Search Results for: sandalwood

June 21, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lelia Byrd

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s contact with Hawai‘i in 1778, 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 US.

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

One such boat was the Lelia Byrd. Between 1803 and 1805, she crossed the Pacific three times (over 20,000-miles of open ocean,) including numerous journeys up and down the American coastline from the Columbia River to Guatemala.

The Lelia Byrd was fitted out at Hamburg by Captain Richard J Cleveland of Salem, Massachusetts – he liked the boat: “Having … purchased a new boat, we took the first favorable opportunity to proceed down the river, and … put to sea on the 8th of November, 1801, in company with a dozen sail of ships and brigs … The superiority of sailing of the Lelia Byrd was soon manifest, as, at the expiration of four hours, but two of the number that sailed with us were discernible from the deck, having been left far astern.” (Cleveland)

June 21, 1803 marked an important day in the history of Hawaiʻi land transportation and other uses when the Lelia Byrd, an American ship under Captain William Shaler (with commercial officer Richard Cleveland,) arrived at Kealakekua Bay with two mares (one with foal) and a stallion on board.

Before departing to give these gifts to Kamehameha (who was not on the island to accept them,) the captain left one of the mares with John Young (a trusted advisor of the King, who begged for one of the animals.) “This was the first horse that ever trod the soil of Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi,) and caused, amongst the natives, incessant exclamations of astonishment.” (Cleveland)

Shaler and Cleveland then departed for Lāhainā, Maui to give the mare and stallion to King Kamehameha I. “When the breeze sprang up, though at a long distance from the village of Lahina (Lāhainā,) we were boarded by Isaac Davis … Soon after, a double canoe was seen coming towards us; and, on arrival alongside, a large, athletic man, nearly naked, jumped on board, who was introduced, by Davis, as Tamaahmaah (Kamehameha,) the great King.”

“Desirous of conciliating the good opinion of a person whose power was so great, we omitted no attention which we supposed would be agreeable to him. … after walking round the deck of the vessel, and taking only a very careless look of the horses, he got into his canoe, and went on shore.” (Cleveland)

“Davis remained on board all night, to pilot us to the best anchorage, which we gained early the following morning, and, soon after, had our decks crowded with visiters to see the horses. The people … expressed such wonder and admiration, as were very natural on beholding, for the first time, this noble animal.”

“The horses were landed safely, and in perfect health, the same day, and gave evidence, by their gambols, of their satisfaction at being again on terra firma. They were then presented to the King, who was told, that one had been also left at Owhyhee for him. He expressed his thanks, but did not seem to comprehend their value.” (Cleveland)

While Kamehameha “remarked that he could not perceive that the ability to transport a person from one place to another, in less time than he could run, would be adequate compensation for the food he would consume and the care he would require,” Hawaiʻi had a new means of transportation (as well as a work-animal to help control the growing cattle population (gifts from Captain Vancouver in 1793.)) (Cleveland)

Cleveland and Shaler left and continued trading between China and America. “A few days after my departure for Canton, Mr. Shaler sailed from thence, bound to the coast of California, where he arrived without accident. He had been on that coast but a few weeks, and had disposed of but a small amount of cargo, when, unfortunately, the ship struck on a shoal, and beat so heavily, before getting off, as to cause her to leak alarmingly. (Cleveland)

(T)o have attempted to reach the Sandwich Islands, while they could hardly keep the ship afloat in smooth water, would have been highly imprudent. There seemed, then, to be no other alternative, than to go to one of the desert islands in the neighbourhood, land the cargo, and heave the ship out, or lay her on shore. (Cleveland)

The tide did not ebb sufficiently to enable them to come to the leaks by laying her on shore; and in attempting to heave her keel out, she filled and sank. Fortunately, the water was so shoal as not to cover the deck; and she was again pumped dry. It was now evident, that they could not make such repairs as would allow them to prosecute the voyage; and to stop the leaks sufficiently, to enable them to reach the Sandwich Islands, seemed to be the only way to avoid the total loss of the property. (Cleveland)

The repairs they were able to make, were done in so imperfect a manner, as would have made it unjustifiable to attempt any other passage, than one, where they might presume on good weather and a fair wind all the way, like the one contemplated. With these advantages, however, it was not without incessant labor at the pumps, that they were able to reach the Sandwich Islands in 1804. (Cleveland)

