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"I love Jesus Christ. I have given myself to Him to be His."

CHAPTER SIX
KEOPUOLANI
1823

In March, 1823, Hoapili, the husband of Keopuolani, being appointed governor of Maui, desired to be supplied with books, that he and his wife might pursue their studies. For a domestic chaplain, they took with them Pu-aa-i-ki, better known as Blind Bartimeus, who appeared, even then, to possess more spiritual light than any other native on the Islands, and of whom a more particular account will be given hereafter.

At this time, Keopuolani made the following declaration: "I have followed the custom of Hawaii in taking two husbands, in the time of our dark hearts. I wish now to obey Christ, and to walk in the right way. It is wrong to have two husbands, and I desire but one. Hoapili is my husband, and hereafter my only husband."

Establishment of the mission at Lahaina

Before leaving Honolulu, she requested of the mission, that she might have the presence of a missionary at Lahaina. Accordingly Messrs. Stewart and Richards, of the reinforcement, were assigned to that post. She also took with her Taua as her teacher, the most intelligent of the Society islanders.

The people of Lahaina, acting under these new influences, soon built two houses for the missionaries, of ample proportions, and commenced building a house for public worship. While thus employed, the chattering natives were heard to say, contrasting their present service with their old one of building temples for their bloody idols, "The house of God -- the house of prayer -- good, very good."
 

The closing scenes in the life of this woman form an epoch in the missions, and in the history of the nation, and it is proper that some special account be given of her.
 

Her birth and family
Keopuolani was born in 1778, in the district of Wailuku, on the northeast side of the island of Maui. The family, on the father's side, had ruled on the island of Hawaii for many generations; and on the mother's side, had long governed Maui, and for a time also Lanai, Molokai, and Oahu. Intermarriages for successive generations had intimately connected the two families. Her paternal grandfather was the Hawaiian king, whom Captain Cook was leading by the hand when he was killed by the jealous natives. Her grandmother, the guardian of her early years, was a daughter of the king of Maui, and the wife who threw her arms around her husband's neck while he was walking with Captain Cook, and thus gave opportunity to the natives for their fatal attack.

She became the wife of Kamehameha at the early age of thirteen, and was the mother of eleven children, only two of whom lived to attain the kingly office. So sacred was her person, that her presence in the wars of Kamehameha did much to awe the enemy. In early life, she never walked abroad, except at evening, and then all who saw her prostrated themselves to the earth.

Kamehameha had other wives, and it does not appear that she was particularly a favorite, except as she was much the highest chief on the Islands. She was amiable and affectionate, while her husband was not remarkable for these qualities. Keopuolani was strict in the observance of the tabu, but mild in her treatment of those who had broken it, and they often fled to her for protection. She was said, by many of the chiefs, never to have been the means of putting any person to death.
 

Keopuolani Embraces Christianity
In the year 1822, while at Honolulu, she was very ill, and her attention seems to have been then first drawn to the instructions of the missionaries. Though much opposed in this by some of the chiefs, she was resolute. What she did to secure this instruction, when removing to Lahaina in 1823, has already been stated.

Her Christian character developed steadily from that time. Notwithstanding her necessary cares, and her interruptions from company, she daily found time for learning to read; nor was she less diligent in searching for divine truth.

So decided was her stand in favor of Christianity, that many of the people and some of the chiefs were offended, but their opposition only gave her the more opportunity to show the firmness of her principles, and the strength of her attachment to the Christian cause. Even the king, her son, who had arrived from Honolulu, and to whom she was much attached, sought at times to draw her away from her Christian teachers. On one occasion she replied to him as follows: "Why do you call my foreign teachers bad? They are good men, and I love them. Their religion is good; our old religion is good for nothing. Their ways are all good, and ours are bad. Are not their instructions the same as formerly? You then said they were good, and told me I must regard them, and cast away all my old gods. I have done as you said, and I am sure I have done well. But you now disregard the true religion, and desire me to do the same. But I will not. I will never leave my teachers. I will follow their instructions, and you had better go with me, for I will never again take my dark heart."
 

