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Chapter 5

LODGING AND LANGUAGE THE NEW WORLD

THE GENERAL religious, economic, and social fabric of the Kingdom of Hawaii at the time of the arrival of the Hyde family was summarized by son Henry Hyde:

Landing in Honolulu in June 1877, the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. S. N. Castle was thrown open to them and here their first impressions of Hawaiian life were received. The reciprocity treaty with the United States had but lately gone into effect. Under its provisions Hawaiian sugar was to be allowed free entry into American ports and an enormous and profitable market was thus opened for what was already the largest product of the islands. The stimulus thus afforded to the leading industry of the community gave a bright promise for its commercial future.

As yet it had not begun to effect the changes in the city which in the two succeeding decades practically transformed it. The social life of the community was delightfully simple, although the seeming unconventionally was often strictly limited by the rules of local etiquette.

The predominant element in business and social affairs being composed largely of the descendants of the missionary fathers and mothers there was a strict regard for the observance of religion's requirements . . . This created a distinctly religious atmosphere as well as a power to be reckoned with in connection with important undertakings. The majority of the foreign element was thus by birth and training disposed to entertain kindly feelings for the Hawaiians, not attempting to exploit them for their own advantage. . . The natives themselves for the most part cherished no ill-will against their white brethren . . . due in part to the wisdom displayed by Dr. Judd and his associates, who, when called upon to assist in the establishment of a civilized form of government, had been keen enough and loyal enough to their adopted land to maintain the native rulers and officials in their positions. No carpet-bagging schemes could be alleged against them; and the Hawaiians, thus upheld as the nominal rulers of the land at least, were not subjected to the indignities so often concomitant with the advance of Anglo-Saxon civilization.

They had been fearfully reduced in numbers since Capt. Cook's visit, when he estimated the population to be some four hundred thousand. The ravages of disease had practically decimated their numbers and they seemed unable to hold their ground in the midst of their new conditions. Superstition was alarmingly rife amongst them and to counteract this, together with its attendant train of fears, a fresh infusion of moral and intellectual courage was needed. Their simple wants were easily satisfied, for a day's wages would ordinarily suffice to provide for the family needs for a week. To arouse them from apathy, the sure fore-runner of decay, they must gain a new appreciation of the value of labor and education.¹

The number of engagements that were crowded into Dr. Hyde's calendar was incredible. On his first Sunday he preached at Kawaiahao, the great Hawaiian church, with his sermon translated into Hawaiian. In the afternoon he attended a prayer meeting aboard the missionary sailing vessel, Morning Star, shortly under way for Micronesia. That evening he preached at the Bethel, the original church for foreigners in Hawaii. The congregation was made up in part of visiting seamen.

Beginning June 5 the Hawaiian Evangelical Association held its annual meeting, its fourteenth since the changeover in 1863. Hyde had several "instant" memberships—election to the board of directors and appointment to four standing committees: foreign missions, publication, education and appropriations from the American Board. He also headed the list of preachers for home evangelization.

The Theological Seminary, the school he was to direct, stood in a compound in the general vicinity of Kawaiahao Church, Kawaiahao Female Seminary, the residences of the Cookes and Pogues and the Depository of the ABCFM. He drew a rough sketch of the area as one page in a June 19 letter to Clark in Boston.²

One other instant affiliation was effected; on June 23 Punahou School elected him as trustee. "The following trustees were elected by ballot. In place of E. H. Allen, resigned, Hon. A. F. Judd. In place of Revs. Mr. Frear and Pogue, whose terms expired this month, were elected Rev. W. Frear and Dr. C. M. Hyde."³ The minutes also speak of his assignment to the Education Committee of Punahou School a few days before election as a trustee.⁴

He did not have much time to enjoy the beauties of the Honolulu countryside. He was there to do church work and he plunged into it. The Theological Seminary, his basic mission in the islands, was renamed the North Pacific Missionary Institute.

