Island of Maui. 

 Seminary of Wailuku. 



SANDWICH ISLANDS. 



Island of Maui. 

 Seminary of Wailuku. 



271 



of the scholars, contrasting so unfavourably with 

 the neatness and cleanliness of the rest of the 

 establishment. Neither can it be expected that 

 they should imbibe cleanly habits, or be able to 

 preserve them, when they are allowed to wear their 

 clothes unchanged from the beginning to the end 

 of the week. The dress consists of the usual loose 

 gown adopted in the islands, and in which these 

 children are allowed to sleep. On Saturday they 

 wash, and on Sunday make their appearance in a 

 white cotton smock, shawl, and bonnet, the latter 

 of their own manufacture. Their dormitory is a 

 long adobe building, with walls two feet thick, 

 divided into compartments twelve feet by ten, each 

 of which accommodates three scholars. More than 

 half of this space is occupied by their bed, which 

 is made of mats laid on a bank of ti-leaves, or 

 sugar-cane, about two feet thick, with a small 

 pillow of about eight inches square. What clothes 

 they had were hung up in the corners, and a scanty 

 supply they appeared to be. Rolls of tapa were 

 laid on the mats, which serve to cover them at 

 night. The only ventilation was through a small 

 window and the top part of the partition- wall, which 

 was left open. I passed into several of these 

 small rooms, all of which had a musty smell, as of 

 decayed or mouldy vegetable matter. It was no 

 longer a subject of surprise to me that the esta- 

 blishment had obtained the name of being un- 

 healthy, or that several of the girls had died *. 



While Mr. Greene gives the scholars instruction 

 in the various departments of education, Miss 

 Ogden teaches them all kinds of useful employ- 

 ments, such as spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing, 

 quilting, millinery, &c. She has, also, the super- 

 intendence of their eating apartment, and no 

 place could be better arranged than this part of 

 the establishment : every thing has a useful pur- 

 pose, and one readily sees the practical operation 

 of all that is doing. I had the pleasure of seeing 

 the scholars at their meals, where all was regulated 

 and went according to rule : those who were ap- 

 pointed to " wash up" kept their places while the 

 rest left the table. They made a better appearance 

 at their morning meal than they had done on the 

 day of our arrival, wearing now neat white capes ; 

 but I still saw the same frocks. I do not, however, 

 wish to give the idea that they are not in reality 

 clean: they are so beyond a doubt, as I understood 

 they bathed almost every day ; but they did not 

 look tidy. Miss Ogden took her place at a small 

 table, whence she was enabled to overlook the 

 whole. Their food is that of the country, consist- 

 ing principally of poe and fish, and they are occa- 

 sionally indulged with molasses. 



Baths and walking-grounds are prepared for 

 them, where they can take exercise. The avowed 

 object of this establishment is to educate the 

 daughters of Hawaii as wives for the young men 

 who are educated at Lahainaluna. They are fed 

 and clothed by the Missionary Society, and it is 

 proposed that they shall remain at the establish- 

 ment until they be married. 



One courtship has already taken place by letters; 

 and I was informed these were the first love-letters 

 that had ever been written in this group. I was 



I have since understood that this defect has been 

 remedied, the scholars having been provided with bedsteads 

 and bedding, and that no cases of sickness have since oc- 

 curred. 



extremely desirous of obtaining the originals or 

 copies, but was not successful. The correspond- 

 ence appears to have been carried on under the 

 eye of the missionaries, and the expressions they 

 contained were very common-place. 



This whole establishment does great credit to 

 those who are engaged in rearing it up, on ac- 

 count of the method and perseverence with which 

 it is carried on. It is extremely gratifying to see 

 efforts of this kind made, but I cannot help doubt- 

 ing the policy of not allowing any of the burden of 

 it fall upon the natives themselves (the parents). 

 The only argument advanced in justification of 

 this course, was the rather unsatisfactory one, 

 that these people cannot understand and appre- 

 ciate sufficiently the advantages, to be persuaded 

 to contribute to the education of their children. 

 As far as my own observations went, I believe this 

 to be an error. As long as the children are edu- 

 cated and maintained gratis, the natives will never 

 make any exertions to furnish the means. Some 

 of the natives said to me, on my making inquiry 

 why their children were not at the seminary, that 

 they could not get them there, for all those ad- 

 mitted were selected by the missionaries, and there 

 are no other means of tuition ; they also added, 

 that they would be willing to contribute a few 

 dollars for the education of their children, if 

 allowed. 



The greatest objection to the system of this 

 school, in my opinion, is that the pupils are not 

 taken at an earlier age, and before their habits are 

 in any way formed, and that it is attempted to 

 educate them exclusively for civilized life as it now 

 is. Taken at too advanced an age, they have 

 scarcely an opportunity of forgetting the life of 

 ease they led while in their savage state ; and thus 

 their early impressions remaining still uneradi- 

 cated, they return almost as soon as they leave the 

 school to their savage state, finding it more easy 

 than to keep up their partially civilized habits ; 

 whereas, if they were taken very young, and put 

 under a course of discipline that would make their 

 improvement permanent, and were, besides, taught 

 the way of maintaining themselves as they now 

 are, by useful employment, they would not be so 

 likely to relapse into their former habits, or adopt 

 those of their parents. I have little doubt, that 

 such a course would be a great means of reform- 

 ing many of their parents, as far as they are sus- 

 ceptible of reformation ; for the relation between 

 parents and children is altogether different with 

 them from what it is among us, parents being in- 

 variably under the control of the children, after 

 the latter have grown up. 



The plan of taking the children, as is done, from 

 the dregs of the natives, is, I think, another mis- 

 take. The higher orders in a monarchial system 

 of government ought to be more carefully instructed 

 than the others. This principle is admitted by the 

 establishment of the chiefs' school at Honolulu, 

 and I see no reason why it should not equally 

 apply to the children of the petty chiefs, or second 

 class. I am, indeed, satisfied that greater advan- 

 tages would be derived from such a course, and the 

 school would, in this way, become more popular. 

 Parents of this rank would, also, be enabled to 

 assist hi its maintenance, and the lower orders, as 

 elsewhere, would imitate the higher. 



1 must do full justice to the good fare and kind 



