18&G 
 
THE 
 
 AMERICAN MISSION 
 
 IN 
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS: 
 
 A VINDICATION AND AN APPEAL, 
 
 IX RELATION TO THE PROCEEDINGS OP 
 
 THE REFORMED CATHOLIC MISSION 
 
 AT HONOLULU. 
 BY REV. W. ELLIS, 
 
 FORMERLY MISSIONARY IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS ; AND HONORARY MEMBER OF THE 
 AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 HONOLULU: 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE LONDON EDITION, BY H. M. WHITNEY, 
 
 1866. 
 
q o G o | 
 
 Bancroft Libnuy 
 
 THE 
 
 SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 A FEW days after my return from Madagascar, I had the honor of 
 meeting, at a banquet at the Mansion House, Emma, Queen Dowager 
 of the Sandwich Islands, and of conversing with her Majesty and suite 
 respecting friends whom I had known in her native land ; and I have 
 regretted that our ungenial climate obliged her Majesty to leave for a 
 season, before I had any other opportunity of expressing the great pleas 
 ure which the occasion afforded me, not only on account of the high and 
 just estimation in which her Majesty is held, but also on account of the 
 hospitality and attention which I had received in Hawaii from my coun 
 tryman, her honored ancestor, Mr. John Young. 
 
 During the short time that Queen Emma remained in England, meet 
 ings, at which her Majesty was present, were held in several parts of 
 the country in favor of the Episcopate and English Mission recently 
 sent out to Honolulu. It is well that her Majesty and suite were able 
 to attend these meetings. They have afforded to all who have thus 
 shared the privilege of personal intercourse with the illustrious visitor to 
 our country, the most satisfactory evidence that could be desired of the 
 influence under which her character has been formed, and the judgment 
 and intelligence with which her education has been directed. 
 
 That a young, intelligent, and well-educated lady of highest rank in 
 a remote and comparatively unfrequented country, should desire to visit 
 a land of which report had, perhaps, often filled her youthful and won 
 dering mind with visions of greatness and happiness, especially if to 
 that land she could in part trace her own descent,* is very natural, and 
 would of itself ensure a most cordial welcome. And if, in addition to 
 these claims on our regard, such visitor were a Christian lady, belong- 
 
 *Mr. Young, grandfather to Queen Emma, was born in Liverpool about the year 
 1749. 
 
4 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 ing to a small but interesting people, who, within scarcely more than a 
 single generation, had been raised from a condition of rude, repulsive, 
 and sanguinary idolatry to a state of intelligent refinement and Christian 
 virtue, of which she herself was an example, her presence would call 
 forth from every section of intelligent and Christian society amongst us, 
 the kindest affection and sympathy. 
 
 Such is this Christian lady now amongst us ; and if her visit to Eng 
 land should be rendered subservient to the advancement of that sacred 
 work which, by God's blessing, has produced this great change in her 
 native land, and should afford encouragement to the honored men who, 
 through evil report and good report, have steadily labored on some of 
 them from the morning of life to the evening of age in this holy enter 
 prise, the satisfaction given by the visit of the Queen to our shores will 
 be greatly enhanced. 
 
 On the contrary, it would be a result justly and deeply to be deplored, 
 if this visit, through no intention on the part of our distinguished guest, 
 but by reason of the mistakes of others, should be made the occasion of 
 disturbing the peace of the Hawaiian churches, of introducing divisions 
 and consequently weakness amongst them, as well as increasing the dif 
 ficulties of those faithful men whose long and patient labors for the good 
 of her people, Queen Emma herself must feel, entitle them to high and 
 grateful esteem. 
 
 Elements of disturbance and hindrance to the peaceful and harmoni 
 ous progress of the Gospel have been unnecessarily introduced to Ha 
 waii by an Episcopal Mission called the Reformed Catholic Mission. 
 But it will be still more deplorable if advantage is taken of the visit of 
 Queen Emma to increase and persistently extend these sources of dis 
 quiet, by appealing to the sympathy which her presence so naturally ex 
 cites, for the means of augmenting the force of the Reformed Catholic 
 Mission in the Sandwich Islands. It seems desirable, therefore, to point 
 out to the supporters of this and other Protestant missions the mistakes 
 which prevail in relation to its origin, the grounds on which it is recom 
 mended, as well as the injurious effects which it is likely to produce, in 
 the hope that the promoters of the Mission may be induced to reconsider 
 the course on which they have entered before proceeding further. 
 
 If, in accordance with the wishes of the King and the Queen of Ha 
 waii, who have expressed their decided preference for the Church of 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 5 
 
 England form of worship, friends in England should supply the means 
 of gratifying her Majesty's wishes by the erection of a more architectu 
 rally symmetrical and attractive church in her distant island home than 
 at present exists there, and to erect a suitable and durable monument to 
 perpetuate the remembrance of the virtues of her departed husband, such 
 exercise of their munificence would provide a lasting and valuable memo 
 rial of the generous sympathy of her friends, which all Protestants would 
 regard with pleasure and approval. 
 
 But in no accounts that I have seen of the meetings held on behalf of 
 the English Episcopal Mission at Honolulu, or in the publications in 
 which its support has been advocated, has the source in which the 
 scheme originated been correctly stated, or its continuance urged on ex 
 isting and valid grounds. There has been on some occasions such a 
 commingling of acknowledged facts with purely fictitious statements, 
 such entire omission of some occurrences, and such a tendency to mag 
 nify others, as to make it scarcely possible that those to whom the state 
 ments were addressed should have received correct impressions on the 
 subject. At the same time the evident love of right, and the desire to 
 render justice to all parties concerned, are on some occasions so evident 
 in the advocacy of the scheme, as to warrant the conclusion, that if the 
 actual circumstances of the Hawaiians had been better known, the dig 
 nified and venerable Society which has so largely subsidized this scheme, 
 and some of the distinguished individuals who have given the move 
 ment the just influence of their high position, might have hesitated be 
 fore doing so, or may even yet deem it right to reconsider the true 
 ground on which its claims rest, and the amount of support to which it 
 is entitled. 
 
 It is from no wish to interfere in matters that do not concern me, but 
 from a strong sense of duty towards the native Christians, among whom 
 I many years ago resided, to the faithful men with whom 1 formerly 
 labored, as well as to the supporters of Protestant missions, that with 
 every feeling of good-will towards the projectors and supporters of the 
 Episcopate and Mission in Hawaii, I ask, most respectfully, their seri 
 ous attention to what appear to me to be some of the great mistakes con 
 nected with the appointment and persistent continuance of this Mission 
 to the Sandwich Islands. 
 
Q THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 REPORTED- APPLICATIONS FROM THE ISLANDS. 
 
 The promoters of the Reformed Catholic Mission affirm that the rea 
 sons for commencing that Mission extend back over a period of nearly 
 eighty years, and a sort of historic and chivalrous charm is imparted to 
 the enterprise by representing the non-compliance of the Government of 
 England with a series of applications made by successive sovereigns of 
 Hawaii as so many wrongs inflicted on the people which the Church of 
 England is now called upon to redress. Captain Cook's sanction and 
 support of their idolatry, by permitting their worship of himself, and re 
 ceiving their victims offered in sacrifice acts demanding unqualified 
 condemnation are justly described as one wrong ; the refusal to send 
 teachers in compliance with Kamehameha's request, made nearly twenty 
 years afterwards, is a second ; the like refusal of an application sent 
 thirty years later by Kamehameha II., and his subsequent visit to Eng 
 land, is then stated ; and after describing a conversation between our 
 King, George IV., and the survivors of the lamented King and Queen, 
 it is added, "At the same time the longing hopes of an eagerly expectant 
 people for God's truth and ordinances was*once more blasted ; and his 
 tory, which is no courtier, will set down the lofty indifference of George 
 IV. to their pious aspirations as another of those wrongs done to the 
 Hawaiian people for which England and its Church are at this moment 
 called upon to make reparation."* 
 
 Whether or not these wrongs were ever inflicted we now proceed to 
 inquire. In the " Colonial Church Chronicle," it is stated that Vancou 
 ver, who visited the Sandwich Islands in 1792, when conversing with 
 the King, " remonstrated with him as to the folly of idolatry, and spoke 
 to him of the one true Lord, the Creator, the Ruler, the Redeemer, and 
 the Judge of all mankind," and adds that these words "were not spoken 
 in vain. The King's own mind must have been strongly impressed to 
 have prompted the request, so earnestly urged by him, for teachers from 
 England, and that formal cession of his Kingdom to Great Britain which 
 Vancouver accepted on behalf of his Sovereign." After stating that the 
 cession was not accepted, the writer continues, " The request for teach 
 ers to be sent from England was equally disregarded;" and a few lines 
 farther on, speaking of the King's death, he adds seemingly with a 
 
 *" Colonial Church Chronicle," 18G5, p. 353. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 7 
 
 view to show the influence of Vancouver's words on his mind " Kame- 
 hameha, with no more real belief in them possibly than Socrates had in 
 a like performance, did homage to the gods," &c. And again, when ad 
 verting to the abolition of idolatry by the successor of the deceased sov 
 ereign, it is observed, " It is clear that the new King and the old high 
 priest perfectly understood one another ; that their conversation touch 
 ing the idols, which is on record, had not for its object to draw out each 
 other's mind, but to shift the burden of the first decisive avowal from the 
 one to the other. The hope of getting teachers from England had never 
 been abandoned. It was the religion of England to be brought from 
 England by the long-promised teachers that all along fed the national 
 expectation. The Hawaiians were looking with an eager eye for 'the 
 Church of the future,' to be sent to them, according to Vancouver's en 
 gagement, from England."* 
 
 Inferences, conclusions, revelations of the state of mind, &c., among 
 the people, more or less connected with these quotations, which occupy 
 a number of pages of this appeal on behalf of the Mission published in 
 the above-mentioned periodical, are all very interesting, but without the 
 slightest reference to the authority on which they are made. I do not 
 say there is no authority for these statements, only that the writer does 
 not adduce any ; and that no evidence of any such authority has ever 
 come under my notice. But there is evidence, clear and strong, which 
 renders it highly improbable that the remonstrance, if offered, produced 
 any impression on the King's mind, or that Vancouver's promise of teach 
 ers was ever made. 
 
 Vancouver relates very circumstantially, in the narrative of his visits 
 to Hawaii in 1793 and 1794, his conversations with Kamehameha, many 
 of which related to the idolatry of the country, the pagan rites, and 
 priests; and he describes the worship and ceremonies within the temple, 
 some of which he attended, and took part in the services,! but he never, 
 throughout the whole narrative, makes the slightest allusion to his men 
 tion of the folly of idolatry, or of the worship of the one true Lord, &c. 
 
 I landed in April, 1822, on the shore of Kealakeakua Bay, where 
 
 *" Colonial Church Chronicle," 1865. pp. 349-50. 
 
 f Vancouver did speak to the King and priests when in the idol temple with 
 them, but it was rather in confirmation of their idolatry than otherwise. He re 
 quested that the oxen and sheep he had brought might be tabooed, as a means of 
 preserving them. (Vancouver's Voyage, vol. iii., pp. 52-3. 
 
8 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 Captain Cook was killed, and in which Vancouver lay at anchor during 
 his stay at Hawaii. I met Mr. Young the same day, and the pleasure 
 of the meeting appeared to be mutual. We were very frequently to 
 gether during the succeeding five months. We often spoke of the state 
 of the Hawaiians as well as of the people I had left in Tahiti. He said 
 that when he heard there were English missionaries at Tahiti, he often 
 wished we had come to Hawaii as well. He also talked of Vancouver's 
 visit, and the ship he helped them to build ; but I have no recollection 
 nor memorandum of his ever mentioning Vancouver's promise to send 
 teachers from England, which it seems natural that he would have done 
 when English teachers at Tahiti and their absence from Hawaii were 
 the subjects of conversation. 
 
 On the other hand, Vancouver's narrative affords abundant evidence 
 that the dread of the gods exercised the strongest influence over the 
 minds of the people, and that the power of the priests, if not supreme, 
 was next to that of the King. At that time both were combined in one 
 person, Kamehameha being King and priest. 
 
 The account of the cession of the Islands to England is circumstan 
 tially given. The object of the King in making such cession, which 
 was declined by our Government, appears to have been to secure the 
 protection of England against aggression from other nations. Several 
 speeches were delivered by the high chiefs, and from all these it was 
 understood that " in their religion, government, and domestic economy, 
 no interference was to take place ; that Kamehameha, the chiefs, and 
 the priests, were to officiate with the same authority as before in their 
 respective stations, and that no alteration in these particulars was in any 
 degree thought of or intended."* 
 
 1 may be mistaken ; but in the absence of all evidence of any appli 
 cation of the King for teachers from England, and in the face of the 
 stipulations in an act so important as the public formal cession of their 
 country, guarding their religion as well as government from all inter 
 ference, I find it difficult to conceive, without evidence, that any appli 
 cation for teachers was ever made by the King, or any promise given 
 by Vancouver. 
 
 As there is at present so much reason for doubt respecting the prom 
 ise, it is needless to say anything about its effects about the Hawai- 
 
 * Vancouver., voL iii., pp. 56-7. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 9 
 
 ians "looking with an eager eye to 'the Church of the future' to be sent 
 to them, according to Vancouver's engagement, from England." But 
 as that supposed engagement is one of the reasons assigned for sending 
 out the Reformed Catholic Mission, it may be added, that there is 
 mournfully conclusive evidence that Vancouver's remonstrance, if ever 
 uttered, had made no lasting or salutary impression on the King's mind, 
 and that he died a heathen, and charged his successor and his associates 
 to support the dark and terrible idolatry of the country. 
 
 In the disposition of the Kingdom Kamehameha bequeathed to his son 
 Liholiho the government of the country, but devolved on him and on 
 Kekuaokelani,* his first cousin, and the other high officers and priests, 
 the care of the gods and the support of the tabu. When the new King 
 meditated the abolition of the tabu, one of the priests said no evil would 
 follow ;t but most of the other priests, and the prince to whom also the 
 support of the old religion had been confided, were of a different opinion, 
 and took up arms to avenge the gods. In the battle at Kuamoo which 
 followed, the prince and his heroic wife Manono fought and fell side by 
 side, and were buried in the same grave. I This battle destroyed the 
 idolatry of the country, the first step towards which was the abolition 
 of the tabu. 
 
 In appeals made on behalf of the Eeformed Catholic Mission during 
 the past year, it is stated that the application for English teachers made 
 by the King through Vancouver was repeated by his successor in a let 
 ter to George IV., sent in acknowledgment of the present of a ship in 
 1822. I had arrived at Hawaii with that ship, had remained there five 
 months, and was returning for a very short time to the Southern Islands 
 with the Captain who had presented the ship, and I was perfectly ac 
 quainted with the contents of the letter, which was written the day be 
 fore our departure. That letter contained no allusion to any former 
 promise, nor application for teachers from England. The King acknowl- 
 
 * Signifying the God of the Heavens, which would lead to the inference that he 
 was also a priest. 
 
 f Mr. Young, who accompanied Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett and myself to the 
 house at which the banquet took place, described the proceedings in which the 
 guests, instead of appearing to him to have expected the violation of the tabu, 
 were struck with horror and consternation. One of the Queens, at least, said the 
 King had informed them of his intention. 
 
 | An account of this battle was published in 1828. in the " Tour in Hawaii, 7 " pp. 
 103-10, and in the Journal of Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett, vol. i., p. 379. 
 
 " Tract on Hawaiian Church Mission," p. 3. '' Colonial Church Chronicle,'' 
 p. 352. 
 
 2 
 
10 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 edged the receipt of the present ; announced the conquest of the entire 
 group of islands by his father ; their bequest to himself ; and he then 
 begged leave to place them under the protection of George IV., express 
 ing confidence in his Majesty's wisdom and judgment. The closing 
 paragraph of his letter is as follows : " The former idolatrous system 
 has been abolished in these Islands, as we wish the Protestant religion 
 of your Majesty's dominions to be practiced here. I hope your Majesty 
 will deem it fit to answer this as soon as convenient, and your Majesty's 
 counsel and advice will be thankfully received." 
 
 The wish for an answer referred not at all to the Protestant religion, 
 which was then practiced in the Islands, but to what weighed far more 
 heavily on the King's mind the refusal of England to accept the ces 
 sion of the Islands made to Vancouver, and to what was the great desire 
 of the King, chiefs, and people, as was often expressed to myself, the 
 guaranteed protection of England, which the King in that letter so sup- 
 pi iantly begged from George IV. 
 
 It is farther asserted, in support of the great mistake about this letter, 
 that no answer having been received to his request for teachers, the 
 King resolved to come to England himself, and that " his object was, as 
 there is every reason to suppose, to take back with him an English 
 Church Establishment." Here again there is no evidence that this 
 formed any part of the King's purpose in making the visit, or that it was 
 ever mentioned by him while he lived, or by his companions after his 
 decease. But there is evidence that one, if not the chief object sought 
 by Kamehameha in coming to England, was to secure, by personal ap 
 plication to the King of England, the protection of his country by the 
 English Government. 
 
 This King and his Queen sickened and died before they had any oppor 
 tunity of stating their object, or even seeing the King of England. The 
 chiefs of their suite afterwards saw his Majesty at Windsor, and on their 
 return to the Islands reported the advice which George IV. had given 
 them. Boki, the brother of the then regent of the Kingdom, said, "That 
 when he inquired of the King whether preachers were good men, his 
 Majesty answered, * Yes ; and they are men to make others good. I 
 have always some of them by me ; for chiefs are not wise like them. 
 We in England were once like the people in your Islands ; but this 
 kind of teachers came, and taught our fathers ; and now you see what 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. H 
 
 we are.' And again, You and your people must take good heed to the 
 missionaries ; for they were sent to enlighten you, and do you good. 
 They came not for secular purposes, but by a Divine command to teach 
 you the Word of God. The people would therefore all do well to attend 
 to instruction, and to forsake stealing, drunkenness, war, and everything 
 evil, and to live in peace.' "* 
 
 Kekuanaoa, the venerable father of the present King, and still a mem 
 ber of the Hawaiian Church, stated, " This is what we heard of the 
 charge of King George : ' .Return to Kamehameha III., and tell him I 
 will protect his country. To any evil from abroad I will attend. The 
 evils within the country are not my concern, but the evils from with 
 out.' "t 
 
 With these chieftains and two others, the officers of the London Mis 
 sionary Society had several interviews. The chiefs gave the strongest 
 assurances of the continued support of their Government to the mission 
 aries then in the Sandwich Islands, and added their request that another 
 missionary might be sent out with them to be my fellow-laborer in Ha 
 waii, as stated in the subjoined extract from a letter addressed to me, 
 and dated " London, September 8th, 1824: " 
 
 " The chiefs, Boki in particular, having expressed a desire that a mis 
 sionary should accompany them on their return to the Sandwich Islands, 
 and Lord Byron, Commander of H. M. S. Blonde, having kindly inti 
 mated his readiness to take out a missionary in that vessel, the Directors, 
 considering it desirable that you should have a colleague, deemed it 
 their duty to appoint a missionary to Hawaii." It having at length 
 been found that the ship was crowded both as to persons and baggage, 
 Mr. Pitman, the missionary appointed, went, afterwards in another ves 
 sel. 
 
 Thus it appears that the Hawaiian Government was satisfied with the 
 Mission already established in the country, and desired it to be strength 
 ened rather than supplanted by another. The whole of the circumstances 
 which have been brought under review seem to show that the new Mis 
 sion cannot be justified on the grounds of any application to Vancouver, 
 any letter from Liholiho, his son, or by his visit to this country. 
 
 * Bingham's'SHistory, quoted in " North American Review," No. Iviii., p. 59. 
 f Anderson's " Hawaiian Islands," p. 62. 
 
12 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 It now remains to consider the last application said to have been made 
 by the late King, Karnehameha IV. The scheme for sending out a 
 Bishop and Church of England missionaries did not, according to the 
 evidence we possess, originate in the Sandwich Islands, but in England. 
 The only valid reasons which I have seen for any movement in this di 
 rection, appear to be the want of a clergyman of their own communion 
 felt by members of the Church of England, or of the Episcopalian 
 Churches of America residing in Honolulu, and the wish of the King, 
 who preferred that form of worship, and desired that it should be intro 
 duced to his capital. 
 
