CARDINAL MORAN AND SOUTH SEA MISSIONS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 36, 7 September 1899, Page 3

CARDINAL MORAN AND SOUTH SEA MISSIONS

FAILURE OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN THE

HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO.

The following letter on Protestant missions in the Hawaiian Archipelago, from his Eminence Cardinal Moran, appeared recently in the Sydney newspapers : — The Protestant missions of the United States claim as their missionary field of greatest promise the Hawaiian Archipelago, formerly known as the Sandwich Islands. We may safely apply here the Divine maxim, ' By their fruits you shall know them.' For some years the mission was the exclusive domain of the American Congregationalists, but for the past half-century the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists have been associated with them in promoting the conversion of the natives. According to the last census report as given in the Statesman's Year JJouk for 1899, all these various denominations are comprised under the head of Protestants with 23,773 adherents, whilst the number of Catholics is set down at 26,363.

The Hawaiian capital, Honolulu, is situated on the small island of Oahu, and has many features of interest to attract the tourist. Its wealth of tropical vegetation is unrivalled. In its gardens you find the richest and rarest plants. Its villas, and even the native huts, are hedged by date and cocoanut palms, mango, and orange, candle-nut, or umbrella trees. Mr. Froude, in Oceana, describing his visit to the city in 1885, writes : — ' We walked under flowing acacias, palmettos, breadfruit trees, magnolias, and innumerable shrubs in the glowing bloom of the blossoms. Hibiscus and pomegranate crimsoned the hedges, passion flowers, bougainvilleas, and convolvulus crept up the tree stems or hung in masses on the walls. Even the wooden houses in which the poorer natives lived, mean and featureless as they might be, were redeemed from entire ugliness by the foliage in which they were buried and the bits of garden surrounding them.' Another visitor, Mr. Edward Clifford, in 1889, was enraptured by the delicious streams for ever falling by scores down the green precipices of Hawaii into the blue sea : — ' How lovely that sea is can scarcely be told. One puts one's hand in, and all round it is the softest and most brilliant blue ; below are growths of pure white coral, and among them swim fishes as brilliant as paroquets. Some are yellow, like canaries. Some are gorgeous orange or bright red. I tried to paint a blue fish, but no pigment could represent its intensity. The loveliest of all was like nothing but a rainbow as it sported below me. Groves of cocoanut trees rise from the water's edge. The gardens are rich with roses, lilies., myrtles, gardenia, heliotrope, and passion flowers.'

EXPERIMENTAL CHRISTIANITY.

Three-quarters of a century ago the natives were reckon ed as savages, though they were regarded as endowed with quick intelligence and a peculiar aptitude to be trained to the blessings of civilised life. To-day you meet on every side the signs and tokens of civilisation. Not a few of the natives give proof of thrift, and to a certain extent the dress of modern life sits easily upon them. What adds not a little to the attractiveness of these islands, us an official report drawn up by American physicians has declared the climate is eminently favourable to the health of European settlers.

On March 30, 1820, the first Protestant missionaries from the United States landed at Honolulu. The circumstances of the time were as auspicious as could be desired. From frequent intercourse with trading vessels and foreign ships of war, the king and chiefs had realised the folly of paying worship to sticks and stones, and a few months before the arrival of the missionaries the old system of taboo on which their worship had hitherto been based was abolished, and paganism had practically been set aside. The panegyrist of the Protestant missions, the Rev. Mr. Piersou, in his work The Divine Enterprise of Missions (London, 1892), exultingly exclaims, ' For the first time in history, a nation had flung away a false faith without v new one to replace it, and was without a religion.' The chiefa and people were thus ready to receive with open arms the Protestaut tenets now announced to them.

MORE MINISTERIAL THAN MISSIONARY.

