The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1902-06-24

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pr,.si sou who have the vocation o.
o.. O. missionary DO you ash ana YOU
shall rcccivp--inrifo others Co come and
/ ioin as ana train themselves tot the
4 work want Nuu. my dear
| Father. 90 buy two bells for my two
new chur,h,s. lh,y must be smaller
than the one ut LuuNain which Mgr.
d'Abicric blessed Towards this you
| may ask my parents To give some thing,
as well as Madame D.. and other
charitable persons"
For nine years Father Damien was
stationed IN Hawaii. His parish was
"A large one. Upon the back Of mule
he followed mountain trails. In rain or
shine. lie said mass. In turn. AT his
several widely scattered chapels These
chapels he built with such help as he
could command. He painted them. he
decorated them, somewhat gaudily. to
suit the taste OF the natives; he kept
them in repair. There were three thou
sand natives I'm his district and of these
he said:
wei. certainly love my savages.
who viii soon be more civilized than
Europeans. They all here know how to
read and write, and are quite we'll
dressed ON Sundays"
The end was not yet. The aspira-
tions of that dauntless soul could not
permit its possessor to remain content
ed with the round OF parish work in
kohala, Hawaii His hour approached.
Being present. as a guest. at the dedi-
cation of a chapel at Wailuku. on the
Island of Maui, Bishop Maigret ex-
pressed his SORROW that he had not
missionaries enough SO that he might
spare one for the care OF the suffering
lepers of Mulokai. Almost in the same
breath Father Damien appealed to the
bishop. reminding him that recent ar
rivals from Belgium had made the case
clear enough. 1t was providential! II
was voice from Heaven that called
him! "Monseigncur," said he, here
are your new missionaries: one of them
can take my district, and If you viii
be Kind enough To allow 1t, / Will go to
Molokai and labor for the poor lepers
whose wretched state of bodily and
my heart bleed within me"
No sooner said than done. That very
day, without one word Of farewell. Fa-
Their Damien embarked with the bishop
on a small vessel that had touched at
the Island of Maui with a consignment
of fifty lepers bound for the settlement
of Molokai. Upon their arrival at the
settlement the bishop called all the peo-
pie together and addressed them in a
voice quivering with emotion: so far,
my children" said ne, you have been
left alone and unCared for. But you
shall be so no longer. Behold, ] have
brought you one who will be father
TO you, and who loves you SO much
that for your welfare and for the sake
of your immortal souls. he does not
hesitate to become one of you, TO live
and die with you!"
Thus. in his thirty-third year. did
Father Damien voluntarily enter upon
his mission among the lepers, mission
that was at last crowned with glorious
nartyrdom.
The Island of Molokai, one of the
dozen that form the Hawaiian Archi-
pelago, is 40 miles in length and but
seven miles wide in the widest part.
From the superb cliffs that line it's
northern shore it tapers to a narrow
desert in the south. One may pass in
a few hours' ride from Gardens of Eden
walled in by fern-clad palisades and
fed by slender waterfalls that seem to
leap from the very cloud and are treb-
led in volume after every shower, to a
land that has never drank a drop of
rain-for the trade wind clouds are
wrung dry before they cast their shad-
ow on 1t, and from shore to shore it is
The abomination Of desolation.
Under those rain-fed windward cliffs
lies a plateau, about 5000 acres in ex-
tent, washed on three sides by the tu-
multuous sea, while the fourth side Is
guarded by a precipitous mountain wall
1000 feet in height. The land there is
grassy. undulating, scantily supplied
with trees as one approaches the cliff.
The rocky shore affords no landing,
save in fair weather. Nature seems to
have set this almost inaccessible
tongue of land-it was once hot lava
that flowed into the sea that cooled it
and claimed 1t for its own-nature
seems to have set it aside for a partic-
ular purpose, and a grievous one ii is,
for this is the site of the leper settle
ments on Molokai. Nothing can be
more Formidable than the walls of ada
mant that shut ii out from heights
and depths of SURPRISING beauty. The
very walls themselves are decked with
hanging gardens OF flowers and ferns,
and festooned with pendulous vines
tudt are nut IL loTeldsle Oh the DcTeD-
NAL loveliness of the verdant wales be
yond them.
! do not believe that Father Damien
ever paused to contemplate the natural
beauty of his environment, the sump-
tuous adornments of perpetual sum-
mer, the splendor of the sea. He had
no time for the delights of the eye; his
five senses went hungry or were re-
volted so long as he survived his pain
full exile.
Note these extracts from Father Da-
mieD's official report to the Hawaiian
Board of Health. The reader can see
that his whole heart was in his work,
that he had eyes and ears for nothing,
else save the spiritual and temporal
welfare of his afflicted people:
by special providence of our Divine
Lord, who during His public life show
ed particular sympathy for lepers.
my way was traced toward Kalawao
in May 1873. / was then 80 years of
age enjoying a robust good health.
About so of the lepers were in the
hospitals the others with very