LITTLE, or, strictly speaking, nothing is known of the origin of the great Malayan nation, which has spread traces of itself across one third of the earth's circumference. When it first comes upon European notice, some six centuries ago, it was a kingdom or people in its decadence; possessing, however, a powerful navy and that kind of barbaric civilisation which we are accustomed to find in the East. But [294/295] whether its population spread from a centre in or about Sumatra, right and left, or whether hordes originally came down from the north-east, through or along the coasts of China, is a problem that we may guess at, but shall probably never see demonstrated. All races are modified by change of place and external influences, just as our sheep and cattle take characteristics from the pastures on which they feed: the radical of the particular human race remains, but the differences sometimes become so great as to obscure the root. Long attrition makes a sixpence and a half franc look much alike. The maritime tendencies of the Malayans caused them to throw themselves farther and farther towards the sun-rising, by the stepping-stones of successive groups of islands; but whilst the emigrant tribes were sufficiently influenced by new conditions to have acquired the distinction of "oceanic," their unity can be made out by language, hair, taste, and traditions. Such emigrations led them as far to the eastward as the islands of Hawaii; and it remains a question not yet determined in the negative, whether the nations of the southern continent, America, and even of the northern continent also, are not the drift from islands 2000 miles to their west.

We are now to speak of the Polynesians of the small Hawaiian Archipelago, who have for five-and-forty years been more or less under Christian influence. Old things are passed away, in a great measure, there; and in considering their present state and what may be their intellectual and spiritual future, it would be interesting to try and estimate what their condition was, as a race, before Christianity reached them. The Hawaiians had terrible faults, but they were not altogether sunk and degraded. Lake the Maori race, they were exceedingly brave and addicted to war, but were not apparently so completely barbarous as the New Zealanders. If cannibalism ever prevailed, it would seem to have been partial and exceptional; but the people deny the accusation altogether; and it says something for their morals that they feel keenly that such an accusation, even of the old days, is humiliating. In person the type of their figure was a fine model. Misery and want of food produced bad specimens among the serf-classes, whilst the chiefs, who were abundantly nourished, and fagged only to their kings, developed to a tall and handsome standard. The skin differed according to exposure, some individuals becoming almost black, but the normal tint was a full olive. The hair was never woolly, nor so lank as the red Indians of America: in the chiefs whom we have seen it had a greater resemblance to the hair of Europeans. It should be added, that there are [295/296] traces of a distant and transient visit of Spaniards, which may have been enough to have raised up a difference in part of the population. The singular discovery of Hebrew customs and traditions in the islands, too distinct and numerous to be overlooked, may indicate that the original emigration from the Straits of Malacca, or the great islands to the eastward, took place after a Moslem proselytism of the Malays there.

Whatever, and however great were the vices, the tyranny, and the degradation which existed in Hawaii under the dark heathen system, it had not been such as to depopulate the islands. Taking one-half only of Captain Cook's estimate, and supposing that when he first visited them there were 200,000 people, then we find that, in eighty-five years intercourse with Americans and Europeans, the nation has been reduced two-thirds in spite of--or in consequence of--the white man's presence, and the crumbs of civilisation which the white man scattered. 70,000 is more than the present number of the native population. The people and their leaders were versatile in disposition, as was shown by their sudden revulsion to their ancient idolatrous system, and their rapid adhesion to Christianity when presented to them. Too facile in disposition, the seed sown sprang up readily, from the very want of depth of the soil in which it was cast. The nation gave up wars and became most peaceable; but they would not give up habitual sins, which have proved by the event more destructive to life than wars. As it was easy to the Hawaiians to dissimulate, probably they were in part unconscious dissemblers. The metal was like that which the people gave to Aaron--it looked like gold, but it crushed to powder under the hammer of Moses, as friable dross. It was difficult to discover to what extent the nation was Christianised; and the more sanguine and less suspicious of the American missionaries have certainly been led into the amiable error of believing the people better and more real converts than in fact they were.

