Historical Sketch of the 
Hawaiian Fission 

By 
Samuel Colcord B^rtlett 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
AT LOS ANGELES 





ROBERT ERNEST COWAN 



HISTOEICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



HAWAIIAN MISSION, 



AND THE MISSIONS TO 



MICRONESIA AND THE MARQUESAS 
ISLANDS. 



BY 



PKOF. S. C. BARTLETT, D.D. 



BOSTON: 

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 

1869. 



2 ; 

5 i^feK 

ir/v^ " -^^5-t-'. . .$ . 1-fcS 5_ 




HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



HAWAIIAN MISSION, 



AND THE MISSIONS TO 



MICRONESIA AND THE MARQUESAS 
ISLANDS. 



BY 



PROF. S. C. BARTLETT, D.D, 



BOSTON: 

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 

1869. 



70 



SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 



IN the year 1809, a dark skinned boy was found weeping on the 

door-steps at Yale College. His name was Henry Obookiah (Opuka- 

haia) ; and he came from the Sandwich Islands. In a civil war, his 

father and mother had been slain before his eyes ; and when he fled 

with his infant brother on his back, the child was killed with a spear, 

and he was taken prisoner. Lonely and wretched, the poor boy, at 

the age of fourteen, was glad to come, with Captain Brintnell, to 

New Haven. He thirsted for instruction ; and he lingered round 

the College buildings, hoping in some way to gratify his burning 

co desire. But when at length all hope died out, he sat down and wept. 

', The Rev. Edwin W. Dwight, a resident graduate, found him there, and 

_ kindly took him as a pupil. 

In the autumn of that year came another resident graduate to 
a New Haven, for the purpose of awakening the spirit of missions. 
~" It was Samuel J. Mills. Obookiah told Mills his simple story 
*_ how the people of Hawaii " are very bad ; they pray to gods made 
g of wood ; " and he longs " to learn to read this Bible, and go back 
there and tell them to pray to God up in heaven." Mills wrote to 
Gordon Hall, " What does this mean ? Brother Hall, do you under- 
stand it ? Shall he be sent back unsupported, to attempt to reclaim 
his countrymen ? Shall we not rather consider these southern islands 
a proper place for the establishment of a mission ? " Mills took 
Obookiah to his own home in Torringford, and thence to Andover 
for a two years' residence ; after which the young man fouud his way 
to the grammar school at Litchfield, and when it was opened, in 
1817, to the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, Conn. At Litch- 
field he became . acquainted and intimate with Samuel Ruggles, who 
about this time (1816) resolved to accompany him to his native island 
with the gospel. 

354986 



4 SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 

In the same vessel which brought Obookiah to America, came 
two other Hawaiian lads, William Tennooe (Kanui) and Thomas Hopu. 
After roving lives of many years, in 1815 they were both converted 
Tennooe at New Haven, and Hopu after he had removed from 
New Haven to Torringford. Said Hopu, after his conversion, " I 
want my poor countrymen to know about Christ." These young men, 
too, had been the objects of much personal interest in New Haven ; 
and in the following June, during the sessions of the General Associ- 
ation in that city, a meeting was called by some gentlemen to discuss 
the project of a Foreign Mission School. An organization was 
effected under the American Board that autumn, at the house of 
President Dwight, three months before his death. Next year the 
school opened. Its first principal was Mr. Edwin Dwight, who found 
Obookiah in tears at Yale College, and among its first pupils were 
Obookiah, Tennooe, Hopu, and two other Hawaiian youths, with 
Samuel Ruggles and Elisha Loomis. 

Bnt Obookiah was never to carry the gospel in person to his 
countrymen. God had a wiser use for him. In nine months from 
the opening of the Mission School, he closed a consistent Christian 
life with a peaceful Christian death. The lively interest which had 
been gathering round him was profoundly deepened by his end and 
the memoir of his life, and was rapidly crystallizing into a mission. 
Being dead, he yet spoke with an emphasis and an eloquence that 
never would have been given him in his life. The touching story 
drew legacies from the dying, and tears, prayers, donations, and con- 
secrations from the living. " O what a wonderful thing," he once 
had said, " that the hand of Divine Providence has brought me here 
from that heathenish darkness. And here I have found the name of 
the Lord Jesus in the Holy Scriptures, and have read that his blood 
was shed for many. My poor countrymen, who are yet living in the 
region and shadow of death ! I often feel for them in the night 
season, concerning the loss of their souls. May the Lord Jesus 
dwell in my heart, and prepare me to go and spend the remainder of 
my life with them. But not my will, but thine, O Lord, be done." 

The will of the Lord was done. The coming to America was a 
more " wonderful thing" than he thought. His mantle fell on other 
shoulders, and in two years more a missionary band was ready for the 
Sandwich Islands. Hopu, Tennooe, and John Honoree, natives of the 
islands, were to be accompanied by Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurs- 
ton, young graduates of Andover, Dr. Thomas Holman, a young phy- 
sician, Daniel Chamberlain, a substantial farmer, Samuel Whitney, 
mechanic and teacher, Samuel Ruggles, catechist and teacher, and 



SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 5 

Elisha Loomis, printer and teacher. All the Americans were accom- 
panied by their wives, and Mr. Chamberlain by a family of five 
children. Mr. Ruggles seems to have been the first to determine 
upon joining the mission, and Mr. Loomis had been a member of- 
the Mission School. With this company went also George Tamoree 
(Kamaulii), who had been a wanderer in America for fourteen years, 
to return to his father, the subject king of Kauai. 

The ordination of Messrs. Bingham and Thurston, at Goshen, 
Conn., drew from the surrounding region a large assembly, among 
whom were a great number of clergymen, and nearly all the members 
of the Mission School, now thirty or more in number; and " liberal 
offerings " for the mission came in " from all quarters." A fortnight 
later, the missionary band were organized at Boston into a church of 
seventeen members ; public services were held Friday evening and 
Saturday forenoon, in the presence of " crowded " houses, at the 
Park-street Church ; and on the Sabbath, six hundred communicants 
sat with them at the table of the Lord. " The occasion," says the 
" Panoplist " of that date, " was one of the most interesting and 
solemn which can exist in this world." On Saturday, the 23rd 
of October, 1819, a Christian assembly stood upon Long Wharf, and 
sang, " Blest be the tie that binds." There was a prayer by Dr. 
Worcester, a farewell speech by Hopu, a song by the missionaries, 
" When shall we all meet again ; " and a fourteen oared barge 
swiftly conveyed the little band from their weeping friends to the 
brig " Thaddeus," which was to carry the destiny of the Hawaiian 
Islands. 

While the missionaries are on their way, let us take a look at the 
people whom they were going to reclaim. The ten islands of the 
Hawaiian group an area somewhat less than Massachusetts 
were peopled by a well formed, muscular race, with olive complexions 
and open countenances, in the lowest stages of barbarism, sensuality, 
and vice. The children went stark naked till they were nine or ten 
years old ; and the men and women wore the scantiest apology for 
clothing, which neither sex hesitated to leave in the hut at home 
before they passed through the village to the surf. The king came 
more than once from the surf to the house of Mr. Ruggles with his 
five wives, all in a state of nudity ; and on being informed of the 
impropriety, he came the next time dressed with a pair of silk 
stockings and a hat ! The natives had hardly more modesty or shame 
than so many animals. Husbands had many wives, and wives many 
husbands ; and exchanged with each other at pleasure. The most 
revolting forms of vice, as Captain Cook had occasion to know, were 



6 SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 

practiced in open sight. When a foreign vessel came to the harbor, 
the women would swim to it in flocks for the vilest of purposes. 
Two thirds of all the children, probably, were destroyed in infancy 
strangled or buried alive. 

The nation practiced human sacrifice ; and there is a cord now at 
the Missionary Rooms, Chicago, with which one high priest had 
strangled twenty-three human victims. They were a race of perpetual 
thieves ; even kings and chiefs kept servants for the special purpose 
of stealing. They were wholesale gamblers, and latterly drunkards. 
Thoroughly savage, they seemed almost destitute of fixed habits. 
When food was plenty, they would take six or seven meals a day, 
and even rise in the night to eat ; at other times they would eat but 
once a day, or perhaps go almost fasting for two or three days 
together. And for purposes of sleep the day and the night were 
much alike. Science they had none ; no written language, nor the 
least conception of any mode of communicating thought but by oral 
speech. 

