His temper was so fierce and so uncurbed that no native
dared even to tread on his shadow. More than once he had killed a
man for the sake of food and clothes not worth fifty cents. He was
a thoroughly wicked savage. Curiosity attracted him into one of the
Hilo meetings, and the bad giant fell under the resistless,
mysterious influence which was metamorphosing thousands of
Hawaiians. "I have been deceived," he said, "I have deceived
others, I have lived in darkness, and did not know the true God. I
worshipped what was no God. I renounce it all. The true God has
come. He speaks. I bow down to Him. I wish to be His son." The
priestess, his sister, came soon afterwards, and they remained here
several months for instruction. They were then about seventy years
old, but they imbibed the New Testament spirit so thoroughly that
they became as gentle, loving, and quiet as little children. After
a long probationary period they were baptized, and after several
years of pious and lowly living, they passed gently and trustfully
away.
The old church which was the scene of these earlier assemblages,
came down with a crash after a night of heavy rain, the large
timbers, which were planted in the moist earth after the fashion of
the country to support the framework, having become too rotten to
support the weight of the saturated thatch.
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