Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Waimea

Hole Waimea i ka ihe a ka makani
Hao mai nā‘ale a ke Kīpu‘upu‘u
He lā‘au kala‘ihi ‘ia na ke anu
I ‘ō‘ō i ka nahele o Mahiki
Kū aku i ka pahu
Kū a ka ‘awa‘awa
Hanane‘e ke kīkala o kō Hilo kini
Ho‘i lu‘ulu‘u i ke one o Hanakahi
Kū aku la ‘oe i ka Malanai
A ke Kīpu‘upu‘u
Holu ka maka o ka ‘ōhāwai a Uli
Niniau ‘eha ka pua o ke koai‘e
Ua ‘eha i ka nahele o Waikā

Waimea strips the spears of the wind
Waves tossed in violence by the Kīpu‘upu‘u rains
Trees brittle in the cold
Are made into spears in Mahiki forest
Hit by the thrusts
Hit by the cold
The hips of Hilo’s throngs sag
Weary, they return to the sands of Hanakahi
Pelted and bruised by
The Kīpu‘upu‘u rains
The petals of Uli sway
The flower of koai‘e droops
Stung by frost, the herbage of Waikā

This is a mele inoa (name chant) for Kamehameha I, that was inherited by his son, Liholiho. This is a tale of the Kîpuʻupuʻu, a band of runners whose name is taken from the cold wind of Maunakea that blows at Waimea on the big island of Hawaiʻi.

They were trained in spear fighting and went to the woods of Mahiki, a woodland in Waimea haunted by demons and spooks, and Waikā to strip the bark of saplings to make spears. Hole means to handle roughly, strip or caress passionately.

In the forest they sang of love, not of work or war. Hanakahi is the district on the Hamakua side of Hilo, named for a chief whose name means profound peace.

Malanai is the name of gentle wind. Pua o Koaiʻe is the blossom of the Koaiʻe tree that grows in the wild, a euphemism for delicate parts. Parts of this old chant, full of double entendre or kaona, was set to music by John Spencer and entitled Waikā.  (Hualapa)

Waimea (which literally means reddish water, as it was thought to be tinted as it was drained through the hāpu‘u tree fern forests or through the red soil) has been poetically characterized as being “like a spear rubbed by the wind, as the cold spray is blown by the kipu‘upu‘u rain…” (Cultural Surveys)

Many elders familiar with the area attribute the red tint not to the red soil, but to the natural color added as the water seeps through the hāpu‘u forest on the slopes of the Kohala Mountains.

The fern plants there are a natural source of red dye, and so they say the reddish tint comes from that vegetation. Perhaps the red tint comes from both the soil and the hāpu‘u.  (Cultural Surveys)

The population of Waimea became the most significant in density, scattered among fields adjacent to streams that provided year-round water for consumption, cleaning and irrigation. The availability of dependable irrigation systems gave Waimea a unique advantage whereby both dryland and irrigated kalo (taro) could be grown.  (Bergin)

The early Waimea inhabitants resided typically within a pā hale (fenced house lot) with a sleeping house and adjacent protected cooking facility. The pā pōhaku (stone wall) surrounded the pā hale, and likely included within was a kīhāpai (garden).

The farming plot (‘apana) of the householder was located elsewhere within the agricultural zone of the respective ahupua’a. These prehistoric farmed areas have become known as the Waimea Field System.  (Bergin)

Dry taro used to be planted along the lower slopes of the Kohala Mountains on the Waimea side, up the gulches and in the lower forest zones. Dry taro was planted also along the slopes toward Honoka’a, and is said to have been grown on the plains south and west of Kamuela.  (Handy)

Archibald Menzies, noted in 1793, “A little higher up, however, than I had time to penetrate, I saw in the verge of the woods several fine plantations, and my guides took great pains to inform me that the inland country was very fertile and numerously inhabited.”

“Indeed, I could readily believe the truth of these assertions, from the number of people I met loaded with the produce of their plantations and bringing it down to the water side to market”. (Menzies)

Kamehameha started marketing sandalwood, a multitude of people from Waimea had been ordered to harvest sandalwood trees from the Kohala Mountains. It was arduous labor that required the men to carry these huge harvested trees to the coastline for shipping.  (Cultural Surveys)

“(W)e were roused by vast multitudes of people passing through the district from Waimea with sandal wood, which had been cut in the adjacent mountains for Karaimoku, by the people of Waimea, and which the people of Kohala, as far as the north point, had been ordered to bring down to his storehouse on the beach, for the purpose of its being shipped to Oahu.”

