUNDATIONS OF FIRE.
duction of fuel for the volcano, and shaken by earthquakes, it will not be strange if this hill, and the entire sunken plain on which visitors encamp, shall some
day slide off into the abyss. The rock there, in some
places on the surface, shows a heat of one hundred
and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, and travelers have
often slept within a foot of a fissure from which steam
was escaping hot enough to cook their potatoes. Sucfi
seams are numerous and wide, extending undoubtedly
down to the igneous bed in which the whole tract has
its slippery foundation, like a vast iceberg in the sea.
It is from steam escaping at these chasms, and immediately condensed by the cold mountain air, and
falling by drops into hollows on the leeward, that the
region is providentially supplied with water. The
pools so formed on the compact lava are sixor eight
feet from the seams, surrounded with moss and rushes,
and furnishing a copious supply of distilled water for
man and beast.  When the wind is strong, and especially mornings and evenings, this vapor is flying like
scud over the brink of the crater, as a drizzling rain.
By the time of our return to the crater's brink, some
of our party of natives, and other stragglers from both
the Hilo and Kau side, had arrived singly and with
their hogs, at the common encamping ground. The
lurid fires of the caldron in the southwestern part of
the crater began to be visible, looking just as any one
who has seen molten ore in a foundery or smelting
furnace, may imagine great liquid masses of that
would look in the night, tossed to and fro on an ocean,
and rising up and down in a mass, without losing its
red heat or viscidity.
293 
294            THE  ISLAND WORLD.
Night and the drizzling vapor having overtaken us
before our tired natives could make any thing better,
we had to nestle altogether under a screen or " Leanto"' of cane and brakes, thrown up against the wind,
but open in front and looking toward the caldron. It
was only a few feet from the precipice, so that by lifting one's self up from the reclining posture you could
have in full view
The fearful tossing of those fiery waves.
Natives and hogs having, it is probable, stopped uinder the same screen before, we found the ukulele tribe
so numerous and rapacious that it was impossible to
sleep. They would make their biting onsets in such
numbers, and with such desperate fury, that a man
could hardly help screaming out with very anguish.
If, while our assailants took breath, we dozed a moment, it was only to be awakened by a more fell gripe
from these pitiless robbers of your rest, that were no
more to be shaken off or got rid of than Hercules's poisoned robe. At length finding, as the proverb goes,
what can't be cured must be endured, we fell to making merry with our torment and our tormentors, and
to shaking our flea-bitten sides with woebegone bursts
of laughter at each other's jokes. And we concluded,
not without reason, that the remembrance of Pele's
fleas would be quite as indelible as that of her fires.
After much wearisome tossing and rolling, getting
up and lying down, viewing now the salient jets and
coruscations, and beautiful fire-works of the volcano,
and now the placid moon and stars, I managed, with
aching, flea-flayed fingers, to put together grass for a 
THE  DESCENT  ATTEMPTED.              2
fire. It was so cold that ice had formed on a calabash that lay outside our screen. Our natives being
wakened from sleep, which the ukulele did not care to
harass when they had better blood for game, we soon
dispatched breakfast and other duties.
After a morning hymn, and prayer by one of Mr.
Paris's deacons that accompanied us as a body-guard,
we made ready to descend into the hideous pit, saying
to one another as we went down,
Facilis est descensus Averni:
Sed revocare gradus, superasque ad auras evadere,
Hoc opus, hic labor est.
So sang the Mantuan bard of Xneas's fabulous descent into the realms of Tartarus. The ancients never knew of the easy opening into Hades by this crater
of Kilauea, or bold men would have oftener tried the,
passage, and Empedocles need not have leaped into
Etna.
Let a man only have a good stout pole to put before him and lean upon, and a descent may be accomplished with tolerable ease by the northeastern cliff
of the crater, where the side has fallen in and slidden
downward, leaving a number of huge, outjutting rocks,
like giants' stepping-stones, or the courses of the pyramid of Ghizeh.
By hanging to these, and the mere aid of a pole,
you may descend the first pali (precipice) to where
the avalanche brought up and was stayed-a wild region, broken into abrupt hills and deep glens, thickly
set with shrubs and old ohias, and producing in great
abundance the ohelo (Hawaiian whortleberry, former.
2 9 t, 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
ly sacred to the goddess of the volcano), and a beau.
tiful lustrous-black berry that grows on a branching
vine close to the ground. Thousands of birds find
there a safe and warm retreat; and they will continue, I suppose, the innocent warblers, to pair and sing
there, till the fires from beneath, having once more
eaten through its foundations, the entire tract, with
all its miniature mountains and woody glens, shall
slide off suddenly into the abyss below to feed the hunger of all-devouring fire.
No one who passes over it, and looks back upon the
tall, jagged cliffs at the rear and side, can doubt that
it was severed and shattered by one such ruin into its
present forms. And the bottomless pits and yawning
caverns, in some places ejecting hot steam, with which
it is traversed, prove that the raging element which
once sapped its foundations is still busy beneath.
The path that winds over and down through this
tract, crossing some of these unsightly seams by a
natural bridge of only a foot's breadth, is safe enough
by daylight, if one will keep in it. But be careful
that you do not diverge far on either side, or let the
shades of night overtake you there, lest a single misstep in the grass and ferns, concealing some horrible
hole, or an accidental stumble, shall plunge you beyond the reach of sunlight into a covered penstock of
mineral fire, or into the heart of some deep, sunken
cavern.
One can hardly wander through that place alone,
even in the daytime (as I was in coming up from the
crater at evening), without having his fancy swarm
with forms of evil. In spite of himself, there will
296 
BLACK LEDGE DESCRIBED.
"Throng thick into his mind the busy shapes
Of cover'd pits, unfathomably deep,
A dire descent! of precipices huge Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death."
The way through this tract descends not abruptly
for about half a mile, to a steep bank of partially decomposed lava, somewhat furrowed by water-courses,
by which you go down some hundreds of feet more to
what every body calls the Black Ledge.
This is an immense rampart or gallery of grisly
black scoria and lava, about half a mile wide, running all round the pit, slightly sloping inward, and not
unfrequently overflowed in eruptions. By it you learn
the dimensions of the great lake to which this is now
the shore. It may be compared to the wide beach of an
ocean, seldom flooded all over except in very high tides;
or to a great field of thick shore ice, from under which
the tide has retired, leaving it cracked and rent, but
not so as to break up the general evenness of its surface.
The upper crust is generally glossy, cellular, and
cinder-like, brittle and crackling under the feet; but
directly underneath the superficies, hard and compact,
as proved by inspecting the great seams and fissures,
from some of which flickering currents of hot air, and
from others scalding steam and smoke are continually
issuing. Pound on it, and you will hear deep, hollow
reverberations, and sometimes your pole will break
through a place like the rotten trap-door of some old
ruin, and open upon you a hideous black hole without
bottom.
Over this great volcanic mole or offset, we proceed                        N2
297 
298            THE  ISLAND WORLD.
ed to make our way toward the caldron in the southeast, pounding before us with our pole, like men crossing a river to find whether the ice ahead will bear
them. We stopped every now and then to examine
and get up on to some great cone or oven, which had
been formed after the congelation of the crust, by pentup gas blowing out from beneath the cooling lava, raising it as in great bubbles, and letting its black, viscous vomit dribble from the top, and flow down sluggishly and congeal before it had found a level, like ice
in very cold weather over a waterfall. Thus it would
flow over the Black Ledge, hardening sometimes in
round streams like a cable, or in serpentine forms like
a great anaconda; and again it would spread out from
the foot of the cone a little ways in forms like a bronze
lion's foot.
The surface was frequently broken, or ready to
break, with the weight of one's body, from the fiery
liquid having subsided after the petrifaction of the
crust. Generally, too, the hardened lava seemed to
have been flowed over, like ice near the shore when
the tide rises and goes down, with a thin scum of lava
that became shelly and crepitated under the foot like
shelly ice.
Then, as we went further into the bed of the crater,
gradually going down, we would come to places where,
like as in frozen mill-ponds, whence the water has been
drawn off, the congealed lava had broken in to the
depth sometimes of fifty and one hundred feet.  Every where, too, there were great fissures and cracks,
as in fields of river ice, now and then a large air-hole,
and here and there great bulges and breaks, and places 
VIEWS IN THE CRATER7S BED.
from which a thin flame would be curling, or over
which you would see a glimmer like that which trembles over a body of fresh coals or a recently-burned
lime-kiln. Touch your stick there, and it would immediately kindle.
There were also deep, wide ditches, through which
a stream of liquid lava had flowed since the petrifaction of the main body through which it passed. Cascades of fire are said to be often seen in the course
(f these canals or rivers as they leap some precipice,
presenting in the night a scene of unequaled splendor
and sublimity. In some places the banks or dikes of
these rivers are excavated and fallen in with hideous
crash and ruin; and often you may go up, if you dare,
to the edge on one side and look over into the gulf,
and away under the opposite overhanging bank, where
the igneous fluid has worn away andi scooped it out
till the cliff hangs on air, and seems to topple and lean
like the tower of Pisa, just ready to fall.
It would be no very comfortable reflection, if a man
were not too curiously eager and bold, and intent upon
the novelties he is drinking in by the senses, to have
much reflection or fear at such a time, to think how
easily an earthquake might tumble down the bank
on which he is standing, undermined in like manner
with that which you are looking at right opposite.
On our left, as we passed on to the Great Caldron,
we explored, as far as was possible between the heat
and vapor, the great bank, or, more properly, mountain-side of sulphur and sulphate of lime (plaster of
Paris), and obtained some specimens of no little beauty. There are cliffs of sulphur through which scald,
299 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
ing hot vapor is escaping as high up above you as eight
hundred feet; and lower down there are seams from
which lambent and flickering flames are darting, and
jets of hot air will sometimes whirl by you, involving
no little danger by their inhalation. Around these
fissures are yellow and green incrustations of sulphur,
which afford a new variety of specimens.
When we had got to the leeward of the caldron, we
found large quantities of the finest threads of metallic
vitrified lava, like the spears and filaments of sealingwax, called Pele's hair. The wind has caught them
from the jets and bubbling springs of gory lava, and
carried them away on its wings till they have lodged
in nests and crevices, where they may be collected like
shed wool about the time of sheep-shearing.  Sometimes this is found twenty miles to the leeward of the
volcano.
The heat and sulphur gas, irritating the throat and
lungs, are so great on that side, that we had to sheer
away off from the brim of the caldron, and could not
observe close at hand the part where there was the
most gushing and bubbling of the ignifluous mineral
fluid. But we passed round to the windward, and
were thus enabled to get up to the brim so as to look
over for a minute into the molten lake, burning incessantly with brimstone and fire
"A furnace formidable, deep, and wide,
O'erboiling with a mad, sulphureous tide.'
But the lava which forms your precarious foothold,
melted, perhaps, a hundred times, can not be handled
or trusted, and the heat even there is so great as to
300 
ASPECT OF THE CALDRON.
burn the skin of one's face, although the heated air,
as it rises, is instantly swept off to the leeward by the
wind. It is always hazardous, not to say fool-hardy,
to stand there for a moment, lest your uncertain foothold, crumbling and crispy by the action of fire, shall
suddenly give way and throw you instantly into the
fiery embrace of death.
At times, too, the caldron is so furiously boiling,
and splashing, and spitting its fires, and casting up its
salient, angry jets of melted lava and spume, that all
approach to it is forbidden. We slumped several
times near it, as a man will in the spring who is
walking over a river of which the ice is beginning to
thaw, and the upper stratum, made of frozen snow, is
dissolved and rotten. A wary native who accompanied us wondered at our daring, and would not be kept
once from pulling me back, as with the eager and bold
curiosity of a discoverer, all absorbed in the view of
such exciting wonders, I was getting too near.
At the time we viewed it, the brim all round was
covered with splashes and spray to the width of ten
or twelve feet. The surface of the lake was about a
mile in its longest diameter, at a depth of thirty or
forty feet from its brim, and agitated more or less all
over, in some places throwing up great jets and spouts
of fiery red lava, in other places spitting it out like
steam from an escape-pipe when the valves are half
lifted, and again squirting the molten rock as from a
pop-gun.
The surface was like a river or lake when the ice is
going out and broken up into cakes, over which you
will sometimes see the water running, and sometimes
301 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
it will be quite hidden. In the same manner in this
lake of fire, while its surface was generally covered with
a crust of half-congealed, dusky lava, and raised into
elevations, or sunk into depressions, you would now
and then see the live coal-red stream running along.
Two cakes of lava, also, would meet like cakes of ice,
and their edges crushing, would pile up and fall over
precisely like the phenomena of moving fields of ice;
there was, too, the same rustling, grinding noise.
Sometimes, I am told, the roar of the fiery surges
is like the heavy beating of surf. Once, when Mr.
Coan visited it, this caldron was heaped up in the
middle, higher above its brim than his head, so that
he ran up and thrust in a pyrometer, while streams
were running off on different sides. At another time
when he saw it, it had sunk four or five hundred feet
below its brim, and he had to look down a dreadful
gulf to see its fires.
Again, when Mr. Bingham was there, it was full,
and concentric waves were flowing out and around
from its centre. Having carefully observed its moveinents a while, he threw a stick of wood upon the thin
crust of a moving wave where he thought it would
bear him, even if it should bend a little, and then
stood upon it a few moments. In that position, thrusting his cane down through the cooling tough crust,
about half an inch thick, and immediately withdrawing it, forthwith there gushed up, like ooze in a marsh
or melted tar under a plank, enough of the viscid lava
to form a globular mass, which afterward, as it cooled, he broke off and bore away.
It is not easy for one that has not himself been in
.3o2 
EFFEcT UPON THE IMAGINATION.   303
a similar position, to sympathize with and pardon the
traveler at such a point, for he is unwilling to forbear
and leave it till fairly surfeited and seared with heat
and admiration, or driven off by some sudden spout
and roar, or splash of the caidron. You gaze, and gaze,
and gaze in amazement, without conscious thought,
like a man in a trance, reluctant to go away, and you
want to spend at least a day and night, viewing close
at hand its ever-varying phenomena.
Had we only brought with us wrappers, I believe
we should have been the first to have slept on the
Black Ledge. Now that the edge of curiosity is a
little blunted and the judgment cool, we can see that
there would be a degree of hazard and temerity in it
which is not felt under the excitement of novelty and
in the full tide of discovery. Forced by startling admonitions of instant danger, I had to quit suddenly
the precarious footing I had gained on the caldron's
edge, like a hungry man hurried from his repast ere
he has snatched a mouthful. But the look I caught
there, and the impression of horror, awfulness, and
sublimity thence obtained, live and will live in my
conscious being forever and ever; and it is this shall
help me utter what many have experienced, and have
wished to say before the poet said it for them:
One compact hour of crowded life
Is worth an age without a name.
A moment of being under such circumstances is an
epoch in the history of one's mind; and he, perhaps
may be deemed the most highly favored of mortals
who has the most of such epochs in remembrance, 
,THE ISLAND WORLD.
provided only that the incommunicable thoughts and
emotions which, in the moment of that experience,
seemed to permeate the very substance of the mind,
have given it a moral tone and impulse running
through  all its subsequent life.  It is thus  that
thoughts are waked " to perish never," being instamped ineffaceably upon the spiritual frame-work and
foundation stones of the soul, dignifying and consecrating them to noble uses.
It was not, I trust, without some valuable additions to our stock of impressions in this line, that we
reluctantly left that spot. Departing thence, we passed over a tract between the level of the brim of the
caldron and the Black Ledge, in order to gain again
the latter, most strangely rugged and wild, as if convulsion after convulsion had upheaved, and sunk, and
rent, and piled the vast mineral and rocky masses;
forming here great hills like the ruins of a hundred
towers, and there deep indentations, while every block
lay upon its fellow, ready to be dislodged, edgewise,
crosswise, endwise, sidewise, angle-wise, and every
wise, in the wildest confusion and variety possible, as
if Typhcean giants had been hurling them at each
other in war; or as when the warring angels
From their foundations loosening to anid fro,
Uptore the seated hills, with all their load,
And sent them thundering upon their adversaries.
Then hills amid the air encounter'd hills,
Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire:
Horrid confusion heap'd upon confusion rose.
Rocks, too, in earthquake commotions, have been
started from the perpendicular sides of the crater in
.304 
COMING UP FROM THE CRATER.  305
this part, and have rolled down eight hundred or a
thousand feet with a force, one might think, that
would almost shake the world.
When we had thus encompassed the crater, and
had returned to the point where we first came down
upon the Black Ledge, it was getting toward night,
and I found myself so excessively heated and feverish, and throbbing with the headache, which most
persons there suffer from, as to be unable to go for the
castellated and Gothic specimens into some ovens that
are found in the sides near by.
Leaving, therefore, my companion and the natives
to hunt for them, I proceeded slowly back, and toiled
up, with difficulty, the steep side of this stupendous
crater, which may be set down at a moderate calculation as not less than twelve miles in circumference,
and one thousand feet deep. In the centre of this
vast sunken amphitheatre of volcanic fire,
"A dungeon horrible on all sides round,
As one great furnace flaming,"
a man looks up to heaven, and to the seared walls of
this great prison, and feels like a pigmy, or the veriest
insect, in contrast with so mighty and terrible a work
of the Lord God Almighty.
The person who can go down into it, and come up
safe from it, with a light mind, unthankful and unawed, is as wanting in some of the best attributes of
mental manhood as of piety; and, let me say with
C('owper,
I would not enter on my list of friends,
Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
the man who should prove himself so brutishly insensible to the sublime vestiges of Divine power, and to
the providential care of Divine goodness.
Our second night by the volcano was one of rather
more ease and comfort than the first, a screen having
been erected for us in a new spot, beyond the domain
of imported fleas.  I slept a little at intervals, just
raising myself at every awakening to look at Pele's
fires, which spouted and played like fountains, and(l
leaped suddenly with a flash from place to place, lik(
electricity on wire in the experiments of the lectureroom.
Once when I arose at midnight and went out a little beyond the range of our screen, to enjoy in silence
the august and grand spectacle, the violence of the
wind was such as to take off my unguarded hat, and
carry it clear over the brink of the crater, where it
lodged for the night, but was recovered with little injury in the morning by one of our courageous natives.
One of the early visitors there said that, on coming
near the rim, he fell upon his hands and knees awestruck, and crept cautiously to the rocky brink, unwilling at once to walk up to the giddy verge and
look down as from a mast-head upon the fiery gulf
at his feet. In a little time, however, like a landsman after a while at sea, he was able to stand very
near and gaze unalarmed upon this wonder of the
world.
I have myself known seamen that had faced unfearingly all the perils of the deep, and had rushed boldly
into battle with its mammoth monsters, to stand appalled on the brink of Kilauea, and depart without daring
306 
Kluati(a l~y Nloonl,,it.
,#i -  
SECOND MORNING BY THE CRATER. 309)
to try its abyss. Gazing upon it, then, at midnight, so
near its brink as we were, was rather venturing upon
the edge of safety, as I found to my cost. But woe
to the man that should have a fit of somnambulism
on the spot where our tent was pitched that last night.
Baron Munchausen's seven-leagued boots could hardly
save him from a warm bath in flowing lava cherry-red.
Morning broke again upon our open encampment,
clear and bracing as upon the Green Mountains of
Vermont. With fingers burned and bleeding from
the climbing and crystal-digging of yesterday, we
made all the dispatch possible in collecting and packing specimens, but it was one o'clock before we were
ready to leave. Having at length got off the natives
with their burdens, two for Hilo and two for Kau, we
kneeled for the last time by that wonderful old furnace, where the hand of God works the bellows and
keeps up his vast laboratory of elemental fire. Then
we mounted our horses and bade a final good-by, the
one for Hilo, and the other for his happy Hawaiian
home.
