Hawaii | Page 277 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 4, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Epidemics

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)

January 3, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Fort Armstrong

Fort Armstrong was located at Honolulu and was built on fill over Kaʻākaukukui reef in 1907 to protect Honolulu Harbor. It had one named Battery, and was spread over an area of 64.34 acres (6 acres being upland and the balance submerged lands.)

Kaʻākaukukui (the right (or north) light – and also called ‘Ākaukukui) was an original name for Kakaʻako.

Marshland, reef, salt pans and traditional fish ponds existed in this area. The entire shoreline was a coral wasteland bordered by mudflats. According to an 1885 survey map, the ‘ili of Kaʻākaukukui was awarded by land court to Victoria Kamāmalu; Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop inherited the land and it later became part of the Kamehameha Schools.

In 1898, the property was transferred to the United States by the Republic of Hawaiʻi under the joint resolution of annexation and, to protect the mouth of Honolulu Harbor, the US Army filled a submerged coral reef on the ‘Ewa side of Ka’ākaukukui for a gun emplacement.

In January 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt instructed Secretary of War William H Taft to convene the National Coast Defense Board (Taft Board) “to consider and report upon the coast defenses of the United States and the insular possessions (including Hawai‘i.)”

In 1906 the Taft Board recommended a system of Coast Artillery batteries to protect Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. Between 1909-1921, the Hawaiian Coast Artillery Command had its headquarters at Fort Ruger and defenses included artillery regiments stationed at …

… Fort Armstrong, Fort Barrette, Fort DeRussy, Diamond Head, Fort Kamehameha, Kuwa‘aohe Military Reservation (Fort Hase – later known as Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi) and Fort Weaver.

The District was renamed Headquarters Coast Defenses of Oʻahu sometime between 1911 and 1913. Following World War I and until the end of World War II, additional coastal batteries were constructed throughout the Island.

Fort Armstrong, built in 1907, was named for Brigadier General Samuel C Armstrong. His father, Reverend Richard Armstrong (1805-1860,) had arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1832 and later replaced Hiram Bingham as pastor at Kawaiahaʻo Church (1840-1843.) In 1848, Armstrong (the father) left the mission and became Hawaiʻi’s minister of public education.

Armstrong (the son – namesake of the Fort) was born January 30, 1839 in Maui, Hawaii, the sixth of ten children. He attended Punahou School and later volunteered to serve in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

At the end of the war, Armstrong established the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute – now known as Hampton University – in Hampton, Virginia in 1868. Perhaps the best student of Armstrong’s Hampton-style education was Booker T Washington. Samuel Chapman Armstrong died at the Hampton Institute on May 11, 1893, and is buried in the Hampton University Cemetery.

The original garrison at Fort Armstrong was the 1st Coast Artillery Company, followed by the 104th Mine Co. operating the harbor mines. Also stationed there was the 185th Coast Artillery Company.

They lived in tents for quite a long time; then temporary barracks were built – wooden structures that were continually occupied since January, 1914. Buildings are constructed of 1 x 12 rough boards, with tar-paper roofs.

The facility later had a barracks, 4 officers’ quarters, 3 noncommissioned officers’ quarters, administration building and post exchange, guardhouse, fire apparatus house, quartermaster storehouse, gymnasium and related infrastructure; the standard strength was 109 men.

Battery Tiernon at Fort Armstrong was armed with two pedestal mounted 3-inch Guns from 1911 to 1943.

The first service practice ever held at Battery Tiernon, using the 3-inch guns, was August 30, 1913. “Two 10-by-24 foot material targets were towed from right to left, facing the field of fire from a position at the B.C. station. … only one target was fired upon, viz: Four shots by the first manning detail and then four shots by the second manning detail. This was due to the fact that when the left target had almost reached the inner allowable limit of range at which practice may be held (1,500-yards) the right target was just beginning to be obscured by a dredge working in the outer channel.”

The Army mission in Hawaiʻi was defined in 1920 as “the defense of Pearl Harbor Naval Base against damage from naval or aerial bombardment or by enemy sympathizers and attack by enemy expeditionary force or forces, supported or unsupported by an enemy fleet or fleets.”

Fort Armstrong continued under the Coast Artillery program until September 15, 1922.

It was reserved for military purposes by a series of Executive Orders in 1930 and was described as the Fort Armstrong Military Reservation.

The present seawall was constructed 500-feet out from the original shoreline in 1948, and the area was backfilled. The Army Corps of Engineers took over the post in 1949. Kakaʻako Park was created over the landfill area.

On December 13, 1951, because the site was no longer needed by the military and was needed by the Territory of Hawaiʻi for harbor improvements, President Truman transferred the land to the Territory of Hawaiʻi.

Today, the site includes Piers 1 and 2 and has container and general cargo berths, warehouses, sheds, open paved storage areas for container back up and marshaling and Foreign Trade Zone No. 9. The area also contains the US Immigration Station, the Department of Health Building, and the Ala Moana Pumping Station (all historic buildings.)