“There were between two and three thousand men, carrying each from one to six pieces of sandal wood, according to their size and weight.”

“It was generally tied on their backs by bands made of ti leaves, passed over the shoulders and under the arms, and fastened across their breast. When they had deposited the wood at the storehouse, they departed to their respective homes.”  (Ellis)

Other activities had altered the landscape. Captain George Vancouver brought gifts of cattle, goats, and sheep for Kamehameha.  A kapu (prohibition) was instituted and the animals multiplied across Waimea and the rest of the lands of north Hawai‘i Island.

Many walls and enclosures had to be built to protect the people’s cultivated crops from destruction from the animals. In 1803, the horse was also introduced to the island.  (Bergin)

With the lifting of the kapu in 1830, Kamehameha appointed the first authorized cattle hunter, John Palmer Parker.  Three years later, Parker married Keli‘i Kipikane Kaolohaka, a great-granddaughter of Kamehameha. The hunting of animals, and especially the salting and corning of beef and the procurement of hides and tallow, became a booming industry.  (Bergin)

The salted beef, hide, and tallow export industry grew to become a major component of commerce. Forty to fifty-nine whaling ships annually called at Kawaihae in the mid-1850s.

They provisioned taking aboard 1,500 barrels of salt beef, 5,000 barrels of sweet potatoes, 1,200 bullock hides, and 35,000 pounds of tallow on an average. Between Waimea and Kawaihae, South Kohala became the center of the cattle industry. (Bergin)

In 1832, the first of numerous Mexican cowboys arrived on Hawai‘i Island to lend their experience and skills in handling cattle.  While the vaqueros were busy teaching their cowboy skills to Hawaiians in the 1800s, Parker became a leader in the industry.

In 1847, he established the Parker Ranch, an enterprise which would later become one of the greatest ranches under the American flag.  (Bergin)

Overlapping with the arrivals of foreign sailors, whalers, and cowboys to the islands was the equally significant arrival of Christian missionaries.  One of the most famous early missionaries was Lorenzo Lyons, who arrived in the islands in 1832.  He established a Mission Station in Waimea.

The Territory, officially through the US Board of Geographic Names, in 1914, agreed to name the community “Waimea” (and further noted it as a “village.”)  Later, in 1954, they revised the name to simply Waimea (and dropped the village reference.)

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Nonopapa Landing

O‘ahu was the first Hawaiian island sighted by Captain James Cook in January, 1778. Driven off from an anchorage there by winds and currents, Cook came upon Kauai and Niihau, where he spent a few days replenishing stores.  The natives eagerly traded their yams and salt for pieces of iron, and relations were cordial all through Cook’s brief stay.

When he stood away to the north on February 1, he left behind sheep and goats and the good seed of melons, pumpkins, and onions, “being very desirous of benefitting these poor people, by furnishing them with some additional articles of food.” (Dawes and Head)

“In 1847 the king, Kamehameha III, was presented with ‘a plaid-figured blanket’ woven from the wool of Kauai sheep. And one of the first premiums given by the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society in Honolulu was a silver medal awarded in 1851, the report states, for ‘twenty yards of woolen cloth, the sheep raised, and the wool shorn and woven by Joseph Gardener of Kauai.’” (Damon)

In the 1850s the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society pointed out the great potentialities of the Islands for wool production. Sheep ranches were soon established on the Waimea plains of Hawai‘i and on Molokai, Lanai, and Ni‘ihau. (Diversified Agriculture of Hawaii)

In a report by GS Kenway on Sheep Situation in 1852 before the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society Mr. Kenway stated that two Merino ewes imported from Sydney were exhibited at a fair and “two large black beasts of a foreign breed and very mysterious pedigree.” (CTAHR)

“During the nineteenth century, the massive expansion of sheep pastoralism in Australia, New Zealand, the western United States, South Africa, South America, and in less predictable locales such as the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) and Rapa Nui (Easter Island), fueled the alienation of Indigenous peoples from their lands.“

“Hawaiian wool, for example, was purchased during the American Civil War by the Stevens Woolen Mills in Massachusetts, engaged in manufacturing textiles for the Union Army.” (Shaw & FitzSimons)

“Perhaps the largest and longest-lived sheep ranch was the island of Niihau, purchased by the Sinclair family, emigrants from Scotland via New Zealand, in 1864.”

