TRAVELS 



IN THE 



SANDWICH ISLANDS. 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



Canon Kingsley, in his charming book on the West 

 Indies, says, " The undoubted fact is known I find to few 

 educated English people, that the Coco palm, which produces 

 coir rope, cocoanuts, and a hundred other useful things, is not 

 the same plant as the cacao bush which produces chocolate, 

 or anything like it. I am sorry to have to insist upon this 

 fact, but till Professor Huxley's dream and mine is fulfilled, 

 and our schools deign to teach, in the intervals of Greek and 

 Latin, some slight knowledge of this planet, and of those of 

 its productions which are most commonly in use, even this 

 fact may need to be re-stated more than once." 



There is no room for the supposition that the intelligence of 

 Mr. Kingsley's "educated English" acquaintance is below the 

 average, and I should be sorry to form an unworthy estimate 

 of that of my own circle, though I have several times met with 

 the foregoing confusion, as well as the following and other 

 equally ill-informed questions, one or two of which I reluctantly 

 admit that I might have been guilty of myself before I visited 

 the Pacific : " Whereabouts are -the Sandwich Islands ? They 

 are not the same as the Fijis, are they ? Are they the same as 

 Otaheite ? Are the natives all cannibals ? What sort of idols 



