-
https://hmha.missionhouses.org/files/original/3f478d3250986889a86d6ab30941fe56.pdf
4e2803c247047975fc5f0edfae1f8405
PDF Text
Text
����Letter Reference:
1831_Mar26_Pule-Chamberlain
Date of Letter:
March 26, 1831
From:
Pule
To:
Kamalani [Mr. Levi Chamberlain]
mi Kalaka [Rev. Ephraim Clark]
Pinamu [Rev. Hiram Bingham]
Content Summary:
Kapule writes to Mr. Levi Chamberlain, Rev. Ephraim Clark and Rev. Hiram Bingham to report
her mistreatment and the loss of her schoolhouse. She denies being at fault, and asks that it be
returned to her.
Typescript:
[Page 1 of 4]
Kapule [added in pencil]
Aloha oe e Kamalani, ame mi Kalaka,
a me Pinamu, aloha oukou a pau loa e na
Mikiolani, eia ko'u manao ia oukou, ua hoino
mai na hoa hanau ia'u ua loha ole mai ia'u aole
a'u i hewa i hoino mai ai ia'u, ke hai aku nei au ia
oukou, aole a'u i moe kalohe, aole au i pepehi ka
naka, aole au i aihue, aole au i hoopuni
puni, aole a'u i epa, aole au i ku i na kana
wai o ke Akua e hewa ^ai a'u, eia no wa'u ma ka
hi i loaa mai, malaila no wa'u e olelo nei a e ha
na nei, o kuupule i ka lasabasi, ua loaa mai
ia, a me kuu heluhelu i ka olelo a ke Akua,
Me kuu himene i ka lasapu a pule iho me
ke kupapau, ua loaa mai ia mau mea iau ia
Pinamu, ua haawi mai iau, ia mau mea
o ke poo^olelo aole i haawi mai ia'u, aole a'u
i hana ia mea, aole a'u i haiano i na kanaka
i ko'u manawa naau po ua olelo a'u ma ko'u
�naau po, i keia manawa aole au i hai aku i ke
ano, a me ka olelo, i na kanaka, o kuu pule i ka
la sabu, ua pule a'u, ua ku a ua heluhelu
aku i na kanaka, a pau ka heluhelu a ^ua hai
aku a'u i ko'u manao ia lakou, o ka ke Akua
no kau, e olelo nei, ka inoa aia kuu hewa
o ke ka lohe i na kanawai o ke Akua, aole a'u i
la lau wale, e hewa ai a'u. A aloha ole ko'u mau
hoa hanau ia'u i ko makou naa manawa naau
po.
[Page 2 of 4]
Holo oliholi^ho i ka hiki o ko'u ao ana ia i ka olelo a ke
Akua, ma Hawaii kou ao ana me ka manao ole i ke Akua
Hoi mai au mai Hawaii ala Haina noho makou i laila
loa iau na wahi lile liilii o kapiapa Walu a hiki i o
Ahu nei i ke au i ka palapala. Hu ae la ko'u aloha
i ke Akua pule iho la wau no ka olioli me ka
manao i ke Akua loaa ke Kumu o ka omi ke
na mai ke la e hele makou e kinai i ka ino
hele no makou e e kinai i ka hewa, hiki mai
kuu kaikoeke o Naihe olelo mai ia'u e ao ae i
ko kakou mau Aina I ka palapala ooeno
ke kumu ae aku au kii aku au i kapepa
na ka haumana a loaa mai ka pepa iho
maila maua e haawi i na Aina a pau o
wau no ke kumu mai ka wa naau po
A ma hope loaa ke kumu nau i haawi aku
ia ia, a i ke na kia Aina i ka hewa, hele ia kumu,
noho aku a loaa hou ua kumu na'u no ia
kumu, a i ke aku a'u i ka he^wa hoihoi mai a'u ia ia
makapono, aole ia i lohe mai i kau olelo, a ike
na kia Aina i ka hewa ua nee aku au, kii
mai na kia Aina ia'u e hewa ua ike loa makou i kana hewa ae aku au, pii mai ke la i
luna, lawe o koae kela i ka Hale kula aua aku a'u
Hoopii ke la i na ku mu, ae maila lakou e lilo
na lakou ka Hale kula, manao ae a'u, a ole a'u i hewa
e lilo ai kau Hale kula mai ka manawa naau
po ahiki iho nei i keia manawa
�[Page 3 of 4]
lilo iho nei kau Hale kula, eia ka mea i lilo ai ia lakou, o kuu ku i sa la sabasi, o kuu himene i ka la saba
ti o kou Hala ia, o kuu kii aku ia oukou i ka
olelo a ke Akua ia oukou o kuu ninau ia oukou i ka mea nalowale, aia ka a lohe lakou
pono pono, ia e kou manao ka inoa aia kau
hewa o kuu hana hewa, o ka olelo a ke Akua
kau e hana nei. He wahi hewa ana ia mai ka
olelo ake Akua, o kou hala ia, o kuu pule
i ka lasabu, olelo hele ma na aina i kuu
