USA > Hawaii > Honolulu: sketches of life, social, political, and religious, in the Hawaiian Islands from 1828 to 1861 > Part 6
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The Gloomy Month.
I once saw the Princess Nahienaena wear it. There were head-dresses of tulle flowers, feathers, and pearls, shawls of blonde lace, and a few valuable jewels. The old lady showed me a breast-pin of clustered rubies and emeralds, which she said cost fifteen hundred dollars.
It is the gloomy month of the year. The wind from the south throws up a heavy surf, which roars like dis- tant thunder as it strikes the shore. The atmosphere, damp and heavy, is filled with the peculiar odor of sea- weed and fresh coral. I listen to the moaning, shrieking blast and drenching rain, and think of the poor natives in straw huts, so slightly built that to-night's storm will leave many families shelterless.
XXI.
Temperance in 1839-Security-Education in the Na- tive Language-Political Economy-Mr. Richards- Feudal System- Laws -- Dr. Fudd - Difficulties -- French Priests - Proselytes - Idolatry -Arrival of La Place - His Demands-Reflections- The East India Squadron under Commodore Read-Death of Kinau.
I N the years 1838 and 1839 the success of the schools and prosperity of the churches were at the culmi- nating point; the latter were crowded with willing worshipers. Thousands of children were taught in Sun- day-schools, and instructed in separate congregations. The "cold water army" embraced legions of valiant champions, who mustered occasionally in holiday dress, and marched with flaunting standards of "Down with Rum," "Cold water only."
Life and property were everywhere safe, and it was seldom that persons could be found who did not regard themselves as Christians.
There was not the drawback of a foreign tongue as a medium of communication with the native mind. The entire Bible was translated and printed in the native lan- guage. There was also a Book of Hymns, and other vol- umes-Reading Lessons, Hymns for Children, Natural History, Geography, Mathematics, Astronomy, Moral Science, the Pilgrim's Progress, etc., and a semi-monthly newspaper; sixty volumes in all, and embracing a wider
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The Old System of Government.
range of literature than constituted the library of many happy children and youth in New England forty years ago.
It was a maxim with the Mission that in order to pre- serve the nation, they must preserve its speech. The · construction of the Hawaiian language is so simple, when compared with the English, that it is no marvel that so many of the natives acquired the art of reading and writ- ing it. The proportion is estimated as greater than in any other country in the world, except Scotland and New England.
The people generally understood and could explain the plan of salvation through a crucified Redeemer, and were better theologians than political economists. The rulers in particular felt their deficiency in respect to the latter. They had applied to the Mission and its patrons for aid from the United States, in the failure of which, Mr. Richards was allowed to withdraw his connection from the Mission and enter the service of the Govern- ment as translator and political adviser.
The old system of government was an unlimited mon- archy ; but the power was somewhat divided and shared by a body of chiefs, male and female, who met occa- sionally in council. The rulers were owners of the soil. The people were tenants at will, and liable to be dis- possessed at any time, and victimized by the fickleness of their landlords. The king and chiefs were very tena- . cious of their right to the soil, and allowed foreigners to occupy it only upon the same feudal tenure as the natives. And this led to constant broils. The arrival of a ship-of- war was the occasion to search up old debts and make out new claims to land. Native courts were very in- formal, the governor of each island constituting both judge and jury. The poll-tax was paid in kind at the
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Honolulu.
commencement of the year. The people came in train: to the palace and handed it over in person. There was no appropriation bills, and where the money went to, concerned only the fortunate receivers. Kamehameha III. was reckless in money matters, generous to a fault, and surrounded by a set of parasites to whom he could never say "No."
Mr. Richards entered upon his new duties with a small salary. A simple code of laws adapted to the state of the people was soon after published. It defined the labor tax, granted to the common people the right to hold personal property, and regulated various other important matters .* Mr. Richards lived at Lahaina. At Honolulu, the metropolis and principal commercial city, others were frequently called upon, as interpre- ters and translators, in the transaction of business with foreigners.
As Dr. Judd was not a clergyman, and had been the medical attendant and personal friend of the royal family, it was natural that they should often apply to him. He taught clerks to keep, in the native language, records of all important business, and to preserve all receipts on payment of debts, in order to prevent being compelled to pay them twice, which had not unfrequently hap- pened.
