Peter T Young

April 28, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Often Overlooked – Not Forgotten

When you think of military facilities out on the ʻEwa Plain, your attention is most often brought only to the Naval Air Station Barber’s Point. Yet, that was not the first military installation, there. An often-overlooked airfield and battlefield are there, too.

Let’s look back.

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20-feet above a wind-swept beach in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina; the flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Over the following years the fledgling flight industry evolved and grew. Within a decade, tactical use was evident in the US military.

Prior to powered, winged flight, military used blimps, airships and dirigible balloons (lighter than air craft using gas to lift the craft.) The US military looked to bring them to the Islands.

On March 28, 1917, folks looked for a location for a lighter-than-air base in Hawaiʻi; “the most suitable site for the location of a rigid airship station in Hawaiʻi is, on the south side of Oʻahu, between Pearl Harbor and Barber’s Point.”

Back then, runways weren’t needed/used for the airship; they were tied to mooring masts (a line from the mast was tied to the bow of the airship to hold it there, while not in use.)

On May 4, 1925, the Navy contracted with Louis R Smith of Honolulu “to erect the mooring mast, clear the site, erect buildings, and install incidental machinery and piping.” A circular railroad for tethering the airship was later added. (Frye & Resnick)

The ʻEwa Mooring Mast was meant to be used by the helium-inflated airships USS Akron and USS Macon. They were designed for long-range scouting in support of naval operations. Each carried Curtiss Sparrowhawk biplanes which could be launched and recovered in flight, extending the range over the open ocean, looking for enemy vessels.

Sometime later, the Navy also constructed an oil-surfaced, 150-foot by 1,500-foot emergency landing field at ʻEwa.

Although intended to provide an air station for lighter-than-air craft, none ever visited the station. The crashes of the Akron (1933 off New Jersey) and the Macon (1935 off California) resulted in the Navy cancelling the program. But that didn’t end aviation activities in the ʻEwa Plain.

On February 15, 1935, the Honolulu Advertiser reported on the closure of the Mooring Mast and also noted “The field will be put in condition to make it suitable for emergency airplane landings.”

That year, the Army broke ground for a more than 2,000-acre airbase to be known as Hickam Field. Additional work continued at the ʻEwa Field.

The construction of what would become Marine Corps Base ʻEwa (ʻEwa Field) was part of the US military and economic expansion into the Pacific region starting in the 1930s and early-1940s to counter the Japanese Empire.

The US Navy’s plan for expansion of its bases was part of a larger mobilization of the American economy for war, which began in 1939, picked up sharply in mid-1940 after the Germans overran Western Europe.

Because of the growing needs of Naval and Marine Aviation in the Pacific as part of the expansion to a 10,000-aircraft Navy, the Navy decided to make ʻEwa its own base for the Marines, rather than a part of the larger Naval Air Station.

ʻEwa was made available for Marine Corps aircraft use in 1939. In September 1940, after the original lease expired, an additional 3,500-acres were acquired from the Campbell Estate for the enlargement of the emergency landing field.

Ewa Field’s war-time configuration was begun in January 1941 when Marines arrived to begin expanding the station from the short landing mat and airship mooring mast into an installation that could house a Marine aircraft group. By January 29 of that year, it was pronounced “available for use … for carrier landing practice”.

Additional construction on the station commenced that month; men were quartered in tents for several months until housing was finished in late-1941. In the interim, runways and permanent operations and support facilities were built. A control tower (‘crow’s nest’) for the emerging runways was built in the mooring mast. (AECOM & Mason)

By December 1941, the station had paved runways in the form of a large X, a concrete aircraft warm-up platform, and many support and operational buildings.

The Marine Corps’ ʻEwa Field and the surrounding vicinity was one of several areas on Oʻahu that Japanese forces targeted during their surprise attack on December 7, 1941; it appears that ʻEwa Field was attacked approximately two minutes before Pearl Harbor.

While the ultimate Japanese military objective was the temporary destruction of the American Pacific fleet, a secondary objective included the targeting of aircraft (on the ground and in the air,) including ʻEwa Field, to guarantee air superiority and ensure success of the mission. (Frye & Resnick)

The Marines had 48-aircraft stationed at Ewa Field; in the attack the action was perceived as coming in three “separate and distinct attacks” and was undertaken by a large number of aircraft.