It was with regret that I left half explored a region
so replete with wonder and novelties, where a man
might spend a week in the rarest sight-seeing without satiety. One wants to encompass the crater above
as well as below; to go round about her, to mark well
her bulwarks, to tell the towers thereof, and to spy
out all the wonderful country round about; to apply
the plummet and line, and take the gauge and dimensions of the vast openings into earth's fiery womb here
to be met with; and to trace out some of those subterranean galleries and awful caves by which her re 
THE ISLAND WORLD
dundant fires have from time to time flowed off sea
ward, and to explore all the region where, sixty years
ag,o, Keoua and his band of warriors were fatally ar
rested by an eruption.*
* The army of Keoua set out on their way in three different com panies. The company in advance had not proceeded far, before the
ground began to shake and rock beneath their feet, and it became
quite impossible to stand. Soon a dense cloud of darkness was seen
to rise out of the crater, and almost at the same instant the electrical
effect upon the air was so great that the thunder began to roar in the
heavens and the lightning to flash. It continued to ascend and spread
abroad till the whole region was enveloped, and the light of day was
entirely excluded. The darkness was the more terrific, being made
visible by an awful glare from streams of red and blue light variously
combined, that issued from the pit below, and being lit up at intervals by the intense flashes of lightning from above.  Soon followed ai
immense volume of sand and cinders, which were thrown in high heaven, and came down in a destructive shower for many miles around.
Some persons of the forward company were burned to death by the
sand and cinders, and others were seriously injured. All experienced
a suffocating sensation upon the lungs, and hastened on with all possible speed.
The rear body, which was nearest the volcano at the time of the
eruption, seemed to suffer the least injury, and, after the earthquake
and shower of sand had passed over, hastened forward to escape the
dangers which threatened them, and rejoicing in mutual congratula
tions that they had been preserved in the midst of such imminent
peril. But what was their surprise and consternation when, on coming up with their friends of the centre party, they discovered them all
to have become corpses. Some were lying down, and others were
sitting upright, clasping with dying grasp their wives and children,
and joining noses (their form of expressing affection) as in the act of
taking a final leave. So much like life they looked, that they at first
supposed them merely at rest, and it was not until they had come up
to them and handled them that they could detect their mistake. The
whole party, including women and children, not one of them survived
to relate the catastrophe that had befallen their comrades. The only
living being they found was a solitary hog, in company with one of
the families which had been so suddenly bereft of life. In those per.
ilous circumstances, the surviving party did not even stay to bewail
.310
9 
THE  FUTURE  FORETOLD.                311
When some enterprising Yankee, or Yankeefied
Hawaiian, shall have built there a house of entertainment, the thing will be possible, and Kilauea will be
resorted to from far and near as one of the wonders of
the world. Invalids and travelers from America may
yet cross the Isthmus of Darien or the Rocky Mountains by rail-road, be ferried to Hawaii nei by iron
steamers from San Francisco or Panama, and have
their youth renewed by a sulphur bath from one of
the steaming orifices of old Pele. Nor is it an impossibility, in this age of gold, that volcanic fire may yet
retire from the bed of this crater, and, in the changes
of mineral chemistry, leave all its veins and fissures
so injected with shining metal from the central Pyrophlegethon, that Hawaii shall yet become the El Dorado of the Pacific, the Colchis of modern Argonauts,
and the very Ultirna Thule of gold hunters from all
nations.
It was not till late in the evening that I reached
Ola, a district in Puna, where Mr. Coan had deposited a letter for me in the time of his last tour, and had
charged his good people there to pay suitable attentions to a stranger that was shortly coming through.
Warned of our approach by the whoop and whistle of
the natives, the hospitable inmates of a house there,
with kindest intent, had kindled a large fire in the
middle, and called together a goodly deputation from
other houses. As the place had no outletsbut by one
their fate, but, leaving their deceased companions as they found them,
hurried on and overtook the company in advance at the place of their
encampment.-Dibble's History of the Sandwich Islands, p. 65, 66.
Lahainaluna Alission Press, 1843. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
little puka (door) in the side, it was so dense with
smoke, and oppressive with heat and twice-breathed
air, as to induce a violent headache, that was by no
means an equivalent for the wet feet and pure air by
whose loss it was gained.
What with this and the feverishness incurred already by exposure and weariness, and the incessant
fire of a flying detachment of ukulele that came in
my skirts from the volcano, there was no sleep for the
night, and I was in poor plight for travel the next day.
Heavy showers, too, prevented an early departure.
But by nine in the morning of Saturday I was mounted for Hilo. The route lay through the tangled forests and ferns of Puna, fallen trees lying frequently
across the way, and the road for a good part of the
distance being made of the large stumps of ferns, a la
mode corduroy, or what they call " down east" a gridiron road, over which my horse traveled with more
shrinking and difficulty than St. Anthony (I believe
it was) used to walk barefoot, for penance, over a bridge
paved with sharp flints.
To a wearied traveler, the way through that long
wood seemed almost interminable. But there was
something singular in the composition of the forest,
and of the ground, or rather crumbled lava whereon it
grew. The huge vine, called by the natives Iie, coiling up like a great reptile, and overhanging all the
trees with its deep-red blossoms, was very conspicuous; and large trees of the ohia and kukui (candle
nut) would be frequently girdled with a chaplet of
moss, on which were growing ferns, and a plant with
long leaves like the dandelion.
S12
s 
RECEPTION AT HILO.
Frequently there were to be seen three or four of
these garlands on the stock of the same tree, one above
another, at intervals of three or four feet.  Birds, too,
made the wood vocal, when the rain was not pattering
upon the leaves; and they never warbled finer their
sweet philosophy,
Flee from doubt and faithless sorrow:
God provideth for the mrnorrow.
First impressions of Hilo are always pleasant. The
gentle rise of the land up to the domes of Mauna Kea
and Loa; the numerous and large oak-green breadfruit trees, and spiral pandanus, with the dense undergrowth of shrubs and grass springing from a deep
and always moistened soil, interspersed with lagoons
and fish-ponds of fresh water, strike the eye of the
stranger very agreeably.
There are also several native houses of uncommon neatness and beauty, the posts being morticed
into sills, furnished with verandas on two sides, and
surrounded with neat green hedges of the ki plant.
The three mission-houses have verdant and ample
yards adjoining, in which are the Oriental lilac, mnimosa, tamarind, mango, guava, coffee, lime, and figtrees, and other shrubs and flowers, inclosed by stone
walls.
A cordial greeting at Mr. Coan's, warm bathing,
and change of apparel dispelled half my weariness,
while the luxury of a bed and sleep, scarcely known
for four nights, proved greatly restorative to overworn and excited nature. I was at the sanctuary in
the morning on the following Sabbath, where Mr. Coan
0
313 
THEiE ISLAND WORLD.
preached, a neat frame structure, one hundred and
twenty feet long and sixty wide, thatched with grass
on the roof and sides, unceiled, and without glass windows. It has a wide veranda all round, made by the
overhanging eaves, and is altogether a very handsome
specimen of a native grass meeting-house. But the
labor of preaching in such a structure can be little
less than that of speaking in the open air, under the
disadvantage, too, of an atmosphere fetid with the exhalations of palm-oiled kanaka bodies and poi-made
lungs.
Mr. Coan's Sabbath labors are the care of his Sunday school at nine in the morning, preaching immediately after, then a meeting for persons under censure
and seeking admission to the Church. After a short intermission, the afternoon sermon, and then, when ships
are in port, an English sermon to seamen and such
of the foreign residents as choose to attend. After
supper, a religious exercise with the girls of Mrs. Coan's
household school.
These exercises are far too much for the well-being
and endurance of the pastor, who can not sustain such
excessive labors many years more. Were it not for
his frequent absences on tours, which, laborious as they
are, and sometimes fraught with peril, yet prove invigorating, it would be impossible to hold out as he
does. Sabbaths, when the pastor is away, Rev. Mr.
Lyman, of the boys' boarding school, supplies the desk.
In the afternoon, it being the ffrst Sabbath of the
year, the sacrament was administered to about eight
hundred communicants; but a small part of this huge
Church of six thousand now coming to communion
314 
THE SABBATH AT HILO.
at the station, the elements being administered, in
Mr. Coan's quarterly tours, at several other places
The usual Sabbath audience present one would judge
to be about eight or nine hundred. The girls of Mrs.
Coan's school, to the number of twenty-five, sit on
oenches directly opposite the desk.  The boys of Mr.
Lyman's school, about eighty, in raised seats within
a box on the right.
The singing is done by the two schools conjointly,
a youth of about fourteen leading the choir and playing a viol, on which he has instructed himself, with
help from Mrs. Lyman. The singing is altogether
the best I have heard at the Islands; the voices of the
girls, together with their bright, happy faces, are truly
pleasing. They sing a verse before each meal, as well
as at their morning and evening prayers, and at the
opening and close of school; and a visitor will be hearing some of their merry voices all the time,
"From morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day."
Their dormitory, dining-hall, and school-room is all
one grass building, situated a few yards from the house,
about thirty-five feet long and twenty wide. The
school-room is at one end, furnished with desks and
benches, having a single window on each side, and
raised up about two feet above the ground floor of the
dining-hall and dormitory. The sleeping nests are
little recesses on the two sides of the dining-hall, and
are made by mere partitions of mats, just large enough
each for two; there they bestow themselves and live
happier than so many queens.
315 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
The school has no appropriation from the mission
treasury; but friends in America have been kind, and
their donations are yearly needed, and could hardly
be better bestowed.  This interesting school, from its
establishment in 1839, as well as that for boys under
Mr. and Mrs. Lyman, has had the signal blessing of
God. Its pupils have been preserved from sickness
and death, and, as it is believed, from Hawaiian immoralities. I suppose they are the elite of Puna and
Hilo, some among them being truly beautiful; and
surely no Christian visitor can help becoming deeply
interested in the welfare of these warbling Hawaiian
girls, and offering in their behalf many earnest prayors. Would that their virtue, and youthful spirits,
and buoyant, singing hearts might be kept always!
0! MAY THEY KEEP IN TUNE WITH HEAVEN TILL GOD,
ERE LONG, TO HIS CELESTIAL CONCERT THEM INVITE,
To LIVE WITH HIM, AND SING IN EVERLASTING
Morn of light!-MILTON.
316 
CHANGEFUL VOLCANIC PHENOMENA. 317
CHAPTER XV.
COMPARISON OF NOTES ON THE VOLCANO.
Such a boiling and broiling,
Such a whacking and thwacking,
Such a sissing and hissing,
Such a clattering and splattering,
Such a muttering and fluttering,
Such a crackling and rattling,
Such a lattering and battering,
Such a blending and rending,
Such a wearing and tearing,
Such a blowing and glowing,
Such a snapping and flapping,
Such a sizzling and frizzling,
That which end we stood on was doubtful,
For we all were demented by fear.
E. 0 HALL.
IT will be perceived, in what has gone before, that
1 have put down first impressions of the great Hawaiian volcano, taken at sight, its present phenomena
being, as it were, arrested and Daguerreotyped as they
passed before my eyes. But these phenomena are
ever-varying, so that no two visitors at different times
ever found them alike, or the aspect of the crater unchanged at two several visits.
At this time of my seeing it, its fires were uncommonly low and quiescent, and the crater almost su.
pernaturally still. Thus my companion, who had
been there twice before within two years, had never 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
observed so little activity as now.  And the changes
te found and pointed out as we passed along in the
bed of the crater are very great. Many huge cones,
that a year ago were laboring with unearthly throes
and groanings, and now and then projecting from
their top smoke, and steam, and liquid lava, with
terrific detonations, have entirely vanished, and the
places where they stood are hardened and smooth.
The hissing of steam, the roaring as of mighty fires,
and the sound of the lake, like the noise of many waters, were then distinctly heard from the top of the
cliffs, and streams of bright lava were seen falling and
flowing between the laboring cones. Now there was
an entire absence of those appalling noises, ani suppressed struggles, and inward mutterings of agony
and wrath, as of immense power writhing under chains
and darkness, which almost all visitors will tell of.
Neither did we hear any of those underground explosions which are said sometimes to reverberate from
end to end of the crater, and shake even its massive
walls.
Such an explosion occurred in the night while Mr.
Stewart and the English naval commander, Byron,
were on a visit to the volcano in 1825. An account
of it is given in the volume entitled " Journal of a
Residence in the Sandwich Islands, by C. S. Stewart."
The tumult and tremor awakened them, and, springing from their sleeping-places, they saw a dense column of heavy black smoke rising from the crater directly in front.
" The subterranean struggle ceased, and immediately after flames burst from a large cone near where
018 
IMPRESSIONS OF EARLY VISITORS  319
we had been in the morning, and which then appeared to have been long inactive. Red-hot stones, cinders, and ashes were also propelled to a great height
with immense violence, and shortly after the molten
lava came boiling up, and flowed down the sides of
the cone, and over the surrounding scoria, in two
beautiful, curved streams, glittering with indescribable brilliance. At the same time a whole lake of fire
opened in a more distant part, which could not have
been less than two miles in circumference. Its surface had all the agitation of an ocean-billow after
billow tossed its monstrous bosom in the air, and crested and broke in sheets and spray of fire, like heavy
rollers sweeping over a reef to the shore, and occasionally burst with such violence as in the concussion to
dash the fiery spray forty and fifty feet high."
One of those prodigious engines, which they call
cones (more properly funnels or fire-pumps), he examined near at hand, and judged it to be one hundred and fifty feet high. A huge, irregularly-shapen,
inverted funnel of lava, covered with clefts, orifices,
and tunnels, from which bodies of steam escaped with
deafening explosion, while pale flames, ashes, stones,
and lava were propelled with great force and noise
from its ragged and yawning mouth.
Ellis, in his " Missionary Tour through Hawaii,"
is believed to have been the first who described this
unique and grand crater. At the time of his visit he
said that the southwest and northern parts of it were
one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific
ebullition, rolling to and fro its fiery surge and flaming billows.  "Fifty-one conical islands, of varied form 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
and size, containing as many craters, rose either round
the edge or from the surface of the burning lake. Twenty-two constantly emitted columns of gray smoke, or
pyramids of brilliant flame; and several of them at
the same time vomited from their ignited mouths
streams of lava, which rolled in blazing torrents down
their black, indented sides into the boiling mass below. Streams of lava, from smaller craters in vigor(-)ous action higher up the sides of the great gulf, rolled
down into the lake and mingled with the melted mass
there, which, though thrown up by different apertures, had, perhaps, been originally fused in one vast
furnace.
" At night, the agitated mass of liquid lava, like a
flood of melted metal, raged with tumultuous whirl,
and, darting its fierce light athwart the midnight
g1ooiii, uniulded a scene terrible and sublime beyond
all we had yet seen. The lively flame that danced over
its undulating surface, tinged with sulphureous blue,
or glowing with mineral red, cast a broad glare of
dazzling light on the indented sides of the insulated
craters, from whose roaring mouths, amid rising
flames and eddying streams of fire, shot up at frequent intervals, with loudest detonations, spherical
masses of fusing lava, or bright, ignited stones. The
dark, bold outline of the perpendicular and jutting
rocks around formed a striking contrast with the luminous lake below, whose vivid rays, thrown on the
rugged promontories, and, reflected by the overhanging clouds, combined to complete the awful grandeur
,of the imposing scene.
" The natives sat most of the night talking of the
320 
FANCIES OF THE NATIVES.
achievements of Pele, and regarding with a superstitious fear, at which we were not surprised, the brilliant exhibition. They considered it the primeval abode
of their volcanic deities. The conical craters, they said,
were their houses, where they frequently amused themselves by playing at konane, a game of drafts. The
roaring of the furnaces and the crackling of the flames
were the kani of their htula, the music of their dances,,
and the red, flaming surge was the siurf where they
played, sportively swimming on the rolling wave.
" From their accounts we learned that it had been
burning vai ka po mai, from chaos till now, and had
overflowed some part of the country during the reign
of every king that had governed Hawaii; that in earlier ages it used to boil up and overflow its banks, and
inundate the adjacent country; but that for many
kings' reigns it had kept below the level of the surrounding plain, continually extending its surface and
increasing its depth, and occasionally throwing up,
with violent explosion, huge rocks or red-hot stones.
"These eruptions were always accompanied with
dreadful earthquakes, loud claps of thunder, with vivid
and quick-succeeding lightning. No great explosion
had taken place since the days of Keoua, a part of
whose forces, while going to war, met here with a sudden and awful destruction. But many places near the
sea had since been overflowed, on which occasions they
supposed Pele went by a road under ground from her
house in the crater to the shore."
All readers of the Missionary Herald, and a large
circle besides, are familiar with Mr. Coan's graphic account of the eruption lower down in Puna, in 1840,
02
321 
THE ISLAND WVORLD.
when night was converted into day on all eastern Hawaii, and the brilliancy of the light was like a blazing
firmament. Just before that eruption, it is said, the
entire pit of the crater of Kilauea, about three miles
long, and two or more broad, was one sea of fire. On
the breaking out of the lava in Puna it immediately
subsided, and even the caldron sunk several hundred
feet below its present surface, revealing vast caves
and galleries by which the fused material had been
drawn off.
I am informed by Mr. Coan, that in Puna there is
an extinct crater, ten or twelve miles from Kilauea,
nearly as deep, and that there are to be met with all
along in that region both sunken pits and conical
mounds. They are all lateral craters to the great
volcanic dome of Mauna Loa, which has been raised
by successive eruptions fourteen thousand feet above
the level of the sea.
It had been thought by the Scientific Corps of the
Exploring Squadron, and by most other observers,
that while its fires should continue to burn, no eruption could take place from a point higher than Kilauea, which is estimated at about four thousand feet
above the level of the sea. But the sudden lighting
of a taper one night in 1843, upon the bare top of the
monarch mountain itself, revealed the fallacy of such
an opinion. A fiery river took its rise there, several
miles wide, which Messrs. Coan and Paris explored a
couple of months after, till they found it disembogued
and lost under ground in some ancient caves and galleries.
Several eruptions have taken place since from the
$22 
COMPARISON WITH OTHER CRATERS. 323
same point, that is, nearly fourteen thousand feet
above the level of the sea, or eight thousand higher
than Kilauea; and in 1849 another prodigious flood
of boiling rock issued from the same quarter.
I find that Commander Wilkes, of the United States
Exploring Squadron, whose annals, so far as appertains to facts and phenomena at the Sandwich Islands,
are remarkably accurate and unexaggerated, was not
less amazed than all others have been at the view of
this mighty crater. One of the Scientific Corps wrote
to a friend that " Vesuvius was a babe to it. The surface at one moment black as ink, the next exhibiting
rivers, and pools, and jets of a hideous blood-red fluid,
that was sometimes thrown up to the height of fifty
or sixty feet, and fell back with a sullen splashing
that was indescribably awful. By night it was grand
beyond description. The frequent lightings up, the
hissings, the deep muttering explosions, reminded me
of some great city in flames, where there were magazines of gunpowder or mines continually exploding."
I will eliminate and condense from the extended volumes of Mr. Wilkes's minute narrative a few paragraphs here and there, that touch circumstances, and
present points of view not, perhaps, exhibited so clearly in the narrative of the previous chapter. He described the rushing of the wind past them as they approached the abyss, just as if it were drawn inward
to support the combustion of some mighty conflagration. When the edge was reached, the extent of the
cavity became apparent, and its depth sensible by comparison with the figures of some of the party who had
descended. The vastness thus made sensible trans 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
fixed the mind with astonishment, and every instant
the impression of grandeur and magnificence increased.
To give an idea of its capacity, he estimates that
the city of New York might be placed within it, and
when at its bottom would hardly be noticed, for it is
three and a half miles long, two and a half wide, and
one thousand feet deep. A black ledge surrounds it
at the depth of six hundred and sixty feet, thence to
the bottom is three hundred and eighty-four feet. The
bottom looks in the daytime like a heap of smouldering ruins. What is wonderful in the day, becomes
ten times more so at night. The immense pool of
cherry-red lava, in a state of violent ebullition, illuminates the whole expanse, and flows in all directions
like water, while the illuminated cloud hangs over it
like a vast canopy.
All usual ideas of volcanic craters are dissipated
upon seeing this. There is no elevated cone. no igneous matter, or rocks ejected beyond the rim. The
banks appear as if built of massive black blocks, which
in places are clothed with ferns near the top, nourished by the issuing vapors. The pool is one thousand
five hundred feet long by one thousand wide, of an
oval figure. The ebullition in it was (as is the case
when the heat is applied to one side of a vessel) most
violent near the northern side.