Pastoral service in the Brimfield and Haverhill churches, preceded by experience as tutor, school teacher and school board member, had shown him the practical power of closely linking education and religion in evangelistic endeavors. Because of this, and the fact that it permeated his thinking all the rest of his life, excerpts are introduced here of some observations he made at the Hilo Boys Boarding School's jubilee:

. . . The Apostles . . . give this Gospel of God's grace its world-wide and lasting triumph by systematic teaching. An evident fact in the progress of Christian missions is that the teacher's platform occupies a position of coordinate importance with the pulpit of the preacher. In this Sandwich Islands Mission the School preceded the Church. As soon as a few of the natives had learned the art and mystery of written language they began at once to teach others the little knowledge they had acquired. In a short time the whole nation was at school.

But it was soon found that the meager attainments of these first teachers must be supplanted by wider knowledge and better skill, if education was to make any further progress. The old mustang methods of mental nurture must give place to the careful and orderly arrangements characteristic of organized and settled Christian communities. So it came to pass that the years from 1830 to 1840 were years of marked intellectual development as well as of wonderful spiritual change in the mission. No such numbers were ever before or since converted to Christ as during that decade. Never has there been such another period of book-making, especially for schools, as in those ten years. The eagerness of the Hawaiians to learn was met by the readiness of the missionaries to provide books for their instruction in the rudiments of knowledge, and also the elementary principles of the higher departments of learning; geometry and trigonometry in mathematics, universal history, grammar, political economy, moral science, systematic theology . . .

It is not sufficient to give a people or an individual the bare knowledge of important truth. If these truths are to influence the character, they can reach their highest effectiveness only as they become permanent principles of action. To do this, some length of time, and some varied experiences, are absolutely essential. In no other way can these essentials be so well secured as in the Christian "Home School," as in the records of the Mission these Boarding Schools are very frequently called. From the very beginning of the Mission, the Christian home has been held up before the Hawaiian people as the great object to be desired and sought in reorganizing society on these islands. For in the origin and development of Christianity the family rather than the individual has been presented as the unit in all methods of aggressive movement or of permanent growth . . .⁵

As Dr. Hyde wrote, so he acted. The program of studies, enriched with lectures, chores, socials, excursions, church meetings, and intellectual games, was but a reflection of his early experiences.

Insistent as the demands of the Institute came to be, he found it a necessity to pursue two rather unrelated goals immediately. The first of these had to do with family housing and the second with mastery of the native language.

Transactions by which a lot became available for the Hyde home moved along rapidly as soon as word reached Honolulu that the Hydes were coming. The Benjamin F. Dillinghams deeded a rather large piece of land on Beretania Street near Alapai Street to the Harvey Rexford Hitchcocks February 1. These people in turn deeded the property to Samuel N. Castle and the Rev. Elias Bond as trustees for the American Board June 27. The Hawaiian Board received $2000 from the American Board for construction of the house with $1500 to be raised locally. Dr. Hyde hurried the plans which were ready in mid-July, 1877. ". . . the house is plain, neat, commodious . . . I can assure you that we feel grateful enough for our home. The lot is a very large one, I have smoothed over the surface, kept out the weeds, let the grass cover it, and the lawn and trees make it most restful and attractive to every eye. The house is excessively plain, but the large, light rooms, and their whole arrangement give everyone the impression of a pleasant home . . . "⁶

In September 1878 construction and furnishing were well enough along that the Hydes could entertain the Rev. Elias Bond of Kohafa, Hawaii island, a substantial contributor to the American Board for salary and other expenses for the new arrivals. Hyde derived much comfort from the new house. ". . . I had the pleasure of entertaining Bro. Bond at dinner at my house. He was delighted with the arrangement and gratified at the economical yet tasteful finish . . . Every visitor is pleased with the plan of the house, and there is no house in Honolulu that surpasses it in economy of expenditure and convenience of arrangement . . . I do the chores myself."

There was a slight defensive tone in the letters. Someone from Honolulu had written that the Hyde home was a bit on the showy side. "So when you hear of the fine Establishment we keep up . . . please remember there is another side to the story. Yankee wit and thrift can 'Keep up appearances' and make a little go a great way. I have written you fully as you requested in regard to this matter . . . "⁷ He went on to say that Mrs. Hyde managed to do without any help in the kitchen except that paid student help did most of the washing and ironing.