Strafing with their machine guns and cannon, the Zeros concentrated their fire on the “dispersed tactical aircraft” firing short bursts, the reversed course for repeated passes at their targets. (The first wave had destroyed all of the aircraft at ʻEwa.)

“(W)e noticed 20 or 30-airplanes in a traffic pattern at ʻEwa, the Marine landing field. We found they were Japanese dive bombers strafing the field.” (Welch; Bond)

With the expansion of naval bases in the Pacific, including the continued expansion of ʻEwa, the US created a new air base at Barbers Point, designed to provide the necessary landing field facilities for the plane complements of two aircraft carriers.” (The new airfield at Barbers Point started in November 1941.)

So, there were two nearby air stations built at the ʻEwa Plain: ʻEwa Field, the first (and smaller) and the Naval Air Station Barber’s Point, the larger. (After 1942, ʻEwa Field was known as Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) ʻEwa.)

ʻEwa was officially closed on June 18, 1952 and its property assumed by Naval Air Station Barbers Point. (The thirty-two revetments on the property, originally designed to shield aircraft from bomb blasts, have served as stables since the 1950s and provide a home for approximately 50 horses.)

Barber’s Point was decommissioned by the Navy in 1998 and turned over to the State of Hawaiʻi for use as Kalaeloa Airport and is used by the US Coast Guard, Hawaii Community College Flight Program, Hawaiʻi National Guard and general aviation, as well as an alternate landing site for Honolulu International Airport.

Several installations on Oahu associated with the December 7 attack are listed on the National Register as National Historic Landmarks: Pearl Harbor, Hickam Field, Kaneohe, and Wheeler Field.

ʻEwa Plain Battlefield, which is composed of former ʻEwa Field, was the only major battle site from the Japanese attack not currently listed in the National Register of Historic Places (on February 9, 2015, the Keeper of the National Register noted the Ewa Mooring Mast Field is eligible for listing on the National Register.)

Efforts continue to get it appropriated listed with the other battlefields. (Lots of the information here is from John Bond, Frye & Resnick and AECOM & Mason.)

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Ewa Field on December 2, 1941 NARA

Barbers (L) – Ewa Field (R)

Marine Corps Air Station Ewa (right) and Naval Air Station Barbers Point, left

Marine Corps Air Station Ewa (left) and Naval Air Station Barbers Point, right, September 1944

Marine Corps Air Station Ewa -ATC-B

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Ewa MCAS 9-4-41

MCAS EWA WWII

Marine Corps Air Station Ewa

Ewa Field-NPS-Determination

Ewa Mooring Mast

Ewa Mooring Mast-12-July-1940

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USS Akron-ZRS-4

USS-Macon-under-construction

USS-Akron-with-biplane

April 27, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ralph Sheldon Hosmer

“The forests and timber growing therein, shall be considered as government property, and under the special care of the minister of the interior, who may from time to time convert the products thereof into money for the benefit of government.”

Thus, through King Kamehameha III’s Act No. 2, Chapter III, Article I, Chapter VI, Section VII of April 27, 1846, ‘forestry’ began in Hawaiʻi.

Around 1870, Henry Perrin Baldwin of Maui, “had systematically planted blocks of forests on his lands on the lower slopes of Mount Haleakalā” with several hundred thousand koa, eucalyptus, ironwood, silk oak, cedar and Java plum trees. (anderson)

On the continent, on November 30, 1900, seven foresters formed the Society of American Foresters (Mr Gifford Pinchot, Mr Overton Price, Mr William Hall, Mr Ralph Hosmer, Mr Thomas Sherrard, Mr ET Allen and Mr Henry Graves.) Today, it’s the largest professional organization for foresters in the world.

On May 13, 1903, the Territory of Hawaiʻi, with the backing of the Hawaiʻi Sugar Planters’ Association, established the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry. (HDOA)

The next year, Ralph Sheldon Hosmer (one of the Society founders) became the first Superintendent of Forestry in the Islands.

Hosmer, son and grandson of Unitarian ministers, was born on March 4, 1874 in Deerfield Massachusetts. (The Hosmer family first came from Kent, England to Boston in 1635, then settled in Concord in 1637.) His mother’s side of the family (Julia West (Sheldon) Hosmer (of the Williams family)) went to Deerfield in the Connecticut Valley about 1650. (Maunder)

After completing his preparatory education, two years of which were at the Boston Latin School, he entered Harvard University from which he was graduated in 1894.

