Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kimo Pelekane

James Isaac Dowsett was born to Samuel James Dowsett (born in Rochester, Kent, England 1794 – lost at sea in 1834) and Mary Bishop Dowsett (Rochester, Kent, England; 1808 – 1860) in Honolulu, December 15, 1829 (said to have been the first white child, not of missionary parentage, born in Hawaiʻi.

Samuel and Mary married in Australia. A ship captain, Samuel did shipping business in Australia and was into whaling. Samuel first arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1822 when he was first officer of the “Mermaid,” accompanying the “Prince Regent,” a gift-ship from King George IV of England to King Kamehameha I, promised to the King by George Vancouver.

Samuel returned with his wife on July 17, 1828, arriving on the brig Wellington; they set up their home in Hawaiʻi at that time.  Samuel and Mary had 4 children, James, Samuel Henry, Elizabeth Jane and Deborah Melville.

“The house in which (James) first saw the light of day and which was built by his father, still stands and is occupied. It is the 2-story building in Union street, next to the old bell tower fire station.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898; the house is now gone)

During his youth, Dowsett was a playmate of Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and future King Lunalilo.  James was less than five years old when in 1834 his father sailed away on a pearl fishing expedition and was lost at sea.

In his school days Dowsett was associated with Romualdo Pacheco (who later became Governor California; Pacheco was sent to Hawaiʻi from California to be educated in the islands, a custom followed extensively in early days by parents who sought the best schools for their children.)

Dowsett was hardly more than twelve when he was hired by the Hudson’s Bay Co, but continued his schooling on the side. (His mother refused offers of remarriage and remained a widow until her death.)  In the early-1860s he entered the whaling business, owning a fleet of whaling ships.

“He did not care for public office. Had he yearned for political preferment, any office was at his disposal for many years. He was appointed a Noble of the Kingdom by Kamehameha III and was friend and confident of Kamehameha IV and V.”

“His advice was often sought by the monarchs and was given as one entirely disinterested and be held the trust of those in the highest positions as well as the implicit confidence of the common people. He was a great favorite with the native Hawaiians and spoke their language beautifully.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)  The Hawaiians called him “Kimo Pelekane” (Jim the Englishman.)

Besides his whaling activities, Mr. Dowsett engaged in the lumber business and owned a fleet of schooners and small steamers operating between the islands.

Dowsett also had extensive ranching interests; properties now occupied by Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter, Wheeler Army Airfield and Lualualei were once pastures for Dowsett’s cattle and horses.  He also once owned ʻUlupalakua Ranch.

He was engaged in ranching as early as 1850, and a medal was awarded him at the Agricultural Fair at the time for the best pair of “working oxen.” Dowsett was the first rancher to import Aberdeen Angus stock to Hawaiʻi.

Puʻuloa Salt Works (property of Dowsett) “are at the west side of the entrance to Pearl River, and the windmill is a prominent object in the landscape as we enter. It is also one of the guides in steeling vessels inward.  On the eastern side and opposite to the Puʻuloa buildings, is the fishery, where are a number of buildings inhabited by Chinamen.”  (Daily Bulletin, January 6, 1889)

Dowsett married Annie Green Ragsdale of Honolulu and they were the parents of thirteen children, James Isaac, Jr, Alexander, Phoebe K, Edward Ragsdale, Mary K, Alexander Cartwright, Annie K, Elizabeth Jane, David A, Rowena N, Samuel Henry K, Marion C and Genevieve N.

“Mr. Dowsett was a man of kindly, genial disposition. It was a habit of his for a number of years to make a trip to Waikiki each evening in a street car. It was genuine treat to be a passenger with him.”

“It was a study for one not acquainted with him to watch him in the car and to see all the natives and even the Chinese pay their respects to him on entering the car. Everybody knew who he was and strangers liked him in advance, while those who came to speaking terms with him valued the privilege.”

“He was a quick thinker and an excellent reasoner and while not a talkative man was always willing to supply any information from his great storehouse that might be useful to another or that might interest an inquirer.”

“He knew the town, the people and the country. He never left the Islands but once in his whole life and then four days in San Francisco was enough of life in foreign parts. He was a perfect encyclopedia of history and biography not only of Honolulu and Oahu, but of the entire group.”

“The common suggestion to one in search of obscure historical data was to go to Mr. Dowsett and he never failed. He could always supply day and date and all required details.”   (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Dowsett was one of the founders of the British Club, now the Pacific Club of Honolulu, and was a trustee of The Queen’s Hospital from its establishment.

