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QU9F, N PUMA.             Frontispnece.




THE
SANDWICH ISLANDS
AND
THEIR PEOPLE.
BY M. A. DONNE,
AUTHOR OF " DFNMARK AND ITS PEOPLE " &C.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION,
APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
LONDON:
SOCIETY FOI PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES:
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AND PARLIAMENT STREET
IT




-              CsOwT  S
CONTENTS;
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE DISCOVERY OF THE SANDWICH SLANDS..     7
CHAPTER II.
WHERE ARE THE SANDWICH ISLANDS? AND WHAT ARE
THEY LIKE?...........                    21,-1^      ~      CHAPTER III.
THE CLIMATE, ANIMALS, AND PLANTS OF THE SANDWICH
ISLDS.............          50
CHAPTER IV.
THE PEOPLE OF THE SANDWICH ISLAS..         67
CHAPTER V.
THE OYAL FAILY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS... 107
CHAPTER VI.
THE CHURCH IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS..      164




iv                   CONTENS.
APPENDICES.
No. 1.
PAGE
LIST OF IMOISINARIES OF THE HAWAIIAN CHURCH 1115 -SlowN.. 187
No. IL
TABLE OF HEAWAMIN KINGS                        * 188




THE SANDWICH ISLANDS AND
THEIR PEOPLE.
INTRODUCTION.
THE visit of Queen Emma, of the Sandwich
Islands, to this country, has naturally raised a
wish in many minds to know something about
her native land and its people; and it is hoped
this short and plain account of the natural
features of the Sandwich Islands, and of the past
history and present condition of their native
inhabitants, may not prove wholly unacceptable
to the public. It has been chiefly compiledwith permission-from the writings of Manley
Hopkins, Esq. (" Hawaii, the Past, Present, and
Future of its Island Kingdom "),-from the " Occasional Papers of the Hawaiian Church Mission"
(published by Rivington), —and from the publications of the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel (" Missions to the Heathen," No. 45, and
"The Mission Field," Vols. VIII. and IX.);while, for early events, " Captain Cook's Voyages,"




6               INTRODUCTION.
and Ellis's " Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii,"
have also been consulted.
If any one who takes up this little book has
time and inclination to go more deeply into the
subject of which it treats, he is strongly recommended to procure the works mentioned above,
which contain very much interesting matter, that
want of space has compelled us to omit all notice
of in the present volume.




7


CHAPTER I.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
ABOUT ninety years ago, that is to say, in the
year 1776, Captain Cook was sent out by our
government upon a voyage of discovery. He
had already made himself famous by two former
voyages; this was his third. His instructions
were, to sail by the Cape of Good Hope to New
Zealand; then to cross the Pacific Ocean lengthways, from south to north; and finally, to return
home, if possible, by way of Behring's Straits
and the Arctic Ocean. In short, the grand object
of his voyage was the discovery of the longsought North-west Passage; but, as a set-off
against the dangers and hardships that were to
be expected in the icy regions, a little delay and
a little exploring were to be allowed in more
pleasant latitudes.
The southern half of the Pacific Ocean-the
South Sea as it was generally called-was by this
time pretty well known to seamen; Cook himself
had crossed it several times, and had visited Australia, New Zealand, the New Hebrides, and most




8


THE STANDWICH ISLANDS


of its other principal groups of islands; but the
North Pacific Ocean had, somehow or other, been
neglected by explorers, so that when Captain
Cook entered it, in his third voyage, he found
himself in comparatively strange waters. On the
18th of January, 1778, six weeks after he had
left his last touching-place in the South Pacific,
he came in sight of land, and by the next morning,
three islands were distinctly visible. Cook said they
should be called the Sandwich Islands, in honour
of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, and this
name still clings to them, as you may see by the
title of this book, although they are almost as
well known now by their native name, HawaiiNei. As both these names (the Sandwich Islands
and Hawaii-Nei) will be used in this volume, do
not forget that they have the same meaning,
nor that the people who live in them are called
either Sandwich Islanders or Hawaiians.
As Captain Cook's two ships, the Resolution
and the Discovery, drew near the shore of one of
the islands they had sighted, a number of canoes
put out to them, but the men who were in them
merely paddled round the vessels, showing great
signs, of surprise, and not one of them could be
induced to come on board. Next day, however,
they grew bolder, and some of them were taken
into the ships, when it became evident, from the
astonishment they expressed, that they had never




AND TMHEIR PEOPLE.


9


seen any white men before, and that Captain
Cook and his people were, as far as England
is concerned, the discoverers of the Sandwich
Islands.*
After the ships had been safely anchored,
Captain Cook went on shore, where he was received
with marks of the greatest respect and kindness.
The moment he stepped out of his boat, the crowd
of natives collected on the beach fell flat upon
their faces, and they remained in that humble
position till he entreated them to rise. When he
expressed his wish to trade, they entered readily
into his views, and brought a plentiful supply of
vegetables, and the only domestic animals they
had-namely, hogs, dogs, and fowls-which they
willingly exchanged for nails and chisels. And
when the ships' water-casks were sent on shore to
be refilled, instead of offering any hindrance, as
other islanders had done, they joined the sailors
at their work, and helped to roll the casks to and
from the stream. In short, the Englishmen were
charmed with their reception, and the only thing
* The Sandwich Islands were known to the Spaniards for
more than a century before Captain Cook's voyage, and the
Hawaiians have several traditions of earlier visits that. were
paid them by white men; but, as far as can be ascertained,
Cook's ships were the first English vessels that ever anchored
in their harbours. The existence of the islands does not seem
to have been known, or believed in, in England until after the
return of the two ships.


J/




10


TEE SANDWICH ISLANDS


they had to complain of was, a disposition to
petty thieving, which seemed common amongthe
natives; in all other respects their conduct was
so friendly, that it made a very pleasing impression upon the voyagers.
The Hawaiians appeared to be a cheerful, lively
people, well made, and of moderate height. They
could hardly be called savages in the worst sense
of the word, for Captain Cook gives especial praise
to the men, for their kindness and attention to
their wives. They had learnt how to cultivate the
ground, and were able to supply the ships with
an abundance of fruit and vegetables of excellent
quality. They had evidently heard of iron and
its uses, although they had little or none of it
in their possession; but they were eager to obtain
it, and willingly bartered anything they had,
at first for nails and chisels, and afterwards for
knives, hatchets, and daggers. They were very
neat in everything they did; their gardens and
fields were all in good order; their canoes well
made; and "the elegant form and polish of some
of their fishing-hooks could not be exceeded by
any European artist." A good many of their
manners and customs resembled those of the
Friendly and Society islanders, and their discoverers were particularly struck with the fact,
that their language was almost the same as that
spoken in New Zealand, and in all the islands




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


11


they had touched at on the eastern side of the
South Pacific,-although they were more than two 
thousand miles distant from the nearest of them,
and above four thousand from New Zealand.
The stay of the ships, on this their first visit to
the Hawaiian islands, was very short, for a little
more than a week after they first hove to, they
were driven from their anchorage by stress of
weather, and as the great object of their voyage
had still to be attempted, Captain Cook did not
think it prudent to return to port; he merely
touched at one of the other islands he had seen,
in order to land some goats, pigs, and seeds, that
he wished to leave for the benefit of the natives,
and then went on his way towards the coast of
America. The honour of discovering the Northwest Passage did not fall to his lot, and so, after
having spent the summer in vain efforts to find it,
and having his further progress stopped by a solid
wall of ice, he found himself at liberty, in the
autumn, to return to the Sandwich Islands, to complete his survey of them, and, as his journal expresses it, " to enrich our voyage with a discovery,
which, though the last, seemed in many respects
to be the most important that had hitherto been
made by Europeans, throughout the extent of the
Pacific Ocean."
During this second visit, two more islands, the
largest of the group, named Maui and Hawaii,




12


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


were discovered and visited. Captain Cook spent
no less than seven weeks in sailing round and
examining the coast of Hawaii, the larger of the
two, and then brought his ships into a bay that
was called by the natives Kealakeakua. It appeared
to be extremely populous; at one time a thousand
canoes (one account says three thousand) were
counted from the deck of the ships; and when
they turned into the harbour, besides the multitude of canoes that were hovering about, "all
the shore of the bay was covered with spectators,
and many hundreds were swimming round the
ships like shoals of fish. The sailors in the whole
course of their voyages had never' seen so numerous a body of people assembled in      one
place." *
When the captain landed, he was received with
the same, or even greater honours, than those paid
him in Kauai, the island he had anchored at the
year before. The people greeted him as Orono,
or Lono, which seemed to be one of the highest
titles among them; they brought bundles of
cloth, quantities of vegetables, and a great number
of hogs, which they presented as freewill offerings,
refusing any payment for them; and they set
apart one of their temples for the sole use of the
captain and his crews when on shore. Indeed,
* "Narrative of the Voyages round the World performed
by Captain James Cook," by A. Kippis, D.D.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


13


their whole conduct was so full of respect and
liberality as to astonish the Englishmen, who had
never met with anything at all equal to it in any
of the other islands they had visited.
Thus far, we have followed the English account
of Captain Cook's discovery of the Sandwich
Islands; but there are two sides to every story,
and it is not a little curious and instructive to
compare our countrymen's records with the native
version of the same events.   The Hawaiians
say:
"Once upon a time, there lived in our islands
a king, named Lono. In a mad fit of jealousy, he
murdered his wife; but when he came to himself,
his sorrow for the deed was so great that he could
not rest.  He wandered through the islands,
boxing and wrestling with every one he met, and
at last he launched a canoe, made in the shape
of a triangle, and sailed away for Tahiti, a foreign
land. But, before he went, he said: 'I will return
in future times, on an island bearing cocoa-nut
trees, swine, and dogs.' And after he went away,
we worshipped him as a god, built a temple in
his honour, and prayed for his rturn.
" Now, when we saw the twe ships come near
our land, we said: 'These are Lono's islands!
And see, there are the trees upon them'" (the
masts!) " And when the great guns were fired, we
said: 'It is thunder and lightning from Lono!'




14


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


So we sent messengers to greet him, and when
they returned, we could no longer doubt, for they
had seen his followers; and, lo they were wonderful men. Their heads, our messengers told us,
were horned, like the moon." (The sailors of
those days wore cocked hats.) " They had fires
burning at their mouths." (No doubt cigars.)
"They ate the raw flesh of men." (Probably
water-melon.) " They took anything they wanted
out of their bodies." (Such was the first impression of pockets on the native mind.) "And
what was more laughable than all, they spoke
a gibberish, of which we could not understand
one Word."
So then, the honours paid to Captain Cook
were not given to him because he was a white
man, or a learned man, or a stranger, but because
the natives mistook him for a god! The name,
that he accepted as an honourable title, was the
name of a heathen idol! The falling down before
him, the presents, and the use of the temple, were
all honours intended for Lono! Even the crowds
of people who assembled from all parts of the
island came, not so much out of curiosity to see
the strangers, as from a desire to offer their
worship to their favourite god!
It is uncertain how much Captain Cook understood of all this. He must have been ignorant
of a great part of it, otherwise what could he




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


15


have done as a Christian man, but follow  the
example of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra? You
remember,-do you not?-that when they were
brought into similar circumstances there, "they
rent their clothes, and ran in among the people,
crying out and saying, Sirs, why do ye these
things?" (Acts xiv. 14.)
But to return to our narrative. The ships remained some weeks in the bay, and although the
Hawaiians had been delighted at first, with what
they believed to be the reappearance of Lono,
it was not long before they began to tire of the
homage which the priests insisted upon their
continuing to pay the foreigners-such as falling
on their faces whenever Captain Cook or his
officers appeared. Moreover, they found that the
Englishmen consumed such an immense quantity
of provisions, that it was evident, if the drain
upon their resources continued much longer, there
would be a famine in the island. It was, therefore, a great relief to them to hear, about the end
of January, that the vessels were nearly ready to
sail. When this joyful news was spread abroad,
their goodwill returned, and with genuine hospitality and kindly feeling, they collected, and
took on board, a farewell present of food, cloth,
and other articles, exceeding, in quantity and
value, anything which they had offered before.
Captain Cook gave them nothing in return,




16


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


except a display of fireworks, by which they
were more astonished and alarmed than pleased.
On the 4th of February, 1789, the ships sailed
out of Kealakeakua Bay, and it would have been
well for all parties if their leave-taking on that
day had been final; but unfortunately, the two
vessels were caught in a storm, which did so
much damage to the smaller of the two, that
Captain Cook thought it necessary to put back
to Hawaii, for the purpose of executing some
repairs.
The well-known tragedy, of the great seaman's
death, took place only a few days after his return.
It seems, that he anchored his ships in the same
bay as before, and was allowed to take possession
of the same temple; but the natives contrived to
show him from the first, that they were not the
best pleased at seeing him again, and they soon
became very troublesome by their pilfering. On
the night of the 13th of February, one of the
ship's boats was stolen. This was too serious a
loss to be put up with quietly, and, unfortunately,
Captain Cook determined to take stern measures
to find out the offender. Early the next morning,
he sent several parties of his men out in the other
boats, to prevent any canoes from leaving the
bay, and he went on shore himself, with the
intention of seizing the king, and carrying him
on board the Resolution, that he might be kept




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


17


as a sort of hostage till the missing boat should
be recovered. All this was to be done without
bloodshed if possible, but in case any resistance
should be met with, the men in the boats, and
also Captain Cook's party, were well armed.
The king, Kalaniopuu, who was an old man,
received Captain Cook in a friendly manner, and
accepted the invitation to go on board the Resolution. He and the captain then walked quietly
down to the shore together, but "the people seeing this, and having their suspicions already
roused, thronged round, and objected to the king's
going farther. His wife, too, entreated that,
would not go on board the ships. Kalanio    d
hesitated; and whilst he was standing in douf
a man came running from the other side of the
bay, crying, 'It is war!  The foreigners have
fired at a canoe from one of their boats, and killed
a chief.' On hearing this, the people became
enraged, and the chiefs were alarmed, fearing that
Cook would put the king to death. Again his
wife, Kanona, used her entreaties that he would
not go on board, and the chiefs joined with her,
the people in the meantime arming themselves
with stones, clubs, and spears. The king sat
down; and Captain Cook, who seemed agitated,
began  walking   towards  his  boat.  Whilst
doing so, a native attacked him with a spear.
Cook turned, anid with his double-barrelled gun
ir                         c




18


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


shot the man who struck him.     Some of the
people then threw stones at the Englishman,
which, being seen by his men in the boats, they
fired on the natives. Cook endeavoured to stop
the firing, but, on account of the noise, he was
unable to do so. He then turned to speak to the
people on shore, when some one stabbed him in
the back with a pahoa, or dagger, and, at the
same time, a spear was driven through his body.
He fell into the water and spoke no more."*
From this account, it will be seen that the
natives were moved more by fear, than by anger
or natural barbarity, in what they did, and that
neither party was free from blame in its conduct
towards the other.
After their captain's death, the seamen in the
boat continued to fire upon the natives, many of
whom were cut down, and guns were discharged
from the ship, by which more of the people were
killed. The king then fled inland, with his chiefs
and people, taking with them the bodies of Cook
and four of his companions, who had been slain.
It may seem extraordinary, yet it is a fact, that
even the death of the Englishman did not disabuse
the native mind of the idea that their chief visitor
was the god Lono.    They offered his body in
sacrifice, burnt his flesh by way of doing him
* "Hawaii: The Past, Present, and Future of its Island
Kingdom," by Manley Hopkins, Hawaiian Consul-General, &c,




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


19


honour, and put aside his bones as objects of
worship. A few days afterwards, at the earnest
entreaty of the ships' officers, some of the bones
were brought back; but the priests, unwilling to
part with the whole of their' precious relics, hid
the rest; and it is believed they were worshipped
in the islands for many years. After Christianity
was introduced, efforts were made to find them,
but in vain; they had been passed from hand to
hand, and were finally either buried or lost.
The spot where Captain Cook fell, is said to be
"the extremity of a little plain, formed by barren,
rough, lava rocks, running into the sea some two
hundred yards from the precipitous cliffs which
form the coast all around. A few cocoa-nut trees
are all the vegetation growing on it. A little
behind, is the stump of one hit by a cannon-ball,
which was fired from the ship during the contest.
The crews of several men-of-war which have of
late years visited the spot, have each in turns
fixed a copper plate with an inscription, such as,
'This plate was fixed by the crew of H.M. ship
Imogene in honour of Captain Cook, who perished
here in 1779,' or something of the sort. A very
unworthy memorial, but the only one on the spot,
of so great a man.' "*
* Bishop of Honolulu's Journal, published in an "Occasional Paper of the Hawaiian Church Mission."-Rivingtons,
1865.




20


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


Of late years, a little colony of English planters,
numbering, with their families, about sixty persons,
has settled in the neighbourhood of Cook's Bay
(Kealakeakua).  At present (1866) they have
neither church nor clergyman among them; but
a few months ago, when they were visited by the
Bishop of Honolulu, one of them offered, for the
site of a church, an acre and a half of land, beautifully situated on the top of a hill, visible for many
miles at sea. If such a church could be built, and
provided with a clergyman, would it not be the
most suitable form that a memorial to Captain
Cook could take?
Captain Cook's two exploring vessels returned
to England the year after they lost their commander; and the account which the crews gave of
their captain's death, produced such an unfavourable impression, that no ships visited the Sandwich
Islands for several years. Their people were set
down as being "a nation of savage barbarians,
cruel and revengeful exceedingly." I shall endeavour to show you in the following pages that
this was not altogether a true account of their.
character, or that, at any rate, if it may have been
partly true once, it is certainly not so now. Let us,
however, first of all, spend a few minutes over the
position, climate, productions, and natural features
of their country, which must, of course, have more
or less effect upon the character of its inhabitants.




AD THEIR PEOPLE.


21


CHAPTER II.
WHERE ARE THE SAUNDWICH ISLANDS? AND WHAT
ARE THEY TKE?
THE last chapter gave you an account of the discovery of the Sandwich Islands; in this, you will
find an attempt to answer two plaih questionsWhere are the Sandwich Islands? and, What are
they like? But first, I must warn you, good
Reader, that, as in most instances, help is of very
little use to those who won't try to help themselves, so, in this particular case, you must not
expect that any description will give you a really
good idea of the position of the Sandwich Islands,
unless you take the trouble of helping yourself; by looking for the Islands in a map of the
world. You will find them almost in the centre
of the North Pacific Ocean, but rather nearer to
the coast of North America than to that of Asia.
They are a great way off from England, you
observe, on the opposite side of the world, in fact;
yet, in these days of quick travelling, it does not
take so long to reach them as you would probably
imagine; eight weeks are enough for the journey




22


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


-from England to the Isthmus of Panama, in
America; from Panama to San Francisco, in California; and from San Francisco to Honolulu, the
capital of the Sandwich Islands.
Now, if your map is at hand, please to look at it
again, and notice that the South Pacific Ocean is
dotted over with innumerable groups of islands,the Friendly, the Society, the Marquesas, and
many others,-but that the eastern, or right hand
side, half of the North Pacific contains no group
except the Sandwich Islands, which lie quite
alone, hundreds of miles to the north of the other
groups we have mentioned. In fact, if we except
the inhabitants of a few very small and. insignificant islands, the Hawaiians have no nearer neighbours than the Marquesas islanders,-who are
rather more than two thousand miles from them,and the Americans in California,-who are about
the same distance off, on another side. Not very
close neighbours these, are they? But perhaps
you had better not jump too hastily to the conclusion, that, " Of course the Sandwich Islands are
most out-of-the-way places." You have not shut up
your map yet, have you? If not, pray look at it
once more, and you will be able to see for yourself
that the Sandwich Islands hold the same sort of
position as the half-way house at the corner of
the "four want ways," or the railway station at
the junction. In other words, they are a half-way




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


23


station and convenient touching-place for vessels
crossing the Pacific Ocean from east to west,-as,
for instance, from California to China; and also
for those passing from south to north, as from
Australia to British Columbia. A place which is
thus situated, at the crossing of two of the world's
highways, has great advantages for commerce, and
cannot be considered in every sense of the words
"an out-of-the-way place."  In the year 1864,
one hundred and fifty-five merchant vessels, one
hundred and ten whalers, and six ships of war,
entered the port of Honolulu, the capital of
the Sandwich Islands, giving an average of five
sea-going vessels coming in, and five going out of
the port every week.
And now, having, as I hope, sufficiently answered our first question-Where are the Sandwich Islands? we come to the second and more
difficult one-What are they like?
You have read some general description of the
Pacific Islands, have you not? You know that
some of them are Lagoon Islands, that is, narrow
belts of low lying land, surrounding a lagoon, or
lake, which fills up their centre. The Sandwich
Islands do not belong to this class.
Again, there are Chain Islands, where those
wonderful little workers, the coral insects, have
raised a ridge-perhaps several hundred miles
long-to within a few feet of the surface of the




24


THE StANDWICH ISLANDS


ocean; while the sea itself has thrown up its
beach and refuse on one point and another of the
ridge, till each in turn has risen above the level
of the water, and become a link in the island
chain. This.is not the class to which the Sandwich Islands belong.
Lastly, there are islands which seem to have been
thrown up from the depths of the sea by the mighty
power of fiery volcanoes and earthquakes.  These
islands are not low, like the others, but full of rocks,
and hills, and mountains, divided by beautiful valleys and fertile plains. The coral insect has not
been idle in their neighbourhood, for there are coral
reefs round parts of the coast, and in some places
double reefs are found, but not nearly so many as
in the neighbourhood of the Lagoon and Chain
islands; there the coral insect, and here the
volcano, has been the chief worker.  The Sandwich Islands are the finest examples in the Pacific
of this volcanic class.
But let us come to particulars.  The Sandwich group, or Hawaii-Nei, consists of eight
inhabited islands, besides three or four barren
rocks. The islands do not lie in a circle, as many
of the other Pacific groups do, but in a slanting
line, beginning at the south-east, or bottom righthand corner of the map, and ending in the northwest, or top left-hand corner. Four of the inhabited islands are comparatively large, and four




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


25


are small. Hawaii, the largest of all,-where Captain Cook lost his life,-is at the south-eastern end
of the group; above it comes Maui; then, of the
larger islands, Oahu,-which contains the capital,
Honolulu;-and last of all, at the upper end, Kauai.
The smaller islands are named Kahoolaui,
Lanai, Molokai, and Niihau. The three first lie
between Maui and Oahu, and the last beyond
Kauai.
As to the size of these islands, you will probably understand it better if we compare them
with some part of our own country.  The whole
group is one-tenth of the size of England; it
contains, almost exactly, the same quantity of
land as the county of Yorkshire. But of the
different islands, Hawaii is twice as large as all
the rest put together; it is equal in size to that
corner of England which consists of the three
counties, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.  Maui, the
next island, is also the next in size; it is equal to
Hertfordshire. Oahu is a little larger than Bedfordshire, and Kauai than Huntingdonshire.
As to the general look of the islands, one account
of them says: "On approaching the group from
certain directions, the first objects which meet the
sight are the two lofty peaks on Hawaii, each fourteen thousand feet in height,-two miles and a half,
-one of them capped with perpetual snow, which
contrasts with the deep blue of the tropical' sky




26


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


above, and with the darkness of the lava forming
the sides of the mountains. A rude and irregular
outline of high lands then presents itself; and on
the north side are seen, on a nearer view, the
dark forests which clothe the lower region of the
mountains; whilst giddy precipices front the sea,
of from one to three thousand feet in perpendicular
height, against whose walls the waves beat, and
surge, and thunder through the caverns which
they have hollowed for themselves in their ceaseless war. In some places streams, which have
united their waters on their way, rush together
over one of these palis, or precipices, into the
ocean. Still nearer, the white foam is seen pouring in sheets over coral reefs, of which there is
sometimes an outer and an inner ridge.      The
islands are generally lofty; the upland region of
Kauai has an uniform height above the sea of
four thousand feet.
"Once through the reefs, or anchored in a leeward roadstead, scenes of gentler beauty- are discovered, pleasant bays, with sandy shores, a native
village, often with its small chapel, and generally
with its school, sheltered by groves of palms and
cocoa-nut, and the deeper green of the bread-fruit
tree." *
The port at which the stranger is most likely to
arrive, is Honolulu, the capital of the Sandwich
* "Hawaii," by Manley Hopkins, Esq.




AND THEI PEOPLE.