Robert Louis Stevenson also was to arraign the home as a pretentious manse in his Open Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hyde of Honolulu.⁸

But Hyde needed no defense. The home became almost a public meeting and housing facility. The Social Science Association met there frequently as did the students of the Institute, and countless other individuals and groups came to enjoy the warm hospitality. The Hydes took in the missionaries stopping over from Micronesia, some of them sick, needing weeks and even months of rest and recuperation. The place was home, hospital, and hotel.

The Hydes renovated the buildings in 1892 and comment was made that "Mrs. Hyde's taste has put the rooms into such shape though at a very moderate cost, that a second Robert Louis Stevenson may grow green eyed with envy again at what money cannot do, but a little Yankee ingenuity can, taking material that other people would despise and by attention to the fitness of things, making a toute ensemble that is very charming to every eye . . . "⁹

One incident of Honolulu living illustrates the intimate annoyances to which people were subjected. "I did not mean to convey the impression that the mosquitoes, which troubled me at the time I wrote you, were a new pest. Far from it. They are the one continued drawback to comfort in rest or in labor every evening, seven times a week. But some evenings they are worse than usual. I found very soon after my arrival here that I must protect myself against them or my evenings and mornings too would all be lost. So I manufactured a canopy for my study table, and under cover of this I can generally defy the innumerable host of hungry and noisy insects. When I moved into the new house I enlarged the canopy and every evg if we wish to have any comfort reading or writing, or talking or listening, the whole family takes shelter within this mosquito-proof . . . "¹⁰

Dr. Hyde had not, until his arrival, heard a word spoken in the Hawaiian language. While he had given some thought to acquainting himself with the language, he encountered an urgency not to mere acquaintance but to mastery. That first Sunday morning, as he faced the great audience of natives in Kawaiahao, where he was preaching to the people he had come to serve and where his every phrase had to be translated, he made up his mind he would learn the language.

Said he after a few weeks had passed: "The spoken language is different from the English, making so much of the vowel sounds and paying so little attention to consonants, that it will require much practice to be perfect in it. Its grammatical construction is very simple, but there are a great many particles, expletives like That man there and The fire burned up everything where appropriate use seems more a matter of instinctive propriety than of regulated usage."¹¹

As the summer months passed he gained enough proficiency to attempt teaching oral English to the native students. Few methods can so quickly prepare a person in speaking a foreign language as this and it is quite likely he grew faster in Hawaiian than the new fall term students did in English. He elicited a pat on the back from a fellow minister: "You would have been gratified could you have heard with us Dr. Hyde's address of twelve minutes in Hawaiian without notes to a large audience in Kaumakapili Church last sabbath evening. . . ."¹² He was in his eighth month in Hawaii and the Hawaiian language!

He could say in another month that he could "find no difficulty in conducting a recitation in Hawaiian."¹³ At the end of the school term he proudly described his first annual report; "I wrote out a full report of the Institute (in Hawaiian) for the Ass'n and a similar report (in English) for the Board which I have just read this evening."¹⁴

Dr. Hyde spoke of one practice which certainly contributed to his orderly intimate understanding of the language. ". . . I am committing to writing every hint and suggestion I can get in regard to the language, hoping to make easier for others the work of acquiring the tongue."¹⁵

Nothing gives a better insight into Hyde's patience and persistence than a shoe-box sized container I recently stumbled upon at the Bishop Museum. It held these minutely pencilled notes of his on the Hawaiian language. Here even a cursory look speaks of a bonanza. Here is an incredible quantity of Hawaiian phrases and words—thousands—organized under numerous headings; name lists of Hawaiian ducks, bananas, fishes, and others; word lists for work, play, hulas, places; colloquial expressions, proverbs. The accumulation represents remarkable source material for the grammarian, the dictionary compiler, and the translator.