A race that destroyed their own children had little tender mercy. 
Sons often buried their aged parents alive, or left them to perish. 
The sick were abandoned to die of want and neglect. Maniacs were 
stoned to death. Captives were tortured and slain. The whole 
system of government and religion was to the last degree oppressive. 
The lands, their products, and occupants, were the property of the 
chiefs and the king. The persons and power of the high chiefs were 
protected by a crushing system of restrictions, called talus. It was 
tabu and death for a common man to let his shadow fall upon a chief, 
to gcr upon his house, enter his enclosure, or wear his kapa, to stand 
when the king's kapa or his bathing water was carried by, or his 
name mentioned in song. In these and a multitude of other ways, 
"men's heads lay at the feet of the king and the chiefs." In like 
manner it was tabu for a woman to eat with her husband, or to eat 
fowl, pork, cocoanut, or banana things offered to the idols and 
death was the penalty. The priest, too, came in with his tabus and 
his exactions for his idols. There were six principal gods with 
names, and an indefinite number of spirits. Whatsoever the priest 
demanded for the god food, a house, land, human sacrifice must 
be forthcoming. If he pronounced a day tabu, the man who was 
found in a canoe, or even enjoying the company of his family, died. 
If any one made a noise when prayers were saying, or if the priest 
pronounced him irreligious, he died. When a temple was built, and 
the people had finished the toil, some of them were offered in sacri- 
fice. In all these modes, the oppression of the nation was enormous. 



SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 7 

The race had once been singularly healthy. They told the first 
missionaries an exaggeration, of course that formerly they died 
only of old age. But foreign sailors had introduced diseases, repu- 
table, and especially disreputable ; and now, between the desolations 
of war, infanticide, and infamous diseases widely spread by general 
licentiousness, the nation was rapidly wasting away. 

Such was the forbidding race on whom the missionaries were to 
try the power of the cross. " Probably none of you will live to wit- 
ness the downfall of idolatry," so said the Rev. Mr. Kellogg to 
Mr. Ruggles, as they took breakfast together at East Windsor, the 
morning before he left home. And so thought, no doubt, the whole 
community. But God's thoughts are not as our thoughts. 

Hopu called up his friend Ruggles at one o'clock on a moonlight 
night (March 31) to get the first glimpse of Hawaii; and at day- 
break the snow-capped peak of Mauna Kea was in full view. A few 
hours more, and Hopu pointed out the valley where he was born. A 
boat is put off, with Hopu and others in it, which encounters some 
fishermen, and returns. As the boat nears the vessel, Hopu is seen 
swinging his hat in the air ; and as soon as he arrives within hail, he 
shouts, " Oahu's idols are no more ! " On coming aboard, he brings 
the thrilling news that the old king Kamehameha is dead ; that Liho- 
liho, his son, succeeds him ; that the images of the gods are all 
burned ; that the men are all " Inoahs," they eat with the women ; 
that but one chief was killed in settling the government, and he for 
refusing to destroy his gods. Next day, the message was confirmed. 
Kamehameha, a remarkable man, had passed away. On his death- 
bed, he asked an American trader to tell him about the Americans' 
God ; but, said the native informant, in his broken English, " He 
no tell him anything." All the remaining intelligence was also true. 
The missionaries wrote in their journal, " Sing, O heavens, for the 
Lord hath done it." The brig soon anchored in Kailua Bay, the 
king's residence ; and a fourteen days' consultation between the king 
and chiefs, followed. Certain foreigners opposed their landing ; " they 
had come to conquer the islands." " Then," said the chiefs, " they 
would not have brought their women." The decision was favorable. 
Messrs. Bingham, Loomis, Chamberlain, and Honoree, go to Oahu ; 
and Messrs. Ruggles and Whitney accompany the young Tamoree to 
his father, the subject king of Kauai. The meeting of father and 
son was deeply affecting. The old king, for his son's sake, adopted 
Mr. Ruggles also, as his son, and gave him a tract of land, with the 
power of a chief. He prepared him a house, soon built a school-house 
and chapel, and followed him with acts of friendship which were of 



8 SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 

great benefit to the mission while the king lived, and after his death. 
He himself became a hopeful convert, and in 1824 died in the faith. 

And now the missionaries settled down to their work. They had 
found a nation sunk in ignorance, sensuality and vice, and nominally 
without a religion though, really, still in the grasp of many of 
their old superstitions. The old religion had been discarded chiefly 
on account of its burdensomeness. We cannot here recount all the 
agencies, outer and inner, which brought about this remarkable con- 
vulsion. But no religious motives seem to have had any special 
power. Indeed, King Liholiho was intoxicated when he dealt to 
the system its finishing stroke, by compelling his wives to eat pork. 
And by a Providence as remarkable as inscrutable, the high priest 
threw his whole weight into the scale. Into this opening, thus sig- 
nally furnished by the hand of God, the missionaries entered, with 
wonder and gratitude. The natives educated in America proved less 
serviceable than was expected. Tennooe was soon excommunicated ; 
although in later years he recovered, and lived and died a well- 
reputed Christian. Hopu and Honoree, while they continued faith- 
ful, had partly lost their native tongue, lacked the highest skill as 
interpreters, and naturally failed in judgment. Hopu, at the opening 
of the first revival, was found busy in arranging the inquirers on his 
right hand and his left hand, respectively, as they answered yes or 
no to the single question, " Do you love your enemies ? " and was 
greatly disturbed at being interrupted. 

The king and the chiefs, with their families, were the first pupils. 
They insisted on the privilege. Within three months, the king could 
read the English language ; and in six months, several chiefs could 
both read and write. The missionaries devoted themselves vigorously 
to the work of reducing the native speech to writing ; and in less 
than two years, the first sheet of a native spelling-book was printed 
followed by the second, however, only after the lapse of six months. 
From time to time, several accessions of laborers were received from 
America, and various changes of location took place. The first bap- 
tized native was Keopuolani, the mother of the king ; and others of 
the high chiefs were among the earlier converts. The leading per- 
sonages, for the most part, showed much readiness to adopt the sug- 
gestions of the missionaries. In 1824, the principal chiefs formally 
agreed to recognize the Sabbath, and to adopt the ten commandments 
as the basis of government. They also soon passed a law forbidding 
females to visit the ships for immoral purposes. 

The gravest obstacles encountered, came from vile captains and 
crews of English and American vessels. They became ferocious 



SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 9 



towards the influences and the men that checked their lusts. The 
British whale-ships Daniel, and John Palmer, and the American 
armed schooner Dolphin, commanded by Lieutenant Percival, were 
prominent in open outrage. The house of missionary Richards was 
twice assailed by the ruffians of the ship Daniel, encouraged by their 
captain. On one occasion, they came and demanded his influence to 
repeal the law against prostitution. On his refusal, they, in the pres- 
ence of his feeble wife, threatened, with horrid oaths, to destroy his 
property, his house, his life, and the lives of all his family. Two 
days after, forty men returned, with a black flag, and armed with 
knives, repeating the demand. The chiefs at length called out a 
company of two hundred men, armed with muskets and spears, and 
drove them off. The crew of the Dolphin, with knives and clubs, 
on the Sabbath, assailed a small religious assembly of chiefs, gathered 
at the house of one of their number, who was sick. Mr. Bingham, 
who was also present, fell into their hands, on his way to protect his 
house, and barely escaped with his life from the blow of a club and 
the thrust of a knife, being rescued by the natives. A mob of Eng- 
lish and American whalemen, in October, 1826, started for the house 
of Mr. Richards, at Lahaina, with the intention of taking his life. 
Not finding him, they pillaged the town ; while all the native women, 
from a population of 4,000, fled from their lust, for refuge in the 
mountains. A year later, the family of Mr. Richards took refuge in 
the cellar, from the cannon-balls of the John Palmer, which passed 
over the roof of the house. When printed copies of the ten com- 
mandments were about to be issued, this class of men carried their 
opposition, with threats, before the king. At Honolulu, while the 
matter was pending, Mr. Ruggles was approached by an American 
captain, bearing the satirical name of Meek, who flourished his dag- 
ger, and angrily declared himself ready " to bathe his hands in the 
heart's blood of every missionary who had any thing to do with it." 
At one time, twenty-one sailors came up the hill, with clubs, threat- 
ening to kill the missionaries unless they were furnished with women. 
The natives gathering for worship, immediately thronged round the 
house so thick that they were intimidated, and sneaked away. 
At another time, fourteen of them surrounded him, with the same 
demand ; but were frightened off by the resolute bearing of the noble 
chief Kapiolani a majestic woman, six feet high who, arriving 
at the instant, swung her umbrella over her head, with the crisp 
words, "Be off in a moment, or I will have every one of you in 
irons." She was the same Christian heroine who, in 1824, broke the 
terrible spell which hung over the volcano Kilauea, by venturing down 



10 SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 



into the crater, in defiance of the goddess Pele, hurling stones into the 
boiling lake, and worshiping Jehovah on its black ledge. 

It is easy to understand why a certain class of captains and sailors 
have always pronounced the Sandwich Islands Mission a wretched 
failure. 

