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January 21, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Islands in 1828

Paul-Emile Botta was born to Carlo Botta, an eminent historian and educator, and Antoinette de Vierville of Chambery, in Turin on December 6, 1802. His mother died when he was still a child. In 1815, he became naturalized as a Frenchman.

In 1826, the French prepared for a round-the-world voyage on Le Heros, On board regulations required that there be a surgeon; Botta, though not yet a full-fledged doctor, was appointed to that post. He was also charged with the duties of naturalist aboard, with the mission of collecting examples.

The Heros, a three-masted ship of 362 tons, with 32 men on board, left the port of Le Havre on April 9, 1826, circumnavigated the globe. The following, in Botta’s words, are his observations of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi) when he and Le Heros visited the Islands from September 17, 1828 to November 15, 1828. (The quotation marks are dropped.)

The natives of the Sandwich Islands are for the most part large and well built. Among them are often found men who, in figure and proportion, recall the most beautiful statues of antiquity.

They vary a great deal in color. Sometimes it is a very dark brown, almost black, but at other times, to the contrary, it is a rather light brown, almost yellow. Their faces are pleasing, especially because of the expression of goodness and joviality always displayed on them … their hearts are full of goodness and friendliness.

The men are completely naked except for a type of belt of which one portion passes between their thighs, called by them maro. They have … a custom of knotting about the end of the prepuce a piece of reed, when they are not wearing the maro; this is the last bit of clothing that they are accustomed to take off.

The women … ordinarily wear a cloth skirt and a garment made of a fabric of the islands covering their thighs. Yet I saw some of them indoors having as their sole clothing a belt of leaves. This is the attire of the common people; the chiefs, however, as well as their women, at present dress in European fashion, some indeed with a studied affectation.

The Sandwich islanders, at least the common people, eat chiefly vegetables. Their principal food is taro, root of a type of arum which when raw is very bitter and even poisonous, but when cooked has an excellent flavor, superior to that of the potato.

They eat it either cooked in their underground ovens or pounded into a paste, often half fermented, which they call poi, and which is the basis of their meals.

Potatoes, carrots, and fish, which they eat raw most of the time, or else pounded with water and salt, are, after taro, their commonest foods.

Their customary drink is only water … very few islanders are to be seen giving themselves up to drunkenness. They still, however, make use of the infusion of ava to get intoxicated.

They also prepare a type of brandy with the root of a plant very common in the island, which they call lahi. The root is thick, fibrous, though rather tender and of a very sweet and sugary flavor when cooked. The brandy made of it through fermentation is very strong. This root is called ti.

The islanders’ homes are small houses made with a light scaffolding covered over by dry grasses. They are formed with a roof, the sides rising obliquely almost from the ground. They usually have two doors, set in accordance with the direction of the most frequent winds, providing for coolness inside.

The floor is formed by a layer of dry rushes covered over by a rather large number of mats. The floor usually serves as table and as bed, some chiefs’ homes excepted; the latter are sometimes furnished most elegantly in European style.

These very simple houses are cool and inexpensive and islanders as well as some Europeans prefer them to houses built of stone or wood, as some quite pretty ones transported from America are.

The chief occupation of the islanders is the cultivation of taro, which requires much toil and care. This plant grows well only in marshy terrain, and even in mud; therefore, all the upper valleys and terrain at the foot of the mountains are divided into small plots covered with water and separated by narrow embankments, which are the only paths.

Taro is planted in rows or in regular quincunxes in little ponds, into which the natives are often obliged to dive, either to harvest the roots, or to pull out the reeds and other grasses which might hinder their growth.

The water is brought there by means of little irrigation canals, made with great care, and which divide infinitely, passing from one taro field to another, so that a small stream can irrigate a great number of fields placed in terraces one above another on a hill slope. All this cultivation gives an impressive notion of the industriousness of these people.

Fishing is, next to taro, the principal resource of the Sandwich islanders; they now use European hooks. In order to catch great sea fish such as the bonitos or the dorados, however, they join them to bits of polished mother-of-pearl with bristles at one end, which, in the water, gives the appearance of a small fish, with sufficient exactness for the big fish to be deceived by them.

Their nets are very well made and they have some, I have been told, that are large and are the common property of several villages.

