358 GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. [1840. 



whether, fully redeemed from the darkness of Paganism, they 

 take their stand permanently among the nations of the earth, 

 or fall under the dominion of some foreign power, — their des- 

 tiny is fixed. 



The Sandwich, or Hawaiian Islands, as they have been 

 more appropriately termed by the missionaries, weje dis- 

 covered in the year 1778, by Captain Cook, who gave them 

 the name by which they are generally known, in honor of the 

 Earl of Sandwich, then first Lord of the Admiralty. Here, 

 too, on the shore of the bay of Kealakekua, upon the west 

 side of the island of Hawaii, that eminent navigator came to his 

 tragic and untimely end, on the 14th day of February, 1779. 



These islands are eleven in number, and are many hun- 

 dred miles distant from any of the other Polynesian groups. 

 They lie in the North Pacific, between latitude 18° 50' 

 and 22° 20' N., and longitude 154° 55' and 160° 15' W. 

 Their general direction is from southeast to north-west, — 

 Hawaii, the southernmost of the group, being about two 

 hundred and eighty miles distant from Kauai and Niihau, 

 tho two islands lying furthest to the north. The total area 

 of all the islands is about six thousand square miles. 

 The principal members of the group are Hawaii, Maui, 

 Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau : the 

 remaining three, Molokini, Lehua, and Kaula, are mero 

 rocky and barren islets. 



Hawaii, formerly known as Owhyhee, has an area of four 

 thousand square miles, being about two thirds that of the en- 

 tire group. It is eighty-eight miles in length, by sixty-eight 

 in breadth. The surface slopes up gradually from the beach 

 towards the interior, which is a broken, elevated plain, three 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea, with here and there 

 a tall conical mountain-peak rearing its jagged front to the 

 height of thirteen or fourteen thousand feet. Overlooking 

 Waiakea, or Hilo Bay, is Mauna Kea, flanked on either hand 

 by similar peaks of less altilu>I<'. which attains an elevation 

 of 13,953 feet; and just to the east of Kealakekua Bay, is 

 the towering dome of Manna Loa, 13,760 feet nbove the 



