Description:

Hawaiian Missionary Letter Re: Laplace and Paulett Affairs, Excellent Content

A letter from a female Protestant missionary with details of her experiences in Hawaii. 4pp of a bifolium, measuring 7.75" x 9.75", Honolulu, dated March 28, 1842. From missionary Charlotte A. Knapp to her cousin, Cornelia Knapp, in Connecticut. Charlotte refers to the 1839 Laplace affair, a military intervention by France four years earlier to end the persecution of Catholics in Hawaii, promoted by Protestant ministers, including herself. She also elaborately details the French and British occupation of the Islands during the "Paulet Affair". Despite her clear distaste for the English occupation, Charlotte does write positively of Lord Paulet - the driving force behind the ongoing conflict. With flattened mail folds and creasing. A few small tears at the bottom edge. Uneven toning throughout. Broken red wax seal. Very good overall.

In part:
"April 3rd. I must hasten to finish my letter as the vessel is to sail this week. You will probably hear these Islands are in possession of the English by communications which went to the U. States nearly a month ago. An account of the transaction will probably be in the public papers before this reaches you. We were expecting the place would be fired upon for a few hours, though we felt very different from what we did when Capt. Laplace was here, because the Capt. and officers had treated us politely and if he had not, there was an American ship of war here to look out for the Americans. But such circumstances are not very pleasant I can assure you I always had great dread of war and to be in the midst of it is a different thing from hearing of it at a distance... It was so unexpected that we hardly knew what to think or do - if it had been a French vessel we would not have been surprised but we hardly expected such a course to be pursued by an Englishman. It is all over and though we do not justify the course pursued yet we cannot but think that the Lord will cause it to work for the good of his cause. There is no reason to doubt but the French would have taken the Islands if the Eng. had not - we heard last Jan. they were coming but did not place confidence in it...The French Consul says there will be trouble now when they come, perhaps they will make demands but they will find they have somebody besides Kauikeaouli to deal with. Lord Paulet invited the missionaries to dine on board ship last Friday...he and his two lieutenants did everything they could to make their visit pleasant...His Lordship shows himself friendly to our operations and will probably attend our examinations of school next week...We have hope for a number of children in our schools that they are Christian. The Spirit of the Lord has not forsaken the people. On Hawaii especially there has been a very interesting state of things for about three or four years, and we have reason to be encouraged to go on in our labors among the people…"

The 'Laplace affair' and 'Paulet affair' both occurred within a four-year span. The Paulet Affair was an unofficial five-month occupation of the Hawaiian Islands by British naval officer Captain Lord George Paulet, of HMS Carysfort, which was ended only by the arrival of American warships sent to defend Hawaii's independence. Richard Charlton, the British consul to the Kingdom of Hawaii claimed that British subjects in the Hawaiian Islands were being denied their legal rights. He met with Captain Paulet who, in turn, requested permission from Admiral Thomas to investigate the allegations. After making numerous demands and refusing to speak with American diplomats, Paulet destroyed all Hawaiian flags he could find and raised the British Union Flag for an occupation that would last six months.

The Laplace affair or the French Incident was a military intervention by the Kingdom of France in 1839 to end the persecution of Catholics in the Kingdom of Hawaii, which had been promoted by Protestant ministers. Under the threat of war, King Kamehameha III issued an Edict of Toleration on July 17, 1839 and paid $20,000 in compensation for the deportation of the priests and the incarceration and torture of converts.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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