Peter T Young

September 21, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kapihe’s Prophecy

“When Kamehameha I was ruler over only Hawaii Island, and not all of the islands were his, and while the eating kapu was still enforced, and while he was living in Kohala, Kona, Hawaii, it was there that a certain man lived named Kapihe (also called Kamaloihi) and his god was called Kaonohiokala.” (Hoku o ka Pakipika, March 20, 1862)

“This man named Kapihe went before Kamehameha I and before the alii of Kona, and he said …”

E hui ana na aina
E iho mai ana ko ka lani
E pii aku ana ko lalo nei
E iho mai ana ke Akua ilalo nei
E kamailio kamailio pu ana me kanaka
E pii mai ana o wekea dek iluna
E ohi aku ana o Milu ilalo
E noho pu ana ke Akua me kanaka

The lands shall be united
What is heaven’s shall descend
What is earth’s shall ascend
God shall descend
And converse with mankind
Wakea shall ascend up above
Milu shall descend below
God shall live with mankind
(Kapihe; Velasco)

Spoken about three years before Christian missionaries arrived in the Hawaiian Islands with bibles and scriptures, the prophecy of Kapihe seemed to foretell the abolishment of the kapu and transformation to Christianity and westernization.

“The chiefs and commoners were astounded at these shocking words spoken by Kapihe, and they called him crazy. This perhaps is the truth, for some of his predictions came true and others were denied.” (Hoku o ka Pakipika, March 20, 1862)

“(I)t might be thought that Kapihe’s was a riddle and the land would not literally join together … Perhaps his words were not his alone, but from God.”

“Maybe … it was of Kapihe, the prophet of Hawaii; God gave the words for his mouth to speak, and Kapihe spoke what God of the heavens gave to us. And the nations of man joined as one, from America, and the other inhabited lands, they are here together with us. And the souls of the righteous are the same up above.”

“The alii of whom Kapihe predicted was Kamehameha I, who was victorious over Maui and Oahu, and Kauai was left, and his grandchildren now rule over his Kingdom. This is the nature of Kapihe’s words. (Kauakoiawe, Hoku o ka Pakipika, March 20, 1862)

The last High Priest under the old religion, Hewahewa, served as kahuna for both Kamehameha I and Liholiho (Kamehameha II.)

“He could not have known that, although the missionaries set sail on October 23rd (1819,) one day before the Makahiki began, they would take six months to arrive. Therefore, it was quite prophetic that, when he saw the missionaries’ ship off in the distance, he announced ‘The new God is coming.’ One must wonder how Hewahewa knew that this was the ship.” (Kikawa)

There were seven American couples sent by the ABCFM to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity in the Pioneer Company, led by Hiram Bingham.) The Prudential Committee of the ABCFM in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said: “Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love”

“Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high. You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.” (The Friend)

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived, Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished; through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho,) with encouragement by former Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother,) the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

In 1820, the American missionaries arrived at Kailua (Kona) Hawai`i. Hewahewa expressed “much satisfaction in meeting with a brother priest from America”, the Reverend Hiram Bingham.

Hewahewa, the highest religious expert of the kingdom, participated in the first discussions between missionaries and chiefs. He welcomed the new god as a hopeful solution to the current problems of Hawaiians and understood the Christian message largely in traditional terms. He envisioned a Hawaiian Christian community led by the land’s own religious experts. (Charlot)

“Hewahewa … expressed most unexpectedly his gratification on meeting us … On our being introduced to (Liholiho,) he, with a smile, gave us the customary ‘Aloha.’”

“As ambassadors of the King of Heaven … we made to him the offer of the Gospel of eternal life, and proposed to teach him and his people the written, life-giving Word of the God of Heaven. … and asked permission to settle in his country, for the purpose of teaching the nation Christianity, literature and the arts.” (Bingham)

Within a few years, “a number of serious men putting off their heathen habits, and willing to be known as seekers of the great salvation, and as, in some sense, pledged to one another to abstain from immoralities and to follow the teachings of the Word of God, united in an association for prayer and improvement similar to that formed by the females a month earlier.” (Bingham)

Hewahewa became a devout Christian and composed a prayer which antedated the use of The Lord’s Prayer in Hawaiʻi. In part, it spoke of ‘Jehovah, a visitor from the skies’ thus putting a name to the god whom Kapihe, before him, had predicted as “god will be in the heavens”. (HMHOF)

The image shows Hiram Bingham preaching to Queen Kaʻahumanu and or Hawaiians at Waimea, Oʻahu, home of Hewahewa.

