Prominent People | Page 137 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 26, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

“It Was Not Done By The Missionaries”

John Papa ʻĪʻī began his service in the royal court when he served as an attendant to Liholiho (Kamehameha II.) Īʻī later became a trusted advisor and chief in the court of Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) and continued to serve the sovereigns of Hawaiʻi until his death in 1870.

On February 26, 1829, he wrote an account of events of that day dealing with drunken foreigners who wanted to tear down the missionary house because “they guessed that the missionaries had made the sanction” forbidding prostitution.

‘Ī‘ī notes in his letter, “but that was not so; the chiefs had laid the sanction for they knew that the word of God was right saying not to commit adultery, not to commit prostitution and that is why they forbade it. It was not done by the missionaries.”

The letter is part of the Ali‘i Collection at the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives. The collection is part of a translation project spearheaded by Puakea Nogelmeier and Awaiaulu. Here is the full translated text of ‘Ī‘I’s account:

“Here are the actions of the house wreckers that we saw carrying out destruction.”

“On Sunday, the 26th of February in late afternoon, about four o’clock, they arrived at the yard of Kalaimoku’s house. We saw them running this way, drunk on rum, and they entered the stone house of Kalaimoku and climbed atop that stone house with clubs in their hands.”

“I entered after them and we looked from below at them doing damage above the door of that building and the glass panes of three windows were smashed by them as well as that of the main door, a fourth, which they scattered down in pieces.”

“Many people came at that time for evening prayers, for they intended to hear the word of God, but before we prayed those troublemakers arrived so a great number of people sat quietly and calmly watched their mischief. My thought to Boki was that we should hold them without beating them, because these scoundrels had no right, and that is what I said to Boki.”

“Because of that statement that I made to him, he ordered all the people sitting there to not make trouble to them, that it was fine as it was. Kahalaia was there, another chief, and the people everywhere in Honolulu heard so they came thinking that it was just a battle, for it had been heard that they were coming to tear down the house of the missionaries and to beat them. “

“Women were the offense, for they guessed that the missionaries had made the sanction, but that was not so; the chiefs had laid the sanction for they knew that the word of God was right saying not to commit adultery, not to commit prostitution and that is why they forbade it. It was not done by the missionaries.”

“When their destruction ended, they all came down from that house and stood with the people, saying to us, ‘There is no goodness about the missionaries, they are deceitful people. It is not that way in Britain and America. The missionaries are liars.’ And that is how they spoke to us.”

“Their statements having ended, it had reached five o’clock and they all left that place, going off to destroy Bingham’s house. He followed after them on a different path, coming from among the people, but none of the people followed along behind him. The place was filled with people sitting quietly.”

“His wife, (Mrs) Bingham had seen the rogue foreigners with sticks in their hands headed there so she closed the door and locked it. They quickly reached the door of the house, it being the second house they attacked, and wreaked damage there. They shattered the glass panes of the windows which scattered down.”

“They saw Bingham going there from where we were. So they gathered together to beat him with the wood from the door of his house, but he was caught by a foreigner from the whaling fleet who had come with the scoundrel foreigners, and he was saved by that foreigner.”

“So he quickly came back with that foreigner who had saved him and we followed after to take care of him. He came and stood with us and with a chiefess, Lidia Piia, she being a student of his, and she stood in front of him. I was there as well.”

“The foreign scoundrels followed him all the way with no fear of our great numbers, and then stood with us, some with clubs, others with jack knives, with evil statements coming from their mouths, and Bingham was talking with one of the foreigners.”

“Then one of those foreign scoundrels suddenly struck at him with a stick, hitting his umbrella. The blow on that umbrella was fended off by Lidia and then I grabbed the stick from the hand of that foreigner.”

“I seized it, and because of that the foreigners were afraid and they fled. The people talked of seizing them all, for finally we should make trouble to them for their prior mischief to our chiefs for no reason, and that is the same way that they attacked the teachers, who had made no transgression. Because of that, they were all seized and held.”

“Ka‘ahumanu saw us and that the foreigners had all been seized by us, so she called down to us from up on the house, ‘Do not beat the foreigners; you should take care of them.’ The people heeded her words and sat quietly.”

“That is my message. I am reporting to all of you in that land of America so that you know the wrongdoings of some of your people here, those foreigners.”

