his sword as he was accomplished, his noble achievements struck the barbarians with awe. But being wounded, and growing faint from loss of blood and excessive action, he plunged into the sea with his sword in hand and swam to the boats; where, however, he was scarcely taken on board, before somebody saw one of the marines that swam from the shore, lying flat upon the bottom. Phillips, hearing this, threw himself in after him, and brought him up with him to the surface of the water, and both were taken in.

"The boats had hitherto kept up a very hot fire, and lying off without the reach of any weapon but stones, had received no damage; and, being fully at leisure to keep up an unremitted and uniform action, made great havoc among the Indians, particularly among the chiefs, who stood foremost in the crowd and were most exposed. But, whether it was from their bravery, or ignorance of the real cause that deprived so many of them of life, that they made such a stand, may be questioned, since it is certain that they in general, if not universally, understood heretofore, that it was the fire only of our arms that destroyed them.

"This opinion seems to be strengthened by the circumstance of the large, thick mats they were observed to wear, which were also constantly kept wet; and, furthermore, the Indian that Cook fired at with a blank discovered no fear, when he found his mat unburnt, saying, in their language, when he showed it to the bystanders, that no fire had touched it. This may be supposed at least to have had some influence.

It is,

THE SPOT WHERE COOK FELL.

27

however, certain, whether from one or both these causes, that the numbers that fell made no apparent impression on those who survived; they were immediately taken off, and had their places supplied in a

constant succession.

"Lieutenant Gore, who commanded as first lieutenant under Cook in the Resolution, which lay opposite the place where this attack was made, perceiving, with his glass, that the guard on shore was cut off, and that Cook had fallen, immediately passed a spring upon one of the cables, and, bringing the ship's starboard guns to bear, fired two round-shots over the boats into. the middle of the crowd; and both the thunder of the cannon and the effects of the shot operated so powerfully, that it produced a most precipitate retreat from the shore to the town."

It will be seen thus that the two records, Hawaiian and English, of the melancholy transactions which give such unwonted interest to this spot, substantially agree. Hereafter pilgrim tourists in the Pacific visiting this place, will find it replete with historical associations mellowed by time; and glowing perhaps with enthusiasm, they will quote the oft-reiterated words of Johnson:-Far from me be such frigid philosophy as would conduct us indifferent or unmoved, over any ground. dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue.-But, although I have trodden the lava rock where the justly incensed barbarians slew the great navigator, calling aloud, “He groans, he is not a god;" and have swum in the Bay's blue waters at that very point; and have read the cop

perplate inscriptions upon the stump of the memorable. cocoanut-tree put there by British men-of-war; and have been to the place further inland, where a rude. monument tells us that his flesh was burned;—yet at neither locality could I start productively the meditative or heroic mood.

Perhaps it is because the imaginative notions of my boyhood, respecting the Great Captain and Discoverer in the Island World of the Pacific, have been reluctantly corrected by the more accurate information obtained here on the spot in Hawaii-nei. The footprints Cook has left on the sands of time, great as he was in many respects, will never wear out; but the place and the manner of his death we should contemplate less painfully, had the illustrious navigator, whose blood threescore and ten years ago crimsoned these peaceful waters, done more to direct the untaught natives to the Great Jehovah, instead of receiving divine homage himself.

God will not have his glory given to another, nor will he with impunity let selfish gain be made out of the principle of reverence for higher powers, which himself has implanted in the human constitution. Captain Cook wrongly attempted this, although, as we would fain believe, not aware to what extent the offerings paid him were meant as homage to a God. Hence, in the order of retributive Providence, his ignominious death at the hands of the very incensed barbarians whom he had allowed to worship him.

FORMS OF THE OLD IDOLATRY.

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A glimpse of the besotted idolatry which the aborigines of this Island Kingdom of Hawaii were then addicted to, and of the moral state of Hawaii AS IT WAS, may be gathered from the engravings we give of some of their idol gods.

It is a matter of curious interest to the philosopher, in tracing the origin of the religious and mythological notions of different savage tribes, to observe how they are always modified by the physical objects, usages, and scenery with which they are chiefly conversant. The most terrific and impressive of all visible things to Hawaiians being the Volcano, or Lua Pele, and its cause unknown, they attributed all its phenomena to gods there living, and those gods their imaginations made like unto themselves.

Thus, the conical craters in the bed of the volcano they regarded as the houses of their gods, where they amused themselves by playing at konane, the favorite Hawaiian game of drafts. The roaring of the volcano's furnaces, and the crackling of its sulphurous flames, were deemed by them the kani to the hula of their gods, that is, the music of their dances, which were naturally attributed to them, from their own addictedness to the same. The red flaming surge in the caldron of the volcano they called the surf, where their gods played like themselves with surf-boards on the great Pacific rollers.

In like manner, the Greenlanders and Esquimaux of the Arctic regions, when first visited by Moravians, believed every thing in heaven to be after the pattern of

things on their earth; and they found it difficult to be satisfied with the Bible promise of the Christian heaven, because it did not contain seals. The arch of heaven, in their view, turns round on the pivot of a high, sharp peak, far to the north. The Great Bear they compare to a sort of bench, on which they fasten their ropes and harpoons for the capture of seal. The belt of Orion consists of Greenlanders, who were placed there because they could not find the way to their own country. The Pleiades are howling dogs, which surround a white bear. The red stars take their color from eating seals' livers, the white from eating seals' brains. The Northern Lights are caused by the souls of the dead playing at ball. In the sky there is an immense lake, confined by a dam; when the water overflows this dam, it rains; and if the dam should break, heaven would fall, and crush the earth.

The deities worshipped by Hawaiians were called by the general name Akua, and the number of them was unlimited, expressed by their word kini. Mr. Dibble says the Hawaiians had six deities to whom they gave names, but oftener addressed only four, Ku, Lono, Kane, and Kanaloa. After naming these four, and sometimes six, they then added the expression, the forty thousand, and the four hundred thousand gods, meaning an indefinite number.

These deities they regarded as spirits who had their residence above, or in the clouds. They attributed to them all the proud, fierce, cruel, and impure passions of men; and supposed them of course to delight in the