His first government position was with the US Department of Agriculture Division of Soils from May 1896, to November 1898. In the latter year, he became interested in Forestry and transferred his activities to the Division of Forestry.

His early work in the field was spent principally in the Adirondacks and the White Mountains. After several years, Hosmer took a leave of absence to attend the newly established Yale School of Forestry, obtaining his Master of Forestry Degree in 1902. He was a member of the first class to be graduated from this School.

Shortly after, Hosmer left for Hawaiʻi to fill the Superintendent position.

On December 30, 1913 that Ralph Hosmer of Newton Massachusetts was married to Jessie Nash Irwin; their three children were born on the continent: David Irwin, Jane Sheldon (Mrs. Robert Hall Llewellyn), and Emily Francis (Mrs. Marc Daniels)

From 1908 to 1914 he was chairman of the Territorial Conservation Committee of Hawaiʻi, and from 1907 to 1914, vice-president of the Board of Regents of the College of Hawaiʻi. (Harvard)

A lasting legacy of Hosmer is the result of his implementation of the Forest Reserve System, created by the Territorial Government of Hawai’i through Act 44 on April 25, 1903.

With Hawai‘i’s increase in population, expanding ranching industry, and extensive agricultural production of sugarcane and later pineapple, early territorial foresters recognized the need to protect mauka (upland) forests to provide the necessary water requirements for the lowland agriculture demands and surrounding communities. (DOFAW)

After more than a century of massive forest loss and destruction, the Territory of Hawai‘i acknowledged that preservation of the forest was vital to the future economic prosperity of the Islands.

Urged by sugarcane growers and government foresters concerned about the vanishing woodlands, the forest reserve system became the basis for the largest public-private partnership in the history of the Islands. (Last Stand)

Hosmer considered “nine-tenths of the forest proposition of Hawaiʻi forest protection problem,” arguing, “What is needed is simply to leave the forest alone, keeping man and animals out.”

While forest reserves were important watersheds, their boundaries were drawn “so as not to interfere with revenue-producing lands,” and such lands were not generally thought to be useful for agriculture. (hawaii-edu)

Hosmer’s second priority was to explore the opportunities for planting trees on eroding hillsides where the native forest did not regenerate and to experiment with trees of value for lumber, fuel, posts, bridge timbers and other uses. Except for the endemics koa and ʻōhiʻa, none of the native tree species were considered valuable for commercial purposes.

Hosmer believed that the forest reserves were useful for two primary purposes: water production for the Territory’s agricultural industries, and timber production to meet the growing demand for wood products. The forest reserve system, he said, should not lead to “the locking up from economic use of a certain forest area.”

Even in critical watersheds the harvesting of old trees “is a positive advantage, in that it gives the young trees a chance to grow, while at the same time producing a profit from the forests. (LRB)

A main concern was finding an alternative to importing redwood and Douglas-fir from California for construction timbers. In 1904 the government nursery was asked to grow timber tree species instead of its usual ornamental, flowering trees (pines, cypress, cedar and Douglas fir.) (Anderson)

“The diminishing supply of wood and timber on the American mainland, the consequent rise in price of all wood products, the local need for wood suitable for fence posts, railroad ties, bridge timbers and the like, not to speak of general construction timber and the necessity for a cheap fuel supply–that already in some districts is a serious problem – all point to the wisdom of tree planting.” (Hosmer; LRB)

Hosmer held the Superintendent position until 1914, when he became Professor of Forestry and head of the Department of Forestry at New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, a position he held until his retirement in June 1942. Hosmer died July 20, 1962 in Ithaca New York.

At the time of his resignation from service in Hawaiʻi, 37-areas had been designated forest reserve and acreage had grown from zero to 800,000-acres. The territory had set aside 550,000-acres, and private lands had contributed 260,000-acres.

Another legacy is the Hosmer Grove, located just inside the main entrance to Haleakalā National Park on Maui, at about 6,800-feet in elevation. It features many of the non-native species Hosmer experimented with. It also has a campground and picnic area (with picnic tables, barbecue grills, drinking water, and toilets.)

