58.

in the Years 1824, 1825. Captain the Right Hon. Lord Byron, Commander. 4to. pp. 260. 21. 2s. London: Murray. 1827. ALTHOUGH We have so lately, in reviewing Mr. Ellis's excellent work*, presented to our readers the principal details which have been recently collected concerning the Sandwich Islands, yet we cordially embrace the opportunity, which the present volume affords us, of returning to the subject. We are to recollect, that the people inhabiting those remote specks on the bosom of the Pacific, are what may be called mediate subjects of the British crown; they have sought and obtained its protection, and distant and uncultivated though they be, they have some right to our attention, and not a few claims upon our sympathy.

Their present condition is, besides, particularly interesting to every philosophical observer of human nature; as it affords the rare spectacle of a rude community, but lately become known to the civilised world, and only now emerging from the revolting practices of a Pagan worship, and the brutal customs of a savage existence. Though the merit of discovering them belongs to England, yet it is pleasant to remember that we have done them no wrong; we have seized none of their islets; we have no views upon any of their harbours or promising possessions. All our intercourse with them has been, with one or two accidental exceptions, of the most beneficent and useful character; our only object being to raise them from the creeping state in which we found them, and to give them true notions of the dignity, and worth, and capabilities, of the species to which they belong.

It is a circumstance peculiarly favourable to this benign purpose, that the records of our navigation furnish no example of a newly discovered people, so friendly to our nation, so docile in their character, so ready to abolish every usage of their own, however sanctioned by time, which is shewn to be incompatible with their moral and social improvement. They have already, as we learned from Mr. Ellis, overthrown the shrines of their idols, and there is now scarcely a pagan image, or even a pagan rite, to be found amongst them. They have adopted Christianity, at least the leading principles of that doctrine, according to the imperfect manner in which those principles have been expounded to them by English and American missionaries. We find also, from the volume now before us, that those islanders are also beginning to feel the propriety of covering their persons, and to assume our costume; to evince a ready inclination towards the fine arts of civilised life which have as yet been communicated to them; and, what is of great importance, to recognise the necessity of placing their internal social relations and institutions upon a basis which

M. R., vol. ii., p. 203.

will at once afford them security of property and person, and in time open to them facilities for rational liberty.

Much of the advance which these islanders have already made is, doubtless, to be ascribed to the happy natural dispositions with which they appear to be almost universally endowed. But certainly, much of it also, if not the greater part, is to be attributed to their late king, Riho Riho, or, as he afterwards called himself, Tamehameha II., who led the way, as their reformer, and during his too short career evinced a degree of intellectual elevation, and a steady resolution in carrying his innovations into effect, to which the early history even of our own country, or of any other part of Europe, exhibits few parallels. His determination to quit his own realms for a season, and to visit a country at a distance from Hawaii of half the circumference of the globe, being as nearly as possible the antipode of that island, shewed of itself that the mind of Tamehameha was one of no mean order, particularly as we know that he was prompted to this enterprise by a desire to see with his own eyes, the difference between the triumphs of civilisation, in their highest splendour, and the privations and wretchedness of man in the lowest state of barbarism. There was also, it must be owned, a keen sagacity evinced in the anxiety which he felt for repeating the act already performed by his father, of placing his island dominions under the protecting flag of Great Britain. Generally we find that newly discovered tribes, or at least their chieftains, from their ignorance of any condition of existence higher than their own, are filled with the most exaggerated notions of their own importance, and disdain all foreign alliance. But Tamehameha's mind was framed in an European mould. He not only judiciously appreciated the value of a connection with England, considering the local position of the Sandwich Islands, but he exposed himself and his beloved consort to the perils of a long voyage, in order to secure that object in the most solemn and binding manner. A wise Providence deemed it right that those perils should be attended with fatal consequences; though it may be that the very circumstance of the young Iconoclast's death, in a foreign land, will rather tend to impart a dear and sacred character to the institutions which he established, and by thus compensating for their want of antiquity, accelerate their consolidation.

