Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

History Books Could Have Been Different

Manuel paused, said in a confidential voice: “If today I wrote all that I overheard and saw in those years, the complexion of many an incident would be changed in our history books.” (Manuel Reis)

Manuel Gil dos Reis was born in Oporto, Portugal.  When he was a whippersnapper, his father took him to Cape Verde islands, down in the Atlantic, west of Africa.  Father Reis was port-master there.  His father gave Manuel thimblefuls of deep red wine, told him sagas of the sea. 

Transatlantic clippers, stately and wondrous ships of trade, opening new worlds in the Americas, called for provisioning at Cape Verde.  One day young Manuel could not resist the temptation.  He signed on one, made his way to New Bedford, MA and later transferred to an American whaler, the bark Atlantic, as lookout and steerer.

The Atlantic rounded the stormy Horn, beat across the south Pacific to the great whaling grounds near New Zealand.  At the Chatham Islands the Atlantic met another whaler, the Napoleon.  Together the two ships sought the rich harvest from the sea.  It was reckless work but with the reward that the harder you worked the more cash there was at the voyage’s end, when the

One day on these grounds the ships collided.  The Atlantic’s masts and rigging were badly smashed.  The closest refitting port was Honolulu, nearly 4,000 miles away.  He came to the Islands.

Manuel’s practical life at sea has made him resourceful.  He became a coachman and yardman to a Mrs. Hillebrand for $3 a week, yet soon bettered it for another position with the U.S. Minister, General James W. Comly, at $25 a month.

While driving about town he yarned with independent coachmen who, by publicly hiring their vehicles, made as much as $20 a day.  Manuel thought:  Why don’t I do that?

But he kept on with the U.S. minister, religiously saved his dollars, some of the only gold in the thriving town which used mostly silver Mexican dollars, until he had sufficient capital to launch out in his own business.

He bought wagonettes and California bred horses.  His stand was at the corner of Fort and King streets.  He could drive you to Waikiki, via King and Kalakaua, in 12 minutes.  There were no traffic stop signs. 

The drives to Waikiki and up the Nu‘uanu valley to the Pali were about as far as you could go in those years.  In his days off, Manuel often took a ride on horseback with friends. 

Manuel’s business flourished.  He lived on the job.  His stables and home were together on Queen St, opposite the federal building, where today the [Melim Building] stands.  Three drivers worked for him.  They had a hack each.  Pay: 25c of every dollar they took. 

The first telephone service in Honolulu – December 30, 1880 – was a boon for Manuel’s business.  It was much easier for patrons to telephone, have him send a hack any hour of the day or night.  Alexander Graham Bell, the hello business inventor, formed a firm friendship with Manuel.

Personally, Manuel drove King Kalakaua, whose favorite spot on the island was a private boathouse on the harbor front near Pier 5.  There the merry monarch made whoopee with haoles like Claus Spreckels.  One day at poker Spreckels held four aces, Kalakaua four kings.  Kalakaua claimed the pot because he said, “I make five kings – that’s better than 4 aces.”

At the beginning of the hard working, gay eighties, Manuel on his cab seat began to hear murmurings of unrest and discontent.  His passengers hatched plots and counter plots.

But Manuel remained neutral. [However, in a story on Reis Wray Jose notes “Manuel Reis was a royalist. … Manuel Reis often chauffeured such royal notables as Kalakaua, Kapiolani, Liliuokalani and others, as part of his business.” And his hackstand “was often called the ‘Royalist Hackstand’ because of the number of known royalists it served.”]

Up in the lonely, storm tossed lookout of the whaling ship, young Manuel had learned to hold his tongue, to think rather than talk.  It was a good habit, too, while he waited by the hour, for King Kalakaua.

Monarchs and the anti-monarchists used the hacks.  Manuel overheard many a conspiracy, could have won favors if he had passed on the information. 

So when the unrest finally culminated in the revolution of 1887 and the consequent uprisings, Manuel was not surprised.  He drove about his business, unperturbed by the rifle fire or the passions of his hot-headed passengers.

Government disturbances, after all, meant brisk business for Manuel, who was called upon to rush messengers: post haste from side to side with history making dispatches.

Because he had married Eugenia Keoho‘okalani Kahaule, fine daughter of an old Kona family, Manuel knew that inevitably he would be regarded with suspicion by the anti-monarchists.  On the third day of the 1895 uprising, Manuel was driving Miss Helen Wilder (sister of Gerrit P Wilder) out at Waikiki. 

Jim Quinn, “a tricky Irishman” who worked with Manuel, drove post haste to Waikiki, warned Manuel that Marshal Hitchcock sought him, Manuel told Miss Wilder and she was content to be dropped off at the foot of Nuʻuanu Street.

