Ali’i / Chiefs / Governance | Page 140

June 7, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chief’s Canoe

Throughout the years of late-prehistory, AD 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi. Canoes were used for interisland and inter-village coastal travel.

Most permanent villages initially were near the ocean and at sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating convenient canoe travel.

As long distance voyaging declined, the need shifted from voyaging canoes to large canoes for chiefly visits and warfare within the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in changes in canoe design.

For these short coastal and inter-island trips, paddling replaced sailing as the dominant power mode. Never certain when hospitality might turn sour, chiefs prudently traveled with bodyguards. On a visit to another chiefdom, they might prepare his food to avoid poisoning.

Their numbers were a silent announcement of his status. At a signal, they could launch a raid, fight a skirmish, or conduct a guarded retreat to the canoe landing. (Kane)

The canoe was used by the chiefs as a means of ostentation and display. On a voyage the alii occupied the raised and sheltered platform in the waist of the canoe which was called the pola, while the paddle-men sat in the spaces fore and aft, their number showing the strength of the king’s following. (Malo)

And for a chief eager to make a quick getaway regardless of wind conditions, his bodyguards could also be put to work as paddlers. No longer need he wait for a favorable wind, or beat upwind to a destination on long tacks. Paddling provided great freedom of mobility, the ability to move canoes in any direction despite calms or adverse winds. (Kane)

Royal Centers were where the aliʻi resided; aliʻi often moved between several residences throughout the year. The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

The Hawaiian court was mobile within the districts or kingdom the aliʻi controlled. A paramount’s attendants might consist of as many as 700 to 1000-followers made of kahuna and political advisors (including geologists, architects, seers, messengers, executioner, etc;) servants which included craftsmen, guards, stewards; relatives and numerous hangers-on (friends, lovers, etc.)

There was no regular schedule for movement between Royal Centers. In part, periodic moves served to ensure that district chiefs did not remain isolated, or unsupervised long enough to gather support for a revolt.

In addition to personal economic support, the king also required tribute and taxes by which to maintain and display his political power.

Structures associated with the Royal Centers include heiau (religious structures) and sacred areas, house sites for the aliʻi and the entourage of family and kahuna (priests), and activity areas for burial, bathing, games, recreation, and crafts.

Religion and politics were closely interwoven in Hawaiian culture. The Royal Centers reflect this interrelationship with residential sites, heiau and sacred sites present within a defined royal compound.

Puʻuhonua (places of refuge) were often associated with these Royal Centers, reflecting the strong association between puʻuhonua and sites occupied by the high-ranking aliʻi.

A ruling chief moved his court as desired, travelling along the coasts by canoe with his attendants and setting up temporary establishments at certain sites for purposes of business or pleasure.

The canoes “have the bottom for the most part formed of a single piece or log of wood, hollowed out to the thickness of an inch, or an inch and a half, and brought to a point at each end.”

“The sides consist of three boards, each about an inch thick, and neatly fitted and lashed to the bottom part. The extremities, both at head and stern, are a little raised, and both are made sharp, somewhat like a wedge, but they flatten more abruptly, so that the two side-boards join each other side by side for more than a foot.”

“They are rowed by paddles, such as we had generally met with; and some of them have a light triangular sail, like those of the Friendly Islands, extended to a mast and boom. The ropes used for their boats, and the smaller cords for their fishing-tackle, are strong and well made.” (Captain Cook’s Journal)

“This village (at Kealakekua Bay) we found to be the residence of (Kamehameha;) from whence, before the ship was well secured, eleven large canoes put off from the shore with great order, and formed two equal sides of an obtuse triangle.”

“The largest canoe being in the angular point, was rowed by eighteen paddles on each side…. (The Chief’s) canoe was advanced a little forward in the procession, to the actions of which the other ten strictly attended, keeping the most exact and regular time with their paddles, and inclining to the right or left agreeably to the directions of the king…”

The Chief “conducted the whole business with a degree of adroitness and uniformity, that manifested a knowledge of such movements and maneuver far beyond what could reasonably have been expected. In this manner he paraded round the vessels, with a slow and solemn motion.” (Captain Vancouver)

Later, “Near sunset, our distinguished guests took leave and returned to the shore on their state vehicle-their double canoe, seated on a light narrow scaffolding which rested on the semi-elliptical timbers by which two large parallel canoes, each neatly carved from a tree, are yoked together, five or six feet apart.”

