Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Naukane

During Captain Cookʻs visit to Hawaiʻi on his third voyage of exploration in 1779, then-Lieutenant King (later Captain) noted, “During the following night, the cutter belonging to the Discovery was stolen …”

“This irritated captain Cook, and he gave orders to stop all the canoes that should attempt to leave the bay, intending to seize and destroy them, if he could not recover the cutter by fair means.”  (Captain King’s Journal)

“The natives now collected in vast numbers along the shore, and began to throng round captain Cook”.  Shortly after, “Captain Cook, the last time he was seen distinctly, was standing at the water’s edge”.

“… he was desirous of preventing any farther bloodshed … whilst he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but having turned about to give his orders to those in the boats, he was stabbed in the back”.  Cook was killed.    (Captain King’s Journal)

One of the Hawaiians at the scene was Naukane, son of Kamanawa (Kamehameha’s uncle and one of his closest allies – Kamanawa (left) and Kameʻeiamoku, his twin brother (right) were later memorialized on the Hawaiʻi coat of arms.)  (Kittelson)

When Kamehameha moved his Royal Center to Honolulu, his chiefs came with him. Naukane, then in his early twenties, accompanied his father and probably became involved in royal court life.  However, fascinated by the growing number of ships calling in the islands, Naukane looked to the sea. (Kittelson)

His chance came in February 1811, when John Jacob Astor’s ‘Tonquin,’ under the command of Captain Jonathan Thorne, called.  The captain wanted to hire twenty-four of the Islanders, twelve as seamen and the remaining half to establish a post for the Pacific Fur Company on the Columbia River.

This was the first large group of Hawaiians to come to America.  The king appointed Naukane to go with them as a royal observer.  (Duncan)

Because Naukane resembled one of the Americans, he became known as John Coxe and retained the name throughout his long and colorful life in the Pacific Northwest (he also went by John Cox and Edward Coxe, or, simply Coxe.)  (Duncan)

The Tonquin reached the mouth of the Columbia in March; after a few days looking, they selected a site and by the end of May they had completed Fort Astoria.  It was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast of what was to become the United States.

Astor planned the post to grow into a permanent settlement, with plans to develop a large trade ring that included New York, the Pacific Coast, Russian Alaska, Hawaiʻi and China. The furs collected in the northwest and Alaska, would be shipped to China and exchanged for porcelain, silk and other cloth, and spices that would be brought back, via Hawaii to New York.

Other operators had other posts.  In the summer of 1810, Jacques-Raphaël Finlay (Jaco Finley) of the North West Company built Spokane House at the junction of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers.

Shortly after arriving in the northwest, Coxe started working for Canadian David Thompson of the North West Company.   Coxe later spent the winter of 1811-1812 at Spokane House with Finlay.  On those expeditions, Coxe became the first Hawaiian to visit the inland Northwest.

Coxe accompanied Thompson “across the Rocky Mountains from western Montana and in the long trail to Fort William on Lake Superior. … John Coxe also took the trail east from Fort William but his road led to Quebec, where he created a sensation with his stories of Hawaiʻi and his demonstrations of Polynesian dance steps.”  (Taylor)

By 1813, Fort Astoria and all other assets in the area were sold to the North West Company – they renamed it Fort George.    Coxe continued to work there until August, 1814, when all of the Hawaiians at Fort George were sent back to the Islands.

Comfortable with the service from the Hawaiians, in 1817, North West sent a ship “to bring as many of the Sandwich Islanders to the Columbia river as we could conveniently accommodate.”  (Corney)

(In 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company combined with the North West Company, and the post name was changed back to Fort Spokane.)

After he returned to Honolulu in 1815, Coxe probably reverted to his native name, Naukane.  He was well received by Kamehameha.

Not only was Naukane the son of one of Kamehameha’s closest advisors, and a member of Liholiho’s entourage, but he had traveled widely. Kamehameha I died in 1819 and Naukane rose in stature when Liholiho ascended the throne.  (Kittelson)

Naukane’s expeditions did not end on the American continent.  Because of his familiarity with western ways (with travels to America, Europe & South America) and his personal ties, when Liholiho departed on November 27, 1823 to England aboard the L’Aigle to discuss the future of his Islands with George IV, Naukane accompanied the King.

The King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu died of measles in July 1824; apparently Naukane’s travels had built up his immunity, for he was hardly bothered by measles.

