1834.] MISSIONARIES IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 369 



stant practice of the most beastly sensuality, embraced Christianity 

 in her old age, and became a zealous and efficient protector of its 

 professors.* Bold, the brother of Krymakoo, a powerful chief, 

 who had accompanied Riho Riho to England, and, on his return, 

 endeavored to obtain the sovereignty of the islands, proved very 

 refractory and annoying to the missionaries, alternately cooperating 

 with them, or setting them at defiance, according to the dic- 

 tates of his ambition .f 



After the death of Riho Riho, Kaahumanu, first, and then Kinau 

 one of the widows of the late king, conducted the government 

 as regents, until 1834, when the young sovereign threw off all 

 restraints, and, taking the reins into his own hands, determined to 

 enjoy life like other legitimate princes. Feasting and dancing in 

 the old style were again seen in the palace ; drinking shops were 

 opened, distilleries were set up, and other ancient immoralities 

 reappeared, under the immediate patronage of the court. But the 

 church had become a part of the state. The chiefs were all nomi- 

 nally Christians ; the missionaries exerted themselves to stem the 

 torrent, and they succeeded. The king was obliged to yield ; the 

 shops and distilleries were successively closed, and order and 

 decency resumed their reign. 



The ill success of this attempt, on the part of the king, to free 

 himself from the trammels imposed by the missionaries, of course 

 increased their power ; which they exerted with energy, and gen- 



* Krymakoo died in 1825, and Kaahumanu in 1832 ; the exemplary manner in 

 which they took leave of the pomps and vanities of life is minutely described in the 

 History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, pp. 175 

 and 230. 



t Boki, having been disappointed in his hopes of attaining the sovereignty of his 

 country, sailed, in 1829, with a number of followers, in two vessels, in search of 

 some new islands, covered with sandal-wood, which were said to have been dis- 

 covered in the south-west. One of the vessels returned to Woahoo ; of the other, in 

 which Boki commanded in person, nothing has been since heard, except some 

 rumors that she was blown up. 



The London Quarterly Review for March, 1827, contains a letter purporting to 

 have been written by Boki, at Woahoo, to a friend in London, expressing consider- 

 able dissatisfaction with the conduct of the American missionaries, which has given 

 those worthy persons much uneasiness, and has caused them to expend much more 

 of virtuous indignation and serious argument, in refuting the charges, than it 

 deserved. The letter is an exquisite morceau of orthography and style, and should 

 find a place in the Comic Almanac. See the History of the American Board of 

 Commissioners for Foreign Missions, p. 176, and Mr. C. S. Stewart's narrative 

 of his residence in the Sandwich Islands, p. 342. The latter work will amply 

 repay the reader for the time which he may devote to it ; not only from the informa- 

 tion afforded respecting the islands, but also as exhibiting, in the most interesting 

 manner, the workings of a pure and enthusiastic mind. 

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