The presence of Obookiah in this country, as well as of other heathen youth, together with the desire to educate some of our own Indians, led to the formation of the Foreign Mission School, at Cornwall, Mass. This school was under the care of the American Board ten years. Its pupils were from many different nations. In 1826 it was discontinued, for by this time the missions were able to educate the young at their several stations.
Obookiah was pursuing his studies here, when, in the beginning of the year 1818, he was stricken with typhus fever, and suffered several weeks. On the 17th of February, 1818, he shook hands with all his companions present, and with perfect composure addressed to them the parting salutation of his native language, "Alloah ò e"—"my love be with you."
Mrs. Stone, in whose house he died, and who cared for him with Christian kindness during his sickness, said, "This had been one of the happiest and most profitable periods of her life; that she had been more than rewarded for her cares and watchings by day and night, in being permitted to witness his excellent example, and to hear his godly conversation."
Almost immediately after his death, missionaries, inspired by his life, hastened to accomplish his cherished purpose, the establishment of a mission in the Sandwich Islands. Mills was far from home, but returning at the time, not knowing Obookiah had died, he said to a friend, "If it please God that I may arrive safely, I think that I shall take Obookiah and go to the Sandwich Islands and there I will end my life."
From that day to this, missionaries and missions, schools, churches and Christians have multiplied, till all those islands name the name of Christ.
CHAPTER IV.
THE SANDWICH ISLES WITH AND WITHOUT THE GOSPEL.
"Surely the isles shall wait for me."
The missionaries found upon these islands naked savages, without books, education, or courts of justice. The people were slaves, governed arbitrarily by chiefs. It was a nation of debauchees, thieves and drunkards. There were no marriage laws. Two-thirds of the children born were destroyed. If an infant was ailing or troublesome, the mother scooped a hole in the ground, covered the child with earth and trampled out its life. The aged and infirm were taken to the brow of a precipice and pushed over. The sick were removed to such a distance that their groans could not annoy, and left to die. The insane were stoned to death.