the whole island, or the natives of one island those of all the others, to bring a man who shall try his skill with some favourite player of their own district or island. On such occasions we have seen seven or eight thousand chiefs and people, men and women, assembled to witness the sport, which, as well as the pahe, is often continued for hours together.

Many of these amusements require great bodily exertion; and we have often been struck with the restless avidity and untiring effort with which they pursue even the most toilsome games. Sometimes we have expressed our surprise that they should labour so arduously at their sport, and so leisurely at their plantations or houses, which, in our opinion, would be far more conducive to their advantage and comfort. They have generally answered, that they built houses and cultivated their gardens from necessity, but followed their amusements because their hearts were fond of them. There are some few who play merely for pleasure; but the greater part engage in it in hopes of gain.

Were their games followed only as sources of amusement, they would be comparatively harmless; but the demoralizing influence of the various kinds of gambling existing among them is very extensive. Scarcely an individual resorts to their games but for the purpose of betting; and at these periods all the excitement, anxiety, exultation, and rage which such pursuits invariably produce are not only visible in every countenance, but fully acted out, and all the malignant passions which gambling engenders are indulged without restraint. We have seen females hazarding their beads, scissors, clothbeating mallets, and every piece of cloth they possessed, except what they wore, on a throw of the uru or pahe. In the same throng might be frequently seen the farmer, with his o-o, and other implements of husbandry; the builder of canoes, with his hatchets and adzes; and some poor man, with a knife, and the mat on which he slept, all eager to stake every article they possessed on the success of their favourite player; and when they have lost all, we have known them, frantic with rage, tear their hair from their heads on the spot. This is not all; the sport seldom terminates without quarrels, sometimes of a serious nature, ensuing between the adherents of the different parties.

Since schools have been opened in the islands, and

the natives have been induced to direct their attention to Christian instruction and intellectual improvement, we have had the satisfaction to observe these games much less followed than formerly; and we hope the period is fast approaching when they shall only be the healthful exercises of children; and when the time and strength devoted to purposes so useless, and often injurious, shall be employed in cultivating their fertile soil, augmenting their sources of individual and social happiness, and securing to themselves the enjoyment of the comforts and privileges of civilized and Christian life.

After travelling about an hour, through a country which appeared more thickly inhabited than that over which we had passed in the morning, we came to Kapauku, a pleasant village belonging to Naihe. As we passed through it, we found tall rows of sugar-cane lining the path on either side, and beneath their shade we sat down to rest. A crowd of natives soon gathered around us; and after a little general conversation, we asked them who was their god? They said they had no god; formerly they had many, but now they had cast them all away. We asked them if they had done well in abolishing them? They said, Yes, for the tabu occasioned much labour and inconvenience, and drained off the best of their property. We asked them if it was a good thing to have no god, and to know of no being to whom they ought to render religious homage? They said, perhaps it was, for they had nothing to provide for the great sacrifices, and were under no fear of punishment for breaking tabu; that now, one fire cooked their food, and men and women ate together the same kind of provisions.

We asked them if they would not like to hear about the true God, and the only Saviour? They said they had heard of Jesus Christ, by a boy belonging to Naihe, who came from Oahu about two months ago; but he had not told them much, and they should like to hear something more. I then requested them to sit down, and preached to them on the way of salvation by Jesus Christ. When the service was ended, many involuntarily exclaimed, “Nui roa maitai! E ake makou i kanaka makou no Jesu, a i ora roa ia ia." It is greatly good! We wish to become the people of Jesus Christ, and to be saved everlastingly by him.-We recommended them to think on his love, and to love him in return; to obey

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him; to keep the Sabbath-day, by abstaining from labour; and, meeting together, to talk about what they had heard; to ask God in prayer to teach them all his righteous will; and to send to Naihe their chief, or the missionaries at Oahu, for books, and a person to instruct them.

