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October 28, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kahahawai

At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Kahekili was son of Kekaulike. Kekaulike descended from Pi‘ilani, founder of Maui’s last ruling dynasty. King Kekaulike and his children built an empire that enjoyed levels of power and prestige greater than any other royal family up until that point.

The kings of Maui consolidated their strength, built up their armies and created a nation strong enough to threaten at times even the might of the powerful kings of Hawai‘i.

Kahahana was high-born and royally-connected. While still a child, Kahahana was sent to Maui to grow up into young manhood in close contact with one of the most noted courts among the different island kings – the court of his relative, Kahekili.

Then, a transition of Oʻahu leadership was contemplated; it was decided that Kahahana was the most available of all who could be accepted for their future ruler; this was the second king to be elected to succeed to the throne of Oʻahu, the first being Māʻilikūkahi who was his ancestor.

All seemed OK … for a while.

When war broke out between Kalaniʻōpuʻu of Hawaiʻi Island and Kahekili in 1779, Kahahana had come to the aid of Kahekili.

After the return of Kalaniʻōpuʻu to Hawaiʻi in January, 1779, Kahahana went over to Molokai to consecrate the heiau called Kupukapuakea at Wailau, and to build or repair the large taro patch at Kainalu known as Paikahawai.

Here he was joined by Kahekili, who was cordially welcomed and royally entertained. On seeing the fruitfulness and prosperity of the Molokai lands, Kahekili longed to possess some of them, and bluntly asked Kahahana to give him the land of Hālawa.

Kahahana promptly acceded to the request, not being moved by the same considerations regarding the Molokai lands as those of Oʻahu.

“At that time, Kahekili was plotting for the downfall of Kahahana and the seizure of Oʻahu and Molokai, and the queen of Kauai was disposed to assist him in these enterprises.” (Kalākaua)

In a meeting between Kahahana and Kahekili, Kahekili deceived Kahahana by having him believe his High-priest Kaʻōpulupulu had offered the government and throne of Oʻahu to him (Kahekili), but that out of affection for his nephew he had refused; and, he intimated strongly that Kaʻōpulupulu was a traitor to Kahahana.

Kahahana believed the falsehoods and it subsequently caused friction between Kahahana and Kaʻōpulupulu and the Oʻahu King turned a deaf ear to his kahuna’s advice and by the later part of 1782 or beginning of 1783, he arranged to have Kaʻōpulupulu killed.

With his main obstacle removed, Kahekili prepared for an invasion against Oʻahu and Kahahana. He called on Kahahawai, his special friend, strategist and war chief.

However, Kahekili did not have enough war canoes and through Keʻeaumoku, who had married his sister, he asked for Kamehameha’s support for canoes. Kamehameha refused.

Because of this refusal, Kahekili asked Keawemauhili of Hilo; he consented, Kahekili should send some canoe-making experts and warriors to guard them at their work. He sent Kahahawai and about 1,200-men.

A battle took place between Kamehameha and Keawemauhili forces – Kahahawai helped Keawemauhili. The blows to Keawemauhili’s forces began to show, and victory began to lean toward Kamehameha’s forces. In victory, Kamehameha rested in Laupāhoehoe.

While Kamehameha was staying at Laupāhoehoe, Kahekili sent some warriors from Maui to get Kahahawai – he wanted Kahahawai to return and assist him in making war with Kahahana on Oʻahu.

When Kahahawai was ready to return, Keawemauhili presented some war canoes to Kahekili. Keōua also gave some large war canoes, as some of his people had sailed in the great canoes from Kaʻū.

As Kahahawai was leaving, he stopped at Laupāhoehoe to meet with Kamehameha. Kamehameha said to Kahahawai: “I have no death for this aliʻi. Return to Maui, and perhaps there we shall meet again and see each other, and sharpen each other’s spears with our strength.” (Desha)

Kamehameha let them return to Maui in peace.

