Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Kakela me Kuke’

In 1837 Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke landed in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi,) as part of the 8th Company of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Neither were missionary ministers. Castle was assigned to the ‘depository’ (a combination store, warehouse and bank) to help the missionaries pool and purchase their supplies, to negotiate shipments around the Horn and to distribute and collect for the goods when received. Cooke was a teacher.

Twelve years after Castle and Cooke had landed in the Islands, the American board decided that its purposes had been accomplished. It advised its representatives that their work was done and the board’s financial support would end.

Over the years Castle, who felt Cooke’s accounting abilities would help the depository, kept trying to convince his friend to join him. Cooke firmly declined until 1849, when his schooling of the royal children was complete. He needed to make a living since monetary support from Missions headquarters had been discontinued.

Castle and Cooke, good friends, decided they would become business partners. Many of the missionaries were planning to remain. Their needs must be met. So those of other residents and the crews of the whaling ships which wintered in Honolulu harbor.

So a business was born. On June 2, 1851, Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke signed their names to partnership papers. A sign reading ‘Kakela me Kuke’ (‘Castle & Cooke’) was installed at the entrance to the Honolulu depository.

Money could be made by trading with the community at large, while mission posts could be supplied at cost. They took up the matter with the Mission Board in Boston, which, after two years, decided to release the partners from the mission and pay each a yearly salary of $500.

In 1853 a branch store was opened downtown, to be closer to the considerable action the California Gold Rush brought. Also in 1853, Castle and Cooke purchased their first ship, the Morning Star to ship produce to California. By 1856, the partners elected to sell the depository, located on the outskirts of Honolulu, to concentrate on their burgeoning downtown business.

In 1858, Castle and Cooke first ventured out of the mercantile business to make an investment in the new sugar industry. In the late 1860s they branched into the shipping business, handling shore-side business for a number of transpacific schooners and several inter-island vessels.

Despite these diversifications, however, the mercantile portion of the business continued to provide the bulk of the profits. One of the most active customers was Kanaʻina, husband of High Chiefess Kekāuluohi and father of the boy who was to become King Lunalilo.

Then, the Civil War started; goods became hard to get and sales slumped. Then, business with the whalers failed; oil found in Titusville, Pennsylvania replaced whale oil. Castle & Cooke almost went out of business. It was sugar that encouraged the partners to continue their business.

They had generally avoided the policy of investing their firm’s funds in other enterprises, but had bought personally into ventures that attracted them. This often led to relationships producing merchandise and shipping business for the firm and occasionally resulted in its appointment as fiscal agent for a company — as in the case of Kohala Sugar Company.

Kohala Sugar was founded in 1863 by the Rev Elias Bond; he organized the venture to create jobs for the Hawaiians living in Kohala. (It was not until 1910 that Castle & Cooke as a firm acquired an interest in the Kohala Sugar Company, though it had served as its agent for nearly 50 years.)

Then, in 1890, BF Dillingham’s railroad (OR&L,) started with the help of $100,000 invested by Castle, ended at Pearl City. To go further the line needed freight revenues. None were in sight – unless the Ewa land could be made to grow sugar by tapping its underlying fresh water sources to irrigate the crop.

From the organization of Kohala in 1863 until the Ewa lands were leased for sugar in 1890, Castle & Cooke at one time or another served as agent for nine plantations.

On December 28, 1894, the Castle & Cooke partnership was incorporated. The company continued to believe in the profitability of the Ewa Plantation and the risk paid off. In 1898, the original merchandise business was sold.

Diversification did not stop, however. In the ensuing years Castle & Cooke involved itself in an automobile company, the Hawaiian Fertilizer Company, and a big but short venture into the sugar refinery business with the Honolulu Sugar Refining Company.

Although Castle & Cooke had been in the shipping business for 50 years, a 1907 agreement with William Matson to be the agent for his Matson Navigation Company greatly increased the business in this area. The agreement endured for 56 years.

To insure a supply of oil for his ships, Captain Matson bought some wells in California and built a pipeline to the coast. In 1910 he founded the Honolulu Oil Corporation. Castle & Cooke, with other island firms, helped him finance his oil venture.

