the ship Kahumanna,
belonging to King Tameamea; he was now chief pilot. The wind did not
immediately allow us to run into the harbour, but in a few hours it
became favourable, and our skilful pilot guided us safely through the
intricacies of its narrow entrance. Our ship was the largest that had
ever passed through this channel, which would be impracticable for
first-rate vessels.

Some of the ships we found in the harbour were English and American
whalers, which had put in here for provisions; others were on trading
voyages to the north-west coast of America for skins, or returning
thence with their cargoes. Some were from Canton, laden with Chinese
produce, which finds a good market in the Sandwich Islands; and one was
a French ship from Bordeaux, which having carried a cargo of iron wares
to Chili, Peru, and Mexico, had brought the remains of it here. All the
captains visited me in the hope of hearing news from Europe; but many of
them had left it later than we had, and accommodated us with their
London newspapers.

If we consider that scarcely fifty years have elapsed since these
islands were first introduced by Captain Cook to the knowledge of the
European public, and that the inhabitants were then completely what we
call savages, that is, that they were wholly destitute of any conception
of the arts, sciences, or habits of civilized life, we shall find with
surprise that the harbour of Hanaruro already bears a character almost
entirely European, reminding us only by the somewhat scanty clothing of
the natives, of the briefness of their acquaintance with our customs.

My readers, I think, will take some interest in a short account of this
people, whose rapid progress in civilization would perhaps by this time
have placed them on a level with Europeans, if unfavourable
circumstances had not thrown obstacles in the way of their improvement,
which it will require another such governor as Tameamea to overcome.

The eleven islands named by Cook after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich,
but for which the natives have no common appellation, lie between the
nineteenth and twenty-second degrees of north latitude. They are all
high and volcanic. O Wahi, the most easterly, and by much the largest,
is eighty-seven miles long and seventy-five broad: it has three
mountains, which may well bear a comparison with the highest in the
world. The climate of these islands is particularly beautiful and
healthy. Their population is est