January 2, 2020 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Did The Mongoose Idea Work?

OK – in reading this, remember, this discussion is not in defense of the mongoose – nor whether the importation was a good idea.

Rather, it is addressing the age-old urban legend about the apparent conflicting activity habits of each. I repeatedly hear that mongoose don’t kill rats – primarily because their activity times are different.

Contrary to the diurnal (behavior characterized by activity during the day and sleeping at night)/nocturnal (behavior characterized by activity during the night and sleeping during the day) conflict between the mongoose and rat – and apparent loss of the predator-prey relationship – reporting at the time of the introduction of the mongoose state sugar producers saw a marked reduction in the pesky rats in their plantations.

Pacific Sugar Mill on the Hāmākua Coast had the distinction of introducing the first mongoose into Hawaiʻi. In 1883, WH Purvis imported them from India and Africa for rat control on the plantation.

Later, Joseph Marsden (‘Mongoose Joe,’) former Commissioner of Agriculture, is credited with expanding the import. “He brought the little animal from Jamaica, where it had the reputation of a good rat exterminator”. (Hawaiian Gazette, March 16, 1906)

“At that time there were considerable portions of our cane fields that were so badly damaged by rats that they were not worth harvesting and now rat eaten cane is almost unknown.” (HA Baldwin – Maui News, August 5, 1921)

“The ravages of rats in the cane fields of Hāmākua previous to the introduction of the mongoose were so alarming as to cause fears that cane culture would have to be abandoned. As soon as a cane field was planted it seemed to be a new breeding ground for the rats, which appeared to exist by the hundreds of thousands.” (Evening Bulletin, December 5, 1898)

“The next importation was by the Hilo planters, who in 1883 sent Mr. Jonathan Tucker to Jamaica in the West Indies to procure mongoose for them. Mr. Tucker returned with 72 mongoose in good condition, which were liberated in the cane fields in Hilo. They soon increased in numbers, and the ravages of the rats correspondingly diminished.” (Evening Bulletin, December 5, 1898)

“The planters of Hāmākua, hearing of the good work done by the mongoose in Hilo, decided to import some on their own account (in 1885.”) (Evening Bulletin, December 5, 1898)

“Many people feel that the mongoose has failed as an enemy of the rat, but the records, both in Hawaiʻi and Jamaica, indicate that the rats have been reduced to an appreciable extent by the mongoose.” (Maui News, August 12, 1921)

“Evidence in favor of the mongoose may be seen today in Kauaʻi. The mongoose has not been introduced on that island, and the rat menace is in general more serious there than it is with the other islands of Hawaiʻi.” (The Garden Island, August 23, 1921)

In less than two years after the importation of the mongoose, the rats were so diminished that it was and is now a rare thing to see a stick of cane that is eaten, and the plantations have so extended their plantations that they now grind nearly all the year, giving employment to double and treble the number of hands with a corresponding benefit to the trade of Honolulu. (Evening Bulletin, December 5, 1895)

“When they set the mongoose to work he soon cleaned the cane fields of mice and then went for the rats which speedily met a similar fate. Having exterminated all those he next went for eggs next for chickens and then he went for the henroosts and fowls.” (The Independent, April 25, 1898)

“There is no doubt that the mongoose has saved the planters of Hāmākua thousands of dollars. In former years it was no uncommon thing to see one-fourth and even one-half of the cane left on the fields, the rats having rendered that portion unfit for grinding by eating the stalks near the ground.” (The Garden Island, August 23, 1921)

“The drawback to the Mongoose is that he does not confine his menu to rats but varies it with all kinds of barnyard fowl and eggs and also ground-nesting game birds form a good part of his dietary. Another regrettable thing about him is that he is very fond of our field lizards or skinks which have an important part to play in the ‘balance of nature.’” (HA Baldwin – Maui News, August 5, 1921)

“These lizards feed on ticks among other things and since the advent of the Mongoose and the consequent scarcity of lizards ticks have become a bothersome pest to stock raisers. Ticks, however, in sufficient quantities are said to be deadly to the Mongoose and to keep him down in numbers.” (HA Baldwin – Maui News, August 5, 1921)

“The lizard is the natural enemy of bugs and insects including mosquitoes, as he lives on nothing else and never in any way harms plant life. When I first came to the Kona district in 1886, the country was well stocked with lizards and all kinds of fruits were growing in pro fusion.” (Coerper – Maui News, April 15, 1905)

“Kitchen gardens contained cabbages, tomatoes and all other varieties of vegetables which were free from insect pests; and while the leaf hopper could be found in the canefields he was kept so well in check by the lizard that he never caused any trouble.” (Coerper – Maui News, April 15, 1905)

“But later on when the mongoose came, he commenced a campaign of destruction on the lizard with the result that the lizard decreased and the pests increased to such an extent that today almost nothing can be raised in the district and fruit trees that used to bear a heavy crop of fruit are now barren and pest ridden.” (Coerper – Maui News, April 15, 1905)

OK, again, before anyone goes off on the consequence to native birds, etc, remember the context of this summary –it’s about whether mongoose rid rats from the cane fields.

