Hawaiian Traditions | Page 36 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 26, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Evolution of Ancient Trails to Roads and Streets

Although the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawai`i, extensive cross-country trail networks enabled gathering of food and water and harvesting of materials for shelter, clothing, medicine, religious observances and other necessities for survival.

Ancient trails, those developed before western contact in 1778, facilitated trading between upland and coastal villages and communications between ahupua‘a and extended families.

These trails were usually narrow, following the topography of the land. Sometimes, over ‘a‘ā lava, they were paved with water-worn stones.

Before 1778, land travel was only foot traffic, over little more than trails and pathways.

The missionaries, who arrived in April 1820, selected their key stations and localities based on their accessibility via the ala loa (long trail) and smaller ala hele (paths) from neighboring ahupua‘a.

The mission stations generally coincided with the traditional chiefly centers, which by that time, were also developing as trade points with foreign vessels.

Various archaeologists note the following evolution of Hawai‘i trails:

• Pre-contact/Early historical … Single-file footpath … Follow contours of coast

• 1820-1840 … Widened for one horse … Coastal – curbstones added

• 1820-1840 … Built in straight lines, inland

• 1841-1918 … Widened for two horses … Straight, leveled

• Late-1800s-early 1900s … Widened for horse cart … Straight, leveled

Bridges also became necessary. Perhaps the first was a footbridge across the Wailuku River in Hilo, described in 1825. The first important span on O‘ahu was the Beretania Street bridge built over Nu‘uanu Stream in 1840.

By the 1830s, King Kamehameha III initiated a program of island-wide improvements on the ala loa, and in 1847, a formal program for development of the alanui aupuni (government roads) was initiated.

Sidewalks were constructed, usually of wood, as early as 1838. The first sidewalk made of brick was laid down in 1857 by watchmaker Samuel Tawson in front of his shop on Merchant Street.

Until the 1840s, overland travel was predominantly by foot and followed the traditional trails. By the 1840s, the use of introduced horses, mules and bullocks for transportation was increasing, and many traditional trails – the ala loa and mauka-makai trails within ahupua‘a – were modified by removing the smooth stepping stones that caused the animals to slip.

Eventually, wider, straighter trails were constructed to accommodate horse drawn carts. Unlike the earlier trails, these later trails could not conform to the natural, sometimes steep, terrain.

They often by-passed the traditional trails as more remote coastal villages became depopulated due to introduced diseases and the changing economic and social systems.

By the early 1850s, specific criteria were developed for realigning trails and roadways, including the straightening of alignments and development of causeways and bridges.

This system of roadwork, supervised by district overseers, and funded through government appropriations – with labor by prisoners and individuals unable to pay taxes in another way – evolved over the next 40 years.

Paved streets were unknown until 1881. In that year, Fort Street was macadamized (a paving process using aggregate layers of stone with a cementing agent binder – a process named after Scotsman John Loudon McAdam,) followed by Nu‘uanu Avenue.

In 1892, Queen Lili`uokalani and the Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawai`i signed into law an “Act Defining Highways, and Defining and Establishing Certain Routes and Duties in Connection Therewith,” to be known as The Highways Act, 1892.

Through this act, all roads, alleys, streets, ways, lanes, courts, places, trails and bridges in the Hawaiian Islands, whether laid out or built by the Government or by private parties were declared to be public highways; ownership was placed in the Government (typically, under the control of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.)

The pioneering highway in Hawai‘i was the Mauka Arterial (later christened Lunalilo Freeway). The three ‘Ewa-bound lanes, extending one mile between Old Wai‘alae Road and Alexander Street, were opened to traffic November 9, 1953. The Kaimuki-bound lanes along the same stretch were opened and the highway was formally dedicated on January 5, 1954.

July 20, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Once upon a time, only the other day …”

“Hawaii is the home of shanghaied men and women, and of the descendants of shanghaied men and women. They never intended to be here at all.” (London)

“Come with your invitations, or letters of introduction, and you will find yourself immediately instated in the high seat of abundance.”

