The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-14

condition. TO an inquiry which / made OF the
honolulu, concerning the prosperity of the natives,
l received this reply: ss1he evident tendency OF
things IS downward" Downward it is rapidly in
point or numbers and II the ratio of decrease shall
continue the same for only few years, it does not
require the eye of prophet to what will be the
result Inc epitaph of the nation will be written,
another West Indies.
Such was the result of the first thirty years
Ct missionary work in the Hawaiian Islands.
Inc results OF the last forty years will be re-
lated when we come to treat o. the fortunes of
the missionaries and their descendants.
HOW THE PREACHERS PRACTICED TOLERANCE
AS | stated above the New England mission
aries made 1T their chief object to obtain infiu-
ence and power with the native rulers. Bing-
nam, who was one of the pioneer preachers,
became chief adviser of the crown. and as early
as 1880 Won Kotzebue, German traveller,
wrote of him:
He NEEDLES in all the affairs of the Government,
pays particular attention to commercial concerns,
alton ana the object Of his residence in these
islands, finding the avocation of ruler more to
his taste than that OF a preacher.
One would imagine from the noisy declama-
tons OF the preachers of the present day that
such man would use his power in the sacred
cause or religious and civil liberty, if ever it
should happen that his barbarous disciples
would attempt to transgress the limits. An
American, brought up in the atmosphere OF
freedom, 1t would seem incredible that he
should be guilty OF bigotry or persecution. Yet
England, and we find that the most cold
FLOODED and savage warfare ever waged by one
creed against another was instigated by Bing-
ham and his fellow American preachers in
these islands of the Pacific.
In 1926 two Catholic priests landed in Ha-
wall aud began to eVangeliZe the natives.
Ihelr success was instantaneous and decisive,
and 1t seemed as II a stampede toward Rome
was inevitable. Such an inglorious termina-
ton OF New England missionary enterprise
could not be endured, and the preachers de-
reputation but their salaries were at
stake, and whatever their reputation might
be valued at, their salaries, as we have seen,
were not to be despised. Accordingly Bing-
ham put the machinery of the law in motion,
and the poor Catholics were subjected to a
persecution which reminds the reader of the
Gays of Nero and Diocletian. The two priests
were forcibly expelled from the country in
1880 and landed by whaler on the shores of
settlement. The native Catholics were
arrested for their faith, thrown into
prison and urged to apostacy as
the price OF their liberty. Others were set
working in chains on the fort and several died
under the hardsnips inflicted upon them.
Still, not one perversion was effected. Finally
the rage OF the preachers passed all bounds
Men and women were sentenced to act as scaV-
engers to the fort and jail ana were obliged to
remove The filth with their bare hands, while
the disciples OF the missionaries stood by and
jibed and jeered at these noble confessors of
the faith. Still not one OF them hinched. Some
were carried by force to the prayer meetings,
feet to the prison floor, six were sentenced to
penal servitude for life. and as refinement OF
cruelty worthy OF Roman PrRtor, the women
OF the party were specially ordered to be put
10 work in company with the common prosti-
tutes.
And all this was in the nineteenth century,
in q land ruled by New England preachers.
Not one knows how far they would have gone
on. The non-Cathollc whites, the British
Consul, captains OF English ships, protested,
but protested IN vain. The preachers were all
powerful, and the papists should be stamped
out. But, though the avenger fingered, he
came at last. Tidings of the persecution began
10 reach Europe, Catholic France was stirred to
its depths. and in 1889 the guns of the French
frigate Artemise compelled that religious
tolerance which the narrow minds and the
preJudlced principles OF these blatant Ameri-
can bigots would not willingly give.
Such was the beautiful Christian tolerance
manifested by these messengers of the gospel
Of liberty from the free air of New England.
They carried on their crusade against the poor
native Catholics with the same weapons with
which they carry on the same crusade to-day
against american citizens on American soil.
Lying and calumny and frengied defamation
against men better than themselves are their
methods here as in the islands of the sea.
There they could imprison and chain and
starve and scOurge; here, thank God, their
claws are clipped. But the spirit which ami
mates them is the same. Ignorance, bigotry,
intolerance, ambition and avarice are the
worthy motives of their unworthy career.
Slan9er and indecency accompany them as a
pestffence, and ruin, temporal and spiritual,
1oIlOWS close upon tne1r track.
HOW THE PREACHERS PLUNpERED HAWAII.
If the missionaries made failure of evan
gelizing the native population they certainly
did not make failure of getting possession of
the natives land. From the beginning the
sharp Yankee discovered there was more
money in trade and politics than there was in
praying and preaching. AS far back as 1880
the actions OF the missionaries had become
scandal even to Protestant visitors. In 1915
Mr. Melville, an American, wrote in astonish-
ment:
To read pathetic accounts of missionary hard
ships and glowing descriptions of conversions and
baptlsms taking place beneath the palm trees is
one thing, and TO go to the Sandwich Islands and
see the missionaries dwelling in picturesque and
cradle natives are committing all sorts of immor-
aties around them is quite another.
And further on he remarks:
Not until visited II Honolulu was aware of the
fact that the small remnant OF the natives had
Deen civilized into draft horses and evangelical
into beasts of burden. But so it is!
And then he proceeds TO describe a mis-
sionary's spouse, "who day after day for
months together took her regular airings in
little go-cart drawn by two of the ISLANDERS"
One of the first objects of the missionaries,
as we have seen, was to gain possession of the
Government, II not in name at least in reality.
In 1889 DR.. Richards q preacher, abandoned
the ministry and became legal adviser to the
King. His first achievement was, by means OF
an infamous land law, to obtain possession for
q company, in which he was stakeholder, of
the greater part OF the unoccupied land of the
country.
In 1912 treasury was organized and DR..
Judd relinquished the charge of the keys OF
the kingdom OF heaven to take care of the keys
OF the corbona. For forty years native was
allowed on the ministry; the preachers mo-
nopolized all the fat offices and all the big
salaries. On every side they got possession of
the best lands and the islands were soon
dotted with their comfortable bungalows.
Year after year their fortunes and their fami-
lies grew larger. The King or the Queen was
only a puppet in their hands. Though the
preachers of religion of purity, their circle
was the most corrupt th6t the world has
known, and the Kings. who escaped death by
delirium tremens, met it not much later in the
effects of debauchery.
At last when there seemed no chance of
effective resistance the missionary party re-
solved to throw away the mask and wear the
insignia of power as well as enjoy it's exercise.
The Queen was deposed on some pretext. The
natives were denounced as licentfous pagans
unfit to rule God-fearing moral people like
the whites of Honolulu, and these men, who
only few years ago had come as strangers to
these hospitable islands. are now openly
hawking the property of their hosts to the
highest bidder.
HAWAII AS IT IS.
And in this year of grace, 1896, what do we
behold? Over seventy years ago the Hawaiians
received the preachers with open-hearted hos