318 APPENDIX III 



APPENDIX III 



LETTER FROM THE MISSIONARIES OF HAWAII TO RICHARD 

 CHARLTON, ESQ., HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL AT THE 

 SANDWICH ISLANDS 1 



Hido, Hawaii, July 15th, 1834. 



" DEAR SIR, Our hearts almost fail us when we undertake to perform 

 the melancholy duty which devolves upon us, to communicate the painful 

 intelligence of the death of our friend Mr. Douglas, and such particulars 

 as we have been able to gather respecting this distressing providence. 

 The tidings reached us when we were every moment awaiting his arrival, 

 and expecting to greet him with a cordial welcome : but alas ! He whose 

 thoughts and ways are not as our's, saw fit to order it otherwise ; and 

 instead of being permitted to hail the living friend, our hearts have been 

 made to bleed while performing the offices of humanity to his mangled 

 corpse. Truly we must say, that the ' ways of the Lord are mysterious, 

 and His judgments past finding out ! ' but it is our unspeakable consola- 

 tion to know, that those ways are directed by infinite wisdom and mercy, 

 and that though ' clouds and darkness are round about Him, yet righteous- 

 ness and judgment are the habitation of His throne ! ' But we proceed 

 to lay before you as full information as it is in our power to do at the 

 present time, concerning this distressing event. As Mr. Diell was standing 

 in the door of Mr. Goodrich's house yesterday morning, about eight 

 o'clock, a native came up, and with an expression of countenance which 

 indicated but too faithfully that he was the bearer of sad tidings, inquired 

 for Mr. Goodrich. On seeing him, he communicated the dreadful intelli- 

 gence, that the body of Mr. Douglas had been found on the mountains, 

 in a pit excavated for the purpose of taking wild cattle, and that he was 

 supposed to have been killed by the bullock which was in the pit, when 

 the animal fell in. 2 Never were our feelings so shocked, nor could we 

 credit the report, till it was painfully confirmed as we proceeded to the 

 beach, whither his body had been conveyed in a canoe, by the native 

 who informed us of his death. As we walked down with the native, 

 and made further inquiries of him, he gave for substance the following 

 relation : that on the evening of the 13th instant, the natives who brought 

 the body down from the mountain came to his house at Laupashoohoi, 

 about twenty-five or thirty miles distant from Hido, and employed him 

 to bring it to this place in his canoe the particulars which he learned 



1 See Hooker's Comp. Bot. Mag. 



2 It is not quite clear whether the bullock is thought to have fallen in upon 

 Douglas or to have been already in the pit when Douglas fell in, as suggested in the 

 explanation of the plan on page 322. ED. 