They occasionally perceived stones, or masses of
red-hot matter, ejected to the height of seventy feet,
and falling back into the lake again. Reflecting upon
the position they were in, its insecurity, and the deep
and vast fires beneath, with the high basaltic walls
ncornmpnasing thenm upon all sides, the sulphureous
324 
OCCASION OF AWE AND WONDER.  325
flames and broad glare, throwing such enormous masses of stone in strong relief by their own fusion, it was
difficult to comprehend how such a reservoir could
thus be pent up, and be viewed in such close proximity without accident or danger.
The whole party was perfectly silent, and the countenance of each individual expressed the feeling of awe
and wonder which the writer felt in so great a degree
himself, and which the scene was so well calculated
to excite. No one can see all this, and yet doubt the
theory of the igneous fluidity of the earth. All combustible causes that we are acquainted with are totally inadequate to produce such an effect. The whole
seemed boiling up like a fountain, differing only in
density and color.
The immense space occupied by the crater is gradually filled with the fluid mass of lava to a certain
point, above which the walls, or the surrounding soil,
are no longer able to bear the pressure. It then finds
vent by an eruption, previous to which, however, a
large part next to the walls of the crater has become
partially cooled, and remains fixed at the level it had
attained.
After the eruption, the central mass, therefore,
alone subsides three or four hundred feet, and leaves
the portion that has become solid, forming a kind of
terrace or shelf. This is what constitutes the Black
Ledge, and it is one of the most striking features of
the crater. Its surface is comparatively level, though
somewhat uneven, and it is generally coated with a vitreous, and, in some places, scoriaceous lava, from half
an inch to one inch thick, very iridescent and brittle. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
The crackling noise made in walking over this crisp
surface, like a coating of blue and yellow glass, resembles that made by treading on frozen snow in very
cold weather. Every here and there are seen dark
pits and vaulted caverns, with heated air rushing from
them. Large cracks are passed, the air issuing from
which, at one hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit,
is almost stifling.
Masses are surmounted that it would seem as if the
accumulated weight of a few persons would cause to
topple over, and plunge the whole into the fiery pool
beneath. There were many cracks where their sticks
were set on fire, and some places in the vaulted chambers where the rock might be seen red hot. The Black
Ledge is of various widths, from six hundred to two
hundred feet. One trip to the floor generally satisfies
the most daring; and as long as a person remains, he
must feel in a state of great insecurity, and in danger
of undergoing the most terrible of deaths, in being cut
off from escape by a sudden outbreak of the red molten
fluid. Yet a hardihood is acquired, brought about by
the excitement, that gives courage to encounter serious peril in so rare a situation.
To stand on the Black Ledge, and look around on
the desolation which appears on every side, produces
a feeling similar to that with which the scene of some
dreadful conflagration would be viewed. The same
description of sadness is felt that such a prospect
would create, while there is in addition a feeling of insecurity, arising from the fires that are raging around,
and are known to exist underneath. Rocks on the
sides of the caldron are left as if spattered with pitch
326 
CAPACITY ANrD FORCE OF VOL,CANOES. 327
To give an idea of the vastness of this volcano's
capacity,* it may be stated that the discharge from
the lake, during one night Wilkes was at the crater,
he estimates to have been fifteen millions of cubic feet.
* The power exerted by volcanic agency may be estimated by the
amount of matter protruded, by the distance to which masses of rock
have been projected, and by calculating the force requisite to raise
lava to the tops of existing craters from their base. Vesuvius hurled
stones eight pounds in weight to Pompeii, a distance of six miles, and
has cast similar masses two thousand feet above its own summit;
while Cotopaxi has projected a block of one hundred and nine cubic
yards in volume to the distance of nine miles. The annexed table
gives the height of the respective volcanoes named above the sea, with
the force requisite to cause lava to flow over their tops, and the initial velocity which such a force would produce:
Volcanoes.     Height in        Ifeet  Force exerted upon te Velocity per second.
lava.          velocity per econd.
Stromboli..
Vesuvius..
Jorullo...
Hecla....
,Etna....
Teneriffe. 
Kea S. Islands.
Popocatapetl.
Mount Elias.
Cotopai -.
Liount Etins..          18,079             1465                1072
Cotopaxi...          18,869     _______ 1492                1104
Milnor's Gallery of Nature, p. 781. London, 1846.
"The foci of active volcanoes are situated at enormous depths, and.
judging from the remarkable fragments which I have found in various
parts of the earth incrusted in lava currents, I should deem it more
than probable that a primordial granite rock forms the substratum of
the whole stratified edifice of fossil remains."'-Humboldt's Cosmos,
vol. i., p. 285.
"The mineral composition of lava differs according to the nature
of the crystalline rock of which the volcano is formed, the height of
the point where the eruption occurs, whether at the foot of the mountain or in the neighborhood of the crater, and the condition of temperature of the interior. Vitreous volcanic foundations, obsidian, pearl.
stone, and pumice, are entirely wanting in some volcanoes, while in
the case of others they only proceed firom the crater, or, at any rate,
from very inconsiderable heights."-Cosmos, vol. i., p. 234.
I
2,168
3,874
2,942
5,106
10,892
12,464
14,700
17,712
18,079
18 869
176
314
319
413
882
1009
1191
1435
1465
1492
F,.
371
496
502
570
832
896
966
1062
1072
1104 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
A small crater within the pit, measured by Dr. Judd,
aond found to be two hundred feet in diameter, was
filled in twelve minutes, at which rate, in one day, it
would have discharged two hundred million cubic feet
of lava.
It was by the sudden filling up of a small crater
like this that Dr. Judd came within a hair's-breadth
of losing his life, while attempting to dip a ladleful
of the molten rock. The lava suddenly broke out behind him, and but for the fidelity of a native, stopping
when all others fled with terror, reaching out to him
his hand, and drawing him up, not without burning
to a blister his own face and arms, he would inevitably have perished in another minute by the most horrible of all deaths.
One of the missionaries at these islands, soon after
visiting this volcano, portrayed very naturally its phenomena, and the impressions they made upon his own
mind, in a familiar letter to a friend, which has been
laid before me. And, inasmuch as it paints some
features not presented in the foregoing, we will quote
therefrom, for the sake of finishing in one chapter the
tout ensemble of wonders appertaining to this most
remarkable of all the hitherto observed exhibitions of
Nature in the line of volcanoes. There might be taken a series of panoramic and particular views of this
unique volcano, and exhibited through the diorama,
that would doubtless be greatly admired, and bring
an independent fortune to the first successful artist.
Something of the kind, I have no doubt, will be tried
and accomplished ere long; and then we shall have'
the whole world gazing at Kilauea, and tracks of trav
328 
PELE-WORSHIPERS OF THE FUTURE. 3t
el will tend there, and tourists will be filling their
books with its wonders, and rail-road, steam-ship, and
Daguerreotype will be bringing them so near, and
making them so familiar, that Pele will have more
idolaters than ever she had in the days of old. Whether Hawaiians will gain by it remains to be proved.
The account above referred to says, that after two
or three miles' walk in the crater, over steaming fissures, and around deep gorges, in the beds of which
lava had recently flowed, forming so many canals of
liquid fire, they came upon a vast lake of melted and
boiling rock!  " This lake is nearly circular, and from
one half to three quarters of a mile in diameter. You
attempt to approach it, but heat and sulphureous gases compel you to a hasty retreat. At length you succeed. For a while you are permitted to stand upon
its fearful brink. The whole surface below is moving
with a heavy but varied motion. The dark gray mass
presently cracks, and a streak of gory fire rolls heavily up into the crevice. A score of similarly irregular lines of fire, crossing and recrossing each other,
and connecting the periphery of the whole like so
many links of lightning, reveal on every hand the raging element. Soon these cool from exposure to the
atmosphere, to be succeeded in endless rotation by
new and similar phenomena.
" Suddenly every eye is turned to the left, or perhaps
the attention is divided toward several spots of absorbing interest. An accumulation of heat had produced a corresponding intensity of action. In quick
succession one gory jet follows another, each cooling
as it falls, its crimson hue darkening and deepening 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
from its first issue till it has reached again its element.
These jets cross each other in every direction, the portions of liquid thus thrown up congealing in all shapes
and sizes as they ascend and fall. Nature seems at
play with the most fearful of her elements. From
these boiling fountains the melted rock flows out on
all sides, and, congealing upon its surface, gives to the
whole mass a diverging motion.
"Different currents meeting, the congealing and
plastic crust is crowded into every imaginable twist
and form, till at length cracked at the line of greatest
pressure, its fragments are piled up on either side of
the fissure or forced under, again to be fused, and again,
ere long, to supply some fresh but distant fountain.
These centres of intensity at length abate their fury.
The jets are less and less rapid, and soon a dark gray
crust has closed over and bound them.
"While all this has transpired, heat and gas have
repeatedly obliged you to escape their contagion. You
look at your watch, and hours have unconsciously passed. The day is waning, and your lungs already feel
the effects of the heated and noxious vapors. Still, the
ever-varying phenomena bind you to the spot. Some
new bursting fountain rivets your gaze.   The crust
pressed from beneath, and from the meeting of counter currents, assumes an irregularity and a singularity
of form, and in its numerous and gaping seams draws
out the sight in the course of its fiery channels; and
withal so constantly is every feature modified and lost,
and formed anew and again lost, that one finds himself in the midst of a volcanic panorama, the scone,
however, perpetually shifting.
330 
P..SSING AND AFTEP. THOUGIITS.   331
"Up to this time you have, perhaps, indulged but a
passing thought upon the fearfulness of your position.
You could not have been insensible of your proximity
to so awful a place, nor yet to the rolling fire just beneath your feet. Your attention has often been fixed
upon the brilliant and varying line of fire that marks
thw entire circumference; but you have again traced
its circle, and you realize for the first time its treacherous foothold. Whither tends the sluggish yet destructive tide? Directly beneath you! A few layers
of congealed scoria, already hot from the fire beneath,
and that may at any time break or melt under you,
this alone is your foothold! You look again at the
mad element, and more of fear than of sublimity mingles with your emotions. At length your trembling
feet bear you from the spot, new feelings having been
kindled in the soul, and impressions received that time
can never efface. You have seen'unquenchable fire,'
and felt for the first time the fearful aptness of that
emblem of the world of woe. You can now realize
the conflagration of the world. God has only to touch
each hill and mountain top, and the whole earth would
melt and flow down at His presence."
Another letter is before me of a still more recent
date, written by a missionary lady who was passing
a day with her children by that burning mountain's
side. It will show the power of the volcano in awing
and elevating alike all minds susceptible of emotion,
and proves, also, that changes are in progress which
may soon result in an eruption both magnificent and
desolating beyond any thing yet known. " We arrived," says the writer, "at three o'clock in the after 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
noon, enveloped in fog, while the thunder was rolling
over our heads. There was soon a smart shower;
then it cleared up, and was remarkably pleasant during our stay. But what shall I say of that awful
night-the most fearful one I ever spent?  I can not describe whlat I saw, heard, and felt. When we had been
there about an hour, Henry came in and asked me to
go out on the bank and hear the volcano. He said it
made a noise like an animal with its head cut off.
After listening a moment, I heard the heavy breathing; but soon there was an explosion, the noise of
which equaled the thunder which we had just been
hearing. We saw distinctly that the gas was escaping from the largest cone. Report followed report in
quick succession, attended with a rumbling noise as
though the lava was escaping, and yet we could see
but a small flow. The children were greatly frightened; but the natives rushed out of the house, crying,
' Man of war! man of war!'  These explosions, louder
at some times than at others, occurred at intervals of
about an hour during our stay. In the stillness of the
night, the echo around the walls of the crater was
grand and awful beyond description.
" At early dawn I started to walk till the animals
overtook us. When opposite the immense mnound
which now covers the lake, we could feel the heat
from it very sensibly (they being, it will be borne in
mind, some fifteen hundred feet perpendicularly above
it). The top of it is nearly on alevel with the lowest side of the crater, having been thrown up, apparently, by the gases beneath, and, in being thrown up,
large seams opened on every side, through which we
332 
ARTILLERY OF THE CRATER.
could see Pele's fires, and out of which the lava flowed
whenever gas escaped from the cones."
Another observer of a similar explosive phenomenon
with that here referred to said, that while gazing intently into the crater below, his ears were suddenly
saluted by five or six regular discharges from a small
crater in the bottom, from which had previously issued only a lilght column of smoke. They were so
regular and abrupt as to remind him of a consular
salute from a man-of-war, and so loud as to cause the
whole cavern to tremble.
"List! to the booming sound
From yonder crater, unobserved till now.
Again, and yet again, it bellows forth
Its bursting thunder with distracting noise;
The echoing cliffs prolong the wild dismay,
And distant mountains bear the echo on.
Once more'tis still. Naught but the dashing roar
Of the huge waves in constant action toss'd,
Salutes the ear. Again! the cavern'd sides
Tremble beneath the pent-up energies
Of the fierce power! while, with reverberant sound.
Mountains and vales re-echo all around."
These waves, speaking literally, are masses of fused,
viscid rock thrown out in succession from a central
opening, and flowing sluggishly down the inclined plain
around it, a crust being gradually formed on the surface while the molten matter is still running beneath,
forcing itself and pressed along by the new matter of
successive waves behind. This motion of a flowing
mass, whether larger or smaller, seen from the rim of
the crater by night, gives the appearance of a fiery surf,
or a rolling wave of fire, or the dancing along of an
extended semicircular flame on the surface of the lake.
333 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
5When one wave has expended itself, or found its level, or otherwise become stationary, another succeeds
and passes over it in like manner, and then another,
sent out, as it were, by the pulsations of the earth's
open artery at the top of the mound. This shows how
a mound, cone, pyramid, or mountain can be gradually built of lava, and wide plains covered at its base
with the same material.
It was in view of phenomena like these that we find
it written after the following cyclopean way, indeed,
but without exaggeration, in the valuable volume entitled, Bingham's Sandwich Islands: " Had Vulcan
employed ten thousand giant cyclopses, each with a
steam-engine of one thousand horse power, blowing
anthracite coal for smelting mountain minerals, or
heaving up and hammering to pieces rocks and hills,
their united efforts would but begin to compare with
the work of Pele.  There was enough of mystery connected with the experiments going on before our eyes
to give ample employment to fancy and philosophy,
and materially to enhance the sublimity of the fearful scene. For it might be asked, How can such an
immense mass of rocks and earth be kept incessantly
in a state of fusion, without fuel or combustion? or
by what process could such solid masses be fused at
all in accordance with any mode of generating heat
with which we are acquainted?
"If there be combustion in the crater adequate to
the melting of such vast masses of substances so hard,
rocky, and earthy, why is there an accumulation of the
general mass, so that millions of cubic fathoms are
from time to time added to the solid contents of the
334 
CAUSES OF VOLCANIC FIRES.    335
mountain? Or if the bowels of the mountain are supposed to be melted by intense heat somehow generated,
could they be heaved up by the expansion of steam or
gas, while an orifice equal to three or four square miles,
like that of Kilauea, or the terminal crater on the same
mountain, is kept open? for steam and gas might be
supposed to pass through the fluid masses and escape,
instead of raising them from a depth, just as steam
rises from the bottom of a boiling caldron without materially elevating the surface of its contents.
" But if, with one class of geologists, we suppose the
interior of the earth to be in a molten or fluid state, as
perhaps originally created, and that Kilauea and other volcanoes are but openings to that subterranean,
fiery central ocean of red or white hot matter, then we
have no faint illustration of the bold imagery used by
the sacred writers, and of that phraseology which
seems hyperbolical or even paradoxical,' the bottomless pit,''the fire that is not quenched,''the lake
that burneth with fire and brimstone,''the smoke of
their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.' If such
a fluid mass constitutes the main portion of the interior of the earth, it is literally'bottomless,' and the
opened surface, like that of Kilauea, may be strictly
called a LAKE, a lake of fire; and, as sulphur and particles of the sulphuret of iron are present, it may be
called a lake that burns with fire cand brimstone."*
I When the questions are asked, What is it that burns ill the volcano? What excites the heat, fuses together earths and metals, and
imparts to lava-currenlts of thick layers a degree of heat that lasts foi
many years? it is necessarily implied that volcanoes must be connected with the existence of substances capable of maintaining combustioni, like the beds of coal in subterranean fires.  According to 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Respecting the uses of such an open lake of fire little can be said, since so little is known. The suppo
the different phases of chemical science, bitumen, pyrites, the moist
admixture of finely-pulverized sulphur and iron, hydrophoric substances, and the metals of the alkalies and earths, have in turn been
designated as the cause of intensely active volcanic phenomena. The
great chemist, Sir Humphrey Davy, to whom we are indebted for the
knowledge of the most combustible metallic substances, has himself
renounced his bold chemical hypothesis in his last work (Consolations in Travel and Last Days of a Philosopher).
So general, deep-seated, and far-propagated an activity as that of
volcanoes can not assuredly have its source in chemical affinity, or
in the mere contact of individual or merely locally-distributed substances. Modern geognosy rather seeks the cause of this activity in
the increased temperature with the increase of depth at all degrees
of latitude, ill that powerful internal heat which our planet owes to
its first solidification, its formation in the regions of space, and to the
spherical contraction of matter revolving elliptically in a gaseous condition. A philosophical study of nature strives ever to elevate itself
above the narrow requirements of mere natural description, and does
not consist, as we have already remarked, in the mere accumulation
of isolated facts. The inquiring and active spirit of man must be suffered to pass from the present to the past, to conjecture all that can
not yet be known with certainty, and still to dwell with pleasure on
the ancient myths of geognosy which are presented to us under so
many various forms. If we consider volcanoes as irregular, intermittent springs, emitting a fluid mixture of oxydized metals, alkalies, and
earths, flowing gently and calmly wherever they find a passage, or
being upheaved by the powerful expansive force of vapors, we are
involuntarily led to remember the geognostic visions of Plato, according to which hot springs, as well as all volcanic igneous streams, were
eruptions that might be traced back to one generally-distributed subterranean cause, Pyrophlegethon.  This Pyrophlegethon of Plato plays
much the same part in relation to the activity of volcanoes which we
now ascribe to the augmentation of heat as we descend from the
earth's surface, and to the fused condition of its internal strata. Volcanic scorie  and lava-streams are portions of Pyrophlegethon itself,
portions of the subterranean, molten, and ever-undulating mass.Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. i., p. 237.   Harper $  Brothers, New York
1850.
336 
NATURAL AND MORAL USES.
sition that it is one of the earth's great safety-valves,
in the economy of Providence, to preclude fatal explosions, would seem, at least, to have no more of fancy in it than of fact. Why may not the awful phenomena of burning mountains be considered also like pustules on the human skin, as symptoms and indications of disease within, and as meant to inform us,
from age to age, that even as all diseases in the constitution of man must have their crises, in order to be
thoroughly cured, so, in the nature of things, must the
malady of the natural and the moral world be at length
cured and thrown off at once, in the fullness of time,
by a universal eruption that shall thoroughly purge
with fire all its distempers?
Earthquakes and volcanoes are now only held in
abeyance by the arm of Omnipotence, from their destined work of the world's renovation by destruction.
They are not to be dictated to by man, nor to have
their laws clearly ascertained, or the places and times
at which they shall or shall not break forth declared
beforehand, any more than the times and seasons of
events to come in the moral world, which belong only
to the Lord Almighty. This is a province of knowledge, both in the world of matter and the world of
mind, which God keeps very much to himself. THE
DEEPS OF FUTURITY, as well as the deep places of the
Earth, are the Lord's. In the maturity of time they
will both be uncovered, and, PURIFIED BY THE FIRES OF
JUDGMAIENT, THE BURNING EARTH SHALL OWN AND OBEY
HER LORD.
She quakes at his approach. Her hollow womb,
Conceiving thunders through a thousand deeps
P
337 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
And fiery caverns, roars beneath his feet.
The hills move lightly, and the mountains smoke,
For he has touch'd them. From the extremest point
Of elevation down into the abyss,
His wrath is busy, and his frown is felt,
The rocks fall headlong, anid the valleys rise.
