230 Notice of Hawaii ^ (Owyhee^) and its Volcanic Regions, &fc. 



and of moral and religious influence. While passing, however, to 

 our more appropriate objects, we feel litde disposition to suppress the 

 pleasure we feel or to apologize for expressing it, while we contem- 

 plate the wonderful results of the labors of the men of peace and 

 love, who have gone into voluntary exile, and fixed themselves on 

 the coral rocks and among the volcanic fires of the vast Pacific ; 

 who have, in a few short years, converted many thousands of bar- 

 barous and degraded savages into civilized and Christianized men ; 

 whose high moral character, whose pure and courteous manners, and 

 whose atlvancement in the arts, and in political happiness, are a con- 

 stant theme of astonishment to the navigators who throng that great 

 highway of nations. If, while we are citing the facts respecting vol- 

 canic agency, which we have derived from Mr. Stewart, we inter- 

 sperse some passages, illustrative of the topics to which we have 

 just alluded, we trust that every reader, who loves mankind as well 

 as natural knowledge, will pardon the digression. 



In order to estimate justly the condition of the great volcano of 

 Kirauea in 1829, the period of Mr. Stewart's second visit, it is ne- 

 cessary to recur to the account of the first in 1825,^ and if in the 

 present sketch, the scenes exhibited are more calm, they are not less 

 instructive. 



On the 2d of October, 1829, the Vincennes anchored off Byron 

 Bay in Hawaii ; a hasty visit was paid to the shore by Mr. Stewart 

 and a part of the officers, a stay of only half an hour being allowed 

 them with the mission family of Mr. Goodrich and with the Chris- 

 tianized natives, many of whom, recollecting Mr. Stewart, kissed 

 and embraced his hand, shedding tears of joy, or sank at his feet. 

 The party having regained the ship, which was waiting in the offing 

 of the bay, her captain was induced, loy the state of the wind, to re- 

 linquish his purpose of immediately sailing for Maui, and to tack and 

 stand into the bay. When the boat left the ship in the morning, she 

 was nine or ten miles from land, towards which a tremendous swell 

 was setting,. and it seemed at the hazard of life that the party jump- 

 ed into the boats, as they rose and fell ten or twelve feet with every 

 returning billow. Yielding to the waves and the wind, and " by 

 spreading a mountain of light sail," they were gently fanned in. 



As they entered the bay, the rays. of the declining sun gleamed 

 brightly over the wide extent of open champaign country, distinguish- 



''See Vol. XI. 



