Sandalwood | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 27, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Alexander Adams

Alexander Adams was born December 27, 1780; he left Scotland in 1792 to begin a life of working on the sea. This eventually led him to Hawaiʻi, where he arrived in 1811 on the American trading ship the ‘Albatross’ from Boston.

He became an intimate friend and confidential advisor to King Kamehameha I, who entrusted to him the command of the king’s sandalwood fleet. He became the first regular pilot for the port of Honolulu, a position he held for 30-years.

Adams is credited with helping to design the Hawaiian flag – a new flag for Hawaiʻi was needed to avoid confusion by American vessels (prior to that time, Hawaiian vessels flew the British Union Jack.)

“The Hawaiian flag was designed for King Kamehameha I, in the year 1816. As the King desired to send a vessel to China to sell a cargo of sandal-wood, he in company with John Young, Isaac Davis and Alexander Adams … made this flag for the ship, which was a war vessel, called the Forrester, carrying 16 guns, and was owned by Kamehameha I.” (Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, January 1, 1862)

On March 7, 1817, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi sent Adams to China to sell the sandalwood. When he sailed to China, it was the first vessel under the flag of Hawaiʻi.

To enter the Chinese harbor, the ship was heavily taxed in port charges. Upon returning October 5, 1817, at Hilo and hearing of the amount Adams had to pay, King Kamehameha decided Hawaiʻi should also generate revenue from port charges. This was the origin of harbor dues in the islands.

Kamehameha awarded Adams control of over 2,000-acres in the Niu Valley (much of which is still under the control on his descendants.)

Adams stood on the shore with John Young at Kailua-Kona when the first American Christian missionaries anchored off shore in 1820. He helped convince the King to allow the missionaries to come ashore and take up residence in Hawaiʻi.

When the HMS Blonde arrived in 1825, Adams helped the Scottish naturalist (James Macrae) distribute some plants he thought would be commercially successful in the tropical climate.

In 1828, Queen Kaʻahumanu gave Adams over 290-acres of land in Kalihi Valley (on the island of Oʻahu) in connection with and in gratitude for his services. The area was called Apili.

After 30 years of piloting, Adams retired in 1853, grew fruit on his land in Kalihi Valley, and was great host to visitors. He also had a home on what was named Adams Lane (in 1850,) a small lane in downtown Honolulu off of Hotel Street named after him (near the Hawaiian Telephone company building.)

Adams married three times, his first was to Sarah “Sally” Davis, daughter of Isaac Davis; two of his wives were the Harbottle sisters (Sarah Harbottle and Charlotte Harbottle,) who were reared by Queen Kaʻahumanu and were favorites at court. According to his personal account, he was the father of 15 children, eight of whom were by his third wife.

The estate in Niu Valley was held by his granddaughter Mary Lucas, who started subdividing it in the 1950s. The area created by the filling of Kupapa Fishpond is now the site of numerous oceanfront homes.

Old Niu Fishpond (Kupapa Fishpond) is part of a tract of 2,446 acres that was once a summer home of Kamehameha I and which later claimed by Alexander Adams under Claim No. 802 filed Feb. 14, 1848, with the land commission at the time of the Great Māhele.

The claim states: “From the testimony of Governor Kekūanāoʻa … it appears that the claimant was created lord of konohiki of this land, in the time of Kamehameha I, and that he has exercised the konohikiship of the same without dispute ever since the year of Our Lord 1822.”

It further appears that the claimant obtained his rights in this land, in the same way that he obtained his rights in the land comprised in the Claim No. 801 (in Downtown Honolulu,) namely in remuneration for services rendered the king as sea captain or sailing master.”

Adams died October 17, 1871. He is buried next to his friend and fellow Scotsman Andrew Auld in the Oʻahu Cemetery. Their common tombstone contains the following inscription in the Scots dialect: “Twa croanies frae the land of heather; Are sleepin’ here in death th’gether.”

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September 19, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Lua Na Moku ʻIliahi

Sandalwood (ʻiliahi) has been highly prized and in great demand through the ages; its use for incense is part of the ritual of Buddhism. Chinese used the fragrant heart wood for incense, medicinal purposes, for architectural details and carved objects.

