Hawaii History:
(from “History of the Catholic Mission in the Hawaiian Islands” by Father Reginald Yzendoorn, SS.CC., Honolulu Star-Bulletin Ltd., Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, 1927)
(continued from June 13th)
On June 27th, 1810, in the town of Bradford, Mass., an “American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions” was instituted, the object of which was “to devise, adopt, and prosecute ways and means for propagating the gospel among those who are destitute of the knowledge of Christianity.”
The members of this organization belonged to the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches.
On October the 23rd, 1819, the first missionaries to the Sandwich Islands were sent out by this Board.
Having embarked on the brig Thaddeus, they sailed around Cape Horn, and arrived at Kailua, on the West Coast of the island of Hawaii, on the 4th of April, 1820.
On the 30th of March, when they had just rounded the Northern point of that island, some of the native members of the mission went ashore, and were informed by their countrymen that Kamehameha I was dead, his son Liholiho king, the taboos abolished, the idols destroyed and the heiaus overthrown.
(to be continued)
Blessings, pono and pule!
Fr. Brian Guerrini, ss.cc.
Priest
Molokai