Nā kahu portraits of native hawaiian pastors at home and abroad 1820 1900 nancy j morris - The lates
Abroad 1820 1900
Nancy J Morris
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Selected lines from “He Mele Inoa no Kekelaokalani,” HI.M. 80, are used with the permission of Bishop Museum Archives.
Cover art: Hawaiian Christ by Ian McPhee. Stained glass window, Palapala Ho‘omanu Church, Kipahulu, Maui. The window is a 1965 addition to the church established in 1864. As an expression of Hawaiian Christianity, the image joins other Black Christ depictions, an art form originating in Africa and Central and South America.
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
For my grandchildren, Hannah and Kekoa NJM
And for my wife, Ruth RB
Foreword
Nā Kahu: Portraits of Native Hawaiian Pastors at Home and Abroad, 1820–1900, is a remarkable archival achievement. The research that underlies it is prodigious and, in all ways, intelligent. The “portraits” themselves are full of interest. One after another, they capture the sweep and significance of entire lives. Taken together, they light up the landscape of missionary activity in the Pacific world of the nineteenth century. And they show very clearly both the breadth and depth of involvement by Native Hawaiians.
The book is foundational—nothing less—for students of missions, of the worldwide diffusion of Protestant Christianity, and of the long, complex relationship between Hawai‘i and the American mainland. Scholars in many fields will feel indebted to the careful labors of Nancy Morris and Robert Benedetto.
John Demos
Samuel Knight Professor Emeritus History
Yale
University
Acknowledgments
It takes a village to write a book. We are indebted to many and especially thank Kahu James P. Merseberg for his pioneering work on Native Hawaiian pastors, and the late Henry Judd for the translation of hundreds of pages of letters and documents of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association.
The knowledge and resourcefulness of Hawai‘i’s librarians make us proud to be members of that profession. We thank Barbara Dunn and Jennifer Higa of the Hawaiian Historical Society; and Mary Jane Knight, Marilyn Kanani Reppun, and Carol White, all formerly with the Mission Houses Museum. It was the late Mary Jane Knight who bemoaned the lack of information about Native Hawaiian pastors and first suggested this project. We are especially indebted to current librarian/archivist John Barker who led efforts to digitize library holdings and gave us access to obscure parts of the collection with patience and unfailing good humor. Dore Minatodani of Hamilton Library, University of Hawai‘i, consistently came back with thorough answers to our many questions, as did Baron Baroza of the Hawai‘i State Library system.
The comments and insights of readers of all or parts of early drafts greatly improved our work. These include Tom Woods, Aletha G. Kaohi, Ron Williams, Puakea Nogelmeier, Steve Trussel, and Al Schutz. Readers from the University of Hawai‘i Press also made helpful suggestions. We thank in particular John Charlot, who shared his profound understanding of Hawai‘i’s past and present.
Jeffrey Lyon of the Religion Department, University of Hawai‘i, and Jill Matsui of the Hawai‘i State Department of Health, Hansen’s Disease Program, were problem solvers when we needed help.
Barbara Pope and her staff helped us make the most of our varied, problematic set of illustrations, and moreover, demonstrated to us the value of an informed, cordial, and efficient business operation.
We wish to acknowledge the enduring influence of several of our teachers from the past. These include Donald Raleigh, the late Greg Dening, Kalani Meinecke, and Brij Lal, who has contributed much to the art of Pacific Islands biography.
Thank you, our supportive families. Aloha mau loa.
Acronyms and Abbreviations
ABCFM American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
AR(s) Annual Report(s)
Friend; Friend (SF ) The Friend; Supplement to the Friend
HMH Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society Library. Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives
HNB Hawaiian National Bibliography, 1780–1900, 4 vols. Edited by David Forbes (Honolulu, UH Press, 1999–2003)
KNK Ka Nupepa Kuokoa
MC, HMH Micronesian Collection, 1856–1923, HMH
MSS. Manuscript
NPMI/b
Buke Moolelo o na Haumana o ke Kahunapule, NPMI (Biographies of the Students of the School for Pastors, North Pacific Missionary Institute), unpublished manuscript, HMH
PCA Pacific Commercial Advertiser
PP Paradise of the Pacific xiii
xiv Abbreviations
SR(s) Station Report(s)
TS Typescript
UH University of Hawai‘i
Note on Personal Name Forms and Geographical Terms
In the biographical portraits that follow, the correct form of personal names poses many problems. As the written Hawaiian language gradually stabilized during the 1820s, the spelling of personal names becomes less of an issue. However, there are still complications presented by an individual’s acceptance of additional names and titles, including baptismal names, honorary names, the names of foreign kings and presidents, and other titles. The literature is also filled with misspellings of personal names so that in some cases it is difficult to determine the correct form of an individual’s name. Additional problems arise when initials are used: do the initials “A. K.” refer to Alexander Kanaka or to Abraham Kapule, when both are used for the same initials? Then too, there is the issue of whether to use the Hawaiian or English name: is it Joseph or Iospha, David or Davida? Variant forms of personal names can lead to confusion, and worse, to misidentification.
To correctly identify the individuals in this book, the authors have favored spelling names as the historical figures spelled them in their own writings, when known. In many cases the authors have had to rely on secondary sources such as HEA reports and newspaper articles to determine correct spellings. To render the names of the Hawaiian students of the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut, the authors relied on the advice of Puakea Nogelmeier, Professor of Hawaiian Language, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
For the personal names of Hawaiian ali‘i, the authors have depended on Lilikalā Kame‘eleihiwa’s Native Land and Foreign Desires: How Shall We Live
in Harmony (1992) as a reliable guide to both the names and titles of the ali‘i in the hierarchy of Hawaiian society. The authors have been conservative in adding diacritical marks to the personal names of Native Hawaiian pastors. Exceptions to this are a few well-established names, such as ‘Ī‘ī. For each individual, all known variant names and spellings uncovered during our research are given in parenthesis at the beginning of each entry.
Geographical terms used in this book are those in use in the nineteenth century. Readers should note that the Gilbert Islands are now the Republic of Kiribati. Ponape is now spelled Pohnpei.
Introduction
A few years before his death in 1819, Kamehameha the Great is said to have visited the prophet Kapihe. Kapihe recited a prophecy for the king. The heiau will be destroyed, the priests will be forced from their priesthood, while the ruling chiefs themselves will lose their posts as sacred heads of government. Fulfillment of the prophecy was already in progress by Kapihe’s time.1 Following Captain James Cook’s arrival, waves of foreigners came to the island chain: whalers, traders, adventurers, and in their wake, missionaries. From 1820 until 1848 twelve companies of Protestant American missionaries, sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), sailed for Hawai‘i with the stated intent of bringing the “gifts” of Christianity and civilization to the people of Hawai‘i.
