American Protestant Missionaries | Page 3

April 28, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

London Missionaries to Tahiti Aided by Bounty Mutineers

Captain James Cook made three Pacific voyages, which covered a continuous period of British exploration in the south Pacific from 1764 to 1780. Cook’s first expedition (1768-1771) was under the auspices of the British Admiralty and the Royal Society, primarily to observe the transit of Venus from the newly found island of Tahiti.

On this trip, Cook and Joseph Banks, botanist aboard the ship, discovered breadfruit. Banks saw breadfruit as a potential source of cheap and nutritious food for slaves on the sugar plantations of the British West Indies.

He pitched the idea to King George III, who authorized William Bligh (who had been on Cook’s crew on his 3rd voyage to Hawai‘i) to spearhead the breadfruit-gathering expedition. (Rupp, National Geographic)

The Bounty set sail on December 23, 1787, bound for Tahiti; they reached there on October 26, 1788, and spent five months there gathering and potting 1,015 breadfruit saplings they had grown from seed. On April 4, 1789, the Bounty left Tahiti.

In the early hours of April 28, 1789, Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian and 25 petty officers and seamen mutinied and seized the ship.

Bligh and 18 of his trusted crew were given a small boat which Bligh piloted 3,618 miles to Timor aided only by a quadrant and pocket watch, and his memory of charts he had seen. On his return to England, he was promoted to captain and in 1791, returned to Tahiti on the Providence for more fruit. (Mayne)

The Pacific made a particular impression on the British imagination, with the revelation of the Polynesian culture, entirely cut off from any exterior force of civilization.

Cook’s Pacific finds later led to questions for the Evangelicals. Why did British Christianity, with the means at hand, lack a missionary history? When had there last been a serious missionary movement among Christians anywhere?

“(The London Missionary Society) was in consequence formed in England, and zealously seconded by our brethren in North Britain. On notifying our intentions to the public, we met a spirit of zeal and liberality highly encouraging; applications manifold were poured in of candidates for the mission, with subscriptions adequate to the undertaking.”

“Thirty men, six women, and three children, were approved, and presented to the directors for the commencement of the mission.”

“August the 10th, 1796, at six in the morning, we weighed anchor, and hoisted our missionary flag at the mizen top-gallant-mast head: three doves argent, on a purple field, bearing olive-branches in their bills.” (They headed to Tahiti.)

“An ingenious clergyman of Portsmouth kindly furnished Dr. Haweis and Mr. Greatheed (founding members of the London Missionary Society) with a manuscript vocabulary of the Otaheitean language, and an account of the country …”

“… which providentially he had preserved from the mutineers who were seized by the Pandora, and brought to Portsmouth for their trials which was of unspeakable service to the missionaries …”

“… both for the help which it afforded them to learn before their arrival much of this unknown tongue, and also as giving the most inviting and encouraging description of the natives, and the cordial reception which they might expect.” (Wilson)

The vocabulary and island background were originally prepared by Peter Heywood and James Morrison, both were convicted mutineers on the Bounty.

“Indeed so perfectly calm was (Peter Heywood) under his dreadful calamity, that in a very few days after condemnation his brother says …”

“‘While I write this, Peter is sitting by me making an Otaheitan vocabulary, and so happy and intent upon it, that I have scarcely an opportunity of saying a word to him; he is in excellent spirits, and I am convinced they are better and better every day.’”

“This vocabulary is a very extraordinary performance; it consists of one hundred full-written folio pages, the words alphabetically arranged, and all the syllables accented. It appears, from a passage in the Voyage of the Duff, that a copy of this vocabulary was of great use to the missionaries who were first sent to Otaheite in this ship.” (Barrow)

“The petty officer, James Morrison, had employed the three months of his captivity on board the Hector in writing out from notes which he had kept of daily occurrences from the period of the departure of the Bounty from England to his return as a prisoner.”

“This note-book he preserved in the wreck of the Pandora, and to these notices added minute descriptions of the places at which the Bounty had touched, especially the Society Islands …”

“… his long residence at Tahiti enabling him to describe minutely the manners and customs of the inhabitants, as well as the general productions of the islands. The manuscript of this journal, consisting of 300 pages folio, he presented to Peter Heywood when they parted.” (Belcher)

“During his imprisonment and trial, Morrison wrote what was essentially a first draft of his Journal, entitled Memorandum and Particulars respecting the Bounty and her crew. … Following his release, Morrison finished the journal, filling it with vivid observations and descriptions of Tahitian life and culture.”