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Hiram Bingham I preaching with Queen Kaahumanu at Waimea, in 1826, from his book A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands.

September 20, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

‘Aim High to Reach the Heaven’

“Hawaiian Birdman Wins His Pilot License.”

“There will soon be a new sound to mingle with the music of the plaintive ukuleles in Hawaiʻi. It will be the roar of an aeroplane motor, for Hawaiʻi now has its first and only aviator”.

“(H)e made his ‘solo’ flight (on October 2, 1916) for his official pilot’s license, which is issued by the Aero Club of America. The flight was successfully executed in every respect and he was given his diploma.” (Pilot Certificate Granted: No. 600) (Buffalo Evening News; Star Bulletin, October 20, 1916)

He “travelled 6,000-miles from Honolulu to make the necessary solo flight at the Curtiss training field, Buffalo, NY, recently. His name is Sen Yet Young.” (He was also known as Yang Xianyi.)

Born in the Islands (1891,) he studied and graduated from ʻIolani School and received his higher education at College of Hawaiʻi (later named University of Hawaiʻi) and Harry University of California, majoring in mechanical engineering.

After his graduation, he was enrolled at the Curtiss Aviation School in New York for further study of aircraft manufacturing and driving skills and got the pilot’s license (for land and seaplane.) (Zhongshan Municipal Government)

“As the only Hawaiian who has mastered the art of flight, he remained to study the mechanics of the aeroplane at the Curtiss factory, before returning to Honolulu, where he will have to act as his own mechanician.” (Popular Mechanics, February 1917)

“Air Pilot Young’s father (Yang Zhukun (aka Young Jeu Kwun & Young Ahin)) is the owner of a fish farm that is one of the attractions for visitors at Honolulu. He grows all sorts of fish that are common to those visitors. He also has 4 large sugar plantations and deals in real estate.”

“If there is one thing that Mr Young takes more pride in than his flying school diploma – which he traveled more than 6,000 miles to get, it is the fact that he is an American citizen.” (Buffalo Evening News; Star Bulleting, October 20, 1916)

While proud of his accomplishment of becoming Hawaiʻi’s first licensed flyer, it was subsequent actions that earned Sen Yet Young even higher honors.

Young’s father was a friend of Sun Yat-sen. As a youth, Young listened to Sun Yat-sen talk about the revolution in China and was impressed and decided to join. (Lum)

After a successful coup in 1911, Sun Yat-sen served as the provisional president of the Republic of China (January 1, 1912.) With varying changes in leadership, Sun Yat-sen and others sought national unity which could only be brought about by the abolishment of warlordism.

Shortly after attaining his pilot’s license, Sen Yet Young went to China and joined the Revolutionary Alliance.

In the revolutionary cause of overthrowing the Qing dynasty, Sun Yat-sen saw that the aircraft would become a new type of military weapon and be greatly helpful to the nation’s revolution. Seeing the lack of effective weapons, Sun Yat-sen coined the phrase, ‘Aviation saves the nation.’ (Pike)

In 1917, Sen Yet Young organized the airplane fleet, and went back to Guangzhou to support the campaign to protect the republic. He was appointed Captain of the airplane fleet by Sun Yat-sen.

A landmark event during this campaign was the first use of military air power by the fledgling Guangdong Air Force. On the night of the Mid-autumn Festival (September 26) in 1920, Sen Yet Young and another flew two planes over the warlord headquarters in Guangzhou and released three crude bombs.

The display of air power played a role in hastening warlord departure from Guangzhou by early October. As the warlord’s army retreated westward, Sun supporters pressed their air superiority by strafing from above.

Young later went to Hawaiʻi and the continental US to raise funds from the overseas Chinese and purchased 12 airplanes, including 4 donated by his father. He also actively campaigned for the Kuomintang and raised funds for flying lessons for the young Chinese he recruited. (Lai)

In December, he was commissioned by Sun Yat-sen as Head of Aviation Bureau and also the director of Guangdong Aircraft Manufactory in Guangzhou.

On July 1923, the factory made China’s first self-designed military airplane, named “Rosamonde,” after Sun Yat-sen’s wife’s (Soong Ching Ling) English name. (Zhongshan Municipal Government)

Sen Yet Young, with Chinese-built and foreign-built airplanes, helped the Nationalist government beat the warlords in the Kwantung province.