hewa, iae kou manao, kainoa o ka
lepo o ka Aina ka makou e kiola, o kapono
o ia ka mea e waiho i ka aina, a lawe iae
nei kuu hale kula lilo ia lakou, imi
wale a'u i kou hewa aole waiho ae, aole ae
ma kuu naau ka lepo a puka ae ma
kuu maha, e hewa ai a'u, o kou manao
e hoihoi mai kau Hale kula e olelo ae ou
kou i na wau i hewa pono la ka lilo
ana ia lakou, o kou manao e noho
nei, ua hoolilo kou naau i ohua
no ke Akua, o kuu kino eia mawaho
ka hi i noho ai, ua like ia me ka mea i esale
kia ia, o kona kino, wale no, waiho kona
naau ma waho aole no ia e pono
o ke kino ona kana i hoike iike ia
mai e na kanaka
[Page 4 of 4]
[Letter Cover]
Kapule of
Kahana recd
March 26, 1831
Nau na Pule I kahana
Kawana, Kinau
Kamalani
�Honolulu
Translation:
[Page 1 of 4]
Greetings to you Chamberlain, Mr. Clark and Bingham. Greetings to you all, missionaries.
Here is my message to you all. The church members have mistreated me, and have not
been kind to me. I have done no wrong such that they should mistreat me. I declare to you that I
have not committed adultery; I have not committed murder; I have not stolen; I have not lied; I
have not been deceitful; I have not broken the laws of God, that I would be wrong. Here I am,
the place I have found; that is where I speak and work. I have my worship on the Sabbath day
and my reading of the word of God, as well as singing on the sacred day, and praying over the
dead. I gained all those things from Bingham, who gave those things to me. As for sermons, he
did not give them to me, and I did not do those. I did not expound to the people in my days of
ignorance, I spoke about my ignorance. At this point I have not spoken about the meaning and
the words to the people. As for prayer on the sacred day, I did prey. I stood and read to the
people, and when the reading was done I spoke my thoughts to them. God’s word is what I
speak. And yet, my wrong is supposedly violating the laws of God, I did not stray, such as to be
considered wrong. Yet my fellow church members had no compassion for me in our time of
ignorance.
[Page 2 of 4]
When Liholiho sailed to foreign lands is when I learned the word of God. On Hawaii is
where I learned, without regard for God. I returned from Hawaii to Lahaina and we stayed there
and I gained the little letters of the spelling primer, and when I arrived here on Oahu, I knew how
to write. My love for God rose and I prayed because of joy and concern for God, and had a
teacher named Kaomi who ordered us to go and extinguish evil, and we did go to extinguish
wrongdoing. My brother-in-law, Naihe, came and said to me, [“]Teach our lands literacy, you be
the teacher.[”] I consented and fetched the paper for the students, and when I got the paper, he
and I came back to offer it in all the lands. I was the teacher from the time of ignorance. And
afterwards a teacher was found and I gave it to him/her. And when the governors saw something
wrong, that teacher left, we waited and found another teacher. I managed that teacher and when I
saw wrongdoing, I returned him/her to what is right, but he/she did not heed my words and when
the governors saw the wrong, I moved. The governors summoned me to address the wrong,
[“]we clearly saw his/her wrongdoing.[”] I agreed. He/she came up and completely took the
schoolhouse, but I resisted. He/she petitioned to the teachers, and they agreed that the
schoolhouse would be theirs. I felt that I had not done wrong to warrant the loss of my
schoolhouse that I had from the time of ignorance until now.
