Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

1808

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honoli‘i and Douglas

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from the northeast United States, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Hawaiian Islands. Four young Hawaiians joined the Pioneer Company.

They were, Hopu (Thomas Hopu) ‘ Hopoo’; Kanui (William Kanui) ‘Tennooe’; Humehume (George Prince) ‘Tamoree’ and Honoli‘i (John Honoli‘i) ‘Honoree’.

“The Hawaiian boys who came back with the missionaries … were able to reassure the Hawaiian people as to the friendliness of the relations between America and Hawaii and to serve as guides to the missionaries upon their arrival.” (Kamakau, Ka Nupepa Ku‘oko‘a, Jan 4, 1868; Ruling Chiefs)

Honoli‘i had arrived in Boston in the fall of 1815. He came over in a ship belonging to Messrs. Ropes & Co merchants of Boston. He was taken on board the ship by the consent of his friends, and replaced a sailor, who died before the ship arrived at Hawai‘i.  He was curious and wanted to see the world.

“A place was soon found for him at the Rev. Mr. Vaill’s of Guilford, where he began to learn the first rudiments of the English language. Messrs. Ropes & Co., in whose ship he came to this country, not only cheerfully released him for the purpose of being educated, but very generously gave one hundred dollars towards the expense of his education.”

“He was ignorant of our language. And of every species of learning or religion, when he began to study. In about six months he began to read in a broken manner in the Bible. In the mean time, he also learned to write, which cost him but little time or labour. … He is industrious, faithful, and persevering, not only in his studies, but in whatever business he undertakes.” (ABCFM)

Honoli‘I enrolled in the Cornwall school in 1817.  His teachers considered him to be mild-mannered and industrious.  He was also thought to be “tactful, persevering, and faithful.”  (Morris & Benedetto)

Honoli‘i became a valuable Hawaiian language instructor because, having come at a later age (about 19), he still had good command of his native tongue. He also won praise for his considerable vigor and intellect and his discreet and stately deportment. (Kelley)

Back in the Islands, “The king Kaumualii appears exceedingly interested in what he now learns from the bible through the interpretation of Honolii.” (Sybil Bingham)

Then, David Douglas visited the Hawaiian Islands.  Douglas first visited in 1830, on his way from England to the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. On this brief visit, he climbed several peaks on O’ahu and was “splendidly” entertained by “Madame Boki”, the wife of the governor.

Douglas left the Columbia region in December of 1830 and traveled to California. He visited Hawai‘i a second time in September of 1832 enroute from Monterey in California to the Columbia River. He was in the Islands for just a few short weeks; he returned to Honolulu in December of 1833.

“I arrived here on the 23rd of December, and after spending Christmas Day with two English ladies, the wife of our Consul, Mr. Charlton, and her sister, I started on the 27th for the island of Hawaii, which I reached on the 2nd of January, 1834.”

“You know I have long had this tour in contemplation, and having spent three winter months in botanizing here, I proceed to give you a short notice of my proceedings.”  (Douglas; Greenwell)

When Douglas was exploring Hawai‘i in 1833 and 1834, he knew Honoli‘i and deemed him a friend as well as a guide. Honoli‘i accompanied Douglas on several ascents of Mauna Kea.  It is clear the Honoli‘i was still practicing his faith: on one of their trips the Douglas party stopped at Kapapala where Honoli‘i preached at the Sunday service. (Morris & Benedetto)

“Honoli‘i had probably been chosen as a guide because of his command of the English language. He had spent a number of years in America and had returned to Hawai‘i … in 1820. Douglas referred to Honoli‘i as ‘my guide, friend, and interpreter, Honori, an intelligent and well-disposed fellow’”. (Greenwell)

They first made their way up Mauna Kea; Douglas next visited Kilauea crater and ascended Mauna Loa, again traveling with Honoli’i and a large retinue of Hawaiians.

Douglas’s little terrier, Billy, accompanied him on these trips and in all his travels. The botanist once wrote in his journal: “my old terrier, a most faithful and now to judge from his long grey beard, venerable friend, who has guarded me throughout all my journies, and whom, should I live to return”. (Memoir of David Douglas-in Companion to the Botanical Magazine Vol II-1836)

Honoli‘i was not with Douglas when he died on Mauna Kea, in a bullock pit.  On July 12, 1834, while exploring the Island; “Douglas, a scientific traveller from Scotland, in the service of the London Horticultural Society, lost his life in the mountains of Hawaii, in a pitfall, being gored and trampled to death by a wild bullock captured there.  (Bingham)

“It was a native custom to trap the wild long-horned Spanish cattle by digging pits and covering them with brush. … When some natives came by later in the morning, they first saw the feet of a man sticking out of a mass of rubbish and stones.”

