VISIT TO KAAHUMANU.

45

The general congregation then broke up and departed peaceably.

Nothing more attracts the attention, and at the same time awakens the minds, of all ranks of people here, than the appearance, dress and conversation, of our Tahitian friends; for all can perceive that, while the latter are of a kindred race with themselves, they are far superior in manners and intelligence. When they are told, therefore, that the gospel, "the good word," has made the difference, they feel a reverence for it, and express a desire to be instructed in it, which might otherwise not have been so early or powerfully excited in the minds of indolent and untractable heathens. Auna and his wife are guests of Kaahumanu, sister to the king, and next to him in authority. Her principal officer is a native of Tahiti, who, when we first landed, finding that our companions were from his country, entered into eager questioning-conversations with them, when, to the surprise and delight of all, he discovered that Auna's wife was his own sister, from whom he had been separated when a child, and brought hither, where he had resided many years without ever having had any intercourse with his family. He immediately introduced them to his royal mistress, who insisted on their taking up their abode with her. To this they consented on one express condition, that they should be allowed to have family prayer under the roof, morning and evening, and in every other respect be allowed to deport themselves as Christians. Kaahumanu very graciously complied; and now she is so charmed with her visitors, that she may be said to employ herself all day long in making inquiries (of Auna's wife especially) respecting the South Sea islands, their new religion, politics, manners, dress and occupations, all of which she finds have been so wonderfully changed since "the good word" came to them. Auna himself spends most of his time with the king, who makes similar inquiries; and, from this admirable and intelligent convert to the gospel, Rihoriho will learn more readily and effectually what has been done among his countrymen, than any foreign missionary could in a much longer time communicate. Calling upon Kaahumanu to-day, we found her and her native attendants lying on mats upon the floor, and letting time fly over their heads as it might; she, indeed, was unwell, which might excuse her supineness. On the other hand, our female Tahitians were sitting up, and diligently employed in

46

TAUMUARII, KING OF TAUAI.

shaping and sewing a gown for their generous hostess. Her majesty is rich in what here is considered valuable furniture, such as mats, fly-flaps, fans, and other articles of convenience or finery. Her house consists of one large undivided room, in which, at considerable distances, are placed three beds. Kaahumanu's was a low platform, eight feet square, and consisted of between twenty and thirty beautiful mats, of the finest texture, laid one upon another, with a single pillow, and over the whole a black velvet coverlet. There were neither blankets nor sheets, it being the practice to use no other bed-clothes than those which they wear when awake. Here, as formerly in the Society Islands, there are no particular times for sleeping or eating; each individual indulging in the refreshment of food or of rest as they feel disposed. We seldom enter a house in which we do not find some of the family asleep; and we are told that during the night some are generally up, and about their business or their amuse

ment.

April 20. We have been much pleased to meet with Taumuarii, lately king of Tauai. He speaks English tolerably well, and has been a steady friend to the American missionaries since their arrival at Oahu. In his former state, having been threatened with invasion of his little island-kingdom by Tamehameha, he did not choose to hazard the consequences of unequal war against so formidable a neighbor, and prudently consented to hold his government as a fief under the latter. Tamehameha, pleased with so easy a conquest, permitted him to remain in peace, and, whenever he received presents from his vassal, sent back others as valuable, or more so, in return. Rihoriho, however, the son and successor of Tamehameha, one night, when he was abroad upon the water, and in a state of intoxication, suddenly ordered his attendants to row him to Tauai. Having little provision on board, the weather being precarious, and the distance considerable, the boat's crew demurred, and ventured to remonstrate with their master; but winds and waves are not more deaf to reason, or impatient of contradiction, than a drunken man, especially if that man be, what every sot. thinks himself, a king. He stormed and foamed, and insisted on obedience to his commands, threatening, if they continued refractory, to throw himself into the sea, and swim to the island alone. Finding him utterly unmanageable, his people submitted, and, by dint of excessive labor, and at no

TOWN OF HONOLULA.

47

small hazard of their lives, made the desired port, where he was received by the inhabitants with all the servile homage due to a despotic sovereign. Affecting the utmost friendliness towards Taumuarii and his dowager queen-consort, he remained with them several days, when a large vessel of his own arrived at Tauai from hence, to fetch him away. On board of this he persuaded his vassal to accompany him, when, instantly giving orders to weigh anchor, the king brought him to Oahu, where he has been detained ever since, not, indeed, as a state prisoner, but under a spell of authority which makes him feel that it would be at his peril were he to attempt to return home. However, he lives here in great plenty and comfort, surrounded by numerous dependents, and displaying as much of barbarous pomp as the king himself.

