inhabitants of tropical regions living in a state of untutored nature, that they look upon clothing rather as an ornament, than a covering-to be worn only on special occasions for display.

The missionaries have aimed to set an example of industry, and to excite a desire of improvement in the people around them. And, though formidable difficulties oppose, they do not despair of a general revolution in the social condition of the islanders. Many of the natives have learned the use of tools by seeing foreigners use them; and their own ingenuity has enabled them to make many useful articles when the pattern was before them. In this manner they have, to some extent, made doors, chairs, chests, tables, bedsteads, and cupboards. The braiding and sewing of hats and bonnets from the cocoanut and palm-leaf, and the cutting and making of garments, have been taught to a greater number of persons by the females of the mission, and have come into extensive use. The native females employed in the mission families have been taught to perform all the branches of domestic labor, according to the usages of civilized life. And those who were instructed in this manner, have taught others; so that in many families there is now an air of neatness and comfort, to which they were once entire strangers. Whatever they see about the persons, or in the families of the missionaries, which it is in their power to make, they endeavor to imitate, and persevere till they have accomplished their purpose to their own satisfaction. Many have built themselves comfortable houses, having separate lodging rooms. But, though cotton grows spontaneously on the islands, and may be cultivated to almost any extent, the natives have yet to learn the process of manufacturing cloth.

The habitations and persons of the chiefs form an exception to many of the foregoing remarks. And it is a wonderful fact, that all the principal chiefs, the young king excepted, are members of the church, and give satisfactory evidence of piety. The decalogue forms a part of the laws of the land; murder, theft, and adultery are prohibited by special statutes; and on Oahu, grogshops, gaming-houses, and riding on the Sabbath for amusement, have been forbidden by the governor of the island. The prohibition was enforced by an armed police, and several horses of foreigners were seized in the act of violating the law.

About the same time the chiefs, being assembled at Honolulu from the different islands, with others favorably disposed, formed a national temperance society, to which about a thousand subscribera

were immediately obtained; and it was proposed to circulate copies of the resolutions adopted by the society throughout the islands, and to get as many signers as possible. The resolutions were in substance; That they would not drink ardent spirits for pleasure; nor deal in them for gain; nor engage in distilling them; nor offer them to any one as an act of civility; nor give them to workmen on account of their labor. It is amusing, and worthy of being remembered, that Kuakini, the governor of Oahu, being afterwards applied to for a licence to sell ardent spirits to foreigners only, not to natives, made this answer; "To horses, cattle, and hogs you may sell rum, but to real men you must not on these shores."

The question naturally arises, Are the Sandwich islanders a Christian nation?

Obviously they are not a nation of idolaters. The Christian religion is nominally the religion of the nation. The principal rulers, with a single exception, are members of the Christian church; and all the most distinguished and influential individuals. of the nation, are professedly on the side of truth and virtue. Spacious houses for the worship of the true God have been erected by the chiefs and people in the principal towns of the islands, and orderly congregations regularly assemble in them to listen to the gospel. The Sabbath is professedly hallowed; marriages are solemnized in a Christian nanner; the cause of temperance is promoted as in our own country; the Holy Scriptures are anxiously desired, and are received by the people as of divine authority. If the Sandwich islanders may not be called a Christian people, by what rule shall we determine what nations are entitled to that appellation? They are a Christian people. Christianity has preceded civilization, and is leading the way to it. Twelve years ago, that people were enveloped in thick pagan gloom; but the Sun of Righteousness has risen; and though mists still hover over the land, and clouds obscure the heavens, the night has fled, and the morning has come-the morning, it is believed, of a bright and happy day.

And yet, it is possible that there may be a relapse to idolatry, on the part of thousands of the untaught multitude. A great work remains to be done, before the field is actually secured. The gospel must be preached more generally among the people. The schools must be rendered more effectual, especially upon the rising

generation. The Scriptures must be placed more within the reach of all ages and classes. And, to crown all, there will need to be more extensive revivals of religion throughout the islands; and for these the Board and all the friends of Zion should not cease fervently to pray.

In view of the importance of making the best possible use of the present disposition of the islanders, the Committee sent out the reinforcement of eight preachers of the gospel and a physician, with their wives and a printer, mentioned in the former part of this Report; and are now on the point of sending, with divine permission, two other married missionaries and a printer.

Intelligence has been received that the Averick was spoken, near the end of March, in the neighborhood of the island of Juan Fernandez, and that the mission family was in good health. By this time the members of that reinforcement are probably at their several posts of labor in the islands.