27


Islands.  It is on the south side of the island of
Oahu. Few cities have a more noble situation.
On approaching it from the sea, the first land
that comes in sight is a chain of lofty hills. Between their feet and the shore is a plain, about
ten miles long, and in some parts two miles wide.
On this plain Honolulu is built, with the hills
for its background and the sea in front. It is at
the head of a bay, which forms an excellent harbour, and is protected from the rough water outside by a natural breakwater, a broad coral reef.
There is a channel through this reef, which is
deep enough to allow ships of a moderate size
(drawing not more than twenty feet of water) to
pass through; but very large vessels are obliged
to anchor in the roadstead outside. Those that
do pass in, find themselves in a spacious harbour,
large enough to accommodate a whole fleet;
indeed, the Hawaiians speak with pride of having
seen a hundred and fifty vessels in their harbour
at one time. Of course this is an unusual number,
but there are always a good many there; we have
mentioned before, that, in the year 1864, two
hundred and seventy-one vessels of different kinds
anchored in the harbour or roadstead of Honolulu.
The population of the city is about twelve
thousand, so that it is neither a small nor an insignificant place. It has an excellent police force,
and a well-managed fire brigade; schools for the




'28


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


young, a hospital for the sick, a theatre and
circus for those who want amusement. Three or
four newspapers are published every week, and
two  others monthly.    There are two stone
churches belonging to the American congregationalists, a handsome Eoman Catholic cathedral,
and a temporary church 'in connection with the
English mission. The central portion of the
town consists of regularly laid out streets, many
of the houses standing within gardens. The
Royal Palace is surrounded by pleasure grounds
of about an acre, and is approached through an
avenue, formed by the deep green leaved kukui
and koa trees.
"A distinguishing feature of Honolulu is," says
one account of it, " that this large town is built
without any chimneys," except, of course, those
used for cooking purposes. It is "a cheerful city,
under its brilliant, unclouded sky; the blue sea
spreading at its feet, with a silvery line of breakers
on the distant reef. The masts of shipping in the
port rise into view above the spreading roofs of
the houses and stores; the flags on the fort and
at the consulate flutter in the fanning breeze;
and the sound of hammers-welcome indication
and type of industry-comes from the ship-yards
of the harbour. People of all nations are meeting
in the wide streets; English, American, French,
German, Chinese, South Polynesians, are repre



AN) THEI PEOPLE.


29


sented here; busy with commerce, with politics,
with dinner at the very excellent hotels, or, in
that rest-inviting climate, busy doing nothing."*
The ninety years that have passed since Captain
Cook's last voyage have seen great changes among
us, but how much greater in distant Honolulu!
The neighbourhood of the city contains several
natural curiosities. On the right hand side of the
harbour, as you enter it, there are two peaks of a
peculiar shape (called Diamond Head and Punchbowl Hill), which have evidently been volcanoes.
No eruption is known to have taken place from
them in modern times, but in any part of the plain
of Honolulu you have only to dig two, or at most
three, feet into the ground, before coming to a bed
of volcanic ashes and cinders, which is at least
fourteen feet thick. Below the ashes is a bed of
limestone rock, and wells sunk twelve or thirteen
feet into it produce an abundant supply of water,
which is quite fresh and pure, although it always
rises and falls with the tide. It is believed that
it really comes from the sea, but that it filters
itself, and loses its saltness, by passing through
the cells of the limestone rock. Some of these
curious wells are not more than a hundred yards
from the shore.
Again, about four miles from Honolulu, and one
from the sea, there is a remarkable salt lake, or as
* "Hawaii," by M. Hopkins, Esq.




30


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


we may call it, a natural salt-pan. It is about a
mile round, and generally not more than eighteen
inches deep, but in the centre there is a hole to
which no bottom has been found. It is supposed
that this hole communicates with the sea, and that
the lake is filled with sea-water through it. Of
course, when the hot sun shines upon this shallow
pool, it dries up a good deal of the water; but the
salt is left behind, and forms a crust upon the
surface, which becomes so thick that, at certain
seasons, it will even bear a man's weight upon it.
Five or six hundred barrels of excellent salt are
taken from it every year, so that it is decidedly a
valuable, as well as a curious lake.
But the principal " lion " in the neighbourhood
of Honolulu has yet to be mentioned. It is the
Pali, or Precipice.
Immediately behind the town, the mountains are
divided by a beautiful valley, called the Valley of
Nu-uanu. The way to the Precipice leads through
this valley. The mouth of it is laid out in fields and
gardens, which are carefully cultivated, and well
watered by the river that runs along the bottom.
About three miles from the town, the valley gradually becomes narrower, and the hills on each side
steeper. As you go on, the beauty of the scenery
increases with every step. Now, the little river
flows gently on, and winds in graceful curves from
side to side; now, it foams and dashes, and tumbles






THE PAUl-SANDWICH LSLANDS.          Pclge 30.




11
I 
II
11~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


31


among the rocks; here, the sides of the hills are
clothed with grass-nd shrubs; there, bare rocks
jut out, or rocks that would have been bare, if they
had not been seized upon by a multitude of hanging
plants and creepers; in several places little streams
leap down the mountain side, sparkling as they
fall, till their bright waters are mingled with those
of the glancing river below. Towards the upper
end of the valley, the path leads through a wood,
but at length, after an eight miles' ride or walk,
you come out into an open space, turn round a pile
of rocks, and find yourself standing upon the edge
of the Precipice. Dark-coloured rocky hills still rise
on-either side of you, but in front the ground sinks
down to the depth of five hundred feet, and you
look over many miles of fertile, wooded country,
spread out, like a map, before you, and bounded in
the distance by the blue waves of the Pacific.
On the right, a steep path winds down the rocky
precipice, and the natives manage to clamber up
and down it, sometimes bearing heavy weights,
but not without difficulty. A traveller once met
a party of native women bringing a fat hog to
market; it had to be carried up this precipice, and
very funny it was to see the struggles of the animal, and the exertions of the five or six women
who were trying to carry it. After a long struggle,
they succeeded in landing it on the top in safety.
In old days, two idols used to stand, one on




32


THE SANIDWICH ISLANDS


either side the head of the pass, and it was the
custom for every native who was going down, to
offer a piece of cloth, or a garland of flowers, or
at least a green bough, to one of them; while
those who had come up safely made a thank-offering of the same kind. Heathen men as they were,
they felt it was right to trust to a higher power
than themselves for help, and to be thankful when
it had been given them.
But it is time we should turn from Oahu, with
its valley and its precipice, to the other islands:
you have not forgotten, I hope, how they lie with
regard to each other; at the bottom of the map,
on the right hand side, Hawaii, the largest island;
next to it Maui; then Oahu, which I have just
been describing; and lastly, at the top of the map,
on the left hand side, Kauai, the smallest of the four
large islands.  This Kauai was the first of the
group that was visited by Captain Cook; it has a
fertile soil, and is well fitted for the cultivation of
sugar. Its principal town and harbour is called
Waimea.
Maui, on the other side of Oahu, is the second
largest island in the group, and contains its second
town and port, Lahaina.
The natives of the Sandwich Islands are said to
be remarkable for their love of the beautiful, and
they have certainly shown their good taste in
choosing the site of their principal towns. La



ND THEIR PEOPLE.


33


haina, like Honolulu, is lacked by a ridge of
mountains running parallel with the shore. In
front of it is the sea, with a fine sandy beach;
above which a road, forming a sort of esplanade,
runs along for about a mile, lined with houses
embowered in trees. The population of the town
is between three and four thousand.
A few years ago it was common, at certain seasons, to see as many as sixty or seventy whaling
ships anchored in the roadstead before Lahaina;
but of late years, whaling in the North Pacific has
turned out an unprofitable trade, and the number
of ships carrying it on has been very much decreased, so that in 1864 only five whalers touched
at Lahaina.   As the Sandwich islanders were
accustomed to make a good profit by supplying
the whaling ships with fresh provisions, they felt
the loss of their visits very much at first; but
their attention has now been turned to the cultivation of sugar, which is likely to bring them
more steady profits, and to be much better for
them in the long run. Some of the best of the
sugar plantations are upon the island of Maui,
near a village named Wailuku, about twenty-five
miles from Lahaina.
The range of mountains that passes behind
Lahaina runs the whole length of the island, and
has peaks that are from six to ten thousand feet
high. The highest of all, named Hale-a-ka-laD




34


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


the House of the Sun-has been a volcano. It is
not active now, but the crater, or mouth, from
which it used to send forth its fiery streams of
lava, still exists, and is believed to be the largest
in the world. Mr. Cheever, who visited it in
1850, says that, "as he and his party advanced to
its edge, there suddenly opened upon them a pit,
twenty-five or thirty miles in circumference, and
two or three thousand feet deep. They counted
in it about sixteen basins of old volcanoes-volcano within volcano." It takes about six hours to
reach the crater from the foot of the mountain,
but the view from its edge is well worth the
trouble of the climb. Indeed there is so much
beautiful scenery in the Sandwich Islands, that if
they were only a little nearer Europe, every
autumn, as it comes round, would certainly find
them crowded with excursionists.
Hawaii, the largest island in the group, and the
one in which Captain Cook lost his life, is even
more mountainous and more volcanic than its
fellows. In size, you will remember, it is nearly
equal to Kent, Sussex, and Surrey; its shape is
three-cornered, or triangular, each side being about
one hundred miles long. Its two grandest mountains, Mouna Kea and Mouna Loa, are each
about fourteen thousand feet, or two miles and
a half, high. They can be seen for one hundred
and seventy miles out at sea.   Their tops are




AND TEIR PEOPLE.


35


always covered with snow, and from a distance
they are said to look "like stately pyramids, or
the silvered domes of a magnificent temple, distinguished from the clouds beneath only by their
well-defined outline, unchanging position, and intense brilliancy, caused by the reflection of the
sun's rays from the surface of the snow."  They
rise gradually from the coast for between twenty
and thirty miles, Mouna Kea on the north-east,
and Mouna Loa on the south-east, side of the
island. The third, or west, side has its mountain
also, and it is by no means an insignificant one,
although it does not rise to the same height as
Mouna Kea or Mouna Loa. The centre of the
island, between the three mountain ranges, is a
wooded valley.
In going from the sea-shore to the top of the
mountains, the traveller passes through five or six
different regions. " The first," says Mr. Goodrich,
an American missionary, who lived some years in
the islands,-" the first occupies five or six miles,
where cultivation is carried on in a degree, and
might be to almost any extent... The next is a
sandy region, that is impassable, except in a few
footpaths.  Brakes, a species of tall fern, here
grow to the size of trees; the bodies of some of
them are eighteen inches in diameter." Next
comes "the woody region, between ten and
twenty miles in width. The region higher up




36


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


produces grass, principally of the bent kind.
Strawberries, raspberries, and whortleberries flourish in this region, and herds of wild cattle are
seen grazing. It is entirely broken up by hills
and valleys, composed of lava, with a very shallow
soil. The upper region is composed of lava in
almost every form, from huge rocks to volcanic
sand." And lastly, the two highest peaks are
always covered with snow.
We have said that Hawaii is more volcanic than
its neighbours. Indeed the whole island is composed of rocks that must, at one time or another,
have been cast out of the mouth of a volcano.
Where these lava rocks have lain for a long time
exposed to the air, they have partly crumbled
away, and in these places they are covered with a
fertile soil; but in other parts of the island, which
have been overflowed with lava more lately, no
soil has formed as yet,-they still remain desolate,
barren plains, covered with nothing but volcanic
ashes, clinkers, and lava. In the other islands
there are, as we have seen, several peaks that
must once have been volcanoes, but in Hawaii, on
one mountain ridge alone, that on the west side,
Mr. Ellis found no less than sixteen old craters,
the mouths of so many volcanoes, that once
poured forth their volumes of smoke and fire;
and besides all these, and many others found in
different parts of the island, which have ceased




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


37


to act, Hawaii possesses one real volcano, that for
its size and awful grandeur deserves to be reckoned
among the wonders of the world.
The crater of this wonderful volcano, Kilauea
it is called, is situated upon the side or shoulder
of Mouna Loa, about twenty miles from the shore,
and six thousand feet above the level of the sea.
For many miles before it is reached, the traveller
hears a roar, like the letting off of innumerable
rockets, at intervals of a few seconds, and sees
clouds of smoke rising, as if from a village in
flames. By night, the glare seen from the brow
of a hill twenty miles from the volcano, is said to
be " like that of a vast forest in flames; while the
vapour, which floats high above the crater, throws
down its reflection of the volcanic fire, and increases the effect by repeating it, as if in a lookingglass."
The.crater of Kilauea is approached by a rough
path, leading through several miles of thick forests,
and over extensive tracts of broken lava, which
have to be crossed with great care, on account of the
deep pits and cracks that rend the ground in many
places, and that are often concealed, in the forest
by creeping plants, and in other parts by being
covered with a thin crust of lava. Some years
ago, a native, who was accompanying an American
traveller, fell into one of these chasms; he was
severely bruised by the fall, and could only be




38


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


rescued from his perilous situation by means of a
rope lowered from the surface.  In 1859, another
young man on his road to the volcano, fell into a
pit in the woods: he was recovered from it, but
his spine was injured, and he died a few days afterwards, in consequence of the hurt he had received.
But, supposing the traveller to have escaped
these dangers, he arrives in course of time at the
crater of Kilauea, the largest active crater in the
world.
We are accustomed to think of a volcano as a
high mountain, with a chimney-like opening at
the top of its rough peak, but the visitor to
Kilauea, when he reaches the table-land, or high
plain, on the shoulder of Mouna Loa, and gains
his first sight of the crater, has no mountain at
all before him, but on the contrary, finds himself
on the top of a precipice, looking down into a
gigantic basin, or pit, nearly a thousand feet deep,
about three miles and a half long, by one broad,
and nine miles round. The cliff, on the top of
which the traveller is standing, is almost perpendicular for a depth of four or five hundred feet;
at that distance from the top, a ledge of black
lava runs all around the enormous basin, and
below it the banks slope more gradually. In
some places, they are formed of immense deposits
of sulphur, in others, of masses of black or pinkcoloured lava, or of huge masses of basaltic rock.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


39


But the bottom of the crater is the most
wonderful sight of all. It is full of lava; in
some parts just cool enough to be walked upon, in
others, thrown up into cones, or hillocks, twenty
feet high or so, and towards the south-west actually
boiling and seething-a lake of liquid fire.  '
The whole pit is full of jets of steam, which
are to be counted by hundreds, rising in high
columns from the ground, and each hillock is
itself a little volcano, from time to time casting
out flames, and stones, and liquid lava.  It is
possible to clamber down the steep cliffs, so as to
get upon the firm ledge of lava, and those who
choose to do so, may even go lower than that, and
walk over some part of the bottom of the pit.
The Bishop of Honolulu, who visited the spot a
few months ago, writes of it: "After climbing
down the steps and cliffy sides into the abyss
below, some hundred feet or more, we walked
three miles over the hot lava, jumping over
difficult crevasses of great depth, not unlike, I
should imagine, to those which occur in the
glaciers of Switzerland. At last we approached
the brink of the Lua or lake, which is almost
circular, full of thick, jelly-like fluid, in a state of
continued ebullition. It shot up incessantly, for
several yards, masses of orange-coloured liquid,
falling back in the most fantastic shapes into the
lake. All round us were pyramids of lava, open




40


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


at the top, out of which issued flame, making a
deafening noise, hissing and roaring, and the
inner sides, where they could be seen, streaming
down with lava in a state of fusion, not unlike
molten steel or iron. Sparks flew out in every
direction... Never could I have realized the.
sight had I not visited it, and never shall I
forget it." *
Some travellers are so venturesome, as to run
the greatest risks in their endeavours to explore
the crater. In 1849, it was visited by a Mr.
Hill.  He and his party went so near the burning
lake as to be able to dip the end of their staves
into a pool of molten matter, "and the green wood
was instantly reduced to ashes." Two high, black
cones, that rose out of the lake of liquid fire, next
attracted their attention, and they determined to
make an effort to reach them. Walking for some
distance along the ledge of firm lava, they arrived
at a sort of natural bridge or causeway, that joined
the ledge to one of the cones, and they immediately turned on to it. The upper part of it was in
places a tlin, brittle crust, separated from one to
five feet from the more solid matter below. One
of the party actually fell through this upper crust,
but even this accident did not prevent them from
continuing their perilous walk. "When half way
across they paused to contemplate the terrible
* " Occasional Paper of the Hawaiian Church 5Mission."




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


41


scene. At a great depth beneath boiled the fiery
pool; above them appeared a huge conduit of unchained fire; and on all sides a region of frightful
desolation.
" The two travellers and their native guide had
not long recommenced climbing when their course
was suddenly arrested.  The infirm  lava-crust
beneath their feet began to shake ominously,
whilst frightful, unearthly sounds from the mouth
of the cone pierced their ears. As soon as they
were released from the first panic, which transfixed them, they commenced the most rapid retreat
in their power, along the causeway; but before they
had advanced many paces towards the lava plain,
the prelude of mighty blasts changed to cracks of
near thunder, and immense masses of hot lava
were thrown to a great height. The travellers'
immediate danger was that of being crushed by
the falling lava, and from this there was no
shelter. At first the blocks, issuing perpendicularly, fell back into the crater; but they then
began to fall beyond the cone, plunging into the
gulf on both sides the causeway, or rolling past
the travellers with a terrible impetuosity. Some
even fell on their frail bridge, broke through,
and were lost beneath it. Through the wild uproar and confusion Mr. Hill and his companions
finally reached the firm ledge in safety." *
* Hopkins's " Hawaii."




42


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


This wonderful crater of Kilauea was supposed
by the heathen Hawaiians to be the dwellingplace of a powerful and destructive goddess, whom
they named Pele. A bush that grows near it,
called the ohelo, which bears bunches of fruit
very much like red currants, was considered
sacred to Pel6, and in old times no one dared
eat of the fruit before he had thrown some of
it into the crater, as an offering to the goddess.
A curious substance, resembling spun glass, that
is sometimes found near the volcano, was also connected with Pel6, and still goes by the name of
Pele's hair.
I have hitherto endeavoured to describe Kilauea
in its usual state, but there are times when it
bursts into a more terrible activity than on the
day of Mr. Hill's visit.  "From about the middle
of 1856, for nearly three years, the volcano continued in a state of more than usual energy.
Rivers of lava rolled downwards, through the
forest and over precipices, destroying the native
kalo grounds, and rendering villages uninhabitable. They found their way through valleys,
even to the shore, until, in deadly struggle with
the waves, their course was stayed-the temperature of the sea being so raised during the
conflict, as to kill great quantities of fish." * The
stream of lava that forced its way into the sea
* Hopkins's " Hawaii."




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


43


towards the close of this eruption, filled up a bay,
and formed a promontory in its stead. Sixty
years before, the same sort of thing had happened,
the bay that was filled up then having been
nearly twenty miles in length, and the headland
that was formed, jutting out between three and
four miles into the sea.
The lava-streams from old eruptions, that are
found in different parts of the island, present endless varieties of form and colour.  Mr. Ellis, the
well-known Missionary, who made a walking tour
round Hawaii in 1823, describes himself as having been obliged in one place, near Kilauea, to
walk over a sea of lava.  "Once," he says, "it
had certainly been in a fluid state, but it appeared
as if it had become suddenly petrified, or turned
into a glassy stone, while its agitated billows were
rolling to and fro. Not only were the large swells
and hollows distinctly marked, but in many places
the surface of the billows was covered by a smaller
ripple, like that observed on the surface of the sea
at the first springing up of a breeze." This lava
was black, but shining and slippery, like glass, so
that, with its sloping ridges, it was extremely
difficult to walk upon.
At another place, not far from   Kealakeakua
(Cook's Bay), Mr. Ellis came upon a spot where a
mighty stream of lava, half a mile wide, had poured
over a precipice of more ancient lava, at least sixty




44


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


or seventy feet high. The flowing lava had taken
the form of a waterfall, and cooling as it flowed,
had been turned into stone. And, just as in most
large waterfalls, that of Niagara for instance, you
can walk behind the fall, in the arched passage
that the water leaves between itself and the rock,
so here, the lava-fall had formed an arched avenue,
fifty or sixty feet high, and from six to twelve
feet wide at the bottom. Mr. Ellis walked through
this avenue for half a mile, having on one side of
him the old lava cliff, rising perpendicular and
smooth, some parts of it a bright scarlet, others
brown and purple in colour; on the other side,
and over head, the arch of new lava, generally
of a dark purple or jet black colour, but glossy,
and glittering when the sun shines upon it, as if
it had been covered with a coat of the finest
varnish.
Near the same place, Mr. Ellis observed the
mouths of numerous caverns or tunnels, through
which the lava seemed to have flowed, so that
they must have had some communication with the
volcano; and when he was in the neighbourhood
of Kilauea he entered the mouths of several
covered channels, or tunnels, there. "They had
been formed," he thinks, "by the cooling of the
lava on the sides and surface of the stream, while
it had continued to flow on underneath. As the
size of the current diminished, it had left a hard




AND THEIE  PEOPLE.


45


crust of lava, of unequal thickness over the top,
supported by walls of the same material on each
side. Their interior was beautiful beyond description. In many places they were ten or twelve
feet high, and as many wide at the bottom. The
roofs formed a regular arch, hung with red and
brown stalactite lava, in every imaginable shape,
while the floor appeared like one continued glassy
stream.  The winding of its current and the
ripple of its surface were so entire, that it seemed
as if, while in rapid motion, the stream of lava
had suddenly stopped, and become indurated, even
before the undulations of the surface had subsided." *
But you will begin to think that Hawaii contains nothing but lava-streams. The island is, as
I have said, entirely formed of lava and other
rocks that must have been cast out of the mouth
of a volcano; but it is not all barren; on the contrary, where the lava has had time to crumble into
mould it forms a very fertile soil. Even in parts
where the coast looks desolate, as along the
western shore, the ground a little way inland is
often rich and cultivated; on the north-east side
particularly, there are many beautiful valleys,
each watered by its own stream, and producing
abundant crops of sugar, cocoa-nuts, bananas, and
many other native fruits.
* Ellis's "Tour through- Hawaii."




46


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


Mr. Ellis speaks in especial praise of the valley
of Waipio.   He arrived there in the evening.
" The next morning," he says, " unveiled to view
the extent and beauty of the romantic valley. Its
entrance from the sea, which was blocked up with
sand-hills, fifty or sixty feet high, appeared to be
a mile, or a mile and a half, wide. The summits
of the hills, which bordered the valleys, seemed six
hundred feet above the level of the sea. They were
nearly perpendicular, yet they were mostly clothed
with grass, and low straggling shrubs were here
and there seen amidst the jutting rocks.     A
number of winding paths led up their steep sides,
and in several parts, limpid streams flowed, in
beautiful cascades, from the top to the bottom,
forming a considerable stream, which, meandering
along the valley, formed a passage through the
sand-hills, and emptied itself into the sea. The
bottom of the valley was one continued garden,
cultivated with taro, bananas, sugar-cane, and
other productions of the islands, all growing
luxuriantly. Several large ponds were also seen
in different directions, well stocked with excellent
fish. A number of small villages, containing from
twenty to fifty houses each, stood along the foot
of the mountains, at unequal distances on each
side, and extended up the valley, till projecting
cliffs obstructed the view." "
* Ellis's "Tour through Hawaii.'




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


47


Not far from Waipio is the principal port of
the island,  ilo, in Byron's Bay, "which, some
say, is so rapidly rising in importance that it will
ultimately take precedence of Honolulu. It has
the advantages of lying on the windward side,
and opposite to America; it has a good harbour
for shipping, and is admirably fitted for the export
of the sugar produced on the coast near in great
abundance."*
I have only one more remark to make before
we leave the scenery of Hawaii, namely, that the
island is liable to be disturbed by earthquakes.
Most volcanic countries are, so that, considering
the activity of the wonderful crater of Kilauea,
we could hardly expect it to be otherwise; indeed,
on the whole, I think the Hawaiians ought to
consider themselves fortunate, as it does not
seem they have ever suffered any great or lasting damage from earthquakes alone. Mr. Ellis
had the opportunity of examining a spot where
one had taken place about two months before.
About ten o'clock in the evening, he was told, the
ground shook violently for some minutes, and
then suddenly burst open in a crack, several
miles in length, and from one to two feet wide,
from which a quantity of smoke and vapour came
out. A stone wall, four feet thick and six feet
high, enclosing a garden, was thrown down, but
* Journal of the Bishop of Honolulu.




48


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


happily no one was injured..The chasm was still
open in most parts when Mr. Ellis visited it,
though in some places it seemed as if the earth
had closed up again. "We entered a house," says
Mr. Ellis, "sixteen feet by twelve in the inside,
through which it had passed.     Ten persons,
namely, one man, six women, and three children,
were asleep here at the time it occurred. They,
were lying on both sides of the house, with their
heads towards the centre; some of them very near
the place where the ground was rent open. The
trembling of the ground, they said, awoke them,
but before they could think what it was that had
disturbed them, the earth opened with a violent
percussion; a quantity of sand and dust was
thrown up with violence, and smoke and steam
were at the same time emitted. After a short
interval, a second percussion was felt, vapour again
arose, and at the opposite end of the house to
that in which they were lying, they saw a light
blue flame, which almost instantly disappeared.
We asked them if they were not alarmed. They
said they were at first, but after remaining awake
some time, and finding the shock was not repeated,
they lay down and slept till morning, when they
filled up the fissure with grass and earth."*
Do you think you could have' lain quietly after
you had been awakened by an earthquake? Was
* Ellis's "Tour through Hawaii."




A\ND THEIR PEOPLE.


49


it idle indifference, or true courage, that enabled
the Hawaiians to do so? Perhaps you may be
able to answer the last question better after you
have read a little more about the Sandwich
islanders.


