Religion on Samoa

RELIGION ON SAMOA. BY W. 0. LEE, SAMOAN MISSIONARY.

So far as outward appearances are concerned, the Samoans are a very devout and a strictly religious people. One cannot help realizing this on first acquaintance with them because of their familiarity with the scriptures, and their greeting to strangers, which is always mingled with thanks to the Lord for the preservation of their own and their visitor's lives. Every night, as darkness comes, each house in the village is lighted by a lamp, or a fire made with cocoanut shells, and the family devotional evercises begin, sometimes by reading an extract from the Bible, and always by singing a hymn followed by prayer. We believe that the London Missionary Society are entitled to the credit of introducing this pleasing custom which we found universal among the natives. There is but one objectionable feature in connection with it, and that is the publicity of each family's devotion, on account of the houses being open all around. Where so close together, the praying in one house is marred by the singing in the next. However, the Samoans have become so accustomed to this confusion that it does not seem to affect them. In fact, like most colored races, they dearly love this outward show of what may, or may not, be an inward grace. One of the most remarkable things to a foreigner who has been taught to look upon the natives as ignorant, and classed with the heathens, is their perfect familiarity with the contents of the Bible. Most of the present generation learned their A B C's, or as the Samoans would say ole a ma lee ma le i, out of that good book. It was also their first, second, third and fourth reader, and, therefore, no wonder they are so familiar with the letter, if not the spirit, of the scriptures.

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The rapidity with which the natives can turn to any chapter, or verse, of any book in the Bible, is a surprise to all strangers not familiar with the custom among the Protestant Sunday schools, of devoting a portion of the exercises of each week to seeing which member of the higher class can turn quickest to any chapter and verse given out by the teacher. We doubt if another people can be found who are more careful than the native Samoans in observing the Sabbath day as a day of peace, and rest from temporal labors, and a day given up to the worship of God. It is true that they have not

all come to a unity of the faith in Christ, but, in all our travels among them, we found but one skeptic, as an exception to the rule of general belief in the Bible, and the worship of God according to the rules and regulations of the three distinct bodies of religious worshipers known as the Protestants, the Catholics and the Latterday Saints.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.

The Protestants were the first to commence proselyting on Samoa. About the year 1830 or 1833, native missionaries from Tahiti came to Samoa representing the London Missionary Society, and ever since they have been nicknamed the "Tahitian" Church, and among the natives are so called to this day. These, with a few Wesleyans from Tonga, comprise the Protestant churches. There seems to be an understanding between these two sects to the effect that the former shall enjoy all the privileges on Samoa, while the latter is allowed the same on Tonga, for purely economic reasons. The London Missionary Society, through its missionaries during the last seventy years, has succeeded in reducing the native dialect into a written language. They have translated and printed what is generally considered a very good translation of the Bible, together with a treatise thereon, not so good, and quite a number of works on educational subjects. The Tahites, or Protestants, are by far more numerous than all on the islands at the present time, and they other sects have what is probably one of their strongest organizations on Samoa. In almost every village there is a native Protestant teacher who is at once the spiritual teacher and the day school teacher of the village. Boys that are apt to learn are adopted by him, and

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receive special care and training, and if they still continue bright and quick in their studies, at sixteen years of age, they are sent to Molua, the Protestant training school for native missionaries on Upolu. Here they take a four years' course in theology, and the common branches of education, under white teachers, and at the expiration of that time, are considered ready to fill any vacancy as village pastors, or as missionaries to any other group of islands. In this way the Protestants get the cream of the brainy ones for their work, and the schooling makes them more intelligent than their fellows. There is also the respect shown the religious office, and a small salary attached that make it a very desirable position for the ordinary native. It is understood that in time of war these

village pastors are free from military duty, and the natives have been taught to give a tithe of their food to the village teacher, and to those dependent upon him, so that, to a great extent, he is also free from the manual labor necessary to gain a livelihood. The Protestant work is looked after by some eight or ten missionaries who are salaried, and well taken care of, by the London Missionary Society, and they live in ease, dress well, and are accompanied by servants wherever they go.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Next to the Protestants, numerically, are the Catholics, represented by the Jesuit fathers from France. The very appearance of these men with their black beards, black gowns, and care-worn faces on which there is no trace of a smile, repels one from their presence. They commenced their work some years after the country had become Protestant. It is said that their entrance into the

religious life of the natives was opposed most vigorously by the dominant church, which opposition has continued ever since. This feeling of enmity between Protestant and Catholic, has had much to do with the recent internecine wars on the islands over the kingship question, (Malieatoa being a protestant, and Mataafa a Catholic,) since each sect was fearful of its rights, privileges, and property if the other should have a representative on the throne. The Catholics have a number of fine concrete churches, which, with their stained glass windows and interior decorations, far sur- $