"The language," he said, "as spoken sounds to me like the broken speech of one without a palate. There are nice distinctions in the vowel sounds, hard for one to catch, whose tongue has been trained to the use of consonants. There is a guttural hitch or catch, which is cognizable rather by the throat in utterance than the ear in hearing."

On his first trip to any of the other islands he visited Maui and Hawaii. It was in August 1878 and was a hurried trip which could have almost been termed a "dictionary" trip. The venerable "Father" Lorenzo Lyons of Waimea, Hawaii, had, with the assistance of an old native over a three-year period, entered correct accents which had been entirely omitted by the Rev. Lorrin Andrews in his enlarged 1865 dictionary of the Hawaiian language.¹⁶ Dr. Hyde had his own copy of the Andrews dictionary rebound with blank pages inserted among the printed pages and at Waimea spent seven ten-hour days copying the accents. His biographer son comments that "these blank pages are now well filled with the finest of writing, containing words not incorporated in the Andrews edition, together with derivatives and shades of meaning. Every word of which he had made a study is marked and there are few words without these pencil notations. Some of the results of this language study he embodied in a Hawaiian Grammar published in 1896."¹⁷

His scholarly insight into the origins, the meanings of roots, the values of accent and elision, is nowhere more clearly evidenced than in his two-part paper in the short-lived Hawaiian Monthly, "Random Notes on the Hawaiian Language." Here he presents useful comparisons of root meanings, points out errors in accepted versions of definitions, and discusses double meanings. He characterizes the language as "not monosyllabic like the Chinese, nor inflectional like the English. It belongs to the second great division of languages, the agglutinative, called Turanian by some philologists."¹⁸

The efforts seem prodigous when it is realized they were expended in the interstices of activity-filled days. ". . . I have completed a full catalog of all publications in the Hawaiian language. My intention is to assign some of these books to each student for private reading in additon to the regular studies of the Institute. I wish them to be especially well informed in Biblical knowledge. I intend now to prepare some elementary treatises on subjects not yet put into shape in the Hawaiian language, publish them in a series of newspaper articles and then preserve some copies in scrapbooks for the students."¹⁹

He reviewed the program of studies at the end of December 1878 and described a new use for the Hawaiian language. ". . . On Tuesdays, a translation from English into Hawaiian. I am pressing into this service in the way of translating Moody's Gospel Hymns two of the students who have some knowledge of music and metre. The translations are of such pieces as are suitable for publication in the native newspaper . . . Thursdays we translate Hawaiian into English, using for this purpose the Hawaiian textbook on Moral Science."²⁰

The translation of hymns did not much involve him until the death of Father Lyons in 1886. Lyons, known as Laiana, and Miss Ella H. Paris, known as Hualalai, in the credits at the tops of their respective hymn pages, were the most prolific translators in the Hawaiian hymn field.²¹ In a comment in an ABCFM letter Dr. Hyde said, "The students sang finely melodies adapted to and arranged for male voices only. The words were translations that I made myself. Now that Father Lyons has gone his work of translation has thus developed upon me in addition to my other work."²²

As he gained facility in the language he applied use of it in new directions. He prepared an essay on Hawaiian literature for a YMCA Quarterly Meeting February 21, 1879 on which the Friend commented:

. . . The main feature of the evening was the reading of an essay by Dr. Hyde on the subject of Hawaiian literature, which consisted mainly of the Doctor's notes and comments in making up a catalogue of all the works published in the Hawaiian language. Of these there are 107, but only one collection comprises them all, and some copies of early editions of the Bible, primers, maps and engravings, which attracted much attention.²³

By the end of August 1880 he was on another path:

. . . I hope now to be able to write for newspapers in Hawaiian, having Mr. Forbes revise my work. I want very much to prepare a Sunday School Paper, that shall be wholly religious in its subject, language, illustrations, and without advertisements. My idea is to publish one paper for children on the first of each month—I want to furnish the papers at 25C each year if it is possible to do so—I want to take this year to prepare materials, and begin publication Jan. 1, 1882. . .²⁴

1882 letters to the American Board referred to other beginnings in language employment. "I am beginning," said he, "also a collection of Hawaiian meles [songs], traditions and legends."²⁵ Again, "I have also annotated, amended, and enlarged Andrews' Hawaiian Dictionary which has 30,000 words alphabetically arranged . . ."²⁶ He was off a bit on his word count. The figure was closer to 15,000.