Sandalwood was first recognized as a commercial product in Hawai‘i in 1791 by Captain Kendrick of the Lady Washington, when he instructed sailors to collect cargo of sandalwood. From that point on, it became a source of wealth in the islands, until its supply was ultimately exhausted.

Trade in Hawaiian sandalwood began as early as the 1790s; by 1805 it had become an important export item. As the value of sandalwood increased, the Hawaiian Islands emerged as a major source of heartwood sandalwood. Hawai‘i soon became known as “Tahn Heung Sahn” (the sandalwood mountains.)

Sandalwood trade was a turning point in Hawai‘i, especially related to its economic structure. It moved Hawai‘i from a self-sufficient economy to a commercial economy. This started a series of other economic and export activities across the islands.

In 1811, an agreement between Boston ship captains and Kamehameha I established a monopoly on sandalwood exports, with Kamehameha receiving 25% of the profits. As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition.

Between about 1810 and 1820, the major item of Hawaiian trade was sandalwood. Kamehameha I rigidly maintained control of the trade until his death in 1819, at which time his son, Liholiho, took over control.

In order to measure how much sandalwood to harvest and move down the mountain, they dug “Lua Na Moku ‘Iliahi” (sandalwood measuring pits) in the forest.

The pits were used to measure an amount of sandalwood that would fit in a ship’s hold. The wood was cut and placed in the pit. When the pit was filled, the logs were carried down the mountain to a waiting ship.

Because of the lack of roads and vehicles the wood was carried down in the form of logs, 3 to 6 feet long, and from 2 to 18 inches in diameter, after the bark and sapwood had been chipped off with adzes.

Large numbers of people were involved in the harvesting and handling of the sandalwood. As noted by Eillis in 1823, “Before daylight on the 22d we were roused by vast multitudes of people passing through the district from Waimea with sandal wood …”

“… which had been cut in the adjacent mountains for Karaimoku (Kalanimoku,) by the people of Waimea, and which the people of Kohala, as far as the north point, had been ordered to bring down to his storehouse on the beach, for the purpose of its being shipped to Oahu.”

“There were between two and three thousand men, carrying each from one to six pieces of sandal wood, according to their size and weight. It was generally tied on their backs by bands made of ti leaves, passed over the shoulders and under the arms, and fastened across their breast. When they had deposited the wood at the storehouse, they departed to their respective homes.” (William Ellis 1823)

The standard unit of measure was a picul, approximately 133 pounds (a shoulder-load,) the maximum weight a man could easily carry on his back. The price fluctuated from $3.00 to $18.00 a picul.

While, reportedly, Lua Na Moku ʻIliahi were dug in forests throughout the islands, only a couple are reported to remain.

One such site was dug in the early 1800s and is located at Kamiloloa, adjacent to the Maunahui Forest Reserve on Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i. The Maunahui Road (Molokaʻi Forest Reserve Road) leads into and through the Molokaʻi Forest Reserve.

Reportedly, another is at about the 800-foot elevation on the Kapālama-Nu‘uanu ridge near the Kapālama campus of Kamehameha Schools on Oʻahu.

During Kamehameha I’s reign, all lands, and with this all ʻiliahi, in Hawaiʻi were under his control. This meant he held a monopoly, or complete control, on the ‘iliahi supply. He placed a kapu on the trees and forbid the cutting of young trees. This assured a steady supply of ‘iliahi for years to come.

Between 1810 and 1820, sandalwood sold for about $125/ton, generating more than $3 million. By 1821, sandalwood exports totaled about 1,400 tons annually. The peak years of the sandalwood trade were from 1810 to 1840, a time that also saw a steadily increasing desire for Western goods in the Islands.

The death of Kamehameha I, in May 1819, ended the peace, prosperity and monopoly of the sandalwood trade … and the kapu. Under Liholiho, the controls on harvesting were ended. In their rush to collect wood, the chiefs ordered even young trees to be cut down.

To obtain sandalwood for the China trade, American merchants were willing to extend enormous amounts of credit to Liholiho and the chiefs.

While King Kamehameha I had always paid cash for purchases, the succeeding chiefs and Ali‘i purchased western goods on credit payable in sandalwood, a resource that was dwindling while the national debt was escalating. In 1821, JC Jones, the American Trade Consul, reported that the native debt had risen to $300,000.

Soon there was little ‘iliahi worth gathering in Hawaii. As the supply dwindled the trading of ‘iliahi came to an end.