King George IV held an audience for the remaining Hawaiians at Windsor Castle on September 11; Coxe was present.  The bodies of Liholiho and his queen were returned to Hawaii aboard the frigate Blonde captained by Lord Byron.

With the King dead, Naukane no longer was bound, and he immediately offered his services to the Hudson’s Bay Company and returned to the Northwest. He was only one of approximately thirty-five Islanders working for the company by 1825.  (Duncan)

The firm’s base of operations had been transferred from Fort Spokane to a new site farther inland, Fort Vancouver. Coxe worked for a few more years; then the company retired him and gave him a plot of land two miles below the fort.  (Kittelson)

Naukane died February 2, 1850.  The vast plain between Fort Vancouver and the Columbia became the Hawaiian’s memorial – Coxe’s Plain … “A couple of miles below the fort (Vancouver) there were luxuriant meadows of great extent.”

“A portion of these bore at that time the name of Coxe’s Plain, a name I think which it still continues to bear. Old Coxe, a native of the Sandwich Islands and a very original character, was the swine-herd and had his residence there among the oaks which dotted the verge of the plain.”  (Anderson; Barry)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Makee

James Makee was born at Woburn, MA, November 24, 1812. He married Catherine McNiven in New York in 1836.  He first arrived in Hawai‘i in 1843, in command of the sperm whaler Maine, having been compelled to put into this port for medical assistance.  (PCA, Sep 20, 1879)

While the Maine lay in the roadstead off Lahaina, Maui, it was learned that her master, Captain James Makee, had been attacked by the ship’s cook, brutally cut with a hatchet or cleaver, and left for dead.

This unfortunate incident, however, resulted in Captain Makee abandoning his seafaring career and he became interested in Hawai‘i and decided to locate in Honolulu, sending for Mrs. Makee, then living in Massachusetts.

Makee, then only thirty-one years of age and founder of the Makee family in Hawai‘i, remained in the islands to become a distinguished pioneer builder, first as a merchant in the whaling industry and later as a rancher and sugar planter.

As a trader in Honolulu, Captain Makee met with success in his first venture and formed the firm of Jones and Makee, ship chandlers, the partnership later becoming Makee, Anthon & Co. The company did a flourishing business and in 1850 Makee, Anthon & Co. were agents for some fifty out of seventy whaling ships in port on October 18 of that year.

The following year marked the first entry of Honolulu men into the whaling industry as ship owners, when Captain Makee, with a group of other local merchants as minority shareholders, acquired the “Chariot” and sent her into the Artic in April, 1851.

With the expansion of business in Honolulu, Captain Makee in 1853 financed the erection of the Makee & Anthon block on Queen Street, the first three-story brick building in Honolulu, materials for which were imported from Boston.

“Something New in Honolulu. A fine new Fire-Proof Store, three stories high, erecting at the corner of Kaahumanu and Queen streets, by Capt. Makee, built of brick, with a granite front, is something new in Honolulu, and consequently excites considerable attention.”

“No granite has before been used in the erection of buildings, at the islands, although fence and gate posts, and a few door-steps, have been imported from China, of a quality, however, far inferior to the Massachusetts granite now used by Capt. Makee, in the construction of his Store. This block will be of the most substantial character, and an ornament to the city.” (Polynesian, April 1, 1854)

Then, a second ship, the bark “Black Warrior,” was acquired by Makee & Anthon, and operated as a whaler for three years.

On January 23, 1856, “Kapena Ki” (Captain James Makee) purchased at auction Torbert’s plantation on Maui. He sold his Nuʻuanu residence and moved to Maui and raised his family on what he called ‘Rose Ranch’ after his wife Catherine’s favorite flower.

The extensive estate had some limited facilities for raising and milling sugar cane and was developed both as a cattle ranch and sugar plantation by Captain Makee.

He took a deep interest in the upbuilding of the property and was one of the first to import thoroughbred stock on a large scale. He also engaged in dairying and in 1858 began planting sugar cane, rehabilitating the abandoned Torbert enterprise.

Makee was one of the first to import, on a large scale, purebred stock. He also went in for dairying and his “sweet butter” found a fine market. In 1858 he began the rehabilitation of Torbert’s cane and the crop of 1861 was marketed in Honolulu.

He solved the area’s major problem – water. “Makee has built a wooden house and deep reservoir on the side of the house. The troubles of the men and women are now ended by this work, they are now truly well supplied with water. This land, in ancient times, was a barren open place, a rocky, scorched land, where water could not be gotten.”

