General | Page 42 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 5, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lāhainā Historic District

This is a hard one … obviously, these are gone; but they are not forgotten. It is merely given to give some context to what was lost; as well as a reminder for us to not forget the lives and property lost by others.

The first capital of the kingdom of Hawai‘i, Lāhainā, was also once a bustling whaling town and plantation settlement. To recognize and preserve its rich history, two sets of historic districts have been created in Lāhainā.

The first, the Lāhainā Historic District encompassing about 1,665 acres, was added to the National Park Service’s (NPS) National Historic Landmarks Program in December 1962. Maui County Historic District Boundaries 1 and 2 cover about 65 acres in Lāhainā.

This summary highlights the nine structures that were identified in the Lāhainā Historic District (NPS;) the principal historic structures and sites include the following.

Because these are also part of the Lāhainā Historic Trail, I am using the Lāhainā Restoration Foundation numbering for each.

14 – Court House
This solid, two-story stone building stands on Wharf Street, in the square bounded by Wharf, Hotel, Front and Canal Streets (on the site of the old stone fort.) The Court House Square is famed today for its banyan tree, planted by the sheriff of Lāhainā in 1873 and proclaimed today as ‘Hawaii’s largest.’

After an 1858 violent windstorm damaged government buildings here, a new ‘Lahaina Court and Custom House and Government Offices,’ was completes by December, 1859. In addition to the offices mentioned above, it contained the Governor’s office, post office and ‘a room in which to starve the jury into unanimity.’

16 – Pioneer Hotel
Built in 1901 and therefore not strictly connected with Lāhainā’s most significant era, this well-known hotel is nevertheless a key part of the Lāhainā scene (corner of Wharf and Hotel Streets.)

The description of the hotel in one guide book – ‘a large box of a building … with a wide balcony and decorative wooden railing’ – may be accurate, but it fails to convey the tropical atmosphere of Lāhainā’s first hotel.

18 – Old Spring House
The Old Spring House is said to have been built by the Rev. William Richards in 1823 to enclose a spring to supply water not only for his own dwelling nearby, but for the entire community and for ships anchored off the town.

According to local tradition, a hand pump here was visited by crews of sailors who ‘constantly rolled huge casks for water.’ The Spring House apparently is thus one of the few remaining physical links with the whaling era.

21 – Baldwin House
Completed early in 1835, Dr. Dwight Baldwin and his family occupied this two-story home, built of coral blocks, it until Dr. Baldwin was transferred to Honolulu in 1868 (some sources say the Baldwins lived in the house until 1871.) It is one of the oldest and best preserved missionary dwellings.

Dr. Baldwin, in addition to serving as pastor of the Hawaiian church at Lāhainā and, for a time, as seamen’s chaplain, was a medical doctor; and he was government physician for the islands of Maui, Moloka‘i, and Lāna‘i. Dr. Baldwin’s son, Henry P. Baldwin, was born in this house.

44 – United States Marine Hospital
Around 1842, this hospital was established for sick and injured American merchant seamen. The hospital could accommodate about 60 men; it’s on the landward side of Front Street, between Kenui and Baker Streets, about 0.6 mile north of the Baldwin House.

In 1865, the structure was sold to the Episcopal Church and became a school for girls, and during the 1870s it was turned into a vicarage and served as such for more than 30 years.

48 – Maria Lanakila First Catholic Church
The first resident Roman Catholic priests arrived at Lahaina on April 21, 1846. A church was built on the present site that same year, but it was replaced by a new structure in 1858 (Waine‘e and Dickenson Streets.)

The present concrete church, erected in 1927-1928, was built on the same foundation and is almost a replica of the older frame structure, it is said that the original ceiling was retained in the new building.

50 – Hale Aloha
The predecessor of this building, known as the Hale Halewai, or Hale Lai, is sometimes said to have been built as early as 1823; and it, instead of the Waine‘e Church, is occasionally claimed as the first stone church in the island (behind the Episcopal Cemetery in about the center of the large block bounded by Waine‘e, Hale and Chapel Streets and Prison Road.)

The meetinghouse was in bad condition by 1855 and the church voted to rebuild completely, the walls being ‘too old fashioned to be tolerated in these go-ahead days.’ The present building, called ‘Hale Aloha,’ was completed in 1858 and was ‘the largest sectional meeting house of its time.’ In 1860, the government fitted it out for use as an English Church.