Charles S Judd, who succeeded Hosmer, was Hawaiʻi born and descended from the early missionary, Gerrit P Judd. He took over in 1914 and followed Hosmer’s lead in designating reserve areas. By 1930, more than 1,000,000-acres had been set aside. (Robinson)

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April 26, 2015 by Peter T Young 7 Comments

Infanticide

“I have often wondered why there were no more children here than there appear to be, upon asking a white man who has resided here many years …”

“… the reason he replied that many infants are strangled to death by their mothers, especially if they are not able to support them and many die for want of care when young. We have seen a number of latter case.” (Daniel Chamberlain. July 20, 1820; Tobin)

“A man and his wife, tenants of Mr (John) Young … had one child, a fine little boy. A quarrel arose between them on one occasion respecting this child. The Wife refusing to accede to the wishes of the husband, he, in revenge, caught up the child by the head and the feet, broke its back across his knee, and then threw it down in expiring agonies before her.”

“Struck with the atrocity of the act, Mr. Young seized the man, led him before the king, Tamehameha, … and requested that he might be punished.”

“The king inquired, ‘To whom did the child he has murdered belong?’ Mr. Young answered, that it was his own son. ‘Then,’ said the king, ‘neither you nor I have any right to interfere; I cannot say any thing to him.’” (Ellis, 1826)

“We have long known that the Sandwich Islanders practised infanticide, but had no idea of the extent to which it prevailed, until we had made various inquiries daring our present tour, and had conversed with Karaimoku Kapiolani, the governor, and several other chiefs, who, though formerly unwilling to converse on the subject, have, since their reception of Christianity, become more communicative.”

“It prevails throughout all the islands, and, with the exception of the higher class of chiefs, is, as far as we could learn, practised by all ranks of the people.”

“However numerous the children among the lower orders, parents seldom rear more than two or three, and many spare only one; all the others are destroyed sometimes shortly after birth, generally during the first year of their age.” (Ellis, 1826)

“Several mothers presented their offspring, with the pride of old Roman matrons. We counted the number of those who had living children, and then requested those who had none to rise.”

“The scene that followed I can never forget.”

“Why are you childless? we inquired. Very few had lost children by a natural death. One woman replied in tears, holding out her hands.”

“’These must answer the question: I have been the mother of eight children, but with these hands I buried them alive, one after another, that I might follow my pleasures, and avoid growing old.’”

“’Oh, if I had but one of them back again to comfort me now! If tears and penitence could restore the dead!’”

“She was followed by others, making the same sad confessions of burying alive, of strangling, of smothering, until sobs and tears filled the house.” (Laura Fish Judd, 1880)

“There can be no doubt but that infanticide was prevalent among them and that a very large percent of the children born were disposed of in various ways by their parents, soon after their birth.”

“Generally speaking, it appears that in Hawaiʻi, as throughout Polynesia, the struggle for existence and life’s necessities, was largely evaded by restricting the natural increase in population in this way.” (Bryan, 1915)

“But as we are told that parents were fond of their children and parental discipline was not rigorous, and as children were left largely to their own devices, their care could hardly be regarded as a serious burden …”

“… moreover, more girl children were destroyed than boys, indicating that the former reason was the more economic and, therefore, the more human and logical one.” (Bryan, 1915)

“The extreme skewing of the sex ratio among Hawaiians in the nineteenth century is open to many explanations … Overwork and general exploitation may well have erased more adult women than men, but the likeliest candidate as the chief killer of females was infanticide, either by direct intention or, as is much more common, indirectly and semi-intentionally.” (Crosby)

“(B)y European contact the Hawaiians were actively practicing several methods of population control, including abortion and infanticide, perhaps in response to pressure on local food supplies and the limitations of agricultural land.” (Kirch)

“Several of the early Christian missionaries in the Hawaiian archipelago were sure that infanticide, especially female infanticide, was widespread despite decrees against the practice and assurances that it had stopped circa 1820.” (Crosby)

“Abortion and infanticide, known to exist in pre-contact times, reached new highs in 1819-1825 and 1832-1836.” (Schmitt)

“Artemas Bishop reported in 1838, ‘the majority of children born in the islands die before they are two years old.’ Indeed, the infant mortality rate was so high that microbiologist OA Bushnell uses the term ‘genocidal decline’ in discussing Hawaiian infants in this period.” (Kanahele)

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April 24, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Makanau

“About half-past eleven we reached Hilea, a pleasant village belonging to the governor. As we approached it, we observed a number of artificial fish-ponds, formed by excavating the earth to the depth of two or three feet, and banking up the sides. The sea is let into them occasionally, and they are generally well stocked with excellent fish of the mullet kind.”

