Place Names | Page 76 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 22, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Friday

“This is the city, Los Angeles, California. I work here. My name’s Friday. I carry a badge. …” Dragnet, on radio (1949–1956) and television (1951–1959 & 1967–1970,) broadcast the adventures of Sergeant, later Lieutenant (then, back to Sergeant,) Joe Friday (portrayed by Jack Webb,) who carried badge 714.

Wait … although this is “Just the facts, Ma’am,” this story is not about that Joe Friday.

This is about a Hawaiian, Joe Pōʻalima (his last name translates to ‘fifth day, Friday,’) who was better known as Joe Friday.

Ok, let’s step back in time and move up the coast from our first Friday’s Pacific coast beat to a place just below the 49th parallel.

San Juan County in northwestern Washington is an archipelago of hundreds of islands, reefs and rocks between mainland Washington and Vancouver Island (accessible only by water or air.) Around 20 islands are inhabited. The largest three – San Juan, Orcas and Lopez – contain most of the land area and nearly all the population.

San Juan Island is the second-largest and most populous of the San Juan Islands. The name “San Juan” originates from the 1791 expedition of Francisco de Eliza, who named the archipelago Isla y Archiepelago de San Juan to honor his patron sponsor, Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo.

This is not to be confused with the Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) (named in 1787 by the maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, for Juan de Fuca, the Greek navigator who sailed in a Spanish expedition in 1592 to seek the fabled Strait of Anián.)

Strait of Juan de Fuca is about 95 miles long and is the Salish Sea outlet to the Pacific Ocean (going past San Juan Island.) The international boundary between Canada and the US runs down the center of the Strait (the rest of the US/Canadian border follows the 49th parallel.)

This area was the ancient home to the Northern Straits Salish, including the Lummi, Samish, Saanich and Songhees, who settled this place around 10,000-years ago.

The intersection of three waterways and sheltered harbors, prairie and woodlands with abundant food sources provided a seasonal home to its early occupants in winter villages of large cedar plank longhouses, who dispersed in the warmer months to fish, hunt and maintain and harvest shellfish beds and upland gardens.

Fast forward a bit … Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was a fur trading company that started in Canada in 1670; its first century of operation found HBC firmly-focused in a few forts and posts around the shores of James and Hudson Bays, Central Canada.

Fast forward 150-years more to 1821 … HBC merged with North West Company, its competitor; the resulting enterprise now spanned the continent – all the way to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day Washington, Oregon and British Columbia) and the North (Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.)

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States.

Needing supplies on their journey, the traders soon realized they could economically barter for provisions in Hawai‘i; for instance any type of iron, a common nail, chisel or knife, could fetch far more fresh fruit meat and water than a large sum of money would in other ports.

On January 21, 1829 the Hudson’s Bay Company schooner ‘Cadboro’ arrived at Honolulu from Fort Vancouver with a small shipment of poles and sawn lumber. The Company was attracted to Hawaiʻi not for furs but as a potential market for the products of the Company’s posts in the Pacific Northwest.

That first trip was intended to test the market for HBC’s primary products, salmon and lumber. Another goal of the trip was to recruit Hawaiians for HBC operations on the Northwest Coast. As early as 1811, HBC had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest.

A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England.)

The Hudson’s Bay Company claimed San Juan Island in 1845, building a salmon curing station there in 1850. Several years later, the company started a sheep farm.

“… (there) were Hawaiian people brought (to San Juan) by the Hudson Bay Company in the earlier days, when the Island was supposed to belong to Great Britain. That company came across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, many years before, from Victoria, and stocked the Islands with sheep, and did trapping, fishing and hunting …” (Early Life on San Juan (1865-1881,) Firth)

That brings us to the second Joe Friday, mentioned above.

Joe Pōʻalima (his name was commonly spelled ‘Poalie’ on the continent) was born around 1830, on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. At about the age of twelve, he ventured to the Pacific Northwest and was employed by the HBC (company records show he started working there in 1841.)

