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May 20, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Tetautua

“The voyage of the Tetautua is as remarkable as that of the Japanese junk which came ashore here in the early fifties or sixties. The Islands are the dumping ground of all kinds of ocean flotsam and jetsam.”

Early in the year 1898 the clipper schooner Tetautua was lost to its bearings about a week out of Papeete, Tahiti, and eighty-two days from the beginning of the voyage arrived May 21, 1898 at the port of Ho‘okena, Hawai‘i. (HHS)

“She had sailed from Tahiti for Penrhyn Island (also called Tongareva, Mangarongaro, Hararanga and Te Pitaka), but, a short time after her departure, a terrific storm broke, before which she was driven for several hours.”

“In this gale the compass was lost, and the crew, unable to navigate the small vessel, insufficiently supplied for a voyage of any length, decided merely to go with wind and tide. The amazing fact is that the schooner is not drifting yet.”

“For forty-two days the crew had no water except what could be caught in sails, and at times suffered severely from thirst.” (Farrell, Pacific Marine Review, December 1920)

“Said (Sheriff) Lazaro: ‘The Tetautua arrived in Ho‘okena (on the Island of Hawai‘i) on May 21st. There was an abundance of food such as flour and rice aboard but no firewood with which to cook it.”

“As to water, it happened that three days before sighting Hawaii, they were blessed with a shower which gave them about three gallons. Previous to this they had suffered for many days from thirst. When the schooner arrived at Ho‘okena the people aboard were in a pitiable state.’”

“‘I furnished them with all the necessaries in the line of eatables and they were made very comfortable.’”

“‘When the Tahitians began to look about them they expressed great wonder at various objects unknown in their native land. Never did they once complain about their ill luck; a more affable set of people I have never met. They are graceful in the extreme and were thankful for the favors done them.’”

“‘The Tahitian language is so very similar to the Hawaiian, that it was not long before I could understand them as well as people of my own race.’”

“‘They do not pronounce their words in a very distinct manner but seem to depend on the sound and force placed on the various syllables for the meaning which they wish to convey.’”

“‘When they first came ashore they shouted ‘Tanotapu,’ one of the islands, near their home. When they spied some of us on horseback they shook their heads signifying a mistake and called our animals ‘pua-a hele honua’ which means pigs that travel over the earth.’”

“‘We told them they had landed in Hawai‘i. This word they could not say but persisted in calling it ‘Pahi.’”

“‘The sympathy of the people of Ho‘okena was with the castaway Tahitians from the moment they landed. They were to have been given a big luau on Tuesday but it was necessary for the vessel to make Honolulu so there was a regular hookupu and all the eatables were sent aboard.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 27, 1898)

“There were eight Tahitians aboard the Tetautua when she arrived at Honolulu, and one Frenchman had quit her at Ho‘okena and preceded her to Honolulu”. (Farrell, Pacific Marine Review, December 1920)

“‘On Sunday night the captain of the vessel gave a short and interesting talk in the church, telling of the voyage and of some of the customs and laws of his country.’”

“‘Upon arrival off port on Wednesday night, the Tahitians threw up their hands and shouted ‘Honolulu’ as if they were arriving back in their own home.’”

“Deputy Sheriff Lazaro will return to his home on the Mauna Loa today. He is an old sailor and, on that account was entrusted with the mission of piloting the Tetautua to this port.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 27, 1898)

“The British schooner Tetautua which drifted in towards the Kau coast some time ago, sailed for her home in Tahiti yesterday morning. She was sent back in charge of Captain Cook, an old sea captain, well acquainted with the Islands of the South Pacific.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 10, 1898)

“From (Captain John Cook) a Honolulu gentleman received the following letter by the Moana: Tahite, City of Papeete, July 18, 1898 …”

“‘Friend Charley: Arrived here safe and sound, after a passage of thirty-eight days. We stopped at Hoaheine Island one day to get provisions, and reached this place last night. Mail steamer leaves at 9 this morning. Do not know yet what I will no. Give my aloha to all my friends. Yours truly, John W Cook.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, August 22, 1898)

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Hookena Landing, Kona

May 19, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Singing to Me is a Paradise’

Despite the title here, this story is about a writer, not a singer. In fact, her Biography notes, “the Washington Post names Kate Fields ‘one of the foremost women of America,’ and the New York Tribune called her ‘one of the best-known women in America’”. (Moss) (Her name was Mary Katherine Keemle Field, but was generally know as Kate Field.)