The dug-out canoes used by the islanders have the bottom made from a hollowed out tree, pointed at the two ends; it is raised by two boards joined to the two ends tapering; they are provided with a balance, formed by a piece of wood parallel to the dug-out canoe and sustained by two cross-bars. The paddles have rounded blades. When they desire, they add a mast and a trapezoidal sail to the canoes.

The recreation of the islanders consists only of lascivious dances, and I have always seen them performed by women and never by men. … The tunes have, properly speaking, no melody, for they are made of only one or two notes. To hear them sung, one would believe that they are rather being chanted. I have not seen any musical instrument except a small drum made out of coconut.

But their favorite pleasure is swimming. Men, women, and children all know how to swim and they are all constantly in the water.

Nothing is more interesting than to see them devoting themselves to the exercise they call henalou, that is, mounting the waves. In the places where the coral reef surrounding the island and stretching far out causes the water to have a depth of only between seven and eight feet, the sea rolls its waves in a frightening manner, sometimes for a distance of over a mile, until they come to break at the shore.

In these places the Sandwich islanders place themselves on their stomachs on a board oval in shape, elongated, somewhat convex on each side. They then swim with their hands and feet, passing over or under the waves constantly rolling over the reef, going out to sea where they wait for a wave which they think will inevitably reach the shore.

Then they place themselves in front of it, letting themselves be carried thus with incredible speed, without losing their balance, continually pushed forward by the wave the summit of which, towering above, seems destined to engulf them. This exercise which has always seemed terrifying to me is just a game for them.

The language of the Sandwich islanders is sweet and harmonious, because of the great number of vowels and few consonants found in it. …. The vowels are a, e, i, o, and u. The consonants are f, h, k, 1, m, n, p, r, t, and v. But the number of consonants should be reduced, for the inhabitants use some of them indifferently for others; thus r and l, k and t, p and f, are letters which seem for them to have the same sound.

Such are the observations which a stay of two months on Wahou has permitted me to make. They are most incomplete, and I greatly desire to be one day in a position to make a better study of these people, rendered so likeable by their goodness and sweetness …. (This summary is based on a translation and summary from Knowlton.)

The image shows the town of Honolulu as it looked when Botta arrived in the Islands. (Beechey)

January 20, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ranks of Chiefs

Each Hawaiian was born into a class of people, and at the top were the rulers, a small but powerful class of chiefs, known as the aliʻi and in those days, the aliʻi was the government.

Of all the people, it was the king who held the greatest respect and the one whom no one questioned. But this class of royalty did not just consist of the king and his family, the aliʻi or the government system was more complicated and consisted of more than what most people think of when they hear of the Aliʻi. (Seleska)

The aliʻi were not all equal in rank, it is just a word that people are accustomed to using – they give the name aliʻi to all those from the very high to very low rank. In olden times, the kinds of aliʻi were classified according to their birth and the height at which each aliʻi stood. (Kamakau)

Special care was taken in regard to chiefs of high rank to secure from them noble offspring, by not allowing them to form a first union with a woman of lower rank than themselves, and especially not to have them form a first union with a common or plebeian woman (wahine noa.) (Malo)

To this end diligent search was first made by the genealogists into the pedigree of the woman, if it concerned a high born prince, or into the pedigree of the man, if it concerned a princess of high birth, to find a partner of unimpeachable pedigree …

… and only when such was found and the parentage and lines of ancestry clearly established, was the young man (or young woman) allowed to form his first union, in order that the offspring might be a great chief. (Malo)

Aliʻi Niʻaupiʻo:
The father was a high chief, an aliʻi nui, with no one low in rank on the side of either his father or mother; the kapu moe, the prostrating kapu, and his kapu. So also on the side of the mother. Their kapu were equal – one need not remove the oneʻs kapa in deference to the kapu of the other, and their regard of each other was equally warm. Their children were aliʻi niʻaupiʻo.

Aliʻi Piʻo
If two aliʻi niʻaupiʻo united to guard their kapu against loss to another and had great affection for each other, their children would be aliʻi piʻo. The kapu of these aliʻi were of the very highest, and they were called gods; they conversed with men only at night.