The king, however, appeared for a time to hcaitatc. He wished to have some sign that the religion which was offered was better than that which had just been flung aside, and he asked the missionaries as a test of their religion being true to cast themselves from the top of a precipice into the sea. Thia they very prudently declined. In a few days he relaxed. He easily recognised that great advantages would accrue to his people from the white teachers, not only in matters of religion, but also in commerce and the arts of life. Accordingly they were permitted to open schools and to erect churches. Gradually they required a paramount influence even in the civil administration of affairs. One of them was appointed Prime Minister, another had charge of the Treasury, whilst a third was assigned the administration of justice.j ustice. Having thus the prestige and influence of both Church and State, the Protestantism which they preached was at once accepted by the chiefs, and became without a struggle, almost without an effort, the nominal religion of the whole population. Mr. Jarveß, in his History of Hawaii, tells us that the whole body of natives declared themselves Protestants. 1 The will of the rulers ' (he adds) ' being the will of the populace, the revolution that followed was not surprising, As the weather-

cock is affected by the wind, so was public opinion, at this era, by the example of the chiefs. Providentially they had become Christians.'

A TEMPORARY TRIUMPH.

The Rev. Mr. Brown, in his History of the, Propagation of Christianity Among the Heathen (Edinburgh, 1854), voi. 3, p. 48, also writes :— ' After some time a general desire was manifested by the people to attend to instruction ; the chiefs became interested in the object ; school* were multiplied throughout the islands, and were attended by great numbers of the natives. There were at one period, it is stated, near 1000 schools and upwards of 50,000 scholars, a largre proportion of whom were grown-up persons.' The tidings of this general conversion weie received in the United States with rapfcuroua delight, and the friends of the missionary enterprise resolved to use all their resource* and to put forth all their strength, to complete and consolidate the work so auspiciously begun. The Rev. Dr. Anderson, who was himself a distinguished member of the American Mission Board, relates in his Hawaiian Inlands (Boston, 18(54) that they resolved to spare no effort. 'To achieve the conversion of the Hawaiians. believing that, should it be found possible to complete it in the space of one or two generations, those islands would be a glorious exemplification and proof of the power of tbe Gospel in missions for the encouragement of the Church of God in its efforts for the conversion of the world.' Again he writes : — ' The missionaries were multiplied for the very reason that the nation was small and conveniently situated under one government, and easily accessible. The work was thus pressed onward to a speedy close, that in might be seen and demonstrated what missions, by the blessing of God, might be expected to accomplish.' As regards his own opinion of the results achieved, he state : — ' What we are permitted to see is a glorious triumph of the Gospel through the labours of the missionaries. As to the progress of the nation in Christian civilisation, I am persuaded that the history of the Christian Church and of nations affords nothing equal to it.' (p. 325 and 328).

The promoters of Protestant missions, even to our own day, have not ceased to point to Hawaii as their grandest triumph. The Rev. Dr. Dennis, in Foreign Missions After a Century (London, 189-1), says that the Protestant Church may point to ' the Pentecostal in-gathering at the Sandwich Islands as a token of her Lord's presence, an assurance of His benediction, and a promise of immortal glory through the advancement and triumphs of His kingdom.' The Rev. Logan Aikman, in his Cyclopaedia of Christ i»n Missions, \\ rites that ' perhaps in nc part of the world has the Gospel, in these time?, achieved such hucci sses.' .- o, also, the Rev. Dr.Pierson in Divine Enterprise (p. 82), expresses himself as quite enraptured with the happy change that was effected. He regards it (he says) as *one of the most marvellous triumphs of the Gospel in all modern times,' and he adds :— ' As early as 182.") the Spirit of God moved powerfully on the hearts of the Hawaiians. Inquirers, and then converts, flocked like doves to the churches and in 10 years more the American board thought the beginning of the end of its missionary work in the Hawaiian Islands had been reached. The marvels of the apostolic age seemed to have been reproduced after a lapse of 18 centuries.'

ALL IS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERS.

