Hawaii | Page 305 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 15, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Loa

Throughout the years of late-prehistory, A.D. 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, transportation and communication within the Hawaiian kingdom was by canoe and by major trail systems.

Although the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawai‘i, extensive cross-country trail networks enabled gathering of food and water and harvesting of materials for shelter, clothing, medicine, religious observances and other necessities for survival.

Ancient trails, those developed before western contact in 1778, facilitated trading between upland and coastal villages and communications between ahupua‘a and extended families.

These trails were usually narrow, following the topography of the land. Sometimes, over ‘a‘ā lava, they were paved with water worn stones.

Over time, as needs and technology changed, the trails evolved to address these changes.

Various archaeologists note the following evolution of Hawai‘i trails:

Pre-contact/Early historical … Single-file footpath … Follow contours of coast
1820-1840 … Widened for one horse … Coastal – curbstones added
1820-1840 … Built in straight lines, inland
1841-1918 … Widened for two horses … Straight, leveled
Late-1800s-early 1900s … Widened for horse cart … Straight, leveled

Bridges also became necessary. Perhaps the first was a footbridge across the Wailuku River in Hilo, described in 1825. The first important span on O‘ahu was the Beretania Street bridge built over Nu‘uanu Stream in 1840.

By the 1830s, King Kamehameha III initiated a program of island-wide improvements on the ala loa, and in 1847, a formal program for development of the alanui aupuni (government roads) was initiated.

Sidewalks were constructed, usually of wood, as early as 1838. The first sidewalk made of brick was laid down in 1857 by watchmaker Samuel Tawson in front of his shop on Merchant Street.

Until the 1840s, overland travel was predominantly by foot and followed the traditional trails. By the 1840s, the use of introduced horses, mules and bullocks for transportation was increasing, and many traditional trails – the ala loa and mauka-makai trails within ahupua‘a – were modified by removing the smooth stepping stones that caused the animals to slip.

Eventually, wider, straighter trails were constructed to accommodate horse drawn carts. Unlike the earlier trails, these later trails could not conform to the natural, sometimes steep, terrain.

They often by-passed the traditional trails as more remote coastal villages became depopulated due to introduced diseases and the changing economic and social systems.

By the early 1850s, specific criteria were developed for realigning trails and roadways, including the straightening of alignments and development of causeways and bridges.

This system of roadwork, supervised by district overseers, and funded through government appropriations – with labor by prisoners and individuals unable to pay taxes in another way – evolved over the next 40 years.

Paved streets were unknown until 1881. In that year, Fort Street was macadamized (a paving process using aggregate layers of stone with a cementing agent binder – a process named after Scotsman John Loudon McAdam,) followed by Nu‘uanu Avenue.

In 1892, Queen Lili‘uokalani and the Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i signed into law an “Act Defining Highways, and Defining and Establishing Certain Routes and Duties in Connection Therewith,” to be known as “The Highways Act, 1892.”

Through this act, all roads, alleys, streets, ways, lanes, courts, places, trails and bridges in the Hawaiian Islands, whether laid out or built by the Government or by private parties were declared to be public highways; ownership was placed in the Government (typically, under the control of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.)

Today, trails serve more as recreational features, rather than transportation links. While I was at DLNR, we oversaw “Na Ala Hele,” the State of Hawai‘i’s Trail and Access Program, administered by DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

It was established in 1988 in response to public concern about the loss of public access to certain trails and the threat to historic trails from development pressure.

The goal of the Na Ala Hele Program is to provide public outdoor recreation opportunities for hiking, biking, hunting, camping, equestrian and off-highway vehicle use.

Na Ala Hele has become increasingly engaged in trail management and regulatory issues due to both public and commercial recreational activities and emerging legal issues.

In addition, Na Ala Hele is charged with locating and determining whether a historic road or ancient trail falls under the Highways Act of 1892.

Likewise, the program is responsible for the inventory, and documenting ownership of specific historic trails and non-vehicular old government roads for public use where it is feasible and culturally appropriate.

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Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Ancient Hawaiian trail of smooth stone across the 1823 Keaiwa (seaward) flow of Kilauea Volcano. July 10, 1924-USGS)-400

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Trail up the windward side of the Pali, Honolulu Hawaii-(BishopMuseum) ca. 1890

Driving Cattle up Pali Trail to Market – 1887

Hoapili Trail-(NPS)

Hoapili_Trail-Kula_Honuaula_Kahikinui_Kaupo-(Project_Kaeo)-(Horse-Cart-1824-1834)

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Hoapili_Trail-Honuaula-(Project_Kaeo)-(Horse-Cart-1824-1834)

1871 Trail looking north toward the Pu’uhonua, Keanae’e Cliffs to the right

Mamalahoa_Trail_as_horse_trail-1900s-(HMCS-NPS)

March 14, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Na Ki‘i Pōhaku

When Captain Cook first visited the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian was a spoken language but not a written language. Historical accounts were passed down orally, through chants and songs.

