The Sandwich Islands Missionaries Create a Literature

Abstract

Aside from conversions, the most notable and noble achievements of the Congregational and Presbyterian missionaries, who journeyed to the Sandwich Islands under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, were the systematization of the Hawaiian language, the development of an educational system, and the preparation of literature to be used in the churches and schools. Evangelism was the primary function of the mission, but teaching and printing, although auxiliary to the main function, played a large and significant role in the christianizing process. Through the printed word the missionaries gained access to the hearts and minds of their pupils; religious concepts and ideas were incorporated in the reading material; thus teachers converted as they taught.