Dowsett took on Chung Kun Ai as his protégé, allowing Ai to use a portion of his warehouse, and Ai started importing cigars, tea, peanut oil, shoe nails and other items. Ai and others later started City Mill, a rice milling and lumber importing business in Chinatown, Honolulu.  The City Mill building on Nimitz was dedicated to Dowsett.

“Dowsett saw the grass hut replaced by the stone business block and the taro patch filled up for mansion site. He saw the little paths become fine streets and the broad and barren plains thickly populated districts. He saw the life of a nation change. … Through all this he was a close observer and always on the side of what was right and just.”   (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Dowsett died on June 14, 1898; “news of the death of Mr. Dowsett had been sent all over the Island and the Hawaiians in large numbers joined the throng of haoles calling to pay respects and offer consolation.”

“The older Hawaiians could not restrain themselves at all and gave vent to floods of tears and to strange wailings. They were overpowered and overcome by the thought that no more would they have the friendly greeting, the certain and reliable advice or the material assistance of the one who had been their reliance at all times and upon all occasions for so many years.”     (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1898)

Subsequent Dowsett generations were also generous; in 1930, Herbert M. Dowsett, Llewellyn F Dowsett and Aileen Dowsett White donated 7-acres and their family estate on Punahou Street to the Shriners Hospital.  Dowsett Avenue and Ragsdale Place in Dowsett Tract and Highlands in Nuʻuanu are named after James and Annie.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Flight to Hawai‘i

Lieutenant Lester J Maitland (pilot) and Lieutenant Albert F Hegenberger (navigator) were selected to fulfill the Army’s dreams to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean to Hawai‘i.

Since 1919, Hegenberger tested every known navigation instrument and method, including regular “blind” flying tests and engineering of the equipment’s development.  He completed a course of instruction in navigation at the Navy’s school at Pensacola in February, 1920.

Lieutenant Hegenberger was given responsibility to prepare the plane, including installation of special equipment, final arrangements of fuel system, engines, pumps and airborne facilities, among other requirements.

Because the navigator had to function as radio operator and pilot as well, a special passageway was provided between the front cockpit and the navigator’s cabin in the rear, necessitating the removal of one fuel tank.

Maitland and Hegenberger denied any interest in racing, prizes or “first” distinction.  They felt the interest to link up Hawai‘i and the mainland by air was purely for the advancement of aviation, stating this flight would be a test of the navigation equipment Hegenberger and his Army unit had been developing for years.

Another stated objective of the long-range flight was to test the performance of the new radio beacon installed by the Army Signal Corps on the island of Maui and reaching to San Francisco.

Finally, it was felt that valuable data could be obtained for use in the establishment of regular commercial airline service over the route.  Encouraging commercial aviation by the use of airways was the job of the military, they said; this flight fell in the Army’s peacetime mission.

Shortly after 7 am on June 28, 1927, the Army pair shook hands with their crews and climbed into positions in the airplane.  Left behind were their parachutes, mandatory in the Army since 1922; they would be of little use in open seas.

At the 4,600-foot mark, and a speed of 93 mph, the huge plane lifted off the ground.  At the 2,000 foot altitude, Maitland and Hegenberger passed over the Golden Gate then headed on the first course of the Great Circle to Maui, where the radio beacon was to tie in with the station in San Francisco.

For the first 500-miles they encountered strong crosswinds and after that a very strong tailwind which increased their airspeed to 108-mph.  They flew close to the sea during daylight hours at an altitude of 300 feet.

They flew without incident until about half-way, at this point relaxing sufficiently to discover hunger pangs. Searching for food that was supposed to have been stowed aboard for them, none could be found by either flyer.

At 3:20 am, they saw the lighthouse on Kauai five degrees to the left of the plane’s nose.  When they reached the shoreline, the island’s contour became familiar – one they knew well from past inter-island flights.

Oʻahu was 75-miles from Kauai; daybreak would not occur for about another hour.  Maitland and Hegenberger chose not to jeopardize a successful completion to their flight by approaching mountainous Oʻahu in heavy clouds, rain and total darkness. They decided to circle Kauai until daybreak, slowing down to 65-mph.

Crossing the channel to Oʻahu at 750-feet, just below an unbroken cloud layer, their speed was boosted to 115-mph and soon they found themselves 500-feet over Schofield Barracks. Below them at Wheeler Field were thousands of people.