“A bull was already entrapped in the pit and the angry beast was standing on the chest of the young plant-hunter. … Thus ended 9 years of botanical adventure along the Pacific for David Douglas. His death at 35 is one of the tragedies of botanical history. But in his short span of life, as one scientist wrote …”

“‘No other explorer personally made more discoveries, or described more genera or species. No other collector of rare plants ever reaped such a harvest or associated his name with so many economically useful and beautiful plants as David Douglas.’” (Gould; Vassar)

Honoli‘i died in February 1838.  David Douglas was buried in the native churchyard of Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu; Honoli‘i was buried in the cemetery of Ka‘ahumanu Church at Wailuku, Maui.

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Polar Bears and Reindeer

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China.  The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water.

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 in 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.

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

Foreign vessels had long recognized the ability of the Hawaiian Islands to provision their ships with food (meat and vegetables,) water, salt and firewood.

Salt was Hawaiʻi’s first export, carried by some of the early ships in the fur trade back to the Pacific Northwest for curing furs.  Another early market was provided by the Russian settlements in Alaska.

On January 21, 1821, the Thaddeus (the brig that carried the Pioneer Company from Boston to Hawai‘i) was sold to Liholiho (Kamehameha II).  Liholiho put her into service in the Northwest trade. On July 12, 1821, William Sumner sailed the Thaddeus to Maui to gather a load of salt to trade for goods at Kamchatka.  (Mills)

In Kamchatka, “Salt is at present issued, but not in sufficient quantities; were that article more liberally distributed, the people might in some years prepare fish to last them several successive ones.”

“From the quantity now supplied by the king of the Sandwich islands, it is to be hoped that the first productive season will be taken advantage of.” (Cochrane)

“The principal riches of Kamtchatka may be said to consist in the animals of the chase, of which there are so prodigious a number, that there are not sufficient inhabitants to take them. The most valuable are foxes of various colours, a few sea and more river otters, with an immense number of sables.”

“Bears, wolves rein-deer and mountain-sheep, and sometimes a few lynxes, are also to be found. The number of skins annually exported and consumed in the peninsula is about thirty thousand, of which sables and foxes form the principal part.” (Cochrane)

On behalf of the Hawaiian government Alexander Adams “brought home a couple of deer the last time with a view of their thriving in the islands, but they had not long been suffered to go at large in Hanarura valley …”

“… when Pitt [Kalanimōku] happening to be unwell, fancied that the flesh of the deer would do him good, and one of them was killed for him to taste. This he found so much to his liking that he ordered the other one to be killed, thus ending the life of poor Adams’ deer.” (Macrae)

“Deer were not the only kind of wild animals introduced into Honolulu during the reign of Liholiho. [T]hat monarch dispatched his American-built brig, the Sunbeam [likely the Thaddeus], commanded by an Englishman, Captain John Bowles, and manned by Sandwich Islanders …”

“… to St. Peter and St. Pauls (Petropaulovski), Kamtschatka, with a cargo of salt as a present to his imperial brother, the Czar of Russia.”

“In return for this gift on the part of the Sandwich Islands king, the governor of St. Peter and St. Paul’s, who was then Captain Ricord, an Englishman, gave such articles as seemed most desirable, including some animals, with a view of propagating the breed.” (Macrae, footnote)

“[T]he beautiful clipper entered the harbour of Peter and Paul in Kamchatka.  She flew a flag which to the watchers on shore was absolutely unknown; blue, white, and brown.”

“She seemed to be full of men, and saluted the fort with seven guns.  In those days Petropavlovsk was practically the only Russian port on the Pacific, for the Amur River belonged as yet to the Chinese, and Vladivostok was still a desert.”

“The arrival of any ship in that God-forsaken port was a rare and great event, much more that of a vessel so mysterious. The whole population – about three hundred souls – gathered on the foreshore.”