The reader need not be informed that the Blonde was commissioned, under the command of Captain Lord Byron, to convey to the Sandwich Islands the bodies of Tamehameha and his queen, who died in London, in 1824. The narrative of the voyage, which appears to have been principally supplied by the Rev. Mr. Bloxam, chaplain to the vessel, contributes but very few and unimportant additions to the account which Mr. Ellis has already given of those islands. The details of the proceedings which took place at Hawaii, upon the arrival of the Blonde with the royal remains, will be read, however, with some interest, as will also that portion of

the volume drawn up by Mrs. Maria Graham, in which, after giving a historical view of the Sandwich Islands, she presents us with an authentic sketch of the manner in which the late king, his consort, and household, spent the brief period of their visit amongst us. This sketch is written with Mrs. Graham's usual simplicity and clearness, from notes placed at her disposal, by, we believe, the gentleman (the Hon. Frederick Byng) to whose guardianship the strangers were properly assigned, by Mr Canning, as soon as they reached London.

On Mrs. Graham's historical matter we must observe, that it is unnecessarily prolix, that it might have been dispensed with altogether, and that it seems to have originated only in a desire on the part of the publisher, that the quantity of letter-press should appear, in some measure, to justify the form and price of a quarto volume. The materials naturally connected with the voyage,' if limited within their just bounds, might have found abundant room in an octavo, of 300 pages; and we cannot help thinking that in that shape it would have been equally acceptable to all classes of readers. The mere historical part of the work we shall therefore pass over, in order that we may be able to do justice to Mrs. Graham's more novel and original pages, as well as to those of the Rev. Chaplain.

It is said, we know not upon what authority, that in addition to the motives which we have already mentioned for Tamehameha's visit to England, he was anxious to take precautions against the power of the Russians and Americans, as both, it seems, had evinced a strong disposition to appropriate some of his islands to their own purposes. They have, we believe, since desisted from that course; at least, their governments have disavowed those proceedings of their officers, of which Tamehameha complained.

Considerable opposition was at first given to the departure of the king and queen, but upon their consenting that an intelligent person named Boki, should accompany them, that opposition was withdrawn. Boki was brother of Karaimoku, the Sandwich prime minister, who called himself William Pitt, and to whom the regency of the islands was committed on the king's departure. He was accompanied by his wife, Liliah, or Kuinee, the particular friend and adopted sister of the queen, and a chief equal in rank to her husband. Besides these persons, the king was attended by Kapihe, his admiral, by Kuanoa, his treasurer, Manuia, his purvolutiond two inferior chiefs. He was desirous of having Mr. feel the printerpreter, but as such an arrangement, it appears, did tume; to evinod pleasure of Captain Starbuck, an American, the lised life which gle, of London, which was freighted for the king, what is of great ibe name of Rives, a fugitive, who had been for their internal social in the Sandwich islands, was fixed upon for

ribed as a person of a 'low, cunning, and *M.ted in every respect to serve such a

master as Starbuck, who betrayed the interests of his owners by diverting the Aigle from the commercial pursuits for which she was destined, in order that he might have an opportunity of enriching himself out of the funds of Tamehameha, which were imprudently entrusted to his care. Of his administration of them, no second opinion can be formed, when we add, that the king's chest contained 25,000 dollars when he embarked, and that when he arrived in London, they were reduced to 10,000, without Starbuck's being able to account for the disbursement of more than 3 or 4000. During the voyage he gambled with his passengers, and on his arrival at Portsmouth (in May 1824), he landed them, without giving the slightest notice to the government, of course, in order that his own power might be protracted as long as possible, for the same sordid purpose of pecuniary gain. They even performed the journey to London under his superintendence; but the moment Mr. Canning was apprised of their arrival, he placed them under the protection of government. Their first appearance was, it may be supposed, a little outré.

"The whole of the king's baggage, including the money, had been left on board the Aigle at Portsmouth, to go round to the river in the ship; and when the ladies were first seen in London, they were dressed in very strange habiliments. The queen wore trousers and a long bed-gown of coloured velveteen, and her friend Kuinee or Liliah, the wife of Boki, had on something of the same kind. They were playing whist with a pack of very dirty cards, complaining bitterly of the cold, and were upon the whole, in a state as far removed as possible from regal dignity.