The following shows a short discussion by Marie Alohalani Brown on John Papa ‘Ī‘ī’s letter and other information related to this 1826 event.

The following shows a short discussion by John Laimana on a related letter written by Kalanimoku that addresses this 1826 incident, as well as the role of decision-making by the ali’i related to situations like this (the ali’i made the decisions, not the missionaries).

The following shows a portrayal of John Papa ‘Ī‘ī (by William Hao;) it’s part of the Mission Houses Cemetery Pupu Theater; describing Hawai‘i of his time (not the events of February 26, 1829).

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John_Papa_Ii_(Bishop_Museum)-WC

John Papa Ii recount of actions of drunk foreigners-blaming the missionaries for the prostitution ban-1

John Papa Ii recount of actions of drunk foreigners-blaming the missionaries for the prostitution ban-2

John Papa Ii recount of actions of drunk foreigners-blaming the missionaries for the prostitution ban-3

John Papa Ii recount of actions of drunk foreigners-blaming the missionaries for the prostitution ban-4

John_Papa_Ii_WC

February 23, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Wilkes Trail

Hawaiians laid out trails and evolved practices which assured availability of shelter, drinking fluids and firewood. (NPS)

In 1840, Lt Charles Wilkes, as part of the US Exploring Expedition, came to Hawai‘i to conduct experiments and make observations, including swinging pendulums on Mauna Loa’s summit to calculate the force of gravity. They hiked from Hilo to the summit.

Wilkes noted, “I had the pleasure of being accompanied by Mr. Brinsmade, our worthy consul, and my friend Dr GP Judd, both of whom volunteered to accompany me in the novel and arduous enterprise I was about to undertake.”

They first landed in Hilo, “The scene which the island presents as viewed from the anchorage in Hilo Bay, is both novel and splendid : the shores are studded with extensive groves of cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, interspersed with plantations of sugar-cane …”

“… through these, numerous streams are seen hurrying to the ocean; to this succeeds a belt of some miles in width, free from woods, but clothed in verdure …”

“… beyond is a wider belt of forest, whose trees, as they rise higher and higher from the sea, change their characters from the vegetation of the tropics to that of polar regions ; and above all tower the snow-capped summits of the mountains.”

“From Hilo, Mauna Loa looks as if one might walk over its smooth surface without difficulty; there is, indeed, so much optical deception in respect to this mountain, that it served to give us all great encouragement, and we set about making our preparations with a determination to succeed in the attempt to reach its highest summit.”

“Beside about two hundred natives, the party consisted of Lieutenant Budd, Passed Midshipman Eld, Midshipman Elliott, Mr Brinsmade, Dr Pickering, Mr Brackenridge, Dr Judd, myself, and ten men, including our servants from the ship.”

“This was a large party; but when it is considered, that besides our instruments, tents, &c., provisions were to be carried, it will not be considered so disproportionate, especially as it generally requires one-third of the number, if not more, to carry provisions for the rest.” (Wilkes)

Then, the confusion started, “our chief scribe, Kalumo, who had the books containing the lists (of who was to do what,) was missing, and there was an uproar resembling that of Bedlam.”

“In consequence of the absence of Kalumo, the natives had an opportunity of trying the weight of some of the bundles, and before he was forthcoming, many of the lightest loads had very adroitly been carried off. … it was soon found that there would be many loads for which we had no bearers, and these were, of course, all those of bulk and weight”.

Wilkes was forced to hire, at double pay through another chief, a second group of porters to carry the bulky and heavy items … two days later and 30 miles inland … and close to the summit of Kilauea volcano, Wilkes had become increasingly disenchanted … (NPS)

Then, things got worse … Wilkes took the ‘wrong road;’ actually, he ignored references to take traditional trials, and, leading a party of 300 Caucasians and Hawaiians, Wilkes took off on a trackless beeline from Kilauea toward Mauna Loa’s summit, guided by a midshipman holding a compass. (NPS)

Wilkes substituted his own route for the Hawaiian Ainapo trail. Wilkes’ line of march was through wooded country, but without streams or waterholes. Shoes of the Caucasians scuffed and soles abraded on the lava they crossed.