The Hawaiian Islands, eight in number, lie nearly on the confines of the western hemisphere, and being about 22° above the equator, are just within the tropic; but owing to their insular condition, and the high mountain masses in Hawaii, the largest of the group, the climate is far more temperate and equable than would be supposed. They are distant forty degrees northward from Tahiti, whence their discoverer, Captain Cook, approached them. About 2000 miles from the American seaboard, and the nearest available land, the group is important as a rallying point and place of refreshment for whalers, [296/297] merchantmen, and ships of war. Unhappily the seafaring side of our nation is not that which reflects a high image of our morality or religion. The contact with American and European traders and seamen has added to the national degradation, and does much to counteract the good which the most earnest missionary efforts can effect. The evil example of men professing Christianity among nations lately heathen, is a deadly argument used against Christ's religion; and it was after a late sad instance of English misconduct in the islands, that the pious Queen who has lately visited our country said to the writer of the present paper, in the bitterness of her spirit, "If such things are the fruits of European civilisation, it would have been almost better that the poor Hawaiians had been left in their original darkness!"

The material, then, on which the envoys of our Church were sent to work, four years ago, was one mixed of favourable and unfavourable ingredients. Quick in apprehension, volatile in disposition, unconsciously sceptical in mental habit, possessing hereditary vices which they neither reckoned nor knew to be vices, these Polynesians did not oppose a new religion, but were ready, even eager, to adopt it. They had, in 1819, by an automatic effort, overthrown their own idols, and they accepted with pleasure a spiritual and more elevated creed. They could do this without pain from the want of persistence in their character. This light-hearted people, who could "laugh and cry without a reason," or at least, would pass rapidly from grief to laughter, assumed with ease the system of Christianity, whilst yet they retained their bosom sins. In the forty years during which the North American missionaries had laboured among them there had been some real, together with much apparent success. An Areopagite here, and a woman who sold purple there, still witnessed by a consistent change of life to the living principle of the gospel of Christ: whilst the form of the government and the institutions of the nation had been altered under the missionaries' influence; and the education which the royal family and some of the chiefs had obtained was the result of the same activity. Still the nation was dying out, decreasing by rapid steps, four years ago, in spite of the Congregationalists of Boston, and the priests from France, who had also laboured in the islands for several years. The virus of new poisons, moral and physical, had been introduced from without, and added to their own peculiar evils. In secret the old rites were sometimes practised, many persons were actually prayed to death, infants were destroyed, and idleness and poverty made easy victims for death. [297/298] If when our Church at last responded to the call for help, her messengers found many difficulties to contend against, they also found a great interest attaching to the people among whom they went, and many grounds of hope that that people might be saved from perishing, and bound up in the bundle of life.

Details of the organisation and reception of the Church Mission in Hawaii must be left for a future number.

IN the last number of this Magazine a sketch was attempted of the social and religious conditions of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands at the time the first emissaries of our Church--or its apostles, as they might be called with equal propriety---set foot in the capital, Honolulu. Politically, the realm was already organised, and a limited monarchy had for many years been the form of government there. The warrior king, Kaméhaméha I., had, in the first years of the present century, consolidated all the separate islands under one rule; and the fourth monarch of his name was reigning, if not with great power, with humane and enlightened authority, in 1861.

Kaméhaméha IV., the late king, and Kaméhaméha V., the present king of Hawaii, then the Princes Alexander Liholiho and Lot Kaméhaméha, had visited Europe and America in the year 1851. Although young, they were of age sufficient to understand and appreciate what they saw of European civilisation, and possessing unusual intelligence and observation, the visit made a powerful impression on them, and was fraught with important consequences to the future of the islands. A yearning for England had long been a sort of tradition amongst many Hawaiians; but England had not been very demonstrative, and America was nearer and far more numerously represented in the islands. After the visit of the royal youths to Europe, however, more definite ideas of England and France, more knowledge of their manners and their institutions supplied the place of that vague inclination in the minds of the princes. They were kindly received in London and at the Court of the Tuileries, and probably the aristocratic form of society in Europe was more consonant to their sympathies than democratic America, as members of a feudal and monarchical people. Kaméhaméha IV. succeeded to the throne in 1854, and soon afterwards married Emma, the adoptive [317/318] daughter of Dr Rooke, an English physician, many years settled in Honolulu. She was grandaughter to John Young, an Englishman who settled in the islands, and married a chiefess of high rank, and whose memory is highly respected there. He left two daughters, by name Grace and Fanny Kakela, of whom the former married Dr Rooke, and the other was mother to the Queen Emma, who, from her infancy, was adopted and educated by him. This alliance, no doubt, increased the young king's English tendencies.