In the midst of so much prosperity there was one dark cloud casting its shadow over our sunny sky .. The an- tagonism of certain foreign officials sat like an incubus upon the rulers, to which was added a determined perse- verance on the part of France to thrust brandy and Ro- manism upon the nation.
* But these laws were chiefly a codification of existing regulations and laws.
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French Priests.
On the arrival of the first French priests, who asked permission to remain, Kaahumanu said :
" We do not want you. We have put away our idols, and abandoned our old system of religious forms and penances. We have received the Word of God by the hand of teachers whom we love, and with whom we are satisfied. Our kingdom is a little one. We do not wish the minds of our subjects distracted by any other sect. Go away and teach destitute countries, which have not received the Bible."
They not obeying her mandate, she fitted out a vessel to carry them to the coast of California, but this was a waste of money, for others followed, more or less dis- guised, to fill their places. The "Société de Propaganda Fide," of France, resolved to place one of their priests by the side of every Protestant clergyman in the Sandwich Islands. The good queen of Louis Philippe was zealous in their cause, and French ships-of-war landed the gradu- ates of the College of Picpus on many shores of the Pacific. They were sustained by French guns-meet arguments for kings, perhaps, but not so appropriate for the ambassadors of the Cross.
It was unfortunate that the first proselytes of the new faith were persons disaffected toward the chiefs. Some of them were excommunicated members of the Protest- ant churches, or had been denied admission. When Kaahumanu discovered that they wore crosses and im- ages around their necks, as distinctive badges of their creed, she demanded their surrender.
" Do you not know that the king's first law forbade image worship? Take those from your necks."
The silence maintained by most of the priests, and the answer of one, that they would not relinquish them, even if their bodies were thrown into the fire or boiling
* *
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Honolulu.
water, alarmed and astonished the chiefs. Accustomed as they had always been to implicit obedience, they in- ferred very naturally that such an element in their little kingdom would prove very dangerous, if permitted to increase. They did not regard these neophytes as re- ligious people, or punish them for any truly religious sentiment, but for obstinacy in retaining their images, which the chiefs regarded as idolatry, and could not be made to understand the difference.
They argued that their old gods, but recently de- stroyed by royal power, were mere representatives of the spiritual, or symbol of the thing signified, and was it not the same with the Roman Catholics ? A contest for supremacy as rulers led them to adopt measures harsh and impolitic, which never were and never can be justi- fied in suppressing a religious faith.
In July following a French frigate of sixty guns, under command of Admiral La Place, entered the port, and, after an interview with the French Consul, made the following demands of the Hawaiian Government :
"That the Catholic religion be declared free ;
"That a site for a church be immediately granted ;
" That prisoners of the Catholic faith be immediately set free ;
" That twenty thousand dollars be taken on board the frigate by some person of rank, to be held as a guarantee for future good behavior."
Three days grace were allowed, when, if the demands were not complied with, the nation would be involved in all the horrors of war. American missionaries were classed with the native rulers, as instigators of the per- secution against the Romanists, and denied the pro- tection of their country's flag. The American Consul had but just entered office. The Premier likewise wa
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La Place's Demand.
new in office, and both were timid. We were absent making a tour of the island in company with our es- teemed friends, Mr. and Mrs. Jarves. A messenger from the metropolis met us about thirty miles from home, with an order from the chiefs "for all the able-bodied men in the district to prepare food quickly and hasten to Honolulu, as the French had made war." The man added, on his own account, that the French ship carried guns which could fire around the mountains and send balls all over the island ! We mounted our horses and hastened on to the next station at Kaneohe, ten miles from the city, where the gentlemen left the women and children, and hastened to Honolulu.
What could the rulers do but submit? The sum re- quired was quickly collected-a part of it borrowed from the American merchants and taken on board the frigate. The land for the church was granted. The Catholic prisoners had been set at liberty some weeks before.
La Place evidently intended to take the islands, as he did not think it possible that so large a sum could be raised in so short a time. In a note to the foreigners he said : " I have prepared forces sufficiently strong, that in giving a dreadful blow the French shall be the masters and the protectors of the town at the same time."