E




50


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


CHAPTER III.
THE CLIMATE, ANIMALS, AND PLANTS OF THE
SANDWICH ISLANDS.
You have not heard much about the climate of the
Sandwich Islands yet, but perhaps you may have
gathered, from what I have told you grows there,
that it must be very different from the climate of
England. Let us consider the subject a little. Suppose you find Hawaii in your Map of the World once
more, and observe, that it is a good deal nearer
to the line called the Equator-which, you know,
marks the hottest part of the world-than England
is. The whole distance between the hottest part of
the world, at the equator, and the coldest at the
poles, is divided, you know, into ninety degrees.
Your map will show you that the line against which
the number 50 is marked at the side-meaning
fifty degrees of north latitude, fifty degrees from
the equator-passes through the most southern
point of England; while that marked 20-twenty
degrees north latitude, twenty degrees from the
equator-passes through Hawaii; showing us that
the island is thirty degrees nearer to the equator




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


51


than we are. Of course, therefore, it is hotter
than England.
But when we have said thus much, we have not
at all sufficiently expressed the difference between
the two climates: the map can't tell us everything, so let us fall back upon the accounts of
travellers who have visited the islands. They tell
us that, whereas in England we are accustomed
to frost and snow in winter, and think ourselves
well off if we get a few hot days in summer-in
Hawaii-Nei there is no winter at all, it is summer
all the year round. But then, perhaps HawaiiNei is one of those burning countries, like India
where one is always longing to get rid of the sun.
"Oh no!" they answer, "the hottest day of the
warmest month in Hawaii-Nei is not very much
warmer than the hottest summer's day in England,
although the coldest day of the coldest month
there, is as warm as a cloudy summer's day with
you." It is true the Sandwich Islands are in the
same latitude as the north of India, but then the
violence of what might be a burning sun is tempered in them by the sea-air that blows so freely
around them. And here again we come to another difference between their climate and ours.
In England we are often blown about by an east
wind one day and by a west wind the next, but in
lIawaii-Nei the wind blows regularly from one
quarter, the north-east, for nine months of every




52


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


year, so that you can tell exactly where to go for
a blow, and where you may find shelter. Of course,
the north-eastern side of each island is the exposed
one, and is therefore called the windward, while the
south-west coast, the leeward, is generally sheltered.
On the windward side of the islands, and in
the mountains, the weather is often rough, with
showers, but on the sheltered side, one bright,
cloudless day follows another, almost without interruption, the nine months through. There is no
need of looking out for fine weather when you
want to take a journey or a holiday; you are almost sure to have it, if you only keep within the
time that the north-east wind —the trade-wind, as
it is commonly called-is blowing. When that is
over, the rainy or winter season sets in, and lasts
from December to March. During that time
violent winds often sweep over the islands, and
heavy rain falls, sometimes for days together. In
January, 1863, in the island of Maui, it rained
continually for eight days, and the rain was accompanied with furious squalls of wind from the east.
But then, this kind of weather only lasts for three
months out of the twelve. During the rest of the
year, the warm, equal climate is peculiarly suitable
for consumptive patients, who are beginning to be
sent to it from California and other parts of
America, and are as much benefited by it as English patients are by a visit to Madeira.




AND TTEIR PEOPLE.


'53


In a journal sent home from Honolulu by a
clergyman, Mlr. Mason, we find the following
allusions to the climate:
"In the evening of this Sunday, Mrs. Mason,
Miss Roche and myself, walked a little way along
the valley. One could hardly fancy one's self in the
tropics. A beautiful cool breeze fanned us. Luxurious foliage shaded the neatly-trimmed pathway.
Quiet people walking with wives and families, as
in England, made one feel quite at home, were it
not for the stern reality which forced itself upon
the mind, that we were more than ten thousand
miles away from so many one longed to see and
talk with..... We sit out under our verandah
from eight-till nine, listening to the crickets chirping, gazing at the clear brightness of the stars,
and talking of home, friends, and other days."
A few weeks later Mr. Mason writes again:
" The climate of Honolulu has been to us delicious up to last week, when the trade-winds
ceased, and a hot smothery wind began to blow
from the south. This continues mostly during
the rainy or winter season, which is now commencing, so that winter here is hotter than summer.
The mornings, before ten, and the evenings, after
five, are really most agreeable-not hot or cold.
The evening light and tints are exquisite, so varying, so rich, and so peculiar."
Of course in a country so far off from England,




54


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


and so different in climate as Hawaii-Nei, we
must not expect to find the native plants or animals exactly like our own. There is less difference,
however, in the animals than in the plants, so let
us think of them first.
In Captain Cook's time, the only four-footed
animals in Hawaii-Nei were pigs, dogs, rats, and a
kind of bat. The goats the captain left behind
him were killed in a native quarrel, but others
have since been taken to the islands, and cattle,
sheep, donkeys, and horses have also been introduced. There are now large herds of cattle in
most of the islands, and the horses, also, have multiplied with extraordinary rapidity. The first the
Hawaiians ever saw, was landed among them in
1803; in 1860, they possessed 27,663. The love
of riding has become quite a passion among them,
and it is said, it would be a public benefit if half
their horses were destroyed, as they consume a
great deal of useful food, while many of them do
very little useful work.
Pet animals are very common among the Hawaiian women, who are apt to carry their fondness
for them to excess: for instance, it is said that
some mothers have been known to suckle a puppy
at the same time as their own baby. Sometimes
their pet is a pig. A traveller once came upon a
group of native women surrounding a huge hog,
which lay panting in the midst of them. The




AND THEI~ PEOPLE.


55


women had taken off almost all their own clothing,
and were cooling the pig by dipping their clothes
in water and covering him with them.
In old times, the chief use the Hawaiians made
of the pig was to offer it as a sacrifice to their
gods. When they feared an eruption of Kilauea,
hundreds of hogs, some alive, others cooked, used
to be thrown into the crater, as an offering to
Peld, the goddess of the volcano. And when the
terrible lava began to roll down the sides of the
mountain, hundreds more were thrown into the
stream, with invocations to Pele that she would
put a stop to the eruption, and spare the land.
The pig was, and is, sometimes eaten in the
Sandwich Islands; but the dainty dish of the
Hawaiians is not pork, nor beef, nor mutton, but
dogs' flesh! "Numbers of dogs," says Mr. Ellis,
" of rather a small size, and something like a terrier,
are raised every year as an article of food. They
are mostly fed on vegetables; and we have sometimes seen them kept in yards, with small houses
to sleep in. A part of the rent of every tenant
who occupies land, is paid in dogs for his landlord's
table. Though often invited by the natives to
join them in partaking of the baked dog, we were
never' induced to taste one. The natives, however,
say it is sweeter than the flesh of the pig, and
much more palatable than that of goats or kids,
which some refuse to touch,.and few care to eat."




56


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


The Bishop of Honolulu, who has managed to
overcome the English prejudice against trying any
new sort of food, assures us that the Hawaiians have
right on their side, and that their favourite dish,
of baked dog, is " really capital."
Chickens were kept by the Sandwich Islanders
before Captain Cook's visit; flocks of wild geese
are found in the centre valley of Hawaii; snipes,
plovers, and wild ducks in all the islands. The
greater number of birds near the coasts are waterfowl, but other kinds abound in the woods and
mountains; one of them has a song much like
that of our thrush, and some are remarkable for the
beauty of their plumage,-as a little glossy purple
paroquet, and a woodpecker speckled with red,
yellow, and green.  The feathers of the latter
used to be very much in request, as they were
used to make war-cloaks and helmets for the
chiefs, and also to ornament the heads of the idols.
But another bird was still more sought after it is
one that lives in the mountains, and has a single
yellow feather, about an inch in length, under
each wing. The royal cloak was composed entirely of these feathers, and one that was owned
by King Kamehameha I.-whom you will hear
more about presently-is said to have taken nine
reigns to make. And no wonder, for though it
was made entirely of the precious feathers, it was
four feet long, and no less than eleven and a half




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


57


feet wide at the bottom. This curious cloak was
sent as a present by King Kamehameha I. to
King George II., with the injunction that, as no
one below the rank of a king had worn it in the
Sandwich Islands, so, no one but the King of
England should wear it in this country.
But if the birds of the Sandwich Islands are
different from ours, their plants and trees are
much more so. Among their trees is a fern with
a stem fifteen feet high; a beautiful lichen, called
pulu, often grows round it, and is gathered by the
natives to be made into pillows and mattresses.
Some of it has lately been sent to California and
British Columbia for the same purpose.
Next we come to the palm trees, such as we see in
pictures of hot countries. Several kinds of palms
grow in the Sandwich Islands, but the cocoa-nut
is probably the most valuable of all of them.
The forests contain several excellent timber
trees, as the koa and the kau, and' some beautiful
flowering shrubs and plants.
Among the trees growing upon the mountains
is the sandal-wood, which is a small tree or shrub,
something like the myrtle. Its wood gives out a
sweet smell, especially when it is burnt, and on
that account it is prized by the Chinese, who
burn it in their temples. Some years ago it
formed the principal export'from the Sandwich
Islands, but the "penny wise, pound foolish"




58


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


natives cut it down so freely that they have but
little of it left now. Happily for them, their
attention has lately been turned to what is likely
to prove much more profitable, namely, the cultivation of sugar.
The sugar-cane was known in the islands before
Captain Cook's visit, but it is only of late years
that much attention has been paid to it. Now,
its cultivation is increasing so rapidly, and the
quality of the sugar produced is so good, that the
British Consul-General predicts that the Sandwich Islands will soon "take rank as the West
Indies of the North Pacific Ocean." The greater
part of the sugar made in the Sandwich Islands
is sent to California, and the export has increased
from 645 tons in 1860, to 6838 tons in 1865.
As each pound of sugar is worth from 4~d. to 5d.
in the San Francisco market, it will be seen that
this is a valuable export.
Coffee, rice, tapioca, cotton, oranges, limes, pineapples, and pumpkins are also found among the
vegetable exports of the Sandwich Islands: they
have all been introduced since Captain Cook's
visit, and their possession is one of the benefits
the people have gained from intercourse with
civilized nations.
Among, the most useful of the native trees and
plants that we have not yet named, are the breadfruit, plantain, banana, candle-nut, and calabash




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


59


trees, the ohia or native apple, the ti, the taro,
and the wauti.
The kukui, or candle-nut tree, is a large tree
with very white leaves. It bears a nut about the
size of a walnut, which has long been used by the
Hawaiians in the place of candles. It is not
nearly so convenient as the candles we burn; but
then the kukui-nuts cost nothing, except the
trouble of picking-up and preparing, and we fancy
that many an English housewife would be glad to
light her family upon such easy terms. After
they are picked up, the natives put them in an
oven for a little while, to soften the hard shell, which
is then peeled off; a hole is bored through the
kernel, and the nuts are strung upon a rush, and
hung up out of the way, like candles in a grocer's
-shop, till they are wanted. When they are to
be used, ten or twelve are threaded on the thin
stalk of a cocoa-nut leaf, and in that state they
look, according to Mr. Ellis, "like a number of
peeled chestnuts on a long skewer. The person
whd has charge of them lights a nut at one end
of the stick, and holds it up till the oil it contains
is consumed, when the flame kindles on the one
beneath it, and he breaks off the extinct nut with
a short piece of wood, which serves as a pair of
snuffers. Each nut will burn two or three minutes, and, if attended, give a tolerable light." '
$ Ellis's "Tour through Hawaii."




60


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


When the nuts are used out of doors,-as for
fishing at night,-a kind of rude lantern is made,
by wrapping up four or five strings of them in a
large leaf, which, Mr. Ellis says, " not only keeps
them together, but renders the light more brilliant."
Of course, the   kqukui-nuts, when  properly
crushed, yield a large quantity of oil, which is
useful for many purposes, and they are also sometimes roasted and eaten like chestnuts.
The Hawaiians, in common with the rest of
the Polynesians, have another natural convenience
in the calabash. It is the fruit of a tree about
twenty feet high, and is very much like our
pumpkin, only with a much harder shell. It
makes excellent cups, basins, and even buckets, as
the largest will hold four or five gallons. The
way the islanders prepare it for use is as follows:As soon as the calabash is ripe, they pick it and
put it in the sun, where they leave it till the
inside is decayed, and can be shaken out through
the little hole where the stalk has been. After
this has been done, it is ready for use or for cutting into the shape of a cup or basin; unless they
wish to stain it, which process will give it as much
extra value in their eyes as a fine china cup has
over a common earthenware one in ours.
The staining is managed by mixing some darkcoloured earth with certain bruised herbs and
water, and filling the calabash with the mixture.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


61


Then the artist takes a knife, or some other sharppointed instrument, and draws outside the calabash
the figures he wishes to ornament it with; and
the Hawaiians are said to be very skilful and
ingenious in their designs. The colouring matter
is left inside for three or four days, after which the
calabash is put into an oven and baked. When it
is taken out, all the parts which have been marked
appear brown or black, while those places where
the outer skin has not been broken keep their
natural bright yellow colour; and these colours
remain fixed after the work has been finished, by
emptying out the colouring matter, and drying
the calabash in the sun.
The natives of the other Polynesian Islands are
accustomed to use the calabash for cups and bowls,
but the Hawaiians are the only people who kay
how to stain and ornament it at the time they
were first visited by Europeans.
The ti (draccena) is another plant that is very
useful to the Hawaiians. They consider it an
emblem of peace, and in times of war, a branch of
it, together with a young plantain, used to serve
the purposes of a flag of truce. It is often planted
as a garden hedge; its glossy, shining leaves make
an excellent thatch, and the Hawaiians also have
a way of weaving them together by their stalks,
so as to form a cloak, which acts as a waterproof,
and is a very useful addition to their ordinary




62


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


clothing when their business carries them into the
mountains.   The ti has a large, woody root,
which is baked and eaten as a vegetable; it is also
capable of being made into a wholesome beer, but
unfortunately, the natives are not contented with
this, but have learnt how to distil it into a spirit,
which is too often used for purposes of intoxication.
The taro (arum  esculentum) is another plant
that has an eatable root. It is much more cultivated than the ti; indeed it may be said to hold
the same place in the Sandwich Islands that the
potato does in Ireland, and wheat among ourselves,
for a preparation from its root, called poi, is the
principal food of the Hawaiians.  The taro is so
productive that, it is said, a square mile cultivated
with it would keep fifteen thousand people in food
the whole year through. You will find, I believe, if you like to make the calculation, that an
average crop from a square mile of wheat will
scarcely feed two thousand people for the same time.
The taro is cultivated by being planted in pits,
two or three feet deep, which have to be kept
partly filled with water. The roots are something
like those of a Jerusalem artichoke, from six to
twelve inches long, and three or four round.
They are very sharp to the taste when raw, but
lose their roughness when they are either boiled
or baked. The common way, however, of preparing them for food, is by pounding them, and




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


63


mixing them into a paste with water, after which
they are allowed partially to ferment. It is in
this state that the taro-root is called pQi, which,
as we have said, is the national dish of the Hawaiians. To most English palates it seems too
much like paste-or at the best like hastypudding-to be pleasant; but the Hawaiians are
as fond of it as a Scotchman of his oatmeal porridge, and some of them have objected to visiting
England because poi is not to be had here. Is it
not a merciful provision of Providence that each
nation should prefer the food which is most easily
to be had in their own country?   What should
we English people do without our wheaten loaf?
The last plant we have to speak of is the wauti,
or cloth plant, which used to furnish the Hawaiians with clothes when they had scarcely any
other means of obtaining them. Of course, now
that they trade with other nations, they are able
to buy calico, linen, and cloth, and they do to
some extent; but then these things, having to be
brought over the sea, are very dear, whereas tapa,
or native cloth, like the candle-nut, only costs the
trouble of preparing; and so, although it does not
last nearly so long as calico, it is still made, and
still used, among the lower orders in Hawaii.
* The plant from which tapa is manufactured,
the wauti (morus papyrifera), is cultivated much
the same as an osier bed. When the shoots are




64


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


eight or ten feet high they are cut down, and a
slit is made through the bark, the whole length of
the stick, which enables the cloth-maker to peel it.
As soon as the bark is taken off, it is rolled up in
little coils and left for several days, that it may
flatten itself. When it is unrolled, the cloth-maker
takes a shell, or some such instrument, and scrapes
off the outer bark from the inner, the latter being
the only part of the plant used in making the
cloth.  The fine bark which is left, is put upon a
board, and beaten out with a wooden hammer till
it is two or three times as wide as it was at first.
After this, it is put away for a few days, and then
beaten again, till it is brought to the size required. The mallet used in beating it has patterns engraved upon it, a different one upon each
of its four sides; so that various patterns are produced upon the cloth, according to the side it is
beaten with.
Several kinds of tapa are made; one sort is
said to look like muslin, another like dimity, and
a third, which is much thicker and formed of
several layers of bark, like wash-leather. The
finest of these cloths was used in old times in
making maros for the men and paus for the
women. The maro, or narrow cloth worn round the
loins by the men, was about a foot wide and three
or four yards long.  The pau, used as a petticoat
by the women, was generally about a yard wide




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


65


and four yards long. Both these cloths were commonly finished off by being beautifully painted,
with brilliant red, yellow, and black colours, and
then varnished over with a gum, which both preserved the colours and made the tapa less liable to
damage from wet. In addition to these ornamental processes, the luxurious Hawaiians often
scented the woman's garment, by rubbing it over
with a vegetable oil, in which chips of sandalwood, or the sweet-scented seeds of a plant called
pandanus, had been steeped.
The thickest kind of cloth, called tapa moe
(sleeping cloth), is still used. "It is generally
three or four yards square, very thick, being
formed of several layers of common tapa, cemented
with gum, and beaten with a grooved mallet
till they are closely interwoven. The colour is
various, either white, yellow, brown, or black,
according to the fancy of its owner.
"Nearly resembling the tapa moe is the kihei,
only it is both thinner and smaller. It is made
in the same manner, and is about the size of'a
large shawl or counterpane. Sometimes it is
brown, but more frequently white or yellow, intermixed with red and black. It is generally
worn by the men, thrown loosely over one
shoulder, passed under the opposite arm, and tied
in front, or on the other shoulder." 
* Elis's "Tour through Hawaii."
F




66


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


Cloth-making has always been looked upon in
Hawaii as women's work. When Mr. Ellis was
in the island, in 1823, he observed one morning"Keona, the governor's wife, and her female
attendants, with about forty other women, under
the pleasant shade of a beautiful clump of cordia,
or kou trees, employed in stripping off the bark
from bundles of wauti sticks, for the purpose of
making it into cloth... Keona not only worked
herself, but appeared to take the superintendence
of the whole party. Whenever a fine piece of
bark was found it was shown to her, and put
aside, to be manufactured into wairiirii, or some
other particular cloth. With lively chat and
cheerful song they appeared to beguile the hours
of labour until noon, when, having finished their
work, they repaired to their dwellings." *
In these days, a governor's wife, even in Hawaii, is more likely to fill up the morning by
answering her letters, ordering her dinner, and
taking her daily ride, than by cloth-making; but
troops of women, of the lower orders, are still to
be seen in the island pealing the wauti, beating it
with the mallet, or laying on the bright colours
and varnish, which have always given a pleasing
finish to the tapa of Hawaii.
* Ellis's " Tour through Hawaii."




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


67


CHAPTER IV.
THE PEOPLE OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
THE last chapter gave you some account of the
animals and plants that are found in the Sandwich Islands; in this, I am going to say a few
words about the people who live there.
The Hawaiians are generally strong, well-made,
and active, and in height rather above the
average of our own countrymen. Their skin is
usually of an olive-brown colour, but its tint
varies very much in different persons.  The
fishermen, and others who are a great deal exposed to the sun, become nearly black; on the
other hand, some Hawaiians are only a little
darker than a dark, sun-burnt Englishman.
Their hair is black and wavy, but quite free from
the woolliness of the African; the face is wide;
the nose marked by broad, full nostrils; and the
eyes bright and black. The women have good
figures, with small and delicate hands, feet, and
ancles. They often keep their good looks late
into middle life-indeed many Hawaiian females
are said to be still handsome at fifty; but in old




68          THE SANDWIOH ISLANDS
age both men and women axe apt to become stout
and unwieldy. The chiefs and their wives are, as
a rule, so much taller and stouter than the common people, that some persons have supposed
they must belong to a different race; but residents in the islands, who have had the best means
of judging, say that this is not the fact, the
greater care taken of them in their childhood, and
their better living, having probably occasioned the
difference.
In character, the Hawaiians are a cheerful,
light-hearted people, who always greet you with
a pleasant smile, and an aloha, or welcome. They
are naturally fond of everything bright and beautiful, and averse to whatever is gloomy. The
merry, ringing laughter of the women may often
be heard when they are at work, and singing,
dancing, and story-telling are favourite amusements of their spare time. They are so fond of
singing, in particular, that " when they first
began to learn to read and spell, it was impossible
for them to repeat a column of spelling, or recite
a lesson, without chanting or singing it."*
They had bards among them, whose office was
much the same as that of the bards we read of in
the early periods of English history.  Most of
the kings and principal chiefs had one of these
bards attached to their households, and he was
* Ellis's " Tour through Hawaii."




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


69


expected to be always ready with a song upon any
striking event in the history of Hawaii, or in
praise of his master.  He was often called upon
to  exercise his art during   meal-times.  One
evening Mr. Ellis was invited to sup with the
Governor of Hawaii.   On going into the room
where the meal was laid out, he found a young
bard, not more than twelve or fourteen years old,
seated on the floor; as soon as supper began, this
youth commenced his song, chanting, " in a monotonous but pleasing strain, the deeds of former
chiefs, ancestors of the host," and accompanying.
his voice with the music of a "rustic little drum,
formed of a calabash, beautifully stained, and
covered at the head with a piece of shark-skin."
I spoke, in the last chapter, of the native
clothing which the Hawaiians were accustomed to.wear in old times. Of late years they have learnt
to dress themselves in a more civilized way; but
there is one part of their native costume which
they are very loth to give up, namely, their
head-dress. Both men and women still prefer a
wreath of flowers round their heads to either a
hat or a cap, and their wreath is always made up
in excellent taste, generally out of the sweetscented wild flowers that grow in their woods.
In holiday times, the young people do not confine
themselves to a single wreath, but bind the sweetsmelling, flowery garlands round their necks,




70


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


wrists, and ancles, as well as their heads.' A
scene that Mr. Ellis witnessed during his walk
round Hawaii illustrates this custom, and at the
same time speaks well for the family affection of
the Hawaiians.
A young man, named Mauae, who was a servant of the Governor of Hawaii, accompanied
Mr. Ellis part of the way round the island, by his
master's orders. After several days' journey, the
travellers arrived at the young man's native
village, which he had not been able to visit for
several years. The news of his coming had
arrived before him, and the whole population of
the village seemed to be waiting to receive him.
" The old people from the houses welcomed him
as he passed along, and numbers of the young
men and women came out to meet him, saluted
him by touching noses, and wept for joy at his
arrival. Some took off his hat, and crowned him
with a garland of flowers; others hung round his
neck wreaths of a sweet-scented plant resembling
ivy, or necklaces composed of the nut of the
fragrant pandanus odoratissimus.    When we
reached the house where his sister lived, she ran
to meet him, threw her arms round his neck, and
having affectionately embraced him, walked hand
in hand with him through the village. Multitudes of young people and children followed,
chanting his name, the names of his parents, the




4~-, —S-  A  CIA.Ig0
SAYUNVICH ISLAND&    Pagcrge 70..




I




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


71


place and circumstances of his birth, and the most
remarkable events in the history of his family, in
a lively song, which he afterwards informed us
was composed on the occasion of his birth."
The procession moved on, through plantations
and groves of cocoa-nut trees, to the house of
Mauae's father; and there "a general effusion of
affection and joy presented itself, which it was
impossible to witness without delight. A number
of children, who ran on before, had announced his
approach; his father, followed by his brothers
and several other relations, came out to meet him,
and under the shade of a wide-spreading kou tree,
fell on his neck and wept aloud for some minutes;
after which they took him by the hand, and led
him through a neat little garden into the house.
He seated himself on a mat on the floor, while his
brothers and sisters gathered around him; some
unloosed his sandals, and rubbed his limbs and
feet; others clasped his hand, frequently saluting
it by touching it with their noses; others brought
him a calabash of water, or a lighted tobacco-pipe.
One of his sisters, in particular, seemed much
affected; she clasped his hand, and sat for some
time weeping by his side. At this we should have
been surprised, had we not known it to be the
usual manner, among the South Sea Islanders, of
expressing unusual joy or grief. In the present
instance, it was the unrestrained expression of




72


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


joyful feelings. Indeed, every one seemed at a
loss how to manifest the sincere pleasure which
his unexpected arrival after several years' absence
had produced."*
The Hawaiians have always been noted for
their hospitality and courtesy. The feasts that
used to be given by their chiefs were sometimes
on a grand scale. Mr. Ellis once saw two hundred dogs served up together, and his native guide
assured him that he had known of as many as
four hundred dogs being cooked for one feast, with
fish, hogs, and vegetables in proportion. We
have seen how liberally Captain Cook and his
people were treated, and to this day the Hawaiians
are seldom behindhand in offering the best they
have to a visitor. "Even the poorest," says
Mr. Ellis, "would generally share their scanty
dish of potatoes with a stranger. Not to entertain a guest with what they have is, among themselves, considered reproachful; and there are many
who, if they had but one pig or fowl in the yard,
or one root of potatoes in the garden, would cheerfully take them to furnish a repast for a friend."
Unfortunately, this generous disposition is often
abused. "It is not unusual for a family, when
they have planted their field with sweet potatoes,
&c., to pay a visit for four or five months to some
friend in a distant part of the island. When the
* Ellis's "Tour through Hawaii."