“Kate Field, known to all the nation as one of its most wide-awake, progressive women, died a few weeks ago in Honolulu. She died suddenly, among friends for her friends are everywhere but far from her native land and all associations endeared to her by close ties of kinship.”

“Some strange foreboding filled her mind before leaving this city for her pleasure trip to the Islands, and she asked strangely, it seemed then that if she should die in a foreign land her remains might lie in the soil of her own country.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, August 17, 1896)

“Kate Field was born in St Louis, Mo., October 1, (1838). When a young girl she with her mother and sister removed to Chicago, where Miss Field adopted the stage as a profession, appearing first at McVicker’s Theater.”

“Being a woman of strong individuality, the doubtful success to be achieved as an actress made her abandon the stage for the rostrum, delivering lectures through the United States, meeting with success wherever she spoke.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

In a June 9, 1868 note to Charles Warren Stoddard, she notes, “I thank you for your kind words and am more than pleased that my little books should have strayed off to California. If I live I hope to do something more worthy of praise.”

“I can say nothing to you, a stranger, that will be worth the reading. Everyone must work out his own salvation and in his own particular way.”

“My motto is Emerson’s ‘Hitch your wagon to a star.’ If you do you will rise sooner or later. Try it and see if the effect is not a beneficial one in character. I am Very truly yours, Kate Field” (Stoddard; National Magazine, January 1906)

“For six years prior to her coming to (Hawai‘i) she owned and edited ‘Kate Field’s Washington’… It was during this time that she toured the country lecturing … As a public woman and a writer she was known all over the world. In Washington she was a recognized power in the lobby during the Republican administrations of the last twenty years.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

“Field worked for several years as a freelance journalist before grabbing another set of literary coattails: those of Charles Dickens. Field covered his 1867-68 American reading tour with such rhapsodic brio that she earned ‘wide, spasmodic notoriety’ …”

“… as Mark Twain put it, becoming ‘a celebrity at once.’” (Downing) some suggest she was “a more prominent journalist than Clemens [Mark Twain].” (Weber)

“(S)he headed west, writing a series of anti-Mormon articles and lectures and another series in praise of Alaska. She also won a lucrative contract to promote California wines — to preach “the gospel of the grape,” as she put it.”

“Eventually Field swung back east, this time to Washington, which she predicted was ‘destined to be the social, literary and artistic center of this country.’ … There she founded an influential weekly paper, Kate Field’s Washington, which ran from 1890 to 1895.” (Downing)

She came to the Islands “to personally investigate the condition of the Hawaiians and obtain their views of annexation.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896) However, “she contracted (pneumonia) on the Island of Hawaii.”

“The first appearance of the disease which resulted in the death of Miss Field was in Kailua, while at the boarding house of Miss Paris. This was on Wednesday, May 13th. Deceased complained of feeling pains in her chest but did not consider the matter serious.”

“With her usual zeal for work, she told Miss Paris that it was her intention to go on to Kaawaloa and from there to the volcano on the journey that she had mapped out in the beginning.”

“Miss Paris accompanied Miss Field to Kaawaloa. Upon arrival at that place Miss Field went to the Greenwell’s. It was there that her condition began to grow worse, and Miss Paris remonstrated with her as to the inadvisability of going on to the volcano, to such good effect that she heeded the advice and decided to return to Honolulu.”

“As soon as she arrived aboard, Dr. Adriance took charge of her and kept administering restoratives, to which the disease yielded but temporarily.”

“During the evening some of the Coronet party grouped in the neighborhood of Miss Field’s stateroom on the port side of the steamer, and began singing familiar songs. When it was suggested that it might disturb her, she answered in a manner characteristic of the woman …”

“‘No, indeed! Singing to me is a paradise compared with the quiet of the country. Don’t talk to me about the quiet of the country, with chickens cackling, roosters crowing and dogs barking wow! wow! wow!’ After this utterance she seems to have responded to the soothing effect of the music, and went off to sleep.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

“She died on the 19th of May, 1896, in the fifty-seventh year of her age. She once said: ‘I want to live every day as if it were my last,’ she also said: ‘I am a cremationist, because I believe cremation is not only the healthiest and cleanest, but the most poetical way of disposing of the dead. Whoever prefers loathsome worms to ashes, possesses a strange imagination.’”

