The Promised Land. A Sermon delivered at Goshen, (Conn.) at the Ordination of the Rev. Messers. Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston, as Missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, Sept. 29, 1819
Boston, Samuel T. Armstrong, 1819.
Octavo (207 x 129 mm), 40, xvi pages.
Disbound neatly, but with traces of old leather on the spine; short tear to the first two, and the last, leaves expertly sealed; paper a little offset and discoloured, with trifling signs of handling; an excellent copy.
Hill 852: 'This rare pamphlet may be cited as the inception of the Christian missionary movement in Hawaii. [Bingham and Thurston] ... were the first two foreign missionaries to land on Hawaii. Their influence, coming immediately upon the death of Kamehameha in 1819, was to be greater than that of the whalers, traders, and planters who also changed Hawaiian culture.... This most important sermon was an enthusiastic charge to the missionaries and set the tone of missionary policy towards Hawaii for years to come'. The sermon (pages [3]-32) is followed by 'The Charge, by the Rev. David L. Perry' (pages [33]-37), 'Right Hand of Fellowship, by the Rev. Noah Porter' (pages [38]-40), and 16 pages of 'Instructions from the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Foreign Missions' (dated 15 October 1819). The final page lists the members of the pioneering party, which includes the 'Native Teachers John Honooree, Native of Owhyhee. Thomas Hopoo [ditto]. William Tennooe, Native of Atooi', as well as George Tamoree, 'son of Tamoree, king of Atooi and Oneeheow, two of the Sandwich Islands, - who has been educated with the other Native Youths, at the Foreign Mission School, Cornwall', Connecticut.
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