Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-06-05
dQ(urtcstcr Qallg Spp,


Tribune gives some interesting details of the
Missions at the Sandwich Islands We give
few extracts
"In the course of the two months | have
spent upon these islands, it has been my good
fortune to be the guest of many of the mission
families, and to become more or less acquaint.
ed with nearly all of them. And, beside fidel-
lty IN the discharge of their duties to the ma
tlVes can truly say that i'll point of kindness
ana hospitality to strangers, of intelligence and
general information, Of s0icitude and painstak.
ing for the liberal education of their children,
and OF zeal for the acquil ement of information
OF every sort, it would be difficult to find their
superiors among the most favored families at
home"
"Among the traders, shipmasters, and tray
oilers who have visited these islands, some
have made disparaging statements respecting
the missionaries and Il good deal OF imperfect
information is carried home by persons who
have only visited the halt Europeanized ports,
where the worst view of the condition of the
natives is presented. | visited among all class
) es, the foreign merchants, traders, and ship.
masters, foreign and native officials, and with
the natives, the king and several of the chiefs
to the humblest poor, whom | saw without
cOnstraint in tour ! made alone over Hawaii,
throwing myself upon their hospitality in
their huts. [ sought information from all,
foreign and native, friendly and unfriendly
and the conclusion to which come is, that the
best men, and those who are best acquainted
with the history Of things here, hold in
high esteem the labors and conduct of
the missionaries. The mere seekers of plea
sure, power, or gain, do not like their in.
f1uence; and these persons who sympathzed
with that officer of the American navy, who
compelled the authorities TO allow women to
l, iii, / 4
threatening to lombard the town, naturally
are hostile to the Missions l do not mean, of
course, that there is always unanimity among
the best people, or perhaps among the mission
aries themselves, on AL questions e. G.. as to
the liberation OF Catholics and on some minor
points OF social and police regulation. But on
the great question of their moral influence
the truth is that there has always been and
must ever be, in these islands, a peculiar
struggle between the influences for good and
the influence for evil. They are places of Wis
it for the ships of all nations, and for the tenn
porary residence of mostly unmarried traders
and at the hight of the whaling season, the
number of transient seamen in the port of
Honolulu equals half the population of the
town. The temptations arising from such a
state Of things, too much aided by the inherent
weakness OF the native character, are met by
the ceaselcss efforts Of the best people, native
and foreign, in the use of moral means and by
legislative coercion. 1t is close struggle,
and, III the large Seaports, often diScouraging
and OF doubtful issue but it is struggle of
duty, and has never yet been relaxed. Doubt
less the missionaries have largely influenced
legislation in the kingdom and its police sys-
tenn; it is fortunate that they have done so.
Influence of some kind was the law of the
native development. Had 1.-THE missionaries
and their friends among the foreign merchants
and professional men been in the aScen-
dant, these islands would have presented only
the usual history of a handful of foreigners
exacting everything from Il people who denied
their right to anything. As it is in no place
in the world that | have visited, are the rules
which control vice and regulate amusements
so strict, yet so reasonable and so fairly en-
forced. The government and the best citizens
stand as a good genius between the natives
and the besieging army. As to the interior,
it is well known that man may travel alone,
with money, through the widest spots, I'M
armed. Having just come from the noun
tains of California, | was prepared with the
usual and necessary belt and its appendices
of that region, but was told that those detenses
were unheard of in Hawaii. | found no hut
without its Bible and hymn.book in the native
tongue, and the practice of family prayer and
grace before meat though it be over no more
than a calabash of poe and few dried fish,
and whether at home or on journeys, is as
common as in New England century ago.
81 ought not to leave this subject without
saying word upon the Seamens Mission or
Chaplaincy at Honolulu. AS to the value and
success of that institution, and as to the Rev.
Mr.. Damon, its chaplain, being "the right man
III the right place." there is no difference of
opinion, l believe, anywhere, either in these
islands or throughout the Pacific, over which
his influence extends. He, again, is by no
means a rare preacher. There is a Sailors
Home, supported by merchants and other citi-
Zens, conducted in the best manner; a shipping
Office which coerces the other shipping offices
into honest practices Il reading ROOM open
to all sailors i'll port, and supplied with secular
as well as religious books and journals, and
the peculiar provision OF a room at which all
sailors are invited to write letters home, and
are furnished gratuitously with materials and
directions. The weekly newspaper published
by Mr.. Damon, and supplied to the whaling
fleet, to great extent gratuitously. goes to all
parts of the Pacific, Indian, and Polar Oceans
is a valuable shipping list; and in it calls
from home, for sons and brothers long unheard
from, have been the means of comfort and re-
lief to friends, and sometimes of retaining
reckless, dishearened wanderers. While
was at Honolulu, when the whaling fleet came
knowledge. Mr.. Damon also acts rs chaplain
of the marine hospital sustained at Honolulu
by our government, and no poor outcast sailor
of whatever nation or color dies there without
decent burial, a procession of shipmates, head
ed by Mr.. Damon, carrying his body to the
distant graveyard, a garnerng up of the facts
of his short story, a notice published to the
world and preservation of whatever of his
effects may be valued by his friends. His
chaplaincy is important not only on account
of the extent of the American whaling fleet,
whose rendezvous is at these islands, but by
. reason of the fact, strongly impressed upon
me in my voyagngs on this ocean, that the
general commerce of the North Pacific is in.
creasing al an extraordinary rate, and is al
most monopolized by the vessels of our coun-
try"
Paris Correspondence of the Philadelphia Inquirer
ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE.-The most extra.
ordinary trial is about to come off before the
tribunal. One OF the highest families of
France is attacked, in its purity of lineage, by
series of circumstances of the most whimsi-
cal kind. Some thirty years ago a lady and
gentleman confded their baby heir to the care
tul tending of a nurse-as is the case as much
as ever in France. This nurse, being the wife
of the gardener of their chateau, was in the
enjoyment Of the greatest confidence and es.
TEEN, and had fully justified it by many years
service as a ady's maid in the family. The
enid remained with her while the gay mother
went 10 the Faux and other places, and was
therefore out seldom seen by the parents, save
during. the few short weeks in which they
made the chateau their abode
On one OF these unexpected visits, the nurse
who had hedizened the little heir for the meet
ing with Its lender mother, had seated hersel
at the door OF the cottage, placing the inlan