“Although Heywood’s Tahitian-English vocabulary eventually disappeared, and Morrison’s journal remained unpublished until 1935, the London Missionary Society (LMS) put these documents to use at a much earlier date. The society’s first evangelical mission to the South Seas on the Duff began on August 10, 1796.”

“The ship was delayed for some time at Portsmouth, which gave Reverend Howell the opportunity to share both manuscripts with LMS director Dr Thomas Haweis, who eagerly made copies for the missionaries.” (Morrison Introduction) (Heywood and Morrison were pardoned on October 24, 1792.)

Later, the Tahitians helped American Protestant missionaries in Hawai‘i. Toketa, a Tahitian, arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1818. A convert to Christianity (he likely received missionary instruction in his homeland;) he became a teacher to Hawaiian chiefs, made a visit to Honolulu with Kuakini in January-February of 1822. (Barrere)

On February 4, 1822, “Adams (Kuakini) sent a young Tahitian to us (Toketa,) to obtain for him that part of the spelling book which is printed, with a view to commence learning to read his own language. … This young Tahitian is one of the three, whom we have found here from the Society Isles, able to read and write their native language.”

“He, with one hour’s instruction, is able to read the Hawaiian (Owhyhean) also, and to assist the chief to whom he is attached.” (Missionary Herald, 1823) Toketa then began to teach Kuakini to read and write.

Shortly after (February 8, 1822,) “Adams (Kuakini) sent a letter to Mr B (Bingham) written by the hand of Toketa the Tahitian, which Mr. B answered in the Hawaiian language. – ‘This may be considered as the commencement of epistolary correspondence in this language.’” (Missionary Herald, 1823)

William Ellis was with the London Missionary Society in Tahiti; the London Mission sent Ellis and some others to Hawai‘i. “The deputation, the two native Missionaries and their wives, five other natives and myself, now embarked, and the Mermaid stood out to sea.” (Ellis)

Ellis and the others who joined him from the London Missionary Society (including Tahitians who came with them) worked well with the American Protestant missionaries who arrived in Hawaii in 1820.

The American Mission immediately saw benefit in working with Ellis and The Tahitians … “of bringing the influence of the Tahitian mission to bear with more direct and operative force upon this nation …”

“… trembling under the too great responsibility of the spiritual concerns of the whole nation, & looking with hesitating awe at the great and difficult work of translating the bible & continually casting about for help …”

“… we feel the need of just such talents and services as Brother (Ellis) is able to bring to the work, whose general views of Christian faith practice, & of missionary duty, which accord so well with ours, whose thorough acquaintance with the Tahitian tongue so nearly allied to this …”

“… & which it cost the mission almost a 20 years’ labor fully to acquire, & whose missionary experience, among the South Sea Islands’ kindred tribes, enable him to cooperate with us, with mutual satisfaction, and greatly to facilitate our acquisition of this kindred language …”

“… & the early translation of the sacred scriptures, & thus promote the usefulness, rather than supersede the labors, of all who may come to our aid from America.” (Journal of the Sandwich Island Mission, May 9, 1822)

Ellis remained in the Islands for eighteen months, but returned to England, due to illness of Mary (she died in 1835.) Ellis later remarried and continued mission work in the Madagascar. Ellis died in 1872.)

Because of the positive role of the London Missionary Society in assisting the Hawaiian mission, any descendant of a person sent by the London Missionary Society who served the Sandwich Island Mission in Hawaii is eligible to be an Enrolled Member in the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society.

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Mutiny on the Bounty

February 11, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Haystack Prayer Meeting

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions had its beginning in the revivals at the end of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth century.

During the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century several missionary societies were formed in the United States.

Back then, Williamstown was a frontier village, similar in many respects to any western village of the last half century, composed of men with patriotic hopes and daring wills.”