He was stationed at the company’s Cowlitz Farm, located on the Cowlitz River about halfway between the Columbia River and Puget Sound. He was a laborer and ‘middleman’ (the paddler in the middle of a canoe – a position tasked to those with strong arms and broad shoulders.)

He later transferred to other HBC posts: Fort Victoria, Columbia Charges and Fort Rupert (in between, he ventured back to Hawaiʻi a couple of times.)

In 1870, Friday married Mary Saaptenar of the Songhees tribe from Canada; to marry Mary, he converted to Catholicism, at which time he took the name “Peter” (Pierre.)

Later census records note Peter Friday living in San Juan County, Washington Territory. The 1880 census shows a Peter Friday, age 50, with five children, the eldest of whom was called Joseph Friday, born around 1844.

Oh, one more thing about Friday … following a conflict and boundary dispute between the US and British/Canadians (the Pig War,) the Hudson Bay Company moved its operation.

“The Kanakas were all dismissed, some of them (settled) on the Island, but most of them went back to the British side of the Island called Saltspring Island. The few that stayed on San Juan were those that had married Indian women, and had families.

“One in particular I remember quite well was old man Friday & his family, he had (settled) away out on the Island somewhere in early days perhaps at what is now called Friday Harbor, & later moved back in the Island. Anyway, I have always heard that Friday Harbor was named after the old Kanaka …” (Early Life on San Juan (1865-1881,) Firth)

Joe (Peter) Friday died April 11, 1894. Friday’s legacy lives on. What was once known as “Friday’s Harbor,” today, the Port of Friday Harbor is the main commercial center for the San Juan Islands, and it is the county seat. (Much of the information here is from reporting by Brenda Pratt.)

January 21, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Ah! What delicious-looking crabs you have here!”

So said the visitor to Ke Awa Lau o Puʻuloa – but he wasn’t speaking of crustaceans, he was speaking of the fishermen he saw as “fat crabs”, that is, a dainty morsel.

He was Mikololou, a man-eating shark from the Kaʻū district on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

He was part of a large company of sharks who came to visit from Hawaiʻi, Maui and Molokaʻi. Most of these had human relatives and were not desirous of eating human flesh, but among them were some who disregarded the relationship, and learned to like them.

The sharks had planned to make a circuit of the islands and perhaps later to visit Kahiki. They stopped at Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor.)

Kaʻahupahau, hearing those words, knew at once that some of the strangers were man-eaters. Guardians of the area, she and her brother Kahiʻuka went into action to protect the fishermen.

But Kaʻahupahau could not distinguish between the good and the bad sharks; she then she changed into the form of a great net and hemmed in her visitors while the fishermen who answered her signal came to destroy them.

Her brother Kahiʻuka struck at intruders with his tail, one side of which was larger than the other; the fishermen hauled in the nets to shore and Mikololou was cast upon the shore with the evil doers, where they were left to die of the intense heat.

All but Mikololou were soon dead; though his body died his head lived on and as the fishermen passed to and from their work, his eyes followed them and tears rolled down his face. At last his tongue fell out. Some children playing nearby found it. They picked it up and cast it into the sea.

Now Mikololou’s spirit had passed out of his head into his tongue and as soon as he felt the water again he became a whole shark. With a triumphant flop of his tail, he headed for home to join his friends again. When Kaʻahupahau saw him, it was too late to prevent his departure.

“Mikololou lived through his tongue,” or, as the Hawaiians say, “I ola o Mikololou i ka alelo.” This saying implies that however much trouble one may have, there is always a way of escape.

Kaʻahupahau lived in an underwater cave in Honouliuli lagoon (West Loch.) Kahiʻuka lived in an underwater cave off Mokuʻumeʻume (Ford Island) near Keanapuaʻa Point at the entrance of East Loch

Kaʻahupahau may mean “Well-cared for Feather Cloak” (the feather cloak was a symbol of royalty). Kahiʻuka means “Smiting Tail”; his shark tail was used to strike at enemy sharks; he also used his tail to strike fishermen as a warning that unfriendly sharks had entered Puʻuloa.