Most of the Hawaiians were barefoot. To mark the path for the straggling porters, Wilkes’ associates built fires and blazed trees. Bushes were broken with their tops laid down to indicate the direction of travel. (NPS)

“Our (first) encampment was called the Sunday Station, on account of our having remained quietly here on that day. The altitude given by the barometer was six thousand and seventy-one feet, at which we found ourselves above the region of clouds, and could look down upon them.” (Wilkes) It ended up being the principal base camp.

Much unnecessary thirst, hunger, cold, altitude sickness, fatigue, and snowblindness were suffered by both Caucasians and Hawaiians of the expedition when Wilkes substituted his own route for the Hawaiian Ainapo trail.

‘Mountain’ sickness, probably caused from the combination of fatigue, dehydration, chill, hunger, and the altitude, was prevalent.

Fuel was scarce to make fires for warmth or cooking, Hawaiians sold water at 50 cents a quart to thirsty sailors and accepted warm clothing if cash was not available.

To the rescue came the Hawaiian guides ‘Ragsdale’ and Keaweehu, a famous bird catcher. Both had apparently been waiting at Kapapala for the expedition to arrive and planned to guide the expedition up the Ainapo trail.

Ragsdale was hired to supply water for the camp. His men delivered it the next day – fifteen gallons carried in open-top vessels over the trackless ten miles of rugged lavas which separated Wilkes’ camp from the Ainapo trail.

At about the same elevation on the Ainapo was a large lava tube with pools of water inside. This tube was used by Hawaiians on the Ainapo trail and was easily supplied with grass (for insulation from the cold ground) and firewood from a point on the trail not far below. (NPS)

Eventually, Wilkes ended up with other camps on the way up to and at the summit area of Mauna Loa: “Recruiting Station” just below the 10,000-foot elevation (used primarily staging & medical care) …

… “Flag Station” between the 12,000- and 13,000-foot elevation (Wilkes “left a flag on a rocky peak near by” and “Pendulum Peak” near the summit where they conducted pendulum and other observations.

After conducting their experiments and observations, “When day broke, on the 13th January, all was bustle on the summit of Mauna Loa.”

“Every one was engaged in taking down and packing up the instruments and equipage, loaded with which the native labourers scampered off. Some of them, indeed, unable to bear the cold any longer, and hoping to obtain loads afterwards, withdrew without burdens.”

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Hawaii-Wilkes-map-1841

Crater of Moku-A-Weo-Weo, Mauna Loa-Wilkes

February 22, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

‘Spencer’s Invincibles’

“Those who know Thos Spencer, know that the ‘gallant captain’ does not do things by halves, and he deserves no small meed of praise for the manner in which the celebration was carried through.”

“The ‘Invincibles’ are a fixed fact, are regularly called out on drill, and will be kept ‘in position,’ till the storm now hanging over the Union has blown over, and bright skies again appear.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 25, 1861)

“A company of infantry has been tendered to the Government from the Hawaiian Islands, and accepted. It consists of American emigrants and native Hawaiians. It is expected to come as soon as the news of acceptance is received.”

“This is the celebrated company of ‘Spencer’s Invincibles’ at Hilo, which is under the leadership of its gallant Captain and experienced aid ‘the orderly,’ is said to have arrived at a degree of perfection in military tactics, that throws the ‘regulars’ into the shade.”

“All the company now wants is a chance of a shot at Jeff. Davis’ bloodhounds. A patriotic master of a whaleship intends, we learn, to place his vessel at the disposal of the corps.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 24, 1861)

“Thomas Spencer came from a distinguished New England family that had been established at East Greenwich, Rhode Island, since 1660, when its ancestor, John Spencer, had been among the founders of the town.”

“Joseph Spencer, Thomas’s father, was a ship’s captain, and his eight sons followed him to sea, five becoming captains of whaling ships at the same time. Aged thirty-one and captain of the whaleship Triton, one of the Howland fleet out of New Bedford, Thomas Spencer was in 1848 involved in one of the most notable sagas in the South Seas whale fishery.”

“Having made landfall off Sydenham Island in the Kingsmill Group, Captain Spencer and some of the crew were lured ashore by a renegade castaway who, with the assistance of the natives, detained them on shore, seized the ship, murdered a number of the remaining crew, convinced the survivors that their captain was dead, and obliged them to sail the ship away.”

“Held prisoner on shore, Captain Spencer was about to be executed by the natives when he was rescued by the dramatic invention of a woman chief, in the manner of Pocahontas.”