53 – Old Prison (Hale Pa‘ahao)
In addition to ordinary criminals, the authorities at Lāhainā generally had on their hands a number of boisterous seamen who had run afoul of the law in one way or another during their periods of ‘refreshment’ ashore. During the 1830s and 1840s prisoners usually were confined in the fort which stood on the seaward side of the present square (see the Court House above.)

A new prison was started in 1852. The main cell block, built of planks, was constructed in that year, but the wall around the grounds, built of coral blocks from the old fort, was not erected until about 1854 (at the corner of Waine‘e Street and Prison Road.) Prisoners performed much of the labor.

56 -57 -Waine‘e Church and Cemetery (Waiola Cemetery and Church)
For several years after the American Board missionaries reached Lāhainā in 1823, services were held in temporary structures. In 1828 the chiefs, led by Hoapili, proposed to build a new stone church, and the present site was selected (on Waine‘e Street, between Chapel and Shaw Streets.)

The cornerstone was laid on September 14, 1828, for this “first stone meeting-house built at the Islands.” Dedicated on March 4, 1832, this large, two-story, galleried Waine‘e Church was twice destroyed by Kauaula winds and once, in 1894, by a fire of incendiary origin. The present church structure was dedicated in 1953, at which time the name was changed to Waiola.

The adjoining cemetery is said to date from 1823. It contains the body of Keōpūolani, wife of Kamehameha the Great and mother of Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III. Other prominent Hawaiian nobles interred here include Governor Hoapili, King Kaumuali‘i, Princess Nahi‘ena‘ena, Queen Kalākua and Governess Liliha.

March 31, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Easter

Easter, Latin Pascha, Greek Pascha, is a principal festival of the Christian church, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion.

The earliest recorded observance of an Easter celebration comes from the 2nd century, though the commemoration of Jesus’ Resurrection probably occurred earlier.

There is now widespread consensus that the word derives from the Christian designation of Easter week as in albis, a Latin phrase that was understood as the plural of alba (“dawn”) and became eostarum in Old High German, the precursor of the modern German and English term. The Latin and Greek Pascha (“Passover”) provides the root for Pâques, the French word for Easter. (Britannica)

“The word ‘Easter’ comes from Old English, meaning simply the ‘East.’ The sun which rises in the East, bringing light, warmth, and hope, is a symbol for the Christian of the rising Christ, who is the true Light of the world.”

“The Paschal Candle used during the Easter Vigil is a central symbol of this divine light, which is Christ. It is kept near the ambo throughout Easter Time and lit for all liturgical celebrations.”

“The Easter Vigil is the ‘Mother of All Vigils’ and Easter Sunday is the greatest of all Sundays.”

“The season of Easter is the most important of all liturgical times, which Catholics celebrate as the Lord’s resurrection from the dead, culminating in his Ascension to the Father and sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church.”

“The octave of Easter comprises the eight days which stretch from the first to the second Sunday. It is a way of prolonging the joy of the initial day.”

“There are 50 days of Easter from the first Sunday to Pentecost. It is characterized, above all, by the joy of glorified life and the victory over death expressed most fully in the great resounding cry of the Christian: Alleluia! All faith flows from faith in the resurrection: ‘If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, is your faith.’ (1 Cor 15:14)”

“What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind;…”

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.”

“So, too, it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living being,’ the last Adam a life-giving spirit.”

“But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven.”

“As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one. (1 Cor 15:36-37, 42-49)” (USCCB)

In the Christian calendar, Easter follows Lent, the period of 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter, which traditionally is observed by acts of penance and fasting.

Easter is immediately preceded by Holy Week, which includes Maundy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples; Good Friday, the day of his Crucifixion; and Holy Saturday, the transition between Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Liturgically, Easter comes after the Great Vigil, which was originally observed sometime between sunset on Easter Saturday and sunrise on Easter Sunday. Later it would be celebrated in Western churches on Saturday evening, then on Saturday afternoon, and finally on Sunday morning. (Britannica)

Easter, like Christmas, has accumulated a great many traditions, some of which have little to do with the Christian celebration of the Resurrection but derive from folk customs.

The custom of the Easter lamb appropriates both the appellation used for Jesus in Scripture (“behold the lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world,” John 1:29) and the lamb’s role as a sacrificial animal in ancient Israel.

In antiquity Christians placed lamb meat under the altar, had it blessed, and then ate it on Easter. Since the 12th century the Lenten fast has ended on Easter with meals including eggs, ham, cheeses, bread, and sweets that have been blessed for the occasion.

