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March 3, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Vancouver, Kamehameha and King George III

Captain James Cook set sail on three voyages to the South Seas. His first Pacific voyage (1768-1771) was aboard the Endeavour and began on May 27, 1768. It had three aims; go to Tahiti to record the transit of Venus (when Venus passes between the earth and sun – June 3, 1769;) record natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks; and search for the Great South Land.

Cook’s second Pacific voyage (1772-1775) aboard Resolution and Adventure aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent, and make astronomical observations.

Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery. (State Library, New South Wales)

“Every Fighting Service has, and must have, two main categories – ‘Officers’ and ‘Men.’ The Royal Navy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was no exception. The distinction existed: was indeed more than ordinarily marked. It was not only a naval distinction, but a sharp social one too.”

“‘Officers’ as contemporary society used that word, came from one walk of life, ‘Men’ from another: and, as it was not easy in Society to pass from a lower stratum to a higher, so in the Navy, it was not easy for a ‘Man’ to become an Officer. But it was possible.” (Captain Cook Society)

“Cook had chosen his subordinates well or had been lucky. The officers of the third voyage were a remarkably intelligent group of men.” (Captain Cook Society) “All the great remaining voyages of the eighteenth century drew on Cook’s officers.” George Vancouver was one of the seamen and midshipman who had travelled with Cook on his second and third voyages.

In the introduction to Captain George Vancouver’s journals of his voyage to the Pacific, his brother John wrote, “that from the age of thirteen, his whole life to the commencement of this expedition, (to the Pacific) has been devoted to constant employment in His Majesty’s naval service.”

In 1791, Vancouver later entered the Pacific a dozen years later in command of the second British exploring expedition. (HJH) Vancouver visited Hawaiʻi three times, in 1792, 1793 and 1794.

On the first trip, Vancouver’s ships “Discovery” and “Chatham” first rounded the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and traveled to Tahiti, via Australia and New Zealand, and then sailed north to the Hawaiian Islands.

On his second trip in February 1793, the “Discovery” and “Chatham” first circled and surveyed the Island Hawaiʻi. From a meeting he had with Kamehameha, he noted in his Journal,

“About noon I was honored with the presence of Tamaahmaah, the king of Owhyhee, [Kamehameha .. . of Hawai‘i] whose approach had been announced sometime before his arrival.”

“Not only from Captain King’s [of the Cook expedition] description, but also from my own memory, as far as it would serve me, I expected to have recognized my former acquaintance by the most savage countenance we had hitherto seen amongst these people …”

“but I was agreeably surprized in finding that his riper years had softened that stern ferocity which his younger days had exhibited, and had changed his general deportment to an address characteristic of an open, cheerful, and sensible mind; combined with great generosity, and goodness of disposition. …”

“Tamaahtnaah came on board in a very large canoe, accompanied by John Young, an English seaman, who appeared to be not only a great favourite, but to possess no small degree of influence with this great chief. …”

“After the usual ceremonies and assurances of friendship had passed between Tamaahmaah and myself, he said that his queen [Ka‘ahumanu] with several of his friends and relations were in the canoe alongside, and requested they might be admitted on board. This was instantly granted, and I was introduced to her majesty. …”

“She appeared to be about sixteen, and undoubtedly did credit to the choice and taste of Tamaahmaah, being one of the finest women we had yet seen on any of the islands. It was pleasing to observe the kindness and fond attention, with which on all occasions they seemed to regard each other. …”

“I was much pleased with the decorum and general conduct of this royal party. Though it consisted of many, yet not one solicited even the most inconsiderable article; nor did they appear to have any expectation of receiving presents.”

“They seemed to be particularly cautious to avoid giving the least cause for offence; but no one more so than the king himself, who was so scrupulous, as to enquire when and where it was proper for him to be seated.”

