Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Luahinewai

“Kekaha wai ‘ole na Kona” (“waterless Kekaha of the Kona district”) speaks of Kekaha, the portion of North Kona extending north of Kailua Bay from Honokōhau to ʻAnaehoʻomalu.  It is described as “a dry, sun-baked land.”

Here is Kīholo, situated within the ahupuaʻa of Puʻuwaʻawaʻa.  Kīholo (lit. the Fishhook) refers to the legend which describes how in 1859 the goddess Pele, hungry for the ‘awa and mullet, or ʻanae, which grew there in the great fishpond constructed by Kamehameha I, sent down a destructive lava flow, grasping at the fish she desired.  (DLNR)

This place name may have been selected as a word descriptive of the coastline along that part of the island where the east-west coast meets the north-south coast and forms a bend similar to the angle between the point and the shank of a large fishhook. There is no confirmation for this theory, except for our knowledge that Hawaiian place names have a strong tendency to be descriptive.  (Kelly)

While only a handful of houses are here today, in ancient times, there was a fishing village with many more that called Kīholo home.

Here, too, is Luahinewai, an anchialine pond/pool – (these are shoreline pools without surface connection to the sea, having waters of varying salinity and showing tidal rhythms (Brock.))  Luahinewai (old lady’s water) is said to refer to a water-formed supernatural moʻo (lizard) that lived there.

Of Luahinewai, JWHI Kihe writes (in Ka Hoku o Hawaiʻi; Maly:) “There is a large pond near Kīholo and Laemanō; it is a famous bathing place of the chiefs of ancient times. The water there is cold, and causes the skin to tingle. Because it is so cold, it is like ice water.”

“It is said that there is an opening in this pond by which an old woman (luahine) enters. And there below the pond, are said to be laid out the bones of the chiefs of ancient times.”

“This pond is about five fathoms deep at its deepest point near the center of the pond. That too, is where the water is coldest. And if you should dive in and pass this area, you will find the cold water and not be able to stay there long. You will quickly retreat and wrap yourself up with a cloth.”

“The one who dives into it at its deepest point, will also see that his/her skin will turn red like the red coral. There are also pebbles at the bottoms of this pond, and it is a good thing, as you will not strike your foot upon any rocks.”

“The chiefs and fearless warriors of ancient times have passed from this side of the dark waters of death, and the bathing pool of Luahine Wai remains with its beauty, playing in the ocean mist and the gentle blowing of the breezes. This generation too, shall pass, and the next generation that follows, but Luahinewai shall remain as was found in the beginning.”

Luahinewai was a famous rest stop during canoe voyages along the coast.  (Ulukau) “… the ship sailed, pausing at Luahinewai to bathe and visit with that strange water in the lava.  After an enjoyable stop at the water with the pretty pebbles, they again sailed.”  (ʻĪʻi)

In 1790, Kamehameha I and his chiefs were living at Kawaihae. Following advice of a priest from Kaua‘i, Kamehameha undertook the reconstruction of the heiau Pu‘u Koholā, to dedicate it as a house for his god Kūkaʻilimoku.  During this time, “thousands of people were encamped on the neighboring hillsides.”

According to Kamakau, Kamehameha “… summoned his counselors and younger brothers, chiefs of the family and chiefs of the guard, all the chiefs, lesser chiefs, and commoners of the whole district. Not one was allowed to be absent except for the women, because it was tabu to offer a woman upon the altar; a man alone could furnish such a sacrifice.”

“The building of the heiau of Pu‘u Koholā was, as in ancient times, directed by an expert—not in oratory, genealogy, or the prophetic art, but by a member of the class called hulihonua who knew the configuration of the earth (called kuhikuhi pu‘uone.)”

“Their knowledge was like that of the navigator who knows the latitude and longitude of each land, where the rocks are, the deep places, and the shallow, where it is cold and where warm, and can tell without mistake the degrees, east or west, north or south. Such knowledge, taught on Kauai, one could apply anywhere in the world; so Kapoukahi had instructed Ha‘alo‘u (a chiefess relative of Kamehameha’s) to the letter.”

