Ali’i / Chiefs / Governance | Page 108

March 13, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

John Harbottle

Harbottle is a village and a township in Holystone chapelry, Northumberland, England. Harbottle Castle crowns a lofty, isolated, green mound, above the river Coquet. Harbottle, in the English Saxons’ tongue Herbottle, is “whence the familie of the Harbottels descended”. (Vision of Britain)

The castle, built in 1155-89, now of shattered and leaning walls, had formerly an outer moat crossed by a drawbridge. (Vision of Britain) The building’s most famous hour came in October 1515, when his Lordship played host there to the pregnant Queen Margaret of Scots and her (second) husband, the Earl of Angus.

At Harbottle, the lady gave birth to a daughter, also Margaret, the future mother of Lord Darnley (husband of Mary, Queen of Scots and father of James VI). (Britannia)

In the Pacific, Captain Brown’s three vessel trading squadron collecting furs, hides, and whale oil in the American Northwest and trading with China included the ‘Butterworth’ (under Captain Brown,) ‘Prince Lee Boo’ (under Captain Sharp) and the ‘Jackal’ (under the command of Captain Alexander Stewart.) John Harbottle served as mate on the Jackal.

They were “one of that numerous group of commercial adventurers who flocked into the north Pacific Ocean in the wake of Cook, drawn thither by the chance discovery, as one result of the last expedition led by that great navigator, of the possibilities of wealth in the fur trade between China and the coast of America.” (Kuykendall)

The Jackal “had English colors and shew a teir of ports fore and aft the greatest part of which were false or only painted yet they made a good appearance at a distance that for some time we concluded she was a Kings Cutter or tender to some of the men of war on the coast.” (Ingraham; Kuykendall)

The squadron spent the trading season of 1793 on the northwest coast and at the end of the season all of them went to the Hawaiian Islands for the usual refreshments. During this visit to the islands Captain Brown was given an opportunity of performing a useful service for his friend Kahekili, and later Kalanikūpule.

From there Captain Brown sent the Butterworth on her way toward England, by way of Cape Horn, ‘with directions to fish for whales and seals in passing through the Pacific Ocean, and at Staten Land, where Mr. Brown had formed a temporary establishment.’ Captain Brown himself with the Jackal and Prince Lee Boo sailed to Canton.

Returning to the Islands, in November of 1794 the harbor of Honolulu, known to early Hawaiians as Ke Awa o Kou, (The harbor of Kou) was discovered by Captain Brown, of the British ship Butterworth, and called by him “Fairhaven.” Honolulu was first entered by the schooner Jackal, her tender. (Thrum; Maly)

Brown died in 1795 and Harbottle later sailed as Second Officer with Captain Bishop on the Nautilus. They sailed from Canton in June 1797, only to meet a series of devastating storms. (Journal/Letters of Captain Charles Bishop)

“That it was not until Thursday 29 June (1797) we had crossed the China Sea and reached the South point of the Island Formosa where we anchored in a Sandy bay for the purpose of fitting up the Empty water Casks …”

“… and the boat was dispatched with an Empty Cask to a Proper place, which they did about one and a half miles from the Ship. there being however a considerable Surf the boat was Anchored just within it and about 50 yards from the Shore, the People were not enabled to carry any Arms on Shore dry, and not seeing any Native, took only the Cask with Bucketts to fill it …”

“… they had began on their business when they were Suddenly attacked by a Party of Indians, who fired many Musketts and persued the people into the water – Captain Bishop being near the boat soon got on board her, and with the boat-keeper fired on the Natives and covered the retreat of the boats Crew, who all reached the boat …”

“… but Mr John Harbottle second mate was wounded … two Indians more daring then the rest, rushed into the water to catch hold of Mr Harbottle who was the hindmost of our people, being wounded by an arrow in the back and his thigh bone broken by a Gun shott, happily however he got within reach of one of the oars and we Saved him by timly wounding his assailants”. (Bishop, Memoranda on the Ship Nautilus)

Next, the Nautilus sheltered at Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka. Russian Commander Schmaleff, “readily offered us every assistance, the settlement could afford. The artificers and People were ordered to do any thing for us we requested and …”

