chap. xvi. SINGULAR AND ENCOURAGING INCIDENT. 
451 
prayed that we might be saved. And God sent away death, 
and sent your ship, and we are here.” I said, “ I am glad you 
prayed to God. You must he thankful to God, and serve him, 
and love him. You must try to serve Grod in your future life.” 
I then repeated the first two lines of a hymn which I had 
written, among the first ever composed in the language of 
the Sandwich Islands, when I was a missionary in that 
country. The lines are these, —■ 
“ He Akua hemolele 
Ke Akua no kakou.” 
“ A Grod of perfection or goodness is our God.” The man’s 
countenance brightened as I repeated these lines, and as soon 
as I had ceased he took up the strain where I had left off, 
repeating the two concluding lines and the remaining verses 
with evident satisfaction. I said, “ Where did you learn that 
hymn?” He replied, “In the school of the missionaries at 
Oahu.” That was the island in which I had resided. I then 
said, “ I wrote that hymn many years ago, when I lived in 
the Sandwich Islands.” He looked at me with, still greater 
astonishment, and said, “ Who are you ? ” I said, “ I am 
Mika Eliki ” (the native pronunciation of my name), “ and I 
was a missionary at Oahu with Mr. Bingham, Mr. Thurston, 
and others.” He seemed surprised and pleased; said he 
knew the missionaries who were now at the islands, that his 
brother was a native teacher in the Sandwich Islands, and his 
sister a Christian. 
It had been my privilege to labour in harmonious co¬ 
operation with the able and devoted American missionaries 
first sent to the Sandwich Islands. Having a knowledge of 
the language of'Tahiti, which varies but slightly from that of 
Hawaii, I had assisted in forming the Hawaiian alphabet, and 
fixing the orthography of the native language, as well as in 
other departments of missionary labour. More than thirty 
G G 2 