A starting point for any study of the ABCFM mission to Hawai‘i is the Missionary Album, first published in 1937 and enlarged in 1969, with a major updated volume planned for the 2020 bicentennial celebration of the coming of the missionaries. The Missionary Album provides short biographical sketches of the men and women of the twelve companies. In the many studio photographs included in the book, the faces of these New England ministers gaze back at us with all the gravity and determination that characterized their mission. These men, their families, and their descendants are the subjects of a vast literature, both laudatory and critical.
Less studied is the role of Native Hawaiians in shaping Protestant Christianity in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. James P. Merseberg’s 1960 unpublished
Andover Theological School Bachelor of Divinity thesis, “The Ministry on the Mission Field: Some Aspects of the Indigenization of the Church,” is perhaps the first scholarly work to trace the evolution of the Native Hawaiian ministry and to list nineteenth-century licensed preachers and ordained pastors. Merseberg does not discuss Native Hawaiian overseas missionaries. This present work, Nā Kahu, builds on Merseberg’s listing and analysis. Nā Kahu also extends the research of the Missionary Album by providing biographical sketches of some two hundred Native Hawaiian teachers, preachers, ministers, and missionaries affiliated with the ABCFM and, later, with the Hawaiian Evangelical Association (HEA). Many of these men combined their work as ministers with interests in public affairs. Others became noted scholars and historians.
The settings of these ministerial lives range from the early American sea trade, a New England swept by a nineteenth century religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening, the Northwest American fur industry, the Gold Rush fields of California, and mission stations from all the inhabited islands of Hawai‘i to the Pacific islands of the Marquesas and Micronesia.
Compiling the names of these evangelicals has been a fairly routine task; missionaries were diligent record keepers and letter writers. Telling their life stories, searching for evidence of “the nobility and grandeur and the squalor and misery involved in man’s striving,” as the Pacific historian Geoffrey Serle put it, is a more complex matter but it is the intent of the authors to go beyond the format of the standard biographical directory and to the extent possible, to humanize these pastors and teachers. Their stories document numerous interactions with the social and political issues of the times, and for some of these Hawaiians a record of both heroics and miseries is ample. Novels could flow from the dramatic life stories of such Native Hawaiians as Alexander Kaukau, Mary Kahelemauna, John Ezera, and John Wise. For others few details are available. Perhaps this work will encourage new discoveries and insights about the lives of these Native Hawaiians.
The photographic record of Native Hawaiian pastors has been virtually ignored, although a substantial body of visual images exists in the pages of English and Hawaiian language church publications, and in scattered international archives. Samuel F. B. Morse, well-known artist of the day and later, inventor of the Morse code, painted apprentice Native Hawaiian missionaries of the Cornwall, Connecticut Foreign Mission School; the group portrait has disappeared but engravings made from the painting were widely distributed. Missionary wife Clarissa Armstrong sketched one of the first Native Hawaiian licensed
preachers, “Blind Bartimeus.” A Hawai‘i Health Department official medical portrait of John Kaalouahi is a reminder of the sad fate of the fifteen Hawaiian pastors afflicted with Hansen’s disease and banished to Kalaupapa. The Robert Louis Stevenson family traveling in the tropical Gilbert Islands in the 1880s wrote of Hawaiian pastors in their black frock-coats and photographed two of them, Robert Maka and J. W. Kanoa. In 1887 the German ethnologist Karl von den Steinen captured an image of an aged, dignified stalwart of the Marquesan mission, Samuela Kauwealoha. There is a group photograph of the North Pacific Missionary Institute students. The missionary Henry Nalimu lived well into the twentieth century and as “an ali‘i of old” became the subject of an artfully composed Theodore Kelsey photograph. Researchers of today would not know these people so well without these images.
With respect to the organization of the book, this introductory section is a group portrait of the Native Hawaiian emissaries of Christianity within the contextual setting of their times. The introduction is followed by part I of the book, consisting of individual sketches of the first Native Hawaiian messengers of Christianity, the students of a remarkable New England educational experiment, the Cornwall Foreign Mission School. Part II of the book consists of sketches of all known Native Hawaiian licensed preachers and teachers, ordained pastors, and missionaries affiliated with the ABCFM mission and its successor, the Hawaiian Evangelical Association. An appendix consists of brief biographical sketches of early Native Hawaiian ali‘i (reigning chiefs) who were deeply involved in all aspects of the founding and early life of Hawaiian Christianity. A selected bibliography concludes the book.
EARLY CONVERTS
A plan to train Hawaiians as proselytizers for Christianity was first implemented at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut, an educational experiment carried on from 1817 to 1826. The school was the product of a religious revival, the Second Great Awakening, a movement that took as its mission bringing Christian enlightenment to the “heathen” of the world. The ABCFM financed the school and the town of Cornwall donated an old school building, as well as additional funding. The physical setting was chosen for its mountain scenery, its removal from urban temptations, and its healthy climate. The school enrolled a group of American
Indians, Chinese, Polynesians, and a scattering of other students from exotic lands, intending that the students would return home to spread the gospel. The nineteen Hawaiians who attended the school were representatives of their countrymen who had signed up as seamen on merchant ships or whalers in search of wider experiences. Three of the students had seen action on armed American vessels in the War of 1812. At length they had come ashore and were dispersed throughout New England. Benevolent New England families frequently served as mentors and patrons to the Hawaiians.
The curriculum of the Cornwall school was based on the “Lancasterian system” of education in which more advanced students helped teach the less advanced. The curriculum included arithmetic, English, geography, reading, writing, and spelling. Bible memorization was an important part of the program and some type of conversion experience was an expected outcome. Students deemed unpromising as scholars were trained as craftsmen.
One of these pupils was the near-mythical ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia, who is usually identified as the catalyst for the American Board mission to Hawai‘i. Yale students, according to the stories, discovered ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia weeping on the steps of the college because “no one would give him learning.” ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia died of typhus before he could return to Hawai‘i. His Memoirs became a best seller, went through a dozen editions within five years, and elicited substantial donations for the missionary cause.
When two Cherokee students courted and won Cornwall belles, it became obvious that the town was not ready for the racial integration of the foreign students into Cornwall society. The deaths of several more students and the growing belief that the “heathen” were best educated in their own countries, contributed to the closing of the school.
The biographical essays following this introduction summarize what is known of the Hawaiian students attending the school. The lives of these apprentice Hawaiian missionaries were more filled with sorrows than accomplishments. In addition to ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia, two more students, Komo and Makuahine, died while still in the school. There is no evidence that ‘Alohikea, ‘Ilipua‘a, Kapu, and Nāmakahelu ever returned to Hawai‘i.