Aliʻi Naha
The kapu of the two fathers were equal – they were both niʻaupiʻo – and the mother was a niʻaupiʻo. She had children, a boy, kane, by one and a girl, wahine, by the other, who united to preserve the kapu. The children of these two were aliʻi naha, and they were sacred chiefs, aliʻi kapu.

Aliʻi Wohi
The mother was an aliʻi niʻaupiʻo, and the father was from the family of the high chief; or the father was an aliʻi niʻaupiʻo, and the mother was from the family of the aliʻi nui. Their children were called aliʻi wohi.

Lo Aliʻi
The chiefs of Lihuʻe, Wahiawa, and Halemano on Oʻahu were called lo aliʻi. Because the chiefs at these places lived there continually and guarded their kapu, they were called lo aliʻi. They were like gods, unseen, resembling men.

Aliʻi Papa
The mother was an aliʻi niʻaupiʻo or an aliʻi piʻo, and the father was a kaukau aliʻi; their children were aliʻi papa.

Lokea Aliʻi
The father was a niʻaupiʻo or an aliʻi piʻo, and the mother was from the family of the aliʻi nui; their children were called lokea aliʻi and sometimes aliʻi wohi.

Laʻauli Aliʻi
The father was from a chiefly family and so was the mother; their ranks were equal; their children were laʻauli chiefs.

Kaukau Aliʻi
The father was a high chief, an aliʻi nui, and the mother was a chiefess of little rank, he wahi aliʻi iki; their children were kaukau aliʻi.

Kukae Popolo
The father was a chief of little rank, and the mother was a noanoa, a woman of no rank; or the mother was a chiefess, and the father was a noanoa. Their children were called hana lepo popolo.

Because they were the ruling class, the aliʻi had special things that only they could use. As signs of royalty, they wore feather cloaks, lei and helmets. Nobody else could wear those symbols. (Wong) The image shows ‘Gathering of Chiefs’ by Brook Parker. (Lots of information here is from Kamakau.)

January 19, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Martin Luther King at the Hawai‘i Legislature

On Thursday, September 17, 1959, in the Hawaii House of Representatives, 1959 First Special Session, Dr. Martin Luther King addressed the members of the House as Follows:

“Mr. Speaker, distinguished members of the House of Representatives of this great new state in our Union, ladies and gentlemen:

It is certainly a delightful privilege and pleasure for me to have this great opportunity and, I shall say, it is a great honor to come before you today and to have the privilege of saying just a few words to you about some of the pressing problems confronting our nation and our world.

I come to you with a great deal of appreciation and great feeling of appreciation, I should say, for what has been accomplished in this beautiful setting and in this beautiful state of our Union.

As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country …

… and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice.

People ask me from time to time as I travel across the country and over the world whether there has been any real progress in the area of race relations, and I always answer it by saying that there are three basic attitudes that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations.

One can take the attitude of extreme optimism. The extreme optimist would contend that we have come a long, long way in the area of race relations, and he would point proudly to the strides that have been made in the area of civil rights in the last few decades.

And, from this, he would conclude that the problem is just about solved now and that we can sit down comfortably by the wayside and wait on the coming of the inevitable.

And then there is the extreme, the attitude of extreme pessimism, that we often find. The extreme pessimist would contend that we have made only minor strides in the area of human relations.

He would contend that we have created many more problems than we have solved. He would look around and see the tensions in certain sections of the country; he would listen to the rhythmic beat of the deep rumblings of discontent; he would point to the presence of Federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas …

… he would point to schools being closed in some states of the Union and from all of this, he would conclude that we have retrogressed instead of progressed. And then he would go on later and contend that a monster human nature cannot be changed.

Sometimes he will turn to the realm of theology and talk about the tragic taint of original sin hovering over every individual, or he might turn to psychology and talk about the inflexibility of certain habit structures once they have been molded and from all of this …

… he would conclude that there can be no progress in the area of human relations because human beings cannot be changed once they have started on a certain road.

Now, it is interesting to notice that the extreme optimist and the extreme pessimist have at least one thing in common. They both agree that we must sit down and do nothing in the area of race relations. The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration is inevitable.

The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible.

But I think there is a third position, a third attitude that can be taken, namely the realistic position. The realistic attitude seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites while avoiding the extremes of both.