“After a number of attempts to escape, during which the hapless captain and crew stole canoes and paddled out to sea in pursuit of passing ships who set sail away as fast as they could, believing them to be hostile islanders, the castaways were rescued by the Alabama out of Nantucket.”

“Captain Spencer then made his way to Honolulu, which he had visited on previous voyages, to await reports of the still-missing Triton. Deciding at length to give up the sea, he started a ship’s chandlery on Queen Street, which under his guidance served as the headquarters of the Pacific whaling fleet.”

“In 1853 he was joined by his brother, Charles Nichols Spencer, and by 1855 William L Lee, the close friend of Charles R Bishop, reported that Captain Spencer was ‘making more money than anyone else in town.’”

“Thomas Spencer embodied many of the Yankee virtues, notably industry, enterprise, and patriotism, but his love for the Islands surpassed that of his birthplace.”

“He was committed to the survival of Hawai’i as an independent kingdom, and he was an arch opponent of annexation. Yankee reserve found no place in his robust character, fulsome manner, and great personal warmth, nor did Yankee frugality, for his generosity was legendary.”

“He was fluent in Hawaiian and was known everywhere by his Hawaiian name, Poonahoahoa. It was later to be said of him, and of his brother Charles, that ‘they were on terms of social and political intimacy with the last six Hawaiian sovereigns.’”

“In 1861, in the full tide of success, Thomas Spencer sold the Queen Street chandlery and moved to Hilo, purchasing the house and sugar plantation at Amauulu (Puueo) of Benjamin Pitman, whose wife, Kinoole-o-Liliha, was the hereditary high chiefess of Hilo.”

“In Hilo, he removed stones from the luakini heiau on the shore opposite Coconut Island (Mokuola) to make a boat landing near the mouth of the Wailoa River, an uncharacteristic act that some believe cast a shadow over his subsequent endeavors on the island. He also became United States commercial agent and consul at Hilo.”

“For the next twenty-three years, Thomas Spencer struggled to achieve success in sugar planting, but the venture was to prove disastrous, and while the plantation continued to operate, by the time of his death it had consumed nearly all of his fortune.”

“Thomas Spencer had been made a Knight Companion of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I for his actions in sending, at his own expense, boats filled with food to relieve Big Island inhabitants faced with starvation when they had been cut off by a lava flow.” (O’Connor)

And, ‘Spencer’s Invincibles?’ – The Hawaiian government disbanded the group, but the monarchy could not stop others from joining the fray. (Smith; NY Times)

When reminded that Hawai‘i took a neutral position on the Civil War, Spencer was purported to have burst into tears of despair for not having the opportunity to serve. (NPS)

With the eruption of the Civil War in 1861, King Kamehameha IV declared a neutral stance but held largely Unionist sympathies – as did the majority of people living in Hawai‘i. The country had deep ties to the expanding United States and war with the South enabled Hawaii to fill part of the void left by the absence of then blockaded southern exports.

Sugar and other products once exported by the newly-formed Confederacy was confined thanks to the establishment of the Union naval blockade on southern ports. Hawaiian-grown sugar soon replaced much of this southern sugar through the duration of the conflict.

Because of this boom in business, the majority of Americans living and working on the islands were devoutly pro-Unionist. In fact, many living in Hawaii had an ardent desire to serve in the armed forces.

Nevertheless, the nation’s neutrality did not prevent many of its citizens from enlisting in either Union or Confederate forces. (NPS)

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Captain Thomas Spencer

Thomas Spencer Headstone

February 21, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1870s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1870s –first Kamehameha Day, Reciprocity Agreement, Lili‘uokalani writes Aloha ‘Oe and Iolani Palace is started. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

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

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February 16, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whitney Laboratory of Seismology

When a hotel on the rim of Kilauea caldera became a permanent facility in 1866, its series of guest registers became a repository of reports and observations by the guests, an almost daily record (by observers who varied from the scientist to the joker) of earthquakes felt and unfelt and of volcanism seen and unseen on Kilauea and Mauna Loa.

In the hope that science could close the gaps in geological knowledge and learn to predict earthquakes and eruptions, some New Englanders were willing for humanitarian reasons to finance foreign trips and support work abroad for scientists.

For instance, the Springfield (Massachusetts) Volcanic Research Society supported, at least in part, the travels and studies of Frank A. Perret, an electrical engineer and inventor turned volcanologist who became well known for his studies at Vesuvius, Etna, and Stromboli. The Springfield society also helped support Perret’s 1911 work at Kilauea.