In order to destroy the Huizhou City Wall, he went to Meihu of Boluo to check bomb facilities, and died September 20, 1923 from an accidental explosion at the age of 32. (Zhongshan Municipal Government) The Kuomintang government later designated that date as Air Force Day. (Lai)

Sun Yat-sen (also known as Sun Wen) conferred on him posthumously the rank of general and also wrote a scroll, “To the family members of Yang Xian-yi; Aim High to Reach the Heaven; Sun Wen” (Lum)

Young (Yang Xianyi) is buried at Huanghuagang Mausoleum to commemorate the 72 martyrs who died in Guangzhou uprising on April 27, 1911. (It was later determined that there were 86 martyrs, including 30 who were overseas Chinese, including Yang Xianyi.) (72 Martyrs)

Sun Yat-sen called him, the ‘Father of China’s air force.’ (Lum) A middle school was named after him, the Xianyi Middle School, which was renamed No 2 Middle School during the “cultural revolution.” In 1980 the school won back its original name and Young’s son came over from the US to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony. (China Daily)

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1st Hawaii resident to earn a pilot’s license, stands with Chinese fliers & first airplane manufactured in China. The Honolulu born son of wealthy Chinese, Young soloed at Curtiss Flying School in Buffalo, NY on 10-2-1916. He later worked for Dr Sun Yat-Sen.

Yang_Xianyi

Rosamonde-first plane built in China

Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling-first plane manufactured in China – ‘Rosamonde’, named after Soong’s English name

Sen Yet Young Pilot License-October_4,_1916

Yang_Xianyi

Huanghuagang_Mausoleum_of_72_Martyrs

Huanghuagang_Mausoleum_of_72_Martyrs-1974

Young_Ahin

YangXianyi-Memorial

September 18, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Myles Yotaka Fukunaga

“The fates have decided so we have been given this privilege in writing you on this important matter. We presume you will be alarmed at first. Nevertheless we hope that you will get over this surprise soon and listen to the writers namely. What is it all about?”

“Your son has been kidnapped for ransom!” (Fukunaga; Sullivan; Cool)

Speculation ran rampant in the streets, but nearly everyone was convinced that it was a racial matter. It’s more than likely, they said among themselves, that the kidnapper is Japanese. Racial tensions began to heat up between the haoles and the Japanese. (Kawatachi)

“All Honolulu became a posse today seeking Gill Jamieson, 10, son of Frederick W Jamieson, vice president of the Hawaiian Trust Company, who was kidnapped yesterday and held for ransom of $10,000 under the threat of death.”

“Twenty thousand school children were released from their classes this afternoon to join in the search.” (Schenectady Gazette, September 20, 1928)

Here is what happened … “Under pretext that the boy’s mother had been injured in an accident, a man prevailed upon a teacher at the Punahou School to allow Gill to accompany him.” (Schenectady Gazette, September 20, 1928)

On Tuesday morning, September 18, 1928, Myles Yotaka Fukunaga, dressed as a hospital orderly, picked up Jamieson at Punahou School.

Earlier, school officials had received a call indicating that Jamieson’s mother had been injured in an auto accident and that an orderly was being sent to pick him up at school.

About one hour after picking him up, Fukunaga killed the boy, choking him to death after hitting him three times with a steel chisel. His body was left in a clearing of kiawe trees near the Ala Wai canal.

Fukunaga was born on February 4, 1909 in Makaweli, Kauai. He attended ʻEleʻele and Kapaʻa schools achieving the reputation as being very bright and eager to learn.

In 1924, when he was 15, Fukunaga and his family moved to Waialua. He attended Waialua Grammar School and graduated from eighth grade, top of his class. Eventually the Fukunagas moved to Honolulu.

To help pay the rent, Fukunaga and his father worked at the Queen’s Hospital as messenger and gardener, respectively. (Kawatachi)

While he was recovering from appendicitis and unable to work, his family was unable to pay its rent on the small house they occupied near the corner of Beretania and Alapai Streets.

A rent collector from the Hawaiian Trust Company visited the family in May 1928 demanding the immediate payment of $20 the family did not have and threatened to evict them.

Feeling somewhat responsible for the family’s plight, Fukunaga developed a scheme to kidnap Jamieson, partly in revenge against the Hawaiian Trust Company. (Niiya)

“After receiving a call at around 9:00 pm, the elder Jamieson followed the instructions in the note and brought the ransom money to the indicated contact point.”