One of the missionaries. Mr. Coan, conld boa3t of adding to the Church 5000 disciples in one j^<r, and what was still more remarkable, of having 1 sprinkled (such was the phrase for baptism current among those missionaries) as many as 1700 in one day. Mr. Coan's success, however, and Ms manner of sprinkling' soon became a proverbial jest among the European residents in Honolulu. The observance of the Sabbath was regarded as a main test of the conversion of the natives, and, as this was enforced by law, so far as appearances went nothing- could be more complete than the work of convert-ion which had been achieved. ' Every Saturday night the King's crier went round Honolulu, proclaiming that the morrowwas the Sacred Day, and that the people must not plant their gardens, build houses, make canoes, beat cloth, sell sandalwood, shoot birds, or follow any of their games or amusements : but go to the place of worship and hear the word of God ' (Drown, p. 33.)

However, all is not gold that glitters, and bright as the prospects at first were, it was soon found that under the religious aspect the results were not at all so satisfactory. A.s regards the observance of the Sabbath the Rev. Mr. Brown r.-lates that: — 'The Sabbath waa outwardly observed with greater strictness than either in England or America; yet if one followed the na'ives from the house of prayer he would see abundant evidence that very few had any considerable sense of the saendness of the day. He cites the words of Messrs. Thurston and Bishop, missionaries at Kallua^in the Hawaiian group, who wrote : — ' We have no hope that thf majority of families live under any fear of Go<l or have any regard for their souls. He tells us that a grand leligious Protestant revival took place throughout the islands in 1835 and the following years. Nevertheless, he adds, not a few fell away altogeth.tr. They were prone to return to their former heathenish habits, to plunge into open vice, and to throw off at once the profession and the form of religion. Immoralities were becoming more and more prevalent. The low standard of public morality, the little disgrace that attached to practices which, in other countries would be the ruin of character, the looseness of the family contract, and thw grovelling propensities of a rude and sluggish people, were mournful indications of the low state of religion among the mass of the population.' (Page 46.) The schools also, as the same writer adds, proved a failure. ' These native schools were, aa may well be supposed, very defective, and the instruction received in them was of the tnost imperfect kind. Owing to their very number, the missionaries, in consequence of their other engagements, were able to do little in the way of superintending them. The teachers were, in genet al, very ill-qualified for their office ; their own knowledge was scanty, and what little they did know they had no skill in communicating to others ; no proper provision was made for their support, and hence they took

little interest in them ; the immoral conduct of many of them was also a great disqualification, and a source of much trouble.'

A SINGULAR DEMAND FOB BIBLES.

For the Bibles there was a singular demand, or rather, as the missionaries describe it, a rush whenever they were available for distribution. This was interpreted to imply an unparalleled eagerness for the Word of God, and yec the most prudent of the mis eionaries judged it in a different light. The Rev. Mr. Armstrong, who had the charge of distributing the New Testament, writes, in 1836 : — ' What the motives of the people are in thus seeking the Word of God is easy to tell ; certainly it is not, in most cases, the love of truth or righteousness, as their daily conduct shows.' So also the Rev. Mr. Andrews, who was principal of the Hawaiian High School, attests in 1834 : — 'A great circulation of books here does not prove that they are much understood. It is fully believed that were the mission to print off an edition of logarithmic tables, there would be just as great a call for it as for any book that has been printed. The truth is a palapala (book) ; it is all new to them, and all considered equally good. They have been told that the perusal of these and similar books constitutes the difference between them and ourselves ; that they are able to make people wise ; and what is still more, most of our books we are able to call the Word of God.'

The missionary rule gradually degenerated into a tyranny, and became particularly distasteful to the foreigners who, in considerable numbers, began to settle in Honolulu. Complaints were made and freely circulated to the effect that the missionaries were too intent on worldly gsin, that they appropriated to themselves the richest lands in the islands and built up fortunes on the misery of the poor natives. As early as September 15, 1832, an English resident in Honolulu writes to the Literary Gazette, complaining that the natives were treated harshly, whilst one of the leading missionaries had already amassed 20,000 dollars' worth of property. He adds that the missionaries would not allow an English or American gentleman to ride on horseback on Sundays, ' whilst they themselves are driven about the town and about the country, four-in-hand, with their wives and families, Sundays and working days ; not by horses, which are plentiful and cheap enough in those islands, but by human beings, by four blackfellows, their own bearers.' (Letter of T. Horton James in Literary Gazette , September 15, 1832.)

