THROUGH HAWAII. 
7 
and villages of the natives are thickly scattered. The 
population at present is about 85,000, and will most 
probably be greatly increased by the establishment of 
Christianity, whose mild influence, it may reasonably 
be expected, will effect a cessation of war, an abolition 
of infanticide, and a diminution of those vices, principally 
of foreign origin, which have hitherto so materially con¬ 
tributed to the depopulation of the islands. 
Hawaii is by far the largest, most populous, and im¬ 
portant island of the group, and, until within a few 
years, was the usual residence of the king, and the fre¬ 
quent resort of every chief of importance in the other 
islands. Foreigners, however, having of late found the 
harbours of some of the leeward islands more secure 
and convenient than those of Hawaii, have been induced 
more frequently to visit them; and this has led the king 
and principal chiefs to forsake, in a great degree, the 
favourite residence of their ancestors, and, excepting 
the governor, and the chiefs of Kaavaroa, to spend 
the greater nart of the r time in some of the other 
islands. 
Separated from the northern shore of Hawaii by a 
strait, about twenty-four miles across, the island of 
Maui is situated in lat. 20° N. and Ion. 157° W. 
This island is forty-eight miles in length, in the widest 
part twenty-nine miles across, about one hundred and 
forty miles in circumference, and covers about 600 
square miles. At a distance it appears like two dis¬ 
tinct islands, but on nearer approach a low isthmus, 
about nine miles across, is seen uniting the two pen¬ 
insulas. The whole island is entirely volcanic, and was 
probably produced by the action of two adjacent vol¬ 
canoes, which have ejected the immense masses of 