“… our wounded officer (Harbottle) was placed by his directions in the house of the 2d in Command whose Wife and daughters were his kind nurses and Attendants”. (Journal/Letters of Captain Charles Bishop)

“The Nautilus then sailed south into further tempests, which did not even allow a return to Kamchatka. Instead Bishop made again for the Sandwich Islands”. There, Harbottle stayed and “joined Kamehameha’s ring of European aides; Harbottle’s was indeed a happy progress from that grim day at Formosa.” (Journal/Letters of Captain Charles Bishop)

Harbottle was one of the first foreign residents in Hawai‘i (arriving around 1799) and became Kamehameha I’s port pilot. He was called Keaka Habatala. He married High Chiefess Pāpapa‘upu (also called Hanepu,) the hānai granddaughter of Kamehameha I. (Quigg)

Reportedly, he fathered 13 children: William Hepala Harbottle; Sarah Ulukaihonua Harbottle; Mary Ilikealii Harbottle; Charlotte Oili Harbottle; George Nahalelaau Harbottle; John Waihinepio H. Harbottle; Edwin Edward Ailueni, Harbottle; Isaac Kewalo Harbottle; Edwin Harbottle; Issac Kewalo Harbottle; Edward Ailueni Harbottle; William He Pala Harbottle and Winship Reynolds.

In 1809, Harbottle, generally acted as Honolulu harbor pilot. (Greer) Under his direction, hawsers would be run from the ship to rows of canoes, and paddlers would warp the ship into harbor. (Daws)

Likewise, Harbottle was made captain of the Lelia Bird and was involved in the sandalwood trade to China, making two or three voyages and finally ending her days by sinking at Whampoa. (Thrum)

For his service, Harbottle was given land by Kamehameha, including the ahupua‘a named ‘Waipi‘o’ at Hāmākualoa on Maui, “he resided peacefully there until his death.” (Land Commission Testimony) He died June 26, 1830.

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March 11, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Webster’s Way

Noah Webster (1758-1843) was the man of words in early 19th-century America. He compiled a dictionary which became the standard for American English; he also compiled The American Spelling Book, which was the basic textbook for young readers in early 19th-century America.

In the beginning part of his American Spelling Book, several signed a ‘Recommendation,’ stating, “Having examined the first part of the new Grammatical Institute of the English Language, published by Mr. Noah Webster we are of opinion, that it is far preferable, in the plan and execution, to Dilworth’s or any other Spelling Book, which has been introduced into [o]ur schools.”

“In these the entire omission of the rules of pronunciation is a capital defect, which very few of the parents, schoolmasters or mistresses, employed in teaching children the first rudiments have sufficient knowledge to supply.”

“The usual method of throwing together, in the same tables, and without any mark of distinction, words in which the same letters are differently pronounced, and the received rules of dividing syllables, which are wholly arbitrary, and often unnatural, seem calculated to puzzle the learner, and mislead the instructor into a vicious pronunciations.”

“These defects and mistakes are judiciously supplied in the present work, and the various additions are made with such propriety, that we judge this new Spelling Book will be extremely beneficial for the use of schools.”

The Speller’s Preface notes the priority in learning, “The syllables of words are divided as they are pronounced, and for this obvious reason, that children learn the language by the ear. Rules are of no consequence but to printers and adults. In Spelling Books they embarrass children, and double the labour of the teacher.”

“The whole design of dividing words into syllables at all, is to lead the pupil to the true pronunciation: and the easiest method to effect this purpose will forever be the best.” (Webster’s Speller)

And so it was with the American Protestant Missionaries teaching the Hawaiians to read and write their own language.

This exercise, as practiced in Hawai‘i, was described by Andrews, “The teacher takes a Piapa (i.e., speller, primer,) sits down in front of a row or several rows of scholars, from ten to a hundred perhaps in number, all sitting on the ground, furnished perhaps with Piapas, perhaps not.”

“The teacher begins: says A. The scholars all repeat in concert after him, A. The teacher then says E. They repeat all together, as before E, and so on, repeating over and over, after the teacher, until all the alphabet is fixed in the memory, just in the order the letters stand in the book; and all this just as well without a book as with one. The abbs and spelling lesson are taught in the same way.” (Andrews; Schultz)

Just as American schoolchildren spelled aloud by naming the letters that formed the first syllable, and then pronouncing the result: “b, a – ba,” so did Hawaiian learners. (However, back then, Webster used ‘y’ as a vowel; the missionaries did not.)

