The native population has declined from 400,000 as estimated by
Captain Cook in 1778 to 49,000, according to the census of 1872.
There are about 5,000 foreign residents, who live on very friendly
terms with the natives, and are mostly subjects of Kalakaua, the
king of the group.

The islands have a thoroughly civilized polity, and the Hawaiians
show a great aptitude for political organization. They constitute a
limited monarchy, and have a constitutional and hereditary king, a
parliament with an upper and lower house, a cabinet, a standing
army, a police force, a Supreme Court of Judicature, a most
efficient postal system, a Governor and Sheriff on each of the
larger islands, court officials, and court etiquette, a common
school system, custom houses, a civil list, taxes, a national debt,
and most of the other amenities and appliances of civilization.

There is no State Church. The majority of the foreigners, as well
as of the natives, are Congregationalists. The missionaries
translated the Bible and other books into Hawaiian, taught the
natives to read and write, gave the princes and nobles a high class
education, induced the king and chiefs to renounce their oppressive
feudal rights, with legal advice framed a constitution which became
the law of the land, and obtained the recognition of the little
Polynesian kingdom as a member of the brotherhood of civilized
nations.

With these few remarks I leave the subject of the volume to develop
itself in my letters. They have not had the advantage of revision
by any one familiar with the Sandwich Islands, and mistakes and
inaccuracies may consequently appear, on which, I hope that my