Although the American missionaries, from whom the king had received his education, had in many respects reason to be proud of their pupil, and had striven--and not altogether in vain--to impress the great truths of Christianity upon his mind; yet they had failed to make him what could be called a religious man. From some cause, probably from several causes, he revolted from their teaching, and he did not regulate his conduct by their code. Nevertheless, the good seed they had sown was not lost. After a time it sprang up and brought forth fruit, although not precisely that which the sowers looked for.

The responsibilities and experiences of government, increasing acquaintance with the needs of his people, a happy marriage, the new interests and anxieties of paternity--these things combined awoke in the young king the dormant earnestness that was in his character, and aroused in him nobler and higher aims and aspirations. He felt his own and his people's spiritual needs--there was something he sought in vain in the Calvinism that surrounded him--nor, when he turned to the French Romanists settled amongst his people, was he satisfied. His heart turned to England and England's Church; he provided himself with books, he read upon the subject, the latent idea grew into strong conviction, and at last into definite action: an appeal for the establishment of the English Church was made to England, and was responded to. It is interesting to know that it was a subject of conversation between the king and queen in what way this would be accomplished, and of their wishing that an Episcopal See should be founded in their islands. We need not here dwell upon the manner in which the Mission was gradually organised, but will only briefly say that, with the help and support of the Bishop of Oxford, and with the sanction and cordial approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of London and Chichester, a little band left England in August 1862, under the leadership of Bishop Staley. Glad and thankful as the friends of the Mission were at Dr Staley's consecration, the day was [318/319] a mournful one, for it was the morrow of the death of the late Prince Consort, and no one can forget what a gloom fell on the land that day. Bishop Staley's company consisted, besides his own family, of the Rev. G. Mason, his wife, and child, and the Rev. E. Ibbotson. Another clergyman and his family preceded them by a different route.

The Bishop and his party had a prosperous voyage; but again the shadow of death fell upon them at its completion. The first news they received in the harbour of Honolulu was that of the death of the Prince of Hawaii. Their initiatory public ceremonial was to have been the baptism of the royal child--one of their especial duties his education. Many were the plans and fond the hopes of his parents and of the nation for this boy, and deep the sorrow for his loss. The king and queen were absent and in retirement on the Bishop's arrival; but he and all his party were received with the utmost kindness, and with every mark of honour and respect, and the king and queen hurried back to welcome them. With all speed they fitted up their temporary wooden church, so as to give it as much of an ecclesiastical character as possible; but they sighed for a more appropriate temple for their worship. They held a service, however, the next morning "in native," which was well attended; and in a very short time they had organised a choir. By the aid of Mr Ibbotson's musical attainments, and most Hawaiians having correct ears and sweet voices, that part of the service was soon satisfactorily in train. The clergy had all begun the study of the language on the voyage, and had made some progress; but it was, of course, some time before they acquired sufficient command of it to preach or converse.