“As soon as the heiau was completed, just before it was declared free, Kamehameha’s two counselors, Keaweaheulu and Kamanawa (who resided at Kīholo,) were sent to fetch Keōua, ruling chief of the eastern end of the island of Hawaiʻi”

“Keōua was living in Kaʻū mauka in Kahuku with his chiefs and warriors of his guard. Keaweaheulu and his companion landed at Ka‘iliki‘i and began the ascent to Kahehawahawa … Close to the extreme edge of the tabu enclosure of Keōua’s place the two … messengers rolled along in the dirt until they came to the place where Keōua was sitting, when they grasped his feet and wept.”

“We have come to fetch you, the son of our lord’s older brother, and to take you with us to Kona to meet your younger cousin, and you two to be our chiefs and we to be your uncles. So then let war cease between you.”

Keōua agreed to accompany his uncles. Some of the party traveled by foot overland, while Keōua and some of his trusted counselors and guards traveled with the messengers by canoe.

“They left Kailua and went as far as Luahinewai at Kekaha, where they landed the canoes. Keōua went to bathe, and after bathing he cut off the end of his penis (ʻomuʻo), an act which believers in sorcery call “the death of Uli,” and which was a certain sign that he knew he was about to die.

(“The death of Uli” refers to death caused by the vengeance of the sorcerer, since Uli is the goddess worshipped by Sorcerers. The part cut off is used for the purpose of sorcery so that those who do a man to death may themselves be discovered and punished.)  (DLNR)

They kept on their course until near Mailekini, when Keʻeaumoku and some others carrying spears, muskets, and other weapons broke through the formation of the fleet, surrounding the canoes of Keōua, separating them from those of Keaweaheulu and his followers and calling to Kamanawa to paddle ahead.

Keōua rose and called to Kamehameha, “Here I am!” Kamehameha called back, “Stand up and come forward that we may greet each other.”

Keōua rose again, intending to spring ashore, when Keʻeaumoku thrust a spear at him, which Keōua dodged, snatched, and thrust back at Keʻeaumoku, who snatched it away. Keōua and all those who were with him on the canoe were killed… By the death of Keōua, Kuʻahuʻula and his placing in the heiau of Pu‘u Kohola the whole island of Hawaii became Kamehameha’s.”

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Kekuaokalani and the Kapu

Pāʻao (ca 1300,) from Kahiki (Tahiti,) is reported to have introduced (or significantly expanded,) a religious and political code in old Hawaiʻi, collectively called the kapu system. This forbid many things and demanded many more, with many infractions being punishable by death.

Anything connected with the gods and their worship was considered sacred, such as idols, heiau and priests. Because chiefs were believed to be descendants of the gods, many kapu related to chiefs and their personal possessions.

Certain objects were also kapu, and to be avoided, either because they were sacred or because they were defiling.  Seasons and places could also be declared kapu.

Certain religious kapu were permanent and unchangeable, relating to customary rites, observances, ceremonies, and methods of worship, and to the maintenance of the gods and their priests.

The social order of old Hawaiʻi was defined by these very strict societal rules, do’s and don’ts.

Prior to his death on May 8, 1819, Kamehameha decreed that that his son, Liholiho, would succeed him in power; he also decreed that his nephew, Kekuaokalani, have control of the war god Kūkaʻilimoku.

(Kamehameha had experienced a similar transfer of powers; following Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s death in 1782, the kingship was inherited by his son Kīwalaʻō; Kamehameha (Kīwalaʻō’s cousin) was given guardianship of the Hawaiian god of war, Kūkaʻilimoku.)

Following the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, King Kamehameha II (Liholiho) declared an end to the kapu system.   “An extraordinary event marked the period of Liholiho’s rule, in the breaking down of the ancient tabus, the doing away with the power of the kahunas to declare tabus and to offer sacrifices, and the abolition of the tabu which forbade eating with women (ʻAi Noa, or free eating.)”  (Kamakau)

“The custom of the tabu upon free eating was kept up because in old days it was believed that the ruler who did not proclaim the tabu had not long to rule….The tabu eating was a fixed law for chiefs and commoners, not because they would die by eating tabu things, but in order to keep a distinction between things permissible to all people and those dedicated to the gods”. (Kamakau)

Kekuaokalani, Liholiho’s cousin, opposed the abolition of the kapu system and assumed the responsibility of leading those who opposed its abolition. These included priests, some courtiers, and the traditional territorial chiefs of the middle rank.
 
