Missionaries from Home--Good Results of Their Presence and
Labors--Voyage in the Canoe of the Islanders--Tradition of the
Natives--A Visit to the Volcano
At the Fall Conference, 1852, held at Salt Lake City, nine Elders
were appointed on missions to the islands. They reached Honolulu in
the month of February, 1853. Their names were, Benjamin F. Johnson,
William McBride, Nathan Tanner, Reddin A. Allred, Redick N. Allred,
Thomas Karren, Ephraim Green, James Lawson and Egerton Snider. These
Elders were a great help to the mission. Nearly all of them were men
of experience. Their presence brought additional life and energy, the
effect of which soon became visible everywhere. The most of them took
hold of the work with zeal.
They brought with them the copy of the revelation on celestial
marriage, which was first published at the conference at which they
were called to go to the islands. They also brought the spirit of the
conference with them, and we all felt the benefit of it.
After their arrival, the work received a great impulse on the Island
of Oahu, and especially in Honolulu. That town was made alive with
excitement, and large numbers were baptized. A branch of the white
members was organized, over which Elder B. F. Johnson was appointed to
preside. Elders Tanner and Karren were chosen as counselors to Elder
Philip B. Lewis, the president of the mission. Upon the Islands of
Hawaii and Kauai, also, the work made great strides, and hundreds were
added to the Church.
I omitted to mention that Elder William Perkins, who had been appointed
on a mission to the islands, reached there, accompanied by his wife
and Sister John S. Woodbury, about the last of November, 1851. They
remained for some time, laboring to the best of their ability. Brother
Perkins was released to return home because of his wife's failing
health.
For the purpose of visiting the Saints and people on the Island of
Hawaii (the Owyhee of Captain Cook), I had occasion to sail to that
island in April, 1854.
In those days, money was very scarce with the Elders, and we had not
the means to transport us from island to island on the regular vessels
which sailed in those seas. I, therefore, in company with several of
the brethren, traveled, preaching by the way, through the hilly and
rough country that lay between Lahaina and Kawaipapa on eastern Maui, a
point considered the best to embark at to cross the channel to Hawaii.
Our company consisted of Elder R. N. Allred, who was at that time
president on the Island of Maui; Elder J. H. Napela, and four native
Elders belonging to Maui, who had been appointed to labor in the
ministry on the Island of Hawaii. Their names were Kaelepulu, Kapono,
Hoopiiaina and Peleleu.
The channel which we had to cross was at times very rough and
dangerous, and many lives had been lost in it; but we had faith to
believe that the Lord would preserve us in crossing, although our
vessel was one that very few white men would care to venture out to
sea in. It was a canoe hollowed out of a tree. Both ends of the canoe
had boards fitted in as a sort of a deck, which was covered with mats.
These mats were lashed to the canoe and made the top of the deck as
round as a log and perfectly water-tight. You would think this deck a
curious place to go to sea on, yet the native islanders were perched
on both ends of the canoe on this deck with their paddles to row the
canoe when the wind did not blow. In the center of the canoe a certain
space was left for us to sit in, and sides were formed by lashing mats
to some poles that were raised above the edge of the canoe. In this
place the natives had fixed plenty of mats, so that we could sit or
recline, as suited us, very comfortably. Lashed across the canoe, were
two poles, each a little distance from the end of the canoe. These
poles extended six or eight feet into the water, and fastened to their
ends was a board, which ran parallel with the canoe. This we call
an outrigger; it was for the purpose of keeping the canoe balanced
when the sail was hoisted. On these poles, when the wind commenced
to blow the islanders sat, easing up and bearing down, according to
the strength of the wind, so as to keep the canoe from capsizing. The
greater part of the time some portion of their bodies was in the water.
But the sea has no terrors for the Sandwich Islanders. They can swim in
the water for hours without being at all fatigued.
When I looked at these men perched on the deck of the canoe, it looked
like going to sea on a log; and had I not been familiar with the skill
of the natives in managing their canoe, and had some confidence in my
own powers as a swimmer, with them to aid me in the water, I should
scarcely have ventured in such a craft as this was.
We prayed to the Lord, before we started, to give us a pleasant and
favorable voyage, and the natives said they had never had a more
favorable time.
We reached Upolu on the island of Hawaii between three and four
o'clock, having started from Maui about eight o'clock in the morning.
While upon this subject I may say that we returned to Upolu after our
visit had ended, and again crossed the channel, back to Maui, but this
time we did not have a single canoe. One of the native Saints and his
son had procured two new canoes and had lashed them together as was the
fashion in former days, for their chiefs, by fastening pieces of timber
across both canoes, the latter being from four to six feet apart. This
was called in their language _kaulua_.