“The inhabitants, who had assembled round the ships, were by this time very numerous; on being denied their requests to be admitted on board, which was observed towards all but the principal chiefs, they remained perfectly quiet in their canoes, and in the most orderly manner carried on an honest and friendly intercourse.” (Vancouver)

When Kamehameha came aboard the ship, taking Vancouver’s hand, he “demanded, if we were sincerely his friends”, to which Vancouver answered in the affirmative. Kamehameha then said “he understood we belonged to King George, and asked if he was likewise his friend.”

“On receiving a satisfactory answer to this question, he declared the he was our firm good friend; and according to the custom of the country, in testimony of the sincerity of our declarations we saluted by touching noses.” (Vancouver, 1798)

In the exchange of gifts, after that, Kamehameha presented four feathered helmets and other items, Vancouver gave Kamehameha the remaining livestock on board, “five cows, two ewes and a ram.”

The farewell between the British and the Hawaiians was emotional, but both understood that Vancouver would be returning the following winter.

Just before Vancouver left Kawaihae on March 9, 1793, he gave Isaac Davis and John Young a letter testifying that “Tamaahaah, with the generality of the Chiefs, and the whole of the lower order of People, have conducted themselves toward us with the strictest honest, civility and friendly attention.” (Speakman, HJH)

Vancouver was obviously very much impressed with Kamehameha. He later met the chiefs of all the islands: Ka‘eo, who governed Maui, Lanai, and Molokai for his half-brother Kahekili; Kalanikupule, who administered O‘ahu; and Kaumuali‘i on Kauai.

Vancouver concluded that Kamehameha was not only the ruler of the island of Hawai‘i but also the most responsible of all the chiefs of the Sandwich Islands. He decided “to pay my principal court to Tamaahmaah, as the king of the whole island, and to treat the other chiefs with a due degree of respect and attention.”

Later (March 3, 1810), Kamehameha wrote to King George III …

“Sir

“Having had no good opportunity of writing to you since Capt. Vancouver left here has been the means of my Silence. Capt. Vancouver Informed me you would send me a small vessel am sorry to say I have not yet received one.”

“Am sorry to hear your being at War with so many powers and I so far off cannot assist you. Should any of the powers which you are at War with molest me I shall expect your protection, and beg you will order your Ships of War & Privateers not to Capture any vessel whilst laying at Anchor in our Harbours, as I would thank you to make ours a neutral port as I have not the means of defence.”

“I am in particular need of some Bunting having no English Colours also some brass Guns to defend the Islands in case of Attack from your Enemies. I have built a few small vessels with an Intent to trade on the North West of America with Tarro root the produce of these Islands for fur skins but am told by the White men here I cannot send them to sea without a Register.”

“In consequence of which beg you will send me a form of a Register & seal with my Name on it. Being very poor at these Islands any thing which you may think useful to me I beg you will send by the earliest opportunity. My best respects to you & your Queen & all your family wishing you Health Happiness & a long prosperous Reign.”

“And am Sir
Your Majesty’s
most devoted Friend & Servant
TAMAAHMAAH
King of the Sandwich Islands”

“PS. My removal from Owyhee to this Island was in consequence of their having put to death Mr. Brown & Mr. Gordon, Masters, (of the Jackall & Prince Le Boo, two of you [sic] merchant vessels.) I have sent by Mr. Jno. Gl Spence Commander of the Ship Duke of Portland, a feather’d cloak & beg your acceptance.”

The letter is dated the day before the Duke of Portland sailed from O‘ahu, and was probably written for Kamehameha by Captain Spence of that vessel, for according to Archibald Campbell, a British seaman who returned home to Britain aboard the Duke of Portland after a year in the Hawaiian Islands, Kamehameha dictated to Captain Spence a letter for King George III. (Hackler)

On April 30, 1812, the Earl of Liverpool, the Foreign Secretary in the British government, replied to Kamehameha’s March 3, 1810 letter to King George III. Due to illness, the King of England had not been able to receive Kamehameha’s letter nor the feather cloak, but they had been presented to his son, who had been appointed Regent. (Hackler)

Liverpool’s letter reads in part: “His Royal Highness Commands Me to assure you that He shall feel at all times most desirous to promote the Welfare of the Sandwich Islands, and that He will give positive Orders to the Commanders of His Ships to treat with proper respect, all Trading Vessels belonging to You, or to Your Subjects.”

