Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Feathers

“Feathers were important symbols of power for Polynesians; in Hawai‘i, feathers were more highly prized than other types of property.”

“Feathers used for crafts were obtained from at least 24 bird species, however, the golden feathers of ‘ō‘ō and mamo birds made them primary targets for birdhunters; both birds became extinct by the late 1800s.”

“Feathers were utilized for many items, including ‘ahu‘ula [cloaks], mahiole [war helmets], and kāhili [standards]. Most garments utilized a considerable number of feathers; a cloak for Kamehameha consumed the golden feathers of 80,000 mamo birds.”  (Perez)

“The feathers of birds were the most valued possessions of the ancient Hawaiians. The feathers of the mamo were more choice than those of the oo because of their superior magnificence when wrought into cloaks (ahu). The plumage of the i‘iwi, apapane and amakihi were made into ahu-ula, cloaks and capes, and into maho-ole, helmets.”

“The ahu-ula was a possession most costly and precious (makamae), not obtainable by the common people, only by the alii. It was much worn by them as an insignia in time of war and when they went into battle. The ahu-ula was also conferred upon warriors, but only upon those who had distinguished themselves and had merit, and it was an object of plunder in every battle.”

“Unless one were a warrior in something more than name he would not succeed in capturing his prisoner nor in getting possession of the ahu-ula and feathered helmet of a warrior.  These feathers had a notable use in the making of the royal battle-gods. They were also frequently used by the female chiefs in making or decorating a comb called huli-kua, which was used as an ornament in the hair.”

“The lands that produced feathers were heavily taxed at the Makahiki time, feathers being the most acceptable offering to the Makahiki-idol. If any land failed to furnish the full tale of feathers due for the tax, the landlord was turned off (hemo). So greedy were the alii after fathers that there was a standing order (palala) directing their collection.” (Malo)

In the first writing of Hawai‘i, Captain Cook’s Journal notes, “Amongst the articles which they brought to barter this day [Jan 21, 1778], we could not help taking notice of a particular sort of cloak and cap, which, even in countries where dress is more particularly attended to, might be reckoned elegant.”

“The first are nearly of the size and shape of the short cloaks worn by the women of England, and by the men in Spain, reaching to the middle of the back, and tied loosely before.”

“The ground of them is a network upon which the most beautiful red and yellow feathers are so closely fixed that the surface might be compared to the thickest and richest velvet, which they resemble, both as to the feel and the flossy appearance.”

“The manner of varying the mixture is very different, some having triangular spaces of red and yellow alternately; others a kind of crescent, and some that were entirely red, had a yellow border which made them appear, at some distance, exactly like a scarlet cloak edged with gold lace.”

“The brilliant colours of the feathers, in those that happened to be new, added not a little to their fine appearance, and we found that they were in high estimation with their owners, for they would not, at first part with one of them for anything we offered, asking no less a price than a musket.”

“[M]en and women … are joined together in great numbers in climbing into the forests to snare birds [kapili manu; kawili manu]. And the number of birds caught by a person in a day is from six to thirty. The bird being caught is the Oo of the forests.” (Kuokoa, Mar 17, 1866)

“Initial bird-catching or feather-gathering was probably conducted by commoners (maka‘āinana) of each community land (ahupua‘a) as part of their tribute to chiefs, rather than exclusively by a special class of chiefly retainers (bird-catchers).

“Wives of bird-catchers sometimes accompanied their husbands and plucked, sorted and fastened together feathers. Women probably wove the helmet and cloak fibre frameworks and nets (of ‘ie‘ie and ‘olonā fibers).

“Women may have attached the feathers to cloaks and helmets – manufactured the cloaks and helmets.  These cloaks and helmets were probably made in chiefly households by skilled female retainers.”

“Capes (cloaks) and helmets were probably not sacred and kapu until the finished products became identified with certain wearers.”  (Cordy)

Vancouver notes in his journal, “Tamaahmaah (Kamehameha) conceiving this might be his last visit, presented me with a handsome cloak formed of red and yellow feathers, with a small collection of other native curiosities; and at the same time delivered into my charge the superb cloak that he had worn on his formal visit at our arrival.”