The haole missionaries found only a few of the twelve students who did return helpful.2 They complained that Hawai‘i’s ali‘i appropriated the Western skills of the returned Hawaiians, diverting them from church work, and that the Cornwall students were “puffed up” as a result. Honoli‘i, Kala‘i‘elua, Kalā‘aulana, Nālimahāuna, Palu, Tahiti, and Haia served as interpreters,
exhorters, schoolteachers, and printers. The missionaries wrote with considerable pride of Hopu. When Hopu married, the ceremony was called the “first Hawaiian Christian marriage,” but Hopu soon became one of the first Hawaiians to be excommunicated on a charge of adultery; later he was reinstated. Kamaho‘ula and Kanui were also excommunicated, although they too were eventually restored to the church. Kanui’s restoration came only after a long life of adventures including a sojourn in the goldfields of California where he made and lost a fortune. Kiela worked in Hawai‘i as a shoemaker.
None of the students disappointed more spectacularly than did Humehume, although the school had been aware of his shortcomings. The teachers of the Foreign Mission School were also aware that Humehume was the son of Kaumuali‘i, Mō‘ī of Kaua‘i, and had hoped to use the “prince” to their advantage. But when Humehume was reunited with his father, he quickly returned to the old ways, and then launched an unsuccessful rebellion against rival claimants to his birthright. Still, if some of the Cornwall students faltered, nothing could diminish the shining example of ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia, proof of the “blessing” wrought by civilization and Christianity. Haole missionaries were heard to say that ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia was more good to them dead than alive.
The early companies of haole missionaries realized that their best hopes lay not with the returned Cornwall students, but rather with the forbearance of the ali‘i, Hawai‘i’s reigning chiefs. The missionaries labeled the ali‘i “kings” and “queens” and “princes” and “princesses” with little understanding of the Hawaiian political and social order, but they did comprehend that to reach the people, the cooperation of the ali‘i was essential.3 In this sense, the ali‘i became missionaries to their own people. Ali‘i tolerance of the Christian faith led to assistance, and eventually, for some of the ali‘i, conversion to Christianity. A year before the coming of the missionaries, Ka‘ahumanu and Keōpuōlani, the most powerful figures of their era, completed a process of cultural change that had been going on since the first contact, by forcing Liholiho to break the ‘ai noa, the prohibition against women eating with men. That act in effect brought down the whole ‘ai kapu. Ka‘ahumanu, Kuhina Nui (loosely, prime minister) to Lihiliho, Kamehameha II, would prove to be the missionaries’ most valuable ally. She led a literacy campaign and mandated a rigid program of public Christian worship. Following her conversion, she cooperated with the missionaries by enacting a series of regulations that prohibited murder, theft, and prostitution, along with the so-called “blue laws” that forbade alcohol, smoking, and work on the Sabbath.
The ali‘i were the real founders of the Hawaiian churches. It was through their authority that churches were built, that education was introduced, that laws were enacted, and that the old gods were disowned. Kuakini, Kia‘āina of the island of Hawai‘i, began the construction of Hawai‘i’s first church, Mokuaikaua. Ka‘ahumanu and Kaikio‘ewa (Ali‘i Nui of Kaua‘i), Kalanimōkū (Ali‘i Nui of Maui), and Kekauha‘akulou (Ali‘i Nui of Kaua‘i) donated land and commandeered a labor supply for the construction of immense grasshut churches. The building of O‘ahu’s Kawaiaha‘o Church began when Kamehameha III, although he was hardly an enthusiastic convert, convened a council of chiefs and missionaries to plan for a coral stone structure to seat thousands. Ali‘i Nui Kapi‘olani defied the wrath of Pele, an event that made for inspiring sermons and one so dramatic that the news spread to far-off shores. Alfred Tennyson wrote of Kapi‘olani who flung Pele’s sacred ‘ōhelo berries into her pit, and Thomas Carlyle described a Kapi‘olani “nerved to the sticking point” as she carried out her act of defiance. Such notices however romanticized, aided the missionary cause of worldwide conversion to Christianity.
Modern-day historians of the early mission period have found fertile ground in the histories of ali‘i conversions, and have pointed out that the ali‘i were well aware of the political opportunities that came with acceptance of the new ways.4 Others have written of the psychological stress exacted by the imposition of Western moral and religious values on traditional Hawaiian beliefs and practices. A case in point is Marjorie Sinclair’s biography of Nāhi‘ena‘ena, sister and consort to Kamehameha III. The conflicts between Christianity and the ancient ways drove this sacred daughter of Kamehameha I and Keōpūolani to near insanity.5
BUILDING A NATIVE PASTORATE
With the cooperation of the ali‘i, the missionaries planned to convert the Kingdom through a program of evangelistic meetings (called “protracted meetings” because they were often held over several days) and Christian-based education. To carry out this program, a corps of native teachers, preachers, and government leaders was needed. Before theological schools were developed in Hawai‘i, some of the haole missionaries took on promising Native Hawaiians and trained them in apprenticeship programs that combined
theological study and practical experience in leading Native Hawaiian congregations. This was true on most of the islands. So, for example, on O‘ahu, John ‘Ī‘ī studied with Hiram Bingham in Honolulu; James Kekela, John Hanaloa, Solomon Kahoohalahala, and Naiapaakai studied with John Emerson at Waialua; and Zahariah Hapuku, A. Kaoliko, and Stephen Waimalu studied with Artemas Bishop at ‘Ewa. On Maui Davida Malo, Daniel ‘Ī‘ī, and Bartimea Puaaiki studied with William Richards in Lahaina. On Hawai‘i Island, James Hunnewell Moku studied with William Baldwin in Hilo, and J. W. Kupakee, George P. Kaonohimaka, S. W. Papaula, and George W. Pilipo studied with John Paris in Kealakekua.
To meet the need for a more advanced program of study than the government schools could provide, at its general meeting in 1831 the mission voted to found an institution of higher learning to be located on Maui and to be called Lahainaluna. Ka‘ahumanu and Ulumāhiehie Hoapili granted land for the new school. Lorrin Andrews was chosen as the first principal. Other instructors, all ordained ministers in the early years of the school, were Ephraim Clark, Sheldon Dibble, John Emerson, William Alexander, and T. Dwight Hunt. The founders of the school chose a site located in the heights above Lahaina, overlooking but separated from the perceived evil influences of the busy and worldly port town.
The school is commonly known as Lahainaluna, but in 1837 the official name was changed to Mission Seminary. (At that time the term “seminary” meant simply an institution of learning, one not necessarily concentrating on theological studies.) Instruction was in the Hawaiian language. The school offered a rigorous arts and sciences curriculum. Although some modern-day critics scorn the early missionaries for their role in the destruction of traditional Hawaiian culture, Lahainaluna teachers can be credited for their efforts to record and preserve memories of the past. Students were encouraged to seek out their kūpuna, their elders, and to collect their stories.
