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THE 

MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER: 

A 

MEMOIR 

OP 

LUCY GOODALE THURSTON, 



THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 



" Why brought here to wither. 
But to fulfil some high behest of heaven ?" 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 




Entered accordingko Act of Congrfss, in the year 1842, bj' A. P. Cuniings, 
iu the Clerk's Office oltthe'Disti-icJ/Court of the United States, for the South- 
em District of New Yo!^ Ma 

Right of publishing transferred to the American-irract Society. 






PREFACE. 



About one year ago, God, in his providence, 
brought to this country the child of one of our 
oldest missionaries in the far off isles of the seas. 
She was among the first of the children of the mis- 
sionaries who have been retained at a missionary 
station to so mature an age ; and notwithstanding 
all the disadvantages of her isolated situation, at- 
tained a high degree of mental cultivation ; and 
gave, living and dying, evidence of sincere piety. 

At the age of seventeen she landed upon our 
shores, with the expectation of enjoying, for a sea- 
son, the advantages of the society and institutions 
of Christian America ; but within three weeks after 
the time of her arrival, she found a place in our 
sepulchres. 

The brief obituary notice of this young person, 
published a short time after her death, in the New 



4 PREFACE. 

York Observer, excited very general interest, and 
the request was immediately made from various 
directions, by members of the American Board, and 
other friends of missions, that a more extended 
memoir might be given to the public. The writer, 
however, would never have undertaken its prepa- 
ration but at the suggestion of Rev. Dr. Anderson, 
the Secretary of the Board who has charge of the 
foreign department, who was of the opinion that 
such a memoir would not only subserve the cause 
of youthful piety, but have a favorable bearing on 
the cause of missions. 

It has not been the object of the writer to de- 
scribe a child of unusual powers of mind or attain- 
ments in piety, nor to present a narrative of a 
remarkable or uncommon character ; but to give 
the simple history of a missionary's child, reared 
at a missionary station in one of the darkest cor- 
ners of the earth, to show what may be accom- 
plished with the blessing of God by intelligent 
Christian parents, even when deprived of many of 
those facilities which are usually deemed essential 
in the education of children ; and especially to call 
up, in the minds of both parents and children, a 
deeper interest in the families of missionaries, and 



PREFACE. 5 

more ardent desires for the salvation of the hea- 
then. 

What Lucy Thurston was, and what she became 
in the peculiar circumstances of her situation, is 
here presented chiefly in her own language, by 
extracts from her journal and letters. Thus, being 
dead, she yet speaketh. If her example should 
inculcate any new lessons of meekness, humility, 
and loveliness of deportment ; if it should impress 
upon the minds of any of the youth of our land 
the importance and blessedness of early piety, or 
inspire any one of them with a love for the mis- 
sionary cause, she will not speak in vain. And if 
her brief history should throw any light upon the 
question, *' How are the children of missionaries to 
be educated?" and awaken in the hearts of any of 
God's people stronger sympathies for their mission- 
aiy brethren, or a deeper sense of their obligations 
to labor and pray, and give of their substance, 
"that the kingdom of glory may be hastened," the 
writer will ever rejoice, that by a peculiar provi- 
dence she was permitted to stand by the dying bed 
of " the missionary's daughter." 

For the benefit of those into whose hands this 
book may fall, and who may not be familiar with 



6 PREFACE. 

the history of the Sandwich Island mission, a brief 
sketch of the early history of these islands, and of 
the introduction and progress of Christianity upon 
them, is prefixed to the memoir. 

March 1, 1842. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Preface 3 

CHAPTER L 

Discovery Geography — Soil — Productions — First visits of 

Foreigners to the Islands 9 

CHAPTER 11. 
Character of the Inhabitants — Despotic Government — Hab- 
itations — Dress — Filthiness — Vicious habits — Idolatry — 
Kabu system 13 

CHAPTER III. 
Remarkable events of divine Providence which prepared the 
way for the Mission to the Sandwich Islands . . . 20 

CHAPTER IV. 
First Mission Company — Arrival — Change effected in twenty 
years 25 

CHAPTER V. 
Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Thurston — Peculiar trials of Mis- 
sionary Parents — Views of Mr. and Mrs. Thurston with 
respect to their children 29 

CHAPTER VI. 
Lucy's Birth and Childhood — Traits of Character — Peculiar 
circumstances in which she was educated .... 33 

CHAPTER VII. 
Extra.cts from her Journal and Letters, written when she was 
from eight to twelve years of age 42 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Lucy's religious Character — Letters — Journal . . . . 5G 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. Page. 

Journal continued — Her public profession of Eeligion . C3 

, CHAPTER X. 
Journal and Letters, written when Lucy was from thirteen to 
sixteen years of age 71 

CHAPTER XL 
Her Character and Labors as a Teacher — Prayers in the Ha- 
waiian language — Letters 89 

CHAPTER XIL 
Description of her tour around Hawaii — Visit to the 

Volcano 103 

CHAPTER XIIL 
Letters to Lucy from the Missionaries 119 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Lucy at the age of seventeen — Letters in view of her depar- 
ture from the Islands 131 

CHAPTER XV. 
Views of Mr. and Mrs. Thurston in bringing then* children to 
America — Journal — Parting Interviews — Letter to Lucy 
from her Father 144 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Journal of her Voyage 155 

CHAPTER XVn. 
Arrival in America — Letter to her Father — her sickness and 
death 179 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Conclusion — Review — Traits in Lucy's character worthy of 
imitation — Remarks 193 

Appendix 210 



THE 



MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 



CHAPTER I. 

DISCOVERY OF THE ISLANDS-GEOGRAPHY— SOIL-PRODUCTIONS— 
FIRST VISITS OF FOREIGNERS. 

The Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands were 
discovered by Captain Cook in the year 1778. 
They form one of the largest groups of islands 
belonging to that portion of the world called 
Polynesia, and are situated in the Pacific 
Ocean, in about 20 deg. north latitude, and 
about 155 of longitude west from Greenwich ; 
and about one-third of the distance from the 
western coast of Mexico to the eastern coast 
of China. They are ten in number : Hawaii, 
Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, 
Kauai, Nihau, and two small uninhabited 
islands ;^ the first was for many years known 
as Owyhee, the land of Obookiah. Honolulu, 

* Pronounced Hali-wye-C; Mow-e, Kah-ho-o-lah-way, 
Lah-ni, Mo-lo-ki, 0-ah-hoOj Kow-i, Ne-how. 



10 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

on the island of Oahu, has the finest harbor in 
the islands, and has already become a seaport 
of considerable importance. 

These islands are supposed to be of volcanic 
origin. The soil consists chiefly of decomposed 
lava. Craters of extinct volcanoes, and evi- 
dences of eruptions, are everywhere to be 
seen. Earthquakes are not unfrequent in sev- 
eral of these islands, and on Hav^aii is an im- 
mense volcano, whose mighty fires since first 
discovered, have not ceased to burn. 

The productions are not so various as those 
of many other islands and countries in the 
tropical regions ; yet many of the fruits of the 
torrid zone are found in perfection, and the 
soil is adapted to the cultivation of all the 
necessaries, and many of the luxuries of life. 
The culture of the sugar-cane has been suc- 
cessfully introduced within a few years, and 
in 1840 the first exportation of sugar and 
molasses was made from that country. 

The climate is mild and delightful, the ther- 
mometer ranging from 60 to 85 deg. of Fah- 
renheit. 

The inhabitants are of the same race as 
those of the other islands of Eastern Polyne- 



VISITS OF FOREIGNERS. H 

si a, and bear a strong resemblance, in many 
respects, to the inhabitants of Southern Asia. 
But how long they had existed as a nation, 
previous to the discovery of the islands by 
Capt. Cook, or what was their origin, is a mat- 
ter of mere conjecture. He found them a race 
of degraded savages, and met his death at 
their hands.* 

During the forty years subsequent to their 
discovery, the islands were frequently visited 
by ships from various countries. Vancouver 
visited them in 1792, and established a friendly 
intercourse with the king and chiefs. Their 
convenient position procured them many visits 
from ships engaged in the whaling business, 
and in trade to China and the north-west 
coast of America. American merchants had 
established themselves there long before the 
entrance of American missionaries ; but no 
improvement was made in the temporal or 
spiritual condition of the people. The love 
of gain had led many an adventurer to their 
shores, but as yet no one came with the voice 

* For further particulars of Capt. Cook's visit to 
these islands, see " Cook's Voyages," and '• Dibble's 
History of the Sandwich Islands." 



12 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

of mercy — no one cared for their benighted 
souls. On the contrary, the vices of foreign 
lands, which were abundantly introduced, only 
sunk them deeper in corruption and misery. 
Their native treachery was confirmed and 
strengthened by the unfair dealings of sordid 
traders ; fire-arms added a new facility to the 
indulgence of their cruel and malignant pas- 
sions ; and the introduction of intoxicating 
liquors, and the unrestrained licentiousness of 
the seamen, completed the degradation of this 
benighted people. 



CHARACTER OF THE NATIVES. 13 

CHAPTER II. 

CHARACTER OF THE INHABITANTS-DESPOTIC GOVERNMENT-HAB- 
ITATIONS— DRESS— FILTHINESS— VICIOUS HABITS— IDOLATRY— TABU 
SYSTEM. 

It is difficult to present the character and 
condition of a heathen people in such a light 
that they may be appreciated by those who 
dwell in these favored ends of the earth. There 
are so many circumstances which go to make 
up the sum of human civilization and tempo- 
ral comfort, that they are seldom all taken 
into account. The writer can truly say, that 
after reading for years the various histories of 
pagan nations, and the accounts of missiona- 
ries who have labored among them, she had 
formed no such idea of the degradation of the 
heathen, as is gained by listening to the verbal 
accounts of the missionaries who first planted 
the standard of the cross among them. A re- 
cent writer says on the subject, '' I had some 
sense of the degradation of the heathen, the 
first year of my residence among them, but 
the whole period of seven years did not serve 
to reach in conception the immense, the fath- 
omless depth." We will present a few of the 



14 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

most striking facts tending to show the condi- 
tion of these islanders, when first visited by 
the missionaries. 

They were a nation of ignorant, degraded, 
naked savages. Their government was an ab- 
solute despotism. The common people were 
in the most abject slavery to the king and 
chiefs. Their lives and property being at the 
arbitrary disposal of their rulers, they were 
destitute of motive to activity or enterprise. 

Their dwellings were thatched huts ; a mat 
upon the ground and three calabashes or gourd- 
shells, one for fish, another for poi',^ and a third 
for water, their only articles of furniture. 
Sitting around these calabashes, they took their 
food with their fingers, and then slept promis- 
cuously like a herd of cattle, upon the mat, 
which served alike for a seat, a table, and a 
bed. The houses of the chiefs were of a better 
character, but their comforts and conveniences 
were but little above those of the common peo- 
ple. The habits of all classes were filthy in the 
extreme. Cutaneous diseases were universal 
and from the highest chief to the lowest sub- 
ject, not an individual was free from vermin. 
* Pronounced po-e. 



DRESS AND HABITS. 15 

The king and chiefs had in some degree 
adopted the American style of dress, and wore 
garments in their intercourse with foreigners. 
But in general their only clothing was a strip 
of native cloth, made of the bark of trees, and 
the common people were accustomed to go 
entirely naked. Even the female chiefs, in 
the early period of the residence of the mis- 
sionaries on the islands, have entered their 
houses in a state of perfect nudity, and with- 
out the least sense of impropriety or shame. 
Oh, who can tell the pain of heart that our 
missionary sisters have felt, the trials to which 
their sensibilities have been subjected, in 
taking up a residence among such a people. 
Thanks be to God, they have had no incon- 
siderable share in the honor and privilege of 
elevating this nation, and of placing their own 
sex in a position alike favorable to their tem- 
poral comfort and their eternal salvation. 

But poverty and filth were not their greatest 
miseries. They were in every sense a corrupt 
and vicious nation. The family compact was 
unknown. Polygamy was common, and licen- 
tiousness universal. Parental affection was ca- 
pricious, and children were often sacrificed at 



16 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

their birth, merely because their parents wished 
to be rid of them. Treachery and deceit* were so 
common, that the missionaries were obliged to 
watch their household effects when a native 
was present, and even conversing with them. 
And while their language abounded in terms 
expressive of the grossest practices and vices, it 
was destitute of such as would convey an idea 
of virtue or rectitude. In conversation, as in all 
other intercourse, they knew no restraint. And 
the missionaries remark, that after years of in- 
struction and example, it is still difficult for 
the people to conceive of the proprieties of con- 
versation, or to understand that there should 
be any subject of discourse not common to both 
sexes, and proper under all circumstances. 

Their religion was a system of cruel idola- 
try. Human sacrifices were common ; their 
altars literally flowed with human blood, mul- 
titudes being often sacrificed at one ofTering. 
And now, as the missionary goes abroad upon 
some pedestrian tour, to preach the Gospel to 
the people, he passes- here and there a demol- 
ished temple, around which lie the bleaching 
bones of human victims. 

Connected with their idol- worship was the 



THE KABU SYSTEM. 17 

kabu system. This was a system of arbitrary 
restrictions and prohibitions imposed upon the 
people by the king and priests. The word 
'■'• kabu," or tabu, as it is commonly written, 
implies '' consecration ;" and when applied to 
this religious system, signified that certain 
persons, places, seasons, and things were sa- 
cred to the gods, or to certain persons and 
purposes. The least failure in the observance 
of the kabu was punished with death. Certain 
animals and trees were sacred to the gods ; 
certain kinds of food were sacred to the king 
and priests ; particular days and sometimes 
weeks were sacred to the worship of the gods, 
or to the service of the king and chiefs, and 
during these seasons the most common acts of 
life were forbidden. The persons of the king, 
chiefs, and priests were, at times, so sacred 
that no individual could accidentally behold 
them without suffering death. These prohi- 
bitions were inconceivably numerous, and vio- 
lations of them so unavoidable, that the kabu 
seemed like a system for effecting the destruc- 
tion of human beings, and the absolute misery 
of those who survived, rather than a system 
of religious observances. 

Mi£s. Daughter. 2 



18 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

No class of persons felt the burden of the kabu 
as did the females. "Women were forbidden to 
eat with men, or to partake of the choicest kinds 
of meat, fish, or fruit. Even the highest female 
chiefs were under these cruel restrictions. 

A female missionary once said to me, " It 
is to the Christian religion that you owe the 
privilege of sitting at this table with your 
husband, and of eating the fruit that you hold 
in your hand. Before we went to the country 
where I have been laboring, no woman was 
allowed to sit at table with her husband, and, 
except one favorite queen, not a woman in the 
kingdom could taste fruity under penalty of 
death." To sit at table with a husband was 
too great an honor, and to eat fruit too great 
a luxury for a ivoman. Oh, what an amount 
of suffering has paganism inflicted on the fe- 
male sex. How long have their sighs and 
tears gone up to an "unknown God," without 
an answer. But the prayer of the Christian's 
faith has brought relief. Here, as in every 
other country not enlightened by the beams 
of the Sun of righteousness, woman was sunk 
to the lowest place of abjection; but here she 
has already "lifted up her head and rejoiced" 



NATIVE POPULATION. 19 

in the light, and felt the elevating power of 
the Gospel. 

Not half the evils of the condition of this 
people are here taken into account. But even 
to these their native miseries, add the deadly 
vices introduced from Christian lands during 
an intercourse of forty years, and the reader 
may form some conception of the state in 
which they were found twenty years ago by 
the American missionaries. 

The population of the Sandwich Islands 
was estimated by Captain Cook at 400,000. 
Whether that was correct or not, it was then 
much larger than it is at present. Various 
causes, connected with their religion, govern- 
ment, and domestic customs, have long com- 
bined to depopulate the islands. The last 
census shows but 108,500 inhabitants. 

Since the labors of the missionaries have 
commenced, the progress of depopulation has 
been retarded, but not arrested. Yet we may 
indulge the hope that this nation is not des- 
tined to melt away before the progress of civ- 
ilization, but to remain a lasting monument of 
God's providence and grace, in bringing the 
isles of the seas under his dominion. 



20 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

CHAPTER III. 

REMARKABLE EVENTS OF DI\aNE PROVIDENCE, WHICH PREPARED 
THE WAY FOR THE MISSION TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 

In the conversion of no nation from Pagan- 
ism to Christianity, has the providence of Grod 
been more strikingly manifest, than in open- 
ing the way for the introduction of the Gospel, 
and promoting its progress in the Sandwich 
Islands. 

The different islands of the group were for- 
merly governed by separate and independent 
kings and chiefs. They were frequently en- 
gaged in cruel and exterminating wars with 
each other, which have probably greatly accel- 
erated the depopulation of the islands. A for- 
midable obstacle to the introduction of Chris- 
tianity was removed, only a few years previous 
to the arrival of the missionaries, by the union 
of the islands under the government of one 
ruler. This was Kamehameha. He was a 
petty chief of one of the districts of Hawaii ; 
possessing remarkable powers of mind, bold- 
ness of purpose, and great physical energy. He 
had been successful in some of his contests 
with other chiefs of his island, and formed the 



KAMEHAMEIIA. 21 

design of subjecting all the islands to his do- 
minion. In. this bold project he was at length 
successful, and by the rare combination of en- 
ergy of character, a mild disposition, and a 
humane attention to the welfare of his subjects, 
established a consolidated government. 

Kamehameha derived some benefit from his 
intercourse with foreigners, and made the first 
attempt to adopt the customs of civilized life 
among his people. He endeavored to intro- 
duce the mechanic arts, encouraged commerce, 
and seemed to have some obscure ideas of ele- 
vating his nation. The news of the great 
change wrought in the Society Islands — where 
the London Missionary Society had been for 
many years laboring — had reached him, and 
he and the more intelligent of his people had 
already begun to sigh for the better religion 
of the land afar off. 

But Kamehameha died a heathen. " Feel- 
ing after God if haply he might find him," on 
his death-bed, he entreated of a foreigner by 
his side, " Tell me plainly of the religion of 
the Bible, and of the Christian's God." But 
alas, no messenger of the everlasting Gospel 
was there, to point him to the Lamb that was 



22 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

slain ; and the soul of the king, and the priest, 
went untaught to the bar of God. 

Kamehameha died on the 8th of May, 1819. 
He was succeeded by his son Liholiho, who 
struck the fatal blow to the kabu system. On 
an appointed day, after consultation with his 
chiefs, the king sat down to the table of the 
women of the royal family, and declared the 
kabu to be abolished. The decree was pro- 
claimed through the islands. The temples were 
destroyed, the altars thrown down, the idols 
burned, and the debasing system of idolatry, 
under which this wretched people had for ages 
suffered, and for which thousands of deluded 
beings had bled and died, was in one day 
brought to the ground. The nation had " put 
away their strange gods from among them." 
The isles were waiting for God's law, and He 
who had thus wonderfully prepared the way, 
was no less wonderfully preparing to send his 
law and his Gospel to them. 

Does the reader remember to have heard of 
Obookiah, or Obukahaia, the Sandwich Island 
youth, who sat on the steps of the college build- 
ings at New Haven, and wept, as he thought he 
could gain no access to the paths of knowledge ? 



OBUKAHAIA. 23 

Obukahaia was born in Hawaii about the 
year 1795, in the reign of Kamehameha. Dur- 
mg a civil war his parents were slain before 
his eyes, and he was kept a prisoner till found 
by his uncle, the high-priest of the island, who 
took him to his own home. Even in his sav- 
age boyhood, he seems to have possessed tender 
sensibilities. He mourned his orphan state, 
was restless and unhappy, and formed the de- 
sign of leaving his native land. In 1809, he 
availed himself of an opportunity of coming to 
the United States. He was brought to New 
Haven, Conn., where he soon showed a strong 
desire for instruction, was taken by the hand 
and instructed by the Rev. C. N. D wight ; and 
was subsequently under the care of the lament- 
ed and revered Samuel J. Mills, till he entered 
the foreign mission school at Cornwall, Conn. 

Obukahaia was a lovely and promising youth. 
He made rapid progress in knowledge, and 
gave early evidence of piety. His heart bled 
in view of the miseries of his countrymen, and 
he was laboring to prepare liimself to carry 
back to them the blessed Gospel, when he was 
seized with a fever, and died on the 17th of 
February, 1818. But " he died as a Christian 



24 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

would wish to die. And he had not lived in 
vain. Life's great end had been accomplished 
in the preparation of his own soul for the life 
to come. His tears on the college threshold, 
more than any thing else, had called the mis- 
sion school into existence, and secured the 
preparation of several others of his countrymen, 
to return to the islands instructed in the way 
of life. He had lived until the interest in his 
kindred according to the flesh had become gen- 
eral, and a mission to the Sandwich Islands 
was rendered certain and near at hand." 

The hearts of these Hawaiian kings were 
in the hands of the Lord, and while he turned 
them as the rivers of waters are turned, he led 
this orphan boy to a Christian land, and gave 
him a part equally important in accomplishing 
his will. For may we not believe that the 
prayers of Obukahaia with his devoted teacher 
Mills, and other Christians in America, had 
a prevailing efficacy, in accomplishing that 
change which took place while the missiona- 
ries were on their way across the ocean ?* 

* The first missionaries sailed on the 23d of October, 
and it was in the early part of November, that the kabu 
system was abolished by Liholiho. 



FIRST MISSIONARIES. 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

FIRST MISSION COMPANY— AKRIVAL-CHANGE EFFECTED IN TWENTY 

YEARS. 

On the 23d of October, 1819, the brig Thad- 
deus sailed from Boston, bearing the first com- 
pany of missionaries to the Sandwich Islands. 
Previous to their embarkation, they were 
formed into a mission church of seventeen 
members — Rev. Messrs. Thurston and Bing- 
ham and their wives, with five other assistant 
missionaries and their wives, and three Sand- 
wich Island youths, who had been educated at 
the Cornwall school, and were prepared to act 
as interpreters to the missionaries on their 
arrival. After a safe passage, they landed at 
Kailua on the 4th of April, 1820, little expect- 
ing the intelligence that awaited them. They 
had been preparing to contend with all the op- 
position of a system strengthened by age, and 
the prejudices of ignorant superstition ; but 
behold, the people were waiting for the new 
religion of which they had heard, and welcomed 
to their shores the teachers of salvation. 

The missionaries were kindly received by 
the king and chiefs, who became their first 



20 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

pupils and their kindest friends. And while 
they have enjoyed the favor and protection of 
the government, they have received every en- 
couragement, and enjoyed every facility, which 
it was in the power of uncivilized rulers to 
bestow, in diffusing the knowledge of civiliza- 
tion and the Christian religion among the com- 
mon people.* 

It would be interesting to trace the peculiar 
providence of G-od, in the various events that 
have marked the progress of the mission in the 
Sandwich Islands ; to portray the contrast 
which is visible between these islands as they 
now are, and as they were twenty years ago ; 
to speak of the churches which have taken the 
place of heathen temples, the common-schools, 
and boarding-schools, and seminaries which 
have gathered in thousands of the children — 
of the printing-presses which have scattered 
books of instruction and science, maps, and, at 

* It is a humiliating fact, that the only opposition with 
which our missionaries have ever had to contend, in their 
self-denying labors in the Sandwich Islands, has been 
caused by the influence of foreigners ; and too often by 
those who boasted the same American origin, and should 
have rejoiced to take the missionaries by the hand, and 
claim them as brethren. 



CHANGES WROUGHT. 27 

length, the entire Bible in the Hawaiian lan- 
guage, over every part of the land — of the va- 
rious arts which have already been successfully 
introduced, and have, to a wonderful degree, 
ameliorated the condition of the people ; and 
especially to describe the great and powerful 
revivals of religion which have passed over the 
whole face of the islands, and brought thou- 
sands of souls in submission to the feet of Jesus. 

It would be delightful here to dwell upon 
the conversion and characters of Keaupuolani,* 
Kaahumanu, Opiia, and Kinau, who have lit- 
erally fulfilled the prediction, "Queens shall 
become nursing mothers" to the church — to 
speak of Kaumuolii, Koapilikani, and Keau- 
moku, of Nauhi and Kapiolani, and a number 
of other chiefs, who early embraced the truth 
as it is in Jesus, and who have gone, as their 
spiritual guides believe, to cast their crowns 
at the feet of their Saviour, and to enter upon 
their eternal rest. 

Something of this change may be learned 
from the memoir before us, and some of these 

* Pronounced Kay-ow-poo-o-lah-ne, Kali-ah-hoo-mah- 
noo, 0-pe-e-ali, and Ke-now ; Kow-moo-o-le-e, (formerly 
written Tamoree^) Ko-ali-pe-le-kah-nCj Ka-ow-mo-koo, 
Now-he, Kah-pe-o-lah-ne. 



28 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

distinguished and interesting heathen converts 
are here alluded to. But the reader must be 
referred to other sources for a particular his- 
tory of this interesting and successful mission. 
One missionary band after another have gone to 
take up their abode in these islands, until the 
people have already enjoyed the instruction of 
more than one hundred laborers. The Lord is 
carrying on the v^ork v^hich he commenced; 
and while his devoted servants have had great 
encouragement in their toils and trials, and the 
dying testimony of many ransomed heathen 
has been to them a large reward, they will 
never cease to ascribe the praise " to Him who 
alone doeth wondrous things," and in view of 
the events of the past twenty years, to say, 
^^ What hath God wrought !" 

For further particulars of the history of the 
Sandwich Islands, and of the progress of Chris- 
tianity upon them, the reader is referred to 
" Ellis' Polynesian Researches," '' Stewart's 
Sandwich Islands," " Tracy's History of the 
American Board," "Dibble's History of the 
Sandwich Islands," and "The Missionary Her- 
ald ;" to which works the writer is indebted for 
many of the facts contained in these chapters. 



CHILDREN OF MISSIONARIES. 29 



CHAPTER V. 

EESrOENCE OF MR. AND MRS. THURSTON— PECULLAR TRIALS OF MIS- 
SIONARY PARENTS -VIEWS OF MR. AND MRS. THURSTON WITH 
RESPECT TO THEIR CHILDREN. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thurston remained at Kailua*^ 
a few months after their arrival at the islands, 
and then removed to Honolulu, at the same 
time that the residence of the king and court 
was also changed. They resided two years at 
Honolulu, and then returned with two children 
to Kailua, where they have ever since resided, 
and where Mr. Thurston remains, the oldest 
ministerial laborer in the Sandwich Islands. 

From the description of the natives, and of 
the state of society, given in a previous chap- 
ter, it will be readily supposed, that the ques- 
tion, how children should be shielded from the 
influences by which they were surrounded, 
would be one of the deepest interest to the 
missionaries. For the abolition of idolatry did 
not change the customs of society, nor did the 
toils and tears of missionary labor make them 
at once a civilized people. This has been a 

* Pronounced Ki-loo-ah, Hon-o-loo-loo. 



30 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

slow work ; and even now, they are far from 
being, in their habits and modes of life, what 
their teachers desire them to be. Many in this 
country who are familiar with the history of 
missions, have little idea of the difficulties to 
be met in rearing families on heathen ground, 
and consequently they do not appreciate a pe- 
culiar class of trials to which their exiled breth- 
ren are exposed. Imagine the devoted mis- 
sionary laboring among a savage people, who, 
in their daily intercourse, pass about almost, 
and often entirely naked, whose children are 
familiar with vice in all its most debasing 
forms, and whose conversation is more fre- 
quently than otherwise of the most gross, ob- 
scene, and shocking character. Would you 
have his children associate with such a people? 
It cannot be. This has been proved in other 
mission fields, by the painful departure of the 
beloved children of the missionaries of both 
sexes, who have associated with the natives, 
and become assimilated to them in degrada- 
tion and corruption. The principles of evil 
have a fatal tendency, and the depraved heart 
drinks in iniquity even from the polluted 
streams of pagan and savage vices. 



CHILDREN OF MISSIONARIES. 31 

The most of the missionaries have considered 
it necessary, to send their children to America 
in their early childhood, that they might be 
entirely removed from the dangerous associa- 
tions of a heathen country, and receive their 
education under the more benign influences of 
a Christian land. 