“Or, come uninvited, without credentials, merely stay a real, decent while, and yourself be ‘good,’ and make good the good in you- but, oh, softly, and gently, and sweetly, and manly, and womanly – and you will slowly steal into the Hawaiian heart …”

“… which is all of softness, and gentleness, and sweetness, and manliness, and womanliness, and one day, to your own vast surprise, you will find yourself seated in a high place of hospitableness than which there is none higher on this earth’s surface.”

“You will have loved your way there, and you will find it the abode of love.” (Jack London)

“I remember a dear friend who resolved to come to Hawaii and make it his home forever. He packed up his wife, all his belongings including his garden hose and rake and hoe, said ‘’Goodbye, proud California,’ and departed.”

“Now he was a poet, with an eye and soul for beauty, and it was only to be expected that he would lose his heart to Hawaii as Mark Twain and Stevenson and Stoddard had before him.”

“So he came, with his wife and garden hose and rake and hoe.”

“Heaven alone knows what preconceptions he must have entertained. But the fact remains that he found naught of beauty and charm and delight.”

“His stay in Hawaii, brief as it was, was a hideous nightmare. In no time he was back in California. To this day he speaks with plaintive bitterness of his experience”.

“Otherwise was it with Mark Twain, who wrote of Hawaii long after his visit: ‘No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done.”

“Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf-beat is in my ears; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloudrack …”

“… I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes; I can hear the plash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.’”

“I doubt that not even the missionaries, windjamming around the Horn from New England a century ago, had the remotest thought of living out all their days in Hawaii. This is not the way of missionaries over the world.”

“They have always gone forth to far places with the resolve to devote their lives to the glory of God and the redemption of the heathen, but with the determination, at the end of it all, to return to spend their declining years in their own country.”

“But Hawaii can seduce missionaries just as readily as she can seduce sailor boys and bank cashiers, and this particular lot of missionaries was so enamored of her charms that they did not return when old age came upon them.”

“But to return. Hawaii is the home of shanghaied men and women, who were induced to remain, not by a blow with a club over the head or a doped bottle of whisky, but by love.”

“Hawaii and the Hawaiians are a land and a people loving and lovable. By their Ianguage may ye know them, and in what other land save this one is the commonest form of greeting, not ‘Good day,’ nor ‘How d’ye do,’ but ‘Love?’”

“That greeting is Aloha – love, I love you, my love to you.”

“Good day – what is it more than an impersonal remark about the weather? How do you do- it is personal in a merely casual interrogative sort of a way.”

“But Aloha! It is a positive affirmation of the warmth of one’s own heart-giving. My love to you ! I love you! Aloha!”

“Well, then, try to imagine a land that is as lovely and loving as such a people.”

“Hawaii is all of this.”

“Not strictly tropical, but sub-tropical, rather, in the heel of the Northeast Trades (which is a very wine of wind), with altitudes rising from palm-fronded coral beaches to snow-capped summits fourteen thousand feet in the air; there was never so much climate gathered together in one place on earth.”

“The custom of the dwellers is as it was of old time, only better, namely: to have a town house, a seaside house, and a mountain house. All three homes, by automobile, can be within half an hour’s run of one another …”

“… yet, in difference of climate and scenery, they are the equivalent of a house on Fifth Avenue or the Riverside Drive, of an Adirondack camp, and of a Florida winter bungalow, plus a twelve-months’ cycle of seasons crammed into each and every day.”

“Indeed, Hawaii is a loving land.”

“Hawaii has been most generous in her hospitality, most promiscuous in her loving. Her welcome has been impartial.” (This is Jack London’s view of the Islands.)

June 17, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ke Ana O Ke Kiʻi

The ancient Hawaiian religion, kapu, was an oppressive system of prohibitions. The law of kapu was extended to every act in life, and it even followed the believer beyond the grave. (Bishop Museum)

Heiau (temples) were so numerous in the thickly settled country near the shore that from the walls of one the next was plainly to be seen. Ellis (1823) tells us that from Kailua to Kealakekua on Hawaiʻi there was at least one heiau to every half-mile along the trail. (Brigham)

While Kū, Kāne, Lono and Kanaloa were the great gods, almost every man had his private deity, while his wives had others. There was Laka (hula dancers,) Kuʻula (fishermen,) Hina (the wives,) Laʻamaomao (the winds) and so on that were worshipped.

