great island-conqueror Kaméhaméha I. they ... 'As to the immensity of life and the power are termed by their own people exhibit of converting inorganic material, we have now one of the fairest forms of this race, and it bad specimens from the bottom of the “blue is to them especially that we call the read- water," in the narrow Coral sea, the broad Pacier's attention. The work of Mr. Manley fic, and the long Atlantic, and they all tell the Hopkins, the title of which we have placed vast cemetery.'* same story, namely, that the bed of the ocean is a 'The ocean especially at the head of this article, is a creditable within and near the tropics swarms with life'† compendium of all that has been written of late years upon the subject, and, in spite of some faults of style, does great credit to the spirit, diligence, and ability of the Hawaiian Consul-General in London. It is dedicated by permission to Lord Russell, and a preface has been contributed to it by the Bishop of Oxford, who has explained his special interest in the volume from his connexion with the new mission which seeks to reproduce a genuine branch of our Church in the chief of the Hawaiian Islands under the auspices of its own King. It is this unusual circumstance which has specially

drawn our attention to it.

Other changes, indeed, have given us a fresh interest in those distant islands. The wise courage of Sir E. Lytton Bulwer in founding the colony of British Columbia (already advancing with giant strides to wealth and power) gives a new value to these natural halting - places in the vast Pacific Ocean. In themselves they possess unusual attractions. Their very presence in those deep seas is a problem which our philosophers have not yet been able to solve.

As soon as these new-born rocks are lifted from the waters, all the varied atmos pheric influences begin to play upon them; with the changes which these work, the chance 'jetsam and flotsam' of the restless waters, and the sea-fowl, their first denizens, soon combine to form a humus into which the seeds which the drifting currents, the birds of the air, or even the high currents of the air, so sedulously transport, can strike their roots, and a new flora thereupon springs up. Then in due course, by design or accident, comes man, for whose life and industry this new sphere has been prepared. So Mr. Hopkins tells us that ancient traditions peopled Hawaii.

'One of them relates to a man and woman

arriving at Hawaii in a canoe, bringing with them became the progenitors of the Hawaiian people. a hog, a dog, and a pair of fowls. These persons By another story, prevalent among the inhabitants of Oahu, a number of persons arrived in a canoe from Tahiti, and perceiving that the Sandwich Islands were fertile, and were dwelt in only by gods and spirits, they asked and obtained

P. 74.

The strange contrast of depths be- permission to settle there.' tween the shallow lagoon within — and the ocean, which our sounding-lines refuse to fathom, without—the circular reefs which are the breakwater of many of these islands, has perplexed the most daring speculators. Upon the whole, we believe the best solution of their strange presence is to be found in the suggestion that to the submerged peaks and ridges of old mountains, themselves the fruit of probably submarine volcanic eruptions, the reef-building polypes originally fix their works, and that these are lifted aloft by subsequent volcanic action, to form the sudden heights of those island groups. The vast machinery of animal life which is thus at work is beautifully described by Captain Maury :- *

It was a place, indeed, in which it was most certain that such wanderers would petition to remain; for it abounded in all natural beauty, whilst its genial climate and its fertile soil provided almost without toil all that the mere physical life of man requires for its support. Of its climate Mr. Hopkins tells us :

'There is scarcely a place on the globe which has a temperature so equable as that of Honolulu, one of more desirable register, or where the elements are kindlier mixed. So invisible is the subject of weather to the islanders, that Mr. Jarvis remarks their language has no word to express the general idea. The diurnal range of the thermometer in Honolulu is twelve degrees. During twelve years the extremes of temperature in shade were 90° and 53°; the entire range during that long period not exceeding 37.

'Oceans of animalcula that make the surface of the sea sparkle and glow with life, are secret-.. ing from its surface solid matter for the very purpose of filling up those cavities below. These little marine insects are building their habitations at the surface, and when they die they remain in vast multitudes, sink down and settle upon the bottom. They are the atoms out of which mountains are formed and plains spread out.'

*Physical Geography of the Sea,' § 758, quoted by Hopkins.

The leeward side of the islands basks in the "bright sunny lapse of a long summer day;" inducing by the very beauty of the weather some degree of enervation in the human system, and a corresponding "lotus-eating" condition of mind. A more bracing air may be obtained by ascend ing the mountains. A mere ride from the capital up the Nuuanu Valley will give a cooler climate in an hour. Lahaina, and some other

leeward spots on the shore, possess the refreshing influence of a regular land and sea breeze.'