“The water of this land in times before, was from the stumps of the banana trees (pūmaiʻa), and from the leaves of the kākonakona grass; but now there is water where moss can grow. The problem is resolved.” Nupepa Kuokoa, Iulai 7, 1866, [Maly, translator])

“Makee’s Plantation or Rose Ranch, as it is more generally termed by the proprietor and his friends, is situated on the south eastern part of the Island of Maui, in the district of Honuaula. … The estate contains about 6,500 acres, 1,200 of which are capable of producing cane.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 19, 1861 [Maly])

(From Torbert, then the decades of ownership by Makee, then Dowsett, Raymond and Baldwin, in 1963, the property was acquired by the Erdman family. The property is now known as ʻUlupalakua Ranch and it remains a cattle ranch.)

The sugar crop of 1861 was marketed in Honolulu and by 1862 the plantation had been greatly improved, according to the accounts of Rev. S. C. Damon, who visited Ulupalakua in that year.

During the Civil War Captain Makee won wide attention by a patriotic gift of two consignments of molasses, of one hundred barrels each, which he sent to San Francisco to be sold for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission at Washington, DC.

Later, a shipment of sugar and island produce was sent by Parker N. Makee, a son, as an additional contribution to the Union cause.

Throughout his residence at “Rose Ranch,” Ulupalakua, Captain Makee was noted for his hospitality, visitors from all parts of the world being entertained there.

On July 18, 1871, Colonel Zephaniah Swift Spalding married Makee’s first born daughter, Wilhelmina Harris Makee at McKee’s Rose Ranch in Ulupalakua, Maui.  In that same year, Makee’s eldest son, Parker, took over management of the West Maui Sugar Association.

In 1876, Captain Makee and Spalding purchased Ernest Krull’s cattle ranch in Kapa‘a, Kauai, intending to start a sugar plantation and mill.  After a brief stay in San Francisco (1875-1878) Spalding returned to the Islands, living on Kauai, where Makee was already operating the Makee Sugar Company and mill at Kapa‘a.

King Kalākaua and others formed a hui (partnership) to raise cane.  About the first of August, 1877, members of Hui Kawaihau moved to Kauai.  Makee had an agreement to grind their cane.

In 1876, Kapi‘olani Park was initially touted to create “a tract of land in the vicinity of Honolulu as a place of public resort,” where “agricultural and stock exhibitions, and healthful exercise, recreations and amusements” could occur, its literal purpose was far from it.

On the dedication day in 1876, King Kalākaua and James Makee (Kapiʻolani Park Association’s first president) stressed the public space, which they said was needed for a modern city to be civilized, to allow “families, children, and quiet people” to find “refreshment and recreation” in the “kindly influences of nature,” and to be a “place of innocent refreshment.”

However, when Kapiʻolani Park was first conceived, the motivation wasn’t about creating a public place.   Kapiʻolani Park began as a development project, run by the Kapiʻolani Park Association.

The association was founded with a two-fold purpose: (1) building residences for its stockholders along the ocean at Waikiki and on the slopes of Diamond Head and (2) laying out a first-class horse-racing track as a focal point of this new suburb.  They named the large island in the Park’s waterways after James Makee.

Appointed a commissioner to aid in the development of the resources of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1877, Captain Makee in that year launched a breakwater project at Makena, Maui, developing a harbor to facilitate the shipment of sugar.

Captain Makee also owned the Waihee Plantation, Maui, of which his son, Parker, was manager. His interests in the Ulupalakua ranch were divided to members of his family in Jan., 1878.

Upon his death in Honolulu, September 16, 1879, Captain Makee was survived by his widow and eight children, Charles and Parker N Makee, Mrs ZS Spalding, Mrs MLW Kitchen, Mrs D Noonan, Mrs George Herbert, Mrs ED Tenney and Mrs FP Hastings. (lots of information here is from Orr.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Manuia Lanai

Henry French Poor was the eldest son of Henry Francis Poor and Caroline Paakaiulaula Bush; he was born in the Islands, June 8, [1857].

“Henry F Poor was one of the most brilliant Hawaiians whose cradle ever rocked in these beautiful Islands.  … He possessed the generous spirit of his race and the keen intelligence of his New England’s forebears.”

“As secretary to Colonel Iaukea on the Kalakaua embassy to the rulers of the world he covered himself with honors and his bright letters were published in the local papers.” (The Independent, Nov 29, 1899)

Poor hosted Robert Louis Stevenson on his visit to the Islands.  On January 24, 1889, Stevenson arrived in Honolulu and spent the first six months of that year in the Hawaiian Islands (he later settled and lived in Samoa.)

