Christian History of Hawai‘i

“Special Providences in the Christianization of Hawaii” – Part 3

edwindwight Christian History of Hawai‘i, Opukaha‘ia - Henry Obookiah, Opukaha‘ia and Hawai‘i

Following are articles 5, 6 and 7 in a series of Hawai‘i-missions focused articles published under the heading “Special Providences in the Christianization of Hawaii.” The articles were written by missionary son Rev. Sereno E. Bishop. The series appeared in the January through August 1904 issues of The Friend newspaper published in Honolulu. Bishop served as editor of The Friend from 1888 through 1902. The Friend was founded by the Rev. Samuel Damon in 1843 as a Christian periodical with a temperance theme published for seaman ashore at the port of Honolulu. Damon was the chaplain of the Seamen’s Bethel in downtown Honolulu.

Henry Obookiah-‘Ōpūkaha‘ia is a key figure in Bishop’s articles. Bishop considered Henry as one of the Special Providences that led to the Gospel coming to Hawai‘i.

Sereno Edwards Bishop (1827-1909) was the son of the Rev. Artemas and Elizabeth Bishop. The Bishops arrived in Hawai‘i in April, 1823 as members of the Second Company of the Sandwich Islands Mission. His parents were stationed at Kailua-Kona on the Big Island and Sereno was born in 1827 at the village of Ka‘awaloa, on the point of land on the north side of the entrance to Kealakekua Bay.

Sereno Bishop’s writing reflects his long-life in Hawai‘i. He witnessed first-hand many of the changes Christianity brought to Hawai‘i, the development of sugar cane plantations, the importation of workers from Asia, Portugal and other foreign nations. And he lived through the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and the annexation of Hawai‘i leading to the Islands becoming a Territory of the United States.

5. The Removal of King Liholiho.
Of the singularly co-operating chain of events promoting the entrance of the Gospel into Hawaii, four have been named in consecutive order—the last of which was the demise of Kamehameha, and consequent crumbling of the great system of Idolatry.
A fifth and most timely event, which acted powerfully in favor of the incipient work of the Mission, was the removal by a foreign voyage and death of the youthful King Liholiho, whose dissolute and unreliable character rendered his influence most detrimental to the Gospel work.

Liholiho was a youth of many amiable qualities, and not indisposed to what was right. He was also of a somewhat active nature, and ready to take the initiative when his caprice so led him. His great weakness was that of undisciplined youth, that he was subject to be led by caprice, and to follow the impulse of appetite. He was also much under the influence of evil-minded white men, who systematically plied him with liquor, in order to frustrate the wholesome influence of the missionaries.

During their first three years of arduous effort, the missionaries had made great progress in gaining power over the minds of the many princely chiefs of experience and good sense. The queenmother Keopuolani had joyfully accepted her Savior, and died in faith. The Dowager Kalakua and her husband lioapili were yielding allegiance to the Gospel. Kapiolani was becoming an earnest convert, and soon after signalized her faith by defiantly Hinging stones into the fiery lake of Kilauea, instead of propitiating the dread goddess Pele with ohelo berries. The statesmanlike Kalanimoku was steadily tending towards Christ. And most longed for of all, even the imperious and dreaded Queen Premier Kaahumanu was beginning to listen to the truth, and to learn the palapala, gained over by the tender and affectionate attention of Mrs. Bingham, whom she came ardently to love.

Keopuolani’s death at Lahaina was on the 16th of September, 1823. For a very short time the young king’s heart was softened. But he was soon led astray again by cunning white tempters. Suddenly he adopted the scheme of visiting England, and putting his kingdom under the protection of King George IV. On November 27, regardless of all fears and remonstrances of his chiefs, he embarked for England on board of the English’ ship L’Aigle, Capt. Starbuck, accompanied by his favorite wife Kamamalu, by the princely Boki and his wife Liliha, and by four chiefs of lower grade.

Acting with a council of high chiefs, Liholiho appointed Kaahumanu as Queen Regent, with Kalanimoku as Prime Minister. The young lad Kauikeaouli was designated heir apparent. No better arrangement of the government could possibly have been made than this combination of the imperial and experienced Kaahumanu, with the capable and prudent Kalanimoku. With Liholiho and Boki, the chief elements of disorder and riotousness disappeared beyond the horizon, and the elements of order and stability were established in control.

The royal voyagers arrived at Portsmouth, May 22, 1824. The British Government hospitably entertained them. They received great attention from the nobility. But soon the whole party were attacked by measles. All recovered except the queen, who died on the 8th of July, and the King, who died on the 14th.

“The survivors,” as Alexander records, “were treated with great kindness, and were received by the king, George IV., at Windsor Castle, September 14th, where he advised them to attend to the instructions of the missionaries, and promised to protect them from foreign aggression.”

The coffined remains of the King and Queen, together with the six survivors of the party were sent home on the frigate “Blonde,” commanded by Lord Byron, cousin of the poet. They arrived at Lahaina on the 6th of May, 1825.

These events left the government of the Islands fully established for many years in the powerful hands of Queen Kaahumanu. This royal personage had, after some delay, become thoroughly enlisted on the side of Christ, and rapidly grew into a devoted and earnest believer, although in the great caution of the missionaries, it was not until December of that year that Kaahumanu and six of her fellow chiefs, together with a number of other persons of influence, were baptized and received into the church at Honolulu. For the seven years of her reign, this puissant Queen diligently and energetically exerted her immense influence and authority in repeated journeys throughout the kingdom, to urge the people to learn to read and write, and to turn to Christ. It even became necessary for the missionaries to guard against hypocritical professions of piety from many w:ho sought thereby to gain royal favor.
Thus by the death of Liholiho, the whole current of royal influence became thoroughly enlisted on the side of the Gospel. The vital importance of this became manifest as two hostile elements developed themselves. One was the bitter enmity of depraved resident white men, who revolted against legal restriction upon drunkenness and debauchery. These men found violent allies in whalemen, who were determined to override prohibitions against openly filling their ships with women. Both in Lahaina and Honolulu the houses of the missionaries were attacked by mobs of seamen, led by their officers. They were rescued only by the friendly chiefs. At Honolulu, the mob came from the U. S. man-of-war Dolphin.
The second hostile influence postponed by the death of Liholiho, was the establishment of the Roman Catholic faith, delayed thereby for ten years, until after an enlightened Christianity had become fully established by means of the overwhelming power of the great Revival of 1837-8.

