Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Eleventh Century

There was conflict in various parts of the world …

It was nearing the end of the Heian period in Japan. The battle of Kawasaki was the first major battle of the Early Nine Years’ War (Zenkunen War) (1051-1063.) (The fighting lasted for twelve years (or nine if you subtract short periods of ceasefire and peace.))

The war was fought between the forces of the powerful Abe clan of the far northeast of the main island of Honshū, led by Abe no Sadato, and those of the Minamoto clan, acting as agents of the Imperial Court, and led by Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and his son Yoshiie.

In 1062, Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, along with his son, led an assault on an Abe fortress on the Kuriyagawa. They diverted the water supply, stormed the earthworks and stockade, and set the fortress aflame. After two days of fighting, Sadato surrendered.

At about this time, the seiitaishogun or shōgun became de facto rulers of Japan through powerful regional clans with support from samurai (bushi) serving as the military nobility.

Europe was at war as well; on September 28, 1066, William (William the Conqueror) of Normandy (Northern France) landed in England on Britain’s southeast coast, with approximately 7,000 troops and cavalry.

He then marched to Hastings; on October 14, 1066 William defeated King Harold (England) at the Battle of Hastings. After further military efforts, William was crowned king (the first Norman King of England) on Christmas Day 1066.

At the end of the century, Europe saw the first of the Crusades, launched on November 27, 1095 by Pope Urban II; it was a military expedition by Roman Catholic Europe to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquests of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem in 1099. (Between 1095 and 1291 there were seven major crusades.)

Stuff was happening in the Pacific, as well.

Using stratigraphic archaeology and refinements in radiocarbon dating, recent studies suggest it was about this same time that “Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.” (Kirch)

“Most important from the perspective of Hawaiian settlement are the colonization dates for the Society Islands and the Marquesas, as these two archipelagoes have long been considered to be the immediate source regions for the first Polynesian voyagers to Hawai‘i. …”

“In sum, the southeastern archipelagoes and islands of Eastern Polynesia have a set of radiocarbon chronologies now converging on the period from AD 900–1000.” (Kirch)

Research indicates human colonization of Eastern Polynesia took place much faster and more recently than previously thought. Polynesian ancestors settled in Samoa around 800 BC, colonized the central Society Islands between AD 1025 and 1120 and dispersed to New Zealand, Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui and other locations between AD 1190 and 1290. (Hunt; PVS)

With improved radiocarbon dating techniques and equipment to more than 1,400-radiocarbon dated materials from 47 islands, the model considers factors such as when a tree died rather than just when the wood was burned and whether seeds were gnawed by rats, which were introduced by humans. (PVS)

“There is also no question that at least O‘ahu and Kauai islands were already well settled, with local populations established in several localities, by AD 1200.” (Kirch)

Late and rapid dispersals explain remarkable similarities in artifacts such as fishhooks, adzes and ornaments across the region. The condensed timeframe suggests assumptions about the rates of linguistic evolution and human impact on pristine island ecosystems also need to be revised. (PVS)

While Europeans were sailing close to the coastlines of continents before developing navigational instruments that would allow them to venture onto the open ocean, voyagers from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa began to settle islands in an ocean area of over 10 million square miles.

The settlement took a thousand years and involved finding and fixing in mind the position of islands, sometimes less than a mile in diameter on which the highest landmark was a coconut tree. By the time European explorers entered the Pacific Ocean in the 16th century almost all the habitable islands had been settled for hundreds of years.

The voyaging was all the more remarkable in that it was done in canoes built with tools of stone, bone and coral. The canoes were navigated without instruments by expert seafarers who depended on their observations of the ocean and sky and traditional knowledge of the patterns of nature for clues to the direction and location of islands. (Kawaharada; PVS)

The canoe hulls were dug out from tree trunks with adzes or made from planks sewn together with a cordage of coconut fiber twisted into strands and braided for strength. Cracks and seams were sealed with coconut fibers and sap from breadfruit or other trees.

An outrigger was attached to a single hull for greater stability on the ocean; two hulls were lashed together with crossbeams and a deck added between the hulls to create double canoes capable of voyaging long distances.