Pineapple cultivation on a commercial scale began in Hawaii in 1886 when Captain John Kidwell set out a thousand plants in Mānoa valley. By 1909, Castle & Cooke, as agent for Waialua, had negotiated leases of over 3,000 acres of the plantation’s upper lands to James D Dole and other growers for pineapple plantings.

Castle & Cooke had no substantial direct investment in the pineapple industry until 1932 when Hawaiian Pineapple Company (later Dole) encountered financial trouble. In that year Castle & Cooke and Waialua jointly under wrote the reorganization of the pineapple company and for a few years thereafter, Castle & Cooke served as its agent and took over the operations.

Castle & Cooke recognized the need for diversification which led to investment in tuna canning (Hawaiian Tuna Packers, 1946) and macadamia nuts (Royal Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts, 1948.)

For a time in the 1960s, Castle & Cooke were the biggest of the Big Five (C Brewer (1826;) Theo H. Davies (1845;) Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and Alexander & Baldwin (1870;)) however, Amfac later outpaced it.

Later, the company was the subject of several takeover bids; ultimately, David Murdock took firm control of Castle & Cooke (1985,) reorganized it into a holding company for three separate operations: Flexi-Van, Dole Food and Oceanic Properties, and relocated its headquarters to Los Angeles. (Lots of information is from Castle & Cooke, Greaney and FundingUniverse.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“This does not look like me”

“In the year of our Lord, 1809, some Hawaiian youths went to America. The captain of their ship took them to New Haven, Conn., to be educated; and afterwards, in 1816, a school was established in Cornwall, Conn., for the education of youths from heathen lands.”

“There, among Indians, Tahitians, and scholars from other places, were some Hawaiian boys (Obookaiah (ʻOpukahaʻia,) Hopu, Honolii) – nine of them in all.”

“These all embraced the Christian faith, and Obookaiah was very anxious that messengers be sent to take to Hawaii the word of God. He intended himself to come back, but he was cut down by the angel of death before he had completed his education.”

“But the voice of God came to Messrs. Bingham, Thurston, and Whitney and others, and in the year 1819 they and their wives sailed from Boston on the small two-masted vessel named the Thaddeus.”

“On this vessel came Thomas Hopu, John Honoliʻi, and George Kaumualiʻi, the son of Kaumualiʻi, the king of Kauai. They reached Hawaii on the 30th of March, 1820.”

“When the boat which they had sent to a landing on the Kohala coast, returned to the vessel, these were the tidings given to the missionaries: ‘Kamehameha is dead; his son Liholiho is king. The tabus are at an end; the idols are burned; the temples are destroyed.’”

“In this the hand of God was seen preparing for the introduction of his word among the people. The vessel sailed to Kailua, and the chiefs went on board to see the missionaries and their wives – the ‘long necks’ as they were called.”

“This was the dress of Liholiho when he went to see white women for the first time: A malo, a green silk handkerchief over his shoulders, a gold watch-chain about his neck, and a feather wreath on his head – no clothing.”

“After much discussion, and with a good deal of hesitation, Liholiho consented that the teachers should remain one year.”

“Mr Bingham was stationed at Honolulu, Mr Whitney at Waimea, Kauai, and Mr Thurston at Kailua, Hawaii, where the king and chiefs resided; and the king placed John Ii and Kahuhu with Mr. Thurston to be taught reading, and said that if it did them no harm, he also would learn the ‘palapala’ (writing.)”

“There was no writing in Hawaiian in those days – no books or newspapers.”

“Liholiho asked that his name be written. The missionary wrote it, ‘Li-ho-li-ho.’”

“Liholiho looked at it long and steady, and then said: ‘This does not look like me, nor any other man.’” (AF Judd, Bible Society Record, October 17, 1889)

In 1820, missionary Lucy Thurston noted in her Journal, Liholiho’s desire to learn, “The king (Liholiho, Kamehameha II) brought two young men to Mr. Thurston, and said: ‘Teach these, my favorites, (John Papa) Ii and (James) Kahuhu. It will be the same as teaching me. Through them I shall find out what learning is.’”