ENCOURAGING SELF-SACRIFICE IN OTHERS.

A correspondent of the Sandwich Islands Gazette, in 1839 relates that he saw ' a heavy horse waggon, drawn by 15 females harnessed like beasts of burden, and found that they were perform ing a penance imposed by the missionaries.' Mr. Melville, an Ame rican, writes in 1845 : — ' Not until I visited Honolulu was I aware of the fact that the small remnant of natives had been civilised into draught horses and evangelised into beasts of burden. But so it is.' He then goes on to describe ' a missionary's spouse, who, day after day, for months together, took her regular airings in a little go-cart drawn by two of the islanders.' The complaint of the Protestant missionaries taking to themselves the best lands of these islands was repeated as late as 1893, when Colonel Ashford, a prominent resident in Honolulu, addressed a letter to the United States Commissioner Blount, deprecating American interference in the political difficulties that had arisen :—: — ' The feeling is strong here,' he says, ' that no American Commissioner can fail xo be influenced by the Protestant missionary party here, and that the proposed scheme of annexation would result in the plutocratic rule of a half-dozen men who came here poor to serve the cause of religion on starvation salaries, and who have developed by thrift into a moneyed aristocracy, owning all the valuable lands and industries of the country. This class has always been the enemy of the native race, and their efforts to reduce the Kanakas to inferior political position, as well as their arrogance to those not so rich as themFelves, have alienated all classes from them.' That is a severe arraignment of those missionaries, but It was made by one who knew them well. The year 1834 marks the first great crisis of the Protestant mission in the Hawaiian Islands. Some of the chiefs and foreign residents, prominent among them being Mr. Charlton, the English Consul, suggested to the King to suspend for a time the manifold enactments and restraints which the missionaries had imposed. He would thus, they said, be the better able to judge whether the conversion of the natives was, as a matter of fact, a reality, or whether it was nothing better than a mere mask to conceal the old condition of things. Mr. Jarves, in his history already referred to, faithfully sketches the results hitherto attained by the missionaries when this crisis supervened. ' The Protestant missionaries,' he says, 4 numbered but few real converts, though they justly claimed the amelioration of manners, the desire of instruction, and much of the gradual change for the better to be the result of their labours. Still, following the example of the rulers, it had become fashionable to be of their belief ; all important offices were in their hands, and interest, more than intelligence, conspired to produce an outward conformity to morality. While numbers to the best of their abilities were Christians, thousands joined their ranks for unworthy motives. Perhaps in no instance have the united cunning and mendacity of the Hawaiian character been more strikingly displayed tuan in their stratagems to deceive their religious teachers. By fraud, by even giving up much-loved sins, and by ready knowledge of the Scriptures, many managed to become Church member*, because by it their importance was increased and their chances of political preferment better ' (p. 229). The king lent a willing ear to the insidious counsel which was given to him. He issued a proclamation centreing all legal authority in himself, and removing, with few exceptions, the various existing penal restraints. At once the mask of Protestantism was flung aside, and the pretended converts were seen in their true colours. We will allow Mr. Jarves to describe the result : —

THE LAPSE INTO BABBABISM.