While the course pursued by the chiefs toward the proselytes can not be justified, it did seem hard, when they had but just emerged from a sea of troubles, in quelling civil dissension, quenching the fires of their own distilleries, and struggling for foothold, that a new creed should thus be forced upon them. They were afraid of its influence, and had reason to be so.
While the king and chiefs were writhing under these humiliating exactions, an American squadron arrived from the East, under the command of Commodore Read.
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Honolulu.
The corps of officers were highly intelligent and accom. plished gentlemen, some of them professing Christians. On learning that American families, of helpless women and children, had been proscribed, and, in case of hostility, were to be handed over, without judge or jury, to the merciless mob, their indignation was somewhat aroused, and the regret often expressed that they had not arrived a little sooner.
Pleasant and friendly intercourse during a visit of five weeks encouraged the desponding chiefs, and obliterated in some degree the idea that we were defenseless exiles from our native land.
In April, 1839, Kinau was attacked with an illness which terminated in congestion of the brain and paraly- sis. She died after lingering four days in an unconscious state. The hand of the Lord fell heavily upon us, but we bowed in submissive silence, for He had said, " Put not your trust in princes."
XXII.
Sickness and Death of a Child-Hoohano, a Medical Student-Native Poetry-Death of a Midshipman.
HONOLULU, November 25, 1839.
A FTER twelve years of uninterrupted domestic happiness and prosperity, death has come and. knocked at our windows. Our first-born, the son of our strength, our promising, our beloved Gerrit is dead! He was cut down in the full tide of blooming health and spirits by a malady that remedies could not reach. I can not tell how it was, but I felt, from the first symptoms of the disease which appeared, that he would die, and the dear child seemed to have the same presentiment. He died on the fourth day of his illness.
Hoohano, Dr. Judd's medical student, who was much attached to Gerrit, watched by him the night after he died, and in the morning he handed us some lines writ- ten in the native language, on a leaf in his journal; the following is a translation :
" Farewell to the beautiful flower of the doctor's garden ; It has fallen and vanished away. The flower that budded first and blossomed fair, Its splendor was seen ; its fragrance exhaled ; But the burning sun came and it withered. And that beautiful blossom has fallen ! The occupant of the garden then wondered That a certain flower should have fallen.
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Honolulu.
He sought it, but found it not again ; it was gone; It had perished ; it had mingled with the dust. Alas! what pity for the flower plants,
Which grow up well, and lo! they are withered.
All the flowers bowed their heads smelling the fragrance ; They stood around in great sorrow.
Alas ! alas ! O my blossom that has fallen. The chief tenant inquired of his landlord,
' What thinkest thou concerning this flower, Which thou didst plant in my border?'
The Lord replied : 'I have taken away the image of all its glory ;
Its hut has fallen and is mingled with the dust.' How beautifully did the plant flourish ;
Great compassion for the tenant resident ; Mourning and searching with great lamentation ; Whither, O Gerrit, hast thou gone ?
When wilt thou return to thy birthmates ?
Alone hast thou gone in the way that is lonely ;
Thou hast gone a stranger in an unknown path.
O Gerrit ! Gerrit ! behold we all
Are stricken flowers and soon shall fall.
Where art thou? Go, thou, and be a pioneer to welcome us.
O Gerrit ! Thou goest at the pleasure of thy Lord,
And none can forbid thy design ; go, thou,
Travel on until thou art wholly gone along the silent path- way ;
Ascend the ladder of God's kingdom,
And pass within the glorious walls of Jerusalem,
And enter into the peace of God's kingdom.
Thou art singing hymns with good angels,
And never ceasing is thy employment there.
O Gerrit! Gerrit! Deeply we mourn that we can not be- hold thee ;
Forever hast thou gone from our sight,
And wilt return hither no more."
No one can imagine how this sweet effusion from the heart of this poor boy affected us. It suffers by trans-
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Death of a Midshipman.
lation. The "occupant of the garden" and the " chief tenant " refer to the father ; the " tenant resident" to the mother. We never allow our children to be out of our sight without knowing where they are. How often he has heard my voice calling him, as he used to go sometimes to Hoohano's room and sing with him. " Pioneer" re- fers to a custom among the chiefs, as they move from place to place, of sending on messengers to build houses and make preparations for their arrival.