“This cloak was very neatly made of yellow feathers; after he had displayed its beauty, and had shewn me the two holes made in different parts of it by the enemy’s spears the first day he wore it, in his last battle for the sovereignty of this island, he very carefully folded it up, and desired, that on my arrival in England, I would present it in his name to His Majesty, King George …”

“… and as it had never been worn by any person but himself, he firmly enjoined me not to permit any person whatever to throw it over their shoulders, saying, that it was the most valuable thing in the island of Owhyhee (Hawai‘i), and for that reason he had sent it to so great a monarch, and so good a friend, as he considered the King of England.”

“This donation I am well persuaded was dictated by his own grateful heart, without having received the least hint or advice from any person whatever, and was the effect of principles, highly honorable to more civilized minds. The cloak I received, and gave him the most positive assurance of acting agreeably with his directions.”  (Vancouver, March 1793)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hula Pahu

“For many weeks in succession, the first sound that fell on the ear in the morning was the loud beating of the drum, summoning the dancers to assemble. … Day after day, several hours in the day, the noisy hula – drumming, singing, and dancing in the open air, constituted the great attraction …”  (Hiram Bingham)

The Hawaiian term ‘Pahu’ translates into ’drum’, ‘Niu’ being the Hawaiian word for ‘coconut’.   The traditional pahu hula (hula drum) was carved from coconut stumps and covered with sharkskin (although possibly other types of native wood (koa, breadfruit, etc.) may have been used.)

The pahu is carved out of a single piece of wood; a bowl-like septum separates the sound chamber from the base or carved arches and a sharkskin membrane is lashed with sennit to the base.

The original material used for the Pahu’s waha (head) was either shark or ray skin. Heiau Pahu tended to be originally made with a waha of ray skin, while non-religious Pahu often used sharkskin.  (Kalikiano)

Pahu were made with great care. In pre-European times (pre-1778) each part of the drum’s body, especially the sennit, ‘aha, used to lash the sharkskin to the base, required special prayers which were chanted during the processes of making the sennit and lashing the skin to the drum.

The power of the prayers became entrapped in the lashing, the wood, the skin and remained with the drum always. The rows of inverted arches carved out of the base, called hoaka, are visually symbolic of outstretched hands supporting joined human figures overhead and are poetically symbolic of the shadows of gods (hoaka means to cast a shadow.)  (Smithsonian)

“Their wooden drum, with one sharkskin head, is beaten by the fingers of the musician, sitting cross-legged beside it as the uncovered end stands on the ground.”  (Hiram Bingham)

Laʻa is generally credited for introducing the drum to Hawaiʻi.  Laʻamaikahiki (Laʻa-from-Kahiki) brought the first sharkskin pahu to Hawaiʻi from Kahiki (Tahiti,) “sounding over the oceans” sometime around AD 1250.

On nearing the land he waked the echoes with the stirring tones of his drum, which so astonished the people that they followed him from point to point along the coast and heaped favors upon him whenever he came ashore.

Laʻa was an enthusiastic patron of the hula and is said to have made a tour of the islands, in which he instructed the natives in new forms of the dance.  (Emerson)

The shorter variety of Pahu (Pahu Hula) was used to beat time in Hula dances and to accompany chanting mele. It was made to be played by a standing person (always a priest, Kahuna, or Chief), whereas the Hula Pahu was made to more suitably accommodate a seated or kneeling individual.

The sounds of the pahu are referred to as leo (voice) and the drum head is referred to as waha (mouth.)  During state rituals in the large open-air heiau, the pahu was a receptacle for a god who spoke through the ‘voice’ of the drum.

There is reason to believe that the original use of the pahu was in connection with the services of the temple, and that its adaptation to the hālau was simply transference from one to another religious use.

Music, particularly drumming, was traditionally important in Hawaiian ritual. A drum would have been played as part of hula – a larger version was used in temples.  The seated musician normally played the pahu with one hand and a smaller drum, sometimes tied to the knee, with the other.  (British Museum)

Hawaiian musical traditions are essentially vocal. Percussive musical instruments are never played alone, but always to accompany chanting and dancing.

The pahu is an instrument of power and sacredness that exemplifies traditions of ritual music and dance that are steeped in time. The drum is both a sound producer and a symbol. Its music represents the fundamental principles of Hawaiian perceptions of time and timing in traditional music.