The royal prince. Boki, who went to England with Liholiho. although brother to the wise and pious Kalanimoku, became bitterly opposed to Kaahumanu, and a supporter of the Catholic attempt to gain a footing, which Kaahumanu firmly resisted. Whatever in these days of toleration we may think of such forcible exclusion, it is due to remember that at that time the Catholic church was the unscrupulous and deadly foe to all other forms of religion, and that along the whole coast from California to Chili, a Protestant preacher would have met with instant death. Catholic priests in Hawaii would be at once arrayed against the Protestant Queen and chiefs, and active leaders of political rebellion. Such was the well-founded belief of Kaahumanu. This conflict also was averted by the death of Liholiho.

Thus had another singular interposition of Providence strangely wrought to safeguard the infant growth of Gospel Christianity in Hawaii. In these successive peculiar events we can hardly fail to discern the manifest guidance and protection of the Lord, who had destined Hawaii for early and complete conquest by His Kingdom.

6. The Strange Removal of Boki.
It is very wonderful that in less than fifteen years after the arrival in Hawaii of the Protestant missionaries, the Gospel had gained an unobstructed ascendancy over the whole nation, and that in less than twenty years that ascendancy became thoroughly complete and assured.
We have already described five of a series of very peculiar events, which successively promoted this result, so as to appear as interpositions of the Divine Hand ordering the work.

We now have to note as sixth in order, a most singular event, which made to disappear suddenly the last formidable element of opposition to the teachings of the Missionaries. This was the strange blotting out of Governor Boki from the scene.

Boki was a princely chief of exceptional ability and great force, whose wife, Liliha, was also a princess of strong nature and much fascination. This noble pair had been the chief companions chosen by King Liholiho in his visit to the English Court in 1824. After the sudden death of Liholiho, and their return home in 1825, their superior intelligence and social experience abroad had secured for Boki after the death of his great brother Kalanimoku the highest position in the Government under the Regent Kaahumanu. He became the Governor of the Capital town, Honolulu, with command of the military forces. He was also appointed the Kahu or special guardian of the young King Kauikeaouli, still a tender lad. Occupying these high positions, Boki’s authority and influence were great, and his moral and political attitude grew to the most serious importance.

This personal attitude of Boki rapidly developed into a decided opposition to the influence of the missionaries, and of their ardent friend the Regent Kaahumanu. By 1828, he had become openly allied to the two chief elements of antagonism to the Regent and the missionaries. The leading one of these elements was the combination of lewd and intemperate whites, headed by the British and American Consuls, in order to break down the new laws against prostitution and drunkenness. The other and allied element of political opposition was that of Catholicism, of which Boki and Liliha made themselves the patrons, in opposition to Kaahumanu. Two Roman Catholic priests, Messrs. Bachelot and Short, had landed at Honolulu in 1827. They were very pious and devoted men, but naturally followed the practice of their church in its deadly and destructive opposition to Protestants. This determined their active political alliance to the anti-missionary party.

Quoting Alexander’s succinct account “Meanwhile Governor Boki continued his course of extravagance, intemperance and disloyalty. He set up a tavern on the harbor front, the ‘Blonde Hotel,’ and leased for a distillery a building which Kalanimoku had built for a sugarhouse. To supply sugar-cane for this distillery he leased land in Manoa Valley, but Kaahumanu cancelled the lease, and had potatoes planted instead of cane,

“Instigated by the two foreign consuls, he plotted to destroy Kaahumanu and supplant her as regent. In pursuance of this design, he sounded nearly every high chief in the country without success, and labored in vain to shake the young king’s attachment to the Queen Regent. About the beginning of 1829, he collected armed men at Waikiki, and civil war seemed imminent, when Kekuanaoa, his fellow voyager to England, boldly went alone to his camp, and dissuaded him from his mad designs.”

A very evil additional work of Boki was his misuse of his official influence over the young King to initiate him into the Governor’s own intemperate indulgences, the beginning of habits which became the chief curse of Kauikeaouli’s life.

Meantime the Governor became deeply involved in debt. And in November, 1829, the visit of the U. S. warship “Vincennes,” which strongly supported the laws of Kaahumanu, and the influence of the missionaries, added to Boki’s discouragement.

Just about this juncture, Boki made a great and rash move. The great source of money in Hawaii, sandalwood, had become nearly exterminated. Hearing of an island in the South Pacific which abounded in the precious wood, Boki hastily manned the king’s brig “Kamehameha,” and the “Becket,” the one with 300, the other with 179 men, including nearly the whole company of opposers which he had collected. On December 2d, 1829, they sailed, “touching at the island of Rotuma, where Boki remained four days, and took on board a large number of natives to assist in cutting sandal-wood. The ‘Becket’ lay there ten days longer, and then followed on her way to their destination, which was Eromango, in the New Hebrides.

“Nothing more was ever seen or heard of Boki’s vessel, the ‘Kamehameha,’ and her fate is still a mystery.” The “Becket” lost most of her people by disease and hostile savages, and reached Honolulu after eight months’ absence, with only twenty survivors. Thus suddenly and mysteriously perished the most dangerous opponent of the Gospel in Hawaii.

Liliha continued the opposition of her lost husband. She became the sole chiefish patron of the Catholics during the succeeding years, but her influence upon the nation was nugatory. The work of teaching, printing and preaching the Gospel went forward with accelerating power, and the knowledge of Christ took deep roots in the hearts of the people. The first completed copy of the New Testament in the Hawaiian tongue was bound just in time to be placed in the hands of the dying Regent Kaahumanu in May, 1832. It is one of the present writer’s early memories at the age of five, to have seen that grand woman in her parting hour in Manoa Valley. She left her dear Hawaii already well secured to Christ.

