Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Corporation

The first corporation granted a charter by the Hawaiian government were Punahou School, on June 6, 1849. (Schmitt)

In anticipation of the future growth of the Kingdom, in 1853 a new and enlarged charter was applied for and granted by the government to the Trustees of ‘the Punahou School and Oahu College.’ This granted the formation of Oahu College, which would offer two years of advanced coursework and delay students’ departures for U.S. colleges.  (Punahou)

 At the Privy Council meeting on May 23, 1853, Mr. Armstrong read the Charter of the Punahou School. After which state, in part:

“Resolved; That a Charter of incorporation for a school and Prospective College at Punahou, near Honolulu having been submitted to this council by the Minister of the Interior for the concurrence of the council in granting the same, said Minister is hereby authorized & empowered to grant said Charter to the persons therein named.”

In the 1856 Annual Report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions noted that, “The aim which the Board and its fellow-laborers at the Sandwich Islands have in view …”

“… is to assimilate the religious and educational institutions of the Hawaiian Christian community, in their constitution and methods of support, as nearly as possible to what exists in the newly occupied districts of our own country.”

“Of course, but a portion of the new Christian institutions will, for a time, find their full support at the Islands. It is desirable, were it possible, that a greater proportion of the island resources be devoted to the support of pastors, preachers and teachers of native growth …”

“… thus rooting the institutions of the gospel more speedily and firmly in the soil. We should be thankful, however, for the unexampled progress already made at these Islands.”  It goes on to state,

“The ‘Oahu College’ was mentioned in the last Report. It has grown out of the Punahou school, commenced in 1841 for the children of the missionaries. Five years ago that school was opened to others besides the children of missionaries.”

“In May, 1853, the Hawaiian Government converted it into a College, by incorporating a Board of Trustees for ‘the Training of Youth in the various branches of a Christian education.’”

The charter further states, that, “as it is reasonable that the Christian education should be in conformity to the general views of the founders and patrons of the institution …”

“… no course of instruction shall be deemed lawful in said institution, which is not accordant with the principles of Protestant Evangelical Christianity, as held by that body of Protestant Christians in the United States of America, which originated the Christian mission to the Islands, and to whose labors and benevolent contributions the people of these Islands are so greatly indebted.”

There is also an additional security for the institution in the following article, namely: “Whenever a vacancy shall occur in said corporation, it shall be the duty of the Trustees to fill the same with all reasonable and convenient dispatch.”

“And every new election shall be immediately made known to the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and be subject to their approval or rejection; and this power of revision shall be continued to the American Board for twenty years from the date of this charter.”

“The Prudential Committee regard this institution as essential to the development and continued existence of the Hawaiian nation. ‘It is so because the missionary portion is really the palladium of the nation, and because a college is essential to that part of the community.’”

“The religious foreign community cannot otherwise long continue to perform its functions. It must have the means of liberally educating its children on the ground.”

“Without a college, its moral, social and civil influence will tend constantly to decay. This most precious Christian influence, now rooted on the Islands, now no longer exotic, needs only the proper culture to perpetuate itself.”

“The cheapest thing we can do for the Islands and for that part of the world, is to furnish this culture. It is better to educate our ministry there, than to send it thither from these remote shores. Indeed we are shut up to this, as our main policy.”

“The time is come for the reasonable endowment of this institution, which of course must be effected, if at all, chiefly in this country; and $50,000 are asked for this purpose by the Trustees.”

“It is interesting to know that the Hawaiian Government has engaged to give $10,000, or one-fifth of the whole, in case $40,000 more are secured by July 6, 1858.”

“The Prudential Committee have voted to subscribe $5,000, on behalf of the Board, towards this endowment; and also to pay the salaries of the President and a Professor for the years 1856 and 1857.”

“Meanwhile they commend the object most cordially to the benevolent in the United States, and especially to those large-hearted merchants whose wealth has been chiefly derived from the Pacific Ocean.” 1856 Annual Report ABCFM)

Dr Rufus Anderson, Foreign Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions traveled from Boston to Hawai‘i to attend the annual meeting of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association (the name attributed to the Hawaiian Mission). The General Meeting was held from June 3, 1863 to July 1, 1863.