' The Bcene,' he says, ' that followed beggars description. The worst scenes were enacted at Honolulu ; but a general, civil, and modern anarchy prevailed throughout the group. Schools were deserted, teachers relapsed, congregations were thinned, excesses abounded, and in some places, especially in the distriot of Hilo, Hawaii, idolatrous worship wan again performed. Several churches were burnt, and some lives lot-t. The wilder orgies of heathenism rioted over the land ; men left their wives, wives their husbands ; parents, brothers, sisters, and relatives united like wild beasts in common prostitution ; they gambled, they fought, for old grudges were then scored off ; they drank, and they revelled.' In a few weeks, however, the king allowed the old stringent laws to be re-enacted, and once more the natives, being duly converted to all appearance, became Protestant as before. The missionaries now resolved to leave nothing undone to secure their triumph. Their friends in the United States gave every assistance in their power. A number of new and energetic agents were sent to this promising mission field ; 240,000 Bibles or New Testaments were scattered broadcast among the natives, additional schools and churches were opened, and what may be described as a religious revival was witnessed eveiy where throughout the islands.

A second crisis, however, supervened. During the short period that the Hawaiian Islands were annexed by Lord George Poulet, in 1843, and still more emphatically during the 10 days' jubilee that was kept to celebrate the repudiation by the British Government of such an annexation, the Puritanical laws were suspended. Again the natives availed of the opportunity to resume their Pagan festivities and to lay aside the masque of conversion which under the missionary regime they had been compelled to assume. Once more the irreligious scenes of 1834 were everywhere renewed. The Bey. Dr. Brown, in Hutory of the Mitnons, writes that multitudes of the natives began to imagine—' They might praotice any and every ▼ioe with impunity. The laws regarding morals were prostrate. Drunkenness and debauchery no longer sought a hiding-place, but were openly and shamelessly practised, and were increasing every day. Many returned to their old heathenish practice, and strenuous efforts I were made in some instances to revive the idolatry of their ancestors' (p. 76). In the Asiatic Journal (vol. xxxi.) the scene of these jubilee days in particular is thus described : — ' Who that happened to be at Honolulu during those 10 memorable days will ever forget them ! The history of those 10 days reveals in their true colours the character of the Sandwich Islanders, and furnishes an eloquent commentary on the results which have flowed from the labours of the missionaries. Freed from all restraints of severe penal laws, the natives almost to a man plunged voluntarily into every species of wickedness and excess, and by their utter disregard of all decency plainly showed that, although theyfchad been schooled into a seeming submission to the new order of things, they were in reality as depraved and vicious as ever.'

A HUGE FAILURE.

With the return of the old regime the Puritanical laws were renewed, and for some years the religion of the American missionaries continued to be alone recognised by the State. Since 1860 a greater Bpirit of toleration has prevailed, and official interference in matters of religion has ceased. As a result the Protestant ohurches have become gradually deserted, and the once all-important American mission is now little better than a by-word or an empty religious name. From the testimony of its friends, indeed, it is more than manifest that, despite its boasted triumphs, it at no time produced much religious fruit. In 1840 Commodore Read, an American officer, thus commemorates his impression of what had hitherto been achieved by the efforts of a quarter of a million sterling : — ' I must say ' (he writes) ' that the mass of the natives, notwithstanding 1 all the efforts of the missionaries, appear to be still indolent, licentious in disposition, and quite ignorant of the term virtue.' About the same time Mr. Jarves wrote that with the great mass of the natives Protestantism ' was an external habit, like the clothes borrowed from civilisation.'

In 1854 Rev. Mr. Brown thus commented on the result of this once so promising missionary enterprise :—: —