“They introduced sheep, at the same time moving about half of the 500 native inhabitants, and the native dog population, off the island. This left the land clear for their flock of (by 1885) about 40,000 sheep.”

“The extended Sinclair family (including Gays and Robinsons) and their descendants owned sheep runs on other Hawaiian islands, and ran sheep on Niihau until well into the 20th century.” (Shaw & FitzSimons)

In 1863, the Sinclairs decided to sell the Pigeon Bay farm and settle in Canada.  Eliza and 13 members of her family sailed for Canada via Tahiti (captained by her son-in-law, Thomas Gay.)  California was considered as an alternative place to settle, but they were persuaded to try Hawaiʻi. They travelled to Honolulu via Los Angeles.  (Joesting)

On September 17, 1863, the three-hundred-ton ‘Bessie’ anchored in Honolulu Harbor, bearing fine Merino sheep, a cow, hay and grain, chickens, jams and jellies, books and clothing, a grand piano, and thirteen members of the Sinclair family. (Dawes and Head)

The family was anxious to find land on which to settle and they were offered several large tracts on Oʻahu (at Kahuku, Ford Island and ʻEwa.)  When King Kamehameha IV heard the family might leave the Islands, the King offered to sell them the island of Niʻihau.  (Joesting)

But Kamehameha IV died on November 30 before the closing, so Royal Patent No. 2944 shows his brother, Kamehameha V, completed the transaction in 1864.

As he signed the contract, the king said: ‘”Niihau is yours. But the day may come when Hawaiians are not as strong in Hawaii as they are now. When that day comes, please do what you can to help them.’”  (New York Times)

Before the purchase, Ni‘ihauans largely raised dogs for food. But since the Sinclairs intended to use the island for cattle and sheep ranching, they ordered that all the dogs be killed to protect the new livestock. Many islanders refused to kill their animals and so they migrated to Lehua and Kauai. (Tava and Keale)

Unsatisfactory for Hawaiian wet agriculture, Ni‘ihau offered better prospects for livestock. It had one great advantage. Elsewhere in Hawaii the ubiquitous dogs of the Polynesians were a menace to sheep and cattle; on Ni‘ihau, bounded by coast line rather than fences, this problem was quickly mastered. They raised sheep and cattle.  (Dawes and Head)

The Sinclairs “bought sheep and cattle from the big ranches on Hawaii, and took them, with some fine sheep (they) brought with (them) from New Zealand, (began a) new ranch on Niihau.”  (Von Holt) 

In the letters of the Interior Department is one from Charles Gordon Hopkins of the Home Office to Hoffschlaeger and Stapenhorst, agents for Captain Thomas Gray, Commander of the British Barque ‘Bessie’ under date of April 2, 1864, in which permission was granted to carry 3,000 sheep from Molokai to Ni‘ihau.

This apparently was quite unusual to permit a foreign vessel to interfere with the inter-island carrying trade, but was granted because of the likelihood of sheep getting disease or scab from inter-island vessels as well as to encourage the industry just as sugar had been encouraged. (CTAHR)

Sheep raising was concentrated at two places – the Humu‘ulu Sheep Station of the Parker Ranch and the Island of Ni‘ihau. The sheep are kept primarily for wool production-practically all of them being of the Merino breed. (CTAHR)

Parker Ranch wool always brought good prices in Boston where it was marketed. Shearing was done early in the Spring before the kikania burrs had a chance to mature and harden and stick to the wool. For this reason also Parker Ranch wool was always preferred in the Islands as padding for the Hawaiian quilts. (Maly)

“Perhaps the largest and longest-lived sheep ranch was the island of Niihau, purchased by the Sinclair family, emigrants from Scotland via New Zealand, in 1864. They introduced sheep, at the same time moving about half of the 500 native inhabitants, and the native dog population, off the island.”