“After turning over $4,000, Jamieson demanded to see his son before paying the rest of the money. The kidnapper agreed, but disappeared into the bushes and didn’t return.” (Niiya)

Fukunaga was apprehended a few days later coming out of a Fort Street adult establishment after the serial numbers on the ransom money were traced. He was arrested and later confessed to the murder. (Song)

Fukunaga was charged, convicted and sentenced to hang despite the fact that the entire trial lasted less than a week, his court-appointed attorneys called no witnesses on his behalf, and concerns about Fukunaga’s sanity were never resolved. (Nakamura)

“Executive clemency for Myles Fukunaga, convicted of murdering little Gil Jamieson, was asked of the Governor in a petition presented to him today by Robert Murakami, attorney for the condemned man.”

“Fukunaga was sentenced to hang for the kidnapping and murder of Jamieson. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which confirmed the verdict.”

“The petition asking for clemency was drawn up because many believed the youth to be insane. Insanity of the accused, however, was not established during the trial.” (San Jose News, November 9, 1929)

There was standing room only at Myles Fukunaga’s execution. (Theroux) He was hung at Oʻahu Prison on November 19, 1929, at 8:24 am. (Song)

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Myles Fukunaga

September 17, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Hiram Bingham: I – IV

Hiram Bingham I was born at Bennington, Vermont, October 30, 1789, in a family of thirteen children – seven sons and six daughters – of Calvin and Lydia Bingham. About the age of twenty-one, he united with the Congregational church in his native town in May, 1811.

He strongly felt it to be his duty to prepare for the Gospel ministry. He entered Middlebury College in 1813; was graduated at the same institution in 1816, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1819. (Congregational Quarterly, 1871)

On September 19 1819, Bingham was ordained in Goshen, Connecticut, site of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) school for Sandwich Islanders. That morning, he met Sybil Moseley; she had asked Bingham for directions and he offered to drive her there. Three weeks later, on October 11, 1819, the couple was married in Hartford, Connecticut. (Miller)

On October 23, 1819, Bingham led the Pioneer Company of ABCFM missionaries as they set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) These included two Ordained Preachers, Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived (April 1820,) Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished; through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho,) with encouragement by former Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother,) the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period,”) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

Bingham had seven children, including Sophia Moseley Bingham born 1820 (the first Caucasian girl born on Oʻahu;) Levi Parsons Bingham; Jeremiah Everts Bingham; Lucy Whiting Bingham; Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu Bingham, born 1829; Hiram Bingham II, born on August 16th, 1831; and Lydia Bingham, born 1834 (who later became principal of Kawaiahaʻo Seminary, forerunner to Mid-Pacific Institute.)

Hiram I’s position as trusted advisor to the King and the chiefs resulted in the gift of the land of Ka Punahou from Boki and Liliha (Kaʻahumanu is considered responsible for this gift.) While the land was given to the Binghams and they resided there, the land was held by the Sandwich Island Mission.

On account of the failing health of his wife, Sybil, Bingham was compelled to return to the US on August 3, 1840, after a period of about twenty-one years in the Islands. He continued in the service of the Board during the five following years, and did not until the end of that time wholly abandon the hope of returning to the mission. Sybil died at Easthampton, Massachusetts, February 27, 1848.

Bingham’s second marriage was in 1852, to Miss Naomi C Morse. Hiram I died at New Haven, Connecticut, November 11, 1869, at the age of eighty-one.

Hiram Bingham II was born in the Islands on August 16, 1831. At the age of ten, he and sisters Elizabeth Kaahumanu and Lydia were sent to the continent to attend school. Hiram II was enrolled at Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts and graduated from Yale University in 1853 and Andover Seminary (1856.)

Hiram II was ordained a Congregationalist minister in New Haven, Connecticut on November 9, 1856 and married Clara Brewster only nine days later. Like his father, he set sail less than two weeks later to begin his missionary career. He left Boston on December 2, 1856 on the brig Morning Star, arrived in Honolulu on April 24, 1857, then in the Gilbert Islands in November 1857.

The Gilbert Islands (named in 1820 after the British Captain Thomas Gilbert) are a group of 16-coral atolls and islands, that are part of Kiribati (‘Kiribati’” is the Kiribatese rendition of “Gilberts.”) Hiram II settled at Abaiang, just north of Tarawa.