The Hawaiian version also used the names of the letters and the resultant syllable: bē ā – bā; by 1824, this had become the Hawaiian word for ‘alphabet’. However, after b had been eliminated from the alphabet, p took its place in this new name.

One result of applying this methodology to Hawaiian is that it produced a new word: Pi a pa. From that time on, the word for ‘alphabet’ has been pī‘āpā, first appearing with this spelling (minus the kahakō and ‘okina) in a book title in 1828.

The purpose of all these first exercises was to teach the mechanics of pronouncing words, one by one – syllable by syllable.

This is how Ka‘ahumanu learned … “Being invited to enter the house, we took our seats without the accommodation of chairs, and waited till the game of cards was disposed of, when the wish was expressed to have us seated by her.”

“We gave her ladyship one of the little books (Pi a pa – the speller,) and drew her attention to the alphabet, neatly printed, in large and small Roman characters.”

“Having her eye directed to the first class of letters – the five vowels, she was induced to imitate my voice in their enunciation, a, e, i, o, u.”

“As the vowels could be acquired with great facility, an experiment of ten minutes, well directed, would ensure a considerable advance.”

“She followed me in enunciating the vowels, one by one, two or three times over, in their order, when her skill and accuracy were commended. Her countenance brightened.”

“Looking off from her book upon her familiars, with a tone a little boasting or exulting, and perhaps with a spice of the feeling of the Grecian philosopher, who, in one of his amusements, thought he had discovered the solution of a difficult problem, leaped from the bath, exclaiming “Eureka! I have found,” the queen exclaimed, “Ua loaa iau! I have got it”, or, it is obtained by me.”

“She had passed the threshold, and now unexpectedly found herself entered as a pupil.”

“Dismissing her cards, she accepted and studied the little book, and with her husband, asked for forty more for their attendants.” (Bingham)

The image shows Webster’s way of learning to spell, starting with repeating the consonant ‘b’ with the respective vowels b, a – ba – just as the Hawaiians did as pi, a – pa.

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March 7, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1890s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1890s – Kapi‘olani Hospital is formed, Kalākaua dies, Overthrow, Annexation, Pali Road is completed and the first Beachboys organization is formed. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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Timeline-1890s

March 6, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

‘The Hope of the Nation’

“On the eve of the 14th inst, at 7:30 o’clock Frank James Woods and Eva Kalanikauleleiaiwi Parker were married at the Parker residence at Mana by the Rev CH Tompkins, the parson of the Anglican Church of Hāmākua.”

“Members of the families of the contracting parties and a few intimate friends had been invited to attend the ceremony and the fine residence was filled with the guests who were cordially welcomed by the genial host and hostess.”

“Among the guests were noticed the Princess Kaʻiulani, Prince Cupid and wife, Prince David J H Wodehouse, Captain John Ross, Miss K Vida, and a few other Honolulu friends. …”

“It was nearly 6 o’clock in the morning and the dawn was breaking when the young couple bade good bye and drove away among showers of rice, tears, laughter, flowers and old shoes.”

“At Waimea Mr and Mrs Woods stopped at the Parker residence at Puopelo to see the venerable Mrs Hauai Parker and after a short rest they proceeded on their journey to their beautiful home at Kahua. …

“The bridegroom is the second son of the late James Woods a prominent rancher and planter on Hawaii. He is the owner of the Kahua ranch in the Kohala district and is a worthy young man an honor to his race and to his family.”

“The bride is the oldest daughter of the Hon Samuel Parker who since her return from England where she received her education has been a favorite in society in Honolulu as well as in San Francisco.” (Independent, December 19, 1898)

The future seemed uncertain for Princess Kaʻiulani when she headed to the Island of Hawai‘i for the wedding of her friend Eva Parker.

Disillusioned by life in Americanized Honolulu, saddened by the injustice of circumstance, she expressed herself in letter to Lili’uokalani, written as 1898 drew to a close, feelings alive in most Hawaiian hearts.