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lua_na_moku_‘iliahi-(KamehamehaSchoolsPress)

hauling_sandalwood-(KamehamehaSchoolsPress)

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May 5, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Million Pounds Of Sandalwood

The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
Burn’d on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.
(Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene II, William Shakespeare)

Built at Salem, Massachusetts in 1816 for George Crowninshield Jr., the brig ‘Cleopatra’s Barge’ was America’s ﬁrst oceangoing private yacht.

At the time, the concept of a ship built for pleasure was unknown on the western side of the Atlantic, where ships were built only for trade or war.

“Without any other model than his own mind supplied, he produced the celebrated ‘Cleopatra’s Barge,’ which has been admired in both hemispheres, and accomplished in her all he wished”. (Salem Gazette)

The yacht was built of solid oak as a schooner and had all the qualities of a good sea-going vessel. She was armed simply and well, and beautifully ﬁtted out on the exterior, with ﬁne carving on bow and stern. She had fourteen gun ports.

Her lavish furnishings included custom silver, glass and china services, and her interior decor rivaled that of the wealthiest homes.

Her exterior was distinguished by a herringbone paint scheme on the port side and multicolored horizontal stripes to starboard, a life-sized painted wooden Indian on deck, velvet-served quarter-deck lines, considerable gilding, and the latest patent windlass, pump and rudder technology.

At her stern were a salon ﬁnished with pink and deep blue mountings and gilt, a bedroom, a buﬀet, and a stairway leading up to her deck.

Mid-ship was a captain’s cabin and, forward, quarters for a crew, a storage area for tackle and so forth, a galley above and, ﬁnally, a spacious lounge containing tables of the ﬁnest workmanship, inlaid with palm and lacquered redwood.

She had five staterooms off the cabin, while the forecastle had accommodations for ten men and three boys.

Her registered tonnage was 191½-tons; she was 83-feet long on the water line, 23-feet beam and 11½- feet deep.

The owner, Captain George Crowninshield died suddenly on November 26, 1817. In settling the estate, the yacht was sold at auction.

She made one voyage to Rio Janeiro, after which she was sold again, and run as a packet between Boston and Charleston, SC.
In 1820, in fulfillment of a previous agreement with Kamehameha, she sailed from Salem or Boston on June 18, 1820.

“Although she bore a general cargo of “Axes, Brandy, Cottons, Gin, Hats, Hard Ware, Lead, Looking Glasses, Molasses, Muskets, Swords, Rum, Dry Goods, Sugar, Tea, Wine, Boots,” copper, umbrellas and a wagon, she left New England with a far different purpose in mind than general trade.”

“In their letter of instruction to their partner Captain Suter dated two days before he departed, Bryant & Sturgis wrote: ‘The Cleopatra’s Barge of which you have the immediate command is intended to be Sold Vessel & Cargo at the Sandwich Islands …’”

“‘… in this case you must endeavor to make your agreement with the King in the clearest manner — Stating how many Pikels of wood you are to Receive what the quality is to be & when it is to be delivered to your agent.’”

“The partners intended from the outset to sell the famous yacht to Hawaiian King Kamehameha II, son of Kamehameha the Great, who had united the Sandwich Islands and only recently died, leaving his son in power.” (Johnson)

The Logbook for the Barge’s outbound voyage from Boston to the Sandwich Islands tell the tale of an uneventful voyage whose monotony was broken only by frequent sail changes and an occasional squall.

After 138-days at sea, Cleopatra’s Barge arrived at Lāhainā, Maui, on November 6, 1820; the very next day Liholiho (Kamehameha II) was welcomed aboard along with some family members and attendants.

Liholiho’s father Kamehameha had loved foreign ships; over time he had collected a sizable ﬂeet of Western vessels, which, with guns and training by the foreigners, were a major asset in unifying and maintaining his kingdom across the islands.

Liholiho inherited his father’s love of ships; one of his childhood companions remembered seeing Liholiho frequently sailing a boat model “like a real man-of-war” on a pond and also recalled that their favorite boyhood pastime was drawing ships in the sand at the beach.

Just ten days after his ﬁrst visit to the ship, Liholiho purchased Cleopatra’s Barge and her cargo for 1.07-million pounds of sandalwood, worth $80,000 at the time.