On January 24, 1889, Stevenson arrived in Honolulu and spent the first six months of that year in the Hawaiian Islands (he later settled and lived in Samoa.)

“For the first few days the Stevenson party stayed with Henry Poor and his mother Mrs Caroline Bush, at 40 Queen Emma Street, Honolulu (24-27 January).”

“Then on 27 January 1889 they moved to Poor’s bungalow, Manuia Lanai [“a pavilion of the native pattern” (Brown)], at Waikiki, three miles east of Honolulu.  In early February Stevenson decided to send the Casco back to San Francisco and stay on to work in Hawaii.”

“As a result he rented the house next to Henry Poor’s. This too was a one-storey ‘rambling house or set of houses’ in a garden, centred on a lanai, ‘an open room or summer parlour, partly surrounded with venetian shutters, in part quite open, which is the living room’”.  (RLS Website)

“Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson has retired to ‘Manuia Lanai’ Mr. H. F. Poor’s sea-side place at Kapiolani Park, where he will probably

remain some time in quiet in order to complete some of the literary work he has undertaken.  We are informed privately however, that it is the intention of Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson after this week to be ‘at home’ on Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 5 pm.” (Daily Bulletin, January 28, 1889)

On Oʻahu, Stevenson was introduced to the King Kalākaua and others in the royal family by fellow Scotsman, Archibald Cleghorn.  Stevenson established a fast friendship with the royal family and spent a lot of time with his good friend King Kalākaua.

On February 3, 1889, there was a luau party at Manuia Lanai, where both Kalakaua and Liliuokalani were invited as special guests.  At the height of the party, Mrs Stevenson presented Kalākaua with a golden pearl from the Tuamotus.  (Ejiri) In giving the gift, Stevenson recited the following line of his sonnet (Daily Bulletin. Feb 4. 1889):

The Silver Ship, my king, – that was her name

In the bright islands whence your fathers came –

The Silver Ship, at rest from wind and tides,

Below your palace, in your harbour rides;

And the sea-farers sitting safe on the shore,

Like eager merchant, count their treasures o’er.

One gift they find, one strange and lovely thing,

Now doubly precious, since it pleased a king.

The right, my liege, is ancient as the Lyre,

For bards to give to kings what kings admire.

‘Tis mine to offer, for Appollo’s sake;

And since the gilt is fitting, yours to take.

To golden hands the golden pearl I bring:

The Ocean jewel to the Island King.

“The feast was purely Hawaiian there being no foreign dish upon the table. Aside from pig, fish, and fowls, roasted underground, were many strange edibles: pu-pu, opihi, two kinds of opae, koelepalau, and kulolo, taro and sweet potato poi, besides others, all beautifully arranged upon a bed of fern leaves.” (Daily Bulletin, Feb 4, 1889)

In the Islands, the renowned author found time for writing, completing The Master of Ballantrae and The Wrong Box and starting others during his short stay.

Stevenson visited Kalaupapa (shortly after Damien’s death) and later wrote of the good work of Father Damien (now Saint Damien.)  He also travelled to Kona on the Big Island (the setting for most of his short story “The Bottle Imp.”)

Henry French Poor died in Honolulu on November 28, 1899 and is buried at O‘ahu Cemetery.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Royalist’

James Campbell was born February 4, 1826, in Londonderry, Ireland. His parents were William and Martha (Adams) Campbell. William, descended from the Campbell clan of Inverary, Scotland, was a carpenter.

James’ father operated a furniture and cabinet shop adjacent to the home where he and his wife raised their large family. James was the eighth child in the family of eight boys and four girls.

In 1850, James came to Hawaiʻi.  He settled in Lāhainā, Maui.  He later married Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine (age 19) and soon after moved to a home on Emma Street in Honolulu, which Campbell purchased from Archibald S Cleghorn in 1878.  (Now the site of the Pacific Club.)

As a personality, James Campbell was most often described as reserved and dignified. Tall and slender, he had a full beard and dressed in well-cut dark suits with a top hat.

Campbell was a partisan of Queen Liliuokalani at the time of the overthrow, and remained a Royalist to the end of his days.