The use of painted and decorated Easter eggs was first recorded in the 13th century. The church prohibited the eating of eggs during Holy Week, but chickens continued to lay eggs during that week, and the notion of specially identifying those as “Holy Week” eggs brought about their decoration.

The egg itself became a symbol of the Resurrection. Just as Jesus rose from the tomb, the egg symbolizes new life emerging from the eggshell. In the Orthodox tradition eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood Jesus shed on the cross.

Easter egg hunts are popular among children in the United States. First lady Lucy Hayes, the wife of Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes, is often credited with sponsoring the first annual Easter egg roll (an event where children and their parents were invited to roll their eggs on the Monday following Easter) on the White House lawn, in 1878.

That year the event was moved to the White House from the grounds of the U.S. Capitol Building, where large numbers of children had gathered beginning in the early 1870s to roll their eggs and play on Easter Monday.

The custom of associating a rabbit or bunny with Easter arose in Protestant areas in Europe in the 17th century but did not become common until the 19th century.

The Easter rabbit is said to lay the eggs as well as decorate and hide them. In the United States the Easter rabbit also leaves children baskets with toys and candies on Easter morning. In a way, this was a manifestation of the Protestant rejection of Catholic Easter customs.

In some European countries, however, other animals – in Switzerland the cuckoo, in Westphalia the fox – brought the Easter eggs. (Britannica)

March 30, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Land Between

What does that mean?

It’s the uses between “urban” and “agriculture” – it’s not really urban and it’s not really agriculture. It’s between the two and has the kind of land uses that share characteristics of each.

And, it’s generally what folks on the neighbor islands and parts of O‘ahu call their hometown areas.

For most places on the neighbor islands and many parts of Oʻahu we call this land use “Country” or “Rural” – it’s how the residents describe their communities and neighborhoods. But it is a lost land use.

Here’s the math: out of over 4-million acres of land in the State, only 11,602-acres (less than 1/3 of 1% of the total land area) is “Rural.”

“Urban” has only 198,600 acres (less than 5% of the total;) and the balance is split pretty evenly between Agricultural (47%) and Conservation (48%) (about 1.9-million acres, each.)

Why is so much of the state considered by its residents as “rural” or “country,” but State planning has so little land area designated as such?

We are living with a land use regulatory process that was written and mapped 50-years ago. Times have changed, yet the required updates to the mapping and associated regulations have not kept up with the times.

While the communities and Counties are more aware, sophisticated and up-to-date with their regional and locational planning, the State continues to look at land use with half-century old eyes.

Let’s correct this and call this regional land use what the people call it – Rural (Better yet, what about “Country?”) – and , let’s also update and improve on “Rural” use standards.

Uses in the Rural district cannot simply and only be ½-acre minimum lot size home-site development projects (as they are limited to, today.)

Rural communities are “communities.”

There are community centers, houses, stores, schools and parks – where there are places where people interact, live, work, learn and play. They are not simply home-sites.

The Rural Land Use Designation does not presently permit these small town and diverse uses … it should.

Many Rural communities, whether primarily Ag-based or simply “country,” don’t want urban design standards – they want characteristics that reflect their relaxed lifestyle.

We need to amend the State planning maps to accurately reflect these uses, broaden the uses permitted in the Rural district and finally define what has been and is actually happening.

Again, let’s not let Honolulu bias impose upon or dictate to others.

Honolulu urban design standards are not the be all and end all across the state.

I remember when Waimea on the Big Island got its first traffic signal in the middle of town. For a few years, cowboys and others on horseback going through town would lean down and press the “walk” button to cross the street.

They are gone now, because the grass shoulders have been taken over by curbs, gutters and sidewalks – not very friendly to rural lifestyles.

For some reason, the initial land use mapping and permitted uses of the early 1960s left out Rural – even though that’s what a lot of people called their lifestyle.

It’s time to correctly map and expand our land uses (even rethink the need to have the State tell the neighbor island communities how they should look) … that means a generous amount of land should be in the “Rural” district with uses that fit the rural/country lifestyle – for now and into the future.

The image shows a friendly reminder of how life once was in Waimea on the Big Island.

March 25, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

1808

In the Islands, Paki “appears in the genealogy of the Chiefs of this Nation, from ancient times, and he is a high Chief of this land descended from Haloa, that being the one father of the children living in this world, and the father of our people.”