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


73


crop is ripe they travel home again, and in return
are most likely visited by a friend, who will not
think of leaving them as long as any of their provisions remain unconsumed." 
The Hawaiians usually accompany their hospitality with a polite behaviour, that makes it doubly
pleasing to their guests. In asking a visitor to
sit down to a meal with them, their usual expression is, "The food belonging to you and.us is
ready; let us eat together." If the guest should
happen to remark, "Yours is a pleasant house,"
the answer would be, " It is a good house for you
and me." In asking a favour of one another, they
are very careful not to leave out the polite " If you
please."  "Hence," says Mr. Ellis, "we often have
a message or note to the following effect: 'If
pleasing to you, I should like a sheet of writing
paper or a pen; but if it would not give you
pleasure to send it, I do not wish it."'
Courage is another striking point in the Hawaiian character. In the old warlike times the
people showed it by their bold, open way of fighting. They seldom lay in ambush, or struck in
the dark, as the American Indians do, but came
boldly forward, and met each other in a fair, standup fight. When the two sides were pretty equally
matched, the battle would go on, day after day,
sometimes for a whole week.
* Ellis's " Tour through Hawaii."




74


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


The wives often went to the war with their
husbands, and stood near them during the battle,
ready to supply them with food and water, and to
tend them if they should be wounded.   Sometimes they actually took a part in the fighting.
In the very last battle fought in the Sandwich
Islands-it was as long ago as the year 1819 -Manona, the wife of a chief who was leading one
of the armies, fought by her husband's side the
whole day, with dauntless courage. At length a
ball struck the chief in the breast; he covered his
face with his feather cloak, and died almost immediately. Manona then called out for quarter, but
the words had hardly escaped her lips when a ball
struck her too, and she fell lifeless upon the dead
body of her husband.
Since war has been banished from the Sandwich
Islands, and Christianity and civilization have
been introduced, the natives have become as peaceful a people as any upon earth; indeed, they are
said to be more free from crimes of violence than
almost any other nation; burglary is very rare
among them, and a murder is only heard of about
once in three years, and then the criminal is more
often an emigrant than a native Hawaiian.
The only outlet the islanders have now for their
warlike propensities is in their Volunteer Rifle
Corps, but their natural courage crops out, as
we should expect, in their favourite amusements.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


75


Both men and women delight in daring feats of
riding, in sliding down-hill on a narrow sledge, in
swimming among the heavy breakers that roll over
the coral reefs, and in taking a plunging bath by
throwing themselves into the waterfalls that leap
over the cliffs into the ocean, even where they are
forty feet and upwards in height. There are not
many Englishmen, one fancies, who would dare to
venture upon such a leap. But the love of the
Hawaiians for the water, and their boldness in it,
is well known to every one who has visited the
Sandwich Islands. Mr. Ellis says of the Pacific
Islanders in general, including the Hawaiians:
" There are, perhaps, no people more accustomed
to the water than the islanders of the Pacific; they
seem almost a race of amphibious beings. Familiar with the sea from their birth, they lose all
dread of it, and seem nearly as much at home in
the water as on dry land. There are few children
who are not taken into the sea by their mothers
the second or third day after their birth, and many
who can swim as soon as they can walk. The
heat of the climate is, no doubt, one cause of the
gratification they find in this amusement, which
is so universal that it is scarcely possible to pass
along the shore, where there are many habitations
near, and not see a number of children playing in
the sea. Here they remain for hours together,
and yet I never knew of but one child being




76


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


drowned during the number of years I have resided
in the islands. They have a variety of games, and
gambol as fearlessly in the water as the children
of a school do in their playground. Sometimes
they erect a stage, eight or ten feet high, on the
edge of some deep place, and lay a pole in an
oblique direction over the edge of it, perhaps
twenty feet above the water; along this they pursue each other to the outermost end, where they
jump into the sea. Throwing themselves from
the lower yards, or bowsprit, of a ship is also a
favourite sport, but the most general and frequent
game is swimming in the surf. The higher the
sea and the larger the waves, in their opinion, the
better the sport."
This swimming or riding in the surf requires
the help of a board about five or six feet long.
When the natives intend to use it " they sometimes
choose a place where the deep water reaches to the
beach, but they generally prefer a part where the
rocks are ten or twenty feet under water, and extend to a distance from the shore, as the surf
breaks more violently over these. When playing
in these places, each individual takes his board,
and, pushing it before him, swims perhaps a quarter of a mile or more out to sea. They do not
attempt to go over the billows which roll towards
the shore, but watch their approach, and dive
under water, allowing the billow to pass over their




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


77


heads. When they reach the outside of the rocks,
where the waves first break, they adjust themselves
on one end of the board, lying flat on their faces,
and watch the approach of the largest billow; they
then poise themselves on its highest edge, and,
paddling as it were with their hands and feet, ride
on the crest of the wave, in the midst of the spray
and foam, till within a yard or two of the rocks or
the shore; and when the observers would expect
to see them dashed to pieces, they steer with great
address between the rocks, or slide off their board
in a moment, grasp it by the middle, and dive
under water, while the wave rolls on, and breaks
among the rocks with a roaring noise, the effect of
which is greatly heightened by the shouts and
laughter of the natives in the water. Those who
are expert, frequently change their position on the
board, sometimes sitting, and sometimes standing
erect, in the midst of the foam.  The greatest
address is necessary in order to keep on the edge
of the wave; for if the riders get too forward, they
are sure to be overturned, and if they fall back,
they are buried beneath the succeeding billow." *
All ranks and ages among the Hawaiians are
equally fond of this bold surf-riding. Sometimes
the greater part of the inhabitants of a village go
out to play at it, and spend nearly the whole day
in the water; and Mr. Ellis mentions having seen
* Ellis's " Tour through Hawaii."




78


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


two of the highest chiefs, "both between fifty
and sixty years of age, and large corpulent men,
balancing themselves on their narrow board, and
splashing about in the foam with as much satisfaction as youths of sixteen."
" The fondness of the natives for the water must
strike any person visiting their islands; long before
he goes on shore he will see them   swimming
around his ship, and few ships leave without
being accompanied part of the way out of the
harbour by the natives, sporting in the water;
but to see fifty or a hundred persons riding on an
immense billow, half immersed in spray and foam,
for a distance of several hundred yards together, is
one of the most novel and interesting sports a
foreigner can witness in the islands." *
The only thing that ever spoils their pleasure,
while in the water, is the approach of a shark.
When this happens, though they sometimes fly
in every direction, they often unite, set up a loud
shout, and make so much splashing in the water
as to frighten him away. Their fear of sharks,
however, is very great; and when a party returns
from the rocks, almost the first question they are
asked is, " Were there any sharks?"
It is natural that a people so fond of water
as the Hawaiians, should turn to the sea as a
means of livelihood. There are many fishermen
* Ellis's " Tour through Hawaii."




AND -THEIR PEOPLE.


79


among them; and besides these, several hundred
young men are constantly employed as sailors, in
the whaling ships and merchant vessels that trade
with Honolulu.  Some of the Hawaiians have also
become shipowners themselves. In the year 1860,
eighteen merchant ships and whalers, thirty-two
coasting vessels, and two steamers, were owned by
residents in the Hawaiian Islands, or at least sailed
under the Hawaiian flag.
But the native vessel of the islanders, in which
they are most at home, is the canoe, which is,
you know, a kind of boat, hollowed out of the
trunk of a tree. The Hawaiian canoes are said
to be remarkably strong, and very neatly made.
Some of them are as much as seventy feet long,
one or twb feet wide, and three deep; but this
is an unusual size, as they are not generally
more than fifty feet in length.  Sometimes two
canoes are fastened together, side by side, but a
few feet apart, and a kind of deck or platform is
fixed between them. This kind of vessel is called
a double canoe; it is more comfortable to travel
in than a single canoe, as the platform makes a
good seat, and being raised about two feet above
the sides of the canoes, it keeps the passengers,
who sit on it, more out of the spray of the sea.
The Hawaiian fishermen generally catch their
fish in nets, of which they have many kinds, some
very large, and others mere hand-nets; now and




80          THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
then they use a hook and line, but they never
spear the fish, as many of the southern Polynesians
do. Their coasts are not so well stocked with fish
as those of most of the other Pacific Islands, but
their ingenuity has enabled them to overcome
this defect in some measure. They have made
a number of fish-ponds in different places along
the shore, in which they contrive to preserve and
breed their fish, so as to keep up a pretty constant
supply.   Some of their fish-ponds must have
required an immense amount of labour for their
construction, and they are convincing proofs of
what the Hawaiians are capable of doing. At
Kihoro, on the west side of Hawaii, a small bay,
perhaps half a mile across, runs inland for a considerable distance. From one side to the other
of this bay, King Kamehameha I. built a strong
stone wall, six feet high in some places, and
~twenty feet wide, by which he made the bay into
a capital fish-pond, not less than two miles in
circumference. The sea water was let into the
pond through several arches in the wall, which
were guarded by strong stakes, driven into the
ground so far apart as to admit the water, yet
sufficiently close to each other to prevent the fish
from escaping.
Sea walls were not the only kind of masonry
that the old Hawaiians knew how to construct.
Some of their idol temples were inclosed by walls




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


81


of great thickness. The same king who made
the fish-pond at Kihoro built a temple about
twenty miles further north. It was a large place,
224 feet long by 100 wide, and the walls that
went round three sides of it were twenty feet high,
and twelve feet thick at the bottom, but narrowed
in gradually towards the top, where they were
finished off with a course of smooth stones, that
formed a pathway six feet wide.
Another inclosure, of still greater size and
strength, is found in the village of Honaunau,
about five miles from Cook's Bay; it is called a
Puhonua, and was used for the same purposes as
the Cities of Refuge among the Jews. It contained more than six acres of ground, and was
surrounded by walls twelve feet high and fifteen
feet thick.  Within the inclosure there were
numerous houses for the priests and refugees,
and three large Heiaus, or places set apart for
idol-worship.  One of the Heiaus was a sort of
platform, or huge pile of stones, 126 feet long by
sixty-five broad, and ten feet high. Many 4d the
stones in the Puhonua were very large and heavy;
some of those in the wall must have weighed
at least two tons, and yet they were raised upwards
of six feet from the ground. This building must
have cost even more trouble and labour than the
sea wall at Kihoro.
But the Puhonua was still more remarkable
G




82


THIE SANDWICH ISLANDS


for the uses to which it was put, than for its
massive style of building. I have said that it
was a City of Refuge, like those which God ordered
the children of Israel to set apart in their land.
The man who had broken the laws of his country,
the thief, or the manslayer, might flee to it, and
as soon as he reached its walls he was safe. In
time of war the women and children were generally
left within it, while the men went out to battle;
and it was also a place of retreat for the defeated
army; the conquerors might pursue their enemy
to the gate of the Puhonua, but no further; those
who had entered it could not be touched.  These
customs certainly bear some resemblance to the
Jewish, and the likeness becomes more striking
when we are told that Cities of Refuge are not
known to have existed in any other heathen
nation.
Several other ancient Hawaiian customs also
resembled the practices of the Jews. For instance,
the Hawaiians were accustomed to use circumcision; they considered themselves unclean after
they had touched a dead body; they wore sackcloth for mourning; the chiefs always washed
their hands before and after eating; they offered
the first-fruits of the land to their gods.
It almost seems as if some of these customs
must have been derived more or less remotely
from the Jewish law. Some people, indeed, have




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


83


ventured to assert their belief in the existence of
a close relationship between the Hawaiians and
the Jews. But this does not seem possible. The
Hawaiians belong, without any doubt, to that
family of mankind which is called the Malay; and
the Jews, as you know, are not Malays.
But let us consider a little more closely the
relationship of the Hawaiians to the other nations
of the world. You know, do you not, that all the
people in the world are sometimes spoken of as
being divided into four or five different races?
The white men of Europe are called Caucasians;
the yellow-skinned Chinese and Tartars of Asia
are Mongols; the black men of Africa, Negroes;
while the people belonging to the islands of Polynesia (including the Sandwich Islands), and also
some of those who live in Borneo, Sumatra, and
other islands to the south of Asia, and in the
great African  island, Madagascar, are called
Malays.
The Malays, you will observe, are essentially
an island people, and being very fond of the sea,
and clever in managing'their canoes, they have
contrived to pass from island to island, till their
race has spread itself more than half way round
the world. It is further from the Malay island
of Madagascar to the Sandwich Islands than it is
from England to the Sandwich Islands. Yet, in
spite of the great distance which separates one




84


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


Malay nation from  another, there is so much
likeness between them all that learned men have
no doubt of its being right to class them as belonging to one family; which means, of course,
that in the ages long gone by they sprang from
one common father.
The point of likeness between the different
Malay nations that is most easily noticed is in the
shape of their head and face; but the close resemblance between their languages is almost as
striking. It seems nearly certain, indeed, that
in very old times they had only one language;
but of course, after they separated, one added a
word here and another a word there, till there
have come to be as many different Malay dialects
as nations. Still, the groundwork remains the
same in all of them, and even the dialects differ
so little that, it is said, a native of Madagascar or
New Zealand can learn to understand the language
of the Hawaiians in a few weeks. On the contrary,
it takes English people (who are Caucasians and
not Malays) a long time to learn the Hawaiian
language properly, because it is so different from
our own.
To our ears Hawaiian sounds feeble, indistinct,
and unsatisfying; and no wonder, since it has
only seventeen letters, and some of those left out
are the ones we could least spare from our own
language. The Hawaiians manage to do without




AND TEIR PEOPLE.


85


c, f, g, j, a, s,, y, and z. Their syllables are
very short, generally having only two letters, and
never more than three, and they always end with
a vowel. Two consonants are never allowed to
come together in any case, and there are many
words formed of vowels only; indeed it is possible
to make a whole sentence in Hawaiian without
using a single consonant.
In pronouncing Hawaiian words, the consonants
are to be sounded the same as in English; but the
vowels have the same sound as in German or
Italian; that is to say, A is to be pronounced ah;
E as English a; I as e; 0 the same as in
English; U as oo; and the diphthong Ai as i.
There are no silent letters.
By following these rules you will find that the
names of the principal islands will be soundedHawaii as Ha-wye-e.
Maui,, Mow-e
Oahu,, O-ah-hoo
Kauai,, Kow-eye.
The Hawaiians had no idea of writing their own
language when they were first visited by Europeans; the only kind of writing they ever used
was a sort of rude drawing of anything they
wanted to represent, which they would scratch out
upon the rocks, very much after the same fashion
as our boys occasionally.scribble upon walls with
their bits of chalk. For instance, they would




86


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


scratch a rough figure of a man, or woman, or fish,
and put a number of dots after it, to show how
many men, women, or fish they meant. This was
but a poor way of noting down what they wanted
to remember. Their language was first put into
writing by the American missionaries, who will
be spoken of in a future chapter. The credit of
making out the grammar, preparing a set of lesson books, and translating the Bible into the Hawaiian language belongs entirely to them; and it
was they also who gave the Hawaiians their first
lessons in reading and writing. Now, in proportion to the population, there are more people able
'to read and write in Hawaii than in England.
Foreigners, who visited the Sandwich Islands
before the missionaries had studied the language
and reduced it to writing, often caught the names
of the persons and places they wished to note
down, very imperfectly, and made strange mistakes
in spelling them. For instance, in Captain Cook's
Voyages, and in most old maps, Hawaii is spelt
Owhyhee; the 0 having really nothing to do with
the word, but being only the native sign of the
nominative case. Kauai was twisted in a somewhat similar manner to Atooi. "What are the
names of these two islands?" Captain Cook most
probably asked, as he sailed between two of the
group. "Niihau a Tauai "-Niihau and Tauai
or Kauai-was the answer; upon which he wrote




AND THER PEOPLE.


87


down Atooi in his journal; making the same mistake as any foreigner who might write the names
of our islands-Great Britain, Andireland.
Perhaps you wonder why we say Tauai or
Kauai. The reason is this: the two letters t and
k are allowed to be changed for one another in the
Hawaiian language. The same word is sometimes
spelt with a t, and sometimes with a k; for instance,
there have been five kings of the Sandwich Islands
called Kamehameha; the second always wrote his
name Tamehameha, the present king writes Kamehameha. I believe that, as a general rule, t is
considered an old-fashioned letter in the Sandwich
Islands, and k is looked upon as the modern one
that has taken its place, except that the t is still
used in poetry. In the same way, but more
strangely, the letters I and r are interchangeable
in Hawaiian; r belonging to the old fashion, and
I to the new; thus, the name of the capital of the
Sandwich Islands used to be written Honoruru,
but is now Honolulu.
One thing that makes the Hawaiian language
so difficult to foreigners is the great number of
words it contains. It is said there are no less
than 1400 beginning with the letter a. Not that
the Hawaiians ever needed so many words, but
it seems, their chiefs had a foolish custom of
trying to keep themselves separate from the
common people by speaking in a different way




88


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


from them, and so, it is said, they were always inventing new words for the same things; when
one of their words began to be understood and
used by the common people, they dropped it, and
invented another, and so on, till at last their language became clogged with a vast number of useless expressions.
Since foreigners have come among them, the
Hawaiian chiefs have acted more sensibly, and
have kept themselves above the common people,
not by indulging in foolish fancies, but by taking
advantage of their superior opportunities for gaining a better education, and by making greater
progress in civilization.
At the present time, most of the chiefs speak
English more or less perfectly, and they dress and
live very much like English ladies and gentlemen.
But with the common people it is different; civilization has done something for them-it has given
them many useful animals and plants, convenient
tools, and better articles of clothing-but it has
not, as yet, made any great change in their mode
of life.
As you will not find it difficult to picture to
yourself the handsome stone houses, the smart
velvet-covered chairs and sofas, and the costly silver, china, and glass services of the principal chiefs,
we do not intend to detain you over them, except
to assure you that such things really exist. In




AMD THEIR PEOPLE.


89


the humble dwelling of the Hawaiian labourer we
shall find something much more unlike English
life; only do not forget that the hut I am going
to describe to you is not to be compared with the
houses of our gentlemen, tradesmen, or farmers,
but with the day labourer's little cottage.
The Hawaiian labourer generally builds his own
house, with a little help from his family and friends.
He does not usually care to have it more than ten
or twelve feet square-or the same distance across
if he builds it in a round shape-but if he is an
ambitious man, perhaps he may make it twenty
feet long and ten or twelve wide. His first work
in preparing for it is, to go into the woods and cut
down some poles; these he brings home, and sets
up as aframework for his house; making the walls
not more than three or four feet high along the
sides, but finishing off the two ends with gables.
He does not leave any place at all for a window,
and makes his door so low that even a child must
stoop to enter it. He does not nail his framework
together as an English carpenter would, but ties
it with some rope that he has made out of cocoanut fibre, or from the roots of a plant called the
Te. When the framework is finished it has to be
covered with sticks, laid lengthwise, two or three
inches apart, and tied on to the poles with the
same kind of rope as that which fastens the framework together. After this is done, the house is




90


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


ready for the last operation, which is that of thatching. The thatch is sometimes made of leaves and
leaf-stalks, but more commonly of grass, and as the
walls are thatched as well as the roof, and there is
neither window nor chimney, the finished house
looks very much like a haystack.   It has but
one room inside, in which all the family have to
live and sleep, so that it is no wonder the young
people still "grow up without any regard to decency."
A grass house, as this sort of hut is called, may
be easy enough to build, but it is very troublesome
to keep in repair.  "A  good house," Mr. Ellis
says, " such as they build for the chiefs, will keep
out the wind and rain, and last from seven to ten
years. But in general, they do not last more than
five years; and those which they are hired to build
for foreigners, not much more than half that time.
In less than twelve months after my own grass
house was built, the rain came through the roof
from one end to the other every time there was a
heavy shower."
One might have thought that by this time the
people would have learnt the benefit of building
more substantial houses in the first instance, but a
letter from one of the clergymen now in the Sandwich Islands says: " We passed by many native
huts on our road. They still live in the same
kind of rough, grass-made dwellings that they




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


91


used to in past ages; no windows, and only a little
entrance which they crawl into."
The furniture of a grass house is generally as
simple as the hut itself. The floor is either paved
with pebbles, or the earth simply levelled and
strewn with grass, which is covered over with
large mats, made of the leaves of the useful pandanus. A sleeping-mat, to spread out at night, a
wooden pillow, a wicker basket or two to keep the
tacpa or native cloth in, a few calabashes for water
and poi, some wooden dishes of various sizes and
shapes, and a haka, is all they require. A haka
1fr. Ellis describes to be something like a stand
used by us for hanging hats and coats on.  "It
was often," he says, "made with care and carved,
but more frequently it was a small arm of a tree,
with a number of branches attached to it. These
were cut off within a foot of the main stem,
which was planted in some convenient part of the
house, and upon these natural pegs they used to
hang their calabashes, and other vessels containing food."
Their cooking is generally done in an oven outside the house, or at one end of it; but an
Hawaiian oven, you must understand, is a very
different sort of thing from an English one.
Mr. Ellis will describe it to you. One day during
his tour round Hawaii, he came to a little hamlet,
and being very tired, he went into one of the four




92


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


or five houses it contained, and asked leave of the
owners to rest there a little while. "The house
was large, and beneath one roof included their
workshop, kitchen, and sleeping-room, without
any intervening partitions. On one side two
women were beating native cloth, and the men
were at work on a new canoe.
"Near the south end of the house, which was
quite open, was their fireplace, where a man was
preparing a quantity of arum, or taro, for the
oven.... The oven was a hole in the earth, three
or four feet in diameter, and nearly a foot deep.
A number of small stones were spread over the
bottom, a few dried leaves laid on them, and the
necessary quantity of sticks and firewood piled
up, and covered over with small stones. The dry
leaves were then kindled, and while the stones
were heating, the man scraped off the skin or
rind of the taro with a shell, and split the roots
into two or three pieces. When the stones were
redhot, they were spread out with a stick, the remaining firebrands taken away, and when the
dust and ashes on the stones at the bottom had
been brushed off with a green bough, the taro,
wrapped in leaves, was laid on them till the oven
was full, when a few more leaves were spread on
the taro: hot stones were then placed on these
leaves, and a covering, six inches thick, of leaves
and earth spread over the whole. In this state




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


93


the taro remained to steam or bake about half an
hour, when they opened their oven and took out
as many roots as were needed.
"Sometimes the natives broil their food on
heated stoves, or roast it before their fire; but
these ovens are most generally used for cooking
their several kinds of victuals.
"Potatoes and yams are dressed in the same
manner as the taro; but pigs, dogs, fish, and
birds are wrapped in green leaves before they are
put into the oven." *
In eating, the people used generally to sit on the
ground, near the door of their house, but the
chiefs often " took their meals in the more luxurious
manner of some of the Eastern nations, lying
nearly in a horizontal posture, and resting on one
arm, or reclining on a large cushion or pillow
placed under the breast for that purpose." t
Of course the chiefs are now accustomed to the
use of chairs, but the common people still cling to
the old fashion in taking their meals, and when
different classes are brought together, as on festive
occasions, even the king himself does not disdain
to sit or lie in native style.
A few weeks after the Bishop of Honolulu
arrived in the Sandwich Islands, he was asked
to accompany the King to a village feast. The
* Ellis's " Tour through Hawaii."
t Ibid.




94


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


Bishop writes in his journal: "We accordingly
set off there, a large party, on horseback. We
first saw surf-riding on a small plank four feet
long.... Then we had the banquet, in native
style, under a room extemporized out of poles and
the green leaves of tropical plants-cocoa-nut,
palms, &c. The ground was covered with mats,
and the food placed on them; no chairs. There
was every kind of dainty-fish just caught, raw
and cooked, of every sort; pork, half-roasted in
the ground; poi (the prepared taro-root), like the
paste we use for sticking bills to walls; and
roast dogs upon dishes, all entire.... Much
amusement was created when I took my first taste
of dog (which was really capital), and when, in the
national style, I dipped my fingers in the poi.
We drank toasts, and I made a speech, which the
king interpreted.... There were some hundreds
* [of people] there."
After the feasting was over, "Odes were recited
in a sort of monotone, in praise of the King,
and the young Prince just dead. National songs
were sung, beautifully in chorus.  And then
began dancing, which was marked by grace and
propriety."
Surf-riding, singing, and dancing, you see, are
still in favour among the Hawaiians, and they
have other amusements too, with which they not
unfrequently wile away their spare hours. One




AND THETR PEOPLE.


95


of their games is very much like our draughts, only
more difficult, as it is played upon a board,
divided into more than two hundred squares. It
is a great favourite among the old men, who sometimes sit nearly a whole day over a single game.
Another popular game, called buhenehene, is a
kind of hide and seek. " It principally consists in
hiding a small stone under one of five pieces of
native tapa, so as to prevent the spectators from
discovering under which piece it is hid.
"The parties at play sit cross-legged on mats
spread on the ground, each one holding in his
right hand a small elastic rod, about three feet
long, and highly polished.... Five pieces of
tapa, of different colours, each loosely folded up
like a bundle, are then placed between the two
parties, which generally consist of five persons
each. One person is then selected on each side to
hide the stone.  He who is first to hide it takes
it in his right hand, lifts up the cloth at one end,
puts his arm under, as far as his elbow, and passing
it along several times underneath the five pieces of
cloth, which lie in a line contiguous to each other,
he finally leaves it under one of them. The other
party sit opposite, watching closely the action of
the muscles in the upper part of his arm; and it
is said that adepts can discover the place where
the stone is deposited, by observing the change
that takes place in those muscles when the hand




96


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


ceases to grasp it. Having deposited the stone,
the hider withdraws his arm; and with many
gestures separates the contiguous pieces of cloth
into five distinct heaps, leaving a narrow space
between each.
"The opposite party, having keenly observed
this process, now point with their wands or sticks
to the different heaps under which they suppose
the stone lies, looking significantly at the same
time full in the face of the man who had hid it.
He sits all the while, holding his fingers before
his eyes, to prevent their noticing any change in
his countenance, should one of them point to the
heap under which it is hid. Having previously
agreed who shall strike first, that individual,
looking earnestly at the hider, lifts his rod and
strikes a smart blow across the heap he had
selected. The cloth is instantly lifted up; and
should the stone appear under it, his party have
won that hiding with one stroke; if it is not there,
the others strike till the stone is found.
"The same party hide the stone five or ten
times successively, according to their agreement at
the commencement of the play; and whichever
party discovers it the given number of times,
with fewest strokes, wins the game. Sometimes
they reverse it, and those win who, in a given
number of times; strike most heaps without uncovering the stone."