Kekuaokalani demanded that Liholiho withdraw his edict on abolition of the kapu system.  (If the kapu fell, the war god would lose its potency.)  (Daws)

Kamehameha II refused.  After attempts to settle peacefully, “Friendly means have failed; it is for you to act now,” and Keōpūolani then ordered Kalanimōku to prepare for war on Kekuaokalani. Arms and ammunition were given out that evening to everyone who was trained in warfare, and feather capes and helmets distributed.  (Kamakau)

The two powerful cousins engaged at the final Hawaiian battle of Kuamoʻo.

In December 1819, just seven months after the death of Kamehameha I, the allies of his two opposing heirs met in battle on the jagged lava fields south of Keauhou Bay.  Liholiho had more men, more weapons and more wealth to ensure his victory. He sent his prime minister, Kalanimōku, to defeat his stubborn cousin.

Kekuaokalani marched up the Kona Coast from Kaʻawaloa and met his enemies at Lekeleke, just south of Keauhou.  The first encounter went in favor of Kekuaokalani. At Lekeleke, the king’s army suffered a temporary defeat.

Regrouping his warriors, Kalanimōku fought back and trapped the rebels farther south along the shore in the ahupuaʻa of Kuamoʻo.    (Kona Historical Society)

Kekuaokalani showed conspicuous courage during the entire battle. He kept on advancing and even when shot in the leg he fought on bravely until afternoon, when he was surrounded and shot in the chest and died facing his enemies.  (Kamakau)

His wife Manono fought and died at his side.

Liholiho ordered the bodies of his men to be buried beneath the terraced graves at Lekeleke; Kekuaokalani’s dead warriors were buried there, as well, and Liholiho pardoned all surviving rebels. It was estimated that hundreds of people were killed in this battle, the last fought in Kona.

The burial ground of the fallen warriors of the battle of Kuamoʻo is at Lekeleke at the southern terminus of the present day Aliʻi Drive.

The battle of Kuamoʻo effectively crushed any hope of reviving traditional Hawaiian religion and its accompanying kapu system.  This changed the course of their civilization and ended the kapu system (and the ancient organized religion,) and made way for the transformation to Christianity and westernization.

Liholiho and the others did not know that at the time that the kapu was broken and battle was waged, the first of the Protestant missionaries were on the ocean on their way to the Islands.

 On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US set sail on the Thaddeus; after 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona.

These included two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

Within five years of the missionaries’ arrival, a dozen chiefs had sought Christian baptism and church membership, including the king’s regent Kaʻahumanu.  The Hawaiian people followed their native leaders, accepting the missionaries as their new priestly class.  The process culminated in Hawaiian King Kamehameha III’s adoption of Christianity and a Biblically-based constitution in 1840.  (Schulz)

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863) (the “Missionary Period”,) about 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

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Moʻoheau Bandstand

It had a rough start.

The name “Moʻoheau,” which the legislature directed by concurrent resolution without consulting the people of Hilo or their representative in the Legislature, gave rise to a great deal of dissatisfaction.

Hilo papers put ballots in their papers and readers were encouraged to cut them out, note their preference and take them to the Board of Trade.  (Hawaiian Star, May 7, 1904)

The namesake for the park, Chief Kaʻaiawa I Moʻoheau, is a relative of Admiral George Charles Moʻoheau Kauluheimalama Beckley.  (Hawaiian Star, May 7, 1904; Boy Scouts)

Beckley was grandson of George C Beckley (one of “Kamehameha’s Haoles” and first commander of Fort Kekuanohu.)  Like his grandfather, “for forty years he followed the sea” and later was decorated with the Order of the Crown of Hawaiʻi and the Star of Oceania by King Kalākaua.

Beckley also received the honorary title of “The Admiral of Honolulu Harbor” from the Association of Masters, Mates & Pilots No. 54″, of which he was a member.

Among other park names suggested were “Ocean Park,” “Seaside Park,” “Hilo Park,” “Recreation Park,” “Lihi-kai (seaside) Park,” “Ponahawai Park,” “Piopio Park” and “Liholiho.”  (Hawaiian Star, May 7, 1904)

In defense of the park name, Beckley noted, “I will build in Moʻoheau park at my own expense a pavilion for the band. I claim I have an interest in Hilo second to none.  I leave it to the public.”