Hiram II spent seven years in the Gilbert Islands, struggling against disease, hunger and hostile merchants. During that time he made few converts, about fifty in all, but learned the language and began translating the Bible into Gilbertese.

Due to ill health, he was forced to return to Honolulu in 1864. Except for occasional visits to the US and another short stay in the Gilberts (1873-75,) Hiram II spent the remainder of his life in Hawaiʻi where he translated of the entire Bible into Gilbertese.

Hiram II also wrote a Gilbertese hymn book, commentaries on the gospels and a Gilbertese-English dictionary. His wife published a book of Bible stories in Gilbertese. (Youngs)

From 1877 to 1880, Hiram II served as Secretary of the Hawaiian Board of Missions and in 1895, Yale University awarded him the Doctorate of Divinity. He died October 25, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Hiram Bingham III was born in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, to Hiram Bingham II; He was the grandson of Hiram Bingham I. He attended Punahou School and continued his studies at the Phillips Academy of Massachusetts, and then at Yale University, where he graduated in 1898; got a masters In History and Political Sciences from Berkeley and a PhD from Harvard in 1905.

In 1900 at the age of 25, Hiram III married Alfreda Mitchell, heiress of the Tiffany and Co fortune through her maternal grandfather Charles L. Tiffany. With this financial stability he was able to focus on his future explorations.

He taught history and politics at Harvard and then was a lecturer and subsequently professor in South American history at Yale University. In 1908, he served as delegate to the First Pan American Scientific Congress at Santiago, Chile. On his way home via Peru, a local prefect convinced him to visit the pre-Columbian city of Choquequirao.

Hiram III was not a trained archaeologist, but was thrilled by the prospect of unexplored cities. He returned to the Andes with the Yale Peruvian Expedition of 1911.

On July 24, 1911, Hiram III rediscovered the “Lost City” of Machu Picchu (which had been largely forgotten by everybody except the small number of people living in the immediate valley.)

His book “Lost City of the Incas” became a bestseller upon its publication in 1948; he also wrote “Across South America” (an account of his journey from Buenos Aires to Lima, with notes on Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru.)

Hiram III was elected governor of Connecticut in 1924; he was also a US Senator. Hiram III has been noted as a source of inspiration for the ‘Indiana Jones’ character.

Hiram (Harry) Bingham IV, born July 17, 1903, was one of seven sons of former Governor of Connecticut and US Senator Hiram Bingham III and his first wife, Alfreda Mitchell. He married Rose, they had eleven children: Rose Tiffany, Hiram Anthony, Thomas, John, David, Robert Kim, Maria Cecilia, Abigail, Margaret, Benjamin and William.

He was a US diplomat stationed in Marseilles, France during World War II when Germany was invading France. At great personal risk and against State Department orders, he (a Protestant Christian) used his government status to help over 2,500-Jewish people escape the Holocaust as they escaped Hitler’s occupied Europe from 1939-1941.

He organized clandestine rescue efforts and escapes, harbored many refugees at his diplomatic residence and issued “visas for life” and affidavits of eligibility for passage.

Hiram IV helped some of the most notable intellectuals and artists to escape, including Marc Chagall, (artist;) Leon Feuchtwanger, (author;) Golo Mann, (historian, son of Thomas Mann;) Hannah Arendt, (philosopher;) Max Ernst, (artist and poet;) and Dr. and Mrs. Otto Meyerhof, (Nobel Prize winning physicist.)

In 1998, Hiram IV was recognized as one of eleven diplomats who saved 200,000-lives from the Holocaust, which amounts to one-million descendants of survivors today.

He is the only US Diplomat who has been officially honored by the State of Israel as a “righteous diplomat.” He was the only American diplomat recognized during Israel’s 50th Anniversary at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

Sixty years after leaving the Foreign Service (in 2002,) the State Department posthumously recognized Bingham with the department’s American Foreign Service Association “Constructive Dissent” award.

In 2005, Bingham was posthumously given a letter of commendation from Israel’s Holocaust Museum. In 2006, a US commemorative postage stamp was issued in his honor. Hiram I is my great-great-great-grandfather.

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Hiram_Bingham_I-1852

Hiram_Bingham_II

Hiram_III_at_tent

Hiram (IV) circa 1980

Hiram_(I)_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819,_by_Samuel_F.B._Morse

Hiram Bingham II and Minerva Clara Brewster-1866

Hiram Bingham III and Alfreda Mitchell Bingham

Hiram (IV) and Rose Newlyweds-1934

September 13, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Laʻanui and Namahana

“I cannot die happy without making this reparation while the breath is in my body. Forgive me for the part I took in the wrongful measure.” (Namahana Kekuwai-Piia; Pratt)

Whoa … let’s look back.

