THROUGH HAWAII. 
107 
Early the next morning numbers of the natives col¬ 
lected around our lodgings, and when informed that we 
intended to perform religious worship, sat down on the 
ground, and became quite silent. After singing a hymn 
in their language, I gave a short exhortation, followed 
by prayer. They afterwards kept us in conversation 
till about half-past eight, when we set out from Keau 
liou, and pursued our journey. Mr. Harwood proceed¬ 
ed in the canoe ; the rest of our number travelled on 
foot along the shore. Our way lay across a- rough 
tract of lava, resembling that which we passed over 
the preceding afternoon. In many places it seemed as 
if the surface of the lava had become hard, while a few 
inches underneath it had remained semifluid, and in 
that state had been broken up, and left in its present 
confused and irregular form. This rugged appearance 
of the external lava was probably produced by the 
expansive force of the heated air beneath the crust, 
but that could not have caused the deep chasms or 
fissures which we saw in several places. We also 
observed many large spherical volcanic stones, the 
surface of which had been fused, and in some places 
had peeled off like a crust or shell, an inch or two in 
thickness. The centre of some of these stones, which 
we broke, was of a dark blue colour and compact tex¬ 
ture, and did not appear to have been at all affected by 
the fire which had calcined the surface. 
After travelling about two miles over this barren 
waste, we reached the place where, in the autumn of 
1819, the decisive battle was fought between the forces 
of Rihomho , the present king, and his cousin, Kekuao- 
kalam , in which the latter was slain, his followers 
completely overthrown, and the cruel system of idol- 
