THE QUEEN'S DANGEROUS ILLNESS.

149

the great God and our Savior," she replied, "I think more about him in my sickness." I endeavored to assure her that the blessed Savior who died for sinners could preserve her body and her soul; that he could restore her to health; or, if she trusted in him, he could take her ransomed soul to Heaven, if her body should be laid in the grave. To which she replied, " Maikai," it is well. When prayer was proposed, she gave her full consent, and required a general silence. When I had commended her and the interests of the nation to our great Helper and Deliverer, at the close she subjoined, “ It is well." She united with her husband in requesting us to come again. On the following evening, as we entered the room, her sister, Namahana, said, "Here comes the kahunapule" (master or leader of religious worship)" I hope we shall hear him pray." The sick queen appeared in some measure relieved; but yet not free from anxiety. She seemed gratified by our attentions. After pointing her to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, I was requested by her to pray, before leaving her. At her direction that conversation should be suspended among the group around, there was a solemn stillness (altogether unusual in such an assemblage of natives, chiefs, and foreigners), while a minister of Christ kneeled by the couch of the sufferer, and implored the health-giving mercies of God upon her body and soul. She was soon restored, and with her friends set a higher value on the religion which we were endeavoring to inculcate. There was from this period a marked difference in her demeanor towards the missionaries, which became more and more striking, till we were allowed to acknowledge her as a disciple of the Divine Master.

As

Rarely has a missionary a more favorable opportunity to exert an influence on a whole nation, than was here afforded in the circle of the highest chiefs of these islands, balancing, as they were, between idolatry, atheism, and the service of the true God. Rarely has a Christian female, in any circumstances, a better opportunity to make an impression, powerful and salutary, than in attending a missionary husband at the couch of such a patient, surrounded by such a circle of relatives and dependants. Mrs. B. sat down by the side of the sick queen, and with unfeigned sympathy for her sufferings and danger, bathed her aching temples, she bound a silken cord around her heart, from which I think she never broke loose while she lived. Kaumualii not only desired me to repeat my visits to instruct her and pray for her, but when I requested him to teach her and guide her, he said, "Í have told her some things about God, and I like to tell her what I understand." His rank and weight of character, his abstinence now from profaneness and intemperance, his confidence in the missionaries, and in what he had learned on the subject of religion, enabled him to exert a good influence in his new, though not altogether the most welcome circumstances.

Before the next morning rose, Liholiho, who had revisited Ha

150

VISIT OF THE RUSSIAN EXPLORING SQUADRON.

waii, arrived in the Cleopatra's Barge, and was received in the morning by a salute from the fort, and by the loud wailing of the multitude that might be heard at the distance of a mile or two. He and his wives soon came on shore and repaired to the sick room of Kaahumanu, and with flowing tears expressed their sympathy and affection for their afflicted step-mother. Most of the chiefs gathered around her, fearing commotion, perhaps, in case of her decease.

Commodore Vascilieff, of the Russian Exploring Squadon, in his visit to the islands, this year, besides allowing the aid of his physicians in her illness, treated the rulers and the missionaries very courteously, gained their high esteem, and aided their cause. He read a letter to the king from Governor Reicord of Kamtschatka, favorable to the independence of the islands, proposing to acknowledge the Hawaiian flag. He assured the chiefs he should report to the Emperor Alexander the happy arrival and favorable reception of the mission established there, and the good system of instruction which the missionaries had commenced among the people.

The civility and kindness of the Commodore and his officers to the mission family, manifested in various ways, are well illustrated in the following note, in Russian and English ;

H. Imp. Maj. S. Otkritie, Dec. 19th, O. S. 1821. DEAR SIR-I thank you from all my heart and soul for the opportunity given me and the officers under my command, to be sharers in promoting the business of this Christian mission. The collection of seven golden ducats and eighty-six Spanish dollars I take the pleasure of sending with this letter, of which you will make use as you think proper.

Please to receive our most sincere wishes that your good intention and the glorious design in which you are engaged may be prospered and increased. Remaining, with my respects to you and your respectable society,

"Your humble servant,

"MICHAEL VASCILIEFF."

This was at the time when the Emperor Alexander and Prince Galitzin were so laudably engaged in promoting the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, against which Popes and Jesuits used their intrigues with but too disastrous assiduity.

Kaahumanu being distinctly apprised of what this Russian officer had said and done in favor of our mission, appeared interested, and was encouraged by it to look the more favorably on our cause. We could hardly avoid calling on the patrons and friends of missions to take courage with us in efforts to propagate the Gospel, from the labors and success of some of the rulers of Russia in introducing Christianity into that vast empire, particularly of the grand Princess Olga, in the tenth century, and her royal son Vladimir, who so successfully used his influence to

RUSSIAN INFLUENCE.

151

bring his subjects to the adoption of Christianity, though not in its unobscured glory. How vast the spiritual interests of many millions of souls in each succeeding generation of the Russians! Now a distant but distinct ray of evangelical influence from the Sun of Righteousness, reflected by Constantine VI., who instructed that princess in religion, who, in her turn instructed Vladimir, now reflected again by Vascilieff and his fellow subjects of Alexander, falls on the mind of Kaahumanu and her associates at the Sandwich Islands, combining with the influence of the mission to illuminate and convert the nation to Christ. Of what amazing consequence was it that Kaahumanu should be a believer and advocate of Christianity! Who would not covet the privilege of giving a right impulse to the mind and heart of one so high in rank, possessing her mental powers and occupying a position so favorable for exerting influence over a nation? The Lord had a great work for her to accomplish, and was now recovering her from dangerous illness, and ordering circumstances and applying influences favorable for making her what her Christian friends desired her to be and what she was at length to become—a humble disciple of Christ, and a reformer of her nation.

