Peter T Young

July 9, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Landsman’ In the Navy

According to Stauder, “The documented facts concerning (Humehume’s) service in the American Navy – this service which should merit ‘a very peculiar claim upon the charity of Americans.’ – tell a far different story from that given in (various) accounts (including his letter home).”

Humehume, son of Kauai’s King Kaumuali‘i, was about six or seven years old when an American ship, the Hazard, under the command of Captain James Rowan, anchored at Waimea, Kauai.

Kaumuali‘i had early in his reign established friendly relationships with British and American sea captains. He was a genial and helpful ruler when ships called at Kauai for supplies.

He knew Captain Rowan from previous port calls and entrusted Humehume to Rowan’s care for the long voyage to America via the Orient. The Hazard sailed from Kauai in January 1804. (Spoehr)

The purpose of sending Humehume to America was either to enable George to receive a formal education, or as some believe, to avoid tensions on Kauai concerning succession to the kingship. King Kaumuali‘i provided Captain Rowan with about seven or eight thousand dollars to cover the cost of his son’s passage and the expenses of his education.

After about four years, Rowan was unable to care for George any longer and turned him over to Captain Samuel Cotting, a school keeper in Worcester. Cotting was Humehume’s preceptor for the next four years. When Cotting moved from Worcester to neighboring Fitchburg, he took Humehume with him. (Spoehr)

“I lived with (Cotting) till he became very poor, and I thought I would seek for my own living rather than to live with him, and I went to Boston”. (Humehume letter to Kaumuali‘i, October 19, 1816) Instead of returning to Hawai‘i, Humehume enlisted in the U.S. Navy and as ‘George Prince’. (Spoehr)

Humehume wrote to his father explaining (or embellishing) his service … “I shipped on board the Brig Enterprise in order to go and fight with the Englishmen. After I went on board I went to sea then, and I was about 30 days from land before we meet the enemis that we wear seeking after. We came to an Action in a few minutes after we hove in sight.”

“We fought with her abought an hour, and in the mean time, I was wounded in my right side with a boarding pike, which it pained me very much. It was the blessing of God that I was keept from Death. I ought to be thankful that I was preserved from Death. I am going to tell you more of my being in other parts of the world. I then was drafted on board of the US Ship Guerrier.”

“I went then to the Streats of Mediterranean. I had a very pleasant voyage up there, but was not there long before we fell in with the barbarous turks of Algiers.”

“But we come to an action in a few minutes, after we spied these people; we fought with them about three hours and took them and brought them up to the city of Algiers and then I came to Tripoly, and then I came to Naples, and from thence I came to Gibraltar and then I came back to America.” (Humehume letter to Kaumuali‘i, October 19, 1816)

However, Stauder notes, “The first battle in which George claimed participation was the engagement between the Enterprise (American) and the Boxer (British). This took place September 5, 1813 off Portland, Maine. The name ‘George Prince’ is not on the muster roll of the vessel, nor is it on the list of ten wounded.”

“(The) description of the action is not confirmed by official reports. George reported being at sea about thirty days from land before the enemy was encountered, engaging in action a few minutes after sighting, and being wounded in his right side with a boarding pike.”

“The surviving senior officer of the Enterprise, Edward R McCall, reported that the vessel left Portsmouth on Sept. 1, 1813, and on the morning of Sept. 5 sighted the Boxer. At three pm, after reconnoitering, the Enterprise ran down with intent to bring to close action. At twenty minutes after 3 pm, when within half pistol shot, the firing commenced from both vessels.”

“It was ‘warmly kept up’ and about 4 pm the Boxer surrendered; she was a wreck. The Enterprise escorted the Boxer into the Portland harbor. The crew of neither ship boarded the other during the battle.”

“The name ‘George Prince’ does appear on the Enterprise muster roll, but not until June 19, 1815, at Boston, almost two years after the battle in which he claimed to have taken part. He was No. 68 on the roll and signed on as a ‘landsman.’”

(A landsman was the lowest rank and given to recruits with no experience at sea. They performed the dirtiest, heaviest, and most menial tasks, and endured the harassment of their more seasoned shipmates. With at least three years’ experience, or upon re–enlisting, a Landsman could be promoted to Ordinary Seaman. (Williams))

“At this time Commander William Bainbridge was fitting out a naval squadron to attack the Algerian pirates in the Mediterranean; the Enterprise was one of the ships in his squadron.”