Mr. and Mrs, Thurston determined to make 
the experiment of rearing their children on 
heathen ground. They w^ell knew the difficul- 
ties they must encounter, but they believed it 
to be their duty to train up the children God 
had given them, and it was also their opinion 
that the influence of Christian families was to 
be an important means of elevating a heathen 
people. 

The mysterious providence which a few 
months since removed one of their dear chil- 
dren, just as she had reached the dawn of wo- 
manhood, and had planted her feet upon the 
shores of her fatherland, has presented to our 
minds the result of this experiment in one in- 
stance. May the simple story of this beloved 
girl enkindle new sympathies in the hearts of 
American Christians in behalf of their mission- 
ary brethren, and awaken new desires and 



32 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

more fervent prayers for the children of mis- 
sionaries. 

It is not for himself that the missionary feels 
his privations. He is willing to toil and strug- 
gle on, and "not give up till he receives the 
crown." But, Christian parent, he loves his 
children as you love yours. And must he rear 
them up without Christian institutions, with- 
out the preaching of the Grospel in their own 
language, without society, and without schools ; 
or must he send them from his own fostering 
care in their tender years, and scatter them 
from himself and from each other, to seek their 
fortunes in another land ? In either case, you 
have his sorest trial. It is this which causes 
him many days of anxious solicitude, and many 
nights of tears and prayers — this, in which he 
asks the combined wisdom and sympathies and 
prayers of his brethren at home and abroad ; 
and under this, his faith in Abraham's God 
alone sustains him. 



LUCY'S CHILDHOOD. 33 

CHAPTER VI. 

LUCY'S BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD— TRAITS OF CHARACTER— CIRCUM- 
STANCES IN WHICH HER EDUCATION WAS CONDUCTED. 

Lucy Goodale Thurston, the subject of this 
memoir was born at Honolulu, on the island 
of Oahu, on the 25th of April, 1823. She was 
the second child of Rev. Asa and Mrs. Lucy 
G. Thurston. Mr. Thurston was a native of 
Fitchburg, and Mrs. Thurston, of Marlborough, 
Mass. 

Lucy was six months old when her parents 
returned to Kailua, on the island of Hawaii.* 

*LAnAiNA Maui, Nov. 30, 1823. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thurston remained with us one week, 
and then left us in fine spirits, to take their station, and 
unfurl the banner of the cross on the rocky shores of 
Hawaii. I admired the spirit with which Mrs. Thurs- 
ton, after bidding us farewell, sprang into a rude canoe 
with her two children ; and I watched them with a glass 
with lively interest, as they paddled through the break- 
ers, to the open sea. No preparation appearing to have 
been made on board the brig, to hoist her on deck in a 
chair, which is usually done, she intrepidly mounted the 
ship's quarter by the manropes ; and stood ready to waive 
us a distant farewell, before many others of the same 
refinement, could have determined even to attempt as- 
cending to the quarter-deck, as she had done. 

Stewart's SaiiUwich Islands. 
Miss. Danffhter. S 



34 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Feeling it necessary to separate their family 
entirely from the savage people among whom 
they resided, these parents sedulously guarded 
their children from all intercourse or associa- 
tion with them. They were not allowed to learn 
the native language till they were twelve years 
of age, nor to go beyond their father's yard 
without being attended by one of their parents. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thurston kindly informed the 
natives that their customs and practices differed 
essentially from the people of America, and 
that they wished their children educated en- 
tirely on the principles, and according to the 
customs of a Christian country. The natives 
readily admitted the propriety of the arrange- 
ments, and cheerfully assented to the restric- 
tions. 

In these circumstances, Lucy's character was 
emphatically formed at home. Her childhood 
was passed in a retirement and seclusion of 
which children in this country have little con- 
ception. Her sister and brother, and the chil- 
dren of an associate missionary, were her only 
companions, and the wall of her father's yard 
bounded her every-day's enjoyments and ex- 
pectations. 



LUCY'S CHILDHOOD. ,35 

But even here were pleasant scenes. Here 
genial influences watered her young heart, and 
brous^ht forth their blessed fruits in a life of 
loveliness and an end of peace. 

Hers was a peaceful home. Affection made 
it happy, and regular and varied occupations 
added zest to its enjoyments. Here, shut out 
from the excitements of a civilized world, and 
in a measure from the darkness of heathenism 
with which she was surrounded, and under the 
fostering care of affectionate and pious parents, 
Lucy felt not the privations to which she was 
subjected. And when with her mother and 
sister she walked along the shores of the broad 
Pacific, and listened to tales of her fatherland, 
and of a Christian land, her heart never sighed 
for the far-off region she had brightly pictured 
in her imagination ; and she returned with a 
contented spirit to her " quiet home at Kailua." 

The works of nature were a prolific source 
of happiness to Lucy. Unlike children who 
are surrounded with ever-varying sources of 
amusement, and who live amid scenes of 
change and excitement, she learned in her 
childhood to realize and enjoy the beauty and 
grandeur of the natural world. Few improve- 



3G THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

ments of art met her eye. She had not seen 
the architecture of civilized cities, or admired 
the tastefully decorated grounds of a cultivated 
country. But the page of nature she had care- 
fully studied. The flowers of the mountain, 
and the shells of the sea, were among the 
choicest treasures of her young heart. She 
communed with the stars, and watched with 
delight the varied forms and hues of the sum- 
mer clouds. She saw beauty in the crested 
billows of the ocean, and heard music in its 
roar ; and when she looked upon the evidences 
of Kilauea's* mighty fires, and felt its earth- 
quakes beneath her feet, she was awed before 
the power of God. How much influence such 
circumstances have in forming the character 
of children we cannot tell ; but it is not im- 
probable that they had their effect in produc- 
ing that calm, placid, and meditative spirit 
which Lucy possessed, and in fostering that 
reverence for her heavenly Father's name and 
character, and that delight in the study of his 
works, which she manifested from her earliest 
years. 

Lucy's disposition was naturally very uni- 
* Pronounced Kc-low-a-ali. 



LUCY'S CHILDHOOD. J37 

form and amiable. She was mild and docile, 
submissive to her parents, and exceedingly 
affectionate and kind to her brothers and sis- 
ters. These traits, so lovely in childhood, were 
the ornaments of her maturer years, and with 
a peculiar humility of feeling and modesty of 
, deportment, were prominent features of her 

/ character. 

With such tastes and dispositions, was it 
strange that Lucy Thurston was happy in her 

• seclusion, and that till her dying hour her 
heart clung with fondness to her childhood's 
home ? 

Mrs. Thurston had been engaged in teaching- 
previous to entering upon missionary life ; and 
feeling it important that her husband should 
be wholly given to the work of the minister 
and missionary, she assumed the charge of her 
children's education. For this purpose she de- 
voted much time to their systematic instruc- 
tion. As soon as they were old enough to en- 
ter upon a course of study, she set apart reg- 
ular hours for teaching them. Their circum- 
stances were favorable to study, and to the 
cultivation of a taste for knowledge. They 
were dependent upon books, and they prized 



38 THE MTSPIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

the information derived from them. " Thus, 
year after year," writes a missionary friend, in 
speaking of this family, " the happy little cir- 
cle were employed in the pursuit of literature 
and science, loving and being loved, attentively 
listening to the instructions of their excellent 
parents, and abundant in reciprocal acts of 
kindness to each other." 

This family school was an object of great 
interest to the natives, who often dropped in 
to witness its operations, and expressed their 
delight in observing the docility and industry 
of the children. Their intervals of relaxation 
afforded Mrs. Thurston the opportunity of con- 
tinuing her instructions to the natives, and 
when she assembled her class of mothers 
around her, and instructed them in their du- 
ties, the tear would gather in many an eye, as 
they would say, " Your children love you, and 
mind you ; but ours, we cannot do for them as 
you do." Some of these mothers remembered 
the children whom their own hands had put to 
death. 

How could this model of a Christian school 
fail to have its influence upon the people among 
whom it was established. Example is as 



LUCY'S (miLuriooD. 39 

powerful as precept, and is as important in 
reforming the characters of pagan savages, as 
in forming the characters of children in an 
enlightened country. A Christian mother must 
bear an important part in advancing the cause 
of Christ, and of civilization too, among the 
heathen, by training up her family upon Chris- 
tian principles, and after the customs of a civ- 
ilized land. 

Here these children remained secluded from 
the world, and deprived of the advantages of 
society, except what they enjoyed from occa- 
sional intercourse with the families of other 
missionaries, until the eldest was nineteen, and 
Lucy seventeen years of age. But here they 
enjoyed the society and instructions of intelli- 
gent parents, and the history of the one who 
has been suddenly cut off will show that even 
in such circumstances, children may make 
extensive and valuable acquirements. 

Lucy possessed good natural powers of mind, 
without peculiar readiness or vivacity. Her 
memory was unusually retentive. She was 
accurate in the study of languages, and math- 
ematics, as far as she advanced, but had more 
taste for the natural sciences. Her favorite 



40 THE ]^ISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

study, when a child, was botany, and she was 
very fond of astronomy, natural philosophy, 
and chemistry. But no better evidence is 
needed of the character of her mind, and the 
cultivation it had received, the peculiarity of 
her intellectual tastes, and the attainments she 
made as a scholar, than her writings afford. 

Availing herself of every facility for improv- 
ing her children, and of giving them proper 
and pleasant employment, Mrs. Thurston in- 
structed them early in composition. This was 
not only of great advantage in leading to 
thought, and promoting ease of expression, but 
opened a new source of pleasure in their iso- 
lated situation, by enabling them early to cor- 
respond with their relatives in this country, 
and with missionaries in the islands. 

Lucy commenced a journal when she was 
eight years of age ; and continued it, with 
occasional interruptions, till two weeks before 
her death. She also, when quite young, com« 
menced a correspondence with some of the chil- 
dren of the missionaries, and with her young 
relatives in this country, and subsequently ex- 
changed letters with several of the missiona- 
ries. It is chiefly by extracts from this jour- 



LUCY'S CHILDHOOD, 41 

nal, and from some of the letters of which we 
have copies^ that we propose to present her 
character and the peculiar circumstances under 
which it was formed. And it is believed that 
the introduction of Lucy's journal and letters 
will not only be interesting, as they serve to 
exhibit the character and improvement of a mis- 
sionary's child ; but also, as showing '^ life as 
it is" among missionaries, in as faithful a 
manner as it could be given by abler pens. 

But let the reader bear in mind, that this 
journal was not written by one who had passed 
through the period of childhood and youth, and 
through a course of education, and who ex- 
pected to write for the entertainment of mature 
minds, or for the edification of the public ; but 
by a child in the progress of her education, 
and who had not the most distant idea that her 
writings would ever attract the notice of any 
individual beyond the circle of her own family 
and intimate friends. 



42 THE JV^ISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

CHAPTER VII. 

EXTRACTS FROM LUCY'S JOURNAL AND LETTERS, WRITTEN WHEN 
SHE WAS FROM EIGHT TO TWELVE YEARS OF AGE. 

The first extract we make from Lucy's jour- 
nal was written when she was eight years of 
age, and alludes to the birth of a sister, which 
took place during a rough passage from Eailua 
to Honolulu, whither the family were going to 
pass a few weeks, that Mrs. Thurston might 
be under the care of a physician. 

" July, 1831. — Last June our family, Mr. 
Bishop's, and Mr. Ruggles', sailed in the Wa- 
verley, for Oahu. The voyage was three days 
in length, and we were very sea-sick. It was 
the first time I remember sailing in a vessel. 
In the morning of the third day, we went down 
into the cabin, and saw a little babe lying in 
a native woman's lap. Afterwards father 
brought it, and laid it between us in our berth, 
and said it was a little sister. A double canoe 
came off, and mother was carried ashore on a 
mattress. Persis and I went in a single canoe 

with Mr. Ruggles After three weeks we 

sailed for Kailua. Our little sister has been 



JOURNAL AND LETTERS. 43 

named Mary Howe, after her grandmother. 
Sometimes we call her Daughter of the Ocean." 

Were it suitable to relate the particulars of 
the event alluded to, it would present a page 
of missionary trial that would touch the tender- 
est chord of every mother's heart. Let Chris- 
tian females bear in mind, that their mission- 
ary sisters do indeed '' take their lives in their 
hands," when they leave their homes, and their 
mothers and sisters, and take up their abode 
among the heathen. 

The individuals mentioned, and a crowd of 
natives, sleeping on the deck, were the only 
persons on board a small dirty native vessel at 
this time. 

The history of the "native woman" men- 
tioned is interesting. When an infant, she 
was buried alive by her mother. Being but 
partially covered with stones and dirt, her cries 
attracted the notice of a passer-by, whose hu- 
manity saved her from a cruel death. She 
was spared to see the light of the Grospel, was 
one of the early converts to Christianity, be- 
came the wife of one of the native deacons of 
Mr. Thurston's church, and died a few years 
since rejoicing in the hopes of the Gospel. 



44 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

^' Dec. 10, 1831. — Some time ago father 
walked in here with his singing-book under 
his arm, and called Persis, Asa, and myself. 
He practised with us in raising and falling the 
eight notes. Ever since, he has been in here 
every day after dinner, and had a singing- 
school with us. Mother teaches the natives. 
We have learned thirteen tunes. 

"Sept. 22, 1833.— Last Monday night, 
mother, Persis, Asa, and myself went down to 
Mr. Bishop's to gaze upon the .stars, as Mr. 
Bishop had kindly offered to show us how to 
find the constellations on the celestial globe. 
He pointed out to us Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, 
Orion, and several others. "We were exceed- 
ingly interested in it. The next morning we 
went down again. We are now able to find 
them ourselves without help. Every morning 
we learn the name of some new star." 



LETTER TO MKS. SPALDING, 



"Kailua, Dec. 25, 1833. 



" My very dear Friend — We were very 
happy to receive a letter from Mr. Spalding. 
We do not forget you. We love to hear from 
you, and often think and talk of you all. . . . We 
are studying optics in natural philosophy. We 



JOURNAL AND LETTERS. 45 

learned to-day that black things absorbed all 
the rays of- light, and white things reflected 
them all. A rose is red, because all the rays 
are absorbed beside the red rays. Grass is 
green, because all the rays are absorbed beside 
the green rays. Ink is black, because all the 
rays are absorbed. Milk is white, because all 
the rays are reflected. I am also studying 
decimal fractions in Colburn's Sequel. We all 

think of you with great affection 

'' Please to give my love to all my friends. 
" From your affectionate friend, 

^aucY. 

" Mrs. Julia B. Spalding, Lahaina, Maui," 

LETTER TO WILLIAM AND CHARLES RICHARDS. 

"Kailua, Aug. 16, 1834. 
" My dear friends William and Charles — 
Last Saturday in the forenoon we went down 
to bathe. It was spring tide. We bathed in 
a little pond ; and when the tide came in, it 
seemed as if we were in the middle of the 
ocean. We like to bathe very much. Do you 
know how many spring tides we have in a 
month ? How many neap ? Which tide is 
the highest, spring or neap ? Yesterday night 
there was a great fire in the village, and twelve 



46 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

houses were burnt, with a good deal of prop- 
erty. The fire was very large, and the sparks ^ 
went up very high, and appeared like stars, 
and then descended. Keoua's two houses, and 
the houses of several principal people, were 
burnt with them. Smoking caused the fire. 

" "We had an earthquake at the same time 
that you did. It stopped our clock. "We had 
another about a week after ; they were both in 
the night. Latin is very interesting ; we wish 
you to study it. It is very easy studying in 
the Latin Reader. Asa gets a new declension 
and parses two new words every day. I hope 
you will write every opportunity, and tell us all 
about what you are doing. 

" Please to give my love to your parents, to 
Miss Ogden, to your brothers and sisters, and 
to all my friends. 

" From your affectionate friend, 

"LUCY G. THURSTON. 

" Masters William and Charles Richards, 

" Laliaina, Maui." 

" Aug. 1834. — While at the general meeting 
at Oahu, we several times saw Mr. Douglass, 
an English naturalist. He left Honolulu a 
week before we did, with Mr. Diell and Mr. 



JOURNAL AND LETTERS. 47 

Goodrich, for the purpose of exploring this 
island. A few days since, we heard that he 
fell into a pit, where he was killed by a wild 
bullock. They were expecting him that day 
at Hilo, but instead of giving him a welcome, 
they were shocked by having his corpse brought 
wrapped in a bullock's skin. It was put into 
a cofhn with salt, and sent down to Oahu. 

" Feb. 1835. — Father rings the bell every 
morning, at four o'clock, to wake us up. We 
retire at seven. We have each a drawer of 
shells, a pair of as many kinds as we have been 
able to collect. We have been studying about 
carbon in chemistry. It says that charcoal, 
cotton, and diamond are almost wholly com- 
posed of carbon in different degrees of purity. 
The other day, Persis was trying to make some 
hydrogen gas, with sulphuric acid, water, and 
iron filings. She spilt some of the diluted acid 

on her dress from top to bottom A few 

mornings after, she found a dreadful rent in 
it. She hastened to mother's room to show 
how her dress had been cut. Mother said, 
^not scissors, but sulphuric acid.' 

"April 6. — Yesterday noon forty female 
church-members attended mother's school. 



48 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

" April 21. — Mr. Stephens, a very interest- 
ing young man from Boston, is here. He is 
travelling for his health. He took a sketch of 
the old idols standing in the governor's yard. 
He called up here at two o'clock this afternoon 
and took a sketch of our house. He tells an- 
ecdotes. He spent much time in the South- 
ern states. He said that once, at a public din- 
ner, there were fifteen kinds of sweetmeats on 
the table as a dessert, besides several other 
courses." 

These extracts present the simplicity of the 
child, but at the same time discover those hab- 
its of observation and thought which do not 
always characterize the juvenile scholar. AVe 
shall be disappointed if they do not convey 
some lessons of instruction to the youthful 
reader, and perhaps they may furnish some 
suggestion to parents with regard to studies 
best adapted to the capacities and enjoyment 
of children. 

DESCRIPTION OF A VISIT TO HONOLULU, WHEN LUCY WAS 
TWELVE YEARS OF AGE. 

'' July 29, 1835. — Last June, our family, 
Mr. Bishop's, Mr. Forbes', Mr. Lyon's, and Mr. 
Baldwin's, took passage in the brig Velocity, 



JOURNAL AND LETTERS. 49 

Capt. Proctor, for Oahu. On our way we 
stopped at Lahaina, and took in Mr. Richards' 
family with seven children, Mr. Grreen's family 
with three children, and Mr. Andrews, making 
in all a company of fifteen adults and twenty 
children. The families of Messrs. Clark, Arm- 
strong, and Spaulding went in a vessel before 
us. We arrived at Oahu in the morning, and 
had a pleasant passage. The wind being ahead, 
the vessel was pulled into the harbor with long 
ropes, by men standing on the reef.* When 
we were entering the opening in the reef, the 
vessel grazed along on the rooks. We then 
fired for a pilot, and reached the shore in safe- 
ty We arrived at Honolulu on Wednesday, 

June 3d, and the new reinforcement of mis- 
sionaries arrived on Saturday, June 6th. We 
went down to the shore to meet them. There 
were three gentlemen with their wives, and 
two single ladies. Mr. Coan, minister, and 
v/ife ; Mr. Diamond, bookbinder, and wife ; 
Mr. Hall, printer, and wife ; Miss Brown, and 
Miss Hitchcock. We were much pleased with 
them. They all immediately repaired to Mr. 
Bingham's, where a number of missionaries 

* A reef of coral forms the harbor of Honolulu. 

Miss. Danghtcr. 4- 



50 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

called to welcome them to these islands. A 
hymn was sung, and Mr. Coan prayed. They 
then dispersed. There were present at the 
general meeting, twenty-nine gentlemen, twen- 
ty-two ladies, and forty-nine children. After 
going on board the Velocity, we went to Keau- 
hou, and spent the day in taking in wood. In 
the evening we left, and in looking off to Kai- 
lua, saw a tremendous fire, which seemed to 
reach to the clouds. As it continued longer 
than a thatched house would burn, we had no 
doubt, for a fortnight, but that it was either 
our house or Mr. Bishop's. We then heard it 
was the large thatched meeting-house, 180 feet 
by 60. It was the work of an incendiary. Mr. 
nice told us that he had not heard such a wail- 
ing among the natives since the days of Kame- 
hameha. After it was burnt, the natives came 
and slept in the piazza, back and front of our 
house, and of Mr. Bishop's, several weeks dur- 
ing our absence, lest they too should be burned. 
*' During the general meeting, the king made 
a tea-party for all the missionaries, at the house 
which stands in the fort. Mrs. Baldwin and 
Mrs. Clark assisted in making preparations. 
They all assembled. When the king entered. 



JOURNAL AND LETTERS. 5J 

he was surprised to see such a numerous com- 
pany. His surprise was increased, when Dr. 
Judd told him that more than forty remained 
behind. But he manifested much pleasure in 
seeing so many missionaries together. Tea 
was carried round. Those who preferred, took 
water. Mr. Alexander asked how long Persis 
and I had been so temperate. Persis replied, 
' Always.' Biscuit, custard, and several kinds 
of cake were passed round. All the chiefs 
were present. After supper there was singing. 

" There were frequent meetings for the chil- 
dren of the mission. Mr. Coan interested him- 
self very much in them. He was unwearied 
in his efforts for their conversion. He invited 
those to come to his room at noon, who wished 
to see him, and there we often used to talk 
together, and pray together. This was a text 
from which he often spoke : ' Son, give me 
thine heart.' All the children were much in- 
terested, many were serious, and several, we 
trust, were born again. There were meetings 
at the Seamen's chapel on the Sabbath. There 
were also morning prayer-meetings among the 
missionaries. 

" As our family remained some time after 



52 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

the session, waiting for an opportunity to re- 
turn home, we one day took an excursion to the 
beautiful valley of Manoa, where Kaahumanu 
died. We started very early in the morning, 
and reached the place a little after the sun 
arose from behind the mountain. We all trav- 
elled on foot. After breakfast, we rambled 
about among the trees, ravines, and hills, quite 
to the end of the valley. It is one of the most 
pleasant places I ever saw, so retired, and sur- 
rounded with such beautiful scenery. Wo 
gathered nearly a quart of Stewart shells, which 
■we found adhering to the ki leaves. They are 
very pretty shells of different colors, with stripes 
on them. The genus is Achatina. There are 
two species. One is named Oahuensis, because 
they were first found in Oahu ; the other Stew- 
artii, as Mr. Stewart was the first who ever 
carried them to America. - Having passed the 
day very pleasantly, we took our supper, and 
reached Honolulu about sunset. We were 
somewhat fatigued, having walked fourteen 
miles that day. We bathed our feet in warm 
water, and slept sweetly. 

" An opportunity at length offered for our 
return home. AVc touched at Lahaina on our 



JOURNAL AND LETTERS. 53 

way; again embarked, and reached Kailua in 
safety. It looks very strangely to have no 
church. The meetings are now held in the 
school-house. It is not large enough to contain 
all the people, and many stand around the 
doors and windows. A new stone church is to 
be built." 

Kaahumanu, whose name is here mentioned, 
was the favorite wife of the old king Kameha- 
meha, and after the death of his son Liholiho, 
became queen-regent of the Sandwich Islands, 
and so continued till her death, in 1832, the 
present king being yet in his minority. 

Kaahumanu was for more than thirty years 
a person of great authority in the islands. She 
was a woman of uncommon talents, and great 
energy of character — was naturally haughty 
and imperious, and as a cruel pagan ruler, was 
the fear and dread of the Hawaiian nation. 

For a long time she stood aloof from the 
influence of the missionaries, was haughty, 
proud, and disdainful in their presence, and 
frequently passed them without speaking to 
them. But "the Gospel at length took hold 
of her mind, and through the influence of the 
Holy Ghost wrought a great and permanent 



54 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

and salutary change in her character." She 
was admitted to the church in 1825. Soon 
after her conversion, she made a tour of the 
islands ; the people were astonished at the 
change in her, and remarked that it was '' not 
Kaahumanu, but Elizabeth" — the name given 
to her by the missionaries. She became dis- 
tinguished for her humility, kindness, and the 
affability of her deportment, regarded the mis- 
sionaries as her own children, and treated them 
with the kindness of maternal love. 

Her influence and authority had long been 
paramount and undisputed with the natives, 
and was now discreetly used for the benefit of 
the nation. She visited the whole length and 
breadth of the islands, to recommend to her 
people attention to schools, and to the doctrines 
and duties of the word of God, and exerted all 
her influence to suppress vice and restrain the 
evils which threatened the ruin of her nation. 

At the commencement of her last illness, she 
desired to be removed from her residence at 
Honolulu, to a house she had built in the beau- 
tiful valley of Manoa, about five miles distant. 
Plere she calmly arranged her worldly affairs, 
and then directed her thoughts entirely to the 



JOURNAL AND LETTERS. 55 

eternal realities before her. During her sick- 
ness, the New Testament was completed in the 
language of the country ; a copy of it was 
brought to her on her dying bed, which she 
pressed to her bosom with great delight. Her 
hopes in her Saviour grew brighter and brighter 
to the end of her days, and one of her last ex- 
pressions was, " I will go to Him, and shall be 
comforted." 

Kaahumanu died on the 5th of June, 1832, 
not the death of the dark-minded heathen queen 
she once was, delighting in human sacrifices, 
and directing them in honor of her name ; but 
the death of a Christian ruler, leaving her dy- 
ing counsels to the missionaries, her messages 
of gratitude to the Christians in America, and 
her pious instructions for the promotion of the 
welfare of her nation. 



56 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

LUCY'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER— LETTERS- JOURNAL. 

From her earliest years, Lucy discovered a 
deep interest in religious truth. Her fixed 
attention, her thoughtful downcast eye, and 
the tear rolling down her cheek, even while a 
little child, as she listened to parental instruc- 
tion, told plainly that the lessons of a Saviour's 
love sunk deep in her young heart. Indeed, so 
uniform was her love of religious duties, and 
her delight in the exercises of devotion, that her 
mother cannot look back to any period of 
Lucy's life, after she was able to comprehend 
the truths of the Gospel, when she had not a 
hope that she was a child of God. 

One instance illustrative of her state of feel- 
ing, when quite a child, is this. She, in com- 
pany with her parents and others, was return- 
ing from a visit to another station on their 
island. They were in a canoe, the sea was 
tempestuous, and their situation hazardous. 
Lucy was calm and collected, so that her 
mother did not suppose she apprehended dan- 
ger. The next morning she said to her mother. 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 57 

" If I had been drowned last night, I think I 
should have gone to heaven." "Why do you 
think so ?" inquired her mother. " Because, 
mother, I delight to do the will of God," said 
the child. 

It is well known to those who read the mis- 
sionary journals, that the missionaries of the 
Sandwich Islands hold a yearly meeting for 
consultation, and other purposes. As the de- 
pository for the mission is at Honolulu, the 
yearly meeting has usually been held at this 
place. It is the custom of the missionaries to 
take their families, as generally as possible, 
with them ; and thus they enjoy a delightful 
season of Christian fellowship and social inter- 
course. " The mission church of the Sand- 
wich Islands," which is composed of the fam- 
ilies of the missionaries, at this time celebrate 
the Lord's supper, and receive accessions to 
their number. Thus, once a year, these as- 
sembled families renew their covenant with one 
another and the Lord, and in their own native 
language enjoy the privileges of the sanctuary, 
and recount the wonderful works of God. 

On an occasion of this kind, in the year 
1835, there seemed to be a general feeling on 



58 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

the subject of religion among the children of 
the missionaries. Special efforts were made to 
call up their attention, and much prayer was 
offered in their behalf. The Spirit descended, 
and a number of the lambs of this mission flock 
were hopefully converted unto the Lord. 

