Peter T Young

October 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Dowsett Tract

Honolulu, by the end of the 19th century, was densely populated. Overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions were of great concern.

In part because of the 1900 plague and the Chinatown fire, residents began moving away from the city and into the surrounding valleys, wanting to escape from the overcrowded city into the quiet and serene rural areas.

With the introduction of the railway, trolley system, and the construction of new roads into the Honolulu area, transportation and accessibility into the city was made easier, thus affording residents with an easier commute.

There was a trolley that traveled from Waikiki into Manoa Valley along Oahu Avenue, and another that traveled along Nu‘uanu Avenue from town into the Nuuanu Valley. The introduction of automobiles, and construction of finished roadways also made travel easier.

Before the construction of the Pali Road, residents living on the windward side of Oahu would travel over the Ko‘olau Mountains by foot, along a treacherous path, to reach Honolulu.

In 1876, improvements were made to the trail to allow horses access to the trail as well. Regardless of these improvements, the trail was still quite dangerous, and took time to travel.

In 1897, plans for the construction of Pali Road were initiated. Engineered by Johnny Wilson and Lou Whitehouse, after its completion, it was considered one of Oahu’s major roadways.

Pali Road, connecting with Nuʻuanu Avenue (the present Pali Highway), officially connected the windward side of the island with downtown Honolulu. The development of this road allowed for greater accessibility into the valley.

In order to support the growing populations in dense areas in Honolulu, reservoirs and sophisticated systems were developed to collect and transport water to these areas.

By 1890, there were already two reservoirs in place in Nuʻuanu Valley, and a third one was under construction. Plans for a fourth reservoir was underway after the 1891 drought, and construction on this reservoir began in 1905.

With the area’s water system development, it supported the lifestyles of those living in the valley area. This area was one of the first on O‘ahu to be developed as a residential subdivision. It was called the Dowsett Tract.

The Dowsett Tract was named after the family that once owned the land. James Isaac Dowsett was born to Samuel James Dowsett (born in Rochester, Kent, England 1794 – lost at sea in 1834) and Mary Bishop Dowsett (Rochester, Kent, England; 1808 – 1860) in Honolulu, December 15, 1829.

Samuel and Mary married in Australia. A ship captain, Samuel did shipping business in Australia and was into whaling. Samuel first arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1822 when he was first officer of the “Mermaid,” accompanying the “Prince Regent,” a gift-ship from King George IV of England to King Kamehameha I, promised to the King by George Vancouver.

Samuel returned with his wife on July 17, 1828, arriving on the brig Wellington; they set up their home in Hawaiʻi at that time. Samuel and Mary had 4 children, James, Samuel Henry, Elizabeth Jane and Deborah Melville. James Isaac Dowsett was the first non-missionary white child to be born in Hawai‘i.

With his father’s disappearance, James Dowsett started working from the young age of twelve, and had a strong work ethic that would help him become a successful businessman.

He was active in the whaling and lumber industry, owned a fleet of boats that operated between the islands, and had extensive ranching investments. In his youth, Dowsett was a playmate of Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and Lunalilo.

Dowsett married Annie Green Ragsdale of Honolulu, and together they had thirteen children. “He was a quick thinker and an excellent reasoner and while not a talkative man was always willing to supply any information from his great storehouse that might be useful to another or that might interest an inquirer.”

“He knew the town, the people and the country. He never left the Islands but once in his whole life and then four days in San Francisco was enough of life in foreign parts. He was a perfect encyclopedia of history and biography not only of Honolulu and Oahu, but of the entire group.”

“The common suggestion to one in search of obscure historical data was to go to Mr. Dowsett and he never failed. He could always supply day and date and all required details.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Dowsett took on Chung Kun Ai as his protégé, allowing Ai to use a portion of his warehouse, and Ai started importing cigars, tea, peanut oil, shoe nails and other items. Ai and others later started City Mill, a rice milling and lumber importing business in Chinatown, Honolulu. The City Mill building on Nimitz was dedicated to Dowsett.

“Dowsett saw the grass hut replaced by the stone business block and the taro patch filled up for mansion site. He saw the little paths become fine streets and the broad and barren plains thickly populated districts. He saw the life of a nation change. … Through all this he was a close observer and always on the side of what was right and just.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Dowsett died on June 14, 1898; “news of the death of Mr. Dowsett had been sent all over the Island and the Hawaiians in large numbers joined the throng of haoles calling to pay respects and offer consolation.”

