198 NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



great concourse there was scarcely a movement during the 

 service. All seemed deeply engaged in the business for which 

 they had assembled ; and as I looked around upon the quiet and 

 attentive multitude, a comparison with the wild and idolatrous 

 scenes which their assemblies exhibited in times past was irresist- 

 ibly forced upon me. 



A few days after this I was introduced by Captain Charlton, 

 his Britanic majesty's consul, to the king Kauikeaouli, or 

 Tameiiameha III., as he is sometimes called. He was accom- 

 panied by John Young, one of his prime favorites, a fine, noble 

 looking young man, who I thought looked much more like a king 

 than his master. His majesty was very condescending and kind. 

 He conversed easily and freely, though in broken English, and 

 having understood that I had been somewhat of a traveller, was 

 very curious to hear my adventures through the wild regions of the 

 west. The stories of buffalo and grizzly bear hunting pleased 

 him particularly, and his dark eye actually glittered as I 

 recounted to him the stirrinn; and thrilling incidents of the wild 

 buffalo chace, and the no less moving perils of the encounter with 

 the fierce bear of the prairies. He remarked that he should 

 enjoy such hunting ; that here there was nothing for his amuse- 

 ment but the chasing of wild cattle, and the common athletic exer- 

 cise of quoits, bar-heaving, &c. , but he should like to see these 

 big buffalo and bears, and then asked me, with great simplicity, 

 if I supposed he could kill them. 



The king is said to be one of the strongest and most active 

 men on the island. He is not yet encumbered with flesh, like 

 most of the chiefs, and he has all the elasticity and vigor of 

 youth, superadded to a naturally strong and robust frame. He 

 has a great fancy for all kinds of break-neck adventures, and I 

 have no doubt, that, were he transplanted to the plains of the 

 west, he would soon be a hunter of the first water. 



The food of the natives, consists principally of an article called 



