160 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
understood. They cheer the spirits, often fainting 
under the effects of an insalubrious clime, the silent 
prostration of debilitating sickness, or the opposi- 
tion and the trials of situation. They convey to 
his mind the gratifying conviction, that the indi- 
vidual to whom they are addressed is not forgotten 
by those in whose enjoyments and pursuits he once 
participated. 
This consideration not only revives his spirit, but 
imparts a fresh impetus to his movements, and 
adds new energy to his efforts. Letters from those 
abroad are gratifying to friends at home; and if 
they are so, to those who participate the pleasures 
of sincere, enlightened, and glowing friendship, and 
who are encircled by a thousand sources of enjoy- 
ment, how much more welcome must they be to 
the distant and often lonely absentee, who, though 
surrounded by multitudes of human beings, is yet 
doomed to perfect solitude, in respect to all mutual 
and reciprocal interchange of sympathy in thought 
and feeling. 
Sure I am, that did the friends of those who 
have gone to distant, barbarous, and often inhos- 
pitable lands, know the alleviation of trials, and 
the satisfaction of mind, their epistles are adapted 
to produce, they would not be content with simply 
answering the letters they may receive, but would 
avail themselves of every opportunity thus to ex- 
change their sympathies, and impart their plea- 
sures, to those who are cut off from the many 
sources of enjoyment accessible to them. 
Did the friends of the exile abroad also know 
the painful reflections to which a disappointment, 
in reference to expected intelligence, gives birth, 
they would endeavour to spare him that distress. 
In his lonely, distant, and arduous labours, a 
