2 Volcanic Character of the Island of Hawaii. 
Soon after the arrival of this second Missionary family, # 
tour round the island was resolved upon, with particular refer~ 
ence to the great objects of the mission. Messrs. Ellis,* Har~ 
ood, Thurston, Stewart, Bishop, and Goodrich, were charged 
waht the execution of this duty , which they performed with zeal 
and ability. The result of their ee is detailed in a 
little volume, ably drawn up by Mr. Ellis, and entitled “a 
ournal of a tour around Hawaii, the largest of the Sandwich 
Islands.” Besides many interesting statements Or = 
the paramount be ape of the ee it contains a 
number more relating to the natural history. o the iddand. 
From this part of | work, we intend to quote the most im- 
portant passages, and we conceive that we cannot better in- 
troduce them than 2 the following letter from Mr. Goodrich 
Letter from Mr. A ee Goodrich, one of the American Mis- 
me s in the Sahdwich Islands. 
TO PROFESSOR SILLIMAN, NEW-HAVEN, (ct) 
Watakea, (Hawatt,) APRIL 20th, 1825. 
MY DEAR SIR, 
confess I have Femained silent quite too long, in not 
“my embarkatio 
answe your on the eve n 
rae, am better able to state facts now than at any former 
parted: The station which I am called to oécupy, is on the 
E. side of Hawaii, (pronounced Harwye,) at the head of a 
safe and commodious. harbor, yet but little known to foreign- 
ers. About forty miles in the interior, in a south-westerly di- 
rection, is a burning volcano, that has been in a state of ac- 
tivity from time immemorial. The oldest natives can ang 
no account of a time when it was not burning: they s 
n tive now than it was twelye or fifteen years 's tihee.+ 
Millsiowsty; he having already. resolved ed on devoting pipers 0 that oles 
Mr, Goodrich made very considerable acquirements in this way; jy and 
bein ng endowed with a eda Bite and peculiar hardihood and equanim- 
ity, — qualified for th icissitudes of a Missionary life in a ba 
rous ¢ 
er annexed, contains so. many interesting pone’, that I heave giv- 
en it 9 it bridgement or alteration. Mr. pn and Mr. Whitney 
eae “he, from Yale College, and possessed, in a high Sean ee requisite 
“ *An Englich Missionary then on a visit at Hawaii. 
+ There is now a whaling ship in this port, the Dawn, of Ree Foch, Capt. 