Subsequent meeting minutes and other references noted that, “Dr. Anderson having recently returned from a visit to the Sandwich Islands, which he made at the special request of the Prudential Committee … for the purpose of ascertaining, by personal intercourse with the missionaries, the members of their churches, and the people generally to whom they had ministered, more fully than could be done in any other way, …”

“… the real condition of the people, the state of the churches, and the character of their members, and witnessing on the ground the results effected among the people of the Islands by the power and Spirit of  God, through the labors of the missionaries; …”

“… for the further purpose of freely conferring and advising with the missionaries, and with members of the Hawaiian churches, upon the present condition and further prospects of the missionary work there …”

“… and devising such plans of future action, as should bring the native churches, as speedily as possible, in what is believed to be the natural order in such cases, (1) to a condition of self-government, and (2) by means of the greater activity and earnestness which would be developed by this self-government, to a condition of complete self-support …”

“… and, also, for the purpose of determining, by such free conference with the missionaries, what may best be their future relations to the Board and its work”.  (Action of the Prudential Committee; Proceedings of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association)

“The state of things at the Islands is peculiar. They have been Christianized.  The missionaries have become citizens. In a technical sense they no longer are missionaries, but pastors, and as such on an official parity with the native pastors.”  (Anderson)

“Nearly one third of the population are members of Protestant churches; the native education is provided for by the government; houses for the worship of God have been everywhere erected, and are preserved by the people; regular Christian congregations assemble on the Sabbath …”

“… and there is all the requisite machinery for the healthful development of the inner life of the nation, and for securing it a place, however humble, among the religious benefactors of the world.”

“In short, we see a Protestant Christian nation in the year 1863 … self-governing in all its departments, and nearly self-supporting.  And the Hawaiian nation is on the whole well governed. The laws are good, and appear to be rigidly enforced. The king at the time of this meeting was in declining health, and did not long after.”

“Better educated by far than any of his predecessors, more intelligent, more capable of ruling well, he was subject to strong feeling, and was said to be less an object of veneration and love to his people than was his immediate predecessor.” (Anderson)

The Prudential Committee of the ABCFM “Resolved, That … the Protestant Christian community of the Islands has attained to the position of complete self-support, as to its religious institutions, there is yet ample occasion for gratitude to God for his signal blessing upon this mission”.

It further “Resolved, That the proposition made by the Protestant Christian community at the Sandwich Islands, who have organized a working Board, called ‘The Board of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association,’ to relieve the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the American churches, from the responsibility of future oversight and direction in the work …”

“…And this Committee joyfully commits to the Board of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association the future care and direction of this evangelizing work in those Islands; and hereby concedes to that Board the right of applying for grants-in-aid, as specified in said proposition.”  (Action of the ABCFM Prudential Committee)

Anderson wrote to inform Kamehameha IV of the Hawaiian Evangelical actions and dissolution of the mission in his July 6, 1863 letter noting, in part: “I may perhaps be permitted, in view of my peculiar relations to a very large body of the best friends and benefactors of this nation, not to leave without my most respectful aloha to both your Majesties.”

Click the following link for more information on Punahou/Oahu College:

Click to access Oahu_College-Punahou.pdf

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hula

“Hula is not just a dance, but a way of life, an ancient art that tells of Hawaiʻi’s rich history and spirituality.” (this is attributed to many)

Hula combines dance and chant or song to tell stories, recount past events and provide entertainment for its audience.  With a clear link between dancer’s actions and the chant or song, the dancer uses rhythmic lower body movements, mimetic or depictive hand gestures and facial expression, as part of this performance. (ksbe-edu)

As hula is the dance that accompanies Hawaiian mele, the function of hula is therefore an extension of the function of mele in Hawaiian society. While it was the mele that was the essential part of the story, hula served to animate the words, giving physical life to the moʻolelo (stories.)  (Bishop Museum)

Today, we typically divide hula into two different forms, the hula kahiko (ancient dance) and the hula ʻauana, (also spelled ʻauwana – modern dance.)

