The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-09-09
BISHOP POTTER's IMPRESSIONS
OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
(Concluded.)

L
peaceful seclusion was at length invad-
ed by alien influences which, in a COM
paratively short time, have largely
changed its aspect and prospects. The
hrst intrusion, as we have seen was
spanish, but is was specially followed by
the visit of Captain Cook in IT'S and
later by that of Vancouver. Cock ac-
counted himself the d.scoverer Of the
Hawaiian Islands, and as a compliment
TO an English peer who was at that time
FIRST Lord of the Admiralty, gave them
the name by which schooI-boys have
oftenest known them, the Sandwich Isl
ands
The sentimental moralist who has rach-
ed this point IN the history o. newly dis
| severed territory has, as / have IntsIl1a t
ed,a tempting opportunity for raising the
question how far civilization has really
elevated the character of the savage. IN
| the case of the Hawaiian Islands there
Is a gree deal that lends itself to such
discussion in the painfully history OF
civilized commercial invasion, and the
most repulsiye features of this are to be
found in connection with both the naval
and commercial marine of the nations
that, from Their rediscovery by Cook,
sought a foothold in these gems of the
Pacific. need not rehearse that history
here 1t has, alasi it's familiar counter
part all around the world: but it has also
this honorable sequence, that there was
speedily awakened in many American
hearts the purpose to give to the Ha-
waiian Islands that strong foundation of
Christian morality which can alone make
either community nation endur-
ingly great.
l may not trace here the history of
Christian missions in the Sandwich Isl
ands, but / may at least say, as one
wholly outside of the communions by
which originally they were initiated and
conducted, that no one can visit these
islands without recognizing the noble
work which Christian missionaries have
done there. BY curious confusion,
habit of jesting allusion to the sons of
missionaries" in the Hawaiian Islands
has, in many minds, been associated
with the missionaries themselves. and
perhaps il may be worth while for an
outsider to say how much in his juGg-
ment it amounts to. l suppose that in
Honolulu, as elsewhere, the sons OF mis-
sionaries have turned TO secular cailings
and l presume they have conducted
themselves with shrewdness and success.
have done so: and If a missionary's res
idence in the Hawaiian Islands gave his
son a business advantage there it would
seem natural enough that he should
have embraced it. I have heard in other
foreign fields bitter words about the mis-
sionares, and in one instance took the
trouble to follow these complaints and
sneers to their source. 1t was said that
missionaries took advantage of oppor-
-.
agencies and so to crowd out men whose
livelihood these agencies We're. On in
quiry | found that the whole basis for
these Wholesale charges was that one
missionary in a foreign land who had
lost his voice there had turned to secu-
lar task which was offered to HIM and
which it was found that he could do bet
ter than the man who stood next to him
in competition for it; and that was all
there was to it. Under such circurl-
stances, the whole supersctrucure of mis-
representation crumbled to the ill-smell-
ing fragments of business jealousy. In
the same way I found, on inquiry IN
Honolulu, that a good deal of the bitter
ness against missionaries had to 90 with
their courageous witness against the
glaring immoralities of their own race
They have been contemptuously descr b.
ed as, there and elsewhere, Hving n lux
ury and Incidence, and their homes as
illustrating what, to the natives among
whom they labored, was a prodigal ex-
penditure. Wen, yes, when one IS living
in a community whose wardrobe CON
sists of a bit of cotton cloth, and their
da.iy menu bowl of rice or taro, a
rocking chair and a pair of cotton sheets
may seem bloated self-indulgence; but
the question whether a civilized human
being is called, in order to do missionary
work, to accept barbarian standards OF
decency or modest comfort would still
remain to be answered
A much more interesting and more i'm
portant question, whether in the Ha-
waiian Islands or anywhere else, is the
question, What was the infiuelee Of
these Christian missionaries and those
who came after them upon the man-
ners. habits, beliefs, and ideals Of the
people to whom they came? Al the base
Of the state, it forever needs to be TO-
membered, there is the family; and the
first thing that Christian households
largely drawn from New England ances-
tries, spoke to was, so far as il existed
at all, the Hawaiian conception OF the
family. We were shown in the streets
of Honolulu a wooden house whtch had
been made in New England and shipped
piecemeaI to it's destination. 1t was as
delightful bit of incongruity as could
be imagined, with its two Stories Wltl
white clapboards, green blinds, marrow
windows low ceilings, and the rest. One
perspired at thought OF the suIferings
of those who had summered in that hot
second story, and wondered at the per
sistenee of provincial type that could
have done stupid thing. Bue also
one could not but straightway remember
how much else that was fine and high
had persisted along with it, how much
patient courage and steadfast seif-sacri-
flee had gone TO the acquiremeat OF the
heather speech, had wrought with the
pagan mothers and children, and day by
day had held up before that wild and
lawless savagery the pure ana strenuous
examples Of gentleness and godliness and
answering devotion to duty. That that
large expenditure of labor and money has
produced in the Hawaiian Islands endur-
ing results no one who knows them vii
pretend to question.
But along with them there were com
ing to pass political changes of equal
and lasting import 1 have spoken OF
Kamehameha |, whose statue stands in
front of the Government Building in
Honolulu, and whose noble presence pro