292 KAIKIOEWA AND MR. WHITNEY'S TOUR ROUND KAUAI. waloa and Kailua; and having sailed fifty miles that day, put in at Kalahiki, preached to the people, rested till two o'clock the next morning, then, with a land breeze, reached Kealakekua at day-break, and Kailua at ten o'clock. Thus he performed a journey of about 300 miles in a period of four weeks, preaching thirty times. Of the state of the people of the islands, he wrote: "Wherever schools are established, the Sabbath is observed; all work is laid aside on that day, together with every kind of diversion. The people assemble for prayer wherever there is a teacher capable of leading in that exercise, and for hearing such remarks as the teacher, or some other person present, is capable of making. Drunkenness is suppressed by law. In my whole tour I saw but one man intoxicated, whereas, two years since, it was a most common thing to see whole villages given up to intemperance." Such a readiness on the part of the 60,000 inhabitants of that island, to receive the instructions of a missionary, and such pleasing signs of their attempt to reform themselves and one another, were truly wonderful, and seemed to require, not merely the utmost efforts of four missionaries stationed on that large island, but of ten times that number, to lead the mass, at once, to acknowledge Christ, and to rise to the elevated standing of an intelligent, Christian, prosperous people. In April, 1826, Kaikioewa made a tour around his island, Kauai, accompanied by Mr. Whitney and others. The governor set out with zeal to instruct the ignorant people, and in every village, addressed them on the subject of avoiding a course of folly, sin, and ruin, and turning to the Lord. Mr. Whitney preached the Gospel in almost every village of that island, at the same time, and supposed that about four-fifths of the population listened more or less to the word of salvation in the course of this tour. About six hundred were connected with the schools, a large part of whom were reading translated and published portions of Scripture. The governor sometimes rode upon a large white mule, and might easily be imagined to resemble one of the Judges of Israel. The company sometimes travelled by land and sometimes by water, exposed occasionally to danger from the roughness of the way, or their unsafe mode of conveyance. In some places the people seemed eager to hear and understand the doctrines of Christ, and were hardly willing to let the preacher pass on till they had individually grasped his hand, either to testify their regard to him or to receive his to themselves, after he had, with pleasure, delivered his message. At one place, the people seemed afraid to look upon the speaker while the governor was addressing them. But when the missionary appealed to them, saying, "Fear not, for behold we bring you glad tidings," the two or three hundred adults took courage, and ignorant and fearful as they were, like untutored children, raised their eyes and KEAWEAMAHI AND KAAHUMANU'S EXAMPLE. 293 appeared interested. Among them was a Hawaiian Albino, having a white skin, light eyes, and flaxen hair and eyebrows, whose dress, language, and manners, differed not at all from those of the common natives. His father and mother were both believed to be natives. At another place, he found a man, who had formerly been employed by the chiefs to seize human victims for sacrifice, a service for which he had qualified himself, so that, like a tiger, he would leap upon his unguarded prey and break his bones. This staunch murderer and caterer for the bloody gods of the last generation, was now willing to shake hands with a Christian missionary, and hear the commands, warnings, and invitations of the Gospel. Keawe amahi, the wife of the governor, said she wanted to hear the chief say more about Christ and his cross, and less about Kauikeaouli, the king. On the tour, the missionary said to her, "I am tired of your smoking." She pleasantly inquired, "Is it forbidden in the Scriptures ?" "No, but you make it a sin by using it to excess," was the reply. "Here is my pipe," she said, relinquishing it and presenting it with a smile-"I will smoke no more." Others soon followed her example, and many were reclaimed from this useless, costly, filthy habit. The governor, in his zeal, not only exhorted the people to turn to the Lord, but from many, he obtained a promise that they would attend to God's Word, and not walk in the ways of their forefathers, but would regard Jehovah as their God. The efforts for reform which Kaahumanu felt it necessary to make herself and to encourage others to make among the people of the land, in their ignorance, barbarism, and pollution, were not small. The reform desired, it was obvious, could not be effected by the civil power alone, even if the rulers had been united. The heart of the people needed to be moved by moral suasion. They needed to be taught the reasonableness of reform, and the duty of yielding to the Divine commands, and the more so because some of the chiefs were still opposed to God's claims. She already knew that something higher, safer, and better than the will of a mortal ruler was required in order to the preservation of peace. She knew enough of the enmity, turpitude, and malignity of the human heart, and its tendencies to evil, to satisfy her that it could not be materially mended by the arbitrary will alone of an earthly superior; nor could she expect the simplest law for the check of immorality would be quietly submitted to by the mass, without the aid of moral suasion more extensively applied than it had been. She, therefore, not disheartened by opposition, undertook journeys for the benefit of the people, and availed herself of such assistance as she could command in imparting instruction, and bringing the Divine word to bear on the heart and conscience of the people. Sometimes, several native 294 KAAHUMANU'S JOURNEY ROUND OAHU. teachers and Christian chiefs accompanied her; and sometimes others in the character of learners, both friends and servants. Often she had a missionary in company, not only to encourage her directly in her labor, but to do the work of an evangelist and superintendent of schools, day by day. The labors, on these tours, therefore, were, in an important sense, a repetition, or continuation of the means among the mass, which had been blessed to the few who had been led to feel and acknowledge their importance. In July and August, 1826, after the obstruction by the Dolphin and other opposing forces, the queen, having matured her plan to gain more than had been lost by the infraction of the tabu, accomplished the tour of Oahu, and had opportunity in the course of a month, to see and address in person, a large part of the population of the island, giving her teachers opportunity to do the same. Her sister, Lydia Namahana, with her husband, Gideon Laanui, accompanied her. Availing myself of the facilities thus afforded for our work, I made the tour with them, employing a month to good advantage, giving my attention chiefly to preaching, and the care and establishment of schools, and reading the Scriptures. Having completed a translation of the Gospel according to Matthew, I took it with me, daily reading portions of it to the people, and completing the reading thus, during the tour. Several horses, two wagons, and two canoes, constituted the principal accommodations, as vehicles for parts of the company, much of the way. Most of the company travelled on foot, some making the whole circuit, of about one hundred and thirty miles, and some but smaller portions of it, as we passed round from Honolulu to the east, north, west, and south, then to the east again. This route affords the traveller a variety of fine scenery, grand, picturesque, wild, and beautiful. Small portions of the soil are cultivated, large tracts lie waste, and a large portion of the island consists of mountains from 1000 to 4000 feet high. At Waikiki, the head-men and teachers, and a goodly number of people, assembled about noon, whom the regent, after she had dined, addressed on the design of the present tour, the enlightening of the people in the knowledge of the Word of God, in order that they might submit intelligently to Christian laws, and thus diminish the existing evils of the land. Our company, consisting of 200 to 300 persons, possessed, in fact, the character of a peripatetic or travelling school. Numbers carried their books, and some fifty of them carried their slates and pencils. Those who were able, endeavored to write down the text of every sermon they heard, and to commit it to memory, and sometimes the prominent thoughts, an exercise more needful before than after the publication of the Scriptures among them. Some of the more forward, receiving daily instruction as we travelled on, put their acquisitions to use, and at different places urged on the inhabitants the importance of repentance and reform. |