So the realist in the area of race relations would agree with the optimist that we have come a long, long way, but he would balance that by agreeing with the pessimist that we have a long, long way to go.

And so this is my answer to the questions of whether there has been any progress in the area of race relations. I seek to be realistic and say we have a long, long way to go.

Now, it is easy for us to see that we have come a long, long way.

Twenty-five years ago, fifty years ago, a year hardly passed that numerous Negroes were not brutally lynched in our nation by vicious mobs. Lynchings have about ceased today.

We think about the fact that just twenty-five years ago, most of the Southern states had a system known as a poll tax to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters. The poll tax has been eliminated in all but four states.

We think about the fact that the Negro is voting now more than he has ever voted before. At the turn of the century, there were very few Negro registered voters in the South. By 1948 that number had reached to 750,000, and, today, it stands at about 1,300,000.

And even in the area of economic justice, we have seen a good deal of progress. The average Negro wage earner in the South today and over the nation makes four times more than the average Negro wage earner of ten years ago and the national income of the Negro is now $17 billion a year.

That is more than all of the exports of the United States and more than the national income of Canada. So, we’ve come a long, long way.

Then we’ve come a long, long way in seeing the walls of segregation gradually crumble.

When the Supreme Court rendered its decision in 1954, seventeen states and the District of Columbia practiced segregation in the public schools …

…but, today, most of these states have complied with the decision and just five states are left that have not made any move in the area of compliance and two of these states are now under orders to integrate – Atlanta, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana.

So after next September, that will only leave Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina as the states that have not complied with the Supreme Court’s decision.

So, you can see that we have come a long, long way. But before stopping –it would be wonderful if I could stop here – but I must move on for two or three more minutes and say that there is another sign.

You see, it would be a fact for me to say we have come a long, long way, but it wouldn’t be telling the truth. A fact is the absence of contradiction, but truth is the presence of coherence.

Truth is the relatedness of facts.

Now, it is a fact that we have come a long, long way, but in order to tell the truth, it is necessary to move on and say we have a long, long way to go. If we stop here, we would be the victims of a dangerous optimism. We would be victims of an illusion wrapped in superficiality. So, in order to tell the truth, it’s necessary to move on and say we have a long, long way to go.

Now, it is not difficult to see that. We know that the forces of resistance are rising at times to ominous proportions in the South. The legislative halls of many of our states ring loud with such words as ‘interposition’ and ‘nullification.’

While lynchings have ceased to a great extent, other things are happening. Churches are being bombed, homes are being bombed, schools are being bombed, synagogues are being bombed by forces that are determined to stand against the law of the land.

And although the Negro is voting more than ever before, we know that there are still conniving forces being used to keep the Negro from being a registered voter. Out of the potential 5,000,000 Negro registered voters in the South, we only have 1,300,000.

This means that we have a long, long way to go in order to make justice a reality there in the registration of voting. And although we have come a long, long way in the economic realm, we have a long, long way to there in order to make economic justice a reality.

And then segregation is still with us.

Although we have seen the walls gradually crumble, it is still with us. I imply that figuratively speaking, that Old Man Segregation is on his death bed, but you know history has proven that social systems have a great last-minute breathing power, and the guardians of the status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive, and this is exactly what we see today.

So segregation is still with us.

We are confronted in the South in its glaring and conspicuous forms, and we are confronted in almost every other section of the nation in its hidden and subtle forms.

But if democracy is to live, segregation must die.

Segregation is a cancer in the body politic which must be removed before our democratic health can be realized. In a real sense, the shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of an anemic democracy. If we are to survive, if we are to stand as a force in the world, if we are to maintain our prestige, we must solve this problem because people are looking over to America.

Just two years ago I traveled all over Africa and talked with leaders from that great continent. One of the things they said to me was this: No amount of extensive handouts and beautiful words would be substitutes for treating our brothers in the United States as first-class citizens and human beings. This came to me from mouth of Prime Minister Nkrumah of Ghana.

Just four months ago, I traveled throughout India and the Middle East and talked with many of the people and leaders of that great country and other people in the Middle East, and these are the things they talked about: That we must solve this problem if we are to stand and to maintain our prestige.