I prepared this because, until looking closer into it, I, too, believed that because of the diurnal/nocturnal relationship, they never saw each other. However, based on the reports back then, from the sugar planters’ perspective, it worked; damage due to rats gnawing at the sugar was reduced to a level of nominal impact.

Unfortunately, like many other bad decisions that were made before adequate analysis of unintended consequences, the mongoose is negatively impacting many other areas in our Islands … and, except for some remnant operations, sugar (and its problems with rats) is effectively gone.

Check out the Mission Account Books for yourself; click HERE.

December 30, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ali‘i Gifts to the Missionaries

In pre-contact Hawaiian culture, cooking was done by men, men and women ate in separate hale, and certain “male” foods were forbidden to women. Everything was based upon the ‘ai kapu (eating or food kapu). The ‘ai kapu ended in November of 1819 when King Kamehameha II ate with Ka‘ahumanu and Keōpūolani and let them eat forbidden foods ‘ai noa, free eating, and the kapu came to an end.

Like New England though, there was a gendered division of labor in pre-contact Hawai‘i. The labor of clearing fields and digging up the land was done by men, while the actual planting of plants was usually done by women.

Hawaiian food crops included: sweet potato, kalo, bananas, sugar cane, ‘awa, yam (uhi), arrowroot (pia) coconut, breadfruit (ulu), mountain apple, and bitter gourds. Other plants that Hawaiians cultivated were ‘ie and olona for fiber and cordage, wauke for making kapa, and many other plants and vegetables. The staple food was kalo. Kalo was made into poi and pa‘i ‘ai. It was also baked, roasted, and fried. Other foods included luau leaf, chicken, pig, and dog. (Smola)

The missionaries had to adapt to a new diet; for the most part, the missionaries had a very Hawaiian diet. Fish (i‘a), taro (kalo), poi, pigs (pua‘a), chickens (moa), bananas (mai‘a), sweet potatoes (‘uala) were regular parts of the missionary diet. (HMCS)

In addition, the missionary diet included: melons, squashes, cabbages, cucumbers, green corn, beans, fresh pork, goat, goat’s milk, bread, rice, mountain apples, bananas, pineapples, butter, wine, plus spices such as cinnamon and allspice, beef, and fish. Also, the missionaries ate New England foods shipped to them: dried apple rings, sea biscuits, salted beef and pork, and things made from wheat flour. (Smola)

Some food came from the missionaries buying food with money, from trading or bartering items like cloth and books, and from agricultural land given to the mission. The items of New England food that they got came by supply shipments from the ABCFM usually brought out in whale ships or merchant ships that were already headed to Hawai‘i or were brought here to be planted once the missionaries landed. (HMCS)

Much of the food came in the form of gifts from the ali‘i. According to the account books, these gifts of food from the ali‘i occurred virtually daily for over 10 years. (HMCS)

This meticulous listing of ‘Donations’ (as Chamberlain labeled his list in his account book), shows the regular interactions between the ali‘i and the missionaries – as well as the constant conveyance of gifts. Click to see the attachment that shows a later listing of food and other donations to the mission.

Notable names on the prior and following listing include, Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), Ka‘ahumanu and Kalanimōku (noted as Karaimoku in the account books). You can also see here that others contributed, as did Captain Osborne (10-gallons of cider on November 24, 1825).

“(T)he missionaries described a seemingly endless bounty of provisions. The gifts were undeniably generous; their quantity and abundance attested to this.”

“In the first weeks and months after their arrival, missionaries received a host of gifts, ranging from fruit to potatoes and sugar cane to an ‘elegant’ fly brush. The gifts that ali‘i provided to American missionaries during the initial stages of contact suggest the political and diplomatic savvy developed in the decades leading up to the missionaries’ arrival.”

“(G)ift giving and generosity appeared as a means by which ali‘i might engage in a display of mana – that is, divine power. In the extension of gifts, Hawaiian royalty provided not just for the needs of their guests but, in the process, simultaneously created a debt between themselves and the missionaries while enhancing their own status.” The missionaries developed a reciprocal gift-giving relationship.

“(M)issionaries were well aware of the ways in which the gift of clothing might allow them to begin in earnest the process of transforming and converting the Hawaiian people. Additionally, they hoped to win the favor of the Hawaiian people through the strategic placement of things”.

“(A)s the mission period progressed (the) missionaries developed a close association with ali‘i …“The relationships constituted around gift giving and exchange created a necessary favorable link between American missionaries and ali‘i in this period.” (Thigpen)

Click HERE for more information on Gifts from the Ali‘i.