“Their large canoes are two to three feet in depth, and thirty to fifty in length. The thin sides are raised by the addition of a nicely fitted waist-board. Additional pieces of thin wood, ingeniously carved, are attached at the ends, covering a few feet as a deck turning up some fifteen inches at the extremity, and giving the appearance of greater finish, beauty and utility.”

“The favored passengers on a Hawaiian double canoe sit three or four feet above the surface of the water, while the rowers sit on thwarts in the canoe with their feet below the surface and their faces forward. The steersmen sit in the stern.”

“Their paddles have a round handle from three to four feet long, and a thin blade from twelve to eighteen inches long and eight to twelve wide, and are grasped by one hand at the extreme end, and by the other, near the blade, and are used by main strength.”

“The chiefs, on this occasion, were rowed off with spirit by nine or ten athletic men in each of the coupled canoes, making regular, rapid and effective strokes, all on one side for a while, then, changing at a signal in exact time, all on the other.”

“Each raising his head erect, and lifting one hand high to throw the paddle blade forward beside the canoe, the rowers, dipping their blades, and bowing simultaneously and earnestly, swept their paddles back with naked muscular arms, making the brine boil, and giving great speed to their novel and serviceable sea-craft.” (Hiram Bingham)

The image shows Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Chief of Hawaiʻi, bringing presents to Captain Cook (John Webber.)

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Kalaniopuu, King of Hawaii, bringing presents to Captain Cook-John_Webber-1779

June 5, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaʻahumanu and the Missionaries

Kaʻahumanu was born about the year 1768, near Hana, Maui. Her siblings include Governor John Adams Kuakini of Hawaiʻi Island, Queen Kalakua Kaheiheimalie (another wife of Kamehameha I) and Governor George Cox Keʻeaumoku II of Maui.

By birth, Kaʻahumanu ranked high among the Hawaiians. Her father was Keʻeaumoku, a distinguished warrior and counselor of Kamehameha the Great. Her mother Namahana was a former wife of the Chief of Maui, and the daughter of Kekaulike (a great Chief of that island.)

Kaʻahumanu was one of the most powerful people in the Islands at the time of the arrival of the missionaries. There were those who were higher by birth, and there were those who were higher by title, but there was probably none who held greater influence.

While her reputation is as a strong supporter of the missionaries and Christianity, in an early description of her, Hiram Bingham noted, “This woman, with all her haughtiness and selfishness”. Others felt the same.

“For a long time she stood aloof from the influence of the missionaries, was haughty, proud, and disdainful in their presence, and frequently passed them without speaking to them.” (Lucy Thurston)

“Kaahumanu too, for many months, was either heedless in regard to Christianity, or scornfully averse to our instructions, and at the same time not a little annoyed by the profligacy of Liholiho and his boon companions.”

“Some were watching to despoil us of our few goods, or to expel us from the islands, and others to nullify our influence by slander and misrepresentations.” (Bingham)

But “the gospel at length took hold of her mind, and through the influence of the Holy Ghost wrought a great and permanent and salutary change in her character.” (Lucy Thurston)

Soon after the first anniversary of their landing at Honolulu on April 19, 1821, Kaʻahumanu, Kalanimoku and Kalakua visited the mission and gave them supplies; this visit became important because during it Kaʻahumanu made her first request for prayer and showed her first interest in the teachings of the missionaries.

From that point on, Kaʻahumanu comes into more constant contact with the mission.

She was later described to have a kindly and generous disposition and usually had as pleasant relations with foreigners who respected her royal rights. She was cautious and slow in deciding – more business-like in here decision-making – but once her mind was made up, she never wavered.

On February 11, 1824, Kaʻahumanu made one of her first public speeches on religious questions, giving “plain, serious, close and faithful advice.”

At a meeting of the chiefs and school teachers, Kaʻahumanu and Kalanimōku declared their determination to “adhere to the instructions of the missionaries, to attend to learning, observe the Sabbath, Worship God, and obey his law, and have all their people instructed.”

