Epidemics | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

After a brief stay in the Islands, in 1839, John Augustus Sutter, a Swiss seeking his fortune in America, brought a small group of native Hawaiians with him to California.

They worked for him and eventually intermarried with local native American families. They settled in the area of Vernon, which is now called Verona, where the Feather River flows into the Sacramento River in South Sutter County. (co-sutter-ca-us)

In order to qualify for a land grant, Sutter became a Mexican citizen in 1840; the following year, he received title to about 49,000-acres and named his settlement New Helvetia, or “New Switzerland.” He called his compound Sutter’s Fort.

In his memoirs, Sutter recalled the Hawaiians, using a name then-common to describe Hawaiian workers, “I could not have settled the country without the aid of these Kanakas.” They built the first settlers’ homes in Sacramento – hale pili (grass shacks) made with California willow and bamboo.

At the time of Sutter’s arrival in California, the territory had a population of only 1,000 Europeans, in contrast with 30,000 Native Americans. At the time, it was part of Mexico and the governor, Juan Bautista Alvarado, granted him permission to settle.

John Sutter ordered a sawmill to be built. On the morning of January 24, 1848, James Marshall made his customary inspection of the sawmill he was building for Sutter.

During the previous night, Marshall had diverted water through the mill’s tailrace to wash away loose dirt and gravel, and on that fateful day, he noticed some shining flecks of metal left behind by the running water.

He picked them up and showed them to his crew; a young Virginian named Henry William Bigler recorded in his diary: “This day some kind of mettle was found in the tail race that looks like gold first discovered by James Martial, the boss of the Mill.” (csun)

Word of Marshall’s discovery leaked out and immediately set off a “rush to the mines.” By the spring of 1849, the largest gold rush in American history was under way. At the time of Marshall’s discovery, the state’s non-Indian population numbered about 14,000. By the end of 1849, it had risen to nearly 100,000, and it continued to swell to some 250,000 by 1852.

Gold was both plentiful and – by happy geologic accident- easy to extract, making the gold-bearing gravels of California’s rivers into what has been described as “the finest opportunity that, has ever been offered on any mining frontier.”

A contemporary newspaper put it slightly differently: “The whole country, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the sea shore to the base of the Sierra Nevadas, resounds with the cry of ‘gold, GOLD, GOLD!’ while the field is left half planted, the house half built, and everything neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pickaxes.” (California Parks)

“Forty-Niner” has become the collective label for those who participated in the famous California Gold Rush. Quite a few people arrived in 1848, and many came after 1849; however, it was the year 1849 which witnessed the large wave of gold-seekers. (Hinckley)

Place names like Kanaka Creek in Sierra County and Kanaka Bar in Trinity County tell us of the growing presence of Hawaiians in gold country. “Hawaiians also migrated to Yolo County, California to participate in the Gold Rush and created their own Kanaka Village.”

In the Islands …

The California Gold Rush drawing Hawaiians to the continent was not its only effect on the Islands; the Hawaiian economy was affected in several ways – good and not-so-good.

Prior to the Gold Rush, supporting the Pacific whaling and trading fleets and trade between the West Coast and Hawaiʻi was the scale of the Hawaiʻi participation. The scale of that significantly changed with the Gold Rush.

Hawaiʻi was only three to five weeks away, and with the growing population drawn to the gold fields, in addition to provisioning ships, Hawaiʻi farmers were feeding the gold seekers on the continent.

There were some down sides; this also brought a marked increase in the prices of consumer goods, especially food, caused by the great increase in agricultural exports to California, which offered very profitable new markets. (Rawls)

Likewise, the exodus to the continent created a critical labor shortage in Hawaiʻi, where a sizeable number of sugar plantation workers migrated to the California gold fields.

The parting of workers from the plantations between 1848 and 1853 was so large, Hawaiʻi sugar producers began to seek Chinese immigrants to fill the gap. (Rawls)

Great Māhele – 1848

At the time of Captain Cook’s contact with the Hawaiian Islands the land was divided into several independent Kingdoms. By right of conquest, each King was owner of all the lands within his jurisdiction.

After selecting lands for himself, the King allotted the remaining to the warrior Chiefs who rendered assistance in his conquest. These warrior Chiefs, after retaining a portion for themselves, reallotted the remaining lands to their followers and supporters.