“It sailed from Boston, July 3, 1815, and arrived in the Mediterranean after Decator’s squadron, with the Guerriere as flagship, had defeated the enemy. Again, George missed the battle.”

“The Enterprise visited a number of Mediterranean ports in a show of strength and returned to America, arriving at Newport, November 15, 1815. The Guerriere had arrived at New York, November 12, 1815. George transferred to the Guerriere in New York December 12, 1815, muster roll No. 944, still a ‘landsman.’”

“About two months later, he transferred to the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Mass., muster roll No. 367 and is listed as No. 449 on March 14, 1816. George was on board both vessels but not at the time they engaged in battle. His discharge is dated September 27, 1816, still a ‘landsman.’” (Stauder)

George was now about 18 years old. By this time there were several Hawaiian youths in New England who had arrived out of curiosity or a thirst for adventure and knowledge. (Spoehr) On October 23, 1819, he returned to the Islands on the Thaddeus with the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries.

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July 8, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Dominis Aimoku

“John (Dominis) was, to use a euphemism, rather irregular as a husband – as many husbands in my experience are. He was fond of society, sometimes took more liquor than was good for him, and occasionally (although he never kept a regular mistress) had some love adventures.”

“In this small community they were reported to his wife, and I can vouch to how she suffered by it. She was exceedingly fond and jealous of him. But, like most unfaithful husbands, he would not have for one moment shut his eyes on even any sign of unfaithfulness on the part of his wife.”

“As long as he was alive, any one slandering his wife would have, I assure you, been severely punished.” (Trousseau, Blount Report)

“In November of 1882, Dr. Trousseau had the unpleasant duty of telling Lili‘uokalani that John Owen Dominis was about to have an illegitimate child born to a young half-Hawaiian woman”.

“This young woman was a retainer of Lili‘uokalani’s; a part of her ‘family’; she was also, however, officially married to a young Hawaiian by the name of John Lamiki Aimoku.” (Kelley)

“On January 9, 1883, a child was born in the household of Lili‘uokalani at Waikiki. The mother gave her child in Hawai’ian fashion in hānai to its maternal grandmother, Mary Purdy (Pahau), who was at the time 53 years old.”

“She claimed him as her own, (however) Princess Lili‘uokalani took over his support … (S)he followed the letter of law … that a child born out of wedlock took the legal surname of his mother, Aimoku. … Thus John Dominis Aimoku came into being.”

“In 1910, at the age of 27, young John told Lili‘uokalani that he was in love with Sybil McInerny, the daughter of a prominent Honolulu merchant, and wanted to marry her.”

“Upon hearing that news, Liliu‘okalani decided to officially adopt him and change his name to John Aimoku Dominis. She did so that May, 19 years after her husband’s death.” (Tsutsumi)

In Lili‘uokalani’s will, she left “For John Dominis Aimoku, the premises known as “Washington Place”, with the appurtenances, on Beretania Street, in Honolulu, for his lifetime …”

“… and on his death to the lawfully begotten heirs of his body during their lifetime (or so long after the death of said John Dominis Aimoku as the law will permit, with reversion then to the Trustees).” (Liliuokalani’s Will)

“John Aimoku Dominis, a ward of Queen Liliʻuokalani and one of the trustees of the Liliʻuokalani Trust, died on Saturday afternoon (July 8, 1917) after a long Illness and on Sunday the remains were cremated.”

“Following a long illness which developed into a condition which had been regarded hopeless for several days, Mr. Dominis died shortly before midnight on Saturday night at the McInerny residence at Kahala.”

“Mr. Dominis was 34 years of age. He was adopted by the queen … and for a Jong time was under the immediate care of Mrs Paakaiulaula Bush. He received his education In Iolani College.”

“For nearly five years Mr Dominis was a circuit court clerk, being assistant to Clerk Henry Smith in the main office. After leaving, this position he entered, the insurance business in which he continued until ill health necessitated his giving it up.” (Honolulu Star Bulletin, July 9, 1917)

Later, the Territorial Legislature noted, “those certain premises in the city of Honolulu known as Washington Place have for almost three-quarters of a century been associated and identified with the government of Hawaii”.