“They have taken away everything from us and it seems there is left but a little, and with that little our very life itself. We live now in such a semi retired way, that people wonder if we even exist any more. I wonder too, and to what purpose?” (Kelley)

Even with Kaʻiulani’s attempts to gain support for the monarchy, the US Congress voted for annexation, and on August 12, 1898, Hawai‘i officially became an American territory.

Then, the sad news, “Princess Ka‘iulani is dead.”

“Her young life went out at two o’clock this morning (March 6, 1899,) at her residence, Waikiki. The sad event had been feared for more than a month, and deemed hourly imminent for a week past.”

“It was about four months ago that the Princess was first attacked with the illness that has cut her off in the springtime of life. Rheumatism induced by exposure to rain upon an excursion into a valley near Honolulu, undertaken for a short visit to a country retreat there, was the malady.”

“Relief was sought in change to the dry mountain air of Hon Saml Parker’s residence on Hawai‘i, and was gained in some degree when a fresh cold from bathing caused a relapse.”

“Ultimately, about a month ago, it was deemed necessary to have the Princess brought home. Her father and Dr St DG Walters attended her on the trip.”

“Alarming reports came from her bedside a week before the end. She was constantly attended by Dr. FL Miner and Dr Walters, but the disease had advanced beyond the power of medical skill to check.”

“Still there was hope of a favorable turn until close to the last hour. The fact that the affection was threatening the heart, however, made the case critical.”

“Half an hour before the end it was certain the Princess was dying, and intimate friends were called in to join the stricken father at the bedside. There were present in the death chamber the following:”

“Hon. AS Cleghorn, Mr. and Mrs. Jas. W. Robertson, Mr. and Mrs. Jas. H Boyd, Miss Kato Vida, Miss Helen Parker, Col. S Parker, Dr. St D. G. Walters and wife, Dr. FL Miner, Prince David Kawānanakoa, Lumaheihei, Miss EIsie Robertson and Kaʻiulani’s maid.”

“Princess Victoria Kawekiu Kaʻiulani Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa was the daughter of Hon AS Cleghorn and Princess Miriam Likelike.”

“The mother was a sister of King Kalākaua and Princess Liliuokalani afterward Queen, and died in 1887 when Kaʻiulani was but eleven years and four months old.”

“Here, from her cradle to the end of the monarchy, Princess Kaʻiulani was regarded as ‘the hope of the nation.’ Appreciating the responsibility attaching to her expectations, her widowed father sent her to England at fourteen years of age for higher education.”

“From her infancy she was known as the heir presumptive to the throne of Hawaii, and at the accession of Queen Lili‘uokalani was proclaimed as the Heir Apparent.” (Evening Bulletin, March 6, 1899)

“As a little girl here, Kaʻiulani was considered bright and beautiful and was a favorite with all the young people, of her circle. … Cultivated and charming in every way she at once gained a place in the hearts or all with whom she came in contact.”

“She was a patroness and active worker for every charitable, society and took the deepest interest in the welfare of the lowly and the afflicted. In the society here she was a bright light, was welcomed everywhere, received with the highest honors and often entertained at her home.”

“Always gracious, always thoughtful of others, she gained the strongest affection of all. She was idolized by her own people and was held in the highest esteem by the foreign population.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 14, 1899)

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March 5, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Emma Kaili Metcalf Beckley Nakuina

“The green mountains of our Islands are still smiling in their beauty and the lovely borders of Hawaii Kuauli (a poetical appelation given to Hawaii nei by the Hawaiians), of the land known to the foreigners as the ‘Paradise of the Pacific,” still remain for us to enjoy.” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 11, 1898)

“The Hawaiian Race is universally recognized as foremost among those of the Pacific archipelagoes, and there is much in its history to arouse interest. With an unwritten record extending back 1,030 years, this people appeals to every student and observer.”

“Gifted with an imaginative faculty well developed, a capacity to clothe thought in ornate language, and adorn recital with word picture, as well as a vocabulary that lends itself to poetic expression, the meles, or historical songs, are virile and have the swing of the trade wind.” (Nakuina)

“Our newly arrived citizens are probably unaware that there are but few ladies in Hawaii nei who have wrought so much by deed, pen and words for the benefit of her race as (Emma Kaʻilikapuolono Metcalf.)”