Manuel knew what was coming.  He told his wife to carry on the business, hid 1,000 silver dollars in the bureau drawer for her to use.  Then he went along to the prison house, knew that because he had a Hawaiian wife, drove so many of the monarchy, he would be probed. 

But probed he was not.  Marshal Hitchcock boomed from the office:  “Take him down below.”  And quickly Manuel found himself with 12 other “political prisoners” in the dark, overcrowded cells.  There were nine Britishers, two Greeks, (one of them George Lycurgus), and one Dane. 

For 35 days and nights they were kept in the hot, close cells.  They were never questioned as they expected to be, but they were irritated and scared blue by the threatening, bullying guards.

Two and three times every night the prisoners would be awakened rudely and moved from cell to cell.  There were two men to each cell, six by eight feet.  The only real fresh air and daylight they enjoyed was two hours of exercise in the yard every morning.

The guards delighted in scaring the prisoners.  They polished their bayonets, rattled their rifles, talking loudly about death at dawn.  They stretched new ropes, guffawed about the hangman’s noose.  One of the prisoners became hysterical.

He considered he could save his neck if he told all, which was that Queen Liliuokalani’s supporters had hidden rifles under Washington Place, he claimed.

Manuel contracted a fever in the unsanitary cells.  He was at the point of death, so he was released.  They wanted him to sign a declaration of guilt, that he had conspired against the republic.  But independent Manuel, weak in body but strong in spirit, refused.  He went to Kona’s hospitable coast for a month and recuperated slowly.

Manuel’s funniest story about that attempted insurrection is of a well-known Hawaiian who, panic stricken by the bullets that whirred in the civic square between the palace and the judiciary building, flung himself at the foot of the Kamehameha statue and feigned death for many hours. 

All here is from an interview/article on Manuel Reis published in the Star Bulletin, September 7, 1935.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Louis Alexander Williams

Mary Ellen Pleasant was an ardent Abolitionist, and she determined to assist John Brown.

She married John Pleasant (or Pleasants), who had been an overseer on the Smith plantation. She reportedly was involved in the Underground Railroad, and was so successful in assisting escaping slaves that she had “a price on her head in the South.” 

Pleasant moved to San Francisco and put her business acumen and entrepreneurial skills, not to mention her reputation as a noteworthy cook, to work. There was much wealth circulating in the heady days of the gold rush, but few luxuries in the area to spend it on.

Miners and merchants were clamoring for services, and Pleasant, according to San Francisco newspapers, rejected many offers of employment as a cook from people with means. Instead, with her name now well known, she opened a boarding house that provided lodging and food, both of which were scarce.

She expanded her business dealings by lending money to businessmen and miners at an interest rate of 10%, while also investing wisely on the advice of her influential boarders and other associates. During this time, she gained a reputation as “The Fabulous Negro Madam,” acting as a procurer for her male associates.  (Encyclopedia)

She invested her money wisely: Her businesses in San Francisco included laundries, dairies and exclusive restaurants — all of which were quite lucrative in a city filled with miners and single businessmen.

Concerned about racial equality, she became increasingly involved in helping others and in civil-rights activities during the 1850s and 1860s. Mary Ellen Pleasant, used her Gold Rush wealth to provide financial assistance for these causes; she also sought out and rescued slaves being held illegally in the California countryside.

Pleasant also found jobs in wealthy households for runaway slaves and developed an information network. One of the most widely circulated, albeit unsubstantiated, reports on Pleasant concerns her role in abolitionist John Brown’s raid on the US arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859.

She reportedly sailed to the East in 1858 and in Canada gave Brown $30,000 to finance his battle against slavery. When John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, for murder and treason, a note found in his pocket read,

“The ax is laid at the foot of the tree. When the first blow is struck, there will be more money to help.” Officials most likely believed it was written by a wealthy Northerner who had helped fund Brown’s attempt to incite, and arm, an enormous slave uprising by taking over an arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. No one suspected that the note was written by a black woman named Mary Ellen Pleasant. (NY Times)

Some called her ‘Mammy’, but she asserted, “I am Mammy to no one.”

According to Pleasant, she was born free on August 19, 1814 in Philadelphia.  She claimed her father was Louis Alexander Williams, a native Hawaiian (‘a Kanaka from the Pacific Islands’) and her mother, Mary (her namesake) was a “full blooded Negress from Louisiana.”  (Ball etal)

Pleasant noted, “My father was a native Kanaka [Hawaiian] and my mother a full-blooded Louisiana negress.”

“Both were of large frame, but I think I must have got my physical strength from my father, who was, like most of his race, a giant in frame. His name was Louis Alexander Williams.”

“He was a man of great intelligence and had a fair education, judging from his letters.  He was a commercial man and imported silks from India.  He imported other things, but his main business was silk.”

“My mother’s name was Mary, and I was named after her, but I recall very little about her.  I don’t think she was as well educated as my father, for I don’t remember that she ever wrote me any letters.”