The canoes were paddled when there was no wind and sailed when there was; the sails were woven from coconut or pandanus leaves. These vessels were seaworthy enough to make voyages of over 2,000 miles along the longest sea roads of Polynesia, such as the one between Hawai‘i and Tahiti.

And though these double-hulled canoes had less carrying capacity than the broad-beamed ships of the European explorers, the Polynesian canoes were faster: one of Captain Cook’s crew estimated a Tongan canoe could sail “three miles to our two.”

By the time Europeans arrived in Hawai‘i in the 18th-century, voyaging between Hawai‘i and the rest of Polynesia had ceased for more than 400 years, perhaps the last voyager being Pā’ao or Moʻikeha in the 14th-century. The reason for the cessation of voyaging is not known.

However, after the 14th-century, the archaeological evidence reveals a dramatic expansion of population and food production in Hawai‘i. Perhaps the resources and energies of the Hawaiian people went into developing their ‘āina; and ties with families and gods on the islands to the south weakened. (Kawaharada; PVS) (Lots of information here from Kirch, Kawaharada and Polynesian Voyaging Society.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

American Postal Service

Benjamin Franklin and others in his era get lots of credit for the development of the American Postal Service; but, the early colonists should also be credited for the initial framework and early infrastructure for the system.

Early on, American colonists did not view an intercolonial mail system as a pressing need. The sparsely populated settlements along the Atlantic Coast corresponded more with England than with each other, and the few overland trails that existed did not encourage travel between the colonies. (Schurr)

That changed when England’s King Charles II wished his “American subjects to enter into a close correspondency with each other.” (Schurr)

A letter written in 1652, by Samuel Symonds of Ipswich, to John Winthrop, Jr., at Pequot, says: “I cannot say but its besides my intentions that I write not more frequently unto you; I can onely plead this for my excuse (soe farr as it will goe) … and the uncertainty when and how to convey letters.” (Woolley)

Until 1639 there is no trace of a postal system, but under the Massachusetts General Court Records, of that year (Nov. 5th), is the following entry:

“For preventing the miscarriage of letters, … It is ordered that notice bee given, that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from beyond the Seas, or are to be sent thither;”

“ … are to be brought unto him and he is to take care, that they bee delivered, or sent according to their directions and hee is alowed for every such letter 1d. and must answer all miscarriages through his owne neglect in this kind; provided that no man shall bee compelled to bring his letters thither except hee please.” (Woolley)

The Routing of the Boston Post Road – “Ouer land to Connectecott”

In the earliest days of the New England colonies, towns were surrounded by wilderness. The only roads emanated from the meetinghouse. To the extent the towns were connected, they were connected by Indian trails – a foot-and-a-half wide in some places, across surging rivers in others. (New England Historical Society)

It became apparent that a road was desperately needed between New York and Boston.

Francis Lovelace, is credited with developing what would later be called the Boston Post Road – that led to the first formal postal service. Francis was appointed Royal Governor of New York by the Duke of York. (Chris Stevenson)

Each November Native Americans would “pave” the paths by a process the Dutch termed “bush-burning.” Setting fire to bramble, twigs, and underbrush ensured the paths would not be unpassable.

In choosing his route, he relied on Indian trails: the so-called Connecticut Path running west from Boston and the Bay Path heading into Springfield.

The Colony also grew along these lines: Watertown residents followed the Connecticut Path to establish Sudbury (now Wayland), and Worcester emerged from a request for a town “in the roade way to Springfeild.”

Three decades after his trip, when Winthrop Jr. was governor of Connecticut, he was asked to chart the Colonial mail route between Boston and Manhattan. He used those Indian paths as his blueprint for what would become the Post Road. (The King’s Best Highway, Eric Jaffe)

There are actually three Boston Post Roads, all of which merge in New Haven.

The Upper Road, or the Old Boston Post Road, runs from Boston through Worcester, Springfield and Hartford.

The Lower Road heads south from Boston through Dedham and Providence, then runs along the coast of the Long Island Sound.

The Middle Road, less used than the others, leaves Boston through Dedham, Medway, Uxbridge, Douglas, Pomfret and Coventry to Hartford, then to New Haven through Wethersfield, Berlin, Meriden, Wallingford and North Haven.