7. The Pentecostal Revival of 1837-8.
We have now to note the seventh and last of that remarkable series of events, which successively contributed to the rapid and early conquest of the Hawaiian nation by the Gospel of Christ, and determined the permanent occupation of this central island group by that Gospel, making it a Christian land.

After the singular removal in Nov., 1829 of the last formidable element of opposition by the strange disappearance of Governor Boki, the work of evangelization and education rapidly progressed among the very receptive people under the fostering support of Queen Kaahumanu and her fellow-chiefs. Added to the vigorous agencies of preaching and publishing was in 1831 supplied a High School for natives at Lahainaluna, where for 45 years, youth were trained in their own tongue in a higher literary education. Many of these in a few years, went forth to become efficient instructors in the common schools, and some of them to be preachers of the Gospel.

During the next seven years, large reinforcements came from home to swell the ranks of the earlier missionaries, including such notable names as Alexander, Armstrong, Lyons, Dibble, Baldwin, Lowell Smith and Coan. A great campaign was in progress, and the Home churches kept the ranks filled with men of power and ardor to support the veterans Bingham, Thurston, Richards and others.

Churches were organized throughout the group, and numbers of promising and earnest converts were baptized and admitted to church fellowship. Up to 1837, the total number of admissions to the church during twelve years had been 1131. But during the three succeeding years, such was the marvelous outpouring of Divine Power that 19,773 were added, or nearly one-sixth of the entire population, while a majority of the adults were unreliable though enthusiastic candidates for church fellowship. The whole nation seemed to press in one body into the fold of the Lord. Enormous congregations everywhere gathered to hang in deep emotion upon the words of the preachers- The entire population for over a year were stirred to their depths.

The result of this mighty Revival was overwhelming upon the national belief and character. Hawaii became at once a thoroughly Christian Nation, completely converted from its decrepit and infecting heathenism to an ardent and devout loyalty to the Gospel of the Redeemer. Practically for a. whole generation the old vile heathenism remained submerged and the whole community lived under a preponderant ascendency of Christian faith and Christian ethics, however imperfectly the latter were practiced in their lives.

This vital regeneration in the hearts of the people began at once to bear fruit in their political life. Under the earnest leadership of King and Chiefs civilized Christian Law began to take shape. Free and just government at once began to displace what had been arbitrary and oppressive. A Liberal Parliamentary Constitution became established and developed during the succeeding ten years. Courts became fully organized. Lands were assigned in fee simple to both chiefs and common people. Justice and security displaced oppression and despotism.
Thus in ten years after the great Pentecostal Regeneration of the Hawaiian nation, a full Christian Civilization had taken completed form resulting in the complete recognition by the Great Powers of the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent Nation. And in less than thirty years from the first inception of missionary labor, there stood strongly planted in this mid-Pacific a thoroughly Christian State, in the forefront of the great American Christian Civilization, which was beginning to occupy in force the Pacific coast and confront the vast Asiatic Empires of Japan and China. On Hawaii, a point of priceless strategic value had by special Divine Mercy, been occupied in advance to represent to the commerce of the Orient that enlightened American Christianity.

Solitary but central in this vast Pacific, Hawaii stands a bright representative of American Christianity, Civilization and Political Life to confront the mighty Orient with those new elements of Occidental Life. May we not discern beyond a doubt, how Hawaii was specially reserved by a great Divine Purpose, protected and nourished so as in the ripeness of time to fulfill this grand object? The mission of Hawaii on this western boundary of Christendom is indeed a noble and conspicuous one. A loft inspiration here lends itself to the Lord’s people to fulfill a worthy destiny.

Rev. Henry Ho‘omanawanui – Independent Evangelist

edwindwight Christian History of Hawai‘i, Opukaha‘ia - Henry Obookiah
Hoo photoTHE REV. HENRY HO‘OMANAWANUI preached a sermon at the graves of the family of Charles Titcomb, the founder of Kilauea Plantation, nearby Kilauea School in the mid-1980s. A gathering at the graves sought to protect them from disappearing, from being dislocated. (photo by Chris Cook)

The Rev. Henry Ho‘omanawanui – Independent Evangelist

(from special Ke Aka -Year of the Hawaiian issue published in The Garden Island newspaper, Lihu‘e, Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i in March, 1987.)
by Chris Cook

Rev. Henry T. Ho‘omanawanui’s bloodlines ran back to Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i. The late Nawiliwili resident, who died recently at the age of 74, was a familiar figure at land blessings and other Hawaiian gatherings on Kaua‘i in recent years.

In the weeks before his death, Rev. Ho‘omanawanui related stories about his life, the life of his ancestors, and the coming of Christianity to Hawai‘i.

Rev. Ho‘omanawanui, who labored as an evangelist rather than as a pastor, said he would visit sick Hawaiians, offer personal help to those in need, help people with prayer, and daily walk out his evangelistic mission to Hawaiians and other peoples of Kaua‘i.

Born on the Big Island at Ke‘ei, Kona on Jan. 20, 1913, Ho‘omanawanui was almost 40 old before he became a devoted Christian and began his ministry.

That occurred in 1951 at a Pentecostal meeting at the now long-gone Civic Auditorium on Beretania St. in Honolulu, at a time he was suffering from a number of respiratory diseases.

“I received the Word of God, and turned my life over to Him; the Lord called upon me then,” he said. He studied under Rev. Kahale at the Kawaiha‘o Church in Honolulu and joined the evangelistic “fishermen’s group” at the church.

His first duties as a minister took him to rural Waikane Valley, on O‘ahu’s Windward side, where he spent three months “building a church back up.” Following that, he labored in the ministry at seven other churches on O‘ahu.