“When I was about six years of age, I was sent to Nantucket, Mass., to live with a Quaker woman named Hussey.  I never knew why I was sent there, and about all I know is that my first recollections of life dated from Nantucket.”

“When my father sent me to live with the Husseys, he also gave them, as I learned afterwards, plenty of money to have me educated, but they did not use it for that purpose, and that’s how I came to have no education.” (Mary Ellen Pleasant, autobiography)

“It is quite possible that a Pacific Islander named Louis Alexander Williams and a free black woman from Louisiana became the parents of a baby girl in Philadelphia in 1814, as Pleasant claimed.”

“According to the US Census there was an Alexander Williams living in Philadelphia in 1810 and 1820.  He is listed as a white male, which is how Pacific Islanders were recorded in the census at the time”.  (Hudson)

Pleasant had another Hawai‘i connection; images of Queen Emma are sometimes mistaken/mislabeled as Mary Ellen Pleasant.

“In 1880 Mammy was invited to the Palace Hotel to meet King Kalakaua of Hawaii.  It was the custom in San Francisco to always send an invitation to any major affair.  She invariably ‘regrets’ but on this occasion she wanted to attend because she wished to ask the king if it was true that she closely resembled the Dowager Queen Emma of Hawaii.”

“He obviously thought she did because when he left for Hawaii he carried with him a negative plate of Mammy’s full length portrait.” (Holdredge to Smyser; Hudson)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pukaʻōmaʻomaʻo

Traditions on the island of Oʻahu note Mā’ilikūkahi was a ruling chief around 1500 (about the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic.) Māʻilikūkahi is said to have enacted a code of laws in which theft from the people by chiefs was forbidden.

A son of Mā’ilikūkahi was Kalona-nui, who in turn had a son called Kalamakua. Kalamakua is said to have been responsible for developing a large system of taro planting across the Waikīkī-Kapahulu-Mōʻiliʻili-Mānoa area. The extensive loʻi kalo were irrigated by water drawn from the Mānoa and Pālolo Valley streams and large springs in the area.

In 1792, Captain George Vancouver described Mānoa Valley on a hike from Waikīkī in search of drinking water: “We found the land in a high state of cultivation, mostly under immediate crops of taro; and abounding with a variety of wild fowl chiefly of the duck kind …”

“The sides of the hills, which were in some distance, seemed rocky and barren; the intermediate vallies, which were all inhabited, produced some large trees and made a pleasing appearance. The plains, however, if we may judge from the labour bestowed on their cultivation, seem to afford the principal proportion of the different vegetable productions …” (Edinburgh Gazetteer)

One century later, before it was urbanized, Mānoa Valley was described by Thrum (1892:)  “Manoa is both broad and low …”

“… with towering hills on both sides that join the forest clad mountain range at the head, whose summits are often hid in cloud land, gathering moisture there from to feed the springs in the various recesses that in turn supply the streams winding through the valley, or watering the vast fields of growing taro, to which industry the valley is devoted.”

“The higher portions and foot hills also give pasturage to the stock of more than one dairy enterprise.”

Handy (in his book Hawaiian Planter) writes that in ancient days, all of the level land in upper Mānoa was developed into taro flats and was well-watered, level land that was better adapted to terracing than neighboring Nuʻuanu.  The entire floor of Mānoa Valley was a “checkerboard of taro patches.”  “The terraces extended along Manoa Stream as far as there is a suitable land for irrigating.”

The well-watered, fertile and relatively level lands of Mānoa Valley supported extensive wet taro cultivation well into the twentieth century. Handy and Handy estimated that in 1931 “there were still about 100 terraces in which wet taro was planted, although these represented less than a tenth of the area that was once planted by Hawaiians.” (Cultural Surveys)

Mānoa Valley was a favored spot of the Ali‘i, including Kamehameha I, Chief Boki (Governor of O‘ahu), Haʻalilio (an advisor to King Kamehameha III,) Princess Victoria, Kanaʻina (father of King Lunalilo), Lunalilo, Keʻelikōlani (half-sister of Kamehameha IV) and Queen Lili‘uokalani.  The chiefs lived on the west side, the commoners on the east.

Queen Kaʻahumanu lived there; her home was called Pukaʻōmaʻomaʻo (Green Gateway.)  It was situated deep in the valley (lit., green opening; referring to its green painted doors and blinds – It is alternatively referred to as Pukaʻōmaʻo.)

“Her residence is beautifully situated and the selection of the spot quite in taste. The house … stands on the height of a gently swelling knoll, commanding, in front, an open and extensive view of all the rich plantations of the valley; of the mountain streams meandering through them … of the district of Waititi; and of Diamond Hill, and a considerable part of the plain, with the ocean far beyond.” (Stewart; Sterling & Summers)

It was doubtless the same sort of grass house which was in general use, although probably more spacious and elaborate as befitted a queen. The dimension in one direction was 60 feet. The place name of the area was known as Kahoiwai, or “Returning Waters.”