"I am making up now," he went on, "a set of laws and government reports. These would be of no special value in your library but they help me in mastering the language. I am gathering also old Hawaiian newspapers but this work goes on very slowly. I doubt whether a complete set can be picked up. I have just written to the Rev. S. J. Whitman of Samoa, inquiring about his projected Cooperative Polynesian Dictionary and offering to help on furnishing lists of Hawaiian words. I early began keeping a classified list and find it a great help . . . "²⁷

Practical results of classroom motivation were reported; "And that reminds me of one of the exercises I have given to the students to rouse their intellectual abilities . . . to write out some of the sayings that are popular among the Hawaiians and suitable for use in sermons or addresses. I have now a collection of over 250. From these, I have prepared an article which is to appear in Thrum's Hawaiian Annual for 1883 . . . It classifies some of them in order to give in this way some idea of Hawaiian modes of thought and speech . . ."²⁸

He was definitely taken with the importance of preserving the pure Hawaiian tongue. It is therefore understandable that he would firmly stress the study of it in the public schools. In a long letter to the Gazette he said:

The greater number of new and commodious schoolhouses, the increasing number of able and faithful and acceptable teachers, are evident facts that redound greatly to the credit of the present Board. But some, who are interested especially in the welfare of the Hawaiians, have been led to query, whether the present policy is as advantageous in some respects, as it certainly is intended to be, to the best interests of the Hawaiian children.

Mr. Knudsen has had most favorable opportunities for personal knowledge in regard to the Hawaiians on Kauai . . . In the letter from him recently printed in your paper, he deprecates the exclusion of the Hawaiian language from the schools for Hawaiians. In this particular, I wish to express my concurrence with his opinion and view of the situation, rather than with the stand taken by Principal Scott in his reply . . . It is not so much the study of English exclusively, which marks the divergence of views in regard to the policy of the Board, as the exclusion of the Hawaiian language from the schools, in which according to the last census Hawaiians and halfcastes constitute 81 per cent of the school population. The question is not merely in regard to the superiority of one language over another as a medium of instruction, nor to the superior economical view of the English in a business point of view. No one can deny the immeasurable advantage of the English language . . . no sane person would think of insisting on making Hawaiian the language of the schoolrooms, and require the teachers that came from the States to acquire the Hawaiian language . . .

But the fact is as stated by Mr. Knudsen, a condition of things to be deplored and remedied that the present generation of Hawaiian youth is growing up in ignorance of their own language, unable to read or write it properly. And they are also growing up without that knowledge of the rudiments, the fundamental principles and facts in mathematics, geography, grammar, history and physical science, such as would better fit them to be intelligent and capable members of civilized society . . . the policy of the Government should be to encourage and strengthen, not throttle, the Hawaiian element in our heterogeneous population.

The charge has often been made, unjustly, so any well informed observer would say, that those who came from the States to Christianize the Hawaiians, tried to make them over in a cast from a mould of New England pietism. It seems to me that our modern scientific humanitarians in the policy they are adopting, are trying to make over the Hawaiians after the prevailing standards of nineteenth century mercantilism. The cry is, "Away with this people, not fit to be capitalists and managers of trusts, nor trades-union leaders, seeking for the horny hand of toil the scepter of rank and power." If it be true that Hawaiians cannot be boss mechanics, or merchant princes, or leading lawyers—and who, that knows them, has any idea they ever will achieve such social distinction?—have they no right to life, independence, and social activity in such fashion as may best suit their national peculiarities, even if this should lie in style not in accordance with our ideas of culture? The Westminister Catechism does not give the consummate ideal of deity; it leaves out beauty altogether in its enumeration of the divine characteristics. Modern materialism does not uphold the highest type of humanity in making economic values the sole test of human worth and dignity. Help the Hawaiians to be good Hawaiian men and women, is the true policy, in my opinion, even if they should not be Christians of such high-toned spirituality, as Edward Payson or David Brainerd; or such mechanics, and inventors, and corporators as Pullman, or Edison, or Jay Gould.²⁹

