David Malo

June 16, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Boaz Mahune – Declaration of Rights (1839)

Born in the early-1800s, Boaz Mahune was a member of the lesser strata of Hawaiian nobility, subordinate to the high chiefs or aliʻi. He was a cousin of Paul Kanoa, who served as Governor of Kauai from 1846 to 1877.

He adopted the name “Boaz” after a figure in The Book of Ruth in the Bible, after his conversion to Christianity (it was sometimes spelled Boas.)

Boaz Mahune was a member of the first class at Lahainaluna Seminary, graduating in 1835 after four years there. His classmates included historian David Malo and royal diplomat Timothy Haʻalilio.

He was considered one of the school’s most brilliant scholars and was one of the ten chosen to remain as monitors, teachers in the children’s school and assistants in translating.

Mahune (with others from Lahainaluna) drafted the 1839 Hawaiian Bill of Rights, also known as the 1839 Constitution of Hawaiʻi. This document was an attempt by King Kamehameha III and his chiefs to guarantee that the Hawaiian people would not lose their tenured land, and provided the groundwork for a free enterprise system.

It laid down the inalienable rights of the people, the principles of equality of between the makaʻāinana (commoner) and the aliʻi (chiefs) and the role of the government and law in the kingdom.

Many refer to that document as Hawaiʻi’s Magna Charta (describing certain liberties, putting actions within a rule of law and served as the foundation for future laws.) It served as a preamble to the subsequent Hawaiʻi Constitution (1840.)

It was a great and significant concession voluntarily granted by the king to his people. It defined and secured the rights of the people, but it did not furnish a plan or framework of the government. (Kuykendall)

After several iterations of the document back and forth with the Council of Chiefs, it was approved and signed by Kamehameha III on June 7, 1839 – it was a significant departure from ancient ways.

As you can see in the following, the writing was influenced by Christian fundamentals, as well as rights noted in the US Declaration of Independence.

Ke Kumukānāwai No Ko Hawaiʻi Nei Pae ʻĀina 1839 (Declaration of Rights (1839)

“God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the earth, in unity and blessedness. God has also bestowed certain rights alike on all men and all chiefs, and all people of all lands.”

“These are some of the rights which He has given alike to every man and every chief of correct deportment; life, limb, liberty, freedom from oppression; the earnings of his hands and the productions of his mind.”

“God has also established governments and rule for the purpose of peace; but in making laws for the nation it is by no means proper to enact laws for the protection of the rulers only, without also providing protection for their subjects; neither is it proper to enact laws to enrich the chiefs only, without regard to enriching their subjects also, and hereafter there shall by no means be any laws enacted which are at variance with what is above expressed, neither shall any tax be assessed, nor any service or labor required of any man, in a manner which is at variance with the above sentiments.”

“These sentiments are hereby proclaimed for the purpose of protecting alike, both the people and the chiefs of all these islands, while they maintain a correct deportment; that no chief may be able to oppress any subject, but that chiefs and people may enjoy the same protection, under one and the same law.”

“Protection is hereby secured to the persons of all the people, together with their lands, their building lots, and all their property, while they conform to the laws of the kingdom, and nothing whatever shall be taken from any individual except by express provision of the laws. Whatever chief shall act perseveringly in violation of this Constitution, shall no longer remain a chief of the Hawaiian Islands, and the same shall be true of the Governors, officers and all land agents.”

The Declaration of Rights of 1839 recognized three classes of persons having vested rights in the lands; 1st, the Government; 2nd, the Chiefs; and 3rd, the native Tenants. It declared protection of these rights to both the Chiefly and native Tenant classes.

Mahune is more specifically credited with nearly all the laws on taxation in the introduction to the English translation of the laws of 1840, not published until 1842.

Later he was Kamehameha III’s secretary and advisor. When the king attempted to start a sugar cane plantation at Wailuku on Maui, Mahune was the manager. The project was not a success.

Mahune returned to Lāhainā, where he acted as a judge for a time. About 1846 he went back to his home in Honolulu to work for the government. Mahune died in March 1847.