The missionaries labored on undaunted. Eight years from their 
landing found them at work, some thirty-two in number, with 440 
native teachers, 12,000 Sabbath hearers, and 26,000 pupils in their 
schools. At this time, about fifty natives, including Kaahumanu, the 
Queen Regent, and many of the principal chiefs, were members of 
the church. And now, in the year 1828, the dews of heaven began 
to fall visibly upon the mission. For two or three years, the way 
had been preparing. Kaahumanu, converted in 1828, and several 
other high chiefs, had thrown themselves vigorously and heartily into 
the work. " They made repeated tours around all the principal 
islands," says Mr. Dibble, " assembling the people from village to 
village, and delivering addresses day after day, in which they prohib- 
ited immoral acts, enjoined the observance of the Sabbath, encour- 
aged the people to learn to read, and exhorted them to turn to God, 
and to love and obey the Saviour of sinners." "The effect was 
electrical pervading at once every island of the group, every ob- 
scure village and district, and operating with, immense power on all 
grades and conditions of society. The chiefs gave orders to the peo- 
ple to erect houses of worship, to build school-houses, and to learn to 
read they readily did so ; to listen to the instructions of the mis- 
sionaries they at once came in crowds for that purpose." About 
this time, too, (May, 1825,) the remains of King Liholiho and his wife 
were brought back from their unfortunate expedition to England, 
where they died from the measles. Their attending chiefs filled the 
ears of the people with what they saw in England ; and Lord Byron, 
commander of the British frigate which brought the remains, gave an 
honorable testimony to the missionaries. 

These various influences caused a great rush to hear the Word of 
God. The people would come regularly, fifty or sixty miles, travel- 
ing the whole of Saturday, to attend Sabbath worship ; and would 
gather in little companies, from every point of the compass, like the 
tribes as they went up to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the printed word 
was circulated throughout the villages. 

At length the early fruits appeared. In the year 1828, a gracious 
work began, simultaneously and without communication, in the islands 
of Hawaii, Oahu, and Maui. It came unexpectedly. The transac- 
tions at Kaavarba (Hawaii) well illustrate the work. Mr. Ruggles 



SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 11 

was away from home, with Mr. Bishop, on an excursion to visit the 
schools of the island. They had been wrecked, and had swum 
ashore. Two natives who were sent home for shoes and clothing, 
brought a message from Mrs. Ruggles to her husband, requesting his 
immediate return, for " strange things were happening the natives 
were coming in companies, inquiring what they should do to be 
saved." He hastened back, and found the house surrounded from 
morning till night, and almost from night till morning. A company 
of ten or twenty would be received into the house, and another com- 
pany would wait their turn at the gate. So it went on for weeks, and 
even months, and the missionaries could get no rest or refreshment, 
except as they called in Kapiolani and others of the converted chiefs, 
to relieve them. Mr. and Mrs. Ruggles had the names of 2,500 
inquirers on their books. With multitudes, it was, no doubt, but 
sympathy or fashion ; but there were also a large number of real 
inquirers, and many hopeful conversions. All the converts were kept 
in training classes a year, before they were admitted to the church, 
and then only on the strictest examination. During the two follow- 
ing years, 350 persons were received to communion at the several 
stations. For a time, the work seemed to lull again. But in 1836, 
the whole aspect of the field was so inviting that the Board sent 
out a strong missionary reinforcement of thirty-two persons, male 
and female. 

At this time, and for the following year, the hearts of the mission- 
aries Avere singularly drawn out in desires and prayers for the conver- 
sion, not only of the Islands, but of America and of the world. And 
scarcely had the new laborers been assigned to their places, and 
learned the language, when (in 1838) there began and continued, for 
six years, one of the most remarkable awakenings that the world has 
ever witnessed. All hearts seemed tender. Whenever the Word 
was preached, conviction and conversions followed. The churches 
roused up to self-examination and prayer ; the stupid listened ; the 
vile and groveling learned to feel ; the congregations became im- 
mense, and sometimes left their churches for the open air, and the 
prayer-meetings left the lecture-room for the body of the church. 
There were congregations of four, five and six thousand persons. 
The missionaries preached from seven to twenty times a week ; and 
the sense of guilt in the hearers often broke forth in groans and loud 
cries. Probably many indiscretions were committed, and there were 
many spurious conversions. But, after all allowances, time showed 
that a wonderful work was wrought. During the six years from 
1838 to 1843, inclusive, twenty-seven thousand persons were admit- 



12 SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 

ted to the churches. In some instances, the crowds to be baptized 
on a given Sabbath required extraordinary modes of baptism ; and 
Mr. Coan is said to have sprinkled water with a brush upon the can- 
didates, as they came before him in throngs. 

The next twenty years added more than 20,000 other members to 
the churches, making the whole number received up to 1863, some 
50,000 souls. Many of these had then been excommunicated in 
some instances, it was thought, too hastily ; many thousand had 
gone home to heaven ; and in 1863, some 20,000 still survived in 
connection with the churches. 

At length came the time when the Islands were to be recognized 
as nominally a Christian nation, and the responsibility of their Chris- 
tian institutions was to be rolled off upon themselves. In June, 
1863, Dr. Anderson, Senior Secretary of the American Board, met 
with the Hawaiian Evangelical Association to discuss this important 
measure. After twenty-one days of debate, the "result was reached 
with perfect unanimity, and the Association agreed to assume the 
responsibility which had been proposed to them. This measure 
was consummated by the Board in the autumn following, and those 
stations no longer looked to the American churches for management 
and control. " The mission has been, as such, disbanded and merged 
in the community." 

On the 15th of January, 1864, at Queen's Hospital, Honolulu, 
died William Kanui, (Tennooe,) aged sixty-six years, the last of the 
native youth who gave rise to the mission and accompanied the first 
missionaries. He had wandered had been excommunicated and 
was restored ; and after many years of faithful service he died in the 
triumph of faith. In his last sickness he used " to recount the won- 
derful ways " in which God had led him. " The names of Cornelius, 
Mills, Beecher, Daggett, Prentice, Griffin, and others were often on 
his lips ; " and he went, no doubt, to join them all above. God had 
spared his life to see the whole miraculous change that had lifted his 
nation from the depths of degradation to civilization and Christianity. 
Could the spirit of Henry Obookiah have stood in Honolulu soon 
after the funeral of Kanui, he would have hardly recognized his na- 
tive island except by its great natural landmarks. He would have 
seen the city of Honolulu, once a place of grass huts and filthy 
lanes, now marked by substantial houses and sidewalks, and a gen- 
eral air of civilization ; a race of once naked savages decently attired 
and living, some of them, in comparative refinement ; a nation of 
readers, whom he left without an alphabet ; Christian marriage firm- 
ly established in place of almost promiscuous concubinage ; property 



SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 13 

in the interior, exposed with absolute security for an indefinite time, 
where formerly nothing was safe for an hour ; the islands dotted with 
a hundred capacious church edifices, built by native hands, some of 
them made of stone, most of them with bells ; a noble array of several 

hundred common schools, two female seminaries, a normal school 

* 

for natives, a high school that furnished the first scholar to one of the 
classes in Williams College ; a theological seminary and twenty-nine 
native preachers, besides eighteen male and female missionaries sent 
to the Marquesas Islands ; near twenty thousand living church mem- 
bers ; a government with a settled constitution, a legislature, and 
courts of justice, and avowing the Christian religion to be " the 
established national religion of the Hawaiian Islands." 

These facts exhibit the bright and marvelous aspect of the case. 
But, of course, they have their drawbacks. The Sandwich Islands 
are not Paradise, nor even America. The stage of civilization is, as 
it must be, far below that of our own country. The old habits still 
shade into the new. Peculiar temptations to intemperance and licen- 
tiousness come down by inheritance. Foreign interventions and 
oppositions have been and still are grave hindrances. Church mem- 
bers but fifty years removed from a state of brutalism, can not and 
do not show the stability, intelligence, and culture of those who 
inherit the Christian influences of a thousand years. 

