Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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David Malo

David Malo, one of the early native Hawaiian scholars, was the son of Aoao and his wife Heone, and was born in Keauhou, North Kona Hawai‘i; his father had been soldier in the army of Kamehameha I.

The exact year of his birth is not known, but it was about 1793, around the time of Vancouver’s second visit to the islands.

During his early life Malo was connected with the high chief Kuakini (Governor Adams,) who was a brother of Queen Ka‘ahumanu.

In 1823, Malo moved to Lāhainā, Maui where he learned to read and write. Malo soon converted to Christianity and was given the baptismal name of David.

In 1831, he entered Lahainaluna High School (at about the age of 38;) the school opened with twenty-five students, under the leadership of Reverend Lorrin Andrews – he graduated in the class of 1835.  

From about 1835, he started writing notes on the Hawaiian religion and cultural history, along with other members of the school and instructor Sheldon Dibble.

Malo came to be regarded as the great authority and repository of Hawaiian lore and was in great demand as a story-teller of the old-time traditions, mele, and genealogies, and as a master in arrangements of the hula.

The law which first established a national school system was the “Statute for the Regulation of Schools” which was enacted on October 15, 1840, and was reenacted, with some important amendments, on May 21, 1841.

Malo was appointed as the general school agent for Maui; he was then voted to be in charge of all the general school agents, therefore becoming the first superintendent of schools of the Hawaiian kingdom (where he served at least until the middle of 1845.

He was described as “tall and of spare frame, active, energetic, a good man of business, eloquent of speech, independent in his utterances.”

“He was of a type of mind inclined to be jealous and quick to resent any seeming slight in the way of disparagement or injustice that might be shown to his people or nation, and was one who held tenaciously to the doctrine of national integrity and independence.”

After being ordained to the Christian ministry, he settled down in the seaside village of Kalepolepo on East Maui where he remained until his death in October 1853.

His book, Hawaiian antiquities (Moolelo Hawaii – 1898,) addressed the genealogies, traditions and beliefs of the people of Hawai‘i.

In the “Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition,” Admiral Wilkes (1840,) commenting on books about Hawai‘i, said, “(s)ome of them are by native authors.  Of these I cannot pass at least one without naming him.”

“This is David Malo, who is highly esteemed by all who know him, and who lends the missionaries his aid, in mind as well as example, in ameliorating the condition of his people and checking licentiousness.”

“At the same time he sets an example of industry, by farming with his own hands, and manufactures from his own sugar cane an excellent molasses.”

In the introduction to his book, the trustees of Bishop Museum acknowledge they “are rendering an important service to all Polynesian scholars.”

They also suggest the book “form(s) a valuable contribution not only to Hawaiian archaeology, but also to Polynesian ethnology in general.”

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Menehune

“[T]he plausible historical explanation is that the Menehune were the first-wave Polynesians from the Marquesas and they became part of a cultural memory retained and retold in oral stories after they fled in the face of the Tahitian arrival.” (Martins; WorldHistory)

“Menehune tales made a sudden appearance in the Hawaiian newspapers and journals in 1861. Prior to this, the earliest Hawaiian scholars and missionaries made no reference to forest people who were mysterious construction workers.”

“An extensive early history was written by the Reverend Hiram Bingham (1789-1869), an American missionary who arrived in 1820 and spent more than two decades in the islands. Bingham collected oral histories and tales about Hawaiian deities, but there was no mention of the Menehune.”

“The British missionary William Ellis (1794-1872) was aware of the ‘manahune’ of Tahiti – a term that referred to the lowest of the three Tahitian social classes, including unskilled labourers and servants.”

“After a tour of the Hawaiian islands and missionary interventions in political and cultural institutions, Ellis produced his famed four-volume work, Polynesian Researches, in 1831. Given his encyclopaedic knowledge of the South Pacific region, it is curious that Ellis made no mention of the Menehune of Hawaii and any possible link to the manahune of Tahiti.”