February 2, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lahainaluna High School

The missionaries who arrived in Lāhainā in 1823 explained to the Hawaiian Royalty the importance of an educational institution.

In 1823, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie (ke Aliʻi Hoapili wahine, wife of Governor Hoapili) offered the American missionaries a tract of land on the slopes surrounding Puʻu Paʻupaʻu for the creation of a high school.

Betsey Stockton from the 2nd Company of Protestant missionaries initially started a school for makaʻāinana (common people) and their wives and children on the site.

Later, on September 5, 1831, classes at the Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna (later known as Lahainaluna (Upper Lāhainā)) began in thatched huts with 25 Hawaiian young men (including David Malo, who went on to hold important positions in the kingdom, including the first Superintendent of Schools.)

When Lahainaluna High School first opened, Lāhainā was the capital of the kingdom of Hawaiʻi, and it was a bustling seaport for the Pacific whaling fleet.

Under the leadership of Reverend Lorrin Andrews, the school was established by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions “to instruct young men of piety and promising talents”. It is the oldest high school west of the Mississippi River.

In September 1836, thirty-two boys between the ages of 10 and 20 were admitted as the first boarding students, from the neighbor islands, as well as from the “other side of the island”; thus, the beginning of the boarding school at Lahainaluna.

The boarding program became coed in 1980. The two dorms are David Malo Dormitory for the boys and Hoapili Dormitory for the girls. Previously, Hoapili housed both genders. Lahainaluna is one of only a few public boarding schools in the nation.

The missionaries soon saw that the future of the Congregational Mission in Hawaii would be largely dependent upon the success of its schools. The Mission then established “feeder schools” that would transmit to their students’ fundamental reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, and religious training, before admission to the Lahainaluna.

Initially, Hawaiian was the language used in instruction; in 1877, there was a shift to English. The students engaged in a variety of studies including geography, mathematics and history to prepare them for leadership roles in the Hawaiian community.

Lahainaluna was transferred from being operated by the American missionaries to the control of the Hawaiian Monarchy in 1849. By 1864, only Lahainaluna graduates were considered qualified to hold government positions such as lawyers, teachers, district magistrates and other important posts.

A notable structure on the campus is Hale Paʻi (the house of printing,) a small coral and timber building. Starting in 1834, it served as the home of Hawaiʻi’s first printing press. Hale Paʻi is associated with a number of “firsts” in Hawaii.

The first actual publishing in Hawaiʻi was done in Honolulu in 1822. It was at Lahainaluna, however, that the first newspaper ever printed in the Hawaiian Islands was published on February 14, 1834. This paper, called Ka Lama Hawaii (The Hawaiian, Luminary) was also the first newspaper published anywhere in the United States or its territories west of the Rocky Mountains.

Also published at Hale Paʻi for the first time were many portions of the first Hawaiian translation of the Bible, the first English translation of the first Hawaiian Declaration of Rights, the first Hawaiian Constitution, the first set of Hawaiian laws on property and taxation, the first Hawaiian school laws, the first paper money engraved and printed in Hawaiʻi, the first history of Hawaiʻi printed in Hawaiian and the first history of Hawaiʻi printed in English appearing in the Islands.

In 1834, Lahainaluna students first began engraving on copper plates. The initial purpose of this engraving was to provide maps for study, not only at the Seminary, but at schools throughout the Islands.

In the 1840s commercial development in Hawaiʻi – both trade and agriculture – began to take off. As business grew, so did the need for money.

At this time, the nation had no official currency of its own, relying instead on a variety of foreign coins and bills which circulated at an agreed rate of exchange based on the U.S. dollar. As early as 1836, private Hawaiian firms began to issue paper scrip of their own redeemable by the issuing company in coins or goods.

In early 1843, apparently, Lahainaluna first printed and issued its own paper money. Its primary purpose was evidently to pay the students for their work on the campus (up to 25 cents per week,) which was then used for payment of their rent and tuition.

Later, counterfeiting of the school’s currency was discovered. Then, the faculty, in accordance with their vote of January 8, 1844, called in and destroyed all the paper money they could find. Then, authorized the addition of secret marks to all the new currency and re-issued it.