Pahu were given proper names and passed down from generation to generation as objects of mana (power) and kapu (sacredness) producing sounds that carried the knowledge of generations of aliʻi and kahuna (specialists, including priests.)  (Smithsonian)

Hula is a form of cultural expression of the utmost complexity, reaching back through the centuries to a time in the islands when history was recorded entirely by story and song, and passed along to succeeding generations by skilled individuals.

Since the essence of modern Hawaiian Hula is a medium of expression for communicating thoughts, stories and feelings that are for the most part translated by patterns of bodily motion in which not just the arms and hands, but the entire body, act as story telling devices.  (Kalikiano)

Hula combines dance and chant or song to tell stories, recount past events and provide entertainment for its audience.  With a clear link between dancer’s actions and the chant or song, the dancer uses rhythmic lower body movements, mimetic or depictive hand gestures and facial expression, as part of this performance. (ksbe-edu)

“The hula was a religious service, in which poetry, music, pantomime, and the dance lent themselves, under the forms of dramatic art, to the refreshment of men’s minds. Its view of life was idyllic, and it gave itself to the celebration of those mythical times when gods and goddesses moved on the earth as men and women and when men and women were as gods.” 

“(W)hen it comes to the hula and the whole train of feelings and sentiments that made their entrances and exits in the hālau (the hall of the hula) one perceives that in this he has found the door to the heart of the people.”  (Emerson, son of Missionaries)

In describing a hula danced before Keōpūolani and her daughter Nāhiʻenaʻena, in Lāhainā in 1823, Missionary CS Stewart wrote:  “The motions of the dance were slow and graceful, and, in this instance, free from indelicacy of action; and the song, or rather recitative, accompanied by much gesticulation, was dignified and harmonious in its numbers.”

”The theme of the whole, was the character and praises of the queen and princess, who were compared to everything sublime in nature, exalted as gods.” (Missionary Stewart)

“This was intended, in part at least, as an honor and gratification to the king, especially at Honolulu, at his expected reception there, on his removal from Kailua.  Apparently, not all hula was viewed as bad or indecent.”

“In the hula, the dancers are often fantastically decorated with figured or colored kapa, green leaves, fresh flowers, braided hair, and sometimes with a gaiter on the ancle, set with hundreds of dog’s teeth, so as to be considerably heavy, and to rattle against each other in the motion of the feet.”  (Hiram Bingham)

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Birds of Walter Rothschild

“Bird extinctions after European discovery were extensive and are now well documented; however, native Polynesians caused extinctions of an even greater magnitude. Fossil evidence shows at least 50% of the original avifauna became extinct after Polynesians arrived in Hawai’i around 400 A.D.”

“Initially, 109 endemic species occurred in the Hawaiian Islands, 35 of which (32%) still survived in 2001; 19 additional taxa (17.5%) were extant in the 18th century, whereas 55 (50.5%) are known only from the fossil and subfossil record.” (Perez)

“In pre-human Hawai‘i, the large land area and extensive coastlines, coupled with a relative absence of predators, provided ample habitat for a spectacular assemblage of seabirds; millions of petrels, albatrosses, shear-waters, terns, and other seabirds populated the islands. These birds were the first to be easily decimated or exterminated by island settlers.”

“After the unwary, flightless, ground- and burrow-nesting seabirds were eliminated, Polynesians devised an astounding variety of techniques for catching forest birds; these bird-hunting practices eventually wreacked havoc also among forest bird populations.”

“The severe past depredations of avifauna appear to have had a lasting negative effect on the Hawaiian forest birds and, as a result, the alarming trend of declining bird populations still continues.”

“Overall, the USA has suffered the most recently recorded bird extinctions (25) on Earth, 84% of which have taken place in Hawai’i.” (Perez)

With respect to post-Contact activities, “[Robert] Perkins, Henry Palmer, Scott Wilson, and George Munro – all were stalking and shooting Hawaiian birds in the 1890s, during the peak of what Alan Ziegler has called the “professional naturalist period” (1870-1900) in Hawaiian history.” (Tummons)

“Although scientific knowledge of the birds of the Hawaiian Islands began with the European discovery of the archipelago in 1778 by Captain James Cook, more than a century elapsed before any serious ornithological exploration of the islands took place.”

