The Imogene left Valparaiso or August 8, 1837, according to her log in the Record Office. That document does little to amplify or confirm the letters, except by giving latitude and longitude and the tale of lashes received by members of the crew for theft,. drunkenness, "insolence, and profane language. The first letter, written at sea in October, describes call on September 8 at Santa Christiana in the Marquesas, where Bruce found two missionaries, resident for three years past, but ne other Christians The Queen having come on board to visit me with her husband, King Totiti, I placed on her shoulders a Tartan Shawl with which she was delighted; and I presented her husband with an old Coat, Epaulettes and Cocked Hat, which he had done ime the honour to ask me for.... Totiti was in raptures with me (principally on account of my height, for these People invariably consider that none except the largest ought to be Chiefs), and finding him in so civilized a humour I advised him to attend to the Missionaries' instructions....but I could only get from him that he would not prevent the Piccaninies (the Women and Childxen), but that for himself he was immovable.
Moralizing -on the inscrutability of the Deity who had given such hea~ 4. thens a mild climate and "a soil that yields abundance without cultivation," the pious captain sailed on to anchor (September 29) at "a village of huts, called Honolulu," where he stayed for a fortnight. The threads of politics and religion were closely interlaced, and his attempts to outline a proper British policy towards "the whole Sandwich group occupy Jmost of the second letter, written on "November 29, after leaving Tahiti, us well as the ends of the first. The state of religion pleased him: there were 140 American missionaries in the group, and the principal church of Honolulu had a congregation of 8,000 natives, the services being "performed in the native tongue, after the Presbyterian manner, and th Queen (who is a professing Christian) always attends it" There was a Bethel chapel for English ani American residents, and two missionary schools, where "the children learn the multiplication table and repeat it to the tune of 'Yankee Doodle,' their instructors being all Americans." King Tamihuncher III, "a young man of idle habits," heard divine service on board the Imogene, was deeply affected, "and when he heard me pray for himself he said to Mr. Chandler, 'That is me,' and shutting his book, covered his face with his hands." The prospects were even more promising on Hawaii (spelt Awyhee), which was visited after leaving Honolulu. The chief of the district was a woman, a zealous Christian called Kaperlone, and a hymn was sung in the missionary School to the tune of "Scots wha'hae wi' Wallace bled." She and Bruce bad a conversation which appears genuinely to have moved him, and even more the lady, who, with her interpreter, burst into tears, explaining that he was the first foreigner to put a Bible in her hands. Friendship thus sealed, an episode of more general historical interest followed;—She gave me a spear (a long wooden instrument quite plain, 22ft in length) which had pierced Captain Cook's body at the time of his death, and had been kept concealed ever sincè by her husband, and" since bir ®eath by her. In the evening I landed her and took my farewell, she is half black and a stout comely woman about 40 years of age. She is mentioned in the Saturday's ma-gazing of September, 1832. I stood on the spot where Captain Cook fell, and I conversed with a man who was near the scene of action at the time as there was nothing to mark the spot I obtained from the Chief a Cocoa Nut tree near to it, having a shot hole through it made on that fatal day, Mebruary 14, 1779. A full description of which I send to Jane who will I am sure copy it for you. Lord Byron in 1825 had caused a small tablet to be erected at the place to which Captain Cook was carried, but that being a mile distant was likely in course of time to be confused with the other, I thought it well to mark the identical spot. he spear I hope to present to the King.
Two years ago a careful search was_made for the spear at Windsor. but no trace of the weapon or of receipt could be found: nevertheless 1t is quite possible that the spear may still be in the Castle.
Drifting into Colonies This Eden had only two serpents, idleness and Roman Catholicism. Somie of the complaints of the missionaries have an oddly familiar ring, as if they were the voices of Kenya coffee planters discussing native la-hour must be regretted that the ignorant people were not at the same time impressed with the importance or rather the necessity of industry, which must go hand ju hand with the gospel of Christ: as the ground yields so much spontaneously that they found no inducement to go to work.
Roman Catholics from coming and teaching their doctrines on his Dominions, and I think it is much to be wished that he should be encouraged but they manage to land. His government then send them away by force, and he is embroiled with the nations for breach of their treaties.
Bruce feared a schism, but gave moderating advice for emergencies, which was poorly received The Queen slapped her thigh at me, when I told her, that if a Roman Catholic Bishop who was coming (against my advice) on his way to the island of Ascension required, for the good of his health, to land, she must not, in common humanity, refuse permission.
The long screed which Bruce sent to Troubridge on the political situation in the Sandwich Islands is i teresting only in its revelation, by a particular instance, of the unsatisfactory way in which the Pacific spheres of influence drifted into colonies. The kings and chiefs were py tied learnt to make a simple, is time fairly used to foreigners,
decent distinction between those who brought the Bible and advice, and others, chiefly the crews of whalers, who brought disease and rum. But when it came to making friendly treaties with the Powers, they were as much at a loss as an orphan child might be in conducting negotiations for a modus vivendi with his aunts and uncles. The grown-ups, they thought, ought to know better than themselves;—Tamibuncher, Bruce "writes, "was afraid of me, and frequently asked Mr. Charlton (the consul) what I would say to King William the Fourth of him" But what was likely to happen to the willing child, if, as even a young Polynesian of idle habits could see was likely, the grown-ups should fall out? Bruce wrote home with urgency and an unconcealed desire to be ambassador, or. possibly first governor, in the Sandwich Islands. But he also had the acumen to prophesy that, unless something more constructive was done than to send casual emissaries, each of whom adopted the style lof a plenipotentiary without appropriate powers, the influence of the American missionaries would pull down the scales,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.