And I can remember very vividly meeting people all over Europe and in the Middle East and in the Far East, and even though many of them could not speak English, they knew how to say ‘Little Rock.’

And these are the things that we must be concerned about – we must be concerned about because we love America and we are out to free not only the Negro.

This is not our struggle today to free 17,000,000 Negroes. It’s bigger than that.

We are seeking to free the soul of America.

Segregation debilitates the white man as well as the Negro. We are to free all men, all races and all groups. This is our responsibility and this is our challenge, and we look to this great new state in our Union as the example and as the inspiration.

As we move on in this realm, let us move on with the faith that this problem can be solved, and that it will be solved, believing firmly that all reality hinges on moral foundations, and we are struggling for what is right, and we are destined to win.

We have come a long, long way. We have a long, long way to go. I close, if you will permit me, by quoting the words of an old Negro slave preacher.

He didn’t quite have his grammar right, but he uttered some words in the form of a prayer with great symbolic profundity and these are the works he said: ‘Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be, but thank God, we ain’t what we was.’ Thank you.”

At the conclusion of his address, there was much applause.

January 18, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gilberts and Marshalls

“During more than a century and a half (1606-1762), the South Pacific was almost empty of ships. Europeans preferred to trade with the Far East by way of the Cape of Good Hope. … Interest in the broad reaches of the Pacific revived after 1762.”

“Twenty years elapsed, in which important discoveries were made in the South Pacific by three French navigators, Bougainville, La Perouse and D’Entrecasteaux, and by the great Captain James Cook. …” (Morison, Life, May 22, 1955)

“Europeans’ knowledge of the central Pacific developed most rapidly after the establishment of a penal colony at Botany Bay [Australia], and the adoption of the ‘outer passage’ for the return voyage to Europe via Canton.” (Macdonald)

“Then came two obscure English seamen, not otherwise known to fame, who have left their names, probably for all time, on the Gilberts and Marshalls.”

“William Marshall was master of the Scarborough, and Thomas Gilbert of the Charlotte. Both sailed from England as part of the convoy under Captain Arthur Phillip, RN, first governor of New South Wales, which brought the first convict settlement to Australia.”

“Their vessels, the Charlotte and Scarborough, were English merchant ships chartered by the Honourable the East India Company to take 334 convicts with a Royal Marine guard, and the marines wives, to Botany Bay, Australia, and thence to Canton in order to load tea for England. The convoy arrived at Botany Bay Jan. 18, 1788.” (Morison, Life, May 22, 1955)

“With their prisoners discharged and their holds empty, the ships of the First Fleet disbanded and struck north for Canton to pick up cargoes of oriental goods for the return voyage to England a practice that came to be followed by most British convict vessels in succeeding years.” (Hezel)

Two of the more enterprising captains, Gilbert and Marshall, after discharging their unwilling passengers at Botany Bay, viewing the foundation of Sydney, and taking in wood, water, jerked kangaroo meat and such other provisions as aboriginal Australia afforded, sailed for Canton on May 6, 1788. (Hezel and Morison)

They “brought their ships well around to the east on a course that took them through the archipelagoes that now bear their names.” (Hezel)

Gilbert was the first European to name and describe what is now Kiribati, arriving on June 20, 1788: “The southernmost island of the chain, I left first for Captain Marshall to name, which he thought proper to name Gilbert’s Island …”

“… the middle, I named Marshall’s Island; and the northernmost, Knox’s Island; – to the large island with the cluster, I gave the name of Mathews’s Island, in honour of the owner of the Charlotte; – the bay, I called Charlotte’s Bay …”

“… the south point, which terminates the beautiful cluster of islands, I have named Charlotte’s Point; and the north point of the island, which forms the bay, Point William.” (Gilbert, Voyage from New South Wales to Canton)

Mathews’s Island, now known as Tarawa, is part of sixteen coral atolls in the part of the Pacific known as Micronesia (the region of “small islands”). Lying across the equator, they form the middle of a long chain which includes the Marshall Islands to the northwest and the Ellice Islands to the southeast.

They are typical atolls (An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef, island, or series of islets. The atoll surrounds a body of water called a lagoon. (National Geographic)), with few notable features: “the low horizon, the expanse of the lagoon, the sedge-like rim of palm-tops, the sameness and smallness of the land, the hugely superior size and interest of sea and sky.”