“In 1887, Scott Barchard Wilson, with the support and encouragement of Alfred Newton, Professor of Zoology at Magdalene College, Cambridge (England), embarked on a collecting expedition to the Hawaiian Islands, where he stayed until the end of 1888.”

“Descriptions of new species began appearing under Wilson’s name in August 1888, when he was still in the islands, and it has long been my belief that Newton wrote the bulk of everything that was attributed to Wilson and to Wilson and Evans.”

“The new discoveries arriving from the Hawaiian Islands excited the imagination of Newton’s pupil Walter Rothschild, who, using the wealth at his disposal, determined to send out his own collector.”

Lionel Walter [Walter] Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (the eldest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild), (born February 8, 1868, London, England—died August 27, 1937, Tring, Buckinghamshire), was a British zoologist who founded the Rothschild Natural History Museum in London. (Britannica)

“His interest in natural history began when he was a child, collecting butterflies, and as a child, Walter knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up, announcing at the age of seven, ‘Mama, Papa, I am going to make a museum…’. By the time he was ten, Walter had enough natural history objects to start his first museum, in a garden shed.” (Rothschild Archive)

“He began building a real museum when he came of age in 1889 …. Having come under the influence of renowned ornithologist Alfred Newton while at Cambridge, his interest in birds moved to the fore for many years; entomology and ornithology remained the focuses of his scientific work for the rest of his life.”

“Although Rothschild himself traveled and collected in Europe and North Africa for many years, his work and health concerns limited his range, and beginning while at Cambridge he employed others – explorers, professional collectors, and residents – to collect for him in remote and little-known parts of the world.” (Olson)

“Walter employed around 400 collectors during his lifetime and accumulated specimens from more than 48 different countries, many of which were new to Western science. Collectors sent him animal specimens from around the world. Walter mainly stayed in Tring and focused on carefully studying the creatures he received and describing new species.” (Rothschild Archive)

“He also hired taxidermists, a librarian, and, most importantly, professional scientists to work with him to curate and write up the resulting collections: Ernst Hartert, for birds, from 1892 until his retirement at the age of 70 in 1930; and Karl Jordan for entomology, from 1893 until Rothschild’s death in 1937.”

“In 1890, when Rothschild was 23, he sent a sailor named Henry Palmer to the Sandwich Islands (as the Hawaiian Islands had been named by Captain James Cook in the late 1770s) and most particularly to Laysan, one of the Leeward Islands in the Hawaiian archipelago now part of the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation.”

Palmer arrived in the Hawaiian Islands December 1890, with his New Zealander assistant George Munro, who stayed with him until March 1, 1892, when he was replaced by another New Zealander, Ed. (“Ted”) B. Wolstenholme. (Olson)

“His instructions were to collect as many different birds as possible, with special attention to inter-island variation. Palmer spent over two years at the task, from December 1890 to August 1893, and sent almost 2000 specimens back to Tring, including representatives of 15 species previously unknown to Western science and several species which have since become extinct.”

“These specimens formed the basis of Rothschild’s monograph The Avifauna of Laysan and the Neighboring Islands. The work includes a survey of the literature on the birds of Hawaii to that date, as well as a condensed version of Palmer’s collecting diary.” (Olson, Curator of Birds, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

“[Rothschild] built the collections continuously over the decades, until they formed the largest zoological collection ever amassed by a private individual.” (Olson)

“At its largest, the collection included 300,000 bird skins, 200,000 birds’ eggs, 2,250,000 butterflies, and 30,000 beetles, as well as thousands of specimens of mammals, reptiles, and fishes. The bird collection in particular was unparalleled, considered in many ways the finest in the world, and invaluable for the study of geographical variation and other aspects of evolution.” (Olson)

“During his lifetime Walter accumulated: 2,000 mounted mammals, about 2000 mounted birds, 2 million butterflies and moths, 300,000 bird skins, 144 giant tortoises, 200,000 birds’ eggs and 30,000 relevant books.” (Rothschild Archive)

“In spite of his family’s great wealth, the eccentric baron was sometimes short of money. He sold most of his beetles to raise funds for his museum, and in 1931 a personal crisis forced him to sell his bird collection to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.” (Natural History Museum)

“When he died at 69 in 1937, he left his remaining research collections, the public museum, its contents and the surrounding land to the Natural History Museum in London.”