A young midshipman from the United States ship-of- war John Adams was left in our family sick with con- sumption. He was fully aware of his condition, and earnest in his preparation for death. Gerrit spent hours each day in reading to him, and they formed a warm friendship for each other. We used to pray with him daily; and little thought the Lord was preparing us in attendance on this young stranger to perform the same tender office for our own dear boy.
Mr. M- died the next day after Gerrit's funeral, and was buried by his side in the mission cemetery.
" Not lost, but gone before."
XXIII.
Second Visit to Wailuku-Lahaina Luna-Hara Traveling-Over the Isthmus-Welcome-Changes at Wailuku-Female Boarding-schools-Sickness among the Pupils-East Maui, the Wheat Region.
·
S OON after the death of our dear boy, Dr. Judd was called to visit Wailuku, and investigate the cause of a new disease among the pupils of the Female Boarding-school established there under the care of Rev. J. S. Green and Miss Ogden. Little persuasion was necessary to induce me to accompany him. A night and a day of discomfort on board a native craft brought us to Lahaina, where we spent a few days with Mr. and Mrs. Richards. We were detained some weeks in Laha- inaluna in attendance on the sick, and had an opportu- nity of becoming acquainted with the arrangements of the High School established by Rev. L. Andrews. We were delighted with the institution, the fine views its locality commands, everything but the red dust, which sweeps down the hills in clouds that sometimes threaten the neighborhood with the fate of premature burial. With the aid of the slightest breeze, this red powder is in circulation, and leaves its trace on everything in-doors and out.
From Lahainaluna we went to Wailuku, which town we had visited thirteen years before. A new road had been made around the foot of the mountain, the crook- edest, rockiest, ever traveled by mortals. Our party
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8g
A Trip to Wailuku.
consisted of five adults and five children. We had but two horses. One of these was in a decline on starting; it gave out in a few miles, and was left to die by the road-side. The other, " Old Lion," deserves to be im- mortalized for the services he performed that day, in carrying three and four children at a time on his broad back up and down that unsheltered, zigzag mountain road. An ox team and fresh horses were expected at the foot of the mountain, but none appeared, and night- fall overtook us at the " Isthmus," with ten miles more to travel. The wind from the other shore swept across it and was cooling us a little too rapidly after the intense heat of the day. To go farther without rest or aid was impossible. The shelter of an old canoe-house and a broken ox-cart was all the immediate neighborhood af- forded. The children were tumbled into the latter, and I lay down on my baggage with a violent toothache, while my husband went in search of aid. Two horses and a man were procured, and we mounted, with the little ones tied on behind, with shawls around our waists, so they should not fall off if they dropped asleep. The man carried one on his back, and we started off to finish our journey in a darkness that might be felt.
The miles were long, and before we reached the village we found the native, who carried the little girl, had taken another road. Dr. Judd went back to find him, and I reached the white picket gate and lighted cottage of our missionary friends first. Lanterns and men were soon mustered to go in search of the stragglers, who were met just outside the gate, all safe.
The warm welcome, the cheerful parlor, and well- spread board of our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Green, soon dispelled the fatigue and disappointments of the wearisome day. Auwae's native village had become a
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Honolulu.
flourishing missionary station. The little cluster of whitewashed adobe dormitories, where the pupils of the seminary lodged, was a pretty relief among the deep green shrubbery of the rich gardens. A large native church edifice was in course of erection, under the ener- getic superintendence of Rev. R. Armstrong. The neighborhood was roused, and busy in carrying forward plans for improving the place and developing the native resources of industry and wealth.
The boarding-school for native girls was the pride of the place. It was a pleasant sight to watch the little girls spreading the table and eating with plates, knives, forks, and spoons, or neatly dressed and at work in the flower garden, where each pupil had a patch to cultivate, or to see them in the work-room, learning to sew, knit, spin, and plait straw, also to crochet tidies and edgings.
