Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fire Consumes the First Kawaiahaʻo Church

“(T)he chapel in which we worshipped was the first ever erected on the ruins of idolatry in this land; and though of the simplest and rudest construction, being entirely in the native style, it was on this account beautiful and lovely in our eyes.” Then, disaster struck … “Sabbath evening, (May) 30, (1824) nine o’clock. About an hour since, we were alarmed by the ringing of the chapel bell, and on reaching the door, discovered the south end of the building in one entire blaze.”

“Being entirely of grass, in five minutes the whole was on fire, but not until, by the prompt exertions of a few foreigners and natives, every article of any value, such as the bible, lamps, pulpit – which was moveable – window and door frames, and seats, were removed.” This was the first of several earlier buildings that served as a Honolulu church/meeting house, until the present “Stone Church” (Kawaiahaʻo) was completed in 1842.

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Written Hawaiian Language, Schools … Literacy

Hawaiian was an oral not written language. After Western contact and attempts to write about Hawaiʻi, early writers tried to spell words based on the sound of the words they heard. People heard words differently, so it was not uncommon for words to be spelled differently, depending on the writer. A new era opened in the Islands with the arrival of the first American Protestant on April 4, 1820. The American Protestant missionaries were preachers and teachers.

In addition to preaching the gospel, one of the first things the missionaries did was begin to learn the Hawaiian language and create an alphabet for a written format of the language. On July 14, 1826, the missionaries established a 12-letter alphabet, they established schools associated with their missions across the Islands and by 1832, the literacy rate of Hawaiians (at the time was 78 percent) had surpassed that of Americans on the continent.

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Aliʻi Letters – La‘anui to Ruggles (1827)

Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (Mission Houses) collaborated with Awaiaulu Foundation to digitize, transcribe, translate and annotate over 200-letters written by 33-Chiefs. In this letter, Gideon Laʻanui writes to Mr. and Mrs. Ruggles regarding cloth, expressing his affection to people there, and promoting faith in God.

In part, it notes, “Great affection to you all; may we all be saved through Jesus. Here is my little message to you, Ruggles. Deliver my cloth. If it is with Maalo, then Kamahiainui should go get it, and once you see it, send it on one of your people’s ships, then document that and give it to Mr. Chamberlain. … Relay my affectionate thoughts to the faithful men there and the faithful women there.”

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hale Pa‘i

“Perhaps never since the invention of printing was a printing press employed so extensively as that has been at the Sandwich islands, with so little expense, and so great a certainty that every page of its productions would be read with attention and profit. The language of the islands has been reduced to writing, and in a form so precise, that five vowels and seven consonants, or twelve letters in the whole, represent all the sounds which have yet been discovered in the native tongue. And as each of these letters has a fixed and certain sound, the art of reading, spelling, and writing the language is made far easier than it is with us.”

“On the 7th of January, 1822, a year and eight months from the time of our receiving the governmental permission to enter the field and teach the people, we commenced printing the language in order to give them letters, libraries, and the living oracles in their own tongue, that the nation might read and understand the wonderful works of God.” “Liho-liho was glad to have the chiefs instructed and took 100 copies of the first primer for his friends and attendants. Ka-ahu-manu took 40 for her friends.” Mission Press also printed newspaper, hymnals, schoolbooks, broadsides, fliers, laws, and proclamations. The Mission Presses printed over 113,000,000-sheets of paper in 20-years.

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Pele and the Missionaries

“Is she (Pele) dead? Does she sleep? or has she only closed her adamantine doors, and with Pluto and Vulcan descended to the fiery bowels of the earth to prepare with deeper secrecy her magazines of wrath which shall one day burst forth with more desolating terror? To us it is a lonely idea that the volcano should become extinct; for we confess that her mutterings, her thunderings, her flashings, the smoke of her nostrils and the shaking of her rocky ribs are music, beauty, sublimity and grandeur to us. They seem so like the voice of Almighty God, so like the footsteps of Deity.” (Lydia Bingham Coan)

“A mighty current instantly overflowed, and they ran for their lives before the molten flood, and ascended from the surface of the abyss to the lofty rim with heartfelt thanksgiving to their great Deliverer. This proves the real danger of meddling with Pele’s palace and trifling with her power. Had this occurred in the days of unbroken superstition, it would doubtless have been ascribed to the anger of that false deity, and multiplied her worshippers. But now such a deliverance was justly ascribed to the care and power of Jehovah, the knowledge of whose attributes displayed in the works of creation, providence, and grace, has introduced the Hawaiian race into a new life.” (Hiram Bingham)