She had requested baptism for Keopuolani and Keʻeaumoku when they were dying, but she waited until April, 1824, before requesting the same for herself.

“She was admitted to the church in, 1825, and was baptized by the name of Elizabeth. Soon after her conversion, she made a tour of the Islands; the people were astonished at the change in her, and remarked that it was ‘not Kaahumanu, but Elizabeth.’” (Lucy Thurston)

Of her baptism, Kamakau said: “Kaahumanu was the first fruit of the Kawaiahaʻo church … for she was the first to accept the word of God, and she was the one who led her chiefly relations as the first disciples of God’s church.”

“She became distinguished for her humility, kindness, and the affability of her deportment, regarded the missionaries as her own children, and treated them with the tenderness of maternal love.” (Lucy Thurston)

“Her influence and authority had long been paramount and undisputed with the natives, and was now discreetly used for the benefit of the nation.”

“She visited the whole length and breadth of the Islands, to recommend to her people, attention to schools, and to the doctrines and duties of the word of God, and exerted all her influence to suppress vice, and restrain the evils which threatened the ruin of her nation.” (Lucy Thurston)

Then, in mid-1832, Kaʻahumanu became ill and was taken to her house in Manoa, where a bed of maile and leaves of ginger was prepared. “Her strength failed daily. She was gentle as a lamb, and treated her attendants with great tenderness. She would say to her waiting women, ‘Do sit down; you are very tired; I make you weary.’”

Hiram Bingham’s account of her last hours is, in part, as follows: “On the third instant, Sabbath night, about midnight, Dr. Judd sent down to me to say he thought her dying. I hastened to Manoa and remained there until the fifth …”

“About the last words she used of a religious character were two lines of a hymn designed to express the feelings of a self-condemned penitent coining and submitting to Christ: ‘Here, here am I, O Jesus, oh – Grant me a gracious smile.’

“A little after this she called me to her and as I took her hand, she asked. ‘Is this Bingham?’ I replied. ‘It is I’—She looked upon me & added ‘I am going now’ I replied: ’Ehele pu Jesu me oe, Ehele pomaikai aku.’ ‘May Jesus go with you, go in peace.’ She said no more. Her last conflict was then soon over, – in 10 or 15 minutes she ceased to breathe.”

Her death took place at ten minutes past 3 o’clock on the morning of June 5, 1832, “after an illness of about 3 weeks in which she exhibited her unabated attachment to the Christian teachers and reliance on Christ, her Saviour.”

She was buried at Pohukaina at ʻIolani Place and later transferred to Mauna ‘Ala, the Royal Mausoleum in Nuʻuanu Valley. The image shows Kaʻahumanu. (Herb Kane)

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May 18, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Thomas Charles Byde Rooke

Thomas Charles Byde Rooke was born to Thomas and Sarah Rooke on May 18, 1806, in Bengeo, Hertford, England. He studied to be a Doctor at a branch of Christ’s College Hospital in Hertford and had studied in London where he graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1826.

He first landed in the Islands at Lahaina in 1829. After another season’s cruise his ship put in at Honolulu. Here Dr. Rooke was asked to remain and practice medicine, and, with the consent of his Captain, he agreed.

That year, Rooke married Grace Kamaikui, the second daughter of John Young, Kamehameha’s advisor (and “in his most perfect confidence”.) Grace was widow of Keʻeaumoku (Queen Regent Kaʻahumanu’s younger brother.)

The Rookes were apparently unable to have children of their own; when Grace’s sister, Fanny, had a child, Emma, she was hanai (a traditional custom of adoption) to the Rookes.

Emma’s formal education began at age five at the Chiefs’ Children’s School. She grew up speaking both Hawaiian and English, the latter “with a perfect English accent.”

At age 13, when the school closed in 1849, Rooke hired Sarah Rhodes von Pfister, an English governess, to tutor Emma for the next four years, but he also played an active role in her education. Emma learned a great deal about the outside world from her scholarly father, who assembled the finest library in Honolulu for her benefit.

At 20, on June 19, 1856, Emma married Alexander Liholiho, who a year earlier had assumed the throne as Kamehameha IV; she became Queen Emma. The couple had known each other since childhood.

