Lucia Holman was an interesting and complicated woman. A schoolteacher and the sister of fellow missionary, Samuel Ruggles, she married Dr. Thomas Holman a month before leaving for Hawaii. Her journal is available to read online; it is entertaining and not too challenging to read.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106000759586&view=1up&seq=1
Mrs. Holman suffered from sea-sickness for most of the five month voyage from Boston to Hawaii. In that way, some of her journal entries resemble those of the boy Eustace in C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Nevertheless, the reader can sense her sincere faith in God and desire to serve the Hawaiians. Perhaps what she lacked was a willingness to suffer for the sake of the gospel.
In Lucy Thurston’s original book, The Life and Times of of Mrs. Lucy G. Thurston, wife of Rev. Asa Thurston, Pioneer Missionary to the Sandwich Islands, she mentions the Holmans very little. Lucy does not use the Holmans’ name at all when she explains their reasons for leaving only three days after they arrived. I believe that Lucy did not want to defame their character any more than it already was. Other missionaries have written of their strong disapproval of the Holmans leaving the mission field early and returning to the United States.
According to Mrs. Holman’s journal, she and Dr. Holman left Kailua because of lack of water. First they went to Lahaina on Maui for a few months with the understanding that if the king were to become ill, Dr. Holman would return to Kailua to care for him.
Then the captain of a ship in Honolulu became sick and the missionaries sent for Dr. Holman. He and Mrs. Holman departed for Honolulu at once, sailing all night in their haste. Then they stayed in Honolulu for several months. Mrs. Holman enjoyed Lahaina and Honolulu much more than Kailua for good reasons; there was more vegetation and easier access to fresh water.
Eventually, Dr. and Mrs. Holman sailed to Kauai, the northernmost island and lived there for eight months. During that time, Mrs. Holman gave birth to their first child, a daughter, whom they named “Lucia Kamamalu[1].”
In October 1821, the Holmans left Kauai on the ship Mentor which was sailing for Canton (China) and then for New England. So it is commonly believed that Mrs. Lucia Holman was the first American woman to circumnavigate the globe. Given her tendency for sea-sickness, I do not think that she enjoyed this unique distinction.
Here is one unusual story about Mrs. Holman. In her journal, she describes a disgrace that she endured when they first landed in Hawaii. When the queens came onboard the Thaddeus, one of the women, weighing an estimated 350 lbs, took Mrs. Holman on her lap. The queen felt Mrs. Holman from head to foot, declaring that Mrs. Holman must eat more and grow larger. Then the queen admired Mrs. Holman’s hair. She wanted to see how long it was so Mrs. Holman took it out of the combs and let it fall. Then the queen asked her to roll it back up in the combs, and she did so. Mrs. Holman handled this degrading experience with grace.
I do not sit in judgement of Mrs. Holman and her husband’s desire to return to America after only a few days in Hawaii. Lucy reported in her book that Mrs. Holman said that she and her husband lacked the self-denial needed to live in Kailua permanently. Would I have the self-denial needed to live in such circumstances permanently?
My knowledge about the difficult living conditions in Kailua
makes me admire Lucy and her husband, Asa, all the more. They lacked any formal
training in missions; they took no cross-cultural courses. Instead, Lucy and
Asa knew their Bible well and were devoted to serving others in the name of
their Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I think in some cases, we 21st century Christians
have substituted missions classes and strategies for simply knowing God’s word
and trusting in His promises.
[1] Kaamamalu was one of the Queens at that time