 It would have given pleasure to the ministers of the Island churches, 
 to their supporters in America, and to the friends of Protestant missions 
 generally, had these just and reasonable .desires been complied with. It 
 was all the applicants asked for. No desire for a Bishop, no want of a 
 Mission appears, according to the testimony of the late chief Minister of 
 the King, to have been felt at Honolulu, when this application from the 
 Islands was received. That application was in part officially addressed 
 to myself. 
 
 Early in the year I860, I received two letters, dated respectively on 
 the 29th of February and the 13th of March of that year. The former 
 of these was from Dr. Armstrong, President of the Board of Public In 
 struction in the Sandwich Islands, stating that there were at Honolulu 
 a number of persons and a few families, either members of the Episcopal 
 Church, or partial thereto, who had long desired the services of an Epis 
 copalian minister to " break to them the bread of life ; " that the King 
 of Hawaii had directed his Minister for Foreign Affairs to authorize 
 Manly Hopkins, Esq., his Charge d'Affaires in London, to guarantee to 
 a suitable clergyman of the Episcopal Church an annual salary of one 
 thousand dollars, and had offered, besides, ground for the site of a church. 
 Dr. Armstrong also stated that he applied to me at the request of several 
 Episcopalians, who wished to secure as their minister " a man of Evan 
 gelical sentiments, respectable talents, and most exemplary Christian 
 life," mentioning a clergyman who had been recommended to them, and 
 whom they would cordially welcome, at the same time communicating 
 his address, and pointing out the steps which he wished me to take. 
 
 Dr. Armstrong stated that he applied to me because I had resided 
 in the Islands, had been associated with the missionaries there* and 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 13 
 
 knew the people and the kind of clergyman most likely to do good 
 there. 
 
 The second letter was from the late R. C. Wyllie, Esq., the King's 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, and to whom I had been known in the 
 Sandwich Islands. He states that Dr. Armstrong's letter, which he en 
 closed, was on the subject of the establishment in that capital of an Epis 
 copal Church j that the King and Queen preferred that form of worship, 
 and the King believed that an Episcopal Church there, besides supply 
 ing a want long felt by many British and American families, would op 
 erate beneficially in narrowing the broad antagonism existing between 
 the Calvinistic and Catholic creeds, and promoting brotherly feeling be 
 tween the clergy of both. He added that by the orders of the King he 
 had written to Mr. Manly Hopkins, who would communicate to me what 
 further information I might desire.* 
 
 I lost no time in waiting on Mr. Hopkins, who appeared surprised at 
 my having been written to ; said he was acquainted with the wish for a 
 clergyman expressed in the letters I had received, but that it was in 
 tended to send out a Bishop accompanied by some clergymen, and he 
 handed me a printed statement or appeal on behalf of this object. I ex 
 pressed my regret that such an intention had been formed, and stated 
 my opinion that the object sought by the writers of the letters would be 
 more effectually secured by compliance with their distinctly expressed 
 wishes. 
 
 The explicit statement of Dr. Armstrong that a single clergyman was 
 desired for Honolulu, and the reference which he makes in his letter to 
 me to the desire of the Episcopalians to detain among them one of two 
 clergymen who spent a short time at Honolulu on their way to British 
 Columbia, accord with the statement of Mr. Wyllie that a Church of 
 England was wanted for the capital, and his repeated affirmation that 
 the King did not desire the services of a Bishop.t The silence of Mr. 
 Hopkins as to any application having been made for a Bishop while in 
 forming me that it was intended to send one out ; the statement in the 
 paper which he placed in my hand, and the speech of that gentleman at 
 Chelmsford, on the occasion of Queen Emma's visit there, when he 
 stated, "It was thought that the work of the English Church would fail 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
 t "Patriot," November 16th. 1805. 
 
14 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 without an Episcopal head, and accordingly a Bishop was sent out from 
 England, and three earnest and zealous clergymen accompanied him" 
 all these facts force upon my mind the conviction that no request for a 
 Bishop was included in the original application from the Islands ; and 
 that the request actually made by the members of the Church of Eng 
 land for an Evangelical clergyman has not been complied with. 
 
 As I considered that the settlement of an Evangelical clergyman at 
 Honolulu would be a means of great good there, I was ready to aid its 
 accomplishment ; but I never deemed it desirable to take any steps be 
 yond recommending it. I placed the documents which I had received 
 in the hands of the 'officers of the Church and Continental Society, who 
 communicated with the Bishop of London on the subject, and received 
 his lordship's approval, but failed to engage a suitable clergyman until 
 it had been decided by the Bishop of Oxford and others to send out a 
 Bishop ; and before this decision was carried into effect, I had left Eng 
 land for Madagascar. Since my return, I find it stated that the King of 
 Hawaii did write for a Bishop and clergymen of the English Church. 
 But this seems to have been 'an after-thought, whether originating in 
 the royal mind or elsewhere. Such subsequent application cannot, there 
 fore, be regarded as furnishing the reason why a Mission was determined 
 upon in England, and a Bishop was sought for before it had been re 
 ceived. The fact seems to be, that the gentlemen with whom the scheme 
 originated viewed the application for a single clergyman to meet an ac 
 knowledged want as furnishing an occasion for establishing an Episco 
 pate and commencing a Mission in the Sandwich Islands, and took 
 measures accordingly. 
 
 A writer in the " Colonial Church Chronicle " states very circumstan 
 tially, that " It was towards the close of the year 1859, in the fifth year 
 of his reign, thatJ&unehameha IV. addressed to the Queen of England, 
 and through his Ministers to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the request 
 that a Mission of the Church of England should be sent out to Hono 
 lulu." The writer does not, however, give any copy or extracts of these 
 letters, nor the dates at which they were either written or received. The 
 statements respecting these requests are not explicit. Some circum 
 stances connected with them certainly require explanation. For instance, 
 the letters from the King's Minister to myself, arrived in less than two 
 months after their dates in 1860. How could it then occur, if these let- 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 15 
 
 ters had been written in 1859, that towards the end of 1860 his Grace 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury remained in perfect ignorance of any such 
 request having been made to him ? In the meantime an English jour 
 nal had announced that there was an idea of introducing Anglicanism, 
 and if possible its Episcopate, into the Sandwich Islands, and that an 
 effort was being made by Mr. Manly Hopkins, in concert with the Soci 
 ety for the Propagation of the Gospel, to accomplish this object. That 
 announcement being copied *into a Sandwich Island newspaper, which 
 was forwarded to America, the American Missionary Society wrote to 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, asking his Grace to use his influence to 
 dissuade the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, from 
 extending its operations to the Sandwich Islands. The following is the 
 
 honored Primate's reply : 
 
 " LAMBETH PALACE, September 28, 1860. 
 
 " KEVEREND SIR : In consequence of the letter dated 3d instant, 
 which I had the honor of receiving from you, I have made inquiry on 
 the subject to which it refers ; and I find it to be quite true, that certain 
 individuals have formed themselves into a committee, for the purpose of 
 taking advantage of the proposal of the King of Hawaii, and with the 
 ultimate view of establishing a Bishop on the Polynesian Islands. 
 
 " The subject does not originate with the Society for Propagating the 
 Gospel, to which it has not been hitherto proposed. And it is altogether 
 untrue, that the Archbishop encourages the plan, of which, in fact, he 
 was ignorant until your letter arrived. 
 
 " Should an attempt be made to connect this object with the Society 
 for Propagating the Gospel, I shall think it my duty to lay your letter 
 before the persons who chiefly administer its affairs; and 1 shall be truly 
 sorry if any circumstances shall occur calculated to create jealousy be 
 tween parties who have the same great end in view an object which 
 would be counteracted by collision, in the same degree as it may be pro 
 moted by co-operation. 
 
 " With high respect for the Society to which you belong, and much 
 thankfulness for the work which God has enabled it to effect, 
 " I remain, Reverend Sir, your faithful servant, 
 
 "J. B. CANTUAR. 
 " To the Secretary of the Board of Missions."* 
 
 * This letter is given in the interesting and valuable account of the Rev. Dr. 
 Anderson, Foreign Secretary of the American Missionary Society, entitled " The 
 
16 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 This evidence -will scarcely be impugned, and viewed in connection 
 with the language employed in justifying the Hawaiian Episcopate, 
 which represents it as having originated in the spontaneous wish of the 
 King, it can scarcely fail, in the judgment of unprejudiced men, to vitiate 
 the grounds on which the whole scheme has been reared. 
 
 THE LIMITED FIELD SUFFICIENTLY OCCUPIED. 
 
 If the evangelization of the Hawaiian Islands were now to be com 
 menced, a Bishop and six clergymen would not, considering the claims 
 of other parts of the world, be a very disproportionally small staff of la 
 borers for a beginning in so diminutive a field. How unreasonably ex 
 cessive then must such a number of additional missionaries be under 
 existing circumstances ! 
 
 But this small field has been long and ably occupied by agents of the 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions a Missionary 
 Society organized at first chiefly among the descendants of the Pilgrim 
 Fathers in the New England States, but now receiving voluntary sup 
 port from Christians in thirty-seven States of the Union, and governed 
 by a Board of Members residing in twenty-two of these States. This 
 Society sent out in 1819 a well-appointed Mission comprising, beside? 
 liberally educated clergymen accredited by the authorities of the churches 
 to which they belonged, a physician, assistants, and school-masters, a 
 printer and press, and an agriculturist. A second band, sent out a year 
 or two afterwards, increased the number of ordained and equally well- 
 qualified clergymen, and added a superintendent of secular affairs to the 
 Mission. 
 
 I knew these men, some of whom still continue in the field. My 
 knowledge of them extends over more than forty years. I lived and la 
 bored with some of them on most intimate terms, often under the same 
 roof. We studied the language together, and labored unitedly in the 
 schools, in preaching, in journeying. I was associated with them in 
 many of the new, difficult, and critical positions in which a recently 
 planted Mission almost invariably finds itself placed, while feeling its 
 way among a people ignorant, proud, suspicious, barbarous, and all but 
 nominally heathen. And my testimony concerning these missionaries 
 
 Hawaiian Islands, their Progress and Condition," published after an official visit 
 to the American Missions in the Sandwich Islands in 1863. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 17 
 
 is that, for the work they had undertaken, they were well-qualified men, 
 worthy of their training and of their ancestry. I often marked and ad 
 mired their unobtrusive piety, and their persevering conscientious atten 
 tion to all the great objects of their Mission, their simple style of living, 
 the absence among them of self-seeking and self-indulgence, and their 
 self-consecration to their sacred work. Such were the first missionaries 
 to Hawaii, and, according to all reliable testimony, there is no reason to 
 suppose that their successors have been less qualified for their work, or 
 less entitled to the esteem of all good men. To call these missionaries, 
 some of whom had devoted eight or nine years to training for their 
 work, a band of " uneducated and narrow-minded men," is to insult the 
 intelligent portion of the American people, and to libel the educational 
 institutions of their country; but it will inflict no injury on the mission 
 aries in the estimation of any who are acquainted with their labors, or 
 capable of appreciating their worth. 
 
 I do not speak of these men as perfect : nothing human is so. They 
 have doubtless their failings as well as others, and are as liable to mis 
 takes in the prosecution of a great object. They have had to acquire 
 their experience under many difficulties; but, notwithstanding this, all 
 unprejudiced men will regard their labors as having conduced, in an 
 eminent degree, to the well-being of the Hawaiians, both for the present 
 life and for that which is to come. 
 
 Without at present adverting to the external improvements which are 
 visible among the Hawaiians, the numbers who, notwithstanding all de 
 fections, have, through the labors of these missionaries, become intelli 
 gent and earnest Christians, showing their sincerity by long-continued, 
 irreproachable conduct, have not, in my opinion, been surpassed in any 
 Mission field; while the extent to which the influence of Christianity is 
 diffused in different degrees amongst large portions of the entire commu 
 nity warrants the great majority of the Sandwich Islanders being re 
 garded as, in the usual acceptation of the term, a Christian people. 
 
 It is scarcely conceivable that anything else than want of accurate ac 
 quaintance with the extent to which Christianity prevailed among the 
 Sandwich Islanders, could have allowed a number of distinguished 
 Christian gentlemen to enter upon such a work of supererogation as that 
 of sending out so large a Mission to so small a fieldi, so well supplied 
 with Christian ministers, whose labors had been so eminently success- 
 3 
 
Jg THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 ful. Evidence was at hand, and it is of the suppression, excepting in 
 some gratifying instances, of the testimony in favor of the good already 
 accomplished that I complain, as tending to produce mistakes respecting 1 
 the nature of the new Mission to the Sandwich Islands, for that object 
 does not seem to be to convert the heathen to Christ, so much as to draw 
 away members from long-established Presbyterian and Congregational 
 churches to a section of the Church of England. 
 
 Many, however, have been led to suppose that there are still heathen 
 to convert. Mr. Manly Hopkins, at Chelmsford, combating objections 
 on account of the small population of the Islands, exclaims " Good 
 heavens ! seventy thousand not to be saved ! " And the Bishop of Lon 
 don also appears, I am persuaded unintentionally, to have fallen into the 
 mistake of supposing that there are numbers of heathens in Hawaii. In 
 a speech delivered at Wells, on the occasion of Queen Emma's visit to 
 that city, his lordship, after specifying some of the claims of the Bishop 
 of Honolulu, thus continued : " He is also a missionary Bishop, with 
 a great Mission work to perform. The accounts show that there is great 
 room for bringing the heathen to the knowledge and the love of God," 
 &c. Many others are no doubt of the same opinion. There is reason 
 to believe that in the judgment of a large number of members of the 
 Church of England, as well as of other communions, the sending out of 
 a. Bishop and three, or, as is now proposed, six English clergymen to 
 Hawaii, can only be justified on the supposition that there is a large 
 heathen or non-Christian population, which the American missionaries 
 have failed to bring under Christian instruction, or who have relapsed 
 into heathenism. But that such opinion is well founded, there is no re 
 liable evidence. 
 
 Bishop Staley has put forward the statement that there are more than 
 20,000 unevangelized natives in the Islands, and this statement has been 
 accepted as one of the chief grounds on which the scheme has been ad 
 vocated. Bishop Staley quotes, as his authority, a local newspaper 
 which gives the following statement : 
 
 68,000 Hawaiians (the whole population.) 
 
 20,000 professing Protestants. 
 
 20,000 Romanists. 
 3,000 Mormons. 
 
 25,000 unconnected with any creed.* 
 
 * Bishop Stalcy's Journal, p. 47. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 19 
 
 The amount of the whole population as here given is correct, but the 
 other numbers must have been derived from erroneous data. One or 
 two of the items, however, bear some resemblance to the report of the 
 division of the people in 1862, published by the Roman Catholic Bishop, 
 and given in the " Propaganda Fide." In that statement the Romanists 
 are put down at 23,000. 
 
 The heretics, 23,000. 
 
 Infidels, 23,000* 
 
 Evidence is available, and there are documents at hand by which the 
 above statement of Bishop Staley may be tested and explained, though 
 we may not be informed of the data on which it has been arranged. 
 The American missionaries publish their annual reports, which contain 
 exact lists of the numbers of the Christian Church " in regular stand 
 ing ; " that is, of communicants ; stating also the numbers suspended 
 from communion, and the numbers baptized each year. The statistics 
 of each island and each missionary district are given in detail, and, be 
 ing published on the spot, may be regarded as unquestionable. Now, 
 in the returns for the year 1863, the number of communicants was that 
 stated above viz, 20,000. Any one acquainted with missions may cal 
 culate the proportion of children and of non-communicants in a Mission 
 comprising 20,000 communicants. The Annual Report of the Amer 
 ican Society for 1865, which has just come to hand, gives the number 
 in regular standing as 17,521, adding: "There is a gradual decrease in 
 the numbers of church members, owing to the excess of deaths and ex 
 communications above the admissions." The reduction in the number 
 of church members has by no means kept pace, during many past years, 
 with the decrease of the population in the Islands. . 
 
 The missionaries, themselves members of the Congregational and 
 Presbyterian churches of America, exercise much care in the reception 
 of converts from among the heathen to the communion of the Hawaiian 
 churches. Only those are admitted who give evidence of having, by the 
 influence of the Holy Spirit, become partakers of a new and spiritual 
 
 * Romanist statistics are not always reliable in matters connected; with their own 
 adherents, or those of their opponents. As the population has diminished since 
 I860, when it was 68.000, and there is no reason to suppose that the adherents of 
 the Catholics at all approximate to the numbers they have given, the figures here 
 stated must be incorrect. The largest number of adherentslto the Romanists that 
 I have seen stated by any of the American missionaries is as one to ten of the Pro 
 testants. This only refers to one province or island. 
 
20 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 life; and none are allowed to remain communicants whose conduct is 
 not such as the New Testament enjoins. Deviations from this rule, re 
 peated or continued, are always, when known, considered valid reasons 
 for exclusion from their fellowship. In regard to Christian attainments 
 and consistency of life, there is no reason to suppose that the Christians 
 of Hawaii are, in these respects, inferior to the communicants in other 
 Mission churches, or that their numbers are proportionally fewer. 
 
 In the most prosperous missions the communicants generally amount 
 to one in three.* In ordinary cases they are one in four or five. Taking 
 therefore the lowest number of communicants, that of last year viz, 
 17,521 and supposing those in "regular standing" to be one in three, 
 though, as those excommunicated are still cared for, the entire number 
 of natives under the care of the American missionaries, including com 
 municants, children, sick persons, and catechumens, would be 52,563 or 
 60,000 in 1862, the year in which the Bishop and clergymen arrived. 
 The decrease of the communicants from deaths and excommunications 
 has not, according to the statements of the missionaries, kept pace with 
 the decrease of the population. This, according to the rate of decrease 
 since the last census viz, 562 annually would reduce the native pop 
 ulation in 1S65, the year for which the number of communicants has 
 been given, to 64,274. Deducting from these the number under the 
 care of the American missionaries, there would remain 10,711. 
 
 The Catholics state that they have 18 European priests, 12 Catechist 
 brothers, 80 religious pupils, 10 nuns, 28 decent chapels, 30 ditto of 
 straw, and 50 schools. Suppose the number of their native adherents, 
 instead of being as they state, 23,000, should not amount to half that 
 number, say only to 10,000, there would remain 71 1 souls uncared for ; 
 but their spiritual wants would be amply met by the labors of Kev. Mr. 
 Damon, American chaplain for seamen, who preaches in English at 
 Honolulu, and the clergyman whose services the friends of the Church 
 of England had desired. 
 
 * Dr. Mullens' " Statistical Tables for India and Ceylon in 1862. " give Native 
 Christians, 153.816 ; communicants, 30,249 ; making the communicants nearly one 
 in five of the professed Chri&tians. 
 
 The American Board only publish the numbers of communicants and average 
 attendants on public worship. The statistics for India and Ceylon for last year 
 give the number of communicants as one in three to the average number of their 
 congregations ; and as a number of young children, sick persons and others must 
 always be absent from public worship, the number of native Christiana must be 
 greater than that above stated. In the missions with which I have been personally 
 connected, the communicants have been as one in four or five of the adherents to 
 Christianity. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 21 
 
 In the foregoing statement, the 23,000 infidels which find a place in 
 the Catholic statistics are not included, because, excepting the Mormons, 
 whatever their numbers may be, the list of those to whom the .Roman 
 ists apply this designation, though not baptized, are, according to the 
 testimony of Dr. Anderson,* more or less connected with the Protestant 
 congregations, as infants, young persons, members of families, attendants 
 at public worship, &c. 
 
 There may be, and doubtless is, some amount of superstition still lin 
 gering among portions of the people in remote places, where its most 
 frequent manifestation is connected with causes producing sickness, or 
 the administering of native nostrums for the cure of disease, as still pre 
 vails in some parts of our own country. There may be some lingering 
 heathen belief and concealed heathen practices in some places and at 
 different times among a small number of the people ; but Dr. Anderson 
 states that " there is not a single avowed heathen " or known worshiper 
 of idols throughout the whole group of the Islands. 
 