“His collection is the biggest private natural history collection ever assembled by one person, and the largest bequest of specimens ever received by the Museum. … Today, Museum staff working at Tring look after more than a million bird specimens, nests and eggs. Researchers from around the world travel to Tring to use this important collection.” (Natural History Museum)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Manono

Manono was born on Maui in the 1780s; her father was Kekuamanoha, and her mother was Kalola-a-Kumukoʻa, a wife of Kamehameha. Through her father, she was a granddaughter of Kekaulike, the Mōʻi (King) of Maui.

From her mother’s side, she was the great-granddaughter of King Keawe of Hawaiʻi.  Her half-siblings from her father’s first marriage were Kalanimōkū, Boki and Wahinepio. She was cousin of Kaʻahumanu, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, Keʻeaumoku II and Kuakini (Governor of Hawaiʻi.)

At the time of Cook’s arrival (1778-1779) (while the Colonists were battling the British on the continent,) the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and at (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Separate Kingdoms ruled separate parts of the Islands.  However, conquest was in the air and battles and negotiations for power and control were going on.

When Keōua, the father of Kamehameha, died, he commended his son to the care of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who received him, and treated him as his own child.  (Dibble)  Following Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s death in 1782, the kingship was inherited by his son Kīwalaʻō; Kamehameha (Kīwalaʻō’s cousin) was given guardianship of the Hawaiian god of war, Kūkaʻilimoku.

Dissatisfied with subsequent redistricting of the lands by district chiefs, civil war ensued between Kīwalaʻō’s forces and the various chiefs under the leadership of his cousin Kamehameha.

In the first major skirmish, the battle of Mokuʻōhai (a fight between Kamehameha and Kiwalaʻo in July, 1782 at Keʻei, south of Kealakekua Bay on the Island of Hawaiʻi,) Kiwalaʻo was killed.  With the death of his cousin Kiwalaʻo, the victory made Kamehameha chief of the districts of Kona, Kohala and Hāmākua, while Keōua, the brother of Kiwalaʻo, held Kaʻū and Puna, and Keawemauhili declared himself independent of both in Hilo.  (Kalākaua)

Kamehameha, through the assistance of the Kona “Uncles” (Keʻeaumoku, Keaweaheulu, Kameʻeiamoku & Kamanawa (the latter two ended up on the Islands’ coat of arms;)) succeeded, after a struggle of more than ten years, in securing the supreme authority over that island (and later, the entire Hawaiian Islands chain.)

Prior to his death on May 8, 1819, Kamehameha decreed that that his son, Liholiho, would succeed him in power; he also decreed that his nephew, Kekuaokalani, have control of the war god Kūkaʻilimoku (a similar scenario to Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kiwalaʻo/Kamehameha.)

At a young age Manono fell in love with and married Kekuaokalani, the young kahu (priest) of Kūkaʻilimoku from the island of Hawai’i. The couple lived in the mountains on the island of Maui tending to their taro patches and raised their four children.  (Cupchoy)

Following the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, King Kamehameha II (Liholiho) declared an end to the kapu system.   “An extraordinary event marked the period of Liholiho’s rule, in the breaking down of the ancient tabus, the doing away with the power of the kahunas to declare tabus and to offer sacrifices, and the abolition of the tabu which forbade eating with women (ʻAi Noa, or free eating.)”  (Kamakau)

The people were divided about keeping the traditional social structure or abandoning it. Kekuaokalani, Liholiho’s cousin, opposed the abolition of the kapu system and assumed the responsibility of leading those who opposed its abolition. These included priests, members of his court and the traditional territorial chiefs of the middle rank.

Kekuaokalani demanded that Liholiho withdraw his edict on abolition of the kapu system.  (If the kapu fell, the war god would lose its potency.)  (Daws)  Kamehameha II refused.

