Hawaii

Keoki Kanakoa I sought a way to serve my people. Not to spy upon them.

Keoki Kanakoa You who have trained for your ministries here at Yale College, and only yesterday received your diplomas, cannot begin to imagine what that can do to the human soul. Even the Reverend Dr. Thorn finds it unbelievable that only 43 years ago, when the English Captain Cook arrived in Hawaii, my brothers stood for the first time face to face with a Christian world whose existence they had never even dreamt of. We beheld your weapons, your tall ships, your way with books and numbers, and we could not doubt the greatness of your Christian God. In less than one generation we leveled our temples, burnt our pagan idols, and stood like waiting children for the revelation you promised to send us. But instead of sending God's words, you sent adventurers to steal our lands... pestilence to ravage our countrysides, strong drink to devour the manhood of our sons, and devils in the shape of whalers to despoil our daughters and cast them aside like little wounded animals...to die in torment of that disease for which we had no name until you came. We hunger for the word of God. Yet in the four years I've lived among you, no one yet has said to me, "Keoki Kanakoa, I will go with you to Hawaii to save the souls of your people.