The Hawaiians have been aided towards independence in
political matters, and the foreigners, who framed the laws and
constitution, and have directed Hawaiian affairs, such as Richards,
Lee, Judd, Allen, and Wyllie, were men above reproach; and
missionary influence, of all others the most friendly to the
natives, has predominated for fifty years.
The effects of missionary labour have been scarcely touched upon in
the foregoing letters, and here, in preference to giving any opinion
of my own, I quote from Mr. R. H. Dana, an Episcopalian, and a
barrister of the highest standing in America, well known in this
country by his writings, who sums up his investigations on the
Sandwich Islands in the following dispassionate words:
"It is no small thing to say of the missionaries of the American
Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this whole
people to read and to write, to cipher and to sew. They have given
them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary; preserved their language
from extinction; given it a literature, and translated into it the
Bible, and works of devotion, science, and entertainment, etc. They
have established schools, reared up native teachers, and so pressed
their work, that now the proportion of inhabitants who can read and
write is greater than in New England.
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