THROUGH HAWAII. 
277 
gods of the Sandwich Islanders. Makoa, who was 
a chief speaker among them on such occasions, said 
they must all attend to the new word, must forsake 
thieving and drunkenness, infanticide and murder, and 
do no work on the la tabu , (day sacred;) adding, at 
the same time, that the king had received the palapala, 
books, &c. and went to church on the sacred day, as 
did also Kuakini, the governor. The head man brought 
us some ripe plantains, of which we ate a few, and 
then proceeded on our way, leaving them busy in con¬ 
versation about the news they had heard; which, in all 
probability, were “ strange things” to their ears. 
After travelling a mile and a half along the shore, 
we came to Kehena, a populous village: the people 
seemed, from the number of their canoes, nets, &c. to 
be much engaged in fishing. Their contrivance for 
launching and landing their canoes, was curious and 
singular. 
The bold coast is formed of perpendicular or over¬ 
hanging rocks, from forty to sixty feet high, against 
which, this being the windward part of the island, the 
swell beats violently. In one place, where there were 
a few low rocks about thirty feet from the shore, they 
had erected a kind of ladder. Two long poles, one tied 
to the end of the other, reached from these rocks to the 
top of the cliffs. Two other poles, tied together in the 
same manner, were fixed parallel to the first two, and 
about four or five feet distant from them. Strong 
sticks, eight or ten feet long, were laid across these at 
right angles, and about two or three inches apart, 
which being fastened to the long poles with ie, (the 
tough fibrous roots of a climbing sort of plant, which 
they find in the woods,) formed the steps of this inge- 
