4 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
—Far different are the impressions produced on the 
minds of the missionaries who have resided for some 
years in the islands. Having acquired their language, 
observed their domestic economy, and become acquaint¬ 
ed with the nature of their government, the sanguinary 
character of their frequent wars, their absurd and 
oppressive system of idolatry, and the prevalence of 
human sacrifices, they are led, from the indubitable facts 
which have come under their notice, to more just and 
accurate conclusions;—conclusions in awful accordance 
with the faithful testimony of divine revelation. 
Although ten in number, only eight of the Sandwich 
Islands are inhabited, the other two being barren rocks, 
principally resorted to by fishermen. They lie within 
the tropic of Cancer, between 18° 50' and 22° 20' 
north latitude, and between 154° 53' and 100° 15' west 
longitude from Greenwich, about one-third of the dis¬ 
tance from the western coast of Mexico, towards the 
eastern shores of China. The Sandwich Islands are 
larger than the Society Islands, or any of the neigh¬ 
bouring clusters. 
Hawaii, the principal island of the group, resembles 
in shape an equilateral triangle, and is somewhat less 
than three hundred miles in circumference, being about 
ninety-seven miles in length, seventy-eight in breadth, 
two hundred and eighty miles in circumference, and 
covering a surface of 4000 square miles. It is the 
most southern of the whole, and, on account of its 
great elevation, is usually the first land seen from 
vessels approaching the Sandwich Islands. Its broad 
base and regular form renders its outline different 
from that of any other island in the Pacific with 
which we are acquainted. The mountains of Hawaii, 
