a sketch published some years since in the Hawaiian Spectator.* The primitive object of the institution was to aid in the advancement of Christianity and the perpetuity of its institutions; to elevate the moral and religious condition of the people, and to teach them the arts and sciences, and to provide suitable teachers for the existing generations. This school was established on the principle of self-support, and none were admitted but those who could support themselves by manual labor. It went into operation in 1831. The site of the school was then in a rude and barren state; the only school-house was a temporary shed, constructed of poles and grass by the scholars. In a few weeks, the scholars, under the direction of the principal, commenced building a more permanent house. But great embarrassment was experienced for the want of means to carry forward the work, and of skill in the workmen. After two or three accidents, which materially put back the work, the walls of a house, fifty feet by twenty-six inside, were finished and covered with ti leaf, and furnished with rude seats and window-blinds, but without a floor. This building was erected entirely by the scholars themselves.

In 1836, the character of the institution was changed. The self-supporting system was laid aside, and no pupils were admitted beyond the age of twenty years.

In 1837, the present buildings were reared, and their extent and cost is thus described in the sketch already alluded to: " They consist of a centre building and two wings, all in one block. They are built of stone. The centre building is forty feet square inside, two and a half stories high, with a small cupola. The lower story affords two school-rooms. The second story affords a good room, forty feet square, for a chapel. A room above the chapel, forty feet by eighteen, is occupied as a room for apparatus, library, curiosities, &c. The two wings were each fifty feet by twenty-six, two stories high. The lower story of one is a school-room, and the upper story a dwelling-house for one of the teachers. The lower story of the other is a dining-hall for the boarding-scholars. The up*Vol. i., No. iv., Art. 1.

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per story is unfinished, but designed as a dwelling-house for a secular assistant. In addition to this building, there are twenty-seven small thatched houses for lodging-rooms for the pupils, besides a few other small buildings, such as cook-house, store-houses, &c. These buildings, including the dwellinghouses connected with them, and the improvements on the yard, cost about $12,500." This institution was endowed by the king and chiefs with a grant of lands, for the purpose of aiding the pupils in raising their own food, which was valued at about two cents per scholar per day, or $7 30 a year. Their food was principally poi and fish—the common food of the country-but eaten at a table, with bowls, spoons, knives, The clothing of each scholar consisted of a shirt and pantaloons. The entire personal expenses for the year amounted to about $20.

&c.

Their course of study was reading, writing, Scripture geography, history and chronology, Church history, elements of geometry and astronomy, trigonometry, mensuration, algebra, navigation, and surveying. To test their capacity for the classics, they were permitted to study Greek, and they made considerable progress in that language.

But the change introduced into the seminary since 1836 has been highly disadvantageous to the pupils. The rapid transition of a number of young men from out-of-door exercise to close mental exertion could not fail to inflict certain evils upon themselves and others with whom they came in contact. The savage can not be taken from his canoe, from his fishing excursions, his loiterings in the valleys or among the mountains, and immured within the walls of a seminary with impunity. Practical labor must ever be paramount to mere intellectual pursuits, or the exertions made to elevate native character are almost useless.

After all the means expended on this seminary, one is naturally led to hope to see something of the results of that expenditure. But there are few to be seen to-day. The institution has long been past the meridian of its usefulness. Notwithstanding it had for some time past been under the foster

ing care of the government, I found the buildings half prostrated, and the remaining portion looked as if they were destined soon to share the same fate. It was at the time of vacation. The pupils had gone to their homes or to visit their friends. The rooms they had vacated were half filled with every variety of cast-off or dirty articles, and presented the very epitome of filth and recklessness. The chapel, recitation-rooms, and lecture-rooms were in a deplorably filthy condition. From these circumstances, it was not difficult to estimate the appearance of the pupils when occupying their respective desks and rooms, or when formed into a class for recitation. The whole seemed to me to be an almost total failure of an object once inherently good; and it was because the earlier instructors were not eminently practical and systematic men. For twenty-two years the young men of the group have been boring away at their intellectual pursuits amid all the poverty of their native language. For twenty-two years exertions have been making to produce a grand failure. The costs of this institution to the Hawaiian government amounted, in 1852, to $6000; and in his annuul report, the Minister of Public Instruction recommended that the same amount be appropriated for 1853, besides $3500 for the repairs of the ruined buildings.*

The modern course of instruction is closely allied to the system originally established. It consists of arithmetic, mental and written algebra, geometry, trigonometry, optics, sacred, ancient, and Church history, composition, punctuation, anatomy, didactic theology, and Hawaiian laws.

During the twenty-one years ending in 1852, four hundred and ninety-nine students have received their diplomas, after an individual course of four years' study. A few of them have become teachers, evangelists, and ordained clergymen, while a few others have acted as judges, lawyers, and physicians, the last of which are villainous professions in the hands of Hawaiians generally.

In the museum of this seminary, in the midst of a pile of * See Annual Report for 1852, p. 59.

OLD HAWAIIAN GODS.

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worthless philosophical apparatus, I observed a couple of old Hawaiian gods. Their aspect was extremely ridiculous and repulsive. One was about two feet high. It was composed of a plain piece of wood, slightly hollowed out at the back, while the front was covered with a piece of native cloth, marked with sundry figures more grotesque than some of the old Aztec hieroglyphics. The other idol was about six feet high, carved out of a solid log, and of grim countenance. These gods are correctly represented in the accompanying wood-cut. It was with some difficulty that I concluded that the people

of a former generation were so intellectually debased, or that these were

"The devils they adored for deities."

Yet all this was true! While I stood contemplating these idols, I could not help wondering how many lifeless human victims had been laid at their feet, in the hope of conciliating the spirits of the deities which were supposed to hover around the inanimate wood. How many a poor wretch had knelt, as he felt the gushings forth of his own immortality, and breathed his prayers to these helpless objects; and yet he arose from his knees with a greater agony, a darker mind, and a soul more intensely crushed. O! who shall tell how many hearts have thus bled, how many bitter tears have been shed, how many spirits have thus writhed in bitter agony during the days of pagan darkness. Yet these were once thy gods, Hawaii! and these were the tortures levied by an accursed hierarchy upon thy abject and confiding children!

CHAPTER XXIV.

FROM LAHAINA TO WAI-LU-KU.

Crossing the Mountains. — Isthmus of Kula. — Maui formerly two Islands.-Village of Wai-ka-pu.-Wai-lu-ku and Valley.-Terrific Battle-ground.—Old Battle-ground of Kahului.—Hawaiian “ Golgotha."-A Cranium Hunter.—Curiosity of the Natives.-Modern Superstitions. Doctrine of the Resurrection studied over the Bones of Warriors.-Why the Doctrine is difficult to believe.

FROM Lahaina to Wai-lu-ku there is little to interest a superficial traveler. A man must be prepared for a dry, dusty, and rugged road, leading chiefly along the sea-shore.

On passing over the plains of Oloalu, a few ravines open on the left. The scenery at this spot is perfectly gorgeous. There are times—one of which I experienced—when the wind bursts through these ravines in gusts of such violence as al