To the king they owed a great and unexpected assistance. He had undertaken the task of translating into Hawaiian our English Book of Common Prayer. The labour had solaced some of his sad hours after his great bereavement; and when the Bishop arrived, the work was nearly complete. He wrote a preface* [Footnote: * Published by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Price 1d.] to it in Hawaiian for his people, the English translation of which will excite feelings of surprise as well as of admiration in its readers. It is certainly a remarkable production, remembering the author's country, position, and education. The king produced upon every member of the party a strong and most favourable impression; and before long, was warmly endeared to them by his kindness to themselves, by his sorrows, and by the unusual interest of his mind and character. The bishop speaks of him in his journal with warm affection: he lived in [319/320] daily and intimate intercourse with him for the last year and a half of the king's life, and that intercourse continually strengthened his attachment and admiration. In Mrs Mason's letters home, she speaks of the charm of his manner, of his playfulness, his courtesy, his consideration for others, his lively interest in everything that could in any way raise or benefit his people. He was very earnest and energetic in forwarding all the Bishop's plans. He accompanied him on his mission tours; he assisted in the establishment of schools, and was especially anxious for the commencement of a girls' school, which was accordingly soon started under Mrs Mason. Mr Mason and Mr Ibbotson also were speedily engaged in this all-important labour of education. With services both in English and native, many and frequent, it will be readily perceived that the labour imposed on every member of the mission was very heavy,--and the greater the success, the heavier grew their task. A district visiting-society, too, was established; and many of the leading ladies, both native and foreign, headed by the young queen, gave their services, and grievous was the revelation of ignorance, degradation, and superstition that followed such an inspection. The magnitude of their work, and the smallness of their means, became more and more apparent to the missionaries. They gave all their powers to it, and looked anxiously to England for help. Alas! it was long in coming. Perhaps the evil most painfully evident was the low condition of the females. A life of idleness and vice deprives them of every attraction. Chastity seemed almost unknown. The women make bad wives and bad mothers, partly from immorality, partly from utter ignorance of the commonest rules of health or of domestic management. The children, whose birth is not welcome, because they give trouble, die away from neglect, from bad food, from no food, from the most preposterous mismanagement; and the mothers are just as careless and as helpless about themselves. To train and teach young Hawaiian girls so as to fit them for wives and mothers, to withdraw them as early as possible from evil associates, to lead them as much as possible to substitute English for their own language, which is terribly corrupt--this was an immediate need. Mrs Mason's school was soon overflowing. She found the children docile, intelligent, and affectionate, but needing great patience, firmness, and watchfulness. But the training, teaching, dressing, amusing, nursing, and providing for thirty children of all ages, was too much for the health and powers of one person, however able, active, and devoted.

(To be continued.)

[321] EXPLANATIONS OF ENGRAVINGS FROM HONOLULU PHOTOGRAPHS.

(By the Rev. E. IBBOTSON.)

S. ALBAN'S COLLEGE was established in 1864. It was commenced in a building adjoining the church, but as the pupils increased in numbers, it was found necessary to remove to more spacious and better adapted premises a mile out of Honolulu, upon a most suitable piece of land at the junction of the Nuuanu and Pauoa valleys. The buildings now consist of a large house eighty feet long which provides a school-room, dining-room' and dormitories for the boys; a residence for the warden, washing and bath houses, and a college chapel.

The situation is cool and pleasant. The winds from the mountains blow over it, and being on high ground it overlooks the city, bay, and harbour of Honolulu, and the shipping entering and leaving the port. There are daily choral services in the college chapel, with frequent celebrations of the blessed sacrament. The boys are all musically inclined, and take a great interest in singing. The choir of the Cathedral in Honolulu is supplied from this college. There are about thirty pupils (boarders) and a few day scholars. The present warden is the Rev. R. B. Post, a priest of the American Church, who joined the Bishop of Honolulu on his late visit to the United States. The college has, by God's blessing, thriven more than could be expected. It has gained the confidence of the king, the government, and the inhabitants of the country, and it is hoped that the present infant institution may prove to be the foundation of a future thriving and important missionary college on a large scale.

[Page 322, S. ALBAN'S MISSIONARY COLLEGE, HONOLULU.]

