the Sandwich Islands, to secure at a button-hole, to forget to do the same among our good friends here. The whole company soon joined me; and, after a delightful row, at even-tide we again reached the Vincennes without accident. LETTER XXXIV. DEPARTURE FROM NUKUHIVA. U.S. Ship Vincennes, at Sea, It could scarce be expected, dear H- that a voyage of the world should be made without accidents and danger; and on the morning of the 11th instant, our beautiful ship narrowly escaped utter destruction. In endeavouring to get from the bay of Oomi, we were becalmed, while under the influence of a tremendous current setting dead on shore, in water too deep to let go an anchor. The ship was carried irresistibly, by the swell of the sea, against the cliffs at the base of Tower Bluff, till it can only be said that her keel did not touch the rocks. She went stern-foremost into the very breakers; and was prevented striking, only by spars thrust from the poop deck against the cliffs. To have touched must have been inevitable shipwreck, against a barefaced rock, several hundred feet in height, with a depth of water below, which must have left the mast-heads alone above the surface. For several minutes, each heave of the sea was expected to be followed by the tremendous concussion; while every face was pale with agitation, and the silence of the grave hung over the ship. The chiefs from Taiohae were in great consternation; and Te Ipu, the warrior, catching the young prince Moana in his arms, with tears in his eyes burst into ESCAPE FROM SHIPWRECK. 239 the exclamation, "Mate! mate oa! ke pahi nus manawa!" "Destroyed! utterly destroyed! is the great man-of-war canoe!" adding a doleful foreboding, that we should all be devoured by the Taipiis. And when by a breath of air from the land our topsails were filled for a moment, and we carried once more to a situation of hope, and soon afterwards, by taking the trade-wind, triumphantly borne to the open sea, he said to Captain Finch, with much feeling, "If the man-of-war had been lost, oh! what a day of weeping this would have been!" We reached our former anchorage in Taiohae at twelve o'clock the same morning; and spent yesterday principally in replenishing our stock of wood and water for sea. I did not go on shore till the afternoon; when Mr. Stribling and myself took a stroll up the western side. of the valley, following one of the glens to its head, and returning through another; and thus, with former excursions, completing a survey of the whole territory of this tribe. Of our ramble, however, I can at present only say, that it truly was, upon "The craggy hill, where rocks with wild flowers crown'd, Where sportive nature every form assumes, And, sweetly lavish, spreads a thousand blooms." We did not reach the ship till nightfall, but in time to join Captain Finch and our fellow-officers in distributing a few last presents to the chiefs, and in bidding them farewell, as they left the Vincennes for the last time, clad in full suits of our own apparel, and bearing with them new injunctions not to forget all the advice given them, nor to fail in promoting and maintaining a general peace throughout the island. At eight o'clock, an exhibition of fire-works, rockets, blue lights, &c. took place on board, for the gratification of the natives on shore; and at day-break this morning, we once more weighed anchor, and are now safely at sea, with a fine breeze bearing us away to Tahiti. Thus, dear H-—, you have the outline of a fortnight at Washington Islands; and, from the hasty sketches I have furnished, will be enabled, I think, to form some just conception of the character of the natural scenery found in them; and of the personal appearance, manners, habits, morals, religion, and general state of the fifty thousand of immortal beings who may constitute the population of the group. In every observation I have made on the genius and condition of the people, I have endeavoured to free myself from any bias, that might interfere with a candid exposition of their true character. There is a double danger to be guarded against on this point. A man of nice moral sensibility, and one alive to the purity of affection essential to genuine piety, is exposed, in a disgust at the licentiousness unavoidably obtruded on his notice, to lose sight of all that is pleasing and praiseworthy in the nature and condition of the inhabitants, and to think and speak of them only, as associated, in his mind, with a moral deformity and vileness, that in some respects can scarce be equalled. On the other hand, the depraved and the guilty, regarding such traits with a lenient eye, or screening them from view with a mantle of brotherly kindness, are in hazard of imposing on the world a belief that none are so happy-that the islands themselves are an elysium, and their inhabitants a race exempt from the ordinary ills of life, who pass their time in uninterrupted joys, ignorant of sorrow, and strangers to anxiety and every care. Both these extremes I would avoid; and have given you undisguised facts, so far as they could with pro. priety be presented, by which to prove, on the one hand, that, while of the natural scenery it may with truth be said that " every prospect pleases," the MORAL ESTIMATE. 241 islanders both physically and mentally possess advantages surpassed by their fellows in no section of the world; and that in general they appear amiable and kind in their domestic and social relations, and in their intercourse with those who visit their distant shores. But, on the other, that they are far from being exempt from many of the various degrading and deplorable evils of heathenism. The devices of darkness which constitute their religious creed, and the cruelty of practice which it inculcates and approves, cause them literally to spend their lives in a bondage of fear; while an utter ignorance of the true principles of moral good and evil betrays them into unbounded licentiousness and almost every sin. In addition to other polluting qualities, they most unquestionably are deceitful and treacherous, vindictive and bloodthirsty, delighting in devastation and war, and accustomed to riot on the flesh of their fellows. Child-murder and parricide, so far as we can learn, seem to be the only curses of paganism that they have been spared. If so, of the philanthropist and the christian I would ask, Do they not stand in need of some enlightening, some redeeming power? Do they not stand in need of a preparation for the purity and blessedness of the world to come ? And whence shall they derive that needed power, and what means shall secure to them that desired preparation? In the observations yet to be made by us in the South Seas, I am persuaded that facts will be presented, demonstrating beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the REVEALED WORD OF GOD and the PREACHING OF THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL are the only sure and effectual, as they are the only appointed, means of accomplishing this benevolent object and this glorious end. Firmly believing, from history as well as scripture, that a knowledge of the light of life" is the most direct and sure means of 66 R 242 meliorating the condition of man, as it alone can secure the salvation of the soul, the only appeal I would make, and the only one necessary to be addressed to the christian heart, in behalf of this interesting but polluted race, is in the language of Heber's missionary hymn― "Shall we whose souls are lighted, With wisdom from on high; The lamp of life deny? The joyful sound proclaim, Shall learn Mergiah's naine." |