A major event of the school year was the hō‘ike when students presented evidence of what they had learned. The hō‘ike took place in a kukui grove, and was known to students as “Ulukukui o Kaukaweli” (Candlenut Grove of Dread), so named not only because of the examiner’s bad temper, but also because the kukui grove was near the anatomy building where the school skeletons were stored.
Lahainaluna’s Mission Press turned out thousands of pages of Hawaiian language material to use as class textbooks, and also the Kingdom’s first newspaper Ka Lama, portions of the Bible, and the first history of the islands. The modern scholar David Forbes acknowledges the printing and engraving
skills mastered by Lahainaluna’s Hawaiian students and dignifies their contribution by naming them and supplying known details of their lives.6 The print shop was so successful that the first currency of the monarchy was printed there in 1843; it did not take long for an enterprising student printer to be caught counterfeiting the bills in 1844, forcing the government to have all of the money reprinted with secret marks.
In 1849 the ABCFM withdrew its financial support and the school was turned over to the public school system of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. It continues to this day as an island public high school. Lahainaluna produced a number of distinguished religious, scholarly, and governmental leaders. The most famous graduates were Davida Malo and Samuel Kamakau. Both wrote histories that remain essential sources for those who would access the traditional Hawaiian world.
A number of Lahainaluna graduates volunteered for foreign mission work. James Kekela and Samuela Kauwealoha persisted in their difficult and unyielding missions in the Marquesan Islands for over fifty years. Alexander Kaukau joined the Marquesan mission, although family tragedies led to his return to Hawai‘i after nine years in the field. Opunui, a member of Lahainaluna’s first graduating class, was a pioneer ABCFM missionary in the Marshall Islands, as were Hezekiah Aea and David Kapali. J. W. Kanoa’s Butaritari mission is known to an international public through the descriptions in Robert Louis Stevenson’s In the South Seas. Joel Mahoe was honored as “Gallant Pastor of Tarawa” in mission literature, recalling a time when he had been shot and seriously wounded in an island war.
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, several Lahainaluna graduates combined their ministerial careers with government service as legislators and judges. The best known of these were Luther Aholo, George Pilipo, and James Kauhane.
When, in 1870, church leaders gathered at Kawaiaha‘o and Kaumakapili churches for a Jubilee Celebration of the mission’s fiftieth anniversary, Lahainaluna graduates played a prominent part in the celebration. Grateful tributes to their Lahainaluna years flowed from the pastors. Samuela Kauwealoha, home on furlough from the Marquesan mission, spoke of his debt to Lahainaluna. Fulfillment of his overseas mission, Kauwealoha said, was his repayment. “It is all I can do.” Malo was long dead by then, but his is perhaps the most enduring tribute to Lahainaluna: “O keia ke kukui pio ole i ka makani o Kawa’ula” (an older spelling of Kaua‘ula). With reference to the Kawa‘ula winds that sweep down from the Maui uplands, Malo
speaks of Lahainaluna as the torch that cannot be extinguished, even by these Kawa‘ula gales.
Christian doctrines were embedded in all the classes at Lahainaluna, but beginning in 1843, Sheldon Dibble drew promising students from the general student body for classes solely devoted to theological training. These students, most notably Davida Malo, went on to assist in churches and Malo was one of the few who was eventually ordained and was briefly pastor of his own church.
When theological training was de-emphasized at Lahainaluna, a series of pastoral schools were founded to carry on that mission. William Alexander’s pastoral training school at Wailuku, Maui, begun in 1843 and reorganized in 1863 as the Wailuku Theological School, lasted until 1872. Of its seventythree pupils, forty-nine were licensed to preach and twenty-two eventually became ordained pastors.
On the island of Hawai‘i, Titus Coan supervised an informal school for Hawaiian pastors, one that seemed to be more a counseling service than a school. Coan’s charismatic preaching style, one not always to the liking of older Calvinist ministers, influenced several of his pupils, especially those who later traveled to the Gilbert Islands as missionaries. In all, Coan trained twelve Native Hawaiian foreign missionaries and nineteen pastors who worked in the home islands. Coan’s particular contribution to the missionary agenda was to assist Hawaiian pastors in organizing rural churches near Hilo and ordaining them to preside over these churches.7
For Hawaiian theological students, the path to full acceptance as ministers was slow. Not until 1842 did the mission begin to license Native Hawaiians to preach. The first to receive such a license was Bartimea Lalana Puaaiki. Davida Malo in 1843 was the second to be licensed. However, only twelve Native Hawaiians were licensed by 1860 and these worked only under the supervision of haole ministers.
Church Offices Held by Native Hawaiians
Sub-pastor, assistant pastor, junior pastor: these were usually unordained, pastoral training offices in which candidates for ministry worked under a haole pastor and performed all of the duties of a regular pastor except administering the rites of baptism, marriage, and the Lord’s Supper—all sacramental ordinances that were reserved for ordained clergy.
Licensed preacher: an ordained office that usually required some form of study and supervised experience.
Pastor: usually conferred after formal study, examination, and a period of supervised ministry.
Supply preacher, supply pastor, acting pastor: short appointments by licensed preachers or ordained pastors for the purpose of supplying vacant churches until a regular pastor could be found. In some cases, short-term appointments could last for several years.
Evangelist: similar to a licensed preacher but reserved for specialized ministry. There were several types of evangelists. Traveling evangelists worked among several island churches, surveying, mediating, and strengthening the congregation. Musical evangelists were more common in the later years of the nineteenth century, moving from church to church. Home evangelists traveled about in the larger cities, ministering to strangers, wanderers, and the sick.
Missionary: there were several types of missionaries who worked abroad, and especially in the islands of the Pacific. Many such missionaries were ordained in the field by visiting church delegates. In the early years of the mission there were “assistants” and “helpers” who went out as missionaries but worked primarily in haole missionary households. There were missionary teachers and catechists, not all of whom were ordained, who ran schools and provided religious instruction. And there were ordained pastors who also served as missionaries with responsibility for operating overseas churches. Many such missionaries were graduates of Lahainaluna.
Elders, trustees, deacons: these were the principal ordained offices of local congregations. Elders and trustees usually ran the affairs of the congregation, calling ministers, building churches, operating programs, and looking after financial affairs. Deacons were usually the benevolent arm of the congregation, ministering to the sick and those in need. In practice, the responsibilities of the three congregational offices often overlapped.
