other places, yet it is desirable to preserve it in the Herald; as it gives a general view of the labors, the trials, and the success of the Missionaries, and especially, as many of our readers may not see it clsewhere.

Kowaihae, Hawaii, Nov. 3, 1826. My dear brother,-I snatch a few moments this evening to improve an opportunity that offers to send to America by way of Oahu, in writing a hasty letter to you, my distant brother. We have, of late, been privileged by a visit from several of the chiefs of the leeward islands, who we hope belong to the kingdom of our Lord. They spent a month or upwards at Kairua and vicinity, where we have been gratified and encouraged by their example and influence in behalf of religion. The object of their visit is to extend the knowledge of Christ and his Gospel to all their people; and to prepare them for the reception of a code of Christian laws. In the prosecution of this object, they have come hither, where are assembled the whole people, inhabiting Kohala and Hamakua, to receive the laws which are about to be published. I have also improved the occasion to follow them, in order to preach the Gospel to the many thousands here collected. I arrived here this morning in a canoe, having left my home yesterday, and hope to be enabled to preach to the people daily, until my return.

Mr. Bingham and family still remain at Kairua, where we are revising the Gospel of Matthew for the press. Mr. Richards and family have just returned to Lahaina after a visit to this island of six weeks. His stay was protracted in consequence of information received from Lahaina, of the base conduct of the crews of several English and American whale ships, who had threatened to kill him if they could find him; because, through his influence, a stop had been put to prostitution. They went in a body to his house to demolish it, but | found it carefully guarded by some friendly natives; when they turned away to another part of his land, and took away his hogs and fowls as their booty. A Mr. Butler, a resident at Lahaina, and who has long been an enemy to the mission, was with them to point out his premises and property to the sailors. The women all fled to the mountains, and with them Kehauonohi, the chief woman, who had charge of the place during the absence of Hoapiri, governor of Maui. For several days in succession, the sailors prosecuted their search through the village for women, breaking into houses, and taking away

the property of the inoffensive inhabitants, who looked on without assaulting them, because their chiefs were gone, who should lead them. They bore the spoiling of their goods with fortitude, knowing that it was for righteousness' sake that they were called to suffer; but they yielded not an inch in complying with the demands of the ships; and the sailors, at last, abandoned their search, and hired their captains to take them to Oahu, in hopes of getting women there. This is but a specimen of the abuse and insult that the mission is daily receiving from our own countrymen and other foreigners, who leave no means untried to bring into discredit not only us, but all who profess to have become pious.

The principal spite of foreigners is levelled against our dear brother and fellow laborer, Mr. Bingham: but you may be assured, that the brethren consider it a common cause, and equally as much against the whole body as against him; and we feel it to be our duty publicly to give him and his measures, so far as they have come to our knowledge, our decided approbation.

Sabbath evening, Nov. 5.—I have just returned from the services of this day, where I have preached twice to a congregation of more than ten thousand listening hearers. They were assembled in a cocoa-nut grove, and I delivered my message to them in the open air. The stillness of this immense multitude; the solemn occasion upon which we had met; the thought that all this people would pass into eternity in the lapse of a few years; gave a solemnity, and an interest to the scene, which I have seldom felt. The Lord helped me to speak as one standing between the two worlds,- —as an ambassador of reconciliation between God and his fallen creature man, revealing to him a covenant of grace.

It is a truly interesting and pleasant service, to be the messenger of peace to perishing immortals; and, in a special manner, this service is pleasant, when it is connected with the persuasion, that those, for whose good we are laboring, are anxiously desirous of the light and knowledge that lead to salvation. Such, my brother, is the state of this people. There was never, perhaps, a time, when the prospect of complete success to our enterprise was greater than at present. Could you but witness, for one day, the order, the attention, the anxious, eager look, and observe the tear which starts in the eye of the tawny, sun-burnt savage, and the countenance of hope and joy as he casts his eye upward to heaven upon hearing the

terms of pardoning mercy proclaimed to him, your heart would leap for joy, and you would give God thanks for having ever put it into the hearts of any to come over the wide waste of water that divides us, to preach salvation to this people, who have long been sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.

But I must leave you here, as the messenger waits to carry this to Oahu. Remember me affectionately to all my Christian friends in Boston, and assure them of the undiminished regard which I and Mrs. Bishop still feel towards them, and of the happiness which we enjoy in the blessed work in which we are engaged. Adieu. Yours affectionately in the best bonds.

ARTEMAS BISHOP.

LETTER OF MR. ELY TO THE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

SOME of the results of Mr. Ely's labors at Kaavaroa, are here presented. At the date of this letter he had occupied that station not quite three years. There had been no missionary in that vicinity, until he went to reside there at the particular request of the chiefs.

Kaavaroa, Hawaii, Nov. 23, 1826. Very dear Sir,-The long wished for season for forwarding letters to our native land has at length arrived, and with much pleasure I embrace the opportunity of again communicating with our beloved patrons and friends.

With gratitude would we record the tender mercies of our Almighty Father to us and the people of these islands during the year past. The hearts of the people have in a good degree been turned to attend to the words of life; and we have a pleasing hope that our labors them have not been alto

among gether in vain. Our chiefs are becoming more and more kind to us, and more and more attentive to our instructions.

Notice of several Chiefs.