“Immediately upon their arrival the missionaries began to converse with the people in the Hawaiian language, and upon them fell the honor of first writing the mother-tongue of Hawaiʻi with pen and ink upon paper.”

“To reduce the language to writing was their first work, in order that the word of God might thus reach the hearts of the Hawaiian people to the saving of their souls.”

“Within three years from the time when Messrs. Bingham, Thurston, and Whitney touched their feet on Hawaiian shores, Liholiho and Kauikeaouli (Liholiho’s younger brother) had learned to read and write, and also twelve other chiefs and twelve chiefesses.”

“This was quick work. That year (1823) the king ordered the observance of the Christian Sabbath, and the missionaries began to preach in the Hawaiian tongue. Before this their addresses had been interpreted by Hopu, Honolii, and others.” (AF Judd, Bible Society Record, October 17, 1889)

Interestingly, as the early missionaries learned the Hawaiian language, they then taught their lessons in the mission schools in Hawaiian, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians.

“By 1850, even though the Missionary Schools wanted to continue Hawaiian as the language of instruction in order to preserve the Hawaiian nation, the non-religious educators, both foreign and Hawaiian, wanted to and did discard Hawaiian as the language of instruction in the schools.” (Ashdown)

The missionaries’ emphasis was on preaching and teaching – in many of the mission schools the focus was educating the head, heart and hand. In addition to the rigorous academic drills (Head,) the schools provided religious/moral (Heart) and manual/vocational (Hand) training.

This broad-based, inclusive form of educational training can also be seen back in the Foreign Mission School, where ʻŌpūkahaʻia and others were taught.

The image shows the later signature of Liholiho (Kamehameha II – ‘Tamehameha.’)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kapihe’s Prophecy

“When Kamehameha I was ruler over only Hawaii Island, and not all of the islands were his, and while the eating kapu was still enforced, and while he was living in Kohala, Kona, Hawaii, it was there that a certain man lived named Kapihe (also called Kamaloihi) and his god was called Kaonohiokala.” (Hoku o ka Pakipika, March 20, 1862)

“This man named Kapihe went before Kamehameha I and before the alii of Kona, and he said …”

E hui ana na aina
E iho mai ana ko ka lani
E pii aku ana ko lalo nei
E iho mai ana ke Akua ilalo nei
E kamailio kamailio pu ana me kanaka
E pii mai ana o wekea dek iluna
E ohi aku ana o Milu ilalo
E noho pu ana ke Akua me kanaka

The lands shall be united
What is heaven’s shall descend
What is earth’s shall ascend
God shall descend
And converse with mankind
Wakea shall ascend up above
Milu shall descend below
God shall live with mankind
(Kapihe; Velasco)

Spoken about three years before Christian missionaries arrived in the Hawaiian Islands with bibles and scriptures, the prophecy of Kapihe seemed to foretell the abolishment of the kapu and transformation to Christianity and westernization.

“The chiefs and commoners were astounded at these shocking words spoken by Kapihe, and they called him crazy. This perhaps is the truth, for some of his predictions came true and others were denied.” (Hoku o ka Pakipika, March 20, 1862)

“(I)t might be thought that Kapihe’s was a riddle and the land would not literally join together … Perhaps his words were not his alone, but from God.”

“Maybe … it was of Kapihe, the prophet of Hawaii; God gave the words for his mouth to speak, and Kapihe spoke what God of the heavens gave to us. And the nations of man joined as one, from America, and the other inhabited lands, they are here together with us. And the souls of the righteous are the same up above.”

“The alii of whom Kapihe predicted was Kamehameha I, who was victorious over Maui and Oahu, and Kauai was left, and his grandchildren now rule over his Kingdom. This is the nature of Kapihe’s words. (Kauakoiawe, Hoku o ka Pakipika, March 20, 1862)

The last High Priest under the old religion, Hewahewa, served as kahuna for both Kamehameha I and Liholiho (Kamehameha II.)

