HISTORICAL SKETCH'
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HIIAWAIIAN MIISSION,
AND THE MISSIONS TO
MIICRONESIA AND THE 3MARQUESAS
ISLANDS.
BY
PROF. S. C. BARTLETT, D.D.
BOSTON: ~
AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS.
1871.,
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HAWAIIAN
ISLANDS. 
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF THE
HVAWAIIAN 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.
1871. 
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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 (Opukahaia); 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
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
New Haven, for the purpose of awakening the spirit of missions.
It was Samuel J. -Mills. Obookiah told- Mills his simple storyhow the people of Hawaii " are very bad; they pray to gods made
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 understand 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 Litchfield he became acquainted and intimate with Samuel Ruggles, who
about this time (1816) resolved to accompany him to his native island
with the gospel.
(.i-s L~ ~
W-  -I  i    e ~r 1Z    1i 
SKETCH OF 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 Association 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.
But 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 consecrations 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 Thurston, young graduates of Andover, Dr. Thomas Holman, a young physician, Daniel Chamberlain, a substantial farmer, Samuel Whitney,
mechanic and teacher, Samuel Ruggles, catechist and teacher, and
4 
SKETQH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
Elisha Loomis, printer and teacher. All the Americans were accompanied 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 then-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.
WVhile 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
5 
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 ffr 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 tabus. It was
tabu and death for a common man to let his shadow fall upon a chief,
to go 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 sacrifice. In all these modes, the oppression of the nation was enormous.
6 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
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, reputable, 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 witness 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 daybreak 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; arld 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 Liholiho, 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 deathbed, 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
Nvrould 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
7 
SKETCH OF 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 convulsion. 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 signally 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 wellreputed Christian. Hopu and Honoree, while they continued faithful, 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 baptized native was Keopuolani, the mother of the king; and others of
the high chiefs were among the earlier converts. The leading personages, for the most part, showed much readiness to adopt the suggestions 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
8 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
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 presence 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 English 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 commandments 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 dagger, 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, threatening 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
9 
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 1825, 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 prohibited immoral acts, enjoined the observance of the Sabbath, encouraged 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 obscure village and district, and operating with immense power on all
grades and conditions of society. The chiefs gave orders to the people 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 missionaries   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, traveling 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 transactions at Kaavaroa (Hawaii) well illustrate the work. Mr. Ruggles
10
* ~ 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
was away from home, with Mr. Bislhop, 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 company 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 eamination.  During the two following 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 missionaries were singularly drawn out in desires and prayers for the conversion, 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
11
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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 candidates.
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 Christian 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
missidonaries. 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 wonderful 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 native 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 general 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 firmly established in place of almost promiscuous concubinage; property
12'
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.  I.,. 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
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 members; 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 licentiousness 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 nation should have
13 
SKETCH OF 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 recognized 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 constitution 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 contributions 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 Hawaiian mission abounds with bright examples [of individual righteousness], 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 elsewhere, 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 interior it is well known that a man may travel alone with money, through
14 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
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 population 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 prevalence, still, of vice and crime, which are said to have beeni 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, meanwhile, 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
Ai
15 
SKETCH OF 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 in
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 vindication, 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 proportioned 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 1870 -
"As fifty years had elapsed since the introduction of Christianity
into these Islands, the present year was fitly observed as a year of
jubilee. All classes united in public exercises suited to the occasion,
- natives and foreigners as well, who had here found opportunities
for business, and delightful homes for themselves and their families.
All the varied institutions of civil and social life that characterize an
educated, Christian people, were duly represented, and fitting honors
were paid to the good men and women who had here planted and
watered the seeds of a Christian civilization. The government made
the 15th of June, the day set apart for the more public exercises, a
national holiday, and by generous material aid, and participation in
16 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
the public exercises, contributed largely to the success of the jubilee.
It cannot but be hoped that the cordial relations of all classes toward
each other and the great cause of Christian civilization, evinced on
this occasion, may be fruitful of good in coming years, while contributing not a little to the fitting close of missionary work in the
Hawaiian Islands.
"The Hawaiians have for years been a Christian people, possessed
of all the prerogatives, and endowed with the varied institutions of
a civilized Christian nation. For the past few years missionary labor
has been continued rather to guide and sustain the native ministry
and the churches, till such time as they should have gained their
majority.  From statistical tables, prepared by Dr. Anderson  with
great-care, it appears that the whole number of persons admitted to
the churches at the Islands, on profession of faith, amounts to 55,300,
-the record closing with June, 1870.