 The selection of Honolulu for the commencement of an English Mis 
 sion is a still more manifest aggression upon an existing church. The 
 population of this place was, when the last census was taken, 14,310 
 viz, 1,639 foreigners, and 12,671 natives. There are already at Hono 
 lulu, and connected with the American Mission, two large native 
 churches, one of them built of stone, capable of accommodating 2,500 
 hearers. The number of communicants connected with these churches 
 was stated in the returns for last year at 3,367. Supposing the commu 
 nicants to be one in three of those under the care of the missionaries, 
 there are 10,101 native Christians. There is also one chapel in which 
 the services are in English, besides a Roman Catholic Cathedral. Here 
 then there is ample church room for the entire population, even at the 
 most crowded season of the year ; nevertheless, at this place it is pro 
 posed to erect another cathedral, which is required neither by Protest 
 ants nor Catholics, and which can only be filled by emptying existing 
 churches. 
 
 Such are the conclusions to which the only reliable statistics of the 
 Islands inevitably lead. The Government census may be depended upon 
 as correct. The statistics of the American Mission, considering the 
 minuteness and detail with which they are given, the length of time dur- 
 
 * Anderson's " Hawaiian Islands," p. 367. 
 
22 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 ing which they have been regularly published year by year at the cap 
 ital, under the eyes of the Government, and open to the criticism of the 
 foreign residents, must remain unquestioned. No other statistics of the 
 religious state of the people, whether derived from the Romanist Bishop, 
 or copied from the pages of a local newspaper, can be equally reliable. 
 
 These statistics show most clearly, and beyond all questioning, that, 
 so far as the religious state of the people is concerned, while the appoint 
 ment of an English clergyman, as in the first instance solicited, would 
 have supplied an acknowledged want, and would have gratified the pref 
 erence of the Sovereign and his amiable Queen, as well as encouraged 
 the faithful men who had long pre-occupied the ground, the sending out 
 of an English Bishop and a staff of clergymen was an unnecessary and 
 unjustifiable intrusion upon another Christian Society's field of labor. 
 There is in fact no " great missionary work," or any truly missionary 
 work, at all for the Bishop to do, and he can gather no missionary flock 
 without first drawing away the sheep from another shepherd's fold. 
 
 REASONS ASSIGNED FOR SENDING OUT A NEW MISSION INVALID. 
 
 To send forth a Christian Mission to a heathen country is a simple 
 act of Christian duty for which there is Divine authority and apostolic 
 example. It admits of no doubt, and allows of no questioning. But to 
 send forth such a Mission to a Christian country, is to enter upon a dif 
 ferent course. For such a proceeding there is neither Divine authority, 
 .nor apostolic example. St. Paul expressly declared that, in prosecuting 
 his great missionary work, he had striven " not to preach the Gospel 
 where Christ was named, lest he should build upon another man's foun 
 dation."* 
 
 The promoters of a Mission to a people already Christians, place them 
 selves in a wrong position at the beginning, excite doubt as to there be 
 ing any necessity for their work, and questioning as to the end proposed. 
 If Holy Scripture, the only true foundation of the Protestant faith, be 
 the basis of their common belief, their acknowledged rule of life, and the 
 standard by which their claim to discipleship is to be decided, doubts as 
 to the necessity for such a Mission must be greatly strengthened. 
 
 A Mission to the heathen commends itself to every Christian's ap 
 proval, and needs no justification. But the originators of a Mission to 
 
 * Rom. xv. 20. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 23 
 
 a Christian people find it necessary to adduce reasons for entering such 
 a field, and evidence that those reasons are sound. Such appears to have 
 been the position of the gentlemen who formed themselves into a com 
 mittee for sending "the Reformed Catholic Mission"* to the Sandwich 
 Islands, and sustaining it there. They have sent out the Mission, and 
 now find it necessary to show that it was required, and that their pro 
 ceedings are justified. 
 
 The first reason alleged, I have already disposed of, by showing that 
 the Mission did not originate in any application from the Kings of Ha 
 waii, and was not required by a heathen or non-Christian population in 
 the Islands, I proceed to notice the reasons said to arise out of the sup 
 posed defective qualifications of the missionaries, their mismanagement, 
 and the effects of their labors. 
 
 The past history of the Hawaiian Islands, according to the observa 
 tion of independent witnesses, affords abundant evidence that the Amer 
 ican missionaries have accomplished a great work in the evangelization 
 of these Islands. Few modern missions have, in an equally short period, 
 been more successful than the Hawaiian Mission, and none have met 
 with a larger measure of misrepresentation respecting the results of their 
 labors. 
 
 A few, chiefly anonymous, writers in America have made injurious 
 statements, which have been unhappily adopted in England, to justify 
 the intervention of the new Mission. Yet, when examined, these de 
 preciating statements rest upon nothing more than the lamentations of 
 faithful ministers of Christ over the slow progress of their people in 
 Christian attainments, and the disappointment which, in common with 
 
 * This is the name given to the Mission at home, and by the Bishop in the Isl 
 ands. What is meant is not apparent. It cannot mean catholic in charity, as com 
 prehending all who hold the Scriptural doctrines of Protestantism, for these the 
 Presbyterian and Congregational churches in America to which the missionaries 
 belong most surely believe ; yet the members of this Reformed Catholic Mission 
 refused to allow to the American missionaries their standing as clergymen which 
 is accorded to them in their own country, and declined to unite with them in a 
 meeting for prayer, because they did not regard " episcopal ordination as of Divine 
 appointment." The Americans, much to their credit, manifested a readiness to 
 co-operate, as far as possible, with the members of the newly-arrived Mission ; but 
 how their advances were met we learn from Mr. W. D. Alexander, who. in reply 
 ing to Bishop Staley's pastoral, declares that "the overbearing and intolerant 
 spirit which the Bishop and his presbyters displayed, and their apparent deter 
 mination to ride rough-shod over their predecessors, and to use the influence and 
 patronage of the Government to further their schemes, put all co-operation out of 
 the question/' 
 
24 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 missionaries in other fields, they often have to suffer, over the tares which 
 everywhere grow with the wheat in "the Kingdom of God." 
 
 Such unfair representations, grounded on what are called the confes 
 sions of the missionaries, is a favorite practice with men of the world, 
 and with .Romish writers, against Protestant missions, but is unjustifia 
 ble in those who profess their adherence to Scriptural truth. It may be 
 well, however, to meet these aspersions by a brief review of the work of 
 the Mission, and by counter testimony. 
 
 It is needless to attempt any refutation of the anonymous imputations 
 cast upon the Mission, often by men whose ignorance, profligacy and 
 vice disqualify them for giving evidence in such a case. I will therefore 
 only briefly notice some of the disparaging statements which a too easy 
 credulity has induced men of character and station to adopt and repeat, 
 to the injury of this Mission. 
 
 It is acknowledged that the missionaries are earnest and faithful men, 
 of pure and blameless life, that their creed is Scriptural, and their labors 
 abundant ; but they are charged with not being qualified for their work, 
 with not having gained the affections of the people, and having no hold 
 on their hearts. Hence, it is asserted by the Committee of the Catholic 
 Keformed Mission, that " among their nominal converts there still ex 
 ists a heathen belief, and heathen practices thinly veiled under a super 
 ficial Christianity."* 
 
 Connected with the purpose for which it is used, the statement is evi 
 dently meant to convey the impression that the religion of the Hawai- 
 ians exists on the surface, and on the surface only ; that it has no place 
 in the hearts of the people, no hold on their affections, and that therefore 
 it was necessary to send them a different kind of Christianity. Of the 
 religion of the great body of the Christians in Hawaii, the committee 
 themselves were incapable of forming a reliable opinion, but in relation 
 to individuals of that people, they had evidence which should have pre 
 vented their spreading over the dioceses of England, a statement calcu 
 lated to produce such injurious impressions without the clearest evidence 
 of their truth. 
 
 Queen Emma herself was a Christian before the new missionaries set 
 foot in Hawaii. Her Majesty's Chaplain was a Christian, was baptized* 
 was received to the Communion of the Hawaiian Church, and continued 
 
 * ' ; Hawaiian Church Mission." pp. 2, 3. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 25 
 
 in " full standing " in that Church before he ever saw a Reformed Cath 
 olic missionary. Is their's, it may be asked, only a surface religion ? Do 
 the promoters of the new Mission deem it such ? On the contrary, the 
 extent to which they have associated them with their public religious 
 services here warrants the inference that they regard them as genuine 
 Christians. 
 
 As a few ears of corn are a sample of the sheaves of the field from 
 which they are taken, so these acknowledged Christians are living wit 
 nesses that the Christianity of the Sandwich Islanders is not a mere sur 
 face covering, veiling over a heathen belief and heathen practices, but 
 the deeply rooted religion of the heart ; and that the seed which the Ha 
 waiian missionaries have sown in their hearts is the good seed of the 
 Kingdom. And if, to continue the illustration, the field has long lain 
 waste, filled with roots of rank and noxious weeds which, springing up, 
 choke the good seed so that it should occasionally produce abortive 
 growths, this would be no evidence that all were such, or that notwith 
 standing some disappointment there might not still be a harvest that 
 should gladden the laborer's heart, and that should be gathered in at the 
 last great harvest day. 
 
 I dismiss, however, the appeal of the committee with the single re 
 mark that it is much to be regretted that a body of Christian gentlemen, 
 associated for the spread of the Gospel, should have felt themselves called 
 upon to print and circulate a statement so calculated to injure a number 
 of faithful laborers in that same work without being sure that it was 
 true. There was no necessity for them to go out of their way to en 
 deavor to condemn the work of the American missionaries and to show 
 that they had been unfaithful to their trust. If they sought to obtain aid 
 to carry on what they deemed their own work, it was enough to say, if 
 they thought such was the fact, that there was a large portion of the 
 people not brought under either Catholic or Protestant instruction. 
 
 Neither the King of the Sandwich Islands, nor the members of the 
 Church of England there, when they applied for a clergyman, said any 
 thing about " a superficial Christianity thinly veiling a heathen faith and 
 heathen practices." This, it would seem, like the want of a Bishop, re 
 mained to be discovered in England. 
 
 Still greater injustice is done to the American teachers by the declara 
 tion that the moral corruption of the heathen, aggravated by intercourse 
 4 
 
26 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 with foreigners, had become more rank under the religious system of the 
 missionaries. Such a revolting charge shocks the sense of justice in all 
 upright minds and carries with it its own condemnation. 
 
 That a writer in a religious periodical, devoted to the furtherance of 
 religion in connection with the Church of England, and intended to be 
 read by Christian men, should tell his readers that, as a matter of his 
 tory, the American missionaries " made hypocrites as fast as they made 
 proselytes," and farther, that the " moral corruption of the natives, ag 
 gravated by foreigners, became more rank under their religious system," 
 are statements so utterly at variance with every credible account of their 
 labors, that it must be doubted whether the writer believed them himself. 
 
 Since the year 1823, when the first convert was baptized, nearly 
 53,000 converts* have been received into the' Hawaiian churches. To 
 assert that more than 1,000 false professors of Christianity have every 
 year, for more than forty years, been publicly baptized, and received to 
 full standing in a Protestant Church, the charge against which is that 
 its discipline is too strict and severe, is what few, if any, reflecting men 
 will find themselves able to regard in any other light than as an unau 
 thorized assertion, calculated to injure, in the opinion of others, an ex 
 emplary and faithful body of men. But to suppose, as any belief in 
 these statements requires us to do, that the whole body of missionaries 
 in. the Sandwich Islands, to whom the reports of accessions to each 
 church, or each district, were annually submitted, should deceive each 
 other and the native brethren, or should unite to deceive the foreign resi 
 dents in the Islands where these reports were published, exceeds all or 
 dinary capacity of faith to such an extent that few will believe it can be 
 true. 
 
 It seems also impossible for reflecting men to attach any credit to the 
 assertion that the missionaries made hypocrites as fast as they made 
 proselytes, because that would require us to believe that during these 
 forty years, in which as great and beneficial a change as had taken place 
 among any heathen people in the world had occurred, there had not been 
 among the fifty thousand proselytes one sincere Christian. Not one 
 soul there, whatever its repentance or faith, or holiness, or love and 
 trust in Christ, and peace and hope in passing to the grave not one 
 that should be -saved. 
 
 * Dr. Anderson's " Hawaiian Islands," p. 300. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 27 
 
 The Roman Catholic Church teaches that outside the pale of that 
 Church none can be saved, but no church that I have heard of -teaches 
 that hypocrites shall be saved, and, as a necessary consequence, we are 
 required to believe that not one of these fifty thousand proselytes could 
 be saved. This, it is true, appeared to be the opinion of one of the 
 speakers at Chelmsford. The new Mission, he said, " Wanted more 
 money, and more men ; " and, in allusion to objections said, the first 
 was " Why waste your energies and money on seventy thousand peo 
 ple, and they ten thousand miles away ?" He is reported to have asked, 
 " Did these people dare to tell him that these seventy thousand souls 
 were unworthy of any effort ? " and to have closed the sentence with 
 the exclamation already quoted, "Good heavens! seventy thousand im 
 mortal souls not to be saved ! " 
 
 Mournful indeed, and without a parallel in Christian missions, would 
 be the result of forty years of faithful labor if this were true. Happily, 
 for the encouragement of the friends of missions, the reverse is the case. 
 The deaths of communicants in full standing during the forty years end 
 ing 1863, were 20,017,* and thousands of these had confessed a good 
 confession, had borne in their lives what the Scripture calls the fruit of 
 the Spirit,! and had experienced such a calm confiding close of a holy 
 life as to warrant in survivors the hope that the departed had entered 
 into blessedness and rest. And there are many still living, who, amidst 
 much that is feeble in principle and defective in practice, and though 
 some at times may be overcome by temptation, are yet striving to regu 
 late their lives by God's Word, to experience more of the love of Christ 
 in their hearts, and to grow in meetness for heaven. Among these, and 
 connected with the American Mission Churches, Kekuanaoa, father of 
 the King and step father to Queen Emma, Kanoa, Governor of Kauai, 
 and John li, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, are living wit 
 nesses that the imputation cast on the proselytes of the American mis 
 sionaries is unfounded. 
 
 It is said that the missionaries themselves confessed that the religion 
 of the people was " little more than a name." On this it may be suffi 
 cient to observe that the missionaries never stated any such thing, but 
 always the reverse. They represented their converts as in the infancy 
 
 * Dr. Anderson's " Hawaiian Islands," p. 300. 
 t Gal. i. 22, 23. 
 
28 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 of their moral and religious life, manifesting all the feebleness and im 
 maturity of such a state, that every onward step was resisted by the 
 older and stronger principles of evil within them, in striving against 
 which they often failed ; but that, notwithstanding this fearful disadvan 
 tage, there had always been a goodly number who, they had reason to 
 believe, though weak, were yet sincere. 
 
 The missionaries confessed that all were not sincere; that there were 
 always some at times, and for a season many, whose religion seemed 
 little more than a name, and that when such fell into sin they were ex 
 cluded from the fellowship of the church, but pitied, wept over, pleaded 
 with, and prayed for, that they might repent, forsake sin, and be re 
 stored. This was the sorrow of the missionary's heart his cry in deep 
 humiliation before God. It was no pleasure to him to publish it to the 
 world. It was not to accuse another when he did so, but faithfully to 
 report the progress of his own work, to excite the sympathy of others in 
 his trials, and to call forth their prayers for himself and for the weak and 
 erring members of his flock. These faithful reports of defects among 
 the objects of his care ought not to be wrested to his disadvantage, but 
 rather mentioned to his honor, and regarded as evidences of his trust 
 worthiness. 
 
 And, after all, what do the defections amount to ? The evidence ad 
 duced by those who condemn the Mission, shows that those who have 
 disgraced their Christian character form, considering the general state of 
 society, but a small proportion of the communicants. During forty years 
 the whole number excommunicated were about 8,000, or less than one 
 in seven of the entire body of church members. 
 
 The people have but recently emerged from a state of society in which 
 virtue found no place, where vice was honored in proportion as it was 
 unscrupulous, revolting, and destructive, and it had become, by length 
 of time, ingrained into their very nature. The newly imbibed faith was 
 still weak; Christian principle immature, and the requirements of the 
 new religion imperfectly understood. Temptations were constant and 
 common, and their danger neither clearly seen nor adequately felt 
 amongst them, as compared with the members of older Christian com 
 munities; and, according to the most unquestionable evidence which 
 can be adduced, there have been only 8,000 out of more than 50,000 
 Hawaiian converts who had, in the course of forty years, deviated so far 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 29 
 
 from the required rectitude of conduct as to be, by the severe and strict 
 discipline of the missionaries, excluded from the church. 
 
 There are conditions under which 'the aspect of religious life differs, 
 and seasons in which its manifestations vary in kind and degree ; but 
 the figures above given include the seasons of greatest decline, as well 
 as those of steadfastness, during forty years. With this evidence before 
 us, we are constrained to believe that notwithstanding all just draw 
 backs, the American Mission in Hawaii is no failure, but may worthily 
 rank with the most prosperous of modern missions. 
 
 There are yet two other impeachments of this Mission preferred by 
 high dignitaries of the Church of England, which, from their gravity, as 
 well as from the dignity and sacredness of the position of those who 
 bring them forward, cannot be overlooked. The Bishop of Oxford, if 
 the reporters for the public journals be correct.* stated at Salisbury, 
 " The people are craving for your teachers; they are wearied out by the 
 mismanagement of the American Puritans." And in another place, his 
 lordship is reported to have said that the missionaries "had created 
 against themselves the strongest possible prejudice in this way." 
 
 Had there been this extreme prejudice against the American mission 
 aries, this weariness of their mismanagement, this craving for the Ke- 
 formed Catholic missionaries, it was naturally to be supposed that the 
 former would have been forsaken. And if, as another advocate of this 
 Mission affirms, " it was the religion of England, to be brought from 
 England by the long promised teachers that all along fed the national 
 expectation ; " if the " Hawaiians were looking with an eager eye to the 
 church of the future ; " if " the Ark of God was still due across the 
 waters ; " and if " all that was required was to see teachers appear," 
 and " to whom all were prepared to listen ;"t if these things were so,, 
 it is natural to suppose that when tidings of the arrival of this ardently 
 desired boon, which had " all along fed the national expectation," were 
 made known, the heart of Hawaii, throughout all its coasts, would have 
 beat with unwonted pleasure, and that the the " craving " throngs from 
 Puna to Kauai would have hurried to Honolulu to welcome and to look 
 upon the men by whom their " craving " was to be appeased ; and that 
 as all that was required was to see these teachers, " to whom all were 
 
 * " Daily News." October 26th, 1865. 
 t " Colonial Church Chronicle," p. 352. 
 
30 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 prepared to listen,"* that no place of worship would have contained the 
 multitude that would have crowded together to hear their preaching. 
 
 Some such manifestation of popular feeling would have been reasona 
 ble if the above statements made to show the necessity for the recently 
 sent Mission ever had any foundation. The Mission was inaugurated 
 on the day of a great national festival by a splendid ceremonial, when 
 the late King and his Queen were confirmed. The people had also been 
 favored with the opportunity of attending the ministrations of the Bishop 
 and his assistants, and of seeing the accompaniments of their worship. 
 And yet it appears, on the authority of a work on missions, compiled 
 by a clergyman of the Church of England, and published last year, that 
 the number of communicants in connection with the Reformed Catholic 
 Mission was, in 1864, one hundred, and of attendants on the ministry of 
 Bishop Staley and that of his three presbyters, seven hundred and fifty.! 
 