Mission authorities were especially cautious about formal ordination of Native Hawaiian pastors, but in 1849 James Kekela became the first Hawaiian to receive this distinction. During the next year, Samuela Kauwealoha and Stephen Waimalu were ordained pastors, followed in 1852 by Davida Malo, and in 1854 by A. Kaukau and Moses Kuaea. All of these ministers led eventful careers, three as foreign missionaries and three as cultural and political leaders. The eminent historian Ralph Kuykendall found it “fitting to record the names of these men, the first Hawaiians who were accounted worthy to be ordained to the Christian ministry.” Notable, however, is Kuykendall’s rationalization of mission policy: “The missionaries were reluctant to incur the risk to their cause which might result from the failure of some Native Hawaiian prematurely entrusted with such responsibility.”8
Hawaiian ministers entered a rapidly changing society. By a process of education and proselytization, Christianity spread rapidly through the Hawaiian island chain. By 1853, virtually all the native population had some affiliation with a Christian church. Progress for the haole missionaries, however, did not follow an unbroken line of successes. There was a great falling off in the 1830s, when it became obvious to Hawaiians that improvement in their conditions and status did not automatically come with their conversion to Western ways. Neither Christianity nor literacy could halt the ravages of foreign diseases. Tragically, the great measles and smallpox epidemics of 1848–1849 and 1853 decimated the congregations, and areas of Hawai‘i Island became so depopulated that many of the outlying chapels, built during a period of growth, were abandoned and fell into ruin.
In 1863 the American Board declared Hawai‘i a Christian nation, one expected to assume the local management and financial support of its own churches. For years ABCFM president Rufus Anderson had urged missionaries in Hawai‘i to focus on developing a Native Hawaiian ministry. And when they did not, Anderson scolded them for their failure. When the ABCFM withdrew from Hawai‘i, Anderson visited the islands to urge the process along and to insist on the creation of a strong native ministry. The newly formed Hawaiian Evangelical Association and its governing Hawaiian Board assumed management of Protestant church affairs in Hawai‘i. Resident haole ministers questioned the wisdom of this change in governance, and especially the reliance on Native Hawaiian leadership, but Anderson’s recommendations stood and were carried out. Large parishes, formerly under the control of haole ministers, were broken up and within
ten years, twenty-two churches became fifty-eight in number, only six of these under haole leadership.
After long delays and foot-dragging by haole pastors, the departure of the ABCFM was the catalyst that finally led to important gains for Native Hawaiians, including: 1) the designation of Hawaiian as the official language of the HEA; 2) a change of governance so that Native Hawaiians would make up at least one-third of the membership of the newly created Hawaiian Board; 3) a new status for the churches, as Native Hawaiians began to be ordained in larger numbers and as churches were turned over to Native Hawaiian pastors; 4) increased participation in decision making as ministerial and lay delegates from all over the islands met yearly to receive reports and coordinate work; and 5) increased responsibility of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association for the recruitment, examination, and ordination of Native Hawaiian missionaries for service abroad. Although more changes were needed to create an effective Hawaiian ministry, the creation of an independent Hawaiian church was the basis for all subsequent changes.
After the ABCFM withdrew from Hawai‘i, Native Hawaiian pastors increasingly became more independent. Many of the haole ministers believed that this independence had come too soon. Titus Coan said he was often asked how the Hawaiian pastors were faring. “When subordinate, they are more docile and respectful; when on a parity, they sometimes show a disposition to be assuming and discourteous, an effect occasionally seen elsewhere in men on a sudden elevation,” Coan wrote.9
When reports questioning the adequacy of the native ministry reached the ABCFM, a decision was made to re-enter Hawai‘i, but only in a limited way by financing a new training school for Hawaiian pastors. To head the school, the Board chose the intellectual and energetic Charles McEwen Hyde.
Hyde’s pastoral school, grandly named the North Pacific Missionary Institute (NPMI), was located near what is now the corner of Punchbowl Street and South Beretania Avenue. The school had existed earlier as the Theological Seminary headed by J. D. Paris, but the aged and ill Paris had announced that he could no longer continue.
Hyde organized an ambitious three-year curriculum. The faculty consisted of Hyde, S. E. Bishop, H. H. Parker, and Moses Kuaea, the only Native Hawaiian ever to teach at the school. Classes were in Hawaiian and English. Hyde had great difficulty in procuring suitable textbooks. Standard theological texts such as Amos Binney’s Theological Compendium (1839), he
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hablauan, ni en el puesto ni meneo mostrauan algun descuydo deshonesto, y solamente se reyan de aquellos que hasta entonçes por solo el hábito, estado y opinion venerauan honrrauan y obedeçian pensando que en si fuessen de algun valor y preçio: y agora se acusan por verdaderos ydiotas engañados, pues ven por experiençia desto sus desmanes, su poco recogimiento y poca vergüença. Quando los ven tan desordenados, descomedidos en su comer y beber, tan infames y disolutos en sus injurias, con tantas vozes y grita por tan façiles y ligeras ocasiones venir á las manos y cabello; y sobre todo me admiraua ver aquel monstruo de naturaleza Alcidamas cura de San Nicholas tan desbaratado en su vibir y costumbres, obras, conuersaçion, que nos dexó confusos y admirados a quantos estauamos alli. Sin empacho ninguno de las dueñas hazia cosas de su cuerpo y partes vergonçosas, y dezia de su lengua que avn avria empacho de lo dezir y hazer vn muy profano joglar
M .—Por çierto que me has admirado, gallo, con tu tan horrenda historia, o por mejor dezir, atroz tragedia. ¡Quán
comun cosa es faltar los hombres de su mayor obligaçion! Supliquemos a nuesto Señor los haga tan buenos que no herremos en los imitar, y merezçan con su ofiçio inpetrar graçia de nuestro Señor para sí, y para nos, y auisemos de oy más a todos los perlados que pues en la iglesia son pastores deste ganado no permitan que en los tales auctos y çelebridades de misas nueuas aya estos ayuntamientos, porque vengan a tanto desman.
G .—Ya, Miçilo, quiero dexar guerras y contiendas y heridas y muertes de honbres con las cuales te he escandalizado hasta aqui, y quiero que agora oyas la más alta y más feliçissima nauegaçion que nunca a honbres aconteçio. En fin oyras vna admirable ventura que te quiero contar, la qual juntamente con el prospero suçeso te dara tanto deleyte que holgarás grandemente de le[980] oyr; y pues es ya venido el dia abre la tienda, que en el canto que se sigue lo oyras.
Fin del deçimo septimo canto del gallo.
NOTAS:
[845] G., segun tengo entendido por tu esperimentada narraçion es la mejor y más segura.
[846] me ha pareçido
[847] G., que comunmente en semejantes lugares suelen passar
[848] G., monstruosas y prodigiosas.
[849] G., puedan entretener el tiempo.
[850] R., Jambulo.
[851] R., de oçeano.
[852] G., escriuan.
[853] G , y
[854] G., del dezir.
[855] G , poeta
[856] G., con tu.
[857] G , prometiste
[858] G., en ello hago ser publico el desorden y poca templança con que esta gente consagrada toma semejantes ayuntamientos; los quales les auian de ser vedados por sus perlados y juezes, y a estos querria yo ser destos relactor, porque lo podrian remediar, antes que no a tí; porque en contartelo solo doy ocasion con mi lengua a que auiendo tú plazer, te rias y mofes de aquella consagrada caterua qne está en la tierra en lugar de la diuina magestad.