Much of the Post Road is now U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 5, and U.S. Route 20. (New England Historical Society)

First Formal Mail Delivery System

Then, Winthrop’s son, John Winthrop the Younger (then Governor of Connecticut), and Francis Lovelace, Governor of New York formalized the first intercolonial postal system.

In December of 1672, they initiated a monthly post between New York and Boston, which Lovelace describes in a December 27, 1672 letter to Winthrop Jr,

“I herewith present you with 2 rarities, a pacquett of the latest intelligence I could meet withal, and a post … by the latter you will meet with a monthly fresh supply;”

“so that if it receive but the same ardent inclinations as first it hath from myself, by our monthly advisers all publique occurences may be transmitted between us, together with severall other great conveniencys of publique importance, consonant to the commands laid upon us by his sacred majestie, who strictly enjoins all his American subjects to enter into a close correspondency with each other …”

“this person that has undertaken the employment I conceaved most proper, being voted active, stout and indefatigable…. I have affixt an annuall sallery on him, which, together with the advantage of his letters and other small portable packes, may afford him a handsome livelyhood….”

“The maile has divers baggs, according to the towns the letters are designed to, which are all sealed up ’till their arrivement, with the seal of the secretarie’s office, whose care it is on Saturday night to seale them up.”

“Only by-letters are in an open bag, to dispense by the wayes….”

“I shall only beg of you your furtherance to so universall a good work; that is, to afford him directions where, and to whom to make his application to upon his arrival at Boston; as likewise to afford him what letters you can to establish him in that employment there.”

“It would be much advantageous to our designe, if in the intervall you discoursed with some of the most able woodmen, to make out the best and most facile way for a post, which in processe of tyme would be the king’s best highway; as likewise passages and accommodation at rivers, fords, or other necessary places.” (Woolley)

The First Mail Deliveries

The first postal run took approximately two to three weeks, as the rider – traveling 250 miles altogether along mostly desolate trails in the wilderness – made mail deliveries in such communities as New Haven, Hartford, Brookfield, Worcester, and Cambridge before finally reaching Boston. He and subsequent postal riders used axes to mark-up trees enroute to help guide others likewise delivering mail

The Boston Post Road was pivotal in more closely linking what had generally been isolated settlements in the northeastern region of the British colonies and paving the way for similar routes elsewhere along the eastern seaboard.

In the longer term, the segments that constituted the Boston Post Road evolved into several of the first major highways in the United States. (TransportationHistory-org)

Governor Lovelace found his “stout fellow, active and indefatigable” in Mathias Nicolls, whose departure from New York City on January 22, 1673 marked the first official post ride. Nicolls departed from the southern tip of Manhattan with explicit orders to stop at the home of John Winthrop Jr in Hartford en route to Boston for further instruction and to switch horses. (Jaffee and HistoryBandits)

Along the way, the post rider would mark trees to aid others using the path for their own travels. He would also scout good locations for inns and taverns along the way. Nicolls stored letters marked “post-paid” in separate saddlebags organized by destination.

At each stop, he would find the ideal place to deliver the mail while also informing locals of his estimated time of return. Nicolls arrived in Boston on February 11, 1673 before returning south to complete the second half of his journey. (HistoryBandits)

On the first Monday of every month, the postrider was to leave New York and return from Boston within the month.

The first mail was to leave New York on January 1, 1673. Lovelace waited, though, to send Winthrop the latest rumors about a convoy of Dutch warships. The postrider left on January 22, 1673. (New England Historical Society)

Boston Postal Road Mileage Markers

The New England Historical Society clarified that it is a myth that Benjamin Franklin either set out or ordered the Boston Post Road milestones.

Franklin is said to have measured the road himself with an odometer strapped onto his carriage wheel. One of Franklin’s granite milestones still survives on East Main Street – 33 miles from Boston.

The Historical Society says, “It never happened.”

In 1971, Leonard Labaree, editor of the Benjamin Franklin papers at Yale, set the record straight. Labaree wrote that after detailed study of the Franklin papers,

“Not one document in this very substantial mass of contemporary documents has been found to contain so much as a single reference to roadside milestones, erected by Franklin or by any other persons.”