Although the terms hula kahiko (ancient) and hula ʻauana (modern) are used to divide styles of traditional dance, these terms are a relatively recent classification of a practice with a very long history.  The dance has also undergone evolutions throughout its history, often being influenced by the political leaders and situations of the time.  (Bishop Museum)

“In the hula, the dancers are often fantastically decorated with figured or colored kapa, green leaves, fresh flowers, braided hair, and sometimes with a gaiter on the ancle, set with hundreds of dog’s teeth, so as to be considerably heavy, and to rattle against each other in the motion of the feet.”  (Hiram Bingham)

“They had been interwoven too with their superstitions, and made subservient to the honor of their gods, and their rulers, either living or departed and deified.” (Hiram Bingham)

A common misrepresentation of history suggests that the American missionaries banned hula – they could not have, they did not have the authority.

However, it is true that they openly disapproved of hula (as well as other forms of dance and activities) as immoral and idle pastime.

As Bingham notes, they “were wasting their time in learning, practising, or witnessing the hula, or heathen song and dance.”

“Missionary influence, while strong, never wiped out the hula as a functional part of the Hawaiian society. Faced with this undeniable fact, the authorities sought to curb performances by regulation.”  (Barrere, Pukui & Kelly)

Despite efforts to eliminate hula, many of the ancient chants and dances were kept alive within families and passed to descendants.  (Bishop Museum)

In 1830, Kaʻahumanu issued an oral proclamation in which she instructed the people, in part: “The hula is forbidden, the chant (olioli), the song of pleasure (mele), foul speech, and bathing by women in public places.” (Kamakau)

Although it was apparently never formally rescinded, the law was so widely ignored, especially after Kaʻahumanu died in 1832, that it virtually ceased to exist.

In 1836, it is reported the French consul for Manila visited Honolulu, and attended a state banquet hosted by the King. Part of the festivities was a formal hula performance.

In 1850, the Penal Code required a license for “any theater, circus, Hawaiian hula, public show or other exhibition, not of an immoral character” for which admission was charged.

“No license for a Hawaiian hula shall be granted for any other place than Honolulu.”  (The law did not regulate hula in private, so the dance continued to be practiced and enjoyed throughout the islands.)

King David Kalākaua’s 1883 coronation included three days of hula performances and his 1886 jubilee celebrations had performances of ancient and newly created dances.

Reviewing older drawings of hula, it is clear that the attire of the dancers is different than what we generally associate with hula attire today (and throughout the last century.)

Men and women were topless in the original hula attire. Women wore a pāʻū, which is a wrap made of tapa cloth. Men wore malos, or loincloths, and other kapa wraps.

Hula attire was expanded with lei and decorations for dancers’ wrists and ankles. Originally, some of these decorations were made of whale bone or dogs’ teeth.

So, when and where did the grassy/leafy skirt that we know today come from?

Reportedly, the grass skirt was introduced to Hawaiʻi by immigrants from the Gilbert Islands (small atolls that are today part of the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati) in the 1870s and 1880s.

“Hawaiian hula during and after that period (Kalākaua era) influenced and was influenced by the dance styles of other Islanders, such as the incorporation of Kiribati-style grass skirts.”  (Kealani Cook, PhD dissertation)

By the early 1900s, hula performers in Hawaiʻi and the US continent wore grass skirts. Some hula performers still wear grass skirts today.

Today, grass skirts function as the international symbol for hula dancing.  The grass skirts sway with the dancers as they move their hips, creating a fluid movement.  Dancers also wear a variety of other apparel.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

George Lucas

George Lucas (May 7, 1821 – March 2, 1892) was born in County Clare, Ireland; he first came to Hawaiʻi in 1849.  His father, the first George Lucas, moved his family to Australia by the British government to take charge of the government domain there.

He remained there for several years, and met and married Miss Sarah Williams.  Shortly after his marriage, hearing of the gold excitement in California, he set sail, accompanied by his wife, for San Francisco.

