210 HAWAII. 



the Rev. Mr. Coan. It is the largest charge in the group, and accord- 

 ing to the last census, contains twelve thousand inhabitants. In 1840, 

 seven thousand of these were reported as communicants, forming 

 twenty separate congregations, all of which are under the charge of 

 native catechists, and are visited quarterly by the missionary for inspec- 

 tion, instruction, discipline, and the Lord's Supper. All the communi- 

 cants meet yearly at Hilo. 



Being much engaged with the natives, I had a fair opportunity of 

 observing their improvement in religious knowledge ; and I regret to 

 say, that it is not such as I anticipated from the accounts that were 

 given me, or equal to what it ought to be from the exertions of their 

 pastor ; for, while I cannot but condemn the course he has pursued in 

 rooting up the coffee plantations, and overturning the good works of his 

 predecessor, I must do him the justice to say, he is untiring in his 

 clerical duties, and his field is one of constant labour, both of mind and 

 body. 



In giving an account of the wants of his parishioners, he includes 

 the following, viz. : lawyers, doctors, teachers, artists, agriculturists, 

 manufacturers, preachers, and, above all, money. 



The schools were in the first place composed of adults and children, 

 and numbered five thousand scholars ; but now they are confined to 

 children, between two and three thousand of whom attend school, 

 being one-sixth of the population. 



With regard to the population of this district, I have no positive 

 proof of its decrease. Children are, indeed, said to be few, but the 

 numbers that are reported as attending the schools show that there is 

 as large a proportion of them as in other countries. 



There is at Hilo a boarding-school for boys, under the care of Mr. 

 and Mrs. Lyman, which was established in 1836. This school is sus- 

 tained by annual grants of the American Board of Commissioners for 

 Foreign Missions and by lay donations. 



The number of scholars at the time of our visit was fifty-three, fifteen 

 of whom had just been received, and seventeen had been lately sent 

 to the high-school at Lahainaluna. Twelve more were preparing to 

 join that school. The annual expense of each scholar is from sixteen 

 to eighteen dollars : the boys raise about one-fourth of the food they 

 consume. They cultivate a little sugar-cane, which was estimated to 

 be worth fifty dollars the last year. The boys eat at a common table : 

 the dormitory is eighty feet long, by twenty-eight feet wide, and im- 

 mediately over the school-room ; each bed-place is partitioned off into 

 a small room, with mats, six feet by four. The whole is extremely 

 neat and clean. 