An attempt to repair the ship, with the very inadequate means which were available here, was discouraging, from the great length of time it would require. No foreign vessel was procurable, to return to the coast with the cargo. To freight a ship with it to China, would have been easy; but then it would be transporting it to where the loss on a resale would be very heavy. (Cleveland)

In this dilemma, it was decided, as a choice of difficulties, to barter with Tamaahmaah the Lelia Byrd for a little vessel of thirty or forty tons, which had been built on the island. (Cleveland)

This was a negotiation of greater magnitude than the King had ever before participated in; and the importance of which was sensibly felt by him. (Cleveland)

Kamehameha was open to negotiation; he saw the benefit of the new style of boat coming to the islands and started to acquire and build them. 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 along the coast of California. (Couper & Thrum, 1886)

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)

The king’s fleet of small vessels was hauled up on shore around Waikiki Bay, with sheds built over them. One small sloop was employed as a packet between Oahu and Hawaii. Captain Harbottle, an old resident, generally acted as pilot. (Alexander)

Shaler exchanged “Lelia Byrd,” with Kamehameha for the Tamana and a sum of money to boot. (Alexander) The cargo was received into his store, and when the schooner was ready it was all faithfully and honorably delivered to the person appointed to receive it. (Cleveland)

Mr. George McClay, the king’s carpenter, put in a new keel, and nearly replanked the Lelia Byrd in Honolulu Harbor. She afterwards made two or three voyages to China with sandalwood. (Alexander)

In 1809, the village of Honolulu, which consisted of several hundred huts, was then well shaded with cocoanut-trees. The king’s house, built close to the shore and surrounded by a palisade, was distinguished by the British colors and a battery of sixteen carriage guns belonging to his ship, the “Lily Bird” (Lelia Byrd), which lay unrigged in the harbor. (Campbell; Alexander)

Kamehameha kept his shipbuilders busy; by 1810 he had more than thirty small sloops and schooners hauled up on the shore at Waikīkī and about a dozen more in Honolulu harbor, besides the Lelia Byrd. (Kuykendall) Later, the Lelia Byrd finally sank near Canton. (Alexander)

The image shows the Lelia Byrd.

October 20, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Napa Meets Hawaiʻi

A notorious German, Georg Anton Schäffer, representing the Russian-American Company of Alaska, arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1815 to recover the cargo of a Russian trading ship wrecked at Waimea, Kauaʻi.

Landing on O‘ahu, Kamehameha I granted the Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor. But, instead (as directed by the Schäffer,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag.

When Kamehameha discovered the Russians were building a fort (rather than storehouses) and had raised the Russian flag, he sent several chiefs, along with John Young (his advisor,) to remove the Russians from Oʻahu by force, if necessary. The Russians (and Schäffer) sailed for Kauai and eventually built the Russian Fort Elizabeth.

In 1817, Schäffer made a claim of the whole island of Kauai in the name of the Emperor of Russia. He was ordered to leave the Island. He sailed to Honolulu in a leaking boat.

There, American Captain Isaiah Lewis, grateful for prior medical assistance from Schaffer the previous year (reportedly pulling his abscessed tooth,) gave Schaffer passage on the Panther to Canton (leaving on July 17, 1817,) then to St Petersburg. (Pierce)

Following this, Captain Lewis, a co-partner of the ship Arab with Bordman & Pope of Boston and William Dodge of Ipswich, Massachusetts, made a two-year voyage to acquire sandalwood in the Islands to sell in Canton, China.

Lewis married Sarah Pauline ‘Polly’ Holmes. One of their children was named John George Washington Lewis.

Polly’s parents were Oliver Holmes and Mahi, daughter of a high chief of Koʻolau. Holmes made his living managing his land holdings on Oʻahu and Molokai, providing provisions to visiting ships.

To supplement that, in 1809, he got involved with a distillery in Kewalo – this was the infancy of the short-lived rum distillation from the local sugar cane.

(Oliver Holmes was assistant to the Governor of Oʻahu and was appointed to arrange settlements of disputes (hoʻonoho e hoʻoponopono i na mea hihia.)) (LCA 8504 Testimony))

After Isaac Davis’ death (1810,) Holmes impressed visitors as the most important man on Oʻahu, next to the King. Holmes was addressed as Aliʻi Homo (Chief Holmes.) (Daws)

John Lewis married Amelia Kalena on December 31, 1865; they had a daughter, Harriet (Hattie) Kawaikapulani Likelike Lewis (born June 17, 1874, at Kōloa, Kauai.)

