e with him. In our
presence, respect for his own character restrained him; our mode of
thinking, our principles and manners influenced his, and prevented his
treating the poor harmless South Sea Islanders with cruelty. The only
instance of undue severity we ever witnessed in his behaviour, was when
on account of some petty theft he once allowed his cannon to be fired
upon the fugitive offenders; fortunately, however, no one was injured by
this rash act. But having in his last voyage no other witnesses of his
actions, than such as were entirely under his command, he forgot what he
owed to his own great name, and was guilty in many instances of extreme
cruelty. I am therefore convinced, that if Messrs. Banks and Solander,
Dr. Spaarmann, or I and my son, had been with him on the last voyage,
his life would not have been lost in the manner it was."

The first ships which visited the Sandwich Islands after Cook's death
were those of Meeres, Dickson, and Coke, in the years 1786-9. They
traded in skins between China and the North-west Coast of America, and
found these islands very convenient to touch at. They were well
received; and some of the islanders made the voyage to America with
them. Tianna, one of the first Yeris of O Wahi, went with Meeres to
China. These voyages, and the continual intercourse with Europeans,
which their increasing trade in fur produced, necessarily enlarged the
ideas of these children of Nature; and as they were not under the
dominion of that folly which, in common with the Greenlanders, possesses
some of the most civilized nations in Europe, of considering themselves
the first people upon earth, they soon acquired our manners, and derived
all the advantage that could be expected from the opportunities of
improvement thus afforded them. Vancouver found, in 1792, that many
remarkable changes had taken place on these islands since Cook's time.

King Teraiopu did not long survive that eminent navigator. His son
Kawarao succeeded to the government of the greater part of the island of
O Wahi; the rest fell to his relation Tameamea. Kawarao was a tyrant,
and governed with unexampled cruelty. At certain periods of the moon, he
declared himself holy, or under a Tabu: the priests alone had then the
privilege of seeing him so long as the sun was above the horizon; and an
immediate death of the severest torture was the melancholy lot of any
individual not belonging to this sacred order, who by whatever acciden