“We went into the house of the head man, and asked him to collect the people together, as we wished to speak to them about the true God. He sent out, and most of the people of the village, then at home, about two hundred in number, soon collected in his house, which was large, where Mr. Thurston preached to them.”

“They appeared gratified with what they had heard, and pressed us very much to spend the day with them. We could not consent to this, as we had travelled but a short distance since leaving Honuʻapo.”

“As we left Hilea, our guide pointed out a small hill, called Makanau, where Keoua, the last rival of Kamehameha, surrendered himself up to the warriors under Kaʻiana, by whom he had been conquered in two successive engagements.” (Ellis)

(In the late-1700s, this area served as the summer home of Keoua, the last chief of Kaʻu and as the district’s capital in an insurgent war with Kamehameha.)

(Many of Keoua’s forces had been killed by Keonehelelei (“the falling sands” – the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790. (Moniz-Nakamura) Keoua formally surrendered to Kamehameha at Puʻukohola Heiau; there, Keoua was attacked and killed by Keʻeaumoku, one of Kamehameha’s chiefs.)

Hīlea, in Kaʻu was the birthplace of Kohaikalani. He was the most important chief on the island and reigned in royal state at Hīlea.

He ordered the construction of a heiau situated on the great plain of Makanau (‘surly eyes,’) a high promontory, about three miles from the shore.

All men in the district were conscripted to transport stones from Koloa beach at Ninole. They formed a human chain and passed the stones up to the site in baskets. The kapu (taboo) for building such a structure was strict. Not a word could be spoken. If a stone dropped, it could not be picked up. This work took several weeks. (Orr)

Thrum suggests that the pebbles for the pavement of the heiau came from the shore of Kawa. When much stone had been collected, two kahuna (priests) arrived to supervise the erection of the structure. (Rechtman)

As it was the custom in the olden days to worship fishes, birds, stones or wood, Kohaikalani wished to have a wooden god to worship. Kohāikalani was living in the upland of Hīlea.

The kahuna told the people, “It is clear that your chief intends when this temple is completed to offer your bodies as sacrifice. Hence, when he commands you to bring an ʻōhiʻa tree to be used in the building, you must tell him to select one for himself and that you will then help him pull it up here. In this way you may save your lives.” (Keala Pono)

After building the heiau the men were ordered to fell an ʻohiʻa tree for an image. There was a very steep pali to climb. They had to carry up the god on the side towards Ninole, which was best adapted to the execution of their plan.

“The god will never reach the summit of the pali,” said the kahuna, “if the Chief continues to walk before him. The god ought to go first, by right of power, and the Chief below and after him, to push at the lower end, otherwise we will never succeed in overcoming his resistance.”

Kohaikalani complied with the advice of the kahuna, placed himself under the god, and pushed him from below. Instantly the Priests and people dropped the rope, and the huge idol, rolling upon the Chief, crushed him in an instant. They attribute the death of Kohāikalani especially to the Priests. (The Friend, May 1, 1865)

Kohaikalani Heiau consisted of a rectangular structure with walls 4.5 to 5.5-feet high on the inside and 6.5-feet on the outside. The interior pavement of the heiau was covered with ʻiliʻili (sea-worn pebbles.) (Walker)

The heiau was visible to Stokes during his evaluation of Hawaiʻi heiau (1901-1919;) however, later destroyed when sugarcane was planted there.

As you drive this area of Kaʻū, you can look up the side of Mauna Loa and see Makanau, the tabletop hill.

Better yet, April 24- May 3, 2015, Kaʻū Coffee Festival will be celebrated at various venues in Kaʻū; events include star gazing from Makanau summit. The image shows Makanau.

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Makanau

April 23, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The King vs Greenwell

“The whipping of servants or laborers is not justifiable under the laws of this Kingdom.”

“Where the hurt of injury inflicted is of a severe or dangerous character, and the efficient cause of death, although there be a predisposing condition of the body, without which it would not have been fatal, it is, nevertheless, a killing by means of such hurt or injury.”

The King vs HN Greenwell, Indicted For Murder in the Second Degree (Hawaiʻi Reports; Supreme Court, 1853)

“This case was called on for trial and parties answering they were ready, accused was arraigned and plead not guilty and … jurors were drawn from the list sent in by the British Consul General, accused being a British subject.”