It was in this climate of opinion that the trustees of the estates of Edward and Caroline Whitney gave to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the sum of $25,000 for a memorial fund; the principal and interest were to be expended at MIT’s discretion for research or teaching in geophysics, especially seismology.

Investigations in Hawaii were recommended. The Whitney fund was deeded to MIT by the trustees on July 1, 1909, and three years later a group of twelve other New Englanders supplied MIT with supplemental funds for geophysical research in Hawaii.

MIT gave Thomas A Jaggar a leave of absence in December 1911 and directed him to Kilauea to continue the investigations made in the summer of 1909. Jaggar arrived at Kilauea on January 17, 1912.

Work then started on what would be the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (Observatory.) A cellar excavation on the north rim of Kilauea caldera started on February 16, 1912, marking the beginning of permanent facilities for the Observatory.

The Observatory was largely the creation of Jaggar (1871-1953), then a MIT professor, who recognized the advantages, for the study of volcanism, of onsite facilities at an active volcano.

Wooden stakes marked the corners of a rectangle about 24-feet long by 22-feet wide only about 20-feet from the cliff-like rim of Kilauea caldera on the Island of Hawaii.

A hole was to be dug by hand. The diggers were prisoners of the Territory of Hawaii, sentenced to a term of hard labor. The prisoners dug through almost six feet of volcanic ash and pumice to a layer of thick pahoehoe lava – a firm base for the concrete piers on which seismometers would be anchored.

Jaggar had contracted with Hackfeld for the forms and concrete work for the seismometer vault, and for the wooden structures that were to stand over and adjacent to the vault – the rim-side facilities of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

The result was “a basement room, eighteen feet square, with piers and floor of concrete, reposing upon the upper surface of the basalt, and high walls of concrete (and became known as) the Whitney Laboratory of Seismology.” A building was built above.

“A constant emanation of hot steam from cracks in contact with the concrete walls keeps this room at a fairly uniform temperature and thus improves it for the purposes of seismology.” (Apple)

“Concrete tables on the floor of the cellar held the pair of east-west and north-south horizontal pendulums, recording with delicate pens on smoked paper, stretched over a chronograph drum.”

“These paper records, removed every day and fixed with shellac varnish, became the seismograms of the permanent files. Long belts of wavy lines on each paper exhibited seconds, minutes, and hours; and when a sharp zigzag in one of the lines occurred, it was evidence of either a local or a distant earthquake.” (Jaggar)

However, the “oppressive warmth caused by the natural steam heat” added challenges to the scientists’ daily lives. Scientists through the active life of the vault bundled up in wooly sweaters, scarfs, and raincoats to walk to the vault through the chilling rains and fog at 4,000-foot altitude and then peeled clown to undershirts when they entered the vault to attend the instruments.

Being a basement vault with a building above also created problems. Even in calm weather, movements of the building were recorded by the seismometers in the vault below.

Winter Kona storms swept high winds from the south across Kilauea caldera, hitting with full force against the north rim and causing such rocking and trembling of the building above as to mask the records on the seismograms.

In the winter of 1915-16, gale-force winds stripped the sheets of corrugated iron from the roof of the building. Rain water in the offices above poured into the vault to wash away the seismograms on their drums, flood the floor, and soak the instruments. Repairs took weeks.

On December 19, 1921, the nearby Volcano House began to run a generator for the first electric lights at Kilauea. Variations in the engine speed as well as the exact times of starting and stopping were duly recorded by seismometers in the Whitney vault.

On February 11, 1940, the main Volcano House burned to the ground, and this led to the relocating of the Observatory facilities. (The present Volcano House was opened for business in November 1941.)

That year, the building above the observatory was dismantled, and a reinforced-concrete slab was poured by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to become the vault’s new roof. The slab was covered with 18-inches of topsoil (the vault mound is on the crater side of the Volcano House.)

On December 28, 1947, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory was transferred within the Department of the Interior from the National Park Service to the United States Geological Survey.

In 1948, the Observatory was moved to a building at the top of Uwekahuna Bluff on the northwest rim of Kilauea caldera; a new and larger building there was completed in 1986. (The bulk of the information here comes from Russell Apple’s (retired National Park Service historian) history of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

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