“This left the land clear for their flock of (by 1885) about 40,000 sheep. The extended Sinclair family (including Gays and Robinsons) and their descendants owned sheep runs on other Hawaiian islands, and ran sheep on Niihau until well into the 20th century.” (Shaw & FitzSimons)

On Ni‘ihau, the only commercial shipping point was Nonopapa Landing situated on the west side of the island. There were four buildings, a small dock and a derrick for loading cargo. Steamers of the Inter-island Steam Navigation Co call here upon request.

The principal products shipped from the island are cattle, sheep, wool, and honey. These are lightered out to the ships in whale boats. (US Coast and Geodetic Survey, Register 4242, 1927)

Nonopapa, also spelled Lonopapa, was the location of the hale pale hulu hipa, the “sheep wool bailing house.” (Clark)  Sheep were sheared at Nonopapa, where the wool was graded, sorted and put in sacks for shipment to the mainland markets (Boston or other Eastern centers). (CTAHR)

Shearing was done with electric shears powered by a generator. Wool was sometimes stained by the red dirt on the island, making it difficult to sell. Sheep were also sold to other ranches, or sold for meat off-island. (Tava and Keale)

“There is a carriage road through from Ki to the ranch house and Nonopapa. From the road you get a view of the most fertile portion of the island. On the occasion of this visit, although it was a dry season, the grass and other vegetation looked wonderfully healthy, and the cattle and horses were sleek and in good condition.” (Hawaiian Directory, 1896-7; Evening Bulletin, Apr 5, 1899)

“The natives on Niihau … call Mrs (Sinclair) ‘Mama.’ Their rent seems to consist in giving one or more days’ service in a month, so it is a revival of the old feudality. … It is a busy life, owing to the large number of natives daily employed, and the necessity of looking after the native lunas, or overseers.”  (Isabella Bird, 1894)

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Fred Harvey Company

The rapid growth of railroads after the Civil War was both a response to an existing need and an attempt to meet the challenge of future development. The frontier was pushing across the Kansas plains. (Snell)

Cyrus K Holliday took concrete steps toward the building of a railroad to the west as early as 1859; he has been credited with inaugurating the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (Santa Fe) railroad system.

“The said company is hereby authorized and empowered to survey, locate, construct, complete, alter, maintain and operate a railroad, with one or more tracks, from or near Atchison, on the Missouri River, in Kansas Territory, to the town of Topeka, in Kansas Territory, and to such a point on the southern or western boundary of said Territory, in the direction of Santa Fe, in the Territory of New Mexico”. (AT&SF Charter; Snell)

After getting to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the rail reached Needles, California in 1883 and would later reach all the way to Los Angeles in 1885 with a connection to San Francisco by 1900.

Frederick Henry Harvey was born on June 27, 1835 to Charles and Helen Manning Harvey, he lived in Liverpool, England with his family until they immigrated to the United States in 1850.

He first worked as a dishwasher with Smith and McNeill Café in New York for just $2 per day. He moved to New Orleans; then in 1853, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Six years later, he and a partner opened a restaurant in St. Louis (just before the Civil War broke out.)

The Civil War was bad for the restaurant industry, but good for the rail industry. Mr Harvey’s business partner left to join the Confederacy and the restaurant closed.

Harvey went to work for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (commonly called the ‘Burlington.’) On January 14, 1860 he married Barbara Sarah Mattas; they had 7 children, 5 of which survived to adulthood.

During this time, Harvey noticed that the lunchrooms serving rail passengers were deplorable and most trains did not have dining cars, even on extended trips. The custom at the time was typically to make dining stops every 100-miles or so.

The dining stops were short, no longer than an hour, and the passengers were expected to find a restaurant, order their meal, get served and eat. When the train was ready to go, it left, often leaving passengers stranded at the station.

Harvey tried unsuccessfully to interest the Burlington in a co-operative arrangement to provide good food for travelers. But the Santa Fe was interested and early in 1876 he acquired the lunchroom at the Topeka depot. Service and food were dramatically improved, and both Harvey and the Santa Fe desired to see his operations expanded.

Before long, the first Harvey House Restaurant opened in the Topeka, Kansas Santa Fe Depot Station in 1876. Leasing the lunch counter at the depot, Harvey’s business focused on cleanliness, service, reasonable prices and good food. It was an immediate success.

The Harvey Houses became the first chain restaurants, with the Topeka depot becoming the training base for the new chain along the Santa Fe Route. Soon Harvey lunchrooms extended from Kansas to California.