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pass any others on the islands. On account of the natives being fond of bright colors, pomp, show and ceremony, we often wondered why it was that the Catholics did not make greater headway and more converts. Hovever, as is usual with this sect, their converts are converted in very deed to Catholicism, and they pride themselves very* much upon the fact that there are many more Catholics than members of any other Christian sect on the earth at the present time. To the native mind, that is one great proof of truth and right, and they take great pleasure in asking one the question, for personal gratification: "Which sect has the greatest number?" While the Catholics are more exclusive than the Protestants, yet we have often been most hospitably treated by them, and we have many converts who were previously members of the Catholic church.

THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS.— THEIR HISTORY IN SAMOA.

Last, but not least, except in numbers, among the religious bodies on the islands, are the Latter-day Saints. There is quite a romance attached to the begining of our work on the islands; briefly it is as follows: In the year 1857, when Johnston's army came to Utah, the Elders on missions in foreign lands were called home. We believe this request was generally obeyed, but there was one Elder, Walter Gibson by name, on the Sandwich Islands who chose to ignore the request of President Young, in this matter, remaining on the islands. Seemingly he took it for granted, as did many of the enemies of the Saints, that their extermination was sure. On the islands and among the natives, this ambitious schemer saw opportunities for wealth, fame and personal aggrandizement enough to satisfy the most ambitious of men. He succeeded to a most remarkable extent. He became very wealthy and rose in political power until he became the king's prime minister. It seemed, for a long time, as though the Lord had forgotten this man who had thus usurped the authority of the prophet of God in establishing on Hawaii a church of his own after the pattern of The Church, except that he sold the offices of the Priesthood at varying prices ac_

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cording to the importance of the office.Then he robbed the overconfident native Saints by inducing them to buy an island, as a gathering place, which was deeded to himself, thus furnishing him with the necessary wealth and prestige to begin his political career. Some day when the history of Walter Gibson shall be written, it will furnish another most forcible proof of the folly in any man deserting the work of the Lord for the things of this world, and vainly imagining within his heart that he can make a counterfeit of the genuine church. He was cast out of The Church, and, in the end, was banished by his political opponents from the islands, and died an exile from what had almost been his own kingdom, in the streets and gutters of San Francisco, without home, without friends, and almost forgotten. During this man's power he sent two native elders, Kimo Belio, and S. Manoa, to open a mission on the Samoan Islands. While these native elders were not properly sent by this usurper, yet they had previously been ordained to the priesthood, and labored with zeal and considerable success. The last mentioned, however, transgressed, leaving the former to prosecute the work alone. Much credit and honor is due to Elder Kimo Belio, for the good work he did on Samoa. Unaided and alone, after his companion sinned, he succeeded in establishing a strong branch of The Church on the island of

Tutuila. Had he lived to continue his labors, who can tell what we would have found when we went there twenty-five years later to assist in reopening the mission, in the place of the scattered sheep, who, for the greater part, had wandered back into their former folds! But Lamafa, Ifopo, and many others, together with the long since repentant Manoa, held themselves aloof from all other sects, still hoping, praying and sending occasional letters to The Church

on Hawaii beseeching in most earnest pleadings that a white shepherd might be sent to gather them together again, and lead them in the true way. It was the reading of these letters, at the Sandwich Islands mission, by Elder Joseph H. Dean, that created in his heart a desire to reopen the work on Samoa. In 1888, he was set apart for that purpose, together with his wife Florence, and they landed on the ittle island of Aumm. This island is separated from the larger sland of Tutuila by a channel about a mile wide. Both of these