Anything connected with the gods and their worship was considered sacred, such as idols, heiau and priests. Because chiefs were believed to be descendants of the gods, many kapu related to chiefs and their personal possessions.

The features of their religion were embodied in idols which were of every variety imaginable, from hideous and deformed sculptures of wood, to the utmost perfection of their art. (Jarves)

Idols were made of different materials; some of the wooden idols were carved from the ʻōhia tree. In cutting the haku ʻōhia, as the idol was first called, many prayers were uttered and tedious ceremonies lasted days or even weeks if the omens were unpropitious.

In the making of an idol, a suitable ʻōhia tree had previously been selected, one that had no decay about it, because a perfect tree was required for the making of the haku-ʻōhia idol; and when they had reached the woods, before they felled the tree, the kahuna haku ʻōhia approached the tree by one route, and the man who was to cut the tree by another; and thus they stood on opposite sides of the tree. (Malo)

This intricate system that supported Hawai‘i’s social and political structure directed every activity of Hawaiian life, from birth through death, until its overthrow by King Kamehameha II (Liholiho).

Shortly after the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, King Kamehameha II (Liholiho) declared an end to the kapu system. In a dramatic and highly symbolic event, Kamehameha II ate and drank with women, thereby breaking the important eating kapu.

When the meal was over, Liholiho issued orders to destroy the heiau and burn the idols, and this was done from one end of the kingdom to the other. (Kuykendall)

This changed the course of the civilization and ended the kapu system, effectively weakened belief in the power of the gods and the inevitability of divine punishment for those who opposed them.

The end of the kapu system by Liholiho (Kamehameha II) happened before the arrival of the missionaries; it made way for the transformation to Christianity and westernization.

Later, in 1831, Kaʻahumanu visited all of the islands to encourage the people to learn to read and write; she also pronounced certain laws orally about which she wished to instruct the people, including “Worshiping of idols such as sticks, stones, sharks, dead bones, ancient gods, and all untrue gods is prohibited. There is one God alone, Jehovah. He is the God to worship.” (Kamakau)

However, not all agreed. There were a large number who refused to cast aside their old practices; and many idols, instead of being burned, were merely hidden from sight. Even among those who outwardly conformed to the new order were many who secretly clung to their idols; the old gods of Hawaiʻi had their devotees for a long time after 1819. (Kuykendall)

In part, this was evidenced in 2005, when a North Kona lava tube containing more than 30 kiʻi (Hawaiian religious images) were discovered during the construction at what was then known as “The Shores of Kohanaiki.” Some believe the cave served as storage or a hiding place. Some have also suggested that it might have been a secret place of worship.

The discovery is regarded as especially significant because there were no human remains found with the objects, leading many to believe that they were hidden away after the abolishment of the ‘ai kapu system in 1819. (OHA)

An initial chamber about 12-feet high and 60-feet long leads to a second, smaller chamber containing the wooden images and stone uprights. “(A)side from the initial puncture point in the ceiling, the cave interior appears to be structurally sound and does not present a threat of collapsing at this time.”

“About three-dozen of the wooden images are made from limbs of varying dimensions, carved with slits for eyes and a mouth. They were left in this natural state with no other carved or stylistic features.”

“They are all similar and may have been carved by the same person or personages who were schooled under the same priestly order. A few of the kiʻi retain the ‘Y’ shaped fork created by the outgrowth of two branches, with eyes and mouth carved below the split.” (OHA)

This isn’t the first such find.

The Pacific Commercial Advertiser reported (September 23, 1876,) “Recently some of the employees of Dr Trousseau in North Kona Hawaiʻi discovered a lot of wooden idols of the olden time, in a cave on the mountain. They were in a good state of preservation and had doubtless been undisturbed in their hiding place since the time when they were deposited there to escape the general destruction of idols by order of Kaahumanu”.

This earlier discovery on the side of Hualālai was the first reported discovery of such a large clutch of images, under circumstances suggesting either the survival of a secret cult, or a shrine predating the abrogation of the traditional religion. (Rose)

All were carved from ʻōhia logs; the bark was removed and both ends were roughly hacked to blunt points. Although some individuality was in each carving, several similarities stand out: wide grooves and shallow cuts to delineate circular eyes and mouths.