En route, they stopped in the Islands for three weeks for the ship to re-provision, finally reaching California on the last day of December, 1849. He met with little success as a miner, deciding, instead, to remain in San Francisco and establish himself as a carpenter.  He prospered for about six years; however, had a severe loss due to a fire.

He could not forget Hawaiʻi, and in July, 1856, he returned there to make the Islands his home. He began his contracting and building business, and founded the Honolulu Steam Planing Mill.

The energy and perseverance of the man brought its reward when he opened the Mill on the Esplanade – a “shapely stuccoed brick structure.” This mill was one of Honolulu’s leading manufacturing establishments, and has always furnished employment to a large number of mechanics and laborers.  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 03, 1892)

Although the plant began in a small way, turning out finishings and equipment needed for his contracting jobs, its volume of business grew steadily and became the largest concern of its kind in the islands. (Nellist)

“This mill is well fitted and complete in every respect, having machines of the latest patterns and make, and capabilities for turning out work in great variety. It is fitted with a planer, strikers, blind machines, morticers, running lathes, band and jig saws, tenoning machine, and rip and cross-cut saws of every size, and other machines.”

“The proprietor, Mr. George Lucas, first started business in this city March 7, 1859, but found that the rapidly-increasing demand for woodwork finish, in all its requirements, made it absolutely necessary for him to open the present establishment, which now ranks second to none in any city.”

“First-class workmen are employed in this establishment, and all work is guaranteed. The mill is of brick, 82 x 42 feet, and 14 feet high. The engine is of twenty-horse power. Twenty men are employed in this establishment.”   (Browser; Maly)

Lucas’ Honolulu Planing Mill building served a couple other critical purposes at Honolulu Harbor.  First, the clock tower served as a range marker for ships aligning to enter/leave the harbor.  (“The line of the harbor light (red) and the clock tower of the Honolulu Planing Mill on Fort … just touches the west side of this channel at the outer end.”)  (Hawaii Bureau of Customs)

In addition, the clock served as a local time piece, as well as the official time to mariners.  “Time-Signal at Planing Mill … a time-signal has been established at the Honolulu steam-planing mill, Honolulu, Sandwich islands. The signal is a whistle, which is sounded twice daily by electric signal from the survey office; … (giving time associated with) Greenwich mean time.  (Nautical Magazine, January 1890)

The Lucas clock didn’t always work, “Lucas’ clock … At 7 this morning the clock was of the opinion that 10:45 was about the correct time.”  (Hawaiian Star, October 25, 1895)

“Lucas’ clock on the Esplanade has been groggy for some time lately but repairs are being made.  It’s a godsend to the waterfront people and the government should keep it in repair.”  (Evening Bulletin, July 12, 1897)

Others wanted to be different, “Maui wants to adopt the Government time on Lucas’ clock with five minutes added, but some few will not agree to it. The result is a great uncertainty in times. (Maui, June 28)” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 1, 1890)

Lucas was one of the first contractors and builders in Honolulu, and constructed many of the business buildings in the city.

He built the Campbell Block, the Pantheon Block, the Brewer Block and many other large downtown buildings, and was responsible for all woodwork construction in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (the one downtown, it was later the Army/Navy YMCA and now the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum.)

Most notably, when King Kalākaua decided to build ʻIolani Palace, he named George Lucas as general superintendent and the contractor for all of the cabinetry, woodwork and finishing in the Palace.  (Nellist)

George Lucas supervised the carpentry, using fine imported (e.g., American walnut and white cedar) and Hawaiian (koa, kou, kamani and ʻōhiʻa) woods.

The sophisticated mansard roofs and the detailed brickwork, moldings and wrought iron were completed in time for Kalākaua’s coronation ceremony on February 12, 1883, for which the palace served as centerpiece.  (Kamehiro)

For many years Mr. Lucas was Chief Engineer of the Honolulu Volunteer Fire Department, and during the reign of King Kalākaua he was offered the position of superintendent of public works, but declined it. (Nellist)  After retiring, he was acting Chief for six months, as the Department was unwilling to nominate anyone else, and only did so because he refused to serve.