Further, he wrote, Post Office officials had neither responsibility nor budget for building and maintaining roads, bridges, ferries and milestones. The editors of the Franklin papers concluded,

“Milestones were of no particular use to the postal service, for the postriders were thoroughly familiar with the roads they traveled.”

“The convenience of other travelers, on the other hand, was not the Post Office’s responsibility or concern. There seems to have been no good reason why Franklin should have spent time, energy, or Post Office money in erecting milestones, and…there is no documentary evidence that he ever did.”

It is not clear who put them there and when they did it. But many of them along the route continue to incorrectly reference Franklin.

Postal Service “Motto”

Oh, one more thing … the reputed Postal Service ‘Motto’ …

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Again, it is not so. The U.S. Postal Service has no official motto. (USPS)

Those words are engraved on the front of the James A. Farley Post Office in NYC, set in stone by the architectural firm that built it.

William Mitchell Kendall was one of the architects. Kendall, who frequently read classic Greek literature for pleasure. He selected a passage (translated by Professor George Herbert Palmer of Harvard University) from book 8, paragraph 98, of The Persian Wars by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (c 484–c 425 BCE). The Post Office Department agreed that Kendall’s slight modification of the original translation was suitable for the building, and approved it.

During the wars between the Greeks and Persians (500-449 B.C.), the Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers who served with great fidelity. Herodotus wrote (of the Persians),

“While Xerxes did thus, he sent a messenger to Persia with news of his present misfortune.”

“Now there is nothing mortal that accomplishes a course more swiftly than do these messengers, by the Persians’ skillful contrivance. It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey.”

“These are stopped neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed. “

“The first rider delivers his charge to the second, the second to the third, and thence it passes on from hand to hand, even as in the Greek torch-bearers’ race in honor of Hephaestus. This riding-post is called in Persia, angareion.” (Herodotus)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The First Filipino

 

The Philippines is an archipelago comprising of more than 7,100-islands.  It is thought that the earliest inhabitants of the islands arrived 40,000 years ago.  Folks from Borneo, Sumatra and Malaya migrated to the islands; the original people were ancestors of the people known today as Negritos or Aeta.

In the tenth century, Muslim traders came from Kalimantan (Indonesia.)  Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to visit the Islands, in his expedition around the world on behalf of Spain (1521.)

Other Spanish expeditions followed, including one from New Spain (Mexico) under López de Villalobos, who in 1543 named the islands ‘Las Islas Felipenas’ (Islands belonging to Philip,) for Felipe, the Prince of Asturias (Spain) (title given to the heir to the Spanish throne;) he later became Philip II of Spain.  (The name Philippines stuck.)

The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th-century and were under Spanish control for the next 330+ years.   Spanish called natives Indios.

Natives called themselves based on where they are geographically located, like Cebuanos of Cebu and Tagalog of Manila. The Philippine islands are scattered; there was no unity.  The reference of being a Filipino, back then, was more of a geographic name than united citizens of a nation.     (Abenaza)

Then, conflict arose – there was opposition to Spanish colonialism in the Islands.  In steps José Protacio Rizal.

According to historians, there was no ‘Filipino’ before Rizal.  Prior to Rizal people were simply protecting their territory, pushing their own personal interests. They were just people of their own lands. None of them fought for the Philippines, nor fought as Filipinos.  This is what makes Rizal the First Filipino. He was first in seeking unity in the Philippines.  (Abenaza)

Rizal was born on June 19, 1861, in the town of Calamba, Laguna. He was the seventh of 11 children (2 boys and 9 girls.) Both his parents were educated and belonged to distinguished families (his father was Filipino, his mother Chinese.)  (Montemayor)

In 1877, at the age of 16, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree with an average of “excellent” from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He passed the Surveyor’s examination on May 21, 1878 (but because of his age, 17, he was not granted license to practice the profession until December 30, 1881.)