[859] G., que jures de no lo.
[860] G., será.
[861] G., el fundamento.
[862] G , fiesta
[863] G., tenía.
[864] G , llamaua
[865] G., que no se si le conoçiste. Este mançebo.
[866] G , y el
[867] G., de su parte.
[868] G., eran muchos.
[869] G., de la historia.
[870] G., del año.
[871] G., solenidad.
[872] G., boluimonos.
[873] G., alli.
[874] G., auia otra.
[875] G , el missa cantano
[876] G., otra mano.
[877] G , de San Julian
[878] G., su.
[879] G , gran
[880] G., se sento.
[881] G , fueron
[882] G., por ser más viejo.
[883] G , que la sçiençia son canas en el hombre [884] G., asentó.
[885] G , asento
[886] Y luego dixo.
[887] G , de la Gramatica
[888] R. (Nota marginal) Gramatica. Figura antiptosis est casus pro casu posi.
[889] G , notandolos de ambiçiosos, glotones y de poco sosiego: fingiendose todos tener cuenta con el plato, pero más la tenian con lo que entre los clerigos pasaua
[890] G., tras.
[891] G., que rodauan.
[892] G , pastel
[893] G., de la sala.
[894] G , agora, como sali
[895] G., apresuré por acabar presto lo misa, que avu no me sufria.
[896] G., ser.
[897] G , entre
[898] R. (Tachado) has de saber que.
[899] G , la arroxo
[900] G., quebro.
[901] G , y no
[902] G., rodeaua.
[903] G , por todas
[904] G., a las.
[905] G , grande
[906] G., prestando y cambiando auia adquerido.
[907] G, y vituperaua
[908] G., mugeres; y ansi, pensandolo remediar Aristeneto dandole muy bien a beber y que con esto le haria su amigo, ansi mando.
[909] G , y en alta voz, que todos con silençio le oyeron, hablando con la muger de Aristeneto, madre de misa cantano: señora Magençia (que ansi se llamaua) yo bebo a tí; y mira que has de beber otro tanto del vaso como yo bebiere, so pena que no lo beuiendo se arroxe lo que quedare sobre ty; y alçando la copa bebio della casi vn azumbre y luego la mando tornar a enchir, y estendiendo el braço la dio a Magençia, diziendola que sino beuia incurreria en la pena puesta y que la abrá de executar; y Magençia encogiendose con gran verguença, diziendo que no acostumbraua beuer, reusó el vaso con miedo que Alçidamas no la afrontasse; y teniendo lo mesmo los combidados trabajaron por le apartar fuera, pero él juró por sus ordenes que sino daua vn fiador que beuiesse por ella que se lo auia de derramar acuestas; y el cura de San Miguel, que alcançaua buena parte
deste menester se leuantó y dando a entender que lo hazia por defender a la señora huespeda y empedir que no la afrontasse Alçidamas, pues este se leuantó de su lugar y saliendo en el medio de la sala dixo a Alçidamas: dame acá la copa, que yo quiero cumplir por la señora Magençia; y ansi tomando el vaso en sus manos beuio vn terrible golpe, que a juizio de todos igualó
[910] G., amago determinado de arrojar sobre Magençia lo que en el vaso quedó, pero el cura.
[911] G , tomó
[912] G., y hizole.
[913] G , y Eustochio, cura de San Martin, porque a todos auia injuriado con sus donayres; y por el contrario, en fabor de Alçidamas, por ser sus vezinos y amigos viejos se leuantaron el sacristan de San Miguel y el cura de San Juan y el cura de San Pedro y el cura de Santa Marina.
M Que, alli vino el cura de San Pedro? no faltarian gargajos y importunidad en su vejez
G . Alli vino con asco y desgraçia de todos; que en vna silla le truxieron porque estaua muy enfermo.
[914] G , arroxadas
[915] G., como graniço.
[916] G , en
[917] G., a que las damas çerrassen las orejas y avn los ojos.
[918] G , y ansi a este tono si
[919] G., este tiempo.
[920] G , con vna cuerda
[921] G., de la sala, començaron.
[922] G , de sautoriçada
[923] G., y proçedio el.
[924] G , por mi amor
[925] G., hazian.
[926] G , dexauan
[927] G., limpiarse el.
[928] G., suçias maneras de festejar, porque avn viles joglares se desdeñarian tratarlas, por no perder credito con el auditorio.
Estando en esto que todos callauan
[929] Falta este epígrafe en el ms.
[930] G , ayas
[931] G., mio.
[932] G , fue infamado con peligro y jatura de mi honrra
[933] G., que tenía.
[934] G , injurias
[935] G., los.
[936] diziendo tú a todos que
[937] G., los.
[938] G , en
[939] G., ay estan en tu.
[940] G , bueluas
[941] G., lo.
[942] G , dixe
[943] G., la oyste.
[944] G , començaron todos a murmurar
[945] G., vnos dezian que era aguda, a lo menos los amigos de Etemocles, y dezian que era muy sabiamiente escripta, que bien pareçia ser de letrado. Los contrarios dezian que no era muy cuerda y acusauan a Etemocles de hombre gloton y dezian que la auia escripto como afrontado por no le aver combidado a la fiesta y comida. Estando...
[946] G., graciosa.
[947] G., representó ingeniosamente la proçesion que hacen los portugueses el dia de Corpus Cristi y predicó el sermon que ellos suelen predicar el dia que celebran la batalla del Aljubarrota
[948] G., despues tañendo con su laud començó en copla de repente a motejar a todos quantos estauan en la mesa, sin perjudicar ni afrontar a ninguno, y reyendo donayres.
[949] G , con el
[950] G., dexando el.
[951] G , procuró por le
[952] G., tomo.
[953] G , osasse
[954] G., y cruel como de la Farsalia.
[955] G., acudio.
[956] G., y que el xoglar auia dado a Alçidamas con el palo vn gran golpe que le descalabró mal De manera que todos aquellos curas fueron por el semejante heridos, qual en la cabeça, qual en el rostro; por lo qual fue neçesario que todos los lleuassen a sus posadas a los curar Pues echada toda aquella gente arriscada fuera de la sala, se alçaron las mesas y se tornaron los que quedaron a sosegar Pero como el diablo nunca sosiega de meter mal y dar ocasion a que suçeda siempre peor, suçedio que Cleodemo, padrino, boluiendo a la carta de Etemocles, porque sintio afrontado a Aristeneto y avn a aquellos religiosos que junto a si tenía, dixo: ¿qué os parecede las elegantes razones de Etemocles?
[957] G , torta
[958] G., el.
[959] G , la
[960] G., que la carta venia elegante muy cuerdamente escripto y como de letrado.
