the stern. Fortunately we were out only twenty hours, including the whole of a night, however, during which it rained.

On reaching home, I found our dear H. and Charlie, both much indisposed, in which state they remained for a fortnight. For many days of that time, not only they but all the family, were shut up entirely, on account of the weather; first, by a storm of wind and rain from the south, so violent as to oblige us to close every window and door, and to resort to candles for light, in order to escape the heaviest of the gale, which still swept through the thatch of our huts; and afterwards by a powerful trade wind from the north, which rushed on us from the Morokoi channel, and made our situation almost equally unpleasant and uncomforta

ble.

The rain was more uninterrupted and of longer continuance than any we have yet experienced at Lahaina, and the air cooler than we had yet known it: during one or two nights the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer, stood at 64° and 66°, and did not rise in the daytime higher than than 70% and 72°.

The state of the people has been progressively interesting. I brought one thousand spelling books with me from Honoruru-five hundred for this station, and five hundred for Kairua; but so importunate was the demand for them, from the moment they were known to be in our possession, that we were obliged to appropriate the whole number to the new schools established here; and before the end of the first week there was not one hundred left in the depository.

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The solitude of our situation, as respects civilized and Christian society, was pleasantly interrupted last week, by a visit of a few days from the brig Col. Young, of Calcutta, on a voyage from South America to Bengal. The master, captain Potter, and Mr. Dowell, an English merchant of the East Indies, a passenger in the vessel, were both agreeable and VOL. IV.-Ch. Adv.

gentlemanly men-especially the latter, who to an apparent acquaintance with "men and manners," added much of the polish of high life. They visited us frequently while they remained at anchor, and we dined with them on Christmas. After many kind and polite attentions they took leave of us, and proceeded on their voyage, on the afternoon of the 26th ult.

Thus, my beloved M. you have a hasty outline of the last six weeks with us: and to the present date, when we all enter on another of the larger divisions of time. Not one word of all that has befallen you and yours, during the whole year just past, has reached us-though, doubtless, much has taken place within your own walls, and the circle of our immediate family friends, of deeper interest to us, than any thing we have transmitted or can transmit from the loneliness and almost unchanging sameness of these dreary abodes. We hope, however, before the return of the spring, to be favoured with accounts from you, at least as minute as the details with which now, for more than two years, we have troubled you.

I have just had a more serious debate in my own mind, than at any former time, as to the advantage of continuing to write to you in the form I have thus far done, or not. I have thrown so little that can interest into my past journals-all that I have said of the scenery and natural productions of the islands-of the people-their general appearancemanners, habits, &c. &c. has been so very incidental and common-place, that I am almost discouraged, lest you should think such communications on nothing, a loss of time to both of us. I have been led to continue them thus for a time, only from the hope that they might become more worthy your attention in these respects; but experience teaches me to fear, that my duties as a missionary will compel me to write to you hereafter, even in a more hasty manner than I have yet done; and neces2 L

sarily cause all that I say to be of the same desultory and imperfect character as the past.

You must remember, that the situation I am in, and the various and constant calls on my time and attention, place me in very different circumstances from the visiter of a few months, or a year, at the islands, or of the voyager who comes only to explore them. These have nothing to confine them day after day, and month after month, to the narrow limits of a single settlement or village, but are at liberty both in body and mind, to scour the country through valley and over mountain, till they have filled their note books with observations, and their portfolios with drawings-whereas we are so situated in a variety of respects, as to make an excursion of a day, a matter of consultation and considerable previous arrangement. For instance, we do not think it proper that Mr. Richards and myself, should both be absent from the mission houses at the same time, except for an hour or two: the duties of the mission almost daily call one of us away more or less, and the other, of course, feels it necessary to remain near the premises.

Impediments of this kind are so various and almost constant, that I have never yet had a convenient op portunity of visiting even the mountains that rise within three miles of the sea side, and whose winding glens, dark forests and towering summits, as seen from our enclosure, promise a rich compensation to the lover of nature, for the toil that would accompany a visit to them. This would not have been the case, however, were a walk of an hour or two, or of an afternoon or morning, sufficient for the excursion. A long day, at least, would be necessary to enable one to ascend the nearest of the mountains, and reach home again before night. In going, there must also be a choice of time, for it very frequently rains on the tops of the mountains, at all times of the year, and nine times out of ten, they are covered with clouds. A guide would

be necessary, and persons to carry water, &c. &c. so that you must not condemn me for a want of curiosity and taste, in having lived for eighteen months in full sight of some of the most picturesque and lofty mountains of the Pacific, without visiting them, till you have taken into consideration the preparations necessary for the undertaking; besides the want of leisure and the difficulty of leaving home, even for a day in continuance. Every deep valley, and every elevated peak, about "the sources of the Susquehanna," can testify to my love of rambling, and were it equally accessible, the finest scenery of my adopted country should bear witness to my love of "the sublime and beautiful" but were I again with you, I could cross and recross one half the hills that encircle your lovely lake, in less time and with less fatigue, than I could pass up the nearest ravine, or ascend the lowest of the mountains in our vicinity.