Rihoriho has no fixed residence, but moves about from place to place, and island to island, as humor prompts. This, however, is his favorite sojourn, and well deserves to be so, for it is the most magnificent in external feature, if not the most exuberant in natural produce, of all the Sandwich group. The principal town is Honolulu, which contains five or six hundred houses, partly extending in a long line upon the beach, and the remainder scattered over the broad plain between the mountains and the sea. This plain is a coral rock, covered with a thin stratum of soil, which bears grasses of different kinds, and wears the appearance of a beautiful flat meadow. What is remarkable, good fresh water is obtained from wells sunk eight or ten feet through the coral reef. There are only two mansions, each two stories high, in the English style, in this town, and a third of Spanish fashion, with a store-room below, and a range of chambers on the upper floor, to which access is obtained by a flight of steps. There is also a large warehouse, belonging to the king, resembling the body of a church without a tower. The missionaries are teaching the people to build houses of stone, instead of their wretched native hovels, but they are slow learners, and will be, till Christianity, with its civilizing influence, gains possession of their minds by purifying their affections. On the opposite side of the bay there is a fort, mounting fifty guns of large calibre, which completely commands the harbor, and would afford protection against a large. invading force; but it is in vain for one point to be impregnable, when there are a hundred undefended landing-places

48

MURDEROUS PRACTICES OF SHARK-WORSHIPPERS.

on the coast. On a volcanic eminence, eastward of the town, there is another fort, with ten pieces of ordnance which look formidable enough, and might be so if an enemy were so accommodating as to place himself deliberately in their way. Behind the houses, on the north, are several hundred acres of garden-land, planted with taro, cabbages, potatoes, and other esculents. This spot is fertilized by a plentiful stream flowing from the hills towards the west into the sea. Here ships may be abundantly supplied with water. Beyond this cultivated tract, the mountains rise, of various heights, from two to three thousand feet, and are richly covered with trees and shrubs to their summits.

The following cruel practice is said to have been observed during the dark age of idolatry, and so late as the reign of the last king, Tamehameha. The shark was distinguished by divine honors, here, as in the south Pacific. When, therefore, the king or the priests of this divinity, so worthy of its worshippers, imagined that the shark wanted food, they sallied forth with their attendants, one of whom carried a rope with a ready-prepared running noose attached to it. Then, wherever they found a number of persons assembled, the rope was thrown unexpectedly among them (in the same manner as the Spaniards of South America catch wild cattle. in the herd), and whoever happened to be taken in the snare, whether man, woman, or child, was strangled upon the spot, the body cut in pieces, and thrown into the sea to be bolted down by the rapacious fishes, to appease their supposed anger, or propitiate their favor in some iniquitous enterprise.

At the village of Wytiti, about four miles to the east of Honolulu, there formerly lived a chief of singular ferocity; Giant Despair himself, in the Pilgrim's Progress, was not more brutal and reckless. When he had a fancy to offer a human sacrifice, he would set out in his canoe, with a single servant, in the dead of the night, and come down the bay till he got alongshore close by the town. The two harpies would then raise a lamentable cry, as though they were perishing in the water; when the first person who happened to be alarmed, and, from the instinct of humanity, flew to their relief, was pounced upon, his back broken, and his corpse carried off to be presented at the marae.

In the year 1804, when the late king, Tamehameha, was on his way from Hawaii, to invade Tauai, he halted with an army of eight thousand men at Oahu. The yellow fever

broke out among the troops, and in the course of a few days swept away more than two thirds of them. During the plague, the king repaired to the great marae at Wytiti, to conciliate the god, whom he supposed to be angry. The priests recommended a ten days' tabu, the sacrifice of three human victims, four hundred hogs, as many cocoa-nuts, and an equal number of branches of plantains. Three men, who had been guilty of the enormous turpitude of eating cocoanuts with the old queen (the present king's mother), were accordingly seized and led to the marae. But there being yet three days before the offerings could be duly presented, the eyes of the victims were scooped out, the bones of their arms and legs were broken, and they were then deposited in a house, to await the coup de grace on the day of sacrifice. While these maimed and miserable creatures were in the height of their suffering, some persons, moved by curiosity, visited them in prison, and found them neither raving nor desponding, but sullenly singing the national huru―dull as the drone of a bagpipe, and hardly more variable—as though they were insensible of the past, and indifferent to the future. When the slaughtering time arrived, one of them was placed under the legs of the idol, and the other two were laid, with the hogs and fruit, upon the altar-frame. They were then beaten with clubs upon the shoulders till they died of the blows. This was told us by an eye-witness of the murderous spectacle. And thus men kill one another, and think that they do God service.

We are assured that cannibalism was formerly not unusual here. At the close of a battle the victors kindled fires upon the field, and, after slightly broiling the bodies of their slain enemies over the flames, they greedily devoured the flesh, tearing it from the bones, like vultures or dogs, and glorying in their gluttony as a sweet part of their revenge.

There is a man in prison here, at this time, for having beaten another so cruelly as to endanger his life. The law in such a case is, that if the injured person die the assailant must eat him. This is considered the most horrible and degrading of punishments, though cannibalism was formerly a feat of heroism. Where the issue proves fatal, the body of the dead man is thrown into the prison, and his murderer must either live upon the loathsome provision, while it lasts, or perish, as no other food is allowed till that be entirely consumed. We should question, however, whether so unnat