SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
49 
a consequence of superior civilization, if not its cause; 
and when Captain Freycinet touched at the Sandwich 
Islands in his voyage round the world, these two chiefs 
were baptized by the chaplain of his ship; and thus Chris¬ 
tianity was planted, as it appeared, by the spontaneous will 
of the natives, before any mission even of persuasion had 
reached them *. 
These events took place late in the autumn of 1819, 
while a mission was preparing in America to visit Oahu. 
Its projectors, who had formed their plan on what they had 
learned from the masters of traders, and on the accounts 
given by some youths, natives of the Islands, who had been 
sent for education to the United States, little calculated 
* Captain Kotzebue brought, on bis last return from the South Seas, the 
following document, probably the first Christian marriage certificate from the 
Sandwich Islands, at least of a native. It is in the hand-writing of the mis¬ 
sionary Bingham:— 
“ At a public meeting of the Chapel on the 28th July, Karaimoku, the 
Regent of the Sandwich Islands, and the young Akahi, were united in honour¬ 
able Christian marriage. After the service they both subscribed with their 
own hands the following note in a blank book kept for the record of marriages, 
to wit: 
‘ Oahu, July 28, 1825. 
‘ We have just now been married by Mr. Bingham. 
(Signed) 
‘ Karaimoku. 
‘ Akahi. 
4 Witnesses 
{ 
Boki. 
Keariiahomu.’ ” 
H 