This doesn’t suggest however, that the Hawaiians did not communicate through “written” symbols – Hawaiians also communicated through na ki‘i pōhaku, petroglyphs.

Petroglyph is a word that comes from the Greek words “petros,” for rock, and “gypheian,” to carve. Thus, petroglyphs are rock carvings.

Petroglyphs occur throughout the world. Certain shapes and forms appear to be universal. A petroglyph of a man or dog in Sweden looks just like a petroglyph of a man or dog in Hawai‘i.

It is probable that the first settlers to Hawai‘i started carving in the rocks after they arrived here. With no other writing, the ancient Hawaiians used petroglyphs as forms of communication, with the gods, spirits and others who viewed them.

Hawaiian petroglyphs are more often found near or at junctions of trails, or areas when ‘mana’ (cosmic power or force) was found.

It was this mana that was supposed to be absorbed by the petroglyphs to insure the efficacy of the spiritual rite or act of magic that affirmed the petroglyph’s intent.

Petroglyphs are not the result of trifling doodle or pastime. Many petroglyphs were made in connection with religious/magical rites or acts.

Despite appearances, the making of a petroglyph was a purposeful and deliberate act with the given expectation of result and/or consequence.

Hawaiian petroglyphs evolved into different forms and styles over time.

Many times in clusters of petroglyphs, in the center of a cluster tend to be of the earliest type, the “stick man” – this is the oldest universal form around the world.

Another form appears to have a wider body format, sometimes referred to as the ‘columnar’ form. A more recent form has the triangular body.

Animals were also drawn; many animals were their guardian spirits (aumakua.) Animal figures also represented spirits that inhabited the areas where the petroglyphs were made.

Canoes, paddles, fishhooks, fans and feather capes were also drawn. These sometimes represent the mode of travel to reach the petroglyphs, i.e. canoe, on foot, etc.

The majority of petroglyphs are on the ground with carving into the smooth pāhoehoe lava. Other surfaces include boulders, cliff faces and smooth-walled interiors of lava tubes and caves.

Hard surface petroglyph carving was done with a stone, repeatedly smashing the stone against the surface. Designs on smoother walls in caves can be scraped with a pointed rock.

The petroglyph fields I am most familiar with are the clusters at Puakō, South Kohala. In fact, years ago – decades before I was involved with DLNR – when I was an appraiser, I was given an assignment to value the state land where the petroglyphs are located.

The State was leasing the land and was going to require the tenant to farm the property. In doing so, it meant the lessee would have to grade and plant the entire site. I called attention to the fact that there are numerous petroglyphs in this area and grading (and farming) should be voided.

I recommended that they amend the lease requirements to protect the petroglyphs. Fortunately they did; but it also meant my appraisal assignment was cancelled (which was fine with me.) (Lots from Ski Kwiatkowski and his book “Na Ki‘i Pohaku”.)

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Petroglyph of Birth – H-3_Halawa

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March 13, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Wellington

“Soon after James Cook’s visit to Vancouver Island in 1778, non-Natives began fur trading in the Northwest. Trade ships, after stopping in Hawaii, sailed to Vancouver Island to trade manufactured goods for sea otter pelts. … Besides sea otter there were beaver and other furs.” (Holton)

“It did not take long for the Northwest Coast fur traders to discover at Hawaii a new medium for the Canton market. That market was, of course, the prime object of our Northwest fur trade.”

“China took nothing that the United States produced; hence Boston traders, in order to obtain the wherewithal to purchase teas and silks at Canton, spent eighteen months or more of each China voyage collecting a cargo of sea-otter skins, highly esteemed by the mandarins.” (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for provisions and recreation.

Edmond Gardner, captain of the New Bedford whaler Balaena (also called Balena,) and Elisha Folger, captain of the Nantucket whaler Equator, made history in 1819 when they became the first American whalers to visit the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i.)

A year later, Captain Joseph Allen discovered large concentrations of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. His find was widely publicized in New England, setting off an exodus of whalers to this area.

These ships might have sought provisions in Japan, except that Japanese ports were closed to foreign ships. So when Captain Allen befriended the missionaries at Honolulu and Lahaina, he helped establish these areas as the major ports of call for whalers. (NPS)

At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

In Hawaiʻi, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour ‘on Japan,’ ‘on the Northwest,’ or into the Arctic.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands. Starting with Cook’s arrival, his crew and later the whalers sought and received other pleasures.