“His Royal Highness is confident that the complete Success which He has gained over His Enemies in every Quarter of the Globe, will have the Effect of securing Your Dominions from any Attack, or Molestation on their part.”

“You cannot give a better proof in return of Your Friendship and goodwill towards Great Britain, than by relieving the wants of such British Subjects as may arrive at the Islands over which You Govern and may stand in need of Your assistance. …”

With this letter the Regent sent a number of presents to Kamehameha, including a gold-laced cocked hat and feathers, a new red coat and uniform, two ornamented brass speaking trumpets, and a quantity of nails, brads, hand saws, hammers, hatchets, gimlets, and augers. No arms or seals were included. (Hackler) (Lots of information here is from Hackler.)

March 2, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Empress of China

In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, the new and nearly bankrupt US viewed the China trade as a way to settle war debts.

February 22, 1784, “the Empress of China cleared the wharf … launching America’s trade with China.” (Dolins)

She carried the hopes of a newly independent nation. Backers “of the Empress of China were all the signatories of the Independence agreement … This was a private enterprise but a national priority.” (Libby Chan Lai-pik)

With clearance from Bellona won
She spreads her wings to meet the Sun,
Those golden regions to explore
Where George forbade to sail before.

To countries placed in burning climes
And islands of remotest times
She now her eager course explores.
And soon shall greet Chinesian shores.

From thence their fragrant teas to bring
Without the leave of Britain’s king;
And Porcelain ware, enchased in gold.
The product of that finer mould.
(A Poem about the Empress of China, Philip Freneau)

Originally fitted as a privateer (privately owned armed vessel commissioned to attack enemy ships, usually vessels of commerce) and refitted as a trading ship, the Empress of China was the first American merchant ship to sail for China; the three-masted sailing vessel sailed from New York harbor on February 22, 1784 (George Washington’s birthday).

This was less than a year after the Treaty of Paris was signed (September 3, 1783 – ending the American Revolutionary War), and several years before George Washington took office as America’s first president on April 30, 1789.

It was a private venture that had national overtures. And marked the historical beginning of ties between China and the United States, and the assertion of the United States’ power as a sovereign nation. (Schimdt)

The Empress of China also carried 30-tons of ginseng and other trading goods. Ginseng was the most important herb of the Chinese.

In the 18th century ginseng was also popular in America. It is estimated that American colonists discovered it in the mid-1700s in New England.

“The history of human interaction with ginseng lurks in the language of the land … on the north-facing, ‘wet’ sides of depressions”. Look at a detailed map of almost any portion around the Colonies and ginseng is registered somewhere, often in association with the deeper, moister places, named ‘Hollows’. (LOC)

After trading, the Empress of China arrived in New York, May 11, 1785.

She carried 800 chests of tea, 20,000 pairs of nankeen trousers and a huge quantity of porcelain.

Stores up and down the East Coast sold her cargo. The voyage earned a 25% return on investment – enough to spawn a new era of commerce with China.

The Americans learned how to make real money in the China trade: sale of Chinese goods to Americans.

John Jay, the US foreign minister, shared the success with Congress.

Congress responded with ‘a peculiar satisfaction in the successful issue of this first effort of the citizens of America to establish a direct trade with China.’

The Empress of China proved that trade with China could enrich backers, funnel customs duties into the national treasury and make the US a competitor on the world stage. (NY Historical Society)

Post-Revolutionary direct trade with Asian countries allowed Americans to trade for their own luxuries. Americans would ship goods such as ginseng (used for medicinal and aphrodisiac purposes), tobacco, pitch, tar, turpentine, furs, and silver to China and East India.

Export of commodities such as ginseng and tobacco was acceptable, even necessary, according to Jeffersonian political doctrine, in order to expand the agricultural basis of the new nation.