King Kalākaua acquired the great majority of the images from the Mt Hualālai cave; it is not clear whether he actually visited the cave. Despite, or perhaps because of, their relative simplicity, they share some claim to be numbered among the most unusual of all Hawaiian carvings. (Rose) Of the total 26 or so post images taken from the Mt Hualālai cave, 12 are preserved in three museums in Europe and the US.

The two finds noted here, although both in North Kona, were in significantly different areas: Kohanaiki near the shoreline (that cave with all the kiʻi has been sealed in 2006) and the other is way up the side of Hualālai (all of the contents of that cave were removed by 1885.) Some have labeled these caves as “Ke Ana O Ke Kiʻi” (The Cave of Images.)

June 7, 2022 by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Context

Sometimes, it is easy to overlook the context of events that took place in the past. We also sometimes judge them in today’s frame of reference. This stuff happened 200-years ago.

To set a foundation, we are reminded that in 1782 Kamehameha began a war of conquest, and, by 1795, he subdued all other chiefdoms, with the exception of Kauai. King Kamehameha I launched two invasion attempts on Kauai (1796 and 1804;) both failed.

In 1804, King Kamehameha I moved his capital from Lāhainā, Maui to Honolulu, O‘ahu.

In the face of the threat of a further invasion, in 1810, Kaumuali‘i decided to peacefully unite with Kamehameha and ceded Kauai and Ni‘ihau to Kamehameha and the Hawaiian Islands were unified under a single leader.

On May 8, 1819, King Kamehameha I died.

Following the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, his son, Liholiho (King Kamehameha II) declared an end to the kapu system. “An extraordinary event marked the period of Liholiho’s rule, in the breaking down of the ancient tabus, the doing away with the power of the kahunas to declare tabus and to offer sacrifices, and the abolition of the tabu which forbade eating with women (ʻai noa, or free eating.)” (Kamakau)

“The custom of the tabu upon free eating was kept up because in old days it was believed that the ruler who did not proclaim the tabu had not long to rule….”

“The tabu eating was a fixed law for chiefs and commoners, not because they would die by eating tabu things, but in order to keep a distinction between things permissible to all people and those dedicated to the gods”. (Kamakau)

Kekuaokalani, Liholiho’s cousin, opposed the abolition of the kapu system and assumed the responsibility of leading those who opposed its abolition.

Kekuaokalani (who was given Kūkaʻilimoku (the war god) before his death) demanded that Liholiho withdraw his edict on abolition of the kapu system. (If the kapu fell, the war god would lose its potency.) (Daws)

The two powerful cousins engaged at the battle of Kuamoʻo; Liholiho’s forces defeated Kekuaokalani.

In the discussion above, we reference traditional Hawaiian people, places and practices. What we tend to overlook is that these events happened 40-years after ‘Contact’ (1778) and took place with white and other foreigners living among the Hawaiians.

We shouldn’t overlook that Western ways were well underway, with aliʻi leading the changes. Let’s look.

At the time of Cook’s arrival (1778-1779,) the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lanai and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and at (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

In 1790 (at the same time that George Washington was serving as the first US president,) the island of Hawaiʻi was under multiple rule; Kamehameha (ruler of Kohala, Kona and Hāmākua regions) successfully invaded Maui, Lanai and Molokai.

In fact, western arms and fighting techniques helped put Kamehameha into his leadership role.

Because of their knowledge of European warfare, John Young and Isaac Davis trained Kamehameha and his men in the use of muskets and cannons. In addition, both Young and Davis fought alongside Kamehameha in his many battles.

In addition to arms, Kamehameha also had Western boats, replacing the traditional canoes. The first Western-style vessel built in the Islands was the Beretane (1793.)