But the amazing transformation of the islands is a fact that de- 
pends not alone on the estimates of the missionaries, or of the Board 
that employed them. The most generous testimonies have come from 
other sources. The Rev. F. S. Rising, of the American Church 
Missionary Society, explored the Islands in 1866, for the express 
purpose of testing the question. He visited nearly every mission 
station, examined the institutions religious, educational, social ; 
made the personal acquaintance of the missionaries of all creeds, and 
conversed with persons of every profession and social grade. And 
he writes to the Secretary of the American Board : " The deeper I 
pushed my investigations, the stronger became my conviction, that 
what had been on your part necessarily an experimental work in 
modern missions had, under God, proved an eminent success. Every 
sunrise brought me new reasons for admiring the power of divine 
grace, which can lift the poor out of the dust, and set him among 
princes. Every sunsetting gave me fresh cause to bless the Lord 
for that infinite love which enables us to bring to our fellow-men such 
rich blessings as your missionaries have bestowed on the Hawaiian 
Islands. To me it seemed marvelous, that in comparatively so few- 
years, the social, political, and religious life of the Cation should have 



14 SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 

undergone so radical and blessed a change as it had. Looking at 
the kingdom of Hawaii-nei as it to-day has its recognize'd place 
among the world's sovereignties, I can not but see in it one of the 
brightest trophies of the power of the cross." " What of Hawaiian 
Christianity ? I would apply to it the same test by which we 
measure the Christianity of our own and other lands. There are 
certain ' outward signs which indicate that it has a high place in the 
national respect, conscience, and affection. Possessing these visible 
marks, we declare of any country that it is Christian. The Hawaiian 
kingdom, for this reason, is properly and truly called so. The con- 
stitution recognizes the Christian faith as the religion of the nation. 
The Bible is found in almost every hut. Prayer social, family, 
and individual is a popular habit. The Lord's day is more sacredly 
observed than in New York. Churches of stone or brick dot the 
valleys and crown the hill-tops, and have been built by the voluntary 
contributions of the natives. There the Word is preached and the 
sacraments administered. Sunday schools abound. The contribu- 
tions of the people for religious uses are very generous, and there is 
a native ministry, growing in numbers and influence, girded for 
carrying on the work so well begun. The past history of the Ha- 
waiian mission abounds with bright examples [of individual right- 
eousness], like Kaahumanu and Kapiolani, and some were pointed 
out to me as I went to and fro. They were at one time notoriously 
wicked. Their lives are manifestly changed. They are striving to 
be holy in their hearts and lives. They are fond of the Bible, of 
the sanctuary and prayer. Their theology may be crude, but their 
faith in Christ is simple and tenacious. And when we see some such 
in every congregation, we know that the work has not been altogether 
in vain." In 1860, Richard H. Dana, Esq., a distinguished Boston 
lawyer, of the Episcopal Church, gave a similar testimony in the 
New York " Tribune," during his visit to the Islands. Among other 
things, he mentions that " the proportion of inhabitants who can 
read and write is greater than in New England ; " that they may be 
seen " going to school and public worship with more regularity than 
the people at home ; " that after attending the examination of Oahu 
College, he " advised the young men to remain there to the end of 
their course [then extending only to the Junior year], as they could 
not pass the Freshman and Sophomore years more profitably else- 
where, in my judgment ; " that " in no place in the world, that I have 
visited, are the rules which control vice and regulate amusement so 
strict, yet so reasonable, and so fairly enforced ; " that " in the inte- 
rior it is well known that a man may travel alone with money, through 



SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 15 

the wildest spots, unarmed ; " and that he " found no hut without 
its Bible and hymn book in the native tongue ; and the practice of 
family prayer and grace before meat, though it be no more than a 
calabash of poi and a few dried fish, and whether at home or on a 
journey, is as common as in New England a century ago." 

There is one sad aspect about this interesting people. The popu- 
lation has been steadily declining since they were first discovered. 
Cook, in 1773, estimated the number of inhabitants at 400,000. 
This estimate, long thought to be exaggerated, is now supposed to be 
not far from the truth. But in 1823, wars, infanticide, foreign lust, 
imported drinks, and disease, had reduced them to the estimated 
number of 142,000 ; and in 1830, to the ascertained number of 
130,000. In the lapse of a few years after the first visits of foreign 
vessels, half the population are said to have been swept away with 
diseases induced or heightened by their unholy intercourse. The 
mission has done what could be done to save the nation ; but the 
wide taint of infamous disease was descending down the national life, 
before the missionaries reached the islands ; and the flood-gates of 
intemperance were wide open. They have retarded the nation's 
decline ; but foreign influences have always interfered and now, 
perhaps, more than ever. The sale of ardent spirits was once 
checked, but is now free. The present monarch stands aloof from 
the policy of some of his predecessors, and from the influence of our 
missionaries. And the population, reduced to 62,000 in 1866, seems 
to be steadily declining. The " Pacific Commercial Advertiser," 
which furnishes the facts, finds the chief cause in the fearful preva- 
lence, still, of vice and crime, which are said to have been increasing 
of late ; and the reason for this increase is " political degradation," 
and the readiness with which the people now obtain intoxicating 
drinks. It must be remembered, that " in the height of the whaling 
season, the number of transient seamen in the port of Honolulu equals 
half the population of the town ; " and the influences they bring, 
breathe largely of hell. Commercial forces and movements, mean- 
while, are changing the islands. The lands are already passing into 
the hands of foreign capitalists, and the islands are falling into the 
thoroughfare of the nations. 

The proper sequel, therefore, of this grand missionary triumph 
may be taken away ; and the race itself, as a nation, may possibly 
cease to be. But in no event can the value or the glory of the work 
achieved be destroyed. Not only will thousands on thousands of 
human souls thereby have been brought into the kingdom, by the 
labor of a hundred missionaries, and the expenditure of perhaps a 



16 SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 

million of dollars from America ; but a grand experiment will have been 
tried before the world, and an imperishable memorial erected for all 
time, of what the remedial power of the gospel can accomplish, in 
an incredibly short time, upon a most imbruted race. " Fifty years 
ago," says Dr. A. P. Peabody, " the half-reasoning elephant, or the 
tractable and troth-keeping dog, might have seemed the peer, or 
more, of the unreasoning and conscienceless Hawaiian. From that 
very race, from that very generation, with which the nobler brutes 
might have scorned to claim kindred, have been developed the peers 
of saints and angels." And all the more glorious is the movement, 
that the nation was sunk so low, and was so rapidly wasting away. 
" If the gospel," says Dr. Anderson, " took the people at the lowest 
point of social existence at death's door, when beyond the reach 
of all human remedies, with the causes of decline and destruction all 
in their most vigorous operation and has made them a Christian 
people, checked the tide of depopulation, and raised the nation so jn 
the scale of social life, as to have gained for it an acknowledged place 
among the nations of the earth, what more wonderful illustration can 
there be of its remedial power ? " 

The history of the Sandwich Islands will stand forever as the vin- 
dication, to the caviler, of the worth of Christian missions, and as a 
demonstration to the Christian, of what they might be expected to 
accomplish in other lands, if prosecuted with a vigor at all propor- 
tioned to the nature and extent of the field, and crowned with the 
blessing of God. 



As indicating, somewhat, the present condition at the Islands of 
that Christian work for which so much effort has been made, it may 
be well to add here a few sentences from the Annual Report of the 
American Board for 1868 : 

" The Christianity of the Islands has had severe trials of late, from 
the attitude of the government, and the opposition of corrupt and 
corrupting officials. . . . The gospel is on trial ; the missionaries, 
the native pastors, and the faithful followers of Christ in the native 
churches and among the foreign population, are deserving of a large 
place in the sympathies and prayers of Christian men the world over, 
as against such odds an unfriendly government, the intrigues of the 
Papacy and of the Reformed Catholics, the opposition of ungodly 
men, who would perpetuate vice and immorality for their own wicked 
ends, and the tendency of the natives, not yet fully confirmed in habits 
of virtue, to yield to the pressure of evil within and without they 
still press on with the banner of the cross. 



SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 



17 



" The addition of 827 members to the native churches on profes- 
sion of faith, the contribution of $29,023 to various Christian objects, 
the sending out of new missionaries, the almost entire support of their 
own Christian institutions, the past year, are evidences that the good 
work is nobly maintained. . . . 

" There are now twenty-six native pastors, settled over as many 
churches, besides four licensed preachers, having stated charges, all 
supported by the Hawaiian churches. And there are thirteen Ha- 
waiian missionaries in the Marquesas and in Micronesia, eight 
ordained ministers and five licensed preachers." 

The following list presents the names of persons who have been 
sent out by the American Board, in connection with its work at these 
Islands. It should be noted, however, that quite a number of the 
children of missionaries, and some other persons, not named in this 
list, are or have been engaged in educational and evangelizing labors 
at the Islands, some of them supported wholly or in part by the Board, 
and others entirely by those for whom they labor. It should also be 
said, that many of those sent out by the Board, and still living and 
laboring at the Islands, no longer receive support from the funds of 
the Board. Those who are now sustained, wholly or in part, by the 
Board are designated by the letter A against their names. Those 
known to have died are marked with a * : 



NAVIES. 


Sailed for the 
Mission. 


Left or 
Released. 


Died. 


Rev. Hiram Bingham 
Mrs. Sybil Bingham.* 
Eev. Asa Thurston.* .... 
Mrs. Lucy G. Thurston. A . . . 
Mr. Daniel Chamberlain. 
Mrs. Chamberlain 
Mr. Samuel Whitney.* .... 
Mrs. Mercy Whitney. A ... 