“That her visit to Honolulu resulted in materially lengthening list of friends and she had made was evidenced by the number of people who attended the funeral services at Central Union Church yesterday. The assembly was not one made up of curious ones, but of those who knew her in life.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 22, 1896)

She was initially embalmed and buried in a casket in the John Paty vault at O‘ahu Cemetery. The San Francisco Press Club set up ‘The Examiner Kate Field Memorial Fund’ to return her remains to the continent.

Later, “A small copper box containing the ashes was placed in a grave beside that of Miss Field’s mother. … There was no ceremony at the grave. … It is all over now. Kate Field has been interred in an unmarked grave” in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1897)

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Kate_Field

Kate_Field_with_signature,_1898

Kate_Field

Kate_Field,_1897

Kate Field-Hawn Gazette-May 22, 1896

Kate_Field-Stoddard

Kate Field headstone

Paty Vault-Hawn Gazette-May 22, 1896

May 17, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Belgian Company of Colonization

Peter Allan Brinsmade, 25, accompanied by his wife and child; William Ladd, 26, with his wife and child, and William Hooper, 24, single, arrived on Kauai on July 27, 1833, on the Brig Velocity. Brinsmade and Ladd were from Hallowell, Maine and Hooper from Boston, Massachusetts.

They started the firm Brinsmade, Ladd and Hooper; the name of the firm was changed in 1835 to Ladd & Company. On September 13, 1835, Ladd & Co., began the first major (and successful) Hawaiian sugar plantation.

In 1836, the Koloa Sugar Plantation consisted of 25 acres of sugar cane, 20 houses for laborers, 1 house for a superintendent, carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, mill dam, sugar house, boiling house, and the mill. (Ladd & Co)

They ran a sugar plantation for 12 years. In addition to the enterprise at Kōloa, Kauai, the company ran a profitable mercantile operation in Honolulu.

On November 24, 1841, Ladd and Company signed an agreement with the Hawaiian Kingdom. Then on May 17, 1843, an agreement was signed in the city of Brussels, in the kingdom of Belgium, between the Sandwich Islands Government, the Belgian Company of Colonization, and Ladd and Company.

The ‘Belgian Contract,’ signed in Brussels May 17, 1843, was a tripartite agreement between Kamehameha III (represented by Ha‘alilio and William Richards), Ladd and Company, and the Belgian Company of Colonization.

Ladd and Company transferred all of their properties and rights in the Hawaiian islands to the Belgian Company of Colonization, and the latter company agreed to organize a subsidiary corporation, called the ‘Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands.’

Its intent was “to develop as promptly as possible, the civilization and resources of the Sandwich Islands, by creating agricultural, manufacturing and commercial establishments, and by instituting commercial relations between these Islands and Belgium.” (Kuykendall)

“It was really a gigantic sale of Ladd and Co.’s property, involving all concessions and privileges obtained by them, the price for which, taken in the contract, was $1,067,000, or £42,680.”

“The manner of proceeding was, the transfer by Brinsmade of all property material and immaterial which he had power to pass, together with rights and concessions over which Mr. Richards had power, to the Belgian Company of Colonisation.”

“The contract or treaty was tripartite, the three parties to it being the King of Hawaii, represented by Haalilio and Richards; the house of Ladd and Co., acting by Brinsmade; and the Belgian Company of Colonisation, by its deputies, the Count of Hompesch and M. Joseph Vanderburghen de Binckum.”

“The Colonisation Company was only instrumental in this transaction. Its office was to organise the ‘Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands’ and to transfer to that society, when formed, the property, rights, and titles which it was to possess.”

“The community was, however, on its European side, to remain under ‘the patronage and high administration of the Belgian Company of Colonisation;’ whilst in the scene of its activity, it would he under the patronage and protection of the Hawaiian king.”

“Four interests were to be created in the undertaking, namely, the King of Hawaii; the Belgian Colonisation Company; the Labourers and Employes; and the Stockholders. “

“The property acquired by the Belgian Colonisation Company was to be divided into 500 titles, 100 of which were to be given to the King of Hawaii, so that His Majesty would still possess a share of his own country.” (Hopkins)

“By the 28th article, ‘all persons, of whatever profession in the service of the community, and introduced into the islands under the auspices of the community, with the approbation of the King of the Sandwich Islands, shall receive in fee simple twenty hectares of land.’”

