led Christian strangers, who
were furious at finding that they could no longer indulge in the gross
licence in which in former days they had been accustomed to revel. Not
only were they insulted by masters of whalers, but the American
missionaries complain that they were ill-treated by the commander of one
of their own men-of-war, and by all his subordinates. From such sources
have arisen the numerous calumnies current against the missionaries in
the South-Sea."

[See Note 2.]

"In about ten years from the landing of the first missionaries one-third
of the population were under instruction, and there were no less than
nine hundred native teachers; but even at that time, and much later,
there were many heathens, and vice and immorality were very prevalent
among professing Christians. Still among all classes there were notable
examples of true piety, and ardent zeal for the propagation of the
truth. The excellent queen-mother, Kaahumanu, by her precept and
example did much to advance the cause of religion. I must tell you of
another native lady, Kapiolani, the wife of Naike, the public orator of
the kingdom, by whose courage and faith one of the most terrible of the
old superstitions of Hawaii was overthrown. The old religion was
coloured by the awful volcanic phenomena of which these islands are the
theatre. The most fearful of all their deities was Pele, a goddess
supposed to reside in the famous volcano of Kilauea. Here, with her
attendant spirits, she revelled amid the fiery billows as they dashed
against the sides of the crater. To the base of this volcano the old
heathenism, driven from the rest of Hawaii, slowly retreated, though the
priestesses of Pele several times ventured even into the presence of the
king, to endeavour by threats of the vengeance of the goddess to induce
him to support the faith of his fathers. These impostors still
exercised considerable influence over the uneducated masses.

"Kapiolani, bold in the Christian faith, resolved practically to show
how utterly powerless were these supposed fiery gods. After a journey
of a hundred miles, as she neared the side of the mountain, a prophetess
of the supposed goddess met her with warnings and denunciations of
vengeance. But undauntedly she persevered, and as she stood on the
black edge of the seething caldron she addressed, in words of perfect
faith, the anxious bystanders watching for the effects of Pele's wrath:
`Jehovah is my God: He