Hawaiian yesterdays; chapters from a boy's life in the islands in the early days

Chapter I

A New England Family a Century Ago — Studying for the Ministry — Williams College and Andover Seminary — Zeal for Missionary Work — Longing for '^Afric's Burning Sands "

— Marriage of Two Kindred Souls — A Long Farewell — A Doleful Wedding Journey — On Shipboard at New Bedford

— A Premature Putting to Sea — A Stormy and Uncomfortable Voyage — A Blasphemous Ship's-mate — In Port at Rio de Janeiro — Around Cape Horn — Through the Pacific Seas

— In Honolulu Harbor — A Home in Heathen Lands

Chapter II

Birth in a Bamboo Cottage — Earliest Recollections — An Unfortunate Start in Life — Trials and Discomforts of the Missionaries— Breaking up of Families — Saving their Children from Contamination — ''General Meeting" at Honolulu — The Event of the Year — Distribution of Stores and Supplies from Home — Communication between the Various Islands — Horrors of Sea-trips in Native Vessels — A New Home at Hilo .........

Chapter III

Learning to Read the First Picture-book — The Bible at Four Years Old — Stimulations to Piety and Scholarship — Methods of Parental Discipline — A Coasting Canoe-voyage — A Mountain Expedition — First Sight of Mauna Kca — ** Ned the Bullock-hunter*' — Shipwreck in the Surf — In our New Home — A Hawaiian Boarding-school — Visits from Rovers of the Sea ........

^3 vi CONTENTS

Chapter IV

Voyage from Hilo to Honolulu — An Arid and Volcanic Country— Difficult Irrigation — An Adventurous Playmate — The Royal Chapel at Honolulu — Preaching to Three Thousand People — Native Princes and Princesses — The Return to Hilo — Education Begun in Earnest — The Beach for a Play Ground — An Important Episode — Commodore Wilkes and his Exploring Expedition — An Observatory on the Beach — The Ascent of Mauna Loa — A Scientific Enthusiast in the Crater of the Volcano — Dinner on Shipboard — A Memorable Event — Beginnings of Civilization among the Natives 40

CHAPTER V Splendors of Dawn in the Tropics — Hilo Village at Daylight

— A Country of Perpetual Spring — Hawaiian Table-fare

— Tropical Fruits — Diversions in Rainy Weather — Building a New Church Edifice — Open-air Services for Five Thousand People — Some Old-time Acquaintances — A "Store" on the Island — The First Hawaiian Sugar-mill — Some Queer Specimens of Humanity — Material and Spiritual Foes ......... 57

Chapter VI

Road-making in the Island — Family Equestrianism — Excursions to the Interior — Visit to the Volcano Kilauea — Wonders of a Tropical Forest — A Night of Terror — Beside a Lake of Fire — Descent into the Crater — In the Inferno — Back to Safety — The Rainbow Falls of Hawaii — Cocoanut Island — Learning to be Amphibious — Dinner by the Sea

— An Elevated Play Ground — Whale-fisheries in the Harbor

— Remnants of a Vanished Industry . . . -79

Chapter VII

A Strange Craft in our Harbor — Arrival of a U. S. Frigate — Social Visits — On Board a Forty-four-gun Man-of- War —

CONTENTS vii

The Smell of Powder — Distinguished Strangers in Port

— The King of the Islands and his Court — Primitive Medical Practice — The Tragedy of Death — Progress in Studies

— Beginning English Literature — Reading under Difficulties ......... 99

Chapter VIII

More Visitors at Hilo — The Native Nobility of the Islands — Advent of an Important Personage — Father Dole and his Punahou School — Another Voyage to Honolulu — Scenes and Incidents at Sea — Honolulu in 1846 — An Uninviting City — Old Scenes Revisited . . . . .114

Chapter IX

School-days at Punahou — An Old-fashioned Scholar and Teacher — The Schoolroom and the Farm — Daily Routine of Work and Play — By the Evening Lamp — Holiday Excursions — Mountain-climbing — Sights and Incidents in Honolulu — Sunday Experiences — Services at Bethel Chapel — Notables among the Congregation — The Welcome School-vacation — Voyage Back to Hilo — Some Difficult Navigation — Becalmed at Sea — A Tempestuous Night — Home Again . . . . . .127