The malady prevailing among them, which had created such a panic among the parents and guardians as to en- danger the permanence of the institution, was a low, nervous fever. The doctor called it marasmus. Several had died already, and many were sick. It was undoubt- edly caused by the great change in their habits of living. Unaccustomed to any restraint, irregularly fed, without mental or physical effort required of them, and spending most of their time in the open air, the change was too great, too sudden to be made safely, and without prep- aration. It became necessary to allow more hours of unrestrained freedom and exercise.
Auwae, our hospitable chief, and many of his hardy bird-catchers had passed away, just at the dawn of a bet- ter day among his people.
In company with Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong we visited East Maui, and spent a few days in the beautiful region of country occupying the slope of Haleakala. We trav.
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East Maui.
eled over sand-hills and up the ascent for fifteen miles in an ox-cart, which was well provided with pillows, blankets, and small stores of bread, butter, doughnuts, and baked pork and beans. There were but two white men in all the region at that time. One of them, Mr. Miner, put me on his beautiful white horse, the gayest animal I ever mounted, and we all had a ride to the village on the sea- shore, to attend a meeting with the natives. The air was bracing, and our horses flew over the plain. This fine portion of our islands is now (1860) all purchased by, and under the cultivation of, white men. Thousands of acres are covered with wheat-fields, waving their golden plumes, and there are also here several of the best sugar plantations on the islands. Fields of wild strawberries lie around the sides of the mountain. The summit of this old giant crater is occasionally covered with snow, and the view from it is extremely grand. It is becoming a favorite summer resort for pleasure-seekers and invalids.
XXIV.
The King and Premier-Return to Lahaina-Intem- perance-Beginning of Reform-Return to Hono- lulu-Trouble on Board the Schooner-The Royal School-Changes in the Mission-Punahou School- Departure of Mr. and Mrs. Bingham.
1839-1841.
A S to the business transactions of the nation, King Kamehameha III. was at this time almost a myth ; when he was most wanted he was not to be found. The new Premier, Kekauluohi, was amiable and well dis- posed, but what could a weak woman do, destitute as she was of the statesmanlike qualities of her predecessors in office ?
Both of these important functionaries resided at La- haina instead of Honolulu, the metrópolis, and his Majesty was wasting a mint of money in the erection of a palace, which was intended to be immensely grand, but which was never to be finished. It was demolished some years afterward.
On our return to Lahaina Mr. Richards and Dr. Judd called to pay their respects to his Majesty, but he was indulging in one of his periodical revels, which lasted sometimes for weeks. His temper and disposition, when sober, were mild and generous, but strong drink made him a madman. The night before our arrival he had, in his frenzied fury, severely injured his friend and favorite, John Young. When sufficiently sobered to comprehend
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The Royal School.
what he had done, he dashed away his bottles in distress and mortification.
Another interview was sought, when the king received his friends with kindness, and expressed deep regret at the course he had been pursuing, and at the disgrace brought upon himself and by his excesses. He pleaded, by way of apology, his embarrassments with foreign powers. The French had crippled him, and the English Consul boasted of a list of grievances long enough to reach around the palace. The debts were enormous, with little prospect of liquidation. The ship of State was about stranding on a lee shore. What could be done to save it ?
He said if Mr. Richards and Dr. Judd would earnestly engage to aid him, he would pledge his honor to reform his personal habits, and curtail his expenditures, so as to pay some of the most pressing debts immediately. He would in future conduct himself in all respects worthy of his position and responsibility, as the head of his people. As these pledges were voluntary on his part, they inspired new hope, and we returned to Honolulu a little encour- aged.
The passage down was made in a native schooner; as a specimen of Hawaiian skill in navigation there was a violent altercation most of the night between the captain and the cabin-boy, whether the point of land, visible through the haze and rain, was the island of Molokai, or Barber's Point, on Oahu. Daylight proved the boy to be in the right ; we were just off the harbor of Honolulu.
A little oasis in all this desert of discouragement, was the school established for educating the young chiefs. The future welfare and perpetuity of the Government seemed to center in the success of this effort. A good. deal of Dr. Judd's time was occupied with the chiefs and
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Honolulu.
Governor Kekuanaoa in preliminary arrangements for a permanent institution. A document with the signatures of the principal chiefs, and dated " Lahaina, June 1, 1839," now lies before me, petitioning Dr. Judd to accept the trusteeship of the school, and to become the guardian of the royal pupils.
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