In 1903, Lahainaluna became a vocational trade school and, in 1923, a technical high school, admitting both girls and boys as day students. It continues today as Lāhainā’s public high school.

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October 15, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

David Malo’s Grave

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.

On September 5, 1831, classes at the Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna (later known as Lahainaluna (Upper Lāhainā)) began in thatched huts with 25 Hawaiian young men.

When Sheldon Dibble arrived to Hawai‘i in 1836, “connected with the Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna, and being called to teach History as one branch of my department of instruction”.

He had found it “quite objectionable that the scholars, whilst they were becoming acquainted with other nations, should remain to a great degree in ignorance of their own.”

Dibble made an “effort to collect the main facts of Hawaiian history,” he “selected ten of the best scholars of the Seminary, and formed them into a class of inquiry.”

Dibble “requested them to go individually and separately to the oldest and most knowing of the chiefs and people, gain all the information that they could on the question given out, commit each his information to writing and be ready to read it on a day and hour appointed.” (Dibble, April 28, 1843) One of the leading students was Malo.

“(David) Malo was the son of Aoao and his wife Heone, and was born at the seaside town of Keauhou, North Kona, Hawaii, not many miles distant from the historic bay of Kealakeakua, where Captain Cook, only a few years before, had come to his death.”

“The exact year of his birth cannot be fixt’d, but it was about 1793, the period 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 Kaahumanu …”

“… and it was during this period specially that he was placed in an environment the most favorable to forming an intimate acquaintance with the history, traditions, legends and myths of old Hawaii, as well as with the meles, pules and olis that belong to the hula and that form so important and prominent a feature in the poesy and unwritten literature of Hawaii.”

“Such good use did Malo make of his opportunities that he came to be universally regarded as the great authority and repository of Hawaiian lore.” (NB Emerson)

Malo was ordained into the Christian ministry and settled down in the seaside village of Kalepolepo on East Maui. (Trinity) 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.”

“(A)s Malo aged, and perhaps because he spent so much time pondering the old traditions in writing Hawaiian Antiquities or wading through Lahaina’s crowds of seamen on leave, he became increasingly exasperated with the rising tide of haoles as the Hawaiians died and kept on dying.”

“In a letter to native friends, he wrote: If a big wave comes in, large and unfamiliar fishes will come from the dark ocean, and when they see the small fishes of the shallows they will eat them up.”

“The white man’s ships have arrived with clever men from the big countries. They know our people are few in number and our country is small, they will devour us.” (Malo; Vowel)

Malo died October 21, 1853. “The death of the well-known native preacher, David Malo, is one of those events which throw sorrow upon the hearts of the friends of the native race.”

“Seeing a white object on the very summit of Mt. Ball (a hill above Lahainaluna School), a day or two since, I inquired what it was.”

“It was David Malo’s tomb. And why was he buried in so strange spot? He wished it. He said this land would fall into the possession of foreigners.”

“Land in Lahaina would be valuable. The graveyards, enriched by the remains of the natives, would be coveted, and the contents of the graves scattered abroad.”

“He wished not his bones to be disturbed. Let him be buried on that summit where no white man will ever build his house.”

“And so his grave has become beacon; and if his spirit ever lingers over it, he can survey, as from lofty watch-tower, his former home, and the scene of many of his labors.” (Sereno Bishop; The Friend, November 16, 1853)

Malo’s grave is on Pu‘u Pa‘upa‘u (sometimes called Mt Ball) – that is the hill above Lahaina with the ‘L’ (standing for Lahainaluna, the school that Malo attended).

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David Malo grave

September 1, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pa‘upa‘u

Pa‘upa‘u (lit. drudgery (servants were weary of bringing water to bathe the chief’s child)) is a hill above Lahainaluna School on Maui.

As noted in Pukui’s ‘Place Names’ book, “Not many years ago Mary Kawena Pukui found a colleague, Ke=oho=kapu, hard at work.”

“Instead of the banal comment that a haole would make, she asked cryptically, ‘E ku‘o‘i a‘e ana i ke One=o=Luhi?’ (Are [you] limping along the Beach of Weariness?)”