What solid was, by transformation strange,
Grows fluid; and the fix'd and rooted earth,
Tormented into billows, heaves and swells,
Or, with vortiginous and hideous whirl,
Sucks down its prey insatiate.-COWPER.
338 
ATTRACTIONS OF HILO.
CHAPTER XVI.
EARTHQUAKES, NATURES ARTS AND RELIGION AT HILO.
If in the field I meet a smiling flow'r,
Methinks it whispers, "God created me;
And I to Him devote my little hour
In lonely sweetness and humility."
If, where the forest's darkest shadows lower,
A serpent quick and venomous I see,
It seems to say, "I, too, extol the power
Of Him who caused me, at his will, to be."
The fountain purling, and the river strong,
The rocks, the trees, the mountains raise one song;
"Glory to God!" re-echoes in mine hear:
Faithless were I, in willful error blind,
Did I not Him in all his creatures find;
His voice through heaven, and earth, and ocean hear.
MONTGOMERY'S Imitation from the Italian.
ALMOST every one that has visited Hilo once would
like to go there again. Its salubrious climate, perpetual verdure, quiet walks and rural scenery, pleasant society, and its vicinity to the volcano of Kilauea, form
a combination of attractions not found at any other
place on the Islands. You may walk up to the ancient craters and cascade, or go over the other side of
the river, where of old they used to hold fairs, or stroll
along under the palm-trees by the beautiful mile-beach,
or take a canoe and paddle over to Cocoa-nut Island
for shell-hunting and bathing; or you may make your
way through the bread-fruit and hala trees to the bord.
339 
THE  IS',ANI) WORLD.
ers of the lakes, and take a sail there, if you like, in
a boat of bulrushes, such, very likely, as Moses was
laid in by the Nile.
Or a ride of thirty-five miles will carry you closer to
the phenomena of an active and changeful volcano than
in all the world besides. If it be winter, while you are
perspiring freely under a tropical sun at the beach or
from any where in the bay, you may look up to the
pure snow-capped summit of Mauna Kea, and let the
enchanting sight do what it can to cool and invigorate
you. A few evenings since the mountain presented
a spectacle of great beauty-its base encircled with a
rim of thin white mist, its sides sprinkled with light
patches and delicate shadings of vapor, its peak flashing with sun-lit clouds and snow-banks, that gloriously reflected the declining sunbeans, like a dome of the
purest alabaster.
If you are fond of earthquakes and desirous to take
a shock, your curiosity will be likely to be gratified in
the course of four or five weeks; but the shock will be
so sudden and short, and take you so much by surprise, whether by night or day, that you will have no
chance to examine the phenomenon, and can hardly
help wishing it might be continued a little longer, if
it were only to scrutinize it more closely and mark
your own sensations.
The first time I felt a shock at these islands, it was
in the house about noon, at Kohala; and I could not
help going to the door, after such a commotion, to see
if there were no signs of sympathy with the laboring
earth in the other elements. But it was all sunny and
still; the sky looked cheerful and serene; the fair face
o40 
I:,:,o[1   iriii                  f    ill.0,.1111  ilI auiai            i  
EXPERIENCE OF EARTHQUAKES.   343
of Nature was not pale; and the throe had passed like
an evil thought which will sometimes dart across the
mind, and you are glad to have it go as quick as it
came.
One of the two shocks experienced at Hilo was in
the night, when I was awakened by its jar, but the
mind took no cognizance of it till it was past. Its suddenness was like that of lightning, of which the quickest of all observers of Nature expressively takes notice
in his drama,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both earth and heav'n;
But, ere you can have time to say, behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up.
So quick bright things come to confusion.
Another shock was more prolonged while we were
at the supper-table. First, there was a premonitory
jarring of the house, like as I had felt three times before; then a violent jerk, as if the house were heavily
knocked in one corner, and the blow transmitted to
the other until there was a recoil. Native houses
were seen through the window to pitch and reel. Mr.
Coan, who was absent on a tour, and sitting at the
time under some trees, said that they moved to and
fro, and the leaves rustled as from the blow of a woodman's ax.  His little son insisted upon it, at first, that
he felt something warm strike through him, but became convinced at length that it was only the natural
glow of excitement and alarm, which not boys only,
but boys' parents too, and almost every one else is
subject to when they hear the hoarse rumble, and feel
the fearful vibration of an earthquake. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
This preternatural trembling of the earth gives evidence of unseen danger, that one knows not how to
avoid or grapple with, and of tremendous powers at
work, subject only to the control of the Mightier than
the mightiest, that may in a moment rend the solid
rocks, prostrate lofty trees, and tumble into ruin all
the dwellings and all the works of man, and open hideous abysses that have swallowed, and may again, whole
cities at once.
We have seen it somewhere remarked, that of all
sensations in nature, those produced by earthquakes or
volcanic agencies are the most alarming; the strongest
nerves are unstrung, and the most courageous mind
feels weakened and unhinged when exposed to either.*
* Before we leave the important phenomena which we have considered, not so much in their individual characteristics as in their general physical and geognostical relations, I would advert to the deep
and peculiar impression left on the mind by the first earthquake which
we experience, even where it is not attended by any subterranean
noise. This impression is not, in my opinion, the result of a recollec.
tion of those fearful pictures of devastation presented to our imaginations by the historical narratives of the past, but is rather due to the
sudden revelation of the delusive nature of the inherent faith by which
we had clung to a belief in the immobility of the solid parts of the earth.
We are accustomed from early childhood to draw a contrast between
the mobility of water and the immobility of the soil on which we tread;
and this feeling is confirmed by the evidence of our senses. When,
therefore, we suddenly feel the ground move beneath us, a mysterious
and natural force, with which we are previously unacquainted, is revealed to us as an active disturbance of stability. A moment destroys
the illusion of a whole life; our deceptive faith in the repose of nature
vanishes, and we feel transported, as it were, into a realm of unknown
destructive forces.  Every sound-the faintest motion in the air-arrests our attention, and we no longer trust the ground on which we
stand. Animals, especially dogs and swine, participate in the same
anxious disquietude; and even the crocodiles of the Orinoco, which
are at other times as dumb as our little lizards, leave the trembling
344 
THOUGHTS STARTED:Y THE SHOCKS. 345
.........~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You think of the devastation they have done heretofore, often, with one and the same chain of shocks,
opening the ruinous chasm between lands separated
by an ocean; of the awful judgments they have executed for God, of the probable agency they will yet
have, as indicated by prophecy, in accomplishing the
judgments written; and the thoughts naturally go
forward to the consummation of all things, when
Final ruin fiercely drives
His plowshare o'er creation,
When wrapp'd in fire the realms of Ether glow,
And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below."
True, the Christian knows they will only work the
will of his heavenly Father; that earthquakes and
storms are His ministers, unchained only to do His
bidding, and bound by the decree Thus far and no further. Come what may, the believer in Jesus knows
he is safe, and he shall rise
Unhurt amid the war of elements,
The wreck of nature and the crush of worlds.
But it is seldom that faith, taken by surprise, does at
once steady the soul, and lift a man clear above hostile infirmities and fears.'Tis not in human nature
to feel, unmoved, the solid earth quaking, or to hear
bed of the river and run, with loud cries, into the adjacent forests.
To man the earthquake conveys an idea of some universal and unlimited danger.  We may flee from the crater of a volcano in active
eruption, or from the dwelling whose destruction ismthreatened by the
approach of the lava-stream; but in an earthquake, direct our flight
whithersoever we will, we still feel as if we trod upon the very focus
,f destruction.-Humboldt's Cosmos, vsl. i., p. 215, 216.  Harper,
Brothers, New York, 1850.
P2 
THE IS,AND WORLD.
without dismay beneath one the mutterings of a pow er that can in a moment bury continents or upheave
mountains and cast them into the sea,'Tis not in a
moment, at such emergencies, that every Christian can
repress the flutter and agitation of nature, collect his
energies, and repose calmly on God.
Probably it was with an eye to this, and a consciousness of natural weakness and liability to dismay under
sudden terrors, that the Psalmist said to God, In the
shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until
these calamities be overpast. And the Lord himself
also, in tender compassion to human infirmity, when
awakening to judgment and about to come out of his
place to punish the inhabitants of the earth, addresses
his children, Come, mypeople, enter into thy chambers,
and shut the doors about thee: hide thyself as it were
for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
It is a precious charge and promise to the righteous,
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the Lord
shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from
being taken.
Earthquakes at Hilo have not been frequent or
severe for several years; but in 1838, it is said there
were forty or fifty shocks in eight days, and twelve in
one night.* Some persons were sure they could perceive a tremulousness or quivering of the ground all
the time, and were even made sick by it. Some of
* From memoranda furnished by Rev. Mr. Lyman that there were
fifty separate shlocks, according to his observation, in eight years; the
usual motion or jar being like that produced by the firing of distant
artillery, or the falling of a heavy body on the ground; to this is added a tremulous motion when'he earthquake is slight.
346 
View of Volcanic lills and Lava Streams in Puna.
**e
: 1     e
I *  
e4 4t!l h
I   
I..*  
ENVIRONS OF HILO.
the early missionaries here found their nerves and
health not a little affected by the frequent recurrence
of shocks, and were glad to be stationed at other islands of the group, where they occur but seldom.  Those
now resident here are no more affected by them than
the majority of persons in America by an ordinary
thunder-storm, from which, in fact, there is much more
danger, as earthquakes here have never yet proved disastrous, whereas the lightning there, flung from the
over-charged clouds, burns houses, and blasts its hundreds every year.
There is a triad of old grassy craters at this place,
some ways in the rear of Rev. Mr. Lyman's house, up
to which the visitor from ships in port, whose heart
has long been athirst
To gaze at Nature in her green array,
may take a pleasant stroll through fields of the schoolboys' upland kalo, and see the smooth basins which
volcanic fire, that mighty old potter, has molded so
nicely, tipping a little toward the sea. One of them
is trenched around at the base for a cow pasture. The
rich bottom of the bowl of another some industrious
boys have made into a kalo patch. By getting up on
to the rim of the highest, you can see the hills that
were made in the sea twenty miles off in Puna, at
the time of the last eruption.
Go on a mile and a half further to the right, through
a dense undergrowth of oi (a pernicious shrub interpolated here from abroad, and gaining injuriously
upon the cultivated lands, very much as foreigners are
upon the natives), and you will come suddenly to the
349 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
beautiful cascade of The Rainbow-Ka Wai anue
nue.
Lo! like a glorious hill of diamonds bright,
Built on the steadfast cliffs, the waterfall
Pours forth its gems of pearl and silver light;
They sink, they rise, and sparkling, cover all
With beautiful refulgence; while its song,
Sublime as thunder, rolls the woods along.
This is formed by the sudden descent of.the romantic river Wailuku (water of destruction) over a hollowed cliff, into a deep basin that was once probably a
crater. Let yourself half way down on to a ledge from
which the aquatic natives are wont to take their leaps,
and the broad arch of the cascade is directly before
you, its basin spanned with rainbows, and behind the
descending sheet a deep, misty cave, into which venturesome swimmers sometimes penetrate, and look
out through the thundering waterfall. Beneath is the
deep basin, its bosom seemingly but little moved by
the impetuous suit of the cataract that is making
such an ado to get into her gentle lap, reminding one
of Collins's Ode to Chastity,
Cold is her breast, like flowers that drink the dew.
Piled up all around, and hung with mosses and
ferns, are the solid lava walls, rent only in one place,
which your position does not command, to afford a
narrow outlet for the flow of the maiden river that ripples joyously over its rocky bed, and fearlessly opens
its breast to the sunbeams, seeming to say in triumph
to the too eager waterfall above, Now I'm free, and
away to the sea.
To the right is a singular pyramidal peak of basalt,
350 
A ROMANTIC WATER-TALE                       1
one hundred and fifty feet high, Nature's intrusted
silent keeper of this romantic spot. When the river
is swollen and furious, bearing on its rapid current
drift-wood and trees, and filling up that deep abyss
fifty or sixty feet with its rush of waters, the scene
must be truly sublime. A man should visit it alone,
and stay there long, and go there often, as every visitor at Hilo, who is at all alive to the beauties of Nature, certainly will do, in order to see and enjoy what
may be enjoyed there by a mind which the Spirit has
touched,
"To see the present God in nature's wild
And savage features; in the untrodden height,
The beetling precipice, the deep, cold glen,
The roar of waters, and the gloom of groves."
Alison finely remarks, that Nature, in all its aspects
around us, ought only to be felt as signs of his Providence, and as conducting us, by the universal language of those signs, to the throne of God.   " When
the eye of man opens upon any sublime, or any beautiful scene of nature, the first impression is to consider it as designed-as the effect or workmanship of
the Author of nature, and as significant of his power,
his wisdom, or his goodness; and, perhaps, it is chiefly
for this fine issue that the heart of man is thus finely
touched, that devotion may spring from delight; that
imagination, in the midst of its highest enjoyments,
may be led to terminate in the only object in which
it can finally repose; and that all the noblest convictions and confidences of religion may be acquired in
the simple school of nature, and amid the scenes which
perpetually surround us."
351 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Further down the stream are other cascades, of less
height and beauty. But there is a fall just above the
ships' watering-place, of forty or fifty feet, where boys
and girls, and often swimmers of a larger growth, are
wont to let themselves be carried down headlong into
the fluid gulf, with what exposure of life and naked
limbs they little care.
The facilities afforded for watering at this port are
superior to what are to be found at any other place in
these islands, or, perhaps, through the whole Pacific
Seas. The largest line-of-battle-ship may ride safely
in the bay, and her water-casks may be filled by just
rafting them up to the waterfall, and either directing
the water by a spout or holding them under the natural stream. Other fresh recruits of live stock and
vegetables might be furnished with almost as much
ease and abundance as at Lahaina or Honolulu, were
it not for the lack of enterprise and industry on the
part of the inhabitants. But these virtues, there can
be little doubt, will come into play as a market shall
be.opened for their products.
The number of ships touching here is increasing
every year, and such is the entertainment they get,
without the usual danger in sea-port towns from strong
drink, that, stopping here once, they seldom fail to come
again. A number of American and English men-ofwar have been here during the last four years. The
Exploring Squadron also tarried several weeks. The
visits of Commodore Jones, in the frigate United
States, and that of the Ohio, Captain Stribbling, in
1849, were highly satisfactory and agreeable to the
missionaries, beneficial to the people, and creditable
352 
("asede of tli R,,tnbow, WaIniiil,T,I,
:.:  ".: I:..  
INFLUENCE OF WHALE SHIPS.
to the commodore as a naval commander, an honorable and upright man, and an independent and warm
friend to the missionaries, and to the Hawaiian nation, which he has ever proved himself, from the time
of his first visit to the islands, in 1826, and honest
arbitration then between the missionaries and their
shamed traducers.
It were happy if a like report could be given of the
noted Carysfort, and other English ships of war, and
of all the American whale ships that have touched at
this port for a few years past. While the influence
of some has been salutary, infamous facts might be
stated pertaining to others of them, whose visits have
been sadly demoralizing and baleful. But we forbear
to give them notoriety.* Let the memory of the just
be blessed, but the name of the wicked rot.
The so-called reflex influence of missions has been
very happily exemplified at this station. The missionary pastor's faithfulness with sea-captains and
others who have touched here, and with all foreigners
who have come in his way, and whenever and wherever he has had the privilege of preaching the Gospel,
and the hospitable, friendly acts of all the families,
have not been in vain. Seed cast upon the waters
* Under date of October 16th, 1849, Rev. Mr. Coan thus writes to
the American Seamen's Friend Society: "Whale ships are now in,
and our streets are all alive with sailors. Hundreds are having liberty on shore, and our town is like a bee-hive. Still all are quiet. No
man staggers, no man fights, none are noisy and boisterous. We have
nothing here to inflame the blood, nothing to madden the brain. Our
verdant landscape, our peaceful streets, our pure cold water, and the
absence of those inebriating vials of wrath which consume all good,
induce wise commanders to visit this port, in order to refresh and give
liberty to their crews."
355 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
has been gathered again with rejoicing. I have be come acquainted, while at the islands, with three ca ses of hopeful conversion at Hilo: a whaling-captain,
a traveler, and a seaman. Other cases I have heard
detailed. Three captains, to our knowledge, labored
with on the subject, have pledged themselves not to
whale any longer upon the Sabbath.
How many lasting impressions may have been made
upon seamen and others by the pungent lessons they
have heard, and the tracts and kind words they have
received there, and by what they have observed of the
power of the Gospel upon natives, we can never tell
in time; but in eternity, I doubt not, there will be
found a goodly company of foreign souls saved through
the instrumentality of truth brought in their way at
Hilo.  They who have thus sown the seed shall reap
the fruit with joy, and sing the harvest-home in another world.
On one occasion, some years ago, when Mr. Coan
was absent from his station at the general meeting of
missionaries in Honolulu, a whale ship entered the
port of Hilo, and the captain, being in want of men,
was disposed to enlist some native Hawaiians. It so
happened that one man engaged himself who was a
member of Mr. Coan's church, one of the rules of
which obliges its members to keep the Sabbath day
holy, KA LA TABU. He did not think to ask if it was
a Sabbath-keeping ship until he had engaged to go
the voyage to the Northwest Coast, and just before
the evening had come for the vessel to sail.
Then, learning that the ship whaled on the Sabbath, and that he should have to work on the Lord's
356 
MISSIONARYIS WIFE AND WHALE SHIP. 357
day as on other days, he came in his pilikia, perplexity, to Mrs. Coan, to know what he should do.
Mrs. Coan, well knowing her husband's mind and determination in like cases, and that the man, if he went
the voyage in such a Sabbath-breaking ship, would
be likely to become an abandoned and wretched apostate, nobly took on herself the responsibility of saying
that he must by no means go, and that she would be
answerable to the captain for the man's breaking his
engagement under the circumstances of the case: a
thing the honest Hawaiian was wishing, but afraid
to do.
Telling him to put himself at rest on that score,
she promised him herself to write a palapala, letter,
to the whaling captain, respectfully explaining why
the man could not go the voyage, and exculpating him
from blame.
Just as he was setting sail that evening, and reckoning fully upon his man, the captain received Mrs
Coan's note. The pilot was now on board, the anchor
tripped, and it was too late to make up his loss. But in
great wrath at what he deemed the impertinent interference of a missionary's wife, he resolved to touch off
the reef at Honolulu, on his way, and expose the whole
affair in the Sandwich Island Gazette, a local newspaper of the baser sort, very much given at that time
to opposing and vilifying the missionaries.
General meeting was then in session, and the first
news Mr. Coan had of his domestic household and
flock at Hilo was in the publication of his wife's letter to the sea-captain, and the outpouring of whole
vials of editorial wrath and abuse upon her and him 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
self, and the whole meddling mission, in them represented. With his wonted promptitude, and a soul
overflowing with thankfulness and joy at the noble
conduct of his wife, the honored missionary at once
took his pen and wrote simply as follows, in the language of Scripture, for which he is never at a loss, inclosing also the slip from the Sandwich Island News:
"MANY  DAUGHTERS HAVE DONE VIRTUOUSLY,  BUT
THOU EXCELLEST THEM ALL.?W
We leave it to wives and sisters to imagine the de.
light given by such an epistle to the heart of a DAUGHTER, whom we well knew every way worthy this spontaneous commendation; and we leave it to husbands
and brothers to conceive, if they can, the genuine satisfaction and pride of the missionary at this new proof
of the treasure he had in A PRUDENT WIFE.
Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for
the upright in heart.-Cast thy bread upon the wa.
ters, for thou shalt find it after many days.-In the
morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold
not thy hand, for thou knowest not whether shallprosper either this or that, or whether they both shall be
alike good.-He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
In the seed that has already sprung up at Hilo,
there is delightful evidence of what missionaries and
the Gospel are doing for Hawaiians. No one can
learn the system of faithful pastoral visitation and
Church oversight adopted here, or contemplate the
two boarding schools in successful operation, prepar.
ing Hawaiian youth for eminence and usefulness,
358 
DISCIPLINE OF THE BOYS' SCHOOL. 359
without having his mind elated with joy and hope of
the complete Christianization and saving of the Hawaiian race.