Moʻoheau Park and Bandstand were dedicated in January 2, 1905.  “The arrangements for the opening of the Mooheau Park are practically complete. … It is not expected that the park can be laid out by a landscape gardener before the opening exercises.”  (Hawaiian Star, December 12, 1904)

“The trustees of the parks and public grounds of Hilo have intimated a desire to have each citizen plant a tree or shrub in the park grounds at noon, and this, too, may be a part of the program. Visitors will be requested to bring their own garden tools and trees.”  (Hawaiian Star, December 12, 1904)

“The dedication of Moʻoheau hall presented to Hilo by Admiral George Beckley, was an imposing and very enjoyable affair. The pavilion was luxuriously decorated with the American and Hawaiian flags and streamers of all national colors. Forests of fern and palm adorned the Interior.”  (Evening Bulletin, January 3, 1905)

A frequent user of the bandstand was the Hilo Band (later known as Hawaiʻi County Band;) Moʻoheau Park Bandstand has been the band’s performing home ever since its completion.  (Wong)

The band started as a family band in 1883 by brothers, Joaquin and Jules Carvalho, immigrants from the Azores Islands, who made their living as barbers in Hilo. On concert days, they closed up the shop; Joaquin would take the baton to lead the band while Jules played the cornet. After the concert, they would re-open the barbershop and go back to cutting hair.  (Wong)

In 1911, “(t)he bandstand at Moʻoheau Park has been converted into a schoolroom by the county fathers, on account of the fact that the accommodations at the Riverside School are inadequate and the County has no funds at present with which to build an addition.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 27, 1911)

“This class formerly occupied the basement of the Riverside building and it was so damp in the present weather that it was thought best to make the change.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 27, 1911)

A little later, the Waiolama Reclamation Project included the draining and filling of approximately 40-acres in the area between the Hilo Railway tract, Wailoa River, and Baker and Front Streets.  It included diversion of the Alenaio Stream.  (1914-1919)

Moʻoheau Bandstand also has an ongoing modern history.

When the Republican Party was in control of Hawai‘i from 1900 to 1954, the GOP fielded candidates of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese and Chinese Hawaiian ancestries, particularly in racially-mixed neighborhoods.  (Chou)

The goal of ethnic balance in political slates received major impetus in the Democratic Party, especially in the case of American Japanese veterans of World War II who joined under John A Burns’ leadership.  (Chou)

According to Democratic Party lore, in 1954, Hawaii Republicans attempted to foil the growing Democratic Party by reserving all the large public spaces for election-eve rallies.  (star-bulletin)

Reportedly, every election since 1954, Hawaiʻi’s Democrats come to Hilo and the bandstand at Moʻoheau Park for the rally to end their primary campaign.  (1954 was the year they took over the Territorial Legislature from the Republicans.)

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Katsu Kobayakawa Goto

“Early on the morning of the 29th the body of K. Goto, a Japanese storekeeper, was found hanging to a telephone post not far from the Honokaa court house between that and the Lyceum, with his arms tied behind him and his legs also tied.  He had been dead several hours.”  (Daily Bulletin, October 30, 1889)

Katsu Kobayakawa was the eldest son of Izaemon Kobayakawa.  Katsu (Jun) was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture in 1862.  He worked as a store clerk in Yokohama, where he became fluent in English by associating with Englishmen and Americans.  (Nakano)

He was anxious to go to Hawaiʻi; but being the first born son, he was expected to take over the family business.  Katsu changed his surname to Goto so he could travel Hawaiʻi to make a better living for himself.

In the Islands, Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.  By 1883, more than 50-plantations were producing sugar on five islands.

A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge; the answer was imported labor.  The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)

In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawaiʻi’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi; this improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

The first 944-government-sponsored, Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants to Hawaiʻi arrived in Honolulu aboard the SS City of Tokio on February 8, 1885.  Katsu was on that first boatload of Japanese immigrants, included with 676-men, 158-women and 110-children on the first of 26 shiploads of government contract Japanese immigrants between 1885 and 1894.

Katsu fulfilled his 3-year contract commitment, working in the Hāmākua sugarcane fields.  After that, he took over a small, general merchandise store previously run by Bunichiro Onome in Honokaʻa, then the Island’s second largest town.  (Niiya)

He was very successful selling to the Japanese, native Hawaiian and haole population and was soon viewed as leader in the Japanese immigrant community. (Kubota)

On October 28, 1889 Goto was killed.

