LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



Friendly Islands; reaching Oahu on the 8th of Oc- 

 tober. 



To visit Honolulu was even then almost like reaching 

 a port of the United States ; missionaries, traders, letters, 

 afforded abundant information from home. " Besides," 

 says Wilkes, " I found some difficulty in being able to 

 realize that I was among a Polynesian nation, so far im- 

 proved are they in the ways of civilization." 



Three years had now passed since the enlistment of the 

 crew. New " articles " were therefore opened for them; 

 plans for the next eighteen months were matured. Cap- 

 tain Hudson, on fat Peacock, was to return to the Samoas, 

 verify certain surveys, visit the Ellice and Kingsmill 

 groups, and seek redress at Strong Island for the capture 

 of an American vessel; thence to proceed to the mouth 

 of the Columbia, visiting Ascension Island on the way. 

 The Porpoise, under Ringgold, was to examine some of 

 the Paumotu Islands, touch at Tahiti, survey Penrhyn's 

 and Flint Islands, and return to Oahu. 



With the Vincennes, Wilkes proposed to visit Hawaii, 

 and after ascending Mauna Loa, with his instruments, and 

 examining the craters, he meant to proceed to the Mar- 

 quesas, and thence return to the Hawaiian Islands, before 

 proceeding to the northwest coast of America. He did 

 not carry out the Marquesas plan. 



In his narrative, Wilkes makes abundant comments on 

 the social conditions of the Sandwich Islanders, and bears 

 his testimony to the good influences of the missionaries. 

 The survey of the islands, and especially of the two great 

 volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, twin giants of 

 the Pacific, occupied much of the commander's time, 

 while the naturalists, divided into parties, were sent from 

 point to point to pursue their investigations. Dana's 

 observations are well set forth in his Geology of the Pacific, 

 and in a more accessible form in his volume on Volcanoes. 

 After visiting Kauai and the eastern and northern coasts 



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