In return, traders would receive tea, cotton nankeen cloth, silk, porcelain (which was so inexpensive in China that it was often shipped as ballast), pepper, and Chinese cinnamon. (Weyler)

For the next 60 years, the China trade would make New England merchants very, very wealthy. (NE Historical Society)

Other US merchants were quick to see the value of the China trade. At first, however, they flooded the Chinese market with ginseng. Chinese demand for the root dropped, and so did its price.

But the Chinese did want sea-otter pelts, which Yankees traded from Indians in the American Northwest. Sandalwood, found in the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i), also brought a high price from Chinese merchants. (Monroe Columbia University)

Click the following links to a general summary about the Empress of China:

Click to access Empress-of-China.pdf

Click to access Empress-of-China-SAR-RT.pdf

March 1, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau

“The ancient system consisted in the many tabus, restrictions or prohibitions, by which the high chiefs contrived, to throw about their persons a kind of sacredness, and to instil into the minds of the people a superstitious awe and peculiar dread.”

“If the shadow of a common man fell on a chief, it was death; if he put on a kapa or a malo of a chief, it was death; if he went into the chief’s yard, it was death; if he wore the chief’s consecrated mat, it was death; if he went upon the house of the chief, it was death.”

“If a man stood on those occasions when he should prostrate himself, (such as) when the king’s bathing water… (was) carried along, it was death. If a man walked in the shade of the house of a chief with his head besmeared with clay, or with a wreath around it, or with his head wet… it was death.”

“There were many other offenses of the people which were made capital by the chiefs, who magnified and exalted themselves over their subjects.” (Dibble)

The social rules for interaction with gods and members of the chiefly class were legion, and death by human sacrifice was the default punishment in many cases. (Shoenfelder)

Puʻuhonua were locations which, through the power of the gods and the generosity of the chiefs, afforded unconditional absolution to those who broke taboos, disobeyed rulers, or committed other crimes. (Schoenfelder)

Ethno-historical literature, and available physical, cultural, and locational data, note at least 57-sites across the Islands. Puʻuhonua tended to occur in areas of high population and/or in areas frequented by chiefs. (Schoenfelder)

These range from enclosed compounds such as Hōnaunau, to platforms (Halulu on Lānaʻi), to fortified mountain-tops (Kawela on Molokaʻi), to unmodified natural features (Kūkaniloko on Oʻahu) and to entire inhabited land sections, as at Lāhainā on Maui. (Schoenfelder)

Recognized as one of the significant puʻuhonua, and one that is well preserved and presented for the rest of us to understand was Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau on the Kona coast on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

The Place of Refuge, termed the ‘City of Refuge’ by Rev. William Ellis in 1823, with its adjoining chiefly residences. Beyond the boundaries of the “Palace Grounds”, around the head of Hōnaunau Bay, lived the chiefly retainers and the commoners. South of the Place of Refuge were scattered settlements along the coast and inland under the cliffs of Keanaee. (NPS)

“The Puhonua at Hōnaunau is a very capacious one, capable of containing a vast multitude of people. In time of war, the females, children, and old people of the neighbouring districts, were generally left within it, while the men went to battle. Here they awaited in safety the issue of the conflict, and were secure against surprise and destruction in the event of a defeat.” (Ellis, 1823)

“These Puhonuas were the Hawaiian ‘Cities of Refuge,” and afforded an inviolable sanctuary to the guilty fugitive, who, when flying from the avenging spear, was so favoured as to enter their precincts.” (Ellis, 1823)

“Hither the manslayer, the man who had broken a taboo, or failed in the observance of its rigid requirements, the thief, and even the murderer, fled from his incensed pursuers, and was secure. To whomsoever he belonged, and from whatever part he came, he was equally certain of admittance, though liable to be pursued even to the gates of the enclosure.” (Ellis, 1823)

“Happily for him, those gates were perpetually open. Whenever war was proclaimed, and during the period of actual hostilities, a white flag was unfurled on the top of a tall spear, on the outside, at each end of the enclosure, and until’ the conclusion of peace, waved the symbal of hope to those, who, vanquished in fight, might flee thither for protection.”

“To the spot, on which this banner was unfurled, the victorious warrior might chase his routed foes. But here he must himself fall back. Beyond it he must not advance one step, on pain of forfeiting his life.”