" For several years the native churches have not only maintained
their new religious institutions, with the exception of small grants-inaid from the American Board for educational purposes, but have sustained an independent mission to the Marquesas Islands, and co6perated with American missionaries in Micronesia. For the foreign
work of their churches they have contributed more than they have
received from abroad for local objects, which appealed less strongly to
their sympathies. The charge upon the American Board is thus limited almost exclusively to support of the old missionaries and their
widows that still remain in the Islands%
"Since 1863, the management of the Christian work in the Islands
has been mainly in charge of the Hawaiian Board, consisting of a
Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer, and not less than eighteen
members, one third of whom are to be natives, elected annually by
the Evangelical Association.  The latter body is made up of all clergymen, native and foreign, of the Congregational and Presbyterian
orders, on the Hawaiian, Micronesian, and Marquesas Islands, of lay
delegates appointed annually by the local ecclesiastical bodies, and of
laymen elected by a two thirds vote of the association. The success
which has attended this arrangement has more than fulfilled the expectatioli  -f the Prudential Committee, and seems to justify the
independence of the Hawaiian churches of any further connection
with the American Board, and the omission of the Hawaiian Islands
henceforth from the list of its missions. The missionary fathers who
survive will continue, as far as they are able, to render the native
churches advice and counsel, and to assist them especially on theological instruction and in literary labors. Their best thought and large
2
17 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
experience will thus be of avail to the more mature development of
the intellectual and social life of the people.
"The problems that remain to be solved are such as are found
elsewhere in civilized' Christian communities; problems connected
with the relation of capital to labor, with social economy, the b t
education of the people, the development of individual enterprise,
and the truest activity of the Christian Church. The time having
come, apparently, for such action, the American Board, at its Annual
Meeting in 1870, passed' the following resolution:  "'Resolved, That inasmuch as the proper work of this Board in
those islands is now virtually completed, so that there remains only
the duty of sustaining the few veteran missionaries in comfort and
continued usefulness till they shall enter into rest, and the namhe of
that mission will henceforth disappear from our Annual Reports, we
record once more our reverent and thankful acknowledgment of the
success with which God, in his providence and by his spirit, has
crowned the work of our missionaries in that field, and by which a
race of barbarians- without letters, without arts, without industry,
and with no humanizing institutions - has been transformed into
a Christian nation, civilized and free, under a government of laws,
with free schools for all the children, and with the Bible in the homes
of the people.'
But three American missionaries now remain in the pastoral office,
having care of but a small portion of their original flocks. Three
other churches are in charge of the sons of missionaries, now thoroughly identified in interest and sympathy with the Hawaiian pastors. The whole number of churches is fifty-eight, of which thirtynine have native pastors, and five others are in the care of native
licentiates. The number of church members in good standing is
14,850.  Of the contributions last year for various religious objects
(in all $31,070), $6,476 were for foreign missions- an advance of
$2,466 on the previous year.
" Popular education has passed almost entirely into the hands of
the government.   The amount appropriated for this object the past
two years was $92,135.  The number of common schools reported
January, 1870, was 224, with an average attendance of 5,938, of
whom 3,427 were boys, and 2,511 girls. Thirty-eight new schoolhouses were erected, and fifteen old ones repaired. Special attention
has been given by the government to high-schools and boardingschools in which the English language is taught. There are fifteen
lch boarding-schools, including Lahainaluna Seminary, Oahu College, and four Romanist institutions, attended by 280 boys and 251
18 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
girls. There are twenty-nine day schools in which English is taught,
attended by 1,458 pupils, 832 boys and 626 girls.
" A few items gathered from the official reports of different officers
of the government may illustrate the social condition of the Islands.
Post-office department: Inter-island-mail, letters received or forwarded, 278,999.  Commerce: Exports during the last decade have
risen from $807,459.20 to $2,366,358.33; imports from $1,223,749.05
to $2,040,068.10. The export of sugar from 1,444,271 pounds to
18,302,110  pounds;  and rice  from  nothing to  1,927,800, besides the large amount consumed at home, particularly by the Chinese immigrants. The tonnage employed in whale fishing in 1859
amounted to 1,595 tons; in 1869 to 3,347 tons. The value of real
estate in ten years has advanced from  $3,417,076 to $4,808,815
personal property from $2,909,572 to $4,682,947. The revenue for
biennial periods from $656,215.92 to $834,112.65; yet the taxes
are very light in comparison with those in most other civilized countries. It should be said, however, that the increase in the value of
real estate and of personal property is confined very largely to such
as is held by foreign residents, attracted by the opportunities of
business and the delightful climate. Of these foreigners it appears
that one hundred and twenty-seven have become naturalized as citizens of the Hawaiian kingdom during the last two years.
The government is a limited monarchy.  The legislature consists
of two branches, the House of Nobles nominated by the king, and
Representatives elected by the people, though meeting in one assembly; an arrangement which, though admitting of free discussion, in
which the Hawaiians are very ready to indulge, practically secures,
in all important matters,  a majority in behalf of the administration.
"The Supreme Court has been and still is distinguished for men
of eminent legal attainments. The judges of the inferior courts, and
subordinate officials, generally with the best intentions, will require
time to become familiar with their duties.
"As a whole, however, in view of all the circumstances,- the
brief period since civil government has been attempted, the peculiar
difficulties in passing from the despotic will of arbitrary chiefs to the
forms of comparative freedom, the hindrances thrown in the way by
the violence and selfishness of foreign ship captains, and the domineering consuls of foreign powers, when native Hawaiians had no
rights which the civilized world were bound to respect, - the success
of civil government in these Islands is a marvel without a parallel,
and reflects no little honor upon the unselfish aims of missionaries,
19 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
and especially upon Messrs. Richards, Judd, and Armstrong, who,
amid trials and discouragements little known to the world, laid the
foundations for the present success.