“The older Hawaiians could not restrain themselves at all and gave vent to floods of tears and to strange wailings. They were overpowered and overcome by the thought that no more would they have the friendly greeting, the certain and reliable advice or the material assistance of the one who had been their reliance at all times and upon all occasions for so many years.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

After his death in 1899, James Dowsett’s heirs formed The Dowsett Company, Ltd. to help manage his extensive Hawaii property, including Dowsett Tract.

The Dowsett Tract was 273 acres of land in Nuʻuanu Valley. On October 4, 1912, the Dowsett Company subdivided the property into two lots (A and B). In June of 1916 – September 1916, the property was subdivided into 57 lots.

The Niniko ʻauwai runs through the development, providing fresh drinking water for virtually every land parcel contained within the triangular portion of land bounded by Nuʻuanu Avenue, Dowsett Avenue and Alika Avenue. Dowsett Avenue and Ragsdale Place in Dowsett Tract and Highlands in Nuʻuanu are named after James and Annie.

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Oahu_Country_Club-from_Alewa-(GaryWild)-1919-Dowsett Tract

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Nuuanu Valley, Honolulu, Hawaii, circa 1900

Nuuanu_Valley_1929

Nuuanu_Valley-Aviation Day formation over Oahu-(hawaii-gov)-December 17, 1934

Nuuanu_Homes-Monsarrat-(portion)-1920

October 2, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The King’s Cape

“Centuries ago, when the rest of the world went to battle in iron clothing, the great seven-foot warriors of Hawaii donned gay war capes, fashioned of thousands of colorful feathers.”

“The principal colors used were red and yellow. The more yellow, the higher the rank of the wearer. … The first kings maintained a corps of trained ‘birdmen’ who lived in the forests and hunted these creatures.”

“They learned to imitate the call of the male and thus lure the birds close to their hiding place where they previously ‘doctored’ a flower particularly delectable to the bird they wished to catch.”

“Then they waited until the bird thrust his bill into the flower … Then the birdmen carefully removed the desired feathers and released the bird.” (Oakland Tribune, July 21, 1929)

Hawaiian featherwork consists of leis (or strings of feathers worn in the hair or around the neck,) kāhili (plumes of feathers used as royal insignia,) ahuʻula (cloaks or capes,) mahiole (helmets,) images of the god Kūkaʻilimoku (war god of Kamehameha,) or mat-like objects and other temple objects.) (Brigham)

The ‘ahuʻula (cloak or cape) was durable and comparatively small in bulk. Olonā (a fiber) was universally the basis of the Hawaiian feather capes. The Hawaiian had not looms, so a fiber net was formed as the foundation of the cape.

It was a common custom to net bands of a width from 8 to 12 inches and this was cut and joined. Regular and irregular pieces were put together to form the cape. (Brigham)

Hawaiian feather capes and cloaks were constructed by tying bundles of small feathers, usually 6-10 per bundle, to a foundation of netting. The ‘ahu‘ula of Kamehameha consists of approximately 450,000 feathers. (Bishop Museum)

To fasten feathers to this net much finer thread, often single fibers, was used and the feather was bound by 2 or 3 turns of the thread on the shaft of the feather. On the reverse, the feather did not show.

As in medieval Europe the vanquished knight was despoiled of his armor by the victor, so the chief who killed or captured his enemy took as spoils his feather cloak, helmet or lei. Generous Hawaiian chiefs often gave ‘ahuʻula as token of their friendship. (Brigham)

During the British warship Calypso’s three-and-a-half-month stay in Hawai‘i beginning on Oct. 2, 1858, its surgeon, WH Sloggett, was presented with a royal feather shoulder cape by King Kamehameha IV in gratitude for medical service he’d rendered the seriously ill King. (Soboleski)

“Sir Arthur Sloggett, surgeon-general of the British Expeditionary Forces during the World War, has presented, through a nephew who resides in the islands, the cape of Kamehameha IV, given to Sloggett’s great grandfather by the monarch.” (Oakland Tribune, July 21, 1929)

On occasion, the ship would carry King Kamehameha IV and his retinue to Hawai‘i Island. Taking advantage of the presence of the surgeon, the King requested an examination by Sloggett.

