Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 2, 1 Pepeluali 1987 — Religion Turned on this Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
Religion Turned on this Hawaiian
Opukahaia lnspired First Missionary Company
By Nanette Napoleon Pumell, Director The Cemetery Research Project When most of us think about famous Hawaiians who have in some way or another altered the course of Hawaiian history, the first names that usually eome to mind are King Kamehameha I, King Kalakaua, Queen Liliuokalani and Bernice Pauahi Bishop. But there remains a host of other, less well-known individuals of Hawaiian ancestry who have directly or indirectly made their mark upon the land, and should perhaps be given a little more recognition for their contributions. Henry Opukahaia is such an individual. Born in the tiny village of Ninole, in the District of Ka'u on the island of Hawaii in 1879, Opukahaia would grow up to launeh the first group of missionaries to these Hawaiian islands in 1820. At the age of 10 or 12 in Ninole, Opukahaia witnessed the brutal slaying of his father, Ke'au; his mother, Kamaho'ula, and his infant brother, by warriors of Kamehameha I, who had heard that members of Opukahaia's village were part of an insurgent group, bent on overtaking Kamehameha's domain while he was away fighting a battle on Oahu. Legend has it that Opukahaia's parents fled with their sons to the mountains prior to an impending raid on the village, but were later discovered and killed as Opukahaia looked on. Opukahaia tried to flee with his baby brother upon his back, but a warrior threw a spear at them, killing the infant and knocking Opukahaia to the ground. Opukahaia was not injured and was taken captive by the warrior who had killed the rest of his family. He lived with his captor for one year, then was allowed to live with an unele who was a kahuna in Napo'opo'o, at Kealakekua Bay. He spent several hard years at Napo'opo'o being trained by his unele to become a kahuna. During this period he also witnessed the death of his beloved aunt, who was thrown over a cliff for disobeying the ali'i of the district. Perhaps it was these sorrowful childhood memories whieh prompted Opukahaia to jump at the ehanee to leave his homeland in 1807, at age 16, when amerchant sea Captain named Caleb Brintnall invited him to sail aboard his ship to America. Opukahaia eagerly accepted Capt. Brintnall's invitation, and spent the next two years sailing aboard the "Triumph" to Alaska, China, Indonesia, Africa and the West Indies before finally arriving at Brintnall's home port of New York. While on this long journey, Opukahaia was taught how to speak English by the crew, and was introduced to the doctrines of the Christian faith, whieh he immediately embraced. Because his Hawaiian name was so hard to pronounce, he was given the first name of Henry, and his last name was pronounced as Obookiah, whieh was then after used as his legal name. When they arrived in New York, Brintnall took Opukahaia to live with him in New Haven, Conn. and introduced him to a number of his firends who would also take him under their wing to educate him in both secular and re!igious matters. While earning his living doing farm work, Opukahaia continued his religious studies in Connecticut and became the first Hawaiian to be baptized in the Christian faith. He also learned to read and write the English language, and even began translating the Bible in Hawaiian. By 1816, when he was only 19 or20, Opukahaiawas well known in New England where he toured the land as a popular religious speaker of the time. His notoriety attracted the attention of Samuel Mills, who was the leader of a group of Williams College students who started the foreign missionary movement in America. Mills saw Opukahaia as the instrument of God for the conversion of the native "pagans" in Hawaii. When Mills started the first Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Conn. in 1817, Opukahaia was among the first group of students recruited. The purpose of the school was to educate natives from countries all over the world as missionary assistants who would return to their native homelands with their American teachers to make entry into the foreign lands more accessible. Eventually, the school included students from Tahiti, New Zealand, China, Java, Malay and the Marquesas, as well as a large contingent of American Indians. Opukahaia had been studying at the school for about one year, preparing himself and the American missionaries selected to be among the first group to sail to the Hawaiian islands, when he contacted typhus fever. He
lingered in sickness until Feb. 17, 1818, when he died, surrounded by the many friends he had made there. Townspeople from Cornwall purchased his tombstone and buried him in a rural hillside cemetery (see photos) at the age of 26. On Oct. 23, 1819, the ship "Thaddeus" set sail from Boston with the "pioneer" company of The American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, headed for Henry Opukahaia's native homeland of Hawaii. Opukahaia's greatest dream, to return home to spread the enlightenment he had himself found, was never fulfilled, but it was he who inspired that first historic company of missionaries to these Hawaiiian islands.
Nanette Napoleon Pumell, director of the Cemetery Research Project, holds Hawaii Visitors Bureau roadside sign identifying above ground tomb of Henry Opukahaia in the Cornwall, Conn., Cemetery. Mrs. Pumell visited the site last summer on her way to Boston to speak at a conference for cemetery researchers from around the United States.
This is the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall whieh was established in 1817 to train native men to become assistant missionaries who would help their American teachers establish missions in foreign lands. Henry Opukahaia was the most prominent student at the school.
Henry Opukahaia (Obookiah) appears to have been a relatively obscure figure in Hawaiian history. He is more famous in Cornwall than in his native Hawaii.
The Hawaii Visitors Bureau roadside sign and other memorabilia, including leis and photos, of Henry Opukahaia in the Cornwall Historical Society Museum. The sign is in the museum for safe keeping because officials felt someone would steal it if erected in the cemetery as originally planned years ago.