CHAPTER X A.rrival of Notable Visitors to the Islands — A Berserk Explorer

— A Distinguished Naval Officer — On Board a U. S. Sloop-of-War — Voyage back to Honolulu — A Glorious Spectacle — The Summit of Mauna Kea from the Sea — School-days Again — A Vacation-trip among the Islands — An Experience with Sharks — A Whalcboat Excursion

— A Stormy Passage — Making the Shelter of a Coral Reef

— A Canoe Voyage — New Arrivals from Boston — Close of School — A Lovely Apparition — General Meeting at Honolulu — News from the Outer World . . • '44 viii CONTENTS

Chapter XI

Visitations to Outlying Villages — In Volcano-land — At Home with the Natives — Their Happiness and Contentment — Missionary Work among Them — Religious Rites and Ceremonies— The Pastor and his Flock — Tobogganning on Grassy Slopes — The Goddess of the Volcano — A Pestilence-bringing Ship — Ravages of the Disease — School-life Suspended — Another Excursion to the Interior — A Tropical Storm — Bridging a Torrent with a Rope — A Glorious Memory . . . . . . . . -157

Chapter XII

A Newcomer to Honolulu — The U. S. Line-of-Battle Ship Ohio — Experiences on Board — Trying to Get Under Way

— The Routine of Sailor-life on a Man-of-War — Work, Ceremony, and Grog — Music and Prayers — Unlucky Deserters — A Flogging on Deck — Preparing the Ship for Action — An Impressive Spectacle — Man Overboard and Rescue . . . . . . . . • '73

Chapter XIII

Changes in Honolulu — The California Gold-fever — Trouble between Hawaii and France — Arrival of French Warvessels — Alarm in the Islands — A Bloodless Victory — Some Strange Phenomena — Days of Darkness — Two More Years of School — Studying the Flora of the Islands

— Wrecked on a Coral Reef — Fire on Shipboard — A Choleric British General — An Astonishing Reception to Distinguished Guests — Social Life in Honolulu — Mysteries

of the Dance 1 86

CHAPTER XIV Political Reorganization in Hawaii — Changes in Land-tenure

— Surveying the Island — Carrying a Surveyor's Chain — -

CONTENTS IX

— Field-work and its Compensations — The Ascent of Mauna Kea — Night in a Mountain Cave — The World in a Fog — Upon the Snowy Summit — A Path over Glacier Ice — Nearly 14,000 Feet above the Sea — Magnificence of the View — The Hawaiian Yosemite — Over Half a Mile of Waterfall — The Natives in their Mountain Wilds . . 203

Chapter XV

New Official Dignity — Appointment as Hawaiian Land-surveyor — At Work with a Party of Natives in the Field — From the Seashore to Mauna Kea — Cutting a Path through the Forest — Wonders of Nature — Bird-life — Pleasures and Hardships of the Camp — Forest Fires — A Volcanic Eruption— An Appalling Spectacle — Back to Honolulu — Coming of the Small-pox — Vaccination of the Natives — A Final Mountain Expedition — Ravages of the Volcano — Hunting Wild Cattle — Death of the Monarch of the Herd 218

Chapter XVI

Departure for the United States — The Final Leave-taking — On Shipboard for the Voyage around the Horn — Good-bye to Hawaii — Our Ship Quarters and Companions — A Motley Crew of Sailors — A Masterful Captain — Making a New Main-mast — Crossing the Equator - Harpooning Porpoises and Chasing Whales — A Week of Idle Calm — Islands of the Southern Pacific — Visits Ashore — Heading for the South Pole — Ships that Passed — The Genius of the Polar Region — Tierra del Fuego — Rounding Cape Horn — Jn Atlantic Waters ....... 241

Chapter XVII

"There She Blows !'* — A School of Sperm Whales — Boats in Pursuit Harpooning and Making Fast Night-search for a Missing Whale-boat — Two Whales Alongside Ten-

X CONTENTS

thousand-dollar Prizes — ** Cutting in" the Blubber — Trying out the Oil — Working Northward — The Coast of Brazil — A ** Blackbird Hunter" of the Seas — In the Gulf Stream — An ** Old-fashioned Northeaster" — Terrific Storm at Sea — Montauk Point and Block Island — In New Bedford Harbor — On Shore in a Strange Land . . .261

INDEX 275

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Native Hawaiian Fisherman ni:ar Hilo

Frontispiece

Two New England Scenes Identified with the Early Missionaries: Old Building at Williams College — Old Massachusetts Harbor ...... 6

Map of Hawaiian Islands and Sketch-map of the Island of

View of Hilo, with Volcano in the Background — Native

Hawaiian Village ....... 14

Two Typical Scenes : Vistas of Mountain and Valley — Along a Native Village Street ....

