My First Mission

by George Q. Cannon

After their arrival, the work received a great impulse on the Island of Oahu, and especially in Honolulu. That town was made alive with excitement, and large numbers were baptized. A branch of the white members was organized, over which Elder B. F. Johnson was appointed to preside. Elders Tanner and Karren were chosen as counselors to Elder Philip B. Lewis, the president of the mission. Upon the Islands of Hawaii and Kauai, also, the work made great strides, and hundreds were added to the Church.

I omitted to mention that Elder William Perkins, who had been appointed on a mission to the islands, reached there, accompanied by his wife and Sister John S. Woodbury, about the last of November, 1851. They remained for some time, laboring to the best of their ability. Brother Perkins was released to return home because of his wife’s failing health.

For the purpose of visiting the Saints and people on the Island of Hawaii (the Owyhee of Captain Cook), I had occasion to sail to that island in April, 1854.

In those days, money was very scarce with the Elders, and we had not the means to transport us from island to island on the regular vessels which sailed in those seas. I, therefore, in company with several of the brethren, traveled, preaching by the way, through the hilly and rough country that lay between Lahaina and Kawaipapa on eastern Maui, a point considered the best to embark at to cross the channel to Hawaii.

Our company consisted of Elder R. N. Allred, who was at that time president on the Island of Maui; Elder J. H. Napela, and four native Elders belonging to Maui, who had been appointed to labor in the ministry on the Island of Hawaii. Their names were Kaelepulu, Kapono, Hoopiiaina and Peleleu.

The channel which we had to cross was at times very rough and dangerous, and many lives had been lost in it; but we had faith to believe that the Lord would preserve us in crossing, although our vessel was one that very few white men would care to venture out to sea in. It was a canoe hollowed out of a tree. Both ends of the canoe had boards fitted in as a sort of a deck, which was covered with mats. These mats were lashed to the canoe and made the top of the deck as round as a log and perfectly water-tight. You would think this deck a curious place to go to sea on, yet the native islanders were perched on both ends of the canoe on this deck with their paddles to row the canoe when the wind did not blow. In the center of the canoe a certain space was left for us to sit in, and sides were formed by lashing mats to some poles that were raised above the edge of the canoe. In this place the natives had fixed plenty of mats, so that we could sit or recline, as suited us, very comfortably. Lashed across the canoe, were two poles, each a little distance from the end of the canoe. These poles extended six or eight feet into the water, and fastened to their ends was a board, which ran parallel with the canoe. This we call an outrigger; it was for the purpose of keeping the canoe balanced when the sail was hoisted. On these poles, when the wind commenced to blow the islanders sat, easing up and bearing down, according to the strength of the wind, so as to keep the canoe from capsizing. The greater part of the time some portion of their bodies was in the water. But the sea has no terrors for the Sandwich Islanders. They can swim in the water for hours without being at all fatigued.

When I looked at these men perched on the deck of the canoe, it looked like going to sea on a log; and had I not been familiar with the skill of the natives in managing their canoe, and had some confidence in my own powers as a swimmer, with them to aid me in the water, I should scarcely have ventured in such a craft as this was.

We prayed to the Lord, before we started, to give us a pleasant and favorable voyage, and the natives said they had never had a more favorable time.

We reached Upolu on the island of Hawaii between three and four o’clock, having started from Maui about eight o’clock in the morning.

While upon this subject I may say that we returned to Upolu after our visit had ended, and again crossed the channel, back to Maui, but this time we did not have a single canoe. One of the native Saints and his son had procured two new canoes and had lashed them together as was the fashion in former days, for their chiefs, by fastening pieces of timber across both canoes, the latter being from four to six feet apart. This was called in their language kaulua.