The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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I Took Leave
Gratefully Of Those Who Had Been So Truly Kind To Me, And With The
Friendly Aloha From Kindly Lips In My Ears, Regretfully Left The
Purple Desert In Which I Have Lived So Serenely, And Plunged Into
The Forest Gloom.
Half way down, I met a string of my native
acquaintances, who, as the courteous custom is, threw over me leis
of maile and roses, and since I arrived here, others have called to
wish me goodbye, bringing presents of figs, cocoa-nuts and bananas.
This is one of the stations of the "Honolulu Mission," and Mr.
Davies, the clergyman, has, besides Sunday and daily services, a
day-school for boys and girls. The Sunday attendance at church, so
far as I have seen, consists of three adults, though the white
population within four miles is considerable, and at another station
on Maui, the congregation was composed solely of the family of a
planter. Clerical reinforcements are expected from England shortly;
but from what I have seen and heard everywhere, I do not think that
the coming clergy, even if inspired by the same devotion and
disinterestedness as Bishop Willis, will make any sensible progress
among the people.
In truth, I believe that the "Honolulu Mission," from the first, has
been a mistake. As such, strictly speaking, there is no room for
it, for all the natives are nominal Christians, and are connected
more or less with the Congregational denomination. To attempt to
proselytize them to the English Church, or to unsettle their
religious relations in any way, would, on the whole, be a hopeless,
as well as an invidious task, and would not improbably result in
driving some among them into the greater apparent unity of the
Church of Rome.
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