“By the 27th article, 100 titles were set apart to support schools for the children of the labourers, a health establishment, an orphanage, and pensions for impotent and superannuated employes.” (Hopkins)

On April 13, 1844, at Brussels, the “Statutes of the Royal Community of the Sandwich Islands” were signed by Haalilio, Richards, Brinsmade, and the president of the board of directors of the Belgian Company of Colonization. (Kuykendall)

“(T)he effect of which, had it actually become operative, would have been to have destroyed the independence of the islands and to have gradually vested all property in them in the proprietary of the Belgian Company.” (Hopkins)

“Ha‘alilio signed the contract with great reluctance, and the king and chiefs were highly displeased over its execution. This Belgian contract gave a great deal of trouble before it was finally discredited.” (Jarves)

“Fortunately for the people of Hawaii, this new South Sea scheme never went into operation.” (Hopkins)

“The first blow which fell on its promoters was the news of Lord George Paulet’s occupation of the islands; then came delays until October 1844, when some merchants wanted to re-construct the plan ‘as a purely commercial company.’”

Nothing, however, came of the last proposition. (Hopkins)

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Belgium Colonization Ambitions in Central America

May 16, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Married Women’s Property Bill

Lorrin A Thurston introduced the Married Women’s Property Bill in the 1886 legislature to reverse what he saw as a grave injustice in early Hawaiian law that gave all of a woman’s property to her husband on marriage. (Twigg-Smith)

The Bill stated, “The real and personal property of a woman shall, upon her marriage, remain her separate property”.

“Mr. Palohau said if the bill passed it would cause domestic trouble.”

Mr. Kaunamano moved the bill be indefinitely postponed. It makes the woman the head of the house, and that was contrary to holy writ. The man would have to take a back seat. The present law was definite, and was well understood. Why not let well enough alone.”

“Mr. Nahinu said he opposed the bill from beginning to end. This law sets aside the law of God. Woman was made for man, and not man for woman. If it got into effect it would break up families. …”

“Third reading of an Act relating to the property of married women. Mr. Kalua moved the bill pass.”

“Mr. Palohau thought the bill should be considered section by section. He did not approve of section 2, as it says that, ‘a married woman may make contracts, oral and written, sealed and unsealed, in the same manner as if she were sole.’”

“The Attorney General seemed to be looking at the speaker with some astonishment, but he did not understand Hawaiian women as well as the speaker did, or the Minister of Finance or the Interpreter.”

“Mr. Thurston said that when he introduced the bill he expected some of the members would be afraid of it, but he never expected that Mr. Palohau, the biggest member in the House, would be one of them. …”

“Mr. Thurston said that if the bill was properly understood there would be no objection. It was for the protection of every woman. It provides that a man going into business cannot use his wife’s property in that business.”

“Mr. Thurston then cited several cases that had come under his own personal notice, to show that this bill would be very effective.”

“Mr. Kauhane spoke in favor of the bill He thought it very good law.”

“Mr. Kaulukou thought perhaps that the members did not understand the bill, therefore he moved it be considered section by section. Agreed to.”

“Section 1. The real and personal property of a woman shall, upon her marriage, remain her separate property, free from the management, control, debts and obligations of her husband …”

“… and a married woman may receive, receipt for, hold, manage and dispose of property, real and personal, in the same manner as if she were sole.”

“On motion of His Excellency Mr. Dare, the section was passed.”

“Section 2. A married woman may make contracts, oral and written, sealed and unsealed, in the same manner as if she were sole, except that she shall not be authorized hereby to make contracts with her husband.”

“Mr. Kaai moved the section pass.”

“Mr. Kaunamano moved it be indefinitely postponed.”

“Mr. Kaai was in favor of the section. In justice to women, they should have some control of their own property.”

“Mr. Palohau moved to insert at the end of the section, ‘if the husband fails to provide for her or her family.’”

“Mr. Nahinu moved to strike out the words ‘in the same manner as if she were sole,’ and inert, ‘with the consent of her husband.’”

“Mr. Richardson moved the section pass as is the bill, he remembered a woman who owned some sugar land. Her husband sold it, and is now living with another woman in a foreign country, enjoying himself on the proceeds. Mr. Richardson also quoted other instances of a similar nature.”

“His Excellency Mr. Dare said it afforded him pleasure to be in accordance with Mr. Thurston. He (the speaker) signed the committee report to pass this bill.”

