Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Heinrich Zimmermann

In 1768, when Captain James Cook set sail on the Endeavour on the first of three voyages to the South Seas, the trip was mainly to record the transit of Venus in Tahiti in 1769. (Wall Street Journal)

However, on this voyage Cook 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’.  (State Library, New South Wales)

Cook’s second Pacific voyage (1772-1775) aboard Resolution and Adventure aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent, and make astronomical observations.

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 Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery.  (State Library, New South Wales)

Cook had other foreigners on his ships in these voyages. On his third voyage, one, a German, was Heinrich Zimmermann.

Johann Heinrich Zimmermann was born on December 25, 1741 in Wiesloch, just south of Heidelberg in the Palatinate. (King)

“Johann Heinrich Zimmermann and Anna Maria von Beyerthal” are registering the birth of the child “Johann Heinrich”.  The child’s sponsor (susciptor) is recorded as “Johann Heinrich Walthi von Maisbach”. The date of birth is written as: “1741 d. 25 te Xbris”. (Captain Cook Society)

Leaving home in 1770, Zimmermann had a variety of jobs around Europe. He had trained as a “Guertler,” the profession of a worker in precious and non-precious metals who made ornaments, jewelry, cutlery including swords, metal tools and implements.

He spent time working at this in Geneva, Lyons and Paris before he arrived in London in 1776 where, after a short period of working in a sugar refinery, he joined the Discovery as an able seaman on March 12 of that year for James Cook’s third voyage to the Pacific. He became the ship’s coxswain (steersman) in July 1776. (King)

As a sailor in the third voyage (1776 to 1779), Zimmermann kept a journal that later became the basis for his account Reise um die Welt, which was translated into English and later published as Account of the Third Voyage of Captain Cook.

Zimmermann’s descriptions of Hawaii sparked an interest in the Sandwich Islands, but he also offered some of the first descriptions of West Coast Indians. (BCBookworld)

Of that journal Zimmermann noted, “I have long been endeavouring to decide whether I should be doing a wrong in making public the observations made by me during our voyage.”

“Then it occurred to me that it was the duty of the crew to give up their papers: that Great Britain, having been at great expense in fitting out and keeping up this exploring expedition, alone had the right to publish the observations of her navigators …”

“… that we had been paid for our services, and that we were therefore bound to yield up to England any notes which we might have kept during our voyage.”

“To all these scruples I have a few remarks to make, and I wish to set forth the reasons which have nevertheless moved me to write down my personal observations.”

“Is it likely that this incomplete record, which comes from the pen of a simple sailor, will ever be compared with the properly accredited narratives to be published in England?  And can it prejudice them in any way?”

“Is it not more likely that it is I who will have cause to fear that my book will be unsaleable, will be ignored and neglected, because the world is awaiting the more complete, the more correct narratives written by those who were able to see more than I? Therefore I alone will suffer.” (Zimmermann)

The fame generated by the book led to Zimmermann being appointed in August 1781 by the Prince Elector of Bavaria, Karl Theodor, to the position of “Churfürstlicher Leibschiffmeister” (Master of the Prince Elector’s Ships), where he was responsible for the fleet of hunting and excursion boats on Lake Starnberg. (King)

After returning from that voyage, Zimmermann and George Dixon were recruited for a voyage to the North West Coast of America and round the world on the Imperial and Royal Ship Cobenzell.

The voyage was to be undertaken for Emperor Joseph II by the Imperial Asiatic Society of Trieste, otherwise known as the Triestine Society, a company set up and run by William Bolts for the purpose of carrying out this voyage.

On July 24, 1782, Dixon wrote to Zimmermann from Vienna. “Dear Harry, Yours I Rec‘d, and am glad you have Resolution, like the Honest Sailor which I allways have taken you for, and are willing to be doing sum thing both for your self and the Country.”

“By this time I expect you will be in Trieste, and have seen Mr Walker… As you may be a little mistaking in Regard to the Voyage and its Nature, Mr Walker can give you sum Information and the Remainder, I shall Acquent you with, when I see you which I expect to be shortly. I am, Dear Harry, Yours &ca, Geo. Dixon.”

While the Emperor was initially enthusiastic, the venture eventually proved impossible to realize. The opposition of Bolts’s Belgian financial partners in the Imperial Asiatic Company of Trieste and Antwerp was a principal cause of its not going ahead.