Ho‘omanawanui also worked as a stevedore on the docks of Honolulu for 26 years, working for Castle & Cooke, and Hamilton and Renney, before retiring in 1973. He and his wife, Kealoha Davis Ho‘omanawanui, moved to Kaua‘i in 1976. Rev. Ho‘omanawanui was then associated with the late Rev. Elinor Wong and the Church of the Living God.

Following a stint with the Kapa‘a-based branch Church of the Living God, Ho‘omanawanui worked as an independent evangelist.

Looking back at his ancestors and Hawai‘i’s past, Ho‘omanaanui offered insights into the spiritual path Hawaiians have followed since their Polynesian ancestors began their centuries-long trek from Southeast Asia to the islands of the Pacific.

He said all peoples were once under the “one, true God,” but people began to separate and believe in different gods, becoming disobedient to the true God by worshiping idols, and the created, not the Creator.

This disobedience resulted in the building of the Tower of Babel as described in the Bible, he said.

Ho‘omanawanui said that in order to stop early man’s attempt to take over the heavens and the earth, God confused the one language all peoples then spoke.

“All people were disbursed throughout the Earth and the one language they spoke was confused, and changed into many tongues, and the world‘s many races were formed,” he said.

He also claimed that the Hawaiians’ roots are found in the Bible, and that they are one of the lost tribes of Israel.

The elderly Hawaiian minister said the kings of Hawai‘i were related to Jacob, son of the biblical patriarch Abraham, because according to the Bible, all kings come from the womb of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

He compared the wandering of the Polynesians from the Holy Land to the East, and on to the Pacific Islands, to the wandering of the Hebrews in the desert under the leadership of Moses. Prophets guided the Hawaiians during their generations-long journey, in the same way Moses led the Hebrews out of their bondage in Egypt, he said.

The man who was perhaps the first Hawaiian – Hawai‘i Loa brought his people to Hawai‘i in a manner similar to Moses, Ho‘omanawanui said.

He said this Polynesian discoverer of Hawai‘i, returned to his homeland, located “in the East” after discovering the Islands, and later returned with his family.

After returning, he said, Hawai‘i Loa named every mountain in the Hawaiian Islands after his children, from Kaua‘i’s Wai‘ale‘ale to the Big Island’s Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.

Ho‘omanawanui said the ability to read stars that navigators aboard the voyaging canoes used to sail to Hawai‘i was a skill similar to a gift the magi, or wisemen, of the Bible had when they were led by a star to the birthplace of the infant Christ child.

He said, as generations passed, the beliefs of the first settlers of Hawai‘i were added to, idols became objects of worship and the belief in only one God became obscured, covered over by beliefs in a large number of gods.

However, Ho‘omanawanui said, within the ancient Hawaiian religion a Christian-like belief in a trinity continued.

“The Hawaiian gods – Kane, Hina and Kanaloa – were the same as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that the “missionaries taught about,” he said.

The New England missionaries.came to Hawai‘i because of the Hawaiian Henry ‘Ōpūkah‘ia who fled a vengeful uncle, and ended up attending a mission school in Connecticut, he said.

He said the Big Island youth who was known as Obookiah in New England, was a relative of his, and a member of the Kamehameha family line.

‘Ōpūkah‘ia’s speeches to churches in New England inspired members of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to send missionaries to Hawai‘i beginning in 1820.

He died at the school before he could return to his homeland, and is buried in Cornwall, Connecticut.

He said just as Hawaiian prophets foresaw the settling of the Hawaiian islands, they also knew beforehand that Christian missionaries were coming to Hawai‘i to tell of the “one true God of the Bible.”

Ho‘omanawanui said an account of such a prophecy was told to him by his grandfather: The event occurred during the time of Kamehameha the Great, to an ali‘i who lived along the beach near Kona on the Big Island:

The ali‘i put a kapu on his village’s main heiau, in preparation for fishing the waters off Kona.

Several large fish were sacrificed on the altar of the temple, and a kapu with a death penalty was placed on the heiau.

When the men set off to fish, two of the ali‘i’s grandsons went into the temple and desecrated it.

Upon discovering what had happened. the ali‘i sorrowfully ordered warriors to hunt the boys down. However, the boys could not be found.

For five days the youths hid in a cave outside the village, miraculously existing without food and water and undetected by the warriors.

On the last day of the boy’s exile. the ali‘i had a prophetic dream, which he asked the priest of the village who served as a prophet to interpret.

The ali‘i told the prophet that he had dreamt of a white child floating in the pastel-colored clouds of a dawn along the Kona coast.

The prophet said the child foretold of the coming of a new revelation of the one true God, who would be revealed to the Hawaiians through the teachings of a white-skinned man. The ali‘i found peace after the prophecy was declared, and said his grandsons could live.

Anticipating the new revelation, the ali‘i destroyed the idols he worshiped, and ended the practice of the old Hawaiian religion in his village.

The young boys returned that day, and within the year missionaries arrived, telling of Jesus, a white-skinned man.

Ho‘omanawanui said the cause of the loss of the land by the Hawaiians is their turning away from the true God.

“The Hawaiians have been disobedient, like the lsraelities. However, I believe if we can put our heads together and worship the true God He will open the way. Only God is able to do that.”

(editor’s note: Ho‘omanawanui means to practice patience.)

1832 Revival at Waimea, Kaua‘i

edwindwight Christian History of Hawai‘i, Waimea, Kaua‘i

1832 Revival at Waimea, Kaua‘i – Missionary Herald, Boston November 1833

Extracts of a letter from Peter Johnson Gulick, written on the island of Kaua‘i to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Boston. At the time the first major revival in the Hawaiian Islands was underway at Waimea on the westside of Kaua‘i. It would another five years until the Great Awakening of Hawai‘i reached the Big Island in 1837 led by the preaching and evangelism of Titus Coan.