Then, on behalf of Kahekili, Kahahawai with a number of warriors went to make war on Oʻahu.

Niuhelewai Stream was the location for a famous battle between Kahahawai and Kahahana. In this battle many of Kahahana’s warriors were defeated and slaughtered. “The waters of the stream were turned back, the stream dammed by the corpses of the men.”

After the battle of Niuhelewai, the chiefs and the men retreated and encamped on the mountains of Kaʻala. They were well supplied with war implements and other things necessary for the destruction of their enemies.

A decisive battle in the war between Kahekili and Kahahana took place near Kolekole Pass. With only a little more than 40-men, Kahahawai contrived a means of destroying them.

“Kahahawai told (his warriors) to prepare torches. When these were ready they went one evening to the top of a hill which was near to the rendezvous of the enemies where they lighted their torches.” (Fornander)

“After the torches were lit they moved away to a cliff called Kolekole and hid themselves there, leaving their torches burning at the former place until they died out. The enemies thought that Kahahawai and his men had gone off to sleep. They therefore made a raid …”

“But Kahahawai and his men arose and destroyed all the people who were asleep on the hills and the mountains of Kaʻala. Thus the enemies were annihilated, none escaping.” (Fornander)

Therefore, the conquest of Oʻahu by Kahekili was complete through the bravery and great ingenuity of Kahahawai in devising means for the destruction of the enemy.

Oʻahu remained under Kahekili’s control until the reign of Kalanikūpule, Kahekili’s son – when Oʻahu was conquered by Kamehameha in 1795.

The image shows Kahahawai by Brook Kapukuniahi Parker. (Lots of information here from Fornander and Dibble.)

October 27, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Curé d’Ars

It was during a Mass celebrated secretly behind barred doors by an anti-Revolution priest in a home near Écully, close to his native parish, that Jean-Baptiste-Marie (John) Vianney received his First Communion (at the age of 13,) which strengthened him in his inmost desire.

“If I were a priest I could win many souls for God,” he said to himself and to his fond mother.

“I will be a priest,” he affirmed.

Vianney, the 4th of 6-children, was born on May 8th, 1786 at Dardilly, eight miles north-west of Lyons, in 1786. Almost as soon as he was able to walk, the child accompanied his parents into the fields where he tended the sheep and the cows. His peasant parents were among those who remained faithful Catholics during the revolution, giving hospitality to visiting priests.

Napoleon was fighting across Europe, but his success was paid for with torrents of French blood. More and yet more drafts had to be levied to fill the gaps made in his regiments by their very victories.

In 1806, young Vianney and others were summoned; two years went by, but in the autumn of 1809 he was summoned to join up, though as a Seminarist he was in reality exempt from conscription.

It would seem that his name was not on the official list of Church students supplied by the diocesan authorities. Someone had blundered. The recruiting officer would listen neither to expostulation nor to entreaty.

Young Vianney was destined for the armies in Spain. His parents tried to find a substitute. For the sum of 3,000 francs and a gratuity, a certain young man agreed to go in his stead but he withdrew at the last moment.

On October 26th Jean Baptiste entered the barracks at Lyons only to fall ill. From Lyons they sent him to a hospital at Roanne where the Nuns in charge nursed him back to a semblance of health. When, on January 6th, 1810, infantryman Vianney left the hospital, he found that his draft had set out long ago.

He was now considered a deserter so that his only care must be not to be discovered; he assumed the name Jerome Vincent.

He opened a school for the village children under that name. For a time, for the sake of greater security, he lived and slept in the shed attached to the farmhouse.

In 1810 an imperial decree granted an amnesty to all deserters of the years 1806 to 1810. Vianney was covered by the decree, so he returned home and to resume his studies. After overcoming his weakness in learning Latin, at the age of 29, on August 13, 1815, Vianney became a priest.

In 1818, Vianney was made Curé d’Ars (Parish Priest of Ars,) a village with a population of 200 not very far from Lyons.