But, rising from her illness to comfortable health, she was still too proud, too independent, too fond of pleasure, gaiety, honor, and amusement, to take the place of a cross-bearing servant of Christ. Not many rich, not many noble are yet found among the ranks of those who are weaned from earth, and made to fix their hearts on the treasures above. "How can they believe the humbling doctrines of Christ who receive honor one of another?" "How hardly shall they who love earthly riches and distinctions enter into the kingdom of God!" Alas! if the salvation of the ten thousands of the poor Hawaiians were to depend on the reformed and holy life of the licentious Liholiho, or the humble, broken-hearted piety of the haughty Kaahumanu, both of whom, for a time, seemed among the least likely to yield their hearts to the Divine claims, how much reason there was to fear that the nation would sink down together to ruin. He was rapidly wasting the days and energies of his prime by his debaucheries. She, having now been proved to be as vulnerable to the shafts of disease as any of that fading nation, was advancing to the period of threescore years, without appearing to entertain any desire or thought of learning to read the Word of God, and thus making herself wise for eternity. How immeasurably important that, in the case of both, the right kind and amount of moral influence should now be applied!

CHAPTER VII.

THIRD YEAR OF THE MISSION, AND FOURTH OF LIHOLIHO.-1822.

Commencement of writing and printing the language-Invitation to public worship -Excuses-First correspondence in Hawaiian-Illness of the two kings-Visit of the English Missionary Deputation-Kaahumanu burning idols-Tour round Oahu-School in the thatched palace-Introduction of Christian marriage-Introduction of civilized habits-Kaahumanu's visit to Kauai.

SOME notice may be expected of the character of the Hawaiian language, and of the manner of first acquiring and writing it, and making it available in books for the use of the nation, for the purposes of business, education, and religion. It may well be conceived that there were difficulties to be encountered, which are not necessary to be detailed.

The variety of vowel sounds in the language is small; but small as it is, the recurrence of vowel sounds in speaking it, is much more frequent, in proportion to the consonants, than in the English-the proportion in the latter being about two vowels to three consonants, and in the former, three to two.

To one unacquainted with the language it would be impossible to distinguish the words in a spoken sentence, for in the mouth of a native, a sentence appeared like an ancient Hebrew or Greek manuscript-all one word. It was found that every word and every syllable in the language ends with a vowel; the final vowel of a word or syllable, however, is often made so nearly to coalesce or combine with the sound of the succeeding vowel, as to form a dipthongal sound, apparently uniting two distinct words. There are, on the other hand, abrupt separations or short and sudden breaks between two vowels in the same word. The language, moreover, is crowded with a class of particles unknown in the languages with which we had any acquaintance. There were also frequent reduplications of the same vowel sound, so rapid, that by most foreigners the two were taken for one.

To avoid all arbitrary spelling, all silent letters and the representation of the same mono sound by several different letters, and many sounds by the same letter, as in the English, seemed to be due even to the philosophy of the unlettered Hawaiians. To make the spelling and reading of the language easy to the people, and convenient to all who use it, was a matter of great importance, almost indispensable to our success in raising the nation. It was, therefore, a part of our task to secure to the people a perfect

HAWAIIAN ORTHOGRAPHY.

153

alphabet, literal or syllabic, of all the sounds which were then in use, and which would need soon to come into use in the progress of the nation. Those who had attempted to write the names of places and persons in the islands, had materially failed, even in the most plain and common. No foreigner or native, at the islands, could illustrate or explain the peculiarities and intricacies of the language. Though we obtained a few words and phrases from Wm. Moxley and others, we found the dialect in use by foreigners often materially misled us, so that none could be trusted as to accuracy; and it required time to detect and unlearn errors. In the oft recurring names of the principal island, the largest village, and of the king of the leeward islands, "Owhyhee," "Hanaroorah," and "Tamoree," scarcely the sound of a single syllable was correctly expressed, either in writing or speaking, by voyagers or foreign residents. Had we, therefore, followed the orthography of voyagers, or in adopting an alphabet, made a single vowel stand for as many sounds as in English, and several different vowels for the same sound, and given the consonants the ambiguity of our c, s, t, ch, gh, &c., it would have been extremely difficult, if not impracticable to induce the nation to become readers, in the course of a whole generation, even if we had been furnished with ample funds to sustain in boardingschools, all who would devote their time and labor to study.

Have not American philanthropists sufficiently demonstrated, in the course of two centuries, the difficulty of inducing the aboriginal tribes of this continent to use our literature, and is not our anomalous, intricate, and ever dubious orthography a prominent cause of failure? But the philosophical, syllabic alphabet of the sagacious Choctaw GUESS, enabless the men, women, and children of his tribe to read their own language with facility.

Aiming to avoid an ambiguous, erroneous, and inconvenient orthography, to assign to every character one certain sound, and thus represent with ease and exactness the true pronunciation of the Hawaiian language, the following five vowels and seven consonants have been adopted: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w. These twelve letters, and possibly eleven, omitting either u or w, will express every sound in the pure Hawaiian dialect. The power of the vowels may be thus represented :-a, as a in the English words art, father; e, as a in pale, or ey in they; i, as ee or i in machine; o, as o in no; u, as oo in too. They are called so as to express their power by their names-Ah, A, Ee, O, Oo. The consonants are in like manner called by such simple names as to suggest their power, thus, following the sound of the vowels as above-He, Ke, La, Mu, Nu, Pi, We.

The slight variation in quantity, though not in quality, of sound in the vowels requires no mark of distinction, any more than in the variation of the sound of a in the English words art and father. Here the quantity may differ slightly though it is not necessary to put a distinctive mark, or make a different character,