Special Attention to Religion at the Station.
Oct. 25, I832. Early in May an increase of the spirit of prayer was evident in the members of our native church. They began to assemble at the dawning of the morning for united supplications at the throne of grace. And so anxious were some to be in season, that they would rise up “a great while before day.” At first their meetings were weekly, or at least at intervals of some days; but finally, of their own accord, they were held daily, and this, too, before they had heard of the morning prayer-meetings in America. Their separate locations rendering it inconvenient for them to assemble in one place, at our suggestion they met in small companies as circumstances favored. A number of persons who had apparently been a long time under conviction, seemed now to assume a more decided character. Previous to the 2Ist of May, when we embarked to attend the general meeting, fifteen individuals of this class afforded pleasing evidence of a change of heart.

On our return to this place, June 29th, the operations of the Holy Spirit were manifest, and a few interesting cases of hopeful conversion had occurred during our absence. As soon as I had opportunity to converse individually with the inquirers, the number of whom was considerable, I found there was a depth and pungency in their convictions, which I had never before witnessed at the islands, except in a few cases. And for the space of two months the work continued to increase, both in power and extent. Indeed we have most cheering evidence that the Spirit of God is still in the congregation, for new cases of conviction, apparently deep and thorough, occur daily. We have reason, however, to fear that the work upon the conscience, is somewhat less powerful now, than it was a month since. The most striking scenes have been witnessed in the room from whence I address yon. Here I received the anxious inquirers, one by one; and although every thing calculated to excite sympathy was carefully avoided, still for two days in succession my room was literally a bochim (the place of weeping). Some of them entered the room weeping, and were for a while apparently unable to utter a word, or to think of any thing except their own fearful condition. Others, after a few words of conversation, would burst out into aloud and passionate crying, like little children in deep distress. Some were seized with a kind of convulsive trembling; and in a few cases, overcome by their feelings, they fell prostrate on their faces, and lay for a length of time weeping in a most affecting manner. And what, in my estimation at least, renders this work the more remarkable is, that many of these very persons, who now felt so deeply, have for years been in the habit of hearing the most solemn and alarming truths in the Bible, without the least apparent emotion.

But now, without any special cause of excitement or alarm from us, they are thus deeply affected. Our public assemblies, however, have been still, and solemn, and remarkably attentive to the messages which were delivered. Persons from almost every part of the island have been brought to a sense of their lost condition, and are now rejoicing in hope. From the pagan priest down to the humblest devotee of superstition, all classes, and every age, except the very young, have felt (as we are fully persuaded) the sacred influences of the Holy Spirit. Among them may be seen the decrepit, the blind, and the deaf; persons whose heads are white, and their limbs feeble with age; and one at least, who was an adult when captain Cook visited these Islands, and several others who appear to be as old as he. Indeed there are many, now numbered with the converts, who were so besotted by a long continuance in their heathenish state, and whose faculties were so benumbed by age, that at times we were | ready to doubt whether enough of divine I truth could be communicated to their understandings to effect the sanctification of their hearts. But our unbelief is silenced.

One of those who wept aloud in the most passionate manner, had previously obtained hope; and to the question, why do you weep? replied, “It is the recollection of my sins.” Another, not less affected, in reply to the same question said, “It is the great love of Christ.”

You may desire to know what means have been and are used for the advancement of the Redeemer’s kingdom here. You will have learned from other sources, that since early in May the care of this station has devolved on me, Mr. Whitney having left at that time for Oahu, and being subsequently appointed on the deputation to the Society and Washington Islands. Previous to his embarkation, he spent one Sabbath and preached two sermons here, from which several date their first serious impressions. One of these discourses was a funeral sermon for Kaahumanu, the other a farewell address. While my health permitted, (which was only a few weeks,) we had a lecture on Wednesday afternoon,two sermons on the Sabbath, and some attention was paid, during the intermission of public worship at noon, to the Sabbath-school. We had also a daily prayer-meeting (except on the Sabbath and Wednesday,) which was established in July, and has been sustained with the assistance of church-members. In this meeting a few verses are sung, a portion of Scripture is read, a few plain and pointed remarks are made, and the service is closed with prayer. We meet near evening, this being the time in which the people are generally at leisure. The numbers attending vary from 500 to 1,200, and average about eight or nine hundred.

I have generally been able to attend this meeting myself. Native members assist in the prayers and in conversations, especially one man named David, who appears to be humble, and to possess an extraordinary knowledge, for one in his circumstances, of the human heart.

Owing to my ill health, I have found it necessary to direct the inquirers to go first to David; and those whom he supposes to be thoroughly awakened, are sent to me at appointed seasons; to others, he gives such directions as he deems appropriate from the New Testament, pointing them to some particular passage.* By this arrangement my own labor has been chiefly bestowed where I judged it was most needed. When 1 consider the means used, or rather the want of means, humanly speaking, to carry on the work, I am constrained to feel that it is the work of God, not of ourselves; and to exclaim, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.”

*This method I suggested, and have also pursued it pretty constantly myself. After convening a little while I usually dismiss them with their attention directed to a passage of Scripture. Both in public and in private we have endeavored to persuade them to read the word of God much, and to study and pray lunch over it; assuring them that it would he more useful to them, than going about to converse with their neighbors, and that if they were Christians they would prefer this employment.
they may be entitled to it on its first arrival. Others again, who have worked for us, have refused to take their wages, being determined to have us indebted to them when the Testament shall arrive.

During two months of the summer, Mr. Gulick was favored with the medical skill and Christian counsels of Doct. Chapin, which are thankfully acknowledged in the letter.