Mr. Lyman's school is a model for one of the kind,
admirably conducted, taught, and disciplined. It was
established by Mr. Lyman in 1836. Up to the year
1848, nearly three hundred youth have passed through
it, of whom seventy-five have entered the mission seminary at Lahainaluna, and more than fifty have gone
out directly as teachers. The number of pupils at
the present time is seventy, from the ages of thirteen
and fourteen to seventeen and eighteen.
The discipline and regimen of the school are rigid and
thorough, but kind. The hours of study, labor, meals,
relaxation, sleep, and all exercises are exactly marked, so that no boy has a moment to be idle in. They
maklie their own clothes, cultivate the most of their
food, bake, pound, and mix it for the table, and do all
that is to be done for themselves, and a great part of
the work required in the family of their instructors.
Thus they acquire habits of diligence, order, and the
improvement of their time, in all which Hawaiians,
like uncivilized people every where, are lamentably
deficient.
The studies pursued are reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, composition, and music. Most
of the daily drilling, as in the girls' school, is done by
assistant native teachers. Mrs. Lyman has formerly
devoted a good deal of time to teaching them to sing,
but native lads, whom she had taught, are now able
to relieve her of much of the burden. The two schools
occasionally meet of an afternoon for exercise in sing. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
ing. Thirty-seven of the boys and twenty-one of the
girls are members of the Church. It is intended to
effect alliances between them, which will give promise
of more mutual fitness and conjugal enjoyment than
falls to the lot of Hawaiians generally.
Not a few of the lads are good-looking, sprightly
youth, that have made very commendable proficiency
in their studies, and in the practical knowledge suitable for Hawaiians. The girls have attained considerable skill in needle-work and braiding straw, which
they turn to profitable account in making garments
and bonnets for themselves, and doing all the work
that is furnished them by foreigners. During seven
months of one year they made thirty shirts, several
pairs of pantaloons, a number of jackets, and fifty garments for themselves, besides attending to their regular studies, and miscellaneous housework.
A native man and his wife teach and live with the
girls, always accompanying them when they go out
daily to bathe, and in all their excursions, and assist
in the preparation of their food. This is furnished by
the Church in kalo, potatoes, fish, and pia (the native
arrow-root). The country lying immediately around
the station is divided into five sections, which supply
the school with food for one week each in regular rotation.
On the monthly concert days some of the Churchmembers plant and till food for the benefit of the
school, which, when it is ripe, the girls now and then
go for in a body with their teacher, pull and bring it
home. But this way of contributing having lost its
novelty, and food, too, being scarce, and bringing a
360 
,NIINISTERS' WORK-NATIVE INCONSTANCY. 361
high price, supplies do not pour in as they once did,
so that some food has to be bought. The boys' boarding school receives an appropriation of eight hundred
dollars yearly, which is spent in the repairing and
erection of buildings, paying native teachers, and furnishing cloth and food when necessary.
Missionaries have to do an immense amount of what
they call paipai ana, that is, stimulating, stirring up,
in order to get the natives to do any thing steadily
and systematically. They will work well for a little
while, on the spur of something new. Improve the
favorable tide, and it will bear them on to considerable achievements. But when the novelty of the thing
is over, and the tide is out, they are as immovable as
a stranded ship from which the waves have retreated.
You must invent some new stimulus to locomotion,
suggest some novel expedient, and pour a fresh tide
of voltaic energy through torpid minds and muscles
before they will start again.
This is one of the sore trials of missionaries, the inconstancy of the people in doing good, and the necessity it lays upon their teachers of incessant repetition,
line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and
there a little, and always urging forward. Along with
their poverty, it may keep them yet a long time from
supporting their ministers entirely, except at Lahaiiia, Honolulu, and Wailuku, and perhaps, under skillful management, here also, where the proportion of
Church-members is so great that two shillings only a
year from each would give their laborious and happy
pastor an ample support. For the year 1848 they contributed at Hilo five hundred and forty-one dollars in
Q 
THiE ISLAND WORLD.
cash, besides doing much for meeting-houses, schools,
&c.
Probably they will give more for this object than
for any or all others. And yet while schools are pinched, meeting-hcuses to be built, and their own dwellings so poor and miserably furnished, it would seem
almost like cruelty for the missionary to be compelled
to appropriate their contributions to himself.
There is no benevolent patron of missions but would
have his heart made glad and his donation doubled by
personal inspection of the good it is doing here; and
some who have never known the luxury of contributing generously to foreign missions would be made,
I think, into liberal donors. A visit here, too, by those
who have argued in stately platform speeches, Preach
the Gospel, convert the world by preaching the Gospel, and let schools go, would be likely to correct some
theoretical crooks and distortions, and substitute a
deep conviction of the absolute indispensableness of
high schools and seminaries, lest the word of God,
however faithfully preached, be rendered of little or no
lasting effect.
Besides the schools above mentioned, Mr. Wilcox
instructs a company of seventy teachers in an old
stone building that was the precarious habitation of
the first missionaries. They are off and on throughout the year, never all present at once, but coming up
from time to time by turns to refit and polish their
pedagogical armor and get themselves supplied with
intellectual furniture, books, stationery, &c. So, to
compare great things with small, and not meaning
any slur upon the honest teachers,
362 
PRACTICE AND PAY OF PEDAGOGUES. 363
So certain Cleri from the land of Romilly,
Wanting a barrel of the stuff call'd homily,
And being quite without the brains to brew it,
And never fearing they will have to rue it,
Buy it at London, lithograph'd and wrought,
And stitch'd in Sabbath leaves with careful thought.
There all things venal are, si sint emptores,
(Such is your vice, O tempora, 0 mores!)
From two-hour speeches made in Parliament,
To fifteen-minute sermons preach'd in Lent.
Government is under obligation to pay the teachers; but they are so miserably compensated that many
are just ready to give up, and some of them would betake themselves to other ways of getting a livelihood,
were it not for the degree of honor attached to the office of a kumu-kula (school teacher). If the missionaries should withhold their influence, and help, and
oversight of the teachers, the schools would be laid flat
and powerless, if not quite extinct.
Mr. Wilcox makes occasional tours through Hilo
and Puna, to examine the schools, stir up parents and
teachers, and set things awry to rights. But it is rather a sorry, thankless work, because he can carry to
the teachers no pay. He thinks, very likely, if some
of the money spent on foreigners and anniversary
feasts were distributed among the poor teachers, that
both the nation, the king, and the pedagogues would
be much better off.
The whole number of Church-members now in regular standing in Hilo and Puna, under the pastoral
care of Mr. Coan, is six thousand one hundred and
nine, in a population of ten thousand. The whole
number admitted since the station was taken, up to
1848, is nine thousand three hundred and eighty-two. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Whole number deceased, three thousand five hundred. Children baptized by the present pastor, three
thousand and eighty-three. The yearly mortality in
the Church is great, many of the members being old
and infirm. More than fifteen hundred have died during the years 1848 and 1849, and it is not at all probable that this great Church will hold its own. For an
acc)unt of the manner in which pastoral supervision
and discipline are exercised, and the ordinances administered to this great body of professing believers,
the world is indebted to the Missionary Herald.
There was an old man of the Hilo Church whom
they called Joshua, whose prayers I used to listen to
with deep interest when stopping at that station, for
their peculiar unction and engagedness. Many things
were told me of him by his pastor, illustrating his fervent piety and power in prayer.   During the great
sickness of 1848 and 1849, he passed away, to be, we
doubt not, with the spirits-of the blessed, among whom
his remarkable spirituality, for a converted heathen,
will exalt him to a precedence above many that had
attained in their earthly career to far more headknlowledge of God and divine things than he.
The account given of him by his pastor is so characteristic and instructive, that we venture to transcribe a part of it here. He had been a member of the
Church for several years prior to the Great Revival of
1838 and 1839, without evincing any special marks
of uncommon spirituality; but during that work, says
Afr. Coan, he became deeply and thoroughly aroused,
and at the same time wonderfully transformed.
"The study of the Bible, secret and social prayer
364 
IMEIORIALS OF OLD JOSHUA.
attendance at the house of God, religious conversation, visiting from house to house, laboring for souls,
&c., were his meat and his drink. With no extraordinary native powers of mind, he became one of
the most active and efficient helpers, merely through
the strength of his piety, or, in Scripture language,
'through the power of the Holy Ghost' resting upon
him.
" He was already an old man, but his strength and
his youth were renewed like the eagle's. He became
my almost constant companion in travel, patiently toiling by my side over the burning lava fields of Puna, and
through the rivers and ravines of Hilo. His love for
Christ. his compassion for souls, seemed deep, fervent,
and constant, not always, of course, equally intense,
but never doubtful. His prayers were highly fervent,
deeply humble, believing, and importunate. I have
never met with a mightier wrestler at the throne of
grace   Good old Jacob, when gazing up the celestial
ladder, did not see more clearly into heaven than good
old Joshua, when kneeling before God. I never tired
in traveling with him, and his conversation and prayers never wearied. When my spirits were sad, my
resort, next to the throne of grace, was the hut of
good old Joshua. He was truly spiritual, and there
was an unction about him which readily attracted
spiritual minds. The wicked venerated and feared
him; the good loved him.
" As age and infirmity -crept over him, he began to
feel it more and more difficult to go with me on my
tours. Several times, when invited to do so, he has
excused himself, saying,' I am too old and too feeble.
36,5 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
My heart goes with you; but this poor old body can
not drag itself over the hills and the rivers any more.
It is done.' Then, after a little reflection, all his old
recollections would revive, and his desire to go again
would become so strong, that he would say,'Well, I
will try once more. Perhaps God will give me strength
to go through; if not, let him leave me by the way;
all will be well.' Gathering up his strength and taking his staff, the pilgrim and the patriarch would set
off' faint yet pursuing.'  Usually, at the close of the
first day, and when bowing before the family altar,
the old man would express his joy and gratitude to
God that he had been persuaded to attempt the tour.
Listening to the Word, and seeing the works of God,
would so fill his soul with joy that he would spontaneously exclaim,'I am glad that I came. I feel
stronger than when I set out. The Word does me
good. Oh how much I should have lost had I remained at home!' Such scenes were repeated several
times before he finally yielded to the increasing infirmities of age.
" At length the strong man bowed beneath the pressure of years, and his active labors were confined to
the circle immediately around the station. His wife,
younger and more vigorous, was smitten by a paralysis, and hastened to the grave. This left his house
and his heart desolate; for his conjugal relations were
happy. He had no children. The measles and hooping-cough, with their attendants, prostrated his little
remaining strength, and he was never again able to
leave his house. He lingered, however, on the banks
of Jordan, but with many longings to pass over.
366 
HIS JOY IN THE WORD.
"Often have I found him, while strength allowed
it, lying prostrate with his old spectacles on, his Bible
open on the mat (his bed), and his face downward,
eagerly digging gold from that precious and exhaustless mine. While thus absorbed, and with dimmed
natural vision, he would not at first notice that any
one had entered; but at length, raising his eyes a
little, and descrying me, he would reach out both
hands, clasp one of mine, press it, hold it fast, and
look up to heaven, while the tears flowed down his
aged cheeks, and remain silent for some time. At
length his struggling feelings would find vent in such
words as follow:'Bless the Lord!  I rejoice to meet
you. My heart is full. O! the word of God. Deep,
high, broad, rich, wonderful!  I relish it; I eat it; it
is delicious food; it is sweeter than honey to my taste.
I want to see Him.   I long to be with Him.   I long
to go.  But I will wait.  He is good.  He knows best.
He will come by and by.  But to be with Him!  This
only will satisfy my soul. This only will fill my
heart.'
" Expressions of a similar character fell from his lips
during almost every one of our later interviews. At
length we were summoned to the general meeting;
and on our return it was announced that the Master
had come and called for Joshua. My soul followed
him in his celestial chariot, and I involuntarily exclaimed,' My father! my father! the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen thereof.' He was a good man, and
no one denies it. Both friends and foes say of Joshua,
' He was a good man.' Give me his simple faith and
his sure hope, and I ask no other inheritance.   Oh that
367 
THIE ISLAND WORLD.
my title to eternal life might appear as clear, as art thentic as his!"*
Since becoming somewhat acquainted, by observa tion and intercourse with the missionaries, with the
peculiarities of native character, having learned their
liability to, and eagerness for, excitement upon the
subject of religion, and their child-like inability, as of
undisciplined, weak minds generally, to restrain pow erful emotions, we are of opinion that a somewhat ex aggerated impression of the spirituality and power of
the great revival may have gone abroad. We would
not abate a jot of heart or hope from those laborious,
praying men who had, under God, the management
of that great work on North and East Hawaii, or
damp at all the joy and thanks rendered to God on
their behalf by many who have read what things God
hlath wrought by tihem.  Neither do we pronounce
upon any of the measures and means used, that they
were unauthorized or unwise, or such as should not
be used in like circumstances again.
The field was new, the work was new, teachers
and people were new to each other; the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit were flowing, as on the
day of Pentecost, in a new channel, by which they had
never run so strongly before. The Hawaiian mind
was unused, like the Pagan world in the time of the
Apostles, to the warm evangelic element that was now
pouring through its circulation.
What wonder that its stimulating effects should be,
as then, remarkable and strange, inducing the judg.
ment, These men are beside themselves, and full of
Missionary Herald, April, 1850.
368 
THE GREAT REVIVAL.
new wine? What wonder that this new stimulus
should prove too strong for undisciplined and ignorant
minds, and produce novel developments, and uncontrollable bursts of feeling, that have always and every
where more or less characterized its presence, even in
enlightened communities, at times when it has powerfully permeated the human mind?
What matter of surprise is it that, mingling withthe agitated current of human and animal feeling, it
should sometimes swell and burst the vessels that contained it, or overflow its natural embankments, and
bear off, somewhat confusedly, on its bosom many to
whom such an element was altogether new? Or who
can deem it at all strange that the constituted tillers
of the Lord's vineyard should find themselves altogether inadequate or unwilling to stay the swelling
torrent, or always turn it into its proper fertilizing
courses, and keep it from running off?
How natural that they should err, sometimes in
opening, sometimes in closing the sluice-way of ex.
cited feeling, and managing the waste-gate of the men.
tal emotions. How unheard of, if, on the top of the
tide which was rolling into the Church, many should
not be carried in before their time, and some get fast
moored in that much-desired haven who should afterward show colors of the hypocrite and pirate.
While never for a moment doubting the genuineness and extraordinary power of that work (which
who that knows can do?), it would yet be too much,
and would prove an anomalous exemption from ordinary human weakness and fallibility to say that every measure adopted in the conduct of that astonish
Q 2
369 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
ing work was perfect, or that no mistakes were committed, nor ever undue haste or lack of wisdom
evinced in admitting to the Church.
But it is much easier for a looker-on to say so, and
for the actors themselves to acknowledge it-the excitement and toil of battle being done-than to avoid
those errors or make use always of that Heaven-inspired wisdom that precludes alike mistake and regret. Experience, it is a striking remark of Coleridge, is like lamps in the stern of a ship; they illuminate only the path that has been gone over. Many
ships have met on the high seas with fatal collision,
because their lights were only in the binnacle or astern.
And many a mistake might have been avoided in the
management of affairs, and in the conduct of revivals
of religion, many a rock and shoal passed clear, could
the lamp of experience have been hung up before instead of behind.
One thing is certain, that those men ordinarily who
are themselves at the head of affairs, or, to take the
particular instance, those whom God has intrusted
and blessed with a revival of religion, who are themselves heartily engaged in it, baptized in the revival
influence, and spiritually minded, they are the most
competent to its management. They can better interpret the mind of the Spirit than others, and judge
more correctly than some cool looker-on, or than any
distant though not indifferent co-workers, what to do
and what not to do, what to allow and what to disallow, what to encourage and,what to discourage,
what to urge and what to oppose, what to use and
what to disuse.
370
.k 
MISSIONARY INDEPENDENCE.
They can best tell, under the guidance of the Spirit,
what expedients and measures to adopt and what to
reject, what means will be likely to prove favorable
and what unfavorable to the work, what will be for
its success and what to its prejudice. If a review of
things prove them to have erred, it does by no means
prove that following other counsels would have been
less error.
And especially is it true that those who are engaged as ministers in a revival of religion, who preach
to and talk with the people, who observe and examine
the anxious, who know the most about the persons
who are offered as candidates for the Church, it is those
certainly who can best decide who are worthy and who
are not worthy, who shall be admitted and who shall
not. Nor does the admission of very many, or of very
few, of itself prove an unbecoming haste and carelessness, or a wise caution. This man may be very wise,
and right, and conscientious in admitting many, and
another very unwise and wrong in excluding many,
or vice versa. Men always, and missionaries of necessity and right, too, will be governed in this matter
very much by temperament and feeling. A man in
one sphere of labor or over one Church, can not dictate to and make rules for another man in another
sphere of labor or over another Church.
Missionary pastors, we think, ought to be independ ent one of another, except so far as they voluntarily
come under the rules of an association, and independent
of any extra Board or other body of men in all Church
affairs. Their own good sense, with the advice of their
deacons, or other reliable men who know the cases in
371. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
hand, and the guidance of the Spirit constantly sought
in prayer, must be their only reliance.. And no man
ought to complain of another for conscientiously acting on this rule. To God only he is responsible. To
his own MVaster he standeth or falleth.   Who art thou
that judgest another?  He is to be commended who
acts conscientiously from love to souls, to be reasoned
with calmly when deemed in error, to be found fault
with slowly, and always in good temper.
There are scattered about almost every where somo
of the fault-finding, day-after-the-fair, I-could-havetold-you-it-would-be-so class of men, who do little good
themselves, and those who would do good they hinder.
How much better is the way of him who, by patient
continuance in well-doing,
As ever in his great Task-master's eye,
with no rash judgments of other men, but privately
remonstrating with his brother, if he deem him wrong,
and exercising himself to keep a conscience void of
offense, both toward God and man, thus holds on his
even tenor, calmly putting forth all his powers for Go(l
and humanity, head, heart, and hand,
Active and firm to fight the bloodless fight
Of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ.
It is of him we can say, in the words of Horace,
Integer vite scelerisque purus,
Non eget Maurijaeculis neque arcu.
The man that lives upright and clear,
Nor Moorish arrows, bow, or spear,
Has ever need to use or fear.
372 
THE PATENT OF TRUE NOBILITY.  373
Open opposition and fault-finding he can openly meet;
secret defamation and undermining he can live down
or co.unter-work; and, in the end, his real character
comes out untarnished like a mirror, though it may
b)e momentarily blackened by the smoke of slander or
covered with the dust thrown by envious jealousy.
HEREIN DO I EXERCISE MYSELF, TO HAVE ALWAYS A
CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENSE TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD
MrEN.  There is a noble sonnet by Professor Upham,
on those words of Paul, with which I can not deny
myself the pleasure of closing this chapter, having in
eye a friend and missionary brother whom I greatly
admire and love:
What constitutes the true nobility?
Not wealth, nor name, nor outward pomp, nor power.
Fools have them all; and vicious men may be
The idols and the pageants of an hour.
But'tis to have a good and honest heart,
Above all meanness, and above all crime;
To act the right and honorable part
In every circumstance of place and time.
HE WHO IS THUS, FROM GOD HIS PATENT TAKES,
HIS MAKER FORMED HIM THE TRUE NOBLEMAN;
WHATE'ER IS LOW AND VICIOUS HE FORSAKES,
AND ACTS ON RECTITUDE'S UNCHANGING PLAN.
THINGS CHANGE AROUND HIM; CHANGES TOUCH NOT HIM;
THE STAR THAT GUIDES HIS PATH FAILS NOT, NOR WAXES DIM.
With this adopted sonnet the author takes his leave
of Hilo and of the friends that may have traveled with
him thus far, he hopes not without profit, through
THE ISLAND WORLD OF THE PACIFIC. He promises
to resume his travels through other parts of the Island-kingdom of Hawaii, should Providence allow and
the reception of the present volume warrant it. 
THE ISLAND WORLD.
Meantime, he commends his readers to the careful
perusal of the statistics and facts collected in the following pages, as containing the reliable data from
which to forecast the horoscope of the future destinies
of the Sandwich Islands.
374 
APPENDIX.  
APPENDIX.
