The voyagers were commended to the "God of ocean and storm" by Rev. Dr.
Worcester; the apostolic benediction was pronounced; and the vessel gayly
pursued her way down the harbor, and was soon lost from sight.

After the usual pleasures and annoyances of "a life on the ocean wave," the
company were made glad by beholding in the distance the green hills of the
islands on the soil of which they were to labor and pray. They found the
people, not as Judson and Newell found those to whom they were sent with
the torch of truth, but ready to believe and embrace the gospel. The
messengers they sent ashore were greeted with shouts of joy, and their
wondering eyes turned to consuming idols and demolished temples. They found
a nation without a religion, a government without a church, a court without
an ecclesiastic. The people seemed sunk in barbarism. They had no schools,
no books, no pens, no means of information. Gross darkness was over all the
people, and the land was enveloped in appalling gloom.

Undismayed by the gross ignorance and encouraged by the abolition of
idolatry, the servants of God went to work. They distributed themselves
through the islands, and every where preached Jesus and the cross. The
effects of their labors were so apparent that the American Board were
encouraged to send out repeated reinforcements; and in the progress of
time Mr. Stewart and his accomplished companion arrived at Hawaii on their
sacred mission. Perhaps there is no mission station on the globe, no scene
of missionary toil, where such glorious results have been accomplished, and
such wonderful changes wrought, as at the Sandwich Islands. Mr. Bingham,
speaking of the condition of the people at the time of his arrival among
them, says, "The nation had, on our arrival, neither books, pen, nor
pencil, for amusement or business, or for acquiring information or
communicating thought. They sat, like Turks or tailors, on mats spread on
the ground; dipped their fingers in the dish to eat their fish, poi, and