THROUGH HAWAII. 
71 
vised them not to neglect these advantages, assuring 
them that it was a good thing to be instructed, and to 
know the true God, and his son Jesus Christ, the only 
Saviour. They said, “Perhaps it is a good thing for 
some to attend to the palapala and the pule (to reading 
and prayers,) but we are the king’s servants, and must 
attend to his concerns. If we (meaning all those that 
had the care of the king’s lands) were to spend our 
time at our books, there would be nobody to cultivate 
the ground, to provide food, or cut sandal wood for the 
king.” I asked them what proportion of their time 
was taken up in attending to these things ? They said 
they worked in the plantations three or four days in a 
week, sometimes from daylight till nine or ten o’clock 
in the forenoon; that preparing an oven of food took 
an hour; and that when they went for sandal wood, 
which was not very often, they were gone three or four 
days, and sometimes as many weeks. They were the 
king’s servants, and generally work much less than the 
people who occupy the lands, or cultivate them. I 
asked them what they did in the remaining part of 
those days in which they worked at their plantations 
in the morning; and also on those days when they did 
not work at all? They said they ate poe, laid down 
to sleep, or komailio no (just talked for amusement.) 
They were then asked, which they thought would be 
most advantageous to them, to spend that time in learn¬ 
ing to read, and seeking the favour of Jehovah and 
Jesus Christ, that they might live for ever, or wasting 
it in eating, sleeping, or foolish talking, and remaining 
ignorant in this world, and liable to wretchedness in 
that which was to come? They immediately endea¬ 
voured to give a different turn to the conversation, by 