“Immediately behind the house, and partially flanking it on either side, is a delightful grove of the dark leaved and crimson blossomed ʻŌhia, so thick and so shady … filled with cool and retired walks and natural retreats, and echoing to the cheerful notes of the little songsters, who find security in its shades to build their nests and lay their young.”

“The view of the head of the valley inland, from the clumps and single trees edging this copse, is very rich and beautiful; presenting a circuit of two or three miles delightfully variegated by hill and dale, wood and lawn, and enclosed in a sweep of splendid mountains, one of which in the centre rises to a height of three thousand feet.”

“In one edge of this grove, a few rods from the house, stands a little cottage built by Kaahumanu, for the accommodation of the missionaries who visit her when at this residence. … (It) is very frequently occupied a day or two at a time, by one and another of the families most enervated by the heat and dust, the toil, and various exhausting cares of the establishment at the sea-shore.“  (Stewart; Sterling & Summers)

“Not far makai … High Chief Kalanimōku, had very early allotted to the Mission the use of farm plots thus noted in its journal of June, 1823: “On Monday the 2d, Krimakoo and the king’s mother granted to the brethren three small pieces of land cultivated with taro, potatoes, bananas, melons, &c. and containing nineteen bread-fruit trees, from which they may derive no small portion of the fruit and vegetables needed by the family.”  (Damon)

Then, in mid-1832, Kaʻahumanu became ill and was taken to her house in Mānoa, 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.’”  (Bingham)

“The king, his sister, other members of the aliʻi and many retainers had already arrived at Pukaomaomao and had dressed the large grass house for the dying queen’s last homecoming. The walls of the main room had been hung with ropes of sweet maile and decorated with lehua blossoms and great stalks of fragrant mountain ginger.”

“The couch upon which Kaahumanu was to rest had been prepared with loving care. Spread first with sweet-scented made and ginger leaves, it was then covered with a golden velvet coverlet. At the head and foot stood towering leather kahilis. Over a chair nearby was draped the Kamehameha feather cloak which had been worn by Kaahumanu since the monarch’s death.”  (Mellon; Sterling & Summers)

“The slow and solemn tolling of the bell struck on the pained ear as it had never done before in the Sandwich Islands. In other bereavements, after the Gospel took effect, we had not only had the care and promise of our heavenly Father, but a queen-mother remaining, whose force, integrity, and kindness, could be relied on still.”

“But words can but feebly express the emotions that struggled in the bosoms of some who counted themselves mourners in those solemn hours; while memory glanced back through her most singular history, and faith followed her course onward, far into the future.”  (Hiram Bingham)

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.”  (Hiram Bingham)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Luau Diplomacy

From royal prince to revolutionary to Hawaiian Delegate, Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole traveled a unique route to the United States Congress. Known primarily as “Kuhio” or by his childhood nickname “Prince Cupid,” he remains the only Member of Congress born into royalty.

Kuhio was born on March 26, 1871, in the village of Kukuiula in the Koloa District of the island of Kauai. Kuhio was the youngest of three sons of High Chief David Kahalepouli Piikoi and Princess Victoria Kinoiki Kekaulike.  Princess Victoria’s sister, Kapiolani Napelakapuokakae, married into the royal line of Hawaii in 1863 when she wed King David Kalakaua.

In 1880 Kuhio’s father, David Piikoi, died and King Kalakaua appointed Kuhio’s mother governor of the island of Hawaii. The king issued a royal proclamation making Kuhio and his two brothers princes in 1883 and made them wards following their mother’s death a year later. He then incorporated Princess Kekaulike’s line into the Kalakaua dynasty.

King Kalakaua provided the best education available for his sister-in-law’s sons. After St. Alban’s School (forerunner of Iolani) and Oahu College (Punahou School), Kuhio joined his brothers at St. Matthew’s Military Academy in San Mateo, California.

In 1888 King Kalakaua sent Kuhio to Japan with the hope of setting up a marriage with the Japanese royal family. Kuhio spent nearly a year as the guest of the Japanese government, learning the art of diplomacy, but he made no effort to secure a marriage. Upon returning home, Kuhio briefly took up a position in the Ministry of Interior and Customs.

Continuing to groom Kuhio and his brother, David, to be potential heirs, Kalakaua sent them to study business in Gloucestershire, England, at the Royal Agricultural College. The pair toured Europe, greeted as equals in royal courts across the continent.

The brothers returned from England in early 1891; King Kalakaua died in January while visiting San Francisco. His sister, Liliuokalani, succeeded to the throne and set Princess Kaiulani, daughter of Kalakaua’s youngest sister, Miriam Likelike, as her heir apparent, cementing Kawananakoa and Kuhio, respectively, as presumptive heirs behind the princess.