"With all these completed arrangements for the healthful development of a Christian state, it is painful to notice the steady decrease
of population in the Islands, of late years at the rate of not far from
one thousand per year. The present native population is not far from
60,000. The native race seems to lack vitality, and to be unable to
sustain itself in contact with more vigorous foreign races.
"But whether the Hawaiian nation be continued to be a witness to
the beneficial influences of the gospel or not, the great work has been
accomplished.   Christian institutions have been established on these
Islands, for the benefit and culture of whatever people may there
find a home."
In connection with this sketch, it will be proper briefly to refer to
operations  at the Islands by Roman Catholic, Mormon,  and "Reformed Catholic" missionaries, whose efforts have not been without
influence upon the prosperity of that evangelizing work which the missionaries 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 laymen, 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 themselves 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 revived. Continuing to identify themselves with a party of malcontents, 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 authority, 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
20 
SKETCH OF THE HAWAIIAN MISSION.
all this the authorities acted upon their own views of what was right
and necessary in the case, while the American missionaries discountenanced 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 banished 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 MoRMONs.
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, saying, 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.  This was probably an exaggeration.
21 
SKETCH OF 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 symnpathy 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 found it difficult to interest very many of the people in their new form of religion. It was
too showy, too much like the Roman Catholic, for their religious
tastes and convictions, and the mission seems to have signally failed.
In 1870 Bishop Staley returned to England and resigned his bishopric, and it is not expected that his place will be filled by another.
22 
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 mnission proposed that Hawaiian Christians should carry the gospel 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 immense 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 contain 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 thousand 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; and licentiousness is, with rare exceptions, the
(23)
6 
SKETCH OF 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
grqups 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 the 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 shrubbery, that, but for an occasional canoe, or a smoke ascending, the
passing vessel would scarcely know it to be inhabited. The inhabitants 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
24 
SKETCH OP THE MICRONESIA MISSION.
inviting, than the Gilbert group south of them. Majuro, or Arrowsmith, 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 different 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 cocoanut 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 manufacture 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
25 
SKETCH OF 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 received 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
their 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 their new home.
In 1854 they were followed by Dr. Pierson and the native Hawaiian,
Ranoa. 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
26 
SKETCH OF THE MICRONESIA MISSION.
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 inii the same instant Dr. Pierson and the savage recognized
each other as old acquaintances, and the savage came on board shouting, "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 prepared 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. Pierson 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 specimen 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
27 
SKETCH OF THE MICRONESIA MISSION.
the grossest frauds, including even the forgery of the Nanakin's signature.   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 opening 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, prostrated 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 among
the tribes, attended with robberies and murders; and the sailors
continued to bring moral pollution. One day, ill 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 Ponapean.  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 observance, 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 regularly held at twelve principal places, a thousand readers, 161 church
members in good standing, and numbers  of converts soon to be
28 
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 communicants 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. There has been much religious interest during the past year (1870), and an addition of fifty
persons to the churches on this Island.
The Hawaiian missionaries have been faithful and efficient. One
of them, on Butaritari (Gilbert Islands), has now a boarding-school
for girls, and another, when last heard from, was about to commence
instructing a class of young men, preparing them for future labor as
teachers and preachers. Two were located on Drummond's Island
(Tapiteuea), in 1868, and in less than two years, out of a population
of about 6,000, more than 1,800 were in schools and 1,300 had learned
to read.
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 fllowing persons have been sent from the United States to
the Micronesia mission:
~NAMES.            Sc~Sailed for the  Left or   Died
Mission.    Released.  Died.
Rev. B. G. Snow.........         Nov. 18, 1851.
Mrs. Lydia V. Snow..... "
Rev. L. H. Gulick....           "
Mrs. Louisa G. Gulick...               "
Rev. A. A. Sturgess........       Jan. 17, 1852.
Mrs. Susan. M. Sturgess.                    "
Rev. E. T. Doane..................June 4, 1854.
Mrs. S. W. W. Doane.*...  1863
Mrs. Clara C. Doane.......              May, 1865.
Rev. Geo. Pierson, M. D...             Nov. 28, 1854.'59 or'60
Mrs. Nancy A. Pierson....             " 
Rev. Hiram Bingham, Jr..               Dec. 2, 1857.
Mrs. Minerva C. Bingham...                 "
Rev. Eph. P. Roberts.                      June 24, 1858.  1862
Mrs. Myra H. Roberts....                       " 
According to the latest statistics received, the church members, in
regular standing, in Micronesia, were - on Ponape, 234; Kusaie, 159;
Marshall Islands, 115; Gilbert Islands, 49. Total, 557; of whom 100
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."
29 
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 irall manner 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 for-his 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)
0 
SKETCH OF THE MARQUESAS MISSION.
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 pastorsone 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 members, and were about to establish a boarding school for boys and
31 
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 Marquesans 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.
By the last report (1870), the number of church members,in good
standing at the Marquesas Islands was 95; the whole number received by profession from the beginning, 129. Four Hawaiian missionaries, with their wives, were connected with the mission.
32
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