 But at Wiston the most remarkable description of the people, and of 
 the doctrine and practice of the missionaries, was given. The Bishop 
 of Oxford is reported to have said : " These children of nature, children 
 of the air, children of the light, children of the sun, children of beauty, 
 disporting themselves for the most part in the open air, living in the ut 
 most conceivable freedom, taking their greatest pleasure in the dance, 
 dancing many times a day, dancing almost every evening, and then im 
 agine these people visited by the descendants of the stern old Puritans 
 of New England, if anything, rather more severe, sour, and vinegar-like, 
 carrying with them the iron code of Connecticut, the most severe ever 
 inflicted upon any people on the earth, taking peculiar examples from 
 the Levitical law, and applying them to Christian times, by a strange 
 mistake, which pervaded the old Puritan mind, that Christianity found 
 its excellence by a retrogression to Judaism. For instance, they wrote 
 it down in their code that if any father had a troublesome child he should 
 bring him before the elders, and he should be stoned. These men, many 
 of them good men, very devout men, men who really desired the salva 
 tion of the souls of these poor islanders, and came for that purpose and 
 no other, who gave up their homes that they might come, but coming 
 with all the bias and severity of Puritan life to these children of nature, 
 these children of the sun. And then conceive the moral and social ef 
 
 * " Colonial Church Chronicle,' 7 p. 352. 
 f " Missionary Geography." 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 31 
 
 fervescence that ensued. They were commanded not to put away sensu 
 ality merely, but all that was child-like, spiritual and unobjectionable in 
 their habits, removing the eternal landmarks between morality and im 
 morality, teaching them that things innocent, like things wicked, were 
 to be condemned. Here was a great mistake, arising out of the injured 
 form of Christianity which they were desiring to inculcate." 
 
 At Leeds his lordship is 'reported in the same journal* to have said, 
 " The American missionaries preached not what we believed to be the 
 completeness of the Christian system, and there were many peculiarities 
 about their teaching which were most distinctly hostile to all the natural 
 tendencies of that peculiar people a people given to gaiety, endowed 
 with a sort of perpetual youth, and not capable of enduring the severity 
 with which, from the most conscientious convictions, their new teachers 
 came among them. The consequence is, that from this and other causes, 
 they have not got hold of the hearts of the people." 
 
 These remarkable passages do not require notice, except on account 
 of their having been employed in justification of the .Reformed Catholic 
 Mission, and for this purpose they do not seem to be very appropriate. 
 They describe the Sandwich Islanders as among the most highly favored 
 of the human family " Children of the light, children of the sun, chil 
 dren r f beauty," and as taking " their greatest pleasure in the dance, 
 dancing continually," a people of gaiety, endowed with a sort of perpet 
 ual youth. Such a people would seem to have escaped the calamity of 
 the Fall; they could scarcely need the teaching of any Mission, and 
 must have approached nearly to the paradisaical condition of mankind. 
 
 I have visited, resided, and traveled in this country. I have mingled 
 with these people in the public, social and religious engagements of life, 
 and neither I nor my companions found them as here described. Their 
 personal appearance and condition are greatly improved, and so are their 
 dress, their dwellings, and their habits of social life, since my residence 
 amongst them, which was the period referred to, viz : when the Puritan 
 missionaries first went to the Islands. At that period, the high chiefs 
 and some of the middle class exhibited fine and noble forms of symmetry 
 and strength, and at times wore good and decent clothing, yet at times, 
 even among the very highest, the clothing was nothing more for the men 
 than a girdle a few inches wide, and for the women a piece of cloth 
 
 * " Dally News." 
 
32 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 wrapped round the waist and reaching- a little below the knees. The 
 dwellings, especially of the lower classes, were low dark huts, chiefly of 
 grass. Their filthiness was disgusting, such as scarcely admits of de 
 scription ; and this, added to many loathsome diseases, rendered many 
 of them the most pitiable, yet at the same time, the most sickening and 
 revolting objects which the eye could behold. In this respect they were 
 below the Society Islanders, probably because their country was colder, 
 their means of living less abundant, and the streams of fresh water for 
 bathing, comparatively few. 
 
 Nothing but a feeling of compassion, as Mr. Stewart observed, "some 
 times bordering on agony," a desire to make an effort to induce these 
 people to rise, a belief that they, low as they were, were immortal, and 
 that God's grace was sufficient for their entire regeneration, could have 
 taken us a second time to their abodes, and to the companionship of 
 such debasement and wretchedness. These feelings were shared by 
 us all. Dr. Stewart, who was stationed on the island called Maui. 
 in his published journal, referring to an evening walk along the 
 beach, observes : " The largest hut I passed was not higher than my 
 waist ; capable only of containing a family, like pigs in a sty, on a bed 
 of dried grass, filled with vermin. Not a bush or shrub was to be seen 
 around, or any appearance whatever of cultivation. It was the time of 
 their evening repast, and most of the people were seated on the ground 
 eating poi, surrounded by swarms of flies, and sharing their food with 
 dogs, pigs and ducks, who helped themselves freely from the dishes of 
 their masters." And again : " There are not a few of the manners and 
 habits of the people that can never be mentioned, but which daily and 
 hourly obtrude themselves on the observation." These and other causes 
 of disgust and repulsion were then so common, " as to be without re 
 proach, except in the eyes of a foreigner." The same writer, speaking 
 of fearful diseases prevailing amongst the people, states that they " an 
 nually consign hundreds to the grave, and convert others, while living r 
 into walking sepulchres." 
 
 This devoted missionary, a man of refined mind and habits, who had 
 left a position of respect and comfort, thus gives vent to his feelings in 
 connection with his work : " Notwithstanding the abominations daily 
 taking place around us, drunkenness, adultery, gambling, and theft, de 
 ceit, treachery, and violence, all of which exist throughout the land to 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 33 
 
 an almost incredible decree, such has already been the success attend 
 ing the efforts at reformation, made in the very infancy of the Mission, 
 that we are encouraged, by every day's observance, with fresh zeal to 
 dedicate ourselves to the work of rescue and salvation. They are still 
 uncivilized heathens, living, not only in all the simplicity, but in all the 
 vulgarity of untutored nature : and I can sincerely say, that in them 
 I see much that I love, and more that I admire, I must in candor add 
 and much, if not all, that I abhor." Sodom and Gomorrah were scarcely 
 more vile. 
 
 How far the condition of the Sandwich Islanders, nearly fifty years 
 ago, when the Puritans first arrived in the country, resembled the 
 mental picture of these people, which the Bishop of Oxford sketched 
 with such exuberance of metaphor at VViston and at Leeds, designating 
 them " children of the air," and a " people of gaiety, endowed with per 
 petual youth," the readers of the foregoing description of these same 
 people as they were, by personal intercourse, found to be, must decide 
 for themselves. 
 
 That portion of the eulogiurn on this people devoted to tjieir dances, 
 occasions me extreme regret that his lordship did not make himself 
 better acquainted with the character and practices associated with their 
 heathen dances, for if he had done so I cannot believe that he would 
 ever have given the slightest sanction, much less even implied, com 
 mendation of practices which, if not always, were generally, and almost 
 inevitably, occasions of the most disgraceful and revolting wickedness. 
 
 Evidence of the true character of these dances was not far to seek. 
 Few readers of the narratives of our early voyagers can be ignorant of 
 the fact that although at times there may have been nothing opposed to 
 decency, these dances were incentives to vice as well as occasions for 
 its indulgence. Vancouver, an authority often quoted by the promoters 
 of the new Mission, describing one of these dances, observes : " Had the 
 performance finished with the third act, we should have retired from, 
 their theatre with a much higher idea of the moral tendency of their 
 drama than was conveyed by the offensive scene exhibited by the ladies 
 in the concluding part. The language of the song no doubt corres 
 ponded with the display which was carried to a degree of extravagance 
 calculated to produce nothing but disgust even to the most licentious/'* 
 
 * Vancouver, vol. iii.. p. ir>. 
 
34 T11E SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 Mr. Stewart, in describing the effect on his own mind of these dances 
 taking place near to where he was, states that " the sounds of their rude 
 music, the wild notes of their songs, reached us even in the Mission en 
 closure. But they fell on the heart with a saddening power, for we had 
 been compelled already, from our own observation, as well as from the 
 communications of others, necessarily to associate with them exhibitions 
 of unrivalled licentiousness, and abominations which must forever re 
 main untold. I can never forget the impressions made upon my mind 
 the first few nights after coming to anchor in the harbor, while these 
 songs and dances were in preparation by rehearsal and practice. With 
 the gathering darkness of every evening, thousands of the natives as 
 sembled in a grove of cocoanut trees near the ship ; and the fires round 
 which they danced were scarcely ever extinguished till the break of day, 
 while the shouts of revelry and licentiousness, shouts of which till then 
 I had no conception, and which are heard only in a heathen land, un 
 ceasingly burst upon the ear." 
 
 I once, when residing at Honolulu, went in obedience to a message 
 from the Queen to a place where, to my surprise and disgust, a sort of 
 rehearsal of one of these dances was going on, and almost before I was 
 fully aware of what it was, the filthy picture seemed to be burned as 
 with vitriol into my mind as I turned and hurried home from the spot. 
 
 Such were the chief part of the dances which, if the Bishop of Ox 
 ford's description of the Sandwich Islands be correct, formed their "chief 
 occupation and their greatest pleasure." Happily for the people it is not 
 correct, for had they danced many times in the day, and almost every 
 evening, it must have greatly accelerated the already rapid diminution 
 of their numbers. There were some who danced for their bread, as 
 dancers do with us, and not for pleasure. The common people seldom 
 danced among themselves, or for their own amusement, generally for 
 that of their chiefs, or the visitors of their chiefs, and at great festivals. 
 On these occasions, with very rare, if any exceptions, the dances were 
 practiced as stimulants to vice, or occasions for its practice. Few dances 
 took place in the day, they were generally practiced in the evening, or 
 under cover of the night. To call these innocent dances is to shock all 
 sense of decency and virtue, and can scarcely be imagined as arising 
 from anything but the most unaccountable delusion. 
 
 For the suppression of these dances the missionaries and their creed 
 
THK .SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 35 
 
 are severely censured. Such censure every right-minded man and 
 woman throughout Christendom, who knows anything about the matter, 
 will consider most erroneously placed, and will probably deem the mis 
 sionaries, if they did suppress them, entitled to the highest praise. It 
 is, however, doubtful whether it was necessary for the missionaries to 
 take any steps towards this end. So long as the chiefs and people dis 
 regarded the religious teachings of the missionaries, the protests of the 
 latter against this source of wickedness, or against drunkenness, or any 
 other vices which drown men's souls in perdition, would have been ut 
 terly disregarded. But when once the pure and holy doctrines of the 
 Gospel entered the hearts of the natives, their knowledge of the power 
 of these dances to excite the grossest passions, and that they were in 
 tended and expected to issue in vice, would prevent their thinking for a 
 moment that the indwelling of religion in the heart, and countenance of 
 these dances, much less participation in them, could be deemed compat 
 ible. They would themselves prohibit them as much as they would 
 prohibit idol worship, and would no more think of joining in such ob 
 scene proceedings than of offering human sacrifices. 
 
 The revival of these heathen dances, for it is these alone, if any, that 
 the Puritans have suppressed, .would outrage the Christian feeling of 
 the better portion of the community, native and foreign.* Yet it is the 
 cessation of these that is so mournfully deplored. Dancing of a respect 
 able kind is not suppressed. A writer in an American commercial and 
 merchants' magazine for 1858, speaks of the evening polka reunions at 
 Honolulu, in which natives and foreigners united j and a gentleman, the 
 son of a physician, a near neighbor of mine, an officer in the navy, who, 
 a few years ago, was at home for awhile, when he found that I had been 
 at Hawaii, spoke sometimes of the pleasant evenings he had spent at 
 Honolulu, where he had waltzed with Queen Emma, and seemed to 
 have enjoyed the respectable and agreeable society which he had met 
 with there. 
 
 Other assertions said to have been made at Wiston, I may, perhaps, 
 allude to before I close ; but I could not allow the suppression of the 
 intentionally demoralizing heathen dances to be adduced as a ground of 
 
 * A few years ago the foreigners opened a theatre at Honolulu. The natives 
 said it was a kind of hula dancing, and revived some of their own, to the grief of 
 the respectable portion of the community. The Governor would not allow them 
 anywhere but at Honolulu, and they have since, I believe, been discontinued. 
 
36 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 censure either of the missionaries or their teaching without an earnest 
 protest. 
 
 The Bishop of Honolulu, who also laments the discontinuance of the 
 former dances, surpasses all others in the startling and paradoxical ac 
 cusations which he brings against the deeply injured missionaries. I 
 select only two of these. In a pastoral address, published in Honolulu 
 at the beginning of the past year, Bishop Staley prefers the following 
 monstrously extravagant charge against them : " There was less of fear 
 ful corruption in the heathen, than in the Christian days of the people. 
 The change for the worse, I do not hesitate to say, has been greatly 
 aided by Puritanism, working partly by faulty legislation, partly by the 
 religious unreality which it too generally fosters." 
 
 in the number of " Evangelical Christendom " for January this year, 
 there is an account of a visit paid by Bishop Staley to America ; and 
 in his appeal for men and money to assist in the work, he is stated to 
 have said, that under the influence of the existing Christianity the 
 morals of the people are to day " ten times worse than they were under 
 the heathen system," that their piety is an " unctuous cant," and that 
 the professors of this Christianity are relapsing into " heathenism, sor 
 cery, and witchcraft." And he quotes in proof an expression of the mis 
 sionaries which applies to a particular locality, as though it applied to 
 a large community. All these evils, the writer adds, are described, not 
 as the result of a conflict which human depravity and long continued 
 national vices, aggravated by the worst sort of imported temptations, are 
 waging against Christianity itself, but as the natural fruit of the Con 
 gregational and Presbyterian Churches of New York and Philadelphia, 
 of New England and of all in the United States, who constitute the 
 American Board. Upon this plea, Bishop Staley presented himself be 
 fore the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of this country.* 
 
 It may suffice in adverting to these depreciatory statements to remark 
 that their author cannot be a competent witness as to what corruption 
 prevailed at Hawaii in the days of heathenism ; nor is he much better 
 qualified to testify to the moral state of the people generally at the pres 
 ent time. His testimony must be based on the statements of others ; 
 and when he uttered the extravagant assertion that there was less cor 
 ruption among the people when they were heathen than at the present 
 
 * "Evangelical Christendom.'' January. 18G6. p. 31. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MINIONS. 37 
 
 time, and added, " The change for the worse, I do not hesitate to say, 
 has been greatly aided by Puritanism, * * * and partly by the re 
 ligious unreality which it too generally fosters," he uttered assertions 
 which were as unfounded as they are uncharitable. 
 
 The assertion that the moral corruption of the people is worse ! ten 
 times worse " since they have become Christians than while they were 
 heathen, can only be substantiated by witnesses acquainted with the 
 heathen as well as with the Christian state of the people, and these wit 
 nesses bear a directly opposite testimony. It is sufficient at present to 
 adduce the evidence of the missionaries, some of whom arrived there 
 before there was a single native Christian in the Islands, and have lived 
 among the people for nearly fifty years. These men have borne their 
 testimony publicly face to face with their accusers, before authorities 
 from their own country; and their testimony, which has received the 
 highest confirmation, is directly contrary to the accusations preferred 
 against them. 
 
 Charges of the baneful effects of their management and teaching had 
 been made, not by the natives but by foreigners, in the year 18^7. 
 
 Some months afterwards, a captain of the United States Navy ar 
 rived at the Islands. The missionaries demanded a public investigation. 
 In the statement of their proceedings, after alluding to the effects of 
 their labors in diminishing drunkenness, .gambling, &c., they proceed to 
 say, " While we allude to these charges, we are far from being blind or 
 indifferent to the barbarism, fickleness, duplicity, neglect, laziness, and 
 other varied vices and crimes, which to some extent still remain, and 
 which are more or less visible even to a transient visitor ; neither do we 
 vindicate, or in the least degree offer a palliation for these things. We 
 only complain and remonstrate against those illiberal and unmanly 
 charges by which the Mission is made accountable for the daily blun 
 ders, the childish actions, the long-established customs, and even the in 
 herent depravity of the people ; and all, forsooth, because we attempt to 
 make them better. 
 
 " If the doctrines and duties of Christianity, in which the Church of 
 England, the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian, and other churches 
 in America are agreed, are not adapted to correct the evils which exist 
 in heathen nations ; have no good influence to cure the evils of the 
 human heart, and to promote virtue, order, and happiness in society, 
 
33 TnE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 then we may challenge the wisdom of the world to devise a system of 
 morals, and to propose any practicable measures, which will raise a sav 
 age tribe or a heathen nation from their native depravity to a state of 
 civilization and virtuous life. 
 
 " If then we have mistaken the grand principles of reformation, or if 
 we have taken a wrong step, we will be grateful to any man who, in a 
 friendly manner, will inform us of it. If we have spoken or done evil, 
 bear witness of the evil ; but if well, why should we be smitten ? 
 
 " From those gentlemen who reside, or occasionally touch at these 
 Islands, we ask an investigation of our conduct. We do more we 
 challenge it. 
 
 " We have here stated our whole object, and also the means we use 
 to obtain it. We know that the cold-hearted, the misanthropical, and 
 the superstitious heathen, will be opposed to the former, and will charge 
 all the crimes and defects which still remain to the latter. But there 
 are those around us, and those who occasionally visit us from abroad, 
 who can judge candidly. We request them to examine the above state 
 ments, and we on our part pledge ourselves that if we may have a can 
 did hearing, with witnesses, we will substantiate everything which we 
 here assert." 
 
 In due course a public meeting for investigation took place at the 
 house of the brother of the Regent, before Captain Jones of the United 
 States Navy, and a number of his officers. The missionaries and their 
 accusers were there, and the former engaged to reply to any accusation 
 preferred in writing against them. 
 
 What was the result ? No charge was brought forward ; no evidence 
 against the missionaries was adduced, although their calumniators sus 
 tained, according to the account of Captain Jones, " the fourfold rela 
 tion of prosecutor, witness, jury, and judge! And yet," asks Captain 
 Jones, in his published account of this meeting,* " what was the issue 
 of this great trial ? The most perfect, full, complete and triumphant vic 
 tory for the missionaries that could have been asked by their most de 
 voted friends. Not one jot or tittle, not one iota derogatory to their 
 character as men, or as ministers of the Gospel of the strictest order, or 
 
 * Jarves' " History," p. 271. quoted in " Lectures on the Past and Present of the 
 Sandwich Islands, by T. Dwight Hunt, pastor, 7 ' and published in San Francisco, 
 1853. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 39 
 
 as missionaries, could be made to appear by the united efforts of all who 
 conspired against them." 
 
 To this testimony may be added that of the venerable chief, Kekua- 
 naoa, father of the late and present King, and for many years past a 
 blameless Christian. It was delivered in the large stone church in 
 Honolulu, on a public occasion in 1841, and was published at the time. 
 " In looking," says the Governor, " over the years that are past, I see 
 great reason to praise God for His goodness to me, and to all who are 
 here present. I look back to the reign of Kamehameha I., and around 
 on the present state of things, and I say there is no being so great and 
 so good as Jehovah, and there are no laws so good as his." * * * 
 "Uncleanness abounded in our times of darkness. Some chief men 
 had ten wives : some had more, and some had less. So also those who 
 had property had many women. Neither were the women confined each 
 to one man. The law of marriage was then unknown. Untold evils 
 arose from this source, such as infanticide, quarrels, murder, and such 
 like things. All these evils are not done away, but they have greatly 
 decreased." * * * " We are better clad than we used to be. I 
 remember the time when we saw only the kika and the malo (girdle) 
 among the common people. Great, indeed, was the thieving in our days 
 of ignorance. It was connected with lying and robbery in every quarter. 
 Laziness was thought to be honorable ; and lazy people were the great 
 est favorites with the chiefs. When a chief died, there were dreadful 
 doings. Teeth were knocked out ; uncleanness was seen everywhere 
 in open day ; food was destroyed, and every sort of abomination was 
 committed. 
 
 " I will now speak of Liholiho's reign. He made a law, called maka- 
 honu, on the death of his father. Great was our rum-drinking, dancing, 
 singing, stealing, adultery and night-carousing at that time. Whole 
 nights were spent in debauchery. Very good were all these things to 
 my mind in those days. But latterly I have become acquainted with 
 the Word of God, and the Law of God, showing a better way than any 1 
 knew before. Let us bless the name of Jehovah for all his benefits to us 
 and our nation. Blessed is the man who keeps the law of the Lord." 
 