By the late-1880s, there was a Harvey establishment every one hundred miles along the Santa Fe line. Setting high standards for efficiency and cleanliness, the food was always served on china and customers were required to wear coats.

Harvey found that the men he hired to work in his restaurants weren’t working out; he began hiring women at a time when the only jobs for respectable females were as domestics or teachers. Harvey began to recruit them in newspaper ads across the country.

In order to qualify as one of the ‘Harvey Girls,’ the women had to have at least an eighth grade education, good moral character, good manners, and be neat and articulate. Harvey paid good wages, as much as $17.50 per month with free room, board and uniforms.

In return for employment, the Harvey Girls would agree to a six month contract, agree not to marry and abide by all company rules during the term of employment. In no time, these became much sought after jobs.

The famous ‘Harvey Girls,’ carefully trained, well-groomed young women who were hired as waitresses, further increased customer traffic. Before long, Harvey was operating restaurants, hotels, gift shops and newsstands in increasing numbers along the railroad route.

Fred Harvey’s rest houses became gathering places for visitors searching for mementos of Indian land and the Native residents of some of the West’s most striking cultural and geographic terrain.

In the 1890s, the Santa Fe Railway began including dining cars on some of its trains; Harvey got the contract to serve food on those, as well. About this same time, George Pullman began building (and staffing) his own sleeping cars.

After World War I, rising affluence, more automobiles and more leisure time hurt the Harvey Company. While keeping many Harvey Houses, they moved away from full reliance on train passengers. They packaged motor trips of the southwest, including tours of Native American villages (Indian Detours) and natural wonders(such as the Grand Canyon

At its peak, there were 84 Harvey Houses. They continued to be built and operated into the 1930s and 1940s (in 1946, its 7,000 employees served 33,000,000 meals a year to travelers.)

So, what’s the Hawai‘i connection? … In 1968, Amfac (one of Hawai‘i’s ‘Big Five’ companies) bought the Fred Harvey Company.

Amfac had its beginning in the Islands when, on September 26, 1849, German sea captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld arrived in Honolulu and opened a general merchandise business (dry goods, crockery, hardware and stationery,) wholesale, as well as retail store.

Hackfeld later became a prominent ‘factor’ – business agent and shipper – for the sugar plantations. However, with the advent of the US involvement in World War I, things changed. In 1918, the US government seized H Hackfeld & Company and ordered the sale of German-owned shares. (Jung)

The patriotic sounding ‘American Factors, Ltd,’ the newly-formed Hawaiʻi-based corporation (whose largest shareholders included Alexander & Baldwin, C Brewer & Company, Castle & Cooke, HP Baldwin Ltd, Matson Navigation Company and Welch & Company,) bought the H Hackfeld stock. (Jung) At that same time, the BF Ehlers dry goods store took the patriotic ‘Liberty House’ name.

American Factors shortened its name to “Amfac” in 1966. The next year (1967,) Henry Alexander Walker became president and later Board Chairman of Amfac.

Amfac first got into resort management in 1962 when it developed some of its land at Kāʻanapali Beach Resort, Hawaiʻi’s first master-planned resort. Twenty-five years after it started, the Urban Land Institute recognized Kāʻanapali Beach Resort with an Award of Excellence for Large-Scale Recreational Development.

Amfac expanded its resort experience in the Islands in 1969 when it acquired Island Holidays Hotel Co and its chain of ‘Palms’ resorts (including Kona Palms, Maui Palms and Coco Palms) started by ‘Gus’ and Grace Guslander.

Walker took Amfac from a company that largely depended on sugar production in Hawaiʻi to a broadly diversified conglomerate (which included the acquisition of the Fred Harvey Company in 1968.)

Later (2002,) the resort management company became known as Xanterra Parks and Resorts. (Lots of information here is from Harvey Houses, Armstrong, Legends of America and Xanterra.)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Central Fire Station

No organized fire protection system existed in Honolulu until November 6, 1850, when the city’s first volunteer fire brigade was formed.

On December 27, 1850, King Kamehameha III established by ordinance in the Privy Council creating the Honolulu Volunteer Fire Department; the 1851 legislature enacted the ordinance into law.

In August 1851, a second-hand fire engine was purchased through public subscription and became the property of Engine Company No. 1.