Maitland circled the field once for the anxious spectators then came to a landing at 6:29 am, June 29, 1927, 2,425-miles having been flown from California to Kauai in 23 hours.  It was a total of 25-hours and 49-minutes when the three-engine plane touched down at Wheeler.

The flight was an unprecedented success.

The feat was hailed by the War Department and the press.  The Honorable F Trubee Davison, Assistant Secretary of War, stated, “a new vista of communication between America and its overseas positions” had been opened by the Army, underscoring the progress made in aerial navigation.  He went on, “The flight is unquestioningly one of the greatest of aerial accomplishments ever made.”

Davison was “particularly pleased that two Army Air Corps officers, operating an Army plane built for no other purpose than Regular Army use, were the first to negotiate the flight to Hawai‘i.”  (Lots of info and images here from hawaii-gov.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Dole Came to Hawai‘i to Grow Coffee

The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaiʻi.

Don Francisco de Paula y Marin recorded in his journal, dated January 21, 1813, that he had planted coffee seedlings on the island of Oʻahu.  The first commercial coffee plantation was started in Kōloa, Kauai, in 1836.

Coffee was planted in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

John Wilkinson, a British agriculturist, obtained coffee seedlings from Brazil. These plants were brought to Oʻahu in 1825 board the HMS Blonde (the ship also brought back the bodies of Liholiho and Kamāmalu who had died in England) and planted in Mānoa Valley at the estate of Chief Boki, the island’s governor.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings from Mānoa and brought them to Kona.   Henry Nicholas Greenwell grew and marketed coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.

At Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (World Exhibition in Vienna, Austria (1873,)) Greenwell was awarded a “Recognition Diploma” for his Kona Coffee.  Greenwell descendants continue the family’s coffee-growing tradition in Kona. (Greenwell Farms) 

Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) seemed to concur with this when he noted in his Letters from Hawaiʻi, “The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

Hermann Widemann introduced the ‘Guatemalan’ variety (known as ‘Kona typica’) to Hawaiʻi in 1892. He gave seeds to John Horner, who planted an orchard of 800 trees in Hāmākua, comparing 400 trees of this new variety with 400 of the then-current variety known as ‘kanaka koppe,’ the so-called ‘Hawaiian coffee’, probably from 30 plants brought from Brazil by Wilkinson.  (CTAHR)

“’Coffee-trees are often planted with a crowbar,’ it is said. Strange as this may seem, it is nevertheless true. A hole is drilled through the rock, or lavacrust, and the soil thus reached; the tree, a small twig dug up from the forest, is planted in this hole, and it grows, thrives, and yields fruit abundantly.”  (Musick, 1898)

In 1892 it was estimated there were probably 1,000-acres in old coffee throughout North and South Kona; 150-acres new set out by the two companies then under way there, with expectation of setting out fifty more; 170-acres in the Hāmākua and Hilo districts and about 100 in Puna.  (Thrum)

“Hardly a mail arrives from abroad but brings further enquiry for coffee lands and information as to area; how obtainable; situation; prices, etc., and the usual multitudinous questions pertaining thereto, all of which gives evidence of the readiness of foreign capital to come in and push forward the reviving industry with vigor.”  (Thrum, 1892)

In 1893, Joe Marsden, agricultural commissioner of the recently inaugurated revolutionary government of Hawaii, sent out some examples of promotion literature which were rosy beyond the wildest dreams of a Los Angeles publicity man.

The material related especially to coffee and back in Boston, James D Dole  (who graduated in 1899 in agriculture at Harvard’s Bussey Institute (now the Arnold Arboretum)) read the publicity and made up his mind that Hawaii and coffee offered the greatest possible attraction for him.

Arriving in Honolulu, he found that the coffee business left much to be desired. His capital was limited and learning that a small homestead near Wahiawa had relinquished his land, went out to look over the prospect. (Heenan, Canning Age)

“Following my inclination toward an agricultural pursuit and the lure of Hawaii, then recently annexed to the United States, I landed in Honolulu on November 16, 1899; and within two weeks found the town quarantined for six months by an outbreak of bubonic plague.”

“During that winter I saw the fire department, with the timely aid of a stiff trade-wind, burn down all of Chinatown (the intention having been to disinfect in this thorough manner only one or two blocks).”