Should we live, Mr. Richards and myself design, in the course of a few months to make the tour of Maui; in which case, I may have it in my power to give you a full de scription of it, with a variety of other matter. It has also been proposed that I should make the tour of Oahu, in company with Mr. Bingham, during my anticipated visit this winter, which will also afford matter for the pen and pencil: in both cases we have a double object in view-obser vations on the islands, and the preaching of the everlasting gospel to their numerous population.

In keeping a journal for you, my dear sister, I have better evidence than in many cases in which I am more desirous of discovering it, that the principle of action is "doing to others as I would have them to do to me:" and selfishness, if nothing else, prompts me to extend the principle to the matter and manner, as well as to the simple act. You will indulge me, therefore, in introducing, that kind of information of ourselves, which we are most solicitous to learn of you and yours. We feel the deep

est interest in knowing, not only the more important events which would reach us through others, were you not to write at all, but home scenes also, which none but your own hand, or that of one of the family, can pourtray. We wish the outline of your daily pursuits and ordinary engagements-what books you are reading, with your critique on them-what correspondents you have-what company you entertain-sketches of your excursions from home to Schenectady and Troy-to the city-the springs, &c. &c.; in fine, a brief record of your life.

Something of this character, though from our situation necessarily less various and interesting, we will continue to transmit; not, however, without the sure expectation of receiving from yourself and our fair cousins, (to whom it will be an improving, and, if on no other account, because so great a happiness to us, pleasant exercise) a return in kind.

The blessings of a new year meet us in circumstances of more than ordinary quietude and regularity, and the order of our little cabin, is more systematic than it has been since our establishment on the islands. We would count it among the highest of our joys, were the distance to which we are removed, such, as to allow of an occasional visit from you; but this can never be, and we must be satisfied with giving you from time to time, a glance at us as we are day by day, through the only medium of intercourse now left to us.

The sketch of a day at present will give you the regular engagements of a month; and in its peaceful progress, I can assure you, we find no inconsiderable degree of contentment and happiness. We generally rise with the sun, and spend the first hour in religious and devotional reading breakfast at eight o'clock, (a frugal meal, as we are entirely out of butter, sugar and coffee) and immediately after, we have family worship, consisting of a hymn or chapter in the Bible in order (at present one of the psalms) and prayer. The hours from 9 to 12,

Mr. Richards and myself devote to the study of the native language, and to the preparation of exercises for some one of the native religious meetings. At 10 o'clock in the morning, and at 5 in the afternoon, Kekanonohe, the youngest queen of Rihoriho, and one of her favourite female friends, an interesting and intelligent girl of fifteen, come with their retinue to study, under the direction of Mrs. Stewart; while the young princess and another scholar visit Mrs. Richards, for a like purpose, at the same hours.

After dinner we devote an hour to miscellaneous reading, of which the periodical publications, &c. sent from America, and our united libraries, form a tolerable collection. I have begun the year with Mason on Self Knowledge-a work well suited to the season, and worthy, at least the annual perusal, of all who would improve their time to the best advantage, and exercise their powers to the highest good of themselves and their fellows. I then visit some of the schools, of which there are several in spirited operation, under well qualified native teachers, call on some of the chiefs, and afterwards take a walk for exercise, generally to our garden, about a half mile from the beach, on the plantation given us by Karaimoku, on our first arrival at Lahaina. In these walks I am sometimes accompanied by H. and Charlie, while Betsey is engaged in a fine school kept by her every afternoon, in the chapel adjoining our yard.

