Hawaii - James Michener [91]
"Do you still wish to speak with her, Eliphalet?" Abigail asked, swayed by her husband's reactions.
"No, Abigail," her husband interrupted. "This is your problem, not Phet's."
"It is, isn't it?" Mrs. Bromley sniffed. "But what can I tell her about the young man?"
Eliphalet, having anticipated this, handed her a neatly written dossier on Abner Hale, including a minute description of the young minister, a transcript of his marks in college, an essay he had written on Church Discipline in Geneva, and a sketchy genealogy of the Gideon Hales of Marlboro, descendants of Elisha Hale of Bucks, England. There was also a separate sheet which indicated that confidential letters could be addressed to John Whipple and President Day at Yale, to several Christian citizens at Marlboro, Massachusetts, and to Abner's sister Esther on the family farm. Abigail Bromley peeked first at the physical description: "Fine clear complexion but sallow; fine teeth."
Bad news she could have taken, but these hopeful comments collapsed her and she sobbed, "We don't even know where Owhyhee Then she accused her husband of lacking parental love: "Are you willing to send your daughter .
"My dear," Charles said firmly, "the only thing I'm not willing to do is to abandom my child to fits of depression and religious mania in a small upstairs room. If she can find love and a rich life in Owhyhee, it's a damned sight better than she's doing in Walpole, New Hampshire. Now you go up and talk with her. I believe she's in a religious swing of the pendulum this month and she'll probably jump at the chance of marrying a minister and going to Owhyhee." Therefore, as a result of Reverend Eliphalet Thorn's importunate trip to Marlboro and to Walpole, young Abner Hale, sweating the June days nervously at Yale, finally received his letter from Boston: "Dear Mr. Hale: As a result of careful inquiries conducted on our behalf by Reverend Eliphalet Thorn, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is happy in the will of God to advise you that you have been chosen for mission duty in Hawaii. You and your wife will depart Boston on September first in the brig Thetis. Captain Janders." There was enclosed a printed list of some two hundred articles that venturing missionaries were urged to carry with them:
3 razors
compass
towels
washbasin
calash
1 parasol
3 scissors
4 mugs
3 chambers
1 lantern
1 nest Hingham boxes
1 pair bellows
3 stone jugs
1 pair andirons
1 crane and hooks . . .
There was also a much shorter letter which said simply: "You would be well advised to present yourself in late July at the home of Charles and Abigail Bromley in Walpole, New Hampshire, there to meet their daughter Jerusha, a Christian girl of twenty-two. It occurs to me that you may require some few necessities to make yourself additionally presentable for this important meeting, so I enclose herewith three dollars, which you need not repay me." This letter was "Eliphalet Thorn, of the African Mission."
IN THESE YEARS of the early 1820's, there were many young ministers destined for Hawaii who, absorbed in study, found no time to make the acquaintance of marriageable young women and who were unexpectedly faced with the positive necessity of getting married within the space of a few weeks, for the A.B.C.F.M. resolutely refused to send any unmarried men to the islands and advised all such who wished to labor there for the Lord to inquire of their friends to see if a suitable female might be found, and there is no record of failure. Of course, some young ministers were rejected by the first nominees of their friends, but sooner or kter all found wives, "not because the young fellers was handsome, but because New England turns out so danged many old maids. Our best boys is all out to sea." There was much argument as to whether the decision of the A.B.C.F.M. to reject unmarried men stemmed from understanding of what errors men living alone might fall into; or from specific knowledge of what life in Hawaii was like, and