Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands -  Part 10 - The Ancients

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Historical Collections of Hawaii
Keepers of the Culture
Influence of Foreigner on the Ancients
Part 10 - A new Religion  Impossed --
A new Concept and Influence. 
Henry Obookiah ( Opukahaia )
Missionaries.

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Part 10.

The missionaries came to Hawaii in 1820. It is said that the Boston
missionaries arrived in the nick of time, partially to offer the
demoralization that was introduced by Boston traders and Nantucket
whalers. The enterprise in which the missionaries were engaged was an
outgrowth of two forces; the evangelical revival which marked the latter
part of the eighteen century, and the operations of New England traders
of the Pacific Ocean.
The evangical revival awakened and intensified realious zeal, stressed
the value of the human soul, and the recalled words of Jesus, " Go ye
into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature"; It led to
the formation of missionary societies in Europe and America and to the
sending forth many devoted young people for the purpose of converting
the heathen among the Indians and in distant lands. This religious
awakening furnished the impulse to missionary enterprise and came at the
right time for the Hawaiians, with the revolution over and the overthrow
of the religious aspects of the Kapu system. It also came at the time
when the operations of commerce revealed places where the enterprise
might appropriately be carried on and provided the means of getting
there.

The first mission to the Hawaiian islands was sent out by the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, an interdenomical body
whose membership was predominantly Presbyterian and Congregational. The
attention of this organization was called to the Hawaiian islands by the
reports of traders and by the presence in New England of several native
youths from these islands. One of them was Opukahaia ( or Obookiah, as
he was known in the United States.) The Protestant Christian community
of New England became interested in these young Sandwich Islanders and
the possibility that they might become Christian messengers to thier own
people, and the interest thus aroused was the main cause for the
establishment of a Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, Connecticut. The
sending of missionaies to Hawaii followed as the logical next step.


Henry Obookiah

This Hawaiian boy led a life of strange destiny. He was born in the
district of Ka'u, in the southern part of the island of Hawaii. He was
named Opukahaia, meaning " split belly," to connect his undated birth to
some event at the same time. When he was about ten, his family, fleeing
from enemy warriors, sought refuge on Mauna Loa, but were captured and
his parents were killed. Opukahaia tred to escape carrying his baby
brother on his back, but a warrior hurled his spear, killing the young
child, and Opukahaia was captured and taken to his captor's home.
Finally, an uncle, chief Kahuna at Hikiau Heiau at Napoopoo, Kealakekua
Bay, arranged for the boy's release and put him into rigorous training
to become a priest ( a kahuna.).

Hikiau Heiau, largest shrine of its kind in the Hawaiian Islands, was
dedicated to Lono, the much-revered god of fertility and agriculture and
of the makahiki, the end harvest and time for tax collecting. At Hikiau,
Captain James Cook received high homage and great adoration from chiefs
and thousands of natives who believed he was the returning god Lono when
he sailed into Kealakekua Bay, January 17, 1779, with his two ships, the
Discovery and the Resolution. And it was here that Cook read the English
burial service for one of his men, William Whatman, who died January
28-- and was probably the first Christian funeral service performed in
Hawaii.

But Opukahaia was not destined to become another priest. In 1808, an
American trading ship, the Triumph, with Captain Caleb Brintnall of New
Haven, Connecticut, in command, sailed into Kealakekua Bay. With natural
curiousity, Opukahaia swam out to the ship. The eager youth having
dreamed of sailing away to faraway lands, was pleased when Captain
Brintnall invited him to go with him to America as a cabin boy along
with another Hawaiian boy named Thomas Hopu. Opukahaia was glad to go as
the Captain " was very agreeable, and his kindness much delighted my
heart, as if I was his own son."

So off sailed Opukahaia ( who was now named by the Captain, Henry
Obookiah ) to the Seal Islands in Northwest America, then back to
Hawaii, on to Canton, China, to sell the sealskins and load with tea,
cinnamon, nankeens, and silk and then to New York and finally to New
Haven.

In New Haven, Connecticut, Obookiah, eager to learn English, met a Yale
student, Edwin D. Dwight, who spent several months teaching him to read
and write, and also became his best friend. An oft-repeated story tells
of Dwight finding this poor Hawaian boy weeping on the threshold of one
of the Yale buildings, because there was no one to instruct him. Edwin
later aranged for Obookiah to live with his father, Timothy Dwight,
President of Yale College, while Edwin tutored him. The Dwights'
emphasis on religious forms and spiits impressed Obookiah, but he
admitted that, though he heard much about God, he " believed but
little." As a student, he seemed at first to be rather dull, but Edwin
soon discovered he had keen observation, a sly sense of humor, and the
ability to imitate familiar characters.

A greater opportunity opened for Obookiah on meeting Samuel J. Mills,
Jr. one evening at Edwin's room. Mills, just graduated from Williams
College, was eagerly interested in promoting a national missionary
movement. At Williams, he and four like-minded friends prayed in nearby
woods at afternon sessons. One afternoon, a heavy thunderstorm drove
them into the protection of a haystack. There they vowed to devote their
lives to foreign mission endeavors. The Haystack
Monument still marks the place where this historic group formed its
ambitious missionary plans. Within two years, Mills and James Richards
had oranized "The Brethern", a secret society pledged to missionary
work. Richards would later go as a missionary to Ceylon in 1815, and his
younger brother, William, would arrive with the second company to Hawaii
in 1823 and become an important missionary leader.

In 1810, Obookiah went to live with the Mills family on their farm at
Torringford continuing his studies and learning farm work. Mills
marveled at how easily Obookiah had become expert with sicle and scythe
by merely watching others. Obookiah advanced rapidly in his knowledge
and use of English. He also found himself meeting many visiting
ministers but avoided their company and talk about God, feeling he " was
just as happy as ......... those who do know about God much more than I
do."

Meanwhile, at Andover Theological Seminary, Mills and his company sought
support from the Congressional Church's governing body which then formed
tha American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to take
up the challenge, sending its first missionaries to Ceylon and India in
1812.

Early in 1811, Obookiah joined Samuel Jr. at Andover, where many willing
students instructed him. " Here." he acknowledges, " my wicked heart
began to see a little about divine things." Mills then arranged for him
to enter Bradford Academy. As Obookiah's selected schol life there
lacked religious incentive, he drifted away from his new pious
inclinations while playing with carefree schoolfellows and joining them
in " talking many foolish subjects." At the close of school, he fled
back to Andover. That spring, his guilty feelings overcame him; he felt
himself an outcast from the Almighty Jehovah, " an undone and
hell-deserving sinner."

In 1812, Obookiah lived at the home of the pastor or one of the deacons
of the Hollis, N.H., Church. Suffering a seige or fever for five weeks,
he reconciled himself to " leave this world of sin and go to a better ",
but, in spite of a renewed " hope in religion" after he recovered, he
found that at times " my mind and my heart of wickedness would often
turn back to this world." So he seesawed from worldliness to
strengthening faith., finding " much comfort, and happiness in my secret
prayer and in serious conversation with others."

In the summer of 1814, Obookiah went to live with the minister at
Goshen, Connecticut, studing geography and mathematics and also starting
to put his native language into written form.

All this time Obookiah struggled to suppress his " own wicked heart "
and to let his strong religious feelings dominate his life. The Mills
family helped him win acceptance as a member of the church at
Torringford on April 9,1815, becoming the first Hawaiian Christian.

He returned to Goshen, now under the direction of the ABCFM, to prepare
as a missionary to his " poor countrymen," whom Henry saw as living
without any Bible and so " without knowledge of the true God." He felt
afflicted " for the loss of thir souls " and prayed the Lord to " pluck
them from their everlasting burning." He concluded, " May the Lord Jesus
dwell in my heart and prepare me to go and spend the remaining part of
my life with them."

In October 1815 Obookiah transferred again. this time to a minister at
Canaan, where he wrote this story of his life and recorded entries in
his diary which revealed his ups and downs of his struggle to submerge
his soul in religious beliefs.

The Board in late 1816 had him assist one of their agents on a tour of
the section near Amherst, Massachusetts, to attract funds for a proposed
Foreign Mission School which Mills had induced ABCFM to establish to
train foreign boys as missionaries to their homelands. Obookiah's
appearance and his humble talks had such a profound influence on
audiences that the apeals aroused great interest in the cause and
produced surprisingly liberal contrbutions. People who had deplored the
idea of trying to save ignorant savages changed their minds after seeing
a manly, intelligent, deserving, dark skinned human.

The Foreign Mission School found a home at Cornwall, Connecticut, in may
1817, providing education and religious training for Obookiah, Hopu, and
five other Hawaiian boys, one Bengalese, one Hindu, one Indian and two
Anglo-Americans. There Henry was eagerly preparing himself to share his
nw found faith and knowledge with his unenlightened countrymen in Hawai.
Little did he know of the revolution going on in his counrty, and the
attempts of the overthrow of the Hawaiians ancient religion and kapu
system. Henry practiced translating Genesis from the bible, part of it
from Hebrew, which he learned by himself, finding that it resembled his
native language more than English did.

Mill's plan for evangelizing Hawaii and the earnest efforts of so many
others in aiding Obookiah in his relgious endeavors seeed about to bear
fruit. They believed the Lord had shown the way and they had
collaborated by developing Obookiah as a capable missionary. But " God
took to himself Obookiah."  Stricken with typhus fever, Henry Obookiah
departed his life peacefully, February 17, 1818, at age 26, as recorded
on his long flat gravestone in the cemetery at Cornwall. Among his
parting words were " God will do right --- he knows what is best." His
native friends gathered about his bedside, and to them he offered "
Aloha oe "  my love to you.

Neither did his ardent sponsor become a foreign missionary. Samuel
Mills, determined promoter of the missionary cause, performed his role
as organizer. He got the Presbytarians to form the United Foreign
Missionary Society, which later combined with the American Board. His
advice prompted the development of the American Bible Society. he also
helped found the American Colonization Society to help freed slaves
return to Africa, a project that later developed into the counrty of
Libreria. On his return trip from Africa where he had gone to seek the
right place for such colony, he died at age 31. His achievements assured
him a high place of honor in the field of human welfare endeavors." Both
of these young men are considered two faithful servants of the Lord."
But Obookiah's precious goals did not go unfulfilled -- The sending of
missionaries to Hawaii followed as the next step.

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to be continued in part 11.