In 1878, he enrolled in medicine at the University of Santo Tomas but had to stop in his studies when he felt that the Filipino students were being discriminated upon by their Dominican tutors. On May 3, 1882, he sailed for Spain where he continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid and received a degree in medicine.   (Montemayor)

In 1886, he studied at the University of Heidelberg and wrote his classic novel Noli me Tangere, which condemned the Catholic Church in the Philippines for its promotion of Spanish colonialism.

Immediately upon its publication, he became a target for the police who even shadowed him when he returned to the Philippines in 1887.  He wrote a second novel, El Filibusterismo (1891), and many articles in his support of Filipino nationalism and his crusade to include representatives from his homeland in the Spanish Cortes.  (LOC)

“During the years 1890-93, while traveling in the archipelago, I everywhere heard the mutterings that go before a storm. It was the old story: compulsory military service; taxes too heavy to be borne, and imprisonment or deportation with confiscation of property for those who could not pay them; no justice except for those who could afford to buy it …  these and a hundred other wrongs had goaded the natives and half-castes until they were stung to desperation.”  (Worchester; Anderson)

Dr. Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892 and created the La Liga Filipina, a political group that called for peaceful change for the islands. Implicated in the rebellion, he went into exile for four years.

Meanwhile, Katipunan (Supreme Select Association of the Sons of the People) became an offshoot of La Liga Filipina and things started to get rough.  Rizal quickly denounced the movement for independence when it became violent and revolutionary.

Although Rizal did not participate with Katipunan, in 1896, he was captured, convicted and executed by firing squad (December 30, 1896 – he was 35-years old.)

The insurrection continued for two years after his death; Spain fought to maintain its empire not just in the Philippines but also in Cuba and Puerto Rico.  In 1898, this led to the Spanish-American War, when the US officially entered the conflict by declaring war on Spain (with emphasis and concerns mostly directed at conflicts in Cuba, in their war for independence.)

William McKinley was US president and the causal event was the explosion of the battleship USS Maine in Havana Harbor, Cuba on February 15, 1898.  However, many in America suspected that the US had colonial aspirations of its own.  The Spanish‐American War ended 5-months after it began resulting in the US gaining the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Hawaiʻi.

After its defeat in the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded its longstanding colony of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris.

On February 4, 1899, just two days before the US Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out between American forces and Filipino nationalists who sought independence rather than a change in colonial rulers.

The ensuing Philippine-American War lasted three years, into the spring of 1902. President Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed a general amnesty and declared the conflict over on July 4, 1902, although minor uprisings and insurrections against American rule periodically occurred in the years that followed.  (State Department)

In 1907, the Philippines convened its first elected assembly, and in 1916, the Jones Act promised the nation eventual independence. The Philippine Islands became an autonomous commonwealth in 1935, and the US granted independence in 1946.  (State Department)

While it is not clear if Rizal ever made it to Hawaiʻi, here are some ties of these events to the Hawaiian Islands.

US foreign policy advocated the taking of the Caribbean Islands and the Philippine Islands for bases to protect US commerce.   Meanwhile, Hawai’i, had gained strategic importance because of its geographical position in the Pacific.  Honolulu served as a stopover point for the forces heading to the Philippines.

On August 12, 1898, the United States ratified the Hawaiʻi treaty of annexation.  At the time, there was no assigned garrison in the Islands until August 15, 1898, when soldiers landed in Honolulu for garrison duty.  They set up camp in the large infield of the one-mile race track at Kapiʻolani Park.

Their camp was named ‘Camp McKinley,’ in honor of the president.  Camp McKinley remained in existence until Fort Shafter was opened in late June, 1907.  The garrison was either artillery or coast artillery troops during this period.

In Hawaiʻi, shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge.  Of the large level of plantation worker immigration, the Chinese were the first (1852,) followed by the Japanese (1885,) then, the Filipinos (1906.)

After the turn of the century, the plantations started bringing in Filipinos.  Over the years in successive waves of immigration, the sugar planters brought to Hawaiʻi 46,000-Chinese, 180,000-Japanese, 126,000-Filipinos, as well as Portuguese, Puerto Ricans and other ethnic groups.

