SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
125 
the ignorance and superstitions of barbarism itself. The 
transcendant qualities of their father, a conqueror and legis¬ 
lator, had alone opened to their country a prospect of rising 
to a station among the cultivated nations of the earth. Yet 
young as they were, untrained by scholarship or example, 
they had broken down the barriers of superstition, paved 
the way for laws and true religion, introduced letters, and, 
in hopes of benefiting their country, and securing the alli¬ 
ance and protection of the state which they esteemed most 
likely and most able to guard them, yet leave them free to 
improve, and not oppress them, they had undertaken no 
less a voyage than half the circle of the globe, and had died 
in that foreign land—surrounded, indeed, by affectionate 
attendants of their own nation, yet anxious for their distant 
people, and grieving that they had only half accomplished 
the object of their heroic expedition. Perhaps the perfect 
faith reposed in the English by the people of the Islands, 
is the strongest proof that ever could be given by a whole 
nation of simple-mindedness and freedom from guile. There 
was not a moment’s irritation, not a moment’s suspicion that 
unfair means had been used to shorten their days ; and we 
were received as brothers who would sympathise with their 
grief, and as friends who would be glad to heal their 
wounds. 