Adjoining the college is the country residence of one of the most earnest and devoted members of the Hawaiian Church, the Hon. David Kalakaua, a portrait of whom is given. He is a chief of very high birth, and was educated in one of the English schools when a boy, and is happily conversant with the English language. He joined the English mission immediately after the arrival of the bishop and clergy, not because the late king did so, but from a thorough conviction that the English Church was the purest branch of the Holy Catholic Church. He had read many theological works before the Mission arrived, and studied church history to no small extent, so that he could grasp the doctrines of the sacraments, apostolic succession, &c. He was among the first who presented themselves for confirmation. About a year after, he was married to a [321/323] native lady named Kapiolani. They both spend much of their time in church work. Kapiolani is the secretary of a working society, of which Queen Emma is superintendent, and also one of a band of district visitors. They are both members of the Hawaiian choir; while Kalakaua often assists in the English choir also. He is a brother of "the Guild of S. Alban," which was established in the earliest days of the Mission; the members are communicants, and bind themselves to work in any way in which they can further the objects and interests of the Church--such as bringing children to baptism and confirmation, making known the principles of the Church, enlisting new members, church decorations, assisting in funerals, visiting the sick, and reporting cases to the clergy. The guild meets monthly in the church for prayer and meditation. Kalakaua is the king's chamberlain, secretary to the Privy Council, and member of the House of Nobles, and colonel of the household troops. When not occupied in his official duties he will sit for fours, day after day, in his verandah reading books which he has borrowed from our libraries upon theological and historical subjects. He enjoys, for instance, such works as Bingham's "Antiquities," Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," Robertson's "Church History," &c. Kalakaua hopes some day to visit England. We are quite sure that if ever he carries out his wish, the English Church will give him a hearty welcome.

IT was shown in our last Number that the work of the Bishop and all his staff was severe, and it must continue to be so for a long time to come; yet the members of the Mission had their white days too. The tours which they found it necessary at intervals to make, although fatiguing, were extremely enjoyable from the beauty of the scenery, the novelty of the life, the charm of the climate, and the hospitality they generally met with. Their journals contain graphic descriptions of the great volcanoes, one active and one extinct. which after some time they found opportunity to visit. They had their festivals also, which in the early days of the Mission usually owed something to the kindness and sympathy of the King and Queen. Their first Christmas was a happy one. The Hawaiians had never known that season as one of rejoicing, and entered with eager interest into the preparations for it. They have great taste, and with their help the church was beautifully wreathed and decorated, not indeed with holly, but with tropical shrubs and flowers. On Christmas Eve a solemn service was held, which was fully attended, and the festival was ushered in with a torchlight procession, carols, and rejoicings. The Christmas services were made as beautiful and impressive as it was in the power of the clergy to render them; the music was fine, the preaching earnest, and, best of all, the worshippers were many and devout.

It was a glad season to the strangers, and seemed full of promise for the future. Alas! ere Christmas came round again, their friend, their support, their beloved King, was taken from them. His health, never strong, had received a severe shock at his son's death, and he had since had frequent attacks of illness, which caused much anxiety. He suffered from great depression at times, but endeavoured as much as possible to shake it off, and did not altogether withdraw himself from society. The end came unexpectedly. The King had been ailing, but not so much so as to cause alarm, and he was preparing to give a full-dress reception at the palace, at which, when the time came, he could not be present. At last he sank so suddenly that the Queen was almost alone with him, and there was not even time for the Bishop to reach him before he breathed his last. He died without the immediate consolations of religion, but both he and his [387/388] queen had received the holy communion at the Bishop's hands only a few days before, by his own request; indeed, the King and Queen had been regular communicants ever since their confirmation on St Andrew's day in the previous year.

The sorrow that was felt for the King's death was universal and intense; his chiefs, ministers, and personal friends, were overcome with grief; the people wailed and lamented around the palace; the Bishop and every member of the Mission sorrowed as for a friend and brother; but how heavy was the trial, how complete the bereavement, of the poor young Queen! husband and child both taken from her--a widow and desolate. The blow was so crushing that at first some fears were entertained for her health and even life, but she survived, and tried to submit herself to the chastening hand of God, seeking comfort and support in religion; and when she had in some degree recovered from the prostration of overwhelming grief, she devoted herself to all good works, to helping the afflicted and poor, to nursing the sick, aiding in everything where good was to be
done.

