on at a time, and still fewer ever encumber themselves with
shoes and stockings. The women had on generally long blue chemises, or
gowns and bonnets of every variety of colour and shape, and put on in
all sorts of ways--some placing them hind part before; indeed, they had
apparently exercised their ingenuity to make them as unbecoming as
possible. Formerly, we were told, their head-dress was a wreath of
flowers, which suited their dark skins, and had a very pretty effect.
The chiefs, however, and their wives, were dressed in European costume,
and the king in public wears the Windsor uniform. It is supposed that
the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands derive their origin from the
Malays, and that at a very remote period a Malay junk, or fleet of
junks, was cast on those shores. Their skins have the same dark hue,
and their features the same form, as the Malays of the present day. It
is said that this group is becoming rapidly depopulated. The people
themselves have taken up the idea that their race is to become extinct,
and seem willing to yield to their fate without a struggle. The
diseases introduced by Europeans have tended to cause this, but they
themselves have many pernicious customs. Among others, no sooner does a
native feel himself attacked with fever than he rushes into the sea, or
into the nearest cold stream, as he fancies, to cool himself. The
result is that--the pores being closed instead of kept open and
perspiration encouraged--death comes in a few hours. Among our friends
here was Mr Callard, a missionary, who had resided in the island for
some years. He has gone into a hamlet, and found not a person remaining
alive. On one occasion he met an old man sitting at the door of a hut;
he asked where the rest of the people were.

"All dead," was the answer.

"Then do you come with me, and I will provide for your wants."

"No," said the native gloomily; "I will not move. I am preparing to
follow them."

The islands produce the paper mulberry, from which their cloths and
cordage are made; the acacia, used in the construction of their canoes;
the banana, the sugar-cane, the yam, the bread-fruit; and, the most
important of all, the taro root. Of late years, coffee, cotton, rice,
tobacco, indigo, melons, the vine, oranges, peaches, figs, tamarinds,
guavas, and many other plants and fruits have been introduced. The
natives pay the greatest attention to the cultivation of the taro root.
It is plan