Lucy refers to this season in her description 
of her visit to Honolulu, given in the preceding 
chapter. She — then about twelve years of 
age — and her older sister were among the 
number who at this time expressed a hope in 
Christ. Lucy exhibited deep feeling, but her 
mother remarks of her, '' So uniform and con- 
sistent had been her previous life, that there 
was less visible change in her than in others." 
And in a letter to a missionary brother, a 
month or two after, Mrs. Thurston remarks, 
in alluding to the increased interest exhibited 
by the children, that "no particular change 
had taken place in Lucy's conduct ; yet in say- 
ing this I ought to add, it has ever been as 
if the law of Grod was written in her heart." 

KXTKACX FEOM A LETTEK TO CHARLES RICHAEDS, WRITTEN 
SOON AFTER HER RETURN FROM HONOLULU. 

"August 12, 1835. 

"I hope we shall meet again on 

earth, but if not, I hope we shall be prepared 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 59 

to meet before the throne of God, never more 
to be separated. I hope that you love the 
Saviour. I pray for you every day, that you 
may become one of his lambs. ' Remember now 
your Creator in the days of your youth.' Keep 
near to God, and he will keep near to you." 

EXTRACT FEOM A LETTER TO THE REV, MR. COAN, DATED, 

"October 12, 1835. 

^' We cannot thank you enough 

for the kind letters you sent us, and for the 
good advice they contained. I hope that I 
love the Saviour, and that he has forgiven my 
sins. We never forget you in our prayers, 
that the blessing of God may ever attend your 
labors. We wish to see you, and have such 
meetings as we used to have at Oahu. I hope 
we shall meet again, but we must always be 
prepared for death, whenever it may come. 
We often think of you, and of your great 
kindness and condescension to us. We often 
think of the text from which you preached at 
Oahu. * Son, give me thine heart.' " 

About this time Lucy commenced learning 
the native language, and soon after engaged 
with her sister in the instruction of the poor 
heathen. Her tender and affectionate heart 



60 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

had always mourned over the desolations of 
heathenism, and now that she was permitted 
to learn their language, and thus have access 
to their benighted minds, she rejoiced in the 
privilege of aiding to impart the knowledge of 
salvation to the ignorant and degraded around 
her. From that period to the time of their 
embarkation for this country, these sisters, 
while engaged in acquiring their own educa- 
tion, and fitting themselves for more extended 
usefulness in maturer years, devoted more or 
less of their time to the instruction of native 
girls, on week-days ; besides having the charge 
of classes in the Sabbath-school of their father's 
church. 



J O U E N A L , 



" Dec. 13, 1835. — Persis and I have had a 
school the past year of little native girls. They 
are all under eight years of age. We teach them 
the alphabet, and they also make motions 
after the infant-school plan. About twenty 
attend. We love to teach them. Persis brought 
them forward the other day for examination. 

"Dec. 30. — For several months Persis, 
Jane,=^' Sereno,^^ Asa, and myself, have met 

* Mr. Bishop's children. 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 61 

together every Monday afternoon for prayer. 
"We take the lead by turns, according to our 
age. When we meet, we select some one of 
the children of the mission to pray for, during 
the week, and the next week we select another. 
These seasons are very pleasant, and we enjoy 
them much. 

'' We have each of us written to Mr. Coan, 
and he has answered us. His letters are full 
of religious instruction and good advice. We 
feel that we are greatly blessed, in being fa- 
vored with such a friend and teacher. 

" Feb. 17, 1836. — This afternoon we went 
to the funeral of Kekupuohe. She was very 
aged, probably about 90, and has lived under 
four different kings. She was the wife of 
Kalaiopu, the reigning king of Hawaii when 
Capt. Cook visited the islands. She joined the 
church in the year 1828, and has adorned her 
profession for eight years, when she was re- 
moved by death. Notwithstanding her age 
and impaired eyesight, she was indefatigable 
in her application to her book, until she was 
able to read the word of God. During her 
sickness she did not wish to engage in conver- 
sation of a worldly nature, but her thoughts 



62 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

were fixed on heavenly things. She died 
peacefully, and we doubt not, has gone to that 
better world on high. The coffin was carried 
to Kealakeakua and deposited in one of the 
caves of the precipice. 

^' She was distinguished as a poetess, and 
was one of the only remaining two on the 
islands who composed the native meles or 
songs. 

'' The following lines are an extract from a 
song composed by her while on a visit to Mr. 
Ruggles, whose house was shaded by a luxu- 
riant grape-vine." 

[We omit the original, which Lucy has here 
inserted, and only give her translation of it.] 

^' Once only hath that appeared which is glorious, 
It is wonderful, it is altogether holy ; 
It is a blooming glory ; its nature is unwithering, 
Rare is its stock, most singular, unrivalled, 
One only True Vine. It is the Lord. 

" The branch that adheres to it, becomes fruitful. 
The fruit comes forth fruit, it is good fruit. 
Whence its character is clearly made known. 
Let the branch merely making fair show be cut off, 
Lest the stock should be injuriously encumbered, 
Lest it be also, by it, wrongfully burdened." 



PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 63 

CHAPTER IX. 

JOURNAL— SHE MAKES A PROFESSION OF RELIGION-LETTERS. 

" March 18. — We expect to embrace an 
early opportunity to go down to Oahu. "We 
leave Dr. Grairdner, an interesting young 
Scotchman from the Columbia river, who has 
been residing several weeks in our family. 
He is a physician and a naturalist. He was 
taken with bleeding at the lungs while at the 
Columbia, and some months after came to 
these islands for relief. He would have gone 
to his parents in Scotland, but he felt that he 
could not survive the voyage. He does not 
expect to live long. He was an infidel before 
his sickness, but this attack he considered as 
a call from Providence to prepare for death. 
We hope that he is truly pious. He joined Mr. 
Bingham's church at Honolulu. He spends 
much of his time in reading his Bible. He 
appears patient, cheerful, and resigned, and is 
a remarkable instance of calm composure in 
view of the prospects which lie before him. 
He is distinguished for the care and neatness 
with which he keeps all his things, and the 
regularity with which he spends his time. He 



64 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

amuses himself by taking observations of the 
heat, weight, and moisture of the atmosphere. 

" Honolulu, March 23, 1836.— Last Friday 
evening we left Kailua in the Packet, Capt. 
Gilbert, and arrived here Sunday morning. 
We have taken possession of the apartments 
formerly occupied by Dr. Judd, and com- 
menced keeping house. 

" March 25 — Yesterday we spent the day at 
Capt. Little's, one of the foreign residents. 
His house is very pleasantly situated. There 
aTe two rooms below, with folding doors be- 
tween, and two above. Li the rooms below 
the plastering is painted green, which relieves 
the eye. Many beautiful pictures were hung 
up around the parlor. We dined at 2 o'clock. 
Five courses were served up, and we sat at table 
nearly two hours. Mrs. Thomson, a Spanish 
lady, called in. Her complexion was somewhat 
darker than that of the English. She was 
pretty and interesting in her appearance. She 
cannot speak English. Mrs. Little presented 
Persis and myself each with a straw bonnet. 

" June 6. — The different families having as- 
sembled, the general meeting has commenced. 
Meetings for the children of the mission are 



PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 65 

held every morning. Mr. Coan sometimes in- 
vites them to his room, where v^e enjoy many 
pleasant hours in receiving instruction. Mrs. 
Coan has a school every afternoon for the 
children. ^ 

" June 19. — It was agreed upon by the mis- 
sion to celebrate the Lord's supper to-day. 
A committee was chosen to examine and pro- 
pound such of the children as wished to join 
the church. Mr. Coan, Mr. Spaulding, and 
Mr. Richards, together with the pastors of the 
church, met on Saturday evening. Persis and 
I went in. We were examined respecting our 
thoughts and feelings, and the practical truths 
of the Bible. We had prepared a short ac- 
count of our views in wishing to unite with 
the church. After conversing together by 
themselves, they decided agreeably to our 
wishes. We attended the native church this 
forenoon. Mr. Bingham requested the congre- 
gation to remain a few minutes. Then asking 
Persis and myself to rise, and stand before 
the pulpit, he took our papers and commenced 
reading them, translating into Hawaiian as he 
went along. He then stated the approbation 
of the committee, and called for an expression 

Mis8. Daughter. O 



66 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

of the feelings of the church. The vote was 
unammous. At two o'clock, p. m., the Lord's 
supper was celebrated in the school-house. 
My sister and myself came forward, and in 
the presence of angels and men consecrated 
ourselves to the service of the Lord. We then 
joined with our parents, and all our missionary 
friends, in commemorating the dying love of 
our Saviour, and partook of the elements of 
the broken body and shed blood of our Re- 
deemer. Messrs. Bingham, Armstrong, and 
Coan addressed the church. It was a solemn 
and interesting season, never to be forgotten. 
May the Lord keep us from sin, and may we 
adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and be 
indeed the humble followers of the meek and 
lowly Jesus. [Lucy was now thirteen years 
of age.] 

" June 29. — Maternal meetings are fre- 
quently held among the ladies of the mission. 
Persis and I attend them. Subjects for essays 
were given out the year previous. Several 
were read which were very interesting. 

" Kailua, July 13. — We arrived yesterday, 
after a very comfortable passage from Hon- 
olulu. 



PROFESSION OF RELIGION. giy 

^' Kapulikoliko died last night of the dysen- 
tery. She was the daughter of Kamehameha 
the First. In former days, when she passed 
along, every native prostrated himself on the 
ground." 

Lucy had now become a member of "the 
mission church of the Sandwich Islands," and 
young as she was, she adorned her profession. 
She was always distinguished for her retiring 
manners, and a peculiar modesty and reserve 
in the expression of her feelings ; but her con- 
sistency of Christian character, the deep hu- 
mility of her piety, and the loveliness of her 
deportment, were witnessed and admired by 
all with whom she had intercourse. The fol- 
lowing letter was addressed to her shortly after 
her making a profession of religion. How 
much she valued such evidences of interest in 
her, and with what humility she received them, 
is often expressed in her journal and letters. 

BXTRACTFROMAIiBTTKKTOLUCYFROM REV. MK. COAN. 

"HiLO, Oct. 28, 1836. 
" My dear young Sister. — It is a long time 
since I have written to you, because of the 

great work God has given me to do 

I have rejoiced over you that you have pro- 



63 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

fessed to come out from the world, and 'put 
on the Lord Jesus Christ,' and I am deeply 
and constantly anxious to hear that you walk 
in the truth, that your conversation is in 
heaven, that you bring forth much fruit. . . . 
You are well aware that being in the church 
does not, of itself, make you better or safer. 
It does not make you a Christian. It only 
declares you to be one, and if you are not a 
child of God, this declaration is nothing but 
falsehood. I hope your path will be like the 
shining light, that shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day. If you keep Christ's com- 
mandments it will be so, for he has said, ' If 
a man keep my sayings, he shall not walk in 
darkness, he shall have the light of life.' . . . 
I must close by saying to you^ my dear young 
friend, set the Lord always before your face. 
Let him be on your "right hand, then you will 
not be moved. Please write me whenever 
you can; I am always interested to hear from 
you, and still remember you before the throne 
of G-od. 

" Your affectionate friend 

*' And brother in the Lord, 

"TITUS COAN." 



PROFESSION OF RELIGION. (59 

The next letter was addressed by Lucy to 
Charles Richards, just as he was about to leave 
the islands to receive his education in America. 
He died about three months after landing in 
this country, leaving precious evidence of piety. 
Lucy and Charles were nearly of an age, and 
often exchanged letters. They did not live to 
meet in America, but we trust they are now 
rejoicing together before their Father's throne. 

"Kailua, Nov. 11, 1836. 
" My very dear Friend Charles — I im- 
prove this opportunity to write to you. It is 
probably the last time I shall do so before you 
leave these islands. I hope you will not forget 
us. Perhaps we shall not see you again. I 
hope, my dear friend, that you love your Sav- 
iour ; if not, it is time. Oh, it is time that you 
did. Remember now your Creator in the days 
of your youth. "We do not forget to pray for 
you daily, that you may become a child of 
God. Love Jesus. How can you help loving 
him when he is so kind to you ? He loves you 
more than any body else. You know not how 
soon you may die, and you should be prepared 
for it. He has called away little Luke Lyons. 



70 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

We know not whom he will call next. My 
dear friend, do love your Saviour. Obey him. 
. . . Mr. Coan has written a letter to each of 
us. They call their little son Titus Munson. 
If we should ever meet each other in America, 
we will see who has improved the most; you 
there, or we at the Sandwich Islands. I hope 
you will write to us when you get to America, 
and tell us how you like your situation, and 
whether you wish to get back. Tell us every 
thing. Love Jesus. These are my parting 
words to you. Will you not, my dear friend, 
promise to do so ? Will you not from this 
time give yourself away to the Saviour ? You 
have had a great deal of instruction. You 
know your duty ; are you careful to do it ? 
The Lord bless you. Love to your parents 
and to your dear brothers and sisters. Love 
Jesus, all of you. The Lord be with you, and 
lift upon you the light of his countenance, and 
give you peace. Do not forget to pray for us, 
do not cease to love us, do not neglect to write 
to us. Farewell. 

" From your affectionate friend, 

" LUCY G. THURSTON. 
'^To Master C. S. RichardSj Lahaina, Maui." 



MISSIONARY LIFE. 71 

CHAPTER X. 

JOURNAL AND LETTERS WRITTEN WHEN LUCY WAS FROM THIRTEEN 
TO SIXTEEN YEARS OF AGE. 

In the passages we have selected from Lucy's 
journal, illustrative of her progress from year 
to year, and the circumstances in which her 
character was developed, the reader may be 
surprised to find so few references to her relig- 
ious feelings. This, however, is easily account- 
ed for. This journal was not a private diary, 
but simply a record of fact and incident, as- 
signed to her as a means of improvement, and 
submitted by her to the inspection of her 
mother. Her extreme reserve in all her com- 
munications respecting herself, would natu- 
rally prevent her from recording the exercises 
of her own heart in such a journal. 

The extracts contained in this chapter, ex- 
hibit much of the progress of society in the 
heathen village of Kailua. 

When Mrs. Thurston took up her abode upon 
these " rocky shores " with her two little ones, 
she wept with a Christian mother's grief, in 
view of the abominations with which they were 



72 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

surrounded, and among which she had resolved 
to rear them. "What then must have been her 
satisfaction, in beholding such a state of im- 
provement as is here presented, and which she 
must have had no small share in effecting. 
"What her joy, in having these two children 
such early helpers in the blessed work. Sure- 
ly the missionary, with all his trials, does re- 
ceive a hundred-fold, even in this life. 

JOU R N AI.. 

" Nov. 1836. — Father instructs us in Latin 
and Hawaiian. Mother directs our English 
studies, such as grammar, geography, natural 
philosophy, history, and arithmetic. For a 
year past, Persis, Asa and myself have been 
allowed to read any books in the Hawaiian 
language, and to communicate with the natives 
as teachers, but not as associates. 

Our native school^ was examined yesterday. 
There were one hundred and eighty scholars. 
They sat in three rows, sixty in each row. The 
first row were in their letters, the second in 
reading, and the third in writing and arithme- 

* A village school, of which Mrs. Thurston was super- 
intendent. 



MISSIONARY LIFE. 73 

tic. A little girl five years old stood up in a 
chair, and made various motions with her hand 
for them all to imitate. Persis did the same. 
The natives pressed in to see, till the house was 
darkened. They then marched out, clapping 
their hands ; any thing of this kind is very 
interesting to the natives. They remarked, 
' Persis turned her hands, and there was light- 
ning ; she moved her feet, and there was an 
earthquake.' 

" Dec. 15. — Keoua died this morning. She 
never recovered from the effects of her attack 
in August, and for a week before her death she 
lay in a state of insensibility. There has been 
much wailing among the people. They mourn 
for her as for a beloved mother. The governor 
is deeply affected by his loss ; the natives say, 
no husband has ever mourned for his wife as 
he mourns for Keoua. We all went down to 
look at the remains. She was laid out upon a 
sofa, loosely dressed in white, with a beautiful 
feather wreath=^' around her neck. She had 
for several years been a member of the church, 
and sustained an unblemished character. 

" Dec. 17. — "We attended the funeral of 

* A favorite ornament of the natives. 



74 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Keoua this afternoon. The chiefs and prin- 
cipal people were assembled at the house. 
Father made an address and led in prayer. 
The procession, composed of chiefs, friends, 
and church-members, was then formed. An 
immense crowd stood without the yard, and 
commenced wailing as soon as the coffin ap- 
peared. The bell tolled, and a heavy firing 
was kept up from the battery till the coffin 
was deposited in the cellar of the governor's 
wooden house. 

" Feb. 4, 1837. — The new stone church was 
dedicated this afternoon. It is 120 feet in 
length, and 42 in width, being furnished with 
a steeple and vane, galleries and a pulpit. The 
pillars which support it are painted to resemble 
marble ; which last cost about $500. Most of 
the people sit on settees and chairs of their own 
construction, which look very well. The gov- 
ernor himself has borne the whole expense of 
the carpenters' and masons' work. The peo- 
ple assisted by collecting stones, coral, and tim- 
ber. The governor himself spent some time in 
the woods superintending the workmen while 
procuring timber. He has enacted several 
laws with reference to the church. After two 



MISSIOxNARY LIFE. 75 

months, no woman will be allowed to enter it 
without a bonnet. Dogs are excluded. Sev- 
eral men are stationed above and below to keep 
order. Any one caught asleep, is rapped on 
the forehead with a long cane. He has also 
made a law for his own yard. Any woman 
entering it without a bonnet is condemned to 
have her hair shorn off close to her head." 

These are some instances of the commenda- 
ble efforts of the governor to introduce the cus- 
toms of civilized society among his people. 

Kuakini, governor of Hawaii, is one of the 
highest chiefs of the nation, and a brother of 
Kaahumanu. The name of John Adams was 
given him some years ago by a foreigner, which 
he prefers to his native name. He is a profes- 
sor of religion, and has always shown himself 
a kind friend to the missionaries. 

" Oct. — Dr. and Mrs. Andrews of the new 
reinforcement, who were appointed as our asso- 
ciates, arrived in September, and occupy the 
house Mr. Bishop left. We love and esteem 
them highly. They have very kindly offered 
to instruct us. We spend an hour every after- 
noon with Mrs. Andrews in drawing, and then 
recite a lesson in chemistry' to the doctor. We 



76 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

consider this a great privilege, and are very 
grateful to them for it." 

EXTRACT FKOM A LETTEK TO MKS. SMITH. 

"Kailua, Dec. 4, 1837. 

'' My dear Mrs. Smith— "We are now at- 
tending to Latin, English history, geography, 
and chemistry. 

" On Tuesday evening, Nov. 7th, the sea 
three times receded from its usual boundary. 
The first time, fourteen or tw^enty fathoms, to 
the place where Mr. French's vessel anchors 
when here. Three hundred men were carried 
off by the ocean. Twelve were picked up by 
boats, and eleven were drowned. All the rest 
escaped, but without a single kapa with which 
to cover them. Every thing within fifteen or 
twenty feet of high-water mark was swept 

away 

'' Your affectionate friend, 

"LUCY G. THURSTON. 
"Mrs. Abba W. Smith. Honolulu." 

KXTKACT FROM A LETTER TO MISS SMITH. 

"Kailua, March 15, 1838. 
" My dear Miss Smith — I received your very 
acceptable letter, for which I thank you very 
much. I Avas happy to hear that you are ex- 



MISSIONARY LIFE. 77 

peoting soon to teach the children of the mis- 
sionaries. I hope you will do them much good. 

'' We have a school for learning the Hawai- 
ian language two evenings in a week. We 
read in the Koikehonua (geography) and He- 
lunaau, (Colburn's First Lessons,) and also 
write compositions for correction. Father is 
the teacher. 

" Dr. Andrews has taken charge of two Sab- 
bath-schools, one for adults and one for children. 
The children's school numbers over two hun- 
dred. Persis and I each have a class. The 
more forward scholars are taught from the Hu- 
liano, (Union Questions,) while the younger 
ones learn to read. 

'^ Mother, Persis, and myself, each instruct 
a class of girls at our own house on Sunday af- 
ternoon, immediately after the afternoon ser- 
vice. The children appear serious, and many 
of them think they have turned to the Lord. 
Some of them, we trust, have truly repented. 
The church is filled on the Sabbath, and the 
people are attentive. A large number profess 
to have forsaken their sins. Forty-six are pro- 
pounded for admission into the church, but 
none of the new converts. Mr. Lyons has 



78 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

received 1,200 into his church since general 
meeting. At Hilo, 450 were to unite with the 
church the first Sabbath in March. 
" Yours affectionately, 

"L. G. THURSTON." 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS TO FRIENDS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

" Sept. 1838. — The governor has commenced 
a factory in this village for spinning and weav- 
ing cotton. There are about twenty wheels 
and about as many native girls spinning — two 
looms are in operation. One web of plain cloth, 
and another of twill has been woven by two 
native men. They are now making checked 
cloth. They succeed remarkably well. A few 
of the girls are learning to knit stockings. 

^' Formerly the native females wore no cov- 
ering on their heads. They now wear bonnets 
made from the oat-straw and sugar-cane. They 
line them with white kapa,=^' which is thin like 
cambric, and trim them with kapa ribbon, col- 
ored in figures. They look very neatly. The 
most respectable among the natives adopt the 
American style of dress, and sit on chairs or 
settees of their own construction. The lower 
classes wear kapa^ a cloth made from the bark 
* Formerly written tapa. 



MISSIONARY LIFE. 79 

of trees, and sit on mats. The females, almost 
without exception, now wear loose dresses. 
They also have a piece of kapa several yards 
long, and of two or three, and sometimes eight 
or ten thicknesses, which they wind around 
them from their hips and downward. They 
call it a pau. The food of the natives is poi^ 
made from a large root called kalo,* which is 
baked in the ground, and then beaten up with 
water till it is of the consistence of hasty-pud- 
ding. They eat it with their fingers. Their 
houses are thatched with leaves, and instead 
of a floor the earth is spread with hay and cov- 
ered with a mat. 

" The governor has lately erected for him- 
self a two- story stone house, surpassing in ele- 
gance any before built on the islands. The 
rooms are finished off with koa^ a very hand- 
some native wood resembling mahogany. The 
pillars and steps of the balcony in front, are 
painted to look like marble." 

"Kailua, Jan. 30, 1839. 

" Dear Cousin Elizabeth — Several 

months previous to mother's sickness, while 

* Formerly taro. 



80 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

father was absent at the delegates' meeting, 
our family went, on account of health, five 
miles back into the mountain, to what we call 
our country-seat. The air there is much cooler 
and more invigorating than it is here. There 
was a good thatched house, but in a very strong 
wind it was partly thrown down. When we 
reached the place we found that the backside 
of the house up to the eaves, lay flat on the 
ground, and the front side leaned over, so as to 
form an angle of forty-five degrees, with a large 
opening in the roof. By the aid of a native, 
who was with us, we succeeded in propping it 
on both sides, and then ventured to spread our 
couches within a shelter so open and tottering. 
Whenever it rained, which happened half the 
time we were there, it came down through 
the opening in the roof and put out all our fire. 
We remained there several days, till a strong 
wind arose, when with the haste of the chil- 
dren of Israel in leaving Egypt, we quitted our 
threatening abode. Mother rode on horseback, 
Lauke, a native woman, carried Thomas on 
her back, and the rest of us walked, or rather 
ran. It rained, the roads were sometimes steep 
and slippery, and those who best maintained 



MISSIONARY LIFE. 8| 

their balance were most fortunate. Durinsr 
the few days that we spent in the mountain, 
we gathered specimens of plants for an herba- 
rium. We also went into a large cave which 
is many miles long. It opens in our yard, up 
country, and opens in the yard here, where our 
dwelling-house is, near the sea-shore. "We often 
take a subterraneous walk in it to the length 
of half a mile. We were all prepared to visit 
the volcano, but were prevented by mother's 
sickness. At Hilo, on the other side of the 
island, are very frequent earthquakes. They 

are very seldom felt at our station The 

entire Bible is about to be completed, trans- 
lated into the Hawaiian language." 

" March 3, 1839. — Our family and the doc- 
tor's have just returned from a visit to Napoo- 
poo, for health, as mother and Dr. Andrews had 
not left home since their sickness. The excur- 
sion has proved beneficial to them. We were 
entertained with the greatest kindness by Mr. 
and Mrs. Forbes. One morning the three fam- 
ilies started at five o'clock to visit the residence 
of Kapiolani, about two miles distant. 

'' At six o'clock we arrived at her new stone 
house. We were highly gratified by the im- 

Miss. Daughter. 6 



82 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

provement and good taste displayed by a Sand- 
wich Islander. The rooms were neatly fur- 
nished in American style. The floors were 
carpeted with fine mats, and the windows cur- 
tained with light calico. A large thatched 
house stood in the same yard, the one she for- 
merly occupied, which is now converted into a 
dining-room. A long table was spread for our 
refreshment, where the food was served up in 
a civilized manner. For the accommodation 
of her visitors during the night, she had three 
rooms, furnished with two beds, and three set- 
tees. The next day we returned to Mr. Forbes'. 
Persis, Asa, and myself accompanied Dr. An- 
drews in a single canoe to the place where 
Captain Cook fell. We obtained some speci- 
mens of the stone. On our return we visited 
the heiau^ where Obukahaia formerly worship- 
ped. Two altars were pointed out to us by the 
natives, near which we picked up some decayed 
bones of the victims." 

Kapiolani was one of the most distinguished 

of the female chiefs of the islands. She was 

the wife of Naihe, a high chief on the island 

of Hawaii, who was an early convert, and be- 

* An idolatrous temple. 



MISSIONARY LIFE. 83 

came one of the most influential Cliristian 
chiefs, and one of the ablest counsellors of the 
missionaries. 

The conversion of Kapiolani, and her eleva- 
tion in character, is perhaps one of the most 
delightful instances of the results of missionary 
labor. When the first missionaries arrived at 
the islands, she was not only ignorant and de- 
graded, but extremely dissolute in all her hab- 
its. When first seen by the missionaries, she 
was lying on the ground in a state of beastly 
intoxication, and there was scarcely a person 
on the islands more given up to every species 
of vice. 

Kapiolani was early converted to the truth, 
applied herself to study, readily adopted the 
manners and usages of civilized life, and soon 
became distinguished for devoted piety, for in- 
telligence, and for dignity of manners. She 
took a bold stand against the vices and super- 
stitions of her people, and exerted a decided 
influence in favor of Christianity. 

The superstition respecting the imaginary 
deity of the great volcano, was one of most 
powerful influence upon the minds of the peo- 
ple of Hawaii. So ignorant were they of the 



84 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

great phenomena of nature, that they supposed 
the eruptions of the volcano to be the effects 
of the anger of the presiding deity, called Pele. 
They never approached it without peace-offer- 
ings, and no native was ever known to descend 
into the crater. Early in the year 1825, Ka- 
piolani crossed the island to stir up the people 
to instruction and worship. In her journey 
she passed near the great crater of Kilauea, and 
perceiving among the natives strong remains 
of superstitious reverence for Pele, she deter- 
mined to show her utter disbelief in the exist- 
ence and power of such a goddess, boldly de- 
scended into the crater, and there, in the pres- 
ence of the people, worshipped Jehovah, as the 
Almighty Ruler of the elements. 

So rapid was her improvement in knowledge 
and character, that the missionaries early styled 
her the '' admirable Kapiolani," and have often 
remarked, that one could scarcely avoid the 
belief that she was educated among an enlight- 
ened people. In 1826, it was said of her, " Ka- 
piolani is indeed a mother in Israel," and this 
character she has vrcll sustained for sixteen 
years. 

The news of the death of this very interest- 



MISSIONARY LIFE. 85 

ing woman has just been received. She died 
on the 5th of May, 1841. In communicating 
the intelligence, Mr. Forbes writes, '' The na- 
tion has lost one of its brightest ornaments. 
She was confessedly the most decided Chris- 
tian, the most civilized in her manners, and the 
most thoroughly read in her Bible, of all the 
chiefs this nation ever had, and her equal in 
those respects is not left in the nation. Her 
last end was peace, and gave decided evidence 
that your missionaries have not labored in 
vain." 