“The atoll, like the ship, is soon taken for granted; and the islanders, like the ship’s crew, become soon the centre of attention. The isles are populous, independent, seats of kinglets, recently civilised, little visited.”

“In the last decade many changes have crept in; women no longer go unclothed till marriage; the widow no longer sleeps at night and goes abroad by day with the skull of her dead husband; and, fire-arms being introduced, the spear and the shark-tooth sword are sold for curiosities.” (Robert Lousi Stevenson)

After making a number of discoveries in the Gilbert Islands, Gilbert and Marshall crossed the equator at 175 degrees east and cruised up along the eastern chain of the Marshalls. (Hezel)

The Marshall Islands, north of the equator and west of the International Date Line, include 29 coral atolls and over 1200 islands and islets, situated in two island chains extending over 800 miles in length. (Kwajalein Atoll is the largest atoll in the Marshall Islands, and the world.)

While their total land area is about 70 square miles, barely larger than Washington, DC, the Marshall Islands have the largest portion of territory made of water of any sovereign state, at over 97%. (NPS)

When Gilbert and Marshall headed to Canton, their route “was probably the first time that anyone had attempted to sail from Australia to China. It may seem strange that the two captains should make such a wide sweep to the eastward as to encounter the Marshalls”. (Morison)

“But the passage through the Torres Strait was one that baffled even Cook; the Moluccas were full of pirates; China Strait between New Guinea and the Louisiades was not discovered until 1873 by Captain Moresby.”

The “captains probably figured on making a good easting in the westerly winds of south latitudes, in order to enjoy a fair slant in the northeast trades to Canton.” (Morison, Life, May 22, 1955)

They made Macao; “The city of Macao, which is situated on an island, at the entrance of the river of Canton, belongs to the Portuguese. It was formerly richer, and more populous than it is at present, and totally independent of the Chinese; but it has lost much of its ancient consequence …”

“… for though inhabited chiefly by the Portuguese, under a governor appointed by the King of Portugal, it is entirely in the power of the Chinese, who can starve or dispossess the inhabitants whenever they please. …” (Gilbert)

“No occurrences worthy of insertion happening during my stay in China, I shall only add, by way of conclusion, that I was dispatched with the same regularity and expedition as the established Indiamen usually are …”

“… and proceeded to England with a valuable cargo of teas and china-ware. And here I must not omit to mention, with grateful remembrance, the repeated civilities and attention I received from the supercargoes of the East- India Company, resident there.” (Gilbert)

“When Otto von Kotzebue sailed from Russia in 1813 on the brig Rurick with instructions to search for the Northeast Passage that hypothetical waterway from the Bering Sea into the Atlantic he was ordered to spend the winter months exploring the little-known Marshall Islands.”

“For almost three months in early 1817 he did just this, visiting many of the islands in the Ratak or eastern chain. He returned late in the same year for a shorter visit to the islands before sailing westward on his homeward voyage to Kronstadt.”

“Eight years later, Kotzebue was back in the Pacific on a second voyage of exploration with a higher rank and a larger ship, the Predpriatie. [H]e found time to spend a few weeks in the Marshalls on two separate occasions in 1824 and 1825, renewing old acquaintances and observing the progress of the people there.”

“Culturally speaking, the Marshall Islands were still virgin territory when Kotzebue first visited them in 1817. The people recalled a couple of old stories of ships passing the islands and showed the Russian commander a few scraps of iron that they had presumably salvaged from driftwood washing ashore, but otherwise they were altogether untouched by Western influence.”

“Kotzebue very swiftly learned that he could quickly dispel the initial fear of the islanders with small presents of iron, and he was soon on friendly terms with the people wherever he went.” (Hezel)

“In the 1820s Adam von Krusenstern, the Russian explorer and cartographer, brought together all known information on the Pacific in an atlas and a series of commentaries that were the best of their day. It was he who named the archipelago stretching from Makin to Arorae in the Gilbert Islands in recognition of the 1788 sightings by Gilbert and Marshall.” (Macdonald)

January 17, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

It Wasn’t ‘Bloodless’

Many references to the overthrow of Hawai‘i’s constitutional monarch on January 17, 1893 say it was ‘bloodless,’ suggesting no one was injured.