' There are few things which we find more difficult than to form a correct estimate of the religious and moral results of missions. Physical changes, which are perceptible by the senses, it is comparatively easy to estimate and det-cribe ; but religious and moral changes, involving a» they do the elate and movements of the human heart, it is impossible for tnau to determine and delineate with certainty. This difficulty we have felt, in a very peculiar manner, in regard to the American mission in the Sandwich Islands. In its earlier stages exceedingly favourable accounts were given of ita state and prospect- ; but after some years it was found that mnoh had been taken for gold turned out to be dross. The aspect of the mission w»s, in fact, from time to time, very changeable ; like a summer day in some countries, it was now Bunshine, now cloud. Even at the same period it would present different aspeota, a bright cide and a dark. It strikes us, too, that many American mission* aries are apt to make strong statements, not, we are persuaded, with the design of giving false or exaggerated views of things, but yet in Rome degree with this effect. The accounts of the mission in the Sandwich Islands often appear, in fact, scarcely reconcilable with each other. The statements of the good done, it iH not easy to reconcile with the statements given at another time, or even at the same time and by the same writer, of the evils still existing among the islanders, and even among the Church members. Never, perhaps, were the homely yet emphatic lines of Ralph Erskine more fully realised than in the Sandwich Islands converts— • To good and evil equal bent I'm both a devil and a saint.' ( OLD HEATHEN BITES RESTORED.

The latest phase of the far-famed Protestant missionary enter* prise is sketched for us in the pages of Rev. Dr. Pienon in hii

Divine Enterprise of Mission* (Boston, 1892), already referred to. He tells us that many of those who retain the Protestant name endeavour to link together Christianity and paganism, and that whilst openly professing themselves Christians they have relapsed in private to their old heathen rites. He appeals in proof of this to the testimony of the American missionaries themselves. He thus writes :—: — 1 Rev. James Bioknell and others have been constrained to publish tracts revealing the present low condition of religious life on the Hawaiian Group ; and, in crossing the Atlantic in 1888, the writer oame |into oontaot with an intelligent and prominent Christian gentleman, residing on the islands, who more than confirmed Mr. Bioknell's statements. He reluctantly conceded the existence of Hoomanamana idolatry. For a long time these idolatrous customs have been concealed. Kaahumanu (the Queen-regent), herself both a convert and Christian teacher, repressed them by edicts ; and the desire of the people to be respected by other Christian peoples, and the fear of being ridiculed with the approbrious name ' pagans,' aoted m additional restraints. Those addicted to practical heathenism were kept from public avowal ; but behind this show of Christian forms, hid a fetich-worship alarmingly common. The small pebble — Kaue O Kapohakaa — the wooden fetich, Kailaipahoa — believed to have power to destroy life at bidding of its possessor — and the counter-charm, Kauila, also of wood, with many others, each of whioh stands for a god, may be found worn on the person even of professed disciples ! The king himself boldly stands forth as an idolater, and is suspected of a design to take the headship of a fetich system. So says Mr. Bioknell. In a palace-room lies a copy of David Malo's History of Hawaii, with the legends, traditions and superstitions of the islands. Before reading, seven circuits are made around the sacred table ; then the book ia reverently opened, and the credulous High Priest of this royal sanctum believes himself in converse with the Gods. This book furnishes the basis of the present system of Halenaua, or the 'House of Wisdom.' That house has three divisions, embracing those devoted to astrology, chirography, etc., and four orders of Kahunas, who respectfully practice medicine, incantation, fatal imprecation, and represent divine power. And these Kahunas preface their idolatrous incantations with texts of Scripture.' He adds : ' The pulpit of these islands has not hitherto publicly exposed and denounced these idolatries (says Mr. Bieknell), «ad many professed believers think this fetich- worship harmless. But it is another example of a people, fearing Jehovah and serving their own gods. They read their fetichism into Old Testament narratives and New Testament miracles ; and even when death approaches, with its august exchange of worlds, they turn for relief to the Kahunas and their false Gods.'

THE CRISIS AND COLLAPSE IN 1894.

