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Day 072 – January 2, 1820

January 2, 1820 – no entry. (Thaddeus Journal)

Jan. 2nd. Lord’s day. Have been favored with another precious sabbath. In the morning, at our conference remarks were made tending to lead our minds to the spirituality of the fourth commandment. They were deeply interesting and affecting. A little circumstance, in the morning, caused them to be more particularly so.
May they not be without their salutary effects. In the afternoon, Mr. B— addressed us again, from Luke 4th, 19th.—”To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
After an appropriate introduction, considered particularly the import of the phrase, then enquired how we may reasonably expect the New Year to be, with respect to ourselves, and those connected with us, an acceptable year of the Lord. We might expect it to be such by duly regarding our sins, our mercies, our engagements,, and our instructions* of the past year. Each of these particulars was set before us in a clear and striking manner. May the blessed Spirit accompany the word. The sea was, as it had been for many days, smooth and still. About sunset a strong breeze cane up, so that now, eight o’clock, our little bark pushes forward over noisy billows. (Sybil Bingham)

January 2, Sabbath. New-Year’s sermon on deck from these words, ‘Preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’
Hymn composed by Mr. Conant was sung. The following is a copy:

NEW YEAR’S HYMN
The Orb of day with rosy light.
Rolls home the shady gloom of night.
Ushering in the New-born Year.
Of joy and grief. of hope and fear.

2d Jehovah! hear our annual lays.
While grateful thoughts to thee we raise.
O God of mercy, – -Heavenly King.
With feeble strains thy praise we sing.

3d Thy ever kind and bounteous hand.
Has spread thy wonders o’ er the land
The sea has felt Thy sovereign might.
The Isles have seen with joy the light.

4th Thy arm has led us o’er the main.
To bear thy light. thy laws maintain.
Our hearts adore thy just decree.
And place our only trust in thee.

5th Soon may the heathen see the light.
Which dawns to close the pagan night.
And say with truth forever more.
Owhyhee’s Idols are no more. (Lucia Ruggles Holman)

Jan 2nd. My mind at the return of the new year has been deeply impressed with a sweet remembrance of happy days spent in the enjoyment of Christian privileges in my dear native country. This pleasure however is mixed with pain, that those days, and privileges are no more to be enjoyed. Never again do I expect to surround the table of the crucified Redeemer with those dear friends I so ardently love, and recal to mind with emotions of peculiar interest. I am sensible of having spent the morning of my days in the most favorable situation and under the best circumstances for improvement in the divine life; yet I have to lament that I have not made those acquirements which my Lord and Master might justly have expected of me. What more could have been done that has not been done for me, yet how little of the fruit of righteousness have I brought forth. How faint and lanquid have been my exertions to glorify God by doing good to souls in laboring to promote the cause of Christ on earth. But instead of being cut off from all the ordinances of the gospel and means of grace as I have deserved; the indications of divine providence seems to be, forbear a little longer; stay thy hand and let her be transplanted in a heathen soil surrounded by the wretched, worshippers of wood and stone and see what exertions she will then make to rescue souls from eternal burnings. What mercy is here displayed, what love, what condescension on the part of God and what renewed obligations are laid on me to be faithful to my covenant Redeemer. Six years to-day since I solemnly and publicly gave myself to God in an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten; and I can bear testimony of his covenant faithfulness towards me continually. But 0, how few returns of love hath my Creator found. To grace how great a debtor. N. R. (Nancy Ruggles)

Sabbath Jan. 2nd, 1820. A delightful morning indeed; to me peculiarly so, my health is comfortable and I feel more like enjoying the sabbath than I have before since I left dear America. The weather is not excessively hot, tho’ the air is faint; the sea calm and unruffled, no swelling waves dash against the sides of our floating habitation, threatening our destruction; no distressing gales beat upon us as if determined to overthrow us into the depths of the sea; all is peace and tranquillity while we proceed silently along the coast of Patagonia at the rate of one mile an hour. Perhaps if our A. friends could see us this morning, they would wish themselves with us. Though they cannot be with us they will remember us today with deep interest. While assembled in the house of God and seated round the table of their crucified Lord; their hearts will be uplifted in fervent -prayer for their friends who have gone to erect the banner of the cross in a benighted pagan land. Hay God hear your prayers for us, and make you so unspeakably happy, as hereafter to know that your desires have entered the ears of the Almighty and that those now degraded Islanders are become the true worshippers of God.
I am full of faith, that the time has nearly arrived, when O. Idols will be no more; when instead of Marai, will be erected, houses dedicated to the service of Obookiah’s God, and that land which is now grown over with thorns and nettles, become a fruitful field. But before this joyful period arrives, I am not insensible that much toil and labour is necessary; many triads and difficulties are to be endured; a battle is to be fought with the enemy of all righteousness, and a victory won. Perhaps some of this little mission company are soon to fall as martyrs in the cause, but should this be, it will not prevent a final conquest. Christ will yet be king of the Sandwich Islands. From yours in haste. S. R. (Samuel Ruggles)