The Emperor also refused to provide financing for it apart from the expenses of his naturalists: in the autumn of 1782 it was abandoned. (King)

Zimmermann had apparently used the time he had spent at Trieste to learn navigation and qualify as a ship’s officer. Likewise, in his account of Cook’s last voyage he had mentioned the willingness of the natives of the North West Coast to engage in trade, consisting mainly on their part of the furs of “beaver” (by which he meant sea otter), sable and seal.

He wrote in his journal: “My plan supposes fitting out two ships of 400 or 500 tons in Europe (with 18 months‘ provisions), which would cost around 8,000 louis d’or, declared ready for sea and to go out on the following System as though going on discovery, making their way around Cape Horn to the Marquesas Islands, there to take on water and refresh the crew.”

“From there they would make their way directly to Owhyee [Hawaii] where the second would stay and stock with provisions and water. From thence to the North West Coast to seek refit on that coast. …”

“In returning engage in trade, the article concerned being sea otter pelts, from my being convinced that it is not idle talk, collecting at least 2,000 in a space of 6 months, as in Kamchatka each would be worth from 30 roubles and the same items can be sent to Okhotsk and from thence to Kiachta on the Chinese border, which is 1,400 miles by land …”

“… from whence the Chinese can gain a good profit by transporting them to Peking which is 700 miles further, and from thence to Japan, which is now inclined to welcome those who go with goods of value to Japan.” (King) That plan was not implemented.

Zimmermann was asked in 1789 to plan a Russian expedition to the Pacific. Although he submitted plans, Russia was then engaged in wars with the Ottoman Empire and with Sweden, and the expedition didn’t happen. It’s not clear if Zimmermann made it back into the Pacific; he did, however, sail to India in the 1780s.

In 1791-1792 he again took a ship, the Edward, to India for Edouard de Walckiers.  The advent of war with revolutionary France put an end to the trade with India from the Austrian Netherlands, and Zimmermann returned to Munich. He retired to Starnberg in 1804 and died there on May 3, 1805. (King)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Naukane

During Captain Cookʻs visit to Hawaiʻi on his third voyage of exploration in 1779, then-Lieutenant King (later Captain) noted, “During the following night, the cutter belonging to the Discovery was stolen …”

“This irritated captain Cook, and he gave orders to stop all the canoes that should attempt to leave the bay, intending to seize and destroy them, if he could not recover the cutter by fair means.”  (Captain King’s Journal)

“The natives now collected in vast numbers along the shore, and began to throng round captain Cook”.  Shortly after, “Captain Cook, the last time he was seen distinctly, was standing at the water’s edge”.

“… he was desirous of preventing any farther bloodshed … whilst he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but having turned about to give his orders to those in the boats, he was stabbed in the back”.  Cook was killed.    (Captain King’s Journal)

One of the Hawaiians at the scene was Naukane, son of Kamanawa (Kamehameha’s uncle and one of his closest allies – Kamanawa (left) and Kameʻeiamoku, his twin brother (right) were later memorialized on the Hawaiʻi coat of arms.)  (Kittelson)

When Kamehameha moved his Royal Center to Honolulu, his chiefs came with him. Naukane, then in his early twenties, accompanied his father and probably became involved in royal court life.  However, fascinated by the growing number of ships calling in the islands, Naukane looked to the sea. (Kittelson)

His chance came in February 1811, when John Jacob Astor’s ‘Tonquin,’ under the command of Captain Jonathan Thorne, called.  The captain wanted to hire twenty-four of the Islanders, twelve as seamen and the remaining half to establish a post for the Pacific Fur Company on the Columbia River.

This was the first large group of Hawaiians to come to America.  The king appointed Naukane to go with them as a royal observer.  (Duncan)

Because Naukane resembled one of the Americans, he became known as John Coxe and retained the name throughout his long and colorful life in the Pacific Northwest (he also went by John Cox and Edward Coxe, or, simply Coxe.)  (Duncan)

The Tonquin reached the mouth of the Columbia in March; after a few days looking, they selected a site and by the end of May they had completed Fort Astoria.  It was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast of what was to become the United States.

Astor planned the post to grow into a permanent settlement, with plans to develop a large trade ring that included New York, the Pacific Coast, Russian Alaska, Hawaiʻi and China. The furs collected in the northwest and Alaska, would be shipped to China and exchanged for porcelain, silk and other cloth, and spices that would be brought back, via Hawaii to New York.

Other operators had other posts.  In the summer of 1810, Jacques-Raphaël Finlay (Jaco Finley) of the North West Company built Spokane House at the junction of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers.

Shortly after arriving in the northwest, Coxe started working for Canadian David Thompson of the North West Company.   Coxe later spent the winter of 1811-1812 at Spokane House with Finlay.  On those expeditions, Coxe became the first Hawaiian to visit the inland Northwest.

