THE
UNITED STATES MAGAZINE, AND
DEMOCRATIC VoL. XIII.
REVIEW. No. LXI.
JULY, 1843.
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS! In the very heart of the Pacific, nearly Japan, China, and the Philippine Isl equidistant from the Old and the New World, lies a group of islands, unsur passed for salubrity of climate, and equalled by few in fertility of soil. Uniting in their bosom the health-giving breezes of a temperate clime, with the gorgeous splendors of tropical verdure, Nature seems to have marked and isolated them for the purpose of working out there some great end, some won drous experiment, requiring a peculiar sphere, and combining antagonistic elements ;
in short, a fitting battle
ground for barbarisrn and civilisation. Any one who has paid attention to the history of the Pacific Ocean, for the last fifty years, will readily understand that we mean the Sandwich Islands ; a
group of volcanic formation, extending from 18° 50’ to 22° 20' N. latitude, and from 154° 53’ to 160° 15’ longitude west from Greenwich, embracing an area of 6100 square miles, nearly equi distant from Central America, Mexico,
California, and the North-Vest Coast, and also from the Russian dominions,
ands. They are designated, by the natives, the Hawaii-nei; a term syno nymous with Hawaiian Islands. Of this group, we have now for the first time an authentic history. The author of the volume referred to at the foot of this page, is already favorably known to us as the late editor and
publisher of the Polynesian, a weekly journal of character and respectability, and an authority upon the commerce, religion, and general history of the PacificqL From a residence at the Sandwich Islands during some of the most eventful periods of their history, and from the independent position oc cupied by him there between the parties by whose intrigues and rivalries they have been for many years agitated, Mr. Jarves is unquestionably entitled to respect for his statements of opinion, and to confidence for his statements of facts positively within his own know ledge. Unconnected with the govern ment or with the American Missiona ries, he is as reliable a witness and histo
' History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands; embracing their Antiquities, My thology, Legends, Discovery by Europeans in the Sixteenth Century, Re-discovery by Cook, with their Civil, Religious, and Political History, from the earliest Tradi tionary Period to the Present Time. By James Jackson Jarves, Member of the American Oriental Society. Boston: Tappan 8a Dennett. 1843. 1 vol. 8vo.
pp. 407. fThe Polynesian, Vols. I. and II.
Honolulu.
1840—41.
