SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
71 
surer had written the name *. Tamehameha himself was 
the most accomplished writer of the party, but his exceed¬ 
ing weakness reduced him to the necessity of contenting 
himself with simply making a mark to what may be con¬ 
sidered as his will—the first written will that was ever left by 
a Sandwich Islander. 
Until such time as the wish of Tamehameha, that his 
remains and those of his queen might be conveyed to his 
native country, could be complied with, it was resolved that 
their bodies should be deposited in a vault under the church 
of St. Martin’s in the Fields: they were properly cased, and 
the external coffins were covered with crimson velvet with 
gilt ornaments, a kind of decoration of death which so 
pleased the Eriis, that, on the arrival of the bodies at Oahu, 
more than one said it would be a pleasure to die in Eng¬ 
land to have their bodies so honoured. Whatever respect 
we could show was. shown to the poor remains of these 
chiefs, to convince the survivors that we respected their 
sovereigns and themselves. 
The deaths of Biho Biho and his queen were the more 
* There is a different pronunciation peculiar to the Leeward and Wind¬ 
ward Islands, the t and tc being equivalents, and the l and r ; and in 
these letters the pronunciation of Kuanoa differed from that of his brother 
chiefs. 