Whilst for its fertility, he says:

Regions of fertility lie at the bases of the mountains and in the valleys, where abrasion and disintegration have proceeded for untold years, and rich deposits of vegetable mould have accumulated.'— p. 9.

And again:

Amongst its indigenous vegetables are the sugar cane, the bread - fruit, plantain, banana, Cocoa-nut, candle-nut, calabash, and other palms; tree-ferns, having the stem fifteen feet in height, and cycas. Valuable timber trees grew in the forests on the flanks of the mountains; the Kou tree (Cordia), and others of hard and heavy wood with a handsome grain. Sandal-wood abounded on the heights.'

'Who ever heard of winter upon our shores? When was it so cold that the labourer could not go to his field? Where among us shall we find the numberless drawbacks which in less favoured countries the working classes have to contend with? They have no place in our beautiful group, which rests on the swelling bosom of the Pacific like a water-lily.'-p. 333.

But not more certain is the action of such a climate as this upon the vegetable world, which springs into exuberant being under its smile, than upon the race of man which is planted in such a garden of delight. Fallen man at least, with no teaching higher than that of nature, must have his energies braced by labour, and self-restraint taught him by the daily discipline of external trials, if the humanity within him is not to be softened into luxury or to be degenerated by sensual Amongst its vegetables, too, is found the indulgence. No doubt the progenitors of "Taro" (Arum esculentum). It formed the sta- the Hawaiian people came to their islands ple of food, and is still very generally used. This succulent root was sometimes cooked, but was of beauty direct, or at most with some inmore generally pounded into a semi-fluid mess, termediate haltings, from what we know as and allowed partially to ferment, when it was the burning East. No doubt they brought called poi. Among the reasons which made some Hawaiians object to visiting England was that poi could not be obtained here. It is so productive that it has been said, a taro pit a few yards in length will supply food for one man throughout the year.'

Under this climate, and with this lowland fertility, there is no lack of the grander features of natural beauty. Again we quote from page 2 of Mr. Hopkins:

'On approaching the group from certain directions the first objects which meet the sight are the two lofty peaks on Hawaii, each 14,000 feet in height, two miles and a half-one of them capped with perpetual snow, which contrast with the deep blue of the tropical sky above, and with the darkness of the lava forming the sides of the mountains. A rude and irregular outline of high lands then presents itself; and on the north side are seen, on a nearer view, the dark forests which clothe the lower region of the mountains; whilst giddy precipices front the sea, of from 1000 to 3000 feet in perpendicular height, against whose walls the waves beat, and surge, and thunder through the caverns which they have hollowed for themselves in their ceaseless war. In some places, streams which have united their waters on their way, rush together over one of these palis, or precipices, into the ocean. Still nearer, the white foam is seen pouring in sheets over coral reefs, of which there is sometimes an outer and inner ridge. The islands are generally lofty.'

Of such a land we may understand the description waxing poetical, even in a king's speech, that driest of all documents, which Mr. Pitt, we are told, could utter at will. We need not therefore wonder to find King Kaméhaméha IV., at the opening of the 'Native Hawaiian Agricultural Society,' in 1866, ask:

Nor

with them the vehement internal fires which
mark their race-itself a high one in the hu-
have the strong traces of their blood died
man family-in their ancestral homes.
out amongst them. Physically many of the
chiefs are a noble race.

'The Hawaiians are strong, well-made and active; in height rather above the average of our own country. . . . From the remarkable height and bulk of the chiefs, both males and females, the dominant class has been considered by some writers to be a distinct and conquering race. The women are attractive from their cheerful, smiling, and lively expression; whilst their merry laugh and pleasant aloha, or welcome, show the face to be an index of their mind.'-pp. 344, 355.

And with these physical features many of their moral characteristics correspond.

'Courage-stronger than battering rams is the basis of every fine character. The Hawaiians possess the virtue in an unquestionably high degree. It was shown in the old warlike times by their open, standing-up fight. Their bodies were unprotected by armour or even by clothes; their weapons were the spear, the dagger, the club, and stones. They did not resort to artifice or stratagem in war. They are now as peaceful a people as any upon earth; they are more free from crimes of violence than almost any nation that can be named. Their natural courage crops out in their love of, and daring in, riding; in their delight in swimming among the heavy breakers rolling over the reefs; their descent of precipices, and even in their games.'-p. 345.

'One of their amusements was to attack a

shark, and, after having goaded and taunted him, to kill him with a dagger carried in the maro or girdle.'-p. 33.