After attempts to settle peacefully, “Friendly means have failed; it is for you to act now,” and Keōpūolani then ordered Kalanimōkū to prepare for war on Kekuaokalani. Arms and ammunition were given out that evening to everyone who was trained in warfare, and feather capes and helmets distributed.  (Kamakau)

The two powerful cousins engaged at the final Hawaiian battle of Kuamoʻo – a battle for tradition versus the modern.

In December 1819, just seven months after the death of Kamehameha I, opposing heirs met in battle on the lava fields south of Keauhou Bay.  Liholiho had more men, more weapons and more wealth to ensure his victory. He sent his prime minister, Kalanimōku, to defeat his cousin.

Kekuaokalani marched up the Kona Coast from Kaʻawaloa and met his enemies at Lekeleke, just south of Keauhou.  The first encounter went in favor of Kekuaokalani. At Lekeleke, the king’s army suffered a temporary defeat.

Regrouping his warriors, Kalanimōkū fought back and trapped the rebels farther south along the shore in the ahupuaʻa of Kuamoʻo.    (Kona Historical Society)

“No characters in Hawaiian history stand forth with a sadder prominence, or add a richer tint to the vanishing chivalry of the race, than Kekuaokalani and his courageous and devoted wife, Manono, the last defenders in arms of the Hawaiian gods.”  (Kalākaua)

“Kekuaokalani is referred to by tradition as one of the most imposing chiefs of his day. He was more than six and a half feet in height, perfect in form, handsome in feature and noble in bearing. Brave, sagacious and magnetic, he possessed the requirements of a successful military leader”.  (Kalākaua)

Kekuaokalani, having earlier received a wound, fainted and fell and, unable to stand, “sat on a fragment of lava, and twice loaded and fired a musket on the advancing party. He now received a ball in his left breast, and, immediately covering his face with his feathered cloak”.  (Ellis)

“In the midst of these scenes of blood the eye rests with relief upon numerous episodes of love, friendship and self-sacrifice touching with a softening color the ruddy canvas of the past.”   (Kalākaua)

“Manono, during the day, fought by his side, with steady and dauntless courage.”  (Ellis)

“He finally fell with a musket-ball through his heart. With a wild scream of despair Manono sprang to his assistance”.   (Kalākaua)

“But the words had scarcely escaped from her lips, when she received a ball in the left temple – fell upon the lifeless body of her husband, and expired.”  (Ellis)

“Thus died the last great defenders of the Hawaiian gods.  They died as nobly as they had lived, and were buried together where they fell on the field of Kuamoʻo.”  (Kalākaua)

“It is painful to contemplate the death of Kekuaokalani, of Manono a wife who seems to have been unusually affectionate, and of the many friends and adherents who fought with acknowledged steadfastness and courage and fell on the field of battle.”  (Dibble)

“Manono is said to have been an interesting woman, and she certainly gave evidence of attachment and affection. … Not even the horrors of savage fight could prevent her from following the fortune and sharing the dangers of her husband.”  (Dibble)

It is said that Kalanimōkū left the body of Kekuaokalani on the lava rocks after this battle instead of having it buried according to his rank of a chief because Kekuaokalani’s ancestor, Alapaʻi-Nui-a–Kaʻu-au-a had drowned Kalanimōkū’s ancestor, Kauhi-ai-moku-a-kama, at Puhele, Kaupo district, Maui.  (Kamakau)

Kekuaokalani’s feathered cloak was taken as a battle prize of Kamehameha II.  The cloak became one of the three feathered cloaks that legitimized Liholiho’s claim to power.

After the death of Kamehameha II, the cloak did not have the same symbolic power to his brother, Kamehameha III, and it was given to Captain John H Aulick of the American Navy in 1841. His descendants gave it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1869.  (Smithsonian)

The image ‘Kekuaokalani and Manono Battle at Kuamoʻo Dec. 1819’ by Brook Kapukuniahi Parker was the inspiration for this summary. 

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Peleleu

“Where the sunbeams had slept placidly on an unbroken surface of azure, they were now reflected hither and thither by the black sides of canoes, the flashing of outriggers, the sheen of polished metal, the scarlet and yellow of innumerable feather cloaks …”

“… the glittering of oars amid the spray-rain, the gleaming of dusky bodies, and the forward leap of the high prows, whose painted eyes seemed to glow with the fire of life.”