Twelve years after the incorporation of Williams College in 1793, 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 the College. (Williams College)

In the spring of 1806, Samuel J. Mills, the 23-year old son of a Connecticut clergyman, joined the Freshman class. Mills, after a period of religious questioning in his late teens, entered Williams with a passion to spread Christianity around the globe. (Williams College)

He found the town and college under the influence of a great revival. Though felt but slightly in the college in 1805, in the summer of 1806 it was profoundly stirring men’s souls. Prayer-meetings by groups of students were being maintained zealously.

On Wednesdays, the men met south of West College beneath the willow trees. On Saturdays, the meetings were held north of the college buildings, beneath the maple trees in Sloan’s meadow. (The Haystack Centennial)

On a Saturday afternoon in August, 1806, five Williams College students, Congregationalists in background, gathered in a field to discuss the spiritual needs of those living in Asian countries. The five who attended were Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green.

The meeting was interrupted by the approaching storm. It began to rain; the thunder rolled with deafening sound familiar to those who dwell among the hills; the sharp quick flashes of lightning seemed like snapping whips driving the men to shelter.

They crouched beside a large haystack which stood on the spot now marked by the Missionary Monument. Here, partially protected at least from the storm, they conversed on large themes.

The topic that engaged their interest was Asia. The work of the East India Company, with which they were all somewhat acquainted, naturally turned their thoughts to the people with which this company sought trade.

Mills especially waxed eloquent on the moral and religious needs of these people, and afire with a great enthusiasm he proposed that the gospel of light be sent to those dwelling in such benighted lands

All but Loomis responded to this inspiration of Mills. Loomis contended that the East must first be civilized before the work of the missionary could begin.

The others contended that God would cooperate with all who did their part, for He would that all men should be partakers of the salvation of Christ.

Finally at Mills’ word, ‘Come, let us make it a subject of prayer under the haystack, while the dark clouds are going and the clear sky is coming,’ they all knelt in prayer. (The Haystack Centennial)

‘The brevity of the shower, the strangeness of the place of refuge, and the peculiarity of their topic of prayer and conference all took hold of their imaginations and their memories.’ (Global Ministries)

The students were also influenced by a pamphlet titled ‘An Inquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the Heathen,’ written by British Baptist missionary William Carey.

After praying, these five young men sang a hymn together. It was then that Mills said loudly over the rain and the wind, ‘We can do this, if we will!’ (Williams College)

That moment changed those men forever. Many historians would tell you that all mission organizations in the US trace their history back to the Haystack Prayer Meeting in some way. Yes, these men turned the world upside down. And it all began in a prayer meeting under a haystack. (Southern Baptist Convention)

Though only two of the five Williams students at the Haystack Prayer meeting ever left the United States, the impact of their passion for missions is widespread.

Samuel Mills became the Haystack person with the greatest influence on the modern mission movement. He played a role in the founding of the American Bible Society and the United Foreign Missionary Society.

In 1808, Mills and other Williams students formed ‘The Brethren,’ a society organized to ‘effect, in the persons of its members, a mission to the heathen.’

Upon the enrollment of Mills and Richards at Andover Seminary in 1810, Adoniram Judson from Brown, Samuel Newall from Harvard, and Samuel Nott from Union College joined the Brethren.

Led by the enthusiasm of Judson, the young seminarians convinced the General Association of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts to form The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. (Williams College)

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.

“The general purpose of these devoted young men was fixed. Sometimes they talked of ‘cutting a path through the moral wilderness of the West to the Pacific.’ Sometimes they thought of South America; then of Africa. Their object was the salvation of the heathen; but no specific shape was given to their plans, till the formation of the American Board of Foreign Missions.” (Worcester)

“The Board has established missions, in the order of time in which they are now named at Bombay, and Ceylon; among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Cherokees of the Arkansaw …” (Missionary Herald)

At this same time, in the Islands, a Hawaiian, ʻŌpūkahaʻia, made a life-changing decision – not only which affected his life, but had a profound effect on the future of the Hawaiian Islands.

“I began to think about leaving that country, to go to some other part of the globe. I did not care where I shall go to. I thought to myself that if I should get away, and go to some other country, probably I may find some comfort, more than to live there, without father and mother.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

‘Ōpūkaha’ia swam out to and boarded Brintnall’s ‘Triumph’ in Kealakekua Bay. After travelling to the American North West, then to China, they landed in New York in 1809. They continued to New Haven, Connecticut. ʻŌpūkahaʻia was eager to study and learn – seeking to be a student at Yale.

