TO THE AMERICAN BOARD OF MISSIONS.

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so valuable and pious a body of missionaries as those are whom you have sent to these islands. Their piety, their talents, their prudence, justify the confidence which you repose in them, and should cherish in your hearts the hope that their holy lives will put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, and tend powerfully to induce those who take knowledge of them to embrace that gospel which they are anxious to make known :—while their affectionate hospitality, and their kind and persevering endeavors to promote our comfort, confer on us a debt of gratitude which we can never repay. They are indeed burning and shining lights in the midst of this crooked and perverse nation; and we are confident that the time is not remote when many shall rejoice in their light.

'Our arrival appeared to be most opportune. Many false and injurious reports had been propagated here by some foreigners, respecting the state of religion in the Society islands, in order to prejudice the minds of the king, and chiefs, and people of these islands, against the gospel and the missionaries. Your missionaries had projected, a short time previous to our arrival, a voyage to the South Sea islands, accompanied by some of the chiefs, to ascertain the real state of things there; but the foreigners, by their influence, had prevented the vessel from sailing. At the time of our arrival, the people were laboring under the influence of the prejudices which the foreigners had produced among them. But our testimony to the wonderful work of God in the South Sea islands, together with that of the people who accompanied us, appears to have confounded the opposers, and confirmed the king, and chiefs, and people, in the confidence that the prejudices which had been excited were false and unfounded. We had no idea that this important object was to be answered by our voyage. Truly God is wonderful in counsel, and mighty in executing.

'One only of the chiefs who accompanied us, with his wife, remained at the house of the king of Tauai. But the king, and Kaahumanu, wife of the old Tamehameha, a woman of great influence in these islands, were so much pleased with the conduct of their visitors, that they gave them a strong invitation to continue with them, and not go to the Marquesas. Struck with this unexpected occurrence, and perceiving that great benefit might arise to the cause of re

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LETTER FROM THE DEPUTATION

ligion in these islands, from the residence of persons so pious and excellent as these are, and knowing that we could obtain others for the Marquesas, at the Society Islands, we were induced to consent to their remaining.

'Soon after this, a meeting of several of the most important chiefs was convened by the king and queen of Tauai, to deliberate on the propriety of inviting Mr. Ellis, also, to join your missionaries, and take up his residence here with his wife and family. An invitation to that affect was therefore given to him. This, also, was most unexpected. On further inquiry, we found that his remaining here met with the decided approbation of the king, Rihoriho, also, and all the principal chiefs, and, what was still more in our estimation, of your missionaries.

'After taking the matter into serious consideration, and seeking direction from Him who alone can guide in the way of truth, we were induced to give our consent to Mr. Ellis's joining your mission, but still to remain in connection with the London Missionary Society, and to be supported by it.

The following considerations influenced our minds to come to this decision:

'Your missionaries were laboring under great difficulties in acquiring the language of this people-difficulties which, we perceived, would not be surmounted for a considerable period. Mr. Ellis being intimately acquainted with the Tahitian language, which is radically the same with this, we were convinced that he would render essential service to your missionaries in this particular, and thus accelerate the period when they will be able to declare to these islanders, in their own tongue, the wonderful works of God-which is essential to their extensive usefulness. Our conjectures have been, in a measure, realized already, with regard to your missionaries; while Mr. Ellis has so much overcome the points in which these languages differ from each other as to be able, in so short a time, to preach fluently and intelligibly in the Hawaiian tongue, which he has done for several weeks.

'Another reason is the wide field of usefulness which now presents itself in these islands, in connection with the most pleasing aspect which the state of the minds of the people affords. These islands are indeed apparently waiting for the Savior's law; these fields are white to the harvest, and the laborers are few. Justice and expediency seemed, there

TO THE AMERICAN BOARD OF MISSIONS.

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fore, to require that we should consent to take a missionary from the South Sea islands, which are, comparatively, so well supplied, and give him to these, where so many thousands are waiting to be taught, but, alas! are perishing for lack of knowledge.

'Again; there appeared to us great suitableness in your missionaries being joined by one who had resided almost six years in those islands, where so glorious a work has been accomplished within that period, and in which he has taken an important share. His experience; his acquaintance with the most useful plans of operation; his knowledge of the Tahitian language, to which that of the Sandwich Islands bears a close analogy;-these considerations could not but have a great influence upon our decisions.

'Some foreigners, anxious to seize upon any thing that might tend to prejudice the natives against your missionaries, did not fail to suggest to them that, should they listen to their instructions, they would incur the displeasure of the English. By uniting an English missionary with yours, this objection will be removed; and, indeed, already has our visit produced the best effect in this particular.