Oct. 23, 1819. 
i 


1841 
ii 

1823 
u 

1820 


1848 
1868 

1845 
1821 


Mrs. Lucia Holman 
Mr. Elisha Loomis. .... 
Mrs. Maria T. Loomis. 





1827 

1834 




Mrs. Nancy Ruggles 
Rev. Wm. Richards.* .... 


NOT. 19 1822. 



1838 


1847 


Mrs. Clarissa Richards.* . . 
Rev. Chas. S. Stewart 
Mrs. Harriet B. Stewart.* . 
Rev. Artemas Bishop 
Mrs. E. E. Bishop.* .... 






1825 





1828 


Dr. Abraham Blatchley. . . 
Mrs. Jemima Blatchley. 
Mr. Joseph Goodrich (ordained at the 


i 

i 


1826 
<( 

1836 




2 









18 



SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 



NAMES. 



Mrs. Goodrich. 

Mr. James Ely 

Mrs. Louisa Ely. . . 
Mr. Levi Chamberlain.* 
Kev. Lorrin Andrews.* . 

Mrs. Andrews 

Rev. E. W. Clark. A 
Mrs. Mary K. Clark.* 
Rev. J. S. Green. . 
Mrs. T. A. Green. 
Rev. P. J. Gulick. . 
Mrs. F. H. Gulick. . 
Mrs. M. P. Chamberlain. A 
Mr. Stephen Shepard.* 
Mrs. M. C. Shepard. 

Dr. G. P. Judd 

Mrs. L. P. Judd. . 

Miss M. C. Og'den. A 

Miss Delia Stone (Mrs. Bishop). 

Miss Mary Ward (Mrs. Rogers).* 

Rev. Dwight Baldwin, M. D. A 

Mrs. C. F. Baldwin. A 

Rev. Sheldon Dibble.* . 

Mrs. M. M. Dibble.* . 

Mr. Andrew Johnstone. . 

Mrs. Johnstone.* 

Rev. Reuben Tinker.* . 

Mrs. M. T. Tinker. . 

Rev. J. S. Emerson.* 

Mrs. Ursula S. Emerson. A 

Rev. D. B. Lyman. A 

Mrs. Sarah J. Lyman. A 

Rev. Ephraim Spaulding.* 

Mrs. Julia Spaulding. 

Rev. W. P. Alexander. A 

Mrs. Mary Ann Alexander. A 

Rev. Richard Armstrong.* 

Mrs. Clarissa Armstrong. . . 

Rev. Cochran Forbes. 

Mrs. Rebecca D. Forbes. . 

Rev. H. R. Hitchcock.* . 

Mrs. Rebecca Hitchcock. . 

Rev. Lorenzo Lyons. A . 

Mrs. Betsey Lyons.* . .. 

Dr. Alonzo Chapin. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Chapin. 

Mr. Ed. H. Rogers.* 

Rev. Benjamin W. Parker. A 

Mrs. Mary E. Parker. A 

Rev. Lowell Smith. A ... 

Mrs. Abby W. Smith. A . 

Mr. Lemuel Fuller. . .. . 

Rev. Titus Coan. A . 

Mrs. Fidelia C. Coan. A . 

Mr. Henry Dimond. . . 

Mrs. Ann M. Dimond. . . 

Mr. E. O. Hall. 

Mrs. Sarah L. Hall. . 



Sailed for the 
Mission. 



Nov. 19, 1822. 



Nov. 3, 1827. 



Dec. 28, 1830. 



Nov. 2G, 1831 



Nov. 2, 1832. 



Dec. 5, 1834. 



Left or 
Released 



1836 

1828 



1842 



1842 



1835 
1842 



1836 

<i 

1840 



1837 
it 

1849 



1847 
H 

1835 

14 

1833 
1849 



Died. 



1849 
1868 



1857 



1834 



1834 



1845 
1837 



1867 
1840 
1860 

1855 
1837 
1853 



SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 



19 



NAMES. 


Sailed for the 
Mission. 


Left or 
Released. 


Died. 


Miss Lydia Brown.* .... 
Miss E. M. Hitchcock* (Mrs. Kogers). 


Dec. 5, 1834. 
Dec. 4, 1836. 


1841 


1865 
1857 


Mrs. Emily Bliss 
Rev D. T Conde. ..... 


c 




<( 
1858 






( 




1854 




c 


1853 




Mrs. Mary A. Ives. .... 
Rev. Thomas Lafon, M. D. . 
Mrs. Sophia L. Lafon. . . 


t 
< 
< 
i 


<t 

1840 
u 

1849 




Mrs. Parnelly Andrews.* . 


< 
< 


u 

1852 


1846 


Mrs. Juliette M. Cooke. . . . 
Mr. Wm. S. Van Duzee. 
Mrs. Oral Van Duzee. 
Mr. Edward Bailey. .... 
Mrs. Caroline H. Bailey. . 
Mr. Abner Wilcox. A .... 
Mrs. Lucy E. Wilcox. A ... 
Mr. Horton O. Knapp.* .... 
Mrs. Charlotte Knapp. . . . 
Mr. Charles McDonald.* 
Mrs. Harriet T. McDonald. 
Mr. Edwin Locke.* .... 
Mrs. Martha L. Locke.* 
Mr. Bethuel Munn. .... 
Mrs. Louisa Munn.* .... 
Mr. Samuel N. Castle 
Mrs. Angelina L. Castle.* . 
Mr. Edward Johnson* (ordained after 


< 
i 
(i 

M 

( 
( 
1 
c 

( 
< 
( 
M 
(I 


(f 

II 


ii 

1839 


1850 


1842 
185J2 


1845 
1839 

1843 
1842 

1841 
1840 
J867 


Mrs. Lois S. Johnson. A ... 
Miss Marcia Smith. .... 
Miss Lucy G. Smith (Mrs. Lyons). 


II 
U 

11 

Nov. 14, 1840. 


1853 




Mrs. Charlotte C. Dole.* 
Rev. Elias Bond. A .. ... 
Mrs. Ellen M. Bond. A . . . . 




<( 




1844 


Rev. John D. Paris. A 


( 
ii 






Mr. William H. Rice.* 
Mrs. Marv S. 'Rice. A 
Rev. Geo." B. Rowell. . . 
Mrs. Malvina J. Rowell. 
Dr. James W. Smith. A ... 
Mrs. M. K. Smith. A ..... 


ii 

May 5, 1841. 
ii 
ii 

.( 
1842 


1865 
ii 

1846 


1862 


Mrs. Smith 
Mrs. Mary T. Castle 


it 

Nov. 2, 1-842. 


u 

1852 






Dec. 4, 1843. 






Rev. T. D wight Hunt. 


' 
> 


1849 

K 




Rev. John F. Pogue. A 
Rev. Eliphalet Whittlesey. 
Mrs. Eliza H. Whittlesey. . 
Miss Maria K. Whitney (Mrs. Pogue). A 
Rev. Samuel G. Dwight. 


<( 
M 
u 
ii 

Oct. 23, 1847. 


1854 








20 



SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 



NAMES. 


Sailed for the 
Mission. 


Left or 
Released. 


Died. 




Oct. 23, 1847. 




1854 


Mrs. Maria L. Kinney.* 
Dr. C. H. Wetmore 
Mrs. Lucy S. Wetmore. 
Rev. W. C. Shipman.* .... 


a 

Oct. 16, 1848. 
fi 

June 4, 1854. 


1856 



1858 
1861 


Mrs. Jane 8. Shipman. A . 
Rev. Wm. O. Baldwin 
Mrs. Mary P. Baldwin. . ... 
Mr. Wm. A. Spooner 
Mrs. Eliza Ann Spooner. . 
Rev. Anderson O. Forbes. A . . . < 


it 

Nov. 28, 1854. 
ft 

April 16, 1855. 


1857 


I860 

if 

<( 





In connection with this sketch, it will be proper briefly to refer to 
operations at the Islands by Roman Catholic, Mormon, and " Re- 
formed Catholic " missionaries, whose efforts have not been without 
influence upon the prosperity of that evangelizing work which the mis- 
sionaries of the Board have prosecuted. 

ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

Early in the history of the mission (in 1825), a French adventurer, 
by the name of Rives, left the Islands, and went to France, where, 
pretending to be a large landholder at the Islands, and to have 
much influence, he applied for priests to establish a Papal mission. 
In 1826 the Pope appointed an Apostolic Prefect of the Sandwich 
Islands. He arrived at Honolulu, with two other priests and four lay- 
men, in July, 1827. They landed privately, in disregard of the law 
which required foreigners to obtain permission before landing. Ordered 
to leave, they still remained, in disregard of law, and connected them- 
selves with a chief who was manifesting a disposition to resist the 
authority of the Regent. Having opened a chapel, it was at once 
reported that they worshiped images ; and the chiefs feared that 
their old religion, with all its evil tendencies, was about to be re- 
vived. Continuing to identify themselves with a party of malcon- 
tents, the rulers had much trouble with them, a conspiracy seemed 
fast ripening, and at length, in April, 1831, the chiefs passed a formal 
order, requiring these foreign priests, who were there without author- 
ity, and who were regarded as abettors of rebellion and promoters of 
vice, to leave the Islands. Still they did not go, and in December 
the government fitted out a vessel and sent them to California. In 



SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 21 

all this the authorities acted upon their own views of what was right 
and necessary in the case, while the American missionaries discoun- 
tenanced anything that would be regarded as an interference with 
religious liberty. 

In 1836 another Papal priest came, and was forbidden to remain. 
He, however, like the former company, evaded repeated orders to 
leave, and in the spring of 1837 he was joined by two of the ban- 
ished priests, returned from California. The captains of an English 
and of a French war vessel now interfered, to prevent their being at 
once compelled again to depart ; but those who had returned from 
California did leave in the autumn. In December the government 
forbade the teaching of "the Pope's religion." In July, 1839, the 
frigate L'Artemise, Captain Laplace, visited Honolulu, and compelled 
the authorities to sign a treaty declaring the Catholic worship free, 
and giving a site for a Catholic church at Honolulu. A footing was 
thus forcibly secured for Papal priests and influence, and the report 
of the American Board for the next year, 1840, states, " The influence 
of Popery begins to be disastrously seen on the Island of Oahu. It 
is adverse to learning, religion, morals, and social order. For this 
very reason, the best part of the native population regard it with 
dread and aversion. But it could not be expected that all of such a 
people, just emerging from utter ignorance and idolatry, would see 
the errors or resist the inticements of the priests thus forced upon the 
toleration of the government. The Papal religion has maintained its 
ground, and, according to the report of the bishop a few years since, 
it would appear that about one third of the population of the Islands 
profess to be, or at least are claimed as, " Catholics." 

THE MOEMONS. 

The teachers of doctrines yet more opposed to the gospel plan of 
salvation reached the Islands about 1850. Writing in February, 
1851, Mr. Lyons stated that two Mormons, " an elder and a prophet," 
from Salt Lake, had appeared on Hawaii, belonging to " a company 
of ten, scattered in pairs over the Islands." They and others have 
labored zealously to propagate the Mormon doctrines, but not with 
great success. When Dr. Anderson visited the Islands, in 1863, he 
found their principal settlement on Lanai, a small island opposite 
Lahaina, but gained no reliable information as to their numbers, say- 
ing, however, that in 1861, Captain Gibson, "their leading man on 
the island," writing the Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated their 
number of adults at 3,580. 



22 SKETCH OP THE HAWAIIAN MISSION. 

" REFORMED CATHOLICS." 

Bishop Staley, from England, and two presbyters, belonging to the 
" High Church," " Ritualistic " portion of the English Established 
Church, reached Honolulu in October, 1862. Styling themselves 
" Reformed Catholics," they, and others who have followed them in 
the same mission, have from the outset pursued a course adverse to 
the interests of the American mission, and of Evangelical Protestant 
Christianity ; manifesting more sympathy for, and more readiness to 
fellowship with, the Papal than the Protestant preachers and church, 
and in their worship, their readings and drapings, and their many 
ceremonies, approaching far more nearly to the formalism of Rome 
than to the simplicity of the gospel. But though countenanced by 
the king, and by others in high places, they seem to have found it 
difficult to interest very many of the people in then* new form of 
religion. It has been too showy, too much like the Roman Catholic, 
for their religious tastes and convictions. The precise statistics of 
the mission cannot be given. Bishop Staley has now been for some 
time in England, but there are presbyters and " sisters " at the Islands, 
occupying, it is supposed, four stations at least, Honolulu, Lahaina, 
Kona, and Wailiiku, with schools for boys and for girls, as well 
as preaching services. How many they number, as connected with 
their church or congregations, is not known. 



SKETCH OF THE MICRONESIA MISSION. 



THE mission church must in due time turn missionary. So rightly 
reasoned the members of the Sandwich Islands mission. Thirty years 
had elapsed ; fifteen hundred dollars a year were collected at the 
monthly concert ; the first native pastor had been ordained by a 
council of native churches ; and in the same year, the members of 
the mission proposed that Hawaiian Christians should carry the gos- 
pel to other islands. The Prudential Committee at Boston warmly 
approved the proposal. Another year (1850) saw the "Hawaiian 
Missionary Society " formed at Honolulu. 

Two thousand miles away, to the south-west of Honolulu, lie an im- 
mense number of islands two thousand or more now embraced 
under the general name of Micronesia " The Little Islands." 
Scattered in groups, known by various appellations Ladrones, 
Carolines, and the like they stretch from three degrees south to 
twenty degrees north of the equator, and were then supposed to con- 
tain a population of two hundred thousand. Many of them were 
built wholly by the coral insect, and lie flat upon the water, while a 
few of them are basaltic islands, with mountains two or three thou- 
sand feet in height. These various groups differ in language and in 
the details of their customs and superstitions, but agree in the general 
characteristics of their native occupants. They are the natural homes 
of indolence and sensuality, of theft and violence. The warmth of 
the climate renders clothing a superfluity, and houses needless except 
for shade ; while the constant vegetation of the tropics dispenses with 
accumulated stores of food. A race of tawny savages stalk round 
almost or quite naked, swim like fish in the waters, or bask in the 
sunshine on shore. They prove as ready to catch, as vile sailors are 
to communicate, the vices of civilized lands. Intemperance is an 
easily besetting sin - f and licentiousness is, with rare exceptions, the 

(23) 



24 SKETCH OP THE MICRONESIA MISSION. 

general and almost ineradicable pollution of the Pacific Islands. But 
in the Kingsmill group, the missionaries found a people who, though 
practicing polygamy, held in honor the chastity of woman. 

The attention of the missionaries was turned to three of these 
groups of islands the Caroline, the Marshall, or Mulgrave, and the 
Kingsmill, or Gilbert Islands. 

The eastern portion of the Caroline chain was naturally fixed 
upon as the centre of operations, by reason of the convenient 
location and healthful climate. Two of these, Kusaie and Ponape, 
were tbe first to be occupied. Ponape or Ascension Island 
is a high basaltic island, sixty miles in circumference, surrounded 
by ten smaller basaltic islands, all inclosed within a coral reef. 
It rises to the height of 2,850 feet, and has its rivers and 
waterfalls. The island is a physical paradise, with a delightful 
climate in which the range of the thermometer for three years was 
but seventeen degrees, and with a various and luxuriant vegetation. 
Among the indigenous products are the breadfruit, banana, cocoanut, 
taro, sugar-cane, ava, arrowroot, sassafras, sago, wild orange, and 
mango, with an immense variety of timber trees ; while lemons, 
oranges, pine.-apples, coffee, tamarinds, guava, tobacco, and other 
exotics, thrive abundantly. From the mangrove trees that line the 
shore, the ground rises by a series of natural terraces ; and while 
twenty varieties of birds fill the air with life, a population of five 
thousand people are so hidden in the overhanging forests and shrub- 
bery, that, but for an occasional canoe, or a smoke ascending, the 
passing vessel would scarcely know it to be inhabited. The inhab- 
itants seem to be of Malay descent, and the place was " a moral 
Sodom." 

Kusaie or Strong's Island the easternmost of the Carolines, 
is one of a small cluster, and is about thirty miles in circumference. 
It rises to the height of 2,000 feet, wooded to the summit ; and it 
then contained some 1,500 people, strongly Asiatic both in look and 
speech. Here polygamy was unknown, and labor comparatively 
honorable. Many of the inhabitants, with an unusual quickness of 
apprehension, had learned of foreigners a kind of broken English 
before the missionaries arrived; and the "Good King George," as his 
subjects called him, had, with surprising wisdom, forbidden the tapping 
of the cocoanut tree for the manufacture of intoxicating drink. 

