OPPRESSION OF THE CHIEFS.

309

a state of barbarism, and warrants the conclusion that they have been an organized community for many generations. But whatever antiquity their system may possess, they have made but little progress in the art of good government. The well-being of the subject seems to have been but rarely regarded by the rulers, who appear to have considered the lower orders in general as a kind of property, to be employed only in promoting the interests of their superiors; and the ardent love of wealth which an acquaintance with the productions of foreign countries has excited in most of the chiefs has not improved the condition of the people. Industry receives no encouragement; and even those whom natural energy of character would induce to cultivate a larger portion of land than was absolutely necessary for their bare subsistence, are deterred from the attempt by the apprehension of thereby exposing themselves to the rapacity of avaricious or necessitous chiefs. Nothing can be more detrimental to the true interest of the chiefs and the civilization and happiness of the people than the abject dependence of the latter, the uncertain tenure of lands, the insecurity of personal property, the exactions of the chiefs, and the restrictions on trade with the shipping, which they impose. As the nation in general becomes enlightened, it is to be presumed that the policy of the rulers will be more liberal, and the general prosperity of the islands proportionably advanced.

On the 31st, Mr. Thurston preached twice at Towaihae to attentive congregations and with the labours of the day closed a month of toil and interest greater than any he had before spent in the Sandwich Islands. the retrospect, he could not but hope some good would result to the people.

In

Early on the 1st of September, Mr. Thurston left Towaihae in a canoe furnished by Mr. Young, and at eight in the forenoon reached the place where the Nio was lying at anchor, on board of which he joined Messrs. Goodrich and Bishop. Soon after four in the afternoon, they weighed anchor and made sail. When they left Hawaii, the master intended touching at Maui; but contrary winds obliged them to shape their course towards Oahu, where they safely arrived late in the evening of the 3d, and had the satisfaction of finding the mission family in the enjoyment of comfortable health

CHAPTER XVI.

Traditions respecting the origin of the islanders-Marriage among the natives -Account of foreigners who visited the Sandwich Islands before they were discovered by Captain Cook-Preaching at Kairua-Traditions of a deluge -Visit to Maui-Memoir of the late king and queen of the islands-Notice of Boki, their principal attendant-Return to Oahu.

THE time which I spent at Kairua was chiefly occupied in conversation with the governor on the history and traditions of the island, the advantages of instruction, and the blessings which the general adoption of Christianity would confer on the people. On this latter subject the governor uniformly expressed his conviction of its utility, and said he had therefore sent a messenger round among the people, requesting them to renounce their former evil practices, and keep the Sabbath according to the direction of the Word of God.

Adjacent to the governor's house stand the ruins of Ahuena, an ancient heiau, where the war-god was often kept, and human sacrifices offered. Since the abolition of idolatry, the governor has converted it into a fort— has widened the stone wall next the sea, and placed upon it a number of cannon. The idols are all destroyed, excepting three, which are planted on the wall, one at each end, and the other in the centre, where they stand like sentinels amid the guns, as if designed, by their frightful appearance, to terrify an enemy. On the 29th I visited the ruins, and took a sketch of one of the idols, which stood sixteen feet above the wall, was upwards of three feet in breadth, and had been carved out of a single tree.

The annexed figure may be considered as a fair specimen of the greater part of Hawaiian idols. The head has generally a most horrid appearance, the mouth being large, and usually extended wide, exhibiting a row of large teeth, resembling in no small degree the cogs in the wheel of an engine, and adapted to excite terror rather than inspire confidence in the beholder. Some of their idols were of stone, and many were constructed with a kind of wicker-work covered with red feathers.

In the evening our conversation at the governor's turned on the origin of the people of Hawaii and the other islands of the Pacific-a topic which often engaged our attention, and respecting which, in the various inquiries we made, we often had occasion to regret that the traditions of the natives furnished such scanty information on a subject so interesting and important.

This portion, however, though small, and surrounded by an incredible mass of fiction, is still worth preserving.

The general opinions entertained by the natives themselves relative to their origin are, either that the first inhabitants were created on the islands, descended from the gods by whom they were first inhabited, or that they came from a country which they called Tahiti. Many, as was the case with the chiefs at Maui, and also the governor at this place, suppose that, according to the accounts of the priests of Tane, Tanaroa, and other gods, the first man was made by Haumea, a female deity. We have not, however, met with any who pretend to know of what material he was formed. Others, again, suppose the chiefs to have descended from Akea, who appears to have been the connecting link between the gods and the men; but this supposes the chiefs and the common people to have been derived from different sources. The accounts they have of their ancestors having arrived in a canoe from Tahiti are far more general and popular among the people.

When some of our party were at Towaihae, the subject was discussed. Mr. Young said, among the many traditionary accounts of the origin of the island and its inhabitants, one was, that in former times, when there was nothing but sea, an immense bird settled on the water, and laid an egg, which, soon bursting, produced the island of Hawaii. Shortly after this, a man and woman, with a hog, a dog, and a pair of fowls, arrived in a canoe from the Society Islands, took up their abode on the eastern shores, and were the progenitors of the present inhabitants.

Another account prevalent among the natives of Oahu states, that a number of persons arrived in a canoe from Tahiti, and perceiving the Sandwich Islands were fertile, and inhabited only by gods or spirits, took up their abode on one of them, having asked permission of the gods, and presented an offering, which rendered them propitious to their settlement.

Though these accounts do not prove that the Sandwich islanders came originally from the Georgian Islands, they afford a strong presumption in favour of 'such an opinion.

Tahiti is the name of the principal island in the group, called by Captain Cook the Georgian Islands. It is the

Otaheite of Cook; the Taïti of Bougainville; and the Taheîtee, or Tahitee, of Forster. In the language of the Georgian and Society Islands, the word tahiti also signifies to pull up or take out of the ground, as herbs or trees are taken up with a view to transplantation, and to select or extract passages from a book or language, to be translated into another. Hence a book of scripture extracts is called, words, tahitihea.

In the language of the Sandwich Islands, we do not know that the word is ever used in the latter sense, and very rarely in the former. It is generally employed to denote any foreign country, and seems equivalent to the English word abroad, as applied to parts beyond the sea. But though this is the signification of the word among the Sandwich islanders at the present time, it is probable that it was primarily used to designate the whole of the southern group, or the principal island among them; and it may lead us to infer, either that Tahiti and the Georgian and Society Islands were all the foreign countries the Hawaiians were acquainted with, or that they considered the Marquesian Islands contiguous, and politically connected with them, and that these being the only foreign countries originally known to them, they have applied the term to every other part with which they have subsequently become acquainted. In some of the ancient traditions of the Society islanders, Opoa in Raiatea, the most celebrated place in the islands, the birth-place of Oro, and the spot where the human species were created, &c., is called Hawaii.

It is an opinion generally received, that the various tribes inhabiting the islands of the Pacific have an Asiatic, and probably a Malayan, origin. Applied to a great part of them, this opinion is supported by a variety of facts; but with respect to those groups with which we are acquainted, additional evidence appears necessary to confirm such a conclusion.

The natives of the eastern part of New-Holland, and the intertropical islands within thirty degrees east, including New-Caledonia, the New-Hebrides, and the Figiis, appear to be one nation, and in all probability came originally from the Asiatic islands to the northward, as their skin is black, and their hair woolly or crisped, like the inhabitants of the mountainous parts of several of the Asiatic islands. But the inhabitants VOL. IV.-0