“There were born to Nuhi and Kaohele first a daughter and then a son, the girl being named Kekaikuihala and the boy Laʻanui. Kamehameha, although fierce and cruel in war, was disposed to be conciliatory toward those he conquered, aiming to make amends in a measure for the wrongs he inflicted and to establish friendly relations with families to which he had brought misfortune.”

“He extended a welcoming hand and opened his heart to many, men and women alike, who flocked to his hospitable court. Alliances in this way were created, and one by one new homes spread over the lately deserted countryside once more, through the influence of which contentment was made to rule supreme in the land.”

“Among the visitors to the royal court was (Namahana) Kekuwai-Piia, who had just become a widow, coming as a guest of her sister, Queen Kaʻahumanu. Laʻanui was a boy growing to maturity.” (Pratt)

“The king had not forgotten the great wish of his heart, coveting possession of Waimea and hoping to gain it, if not in battle, through a matrimonial alliance. His failure to accomplish this end through Kaohele was a sting to the old warrior’s pride, and now he chose a new agent of his ambition by inviting Laʻanui to the court.”

“The invitation was gladly accepted and the visit lasted for months. Kamehameha was loath to have Laʻanui depart while he was slyly intriguing with Kaʻahumanu to negotiate a marriage between Piʻia and Laʻanui.”

“Piʻia is described as being a person heavily built and not prepossessing in appearance like her sisters Kaahumanu and Kaheiheimalie. When at last the proposition was put squarely to Laʻanui, that it was the united wish of the king and queen that the marriage should take place, for a moment he was dejected.”

“To wed a woman very many years his senior was not the desire of his heart. Yet realizing that it might be perilous to go contrary to the express desire of the powerful monarch he quietly consented ‘to take the bitter pill.’” (Pratt)

“The couple took up their residence at Waialua, permanently, upon one of the divisions of land which Piʻia had received as her portion out of her father’s large estate.” (Pratt)

Laʻanui and Piʻia were one of the first couples to be married by Hiram Bingham.

“He was an interesting young chief of the third rank, well featured, and a little above the middling stature.” (Bingham)

“I could not refrain from tears to see the happy meeting of this interesting pair, after their separation for so lamentable a cause. His protection and restoration they both now piously ascribed to the care of Jehovah – the Christian’s God.”

“After a few expressions of mutual joy and congratulation, and a few words as to the state of affairs at Kauai, at Namahana’s suggestion, with which her husband signified his concurrence, we sang a hymn of praise, and united in thanksgiving to the King of nations for his timely and gracious aid to those who acknowledge his authority and love his Word.” (Bingham)

“Laʻanui, by his correct behavior for more than five years, has given us much satisfaction. He is a good assistant in the work of translation; we consult him and others of his standing, with more advantage than any of the youth who have been instructed in foreign school.” (Bingham)

On June 5, 1825, Laʻanui, Piʻia, former Queen Kaʻahumanu and a couple others “came before the congregation (of Kawaiahaʻo Church,) the only organized church then in the island, and made a statement of their religious views, and their desire to join themselves to the Lord’s people, and to walk in his covenant.” (Bingham)

Unfortunately, Piʻia’s corpulence did not inure to healthfulness and before long, she sickened and died. On her deathbed, she said to her husband:

“Laʻanui, I wish to divulge a secret in my heart to you. It was not my work that you gave up your patrimonial inheritance to me. It was at the instigation of Kamehameha that I played coyly toward you in order to gratify his selfish motives.”

“For your cheerful sacrifice of what was so dear to your hear I feel it is my duty to repay you.”

“Therefore, in return for great kindness I leave this dear Waialua to you, as well as all the other lands, which I own, for my token of love for you. I cannot die happy without making this reparation while the breath is in my body. Forgive me for the part I took in the wrongful measure.” (Namahana Kekuwai-Piʻia; Pratt)

“Laʻanui was the paramount chief of the Waialua division from 1828 to his death in 1849, as well as the particular ‘lord’ (hakuʻāina) of Kawailoa, the district (ahupuaʻa) corresponding to the Anahulu River valley.” (Kirch)

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