North-east of Kusaie lie the Marshall sometimes called Mulgrave 
Islands ; subdivided into the Radack and Ralick or eastern and 
western chains. About thirty principal islands compose the group. 
They are all of coral formation, but much higher, more fertile and 



SKETCH OP THE MICRONESIA MISSION. 25 

inviting, than the Gilbert group south of them. Majuro, or Arrow- 
smith, for example, is described as a magnificent island, rising eight 
or ten feet above the water at the landing-place, sprinkled with forests 
of breadfruit and pandanus trees, and abounding with cocoanuts and 
bananas. The population of the whole group was estimated at 
twelve thousand or upwards, speaking, to some extent, different 
languages. They had been comparatively uncontaminated by foreign 
intercourse, from their reputation for ferocity. Several vessels had 
been cut off by them, and a great number of foreigners killed at dif- 
ferent times, in retaliation for a former deadly attack upon the 
natives. The residence of the king and principal chiefs was at 
Ebon Island. The natives are in some respects superior to many 
of the Pacific islanders. Their features are sharper, their persons 
spare and athletic, and their countenances vivacious. The women 
wear their hair smoothly parted on the forehead, and neatly rolled up 
in the neck sometimes adorned with flowers ; and their skirts, fine, 
and beautifully braided and bordered, extend from the waist to the 
feet. The men exhibit much more skill than is common in this 
region, and are fond of ornaments. Their comparative intelligence 
and exemption from foreign influence constituted the inviting aspect 
of this case ; their alleged ferocity, the formidable feature. 

Directly south of the Marshall Islands, on both sides of the 
equator, lie the Kingsmill, or Gilbert Islands. Fifteen or sixteen 
principal islands, surrounded by a multitude of islets, raised by the 
coral insect barely above the level of the ocean, contain a population 
of thirty or forty thousand, speaking mostly a common language, 
resembling the Hawaiian. The land is densely covered with cocoa- 
nut groves. This is the " tree of a thousand uses," furnishing the 
natives almost " everything they eat, drink, wear, live in, or use in 
any way/' Their hats, clothing, mats and cords are made from its 
leaves ; their houses are built from its timber ; they eat the fruit, 
drink the milk, make molasses and rum from its juice, and manufac- 
ture from it immense quantities of oil for use and for sale. Their 
religion is the loosest system of spirit-worship, without priest, idol, 
or temple. They practice polygamy. The children go naked for 
ten or twelve years.- The men wear a girdle, and the women a 
broader mat around them. Their appearance of nudity is relieved 
by the tattooing, with which they are profusely and skillfully adorned. 
The considerable population, the unity of origin, faith, and language, 
and the general resemblance of their speech to the Hawaiian, rendered 
this group inviting, especially to the Sandwich Island laborers, 
although its torrid sun, comparatively barren soil, and limited range 



26 SKETCH OP THE MICRONESIA MISSION. 

of vegetation, made it not altogether favorable for the American 
missionaries' home. 

Such was the region to which the gospel was to be carried. On 
the 18th of November, 1851, missionaries Snow and Gulick, with 
their wives, left Boston in the Esther May, and two months afterward, 
Mr. and Mrs. Sturges, in the Snow Squall, for Micronesia by way of 
the Sandwich Islands. Seven native Hawaiians were ready to join 
them ; but two only, with their wives, were selected for the opening 
of the mission. The native churches made liberal contributions for 
their outfit and support. King Kamehameha III. gave them a noble 
letter of commendation to the Micronesian chiefs. A mission church 
was organized early in July, 1852, and on the 15th of the same 
month, just thirty-three years, or one whole generation, from the 
date of the former parting at Long Wharf in Boston, the like scene 
took place in the harbor of Honolulu. A crowd of natives thronged 
the shore as the missionaries put off for the schooner Caroline. On 
the deck of the schooner there is a prayer in Hawaiian and another 
in English, a verse of the Missionary Hymn, a shaking of friendly 
hands ; and with a gentle breeze the vessel glides away. 

The Caroline arrived at the Gilbert Islands, and on the 21st of 
August anchored at Kusaie. The missionaries were pleasantly re- 
ceived by " Good King George," in a faded flannel shirt, while his 
wife sat by in a short cotton gown, and his subjects approached him 
crouching on their hands and knees. He consented to the mission, 
gave them supplies, promised them land and a house, and on hearing 
the thirteenth chapter of Romans, and witnessing their worship, he 
pronounced both to be " first rate." Messrs. Snow, Opunui, and 
then* wives, commenced their work in this isolated place, where at 
one time they passed a period of two full years without a letter from 
America. A fortnight later the Caroline anchored in the land-locked 
harbor of Ponape, where the king came on board, and, after some 
conversation, told them it should be " good for them to stop." And 
here Messrs. Sturges, Gulick, Kaaikaula, and their wives, were soon 
established in then* new home. 

In 1854 they were followed by Dr. Pierson and the native Hawaiian, 
Kanoa. These brethren brought a blessing to the crew of the whaling 
bark Belle, that carried them ; her three mates were converted on 
the voyage. As they cruised among the Marshall Islands on their 
way to Kusaie, by a good providence the King's sister a remarkable 
woman took passage from Ebon to another island, became attached 
to the missionaries, and spoke their praises at every island where they 
touched. The missionaries proceeded on their voyage to Kusaie, but 



SKETCH OP THE MICRONESIA MISSION. 27 

with a deep conviction that the Lord was calling them back to the 
Marshall group. 

At length (1857) the Morning Star, the children's vessel, heaves in 
sight at Kusaie. She brings Mr. and Mrs. Bingham, and Kanakaole 
with his wife, on their way to the Marshall and the Gilbert Islands. 
They are joined here by Messrs. Pierson and Doane, and sail for their 
destination. As they set out for Ebon Island, of the Marshall group, 
they are solemnly warned by old sea-captains of the danger that 
awaits them from that ferocious people. On approaching the island, 
the captain put up his boarding nettings, stationed his men fore and 
aft, and anxiously awaited the issue. Fifteen canoes drew near, 
jammed full of men. In the prow of the foremost stood a powerful 
man, with a wreath on his head and huge rings in his ears; On they 
came ; but in the same instant Dr. Pierson and the savage recognized 
each other as old acquaintances, and the savage came on board shout- 
ing, " Docotor, docotor," in perfect delight. Many months before, 
it seems, this man and a hundred others had been driven by a storm 
upon Kusaie, where the missionaries had rescued them, and befriended 
them with food and medicine ; and they had returned to their homes 
in peace. So the Lord befriended the missionaries in turn, and pre- 
pared them a welcome among the so-called " cannibals." And when, 
after a further cruise of thirty days, the Morning Star returned to leave 
the missionaries at Ebon, they were met on the water by twenty canoe 
loads of people, shouting, singing, and dancing for joy. On the shore 
they were received with every demonstration of friendship ; and the 
aged female chief, who had once sailed with Dr. Piersort among the 
islands, took him by both hands and led him joyfully to her house. 
On the same voyage Mr. Bingham and Kanoa were set down at 
Apaiang, of the Gilbert group, where the king gave them a pleasant 
home. 

Thus was the gospel first carried to these three groups of islands ; 
and here we leave them, and their fellow-laborers that followed them, 
chiefly Hawaiians, at their self-denying toils. We will briefly sketch 
the progress of the work on the principal island, Ponape, as a speci- 
men of the whole. Here the king, though almost helpless with the 
palsy, was friendly to the enterprise ; while the Nanakin, his chief 
officer, expressed himself warmly, and received an English book with 
the avowed determination to learn to read it ; " the cooper should 
teach him how, or he would pound him." Two short months sufficed 
to awaken the enmity of unprincipled foreigners. Two captains had 
bought one of the small islands, and made out a deed for the Nanakin 
to sign. He brought it to the missionaries, who found it to contain 



28 SKETCH OF THE MICRONESIA MISSION. 

the grossest frauds, including even the forgery of the Nanakin' s sig- 
nature. The exposure of course created hostility. Six months 
brought fifteen vessels ; and though in most instances the captains 
were friendly, and even kind, every arrival was attended with deplorable 
influences on the morals of the native women. Then came the open- 
ing of a school, some of the scholars sitting patiently for six long 
hours to get an opportunity to steal. Then came the small-pox ; and 
before the end of the first year, it had carried off multitudes of the 
inhabitants, broken up the school, arrested all plans of labor, pros- 
trated the Hawaiian preacher, and produced a general recklessness 
and bitterness of feeling through the island. To add to the evil, the 
vaccine matter received from the Sandwich Islands proved worthless ; 
and wicked foreigners circulated the report that the missionaries had 
introduced and were spreading the disease. By resorting boldly to 
inoculation, and beginning with the Nanakin, the missionaries at 
length saved many lives and regained confidence. In the midst of 
this calamity, Mr. Sturges's house burned up, with all its contents, 
driving him and his family to the woods. Hostilities arose also #mong 
the tribes, attended with robberies and murders ; and the sailors 
continued to bring moral pollution. One day, in his accustomed 
tour, Mr. Sturges passed near three brothels, all kept by foreigners. 
But the missionaries toiled on, resumed their schools, gathered their 
growing congregations, privately sowed the good seed, and in four 
years' time were printing hymns and Old Testament stories in Pona-- 
pean. After a night of eight years, three converts were at one 
time received to their little church, followed by eight others soon ; 
and meanwhile a little church of six members was formed in another 
part of the island. Revivals brought opposition and more or less of 
persecution. At length a chapel is built in the mountains by native 
hands, and at the principal station a church edifice, forty feet by sixty, 
solemnly dedicated to God. Hardly was it consecrated, when the 
Morning Star arrived with an eight hundred pound bell, the gift of 
friends in Illinois ; and within a fortnight the Nanakin, with his wife 
and fourteen other converts, sat down at the table of the Lord. The 
chief had vibrated back and forth now proclaiming Sabbath ob- 
servance, breaking up five brothels, and following the missionary 
round the island, and now distributing "toddy" profusely among 
the people till at length the Lord brought him in. 'Half the 
islanders had by this time yielded an outward deference to the true 
religion. Early in the year 1867, there were religious services regu- 
larly held at twelve principal places, a thousand readers, 161 church 
members in good standing, and numbers of converts soon to be 