On January 4, 1821, King Liholiho took formal possession of Cleopatra’s Barge, appointing his personal secretary, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Rives, as temporary captain.

Liholiho then renamed the yacht ‘Ha‘aheo O Hawai‘i’ (Pride of Hawaiʻi.)

Kamehameha II was quite proud of his ship; in the words of Charles Bullard, the agent for the ship-owner: “If you want to know how Religion stands at the Islands I can tell you; all sects are tolerated but the King worships the Barge.”

During the next three years she made frequent voyages between the islands.

On one of those trips in July 1821, Liholiho sailed to Kaua‘i, intent on confirming allegiance from Kaumuali‘i (whom his father had negotiated peace and, ultimately, united the islands under Kamehameha’s rule.)

When Kaumuali‘i unwittingly boarded and was seated in the cabin, orders were secretly given to make sail for Honolulu – Kaumuali‘i was taken prisoner.

In November 1823, Liholiho traveled to England, he died of measles in London on July 14, 1824.

According to a passage from Hiram Bingham, in April 1824, “Cleopatra’s Barge was wrecked in the bay of Hanalei, Kaua‘i, and lay not far from the beach dismantled and ruined … and was given up as unrecoverable.”

“(S)he ended her career as she had commenced it – a yacht.” (Salem Gazette; Crowninshield))

Whaling soon replaced the sandalwood trade of ʻiliahi wood in economic importance. It lasted about fifty years, from 1820 to 1870. During this time Hawaiʻi provided support services to the whaling ships; people grew crops and sold fresh fruits, vegetables and salted-meat to the ships. (Lots here from Johnson and Alexander.)

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The only image of Cleopatra’s Barge in Hawaii – here at Lahaina, Maui

Cleopatra’s_Barge,_undated

Cleopatra’s-Barge

Cleopatra’s_Barge,_undated

Cleopatra’s_Barge

Cleopatra’s_Barge,_undated

Cleopatra’s Barge-Hanalei-MSN

Cleopatra’s Barge-Hanalei_MSN

August 9, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Maritime Massachusetts Meets a Man from the Islands

“Massachusetts has a history of many moods, every one of which may be traced in the national character of America. By chance, rather than design, this short strip of uninviting coast-line became the seat of a great experiment in colonization, self-government, and religion.”

“For a generation, Massachusetts shared with her elder sister, Virginia, leadership in the American Revolution. For another generation, with her off spring Connecticut, she opposed a static social system to the ferment of revolutionary France.”

“With the world peace of 1815 she quickened into new life, harnessed her waterfalls to machine industry, bred statesmen, seers, and poets, generated radical and revolutionary thought.”

“For two hundred years the Bible was the spiritual, the sea the material sustenance of Massachusetts. The pulse of her life-story, like the surf on her coast-line, beat once with the nervous crash of storm-driven waves on granite rock; but now with the soothing pour of ground-swell on golden sands.”

Captain John Smith, in 1614, was the first Englishman to examine the Massachusetts coast, and to give it that name. (Morison)

“After Jamestown, Smith pushed the English to settle the northeast, identifying Plymouth as a suitable harbor four years before the Pilgrims landed there. He coined the region ‘New England’ in 1616.” (Smithsonian)

Shortly thereafter (1620,) the Plymouth Colony arrived. “The Pilgrim fathers sailed with high hopes and a burning faith, but with few preparations and no clear idea of how to make a living on the Atlantic coast.” (Morison)

“In 1630, ten years after its settlement, the Plymouth Colony contained but three hundred white people. At that time the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, founded only at the end of 1628, had over two thousand in habitants.”

“Within thirteen years the numbers had reached sixteen thousand, more than the rest of the English colonies combined; and the characteristic maritime activities of Massachusetts – fishing, shipping, and West India trading – were already commenced.”

“God performed no miracle on the New England soil. He gave the sea. … The gravelly, boulder-strewn soil was back-breaking to clear, and afforded small increase to unscientific farmers. No staple of ready sale in England, like Virginia tobacco or Canadian beaver, could be produced or readily obtained.”

“Massachusetts went to sea, then, not of choice, but of necessity.”

“These colonial merchants lived well, with a spacious brick mansion in Boston and a country seat at Milton Hill, Cambridge, or as far afield as Harvard and Hopkinton, where great house parties were given. They were fond of feasts and pageants”.