'' Honolulu, Jiine 5. — [The family were 
here attending general meeting.] The funeral 
of Kinau the queen-regent, was solemnized 
this afternoon. She was buried under arms. 
Mr. Bingham and Mr. Richards led the proces- 
sion, the soldiers came next, the missionaries 
and foreign residents, and then the coffin, fol- 
lowed by the mourners. The coffin was con- 
veyed on a hearse, drawn by natives, with a 
black silk canopy trimmed with lace. The 
coffin itself was covered with red velvet, and 
ornamented with gilt nails." 

When the procession started, cannons were 
fired from the Punch-bowl hill and the fort, the 



83 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

bell tolled, the drums sounded, and many of 
the people wailed. Mr. Bingham made an ad- 
dress in English, and preached an excellent 

sermon in Hawaiian After service, the 

remains were carried to their last resting-place. 
The nation has met with a great loss. Proba- 
bly there is no one to fill her place as well as 
she has done. 

" June 7. — The corner-stone of the new na- 
tive meeting-house was laid this afternoon. 
Under it were placed the Hawaiian Bible, an 
arithmetic, trigonometry, anatomy, a map of 
the islands, an engraving of Honolulu, and a 
brass plate with the date, etc., engraved on it. 
A prayer was offered, after which the people 
repaired to the meeting-house. Mr. Bingham 
preached from Haggai 1 : 9. The king, Au- 
hea, and Kekuauoa, each addressed the people, 
exhorting them to build the house, etc. 

" June 9. — .... In the afternoon the Lord's 
supper was celebrated by the native church. 
Messrs. Bingham and Whitney led the services. 
The church was compared with what it was 
eighteen years ago, when on board the brig 
Thaddcus. Then it was composed of seven 
gentlemen, seven ladies, and three native youth. 



MISSIONARY LIFE. 87 

Now there were more than forty missionaries, 
and fourteen thousand native converts in all 
the islands, including those deceased. 

" June 17. — We visited the museum belong- 
ing to the Sandwich Island Institute. There 
is a valuable library connected with it. Vari- 
ous specimens in conchology, geology, and nat- 
ural history were arranged on shelves around 
the room. 

'' Kaneoiie, July 9. — We left Honolulu this 
morning for this station — mother, Persis, and 
myself on horseback, Asa and father walked. 
While yet in sight of the harbor, we looked 
back, and saw the long-expected French frig- 
ate approaching. 

" July 11. — This morning we received intel- 
ligence from Honolulu. The captain of the 
frigate brings orders from the French govern- 
ment to demand that Catholics have a free 
toleration throughout the islands, that a site 
for a church be granted them at Honolulu, and 
that $20,000 be given as a guarantee for the 
performance of these conditions. If these terms 
are not complied with in forty-eight hours, hos- 
tilities will commence on Friday noon. Pro- 
tection is afforded to all the foreigners, but the 



88 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

* Protestant clergymen ' share the fate of the 
natives. The king is at Maui, and has been 
sent for, but he probably will not arrive this 
week. This day is observed by the mission as 
a day of fasting and prayer, in view of present 
prospects." 

This recent outrage upon the government of 
the Sandwich Islands, is fresh in the minds of 
many readers ; it is sufficient here to say, that 
no satisfaction has yet been rendered by the 
French government. 



LUCY AS A TEACHER. 89 



CHAPTER XI. 

LUCY'S CHARACTER AND LABORS AS A TEACHER— LETTERS— PRAYERS 
IN THE HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE-LETTERS. 

Lucy had long felt deeply the condition of 
the poor natives, and from the time that she 
made a profession of religion, she seemed to 
realize that new responsibilities rested upon 
her with regard to them. In her childhood she 
had not been permitted to speak to the heathen 
children around her, and in silent sympathy 
alone could her heart go forth to them. Now 
she was learning their language, and had com- 
menced imparting knowledge to their benight- 
ed minds, and she became deeply interested 
in the spiritual welfare of the children she 
instructed. Her humble labors amonsr them 
were like all her efforts, quiet and unobtru- 
sive, and less known in their performance 
than in their results. But that she won their 
affections, and gained ready access to their 
hearts, was manifest from the influence she 
had over them, and the regard they ever had 
for her example and precepts. As soon as her 



90 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

knowledge of the language enabled her to par- 
ticipate with them in such duties, it was Lucy's 
practice, on Sabbath afternoons, to gather her 
Sabbath-school class together in her chamber 
to read the Scriptures, to sing hymns, and ( as 
was afterwards learned) to pray with them. 

Before she was able to employ the native 
language readily in extemporaneous exercises, 
she prepared a series of short prayers, and 
translated them into Hawaiian, that she might 
employ them in leading her scholars to the 
throne of grace. She had used them some time 
before even her mother knew that she had ever 
attempted to pray with her scholars. 

Lucy's little prayer-book is before me, hav- 
ing been found among her manuscripts. It 
contains eleven prayers, adapted to different 
circumstances and occasions, and I know the 
reader w^U be interested in a selection from 
them. And yet I am reminded how far it was 
from her thoughts, that these simple petitions, 
designed to be used in the retirement of her 
chamber, in raising the benighted souls of her 
Hawaiian scholars to the throne of a prayer- 
hearing God, would ever find a place in a 
printed book in America. 



LUCY AS A TEACHER. 91 

" Our Father, we bow before thee. Look 
upon us with compassion. Thou hast com- 
manded us to pray unto thee, and here we are 
in thy presence. Wilt thou listen to the voice 
of our supplications. Write thy laws in our 
hearts. Lead us by thy right hand. Bless 
these scholars who are now before thee, and 
give unto them hearts willing to follow after 
thee. Great has been thy love and long-suffer- 
ing towards them, but they have been unmind- 
ful of thee. Lord, thou knowest them all. If 
any do love thee, wilt thou strengthen them to 
do thy will. Pour out thy Spirit upon them 
all, that they may all become thy children. 
They are a flock of wandering lambs. Jesus, 
thou art their Shepherd. Save them from evil, 
from sin, and from eternal death. Lead them 
in the narrow path to heaven. Deliver them 
from temptation, and evermore bless them all. 
For Christ's sake. Amen." 

" Our Father who art in heaven, we bow in 
thy presence. We are a company of sinners, 
but for the sake of Christ who died on the cross, 
have mercy and forgive our numerous trans- 
gressions. Prepare us for the time when thou 
shalt call us from this world. Look upon these 



92 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

scholars in thy love, and forgive all their sins 
against thee. Forsake them not, but lead them 
by thy right hand. Give unto each of them 
obedient, humble, and believing hearts. Be 
thou with them continually, that they may do 
that which is right in thy sight. Wash their 
souls in the atoning blood of Christ. Fill them 
with love to thee, and to each other. Look 
upon them in compassion, and grant unto them 
true repentance, for thou hast told us that now 
is the time to repent of, and forsake sin. If 
they delay this work, thy patience will be ex- 
hausted, and they will pursue their way to 
ruin. Prepare us all to meet in heaven, where 
we may dwell and praise thee throughout eter- 
nal as^es. Amen." 

" Jehovah, our Lord and our God, we bless 
thee for this new Sabbath, and that we have 
been permitted to hear thine holy word. 
Jesus, impress upon our hearts the instructions 
we have received. Bless these scholars who 
are now before thee. Pardon their sins, and 
wash their souls in the blood of Christ. Write 
their names in the Lamb's book of life. May 
they repent of their sins, and with fear flee to 
Jesus Christ, their refuge and salvation. Bless 



LUCY AS A TEACHER. 93 

Kealoha and Kahulipuni. They have vowed 
before thee and before men to follow thee. 
Lord, dwell with them, and guide them in all 
that they do, that they may not fall into sin. 
Send thy Spirit doAvn into their hearts, that 
they may be filled with love, and patience, and 
benevolence. May they serve thee in this 
world, and live with thee in heaven. Hear us 
for the righteousness of Christ. Amen." 

Imagine, young reader, this dear girl of four- 
teen,* with a group of heathen children around 
her, bowing with them before her Father's 
throne. Think of her solicitude to pray with 
them, and to teach them to pray ; that ere she 
could use their language, she sat down by her- 
self and studied these simple prayers. Can 
you imagine a scene more interesting, or one 
upon which angels would more delight to look, 
than this in the chamber of the missionary's 
daughter ? If he that converteth a sinner from 
the error of his way, shall save a soul from 
death, will not God delight to own and bless 
the labors of this young missionary to lead 
these "children of darkness" to the light of the 
Gospel ? And though he early removed her 

* This was her age when she composed these prayers. 



94 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

from the field of her youthful labors, will not 
her prayers come up in remembrance before 
his throne, and her instructions be cherished 
to the saving benefit of immortal souls ? Yes. 
The precious seed is not lost. Even in her 
lifetime, Lucy had the happiness to believe 
that several of her dear scholars had chosen the 
good part which cannot be taken away from 
them. Five of them were professors of relig- 
ion when she left the islands. 

She writes under date of Sept. 29, 1838, 
" Nearly fifty were received into the church 
this P. M., among whom were two of my dear 
scholars." 

In these two individuals Lucy felt a pecu- 
liar interest. They were the first of her schol- 
ars who had professed the name of Christ. She 
knew their trials and temptations, and the great 
difficulties that attended their Christian pro- 
fession, in the midst of the corrupt society 
around them. On this account, she often coun- 
selled, encouraged, and admonished them, and 
spent many seasons of prayer with them. 

In describing her visit to Hilo, on her way 
to the volcano, she thus speaks of an interview 
with one of these professing scholars, who was 



LUCY AS A TEACHER. 95 

a member of Dr. Andrews' family, and who 
was then at Hilo with Mrs. Andrews. 

" I had an opportunity of talking with my 
dear scholar Kealoha ; she was very much 
affected at the thought of not seeing us again. 
She appeared very humble and penitent. I 
gave her my parting advice, and we prayed 
together probably for the last time." 

Extract from a letter to Kealoha, written 
soon after Lucy's return to Kailua. 

TRANSLATION. 

"Kailua, Sept. 12, 1839. 

" Love to you Kealoha — We were 

favored in reaching this place last week. At 
Kailikii we took a canoe. At one place the 
wind was strong, and the waves high, and we 
feared that we should sink. There was much 
water in the canoe. But God protected us, 
and we were preserved from danger. Let us 
praise him for his goodness. 

" Last Sabbath when I met with my dear 
scholars we did not forget you. Are you at 
this time living with love to God? Examine 
yourself with care. I grieve because the time 
of our dwelling together has passed away. 



96 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Great is our love to this land, and to you also 
our dear scholars. 

" Love to you. "Watch yourself. 

" From your affectionate teacher, 

^'L. G. THURSTON." 

Kahulipuni, the other of the two referred to, 
was in very indigent circumstances. Lucy 
felt very much for her, because she w^as not 
suitably clad to appear in the house of God. 
She presented her case to her mother, and re- 
quested that a Sabbath suit might be given 
her. Mrs. Thurston replied, "You know, Luc}^, 
I am about to make a dress for you, and that 
will take every yard of cloth there is remain- 
ing." Lucy replied, " I had much rather have 
Kahulipuni have a Sabbath dress, than to have 
one myself." A dress was given her. As Ka- 
hulipuni was not accustomed to her needle, 
Lucy cut it out and invited Kahulipuni to 
come and sit by her side, and taught her how 
to make it. 

By such efforts for the spiritual and tem- 
poral welfare of her pupils, Lucy greatly en- 
deared herself to them, and as the time drew 
near for her separation from them, they shed 
many tears of mutual regret and affection. 



LUCY AS A TEACHER. 97 

In a note to Kahulipuni, just before her de- 
parture from the islands, Lucy enclosed a lock 
of her hair, and inserted these four texts of 
Scripture, in the Hawaiian language. 

"Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast 
out."— John 6 : 37. 

"Pray without ceasing." — 1 Thess. 5:17. 

"Quench not the Spirit."—! Thess. 5 : 19. 

" If ye love me, keep my commandments." 

" Remember your affectionate teacher, 

"LUCY G. THURSTON. 
"LUKE G. TATINA." 

Lucy received the following letter from Ke- 
aloha, a short time before sailing from Hono- 
lulu. It exhibits in an interesting manner, the 
social and religious affections of a converted 
heathen, and the original is inserted as a spec- 
imen of the language. 

"Kailua, June 29, 1840. 

"Aloha oe e Luke, kuu kaikuaana ilako o 
KA Haku — Ua nui kuu aloha ia oe. Ke aloha 
aku nei au ia oe i ka hiki ana mai o kau pala- 
pala iau. Aloha akuia Tatina wahine, ia Pa- 
keke, a me Aka, a me Mele, a me Koma. Ua 
pilikia makou i ka mai o ke keiki a Kauka. 

" Ke palapala nei au i keia palapala me kuu 
waimaka. Aloha oe i ka hele aku ma ka aina 

Miss. Daughter. 7 



98 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

malihini, aloe makou i ike. Ua pau ko kakoii 
halawai ana ma keia ao. Ua nele au i ka mea 
paipai ole. Nui kuu hoomanao ana ia oe. 
Auhea oe e ke kumu aloha, mai hoopoina i 
kau haumana aloha. Aloha oe ka mea mana 
i kuhikuhi mai ma ka pono o ke Alcua. Aolo 
ke Akua i hoopai mai i kou noho ana. I keia 
wa, he naho ana aloha ia oe i ka makua ao 
mai i ka pono. Aole manao e hana i ka hewa, 
aka o ka naau, ua hana hewa i ke Akua. 

" Ke aloha aku nei o Hana ia oukou a pau. 
Aloha oe ka hoahele o na kai ewalu mai Ha- 
waii a Oahu. E ke kumu aloha e, aole hiki 
ke palapala i keia we, he pilikia. Aloha oe ka 
i manao mai i ka haumana. 

^'Na kau haumana aloha, 

^^KEALOHA."* 

TK ANSLATION. 

''Kailua, June 29, 1840. 
*'LovE TO YOU, Lucy, my elder sister in the 
Lord — My affection for you is very great. I 
loved you when I received the letter you wrote 
me. Give my love to Mrs. Thurston, to Persis, 
Asa, Mary, and Thomas. We are in strait- 

* Her name, Kealoha, means love. 



LUCY AS A TEACHER. 99 

ened circumstances on account of the sickness 
of the doctor's child. 

" I write this letter with tears. I have great 
love for you, because you was going to a strange 
land which we have never seen. The time for 
our meeting together in this world has passed 
away. I have lost the one who often remind- 
ed me of my duty. I often remember you. 
Where are you, my beloved teacher ? forget 
not your scholar who loved you. Love to you 
who instructed me in the righteousness of God. 
God has not rewarded me according to the 
manner in which I have lived. At this time I 
am swelling with love to you the mother 
(teacher) who taught me the right way. I do 
not desire to do wrong, but my heart sins 
against God. 

" Hana sends love to you all. Love to you 
my fellow- voyager in the eight seas^ from Ha- 
waii to Oahu. Beloved teacher, I cannot write 
more now, for it is a straitened time. Love to 
you who thought on your scholar. 

" Your affectionate scholar, 

''KEALOHA." 
* The "eight seas,^'' are eight channels, situated be- 
tween Hawaii and Oahu, over which they had passed 
together at a former period. 



100 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Lncy did not forget her scholars when new 
scenes surrounded her, and new occupations 
ensfasred her attention. She addressed a letter 
to her little flock, while stopping at the Socie- 
ty Islands, on her voyage to America, and con- 
tinued to speak of them with affectionate solic- 
itude till the close of her life. 

The last night but one before her death, to 
a friend who was watching by her bedside, 
and who was conversing with her as to the 
probable result of her sickness, she remarked, 
that it had been the most ardent desire of her 
heart to be fitted to return to her native land, 
and to spend her life in laboring for the salva- 
tion of the children of Hawaii ; but that God 
knew best, and she was willing to submit en- 
tirely to his will. 

Lucy's scholars have not forgotten her. They 
have already mourned and wept her early death, 
but they will cherish the remembrance of her 
character and precepts. They and the native 
church in which her father labors, and in which 
her example shone, will long remember her as 
a sweet and gentle spirit, that lived and moved 
among them for a little season, and then soared 
upward to a fairer clime. 



LUCY AS A TEACHER. 101 

Perhaps many a fair daughter of Christian 
America will read this chapter, who has never 
yet thought of any means of making herself 
useful — many a young professor of religion, 
who has never yet entered upon active service 
in the cause of her divine Master. Perhaps 
some young Sabbath-school teacher, who has 
never gathered the dear children of her class 
around he», to lead them to the throne of grace 
in prayer. Perhaps some female professor of 
maturer years, who has never met her Chris- 
tian sisters in the retired apartment conse- 
crated to their prayers, nor mingled her peti- 
tions with theirs for the prosperity of Zion, and 
the conversion of the world. 

To each of these, the simple story of Lucy 
Thurston's humble labors presents more useful, 
practical lessons, than the entire lives of many 
whom the world calls illustrious, and whose 
names and deeds are placed upon its brightest 
records.* 

* Since the preparation of this work^ and on the anni- 
versary of her death, two letters addressed to Lucy have 
been received from the two scholars named in this chap- 
ter. 

Kealoha writes, " My heart is heavy because of our 
separation. 1 do not forget your instructions, but 1 lay 



102 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

them up in my heart. I remember you often every day." 
She sends her "love to all the girls in the United 
States," and assures her beloved teacher, that her love 
to her will never cease. 

Kahulipuni says, ''' I love you. At this time I am 
dwelling according to the instruction which you gave 
me to ' follow" after Jesus.' My affection is very great 
for you all, for you have been like parents to lead me in 
the ways of righteousness. Give my love to all the 
daughters of that country, and to the church-members." 



TOUR AROUND HAWAII. 103 

CHAPTER XII. 

DESCRIPTION OF A TOUR AROUND HAWAII— VISIT TO THE VOLCANO. 

The summer before his family left the isl- 
ands, Mr. Thurston made a tour around Hawaii 
with them, for the purpose of visiting the vari- 
ous missionary stations, and of making his 
children acquainted with the interesting nat- 
ural features of the island. The following de- 
scription of this ''tour of pleasure," written 
soon after their return, presents a novelty of 
circumstances and modes of travelling, and a 
variety of incident, which cannot fail to make 
it interesting to the reader, though written for 
no other purpose than her own improvement 
and pleasure by a girl of sixteen. 

" Kailua, Sept. 1839. — We concluded to 
make a tour of this island, for the purpose of 
visiting the various stations, and the volcano, 
before embarking for America. It would not 
be lost time for father, as it would afford him 
an opportunity of preaching to those who sel- 
dom hear instruction. We packed our clothes 
in two large calabashes. A crib was fitted up 
with a pole on each side for the accommoda- 



104 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

tion of the two younger children in travel- 
ling ; also two chairs in the same manner for 
mother, Persis, and myself to ride in occa- 
sionally. Each of these was carried by two 
natives. 

" On Wednesday morning, the 7th of Au- 
gust, we left Kailua. Ten native men accom- 
panied us to carry our travelling chairs and 
baggage. We walked five miles up the side of 
the mountain, where we entered the road that 
leads to Kiholo, a place twenty miles north of 
Kailua. Here we were overtaken by a copious 
shower of rain. M. and T, in their covered 
crib escaped ; but the rest of us, who pursued 
our way on foot, protected only by umbrellas 
and shawls, soon found that our feet and the 
lower part of our garments were completely 
soaked. After travelling about fifteen miles, 
occasionally resting by taking a short ride in 
the chairs, we came to an open space in the 
road, shaded by lofty kukui-trees. There we 
seated ourselves on the large stones. A fire 
was kindled, and we succeeded in drying some 
of our clothes. Our lowly table was soon pre- 
pared, by spreading large leaves upon the 
ground, upon which our cold provisions were 



TOUR AROUND HAWAII. 105 

placed. Exercise prepared us to partake with 
keen appetites. 

" At 3 o'clock we proceeded on our journey. 
Passed several streams of lava, which issued 
forty years ago from an ancient crater. It was 
very evident that it had once been in a state 
of fusion. The rugged fragments were lying 
around, in every variety of shape and position. 
These streams were from a quarter to half a 
mile in width, and not a single vegetable ap- 
pears. About 9 o'clock we arrived at Kiholo, 
weary and hungry. All was still in the vil- 
lage, but awakening the inmates of one of the 
houses, we were directed to a new kalau, and 
furnished with a mat on which to sleep. This 
we spread upon the sand which formed the 
floor of the house, and taking some clothes from 
our calabashes for pillows, we made a bed, 
which fatigue rendered grateful to our weary 
limbs. After supper and prayers, we threw 
ourselves down, and slept as soundly as though 
we had reposed upon feathers. We left many 
articles unpacked until morning directly before 
the open door, but nothing was missing. In 
the morning the people of the place collected 
around the house, and father preached to them. 



103 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Yfe then proceeded on our way Came to 

a tract of smooth lava several miles in extent, 
which cooled in running from the crater. ' It 
was very good w^alking. When we had ad- 
vanced nearly to the middle of it, we turned to 
take a view of the surrounding scenery. As 
far as the eye could reach, nothing could be 
seen but rough and frightful masses of black 
lava. Not a breath of air was stirring, and the 
noonday sun shining in all his strength almost 
overpowered us. We found a cave near the 
path, where we rested for a few minutes, grate- 
ful for the shade it afforded. After crossing 
this dreary region, we came to a grove of co- 
coanut-trees, standing in the midst of a beau- 
tiful grass-plot. Never was the sight of ver- 
dure more refreshing. Exhausted with fatigue 
and heat, we threw ourselves on the grass, 
while the men climbed the trees for cocoanuts. 
We reached Kowaihae about sunset. Puna 
and his wife, the principal people of the place, 
cordially invited us to lodge in their stone house. 
The room was furnished with beds, made up 
in a civilized manner. The next morning 
Puna furnished us with two single canoes to 
transport us to Kohala, a distance of fifteen 



TOUR AROUND HAWAII. 107 

miles. Our family embarked in one canoe, and 
reached the landing-place at noon. Father ad- 
dressed the people of the place, who gave good 
attention. We then started on foot for the 
missionary station, ten miles inland. The 
trade winds blew freshly, driving the cold rain 
directly into our faces. The road was ascend- 
ing, a greater part of the way, and very fatigu- 
ing. However, we kept on, and at 6 o'clock, 
thoroughly drenched, we reached the mission 

houses This would be a pleasant station 

were it not for the frequent rains and high 
winds. On Sunday, father preached both parts 
of the day to large and attentive audiences. 
This is a new station, and the people appeared 
more rude and uncivilized than at Kailua. 

'' On Monday morning we left for Waimea, 
thirty miles distant. Mr. Bliss kindly lent us 
his horse, which accommodated five of us by 
turns, walking the rest of the time. 

" Dined in a grove of trees. Saw Yenus at 
noonday, in the bright sunshine. Night over- 
took us before we cleared the woods We 

witnessed for the first time the occultation of 
Venus. After walking several hours in the 
dark, picking our way over steep hills, rough 



108 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

stones, and decayed trees, we reached the high 
road that leads to Mr. Lyon's house. Several 
streams of water lay across our path, over 
which we were carried by the natives. At 
half past 10 we arrived at Mr. Lyon's house, 
extremely tired and faint. A warm reception 
from our friends, a warm supper, and a good 
nisrht's rest restored us in a measure. 

" On Wednesday we left Waimea for Hilo. 
Three horses were kindly lent us. Our jour- 
ney was very pleasant, the road leading along 
the northern side of Mauna Kea, an uninhab- 
ited region. The country was interspersed with 
koa-trees. A species of white moss covered all 
the branches of the old trees, which had a sin- 
gular and beautiful appearance. 

"At dark we stopped, and looking around 
for a resting-place for the night, discovered a 
large tree which had fallen. On one side of it 
we spread our mat, and built a large fire in 
front. It was so cold that the vapor of our 
breath became visible. We slept very com- 
fortably under the broad canopy of heaven, 
though in the morning we found our clothes 

considerably damp with the dew We were 

now on the eastern side of Mauna Kea, at an 



TOUR AROUND HAWAII. 109 

elevation of several thousand feet. We had a 
view of the ocean, which appeared to rise like 
a high mountain above the clouds. The atmos- 
phere was very cool, and somewhat thinner 
than on the shore : we found that we were 
more easily fatigued than when on lower land. 
Saw several herds of wild cattle at a distance. 
We passed great numbers of carcasses which 
had been left by the hunters, after being de- 
prived of their hides. 

" About sundown we arrived at the edge of 
the woodland, which extends for sixteen miles 
towards the sea-coast. Here the scenery was 
enchanting. Behind us towered the heights of 
Mauna Kea, the sides of which were beautifully 
sprinkled with clumps of trees. Before us we 
saw the upper side of the fleecy clouds, resting 
gracefully on the tops of the trees, contrasting 
strongly with the dark shrubbery which forms 
the outskirts of the dense forest. Beyond this 
delightful prospect arose the ' illimitable sea.' 
On the right the blue peaks of Mauna Loa were 
visible in the distance. The whole scene was 
calculated to inspire the beholder with emo- 
tions of sublimity, and lead the mind from 
nature's works to their wonderful Creator. 



110 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

*' A little cave in the neighborhood afforded 
us a shelter for the night. It was not high 
enough to allow us to stand. The bottom was 
very damp, and the water dropped from the 
roof Really it was not a very inviting place 
to spend the night, but we were obliged to 
make the best of it. Father and the men ob- 
tained a supply of wood from the forest, with 
which a fire was kept up during the night. 

'' Early in the morning the guide and horses 
returned to Waimea, and we entered the woods. 
"We had been told that it was eight miles 
through, and we expected to reach the other 
side by noon. The road became very muddy, 
but we endeavored to avoid it by throwing 
down branches to form a bridge, or by passing 
through the thick brakes on the side of the 
road. We were all in high spirits, and when 
any little accident occurred, the woods resound- 
ed with echoes of merriment. We travelled 
through mud and water, over slippery bogs and 
stumps, till we could scarcely see the road be- 
fore us. We then sent one man ahead, to see 
whether we were near the edge of the woods, 
and another to find solid ground where we 
might pass the night. The latter soon hailed 



TOUR AROUND HAWAII. HI 

US, and we went on feeling our way, till we 
arrived at a little eminence by the road-side, 
which, though very wet, would allow us to 
stand on it without sinking. Here we seated 
ourselves, cold and weary, our clothes satu- 
rated with water and well beplastered with 
mud. A fire was the first thing thought of. 
No dr}^ wood was to be had, as every thing in 
the vicinity was soaked with rain. What was 
to be done ? By taking one of the poles be- 
longing to the crib, splitting it, and rubbing 
two pieces together for some time, the natives 
lighted the lamp, but despaired of being able 
to kindle a fire. Mother used all her eloquence 
to encourage them, and they collected some 
green wood, cut it into small pieces, and in the 
course of three hours, a comfortable fire was 
built. Meanwhile father, mother, Persis, Asa, 
and myself, with some of the natives, gathered 
a quantity of fern and spread it on the ground, 
over which the mat was laid. A few brakes 
were set up on one side, which served as a 
slight screen from the wind. We changed our 
wet garments, and lay down supperless,- as our 
provisions were nearly exhausted, and we knew 
not how much farther we might be obliged to 



112 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

walk, having apprehensions that we had lost 
our way. The next morning we breakfasted 
upon dry fish and sour poi, without any water 
to moisten our lips. Pursuing our journey, 
the road waxed worse and worse. About noon, 
to our inexpressible joy, we saw a white man, 
who, hearing of our situation by the native 
that we sent ahead the night previous, kindly 
came to our assistance. He told us that two 
miles yet remained before reaching the good 
road, and that the worst part of the way was 
yet before us. Had it not been for his exer- 
tions here, we might have been in distressing 
circumstances. We were now eight miles from 
the shore, and hastening on, met a messenger 
from Mrs. Coan with food and notes of welcome. 
At nine in the evening we reached the village, 
and in the warm embraces of our beloved 
friends we forgot our fatigues. 