The women no longer follow their husbands | Pacific, in the number of their songs, and exceedto the battle to staunch their wounds or fight ed in that respect the Society Islanders.'-p. 344. beside them; but they endure long journeys, and bear heavy burdens, swim through the raging surf, and plunge down the waterfall into the ocean, when the leap is forty feet and upwards in height.' -p. 340.

Nor are they wanting in those spontaneous bursts of poetical imagery which mark the presence of the inward light of unextinguished genius. We know few barbarous myths more striking than that current amongst the Hawaiians which, in a great measure, led, first to Captain Cook's reception being marked almost with worship, and then, through the humiliating stages down which his allowance of that worship conducted him, to his tragical end.

But in spite of these latter symptoms, we fear we must admit that fearful marks of degeneracy are stamped upon this interesting people. From the time when they were first known to us, they were marked by an extraordinary sensuality, and we dare not hope that the evil is yet subdued.

Indolence, we are told, is one grand fault attributed to the Hawaiian race.

'It is very true that the delicious, equable climate engenders in those constantly within its influence a lotus-eating habit, a love of the dolce for niente. Their absolute wants were few; and as the chiefs would have pounced down on any little surplus the people could have acquired by labour, they lost the powerful stimulus of a desire to sccumulate.'-p. 351.

And beyond indolence grosser forms of sensuality disfigure the fair picture.

The fatal gift of beauty, a delicious climate, which rendered clothing unnecessary-except the flowery wreath, which both sexes wore, partly from innate taste, and partly to shade the eyesan indolent and pleasure-loving constitution, abun dant opportunity, their houses small and undivided by partitions, and the absence of adverse public opinion,' have led to a general absence of chastity among the Hawaiians. Till tanght otherwise by the missionaries, the natives had no conception that' such conduct was wrong or hurtful: they had not even a word to express chastity in their language.'-p. 347.

'Lono,' we read, 'the Hawaiian Hercules, was one of the major gods.' 'In a fit of jealousy he killed his wife; but, driven to frenzy by the act he had committed, he wandered through the islands, boxing and wrestling with all he met his answer to every astonished inquirer being, "I am frantic with my great love!" Having instituted the athletic games known as the Mahakiki, in honour of his wife's memory, and which were held annually, he sailed from the islands in a triangular canoe, for a foreign land; but ere be departed he uttered this prophecy: "I will return in after times on an island bearing cocoa-nut trees, swine, and dogs." Cook's two ships, so much larger than any floating objects the natives bad hitherto seen, appeared to them, not unplausibly, islands, the masts being trees; and now Lono was return ing to his own country. From Lono were supposed to have proceeded the thunder and lightuing of the ship's guns which were fired.'-p. 85. The same temper breaks out in many of their expressions. The Hawaiian name for their popular Minister Kalaimoku was one worthy of the great statesman whom they it show itself, indeed, capable of vanquishing supposed him to resemble; for no worthier these long-established habits of indulgence? name could have been given to William Pitt In many respects there were fewer impedihimself than that of the 'Iron cable of his ments to its reception than in other parts of country. So, too, when the unworthy at-heathendom. There was, indeed, here an tempt of Lord George Paulet, in 1843, to elaborate system of heathen worship, with destroy the independence of the islands by priests and sacrifices and idols in vast abunannexing them to Great Britain, had been dance. But there was no strong attachment disowned by Admiral Thomas, and the King announced to his people the recovery of their rights, the grateful tidings were conveyed by him under the expressive figure that the light of the land had been restored to him.' A love of poetry and simple music pervaded the place.

The meeting of Christianity with such a people is a sight of the deepest interest. How much has the faith to accomplish in purifying so deeply-stained a race! Will it work on them its regenerating work? Will

to it in the popular mind; and its rites were singularly oppressive to its votaries. Most irksome was the whole practice of 'tabu'that strange instrument of priestly and of regal tyranny, which seems to be so invetMalay origin, oppressing the Dyaks of Borerately present in all the heathen tribes of neo* as well as the dwellers in the Polynesian seas-by which any object or person or period of time might arbitrarily, at the will of the priests, be declared to be conse

* See 'Life in the Forests of the Far East.' By Spenser St. John, Esq. Vol i., pp. 169, 176.