His former ally Robert Wilcox defeated Kuhio’s brother David to become the first Hawaiian Delegate in the US Congress. Kuhio then joined Wilcox’s Home Rule Party.  However, Kuhio grew disenchanted with the Home Rule Party after witnessing some of its racially charged politics firsthand.

In July 1902, the party tapped Kuhio to lead a reorganization committee. Kuhio’s proposals prioritized attracting younger moderates, but Wilcox preferred the status quo. However, a speech at the opening of the territory’s Republican convention cemented Kuhio’s choice to run as a Republican.

Former Nebraska Senator John M. Thurston declared, “You might as well send a frog to chipper at the doors of the Court of St. James for what you want as send to Washington a Delegate who is not one of or in harmony with either of the two great political parties.”

Kuhio joined the convention as a nominee for Delegate, announcing, “I am a Republican from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.” Republicans nominated him by acclamation.

Kuhio’s campaign developed around embracing Americanism, saying at stump speeches, “Monarchy had accomplished a useful means, and democracy arises to carry on the work.” Ultimately, Republicans swept both the legislature and the delegacy. Kuhio’s victory fatally weakened the Home Rule Party.

Kuhio arrived in Washington, DC, with much exuberance, though the reality of his isolated position rapidly set in. Most Washingtonians simply referred to him as “Kuhio” or “Prince Cupid,” after his childhood nickname.

As a statutory representative – Kuhio’s Delegate position was created by federal statute rather than articulated in the Constitution – Kuhio had little influence in the House but he developed non-traditional ways to push his legislative interests.

After settling into his position, Kuhio wrestled with mainland ignorance of Hawaii. He was appointed to the traditional seats on the Territories Committee and the Post Office and Post Roads Committee, but often found himself testifying before the Merchant Marine and Fisheries or Naval Affairs panels instead.

He struggled to pass bills approving a franchise grant to expand the installation of electric lights in Hawaii. Afterward in the 59th Congress (1905–1907), he concentrated on getting money to build, repair, and maintain lighthouses on the islands and encouraging greater trade.

No one seemed to know whether funding existed for the project, so Kuhio shuffled back and forth between the Navy Department’s Lighthouse Board, Speaker Joe Cannon, and a clerk of the Appropriations Committee before discovering the funds had been suspended under the belief that Hawaii was an insular possession, like Puerto Rico or the Philippines.

Over and over the Kuhio became aware that neither congressional colleagues nor federal bureaucrats knew much about Hawaii. So he dedicated himself to educating American administrators about the islands. Much of this process happened off the House Floor. (US House)

In 1905, Hawaii served as a pit stop for congressional delegation on its way to Japan and the Philippines. Members were eager to travel abroad, though most viewed that particular delegation trip as a vacation. Still, the trip drew considerable press attention.

Shortly thereafter, Kuhio noticed the level of interest and in 1907 he began arranging delegations of his own – some referenced this as Luau Diplomacy.

For one notable excursion, Kuhio wrote to every Member of Congress, inviting them to be guests of the territory ahead of the 64th Congress (1915–1917) scheduled to open later that December. (This was the third Congressional Party to visit Hawaii as official guests; similar delegations toured the Islands in 1907 and 1909.)

The nearly 50-man 1915 delegation (27 Representatives, 10 Senators, congressional family members, staff, and a group of press), using a $15,000 disbursement from the Hawaiian territorial legislature, represented the largest group of Congressmen to visit the islands at that time.

The Islands’ welcoming committee had planned a three-week tour of the Hawaiian Islands for the Members with the hope of securing from Congress various economic support for the territory.

The party featured some of the most powerful men in the House of Representatives, including Republican Leader James Mann who, like former Speaker Cannon, hailed from Illinois.

Politicos buzzed on the mainland that Republicans had a good shot at taking back the House in the upcoming 1916 elections, and Kuhio – a Republican himself – was eager to make good with the potential new House leadership.

Mann gave Kuhio every reason to be encouraged, saying, “These islands may be assured of a continuance of prosperity.”

Laden with lei, regaled with patriotic music, and awash in florid greetings, the congressional guests at one point gave three cheers for Kuhio and sang a rousing rendition of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”

A fleet of cars whisked some Members off to their hotels to prepare for the evening’s Governor’s Ball at ‘Iolani Palace. Other Members and their families donned bathing suits and enjoyed the sand and surf at Waikiki Beach.

Member, Clarence Miller of Minnesota, brought a massive moving picture machine to record the trip. “This tour is a great idea,” Miller enthused. “They know something about Hawaii in Congress, but not nearly as much as they should know. Everybody’ll learn something this time. Something they won’t forget, either.”