Views of Native Vegetation: A Cane-brake — Along a Hawaiian Roadside .......

The Lyman Home at Hilo ......

In the Crater of Kilauea ......

Group of Hawaiian Palms ......

Eruption in the Crater of Mauna Loa — Mauna Loa and the Crater ok Kilauea ......

Lava Chimneys in Kilauea — Rivers of Molten Rock in Kilauea ........

Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna

38 48

60 86

92 116

Kawaiahao Church — Punahou School — Hii.o Boardingxi xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Father Damon — Bethel Chapel, Honolulu 136

A Missionary Addressing the Natives — A Missionary

Paying Parochial Visits . . . , . .164

Above the Clouds — Cloud Scenery from a Mountain

Overflow of the Lake of Fire, Kilauea . . . 230

Modern View of Hilo ...... 242

Chapter I

A New England Family a Century Ago — Studying for the Ministry — Williams College and Andover Seminary — Teal for Missionary Work — Longing for ^^Afric's Burning Sands'' — Marriage of Two Kindred Souls — A Long Farewell — A Doleful Wedding Journey — On Shipboard at New Bedford— A Premature Putting to Sea — A Stormy and Uncomfortable Voyage — A Blasphemous Ship's-mate — In Port at Rio de Janeiro — Around Cape Horn — Through the Pacific Seas — In Honolulu Harbor — A Home in Heathen Lands.

ITARLY in the last century there lived in a small "^^ farming community in Connecticut a family of the name of Lyman. Of the nine children, the oldest, my father, was early set apart by his parents for the ministry of the gospel; and their slender resources were carefully husbanded in order that he, the chosen one, might be thoroughly educated for the church.

After his graduation at Williams College in Massachusetts, in 1828, he was sent to study theology at the famous Seminary at Andover. It was a time of great religious fervor in New England, and the flames of piety and asceticism were kept at a white heat on Chapel Hill. The numerous students were consumed with zeal, and many of them were longing to lav down I their lives on "Afric's burning sands," or any other uncomfortable place to which their duty might call them. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions had its headquarters in Boston, only twenty miles away; and it was a part of the duty of its officers to supply fuel with which to sustain the ardor of missionary enterprise among the youthful theologians.

While my father was in his senior year at Andover, he accepted an appointment to the mission at the Hawaiian Islands — or Sandwich Islands, as they were then more commonly called; it being the desire of the Board to send large reenforcements of missionaries there during the Winter of 1831-32. It was a part of the plans of the Board that only married men should be sent as missionaries; and thus the subject of matrimony was brought up in a very practical way. About this time, my mother, Miss Sarah Joiner, left her Vermont home for a short visit to relatives in Boston. Of a bright and ardent temperament, the religious and other privileges which she enjoyed at the metropolis exercised and exalted her whole soul. She attended the annual meeting of the Board of Foreign Missions, and was profoundly affected by all she saw and heard. It was indeed a memorable occasion for her, for it shaped the course of her whole future life. This was the period of repressed energy and enthusiasm in New England, before the day of vast industrial and railway enterprises, and the opening to settlement of the great Western territories, when there was scarcely any outlet for the energies of young people except through church work

A LONG FAREWELL 3

and religious extension in foreign lands. My mother's overpowering religious fervor, combined with circumstances which led to an acquaintance with my father and profound sympathy with the plans and purposes of his life, caused her to accept joyfully the lot of a missionary's wife.

One stormy evening in November, 1831, David B. Lyman and Sarah Joiner were married in the village church of Royalton, Vermont. It was known that the young couple were to embark immediately with a company of missionaries bound for the Sandwich Islands ; and the unusual circumstances caused almost the entire population of the village to be present at the marriage ceremony. It seemed a funeral rather than a wedding, for in those days it was understood that a foreign missionary was very unlikely ever to return to his native land. Was it not set down in Holy Writ, that " No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" P That settled the whole question. The snow-flakes flew, the winds of Winter wept and wailed among the branches of the maples and elms, as the muddy stage-coach rolled up to the door at two o'clock in the morning, and bore away the young couple from the home and the friends who gave up that sweet bride. Farewell, farewell, father, mother, sister, brothers dear ! A long farewell indeed ! for they were never to meet on earth again.

