112 JOYFUL WELCOME TO MISSIONARIES.

Joyful welcome to new

Kaahumanu was too ill to be present at the formal reception of the fourth reinforcement missionaries. to the mission, which arrived in May, 1832, consisting of Rev. Messrs. Alexander, Armstrong, Lyman, Emerson, Spaulding, Forbes, Hitchcock, and Lyons, and their wives, Dr. Chapin and wife, and Mr. Rogers, a printer. She received them in her own room, neatly attired, and seated in her armchair, and gave her hand affectionately to each. Such were her emotions, when expressing her satisfaction in view of their arrival, that she covered her face with her handkerchief and wept.

Her illness increasing, she sought retirement in her valley of Manoa, among the mountains, three miles beyond where the Oahu College now stands. She was carried thither on a litter by her servants. Here the two missionary physicians and their wives did what they could for her relief and comfort. She was visited also by most of the missionaries, and was grateful for their attentions. The printing of the New Testament in the Hawaiian language was completed after her removal to this Testament. place, and a copy of it, neatly bound in morocco, was put in her hands. She examined it attentively, inside and out, pronounced it "maikai,' "excellent," wrapped it in her handkerchief, and laid it in her bosom; then clasping her hands, she cast her eyes gratefully upward, as if giving thanks for so precious a gift.

Reception of the first

printed New

دو

Even in her paroxysms of distress, she listened to the reading of Scripture, and to the exercises of devotion.

Though solicitous for the health of her beloved spiritual guide, she desired him to be near in her

HER DEATH AND FUNERAL.

ings.

113

dying struggles. After a severe paroxysm he said to her, "Elizabeth, this perhaps is your Her last saydeparture; stay yourself on Jesus, your Saviour." Her reply was, "I shall go to Him, and shall be comforted." A little before the failure of her powers of utterance, she ejaculated two lines of a favorite Hawaiian hymn, which may be translated thus:

"Lo, here I am, O Jesus,

Grant me thy gracious smile."

Perceiving herself to be dying, she called Mr. Bingham. As he took her cold hand, she said, "Is this Biname ?" On being told that it was, she said, "I am going now." These were her last words; and after a few minutes she ceased to breathe, dying just before the dawn of day, June 5th, 1832. Her age was fifty-eight.

Her death

and funeral.

At the announcement of the regent's death, there were some bursts of wailing among the people, but for the most part Christian solemnity and order prevailed. An appropriate sermon was preached in the great church to the royal family, and to as many as could gain an entrance; after which the remains of the deceased were placed in the repository provided for persons of her rank. The contrast is affecting between this Christian burial, and the confusion and untold abominations, which in their heathen state invariably attended the death of a distinguished chief.

ter.

Kaahumanu entered the service of Christ late in life, yet it is the lot of few to fight in so Her characmany battles with the workers of iniquity, as she did in the short space of eight years. She was bold and energetic when the cause of Christ

114

HER CHARACTER.

was assailed, or needed her support; but humble and retiring when her own honor or emolument merely was in question. She suffered reproach and abuse with meekness, and few have left brighter evidence of exchanging earth for heaven, and worldly rank and distinction for glory everlasting.

Viewed in any light, Kaahumanu must be regarded as a remarkable person. She was one of those characters which Christian historians feel bound to regard as providential creations for extraordinary exigencies. Her sphere was indeed viewed by the world as narrow and humble, and she had none of the advantages of early education; but in strength of mind and will, and in some of the qualities of her disposition, she resembled Queen Elizabeth of England. After her conversion, however, of which so many proofs have been given in this history, the two would not be thought of in connection. She became a nursing mother to the church. Frederick of Saxony was not more interested for the safety of Luther, and for the success of the Reformation, than was Kaahumanu for the endangered life of the missionary at the seat of her government, and for the triumph of the gospel, among her people. The testimony of Mr. James Jackson Jarves is very emphatic, and above suspicion: "After the conversion of Kaahumanu," he says, "her violent passions were checked, the cold and contemptuous behavior gave way before the strong, natural flow of affection. To the missionaries she became warmly attached; and among her own people, and even foreigners, her character was so entirely altered, and her deportment so consistent with the principles of her faith,

HER CHARACTER.

115

that none could doubt her sincerity. The new and good Kaahumanu,' passed into a proverb.'

She was nearly fifty years in heathenism, and began the Christian life under all the disadvantages of such a training, aggravated greatly by the fact that, during many of those years, irresponsible power was in her hands. Her personal presence was commanding. She was tall and portly, with a swarthy complexion, black hair, dark commanding eyes, deliberate enunciation, a dignified and measured step, and, before her conversion, a queenlike but heathenish hauteur. Christian affection characterized her addresses to the people ever after she took her place among the followers of Christ.

She must be regarded as an instrument of divine Providence, for conducting the Hawaiian nation through the perilous exigencies of the interregnum following the death of Liholiho; and to strengthen it for the scarcely less perilous reaction following her own death, and the accession of Kauikeouli to the throne, until the universal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in the years 1838 to 1840, which Christianized the nation.

1 Jarves' History, Honolulu ed. 1847, p. 125.

CHAPTER XV.

UNFAVORABLE INFLUENCES ON THE GOVERNMENT.

Kinau as

1832-1834.

PRINCE KAU-I-KE-A-OU-LI was too young to be invested with royal authority. His half-sister, regent. Kinau, succeeded Kaahumanu as regent. She had been the wife of Kahalaia, but he died shortly after their marriage. She then married Kekuanaoa. Though smaller than the chiefs generally, she had a good figure, was dignified, and her Christian character had a remarkable combination of modesty and firmness. She was exemplary in her dress, manners, and habits, and excelled her predecessors in courteous attentions to respectable strangers. While at the Islands, in 1863, I frequently saw Kekuanaoa, who survived her her husband. many years, and thought his person was probably one of the best developed upon the Islands. She was his superior in birth, station, education, and piety; but is said ever to have manifested a complacency in him, and a satisfaction in his honorable and gentlemanly deportment. Though young for the station, Kinau enjoyed the confidence of the prince, and of the chief men; and she entered upon her duties with the feeling that her success depended on the blessing of God, and the prevalence of the Christian religion among the people. She

Kekuanaoa,