“Similarly, Hawaiian historian David Malo (c. 1793-1853), in his work Hawaiian Antiquities, first published in 1838, refers to the Mu (mischievous sprites) but not the Menehune.”

“What has come to be known as the Menehune Ditch was first mentioned in March 1861 in the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Hae Hawaii. The construction of Kīkīaola, a historic 24-foot high irrigation channel or auwai in Waimea, Kauai (now called the Menehune Ditch), was attributed to the Menehune, who built it in one night, and it predates the c. 1000 CE Tahitian migrations to Hawaii.”

“It was discovered by Europeans in the 1700s and was described by George Vancouver in 1792. It is considered an engineering marvel due to the 120 cleanly cut dressed basalt blocks, which would have required precision tools and techniques for cutting, that line about 200 feet of the ditch, carrying water to irrigate ponds for growing taro.”

“It also differs from typical Hawaiian rock wall constructions, even though the Hawaiians were fully skilled in stonemasonry.”

“However, there are numerous examples of the use of innovative stone-cutting by early Hawaiians. Fornander points to Umi’s heiau (temple). Umi-a-Liloa (r. 1470-1525) was the high chief of the largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago (Hawaii Island), and his heiau is an elaborate example of cut-and-dressed stone masonry.”

“The Alekoko Fishpond, also known as the Menehune Fishpond, is a 102-acre pond located along a bend of the Hule‘ia River on the island of Kauai. … The inland pond was constructed with a 2,700-foot long stone and earthen wall around 600 years ago, although 1,000 years has also been put forward.”

“As with Kīkīaola, the wall is a unique mud and rock structure that differs from most known Hawaiian pond walls, which are usually made from large basalt boulders. For parts of the wall, workers would have needed to work underwater.”

“The Hawaiian language newspaper, Ka Hae Hawaii, in October 1861, attributed the overnight build of the fishpond to the magical Menehune rather than acknowledging that the Hawaiians themselves were capable of impressive engineering feats.”

“[A]rchaeologists have not found a single piece of evidence pointing towards a diminutive race of people in Hawaii pre-dating the Polynesians.”

“Given the lack of evidence, the plausible historical explanation is that the Menehune were the first-wave Polynesians from the Marquesas and they became part of a cultural memory retained and retold in oral stories after they fled in the face of the Tahitian arrival.” (Martins)

“The name of Menehune probably reached the Hawaiian Islands from central Polynesia, where it is known, with dialectical variations, in the Society, Cook, and Tuamotuan Archipelagoes.”

“Hawaiians reserve the term Menehune for bands of supernatural, night-working artisans of very small height who specialize in stonework and live a simple life in the mountainous interiors of the islands, especially of Kauai.”

“William Hyde Rice describes the Menehune as ‘A race of mythical dwarfs from two to three feet in height, who were possessed of great strength; a race of pygmies who were squat, tremendously strong, powerfully built, and very ugly of face. They were credited with the building of many temples, roads, and other structures.’”

“‘Trades among them were well-systematized, every Menehune being restricted to his own particular craft in which he was a master. It was believed that they would work only one night on a construction and if unable to complete the work, it was left undone.’”

“Menehune were real people who, with the passage of time, have been folklorized by later arrivals in the land, or that they are supernatural beings to whom the deeds of real people were ascribed after the history of the deeds had been forgotten. “

“[I]n many parts of Polynesia and in the adjoining island areas of Micronesia and Melanesia are myths, traditions, and beliefs about little people who are reminiscent of the Menehune although called by other names.”

“[T]he words used to express the numbers of Kauai Menehune were lau (400), mano (4,000), kini (40,000) and lehu (400,000), their total number being melehuka (millions).”

“Once when all the Menehune of Kauai assembled they numbered more than 500,600, not counting the children under 17. The occasion of this great gathering was to prepare for their exodus from the Hawaiian Islands at the order of the king of the Menehune who was worried because so many of his men were marrying Hawaiian women and he wanted to keep the race pure.”