That leads to another of German descent, Beringer.

“The firm or house of Beringer Bros consists of Messrs Frederick and Jacob L Beringer. Of these Frederick Beringer, the elder of the two, is the manager and business man.” (It started in 1875.)

“It is his ample means that has enabled the firm to accomplish what it has in the way of erecting a splendid cellar, and in carrying out the many improvements which enable the house to produce its fine quality of wine.”

“It is to the personal experience in wine-making, etc, however, of Mr Jacob L Beringer, the younger member of the firm, that the practical details of the whole matter have been carried out.”

“The brothers were born in Mainz, Germany, the former in January, 1840, and the latter in May, 1845. Mr Frederick Beringer was sent to Paris when young to be educated, studying at the great St. Louis College.”

“After graduation he went into business in that city, remaining in all ten years in Paris. He then traveled extensively through Mexico and the United States, finally going to New York in 1862.” (Lewis Publishing Co, 1891)

There Frederick and Bertha Beringer had a son (May 28, 1870,) Fred L Beringer Jr. In 1884, they moved to California to join Jacob Beringer and built the Rhine House in St Helena, Napa Valley (now the centerpiece of the expansive Beringer Brothers winery.)

“Quality, not quantity,” is the motto of the Beringer Bros., and they are living up to it as shown by the fact that they received a silver medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889 for their wines, a gold medal at the State Fair at Sacramento, and also a medal at the Mechanics’ Fair in San Francisco, in fact wherever they have exhibited they have carried the honors. (Lewis Publishing Co, 1891)

Then, on June 1, 1905, Hattie Lewis married Fred L Beringer, in Honolulu. Basic reports in the local paper note Fred served in the Treasury Department of US Customs.

Fred_Beringer-(with_lei)-next_to_Harriet_Lewis_Beringer

January 4, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pahukanilua

Kamehameha I granted an ahupua’a called Kawaihae Hikina (also referred to as Kawaihae 2) to John Young for his invaluable service. The John Young Homestead was part of the ‘ili‘aina (or estate) known at one time as Pahukanilua.

Young was given the Hawaiian name of “Olohana,” which was the “Hawaiian language imitation of his boatswain’s call ‘All Hands’ during the battles of conquest.”

Young is credited with introducing cattle and goats to the island because of his relationship with Captain Vancouver, and he supported the introduction of Christianity to Hawaii and the establishment of missions.

He operated the kingdom’s warehouse at Kawaihae, where meats and hides were stored, and oversaw the sandalwood trade. Young’s influence is so great that he “seems to have been present and involved in every event of lasting importance in Hawaii from 1790 through 1820.” (Durst)

The John Young Homestead served as Young’s principal residence from 1798 until his death in 1835, at which time it appears to have been essentially abandoned. In 1929, AP Taylor, librarian with the archives of Hawaii, began advocating for the restoration and preservation of the site because of Young’s significant role in Hawaiian history.

Young’s property was actually divided into the lower homestead, near Kawaihae Bay and now underwater, and the upper homestead, which is now part of Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site.

The site was organized in a typical Hawaiian manner as a cluster of eight residential structures serving various functions. Five of these structures as “Hawaiian-style,” meaning they were built using traditional Hawaiian construction techniques like dry-set masonry, and three as “Western-style,” meaning mortar and coral lime plaster were utilized.

The distinguishing feature between Hawaiian and Western construction techniques at this site was not the absence or presence of plaster but whether or not the stones were set in mortar. Thus, the John Young Homestead represents a transitional period in construction methods on the Hawaiian islands.

“… coral blocks brought by canoe from reef at Puako. Coral blocks were burnt. Mortar and plaster were made from sand, burnt coral and mixed with poi and hair.” “I finish plastering all houses and have whitewashed the fences around the animal pens. It is as in Wales.” (Young Diary 1798-1799) (abstracted from Young Diary 1798-1799; Apple)

Young wrote in his diary in 1798 about the establishment of his homestead and indicated the closeness of his relationship with Kamehameha I:

“Have begun four buildings. My house, the cook house, and storage room, the house for the child and tahus [guardians] and near the small temple [perhaps referring to Mailekini Heiau] a house for storage.”

“My house at the small rise below the great temple [referring to Pu‘ukohola Heiau] more suitable than the ravine which washes away with Whymea floods [perhaps referring to the Makeahua gulch]. The great one [Kamehameha I] comes to use my cook house several times. I make biskits and cook a lamb. Have all enjoyed feast.”

