420 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, but many remain ignorant even of the nature of the prayers they 
repeat ; and in other subjects are entirely uninstructed. 
.Jan. The missionaries appear to be very anxious to diffuse a due 
knowledge of the tenets of the gospel among all the inhabitants, 
and have laboured much to accomplish their praiseworthy purpose : 
but the residents in Honoruru well know what little effect their ex- 
ertions have produced, probably on account of the tutors having mis- 
taken the means of diffusing education. In the Sandwich Islands, as in 
all other places, there is a mania for every thing new, and, with due 
reverence to the subject, this was very much the case with religion 
in Honoruru, where almost every person might be seen hastening to 
the school with a slate in his hand, in the hope of being able soon to 
transcribe some part of the pala pala (the scriptures). This feeling 
under judicious management might have produced the greatest blessings 
Woahoo could have enjoyed; and the gentlemen of the mission might 
have congratulated themselves on having bestowed upon the inha- 
bitants very important benefits. But they were misled by the eagerness 
of their hopes, and their zeal carried them beyond the limits calculated 
to prove beneficial to the temporal interests of a people, still in the 
earliest stage of civilization. The apparent thirst after scriptural know- 
ledge in Honoruru created a belief among the missionaries that this 
feeling was become general, and auxiliary schools were established in 
different parts of the island, at which we were informed every adult 
w^as required to attend several times a day. 
While this demand upon their time was confined within reasonable 
limits, the chiefs, generally, were glad to find their subjects listen to 
instruction ; but when men were obliged to quit their work, and to 
repair to the nearest auxiliary school so frequently during the day, so 
much mischief was produced by loss of labour, and such ruinous conse- 
quences threatened the country, that many of the chiefs became desirous 
of checking it. Kahumana and her party, however, persisted in consi- 
dering it desirable, and in supporting the missionaries ; while a powerful 
party, at the head of which were the king and the regent, exerted them- 
.selves to counteract their endeavours. Thus dissensions arose very pre- 
