1821. On January 5, 1822, stands for type cases were made and part of the type placed in the cases. On January 7th the first impression of the first sheet of the Owyhee spelling book was taken. The name of the printer was Elisha Loomis, who was also a teacher, and went from Middlesex, New York, to join the mission party at Boston, which sailed from that port to the islands on October 23, 1819. When the first sheet of the spelling book was printed the native governor, Tiamoko, several masters of vessels, and others, were present to witness the scene, the first of the kind in these islands. How interesting to those who carried forward their reflections to the future and distant and endless results. On January 10th Mr. Loomis printed the king's name in "elegant capitals" in the two forms, "Rihoriho," and, 'Liholiho," so that he might settle the question whether "R" or "L" should be used in spelling his name. He chose the former. On January 12th Mr. Loomis printed a supply of several kinds of approbation tickets, to be used among the school children. The progress of printing was slow, owing to the difficulties in translating the language. At the end of six months only sixteen pages of a small spelling book had been printed. Late in 1825 Mr. Loomis made a statement to the effect that up to that date sixteen thousand copies of the spelling book, four thousand copies of a small scripture tract, four thousand copies of a catechism, and tw r o thousand copies of a hymn book of sixty pages had been printed, and in this connection stated that another press and more type was greatly needed. Not long after the above date a press was established at Honolulu, and by March 20, 1830, the combined plants had issued twenty-two distinct books, averaging thirty-seven small pages each, amounting in all to three hundred and eighty-seven thousand copies.
In a few years the demand for printed matter in the