Our people manifest a high regard for the word of God; and those whom we consider pious, appear cordially to engage in every duty which they believe it enjoins upon them. They are very eager to possess the New Testament in one volume. It is now all in print, but in five detached ports. So anxious are many who have all the parts, to have it in one bound volume, that they take off the covers from the Gospels printed in American, and embodying the several parts, make the old covers, enveloped in a half-dressed kid skin, serve for the whole. Others, hearing that an edition of the whole is ere long to be printed, are anxious to deposit money with us beforehand, that in the middle of July, a society was formed in this congregation, consisting of church-members, and persons propounded, whose object it is to assist the needy in our own vicinity, and aid in disseminating the Scriptures and publishing them among the destitute. A strong propensity to trust in works having formerly been manifested here, it was deemed not advisable to propose the subject to any other than the above-mentioned persons. A few serious persons, however, in the neighborhood, having heard what was doing, and desiring to contribute, were not refused. From the free-will offerings of the society, in paddles, mats, kapas, fowls, turkeys, pigs, &c., with a little money, fifteen dollars in cash have been realized, and produce to the value of about ten dollars is not yet disposed of. The whole amount will probably be appropriated to the support of the mission to the Washington Islands, should our brethren enter that field.

As I have not seen any thing of intemperance in drinking here, since becoming connected with the station, except in the case of a foreigner or two, (and of late the laws against vending strong drink have been so thoroughly executed that even they could not get intoxicated,) I have made no efforts to establish a temperance society. I have scarce a doubt, but the whole native population of this island would willingly join such a society.

In the year past a new and very substantial meeting-house, in native style, has been erected at this station. It is I55 feet long, by 48 broad, with seven double doors, each eight feet wide and ten high; made—nails, hinges, and all—and hung, entirely by natives.

We would gratefully acknowledge the kindness and courtesy we have experienced from the only ship-masters, who have touched here this fall; viz. capt. T., of ship Cadmus of New Bedford; and capt. B. of the Ann of Nantucket. Their conduct was obliging and friendly throughout. Capt. T. informed us, that last spring he touched at Nukuhiva, one of the Washington Islands, where he was very kindly received, and obtained plenty of fresh provisions on reasonable terms. He said, moreover, that Kapne, the king’s guardian, urged him to use his influence with his countrymen to procure missionaries for that island; and said if they would come, he would build them good houses, take off the tabus, and in short do every thing to render them comfortable. Capt. T. had also the testimony of a capt. B., of New Bedford, who, being ill, had left his ship and spent a month, or more, on that island. He said that although he was entirely in their power, their conduct towards him was uniformly the most kind and obliging imaginable.

Nov. 2. Since the preceding pages were written, 60 persons, many of them newly awakened, have been conversed with by Mr. Bingham, and myself. Mr. Bingham, having heard of the state of our congregation, and the urgent need of more laborers at this time, arrived here night before last, and is now engaged conversing with the anxious. He just now remarked, that he did not see how the present state of feeling could be accounted for, without attributing it to the Spirit of God. Indeed the divine sovereignty has been strikingly displayed I in some cases that have occurred here. Persons come from distant and almost inaccessible parts of the island, where I have good reason to believe the gospel was never proclaimed by an ambassador of Christ, most deeply distressed from a sense of their sins. Frequently they can give no definite account of the origin of their convictions; I but as they often express it, they were j afraid on account of sin, and their soul and : body trembled; therefore they come here to inquire after salvation. And numbers, when they have obtained hope, take up their abode in our vicinity, and hiring their relatives also. Enough, however, is manifest in this dispensation of mercy to convince us, that the dealings of God toward this people do not release Christians from their obligations to ‘preach the gospel to every creature.’ For a vast majority of the cases of conviction and hopeful conversion are found at this station and one other place, where nearly all the missionary labor that has been bestowed. And I may add, that for these two places (the latter being an hour’s ride east of us) and for villages from I one to three hours nearly west, the labors of three evangelists are urgently needed, : and, for aught I can see, are likely to be so I a long while to come.

I did hope to be able to speak, before closing this, somewhat definitely concerning the numbers awakened, and the hopefully converted during this season of refreshing; but it is scarcely practicable in the present state of the work.
The use of tobacco, has been greatly diminished at our station, but is still a nuisance, the extermination of which demands, and we intend shall receive, more systematic and vigorous efforts from us.

Nov. 5. When the preceding sentence was penned, I supposed my letter was about finished, but the increasing interest in eternal things manifested in the congregation, it constrains me to add a few words. Yesterday morning Mr. Bingham preached; the house was crowded; the audience nearly 3,000, and attentive and solemn.

The transactions of yesterday seem to have given a new impulse to the work; and from conversation with some and reports concerning others, we are encouraged to hope, that what we have already witnessed, is but the first fruits of a glorious harvest for the earner of Christ. Deborah, who is now making a visit here, says the people tell her they cannot find secret places for prayer. When they go out on the plain by night, every where they find persons on the same errand. Indeed their circumstances in this respect are certainly very unfavorable; but when the Spirit of God rests upon them, they find both time and place for prayer notwithstanding.

The extracts which follow, are from Mr. Gulick’s journal.
Aug. 22. Maheha, a female, said, “I think I am a brand plucked out of the fire. I have been a murderer. I wished my former husband dead, that I might be married to another.” From further conversation I ascertained it was this secret wish, not an open act, for which her conscience now condemned her. This is one characteristic of the confessions which I have latterly heard; they have, far more frequently than in former times, referred to the state of the mind and heart. The sin of unbelief, procrastination, and others of that class, are more commonly included.

An aged female, in confessing her sins, besides enumerating other gross crimes, said, “I am a murderer. I killed my father by beating him on the head with a wooden vessel.” Another said she had taken the life of her own child. Indeed almost all of them, past middle age, are, by their own account, guilty of the vilest crimes; and many too, who are comparatively young, are wise to do evil, and old in iniquity. It is enough to chill one’s blood to hear their confessions; and still more painful, to reflect on the state of society which these indicate.

It may not be improper to say a word with regard to the character of the sermons, which nave been delivered within the last six months. Repentance and faith are the duties, which I have always endeavored to make prominent, urging upon all their obligations to the immediate performance of these; at the same time aiming so to deliver the messages of salvation, that at the close of each, I could honestly say concerning my hearers, I have preached Christ unto them.