SKETCH OF THE MICRONESIA MISSION. 



received. Three new churches had been erected by the natives within 
two years, in one of which (in May, 1867) one hundred communi- 
cants sat down to the Lord's table in the presence of six hundred 
spectators, on the very spot where, fourteen years before, Mr. Sturges 
was near being overcome and robbed ; and another of these churches, 
just built, though seating five hundred persons, will soon need to be 
enlarged. At Kusaie, there are 183 church members, of whom 93 
were received in 1867. Three stone chapels had just been erected, four 
native deacons ordained, and the eye of the missionary turned to one 
man the only living child of " good King George " for a native 
pastor ; while the influence of the churches is reacting on the sailors. 
There are about sixty church members now at the Marshall Islands, 
and the prospects are eminently hopeful. In the Gilbert group it is 
still seed-time, but the knowledge is spreading from island to island. 

Among the laborers are ten Hawaiian missionaries, who have toiled 
wisely and faithfully. On many of these islands the population is 
steadily growing less. Possibly the religious books that now exist 
in these several tongues may one day lie, like Eliot's Indian Bible, 
without a reader ; but they will be monuments of noble Christian self- 
denial, and mementoes of souls gathered into the kingdom of heaven. 

The following persons have been sent from the United States to 
the Micronesia mission : 



NAMES. 


Sailed for the 
Mission. 


Left or 
Released. 


Died. 


Rev. B. G. Snow 


Nov. 18, 1851. 






Mrs. Lydia V. Snow. * ... 
Rev. L. H. Gulick 
Mrs. Louisa G. Gulick. 





ii 
Jan. 17, 1852. 






Mrs. Susan. M. Sturgess. . 
Rev. E. T. Doane 


<( 
June 4, 1854. 






Mrs. S. W. W. Doane.* . 
Mrs. Clara C. Doane 
Rev. Geo. Pierson, M. D. . . . 
Mrs. Nancy A. Pierson. 
Rev. Hiram Bingham, Jr. . 
Mrs. Minerva C. Bingham. 
Rev. Eph. P. Roberts. . . . 
Mrs. Myra H. Roberts 


(i 

May, 1865. 

Nov. 28, 1854. 


Dec. 2, 1857. 

(C 

June 24, 1858. 
ii 


'59 or '60 


1862 

M 


1863 



According to the latest statistics received, the church members, in 
regular standing, in Micronesia, were on Ponape, 1 78 ; Kusaie, 1 79 ; 
Ebon, 80 ; Apaiang, 8. Total, 445 ; of whom 144 had been received 
within the last year. This number of church members, it is well 
said in a general letter from the mission, " does not indicate all that 
has been wrought by the saving power of the gospel." 



SKETCH OF THE MARQUESAS MISSION. 



IT remains to say a few words of the Marquesas. The mission 
here is in every aspect most remarkable, whether we consider the 
character of the people, the origin, the agency, or the influence of 
the mission. The Marquesas Islands, six in number, are situated 
nearly as far from Micronesia as from Hawaii. They are of volcanic 
formation, their mountains rising to the height of four or five thousand 
feet, with a wonderful grandeur and variety of scenery. The climate 
is fine, and the valleys unsurpassed in fertility, abounding in all man- 
ner of tropical fruits and vegetation. The fruits hang temptingly 
upon the trees, or drop on the ground. The islands contain about 
8,000 people, of Malay origin, speaking a language very similar to 
the Hawaiian. The natives have fine athletic forms, great vivacity 
and quick apprehension, but are to the last degree impatient of labor 
and control. They are, in fact, among the most lawless, quarrelsome, 
and ferocious of the tribes of men. They have no acknowledged 
form of government. The individual gluts his revenge unhindered ; 
and the clans in the various valleys are in perpetual warfare. The 
bodies of the slain are cut in pieces, and distributed among the clan 
to be devoured, the little children even partaking of the horrid meal. 
In 1859, when the whale-ship Tarlight was wrecked off the island 
of Hivaoa, the natives conspired to massacre the crew in order to 
plunder the vessel though in both objects they were frustrated. 
The community cannot have forgotten the letter of President Lincoln 
to the missionary Kekela, a few years ago, thanking him forhis services 
in rescuing the mate of an American ship, Mr. Whalon, from being 
roasted and eaten by these cannibals. The disposition of the natives 
is to some degree symbolized by their personal appearance the 
men hideously tattooed with lizards, snakes, birds, and fishes, and the 
women smeared with cocoanut oil and turmeric. Add to this the 

(30) 



SKETCH OF THE MARQUESAS MISSION. 31 

most oppressive system of tabus, so that, for example, the father, the 
mother, and the grown-up daughter must all eat apart from each 
other, and we have some idea of the obstacles to the Christian 
religion in those islands. 

Some years ago, a Hawaiian youth was left by a vessel at these 
islands, sick. He recovered, and by his superior knowledge became 
a man of importance, and married the daughter of the High Chief, 
Mattunui. The father-in-law was so impressed with his acquisitions, 
which, as he learned, were derived from the missionaries, that after 
consultation with the other chiefs, he embarked for Lahaina, to seek 
missionaries for Marquesas. This was in 1853. The Hawaiian 
Society felt that the call was from God. Two native pastors 
one of them Kekela and two native teachers, accompanied by their 
wives, were deputed to go. They were welcomed with joy. Mattunui 
sat up all night to tell of the " strange things " he saw and heard in 
the Hawaiian Islands ; and an audience of a hundred and fifty listened 
to preaching on the following Sabbath. The missionaries entered at 
once on their various forms of Christian activity, organizing their 
schools, and in due time translating the Gospel of John. One 
foreigner alone was with them, Mr. Bicknell, an English mechanic, 
a noble man, afterwards ordained a preacher ; otherwise the whole 
enterprise was Hawaiian. Roman Catholic priests hurried at once 
to the islands, but the Hawaiian preachers held on, amid immense 
discouragements, with great energy and perseverance, and with 
admirable good sense. At length God gave them the first convert, 
Abraham Natua. Soon after this the missionaries determined to 
break down the system of tabus, and a great feast was gotten up on 
the mission premises, at which the High Chief, Mattunui, and many 
others, sat down for the first time with their wives, and broke through 
the system in every available direction. It was a grand blow at the 
whole institution. In four years the intolerable thievishness of the 
natives was so far checked within the range of the missions, that 
clothing could be exposed and the mission premises could be left 
unlocked the entire day, with perfect safety. Urgent calls came 
from various parts of the islands for missionaries five or six pieces 
of land, more than could be occupied, being given in Hivaoa alone. 
Converts came dropping in slowly, one by one at first ; and a quiet 
and powerful influence has been diffusing itself through the islands, 
and filling the minds of these devoted preachers with great hopes of 
the future. In 1867 there were eleven male and female missionaries 
at the island, who had organized five churches with fifty- seven mem- 
bers, and were about to establish a boarding school for boys and 

35498(1 



32 SKETCH OF THE MARQUESAS MISSION. 

another for girls. And in 1868 Mr. Coan, who had just visited the 
islands, wrote thus : " The light and love and gravitating power 
of the gospel are permeating the dead masses of the Marquesans. 
Scores already appear as true disciples of Jesus. Scores can read the 
word of the living God, and it is a power within them. Hundreds 
have forsaken the tabus, and hundreds of others hold them lightly. 
Consistent missionaries and their teachings are respected. Their 
lives and persons are sacred where human life is no more regarded 
than that of a dog. They go secure where others dare not go. They 
leave houses, wives, and children without fear, and savages protect 
them. Everywhere we see evidence of the silent and sure progress 
of truth, and we rest assured that the time to favor the dark Mar- 
quesans has come." Whether we view the people on whom or the 
people by whom this power has been put forth, we see alike a signal 
movement of the gospel of Christ. 



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