| Uaua
arrives on Oahu |
|
Fortunately, on March 30 Uaua, who
had enjoyed great proselyting success on Maui and Molokai, came to Honolulu.
And on April 2, Kauwahi, in town to attend the legislature, teamed up with
Farrer in the suburb of Waikahalulu, where most of Honolulu Saints lived. |
|
to Honolulu: Karren diary, Mar. 29, 1853; Farrer diary, Apr. 2
1853.
Saints lived: Farrer diary, Mar. 25, Apr. 2, 3, 1853. |
| First
sermon |
|
On Sunday, April 10, Uaua preached
his first sermon in Honolulu. Three were baptized the next morning. Tanner
was elated.
|
|
|
|
All the farern Elders will have to do hereafter will be to instruct
the native Elders in prinsaple they haveing the power of their one language
& I now think if I can be able to teach them the prinsaples of truth
… they can teach it to the balance of the nation. |
|
N. Tanner diary, Apr. 10, 1853. |
| Uaua's
preaching |
|
The following Sunday, Uaua spoke
to a packed audience and three more were baptized, followed by five on Monday,
six on Tuesday, and two on Wednesday.
|
|
|
| Uaua
a thunder storm |
|
"Sum of the cheafs are very
believing," Tanner rejoiced, & we are incuredging br Uaua all that
we can and instructing him what to dow & he is doing the best he can
… inlightning the King & the chiefs." Uaua's name "when
inturpeted is rane rane, but I think he is a purfect thunder storm &
will soon flood these Isleands with Mormonism. |
|
N. Tanner diary, Mar. 20; Apr. 8, 10–22, 1853. |
| Ordain
the men |
|
We adopted the policy of ordaining every native that we thought would
do any good, and instructed them, and set them at work in Honolulu and
surrounding country. |
|
Tanner
to Brother Campbell, Sept. 9, 1853, Deseret News, Dec.
15, 1853, 3. |
| Uaua,
Kauwahi, Paku, Kahumoku |
|
On April 22
Uaua and Kauwahi were ordained elders; Thomas Paku and John W. Kahumoku
were ordained priests, and Isaaka Kahoouluwa was ordained a teacher. Kahumoku
would soon go to Hawai‘i as spokesman for Tanner and Karren. Kahoouluwa
and Paku became Henry Bigler's spokesmen, and in just two weeks they would
baptize a hundred and organize a branch at Kaeohe.
|
|
at Kaeohe: Farrer diary, June 11, July 19, 1853. |
| Uaua
and Kauwahi speak to large crowd |
|
On April 24, Uaua's third Sunday
in Honolulu, he and Kauwahi spoke to a large, attentive audience. "The
Spirit of the Lord was with them," Farrer attested, "& they
spoke with power. … The crowd gathered round & soon after meeting
commenced the house was filled to overflowing & more outside …
than could get near to hear."
|
|
Farrer diary, Apr. 24, 1853. |
| Parade
to King's Falls |
|
That afternoon Farrer and Kauwahi
announced their intention to organize a branch, and invited all who wished
to be baptized to join them at "King's falls" (Kapena) a mile
and a half from town. As the people filed out of the meeting hall, the Calvinist
meeting also broke up. The cry went out, ‘What's up? What's up?' ‘The
Mormans going to babtise.'" Curious onlookers poured into the streets
until those in the middle of the throng could not see the end of the procession
in either direction.
|
|
join
them: Farrer diary, Apr. 24, 1853.
The cry: N. Tanner diary, Apr. 24, 1853. |
| Uaua
interviews, baptizes 35 |
|
At the falls, a thousand onlookers
positioned themselves on the banks around the pool. The proselytes were
invited to come forward and give their names. Uaua questioned them regarding
their faith and their commitment to forsake their sins. Then he instructed
them on the nature of the covenants they were about to make. The candidates
stepped up to the water's edge and he "called on the multitude to Keep
good order while the ordinance was being performed & … called on
the people to take of[f] their hats while singing & prayer was attended
to." Following the hymn, Uaua prayed. Then he and Farrer went down
into the water and baptized thirty-nine. It was, Farrer wrote, "a scene
long to be remembered."
|
|
Farrer diary, Apr. 24, 1853. |
| Honolulu
branch organized |
|
The Honolulu branch was organized
two days later with seventy-five members. After the meeting six more were
added, and three teachers and five deacons were ordained.
|
|
N. Tanner diary, Apr. 26, 1853. |
Uaua
and Kauwahi speak again
110 in seven days |
|
On the following Sunday, May 1, Uaua
and Kauwahi spoke again, and 43 presented themselves for baptism. Again
a large crowd witnessed the ordinance, while another group listened to Uaua's
next sermon, a quarter of a mile away. Thirteen requested baptism there,
and they too were followed to the water by a large number of people. In
the next seven days 110 more were added.
|
|
number
of people: Farrer diary, May 1, 1853.
more were added: Farrer diary, May 1–12, 1853.