"We arrived on Saturday evening. The 
next day father preached to an attentive con- 
gregation. We were very lame for several 
days in consequence of our fatigues. 

" One afternoon we accompanied Dr. An- 
drews and family to the cascade of the Rain- 
bow, a mile and a half from the village. It is 



TOUR AROUND HAWAII. m^ 

a beautifal waterfall, pouring down one hun- 
dred and ten feet from the rocky cliffs into the 
basin below. 

'' The next Sabbath we attended the native 
services, which were very interesting. In the 
afternoon the mission family assembled at the 
house of Mr. Wilcox, and had a solemn and 
affecting season of prayer together. 

" On Monday, at 10 o'clock, a parting meet- 
ing was held at Mr. Coan's. With many tears 
we bade farewell to our beloved friends, not 
expecting to meet them again in this world. 
They bountifully supplied us with comforts 
for the journey. We started for the volcano 
on horseback ; Mr. Mack, a foreigner, accom- 
panying us as guide. After travelling the next 
day till sunset, the smoke and steam issuing 
from the chasms around, v^^arned us of our near 
approach to the volcano. We suddenly came 
upon the brink of that awful place, nine miles 
in circumference, and one thousand five hun- 
dred feet in depth. It w^as so obscured by 
smoke that the fires were scarcely visible. We 
found a little hut at the edge of the crater, one 
corner of which was only two feet from the 
brink. Here we concluded to spend the night, 

Miss. Daughter. 8 



114 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

as it was a fine situation to watch the object 
of our curiosity. The mountain air was quite 
cool and a fire grateful. In the course of the 
night, the smoke cleared away and the sight 
of the raging fires was fearful. The unearthly 
sounds they emitted, heard distinctly at the 
distance of two miles, added much to the effect. 
We arose several times during ^he night to 
gaze at the scene before us. 

"The next morning we descended the side, 
sometimes passing within a few inches of a 
frightful chasm. The bottom of the crater 
was covered with a brittle shining crust, which 
often broke under our weight. We visited a 
large lake in the centre about one-third of a 
mile in diameter. The liquid lava boiled and 
foamed with great fury. Mr. Mack stood on 
the brink and with a long pole obtained some 
specimens from the liquid lava. By the side 
of the lake we picked up little shining pieces 
which had been thrown out by an eruption. 
The lava now boiled up higher and higher, and 
we quitted the place in haste. Proceeding to a 
distant part, we were greatly annoyed by smoke 
and sulphurous gas from the cones, a few in- 
spirations of which would probably prove fatal. 



TOUR AROUND HAWAII. 115 

"At length we stood on the overhanging 
brink of the great south-western lake. It was 
in violent agitation, and presented a most ter- 
rific appearance. It was indeed a fit emblem 
of the lake of fire and brimstone that burneth 
for ever and ever. On the borders of that fiery 
lake we took a luncheon of pineapples and 
cakes, and returned by way of the sulphur 
banks. For a considerable distance, the lava 
over which we walked was so hot that we could 
not hold it an instant in our hands. 

" After witnessing many fearful exhibitions 
of the Creator's power, we reached our little 
hut at four o'clock, excessively weary. We 
obtained many specimens, which we sent to Hilo 
to be packed and forwarded to Honolulu. 

" During the night the action was more vio- 
lent than before. We saw fine eruptions, in 
which the redhot stones were thrown to the 
height of fifty or sixty feet. A new lake broke 
out and burned brightly during the night. We 
realized more than when in the crater, that we 
had been exposed to imminent danger, yet no 
life has ever been lost there. 

" The next morning Mr. Mack returned to 
Hilo, and we left the volcano, directing our 



116 THE M'SSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

steps to the southern part of the island. Light 
pumice-stone and volcanic capillary glass was 
seen in abundance for several miles. The road, 
for the greater part of the way, led over beds 
of sand and tracts of rugged lava. At sunset 
we reached Kapapala, having walked a distance 
of twenty miles. The soles of our feet were 
much blistered, probably the effects of walking 
in the hot volcano. 

" On Friday afternoon reached Punaluu, 
where we passed the night. Father addressed 
the people and married a couple. Saturday 
night arrived at AYaiohunu, having stopped 
three times to meet with the people. 

" We spent the Sabbath at Waiohunu. Fa- 
ther conducted public worship under a beau- 
tiful grove of kukui-trees. The people there 
greatly need a teacher. They are seldom priv- 
ileged with hearing the Gospel. This is an 
eligible place for a missionary station. The 
people were very kind to us, and it was pain- 
ful to leave them so destitute of instruction. 

" On Monday we descended a precipice three 
hundred feet high, and reached the shore at 
four o'clock. We were obliged to wait till the 
next day at noon, before we could proceed, as 



TOUR AROUND HAWAII. 117 

the people were required to work for the king. 
Our family with six natives embarked in a sin- 
gle canoe, the baggage and several of the men 
being in a smaller one. The sea was quite 
rough when we started, but after being out a 
few hours the waves ran very high. The long 
swells threatened to capsize or fill our canoes. 
We went on so for some distance, the waves 
increasing all the time, till we came to a little 
cove, where we stopped to lighten our canoe. 
It was impossible to land, as the shore was 
formed of high rocks. Expecting to be upset, 
we prepared ourselves by taking off our bon- 
nets, shawls, shoes, etc. We again put out 
into the heavy swells. The waves dashed over 
us, and at one time the canoe was a third full 
of water. But we were mercifully protected, 
and soon reached smooth water. The sail was 
put up, and we advanced rapidly, and landed 
at a little village at dark. We were directed 
to an empty house, where we assembled round 
our lowly board, partook of the provisions pre- 
pared for us, committed ourselves to the guar- 
dian care of our heavenly Father, and com- 
posed ourselves to rest. 

" Before daylight we started off, and arrived 



118 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

at Kaawaloa about two o'clock, p. m., and im- 
mediately went to the houses of Messrs. Forbes 
and Ives J where we enjoyed a pleasant season 
of social intercourse. We arrived at Kailua 
the next day, after an absence of four weeks. 
Surely the goodness of the Lord has followed 
us when exposed to perils by sea and by 
land." 



LETTERS FROM FRIENDS. 119 



CHAPTER XIII. 

LETTERS TO LUCY FROM MISSIONARIES. 

As one object, in the preparation of this 
work, has been to bring to view the means of 
improvement within the reach of missionaries 
in educating their children, and as Lucy's cor- 
respondence with missionary friends was con- 
sidered by her parents an important advan- 
tage, as well as an abundant source of pleasure 
to her, it has seemed desirable to insert a few 
of these letters addressed to Lucy. Though 
done without the permission of the writers, it 
is believed the end in view will justify the 
liberty thus taken. 

It is pleasant to know, that far off in those 
distant isles there is now a large band of in- 
telligent, educated Christians, who enjoy occa- 
sional intercourse with each other, whose fam- 
ilies are linked together by ties of affection, 
and who feel a tender interest in the children 
of the mission. These letters of pious friend- 
ship, which were addressed to Lucy in her 
childhood and youth, were placed among her 



120 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

choicest treasures, and often perused after she 
had left her native shores. 

EXTBACT FROM A LETTER OF MBS. S. TO LUCY. 

"Honolulu, Jan. 24, 1838. 

" My dear Lucy — ... I thank you for your 
pleasant note. I wish you would write me 

often I hope that you, and Persis, and 

Mary will excel in the management of domes- 
tic affairs. This is an important part of edu- 
cation, and I am sometimes afraid the dear 
children of the missionaries will fail in this 
branch. 

" We are quietly settled at our new station, 
and find abundance to do. A large number 
are turning with their bodies to the pono^ and 
we have reason to think some are turning with 
their hearts also. We have at least 1,000 
hearers on the Sabbath : 280 in the children's 
school. I have established a weekly prayer- 
meeting. But oh, how filthy and uncomfort- 
able this poor people do live. We have com- 
menced visiting from house to house, and de- 
sign, if health is allowed us, to do much in 
this way. AVe must make strenuous efforts 
to civilize and elevate this people, as well as 
* Right way. 



LETTERS FROM FRIENDS. 12I 

to make them Christians. I wish you would 
tell me how the people live at Kailua. I sup- 
pose they all have partitions in their houses, 
and I hope they keep them clean, and take 
care of their children, and wear clean clothes, 
and hats, and bonnets, etc. But indeed our 
new people do not. Pray for us, that the Lord 
will bless our labors among them. . . . Believe 
me your affectionate friend, 

"A. W. S. 

" Miss L. G. Thurston." 



LETTER FROM MRS. C. 



"Hana Maui, Feb. 19, 1838. 

" My dear Lucy — Family cares are 

new to me, and perhaps therefore I am less 
skilful in disposing of them than your mother 
is, after her long experience. It is by practice 
that people become expert in any thing they 
attempt to perform. Practice, however, does 
not always make perfect ; sometimes for the 
want of care, and sometimes perhaps from the 
want of sufficient genius. This, my dear 
Lucy, may furnish a profitable subject for 
you, as you are now young, and have many 
things yet to learn before you can become 
perfect in knowledge 



122 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

'' You have but just commenced an exist- 
ence, every hour of which w^ill increase your 
knowledge of good or evil. You will doubtless 
see many things that will fill your heart with 
grief, and cause the tears of sorrow to flow 
profusely. This is a world of sin, and conse- 
quently of suffering. You have seen much 
practical exhibition of this in the natives with 
whom you are surrounded. But you perhaps 
think they are heathen, and therefore more 
wretched than people of enlightened countries. 
This is true, and their situation is truly deplo- 
rable ; but their sufferings are probably not 
much greater than those of the people of Chris- 
tian countries, because they are less sensible 
of their wretchedness. The more enlightened 
we are, the more susceptible we are to suffer- 
ing. Lord B. was a man of great intellect 
and great wealth, was admired by thousands, 
and one of the lords of England, and yet I 
suppose he suffered almost infinitely more than 
any native on these islands can suffer in this 
life. His mind was too great to take pleasure 
in the things of time, and he had no heart to 
love God, therefore he could derive no happi- 
ness from loving and serving him. So it is, 



LETTERS FROM FRIENDS. 123 

Lucy : intelligent minds cannot be satisfied 
with earth, however much they may desire 
the things of it ; and if they derive no pleasure 
in meditation upon God and the things of eter- 
nity, with the whole world at their feet, they 
will still sigh for happiness, and groan under 
the infirmities of the flesh, until death comes 
and erases their names from the records of 
time, and calls them to appear before an of- 
fended God. 

"But the sufferings of humanity are not all 
that you have to learn. If you are what you 
profess to be, one of Christ's little ones, you 
have to learn to imitate his examples and per- 
fections. You have faith, patience, humility, 
and benevolence, yea, every Christian grace to 
learn more perfectly. You have yet to learn 
how to live — how to die. This is the work of 
time, and for this you must learn to watch and 
pray constantly. Satan lias many snares to 
lay at your feet, many temptations to allure 
you from the pursuit of holiness. You have 
to learn how to defeat his purpose and gain the 
victory over all sin. 

w •5? ^ -tP w 

" I wish I could see your excellent mother, 



124 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

and call her by that endearing name. I shall 
be happy to hear from you often. 
"Affectionately yours, 

"A. L. C." 

LETTER FROM MISS M. M. S. 

"Honolulu, March 1, 1838. 

"I feel interested to know how you 

progress in your studies this season, and what 
are your plans. I rejoice that you can avail 
yourselves of the aid and society of Mrs. A. 
Strive, while 3^ou have the privilege, to improve 
in science, in manners, and in conversation. 
.... But more than every thing else, study to 
cultivate a meek and quiet spirit, which is of 
great price in the sight of God. Are you dili- 
gent and earnest in seeking deliverance from 
sin, in mortifying the deeds of the body, that 
you may live for Christ alone ? 

" We rejoice to hear that Grod is visiting you 
with some mercy drops. May they continue 
to increase, till there is no room to receive 
more. There is much interest at each of the 
stations at Oahu. The Lord shows himself 
waiting to be gracious, and save dying souls. 
*' Your true friend, 

"M. M. S." 



LETTERS FROM FRIENDS. 125 

LETTER PROM MBS, A. DURING A TEMPORARY ABSENCE FROM 

K A I L U A . 

'• Kealakekua, Axigust 14, 1838. 

*' My dear Lucy — Your very acceptable note 
just came to hand. I need not assure you that 
we were glad to hear from Kailua, but especial- 
ly from the loved circle at Laniakea.* We 

hope soon to join you again Now that 

your time is so systematically assigned for 
study, I hope you will not soon be interrupted 
again. You are not probably fully aware of 
the rich literary privileges which you now en- 
joy. With your kind parents for instructors, 
the most of your time at command, and en- 
dowed by your beneficent Creator with capaci- 
ties for high intellectual culture, surely there 
is no sufficient reason why you may not rise 
to eminence as a scholar, and be qualified to 
adorn any circle into which Providence may 
cast your lot. It is recorded of the most dis- 
tinguished scholars, as well as of most others 
celebrated for whatever is of ' good report,' 

* A name given to Mr. Thurston's residence, from a 
remarkable cave near it bearing that name^ and men- 
tioned in Lucy's journal. 



]26 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

that they were very prudent of the fragments 

of time 

" In much love, I am ever yours, 

''Very affectionately, 

"P. P. A. 

'•'Miss L. G. Thurston." 

LETTKn FnOM ME S. S. TO PKKHIS AND LUCY. 

"Honolulu, October 30, 1838. 

" My dear Girls — I have heard with deep 
sorrow of the severe affliction that has fallen 
upon your dear mother 

"We were thankful indeed, that she was not 
cut off by the first stroke, and that she yet 
lives, and has a prospect of some degree of 
health. And it is our earnest prayer that 
God will remove entirely his chastening hand, 
and restore her to former vigor. But possibly 
such may not be his good pleasure ; and if not, 
I hope and trust he will grant you all a sweet 
submission to his divine will. 

" In the meantime, I trust you will both 
feel the great responsibilities resting upon you, 
as the eldest daughters of a large family. You 
will endeavor to put in practice the excellent 
instruction you have received, and carefully 
follow the example of her who has labored so 



LETTERS FROxM FRIENDS. 127 

unweariedly to form your characters for use- 
fulness, in the more trying as well as pleasant 
scenes of life. 

*' Endeavor to give such attention to tho 
domestic comfort of the family, and the care 
of the younger children, as shall secure your 
dear mother from anxiety, and enable both 
your parents to feel that the labor of years has 
not been lost upon you. You vs^ill feel more 
than ever the importance of leading prayerful 
lives, and lives of strict watchfulness. From 
God, your heavenly Father, must come your 
help to enable you to perform ail your duties 
in a right spirit. I feel much for you all, and 
should love to be near you, that I might aid in 
any way the promotion of your comfort. I 
have not forgotten the kindness I have received 
from your dear mother in seasons of affliction. 

" Grive my love and tender sympathies to 

your dear parents. 

''Very affectionately, 

"A. W. S. 

LBTTEK FKOM REV. MK. VOF. BES. 

" Kealakekua, Jan. 27, 1840. 
" My dear friend Lucy — I have complied 
with your very modest request ; you asked me 



128 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

to write your name and mine. You will, 
therefore, not complain that I have not written 
some elegant motto. To such things you know 
I can lay no claim. I am pleased with your 
plan for laying out your money.* May G-od 
bless your books to you. " Wisdom is the prin- 
cipal thing, therefore get wisdom, and with all 
thy gettings get understanding," is the direc- 
tion of Him who knows our wants better than 
we do ourselves. Nothing that I can hear of 
you and your prosperity will fix in my mind 
a firm conviction of your wisdom, like the in- 
telligence that you live for Christ ; this, my 
dear young friend, is the great end of our ex- 
istence; but 0, what a withering blight will 
rest on your whole moral being, should you 
set your standard by the fashion in religion, 
and by the caprice of a restless, vain world. 
May you indeed walk worthy of your vocation, 
and be as a light in the midst of a perverse 
generation. A thousand things will demand 

* A present from Mr. Forbes to be used in any way 
she chose when she should reach America. Lucy wrote 
to him, that she shouhl appropriate it to the purchase of 
books, and requested Mr. F. to write his name and hers 
on some slips of paper that she might paste in the books. 



LETTERS FROM FRIENDS. 129 

your time and attention, and you will ever find 
it difficult to do the best things in the best man- 
ner. It might not be either wise or proper for 
us to ask you to spend, in writing to us, that 
time which a thousand more important calls 
will demand. But should you ever, during the 
long weary days of an American summer, or 
the cold lonesome evenings of an American 
winter, find two or three leisure hours, which 
you are not conscious could be better spent, be 
assured we will feel much gratified and highly 
obliged, should they be devoted to writing to 
your sincere friends in Kealakekua. Pardon 
this ravelled sentence, if you can unravel it. 
I simply meant to say, that we should be truly 
glad to have a letter from Lucy. 

"Mrs. F. cannot write now, but sends her 
best wishes as usual. 

" With much love to all, believe me ever 
sincerely your friend and brother, 

"C. FORBES." 

LETTER FBOM MES. A. 

"Kailua, June 25, 1840. 

" My dear Lucy — The weeks pass 

rapidly away, and will soon bring in their flight 
the time of your departure from these shores. 

Miss. Daughter. 9 



130 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

You are about to enter upon a new scene of 
things ; much that will be trying to human na- 
ture will probably fall to your lot ; but as your 
day is, so assuredly will your strength be, if you 
avail yourself of the aid which you have ever 
been taught to seek and value above all that is 
human. Honor the Saviour wherever you are, 
and he will honor you, and deliver you from 
every strait. Let the Scriptures be the guide of 
your youth. Temptation to neglect the sacred 
volume will be strong ; but be steadfast, immov- 
able, always abounding in every good word and 
work. Only follow its unerring dictates, and 
you have nothing to fear. I have never had a 
doubt but that you will be successful, and act 
well your part in life. Ever rest assured of 
my most ardent wishes for your happiness and 
usefulness. We may meet no more on earth, 
but I love to cherish the hope that we shall 
both yet labor together in this vineyard. Do 
write to us as there is opportunity while you 
remain at Honolulu, and not forget to do the 
same when you leave. 

*' Most affectionately your sister, 

"P. P. A." 



LAST MONTHS AT HOME. 131 

CHAPTER XIV. 

JOURXAL— LUCY AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN— LETTERS WRITTEN IN 
VIEW OF HER DEPARTURE FROM THE ISLANDS. 

" Jan. 1, 1840. — Another year has quickly 
flown. The Lord has spared me to enter upon 
this new year. may I examine my feelings 
and actions during the past, and in future be 
more devoted to the service of my Lord. 

" Jan. 2. — Have received the affecting intel- 
ligence of the death of Gerrit Judd. He died 
a fter a sickness of four days. We little thought, 
at the last general meeting, that the healthy 
and blooming Gerrit would so soon be removed 
from this world. His mother writes that he 
gave precious evidence of now resting in the 
bosom of the Saviour. that this death might 
be sanctified to the children of the mission, 
and warn us to be prepared to follow him to 
the world of spirits." 

EXTRACT FEOM A LETTEP. TO MISS SMITH, 

"Kailua, Feb. 29, 1840. 

" My dear Miss S. — We had not heard from 

you, nor our other friends at Honolulu, for a 

long time, till yesterday. Our family have 

written but few letters, as we have had a great 



132 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

pressure of employment since general meeting. 
Here we are still in our own home at Kailua, 
waiting till Providence shall open a way for 
our departure. 

" We were very glad to hear from Mrs. Castle. 
We had not heard from her before since her 
visit here. We sympathize with her and Mrs. 
Chamberlain in their afflictions. But whatever 
God does, is done vjell. 

" We have not done much at study the past 
year. Should we meet at the general meeting, 
we shall love to give you some account of our 
travels around the island, and visit to the vol- 
cano. The governor has returned, has taken 
a wife from Hilo, a girl about eighteen years 
of age. 

" An interesting state of things still contin- 
ues at this place. Meetings are full on the 
Sabbath, and the people attentive. 

^' I suppose your scholars have made consid- 
erable progress in study since the last general 
meeting. How do they feel about the death 
of Gerrit? May the sudden removal of one 
of their companions be blessed to them all, and 
may they feel the importance of being in a 
state of preparation. Thank Mrs. Cook for 



LAST MONTHS AT HOME. 133 

her sons:. Much lovo to all our friends. Re- 
member me affectionately to Mrs. Castle.* 
" From your friend, 

"LUCY G. THURSTON." 

" April 2. — This day is set apart to prepare 
for the Sabbath. Lord, wilt thou help me 
to examine myself this day, to see whether I 
am in the faith. May I consecrate myself 
anew to thee this day. Give me grace to per- 
form all my duties aright. May 1 daily think 
more of Him whose blood was shed on the 
cross. 

" April 25, 1840. — This is the seventeenth 
anniversary of my birthday. Lord, how can I 
express to thee the gratitude I owe thee for all 
the blessings I have received from my youth 
up. Help me to devote myself more unreserv- 
edly to the service of God, and may this year 
be spent in doing good. ' Be thou my portion 
and my all. 

" Honolulu, May 26. — To-day father received 
a letter from Mr. Baldwin, giving the particu- 

* Mrs. Castle died of consumption, at Honolulu, 
March 5, 1841, ten days after Lucy's death. Mrs. C. 
was a woman of uncommon loveliness and devoted 
piety, and a very active missionary. 



134 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

lars of the late distressing shipwreck of the 
Keola. Mauee, one of the principal persons 
lost, was one of the elders of father's church. 
The account of the efforts of his wife to rescue 
him, was very affecting. 

'' May 30. — Last year the mission gave father 
liberty to accompany his family to the United 
States. But as mother's health has been im- 
proved, and as two Catholic priests have lately 
established themselves at Kailua, he now pro- 
poses remaining with the people, and sending 
mother to America with the children." 

Lucy had now completed her seventeenth 
year, and it must be obvious to the reader, that 
her mind had improved, and her character ma- 
tured, as her years increased. There was no 
precocity of intellect, no brilliancy of genius, 
no loftiness of imagination ; but good natural 
powers of mind, a desire for knowledge, and a 
delight in study had produced their natural 
results in her. And the patient industry of 
years, spent in retirement and seclusion with 
her mother and her books, had enabled her to 
make such acquisitions as would be creditable 
to any girl of her age in this country, who had 



LAST MONTnS AT HOME. 135 

enjoyed the advantages of schools and cultivat- 
ed society from her earliest years. 

The natural kindness of her disposition, and 
the benevolence of her Christian principle had 
been called into delightful exercise, by her ef- 
forts to benefit the poor heathen of Kailua ; while 
her warm affections had expanded to embrace 
the band of missionary brethren and sisters 
who were now scattered over the islands, and 
with many of whom she enjoyed the pleasure 
of correspondence. And though still " a child 
at home," and exceedingly distrustful of her 
own abilities and opinions, she discovered a 
soundness of judgment, a steadiness of purpose, 
and a disposition to act from reflection rather 
than impulse, which were observed with pecu- 
liar satisfaction by her watchful parents, and 
seemed to promise much for her future useful- 
ness. The time had now arrived when she 
was to leave her father's house, and her Ha- 
waiian scholars, and when she was looking for- 
ward to new scenes and new society in a Chris- 
tian land. It was a new era in the life of 
Lucy, and called into existence a new class of 
emotions. The strong ties that bound her to 
a happy home were for the first time to be 



.136 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

severed. She was not going to a distant spot 
in her own native isles, whence she might eas- 
ily return, and often participate in the pleas- 
ures that flow unmingled beneath the paternal 
roof, but to a distant country — " a stranger, to 
a strange land." And she had lived too long 
in the sanctuary of her childhood's joys, and 
in the fond embrace of beloved parents, to de- 
part from this scene of every tender association 
without a struggle. She did indeed indulge in 
pleasing anticipations of what she should see 
and learn in the far-famed land of her fathers, 
but she shrunk with peculiar timidity from the 
idea of contact with a new and strange world. 
Yet Lucy Thurston was not altogether un- 
prepared for new scenes. Her mind had been 
disciplined and cultivated, her reading had 
been well selected, and by no means incon- 
siderable for one of her years, and her powers 
of discrimination were evidently such as to 
prepare her to make choice of new friends in 
a community of strangers ; while the wisdom 
that Cometh from above, and upon which she 
seemed constantly to depend, was abundant to 
guide her inexperienced footsteps into paths of 
safety and of peace. 



LAST MONTHS AT HOME. 137 

How Lucy would have appeared in society 
of her own age in America — or rather how 
she was capable of appearing, for her extreme 
diffidence might have done her injustice — and 
what honor she would have reflected upon her 
parents and the mission, may be inferred from 
the character of her subsequent writings. Wo 
believe that it is not too much to assert, that 
there are few young ladies of her age in this 
country, who would express themselves with 
more grammatical accuracy, more elegance of 
diction, and discover more refinement of taste 
and sentiment, than did this " Daughter of the 
Isles," at the age of seventeen. 

As repeated inquiries have been made on the 
subject since the publication of a few of these 
extracts in the New York Observer, it may not 
be superfluous here to remark, that not a word 
has been intentionally altered, nor a point cor- 
rected, in preparing them for the press. The 
writer has an indistinct remembrance of one 
misspelled word occurring in the journal on 
the voyage, but* cannot now refer to it, as the 
original has gone from her hands. 

The following letters were written in view 
of her departure from the islands. The first 



1J38 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

without the expectation of leaving her father 
there. The circumstances alluded to in her 
journal led Mr. Thurston to decide upon re- 
maining behind. This was an unexpected trial 
to Lucy, and the most severe which in her 
short and happy life she ever experienced. 
Thoughts of him in "his lonely home" were 
often present to a heart so replete with filial 
affection ; they called forth many a tear of 
anguish on her voyage, and cast the only shade 
of sadness over her dying hours. 

LETTER TO MR. AND MRS. COAN. 

"Kailua, Jan. 9, 1840. 
'' Yery dear Friends — I received a letter 
from you some time ago. It has not been from 
forgetfulness, or want of affection, that it has 
not before been answered. Pressure of em- 
ployment has prevented. I cannot tell you 
how much gratified I was to receive once more 
some of your excellent counsel. I rejoice too 
that I can once more address you, before leav- 
ing our beloved home. We expected to have 
gone long before this, but Providence has not 
yet opened the way for our departure. The 
last we heard from Honolulu, the Ceylon had 
not arrived. The thought of leaving this place, 



LAST MONTHS AT HOME. 139 

where we have lived so long and spent so many 
pleasant and happy hours, of parting from be- 
loved associates and dear scholars, and all our 
mission friends — of ere long separating from 
parents, brothers, and sisters, and of seeking a 
home among strangers in a strange land, is 
exceedingly trying to our feelings. But the 
Lord will support us under all our trials if we 
do but put our trust in him, choose him for 
our portion and his service for our delight. 
When we reach the United States, if we ever 
do, my thoughts will often turn to the islands 
and friends we leave behind. In your letter 
you warn me against associating with bad 
counsellors, and people of the world, and point 
me to the Bible, as my guide and standard. I 
desire to take the word of God as my rule of 
action, for where else can I look for unerring 
guidance. Oh, how watchful shall I need to 
be when surrounded with temptation. I trust 
that you will pray for me, that I may be en- 
abled to adorn the doctrine of God my Saviour 
in all things. I thank you many times for 
your counsel and advice to me in your letters. 
I value them highly and shall often read them. 
"We enjoyed highly our jaunt around the 



140 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

island. Preferred going on land by foot, to 
riding in a canoe by water. We shall not 
soon forget our pleasant visit at Hilo, nor the 
kindness with which we were treated by your- 
selves and your associates. 

" The people are waking up, and many ap- 
pear to be serious. The church for several 
Sabbaths has been crowded, and last Sunday 
a number could not gain admittance. They 
seem to listen with attention to the word of 
life. Many of the children are inquiring what 
they shall do to be saved. We trust that some 
have found peace in believing. 

