has not left the slightest impression on his mind unfavourable to the Mission. No interruption to the pleasant and friendly intercourse which had commenced between himself and the Missionaries, took place; and three weeks afterwards, at a public council of the chiefs, called for the purpose of formally establishing the right of the young king to the throne, and at which Lord Byron presented the schedule of civil and political principles mentioned in the Review, he openly and fully avowed his approbation of our object and proceeding, and gave his sanction to the confidence and favour bestowed on us by the government.

The very last time this nobleman was on shore previous to his final departure from Oahu, two months after the affair of the phantasmagoria, he led me aside for a moment's private conversation; at the close of which he requested my candid opinion of the general impression made by his visit. I expressed the firm belief, that no officer in the British navy could have given more entire satisfaction, or have secured more of the confidence and affection of both chiefs and people; and added, that I would assume the responsibility of saying, in the name of the Missionaries, that in departing from the Islands he carried with him, their high respect, gratitude, and blessing. He replied, that he rejoiced in this assurance; and on his part, was truly happy to say to me, that on his return to England, he should feel it a duty and privilege to meet the inquiries of government and of the Christian public, concerning the American Missionaries, with the declaration that they were worthy of their confidence and favour, and were the best friends and benefactors of the nation.

And this, Sir, was the report he gave on reaching Great Britain. Though we parted on the shores of Oahu, not expecting ever to see each other again in this world, we landed in England within a fortnight of the same time, and met in London a few weeks afterwards. But not till Lord Byron had given a satisfactory proof of the sincerity of his assurance

to me on parting at the Islands, by a public speech, (before a highly respectable and numerous audience,-the late Mr. Butterworth, M. P. in the chair,) in which he mentioned the American Missionaries with commendation, and gave a highly favourable account of their success.

Such are some of the reasons which lead me wholly to disbelieve that his lordship has been accessory to the detraction of the Reviewer.

Your's, &c.

C. S. STEWART.

LETTER V.

To Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions.

Boston, July 18.

The last charge I pledged myself to substantiate against

the Reviewer is that of falsehood.

"the subjects

"By Mr. Ellis's own account," he says, usually chosen for the discourses of the Missionaries, are the most unsuitable to be addressed to an uneducated multitude that can possibly be imagined—such, for instance, as the Virgin Mary and the immaculate conception-the Trinity and the Holy Ghost." These are points on which, as thus stated, not a single sermon was ever preached at the Sandwich Islands by any one of the Missionaries; and it is with the most bare-faced effrontery, that the writer refers to Mr. Ellis's book, in support of the calumny. As a specimen of all the subjects of discourse mentioned by Mr. Ellis, I will transcribe, without selection or known omission, the texts found in the first hundred pages of his Tour. Speaking of the observance of the first Sabbath on Hawaii, he remarks,

"Mr. Bishop preached from John iii. 16, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,"—and endeavoured, in the most familiar manner, to set before the people the great love of God in sending his Son to die for sinners, and the necessity of forsaking sin, and believing on him, in order to eternal life. The succeeding passages within the limit mentioned above, are -"This is the day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."-" Blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see."-" Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."- "We preach unto you, that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein."-" Good and upright is the Lord; therefore will he teach sinners in the way."-" This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acception, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, &c. &c. &c. It is then alleged that "according to their (the Missionaries') rule, the more time that is spent in preaching, praying, and singing, the better. The least that is required from the half-naked converts of Owhyhee, &c. is to attend at church five times every day; and on Sundays they are strictly prohibited from cooking any kind of victuals, or even making a fire. Boki was refractory on this point,-protested strongly against a tabu of this rigid nature, and insisted on having his tea on Sunday mornings, as he was accustomed in London."

This statement is almost too ridiculously untrue to be worthy of refutation. The religious services held by the Missionaries at the churches with the natives, instead of being five every day, are only three in each week-two of these are on the Sabbath, and the third on the afternoon of Wednesday. At the time I left the Islands in 1825,

there was a catechetical exercise every Monday, at which, however, some fifty or a hundred only of the people attended

also a prayer-meeting on Friday, held by a few natives themselves, and at which the Missionaries were seldom present.

The manner of cooking among the natives is totally different from our's-they are universally in the habit of preparing at one time a quantity of food sufficient for several days, and the process of doing this requires the labour of nearly a whole day. Not to have discouraged this labour on the Sabbath, would have been to allow it to remain unnecessarily a day of work. We therefore advised both chiefs and people to have their poe (a principal article of diet) beaten and mixed before the Sabbath; but this advice was unaccompanied by any prohibition whatever, much less by that of kindling a fire. As to the making of tea and such refreshments on the Sabbath, Boki could hardly have found occasion for the remark attributed to him. It would not have been necessary for him to have pleaded his indulgencies in London to secure his cup of tea-he need only have pointed to the same hot beverage on the breakfast and tea tables of the Missionaries every Sabbath, and asked why we partook so openly of a luxury which by rigid tabu we denied to him and his people?

All our instructions in reference to the Sabbath were founded on the general principle of avoiding unnecessary work, and abstaining from unsuitable recreations; and in no instance did they extend to the introduction of burdensome observances, or to the injunction of any self-denial involving an unprofitable austerity.

We are next presented with a series of allegations, supported by the name and letters of Captain Beechey, commander of H. M. sloop of war, the Blossom. This officer visited the Sandwich Islands in May, 1826, on his way to Behring Straits, and as the Reviewer says, writes to England in the following manner: "The efforts of the few

zealous Missionaries are tending, as fast as possible, to lay waste the whole country, and plunge the inhabitants into civil war and bloodshed. Thousands of acres of land, that before produced the finest crops, are now sandy plains. Provisions are so extremely scarce, that not long since the king sent to beg a little bread of the American Consul: the fishery is almost deserted, and nothing flourishes but the Missionary school."

Captain Beechey's visit at the Sandwich Islands was limited to a period of about ten days; and it is not probable that his report of the condition and prospects of the nation was the result of extensive personal observation. He has the reputation of being an intelligent and scientific man; but in this single instance, at least, he must have permitted his better judgment to have been imposed on by the misrepresentation of others, and must have yielded the sense of seeing entirely to that of hearing, in forming his opinion of the state of the Islanders. He could not have been on shore an hour at the port of Honoruru, where he came to an anchor, without having the fullest proof that the king at least was in no danger of starvation.

But to the charges of his letter in their order. He states that the country is becoming a desolation from the influence of the Missionaries-that thousands of acres of land that before (their efforts) produced the finest crops, are now sandy plains. In the year 1804, sixteen years before the arrival of the Missionaries at the Sandwich Islands, Mr. Shaler, a gentleman of respectability and information, at present American Consul at Algiers, was at that group in the Pacific. His journal was published, and a copy of it was politely put into my hands by Dr. Mease, of Philadelphia, shortly after I saw this account of Captain Beechey. Mr. Shaler notices the same desolate plains as bearing marks of former high cultivation, which caused the commander of the Blossom so much alarm; but he attributes their appearance to a much more rational cause-the despot