240 
VOYAGE TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS, 
At length, after an absence from home of seventeen 
months and fifteen days, we, with our pitiable guests, again 
anchored at Spithead on the 15th of March, 1826, with all 
the joy mariners are wont to feel on reaching their native 
land, and some of the self-importance that belongs to such 
as have successfully visited new or interesting countries, and 
feel they have something to tell when they return. 
Perhaps, in the present state of knowledge, there is little 
to relate that can be entirely new, unless a traveller has been 
to the interior of Africa, or should happily advance to the 
Polar Sea. Our voyage can boast of nothing to compare 
with these in interest; yet we have seen one nation rapidly 
emerging from a state of savage nature to one of civilization, 
and others rising by their own exertions to freedom. And 
we can at least boast that truth has guided us in our nar¬ 
rative, and that we have an honest desire, by imparting the 
little knowledge we have gained, to inspire such an interest 
in our late friends in the southern seas as may contribute to 
their improvement, and lead to the attainment of all the 
blessings of Christian civilization. 