“He could not have known that, although the missionaries set sail on October 23rd (1819,) one day before the Makahiki began, they would take six months to arrive. Therefore, it was quite prophetic that, when he saw the missionaries’ ship off in the distance, he announced ‘The new God is coming.’ One must wonder how Hewahewa knew that this was the ship.” (Kikawa)

There were seven American couples sent by the ABCFM to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity in the Pioneer Company, led by Hiram Bingham.) The Prudential Committee of the ABCFM in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said: “Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love”

“Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high. You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.” (The Friend)

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived, Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished; through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho,) with encouragement by former Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother,) the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

In 1820, the American missionaries arrived at Kailua (Kona) Hawai`i. Hewahewa expressed “much satisfaction in meeting with a brother priest from America”, the Reverend Hiram Bingham.

Hewahewa, the highest religious expert of the kingdom, participated in the first discussions between missionaries and chiefs. He welcomed the new god as a hopeful solution to the current problems of Hawaiians and understood the Christian message largely in traditional terms. He envisioned a Hawaiian Christian community led by the land’s own religious experts. (Charlot)

“Hewahewa … expressed most unexpectedly his gratification on meeting us … On our being introduced to (Liholiho,) he, with a smile, gave us the customary ‘Aloha.’”

“As ambassadors of the King of Heaven … we made to him the offer of the Gospel of eternal life, and proposed to teach him and his people the written, life-giving Word of the God of Heaven. … and asked permission to settle in his country, for the purpose of teaching the nation Christianity, literature and the arts.” (Bingham)

Within a few years, “a number of serious men putting off their heathen habits, and willing to be known as seekers of the great salvation, and as, in some sense, pledged to one another to abstain from immoralities and to follow the teachings of the Word of God, united in an association for prayer and improvement similar to that formed by the females a month earlier.” (Bingham)

Hewahewa became a devout Christian and composed a prayer which antedated the use of The Lord’s Prayer in Hawaiʻi. In part, it spoke of ‘Jehovah, a visitor from the skies’ thus putting a name to the god whom Kapihe, before him, had predicted as “god will be in the heavens”. (HMHOF)

The image shows Hiram Bingham preaching to Queen Kaʻahumanu and other Hawaiians at Waimea, Oʻahu, home of Hewahewa.

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaluaikonahale

He was born about 1789 with the name Kaluaikonahale, the son of Keʻeaumoku and his wife Nāmāhana. He was the youngest of four famous siblings.

His sisters were Queen Kaʻahumanu, Kamehameha’s favorite wife who later became the powerful Queen Regent and Kuhina nui, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and Namahana-o-Piʻia (also queens of Kamehameha) and brother George Cox Kahekili Keʻeaumoku.

His father, Keʻeaumoku, was a “tried friend of Kamehameha and one of the principal promoters of his fortunes. Being of prodigious personal strength, his valor powerfully assisted Kamehameha in securing the entire dominion of the group.” (Polynesian, January 4, 1845)

Kaluaikonahale was born on Maui, but as an infant he was taken to Keauhou to grow up; he excelled in canoeing and other sports. In his youth, he once jumped a stone wall and injured his foot; he almost died from the injury, but recovered and remained lame for the rest of his life. (Oaks)

He married Analeʻa (Ane or Annie) Keohokālole; they had no children. (She later married Caesar Kapaʻakea. That union produced several children (including the future King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani.))

He later married Lydia Haʻaheo Kaniu. They had one son Keōua, who died in infancy, and one daughter Kamanele (1814–1834.)

With the introduction of Christianity and adoption of western names, he changed his name and chose the name John Adams after John Quincy Adams (the US President at the time.)

From then, he was called John Adams Kuakini.

His physical appearance was formidable; standing 6-feet, 3-inches “and even heavier than this gigantic stature would indicate.” Ellis noted he was “tall, stout, well made and remarkably handsome.” (Oaks)

His wife “was like himself, a royal chief of highest rank, and not quite equally ponderous. I remember seeing the princely pair lolling on their own pile of rich Niʻihau mats, with many attendants busily kneading their bodies and limbs (lomi-lomi). Ages of nourishing diet and massage for digestion had bred a royal Hawaiian race of immense stature and girth.” (Bishop)

Kuakini was an important adviser to Kamehameha I in the early stages of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. His “first office of importance under Kamehameha I was that of captain of the ordnance at Oʻahu. Upon the King’s last return to Hawaiʻi in 1813, he was raised to the rank of counselor.”

