Hawaiian History

A Missionary's Diary (Page 2)

By Laura Fish Judd

Her Royal Highness dined with us again today. She had been sending in nice things for the table all the morning, but did not seem quite satisfied, kindly inquiring if there was not something the strangers would like, not on the bill of fare. Mr. Bingham remarked, "You have been very thoughtful today." She looked him in the face, and asked with an arch smile, "Ah, is it today only?" No mother's tenderness could exceed hers toward Mr. and Mrs. Bingham. As she is an Amazon in size, she could dandle any one of us in her lap, as she would a little child, which she often takes the liberty of doing.

April 3, 1828. I visited some sick people with my husband - also called on Lydia Namahana, a sister of Kaahumanu. She is not so tall as her royal sister, but more fleshy. I should like to send home, as a curiosity, one of her green kid gaiters; her ankle measures eighteen inches without exaggeration. She is kind and good, and the wife of a man much younger than herself, Laanui, one of the savants of the nation, who assists in translating the Bible. Robert, a Cornwall youth, and his wife, Halakii, reside with these chiefs as teachers. They are exemplary Christians, and have been very useful. I am sorry to say that they are both quite ill of a fever.

Several captains from the whaling fleet have called on us today, who appear very pleasant and friendly. We have also received the compliments of Governor Boki (who was absent on our arrival), requesting an interview at his house at two o' clock p.m. We shook the wrinkles from our best dresses, arrayed ourselves as becomingly as possible, and at the appointed hour were on our way.

The sun was shining in its strength, and we had its full benefit in the half-mile walk to the governor's house. He met us at the gate and escorted us into the reception room in a most courtly manner. There we found Madam Boki, sitting on a crimson-covered sofa, and dressed in a closely fitting silk. She was surrounded by her maids of honor seated on mats, and all wrapped in mantles of gay-colored silk. I counted forty of them, all young, and some pretty. The room was spacious, and furnished with a center table, chairs, a mahogany secretary, etc., all bespeaking a degree of taste and civilization. Madam arose as we were individually presented by name, and curtsied to each. Mr. Bingham was presented with the governor's welcome in writing, wh ich he interpreted to us as follows: "Love to you, Christian teachers, I am glad to meet you. It is doubtless God who sent you hither. I regret that I was at another place when you arrived. - Na Boki."

I did not think he appeared very hearty in his welcome; time, however, will show. As this was our formal presentation to the magnates of the land, several speeches were made by those present. Kaahumanu presented hers in writing, as follows:

" Peace, good will to you all, beloved kindred. This is my sentiment, love and joy in my heart towards God, for sending you here to help us. May we dwell together under the protecting shadow of his great salvation. May we all be saved by Jesus Christ. - NA ELIZABETA KAAHUMANU."

Governor Boki and lady visited England in King Liholiho's suite in 1823. Kekuanaoa, husband of Kinau, a daughter of Kamehameha I, was also of the favored number received at Buckingham Palace. They would grace any court. The best looking man in the group was a son of Kaumualii, king of Kauai. He is a captive prince, as his father was conquered by Kamehameha I, and is not allowed to return to his native island. They all appear deeply interested on the subject of religion, and enter earnestly into every plan for the improvement of the people. The schools are under their especial patronage. Today Mrs. Bingham gave us an account of her first presentation at the Hawaiian court seven years ago. It was at the palace of Liholiho, before any of the natives had visited foreign countries. The palace was a thatched building, without floors or windows, and with a door but three feet high. His Majesty's apparel was a few yards of green silk wrapped about his person. Five queens stood at his right hand, two of them his half sisters. After the three foreign ladies had been introduced, the king remarked to the queen nearest him, "These foreigners wish to remain in our kingdom, and teach a new religion. One of their peculiar doctrines is that a man must have but one wife. If they remain. I shall be obliged to send away four of you.'' " Let it be so,'' was the prompt answer, " let them remain, and be it as you say." This was Kamamalu, who accompanied the king to England two years after, and died in London, whom, being the favorite, he retained as his only wife. The other four are happily married to men of rank. They are all of immense proportions, weighing three or four hundred pounds each. I have been silly enough in my younger days, to regret being so large; I am certainly in the right place now, where beauty is estimated strictly by pounds avoirdupois!

The natives are doing our six months' washing. I have been at the stream to see them. They sit in the water to the waist, soap the clothes, then pound them with smooth stones, managing to make them clean and white in cold water. But the texture of fine fabrics suffers in th is rough process. Wood is scarce, being brought from the mountains, without the convenience of roads or beasts of burden.

Mrs. Charlton, wife of the English consul, and Mrs. Taylor, her sister, called on us today. They have been here but a short time, and are the only white ladies in the place, excepting those of the mission. Mrs. Taylor is particularly agreeable.

Visited again our sick friends, Robert and wife, and fear they are not long for earth, as they appear to be in the first stages of rapid consumption. On our way home we called on our friend Kaahumanu, and found her reclining on a divan of clean mats, surrounded by her attendants, who had evidentl y been reading to her. She was wrapped in a kihei of blue silk velvet. This kihei is a very convenient article, answering for both wrapper and bedspread, and is made of every variety of material. It is as easy here to take one's bed and walk as it was in Judea.