'With the same design, these foreigners have spared no pains to misrepresent the work of religion in the South Sea islands, and have propagated the most infamous falsehoods; but a missionary who has been so long resident there, and who is well acquainted with all the circumstances of that great work, being upon the spot here, will prevent all future attempts of a similar kind.

'But, however weighty these considerations, they would not have induced us to consent to Mr. Ellis's leaving the useful, important, and comfortable situation which he occupies at Huahine, in union with Mr. Barff, and joining your missionaries here, had not the finger of God most clearly indicated to us the path of duty; and this is made so remarkably plain, that not a shadow of a doubt can remain upon our minds that it is the will of God.

*

'DANIEL TYERMAN, 'GEORGE Bennet.'

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FOOD OF THE NATIVES.

CHAPTER XIX.

Food of the Natives of the Sandwich Islands-Card-party-The five Queens-M. Manine's Gardens-Dram-shops-A Sorcerer-Sandal-wood-Candle-nut Strings-Conversations of Auna and his Wife with the Natives of Oahu-Taumuarii, King of Tauai-Town of Honolulu-Murderous Practices of the Shark-worshippers-Yellow Fever-Cannibalism-A rich Negro Resident-Excursions among the Mountains-Method of carrying Burthens-Volcanic Crater-Distillery-Traditions-Animals.

April 17. We waited upon the king, and found him surrounded by his usual attendants, loitering and looking about with vacant eyes, or humming a low, dull, monotonous air without melody, as though they knew not what to do with themselves. Two of his queens were rather more amusingly employed. Each had made a small pipe of the tii-leaf rolled up; holding up this in the hollow between her hands, globularly clasped, the lady blew into the little instrument, which, as she opened and closed her fingers upon it, produced a few squeaking notes, like those of a child's trumpet. With such music, however, the royal dames appeared surprisingly delighted. The king expressed his gratitude for the present of the schooner, by giving our two captains quarters in his own residence, while on shore here, and engaging to furnish both ships' companies with provisions during their stay in the harbor.

Walking along the beach to-day, we observed some persons gathering the slender green sea-weed from the rocks for food. In one of the houses which we entered, a man was eating small crabs alive. In another place they had just killed a dog, and were dressing the carcass for the oven by singing and scraping off the hair. These people in general are very gross feeders. When a hog, which the king had sent on board, was slaughtered, on the entrails being thrown into the sea, some natives, from the shore, instantly plunged into the water, swam to the ship's side, and had a stiff struggle in the water for the prize. Those who were fortunate enough to secure portions of it, after a hasty rinsing of the contents, greedily devoured the garbage. Fish in general, as well as crabs and shrimps, they seem to make no difficulty of eating raw, and frequently alive.

In the house of one of the queens, where our Tahitian friends are accommodated, we found three women and a man

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playing at cards (whist), for money, with all the cool, keen interest, and stern self-possession, of inveterate gamblers. One of the persons sitting by said that these games often ended in quarrels, when not hands only, but clubs, were furiously employed. He confessed that it was a bad custom, but that they knew no better, not having received "the good word," as the Tahitians had. One of the queens coming in threw herself upon the floor, yet with an air of no unconscious superiority, and professed a desire to learn the things which had been taught to the South Sea islanders, observing, that if the king would give his consent they should all be willing to be taught. Two of these illustrious females were seen the other day riding in one large wheel-barrow. After being pushed along by main force, for a few paces at a time, by two stout men, the latter were repeatedly obliged to rest and take breath, at which nobody would wonder who knew what a weight of royalty they had in charge. Their majesties vastly enjoyed the novelty, if not the pleasantness, of the motion; this being, probably, the only kind of carriage in which they had ever taken the air. Soon afterwards the same ladies were strenuously exercising themselves in fetching bundles of rushes, upon their naked backs, from the swamps, to strew the floors of their habitations, and felt themselves as unashamed of their honest labor, in this instance, as of degrading amusement in the other. This example of feminine industry was the more remarkable, because the chiefs here affect to be above all kinds of drudgery, and never suffer their children to do any thing like work.

In the afternoon we visited M. Maniné, a Spaniard, who has resided here thirty years. This person occupies three acres of ground, which he has, with great taste, laid out as a garden, vineyard, and orchard; and in which trees, plants, and fruit of European growth, have been very successfully cultivated. The vines, in particular, trained after the Spanish fashion in bushes, flourish luxuriantly. The proprietor tells us that they would bear three crops in the year, though he prudently prevents the third, lest it should too much exhaust the stocks. Figs and roses, neither of which we had seen in the Society Islands, have been also introduced by him, and promise well. In the village, observing several houses over which small flags, raised on polès, were flying, it was natural to suppose that these buildings were tabued for some sacred purpose. On inquiry, however, it turned out that