“It was through his persistent efforts that the first two steam fire engines were imported to these islands, and when he retired from the office of Chief he still retained a deep interest in the department, and was made an honorary member of No. 1 Engine.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 3, 1892)

Lucas was the founder and first president of the old Mechanics’ Library (Honolulu Library and Reading Room,) now the Hawaiʻi State Library.

George and Sarah had nine children; the seven who lived were Thomas, Charles, John, George, Albert, William and Eliza. (Nellist)

Following his death in 1892, sons Thomas, Charles and John formed a partnership, Lucas Brothers, to carry on the trade and business of carpenters, builders and contractors; it lasted until April 19, 1910, when son John incorporated the concern.

“No citizen was better known than he. He could count his friends by the score, and when he made a friend it was a friendship that would last forever.”

“There are few individuals in Honolulu who have done more in the way of charity and benevolence in proportion to their means than Mr. Lucas.”    (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 3, 1892)

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Halekoa

Halekoa was a part of the ambitious building program undertaken by the Hawaiian monarchy in the 1860s and ‘70s. The buildings which remain today, besides Halekoa, are Aliiolani Hale (the judiciary building), the Royal Mausoleum, the old post office at the corner of Merchant and Bethel Streets, and Iolani Palace.

The site occupied by the barracks is doubly interesting, for it first accommodated the Chiefs’ Children’s School, which was begun in 1839 by Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Cooke, and which was moved in 1851 to the lower slopes of Punchbowl.

Theodore C. Heuck, a Honolulu merchant and gifted amateur architect from Germany, submitted his original plans on March 14, 1866, to John O. Dominis, then Governor of Oahu. The sketches provided for a structure with a frontage of 70 feet and a depth of 80 feet, built around a 30×40-foot open central court.

This was early in the reign of Kamehameha V. Years passed. Finally, early in 1870, the project began to move, although slowly. The post office was being built at the same time, and a shortage of proper workmen delayed both jobs.

Halekoa did not appear in the appropriations bills passed by the various legislatures. It was financed by the War Department as a part of military expenses, an cash as needed was deposited with the banking firm of Bishop and Company.

Foundations were being laid in May, 1870. J. G. Osborne was the builder. Participating suppliers included, among others, such well-known Honolulu houses as E. O. Hall and Son, Dowsett and Co., AS Cleghorn, Lewers and Dickson (predecessors of Lewers and Cooke, the Honolulu Iron Works, JT Waterhouse, H. Hackfeld and Co. (American Factors, AmFac) and Oahu Prison.

Halekoa was made of the ever-useful coral blocks hewn from the Honolulu reef. As often happened, many blocks were cannibalized from other structures, rather than chopped from the reef.

Most of the second-hand building blocks came from the wall fronting the old post office, and from the old printing office. But the reef had to yield up its treasures, too, and Marshal WC Parke received credit for 204 man-days of prison labor, at fifty cents a day, for the hauling of blocks therefrom.

By mid-February, 1871, both the barracks and the post office were nearing completion. Finishing touches on the former, however, required several more months.

An exotic example of this, among the accounts to be found today in the Archives of Hawaii, is a bill dated May 20, levying a charge of $12.50 for painting spittoons.

Even before it was completed, Halekoa was rushed into service. At the end of February a considerable number of soldiers were sick, and the new barracks was requisitioned as an infirmary.

Originally it was some 48 feet long. The size of the inner court was increased to approximately 34×54 feet, also. The side galleries were built longer than Heuck at first specified, because of the lengthening of the court, and about two feet narrower, because of the widening of the court, making them 18 feet rather than 20 feet in width.

Iolani Barracks displays a service record almost as complicated as its building alterations. The barracks was made originally to house the regular standing army of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the small force known in the early 1870s and before as the Household Troops.

Their function was to guard the palace, the prison, and the treasury, and to appear at various parades and ceremonies.

In September, 1873, the Household Troops mutinied. They barricaded themselves in Halekoa. After the mutiny the troops were disbanded, then later reorganized, and under one title or another they continued to occupy Halekoa throughout the remaining period of the monarchy.

Liliuokalani’s Household Guards, Captain Samuel Nowlein commanding, surrendered to the revolutionary Provisional Government about five o’clock on the afternoon of January 18, 1893.