Whales were not hunted for food, but primarily for their blubber; the thick layer of fat under their skins that protected them from the freezing cold waters of the far north seas.

Oil could be extracted from the blubber and used to make candles or for burning in oil lamps in the days before electric lights. Whale oil was very valuable and some whale ship owners made huge fortunes from selling the oil.

When the whale was caught it was towed back to the ship where it was “flensed” (cutting away the blubber.) The blubber was hoisted onto the ship’s deck where it was put into barrels and then stored away in the hold.

In 1826, the Wellington, reportedly a British whaling or trading ship, arrived at Lahaina, Maui from San Blas, Mexico. Seeking fresh water, the crew dumped the water they had in a river and refilled the barrels.

Then, “(missionary William) Richards was returning home to Lahaina one evening about dusk and met a native who informed him that there was a new ‘fly’ in the place.”

“He described it as being a very peculiar ‘fly’ that made its presence known by ‘a singing in the ear.’” (the story as told by Prof. WD Alexander; Hawaiian Gazette, April 17, 1903)

Later, “(missionary) Dr. Judd was called upon to treat a hitherto unknown kind of itch, inflicted by a new kind of nolo (fly) described as ‘singing in the ear.’”

“The itch had first been reported early in 1827 by Hawaiians who lived near pools of standing water and along streams back of Lahaina [Maui].” (Warner)

“To the Reverend William Richards, their descriptions of the flies suggested a pestiferous insect, from which heretofore the Islands were fortunately free. Inspection confirmed his fears. The mosquito had arrived!”

“Investigation back-tracked the trail to the previous year and the ship Wellington, whose watering party had drained dregs alive with wrigglers into a pure stream, and thereby to blot one more blessing from the Hawai‘i that had been Eden.”

“Apparently no attempt was made to isolate and destroy the hatchery, nor to prevent spread of the pest throughout the archipelago. The pioneer was Culex quinquefasciatus, the night mosquito. (Warner)

“All evidence pointed to the ship ‘Wellington’ as the carrier of the pest. This story was later corroborated by Mr. Henry A. Pierce, late US Minister to Hawaii in the seventies.”

“Furthermore, up to the year 1826 there was no word In the Hawaiian language for mosquito. The native name for mosquito is makika, a corruption of the name mosquito.” (the story as told by Prof. WD Alexander; Hawaiian Gazette, April 17, 1903)

The rest is history – so has it been for Hawaiʻi’s native birds.

Sure, mosquitoes are annoying to us (and they can be vectors for things like dengue and other diseases that affect humans.)

But, they are devastating to Hawaiʻi’s native birds.

Introduced mosquito-transmitted diseases, avian malaria and avian pox, are thought to be one of the main factors driving loss of native forest birds.

Many of Hawaii’s native birds suffered drastic population declines once introduced mosquitoes began transmitting avian malaria between birds.

Look closely at the picture of the ʻApapane bird – there is a mosquito on the upper-right side of its eye (not a good thing.)

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Mosquito-Apapane with mosquito

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March 12, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Entering Honolulu Harbor

There are certain things you should not or cannot do into the wind.

Tradewinds blow from the Northeast, the channel into Honolulu Harbor has a northeasterly alignment. Early ships calling to Honolulu were powered only by sails.

The entrance to the harbor was narrow and lined on either side with reefs.

Ships don’t sail into the wind.

Given all of this, Honolulu Harbor was difficult to enter.

The first European entry of Honolulu Harbor is credited to Captain Brown of the British schooner Jackal, accompanied by Captain Gordon in the sloop tender Prince Lee Boo.

They called the harbor “Fair Haven” which may be a rough translation of the Hawaiian name Honolulu (it was also sometimes called Brown’s Harbor.)

Following this, boats either anchored off-shore, or they were pulled, warped or tracked into the harbor (this was done with canoes; or, it meant men and/or oxen pulled them in.)

This might take eight double canoes with 16-20 men each, working in the pre-dawn calm when winds and currents were slow. Otherwise you had to contend with tradewinds blowing out of the harbor.

It was a narrow with reefs, but it was the only deep water harbor in the central Pacific.

In 1816 (as stories suggest,) Richards Street alignment was the straight path used by groups of men, and later oxen, to pull ships through the narrow channel into the harbor.

(Later, downtown’s Richards Street was named for a man who had a store on the street selling luggage to tourists.)

A few years after, in 1825, the first pier in the harbor was improvised by sinking a ship’s hull near the present Pier 12 site.

In 1854 the first steam tug was used to pull sail-powered ships into dock against the prevailing tradewinds.