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


97


For out-of-door games, the Hawaiians have,
besides surf-riding and their other water amusements, the horua, or game of sliding down-hill on
a narrow sledge, maita, or bowls, and pahe.
The pahe is a blunt kind of dart, varying in
length from two to five feet, and thickest about
six inches from the point, after which it tapers
gradually to the other end. These darts are made,
with much ingenuity, of a heavy wood. They are
highly polished, and thrown with great force or
exactness along the level ground, or floor of earth,
previously prepared for the game. Sometimes the
excellence of the play consists in the dexterity
with which the pahe is thrown. On these occasions two darts are laid down at a certain distance,
three or four inches apart, and he who, in a given
number of times, throws his dart most frequently
between these two, without striking either of
them, wins the game. At other times it is a mere
trial of strength, and those win who, in a certain
number of times, throw their darts farthest. A
mark is made in the ground to designate the spot
from which they are to throw it. The players,
balancing the pahe in their right hand, retreat a
few yards from this spot, and then, springing forward to the mark, dart it along the ground with
great velocity. The darts remain wherever they
stop till all are thrown, when the whole party
run to the other end of the floor to see whose have
H




98


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


been the most successful throws. This latter game
is very laborious, yet," Mr. Ellis adds, "we have
known the men of whole districts engage in it at
once, and have seen them playing several hours
together, under the scorching rays of a vertical
sun." 
Perhaps it may have struck you that a people
who spend so much time in games, as the Hawaiians
seem to do, cannot be very industrious. Unfortunately, that is the truth, and laziness must be
put down as one of the faults of the Hawaiian
people. Yet, we would fain hope that they are
not incurably lazy. We have seen that they
delight in games which require both courage and
exertion, and also that they have occasionally undertaken very laborious building operations. At
the present. day, although there are many idle
Hawaiians, there are many others who employ
themselves upon their land, and others who have
engaged themselves as printers, carpenters, blacksmiths, seamen, and house-servants; besides which,
an increasing number of natives are every year
employed upon the sugar plantations, and it is
observed that those who have been led to try this
work, generally re-hire themselves at the end of
their engagements.
The natural laziness of the people may be
partly accounted for-although not excused-by
* Ellis's " Tour through Hawaii."




AND THMIR PEOPLE.


99


their hot climate, and the ease with which they
can obtain the necessaries of life. We have seen
how nature has provided them with the means of
procuring clothing and light; firing they seldom
want, except for cooking purposes, and as there is
plenty of wood about, as much as they need is
easily to be had. A small garden cultivated with
taro will keep a family from starving, and in the
market, taro and poi are said to cost "next to
nothing." Beef and mutton are 2~d. or 3d. per
pound; coffee, Is. On the other hand, labour is
very dear in proportion to these prices. A letter
written from Honolulu, in 1862, says: "Three
dollars a week (12s. 6d.) are very low wages for
quite an inexperienced man." It is evident that,
according to these prices, a couple of days' work a
week will keep a labouring man and his family in
Hawaii as well, if not better, than six days' work in
England. If our labourers were to find they could
" get on" with working only twice a week, don't
you think it is likely there would soon be almost
asmany idle men in England as in Hawaii-Nei?
In the first part of this chapter you have been told
of the virtues belonging to the Hawaiians-of their
courage, hospitality, politeness, and cheerfulnessnow you have heard of one of their faults; but
I shall not be giving you a true account of their
character if I. conceal from you that they have
worse faults than that of laziness, and that the




100


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


commandment which bids us keep our bodies "in
temperance, soberness, and chastity," is very
commonly disobeyed among them. They are
grievously to blame for this. But it is a sad
truth-yet one to which we ought not to shut
our eyes-that the vices referred to, as being
common among the Hawaiians, have been very
greatly fostered and encouraged among them by
their European and American visitors. They
were not a spotless people when Captain Cook
and his ships' companies landed on their islands;
but at least their men were more sober, and their
women more chaste, than they are now. It is a
melancholy fact that they have been so much
exposed to temptation, and have had such evil
examples set them by many of the seamen who
have touched at their ports, that their friends
rejoice, instead of grieve, over the decrease of the
whale trade in the North Pacific Ocean, which
has lessened the number of vessels putting into
the harbours of the Sandwich Islands by nearly
one-half, and has deprived their people of the
handsome profits they used to make by supplying the whalers with fresh provisions and other
necessaries. Better is it they should be poor, than
corrupt.
We are touching upon a painful subject, but a
few more words must yet be said upon it. "Sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death." When




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


101


Captain Cook visited the Sandwich Islands in
1778-79, he computed their population to be
400,000.   We cannot say whether he was right
or not (although we know that he had a fair opportunity of judging); but in 1823, Mr. Ellis found
a strong impression among the natives, that their
numbers were only one-quarter of what they had
been forty years before, and after making a careful calculation himself (by counting the houses in
every village he passed through in his tour round
Hawaii), he set down the population at something
between 130,000 and 150,000. According to the
last census of the Sandwich Islands, which was
taken in 1860, the population had decreased to
one-half of Mr. Ellis's estimate; it only amounted
to 69,800, out of which number 2716 were foreigners.* There is little doubt that this rapid
decrease in numbers is, in great part, the effect of
the vices which, to our shame be it remembered,
have been encouraged among a simple people by
our own countrymen, and by seamen from other
so-called civilized and Christian countries.  It has
been computed that, if the decrease goes on at the
same rate as heretofore, by the end of another
* The foreigners living in the Sandwich Islands are chiefly
English and American merchants and planters, and Chinese
emigrants. The Chinese carry their native industry with
them, and make excellent tradesmen and farmers. They
marry native wives, and seem willing to allow their children
to be brought up as Christians.




102


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


forty or fifty years the Hawaiian race will have
been swept away from off the face of the earth:
not one will remain alive to tell of their struggle
and their fall.
If anything can be done to stay the destruction
of a noble people, ought it not to be attempted?
The Church of England clergymen who have
lately gone out to the Sandwich Islands, are trying the plan of boarding-schools, both for boys and
girls, hoping that if children are taken away from
the evil of their homes at an early age, and
trained up in the ways of decency and religion,
they may live to become virtuous men and women,
and to bring up sons and daughters of their own,
in purity and holiness.
I have said that the rapid decrease of the
Hawaiians is believed to be chiefly the effect of
vice; but it must be allowed that other causes also
seem to be working towards the same end. It
may possibly be one of the inscrutable decrees of
God's providence that the red man shall never
stand before the white man. At any rate, the
white man has carried with him other sources
of destruction besides those connected with vice.
Diseases, such as smallpox, measles, dysentery, and
influenza, which were not known in the islands
before Captain Cook's coming, have since his days
swept through them like plagues. Influenza-is
said to be especially destructive, and to make its




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


103


appearance about every two years, "sweeping
away many persons very suddenly."
The native doctors, who may have been able to
do something for the cure of native diseases, are
quite unable to treat the new scourges; while the
few English and American doctors who have emigrated to the Sandwich Islands, have naturally
settled among their countrymen in the towns, so
that the country districts are still left without any
proper medical care. The Bishop of Honolulu,
in one of his journeys through Hawaii, came to a
sugar plantation where a hundred and fifty natives
were employed, and was shocked to find thirty
of them laid up with a dangerous and infectious
complaint. "They are too far off from town to
have any advice," he says; "so there they are,
dying, quite uncared for."
Again, the natives are either so careless or so
ignorant about what is good for health, that they
are apt to commit imprudences which often cost
them their lives: for instance, there is a report of
a young married woman who went to bathe in the
sea a few hours after the birth of her child. She
died the next day in consequence.
Lastly, there is one other known cause, and it
is a very sad one, for the decrease of the Hawaiian
people. It is their superstition. They actually
believe in the power of "praying one another to
death."  "I have pretty good reason," writes a




104


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


missionary, "for the belief that they sometimes
die through fear, believing that some person having
the power to pray them to death is in the act
of doing so, and the imagination is so wrought
up, that life yields to intense fear."
Another missionary explains the system more
fully, and gives an instance of its working. He
writes: "Easter Monday and Tuesday were to
me days of great anxiety. One of Mr. S —    's
grown-up daughters, whom I had baptized in
February last, and who had just recovered from a
slight illness, became alarmingly worse, and died,
with all the horrors of one impressed with the
belief that she was doomed to die on Tuesday at
noon. It was a dreadful scene. In full health,
with no tangible disease, sheer terror at the conviction that she was being prayed to death absolutely annihilated all her vital powers. Young,
strong, healthy otherwise, she died. Her grownup sisters and brothers, singularly attached to her,
horror-stricken at the dreadful death, with the
old heart-broken father, as they pressed around
the body, and literally rent the air with their cries,
presented a spectacle of misery such as one seldom
meets. This death has taught me much. The
people may pretend in life to be no longer idolaters, and, indeed, are utterly indifferent about
religion; they quickly accept the new God, or
say they do, to save trouble. This in life; but




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


105


when death is approaching, just as with other
men, so with them; all pretence is in the face
of death cast aside, and the man's sincere, actual
belief alone prevails. The firm belief in the power
of another topray to death comes down on the
soul, utterly crushing it. Pele and the Shark
god are invoked to overpower the prayer of the
other, to avert premature death. But if no evident token is found, that those deities are neutralizing the praying to death, then, absolute
deadness takes possession of the whole being,
and despite youth, health, care, medical aid, death
inevitably results. This is what is slaying the
people.
"I am investigating the matter in its bearings,
and accumulating facts, which will prove that a
system of indirect assassination is rapidly annihilating the people. A affronts B, B goes to C,
gives him ten dollars to pray A to death; tells A
so, and A dies. Of course A's father hears it, goes
to D, pays him fifteen dollars to pray B and C to
death; tells B and C, who also die. What nation
could stand it?"*
Ought not every effort be made, to do away
with such a shocking state of things? The rulers
of Hawaii-Nei deplore it as much as we do, and
perhaps you know that their Queen, Emma, came
* From a letter of Mr. Scott, published in an " Occasional
Paper of the Hawaiian Church Mission." Rivingtons, 1865.




106        THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
over to this country, in 1865, for the purpose of
asking our help towards the support of clergymen
and teachers in her islands, through whose means
it is hoped the Hawaiians may be convinced, before it is too late, of the wickedness and folly of
their superstitions, and may be led upwards,-till
they shall be able to say with David, "The Lord
is my light, and my salvation: whom then shall I
fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of
whom then shall I be afraid?"




AND THEIt PEOPLE.


107


CHAPTER V.
THE ROYAL FAMIY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
WHmE Captain Cook paid his two visits to the
Sandwich Islands in 1778-9, a separate king was
reigning in each island.  This had been the
Hawaiian custom from time immemorial; but it
cannot be said to have been a custom that was
good for the people, since the consequence of it was,
that quarrels were constantly breaking out between the little kings, and as these quarrels were
generally settled by fighting, war was almost perpetual among the islanders.
At the time we are speaking of (1778), each
king or chief governed according to his own will:
there were no laws to control him; the lives and
property of his subjects were entirely at his mercy;
he might deprive them of their goods, or even
take away their life, without any just cause. The
land was looked upon as belonging entirely to
the chiefs; the common people were very little
better than slaves; they had to work for their
masters without receiving any wages except their
food and clothing; and the oppression of the




108


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


people was completed by the system of idolatry
that was enforced among them by their rulers.
Any thing that the chiefs and priests wished to
keep for themselves, was pronounced to be tabu,
that is, sacred, and therefore forbidden to common
persons; and whoever broke a tabu was liable to
be punished with death..Sometimes a tabu was
laid upon the people as a sort of religious act, but
very often it was ordered according to the whim
of the chief, and in every case it was more or less
oppressive. Thus a village, or a whole island,
would sometimes be placed under tabu for five,
ten, or even forty days. During that time, no fire
or light was to be kindled, no work carried on, no
one might bathe or launch a canoe, no one was to
be seen out of doors, except for the purpose of
going to the idol temple, and no one might speak.
The tabu went even further: it was not enough
that men, women, and children should be silenteven the animals' voices were to be hushed under
pain of death; and so the farmers had to tie up
the mouths of their dogs and pigs, and to do the
best they could to prevent their poor fowls from
cackling, either by blindfolding them with a bit
of cloth, or by hiding them under a calabash, in
solitude as well as darkness.
Such a tabu was only ordered now and then, it
is to be hoped. But other tabus were constant,
and were the cause of continual annoyance to the




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


109


people. As is usual in savage nations, the women
were more oppressed than the men; the constant
tabus in particular fell most heavily upon them.
They were forbidden to eat pork, chicken, cocoanuts, several kinds of fish, and almost everything
else that was ever offered in sacrifice; so that
their food must have been poor indeed. Moreover,
such as it was, it was forbidden to be cooked at
the same fire as the men's, or to be eaten off the
same board. There was no such thing in Hawaii
as a family sitting down together to a comfortable
dinner or supper; the men and women lived
almost entirely apart. The little boy, as soon as
he was weaned, was fed with his father's food,
and directly he could run, he was sent to sit down
at meals with his father, while his sister was not
allowed to be fed with a particle of food that had been
kept in the father's dish, or cooked at his fire, and
his mother was forced to eat her food in an outhouse. And whoever broke these tabu laws, remember, was liable to be strangled, or stoned, or
offered up as a sacrifice on the altar of the god
who was supposed to have been offended. Such
was the state of things in Hawaii ninety years
ago!
Now, thank God, things are very different.
The eight islands of Hawaii-Nei are governed by
one king, who rules according to just laws, and is
helped and controlled in the exercise of his power




110


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


by two Houses of Parliament and a staff of welleducated ministers of state. War has been unknown in the islands for more than forty years,
and the tabu system has been done away with for
about the same time. The people have been
freed from the oppressions of their chiefs, and
have as much liberty, and at the same time as
much protection from the laws, as English people
have. Sacrifices to the gods, and all open expressions of idolatry, have been put down long
ago, and if it cannot be said that the mass of the
people have forsaken their old superstitions, the
government at least is enlightened and Christian,
and most anxious to provide Christian education
and instruction for every native of the islands.
These are remarkable changes to have taken
place in any nation in the course of ninety years,
and as we look at them more closely, we cannot
help noticing one point which makes them still
more remarkable.
Many other countries besides Hawaii-Nei have
changed their government for the better within
the last ninety years, but no other country that
we know of, inhabited by a coloured race, governed
by its own native rulers, has passed so quickly
from  barbarism  towards civilization.  We can
point to other countries-or at any rate to provinces as large as countries-such as the Punjaub
and Oude in India-which used to be full of law



AND THEIR PEOPLE.


111


lessness and oppression, and in which the people
are now free, peaceable, and orderly; but observe,
this change was not brought about by their native
rulers, but by the English conquerors of their
native rulers. Or, take another instance, among
the Malays of Borneo. We know that Sarawak,
in that island, has risen into importance of late
years, through its good government; but then the
head of that government is not a Malay, but an
Englishman, Sir James Brooke, who went to Borneo
about twenty years ago, with the benevolent intention of helping its people, and found it absolutely necessary, as his first step towards improvement, to set aside the native rulers of the province,
and to take the government into his own hands.
In all these cases, the native princes were the
worst enemies of their own countrymen.
In Hawaii, on the contrary, every change for
the better has been helped forward by the native
king. Of the five kings in succession-all bearing the name of Kamehameha-who have belonged to the present royal line, every one seems
to have had his country's welfare at heart, every
one has done something for the benefit of his
people, every one has wisely and thankfully taken
advantage of the help offered him by foreigners
coming from more civilized countries than his
own, and stooping to learn from them, has, in one
sense at least, learned to conquer.




112


THE SANDWIdCH ISLANDS


The history of such a family deserves a few
minutes' attention.
The founder of the present royal line of
Hawaii, Eamehameha I., was a young man, about
twenty-five years of age, when Captain Cook's
ships reached his island. He had not yet risen
to the rank of king, but he was a chief by birth,
and being in attendance upon his master, the
King of Hawaii, he had many opportunities of
going on board the English ships, where his great
size and strength, together with the shrewd
observations he made, attracted the attention of
the officers. Their opinion of him was not altogether favourable. He is described in one of
their journals, as having the most savage face
they ever beheld, and as making his natural
ugliness still more ugly by plastering a dirty
brown paste or powder over his hair. Nevertheless, this ugly savage was really a remarkable
man; he has been called by some writers the
Alfred the Great of his country, but perhaps his
character more nearly resembled that of Peter
the Great of Russia. He was firm, decided, and
persevering, full of energy and ambition, and
eager to introduce the arts and appliances of
civilized life among his countrymen. He seemed
to be always acting out the motto, " Onward."
During his younger days Kamehameha held
the government of a small district in the north of




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


113


Hawaii, which he managed with the energy
natural to his character. He attached to himself
a number of young chiefs who were somewhat
like-minded with himself, and he is said to have
kept them in constant work upon the improvements which he was continually projecting. His
native village was built upon the top of a cliff,
one hundred feet above the sea, which could only
be reached from it by a steep and difficult path.
Kamehameha and his companions cut through the
rocks, and made a good road to the shore, with a
slope which was so easy, that the fishing canoes
could be drawn up and down it without difficulty.
At another place, the active chief dug into the
solid rock, in hope of finding water, but was disappointed. Then he improved his land, by planting a part of it with groves of fruit trees, and by
dividing another large tract into fields, which he
took care to keep in good order, and well stocked
with potatoes and other vegetables. "One of
these fields," Mr. Ellis tells us, "was called by
his name. He was accustomed to cultivate it
with his own hands. There were several others
called by the names of his principal friends,
which, following his example, they used to cultivate themselves; the others were cultivated by
their dependents."
Often, when the work upon the land was
finished, the young chief and his friends would
I




114


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


amuse themselves by practising warlike exercises
with their native weapons-the dart, the club,
the dagger, and the sling-and Kamehameha
became so skilful, that he would allow six men to
throw their darts at him at once; three of them,
it is said, he would catch in his left hand, two he
turned aside with his own spear, and the sixth he
nimbly avoided by a slight bend of his body.
So things went on, till a year or two after
Captain Cook's death, when the old King of
Hawaii died also. He was uncle to Kamehameha,
and his dying directions were, that his kingdom
should be divided between his son and his talented
nephew. Thus it was that Kamehameha became
a king, although at first only of half an island.
It is possible-though not very probable, considering the ambitious character of the young
chief-that he might have contented himself with
his little dominion if war had not been forced
upon him by others. But his cousin, the old
king's son, naturally enough refused to consent
to the division of the island, which he looked
upon as belonging to himself; and so, raising an
army, he marched against Kamehameha, who, on
his side, was forced to collect his warriors also.
The two little armies met near a place called
Keei, and fought with such equal bravery that
the battle raged between them for eight days;
but at last the old king's son was killed, and his




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


115


party fled, leaving Kamehameha I. mastr of the
field and of the whole island of Hawaii. By this
event, his ambition seems to have been thoroughly
roused, so that now, instead of contenting himself
with his native island, he began to look about for
opportunities of enlarging his dominions still
further. The King of Maui had given some help
to his rival, so he was attacked and conquered;
then, another pretext was found for invading
Oahu, and so on, till at last the eight islands of
Hawaii-Nei were all brought to acknowledge
Kamehameha as their sovereign. This result,
however, was not the work of a single day, nor
even of a year; it took Kamehameha twenty
years to accomplish it, and six thousand Hawaiian
warriors are said to have fallen in the bloody
fights of this long war.
One of the most famous of Kamehameha's
battles was fought in the valley of Nuuanu, which
I have already described as running up into the
mountains of Oahu, immediately behind the city
of Honolulu, and ending in a precipice several
hundred feet high. The King of Oahu had
encamped his army in the valley, in what he
thought a very strong position, as it was protected
by the hills behind and by a stone wall in front.
But Kamehameha had somehow or other obtained
possession of a cannon, and had taken into his
service an Englishman named John Young, who




116


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


was able to work it, as the Oahuan warriors soon
learnt to their cost; for a few discharges of the
new weapon blew the stone wall, in which they
had trusted, into the midst of their ranks, disordering them so much, that the disheartened
warriors forsook their chosen post, and fled
up the valley.  The conquerors pursued them
closely, and drove them to the brink of the precipice, and four hundred of them, it is said, fell
headlong from it, and were dashed to pieces on
the rocks below. This victory left Kamehameha
master of Oahu.
Another part of the war was made remarkable
by a terrible instance of the destructive power of
the volcanoes in Hawaii. A powerful Hawaiian
chief, named Keona, becoming dissatisfied with
Kamehameha's government, revolted, and gathering all the warriors of his district together, set
out with them for the place where the king's
-army was assembled. The rebel soldiers according to the usual practice of Hawaiian armies,
were accompanied by their wives and children,
and as they made an unwieldy party all together,
Keona divided them  into three companies, and
gave orders that the second and third companies
should follow the first at some little distance.
Their way led them over the volcano of Mouna
Kea, and as they marched, a sudden and very
violent eruption of the mountain took place,




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O P,.1
I  1.
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EIANDWICH ISLANDS.


Page 116.




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AND THEIR PEOPLE.


117


attended with noises exceeding thunder in loudness; 'the earth shook and rocked beneath their
feet, and a shower of ashes was thrown into the
air, filling a circuit of many miles. The first
division seems to have been nearest the place of
the eruption; a few of their number were scorched
to death, but the great majority of them escaped.
The men of the third division, terrified by the
sound of the eruption and the sight of the falling
ashes, hastened forward to join their companions.
"As they approached the central division, they
discovered that the people had halted-some of
them, apparently, calmly sleeping on the ground,
whilst others were sitting upright, with their
wives and children embraced in their arms, or
pressing their faces together in their usual manner
of salutation. They spoke to them, but there
was no reply; they touched them, but there was
no motion; they examined their comrades more
closely, and discovered that they were in the
camp of Death."* Every human being of those
four hundred was stiff and lifeless, killed by the
deadly vapours that had issued from the volcano.
The remnant of Keona's forces was easily routed
by Kamehameha, whose hold on the throne of
Hawaii became more firmly established from that
time forward.
But although the terrible war we have spoken
* "Hawaii," by Manley Hopkins, Esq.




118


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


of went on at intervals for nearly twenty years, it
must not be supposed that it occupied the whole
attention of Kamehameha I. and his people, nor
that it prevented foreign vessels from coming into
their harbours for the purposes of trade. Within
ten or twelve years after Captain Cook's first visit,
the Sandwich Islands had become pretty well
known to seamen, and a regular trade had been
opened with them. Kamehameha saw how much
his people might learn from the foreigners, and
therefore he always encouraged their visits, and
treated them fairly, and even liberally; but he
was not always able to secure the good conduct of
his chiefs, who now and then made an attempt to
seize a vessel, or to murder a part of the crew,
although it must be confessed that they seldom
did so unless they had received great provocation.
Sometimes the conduct of the white men was
atrocious, and deserved far heavier punishment
than any the Hawaiians had the power to inflict.
For instance:
In the autumn of 1789 two American vessels,
the ship Eleanor and the schooner Fair American,
arrived in one of the Hawaiian harbours, and
their captains spent the winter in trading among
the islands. While they were lying off a village
in Maui, one of the ship's boats was stolen, and
the seaman who was guarding it murdered.
Thereupon, Captain Metcalf attacked the village,




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


119


and killed one of the villagers in return. But
this was by no means the end of the affair. A
few days afterwards, when the people naturally
thought that all was over, they crowded round
the ship in their canoes, to trade as usual; Captain Metcalf waited till they had all arrived, and
then issued a sudden order that one side of the
ship should be cleared, and the whole fleet of
canoes assembled on the other side. As soon as
this order was obeyed, he ran out a large cannon
loaded with musket balls and nails, and fired it
into the midst of the unsuspecting fleet. A
hundred natives were killed, and a vast number of
others badly wounded.
After this atrocious act, the two vessels sailed
Nfor Hawaii, where the wretched Metcalf again
_gave way to his barbarous passions. One of the
principal chiefs of the island happened to come on
board. the Eleanor, and for some trifling offence
Metcalf had him tied up and flogged. The chief
felt the indignity as much as an English gentleman would, and in his burning rage he planned
and carried out a scheme of revenge. He dared
not attempt anything against the ship, with its
numerous and well-armed crew; but the little
schooner was lying at some distance from  her
companion, and he knew that she was commanded
by Metcalf's son, and had only a crew of five
men; so he boarded her with his people, seized




120


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


young Metcalf and threw him   overboard, killed
all the rest of the crew except one man, Isaac
Davis, and then drove the schooner on shore and
plundered her. Who can wonder at the heathen
chief's revenge?
At the time of the Fair American's seizure, one
of the Eleanor's crew, the boatswain, an Englishman named John Young, happened to be on shore;
he was made a prisoner, and not allowed to return
to the Eleanor, but otherwise both he and Davis
were kindly treated. Kamehameha I. took both of
them into his service, raised them to the rank of
chiefs, and gave them considerable grants of land,
and they returned his kindness by serving their
adopted country faithfully, to the end of their
lives. Young, especially, seems to have risen to
the occasion; he gained great influence over Kamehameha, and became one of his most trusted
counsellors; and as the advice he gave, always
leant to the side of humanity and civilization, he
must be looked upon as one of the benefactors of
the Hawaiian people.
Another Englishman to whom the Hawaiians
are greatly indebted, paid several visits to the
islands in the years 1792, 3, and 4. His name
was Vancouver. He had been an officer in one
of Captain Cook's ships, but was now himself the
commander of an exploring expedition. He was
heartily welcomed by Kamehameha, and in return




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


121


for the kind reception he met with, he exerted
himself to the utmost for the benefit of the king
and his subjects. He made Kamehameha a present of a bull, some cows, and some sheep, the
first that had ever been brought to the Sandwich
Islands; he taught him how to drill and discipline
his soldiers; he set his own crew to work in building a decked vessel for his royal friend; he gave
him a great deal of valuable advice as to the
best methods of promoting civilization among his
people; and, above all, he spoke to him so well
and so forcibly about the blessings of Christianity,
that Kamehameha was visibly moved, and entreated Vancouver to beg the English government
to send him some missionaries, that he and his
people might be more fully instructed in the religion of their friends.
Vancouver did not forget Kamehameha's request. As soon as he returned to England, he laid
it before the government, and added his own entreaty that it might be granted. But the petition fell upon dull ears, for there was very little
missionary spirit in our country at that date; and
moreover, as it was the time of the great French
Revolution, the government officers were very
much occupied about other things, and so it came
to pass, to our shame, that the first appeal made
to this land for religious light and help, was unattended to and forgotten.




