"6 HAWAII. [letter xn, 



lives." "The old and decrepit, die lame, the blind, the 

 maimed, the withered, the paralytic, and those afflicted with 

 divers diseases and torments ; those with eyes, noses, lips, and 

 limbs consumed ; with features distorted, and figures depraved 

 and loathsome : these came hobbling upon their staves, or led 

 and borne by others to the table of the Lord. Among the 

 throng you would have seen the hoary priest of idolatry, with 

 hands but recently washed from the blood of human victims, 

 together with thieves, adulterers, highway robbers, murderers, 

 and mothers whose hands reeked with the blood of their own 

 children. It seemed like one of the crowds the Saviour 

 gathered, and over which he pronounced the words of healing." 



Though the people cast off idolatry in 1819 before the 

 arrival of the missionaries, they were very indifferent to Chris- 

 tian teaching until 1837, the year before the great baptism, 

 when a great religious stir began, and for four years affected all 

 the islands. I wish you could have heard Mr. C. and Mrs. 

 Lyman tell of that stirring time, when nearly all the large 

 population of the Hilo and Puna districts turned out to hear 

 the Gospel, and how the young people went up into the moun- 

 tains and carried the news of the love of God and the good 

 life to come to the sick and old, who were afterwards baptized, 

 when often the only water which could be obtained for the 

 rite was that which dripped sparingly from the roofs of caves. 

 The Hawaiian notions of a future state, where any existed, 

 were peculiarly vague and dismal, and Mr. Ellis says that the 

 greater part of the people seemed to regard the tidings of ora 

 loa ia yesu (endless life by Jesus) as the most joyful news they 

 had ever heard, " breaking upon them/' to use their own phrase, 

 " like light in the morning." " Will my spirit never die, and 

 can this poor weak body live again ? " an old chieftess exclaimed, 

 and this delighted surprise seemed the general feeling of the 

 natives. From less difficult distances the sick and lame were 

 brought on litters and on the backs of men, and the infirm 

 often crawled to the trail by which the missionary was to 

 pass, that they might hear of this good news which had come 

 to Hawaii-nei. 



There were but these two preachers for the 15,000 people 

 scattered for 100 miles, who were all ravenous to hear, and 

 impatient of the tardy modes of evangelization. " If we die," 

 said they, " let us die in the light." So this strange thing fell 

 out, that whole villages from miles away gathered to the mission 

 station. Two-thirds of the population of the district came in, 



