Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2019 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Mutiny on the Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

He Akua Hemolele – Ke Akua no kakou

“(O)ur mission was providentially favored with a visit from Mr. Ellis, a missionary from (the London Missionary Society), and Messrs. Tyreman and Bennet, who had been sent thither as the deputed agents of the London Missionary Society.”

“Without their contrivance or ours, they, while seeking to convey and accompany teachers from the Society to the Marquesas Islands, found an opportunity to touch at the Sandwich Islands in their course.” (Bingham)

“Four or five hymns having been prepared in Hawaiian by Mr. Ellis, were introduced into public worship with manifest advantage. On the 4th of August, these were read and sung, and I addressed the throne of grace in the language of the country.”

“In my early efforts to do this, it seemed that an invisible power granted the needed assistance. The language was found to be favorable to short petitions, confessions, and ascriptions of praise and adoration.”

“On the next day, while many of our friends, over oceans and continents, were remembering us at the monthly concert, the king and his attendants applied themselves to then new books.”

“A number of natives, already able to teach them, joined with the missionaries as teachers, and we rejoiced to see the king’s thatched habitation, under the guns of the fort at Honolulu, become a primary school for the highest family in the land. Naihe, Kapiolani, Nāmāhāna, and La‘anui, at then own houses in the village, were endeavoring to learn to read and write.” (Bingham)

“The London Missionary Society’s “talents, experience, kindness, and courtesy, rendered the Christian intercourse of these brethren with our missionaries, so isolated and secluded from civilized society, a peculiar privilege, long to be remembered with pleasure. Prejudices had been allayed, and the confidence of the rulers in our cause, increased.”

“Mr. Ellis, being some four years in advance of us, in acquaintance with missionary life, among a people of language and manners so similar to those whom we were laboring to elevate, and being peculiarly felicitous in his manner of communication with all classes …”

“… greatly won our esteem, awakened a desire to retain him as a fellow laborer, and made us grateful for the providence that kindly made the arrangement, for a season, by which the language was sooner acquired, and our main work expedited.” (Bingham)

“On the 4th of February, 1823, the Rev. Mr. Ellis and family from the Society Islands, as had been expected, arrived at Honolulu on board a small vessel, the Active, Richard Charlton master, and were kindly welcomed both by the missionaries and the rulers.”

“They were accompanied by three Tahitian teachers, Kuke, and Taua, having their wives with them, and Taamotu, an unmarried female.”

“Mr. Ellis entered at once into the labors of the mission, and with much satisfaction, we could unitedly say, ‘Let us see the great work done in the shortest possible time.’” (Bingham)

“(The) hymn He Akua Hemolele originated on the arrival of Mr. Ellis in Honolulu harbor. A canoe from the shore brought Mr. Bingham out to the vessel.”

“Mr. Ellis called down to him ‘He Akua Hemolele,’ God is good, or perfect. Mr. Bingham replied, ‘Ke Akua no kakou,’ He is our God.”

“And so in the typical fashion of a Hawaiian ki’ke, this dialog of greeting continued for several phrases which were later worked over into the four short stanzas of the hymn.”

“And a member of the Green and Parker families reminds us that this old hymn was a lullaby often hummed in Hawaiian by the first Mother Rice, in the days before cradles went out of style and mothers still took time to sing their babies to sleep.” (Damon; Ululoa)

“As early as 1823 a small hymn-book of 60 pages (Na Himeni Hawaiʻi; He Me Ori Ia Iehova, Ke Akua Mau) was prepared by the Revs. H. Bingham and W. Ellis.” (Julian)

“It had been my privilege to labour in harmonious cooperation with the able and devoted American missionaries first sent to the Sandwich Islands.”

“Having a knowledge of the language of Tahiti, which varies but slightly from that of Hawaii, I had assisted in forming the Hawaiian alphabet, and fixing the orthography of the native language, as well as in other departments of missionary labour.”

“More than thirty years had passed away since I had left those islands, and it was an unexpected satisfaction to my own mind to find that the Christian sentiments embodied in a simple hymn …”

“… which had been prepared chiefly with a view to implanting seeds of truth in the minds of the young, had afforded consolation and support to the mind of a native of those islands in the lonely solitude of a distant ocean, amidst the perils of shipwreck, and the prospect of death …”

“… and I mention this circumstance for the encouragement of other labourers in the cause of humanity and religion, that they may cast their bread upon the waters and labour on, in the assurance that no sincere effort will be altogether in vain, though its results should never be known. (Ellis) Lorenzo Lyons later penned the hymn He Akua Hemolele.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2018 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Ellis and Bingham
Ellis and Bingham

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

London Missionary Society

Captain James Cook made three Pacific voyages, which, with those of Byron and Wallis, 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. Cook was given command of the bark Endeavour.

Cook’s second voyage (1772-1775) was for the purpose of searching for the south continent. He had two ships, the Resolution, and the Adventure. The ships the Antarctic between the meridians of the Cape of Good Hope and New Zealand. On this trip, Omai, a Tahitian, was taken on board the Adventure and sailed with Cook back to Britain.

