18 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
hardware, crockery, hats and shoes, naval stores, 
&c. which they retail to the natives for Spanish 
dollars or sandal wood. On the eastern side of 
the basin is a strong fort, one hundred yards 
square, mounting sixty guns. It was begun by 
the Russians, who were expelled—but finished by 
the natives, from an apprehension that these fo¬ 
reigners, in connexion with the Russian settlements 
on the north-west coast of America, were about to 
take possession of the island. Here also, in the 
month of April, 1820, an American Mission was 
commenced, which, under God, has been the 
means of producing a most happy moral and 
domestic change in the character of many of the 
people, whose advancement in the arts of civilized 
life, as well as Christian knowledge, is truly grati¬ 
fying. Several thousands are under religious in¬ 
struction, and numbers regularly attend the preach¬ 
ing of the gospel, which we earnestly hope will 
result in the conversion of many. Several have 
forsaken their grass huts, and erected comfortable 
stone or wooden houses, among which, one built 
by Karaimoku, the prime minister, is highly cre¬ 
ditable to his perseverance and his taste. 
About six miles to the west of Honoruru, and 
nearly as far from the village of Eva, on the Pearl 
river, there is a singular natural curiosity—a small 
circular lake, situated at a short distance from the 
sea shore, so impregnated with salt, that twice in 
the year the natives take out between two and 
three hundred barrels of fine, clear, hard, crystal¬ 
lized salt : this lake is not only an interesting 
natural curiosity, but an important appendage to 
the island. It belongs to the king, and is not only 
useful in curing large quantities of fish, but fur¬ 
nishes a valuable article of commerce; quantities 