Kaméhaméha IV. was succeeded by his brother, the present king, the fifth monarch of the name. He was warmly attached to his brother, and declared his intention of carrying out his plans, and pursuing the same policy. Kaméhaméha V. is a man of considerable natural ability and force of character, is very industrious, and devotes himself to public affairs with great energy and application. He is rather shy and reserved, and lives a very retired life. The Bishop receives cordial support from him, and is in frequent intercourse with him.

The schools to which allusion has already been made, being felt to be the most important part of the work, demand the most constant and arduous labour. They have continuously increased, and will do so, though the increase must be limited by the number of workers, and the amount of means at the disposal of the Bishop.

Mr and Mrs Mason removed after a time to Lahaina, where they have since remained, and the schools at Honolulu were left in charge of Mr Ibbotson. Mrs Mason's health gave way for a time under the pressure of overwork and anxiety in a climate, which, though delightful for the idle, is less adapted for very great exertion. Happily in November 1864 the Bishop obtained the assistance of three ladies from the Devonport Sisterhood, and into their able hands Mrs Mason gave over the school at Lahaina, retaining under her own care a few who were either too young, or too old, or too poor for the [388/389] school, or who were placed more especially in her personal charge. The sisters have proved invaluable; their school is full and flourishing, containing thirty-six girls; and these ladies having been in the Crimea, the experience gained there, and their ready kindness, make them indeed a welcome resource in an island where there is no resident doctor, and whose inhabitants are absolutely helpless against disease and accident. A few more such helpers would be a tower of strength for the Bishop; for theirs is skilled labour, whereas the untrained and inexperienced, however willing, are often a source rather of weakness than of help.

The children in the schools are described to be much improved, especially in truthfulness and obedience. Mr Mason has about twenty boarders--boys, and a large day school, besides adult classes. Altogether at Lahaina there are about 200 children under instruction, including boarders and day-scholars. In the Nuuanu Valley, near Honolulu, St Alban's College has been established, of which Mr Ibbotson gave an account in the last number of Mission Life; and in Honolulu there is also a girls' school under the care of Miss Ibbotson and Miss Mason. All these schools are prospering; the natives value them highly, and the children are docile and intelligent; they need constant watchfulness and superintendence, but the labour, so far, appears not to be in vain. The future of the native race depends mainly on the training of' the rising generation, and the younger they can be taken into tuition the better. The moral atmosphere of their homes is seldom pure or wholesome, oftenest one of ignorance, immodesty, and superstition, not rarely of open vice.

Some of the old heathen practices still linger amongst the people; they still in secret sacrifice upon certain occasions a pig, or a cock, or a dog, to their former divinity Pele. One of the most singular and pernicious of their superstitions is the practice of praying to death. It reminds one of the belief once existing in England and elsewhere, that certain people could compass the death of an enemy, by making a waxen figure in his image, and causing it to melt gradually by the fire, under the idea that the victim pines away as the image wasted. In Hawaii many natives are so fully persuaded of the efficacy of these diabolical prayers, that the unhappy subject of them, when he hears that he is being prayed to death, frequently takes to his bed, and dies from terror.

The whole of the islands are professedly Christian, but the Bishop in his tours has met with much absolute heathenism. The decrease of the native population is sadly aggravated by the ignorance and [389/390] apathy of the people in sickness. Many lives are wantonly lost, especially amongst children. Many have been saved by the timely help of the female members of the Mission; for care, and nursing, and proper food the poor little ones cannot, and do not, get in their own homes, and even now, when medicine is given, the parents seldom make the children take it. If the schools combined the functions at the same time of foundling hospitals, they would be always full--a thing, of course, impossible; but as far as the means of the instructresses permit, they are always taking some fatherless or neglected children to rear and train; and those whose kind contributions enable them to add to this number will rejoice to think that they are helping not merely to educate, but to save the children both in body and soul. We have already said how docile and intelligent the children are--they are nearly all musical--many of them also fond of learning to draw. It has been attempted to teach them English games, but with what success we do not yet know; their climate is so relating that the children are usually listless and indolent. They are all greatly pleased to he treated as one family, and to meet with sympathy and affection. The American prejudice against colour has been strongly felt by them, and they respond warmly to a personal regard which is not affected by this.