crated, and so be guarded from touch or use a hint as to old women being elsewhere in or action. Thus the whole commercial life possession of the Premiership; for the inof a district might at once be suspended for stitution was purely of Hawaii origin, and an indefinite period, and absolute stagnation dates from the conquering founder of the succeed to the busy marketing of the whole island-dynasty of Kaméhaméha I., who in seaboard population. Nor did the tabu sus- his will declares 'the kingdom is Liholiho's, pend commerce only when its strictest and Kaahumanu is his minister."* note was proclaimed lights and fires must The old King was succeeded by this son be extinguished; all amusements were at Liholiho,-who, with his Queen, died afteran end; no one might enjoy the needed re- wards during his visit to England,-whilst freshment of casting himself into the waves the designated Queen, Kaahumanu, a woman in which they loved to sport; silence must of great strength of character, claimed in reign everywhere; nor even the voices of virtue of his will to be the coadjutor of his the domestic animals might be heard. This son. The old King had somewhat ruggedly religious system, moreover, was the great rejected the new faith. By faith in your instrument of maintaining the power of the God,' he had answered his would-be conchiefs, which was absolute and oppressive. verters, 'you say anything can be accomIts special victims were the women, whom plished, and the Christian will be preserved it tended, by all its regulations, to depress. from all harm: if so, cast yourself down They were inhibited, under pain of death, from yonder precipice; and, if you are from sharing the better kinds of the ordinary preserved, I will believe.' His favourite food of the country. Amongst those alto- Queen had at this time no leaning to the gether forbidden to them Mr. Jarves enu- new faith, but she had a contempt for the merates pork, turtle, shark, bananas, and old. She encouraged the hesitating Prince, cocoa-nut.* To mix in the social meals of who had succeeded to the throne, to cast the men, or even to eat under the roof which covered their apartments, was visited certainly with the same extreme penalty.

aside the restraints of its vexatious rule. He longed for his freedom with the fierceness of a savage libertine, but trembled Under this bondage the people groaned. before the threatening shadows of his old So early as 1793, on the occasion of Van- superstition. How long he might have couver's visit, the king and several of the trembled without believing, or how far, if chiefs made some movements towards cast- no sudden step had been taken in some fit ing it off. They entreated him, when he of sickness, the old terrors of his heathenism left the islands, to send them instructors in might have repossessed and mastered his the English faith :† a prayer which Mr. Hop-mind, it is impossible to say. But the coadkins tells us Vancouver conveyed to Mr. jutor Queen possessed a firmer purpose.

Pitt.

No help, however, came to them from England's Minister or Church; and so long as the strong hand of Kaméhaméha held the sceptre he maintained as one great instrument of his government the old system of religion; but at his death it was broken rudely up. The account of these changes is altogether curious. Women were leading agents in their introduction. With all the social restraints laid upon them, the women of Hawaii possessed at this time unwonted political power. At the King's right hand, and a necessary sharer in his measures of state, was one who is designated in the narrative of Mr. Hopkins as the Premier,' but who, from the account of Mr. Jarves, might, perhaps, be more properly designated the Home Secretary, whose counter-signature was essential to all state papers, and who was a woman. Let no evil-minded person suggest that this is an imitation of certain Western constitutional governments, or drop

'She, determined,' as Mr. Jarves describes the scene, in her opposition to the priests, prepared for decisive measures. She sent word to the King, that upon his arrival at Kailua she should cast aside his god. To this he made no objection, and with his retainers pushed off in canoes from the shore, and indulged on the water for two days in a drunken revel. He then smok

ed and drank with the female chiefs.

'A feast was prepared, after the customs of the country, with separate tables for the sexes. A number of foreigners were entertained at the King's. When all were in their seats he deliberately arose, went to the place reserved for the women, and seated himself among them. To complete the horror of the superstitious, he indulged his appetite in freely partaking of the likewise: but with a violence which showed that viands prepared for them, directing them to do he had but half divested himself of the idea of sacrilege and of habitual repugnance. This act was sufficient: the highest had set an example which all rejoiced to follow. The gladdening cry arose," The taboo is broken! the taboo is brok

*Captain Wilkes' 'United States Exploring Expedition,' vol. iv., p. 24.

+ Cleveland's Voyages, poli. p. 299.