Comprising only 19-percent of the plantation workforce in 1917, the Filipinos jumped to 70-percent by 1930, replacing the Japanese, who had dwindled to 19-percent as the 1930s approached.  (Aquino)

To commemorate José Rizal, statues and monuments have been erected in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Friday

“This is the city, Los Angeles, California. I work here.  My name’s Friday. I carry a badge. …”  Dragnet, on radio (1949–1956) and television (1951–1959 & 1967–1970,) broadcast the adventures of Sergeant, later Lieutenant (then, back to Sergeant,) Joe Friday (portrayed by Jack Webb,) who carried badge 714.

Wait … although this is “Just the facts, Ma’am,” this story is not about that Joe Friday.

This is about a Hawaiian, Joe Pōʻalima (his last name translates to ‘fifth day, Friday,’) who was better known as Joe Friday.

Ok, let’s step back in time and move up the coast from our first Friday’s Pacific coast beat to a place just below the 49th parallel.

San Juan County in northwestern Washington is an archipelago of hundreds of islands, reefs and rocks between mainland Washington and Vancouver Island (accessible only by water or air.)  Around 20 islands are inhabited. The largest three – San Juan, Orcas and Lopez – contain most of the land area and nearly all the population.

San Juan Island is the second-largest and most populous of the San Juan Islands.  The name “San Juan” originates from the 1791 expedition of Francisco de Eliza, who named the archipelago Isla y Archiepelago de San Juan to honor his patron sponsor, Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo.

This is not to be confused with the Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) (named in 1787 by the maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, for Juan de Fuca, the Greek navigator who sailed in a Spanish expedition in 1592 to seek the fabled Strait of Anián.)

Strait of Juan de Fuca is about 95 miles long and is the Salish Sea outlet to the Pacific Ocean (going past San Juan Island.) The international boundary between Canada and the US runs down the center of the Strait (the rest of the US/Canadian border follows the 49th parallel.)

This area was the ancient home to the Northern Straits Salish, including the Lummi, Samish, Saanich and Songhees, who settled this place around 10,000-years ago.

The intersection of three waterways and sheltered harbors, prairie and woodlands with abundant food sources provided a seasonal home to its early occupants in winter villages of large cedar plank longhouses, who dispersed in the warmer months to fish, hunt and maintain and harvest shellfish beds and upland gardens.

Fast forward a bit … Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was a fur trading company that started in Canada in 1670; its first century of operation found HBC firmly-focused in a few forts and posts around the shores of James and Hudson Bays, Central Canada.

Fast forward 150-years more to 1821 … HBC merged with North West Company, its competitor; the resulting enterprise now spanned the continent – all the way to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day Washington, Oregon and British Columbia) and the North (Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.)

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska.  The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States.

Needing supplies on their journey, the traders soon realized they could economically barter for provisions in Hawai‘i; for instance any type of iron, a common nail, chisel or knife, could fetch far more fresh fruit meat and water than a large sum of money would in other ports.

On January 21, 1829 the Hudson’s Bay Company schooner ‘Cadboro’ arrived at Honolulu from Fort Vancouver with a small shipment of poles and sawn lumber.  The Company was attracted to Hawaiʻi not for furs but as a potential market for the products of the Company’s posts in the Pacific Northwest.

That first trip was intended to test the market for HBC’s primary products, salmon and lumber.  Another goal of the trip was to recruit Hawaiians for HBC operations on the Northwest Coast.  As early as 1811, HBC had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest.

A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England.)

The Hudson’s Bay Company claimed San Juan Island in 1845, building a salmon curing station there in 1850. Several years later, the company started a sheep farm.

“… (there) were Hawaiian people brought (to San Juan) by the Hudson Bay Company in the earlier days, when the Island was supposed to belong to Great Britain.  That company came across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, many years before, from Victoria, and stocked the Islands with sheep, and did trapping, fishing and hunting …” (Early Life on San Juan (1865-1881,) Firth)

That brings us to the second Joe Friday, mentioned above.

Joe Pōʻalima (his name was commonly spelled ‘Poalie’ on the continent) was born around 1830, on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.  At about the age of twelve, he ventured to the Pacific Northwest and was employed by the HBC (company records show he started working there in 1841.)