“All the authorities were there, with the Governor at their head. This was Captain Ricord, an English naval officer who, with numerous compatriots, was in the Russian service, and had received, after many adventures, the governorship of Kamchatka as a reward for his distinguished services. …”

“Captain John Bowles [was] commanding the clipper Sunbeam of His Majesty Kamehameha II, King of the Sandwich Islands. The Sunbeam’s cargo consisted of salt, intended by His Majesty as a present to the Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias …”

“… in return for which His Majesty hoped that his ‘dear brother’ would send him animals fit to be bred in His Majesty’s islands – and especially bears!” (Poliakoff)

They made the trade and “Amongst the animals were two Siberian bears, but what became of them when landed at Honolulu is now forgotten.” (Macrae, footnote) (This summary was inspired and informed by Peter Mill’s recent book ‘Connecting the Kingdom;’ it’s a good read on sailing vessels in the early Hawaiian monarchy.)

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Kamehamehas Acquired Western Ships

Before European open ocean exploration began, Eastern Polynesia had been explored and settled.  (Herb Kane)

Voyaging vessels were double-hull; hulls were deep enough to track well while sailing across the wind or on a close reach into the wind. The round-sided V hulls provided lateral resistance to the water while under sail.  (Herb Kane)

The most widely distributed and presumably most ancient sail was a triangle made up of strips of fine matting sewn together and mounted to two spars, one serving as a mast; the other, as a boom, usually more slender and either straight or slightly curved.

Throughout Eastern Polynesia, the same basic design probably persisted throughout the era of long distance two-way voyaging. (Herb Kane)

The double-hulled voyaging canoes were seaworthy enough to make voyages of over 2,000 miles along the longest sea roads of Polynesia, like the one between Hawai‘i and Tahiti.

Fast forward to post-‘contact’ and the time of the Islands’ unification; a new style of boat was in the islands and Kamehameha started to buy and build them.

Following the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778, more “ships were coming into the harbor at Honolulu – merchant vessels, war ships and ships out to discover new lands.”

“Of these the chiefs and people bought arms and gunpowder. Kamehameha had several storehouses well stocked with foreign arms, but nobody wanted money or clothing.”

“On the part of the foreigners potatoes and yams were in great demand. The chief accordingly went into the cultivation of these foods, and grew potatoes on the hill of ‘Ualaka‘a between Manoa and Makiki, and yams at Ka‘akopua, and sold them to the foreigners.”

“Canoeloads of provisions from Hawaii and the other islands were distributed among the chiefs, counselors, lesser chiefs, warrior chiefs, soldiers, followers, cultivators, paddlers, runners, canoe makers, and craftsmen; no one was left out. And in the same way distribution was made to the households of the chiefs.” (Kamakau)

Then, in 1790, Kamehameha acquired his first Western boat, the Fair American. It was not bought or built by Kamehameha: one of Kamehameha’s ‘Kona Uncles,’ Kame‘eiamoku, overpowered the ship and turned it (and its weapons) and its only survivor, Isaac Davis, over to Kamehameha.

In 1795, Kamehameha had a fleet of 20 vessels, tonnage of from 20 to 40 tons. Each vessel was well armed and manned. (US Naval Institute)  “In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Kamehameha I methodically acquired all the materials and crafts needed to construct ships locally, and he purchased larger foreign brigs and schooners when good opportunities arose.” (Mills)

“Kamehameha and successive high chiefs purchased most foreign vessels with sandalwood harvests by maka‘āinana from Hawai‘i’s forests, which Chinese coveted for incense and medicine.” (Mills)

By 1805, Kamehameha had a sizable navy, consisting of more than 40 large ships and several hundred peleleu, all equipped with guns of various caliber. (The peleleu was a long and deep double canoe with a covered platform and foreign sail, and was built for Kamehameha by his foreign friends.)  (US Naval Institute)

The first Western-style vessel built in the Islands was the Beretane (1793.)  Through the aid of Captain George Vancouver’s mechanics, after launching, it was used in the naval combat with Kahekili’s war canoes off the Kohala coast.  (Thrum)

Encouraged by the success of this new type of vessel, others were built.  The second ship built in the Islands, a schooner called Tamana (named after Kamehameha’s favorite wife, Kaʻahumanu,) was used to carry of his cargo of trade to the missions along the coast of California.  (Couper & Thrum, 1886)

From 1796 until 1802 the kingdom flourished. Several small decked vessels were built.  (Case) According to Cleveland’s account, Kamehameha possessed at that time twenty small vessels of from twenty to forty tons burden, some even copper-bottomed.  (Alexander)

Kamehameha eventually built at least three shipyards, at Kealakekua Bay and Kawaihae on Hawai‘i Island and another on O‘ahu at Waikiki.  (Mills)

“What holds the king’s attention more than any other subject, though, is shipbuilding. Already, it is said, he can accurately and with true discernment spot the strengths and weaknesses in any ship’s construction.  All equipment and tools relating to shipbuilding, he regards as particularly valuable.”