The second day of this mournful wedding journey brought the travellers to Boston, where thcv were joined by eight other newly married couples, all bound on the same errand to the heathen Sandwich Islanders. They were to sail one week later, from New Bedford, where a little whaleship of some three hundred and fifty tons burthen had been engaged to carry them to Honolulu. Another wearisome stage-ride took them to their port of departure, where they were greeted with the information that they had come too soon, and that the ship would not be ready in less than a week or ten days.

This delay was by no means a misfortune, for it gave the homesick young women a chance to dry their eyes and have a little rest before embarking on the deep. At last, however, the day of departure arrived, and at an early hour the missionary band was mustered upon the deck of the ship. A fervent prayer for fair weather and favoring gales was uttered by the representative of the American Board, who had accompanied them from Boston; Captain Swain came from the custom house with his sailing-papers; the mooring-cables were cast off, and the ship was hauled out into the stream. It had been the intention of the commander to run down into the outer harbor, and, casting anchor there, to complete his preparations for going to sea; for the ship was yet far from being ready to leave port. But it was one of the most delightful days of the Indian Summer — the twenty-sixth of November. So, as the owner of the ship, who had accompanied the party down the bay, got into his boat to return to the city, he called out to the captain :

" Well, Swain, it 's so pleasant I guess you 'd better keep right on and run out to sea."

AN UNCOMFORTABLE VOYAGE 5

"Very well, sir!" replied the officer; and, crowding on all sail, away went the good ship Averick^ and was soon out of sight.

The order of the ship-owner proved to have been ill-considered. The deck was covered with sea-stores that had been received only at the last moment ; the cabin was filled with coils of rope and miscellaneous articles thrown in from above, to make room on deck for more. From early morning till the going down of the sun, my father worked to make a path for my mother from the companion-way to their state-room. That night, all the storms of heaven were let loose upon the devoted craft, and for two weeks the little ship was at the mercy of the winds. Away into the sea went the hen-coops, together with the fresh provisions that had been left on deck ; and the sailors thought themselves lucky in not being washed overboard too. It was about fifteen days before the tempest abated sufficiently to allow of clearing out the cabin and putting the ship in order. During that horrible fortnight, the poor women were penned up in their state-rooms, while it was with difficulty and danger that their husbands crawled over the piles of stuff in the cabin. Immediately in front of the steps that came down from the deck stood an open tub of butter and a bucket of tar, both of which had become immovably wedged into the passageway. 1 he chief mate of the ship — one of those blasphemous sea-dogs who were then in great repute on Cape Cod and in foreign waters — whenever he came below, would invariably plant one foot in the butter-tub and the other in the tar-bucket, and, thus established, would stand, shaking his fists, and pouring forth volley after volley of maledictions against all missionaries and their works, until His Satanic Majesty must have been thoroughly satisfied with the ardor of this his faithful servant. Only after the lapse of two entire weeks, when the gale had blown the ship half-way across the Atlantic Ocean into warmer weather and more quiet seas, were means found to clear the cabin fioor, and to muzzle the imprecations of the chief mate.

When, finally, it became possible to ascertain the condition of the ship, it was discovered that one of her lower masts had been sprung, or partly broken, in the gale; so the captain decided, though the weather was now warm and pleasant, to steer for Rio de Janeiro, where a new mast could be procured, before venturing upon the perilous passage around Cape Horn. For my poor mother, this was a fortunate circumstance. During the tempest, and for a week longer, she had been compelled to remain in her berth, not merely seasick, but ill with a raging fever. It was not until they had entered the tropics that she recovered sufficiently to come on deck.