Bidding them farewell, we directed our course towards the shore, and in about half an hour came to Honuapo, an extensive and populous village, standing on a level bed of lava which runs out a considerable distance into the sea. As we approached this place, the natives led us to a steep precipice overhanging the waves, and pointed out a rock in the water below, called Kaverohea. They seemed to regard both the place where we were and the rock below with strong feelings of superstition; at which we were not surprised, when they informed us, that formerly a jealous husband, who resided a short distance from the place, murdered his wife in a cruel manner with a stone, and afterward dragged her down to the spot where we stood, and threw her into the sea; that she fell on the rock which we saw, and immediately afterward, while he stood ruminating on what he had done, called out to him in the most affectionate and lamentable strains, attesting her innocence of the crime for which she had been murdered. From that rock, which is still called by her name, they said her voice was often heard calling to her husband, and there her form was sometimes seen. They also informed us, that her lamentations were considered by them as ominous of some great disaster; as of war, or famine, or the death of a distinguished chief. We told them it was in imagination only that she was seen, and that her supposed lamentations were but the noise of the surf, or the whistling of the winds.

From the manner in which we were received at Honuapo, we should not think this village had been often visited by foreigners; for, on our descending from the high land to the lava on which the town stands, the natives came running out to meet us from all quarters, and soon gathered so thickly around us, that we found it difficult to proceed. Boys and girls danced and hallooed before us; vast numbers walked by our side, or followed us, occasionally taking us by the hand, or catching hold of some part of our clothes. They seemed surprised at our addressing them in their own

tongue, but were much more so when Mauae, who preceded us with a large fan in his hand, told them we were teachers of religion, that we had preached and prayed at every place where we had stopped, and should most likely do so there before we slept.

We passed through the town to the residence of the head man, situated on the farthest point towards the sea. He invited us to his house, procured us water to wash our feet, and immediately sent to an adjacent pond for some fish for our supper. While that was preparing, the people assembled in crowds around the house, and a little before sunset, Mr. Thurston preached to them in the front yard. Upwards of two hundred were present, and during the whole of the service, sat quietly, and listened attentively.

A number of the people at this place had one of their lips tattooed, after the manner of some of the New-Zealand tribes. There was more tattooing here than we had observed at any other place; but it was rudely done, displaying much less taste and elegance than the figures on the bodies of either the New-Zealanders, Tahitians, or Marquesians, which are sometimes really beautiful.

After the service, some of our number visited the ruins of a heiau, on a point of lava near our lodging. During the evening, on making some inquiries respecting it, we found it had been dedicated to Tairi, and was thrown down in the general destruction of idols, in 1819. They seemed to think it was well that idolatry had been prohibited by the king; said its frequent requisitions kept them very poor, and occasioned them much labour. They were, as might be expected, almost entirely ignorant of the religion of Jesus Christ. And from what we saw and heard on first arriving among them, we should fear they were much degraded by immorality and vice.

One man only from this place had been at Qahu, since the king had been favourably disposed towards Christianity while there, he once attended public worship in the native language, and heard about Jesus Christ, the God of the foreigners; but had given a very imperfect account of him. The people seemed inclined to listen attentively to what was said about salvation through the Redeemer; and though fatigued by our journey, and exercises with the inhabitants of the different places

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where we had stopped during the day, we esteemed it a privilege to spend the evening in conversation on a topic of so much interest and importance, and experienced no small degree of pleasure, while endeavouring to convey to their uninformed, but apparently inquiring, minds a concise and simple view of the leading doctrines and duties of our holy religion. At a late hour, we asked them to unite with us in our evening worship, and afterward lay down to rest. Many of the people in the house, however, continued talking till almost daylight. The attention given by the people to our instructions is not to be considered as evidencing their conversion to Christianity, or indicating any decisive change in their views or feelings, but is merely noticed as a pleasing manifestation of their willingness to listen to the truths we are desirous to promulgate among them.

CHAPTER IX.

Makoa objects to visiting the volcano-Account of the defeat and assassination of Keoua-Superstitions connected with the pebbly beach at Ninole -Hospitality of the natives-Methods of dressing the taro-Distant indications of the volcano at Kirauea-Visit to the burning chasm at Ponahohoa -Journey from Kapapala-Lodging in a cavern-Reflection from the volcano by night.

On the morning of the 30th, we arose much refreshed, but Makoa not having arrived with our baggage, we did not leave Honuapo so early as we could have wished. Great numbers of the people crowded our house at an early hour, and while breakfast was preparing, they were addressed from Ps. xcvi. 4. When the service was ended, the people were anxious to know more about these things; some time was therefore spent in conversation with them. We had seldom seen any who appeared more interested in the truths of the gospel than the people of Honuapo..

About eight A. M. Makoa arrived, but without our baggage. The men who were bringing it, he said, could not be persuaded to come on last night, but had set out this morning, and would soon overtake us. now acquainted him with our intention to visit the vol

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