Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands - Queen Kaahumanu (Part8)

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Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands
" Keepers of the Culture "
A study in time of the Hawaiian Islands
As told by the ancients--
Queen Kaahumanu -- Part 8
Catholic's Missionaries :
Dr Gerrit Judd and William Richards
by Darlene E. Kelley
November 28, 2000

http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374

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Queen Kaahumanu --- part 8.
as told by the ancients--

A critical situation arose with the coming of the Catholic's to Hawaii.
The use of images in their worship had, evidently, not been clearly
explained to Kaahumanu by her missionary friends. She believed that the
images in the little chapel were idols to be worshipped ad feared by the
people. She said the worship of images had been forbidden and discarded
for all time, and that she did not wish such influence to be admitted to
the Kingdom. Many Hawaiians, attracted by the new religion with its
colorful setting, were accepting the Catholic faith. In her own
religious zeal, Kaahumanu remained adamant. Eventually, she provided a
vessel and the priests were sent to California to join their associates
a San Gabriel Mission.

In later years, a Catholic mission was establihed in the Islands and old
misundersandings were forgotten. In the History of the Catholic Mission
in Hawaii, written by Father Reginald Yzendoorn, i recorded the
testament by Father Bachelot, the leader of the first group of priests
who came to the islands;
" Kaahumanu supports the Calvinists with all her power; she is a woman
of much character. a friend of the general good and order." Father
Bachelot added that Kaahumanu was under an illusion, but that she meant
well.

Education continued under the earnest work of the mission. Kaahumanu,
with the young King, Kamehameha lll, made a tour through the windward
islands teaching the gospel. Kaahumanu left governmental matters in the
hands of Boki and his wife, Liliha. Kalanimoku was rapidly failing in
health, but he still remained in the background; Kaahumanu trusted that
all would be well while she was away. But trouble developed.

Boki and Liliha, close companions of Liholiho on his trip to England,
had become ambitious for power. They had been courted by the foreign men
who resented Kaahumanu and her restricting laws. These men finally
succeded in so influencing Boki and Liliha that they were led to believe
that they might seize the throne. A small army was organized and camped
at Waikiki. Friends of the Queen Regent likewise took up arms, ad the
groundwork for a revolution ensued. Kalanimoku was a sick man, but he
went to see Boki, his younger brother, and remonstrated with him. He
told Boki he would cast him off forever if he continued in his mad
plans. Word was sent to Kaahumanu and she came as quickly as possible.
he sent a message to Boki that she was at home if he wished to see her.
She exhorted him to come and " dispatch" her if he chose, but without
the carnage of war. Kekuanaoa, a high chief and a good friend of
Kaahumanu went boldly to Boki ad rebuked him for his ignoble design to
put Kaahumanu down by war. " No, No!" Boki replied. " If you wish to
kill her," Kekuanaoa continued, " there she is, unattended by armed
guards; go and dispatch her, if that is what you want, but do not set
the nation in arms to destroy one another in war." Boki replied,
"Aole!" [ Not so ]. He ordered the plans for revolution to be stopped
and peace declared. The character of Kaahumanu had triumped.

In the meantime, the American Board of Commssioners were alert to the
steadly grwing work in Hawaii. Among the later missionaries to arrive in
the Islands were Dr. and Mrs.Gerrit Judd, who soon became friends with
Kaahumanu. Throughout the remainder of her life, Dr. Judd with William
Richards and Mr Bingham, were her closest advisors. 

Dr Gerrit Parmele Judd  [ 1803-- 1873 ].

The medical missionary and advisor to the Hawaiian throne was born in
Paris, New York. At the age of twenty-three he earned a medical degree
from a school at Fairfield, New York. With his wife, Laura Fish Judd, he
arrived in Hawaii with the Third Company of America missionaries in
1828. He ws a busy doctor in the community even after he lsft the
mission in 1842 to become a leading counceler to Kamehameha lll. He was
made secretary of State for foreign affairs in 1845. He built a large
home and with his wife reared no fewer than nine children, including
Albert Francis Judd.