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islands, if the proposed division takes place, will be given to the United States. It was here that they found a nucleus of The Church

in a few of the remnants of Belio's flock, who received them with tears of joy and child-like rapture. Four months when our later,

party arrived to assist President Dean in his labors, we found him with a nice little branch of the Saints on Aumm. He had become quite proficient in the language because of the similarity between the Hawaiian and the Samoan dialects. Neither language nor space will allow us to describe, in this article, the peculiar feelings of our

hearts, and the strange sights that we beheld with our eyes as our boat rode over the breakers, and the anchor was dropped in the surf, in front of the only village on the little island of Aumm, our first home on Samoa. All the village turned out that day and we received a royal welcome. Big, brown-skinned, natives waded out to our boat, and, locking their hands behind their backs, invited us to kneel on their hands, put our arms around their necks, and ride ashore. We men folks gladly availed ourselves of this opportunity, but Sister L., demurred, until the thoughts of two long weeks on the ocean, with that dreadful longing to reach land once more, was too much for her, when she too took her first man-back ride from boat to shore. Then came that wonderful, joyous greeting with the natives. From a Mr. McFarland, a quarter-cast, on the same vessel returning to the islands, we had learned the native greeting, but the way we saluted the native women with a long drawn-out ta-lo-fa-ta-ma-i-ta-i was undoubtedly, as Brother Dean said afterward, one of the most laughable things that he had ever heard. With Brother Dean as our teacher and critic, and the natives to practice on, with the aid of the native Bible and dictionary, we began our daily exercise in the native language. For physical exercise, we went out each day into the forest and cut sticks and logs for our first meeting house. After its completion, President Dean took the other brethren, crossed over the channel to the island of Tutuila, and they made a complete circuit of that island, holding meetings, in nearly every village, being well received by the majority of the natives, and baptizing some before they returned. During the absence of the brethren on Tutuila, we felt the weight of a responsibility entirely different from anything else in

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our experience. When Sunday came, we took charge of the meetings, and strange are the stories that our companions are wont to tell of how we made up in gestures what we lacked in words, in the earnestness to deliver the first message to the natives without an interpreter. It was during this time that Mr. Clark, the senior member of the London Missionary Society, hearing of our work on Aumm, came from Apia to investigate the new religion on the islands. One day we received a call from him, and, naturally, our conversation drifted onto religious matters. Before going, he asked the question, "Do you expect to establish your Church here?" To which we replied, "Most certainly we have come five- thous- ;

and miles for that purpose." "Then," he said, "I have come ten-thousand miles to stop you." He had recently returned from his vacation in England. We met Mr. Clark many times after this, and each time we had more converts, more branches, of The Church; and, lastly, our headquarters was established on the island of Upolu, within three miles of his own. It was also during these first two months that we heard of an agent of the Tamasese government being sent to arrest us, but before he reached Aumm, his government had fallen, and the Germans were compelled to bring back and re-establish Malieatoa as king of Samoa. Within six months we had a number of converts on Tutuila. and we moved headquarters to Vatia on that island. While at this place, Elder Brigham Smoot, of Provo, was nearly drowned while bathing in the bay, on the day after his arrival. Through the blessings of the Lord, and our efforts, he was brought back to life againHere it was that we witnessed the destructive hurricane of March, 1889. Elders Dean, Wood and Beesley were on a trip to the island of Upolu arriving at Apia in our little boat, the "Faaliga," on the day before the hurricane. We were, therefore, eye witnesses of the effects of that terrible typhoon on the lives of the sailors, and on the vessels of the United States and German navies. The brethren had been led to make this trip to Upolu through receiving a letter from Ifopo, one of Belio's converts, who had been anxiously waiting with the other scattered Saints for the day when white missionaries would be sent to them. The joy of Ifopo on meeting

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the brethren, was unbounded. From that time until his death, this devoted native gave his time, home, and all his energies to assist us in the work of the Lord. Among a people that are generally considered as unstable as water, this man, with many others, remained true and faithful to the end, passing through trials that

would have tested the faith and endurance of many more favored Latter-day Saints. He and his associates were often driven from their native villages and made outcasts for the work's sake. After the arrival of Elders Solomon, Smoot, Booth and Bennet, we were scattered. President Dean took the first two with Elder Wood and his family to Upolu, where they bought a piece of land, at Fagalii and built a rustic mission house which still remains, with additions, as our headquarters on the Samoan mission. From there Elder Wood went to the largest island of the group, Savaii, and was very successful in establishing The Church there. We remained with Elders Beesley, Bennett and Booth on Tutuila and Aumm. From this time the work spread rapidly all over the islands, until, when we gathered at mission headquarters for October con-