Coxe accompanied Thompson “across the Rocky Mountains from western Montana and in the long trail to Fort William on Lake Superior. … John Coxe also took the trail east from Fort William but his road led to Quebec, where he created a sensation with his stories of Hawaiʻi and his demonstrations of Polynesian dance steps.”  (Taylor)

By 1813, Fort Astoria and all other assets in the area were sold to the North West Company – they renamed it Fort George.    Coxe continued to work there until August, 1814, when all of the Hawaiians at Fort George were sent back to the Islands.

Comfortable with the service from the Hawaiians, in 1817, North West sent a ship “to bring as many of the Sandwich Islanders to the Columbia river as we could conveniently accommodate.”  (Corney)

(In 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company combined with the North West Company, and the post name was changed back to Fort Spokane.)

After he returned to Honolulu in 1815, Coxe probably reverted to his native name, Naukane.  He was well received by Kamehameha.

Not only was Naukane the son of one of Kamehameha’s closest advisors, and a member of Liholiho’s entourage, but he had traveled widely. Kamehameha I died in 1819 and Naukane rose in stature when Liholiho ascended the throne.  (Kittelson)

Naukane’s expeditions did not end on the American continent.  Because of his familiarity with western ways (with travels to America, Europe & South America) and his personal ties, when Liholiho departed on November 27, 1823 to England aboard the L’Aigle to discuss the future of his Islands with George IV, Naukane accompanied the King.

The King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu died of measles in July 1824; apparently Naukane’s travels had built up his immunity, for he was hardly bothered by measles.

King George IV held an audience for the remaining Hawaiians at Windsor Castle on September 11; Coxe was present.  The bodies of Liholiho and his queen were returned to Hawaii aboard the frigate Blonde captained by Lord Byron.

With the King dead, Naukane no longer was bound, and he immediately offered his services to the Hudson’s Bay Company and returned to the Northwest. He was only one of approximately thirty-five Islanders working for the company by 1825.  (Duncan)

The firm’s base of operations had been transferred from Fort Spokane to a new site farther inland, Fort Vancouver. Coxe worked for a few more years; then the company retired him and gave him a plot of land two miles below the fort.  (Kittelson)

Naukane died February 2, 1850.  The vast plain between Fort Vancouver and the Columbia became the Hawaiian’s memorial – Coxe’s Plain … “A couple of miles below the fort (Vancouver) there were luxuriant meadows of great extent.”

“A portion of these bore at that time the name of Coxe’s Plain, a name I think which it still continues to bear. Old Coxe, a native of the Sandwich Islands and a very original character, was the swine-herd and had his residence there among the oaks which dotted the verge of the plain.”  (Anderson; Barry)

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cook’s Concern

In the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

Cook continued to sail along the coast searching for a suitable anchorage. His two ships remained offshore, but a few Hawaiians were allowed to come on board on the morning of January 20, before Cook continued on in search of a safe harbor.

“At nine o’clock [January 20, 1778}, being pretty near the shore, I sent three armed boats, under the command of Lieutenant Williamson, to look for a landing-place, and for fresh water. I ordered him, that if he should find it necessary to land in search of the latter, not to suffer more than one man to go with him out of the boats.”

“Just as they were putting off from the ship, one of the natives having stolen the butcher’s cleaver, leaped overboard, got into his canoe, and hastened to the shore, the boats pursuing him in vain.”

“The order not to permit the crews of the boats to go on shore was issued, that I might do every thing in my power to prevent the importation of a fatal disease into this island, which I knew some of our men laboured under, and which, unfortunately, had been already communicated by us to other islands in these seas.”

“With the same view, I ordered all female visitors to be excluded from the ships. Many of them had come off In the canoes. Their size, colour, and features did not differ much from those of the men ; and though their countenances were remarkably open and agreeable, there were few traces of delicacy to be seen, either in their faces, or other proportions.”

“The only difference in their dress, was their having a piece of cloth about the body, reaching from near the middle to half-way down the thighs, instead of the maro worn by the other sex. “

“They would as readily have favoured us with their company on board as the men ; but I wished to prevent all connection, which might, too probably, convey an irreparable injury to themselves, and through their means, to the whole nation.”

“Another necessary precaution was taken, by strictly enjoining, that no person, known to be capable of propagating the infection, should be sent upon duty out of the ships.”

“Whether these regulations, dictated by humanity, had the desired effect, or no, time only can discover. I had been equally attentive to the same object, when I first visited the Friendly Islands ; yet I afterward found, with real concern, that I had not succeeded.”