A few years later a final reference to his language activity occurs in a letter as he was "coasting" in health but working resolutely at everything regardless. "I have just had sent to me the final revision of a little manual, I have prepared, of the Hawaiian Grammar in the Hawaiian language, and if life and health are spared, I want to prepare other such helps after the style of the Chautauqua textbooks."³⁰

This recital of native language efforts reveals an intellectual vigor which was of great effect in his unending labors among the people constituting his mission.

NOTES

1. Henry K. Hyde, op. cit., pp. 34-35.

2. Letter Hyde to the Rev. N. G. Clark, ABCFM, June 19, 1877.

3. Punahou School, Secretary's Records, June 23.

4. Ibid., June 20.

5. The Friend, Supplement, Hilo Boarding School Jubilee Notes, December 1886. C. M. Hyde, "Relation of the School to the Mission," pp.2-3. This is the monthly publication of the Hawaiian Board, founded in 1842.

6. Letter Hyde to Clark, Dec. 7, 1881.

7. Ibid., Sept. 28, 1878.

8. Robert Louis Stevenson, Open Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hyde of Honolulu (Sydney Australia Ben Franklin Printers, 1890).

9. Letter Hyde to the Rev. Judson Smith, ABCFM, Feb. 2, 1892.

10. Ibid., Mar. 18, 1878.

11. Ibid., July 17, 1877.

12. Letter the Rev. Hiram Bingham to Clark, Feb. 19, 1878.

13. Letter Hyde to Clark, Mar. 18.

14. Ibid., June 18.

15. Ibid., June 19, 1887.

16. Lorrin Andrews, Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language (Honolulu, H. M. Whitney, 1865).

17. Henry K. Hyde, op. cit., p. 72; Charles M. Hyde, Piliolelo Hawaii, Hawaiian Grammar (Honolulu, Hawaiian Gazette Co., 1896).

18. Hawaiian Monthly, Honolulu, Vol. I, Nos. 9, 10, Sept. Oct. 1884.

19. Letter Hyde to Clark, Sept. 28, 1878.

20. Ibid., Dec. 23.

21. Hymns translated by Rev. Hyde are listed below. All were first printed with music in Leo Hoonani by Theodore Richards in 1902.

O Day of Rest and Gladness (Ka La Hoomaikai Keia)

English Poem by Christopher Wordsworth

I Know Whom I Have Believed (Na Iesu No I Haawi Mai)

El. Nathan

Sweet Peace, The Gift of God's Love (Mai Kai E Launa Me Oe)

P. B. Bilhorn

The Eye of Faith (Aole Au E Imi Mau)

Rev. J. M. Maxfield

Sound the Battle Cry (Ala! Oho E!)

Wm. F. Sherwin

Throw Out The Life Line (Ho Mai Ke Kaula O Ke Ala Mau)

Rev. E. S. Ufford

Only Remembered (Eia Ke Ala)

Horatius Bonar

To Live in Christ (No Iesu No Owau A Pau)

Jesus, My All (Iesu Ke Alii Mau)

Song of the Soldier (E Na Koa O Ke Ola)

22. Letter Hyde to Smith, June 29, 1887.

23. The Friend, March 1879.

24. Letter Hyde to Clark, Aug. 30, 1880.

25. Letter Hyde to the Rev. H. M. Hagen, ABCFM, Jan. 14, 1882.

26. Ibid., Jan. 28.

27. Ibid.

28. Letter Hyde to Clark, Dec. 16.

29. Letter Hyde to editor Hawaiian Gazette, Jan. 1, 1889, p. 4.

30. Letter Hyde to Smith, Oct. 28, 1896.