ovelty of the spectacle, assembled in great multitudes. All wore
crape as a sign of mourning, or, if they could not procure this, Tapa.
In the church, which was entirely hung with black, the chaplain of the
English frigate read the funeral-service, and the procession afterwards
repaired, in the order above described, to a small stone chapel, where
the coffins were deposited, and where they still remain.

Soon after the funeral, the new King was proclaimed by the title of
Tameamea the Third, at the command of Karemaku, who retained the regency
during the minority, in conjunction with the Queen Kahumanna. The
regents were thus nominally the same; but Karemaku was too ill to take
an active share in the government, and the missionary Bengham found
means to obtain such an acendency over the imperious Kahumanna, and,
through her, over the nation, that in the course of only seven months an
entire change had taken place:--we might have imagined ourselves in a
different country. Bengham had undertaken the education of the young
monarch, and was keeping him under the strictest _surveillance_. He
meddles in all the affairs of government, and makes Kahumanna, and even
sometimes Karemaku, the instrument of his will; pays particular
attention to commercial concerns, in which he appears to take great
interest; and seems to have quite forgotten his original situation and
the object of his residence in the islands, finding the avocations of a
ruler more to his taste than those of a preacher. This would be
excusable, if his talents were of a nature to contribute to the
instruction and happiness of the people; if he understood the art of
polishing the rough diamond, to which the uncorrupted Sandwich Islander
may aptly be compared, so as to bring out its intrinsic value, and to
increase its external splendour. But the fact is widely different; and
one cannot see without deep regret the spiritual and temporal weal of a
well-disposed people committed to the guidance of an unenlightened
enthusiast, whose ill-directed and ill-arranged designs are inimical to
their true and permanent interests.

Mr. Stewart, also a missionary, but more recently settled here than
Bengham, is a judicious and well-informed man, and would remedy many of
the evils incident to the present state of affairs; but Bengham, who has
usurped the absolute control of the spiritual administration, will have
every thing accommodated to his whims. Stewart therefore, finding
him