The John Young Homestead is described in many contemporary travel accounts … “The house of this interesting old man, was located at the top of a small hill which overlooks the village of Kawaihae, built of stone, well ventilated and sanitary.” (Freycinet, 1829)

“The north point of Owhyee consists of low land, which rises in a strait line under an acute angle, into the region of the clouds. As soon as you reach these parts, the monsoon has no longer any effect, and you may expect sea and land winds frequently interrupted by total calms, and light breezes from every point of the compass; this was our case near Tocahai [Kawaihae] Bay, where the wind entirely died away.”

“We now saw Young’s settlement of several houses built of white stone, after the European fashion, surrounded by palm and banana trees; the land has a barren appearance, and is said to be little adapted to agriculture, as it consists, for the most part, of masses of lava.” (Kotzebue 1821)

“From out at sea, we could see the European built houses of John Young towering above the grass shacks of the natives. The whole beach is encircled by settlements of the people but wholly without any shade.”

“Only towards the south, along the coast, are cocoanut trees found scattered amongst the houses. The woods that occupy a higher zone on the mountain are not found in the valleys. Columns of smoke were to be seen in different parts of the island.” (Chamisso 1939)

At Kawaihae, “we were entertained by old John Young, an English runaway sail or, who had been many years on the islands, and had assisted Kamehameha in bis conquests. He had married a native woman of rank, has a fine family of sons and daughters, and is considered a chief.”

“He lived in a dirty adobe house adorned with old rusty muskets, swords, bayonets, and cartridge boxes. He gave us a supper of goat’s meat and fried taro, served on old pewter plates, which I was unfortunate to see his servant wipe on his red flannel shirt in lieu of a napkin.”

“We were sent up a rickety flight of stairs to sleep. I was afraid, and requested Dr Judd to look around the room carefully for concealed dangers, and he was heartless enough to laugh at me.”

“Sleep was out of the question; I was afraid of the wind, which sometimes sweeps down the gorge of the mountain, and got up at midnight, and went down to the grass house of Mrs. Young, which was neat and comfortable.” (Laura Fish Judd, Honolulu: Sketches)

“Mr. Young, taking a female of rank for a wife, was himself promoted to the rank of a chief, partly in consequence of the services he had rendered in the wars of conquest, his strong attachment to the king, and his ability and readiness to serve him. He officiated for a time, as governor of Hawaii.”

“Though at first detained there against his will, he at length preferred to stay rather than to return to England. He had two sons and three daughters, who at length came under the instruction of the missionaries.” (Bingham) Young would spend the rest of his life in Hawai‘i; he died in Honolulu on December 17, 1835.

John Young and his granddaughter Queen Emma are buried at Mauna ‘Ala (the Royal Mausoleum on O‘ahu,) the final resting place of the high chiefs and royalty of the Kamehameha and Kalākaua dynasties.

In John Young’s last will and testament of 1834, bequeathed lands were divided between John Young and Isaac Davis’ children and John Young’s surviving wife Ka‘oana‘eha (Mary Kuamo‘o). Legal separation of the upper and lower portions of the John Young Homestead occurred under the Mahele and Land Commission Awards.

In 1848, Ka‘oana‘eha and Isoba Puna (konohiki) applied for ownership of the lower portion of the John Young Homestead. In 1851, LCA 4522 was awarded to Ka‘oana‘eha and Puna thereby creating the formal separation of the upper and lower portions of the Homestead. (Durst) (Lots of information here is from Apple, Durst, NPS, HABS, Judd, and Bingham)

October 21, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Beyond the Boundaries

In ancient Hawai‘i, most of the makaʻāinana (‘common people’) were farmers, a few were fishermen. Tenants cultivated smaller crops for family consumption, to supply the needs of chiefs and provide tributes.

Access to resources was tied to residency and earned as a result of taking responsibility to steward the environment and supply the needs of aliʻi. The social structure reinforced land management – the primary land unit was the ahupuaʻa.

Resources not only sustained the occupants, they were also used to pay tributes to the King. Missionary Samuel Ruggles noted in his journal (June 17, 1820:) “The King’s rent has been brought in from all parts of the Island and from Onehow (Niʻihau) a small Island about 15 miles to the westward.”

“It consisted of hogs, dogs, mats, tappers, feathers, pearl fishhooks, calabashes and paddles. This rent is to go to Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi) as a present to the young King.”