The Mills family invited ʻŌpūkahaʻia into their home. Later Mills brought ʻŌpūkahaʻia to Andover Theological Seminary, the center of foreign mission training in New England.

In October, 1816, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) decided to establish the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut, for the instruction of youth like ʻŌpūkahaʻia.

By 1817, a dozen students, six of them Hawaiians, were training at the Foreign Mission School to become missionaries to teach the Christian faith to people around the world. Initially lacking a principal, Dwight filled that role from May 1817 – May 1818.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia was being groomed to be a key figure in a mission to Hawai‘i, to be joined by Samuel Mills Jr. Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died at Cornwall on February 17, 1818, and several months later Mills died at sea off West Africa after surveying lands that became Liberia.

Edwin W Dwight is remembered for putting together a book, ‘Memoirs of Henry Obookiah’ (the spelling of the name based on its pronunciation), as a fundraiser for the Foreign Mission School. It was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries. The book about his life was printed and circulated after his death, becoming a best-seller of its day.

Ōpūkaha’ia, inspired by many young men with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book inspired missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Hawaiian Islands.

The coming of Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia and other young Hawaiians to the US, who awakened a deep Christian sympathy in the churches, moved the ABCFM to establish a mission at the Islands.

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of ABCFM missionaries set sail from Boston on the Thaddeus to establish the Sandwich Islands Mission (now known as Hawai‘i). Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”), about 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

Click HERE for more information on the Haystack Prayer Meeting.

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Haystack Prayer Meeting

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Thompson Memorial Chapel-Williams_College

February 1, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Some Views of American Missionaries

“The internal condition of the Sandwich Islands and their position with regard to Foreign Powers, and especially to Great Britain, are so peculiar that a few words of observation on my part may be required in order to enable you to form a correct judgment …”

“… respecting the proposed policy of HM Govt, and the manner in which they would wish you to regulate your own conduct towards the Govt, of a Country so situated.”

“The Sandwich Islands are scarcely more than nominally governed by a Native Sovereign and native Chiefs. Citizens of the U States are in fact the virtual Rulers and Directors of the Govt.”

“The Constitution and the Laws are framed, and are administered chiefly by Americans; and American Missionaries in like manner direct the affairs of the Church, and keep, as it were, the consciences of the King, the Chiefs, and the native subjects.”

“It is obvious that the King and his native Councillors could of themselves have possessed little capacity for devising a Constitution or code of laws like those of the Sandwich Islands, and can have as little practical ability for administering them.”

“It must be fairly admitted that great credit is due to those American Missionaries who by their pious and unwearied labours first introduced the lights of Christianity and Civilization into those Islands …”

“… nor ought an equal share of credit to be withheld from those who, following up the advantages thus originally conferred by the Missionaries, have brought the Islanders, however imperfectly as yet, under subjection to a regular administrative system.”

“We have no right to entertain jealousy of the influence thus honourably acquired by the Americans amongst that people.”

“The changes effected by the Americans may have been somewhat over-hasty, considering the circumscribed intellectual condition of the people amongst whom they were introduced; but undoubted advantage has accrued to them from those changes.”

“It is certain, however, that the natives are, of themselves, incompetent to administer either their constitution or their laws.” (Earl of Aberdeen, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to William Miller, British Consul General for the Hawaiian Islands, September 28, 1843)

“The American Missionaries deserve the highest credit for their untiring perseverance in, the work of elevating and reforming the savages of the Hawaiian Islands. It was their effort which laid the foundation of the order and peace which now prevail.”

“They established a polity almost republican in its character, and differing but in few particulars from our own institutions.”

“Naturally, the advisers of the King and Chiefs, they counselled judicious reforms, & did much to lessen & finally abolish the absolute dominion which trod the unfortunate masses under foot.”

“If they sometimes committed errors, it was because they lacked knowledge in political science, and gave too little heed to considerations of worldly policy. Thus it was, that morals were sometimes enforced by severe royal and legislative enactment, and, thus it now is, that trade is fettered by restrictions, which in the general estimation, are regarded as injudicious, and unwise.