[961] G , por lo qual
[962] G., principalmente porque en lo que yo he dicho ninguna injuria le hize, pues de todos es conoçido Etimoclides bien de quantos aqui estan, y no me marauillo que responda por él, pues ambos tienen hecho liga y monipodio en el trato de sus feligreses, y ansi an jurado ambos a dos de no enterrar a ninguno en su feligresia
[963] G., le dio con la copa de vino en el rostro, que le enuistio todo del, y luego Zenotemides tomó a Cleodemo por la sobrepelliz y le truxo al suelo y hizole dar con el rostro y cabeça en vn vanco, de que mal le descalabró. En fin los frayles y misa cantano y los demas los apartaron, y fue neçesario que Cleodemo se fuesse luego a su casa a curar, y tambien Zenothemides se fue. Pues purgada la casa de todos aquellos
arriscados y belicosos capitanes, porque todos fueron de tres recuentros heridos y sacados del campo, como te he contado...
[964] G., enbobeçidos.
[965] G., ver en gente de tanto exemplo tanto desman.
[966] G., pensaron que hazer.
[967] G., como fue echada.
[968] G., llegosse.
[969] G , Dionico al misa cantano
[970] G., entiznole.
[971] G , y llenaronle fuera de
[972] G., del.
[973] G , homo M Propriamente lo pudo dezir
[974] G., todo el lugar.
[975] G , Dime, gallo, en el entretanto que estas cosas pasauan, ¿que pensauas tú?
[976] G., cosas se çelebrauan pensaua yo otras muchas.
[977] G , alta
[978] G., letras.
[979] G , ellas
ARGUMENTO DEL DEÇIMO OCTAUO CANTO
DEL GALLO
En el deçimo octauo canto o sueño que se sigue el auctor muestra los grandes daños que en el mundo se siguen por faltar la verdad[981] de entre los hombres.
M .—Pues por tu buena ventura, gallo, o Pithagoras, o como más te quisieres llamar, de todas las cosas tienes esperiençia que en el çielo y en la tierra pueden aconteçer agora: yo deseo mucho de ti saber me declares vna admirable dubda que grauemente atormenta mi spiritu sin poder hallar quién me satisfaga con bastante respuesta. ¿De dónde prouiene en algunos
vna insaçiable cobdiçia de mentir en quanto hablan, en tanta manera que a sí mesmos con sumo deleyte se saborean, como sepan que todo es vanidad quanto dizen, y con suma efficaçia tienen en atençion los animos de los oyentes?
G .—Muchas cosas son ¡o Micilo! las que fuerçan algunas vezes los hombres a mentir. Como es en los belicosos y hombres de guerra se tiene por ardid saber con mentira engañar al enemigo, como en esta arte fue muy sagaz y industrioso Ulises; y tanbien lo vsan los cobdiçiosos de riquezas y honrras mundanas por vender sus mercaderias y auentajarse en sus contrataçiones. Pero avnque todo esto sea ansi te ruego me digas la ocasion que a saberlo te mueue?
M .—Todo eso se sufre que me has dicho por ofreçerse en esos casos intereses que a mentir os[982] mueue Pero donde no se les ofreçe interes de más que satisfazer[983] su apetito, ¿de dónde les viene la inclinaçion a tan nefando y odioso viçio? Que ay hombres que en ninguna cosa ponen más arte, cuydado y industria que en mentir sin algun interes como al presente te quiero
contar Bien conoçes a Demophon nuestro vezino.
G —¿Es este rico que está en nuestra vezindad?
M .—Ese mesmo. Ya sabes que abrá ocho dias que se le murio su muger. Pues a esta causa por ser mi vezino y amigo que sienpre me combidó a sus çenas y çelebridades, quisele yr la noche passada a visitar y consolar en su viudez.
G .—Antes auias de dezir[984] a le dar la buena pro haga.
M .—Pues auianme dicho que con el gran pessar que tenía de la muerte de su muger estaua enfermo, y ansi le hallé en la cama muy afligido y llorando, y como yo entré y le saludé me reçibio con alguna liberalidad mandandome sentar en vna silla que tenía muy cerca de sí, y despues que le vbe dicho aquellas palabras que se suelen dezir en el comun: señor, pessame de la muerte de vuestra muger y de vuestro mal; començele a inportunar me dixesse qué era la causa que de nueuo le hazia verter lagrimas auiendo ya algunos dias que se le auia muerto la muger. A lo qual me respondio, que no se le ofreçia cosa que más nueua le
fuesse que auersele muerto la muger, su compañera la que él tanto amó[985] en esta vida y de que tanto se deuia perpetuamente acordar[986] , y dixome que estando alli en su cama solo la noche passada en consideraçion de la[987] soledad y miseria que le quedaua sin su[988] amada Feliçia, que ansi se llamaua su muger, pessandole mucho por auerla desgraçiado[989] poco antes de su muerte[990] , porque rogandole ella que le renouasse çiertas joyas de oro y faldrillas que ella tenía de[991] otro tiempo, no lo auia hecho, y que estando muy apesarado pensando en esto, por no le auer complazido le apareçio Feliçia increpandoles porque auiendole sido en todo muy cunplido y liberal, auia sido muy corto en lo que más hazia[992] a su honrra, porque en su entierro y obsequias no la auian acompañado el cabildo mayor y cantores con musica, y porque no la auian tañido las campanas con solenidad, que llaman enpino, y que la lleuaron al tenplo en vnas comunes andas auiendola de lleuar en ataud; y otras cosas dixo del paño que ençima de si lleuaua[993] , si era de brocado, luto o seda. Lo qual todo pareçiendome muy grandes
disparates y liuiandades me reí diziendo que se consolasse mucho, que buen remedio tenía tornando de nueuo a hazer las obsequias; y por pareçerle que yo no lo creya lo trabajó apoyar con grandes juramentos, y por que via que mientra él más juraua yo menos le creya, se leuantó en camisa de la cama y se abajó inclinado de rodillas en el suelo señalándome con el dedo las señales de sus pies que alli auia dexado y imprimido, y estaua todo el suelo tan llano y tan igual que no se hallara vn cabello de differençia aunque tuuierades ojos de linçe; y ansi por me persuadir su sueño se tornó a la cama donde sentado y mandándose encorporar de[994] almohadas que le tuuiessen proçedio en cosas tan monstruosas y tan sin orden acerca de su sueño y vision, y en loor de su mujer que no huviera[995] en el mundo tan vano juizio que las creyera[996] , hasta que quebrada la cabeça de le oyr[997] me despedi dél y me vine[998] acostar.
