entered very freely into conversation with Auna and the other Tahitians on board, and expressed his desire to learn to read and write. From the facility with which we could understand the speech of our guests, and make ourselves understood, we perceived that the Sandwich islanders and Tahitians were members of one great family, and spoke the same language with but slight variations a fact which we regarded as of great importance in the intercourse. we might have with the people. The next morning at sunrise, the chief and his party joined us at our morning devotions, but they did not kneel in prayer. During the day we were astonished and delighted with the appearance of the country; the lofty Mouna Kea, whose summit was covered with snow, impressed very powerfully the minds of our Tahitians. So pleased were they with the sight of the snow, of which we had often endeavoured in vain to give them a correct description, that they proposed, as soon as they should land, to take a journey to the top of the mountain, for the purpose of obtaining some of the white hard water. The signs of recent, vigorous, and extensive volcanic action in the wide and often winding streams of black indurated lava, which covered the greater part of the coast, were not less strange and wonderful to us. During the forenoon of the following day, when we were opposite Kairauea, Kuakini left us, accompanied, agreeably to his urgent request, by Auna, towards whom he manifested much attachment. next day was the Sabbath: by daylight we found ourselves opposite Kearakekua bay, in which a number of ships appeared lying at anchor. Early in the forenoon we entered the harbour, and were soon boarded by the captains of the ships, and surrounded by natives from the shore. We were scarcely able to hold public worship on deck in the afternoon, on account of the noise and crowds of natives. The striking contrast between the state of the people of the place, their flagrant cheating in barter, &c., and the tranquillity and religious occupations of those we had left at Huahine, deeply affected them; and I endeavoured to excite gratitude to God, and sympathy for the strangers, in the minds of our Tahitian companions, by an address from the words of the apostle," And such were some of you," &c. The smallness and confinement of the berths below, and the heat of the weather, &c., did not appear to occasion so much

The

unpleasantness to our Tahitian voyagers as the loss of the luxury of bathing, to which they had been accustomed on shore, two or three times every day, in the cool and flowing streams of their native islands; and nothing during the voyage had been more grateful to them than a copious shower. At such seasons they stripped off the greater part of their clothes, and, under the refreshing influence of the rain, could scarcely refrain from dancing about the deck for joy. Early, therefore, on the morning after our arrival in Kearakekua bay, a party of our natives went on shore to bathe. Soon after breakfast we landed on the north side of the bay, surprised at the striking and decisively volcanic aspect of the shore; the whole of that part of the coast seemed one extensive mass of barren lava, with here and there a straggling bush growing between the crevices, or in places where a partial decomposition had taken place. In one of the first houses which we entered, a man and a boy, apparently father and son, entertained us with a hura ta raau, singing to the beating of a stick: we could not comprehend very distinctly the burden of his song; but the name of Rihoriho occurring repeatedly, we presumed that it referred to the new king. Conducted by an old man, whom we induced to be our guide, we visited the spot where Captain Cook was killed-and afterward entered into conversation with the natives, who crowded around us. These all united in confirming the statement of those we first met, that their gods were thrown away, and their temples overturned. In the afternoon, Auna joined our party, and related his proceedings at Kairua, where he had met with Toteta, a native of Eimeo, and where the governor had expressed his desire to embrace the new religion. On the following day a ship arrived, which brought us tidings from England of the coronation of his late majesty George IV., and of the death of his queen.

On the 2d of April, Mr. Tyerman and myself visited the governor at Kairua, his residence. As we approached, we were met by Mr. Young; he conducted us to the governor, who cordially welcomed us, entertained us hospitably, and expressed a wish that I would come and reside at Hawaii. We visited a large temple in ruins, and spent the evening very pleasantly in conversation with the strangers. Mr. Young gave us a full account of the abolition of the tabu, and the over

throw of the former system of idolatry, by the king, on the occasion of a public festival, at which he was present. After we had retired to rest, the governor came with his slate, and sat down by the side of the mat on which we were lying, and requested we would teach him to write; and also made an attempt to read, stating that he had a great desire to learn. It was near two o'clock in the morning before he left us. The next day the governor returned with us to the ship, and we remained nearly a week longer, waiting for the schooner, from which we had parted company soon after leaving Huahine. During this time we had frequent interviews with Kuakini; and though, in consequence of his frequent visits on board the vessels in harbour, we often saw him in a state of inebriation, there was a frankness and apparent sincerity in his expressions of desire after knowledge and improvement, that could not fail to interest us in his behalf.