“While I see some things to be censured, I find much to praise, and I trust that no consideration will ever prevent me from giving credit where it is justly due.” (David L. Gregg, United States Commissioner to Hawaii, to EW Tracy, (Private), February 3, 1854)

“The American Missionaries have been badly treated by the Cabinet & by the King acting under its influence. His Majesty is conscious of the error, & has to my knowledge, expressed regret for it.” (Gregg to W. L. Marcy (Private), June 5, 1856)

“(T)he results of Missionary teaching & American influence and of themselves, are sufficient to disprove the wholesale allegations of such persons as take it upon themselves to represent that the efforts of our countrymen to carry the lights of civilization to savage lands, have been without avail.” Gregg to Marcy, June 14, 1855) (All from Report of the Historical Commission of the Territory of Hawai‘i, 1925)

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A_Missionary_Preaching_to_Hawaiians_on_the_lava_at_Kokukano,_Hawaii,_sketch_by_William_Ellis-1822-24

January 16, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Literacy was Sought by the People

“One young man asked (a missionary) for a book yesterday, and (he) inquired of him who his teacher was. He replied, ‘My desire to learn, my ear, to hear, my eye, to see, my hands, to handle, for, from the sole of my foot to the crown of my head I love the palapala.’” (KSBE)

“Not long after the passing of Kamehameha I in 1819, the first Christian missionaries arrived at (Kawaihae), Hawaiʻi on March 30, 1820. (They finally anchored at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.) Their arrival here became the topic of much discussion as Liholiho, known as Kamehameha II, deliberated with his aliʻi council for 13 days on a plan allowing the missionaries to stay.

“Interestingly, the missionaries promised a printing press and to teach palapala, or reading and writing. Because Liholiho had learned the alphabet prior to the missionaries’ arrival, he had a notion of the value of a printing press and literacy for his people.”

“A key point in Liholiho’s plan required the missionaries to first teach the aliʻi to read and write. The missionaries agreed to the King’s terms and instruction began soon after.” (KSBE)

The arrival of the first company of American missionaries in Hawai¬ʻi in 1820 marked the beginning of Hawaiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy. The chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

“That the sudden introduction of the Hawaiian nation in its unconverted state, to general English or French literature, would have been safe and salutary, is extremely problematical.”

“To us it has been a matter of pleasing wonder that the rulers and the people were so early and generally led to seek instruction through books furnished them by our hands, not one of which was designed to encourage image worship, to countenance iniquity, or to be at variance with the strictest rules of morality. It was of the Lord’s mercy.”

“With the elements of reading and writing we were accustomed, from the beginning, to connect the elements of morals and religion, and have been happy to find them mutual aids”. (Hiram Bingham)

“The initiation of the rulers and others into the arts of reading and writing, under our own guidance, brought to their minds forcibly, and sometimes by surprise, moral lessons as to their duty and destiny which were of immeasurable importance.”

“The English New Testament was almost our first school book, and happy should we have been, could the Hawaiian Bible have been the next.” (Hiram Bingham)

“In connexion with this general mode of instruction, we could, and did teach English to a few, and have continued to do so. We early used both English and Hawaiian together.”

“For a time after our arrival, in our common intercourse, In our schools, and in our preaching, we were obliged to employ interpreters, though none except Hopu and Honolii were found to be very trustworthy, in communicating the uncompromising claims and the spirit-searching truths of revealed religion.” (Hiram Bingham)

As the missionaries learned Hawaiian, they taught their lessons 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. In later years, the instruction, ultimately, was in English.

“By August 30, 1825, only three years after the first printing of the pīʻāpā, 16,000 copies of spelling books, 4,000 copies of a small scripture tract, and 4,000 copies of a catechism had been printed and distributed.”

“On October 8, 1829, it was reported that 120,000 spelling books were printed in Hawaiʻi. These figures suggest that perhaps 90 percent of the Hawaiian population were in possession of a pīʻāpā book!”

“This literacy initiative was continually supported by the aliʻi. Under Liholiho, ships carrying teachers were not charged harbor fees. During a missionary paper shortage, the government stepped in to cover the difference, buying enough paper to print roughly 13,500 books.”

