In Tamaahmaah these islanders possess one of those remarkable characters, who, like Alfred or Peter the Great, seems destined to hasten the progress of civilization. He is known in this country from the accounts of Turnbull, Lisianski, and Langsdorf; but as none of these navigators ever saw that chief, their accounts are consequently very imperfect; the length of time, however, during which our author remained in his family, afforded him opportunities of observation not enjoyed by those of higher qualifications, and in some measure compensates for the unavoidable defects of his education. Although no new discoveries, strictly speaking, are recorded, the work will not be found altogether destitute of useful nautical information; the account of the reef to the southwest of Halibut Island, upon which the ship was wrecked, and the numerous rocks that lie near the coast of Aliaski, will show what ought to be avoided; and in the account of the south coast of Wahoo, will be found a description of the only harbours in the Sandwich Islands. From the humble situation held by the author, a distrust may be entertained of his qualifications to relate the facts which fell under his notice; but few, in the same ranks of life, are possessed of more intelligence or information; with the advantages common to his countrymen, he seems to have neglected no means of improvement. It will be seen that at the age of nineteen he was appointed a petty officer, and had he not been incapacitated by his misfortune, it may be presumed, that he would soon have attained a higher rank. The editor has to claim indulgence on his own account. His motives for undertaking the work, and the principles upon which it has been executed, have been already stated; the work is published for the benefit of the poor fellow who is the subject of it; nor would it ever have met the public eye, had there been any chance that the task would have been undertaken by another hand. But to rescue much of what is true and extraordinary from the oblivion to which the obscure condition and limited powers of the narrator would have condemned it, appeared to him well deserving of the labour which he had bestowed. The best apology for the appearance of the work itself will be found in the words of a celebrated periodical publication.[5] “It is obvious that the discovery of new tribes, and the first account of manners formerly unknown, are by no means more interesting than the subsequent history of those tribes, and the changes which rapidly take place in their manners. The greatest obligations, therefore, are conferred upon us by those adventurous persons who, having visited these islands of late years, give such statements of what they saw, as enable us to trace the progress of society in one of its earliest stages, and to estimate the effects produced by the sudden revolution in their circumstances which the natives have experienced from their intercourse with Europeans.”