As to our evenings, though it is now our winter, they are ushered in with little of that luxury of comfort, which the Christian's poet must often have felt, before he could so sweetly have sung,

-and the rich enjoyment of which I myself have so often known at your own cheerful fireside-still they are the pleasantest portion of the day. Our yard is no longer crowded by noisy natives, whose chiefs are lounging about our writing desks and work table. Charlie forgets his mischief and his play, in the sweetness of infantile sleep-all out-doors is silent except the restless surf, and we are left without interruption, renewedly to apply ourselves to this unformed language, that we may be qualified for more extensive usefulness in the stations we occupy. At 9 o'clock, we turn to the Bible, which we are studying with Scott and Henry's Commentaries, and after an hour spent in reading, and in passing an examination on the portion which occupied our attention on the preceding night, we again have family worship, and retire to rest usually between 10 and 11 o'clock.

Our regular public duties with the natives are, two sermons on the Sabbath; a weekly lecture every Wednesday afternoon; a meeting for conversation and prayer every Friday afternoon, and the monthly concert on the first Monday of every month. We have worship in English every Sabbath, but only read a sermon, unless there are ships at the anchorage. Such, my dear sister, is the employment of our time in this heathen land, and such the routine of duty which our little cottage in a greater or less degree daily witnesses; and had we, in addition to our present sources of

Health, leisure, means t' improve it, friendship, peace,

And constant occupation without care."

I have already prolonged this (I fear) tedious commencement of another communication, far beyond my intention when I took my seat-still I must add one word about our dear boy. He seems to have partaken of the spirit of good resolutions, with which we all wish to enter on a new year. To-day, in the middle of the afternoon, he came to my desk with a Bible and Psalm book in his arms, saying "Holy Bible-father pray"and this evening the moment he was seated in his chair at the table, he turned to his mother and said, “Mrs. Stewart (the only name by which he has ever addressed her) be stillCharlie pray," and placing his hands over his face, leaned his head in silence on the table the ordinary period of asking a blessing. He cannot yet join us in our studies, &c. (unless it be to repeat the alphabet, most of the letters of which he has known for some weeks past) but is indeed a precious addition to our little society.

The following Review, extracted from the London "Congregational Magazine," for July, 1825, is from the pen of a distinguished Christian scholar. We republish it, because it illustrates truths and facts which go to establish, most conclusively, the verity of the sacred records, in opposition to the

speculations of infidels. So far is it from being a fact that mankind have, according to the infidel theory, gradually advanced to refinement, from the savage state-from a state in which Lord Monboddo maintained that they had tails, like monkeys-the truth is, that man was furnished with a fund of

knowledge by his Maker at his first formation; that this original stock of information was improved to a great extent by the antediluvians; that the postdiluvians retained the small portion of this knowledge which could be preserved by a single family; and that this pittance of science and information formed the fountain, in the land of Shinar, whence all the streams of knowledge and civilization issued forth to the world. Those who wandered far from these streams, into distant and solitary regions, gradually lost the knowledge possessed by their progenitors, and fell into a state of absolute barbarism and savagism. Nor is it true that those who have once sunk into this

state, do ever rise from it by their own unaided efforts, or without extraneous assistance. To assert that they do, is a mere gratuitous assumption, unsupported, we believe, by a single fact in the history of the world. All experience shows that it requires the most patient and long continued efforts, to introduce civilization and refinement among savages. Indeed we may safely assert, that this effect has, in modern times, never been produced, to any considerable extent, without the powerful influence of religion, joined with other means which have been used for the purpose. Christians and infidel philosophers are directly at issue on this point; and in no instance is Christianity entitled to claim a more decided victory, than in the controversy which relates to this subject. The cause of missions too connects itself with this subject. In fidel philosophers sometimes profess to take a deep interest in the extension of civilization, knowledge and refinement. Then let them be advocates for Christian missions; or else let them, in opposing those missions, allege something better than mere reasonings a priori-Let them point us to some facts, to one fact at least, to show that a nation or tribe of savages has been civilized

The Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion. By James Douglas, Esq. 8vo. 9s.

The intellectual history of the human race, treated in close and unbroken reference to the prominent land-marks which revelation affords, and displaying the pointings which begin to appear, of an improvement more general and higher than has yet been known in the best periods, or the choicest spots, is a work of no ordinary enterprise and difficulty. Doubtless. some sections of the undertaking might be filled up without great labour or unusual talent, but the connexion of the multifarious parts, the succession of the many stages, the discrimination of the chief causes, and the judicious display and contrast of the light and shade which are in almost constant play over the whole scene, require a mind of no ordinary comprehension and no common acquirements. Indeed it is a task that can be accomplished thoroughly by no one hand: the field is too vast, and the qualities requisite for its analysis so various, that little more can be done by an individual, than either to execute a single section, or present a mere sketchy or outline exhibition