The final crisis of the American Protestant mission came in 1891, when the old form of government was set aside and a Hawaiian Republic proclaimed and duly recognised by the United States and European powers. Even in the United States the whole mission from its outset is now declared to have been sterile of spiritual results. A Protestant clergyman speaking in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, on the 22nd of February, 1895, described the Hawaiian mission as ' a disgraceful failure.' Till recently the missionaries, he said, had boasted of a considerable number of adherents, ' but suddenly their whole tone changed. The missionaries' sons and some of the returned missionaries vehemently asserted that the native Hawaiians were filthy and ignorant, a debased, licentious, and idolatrous race, utterly unfit to be trusted with liberty, but must be kept under the control of a firm and unscrupulous, but pious, congregational despotism.' He added, however, that as regards material wealth the mission may be said to have reaped a rich harvest, for ' the missionaries' sons and their associates boast that they own four-fifths of all the property of the Islands.' (New York Evening Post, 27th February, 1895). A remarkable feature of the vicissitudes of the Hawaiian Islands is the gradual decay of the native race. Three years after their arrival in Honolulu the missionaries made a census of the Islands, and reported a native population of 112,000 ; at the next census in 1836 the number was reduced to 108.000 ; in 1850, to 84,000 ; in 1872, to 56,000 ; in 1884, to 44,000 ; whilst in 1896 the whole number of natives was only 31,019, of whom about 2000 were lepers. There has been, however, a considerable influx of Japanese and other foreigners, so that the whole population at the present day is 109,000.

THE CAUSES OF DEPOPULATION.

Not a few writers have not hesitated to apportion a consider* able amount of blame in the decay of the native population to th c puritanical severity of the Protestant missionaries. Mr. Wallace, i n his interesting volume on Australasia (London, Stanford, 1884), states the matter very clearly : — ' The Hawaiians,' he Bays, ' like all other Polynesians, are visibly decreasing in numbers, in a constantly increasing ratio. But the depopulation of these, as of the other Pacific Islands, is thought by some writers to be due in part to the missionaries, more especially those of the Reformed Church.' After oiting the authority of Isabel Bird in Six Months in the Sandwich Islands, he gives the words of the Hawaiian Consul-General, Mr. Manley Hopkins, who attests that the ' oppressive system of government, the discontinuance of ancient sports, and consequent change in the habits of the people have been powerful agents in this work of depopulation. The missionaries have not attained the measure of success whioh might have been expected from the long and strenuous efforts they have made. They have not truly christianised or regenerated the nation. They have presented Christianity as a severe legal religion, deprived of its dignity, beauty, tenderness and amiability. They have not made the people love religion.' Mr. Wallace adds : ' The missionaries to whom these remarks apply are those of the Congregational Denomination of the United States, who for nearly 40 years, from 1820 to 1860, had almost undisputed possession of the field, and long exercised great influence over the Government. That influence has now ceased ; but it may be impossible to neutralise the evil effects of a cystem of repression and

habits of hypocrisy which have been at work for nearly two generations ' (p. 531). Another Amerioan writer in 1894 thus summarised the complete failure of the Protestant mission : — ' The missionaries getting practical control, both intellectual and political, of a heathen race seeking for religious instruction, have only succeeded in building up a wealthy colony of a few hundred planters and merchants in the Islands they professed to evangelise. The population has welcomed them, and in two generations it has all but perished. The survivors for the greater part have rejected any form of the doctrines they once received so readify, and where they have not received the Catholic faith, they have practically ceased to be Christians.'

TRADE IN DRESS AND TRINKETS.