G .—Verdad es ¡o, Miçilo! que esas cosas que Demophon ay te conto no son de creer de razonable juizio, porque ya te he dicho lo que en la buelta de las
almas de los defuntos ay[999] . Pero mira bien no incurras tú en vn genero de incredulidad que tienen algunos hombres, que ninguna cosa les dizen por façil y comun que sea que la quieran creer; pero marauillandose de todo, se espantan y santiguan y todo dizen que es mentira y monstruosidad. Lo qual todo es argumento de poca esperiençia y saber. Porque como no han visto nada, ni han leydo nada, qualquiera cosa que de nueuo vean les pareçe ser hecho[1000] por arte de encantamiento o embaymiento, y por el semejante, qualquiera cosa que de nueuo oyan y[1001] les digan se encogen, espantan y admiran, y tienen por aueriguado que la fingen siendo mentira por vurlar dellos y los engañar. Pero los sabios, los que todo lo han visto, los que todo lo han leydo, todo lo menospreçian, todo lo tienen en poco, y ansi passando adelante lo rien y mofan y tachan y reprehenden, mostrando auer ellos visto mucho más sin comparaçion. Ansi agora tú considera que no es peor estremo, no creer nada, que creerlo todo, y piensa que ninguna cosa puede imaginar el entendimiento humano que no pueda ser, y que marauilla es que
todo lo que puede ser, sea de hecho ya y acontezca. Pues ansi agora yo, Miçilo, me temo si no quieres creer cosa de quantas hasta agora te he dicho, y pienses y sospeches que todo ha sido mentira y fingido por te dar passamiento, y ansi creo que menos creras vn admirable aconteçimiento que agora te queria contar, porque junto con lo que hasta aqui te he contado exçede en admiraçion sin comparaçion alguna a lo que Demophon tu vezino te persuadio auer visto.
M .—Mira, gallo, que entendido tengo que todas las cosas verdaderas que se dizen si bien se quieren mirar muestran en sí vna verisimilitud que fuerçan al entendimiento humano a las creer; porque luego representan y reluze en ellas aquella deidad de la verdad que tienen en sí, y después desto tiene gran fuerça la auctoridad del que las dize, en tanta manera que avn la mesma mentira es tenida por verdad. Ansi que por todas estas razones soy forçado a que lo que tú dixeres te aya yo de creer; por lo qual, di, yo te ruego, con seguridad y confiança, que ninguna cosa que tú dixeres dubdaré, prinçipalmente que no ay marauilla alguna que me
marauille despues que vi a tí siendo gallo hablar nuestra lengua; por lo qual me persuades a creer que tengas alguna deydad de beatitud, y que por esta no podras mentir.
G .—Por cierto yo queria çesar ¡o Miçilo! de mi narraçion por auerla interrumpido con alguna señal de dubda. Dexaras en verdad de gozar de la más alta y más feliçissima historia que nunca hasta agora ingenio de historiador ha[1002] escripto, y prinçipalmente por narrartela yo que soy el que la passé. Pero por la seguridad que al credito y fe me tienes dada quiero proçeder, porque no quiero pribarte del gusto y deleyte admirable que en oyrla gozarás, y verás despues que la ayas oydo de quanto sabor te pribarás si por ignorar antes lo que era menos preçiaras de lo oyr, y conoçerás quanto amigo te soy y buen apaniguado y familiar, pues no estimando la injuria que me hazias con tu dubdar te comunico tan gran beatitud. Por tanto prestame atençion, que oy verás quan elegante rectorico soy. Tú sabras, que en vn tiempo siendo mançebo y cobdiçioso de ver, vino nueua en Castilla que se auian ganado en las partes oçidentales aquellas grandes
tierras de la Nueua España[1003] que nueuamente ganó aquel animoso marques del Valle, Cortés, y por satisfazer en alguna manera el insaçiable animo de mi deseo que tenía de ver tierras y cosas nueuas determinéme de enbarcar, y auenturarme a esta nauegaçion, y ansi en este mesmo deseo me fue para la çiudad y ysla de Caliz donde se hazia el flete mas conueniente y natural para semejante xornada; y llegado alli[1004] hallé diez conpañeros que con el mesmo affecto y voluntad eran venidos alli, y como en aquella çiudad venian muchos de aquella nueua tierra y nos dezian cosas de admiraçion, creçianos mas el apetito de caminar. Deziannos el natural de las gentes, las costumbres, atauio y dispusiçion; la diuersidad de los animales, aues, frutas y mantenimientos y tierra. Era tan admirable lo que nos dezian juntamente con lo que nos mostrauan los que de allá venian que no nos podiamos contener[1005] , y ansi juntandonos veynte compañeros todos mançebos y de vna edad, hecho pacto entre nosotros inuiolable de nunca nos faltar, y çelebradas las çerimonias de la[1006] amistad con juramento solene fletamos vn
nauio vezcayno velero y ligero, todos de bolsa comun, y con prospero tiempo partimos vn dia del puerto, encomendados a Dios, y ansi nos continuó siete dias siguientes hasta que se nos descubrieron las yslas fortunadas que llaman de Canaria. Donde tomado refresco[1007] despues de vista la tierra, con prospero tiempo[1008] tornamos a salir de alli y caminando por el mar al terçero dia de nuestro camino dos horas salido el sol haziendo claro y sereno el çielo dixeron los pilotos ver vna ysla de la qual no tenian notiçia ni la podian conoçer, de que estauan admirados y confusos por no se saber determinar, poniendonos en gran temor ansi a deshora, admirauanse más turbados de ver que la ysla caminaua más veniendo ella azia[1009] nosotros que caminauamos nosotros para ella. En fin en breue tiempo nos venimos tanto juntando que venimos a conoçer que aquella que antes nos pareçia ysla era vn fiero y terrible animal. Conoçimos ser vna vallena de grandeza increyble, que en sola la frente con un pedaço del çerro que se nos descubria sobre las aguas del mar juzgauamos auer quatro millas. Venia contra nosotros abierta la boca soplando muy
fiera y espantosamente que a diez millas haçia retener el nauio con la furia de la ola que ella arroxaua de sí; de manera que viniendo ella de la parte del poniente, y caminando nosotros con prospero leuante nos forçaua calmar, y avn boluer atras el camino. Venia desde lexos espumando y turbando el mar con gran alteraçion; ya que estuuimos más çerca que alcançauamos[1010] a verla más en particular pareçiansele los dientes tan terribles cada vno como vna montaña[1011] de hechura de grandes palas; blancos como el fino marfil. Venimos adelante a juzgar por la grandeza que se nos mostró sobre las aguas, ser de longura de dos mil leguas. Pues como nos vimos ya en sus manos y que no le podiamos huyr[1012] començamonos a abraçar entre los compañeros, y a darnos las manos con grandes lagrimas y alarido, porque viamos el fin de nuestra vida y compañia estar en aquel punto sin remedio alguno, y ansi dando ella un terrible empujon por el agua adelante y abriendo la boca nos tragó tan sin embaraço ni estorbo de dientes ni paladar que sin tocar en parte alguna con gauia, velas, xarçia y muniçion y obras muertas fuemos
