Journal of William Ellis – A Narrative of a Tour Through Hawaii in 1823

The Advertiser Historical Series No. 2 A Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii, or Owhyhee with remarks on the History, Traditions, Manners, Customs and Language of the Inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands. By William JEllis Missionary from the Society and Sandwich Islands Reprint of the London 1827 Edition With an Introduction By Lorrin A. Thurston Hawaiian Gazette Co., Ltd, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1917 The Author, Missionary from the Society and Sandwich Islands. INTEODTTCTIOKT BY LOEEIN A. THUESTON There lias recently been a growing demand, both on the part of permanent residents of and visitors to Hawaii, for specific informa tion concerning the history of Hawaii, more particularly of the period of transition from the ancient feudal system when the King and Chiefs had supreme and absolute power of life and death and the common people had no rights of person or property, to the era when constitutional guaranty of protection and the laws of civilization be came established. A comprehensive history of Hawaii has yet to be written. Its compilation will involve a vast amount of investigation and study, as the material is scattered through governmental and court records, pri vate correspondence and journals, newspapers and magazine articles while many matters, especially regarding the events leading up to an nexation, rest in the personal and unwritten knowledge of leading participants. Alexanders History, written for public school purposes, the best Hawaiian history now available, is necessarily condensed. Other books bearing upon various phases of Hawaiian life, were issued in limited editions, and moreover, are mostly out of print. Under these circumstances, it has been decided by the HawaiianGazette Co., Ltd., publishers of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, to meet the public desire for information by reprinting the more valuable of the out-of-print books and by collecting and publishing the per sonal memoirs, reminiscences and writings of some of the older resi dents of Hawaii, who are able to give first-hand evidence of what they have seen and heard, or to relate the traditions and evidence of what had previously transpired, obtained by them from those who have gone before. In pursuance of this decision the Eeminiseences of Old Hawaii, by Sereno Edwards Bishop, have been published in The Advertiser, and also published in book form, as No. 1 of The Advertiser His torical Series. This has been followed by the like publication in The Advertiser of A Tour Through Hawaii, with incidental remarks by Eev. Wil liam Ellis, an English Missionary to the South Pacific Islands, who visited Hawaii in 1822 and 1823 and lived here for about two years. This volume is the publication of the Tour in book form. The following is a resumS of the facts incident to the visit of Mr, Ellis to Hawaii, and of the publication of the Journal and the several editions of the Tour. The extension of missionary effort to Hawaii, by the American 6316065 Board of Foreign Missions, in 1820, was preceded, in the South. Pacific, by the London Mission Society, who, in 1796 despatched an expedition to, and early in 1797 established mission settlements at the Marquesas, Friendly and Society Islands. These missionaries suffered great hardship, assaults upon them being numerous and some were murdered. Owing to the frequent inter-tribal wars, some of the stations were abandoned, and it was not until the discouragingstruggle had been carried on for fifteen years that a change for the better took place after which progress at some of the stations was rapid. In 1822, a deputation from the home society visited the English Missions, and, in company with Bev. William Ellis, who had for six years been a missionary at the Society Islands, and two natives, extended their observations to Hawaii, where they intended to spend a few weeks. Owing to the exigencies of transportation, their stay was extended for four months…