TESTIMONIES TO THE MISSIONARIES. 



the laws and constitution, and have directed Hawaiian affairs, 

 such as Richards, Lee, Judd, Allen, and Wyllie, were men 

 above reproach ■ and missionary influence, of all others the 

 most friendly to the natives, has predominated for fifty years. 



The effects of missionary labour have been scarcely touched 

 upon in the foregoing letters, and here, in preference to giving 

 any opinion of my own, I quote from Mr. R. H. Dana,* an 

 Episcopalian, and a barrister of the highest standing in Ame- 

 rica, well known in this country by his writings, who sums up 

 his investigations on the Sandwich Islands in the following 

 dispassionate words : " It is no small thing to say of the mis- 

 sionaries of the American Board, that in less than forty years 

 they have taught this whole people to read and to write, to 

 cipher and to sew. They have given them an alphabet, 

 grammar, and dictionary; preserved their language from ex- 

 tinction ; given it a literature, and translated into it the Bible, 

 and works of devotion, science, and entertainment, &c. They 

 have established schools, reared up native teachers, and so 

 pressed their work, that now the proportion of inhabitants who 

 can read and write is greater than in New England. And 

 whereas they found these islanders a nation of half-naked 

 savages, living in the surf and on the sand, eating raw fish, 

 fighting among themselves, tyrannized over by feudal chiefs, 

 and abandoned to sensuality, they now see them decently 

 clothed, recognizing the law of marriage, knowing something of 

 accounts, going to school and public worship more regularly 

 than the people do at home, and the more elevated of them 

 taking part in conducting the affairs of the constitutional mo- 

 narchy under which they live, holding seats on the judicial 

 bench and in the legislative chambers, and filling posts in the 

 local magistracies." 



If space permitted, the testimony of " Mark Twain," given 

 m "Roughing It," might be added to the above, and the 

 remaining missionaries may well point to the visible results of 

 their labours, with the one word Circumspice ! 



* Author of " Two Years before the Mast," &c., &c. 



