The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
- Page 445 of 466 - First - Home
An Exotic Civilization Is Having A Fair Trial On The Hawaiian
Islands.
With the exception of the serious maladies introduced by
foreigners in the early days, and the disastrous moral influence
exercised by worthless whites, they have suffered none of the wrongs
usually inflicted on the feebler by the stronger race.
The rights
of the natives were in the first instance carefully secured to them,
and have since been protected by equal laws, righteously
administered. The Hawaiians have been aided towards independence in
political matters, and the foreigners, who framed the laws and
constitution, and have directed Hawaiian affairs, such as Richards,
Lee, Judd, Allen, and Wyllie, were men above reproach; and
missionary influence, of all others the most friendly to the
natives, has predominated for fifty years.
The effects of missionary labour have been scarcely touched upon in
the foregoing letters, and here, in preference to giving any opinion
of my own, I quote from Mr. R. H. Dana, an Episcopalian, and a
barrister of the highest standing in America, well known in this
country by his writings, who sums up his investigations on the
Sandwich Islands in the following dispassionate words:
"It is no small thing to say of the missionaries of the American
Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this whole
people to read and to write, to cipher and to sew. They have given
them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary; preserved their language
from extinction; given it a literature, and translated into it the
Bible, and works of devotion, science, and entertainment, etc.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 445 of 466
Words from 122061 to 122321
of 127766