In our daily meeting for religious exercises, the Gospel by John was read in course; and the remarks on the occasion were confined to those passages which speak most explicitly of Christ and the duty of all to believe in and obey him. This also has been the nature of the texts, almost constantly selected for the Sabbath and Wednesday. The thought has sometimes occurred to me, “Your people will get tired of hearing the same things in substance continually, and perhaps in consequence neglect the house of God, and the means of grace.” But the answer was always at hand; “Very few of the people have yet repented and submitted to Christ, and until they have they will do nothing else with the right spirit; nothing that will avail them at the judgment seat of Christ.”

Thus it seemed necessity was laid upon me, whether they would near or whether they would forbear, to insist chiefly upon these great themes. Accordingly, when Joshua’s resolution has been the text, I have endeavored to impress it upon the hearers that, if they would imitate Joshua, they must begin with repentance, and every duty must be done with a believing heart.

Mr. Bingham has spent a week with us, and has been instant in labors, in season and out of season; and I doubt not some, I hope many, will have occasion to bless and praise our dear Redeemer throughout eternity for sending him here, and aiding him by his Spirit on this occasion.

We are very anxious to obtain cuts to aid in making school-books for this people; and had I time to write, I believe I should urge you to call on the benevolent in our beloved country, to remember the poor islanders in this particular.

Special Providences in the Christianization of Hawaii – Part 1

edwindwight Christian History of Hawai‘i, Opukaha‘ia - Henry Obookiah

Special Providences in the Christianization of Hawaii – Part 1

A series of seven articles under the heading “Special Providences in the Christianization of Hawaii” was written by missionary son Rev. Sereno E. Bishop. The series appeared in the January through August 1904 issues of The Friend newspaper published in Honolulu. Bishop served as editor of The Friend from 1888 through 1902. The Friend was founded by the Rev. Samuel Damon in 1843 as a Christian periodical with a temperance theme published for seaman ashore at the port of Honolulu. Damon was the chaplain of the Seamen’s Bethel in downtown Honolulu.

Henry Obookiah-‘Ōpūkaha‘ia is a key figure in Bishop’s articles. Bishop considered Henry as one of the Special Providences that led to the Gospel coming to Hawai‘i.

Sereno Edwards Bishop (1827-1909) was the son of the Rev. Artemas and Elizabeth Bishop. The Bishops arrived in Hawai‘i in April, 1823 as members of the Second Company of the Sandwich Islands Mission. His parents were stationed at Kailua-Kona on the Big Island and Sereno was born in 1827 at the village of Ka‘awaloa, on the point of land on the north side of the entrance to Kealakekua Bay.

Sereno Bishop’s writing reflects his long-life in Hawai‘i. He witnessed first-hand many of the changes Christianity brought to Hawai‘i, the development of sugar cane plantations, the importation of workers from Asia, Portugal and other foreign nations. And he lived through the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and the annexation of Hawai‘i leading to the Islands becoming a Territory of the United States.

By Rev. Sereno Edwards Bishop, D.D., of Honolulu
(From the January, 1904 issue of The Friend)

The writer proposes to specify and describe a series of peculiar events, all of which contributed and combined to produce the singular success which attended the introduction of Christianity into the Hawaiian Islands. Many of these circumstances were such as were unlikely to occur. Altogether they were so numerous, and so tended to the accomplishment of one result, that they may well be regarded by Christian believers as constituting a chain of very marked special providences, which were divinely intended to secure firmly this important strategic position as a possession of enlightened Christianity for the furtherance of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus in this Pacific hemisphere. It is believed to be profitable and important that we should distinctly recognize this peculiar course of divine Providence, and we may begin by noting: —

1. The Strange Providential Delay in the Discovery of Hawaii.
(from January 1904 issue of The Friend)

Hawaii was first made known to the world through its discovery by the famous explorer, Captain James Cook, who on his voyage from Bolabola (Borabora) to Alaska visited Kauai in January, 1778, and on his return first saw the Island of Hawaii in December of the same year. From that time forward, the group was frequently visited, and speedily became of commercial importance. Before 1820 a considerable trade had become established with China, Mexico, and the northwest coast of America. There was also a large whaling fleet visiting these ports. In fact, no port of equal commercial importance existed in the central or northeastern Pacific.

In view of so rapid a commercial development after discovery, it must be considered strange that the existence of so central and important a group remained unknown until so late a date as 1778. All the other groups inhabited by the Polynesian race had long been known to the world. For over 250 years the Spanish galleons had been crossing the North Pacific annually both •ways between Mexico and the Philippines, Hawaii lying in a direct line between the two countries. Alexander is doubtless correct in his statement (“History,” p. 100): “These islands did not lie in the track of the Spanish galleons, for on leaving Acapulco they steered southwesterly so as to pass far .to the south of them, and on their return voyage they sailed northward till they reached thirty degrees of latitude, and then ran before the westerly winds till they approached the coast of North America. This was fortunate for the Hawaiians, who thus escaped the sad fate of the natives of the Ladrone or Marianne Islands.”

But this “fortunate escape” must have been an extremely narrow one, for we learn from the same accurate historian that in December, 1527, one of Saavedra’s squadron was doubtless wrecked on the western coast of Hawaii. Also in the year 1555, Juan Gaetano actually discovered Hawaii, Maui, and three smaller islands, which he named respectively, La Mesa, La Desgraciada, and Los Monjes, by which names they appeared on Spanish charts, but located ten degrees too far east.

The Spaniards carefully kept silence about their discovery of Hawaii, but for some unknown reason suffered 220 years to pass without seeking to gain further knowledge of this group. This neglect of the Spaniards was a most singular and almost unaccountable fact, but their failure to explore and occupy Hawaii must be deemed a fact of inestimable advantage to the commercial, and especially to the religious, future of these islands.