“In their heyday, then, before the exodus, the Menehune were extremely prolific in contrast to the present population, and Kauai was densely populated.”

“The Menehune are playful, love jokes, and have many different kinds of games. On Kauai, before the exodus, they used to carry stones from the mountains to their bathing places, throw them into the sea, and dive after them. They also liked to dive into the sea from cliffs.”

“One of the divisions organized for the exodus from Kauai was made up of musicians, fun-makers, storytellers, and minstrels to entertain the king. Musicians used bamboo nose flutes, ti-leaf trumpets, mouth harps, and hollow log drums.”

“During the exodus, when two chiefesses, Hanakapiai and Hanakeao, died, the former in childbirth and the latter in an accident, the king ordered 60 days of mourning. These were concluded with feasting and games.”

“Among the many sports were top spinning; dart throwing, using a spear-throwing device; hiding a pebble; boxing; wrestling, both standing up and lying down; tug of war; foot racing; sled racing by both men and women down grassy slopes; and ‘a game resembling discus throwing.’”

“Apparently, however, not all the Menehune left at the time of the exodus. [Some] hid in the forests in order to remain with their Hawaiian families.”

“[I]n the reign of Kaumualii, the last independent ruler of Kauai, a census was taken of the population of Wainiha Valley in which 65 of the 2,000 people counted by the king’s agent were Menehune. All 65 lived in a community named Laau (Forest) in the depths of the valley forests.”

“In general, the Menehune are kind and helpful to other people, especially to their descendants. They work for others when asked, or even when not asked.”

“If the Menehune are offended by anyone, they turn the offender to stone.  According to Rice, they regard thievery with contempt and mete out death to the culprits by transforming them into stone.”

“Menehune fear daylight and avoid being seen, and they work only at night. Every job must be finished by dawn, or it is left. There is a saying, ‘In one night, and by dawn it is finished.’”

“Only four incomplete jobs are known: a Kauai heiau [left unfinished because an owl and a dog were regarded as evil omens], a Kauai fishpond, the transporting of Kakae’s canoe to the ocean, and a watercourse on Hawaii [the latter were left unfinished because daylight came before the work was done].”

“Much of their work appears to be done for nothing, from the goodness of their hearts.”

“It is as stoneworkers that the Menehune excel. They have built heiaus, watercourses, fishponds, causeways, rock piles, and stone canoes; rearranged boulders; dug caves; and made many forest roads and trails.”

“The Kauai dam and watercourse, the so-called “Menehune Ditch”, job of fitted and dressed stone work and engineering which involved turning the course of Waimea River and directing the water around a corner of a mountain”.

“There is a saying … ‘Happy is the man whose work is his hobby. The Menehune must be happy, as they love their work. They carry rocks from the seashore to the mountain sides to build heiaus or watercourses as part of their daily, or rather nightly, work …”

“… and they spend their leisure hours carrying rocks from the mountains to the seashore, so that they can either dive off the

rocks or throw them into the water and dive after them.”

“Although the Menehune prefer to live in deep forests in remote valleys and on mountainsides, evidences of their work are scattered widely, especially on Kauai and Oahu with which they are very closely connected.” (Luomana) (All here is from Luomana and Martins)

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Do Hawaiian Traditions Have Biblical Connections?

Rev. Charles McEwen Hyde wrote a piece in Hawaiian Folk Tales (Thrum) on Legends Resembling Old Testament History; all here is from that.

Creation

In the first volume of Judge Fornander’s elaborate work on “The Polynesian Race” he has given some old Hawaiian legends which closely resemble the Old Testament history. Take, for instance, the Hawaiian account of the Creation.

The Kane, Ku, and Lono: or, Sunlight, Substance, and Sound, – these constituted a triad named Ku-Kaua-Kahi, or the Fundamental Supreme Unity.  In worship the reverence due was expressed by such epithets as Hi-ka-po-loa, Oi-e, Most Excellent, etc.