2. – This is a pleasant sabbath. Surrounded by a few select friends in a floating sanctuary, I sometimes think myself the happiest of the happy. Brother B. preached from the words ‘to preach the acceptable year of the lord.’ (Samuel Whitney Journal)

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Female Seminaries

Hawaiian female seminaries grew out of the evolution of education of middle class white women in the US. Because the primary educators responsible for developing the education system of Hawai’i were Americans, the educational practices for Hawaiian girls tended to mirror, but not necessarily duplicate, what was taking place on the continent. (Beyer)

It was believed that women would have to be educated to understand domestic economy because they were to play the major role in educating the young, primarily in their homes, and later as the school population rose and there was a shortage of teachers, as school teachers.

The founders of the female seminaries were at first men who were committed to providing education for women, but as time went by, more of the founders were women. The financial backing for these seminaries were typically from private sources and the tuition charged the students. Enrollment varied between 50 to 100 students.

The men of the mission to Hawai’i were prepared for the work by education, work experience, and the sense of a calling. Their backgrounds were usually rural, and often farming had been the family livelihood. They were from the middle class. Their education had been preceded by engagement in various kinds of work: the employment with charitable or religious concerns; and traveling the northeast with tracts, Bibles, and the missionary message, or the call to revival.

The women of the mission were quick, efficient, and multi-talented. Also from rural, middle-class backgrounds, they were adaptable in terms of skills, worked to fund their own education, and were not accustomed to leisure or easy living. Most had secured their education at intervals, while supporting themselves by teaching, by farm labor, or skilled trade.

When the daughters of these missionaries or new recruits from the US took over the education of Hawaiian females during the last 40 years of the 19th century, many more were trained in the female seminaries of the US.

In the Islands, the first female seminary students were adult Hawaiian women. Patricia Grimshaw states: “… that (s)oon after their arrival in Hawai’i in 1820, and over the next three decades, New England missionary women embarked on an ambitious plan to transform Hawaiian girls and women to notions of femininity upheld by their culture.”

“The plan and design of the Female Seminary is to take a class of young females into a boarding school—away in a measure from the contaminating influence of heathen society, to train them to habits of industry, neatness, and order …”

“… to instruct them in employments suited to their sex, to cultivate the minds, to improve their manners and to instill the principles of our holy religion – to fit them to be suitable companions for the scholars of the Mission Seminary and examples of propriety among the females of the Sandwich Islands.” (Dibble)

In 1835, at the general meeting of the Mission, a resolution was passed to promote boarding schools for Hawaiians; several male boarding schools and two female boarding schools were begun.

Wailuku Female Seminary (or the Central Female Seminary, as it was first called) was the first female school begun by the missionaries (1837). It received support at a time when the missionaries were experimenting with both boarding schools and a manual labor system.

Fidelia Coan, the wife of Reverend Titus Coan, began Hilo Girls’ Boarding School in 1838. The Hilo school was opened for 20 girls from seven to 10 years old. Hilo residents helped erect and furnish the school building, and arranged to supply food for the pupils.

On January 16, 1860, the Privy Council authorized the chartering of the Makiki Family School. In family schools, young girls lived in the homes of the instructors; the instruction included both academics and domestic craft. It later closed, with the formation of Kawaiaha’o Seminary.

In 1862, Orramel Hinckley Gulick and his wife, Ann Eliza Clark Gulick began the Kaʻū Seminary on the Island of Hawai‘i. Both were the children of missionaries (Peter Johnson Gulick and Fanny Hinckley Thomas Gulick; Ephraim Weston Clark and Mary Kittredge Clark.)

Due to the isolated location of the seminary, it was difficult to attract many students to the school. In 1865, after struggling to fill the school, it was decided to move the school to Waialua, Oʻahu, on the Anahulu Stream.

“Honolulu Female Academy (is) another of the schools provided by Christian benevolence for the benefit of the children of this highly favored land. This institution will, it is hoped, supply a felt need for a home for girls, in the town of Honolulu, yet not too near its center of business.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 13, 1867)

In 1867, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society (HMCS – an organization consisting of the children of the missionaries and adopted supporters) decided to support a girls’ boarding school.

Miss Lydia Bingham (daughter of Reverend Hiram Bingham, leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi) became teacher and principal.

It was later named Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary. In January 1869, Miss Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu (Lizzie) Bingham arrived from the continent to be an assistant to her sister. Lizzie later became principal.