“The priests and their adherents – would immediately put to death anyone, who should have the temerity to follow, or molest those, who were once within the pale of the pahu tabu, and, and as they expressed it, under the shade, or skreening protection, of the spirit of Keave, the tutelar deity of the place.” (Ellis, 1823)

A structure there, Hale-O-Keawe was erected around 1650 to serve as a temple mausoleum for the ruling chiefs of Kona. It served as the major temple for the “Place of Refuge” until 1819, when the religious laws (kapu) were abandoned.

“The appearance of the house was good. Its posts and rafters were of kauila wood, and it was said that this kind of timber was found in the upland of Napu’u. It was well built, with crossed stems of dried ti leaves, for that was the kind of thatching used.”

“The appearance inside and outside of the house was good to look at. The compact bundles of bones (pukuʻi iwi) that were deified (hoʻokuaʻia) were in a row there in the house, beginning with Keawe’s near the right side of the door by which one went in and out, and going to the spot opposite the door (kuʻono).” (John Papa ʻĪʻi)

“It is a compact building, 24 feet by 16, constructed with the most durable timber, and thatched with ti leaves, standing on a bed of lava, which runs out a considerable distance into the sea. It is surrounded by a strong fence, or paling, leaving an area in the front and at each end, about twenty-four feet wide, paved with smooth fragments of lava laid down with considerable skill.”

“Several rudely carved male and female images of wood were placed on the outside of the enclosure; some on low pedestals, under the shade of an adjacent tree; others on high posts, on the jutting rocks that hung over the edge of the water.” (Ellis, 1823)

“The zeal of Kaʻahumanu led her as early as 1829 to visit the Hale O Keawe at Honaunau, a cemetery associated with dark superstitions, and surrounded with horrid wooden images of former generations. The regent visited the place not to mingle her adorations with her early contemporaries and predecessors to the relics of departed mortals, but for the purpose of removing the bones of twenty-four deified kings and princes of the Hawaiian race….” (Bingham)

“… when she saw it ought to be done, she determined it should be done: and in company with Mr. Ruggles and Kapiolani, she went to the sacred deposit, and caused the bones to be placed in large coffins and entombed in a cave in the precipice at the head of Kealakekua Bay.” (Bingham)

The puʻuhonua was deeded to Miriam Kekāuluohi, a granddaughter of Kamehameha I, in the Māhele of 1848, and it was inherited, upon her death, by Levi Haʻalelea, her second husband. In 1866, the property was auctioned by Ha‘alelea’s estate to Charles Kana‘ina, the father of William Charles Lunalilo.

Kana‘ina, however, did not pay the $5,000 bid, and Charles Reed Bishop stepped in to purchase Ha‘alelea’s land for that same amount on April 1, 1867. In 1891, six years after Pauahi’s death, Bishop deeded the land to the trustees of the Bishop Estate who leased it to one of their members, SM Damon.

Damon was responsible for the 1902 restoration work on the Great Wall and the stone platforms of two heiau, Hale O Keawe and ‘Ale‘ale‘a. The County of Hawai‘i took over Damon’s lease in 1921. That lease expired in 1961 when the then County Park was acquired by the US National Park Service. (deSilva)

Originally established in 1955 as City of Refuge National Historical Park, Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park was renamed on November 10, 1978.

Further reconstruction consisted of four terraces and a passage between the southern end of the platform and the northern end of the Great Wall. In 1966-67 Edmund J Ladd directed the excavation and re-stabilization of the Hale o Keawe platform. Ladd’s excavations in addition to historical accounts indicated that the platform did not originally have multiple tiers; therefore, the 1967 work restored the platform to its more authentic form that joins the Great Wall on its south side.

After the platform was restored, the thatched hale, wooden palisade, and kiʻi were also rebuilt on the site. Since the time of Ladd’s initial reconstruction, the Hale o Keawe structure and carved wooden kiʻi have been replaced on two occasions with the most recent efforts being completed in 2004. (NPS)

February 29, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

White House

Located along the banks of the Potomac River, the site of the nation’s capital city was selected after much debate through a compromise between southern and northern representatives during the late 1780s.