Sloggett declined to accept a fee. He felt he already was paid by the Navy so he didn’t need to be paid by the King for doing his job. (Faye)

However, as a gift Kamehameha IV delivered to the Calypso on its departure an ‘ahuʻula (red and yellow feather cape.) He hung it at his home in England. The King also gave him a small portrait of Queen Emma. (Faye, KauaiGold)

The Sloggett cape measures 15.5 inches in depth, 33 inches across at its widest width, and is made of the yellow and black feathers of the ‘o‘o (a now extinct black bird with one yellow feather indigenous to Hawai‘i), with yellow used as the background and black as ornamentation.

‘I‘iwi (a scarlet honeycreeper also indigenous to Hawai‘i) feathers also appear as ornamentation, while a network of olona fiber, intricately knotted, forms the foundation. The cape’s outside surface gleams like satin and its texture is as smooth as velvet.

Dr. Sloggett took the cape home to England, where he framed and hung it upon a wall in his house. Then in 1926, his son, Sir Arthur Sloggett, removed it from the drawing-room wall of his home in England and gave it to his nephew, Grove Farm Plantation director Henry Digby Sloggett, who returned it to Hawai‘i.

Henry Digby Sloggett passed the cape on to his son, Richard Henry Sloggett Sr, and for a time it was on loan to Honolulu’s Bishop Museum. The Sloggett cape can now be seen in the Kaua‘i Museum. (Soboleski) (Lots of information here is from Chris Faye and Kauai Museum. The image shows the Kamehameha IV ahuʻula given to Sloggett. (Faye – Kauai Museum))

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October 1, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kuaiwi

Archeologists divide Pre-European Hawaiian agriculture into wetland, flood irrigated systems that were restricted to stream valleys and coastal plains of each island and dryland, rainfed systems that covered vast areas of relatively fertile soils on the younger islands.

Each agricultural system had its own pattern of social organization, and development of the dryland systems in particular led to consolidation of social control by the ruling chiefs. (Lincoln) Large scale dryland systems have been found in Kona, Kohala, Kaupo and Kalaupapa (and elsewhere.)

The Kona Field System was not brought to Kona as a fully developed system; but rather, it reflects a developmental adaptation to the area likely associated with the evolving sociopolitical structure and increasing population in Kona.

As population increased to AD 1650, these systems underwent both expansion (to the limits of suitable soil and rainfall conditions) and intensification (in cropping interval, labor input, construction of permanent field borders and animal husbandry.) (Kirch)

The Kona Field System was a nearly continuous series of agricultural fields stretching from the Kaū ahupua‘a (above what is now Kona Airport) in the north to Hoʻokena in the south. The fields cover approximately 34,350-acres across the slopes of Hualālai and Mauna Loa. (Rechtman)

Planting areas were divided by kuaiwi (one translation of the word kuaiwi is ‘backbone;) these are low stone mounds/walls, which may have also served as trails between cultivated areas.

Between the kuaiwi, other traditional Hawaiian planting features are present such as mounds, terraces, modified outcrops and platforms. (Dye)

Early explorers marveled at the size and fertility of Kona’s upland plantations. Archibald Menzies, a surgeon and naturalist who accompanied Vancouver to Kealakekua Bay in 1793, wrote: “As we advanced beyond the bread-fruit plantations, the country became more and more fertile, being in a high state of cultivation.”

“For several miles round us there was not a spot that would admit of it but what was with great labor and industry cleared of loose stones and planted with esculent (kalo, taro) roots or some useful vegetable or other.”

“In clearing the ground, the stones are heaped up in ridges (kuaiwi) between the little fields and planted on each side, either with a row of sugar cane or the sweet root (ti) of these islands … where they afterwards continue to grow in a wild state …”

“… so that even these stony, uncultivated banks are by this means made useful to proprietors, as well as ornamental to the fields they intersect.” (Menzies, 1793)

The Kona system developed into a highly diverse patchwork characterized by a matrix of agricultural practices overlaid onto a spectrum of lava flows of varying ages. (Lincoln)

The kuaiwi, wider than tall, are a series of closely-spaced parallel structures that are parallel to the mauka-makai slope and are intersected by shorter, perpendicular retaining cross-walls.

