events of our story, and one which, so far as we know, is without precedent in the whole history of the world. History affords us many examples of a false religion receding before the true, or even before another false religion which had more elements of truth in it; but we do not know a second instance of a people abandoning its ancient religion with no other to supply its place. This is what the Hawaiians did. The promised teachers of religion had never been sent from England to teach them the truth; but the intercourse which the people had had with foreigners had at least sufficed to convince them that their own religion was false, and to make them feel the heavy burden of its superstitious restrictions; and soon after the accession of Kamehameha II., by a general and simultaneous movement, of which the king himself gave the signal, they flung off their religion amidst transports of rejoicing, and took refuge from Superstition in Atheism. Some of the incidents connected with this religious revolution are curious and interesting. The conduct of the high priest, Hewahewa, reminds us forcibly of a passage in the history of the conversion of our own Saxon ancestors. He was among the disbelievers in the old superstition, but, unlike the king and many others whose views were merely negative and destructive, he had arrived at a philosophical alternative. "I knew," he afterwards said, "that the wooden images of our deities, carved by our own hands, were incapable of supplying our wants; but I worshipped them because it was the custom of our fathers. My thoughts have always been that there is only one great God, dwelling in the heavens." The same desire to get rid of the old religion was therefore working in the mind both of king and high priest; but each was afraid of the other. Hewahewa afterwards related the steps by which he and the king came to an understanding between themselves upon the subject. The danger in which a disclosure would place each of them, and the uncertainty of the other's feelings, made it difficult to arrive at the intelligence desired. It was obtained at last during a conversation in which coy questions were parried by coy answers, until by gradual steps their common sentiments were fully revealed. In the actual accomplishment of the revolution, king and high priest played the leading parts. It was at a solemn public festival that the king openly broke the "tabu:" this act was sufficient; the king had set an example which all understood, and were prepared to follow. A shout arose, "the tabu is broken!" orders were issued to destroy the temples and idols; and Hewahewa was the first to apply the torch. The parallel which the language and conduct of Hewahewa afford with those of Coifi, the high priest of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria is very curious. Bede tells us (lib. ii. c. 13) that having heard Paulinus's discourse before the Northumbrian king and his court, Coifi cried out, "I have long since been sensible that there was

nothing in that which we worshipped; because the more diligently I sought after truth in that worship, the less I found it. But now, I freely confess that such truth evidently appears in this preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal happiness. For which reason I advise, O king, that we instantly abjure and set fire to those temples and altars which we have consecrated without reaping any benefit from them." In short, the king publicly gave his licence to Paulinus to preach the gospel, and, renouncing idolatry, declared that he received the faith of Christ; and when he inquired of the high priest who should first profane the altars and temples of their idols, with the inclosures that were about them, he answered, "I; for who can more properly than myself destroy those things which I worshipped through ignorance, for an example to all others, through the wisdom which has been given me by the true God?" Then immediately, in contempt of his former superstitions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion; and mounting the same, he set out to destroy the idols, for it was not lawful before for the high priest either to carry arms or to ride on any but a mare. Having therefore girt a sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted the king's stallion and proceeded to the idols. The multitude, beholding it, concluded he was distracted; but he lost no time, for as soon as he drew near the temple he profaned the same, casting into it his spear which he held; and rejoicing in the knowledge of the worship of the true God, he commanded his companions to destroy the temple with all its inclosures by fire."

The Hawaiians did not, however, long continue without a religion. Some years before, an American vessel which touched at the island, had taken a number of native youths to be educated in the United States. When the time came for sending them back, the Board of Missions took the opportunity to send missionaries with them, in the hope that the return of these youths would afford a favourable opening for proclaiming the gospel among their countrymen. They arrived off the islands in the early part of 1820, in ignorance of the remarkable events which had recently occurred to favour their good design. There was, however, some difficulty made to their reception. The king and his people were still expecting the promised teachers from England, which Kamehameha had asked and Vancouver promised; and were unwilling to receive these strangers from the United States. After some delay, however, and under certain conditions, they were allowed to land; and, once landed, they found little difficulty in inducing this people without a religion, to embrace, at least nominally, the religion which they offered; and which, however starved and partial a form of the Christian faith it may have been, was at least infinitely superior to that which the people had heretofore believed. With the mass of

the people, indeed, the profession of Christianity was little more than nominal, but there was not wanting a number of more hopeful converts.

One incident connected with this movement is worthy to be recorded. That the reader may appreciate it, we must first give a description of the scene of its occurrence, a description which is worth giving for its intrinsic interest. The eight islands of the Hawaiian group are not the low coral formations of which so many of the islands in these seas consist, but owe their existence to the violent outbursts of volcanic agency, which has not expended itself on the successive efforts which threw up island after island, but is still fiercely active in the last and largest of the series. This last is the island which has given its name, Hawaii, to the group. Upon it is the mountain of Mauna Loa, which rises 14,000 feet-two and a-half milesabove the level of the neighbouring sea. The base of the mountain is clothed with shaggy forests; higher up, it is tumbled into precipices and rent into ravines; its twin peaks are in perpetual snow. On the shoulder of this mountain there is a crater nine miles in diameter, still in fierce activity, which takes rank as the largest active crater in the world. A visit of some American travellers is thus described:-"Eight hundred feet below the brink of the abyss a ledge of hard lava encircles the changing contents of the volcano. The descent to this ledge is rough and difficult, but not impracticable: it occupied Mr. Hill about half an hour. Continuing on the ledge, and steering by a compass and by recollection of the appearance of the crater from above, he and his companions proceeded for a quarter of a mile, till they were stopped by huge basaltic blocks, confusedly piled up and rising to the height of three or four hundred feet. Taking a new direction they again approached the banks of the crater, which they found in one place were formed of immense deposits of pure sulphur. The plain on which they now walked was smoother; but several deep cavities were passed, caused by sinkings of the volcanic matter after cooling. Two more hours of difficult march brought them to the brink of the great lake of liquid fire the Stygian lake forlorn'-in the midst of which rose the two remarkable cones they had previously seen. Jets of the seething cauldron were thrown upwards at intervals, and hissing vapour oozed from many fissures in the fixed lava-bed on which they trod, the form of which was continually changing. The appearance of the inner walls of the crater was remarkable, exhibiting irregular patches of calcareous and other earths; and the whole effect was so illusive that it was impossible to decide how far the explorers were from the sides. This uncertainty was probably in part caused by heterogeneous vapours mixing at different temperatures, and from the novelty of the whole circumstances. As they gazed, the illusion took an extraordinary