“Prince Jonah Kūhio Kalaniana‘ole has indicated his earnest desire that Washington Place should be acquired by the Territory of Hawaii as an executive mansion for its Governor, thus preserving to posterity the said Washington Place as a memorial to the late Queen Liliuokalani”.

“Prince Jonah Kūhio Kalaniana‘ole and the Trustees of the Liliuokalani Trust have agreed that the said Washington Place should be conveyed to the Territory of Hawaii for a price not to exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00), upon the condition that the Territory shall also, at the same time, acquire the life interest or right of occupancy of the heirs of John Dominis Aimoku”.

“The said premises known as Washington Place, when so acquired, shall be and are hereby set apart for use exclusively as an executive mansion for the governor of Hawai‘i.” (Act 229, approved April 39, 1919)

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Liliuokalani_and_hanai_sons_ Joseph Kaiponohea ʻAeʻa (left) and John Aimoku Dominis (right) with_group_(PP-98-13-013)

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Liliuokalani_and_her_grandchildren

Liliuokalani_with_her_grandchildren

July 7, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Staple Food

The food plants of Hawaiʻi can be divided into three groups: those known as staple foods (the principal starchy foods – kalo (taro,) ʻuala (sweet potato,) ʻulu (breadfruit,) etc;) those of less importance (to add nutrients and variety to the diet;) and those known as famine foods. (Krauss)

According to the theory underlying Hawaiian natural philosophy, all natural phenomena, objects and creatures, were bodily forms assumed by nature gods or nature spirits.

Thus, rain clouds, hogs, gourds, and sweet potatoes were ‘bodies’ of the god Lono. Taro, sugar cane, and bamboo were bodies of the god Kāne.

Bananas, squid, and some other forms of marine life were bodies of Kanaloa. The coconut, breadfruit, and various forest trees were bodies of Kū.

Wherever it was possible to grow taro, even though it necessitated complex arrangements, Polynesians did so, for taro was the basic – the original – staple of life for these people.

So far as the Hawaiians were concerned, the place of the taro in the diet, in the horticulture, and in mythology, makes this evident.

Taro as the staff of life, the land which provided subsistence, the people who dwelt on it, the ritual and festival in honor of the rain god, the role and place of fresh water upon which the life of food plants depended, the dedication of boy children to the gods of food production and procreation-these provided the basic patterns of Hawaiian culture.

The fundamental patterns of this culture were determined by the habits of growth and cultivation of taro. The terms used to describe the human family had reference to the growth of the taro plant: ‘aha, the taro sprout, became ‘ohana, the human extended family.

Taro, which grew along streams and later in irrigated areas, was the food staple for Hawaii, and its life and productivity depended primarily upon water.

The fundamental conception of property and law was therefore based upon water rights rather than land use and possession. Actually, there was no conception of ownership of water or land, but only of the use of water and land.

The term for land had reference to subsistence: ‘āina, ‘ai to feed, with the substantive suffix na. The people who dwelt or subsisted on the land were the ma-ka-‘ai-na-na, ‘upon-the-landers.’ And a native in his homeland was a ‘child of the land,’ kama-‘āina.

The fundamental unit of territory was the ahupua‘a, so called because its boundary was marked by an altar, ahu, dedicated to the rain god Lono, symbolized by a carved representation of the head of a hog, pua‘a, which was a form of Lono, the rain god and patron of agriculture.

Although women cultivated small sweet-potato patches by the shore and in the vicinity of dwellings, farming was essentially men’s work.

With their digging sticks they prepared land for cultivation, excavated and constructed ditches and lo’i (irrigated terraces) for wet taro, and cleared land on the slopes and in the upland where dry taro was planted along with sweet potato, breadfruit, banana, and sugar cane.

The breadfruit is another of the Polynesian staples that was brought from Malaysia into Polynesia. There is reason to believe that breadfruit may not have come into Polynesia until as late as the 14th century, and that the Marquesas was undoubtedly the center into which it was first introduced and from which it was disseminated.