122


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


Kamehameha I. never forsook the worship of his
idols, although his faith in them was certainly
shaken by the Christian lessons he received from
Vancouver and some of his other visitors. The
image of his war-god, Tairi, was always carried
before him when he went into battle; but in
showing one of his temples to a foreigner towards
the end of his life, he remarked, " These are our
gods, whom I worship. Whether I do right or
wrong I do not know; but I follow my faith,
which cannot be wicked, as it commands me never
to do wrong."
S As to the tabu system, which was closely connected with idol-worship, its laws were strictly
enforced during the whole of Kamehameha's
reign, and so late as 1818 one man was slain
for having put on a chief's girdle, another for
eating something which had been tabooed, and a
third for leaving a house which was under tabu.
Yet even here there was progress: the executions
were not nearly so numerous as they had been in
former reigns; and whereas in old times the tabus
had generally been laid on for forty days, and
sometimes for as many years, during Kamehameha's
reign the time was reduced to ten days, then to
five days, and at last to a single day.
Kamehameha's personal appearance improved
very much in his later years. When Vancouver
visited him, his old savage look of stern ferocity




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


123


had softened into an expression of firmness mixed
with dignity. In figure he was tall and strongly
built, and all his movements were majestic. His
eyes were dark and piercing, seeming to read
the thoughts of those about him, and the most
courageous quailed before his angry glance. But
his general disposition'was frank, generous, cheerful, and hospitable. " Since I have been king," he
boasted, "no European has had cause to complain
of having suffered injustice here. I have made
my islands an asylum for all nations, and honestly
supplied with provisions every ship that desired
them." His sagacity was always on the look-out
for opportunities of improvement. He took fifty
Europeans and Americans into his service; by
their help he drilled his soldiers, and provided
them with a uniform; he built forts to defend his
capital, and mounted them with forty heavy guns;
besides which he supplied himself with a little
fleet of schooners, to which he added a twentygun ship bought from the Americans. All these
things show progress: and when I have told you
further that in his conduct towards his people he
was far more just and humane than the kings who
had gone before him, and that "to this day his
memory warms the hearts of the Hawaiians, who
love his name, and are proud of their old warrior king," I think I shall have said enough to
prove my assertion, that Kaehamaeha I. did as




124


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


much for his native land as Peter the Great did
for Russia.
Kamehameha died in 1819, after a reign of
nearly forty years, counting from the death of his
uncle-or of twenty years if we reckon from the
time when he laid aside his sword, after having
gained possession of the whole group of HawaiiNei. His subjects showed their sense of his loss
by sacrificing three hundred dogs at his funeral;
and although this heathen offering may seem a
strange one, we must look upon it as another
proof of advancing civilization, since the old
practice in Hawaii had been to sacrifice, not
dogs, but human victims, upon the death of a
king.
Kamehameha I. was succeeded by his son
Liholiho Iolani, who took the name of Kamehameha II. upon    his accession.  He was a
very different man from his father, possessing
much less firmness and energy of character,
although he cannot be said to have been wholly
wanting in either. He seems to have had the
welfare of his county at heart, but unfortunately,
the good that was in him was often hidden by his
habits of intemperance. The two great events of
his reign, which demand our notice on account of
the important influences they had upon the wellbeing of the Sandwich Islands, were, first, the
"putting down of the tabu system, and of idol



.AND THEIR PEOPLE.


125


worship, throughout Hawaii-Nei, and secondly, the
arrival of missionaries there.
We have already spoken of the tabu system, by
which the Hawaiians were so grievously oppressed;
it was almost unendurable; and yet to break
through it was supposed to be certain death. But
after the visit of Vancouver, a general feeling
seems to have spread through Hawaii that idolatry
was useless, and that something must be done
towards getting rid of it. As long as Kamehameha I. was alive, this feeling was kept in check
by his strong arm, but immediately after his death,
in 1819, the smothered fire burst forth into a flame.
Kamehameha had left two widows; for he had
followed the marriage customs of his country, and
among the heathen Hawaiians it was not thought
wrong for a man to have several wives at once.
Now the two queen-dowagers were, both of them,
decidedly in favour of the new movement, and
they had the wisdom and the courage to persuade
the young king to join it, and to dare the vengeance of his gods by breaking the tabu. "Under
their directions a feast was prepared, and set on
according to Hawaiian custom-for the men by
themselves, and for the women by themselves.
When all was ready, the king walked in, and, to
the astonishment of the assembled chiefs, took his
place by the side of the women, and began to eat
of the food that had been prepared for them.




126


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


"The timid heathen looked on in amazement,
expecting every moment to see the anger of their
gods falling upon the head of the impious king.
But when they had looked for some time, and saw
that no harm happened to him, their minds came
round to the true conclusion, and a joyful shout
arose among them-' The Tabu is broken! The
Tabu is broken!' Then each man hastened to
follow the example of his king, and to sit down to
the feast beside his wives and children.
"Nor was this all. If the gods could not
revenge the breaking of their tabu, it was plainly
seen that they were but powerless blocks of wood
and stone; and the word went forth that they
should be destroyed.
"The High Priest of the old religion himself
headed this movement. Acting with a sincerity
and self-devotion that may well put many a
Christian to the blush, he gave up his rank, and
even his means of livelihood (both of which he
had received from the old superstition), in order
to do what he felt to be right. He proclaimed to
the people, 'I knew long ago that the wooden
images of our gods, carved by our own hands,
could never supply our wants, but I worshipped
them because it was the custom of our fathers.
My thoughts have always been, that there is one
only great God, dwelling in the heavens.' Then
he put himself at the head of the crowd, and




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


127


marched with them from place to place, burning
the wooden idols, and throwing down those that
were made of stone. In the course of a few days,
forty thousand idols are said to have been destroyed
in Hawaii.
"Such a voluntary casting away of idolatry is
not known to have taken place in any other
nation. It was no doubt the effect of that preparation of the heart of man which cometh of the
Lord, but it was not the fruit of direct religious
teaching; for it is to be observed that, at the time
it took place, there were no Christian teachers
whatever in Hawaii, and the only lessons in Christianity the natives had ever received, were the few
words that had been spoken to them by Vancouver
and other like-minded seamen, who had visited the
islands from time to time.  The destruction of the
idols in Hawaii was not therefore, we repeat, the
fruit of direct religious teaching, but it showed a
yearning of the people after better things, and
was, surely, a mute appeal to their heavenly
Father to cast the bright beams of gospel light
upon His children." *
The appeal was not unanswered; but the light
that was to shine upon Hawaii was not brought
from England. Religious teachers had been asked
for from us, and we had neglected to send them,
* Quarterly Paper of the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel, No. 126, November, 1863.




128


iTHE SANDWICH ISLANDS


and so it came to pass that, after a long delay, the
work we had left undone was undertaken by the
Congregationalists of Boston; in North America.
In the spring.of 1820, only a few months after
the destruction of the idols, seven missionary
families arrived in Hawaii, sent by the American
Board of Foreign Missions, and from that time to
this, the American Congregationalists have been
unwearied, and most devoted, in their labours
among the islanders. Upon their first arrival,
they were received with suspicion; the Hawaiians told them they were expecting teachers from
England, and wanted nothing from them; and
they were not even allowed to land until John
Young had given his word that they were
men of the same religion as the English. After
a time, however, they worked their way; they
opened chapels and schools, and ere long, the
king himself and his principal chiefs might be
seen, morning after morning, bending their steps
towards the place of instruction, or sitting as
humble scholars at the feet of the American
missionaries.
The High Priest was one of the first converts
to Christianity; another was Kaahumanu, the most
powerful of the two queen-dowagers. She was a
remarkable character. It is said of her that, "in
the days of her heathenism she had been the
haughtiest, the most imperious, and the most cruel




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


129


of her sex. When angry, her glance carried terror to her trembling vassals. No subject, however
high his station, dared face her frown. Though
friendly to the missionaries, her personal deportment
towards them was lofty and disdainful.... [But]
after she had sat as a disciple at the feet of Christ,
her strong character underwent an entire change.
Her naturally warm affections burst through the
cold, contemptuous habit with which she had overlaid them. She walked with meekness and consistency in her new course; was attached to those
who had been the means of this renovation, and
kind to all her people. 'The new and good Kaahumanu' was the name by which she was frequently
spoken of.... Her example led to the adoption
of the Christian profession by many others, for
people took note that she had been with Jesus."*
Of course, these changes did not take place without exciting a great deal of opposition on the part
of those who had been satisfied with the old state
of things. Soon after the destruction of the idols,
in the autumn of 1819, the heathen party broke
out into open rebellion, headed by one of the king's
cousins. The rebels were able to muster a considerable army, but they were met and defeated by
the king's forces, and their leader being slain in
the battle, the rest of them dispersed quietly.
After this, the king made a law that no more
" Hawaii," by Manley Hopkins, Esq.
K




130


THE SANDWICH ISLAN\DS


idolatry should be allowed in the Sandwich
Islands.. As nearly all the temples had been thrown down,
and their idols broken to pieces, it was tolerably
easy to enforce the outward observance of the law
in most places; but you must remember it does
not at all follow that, because the people left off
their idol-worship, they immediately became Christians. In the wild parts of the country it was
difficult to put down even the outward forms of
idolatry, and it is said that the worshippers of
Pele continued to perform their rites, for many
years, in the neighbourhood of Mauna Loa, the
great volcano, which has been described in a former
chapter.
I have already told you that Pele, the goddess of Destruction, was supposed to live in the
crater of Mauna Loa, and that the natives were so
afraid of meeting her,-that very few of them dared
to go up the mountain, and also, that. certain
berries, growing upon the volcano, were looked
upon as sacred to Pele, and were never eaten by
the islanders until a part of them had been offered
to the goddess.
A few years after the American missionaries had
begun their teaching, a noble attempt was made
by one of their first converts, a female chief named
Kapiolani, to convince the worshippers of Pele of
the folly of their superstitions. Kapiolani gathered




I




I I
SANIDWVCII ISLANDXL-                       I aqge 131.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


131


them together, and told them she intended to pay
a visit to the crater of the volcano. Of course
they tried to dissuade her, by threatening her with
the powerful vengeance of the goddess; but she
answered quietly, that she had made up her mind
to go, and she hoped they would come with her,
to witness her proceedings. If Pele appeared, as
they said she would, she would fall down and worship her, but if the goddess gave no sign of her
presence, they must look upon it as a sure proof
that "there is no power but of God." So saying,
she started on her journey, followed timidly by a
multitude of the heathen.
Taking a bunch of the sacred berries in her
hand, she mounted to the edge of the fiery crater,
and then descended to the very brink of the burning lake; there she dared the vengeance of the
goddess, by eating some of the sacred berries, and
by casting the remainder into the midst of the fiery
mass; and then, having sung a hymn, and praised
God aloud amidst the most stupendous instances of
His power, she reascended, to reprove the idolatry
of the amazed worshippers of Pele, and to urge
them to forsake it. " It would be difficult," as the
Bishop of Oxford says, " to find in any history the
record of a nobler act of faithful courage, than that
of the descent of this noble woman into the very
crater of the volcano."
But to return to King Kamehameha II. He




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THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


became one of the most diligent students the missionaries had. Mr. Ellis, who was his teacher for
some months, says of him: "I have sat beside him
at his desk, sometimes from 9 or 10 o'clock in the
morning till nearly sunset, during which period
his pen or his book has not been out of his hand
more than three quarters of an hour, while he was
at dinner."  "I recollect his remarking one day,
when he opened his writing-desk, that he expected
more advantage from that desk than from a fine
brig belonging to him, lying at anchor opposite
the house in which we were sitting."
" His mind was naturally inquisitive. The questions he usually presented to foreigners were by
no means trifling, and his memory was retentive.
His general knowledge of the world was much
greater than could have been expected. I have
heard him entertain a party of chiefs for hours
together, with accounts of different parts of the
earth, describing the extensive lakes, the mountains, and mines of North and South America; the
elephants and inhabitants of India; the houses,
manufactures, &c., of England, with no small
accuracy, considering he had never seen them."
After a while, the wonderful accounts he heard
and read of foreign countries roused in his mind
a desire to visit them, and in 1823 he and his
favourite wife, Kamehamalu, accompanied by several Hawaiian chiefs, set sail for England. They




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


133


arrived at Portsmouth on the 22nd of May, 1824,
and met with a very kind reception.     The
English government promised to defray all the
expenses of their visit, and appointed a gentleman
to attend upon them; the nobility paid them many
attentions; King George IV. declared his intention of receiving them at court, and there seemed
every chance of their enjoying a pleasant and prosperous visit.
But, about a month after they landed, one of
their household was attacked by measles.  Next
day the king sickened, and by the end of a week
every member of the royal party was suffering from
the same disease. They received every possible attention. King George sent his own physicians to
them, and the Duke of York his surgeon; but in
spite of every care, the queen grew rapidly worse,
and died on the 8th of July. She and the king
had been fondly attached to each other. Their
parting was very touching. They held one another
in a long, last embrace, their tears flowing without
restraint. After the last struggle was over, the
king stood by the lifeless body, and seemed to find
some comfort in what he had learnt from the missionaries, for presently, lifting up his eyes, he exclaimed, "She has gone to heaven."
Up to the time of the queen's death, Kamehameha had seemed to be recovering, but his sorrow
for her loss was so great, that he sank under it, and




134


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


breathed his last only six days after her, on the
14th of July, 1824. He was twenty-seven years
old at the time of his death, and his queen about
two years younger. Their short visit to this
country, and its sad ending, excited a good deal of
interest, and after their death, it was the general
feeling in England that the highest respect should
be paid to their remains.
It was supposed, that it would be more soothing
to the feelings of the Sandwich Islanders to be able
to lay the bones of their late king and queen beside
those of their ancestors, than to hear that they had
received an honourable funeral in England, and
therefore, the frigate Blonde, Captain Lord Byron,
was ordered to receive the two royal coffins on
board, and to carry them to Hawaii. The frigate
arrived there in May 1825, and the two coffins
were landed amidst the wildest tokens of grief.
The wail of the multitude, as they lifted up their
voices and wept, is said to have " echoed over the
hills, and drowned the roar of the surf." But at
the same time, the Hawaiians showed themselves
fully sensible of the kind thoughtfulness of the
English government, and they seem to have looked
upon the visit of the Blonde as one more link,
binding them with a chain of gratitude to the
country of their earliest friends.
Both the king and queen were sincerely mourned
for by the Hawaiians.  The king's character, as




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


135


we have seen, was a mixed one, but there is no
'doubt that he was really anxious for the good
of his country. His queen Kamehamalu richly
deserved a place in the affections of her people.
Like her husband, she had been a diligent pupil of
the missionaries, and though she never made as
much progress in her studies as Kamehameha, she
profited by them in the best way, and became, we
have every reason to believe, a Christian in heart
as well as in name. Before she put herself under
Christian instruction, she had occasionally given
way to the besetting vice of her husband, drunkenness; but after she became a Christian, she put
away that, and every other practice inconsistent
with her new profession. She was very anxious
that her people, and especially her own servants,
should profit by the instruction of the missionaries,
and she often urged them to become worshippers
of the true God. She built a school in Honolulu
for their benefit, and almost entirely supported the
native teacher who was appointed to it. She often
paid him a visit during school-hours, and generally
brought with her a slate, a copy-book, pencil, pen,
or some other trifle, as a reward for the best scholar.
She was very affectionate in her disposition, and
when her husband's mother was ill, she would sit
beside her day after day, fanning away the flies,
and waiting upon her with her own hands. Her
general kindness was so well known, that it was a




136


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


common thing for the poor people, when they fell
into any trouble, to bring their tale of distress to'
her, and they never went away without a kind
word, or more substantial help. The memory of
such a queen deserves to be held up to honour far
beyond the bounds of her own little kingdom.
As Kamehameha II. left no children, the throne
passed to his brother, the youngest son of the first
Kamehameha, but as the new king was only eleven
years old at the time of his brother's death, it was
agreed that the government should remain, for
some years, in the hands of the chiefs to whom
Kamehameha II. had committed it, before he sailed
for England.
The young king took the name of Kamehameha III. His reign lasted for thirty years, and
was marked by a continued advance in civilization.
The kings and chiefs had hitherto governed
pretty much according to their own wills, but now,
by tle help of the American missionaries, the laws
of the kingdom were written down, and formed
into a regular code. The king gave up his right
of absolute power, and granted his people a constitution. The first Hawaiian parliament was assembled. And lastly, the laws about the holding of
land were altered very much for the better.
Before this reign, all the land in the islands had
been looked upon as belonging to the king, who
might take as much as he pleased from one chief,




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


137


and give it to another. No man could call his
house or his field his own, or be quite sure
they would not be taken from him in a year or
two. And as there was no security of property,
scarcely any one cared to improve his land, or
to cultivate more of it than was necessary to
supply the wants of his own family.  But Kamehameha III. gave an important stimulus to
industry, by surrendering his own rights over the
greater part of the land, and by making it over
securely to the chiefs, or other holders who had it
in actual possession; so that at last it became
worth their while to improve it, or, if they found
they had more of it than they wanted for themselves, they were enabled to sell it, or to let it, to.their own benefit, and that of other people also.
There was no actual war during the reign of
Kamehameha III., yet the king had great difficulties to contend with. Party spirit often ran
very high among his people, the American missionaries and their converts taking one side, and
the half-heathen enemies of Christianity the other.
In 1827, a new element of discord was introduced,
by the arrival of a Roman Catholic bishop and
priest. The guardians of the young king, who
were then holding the reins of government, foresaw
the difficulties that a rival mission was likely to
produce, and were very unwilling to allow the newcomers to remain in Hawaii; but the Romanists




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THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


were backed up so strongly by French influence
that it was found impossible to get rid of them.
Indeed the French interfered so far in their favour
as to threaten the poor Hawaiians with war, upon
pretence that the members of the Romish mission
and their converts had been ill-treated in the
islands.
A few years later, there was a disagreement with
the English government; then again, another with
the French; so that it required no small skill on
the part of Kamehameha to keep his little kingdom
out of the troubles of war. Fortunately for the
Hawaiians, he was equal to the occasion. One
who knew him long and intimately says of him:
" If the first of the name [of Kamehameha] was
the one and proper man for his epoch, the third
Kamehameha was equally fitted for the time on
which he fell. He had private moral faults and
irregularities, over which, as they affected but
little his public conduct, we may well throw the
veil of silence; and then we have a king who, if
any ever deserved the name of the Father of his
People, was worthy of that honoured title....
Many times, placed in circumstances of extreme
danger and perplexity, he steered the barque of the
state out of them with all the caution and devotion
of a pilot. It is no hyperbole to say of him, that
he was ready to sacrifice himself to the public weal,
because he actually did so, both on public and




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


139


great emergencies, and in a long course of watching and self-restraint.  He denuded himself of
privileges and prerogatives, that he might clothe
his people with them. He freely gave up to that
people his time, his care, his income, and his territory." *
Kamehameha III. had two children, but as both
)f them died during his lifetime, he adopted as his
aeir, his nephew, Prince Alexander Liholiho, who
was the son of Kinau, one of the daughters of
[amehameha I.
This prince was proclaimed king upon his uncle's
'eath-which took place in December, 1854-by;he title of Kamehameha IV. He was then about;wenty-one years old.  He came to the throne
vith a better preparation than any of his prede-,essors, for he had enjoyed the benefit of a visit to
England, France, and the United States of America,
And had also received a good English education,
vhich he had improved by his own reading. He
vas, indeed, "a man of rare physical powers, of
legant tastes and keen perceptions, who could:njoy the writings of Kingsley, Thackeray, and.ennyson, and was ever quoting Shakespeare;"
nd, what was still more important, he was sinerely anxious for the good of his people.
On the 19th of June, 1856, Kamehameha IV.
narried a lady who was in every way qualified to
* "Hawaii," by Manley Hopkins, Esq.




140


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


become a true help-meet to him, the Queen Emma,
whose late visit to England has attracted so much
attention.
Queen Emma is the daughter of the chief
Naea, and the grand-daughter of John Young,
the famous Englishman, who was for so many
years the friend and counsellor of Kamehameha I.
Young married a female chief of high rank, and
had two daughters, Fanny Kekela and Grace.
Fanny became the wife of Naea, and Grace married Dr. Rooke, an English medical man from
Hertford, who had settled at Honolulu. Dr. Rooke
and his wife-following a practice which is very
common in Hawaii-adopted their niece, Emma,
while she was still an infant, and through their
care, the future queen received an English education and training; besides which, it is to be noticed
that, being the grand-daughter of John Young,
she has one-fourth part of English blood in her
veins.
One of the first cares of the young king and
queen was to provide their people with an institution which had been long wanted in Honolulu,
namely, a public hospital. It was a very costly
undertaking, and had been put off from year to
year on account of the difficulty of finding the
money. Kamehameha's attention had been espec.ally called to the need of it about a year before
he came to the throne, when the islands were




ANlD THEIR PEOPLE.


141


visited by smallpox, which carried off the people
by thousands. He had been very active in his
endeavours to relieve the sufferers, having put
aside all fear of infection, and gone about among
them, carrying them help with his own hands. No
doubt the distressing scenes he met with at that
time were deeply engraved upon his mind, and in
the first year of his reign he recommended his
parliament to undertake the building of the muchneeded hospital; but, as we have said, the work
was looked upon as likely to be too costly, and
nothing was done.
At last, the king and queen saw that there was
but one way of gaining their cherished desire:
the hospital must be built by subscription, and
they themselves must undertake to collect the
money; and this they did. "It was certainly a
novel sight," writes a resident in Honolulu, "to
see a king and queen going about to gather names
to a subscription list: but so it was; and day
after day, and for this end, their Majesties' carriages stopped the way."
Another resident says: "How the king and
the queen established the Queen's Hospital is
known to everybody. There is not a stone in the
building that would have been laid but for them,
nor has one hour's suffering been averted but
through their personal efforts, when they undertook to found that noble institution. The king




142


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


has gone, but the hospital remains, a monument of
him and of her."
It was opened in September, 1859, and named
after the queen who had helped to found it. It
has already been the means of saving many lives,
and of shortening many weary days of sickness; and
we cannot doubt that in God's own mysterious way
it has also brought a blessing to its royal founders.
About eighteen months before the opening of
the hospital, on the 20th of May, 1858, Queen
Emma became the mother of a little prince, her
first and only child. His birth was hailed with
great joy, and as he grew into a fine, intelligent
little boy, he became more and more the hope and
delight of his parents and the pride of the Hawaiian
nation. His father was so anxious to have him
well brought up, that he began to think about
what would be necessary for his education, almost
before the little fellow was able to lisp his A, B, C.
Kamehameha IV. had received his own education
from the American Congregationalist missionaries,
but he was not entirely satisfied with their system
of training; and therefore, in making choice of a
teacher for his son, his thoughts turned towards
England rather than America, and he determined,
in the first instance, to procure an English tutor
for the young prince, and afterwards to send him
to Eton, to finish his education at the first of our
English schools.




ANTD THEIR PEOPLE.