“And I am much afraid, that this will always be the case, in such voyages as ours, whenever it is necessary to have a number of people on shore.”

“The opportunities and inducements to an intercourse between the sexes are then too numerous to be guarded against; and however confident we may be of the health of our men, we are often undeceived too late.”

“It is even a matter of doubt with me, if it be always in the power of the most skillful of the faculty to pronounce, with any certainty, whether a person who has been under their care, in certain stages of this malady, is so effectually cured, as to leave no possibility of his being still capable of communicating the taint.”

“I think I could mention some instances which justify my presuming to hazard this opinion. It is likewise well known, that, amongst a number of men, there are generally to be found some so bashful as to endeavour to conceal their labouring under any symptoms of this disorder.”

“And there are others, again, so profligate, as not to care to whom they communicate it. Of this last, we had an instance at Tongataboo, in the gunner of the Discovery, who had been stationed on shore to manage the trade for that ship.”

“After he knew that he had contracted this disease, he continued to have connections with different women, who were supposed not to have already contracted it.”

“His companions expostulated with him without effect, till Captain Clerke, hearing of this dangerous irregularity of conduct, ordered him on board.”  (All here is from Cook’s Journal; 2nd of 3rd Voyage, pgs 181-182)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kānekapōlei

At the time of ‘contact’ (Captain Cook’s arrival (1778,)) 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

(4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

On the Big Island, one of Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s wives was Kānekapōlei (Kāne in the circle of beloved ones (ksbe.))  She is reported to be the daughter of Kauakahiakua of the Maui royal family and his wife Umiaemoku; some suggest she is said to have been of the Kaʻū family of chiefs.

According to Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau, her father Kauakahiakua owned the sea cucumber (loli) ovens of the district of Kaupo on the island of Maui.

Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kānekapōlei had two sons, Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and Keōua Peʻeale.

In addition to instruction in all Hawaiian knowledge, not merely in fishing, agriculture, warfare, history and so forth, young chiefs were instructed in sex life.

The latter instruction was imparted by some older woman in the family or attached to it, when the pupil had reached a suitable age (puberty.)  Some suggest Kānekapōlei was the one to instruct Kamehameha, and Pauli Kaʻōleiokū was the result of that and known as ‘keiki makahiapo’ (first-born child) of Kamehameha.  (Stokes)

During Captain Cookʻs visit to Hawaiʻi on his third voyage of exploration in 1779, then-Lieutenant King (later Captain) mentioned Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s favorite wife Kānekapōlei. He and his men spelled her name many different ways including “Kanee-Kabareea,” “Kanee-cappo-rei,” “Kanee Kaberaia,” “Kainee Kabareea,” “Kahna-Kubbarah.”

“During the following night, the cutter belonging to the Discovery was stolen, so that their depredations seemed confined to what belonged to that ship.”

“This irritated captain Cook, and he gave orders to stop all the canoes that should attempt to leave the bay, intending to seize and destroy them, if he could not recover the cutter by fair means.”  (Captain King’s Journal)

Ashore, “Captain Cook’s orders to Mr. King were, to endeavour to quiet the minds of the natives on the side of the bay where he was going, by assuring them that they should not be hurt; to keep his people together; and to be upon his guard.”

“The captain proceeded, with the lieutenant and nine marines, to the village where the king resided. He found him calm and unruffled, to all appearance ignorant of the theft committed on the cutter.”  (Captain King’s Journal)

“He (Kalaniʻōpuʻu) readily accepted of an invitation to spend the day on board the Resolution, and accompanied the captain to the beach. His two sons (Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and Kaʻōleiokū) were already in the pinnace (a tender boat,) and the rest of the party were advanced near the water-side …”

“… when an elderly woman, called Kanee-Kabareea (Kānekapōlei,) the mother of the boys, and one of the king’s favourite wives, came after him, and, with many tears and entreaties, besought him not to go on board …”

“… at the same time two chiefs, who came along with her, laying hold of the king, forced him to sit down, insisting that he should go no farther.”    (Captain King’s Journal)

“The natives now collected in vast numbers along the shore, and began to throng round captain Cook and their king …”

“… upon which the lieutenant of marines, by the permission of his captain, drew the men up along the rocks, close to the water’s edge, in a line, at the distance of about thirty yards from the place where the king was sitting.”