Naihe, who is our principal chief, has enlisted, with great zeal, in the pursuit of knowledge, and is now in a very interesting state of mind. I was much affected, on a visit with him a few day's since to the bed side of a sick woman. She was in much distress, and while I was administering to her some medicine, Naihe said to her, "Prepare to die. Christ will come as a thief: Christ will come as a thief: Repent, and set your heart in order to meet your God. It is of infinite importance to be ready to go when Christ shall call. I have felt this, and this is my manao (thought)

VOL. XXIII.

to you." Reflecting on his former inattention to the concerns of eternity, and the great difficulty with which he could be induced even to speak on the subject, I was quite affected with the change.

Naihe is very kind to us, and to all the missionaries, and is decidedly in favor of their objects and though we do not consider him as pious, still we hope he is not far from the kingdom of hea ven. Mrs. Ely instructs him daily in reading and writing.

Kapiolani is indeed a mother in Israel, No woman in the islands, probably, appears better than she; and perhaps there is no one who has so wholly given herself up to the influence and obedience of the Gospel. I am never at a loss where to find her in any difficulty: she has a steady, firm, decided attachment to the Gospel, and a ready adherence to its precepts mark her conduct. Her house is fitted up in a very decent style, and is kept neat and comfortable. And her hands are daily employed in some useful work.

Kamakau, of whom mention has been made, is much broken by age and infirmity, but he is a real friend to us and to the cause, and his conduct is truly Christian.

Alapai is now absent on a tour around Hawaii with Kealiiahonui. He is an amiable young man of an irreproachable character, is decided in the cause of truth, and is one of whom we have great hopes; he is an ornament to our church.

Attention of the People to Religious Instruction.

Our little church now consists of eight members, and we propose adding one more soon, the daughter of Kapookulou, one of the high priests of Tamehameha. She, with her brother who died as we believe in Christ, were the two who, during our early labors at this place, when the question was put, "Who of you wishes to obey the word of God?" replied most decidedly, "We wish to follow your instructions, and to obey the word of life."

The people generally attend public worship, and many of them are interesting inquirers at the present time. They are very kind and obliging to us, ready to do us any favor we ask. We often leave our house with unlocked

doors, and our goods exposed, and on our return, we always find them unmolested.

in this part of Kona, more than half fall Of the twenty thousand inhabitants

*Vol. xxi. p. 141.

27

exert its influence without being counteracted by such books as tend to dissipate and pollute the mind.

Reflections on the preceding year.

It has been our lot to remain alone since our first removal to this village, but God has been our friend, our comforter, and our support: and we are constrained to say, goodness and have followed us all our days. Many foreigners, who have visited us, have been very liberal, and have supplied us with many little comforts which have been of great value to us. I have had several periods of illness the past year, one of which was quite serious, but we are now in comfortable health, though somewhat debilitated by the climate.

The present prosperous state of the mission ought to excite our gratitude to God, and it doubtless will be a cause of rejoicing to the friends of Zion. God has given us an abundant entrance among the heathen, he has prepared the way before us, and loaded the mission with his benefits. The chiefs, as a body, are in a good degree enlisted on the side of truth, and support the missionaries in their work; the people listen to instruction with great eagerness, and we have good reason to believe that a goodly number have already given their hearts to God.

But God has seen it best from the beginning, that opposition to every good work should exist: indeed such is the state of the human heart, and the nature of the spiritual life, that grace thrives most in the midst of trials. Trials, instead of being discouragements, are rather a test by which the purity of a good work is evinced.

You, my dear sir, and our dear friends, will not then suppose that a strange thing has happened to your missionaries, because they are called to contend with opposition, and are calumniated by those who are enslaved to their lusts and their desire of gain. By our public documents you will learn that the mission has its opposers; and from Mr. Loomis and Dr. Blatcheley you will also learn many particulars which we dare not write.

But we would have our friends bear in continual remembrance what God is doing in favor of this mission. Even with our weak, short-sighted view, we can see much good which has already been produced. The wrath of man has been made to praise God. God has a steady purpose concerning his church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

We lament exceedingly that many of our friends are so prone to fix their eyes on the trials of the mission, while they are so reluctant to look at those things which are favorable to the cause; and that so many are ready to calculate that God has frowned on us because they hear of our perils. Would they but read the history of Paul,-would they but read the history of the church from its commencement to the present day, and reflect for a moment, they would form a different conclusion. We hope there are many, also, who take a sober view of this subject, who are devoted to the cause, and who will follow Christ through evil and through good report: not with an enthusiastic zeal, which is elated with fair prospects of success, and which is warmed only by pleasing intelligence of comfortable dwellings, easy living, and great popularity. This does not constitute true missionary zeal, at home or abroad. But he has truemissionary zeal, who is moved by love to Christ and his kingdom, who looks on the work of propagating the Gospel as a self-denying work, who calculates on perils and hardships, privations and disappointments, and who girds on his armor, and resolves to stand by Christ and his cause in dangers and death. O that the church as a body might imbibe the true spirit of missions, and as a body enlist in this glorious work. But alas! what an awful account will many have to render to God. Could they but cast an eye into the regions of despair, and view the multitudes who have perished for want of the light of life, and think of the endless run thus incurred, how would they tremble for their own neglect of souls.

But I have presumed too much on your patience already. I will therefore close.

Wishing you and our patrons and friends the wisdom and presence of God, and desiring your continual prayers for our support, guidance, and success,

I am yours affectionately,
JAMES ELY.