143


In making these arrangements, Kamehameha
was guided by two considerations: first, he preferred what he knew; of the English school system
to that of the Americans; and, secondly, he wished
his son to be brought up as a member of the
Church of England.
Up to this time, no Church of England Mission
had ever been opened in Hawaii. The American
Congregationalists had begun to work there, as we
have seen, in 1820,* and the French Roman Catholics a few years later. Each of the rival missions
had made many nominal converts, yet neither of
them seemed to have reached the hearts of the
Hawaiian people, and neither of them fully satisfied
the intelligent mind of King Kamehameha IV.
After much thought and private study-for he
had no earthly teacher in this matter-he had
come to the deliberate conclusion that the Church
of England is the purest branch of Christ's holy
Catholic Church to be found upon earth, and
therefore it was, that he desired to have his son
brought up in its faith. At the same time, he
naturally wished both to join it himself, and also
to give his people an opportunity of choosing
between it and the other forms of Christianity
* In 1822, the American missionaries were joined by Mr.
Ellis, of the Londont Missionary Society, who worked in cuncert with them for about two years, and took a share in the
education of Kamelhameha II. and his queen; but the London
Society afterwards withdrew its misAiou from the islands.




144


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


that were already known to them. In order to
obtain the means of accomplishing these objects,
Kamehameha IV. wrote with his own hand to
Queen Victoria, in the year 1860, and at the
same time, directed one of his ministers to write in
his name to the Archbishop of Canterbury and
to Earl Russell, telling them of his wants, and
earnestly begging them to send him a tutor for
his son, and also, a bishop and several missionary
clergymen for his people.
Upon the receipt of these letters, the Queen, or
her ministers for her, consulted the Archbishop of
Canterbury and several of the bishops, as to what
it would be right and best to do; for an application from a foreign king for a Church of England
bishop was quite a new thing to them-indeed,
there is said to be no other instance of it on record,
-but it was soon agreed that Kamehameha's
request was one that ought to be listened to, and
that the bishop and missionaries he had asked for
should be sent out to him as soon as possible.
Thereupon, the double post of Bishop of Honolulu
and tutor to the young heir to the throne of
Hawaii-Nei was offered to the Rev. Thomas Nettleship Staley, of Queen's College, Cambridge, whc
accepted it, and was consecrated in the chapel of
Lambeth Palace, on the 15th of December, 1861.
by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop.
of London and Oxford.




AND THEI PEOPLE.


145


The Queen and the Prince of Wales signified
their approval of the new mission by promising to
become godparents to the little Prince of Hawaii,
whose baptism, King Kamehameha had written,
he wished to be the first official act of the Bishop
of Honolulu.
Three clergymen-the Rev. Messrs. Scott,
Mason, and Ibbotson-consented to become the
bishop's fellow-labourers in his distant diocese,
and Bishop Staley sailed from England, accompanied by the two last, on the 22nd of August, 1862.
While these arrangements were going forward
in England, King Kamehameha IV. was making
active preparations on his side for the reception of
the missionaries. He was deeply in earnest, in
his desire to have the doctrines and forms of the
English Church set faithfully before his people,
and knowing that one of the first wants of the
new mission would be a translation of the Prayer
Book into the Hawaiian. language, like another
Alfred the Great, he undertook the translation
himself, and spared neither time nor thought, in
making it as perfect as possible.
After many days of patient, careful labour, the
Morning and Evening Prayer and the Litany were
completed in Hawaiian, and King Kamehameha
committed his manuscript to the hands of his own
printer, to ensure its being made ready for use as
quickly as possible; for the time when the longL




146


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


looked for English missionaries might be expected
in Hawaii was drawing very near.-Those who
had been asked for by Kamehameha I., and by
Kamehameha II., and who had been granted at
length to the urgent request of Kamehameha IV.,
were really coming at last. King Kamehameha,
his Queen, and many of their subjects were eager
to welcome them, the young Prince of Hawaii
was ready to be put under their care, and everything seemed to promise a bright and successful
opening to the new mission. But who can tell
what a day may bring forth, or how soon it
may please God to lay His chastening hand
upon us?
One Tuesday, —on the 19th of August, 1862, it
was,-the little Prince, on whom so many hopes
centred, was seized with brain fever. By Saturday, he had grown so much worse that his parents
did not think it right to delay his baptism any
longer. The British Commissioner and his wife,
Mr. and Mrs. Synge-who were to stand at the
font for Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales
-had just arrived in Honolulu, but alas! there
was no Church of England clergyman to be found
in the Sandwich Islands. One of the American
missionaries was, therefore, of necessity sent for,
and the baptism took place; the Cong'egationalist
minister, it was particularly noticed, using the
words of the service appointed by our Book of




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


147


Common Prayer, no doubt by the king's express
direction.
The prince lingered for a few days longer, but
his illness was a fatal one, and on the 27th of
August, minute guns fired from the fort, and the
deep sound of tolling bells in the city warned the
people of the sorrow that had fallen upon their
rulers. Public and business places were closed;
men spoke in whispers; and the streets were
deserted, from a feeling of grief for the lost one,
and of delicate respect for the royal mourners.
The next day, according to the custom of the
Hawaiian Court, the corpse was laid out in state,
and for three hours a continuous stream of people,
of every class and condition of life, thronged into
the palace, to obtain a last look at the face of the
child they had loved so well. It was a sorrowful
but not a dreadful sight; for the young face wore
a calm, sweet smile, and round the bier were vases
filled with fragrant flowers, and at the head, a
table bearing Queen Victoria's christening present
-a large silver vase of beautiful workmanship.
The funeral took place on Sunday, the 7th of
September, the grave being made under a favourite
tamarind tree in the palace grounds, and a large
wooden mausoleum built over it.
The grief of the warm-hearted parents at the
loss of their only child was inexpressible. Queen
Emma could not be persuaded to leave the tomb




148


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


for four days; she even slept there, and seemed
utterly unable to realise the awful truth that her
baby boy was gone from her. The king-like
one whom we have read of in English historyis said never to have smiled after the death of his
son, but to have been from that time forth a
broken-hearted man.
The great sorrow of the king and queen naturally threw a gloom over their subjects, and
when the bishop and his party landed, about five
weeks after the death of the prince, they were
struck with the sad look of the people, " walking
in long, black, loose dresses." But notwithstanding the general mourning, everything possible
was done to give the new-comers a kind and
honourable reception. The king and queen were
at their country seat, thirty miles from Honolulu,
endeavouring to recruit their strength after the
fearful trial they had passed through; but two of
their ministers, Mr. Wyllie and Mr. Gregg, were
deputed to welcome the missionaries, and the
royal carriage and four was placed at their disposal for the day. "Everywhere, as we went
along," the bishop writes, "we were welcomed
with the alohas of the natives and the attentions
of the foreign residents."
A few days after the bishop's arrival in Honolulu, the king and queen returned to the city, for
the express purpose of welcoming the mission




AND THEIM PEOPLE.


149


party. Speaking of his first interview with the
king, Bishop Staley says: "I was agreeably surprised with his dignity, intelligence, and gentlemanly bearing, notwithstanding all the favourable
prepossessions I had formed."..." He is a fine,
tall, handsome man, six feet two at least, with all
the ease and grace of an English gentleman."
"After he had said, 'I welcome you from the
Queen of England,' I stated the sorrow with
which we had' learnt the sad tidings of his bereavement. He was much moved." " Referring to the
presents which Mr. Mason and I had been sending in the day before, he said, 'They have been
coming in to us like precious drops of comfort.'
"We spoke of the arrangements in our temporary church. He then expressed a deep interest in them, and told us that the Hawaiian
Liturgy, to the end of the Morning and Evening
Prayer, would be complete and ready for use in a
few days. He had been long engaged upon them.
I asked if the Psalms were ready. He said they
had already a translation in the Bible, which
required revision; for the missionaries, in their
ignorance of Hebrew, had made sad mistakes....
I showed him the presents for the church service, &c., which we had received. He was quite
overcome with so many proofs of the interest
felt by our friends in England in the Church of
Hawaii."




150


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


The queen was not present at this interview,
but the bishop met her by appointment a few
days afterwards. Although she had been brought
up in Christian principles, she had never been
baptized, but now the English bishop was come,
she was anxious to have this omission supplied.
On the 20th of October, the. bishop writes:
" I went to the palace to prepare the queen
for holy baptism. She is a perfect lady, with
that quiet repose of manner peculiar to one
who feels her dignity and position. Her face is
most pleasing, and her eyes full of intelligence.
Tier face bore the traces of much suffering.
She spoke most reverently and intelligently
on this sacrament, and listened to every word I
said."
The baptism took place on the 21st of October,
in a large room   in the palace. Mr. Synge,
Mrs. Staley, and Mrs. Mason were the witnesses,
but the king and his ministers, judges, &c., the
princes of the royal house, and the leading chiefs,
were also present. " At one end of the chamber
was the altar at which the king and queen had
been married, covered with a gilded crimson cloth.
The font stood in front of the altar, placed on a
table. It was the small one of alabaster given
by Lady Franklin. At one end [of the room]
was the Queen of England's present for the baptism  of the prince, as if to remind all of his




ANND THEIR PEOPLE.


151


untimely death without possessing the same privileges as his royal mother.
"The service began with the prayers. The
whole service was choral. The king's brother
conducted the queen from the throne to the font.
She behaved with much quiet dignity and composure, and seemed wrapped in the service, the
responses of which she repeated in a clear, musical
voice, without looking at her prayer-book. The
whole occasion was most impressive."* The king
and many of his courtiers seemed to be deeply
affected by it.  "The king, indeed, was engaged
the whole of the afternoon in explaining to his
courtiers the expressions in the service, and
proving its truth by Holy Scripture. One of
those with whom the king thus conversed said,
'I felt as if angels were floating around me in the
room.' Two of them wanted to be baptized themselves, forthwith." t
The 9th of November, which was the fifth
Sunday after the arrival of Bishop Staley, was a
memorable epoch in the history of the mission, and
indeed in the life of King Kamehameha IV. also.:
it was the day on which the king's translation of
the Morning Prayer was used in public for the
first time. The church was crowded with natives,
* "'Extracts from a Journal of the Bishop of Honolulu."
Printed for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts, 1863.
t Ibid.




152


TI: E SANDWICH ISLANDS


and it was gratifying to observe that they showed
their appreciation of the king's work by joining
heartily in making the responses, and even in
singing the Canticles and Te Deum. At the
same service, the bishop preached his first sermon
in Hawaiian, which was listened to with great
attention by the natives.
On the 28th of November, which is a national
holiday among the Sandwich Islanders, another
interesting service was held, namely, a Confirmation, and the first who came forward to be
confirmed were King Kamehameha and Queen
Emma.    " After the Litany had been said, their
Majesties left their seats and stood in front of the
altar. The address was read by the Rev. G.
Mason. The bishop having put the question,
their Majesties replied, in a clear audible voice.
All kneeling, the bishop said the prayers; then
called upon the congregation to spend a few
moments in silent prayer, on behalf of those to
be confirmed. The request was responded to in
earnest. Those few moments were, indeed, silent
and solemn. The bishop then confirmed the king
and queen, and afterwards delivered an address.
Their Majesties were deeply affected, and so were
the people, judging from their devout behaviour
and attention. The natives, especially, seemed to
enter into everything, and many shed tears of joy
and thankfulness, when they saw their beloved




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


153


sovereign and his consort kneeling before the
communion-table." *
On the following Sunday, the king, queen, and
three officers of state, all received their first communion. From that day, to the time of his death,
King Kamehameha never wavered in his attachment to the Church of England; he was both a
regular attendant at church, and also a constant
communicant. "No one," says the bishop, " loved
our services more devotedly, or attended them
more regularly. Often he would be present at
the early six o'clock celebrations." He and the
queen once met with an accident, which might
have been serious; they were both thrown out
of their carriage, and much shaken and bruised,
although they escaped any worse injury. The
next morning they sent for Bishop Staley, and
asked him to give them the Holy Communion.
"For," said the king, " when we have received
signal mercies, there is no higher form by which
we can express our gratitude, than the 'sacrifice of
praise and thanksgiving.'" It would, perhaps, be
difficult to find in any English congregation a
more intelligent member of our church, than King
Kamehameha IV. " The Catholic faith, as taught
in the Church of England in its integrity, seemed
to meet fully the cravings of his soul. He loved
to dwell on the regularity of the English orders;
* The Bishop of Honolulu's Journal.




154


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


and few laymen could vindicate, with the same
ability, every link in the chain of their transmission. He was familiar with the works of Wheatley, Palmer, Courayer, Perceval. A true churchman on conviction, he was no less opposed to
Roman error than to Congregationalism; but nc
one ever heard from his lips an uncharitable wore
with regard to other religious systems."*  "His
love for the Book of Common Prayer was," says
the bishop, " something beyond what I have ever
met with.  He saw, in its wide diffusion through
the islands, the great spiritual instrument for
raising his subjects to a higher moral life."  And
therefore it was, that he devoted himself so earnestly to the work of translating it into his native
language. This work was no mere occupation of
his leisure moments.  " He gave his whole energies to it," the bishop says, "and I can testify
that it was indeed with him a labour of love."
When the Hawaiian Prayer-book was finished,
the king wrote a Preface for it, also in Hawaiian;
but this Preface he afterwards translated into
English, that his English friends might see what
he had written. "It is a remarkable production,
when we consider that the writer was in the third
generation from the murderous savages with whom
Captain Cook's voyages have made us familiar,
* From a letter written by the Bishop of Honolulu, and
published in the " Mission Field," No. 100.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


155


and that he acquired his knowledge of the doctrines of the Church of England entirely from his
own reading, without any one to guide or help
him." It was seen by no one until it was submitted
to the bishop, already completed and in type; and
he declined to make or suggest any alteration
whatever (notwithstanding some minor inaccuracies which may perhaps be observed in it), thinking it better that so remarkable a production
should go forth as the unprompted and untouched
work of the king." Kamehameha's English Preface has been republished in this country, in the
form of a separate tract, by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.*
There were many other ways, besides his work
upon the Prayer-book, in which Kamehameha IV.
showed his interest in the Church of England
Mission. "He often acted as interpreter between
the bishop and his own people. He would spend
hours in explaining to those about him the doctrines and customs of the Church. On one occasion, in the absence of a clergyman to conduct the
Sunday service, he undertook the office of teacher,
having previously obtained the sanction of the
bishop. His aide-de-camp read prayers, and he,
decently habited in a surplice, preached to the
people what is described as a very eloquent and
* Tract No. 1357. The two preceding extracts are from
the Introduction to this tract.




156


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


touching sermon-the first king, perhaps, since
Charlemagne who has performed such an office."*
Again, when Christmas came round, he did not
think it beneath him to take a part in the Christmas carols, and the blazing kukui torches, carried
by the bishop's choir in their midnight round,
revealed in the streets of Honolulu " the unwonted
sight of a king walking in choral procession,
hymning the Nativity of the Babe of Bethlehem."
And one of the clergy belonging to the mission
writes: "It may be said, indeed, that he was ever
working for us; that we were never out of his
mind."
And then, again, he was as generous in money
matters, as he was with his time and the powers of
his mind. He had promised the mission support
to the amount of 2001. a year, but at the end of
the first year it was found that,-besides granting
a piece of land for the site of a cathedral, and contributing in other ways to the funds of the church,he had spent no less than 8001., out of his limited
income, in buildings that were to be applied to
the service of the mission. This was acting with
a noble generosity; but to support the mission
entirely, was quite beyond his power, and so, as
the best means he could think of for obtaining
* From the Introduction to the "Preface to the Book of
Common Prayer, composed by the late King of Hawaii."
S. P. C. K. edition.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


157


help for it, he planned a visit to England, and
determined to ask our alms, in the same way as he
had once before asked those of his own countrymen. " I want to go as a member of the Anglican
Church myself," he said, "and ask my fellowchurchmen to aid me in saving my poor people."
If his life and health had been spared, we should
probably have seen him amongst us in the summer
of 1864, but in the mysterious providence of God,
his benevolent intention was cut short by death.
His health had never recovered t'e shock it received from the loss of his little boy; he is said to
have struggled manfully against his sorrow, but
all in' vain; even while he was so actively engaged,
it was preying upon his vital powers, and his
strength gradually gave way. On the 15th of
November, 1863, he was too unwell to be at
church, and the bishop administered the Holy
Communion to him privately. Next Sunday, he
was a little better, and was able to attend the two
evening services-the native Litany at 6.30 P.M.,
and the English Evensong an hour later-and
those who were present, were struck with the earnest and devout manner in which he joined in the
responses. It was the last time he was at church.
A day or two afterwards he was seized with
diarrhoea, which weakened him very much; but,
strange to say, no immediate danger was feared
till an hour before his death. It need hardly be




158


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


said that, as soon as Queen Emma became aware
of his critical state, she sent in haste for Bishop
Staley, but before he arrived Kamehameha IV.,
the good king, the nursing father of the Church
Mission in Hawaii, had ceased to breathe.
Queen Emma and his old and faithful prime
minister, Mr. Wyllie, were by his bedside during
the last hour of his illness, and at the last moment
Mr. Wyllie read the Commendatory Prayer from
the Visitation of the Sick.
"When I entered the room," the bishop writes,
" Queen Emma was fondly endeavouring to restore
animation, by breathing into his mouth her own
warm breath. It was, indeed, a touching sight.
When she saw all her efforts were of no avail, she
begged me to pray. Most of the members of the
royal family were present, and we all knelt down,
and implored our Heavenly Father to grant us
resignation to His will, and strength to endure
with meekness the sudden and unexpected chastisement. We were all overwhelmed with grief.
"The body lay in state the following day, Tuesday, the 1st of December. Between three and
four thousand people, residents and Hawaiians,
passed through the throne-room, to take a last
fond look at their beloved sovereign. The wailing
of the natives was truly piteous, and must have
been heard far and near." 
* ~ "Mission Field," No. 100.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


159


In  compliance with  Hawaiian custom, the
funeral did not take place for a month. Meanwhile, the queen sat almost incessantly by the
coffin. She had prayers in the room every night
and morning, taken from the Hawaiian Prayer
Book, so that all who were present might be able
to understand,-and the bishop visited her, and read
to her every day. "It is beautiful," he writes,
about a fortnight after the king's death, "to see
how she seeks for consolation only in God. Twice
since her bereavement I have administered to her
the Holy Communion.     Among all classes of
people there is one common feeling of sympathy
with her in this hour of her anguish; for, by her
works of charity and mercy, she had endeared
herself to the hearts of all." *
The Hawaiians have a custom, of marking any
great event in a person's life by adding to, or
changing, his name, in memory of it. After the
death of the little Prince of Hawaii, King
Kamehameha expressed his sense of the great
loss he and his Queen had sustained, by calling
her Kaleleo-ka-lani,-words which bear the double
meaning of "The flight of the chief," or, "The
disappearance of the heaven,"-either translation
being a touching expression of the feelings of the
father, who gave, and of the mother, who received,
the name. And now, in the days of the Queen's,,>  ~   * "Mission Field," No. 100.




160


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


early widowhood, the Hawaiian people, in their
affectionate sympathy, changed her name once
more; they put the syllable "na," all, in the
place of the article " ka," and called her Kaleleona-lani —" The flight of all the chiefs," or "all
the heaven"; for they knew that now, all she
loved best on earth had been taken from her, and
it seemed to them as though, for the rest of her
life, all her joy had been darkened, and her heart
left utterly empty and void.
King Kamehameha IV. was succeeded upon the
throne by his brother, Prince Lot, who took the
title of Kamehameha V. The new king was
thirty-three years of age at the time of his accession, and unmarried. He is spoken of as being a
man of strong will, well educated, a thorough
gentleman, and one who has had considerable experience in the work of government, having served as
Minister of the Interior for some years. He visited
England, France, and America, in company with
his brother, in 1850, and he is able to speak and
write English with accuracy. He is also, like his
brother, a steady supporter of the Church Mission.
Two of his first acts after his accession were, to
give Bishop Staley a commission to act as his
chaplain, and to appoint him  a member of his
Privy Council. He also subscribes 2001. a year,
out of his private income, towards the expenses of
the mission.




I
I ~i~




KCA31EHAIAEHA V.


Page 160.




P




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


161


Queen Emma naturally lived a retired, though
not an idle, life for the first year of her widowhood.
She had passed through many troubles even before
her great sorrow came upon her. The deaths of
her own father, and of the father who adopted
her, of her uncle the Governor of Maui, of her
uncle the Premier, of a third uncle, of an aunt, and
of her own son, had kept her in almost constant
mourning. On Saturday, the 28th of November,
which is the great national holiday of the Hawaiians,
she threw it off, and on Monday her husband died;
"and now," say her subjects, " we know that her
mourning will be perpetual."  However, after the
anniversary of the king's death was over, she made
an effort to struggle back to some of the more
active duties of life, and we read of her looking
brighter and more cheerful.
A letter written in Honolulu, in the Christmas
week of 1864, by the sister of. one of the clergy,
says: "The queen is living in heri own private
apartments at the palace, where, I suppose, she
will remain until the king comes there publicly.
She is just like an English lady. She is industrious, and gets through a good quantity of needlework. She is constantly cutting out frocks for some
of her retainers' children, whom she sends to school.
"One moonlight evening I was sitting with her
in the garden, and eight o'clock struck. She said,
'Will you come in to prayers?' We went into the
M


9




162


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


drawing-room, and about fifteen of her people, when
the principal attendant read several of the prayers
from the native prayer-book, and we all sang a hymn.
This was an interesting sight. She is very busy
sometimes, translating prayers for the children." *
On Christmas-day, the good queen was present
at every service in the cathedral, and in the evening
she distributed baskets of toys to her little godchildren and some of the other Mission scholars:
she also feasted her own people with turkey, beef,
and pudding; for she was most anxious that they
should learn to look upon Christmas as the bright
and happy time which it ought to be to all
Christians.
A few weeks later, we find Queen Emma preparing for a voyage to England. Her husband
had planned one, as we have seen; but as he had
not been able to carry out his intention, she looked
upon it as her sacred duty to endeavour to fulfil
his wishes, and to cross the ocean herself, in order,
as she said, " to appeal to England to save my poor
people."
It is well known that Queen Emma's journey
was safely accomplished in the summer of 1865.
She landed at Southampton on the 14th of July,
accompanied by W. F. Synge, Esq.-the British
Commissioner to the Sandwich Islands; a native
chaplain-the Rev. W. Hoapili-his wife, and
* Occasional Paper of the Hawaiian Church Mission, 1865.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


163


several other attendants. It is scarcely necessary
to add, that.Queen Emma spent the remainder of
the summer and the whole of the autumn among us,
nor that she met with a hearty welcome in every
part of our country which she visited. It was her
great wish to spend a Christmas in England; but
before the end of the autumn, the excitement and
fatigue, caused by her constant prosecution of her
mission, and perhaps also the cold damp of our
climate, had begun to tell upon her health, so that
it was not thought prudent to gratify her wish.
It was determined that she should winter in
the south of France, and before the storms of
December broke over us, she and her attendants
were comfortably lodged at Hyeres, near the shores
of the Mediterranean. It is said that she has
repeatedly expressed herself as delighted with the
charming climate of her winter home, and with
the beautiful country around, the productions of
which, especially the palms and bananas, recalled
to her mind the tropical productions of her own
favoured isles.
Let us hope that her health may be thoroughly
re-established by her sojourn in the sunny south,
so that she may be able to complete her mission
with success, and to carry back to her native land
a substantial proof of the interest that English
churchmen take in the welfare of the islanders of
Hawaii-Nei.




164


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


CHAPTER VI.
THE CHURCH IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
THE Church of England Mission that was established in: the Sandwich Islands at the request of
King Kamehameha IV. has been frequently mentioned in the last chapter, but a few more words
must be said about it before the pages of this
little book are closed.
First of all, let us notice, that we have in the
history of this mission the only instance on record of our church being invited by an independent sovereign to plant itself in his dominions.
Secondly, this invitation is the renewal of
other urgent appeals sent us before, but unhappily without effect. From the time when the
first glimmering of Christian light dawned upon
the Sandwich Islanders, to the present day, it seems
that there has always been a desire among them
to obtain English teachers, in preference to any
others. Two earnest messages from King Kamehameha I., explaining his wishes on this subject,
were brought to England so long ago as the end
of the last century-one by Vancouver, in 1794,




AIND THEIR PEOPLE.