In connection with these Hawaiian missions one particular fact has been brought into prominence before the reading public in the United States during the past few years. The early American missionaries were accustomed to supply the natives with various articles of dress and trinkets at extravagant prices. Credit also was freely given but at exorbitant interest and thus the indebtedness of the natives rapidly increased. Matters came to a crisis in the year 1826 when the missionaries presented their claim for almost a million of dollars. I will allow the Neio York Herald of April 23, 1894, to relate the further development of the tale : ' The message bearers of 1826, it says, were not so devout as to train their minds wholly on spiritual things, for some were shrewd traders. In their strange dual capacity of half -priest and half Yankee-trader they carried a large stock of looking-glasses and small hand-mirrors, besides bonnets and clothing from ancient and shop-worn stocks in Boston. The natives bought freely of these wares, and when the chiefs hesitated on account of hard times, they were charitably given unlimited credit. They were finally coaxed to buy the goods offered, lest their refusal to purchase be construed as an insult to their ingenious visitors. In buying Christian goods at the prices current in church circles they believed they were pleasing the Lord. Later they were surprised by a demand for immediate payment in Bandalwood, which then brought very high prices in China. They were by this time hopelessly involved to the extent of nearly one million dollars indebtedness. The chief items were looking-glasses, which were sold for sums ranging from 150 to 1000 dollars each. The smallest hand-mirrors brought 150 dollar, and it is said it was a fad in 1826 for every young buck kanaka to buy each of his sweethearts — all had several — a hand-mirror. But the awful day of reckoning overtook the people one bright morning in June, 1826, when the war-sloop Peacock arrived in Hawaiian waters. Tbey had seen warships before, but none had come save on a friendly mission. The unexpected arrival of the Peacock excited the native curiosity, the more particularly because the commander was often seen in close consultation with Hiram Bingham, Hunnewell and company, and other missionaries. Finally some of the chiefs were summoned before Commander Jones of the Peacock, who questioned them severely as to why their people had not paid for goods sold and delivered them by the missionaries. Hiram Bingham was the interpreter for the commander, and though he wrote an extended history of the Hawaiian Islands, he nowhere in any manner hints at the remarkable claim of a million dollars which was collected at the bayonet's point. After the taking of a brief amount of ex-parte evidence, Commander Jones concluded that the claims were all just, and he sent King Kamehameka word that the sum must be paid or he would enforce it in the name of the United States.'

AN UNPARALLELED DEMAND

In order to meet this unparalleled demand, a law was enacted obliging every able-bodied man to collect a certain quantity of sandal- wood, while the women (by which term all females over 13 years of age were included) were compelled to contribute within a given time a certain amount of tapa cloth and rare mats. " All these goods were sold in China by the missionaries. The gathering of the required amount of sandal-wood was regarded as a great hardship, for it meant an average of 16 days 1 labour by each man. Trees were dug up by the roots and the richly-scented wood was, as a result, exterminated in all the Hawaiian Islands." The matter was brought before Congress in 1838, when Commander Jones in a letter to the Hon. Ogden Hoffman, acknowledged the fact in the clearest terms : " We compelled the natives to pay nearly 1,000,000 dollars." The details which he furnished are not without interest : •' Every man," he says, " had to deliver 67 pounds of good sandal-wood to the Governor of the district of his residence before September 1, 1827 In case of no sandal-wood we took four Spanish dollars, or anything conveniently at hand worth that sum. No person, except those who were infirm or too advanced in age to go to the mountains, was exempt from the demand. Every woman had to pay a mat 12 feet long and 6 feet wide, or tapa cloth of equal value, or the sum of one Spanish dollar. All of this property had to be put in designated houses, and never to be removed or applied to any other purpose except the liquidation of the debts designated." The Hawaiian Government formulated a claim on the United States for compensation in 1894, but further discussion of such a claim became unnecessary, when the whole island-group on August 12, 1898, was formally annexed to the United States. As I am not treating of the Catholic mission in Hawaii, I need not refer to the leper-home at Molokai, where Rev. Father Damien, by a heroism that in modern times has never been surpassed, won the aureola of martyr of charity. The attack on his fair fame by a Presbyterian minister elicited the classic letter in his defence penned by Mr. Stevenson. It used to be often asked, how is it that some one of the many Protestant ministers in Honolulu would not at least be shamed into ministering to their co-religionists in that land of suffering. One minister did venture thither during Father Damien's life-time, but a glance at the leper group sufficed for him. He had no sooner landed than he returned to the steamer, and at once took his departure from those unattractive shores. About three years ago another minister, full of courageous resolve, proceeded thither. He ohose a site for his abode at a distance from the infected

quarters, and avoided all communication with the lepers ; nevertheless, after a few months he resigned all claim to the aureola of heroism and qhoge for. himself elsewhere a more agreeable missionfield.