Letters from the elders
in Honolulu to Reddick Allred dated May 2 reported 148 baptisms in the city.
R. N. Allred diary, May 9, 1853. Farrer's diary records
five baptisms on May 2. |
| Protestant
clergy: a sudden excitement |
|
The baptisms attracted the attention
of Reverend Ephraim Clark—and he was not pleased. "One or two
[Mormon] converts from Lahainaluna … have made quite a stir for a week
or two past," he reported, "leading captive silly women &
silly men too laden with divers lust, most of them from the dregs of Honolulu.
They have been urged into the water on a sudden excitement, thus turning
the solemn ordinance of baptism into a farce."
|
|
Ephraim
Clark, Honolulu Station Report, May 18, 1853, Hawaiian Missionary Children's
Society (Honolulu). |
| Utah
elders administer to sick |
|
While Uaua and Kauwahi were doing
the preaching, the Utah elders—even though they could not speak to
understand Hawaiian—were in great demand to administer to the sick.
|
|
N. Tanner diary, May 7, 1853.
"Although I cant doe much preaching I am Kept prity buisley runing
to administer to the Sick and to help to Confirm as Elder Farrer is the
Only on[e] amoung us that are here that Can Speak the Language." Karren diary, May 6, 1853. |
| Faith
in Honolulu |
|
There is hundreds of sick adminestered to hear & they are after
us all the time & all maner of deseases, sum of the most despet
cases you can a magen & none have failed to be wall satesfied as
yet & I must say I have never seen more faith than I have in Honalulu. |
|
| Scabies |
|
Scabies was a common, highly contageous
disease, caused by mites that produced large, festering sores all over the
body. |
|
Scabies:
Bushnell, The Gifts of Civilization: Germs and Genocide in Hawai‘i
(Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1993), 231. |
| Syphilis |
|
As repulsive as scabies was to the
Utah elders, however, syphilis was worse. One doctor described its effects
as follows: |
|
| Symptoms |
|
Foul ulcers, of many years standing … everywhere abound, and
visages horribly deformed—eyes rendered blind—noses entirely
destroyed—mouths monstrously drawn aside from their natural position,
ulcerating palates and almost useless arms and legs mark most clearly
the state and progress of the disease. |
|
Alonzo
Chapin, who visited Hawai‘i in 1832-35, in Gifts, 233. |
| People
wasting away |
|
"It is heart sickning to see
the awful affects of the venereal deseases upon this people," Elder
Francis Hammond wrote, "they are litterally wasteing away under its
influance." |
|
Hammond diary, Oct. 27, 1853. |
| Suffering |
|
Perhaps it was syphilis Thomas Karren
encountered when called upon to administer to a man with a sore leg. "It
was frightfull to look on. It made my heart Eak to behold such Suffering
to See men and the[ir] flesh rob[bed] of[f] their Bones which is the Case
With many of this people. Such objects of Suffering I never before beheld."
|
|
¶ Thomas Karren Diary (1) |
|
|
Tanner's diary entries for five days
in May depict the magnitude of the suffering:
|
|
|
| 5
days in May |
|
May 9: 5 sick came to us to be healed before breckfast. …
May 10: We have had a bout 15 cases of sick to day. I think out of sum
hundreds of administrations I onley kno of 2 cases that have failed
to git [better?] … & sum of them have ben rased up from the
loest & last stage of life that can be found in a filthy lude house
to helth & lots of them that ware half rotton with their disease.
May 11: We are adminestering to the sick … lots of sick coming
& going all the time. |
|
|
| Crippled
man walks to baptism |
|
May 12: A house full of sick agan. 1 man that had not walked for 6
months, walked 3 forth of a mile to be babtised & back a gan rite
threw the city. The children a long the streat sed the Calvins could
not give men legs to walk like Mormons do.
May 13: … was it not for the will of god & that god did work
with us & for the sake of suffering humanety we could never do the
things that we are dewing daly. |
|
¶ Thomas Karren Diary (1) |
| Many
cures performed |
|
Tanner's enthusiasic reports quickly
spread to the other missionaries and to the States. On Maui, Hammond wrote
to Parley P. Pratt in California, "The native Saints … manifested
great faith in the power of healing," Hammond wrote, "and the
Elders were greatly blessed in their administrations in this connection.
… Many cures have been performed … the lame has been made to walk,
the blind to see, and the weak made strong; and we feel to ascribe the praise
to God our Heavenly Father." |
|
Hammond
to Pratt, June 6, 1853, . |
| |
|
Smallpox in Paradise (3)
Smallpox in Paradise (1)
Thomas Karren Diary (1)
Thomas Karren Diary (2)
Thomas Karren Diary (3)
|