“(A) Chinaman (Salai) had run away … and the Chinaman was down and Mr Greenwell was beating him with his fists … he knocked the Chinaman down, … and he then kicked him, and the Chinaman got up and sat down, and Mr. Greenwell reached a piece of iron that was lying on the top of a barrel and struck the Chinaman between the shoulders…”

“(T)he day the Chinaman died he brought him back into his own room, the first day he tied him up, the second day he beat him, and the third day he died, they gave him nothing to eat or drink not even a drink of water”. (Polynesian, January 8, 1853)

Henry Nicholas Greenwell arrived in Hawaiʻi on January 20, 1850. He worked as an agent for HJH Holdsworth in his importing and retail business, and opened a branch of the business at Kailua (Kona) in September of 1850. (Kona Echo, April 1, 1950; Melrose, Kinue)

Later, Greenwell store was built around 1851 at Kalukalu (Kealakekua, near Konawaena High School) and originally served as a store and post office. (Greenwell also served as the area’s postmaster as well as the area’s general merchandiser.)

Greenwell started to buy land, gradually acquired extensive land holdings, and got into the cattle, sheep, coffee and orange business on a large scale. (In 1879, he acquired the lease on Keauhou from Dr Georges Trousseau.)

“It is said by the learned counsel for the defense, that there has not been a killing, because though Salai was severely whipped, yet he did not die from this or any other inflicted injury, but in the due course of nature, from long sickness and from his own voluntary exposure for several nights, without food or raiment, to the rain, cold and hunger in the forest.”

“Or at the most, the whipping would not have proved fatal, had it not been for the previous sickness, and exposure; and that where the death is occasioned partly by injuries and partly by predisposing circumstances, it is impossible to apportion the operations of the several causes…”

“… and to say with certainty that the death was occasioned by any of them in particular, and consequently you cannot find a killing from the whipping or other bruises, and the prisoner is entitled to an acquittal.”

“However feeble the condition of Salai may have been, and however short, the tenure of his life, if you find that the whipping, or any other injury inflicted by the accused, was the means of accelerating the death of deceased, then the killing is made out, and Greenwell must answer for it, unless he can show a legal justification for inflicting the punishment.”

“If you should find that the whipping or other injuries did not hasten or accelerate the death, then there is no killing, and your verdict should be not guilty.”

“But if you should find that there was a killing, the next question to determine will be, whether the accused is justified in inflicting the punishment complained of.”

“The whipping of servants or laborers is a custom not tolerated by the laws of this country, and the plea of necessity, which is urged in its behalf, when applied to coolies and natives, is without foundation in law, and totally opposed to freedom and humanity.”

“The next inquiry, should you find the killing, is, was it committed with malice aforethought? … Whoever kills another without malice aforethought, under the sudden impulse of passion, excited by provocation or other adequate cause, by the party killed, of a nature tending to disturb the judgment and mental faculties, and weaken the possession of self-control of the killing party, is not guilty of murder, but manslaughter.”

“The whipping was clearly an unlawful act, and if you shall be of the opinion that it was the efficient cause of the death or accelerated it, then, even though there was no malice, it is manslaughter.” (Hawaiʻi Reports; Supreme Court, 1853)

Several witnesses were called.

Cummings, the Deputy Sheriff for Hawaiʻi, noted, “I was present when the body of Salai was examined at the inquest … we examined the body very closely, there was a small space on the left breast and down the middle of the back not much bruised …”

“… but on his right thigh and side was a large bruise, and below that was a smaller one, on the left thigh was another dark place across the hip; below the small of the back, were several marks as though he might have been struck by a whip …”

“… the left arm was considerably bruised near the wrist a discoloration, the left hand was swollen and two marks across the back, and in a small place the skin was off probably the size of a rial. I saw the deceased before he was buried and saw nothing unnatural.”

Shultz noted, “(Salai) was sick at the time, and Mr Greenwell did not allow him to do heavy work; he was given work close by the house, so as to escape rain. His health improved … on Friday the same day he ran away again, he stole some of the Coolies clothes…”

Choo stated, “the day the Chinaman died he brought him back into his own room, the first day he tied him up, the second day he beat him, and the third day he died, they gave him nothing to eat or drink not even a drink of water”. (Polynesian, January 8, 1853)

The matter was handed over to the jury.

“The jury after an absence of half an hour returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.” (Hawaiʻi Reports; Supreme Court, 1853)

The image shows Henry Nicholas Greenwell.

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