165


and the second, a few years later, by Captain
Turnbull. It is very much to be regretted that
no favourable answer was returned to these messages; but in spite of this neglect, the natives
of the Sandwich Islands seem  to have clung
fondly to the idea, that English teachers would
suit them better than any others, and that, sooner
or later, they would be sent out.
When the first band of American Congregationalist missionaries reached the coast of Hawaii,
in 1820, and asked permission to begin to
preach to the people, the chiefs answered, that
they were expecting teachers from England, and
that they did not wish to put themselves under
any others; and the Americans were not even permitted to land, until Mr. Young had assured the
king they would speak of the same God and
Saviour as the English missionaries, whose coming
had been waited for so long and so vainly.
Four years later, in 1824, after the Congregationalists had fairly begun their work in Hawaii,
and had given many proofs of their devotion to
the welfare of the people, the Hawaiian preference
for English teachers was expressed again, and
in a very touching manner,-for the king who
died in London, Kamehameha II., is stated to
have sent this message to George IV. from his
death-bed:-" I have to ask your Majesty to
send missionaries to teach my people the Pro



166


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


testant religion, as taught in the Church of
England."
During the next reign, that of Kamehameha III.,
the call was taken up by the English residents
in Hawaii, and three several applications were
made by them, for a clergyman of the Church
of England to be sent out to Honolulu. In 1858,
their petition was renewed, but still in vain.
One almost wonders that the patience of the
Hawaiians was not exhausted by these frequent
failures, and that they did not give up the
thought of English teachers altogether: but it was
not so; for King Kamehameha IV., as we have
seen, was even more anxious than his predecessors
to have a Church of England Mission established
in his islands; and, indeed, at the time he wrote
to Queen Victoria, there was an evident need of
some change in the religious instruction of his
people.  The American Mission had been on
trial in his country for forty years, and the
Roman Catholic one for more than twenty years;
both of them had been conducted with zeal and
energy, both had been joined by a considerable
number of nominal converts; but the missionaries
of both were forced to avow " the smallness of
their success in producing a vital change." The
immorality of the Hawaiians continued as notorious as ever, and year by year the numbers of
the people were being lessened by their vices.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


167


It was under these circumstances that a Church
of England Mission was applied for by Kamehameha IV. It seemed to him, that Christianity
had not as yet been set before his people in the
form in which it was most likely to win its way to
their hearts. The semi-idolatry of the Romanists
was very repulsive to him, and to many of his principal chiefs; while on the other hand, the style of
teaching adopted by the Congregationalists was
so cold and stern, as to.be evidently unsuitable
for gaining the affections of a bright and warmhearted people.
Mr. Dana, an American gentleman who visited
Hawaii about six years ago, gives the following distressing picture of the Congregationalist
chapels, and of the public worship conducted by
the American missionaries. He says:
"The houses of worship     are plain, naked
buildings, with pews, and benches, and a large
desk, in which the preacher, sometimes dressed in
the tweed sack coat of the shop and market (or,
as I once saw, with the spurs on his boots), stands
to read, preach, and pray. The congregation sit
through the whole service, not only never kneeling or standing in prayer, but not even bending
the head forward in token of reverence. The
music is solely the singing of one or two rhyming
hymns, performed by a small choir. The congregation have no part in the service-they are




018


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


simply listeners from beginning to end; young
or old, learned or unlearned, they are expected to
be attentive listeners for some two hours, without
a word to say, a thing to do, a sound to utter
for themselves. My observation, after attending
several places of worship in the principal islands,
is, that the natives, except there be some stirring
passage in the sermon, are languid and easily-distracted listeners and irreverent actors. In their
family worship they kneel, and are more reverent,
being left more to their instincts. At public
worship they come in at all times, sit, look about,
easily fall asleep, and when the last prayer ends,
start for the door, a good deal as a theatre breaks
up, hardly ever waiting for the benediction."
Other writers of authority, after giving the
American missionaries the credit they deserve, for
their long and unwearied labours in the service
of the Hawaiian people, charge them with being
wrong:In the way in which they have presented
Christianity to the native mindIn some of their views about educationAnd in neglecting to care for the physical and
moral well-being of the people.
Their teaching has savoured, rather of the
sternness of the law, than of the loving-kindness
of the Gospel; they have seemed to delight in
setting forth the punishment due to sin, rather




AND TREIR PEOPLE.


169


than in dwelling on the mercy and tender love
of Him who died for sinners. They have tried
to put down some of the innocent amusements
of the natives-such as bathing, dancing, and
smoking, and to force them into Christianity by
enacting harsh laws against Sabbath-breaking,
drunkenness, &c., the effect of which has been to
drive the natives into hypocrisy, but not into
Christianity, nor even into morality.
In education, they have set their faces against
the teaching of the English language, and have
provided no special training for females.
And lastly, it appears that they have never attempted, as a body, to gain the affections of the
people, and to raise them towards Christianity by
caring for their temporal interests. As an instance
of this neglect, the following particular are said to
be well known in the islands:-The first American
missionary at Hilo "was a really good, sensible
man, and got the natives interested in planting
sugar and coffee. 'The Brethren' heard of this,
and he was obliged to resign; 'it would make
these simple-minded Christians worldly,' &c. His
successor, on being installed, tore up the coffee
plants, refusing to give any shoots to the people." *
All these faults needed to be corrected, and Kamehameha IV., as we have seen, trusted to the
English Mission to correct them. Let us now in* Occasional Paper of the Hawaiian Church Mission, 1865.




170


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


quire, what progress Bishop Staley and his companions have been able to make in the work committed to their charge. But first of all, let it be
clearly understood, that the object of the Church
of England Mission is, not to supplant the American missionaries, but to fill up the things that are
wanting in Hawaii; not to entice converts from
other churches, but to draw into the fold of Christ
as large a proportion as possible of the careless,
godless multitude that has hitherto resisted all the
efforts of other missionaries.
At the time of Bishop Staley's arrival-or rather
at the time of the Hawaiian census, which was
taken in 1860, two years before his arrival-the
Sandwich Islands contained a population of 70,00C
persons-speaking in round numbers-of whoir
about 20,000 were "Protestants," in connection
with the American Mission, 20,000 Roman Catholics, and 3000 Mormons, while as many as 25,00C
reported themselves as being " unconnected with
any creed," in other words, as having no religion
at all. Bishop Staley and his fellow-labourers,
therefore, have ample work before them, in ministering to their own countrymen resident in the
islands, and in attempting the conversion of the
twenty-five thousand semi-heathen Hawaiians,
without interfering with either of the earlier
missions.
The bishop's landing at Honolulu took place on




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


171


the 11th of October, 1862; he was heartily welcomed, as we have seen, and indeed everything
possible, under the circumstances, had been done to
prepare for his reception. The English and other
residents in Honolulu, who were favourable to the
mission, had formed themselves into a Church
Committee, and collected 10001., which they had
spent in the purchase of a disused Wesleyan
chapel, and the teacher's house belonging to it.
The king's brother, Prince Lot, now King Kamehameha V., had prepared a house of his own, next
to the palace, for the bishop. The teacher's house
was appropriated to Mr. Mason, and the chapel
prepared to serve the purposes of a temporary
hurch.
The bishop's first care was to make the services
)f his church as attractive as possible; he knew
that the Hawaiians were fond of music, and as
';here were several musical voices among his Mis3ion party, he managed to begin at once with a
3horal service, which has been kept up ever since.
The landing took place on Saturday. The
temporary church was opened the next day, with
an English service. There was an excellent conregation, including all the leading English, some
Americans, and many natives. The choir sang
several Gregorian tunes, the Hundredth Psalm,
and the hymn, "When I survey the wondrous
3ross;" and the service was closed by the Rev.




1.72


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


G. Mason preaching extempore " an eloquent, stirring, and even impassioned sermon," full of Christian love to all, which produced an immense effect.
The king's father, who had not been in a place
of worship for twenty years, was present'at the
service.
On the following Sunday, the 19th of October,
the king and queen were at church, and there was
another crowded congregation. The natives, not
finding any room inside, "beset the very windows,
and completely blocked up the doors," and although
they could not understand the words of the English service, they were so pleased with what they
saw, and with the singing of the Mission party,
that they said, " We must have our cathedral built
soon, where we can go and hear our prayers in our
own language, without being burnt in the sun by
standing outside and in the trees."  "They have
a great idea," the bishop writes, "that it is their
church, the one asked for by Vancouver in 1794."
The interest of. the natives was, of course, increased when the king's prayer-book began to be
used (which was as early as the fifth Sunday after
the arrival of the missionaries), from which time
they were able to join intelligently in the service.
Then again, when Christmas came round, the
bishop endeavoured to attract them by observances
which are familiar to us, but which were new to
the Hawaiians. The bishop writes in his journal:




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


173


"Until this year, Christmas had never been outwardly observed here at all. Business had always
been transacted as usual, and even the schools used
to reopen after the recess about the 20th, as if on
purpose to ignore the day. We resolved to inaugurate a different state of things, and no longer to
suffer the birthday of our blessed Lord to pass
without due honour. The king, who is heartily
with us in all our proceedings, proclaimed a general holiday for that day; all the government offices
were closed, shops shut up, and business generally
suspended.
"Two days before, the king sent to the mountains to. cut green boughs. There are no English
evergreens here;' the trees, it is true, are always
in foliage, but when branches are cut, they soon
wither. There is, however, abundance of cypress,
and the king procured for us besides, a large quantity of myrtle, and orange boughs, and beautiful
flowers. Twenty Hawaiians, both men and women
of the higher class, helped us in the decoration,
and we succeeded in making the temporary church
very Christmas-like and pleasant-looking."
Can you not fancy how much pleasure the sight
of a decorated church, and the first sound of our
Christmas hymns, must have given the Hawaiians?
Another work which the bishop took in hand
within a few months of his arrival, was, the improvement of education. The school system previously




174


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


established in the islands was very faulty. "The
boys and girls," Bishop Staley says, "the young
men and young women, have been brought together
in the same classes at school, and left together out
of school, with the consequences which might have
been anticipated. The government has spared no
expense to foster the education of the people, but
the present system has failed to produce satisfactory results. The children are not taught English, and the poverty of their own language presents
a formidable obstacle to the acquirement of new
ideas, or of the commonest subjects of a sound
education. They have not had any industrial
training, which might help them to rise out of their
present indolent andpleasure-loving habits of life."*
The principal school at Honolulu was the
Royal Free College, attended by some three hundred boys and girls, and supported by the government, at the cost of about 10001. a year. The
bishop was commissioned by the government to
reorganize it, and he says: "I have begun the
task assigned me, by separating the elder girls
and boys, and sending the former to the Nuuanu
Female College, conducted by Mrs. Mason (wife
of the Rev. G. Mason), and we purpose converting the whole institution, with its affiliated
schools, into a normal training college, with two
departments-one for training schoolmasters to
* Occasional Paper of the Hawaiian Church Mission, 1865.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


175;each English-speaking schools, the other for
training schoolmistresses. We trust that in a
few years the islands will be thus gradually furnished with separate day schools for boys and girls,
under able teachers."
At the end of his first year's residence in Hawaii, the bishop was able thankfully to sum up
the most striking results of his work, as follows:
"1. The Female Industrial Boarding School,
conducted by Mrs. Mason.     The building was
erected by the king, at his own expense, a mile
from the city. Some of the scholars pay more,
some less, in proportion to their means; the
greater part are, however, the free exhibitioners
Af their Majesties.  The Board of Education
assist, by granting an annual capitation fee for
each scholar. The king has lately built a chapel,
where the Rev. G. Mason   celebrates Divine Service, daily, with the inmates. It is impossible to
overrate the good that this institution is likely
to effect.
"2. The Hawaiian Cathedral Grammar School,
for the upper classes of Hawaiian and foreign
residents. The next quarter we shall start with
more than twenty scholars [the number increased
to more than thirty a few months after this was
written], producing a net income of about 2001.
per annum. The scholars attend a short matins
* Succeeded since this was written by the Rev. E. IbbotsoLn




176


THE SANDWICH ISLA-NDS


service in the church daily, and are taught, not
only the usual English branches, but Latin and
French.
" 3. A District Visiting Society. The queen is
president, and she takes herself an active part in
visiting the sick.  The leading chiefesses and
many foreign ladies belong to the association. The
visitors go in twos, usually a native and an
English lady, that their ministrations may not be
rendered useless by inability to converse with the
people. By their means, the sick, for whom no
similar organization had ever been provided
before, are now cared for; they are often persuaded to enter the Queen's Hospital when prejudiced against it; and it is admitted that that
institution was never so useful as it has been
since our society was established.
"4. A Guild, or Society, of intelligent Hawaiians, mostly chiefs, to make known the principles of the Church, as distinguished from Popery
and Calvinism, to distribute tracts, teach in the
Sunday-school, read parts of the king's prayerbook in the suburban villages, explain the Scriptures, and look out persons to be confirmed. At
present this society numbers ten persons, and it is
likely to prove most valuable." *
In another report, written about the same time,
the bishop says: "We have every Sunday three
* Occasional Paper of the Hawaiian Church Mission, 1865.




AND THEEIR PEOPLE.


177


Hawaiian and three English services, besides two
daily services in the week, all well attended. Our
baptisms have been about three hundred already;
fifty or sixty natives have been confirmed, and are
all communicants, I believe of moral lives, which
here is saying a great deal. We have about fifty
English communicants. The change observable
in the lives of some of our native converts, calls
forth the favourable comments of many of those
who are regarded, theologically, as our rivals." *
Besides superintending all this work at Honolulu, the bishop contrived, in the course of the
year 1863, to make an extensive missionary tour
through the islands of Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii,
in order to find out for himself the wants of the
people, and to make known the object of his mission to them.   At one place, in the north of
Oahu, he found that the only spiritual ministrations, in a district forty-five miles by ten, were
those of a Congregationalist, who never baptized
infants. The people, when they died, were buried
like dogs, without a service, and they were married civilly only. The principal foreign resident
in the district, an Irish churchman, considered that
there was a great opening for a clergyman, and
assured the bishop that 1501. a year could be
guaranteed from the natives, who are most desirous to have one. Again, at Kona, in Hawaii,
* "Mission Field," No. 97.
N




178


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


the people were delighted with the bishop's visit,
and one of the English settlers remarked, "It is
twenty-six years since I heard our old prayerbook read in Divine Service;" while another
offered land for the site of a church, and begged
that a clergyman might be sent them.
The same good feeling towards the Church of
England, and the same desire to obtain the services of a clergyman, seemed to prevail throughout
the islands, but as the bishop was only able to
spare one of his small staff from Honolulu, only
one branch mission station could be opened, and
the spot selected for that was the beautiful coasttown of Lahaina, in Maui.    Mr. Scott moved
there from Honolulu in January, 1863, and towards the end of the year the bishop writes:
"He has most eligible Mission premises at
Lahaina, just on the beach, comprising a good
residence, a spacious temporary church, and school
buildings. Here, as at Honolulu, there is a considerable foreign element in his spiritual cure, and
he has both English and, Hawaiian services. Mr.
Scott quickly established an Industrial Female
College in the Mission premises.  It is under
Mrs. Scott's management; a young person, trained
by the East Grinstead sisters, acts as governess.
She has twenty-three girls already under her constant charge. They learn cookery, house-cleaning,
needlework-and the instruction is entirely in the




AND THEKUF PEOPLE.


179


English language. The dormitories are well and
suitably furnished. It is under the management
_f a committee, presided over by Mr. Scott, the
)ther members being the governor of the island
and the two churchwardens. It is aided by a
government grant. The school is quite fill, and
it is intended to enlarge it, owing to the applications for admission.  Mr. Scott has recently
opened an English school for boys, also in connection with the Church, and I cannot but believe
that his zeal and devotion will. bear much fruit." *
Since this letter was written, Mr. Scott has
found himself obliged to resign his charge, and
ias been succeeded by Mr. Mason, who is as active
mnd zealous in his work as 'his predecessor.
As for the Mission in general, during the past
jwo years (1864-65), although, like all other
works of its kind, it has had to encounter many;rials and difficulties, it has, by the mercy of God,
net with almost unlooked-for success. The diffi3ulty of the bishop has been, and still is, not to
ind hearers, but to find teachers. From all parts
)f the islands the cry has reached him, " Come
)ver and help us;" and nothing but the want of
Z sufficient number of clergy, has prevented him;rom opening stations in every island of the group.
is it is, besides the two flourishing stations at
lonolulu and Lahaina, another has been opened
* Occasional Paper of the Hawaiian Church Mission, 1865.




180


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


in Kauai, and preparations are being made fox
a fourth, which is to include a large boardingschool for boys, at Kailua in Hawaii.
But perhaps the most satisfactory proof thai
can be given of the progress of the Mission, is the
fact, that the foundation of a native ministry haE
been already laid, by the ordination of a chief o:
high rank, Mr. William Hoapili, Queen Emma'.
chaplain, and the companion of her travels. Mr
Hoapili was formerly a major in the Hawaiiar
army, and aide-de-camp to King Kamehameha IV
He was one of the first to join the English Mis
sion, and he soon offered himself as a candidate
for the ministry. His sincerity was proved by
course of preparation extending over nearly tw
years, and by his giving up an office of trust anc
emolument preparatory to taking Holy Orders. A
length Mr. Mason was able to write:
"We had a crowning joy on Sunday week las
[September 28, 1864], when the bishop held
confirmation at Lahaina, and ordained the firs
Hawaiian deacon. It is a day to be much re
membered.
"The first service, at nine o'clock, was the Con
firmation service, in the native language. Ther.
were twenty-one candidates, all of whom, with on
exception, had been carefully prepared. The ser
vice struck us all as very solemn and beautiful.
"Then came the great service of the day, a




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


181


eleven o'clock.  The church was crowded with
foreigners and natives.... Hoapili read the
Gospel [for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity]
in English. I have witnessed many soul-stirring
scenes since I have been in these islands, but only
one has equalled that ordination, and especially
the reading of that Gospel in English by the first
Hawaiian deacon. With a sonorous yet reverencesubdued voice, with beautiful pathos, clearness,
and a correct emphasis, he delivered his Master's
warning; and I think that all must have felt that
this man was called to be, in the truest sense of
the word, a minister of Christ. He afterwards received the Holy Communion, in which also thirtytwo of the congregation participated. I may mention that Hoapili is a married man; his wife is a
fine, handsome Hawaiian, of good birth and education. She also speaks English well, having been
one of the ladies at Queen Emma's court. She
was among those who were confirmed this Sunday
morning, and will, I fully believe, be a help-meet
for her husband in his sacred office." *
A few weeks after the ordination of Mr. Hoapili,
the Mission was further strengthened by the arrival
of an American clergyman, the Rev. Peyton Gals
lagher, and also by three ladies, members of an
English sisterhood.
With regard to the arrival of the American
* Occasional Paper of the Hawaiian Church Mission, 1865.




THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


clergyman, it ought to be noticed that, according
to the original plan of the Mission, it was to have
been the joint work of the Church of England and
of her daughter Church in the United States of
America. The lamentable war, which has caused
so much desolation in the States, prevented the
members of the Episcopal Church there from
sending the help that was expected from them at
the time of planting the Mission; but the arrival
of Mr. Gallagher may be looked upon as a pledge
of their interest in the work, and of their intention
of taking their due share in it as soon as circumstances will permit. The bishop says of Mr. Gallagher that "he is a valuable help, earnest, and a
gentleman, and that he is winning golden opinions."
The sisters are taking charge of the girls'
boarding and day school at Lahaina. A letter
from the most influential foreign resident there,
says of them: "The sisters are much liked by
the natives, and appear to be happy in their
good work; and it is evident that their system
is the very best that could be devised to save
the present generation of girls, and to do good
among the people. As they go about visiting the
poor and the sick, their influence will be felt
outside of the schools. It would be a good thing
for the people if there were a hundred of them,
instead of three."
Indeed, the great wants of the Mission, in all




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


183


its departments, continue to be more workers and
more funds. What are six or eight clergymen, and
as many schoolmasters and mistresses, in a group
of islands containing as much land as Yorkshire?
The Roman Catholic Mission, which has been
considerably strengthened since we began to work
in Hawaii, possesses at least twenty priests, besides
a numerous body of sisters of charity, scattered
through the islands. Our little band of missionaries find themselves unable to answer all the
appeals that are made to them, and while they
delay, the Roman Catholic priests are ever on the
watch, ready to step in and take up the field we
cannot occupy. Both they and the Congregationalists are amply supplied with funds, from
France and America, and each of them has built a
handsome stone church in Honolulu; while the
poverty of our missionaries compels them to put
up with a mean wooden building, although they
feel that it gives the natives a very unworthy idea
of England's church, and of the generosity of the
English people.
It is not intended that the Hawaiian Mission
should become a lasting burden upon our shoulders;
indeed it is hoped and believed, that it will become
self-supporting after a very few years; and it is
satisfactory to observe, that the contributions of
the Hawaiians towards it already amount to three
times the sum that was originally expected from




184


THE SANDWICH ISLANDS


them; for, whereas the first prospectus of the
Mission promised that 2001. a year should be
raised in the islands, at the present time the king
alone is giving 2001., the queen-dowager, Emma,
1001., and the foreign residents and natives between 3001. and 4001. to the general purposes of
the Mission, besides donations to special objects.
But 6001. or 7001., although they are large sums
for the comparatively poor Hawaiians to raise, go
but a little way in building churches and schools,
and in providing them with teachers and clergymen; and, therefore, the friends of the Church
Mission in Hawaii find themselves constrained to
appeal to all their fellow-churchmen, who are wellwishers to the Hawaiian people, to give them some
temporary help, in establishing and carrying on
the work which has hitherto given such abundant
promise of success.
At the time of our Lancashire cotton famine,
the Hawaiians, hearing of our distress, raised
among themselves the handsome subscription of
5001.,* and sent it as a present to our starving
workpeople.   Now that they are in need themselves, as their own queen-dowager lately came to
tell us, shall we turn a deaf ear to our own benefactors?  Or ought we not rather, each of us, to
* In proportion to the population of the two countries, a
subscription of 5001. was as much for Hawaii to raise as one
of 200,0001. would be for this country.




AND THEIR PEOPLE.


185


spare a few mites out of our little store, to help in
providing them with what they ask from us-not
"the meat which      perisheth," but "that meat
which endureth unto everlasting life?" *
It is intended, if sufficient funds can be collected
in this country, to send out several more clergymen and sisters to reinforce the Mission, and also,
to build in Honolulu a memorial church, which
shall be worthy of the name, in remembrance of
the father of the Mission, the good King Kamehameha IV.
POSTSCRIPT.
IN the autumn of 1865, the Bishop of Honolulu
paid a visit to the United States, for the purpose
of giving some information about his mission to
the members of the Episcopal Church in that
* Subscriptions or donations for the Hawaiian Church
Mission may be paid to any collector of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel-care being taken to mention,
that the money is intended for "the Bishop of Honolulu's
Special Fund;" to Manley Hopkins, Esq., Hawaiian ConsulGeneral, 4, Royal Exchange Buildings, London, E.C.; or to
the account of the Treasurers of the Hawaiian Church Fund,
at Messra Barnett, Hoare, and Co.'s, 62, Lombard Street,
London. And lest any one of small means should think the
mite he can afford too little to be accepted, it may be noticed,
that the last published list of subscriptions to the Mission,
while it mentions the generous gift of 5001., from " A Lady,"
contains on the next leaf the items of " Postage Stamps, Is.,"
Miss BM-, 2s. 6d."




186


POSTSCRIPT.


country, and with the hope of obtaining further
help from them. He was most kindly received
by his fellow churchmen, and his visit has resulted in securing the services of two more
American clergymen, in a collection amounting
to several hundred pounds, and in a promise of
support from the Board of Missions belonging to
the American Episcopal Church.
In this country, the meetings held in consequence of Queen Emma's visit, have already produced between 30001. and 40001. for the purposes of the Mission; besides which, the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel has increased
its annual grant for the diocese of Honolulu, from
3001. to 600Z.  Our own Society, "for Promoting Christian Knowledge," is now engaged
in publishing a second edition of the Hawaiian
Prayer Book, and has, on the whole, been a
contributor towards the Mission to the amount of
12001.
Something -indeed we may say something
considerable-has, therefore, been done during
the last twelve months (July, 1865, to July,
1866) towards supplying the needs of Hawaii,enough to encourage the friends of the Church
Mission there, but not yet enough to enable its
leaders to issue the proclamation, which was once
heard of old, —"The people bring much more
than enough for the service of the work."




187
APPENDICES.
MISSIONARIES OF THE HAWAIIAN CHURCH MISSION.
(July, 1866.)
The Bishop: The Right Rev. T. N. Staley, D.D.
Stationed at Honolulu.
The Rev. E. Ibbotson, in charge of the Mission College
with fifty boarders, the boys' day-school, and the girls'
family industrial boarding-school.
The Rev. Peyton Gallagher.
The Rev. J. J. Elkington.
At Lahaina, in the Island of Maui.
The Very Rev. G. Mason, Archdeacon of Maui.
The Rev. W. Hoapili Kaauwai, the first native clergyman.*
At Waimea, in the Island of Kauai.
The Rev. G. Whipple.
Besides these, another American clergyman (the Rev.
R. B. Port) left New York for Hawaii on the 1st of March,
1866; another English clergyman is, also, on his way to
the islands, "having left his preferments in this country
for a period of three years, to take part in the work of the
Mission;" and a gentleman, trained in the college of St.
Augustine's, Canterbury, is making preparations to proceed there "with the intention of building a church in
some district where it is most needed."
* Mr. Hoapili, who came to this country with Queen Emma, has already
returned to Hawaii




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II.
TABLE OF HAWAIIAN KINGS.
Relation- _     Reagned.
ship to                                    Events, &c.
last King. From   To     Years
Kamelmeeha I.               1782   1819     37   First King of Hawaii Nti.
[       Tabuu abolislled  idols destroyed'  AmeKamehameha II.    Son       1819   1824      5    Tabu abolished; idols destroyedAmerican Missionaries arrive.
Kamehameha. Brother  1824  1854  30  Independence of the Islands guaranteed
Kamehameha III. Brother     1824   185~     30
by England, France, and America.
Kamehameha IV. Nephew       1854   1863      9   Church of England Mission planted in
Kamehameha IV. Nephew       1854 1 1863      9     the Ilandn
ameh  Brother  1863  Quethe Islands.
Kamehameha V.     Brother   1863  Present        Queen Emma's visit to Europe.
King.


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