Cleveland's 'Voyages,' p. 216.

en!" Feasts were provided for all, at which both | the shore, having the sea at their back, and, on sexes indiscriminately indulged. Orders were is sued to demolish the heiaus, and destroy the idols. Temples, images, and sacred property were burnt. The flames consumed the sacred relics of ages. The high priest, Hewahewa, who was the first to apply the torch, and without whose co-operation the attempt to revolutionise the old system would have been ineffectual, resigned his office. Numbers of his profession, joining in the enthusiam, followed his example. Idolatry was abolished by law. Kaumualii cordially gave his sanction. All the islands, uniting in an exulting jubilee at their deliverance, presented the singular spectacle of nation without a religion.'

the enemy appearing, drove them before them up a rising ground, till the rebels gained a shelter from a stone fence, and for a time made a stand; but they were at length driven from their position by a party of Kalaimoku's warriors. The insur gents were now in flight; but, rallied by their misguided chief, himself wounded and weak from loss of blood, they made a final stand. Kekuaokalani, with the courage that belonged to his race, fought desperately; but he fainted and fell during the engagement. He revived, however; and sitting on a fragment of lava, for he was too weak to stand, twice loaded his musket and fired on the advancing party. He was then struck by a ball in the left breast, and, covering his face

It is said that as many as 40,000 idols with his feather cloak, be expired, amidst friends were destroyed.

who surrounded him. His wife, Manona, had
fought by his side the whole day with dauntless
she called for quarter.
courage; but as soon as she saw him lying dead
As the words were leav-

ing her lips, a ball struck her temple; and the
faithful wife fell on the lifeless body of her hus
band, and expired.

Thus ended the last battle which Hawaiian

history has to record."

They were hurled,' says Mr. Hopkins, from their places where they had been worshipped, upon every high hill and under every green tree; they were contemptuously tossed aside to perish, or more contemptuously left forgotten as they stood decaying in grinning imbecility. Remains The engagement, which commenced in the of these "despised broken idols" are still occa- forenoon, was continued till sunset, the idolaters sionally to be found in the islands; but they are fighting on, though dispirited by the loss of their regarded as curiosities interesting only as belong-leader. By evening, the King's troops were left ing to a former state of things. Then, to fancy's masters of the field, their enemies having by that ear, came moaning along the rocky shores, mur- time surrendered or fled. muring in the passionate mountain torrents, and sighing in the winds, the melancholy wail," Great Pan is dead!" Through the old primeval forests clothing the flanks of the volcanoes, echoing from Thus was idolatry extirpated in Hawaii, dread precipices, and heard on the winds that not by the counter influence of the true faith, rushed down smiling valleys, came the same des- but by the simple weariness felt by the idolpairing strain," Great Pan is dead!" The Ocean, as he ran his waves hoarsely on the rude shore aters themselves of its intolerable yoke. and into resounding caverns, took up the univer- Such an event is not without a counterpart. sal cry. "Blush, O Zidon, saith the sea," was form- In the papers recently laid before Parlia erly the exhortation, when vile rites polluted and ment, as to the rejection of the offer of the human sacrifices terrified the Syrian shore: but Fiji islanders to cede their country to the now, as the coming tide sent in her white breakers British Crown, we find it stated by Mr. and boomed over the coral ledges of Hawaii, the Pritchard, in a letter to the Earl of Malmestriumphant song which mingled with the roar of waters had the same burthen, "Great Pan is bury, that 'one-third of the population has embraced Christianity, while nearly an equal number have merely renounced their heathBut such a revolution could not fail to enism without attaching themselves to any stir up the opposition of some.

dead!"'*

creed.'t

The destruction of the idols had taken 'A fierce, tyrannical sacerdotalism would not consent without a struggle to be turned adrift place in August, 1819; and in the early with the prospect before it of its members having spring of the succeeding year the first acto starve, or, still worse, of having to obtain a tual missionaries from any Christian land livelihood by the honest labour of their hands, landed on the Islands. They were ConAccordingly, a party was quickly formed to op- gregationalists sent from Boston by the pose the movement, and for its head was selected American Board of Commissioners for Kekuokalani, a priest only inferior in rank to Hewahewa, and who was also nephew to the late Foreign Missions. Never could the mesking. Religion was made the bait to allure him sengers of the Christian Church have found in revolt; but in addition he was to have the a land more prepared, in most respects, to crown of the kingdom. The rebels were soon receive the joyful message. The hand of encountered by the Government party, and in a Providence itself had swept away the old slight engagement gained a success. They im- heathen provision for supplying those deep mediately marched from their position to where the King lay, hoping to surprise and take the position. The King's troops were prepared and advanced to meet them. They formed a line on

* Sandwich Islands,' p. 181.

*P. 186.

'Correspondence relative to the Fiji Islands,' p. 5. Mr. Ellis says, they reached Hawaii February 4th. Mr. Jarves gives March 20 as the day of their arrival.