14 H A W A 1 1 A N G R O U P. 



should not preach or attempt to propagate their religion. Under the 

 French treaty, however, it was afterwards claimed that the mis- 

 sionaries had the right of teaching their tenets, although both the 

 officers had thus formally acknowledged that no such right could 

 exist against the consent and without the permission of the Hawaiian 

 government. 



Some months after these transactions, the provisor of the Bishop 

 of Nicopolis, with some assistants, arrived at Oahu, when permission 

 to land was refused him, and the vessel was not permitted to enter 

 the port, until the owner had given bond that the priests should not 

 be landed. These priests, together with those already under a 

 stipulation to embark as soon as they could procure a passage, 

 purchased a schooner, in which they sailed for the island of Ascen- 

 sion, in the Caroline Group. 



The king and chiefs now thought it necessary, for the purpose of 

 securing themselves against any future annoyance, to enact a law 

 making it penal for any one to teach or propagate the Romish faith. 

 Under this law some of the natives were fined and otherwise 

 punished. Every possible endeavour was made to throw the odium 

 of this law on the American mission, and it was asserted that its 

 enactment had been procured through their influence over the king 

 and chiefs. The falsehood of this charge became apparent when, 

 eighteen months afterwards, the repeal of so much of the law as 

 authorized the infliction of corporal punishment, was effected through 

 the instrumentality of the missionaries, and religious toleration was 

 proclaimed. If any blame is to be imputed to them, it is because 

 they did not at an earlier period take steps to obtain the withdrawal 

 of an ordinance so much at variance with the institutions of the 

 country whence they came, where alone, of nations professing Chris- 

 tianit}^, tolei'ation is an unknown term, because all sects stand upon 

 an equal footing. It is possible that they had warm and excited 

 feelings to contend with ; but if they had it in their power to 

 obtain the repeal of the law, under which they must have heard 

 that much severity was practised, at an earlier period, there can be 

 no excuse for their delay. This supineness, whether apparent or real, 

 has naturally excited censure, both in Hawaii and in the United 

 States, and has served to give a shadow of probability to the numerous 

 falsehoods and misstatements that have been published in relation to 

 their conduct in other matters. Even the severity that was reported to 

 have been practised while the law continued in force, was far less 