“Immediately after the death of the King, Kaʻahumanu made him Governor of Hawaii; his original charge was limited to the district of Kona. In 1830, she further appointed him to the governorship of Oahu, which office he retained until December, 1831, when he returned to Hawaiʻi.”

“(Kuakini’s) administrations were vigorous and effective. Energetic in action, but reserved in manners, he assumed to himself much responsibility. It was difficult to secure his confidence in matters of council, as he relied much upon his own judgment.”

“While in Hawaiʻi, being remote from the seat of government and the influence of other chiefs mostly assembled around the King, he acted in a great measure independently of them, and sometimes contrary to their opinions.”

“His acquaintance with the English language, and his thirst for knowledge, gave him a superiority in general intelligence, over most of the chiefs of his rank; and afforded him a better insight into the nature of things than others attained.”

“He was more enterprising in deed than other native rulers, and many of the objects which claimed his attention, such for instance as the building of churches and the making of roads, were intended for the public benefit”.

“(Y)et in most of his enterprises, his aim was to accumulate property. But he was correct in his business transactions and a man of his word.” (Polynesian, January 4, 1845)

“By sea and by land we have enjoyed the protection of God, and the countenance and patronage of the king and chiefs. Especially would we notice the kindness of Kuakini, the Governor of Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi,) who received us with great hospitality, and freely lent his influence and authority to aid us in the attainment of our immediate objects”.

“… with a view to the permanent establishment of a missionary station there, (Kuakini) has promptly commenced the erection of a chapel at Kairua for the worship of Jehovah, whose rightful and supreme authority he has publicly acknowledged.” (Ellis)

Kuakini gave land to missionary Asa Thurston to build Mokuʻaikaua Church. “This was erected by Governor Kuakini about 1828. It was a wholly native structure, framed with immense timbers cut and dragged from the great interior forest by Kuakini superintending his subjects in person.” (Bishop)

“(I)n 1835, the great church was burned by some incendiary, and the services were then conducted in a large canoe-shed of the Governor, which was vacated for the purpose.”

“The energetic Kuakini immediately set about building the great stone church now standing on the site of the old one. … the corners were built up with large square blocks of pāhoehoe lava, which were transported by the people from some heiau at a distance. They were smoothly hewn, evidently with great labor. (Bishop)

During his tenure, Kuakini built other historical sites that dominate Kailua-Kona today. The Great Wall of Kuakini, probably a major enhancement of an earlier wall, was one of these.

The Great Wall of Kuakini extends in a north-south direction for approximately 6 miles from Kailua to near Keauhou, and is generally 4 to 6-feet high and 4-feet wide.

He built Huliheʻe Palace in the American style out of native lava, coral lime mortar, koa and ‘ʻōhiʻa timbers. Completed in 1838, he used the palace to entertain visiting Americans and Europeans with great feasts.

The Palace was constructed by foreign seamen using lava rock, coral, koa and ʻōhiʻa timbers. Kuakini oversaw the construction of both Mokuʻaikaua Church and Huliheʻe Palace and these landmarks once shared a similar architectural style with exposed stone.

Kuakini died December 9, 1844 in Kailua-Kona; the Palace passed to his adopted son, William Pitt Leleiōhoku. Leleiōhoku died a few months later, leaving Huliheʻe to his wife, Princess Ruth Luka Keʻelikōlani. It became a favorite retreat for members of the Hawaiian royal family.

A highway is named “Kuakini Highway,” which runs from the Hawaii Belt Road through the town of Kailua-Kona, to the Old Kona Airport Recreation Area. He is also the namesake of Kuakini Street in Honolulu, which is in turn the namesake of the Kuakini Medical Center on it.

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Foreign Mission School

On October 29, 1816, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) established the Foreign Mission School as a seminary.

Classes began in 1817 “for the purpose of educating youths of Heathen nations, with a view to their being useful in their respective countries.”

Its object was to educate the youth of promising talent and of hopeful demeanor to return, in due time, to their respective lands in the character of husbandmen, school-masters, or preachers of the gospel.