“In fact, while Liholiho was on his ill–fated trip to England, Kaʻahumanu, the kuhina nui (regent), and Kalanimōku reiterated their support by proclaiming that upon the completion of schools, ‘all the people shall learn the palapala.’”

“During this period, there were approximately 182,000 Hawaiians living throughout 1,103 districts in the archipelago. Extraordinarily, by 1831, the kingdom government financed all infrastructure costs for the 1,103 school houses and furnished them with teachers. Our kūpuna sunk their teeth into reading and writing like a tiger sharks and would not let go.” (KSBE)

“This legendary rise in literacy climbed from a near-zero literacy rate in 1820, to between 91 to 95 percent by 1834. That’s only twelve years from the time the first book was printed!” (KSBE)

It was through the cooperation and collaboration between the Ali‘i, people and missionaries that this was able to be accomplished.

Manu Ka‘iama then noted:

“I think I hear what you are saying, and it is an important point to make and to remember is that their mission was very different, that first generation of missionaries. Their mission or their reason to be here, and the assistance that they provided the ali‘i goes without saying. I guess these letters probably pretty much show that.”

“You can see the relationship and you can see how they worked together and that they learned from each other. And, I would assume that is so and I think we are hard on the missionaries because of maybe the next generation of missionaries …”

“We do, many times, kind of just brush over that earlier history, and we shouldn’t make that mistake, because the fact that these letters show a relationship that you think is honorable….” (Manu Ka‘iama)

Jon Yasuda then added,

“I think literacy was … almost like the new technology of the time. And, that was something that was new. … When the missionaries came, there was already contact with the Western world for many years…. But this was the first time that literacy really began to take hold.”

“The missionaries, when they came, they may have been the first group who came with a [united] purpose. They came together as a group and their purpose was to spread the Gospel the teachings of the Bible.”

“But the missionaries who came, came with a united purpose … and literacy was a big part of that. Literacy was important to them because literacy was what was going to get the Hawaiians to understand the word of the Bible …

“… and the written word became very attractive to the people, and there was a great desire to learn the written word. … Hawai‘i became the most literate nation at one time.”

Shifting Paradigm Noted by Kaliko Martin

“The Ali‘i Letters project “changed my perspective on the anti-missionary, anti-Anglo-Saxon rhetorical tradition that scholarship has been produced, contemporary scholarship, and it is not to discredit that scholarship, but just to change a paradigm, to shift the paradigm, and it shifted mine.” (Kaliko Martin, Research Assistant, Awaiaulu)

Puakea Nogelmeier had a similar conclusion. In remarks at a Hawaiian Mission Houses function he noted,

“The missionary effort is more successful in Hawai‘i than probably anywhere in the world, in the impact that it has on the character and the form of a nation. And so, that history is incredible; but history gets so blurry …”

“The missionary success cover decades and decades becomes sort of this huge force where people feel like the missionaries got off the boat barking orders … where they just kind of came in and took over. They got off the boat and said ‘stop dancing,’ ‘put on clothes,’ don’t sleep around.’”

“And it’s so not the case ….”

“The missionaries arrived here, and they’re a really remarkable bunch of people. They are scholars, they have got a dignity that goes with religious enterprise that the Hawaiians recognized immediately. …”

“The Hawaiians had been playing with the rest of the world for forty-years by the time the missionaries came here. The missionaries are not the first to the buffet and most people had messed up the food already.”

“(T)hey end up staying and the impact is immediate. They are the first outside group that doesn’t want to take advantage of you, one way or the other, get ahold of their goods, their food, or your daughter. … But, they couldn’t get literacy. It was intangible, they wanted to learn to read and write”. (Puakea Nogelmeier)

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Pi-a-pa-01

January 7, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

113,000,000 Sheets of Paper

“Without the printing press, the written Hawaiian language, and a learned people of that time, we would know little about the past.” (Muench)

“The first printing press at the Hawaiian Islands was imported by the American missionaries, and landed from the brig Thaddeus in April, 1820. In style, it was not unlike the first used by Benjamin Franklin.”