ference, 1891, we numbered twenty-one Elders, one sister and two children, with hundreds of native converts, and branches of The Church on all of the islands except Manua. The authorities refused to let us proselyte there because of an agreement between the chiefs and Protestants that no other sect should be allowed on the two islands in that group. Meantime, President Dean and family had returned to Zion, leaving ourselves to continue the work. Elders Smoot and Butler were laboring under difficulties to establish the work on the Friendly Islands, (Tonga,) five hundred miles south of Samoa, and Elders Damron and Seegmiller were preparing for their journey to reopen the Society Islands (Tahiti) mission, whence Elder James Brown and others were banished, in the early fifties, leaving large branches of native Saints that were afterwards visited and taken by the Josephites. Thus the work grew in numbers and spread over the islands regardless of all efforts to stop it.To the credit of the Catholics, let it be said that they left us alone.But the Protestants, in their native newspapers, republished all the old lies, and many new ones

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that we had never heard of before, concerning the prophet Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints. Our Elders had many interesting fireside discussions with the Protestant native teachers, who, seemingly, were taught that when they left their training school, they were equal to any white missionary. They often came to us with all the assurance in the world expecting to prove it. The writer had the pleasure and satisfaction of accompanying President Dean on the first trip made by our Elders around the island of Upolu. At one village where we stayed over night, in the house of the village chief who was also head chief of the district, we were visited at night by some twenty Protestant native teachers who had been moving a white missionary and his family from one station to another. Hearing of the advent of Ofaifean Mamona (Mormon missionaries) in their district, they desired to interview them and confound them in argument. That this was their object, we soon discovered, as they began to ply questions from all sides of the house which was now filled with the teachers and villagers banked upon the outside, curious to hear the discussion. President Dean, who, through many years of experience on Hawaii, had become familiar with the native character, requested the teachers to choose one of their number as spokesman, and then questions would be asked back and forth, without confusion. This rule was adopted, and their spokesman asked his first question which was answered by Brother Dean. To illustrate his replies he placed some pebbles in a row on the mat in front of him and stated that we could easily understand how the native teachers had received their authority from the white missionaries, and they from the Society in London, and they back to Martin Luther, but there the chain of succession, like the row of pebbels, ceased. "Now," said he, "where did Martin Luther get his authority to organize the Church of Christ on the earth?" After consulting with his companions, their spokesman answered, "From the Bible," which was objected to, and passages were quoted proving for what purpose all scripture is given to man. Then he said, "He received his authority from the Holy Ghost." Objected to again, and proofs quoted from the scriptures showing the various offices of the Holy Ghost. Then he ventured

184 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the assertion last of all, that Luther, feeling the weight of his own sins, prayed earnestly to the Lord until he felt in his heart that he was forgiven, and, therefore, his authority was assured. This last weak reply was objected to by Elder Dean, and as he began to prove from the Bible that divine authority does not come to man in that way, the native teachers became excited, and tried, by asking all sorts of questions, to turn the tide in their favor, but in vain. Then the chief reproved them for not abiding by the rules; at which their spokesman turned on him with abusive language, and was in turn ordered out of the house, with the declaration by our host that, "today I was a Taluti-Protestant, but now I am a Mormon.'" After the natives began quarreling among themselves, we retired, and let them settle their contention. The end of the matter was that the teachers, after inducing their spokesman to apologize to the chief, and vainly trying to persuade him to recon- sider his threat to join us, they went away and sent three elders, or retired teachers, men of great influence, to labor most of that night and part of the next day to calm the anger of their much- coveted member. While we did not baptize our friend, yet the incident did us a great amount of good. The news of the affair preceded us around the island, and we found the natives anxiously waiting to see us and to hear all about the controversy with the teachers. The Protestants have done their work so thoroughly on Samoa that we often felt to say, "What a pity that they lacked divine authority, and divine wisdom in the doing of these things, so that work would not have to be done over again their P All this, because men choose to take upon themselves the authority to preach in the name of Jesus and interpert the Holy Scriptures, forgetting that no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron." As to the future of the Samoans and the permanency of our work among them, we cannot hope for the best results, until they are separated from their native customs.Many of these are in opposition to gospel teachings, but so strong are they that it seems almost impossible to wean the natives away from their tattooing, eating things strangled, and blood, their marriage customs, etc.