Within ten years, the city had four engine companies, including No. 4, which was composed exclusively of Hawaiians. Kings Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and Kalakaua were all active members of this company. (NPS)

In 1870, the tallest structure in Honolulu was the bell tower of Central Fire Station, then-located on Union Street. Spotters would sit in the tower, ready to sound the alarm. (HawaiiHistory)

In 1897, Central Fire Station was relocated to its present site at Beretania and Fort Streets, a consolidation of Engine Companies 1 and 2.

“The city of Honolulu is protected from fire by a very efficient department. The central fire station is not only an ornament to the city, but contains all the necessary conveniences for its intended purpose.”

The 2½-story blue stone Central Fire Station was one of three stations at the time; the others were the 2-story wooden Makiki Station and the 2-story brick Palama Station.

There were 200 3-way standing and 50-ground hydrants distributed throughout the City. Plans were underway for a fire alarm telegraph system with 65-alarm boxes. (Report of the Governor of the Territory of Hawaii; to the Secretary of the Interior, 1901)

The Central Fire Station soon became outmoded. The Romanesque Revival rock structure was replaced in 1934 by a Dickey designed Moderne/Art Deco two-story reinforced concrete building (Kohn M Young was the engineer.) It previously served as headquarters for the Honolulu Fire Department.

The building is five bays wide and dominated by the three middle bays with their one-and-one-half story Art Deco aluminum doorways which were constructed by the California Artistic Metal and Wire Company of San Francisco.

Above the doors are aluminum panels with linear designs with an octagon in the middle containing the letter HFD. Above each panel is a set of four windows.

The end bays each contain a first story window and a set of three second story windows. All second story windows are jalousies, and the first floor windows are tinted plate glass.

A decorative belt course bands the top of this flat roofed building. This banding employs the octagonal HFD motif of the door panels. An abbreviated tower of approximately thirty feet rises from the roof at the rear of the right bay. This tower has a pair of long rectangular louvers running its height.

In 1949, a one-story hollow tile addition was erected at the rear to provide additional office space. The Ewa (northwest) side of the building features a balcony with geometric deco decoration. Behind the balcony is a set of three windows with rectangular pillars between them. (NPS)

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The Islands in 1828

Paul-Emile Botta was born to Carlo Botta, an eminent historian and educator, and Antoinette de Vierville of Chambery, in Turin on December 6, 1802. His mother died when he was still a child. In 1815, he became naturalized as a Frenchman.

In 1826, the French prepared for a round-the-world voyage on Le Heros, On board regulations required that there be a surgeon; Botta, though not yet a full-fledged doctor, was appointed to that post. He was also charged with the duties of naturalist aboard, with the mission of collecting examples.

The Heros, a three-masted ship of 362 tons, with 32 men on board, left the port of Le Havre on April 9, 1826, circumnavigated the globe. The following, in Botta’s words, are his observations of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi) when he and Le Heros visited the Islands from September 17, 1828 to November 15, 1828. (The quotation marks are dropped.)

The natives of the Sandwich Islands are for the most part large and well built. Among them are often found men who, in figure and proportion, recall the most beautiful statues of antiquity.

They vary a great deal in color. Sometimes it is a very dark brown, almost black, but at other times, to the contrary, it is a rather light brown, almost yellow. Their faces are pleasing, especially because of the expression of goodness and joviality always displayed on them … their hearts are full of goodness and friendliness.

The men are completely naked except for a type of belt of which one portion passes between their thighs, called by them maro. They have … a custom of knotting about the end of the prepuce a piece of reed, when they are not wearing the maro; this is the last bit of clothing that they are accustomed to take off.

The women … ordinarily wear a cloth skirt and a garment made of a fabric of the islands covering their thighs. Yet I saw some of them indoors having as their sole clothing a belt of leaves. This is the attire of the common people; the chiefs, however, as well as their women, at present dress in European fashion, some indeed with a studied affectation.

The Sandwich islanders, at least the common people, eat chiefly vegetables. Their principal food is taro, root of a type of arum which when raw is very bitter and even poisonous, but when cooked has an excellent flavor, superior to that of the potato.

They eat it either cooked in their underground ovens or pounded into a paste, often half fermented, which they call poi, and which is the basis of their meals.

Potatoes, carrots, and fish, which they eat raw most of the time, or else pounded with water and salt, are, after taro, their commonest foods.

