In the very heart of the Pacific, nearly equidistant from the Old and the New World, lies a group of islands, unsurpassed for salubrity of climate, and equalled by few in fertility of soil. Uniting in their bosom the health-giving breezes of a temperate clime, with the gorgeous splendors of tropical verdure, Nature seems to have marked and isolated them for the purpose of working out there some great end, some wondrous experiment, requiring a peculiar sphere, and combining antagonistic elements; in short, a fitting battleground for barbarism and civilisation. Any one who has paid attention to the history of the Pacific Ocean, for the last fifty years, will readily understand that we mean the Sandwich Islands; a group of volcanic formation, extending from 18° 50′ to 22° 20′ N. latitude, and from 154° 53' to 160° 15′ longitude west from Greenwich, embracing an area of 6100 square miles, nearly equidistant from Central America, Mexico, California, and the North-West Coast, and also from the Russian dominions,

Japan, China, and the Philippine Islands. They are designated, by the natives, the Hawaii-nei; a term synonymous with Hawaiian Islands.

Of this group, we have now for the first time an authentic history. The author of the volume referred to at the foot of this page, is already favorably known to us as the late editor and publisher of the Polynesian, a weekly journal of character and respectability, and an authority upon the commerce, religion, and general history of the Pacific. From a residence at the Sandwich Islands during some of the most eventful periods of their history, and from the independent position occupied by him there between the parties by whose intrigues and rivalries they have been for many years agitated, Mr. Jarves is unquestionably entitled to respect for his statements of opinion, and to confidence for his statements of facts positively within his own knowledge. Unconnected with the government or with the American Missionaries, he is as reliable a witness and histo

rian, as, in a dispute between American Protestantism on the one side, and, on the other, French Catholicism, in partial alliance with English anti-Americanism, we could under any circumstances expect to find in a zealous American and vehement Protestant. If by an expression thus guarded, we imply some want of entire reliance on the impartial fidelity of the whole of our author's narrative, we neither make nor mean any other insinuation than he is a man. For though personally ourselves both American and Protestant, we cannot claim for even the combination of those two attributes, that unprejudiced, unerring infallibility, which both Mr. Jarves, the American Missionaries, and ourselves,would doubtless unite in denying to that Pope, whose representatives are alleged by him to have brought so much trouble and confusion, religious and political, into the before peaceful order and uniformity of doctrine prevailing in the Islands.

Who were the ancient Hawaiians, the date of the first settlement of the group, the succession of kings, and the increase of civilisation up to the time when they first became known to Europeans are questions to which we look in vain for solution to the records or traditions of the Hawaiian Islands. For an imaginative people, their traditions are singularly barren and uninteresting. It is, however, worthy of attention, that, like most savage nations, they possess an account of a flood, said to have taken place at a remote period, in which some of the inhabitants were saved by taking refuge in a canoe which rested on the summit of Mauna-Kea, the highest mountain in the Islands. Their origin, too, is accounted for by the statement of an emigration from Tahiti, rendered probable by various points of evidence, on which we need not dwell. So vague and dim, however, had become even the memory of this tradition, that though the name Tahiti is still preserved in the Hawaiian language, it was applied to any foreign country, and to this day its actual signification answers to the English term "abroad." A communication once existed with the other various Polynesian groups, by means of much larger vessels than the canoes, alone in existence when first visited by Captain Cook; and certain points of departure, as the southern extremnities of Hawaii and

Kahoolawe, are still designated as "the foreign roads.”

The profession of the bards, though highly honorable, does not seem to have added much to the store of knowledge, and was rather confined to the excitement of religious enthusiasm, by wild and imaginative songs and odes. Their historical labors were limited to lyrical narrations of miraculous interpositions, to the battles of shadowy though bloodthirsty heroes, and to stirring relations of more than uncertain events. Their men become gods, and their gods as suddenly relapse into men, each seeming perplexed,

"incertus scamnum, faceretne Priapum."

There is little doubt-indeed, nonethat the group were visited by Europeans, probably by the Spaniards, previously to the voyage of Captain Cook. That great navigator found the value of iron, of which there existed no native specimens, well known. On the return of the first visitors sent to examine Cook's ships, the report of the great quantity of iron seen on board the ships excited the cupidity of the chiefs, and one of the warriors volunteered to seize it, saying, "I will go and take it, as it is my business to plunder." He went, and in the attempt was fired upon and killed. Some fragments of iron hoop and of a sword-blade, in possession of the chiefs, were said to have been left there by white men. Various traditions remain of the visits of parties of white men, either in vessels stopping at the Islands, or thrown on them by shipwreck. These were doubtless some of the earlier Spanish navigators of the Pacific. As Mr. Jarves remarks, the singularly "graceful form of the helmets, and the elegance of the feathered mantles, so unlike the usual rude arts of the islanders, bearing as they did a striking resemblance in form to those formerly worn among the Spaniards," together with other similar evidences of a better taste and knowledge, probably derived their origin from visitors of that nation. A number of Hawaiian words also exhibit a strong analogy with the Spanish. One white individual who thus landed alone on one of the islands-either the sole survivor from a shipwreck, or perhaps some zealous priest landing from a passing ship, in a solitary sublimity of self

devotion, as a missionary-is thus remembered in tradition by the name of Paao, as having brought with him a large and a small idol, which by his persuasions were enrolled in the Hawaiian calendar of gods, and as having become a powerful and influential man; that he was a humane one, too, would appear from the tradition of his having induced the king to spare the life of one of his sons who had been ordered to execution. The last of these visits can be referred to a period nearly a century and a half prior to Cook's arrival (in 1778); a time quite sufficient, when coupled with their many bloody wars and changes, to have dimmed the recollection of events, and thrown a veil over the whole. 66 Enough has been preserved," says our author,

"to establish the fact that centuries since, vessels visited these islands, and that several parties landed on them, and left progeny, whose descendants are distinguished even to this day, by their lighter skin, and brown or red curly hair, called ehu, and who highly esteem their origin. Kaikoewa, a celebrated warrior and late governor of Kauai, traced his ancestry to one of these strangers. A party of white men, called Hea, are said to have roamed wild in the mountains, occasionally making inroads upon the more fertile districts, much to the terror of the inhabitants, particularly the females."

But this fact is, after all, of no great importance, nor does it detract one leaf from the hard-earned laurels of Captain Cook. If others made the discovery, and chose for selfish purposes to conceal their knowledge, it is obvious that the real merit and honor will accrue to him who first disclosed his information to the world. Captain Cook, if not the first at the islands, is nevertheless the first who made known their existence to civilized nations, and as such, must be accounted their discoverer.

The situation of the Hawaiian Islands, in 1778, at the time of the arrival of this celebrated navigator, must be understood before we can comprehend the almost miraculous changes which have taken place from their intercourse with the more civilized white man. Imagination can hardly present a more degraded picture of imbruted heathenism than was there exhibited. Virtue, as such, was not known; indolence, which was supposed to be akin to good

nature, was the nearest approach to it. Superstition the most blind and besotted, kept in continual and fearful operation by a wicked priesthood, knew no bounds to its credulity. A multitude of cruel, blood-loving, and licentious gods, and the universal terrors of witchcraft, enforced and retained a horrible power in the human sacrifices and obscene rites which they enjoined. Home had no pleasant associations, and the natural love of kin had no existence. Cruelty to the aged and infirm, and the more unnatural crime of infanticide, were so common as to pass unnoticed as the change of the seasons. Such friendship and hospitality as are practicable without kindness, were not wanting. The social virtues, which flow from the relations of the sexes, found their only acceptation in a frightful licentiousness and a promiscuous concubinage. Woman had no influence, as she was more degraded than her master. Thievishness and drunkenness pervaded all ranks. The arbitrary tabu, issued by priest or chief, threw a fatal chain over the common people, who, from ages of oppression and slavery, degenerated till they became the fit tools of their masters, who ruled with an unsparing rigor. Their wars were cruel, and cannibalism was not the most revolting feature. In short, a brutal fear was the holiest sentiment of their religion, and an abuse of all the bountiful gifts of the Creator afforded the only proof of their existence as free agents.

It is needless to recapitulate the events of Cook's visit to the Hawaiian Islands. They are familiar to all of us from childhood. His tragical

fate furnished the natural termination of the interesting tale. Mr. Jarves gives a spirited description of that unfortunate mariner's death, from which we should be pleased to quote, did our limits permit. He attributes that untoward event to want of judgment,-added to a line of conduct, in relation to the savages by whom he was received as a long expected divinity, but little creditable to him, either as a man of humanity, or of good faith and just dealing. As Cook was treated as a God by the natives, and hesitated not to take advantage of their superstition for his own selfish ends, when they discovered their mistake, revenge, the first impulse of a savage, as well for many other wrongs