Kuaiwi extend for several hundred yards to more than a mile in length, so they were probably not the work of individual gardeners, but the result of broader, organized use.

The kuaiwi system is extensive, but is found only in association with fertile soils. Their age, extrapolated from radiocarbon dates of charcoal retrieved from under the structures, indicate fifteenth-to sixteenth-century construction. (Wozniak)

Agricultural fields are thus discernible by the rectangular pattern created by the kuaiwi and cross-walls. The construction of kuaiwi was likely a by-product of land clearing as rocks were removed to create planting areas. (Dye)

The Kona Field System is generally considered a dryland complex, however, water control features, ʻauwai and modified waterholes, have been documented in areas where intermittent streams were present. (Rechtman)

This system is applicable to planting in a dry setting for several reasons: moisture – the kuaiwi are described as being very effective at catching morning dew; mulch – the kuaiwi were constructed using ‘waste’ rocks ranging in size from a pebble to the size of a fist, probably cleared from surrounding fields. (Gon)

We know that there is a very essential process of mulching in which the Hawaiians transferred leaf material from the kuaiwi to the fields. And it is very possible that the kuaiwi played a very essential role in managing the nutrient cycle within the Kona Field System and allowed the Hawaiians to sustain their agriculture over hundreds of years. (Lincoln)

Within the majority of the Kona Field System, the kuaiwi were planted with tall crops such as sugar cane and ti leaf while the cleared fields between the kuaiwi were growing the staple crops such as taro and sweet potato. (Lincoln)

The Kona Field System is without equal in Hawai‘i, and probably in the nation in terms of the extensiveness of a prehistoric modification of the land.

The system is so extensive that it cannot be seen in its entirety except from extremely high altitudes, but the physical remains are sufficiently well preserved and in such generally good condition that they may still be detected on the ground, although it is difficult to realize what is viewed is part of such a massive system.

The vastness and complexity of the system show excellent practical engineering and environmental knowledge of the ancient Hawaiians, as well as the highly evolved social organization which could coordinate the labors of a multitude of people to create and maintain such a system. (Newman)

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Kona Field System Walls – Google Earth

Kuaiwi-Lincoln-Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden

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Hawaii_Island-noting_Kona_and_Kohala_Field_Systems-Map

Kona_Field_System-Map

September 30, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Poni Mo‘i

‘Auhea wale ana ‘oe
Pua carnation ka‘u aloha
A ke lawe ‘ia ‘ala ‘oe
E ka makani pā kolonahe

Ke aloha kai hiki mai
Hō‘eha i ka pu‘uwai
Noho ‘oe a mana‘o mai
Ho‘i mai kāua e pili

Oh, thou fairest of all flowers
Sweet carnation I adore thee
Far from me thou art being borne, my love
By the soft and gentle zephyrs

Love for you is here with me
Filling my heart with pain
When you remember our love
Come back to be with me
(Charles E King, translated by Mary Pukui)

The original birthplace of the carnation is on the coast of the Mediterranean. The popularity of the flower goes back many centuries; the Romans were already making wreathes and fresh eau de toilette out of carnations. (Flower Council)

Later, Americans began to like the carnation … “So when (a florist) finds it necessary to his business to introduce a new ‘fashionable flower’ he takes care that it shall be very expensive and that his customers shall believe it to be very rare.”

“Such a flower is the carnation. It first leaped into prominence as a ‘florists’ flower’ nearly thirty years ago and its vogue at the time was greater even than that of the chrysanthemum in its best days.”

“One day everybody was wearing a rosebud, ten or Bon Selene, (the carnation craze succeeded the ‘Boston bud’ craze); the next day everybody was wearing a carnation.”

“And with a great many people it has remained in favor ever since. This is not only because of its beauty of form and color and its spicy fragrance. The carnation seems to have been especially designed by nature for a boutonniere.”