Kaahumanu insists that we shall live with her; she will give us a house and servants, and I must he called by her name. We do not like to refuse, but the plan is thought to be impracticable, so we propose to have her come and live with us. She has a little adopted daughter, Ruth, whom she wishes me to take and educate as my own. There is certainly before us enough, and we need wisdom to choose wisely between duties to be done, and what is to be left undone.

In conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Bingham today, they related some anecdotes of our good queen-mother in former times. Quite a number of chiefs embraced the new religion, were baptized, and received into the Church, before this haughty personage deigned to notice the foreign teachers at all. It was after a severe illness, during which she had been often visited, and the wants of her suffering body attended to, that her manner softened toward them. The native language had been reduced to writing; a little book containing the alphabet, a few lessons in reading, and some hymns had been printed. Mr. and Mrs. Bingham took a copy of this little book and called on her one evening, hoping and praying to find some avenue to her heart. They found her on her mats, stretched at full length, with a group of portly dames like herself, engaged in a game of cards, of which they were passionately fond. This was the first accomplishment learned from foreigners, and they could play cards well before they had books, paper, pen, or pencil.

The teachers waited patiently until the game was finished; they then requested the attention of her ladyship to a new pepa (paper), which they had brought her. (They called cards pepa, the same word applying to books.) She turned toward them and asked," What is it?" They gave her the little spelling book in her own language, explaining how it could be made to talk to her, and some of the words it would speak. She listened, was deeply interested, pushed aside her cards, and was never known to resume them to the day of her death. She was but a few days in mastering the art of reading, when she sent orders for books, to supply all her household. She forsook her follies, and gave her entire energies to the support of schools, and in attendance upon the worship in the sanctuary.

It is no marvel that Mr. and Mrs. B---- looked thin and careworn. Besides the care of her own family, Mrs. B---- boarded and taught English to a number of native and half - caste children and youths. Fancy her, in the midst of these cares, receiving an order from the king to make him a dozen shirts, with ruffled bosoms, followed by another for a whole suit of broadcloth! The shirts were a comparatively easy task, soon finished with the efficient aid of Mrs. Ruggles, who was a host in anything she undertook. But the coat, how were they going to manage that? They were glad to be valued for any accomplishment, and did not like to return the cloth, saying they had never learned to make coats. No, that would not do, so after mature deliberation, Mrs. Ruggles got an old coat, ripped it to pieces, and by it cut one out for His Majesty, making allowance for the larger mass of humanity that was to go into it. Their efforts were successful, and afforded entire satisfaction to the king, who was not yet a connoisseur in the fit of a coat.

A strange scene occurred in the church at the Wednesday lecture of this week. At the close of the usual services, nineteen couples presented themselves at the matrimonial altar, arranged like a platoon of soldiers. As I cannot understand much that is said, I must confine my observations to what I saw. One bride was clad in a calico dress, and a bonnet, procured probably from some half-caste lady who has a foreign husband. The groom wore a blue cloth coat with bright buttons, which, I am informed, is the property of a fortunate holder who keeps it to rent to needy bridegrooms. This coat is always seen on these occasions. Most of the brides wore some article of foreign origin; one sported a nightcap scrupulously clean, but a little ragged, abstracted, perhaps, from the washing of some foreign lady. Another head was bandaged with a white handkerchief, tied on the top of the head in an immense fancy knot, over which was thrown a green veil, bringing down the knot quite on to her nose, almost blinding the poor thing. The scene was so l udicrous I could hardly suppress laughter, especially at the response of " Aye, aye," pronounced loud enough to be heard all over the neighborhood.

There seems to be quite a furor for the marriage service. Mr. Richards, at Lahaina, says he has united six hundred couples in a few months. It is certainly a vast improvement upon the old system of living together like brutes, and it is to be hoped they will find it conducive to much greater happiness. The usual fee to the officiating clergyman is a few roots of taro, or a fowl, a little bundle of onions, or some such article for the table, to the value of twenty-five cents. Cheap matrimony this, even counting the cost of outfit or for the rental of clothes...

April 28, 1828. The grand annual exhibition of all the schools on this island is to be held at the church. Adults compose these schools, as the children are not yet tamed. The people come from each district in procession, headed by the principal man of the land (konohiki), all dressed in one uni form color of native cloth. One district would be clad in red, another in bright yellow, another in pure white, another in black or brown. The dress was one simple garment, the kihei for men and the pa-u for women.

It is astonishing how so many have learned to read with so few books. They teach each other, making use of banana leaves, smooth stones, and the wet sand on the sea beach, as tablets. Some read equally well with the book upside down or sidewise, as four or five of them learn from the same book with one teacher, crowding around him as closely as possible.

The aged are fond of committing to memory, and repeating in concert. One school recited the 103rd Psalm, and another Christ's Sermon on the Mount; another repeated the fifteenth chapter of John, and the Dukes of Esau and Edom. Their power of memory is wonderful, acquired, as I suppose, by the habit of committing and reciting traditions, and the genealogies of their kings and priests.

As yet, only portions of the Bible are translated and printed. These are demanded in sheets still wet from the press. Kaahumanu admires those chapters in Paul's epistles where he greets his disciples by name; she says, "Paul had a great many friends."

The children are considered bright, but too wild to be brought into the schools. We intend, however, to try them very soon.

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