“Part of his genealogy is taken from the High Chiefs of the land, and he is part of Kamehameha’s, and he is part of Kiwalao’s, and he is a hereditary chief of a single line from ancient times; and he was a father who rescued from trouble his people of this nation from Hawaii to Kauai.” (Nupepa Kuakoa, Elele E, 6/16/1855, p. 20)

“He was born at Kainalu, Molokai, in the month of Nana.” (Nupepa Kuakoa, Elele E, 6/16/1855, p. 20) Handy and Pukui tell us that “Nana (March) means ‘getting better,’ referring to the subsiding of the stormy weather characteristic of the preceding month (February).” (Hawaiian Planters)

Paki was “the last of the family of old high chiefs. … His father’s name was Kalanihelemaiiluna, and his mother’s Kahooheiheipahu. He was born on the island Molokai, in the year ‘Ualakaa’”.

Per Fornander, Paki’s birth reference points to a National Chronological Era that refers to the time frame that Kamehameha I was farming uala (sweet potatoes) at Ualaka‘a (rolling sweet potato – what we now call Round Top at Mānoa Valley).

“[Paki] was an intimate friend of the King [Kamehameha III] and was a person of considerable weight and importance in the affairs of the nation. He held during his life, some high offices of trust and honor; being at different times, one of the judges of the Supreme Court, acting Governor, Privy Councillor, member of the House of Nobles, and Chamberlain to the King.” (Bennett)

Paki’s and his wife Konia (also a high chief) were the parents of Bernice Pauahi Pākī (born December 19, 1831); she later married Charles Reed Bishop.

On the continent, on a Saturday afternoon in August, 1806, five Williams College students, Congregationalists in background, gathered in a field to discuss the spiritual needs of those living in Asian countries. The five who attended were Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green.

The meeting was interrupted by the approaching storm. This became known as the Haystack Prayer Meeting. The first American student missionary society began in September 1808, when Mills and others called themselves “The Brethren,” whose object was “to effect, in the person of its members, a mission or missions to the heathen.” (Smith)

The young seminarians convinced the General Association of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts to form The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. (Williams College)

In 1808, ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia, the lone surviving member of his family, was at Kealakekua Bay, training under his uncle, Pahua, to be a kahuna at Hikiʻau Heiau. But ʻŌpūkahaʻia was not destined to be a kahuna.

“I began to think about leaving that country, to go to some other part of the globe. I did not care where I shall go to. I thought to myself that if I should get away, and go to some other country, probably I may find some comfort, more than to live there, without father and mother.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

The convergence of the Triumph sailing to Kealakekua, and ʻŌpūkahaʻia desiring to leave Hawai‘i, set in motion a chain of events key to the sending of missionaries to Hawai‘i, a decade later.

“About this time there was a ship (the Triumph) come from New York; – Captain Brintnall the master of the ship. As soon as it got into the harbour, in the very place where I lived, I thought of no more but to take the best chance I had, and if the captain have no objection, to take me as one of his own servants and to obey his word.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

‘Ōpūkaha’ia swam out to and boarded Brintnall’s ‘Triumph’ in Kealakekua Bay. “After supper the captain made some inquiry to see if we were willing to come to America; and soon I made a motion with my head that I was willing to go.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

“My parting with them (grandmother, aunt & uncle) was disagreeable to them and to me, but I was willing to leave all my relations, friends and acquaintance; expected to see them no more in this world.” “We set out on our journey …” (‘Ōpūkaha’ia)

After travelling to the American Northwest, then to China, they landed in New York in 1809. They continued to New Haven, Connecticut. ʻŌpūkahaʻia was eager to study and learn – seeking to be a student at Yale.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia “was sitting on the steps of a Yale building, weeping. A solicitous student stopped to inquire what was wrong, and Obookiah (the spelling of his name, based on its sound) said, ‘No one will give me learning.’”

The student was Edwin Dwight, a distant relative of the college president. “(W)hen the question was put him, ‘Do you wish to learn?’ his countenance began to brighten. And when the proposal was made that he should come the next day to the college for that purpose, he served it with great eagerness.” (Dwight)

ʻŌpūkahaʻia was taken as a servant into the family of the Rev. Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College, where he was treated with kindness, and taught the first principles of Christianity. At length, Mr. Samuel J. Mills Jr., took him under his particular patronage, and took him to live with his father, the Rev. Mr. Mills of Torringford.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia was being groomed to be a key figure in a mission to Hawai‘i, to be joined by Samuel Mills Jr. Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died at Cornwall on February 17, 1818, and several months later Mills died at sea off West Africa after surveying lands that became Liberia.