He founded a sort of orphanage for destitute girls. It was called ‘The Providence’ and was the model of similar institutions established later all over France.

But the chief labor of the Vianney was the direction of souls. He had not been long at Ars when people began coming to him from other parishes, then from distant places, then from all parts of France, and finally from other countries.

As early as 1835, his bishop forbade him to attend the annual retreats of the diocesan clergy because of ‘the souls awaiting him yonder.’

During the last ten years of his life, he spent from sixteen to eighteen hours a day in the confessional.

One day he was hearing confessions in the sacristy. All of a sudden he came to the door and told one of the men who acted as ushers to call a lady at the back of the church, telling him how he could identify her. However, the man failed to find her.

‘Run quickly, she is now in front of such a house.’ The man did as he was told and found the lady who was going away, disappointed at not having spoken to Vianney.

At times he came out of the confessional and summoned certain persons from among the crowd and those so selected declared that only a divine instinct could have told him of their peculiar and pressing need.

His advice was sought by bishops, priests, religious, young men and women in doubt as to their vocation, sinners, persons in all sorts of difficulties and the sick.

In 1855, the number of pilgrims had reached twenty thousand a year. The most distinguished persons visited Ars for the purpose of seeing the holy curé and hearing his daily instruction.

Vianney became ill. In the afternoon of August 2, 1859, he received the Last Sacraments: ‘How good God is,’ he said; ‘when we can no longer go to Him, He comes to us.’

At 2 o’clock in the morning of August 4th, 1859, whilst a fearful thunderstorm burst over Ars, and whilst M. Monnin read these words of the “Commendation of a Soul”: ‘May the holy angels of God come to meet him and conduct him into the heavenly Jerusalem,’ the Curé d’Ars gave up his soul to God.

Miracles associated with Vianney are of three classes: first, the obtaining of money for his charities and food for his orphans; secondly, supernatural knowledge of the past and future; thirdly, healing the sick, especially children.

He was beatified in 1905, and in the same year on April 12th he was declared patron saint of the priests of France by Pius X. In 1929, four years after his canonization, Pope Pius XI declared him ‘patron saint of the priests of the whole world’.

Pope John Paul II said no less by repeating three times that ‘The Cure of Ars remains an outstanding and unparalleled model for all nations both of the accomplishment of the ministry and the holiness of the minister’.

‘Oh, how great a reality lies in the priest!’ Jean-Marie Vianney would exclaim, for he can give God to men and men to God ; he is the witness of the tenderness of the Father for each person and the artisan of salvation.

The Curé d’Ars, an elder brother in the priesthood, is the saint to whom every priest in the world can come in order to entrust his ministry or his priestly life to the Cure’s intercession. (Lots of information here is from St John Vianney.)

Several schools and parishes were formed and named for St John Vianney. One such is the Parish and school in Enchanted Lake, in Kailua, Oahu, established in 1962.

October 26, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Na Lāʻau Arboretum

“In Honor of George Campbell Munro. Pioneer in Hawaiian botany and ornithology. Whose vision and initiative led to the establishment of Na Lāʻau Hawaii Arboretum -1962” (plaque at Diamond Head.)

We generally associate Munro (born in New Zealand on May 10, 1866) as a ranch manager on Lānaʻi – actually he was an ornithologist (birds.)

On December 13, 1890, George Campbell Munro arrived in Honolulu after a voyage aboard the steamship Mariposa which left Auckland, New Zealand on the 1st of December.

He was to assist ornithologist, Henry C Palmer (in the Islands 1890-1893) in collecting birds in Hawai‘i under the sponsorship of Lord Walter Rothschild for the museum collection in Tring, England.

The first intensive scientific collecting expedition in the Northwestern leeward Hawaiian Islands was conducted in the summer of 1891. (Smithsonian) Munro pioneered in the banding of seafowl.