These gods existed from eternity, from and before chaos, or, as the Hawaiian term expressed it, ‘mai ka po mai’ (from the time of night, darkness, chaos).

By an act of their will these gods dissipated or broke into pieces the existing, surrounding, all-containing po, night, or chaos. By this act light entered into space.

They then created the heavens, three in number, as a place to dwell in; and the earth to be their footstool, he keehina honua a Kane. Next they created the sun, moon, stars, and a host of angels, or spirits – i kini akua – to minister to them.

Last of all they created man as the model, or in the likeness of Kane. The body of the first man was made of red earth – lepo ula, or alaea – and the spittle of the gods – wai nao.

His head was made of a whitish clay – palolo – which was brought from the four ends of the world by Lono.

When the earth-image of Kane was ready, the three gods breathed into its nose, and called on it to rise, and it became a living being.

Afterwards the first woman was created from one of the ribs – lalo puhaka – of the man while asleep, and these two were the progenitors of all mankind.

They are called in the chants and in various legends by a large number of different names; but the most common for the man was Kumuhonua, and for the woman Keolakuhonua [or Lalahonua].

Spirits – The Inferno

According to those legends of Kumuhonua and Wela-ahi-lani, “at the time when the gods created the stars, they also created a multitude of angels, or spirits (i kini akua), who were not created like men, but made from the spittle of the gods (i kuhaia), to be their servants or messengers.”

“These spirits, or a number of them, disobeyed and revolted, because they were denied the awa; which means that they were not permitted to be worshipped, awa being a sacrificial offering and sign of worship.”

“These evil spirits did not prevail, however, but were conquered by Kane, and thrust down into uttermost darkness (ilalo loa i ka po).”

“The chief of these spirits was called by some Kanaloa, by others Milu, the ruler of Po; Akua ino; Kupu ino, the evil spirit. Other legends, however, state that the veritable and primordial lord of the Hawaiian inferno was called Manua.”

“The inferno itself bore a number of names, such as Po-pau-ole, Po-kua-kini, Po-kini-kini, Po-papa-ia-owa, Po-ia-milu. Milu, according to those other legends, was a chief of superior wickedness on earth who was thrust down into Po, but who was really both inferior and posterior to Manua.”

“This inferno, this Po, with many names, one of which remarkably enough was Ke-po-lua-ahi, the pit of fire, was not an entirely dark place. There was light of some kind and there was fire.”

First Man

The legends further tell us that when Kane, Ku, and Lono were creating the first man from the earth, Kanaloa was present, and in imitation of Kane, attempted to make another man out of the earth. When his clay model was ready, he called to it to become alive, but no life came to it.

Then Kanaloa became very angry, and said to Kane, ‘I will take your man, and he shall die,’ and so it happened. Hence the first man got his other name Kumu-uli, which means a fallen chief, he ’lii kahuli. . . .

The introduction and worship of Kanaloa, as one of the great gods in the Hawaiian group, can be traced back only to the time of the immigration from the southern groups.

In the more ancient chants he is never mentioned in conjunction with Kane, Ku, and Lono, and even in later Hawaiian mythology he never took precedence of Kane. The Hawaiian legend states that the oldest son of Kumuhonua, the first man, was called Laka, and that the next was called Ahu, and that Laka was a bad man; he killed his brother Ahu.

There are these different Hawaiian genealogies, going back with more or less agreement among themselves to the first created man. The genealogy of Kumuhonua gives thirteen generations inclusive to Nuu, or Kahinalii, or the line of Laka, the oldest son of Kumuhonua. (The line of Seth from Adam to Noah counts ten generations.)

The second genealogy, called that of Kumu-uli, was of greatest authority among the highest chiefs down to the latest times, and it was taboo to teach it to the common people. This genealogy counts fourteen generations from Huli-houna, the first man, to Nuu, or Nana-nuu, but inclusive, on the line of Laka.