Through the aid of Captain George Vancouver’s mechanics, after launching, it was used in the naval combat with Kahekili’s war canoes off the Kohala coast. (Thrum)

Encouraged by the success of this new type of vessel, doubtless others were built between this period and the opening of the present century. One was a schooner called Tamana (named after Kamehameha’s favorite wife, Kaʻahumanu.) (Thrum, 1886)

Several small decked vessels were built. (Case) According to Cleveland’s account, Kamehameha possessed at that time twenty small vessels of from twenty to forty tons burden, some even copper-bottomed. (Alexander)

Trade in Hawaiian sandalwood began as early as the 1790s; by 1805 it had become an important export item. In 1811, an agreement between Boston ship captains and Kamehameha I established a monopoly on sandalwood exports, with Kamehameha receiving 25% of the profits.

As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition.

Western clothes were catching on, as well. In 1809, Russian sailors noted that the Hawaiians had been bartering woolen cloth, blue and red thread and canvas in exchange for food stuffs from Kamehameha in exchange. They used the cloth to make malo and pāʻu. (Barratt)

In 1819, when Louis de Freycinet sailed in on the ship Uranie, Mde. Rose de Saulces de Freycinet, the captain’s wife, described Kalanimōkū (a High Chief who functioned similar to a Prime Minister) as “going on board dressed in loin cloth and a European shirt, more dirty than clean.” (Del Piano)

“It was not cloth as much as finished … clothing, however, that the Hawaiians valued. The aliʻi prized dress uniforms. Other Islanders took any sort of clothing. As time passed, Hawaiians built up larger wardrobes and no longer thought themselves well dressed if they were clad in one or two haole garments.”

“The higher a Hawaiian’s rank, the more likely it was that he or she would wear imported haole clothes on ceremonial occasions. Namahana, Kamāmalu and Kaʻahumanu, among other high-born women, had a number of volumimous velvet and satin dresses by the early-1820s.” (Barratt)

Western customs had also caught on.

When the Pioneer Company of Protestant missionaries first arrived at Kawaihae (March 30, 1820,) “Kalanimōkū was the first person of distinction that came. In dress and manner he appeared with the dignity of a man of culture.” Obviously familiar with western customs, the chief gallantly bowed and shook the hands of the ladies. (Del Piano)

In 1820, Hiram Bingham noted, “(Kalanimōkū’s) appearance was much more interesting than we expected. His dress was a neat dimity jacket, black silk vest, mankin pantaloons, white cotton stockings, and shoes, plaid cravat and a neat English hat. He sometimes however wears the native dress.” (Thaddeus Journal, April 1, 1820)

“Kalanimōku was distinguished from almost the whole nation, by being decently clad. His dress, put on for the occasion, consisted of a white dimity roundabout, a black silk vest, yellow Nankeen pants, shoes, and white cotton hose, plaid cravat, and fur hat.” (Hiram Bingham)

“We honored the king, but we loved the cultivated manhood of Kalanimōku. He was the only individual Hawaiian that appeared before us with a full civilized dress.” (Lucy Thurston)

By 1823, Queen Mother Keōpūolani (mother of Kamehameha II and III) began to accept many western ways. She wore western clothes, she introduced western furniture into her house and she took instruction in Christianity.

It’s interesting (at least to me) to consider the context of the actions in 1819 with the abolition of the kapu. When you look at it strictly from the Hawaiian people, places and practices, it’s one thing; however, when you look at what was also going on in the Islands at the same time, it puts a whole new perspective on it.

Captain Cook estimated the population at 400,000 in 1778. When Vancouver, who had been with Cook, returned in 1792, he was shocked at the evidences of depopulation, and when the missionaries arrived in 1820, the population did not exceed 150,000. (The Friend, December 1902)

The image shows Kamehameha I in Western wear in 1817; at the time, he was still enforcing the centuries-old kapu system. (Drawn by Choris)

‘King_Kamehameha_I_in_a_Red_Vest’_c._1820

May 24, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chiefs in the 1820s

“The houses of the chiefs are generally large, for the kind of building, – from forty to sixty feet in length, twenty or twenty-five in breadth, and eighteen or twenty in height at the peak of the roof.”

“The sides and ends, as well as the roof, are of thatch, and the whole in one apartment. They are generally without windows, or any opening for light or air, except a wide door in the middle of a side or end.”

“In the back part of the house, the personal property and moveables, such as trunks, boxes, calabashes and dishes for water, food, &c. are deposited; while the mats for sitting, lounging, and sleeping are spread near the door.”

