THROUGH HAWAII. 
457 
unwearied perseverance. Ī have sat beside him at his 
desk sometimes from nine or ten o’clock in the morning, 
till nearly sun-set, during which period his pen or his 
book has not been out of his hand more than three- 
quarters of an hour, while he was at dinner. 
We do not know that Christianity exerted any de¬ 
cisive influence on his heart. He was willing to re¬ 
ceive the missionaries on their first arrival—availed 
himself of their knowledge to increase his own—and, 
during the latter years of his life, was decidedly fa¬ 
vourable to their object; declared his conviction of the 
truth of Christianity; attended public worship him¬ 
self on the Sabbath, and recommended the same to his 
people. 
His moral character was not marked by that cruelty, 
rapacity, and insensibility to the sufferings of the peo¬ 
ple, which frequently distinguish the arbitrary chiefs 
of uncivilized nations. He appears in general to have 
been kind ; and, in several places on our tour, the 
mothers shewed us their children, and told us, that 
when Rihoriho passed that way, he had kissed them, 
—a condescension they seemed to think much of, and 
which they will probably remember to the end of their 
days. But though generous in his disposition, and 
humane in his conduct towards his subjects, he was 
* '‘ted to intoxication ; whether from natural incli- 
influence and example of others, is not 
1 • frequently, to my own know- 
latter. Had he in 
th individuals 
to virtue 