Cook’s third voyage (1776-1780) was for the purposes of returning Omai to his home in the Society Islands and seeking a northern passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The Resolution was refitted for her second voyage and the Discovery, under Captain Clerke, was added to the expedition. At the end of Cook’s last voyage, nearly all the important islands in Polynesia had been found.

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

Britain’s new fascination with the Polynesians was fueled by the arrival in London of a Polynesian – Omai. Joseph Banks, botanist on Cook’s ship the Endeavour, dressed Omai in tailor-made suits, the portraitist Joshua Reynolds painted him.

King George III himself eventually requested a meeting. Omai cheerfully shook hands when the meeting took place, saying `How do, King Tosh,’ to the King’s reported delight. (Hiney; NY Times)

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 empire was in place to trade. In 1793 an India Bill went before parliament which renewed the royal license of the East India Company. There was a call for an amendment allowing Christian missions and native schools to be opened in India, but the bid was resisted.

It was in this climate that the London Missionary Society was formed. A meeting was called; on the first day, 200 Evangelicals gathered at the Castle and Falcon, paid the guinea membership, and proceeded to elect from among themselves thirty-four regional directors to meet once a year, and a London-based board of twelve to meet monthly. (Hiney; NY Times)

On August 9, 1796, a service was held for the inaugural mission at Surrey Chapel. Just four of the chosen thirty were ordained ministers. All four were in their late twenties: it was vital that they should be young and healthy.

The other, non-ordained missionaries had been chosen for their skills as much as their conviction; among them were six carpenters, two bricklayers, two tailors, two shoemakers, a gardener, a surgeon and a harness maker.

They sailed at six the next morning, on August 10, 1796. Nearly seven months later they anchored off the island of Tahiti, after a voyage via Gibraltar and Cape Horn. Seventeen missionaries were to disembark here, including all those who were married.

The first known Christian missionaries in Polynesia came from the London Missionary Society, an ecumenical Protestant organization; they landed in Tahiti, the Marquesas, then Tongatapu in Tonga. (PCC)

The missionaries soon saw an unforeseen problem. Since Cook’s voyages, other ships of exploration and whaling (Russian, French, British and American) had paid visits to the islands. Rum and firearms were now a part of life, as were disagreements and occasional violence between crews and islanders. Over the years, more London missionaries were sent.

One London Missionary Society member was William Ellis. Born in England, William and Mary Mercy Ellis went to Tahiti in 1817 as part of a new group of highly educated workers. They brought with them the first press and set it up in Moorea. They soon moved to Huahine, where William Ellis helped draft the code of laws. (Boston University)

Then the mission sent them to Hawai‘i. “The time for her departure at length came, and on the 31st of December, 1822, accompanied by her four children, she embarked, with her husband, on board the Active, for the Sandwich Islands.”

“The voyage to the Sandwich Islands, about three thousand miles distant, was safe, and not unpleasant, and by the tender mercy of their heavenly Father, they reached Oahu on the 5th of February, 1823.”

“Here Mrs. Ellis received on landing, a cordial welcome from many of the chief women of the settlement, and from the esteemed American Missionaries, of whose plain but hospitable and comfortable dwelling, she became for several weeks an inmate, and received every attention and kindness as a beloved sister in the Lord.”

“All the affection professed in the invitations they had so kindly forwarded, was practically manifested; and every hope of tenderness and sympathy which they excited, was fully realized. Mrs. Ellis found that the prospects of greater usefulness …”

“In Huahine the influence of the Missionaries could bear on a comparatively small number, but here the town of Honolulu contained not fewer than 8,000, while the population of the island amounted to 20,000, and the influence of the Missionaries was brought to bear indirectly upon 150,000 or 180,000 persons.” (Mary Mercy Ellis Memoirs)

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.

In 1823, Ellis and three of the American missionaries, Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich, toured the Island of Hawaii to learn more of the country and people, with a view to establishing mission stations there. They were the first white men to accomplish this, being also the first white men to visit the volcano of Kilauea. (Thurston)

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.)

British mission activity started in the South Seas, with the first overseas mission to Tahiti in 1796. British missionary work expanded into North America and South Africa. Early mission activities also centered in areas of eastern and southern Europe including Russia, Greece and Malta.

During the 19th century, the main fields of mission activity for the London Missionary Society were China, South East Asia, India, the Pacific, Madagascar, Central Africa, Southern Africa, Australia and the Caribbean (including British Guiana, now Guyana.) (Guide to Council for World Mission) (Lots of information here is from Hiney; NY Times and Mary Mercy Ellis Memoirs.)

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.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2017 Hoʻokuleana LLC

London Missionary Society-Tahiti
Revd._William_Ellis
Mary_Mercy_Moor_Ellis
London Missionary Society-Jubilee Coin
London Missionary Society-Jubilee Coin
London Missionary Society-Jubilee Coin
London Missionary Society-Jubilee Coin
Ruins_of_an_ancient_Fortification,_near_Kairua,_sketch_by_William_Ellis

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tahitian Influence on Christianity in Hawai‘i

By the time European explorers entered the Pacific in the 15th century, almost all of the habitable islands had been settled for hundreds of years and oral traditions told of explorations, migrations and travels across this immense watery world.