 In a letter from the young King, at an earlier period, viz., in 1836, he 
 had said "Love to you, our obliging friends in America. This is our 
 sentiment as to promoting the order and prosperity of these Hawaiian 
 
40 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 Islands. Give us additional teachers, like the teachers who dwell in 
 your own country."* 
 
 In 184S, the " entire body of missionaries, then numbering twenty- 
 nine clergymen, all of them liberally educated, and twelve intelligent 
 laymen, bore a united testimony to the favorable contrast between the 
 state of the people at that time, as compared with their state at the com 
 mencement of the Mission." I bring down the evidence of these com 
 petent witnesses to 1S83, as it is given by Dr. Anderson, who says, " I 
 heard all the missionary brethren had to say on the subject during the 
 four months that I remained in the Islands, and I feel assured that mul 
 titudes of those whom I had the happiness to address, and take by the 
 hand, how low soever they may stand on the scale of intelligence and 
 social life, are to be numbered with the people of God/' * * * "As 
 compared with their own past which is the proper comparison they 
 have been greatly elevated." * * * " They were then naked bar 
 barians. Lying, drunkenness, theft, robbery, were universal. So was 
 licentiousness, and it was shameless in open day. There was no re 
 straint on polygamy and polyandry. Mothers buried their infant chil 
 dren alive, and children did the same with their aged and infirm 
 parents." * * * "I did not see a drunken native while on the Isl 
 ands. Theft and robbery are less frequent there than in the United 
 States. We slept at night with open doors, had no apprehension, and 
 lost nothing. Licentiousness still largely exists outside the church, and 
 is one of the easily-besetting sins within it ; but it now everywhere 
 shuns the day, and is subjected to the discipline of the church. IN or do 
 mothers any more bury their infant children alive, nor children their 
 aged and infirm parents."! 
 
 To this long line of evidence, which I believe to be irrefragable, I add 
 one additional testimony, of greater weight in reference to the condition 
 of the people in the days of heathenism, and equally strong and clear in 
 favor of the teaching of the missionaries. It was given at the time 
 when an Englishman wearing, but disgracing by his conduct, the uni 
 form of our own country, united with a number of others in urging the 
 expulsion of the missionaries, on the ground that their teaching and in 
 fluence was fast plunging the country into civil war and bloodshed. 
 The witness to whom I now refer, whose loyalty to this country through 
 * Dr. Anderson, p. 76. | Ibid. p. 289. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 41 
 
 forty years of absence never failed, who had been the most trusted ad 
 viser of the first Kamehameha, and for nine years Governor of Hawaii; 
 who was the grandfather of Queen Emma, and until his death exercised 
 a wise and beneficial influence over the counsels of the Government, 
 bore the following straightforward English testimony : 
 
 " Whereas, it has been represented by many persons, that the labors 
 of the missionaries in these Islands are attended with evil and disadvan 
 tage, to the people, I hereby most cheerfully give my testimony to the 
 contrary. T am fully convinced that the good which is accomplishing, 
 and already effected, is not little. The great and radical change already 
 made for the better, in the manners and customs of this people, has far 
 surpassed my most sanguine expectations. During the forty years that 
 I have resided here, 1 have known thousands of defenseless human be 
 ings cruelly massacred in their exterminating wars. I have seen multi 
 tudes of my fellow-beings offered in sacrifice to their idol gods. I have 
 seen this large island, once filled with inhabitants, dwindle down to its 
 present numbers through wars and disease, and I am persuaded that 
 nothing but Christianity can preserve them from total extinction. I re 
 joice that true religion is taking the place of superstition and idolatry, 
 that good morals are superseding the reign of crime, and that a code of 
 Christian laws is about to take the place of tyranny and oppression. 
 These things are what I have long wished for, but have never seen till 
 DOW. I thank God that in my old age I see them, and humbly trust I 
 feel them too."* 
 
 The above testimony was given at the close of 1826, by Mr. John 
 Young. It is not even hinted that the teaching or the management of 
 the missionaries has changed since then. Their own testimony declares 
 that the morals of the people are better, perhaps inconceivably so to 
 those who have no personal acquaintance with the deep corruption of 
 unmitigated heathenism ; and it will require something more than the 
 carefully worded affirmation of the Committee of the Reformed Catholic 
 Mission, that a " surface Christianity thinly veils heathen belief and 
 heathen practices ; " the fascinating but unreal delineation of the former 
 condition of the people ; or the " I hesitate not to say, that the morals 
 of the people are to day ten times worse than they were under the 
 heathen system," of Bishop Staley to invalidate this testimony. With 
 
 * Dr. Anderson, p. 67. 
 6 
 
42 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 the above evidence before them, the great body of the friends of Protest 
 ant missions in Europe and America, will not believe that the teaching 
 of the American missionaries is so defective, and their management so 
 disastrous, as to require, or even to justify the attempt to draw away 
 the people from the teaching of the Americans to that of the Reformed 
 Catholic Bishop and his missionaries. 
 
 The terms by which Bishop Staley designates the religion of the Isl 
 anders I decline to repeat or notice. He speaks of the faulty legislation 
 introduced by the missionaries; and the accusation is repeated else 
 where more than once. It is said, " they made the grave mistake of 
 introducing themselves into the secular offices of the Kingdom, to such 
 an extent that some of the leading men among them who had originally 
 come there in a missionary character, afterwards dropped that character, 
 merged into political intriguers, and took purely secular callings, pro 
 moting their aggrandizement, instead of the Kingdom of Christ."* 
 
 Accusations, such as these, do not come very well from parties who. 
 if such conduct be culpable, have been themselves much more so. It 
 was- long before any missionary could be induced to render that aid 
 which the Government had vainly sought elsewhere ; but the Bishop of 
 Honolulu, one of the accusers of the missionaries, had been in the coun 
 try but a very short time before he became a member of the King's 
 Privy Council, and has since, it is said, been made a member of the 
 Board of Public Education, though still remaining at the head of his 
 Mission. The Americans ceased to be connected with their Mission 
 before they engaged in any business of the Government.! 
 
 The first instance of this kind which occurred was that of Mr. Rich 
 ards. The destruction of the tabu had swept away the foundation of 
 their former Government ; the adoption of Christianity rendered Gov 
 ernment necessary. The rulers wished to assimilate, as far as possible, 
 their proceedings to that of civilized and Christian nations. In these 
 circumstances, they turned their eyes towards their teachers for assist 
 ance. But, in accordance with an established rule, the latter declined 
 to act, otherwise than as they had always done, to give advice wken 
 asked. The kingdom they had come to establish was not of this world. 
 They therefore referred the Government to the United States for help. 
 
 * "Colonial Church Chronicle '' for September, 1865. 
 t Dwight Hunt's Lectures, p. 143. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 43 
 
 Accordingly, in 1835, the King and chiefs wrote to the Board of Mis 
 sions at Boston to obtain a suitable person to become counsellor and 
 teacher of political economy to the Government. The Board made every 
 effort for this purpose but failed.* On hearing of this the chiefs renewed 
 their application to the Mission. 
 
 About this time Mr. Richards, a missionary high in the esteem and 
 confidence of the nation, after fourteen years' faithful labor, returned 
 from the United States, whither he had gone to provide for the educa 
 tion of his children, and was invited on his arrival to become political 
 counsellor and teacher to the King and chiefs. He had returned to live 
 and die a humble pastor of the native church which he had gathered 
 during former years, * * * and he naturally shrunk from the task, 
 but on the recommendation of his brethren and the American Board,! 
 he accepted the King's offer, and entered on his duties in 1838,1 three 
 years after the first application had been made, and for so doing the Mis 
 sion is censured and held up to ridicule. 
 
 In respect to their relations to Government, the nature of the teaching 
 of the missionaries was distinctly set forth in a series of resolutions, 
 adopted June, 1838 which the late Mr. Wyllie, Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs, pronounced " worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and hung 
 up in the House of Nobles." He also said, " The assertion sometimes 
 made that * the missionaries, individually, wormed themselves into the 
 confidence of the King and chiefs, in order to exercise an influence fa 
 vorable to themselves and to the United States,' is -a bold and unscru 
 pulous assertion, without even a shadow of truth. " 
 
 I have now endeavored, to test the validity of some of the specific ac 
 cusations against the American missionaries, which are assigned as rea 
 sons for commencing and continuing the new Mission. But these rea 
 sons are as remarkable for their omissions, as for what they include. 
 
 That a nation which, little more than forty years ago, was as ignorant 
 
 * Dwight Hunt's Lectures, p. 143. f Ibid, p. 145. 
 
 I In 1843 the Islands had been outrageously seized by an English officer. After 
 their restoration to the King by Admiral Thomas, Mr. Richards, in company with 
 a native chief, was sent to England to arrange for the future security of the Isl 
 ands. He was received with courtesy and treated with respect by the Earl of 
 Aberdeen, and succeeded so far as to secure a convention between the Govern 
 ments of England and France, mutually guaranteeing the independence of the 
 Sandwich Islands. I had the pleasure of renewing intercourse with my friend both 
 in London and in Paris. At his death, the Government voted a pension to his 
 widow, which was regularly paid so long as she lived. 
 
 Dr. Anderson, p. '84. 
 
44 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 and almost as savage 'as the kingdom of Dahomy, should now have their 
 common day schools spread over the whole surface of the country, giv 
 ing on an average, during a large portion of that time, a good plain edu 
 cation to one-sixth of the population j having, besides these, their high 
 schools, and their college, is perhaps, next to the acceptance of Christi 
 anity, the most conclusive evidence of improvement that any nation can 
 give. This work, in all its gradations from the alphabet upwards, the 
 American missionaries have accomplished. They have succeeded in a 
 manner which, as I shall presently show, has called forth, from thor 
 oughly competent witnesses, the highest commendation ; and yet in all 
 the accounts which 1 have seen of the condition of the people among 
 whom it is proposed to place this new Mission, only the slightest men 
 tion is made of this truly great achievement of the American teachers, 
 and that generally accompanied with disparaging statements. 
 
 Even Bishop Staley, when enumerating the perfectly marvellous 
 scholastic attainments of the late amiable and truly excellent King, who 
 at the age of twenty-one succeeded to the throne, after repeating his 
 Majesty's remark, in reference to the translation of the Bible, that the 
 missionaries had " in their ignorance of Hebrew made sad mistakes," 
 appears to have taken it for granted that the King was perfectly compe 
 tent to pronounce upon the missionaries' knowledge or ignorance of He 
 brew ; and proceeds to state, without any allusion to the uncommon 
 teaching which the King must have received, that he could enjoy 
 " Kingsley, Thackeray, Tennyson, and was ever quoting Shakespeare, 
 but that the habit of his mind was still theological." That he " loved 
 to dwell on the regularity of the English orders, and few laymen could 
 vindicate, with the same ability, every link in the chain of their trans 
 mission ; " and his lordship adds, ." He w r as familiar with the works of 
 Wheatley, Palmer, Courayer, Percival," &c. ; " he used to remark on 
 the soundness of our position as a church ; that of Scripture ' interpreted 
 by the old fathers ; ' for, he used to say, the waters become purer as you 
 approach the fountain." 
 
 I make no remark upon this wonderful account, and notice it only to 
 express my regret that no word of commendation is bestowed upon the 
 teachers of the King, for his Majesty had none besides these same 
 " stern, sour, vinegar-like, narrow-minded, uneducated Puritans." 
 
 Any tutor or tutors in another land, whose industry and talent should 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 45 
 
 have implanted in a royal pupil such ability to enjoy polite literature, 
 and yet extend his studies to such generally unattractive subjects as He 
 brew criticism, the writings of the old fathers, and the tracing of every 
 link in the chain of the transmission of the orders in the English Church, 
 would have been, it might naturally be supposed, entitled to the high 
 estimation of all members of that church ; or, at least, to respect and 
 encouragement, if not to something more substantial, instead of being ac 
 cused of having failed in their work, and having this accusation as 
 signed as a reason for their being supplanted by their accusers. 
 
 There is, however, one thing which appears to me to be a discovery. 
 Bishop Staley speaks of the young King as having " had the strong re 
 ligious instincts of his race," and it is to be inferred that this instinct 
 rendered " the habit of his mind theological." I have no recollection of 
 having seen any strong religious instincts in the race, except in relation 
 to their idolatry, nor of having heard such attributed to them by others ; 
 and if it be so, I can only say it is very remarkable. Bishop Staley, 
 however, on this point, appears to have changed his opinion, for I find 
 it stated in an American paper,* that in a document which his lordship 
 put forth before leaving the Sandwich Islands, he said : " I am bound 
 to record what is the result of my intercourse with the Hawaiians. 
 They have anything but an intelligent acquaintance with Holy Scrip 
 ture. Of its composite character of the times and circumstances of 
 the authors, when they wrote the various books, they know nothing. 
 They do not in fact possess that historical and common information 
 which can alone render its perusal profitable and even safe. No attempt 
 seems to have been made to teach them how to distinguish the human 
 from the divine, in the inspired volume ; eternal principles from what is 
 temporary and incidental." 
 
 The editor of the paper remarks : " We call attention to this extract, 
 and claim that Bishop Colenso goes no further in his disbelief in a di 
 vinely inspired Bible, than Bishop Staley, and, without amplifying, ask 
 a careful reading of the paragraph." 
 
 The only observation I offer, at present, on this testimony of Bishop 
 Staley's, is, that I cannot perceive how this and the statement previously 
 cited, can both be correct. If, as the Bishop states, religious instincts 
 were not an idiosyncrasy of the late King, but " peculiar to his race," 
 
 * The Boston " Congregationalist." 
 
46 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 they must have been shared by the nation at large ; and the intercourse 
 of the Bishop with the Hawaiians, must have extended to the best edu 
 cated among the inhabitants of Honolulu, including the Court, the mem- 
 bets of which received the same teaching as the lamented Kamehameha 
 IV. How is it, then, for they are all Hawaiians, that they do not pos 
 sess along with their knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, that "historical 
 and common information which can alone render their perusal profitable, 
 and even safe ? " 
 
 Besides the high attainments of the late King, there is other and un 
 objectionable testimony to the excellence of both the common and high 
 schools in Hawaii. In relation to the former, the united body of mis 
 sionaries, in 1S65, publicly state : 
 
 " The schools have been carried on with the usual success and benefit 
 to the Hawaiian youth. The instruction has, as in times past, been ele 
 mentary in its character, nothing more. And this, under God, is our 
 joy and our boast ; not that we have founded and sustained a system 
 for supplying a finished education for the more favored few, but a thor 
 oughly sound and inestimably valuable elementary education for the 
 masses of this nation. We deal with facts, not with pictures of the im 
 agination ; and in proof of the too little that we have heretofore cared 
 to say in defense of the Hawaiian system of common schools, and the 
 much more that might have been, and doubtless ought to have been said> 
 to set forth its excellent adaptedness to the end proposed, we point, 
 with unfeigned thankfulness to God, and with an honest pride, which 
 we have no right to conceal, to the nation as it stands before us to-day. 
 We exult in the thought that at this moment, a few of the most highly 
 favored spots in New England excepted, not a nation exists on the face 
 of the earth, so large a proportion of whose members are as well grounded 
 in reading, writing, and common arithmetic."* 
 
 In 1860, Kichard H. Dana, Esq., a distinguished lawyer, and a mem 
 ber of the Episcopal Church in Boston, United States, in a published 
 narrative of his visit to the Sandwich Islands, gives the following testi 
 mony to the character of the Mission teaching : 
 
 " It is no small thing to say of the missionaries of the American 
 Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this whole people 
 to read and to write, to cipher and to sew. They have given them an 
 
 * "American Missionary Herald,'' November, 1865. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 47 
 
 alphabet, grammar, and dictionary; preserved their language from ex 
 tinction; given it a literature, and translated into it the Bible, and works 
 of devotion, science, and entertainment, &c. 
 
 " In every district are free schools for natives. In these they are 
 taught reading, writing, singing by note, arithmetic, grammar, and 
 geography, by native teachers. At Lahainaluna is the Normal School 
 for natives, where the best scholars from the district schools are received 
 and carried to an advanced stage of education, and those who desire it 
 are fitted for the duties of teachers. This was originally a Mission 
 School, but is now partly a Government institution. Several of the mis 
 sionaries, in small and remote stations, have schools for advanced studies, 
 among which I visited several times that of Mr. Lyman, at Hilo, where 
 there are nearly one hundred native lads ; and all the under-teachers 
 are natives. These lads had an orchestra of ten or twelve flutes, which 
 made very creditable music. At Honolulu there is a royal school for 
 natives, and another middle school for whites and half-castes ; for it has 
 been found expedient generally to separate the races in education. Both 
 these schools are in excellent condition. But the special pride of the 
 missionary efforts for education is the High School or College of Puna- 
 hou. This was established for the education of the children of the Mis 
 sion families, and has been enlarged to receive the children of other for 
 eign residents, and is now an incorporated college, with some seventy 
 scholars. The course of studies goes as far as the end of the Sopho 
 more year in our New England colleges, and is expected soon to go far 
 ther. The teachers are y6ung men of the Mission families, taught first 
 at this school, with educations finished in the colleges of New England, 
 where they have taken high rank. At Williams College there were at 
 one time five pupils from this school, one of whom was the first scholar, 
 and four of whom were among the first seven scholars of the year ; and 
 another of the professors at Punahou was the first scholar of his year at 
 New Haven. I attended several recitations at Punahou in Greek, 
 Latin, and mathematics ; and after having said that the teachers were 
 leading scholars in our colleges, and the pupils mostly children of the 
 Mission families, I need hardly add that I advised the young men to re 
 main there to the end of the course, as they could not pass the Fresh 
 man and Sophomore years more profitably elsewhere in my judgment. 
 The examinations in Latin and Greek were particularly thorough in 
 
48 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 etymology and syntax. The Greek was read both by the quantity and 
 by the printed accent, and the teachers were disposed to follow the Con 
 tinental pronunciation of the vowels in the classic languages, if that 
 system should be adopted in the New England colleges." 
 
 The external signs of improvement in dress, dwellings, and deport 
 ment, apparent among a large portion of the community, so unexpect 
 edly pleasing to an intelligent visitor, who may remember the accounts 
 of Cook, Vancouver, and other early voyagers, must be ascribed in part 
 at least to the example, teaching and encouragement of the American 
 missionaries. 
 
 The substitution for despotism and oppressive serfdom, of liberty, civil 
 and religious, defined and guaranteed by solemn compact between the 
 ruler and the people, is a benefit which, at least, the teachings of the 
 missionaries must have predisposed the minds of rulers to give, and the 
 people to receive. And although this great change has- tended to re 
 strain outrage and vice, has raised a shield over virtue, guaranteed secu 
 rity to person and property, encouraged enterprise, and favored com 
 merce, as well as all that distinguishes a civilized from a savage people, 
 these efforts have not received one word of commendation, and have 
 only been mentioned to be ridiculed or condemned. 
 
 The foreign gentlemen engaged in commerce, cultivation, and other 
 departments of honorable enterprise, of whom there have always been a 
 number, the example of their families, and the influence of distinguished 
 and friendly visitors to the Islands, have done much to promote the 
 moral improvement and social progress of the people, as well as to 
 strengthen the hands and often cheer the hearts of the missionaries. All 
 honor to them for the stand they have taken on the side of purity, jus 
 tice and right, and for the aid they have given to the cause of religion, 
 civilization, and progress. 
 
 The history of the Hawaiian Mission abounds with instances of per 
 sons possessing a good acquaintance with Holy Scriptures, and giving 
 evidence in spirit and in conduct of the work of the Holy Spirit, the in 
 fluence of the grace of Christ, the word of Christ, and the love of Christ 
 on their hearts through a long series of years. Kekuanaoa, the King's 
 father, John li, Judge of the Supreme Court, who was a Christian when 
 I was there, and is a Christian still, and who, with thousands of others, 
 have given such satisfactory evidence through a large portion of their 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 49 
 
 lives that their religion was a divinely implanted living principle, as to 
 leave no doubt that they were sincere Christians. Yet I have seen no 
 favorable notice of this fact, which has filled the hearts of many in Eu 
 rope and America with grateful joy. The labors of the American Mis 
 sion were, by the Divine blessing, the means of the conversion of the 
 late King, who personally associated with the American missionaries in 
 making known the Gospel to his people ; and there have been thousands 
 of others who, by means of their instrumentality, have built, and who 
 still build their hopes of salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is 
 the best evidence that the American Mission has been no failure. 
 
