bals, no man could have well
made a more agreeable one.

To be sure there were limits set to my wanderings. Toward the sea my
progress was barred by an express prohibition of the savages; and after
having made two or three ineffectual attempts to reach it, as much to
gratify my curiosity as anything else, I gave up the idea. It was in
vain to think of reaching it by stealth, since the natives escorted me
in numbers wherever I went, and not for one single moment that I can
recall to mind was I ever permitted to be alone.

The green and precipitous elevations that stood ranged around the
head of the vale where Marheyo's habitation was situated effectually
precluded all hope of escape in that quarter, even if I could have
stolen away from the thousand eyes of the savages.

But these reflections now seldom obtruded upon me; I gave myself up to
the passing hour, and if ever disagreeable thoughts arose in my mind, I
drove them away. When I looked around the verdant recess in which I was
buried, and gazed up to the summits of the lofty eminence that hemmed me
in, I was well disposed to think that I was in the 'Happy Valley',
and that beyond those heights there was naught but a world of care
and anxiety. As I extended my wanderings in the valley and grew more
familiar with the habits of its inmates, I was fain to confess that,
despite the disadvantages of his condition, the Polynesian savage,
surrounded by all the luxurious provisions of nature, enjoyed an
infinitely happier, though certainly a less intellectual existence than
the self-complacent European.

The naked wretch who shivers beneath the bleak skies, and starves among
the inhospitable wilds of Tierra-del-Fuego, might indeed be made happier
by civilization, for it would alleviate his physical wants. But the
voluptuous Indian, with every desire supplied, whom Providence has
bountifully provided with all the sources of pure and natural enjoyment,
and from whom are removed so many of the ills and pains of life--what
has he to desire at the hands of Civilization? She may 'cultivate his
mind--may elevate his thoughts,'--these I believe are the established
phrases--but will he be the happier? Let the once smiling and populous
Hawaiian islands, with their now diseased, starving, and dying natives,
answer the question. The missionaries may seek to disguise the matter
as they will, but the facts are incontrovertible; and the devoutest
Christian who visits that group with an