Four were accused and stood trial: Joseph R Mills, Thomas Steele, William C Blabon and William D Watson.

Steele was Overend’s overseer.  Blabon was teamster for Mills.  Watson was head teamster for Overend and a former employee of Mills.

Deputy Attorney-General Arthur Porter Peterson notes, “The prosecution would show that Goto was not killed while hanging to the telephone pole, but when he was waylaid and dragged from his horse, and was only hung to the post as an act of bravado, within sight and almost within sound of the temple of justice.”  (Daily Bulletin, May 13, 1890)

Some suggest the motive for killing Goto was a fire at the Robert McLain Overend plantation.  Testimony at trial noted, “Mills had told me that Goto had been up to Overend’s camp. Mr. Overend’s cane field was set fire October 19th, a little after 9 o’clock.”

“We had Goto for an interpreter, and he did not act on the square, and a new interpreter was got and he gave matters away. I only heard Mr. Overend say that he would break his damned neck.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, May 20, 1890)

Others note Goto was successful in his store and other store operators were concerned about losing business because of him.  Joseph R Mills operated a store a few yards from Goto’s (Goto was the only Japanese storekeeper in the area.)

The testimony of star witnesses Richmond and Lala, who had both taken part in the incident, yielded the following description of how Goto ultimately died.

“The two of them were summoned separately on the night that Goto was killed. Richmond was summoned by Steele and sent to watch for a Jap who would be leaving the (Japanese) living quarters on horseback”.

“When they got to where Mills and the others were waiting, Mills told him to grab the bridle of the horse that (Goto) would be riding toward them. After Richmond reported that (Goto) was on his way they lay in ambush.”

“Steele and Blabon dragged the man off the horse. … Steele, Blabon, Mills, and Watson carried him to a location away from the road where he was placed face down and his hands and feet bound. … Mills sent Richmond to pick up a rope at the foot of the telephone pole, a rope that, he found, already had a hangman’s knot at one end.”

“When he returned with the rope someone in the group said, ‘My God! He is dead.’ Richmond then bent over and put his hand over the man’s heart but could feel no heartbeat. …”

“The body was then carried over to the telephone pole. Watson threw the rope over the crossbar, Mills put the noose around Goto’s neck, and the body was hauled up and suspended.”  (Kubota)

After deliberating for more than six hours, the jury returned verdicts of manslaughter in the second degree for Steele and Mills, and manslaughter in the third degree for Blabon and Watson.  Judge Albert Francis Judd subsequently sentenced Mills and Steele to nine years imprisonment at hard labor, Blabon to five and Watson to four.

All four were transferred under guard from Hilo jail to Oʻahu Prison immediately after the trial. Steele later escaped and presumably stowed away on a ship bound for Australia; Blabon also escaped and probably stowed away, too.  Mills received a full pardon in 1894.  Watson was the only one to serve out his full sentence.

At the same time of the Goto killing, the Annual Meeting of the Planters’ Labor and Supply Company was being held.  They adopted a resolution against racial prejudice, resolving that they “strongly disapprove of every act and publication intended or calculated to excite any distrust or prejudice in the minds of the native Hawaiians against those of foreign birth or parentage, or to excite feelings of contempt or distrust toward the natives”.  (Daily Bulletin, October 29, 1889)

(Peterson was Attorney-General at the time of the overthrow in 1893. He was arrested and jailed by the Republic of Hawaiʻi in the aftermath of the 1895 Counter-Revolution and then exiled to San Francisco where he died of pneumonia.)

(Peterson had conferred upon him the decoration of the Imperial Order of the Sacred Treasure of Japan for services rendered to the Japanese Government.  (San Francisco Call, March 17, 1895))  (Lots of information here from Kubota.)

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The Last Battle

Kamehameha I began a war of conquest, winning his first major skirmish in the battle of Mokuʻōhai (a fight between Kamehameha and Kiwalaʻo in July, 1782 at Keʻei, south of Kealakekua Bay on the Island of Hawaiʻi.)  Kiwalaʻo was killed.