The Guards were paid off and disbanded; the Provisional Government took over munitions stored in the barracks and at once occupied the building with a strong force. This government and the succeeding Republic of Hawaii used Halekoa to house their military.

After Hawaii was annexed to the US, President McKinley issued an executive order (December 19, 1899) transferring the barracks and the barracks lot to the control of the US War Department.

Thereupon, Halekoa was occupied by the Quartermaster Corps of the US Army and used for office and warehouse space. Quartermaster use continued until late in 1917, when the Corps moved out.

At that time the War Department planned to preserve Halekoa as a historic structure. For the first time in its long and colorful history, the old barracks ceased to be a station for soldiers.

In the summer of 1920 an elaborate remodeling job was in progress and it then served as a service club, with a dormitory added on the Waikiki side for visiting service personnel. The service club phase lasted about a decade.

November, 1929, found Governor Lawrence Judd trying to get President Hoover to issue an executive order returning the barracks to the Territory. The Hawaii National Guard wanted Halekoa for its headquarters.

Judd was successful, and the transfer took place officially on March 16, 1931. But the Hawaii National Guard did not benefit from it. Instead the barracks became the offices of the supervising school principals for Honolulu and Rural Oahu.

World War II came, and the Guard continued to use the aging barracks. Midway in that war (October, 1943) an imaginative postwar plan for Halekoa was announced. It was to become a military museum. Interested civic groups and individuals pledged to participate in planning and financing the project.

But the plans never materialized. The pressure for office space doomed Halekoa to a series of repairs, renovations, and remodelings as various government agencies succeeded one another in their occupancy of the barracks.

In November, 1960, Halekoa was embarrassed to find itself encumbering the site of a proposed multi-million-dollar state capitol. Although regarded in some quarters as an antiquarian nuisance, the barracks managed to cling to existence as officials delayed their decision regarding its disposition.

The above is taken from Richard Greer’s article on Halekoa in the October 1962 Hawaii Historical Review. It was written before Halekoa was relocated to make way for the State Capitol.

Click the link for Greer full article in the Hawaii Historical Review:
https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Halekoa-HHR-Revival-Greer.pdf

Here is the rest of the story …

Following Statehood, there were plans for the State’s new capitol building being considered. Architect John Carl Warnecke, son of a German-born father, was influential in the design and construction of the new capitol. (Warnecke also designed John F Kennedy’s grave site at Arlington National Cemetery, and lots of other things.)

Halekoa was in the way; the Barracks was condemned and, in 1962, abandoned. In 1964-65, to make room for the new capitol building, the coral shell of the old building was removed to a corner of the ʻIolani Palace grounds for eventual reconstruction.

This was accomplished by breaking out large sections of the walls. Then stone masons chipped out the original coral blocks and re-set them. Many were so badly deteriorated that they were unstable.

However, the stone in the ʻEwa wing (an addition to the original Barracks) was salvageable (they left that part out of the reconstruction, but used the material from it.) Today’s reconstruction bears only a general resemblance to the original structure. (NPS)

Several other older buildings in the area, including the large vaulted-roofed Armory and the remnant of the older Central Union Church on Beretania Street, facing the Queen’s former residence at Washington Place, were also demolished to make way for the capitol building.

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Kalola

Kalola, the highest tabu chiefess of the Maui court, was a daughter of Queen Kekuʻiapoiwa I (a daughter of Keawe of Hawaiʻi) and King Kekaulike of Maui.

She was thus a granddaughter of Kalanikauleleiaiwi, Queen of Hawaiʻi and sister of the King Kahekili II. She was an aunt of the King Kalanikūpule.

When Kekaulike died, Kalola’s brothers Kamehamehanui (an uncle of Kamehameha I) and Kauhi fought each other for rule of Maui in 1738. Battles were fought across West Maui; the war ended with the battle Koko O Nā Moku (“Bloodshed of the Islands;” Kamehamehanui won.