He was stationed at the company’s Cowlitz Farm, located on the Cowlitz River about halfway between the Columbia River and Puget Sound. He was a laborer and ‘middleman’ (the paddler in the middle of a canoe – a position tasked to those with strong arms and broad shoulders.)

He later transferred to other HBC posts: Fort Victoria, Columbia Charges and Fort Rupert (in between, he ventured back to Hawaiʻi a couple of times.)

In 1870, Friday married Mary Saaptenar of the Songhees tribe from Canada; to marry Mary, he converted to Catholicism, at which time he took the name “Peter” (Pierre.)

Later census records note Peter Friday living in San Juan County, Washington Territory.  The 1880 census shows a Peter Friday, age 50, with five children, the eldest of whom was called Joseph Friday, born around 1844.

Oh, one more thing about Friday … following a conflict and boundary dispute between the US and British/Canadians (the Pig War,) the Hudson Bay Company moved its operation.

“The Kanakas were all dismissed, some of them (settled) on the Island, but most of them went back to the British side of the Island called Saltspring Island.  The few that stayed on San Juan were those that had married Indian women, and had families.

“One in particular I remember quite well was old man Friday & his family, he had (settled) away out on the Island somewhere in early days perhaps at what is now called Friday Harbor, & later moved back in the Island.  Anyway, I have always heard that Friday Harbor was named after the old Kanaka …” (Early Life on San Juan (1865-1881,) Firth)

Joe (Peter) Friday died April 11, 1894.  Friday’s legacy lives on.  What was once known as “Friday’s Harbor,” today, the Port of Friday Harbor is the main commercial center for the San Juan Islands, and it is the county seat.  (Much of the information here is from reporting by Brenda Pratt.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Ah! What delicious-looking crabs you have here!”

So said the visitor to Ke Awa Lau o Puʻuloa – but he wasn’t speaking of crustaceans, he was speaking of the fishermen he saw as “fat crabs”, that is, a dainty morsel.

He was Mikololou, a man-eating shark from the Kaʻū district on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

He was part of a large company of sharks who came to visit from Hawaiʻi, Maui and Molokaʻi. Most of these had human relatives and were not desirous of eating human flesh, but among them were some who disregarded the relationship, and learned to like them.

The sharks had planned to make a circuit of the islands and perhaps later to visit Kahiki. They stopped at Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor.)

Kaʻahupahau, hearing those words, knew at once that some of the strangers were man-eaters. Guardians of the area, she and her brother Kahiʻuka went into action to protect the fishermen.

But Kaʻahupahau could not distinguish between the good and the bad sharks; she then she changed into the form of a great net and hemmed in her visitors while the fishermen who answered her signal came to destroy them.

Her brother Kahiʻuka struck at intruders with his tail, one side of which was larger than the other; the fishermen hauled in the nets to shore and Mikololou was cast upon the shore with the evil doers, where they were left to die of the intense heat.

All but Mikololou were soon dead; though his body died his head lived on and as the fishermen passed to and from their work, his eyes followed them and tears rolled down his face. At last his tongue fell out. Some children playing nearby found it. They picked it up and cast it into the sea.

Now Mikololou’s spirit had passed out of his head into his tongue and as soon as he felt the water again he became a whole shark. With a triumphant flop of his tail, he headed for home to join his friends again. When Kaʻahupahau saw him, it was too late to prevent his departure.

“Mikololou lived through his tongue,” or, as the Hawaiians say, “I ola o Mikololou i ka alelo.” This saying implies that however much trouble one may have, there is always a way of escape.

Kaʻahupahau lived in an underwater cave in Honouliuli lagoon (West Loch.) Kahiʻuka lived in an underwater cave off Mokuʻumeʻume (Ford Island) near Keanapuaʻa Point at the entrance of East Loch

Kaʻahupahau may mean “Well-cared for Feather Cloak” (the feather cloak was a symbol of royalty). Kahiʻuka means “Smiting Tail”; his shark tail was used to strike at enemy sharks; he also used his tail to strike fishermen as a warning that unfriendly sharks had entered Puʻuloa.

