IV 
PREFACE. 
These observations refer, of course, chiefly to the second 
part of the following work, which contains the account of 
the Blonde’s voyage. 
In the first part, the Editor has consulted the voyages 
of Cook, Vancouver, Dickson and Portlock, Turnbull, and 
several other English navigators, besides the French and 
Russian voyages. Much valuable information was also re¬ 
ceived verbally from the missionaries, besides that contained 
in Mr. Ellis’s excellent account of Hawaii; and with respect 
to the visit of the king and queen of the Sandwich Islands 
to England, the most liberal assistance has been afforded by 
the gentleman who acted as their friend, no less than as 
their guardian, while they were in London. 
As the local situation of the Sandwich Islands renders 
them very important in the eyes of every maritime and 
commercial nation, particularly such as may have a view 
to trading between the rising states on the western coast of 
America, and the East Indies or China, it was believed that 
an account of the Islands and of their history, from the 
period of their discovery, would not be unacceptable. 
The rapid progress that civilization has made in these 
Islands is also a subject of great interest; and as the chiefs 