The Kohala Girl’s School was Reverend Elias Bond’s last major undertaking. For 30-years prior to the 1874 founding of the Kohala Girl’s School, Reverend Bond ran a boarding school for boys. His decision to build a separate facility to educate native Hawaiian women in Christian living and housekeeping was made in 1872.

The last of the female seminaries that was begun by the missionaries was initially called the Makawao Family School. Later called Maunaʻolu Seminary, it was an out-growth of the “East Maui Female Seminary

At the end of the century, all the female seminaries in Hawai‘i began to lose students to the newly-founded Kamehameha School for Girls.

This latter school was established in 1894; it was not technically a seminary or founded by missionaries, but all the girls enrolled were Hawaiian, and its curriculum was very similar to what was used at the missionary-sponsored seminaries.

Above text is a summary – Click HERE for more information

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Day 073 – January 3, 1820

January 3, 1820 – Yesterday, “The Holy Rest,” was in the morning somewhat disturbed by the catching of a large turtle, for which purpose it was necessary for the ship’s company to let down a boat and spend considerable time The afternoon was pleasant. We had service on deck where a New Year’s sermon was delivered by Brother Bingham from Luke 4, 19, “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” After an introduction and an explanation of the text, he endeavored to show that by a due regard to our sins. our mercies, our engagements and our instructions of the past year, we might reasonably expect the New Year would be to us and to those with whom we may have intercourse, an acceptable year of the Lord. Mrs. C. is threatened with a fever.
This evening we have attempted to join with the Christian world in the great monthly concert of prayer for the prosperity of Zion, and the salvation of the Heathen. A letter dated in Boston and signed A.G. containing an earnest request for our prayers in behalf of the writer when we should be far from her, also the farewell letter of Brother Cornelius to the mission, were read and made the foundation of some remarks with respect to the feeling which our American friends cherish towards us, and to our correspondent duties. (Thaddeus Journal)

3. – We are now going at the rate of 200 miles a day cords that point of terror Cape Horn. (Samuel Whitney Journal)

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Caste Social Structure

During the period from about AD 1400 to European contact, Hawaiian society underwent a transformation from descent-based (its ancestral Polynesian system) to a state-like society.

The structure that came to characterize Hawaiian society – consisting of a high upper class supported by an underprivileged lower class – was somewhat suggestive of ancient Mediterranean and Asian civilizations, as well as of medieval Europe.

The Hawaiian concept of the universe embodied the interrelationship of the gods, man and nature. The former, although the ultimate controlling influence in this system, granted their direct descendants – the royalty – control over the land, the sea and their resources.

“The condition of the common people was that of subjection to the chiefs, compelled to do their heavy tasks, burdened and oppressed, some even to death. The life of the people was one of patient endurance, of yielding to the chiefs to purchase their favor. The plain man (kanaka) must not complain.” (Malo)

At the time of European contact in 1778, Hawaiian society comprised four levels. People were born into specific social classes; social mobility was not unknown, but it was extremely rare. The Kapu System separated Hawaiian society into four groups of people:

  • Aliʻi, the ruling class of chiefs and nobles (kings, high chiefs, low chiefs) considered to be of divine origin who ruled specific territories and who held their positions on the basis of family ties and leadership abilities – the chiefs were thought to be descendants of the gods;
  • Kahuna, the priests (who conducted religious ceremonies at the heiau and elsewhere) and master craftsmen (experts in medicine, religion, technology, natural resource management and similar areas) who ranked near the top of the social scale
  • Makaʻainana, commoners (the largest group) those who lived on the land – primarily laborers, farmers, fishermen, and the like; they labored not only for themselves and their families, but to support the chiefs; and
  • Kauwa (or Kauā), social outcasts, “untouchables” — possibly lawbreakers or war captives, who were considered “unclean” or kapu. Their position was hereditary, and they were attached to “masters” in some sort of servitude status. Marriage between higher castes and the kauwa was strictly forbidden.

“As to why in ancient times a certain class of people were ennobled and made into aliis, and another class into subjects (kanaka), why a separation was made between chiefs and commoners, has never been explained.” (Malo)

The aliʻi attained high social rank in several ways: by heredity, by appointment to political office, by marriage or by right of conquest. The first was determined at birth, the others by the outcomes of war and political processes.

“The chiefs were anxious also to preserve the pure blood of their class by arranging marriages between chiefs and chiefesses. …”

The mating to a sister or near relative, which was not permitted to lesser chiefs or the relatives of chiefs, was considered desirable between very high chiefs in order to produce children of divine rank who carried the sacred fire (ahi) tabu.”