 Letters, morals, external improvement, commerce, justice, and even 
 liberty itself, are all highly valued by the missionary, but his chief ob 
 ject is the conversion of the soul to Christ. It is by the extent to which 
 there is reason to hope that this has been accomplished that the degree 
 of his success is to be determined. And that success is not to be mea 
 sured by the standard of Christian attainment in countries where Chris 
 tianity has existed for centuries, but by the standard of the churches in 
 apostolic times, and by Mission churches in the heathen countries in the 
 present day. 
 
 In reference to the estimation in which the missionaries are held, Mr. 
 Dana, an American Episcopalian, bears the following testimony : 
 
 "I visited among all classes the foreign merchants, traders, and 
 shipmasters, foreign and native officials, and with the natives, from the 
 King and several of the chiefs to the humblest poor, whom I saw with 
 out constraint in a tour I made alone over Hawaii, throwing myself 
 upon their hospitality in their huts. I sought information from all, for 
 eign and native, friendly and unfriendly ; and the conclusion to which 
 I came is, that the best men, and those who are best acquainted with 
 the history of things here, hold in high esteem the labors and conduct of 
 the missionaries."* 
 
 Another evidence of something more than mere surface Christianity 
 is, among the Hawaiian Christians, most satisfactory. I refer to their 
 liberality towards benevolent and religious objects. Their means are 
 seldom abundant. The claims which the progress of society urge, in 
 crease with their advancement ; nevertheless, from the forty churches 
 
 * Mr. R. H. Dana has. since the publication of Dr. Anderson's account, expressed 
 his entire approval of the use the latter has made of his testimony in favor of the 
 American missionaries. 
 5 
 
50 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 connected with Mission stations, the contributions towards objects con 
 nected with the Mission, amounted in 1865, to $16,775, or 3,345.* 
 
 After these facts and figures we are warranted in saying that the an 
 nals of modem Missions do not contain a single instance of any body of 
 Christian men proposing to send a Mission to a country where so large 
 a proportion of the people were able to read and write, and where one- 
 fourth of the population were church members, and three-fourths more 
 or less connected with Christian congregations, even though some might 
 have relapsed, or the Christian attainments of the best might be inferior 
 to those of older communities. 
 
 SPECIAL REASONS ASSIGNED FOR COMMENCING A NEW MISSION. 
 
 Some of the special reasons assigned for commencing this Mission are 
 remarkable. They are not grounded on the ignorance of the people, nor 
 on their destitution of teachers, nor the unscriptural character of the 
 preaching, for, in the opinion of their accusers, it is too closely scrip 
 tural. One charge against the American missionaries is, that they do 
 not add something to what the Bible teaches, which the new Mission is 
 to supply. This so called deficiency is said to prove that the Reformed 
 Catholic Mission was required to save the remnant of the people from 
 destruction, since the teaching of the Puritans has not sufficed to stop 
 " the rapid and fearful diminution of the people."! The decrease of 
 population since the discovery by Cook is a mournful fact, which no phi 
 lanthropist can view without unfeigned sorrow. To ascribe its continued 
 operation, though at a diminished rate, to the inefficiency of the teach 
 ing of the missionaries, when the influence of that teaching may justly 
 be regarded as one of the chief agencies which Divine Providence has 
 employed to save the race from annihilation, is wantonly to inflict no 
 ordinary wrong. 
 
 Captain Cook's estimate of the population of Hawaii was probably too 
 high, but there is no other extant. He calculated the population to be 
 400,000. Forty-four years afterwards, actual visitation to the chief in 
 habited parts of the Islands showed that the population had been reduced 
 to about 130,000, so that the diminution had proceeded during that pe 
 riod at the rate of about 65 per cent. For the next thirty years, the de- 
 
 * American Society's Report for 1865. 
 
 t "Colonial Church Chronicle," p. 16, 1865. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 51 
 
 crease, as shown by the census of the Government, was at the rate of 
 49 per cent. But for the seven years before the last Government census, 
 the diminution of the population was only about 5 per cent., and it is 
 hoped the next census will show at least a stationary population.* The 
 subject is painfully interesting on many accounts, but its discussion 
 would be unsuitable here ; and though an annual decrease of even five 
 in e^ery hundred of the people is not encouraging, yet contrasted with 
 the decrease during the thirty-three years after the arrival of the Mis 
 sion, it is evidence of the arresting and healing influence of the Gospel, 
 which ought to have secured the teaching of the missionaries from cen 
 sure, if it did not obtain acknowledgment and commendation. 
 
 I have endeavored to show that the reasons assigned for sending the 
 Bishop and the Mission to Hawaii neither necessitated its appointment, 
 nor justify the interference with the labors of the American Mission, and 
 I have adduced counter testimony to show that, instead of being a fail 
 ure, its success has at least equalled that of the most favored Missions 
 in other parts of the world. 
 
 It has been charged against the missionaries that they have not re- 
 strained the immoralities of the people. That a degree of immorality 
 still exists is admitted, and has never been denied. The missionaries 
 know, to their mournful disappointment and sorrow, that it exists, and 
 at some times and places more than at others. They know this, and 
 truthfully report it. They mourn over it, and use every effort to re 
 claim its victims from ruin, often, by God's blessing, with success. But 
 the existence of immorality in so recently organized a state of society, 
 and with antecedents such as those of the Sandwich Islanders, is no 
 proof of the failure of the Mission. As well might the crimes and vices 
 of our own country, especially such as prevail in our seaports and large 
 cities, occasionally in fearful proximity to our places of worship, be ad 
 duced as evidence that the centuries of Christian institutions and Chris 
 tian teaching which England has enjoyed, have failed. 
 
 It is even asserted most unjustly, inconsiderately, and mistakenly 
 by Bishop Staley, that immorality is in Hawaii ten times greater now 
 than when the people were heathen. This is a monstrously absurd as 
 sertion. Not only is no evidence given to sustain it, but in the nature 
 of things it is impossible that it should be so. Those who malge this 
 
 * Anderson's "Hawaiian Islands," p. 271. 
 
52 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 charge cannot know what the immorality of the heathen state was, and 
 those who do know cannot declare it. It cannot be true ; for to say 
 nothing of Christianity, there are other counteracting influences in the 
 advance of civilization, education, commerce, and the influx of respecta 
 ble foreign families, all which render it impossible that a worse state of 
 morals should exist than that which prevailed under the savage, demor 
 alizing and brutalizing reign of paganism. 
 
 It has been also affirmed that -the teaching of the missionaries makes 
 the people hypocrites, fostering unreality in religion, and that they have 
 removed " the eternal landmarks between morality and immorality, 
 teaching them that things innocent, like things wicked, were to be con 
 demned." When and where, it may be asked, have they done this ? 
 Are heathen dances innocent things ? Is there no immorality in the 
 gambling invariably associated with their games ? The " stern Puri 
 tanism," &c., of former times in America, caricatured and needlessly 
 introduced into this discussion, has nothing to do with the question - f 
 for the missionaries never taught the things mentioned. Puritanism is 
 counted an honor by other Christians besides the American missionaries; 
 and Calvinism,* which seems to be so offensive to the impugners of the 
 Mission, finds a place in other articles of doctrine besides those of New 
 England preachers. It is perhaps doubtful whether Bishop Staley, who 
 pronounces so confidently upon the baneful influence of the preaching 
 of the missionaries, ever heard one of their sermons, or even received a 
 faithful report of one. 
 
 Even this charge against the missionaries of preaching the stern doc 
 trines of Puritanism is only an ancient accusation revived to meet a 
 modern necessity the necessity of finding a reason for sending the new 
 Mission to Honolulu. This charge was preferred and refuted forty years 
 ago. In 1827, Captain Sayre, a gentleman of intelligence and observa- 
 tionrwho liad made two voyages to the Pacific and visited the Islands 
 in both, spent several weeks on shore, conversed frequently with the 
 Governor of Hawaii, took great pains to ascertain what was the char- 
 
 * Calvinism needs no vindication from me. But in a recent notice of the " Life 
 of Robertson," in the - Theological Review." January, 1866. I find the subjoined 
 reference to this subject : ' Calvinism has had its heroic age the age of the Pil 
 grim Fathers. It has a phase of heroism still, as many a bed of agonizing disease 
 can testify, in home and hospital in England to-day." I have no sympathy with 
 the tenets of which this Review is said to be an advocate ; but I can admire the 
 nobility <f>f mind which can look beyond the circle within which its own religious- 
 creed is enclosed, and behold good, and commend it when seen, beyond that circle. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 53 
 
 acter and conduct of the missionaries, and his testimony published on 
 his return is, that their conduct was "firm, dignified, Christian, and 
 moderate;" and that instead of, as had been stated, "attempting to 
 force the darkest and most dreary parts of Puritan discipline upon the 
 simple-minded Islanders, they instructed them in the plain, simple, prac 
 tical truths and principles of the Gospel."* 
 
 I was myself associated with the first missionaries in their preaching 
 labors, and never noticed anything contrary to the doctrines generally 
 held by the Evangelical portion of Christendom. We often conferred 
 together on the parls of Divine revelation most suitable to the peculiar 
 state of the people. Three points we felt should be plainly and con 
 stantly set before them, viz., the consequences of sin, the necessity of 
 regeneration to salvation, and the love and power of God in providing 
 the means for securing both. Some of the missionaries thought that in 
 the actual state of the people these truths should find a place in every 
 address. In reference to my own teaching, I considered that every ad 
 dress might be the first and the last which some one would ever hear ; 
 for there were often very aged persons present, and I never considered 
 that I had faithfully delivered the Gospel message unless, whatever 
 might be my text, I had stated as plainly as I could that the wages of 
 sin is death, that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, and that he that believeth shall be saved. 
 
 The teaching of the other missionaries differed little from my own ; 
 and I only state this as evidence of what the teaching of the missionaries 
 was at the close of 1824. There is no reason to suppose that it has 
 changed on any material points since that time ; some of my fellow- 
 laborers are preachers there still ; and I see no deviation from the doc 
 trines then held in the books they have published at Honolulu, of some 
 of which they have sent me copies. 
 
 The first book published by the missionaries, after the spelling book, 
 was the Sermon on the Mount. The next was the History of Joseph. 
 Thus far, there is certainly nothing to coerce the people by its severity 
 into immorality ; and authentic testimony to a different kind of teach 
 ing has yet to be adduced. 
 
 * Sag Harbor "Watchman," June 9, 1827, 
 
54 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 
 
 THE TEACHING AND PRACTICE OF THE REFORMED CATHOLIC 
 MISSIONARIES FRAUGHT WITH DANGER. 
 
 Having endeavored to show that the new Mission was not required 
 by the circumstances of the people, and that the American Mission has 
 been a remarkable success, I proceed to consider the nature of the rem 
 edy which those who condemn this previously existing and long-estab 
 lished Mission would themselves apply. In addition to the Holy Scrip- 
 tares and to the Divine and ever-blessed Saviour, the new Mission pro 
 poses to introduce a branch of the Church which, according to the teach 
 ing of the new Mission, claims to be endowed with full and extraordinary 
 apostolic power, and to constitute the sole medium through which the 
 fullness of Divine love can be experienced by mankind. Bishop Staley 
 states that the teaching of his Church is based on Scripture, not as it is 
 by itself, and as it was given by inspiration of God, but as interpreted 
 by the Fathers of the first five centuries. It is also stated that " the 
 fullness of God's love, and the assurance of Christ's presence, can only 
 be tasted through that one visible body the Church." It is therefore the 
 branch or section of the Church of England which teaches these things 
 that is proposed to be substituted for the Presbyterianism and Congre 
 gationalism of America. 
 
 So far as is apparent, either from the declarations or the proceedings 
 of the Reformed Catholic missionaries, extreme ritualism, plenitude of 
 apostolic power, and lenient church discipline, constitute, beyond the 
 teaching of the Bible, the panacea for the remaining unexorcised heathen 
 belief, for the immoralities, and the wasting decline of the population of 
 the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 The simple introduction of the Episcopal form of worship with the 
 teaching of what are generally regarded as the great essential doctrines 
 of the Gospel at Honolulu, without baptismal regeneration or sacramental 
 efficacy, would probably produce but trifling differences among the peo 
 ple ; but the introduction of the teaching of peculiar doctrines connected 
 with extreme ritualism, and " plenary apostolic power,*' especially bap 
 tismal regeneration, appears to me, and perhaps to many others besides, 
 more likely to do harm than good ; and I proceed to show my reasons 
 for this opinion. 
 
 The first and most disastrous is, the tendency of this teaching an I 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 55 
 
 these practices to loosen and unsettle the foundations of all religious be 
 lief among the people. The faith of the Hawaiians is built simply and 
 solely upon the Bible the Word of God, as declared or contained in 
 the Holy Scriptures. That is believed by them to be as the great teacher 
 of the Gentiles declares " able to make wise unto salvation, through 
 faith which is in Christ Jesus."* 
 
 Now Bishop Staley tells the Hawaiians, in his first sermon, that the 
 worship of his Church is regulated by Holy Scripture, " as it has been 
 interpreted by the ancient Fathers ; " and further he affirms, if the state 
 ment already cited be correct, that the Hawaiians do not possess that 
 " historical and common information which alone can render its perusal 
 profitable or even safe." Here the utterance of Holy Scripture, given 
 by the inspiration of God, and the words of the Bishop of Honolulu, are 
 directly opposed to each other. The apostle Paul, writing, under Di 
 vine inspiration, to Timothy, declares that the Holy Scriptures are 
 " able to make wise unto salvation." The Bishop affirms that the addi 
 tion of " historical and common information can alone render their pe 
 rusal profitable or even safe." This virtual denial of the sufficiency of 
 Scripture to make wise unto salvation, cannot but unsettle the founda 
 tions of Hawaiian faith, especially if we consider the deficiencies of 
 which the Bishop complains in the teaching previously given to aid them 
 in their understanding of the Bible ; for he says, " no attempt seems to 
 have been made to teach them how to distinguish the human from the 
 Divine, in the inspired volume." 
 
 In the present condition of the Hawaiians, so recently emerged from 
 barbarism, so morally and intellectually immature and feeble, having 
 already to resist the encroachments of the .Romanists, who are active 
 and untiring in their efforts to undermine this faith, their position is suf 
 ficiently critical. To introduce now any doubt respecting the sufficiency 
 of Scripture alone, to teach all things necessary to salvation, would be 
 like putting a mischievous weapon into the hands of the Romanist teach 
 ers, with which to defend their dogma of papal infallibility and author 
 ity, as alone able, and at the same time necessary, to decide all such 
 questions. Under these circumstances, the very complaint that the Ha 
 waiians have not been taught how to distinguish the Human from the 
 Divine in the Bible will, in the opinion of all who reflect on the tendency 
 
 * 2 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
56 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 of such speculations, among a community like the Hawaiians, appear to 
 be a strong reason why the American missionaries should not be inter- 
 fered with, much less supplanted, by those who would impart such teach 
 ing. 
 
 The great difference between the foundation of faith, as presented by 
 the Bible, and the teaching set forth by Bishop Staley, in relation to 
 both Sacraments viz., regeneration by Baptism, and the Sacramental 
 Grace connected with the Lord's Supper and to some of the great doc 
 trines of salvation, cannot but tend to lower the estimation in which the 
 people now hold Divine revelation, and to disturb and weaken their 
 newly implanted faith, which rests on the Word of God alone. 
 
 I pronounce no opinion on the ritualism which characterizes the pro 
 ceedings of the Reformed Catholic Mission ; but feel it my duty to state 
 that, so far as I have observed or heard, all such appeals to the eye and 
 to the senses, in such a state of society, produce impressions unfavora 
 ble to the growth of religion in the heart. The minds of people in a 
 state corresponding with that of the Hawaiians, cannot perceive the spir 
 itual meaning of such accompaniments of Christian worship ; their minds 
 are not refined or advanced sufficiently to appreciate their aesthetic in 
 fluence, or understand anything beyond the appeals thus made to their 
 senses. These additions may gratify their love of novelty and ornament, 
 but they do not associate them with that spiritual reality and power over 
 the heart and conscience, which they are accustomed to regard as be 
 longing to the Word of God. 
 
 Acoompaniments of this kind they invariably associate with their aban 
 doned heathen worship, or the services connected with their idols, which, 
 attended by peculiarly robed priests, were carried in processions, and 
 whose worship was associated with gesticulations, bowings, prostrations, 
 and silent mysterious movements. This has been, and is, the impres 
 sion produced on the people of Tahiti, of Hawaii, and Madagascar, by 
 the ceremonies of papal worship. They all said it was another kind of 
 idol worship, resembling their own. At Hawaii, when the American 
 missionaries pleaded with the rulers to treat gently the first Catholic 
 priests, the chiefs answered : " What have we abolished idols for, if we 
 are to allow that worship to be established here ? " 
 
 I pronounce no opinion on the effect of extreme ritualism in more re 
 fined and cultivated communities who may be able to see a meaning and 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSION^. 57 
 
 find a pleasure in such services ; but among the Sandwich Islanders, 
 these ceremonies are, in my most mature opinion, likely to produce more 
 evil than good. They will tend to draw away the too easily diverted 
 attention of the people from the spiritual engagements of religious wor 
 ship, for " God is a Spirit," and His worship should be " in spirit and 
 in truth ; " to diminish the power of Divine truth on their consciences; 
 and to intercept those direct and Divine communications to the soul, 
 which Christians have ever found so enlightening to their understand 
 ing, so strengthening to their faith, and so cheering to their souls. 
 
 I must add that I am unable to conceive of any way in which the 
 teaching or ritualism of the Reformed Catholic missionaries can dimin 
 ish the immorality which the labors and influence and sufferings of the 
 American Mission have been unable altogether to prevent. If the scrip 
 tural declaration of the consequences of sin, of the efficacy of the blood 
 of Christ to cleanse from all sin, of the power of the Holy Spirit to re 
 generate the heart, of the willingness of our blessed Lord to receive all 
 who come to Him, and the hope of eternal life which Holy Scripture un 
 folds to all who give evidence of the sincerity of their faith by an active 
 holy life, be insufficient to enable the soul to turn from easily-besetting 
 sin unto holiness and God, I cannot conceive how any ritualistic addi 
 tions of candles and vestments and flowers, &c., or the interpretations 
 of the ancient Fathers added to the inspired writings should accomplish 
 this, or tend to save the remnant of the people from destruction. It is 
 the " word of God," which is " the sword of the Spirit."* It is " the 
 fear of the Lord " that " tendeth to life."t 
 
 I have never, since I left them, lost my interest in the religious pro 
 gress of the Sandwich Islanders. I am still deeply concerned for their 
 spiritual welfare. I have examined, with all the attention I have been 
 able to give, the means proposed by the new Mission for removing the 
 causes of regret and sorrow which to some extent are admitted to exist; 
 and I am compelled to conclude, for the reasons above stated, that the 
 remedies proposed are not calculated to diminish the existing evils, or 
 to effect greater good than has been accomplished by the simpler and 
 more scriptural teaching of the American missionaries. 
 
 * Ephes. vi. 17. j Frov. xix. 23. 
 
 8 
 
58 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 A DIVINE LAW OF CHRIST DISREGARDED. 
 