Dwight is remembered for putting together a book, ‘Memoirs of Henry Obookiah’ (the spelling of the name based on its pronunciation), as a fundraiser for the Foreign Mission School. It was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries. The book about his life was printed and circulated after his death, becoming a best-seller of its day.

‘Ōpūkaha’ia, inspired by many young men with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book inspired missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Hawaiian Islands.

From Andover Theological Seminary, Hiram Bingham wrote in a letter dated July 18, 1819, to Reverend Samuel Worcester of the ABCFM that “the unexpected and afflictive death of Obookiah, roused my attention to the subject, & perhaps by writing and delivering some thoughts occasioned by his death I became more deeply interested than before in that cause for which he desired to live …”

“… & from that time it seemed by no means impossible that I should be employed in the field which Henry had intended to occupy … the possibility that this little field in the vast Pacific would be mine, was the greatest, in my own view.” (Bingham noted by Brumaghim)

In Europe, 1808 was also the year Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony premiered. The symphony premiered on December 22, 1808, in Vienna, and it soon became a standard against which many other symphonies were measured. (Britannica)

“The most common story that is told is that Beethoven allegedly said that the opening of the symphony was supposedly symbolizing fate knocking at the door,” Matthew Guerrieri, author of “The First Four Notes: Beethoven’s Fifth and the Human Imagination,” told NPR.

“By the time he was twelve, Ludwig van Beethoven was earning a living for his family by playing organ and composing. He was eventually known as the greatest pianist of his time. One of Beethoven’s favorite foods was macaroni and cheese. He also loved strong coffee – exactly 60 coffee beans to one cup.” (Dallas Symphony Orchestra)

“One of the greatest composers in the Western musical tradition, Ludwig van Beethoven revolutionized virtually every form and genre of music in which he composed.” (LA Philharmonic)

”Beethoven never married even though he proposed to plenty of women who rejected him (he wasn’t very attractive and he had a rather nasty temper). Yet in spite of his unpleasant personality, Beethoven is best defined by his music.”

“His first two symphonies are very much in the same style and form as those of composers that came before him, most notably Franz Joseph Haydn, his teacher. Beethoven’s writing – as seen in his third symphony – had developed beyond that of his teacher.”

“Although Beethoven gradually lost his hearing, he continued composing. He composed many of the most famous musical works of all time, such as his Ninth Symphony, after he had become totally deaf.” (Dallas Symphony Orchestra)

March 24, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Who Came Next?

Significant advances in radiocarbon dating and the targeted re-dating of key Eastern Polynesian and Hawaiian sites has strongly supported and suggested that initial Polynesian discovery and colonization of the Hawaiian Islands occurred between approximately AD 1000 and 1200. (Kirch)

Who came next – the English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish …?

English

In the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted and made ‘Contact’ with what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

But, was Cook the first foreigner to find Hawaiʻi? Some suggest that Cook’s references to the Hawaiian interest in iron, and some of the iron implements noted by Cook’s crew at the time of his Contact suggest contact prior to the Englishmen Cook and his crew.

Since some of the terms for ‘iron’ also are applied to ‘foreigners,’ the indications are that the various Polynesians learned of iron, either directly through foreigners, or by means of wreckage from foreign ships. The early Polynesians were not iron producers, because, valuing the metal as they did, they apparently were unable to obtain it by smelting. (Stokes)

Japanese

There is reference to Japanese contact well before Cook’s time. Kalākaua’s ‘The Legends and Myths of Hawaii’ titled ‘Iron Knife’. It speaks of early Japanese visitors to the Islands and the Japanese captain’s sword – the time frame is about the 1300s.

“It was late in the afternoon that word had been brought to Wakalana that a strange vessel was approaching the coast. As it was high out of water and drifting broadside before the wind, it appeared to be of great size”.

“The name of the captain was Kaluiki-a-Manu; the four others were called Neleike, Malaea, Haakoa and Hika – all names of Hawaiian construction. Two of them – Neleike and Malaea – were women, the former being the sister of the captain.”

Wakalana “was charmed with the bright eyes and fair face of Neleike, the sister of the captain. He found a pleasure that was new to him in teaching her to speak his language, and almost the first use she made of [this] was to say ‘yes’ with it when he asked her to become his wife.”

“Neleike became the progenitor of a family which for generations showed the marks of her blood, and that the descendants of the others were plentiful thereafter, not only on Maui but in the neighborhood of Waimalo, on the island of Oahu.”