“Such a mating was for the purpose of bearing children, but the two need not become man and wife. Thus the chiefs multiplied, thrived, grew, and spread out over the land; but today we are taught that such practices are wrong.” (Kamakau)

“The makaainana were the fixed residents of the land; the chiefs were the ones who moved about from place to place. It was the makaainanas also who did all the work on the land; yet all they produced from the soil belonged to the chiefs; and the power to expel a man from the land and rob him of his possessions lay with the chief.” (Malo)

Power and prestige, and thus class divisions, were defined in terms of mana. Although the gods were the full embodiment of this sacredness, the royalty possessed it to a high degree because of their close genealogical ties to those deities.

The kahuna ratified this relationship by conducting ceremonies of appeasement and dedication on behalf of the chiefs, which also provided ideological security for the commoners who believed the gods were the power behind natural forces.

“If the people were slack in doing the chief’s work they were expelled from their lands, or even put to death. For such reasons as this and because of the oppressive exactions made upon them, the people held the chiefs in great dread and looked upon them as gods.” (Malo)

“Only a small portion of the kings and chiefs ruled with kindness; the large majority simply lorded it over the people. It was from the common people, however, that the chiefs received their food and their apparel for men and women, also their houses and many other things.” (Malo)

Commoners possessed little mana and were therefore prohibited from entering any of the sacred places where aliʻi and gods communicated, such as the heiau in which the upper class honored their gods. Outcasts, with no mana, could interact with commoners but not approach the upper class.

“The commoners were the most numerous class of people in the nation, and were known as the ma-ka-aina-na; another name by which they were called was hu (hu, to swell, multiply, increase like yeast.)” (Malo)

As Handy states: “It is evident that kapu determined and regulated the three castes. For the aliʻi (and kahuna,) the kapu of sanctity was at once a wall of protection and the source of prestige and authority.”

“The same kapu determined for the commoners their social and economic relationship to, and their reverential attitude towards their overlords. As for the kauwa, their segregation and exclusion from the social organism was due to a kapu of defilement.”

This social structure was reinforced by the kapu, the Hawaiian religious, political and social structure that lasted for 500-years. (Lots of information here from an NPS report, as well as others, as noted.) The painting is by Herb Kane – “Council of Chiefs.”

  • Council_of_Chiefs-(HerbKane)

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Day 074 – January 4, 1820

January 4, 1820 – Off the mouth of the Rio De La Plate. – We are this morning experiencing a gale from the north. The violence of the wind has split several of the sails. We are now running under bare poles at the rate of 7 or 8 miles an hour. We reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man. The tossing mountains around us skip like rams, and the hills like lambs. The foaming surges lash the trembling sides of our little bark and drench her decks; while the rain like hail pelts the poor sailors as they cling to the whistling rigging and the spray of the sea sweeps over the surface like the driven snow on a northern winter’s day. But he who said to the raging tempest, “Peace be still,” can and does afford us protection, and give us peace within. (Thaddeus Journal)

Jan. 4th, The last, a night of tossing—awakened by the cry, between four and five this morning, “all hands on decks” a strong gale having arisen suddenly.
The motion of the vessel was very great, few things keeping their position. We assembled as usual for morning prayers—read the 124 and 125 Psalms—sung three verses of Watt’s version of the former, soon after went to breakfast. Here, to a land spectator, methinks the scene would have been truly novel and amusing—in the midst of commotion he must have smiled, A view of a very different kind which presented itself, when, not long after, we looked out upon deck, was indeed, beyond my power to describe. Wave dashing upon wave, our little bark, dismantled of its noble sails, ascending one, and descending another? with its naked masts, riding at the rate of seven miles an hour. This is considered hut a sketch of the scenes we must expect to witness at the Cape.
But it was nobly grand I We are now a few degrees east of the mouth of that majestic river the Rio-de-la-Plata, fast approaching those tempestuous regions, so often the subject of conversation with us; Yet, there we shall be safe, attended by that GOD “who rules on high— And thunders when he please,—Who rides upon the stormy sky—And manages the seas.” What need we farther anxiety about the event, than to see to it, that we have grace to enable us to say, in the trying moment, if it arrives, “This awful GOD is ours, He shall send down his heavenly powers, Our father and our love, To carry us above.” (Sybil Bingham)

4. – I arose this morning somewhat apprehensive that the weather was not so pleasant as common. Going on deck I found the waves going over the ship & flying in every direction; very similar to what I have seen in a snow squall. I soon found it best to retire to my cabin which is my asylum in all times of trouble. This, though the most violent gale I have witnessed, the sailors tell us it is but a trifle compared with what we shall see in a few days. Several land visitors came on board who had been driven off the coast of Patagonia; such as butterflies, spindles &c. (Samuel Whitney Journal)

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