Engraved by S. S.Jocelyn, from a Sketch by Mr. Ellis.

Boston: Published by Crocker & Brewster., New York: John Haven.

PREFACE.

IN the year 1819, Tamehameha, king of the Sandwich Islands, died, and his son Rihoriho succeeded to his dominions; and immediately afterwards, the system of idolatry, so far as it was connected with the government, was abolished. This measure seems to have been owing to three causes:-First, a desire on the part of the king to improve the condition of his wives, who, in common with all the other females of the islands, were subject to many painful inconveniencies from the operation of the tabu; secondly, the advice of foreigners, and of some of the more intelligent chiefs; and thirdly, and principally, the reports of what had been done by Pomare, in the Society Islands. A war, which this act occasioned, was suppressed by a decisive battle described in this volume. At this time, and before intelligence of the death of Tamehameha reached the United States, missionaries, sent forth by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, were on their way to the islands,

where they arrived, a few months afterwards, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

After some hesitation on the part of the rulers of the islands, the missionaries, so opportunely arrived, were allowed to remain and commence their work. Some took up their abode on Hawaii, where the king then resided; others went to Tauai, under the patronage of Taumuarii, king of that island; but the main body settled at Honoruru, on the island of Oahu, where is the principal harbour for shipping. This was in April 1820. At the close of the year, the king and the missionaries removed from Hawaii, and the latter joined their brethren at Honoruru.

During the following year, some progress was made in settling the orthography of the language, a task, which the great prevalence of liquid sounds rendered extremely difficult. The alphabet adopted, was that proposed by the Hon. John Pickering, of Salem, Mass. in his "Essay on a Uniform Orthography for the Indian languages of North America," published in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; excepting that the Hawaiian language requires a less number of letters than that alphabet contains. Every sound has its appropriate sign; every word is spelled exactly as it is pronounced; and thus the art of reading and writing the language, is rendered to the natives simple and easy. A press being at the command of the missionaries, the first sheet of a Hawaiian spelling-book was printed in the beginning of 1822. This work

PREFACE.

was soon in great demand. Other works in the native language have since been published. In the spring of this year, the Rev. William Ellis, an English Missionary, who had resided. several years at the Society Islands, came to the Sandwich Islands, on his way to the Marquesas. He was accompanied by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet, Esq. two gentlemen who had been sent by the London Missionary Society as deputies to their missions in the South Seas; and, also, by two Tahitian chiefs, who were sent, with their wives, by the church of Huahine, as missionaries to the Marquesas.

This company having been detained at the Sandwich Islands for a considerable period, and Mr. Ellis and the two Tahitians being almost immediately able to use the Hawaiian language with facility, the natives became so much interested in them, as to invite them to remain permanently at the Sandwich Islands. This invitation being strongly seconded by the American Missionaries, was accepted. At the close of the year, Mr. Ellis went to Huahine for his family, and returned in the February following.

In April, the mission received a further accession of strength by the arrival of new labourers from the United States. This called for an enlargement of operations. Two missionaries were sent to Maui, and, as soon as circumstances would permit, arrangements were made for surveying Hawaii, with a view to the judicious occupation of that large and populous

island. Mr. Ellis, the English missionary, the Rev. Asa Thurston, the Rev. Charles S. Stewart, the Rev. Artemas Bishop, and Mr. Joseph Goodrich, (a licensed preacher,) American missionaries, were selected for this purpose.

Mr. Stewart was detained from the service by ill health. The rest commenced the tour of the island early in the summer of 1823, and completed it in a little more than two months. The results of the tour form the subject-matter of this volume.

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A short time after the return of the Deputation from Hawaii, the king, Rihoriho, embarked in a whaling ship for England. His object seems to have been chiefly to increase his knowledge of the world. companied by his favourite queen, a chief, and some other native attendants, he arrived in London early in the following summer: but, in the course of a few weeks, both he and his wife sickened and died. The remains of these two personages were sent back to the islands in the Blonde, an English Frigate, commanded by Lord Byron, brother to the poet; and upon their arrival, the funeral rites were performed, in a Christian manner, by their affectionate and sorrowing people. A younger brother succeeds to the government, which seems to rest upon a solid basis.

The progress of the missionaries in attracting the attention of the natives to religious instruction, and in teaching them to read and write their own language, especially of late, has been truly surprising. Schools, managed