“He did so, believing the bill was in advance of the state of this community. Any temporary inconvenience that might attend the passage of such a law at this time would be more than compensated for in the future by the beneficent of the law.”

“They did not contemplate a reversal of things by this bill, but they did contemplate that the Hawaiian woman should take her place alongside of her sisters of the United States, England and other countries.”

“It was oftener the man than the woman who squanders the substance. This bill provides that if a man raises a family, and is saving, so as to be able to endow his daughter, and she should marry a spendthrift, the latter could not squander her money.”

“He believed the bill to be a wise one, and on the inarch to civilization, and it should be on the statute books of the Kingdom.”

“The motions to indefinitely postpone the section and the amendments were lost.”

“The section passed as in the bill.”

“Section 3. All work and labor performed or services rendered by a married woman for or to a person other than her husband and children shall, unless there is an express agreement on her part to the contrary, be presumed to be performed or rendered on her separate account.”

“On motion of Mr. Kaai the section passed.”

“Section 4. A married woman may be an executrix, administratrix, guardian or trustee, and may bind herself and the estate she represents without any act or assent on the part of her husband.”

“On motion of Mr. Dickey the section passed.”

“Mr. Kalua said that as the objections were confined to the first three sections, he moved the balance of the bill pass.”

“Mr. Dole said he had an amendment to make to section 7. He moved the words “her property shall immediately descend to her heirs as if she had died sole” be stricken out. The motion prevailed, and the section passed as amended.”

“The bill then passed as amended. (September 9, 1886)” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 10, 1886)

Present law is similar, “§572-25 Separate property. The real and personal property of a spouse, upon marriage, shall remain that spouse’s separate property, free from the management, control, debts, and obligations of the other spouse …”

“… and a spouse may receive, receipt for, hold, manage, and dispose of property, real and personal, in the same manner as if that spouse were sole.” (HRS)

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Hale_Pili-Kalihiwai-(ksbe)

May 15, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mahiole Pōheoheo

“In every day life the ancient Hawaiian trusted to the protection of his thick, coarse hair and wore no hat. When the conch-shell trumpet called to battle, however, the chiefs donned a head-covering both ornamental and useful.”

“While it was firm and thick enough to resist a severe blow, it was remarkable for beauty of form. … It was a custom to cut the hair close at the sides of the head leaving a ridge of stiff, erect hair, like a mane on the top of the scalp), and this mane-like ridge was called mahiole, the same name that was given to a helmet.”

“Originally this personal decoration was a mark of rank, but like all such exclusive tokens was in course of time seized by the aspiring democracy.”

“At the period when feather helmets were in vogue the mahiole was a token of chieftainship, and it covered by any cap, the latter would repeat the token. Hence the skullcap was supplemented by a ridge which often … became an imposing crest.” (Brigham)

The mahiole represented the political status of male chiefs who had various authority.

Mahiole were constructed of the aerial roots of the ʻieʻie vine, woven into a basketry frame. They were perfectly fitted to an individual, and protected the most sacred part of the body, the head.

A net of olonā fibers was laid over the framework, and feathers attached in bundles in the same way as for the cloaks. The featherwork starts from the bottom, so each new row conceals the quills of the feathers below. (Museum of New Zealand)

“It was probably the cherished armor of a king as noble as any of the Hawaiian line. and yet it is not all yellow, as one or two authors claim that the helmet of a king should always be: it is of red, as are the most of those which retain any of their original feathers, and not a single one of all is exclusively yellow.”

“It may seem strange that articles so highly valued should have so little history connected with them … it would add greatly to the interest which must ever attach to these beautiful examples of patient and long-continued work by a primitive people if we knew …”

“… what chief first ordered the construction, how long the hunters collected, how many years the deft fingers of the high chiefesses plaited the precious feathers into the network, what rejoicings at the completion of the long task, in what battle it first was worn, and then the changing ownership when murder, fraud, or theft transferred the garment …” (Brigham)

There are many different kinds of mahiole that can be seen today found in museums around the world from the mahiole haka (short crested helmet,) mahiole pōheoheo (knobbed helmet,) mahiole haka kahakaha (striped short crest helmet,) spoked crescent helmet and others.

The mahiole pōheoheo has mushroom-like ornaments on top, or which were decorated with human hair, were worn by warriors or lesser chiefs. (National Museum of Australia)

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