Lot 1238

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Description:

Outstanding content A.L.S from Protestant missionary Charlotte Knapp, 4pp. 4to., writing to her cousins in Massachusetts regarding her missionary work and her first days on the island. The first section is dated April 7, 1837, and was written aboard the 'Mary Frazier' while on her way to Hawaii - 380 miles distant from Honolulu. It reads, in part: '...I have often thought of you since I bid you the last adieu...You are ready to ask perhaps, 'Do you not regret having left your dear friends and country?' No, I answer no...I rejoice that God over put it into my heart to leave them to engage in the blessed work of converting the world. I feel it a privilege unworthy as I am that I am permitted to Iabor in the cause of my Savior...I expect before another day shall roll its round to see one of those islands where ignorance and superstition have so long reigned, where I expect to live and where I expect to die...' She describes the travels made by the ship, the seasickness of the crew, and adds: '...8 of the 14 men who comprise this crew...turn from their evil ways as we hope and give their hearts to God...' The second portion section was written April 21 in Honolulu, adding: 'We anchored here April 9th 116 days out. We will be very pleasantly and cordially received by the missionaries and the king and chiefs...We were invited to an interview with the king in day or two after we arrived on account of his leaving the island to bury his sister on one of the other inlands. He pledged us his protection...The people throng in hundreds to the houses of the missionaries to converse on the subject of religion...hundreds of them assembled on the dock when we landed and followed us to the house of the chief as we stopped there on our way to Mr. Bingham [HIRAM BINGHAM (1789-1869), the leader of the first group of American Protestant missionaries to introduce Christianity to the Hawaiian islands]...Last Sabbath I attended the native meeting where fourty thousand attended...most of them were dressed...many of the common people wore nothing but a piece of kapy and wore still less than that...The town of Honolulu contains about 8,000 inhabitants, 2 or 3 hundred foreigners...What is worth living for but to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ...You live in a great land and are therefore great in sinners, as one of the natives told our ship crew the other day, the heathen will rise up in judgement if you refuse to accept the terms of creation...'Much more detailed, with much of the text cross-written across the pages for lack of space. Strong folds, one split along central fold, else very good. Sold with a typescript.

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May 23, 2021 10:00 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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