The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-10-12
Continued from Ist Page.)

wanted the Rev. Mr.. Ellis to chap
erone the royal party to England,
and the captain, seeing how Mr..
Ellis was Smuggling" himself into
a hostile camp, wisely declined Mr..
Ellis company as passenger, and
Mr.. Ellis and his party have ever
since found kind Of consolation in
traducing his more polished, and
better educated, and successful rival
-RIvEs.
A n,ele was composed in commem-
Grafton Of the great event of the
time, the departure of the royal
party, and was chanted before the
assembled thousands who went to
say aloha to the king. 1t has been
handed down to this day, and in it
the name of Luahine (Rives) is as
prominent as that Of any member
of the company. So much for
"Query's" sheer about Smuggling
on board and getting a job"
May we not also fairly attribute
to this cause, the statement of the
missionary historian Alexander on
page 1876, that on arrival of the
royal party in London "Rives was
dismissed from his Office as inter
prefer on account of gross miscon-
duct, and James Young was appoint
ed in his place." The facts are that
on the arrival of the royal party in
London, Mr.. Rives could be spared
to visit his family in France, and
naturally availed himself of the OPP
portunity; but it would seem that
this sudden leave-taking and absence
from the royal party gave an oppor-
tunity to the history making friend
of the Rev. Mr.. Ellis party, to
blacken the character of rival.
Having heard of the death of the
king and queen some weeks after the
sad event, and having spent few
months in la belle France, he set him
self to the accomplishment of a
purpose which he had in consenting
to accompany the king to London,
namely, to induce the Pope to send
Catholic mission to Hawaii. Be-
longing, as Rives did, to a patrician
family, he had no difficulty in OBJ
tanning the necessary Introduction
to the Pope, which led to the de-
parture of the first Catholic mission
aries from his native city of Bor-
deaux. Soon after he had witnessed
the departure of the mission, my
grandfather set his face towards
Hawaii, where he intended to spend
his remaining years. He was return
ing by way of South America and
Mexico, when he was seized with an
illness which terminated fatally.
At his bedside until death was
Robert Chrichton Wyllie, who in
later years occupied an honorable
position in this land of his adop-
ton, and who conveyed to his sor-
rowing family and friends in Hawaii
his last words of affection, and ever
afterwards remained the attached
friend of the children of Jassont
Rives.
The family to which Jassont Rives
belonged still occupy prominent
position as regards social influence
and wealth in France. Every French
: Minister to the Court of Hawaii has
made enquiries about the family of
Jassont Rives for the information of
the family in Bordeaux, and in other
ways they have evinced the kind
Hest interest in their Hawaiian rela-
tives, and for two generations we
have not ceased to correspond.
When my attention was first
drawn to the false statements in
Professor Alexander's "Brief His
tory" l expressed my surprise to its
! author that no effort had been made
to obtain authentic facts, and pro-
: mise was given me to consider the
matter in revising a future edition,
I am sure, had Professor Alexander
known that he was blindly copying
. his history from sources tainted by
sectarian bigotry, he would not be
led into the unchristian course Of
perpetuating series of calumnies
which were sown in the years of re-
ligious intolerance if not of persecu
ton. That the chief actors in that
] miserable business could not pass by
in silence the one man who was pri
marily instrumental in introducing
a missionary faith taken to be hos
tile to that of the general family O.
Hawaiian historians, is quite in keep
ing with the past and present trenC
of events in Hawaii.
It would not be amiss for some O.
}. the present traducers of the living
as we'll as of the dead, to remembe
that perhaps it would be we'll TO-
I those who speak lightly of homo
| and character to look to themselves
l and consider that in the years t,
come when their existence shall b,
but fading memory, they may no
be so fortunate as Jassont Rives~ ii
having left behind him an homes
and bonored name: of heirs VIII,
have not disgraced him, and ar
IS jealous in vindicating his memory
ELIZABETH KEKAANIAu LAANUI
PRATT.
!, Honolulu, Oct. II, 1893.