The first four destinations chosen were (1) the Bombay region of India (1813,) (2) Ceylon (1816,) (3) the Cherokee Indian Nation in the State of Tennessee (1817) and (4) Hawai‘i (1820). (Brumaghim)

The Foreign Mission School connects the town of Cornwall, Connecticut to a larger, national religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening.

The Second Great Awakening spread from its origins in Connecticut to Williamstown, Massachusetts; enlightenment ideals from France were gradually being countered by an increase in religious fervor, first in the town, and then in Williams College.

In the summer of 1806, in a grove of trees, in what was then known as Sloan’s Meadow, Samuel John Mills, James Richards, Francis L Robbins, Harvey Loomis and Byram Green debated the theology of missionary service. Their meeting was interrupted by a thunderstorm and they took shelter under a haystack until the sky cleared.

That event has since been referred to as the “Haystack Prayer Meeting” and is viewed by many scholars as the pivotal event for the development of Protestant missions in the subsequent decades and century.

The first American student missionary society began in September 1808, when Mills and others called themselves “The Brethren,” whose object was “to effect, in the person of its members, a mission or missions to the heathen.” (Smith) Milla graduated Williams College in 1809 and later Andover Theological Seminary.

In June 1810, Mills and James Richards petitioned the General Association of the Congregational Church to establish the foreign missions. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formed with a Board of members from Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School exemplified evangelical efforts to recruit young men from indigenous cultures around the world, convert them to Christianity, educate them and train them to become preachers, health workers, translators and teachers back in their native lands.

Initially lacking a principal, Edwin Welles Dwight filled that role from May 1817 to May 1818; he was replaced the next year by the Reverend Herman Daggett. In its first year, the Foreign Mission School had 12 students, seven Hawaiians, one Hindu, one Bengalese, an Indian and two Anglo-Americans.

The school’s first student was Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia (Obookiah,) a native Hawaiian from the Island of Hawaiʻi who in 1807 (after his parents had been killed) boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent. In its first year, the Foreign Mission School had 12 students, more than half of whom were Hawaiian.

The school increased its number of pupils the second year to twenty-four; four Cherokee, two Choctaw, one Abenaki, two Chinese, two Malays, a Bengalese, one Hindu, six Hawaiians and two Marquesans as well as three American. By 1820, Native Americans from six different tribes made up half of the school’s students.

Once enrolled, students spent seven hours a day in study. Subjects included chemistry, geography, calculus and theology, as well as Greek, French and Latin.

They were also taught special skills like coopering (the making of barrels and other storage casks), blacksmithing, navigation and surveying. When not in class, students attended mandatory church and prayer sessions and also worked on making improvements to the school’s lands. (Cornwall)

In due time, Reverend Hiram Bingham visited the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall but that wasn’t until May 1819, one year after ʻŌpūkahaʻia died.

Then, from Andover Theological Seminary, Bingham wrote in a letter dated July 18, 1819, to Reverend Samuel Worcester that “the unexpected and afflictive death of Obookiah, roused my attention to the subject, & perhaps by writing and delivering some thoughts occasioned by his death I became more deeply interested than before in that cause for which he desired to live …”

“… & from that time it seemed by no means impossible that I should be employed in the field which Henry had intended to occupy…the possibility that this little field in the vast Pacific would be mine, was the greatest, in my own view.” (Brumaghim)

Subsequently, in the summer of 1819, Bingham and his classmate at Andover Theological Seminary, Reverend Asa Thurston, volunteered to go with the first group of missionaries to Hawai‘i.

On October 23, 1819, a group of northeast missionaries, led by Hiram Bingham, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

The Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said:

“Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. … Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high.”

“You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.” (The Friend)

The points of special and essential importance to all missionaries, and all persons engaged in the missionary work are four:
• Devotedness to Christ;
• Subordination to rightful direction;
• Unity one with another; and
• Benevolence towards the objects of their mission

Between 1820 and 1848, the ABCFM sent “eighty-four men and one hundred women to Hawai‘i to preach and teach, to translate and publish, to advise and counsel – and win the hearts of the Hawaiian people.” (Dwight; Brumaghim)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC