SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
147 
their answers. But other missionaries have found some¬ 
thing for their catechumens to do. The Moravians at the 
Cape of Good Hope have taught the Hottentots, the most 
degraded race of men, and that nearest, before their time, to 
the brutes, the arts of civilized life. They who lived in 
holes in the earth, and ate the larva of filthy insects, and 
adorned themselves with the entrails of the animals they 
slew, now build them cottages, and fashion furniture, and 
are become workers in iron, and wood, and ivory. Here 
the task might have been easier; for already the arts of 
life had advanced far, and idolatry had, as if by miracle, 
given way, even before the coming of the mission. We 
believe mistaken zeal to be the source of many of the errors 
we see, but we fear also that some of the love of power has 
mingled with the zeal, and that the government of the 
country, through the medium of the consciences of the 
chiefs, is a very great, if not the principal object, of at least 
one of the mission. 
We had a striking proof of their power the other night. 
It was Saturday; and as Ivaraimoku was now v T ell enough 
to enjoy a spectacle, the promise made to Boki of reserving 
some of the figures of the phantasmagoria for his friends at 
Oahu was recalled, and preparations were accordingly made 
u 2 