In the month of January, 1832, the Averick sailed into the magnificent bay of Rio de Janeiro. The passengers were variously accommodated on shore, and my parents had the good fortune to be invited to make their home in the family of an Englishman — a man named Kerr, if I rightly remember my mother's narrative. This gentleman owned a villa overlooking the bay of Botos Fogos, about two miles from the city; and

OLD BUILDING AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE

AT RIO DE JANEIRO 7

the usual mode of transit between the two places was in boats that were rowed by negroes, who stood facing the bow and pushing the oars, instead of sitting on the thwarts and pulling like white oarsmen. But this was only one of the many things that to our northern voyagers were new and strange in this tropical, Roman Catholic, negro-inhabited country. Those of the party who were in good health passed all their time in exploration of the city, in which they found many objects delightful to the eye and to the mind, and also much that stirred their righteous souls with compassion and indignation. My mother, however, saw very little of the place, since it was deemed best that she should not be exposed to the heat of the sun during convalescence from the violent fever through which she had passed. But she was never weary of the lovely view of the bay, with its forts and islands and neighboring mountains looking down into the waves that sparkled in the sunshine, revealing a world of movement and life as the tall ships came and went by the way of the narrow channel through which the waters of that sheltered haven were united with the tides of the illimitable ocean outside.

About two weeks were consumed in needful repairs, and then the voyage was resumed. It was long and tedious, but without further calamity or marked adventure. The cabin was much more comfortable than it had been at the start from New Bedford. This time the pig-pens and hen-coops were not washed overboard,— at least not before their occupants had been consumed by the hungry passengers. There was great store of oranges and bananas and pineapples for all who relished such fruits. My parents could not abide bananas ; but my father, reflecting upon the fact that they were almost the only fruit to be obtained on the Hawaiian Islands, conscientiously hung up a bunch of them in his state-room and ate one every morning; thus by the time the ship had reached Cape Horn, he learned to like their taste.

The dreaded passage round the Cape was accomplished without accident or serious delay. It was the Summer of the southern hemisphere when our missionaries entered the vast Pacific Ocean. Soon after passing the island of Juan Fernandez, they reached the trade-wind zone; and from that date until their arrival at Honolulu the wind blew fair and steady. Day after day, week after week, the good ship kept her course without the need of touching a rope or of shifting a sail. The petrel flew and the albatross soared in her wake ; dolphins and porpoises played under her bow ; flying-fish sprang out of the waves, as they foamed and danced with the breezes that had blown all the clouds out of the sky, leaving only the deep blue vault of heaven arched over the great round world. The ladies sat on deck, sewing, reading, or writing, while their husbands wrestled with phrase-book and primer in the endeavor to master the rudiments of the language they would be compelled to use after reaching the missionary field.

But so long a voyage, even under the most favorable conditions, becomes monotonous and tiresome; and all were rejoiced when the mountains of Hawaii

A HOME IX HEATHEN LANDS 9

loomed on the horizon. On the seventeenth of May, 1832, a few hours after the discovery of land, the ship which had borne them so far was safely moored in the little harbor of Honolulu, and the sea-worn passengers were cordially welcomed by their predecessors in the missionary work. The annual mission-meeting being in progress, it was decided that my parents should proceed to the island of Hawaii, and make their home with the missionaries' families at Hilo while learning the language and preparing to take charge of the church in that district. This plan was soon carried out, and my father and mother reached their station before the end of the Summer. A native house, built chiefly of bamboo, and thatched with leaves of the sugar-cane, was hastily erected for their accommodation ; and there they began housekeeping, in the Autumn of 1832, about ten months after their marriage.

Chapter II

Birth in a Bamboo Cottage — Earliest Recollections — Jn Unfortunate Start in Life — 1 rials and Discomforts of the Missionaries — Breaking up of Families — Saving their Children from Contamination — " General Meeting'' at Honolulu — The Event of the Tear — Distribution of Stores and Supplies from Home — Communication between the Various Islands — Horrors of Sea-trips in Native Vessels — A New Home at Hilo.

T WAS born in my father's bamboo cottage, in Hilo, '*' at half-past eleven o'clock a. m., November 26, 1835. My earliest recollections are enshrined in a baby-wagon. I remember lying in a little wooden box that served as the body of the cart, which was supported on four small discs that had been somehow carved out of a wooden plank as substitutes for wheels. A plain wooden tongue, or handle, projected in front, like a ship's bowsprit; while locomotion was effected by the efforts of a native Hawaiian boy, who had been taught to curb his natural propensities, and to pace soberly through the paths of the little garden, dragging after him the wonderful vehicle that bore me and my fortunes. Sometimes, however, when my father and mother were out of sight, far removed at their work in the great thatched schoolhouse, the copper-colored young barbarian would quicken his steps, rushing rapidly around dangerous corners among the flower-beds, until I was jolted into a condition of wailing

EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS ii

terror, or perhaps even cast out high and dry, like a shipwrecked mariner flung helpless upon a desert isle.