 The Sandwich Islands as a field for missionary labor remained unoc 
 cupied by any other Christian teachers at the time when the American 
 Society commenced its work there. That work it has continued for 
 nearly fifty years, in the course of which it has sent out forty clerical 
 missionaries, six physicians, twenty lay brethren, besides the wives of 
 the missionaries and other female assistants. On that field it has ex 
 pended more than two hundred thousand pounds of its resources. The 
 great Head of the Church has already granted to its efforts encouraging 
 success, with a prospect of still more satisfactory results. To the field 
 thus effectively occupied, the projectors of the new Mission, instead of 
 meeting an acknowledged want by sending, in compliance with the re 
 quest of members of their own communion, a clergyman to " break to 
 them the bread of life," have sent forth a Bishop with three clergymen. 
 and propose to send three more. In thus intruding themselves upon a 
 field on which the American Society had bestowed such ample, success 
 ful, and persevering labor, the Reformed Catholic Mission seem to have 
 acted in utter forgetfulness, or else in entire disregard, of the just and 
 equitable law of Christ, which enjoins on all Christians to " do unto 
 others as they would that others should do unto them/' 
 
 Had the American Missionary Society entered in a similar manner a 
 field which the projectors of the new Mission had occupied with equal 
 benefit to the people for forty years, every Protestant community in 
 Christendom would have cried out against the violation of the explicit 
 command of Christ, and, as it would appear to them, against the mani 
 festation of that want of unity or oneness with other Christians which 
 our Lord himself piayed might be the proof of His disciples' union with 
 Himself, and the evidence to the world that His mission was Divine.* 
 
 Besides this, the teachings of experience, and the results of deep and 
 prayerful reflection, have brought almost all Protestants engaged in this 
 great work to consider it of the utmost importance to abstain from all 
 intrusion upon fields already occupied by other Protestant missionaries. 
 There is no authoritatively enjoined law on the subject ; but this rule 
 has so entirely commended itself to the judgment and right Christian 
 feeling of all who have been engaged in directing missionary efforts that, 
 
 * John xvii. 21. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 59 
 
 with scarcely more than a single exception, it has been almost invaria 
 bly acted upon. 
 
 The Bishop of London thus alludes to this law of amity in his speech 
 at Wells, on the occasion of Queen Emma's visit to that city : "It has 
 been urged that there is a general law of arnity in these matters which 
 should prevent any missionary body from trespassing upon the fields of 
 labor of others a law which I fully recognize, because 1 feel that heath 
 enism is wide enough, and there is room for all, without interfering with 
 one another, to labor in some different portion of the field." 
 
 With the exception of perhaps one Society, all the Protestant mission 
 ary bodies in Europe, and, so far as I have heard, in America, engaged 
 in modern Missions, on entering new fields of labor, or on occasions re 
 quiring its observance, have voluntarily and unhesitatingly respected 
 this law of amity. The following may be regarded as instances of this: 
 
 In 1824, when the London Missionary Society appointed a colleague 
 to join me in the Sandwich Islands, the secretary thus wrote : " In 
 coming to this determination, the directors by no means wished in the 
 Jeast to interfere with the arrangements of the American Society; and 
 it was particularly specified in their resolution on the subject, that, pro 
 vided it should not be perfectly in accordance with the sentiments and 
 feelings of the worthy brethren of that Society, that Mr. Pitman should 
 unite with them and you in the labors of the Sandwich Mission, he 
 should, in that case, avail himself of the first opportunity which might 
 occur to proceed to some other station." 
 
 I had been solicited by the King, the chiefs and missionaries to unite 
 with the latter ; but when on my way to England I reached America, 
 the officers of the American Board with whom 1 conferred appearing to 
 think, that, upon the whole, it would best promote the spread of the Gos 
 pel in that part of the world if they occupied the North Pacific, and the 
 English missionaries the South, I expressed my concurrence in this opin 
 ion, reported the views of the American Board to the Directors in Lon 
 don, and the Mission to Hawaii was not resumed by that Society. 
 
 In the year 1830, the late Mr. Williams and Mr. Barff arranged with 
 the "Wesleyan missionaries at Tonga, the largest of the Friendly Islands, 
 that the London Society should direct its efforts to Samoa and the West 
 ern Islands, while the Wesleyan Society should extend its labors to Fiji 
 in the East. This arrangement was confirmed by the respective soci 
 eties at home. 
 
60 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 Before, however, the missionaries sent out from England by the former 
 Society reached Samoa, two Wesleyan missionaries, having been invited 
 from Tonga, had proceeded to those islands. The Directors of the Lon 
 don Missionary Society communicated the fact to the Wesleyan Soci 
 ety, who at once stated that the step had been taken without their knowl 
 edge, and again declared their intention to adhere to the arrangement 
 already made. In their resolution on this subject, the Wesleyan Com 
 mittee, in December, 1837, instructed their missionaries to withdraw, 
 assigning the following as their reasons : " That in the fear of God, and 
 in obedience to those principles of unchangeable equity and fair dealing, 
 and of Christian brotherhood and union, which ought to regulate, in such 
 cases, the conduct of kindred societies towards each other, they now de 
 liberately confirm and renew their former decision on this question, as 
 being, in their judgment, under all the circumstances, both right and fit 
 ting in itself, and, eventually, most likely to promote, on a large and 
 general scale, the evangelization of the heathen population of the Poly 
 nesian Islands, and the peace and edification of the infant churches 
 already established."* 
 
 In 1835, the Rev. C. T. E. Rhenius, a Lutheran clergyman, and sev 
 eral of his countrymen, who had occupied important stations under the 
 Church Missionary Society in Tinnevelly, having, though continuing 
 their labors in that Province, separated from the Church Society, pro 
 posed to unite themselves with the London Society, which had long oc 
 cupied the adjacent province of Travancore. The London Society, con 
 sidering the great discouragement and injury which such a proceeding 
 would inflict on the operations of the Church Society, declined to re 
 ceive these missionaries while they continued where they were, and only 
 consented to accept their services in any of the stations remote /rom 
 Tinnevelly at which the Tamil language was spoken. One of these 
 brethren removed to a distant station under the care of the London So 
 ciety, and the others, after the death of Rhenius, rejoined the Church 
 Missionary Society, the pea-ceful course of whose proceedings in that 
 important province has not since been disturbed. 
 
 I have adduced these instances ta show the value of this voluntarily 
 adopted law of amity in remedying 'evils which have threatened mis 
 sionary operations abroad. It has been found to be equally beneficial at 
 
 * Records of London Missionary Society. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 61 
 
 home. From the beginning, the directors of missionary effort have been 
 accustomed to consider as sacred the field of labor occupied by others, 
 when selecting or enlarging their own. The advantages are so self-evi 
 dent, the practice so accordant with apostolic precept and conduct, as 
 well as so congenial with the experience of the best fruits of the Spirit,* 
 that the instances are extremely few amongst the Protestant communi 
 ties, who have engaged in foreign Missions, in which it has been disre 
 garded. 
 
 It was after conference with the London Society that the Scottish 
 Society united with the former, and sent out its first missionaries to the 
 Foulahs, in Western Africa ; that the Netherlands Society commenced 
 its first Mission at the Cape of Good Hope ; and, more recently, that the 
 Presbyterians of Nova Scotia commenced their Mission in the New 
 Hebrides. It was after conference and correspondence with the London 
 Society that the Paris Society sent out its first Mission to the Basoutous, 
 in South Africa ; and after conference or correspondence, most of the 
 German modern Evangelical Missionary Societies have commenced 
 their labors. It was after conference between the Bishop of Mauritius 
 and myself on the spot, that an engagement was entered into on behalf 
 of the Societies which we represented, that the London Missionary So 
 ciety should continue to occupy the central part of Madagascar, and that 
 the Societies of the Church of England should commence their labors 
 among the tribes on the coast, and gradually work towards the interior, 
 while we should extend our efforts towards the coast until we should 
 meel. This arrangement was acquiesced in by the respective Societies 
 at home ; and it was in conformity therewith that the London Society 
 declined to strengthen its station at Tamatave, which has been occupied 
 by missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, while 
 the Church Missionary Society selected its position on the northern 
 coast. The American Missionary Society has also uniformly acted on 
 the system of non-interference with other laborers in all the great fields 
 of usefulness upon which it has entered. The instances are rare indeed, 
 excepting in the great centres of civilization or commerce, in which it is 
 necessary or desirable for the agents of two societies to occupy one field. 
 
 The officers of the Missionary Societies, the seat of whose operations 
 is in London, have for many years past been accustomed to meet monthly 
 
 * Gal. v. 22, 23. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 for conference and prayer in relation to their common work. On these 
 occasions, the Secretaries of the Church, the Moravian, Wesleyan, Bap 
 tist and London Missionary Societies have often received valuable in 
 formation and encouragement from each other at these friendly gather 
 ings. There is also reason to believe that this intercourse has done 
 much to extend and strengthen that broad catholic feeling in relation to 
 the efforts of all Protestant Missions, which now so generally and so 
 happily prevails. 
 
 By all those who cherish these feelings, the sending forth and contin 
 uing or extending the new Mission to the Sandwich Islands will be re 
 garded, not only with extreme regret, but with serious apprehension. It 
 cannot promote peace, brotherly kindness, or charity; and, besides the 
 graver .evils already apparent, it must tend to stir up vexatious rivalries, 
 strife, and much evil work. It is doing so already, and so far as the in 
 terests of the Redeemer's kingdom among men, and the salvation of the 
 souls of the Hawaiians are concerned, it holds out the promise of no 
 compensating good, either to the Islanders, or to the patrons of the Mis 
 sion. 
 
 This scheme, as the Bishop of London stated at Wells, did not orig 
 inate with his lordship, nor with the late venerable Archbishop of Can 
 terbury, but with certain members of the Church of England, and when 
 the adherents of that or of any other church chose to enter upon such a 
 course no one questioned their perfect right to do so; but the expediency 
 or advantage of such a course may, nevertheless, be extremely question 
 able, and when another society has, with great expenditure of life and 
 means, long cultivated any field, in the hope of reaping not temporal 
 benefits, but the satisfaction and the welcome enjoyment which success 
 in winning souls for Christ affords, the invasion of this field, the appro 
 priation of these fruits, is neither a position nor an occupation in which 
 the best friends of the Church of England, will consider her children 
 either most appropriately or honorably employed. 
 
 The Supreme Ruler of the world seems by the events of his Provi 
 dence, to be giving us India, and opening to us China and Africa, as 
 well as other parts of Asia ; to be calling the varied sections of His 
 Church to the great work of turning the nations of the earth from dumb 
 idols to serve the living God. Among the bands of faithful men which 
 the churches are sending forth to this work, the venerable antiquity, the 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. $3 
 
 exalted rank, the vast resources, which belong to the Church of Eng 
 land, and the dauntless courage which the adherents of that Church have 
 inscribed on the page of our nation's history, point out the front ranks, 
 the high places of the field, where the difficulties are the most formida 
 ble, and the struggle most arduous, as the position which belongs to the 
 Church of England, and which her sons would most appropriately oc 
 cupy. That Church neither does justice to herself, nor achieves all the 
 good that she might in the world, with such wide and transcendantly 
 glorious prospects before her, by using any part of her great resources 
 and influence in following the march of others who have broken the 
 ranks of the enemy, and gathering up the spoils of a field which they 
 have already won. 
 
 Not only does the new Mission to the Sandwich Islands fail to en- 
 courage other laborers in the great enterprise, but its persistent continu 
 ance will seem to threaten with disappointment and injury all other mis 
 sionaries besides. 
 
 If after the labor and resources which, during forty years, the Amer 
 ican Society has devoted to the Sandwich Islands, and the gratifying re 
 sults which, after all needful deductions, have most certainly been at 
 tained, the simple circumstance of the King of the country and a few 
 members of the English and American Episcopal Church, asking that a 
 clergyman may be sent out to them, be deemed a sufficient reason for 
 sending out a Bishop and a Mission of several clergymen to be joined 
 by others from America, not to minister to the members of their own re 
 spective churches, but to spread themselves among the general popula 
 tion, for whose spiritual good the American missionaries have been so 
 long laboring, to draw them away from these teachers and their simple 
 faith, other Missions may expect similar treatment. What encourage 
 ment, it may be asked, has any missionary body, European or American, 
 to expect to be allowed peacefully and rightfully to reap the fruits of 
 their own efforts ? What ground has any missionary body to conclude, 
 after long and faithful labor, that the members of the Reformed Catholic 
 Committee, or other persons who may think their own mode of worship 
 or its accompaniments better or likely to be more agreeable to the people 
 than that already introduced, may not, unrestrained by any law of am 
 ity, and disregarding the great and universal law of Christ, deem them 
 selves justified in condemning the work already accomplished as pro- 
 
64 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 ducing only a surface- religion, and sending forth their own agents to 
 draw away the converts from those who had long watched for their souls, 
 to their own creed and worship ? 
 
 The Bishop of London, with that characteristic benevolence which 
 moves him to look on the most favorable side of occurrences connected 
 with the progress of Christianity, expressed a hope that the union of the 
 Episcopal Church in America with this Mission would prove an olive 
 branch ; but it is to be feared that the reverse will be the case. The 
 American Society is not a circumscribed association, extemporized, as it 
 were, yesterday, but one of ^he earliest, most widely extended, highly 
 esteemed, and liberally supported organizations of the kind in America.* 
 The high character of its agents, and the benefits they have conferred 
 on different portions of mankind, are acknowledged by the friends of all 
 other Protestant Missions. The missionaries in the Sandwich Islands 
 are members of that sacred brotherhood which has proved so efficient in 
 India, China and Western Asia, and whom the Turkish Aid Society in 
 England, supported among others by such distinguished philanthropists 
 as Sir John Lawrence, and the late Archbishop of Dublin, has so gener 
 ously assisted in their great and holy work. 
 
 The supporters of the American Society all know that during the 
 long forty years that their missionaries prosecuted their work under many 
 difficulties and privations, the Episcopalians in America manifested no 
 interest whatever in Hawaii, and the invitation of the Reformed Cath 
 olic Committee to the American Episcopalians to join them now will 
 produce no good feeling, but the reverse. It will increase the sense of 
 gratuitous injury and wrong should the proceedings of these parties dam 
 age the American Mission in the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 Disasters, it is to be feared, arising out of this intrusion, are beginning 
 to appear in the Islands ; changes are apprehended in the religious teach 
 ing in the common schools ; and the increase of the Reformed Catholic 
 missionaries is being regarded as a political as well as an ecclesiastical 
 invasion. I do not regard it as such, but we cannot wonder that the 
 
 Americans, who form the chief part of the foreign residents, should do so. 
 
 ********** 
 
 * The resources of this Society are contributed by residents in the States of the 
 Union known as constituting the North. It is supported by 2,840 Congregational 
 churches, containing 269.000 communicants, and 1,479 New School Presbyterian 
 churches, with 143,000 members, altogether 4,319 churches, containing 412.000 
 communicants. Its income last year amounted to 111,409, and the number of 
 ordained missionaries was 143. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 5 
 
 T shall now conclude by adducing two living witnesses of the fruits of 
 the labors of the American missionaries, to which both England and 
 America have borne indisputable testimony, as my last reasons why {he 
 American missionaries should be no further interfered with. 
 
 The following account of a sermon preached at Christ Church, Clap- 
 ham, by the Rev. W. Hoapili, was copied from the London " Times " 
 into a Sandwich Island newspaper of November 17th, 1865. After no 
 ticing the ritualism of the service, the "Times" continues : "At the end 
 of the Nicene Creed, which was very chastely and beautifully sung, the 
 Rev. W. Hoapili ascended the pulpit, wearing his surplice, with his 
 stole crossed over his left shoulder, indicating that he had not yet ad 
 vanced beyond deacon's orders in the Church. He is a tall, dark, hand 
 some young man, wearing a beard and moustache, and with so slight a 
 foreign accent that it was scarcely possible to detect he was not an Eng 
 lishman." 
 
 The editor of the " Pacific Commercial Advertiser " observes : " Our 
 object in quoting these paragraphs is merely to bring before the minds 
 of our readers the tribute which is therein paid to the literary and edu 
 cational system of instruction of the American missionaries on. the Ha 
 waiian Islands. We are confident that the Rev. W. Hoapili never went 
 one day to any school except to those taught by or instituted by the 
 American missionaries, and yet the young man speaks the English lan 
 guage so accurately that ' it was scarcely possible to detect that he was 
 not an Englishman.' Now, we are bold to assert that there are scores 
 ay, hundreds of young Hawaiians, as well; if not better, educated than 
 Mr. Hoapili. Whatever American missionaries may have neglected to 
 do, they certainly have not neglected to give Hawaiian youth such an 
 education as the youth of but few nations can boast. There are undis 
 guised attempts on the part of some to ignore these facts, and they are 
 laboring with a zeal ' worthy of a better cause ' to produce the impres 
 sion that the American Mission at these Islands is a failure. Never 
 was there a greater falsification of facts or perversion of the truth. It is 
 morally wrong that such a view should be imparted to the history of 
 our times and the Hawaiian nation, and those who attempt to do so are 
 surely enemies of the nation. Napoleon, the Emperor of France, as 
 serts, in the opening paragraph to his * History of Julius Csesar,' that 
 ' Historic truth ought to be no less sacred than religion.' " 
 9 
 
66 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 The second instance of the efficiency of the teaching of the American 
 missionaries is from a native missionary pastor, sent by the Hawaiian 
 native church to a distant heathen race. It is copied from an American 
 journal, the " Christian Register,' of March 3d, 1866. The introduction 
 was written by an honorable and candid gentleman, who is a native of 
 Boston, but who has spent twelve years in the Sandwich Islands, acting- 
 part of that time as a judge. His religious associations are not those of 
 the missionaries ; his testimony is therefore the more reliable, and will 
 speak for itself. 
 
 "In 1853 Matunui, a Chief of the Marquesas or-Nuuhiva Islands, 
 came to the Sandwich Islands to beg that Missionaries might be sent 
 to his native group. He had heard of the benefits which the Sand 
 wich Islands had derived from the introduction of civilization and 
 Christianity, (which to his mind seem to have been synonymous,) and 
 he wished that he and his people might partake of them. Such a 
 call could not be disregarded; those of us who were most skeptical 
 as to the wisdom of Foreign Missions generally, were ready to say 
 God-speed to the little band that went out in answer to that call. They 
 consisted of one white layman, unmarried, and two Hawaiian ministers, 
 who took their wives with them. 
 
 " These native missionaries have remained at their post until now. 
 Two years ago one of them was instrumental in saving the life of an 
 American the mate of a whaleship. Our Government sent to him 
 some gifts in acknowledgment of the service. The following letter, 
 written by this Missionary Rev. James Kekela on the receipt of 
 those gifts, was received at Washington too late to meet the eye of the 
 good President to whom it is addressed. I am sure its simple utter 
 ances would have delighted and touched that warm, loving heart. I 
 have re-translated it. The translation which was received at the State 
 Department, and which was made in Honolulu, is more elegant than 
 this, but has sacrificed the native idiom, and, in some cases, the very 
 spirit of the original, to smoothness of expression. 
 
 " I commend the letter to your readers. My translation fails of doing 
 full justice to the original, yet I much mistake if they will not see in 
 its expressions of faith and of love a beauty and power that could flow 
 only from a life of entire consecration to God's service. This poor 
 Sandwich Islander, whose grand-parents were just such dark, benighted 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 67 
 
 cannibals as he is now laboring for, comes nearer in his spirit to the 
 apostolic writers than many of our most learned Divines and Commen 
 tators. 
 
 " How admirably does this man's child-like story of his own life, and 
 of his love to God and to his neighbor, refute those unworthy asper 
 sions upon the labors and success of the American Missionaries at the 
 Sandwich Islands, which we have so often heard. These aspersions 
 have not been so often repeated here of late as they were formerly, but 
 in England we find them uttered in various forms by the Bishop of 
 Oxford and others, who have been striving to build up a rival Mission 
 at those Islands, some of them moved, undoubtedly, by their zeal for 
 their Church, others, as undoubtedly, moved by a desire to- advance the 
 political interests of Great Britain at the Islands at the expense of those 
 of the United States, with a view to their ultimate occupation as a 
 British naval station. Who shall dare deny that this man is in the 
 true apostolic succession ? Who in this age better than he represents 
 the ' Apostle to the Gentiles ? ' E. P. BOND." 
 
 [Translated expressly for the " Christian Register.' 7 ] 
 
 " EIVAOA, March 27, 1865. 
 " To A. Lincoln, President of the United States of America: 
 
 " Greetings to you, great and good friend ! 
 
 " My mind is stirred up to address you in friendship by the receipt of 
 your communication through your Minister resident in Honolulu, 
 James McBride. 
 