Such guardian sharks, which inhabited the coastlines of all the islands, were benevolent gods who were cared for and worshiped by the people and who aided fishermen, protected the life of the seas, and drove off man-eating sharks.

Pukui notes Kaʻahupahau in ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, No. 105: “Alahula o Puʻuloa, he alahele na Kaʻahupahau”: “Everywhere in Puʻuloa is the trail of Kaʻahupahau.”

“Said of a person who goes everywhere, looking, peering, seeing all, or of a person familiar with every nook and corner of a place.” Kaʻahupahau was noted for traveling about, vigilantly guarding her domain against man-eating invaders.

Puʻuloa also was home to Komoawa, (or Kamoawa,) a large shark who was Kaʻahupahau’s watcher. His cave, called Keaaliʻi, was at the entrance of Puʻuloa. (Thrum, Hawaii-edu) Kualiʻi guards the entrance to Pearl Harbor, while the home of Kaʻahupahau is deeper into Honouliuli lagoon.

Years later, the US Navy, having acquired Pearl Harbor, was working to expand the facilities. This included dredging the channel, adding a coal station and construction of a drydock.

“The dredging of the Pearl Harbor channel was begun long before the drydock was more than desultorily talked of – in 1900. It took many years to deepen, straighten and widen the channel into the lochs sufficiently for a man of war to enter.”

“But the work progressed steadily if slowly, and on December 14, 1911, the cruiser California steamed from Honolulu to the entrance to Pearl Harbor, and then, turning her gray nose inward, proceeded majestically through the still tortuous channel and dropped her anchor off the dry dock site.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

The drydock was to be the “Largest In (the) World – Less than a decade will have elapsed between the beginning of the great work and its completion.”

“And when the Pearl Harbor drydock is finished it will be the largest and the finest in the world, capable of accommodating any vessel now built or building, or that probably ever will be built by the United States.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

But, during construction, disaster occurred. “Much progress had at that time been made on the construction of the drydock, and success seemed assured. But the contractors had been having trouble with the bed of the drydock … it suddenly blew up with a tremendous explosion. No lives were lost, although there were several narrow escapes.”

“But the work of years had been wrecked … pressure had forced the bottom of the drydock up until it literally burst (on February 17, 1913.”) (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

“For a time it was feared that the entire project might have to be abandoned. But Uncle Sam’s engineers refused to be defeated by natural forces, and finally, after long experiment, mean were found for anchoring the bottom of the drydock.”

“Admiral Harris was one of the board that came to Hawaii to investigate the causes for the explosion and try to find a way of preventing future disasters of similar nature.” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 24, 1916)

They cannot say they were not forewarned. “While at work three Hawaiian fishermen come to where we were working, one of whom was aged, who asked me what we were doing there.

‘Digging a hole 50 feet deep’ was the reply. He then told me to move away from there; and when asked why, he said, ‘These places are tabu; they belong to shark god, name Kaʻahupahau.’” (Richards (a worker on the drydock project,) Navy-mil)

“The old man was watching my men working, and talking to them. Again he came over to me with tears in his eyes and asked me to quit digging ‘til my boss came. “I told him, I can’t do that.” They stayed there several hours, then he said to me that, ‘You people will be punished severely.’” (Richards, Navy-mil)

“Several years ago, some will remember, when work started on the Pearl Harbor naval dry dock, some of the Hawaiians said the location chosen would disturb a “shark god” who would be affronted and they prophesied dire disasters.”

“The work was started and there came a collapse. The forecasters of trouble were prophets. Changes were made in plans and locations.” (Maui News, June 9, 1922)

Merely a coincidence? Some think not.

One of the workers on the project noted, “As we went along pumping the water out of the dock, we pumped out five feet and cleaned the side and plastered and corked all the leak, 15 to 20 days and then pumped till we got to the bottom which was full of mud and in the middle of the dock where I went through a cave of nine feet diameter.”