However, that is not the case; “A policeman named Leialoha was shot in the breast by John Good about 2:30 o’clock this afternoon on Fort street.” (Daily Bulletin, January 17, 1893)

Let’s look back …

At 2 pm, January 17, 1893, the members of the Executive and Advisory Councils of the Committee of Safety proceeded on foot to the Government building, most of them up Merchant Street and the rest up Queen Street.

That morning, John Good had been appointed ordnance officer, and with three assistants had been collecting arms and ammunitions from various stores. (Kuykendall)

“Good and four or five others were driving around the corner by H McIntyre & Bro’s store when the horse stumbled.”

“Two native policemen were standing at the corner and seeing a number of boxes on the wagon thought they were ammunition and caught the horse by the head.” (Eye witness account; Daily Bulletin, January 17, 1893)

It is not clear why the police chose this moment to interfere with a wagon loaded with ammunition that was leaving EO Hall & Son’s store on King Street for the armory. (Kuykendall)

As the driver kept on, a policeman blew his whistle, and four or five more policemen came running up. A Fort street car had just crossed King Street, and together with a passing dray, blocked the way for a few moments. As the wagon turned to go up Fort Street, a struggle ensued. (Alexander)

“Good leveled a pistol at the officer when the latter dodged. The other officer made a jump for the horse again, when Good shot him in the breast, lacerating it badly.” (Eye witness account; Daily Bulletin, January 17, 1893)

The wagon was then driven at full speed up Fort Street, pursued by two policemen on horseback, who were kept at a distance by rifles leveled at them from the wagon.

Good and his men continued on up Fort Street to School Street, and then down Punchbowl Street to the Armory. (Alexander)

“An officer was despatched for Good, but returned without him. He stated that Good had hid himself in the Skating Rink, along with others.” (Eye witness account; Daily Bulletin, January 17, 1893)

Leialoha was assisted by another officer and Mr PM Rooney to the Station house, where he was attended to by Dr. Peterson. (Alexander)

At the sound of the shot, all the police ran toward Fort and King, thus enabling the Committee of Safety to proceed almost unobserved to the government building. (Kuykendall)

All were unarmed. Only one of the volunteer riflemen had arrived, and none of the Queen’s forces were in sight. The house was nearly ‘empty, swept and garnished.’

Leialoha was afterwards taken to the hospital, and in time entirely recovered from his wound. (Alexander) He was “presented with a purse of $200 made by citizens. President Dole forwarded the money yesterday.” (Daily Bulletin, January 19, 1893)

“On January 18th Mr J Emmeluth handed me a letter and $200 with the request to place same in the Hospital safe and give it to Leialoha when Dr Wood should consider him out of danger.”

“About a week later, the man being out of danger, I told Leialoha that I had the money and letter, and would give him both any time he wished me to do so.”

“He asked me to keep them for him until he should leave the Hospital; he was discharged on March 11th, and I paid him two hundred dollars in United States gold coin and handed him the letter at the same time.” (John F Eckardt, Purveyor Queen’s Hospital; Hawaiian Star, August 5, 1893)

It appears Good may not have been prosecuted for shooting the police office. He was, however, Court Martialed a few years later for “conduct(ing) himself in a manner unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, speaking to his men in a highly disrespectful manner of his commanding officers”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 22, 1896 & May 6, 1898)

Queen Lili‘uokalani suggested John Smith Walker also was a victim of the revolution, noting, “friends (who) expressed their sympathy in person; amongst these Mrs JS Walker, who had lost her husband by the treatment he received from the hands of the revolutionists. He was one of many who from persecution had succumbed to death.” (Lili‘uokalani)

However, Walker’s obituary suggests a long illness noting, “Hon John S Walker died at 8 o’clock this morning after a long and painful illness, at the age of about 73 years. … The departed gentleman was universally respected for his qualities of head and heart and will he generally lamented.”

“Mr Walker was a member of the House of Nobles under the old Constitution … Mr Walker was elected for the six-year term in 1890. He was President of the Legislature for the sessions of 1886, 1890 and 1892, in which position he evinced … the strictest impartiality.” (Daily Bulletin, May 29, 1893) The image is the gun and bullet used by Good.