 " I greatly respect you for holding converse with such humble ones. 
 Such you well know us to be. 
 
 " 1 am a native of the Hawaiian Islands, from Wai'alua, Oahu, born in 
 1824, and at twelve years of age attended the school, at Waialua, of 
 Kev. Mr. Emerson ; and was instructed in reading, writing, and mental 
 arithmetic and geography. 
 
 " In 1888 1 was entered at the High School of Lahainaluna, and was 
 under the instruction of Messrs. L. Andrews, E. W. Clark, S. Dibble 
 and Alexander. Not being in advance of others, I remained in the 
 school some years, and in 1843 I graduated, and was then invited and 
 desired by the teachers to continue my studies in other branches, that 
 is, to join a class in theology under the Rev. S. Dibble. He died in 
 1945, and I and others continued the study of the Scriptures under 
 
68 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 W. P. Alexander. In 1847 I graduated, having been at Lahainaluna 
 nine years. In that year, 1847, I married a girl from my native place, 
 who had for seven years attended a female seminary at Wailuku, under 
 the instruction of J. S. Green, E. Bailey and Miss Ogden. 
 
 "In the same year, 1847, I and my wife were called to Kahuku, a 
 remote place in Koolau, on Oahu, to instruct the people there in the 
 Scriptures and other words of wisdom. I remained in this work for 
 some years. It was clear to my wife and myself that our lives were 
 not our own, but belonged to the Lord, and therefore we covenanted 
 with one another that we would be the Lord's, ' His only, His forever.' 
 And from that time forth we yielded ourselves servants unto the Lord. 
 In 1852 certain American Missionaries Dr. Gulick and others were 
 sent out on their way to Micronesia. 1 was one of their company, and, 
 after seven months absence, I returned with E. W. Clark. On my re 
 turn I was employed in arousing the Hawaiians to the work of Foreign 
 Missions. 
 
 " In 1853 there came to our islands a Macedonian cry for Missiona 
 ries to Nuuhiva, brought by Matunui, a Chief of Fatuhiva. 
 
 " The Missionaries speedily laid hold upon me to go to this group of 
 islands. I did not assent immediately. I stopped to consider carefully, 
 with much prayer to God to make clear to me that this call was from 
 God, and I took counsel with my wife. It was evident to us that this 
 was a call from God, therefore we consented to come to these dark, 
 benighted and cannibal islands. 
 
 O 
 
 " 1 had aged parents, and my wife beloved relatives, and we had a lit 
 tle girl three years old. We left them in our native land. We came 
 away to seek the salvation of the souls of this people, because our 
 hearts were full of the Love of God. This was the only ground of our 
 coming hither, away from our native land. 
 
 " In the year 1853 we came to these cannibal islands, and we dwelt 
 first for four years at Fatahiva, and in 1857 we removed to Hivaoa, 
 another island, to do the work of the Lord Jesus; and from that time 
 until now we have striven to do the work of Jesus Chrst, without re 
 gard for wealth or worldly pleasure. We came for the Lord, to seek 
 the salvation of men, and this is our only motive for remaining in this 
 dark land. 
 
 " When I saw one of your countrymen, a citizen of your great nation. 
 
THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 69 
 
 ill-treated, and about to be baked and eaten, as a pig is eaten, I ran to 
 save him, full of pity and grief at the evil deed of these benighted peo 
 ple. I gave my boat for the stranger's life. This boat came from 
 James Hunnewell,* a gift of friendship. It became the ransom of this 
 countryman of yours, that he might not be eaten by the savages who 
 knew not Jehovah. This was Mr. Whalon,t and the date January 14, 
 1864, 
 
 "As to this friendly deed of mine in saving iVIr. Whalon, its seed 
 came from your great land, and was brought by certain of your coun 
 trymen, who had received the love of God. It was planted in Hawaii, 
 and I brought it to plant in this land and in these dark regions, that 
 they might receive the root of all that is good and true, which is love. 
 
 " 1. Love to Jehovah. 
 
 "2. Love to self. 
 
 " 3. Love to our neighbor. 
 
 " If a man have a sufficiency of these three, he is good and holy, like 
 his God, Jehovah, in His triune character, (Father, Son and Holy Ghost,) 
 one-three, three-one. If he have two and wants one, it is not well ; 
 and if he have one and wants two, this, indeed, is not well ; but if he 
 cherishes all three, rhen he is holy, indeed, after the manner of the 
 Bible. 
 
 " This is a great thing for your great nation to boast of before all the 
 nations of the earth. From your great land a most precious seed was 
 brought to the land of darkness. It was planted here, not by means of 
 guns, and men-of-war, and threatenings. It was planted by means of 
 the ignorant, the neglected, the despised. Such was the introduction 
 of the word of the Almighty God into this group of Nuuhiva. Great 
 is my debt to Americans, who have taught me all things pertaining to 
 this life, and to that which is to come. 
 
 " How shall I repay your great kindness to me ? Thus David asked 
 of Jehovah, and thus I ask of you, the President of the United States. 
 This is my only payment that which I have received of the Lord 
 love (aloha.} 
 
 * 1 had frequent personal intercourse with this gentleman, who was engaged in 
 mercantile pursuits when I resided at Oahu. He was an honorable Christian man, 
 and it is a pleasure to find that he is still, as of old r encouraging the laborers in 
 this distant Mission field. 
 The seaman. 
 
70 THE SANDWICH ISLAND MISSIONS. 
 
 " I and my wife. Naomi, have five children, the first with Miss Og- 
 den, the second with Kev. J. S. Emerson; we now send the third to live 
 with Rev. L. H. Gulick; the fourth is with Kauwealoha, my fellow- 
 Missionary, and the fifth is with us at present. Another stranger is 
 soon expected. There is heaviness in thus having to scatter the chil 
 dren where they can be well taken care of. 
 
 " We have received your gifts of friendship according to your instruc 
 tions to your Minister, James McBride. Ah ! I greatly honor your in 
 terest in this countryman of yours. It is, indeed, in keeping with all I 
 have known of your acts as President of the United States. 
 
 " A clear witness this in all lands of your love for those whose deeds- 
 are love, as saith the Scripture, ' Thou shalt love Jehovah, and shall 
 love thy neighbor as thyself.' 
 
 " And so may the love of the Lord Jesus abound with you until the 
 end of this terrible war in your land. 
 
 "I am, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 [Signed] " JAMES KEKELA." 
 
 With this simple, ingenuous and truthful testimony to the ability and 
 faithfulness with which the American missionaries have discharged their 
 high and sacred duties to the Sandwich Islanders, I close my vindication 
 of their characters and labors, and express my most earnest hope, as re 
 spectfully suggested by the American Board, in their letter to the Ven 
 erable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in November, 1864, 
 that " upon a reconsideration of the case, in view of the facts now pre 
 sented," that Society "will think it proper to withdraw from interfer 
 ence with our labors in the Sandwich Islands, which have been so sig 
 nally blessed of God." 
 
 I also appeal most respectfully, sincerely and earnestly, as an English 
 man, as an English missionary, not to the members of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel only, but to the promoters of the new Mis 
 sion, carefully to reconsider whether it would not. be far better for the 
 interests of peace and of religion in the Sandwich Islands, and tend more 
 to the Christian enlightenment of the heathen world, of which so large a 
 portion still remains destitute of the knowledge of the Gospel, for them 
 to make every needful provision for the wants of the members of the 
 Episcopal Church in Honolulu, and, in all beyond that, to leave the 
 American missionaries to carry forward their own work without further 
 interruption. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, CITY OF HONOLULU, 7 
 
 March 13th, 1860. J 
 
 SIR : I have the honor to enclose to you a sealed letter from the Rev. 
 Richard Armstrong, D.D., President of the Board of Public Instruction, 
 which, he informs me, is on the subject of the establishment, in this cap 
 ital, of an Episcopal Church. 
 
 Their Majesties the King and Queen prefer that form of worship, and 
 were married according to the rites of the English Episcopal Church. 
 
 The King himself, taking all the interest in the education, morals and 
 religion of his people which becomes him as Sovereign, believes that an 
 Episcopal Church here, besides supplying a want long felt by many Brit 
 ish and American families, would operate beneficially in narrowing the 
 existing broad antagonism of the Calvinistic and Catholic creeds, and 
 thereby promote that brotherly feeling between the clergy of both that 
 so well becomes the followers of the same Lord. 
 
 By orders of his Majesty, I have written fully upon this subject to 
 Manly Hopkins, Esq., of 4, Royal Exchange Buildings, who is the 
 King's Charge d'AfFaires and Consul-General in London. If you honor 
 him with a call, he will communicate to you what farther information 
 you may desire. Bfe&Cfoft Library 
 
 In the undersigned you may not recognize an old acquaintance. 
 While on shore, on the 10th of May, 1824, (I being then on rny voyage 
 to Calcutta in my yacht, the " Daule,") I had the honor to be introduced 
 to you and to your good lady by Mr. Crocker, then acting as Consul of - 
 the United States ; and, favored with your company, I visited a native 
 school, and heard the scholars repeat the Lord's Prayer in the Hawaiian 
 language. I have the honor to be, 
 
 Rev. Sir, 
 Your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 R. C. WYLLIE. 
 Rev. William Ellis. 
 
72 APPENDIX. 
 
 HONOLULU, SANDWICH ISLANDS, ) 
 February 29th, 1860. j 
 
 DEAR SIR : Having been a resident of this place many years ago, 
 your name being yet fresh in the recollection of many here, both native 
 and foreign, you will be prepared to appreciate the object of {his letter, 
 and I will therefore make no apology for addressing it to you. 
 
 Besides the two large native churches we have here, two of the Con 
 gregational order (one of them in connection with the Seaman's Chapel, 
 and one Methodist, neither of them large ; for our foreign population is 
 small, except in the whaling season, when foreign ships resort to our 
 ports,) there are quite a number of persons here, and a few families, who 
 are either members of the Episcopal Church, or partial to that Church, 
 and they have long been desirous to secure the services of an Episcopal 
 minister to break to them the bread of life. Several months ago the 
 King, who takes much interest in the subject, directed his Minister of 
 Foreign Relations, R. C. Wyllie, a gentleman from Scotland, who also 
 feels great interest in the matter, to write to Manly Hopkins, Esq., H. 
 H. M.'s Charge d'Affaires in London, authorizing him to guarantee to 
 a suitable clergyman of the Episcopalian Church who may come to 
 Honolulu, and labor for the spiritual good of its population, an annual 
 salary of one thousand dollars, hoping that a full salary might be made 
 up for him by this, and what might be contributed for the object in Eng 
 land. Less than txvo thousand dollars would be insufficient. And 
 should the right man be obtained, he will have no difficulty in raising 
 this amount here. The King has offered a lot of ground as a site for 
 an Episcopal Church, and there will, I think, be no difficulty in raising 
 means here to erect one upon it. 
 
 How to obtain just the right man is a question of great interest, not 
 only to those of the Episcopal Church, but to all who love Zion here ; 
 and here is just the reason for the liberty I have taken in addressing you 
 now. You have lived here, have associated with American missiona 
 ries, (of whom I was one for sixteen years, and for eleven years I have 
 been honored with the charge of the department of Public Instruction,) 
 and you would know at once what kind of a man would be calculated 
 to do good here. I may add, also, that I address you at the request of 
 several Episcopalians, who are among our best people. They want a 
 man of Evangelical sentiments, of respectable talents, and most exem 
 plary Christian life. 
 
APPENDIX. 73 
 
 We are now enjoying for a few days the society of the Rev. Messrs. 
 Garrett and Low, Episcopal clergymen from England, bound to British 
 Columbia. With Mr. Garrett our people are greatly pleased, and would 
 be glad to have him settled here, but he is under engagement to go on ; 
 and he strongly recommends a friend of his. 
 
 Would you be so kind as to inquire about this gentleman, and if sat 
 isfied of his qualifications, recommend him to the Bishop of London, 
 and also to Manly Hopkins, Esq. Mr. Garrett thinks he would come, 
 and is just the man. But, if not, could you see the Bishop of London 
 on the subject, both in regard to a suitable man, and a portion of his 
 support ; though I think, if acceptable, he will very soon get his entire 
 support here. 
 
 Not knowing your address, I will take the liberty to enclose this 
 through my good friend Dr. Anderson, of Boston. 
 
 With sentiments of esteem and Christian regard, 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 R. ARMSTRONG. 
 Rev. William Ellis. 
 
 P. S. On reflection, 1 conclude to send this open through Mr. Wyl- 
 lie, who will enclose it officially. 
 10 
 
74 APPENDIX. 
 
 The following admirable review of this pamphlet from the London 
 " Record " of April 25th, is inserted in this edition, though not in the 
 original : 
 
 THE HAWAIIAN REFORMED CATHOLIC MISSION. 
 
 We have had occasion to refer more than once to the proceedings of 
 " the Reformed Catholic Mission at Honolulu," and of Bishop Staley, 
 who is at the head of it. We have strongly protested against this in 
 trusion of members of our own church into a missionary sphere already 
 occupied by another body of Christians, as an act at once unjust, un- 
 courteous and unwise, as directly violating the mutual understanding 
 on which the various sections of the church of Christ have hitherto con 
 ducted their missions, and contradicting alike apostolic precept and apos 
 tolic practice. It has been shown by us that the Church of England 
 has ever recognized the various Reformed churches as being true churches 
 of Christ, and worthy compeers with herself in the great work of evan 
 gelizing the world. We had, however, at that time, no conception that 
 the case was so bad as it turns out to be. A pamphlet on this subject 
 has just been issued by the Rev. W. Ellis, well known in connection 
 with Madagascar, and formerly a missionary in the Sandwich Islands, 
 and therefore possessing a personal acquaintance with the character and 
 circumstances of ihe inhabitants. The high character of Mr. Ellis, 
 united with his personal acquaintance with the facts, invest his defense 
 of the American Missions and his grave charges against the originators 
 of the Reformed Catholic Mission with equal authority and importance. 
 It is scarcely possible that so well-furnished an author should be found 
 tripping. Indeed every statement he makes is accompanied with evi 
 dence, and he writes moreover with a moderation of tone and spirit cal 
 culated to show that he is no heated and reckless partisan. And yet, 
 unless his statements can be disproved or in some way rebutted, it will 
 be impossible to avoid the conclusion that this Reformed Catholic Mis 
 sion, whatever the name may mean, is one of the grossest delusions 
 ever palmed upon Christian men. 
 
 The establishment of the Episcopal Mission at Honolulu was warmly 
 
APPENDIX. 75 
 
 advocated by some high churchmen on grounds apparently equally con 
 clusive to the reason and touching to the sympathies. "A sort of his 
 toric and chivalrous charm was imparted to the enterprise by represent 
 ing the non-compliance of the Government of England with a series of 
 applications made by successive sovereigns of Hawaii as so many wrongs 
 inflicted on the people which the Church of England is now called upon 
 to redress/' Twenty years after Captain Cook's visit, Vancouver brought 
 religious truth before the mind of Kamehameha I., and promised him 
 teachers from England. The fulfillment of this promise was pathetically 
 urged by the King, but urged in vain. Thirty years later a similar ap 
 plication was made by Kamehameha II. and again refused, although 
 the King visited England in person to press the application and to "take 
 back with him an English Church establishment." The Hawaiians still 
 continued to look " with an eager eye for the church of the future to be 
 sent to them from England." 
 
 In 1857 the old desire again broke out in a request addressed by Ka 
 mehameha IV. to the Queen of England and the Archbishop of Canter 
 bury that " a Mission of the Church of England should be sent out to 
 Honolulu." Nothing less than a bishop and six clergymen would suf 
 fice to meet the wants of a population of 68,000 souls, of whom 20,000 
 only were professing Protestants and 25,000 unconnected with any 
 creed. All that had before been done for this people had been done by 
 "American Puritans," who had inflicted on a people addicted to gaiety 
 and spending much of their life in the innocent recreation of the dance, 
 the restrictions natural to " descendants of the stern old Puritans of New 
 England, if anything rather more severe, sour and vinegar-like." These 
 people had so grossly mismanaged their Missions that they "made hypo 
 crites as fast as they made proselytes," producing " a superficial Chris 
 tianity thinly veiling a heathen faith and heathen practices." They 
 made the mistake of " introducing themselves into the secular offices of 
 the Kingdom," and were so utterly powerless even to arrest the progress 
 of heathen profligacy that " immorality in Hawaii is ten times greater 
 now than when the people were heathen." Under such circumstances 
 it is no wonder that " the people are craving for your teachers, that they 
 are wearied out by the mismanagement of the American Puritians." 
 Hence, lastly, the appeal shall all this be in vain, and will not English 
 Christians throw light on their Hawaiian darkness by establishing among 
 
76 APPENDIX. 
 
 them the Reformed Catholic Mission and erecting a new cathedral at 
 Honolulu, that neglected place, where among a population of 14,000 
 souls there are only two churches, capable of containing 2,500 persons, 
 two chapels and a Roman Catholic cathedral to boot ? 
 
 Such is the statement put forth by those high churchmen who unlike 
 the great Apostle, desired " to enter into other men's labors." It con 
 tains, as we have put it, fourteen direct statements of matters of fact ; 
 and if these statements were true, some ground for a new Mission would 
 undoubtedly have existed. What will our readers think when we tell 
 them that Mr. Ellis adduces strong grounds to show that every one of 
 these fourteen statements is, without exception, simply and absolutely 
 untrue ! We do not profess to "discuss the details. We only call atten 
 tion to the results, unless the contents of the pamphlet can be disproved. 
 But we cannot refrain from the strong indignation at the unseemly, 
 gross and scandalous manner in which the American missionaries, than 
 whom, as a class, no more devoted body of men exists, have been libel- 
 lously attacked alike by the Bishop of Oxford and by Bishop Staley. 
 
 Of this gentleman's opinions and modes of proceeding our columns 
 have contained illustrations on former occasions. Judging from the facts 
 stated in Mr. Ellis's pamphlet, and supposing them to be true, he ap 
 pears to be a theological hybrid, of a species unhappily not unknown in 
 these later days, combining the narrowest bigotry of extreme high church- 
 ism with the doctrinal laxity of the school of Bishop Colenso. By vir 
 tue of the one-half of this theological compound, he appears to teach the 
 co-ordinate authority of tradition with Scripture, baptismal regeneration 
 and sacramental grace in connection with the Lord's Supper, and to 
 give expression to his views in that " language of dogma," Anglican 
 ritualism. By virtue of his other half, not once he calls into question 
 the inspiration of Holy Scripture, distinguishing what is human in 
 Scripture from what is Divine, (not, it will be observed, combining the 
 two elements in one revelation, but dividing the one revelation into two 
 parts,) " eternal principles from what is temporary and incidental." We 
 transcribe the whole passage in the Bishop's own words : " They (the 
 Hawaiians) have anything but an intelligent acquaintance with the Holy 
 Scripture. Of its composite character, of the times and circumstances 
 of the authors when they wrote the various books, they knew nothing ; 
 they do not, in fact, possess that historical and common information 
 
APPENDIX. 77 
 
 which can alone render its pefusal profitable and even safe. No attempt 
 seems to have been made to teach them how to distinguish the human 
 from the Divine in the Inspired Volume eternal principles from what 
 is temporary and incidental." 
 
 Every one who reads the pamphlet referred to in this article will feel 
 that explanation is loudly called for from the friends of " the Reformed 
 Catholic Mission." If the statements of Mr. Ellis can be rebutted by 
 evidence on the other side, let it be done, but the reputation of all par 
 ties concerned demands that it should be done at once. Many excellent 
 and high-minded persons have been led to support this Mission who are 
 utterly incapable of knowingly lending themselves to any unworthy or 
 ungenerous scheme. If Mr. Ellis be right, these men must have been 
 grossly deceived. It is due to themselves to ascertain the facts, and 
 vindicate their reputation from any share in what appears little better 
 than a delusion. If this is not done, indelible disgrace will rest on all 
 who do not separate themselves at once and for ever from a movement 
 publicly convicted of being founded either on the most culpable igno 
 rance or the grossest lack of truth.