The first object was of course to provide dresses suitable to the climate, and also to the condition of the wearers; and it was impossible for any persons to be more tractable, or adapt themselves with more good temper to the usages of this country, than the whole party. The decorum of their behaviour was admirable during their residence in the hotel. Not one instance occurred of their overstepping the bounds of decency or civility in their intercourse with the different persons appointed to wait on them; not a suspicion that any one of the chiefs had offered the slightest insult to any woman; nor was there any of that gluttony and drunkenness with which those islanders, and especially the king, have been wantonly charged by some who ought to have known better. It is true that, unaccustomed to our habits, they little regarded regular hours for meals, and that they liked to eat frequently, though not to excess. Their greatest luxury was oysters, of which they were particularly fond; and one day, some of the chiefs having been out to walk, and seeing a grey mullet, instantly siezed it, and carried it home, to the great delight of the whole party, who, on recognising the native fish of their own seas, could scarcely believe that it had not swam hither or purpose for them, or be persuaded to wait till it was cooked before they ate it. Once, and once only, they drank a considerable quantity of wine; it was when, after repeated and extraordinary illbehaviour, the interpreter Rives was dismissed. This event gave them all the highest satisfaction, and they sat carousing all night; but even then they only consumed twenty bottles of wine, and that was not much among so many.

'As to their manners, it must be in the recollection of many persons, that they were decorous and self-possessed on all occasions. When they were kindly invited to a large assembly at Mr. Secretary Canning's, the curiosity to see these inhabitants of nearly the Antipodes, caused, as is usual in London, where, as of old, we are more eager after strange sights than in any other place, a sort of bustle and crowding round of a welldressed mob, to look at the strange king and queen and nobles; but the laughter and the exclamations which seem to have been ready prepared for the royal strangers, soon died away, when it was perceived that not the slightest embarrassment or awkwardness was displayed by them, and that the king knew how to hold his state, and the erees (chiefs), to do their service, as well as if they had practised all their lives in European courts. The chiefs were much delighted with the politeness of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, who were of the party. The queen particularly felt gratified with that kind urbanity of manner which distinguished her royal highness, and which on this occasion, was both a protection to the strangers and an honour to herself.'-pp. 58-62.

The party went through the "sights" of London with great glee -Westminster-abbey, the parks, and theatres. They went to Epsom races, and in talking of that splendid national exhibition afterwards, they always said the horses flew. They were unhappily stopt short in their pleasant visitations on the 10th of June, when Manuia, the king's purveyor, who caught the measles at Deptford or Wapping, was laid up, excessively ill. The king was affected with the same disease in three days after; and on the 19th, the queen, Liliah, and all the Sandwich chiefs, were in a similar condition. On the 8th of July, the queen died, though most of her suite had in the meantime recovered. It is impossible not to admire the conduct of Liliah and the king on this melancholy occasion.

'Liliah, whose dutiful and affectionate behaviour to her friend and mistress had been most exemplary, now took charge of her body, and disposed it after the manner of her country, unclothing it to the waist, leaving also the ancles and feet bare, and carefully dressing the hair and adorning it with chaplets of flowers. The king now desired the body might be brought into his apartment, and laid on a small bed near him; that being done, he sat up looking at it, but neither speaking nor weeping. The medical attendants observed, that the state of Riho Riho was such as rendered it highly improper to keep the queen's body near him, and it was therefore proposed to him, to allow it to be taken away; but he sat silent, and answered no one, only by gestures shewing that he forbade its removal. At length, after much persuasion, and then leaving him to himself for a time, he suddenly made signs that it might be taken away; which was accordingly done, and the queen was again placed on her own bed.'—p. 67.

Tamehameha's disorder after this rapidly increased; and on the 14th he breathed his last. He had desired that his remains, and those of his queen, should be conveyed to his native country; and until a vessel should be prepared for that purpose, they were deposited, suitably cased, in a vault under the church of St. Martin's in the fields.