“Mr. Hartman, assistant boss, found a backbone of a big shark, 14′ 4″ long. I came by where they were working when Mr. Hartman said to me, ‘You certainly got the shark. Here it is.’” (Richards, Navy-mil) (The Story of Mikololou is from Wiggins, Beckwith)

January 11, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Glimpse of Honolulu Life in early-1870s

The following is from a ‘Story’ by Clara Lydia (Moseley) Sutherland (granddaughter of Hiram Bingham and daughter of Hiram’s first child Sophia – and, my great grandmother). She gives glimpses of life as a teacher at Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary and a look of Honolulu in the early-1870s.

Before she “was fifteen, a wonderful thing happened to me which probably changed the whole course of my life. Two of my mother’s sisters, Aunt Lydia and Aunt Lizzie, returned to Honolulu, the home of their birth and engaged in teaching in a school for Hawaiian girls which was called Kawaiahaʻo Seminary.”

“My Aunt Lydia was Principal of this school and she wrote to my mother asking if she couldn’t spare me and let me come out and teach music to her girls, knowing that I was musically inclined.”

She left her home in Union City, Michigan to join them. “Uncle Hiram (II) met us at the wharf that Sunday morning we arrived, and when we reached the house my three aunts gave me such a warm and cordial welcome that I was no longer homesick, but oh! so glad to be here on terra firma.” (Clara Lydia Sutherland)

“Very soon after my arrival in Honolulu I began taking piano lessons from Mr. Mueller, a German teacher. I also took some French lessons from him.”

“Aunt Lydia wished to give me every advantage in the way of music, so she had me take pipe organ lessons from Mr. Atkinson, the organist at Kawaiaha‘o Church.”

“The organ then in use had to be pumped by hand, so when I went over to the church to practice I always took one of the school girls to do the pumping.”

“After I had gained some confidence in the use of the pedals I substituted occasionally for Mrs. Agnes Judd, who was the regular organist at Fort Street Church.”

“This church was thus named because it stood on the corner of Fort and Beretania streets nearly opposite the Catholic Church. Mr. Frear, father of Judge Frear was its pastor at that time.”

“Some years after, it merged with Bethel Church of which Rev. S. M. Damon was pastor. They built a beautiful church on the corner of Beretania and · Richards St. and named it Central Union, and Dr. Beckwith was its first pastor.”

“About two miles out from town at the entrance of Manoa Valley was a school called Punahou (meaning ‘new spring’) and thus named because of the spring which has existed there from time immemorial.”

“This property, consisting of several acres, was given by Boki, one of the chiefs, to my grandfather for educational purposes, so in 1842, a school was started there for the benefit of the children of the missionaries.”

“When I came to the Islands in 1872 this was as yet a small school, compared to its present status. There were only about fifty pupils and there were only two buildings, both built of adobe.”

“One of these was for the Principal and the three teachers and the few pupils who came from the other Islands. The other was the Schoolhouse. The latter is still in existence and is now used by the Music Faculty and called ‘Old Music Hall’.”

“At that time the upper floor was one big schoolroom, and the rooms downstairs were used for classrooms. Mr. E. P. Church was the Principal, and his wife and Miss Haven and Mr. Chickering were the other three teachers.”

“Here I went to school for two years, and it is one of my happy memories, as I loved my teachers and my studies and made friendships which have lasted all my life.”

“Mr. Chickering, my Latin teacher, was my ideal of all that was fine and noble and manly, and I nearly lost my heart to him even at the age of 16.”

“There were no street cars in Honolulu in those days, so the school kept two omnibuses driven by boys living at the school. One went up Nuʻuanu Valley to pick up all the scholars living in that section, and the other took those of us who lived in town, and in the few scattered houses on the plains between Punahou and town.”

“There was not much to be seen but algeroba (kiawe) trees on that dry and dusty plain. King Street was the only thoroughfare.
There was no one living in Manoa Valley except a few natives in their grass huts.”