The third genealogy, which, properly speaking, is that of Paao, the high priest who came with Pili from Tahiti, about twenty-five generations ago, and was a reformer of the Hawaiian priesthood, and among whose descendants it has been preserved, counts only twelve generations from Kumuhonua to Nuu, on the line of Kapili, youngest son of Kumuhonua.

Forbidden Fruit

Of the primeval home, the original ancestral seat of mankind, Hawaiian traditions speak in highest praise. “It had a number of names of various meanings, though the most generally occurring, and said to be the oldest, was Kalana-i-hau-ola (Kalana with the life-giving dew).”

It was situated in a large country, or continent, variously called in the legends Kahiki-honua-kele, Kahiki-ku, Kapa-kapa-ua-a-Kane, Molo-lani. Among other names for the primary homestead, or paradise, are Pali-uli (the blue mountain), Aina-i-ka-kaupo-o-Kane (the land in the heart of Kane), Aina-wai-akua-a-Kane (the land of the divine water of Kane).

The tradition says of Pali-uli, that it was a sacred, tabooed land; that a man must be righteous to attain it; if faulty or sinful he will not get there; if he looks behind he will not get there; if he prefers his family he will not enter Pali-uli.

Among other adornments of the Polynesian Paradise, the Kalana-i-hau-ola, there grew the Ulu kapu a Kane, the breadfruit tabooed for Kane, and the ohia hemolele, the sacred apple-tree.

The priests of the olden time are said to have held that the tabooed fruits of these trees were in some manner connected with the trouble and death of Kumuhonua and Lalahonua, the first man and the first woman.

Hence in the ancient chants he is called Kane-laa-uli, Kumu-uli, Kulu-ipo, the fallen chief, he who fell on account of the tree, or names of similar import.

Flood

In the Hawaiian group there are several legends of the Flood. One legend relates that in the time of Nuu, or Nana-nuu (also pronounced lana, that is, floating), the flood, Kaiakahinalii, came upon the earth, and destroyed all living beings …

… that Nuu, by command of his god, built a large vessel with a house on top of it, which was called and is referred to in chants as ‘He waa halau o ka Moku,’ the royal vessel, in which he and his family, consisting of his wife, Lilinoe, his three sons and their wives, were saved.

When the flood subsided, Kane, Ku, and Lono entered the waa halau of Nuu, and told him to go out. He did so, and found himself on the top of Mauna Kea (the highest mountain on the island of Hawaii).

He called a cave there after the name of his wife, and the cave remains there to this day – as the legend says in testimony of the fact.

Other versions of the legend say that Nuu landed and dwelt in Kahiki-honua-kele, a large and extensive country.” . . . “Nuu left the vessel in the evening of the day and took with him a pig, cocoanuts, and awa as an offering to the god Kane.

As he looked up he saw the moon in the sky. He thought it was the god, saying to himself, ‘You are Kane, no doubt, though you have transformed yourself to my sight.’ So he worshipped the moon, and offered his offerings.

Then Kane descended on the rainbow and spoke reprovingly to Nuu, but on account of the mistake Nuu escaped punishment, having asked pardon of Kane. . . . Nuu’s three sons were Nalu-akea, Nalu-hoo-hua, and Nalu-mana-mana.

He left his native home and moved a long way off until he reached a land called Honua-ilalo, ‘the southern country.’ Hence he got the name Lalo-kona, and his wife was called Honua-po-ilalo.

Then Lua-nuu and his son, Kupulu-pulu-a-Nuu, and his servant, Pili-lua-nuu, started off in their boat to the eastward. In remembrance of this event the Hawaiians called the back of Kualoa Koo-lau; Oahu (after one of Lua-nuu’s names), Kane-hoa-lani; and the smaller hills in front of it were named Kupu-pulu and Pili-lua-nuu.