The distribution of lands was all on a revocable basis. What the superior gave, he was able to take away at his pleasure. This ancient tenure was in nature feudal, although the tenants were not serfs tied to the soil – they were allowed to move freely from the land of one Chief to that of another.

Under King Kamehameha III, the most important event in the reformation of the land system in Hawaii was the separation of the rights of the King, the Chiefs and the Konohiki (land agents.)

The King retained all of his private lands as his individual property; one third of the remaining land was to be for the Hawaiian Government; one third for the Chiefs and Konohiki; and one third to be set aside for the tenants, the actual possessors and cultivators of the soil.

More than 240 of the highest ranking Chiefs and Konohiki in the Kingdom joined Kamehameha III in this task. The first māhele, or division, of lands was signed on January 27, 1848; the last māhele was signed on March 7, 1848.

Each māhele was in effect a quitclaim agreement between the King and a Chief or Konohiki with reference to the lands in which they both claimed interests.

The lands identified and separated in 1848 as Crown lands, Government lands and Konohiki lands were all “subject to the rights of native tenants” on their respective kuleana. The Land Commission was authorized to award fee simple titles to native tenants who occupied and improved the land (and proved they actually cultivated those lands for a living.)

The awarding of these completed the māhele of the lands into the Crown lands, Government lands, Konohiki lands and Kuleana lands and brought to an end the ancient system of land tenure in the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Epidemics of 1848 – 1849

The earliest published reference to the epidemics occurred in The Polynesian, the government newspaper, on October 14, 1848: “SICKNESS.—Much sickness prevails here at the present time.”

“The measles and whooping cough have at length made their appearance here. The whooping cough made its appearance a few weeks since, and during the last week several cases of the measles have occurred in town.”

“By an arrival from Hilo, we learn that the measles prevail extensively among the native population of Hilo. Both the measles and whooping cough are comparatively light, and no fears need be entertained if proper care be taken. Among the native population some cases have proved fatal, owing to exposure and improper treatment.”

“The mumps prevailed here some years since, and we understand several cases have lately occurred. Pleurisy and bilious fever prevail to some extent among the native population. Several cases of influenza similar to that which occurred here in 1845 have lately occurred.”

On March 1, 1849, toward the end of the epidemics (which, incidentally, no one has precisely dated), The Friend ran a brief article titled “Decrease of Polynesian Races.”

This article stated, “By the epidemics (whooping cough, measles, and influenza), which have raged among the Hawaiians, during the last 12 months, it is estimated that not less than 10,000 have been swept away or about one-tenth of the population.”

It wasn’t until humans began gathering in larger populations that contagious diseases had the opportunity to spread to epidemic proportions. Infectious diseases have inflicted a great deal of damage throughout the centuries.

An epidemic is a disease “normally absent or infrequent in a population but liable to outbreaks of greatly increased frequency and severity,” or a “temporary but widespread outbreak of a particular disease.” A Pandemic is an epidemic on a very wide geographical scale, perhaps worldwide, or at least affecting a large area of the world. (Hays)

As humans expanded their territory, they came into closer contact with microbes they might otherwise have never encountered. By storing food, humans attracted scavenging creatures such as rats and mice, which brought more microbes. (Discovery)

Human expansion also resulted in the construction of more wells and ditches, which provided more standing water for disease-carrying mosquitoes. As technology allowed for wider travel and trade, new microbes could easily spread from one highly populated area to another. (Discovery)

Throughout recorded history, many towns, cities, countries and regions have been decimated by a particular epidemic – a high prevalence of disease attacking many people in a community at the same time. (Kohn)

In extreme cases, a single disease outbreak can have a signiﬁcant eﬀect on a whole civilization, as with the epidemics started by the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, or the outbreak of bubonic plague that killed 20% of the population of Europe over a seven-year period in the 1300s. (cornell-edu)

While the Hawaiian Islands are the world’s most-isolated, populated-place, exploration and trade in the Pacific – and eventually “contact” – ultimately exposed Hawaiʻi to the ills already circulating around the globe – and added it to the points of contact for the spread of various diseases.

The maʻi ‘ōkuʻu (believed to be cholera) struck the islands in about 1804. Some reports note about one-half the population (175,000) died, however, some feel that is quite likely that close to 5,000 Hawaiians died from it. (Schmitt) It affected Kamehameha and his planned invasion of Kauaʻi.