[Page 3 of 4]
�My schoolhouse is gone. Here is the reason it was taken by them: my standing up on the Sabbath
day and singing on the Sabbath day, those are my errors. I went to you for the word of God that
you have and I asked you about the missing parts. Yet when they heard, it was good. My
thoughts tell me that supposedly my wrongs were my bad deeds, yet God’s word is my work. My
wrong would be from the word of God, that would be my sin, my praying on the sacred day,
speaking throughout the lands about my wrongs. My mind supposes that the dirt of the land is
what we should toss away, and goodness is what should remain on the land. My schoolhouse was
taken by them. I looked for my wrong, but there was nothing. I do not agree that there is dirt in
my heart that emerges through my mouth to make me be bad. My thought is that my schoolhouse
be returned. You should address this. For if I had done wrong then it would be right for it to go
to them. My abiding thought is that I have committed my heart as a servant of God. My physical
form remains outside like anyone who has been baptized; there is only one's body while one's
heart remains [inside]. If it were external, it would not be right. The physical form is what one
presents to be seen by people.
[Page 4 of 4]
[Letter Cover]
Kapule of
Kahana recd
March 26, 1831
From me, Pule
Chamberlain
Honolulu
Notes:
1. Kamalani - Mr. Levi Chamberlain was a member of the second company of missionaries.
He was the superintendent of secular affairs for the mission and served as a missionary
teacher.
2. mi Kalaka - Rev. Ephraim Clark arrived with the third company of missionaries.
3. Pinamu - Rev. Hiram Bingham arrived in Hawaiʻi with the first company of missionaries
in 1820. He was the leader of the Mission and was the pastor of the first church,
Kawaiahaʻo.
4. liholiho - Liholiho, Kamehameha II, was the first-born sacred son of Kamehameha I and
Keōpūolani. He ruled the kingdom after his father's death in 1819, departed for England
in 1823 and died there in 1824.
5. kapiapa Walu - Ka Pīʻāpā Walu, lit. the eight-fold primer, which was one of the several
publications of the alphabet primer used to teach reading and writing.
�6.
Naihe - Nāihe, a brother-in-law of Kapule, was a counsellor to the chiefs and an early
convert to Christianity. He lived in the Kona district of Hawaiʻi Island with his wife,
Kapiʻolani, where they were both active in the mission effort.
7. ka omi - Kaomi, a young part-Tahitian man, was a teacher for Kapule and many members
of the royal court.
8. kia Aina - Kiaʻāina, or governor, may refer to the governor of Hawaiʻi island, but appears
to also reference the chiefly district managers in the Kona area.
9. Pule - It has been assumed that Pule is actually Debora Kapule Kekaihaʻakūlou, who was
among the first people to learn reading and writing. This Pule, who may be a different
person, addresses trouble as a teacher in the Kona district in 1831. Other letters from the
same period by Debora Kapule were written while she was helping to run a school in
Kahana, Waimea, Kaua‘i.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pule - Ali`i Letters - 1831.03.26 - to Chamberlain
Description
An account of the resource
Kapule writes to Mr. Levi Chamberlain, Rev. Ephraim Clark and Rev. Hiram Bingham to report her mistreatment and the loss of her schoolhouse. She denies being at fault, and asks that it be returned to her.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Hawaiian Evangelical Association Archives, 1853-1947. Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Library at the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Library at the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pule
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Puakea Nogelmeier
Translated by Awaiaulu Foundation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
If you would like permission to publish or reproduce this material, please send your requests to archives@missionhouses.org
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1831-03-26