“That was only a place where we went for picnics on horseback. The bus called for some of us about 8:30 am as school began at 9 o’clock. We used to have some pretty jolly times riding back and forth, and I can remember how certain girls would have a crush on the driver and want to sit up next to him.”

“Human nature has not changed since time began, and there was plenty of flirtation and romance in those days, but we would have been considered very discreet and modest by the present generation.”

“We would take an orange or banana to school to eat at noon, but no regular lunch, so I used to come home between two and three PM nearly starved.”

“They always kept my dinner warm for me in the oven and how I did enjoy the taro! We had it nearly every day instead of potato or rice. That is probably what made me gain in weight so fast, as I had not then learned to eat poi.”

“I was a very busy girl at this time, for besides my school and my piano and organ practice I was giving piano lessons to ten or twelve of the girls in my aunt’s school.”

“I would give one before going to school in the morning, and one or two more in the afternoon. There was an old piano in the dining room where I taught, and on which the girls practiced.”

“In the back parlor was a new one, belonging to Sally King, a half white, and one of my pupils. She and I did our practicing on this.”

“Our nearest neighbors were the Castles and Cookes. The Castles lived next door and the Cookes just across the street in the old Mission House, where my grandparents and some of the other missionaries had lived.”

“This was the first frame house erected in Honolulu, the material for it having been sent around Cape Horn in 1821. It is still in existence, having been carefully preserved by the friends of the missionaries on account of its associations.”

“‘Mother Cooke’, as she was lovingly called by all who knew her, was living here at this time with her three sons, Charlie, Frank and Clarence.”

“The three daughters and oldest son, Joe, had all left the family roof, and were living in homes of their own. Charlie was married but living in the same house with his mother and occupying a three room apartment or wing which had been built onto the east end of the house.”

“These rooms should have been called ‘Honeymoon Haven’ as it is where each of Mother Cooke’s four sons began their married life.”

“The Castles were a large family of nine children, and I came to know them very well, especially the younger ones, George, James, Carrie, Helen and Henry.”

“Carrie, who was nearest my age, was as fond of music as I, and we enjoyed playing duets together …. Mr. Barnard, Clerk of the Court, an elderly gentleman who played the violin, used to give us each an evening a week when he would come to the house and play with us, thus helping us greatly in reading and in our appreciation of good music.”

Punahou School, Photograph attributed to Charles Burgess-1866

Punahou Omnibus

Punahou Omnibus-1890

Kawaiahao Church in 1885-Look towards Diamond Head

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December 31, 2021 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Great Lāhainā Fire of 1919

Like any town with wooden buildings built side-by-side, folks in Lāhainā in the early-1900s were always wary of the possibility of fire getting out of control. Then, it happened.

New Years 1919, a fire (which broke out earlier New Year’s Eve) started in the Sing Lung Co. fruit store, “two doors from the corner of Front and Church streets, on the mauka side” and grew to engulf a large part of the business center of the town.

More than 30 separate buildings were destroyed before the fire was stopped by the townspeople who turned out in the middle of the night to try to battle the blaze after a mounted police officer gave the alarm by riding around town frantically blowing his whistle.

The fire appeared to be intentionally set.

“The fact that the back door to the Sing Lung store, in which the fire originated, was found to be open when the first fire fighters arrived on the scene, first gave rise to this impression.”

“Later, on Monday morning, Sheriff Clem Crowell, after a careful search of the ruins, found the padlock and hasp with which the door in question had been fastened, and both show unmistakable evidence of having been forced open.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The community helped control the spread and the Maui News specifically praised the heroics of a Japanese boy named Aoki who saved the historic Baldwin House.

