We remember all your words, and your commands. It is our mind to keep them all.

This also. We are living together pleasantly and in peace, we school-girls of Mrs. Coan. If you should hear we are doing those things which are not right, then your heart would be heavy.

This also. We remember our pleasant walks with you in Hilo. Will you pray much that we may live in the peace (literally, cool shade) of our Lord?

By the waves and the winds of the ocean is borne this our thought of love to thee.

From the girls of the Boarding-school at Hilo.

Love to you, Mr. C. This is my thought of love to you. I declare it to you on this white paper, and with this black ink, that it may be carried on the wing of the wind. Great love to you, in whom is the Spirit of God. This is what I know of you. You have given us a bell for our meeting-house.

These are some also who have assisted us in building our house; the King, whose is the kingdom, gave only sixty dollars; and the Governor of this island gave only forty dollars, and the members of the church have given only their ninepence and their twenty-five cents! But your present is a bell! That is like-how many dollars? Therefore my love for you has burst forth, and I have thought to write to you. Great indeed is your love for us!

Our meeting-house is finished. It is thatched with ki-leaf on the sides and ends, and with cane-leaf on the roof. It is filled with seats, and most of it is floored with boards; a little remains.

This also I declare to you. There is trouble in the church. Some of the brethren have been drinking sour potato and smoking tobacco. By-and-by, perhaps, the punishment of God will fall upon us of Kohala, if we do not run into Him for shelter. The people of Kona and Kau were guilty of this sin before, and God is

LETTERS FROM MEN OF KOHALA.

231

punishing them. There is a great famine there, and after years, or months, perhaps, so it will be here. The beginning of this evil was with the land-officers. This it is that I declare to you. Tell to us some of the wonderful things done in your land. My thought is finished.

By me, a pupil of E. Bond's when you were here in Hawaii.

PAHIA.

KOHALA, HAWAII.

Great love to you, Mr. C——, our father in the truth. Love and blessing to you because of your love to us and your great kindness. Because also of your stirring up the brethren in the United States to that which is wanting to our new meeting-house in Kohala.

We are very happy in having received it, (i. e. the bell,) and in hearing its voice—a strange voice! Ended now are the old things. The horn (shell with which they formerly called to meeting) is nothing now! for here is the bell!

Concerning the bell my word is done.

Here is this new thought. I declare it to you. Blessed are we in having obtained a new meeting-house! It is an excellent house! It has a floor of boards, nice windows, and is full of good seats. All our wants are now supplied in this house.

Here is this new thought, too. We have a singing-school here in Kohala now; there are a great many pupils. By-and-by, perhaps, we shall understand this good work. If the pupils are attentive they will know well. That's done.

This, too, is another thought. The brethren are awaking. A great many now attend meetings on the Sabbath and on other days. Some who had fallen into this sin and that sin, have returned again.

This is my very last thought to you. Love and peace be to you in the Lord Jesus. I remember you in my prayers to God for you, because of illness in your body, and because of our meeting here in Kohala.

And I praise God, too, that he has given both to us

and to you blessings for our bodies and our souls; to us a teacher and the Sabbath, His word and good things a great many. I, with respect,

KILAKAU.

From a number of other curious and original manuscript specimens of the Epistolary Literature of the Sandwich Islands in my possession, I select the following to a society of American ladies, friends of the Rev. Mr. Bond, who had sent out to him a box of readymade clothing for the use of his school-boys. Their short way of naming their teacher is not from any want of politeness or of reverence, but is peculiar to the

nation.

Hawaiians generally know nothing of the titles Mr. and Madam, or of Christian and surnames united. Thus, in speaking to or of Rev. Mr. Thurston, they would say Kakina, the nearest sound to Thurston they can utter. And so of his wife they would say KakinaWahine, the woman Thurston, or Thurston's wife. This is curt enough, and there must be great advance in the arts of civilization before they will come to Rabbi, Rabbi. The expression "great, perhaps," may be taken, if the reader please, to indicate that they meant to keep clear of all flattery, and not to speak positively, where, after all, a very moderate degree of love might have sent the garments. It will be noticed that they know when they have done, a thing that cannot be always said of either speakers or writers.

Love to you, Ladies of Hallowell, in America. Great is your kindness to us, in giving us the pantaloons for ourselves, and the

COMMUNICATIONS TO LADIES IN AMERICA.

233

shirts also. We are now clothed in the garments you have so generously given us, the boys in this High-school of Kohala. Great, perhaps, is your love towards us, and therefore have you sent us these fine garments. Love to you all, from the greatest to the least of you. This thought is done.

Here are some of the things we are doing in Bond's school:

We rise early in the morning, wash our faces, and go to meeting, (our morning prayer-meeting;) and when we return, we read in the Holy Bible. At the ringing of the bell, we go into school; and when school is out, we eat; and afterwards go to work. We have finished one half of the garden and the paths. The work we have done looks very nice, and the many things also growing in the garden are beautiful.

Here is another thought for you. What kind of a country is yours? Very good, perhaps, and pleasant, and not hot; and the living there, too, is agreeable, perhaps.

This thought is finished.

By me,

КЕКІРІ.

IOLE, KOHALA.

Where are you all, Ladies of Hallowell, in America?

Great is my joy and my desire for the good work done in your country, and for the undertakings there, and for the building up of the kingdom of Jehovah. This, also, for your aiding us with pantaloons and shirts. You are very generous, we should say. That is

your character. Bond has given them to us who dwell in these mean houses and in these tattered garments.

This is the reason of our miserable houses and clothes-the darkheartedness of our fathers. They did not know the God of heaven, but they worshipped lying gods. They knew not Jehovah, the God that made heaven, and earth, and all things. Therefore is the ignorance of the present race of people in these Islands. Because also of their great unbelief, and their prayers made with the mouth only. They have not prayed with hearts confessing to God.

Here, also, is a thought-to tell you of the labors of our teacher. These are a great many, stirring up the church, teaching in the teachers' school, and in the Sabbath-school, and in the High-school of Kohala, Hawaii.

My letter is finished.

By me,

KALAMA.

There is much meaning in one of the sentences of this last writer, who is an assistant teacher with Mr. Bond: "Because also of their great unbelief, and their prayers made with the mouth only; they have not prayed with hearts confessing to God." Alas! of how many is it too true, elsewhere the world over, in the words of that Scripture: This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men.

But have removed their heart far from me! Missionaries are tried with this in the native churches, and it grieves them deeply. But the foreign piety at the Islands has much more of the professional and heartless in it, than that which is native-born. There are certain professors of religion who, with a name to live, do show in their walk so little interest in any thing that pertains to life and godliness, that one can hardly believe otherwise than that the heart of their religion is quite eaten out, or dried up. They have a state of the spiritual being like marasmus or atrophy of the body.

If their piety has not completely run out and washed away, you cannot feel any pulse to prove they have a