“The backbone of maritime Massachusetts, however, was its middle class; the captains and mates of vessels, the master builders and shipwrights, the ropemakers, sailmakers, and skilled mechanics of many different trades, without whom the merchants were nothing.”

“Boston became the headquarters of the American Revolution largely because the policy of George III threatened her maritime interests.”

“Then came the worst economic depression Massachusetts has ever known. The double readjustment from a war to a peace basis, and from a colonial to an independent basis, caused hardship throughout the colonies.”

“It worked havoc with the delicate adjustment of fishing, seafaring, and shipbuilding by which Massachusetts was accustomed to gain her living. By 1786, the exports of Virginia had more than regained their pre-Revolutionary figures.”

“At the same date the exports of Massachusetts were only one-fourth of what they had been twelve years earlier. … (However,) By 1787 the West-India trade was in a measure restored.”

“Some subtle instinct, or maybe thwarted desire of Elizabethan ancestors who, seeking in vain the Northwest Passage, founded an empire on the barrier, was pulling the ships of Massachusetts east by west, into seas where no Yankee had ever ventured.”

“Off the roaring breakers of Cape Horn, in the vast spaces of the Pacific, on savage coasts and islands, and in the teeming marts of the Far East, the intrepid shipmasters and adventurous youth of New England were reclaiming their salt sea heritage.”

“One bright summer afternoon in 1790 saw the close of a great adventure. On August 9, Boston town heard a salute of thirteen guns down-harbor. The ship Columbia, Captain Robert Gray, with the first American ensign to girdle the globe snapping at her peak, was greeting the Castle after an absence of three years.”

“Coming to anchor in the inner harbor, she fired another federal salute of thirteen guns, which a ‘great concourse of citizens assembled on the various wharfs returned with three huzzas and a hearty welcome.’”

“A rumor ran through the narrow streets that a native of ‘Owyhee’ – a Sandwich-Islander – was on board; and before the day was out, curious Boston was gratified with a sight of him, marching after Captain Gray to call on Governor Hancock.”

“Clad in a feather cloak of golden suns set in flaming scarlet, that came halfway down his brown legs; crested with a gorgeous feather helmet shaped like a Greek warrior’s, this young Hawaiian moved up State Street like a living flame.”

“The Columbia had logged 41,899 miles since her departure from Boston on September 30, 1787. Her voyage was not remarkable as a feat of navigation; Magellan and Drake had done the trick centuries before, under far more hazardous conditions.”

“It was the practical results that counted. The Columbia’s first voyage began the Northwest fur trade, which enabled the merchant adventurers of Boston to tap the vast reservoir of wealth in China.”

“The most successful vessels in the Northwest fur trade were small, well-built brigs and ships of one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burthen (say sixty- five to ninety feet long), constructed in the ship yards from the Kennebec to Scituate. Larger vessels were too difficult to work through the intricacies of the Northwest Coast.”

To obtain fresh provisions and prevent scurvy, the Nor’west traders broke their voyage at least twice; at the Cape Verde Islands, the Falklands, sometimes Galapagos for a giant tortoise, and invariably Hawaii.”

“The Sandwich Islands proved an ideal spot to refresh a scorbutic crew, and even to complete the cargo. Captain Kendrick (who plied between Canton and the Coast in the Lady Washington until his death in 1794) discovered sandalwood, an article much in demand at Canton, growing wild on the Island of Kauai.”

“A vigorous trade with the native chiefs in this fragrant commodity was started by Boston fur-traders in ‘the Islands’; leading to more Hawaiian visits to New England”. (Most here is from Morison)

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January 5, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hunnewell and the Missionaries

“It is indeed with a kind of melancholy pleasure I have sat down to write. There is a satisfaction in reflecting on the endearing relation which you sustain towards me that I would not part with for worlds; but when I consider the distance that separates us and the time that has and will elapse before we meet my feelings are overpowered.”