Dr Rooke was one of the pioneers in the cultivation of coffee and was the charter member of the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society when it was organized in 1850, serving on the coffee committee.

Rooke had his office and dispensary in his home (“Rooke House” on the makai/Waikiki corner of Beretania Street and Nuʻuanu Avenue.) Rooke House was “like an old-fashioned New England house externally, but with two deep verandahs, and the entrance is on the upper one.”

“The lower floor seemed given up to attendants and offices, and a native woman was ironing clothes under a tree. Upstairs, the house is like a tasteful, English country-house, with a pleasant English look … the most English-looking house I have seen since I left home, except Bishopscourt at Melbourne.” (Bird)

He was also physician to the Court, friend and advisor to the royal family, and became a naturalized citizen. In 1844 he is listed as Port Physician, and in December, 1850, he was appointed to the first Board of Health and served as its chairman. Rooke served twice as a member of the House of Representatives, representing the Honolulu district.

He was “elegantly dressed, rubicund, affable, and redolent of delicious odors that I afterwards learned to recognize as indicative of acquaintance with the choicest brands of rare old wine. The cordiality of his manners placed me at ease”. (Lyman)

Dr Rooke was one of the ten Honolulu physicians who were signers of the charter of incorporation of the Hawaiian Medical Society on May 19, 1856.

Rooke also taught Emma by example. Not only did he provide medical care to the poor, he also served as physician at the Hospital for British Seamen, which was established in Pauoa Valley in 1846

Rooke foreshadowed the establishment of The Queen’s Hospital with his pleas in The Polynesian for the establishment of such an institution.

After living in the Islands for nearly 30-years, Dr Rooke died in November 28, 1858, at Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi, at the age of 52. He was buried in the Wyllie tomb, or Wyllie crypt, at Mauna Ala, along with other members of Emma’s family.

Although he did not live to see the opening of the Queen’s Hospital in 1860, it was he who kindled the spark which brought it into being.

“(W)e have lost not only the Senior Member of our Profession here, whose labors among this people and community during his long residence on these islands, have secured for him an enduring place in the memory of the Hawaiian Nation;”

“(B)ut, also, a brother, whose strict sense of professional propriety in his relations to as, as well as to those entrusted to his care, not less than his uniform kindness and urbanity of manners, have won for him our lasting esteem and respect.” (Hawaiian Medical Society; Polynesian, December 16, 1858) (Lots of information here is from Queen’s Medical Center and Kelley)

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Wyllie Tomb-Thomas_Rooke

May 14, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Seacole and the Queen

Mary Jane Grant was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805. Her father was a Scottish soldier and her mother was Jamaican. Mary learned nursing skills from her mother, who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers.

“When I was about twelve years old I was more frequently at my mother’s house, and used to assist her in her duties; very often sharing with her the task of attending upon invalid officers or their wives, who came to her house from the adjacent camp at Up-Park, or the military station at Newcastle.” (Seacole)

Although technically ‘free,’ being of mixed race, Mary and her family had few civil rights – they could not vote, hold public office or enter the professions. (BBC)

“I nursed my old indulgent patroness in her last long illness. After she died, in my arms, I went to my mother’s house, where I stayed, making myself useful in a variety of ways, and learning a great deal of Creole medicinal art”. (Seacole)

In 1836, “until (she) couldn’t find courage to say ‘no’ to a certain arrangement timidly proposed,” Mary married Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole (the godson of Admiral Horatio Nelson;) but the marriage was short-lived as he died in 1844. (BBC)

“In the year 1850, the cholera swept over the island of Jamaica with terrible force. … they sent some clothes on shore to be washed, and poor Dolly Johnson, the washerwoman, whom we all knew, sickened and died of the terrible disease.”

“While the cholera raged, I had but too many opportunities of watching its nature, and from a Dr. B—, who was then lodging in my house, received many hints as to its treatment which I afterwards found invaluable.” (Seacole)

She travelled to Cruses, Panama to see her brother. A family friend developed cholera; there, she diagnosed it and gave medicine from her medicine chest (“I never travel anywhere without it.”)