STATISTICAL VIEW OF THE RESOURCES, TRADE, COMMERCE, POP ULATION, PIETY, POSITION, AND PROSPECTS OF THE HAWAIIAN
ISLANDS.
MOTHER of Wealth, and Enterprise, and Arts,
Her golden empire marries distant parts;
She knits the league; she sheathes the blade of war,
Of Earth. and Sea, and Man the conqueror:
Dread agent, or for boundless good or ill,
God speaks the word, and CoMMERCE works his will.
Anon.
WE throw into thie form of an appendix, for ease of reference and
for the use of commercial readers and travelers, thie following condensed statements and tables of statistics, gathered mainly from latest
documents in the Government Journal published at Honolulu, and
carefully compared and corrected for this work.
In the chain of events which have served to attract attention to
this portion of the globe, the first was the seizure of these Islands by
Lord George Paulet, and the subsequent restoration by Admiral
Thomas. Up to that time, 1843, the trade of the Islands was limited to one or two ships which sailed from Boston, and the trade with
the whaling fleet. The imports in 1843 amounted to $223,385 38,
upon which a revenue of $8,468 38 was collected. So rapidly did the
trade increase, that in 1847 the imports amounted to $710,133 52, and
the revenue to $48,801 25, while for the current year the amount of
both imports and revenue therefrom will doubtless far exceed that
amount. But it should be borne in mind that this great increase of
importation is not the consequence of increased consumption, for
many of the goods which have been imported and paid duties here,
eventually found their way out of the country.
The second event which occurred to draw public attention to the
Pacific was the establishment of the French Protectorate at Tahiti.
Although this event has not directly exerted any great influence upon
commerce, it has, in a political sense, attracted public attention to the
Pacific, and will in the end, if the right measures be pursued by the 
THE ISLAND WORLD
government there, exert a wholesome influence upon commerce.  The
consumption will be increased by the influx of foreigners, while the
products will also be increased.
The settlement of the Oregon boundary question, and the influx of
settlers, may be classed as the third event, which has already exerted, and is destined to exert a still greater influence upon the growth
of commerce in the Pacific. The exports of Oregon, a few years since,
consisted mainly of furs, and her trade was limited to one or two vessels annually. We have no statistics by which to judge of the increase of trade, but it must be apparent that it has been great. Lumber, timber, flour, and salmon are now exported from Oregon in large
quantities. The occasional trader is but one of quite a fleet of vessels which now annually visit Columbia River. The natives of the
forest are fast sinking away before the mighty tide of civilization
which is pressing onward, and their wigwams are being displaced
by the hut of the hardy pioneer. Oregon is rich in agricultural resources, and the time is not far distant when her "dark shores" will
be crowned with stately warehouses, her waters be whitened with
the sails of commerce, her rivers plowed by stately steamers, and her
borders resound with the songs of an independent and happy people.
The occupation of California by the American forces may be called
the fourth link in the chain of events to which we have alluded. The
trade of California, previous to this event, was limited to an occasional hide-drogher or smuggler, her exports to hides and tallow, with
now and then a sprinkling of specie. During the occupation of the
country by the forces of the United States trade was better, the consumption was increased, but, on account of no export existing, the
prosperity of thie country was likely to suffer a serious check. In
June, 1848, however, the gold placer on the American Fork was discovered, and the ease with which gold was procured soon afforded
an export more than sufficient for all their wants. Subsequently, the
treaty of peace between Mexico and the United States was ratified,
and Upper California, gold and all, became a part and parcel of the
great American Republic. California has presented an instance of
commercial growth unequaled in the annals of the world, and the discovery of gold in such abundance is an event which will exert a
mighty influence upon the prosperity of commerce in this ocean. A
dense population will soon be in California, and if agriculture be neglected a large fleet of vessels will be required to supply their wants.
The line of steamers via Panama make California and Oregonl near
neighbors to the great commercial cities of the Atlantic coast. A railroad has long been talked of, and will doubtless soon be commenced,
'378 
OF THE PACIFIC.
Boston and St. Louis are already connected by a magnetic line, an extension of which is contemplated to the Pacific coast. The expense
of completing a line from St. Louis to the Pacific has been estimated
at $300,000.
It is impossible to foretell the mighty influence which this chain
of events will exert upon the future prosperity of commerce in this
ocean. The Pacific, about which so much has been written and so
little known, will soon be crowded with traders-every bay and island, every nook and corner, will be explored. The mighty wave of
immigration, which is now rolling toward the western shores of the
American Continent, will sooner or later reach the coast of Hawaii.
The geographical position of these Islands plainly point to them as
the West Indies of the Pacific.
The nature of their resources and the channels of their commerce
will appear from tables hereafter, which we preface with the following COMPENDIUM OF COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS, for the information
of merchants, travelers, ship-captains, and sea-faring men generally
who may peruse this book.
Condensed Abstract of Laws respecting Commerce, published for the
information of Ship-masters and others frequenting the Ports of the
Hawaiian Islands.
Vessels arriving off the ports of entry to make the usual marine
signal, if they want a pilot.
The pilot will approach vessels to the windward, and present the
health certificate, to be signed by the captain. If the vessel is free
from any contagion, the captain will hoist the white flag, otherwise
he will hoist the yellow flag, and obey the direction of the pilot and
health officer.
Passports must be exhibited to the governor or collector by passengers before landing.
Masters of vessels allowing baggage to be landed before compliance with the laws are subject to a fine of $500.
Masters of vessels, on arriving at any of the ports of entry, are required to deliver all letters to the collector of customs. The law regarding the delivery of letters by shipmasters to the collector, will
only take effect on promulgation by his Hawaiian Majesty in privy
council.
The commanding officer of any merchant vessel, immediately after
her arrival at either of the legalized ports of entry, shall make known
to the collector of customs the business upon which said vessel has
come to this port, furnish him with a list of her passengers, and de
379 
THE ISLAND WORLD
liver to him, under oath, a full, true, and perfect manifest of the cargo
with which said vessel is laden; which manifest shall contain anl account of the packages, with their marks, numbers, contents, quanti
ties, and also the names of the importers or consignees.  When any
such officer shall fail to perform any or all of the acts above mentioned within forty-eight hours after his arrival, he shall be subject to a
fine not exceeding $1000.
All manifests, entries, and other documents presented at any custom-house shall be either in the Hawaiian or English language.
The collector, at his discretion, and at the expense of any vessel,
may provide an officer to be present on board such vessel during her
discharge, to superintend the disembarkation, and see that no other
or greater amount of merchandise be landed than is set forth in the
permit.
All goods landed at any of the ports of these Islands are subject to
a duty of five per cent. ad valorem, except spirituous or fermented
liquors.
The following are the only ports of entry at these Islands, viz.: for
merchantmen, Honolulu, Oahu, and Lahaina, Maui; and for whalers,
in addition thereto, Hilo, Hanalei, Kauai, and Kealakekua, Hawaii.
The port charges on merchant vessels are as follows: At Honolulu,
20 cents per ton; buoys, $2; clearance, $1; pilotage in and out, $1
per foot each way. At Lahaina, anchorage dues, $10; pilotage, $1;
health certificate, $1; lights, $1; canal (if used), $2, and clearance, $1.
Merchant vessels touching at the port of Honolulu for refreshments
only, and neither lading nor unllading any cargo, taking or leaving any
passengers, shall pay but six cents per ton harbor dues, instead of 20
cents; but if they discharge or take cargo, leave or take passengers,
they shall pay 20 cents per ton harbor dues.
By a law promulgated in the Polynesian newspaper of June 19,
1847, whale ships are, from and after that date, exempted from all
charges for pilotage, tonnage dues, or anchorage fees, at all the various ports of entry for whalers of this group.
Hereafter the charges on whalers will be, clearance, $1; permits
(when required), $1 each; and in addition thereto, at Honolulu,
buoys, $2.  At Lahaina, health certificate, $1; canal (when used),
$2; and at Kealakekua, health certificate, $1.
Whale ships are allowed to land goods to the value of $200, free of
duty; but if they exceed that amount, they are then liable to pay five
per cent. on the whole amount landed, as well as the charges for pilotage and tonnag,e dues, or anchorage fees required of whalers by
law previous to June 19, 1847; and if the goods landed shall exceed
380 
OFP THE PACIFIC.
$1200 (which is only permitted by law at Honolulu and Lahaina),
they will then be considered as merchantmen, and subject to the like
charges and legal liabilities.
The permits granted to whalers do not include the trade, sale, or
landing of spirituous liquors. Any such traffic by them (which is
prohibited, except at Lahaina and Honolulu) will subject them to the
charges upon merchantmen, including the payment of 20 cents per
ton, as well at the anchorage of Lahaina and at the roadstead of Hon
olulu, as within the port of Honolulu.
Any master of a whale ship who shall fail to produce his permit
when called for, shall be liable to a fine not less than $10, nor more
than $50, to be imposed by the collector.
Before obtaining a clearance, each shipmaster is required to produce to the collector of customs, a certificate under the seal of his
consul, that all legal charges or demands in his office against said vessel have been paid, and that he knows of no reason why said vessel
should not immediately depart.
Spirituous or fermented liquors landed at any of the ports of these
Islands are subject to the following duties, viz.: rum, gin, brandy,
whisky, &c., of more than 27, and less than 55 per cent. alcohol, $5
per gallon; if more than 55 per cent. alcohol, $10 per gallon. Wines,
liqueurs, cordials, &c. (except claret, Bordeaux, Champagne, and
sinclar wines, of not over 18 per cent. alcohol), $1 per gallon; claret,
&c., of less than 18 per cent. alcohol, malt liquors and cider, five per
cent. ad valorem.
Products of the whale fishery may be transhipped free from any
charge of transit duty.
Vessels landing goods upon which the duties have not been paid,
are liable to seizure and confiscation.
If any person commit an offense on shore, and the offender escape
on board of any vessel, it shall be the duty of the commanding officer of said vessel to surrender the suspected or culprit person to any
officer of the police who demands his surrender, on production of a
legal warrant.
It shall not be lawful for any person on board of a vessel at anchor
in the harbor of Honolulu to throw stones or other rubbish overboard,
under a penalty of $100.
All sailors found ashore at Lahaina after the beating of the drum,
or at Honolulu after the ringing of the bell, are subject to apprehension and a fine of $2.
Shipmasters must give notice to the harbor-master of the desertion
of any of their sailors within forty-eight hours, under a penalty of$1 00
381 
THE ISLAND WORLD
Seamen are not allowed to be discharged at any of the ports of
these Islands, excepting those of Lahaina and Honolulu.
It shall not be lawfiul to discharge seamen at any of the ports of
these Islands without the written consent of the Governor.
Honolulu and Lahaina are the only ports at which native seamen
are allowed to be shipped, and at those places with the Governor's
consent only.
Any vessel taking away a prisoner from these Islands shall be subject to a fine of $500.
To entitle any vessel to a clearance, it shall be incumbent on her
commanding officer first to furnish the collector of customs with a
manifest of cargo intended to be exported in such vessel.
It shall not be lawful for the commanding officer of any Hawaiian
or foreign vessel to carry out of this kingdom as a passenger any
domiciled alien, naturalized foreigner, or native without previous exhibition to him of a passport from his Majesty's Minister of Foreign
Relations.
Retailers of spirituous liquors are not allowed to keep their houses
open later than nine o'clock in the evening, and they are to be closed
from Saturday evening until Monday morning.
Rapid riding in the streets is prohibited under a penalty of $5.
Office hours at the Custom-house and other public offices, every
day (except Sundays and national holydays), from nine o'clock A.M.
until 3 o'clock P.M.
382 
COMMERCIAL STATISI
STATEMENT OF IMPORTS, EXPORT DUTIES, &C., AT THE PORT OF HONOLULU, I
ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1849.
Decito.f God.             Grossq invoice Gosdte.   eeVxllloere
Description of Goods.
Goods paying five per cent. duty...
Spirits, Wines, &c.... —----------------..
Imported by Consuls, Missions, &c.,
free of duty ---------------------.
By whale ships, under the $200 pro  vision, free.. —--------------------.
Deduct spirits, wines, and goods, &c.,
now ill bond, and which will prob  ably be exported, estimated at....
Total..-. -------------------—..
729,739.44   222,118.99    89,102.0
18,000.01
$107,102.0',
$729,739.44 $222,118.99 
IMIPORTS FOR THE YEAR 1849, AMOUNTING, AS PER TABLE, TO $729,739.44, WERE IMPORTED  FROM THE FOLLOWING
COUNTRIES, VIZ.:
United States of America. —----------------- $239,246.42 Tahiti.....................................  $19,340.-7
California.... —-------------------------------- 131,505.89 Columbia River.. —--------------------------- 12,672.38
Great Britain. —----------------------------- 44,578.11 Hamnburg ---------------------------------- 9,723.58
British Colonies........ —------------------------—. 52,821.59 1'etropaulovskoi.. —-------------------------- 6,622.83
Chila                   ----------------— 95,787.27 Mazatlan, Manilla, Panllama, Bremen Sea, &c., }    6292
6,629.27
Chaili................................87355 Tt ----------------------------------—.05.
France                    ----------                           ------------------------— 23,455-78  Total ------------------------------ $729,739.44
DOMESTIC EXPORTS FROM HONOLULU FOR T-IE YEAR 1849.
Sugar, 653,820 pounds, at 5 cents.... —---------—. $32,691.00 Coal, 464 baskets, at 25 cents...................$116.00
Molasses, 41,235 gallons, at 25 cents............10,308.75 Wood, 30 cords, at $10.......................   300.00
Coffee, 28,231 pounds, at 10 cents.............. 2,823.10  WVool, 1000 pounds, at 121 cents...............-  125.00
Salt, 2,866 barrels, at $1......................  2,866.00 Coral stone.................................   440.00
Lime, 9061 barrels, at $2..... —------ 1,813.00 Furniture...................................  1,520.56
Beef, 158 barrels, at $12...................... 1,896.00 Mules, 12, at $30 each........................  360.00
Hides, 2,512 pounds, at $2 each................ 5.024.00 Horses, 4, at $100 each.......................  400.00
Tallow, 17,403 pounds, at 6 cents.............. 1,044.18 Sheep, 50, at $3 each.........................    150.00
Goat skins, 31,488, at 20 cents each............ 6,297.60 Turkeys, 500, at 75 cents each................   375.00
Irish potatoes, 858 barrels, at $3...............  2,574.00 Clothing*................................... 1,290.25
Sweet potatoes, 306 barrels, at $1.50...........   459.00  Koa shingles, Timber and Boards, and eight } 10,809.99
Onions $1,246.25, Pumpkins  $200.50, Limes )                 House Frames                ------------—.- -----
$115.75, Lime juice  $152, Pickles $260, >  2,680.00 Eggs, Melons, Beans, Arrow-root, Brooms, Poi, 
Oranges $704,50......................... )                Corn, Mustard Seed, Bacon, Dried Beef, Sau-    1,257.65
ButteI,, 994 pounds, at 37~ cents............... 372.75   sages, Yams, &c. &c.....................
Hay, 35 tons, at $50.......................... 1,750.00  Total... — $89,743.74
* The cloth from which the clothing was made, and most of the timber of the house frames, is foreign produce.
C.4
0:;
!
m
To
L-' 
STArEMENT OF IMPORTS, EXPORTS, RECEIPTS, &C., AT THE CUSTOM HOUSE, PORT OP HONOTLULU, O'AHUT, HAWAIIAN
ISLANDS, FOR THE YEARS 1843-9.
rs ipvoarltsue                                      o Gross             duties. Re-exported.
imports.
$6,701.84   $66,618.17
10,326.13    60,054.06
21,563.94     67,010.93
53,447.78    62,325.74
101,512.25      55,208.07
142,357.73      33,551.55
222,118.99   198,102.07
1849    72,394    22,189    19,0.7 16081a2,3.7 6,2.3 251,8.3 7,4.9
I
0
14
-3
m
m
10
2
ransit
duties.
$239-31
411-60
734.01
20.56
184.93
264.52
235.13
Total net reH'rbor dues. ceipts.
$2,958.33 $8,468-38
4 881-33 14,263 -56
.4:890-83 25,189 -96
4,705.32 36,506 -64
4,094.24 48,801 -25
3,095 -96 55,568 -94
. 5,687.53 71,943.49
Years.
Return duties.
$1,670.41
1,501.34
2,098.82
21,667-02
52,991.17
90,148-27
156,098.16
Net amounts.
$156,565.21
289,969.77
471,319.78
536,056.50
653,930.45
572,067.18
622,637.37
Net duties.
$5,270-74
8,970-13
19,465-12
31,780.76
44,521-08
52,209.46
66,020.83
3
1844
:1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
$222,383.38
350,357-12
546,941-72
598,382.24
710,138-52
605,61-8.73
729 73.9.44
-f
co
GO
CA 
GROSS RECEIPTS AT THE CUSTOM Hous.Es OF OAHU, MAUI, AND KAUAI FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1849.
HONOLULU, OAHU.,
Import duties............................... $66,020.83         
Transit duties..................,......,...... 235.13 
Harbor dues................................  5,687.53
Stamps.....................................  2,726.88
Fines and Forfeitures......................,... 40.70
Interest.................................... 528.24
Storage..................................... 2,124.44
$77,363.75
$1,101.22
30.16
724.50
500.00
76.32
62.00
836.50
$3,330.70
HIARBOR MASTER, HONOLULU:
Shipping and discharginig Seamen........... 1,153.00
Stamps................................... 1,286.00
Total.................................. $79,802.75
EIlLO, HANALEI, AND KEALAKEAKUA:
Stamps, &c................................ 97.87
Amount at Honolulu (brought over).......... 79,802.75
Total................................. $83,231.32
r
WHALE SHIPS ENTERED AT THE POpTS OF HONOLULU AND LAHAINA DURING THE YEAR 1849.
LAHAINA.    HONOLULU.                               LAHAINA.    HONOLULU.
American........................ 153.......... 108  Bremen......................... 1.......... 4
French.......................... 7                 British...,. -...........,....   1
154 120
154
Total....................................274
CZ
(1-11
cn
LAHAINA, M-kUl.
Tmport duties...............................
'l.'ranr,it duties...............................
,4tai-nps.....................................
.Anchorage dues..............................
......................................
......................................
,,,Ijipping aiid discbargiiig Seainen............. 
AMOUNT OF DOMESTIC PRODUCE FURNISHED AS SUPPLI
HONOLULU.
Ships of war and government vessels, estimated....  $4,000  Domestic produce
134 merchant vessels, say $80 each............... —------------- 10,720  154 whalers, say
108 whalers (inside), say $250 each.............. 27,000  14 merchant vess(
Total.-.....-....-..... —----— $ —-41,720  Total.......
Total value of domestic produce exported to foreign markets, and furnished to f
ISLANDS for the year 1849, estimated....................................
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES OF MERCHANT VESSELS AT AND FROM THE PO]
Whole number in 1849......................
Whole number in 1848......................
Increase in 1849.......... ——..................
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES OF MERCHANT VESSELS AT AND FROM THE PO]
DECEMBER 31, 1849.
Whole number arrived from San Francisco and cleared for that a
Amount of tonnage......................................... 
CAZ
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES OF GOVERNMENT VESSELS AND SHIPS OF WAR AT AND FROM THE PORT OF HONOLULUI;
DURING THE YEAR 1849.
Date.        Nation.       Class.       Name.     Commander. Guns.      From          Sailed.         For
January 4    United States Sloop        Dale           Rudd         18 Mazatlan       January 18  San Francisco
April 9       United States Propeller  Massachusetts Wood              New York    April 18         Coluinbia River
April 12      Russian       Brigantine Baikal          Nevelsky    8 Valparaiso    April 25         Sitka
May 8         Great Britain Sloop       Herald         Kellett      22 Panama         May 19        Petropaulovskoi
May 16        Great Britain Brigantine Pandora         Wood            Panama         May 29        Valparaiso
May 23        Great Britain Sloop       Amphitrite    Eden          24 Callao         July 17       Valparaiso
July 4        United States Ship        Ohio           Stribling    90  San Francisco July 21       San Francisco
August 12    French         Frigate    Poursuivante  Tromelin   60 Callao             September 5 San Francisco
August 14    French         Steamer    Gassendi        Faucon       10 Tahiti                       San Francisco
August 21    United States Sloop        Preble         Glynn       16 Hong Kong                     San Francisco
September 6 United States Brig          Lawrence       Fraser       10 Valparaiso    September 28 San Francisco
November 26 United States Propeller  Massachusetts Knox                 San Francisco               In port
December 5  United States Sloop         St. Mary       Voorhies    22 San Francisco December24  Hong Kong
)3
td
db
r 
TABLE BY C. R. BISHOP, ESQ., THE COLLECTOR GENERAL OF CUSTOMS, SHOWING THE IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF SPIRITS
WINES, AND CORDIALS FOR THE YEAR 1849, DISTINGUISHING THE FLAG UNDER WHICH THE IMPORTATIONS AND ES
PORTATIONS WERE MADE.