Lua-nuu is the tenth descendant from Nuu by both the oldest and the youngest of Nuu’s sons. This oldest son is represented to have been the progenitor of the Kanaka-maoli, the people living on the mainland of Kane (Aina kumupuaa a Kane): the youngest was the progenitor of the white people (ka poe keokeo maoli).

This Lua-nuu (like Abraham, the tenth from Noah, also like Abraham), through his grandson, Kini-lau-a-mano, became the ancestor of the twelve children of the latter, and the original founder of the Menehune people, from whom this legend makes the Polynesian family descend.

Hypotheses on Plausibility

“Two hypotheses,” says Fornander, “may with some plausibility be suggested to account for this remarkable resemblance of folk-lore.”

“One is, that during the time of the Spanish galleon trade, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, between the Spanish Main and Manila, some shipwrecked people, Spaniards and Portuguese, had obtained sufficient influence to introduce these scraps of Bible history into the legendary lore of this people.”

“The other hypothesis is, that at some remote period either a body of the scattered Israelites had arrived at these islands direct, or in Malaysia, before the exodus of ‘the Polynesian family,’ and thus imparted a knowledge of their doctrines, of the early life of their ancestors, and of some of their peculiar customs …”

“… and that having been absorbed by the people among whom they found a refuge, this is all that remains to attest their presence – intellectual tombstones over a lost and forgotten race, yet sufficient after twenty-six centuries of silence to solve in some measure the ethnic puzzle of the lost tribes of Israel.”

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Owyhee, Idaho

It might seem strange that Hawaiians played a significant part in the history on Idaho and the Northwest because much of that history has been forgotten, except for a historic land marker on the western crest of Owyhee County.

“The name applied to these mountains and the whole surrounding region is an outdated spelling of the word ‘Hawaii,’” the sign reads. Owyhee is pronounced like “Hawaii” but without the “H.” (Idaho Statesman)

It started with explorer James Cook — In 1768, when Captain Cook set sail on the first of three voyages to the South Seas, he carried with him secret orders from the British Admiralty to seek ‘a Continent or Land of great extent’ and to take possession of that country ‘in the Name of the King of Great Britain’.

While each of his three journeys had its own aim and yielded its own discoveries, it was this confidential agenda that would transform the way Europeans viewed the Pacific Ocean and its lands.

Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.  Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery.  (State Library, New South Wales)

After leaving Christmas Island, they headed north, then, “having fine weather, and a gentle breeze at east, and east-south-east, till we got into the latitude of 7° 45′ N. and the longitude of 205″ E., where we had one calm day.”

“This was succeeded by a north-east by east, and east-north-east wind. At first it blew faint, but freshened as we advanced to the north.”

“We continued to see birds every day, of the sorts last mentioned; sometimes in greater numbers than others; and between the latitude of 10° and 11° we saw several turtle. All these are looked upon as signs of the vicinity of land.”

“However, we discovered none till day-break, in the morning of the 18th [January 1778], when an island made its appearance, bearing northeast by east; and, soon after, we saw more land bearing north, and entirely detached from the former.”  His two ships were kept at bay by the weather until the next day when they approached Kauai’s southeast coast.

On the afternoon of January 19, native Hawaiians in canoes paddled out to meet Cook’s ships, and so began Hawai’i’s contact with Westerners.  The first Hawaiians to greet Cook were from the Kōloa south shore.

The Hawaiians traded fish and sweet potatoes for pieces of iron and brass that were lowered down from Cook’s ships to the Hawaiians’ canoes.

The Islands “were named by Captain Cook the Sandwich Islands, in honour of the Earl of Sandwich, under whose administration he had enriched geography with so many splendid and important discoveries.” (Captain King’s Journal; Kerr)

Hawaiian lives changed with sudden and lasting impact, when western contact changed the course of history for Hawai’i.

At the time of Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), 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,) Molokai, Lanai and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and at (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Throughout their stay, the ships were supplied with fresh provisions which were paid for mainly with iron, much of it in the form of long iron daggers made by the ships’ blacksmiths on the pattern of the wooden pāhoa used by the Hawaiians.  After a month’s stay, Cook got under sail again to resume his exploration of the Northern Pacific.