From 1818 to 1825, Don Francisco de Paula Marin recorded numerous occurrences of colds and flu among the Hawaiians, noting that people had died. 1826 saw an epidemic of coughs, congested lungs, sore throat, bronchitis and influenza. (Van Dyke)

As visits by whalers, traders and others increased, other serious diseases started arriving from Europe, American and Asia.

The measles deaths of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu in London in 1824, likely acquired visiting a large children’s home, was a forerunner of the devastating impact of measles upon Hawaiians 24 years later. (nih-gov)

Before 1848, measles was unknown in Hawaiʻi. Several epidemics struck Hawaiʻi in late-1848, beginning with measles and pertussis, then diarrhea and influenza. Measles arrived at this time from California, spreading from Hilo through all the islands; 10% to 33% of the population died. (nih-gov)

No one knows for certain when, where or how the smallpox virus first appeared on earth; we do know that it has circumnavigated the planet multiple times over many centuries, invading every place of human habitation. By the eighteenth century, smallpox was killing an average of 400,000 people per year in Europe alone. (ucpress)

Smallpox hit Hawaiʻi in 1853; the first case arrived in Honolulu, on the ship Charles Mallory. When the epidemic ended late in January 1854, the estimated number of islands-wide cases was 6,400 – 9,100 and an estimated 2,500 – 5,750 deaths.

A sweeping influenza pandemic passed through Europe in late-1781 and 1782. It was first noticed in Russia; then the disease moved from east to west. Millions of people, perhaps three-fourths of the population of Europe, fell ill in the first eight months of 1782. Deaths in Europe may have numbered in the hundreds of thousands. (Hays)

Influenza struck again in Europe in 1847 and over the next two years spread into worldwide impact. In Paris, between one-fourth and one-half of the population was affected; in Geneva, Switzerland not less than one-third. (Peacock)

At that same time, a succession of deadly epidemics struck the Hawaiian Islands. Measles, whooping cough, dysentery, and influenza raged across the kingdom. An estimated 10,000-persons died from these causes, more than one-tenth of the population. In total mortality, the combined 1848-1849 epidemic toll was one of the most devastating in Island history. (Schmitt-Nordyke)

The bubonic plague (“Black Death”) was first noticed in Hawaiʻi on December 9, 1899. Its presence caused pause in the opening months of 1900 and was on everybody’s mind, with good reason; the same disease had decimated a third of the world’s population during the fourteenth century.

The spread of plague on O‘ahu was traced to the railroad linking Honolulu with the plantation towns of Aiea, Waipahu and Waialua. The Honolulu epidemic was not halted until March 31, 1900, during which time a total of 71 cases of plague were diagnosed, leading to 61 deaths.

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe in the mid-1300s, and killing between 75-million and 200-million people. It was thought to have started in China or central Asia. It then travelled along the Silk Road and was probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships.

Spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30 to 60 percent of Europe’s population. All in all, the plague reduced the world population from an estimated 450-million to a number between 350 and 375-million in the 14th century.

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than World War I, at somewhere between 20 and 40-million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as “Spanish Flu” or “La Grippe” the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster. (stanford-edu)

The influenza pandemic circled the globe. Most of humanity felt the effects of this strain of the influenza virus. Outbreaks swept through North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Brazil and the South Pacific. The average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. (stanford-edu)

The epidemics of infections diminished Hawaiʻi’s population from approximately 300,000 at the time of Captain Cook’s arrival in 1778 to 135,000 in 1820 and 53,900 in 1876.

Death by disease continues. Today, according to the World Health Organization, across the world, every day 8,000-people die of AIDS-related conditions; about 1.7-million people die each year of tuberculosis; more than 500-million people suffer from acute malaria and each day close to 3,000-children die of this disease. (Kohn)

Every year, the human death toll from infectious diseases around the world far exceeds that from hurricanes, cyclones, floods, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanoes, droughts and other natural disasters. (Kohn)

Influenza, cholera, tuberculosis, dengue, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other epidemic diseases have not gone away. The possible spread of disease epidemics has grown because of the ever-increasing human population, rapid international transportation and travel, disease resistance to medicines, insect resistance to pesticides and, occasionally, complacency. (Kohn)

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