“Every chief has from thirty to fifty and an hundred personal attendants, friends and servants, attached to his establishment; who always live and move with him, and share in the provisions of his house.”

“All these, except the bosom friends, or punahele, have different offices and duties: – one is a pipe lighter, another a spittoon carrier, a third a kahile bearer, &c. Others with their families, prepare, cook, and serve the food, &c.”

“All the former, from the bosom friend, or punahele, to the pipe lighter, eat from the same dishes and calabashes with their master; and form, at their meals, a most uncouth and motley group.”

“In every respect indeed, as well as in that of eating, the household servants of the whole company of chiefs, from the king to the petty headman of a village, seem to enjoy a perpetual saturnalia.”

“The formation of this establishment takes place immediately on the birth of a chief, whether male or female. A kahu or nurse is appointed, who assumes all the care of the parent, and directs the affairs of the child, till he is old enough to exercise a will of his own.”

“Thus, often, very little intercourse takes place between the parents themselves, and the young chief; the former not unfrequently residing at a different district, or on a different island.”

“The present prince and princess, who are both children, have each separate houses, and a large train of attendants: and though their guardians of state reside near them, they are left very much to their own will, or to that of their kahus or nurses.”

“I have seen a young chief, apparently not three years old, walking the streets of Honoruru as naked as when born, (with the exception of a pair of green morocco shoes on his feet,) followed by ten or twelve stout men, and as many boys, carrying umbrellas, and kahiles, and spitboxes, and fans, and the various trappings of chieftainship.”

“The young noble was evidently under no controul but his own will, and enjoyed already the privileges of his birth, in choosing his own path, and doing whatever he pleased.”

“This portion of the inhabitants spend their lives principally in eating and drinking, lounging and sleeping; in the sports of the surf, and the various games of the country; at cards, which have long been introduced …”

“… in hearing the songs of the musicians, a kind of recitation accompanied by much action; and in witnessing the performances of the dancers.”

“They are not, however, wholly given to idleness and pleasure. It is customary for the male chiefs to superintend, in a degree, any work in which their own vassals, at the place where they are residing, are engaged, whether of agriculture or manufacture …”

“… and the female chiefs, also, overlook their women in their appropriate occupations, and not unfrequently assist them with their own hands.”

“A great change appears about to take place among the chiefs, in the general manner of employing time. The palapala and the pule, letters and religion, as presented by the Missionaries, are happily beginning deeply to interest their minds …”

“… and books and slates, I doubt not, will, as is the fact already, in individual cases, soon universally take the place of cards and games, and every amusement of dissipation.”

These general and desultory remarks will give you, my dear M-, some idea of the external character and state of the nobler part of the nation, for whose benefit H – and myself have sacrificed the innumerable enjoyments of home.”

“As to their qualities of heart and mind, they in general appear to be as mild and amiable in disposition, and as sprightly and active in intellect, as the inhabitants of our own country.”

“Ignorance, superstition, and sin, make all the difference we observe: and though that difference is at present fearful indeed, still we believe, that, with the removal of its causes, it will be entirely done away.”

“Notwithstanding the dreadful abominations daily taking place around us, drunkenness and adultery, gambling and theft, deceit, treachery, and death, all of which exist throughout the land to an almost incredible degree …”

“… such has already been the success attending 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.”

“No pagan nation on earth can be better prepared for the labour of the Christian Missionary; and no herald of the cross could desire a more privileged and delightful task …”

“… than to take this people by the outstretched and beckoning hand, and lead their bewildered feet into paths of light and life, of purity and peace …”

“… nor a greater happiness than to be the instrument of guiding, not only the generation now living, in the right way, but of rescuing from wretchedness and spiritual death, millions of the generations yet unborn, who are here to live, and here to die, before the angel ‘shall lift up his hand to heaven, and swear that there shall be time no longer!’” (The entire text, here, is from CS Stewart.)

Alphonse_Pellion,_Îles_Sandwich;_Maisons_de_Kraïmokou,_Premier_Ministre_du_Roi;_Fabrication_des_Étoffes_(c._1819)