“Ke=oho=kapu, quick as a flash, said resignedly. ‘He pi‘i-na ke-ia i mauna Pa‘u-pa‘u.’ ([I”m) just climbing up Drudgery Hill.)”

“Both were pleased, and as a result of this repartee, the work may have seemed less like drudgery. The core of these sayings is the double meaning – in the place names Luhi ‘weariness’ and Pa‘u-pa‘u ‘drudgery’ a device rarely used in English sayings.” (Pukui, Appendix 8.1)

Sheldon Dibble had a house on the hill … “…Mon. Dec 14. Dined with Mr. Baldwin whose domicile joins that of Mr. Forbes, & is equally pleasantly situated. Mr. B[aldwin] has a wife & 5 children, the eldest a lad of 12 or 13 apparently…”

“Tues Dec 15th 1846. Rose soon after daylight & with Messrs Alexander & Hunt took a delightful ride on horseback along the base of the hills back of the Seminary.”

“We first rode up the hill to the cottage formerly built & occupied by Mr. Dibble situated on the side of the mountain 1500 ft above the sea (900 above Lahainaluna).”

“This residence was doubtless the means of prolonging the life of Mr. D[ibble] while declining of pulmonary consumption. The great objection to the residence is the difficulty of procuring water which has to be brought from a distance up very steep precipices.”

“The hill which rises back of this cottage on the flank of which it stands is called Mt Ball. The top of it is 2100 ft above the ocean…” (Lyman)

Another missionary, Samuel Whitney, also used the house on the hill … he had “taken ill on the island of Kauai, on the 21st of September last (1845). His symptoms, from the first, indicated a disordered liver.”

“After trying a change of air at his summer retreat at Hanapepeluna and employing various remedies, he, with his family, sailed on the 21st of October for Honolulu, where he arrived in three days …”

“From this, however, he partially recovered, and he was induced, by an earnest invitation, to come to Maui, to try the effects of a residence at the cool and elevated retreat of Mount Ball, above Lahainaluna. … When he arrived, he was quite fatigued, and he was ever afterwards confined mostly to his bed.”

“He now rapidly wasted away under the influence of disease, though his friends generally hoped he would soon begin to mend. …” Whitney died December 15, 1845.

Though David Malo did not die at Pa‘upa‘u, he wanted to be (and was) buried there. “He said this land will fall into the possession of foreigners. Land in Lahaina would be valuable.”

“The graveyards, enriched by the remains of the natives, would be coveted, and the contents of the graves scattered abroad. He wished not his bones to be disturbed. Let him be buried on that summit where no white man will ever build his house.” (Honolulu Advertiser, January 7, 1918)

Pu‘u Pa‘upa‘u has a symbol from Malo’s school (he was one of the first students enrolled at Lahainaluna Seminary). A large ‘L’ (standing for Lahainaluna, reportedly put there in 1929) is visible from most parts below.

Today, Lahainaluna students continue to maintain the ‘L’ on Pa‘upa‘u (a 30-foot letter of the natural red of the hill, outlined with white lime) at about the 2,000-foot elevation. (The school’s colors are red and white.)

Twice a year, students in Lahainaluna’s boarding program lug sacks of lime up to the site to outline the red ‘L’ in white. Hash-marks on the long side of the ‘L’ indicate sports championships.

Students also make the trek to pay reverence to David Malo, who died October 21, 1853 and who is buried on its summit. The school has an annual ho‘olaulea, David Malo Day, that pays tribute to Malo.

Pu‘u Pa‘upa‘u is also referred to as Mount Ball. It is not clear why or when it was named such, but references back to the mid-1840s, at least, use that name.

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lahainaluna-L

The L Lahainaluna-MountBall

Lahainaluna High School L

Lahainaluna L in need of lime

Lahainaluna L-lazarohike

David Malo grave

Rainbow_over_Lahainaluna

Lahaina as seen from Lahainaluna (Maui) Miss Thurston, Attributed to possibly be Eliza Thurston (1807-1873)

April 3, 2013 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

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.

“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.”

Click here for a link to the book that you may download (I downloaded it, did an Optical Character Recognition and use it all the time in learning more about Hawai‘i.)