“This youth, with great grit and good judgment, mounted to the roof of the building with a garden hose, and, protecting himself from the terrific heat with a small table which he held in front of him as a screen, kept the roof and cornices of the building wet …”

“… and watched for sparks and embers which rained about him as he worked. The building was not damaged except for a badly charred cornice on the side next the fire.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The big fire of 1919 destroyed all of the wooden buildings along Front Street from Dickenson Street to the Lāhainā Store, which was spared. Starting at Dickenson, those stores were: Yee Lip General Store, Sing Lung Fruit Store, Wa Sing Barber Shop, the Lāhainā Branch of Bank of Hawaii and Len Wai Store.

The buildings in what was called Library Park were also destroyed; the Japanese Hotel owned by M. Shimura, Yet Lung General Store, the Goo Lip Building, several small businesses, shacks and the fish market.

The Pioneer Hotel was seriously threatened, although some distance from the fire, by the shower of sparks carried upon it by the wind. By keeping the roof wet with water carried up in buckets, it was possible to prevent its catching fire.

“By the time fire fighters arrived on the scene the store was a mass of flames, and the heat was so great that no one could approach very near.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

“Fire hose from the court house was carried to the scene within a reasonable time, but a reducing coupling was missing It could not be attached to the fire hydrant. It developed that this coupling had been left at the scene of the fire which destroyed cottage at the Lahaina hospital at the time of the big wing storm, several weeks ago.”

“By the time it was found and brought to the scene the blaze had communicated to buildings on either side and the heat was so great that it was impossible to pass In front of them along the street.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

“By far the disastrous conflagration in the history of Maui, was that which started about 11:30 o’clock last Saturday night in the business center of Lahaina, and before it was finally checked had destroyed more than 30 separate buildings and had caused a loss aggregating between $125,000 and $150,000.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The Lāhainā fire was not only started by burglars, who broke into the Sing Lung fruit store, stole a number of watches and about $8 in coin, but that the crime was committed by members of the gang of young bandits who robbed the Len Wai Co., store and planned to rob the Lāhainā bank.

“Partial confession has been secured from a number of boys more or less directly implicated, and the circumstantial evidence is all but conclusive against two of the gang.” (Maui News, January 17, 1919)

The fire, considered one of the worse in the history of Maui to that date, was the catalyst for important improvements to Maui urban life.

The following month, the County Board of Supervisors approved and funded the start of a fire department for Lāhainā. BO Wist was elected as the first fire chief and given the job of organizing a volunteer fire company. The Board went on to approve the purchase of two fire trucks – one for Lāhainā and one for Wailuku.

Because of the fire, the Lāhainā townspeople asked that the County install a large water main for fire purposes in the center of town as well as proper fire hydrants.”

“The Board instructed the county attorney and the county engineer to “collaborate in drawing up of fire ordinances for both Lahaina and Wailuku, fixing fire limits, and prescribing the class of buildings and equipment that may be maintained in the thickly built parts of town.”

Within a short time after the fire started the leading Japanese of Lāhainā had formed a relief organization for the benefit of those who had suffered loss from the fire.

The first work of this organization was supply food and drink to the hundreds who were engaged in fighting the fire. Later, it took up the matter of helping those sufferers of the fire.

Lahaina_Town-Map-Bishop-Reg1262 (1884)-(portion)-noting_general_location_of_Fire-Baldwin_House

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December 28, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Through the Eyes of W Somerset Maugham

“The Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell, and sometimes it is rough, capped with white crests, and boisterous.”

“It is not so often that it is calm and blue. Then, indeed, the blue is arrogant.”

“The sun shines fiercely from an unclouded sky. The trade wind gets into your blood and you are filled with an impatience for the unknown.”

“(Honolulu) is the meeting place of East and West. The very new rubs shoulders with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you expected you have come upon something singularly intriguing.”

“All these strange people live close to each other, with different languages and different thoughts; they believe in different gods and they have different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger.”

“And somehow as you watch them you have an impression of extraordinary vitality. Though the air is so soft and the sky so blue, you have, I know not why, a feeling of something hotly passionate that beats like a throbbing pulse through the crowds.”