“I went hastily to the patient, and at once adopted the remedies I considered fit. It was a very obstinate case, but by dint of mustard emetics, warm fomentations, mustard plasters on the stomach and the back, and calomel, at first in large then in gradually smaller doses, I succeeded in saving my first cholera patient in Cruces.”

War had been declared against Russia and following her trip to Panama, Mary had a pressing desire to go to Crimea to nurse the British soldiers whom she had grown both accustomed to and fond of when she had nursed them in Jamaica.

She tried to offer her services in London in the autumn of 1854; following several rejections, she traveled to the Crimea (on the northern coast of the Black Sea in the Ukraine) and opened the British Hotel and store at Balaclava and worked tirelessly during the year she spent there.

During an outbreak of cholera, Mary’s services were again in great demand. This time, she succumbed to the illness herself but made a full recovery. (Gabriel) She also saved others.

“I have seen her go down, under fire, with her little store of creature comforts for our wounded men; and a more tender or skilful hand about a wound or broken limb could not be found among our best surgeons.”

“I saw her at the assault on the Redan, at the Tchernay, at the fall of Sebastopol, laden, not with plunder, good old soul! but with wine, bandages, and food for the wounded or the prisoners.” (Russell, 1857; British Journal of Healthcare Assistants)

“She not only, from the knowledge she acquired in the West Indies, was enabled to administer appropriate remedies for their ailments, but, what was of as much or more importance, she charitably furnished them with proper nourishment …”

“… which they had no means of obtaining except in hospital, and most of that class had an objection to go into hospital.” (Sir John Hall, Inspector-General of Hospitals, 1856; British Journal)

“I trust that England will not forget one who nursed the sick, who sought out her wounded to aid and succor them, and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead.” (Sir William Howard Russell, 1857)

Following the war in Crimea, Mary Seacole returned to England destitute and in poor health; however, her reputation after the Crimean War rivalled Florence Nightingale’s. She lived in London, as well as in Jamaica.

Then, on June 24th 1865, Mary Seacole made a Hawaiʻi connection. It turns out Queen Emma made a brief stopover in Kingston on her way to London.

Queen Emma was welcomed with a royal gun salute and was met by an honor guard of the 1st West India Regiment. As she landed, she graciously acknowledged the cheers of the many citizens of Kingston who had gathered to greet her. One of the citizens of Kingston who greeted the Queen was Mary Seacole.

In the words of the reporter of the Colonial Standard, “A carriage was in attendance at the wharf to receive Her Majesty, as soon as she entered the carriage Mrs Seacole requested the honour of placing around Her Majesty a magnificent cloak that had been presented to her by the Sultan, which she accepted, thanked Mrs Seacole and shook hands with her”. (Lumsden)

The two women shared a dedication to health care, Mary Seacole in the battles in the Crimea and Queen Emma through the practice of her father (an English physician) that eventually led to the formation of the Queen’s Hospital (named in her honor.)

Queen Emma decided to visit England and the British Government provided the ships to transport her and her party. It was on this voyage that she stopped at Kingston. In England she stayed at Windsor with Queen Victoria, and visited hospitals and educational establishments. (Lumsden)

The last 25 years of Mary Seacole’s life were spent in relative obscurity; she died in London on May 14, 1881 and is buried in St Mary’s Roman Catholic cemetery, Kensal Green, London. Queen Emma died four years later and is buried at Mauna Ala, Honolulu.

(Seacole was voted Greatest Black Briton in 2004. “As a black Jamaican woman in the 19th century, Mary Seacole stood up against the discrimination and prejudices she encountered. Against all odds, Mary had an unshakeable belief in the power of nursing to make a difference.” (BBC))

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Mary Seacole

Mary_Seacole_Drawing

Sculpture of Mary Seacole

Mary Seacole portrait

Sketch of Mary Seacole by Crimean war artist William Simpson (1823–1899), c. 1855

Mother Seacole`s bust at Getty museum

Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii-1880-1881

Queen_Emma_in_Washington-1865

Sketch of Mary Seacole’s British Hotel in Crimea, by Lady Alicia Blackwood (1818–1913)

Map illustrating Mary Seacole’s involvement in the Crimean War

Mary_Seacole_Home_London_Plaque

Artist rendition of proposed Mary Seacole Statue

Mary Seacole gravestone

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