“Full of the most accurate information as to her people their history traditions, manners and customs, she is endowed with the happy facility of wielding a pen cleverly and to the point.”

“In the various public positions she has held through many years she invariably brought to bear a bright intellect and a tactful experience with strict fidelity to truth and integrity.” (Independent, March 8, 1897)

Emma “challenged haole efforts to claim the right to rule by asserting genealogical connections to Hawai‘i and Hawaiians. She insisted on the primacy of indigenous genealogies and the insufficiency of their Western counterparts.” (Skwiot)

Emma Kaʻilikapulono Metcalf was born on March 5, 1847, at Kauaʻaia in Honolulu’s Mānoa Valley to Theophilus Metcalf, Hawai‘i’s first photographer, a civil engineer and sugar planter and Chiefess Kailikapuolono of Kūkaniloko. (Preface, Nakuina)

(Metcalf Street in Mānoa is named for Theophilus Metcalf; he arrived in the Islands on May 19, 1842 and became a naturalized citizen on March 9, 1846. He owned the property that most of the University of Hawai‘i campus sits on today. (Hopkins))

Emma “springs from blood lines which touch Plymouth Rock, as well as midseas islands. High priests, statesmen and warriors join hands in their descendants with pilgrims, lawmakers and jurists.”

“Broadly and liberally educated under the immediate care of her father, a Harvard man, nephew of the late Chief Justice Metcalf of Massachusetts, (she) is fitted to present legends which bring out strongly characteristics of her people. (Preface, Nakuina)

Emma attended Sacred Hearts’ Academy, Oʻahu College (Punahou School) and the Mills’ Seminary for Young Ladies in Benicia, California.

She was also privately tutored by her father in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, English and Hawaiian. She was also brought up with a thorough knowledge of traditional Hawaiian practices and protocol. (HHS)

In 1867, Emma married Frederick William Kahapula Beckley (eldest child of William Charles Malulani Beckley and Kahinu.) Beckley was a plantation owner and eventually chamberlain to King Kalākaua (1875) and governor of Kauai (1880). They had seven children.

While she was attached to the court of Kamehameha IV, the king had Emma trained in laws about water rights. One of the many native Hawaiian intellectuals of the 19th century, she was an expert on a wide variety of topics including water rights and laws.

She served the government of Alexander Liholiho (King Kamehameha IV) in the courts as Commissioner of Private Ways and Water Rights for Honolulu.

In 1875, King Kalākaua named her as curator for the Hawaiian National Museum, making her one of the first, if not the first, female curator of a national museum anywhere in the world. (HHS)

Beckley died in 1881 at the age of 36. “Immediately after the death of my husband I went up to the palace and stayed two or three weeks and then went home to my mother at Kalihi.” (Nakuina; Supreme Court Records) In 1887, she married Rev. Moses Keaea Nakuina.

She wrote many articles on Hawaii, including “Ancient Hawaiian Water Rights and Some Customs Pertaining to Them.” She also wrote of Hawaiian folklore and published Hawaii: Its People and Their Legends in 1904. (Scanlon) Emma Nakuina died on April 27, 1929.

Emma Nakuina lived through six monarchs and five governments. She was not a queen, but not a commoner either. She was caught somewhere in the middle: a kaukau aliʻi.

As the first child of a high-born Hawaiian chiefess and an American Sugar Planter, Emma lived in close proximity to both the Hawaiian monarchy and to those who would later overthrow it.

Like her rank, the era she lived in was also caught somewhere in the middle, between Hawaiian tradition and Western modernization. It was a time when all Hawaiians were struggling to live pono in an environment full of unfamiliar influences and importations.

Throughout her life, Nakuina chose to serve out her chiefly duties by being a teacher, historian, museum curator, water commissioner and judge, and she did so in an era when women were discouraged from holding positions of authority.

She was caught in a tumultuous world of underhanded politics, shifting governments, and the reluctant need to transition from a ‘Hawaiian’ way of life to that of the ‘civilized world.’ (Hopkins, UH)

Here is a video showing Emma Nakuina (portrayed by Kahana Ho;) it was part of a Hawaiian Mission Houses ‘Cemetery Pupu Theatre’ event at O‘ahu Cemetery, where Nakuina is buried.