Such guardian sharks, which inhabited the coastlines of all the islands, were benevolent gods who were cared for and worshiped by the people and who aided fishermen, protected the life of the seas, and drove off man-eating sharks.

Pukui notes Kaʻahupahau in ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, No. 105: “Alahula o Puʻuloa, he alahele na Kaʻahupahau”: “Everywhere in Puʻuloa is the trail of Kaʻahupahau.”

“Said of a person who goes everywhere, looking, peering, seeing all, or of a person familiar with every nook and corner of a place.” Kaʻahupahau was noted for traveling about, vigilantly guarding her domain against man-eating invaders.

Puʻuloa also was home to Komoawa, (or Kamoawa,) a large shark who was Kaʻahupahau’s watcher. His cave, called Keaaliʻi, was at the entrance of Puʻuloa. (Thrum, Hawaii-edu) Kualiʻi guards the entrance to Pearl Harbor, while the home of Kaʻahupahau is deeper into Honouliuli lagoon.

Years later, the US Navy, having acquired Pearl Harbor, was working to expand the facilities. This included dredging the channel, adding a coal station and construction of a drydock.

“The dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel was begun long before the drydock was more than desultorily talked of – in 1900. It took many years to deepen, straighten and widen the channel into the lochs sufficiently for a man of war to enter.”

“But the work progressed steadily if slowly, and on December 14, 1911, the cruiser California steamed from Honolulu to the entrance to Pearl Harbor, and then, turning her gray nose inward, proceeded majestically through the still tortuous channel and dropped her anchor off the dry dock site.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

The drydock was to be the “Largest In (the) World – Less than a decade will have elapsed between the beginning of the great work and its completion.”

“And when the Pearl Harbor drydock is finished it will be the largest and the finest in the world, capable of accommodating any vessel now built or building, or that probably ever will be built by the United States.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

But, during construction, disaster occurred. “Much progress had at that time been made on the construction of the drydock, and success seemed assured. But the contractors had been having trouble with the bed of the drydock … it suddenly blew up with a tremendous explosion. No lives were lost, although there were several narrow escapes.”

“But the work of years had been wrecked … pressure had forced the bottom of the drydock up until it literally burst (on February 17, 1913.”) (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

“For a time it was feared that the entire project might have to be abandoned. But Uncle Sam’s engineers refused to be defeated by natural forces, and finally, after long experiment, mean were found for anchoring the bottom of the drydock.”

“Admiral Harris was one of the board that came to Hawaii to investigate the causes for the explosion and try to find a way of preventing future disasters of similar nature.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

They cannot say they were not forewarned. “While at work three Hawaiian fishermen come to where we were working, one of whom was aged, who asked me what we were doing there.

‘Digging a hole 50 feet deep’ was the reply. He then told me to move away from there; and when asked why, he said, ‘These places are tabu; they belong to shark god, name Kaʻahupahau.’” (Richards (a worker on the drydock project,) Navy-mil)

“The old man was watching my men working, and talking to them. Again he came over to me with tears in his eyes and asked me to quit digging ‘til my boss came. “I told him, I can’t do that.” They stayed there several hours, then he said to me that, ‘You people will be punished severely.’” (Richards, Navy-mil)

“Several years ago, some will remember, when work started on the Pearl Harbor naval dry dock, some of the Hawaiians said the location chosen would disturb a “shark god” who would be affronted and they prophesied dire disasters.”

“The work was started and there came a collapse. The forecasters of trouble were prophets. Changes were made in plans and locations.” (Maui News, June 9, 1922)

Merely a coincidence? Some think not.

One of the workers on the project noted, “As we went along pumping the water out of the dock, we pumped out five feet and cleaned the side and plastered and corked all the leak, 15 to 20 days and then pumped till we got to the bottom which was full of mud and in the middle of the dock where I went through a cave of nine feet diameter.”

“Mr. Hartman, assistant boss, found a backbone of a big shark, 14′ 4″ long. I came by where they were working when Mr. Hartman said to me, ‘You certainly got the shark. Here it is.’” (Richards, Navy-mil) (The Story of Mikololou is from Wiggins, Beckwith)

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