SLOTH AND IGNORANCE. 
87 
maining ignorant in this world, and liable to 
wretchedness in that which is to come ? They 
immediately endeavoured to give a different turn 
to the conversation, by saying, “ What a fine 
country yours must be, compared with this ! 
What large bales of cloth come from thence, 
while the clothing of Hawaii is small in quantity, 
and very bad. The soil there must be very pro¬ 
lific, and property easily obtained, or so much of 
it would not have been brought here. I informed 
them, that the difference was not so great between 
the countries, as between the people—that, many 
ages back, the ancestors of the present inhabitants 
of England and America possessed fewer comforts 
than the Sandwich Islanders now enjoy; wore 
skins of beasts for clothing; painted their bodies 
with various colours; and worshipped with in¬ 
human rites their cruel gods—but that since they 
had become enlightened and industrious, and had 
embraced Christianity, they had been wise and 
rich; and many, there was reason to hope, had, 
after death, gone to a state of happiness in 
another world—that they owed all their present 
wealth and enjoyment to their intelligence and 
industry—and that, if the people of either country 
were to neglect education and religion, and spend 
as much of their time in eating, sleeping, and 
jesting, they would soon become as poor and as 
ignorant as the Sandwich Islanders. They said, 
perhaps it was so; perhaps industry and instruc¬ 
tion would make them happier and better, and, if 
the chiefs wished it, by and by they would attend 
to both. After again exhorting them to improve 
the means now placed within their reach by the 
residence of the Missionaries among them, I took 
my departure. During the forenoon, I went into 