Repeated mention has been made in former Reports of the Jesuit mission on the Sandwich Islands. The Committee have recently learned that the chiefs have removed the two Jesuits, in a vessel belonging to themselves, to the adjacent coast of California. They were sent away on the 24th of December, and by the lawful authorities of the islands. The following is a translation of the commission given to the master of the vessel.

"I, Kauikeaouli, king of the Sandwich Islands, and Kaahumanu, and Kalua [one of the names of Kuakini] governor of Oahu, do hereby commission William Sumner, commander of the brig Waverly, now lying in Oahu, to receive on board two French gentlemen and their goods, or whatever they may have to bring on board, and to proceed to California, and land them safe on shore, with everything belonging to them, where they may subsist, and then to return back to the Sandwich Islands.

(Signed)

Oahu, Nov. 5, 1831.

KAUIKEOULI,
KAAHUMANU,
KUAKINI."

The two mechanics of the mission were allowed to remain.

The removal of these Jesuits in the manner in which it was performed, was the violation of none of their natural or acquired rights. No permission was ever given them to remain on the

islands: it was expressly refused and they were repeatedly requested, and even ordered, to go away. The advice and authority of the government being equally disregarded, that government exercised the right, claimed by all civilized nations, of determining whether foreigners at all events shall remain within its limits; and in a manner the most considerate and humane, sent them to another country professing the same religion with themselves.

Thus much it seems proper for the Committee to say, although none of our missionaries (so far as is known to the Committee) advised the government to this measure, or are at all responsible for it. They have, indeed, taken great pains to instruct the chiefs of the islands in the true nature of the gospel, and to awaken in their bosoms an abhorrence of all manner of idol-worship as utterly at variance with the letter and spirit of that gospel. If, by the blessing of God, they have succeeded in this, and if their success has been the means of opposing the barrier of civil power to the hostile influence of the Romish church, the fact is only one among the many to be considered in determining the actual amount of beneficial influence which the gospel has exerted upon the islands.

In estimating the merits of the case just described, the members of the Board should endeavor to place themselves in the circumstances of the chiefs. And here the Committee will quote a very apposite passage from a communication lately received from some of our brethren at the islands.

"Christian chiefs at the Sandwich Islands," say they, "have an argument against Romanism, which is to them conclusive on supposition that their former system of worship was wrong. Their religion, formerly, consisted much in the worship of bones, and other relics of their predecessors and of various living creatures, of numerous tabus [inhibitions] in respect to flesh and other kinds of food, and rehearsing prayers and making gestures before the images of the various objects of their adoration—not that they supposed the image itself to be the real god in all cases, but either the place of residence of the spirit, or the mere representation of the god in whom they trusted. Now if all this was without exception wrong, how can the same thing, or what appears to them the same thing in Romanism, be right? And if it was right for them to prohibit the idolatry of their former worship, it is in their view right to prohibit idolatry, or the worship of pictures, or ima

ges, or the relics of men, in whatever shape it is attempted to be revived; unless it can be shown that the infinite God has commanded it. This, so far as we know, the Jesuits have never attempted to prove from the Holy Scriptures."

The facts, concisely stated, appear to be these. The Jesuits were four years in Oahu, so that the intelligent chiefs had an opportunity to gain some correct notions of their religious opinions and rites. The chiefs also became satisfied-by conference with their protestant teachers, by reading Mr. King's simple and excellent letter to his Maronite Roman Catholic friends in Syria, and by examining the portions of the word of God which had been translated into their language-that their opinions and rites were in general contrary to the Scriptures; and they regarded the introduction of them among the people as little better than a revival of the baleful superstitions, from which they had so recently been disenthralled.

Whatever, then, may be our views as to the abstract nature of this act of the Sandwich Islands government, let us honor the motive, and hope and pray that the beneficial results of it may equal their highest expectations.

The noble-spirited chiefs of these islands, whose names will be perpetuated with those of their teachers, as the founders, under God, of their Christian institutions, are gradually disappearing from the stage of action. Keopuolani, Taumuarii, and Karaimoku have been dead some years; and now we have to record the decease of Naihe, one of the highest class of chiefs, the husband of the admirable Kapiolani, and an active and faithful servant of the Lord Jesus. At the close of the year, the aged governor of Kauai, Kaikioawa, was also sick. Any diminution in the number of these chiefs naturally awakens some apprehension in respect to the future; but we do well to remember, that hitherto the wrath of man on those islands has been made to praise God, and that events which were apparently the most untoward, have usually been overruled for the greatest good.