PACIFIC AND BEERLNG'S STRAIT. IQl 



of disclosing them, and free from the risk of misinter- chap 



III. 



1827. 



pretation, that some of the scholars laboured at their 

 task as if the prosperity of the islands depended upon Jan 

 penmanship alone. Education in other respects has 

 made much slower progress than every well wisher of 

 the country could desire. A few individuals who 

 have had the advantage of continued instruction have 

 acquired a limited knowledge of the scriptures, but 

 many remain ignorant even of the nature of the 

 prayers they repeat ; and in other subjects are entirely 

 uninstructed. 



The missionaries appear to be very anxious to dif- 

 fuse a due knowledge of the tenets of the gospel 

 among all the inhabitants, and have laboured much to 

 accomplish their praiseworthy purpose : but the resi- 

 dents in Honoruru well know what little effect their 

 exertions have produced, probably on account of the 

 tutors having mistaken the means of diffusing educa- 

 tion. In the Sandwich Islands, as in all other places, 

 there is a mania for every thing new, and, with due 

 reverence to the subject, this was very much the case 

 with religion in Honoruru, where almost every person 

 might be seen hastening to the school with a slate in 

 his hand, in the hope of being able soon to transcribe 

 some part of the jjala pala (the scriptures). This 

 feeling under judicious management might have pro- 

 duced the greatest blessings Woahoo could have en- 

 joyed ; and the gentlemen of the mission might have 

 congratulated themselves on having bestowed upon 

 the inhabitants very important benefits. But they 

 were misled by the eagerness of their hopes, and their 

 zeal carried them beyond the limits calculated to prove 

 beneficial to the temporal interests of a people, still 

 in the earliest stage of civilization. The apparent 