" You have doubtless heard of the death of 
Gerrit Judd. How little we thousrht at the 
last general meeting that he would be removed 
so soon, healthy and blooming as he was. ' Our 
life is even as a vapor, which appeareth for a 
little time, and then vanisheth away.' May 
this death be sanctified to the children of the 
mission, and to us all. It is not probable that 
we meet again this side eternity. May it be 
our constant aim to prepare for death, to have 
our lamps trimmed and burning, and be pre- 
pared to go and dwell in our Father's house 
in heaven. Will you please to accept the pro- 



LAST MONTHS AT HOME. 141 

files accompanying this as a memento of affec- 
tion, and remember us when far distant. Often 
shall I think of your kindnesses and conde- 
scension to us. The Lord bless you both, and 
your little ones. A very affectionate remem- 
brance to your beloved associates, and all the 
dear children. Farev\^ell. 

" Your very affectionate friend, 

"LUCY G. THURSTON.'^ 

LETTER TO MRS. ANDREWS. 

"Honolulu, July 27, 1840. 

" My dear Mrs. Andrews — As a vessel leaves 
to-morrow for Hawaii, I cannot forbear writing 
you a few lines. I received a letter from you 
when mother returned. Thank you much for it. 

" My dear Mrs. Andrews, I trust you will 
remember us when we shall have gone out 
from you. Pray that I may be enabled to 
resist every temptation, and adorn the doctrine 
of God my Saviour wherever I may be. Re- 
member us all, as we are so soon to be sepa- 
rated, probably never to meet again a whole 
family on earth. May we be prepared to meet 
in heaven. You and yours I often think of 
with tender interest. I trust all the labor and 
pains you have bestowed upon me have not 



142 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

been in vain. The very kindnesses we have 
all experienced from your hands bind you still 
closer to our hearts. Often will our thou2:hts 
turn back to those pleasant seasons we spent 
together, when we gathered instruction from 
your lips. Tears often rush into my eyes as I 
think of you, and all the sacrifices you have 
made for us. We have no doubt you will do 
all that lies in your power to comfort and 
cheer our father in his lonely home. "We shall 
desire exceedingly to know how affairs prosper 
at Kailua. May the candle of the Lord ever 
shine about your dwelling, and may the richest 

of heaven's blessings rest upon you 

*' Your affectionate friend, 

"LUCY G. THURSTON." 

LETTER TO MKS. FORBES. 

"Honolulu, July 29, 1840. 
" My dear Mrs. Forbes — Thinking it would 
be gratifying to you to hear from us before we 
leave the islands, I write you a few lines. 
Time passes rapidly on, and brings near the 
day of our departure from the land of our 
childhood. Our family, which has so long 
lived together, is soon to be separated. Prob- 
ably we shall not all meet again on earth ; but 



LAST MONTHS AT HOME. 143 

it will be but a short time before we shall 
meet in a better, brighter world, if prepared. 
Our passage is engaged in the Flora, Captain 
Spring, bound to New York. The captain is 
a pious man, and we are much pleased with 
him. Our accommodations are excellent. We 
shall probably touch at the Society Islands. I 
hope you will write us whenever you can. We 
shall desire very much to hear from the Sand- 
wich Islands. We shall always think of you 
with interest, and shall long remember the 
many pleasant visits we have made at your 
house, and the many kindnesses we have re- 
ceived at your hands. The Lord reward you 
for them all. Yv^e shall often think of the 
many friends we leave behind, when far away. 
Pray for us. I hope you will often visit Kailua, 
and comfort our father in his lonely home at 
Laniakea. May the Lord be with you in all 
your labors, and may you have the pleasure of 
seeing the work of the Lord prosper in your 
hands. A kiss to each of the children, not for- 
getting the little stranger. With kind regards 
to yourself, husband, and associates, 
" I remain your friend, 

"LUCY G. THURSTON." 



144 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

CHAPTER XV. 

VIEWS OF MR. AND MRS. THURSTON IN BRINGING THEIR CHILDREN 
TO AMERICA— JOURNAL— PARTING INTERVIEWS-LETTER TO LUCY 
FROM HER FATHER. 

That Mr. and Mrs. Thurston had had much 
success in the experiment of training up their 
children upon heathen ground, must be obvi- 
ous to every one who reads the history of their 
daughter Lucy. Why then, it may be asked, 
did they wish to bring their children to this 
country ? Why remove them from the spot 
where they had already entered upon useful 
service in the cause of Christ, and the salva- 
tion of the heathen ? 

It was because they considered the advanta- 
ges of parental instruction, and infrequent in- 
tercourse and correspondence with missionary 
friends, as insufficient to complete their educa- 
tion, and to promote that improvement which 
was important for their future usefulness. 

These children had enjoyed much instruc- 
tion ; their knowledge of books was consider- 
able, and the culture of their minds had been 
carried on under comparatively favorable cir- 
cumstances. But they were entirely cut off 



DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA. I45 

from many of those influences which tend to 
enlarge the mind and elevate the character. 
They had been reared in seclusion, and now 
that it was safe for them to emerge from it, it 
was to mingle with a people in the infancy of 
their civilization, and destitute of all the char- 
acteristics or facilities for activity and enter- 
prise. And these were the people who looked 
to them for example, and whom they were to 
teach the manners and customs, as well as the 
religion of an enlightened and Christian nation. 

Under these circumstances, these parents con- 
sidered it necessarv that their children should 
come to this country. They wished them to 
feel the influence of our institutions, to enjoy 
the advantages of enlightened society, to min- 
gle with an active, enterprising people, and to 
experience the benefit of those various and 
nameless impressions upon character, which 
are only received from contact with the civil- 
ized world. 

They believed, too, that the knowledge of 
human nature which their children had gained 
in the bosom of their own family and the fam- 
ilies of the missionaries, was not sufficient to 
enable them to contend with the prejudices of 

Miss. Daughter. 1 U 



146 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

heathenism ; that they could not successfully 
advocate Christian institutions without wit- 
nessing their general effects, and that in order 
to take a stand among the missionaries, they 
must enjoy higher advantages, and more ex- 
tensive observation of men and manners, than 
could be obtained in the Sandwich Islands. 

It was not therefore their design, in retain- 
ing their children with them so much longer 
than was the usual practice of the missiona- 
ries, to limit them to the advantages of paren- 
tal instruction, and to the locality of a heathen 
village. They desired to keep them under 
their care until their characters were so far 
formed that they might be prepared to resist 
the temptations to which they would be ex- 
posed upon leaving the paternal roof, and to 
conduct their education till they arrived at an 
age to appreciate the advantages of literary 
institutions in a Christian country ; and then, 
with the approbation of the Board, to come 
with their children to America : to choose lo- 
cations for them in some approved institutions, 
where they might complete their studies and 
become prepared to labor in whatever field the 
providence of God might appoint to them ; 



DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA. 147 

while it was their cherished desire that these 
children might thus be fitted to return to their 
native islands, and exert a more efficient influ- 
ence upon the Hawaiian people.^ 

They accordingly obtained permission to 
come to this country in 1839, when their eld- 
est daughter was eighteen, Lucy sixteen, and 
their eldest son twelve years of age. No op- 
portunity offering, their departure was delayed 
till the following year. In the meantime 
Mrs. Thurston's health, which had been feeble, 
having been restored, and the arrival of two 
Roman priests causing Mr. Thurston to ques- 
tion the expediency of leaving his station, Mrs. 
Thurston consented to come upon the impor- 
tant errand alone. 

The family went up to Honolulu, in the 
latter part of April, to attend the general 

* The writer wishes to he understood as simply stat- 
ing the views of these parents^ as expressed to her hy 
one of them. A difference of opinion exists, not only 
among missionaries as to the time of sending their chil- 
dren to Christian countries, hnt also among the friends 
of missions as to the expediency of sending them at all, 
if they can be educated at the stations. A comparison 
of views and a presentation of facts are to throw light 
on these subjects. 



148 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

meeting, and as a vessel was to sail for Amer- 
ica, they remained until the time of their em- 
barkation.^^' On the 4th of August, 1840, they 
bade adieu to their missionary friends, the 
mother and children parted from their hus- 
band and father, and Lucy looked for the last 
time upon the receding shores of her native isles. 



JOURNAL. 



'' Honolulu, July 27, 1840. — It is decided 
that we sail in the bark Flora, Captain Spring, 
bound for New York. The time set for sailing 

* Mrs. Thtirston returned in the meantime to Kailua, 
to obtain the furniture, baggage, etc., for the voyage. 
A young traveller who went to Hawaii to visit the vol- 
cano, and returned to Honolulu in the same vessel with 
Mrs. Thurston, thus describes her departure from Kailua. 

" Mrs. Thurston and her son were stil] our ' com- 
pagnons du voyage.' Her departure from a people to 
whom she had been ardently devoted for so many years 
was a very affecting scene. Upon her iirst arrival at 
Kailua, the poor natives followed her in crowds wher- 
ever she went, displaying the strongest aifcction for her, 
and the most sincere grief at her removal from them. 
They eagerly assisted in conveying her effects down to 
the shore, and when she was lifted into the boat to go 
on board the brig, many of them waded in the water to 
testify their affection, and a wail of sorrow followed Ihe 
boat until she was alongside the brig." 

Olmsted's liiciilents of a Whaling Voyage. 



DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA. 149 

is at 12 o'clock on Monday next. Twenty 
passengers are engaged. Mr. Bingham and 
family, with Caroline A., Mr. R., wife and 
child, Captain Shaw and two children, Mr. G. 
and our family with the exception of father. 
We shall have a good opportunity of studying 
human nature, there being so many individuals, 
each with different views and habits of feeling 
and actins:, brou<?ht into such close contact 
with one another. I hope that peace and har- 
mony will prevail. We have seen Captain 
Spring several times. He appears to be a 
gentleman of piety, education, and politeness. 
The vessel is to touch at the Society Islands. 
We have a great desire to visit these islands, 
and see the missionaries and their children. 

" Sunday, Aug. 2. — This is the last Sabbath 
that we spend on these shores. Before another 
we shall be wafted far from the loved land of 
our childhood. We have this evening had 
family prayers together for the last time. Can 
it be, that this happy family, which have for 
tv/enty years dwelt under one roof, is to be 
separated? I cannot realize that we shall 
part before another sun shall set. The thought 
is exceedingly painful. Our happiest days are 



150 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

gone. Our circumstances will be peculiarly 
trying, situated as we shall be during a voy- 
age of six months without a father on whom 
to depend. 

" Tuesday, Aug. 6. — Last Monday we saw 
the sun arise for the last time upon the Sand- 
wich Islands. Our family were invited to Dr. 
Judd's to breakfast. After prayers we went 
down to the vessel. We returned again at ten 
o'clock as the bell was ringing for meeting. 
Our friends were already assembled at Mr. 
Castle's. The emblems of the broken body 
and shed blood of the Saviour were placed 
upon a table in the middle of the room. We 
sat down for the last time around the table of 
the Lord with our dear father and other friends 
with whom we had often enjoyed such seasons. 
Father led the meeting and preserved his usual 
composure, though once or twice he was so 
affected as not to be able to proceed. He re- 
ferred to the two families which were about to 
be broken up. Children were to be separated 
from parents, a wife from a husband, a minis- 
ter from his people. It was a tender and most 
solemn scene 

^' We then went to Dr. Judd's and partook 



DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA. 151 

of some refreshments. It was then time to 
depart. Having taken leave of all our friends 
who did not accompany us, we hastened down 
to the wharf, called upon the chiefs on our 
way. We ascended the side of the vessel, and 
entered the floating bark, which was to be our 
home for six months 

" Father came down into our room, and with 
tears in his eyes, and with a faltering voice 
exclaimed, ' The hour is come.' Oh, what a 

moment was that ! We could not repress 

our sorrow, but gave vent to our feelings in a 
flood of tears. After a few moments we went 
on deck, and how many thoughts rushed to our 
aching hearts, as we saw the loved land of our 
childhood fading from our sight, and beheld in 
the little boat, the image of our father, who 
would soon return to his distant station and 
his lonely home. 

"August 8. — This morning mother took a 
package from her desk, opened it, and present- 
ed each of us with a letter. We saw that they 
Vv^ere written in the well-known hand of our 
dear father. On perusing the contents of mine 
a tender chord was touched in my heart, and 
my tears flowed afresh. This letter will be 



152 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

doubly valuable from the afFeoting circum- 
stances under which it was written. Ever 
will it be my joy and aim to regard the parting 
advice and instruction of an absent parent, and 
conform my actions to his wishes." 

This last letter to Lucy from her beloved 
father, contains valuable counsel for every 
young person, and though designed for one 
who has now entered eternity, we know the 
writer will approve its being presented to the 
readers of these pages. 

"Honolulu, July 14, 1840. 

" My dear daughter Lucy — The time has 
come that we must separate. Nay, we have 
separated for a season — perhaps for life — per- 
haps for ever. We may no more meet on 
earth. We shall both be in the great assembly 
at the judgment-day, either at the right or left 
hand of the Judge. We may not both be 
among the blessed, who shall enter heaven 
with songs and everlasting joy. Would we 
enter heaven, we must be prepared for that 
place while here on earth. See to it that you 
are prepared. Be careful lest you be led away 
by the glare and fascinations of this world. 



DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA. I53 

Ten thousand temptations will assail you, and 
if you are not on your guard you may yield to 
some of them. Beware of the three great en- 
emies of your soul, the world, the flesh, and 
the devil. Keep your heart with all diligence, 
for out of it are the issues of life. Read your 
Bible daily with prayer and meditation. Live 
near to God, walk with God, and let it be seen 
by all around you, that you are indeed a disci- 
ple of Jesus ; that you bear his image, and 
that you are determined to follow him, what- 
ever may be the consequences, whatever others 
may say of you. Regard not the maxims, 
customs, or opinions of the world, if in their 
tendency they lead you away from Christ, and 
from heaven. Let the love of Christ dwell in 
you richly, in all wisdom and spiritual under- 
standing. 

"'Know thyself is an injunction of great 
importance to the well-being of the soul. This 
you cannot know without frequent and careful 
self-examination. Examine yourself daily, and 
once a week let the work be done with more 
care and scrutiny than usual. There are sea- 
sons when this duty is rendered peculiarly ap- 
propriate — the close of the day — the close of 



154 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

the week — the close of the year. Previous to 
a season of communion, as it is enjoined by 
the apostle, ' Let a man examine himself, and 
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that 
cup.' There are many other seasons when the 
duty of self-examination is peculiarly appro- 
priate. Never let these seasons pass away 
without finding you engaged in your appropri- 
ate duties. Be not ashamed of Christ and his 
cross — take up your cross daily and follow him, 
and let it appear to all with whom you asso- 
ciate, that you are a disciple of the meek and 
lowly Jesus. Forget not to labor and pray for 
the heathen, and prepare yourself by mental 
cultivation, as well as Christian discipline, to 
labor among them if the providence of God 
shall favor it. Write a letter at least once a 
year to some of your scholars on Hawaii ; and 
forget not to pray for the children and youth 
of the Sandwich Islands. Pray for the church 
and people of Kailua, and pray for your father, 
who is still laboring for their salvation. God 
Almighty bless you, my daughter Lucy. Fare- 
well. We may meet no more on earth. Shall 
we meet in heaven ? 

''YOUR FATHER." 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 155 

CHAPTER XVI. 

JOURNAL OF HER VOYAGE. 

Lucy's embarkation introduced her at once 
into new circumstances. She felt the change 
deeply, and suffered extremely from that timid- 
ity and diffidence which were so peculiar to her 
nature ; but conducted herself with so much 
propriety, and was so kind and courteous in 
her deportment, as to gain the affection of her 
fellow-passengers, and the respect and esteem 
of all on board. Several who made this voy- 
age with her, have testified to the kind and 
affectionate spirit, and the lovely humility, 
which were manifest in all her intercourse 
with those around her ; to the " admirable 
consistency" of her Christian character, and the 
diligence with which she devoted herself to the 
improvement of her mind and manners. 

Her journal indicates that the voyage was 
not to her a season of idleness, or of desultory 
and unprofitable pursuits. She entered at once 
upon systematic employment, commenced new 
studies, and devoted some time to drawing. 
She availed herself with delight and gratitude 



156 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

of every means for acquiring knowledge both 
by observation and instruction, and felt at the 
close of the voyage, that it had been to her a 
valuable preparation for entering American so- 
ciety — little thinking that the voyage of her 
life was nearly ended, and that God was pre- 
paring her to enter the haven of eternal rest ! 

"Aug. 10. — We have been trying to make 
some arrangements for study and work. Capt. 
Shaw has kindly offered to teach us in naviga- 
tion, and has allowed us the use of his sextant. 
We have been learning to read the sextant to- 
day." 

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO MRS. ANDREWS, 

"Barque Flora, Aug. 22, 1840. ) 
N. Lat. 5° 5". S 

" My dear Mrs. A. — As we expect to reach 
Tahiti, in a week I commence writing to you 
to leave at those islands 

" After we had recovered from sea-sickness, 
P., A., and myself commenced the study of 
navigation. We take the latitude and longi- 
tude every day. It is very interesting to us. 
We also keep a log-book 

" Not a day passes but my thoughts turn 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 157 

back to my. beloved home and friends at Kailua. 
I trust you are all enjoying good health, and 
doing all you can for the poor natives. "We 
long to hear from you all, and to learn the state 
of affairs at Kailua. How much would I give 
to see you again. May the best of heaven's 
blessings rest upon you. Before the mercy- 
seat we remember our dear absent friends. 
Love, much love to you all, and to my scholars. 
" Your affectionate friend, 

"LUCY." 

" Sept. 6, Sunday. — Tahiti and Eimeo, are 
very plainly to be seen. Capt. S. read a ser- 
mon to us to-day on the observance of the Sab- 
bath. It is painful to witness the manner in 
which the Sabbath is observed by many on 
board, and how much worldly conversation is 
carried on, unsuitable to the sacredness of the 
day. I often sigh for the quiet Sabbaths I 
used to spend at my beloved home. 

'' Sept. 10. — Anchored this morning in Pa- 
peete harbor, (Society Islands.) The prospect 
was delightful. The deep ravines and high 
hills covered with the richest verdure, the wav- 
ing leaves of the banana, the thick groves of 
tall and stately cocoanut, the orange-trees whose 



158 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

dark green leaves contrasted strongly with the 
brilliant yellow of the fruit, the luxuriant 
breadfruit, and innumerable guava bushes, 
rendered the scene extremely beautiful and 
picturesque. Mr. Pritchard came on board and 
invited the missionaries to his house. Our 
family and Mr. Bingham's soon went on shore 
and received a cordial reception from our friends. 
We took dinner, which consisted of fresh pork, 
and breadfruit, and orange pie for dessert. Miss 
BarfF presided at the table, as Mrs. P. was con- 
fined with her children, who have the whoop- 
ing-cough. It is the first instance known of this 
disease in these islands.* 

''About 8 o'clock in the evening we re- 
turned to the vessel to spend the night. The 
harbor was smooth and still, and we remained 
on deck for an hour gazing on the beautiful 
scene which was spread out before us. The 
fair moon shed her silver rays on the smooth and 
polished surface of the water, bespangled with 
the stars reflected from it. By the moonlight 
we could distinsfuish the rich folias^e of the 
trees on shore, and see the huts of the natives, 

* Neither tlic smallpox, measles, or whooping-cough, 
have ever been known in the Sandwieh Islands. 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 159 

and the white-washed houses of the foreign 
residents which lined the beach. By the de- 
lightful prospect before us, our thoughts were 
carried from ^ nature up to nature's God.' We 
enjoyed a pleasant conversation with those on 
board and then retired below. 

"Sept. 11. — We called on the queen this af- 
ternoon. She is about thirty years of age, and 
very amiable and interesting in her appearance. 
She is not so fleshy as the chiefs at the Sand- 
wich Islands. We saw her little son, a pretty 
boy about three years old. The queen asked 
a variety of questions respecting us, which Mr. 
BarfF answered, as we were not able to con- 
verse in the language. Mr. Bingham present- 
ed her with a copy of the Hawaiian Bible. 

" We have concluded to observe to-morrow 

as the Sabbath with the Tahitians, as they are 

one day in advance of us.* 

* As an explanation of the fact here alluded to, some 
readers may need to be informed, that in consequence 
of the missionaries at these two different groups of 
islands having passed to their respective stations in op- 
posite directions, the one company by the Cape of Good 
Hope, and the other by Cape Horn, they necessarily 
differ one day in their computation of time. Hence the 
Sabbath at the Society Islands occurs one day earlier 
than at the Sandwich Islands, 



IGO THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

" Saturday, Sept. 13. — This is the Tahitian 
Sabbath. We attended the native chapel this 
morning. The service was conducted in the 
same manner as at the Sandwich Islands, ex- 
cept that a native deacon sat in the reading- 
desk before the pulpit and read the hymns. 
The queen, in going to church, was followed 
by one hundred and fifty soldiers, who marched 
two by two after her majesty. They made 
quite a display, dressed in uniform with caps 
and feathers. Six flags were borne in front. 
The queen appeared in a becoming and digni- 
fied manner. She was attired in a pink figured 
satin dress, with slippers of a corresponding 
color. A worked muslin cape around her neck, 
and a neatly braided bonnet trimmed with 
pink satin ribbon, and three waving ostrich 
plumes, completed her dress. Her husband, 
whom we had not before seen, sat beside her. 
He was about twenty-one years of age, and 
was very good looking. The females were 
mostly seated in the gallery. Like the Sand- 
wich Islanders they are fond of bright and 
gaudy colors. They make a very showy ap- 
pearance with their gay dresses and straw bon- 
nets. Their hair they arrange in a very modest 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 161 

and becoming manner. It is neatly combed 
and parted in front, and being knotted at 
the two ends hangs gracefully around their 
necks. Mr. Bingham preached at the English 
chapel this forenoon, and Mr. Heath in the 
evening. 

'' Sept. 16. — The natives are much better 
looking here than at the Sandv^ich Islands. 
The men have a singular fashion of shaving 
the hair which makes them look like savages. 
They shave it all off close to the head except 
two bushy locks on each side. The females 
are lighter colored and much handsomer than 
at the Sandwich Islands. 

" We took a very pleasant walk on the 
Broom-road this afternoon, with Mrs. E., Mrs. 
N., Mrs. D., Miss B., and Miss P.^ It is really 
delightful walking under the cool shade of the 
breadfruit and tall guava bushes, which grow 
in luxuriance on each side of the road, and 
whose overhanging branches defend us from 
the scorching rays of the sun. 

" The breadfruit here is excellent, and far 
superior to that of the Sandwich Islands. The 
fuvis, a kind of banana, they also use on their 
* Ladies of the Society Island mission. 

Miss. Daughter. 1 1 



1G2 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

tables, when the breadfruit is out of season. 
"We became very fond of it. 

*' Persis and myself were invited to Mr. 
Pritchard's, to assist in making a royal suit of 
clothes for the young king. The pattern was 
bright red silk and just pleases the fancy of 
the natives. 

" Sept. 25. — We weighed anchor about ten 
o'clock, and left the shores of Tahiti, after 
having been here fifteen days, and were soon 
out to sea. "We have been very much pleased 
with our visit here, and have been very kindly 
entertained. The children of the missionaries 
that we have seen, appear very well. 

'' October 11. — At dinner the conversation 
turned on the distress and poverty of the lower 
classes in various parts of the world. Captain 
Spring remarked that persons educated in the 
United States, had no idea of the extreme 
poverty that was often witnessed among the 
lower classes in Europe. When the subject 
of the condition of the children in the large 
manufactories in England, was brought before 
Parliament, the account of their treatment 
was so affecting, that no one could listen to 
it without tears. The fact that American 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 1C3 

women are treated with more respect than 
females in any other part of the world was 
alluded to. Even in England the females per- 
form services very unsuitable to their sex. 
Captain Spring remarked that while in Liver- 
pool a woman acted in the capacity of ballast- 
master. She came on board, and offered to 
furnish him with the article. He has seen the 
ballast removed from the wharf to vessels en- 
tirely by women. Females thus employed are 
extremely vulgar and profane, even exceeding 
men. Dutch women are often employed on 
dock-yards, but sustain a good moral charac- 
ter. How should our hearts rise in gratitude 
to our heavenly Father that we are placed in 
a better situation. 

" Nov. 2. — About noon as we were sitting 
quietly in our rooms, we were startled by the 
cry of ' an iceberg in sight !' We all im- 
mediately hastened on deck. The wind was 
whistling through the rigging, the waves were 
high, and rolling with majestic fury, seemed 
to threaten every moment to overwhelm us. 
Looking off into the misty distance we saw the 
iceberg enveloped in fog. It was about three 
miles distant and looked fearfully and wildly, 



1H4 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

towering its lofty head above the troubled 
waves. Probably we were near others last 
night, as intense cold was suddenly felt by 
those who had the watch on deck. It was a 
cold, dreary, and cheerless day. 

" Nov. 3. — Last night we passed the long 
dreaded cape in safety, and having left behind 
the mighty waters of the Pacific, are sailing 
pleasantly along on the Atlantic ocean, which 
we Sandwich Islanders never before beheld. 
"We may now consider our voyage as half fin- 
ished. We have thus far been favored by pro- 
pitious winds, since we left Tahiti. The full 
and blooming countenances of most of us, indi- 
cate that we are enjoying perfect health. May 
we all by our daily walk and conversation, 
show the sincerity of our gratitude for the 
blessings we enjoy. 

"Nov. 7. — During the long afternoons and 
evenings which we now have. Captain Spring 
has spent much time with us, sometimes talking 
and sometimes reading. He has read Pollock's 
Course of Time to us, while avc employed our- 
selves in sewing. A few evenings since, we 
commenced Young's Night Thoughts, and read 
by turns, criticizing each other as we proceed. 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 165 

We find it not only a pleasant but an improv- 
ing exercise. In this social manner we spend 
many happy and profitable hours, v^hich will 
ever give a deep interest to our recollections 
of the cold and desolate region of Cape Horn. 

" Nov. 10. — The wind is higher than it has 
been since we left Honolulu. The dead-lights 
are in, and the skylight in the steerage is cov- 
ered with canvas. Every one has kept in 
their rooms, and on account of the stillness it 
has seemed like the Sabbath. So strong was 
the impression on my mind that I laid down 
my work several times, and when Mr. 0. caught 
a cape pigeon, I was on the point of asking 
him why he took it on the Sabbath. We have 
been on deck several times to view the scene. 
There is something awfully sublime to see 
the waves rolling in majestic grandeur as far 
as the eye can reach. 

" Friday, Nov. 20. — A Cape Horn porpoise 
was caught this morning. It was larger than 
the one taken on our voyage from Honolulu to 
Tahiti, and much more handsome. It was 
covered with alternate stripes of black and 
white. A large number of albatrosses and 
monimokes have been following the vessel. 



166 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Three albatrosses and one monimoke have been 
taken. The albatrosses are very large birds. 
As soon as they were taken on deck, they were 
prevented from making any snappish saluta- 
tions, by tying a string around their bills, as 
they manifested their violence for biting. The 
wings of the largest one me'asured ten feet from 
tip to tip. They had some beautiful down upon 
their breasts. We plucked out some of the 
feathers, which were of pure white, and more 
beautiful than those of land birds. 

" In conversation with Mr. 0. at different 
times, he has pointed out the following items 
as pertaining to good manners, namely, a fork 
is more generally used for conveying food to 
the mouth than a knife, as it may be inserted 
more delicately. In passing a plate to the 
steward to be removed from the table, always 
pass it with the right hand to the left side, as 
it would be very awlcward to pass it to the 
right side with the same hand. Never take the 
last thing from a plate unless more is coming. 
It is not agreeable to be always saying ^ thank 
you,' for any little favor received, but a gentle 
nod of the head, and the gratitude expressed in 
the countenance, is more acceptable. 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 167 

" In going to a party, always speak to the 
gentleman or lady of the house, before address- 
ing any one else 

" We desire exceedingly to be informed on 
these subjects, and esteem it a great favor for 
any one to instruct us, that on making our 
egress from a heathen land to enlightened 
America, we may not by our awkward appear- 
ance, disgrace the Sandwich Island mission." 
Lucy's example, in noting down such " items" 
of instruction, might with advantage be follow- 
ed by many persons of her own age, and far 
more opportunities, in " enlightened America." 