Munro worked seven years on Kaua‘i, then worked seven more on Moloka‘i, where he was the ranch manager from 1899 to 1906.

After a brief return to New Zealand in 1911, he was offered the position as the range manager of the Lānaʻi cattle ranch. (Towill; Wood)

In 1911, Munro found the importance of the fog drip coming from the Lānaʻi Hale was valuable water. He realized that pine trees collected a lot of water from the fog and clouds. Munro then created program of planting cook pines across the island of Lānaʻi and also Lānaʻi Hale to collect fog drip.

In 1930, Lānaʻi switched from ranching to pineapple. Munro retired to Honolulu; his home was on the west slope of Diamond Head.

From 1935 to 1937, Munro started the first comprehensive survey of the birds of Hawai‘i and in 1939 he helped found the “Honolulu Audubon Society” which eventually became the Hawaii Audubon Society.

It was not until 1944 that Munro published his Birds of Hawaiʻi (of which a slightly revised edition appeared in 1960.) It contains authentic short accounts of most of the extinct Hawaiian species by one of the very few naturalists ever to view them alive.

In 1950, Munro started his efforts in the creation of a botanical garden of Hawaiian arid plant species. He received permission from the National Guard to plant on a 9-acre tract on the west exterior slopes of Diamond Head.

In the early years of Na Lāʻau, Munro, with help from family and friends, personally developed the garden; when rainfall was insufficient, he “carried buckets of water up the steep slopes to supplement the natural supply.”

His work resulted in the Na Lāʻau Arboretum and its companion Ke Kuaʻāina garden of endemic plants, which eventually grew to over 100-acres; it became part of the Board of Agriculture park system on March 7, 1958.

In 1958, the governor of Hawaiʻi designated the garden as a sanctuary. A water system consisting or a pump, tank and an irrigation line were constructed in the arboretum. (DLNR)

In 1961, the Garden Club of Honolulu funded the construction of a lookout area with benches. A little remembered monument sits on the west side of Diamond Head (noting the language listed at the beginning of this post.)

The extent of the garden runs over an area 328-feet long and 66- to 99-feet wide. The remnants of this garden are located along a trail that runs north from Makalei Place. (DLNR)

Conservation Council of Hawaiʻi’s first conservation award was given to George C Munro, a CCH member and conservationist (1960s.)

In 1960, at age 94, he became an honorary member of the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens Society. A year later, he won the Garden Club of America’s Medal of Honor and was elected honorary associate of the Bishop Museum.

The William S. Richardson School of Law gives the George C Munro Award for Environmental Law (established by the Hawai‘i Audubon Society.)

A well-known trail on Lānaʻi is named after him, as are dozens of plant species, including the rare munroidendron.

DLNR’s Master Plan for Diamond Head (2003) notes, the existing Na Lāʻau Arboretum, located outside the crater below Diamond Head peak, is inaccessible and has suffered neglect over many years (it has not been maintained since the 1970s.) (Lots of information here from ʻElepaio and DLNR.)

October 25, 2025 by Peter T Young 6 Comments

Ka Wai O Pele

“Probably the most striking scenic point about Kapoho is Green Lake, a beautiful body of deep green water occupying the crater called Waiapele, ‘Pele’s Lake.’” (Mid-Pacific Magazine, 1920)

Missionary William Ellis, at Kapoho, noted, a “cluster, apparently of hills, three or four miles round, and as many hundred feet high, with deep indented sides … (within it) a charming valley.”

“In the centre was an oval hollow, about half a mile across, and probably two hundred feet deep, at the bottom of which was a beautiful lake of brackish water, whose margin was in a high state of cultivation, planted with taro, bananas, and sugar-cane.”

“The steep, perpendicular rocks, forming the sides of the hollow, were adorned with tufts of grass, or blooming, pendulous plants; while, along the narrow and verdant border of the lake at the bottom, the bread-fruit, the kukui, and the ohia trees, appeared, with now and then a lowly native hut standing beneath their shade.”