These incidents must have occurred while I was veryyoung, as I was quite unable to enter any form of complaint with my mother, who evidently knew nothing of these antics on the part of my "bearer," for in the presence of the foreign saints, nothing could be more circumspect than the painful care with which he paraded himself and his charge.

Another reason for referring these reminiscences to the above-mentioned date lies in the fact that, though I was unable to formulate any specific charges against my custodian, — indeed, hardly conceiving of such treatment as anything out of the ordinary course of nature, but rather as something to be accepted and endured, like the daily rite of ablution and other more or less disagreeable experiences, — I was already acquainted with the names of certain familiar objects. Lying on my back, cushioned on a little pillow in the baby-wagon, I was from time to time aware of long halts beneath a vast and spreading shade, agreeably cool and delightfully verdant, seamed and gashed with numberless apertures, through which was visible the deep and vivid blue of the canopy that I afterwards learned to know as the sky. This umbrageous shelter I recognized by name as a tree. Evidently I was in the path of verbal acquisition, soon to arrive at the full power of articulate and sufficient speech.

I have just now spoken of lying on my back while in the enjoyment of the above-described mode of transit. 1 do not remember any other attitude in connection with those early exercises. Unlike the sturdy moon-faced Yankee infants, erect in their gorgeous cars, who now advance impetuously against me around every corner as I peacefully endeavor to promenade the up-town streets and boulevards, my early carriage-riding was conducted in a manner far from aggressive. My mother has told me that during the first two years of life I was sickly and feeble, — sometimes, indeed, hardly expected to live. And hereby hangs a tale that requires a deeper stirring of the memories of the past. When the early missionaries of my father's time embarked for heathen shores, it was the universal understanding that they went for life. No return was at all probable, unless failure of health should render their labor useless. And, in fact, there were few men or women who, having once made a voyage of six months round Cape Horn, would ever care to repeat that experience. But this was not the root of the matter. It was expected that the devoted missionary, arrived at the scene of his future labors, should house himself in a dwelling of aboriginal construction, and should, so far as possible, nourish himself and his family with the native provisions of the country in which he abode. Thus cast out upon the remote Hawaiian Islands, the pioneer missionaries found themselves compelled to seek shelter in straw huts, without floors or glazed windows or proper ventilation. The native food, though abundant, was coarse and ill adapted to the adequate nourishment of refined and educated men and women. Flour, butter, sugar, and delicacies of every kind, were brought from Boston round Cape Horn, and exposed

AN UNFORTUNATE START 13

for at least six months, in the hold of a ship, to the attacks of worms, weevils, and similar vermin, before reaching their destination. Eggs were a great rarity; milk and fresh butter were luxuries whose use had been almost forgotten. Under these unfavorable circumstances, in an enervating climate, flooded by an annual rainfall of a hundred and fifty inches, depressed by homesickness, half-starved, and overwhelmed with grief at the loss of a child, her first-born son, it is not strange that my mother's health gave way, and that I, who came into the world during this unfavorable period, had to suffer in my own person the consequences of the abnormal life that my parents were living.

Fortunately for me and my parents, as well as for the other families at the out-stations of the Hawaiian mission, the managers in Boston at length awoke to a comprehension of the fact that it was very poor economy thus to send educated and capable men and women to inevitable disability and premature death. So they despatched a physician to each one of the principal islands, and also expedited lumber and other materials needed for the comfortable housing of their missionaries. In this way my father's predecessor, the Rev. Joseph Goodrich, had been provided with a neat little two-storied wooden house, painted red, and famed all over the islands as the perfect reproduction of a New England farm-house. Shortly after my birth, all the necessary lumber and hardware having been received from Boston, a one-story cottage of approved Cape Cod pattern was erected for my parents, on a site a few rods nearer the shore than the other mission-house. Into this small but comfortable dwelling my father removed his household goods ; and here my mother began the task of renewing her shattered health and creating a home for her family. This was the place with which my earliest recollections were connected ; and it was in the little garden in front of the house that I took the air in my home-made baby-cart. Here were passed the first three years of my life, during which occurred various events, of which only a few were impressed upon my memory with sufficient force to survive through all the subsequent years.