When the establishment of an Episcopal Mission in the islands was first contemplated, the American Church was consulted, and invited to assist; six members entered warmly into the plan, and promised co-operation both in men and money. The breaking out of their unhappy civil war prevented the fulfilment of their engagements at that time; but when peace was restored, the Bishop of Honolulu was invited to the States, to attend the Church Conference in New York. In 1865, accordingly, the Bishop paid a visit to the United States, having first constituted the Rev. G. Mason Archdeacon of Hawaii. He was very kindly and cordially received by his fellow-churchmen there; and he has now, as the result of this visit, three American clergymen under him at different stations.

Mr Williamson, from St Augustine's, Canterbury, who is on the point of going to the islands, was recently ordained deacon by the Bishop of Oxford, assisted by the Bishop of South Carolina, so that in this good work of the Church, England and America join hand in hand. It had been a cherished plan of the late king, Kaméhaméha IV., to visit Europe with his queen, to see something of the continent of Europe, to renew and improve his early acquaintance with England, and, as he expressed himself to the Bishop of Honolulu, to "ask [390/391] his fellow-churchmen to help him in Christianising his people." His project the widowed Queen determined to execute alone. She consequently accepted a kind invitation from Lady Franklin to be her guest in London, and, having been conveyed from Honolulu to Panama in H. M.S. Clio, she crossed the Atlantic by the West India mail steamer, and lauded at Southampton in July 1865. Queen Emma's views were analagous to her husband's. To learn as much as possible of Europe, and especially of England, to become acquainted with everything that could bear upon the well-being of Hawaii, to interest English people for her country and her people, to obtain from them sympathy and help--these were Queen Emma's plans and aspirations. She was received here with universal kindness and hospitality, and the sweetness of her manner and character won both respect and affection from all who became acquainted with her. She entered into plans made for her with ready interest, and declared that she enjoyed everything. One of her wishes was doomed to disappointment--viz., that of spending Christmas in England, and seeing frost and snow. Constant exertion and excitement, and our ungenial climate, had their natural effect upon a constitution unaccustomed to them, and in November her physician first forbade her fulfilling her engagements, and then urged her to pass the winter in a milder climate. She yielded unwillingly to the necessity, and spent some months in the south of France, where she entirely recovered her usual health. In the spring she travelled a little in Italy and Germany, was kindly received at the Tuileries, and returned for a few weeks to England in June last. She took her journey homeward through the United States, where she proposed making some stay. She was warmly welcomed there, but her visit was painfully cut short by news from the islands of the death of her adoptive mother, Mrs Rooke.

Queen Emma is now once more in her island home, but we believe that though she may never again revisit our shores, she will never be forgotten by those friends she made in England. Shall we not show our respect for her character, our sympathy with her sorrows, our interest in her plans, by willing help in those things she had most at heart? The welfare of the mission, the efficiency of the schools, the increase of clergy and of lady workers--all these she was deeply anxious about. Her own peculiar and most cherished object was the memorial church to her husband's memory--the cathedral at Honolulu. Her last letter to the writer relates to it, and to her anxiety for its beauty and fitness. Shall we not help her with all our might? The material church in Honolulu is still only an ugly, mean, wooden [391/392] building. Will not England enable the Mission to erect a worthier? The plans and drawings are prepared, and a commencement of the building will soon be made, but the completion of it depends on money yet to be raised. Shall we appeal in vain for assistance? Will not those whose means permit give as this interesting occasion requires, and as the examples of a dead Christian King and a living missionary Queen urge with a voice which rises above the waves of the two oceans which roll between England and Hawaii?

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