In March 1778, Cook’s Journal noted, “At four in the afternoon we saw the land, which, at six, extended from north-east half east, to south-east by south, about eight leagues distant. In this situation we tacked and sounded ; but a line of a hundred and sixty fathoms did not reach the ground. I stood off till midnight, then stood in again ; and at half past six, we were within three leagues of the land …”

Moving along what we now call the Oregon coast, “Each extreme of the land that was now before us, seemed to shoot out into a point. The northern one was the same which we had first seen on the 7th ; and on that account I called it Cape Perpetua, It lies in the latitude of 44° 6′ N., and in the longitude of 235° 52′ E.”

“The southern extreme before us, I named Cape Gregory,  Its latitude is 43° 80′, and its longitude 235° 57’ E. It is a remarkable point ; the land of it rising almost directly from the sea to a tolerable height, while that on each side of it is low.”

“I continued standing off till one in the afternoon. Then I tacked, and stood in, hoping to have the wind off from the land in the night. But in this I was mistaken ; for at five o’clock it began to veer to the west and south west; which obliged me, once more, to stand out to sea. …”

“I continued to stand to the north with a fine breeze at west, and west north-west, till near seven o’clock in the evening, when I tacked to wait for day-light.”

“At this time we were in forty-eight fathoms’ water, and about four leagues from the land, which extended from north to south east half east, and a small round hill, which had the appearance of being an island, bore north three quarters east, distant six or seven leagues, as I guessed ; it appears to be of a tolerable height, and was but just to be seen from the deck.”

“Between this island or rock, and the northern extreme of the land, there appeared to be a small opening, which flattered us with the hopes of finding an harbour. These hopes lessened as we drew nearer ; and, at last, we had some reason to think, that the opening was closed by low land. On this account I called the point of land to the north of it Cape Flattery.”

“It lies in the latitude of 48° 15′ north, and in the longitude of 235° 3′ east. There is a round hill of a moderate height over it ; and all the land upon this part of the coast is of a moderate and pretty equal height, well covered with wood, and hau a very pleasant and fertile appearance.”

“It is in this very latitude where we now were, that geographers have placed the pretended strait of Juan de Fuca. We saw nothing like it ; nor is there the least probability that ever any such thing existed. …” (Cook’s Journal, March 1778)

Cook had created a pathway, and expeditions that followed his maps stopped on the islands, often picking up Hawaiians as crew, before heading north.

It was the British-and Canadian-run fur-trapping industry that brought many Hawaiians to Idaho in the first half of the 19th century. They became mainstays for the expeditions that Hudson’s Bay and North West companies trappers Donald Mackenzie, Peter Skene Ogden and David Thompson led through present-day Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana and British Columbia.  (Idaho Statesman)

Three of the Hawaiians (“Owyhees”) joined Donald MacKenzie’s Snake expedition, which went out annually into the Snake country for the North West Company – a Montreal organization of Canadian fur traders.

Unluckily, those three Owyhees left the main party during the winter of 1819-1820; they set out to explore the then unknown terrain of what since has been called the Owyhee River and mountains, and have not been heard from since. Because of their disappearance, the British fur trappers started to call the region “Owyhee,” and the name stuck. (Idaho State Historical Society)

Just at the time the Owyhees disappeared into the Owyhee country, American missionaries came to the Sandwich Islands and worked out an alphabet for the native language in order to print the Bible and other missionary literature.  In the alphabet they adopted, the word “Owyhee” turned out to be “Hawaii.”

But in Idaho, the older form survived.

Many of the fur traders’ Idaho place names were lost in later years, but some – including “Owyhee” for a mountain range and river – were retained. That may result in part from the fact that Owyhees remained active in the Idaho fur trade right down to the last years of its decline.