“The placid surface of the lake, disturbed only by the boys and girls, diving and sporting in its waters; the serpentine walks among the luxuriant gardens along its margin; the tranquil occupations of the inhabitants, some weaving mats, others walking cheerfully up and down the winding paths among the steep rocks”

“But had tradition been silent, the volcanic nature of the rocks, the structure of the large basin, in which we were standing, and the deep hollow in the centre, which we were viewing, would have carried conviction to every beholder, that it had once been the seat of volcanic fires.”

“We asked several natives of the place, if they had any account of the king, in whose reign it had burned, or if they knew any songs, or traditions, in which it was stated how many kings had reigned in Hawaii, or how many chiefs had governed Puna, either since it first broke out, or since it became extinct; but they could give us no information on these subjects.”

“They told us the name of the place was Kapoho, (the sunken in,) and of the lake Ka wai a Pele, (the water of Pele;) and that it was one of the places, from which the volcanic goddess threw rocks and lava after Kahavari.”

“The saltness of the water in the extinguished volcano, proves the connection of the lake with the sea, from which it was about a mile distant; but we could not learn that it was at all affected by the rising or falling of the tides.” (Ellis, 1823)

In 1849, James Dana, an early explorer, mentioned in his geologic report a hot spring, “in a small crater between Kilauea and Kapoho Point.” In the same general area, Dr. Gordon Macdonald in 1950 noted a “small spring-fed pool at the foot of scarp. No Outflow” half a mile northwest of Puʻu Kukae. (Woodruff)

Green Lake “is a little pond, covering perhaps fifteen acres, of water which has precisely the same shade of muddy green you used to get in your box of water colors when you were a lad.”

“You remember, the shade you used to color the trees in the pictures in your school geography! It is remarkable that the pool should be there, in a waterless country, and the tree-clad slopes about the lake make a pretty picture, therefore the Green Lake is worth while.” (Mid-Pacific Magazine, 1912)

More recently, it was more commonly called ‘Green Lake,’ a crater lake that occupies part of the floor of Kapoho Crater. This cone in lower Puna was formed by magma erupting through groundwater 300-350 years ago. (USGS)

Then came the 2018 eruption … “Since eruptions began in early May on the Big Island, lava has covered nearly 8 square miles in lower Puna, taking out more than 150 homes and cutting access to neighborhoods.”

“And over the weekend, Hawaii Island lost an entire lake.”

“Green Lake, also known as Ka Wai a Pele, effectively vanished on Saturday [June 2, 2018] after lava flows caused all of the 400-year-old lake’s water to evaporate. Around 10 a.m., officials said that lava began entering the water basin, causing a massive tower of steam to rise from the area.”

“Later that afternoon, when authorities were able to evaluate the area, pure lava sat where Hawaii’s largest freshwater natural resource once stood.” (Hawaii News Now)

October 24, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

‘Hilo Walk of Fame’

It started on October 24, 1933 …

Filmmaker Cecil B DeMille was in Hilo filming scenes for ‘Four Frightened People.’ The Hilo Park Commission asked him and some of the actors from the film (Mary Boland, William Gargan, Herbert Marshall’s wife (Edna Best Marshall) and Leo Carillo) to plant trees to commemorate their visit. (Pahigian)

Shortly after (October 29, 1933,) George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth added a tree; he was in town for an exhibition baseball game against the Waiākea Pirates. In an earlier game in Honolulu, “Babe Ruth hit the first ball pitched to him for a home run when the visiting major league players defeated the local Wanderers here yesterday, 5 to 1.” (UP, El Paso Herald, October 23, 1933)

He and the visiting All Stars weren’t as fortunate in Hilo. “One of the most entertaining games ever played in Hilo was a 1933 exhibition matchup between the Waiākea Pirates and an all-star team featuring Babe Ruth. Ruth dazzled the crowd with a pair of homers, including one that traveled 427 feet. The Pirates still prevailed, 7-6.” (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, March 15, 2013)

A little later, US President Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) was visiting the islands and arrived in Hilo on July 25, 1934 he planted a tree, too. FDR traversed the Pacific aboard the USS Houston, debarked at both the ports of Hilo and Honolulu, and stayed in the Islands for several days (July 24-28, 1934) to tour both cultural landmarks and military areas.