By 1795, having fought his last major battle at Nuʻuanu on O‘ahu with his superior use of modern weapons and western advisors, he subdued all other chiefdoms (with the exception of Kauai).

Then, Kamehameha launched his first invasion attempt on Kauai in April of 1796. About one-fourth of the way across the ocean channel between O‘ahu and Kauai a storm thwarted Kamehameha’s warriors when many of their canoes were swamped in the rough seas and stormy winds, and then were forced to turn back.

With Hawaiʻi Island under Kamehameha’s control, conflict, there, supposedly ended with the death of Keōua at Kawaihae Harbor in early-1792 and the placement of the vanquished chief’s body in the Heiau ‘o Puʻukoholā at Kawaihae.

However, after a short time, another chief entered into a power dispute with Kamehameha; his name was Nāmakehā (the brother of Kaʻiana, a chief of Kauai who had been killed in the Battle of Nuʻuanu.)

Previously, Kamehameha asked Nāmakehā (who lived in Kaʻū, Hawai‘i) for help in fighting Kalanikūpule and his Maui forces on O‘ahu, but Nāmakehā ignored the request.

Instead, Nāmakehā prepared a rebellion against Kamehameha to take place on Hawai‘i Island.

Hostilities erupted between the two that lasted from September 1796 to January 1797.

Kamehameha, on Oʻahu at the time, returned to his home island of Hawaiʻi with the bulk of his army to suppress the rebellion.  The battle took place at Kaipalaoa, Hilo.

Kamehameha defeated Nāmakehā.  The undisputed sovereignty of Kamehameha was thus established over the entire Island chain (except Kauai and Niʻihau.)

This was the final battle fought by Kamehameha to unite the archipelago.  (Kamehameha negotiated a settlement with King Kaumualiʻi for the control of Kauai and Niʻihau, in 1810.)

Although Kamehameha’s warriors had won the battle over Nāmakehā, they then turned their rage upon the villages and families of the vanquished. It so happens that this included the family of ʻŌpūkahaʻia, who had had supported Nāmakehā.  They fled to the mountains and hid for several days in a cave.

The warriors found the family and ultimately killed ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s parents and infant brother.  (ʻŌpūkahaʻia was captured, later trained as a Kahuna under his uncle, traveled to the continent and ultimately turned to Christianity and was the inspiration for the American missionaries to come to Hawaiʻi.)

Interestingly, it was about the same time of the Nāmakehā Rebellion that Kamehameha decreed Ke Kānāwai Māmalahoe (The Law of the Splintered Paddle.)

A story suggests that Kamehameha I was fighting on the Island of Hawaiʻi.  Chasing a couple fishermen (presumably with the intention to kill them), his leg was caught in the reef and, in defense, one of the fisherman hit him on the head with a paddle, which broke into pieces.

Kamehameha was able to escape (because the fisherman fled, rather than finishing him off.)  The story continues that Kamehameha learned from this experience and saw that it was wrong to misuse power by attacking innocent people.

Later, Kamehameha summoned the two fishermen.  When they came, he pardoned them and admitted his mistake by proclaiming a new law, Kānāwai Māmalahoe – Law of the Splintered Paddle.

The original 1797 law:

Kānāwai Māmalahoe (in Hawaiian:):

E nā kānaka,
E mālama ʻoukou i ke akua
A e mālama hoʻi ke kanaka nui a me kanaka iki;
E hele ka ‘elemakule, ka luahine, a me ke kama
A moe i ke ala
‘A‘ohe mea nāna e ho‘opilikia.
Hewa nō, make.

Law of the Splintered Paddle (English translation:)

Oh people,
Honor thy gods;
Respect alike [the rights of]
People both great and humble;
See to it that our aged,
Our women and our children
Lie down to sleep by the roadside
Without fear of harm.
Disobey, and die.

Kamehameha’s Law of the Splintered Paddle of 1797 is enshrined in the State constitution, Article 9, Section 10:  “Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety”.  It has become a model for modern human rights law regarding the treatment of civilians and other non-combatants.

Kānāwai Māmalahoe appears as a symbol of crossed paddles in the center of the badge of the Honolulu Police Department.  A plaque, facing mauka on the Kamehameha Statue outside Ali‘iōlani Hale in Honolulu, notes the Law of the Splintered Paddle.

The image shows Kamehameha, as depicted by Herb Kane.

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