Kuhio and the territorial legislature set an exhausting schedule for the congressional visitors. A ferry ride to the island of Maui featured a tour of the harbor, the lighthouse, and a cannery.

The itinerary also included stops at schools, public utilities, clubs, and private residences – places the organizers hoped would help the island secure funding for harbor and infrastructure improvements and lead to the repeal of a sugar tariff they felt had hamstrung Hawaii’s economy.

Members gradually absorbed their island education. Representative Albert Johnson of Washington met with the inspector in charge of immigration to the island, claiming the issue was of “keen interest” given his strong stance against immigration from Asian nations.

Virginia Representative Carter Glass and North Carolina Senator Lee S. Overman voiced their hopes for a thorough education in the Hawaiian sugar trade. Representative Joshua Alexander of Missouri spoke at length about his hopes for a resolution to the Islands’ transportation woes with the mainland.

Representative Swagar Sherley of Kentucky, a prominent member of the Appropriations Committee, however, had a different focus in mind. “The military and naval end of congressional appropriations will occupy much of my visit to Hawaii,” he said, specifically referencing Pearl Harbor and the installations on the island of Oahu.

The firsthand experience often helped grease the skids for legislative action afterward. “I have a few things to take up with the prince about the merchant marine and transportation facilities that come within the jurisdiction of my committee,” wrote Representative William Wilson of Illinois after one tour, “and I intend to help rectify those unreasonable sailing conditions when we get together.” (US House)

Faced with repeated stonewalling in committees, particularly on the issue of harbor improvements, Kuhio changed his tactics. In a period of increasing tensions between the US and Japan, his new idea was to tie the federal government tighter to Hawaiian infrastructure through renewed focus on military and naval bases on the islands.

He took his case before the House Naval Affairs Committee in 1908. “Gentlemen of the committee, this Government has for ten years neglected the safeguard of preparing a naval base in the mid-Pacific,” Kuhio declared. It amounted to an “inexcusable neglect” not of a special Hawaiian interest, but of a national security necessity.

Kuhio’s persistent lobbying on the issue over the course of a decade paid dividends after he led a 1919 tour for Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels and the navy board to visit Pearl Harbor. Daniels agreed with Kuhio’s assessment, and Congress responded to the secretary’s report with an appropriation of $27 million for recommended improvements and expansions.

Kuhio spent much of his time protecting Hawaii from federal policy changes that conflicted with its interests. In 1917 he testified against the passage of a bill introduced by Missouri Democrat Joshua Alexander, which would have sharply regulated wireless radio usage and traffic within the United States.

Laden with communications from Hawaiian businessmen, Kuhio argued that radio was essential to the growth and development of the islands and that new federal regulations would hurt Hawaiian economic expansion and the ability of its people to assimilate into American culture. The committee accordingly scuttled the bill.

After World War I, Kuhio pressured Congress to continue the suspension of coastwise laws that forbade foreign ships from serving as passenger steamers between Honolulu and San Francisco without the payment of a hefty fine per passenger.

Members on the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, however, were eager to roll back the wartime suspensions. But with American ships still pressed into service as military transports, Hawaiians relied primarily on foreign ships to travel to and from the mainland. (US House)

The luaus for the Congressional members worked; by the 1920s and 1930s, these Hawaiian-style parties flourished across the mainland, and even made it to the US Capitol.

Speakers of the House Nicholas Longworth and William Bankhead agreed with the Los Angeles Times: “We don’t need an excuse to enjoy the relaxed, romantic pleasure of a Hawaiian party.”

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Spice Trade

By many accounts, Britain was a quiet agricultural outpost in the Roman empire. The native inhabitants had a well-established growing system that prioritized crops such as broad beans, barley, oats, and wheat. Needless to say, Britons ate a lot of bread and drank a lot of beer.

Their livestock consisted of the usual range of domesticated animals: cattle, sheep, chicken, and pigs. Foraged foods included mushrooms, wild onions, and herbs such as mustard. Those who lived near the coast enjoyed seaweed, fish, and oysters. Rural life and food looked much the same as it does today, with a key exception — lack of spices.

The Romans brought a wealth of spices from all over their empire. The trade along the Spice Road had been good to them, and they introduced pepper, rosemary, thyme, coriander, mint, and garlic to Britons. Some of these herbs were dried and some were in plant form. Those plants that grew well in the Isles still remain a part of British cuisine.  (Cowen)

Many tall tales developed as to the origins of spices, but by the 13th century, travelers like Marco Polo (1254-1324 CE) and missionaries were beginning to improve Europe’s geographical knowledge of the wider world.

India seemed awash with black pepper. Sri Lanka was rich in cinnamon. Sandalwood came from Timor. China and Japan were getting spices like cloves, nutmeg, and mace from India, South East Asia, and the Maluku Islands or the Moluccas in what is today Indonesia – not for nothing were they nicknamed the Spice Islands.

