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to sailors— and still more when they saw and heard tho fire of tho 

 guns ; iluiibt was convertotl into certainty ; victims were prepared, 

 and the great navigator wus led to the sacrificial temple, or enclo- 

 sure of terraced stones ; heathen rites were performed, and sacrifice 

 was oflered tu him. I'nfortunately, disputes which arose led the 

 natives to believe that Lomo or his followers had not forgotten their 

 ancient propensities, and having failed, as they thought, to pro- 

 pitiate him with their sacritices and otferings, it was resolved to 

 indict a fresh term of banishment upon him, and to drive him 

 again across the seas. As Cook was retreating to his boat, under 

 the pressure of the angry and menacing crowd, one native, more 

 excited than the rest, pushed him violently, causing pain, which 

 Cook showed by an exclamation, or gesture. They then saw that 

 he was sensible to pain, and consequently but mortal, and a native 

 at once dealt him a heavy blow with a weapon ; he fell wounded, 

 and was quickly killed, to their astonishment at first, and subsequent 

 I'egret. You will, perhaps, pardon this digression, as I think these 

 incidents throw light iipon the circumstances of the death of this 

 great sailor, when compai'ed with the account given of it in the 

 naiTative of his voyages. 



It was nearly at the end of October, 1855, when I landed on 

 the Sandwich Islands. I was travelling with an old friend and 

 fellow New Zealand colonist, the Hon. James Frederick Stuart- 

 Wortley, and after visiting Tahiti, we took our passages in a 

 schooner sailing thence for San Francisco, hoping to touch at the 

 Sandwich Islands, which we were anxious to visit, as we had heard 

 that the volcano in Hawaii was in full eruption. We were, after all, 

 only enabled to accomplish our purpose by the kindness of the captain 

 of an American whaler, who allowed us, when near the islands, to 

 transfer ourselves to his ship, and who landed us at Lahaina, on the 

 island of Mawe, in the central part of the group. 



On Mawe is the immense extinct crater of Mauna Haleakala, 

 or mountain of the House of the Sun. It is variously estimated at 

 from 24 to 35 miles in circumference, and is not much less than 

 :5000ft. deep. It stands about 1 0,000ft. above the sea level. Within 

 this enormous basin, which would hold several of the largest cities 

 in the world, rise numerous funnel-shaped cones, which formerly 

 belched forth tlame and molten lava, and still, though crumbling 

 away, rise to the height of several hundred feet. The walls of this 

 crater, which is, I believe, the largest known in the world, are 

 burst through in two places, by the force of eruptions of lava. 

 Our stay in MaAve' was too short to enable us to visit it, an 

 oppoi-tunity having oflered itself which enabled lis to proceed to 

 Hawaii, the principal aim and object of our journey ; where we 

 visited, as I am abcmt to describe, the similar though smaller crater 

 of Kilauea, in full activity. The opportunity of reaching Hawaii was 

 afforded us by the departure thither of a small schooner of about 

 'Mi tons, called the ^lanu o ka wai, (" Bird of the Water"), and 

 here let mo remark, as an instance of the great similarity of the 

 Maori or New Zealand language to the Kanaka, or Sandwich Island 

 dialeet, tliat in Maori the name would have been Mann no te (or 

 ke) wai ; in fact, the language of these two groups, the one in the 

 same latitude as Tasmania, and the other at the northern tropic, 