“It sets closely and neatly to the coat lapel, it keeps fresh and unfaded for a long time, it requires no pinning in place, and it never breaks from its stem”. (Democrat and Chronicle, New York, December 4, 1894)

“Chicago has a carnation day in honor of President McKinley, whose favorite flower was the carnation. Once a year Chicago government buildings bloom with carnations and the employees wear them.” (Hawaiian Star, February 27, 1908)

For years, McKinley had worn a ‘lucky’ red carnation on his lapel; but on September 6, 1901 he decided to gift it to a little girl at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Moments later, he was shot, and died 8-days later. (Kelly)

The carnation can be regularly seen in religious paintings, as a symbol of the Virgin Mary and as a symbol for the suffering of Christ. The Latin name for the carnation is Dianthus, derived from Dios (God) and anthos (flower) – divine flower. (Flower Council)

American Protestant missionary wives are credited with bringing the first carnations to the Islands in the mid-1800s. The first variety was a white, scented flower and it soon became the favorite for lei makers. Red carnations were introduced later. (Bird)

The Hawaiian name for carnation is poni mo‘i (that also means ‘coronation.’) The name is the result of the similarity between the words ‘carnation’ and ‘coronation.’

The major emphasis in the past has been on the production of carnations for lei flowers, and qualities demanded of cut flowers were generally ignored. Consequently, the types grown had small flowers, short stems, and bushy growths. (CTAHR)

Carnations were cultivated in the Koko Crater area on O‘ahu especially to meet the demands of the fast growing tourist industry. In 1900, gardens in Pauoa supplied lei sellers at the piers with carnations and other lei flowers.

Japanese and Korean farmers leased small parcels of land along Lunalilo Home Road and soon their ‘carnation plantations’ were familiar sights, likewise in Kaimuki and Palolo.

The white carnation lei is usually given to women and the red to the men: white being femininely pure and withdrawn – red representing masculine boldness, strength and power. (Ka Lei, Marie McDonald) Depending on the style and flower size, 50 to 100 flowers may be used.

Back in the 1950s-1970s, the fat, fragrant carnation lei was popular. Friends bestowed thick carnation lei at the airport gate, politicians regularly wore them and nightclub entertainers typically had a carnation lei.

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Eisenhower with red carnation lei-Dec 1952

Carnation Lei-1910s

Duke Kahanamoku-carnation

Martin Luther King in Hawaii-1959

Martin_Luther_King-others-wearing_lei_in_Selma

Frank Sinatra-carnation

Ernest Lovell, Royal Hawaiian Band member, and his nephew Dayton-PP-4-4-036-1935

Julia Niu entwining a carnation lei with maile-PP-33-10-007-1935

Jack_Lord-Carnation

McKinley wearing carnation

Carnation lei

Carnation lei-UH

Carnation-UH

Alfred Apaka-carnation

Andres sisters-carnation

September 29, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Lili‘uokalani to Remarry?

“There will be a marriage before long of two distinguished personages of widely separated islands in the vast Pacific ocean. One of these personages is former Queen Lili‘uokalani of Hawaii and the other is Paea Salman, prince of Tahiti.”

“When asked as to the truth of the report that he would soon claim the former Hawaiian queen as a bride a broad smile enveloped the features of the prince – it was a happy smile, and there was love in his eyes, too.”

“He hesitated a moment before replying, and his mind seemed during that brief period to be occupied with pleasant thoughts of the queen. He toyed with a piece of twine and, almost bashfully said, ‘Now, really, l don’t like to discuss the matter. It is not for me to say. Affairs of the heart are not for the public. Do you think so?’” (San Francisco Call, September 29, 1907)

Two days later, Lili‘uokalani’s response was “couched in the single, sniffy word ‘No’ and Queen Lil had not the grace to cable herself. It was signed by her secretary.” (San Francisco Call, October 1, 1907)

Whoa; let’s look back …

Alexander Ariipaea Salmon (sometimes Salman,) known as ‘Pa‘ea,’ was the son of the Jewish Englishman Alexander Salmon, or Solomon, who had been Secretary to Tahiti’s Queen Pomare. His was from a rich and influential Tahitian family.

His mother, the ari‘i Taimai, was a historic personality in her own right. His sister Marau was the current queen of Tahiti, wife of their cousin King Pomare v. (Fischer)

By all accounts he was sincere, dedicated, honest and keenly interested in the Rapanui people – although his main concern, as a businessman, was always turning a profit.

Because of his native English and Tahitian, was well as rudimentary Rapanui, he served as principal informant for the British and Germans in 1882 and for the Americans in 1886. Pa‘ea Salmon would remain on Rapanui for a full decade.