Between 1857 and 1870, about 22-acres of reef and tideland was filled through a combination of fill and dredging, forming the “Esplanade” between Fort and Merchant Streets.

This created the area where Aloha Tower and Aloha Tower Marketplace are now located (prior to this, the waterfront was near Queen Street.)

In 1889, the Honolulu Harbor was described as “nothing but a channel kept open by the flow of the Nuʻuanu River.” In 1890-92 the channel was widened and deepened by dredging.

A channel 200 feet wide by 30 feet deep was dredged for about 1,000-feet through the sand bar which had limited depth to as shallow as 18 feet, restricting entry of the largest ocean vessels.

A series of new piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 (to accommodate sugar loading) and then at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907.

Today, Honolulu Harbor continues to serve as Hawai‘i’s commercial lifeline to the rest of the world.

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Honolulu Harbor-Ships pulled by canoes-Henry Walker-1843

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View_of_Honolulu_Harbor_and_Punchbowl_Crater._(c._1854)

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Honolulu Harbor Light – Harbor Wink -DAGS Honolulu (1887) GoogleEarth-1869

March 11, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ABCFM Companies

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), based in Boston, was founded in 1810, the first organized missionary society in the US.

“The American Board of Foreign Missions, however, can neither claim, nor does it desire exclusive patronage. There are other Foreign Missionary Societies, for whom there is room, for whom there is work enough, and for whose separate existence there are, doubtless, conclusive reasons.”

“The system of operation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions may be considered under two divisions, – its Home Department, and its Foreign Missions. … The Board has established missions, in the order of time in which they are now named at Bombay, and Ceylon; among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Cherokees of the Arkansaw (and later) Asia.”

Then, they decided to send a Company of missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. The Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said:

“Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. … Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high. You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.” (The Friend)

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 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.

Pioneer Company
Left Boston, MA October 23, 1819; arrived at Kailua-Kona April 4, 1820 aboard the ‘Thaddeus’

Second Company
Left New Haven, CT November 20, 1822; arrived at Honolulu April 27, 1823 aboard the ‘Thames’

Third Company
Left Boston, MA November 27, 1827; arrived at Honolulu March 30, 1828 aboard the ‘Parthian’

Fourth Company
Left New Bedford, MA December 28, 1830; arrived at Honolulu June 7, 1831 aboard the ‘New England’

Fifth Company
Left New Bedford, MA November 26, 1831; arrived at Honolulu May 17, 1832 aboard the ‘Averick’

Sixth Company
Left New London, CT November 21, 1832; arrived at Honolulu May 1, 1833 aboard the ‘Mentor’

Seventh Company
Left Boston, MA December 5, 1834; arrived at Honolulu June 6, 1835 aboard the ‘Hellespont’

Eighth Company
Left Boston, MA December 14, 1836; arrived at Honolulu April 9, 1837 aboard the ‘Mary Frazier’

Ninth Company
Left Boston, MA November 14, 1840; arrived at Honolulu May 21, 1841 aboard the ‘Gloucester’

Tenth Company
Left Boston, MA May 2, 1842; arrived at Honolulu September 21, 1842 aboard ‘Sarah Abigail’

Eleventh Company
Left Boston, MA December 4, 1843; arrived at Honolulu (via Tahiti) July 15, 1844 aboard the ‘Globe’

Twelfth Company
Left Boston, MA October 23, 1847; arrived at Honolulu February 26, 1848 aboard the ‘Samoset’

The ‘Companies’ are essentially groups of missionaries traveling together. Several individuals, not part of the 12-companies, also served in the Hawaiian Islands Mission.

The Missionaries included ordained ministers of the Gospel, physicians, teachers, secular agents, printers, a bookbinder and a farmer.

Most of them were young people, still in their twenties, full of life and enthusiasm. All were pious and accustomed to “lead meetings.” Some were scholars able, when the native language had been mastered, to put into Hawaiian the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek.

Extract from a letter from Richard H. Dana, Jr., Esq., of Boston, written at the Sandwich Islands, and first published in the New York Tribune, June 5, 1860.

“It is no small thing to say of the Missionaries of the American Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this whole people to read and to write, to cipher and to sew.”

“They have given them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary; preserved their language from extinction; given it a literature, and translated into it the Bible and works of devotion, science and entertainment, etc., etc.”

“They have established schools, reared up native teachers, and so pressed their work that now the proportion of inhabitants who can read and write is greater than in New England …”

“… and the more elevated of them taking part in conducting the affairs of the constitutional monarchy under which they live, holding seats on the judicial bench and in the legislative chambers, and filling posts in the local magistracies.”

Click HERE to view/download Background Information on the ABCFM Companies (including the names of the members of the respective companies).

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