Our place to sit or recline was arranged between the canoes, by laying
down boards and covering them with mats, making quite a comfortable
floor for us to sit upon, and in the centre of this the mast was raised
and fastened.
As in the case of the single canoe, boards were fastened at the ends,
with mats lying over them to keep out the water, making a deck to the
canoe, while a small place was left in the centre of both canoes for
some of the natives to sit, and, if necessary, bail out water.
We left the four native Elders on the island, and brought away one with
us, who was released from his mission to return to Maui. His name was
Kailihune.
Our return passage was rough a good part of the distance, as we had a
good stiff breeze about two-thirds of the way across. Then the wind
died out; but we prayed to the Lord for more wind, and our prayers were
answered. We were between six and seven hours in making the passage.
We traveled around the island, and visited the famous volcano, the
largest in the world. Its name is Kilauea.
Our party had swelled, including whites and natives, to about twenty in
number. In addition to Brother Allred, there were of our party Elder
Thomas Karren, who lived at Lehi, Utah Co., but who is now deceased;
Elder James Keeler, who has lately returned from another mission to the
islands, and who now resides on the Sevier; and Elder Egerton Snider,
who has since died.
Brother James Lawson, of this city, was also with our party, but having
seen the volcano, he did not ascend with us. We had to go on foot, as
we had no money to hire animals.
The Sandwich Islanders entertained a singular idea about the manner
in which their islands came into being. Their belief was that the
islands were brought forth, and that Papa, a woman whom they worshiped
as a goddess, was the mother of them. The first-born, they think, was
Hawaii, the nearest island to this continent, and the last born Kauai
and Niihau. This Papa had a sister, they say, whose name was Pele. They
worshiped her as a goddess, and even when we were there many still
believed in her. They say she first lived at Kauai and from there
removed from one island to another until she took up her residence at
Hawaii. They believed that her place of residence was the pit of the
active volcano, and that there, all the spirits of good chiefs and men
went to dwell. The bad ones went, they believed, to a place of darkness
in the centre of the earth, over which a god called Milu reigned.
In former days the people threw the bones of some of their dead
relatives into the volcano. They had the idea that if Pele was pleased
with the sacrifice, she would consume the bones, and the spirit of the
dead person would be permitted to return and be a familiar spirit to
them, and be as one of the family. If the sacrifice was not acceptable,
the bones were thrown out of the volcano.
The pit of the volcano is probably three miles across. There have been
times when the whole bottom of the pit was one mass of lurid, seething
fire. This must have been an awfully grand sight, but when we visited
it, we found an immense field of lava which extended all around the
pit, and which resembled, in many respects, the sea in its wave-like
appearance. It might also have been compared to a field of shore-ice,
from which the water had receded, leaving it shattered and cracked; in
fact, it looked like a frozen sea, except that it was black as coal. In
cooling it had cracked, leaving large seams, from which steam and heat
issued.
We found the pit in which the fire was raging to be about fifty or
sixty feet deep; it was nearly round, and about one hundred yards
across. The sides were perpendicular; the strongest heat seemed to be
around the sides. On one side there were two large holes very close
together, which looked more like the mouths of two very large furnaces
than anything else I ever saw. Here the melted lava was in constant
motion, surging and heaving like the waves of the sea. The sound which
it made was somewhat similar to the paddles of a steam vessel in the
ocean, only it was far greater. We heard this sound before we reached
the mouth of the volcano, and it resembled, to our ears, the booming of
heavy artillery at a distance.
The lava kept flowing in the direction of these two holes of which
I spoke, and rocks thrown down upon the surface of the lava would
melt when near these holes like sealing wax held in a candle. It was
surprising to see with what ease the fire would melt this stony mass
of lava, which in some parts of the pit would cool on the surface, and
convert it again into a fluid.
Sometimes showers of hot lava would be thrown up in the air, and
descend on the edges of the pit where we stood. When this occurred
the bystanders would have to scamper off as fast as they could, or be
severely burned.
The sight of this pit surpassed in sublimity and grandeur anything I
had ever witnessed or imagined. It far exceeded what I had read in
written descriptions, or even what I expected to see. Language fails to
convey to the mind a correct idea of its appearance.
We were told that a party of natives had just been there, throwing the
bones of one of their relatives into the volcano with hogs, fowls,
etc., sacrifices with which to gain the favor of Madame Pele, the
goddess.
For some years there had not been any eruptions from this crater which
we visited; but others had broken out in the same neighborhood, the
fire and smoke of which had been seen for a long distance, and ashes
from which, it is said, had fallen on the decks of vessels hundreds of
miles at sea. From these eruptions the lava had run down to the sea,
sweeping everything before it, and heating the sea for several miles in
such a manner as to kill large quantities of fish.
The island of Hawaii is very frequently shaken by earthquakes, the
effects of the hidden fires.