Privately Printed for the Author
Remarks on the "Tour Around Hawaii," by the Missionaries, Messrs. Ellis, Thurston, Bishop and Goodrich.
[Sanders, Elizabeth].
Salem: Printed for the Author, 1848.
Price:
$2,500.00
About the item
First edition. [2], iv, 42pp. 8vo. Publisher's wrapppers, small split at lower front joint. Provenance: Cincinnati Public Library (inked stamps). Forbes 1714; Sabin 76380.
Item #378191
Very rare anti-missionary defense of native Hawaiians privately printed by the female author.
"On reading William Ellis' Tour around Hawaii (probably the Boston 1825 edition...), Mrs. Sanders found that she disagreed strongly with the actions of the American missionaries and wrote a long article on the subject, 'in the hope of undeceiving the numerous class who might give credence to these mis-statements.' The remarks were printed in a journal of the period ... which Mrs. Sanders states 'was at that early period, the only one where the editor was sufficiently enlightened, just, and independent, to give the article a place in his invaluable paper.' Mrs. Sanders here extols the virtues and hospitality of the natives, quotes from early missionary letters and published accounts by William Ellis and Charles S. Stewart to support her position, and disagrees with claims of the 'deplorable state of the natives in all that respects their moral and domestic relations' (p. 11). She allows as how her letter 'produced little effect and the missionaries have been allowed to accomplish their destructive measures without interruptions,' and she seems particularly unhappy with an article that had appeared in the American Quarterly Review (March and June 1828). She resumed her cause more than 20 years after the publication of the Ellis narrative, perhaps inspired by reading an account by Captain Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1841), for she disagrees with statements made by him regarding missionary improvements at Hawaii. These she says are contradicted by 'the fatal effects produced in the unfortunate natives; and this is too apparent to be denied.' Her letter to the Christian Register dated Salem, November 29, 1847 (reprinted on pp. 29–35), reiterates her 'aversion' to foreign missions" (Forbes).
"The work was privately published and issued by Mrs. Sanders ... The pamphlet is only very rarely found in the antiquarian book trade" (Forbes). We note only two other examples in the auction records in the last 45 years.