“At length the captain gave up all thoughts of prevailing upon Terreeoboo (Kalaniʻōpuʻu) to accompany him, observing to Mr. Phillips, that it would be impossible to compel him to go on board, without the risk of killing a great number of the inhabitants.”    (Captain King’s Journal)

Shortly after, “Captain Cook, the last time he was seen distinctly, was standing at the water’s edge … he was desirous of preventing any farther bloodshed …”

“… whilst he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but having turned about to give his orders to those in the boats, he was stabbed in the back”.  Cook was killed.    (Captain King’s Journal)

Kalaniʻōpuʻu died in 1782.  Before his death, Kalaniʻōpuʻu gave an injunction to Kiwalaʻo (another son) and Kamehameha (his nephew,) and to all the chiefs, thus: “Boys, listen, both of you.”

“The heir to the kingdom of Hawaii nei, comprising the three divisions of land, Kaʻū, Kona and Kohala, shall be the chief Kiwalaʻo. He is the heir to the lands.” (Fornander)

Keōua Kuʻahuʻula and his younger brother Kaʻōleiokū had for many years resisted Kamehameha’s attempts to conquer the whole of Hawaiʻi Island, after the death of Kiwalaʻo in the Battle of Mokuʻōhai (1782.)  Keōua escaped the battle to relatives in the Kaʻū district to the South.  (Stokes)

Keōua was killed in 1791, when Kamehameha invited him to the Puʻukoholā Heiau in Kohala.  Pauli Kaʻōleiokū was spared.

Pauli Kaʻōleiokū married Luahine, they had one child, Princess Konia; Princess Konia married Abner Paki, they had one child, Princess Bernice Pauahi.  (Kaʻōleiokū was also the maternal grandfather of Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.)  (Stokes)

Great granddaughter of Kamehameha I and Kānekapōlei, Princess Bernice Pauahi officially was eligible to the throne by order of Kamehameha III; she was offered the throne by Kamehameha V, but refused it.

In 1850, the princess was married at the Royal School to Mr Charles Reed Bishop of New York, who started the bank of what is now known as First Hawaiian Bank. A small wedding was conducted with only a few attending.

Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop died childless on October 16, 1884.  She foresaw the need to educate her people and in her will she left her large estate of the Kamehameha lands in trust to establish the Kamehameha Schools for children with Hawaiian blood.

The image shows Cook’s death, witnessed by Kānekapōlei and her sons and husband.

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Arrival in Waimea, Kauai

We always recall that Captain James Cook died at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, but often overlook that the first reported contact by the white man in the islands occurred in Waimea, Kauai.

Hawaiian lives changed with sudden and lasting impact when in 1778, Cook and his crew arrived.  Western contact changed the course of history for Hawai‘i.

Cook named the archipelago the Sandwich Islands in honor of his patron, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich.

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, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and at (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Cook’s crew first sighted the Hawaiian Islands in the dawn hours of January 18, 1778.  His two ships, the HMS Resolution and the HMS Discovery, 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.

Cook continued to sail along the coast searching for a suitable anchorage.  His two ships remained offshore, but a few Hawaiians were allowed to come on board on the morning of January 20, before Cook continued on in search of a safe harbor.

On the afternoon of January 20, 1778, Cook anchored his ships near the mouth of the Waimea River on Kauai’s southwestern shore.

As they stepped ashore for the first time, Cook and his men were greeted by hundreds of Hawaiians who offered gifts of pua‘a (pigs), and mai‘a (bananas) and kapa (tapa) barkcloth.

Cook went ashore at Waimea three times the next day, walking inland to where he saw Hawaiian hale (houses), heiau (places of worship) and agricultural sites.

At the time, the region was thriving with many thatched homes as well as lo‘i kalo (taro patches) and various other food crops such as niu (coconuts) and ‘ulu (breadfruit).

After trading for provisions, gathering water and readying for sail, Cook left the island and continued his search of the “Northwest Passage,” an elusive (because it was non-existent) route from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

After the West Coast, Alaska and Bering Strait exploration, on October 24, 1778 the two ships headed back to the islands; they sighted Maui on November 26 and circled the Island of Hawaiʻi.

On January 17, 1779, Cook sailed into Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawai‘i.  After a month’s stay, Cook got under sail again to resume his exploration of the Northern Pacific.

Shortly after leaving Hawaiʻi Island, the foremast of the Resolution broke and the ships returned to Kealakekua Bay for repairs.

On February 14, 1779, at Kealakekua Bay, some Hawaiians took one of Cook’s small boats. He attempted to take hostage the King of Hawaiʻi, Kalaniʻōpuʻu. The Hawaiians prevented this and Cook and some of his men were killed. Clerke took over the expedition and they left.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC