Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands - Kamehameha lV --- (Part 4)

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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--
Kamehameha lV -- Part 4
Father Alexis Bachelot-- First Catholic Missionary.
Louis Desire Maigret
by Darlene E. Kelley
December 14, 2000

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

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As told by the ancients
Kamehameha lV -- Part 4

Louis Desire Maigret-- [ 1804 --1882 ]

Maigret was a leader in the founding of the Catholic Church in Hawaii
and was its first Bishop, serving for more than thirty years. He was
educated in France and was ordained at Rouen in 1828. He left for the
South Pacific in 1834 and at Mangareva in the Gambier Group and in Chili
he served until he first arrived in Hawaii in 1837, scene of his first
future labors.

The American Protestant mission that began work in the islands in 1820
soon became so firmly established among the chiefs that it was virtually
the State religion.  The incursion of Catholic missionaries under French
auspices was therefore opposed and freedom of worship was not soon
attained. The idea of French colonization of Hawaii originated with Jean
Rives. The pioneer mission arrived in Honolulu
on July 7, 1827. It consisted of three priests of the Order of the
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary: Fathers Alexis Bachelot, Abraham
Armand, and Patrick Short, an Englishman. They were supported by a half
a dozen other Frenchmen. Kaahunanu ordered the ship's captain to take
them away, but he refused and the group remained on shore. Their first
mass was celebrated on Bastille day, July 14, and the first baptism was
given on November 30, to the  child of Marin. A lawyer accmpanying the
group obtained from Kamehameha lll a piece of land in Honolulu on which
the first Catholic chapel was opened. It was called " Our Lady of Peace
Cathedral, and was located between Bishop Street and what is now called
Fort Street Mall.
It was there where Hawaii's first Kiawe tree was planted. The seed was
planted by Father Alexis Bachelot in 1828, and was from the King's
garden in Paris.It was cut down much later, however it became the father
of Hawaii's Kiawe trees.

The Fathers had the protection of Governor Boki [ Poki ], who had been
baptized on the French ship " Uranie " under Captain Freycinet in 1819,
but he disappeared in 1830 and his wife Liliha was removed from power in
1831. On April 2 of that year, the chiefs read a decree of banishment to
Fathers Bachelt and Short, and after several months fitted out a vessel
and shipped the priests to California

The second attempt to found a Catholic Mission in the Islands was made
in 1835. The church had created the Vicariate Apostolic of Eastern
Oceania, and Father Bachelot had been made perfect of the area north of
the equator. Brother Columba Murphy, a jolly Irishman who was a British
subject, arrived in 1835 to look over the situation. As the result,
Father Arsenius Walsh, also a British subject, arrived on September
30,1836, and through the influence of the captain of a French warship
then in port was allowed to stay and minister to foreigners but not to
native Hawaiians. Bachelot and Short returned on April 17,1837, but on
April 30 a decree ordered that they return on the same ship that had
brought them. The English and American consuls sided with Jules Dudoit
against the chiefs, and the priests were escorted ashore in early July
by the captains of a British and a French warship.

Father Short did leave Honolulu at the end of October, but a few days
later two more priests arrived on the scene. They were Murphy and
Maigret, who for the first time saw the field of his future works. The
fact that Murphy had been ordained since his visit in 1835 was not
revealed and he was allowed to land, but Maigret and Bachelot sailed on
November 23 for the South Pacific, where Bacelot died at sea.

Soon after their departure, Kamehameha lll issued a ban against the
teaching or practice of Catholisism in the Islands, but in June 1839,
what amounted to an edict of toleration was issued. As a result of
changing conditions and the demands of te French captain C.P.T. LaPlace,
the Catholic mission was finally established on may 15, 1840, the victor
apostolic of the Pacific. Bishop Rouchouze, arrived with three other
priests-- one of them the exiled Father Maigret. A church of stone was
soon began, and schools and churches were erected on other islands to
advance the mission labors. The first Catholic printing press was set up
in November, 1841, and operated for fifty years. In 1847 Maigret was
named Vicar Apostolic to the Sandwich Islands under the title of Bishop
of Arathia and served as head of the mission until his death in 1882.
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Kamehameha lV--

Kamehameha lV had ascended the throne as  batchelor, one month short of
turning twenty one. Shortly after coming into power, the King's faithful
advisor, Robert Wyllie, encouraged the King to marry in order to give
stability to the crown and to continue the monarchy under a native
dynasty. Liholiho concurred, and he decided to marry his childhood
sweetheart, Emma Naea Rooke. Emma was the granddaughter of John Young ad
a great- grandniece of Kamehameha the Great. Educated at the Royal
School, Emma spoke fluent English. She had received a refined
upbringing, and her natural gifts of amiability and cordiality made her
well liked.