Double-hulled canoes were seaworthy enough to make voyages of over 2,000-miles along the longest sea roads of Polynesia, like the one between Hawai‘i and Tahiti. (Kawaharada)

The first known Christian missionaries in Polynesia came from the London Missionary Society, an ecumenical Protestant organization; they landed in Tahiti, the Marquesas, then Tongatapu in Tonga. (PCC)

Toketa, a Tahitian, arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1818; he probably landed on the island of Hawaiʻi. He was a member of the household of the chief (Governor) John Adams Kuakini, at that time a prominent figure in the court of Kamehameha I in Kailua, Kona.

A convert to Christianity (he likely received missionary instruction in his homeland – first Europeans arrived in Tahiti in 1767; in 1797 the London Missionary Society sent 29 missionaries to Tahiti,) 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 Toleta 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. Born in England, William and Mary Mercy Ellis went to Tahiti in 1817 as part of a new group of highly educated workers. They brought with them the first press and set it up in Moorea. They soon moved to Huahine, where William Ellis helped draft the code of laws. (Boston University)

Then the London Mission sent Ellis and some others to Hawai‘i. “(T)he colonial government-cutter Mermaid arrived in Fare harbour, on her way to the Sandwich Islands, with a small schooner, the Prince Regent, as a present from the British government to the king of those islands.”

“The captain intimated his intention of touching at the Marquesas on his return from Hawaii, and politely offered a passage to any of us who might be desirous of visiting these islands.”

“We had long been anxious to attempt the establishment of Christianity among the inhabitants of the former, and as the present appeared a favourable opportunity, we communicated the same to the deputation, and it appeared to them desirable to visit these places.” (Ellis)

“The arrangements for the voyage being completed, we assembled at the chapel about ten o’clock on the forenoon of the 25th of February: the native Christians were animated by kind and appropriate addresses from the church, and were affectionately encouraged by Mr. Barff and Mr. Orsmond, the latter being on a visit with us.”

“The native Missionaries then took leave of their fellow-Christians in a most solemn and impressive manner; and, as it had been arranged by Mr. Barff and myself that I should accompany them, to aid in the commencement of their labours, I addressed the people, and, recommending Mrs. Ellis and our dear children to their kind attentions under God, I also bade them farewell.”

“The meeting was peculiarly impressive and affecting; and, after mutually committing each other, under deep intensity of feeling, to the guidance and the keeping of the God of all our mercies, the whole congregation walked from the chapel to the sea-shore, where we exchanged our last salutations.”

“The deputation, the two native Missionaries and their wives, five other natives and myself, now embarked, and the Mermaid stood out to sea.” (Ellis)

“The time for her (Mrs Ellis) departure at length came, and on the 31st of December, 1822, accompanied by her four children, she embarked, with her husband, on board the Active, for the Sandwich Islands.”

“The voyage to the Sandwich Islands, about three thousand miles distant, was safe, and not unpleasant, and by the tender mercy of their heavenly Father, they reached Oahu on the 5th of February, 1823.”

“Here Mrs. Ellis received on landing, a cordial welcome from many of the chief women of the settlement, and from the esteemed American Missionaries, of whose plain but hospitable and comfortable dwelling, she became for several weeks an inmate, and received every attention and kindness as a beloved sister in the Lord.”

“All the affection professed in the invitations they had so kindly forwarded, was practically manifested; and every hope of tenderness and sympathy which they excited, was fully realized. Mrs. Ellis found that the prospects of greater usefulness …”

“In Huahine the influence of the Missionaries could bear on a comparatively small number, but here the town of Honolulu contained not fewer than 8,000, while the population of the island amounted to 20,000, and the influence of the Missionaries was brought to bear indirectly upon 150,000 or 180,000 persons.” (Mary Mercy Ellis Memoirs)

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)

“The earliest, and model for the rest, was the Tahitian missionary Auna who came to Hawaii with a visiting English delegation of missionaries in 1822.”

“At the urgent request of the Hawaiian chiefs Auna was permitted to remain, and for well over a year Auna and his wife lived in the household of Ka’ahumanu, teaching reading and writing and explaining Christian doctrine to the king and chiefs.”

“Auna left a school of sixty pupils when the couple returned to Tahiti in 1824. His school was taken over by Kaomi, the son of his wife’s brother Moe, a Tahitian long in the service of Ka’ahumanu’s brother Ke’eaumoku the governor of Maui.” (Barrere & Sahlins)

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.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2016 Hoʻokuleana LLC

A_Missionary_Preaching_to_the_Natives,_under_a_Skreen_of_platted_Cocoa-nut_leaves_at_Kairua_by_William_Ellis-1823
A_Missionary_Preaching_to_the_Natives,_under_a_Skreen_of_platted_Cocoa-nut_leaves_at_Kairua_by_William_Ellis-1823