CHAP. XVI. SINGULAR AND ENCOURAGING INCIDENT. 451 



knew the missionaries who were now at the islands, that his 

 brother was a native teacher in the Sandwich Islands, and his 

 sister a Christian. 



It had been my privilege to labour in harmonious co- 

 ojDeration with the able and devoted American missionaries 

 first sent to the Sandwich Islands. Having a knowledge of 

 the language of Tahiti, which varies but slightly from that of 

 Hawaii, I had assisted in forming the Hawaiian alphabet, and 

 fixing the orthography of the native language, as well as in 

 other departments of missionary labour. More than thirty 

 years had passed away since I had left those islands, and it 

 was an unexpected satisfaction to my own mind to find that 

 the Christian sentiments embodied in a simple hymn, which 

 had been prepared chiefly with a view to implanting seeds of 

 truth in the minds of the young, had afforded consolation and 

 support to the mind of a native of those islands in the lonely 

 solitude of a distant ocean, amidst the perils of shipwi-eck, 

 and the prospect of death ; and I mention this circumstance 

 for the encouragement of other labourers in the cause of 

 humanity and religion, that they may cast their bread upon 

 the waters and labour on, in the assurance that no sincere 

 effort will be altogether in vain, though its results should 

 never be known. 



The ship from which these two men were saved was the 

 " Henry Crappo " from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a whaler, 

 full, and homeward boimd. Many particulars of their peril 

 were afterwards related to us by the captain. While drifting 

 on their raft they had been pursued by two sharks. One 

 attempted to seize them, but by drawing up their legs from 

 the water as well as they were able, and chopping at their 

 assailant with a small hatchet found in the fragment of the 

 boat of which their raft was constructed, they succeeded in 

 driving him away. They had been two days and two nights 

 in the sea, and the only refreshment they had had was a small 



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