Breadfruit is spoken of as ‘ai kameha‘i, meaning that it is a food (‘ai) that simply reproduces itself ‘by the will of the gods,’ that is, by sprouting. It is not planted by means of seeds or slips.

Of the four larger islands, Oahu and Kauai had the greatest taro acreage available and in production; and Hawaii came third in taro production, most of it mulched or forest grown. Maui produced the least taro.

In sweet-potato production it probably equaled Hawaii and outproduced Oahu and Kauai. Of breadfruit, Hawaii probably produced most, Kauai came second, Maui third, and Oahu fourth. (Richard Bordner dissertation)

Taken altogether in terms of areas cultivated and number of communities, Maui certainly ranked last. In comparison with the other islands, it must have had a smaller population. (Most here is from Handy, Handy & Pukui.)

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Planter-Herb Kane

July 4, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Independence Day

“(O)n the Fourth of July 1814, there were moored in the quiet and newly discovered harbor of Honolulu, three American merchant ships, engaged in the north-west trade, the Isabella … the O Kane … and the Albatross ….”

“King Kamehameha I, who, in his royal double canoes, each seventy-live feet in length, manned by two hundred brawny arms, always first boarded each vessel, and taking command, brought her within the harbor.”

“In the afternoon, a royal banquet was prepared, such as the days of Kamehameha I only witnessed, and mats and tables spread on the open plain, just in rear of the Catholic Church lot” …”

… (at that time “from where Nuʻuanu street now is, towards the Palace, was then an open plain, without a dwelling, the only houses were along the beach and up the valleys.”)

“His Majesty, the warm friend of the foreigner, had ordered his servants to prepare liberally for the feast, and the tables and mats were loaded with all that royal beneficence could provide. It was a grand day. …”

“Ten thousand natives crowded around to witness the feast. Such was the first 4th of July ever celebrated in the Hawaiian Kingdom.” (The Friend, August 19, 1856)

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Here are a couple myths about the 4th of July and the Declaration of Independence:

#1 Independence Was Declared on the Fourth of July

America’s independence was actually declared by the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776. The Lee Resolution, also known as the resolution of independence, …

… was an act of the Second Continental Congress declaring the United Colonies to be independent of the British Empire. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia first proposed it on June 7, 1776; it was formally approved on July 2, 1776.

So what happened on the Fourth? The document justifying the act of Congress – Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence – was adopted on the fourth, as is indicated on the document itself.

#2 The Declaration of Independence Was Signed July 4

Hanging in the grand Rotunda of the Capitol of the United States is a vast canvas painting by John Trumbull depicting the signing of the Declaration.

Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams wrote, years afterward, that the signing ceremony took place on July 4. When someone challenged Jefferson’s memory in the early 1800s Jefferson insisted he was right.

However, David McCullough remarks in his biography of Adams, “No such scene, with all the delegates present, ever occurred at Philadelphia.”

So when was it signed? Most delegates signed the document on August 2, when a clean copy was finally produced by Timothy Matlack, assistant to the secretary of Congress. Several did not sign until later. And their names were not released to the public until later still, January 1777.

American Revolutionary War

By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year.

That war lasted from April 19, 1775 (with the Battles of Lexington and Concord) to September 3, 1783 (with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.) It lasted 8 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 1 day …

… then, the sovereignty of the United States was recognized over the territory bounded roughly by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.

In the Islands at the Time

At the time of the American Revolutionary War, the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Shortly after Kalaniʻōpuʻū’s death in 1782, Kamehameha began his conquest to unify the islands under his rule. After several battles on several of the islands, and subsequent agreement with King Kaumualiʻi of Kauaʻi, Kamehameha became sole ruler of the Islands in 1810 (a couple years later, on the continent, the US and Britain engaged in the war of 1812.)

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July 3, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nu‘uanu – 1842

“On the morning of the 3d of March, 1841, (Sir George Simpson) started from Euston Square, by railway, for Liverpool, at a quarter past nine o’clock.” He embarked on a ‘Journey Round the World,’ including a stop in the Hawaiian Islands.