One may perhaps conjecture that by 1555 Spain was too much occupied in consolidating her existing conquests on the Pacific not to postpone any additional labors of that kind, and that her political depression following the destruction of the Armada finally incapacitated her from looking in the direction of Hawaii, so that all she could do would be to maintain a long silence upon the existence of so possibly important a strategic point. May it perhaps be true that the destruction of the Spanish Armada was the salvation not only of England and of Protestantism in Europe and America, but also saved Hawaii from being early wrecked by Spanish tyranny and the Spanish Inquisition?

At any rate, Hawaii and its people were saved from a most disastrous fate. One may imagine that fate by reading Kingsley’s “Westward Ho !” with its ghastly pictures of the maltreatment of the Indians around the Caribbean, or Prescott’s “Conquest of Mexico” and “Conquest of Peru.” Hawaii was mercifully spared the invasion of the Spaniard, with his merciless warriors and even more cruel priests. The bitter and relentless popery which cursed Spanish America never entered Hawaii. The tortures and burnings of the Spanish Inquisition failed to be established in these happy isles, although when Cook landed at Kealakekua its racks and fires were in full activity in every Spanish province of the Pacific coast, from Chili to Mexico.

It certainly was a marvelous advantage that Hawaii was preserved untouched and unknown, a virgin land, until the Spanish power had become decrepit, and the Pacific had begun to be occupied by English and American commerce. Beyond the native idolatry, which that commerce soon brought into disrepute among the simple-minded islanders, there was no obstacle barring out the pure religion of Christ. Especially was there no stern popery and its inquisition to prohibit and burn the Holy Bible. Hawaii was preserved apart until the very eve of the day when Protestant lands were to awake to their privilege of sending abroad missionaries of Christ to heathen lands.

In this wonderful preservation of this strategic center of the Pacific for gospel conquest, one is led to discern a special divine Providence, which was followed by a remarkable succession of other events all working to the same result.

2. The Consolidation of Government by Kamehameha.
(from February 1904 issue of The Friend)

Next in order, we must be impressed by the immense advantage for the gospel conquest of Hawaii secured by the complete suppression of the disorders of war, and the thorough establishment of orderly government in Hawaii by the great conqueror, Kamehameha.

Long prior to the discovery in 1778, and for twenty years after, the disturbances and ravages of internecine wars in Hawaii constituted a destructive condition, which, if continued, would have been most untoward for the propagation of the gospel among them. Moral, mental, and social culture require public order and peace, as much as garden and grain crops require fencing and shelter. The inroads of murderous hordes of warriors must be as fatal to all such culture and progress as the trampling of a herd of buffaloes would be to prairie farming, or of swine to a vegetable garden. The wonderfully rapid growth of Christian faith and education, which in twenty years transformed the Hawaiian nation, would have proved impossible under the warlike conditions which prevailed before Kamehameha’s conquest.

An illustration of such impediments is notable in the long delayed progress, forty years later, in Christianizing the Gilbert Islands, where the people were frequently at war and cruel invasions arose between the islands. Little thorough or efficient progress was accomplished until the strong hand of Great Britain enforced order and law. Just so it was the powerful grasp of Kamehameha which reduced the whole Hawaiian people into quiet and orderly subjection.

In view of the propitious order and peace which for twenty years before the arrival of Christianity in Hawaii had, under Kamehameha, succeeded ages of warfare, we seem justly to recognize in him a remarkable instrument of God’s providence raised up to “prepare the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight.” It seems as truly so as when Cyrus was raised up to deliver Israel from Babylon, or Caesar to reduce the world into peace for the coming of the Christ.

Not long after the discovery of Hawaii in 1778, Kalaniopuu died. After much warfare Kamehameha became the most powerful of the chiefs of the great island. But violent and destructive wars ensued from 1782 to 1791, before he became master of the whole of that island on the death of Keoua, the king of Kau. Although that event was accomplished by treachery, it secured the first consolidation of government on the island.

Three more years, however, followed of violent warfare with Kahekili, the king of Maui, after whose death, in 1794, Kamehameha ravaged and subdued Maui and Molokai with the aid of guns and powder handled by the skill of his white lieutenants, John Young and Isaac Davis. Meanwhile the benevolent explorer Vancouver had vainly sought to mediate between the warring chieftains and negotiate lasting peace. Kamehameha was firmly determined on complete conquest of the group.

In 1795 Kamehameha seized a most favorable opportunity and invaded Oahu. The battle of Nuuanu Valley completed the conquest of the group, the king of Kauai tendering submission. This final conquest of Oahu owed much to a favorable juncture, due to the brutish folly of the king Kalanikupule, which disarmed his forces at the critical time. But still more was due to the martial vigor and skill of Kamehameha, who used to the best advantage the guns and powder of the foreigners, and pursued a determined line of policy with a steadfast purpose.
And Kamehameha was not only a victorious warrior; he was also a wise and efficient statesman. He did not merely beat down and destroy the enemies of his supremacy in the group; he also established and consolidated a high degree of quiet and wholesome order.

While despotic, he proved in the main a wise and beneficent ruler. With a strong hand he suppressed violence, murder, and brigandage. He encouraged labor and improvements of roads, water courses, and fish ponds. The people lived in peace, and enjoyed much of the fruit of their labors. Trade flourished. Foreigners were protected and resided in Hawaii in security. It was a marked indication of this king’s superior nature that he accepted the advice, and even reproofs, of such white assistants as Young, Davis, and Parker, and that they were content to spend their lives in his service.

Thus a completely strong and healthy condition of public affairs had been maturing for twenty years before death ended this remarkable reign. When the gospel came, it found the Hawaiian nation living in peaceful order and quiet, without thought of revolt. They were thus prepared to give hospitable reception to the new and beneficent light. A wonderful preparation had been accomplished for the planting of Christianity. In Kamehameha an extraordinary instrument had been provided for this work. He stands as one of a marvelous chain of special provisions for a speedy conquest of Hawaii by the gospel.

(Bishop wrote of seven areas of providence in the Christianization of Hawai‘i, watch for additional posts of his series that appeared in The Friend newspaper.)