Hawaii

When it comes time for Jerusha to deliver her baby, the birth goes normally, and Abner is relieved to have a healthy son and a wife who survives the ordeal. He is also intent on building his church, but he wants it to be designed in the New England style, as a closed building. He disputes with the local holy men, the kahunas, about the proper location of the door, overriding their insistence that he has put it in the wrong spot. All the American missionaries also persist in wearing heavy woolen clothing and eating the same diet they maintained at home. “Perspiring in unbelievably heavy clothing, eschewing the healthful foods that surrounded them, they stubbornly toiled and grew faint and lost their health and died” (410).

Keoki, who originally asked Abner to come to Hawaii, puts pressure on Abner to ordain him, but the missionary is unwilling to trust the souls of the Indigenous people in the care of one of their own. “‘I am older than you were when you became a minister,’ the Hawaiian pointed out. ‘Yes, but I grew up in a Christian family. I was …’ ‘A white man?’ Keoki asked bluntly” (446). To add to Abner’s concerns, Abner’s friend, Dr. Whipple returns to Maui to tell them that their colleague Reverend Hewlett is going to be expelled from the mission society for daring to marry an Indigenous woman after his wife’s death in childbirth.

Whipple sides with Hewlett and confides his own doubts about whether the mission is doing any good for the native people; the diseases of the outside world are killing them. Whipple is also tired of receiving no salary for his ministry. All the missionaries must depend on charity donations to survive. At the annual meeting of all the island missionaries, Hewlett announces his plans to quit the society of missionaries but remain in the islands as a planter rather than return to New England. Whipple also resigns his post and immediately goes into partnership with Captain Janders, former commander of the Thetis, who has since settled in Lahaina as a merchant. Abner opposes both defections.

In the months that follow, Abner continues the difficult task of getting Malama to enact laws that are more in keeping with his notions of civilized society. “It often seemed prophetic to him that each problem encountered by John Calvin in Switzerland now had to be faced by Abner Hale in Lahaina” (404). He succeeds in persuading Malama to issue many new decrees that overturn some of the most brutal practices. Slavery will be abolished. Infant daughters will no longer be buried alive. Adultery among the islanders is strongly discouraged. No alcohol is to be sold to Hawaiians. Girls will be prohibited from going out to have sex with the sailors on whaling vessels, and sailors who are wandering the streets after curfew will be jailed.

When the island faces a backlash from the whaling ship crews, Kelolo is put in charge of the new Lahaina police force. The sailors set fire to buildings in town and go on a rampage, which is only quelled by outraged Indigenous Hawaiians after the sailors burn Abner’s church. Although Kelolo’s police succeed in keeping order for a time, the return of Rafer Hoxworth causes a new burst of violence. The captain refuses to abide by the new rules, and the other whalers in port support his rebellion. The town is once again engulfed in flames as Rafer fires a cannon at buildings in the town. He also takes the opportunity to see Jerusha and is shocked by the poverty in which she lives. Then, he gets into a fist fight with Abner. Abner nearly knifes him until Jerusha intercedes, and Rafer leaves.

Malama’s health was declining before the outbreak of violence, but the destruction of her town is the final straw. Asking for a Christian burial, she dies shortly after Abner baptizes her. Later, Kelolo, Keoki, and the kahunas remove her body and take it into the mountains to perform the Hawaiian rituals for the passing of an Alii Nui. As part of the grief ritual, Kelolo dashes out his front teeth and blinds himself in one eye.