The royal wedding took place in Kawaiahao Church on June 19, 1856, and
it was one of the grandest affairs to take place in the Kingdom up to
that date. The gala event inspired a number of social functions during
the ensuing months, including a grand ball hosted by the Chinese
merchants of Honolulu. Less then two years later, a royal prince was
born on May 20,1858, rekindling the hopes of the Hawaiian race. With the
consent of the Privy Council, the little prince received the title of "
His Royal Highness the Prince of Hawaii," and was formally christened
Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha. The young prince became
an instant and intimate part of the royal couple's private life, and he
was taken nearly every where they went.

Honolulu was growing. It was taking on the atsmosphere of the outside
world. A fireproof building with a granite front was being created, the
granite having been shipped to the Islands from Massachusetts.
Newspapers commented upon this, saying that while a few fence posts and
doorsteps had been made from granite which had come from China, never
before had the the beautiful New England granite been used for building
in the Islands.

Business men were realizing the demand for more carefully planned
business methods. The first Chamber of Commerce was organized. Every
effort was made to stimulate an interest in farming. King Kamehameha lV
was intensely interested in the development of his kingdom along
progressive lines of agriculture and good business. In a frank speech to
a large assmbly of citizens, he deprecated the dream of many who
indulged in the expectation that a fortune could be made in a very short
time. Prizes were offered by the two agricultural societies for special
development in raising crops. Rice seed had been brought from South
Carolina, and the experiment of raising rice was so sucessful that large
shipments were exported.

Travel between the different islands had always been difficult and
unsatisfactory. Because of this, as life in the Islands became more and
more a matter of interchange between the merchants in the island group,
it was decided to have a steamship built for inter-island shipping and
travel. A vessel, the Kilauea was built in New London, Connecticut, and
its arrival was a great and celebrated event. Business was marching
forward in the Sandwich Islands.

Newspaper printed extracts of foreign news from all over the world.
Kamehameha lV was keenly interested in what was going on in different
countries. He constantly encouraged a larger development of world
interests through the press. People, generally, were at this time
eagarly watching the news from the great war in Crimea. Mails were slow
in coming. The newspapers announced " No mail Yet!" But while waiting
for the mail, the citizens went cheerly along about their business and
their pleasures.

During the reign of Kamehameha lll and Kamehameha lV the whaling
industry was the outstanding commercial interest in the Islands and
Hawaii became the transhipping center for the oil and whalebone. It is
said that at times the ships were moored so closly together in honolulu
harbor that a person could walk from one end of the harbor to the other
on the decks of the vessels without going ashore. There were, of course,
thousands of sailors in port. Business was prosperous and interesting.
The sailors were free wth their money, and the ships were supplied with
such Island raised products as firewood, Irish potatoes, bananas,
molasses, sugar, coffee, hogs, turkeys, goats, coconuts, pineapples,
melons, breadfruit, cabbages, taro, rice, oranges, and leather. The
ships required
many other products-- such as copper, ropes, tar and rosin--which had to
be imported from foreign countries. Kamehameha lV understood the values
of business, but he was interested in the people. It was his interest
which developed the plan to build a sailor's home, which for many years
was called the Seaman's Institute. The cornerstone was laid on
Restoration day.

Whaling continued to dominate the economy in the the decade of the
1850's even though fears were being aroused about the eventual
withdrawal of the whaling fleet. These fears were well founded, based on
several poor years and temporary shrinkages in the size of the whaling
fleet. But overall, whaling continued at high levels. The period between
1843 and 1860 has often been called the golden age of Hawaii's history.
Three peak years stood out:
1846, 1853, and 1859. The islands were so dependant on the whaling fleet
that the government encouraged their visits and gave them preferential
treatment in terms of harbor and transient dues. Nearly every form of
business enterprise in the cities depended
in one way or another on the semiannual visits of the whaling fleet. The
government also benefited directly through the collection of various
harbor fees and the imposition of fines by the police courts. Native
policemen, paid a percentage of the fines, eagerly enforced the laws
against disturbing the peace, drunkeness, and etc.

Fortunately for the Hawaiian economy, the decline of whaling occurred
gradually. [ It came to an end around 1880 ]. This slow decline enabled
businessmen to seek alternate opportunities. The sugar industry, in
particular, progressively replaced the whaling industry as Hawaii's main
source of income. An expansion of merchant shipping to and from the
islands also took place at this time. the development
and settlement of California and the Oregon Teritory, the American Civil
War, and the introduction of transcontinental rail services all had
compounding effect in shifting much of Hawaii's trade from Atlantic to
Pacific ports.
Gradually, the port of San Francisco surpassed all the rest.

While the King and Queen frequently presented operas and musicals to
aristocratic audiences, they never forgot the plight of the common
Hawaiian people and the decimation of their numbers by disease. In an
attempt to help his subjects, the King pressed hard for the
establishment of a State hospital. To achieve this goal, the King and
Queen personally solicited donations and pledges from their friends to
finance the hospital. Construction of the Queen's Hospital, named in
honor of Queen Emma, began in 1859. Expanded and modernized numerous
times, it still serves the community on the same site in downtown
Honolulu.