Kalola lived with two brothers, Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Keōua, both Hawai’i island niʻaupiʻo (very high rank) chiefs. From Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the older brother, she had a son, Kalanikauikeaouli Kiwalaʻo (Kiwalaʻo.) From Keōua, the younger brother, she had a daughter, Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha.

The children, Kiwalaʻo and Kekuʻiapoiwa, had the same mother, different fathers, offspring of a naha union (brother-sister mating of niʻaupiʻo chiefs.) These two lived together, and Keōpūolani was born to them, also the offspring of a naha union. (Mookini)

Keōpūolani (granddaughter of Kalola,) who was raised in Wailuku, Olowalu and Hāmākua on Maui, was later queen of Kamehameha I (we’ll get more into that a little bit later.)

At the time of Captain 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, Lānai and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

In 1782, following the death of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Kiwalaʻo was briefly ruler of the island of Hawaiʻi. That year, his cousin, Kamehameha I, challenged his authority at the battle of Mokuʻōhai. Kīwalaʻō was killed in combat by Keʻeaumoku, one of Kamehameha’s officers. The victory at the battle of Mokuʻōhai was the start of Kamehameha’s rise to power

After the deaths of Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kiwalaʻo, Kalola left for Maui, taking with her Keōpūolani. Kahekili, brother of Kalola, provided for the family and gave them his protection. After the conquest of Oahu by Kahekili he removed his court to that island, taking with him his sister and her family.

In 1785, they returned to Maui with Kalanikūpule, the son of Kahekili, who had been appointed chief of the island, and there remained, principally at Olowalu, until 1790. (Kalākaua)

At about that time, Simon Metcalf (captaining the Eleanora) and his son Thomas Metcalf (captaining the Fair American) were traders; their plan was to meet and spend winter in the Hawaiian Islands.

The Eleanora arrived in the islands first at Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi. After a confrontation with a local chief, Simon Metcalf then sailed to the neighboring island of Maui to trade along the coast.

Kalola ruled the puʻuhonua of Olowalu and presided over Kaʻiwaloa Heiau. Kahekili, ruler of Maui, lived at Halekiʻi Heiau in Wailuku. This indicates the important spiritual, political and economic connection between ʻIao and Olowalu. Kalola was still ruling at Olowalu in 1790 when Simon Metcalf fired cannons on Honua’ula and Olowalu during the Olowalu Massacre.

Several months after the massacre at Olowalu, Kalola watched the great Battle of Kepaniwai from a panoramic flat area in the back of ʻIao Valley. Kamehameha stormed Maui with over twenty thousand men, and after several battles Maui troops retreated to ʻIao Valley.

Maui Island was conquered and its fighting force was destroyed – Kalanikūpule (Kahekili’s eldest son and heir-apparent) and some others (including Kalola and her family) escaped over the mountain at the back of the valley and made their way to Molokai and Oʻahu.

“The fugitives fled across the sharp ridges of the mountains, the mother carrying the child on her back and the kahu carrying mother and child, until they were able to escape to Molokai.” (Kamakau)

On the island of Molokai at Kalamaʻula, Kalola became ill and they could not carry out their original intention of going to Oʻahu to join Kahekili. Kamehameha followed Kalola to Molokai and asked Kalola for Keōpūolani (Kalola’s granddaughter) to be his queen.

Kalola, who was dying, agreed to give Kamehameha Keōpūolani and her mother Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha, if he would allow the girls to stay at her death bed until she passed. Kamehameha camped on Molokai until Kalola died, and returned to Kona with his high queen Keōpūolani.

At Kalola’s death, “They wailed and chanted dirges, and some were put to sleep with the dead, and the chiefs tattooed themselves and knocked out their teeth. Kamehameha was also tattooed and had his eyeteeth knocked out, and the chiefs and commoners acted like madmen.” (Kamakau)

Kamehameha then formally took charge of and returned to Hawaiʻi with her daughter and granddaughter, not only as a sacred legacy from Kalola, but as a token of reconciliation and alliance between himself and the elder branch of the Keawe dynasty. (Kalākaua)

Later, Liholiho (Kamehameha II,) Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) and Princess Nahiʻenaʻena were born to Kamehameha and Keōpūolani.

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