" Nov. 27. — Mr. 0. has very generously offer- 
ed to instruct Persis and myself in perspective 
drawing. We gladly accepted his proffered 
kindness, and consider ourselves highly privi- 
leged. He gave us some rules in perspective 
drawing, and for making geometrical figures, 
which, as we had never before had an opportu- 
nity of learning, we wrote down in a book. 

" Captain Spring has manifested great kind- 
ness towards our family, and we every day feel 
thankful that Providence has raised up such a 
friend to smooth our pathway across the ocean. 
By his sympathies and kind attentions we feel 



168 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

the loss of our father much less than we should 
have done. He has instructed us in navigation 
since we left Tahiti. Tn conversation he has 
communicated many new ideas with respect 
to the forms of civilized society in America. 
On this last point we prize any instructions, 
that we may not be entirely ignorant when in- 
troduced into the enlightened society of New 
England. 

" We are treated with kindness by all on 
board, to whom we would be thankful ; but in 
a special manner our gratitude is excited to- 
wards those who by their sympathy and in- 
structions manifest an interest for the ' widoAV 
and the fatherless.' Placed as we are in pecu- 
liar circumstances, without a father on whom 
to lean, we appreciate fully any favor bestowed 
upon us, and shall ever cherish among our 
most precious recollections, the kindness we 
have experienced from friends on board the 
Flora. 

" Nov. 28. — I am ashamed of myself many 
times a day for giving way to so much laugh- 
ter, but there are so many witty remarks made, 
that it is almost impossible for one unaccus- 
tomed to hear them, to refrain from it. I have 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. IQQ 

heard more jokes, hyperbolical expressions, and 
comical remarks in one day, since being on 
board, than I did during the seventeen years 
of my residence at the Sandwich Islands. It 
is well for us to hear such things now, as we. 
are going to a land where such expressions are 
used more than at the Sandwich Islands. The 
children cannot bear a joke, but take every 
thing that is said to be truth, and often they 
are so affected that the fluid from the lachry- 
mal glands is seen flowing copiously down 
their cheeks. 

'' Thursday, Dec. 3. — The children of mis- 
sionaries who have returned from the Sand- 
wich Islands, and from the Eastern missions, are 
found fault with for their excessive indolence, 
and that they had rather be waited upon than 
do a thing themselves. 

" All those who return in this vessel will of 
course be criticized. I anticipate but very 
little pleasure on reaching the United States, 
for I am so diffident that I do not enjoy the 
society of strangers. It will be a strange land 
to me. It seems to me as though every one 
will say, ' There is some one from the Sandwich 
Islands ; I wonder if she knows any thing. Let 



170 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

US find out.' I have always been noted for being 
taciturn, and have been talked to and laughed 
at, both at the Sandwich Islands and since I 
have been on board. I have tried to cultivate 
the talent of conversation, but the more I try the 
worse it becomes. Mother says it is my great- 
est fault. I feel as though no one cared for 
me, and was glad when I had got through 
with what little I had to say. No one can have 
any idea of the dreadful feeling of diffidence, 
but those who have known it by sad experience, 
and do not know how to sympathize with those 
who have it. I feel extremely tried about it, 
and often the midnight hour witnesses the 
silent tear which bedews my pillow. 

" Dec. 17. — Mr. G. has allowed me the use of 
his quadrant, since we left Tahiti. Mr. W. has 
lent his to Persis, so that we both take the alti- 
tude every day with Capt. vSpring in fine weather. 

We were counting up to-day the persons 

from various nations on board the Flora. AVe 
made out seven : Americans, Englishman, Irish- 
men, Swedes, Danes, Africans, Sandwich Island- 
ers, and a North American Indian. 

'' Dec. 29.— Mr. 0. reads to Mrs. B. on deck, 
tersis, Asa, and I are privileged by being per- 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 171 

mitted to join them. Mr. 0. is an excellent reader. 
He enters into the spirit of the piece, and reads 
with an emphasis and pathos such as inspires 
the hearers with life and vigor. Pathetic 
pieces especially, he reads with a great deal 
of feeling. I never had such a great desire to 
learn the art as now, since I see the vast differ- 
ence between good and bad readers. He has 
been reading from the British Poets. 

" Jan. 1, 1841.— This is the first day of the 
new year. How different are my circumstan- 
ces this day from what they were a year ago. 
Then I was in the distant isles of the Pacific, 
under a father's roof, where for seventeen years 
I dwelt in peace and happiness. Now I am 
upon a wide ocean, rapidly approaching, a 
stranger to a strange land. The events of the 
past year have been of uncommon interest. 
Our family, which for twenty years have dwelt 
together, is separated. We have bidden adieu 
to the land of our childhood — have given the 
parting hand to a beloved parent and many 
other dear friends. Could we but spend this 
day with our dear father, how happy should 
we be. He is now dwelling in solitude, with 
no wife or children to cheer his lonely hours. 



172 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

His gray hairs even now indicate that he is in 
the decline of life. Perhaps he is sick, perhaps 
sad. But this is my consolation, that the same 
God who preserves us will sustain him. If 
the pleasure of meeting with him again on 
earth is denied, may we all be found an unbro- 
ken family in heaven, where adieus and fare- 
wells are sounds unknown. For five months 
past we have been tossed upon the mighty 
deep — have witnessed the sublimity and gran- 
deur of the ocean — have passed in safety the 
cold and dangerous region of Cape Horn — have 
been mercifully preserved from dangers seen 
and unseen — have enjoyed good health, and 
are now rapidly approaching the land of our 
fathers. Oh that we may as a family lay 
upon the altar our tribute of praise and thanks- 
giving for all the mercies we have experienced 
since we left our home and our father. 

" I feel that I have departed far from Grod 
and my duty since being on board. A voyage 
is not favorablffH:o growth in grace. There is 
no retired place for meditation and prayer. I 
feel that I have dishonored my Saviour, whom 
I profess to follow. I have not set a good 
example to those around me. 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 173 

^' ' What peaceful hours I once enjoyed : 
How sweet their memory still ! 
But now I find an aching void 
The world can never fill. 

" ' Return, holy Dove ; return, 
Sweet messenger of rest ; 
I hate the sins that made thee mourn, 
And drove thee from my breast,' 

" I have resolved to be more watchful over 
my conduct. May I possess the ornament of 
a meek and quiet spirit, and thus show by my 
daily walk and conversation that I am a fol- 
lower of the meek and lowly Jesus. My ear- 
nest desire and prayer to God is, that when 
placed in new and untried circumstances, I 
may act the part of a Christian, and be ena- 
bled to resist every temptation which may be 
set before me. Soon I shall arrive in a strange 
land, shall be separated from mother, sisters, 
and brothers, and shall be exposed to many 
trials and temptations which I never experi- 
enced in my quiet home at Kailua. ' AVhen 
thy father and mother forsake thee, then the 
Lord will take thee up.' ' Commit thy way 
unto the Lord, and he will direct thy path.' 
The new year opens upon us with prospects 
entirely new. The future is all unknown. May 



174 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

all the trials and mercies we experience tend 
to make us more faithful in the cause of our 
Redeemer. This is probably the last new- 
year's day that I spend with my mother, sis- 
ters, and brothers. How trying is the thought 
of separation. 

"About nine o'clock this morning we heard 
the cry of ' land ho.' Joy beamed in every 
countenance. The coast of South America 
could just be discovered in the dim distance. 
We are ninety-two days from Tahiti to-day, 
and this is the first land we have seen since 
we left. About noon we cast anchor in the 
open roadstead, in front of the town of Per- 
nambuco. The sight and smell of the land is 
truly pleasant to us. It is the first continent 
we Sandwich Islanders ever set our eyes 
upon. 

" The town of Pernambuco presents a very 
pretty aspect from the sea. It is more of a 
civilized place than we ever saw before. The 
houses are several stories high. There are one 
hundred sail of ships in the harbor, from almost 
every different nation. Captain Spring went on 
shore, to ascertain whether he might land and 
obtain supplies ; when he returned, he brought 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 175 

with him some of the fruits of the land — a few 
mangoes — a fruit we had never seen before. 
They are about the size of an orange, and the 
color is a deep yellow ; in taste they somewhat 
resemble a pineapple. The oranges are small, 
and far inferior to those of Tahiti. The bana- 
nas were the greatest luxury, and carried my 
thoughts back to the Sandwich Islands. 

" The population of Pernambuco is about 
40,000, two-thirds of which are slaves. 

" General Harrison will probably 

be- elected President of the United States. We 
also heard of the death of Mr. Spaulding. We 
had anticipated the pleasure of meeting him 
in America, but he has winged his way to 
the mansions of the blessed. He was a truly 
pious and devoted missionary. 

*' Jan. 3. — Services were conducted as usual 
to-day. About noon a boat came off, bringing 
the remainder of the supplies. This has really 
been a strange Sabbath-day — taking things on 
board, paying bills, etc. All this would not 
have been done had the captain considered the 
vessel in a safe place. He thought we were 
in more danger than we had been in since we 
left Honolulu. We saw a steamboat go out 



176 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

of the harbor this P. M. It was to us a novel 
sight. It did not move with great velocity, 
though lar<2:e streams of steam and smoke 
issued from the pipe, leaving a long trail be- 
hind. 

" Jan. 9. — Last night we had a heavy squall. 
It was the union of the two trades. We are 
now sailing finely — have made 12° the past 
week. 

" Jan. 12.— The latitude to-day is 11° 10' 
N. To our great joy, last evening we saw the 
north polar star for the first time in the Atlan- 
tic. It seems like seeing an old friend, though 
we know it is far from home. Others hail it 
with joy, as it brings them nearer their home. 
We can see the same stars to-night which our 
father does, and it is a very pleasant thought. 
The sea is remarkably phosphorescent this 
evening. The large flashes look beautiful, 
darting in every direction upon the dark blue 
waves. 

'^ Jan. 18. — Last evening, about eight o'clock, 
we spoke a vessel. She was the brig Amazon, 
bound for Boston. Ships never speak each 
other in the night, unless they are bound the 
same way. 



JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE. 177 

'^ Jan. 29. — The time approaches for us to 
leave the barque Flora, which has been our 
home for six long months. We regret to part 
v^ith those who have been our fellow-passen- 
gers, and from whom we have received many 
proofs of kindness from time to time. We 
have been together so long, that we seem like 
one family. We shall all separate on reaching 
the United States, and probably we shall never 
again behold them in the flesh. May the Lord 
reward them an hundredfold for all their labors 
of love towards us, during the time we have 
been together ; and when the voyage of life is 
ended, may we meet in the mansions of the 
blessed, and join in singing praise to the Lamb 
for ever and ever. Captain Spring has been as 
a father to us, and when we part, we shall love 
to cherish in our recollection, the sympathy, 
attention, and instruction we have received 
from him. 

" Jan. 30. — We are on the edge of the Gulf 
Stream. We have been remarkably favored 
in not meeting with a gale of wind. We 
tried the temperature of the water, by letting 
a thermometer down into it. It was 65^ — 
two degrees warmer than the air. 

Miss. Daughter. 1 2 



178 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

" Feb. 4. — The thermometer is 6° below 
zero. It is very cold. The water on deck is 
all frozen. About two o'clock the anchor was 
taken up, and at seven in the evening we were 
safely moored at the wharf. We were very 
busy all day in making preparations to go 
ashore ; but every few minutes we went on 
deck to look- at the scenery. We sailed near 
the shore, and the ground was covered with 
pure white snow, which looked beautiful. It 
resembled the sand beaches at the Sandwich 
Islands. Capt. Spring went ashore and brought 
us a few apples, the first we ever tasted. 

'' Feb. 5. — The steerage has been crowded 
to-day with friends who have come to see us. 
All welcome the missionaries who have return- 
ed. Mr. Benson^ invited our whole family to 
his house. About four o'clock we left the ship, 
and rode to the south ferry ; we then crossed 
the river to Brooklyn in a steamer — the first 
time I was ever in one. The motion was very 
pleasant. Mr. Benson escorted us to his own 
house, where we were cordially welcomed by 
Mrs. Benson. It seemed as though we were 
among our friends again, and we felt at home." 

* Mr. Benson was agent for the ^' Flora." 



THREE WEEKS IN AMERICA. 179 

■ CHAPTER XVII. 

ARRIVAL IN AMERICA-LETTER TO HER FATHER— HER LAST SICKNESS 
AND DEATH. 

Mrs. Thurston, with her family, arrived in 
New York on the 4th of February, 1841. She 
delayed going immediately on to the home 
of her kindred in the eastern part of Massa- 
chusetts, in order to have the company and 
protection of a friend who was expecting to 
make the same journey. In the meantime 
her family were prostrated by sickness ; and 
Lucy, after just opening her eyes upon the 
scenes of a civilized land, was laid upon a bed 
of suffering, and ere long slept the sleep of 
death. 

A letter to her father, written the day before 
she was taken sick, contains a description of 
her brief sojourn on the borders of the land she 
was not permitted to enter, and the impres- 
sions made upon her mind by the only glimpse 
she ever had of a civilized nation and its insti- 
tutions. 

It is interesting to observe, in this last effort 
of her days of health, those same traits of mind 
and heart which were her peculiar character- 



180 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

istics. Her gratitude for kindness, her appre- 
ciation of the smallest favors, her habits of 
observation^ and her disposition to treasure up 
knowledge, from whatever source derived, are 
plainly exhibited. Much of this letter is of 
course unsuitable to be made public ; but some 
passages of it will be interesting to the reader, 
as a very pleasant specimen of her familiar, 
easy style, in communicating information to 
her father, and as showing her gratification in 
what she was permitted to see in our Ameri- 
can metropolis. 

"Brooklyn, February 16, 1841. 

" My dear Father — A¥e learn that a vessel 
is to sail for the Sandwich Islands in about a 
week, and I take my pen to inform you of our 
safe arrival in the land of our fathers. 

" We were six months and one day from the 
Sandwich Islands to this place. Stopped a 
fortnight at the Society Islands, and three days 
at Pernambuco. We have been remarkably 
favored in our passage, and all enjoyed good 
health. The captain has been as a father to 
us, and by his kind attentions we have felt 
your loss much less than we otherwise should 
have done. Mr. Benson has very kindly invited 



THREE WEEKS IN AMERICA. IQl 

our whole family to remain at his house till 
we leave the place. We feel under great obli- 
gations to him for his kindness 

" "We have been thronged with visitors, who 
call to see us from morning till night. Mother ' 
has a trunk of curiosities, which she shows them, 
and thus excites a good deal of interest in the 
mission. Persis has several times dressed her- 
self in native style, and marched about the room, 
much to the amusement of the company. 

'' We have received more kindness than we 
expected — far more than we deserved." 

She here mentions in detail many presents 
which the family had received, with all the 
simplicity and frankness of an affectionate child 
addressing a parent, who she knew would be 
interested in every matter affecting the com- 
fort and happiness of his children. In speak- 
ing of some bonnets which had been procured 
for them by a kind friend, she says, " They 
are neat, and perfectly plain, and I think just 
such as you would like to see us wear." 

" We have been here nearly two weeks, and 

expect to leave next Monday with Mr. • 

for Boston 

" Dr. Grant of the Persian mission is here, 



182 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

and expects to return in a month. Mr. Smith 
from Beyroot is also here. He has selected 
another companion, and returns soon. Mr. 
and Mrs. Meigs, with several children, are in 
this country. Mr. Meigs will probably return 
to Ceylon, and leave his wife with the children 
here for some years. Dr. Smith, who was 
expected at the islands with Mr. Dibble, has 
called upon us twice. He will probably go 
out with Mr. Bingham. 

''When we arrived the weather was not so 
cold as we expected, but for a few days past 
we have felt it very much. We are obliged to 
be very careful 

" Last Sunday Captain Spring took us to 
his brother's church. The congregation seem- 
ed very attentive, and scarcely took their eyes 
from the minister. We have been happily 
disappointed in the dress of the people of this 
country on the Sabbath. They put on rich 
clothing, but not gaudy, and display good taste 
and plainness. They are not so showy as at 
Honolulu. 

" Yesterday Mr. F. took us over to the city 
and showed us many new and strange things, 
which were very gratifying to us. 



THREE WEEKS IN AMERICA. 183 

" "We first went to the American Museum. 
The building is six stories high, and filled with 
all kinds of curiosities." [Here follows a de- 
scription, which we omit.] 

'' Next we visited the Arsenal, where they 
keep all the artillery for war. It was com- 
pletely filled with guns, swords, etc. There 
were instruments enough to fit out an army 
of ten thousand men in fifteen minutes. 

'' Then we went to the City Prison." [De- 
scription omitted.] 

*'We visited the City Hall — a splendid 
building, where, in the Governor's room, we 
saw the full-length portraits* of all the gov- 
ernors of the state of New York. They were 
elegant paintings. In the evening " 

" Dear Father — This letter was written 
by Lucy the day before she was taken sick. 
Company calling, she was interrupted in the 
middle of a sentence, and never again resumed 
her pen. 

"Your aifectioriate daughter, 

" P. G. THURSTON." 

* This was probably the greatest exhibition of the 
art that Lucy ever saw. 



184 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Mrs. Thurston and her family had been nearly 
two weeks in Brooklyn, when Mr. and Mrs. 
C, as friends of missions, and with a par- 
ticular desire to see these children of mis- 
sionaries, called and introduced themselves to 
them. Finding the family with whom they 
were staying afflicted by sickness, they pro- 
posed to Mrs. Thurston to come with her chil- 
dren to their house in New York, and remain 
till they left for Boston. The situation of the 
family of the kind friends with whom they 
were then staying, alone induced Mrs. Thurston 
to accept the invitation of entire strangers, as 
she was expecting to leave in a few days ; and 
on the morning of the 18th she removed with 
her children to the spot that was at once to 
be the scene of an affliction, which through 
twenty years of missionary toil and trial she 
had been spared. 

Lucy had very much endeared herself to the 
family of Mr. Benson during her stay with 
them, and they became deeply sensible of the 
excellencies of her character, the refinement 
of her sensibilities, and the cultivation of her 
mind. Their opinion of her was not reserved 
until their sympathy in the grief occasioned 



THREE WEEKS IN AMERICA. 185 

by her death would naturally heighten the 
admiration of her mental and moral worth, but 
was frequently expressed while she was under 
their roof. Her extreme humility, the disin- 
terested kindness which was manifest in her 
every action, and her desire to conform in every 
particular to the usages of polite society, and 
to gain information concerning the new objects 
which were now presented to her, were all 
remarked with interest, and spoken of, while 
she was yet with them. Upon leaving this 
family, Lucy burst into tears, saying to Mrs. 
Benson, "Oh, you have been so kind to us." 
Her mother remarked, that the only tears Lucy 
shed in America, were these tears of grateful 
affection. 

Mrs. Thurston's family enjoyed excellent 
health during their voyage, with the exception 
of the whooping-cough, which some of the 
children took at the Society Islands. But the 
inclemency of the weather during the week 
following their arrival in this country, which 
was severely felt by residents, was very trying 
in its effects upon them ;^ and the change they 

* The young reader may need to be reminded, that 
these children were natives of the torrid zone, and that 



186 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

experienced, resulted in extreme sickness with 
every one of the children. 

Lucy was in most vigorous health ; but she 
was seized with inflammation on the lungs 
just two weeks after their arrival, and on the 
morning of her coming to the family with 
whom she passed the last week of her life — 
the only week of physical pain and distress she 
ever experienced. 

The attack was violent from the commence- 
ment, and her disease of such a nature as al- 
most entirely to forbid conversation. She, 
however, in the midst of great suffering, ex- 
hibited the same uniformity of feeling, the 
same quiet, lovely spirit, which had ever been 
conspicuous in her life. Her patient endurance 
of suffering, her kind, affectionate language to 
every one, and her grateful acknowledgment 
of the least attention, were most affecting. It 
was very trying to one of her extreme sensi- 
bilities, to be ministered to by entire strangers, 
and to see no familiar faces, except those of 
mother, brothers, and sisters, around her dy- 



the change from the climate of the Sandwich Islands, to 
the severest cold of o 
have been very great. 



the severest cold of one of our northern winters, must 



I 



THREE WEEKS IN AMERICA. 137 

ing bed ; but to these circumstances she was 
entirely reconciled, and, in view of them all, 
assured her mother she was perfectly contented 
and happy. 

She told her mother, a day or two after the 
commencement of her illness, that she had no 
choice about its result. She was willing to lie 
in God's hands, and be disposed of as would 
best promote his glory. This was her abiding 
feeling, always and uniformly expressed when 
inquiries were made of her state of mind ; 
though she was seldom able to say more than 
to reply to questions. 

The night but one before her death, during 
an interval of comparative ease, she conversed 
with freedom and composure upon the proba- 
ble result of her illness. After speaking of the 
ardent desire she had cherished of being fitted 
to return to her beloved home, to engage in the 
instruction of the natives, she said there was 
but one other trial to her, in the thought of 
dying in her present circumstances. It was, 
that she should not see her father. " But," 
she added, " in saying this, I do not wish to be 
understood as expressing any opposition to the 
will of God concerning me." A friend repeat- 



188 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

ed the hymn commencmg, " It is the Lord," 
which appeared to give her great comfort, 
and she soon after said, "It is all right — all 
right." 

During the last two days of her life, her 
respiration was laborious and distressing. Her 
efforts were like those of a drownino; man struo^- 
gling for help. Yet not an impatient word 
escaped her lips, not the shadow of a frown 
disturbed the smoothness of her brow ; but that 
touching moan, and the agony of her distress, 
expressed in a familiar Hawaiian term, "auwe 
auwe,"^ will not soon be forgotten by those 
who were privileged to be around her, and to 
witness the calm and holy confidence of her 
latter days. When told that the hour of her 
departure was approaching, the struggle with 
her tender affections was evidently great. But 
it was short. '' Mother, do you think I am 
going to die now ?" said she. "Yes, my dear," 
said her mother, " I think you are going soon." 
*0h, I loved you all too well, too well — I loved 
him too well." [It was thought she alluded 

* Sounding like " away away." A term expressive 
of distress, corresponding to the common expression, 
'' Oh dear, oh dear." 



THREE WEEKS IN AiMERICA. 189 

to her absent father.] '' But you love your 
Saviour too, Lucy." ''Yes, mother, I do — I 
do love him." " Whom do you love, my dear ?" 
'' Jesus Christ. I love him with all my heart, 
with all my soul, and with all my strength. 
Mother, I know I love him — I do — I do." The 
emphasis, deliberation, and the sweet, touching 
tone in which these words were pronounced by 
the dying sufferer, at intervals of strength, are 
indescribable. A friend repeated, " Jesus can 
make a dying bed," and Lucy finished the 
verse. A few more words of tender affection 
to earthly friends, and of confiding trust in 
Him who walked with her through the dark 
valley, terminated her intercourse with us; 
while the words, '' Mother, dear mother," 
many, many times repeated, still continued, 
and " Father, father," were the last that fell 
upon the ear. 

It was a night of sorrow when Lucy closed 
her eyes in death. Many who had but seen 
her, loved her. Skill and care together strove 
to save her life, and many prayers went up 
from that chamber of affliction, that her days 
might be prolonged. But God's time had 
come. His will in the life of this lovely child 



190 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

was accomplished, and in the bloom of her 
years, and the dawn of her bright anticipa- 
tions, he called her to the brighter scenes of 
the upper world. 

A group of strangers wept with the bereaved 
mother and her children in that midnight hour 
of trial, and when the spirit of her they mourn- 
ed was beyond the need of supplication, knelt 
with them in prayer around the bed of death — 
gave thanks for the triumphs of grace over 
the king of terrors, for the blessed consolations 
that made those smitten hearts rejoice — and 
implored the presence of a compassionate Sav- 
iour with that lone parent in the far-off isles 
of the Pacific, whose name was the last upon 
the lips of his dying child. 

Thus ended the brief life of Lucy Thurston. 
It was early consecrated to the Saviour. It 
was spent in his service. It was all cheerful, 
and happy, and useful — "very pleasant" was 
the remembrance of it to her mother. In view 
of it all, she could say, "It is well with me, it 
is well with my child ;" and in view of a death 
scene so calm, so peaceful, so full of hopes of 
heaven, strangers responded, "It is well — It 
is well." 



THREE WEEKS IN AMERICA. 191 

" Weep not for her ! 
The fairest of that loving band 

That left their cot in sea-girt isle, 
To sojourn in their father's land, 

With us awhile : 
Though early called from life to part, 
Earth had not all her maiden heart, 
Heaven was its home. 

Weep not for her ! 
All blissful were her youthful hours, 

Unclouded as a summer's day, 
And calmly, 'mid her native bowers. 

They fled away — 
Blest with those parents' fondest love 
Who led her infant thoughts above, 
To joys to come. 

weep for her, 
That mother, with her lips so pale; 
To him who dwells in lonely cot, 
How shall she tell the mournful tale 

That she is not ? 
How shall she tell his loved one's death, 
Who called him with her dying breath, 
In fondest love ? 

weep for him — 
The gray-haired sire who watched their bark 

Speed swift from HonoKilu's shore — 
The timid dove that left his ark 
Returns no more ; 
Those loving eyes in death are dim 
That shed sad tears to part with him — 
She dwells above. 



192 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Weep not for her ! 
Brief was her race, her crown soon won — 

One bitter cup, and all was done ; 
With harp in hand, all robed in white, 

In heaven's own light, 
She sings her song of rapture sweet, 
And casts her crown at Jesus' feet. 
To weep no more. 

Toil on, ye mourners ; there's a home, 

A better, brighter home on high : 
From thence no pilgrim's feet e'er roam. 

No loved ones die. 
Lead on, lead on your heathen band 
To meet Aer in that better land^ 

When life is o'er."* 

Lucy Goodale Thurston died on the 24th of 
Feb., 1841, in the city of New York, at the 
house of Mr. A. P. Cumings, one of the editors 
of the New York Observer. Her age was sev- 
enteen years and ten months. Her remains 
were interred in the vault of Mr. Abner Ely, 
one of the elders of the Brick church, in the 
cen^etery in Second-street. 

* Written by Mrs. M'Cartee, of Goshen, New York, 
on reading the obituary notice of Lucy Goodale Thurs- 
ton, which was published in the New York Observer, 
March 13, 1841. 



LUCY'S EXAMPLE. 193 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

REVIEW-TRAITS IN LUCY'S CHARACTER WORTHY OF IMITATION— 
HER PEACEFUL DEATH-REMARKS. 

I NEED not ask you, dear young reader, if 
you have been interested in this history of 
'' the missionary's daughter." Its novelty 
and peculiarity have not failed to fasten your 
attention, and to enlist your feelings. You 
have imagined Lucy in her childhood, on the 
coral shores of Hawaii, near the little heathen 
village of Kailua, surrounded by the huts of 
the natives ; looking out from the thatched 
cottage, which was for some years her abode, 
upon the vast fields of lava that once flowed in 
liquid fire from Kilauea ; or sitting with her 
mother upon some green spot beneath the tall 
cocoa-nut trees, and watching now and then a 
distant sail upon the broad Pacific, or the 
glorious sun as he sunk in majesty beneath 
the western waves. You have read her child- 
ish records of the few incidents that marked 
her pathway through the quiet pleasures of 
her early years. You have enjoyed her later 
descriptions of the manners and customs and 
improvements of the poor heathen around her ; 

Miss. Daughter. 13 



191 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

and you have almost wished that you could 
have been with her at the tea-party of the 
king, or in the visit she made with her mother 
to Kapiolani. 