IMPORTED, 1849.
-~~~~ie                                                        AsE                   Crdils a *1
~~~~~~W              ines $1
Alcohol. Cordials. per gallon 
ky.                      duly.
$120      $58          $1,567.60
239    -               2,198.00
-    -    24.00  846.00
wi.. 3 4 -  1207  225.00  2,061.00
Dn r214 -- -              151.00
Under the flag of
United States........Great Britain.........
Chili.................
Peru.................
France.-.....-.... —Hawaii.-.-........ —Denmark.............
Total.-. —----------
Toa.........$933.0$32   1920.0$39  $25  2906$,8360$350    $7   $6   120   $42  3,4290$,026
EXPORTED, 1849.
10
P.
Ad
9p
United Staten............$847.90 $83  $3,557.00  -                      -   $14.00  $102.80 -                   -    $12Ai -                      $4 500 40  $206.80             
$4,500.40    $206.80
1,951.00       288.00
1,663.00     522.00
94.50
443.60        4.80
110.75       18.00
12,005.10   2,399.50
1,505.00    345.80
155.00
United States...-. —--
Great Britain.-..... —
Chili.-...-..-..... —Peru..-......... —---
France......... —----
French Provinces......
Hawaii............... — - -
Denmnark.-......
Russia.-.-...... —..
Total...............
Ruenia....................75.00  -  -                                    __                      0156
QUANTITY OF LIQUORS PAYING $5 PER GALLON AND UPWARD DUTY, TAKEN FROM THE CUSTOM HOUSE IN HONOLULU FOR
CONSUMPTION IN THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS.
1847.                                             1848.                                            1849
From Jan. 1 to June 30, inclusive..l1287 gallons. From Jan. 1 to June 30, inclusive.. 892 gallons. From Jan. I to June 30, inclusive..2262 gallons
From July 1 to Dec. 31 inclusive..1984-3271.  From July 1 to Dec. 31, inclusive..2551-3443.  From July 1to Dec. 31, inclusive..3456 —5718.
0
0
I
0
0
0
0
0
i
Aqll-  pi...
dill.t".
-  $45
15    115
155
A.i..-'P' "', d.ty
.,,,,d. *' p'. g-li,,.
..d p,,.,d.
-    $1,986.00
- 17,673.00
- 3,849.00
14- 203.50
584.00
- 10,556.40
1,471.00
Wi,...d
C.,di.l. $1
Pd'. g-il..
.. pw,,,d.
$1 567.60
2:198.00
870.00
2,286.00
151.00
Gi-.   B,..dy.
:$561 $365.0
3240 7,989.0
1 160 1,460.0
48.0
- 584.0
365 8,573..4
-- 271.4
Ab.i.tl..
115-00
120.00
A,,.,k.
1200
R...
$837.00
5,960.00
2,229-00
76.00
291.00
0
m
03
iz
m
$350 $1265_ $249.00 $6,823.60, $235.0
$170i $160 $1200. $14J, $36,412.00 $7,072.6
$9,393.00 $4326 $19,290.4
-   $12
1
15    147
941il
30i
$847.90 $83
1,334.00 281
319.00
144.00 2351
75.00
$3,557.00
212.00 124
1,180.00
422.00
66.00
10,131.00
385.00
1173
$14.00
4.80
67.50
28.80
$192.80
288.00
522.00 2.40
21.60
18.00
2,332.00 321.60
317.00
1120
so
14i
15,t)53.00 $124 $117
$14  $22,429.251 $3,784.90 1
2
$2,719.00i$599
115.10 $3,669.80 $345.60 $139i $160 $1200
CZ
Go
CZ 
TABLE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS IN 18,
t                                        0
0                                                  1
. i
ow
oB.
291
355
925
972
1,116
841
6,300
1,232
837
633
1,149
Islands.      Districts.
* gp
E.o 3
$1,082.12
154.80
460.33
417.11
521.84
982.53
$3,618.83
1,230.90
815.45
631.87
1,251.41
3   18    9    633  223   27    850   3,486            631.87      74.00      31.37
4   27   15  1,149  382   42   1,531   8,349    1,251.41          111.43   -
Maui.94 31 3,851 773 iss 24 21,729 $3,929.63 $185.43 
Maui......
Molokai...
Lanai.....
$3,929.63
407.71
180.0C
864.05
820.58
1,196.78
369.92
50297
539.08
$4,29 3.38
386.04
622.37
483.14
Dahu......
2   15    1    437   22   16    459  3,372           622.37    362.93   277.83
3   20    1    515   22   21    537   3,762          483.14    320.20   -
10,113  $1,491.55 $1061.32  $331.64
1,360     152.80    91.35    22.00
76,663  $14,073.98 $5149.07 $1147.10
Total.. 426J101 16,407 2631 527 19,028 76 073.98 $5149.07 7.10
I
48
O.1
48
13
26
21
21
21
150
25
24
18
27
oD0
6
7
4
6
3
2
28
4
3
9
15
o
o,.
oB 0
I
139
215
95
219
82
37
787
96
72
223
382
R 86
54
20
30
27
24
23
178
29
27
27
42
E o
:1-5
o I,
- -
2,230
570
1,020
1,191
1,198
8,8
7,087
1,328
909
856
1,531
4.o
' T
- -
6,063
1,004
4,048
2,818
4,174
4,337
22,441
5,766
4,128
3,486
8,349
:,,q
0        -
$1271.11
508.38
634.86
835.31
432.58
$3682.24
74.00
111.43
-._
$492.62
173.25
28.72
$694.59
47.50
31.37
District 1
i
Hawaii...
District 1
3
4
94
20
7
23
12
27
11
15
11
99
15
15
20
31
7
2
10
4
4
8
35
1
1
1
3,851
982
184
1,068
445
'820
306
429
529
3,597
400
437
515
773
34
256
60
190
76
81
273
936
20
22
22
125
22
4,624
1,016
184
1,324
505
1,010
382
510
802
4,533
420
459
537
21,729
1,120
4,088
2,592
5,430
2,287
2,661
2,839
19,897
2,979
3,372
3,762
$185.43
13.50
115.23
$128.73
388 19
362.93
350.20
i
District 1
3
4
5
6
30
14
37
15
19
134
16
16
21
District ]
Kauai.....
Niihau....
50
6
3
2
101
1,352
141
16,407
64
37
2631
53
8
527
1,406
178
19,028
4
Total.. 
CE.'SUS OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, FROM OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, TAKEN JANUARY, 1849.
Islands.             iPopula-  Deaths. Births. Aggregate amount of each description of persons included opposite.
tion.
Hawaii.......................... 27,204 2,726  586                 Males.                     Females.
Oahu............................ 23,145 2,409  396 Under 17 years of age. 10,773 Under 17 years of age. 9,593
Mauai........................... 18,671  1,619  267 Of 17 and under 30... 6,327 Of 17 and under 30... 5,719
Kauai............................ 6,941   686   154 Of 30 and under 50...10,819 Of 30 and under 50... 9,696
Molokai.......................... 3,429   412   52 Of 50 and upward.... 8,353 Of 50 and upward.... 8,121
Niihau...........................  723    44   18          Total males......36,272    Total females... 33,128
Lanai.......................:....    528    47      5  Excess of males, 3143.
Total aggregate................ 80,6411 7,943 1,478                                                  36,272
Blind.....................................337
Deaf..................................... 144
Hilo (not included)......................... 8,972
Native population......................78,854
0
It
03
,-.
d
p
SCHOOLS, ETC.
Number of English schools.......................        9
Number of English scholars...................132...    131
Number of high schools............................ 6
Number of high scholars...................... 256
Number of primary ana common schools.......... 505
Number of primary and common scholars.......... 18,022
FOREIGNERS.
Unmarried.................................. 409
Living with foreign wives..................... 133-266
Children....................................   239
Living with native wives...................... 343
Half castes.................................. 471
Foreigners in Hilo........................... 59
Total foreigners.......................... 1,787
Natives................................. 78,854
Grand total..........................  80,641
'I
CZ
cc 
THE ISLAND WORLD
From this census it appears that out of a total population of 80,641
souls in the year 1849, there was an excess of deaths over births of
6,465 souls, which gives a rate of mortality exceeding 8 per cent. per
annum. At this rate of annual decrease the whole Hawaiian population, in 1860, would dwindle down to 32,224; in the year 1870, it
would be reduced to 14,073; in 1880, to 6,134; in 1890, to 2,667; in
1900, to 1,162; in 1910, to 494; in 1920, to 207; in 1930, to 92; in
1940, to 37; and in the year 1950, to 20.
By the same census the relative mortality of the seven inhabited
islands was shown to be as follows:
Hawaii...  72 325074  per cent. yearly.
Oahu.... 81 36o144
M   *        e~~~ 4 50 3.c 
Maui.....T'741                      "
-a  6 -fs. 
Kauai...  7- 1 3       "        "
Molokai.. 103472'                "
3 43    2,,
Niihau.  *        37231 
Lanai...        - 7 5 4
If any reliance is to be placed on the accuracy of the census, the
above results satisfactorily disprove the opinion that has often been
expressed, that the decrease in the native population was mainly owing to a nameless disease introduced by foreign sailors, and to their
other contaminating influences. Had that been the case, the greatest
relative mortality should have been found among the natives of Oahu
and Maui,which are the two islands where foreign ships chiefly refresh.
But the greatest mortality has been on Molokai, where foreign ships
scarcely ever touch. It seems, therefore, demonstrated that, whatever
may be the cause of the depopulation of the islands, intercourse with
foreigners is not the cause alone.
The comparative salubrity of Niihau, the annual mortality of which
is about 3+ per cent., is a very striking feature of the late census.
Whether that great healthfulness is to be attributed to the great industry of t, natives, occasioned by the want of taro, or that the potatoe, on which they chiefly feed, is more favorable to life, is not as yet
ascertained. The census of that island was taken by an intelligent
native, there being no foreigners living on it. The manufacture of
mats by the natives of that place may prevent them from the same
slothful indulgence that is general on the other islands, or the census
may have been less correctly taken, or the late epidemic may not
have been so fatal there as elsewhere.
Perhaps the census for the present year, 1850, for the taking of
which Mr. Armstrong, the Minister of Public Instruction. has already
392 
OF THE PACIFIC.
issued his instrtuctions, may enable us to solve that and other useful
problems. If any means could be devised to distinguish between the
mortality and the births of the industrious natives, and the mortality
and births of the slothful-between the natives who live in ports frequented by ships and those who live in the country, and between
natives, half-breeds, and foreigners in all situations-the results would
be of great importance in leading to a correct appreciation of the true
causes of that extraordinary decrease of the natives that appears to
have acquired a fresh momentum with every relaxation from the
severe compulsory labor of the old times of paganism.
If it be true, as has been alleged, that natives employed on board
foreign ships, and subjected to the same rules of feeding and working
as the foreign sailors, are free from any greater mortality than the latter; and if it be true that those natives who are regularly employed
on the few plantations existing on the islands, are nearly exempt from
the great mortality that prevails among those who idle their time
away in their old lazy manner, then we may assume as a fact that
general indolence is the true cause of the rapid depopulation of these
healthful islands.
It is a fact well known to physicians and surgeons, that in cases of
long confinement to bed from fracture or any other accident requiring
a horizontal position, but not otherwise affecting the general health,
the most muscular men become weak and relaxed in a few weeks.
The same effects follow from imprisonment; and we believe were a
regiment of healthy grenadiers landed on these islands and obliged to
pass their time as listlessly and inactively as the natives generally do,
many of them would die before the end of the year, and scarcely any
would then possess their original strength.
It is found that those natives who are classified as laborers devote
a very few hours of the day to actual exertion, unless they are hired
by the day or month; and there is reason to believe that the class of
natives who do not work at all, but live upon the earnings of their
friends and acquaintances, is very numerous. Thus we find wherever
a native servant is employed, there are sure to be five or six hangers
on, who always make their appearance at meal-time, but at all other
hours of the day and night are to be found stretched at full length,
huddled together on one or more mats.
Hawaiian females, as well as Hawaiian men, are interested in the
immediate abolition of this deplorable idleness. The Rev. A. Bishop
says, "Indolence is attended with enervating effects on the constitution. This is evinced in the females, who have little to do, and yet
they are more subject to sickness than the men. Perhaps there are
R2
393 
THE ISLAND WORLD
other causes productive of sickness in many females, in consequence
of vicious idleness."
The idleness and moral laxity of Hawaiian women are the reproach
of the nation. In days of heathenism, Hawaiian mothers used to kill
their own children, rather than have the trouble of bringing them up;
and even now, while professing to be Christians, they sometimes see
their children die of want and neglect, rather than labor to provide
for and take care of them; and there is too much reason to believe
that, in many cases, they resort to measures to prevent children altogether.
There are many kinds of garden and field labor in which women
could engage, as well as the men; and, besides, they can card, spin,
weave, sew, knit, plait, embroider, wash, and employ themselves in
keeping the houses and clothes of their fathers, husbands, or brothers
clean and comfortable.  It is so that all civilized women employ
themselves. Are the Hawaiian women forever to remain mere objects of gross desire, as if they had been created for no nobler end
than venal prostitution?
Hawaiian legislators should do what they can to hold out to the
common people the inducements to industry recommended by Rev.
Mr. Coan, namely:
"First. Moral and intellectual instruction.
"Second. Examples of industry and thrift living and moving before
their eyes.
"Third. Entire security of the avails of their own industry, energy,
and skill.
"Fourth. Efforts to increase their desire for the rational comforts
of life, by showing the blessings of competency, and the shame and
numerous other evils attendant on that poverty which is the offspring
of indolence and vice.
Fifth. Perhaps premiums, or special encouragements from government, to those who may excel in agriculture, gardening, manufacturing, art, science, and moral virtue."
In regard to the "FIRST," viz., "moral and intellectual instruction,"
that has been very liberally and constantly given, by the American
Missionaries, since 1820, and in a degree by the Catholic Missionaries,
since 1827. The natives are no longer an ignorant and uneducated
multitude. They have had the benefit of good precepts in the doctrines which the missionaries have taught, and of excellent examples
in the virtuous lives which they and their families have led, and they
are now able, in their own Ianguage, to read the Holy Scriptures and
numerous other good books, giving them greater facilities to instruct
394 
OF THE  PACIFIC.
themselves than what were enjoyed by any other nation, previous to
the comparatively recent date of the art of printing. In bringing the
Hawaiians on this par, the missionaries have done their duty. The
means of carrying them on further are beyond their proper institute.
It is for the Hawaiians themselves, by exerting the capabilities of
doing well, which they have acquired from the missionaries, and for
the Hawaiian government, by encouraging those efforts at well-doing,
to complete the good work of civilization.
But as a means of ultimately improving the Hawaiian race, of making them industrious and happy, says one of the missionaries, other
agencies than civil penalties must be employed.  "They must become a' law to themselves,' or laws enacted by the chiefs will do
little to cure the evils of indolence and improvidence. Still, something may be done by the rulers, and of this I will speak. Instructions
from their teachers have been frequent and full. Motives drawn from
the word of God have long been urged upon the people. These, we
believe, are the only ones of much weight in laying the foundation for elevating and saving a degraded heathen people. Nor have
these motives been urged in vain. I have found uniformly that those
individuals who give the clearest evidence of piety, the humble and
prayerful, are the most industrious."
To the same effect Rev. Mr. Clark remarks, that "Instruction in
letters and religion is the appropriate work of missionaries, especially
instruction in religion. It was for this object they were sent to these
islands, and for this they are sustained in their work; and to this object they have devoted their main strength. But they have not failed to impart instruction in mechanical arts, and by example and precept to stimulate, in various ways, the people to industry. The most
thriving and industrious mechanics and farmers in this place are those
who have been most closely connected with missionaries, and have received the greatest amount of instruction from them. There are three
or four mechanics in this place, and some others who have gone from
here and are pursuing their trade in other places, who acquired their
knowledge under the direction of missionaries. There are now fourteen carts, besides several trucks, in this district, owned by natives;
and more than thirty yoke of oxen, kept in constant use. The owners of these were first instructed in the use of carts and oxen by mis.
sionaries.  There are about thirty horned cattle owned by natives,
besides donkeys, horses, &c., used as beasts of burden. Besides the
four individuals from the mission seminary, before mentioned as mak
ing butter for market, there are now two or three more engaged in
the same business, prompted by their example. All these persons
395 
THE ISLAND WORLD
acquired their knowledge of making butter from missionaries, and
were induced, by their example and precept, to engage in the business,
and they are all common natives. Foreigners who own herds of
cattle of their own buy butter of these natives; in fact, nearly all the
enterprise and thrift in this place are among those who have come
most under the stimulating influence of missionary instruction and
example."
Such results, however small, are encouraging, as proving to the
government the susceptibility of improvement of the natives. But
the government must not look to the missionaries to do what clergymen are not expected to do to any people. The province of the missionary is the spiritual interests of the people. In that province they
have done wonders. It is the province of the government to further
the temporal interests of the people, and here the missionaries have
set the example with greater earnestness and system than any other
body of men. Further they can not go, without encroaching upon the
duties of the government, and raising an outcry against themselves
of wishing to arrogate the whole government of the country, which,
however unjust, would injure the authority of the king, and impair
their usefulness as missionaries.
There is one concurring cause of the diminution of the native popu
lation at the Hawaiian Islands not noticed above, which is thus noted
in the Sandwich Island History, by Jaroes:
"Great numbers of healthy Hawaiian youth have left in whale ships
and other vessels, and never returned.  The number annually afloat
is computed at four thousand. At one time four hundred were counted at Tahiti, five hundred in Oregon, fifty-one at Paita, Peru, besides
unknown numbers in Europe and the United States. Their wives
and families, left to provide for themselves, fall into vicious habits.
and both evils combined tend to diminish the native population."
This depopulation will appear at a glance the more appalling, by
the following comparison of the results of census in different years.
They are by no means accurate, but are relatively reliable enough
for authorizing the general conclusion as to the rapid passing away of
the native race.
Estimate of population for 1823.......       142,050.
Census of.......      1832.....       130,313.
Census of.......      1836....  108,579.
Census of.....       1846.......         95,400.
Census of.....     1849.......         80,641.
The year 1849 will be marked in the Hawaiian calendar as THE
YEAR OF DEATH, when measles, hooping-cough, and influenza swept
396 
OF THE PACIFIC.
off, at a low estimate, ten thousand of the aborigines. The same diseases, at the same time, terminated fatally with but few of the foreigners. Both their fruitfulness and their exemption from disease, over
and above the native race, are matter of frequent observation and remark. Some years ago a careful comparison was instituted by an intelligent observer, to show the remarkable discrepancy of numbers
between the children of missionaries and those of the chiefs, who were
then the most civilized of the Hawaiian population. The following
was the result:
Nine of the mission families numbered fifty-nine children-an average of six and five ninths to a family. Twenty Hawaiian chiefs had
but nineteen children among them all. The mission families within less
than one generation had increased one hundred and seventy-five per
cent. At the same ratio of increase, in one hundred years their descendants would number fifty-nine thousand five hundred and thirty-five.