“The object of the rescued Japanese which attracted most attention was the sword accidentally preserved by the captain. No such terrible knife had ever before been seen or dreamed of by the natives…. The sword of Kaluiki, the ransom of a king, remained for some generations with the descendants of Kukona; but what became of it in the end tradition fails to tell.” (Kalākaua)

Japanese Junks

Japanese junks have been blown to sea, and finally stranded with their occupants upon distant islands, and have reached even the continent of America, in the 46th degree of north latitude. (Jarves)

“[M]ention is made of several Japanese vessels reported in some of the Spanish-American ports on the Pacific. In 1617 a Japanese junk belonging to Magomé, was at Acapulco.” (Brooks)

“According to the traditions of the islands, several such junks had been wrecked upon Hawaii, before the islands were discovered by Captain Cook.” (Brooks)

Hawai‘i had its share of Japanese contact, directedly in the Islands, as well as by sailors at sea. Beachcombing finds of Japanese glass balls (fishing floats,) as well as marine debris from the 2011 Japan tsunami, suggest the possibility of earlier Japan contact with the Islands (especially in the context that a Japanese fishing boat and its survivors landed in the Islands in 1832.)

Chinese

“Every junk found adrift or stranded on the coast of North America, or on the Hawaiian or adjacent islands, has on examination proved to be Japanese, and no single instance of any Chinese vessel has ever been reported, nor is any believed to have existed.” (Brooks)

Spanish

Back to the ‘iron’ reference … the first written Hawaiian word 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)

“There are many ways by which such people may get pieces of iron, or acquire the knowledge of the existence of such a metal, without ever having had an immediate connection with nations that use it.”

“It can hardly be doubted that it was unknown to all the inhabitants of this sea, before Magellan led the way into it; for no discoverer, immediately after his voyage, ever found any of this metal in their possession …”

“… though, in the course of our late voyages it has been observed, that the use of it was known at several islands, to which no former European ships had ever, as far as we know, found their way.” (Cook)

Spanish Galleons (1565 -1815 AD)

We know the Spanish crossed the Pacific, between the Philippines and Acapulco for 250-years. The term Manila Galleons is used to refer to the trade route between Acapulco and Manila, which lasted from 1565 to 1815. (Alchetron)

The Manila Galleons made round-trip voyages once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean from the port of Acapulco (present-day Mexico) to Manila in the Philippines which were both part of New Spain.

Kulou (‘to bow down’) (1527 AD)

“Hernando Cortez, immediately after his conquest of Mexico, fitted out an expedition on the western coast to reinforce his countrymen … [they] sailed from Zacatula, Mexico, Oct. 31, 1527.” (Alexander) Two of his ships were lost during a storm [one is said to have landed in Hawai‘i]. (Univ of Wellington)

“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)

“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 … a vessel, called by the natives Konaliloha, arrived at Pale, Keei, on the south side of Kealakeakua bay, Hawaii.”

“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)

Gaetano and Mapping of the Islas de Mesa (1555 AD)

“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 proofs of the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by the Spaniard, Juan Gaetano. This is the first known record of the islands among the civilised nations.” (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)

“(H)e called them “Islas de Mesa” (Table Islands.) There are besides, other islands, situated in the same latitude, but 10° further east, and respectively named “La Mesa” (the table), “La Desgraciado” (the unfortunate), “Olloa,” and “Los Monges” (the Monks.)”

Gaetano passed through the northern part of the Pacific and discovered large islands which he marked upon a chart as “Los Majos.” One of the islands was named “The Unfortunate.” Three other smaller islands were called “The Monks.” (Westervelt 1923)

In 1743, English captain George Anson set sail for the Pacific to attack Spanish galleons (English and Spain were at war at the time.) Overcoming the ‘Nuestra Senora de Covadonga,’ he found a “chart of all the ocean between the Philippines and the coasts of Mexico.”

A cluster of islands were noted in mid-ocean; the island La Mesa is on the same latitude of the Island of Hawaiʻi and its southern contour resembles the southern coastline of Hawaiʻi; however, they are noted east of their actual location. (Kane)

How could the Islands be mis-mapped to the east? … Until 1744 and the development of the chronometer, determining longitude was an historic problem for navigators. Longitude (East-West) was estimated by distances a ship covered within various periods of time, estimated by the ship’s speed during each period. (Kane)

Ship speed was measured with a block of wood attached to a line with knots tied at intervals. The ‘log’ was cast from the sterns and the number of ‘knots’ run out during a certain time interval enabled the navigator to calculate his speed. However, this method doesn’t address the west-bound ocean current that would effectively place a position east of its true position. (Kane)

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