“In July, I bought a government homestead of sixty-four acres, twenty-three miles from Honolulu, and on August 1, 1900, I took up my residence thereon as a farmer – unquestionably of the ‘dirt” variety.”  (Dole, Harvard)’

At the time coffee turned out not to be a viable crop, so he switched to pineapples.  He incorporated Hawaiian Pineapple Company on December 4, 1901.

Exporting fresh pineapples to the continental United States resulted in a high level of wastage in the era before modern refrigerated sea and air transportation. So Dole decided to process the fruit before it was exported.

At the time fruit was often preserved in glass containers and one of his fellow pineapple growers at the settlement adopted this method of preserving his fruit. However, Dole chose to preserve his fruit in tin cans.  This proved to be a wise choice. (Hawkins)

In the 1930s Dole went into business with Castle & Cooke as principal shareholders in Hawaiian Pineapple Company and beginning in 1933 the Dole name was affixed to the company’s products. (Dole)

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Isaac Ridler

“[T]he maritime fur trade on the Northwest Coast of America had its origin in the accidental discovery by Captain Cook’s sailors that the furs which they had obtained at Nootka in exchange for the veriest trifles were of great value in the eyes of the Chinese. Naturally the earliest of these traders came from India and China.”

“In September of [1788] appeared at Nootka a new flag – that of the United States of America. This first American venture consisted of the Columbia and the Washington, commanded by captains Gray and Kendrick.”  (Howay)

“The Columbia, after remaining at Nootka until October, 1789, carried furs to Canton, exchanged them for teas, completed the circumnavigation of the earth, and in August, 1790, her return was celebrated at Boston with much enthusiasm.”

Back in the Islands, “In 1787, or less than ten years after the death of Cook, the Irish ship’s surgeon John Mackey, formerly in the East India Company’s service, was landed in Hawai’i from the Imperial Eagle, en route to China, at his own request.”

“Within a year he had been joined by three deserters – Ridler, carpenter’s mate of the Columbia; Thomas; and a youth named Samuel Hitchcock …”

“… while by 1790 the Hawaiian beachcombers numbered 10, including John Young, kidnapped at Kealakekua, and Isaac Davis, spared at the cutting off of the Fair American, both of whom were destined to leave their mark on Hawaiian history.”  (Maude)

Isaac Ridler was Carpenter’s Mate on the Columbia and was left in the fall of 1788 to collect sandalwood.

Ridler was a ‘Beachcomer’ in the Islands – beachcombers were typically a motley crew of castaways, deserters, traders and escaped convicts.  (Maude))

“Beachcomber is a word of American coinage. Primarily, it is applied to a long wave rolling in from the ocean, and from this it has come to be applied to those whose occupation it is to pick up, as pirates or wreckers, whatever these long waves wash in to them.”

“Nothing comes amiss to the so-called beachcomber; he is outside of civilization – is indeed a waif and stray not only on the ocean of life, but on the broad South Pacific, and he is certainly not above picking up those chance crumbs of the world around him which may be washed within the circle of his operations.”

“If the average British colonist and capitalist has not since his boyhood’s days, when he may have dipped into Cook’s Voyages, given a thought to the islands of the great South Sea, other white men have; and these pioneers of the Pacific are chiefly of their own stock – English or American.” (Chambers, 1881)

“In the majority of cases, the beachcomber has been a seafaring man, who has become weary of a life of hard work, with but scant remuneration, on board of Whalers or trading craft; and having landed from his vessel on one of the Pacific islands, and becoming domesticated among the natives”.

“While it is true that their intellect is of a low order, and that they know little or nothing of ordinary morality, as we understand it, it yet must be borne in mind that the race of half-castes thus produced is likely to form a prominent factor in the future civilisation of Polynesia.” (Chambers, 1881)

“Historically beachcombing is as old as European contact itself, for the first beachcombers came from Magellan’s own Trinidad, deserting at one of the northern Marianas.”

“(N)ot more than a handful of Europeans settled in the islands, either voluntarily or as castaways, in all the two and a half centuries of the age of discovery, which may be said to have lasted roughly to the founding of New South Wales.”

“Desertion was attempted, of course; even Cook, on his last voyage, had difficulty in recovering a midshipman and two others who deserted at Raiatea, and he recorded that they were ‘not the only persons in the ships who wished to end their days at these favourite islands.’”  (Maude)

In his four years in the Islands, Ridler “was what he termed one of Tommahommahaw’s (Kamehameha’s) runners, who boarded all vessels to windward merely to discover their strength and give information to the King.”