The overthrow happened on January 17, 1893.  Shortly thereafter, on May 12, 1893, Campbell and his wife Abigail welcomed a new daughter.  The following is the daughter’s name song:

He Inoa No Royalist Kealohaalii Laakapu Campbell.
Imua e Kealohaalii Laakapu
A lei i ka lei o ka Lanakila
A he milimili oe na makou
He pua lei nani Aloha Aina
Ke kilohana oe nana i oni
Hoihoi ia mai ke Kuokoa
Eia Hawaii ua lokahi
Hookahi puuwai me ke aloha
Nana i nai a puni Hawaii
Ke Aloha o ka Aina hanau
O ka hana hanohano a ka Lahui
I lanakila mau oe Hawaii
O ka onohi hiwahiwa i ka puuwai
O Kealohaaina a e o mai.
Hakuia e na kaikamahine o ke Aloha Aina.
May 14, 1894. (Leo o ka Lahui, 5/17/1894, p. 3)

Name Of Royalist Kealohaalii Lakapu Campbell
Forward Kealohaalii Laakapu
And wear the crown of Victory
And you are dear to us
A beautiful Aloha Aina wreath
You are the one who moved
Returned from Freedom
Here in Hawaii there is unity
One heart with love
Look around Hawaii
The Love of the Motherland
The noble work of the Nation
May you always win Hawaii
It’s a unique touch to the heart
Kealohaina and will come.
Hosted by the daughters of Aloha Aina.

“She was born in a famous time; being that her mother is the President of the Women’s Patriotic League, and while they are fighting for the good of our land, at that time, Royalist was soon to be born.”

“When she was born, she was named Royalist, after Alohaalii.  This is a fine name for her, being that her parents and all of Hawaii joined together in aloha for the Queen of Hawaii nei, the people, and the land.” (Leo o ka Lahui, 5/14/1894, p. 2)

The newspaper announced her baptism; “Royalist Campbell made 1 year old today, the small daughter and youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. James Campbell [Kimo Kamabela].”

“At 9:30 in the morning, she was baptized by the Lord Bishop of Honolulu [Alfred Willis], in the St. Andrews Church, before a large assembly. This is the first of their children to be baptized in the Church, the earlier ones being only at Kawaiahao.” (Makaainana, 5/14/1894, p. 8)

“Later at 2 o’clock p. m., there was a party to celebrating the first birthday, at the residence of Mr. James Campbell on Emma Street. All of the members of the Executive Committee of the Women’s Patriotic League [Hui Aloha Aina o na Wahine] were invited to visit for the birthday of Alohaalii Campbell.”

“We ask that the days of Royalist’s life be long, and that she live until old age.  [Unfortunately it seems that Royalist Campbell, child of James and Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine, lives only a little more than a year more.] (Oiaio, 5/18/1894)

“Royalist Campbell dies, 1896.  The youngest daughter of James Campbell died at 2:00 this p. m. This was the child Royalist M., aged 2 years, 8 months.” (Hawaiian Star, 2/29/1896, p. 3)

After a lengthy illness, Campbell died on April 21, 1900, in his Emma Street home. On the afternoon of his funeral the banks and most of the large business houses closed. He was buried in the family plot in Nuʻuanu Cemetery.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sammy Amalu

Bob Krauss was a man of words and he certainly had a way with words.  The following is from an article he wrote noting the death of Sammy Amalu and highlighting some of Amalu’s activities. Here is what Krauss had to say …

Sammy Amalu, 68, died yesterday at Queen’s Medical Center. That’s the official word from the emergency room at Queen’s. But it may be difficult for some skeptics to believe that Sammy isn’t setting us up for another caper – the most outrageous of all in a lifetime that shifted between dreams and reality with bewildering ease.

Sammy’s life was what Shakespeare must have been thinking about when he wrote, ‘If this were played upon a stage now, l could condemn it as an improbable fiction.’

He claimed to be of royal descent: His Highness Samuel Crowningburg-Amalu, High Chief Kaplikauinamoku Prince of Keawe.

He graduated from Punahou School and two federal prisons. He said he also attended Oxford University in England and Waseda Doshisha University in Japan.

In 1956 he failed to show up for his own wedding but the bride went ahead with the champagne reception anyway. The next day he said he had been kidnapped by relatives who opposed the marriage.

In 1962, he talked Hawaii’s leading financiers and hotel executives into selling him $75 million worth of prime real estate in a deal that made front page headlines. Sammy didn’t have the price of cab fare to the  airport.

He was so persuasive that he talked a guard at Folsom Prison into smuggling out a $175,000 bum check Sammy had written. At the time Sammy was in prison for writing a $200 bum check.

