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Abstract
In the second half of the nineteenth century thirty eight Hawaiian families traveled to the Marquesas and to Micronesia as foreign missionaries. This study examines the public and private lives of this group of Calvinist Hawaiians sponsored by the Hawaiian Evangelical Society. It contributes to an understanding of a larger theme, indigenous missionization in the Pacific islands, and shows islanders as persons in control of their destiny rather than as passive recipients of Western cultural imperialism. A series of training institutions produced the Hawaiian corps of foreign missionaries; these were Lahainaluna Seminary, informal pastoral schools conducted by William Alexander and Titus Coan, and the North Pacific Missionary Institute, conducted by Rev. Charles McEwen Hyde, the object of the famous "Open Letter" of Robert Louis Stevenson. The records pertaining to the preparatory years of the Hawaiian missionaries contain revealing conversion experiences of the newly-Christianized islanders and also support a contention that the Hawaiians were an articulate, well-trained group deeply committed to mission endeavor. Hawaiian churches contributed heavily to financing the missions and the enterprise became a source of enduring pride to a Hawaiian Christian community which regarded itself as the "Light of the Pacific." At work in the field the Hawaiians sometimes distinguished themselves as heroes who worked for peace and educational improvements, at other times, brought disgrace to the mission through involvement with holy wars and self-serving commercial ventures. The political alliances forged by the Hawaiians with islands chiefdoms are examined in detail. The study also investigates the relationships between the Hawaiians and their American ministerial associates and concludes that the Americans experienced great difficulty in accepting Hawaiians as members of the ministerial brotherhood. Ordination of Hawaiians posed particular problems. The Hawaiians, on the other hand, often betrayed a sense of superiority over their flocks and were convinced that they were emissaries from islands of enlightenment. The study is largely based on the Hawaiian language station reports filed by the Hawaiians for their home office in Honolulu.