“It was set up in a thatched house standing not very far from the old frame Mission house that now stands on King street opposite the Kawaiahaʻo Seminary (where the Mission Memorial Building is today.)” (Parker; The Friend)

“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.”

“The opening to them of this source of light never known to their ancestors remote or near, occurred while many thousands of the friends of the heathen were on the monthly concert, unitedly praying that the Gospel might have free course and he glorified.” (Bingham)

Standing beside a printing press and observed by an American printer, shipmasters, missionaries, and traders, Chief Ke‘eaumoku put his hand on the press lever, exerted pressure, and printed wet black syllables in Hawaiian and English. (HHS)

At this inauguration there were present his Excellency Governor (Ke‘eaumoku (Gov. Cox,)) a chief of the first rank, with his retinue; some other chiefs and natives; Rev. Hiram Bingham, missionary; Mr. Loomis, printer, (who had just completed setting it up); James Hunnewell; Captain William Henry and Captain Masters (Americans.) (Ballou)

“Edmund Butler … a resident of Maui … also took an interest in this novel scene, while one of the highest chiefs of these islands aided in commencing the printing of his native tongue.” (Gulick)

Mr. Loomis set up the first lesson of a spelling book, or primer, called ‘P-a-pa.’ … It is a sheet four by six inches, having twelve lines, each line having five separate syllables of two letters.”

“This certainly was the first printing done at the Hawaiian Islands, probably the first on the shores of the North Pacific Ocean. A month later Mr. Bingham received a letter from Governor Kuakini (John Adams) of Hawai‘i, who had succeeded in mastering the contents of the first printed sheet.” (Parker: The Friend)

“We are happy to announce to you that, on the first Monday of January (1822), we commenced printing, and, with great satisfaction, have put the first eight pages of the Owhyhee spellingbook into the hands of our pupils”.

Native Hawaiians immediately perceived the importance of “palapala” – document, to write or send a message. “Makai” – “good” – exclaimed Chief Ke‘eaumoku, to thus begin the torrent of print communications that we have today. (HHS)

Thereafter, printing on the first press, a second-hand Ramage, went on continuously for six years, until in 1828 an additional press was sent from Boston. The original press was acquired by the missionary school at Lahainaluna on Maui in 1834.

The presses of the Sandwich Islands Mission in Honolulu and Lahainaluna were the major printers of books in Hawaiian in the Islands until 1858, when the work of printing for the Mission was handed over on a business basis to Henry M. Whitney, a missionary son.

He continued to handle the Hawaiian language books for the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, which had superseded the Sandwich Islands Mission in 1854.

The Bible was translated from the original Greek and Hebrew by the combined efforts of Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston of the Pioneer Company, Artemas Bishop and James Ely of the Second Company, William Richards, Lorrin Andrews, Jonathan Green, and Ephraim Clark of the Third Company, and Sheldon Dibble of the Fourth Company.

Although the work was begun in 1822, the first segment of the Bible, the Gospel of Luke, did not come off the press until 1827. The rest of the New Testament was completed by 1832 and the Old Testament in 1839 (although the date given on the title page is 1838).

“By far the larger part of the great mass of printed matter issued here in the fifty years subsequent to the arrival of Christian teachers was in the form of religious works and school books.”

“Aside from the Scriptures there have been published works on theology, in its different branches, church history, Bible text books and commentaries on the Bible, or parts of it.”

“Much time and labor, too, on the temperance question, with its many phases, and on other social topics, have gone into the printed page, which has found its way among the people with beneficial results to those who had the disposition to read and reflect.”

“Sermons and tracts by the thousands were published and had no lack of readers. Pilgrim’s Progress went into print in the native language among the first of the translated books.”

“Later, works of a secular nature began to issue from the native press and became popular. The stories of Washington, Lincoln. Grant, of Victoria, Napoleon, Xapier and others of the world’s distinguished men and women have been read by the Hawaiian in his native tongue.”

“The ‘Pioneer Boy,’ a story of Lincoln, was translated and published in book form for Hawaiian readers and Robinson Crusoe has also found its readers in the Hawaiian.” (Parker; The Friend)

The mission press printed 10,000-copies of Ka Palapala Hemolele (The Holy Scriptures). It was 2,331-pages long printed front and back.

The 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. (Mission Houses)

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