18 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
sion oi 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 gratifying. 
Several thousands are under religious instruction, and 
numbers regularly attend the preaching 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 creditable to his perseverance and his taste. 
About six miles to the west of Ilonoruru, 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 im¬ 
pregnated with salt, that twice in the year the natives 
take out between two and three hundred barrels of 
fine, clear, hard, crystallized salt: this lake is not only 
an interesting natural curiosity, but an important ap¬ 
pendage to the island. It belongs to the king, and is 
not only useful in curing large quantities of fish, but 
furnishes a valuable article of commerce; quantities 
of it having been sent for sale to Kamtschatka, and 
used in curing seal skins at the different islands to which 
the natives have sent their vessels for that purpose, or 
sold in the islands to Russian vessels, from the settle¬ 
ments on the north-west coast of America. The popu¬ 
lation of Oahu is estimated at about 20,000. 
North-west of Oahu, and distant from it about 
seventy-five miles, is situated the island of Tauai, 
which is a mountainous island, exceedingly romantic in 