Her illness
The illness of Keopuolani assumed a threatening form in the last week of August, 1823. In consequence of this, the chiefs began to assemble, agreeably to their custom. Vessels were dispatched for them to different parts of the Islands, and one was sent by the king to Honolulu for Dr. Blatchley. In the evening of September 8th, under the apprehension that she was dying, a messenger was sent to the mission family, and several of them repaired immediately to her house.

As soon as she heard the voice of the females, she extended her hand to them with a smile, and said "Maikai! -- "Good," -- and added, "Great is my love to God." In the morning she was a little better, and conversed with her husband, Hoapili, on the goodness of God in sparing her life to see his servants, and hear his words, and know his Son.

To the prime minister, Kalanimoku, on his arrival, she said, "I love Jesus Christ. I have given myself to him to be his. When I die, let none of the evil customs of this country be practiced. Let not my body be disturbed. Let it be put in a coffin. Let the teachers attend, and speak to the people at my interment. Let me be buried, and let my burial be after the manner of Christ's people. I think very much of my grandfather, Taraniopu, and my father Kauikeaouli, and my husband Kamehameha, and all my deceased relatives. They lived not to see these good times, and to hear of Jesus Christ. They died depending on false gods. I exceedingly mourn and lament on account of them, for they saw not these good times."
 

Baptized on her deathbed
There is much more related of her that would interest the reader, but for which there is not room. She was anxious to receive Christian baptism, but there was no missionary then at Lahaina sufficiently conversant with the native language, to venture on administering the rite, for the first time, in the presence of so large a proportion of the national intelligence. Messrs. Stewart and Richards had not even a competent interpreter. They regarded her as a fit subject for baptism, but were unwilling to administer the ordinance without some means of communicating with her and with the people, so that there might be no danger of misunderstanding on so interesting an occasion. They feared lest there should be erroneous impressions as to the place the ordinance held in the Christian system.

Happily, Mr. Ellis arrived just in season, and the dying woman was thus publicly acknowledged as a member of the visible church. The king and all the heads of the nation listened with profound attention to Mr. Ellis's statement of the grounds on which baptism was administered to the queen; and when they saw that water was sprinkled on her in the name of God, they said, "Surely she is no longer ours. She has given herself to Jesus Christ. We believe she is his, and will go to dwell with him." An hour afterwards, near the close of September 16, 1823, she died.
 

Her funeral and burial
The gross irregularities customary on such an occasion had been forbidden by the queen herself and by the prime minister. But it was deemed expedient to allow the customary wailing, and it did not entirely cease until after the burial.

The funeral solemnities, at the request of the chiefs, were conducted according to Christian usages. The church not being large enough to hold the people, the service was near it, in a beautiful grove of kou trees. A low platform had been erected for the preacher, on which was a table, and chairs were provided for the missionaries. The corpse was placed on a bier near the table, and around it were gathered the bearers, mourners, chiefs, missionaries, and respectable foreigners, nearly all of whom wore badges of mourning. The number of people present was believed to exceed three thousand. Mr. Ellis preached from Rev. xiv. 13: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." After the service, a procession of about four hundred followed the corpse to a tomb prepared for it, built of stone, and all the while minute guns were fired from ships in the roads. Thousands, on both sides of the way, gazed at the solemn pageant as it passed, to most of whom it was new. The spectacle was transient, but the influence of that death and burial has never ceased to be felt by the Hawaiian nation.

The king was affected, for a time, by the death of his mother, and by her exhortations, and sought to avoid the snares that were evidently laid for him by a foreigner of some standing. He was overcome at last by the artful offer of cherry brandy, with the assurance that it would not harm him. He tasted, and came once more under the power of the destructive poison. The vessel which took Mr. and Mrs. Thurston back to Kailua, conveyed also the king, on what proved to be his last visit there.
 

Keopuolani, the highest ranking chiefess in the islands, was the most sacred wife of King Kamehameha the Great, who died four years earlier, and the mother of Liholiho and Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha II & III). 

Until then, her other husband was Kalaimoku.

In those days, it was the custom to burn the bodies of rulers and chiefs, remove the flesh, then wrap the bones for hiding.

This was Hawaii's first baptism.

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