“Though the native policeman at the corner, standing on a platform, with a white club to direct the traffic, gives the scene an air of respectability, you cannot but feel that it is a respectability only of the surface; a little below there is darkness and mystery.”

“It gives you just that thrill, with a little catch at the heart, that you have when at night in the forest the silence trembles on a sudden with the low, insistent beating of a drum. You are all expectant of I know not what.”

“If I have dwelt on the incongruity of Honolulu, it is because just this, to my mind, gives its point to the story I want to tell. It is a story of primitive superstition, and it startles me that anything of the sort should survive in a civilisation which, if not very distinguished, is certainly very elaborate.”

“I cannot get over the fact that such incredible things should happen, or at least be thought to happen, right in the middle, so to speak, of telephones, tram cars, and daily papers. …”

“The place seemed to belong not to the modern, hustling world that I had left in the bright street outside, but to one that was dying.”

“It had the savour of the day before yesterday. Dingy and dimly lit, it had a vaguely mysterious air and you could imagine that it would be a fit scene for shady transactions. It suggested a more lurid time, when ruthless men carried their lives in their hands, and violent deeds diapered the monotony of life.”

“When I went in the saloon was fairly full. A group of business men stood together at the bar, discussing affairs, and in a corner two Kanakas were drinking. Two or three men who might have been store-keepers were shaking dice. The rest of the company plainly followed the sea; they were captains of tramps, first mates, and engineers.”

“Behind the bar, busily making the Honolulu cocktail for which the place was famous, served two large half castes, in white, fat, clean-shaven and dark skinned, with thick, curly hair and large bright eyes. …”

“‘What’s Iwelei?” …

“‘The plague spot of Honolulu. The Red Light district. It was a blot on our civilisation.’”

“Iwelei was on the edge of the city. You went down side streets by the harbour, in the darkness, across a rickety bridge, till you came to a deserted road, all ruts and holes, and then suddenly you came out into the light.”

“There was parking room for motors on each side of the road, and there were saloons, tawdry and bright, each one noisy with its mechanical piano, and there were barbers` shops and tobacconists.”

“There was a stir in the air and a sense of expectant gaiety.”

“You turned down a narrow alley, either to the right or to the left, for the road divided Iwelei into two parts, and you found yourself in the district.”

“There were rows of little bungalows, trim and neatly painted in green, and the pathway between them was broad and straight. It was laid out like a garden-city.”

“In its respectable regularity, its order and spruceness, it gave an impression of sardonic horror; for never can the search for love have been so systematised and ordered.”

“The pathways were lit by a rare lamp, but they would have been dark except for the lights that came from the open windows of the bungalows.”

“Men wandered about, looking at the women who sat at their windows, reading or sewing, for the most part taking no notice of the passers-by; and like the women they were of all nationalities.”

“There were Americans, sailors from the ships in port, enlisted men off the gunboats, sombrely drunk, and soldiers from the regiments, white and black, quartered on the island; there were Japanese, walking in twos and threes; Hawaiians, Chinese in long robes, and Filipinos in preposterous hats. They were silent and as it were oppressed. Desire is sad.”

“‘It was the most crying scandal of the Pacific,’ exclaimed Davidson vehemently. ‘The missionaries had been agitating against it for years, and at last the local press took it up.’”

“‘The police refused to stir. You know their argument. They say that vice is inevitable and consequently the best thing is to localise and control it.’”

“‘The truth is, they were paid. Paid. They were paid by the saloon-keepers, paid by the bullies, paid by the women themselves. At last they were forced to move.’”

“Iwelei, with its sin and shame, ceased to exist on the very day we arrived. The whole population was brought before the justices.” (W Somerset Maugham, 1921)

William Somerset Maugham (born Jan. 25, 1874, Paris, France – died Dec. 16, 1965, Nice) was an English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. He wrote about the Islands in ‘The Trembling of the Leaf’ in 1921.

Iwilei-‘Rooms’-(Greer)

Iwilei-red_light_district-(ghosttowns)

Iwilei-‘Rooms’-(Saga-Scott)