Their customary drink is only water … very few islanders are to be seen giving themselves up to drunkenness. They still, however, make use of the infusion of ava to get intoxicated.

They also prepare a type of brandy with the root of a plant very common in the island, which they call lahi. The root is thick, fibrous, though rather tender and of a very sweet and sugary flavor when cooked. The brandy made of it through fermentation is very strong. This root is called ti.

The islanders’ homes are small houses made with a light scaffolding covered over by dry grasses. They are formed with a roof, the sides rising obliquely almost from the ground. They usually have two doors, set in accordance with the direction of the most frequent winds, providing for coolness inside.

The floor is formed by a layer of dry rushes covered over by a rather large number of mats. The floor usually serves as table and as bed, some chiefs’ homes excepted; the latter are sometimes furnished most elegantly in European style.

These very simple houses are cool and inexpensive and islanders as well as some Europeans prefer them to houses built of stone or wood, as some quite pretty ones transported from America are.

The chief occupation of the islanders is the cultivation of taro, which requires much toil and care. This plant grows well only in marshy terrain, and even in mud; therefore, all the upper valleys and terrain at the foot of the mountains are divided into small plots covered with water and separated by narrow embankments, which are the only paths.

Taro is planted in rows or in regular quincunxes in little ponds, into which the natives are often obliged to dive, either to harvest the roots, or to pull out the reeds and other grasses which might hinder their growth.

The water is brought there by means of little irrigation canals, made with great care, and which divide infinitely, passing from one taro field to another, so that a small stream can irrigate a great number of fields placed in terraces one above another on a hill slope. All this cultivation gives an impressive notion of the industriousness of these people.

Fishing is, next to taro, the principal resource of the Sandwich islanders; they now use European hooks. In order to catch great sea fish such as the bonitos or the dorados, however, they join them to bits of polished mother-of-pearl with bristles at one end, which, in the water, gives the appearance of a small fish, with sufficient exactness for the big fish to be deceived by them.

Their nets are very well made and they have some, I have been told, that are large and are the common property of several villages.

The dug-out canoes used by the islanders have the bottom made from a hollowed out tree, pointed at the two ends; it is raised by two boards joined to the two ends tapering; they are provided with a balance, formed by a piece of wood parallel to the dug-out canoe and sustained by two cross-bars. The paddles have rounded blades. When they desire, they add a mast and a trapezoidal sail to the canoes.

The recreation of the islanders consists only of lascivious dances, and I have always seen them performed by women and never by men. … The tunes have, properly speaking, no melody, for they are made of only one or two notes. To hear them sung, one would believe that they are rather being chanted. I have not seen any musical instrument except a small drum made out of coconut.

But their favorite pleasure is swimming. Men, women, and children all know how to swim and they are all constantly in the water.

Nothing is more interesting than to see them devoting themselves to the exercise they call henalou, that is, mounting the waves. In the places where the coral reef surrounding the island and stretching far out causes the water to have a depth of only between seven and eight feet, the sea rolls its waves in a frightening manner, sometimes for a distance of over a mile, until they come to break at the shore.

In these places the Sandwich islanders place themselves on their stomachs on a board oval in shape, elongated, somewhat convex on each side. They then swim with their hands and feet, passing over or under the waves constantly rolling over the reef, going out to sea where they wait for a wave which they think will inevitably reach the shore.

Then they place themselves in front of it, letting themselves be carried thus with incredible speed, without losing their balance, continually pushed forward by the wave the summit of which, towering above, seems destined to engulf them. This exercise which has always seemed terrifying to me is just a game for them.

The language of the Sandwich islanders is sweet and harmonious, because of the great number of vowels and few consonants found in it. …. The vowels are a, e, i, o, and u. The consonants are f, h, k, 1, m, n, p, r, t, and v. But the number of consonants should be reduced, for the inhabitants use some of them indifferently for others; thus r and l, k and t, p and f, are letters which seem for them to have the same sound.

Such are the observations which a stay of two months on Wahou has permitted me to make. They are most incomplete, and I greatly desire to be one day in a position to make a better study of these people, rendered so likeable by their goodness and sweetness …. (This summary is based on a translation and summary from Knowlton.)

The image shows the town of Honolulu as it looked when Botta arrived in the Islands. (Beechey)

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