On the 9th of April we weighed anchor, and sailed for Oahu through the day we enjoyed the most delightful views of the sublime and magnificent mountains of Hawaii, as we sailed slowly along its shores. We did not enter the harbour in Oahu until the 15th, when we found ourselves at daybreak near the reef, and learned from some fishermen in a canoe that the schooner was at anchor in the bay. We were afterward boarded by Keeaumoku, the governor of Maui and brother of Kuakini, and soon received a pilot, who conducted our little cutter through the intricacies of the channel to the anchorage. We were not long before we proceeded to the shore. On our way we met a canoe, in which the wife of Auna recognised a brother, who had left the Society Islands in the Bounty, when the mutineers took possession of the ship; we were also met by a boat, in which were the American consul and a Frenchman of the name of Rives, who acted as secretary for the king. Messrs. Thurston, Chamberlain, and Loomis, American missionaries, to whom I had written from Hawaii, were also in the boat, and cordially welcomed us.

In a large native house near the shore, we were introduced to the king, his queens, the queen-dowager, and what might be regarded as the Hawaiian court. We were struck with the portly form and gigantic size of the royal party, and many of the chiefs by whom they were attended. The captain delivered the letter from

the governor of New South Wales to the king; and, after wine had been introduced, Messrs. Bennet, Tyerman, and myself accompanied the American missionaries to their habitation, where we received a pressing invitation from the whole family to partake of their hospitality and such accommodations as their establishment would afford, so long as we might remain in the island-a proposal with which we cheerfully complied. Different lands had given us birth; we had never seen each other before; but we spoke one language, embraced one faith, had devoted our lives to the accomplishment of one object, which we mutually felt more important than any other; and found that the influence of Christian and missionary feeling so united our hearts, that we were as happy in the society of our friends as if we had been intimate from childhood. We were afterward joined by Mr. and Mrs. Bingham, and the missionaries from Tauai; and the pleasure I derived from their society, during the four months that we were detained in Oahu, is still among the most grateful of my recollections.

The day after our arrival we waited on the chiefs, and in the evening called on Kaahumanu. Through the influence of the individual whom we met on our way from the ship yesterday, Auna and his wife had been invited to take up their abode in the establishment of Kaahumanu, who, next to the king and Karaimoku, was considered the person of greatest influence in the island. When we called, the greater part of the inmates of the dwelling were sitting cross-legged on the ground, playing at cards. Ludicrous spectacles of this kind were not unfrequently exhibited during our stay: sometimes we saw a party of large chiefs and chief women sitting on their mats, or on the grass, under the shade of a tree, but very partially clothed, playing at cards, with one or two large pet hogs lying close by them; not small and cleanly things, that they might take under their arms, but full-grown, and in a condition, under proper management, to have made good bacon. Auna informed us that his wife and himself had been treated with kindness; that on the preceding night they read together, in a retired corner of the house, a portion of the Scriptures, and engaged in prayer; and that this morning, when Kaahumanu perceived that they were about to do the same, she requested them to come near, that she

and her people might join. I asked her if she did not desire to learn to read, to know and serve the true God; and she answered yes; but said, we cannot, unless the king does. If he embraces the new religion, we shall all follow. In the evening of this day we were present when Auna read the Scripture, and offered family prayers publicly in Kaahumanu's house: we united with no ordinary feelings, for the first time, in the worship of the true God with the people around us.

The next day, the 17th of April, being the day on which our American friends held the weekly religious service, I had an opportunity of preaching in the Tahitian language. Soon after four in the afternoon, we went together to the little chapel which stood in the midst of the plain of Honoruru, not far from the dwelling of the missionaries. It was partly filled with natives. While we were singing a Tahitian hymn, the king and queen entered, and seated themselves in the middle of the place. The singing of the natives who had come with us appeared to surprise and please them, and they occasionally whispered to each other as it proceeded. I then read the third chapter of the Gospel of St. John, and offered an extempore prayer, during which the king and Sandwich islanders remained sitting. I then delivered a short discourse from the sixteenth verse of the chapter I had read. The audience was attentive, and at the close of the service rose and departed. On being asked, as they went out, whether they understood what had been said, they answered yes; though it is probable that they understood but imperfectly, as the whole was in the Tahitian language.

While on board the Mermaid with the king and several of the chiefs, on the day following, the captain informed me that he was going to make a voyage to some other part of the Pacific, before he returned to Huahine, and that probably it would be two months before he could take us back. This was distressing intelligence -not on our own account, so much as that of Mrs. Ellis and our friends, who had been distinctly informed by the captain that before a period so remote our return might be confidently expected. I communicated the tidings to the deputation, who were not less surprised than I had been, and who, while they expressed their regret on Mrs. Ellis's account, observed, "Perhaps the Lord has thoughts of mercy towards this people, and