“One cannot do better, therefore, than to use such tools as articles of trade when going to Owaihi. Any sailor wo is at the same time, a ship’s carpenter is particularly welcome there, and is straightaway presented with a piece of land and almost anything else that he may want.” (Georg Langsdorff in Mills)

“As to his navy, Kamehameha had the largest naval force in the entire Pacific during his time. Japan had gone into seclusion from 1638 to 1852, during which time she forbade anyone from leaving the country or from building ships, under penalty of death. America acquired the Louisiana Territory during this time, and had not yet reached her Pacific boundaries.”

“Lisiansky, a Russian naval officer, was much impressed by Kamehameha’s might and in comparing his army and navy with those of other South Sea Islands, styled them ‘invincible.’ He noted that they included some 7,000 warriors and about 60 Europeans, a large arsenal of modern weapons, and a fleet of many war canoes and ships.”  (US Naval Institute)

Kamehameha was the greatest Polynesian Commander in Chief that ever lived. He placed the art of warfare on a scientific basis, and to insure peace to his people, he built the largest navy in the entire Pacific region, in spite of the fact that he did not have occasion to test its strength.

He believed in security, and he achieved his grand and favorite object, so that before he died, he was able to issue the following challenge to his friends and advisors: ‘Strive as ye may to undo that which I have established in righteousness, ye will never reach the end.’ (US Naval Institute)

Interest and acquisition of Western ships must have run in the family …

Not to be left out, Liholiho (Kamehameha’s son who reigned as Kamehameha II) bought the Thaddeus on January 21, 1821.  (The Thaddeus brought the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries to the Islands and arrived at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.)

Shortly thereafter, she sailed to the Northwest Coast for seal and otter skins; she arrived back to the Islands on October13, 1820 and shortly thereafter Liholiho purchased the Thaddeus for 4,000 piculs of sandalwood.  (Mills)

Another of Kamehameha’s sons, Kauikeaouli (who later reigned as Kamehameha III), was, as a child, “chiefly occupied with his toy boats rigged like warships and with little brass cannon loaded with real powder mounted on (their] decks. The firing off of these cannon amused him immensely.  …”

“As he grew older, perhaps eight or nine years old, he used to go out with a boatload of boys, generally in the sail boats … and he would haul the sails and do any of the work without trying to assume command, for even up to the time when he became king he was simple in his ways.” (Kamakau)  Liholiho and Kauikeaouli each acquired several Western ships.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Point Four Program

In his inaugural address (January 20, 1949) President Harry S Truman noted that, “Since the end of hostilities [of WWII], the United States has invested its substance and its energy in a great constructive effort to restore peace, stability, and freedom to the world. …”

“We have constantly and vigorously supported the United Nations and related agencies as a means of applying democratic principles to international relations. We have consistently advocated and relied upon peaceful settlement of disputes among nations.”

Truman challenged the nation by stating that, “In the coming years, our program for peace and freedom will emphasize four major courses of action.” 

He noted that, “First, we will continue to give unfaltering support to the United Nations and related agencies … Second, we will continue our programs for world economic recovery. … Third, we will strengthen freedom-loving nations against the dangers of aggression.”

The last of his initiatives later earned the name, Point Four Program.  In it, he stated, “Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.”

Truman went on to elaborate, in describing this latter point, “I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of our store of technical knowledge in order to help them realize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation with other nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needing development.”

“Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materials for housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens.” (Truman Inaugural Address, Truman Library Museum, National Archives)

“The primary functions of Point Four lie in the fields of education, public health and agriculture. In the fiscal year 1951 approximately 80 per cent of the Point Four budget was spent on projects in these fields.”  (Rickher)

It’s interesting that later history writers referenced the first American Protestant Missionaries to Hawai‘i as the “first American Point Four Agents.” (Tate)

“[O]ne hundred-thirteen years before President Harry S. Truman’s ‘bold new program’ for making the benefits of American scientific ‘know how’ and industrial progress available for the advancement of undeveloped areas of the world …”

“… the Sandwich Islands missionaries demonstrated a genuine and prophetic acquaintance with the requirements of a humble people lacking skill, enterprise, and industry, and suffering under so many restrictions that their temporal prosperity and their existence as a nation appeared problematical.”