“Other American vessels had recently stopped at the Sandwich Islands, and had not been favorably impressed with the character of the natives. In the latter part of 1789 the Eleanor, an American armed trading vessel, commanded by Captain Metcalf, of New York, stopped en route to China.”

“Natives stole a small boat in order to get nails and iron, and Metcalf, a few days later, took revenge by firing into a crowd, who had come in canoes to trade, and killed many innocent persons.”

“The Fair American, commanded by Metcalf, after having been detained at Nootka, arrived a few days later, and was captured by natives, who proceeded to kill all on board except Isaac Davis.”

“The latter’s life was saved by interposition of one Ridler, the carpenter’s mate of the Columbia, who had remained at Hawaii.”

Ridler “said a small schooner named the Fair American was taken by the natives of Owhyhee (Hawaii). This schooner was tender to the Eleanora, Captain Metcalf, of New York, and commanded by his son, whom the natives killed with 3 seamen.”

“One (Isaac Davis) they threw overboard, but after beating and bruising him in a most shocking manner, they took him into one of the canoes and lashed him in with his face downwards, where Ridler found him, and interceded to save his life, in which he succeeded.” (Ingraham

“The natives were preparing 26,000 canoes to attack Captain Metcalf’s brig, a few miles away, while pretending to be trading, but the Americans on the island exaggerated the power of Metcalf’s guns and obtained permission of the king to send a letter requesting the captain to depart, but not stating what had occurred.” (Callahan)

“When Kamehameha learned of the taking of the schooner, he feared retaliation. So, when Captain Metcalf stood off shore, Kamehameha placed a taboo with penalty of death upon the sailing of any canoe. He hoped, by so doing, to keep Metcalf ignorant of the theft of the Fair American.”

“This taboo accounts for the closed houses. John Young knowing nothing of the system of the taboo, was unaware of the situation.”  (Kelley)

“Six months later, Captain Douglas, in the schooner Grace, arrived, and sent a letter requesting the delivery of the whites that remained, but failed to get them. He left Young and James Cox in care of the king to oversee the collection of sandalwood for the China market.” (Callahan)

“When Kamehameha met John Young and Isaac Davis, he took them home with him to his own houses, showing them the greatness kindness. Isaac Davis’ wounds were given careful attention. He was blind for several months, but eventually recovered his sight.”

“It is said many times that John Young and Isaac Davis were prisoners on Hawaii. They were not prisoners, although a careful watch was kept that they did not leave the islands.”

“The Captain of an incoming ship, learning that the two Englishmen were stranded on Hawaii, sent a letter ashore offering them passage. The chief, Kaiana, who was especially jealous of the friendship of Kamehameha for the two men, volunteered to take them out to the vessel in his own canoe.”

“But Kamehameha, knowing the secret desire of the chief, perhaps to destroy them. persuaded them not to go. It was with this background that John Young and Isaac Davis began their lives in the Sandwich Islands.” (Kelley)

Following the events of 1790 with the Eleanora and Fair American, “Davis and John Young … finally became chiefs, and instructed natives in the use of firearms.”

“In 1791 Captain Joseph Ingraham in the brig Hope, while cruising off Maui, was hailed by a double canoe in which were three white men, besides natives. These men were dressed in malos (loin cloths), being otherwise naked.”

“They were so tanned that they resembled the natives. They told Captain Ingraham that they had deserted Kamehameha, who had maltreated them, after the arrival at Kailua of the boatswain of the Eleanora.”

“These men were [Isaac] Ridler, James Cox and John Young (an American, not the boatswain of the Eleanora).”  (Cartwright)

Ridler joined Ingraham in October, 1791 and accompanied him back to New England on the same voyage. (The image shows the Columbia.)

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Grand Tour of Oʻahu

In October 1875, Queen Emma (widow of King Kamehameha IV) decided to take a trek around the islands.  She asked John Adams Cummins (a member of the House of Representatives, the son of an English settler and a Hawaiian mother, and also one of Kamehameha V’s closest friends) to organize the trek and to accompany her.  (Kanahele)

Called the “Prince of Entertainers” and the “entertainer of princes,” Cummins was a prominent Waimanalo sugar planter known for his generous and lavish hospitality to royalty and commoner alike and for his knowledge and love of Hawaiian traditions.

Cummins made sure meticulous arrangements were in place as twenty men safeguarded the Queen around the clock.  The Queen had a head steward who had twenty men under him, ten of whom guarded by day and ten by night.