Salmon inherited his father’s business interests and became co-owner with Brander of the Maison Brander copra and coconut oil plantations in Tahiti, the Marquesas and the Cooks. (Fischer)

“Prince Salman is a remarkably large man. He stands six feet two inches ‘in his stockings’, and weighs 300 pounds, all of which lie carries splendidly. He stands erect as any soldier, and, notwithstanding his great bulk, gets about as actively as a healthy youth of 18.”

“At his Island home, far away in the south seas, the prince, who has an abundance of riches and who owns extensive lands, is most popular. He is known as a ‘good fellow’ and probably the most easy-going of all the big chieftains of the islands.” (San Francisco Call, September 29, 1907)

“(W)hen the same prince visited Honolulu many years ago he made a very fine impression on the royal family as well as on local society in general.”

“His portrait, still preserved among the royal household treasures, shows him as a fine specimen of manhood. He must now be well above middle age and, from all accounts, is well preserved as well as abundantly wealthy and much traveled.”

“All Honolulu will join in the wish that his much reported intention of visiting Queen Liliuokalani may prove real through his arrival at an early date.” (Advertiser, March 3, 1907)

“The incident that occasioned the Queen the most inconvenience was when the Mariposa, running between San Francisco and Papeete, put in here for fuel oil.”

“A young man close to the Washington Place household, amidst an exciting misapprehension before the Mariposa docked that the steamer had been chartered to land the prince here, sent a wireless telegram to Lahaina to Queen Liliuokalani then there informing her of the prince’s arrival as a fact. She hastened to Honolulu only to find that it was all a mistake.”

“When the Queen was first apprised of the intended visit of the prince she began to make elaborate preparations, with no stint of expense, for his entertainment.”

“Her Waikiki beach villa was renovated and repainted from top to bottom, as well as improvements to the grounds made, the cost amounting to two thousand dollars or more.”

“It was Lili‘uokalani’s purpose to place the whole establishment at the prince’s disposal throughout his sojourn, or, if he preferred, the entire second floor of Washington Place in town which was also especially prepared for the purpose. (Advertiser, March 3, 1907)

“… of the courtship of Prince Salmon. It will, we hope, point a vigorous moral lesson on the dangers of overconfidence, the premature announcement that you have a thing cinched, or, to draw upon the old fable, of counting chickens before they have emerged from the shell.”

“So Prince Salmon, not conceiving how the queen could refuse an honorable offer from himself, which in the uniting of South Sea blood would not be without its political significance, announced that he was going to Honolulu, not to propose marriage, but in fact to marry the Queen.”

“He said nothing about it to her … but merely made a bid for an invitation to her Honolulu home.” (Town Talk, San Francisco Daily Times, October 26, 1907)

“Investigation, however, showed her that the prince had nothing in his own right; that his expedition in search for a wife had been financed by his friends.”

“Fearing that their prince might die and leave none of his blood to perpetuate the traditions of the island’s ruling house, certain of the prince’s faithful subjects … have banded themselves together to furnish funds by which a matrimonial campaign might be launched and carried on by the fat princeling.”

“He abandoned his suit to win ex-Queen Liliuokalani and laid his plans to capture the heart and fortune of a daughter of the Golden West, living in Berkeley. These plans came to nothing, however, through the opposition of the parents of the young woman, and sorrowfully the prince had to report another failure. His backers became furious.”

“Then came the troubles which have of late been crowding the smile from the broad, brown countenance of his majesty. The prince had been spending the money of his leal subjects as a prince should …”

“… for dinners to prima donnas, entertainments to chorus girls by the chorus full, rental of automobiles at $5 an hour, the best of everything and lots of it. It was but the due of a scion of such an illustrious house. Only the crash was fearful when it did come.”

“Beginning with the cashing of a worthless check in payment for a dinner at the Cafe Francisco, the downfall of his royal highness has been swift.”

“Fleeing from this city to Oakland to escape the jail which the proprietor of the cafe vowed should be his, the prince sent a messenger back to the hotel to fetch his clothes. But the hotel clerk refused to permit the royal garments to be moved ‘until the prince paid his bill.’” (San Francisco Call, November 11, 1907)

Shortly after, the paper noted, “Royal Suitor Languishing in a Prison Cell … Tahitian Prince Who Would Marry Hawai‘i’s Queen Goes to Jail … (and) has been sued for hotel and automobile bills.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 22, 1907)

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