The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-03-21
The Pacific Hesperides
By John Gill.

growing abundantly about their old i
village sites. I hope to domesticata /
this and some of its bonny sisters in |
colder, darker cline.
The old city is full of interest to
the stranger. It's conyerging and mar
row streets are bit like the old town
on Massachusetts Bay which was so
much the mistress of Pacific trade a
century ago, as well as the principal
source of the missions of the Pacific
Islands and northern mainland, There
is British as well as a Bostonian
solidity about the unpretentious old
buildings, an effect not unlike that Of
Victoria. B. c., which is the pleasantest
city on the North Pacific shores The
admirable old church of Kawaiahao is
one of the most impressive houses of
worship, within and without, that
have seen. The story of its building is
most touching, and the building is as
much monument to their steadfast
faith as the tablets within it, sacred
to the memory of the early native
Christians
[ knew without any explanation the
| origin of the quaint old mission house
in the ehurchyard. Those little win
! dow 1sashes, colonial proportions and
| scanty caves, at once decided me as
| to its architects There are several
such houses in old towns along the Co.
| lumbia river-framed and made com
pletely ready for setting up, in New
| England MILL The timber from Co
! lumbia forests is now sent in ships to
| those same Yankee towns.
That ancient house and venerable
| church recall the story, now nearly n
century old, of the devoted men and
women who in their zeal to make
Christians of the Hawaiians founded a
| kingdom and framed its laws as Incl
| dents of their greater purpose. A
nohler record of Christian enterprise is
not written, than this story of Hawai-
ian missions. That the spirit is by no
means extinct, the surprising activity
of mission schools and churches and
helpful societies among the Chinese,
Japanese, Portuguese and Koreans is
witness. 1t is safe to say that no city
under the American flag, of Honolulu S
population. has so many or SO great
schools and colleges of this character;
and the common schools of the city
and throughout the islands are not
surpassed in excellence by the most
progressive of our States.
The generous hospitality Of the city
is proverbial, world wide. The navi-
gators and explorers of the eighteenth
century sought these harbors with a
certainty of receiving aid from SOW
ereign and people. The fur trading
ships, on their voyages to Nootka; the
New Bedford whalemen, the ships of
the Hudson Bay Company and the mis-
sionares and emigrants to Oregon
!. were welcomed here with more than
Oriental entertainment. In the early
thirties the Oregonians sent their chill
dren here for the advantage of school
: ing better than could be had at home.
Your mission at Honolulu supplied us
with the first printing-pr ever used
, on the west side of the Mississippi in
, American territory. 1t spread religion
, and civilization among the great tribes
of the Nez Perces.
Your native Hawaiian sailors helped
to man the Tonquin, of the Astor ex
petition, and penetrated, in the ser
: vice Of that enterprise and subsequent
| " in the service of Hudson's Bay ant
a the NORTHWEST L Ut company, Adi 1hb'
the interior toward the Rocky Noun
tains One of Oregon's most importan
eastern rivers is named Owyhee, from
: some forgotten Hawaiian. Their cour
g age, strength and skill and fdelit.
;, were never found wanting.
Some of these far-traveled Hawai-
;, ians are known to have died on tn
northwest coast. from no other vislbl
;, cause but homesiekness. Like tn
. present dwellers in the happy isles
thew could be content nowhere else
What intrepid hearts were those o
= the old time, when the kings of Kaua
= or of Maui went forth to war agalns
= islands as far away as Cape Cod
!, from Halifax! As we roll and pitc
in the stanch interisland steamer
! now, buffeted by the trade wind, on