“To the naive and sometimes indolent Hawaiians the evangelists exhibited the advantages of industry and frugality; they endeavored earnestly with their limited resources to lift a benighted nation from ignorance and poverty, in fact, to save it from extinction.”

“Their mission was more than a mission of love – it was the first American technical mission overseas; their tireless labors and simple instruction in the agricultural, mechanical, and manual fields represented the first chapter in the prelude to Point Four.” (Tate)

“On November 15, 1832, Rev. William Richards and others at Lahaina, Maui, in a letter to the American Board, expressed their conviction that in order to retain the ground which Christianity had already gained in the islands, new plans must be devised for elevating the character and living standards of the people.”

“As one means of doing this, they suggested that the Board sponsor a project for introducing the manufacture of cotton cloth into Hawaii. … The missionaries did not propose that the Board become a manufacturing company; but they saw nothing more inconsistent in teaching the people to manufacture cloth than in instructing them in agriculture.”

“They had already voted to teach the Hawaiians carpentry in connection with the high school at Lahainaluna, near Lahaina. In the same month [missionaries in Kona] emphasized the need of machinery for the domestic manufacture of cloth and of an instructor.”

“These clergymen earnestly invited the attention of ‘the friends of civilization to the subject of raising this people from their degradation’ and of uniting ‘with this mission in fixing upon some practicable means to effectuate this object.’ The American Board looked favorably upon the plan”.

Rev BB Wisner, secretary of the American Board, “wanted to have the deliberate views of the mission on the subject of agriculture, not with the aim of making New England farmers, ‘but of introducing and encouraging among them [the Hawaiians] such agriculture as is suited to their climate.”

The missionaries in the Islands “regarded the subject as of sufficient importance to warrant ‘encouraging the growth of cotton, coffee, sugar cane, etc., that the people may have more business on their hands and increase their temporal comforts.’”

“The initial steps toward the desired end were taken at the mission stations that became veritable oases from which seeds and cuttings of vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers were distributed throughout the country districts.”

“Edwin Locke at Waialua, Oahu, Samuel Ruggles at Kona, Hawaii, and James Goodrich, of the Hilo station, were especially successful along these lines.”  (Tate)

“The first mission schools were not established as industrial or manual training institutions, but in the 1830’s the evangelists perceived the importance of agriculture and industry in raising the living standard of the nation.”

“In their general meeting held at Lahaina in 1833 they proposed a manual labor system, as a means both of desirable improvement and self-support, to be instituted at the high school. The secular agent was instructed to engage an artisan to oversee the work, take charge of the stock, tools, etc.”

“Two years later the mission recommended that a farmer be procured to teach agriculture and to conduct the secular concerns of the school and that the scholars be required to cultivate the land or earn their own food by their personal industry.”  (Tate)

“In 1841 a regular manual labor school was started at Waioli, on Kauai, by Edward Johnson, but later was conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Abner Wilcox. Moreover, in the boarding schools at Kohala, Wailuku, and Hilo the boys were given instruction in agriculture and the girls were taught domestic science or home making.”

“[T]he Hilo Boarding School curriculum kept abreast with industrial progress by introducing successively courses in agriculture, tailoring, dairying, carpentry, blacksmithing, and coffee culture in the nineteenth century and cocoa, banana, and pineapple production and auto mechanics in the twentieth.”

“On twenty-five acres of land at Lahainaluna set aside for vocational education, Samuel T. Alexander, just out of college, was assigned … to the supervision of a sugar cane project. The success of this experiment conducted by the son of a former missionary principal, William P. Alexander, encouraged the commercial development of sugar in Hawaii.”

The Hawaiian leadership saw benefits.  King Kamehameha III sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands.  In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“I recommend to your most serious consideration, to devise means to promote the agriculture of the islands, and profitable industry among all classes of their inhabitants. It is my wish that my subjects should possess lands upon a secure title; enabling them to live in abundance and comfort, and to bring up their children free from the vices that prevail in the seaports.”

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly.”

“I recommend you to consider the best means of inducing foreigners to furnish capital for carrying on agricultural operations, that thus the exports of the country may be increased …” (King Kamehameha III Speech to the Legislature, April 28, 1847; Archives)

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