Then on November 5, 1875, the festivities began.  Leading a vibrant procession into Waimanalo were Cummins, Queen Emma and her mother.

“The streets of Honolulu were thronged with people to witness the grand sight, and it would appear that the whole city and many from the country had turned out to see the departure. We rode down Nuʻuanu street and along King and up into Beretania and thence out towards Kamōʻiliʻili.”  (Hawaiian Gazette)

A huge celebration took place at Mauna Loke (Cummins Waimanalo home,) the first stop of a two-week “Grand Tour of Oʻahu” by the Queen.  She stayed three days, by which time the number present – both invited and uninvited – was in the hundreds.

Cummins had built two large, thatched lanai that seated 200 people. The lūʻau and hula performances were followed by fireworks and rockets fired from the surrounding Koʻolau Mountains at Waimanalo.

Along their circle-island journey, preceding the procession, posters were placed at different parts of the island noting the respective dates of arrival so that local folks would be ready with food, entertainment and accommodations.

After breakfast, everybody went sea bathing or into the mountains to gather maile, ʻawapuhi, ʻohawai and palapalai for lei. Fishermen caught honu (turtle), ʻopihi, ʻokala, uhu, palani, heʻe, lole, ʻohua, manini and kumu.  (Krauss)

As the cavalcade moved from Lanikai and Makapuʻu to Kāneʻohe, then to Waikāne, Punaluʻu and beyond, the people continued to arrive with Hoʻokupu (gifts) of food stuffs for the Queen.  (Kanahele)

At Punaluʻu, the Queen agreed to ride with Cummins in a canoe; it was tied with hundreds of feet of rope to two horses who galloped parallel to the water for four miles on the beach.

“The Queen left her shoes and stockings and got into the canoe and sat down, holding firmly by the out-rigger. The beach was crowded with people to witness the great sight of a Queen taking a perilous ride in the surf.”  (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

“We got away for Kahuku … This is the land of the hala tree. We had four very large houses, and all the walks around and from house to house were covered with matting called ‘ue’. Every one took care of his own horse and all were welcome. … At night I had all the torches burning, which lighted up all Kahuku.”

“Our party by this time had increased to over three hundred, and the number of visitors and friends from the neighborhood was very large. At the midnight luau I sent word around among the people that there should be no one leaving here for Waimea or Waialua who had not a wreath of hala-fruit, and that we would leave after breakfast on the morrow.”

“The inhabitants of Waialua district were exceedingly kind to the Queen and her party. … Natives from distant Waiʻanae brought to Her Majesty quantities of their famous fine-flavored cocoanuts, called poka-i. …”

“Assuredly Waialua never saw such a sight before and never will again. Every surfboard in the vicinity was in use, and there were some rare actors amongst this mass of people, who hailed from all parts of the island.” (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

Oxcarts loaded with hoʻokupu  arrived from the countryside. Torch bearers renewed their stock of kerosene at every Chinese store on the route.  Waialua had never seen a procession of 400 women on horseback in bright-colored costumes wearing lei and maile, every face wreathed in smiles.  (Krauss)

“(A)fter another great breakfast, the cavalcade was formed for the ride towards Honolulu. It was one of the most beautiful sights ever seen, to look back on the procession from the uplands; and Her Majesty was continually looking back at the bright colored procession which followed us, four abreast.”  (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

The next day, parties from Honolulu joined the group for a grand lūʻau hosted by Princess Keʻelikōlani at Moanalua. “Here all the Hawaiian luxuries were ready for a final lūʻau on an exceedingly grand scale. I never saw such an abundance of leis made of lehua blossoms, and cannot imagine where they came from.”

“Just as the party were ready to partake of the viands a very heavy shower of rain, accompanied with thunder and lightning, fell, which drenched everyone to the skin. Still we determined to sit through it. I should state that we were here joined by about two hundred people on horseback from town.”

After the lūʻau, they resumed their march towards town.  “Her Majesty and the horse were covered with leis of lehua and pikaki, and every one of the seven or eight hundred were likewise bedecked with leis.”

“We led the procession, followed by the whole cavalcade, along King street, up Richards and along Beretania to Her Majesty’s house. All dismounted and bade Her Majesty farewell”.  (Cummins; Commercial Advertiser)

“It is unlikely that such (a Hawaiian holiday) could ever be repeated.”  (Cummins)

It lasted 15 days.

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