He was still in prison when he began writing his column for The Advertiser. Some readers think he wrote some of his best columns there.

Even while he was alive, reporters struggled to sift fact from fiction about Sammy. Now it’s probably impossible.

He claimed descent from King William Liholiho and Kaleimamahu, brother of Kamehameha I, and the Crowningburg family which came to Hawaii from Germany in 1870.

He was born on Kauai to Charles and Ethel Amalu.  After graduating from Punahou, in 1935, Sammy attended the University of Hawaii. He served briefly in the U.S. Army during World War ll.

His first reported marriage in 1946 was to a daughter of a prominent family in Italy, Maria Anastasia di Torionia. A later newspaper report doubted whether the marriage actually took place.

His “second” marriage, in 1956, was to Jane Tomberlain, a wealthy divorcee whose former husband was a millionaire oilman. It later ended in divorce.

His last marriage was to Honolulu Realtor Ann Fetzer in 1973.

Throughout most of his life, Sammy was plagued with a weakness for writing bad checks.

In 1950, he was convicted of embezzlement for writing two bum checks in the Philippines. Shortly after his marriage in 1956, he was indicted by a federal grand Jury in Denver for passing bogus checks again.

He was found guilty and served a four-year term at the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan.

While many of Sammy’s checks were bad, they were always written with style. He was a poet, too. Above all, he was an actor who invented his roles with headspinning profligacy.

His greatest triumph in turning make believe into reality began with a story in May 1962 in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin about a mysterious international syndicate in Switzerland which was offering a total of $75 million for various Island properties.

The story and the headlines, grew as the days passed and new developments took place.

The president of Sheraton Hotels in Boston accepted an offer for $34.5 million for the Royal Hawaiian, Moana Surfrider and Princess Kaiulani hotels.

Sheraton had paid only $18 million for the same properties three years before.

Investor George Murphy received an offer of $5 million for his ranch on Molokai. He had paid, $300,500 for the property seven years earlier.

Financier Chinn Ho was offered $9 million for his Makaha Valley Farms. He had paid $1.25 million for most of the Waianae Coast in 1947.

Reports surfaced of syndicate offers of $11 million for 19 acres on Kapiolani Boulevard, $13 million for an acre on Waikiki Beach and $1 million for downtown parcels.

Real estate agents handling the deals said they did not know with whom they were dealing. United Press International called it “the deepest financial mystery since Captain Cook first introduced money to Hawaii.”

After a week of front page headlines, the executives of the syndicate turned out to be a couple of young hitchhikers Sammy had picked up coming in from the airport.

He had dreamed up the entire complicated hoax as a satire on Hawaii’s frantic real estate boom. Sammy himself skipped off to Seattle,  where he was arrested for writing another bum check and sent to prison.

It was there that he became the nation’s only federal prison inmate to write a column for a metropolitan daily newspaper.

Sammy’s career as a columnist started in the form of letters to an old Punahou classmate, Thurston Twigg-Smith, publisher of The Advertiser.

The letters, describing prison life in Sammy’s graceful and impeccable prose were so funny and interesting that Twigg-Smith decided to try them as columns.

Paroled in 1970, Sammy returned to Honolulu as a fulltime columnist as well as a social and literary lion. He was booked months in advance to speak at public functions.

For his first public appearance, he wore what became his trademark: while trousers, white embroidered barong tagalog, white nylon scarf at the neck and an ornate Hawaiian sash.

In 1976, he suffered an embolism, resulting in paralysis from the waist down. After that, he spent his time in and out of hospitals and his Waikiki apartment, meanwhile writing occasional columns for the Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser.

Briefly, he lived in the household of Mrs. Robert (Gertrude K) Toledo, who was exonerated of the murder of her husband in an August 1984 trial during which Sammy testified in her defense.

In 1970, Sammy wrote his own obituary. It goes like this: ‘Sing no sad songs over my mortal dust.  Nor come to me weeping. I was born of an ancient line, of a high and princely house.’

‘I have known a true friend. I have loved a good woman. I have fathered a son. l have known laughter; I have known tears. I have tasted victory; I have sipped of failure.  Is not all that enough?’

‘Say only this of me when I am no more: He was a child of princes, and the dust of this flesh was fashioned of Hawaii’s soil.’

Funeral arrangement are pending. (Bob Krauss, Hnl Adv Feb 23, 1986)  (Amalu died on Feb. 23, 1986 at the age of 68.)

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