Saying nothing now of the enfeebling of the Hawaiian constitution,
which has been often referred to and proven in the course of this work,
the striking difference shown by this investigation in the productiveness and mortality of persons of native and of foreign origin, so far as
proximate causes are concerned, must be mainly owing to the better
observance of the natural laws of health and life in the one case than
in the other. Native Hawaiians, having little forethought, and holding life in low esteem, pay no regard to cautions for preserving health;
live in filth and among vermin; wear clothes in dry weather, but take
them off when it is wet and cold; sleep abroad in the night air; freely
indulge in unwholesome and excessive diet, and have nothing as suitable food in sickness.  When suffering with a raging fever, their lungs
laboring under a severe influenza, they will plunge into cold water to
allay their internal heat. Indeed, cold water is their main specific for
every kind of sickness; and a truly skillful, scientific Hydropathist
might probably turn the Hawaiian fondness for a water-cure to useful account, for their benefit and his own pecuniary emolument, by
establishing a Hydropathic Hospital in the vicinity of Honolulu, somewhere in the watered valleys of Nuuianu or Manoa.
With an increase of the means of comfortable living, now rapidly
taking place at the Hawaiian Islands, and a proper inculcation of the
rules of life and principles of physiology, there is good reason to believe that the health of the native race will improve, and its rate of
mortality fall off.  One of the missionaries lately writes that, since the
discovery of gold in California, the price of labor and of all native produce has doubled, and articles of foreign fabric, at the same time, have
fallen in value. "Every man who is industrious can and does accumu
397 
THE ISLAND WORLD
late property. It is not uncommon to find men with one or two hund
red dollars in their possession.  But the native who gets money, instead of improving his habitation and increasing his domestic comforts,
usually spends it in buying expensive clothing and gay trappings for
his horse. To see him on horseback, decked out in his expensive
equipments, one might suppose him in easy circumstances; but what
you see on him and about him is nearly all he is worth. His house
is a mere thatched hovel, with one room, containing a few mats and
calabashes, and perhaps a chair or two and a table, with a chest for
clothing. The whole establishment is without cleanliness or comfort,
and it indicates but an incipient state of civilization. Still, he is as well
6ff as his neighbors; and he is, therefore, respectable in his own eyes
and also in theirs. He feels no sense of degradation, because he compares limself only with his own people. He feels, too, that his pres
ent condition is much elevated above that of his fathers, or of himselfas he was a few years ago. He has a seat of his own in the chapel,
and comes to church with his family on the Sabbath, well dressed
and clean. He has a horse to ride to and from the service, and he carries his Bible and hymn-book at his side.
"This is the bright side of the picture; but his old habits o aversion
to labor, his want of forethought, his proneness to deceive and take
umdue advantage of his neighbor, and his facility to fall into temptation, cling to him still, and are often contending for the mastery.
"In truth, he is made up of two natures; one being that of a Christ
tian, lately assumed; the other that of the old heathen, with all his
prejudices and superstitions. It can not be expected that his walk
and conversation will be as if he had been born and nurtured in the
bosom of a Christian family.
"He may be better compared to some Washingtonian, once the
wretched victim of vice and the inhabitant of the gutter, but now
washed and cleaned, and admitted into decent society, still struggling,
however, against his former appetites and habits, perhaps manfully,
and anon overtaken in an unguarded moment and falling into the
snare. He still struggles, and, on the whole, he is able to hold on his
way. There is much to lament in his course; but he holds on to the
end, dies in peace, and in the hope of immortality.
"Compare a Hawaiian Christian to this Brand plucked from the
burning, and you have his character. From the world he gains the
name of a hypocrite, because of the frequent mastery of his former
habits over him.'His pastor and his more established brethren stand
in fear of him, exhort him, and pray for him, because his light does
not shine as it ought, and his faith is too feeble, and Satan's tempta
398 
OF THE PACIFIC.
tions are strong.  But the Lord is gracious unto him, while he lingers
like Lot on the plain; and he is finally carried through in safety, a
ransomed heathen, a sinner saved by grace. Bless the Lord, and give
him all the glory!
"The ground of hope that a remnant of this people will be left to
perpetuate the race, rests on the facts that there are many virtuous
men and women among them. God is hearing their prayers, and
blessing their endeavors to promote the welfare of the nation. He
has already interposed his kind providence, by delivering them in repeated instances, when their enemies were ready to swallow them up.
"The severe ordeal through which the government and people
have just passed, during the embraces of French' liberty, equality, and
fraternity,' is an instance in point. During the late visit of the French
admiral, prayer was offered up in every Christian family, and in social
and public meetings, for the government and nation; and God turned
the heart of the admiral from his first design to burn, plunder, and
massacre, and sent him away in chagrin at what he had so wantonly
and unavailingly done. Why should the Lord thus interpose, if it be
not that he has purposes of good in store for the Hawaiians, even for
the remnant, the chosen vessels of his mercy?"*
We say, finally, respecting the depopulation at the Sandwich Islands,
that it will undoubtedly be arrested whenever the lands shall be properly subdivided, and a homestead exemption be secured to owners,
and the time and employments of the people of both sexes shall be
suitably methodized, and habits of industry fairly formed.
The late orders of the Privy Council at Oahu, in 1850, designating
the rights of the common people to the lands they occupy, and the
mode of establishing their claims, together with the stimulus given to
native industry by the opening of the California market for native products, are already producing marked effects. A writer in one of the
March numbers of The Polynesian for the present year, 1850, says
that, in the region where he resides, the call for the products of the
earth, created by the California scarcity, have aroused almost the
whole population to action; and already are the fields beginning to
be verdant and to give promise of a more abundant harvest than has
been known there for many years.  "I hazard nothing in saying that
there has, throughout the whole of our district, been ten-fold more
planting done this year, thus far, than for the same time during my
acquaintance with the people. There seems to have been a general
waking up on the subject, so much so as to destroy my incredulity as
to their incapacity for industry, if they could be pressed with proper
* Revt. Artemas Bishop, Missionary Herald, May, 1850.
399 
THE ISLAND WORLD
motives.  Even the women are engaged ill planting, and are flushed
with the high hopes of reaping a golden reward for their labors. Of
the common Hawaiian vegetables, such as Irish and sweet potatoes,
onions, squashes, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, bananas, &c., we shall,
I hope, soon have an abundance for ourselves and to spare. It pleases
me to see so great an improvement in the industry of the people with
only the very partial stimulus by which it has been effected, and I can
but look forward to the time when, encouraged by the experience
that the fruits of every man's labor are his own, the Hawaiian will
stand forth high in the ranks of enterprise and thrift, and thus repel
the common but unjust imputation of inborn laziness."
The following papers are translated from THE ELELE HAWAII, a
native newspaper, which were written upon the occasion of the
government conferring upon the people, by proclamation, the FEESIMPLE of their lands.
Judge Lee's Remarks on the Lands of the Common Natives.
Salutations to you, the common natives of this kingdom.
It has pleased the Hawaiian government, the king, and chiefs, in
privy council, to pass certain resolutions requiring the board of land
commissioners to give you fee-simple titles to the lands which you personally occupy; and when surveyed, you can obtain your patents.
The king, chiefs, and commissioners also recommend you to exchange lands or parts oflands with each other, and with the Konohikis, so that each may have his land all in one place. Go to them
peaceably, and agree well among yourselves before your lands are
surveyed, that upon the arrival of the surveyor he be not delayed,
but be enabled to proceed immediately with his work.
All that the commissioners will require you to pay' for the settlement of your claims will be the costs of the land commission, i.e., from
$3 to $5 for each patent.
The king and chiefs have also resolved to set apart certain of the
lands belonging to government, and intrust them to agents, to be sold
to those natives who have no lands, or only very small ones. Nothing,
therefore, remains to be done that you may obtain fee-simple titles to
your lands. When you have secured your lands and taken your patents, your poalima (or landlord) tax will be at an end.
Two courses, then, are open for you: either to secure your lands,
work on them, and be happy, or to sit still, sell them, and then die
Which do you choose?
WILLIAM L. L-.r.
400 
OF THE PACIFIC.
Mr. Armstrong's Remarks on the Granting Lands to Common Natives,
in Fee-simple.
Be joyful, ye common natives of this kingdom, for the king and
government have conferred upon you a very great worldly blessing by
granting to you the lands which you occupy in fee-imple; so that,
when you have obtained your patents, the lands will belong to you
and your children forever. The meaning of this term, "in feesimple," is, that the patentee alone is the owner of the land, and no
one else has any remaining right to it. The konohiki has no claim
upon the tenant, and the poalima tax is at an end.  Each man will be
his own konohiki.
The government can, nevertheless, impose a tax upon lands held in
fee-simple, should it hereafter be thought proper so to do. That is the
custom in all enlightened countries. The poalua tax, however, which
is not imposed upon land, and is set apart for the benefit of schools, is
still to be enforced, unless commuted. The commutation system, paying half a dollar quarterly, is very generally introduced at present, so
that there is no poalzua work done at Oahu.
Formerly the land belonged to the chiefs only, and the common
natives had no well-defined rights. The chiefs gave lands to whom
they pleased, and took them away at pleasure. Thus it was till 1836
At that time the chiefs settled the rights of tenants, so that each man
could continue upon his land, unless he were guilty of some wrong.
Ever since it has been unlawful to expel any one from his lands unless he had been convicted of some offense; afterward, also, in 1846,
six commissioners were appointed to ascertain the claims of every one
to land.  The lands were also divided between, the king, the konohiki, and the common native, a third to each. The king and government also made a separation between the king's private lands and
those belonging to the government.  The board of commissioners have
been, and still are, diligently engaged in their business of granting
land titles.
The resolutions of the privy council, which are published in this
paper, are the first which have clearly designated and settled the rights
of the common natives to the land which they occupy. Read them
attentively.   One thing only remains, the proper surveying of the
lands; but have a little patience, and that, too, will be attended to.
Now then, my dear fellow-subjects, let me advise you in respect to
some things.
1. Be not obstinate in insisting upon every little crook and corner
in your land, but consult together, and unite one piece with another,
401 
TIIE ISLAND WORLD
so that several may be inclosed in the same patent, so as to accommodate yourselves. This uniting of your several pieces in one lessens
the charges of the land commission. Do it quickly, and don't put
it off.
2. When you have obtained your patents, what will you do? Just
as you did before, eh? Ride around from place to place, work a little and idle about a great deal; sleep, talk, and loaf about? If so,
your trouble and expense in obtaining patents will all be utterly
useless.
You should act thus.  Let the wife remain at home and put the
house in order, and the husband go out and cultivate the land, day
by day. Be industrious, and fit up your houses and house lots, furnish yourselves with seats, beds, plates, bowls, knives, spoons, and
glasses; provide separate sleeping-rooms for parents and children;
and increase the produce of your lands. Rest not until you are comfortably supplied with all good things. Plant all kinds of good trees
on your lands, as the fig, coffee, guava, orange, bread-fruit, cocoa-nut,
koa, kau, viapple, and all kinds of flowering shrubs and fruit trees, so
that your lands may be embellished with beautiful plants and trees.
Take proper care, also, of your children, that you be not destitute of
heirs. Let the daughters remain at home with their mothers, and
learn to sew, wash, iron; to make mats and hats, and to seek after
knowledge. The little girls should go to school. The older boys
should go out to work with their fathers; for, as the land will become
theirs, should they behave themselves properly, they should work
upon and improve it.
You should, also, live in accordance with the word of God, for your
lands will do you no good if you disregard His commands, by quarreling, drinking, licentiousness, devoting yourselves to pleasure, and
breaking the Sabbath.
Furnish your children with books, pens, ink, maps, and other things
to help them in acquiring knowledge.
Finally, the government will have done all in its power for you in
giving you fee-simple titles for your lands, and the rest remains for
you. If, now, you continue poor, needy, living in disorder, in miserable huts, your lands lying waste and passing into other hands, whose
fault will it be?  Whose but yours?  Some say that this country is
going to ruin through your laziness and ignorance.  Is it so?  Then
be it so no longer. Rouse up and act as those wish you to do who
have a real regard for your welfare.  Let all natives witness your re,
vivification. Thus wishes your sincere friend,
R. ARMSTRONG.
402 
OF THE PACIFIC.
The preceding documentary statements and considerations, together
with the facts developed along the pages of this book, will have given,
as we believe, a correct picture of native Hawaiian society. The
character of the foreign society at the Sandwich Islands, especially at
Honolulu, is now rapidly rising in enterprise, intelligence, refinement,
philanthropy, and piety; and the ports of the Hawaiian Group generally are fast becoming the most desirable places of residence to be
found through the whole Island World of the Pacific.
While this improvement is to be ascribed mainly to the changes
effected by the labors of American missionaries, much, also, is to be
attributed to the beneficial influence of the seamen's chaplains there
stationed, and to the permanent domestic circles that are gradually
being established. The salutary, though silent, effect of this latter
agency it would be impossible to over-estimate. In modern Protestant missions the influence of woman and of the family is an element
of success in taming barbarians and Christianizing society, which
Jesuit missionaries not having employed, have for that reason, among
others, failed of realizing such beneficial and large results as have followed in the train of aggressive missionary Protestantism.
The present plan of the American Board of Missions, therefore,
wisely, is to facilitate the independent settlement of the members of
the Sandwich Island Mission, as pastors and teachers at the islands,
and to place those who can not yet obtain a living on the same footing with home missionaries. They expect by this means to enable
and induce the missionaries generally to remain at the islands with
their families, and thus to insure a thorough Puritan basis for the
future community, whatever that shall be, which is to occupy those
islands.
The seamen's chaplain says of the foreign society at Honolulu, in
1850, that they are justly to be commended for liberality. In a little
over one month of the present year, $750 had been collected there
for benevolent purposes, and the community is declared to be ready
to extend liberal aid to all worthy objects.  Let this be true, and let
a generous and wise spirit of public improvement, and a unanimous,
patriotic devotion to the welfare of the island kingdom, prevail generally among the foreign residents of Honolulu, and they will soon make
their " FAIR HAVEN" the favorite Watering-place of the Pacific.
We conclude this exhibit of the Sandwich Islands with a tabular
synopsis of the schools and churches under the supervision of missionaries for the year 1849.   The last yearly report from the mission
says, in regard to the schools, that, under the rigorous administration
of Mr. Armstrong, the Minister of public instruction, it is expected
403 
THE ISLAND WORLD
that the revenue appropriated by government for the support of
schools will prove amply sufficient to carry them forward on an enlarged and liberal scale. School-houses are getting to be nearer
what they ought to be. The buildings now erected are generally on
an improved plan, and they are of more durable materials than they
have been in years past. The ordinary apparatus of common country
schools in New England is gradually finding a place in Hawaiian
school-houses. The black-board has become a familiar object in many
places, as are seats, tables, &c. Books, likewise, are more generally
procured than formerly, and,tas the natural consequence, they are
more highly prized.
The experiment of devoting one half of each day to manual labor
has been successfully made in many of the districts. The proceeds of
the labor, performed by the pupils, have been laid out for their benefit, in procuring books, slates, and such other articles as they may desire for their convenience or comfort.   This plan of uniting work
with study, it is hoped, will have a happy influence upon the character of the rising generation; indeed, this effect is already apparent,
wherever the experiment has been fairly tried; but the mass of teachers are but imperfectly qualified for the work which they have undertaken. The school-houses are often unsuitable; the books used are
insufficient; the needful apparatus is wanting; and multitudes look
supinely upon the whole subject of education, because they are gross
ly ignorant of its utility and end.   But these obstacles are steadily
diminishing, and they confidently expect the time when true knowledge shall be increased, and fill and bless the land. Their present
school system continues to recommend itself by its admirable simpli.
city, and by its adaptation to the wants of the people. It works well,
so far as is known, in all the islands. 
404 
OF THE PACIFIC.
STATISTICS OF SCHOOLS FOR 1849.
Stations.
m-5
'Hilo and Puna...   48  2,091 1207  860 1037  802
Waimea........ -------— 21   841  400  285   366   166
HAWAII    Kohala......... 21  1,116  605  260  759  276
Kealakekua....-.   26   925  404  202  265  141
Kau............. 13    355  101   45  155   54
Hana.. —---------  27  1,149  579  317   430  411
M  lWailuku ------— 24     837  434  377  174  304
MAUI.. --  Lahaina. —........ - 15   899  424  282  341  377
Kaanapali.......   10   333   117   69   133   101
MOLOKAI.......-.         - --                 -
LANA..........    7    184  162  104   127  103
Honolulu 1st...    23  1,068  407  248   377  292
Honolulu 2d..    12   445  203   108  225  102
jEw a and?
OAHU.. E Waianae } —----   27    820  496  312  436  535
Waialua.........  26   735  361  247  371  263
Kaneohe... —------  11   529  386  287  356  380
[ Waioli..........  20    515  331   170  258  179
KAUAI..  Koloa........... 15   437  267   135  223  175
tWaimea......... —-------  15   400   221   68  167   93
NIIHAU.........-   6    141   69   47   29   14
Total......... 388 11,792 7655 4523 6603  5001
IDn 
< 5   -                - -
Seminaries, &c.       ~ 
z;,  P                         -             
Royalschool............... 11  2 -  -  -
Lahainaluna............... 64             14    2     1   14
Wailuku..................   35        3-              5 -5
Hilo...........62  23  12 -                        1  8
Waioli -------------------- 48        4    14       -        7
Total.. —--------------- 220  27   451   2    7   29
405
4 
1~~~~~~~~~~AITC  FCUCE  O  89
N;
o   cG
.  r  C 0
.0 0-;
o
.o
200
9nO
450
1200
1000
900
450
I
350
3,19
1,22~;
793
1,692
395
276
979
1,105
636
626
559
654
151
102
160
179
4
9,031
4,114
4,712
3,544
3,522
2,281
5,583
4,226
5,646
3,429
7,389
6,375
3,308
3,241
2,832
2,340
2,732
1,869
r Hilo and Puna 
IWaimea.. —----—.
HAWAII Kohala —-------        
Kailua. —--------
Kealakekua..... —--
Kau. —----------            
Hana.. —--------
Wailuku.. —-----
MAUI..  Lahaina........
I Lahainaluna..-            ---
. Kaanapali......
MOLOKAI —---— 2
1Honolulu Ist....                                      -
Honolulu 2d —..OAHU...Ewa —--------- 1
Waianae...             29 —                                                              -
Waialua... —------
[ Kaneohe.....           Waioli..... —-------
KAUAI. Koloa..........
Waimea......
22,8311 621 2,724
Total —-----— 1594 37,224 315 4652 2352;9754 278 2206 22,831 46212,724 1084
I
I
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i
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I
ST
s or CH
IROR 1849.
IST
CH
93
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5
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9
387
800
80
95
51
51
20
16
458
167
13
22
17
29
2206
-6
9
1.I
g, 
I..
4
5,906
2,292
1,264
1,465
1,265
924
566
1,262
762
1,129
1,595
1,131
1,430
334
610
203
259
201,
233
, 14
PI.
P -.
I- P.
-U
108
39
27
12
23
25
1'7
53
34
24
35
4
36
2
12
3
8
9
. 9
I.
91
62
80
22
46
40
78
73
55
52
134
137
44
35
37
40
58
Stations.
p
934
550
415
273
283
271
450
361
524
412
627
793
323
298
368
216
259
211
10
-S
pq
173
100
189
51
32
40
97
67
67
265
96
26
97
55
90
276
306
126
10
5
151
36
40
8
7
9 4
9,647
5,955
1,791
2,339
2,694
1,294
626
1,573
1,119
1,401
.-,280
2,121
1,914
256
924
326
292
269
403
28
12'
19
67
16
26
2
9
48
8
16
26
18
8
5
3
453
.812
188
466
841
236
20
319
222
45
184
273
290
21
70
22
29
79
82
4652
703
264
130
139
59
130
58
58
126
85
164
134
ill
49
52
21
20
11
32
352,
3301
1464
500
575
574
377
98
212
363
235
486
624
356
79
155'
90
78
56
134
1'9754
25
51
23
33
14
2
10
18
5
40
14
14
8
6
8
1
4
2
278
z
m
m
t,
t
0
t,
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132
122
37
54
51
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68
29,
31
Total........
084 
N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I
DAH~H
84  ~   ~OLA 80/4
AH  ~~78  88AHOO
P A.i'o"%" IS                 O  m'0,.
$~~~~  ~~~~8                       21~~~~'.
LAA     8~ ~        
Chart of ~, 
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