330 CHRISTIANITY IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. [1319. 



chaplain of the French corvette L'Uranie, during her voyage 

 around the world under Captain Freycinet; and, early in 1820, a 

 vessel reached the islands from Boston, bringing a number of 

 missionaries of the Presbyterian or Congregationalist sects, who 

 have been established there ever since, and have exercised, as will 

 be hereafter shown, a powerful and generally beneficial influence 

 over the people and their rulers.* 



* The American missionaries, immediately on entering the Sandwich Islands, 

 began the study of the language through which their instructions were to be con- 

 veyed. This language they found to be the same throughout the group ; but, as 

 considerable differences existed in its pronunciation in different islands, they selected 

 the most pure, or the most generally used, of the dialects, in which they formed a 

 vocabulary, employing English letters to represent the sounds, but wisely confining 

 each letter to the expression of a fixed sound. The History of the American Board 

 of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which may be considered as official authority 

 on all matters connected with the missions in the Sandwich Islands, contains, at 

 p. 112, the following clear and concise view of the system of orthography thus 

 adopted : — 



" The Hawaian [Owyheean] alphabet contains twelve letters only. It has five 

 vowels — a, sounded as a in father ; e, as a in hate ; i, as ee in feet ; o, as o in pole ; 

 and u, as oo in boot ; and seven consonants — h, k, I, m, n, p, and to, sounded as in 

 English. The long English sound of i is represented by a.i, as in Lahaina, where 

 the second syllable is accented, and pronounced like the English word high. The 

 second syllable, wai, of Hawaii, the name of the largest of the islands, is pronounced 

 like the first syllable of the English name l-Vyman ; and, giving the letters the usual 

 English sounds, it might be spelled Ha-wy-ee. The first syllable should be pro- 

 nounced very slightly, and a strong accent placed on the second. The sound of ow 

 (in coio) is represented by an. ; as, Maui, pronounced Mow-ee. The natives do not 

 distinguish the sounds of A; and t from each other, but call the same island sometimes 

 Kaui and Taui, without perceiving the difference. In the same way, d, I, and r, are 

 confounded, and the same place is called indifferently Hido, Hilo, or Hiro. The 

 same occurs in respect to w and v. In fact, these interchangeable consonants are 

 very slightly and indistinctly uttered, so that a foreigner is at a loss to know which 

 the speaker intends to use." 



Agreeably to this system, the missionaries have published a translation of the 

 Bible, and many other books, in the language of the Sandwich Islands. It is, how- 

 ever, much to be regretted that they and their friends, from whom nearly all the in- 

 formation is now received respecting that part of the world, should think proper 

 to apply their orthography exclusively, not only to the names of places and per- 

 sons which have recently gained notoriety, but likewise to those with which every 

 one has become familiar through the journals of Cook and Vancouver. Names are, 

 indeed, not written uniformly in the journals here mentioned ; but the differences are 

 in general slight, far less than between any one of the old names and that assigned 

 to the same object in the new system : and the best informed men, who have not 

 studied that system thoroughly, will scarcely be able to discover that the Hawaii of 

 the missionaries is Owyhee; that Keilakakua is the Kdrakakooa rendered sacred as 

 the scene of Cook's death ; and that Kaumalii and Kamehameha are no others than 

 their old acquaintances, Tamoree and Tamahamaha, under new titles. What would 

 be thought of an English history of Germany, in which places and persons appeared 

 only under their German names — in which Vienna should be written Wien; Moravia, 

 Maehren ; Bohemia, Boehmen ; Francis, Franz; Charles, Karl ; &c. ? 



$ 