The Residence Act of 1790 placed the site along the Potomac River, and gave President George Washington the authority to select the exact location of the new capital city.

President George Washington signed the Residence Act in July 1790 declaring that the Federal Government would reside in a district “not exceeding ten miles square…on the river Potomac.”

City Planner Pierre (Peter) Charles L’Enfant laid out plans for the nation’s new capital and together with President Washington chose the site for the “President’s House.”

The building’s history begins in 1792, when a public competition was held to choose a design for a presidential residence in the new capital city of Washington.

Thomas Jefferson, later the country’s third president (1801–09), using the pseudonymous initials “A.Z.,” was among those who submitted drawings, but Irish American architect James Hoban won the commission (and a $500 prize) with his plan for a Georgian mansion in the Palladian style.

The structure was to have three floors and more than 100 rooms and would be built in sandstone imported from quarries along Aquia Creek in Virginia.

President Washington marked the spot for the future north walls and entrance of the White House in 1791. The chosen location and position for the White House symbolically linked the President’s House to the U.S. Capitol via Pennsylvania Avenue (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. in Washington, DC)

The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792. Laborers, including local enslaved people, were housed in temporary huts built on the north side of the premises. They were joined by skilled stonemasons from Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1793.

In 1800 the entire federal government was relocated from Philadelphia to Washington. John Adams, the country’s second president (1797–1801), moved into the still unfinished presidential mansion on November 1 and the next night Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams:

“I Pray Heaven Bestow the Best of Blessings on This House and All that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under this Roof.”

At the insistence of President Franklin Roosevelt (1933–45), the quotation was inscribed on the fireplace of the State Dining Room immediately below the portrait of Abraham Lincoln, by George Healy.

During the War of 1812 the building was burned by the British, and President James Madison (1809–17) and his family were forced to flee the city. The Madisons eventually moved into the nearby Octagon House, the Washington mansion of John Tayloe, a Virginia plantation owner.

Reconstruction and expansion began under Hoban’s direction, but the building was not ready for occupancy until 1817, during the administration of President James Monroe (1817–25).

It survived a fire at the hands of the British in 1814 (during the war of 1812) and another fire in the West Wing in 1929, while Herbert Hoover was President.

President John Adams opened the White House to the public and started the tradition of hosting New Year’s Day receptions. President Thomas Jefferson expanded on this tradition of hospitality and hosted the first Fourth of July celebration.

Thomas Jefferson held the first Inaugural open house in 1805. Many of those who attended the swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol simply followed him home, where he greeted them in the Blue Room. President Jefferson also opened the house for public tours, and it has remained open, except during wartime, ever since.

In 1829, a horde of 20,000 Inaugural callers forced President Andrew Jackson to flee to the safety of a hotel while, on the lawn, aides filled washtubs with orange juice and whiskey to lure the mob out of the mud-tracked White House.

After Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, Inaugural crowds became far too large for the White House to accommodate them comfortably.

In Grover Cleveland’s first presidency he held a presidential review of the troops from a flag-draped grandstand built in front of the White House. This procession evolved into the official Inaugural parade we know today. Receptions on New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July continued to be held until the early 1930s.

The 1902 renovation relocated the public entrance to the White House to the East Terrace, but the president and his wife still welcome state visitors in the Entrance Hall.

The Second and Third Floors are private living quarters, used only by the president, family, and guests.

Although the name “White House” was commonly used (because the mansion’s white-gray sandstone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings), it did not become the official name of the building until 1901, when it was adopted by President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–09). The White House is the oldest federal building in the nation’s capital.

There are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 6 levels in the Residence. There are also 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases, and 3 elevators.

With five full-time chefs, the White House kitchen is able to serve dinner to as many as 140 guests and hors d’oeuvres to more than 1,000.

For recreation, the White House has a variety of facilities available to its residents, including a tennis court, jogging track, swimming pool, movie theater, and bowling lane.