“Instead of becoming habituated to your absence by length of time I seem everyday less reconciled to it & “still alone” seems stamped on everything around me.” (Susannah Hunnewell to her husband James, November 6, 1820)

For all but seven months of the first eleven years of their marriage, James Hunnewell was living in the Pacific, Susannah was in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

On Monday, December 8, 1817, James Hunnewell, officer of the brig Bordeaux Packet, agreed with Andrew Blanchard, master, to remain at Honolulu after the sale of the vessel. (Thrum)

He would dispose of the balance of her cargo and invest and forward the proceeds. This was the beginning of the long business career of Hunnewell connected with the Islands, and his first act in settling there. (Thrum)

“The name … James Hunnewell was early associated with the commercial interests of these Islands, and his long and useful life was marked by such constant goodwill to my kingdom, that I shall always cherish his memory with sincere regard.” (Kamehameha V to Hunnewell’s son; Thrum)

Hunnewell first came to the Islands aboard the ‘Packet’ in October 1816. He agreed to stay and traded his boat and cargo for sandalwood, “We were the only traders on shore at Honolulu that had any goods to sell.” There was no currency at the time, so they generally traded for sandalwood. (Hunnewell, The Friend)

After trading sandalwood in China and then back to the northeast, Hunnewell returned to the Islands in 1820 on the ‘Thaddeus,’ “This was the memorable voyage when we carried out the first missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands.” (He was the person who first announced to the missionaries, that the Tabus were broken, and idolatry abolished. (The Friend, July, 1870))

He stayed … “it was urged by some of the chiefs that knew me on my previous voyage that I should remain instead of a stranger to trade with them.” (Hunnewell)

On January 7, 1822, a small group gathered to print the first work from the press, “Lesson in Owhyhee syllables.” Keeaumoku, a Hawaiian Chief, who had learned the alphabet, was given the honor of striking the first impression off the press, after which Loomis printed the second and Hunnewell the third.

It is a sheet four by six inches, headed “Lesson I,” beneath which are twelve lines, each having five separate syllables of two letters. This was certainly the first printing at the Hawaiian Islands, and probably the first on the shores, of the North Pacific Ocean.

The first printing press at the Hawaiian Islands was imported by the American missionaries, and landed from the Thaddeus. It was not unlike the first used by Benjamin Franklin, and was set up in a thatched house standing near the old mission frame house (but was not put in operation until that January 1822 pressing.) (Hawaiian Club, 1868)

Later, in 1825, he negotiated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, “to take the missionary packet out, free from any charge whatever on (his) part for sailing and navigating the vessel – provided the Board would pay and feed the crew, and allow (him) to carry out in the schooner to the amount (in bulk) of some forty to fifty barrels”. (Hunnewell)

Hunnewell decided to return home on the continent (November 20, 1830) and left his partner in charge; Hunnewell thought he would come back to the Islands, but never did. Hunnewell decided to remain at home – the company he formed, was later known as C Brewer (one of Hawaiʻi’s ‘Big Five’ companies.)

Kekela, born at Mokuleʻia, Waialua, Oʻahu was a beneficiary of Hunnewell’s generosity – Kekela attended and graduated from the Lahainaluna Seminary, at the expense of Hunnewell. In recognition of his great obligation to his benefactor, he adopted his name and was ever known as James Kekela.

On December 21, 1849, he was ordained to the Christian ministry, being the first native Hawaiian clergyman, and became the pastor of the native church at Kahuku, Oahu. (The Friend, May 1, 1920)

Later, Kekela saved an American in the Marquesas; President Abraham Lincoln learned of the dramatic circumstances of the rescue and had presented a total of 10-gifts to the rescuers.

Most interesting among the gifts was a large gold watch the President gave to Kekela (a similar watch was given to Kaukau, Kekela’s associate in the rescue.) The inscription on it is translated from Hawaiian as follows:

“From the President of the United States to Rev. J. Kekela For His Noble Conduct in Rescuing An American Citizen from Death
On the Island of Hiva Oa January 14, 1864.”

Here’s a link to a prior post on the Kekela watch:
http://wp.me/p5GnMi-iz

“This discourse was delivered by the Rev. James B. Miles, pastor of the first parish church, Charlestown, Mass., and is commemorative of Mrs. S. L. Hunnewell, widow of the late Captain James Hunnewell. This friend of Oahu College, and of Hawaiians, died May 2nd, 1869, and the death of his beloved wife followed on the 20th of February, 1870.”

“If Mr. Hunnewell had survived a few months longer, their golden wedding would have been celebrated; but now both have passed away. They were long united in their lives, and in death they were not divided.” (The Friend, July, 1870)

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