CHARACTERS. 



477 



intercovirse with the Europeans, 

 surrounded by artificers, with 

 guards regularly trained to the 

 use of fire-arn)s, and a navy of 

 60 sail of decked vessels, built on 

 the island ; almost every vessel 

 that navigates the Pacific, finds 

 shelter, provisions, or trade in 

 his harbour. Much is to be as- 

 cribed to the natural ingenuity 

 and unwearied industry of the 

 inhabitants ; but added to this, 

 they li.ave received all the benefits 

 which are conferred on rising 

 communities, by the appearance 

 of tlieir chief, Tamaahmaah, 

 " one of those great men who go 

 before their age." 



The death of Captain Cook, 

 and the frequent murders by the 

 natives of the subsec[uent navi- 

 gators, gave such ideas of the 

 savage nature of the inhabitants, 

 that for many years few sliips 

 ventured to touch there. But 

 since the present chief has esta- 

 blished his power, his conduct 

 has been marked with such jus- 

 tice, that strangers aie as safe in 

 his ports as in those of any other 

 nation. He is known in this 

 country fiom the accounts of 

 Turnbull, Lisianski, and Langs- 

 dorf, and much interest has been 

 excited respecting him ; but none 

 of these navigators ever saw him. 

 From a volume recently pub- 

 lished, " A Voyage round the 

 World, by Archibald Campbell," 

 we have some further account of 

 Tamaahmaah, and from one who, 

 by residing with him, had every 

 opportunity of personal observa- 

 tion. Campbell was a native of 

 a village near Glasgow, and ha\'- 

 ing escaped from an English 

 man of wai-, entered himself on 

 board an Indiaman. ^Vhilst at 



Canton, he was enticed from his 

 sliip by the commander of an 

 American vessel, bound to the 

 north-west coast of America, on 

 which coast the vessel was after- 

 wards wrecked. Before they 

 reached Kodiak, his feet becoming 

 mortified from the extreme cold, 

 were both amputated at Kodiak^ 

 by a Russian surgeon ; here he 

 remained some time, employed to 

 teach the children of the natives 

 English. In the hope, howeser, 

 of meeting with American vessels 

 at the Sandwich islands, in which 

 he might return home, he was 

 induced to leave Kodiak, in the 

 Neva (the ship commanded by 

 Captain Lisianski, in Captain 

 Krusenstern's expedition.) From 

 Kodiuk they proceeded to the 

 island of Wahoo, being the one 

 of the Sandwich islands now 

 chosen by Tamaahmaah for his 

 residence. Campbell's appear- 

 ance having excited the com- 

 passion of the queen, he was 

 invited to reside in her house, 

 and being recommended by the 

 Russian captain to the king, was 

 employed as a sail-iuaker in the 

 royal arsenal. After remaining 

 in the king's establishment for 

 several months, he removed to 

 the house of Isaac Da\ is, a Welch- 

 man, who had been on the island 

 about twenty years. Soon after- 

 wards a tract of land of about 

 sLxty acres, on which fifteen fa- 

 milies resided, was granted to 

 him by the king. After having 

 overhauled all the sails of the 

 fleet, he managed to construct a 

 loom, and began to weave sail 

 cloth ; and being by trade a 

 weaver, he succeeded in making 

 some before he quitted the island. 

 But in July 1810, a South-Sea 



whaler. 