Then, in 1453 came the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and so one of the principal land routes for spices into Europe was lost. (Cartwright)

One of the major motivating factors in the European Age of Exploration was the search for direct access to the highly lucrative Eastern spice trade. In the 15th century, spices came to Europe via the Middle East land and sea routes, and spices were in huge demand both for food dishes and for use in medicines.

The problem was how to access this market by sea.

Accordingly, explorers like Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) were sent to find a maritime route from Europe to Asia.

Columbus (who was looking for a new route to India, China, Japan and the ‘Spice Islands’ of Indonesia to bring back cargoes of silk and spices (ginger turmeric and cinnamon)) never saw the mainland United States, but the first explorations of the continental United States were launched from the Spanish possessions that he helped establish.

To the south, da Gama did round the Cape of Good Hope, sail up the coast of East Africa, and cross the Indian Ocean to reach India.

From 1500 onwards, first Portugal, and then other European powers, attempted to control the spice trade, the ports which marketed spices, and eventually the territories which grew them.  (Cartwright)

On November 28 1520, Ferdinand Magellan entered the “Sea of the South” (which he later named the Pacific) and thereby open up to Spain the possibility of an alternative route between Europe and the spices of the Orient.”  (Lloyd)

Then, almost 50 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, Manila galleons finally fulfilled their dream of sailing west to Asia to benefit from the rich Indian Ocean trade.

“The Spanish Galleons were square rigged ships with high superstructures on their sterns. They were obviously designed for running before the wind or at best sailing on a very ‘broad reach.’”

“Because of their apparently limited ability to ‘beat their way to windward’ (sail against the wind), they had to find trade routes where the prevailing winds and sea currents were favorable.”  (Lloyd)

Starting in 1565, with the Spanish sailor and friar Andrés de Urdaneta, after discovering the Tornaviaje or return route to Mexico through the Pacific Ocean, Spanish galleons sailed the Pacific Ocean between Acapulco in New Spain (now Mexico) and Manila in the Philippine islands.

Once a year, gold and silver were transported west to Manila in exchange spices (pepper, clove and cinnamon), porcelain, ivory, lacquer and elaborate fabrics (silk, velvet, satin), collected from both the Spice Islands (Moluccas, Indonesia) and the Asian Pacific coast, in European markets.

They also carried Chinese handicrafts, Japanese screens, fans, Japanese swords, Persian carpets, Ming dynasties and a myriad of other products. East Asia traded primarily with a silver standard, and the goods were bought mainly with Mexican silver. (Pascual)

The galleons leaving Manila would make their way back to Acapulco in a four-month long journey.  The goods were off-loaded and transported across land to ships on the other Mexican coast at Veracruz, and eventually, sent to European markets and customers eager for these exotic wares.  (GuamPedia)

In 1668 a royal decree required the galleons to stop in Guam in the Mariana Islands on their westward voyage from Acapulco to Manila. This allowed ships to replenish supplies and was the only means for communication between Spain and the Marianas colony.

The Manila Galleon Trade lasted for 250 years and ended in 1815 with Mexico’s war of independence.  More than 40-Spanish galleons were lost during this 250-year period. (Lloyd)

“‘The voyage from the Philippine islands to America may be call’d the longest, and most dreadful of any in the world; as well because of the vast ocean to be cross’d, being almost the one-half of the terraquous globe, with the wind always a-head; as for the terrible tempests that happen there, one upon the back of the other …”

“… and for the desperate diseases that seize people, in seven or eight months living at sea, sometimes near the line, sometimes cold, sometimes temperate, sometimes hot, which is enough to destroy a man of steel, much more flesh and blood, which at sea had but indifferent food.’” (Dr. Gemilli, Popular Science, 1901)

“The Spanish captains normally made their eastbound Pacific crossings between 31o N and 44o N latitude to insure that they would remain in the zone of the westerly winds. They would want to avoid the ‘horse latitudes’ (around 30o  N) and they would certainly want to remain well north of the northeast trade winds that would  drive their square rigged ships back to the Philippines.”

“This northerly route back to Acapulco would normally keep the galleons at least 1,000 miles north of Hawaii and it would not be surprising if little or no contact with the Hawaiian Island occurred during these difficult eastbound crossings of the North Pacific.”

“The westbound route from Acapulco offers an entirely different set of navigational considerations.  Friar Urdaneta’s route involved sailing down to 13° N latitude (or 14° N) and following that parallel all the way to Guam and on to the San Bernardino Strait in the Philippines.”

“Unknown to the Spanish navigators, the very favorable ocean currents mentioned above would position their ships much further along their westbound course than indicated by using their ship’s mechanical ‘log’ to measure their ship’s speed through the water.”  (Lloyd)

Some suggest the Spaniards came to the Hawaiian Islands a couple of centuries before Cook saw them.