The White House and its landscaped grounds occupy 18 acres. The White House Grounds and the surrounding parkland, known as President’s Park, provide an elegant setting to welcome foreign dignitaries and to host national celebrations such as the lighting of the National Christmas Tree and the annual Easter Egg Roll, and on occasion public protests.

The Ellipse is the central landscape feature on the south side. Lafayette Park, on the north side, is surrounded by many historic buildings of interest and is the site of an equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson and a number of statues of Revolutionary War heroes erected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The National Park Service maintains the White House Gardens and Grounds, the surrounding parkland known as President’s Park, and provides interpretive programs in the park and at the White House Visitor Center.

For two hundred years, the White House has stood as a symbol of the Presidency, the United States government, and the American people.

Click the following link to a general summary about the White House:

Click to access White-House.pdf

February 28, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waiʻaleʻale

“Aloha Waiʻaleʻale
Ka Kuahiwi o Kauai”

“Such is the beginning of the ancient mele which pilgrims were formerly accustomed to sing on reaching the highest peak of the mountain, which is Waiʻaleʻale proper; at its foot lies the fabulous lake from which it takes its name. “Rippling Water,” the origin of many a wild tale, lay before us; it proved to be a very small pool.” (Dole, The Garden Island, October 21, 1913)

“As droplets in a cloud approach the mountain, small vertical wind shear constrains their horizontal motion, while upward motion stops at the trade wind inversion or stable layer. Thus entrainment is limited and droplets grow rapidly. Over the sea and along the coast, drops falling from the cloud usually evaporate.”

“At the mountain face, lifting cools the air. Increased condensation and turbulence accelerate drop growth through collision, as flow becomes constrained between mountain and the trade wind inversion. At the cloud-covered mountaintop, mechanical uplift stops and most of the accumulated moisture precipitates as prolonged light or moderate continuous rain.” (Ramage)

“Hawaii now claims the wettest spots on earth. From records covering a long period, Cherrapunji, a village at the elevation of about 4,800 feet in the Khasi hills of India, has established a rainfall average of 426 inches a year …”

“Short period observations show that Mount Waiʻaleʻale, the central peak of the island of Kauai, with a height of 5,080 feet, has a yearly average of 476 inches. Other parts of Hawaii are scarcely less damp. Puʻu Kukui, 5,000 feet high on the island of Maui, has had a seven-year average of 396-inches. (The Times, Arkansas, July 9, 1920)

“You all know, more or less definitely, that there is a swampy region on the top of Waiʻaleʻale – but perhaps you do not realize that this swamp extends from Waiʻaleʻale clear back to Nāpali district, comprising a great table land of some 30 or 35 square miles, lying at an elevation varying from 4,000 to 5,000 ft. No such table land is found, at this elevation on any other island.” (The Garden Island, December 14, 1914)

In 1913, The Garden Island published a letter from George H Dole, a resident of Kauai, to Judge Jacob Hardy, describing the “first ascent of the highest mountain on Kauai by white men.” (1862) The following are excerpts from that letter and article written 100-years ago (in a lot of respects, I suspect it remains much the same.)

“Permit me merely to premise that the mountain of Waiʻaleʻale, although in former times frequently visited by the natives, had never until our visit been trod by the foot of a haole.”

They left from Waimea, riding on horseback “through the cocoanut groves of the valley until we reached Kalaeokaua, where we turned off into the Makaweli valley.”

“Our general course through this valley was about northeast; as we proceeded, the road, – to use an expression from St. Paul, – waxed worse and worse; the sides of the valley became higher and more precipitous, till they reached a degree of rugged sublimity which made them worthy objects of contemplation.”

“The narrow path led us on up it winding course, now across the pure, cool waters of the brook, and now into the deep shade of a Kukui grove, from whose airy branches the brilliantly dyed little songster whistled a merry “God-speed,” or the awkward Aukuʻu (black-crowned night heron) gazed with wonderment in his yellow eyes.”