The visit was a stopover on a cruise starting July 1, 1934 at Annapolis going on to Portland, with stops in the Bahamas, Haiti, Puerto Rico, St Thomas, St Croix, Columbia, Panama, Cocos Island and Clipperton Island.

“Commemorating King George V’s silver jubilee (grandfather of the present Queen Elizabeth II,) a banyan tree has been planted here near the tree planted last year to honor President Roosevelt’s visit here.” (AP, Evening Independent, July 8, 1935.)

Another notable planter was Amelia Earhart. “Over the Christmas holiday, Amelia Earhart and George Putnam, along with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mantz, arrived in Honolulu on December 27 (1934,) having sailed on the Matson liner SS Lurline. … The group spent two weeks vacationing in Hawaiʻi.”

“Five days after planting the banyan tree, she hopped off from Honolulu in her Lockheed Vega to cross 2,408-miles of Pacific Ocean. Eighteen hours and sixteen minutes later, Amelia and her red Vega, ‘Old Bessie, the Fire Horse,’ made a perfect landing at Oakland Airport at 1:31 pm … the very first person, man or woman, to fly solo between Hawaii and the Mainland and the first civilian airplane to carry a two-way radio.” (Plymate)

The next year, on November 15, 1935, Attorney Gonzalo and Adela Manibog, prominent Hilo community leaders in the 1930s and 40s, were given the honor of planting a banyan tree commemorating the birth of a new nation, the Philippine Commonwealth (now a republic.)

President Franklin D Roosevelt signed into law the Tydings-McDuffie Act creating the semi-autonomous government of the Philippine Commonwealth, a US protectorate ceded by Spain after the Spanish American war in 1898. (Manibog)

David McHattie Forbes, botanist, ethnologist, sugar plantation manager and explorer on the island of Hawaiʻi planted a tree. He served as the first district forester of South Kohala in 1905, and twenty years later was appointed a judge in Waimea. He was the discoverer in 1905 of what became known as the Forbes Collection, the greatest collection of Polynesian artifacts ever found.

William Linn (Lincoln) Ellsworth, was an American explorer, engineer, and scientist who led the first trans-Arctic (1926) and trans-Antarctic (1935) air crossings – he added a tree to the growing number.

Later, “Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong planted a tree … in the ‘living memorial’ Banyan grove in Hilo, Hawaii. Reviving a custom dormant since 1952, the musician spaded earth around the roots of the Louis Armstrong tree. It stands a few feet from the Amelia Earhart tree, planted by the aviatrix who vanished on a Pacific flight in 1937.” (Park City Daily News, May 7, 1963)

The tree then-Senator Richard Nixon of California planted in 1952 was destroyed. His wife Pat returned to Hilo in 1972, the year of his presidential re-election, and planted two banyans, one replacing his senatorial specimen (the sign incorrectly notes 1962) and another in her own honor.

Initially, eight trees were planted in October 1933; there have been over 50-trees planted at what is now known as Banyan Drive on the Waiākea peninsula, traditionally known as Hilo-Hanakāhi.

At the time, Banyan Drive was a crushed coral drive through the trees. Forty trees were planted between 1934 and 1938, and five more trees were planted between 1941 and 1972. In 1991, a tree lost to a tsunami was replaced. (Hawaiʻi County)

Trees were typically planted by or for notable politicians, entertainers, religious leaders, authors, sports figures, business people, adventurers and local folks.

The trees now represent the ‘Stories of Incredible People,’ as described in a book by Ted Coombs of Kurtistown, Hawaiʻi.