“It was interesting to see the natives come, sometimes more than a hundred at a time, with their loads on their backs and lay down their offerings at the feet of their great and good Chief as they call him.” (Ruggles)

A typical ahupuaʻa was a long strip of land, narrow at its mountain summit top and becoming wider as it ran down a valley into the sea to the outer edge of the reef. If there was no reef then the sea boundary would be about one mile from the shore.

Shaped by island geography, ahupuaʻa varied in shape and size (from as little as 100-acres to more than 100,000-acres.) Each ahupuaʻa had its own name and boundary lines. Often the boundary markers were natural features such as a large rock or a line of trees or even the home of a certain bird. A valley ahupuaʻa usually used its ridges and peaks as boundaries.

The traditional land tenure system in ancient Hawaiʻi had at its core the presence of water (however, some ahupuaʻa did not have perennial streams or springs.) Although of many shapes and sizes, the typical ahupuaʻa consisted of three area types: mountain, plain and sea. Ahupuaʻa contained nearly all the resources Hawaiians required for survival.

In ancient Hawaiian times, relatives and friends exchanged products. The upland dwellers brought poi, taro and other foods to the shore to give to kinsmen there. The shore dweller gave fish and other seafood.

The emphasis on economic self-sufficiency in Hawaiian ahupua‘a resonates in our modern world with concerns for environmental and economic sustainability.

But the general perception of ahupua‘a self-sufficiency is quite different from demonstrated large scale movement of basalt and volcanic glass artifacts between island districts and sometimes between islands. (Mills)

Although control over agricultural production was doubtless central to the Hawaiian political economy, to this we can add a significant role of an exchange economy based on the control and distribution of other kinds of goods and resources.

One such resource, which fortunately is well represented in the archaeological record, consists of high-quality, fine-grained volcanic rock. (Kirch)

Many sources of stone within most ahupua‘a could have been used to make adzes (albeit of lesser quality.) It was the structure of ancient Hawaiian culture that led to the development of preferred sources outside of the ahupua‘a being used.

The ahupuaʻa of Kaʻohe in the Hāmākua district of Hawaiʻi Island, and its rich resource of basalt for adze making, helps illustrate this.

Kaʻohe is an irregular ahupua‘a because it only occupies a narrow (and relatively resource-poor) band along the coast where most of the residents would have lived.

But as Kaʻohe ascends the eastern slope of Mauna Kea and emerges above the forest near 6,000-ft in elevation, it expands to occupy the entire summit region.

The uplands of Kaʻohe would have contained few food resources beyond ground-nesting birds. The primary evidence of pre-contact human utilization of Kaʻohe’s vast mountain region is the adze quarry, which would have provided Kaʻohe with a valuable resource to exchange with other ahupua‘a. (Mills)

Likewise, Kahikinui on Maui, shows that, although the district’s residents exploited local stone sources for the majority of their tool production, they nonetheless imported slightly more than one-quarter of their lithic resources from outside of their own political district.

Clearly, even though they were capable of being self-sufficient in stone resources, they chose to import a significant quantity of high-quality volcanic rock, either as raw material or as finished adzes. (Kirch)

Moreover, archeologists have found disproportionately high frequency of fine-grained volcanic rock artifacts (from outside the specific ahupuaʻa) in high-status residence sites or ritual, temple complexes.

This strongly suggests that control over access to and distribution of these stone resources was controlled by aliʻi, who would likely have included the district chief (aliʻi ‘ai moku) and ahupua‘a-level sub-chiefs (aliʻi ‘ai ahupua‘a,) as well as the land managers (konohiki) and priests (kāhuna.) (Kirch)

Some early historical texts also hint at other kinds of exchange with others from other districts, including peddlers who traveled with goods between districts, regular exchange of foodstuffs, woods and fibers between moku, and even ‘fairs’ for barter between different districts. (Mills)

This exchange economy may also have consisted of perishable materials (ie, salt, fiber plants and cordage, lauhala matting, large hardwood logs for canoe hulls, and the red and yellow feathers of certain species of forest birds;) however, none of these preserve in most archaeological contexts. (Kirch)

Of course, following contact, the economic exchange of goods and services expanded – Sandalwood, supporting Whaling, Sugar, Pineapple, Visitor Industry etc. (Lots of information here is from Kirch and Mills.) (The image shows the adze maker in artwork by Herb Kane.)