en and convert them would tend to the evangelization of their idolatrous nation."*

Aiming to secure the salvation of these strangers, and to make their agency available in disseminating the Gospel through heathen countries, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions established, in the year 1816, a trial school at Cornwall, Connecticut, for whatsoever sons of unevangelized barbarians they could gather together. Hereby was fanned the nascent flame of the Island Mission, which in due time was to irradiate the Heart of the Pacific with so wide a blaze.

Let us pause and mark here the hand of God. "The time of blessed visitation," says Hollis Read, "had come for the isles of the sea. The English churches had already taken of the spoil of their idols, and were rejoicing and being enriched by their conquests. The American Zion must participate in the honor and profit of the war. Hence Henry Obookiah, an obscure boy, without father or mother, kindred or tie, to bind him to his native land, must be brought to our shores; be removed from place to place, from institution to institution, everywhere fanning into a flame the smoking flax of a missionary spirit, and giving it some definite direction; be made the occasion of rousing the slumbering energies of the Church on behalf of the heathen, and of kindling a spirit of prayer and benevolence in the hearts of God's people; and finally, and principally,

* Bingham's History of the Sandwich Islands, p. 57.

SKETCHES OF THOMAS HOPU.

55

his short and interesting career, and perhaps, more than all, his widely lamented death, must originate and mature a scheme of missions to those Islands, the present aspect of which presents scenes of interest scarcely inferior to those of the apostolic age. "%

The companion of Opukahaia, Thomas Hopu, I met at Kailua. He was then fifty-two years of age, and was the sixth man living of those that came from Cornwall, all but one of whom were then said to be in good standing in the church, although they had all been wayward and unstable.

He gave me a graphic account of sundry early adventures of his when a sailor, before he went to Cornwall: how he was the means of saving all on board the schooner he was in, when it was overset at sea, and the masts sprang out as she capsized. He dove under and bit off a rope that held the boat; then got it to the floating masts, and, freed of water, helped the crew into it, and rigged a sail out of the captain's shirt, through which, by a propitious Providence, they reached, just alive, one of the West Indies. Though a wicked sailor, he said he often prayed then to God in the Lord's Prayer, which he had learned while first going to America with Henry Opukahaia.

From the West Indies he shipped again to the United States; but it being the time of the last war with England, the brig was captured by a British cruiser not far from Newport, and carried into Tarpaulin Cove.

* Hand of God in History, by Hollis Read. Hartford, 1849. P. 138.

There, according to his story, he prevailed upon his shipmates to seize a Yankee sloop the British had brought in there. They succeeded in the enterprise, and returned with the sloop to the very port where it was owned.

Reclaimed from the sea, and adopted by the benevolent, Hopu now lived for three years at Cornwall, where, although he never enlisted the sympathy and interest that were attracted to Obookiah, he was fitted for an important part, at first, as interpreter to the early missionaries, and a teacher in the schools.

At

While at the Cornwall Mission School, it is related of him that he took a journey into the country with a friend, and spent an evening with a company who were much entertained by the questions proposed to him by an irreligious lawyer, and his amusing answers. length Thomas said, in substance, "I am a poor heathen boy. It is not strange that my blunders in English should amuse you. But soon there will be a larger meeting than this. We shall all be there. They will ask us all one question, namely, 'Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?' Now, sir, I think I can say, Yes. What will you say, sir ?"

He ceased, and an oppressive stillness pervaded the room. At length it was broken by a proposition of the lawyer, that, as the evening was far spent, they should have a season of devotion, in which Thomas should lead. It was acceded to; and Thomas, in his accustomed meek and affectionate manner, addressed the throne of grace. Soon he prayed for the lawyer in

THE LAWYER AND SANDWICH ISLANDER.

57

person, alluding to his learning and talent, and besought that he might not be ignorant of the way of salvation through Christ.

As he proceeded thus, the emotion of the lawyer rose above restraint. He sobbed aloud. The whole company were affected, and sobs drowned the speaker's voice. When they separated for the night, and retired to their respective rooms, there was no rest to the lawyer, for the question of Thomas still rung in his ears, “What will you say, sir?" Nor did its echo cease till the Spirit of God renewed his heart, and he truly found the Saviour.

This same Thomas Hopu is now bronzed and wrinkled beyond his years, and his lamp of life must soon go out. Though his conduct as a Christian since his return is said to have been by no means always exemplary, nor his influence upon his countrymen what was to have been looked for from his advantages, we must lean to the side of charity in our judgments both of him and his fellows.

Mr. Dibble very properly says, that too much had been expected of them. They were found exceedingly ignorant, and of course, therefore, were miserable interpreters, and very poor teachers. They were often found teaching doctrines and precepts altogether opposed to the precepts of the Bible, and to the spirit of the Gospel. Those of the Cornwall youth especially, that came with the first reinforcement, were deemed a hindrance rather than a help. "To have visited a foreign land, to be better clad than their fellow-countrymen, to re

ceive some attention from chiefs and foreigners, were distinctions which their weak brains and undisciplined minds could not endure." 99%

These youth having so far failed as interpreters, the missionaries were thrown upon their own skill and application for getting a mastery of the Hawaiian tongue. To this great work, therefore, of learning and reducing to writing a language barbarous and unknown, they accordingly devoted themselves with a patient, yea, heroic assiduity. The marvellous result of their labors the universal world of humanity now knows and feels. How vast the difference between the Hawaii which they found in 1820, and the Hawaii which, under God, they have made in 1850!

In the marvellous change thus effected at this longlost Atlantis of the Pacific, we catch a glimpse of what may be realized the world over, when that prophecy of Holy Writ shall be fulfilled which says that THE EARTH SHALL BE FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD AS THE WATERS COVER THE SEA. THEY SHALL NOT HURT NOR DESTROY IN ALL MY

HOLY MOUNTAIN.

* Dibble's History of the Sandwich Islands, p. 173. Lahainaluna Mission Press, 1843.