“The sides of the valley gradually approached each other and increased in height. Ever and anon we paused to take breath, and as we look upon the immense perpendicular walls almost surrounding us where ‘time had notched his centuries in the eternal rock,’ our souls would be filled with astonishment and awe.”

“After a march of an hour or two the trees, which hitherto had appeared only in isolated groves, formed a dense forest, with a wild tangled undergrowth of bushes and vines and heavy grass; the hillsides became less steep than before and green with vegetation.”

“A walk of about five miles brought us to the pretty water-fall of Waikakaa, which is perhaps one hundred and fifty feet in height, – we could only give its arrow-like flakes of white foam a passing glance as they descended with a quiet roar to the dark, deep waters of the round basin beneath, and then hastened up the steep hill, richly robed in a many-tined dress of green.”

“We … lunged into the labyrinths of the primeval forest with which these high table-lands are covered, and from which we only emerged when within a short distance of Waiʻaleʻale’s summit.”

“The trees consist chiefly of Lehua, although the Kauila, ʻŌhia, Koa, and many other varieties are frequently met with. The trees throughout this forest are often covered to the depth of two or three inches with gray moss, and the ground is at frequent intervals heavily carpeted with the same material.”

“The forest became wilder, and the country more broken than ever; not far from the cave we descended into a deep ravine and traveled in the bed of the stream for about a mile, sometimes jumping from one moss-covered stone to another at an imminent risk of slipping heels over head into the chilly water, and sometimes wading with complete abandon through the sparking fluid, where it was not over our knees in depth, to the inevitable deterioration of shoe leather.”

“The smooth sloping sides of Waiʻaleʻale soon greeted our delighted eyes, and in a short time, in crossing the Wainiha stream, we said “au revoir” to the old woods, and found ourselves on an open plain, which had a gentle inclination to the west, and was covered with coarse grass; here and there were clumps of bushes, – principally lehua and ohelo”.

“(S)cattering everywhere were wild flowers, some of them vying in beauty and delicacy with the rarest gems of the garden. In low and swamp spots a small variety of silver sword was growing in such profusion that the ground seemed almost covered with a mantle of snow. This whole vicinity would be, as was remarked by one of the company, an interesting field for the explorations of a botanist.”

Waialeale lake “is of a regular, elliptical shape, its two diameters being respectively forty-seven and forty-two feet;–in short, it appears much like an ordinary fish-pond. The chief outlet is the Wainiha stream at the north-west end; the ground is so extremely level along the course of this stream that it flows for a long distance without any perceptible current, and the water would apparently flow just as well the other way.”

“There is another outlet at the south-east end of the pond; it consist of a ditch, said to have been dug by the natives in some former generation, and conducts the water east to the edge of the tremendous pali, from which the pond is distant but a few rods. This little stream trickle down among the fern and grass is the Wailua River in embryo.”

“Thus this crystal lake in miniature is the source of two large streams which empty themselves into the ocean on opposite sides of the island.”

“If we looked off from the brink of the eastern precipice, whose perpendicular height is several thousand feet, nothing was to be seen but an ocean of cloud, so illuminated by the sun as to appear like a boundless field of the whitest snow beneath our feet. It was a very fine spectacle”.

“The whole of Puna was spread out like a map before us, and an exquisitely beautiful landscape it was. As perfect a combination of dark forests, and shimmering streams, and smooth plains, and verdant hills, and blue ocean, is rarely seen; everything was in harmony, – there was nothing to offend the taste.”

“But although the eastern view was invisible, the western was still unclouded and magnificent; the whole of the western portion of the island lay spread out in quiet grandeur, rugged and for the most part densely wooded. At the northeast was the Wainiha valley, with its blue precipitous sides, forming a yawning gulf so deep that no bottom could be seen from our point of observation.”

“Many miles away in the west the mighty pali of Puʻukapele and Halemanu was strikingly apparent, stretching like a stern impassable barrier across the island, from sea to sea.”

“About four o’clock we struck our tent and set out for the lower regions … We arrived at Waimea a little after noon the next day, feeling richly repaid for the toil of the journey, but satisfied that much remained yet unseen, and determining that we would try it again next season.