CHARACTER OF RIHORIHO. 447 
day, when he opened his writing-desk, that he 
expected more advantage from that desk than 
from a fine brig belonging to him, lying at anchor 
opposite the house in which we were sitting. 
Mr. Bingham and myself were his daily teachers, 
and have often been surprised at his unwearied 
perseverance. I have sat beside him at his desk 
sometimes from nine or ten o’clock in the morning, 
till nearly sun-set, during which period his pen or 
his book has not been out of his hand more than 
three-quarters of an hour, while he was at dinner. 
We do not know that Christianity exerted any 
decisive influence on his heart. He was willing 
to receive the Missionaries on their first arrival- 
availed himself of their knowledge, to increase his 
own—and, during the latter years of his life, was 
decidedly favourable to their object; declared his 
conviction of the truth of Christianity; attended 
public worship himself on the Sabbath, and re¬ 
commended the same to his people. 
His moral character was not marked by that 
cruelty, rapacity, and insensibility to the sufferings 
of the people, which frequently distinguish the 
arbitrary chiefs of uncivilized nations. He appears 
in general to have been kind; and, in several 
places on our tour, the mothers shewed us their 
children, and told us, that when Rihoriho passed 
that way, he had kissed them—a condescension 
they seemed to think much of, and which they 
will probably remember to the end of their days. 
But, though generous in his disposition, and hu¬ 
mane in his conduct towards his subjects, he was 
addicted to intoxication — whether from natural 
inclination, or the influence and example of others, 
is not now to be determined; frequently, to my 
own knowledge, it has been entirely from the 