As late as 1850, Fort Boise (located on the Snake River just below the mouth of the Owyhee) was staffed by James Craggie and fourteen Owyhees. When the Owyhee mines were discovered in 1863, the name still was in use, and the mines brought permanent settlement which preserved the name ever since that time. (Idaho State Historical Society)

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Kamakahonu Royal Center

Kamakahonu Royal Center at Kailua Bay was the residential compound of Kamehameha I from 1813 until his death in 1819.
 
It had previously been the residence of a high chief, and it was undoubtedly a residential area back into the centuries prior to European contact. 
 
Kamakahonu (which literally means eyes of the turtle) was the location of multiple heiau known collectively as Ahu‘ena, originally said to have been built by either Liloa or his son Umi-a-Liloa during the sixteenth century, was reconstructed and rededicated by Kamehameha I in the early nineteenth century.
 
John Papa ʻĪʻī, attendant of Kamehameha I, to become a companion and personal attendant to Liholiho (later King Kamehameha II,) described Kamakahonu from on board a ship in 1812 …
 
“Kamakahonu was a fine cove, with sand along the edge of the sea  and  islets  of  pāhoehoe,  making  it  look like a  pond,  with a  grove of  kou trees a  little inland and a heap of pāhoehoe  in  the center of the stretch of sand.”
 
Kamehameha first moved into the former residence of Keawe a Mahi. He then built another house high on stones on the seaward side of that residence, facing directly upland toward the planting fields of Kuahewa.
 
Like an observation post, this house afforded a view of the farm lands and was also a good vantage from which to see canoes coming from the south.
 
The royal residence at Kamakahonu was served by a series of anchialine pools, upwellings of fresh and salt water found on young lava fields. These anchialine pools were used to raise bait fish and shrimp for larger catches.
 
During Kamehameha’s use of this compound, reportedly 11 house structures were present. These included his sleeping house, houses for his wives, a large men’s house, storehouses and Ahuʻena heiau. 
 
Kamehameha also included a battery of cannon and large stone walls to protect the fortress-like enclosure.
 
Upon Kamehameha’s death, a mortuary house was built, which held his remains until they were taken and hidden away.
 
After Liholiho’s departure from Hawaiʻi Island in 1820, the high chief Kuakini, who served as Governor of Hawai’i for many years, resided here until 1837, when he had Huliheʻe built and moved there.
 
By the late-1800s, Kamakahonu was abandoned and in the early-1900s H. Hackfield & Co. purchased the land, and its successor American Factors used the site as a lumberyard and later for the King Kamehameha Hotel.
 
Today, three remnant structures are present on the seaward beach of the property (all recreated in the 1970s and recently refurbished) – ‘Ahu’ena heiau, the mortuary house’s platform and an additional structural platform.
 
These structures are set aside in a covenant agreement between the State’s Historic Preservation Division and the current hotel owners.
 
Kamakahonu became the backdrop for some of the most significant events in the early nineteenth-century history of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
 
Three momentous events occurred here which established Kamakahonu as one of the most historically significant sites in Hawaiʻi:
  • In the early morning hours of May 8, 1819 King Kamehameha I died here.
  • A few months after the death of his father, Liholiho (Kamehameha II) broke the ancient kapu system, a highly defined regime of taboos that provided the framework of the traditional Hawaiian socio-economic structure
  • The first Christian missionaries from New England were granted permission to come ashore here on April 4, 1820.
The property is now part of King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel; none of the original houses or walls remain.
 
Ahuʻena heiau was reconstructed in the 1970s at 2/3-scale and can be viewed, but not entered.
 
The small sandy beach provides a protected beach for launching canoes and children swimming.  The first Hotel was built here in 1950; it was imploded (boy, that was an exciting day in Kona) and the current one constructed in 1975.
 
Kamakahonu is one of the featured Points of Interest in the Royal Footsteps Along The Kona Coast Scenic Byway.  We prepared the Corridor Management Plan for the Scenic Byway.