zone, their natural isolation exposes them to refreshing sea breezes, and, for nine months of the year, to the steady blowing northeast trade winds. Scarcely a country can be found where the temperature is more equable and the elements kindlier mixed. The diurnal range of the thermometer is twelve degrees and the extremes mark fifty-three and ninety degrees. The lofty mountain peaks, some of which are covered with perpetual snows, that form such a distinguishing feature of these islands, afford a charming diversity of temperature; for at the height of four thousand feet the thermometer ranges from forty to seventy degrees and fires are often comfortable even in the month of July. The vast quantities of vapor floating up from the sea drape the mountain tops in fantastic summer clouds or, condensed by the cooler atmosphere of these high elevations, fall in refreshing showers upon the hills and valleys below.

Upon approaching Hawaii the objects that first engage the attention and enlist the admiration of the beholder are the stupendous volcanic mountains, apparently rising abruptly from the sea and lifting their summits two and a half miles into the sky. Clad in perennial verdure and isolated in their grand proportions, they appear, from the distant ships, like stupendous curtains hung up upon the azure heavens. One of these, Kilauea, is the largest active volcano in the world. Its crater, four thousand feet above sea level, is three and a half miles long and two and a half miles wide; within this and filling its area to the brim is a lake of boiling lava, which, at night, illumines the overhanging clouds and skies and which, in periods of great eruption, rolls in rapid seething rivers down through forests and over precipices to the sea.

The first Protestant mission sent out to the Hawaiian Islands, consisting of seven Americans with their families and three Hawaiians, twenty-two in all, sailed from Boston,

October 23, 1819, and, after a protracted and uneventful voyage around Cape Horn, arrived safely off the islands on March 30, 1820. It was a most auspicious moment for the success of their mission, since, King Kamehameha having lately died, his son had marked his advent to the throne by abolishing idolatrous customs, destroying the sacred images, and tearing down the temples of worship. The strangers were soon visited by many of the natives from shore and each party, in their accustomed manner, exchanged kindly sentiments of friendship and hospitality. The chiefs also, with their wives, came on board, and, after having received every demonstration of consideration, they manifested great pleasure at the coming of the party and extended to them sincere expressions of welcome and invitations to come upon shore. An audience with the king having been arranged and presents having been freely distributed among his family and retainers, he was induced, after much delicate tact and mild persuasion, to permit the missionaries to take up their residence in the islands and to disseminate their religion for the space of one year. He was averse to granting even these terms, because the idolatrous priests having hitherto weakened the power of the government, he feared that, by the admission of a new religion, similar results would ensue. Under these favorable auspices the foundations of Christianity were laid, and they were so solidly based and firmly cemented by the discreet conduct and devout life of these pious persons that the idolatrous nation was quickly and permanently converted to the Christian religion; so that now the peals of Sabbath bells and the notes of hymned praise, the Sabbath school and divine service, are settled features of the life of this interesting people.

In the year 1843, a British ship of war visited Hawaii to settle certain complications that had arisen between the

British consul and the government; and, although these difficulties were clearly traceable to the arrogance and unreasonableness of the British representative, the captain of the royal navy sent a communication to the king couched in most offensive terms and demanding humiliating concessions coupled with the threat that, if prompt and full compliance with his demands was refused, he would open his batteries upon the port of Honolulu. The king, despairing of any effectual resistance, acceded to his demands, but only to learn that this imperious dictator had framed a second series of demands, more insulting and excessive than the first. Seeing that contention was useless and that further concessions would provoke renewed exactions, the government at last determined, in the face of impending ruin, to cede the islands to Great Britain and proceeded to frame a treaty to that effect. This action, consummated under the stress of such notoriously unjustifiable circumstances, everywhere aroused public indignation and especially in the United States, in consequence of which the British government hastened to disavow any responsibility and to repudiate the cession of the islands. This was followed by a convention of the leading powers and the adoption of a treaty, by the terms of which the independence of the islands was recognized and guaranteed. American influences, always in the ascendant there, have grown so great during the past ten years that the country is now in all except government under the control of the United States. There have been various measures in recent years, semiofficial or otherwise in their nature, looking to an American protectorate over these islands or for their absolute cession to the United States, but the settled and wise policy of the government to abstain from foreign interference and the acquisition of distant and isolated possessions has prevented the consummation of such schemes, and it may well be questioned

whether or not, by the annexation of such territory or by the extension of special protection to it, any compensatory advantage to the United States would result. Indeed it might be insisted, upon good grounds, that such connections might involve our government in embarrassing complications and, under certain circumstances, prove a source of serious trouble and great expense.

British consul and the government; and, although these difficulties were clearly traceable to the arrogance and unreasonableness of the British representative, the captain of the royal navy sent a communication to the king couched in most offensive terms and demanding humiliating concessions coupled with the threat that, if prompt and full compliance with his demands was refused, he would open his batteries upon the port of Honolulu. The king, despairing of any effectual resistance, acceded to his demands, but only to learn that this imperious dictator had framed a second series of demands, more insulting and excessive than the first. Seeing that contention was useless and that further concessions would provoke renewed exactions, the government at last determined, in the face of impending ruin, to cede the islands to Great Britain and proceeded to frame a treaty to that effect. This action, consummated under the stress of such notoriously unjustifiable circumstances, everywhere aroused public in- • dignation and especially in the United States, in consequence of which the British government hastened to disavow any responsibility and to repudiate the cession of the islands. This was followed by a convention of the leading powers and the adoption of a treaty, by the terms of which the independence of the islands was recognized and guaranteed. American influences, always in the ascendant there, have grown so great during the past ten years that the country is now in all except government under the control of the United States. There have been various measures in recent years, semiofficial or otherwise in their nature, looking to an American protectorate over these islands or for their absolute cession to the United States, but the settled and wise policy of the government to abstain from foreign interference and the acquisition of distant and isolated possessions has prevented the consummation of such schemes, and it may well be questioned