“Old Spanish charts and a 1613 AD Dutch globe suggest that explorers from Spain had sighted Hawaiʻi long before Captain Cook.  When Cook arrived in 1778, galleons laden with silver from the mines of Mexico and South America had been passing south of Hawaiʻi for two centuries on annual round trip voyages of 17,000 miles between Acapulco and Manila.”  (Kane)

“It seems to be almost certain that one Juan Gaetano, a Spanish navigator, saw Hawaii in 1555 AD. A group of islands, the largest of which was called La Mesa, was laid down in the old Spanish charts in the same latitude as the Hawaiian Islands, but 10 degrees too far east.”  (Hawaiʻi Department of Foreign Affairs, 1896)

“There are undoubted proof of the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by the Spaniard, Juan Gaetano. This is the first known record of the islands among the civilized nations. There are evident references to this group in the legends of the Polynesians in other Pacific islands.”  (Westervelt 1923)

La Perouse noted, when he briefly visited the Islands (1786,) “In the charts, at the foot of this archipelago, might be written: ‘Sandwich Islands, surveyed in 1778 by Captain Cook, who named them, anciently discovered by the Spanish navigators.’”  (La Perouse, Fornander)

“By all the documents that have been examined, it is demonstrated that the discovery dates from the year 1555 and that the discoverer was Juan Gaetano or Gaytan. The principal proof is an old manuscript chart, registered in these archives as anonymous, and in which the Sandwich Islands are laid down under that name, but which also contains a note declaring that he called them Islas de Mesa”.  (Spanish Colonial Office letter to the Governor of the Philippines, The Friend May 1927)

“It is true that no document has been found in which Gaytan himself certifies to this fact, but there exist data which collectively form a series of proofs sufficient for believing it to be so. The principal one is an old manuscript chart … in which the Sandwich Islands are laid down under that name…” (The Friend May 1927)

Gaetano passed through the northern part of the Pacific and discovered large islands which he marked upon a chart as ‘Los Majos.’ The great mountains upon these islands did not rise in sharp peaks, but spread out like a high tableland in the clouds, hence he also called the islands “Isles de Mesa,” the Mesa Islands or the Table Lands. One of the islands was named “The Unfortunate.” Three other smaller islands were called “The Monks.”  (Westervelt 1923)

Fortunately, however, the Spanish made no use of this discovery, thus permitting the Hawaiians to escape the sad fate of the natives of the Ladrones and Carolines under Spanish dominion.  (White 1898)

Juan Gaetano may not have been the first Spaniard, here.  Stories suggest an earlier arrival of shipwrecked Spaniards at Keʻei, Kona Moku (district,) Island of Hawaiʻi.

There is fairly complete evidence that a Spanish vessel was driven ashore on the island of Hawai‘i in 1527, it being one of a squadron of three which sailed from the Mexican coast for the East Indies.  (White 1898)

“A well known Hawaiian tradition relates that in the reign of Keliiokaloa, son of Umi, a foreign vessel was wrecked at Keei, South Kona, Hawaii. According to the tradition, only the captain and his sister reached the shore in safety. From their kneeling on the beach and remaining a long time in that posture, the place was called Kulou (to stoop, to bow,) as it is unto this day.”  (Alexander 1892)

“The natives received them kindly and placed food before them. These strangers intermarried with the Hawaiians, and were the progenitors of certain well known families of chiefs, as for instance, that of Kaikioewa, former Governor of Kauai.“  (Alexander 1892)

Jarves expanded on the story, “In the reign of Kealiiokaloa, son of Umi, thirteen generations of kings before Cook’s arrival, which, according to the previous calculation, would bring it near the year 1620, a vessel, called by the natives Konaliloha, arrived at Pale, Keei, on the south side of Kealakeakua bay, Hawaii.”

“Here, by some accident, she was drawn into the surf, and totally wrecked; the captain, Kukanaloa, and a white woman, said to be his sister, were the only persons who reached the land. As soon as they trod upon the beach, either from fear of the inhabitants, or to return thanks for their safety, they prostrated themselves, and remained in that position for a long time.”

“The spot where this took place, is known at the present day, by the appellation of Kulou, to bow down. The shipwrecked strangers were hospitably received, invited to the dwellings of the natives, and food placed before them.”  (Jarves 1843)

One more thing, the first Hawaiian word written is ‘Hamaite’ – it was spoken to Captain Cook at the time he made contact with the Islands and he wrote it in his journal.

It was made in reference to iron.  Some suggest it refers to Hematite (ferric oxide – a mineral form of iron oxide – that is Hematita in Spanish.)  However, others suggest ‘Hamaite’ is actually a Hawaiian expression of He maita’i – good.  (Schutz)

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