You have been with her in that pedestrian 
journey around Hawaii ; beheld, with her, the 
raging fires of that wonderful volcano, and 
made the perilous descent into its immense 
crater ; and on her return, tossed with her, in 
that light canoe, on the rough billows of the 
tempestuous ocean. 

You have sympathized with her in the trial 
of leaving her Kailua home, and of parting 
with a father she so tenderly loved. You have 
been with her in the long voyage which brought 
her to our shores — stopped with her at that 
green and sunny isle of the southern seas, and 
walked with her in its " rich groves of orange- 
trees and guava-bushes ;" and at length wel- 
comed her to this land of civilization and re- 
finement — the land in which you are blessed 
to have a home. You have enjoyed the ex- 
pression of her pleasure in what she saw of the 
advancement of the arts, and the improvements 
of this age, in one of our great cities; and 
have imagined how strange must be the sight 



LUCY^'S EXAMPLE. 195 

of many things, with which you are familiar, 
to one who looked for the first time upon the 
wonders of a civilized world. 

And then you have gone with Lucy from 
the midst of all these new objects of admira- 
tion and scenes of interest, up to the chamber 
of sickness, and the bed of death. Perhaps you 
wept as you read those words of tender affec- 
tion, which added to the holy solemnities of 
that dying hour — as you thought of the crush- 
ed hopes of those missionary parents, of the 
sudden stroke that made the first breach in that 
loving circle, far from their homo and their 
father — and as you followed this lovely ''daugh- 
ter of the isles" to a resting-place in a stran- 
ger's sepulchre. 

And are there no lessons of wisdom to be 
derived from this narrative ? Are there no 
convictions of duty, no desires for usefulness, 
in any young hearts that may receive strength 
from the perusal of such a history ? Lest in 
your interest in the novelty of these scenes 
you have lost sight of the practical benefit to 
be derived from Lucy Thurston's memoir, per- 
mit me to direct your attention to some traits 
in her character which you may wisely imi- 



198 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

tate, and some circumstances in her history 
which ought to make a lasting impression on 
your minds. 

Lucy was an industrious scholar. She was 
far removed from the improvements of this age 
and country, which so facilitate the labors of 
the teacher and scholar. In pursuing her 
studies, she had not access to those means of 
illustration and experiment, which so constant- 
ly and imperceptibly tend to your improve- 
ment. But the advantages she did enjoy, she 
prized highly, and improved accordingly. This 
was the only secret of her progress, and you 
have had sufficient evidence of the character 
and extent of her attainments. 

How many anxious desires have your par- 
ents, that you may grow up intelligent and 
well-informed. How much do they every 
year expend for your education. Learn from 
Lucy's history what may be accomplished in 
circumstances that you would consider the 
least advantageous, and let her success encour- 
age you in the pursuit of useful knowledge. 

She improved by observation. This is very 
manifest in the whole history of her life. How 
many valuable ideas she acquired by giving 



LUCY'S EXAMPLE. 197 

attention to what she saiu, and re^nembering' 
what she heard. "When her parents were fa- 
vored with visits from other missionaries or 
travellers, she attentively observed their man- 
ners, and was in the habit of writing down 
whatever she heard them say that was new or 
interesting to her. How carefully she treas- 
ured up useful suggestions that were made to 
her on her voyage to this country, and such 
items of information as she considered valu- 
able. How interesting are her comments upon 
the manners and customs of the Society Island- 
ers ; and her remarks to her father upon the 
appearance of a Christian congregation in this 
country. 

The peculiar circumstances in which her life 
was passed, probably made Lucy appreciate 
more highly this means of improvement ; but 
whatever be the situation of an individual, the 
enlargement of his mind, and his progress in 
knowledge, depend very much on the use he 
makes of his opportunities for observation. It 
is especially important for every young' person 
to ask daily, 

" What have I learned where'er Pve been, 
From all I've heard, from all I've seen?" 



198 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

Lucy treasured up religious knowledge. 
She loved to commit to memory portions of 
Scripture and hymns, not only in her child- 
hood, but as long as she lived. In a hymn- 
book of hers now before me, she had placed a 
few blank leaves, upon which she used to write 
the first lines of the hymns she committed from 
it. On these leaves are the first lines of sev- 
enty-nine hymns, a great part of which she 
learned on the Sabbaths during her voyage to 
this country. In reference to her Sabbath 
employments, her mother wrote to her father, 
shortly after Lucy's death, "Besides commit- 
ting a lesson from the Bible, and a portion from 
another work, her own feelings would often 
prompt her to learn from one to four hymns 
after the usual exercises of public and social 
worship." 

The number of books for the instruction of 
the young, is so greatly multiplied in this age, 
that children have a strong temptation to neg- 
lect the habit of treasuring up divine truth in 
a definite form. But " the good old way" of 
learning by heart the Bible, the catechisms, 
and psalms and hymns, will never find a sub- 
stitute in the variety and value of "juvenile 



LUCY'S EXAMPLE. 199 

books," however numerous and excellent. Cul- 
tivate a taste for reading, and read useful books ; 
but remember, it is " the holy Scriptures which 
are able to make thee wise unto salvation, 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Com- 
mit to memory, habitually^ some portion of 
the sacred volume, if it be but a verse or two 
daily, and now and then a hymn from some 
one of the excellent collections in use. This 
will not only make you more useful in days 
of health, but in seasons of aflliction and 
days of languishing, will enable you to say 
with the Psalmist, " In the multitude of my 
thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my 
soul." 

Lucy was obedient to her parents. This 
was her character in her childhood, and by this 
means she not only made her parents happy, 
but was useful to others. The poor heathen 
loved and respected her, when they could not 
converse with her, and learned many lessons 
of filial affection from her example. She " re- 
garded the counsels and instructions of her par- 
ents, and conformed herself to their wishes," 
even in the smallest particulars. When re- 
ceiving some presents of clothing after she 



200 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

arrived in this country, she thought of the 
judgment and approbation of her father, and 
would not willingly have worn what she 
thought he would disapprove. 

Do you honor your father and mother ? Your 
deference to their opinions, and regard to their 
wishes, will not only in some measure repay 
their labors of love, but may influence others 
to habits of subordination and obedience, and 
thus promote the best interests of many around 
you. In this age of knowledge, children are 
too apt to think they grow wiser than their 
parents, and that they may put a new construc- 
tion upon the fifth commandment. A fashion 
prevails very different from that which existed 
in the early years of your fathers. Children 
now persuade their parents, and if they receive 
advice from them, do not feel the obligation to 
submit implicitly to their directions. But 
" Children, obey your parents," will be a bind- 
ing command to the end of time. Many a 
child will owe the formation of a virtuous char- 
acter and a life of usefulness to its rigid observ- 
ance ; and many will bring down the grey 
hairs of their fathers in sorrow to the grave, 
in consequence of its neglect. 



LUCY'S EXAMPLE. 201 

" Very pleasant" is the remembrance of a du- 
tiful child to a bereaved parent. May the dear 
children who read these pages, leave a memory 
as precious in this respect, as did Lucy Thurston. 

Lucy reverenced the Sabbath. She remem- 
bered God's day to keep it holy. She spent it 
in improving her ov^n soul, and in striving to 
do good to others. It appears from her journal, 
that nothing gave her more pain on her voy- 
age, than the loss of '' those quiet Sabbaths she 
used to enjoy in her beloved home." From her 
Bible she meekly learned the will of her heav- 
enly Father, and by her instructions to her 
heathen scholars, and her example to others, she 
strove to perform it. Thus were her Sabbaths 
days of "spiritual nourishment and growth in 
grace" — days in which her soul was ripened 
for the kingdom of heaven. 

How do you spend your Sabbaths ? Are 
they days of intellectual and spiritual improve- 
ment? Do they find you delighting in the 
word of God, in the worship of the sanctuary, 
and in the instructions of the Bible class or 
Sabbath-school ; or teaching a little band of 
young immortals in the way of life ? If so, the 
favor of the Lord is upon you. He has pro- 



202 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

nounced a special blessing upon those who " call 
the Sabbath a delight," the '' holy of the Lord," 
and " honorable." But if the Sabbath is a day 
of tiresome restraint, of tedious monotony, and 
devoted to the amusements of the world, be as- 
sured, your heart is entirely unprepared for the 
enjoyment of that eternal sabbath upon which 
we believe Lucy has now entered. 

She loved her Saviour. In her childhood 
she delighted to do his will. At the age of 
thirteen she publicly consecrated herself to his 
service, and the remainder of her brief life was 
spent in efforts to honor his name. Early piety 
made Lucy happy ; it was the life of her en- 
joyments. She loved God's works, his word, 
his ordinances ; and her '' peace flowed like a 
river," because she " hearkened to his com- 
mandments." 

Have you heard the call which so deeply 
impressed her mind in her early years : *' Son, 
give me thine heart ?" And have you been so 
sweetly and early constrained to obey it ? Jesus 
has loved you and given himself for you. Be- 
lieve on him, and to you he will be equally 
precious, and in his service you will be equally 
happy. 



LUCY'S EXAMPLE. 203 

Lucy loved the heathen. How she labored 
and how she prayed^ that they might be con- 
verted. While engaged in preparing for future 
usefulness, and devoting much time to the 
acquirement of knowledge, she felt the respon- 
sibility of a professed servant of Jesus to make 
efforts to win souls. While yet a child, she 
began to instruct the benighted children of 
Kailua, and when she came to the close of her 
short life, expressed no other wish to live, but 
to go back and continue her labors among them. 

Who among the youthful members of our 
churches may not profit by the example of this 
young disciple ? Who has made efforts like hers 
for the souls of others ? Who has realized the 
obligation of early obedience to the command, 
"Go, preach the Gospel to every creature?" 
Who has obeyed it, by early devotion' to the 
cause of missions, and by efforts and prayers 
in childhood and youth for the world's conver- 
sion ? Who have " denied themselves" in any 
way, that the bread of life might be sent to the 
destitute ? As one month after another passed 
away, Lucy was four times engaged in a little 
prayer-meeting with her heathen scholars, and 
as often uniting with the children of her own 



204 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

and another mission family in prayer for the 
children of the missionaries ; and how many 
of the youth who read these pages, have ob- 
served the " monthly concert of prayer ?" Alas, 
how few of the children of Christian America 
have remembered the families of the mission- 
aries and the families of the heathen. 

Lucy's scholars, Kealoha and Kahulipuni, 
desired her to give their " love to all the daugh- 
ters of the United States, and to the church- 
members." 0, that all those to whom it may 
here be presented, would reciprocate the affec- 
tionate message of these converted heathen, by 
sending the knowledge of a Saviour's love to 
heathen children in every part of the earth. 

Lucy died a happy^ peaceful death. She 
had much to attach her to this world. She was 
in the vigor of youth, in the bloom of health ; 
and life to her was full of sources of enjoyment. 
She had just landed in America, with the hope 
of having new advantages for knowledge and 
improvement. She had already had much prep- 
aration for usefulness, and she had a heart to 
love and serve God. Why then was she so 
willing to die ? She knew she loved the Sav- 
iour. " Mother, I do love him, I know I do.'''' 



LUCY'S EXAxMPLE. 205 

I shall never forget the sweet, emphatic tones 
with which Lucy addressed her mother in that 
dying hour ; and how often have I wished that 
more children of her age, who are early cut 
down by death, could leave such an assurance 
to comfort the hearts of their afflicted parents. 
^' It is not a hard thing to die," said Lucy's 
mother. " no, mother, it is not hard," said 
her dying child. 

How different was the death-scene of another 
child I knew, who has gone since Lucy's death 
to the eternal world. '' Father," said she, " I 
should be willing to die, but I knoiv I am not 
prepared. Mother, I cannot die, I am such a 
sinner." But when Lucy died, her mother 
could rejoice in the midst of sorrow, in giving 
her back to Him to whom she had been early 
consecrated. She had no doubt of Lucy's prep- 
aration for the joys of heaven, and that she 
went to join Charles Richards and Grerrit Judd, 
and other dear children of the missionaries, who 
had gone before her to the Saviour they loved, 
and to be eternally happy. 

And now, my young reader, will you not 
profit by the remembrance of some features in 
Lucy's character, her well-spent life, and her 



206 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

end of peace ? Does not her history prove that 
mental improvement is confined to no localities, 
and is dependent on few circumstances ? Does 
it not show how " the heart of thy father and 
thy mother may be made glad," and all that 
know thee may " rejoice ;" that the law of God 
may be written early upon the heart, and that 
they have great peace that follow it ? Does it 
not teach you how the great object of life is 
accomplished, and how to be prepared for an 
early and a sudden death ? And does it not 
speak in new tones of tenderness and power in 
behalf of the perishing heathen ? 

Lucy was cut down in the midst of her days. 
Her parents' hopes for her usefulness were sud- 
denly blasted. Her own expectations were all 
disappointed. She was not permitted to enter 
" the enlightened society of America," to pass 
a few years in improvement, and then return 
to the Kailua home she so much loved. God 
did not require her to go back to teach the chil- 
dren of Hawaii the way to heaven. But ho 
had some wise and holy purpose to fulfil in her 
unexpected removal. It was not merely to 
sicken and die, and find a place in our sepul- 
chres, that this lamb of the Saviour's fold was 



LUCY'S EXAMPLE. 207 

taken from the seclusion of a mission family, 
and the lahors of the mission field, and sent 
across the waters. To me, this event has seem- 
ed specially designed to awaken in the minds 
of our youth, at this very crisis in the history 
of our missions, a new sense of their obligations 
and abilities ; to enkindle in the bosom of those 
who have early consecrated themselves to Christ, 
a new flame of love and zeal and energy in his 
blessed cause ; and to commence a new series 
of efforts, which shall never cease till the know- 
ledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the 
waters cover the sea. 

Methinks the eye of a covenant-keeping God 
looked down upon this meek follower of his 
Son, as she came upon this holy errand from 
the land of Obukahaia. Daily employed in the 
duties of the child and the scholar, and con- 
stant in her attachment to her Saviour, she 
was preparing, as she hoped, for future labors 
in the cause of missions. But her soul was fast 
ripening for heaven, her work was done, and 
the great design of her embassy was to be 
accomplished by presenting her own record of 
her short life to the children of America. Thus 
did Lucy come as a missionary to them, to 



208 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

entreat them to ''love Jesus" and remember 
the heathen. 

The same omniscient eye is looking down to 
see how this new message is received. God is 
asking you, dear readers, to make it the high 
purpose of your lives to secure the salvation 
of your own souls, and the souls of others. He 
is presenting to you, by the pen of one who 
lived almost her entire life on heathen ground, 
the wants and the woes of the heathen. By 
her example, her early efforts, her prayers^ her 
letters, and her dying solicitude for the children 
of Hawaii, be persuaded to feelj and labor, and 
pray for the souls that are ready to perish in 
the vast territories of the heathen world. 

The labor, and prayer, and resources upon 
which the missionary cause depends will soon 
devolve on you. Some of you are to go far 
hence to preach the Grospel, others are to pro- 
vide the means for sustaining missions — all are 
to exert an influence, and to pray in spirit and 
in truth, " Thy kingdom come." Inquire of 
the Lord with diligence and without delay 
what part he would have you to perform in the 
glorious work which ho has pledged his own 
promise to accomplish, and he will permit every 



LUCY'S EXAMPLE. 209 

one of you who has a willing heart to be a co- 
worker with him in the extension of his blessed 
kinsfdom. 

The present band of laborers will soon be 
gathered to their fathers. Perhaps God is now 
calling to some of you, as he did to Samuel of 
old, to consecrate yourselves early to the ser- 
vice of the altar. Listen to that call. Devote 
yourselves to the Saviour, and by mental cul- 
ture and discipline, and v/ith dependence on 
the grace and spirit of your Master, seek to be 
prepared for his service, and he will permit you 
to bear the knowledge of his name afar off to 
the G-entiles. 

Children of Christian parents, consecrated to 
God in your childhood, when you think of ''the 
missionary's daughter," remember how she 
loved the heathen, and ask what you can do for 
the Saviour who died for their redemption. 



> iss. DauglUer. 14 



APPENDIX. 



THE HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE. 

EXTRACT FROM " STEWART's SANDWICH ISLANDS." 

The Hawaiian language was exclusively oral 
till after the arrival of the American missionaries : 
a first effort by them was a reduction of it to a writ- 
ten form. They found it to be simple in its elements, 
and capable of being represented in its sounds by a 
selection from the Roman alphabet. Its peculiari- 
ties consist in a predominance of vowels, and an 
entire rejection of double consonants, and of all sib- 
ilant, nasal, and guttural sounds, and in the invari- 
able termination of every syllable and word by a 
vowel. 

The Hawaiian alphabet consists of fourteen let- 
ters : five vowels, a, e, i, o, u, and nine consonants, 
b, d, h, k, I, 771, n, 2^, and w. That no letter should 
be silent, and that every letter should have one un- 
deviating sound, were made radical principles in the 
written language. The English sounds of the con- 



APPENDIX 211 

sonants were retained ; but important advantages 
led to the adoption, for the vowels, of the sounds 
given to them in the principal languages of the con- 
tinent of Europe. To pronounce any word in their 
tongue correctly, therefore, it is necessary only to 
learn the proper sounds of the vowels and dip- 
thongs. 

a is sounded ah, as in man, mat, marry. 
e has the sound of a in fate, mate, date. 
i has the sound of ee in bee, or i in marine. 
o is sounded as in no, note. 
u has the sound of oo, as rude, rule, ruin. 

The principal dipthongs are, 
ai, sounded as in aisle. 
au, sounded oiv, as in vow, 
oi, sounded as in oil. 
on, sounded like o, followed closely by oo. 

These remarks will explain the changes which 
have taken place in the orthography of some words 
which frequently appear in the journals of the mis- 
sionaries, as kahu, kalo, kapa, etc., for tabu, taro, 
tcqoa, etc. ; and may aid the reader in pronouncing 
some names and terms in this volume, of which the 
pronunciation is not given. 



•212 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

ERUPTION OF THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA, ON 
THE ISLAND OF HAWAII, IN 1840. 

BY REV. TITUS COAN. 

On the 30th. of May the people of Puna observed 
the appearance of smoke and fire in the interior, a 
mountainous and desolate region in that district. 
Thinking that the fire might be the burning of some 
jungle, they took little notice of it until the next 
day, Sunday, when the meetings in the different vil- 
lages were thrown into confusion by a sudden and 
grand exhibition of fire, on a scale so large and fear- 
ful as to leave no room to doubt the cause of the 
phenomenon. The fire augmented during the day 
and night ; but it did not seem to flow off rapidly in 
any direction. All were in consternation, as it was 
expected that the molten flood would pour itself 
down from its height of four thousand feet to the 
coast, and no one knew to what point it would flow, 
or what devastation would attend its fiery course. 
On Monday, June 1st, the stream began to flow off 
in a northeasterly direction ; and on Wednesday, June 
3d, at evening, the burning river reached the sea, 
having averaged about half a mile an hour in its 
progress. . The rapidity of the flow was very une- 
qual, being modified by the inequalities of the surface 
over which the stream passed. Sometimes it is sup- 
posed to have moved five miles an hour, and at other 



APPENDIX. 213 

times, owing to obstructions, making no apparent 
progress, except clearing away hills and precipices. 

But I will return to the source of the irruption. 
This is in a forest, and in the bottom of an ancient 
wooded crater, about four hundred feet deep, and 
probably eight miles east from Kilauea. The region 
being uninhabited and covered with a thicket, it was 
some time before the place was discovered ; and up to 
this time, though several foreigners have attempted 
it, no one except myself has reached the spot. From 
Kilauea to this place, the lava flows in a subterra- 
nean gallery, probably at the depth of a thousand 
feet ; but its course can be distinctly traced all the 
way, by the rending of the crust of the earth into 
innumerable fissures, and by the emission of smoke, 
steam, and gases. The eruption in this old crater is 
small, and from this place the stream disappears 
again for the distance of a mile or two, when the 
lava again gushed up, and spread over an area of 
about fifty acres. Again it passes under ground for 
two or three miles, when it reappears in another old 
wooded crater, consuming the forest, and partly fill- 
ing up the basin. Once more it disappears, and 
flowing in a subterranean channel, cracks and breaks 
the earth, opening fissures from six inches to ten or 
twelve feet in width, and sometimes splitting the 
trunk of a tree so exactly that its legs stand astride 
at the fissure. At some places it is impossible to 



214 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

trace the subterranean stream, on account of the im- 
penetrable thicket under which it passes. After 
flowing under ground several miles, perhaps six or 
eight, it again broke out like an overwhelming flood, 
and sweeping forest, hamlet, plantation, and every 
thing before it, rolled down with resistless energy to 
the sea, where, leaping a precipice of forty or fifty 
feet, it poured itself in one vast cataract of fire, into 
the deep below, v/ith loud detonations, fearful hiss- 
ings, and a thousand unearthly and indescribable 
sounds. Imagine to yourself a river of fused mine- 
rals, of the breadth and depth of Niagara, and of a 
deep gory red, falling in one emblazoned sheet, one 
raging torrent, into the ocean. The scene, as de- 
scribed by eye-witnesses, was terribly sublime. Two 
mighty agencies in collision. Two antagonistic and 
gigantic forces in contact, and producing eflects on a 
scale inconceivably grand. The atmosphere in all 
directions was filled with ashes, spray, gases, etc. ; 
while the burning lava, as it fell into the water, was 
shivered into millions of minute particles, and being 
thrown back into the air, fell in showers of sand on 
all the surrounding country. The coast was extended 
into the sea for a quarter of a mile, and a pretty sand 
beach and a new cape were formed. Three hills of 
sand were also formed in the sea, the lowest about two 
hundred, and the highest about three hundred feet. 
For three weeks this terrific river disgorged itself 



APPENDIX. 215 

into the sea with little abatement. Multitudes of 
fishes were killed, and the waters of the ocean were 
heated for tAventy miles along the coast. The breadth 
of the stream, where it fell into the sea, is about 
half a mile, but inland it varies from one to four or 
five miles in width, conforming itself like a river to 
the face of the country over which it flowed. In- 
deed, if you can imagine the Mississippi converted 
into liquid fire, of the consistency of fused iron, and 
moving onward, sometimes rapidly, sometimes slug- 
gishly, now widening into a sea, and anon rushing 
through a narrow defile, winding its way through 
mighty forests and ancient solitudes, you will get 
some idea of the spectacle here exhibited. The 
depth of the stream will probably vary from ten to 
two hundred feet, according to the inequalities of the 
surface over which it passed. During the flow, night 
was converted into day on all eastern Hawaii. The 
light rose and spread like morning upon the moun- 
tains, and its glare was seen on the opposite side of 
the island. It was also distinctly visible for more 
than one hundred miles at sea ; and at the distance 
of forty miles, fine print could be read at midnight. 
The brilliancy of the light was like a blazing firma- 
ment, and the scene was one of unrivalled sublimity. 
The whole course of the stream from Kilauea to 
the sea, is about forty miles. Its mouth is about 
twenty-five miles from Hilo station. The ground 



216 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

over which it flowed descends at the rate of one hun- 
dred feet to the mile. The crust is now cooled, and may 
be traversed, with care, though scalding steam, pun- 
gent gases, and smoke are still emitted in many places. 
On pursuing my way for nearly two days over 
this mighty smouldering mass, I was more and more 
impressed at every step with the wonderful scene. 
Hills had been melted down like wax ; ravines and 
deep valleys had been filled ; and majestic forests 
had disappeared like a feather in the flames. In 
some places the molten stream parted and flowed in 
separate channels for a considerable distance, and 
then reuniting, formed islands of various sizes, from 
one to fifty acres, with trees still standing, but seared 
and blighted with the intense heat. On the outer 
edges of the lava, where the stream was more shal- 
low, and the heat less vehement, and where of course 
the liquid mass cooled soonest, the trees were mowed 
down like grass before the scythe, and left charred, 
crisped, smouldering, and only half consumed. As 
the lava flowed around the trunks of large trees on 
the outskirts of the stream, the melted mass stiffened 
and consolidated before the trunk was consumed ; 
and when this was efiected, the top of the tree fell 
and lay unconsumed on the crust, while the hole 
which marked the place of the trunk, remains almost 
as smooth and perfect as the calibre of a cannon. 
These holes are innumerable, and I found them to 



APPENDIX. 217 

measure from ten to forty feet deep ; but as I remarked 
before, they are in the more shallow parts of the 
lava, the trees being entirely consumed where it was 
deeper. During the flow of this eruption, the great 
crater of Kilauea sunk about three hundred feet, and 
her fires became nearly extinct, one lake only out of 
many being left active in this mighty caldron. This, 
with other facts which have been named, demon- 
strates that the eruption was the disgorgement of the 
fires of Kilauea. The open lake in the old crater is 
at present intensely active, and the fires are increas- 
ing, as is evident from the glare visible at our sta- 
tion, and from the testimony of visitors. 

During the early part of the eruption, slight and 
repeated shocks of earthquake were felt for several 
successive days, near the scene of action. These 
shocks were not noticed at Hilo. 

Through the directing hand of a kind Providence, 
no lives were lost, and but little property was con- 
sumed during this amazing flood of fiery ruin. The 
stream passed over an almost uninhabited desert. 
A few little hamlets were consumed, and a few plan- 
tations were destroyed ; but the inhabitants, fore- 
warned, fled and escaped. During the progress of 
the eruption, some of the people in Puna spent most 
of their time in prayer and in religious meetings ; 
some flew in consternation from the face of the all- 
devouring element, others wandered along its mar- 



218 THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. 

gin, marking' with idle curiosit}^ its daily progress, 
while another class still coolly pursued their usual 
avocations, unawed by the burning fury as it rolled 
along within a mile of their doors. It was literally 
true that they ate, drank, bought, sold, planted, 
builded, apparently indifferent to the roar of con- 
suming forests, the sight of devouring fire, the start- 
ling detonations, the hissing of escaping steam, the 
rendinfif of the earth, the shiverinof and meltino^ of 
gigantic rocks, the raging and dashing of the fiery 
waves, the bellowings, the murmurings and un- 
earthly mutterings coming up from a burning deep. 
They went carelessly on amid the rain of ashes, sand, 
and fiery scintillations, gazing vacantly on the ever- 
varying appearance of the atmosphere, murky, black, 
livid, blazing, the sudden rising of lofty pillars of 
flame, the upward curling of ten thousand columns 
of smoke, and their majestic roll in dense, dingy, 
lurid, or parti-colored clouds. All these moving 
phenomena were regarded by them as the fall of a 
shower, or the running of a brook ; while to others 
they were as the tokens of a burning world, the 
departing heavens, and a coming Judge. 

I will just remark here, that while the stream 
was flowing, it might be approached within a few 
yards on the windward side ; while at the leeward 
no one could live within the distance of many miles, 
on account of the smoke, the impregnation of the 



APPENDIX. 219 

air with pungent and deadly gases, and the fiery- 
showers which were constantly descending and de- 
stroying all vegetable life. During the progress of 
the descending stream, it would often fall into some 
fissure, and forcing itself in apertures, and under 
massy rocks, and even hillocks and extended plats of 
ground, and lifting them from their ancient beds, 
bear them with all their superincumbent mass of 
soil, trees, etc., on its livid bosom, like a raft on the 
water. AVhen the fused mass was sluggish, it had 
a gory appearance like clotted blood, and when it 
was active it resembled fresh and clotted blood min- 
gled and thrown into violent agitation. Sometimes 
the flowing lava would find a subterranean gallery, 
diverging at right angles from the main channel, and 
pressing into it would flow ofl^ unobserved, till meet- 
ing with some obstruction in its dark passage, when, 
by its expansive force, it would raise the crust of the 
earth into a dome-like hill, of fifteen or twenty feet 
in height, and then, bursting this shell, pour itself 
out in a fiery torrent ^around. A man who was 
standing at a considerable distance from the main 
stream, and intensely gazing on the absorbing scene 
before him, found himself suddenly raised to the 
height of ten or fifteen feet above the common level 
around him, and he had but just time to escape from 
his dangerous position, when the earth opened where 
he had stood, and a stream of fire gushed out. 



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