Judd's courage was shown in 1843 when he quietly resisted the demands of
Lord George Paulet, Judd resigned on May 10, as the king's deputy
minister and secretly removed the public papers to the Royal Mausoleum
in the palace grounds to prevent them from being taken by British naval
officers. Using the coffin of Kaahumanu as a writing desk, Dr Judd
prepared appeals to London and Washington to free Hawaii from illegal
rule of Paulet. As one result, Admiral Richard Thomas arrived on July 26
to restore the kingdom to Kamehameha lll.
Judd was chosen in 1849 to head a group going to France to obtain better
relations. During his travels he took with him the two young princes who
were to become Kamehameha lV and Kamehameha V, and the paty also visited
Great Britain and the United States. Fear of American filabusters in
1851, made worse by a bad smallpox epidemic that was blamed on foreign
residents, resulted in the King's decision not to reappoint Dr. Judd as
minister of finance, although he had served on a committee the previous
year to write the Constitution of 1852. The Judd family became quite a
family during the generations. There will be later stories further in
stories told by the ancients. 
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William Richards -- [1793 --- 1847 ]

Born in Plainfield, Massachusetts, Richards was educated at Williams
College and was ordained in 1822 after studying at Andover Theological
Seminary. He married Clarissa Lyman in 1822 and the couple sailed for
Hawaii the same year as members of the Second Company of American
missionaries. Richards and C.S. Stewart were the pioneer ministers at
the port of Lahaina, Maui. Their efforts were not appreciated by
visiting seaman. In 1825, a mob from the whale ship Daniel besieged the
Richards house but was driven away by frindly Hawaiians. Three years
later Richards performed no fewer than six hundred wedding ceremonies
within a few months; the grooms of the port often loudly responded "
Aye. aye!' in place of " I do."

The need of the chiefs for tutelage in foreign customs was recognized in
1838 when Richards reisigned from the mission to serve as " translator
and recorder." As a result of his instruction, the chiefs began working
on a document that resulted in the Constitution of 1840, the first
written embodiment of the government's functions. Richards and Timoteo 
Haalilo left the islands on July 18,1842, on a mission to join Sir
George Simpson to obtain recognition. American recognition was
reaffirmed to Richards and when the three signed a declaration in London
in November 28,1843, granting British and French recognition, American
recognition was reaffirmed to Richards and Haalilio in Washington in the
summer of 1844.

Richards was appointed the first minister of public instruction for the
kingdom in 1846, and was succeeded at his death the following year by
Richard Armstrong. Richards translated about one third of he entire
Hawaiian bible. The couple had eight children; one descendant was
Atherton Richards.
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Boki -- ( Poki ) [ ---- 1830?]

Boki was the son of Kuamanoha, a chief of Maui, and was a younger
brother of Kalanimoku, but it was rumored that he was a son of Kahekili.
His original name was Kamauleule; his nickname came from a variation on
Boss, the name of the favorite dog of Kamehameha l.

Boki was appointed governor of Oahu and confirmed in his post by
Kamehameha ll. he married Liliha and they shared many adventures. Boki
agreed to the breaking of the tabus in 1819 and accepted the Protestant
missionaries arriving in 1820, although he had been baptized as a
Catholic aboard the French vessel of Louis de Freycinet, along with
Kalanimoku, the previous year. Boki and Liliha were leading members of
the expedition to Great Britain during which Kamehamha ll and Kamamalu
died of the measles. Returning with Lord Byron on the Blonde, Boki also
encouraged the Hawaiians to gather sandalwood for trade, ran a
mercantile and shipping business, and opened a liquor store called the
Blonde Hotel.

Boki became resentful of the power of Kaahumanu and her missionary
advisors, and not surprisingly allied himself with foreigners like
Richard Charlton and John Percival, Captain of the first American
warship. Boki was also a protector of the French missionaries that began
arrivng in 1827. Kaahumanu and the council in May 1827, charged Boki and
Liliha with misconduct, intemperance, fornication, nd adultry,and had
them fined. In return Boki and Liliha objected to the laws passed at the
end of the year and made no effort to enforce them.

This disturbing element was removed when, heavily in debt, Boki heard
toward the end of 1829 from an Austrailian ship about a South Pacific
island covered with valuable sandalwood trees. Boki fitted out two
ships, the Kamehameha and the Becker, put aboard some five hundred
followers, and sailed south. Somewhere in the Fiji group the ships
separated. Eight months later the Becker limped back to Honolulu with
only twenty survivors aboard. A quarrel had arisen with the natives of
an island in the New Herbrides group and a disease had broken out that
killed almost two hundred of the crew. Boki and two hundred and fifty of
his men apparently died at sea when Kamehameha burned in 1830, possibly
when gunpowder stored in the hold blew up as the result of careless
smokimg.
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