“As we edged away towards the south, the heat became more oppressive from day to day. The skies were usually a little overcast, coming down upon us now and then, with a flying shower; so that, even when our breeze was at its freshest, the air felt close and sultry. …”

“On the evening of the ninth of February (1842), we felt tolerably certain that the next day’s sun would find us within the visual range of Hawai‘i, though, as nothing but the clearest atmosphere could serve our purpose, we were rather likely than otherwise to be prevented from actually seeing it. In the morning, however, this last anticipation was agreeably disappointed. …”

“I accompanied my friend Mr. Pelly to his rural retreat in the valley of Nuanau. The change of temperature within a distance of four miles of gentle ascent was very remarkable, so that, at our journey’s end, we found a change from light grass clothing to warm pea-jackets highly acceptable.”

“Mr. Pelly’s residence was a snug little cottage, surrounded by a great variety of tropical plants, particularly by beds of pine-apples and miniature plantations of coffee.”

“In fact, the gardens of the residents generally contain rich displays of almost every flower and shrub under the sun, orange, lemon, citron, lime, pomegranate, fig, olive, gooseberry, strawberry, squash, melon, grape, guava, tomata, batata or love apple, yams, sweet potatoes, with many other fruits and all sorts of esculent vegetables.”

“To notice one or two of the rarer specimens, a very large variety of melon produces a most gorgeous flower, far more beautiful and elaborate than even the passiflora in Europe, and the papia causes so rapid a decomposition in meats …”

“… that the toughest beef or the most venerable of old cocks, if steeped in an infusion of the fruit or the stem of the plant, becomes, in a few hours, perfectly tender.”

“In addition to all that I have just enumerated, may be mentioned, the prickly pear, the oriental lilac, the date palm, the camphor tree, in short nearly all the plants of all the groups of Polynesia …”

“… and, in order, if possible, to extend the catalogue, Mr. Hopkins left in the hands of one of the most persevering horticulturists some seeds of the cherry and apple, which he had brought from England.”

“At the head of the valley, distant but a few miles from the house, a pali of 1,100 feet in height overhangs the windward side of the island. I had intended to ride to this precipice in the course of the afternoon, but was prevented by the heavy rain …”

“… our time, however, was spent very agreeably in receiving visits from many of the neighboring natives. Next morning, though the rain continued to fall as heavily as ever, and the clouds and mist were driving down the gorge before the trade-wind, I was trotting away at dawn in the very teeth of the storm.”

“The scenery of Nuanau is strikingly picturesque and romantic.”

“On looking downwards, the placid ocean breaking on the coral reefs that gird the island, the white houses of the town glancing in the sun, the ships lying at anchor in the harbor, while canoes and boats are flitting …”

“… as if in play, among them, form together a view which, in addition to its physical beauty, overwhelms one who looks back to the past, with a flood of moral associations.”

“In the opposite direction you discover a rugged glen, with blackened and broken mountains on either side, which are partially covered with low trees, while from crag to crag there leaps and bubbles many a stream, as if glad and eager to drop its fatness through its dependent aqueducts, on the parched plain below.”

“Nor is the view in this direction destitute, any more than the view in the other, of historical interest.”

“It was up this very pass that Kamehameha, after gaining … his last and greatest battle, chased with ‘his red pursuing spear’ the forces of Woahoo, and his own recreant followers who had joined them …”

“… till he drove them headlong, to the number of three hundred, ‘death in their front, destruction in their rear,’ down the almost perpendicular wall that terminates the valley.”

“On arriving at the pali, I saw, as it were, at my feet a champagne country, prettily dotted with villages, groves and plantations, while in the distance there lay, screened, however, by a curtain of vapors, the same ocean which I had so lately left behind me.”

“Though the wind, as it entered the gorge, blew in such gusts as almost prevented me from standing, yet I resolved to attempt the descent, which was known to be practicable for those who had not Kamehameha to hurry them.”

“I accordingly scrambled down, having, of course, dismounted, for some distance; but as the path was slippery from the wet, I was fain to retrace my steps before reaching the bottom.”

“In all weathers, however, the natives, when they are coming to market with pigs, vegetables, &c., are in the habit of safely ascending and descending the precipice with their loads.”

“While I was drenched on this excursion, the good folks of Honolulu were as dry and dusty as usual, the showers having merely peeped out of the valley to tantalize them.” (Simpson)

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