lSo9. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



333 



vengeful scape-goat who may enter the com- 

 plaint. 



I inquire where the committee appointed by 

 the wisdom of the State is ? I saw th6ir report 

 of the habits of the robin before the fruit sea- 

 eon ; they reasoned that they were not a fruit- 

 eating bird ; where is the basis for such reason- 

 ing ? Neither are our convicts confined in prison 

 rum-drinkers while there, simply because they 

 cannot gratify that appetite. Who ever heai-d 

 of robins eating fruit in March, April or May ? 



Legislation talks about insect defalcation, de- 

 predation and destruction. Their microscopic 

 eyes, however, never discern the ravages of the 

 gilded, cov>'ardIy robin, whose cowardice induces 

 him to locate near dwellings, that his craven 

 spirit may never be aroused to defend his domi- 

 cil from the depredation of his kind, fleeing, like 

 the one whose protege he is, when no one pur- 

 sueth. N. 



South Danvers, 1859. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE SAND- 

 WICH ISLANDS. 



Masawao Maui, Hawaiian Islands, ) 

 * December SO, 1S6S. \ 



Editors Farmer : — Gentlemen, — Reminded 

 by the closing year of my delinquency in writing 

 3^ou, I hasten to devote a part of this day of pub- 

 lic thanksgiving to this purpose. The occasion 

 will suggest a subject of interest to you and your 

 readers, as Thanksgiving day, though at a dis- 

 tance, will remind them of scenes in which they 

 all delight to participate. 



"Hawaiian Thanksgiving !" do I hear you ex- 

 claim ? with the remark, "You can be as thankful, 

 certainly, as any of us, and God, who is no respect- 

 er of persons, will accept your gratitude. But as 

 for the Thanksgiving supper, with tables groaning 

 with New England luxuries, around which gather 

 hosts of friends, this, of course, you know noth- 

 ing about. A dish of poi and a baked dog or 

 raw fish spread on a clean mat, or on some fresh 

 ferns, will doubtless constitute your Thankgiv- 

 ing repast." Well, friends, I mean to take in 

 good part this specimen of banter which I have 

 supposed you might employ when hearing that 

 the king and chiefs of Hawaii are so far adopt- 

 ing the customs of New England, as to appoint a 

 day of thanksgiving and prayer to God, for His 

 kindness to the nation during the past year. 

 Nor will I deny that both chiefs and people are 

 calculating somewhat largely on thrusting their 

 fingers into the poi dish, and thence to their 

 mouths, ere the day closes ; nor do I doubt that 

 many a fat and sleek animal of the canine spe- 

 cies is now in an oven of hot stones remunerat- 

 ing in part the expense of feeding. I am not 

 horrified in relating, and I hope you will not be 

 in hearing, that dogs are often strangled and 

 eaten by chiefs and people. Foreigners, gener- 

 ally, universally perhaps, cry out, shame, shame, 

 at the practice. I know not that any of them, 

 knoicinyly, eat of this dish, though I shrewdly 

 guess that more than one gentleman from en- 

 lightened lands when dining with the chiefs of 

 Hawaii, have eaten with a gusto from a creature 

 whose vernacular was bow-wow, instead of baa, 

 as they supposed. I know not as I have ever 



tasted dogs' flesh. I have no particular desire to 

 [do so. Still, I see no moral wrong about it, nor 

 !%o I feel like dissuading my people from such a 

 I practice. l)e giistihus non ditfpntandum est, or, let 

 there be no disputing about tastes, is a maxim 

 [which is worthy of consideration. Most heartily 

 do I wish that the men from our country would 

 do nothing worse than eat dogs' flesh. 

 I But to return to the subject of Thanksgiving 

 j supper, which seems to be a sine qva non in the 

 lidea of a Puritan Thanksgiving. I am glad that 

 you feel a doubt of our ability to get up a sup- 

 per on this occasion, which will at all compare 

 I with yours, as in laboring to remove this doubt, 

 I shall be able to tell you of the change in ov.r 

 j circumstances since March, 1828, when, as one 

 of the second reinforcement, some eight years 

 after the establishment of the mission, I landed 

 at Honolulu. 



At that time there were no Thanksgiving days 

 appointed by the government, and had there 

 been we could not have got up much of a sup- 

 per. Our flour was very poor, sour, and often 

 musty. Butter and cheese, fresh beef and m.ut- 

 ton we rarely tasted. Salmon from Oregon we 

 could obtain, but without Irish potatoes and 

 butter, this scarcely relished. Molasses we used 

 for our tea and coff'ee. We had an occasional 

 fowl, but as we bought them of the natives, they 

 were lean and unsavory. Of vegetables we had 

 kalo and sweet potatoes — of fruit, bananas or 

 plantains — also, melons. These were our facil- 

 ities in 1828 for getting up a Thanksgiving 

 supper. In 1829 no flour having arrived from 

 Boston, there was much suffering in the Mission 

 families at Honolulu, and the health of not a few 

 individuals was greatly afi'ected. Since that 

 time there has been a gradual improvement in 

 the means of living so that to-day, Ave can have a 

 Thankgiving supper purely Hawaiian, composed 

 of the following dishes, viz.: Baked beef and 

 j lamb, both beautifully fat and tender, and good 

 enough for John Bull himself; fine large and fat 

 turkey and baked fowl ; excellent mullet Irom 

 'fresh water ponds ; roasted pig fed on milk, ten- 

 der and savory; potatoes, both Irish and sweet; 

 kalo, of which the poi is made, but which boiled 

 ' or roasted is excellent ; bananas or plantains 

 cooked in almost as many ways as your apple, 

 and, on the whole, an excellent substitute ; bread 

 fruit, onions, beans and lettuce, Indian corn, to- 

 matoes and cabbage. To these vegetables, there 

 can be added at some of our stations, turnips, 

 beets and carrots. Bread, of course, at Maka- 

 wao, must not be forgotten. This we have plen^ 

 [ tifully, made of coarse meal ground in our hand- 

 mills or fine bolted at our steam mill at Honolu- 

 lu. With these ingredients we can have chick- 

 en pie ; also, custards, as sugar, eggs and milk 

 , are abundant ; pumpkin and banana pies like- 

 j wise. Butter and cheese, with fig, guava and 

 iOhelo — Hawaiian whortleberry — preserves. Pia 

 jor arrow-root puddings, Hawaiian coff'ee with 

 cream and sugar. A part or all of these v/e can 

 furnish for our supper this evening — also mel- 

 ons, oranges, guavas and figs. Or if our friend, 

 Dr. Alcott, will sup with us, he shall have good 

 baked potatoes and bread, pia, also, with figs and 

 1 oranges. Please recollect, gentlemen, that 1 did 

 j not spread this table to cause a surfeit, but to 

 [show you what a change the blessing of God on 