“And in advance was the famous double war canoe Peleleu, the rowers straining at the oars, and the kahili-bearers and warriors standing around the mighty chief who was destined to make Hawaii a nation”

“On they came, nearing the flat beach of Waikiki, where unless Kalanikapule opposed, they could enter the coral reef and land without impediment.”

“But Kalanikapule chose to meet his rival in the heart of the country among the palis, rather than on the level ground; so, though from Leahi you could have seen the moving of dark masses of men among the forests of the southern side of the island, there was no sign on the beach of opposition to the landing of the Hawaiian troops.” (Gowen)

“Since koa is indigenous plant, i.e. one ‘native’ to Hawaii , it grew ‘wild’ in large forest, and Hawaiians did not propagate it. … The prime importance of koa was in the making of canoes, not only the single kinds, kaukahi, but even double kinds, kaulua, which consisted of two canoes lashed together in a special way.”

“Before making a canoe, the Hawaiians employed a kahuna, or priest, to offer prayers and sacrifices to Ku, the long-bearded god of canoe makers, that the work should be successful. Then the kahuna aided the men in selecting a suitable tree in the forest. … The part made from the koa trunk was the wa‘a.”  (Krauss)

Waʻa Peleleu, or simply Peleleu, were long canoes or long voyages were usually 50 feet long, but some were 100 and even 150 feet long. Such canoes were 1 to 2 feet wide and carved from a single log.  (Krauss)

Canoes evolved to meet new demands; the sail had become the primary power mode – those also evolved.  “In the early 1790s the watch aboard a foreign ship sailing off O‘ahu saw a vessel approaching which, by the cut of its sails, appeared to be European.”

“But as it drew near and passed by it was seen to be a Hawaiian canoe with sails cut to European shape. This was the fore-and-aft spritsail.  It was a simple modification, changing the ancient triangular sail to a four-sided shape.”

“Also, from the base of the mast the foot of the sail ran horizontally aft to the clew (bottom trailing edge) where the sheet (controlling line) connected to it. In larger canoes the foot was laced to a boom. This rig quickly became the standard for most Hawaiian sailing canoes.”

“On some of the largest double canoes a sail of about the same shape was used, not with a sprit, but gaff-rigged, the head (top of the sail) laced to a spar which was raised or lowered by halyards, and the entire foot of the sail laced to a boom.” (Herb Kane)

“Kamehameha’s drive to bring all the islands under the rule of Hawai’i Island required much more than the hit and run raids of earlier disputes.”

“Keeping armies in the field required great numbers of huge canoes, not only for invasion but also for keeping the army supplied, which meant canoes capable of returning to Hawai‘i Island, sailed (not paddled) short-handed and against the prevailing wind, for supplies and reinforcements.”

The peleleu class war canoes were invented for that purpose. “These were sailing vessels with deep hulls, some armed with swivel guns, carrying fore-and-aft sail rigs, either as spritsails or gaff-rigged and capable of sailing upwind.” (Herb Kane)

“The peleleu were a fleet of very large war-canoes which Kamehameha I had made from koa trees felled in the forests back of Hilo, Hawaii. Their construction was begun about the year 1796.”

“In spite of the fact that the Hawaiian historian, Malo, speaks of the peleleu with a certain pride and enthusiasm, they are to be regarded rather as monstrosities, not belonging fully to the Hawaiian on whose soil they were made, nor to the white men who, no doubt, lent a hand and had a voice in their making and planning.” (Malo)

“So great was the size of these canoes and such their depth from the gunwale down, that flooring had to be made on which the paddlemen might stand, or rest their feet while sitting on the usual paddlers’ seats.” (Emerson in Mills)

“They were excellent craft and carried a great deal of freight. The after part of these crafts were similar in construction to an ordinary vessel (i. e. was decked over).”

“It was principally by means of such craft as these that Kamehameha succeeded in transporting his forces to Oahu when he went to take possession of that part of his dominion when he was making his conquests.” (Malo)

“The large, wide and deep peleleu canoes, however, quickly became obsolete.  In comparison with standard double canoes, they were unwieldly, labor intensive, and impractical for common use”. (Mills)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC