Hawaii | Page 421 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 12, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Opukahaia – The Inspiration for the Hawaiian Mission

In about 1807, a young Hawaiian man, ʻŌpūkahaʻia, swam out to the ‘Triumph’, a China-bound seal skin trading ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay. Both of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s parents and his younger brother had been slain during the battles on the island.

Also on board was Hopu, another young Hawaiian. They set sail for New York, stopping first in China. Russell Hubbard was also on board. “This Mr. Hubbard was a member of Yale College. He was a friend of Christ. … Mr. Hubbard was very kind to me on our passage, and taught me the letters in English spelling-book.” (ʻŌpūkahaʻia)

They landed at New York and remained there until the Captain sold out all the Chinese goods. Then, they made their way to New England.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia was eager to study and learn. He “was sitting on the steps of a Yale building, weeping. A solicitous student stopped to inquire what was wrong, and Obookiah (the spelling of his name, based on its sound) said, ‘No one will give me learning.’”

The student was Edwin Dwight. “(W)hen the question was put him, ‘Do you wish to learn?’ his countenance began to brighten. And when the proposal was made that he should come the next day to the college for that purpose, he served it with great eagerness.” (Dwight)

Later, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) formed the Foreign Mission School; ʻŌpūkahaʻia was one of its first students. He yearned “with great earnestness that he would (return to Hawaiʻi) and preach the Gospel to his poor countrymen.” Unfortunately, ʻŌpūkahaʻia died on February 17, 1818.

Dwight put together a book, ‘Memoirs of Henry Obookiah’ (the spelling of the name based on its pronunciation). It was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries. The book about his life was printed and circulated after his death.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia, inspired by many young men and women with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book inspired missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Hawaiian Islands.

In giving instructions to the first missionaries, the ABCFM, noted: “You will never forget ʻŌpūkahaʻia. You will never forget his fervent love, his affectionate counsels, his many prayers and tears for you, and for his and your nation.”

“You saw him die; saw how the Christian could triumph over death and the grave; saw the radient glory in which he left this world for heaven. You will remember it always, and you will tell it to your kindred and countrymen who are dying without hope.”

Click HERE to view/download Background on ʻŌpūkahaʻia & the Mission

Missionary Period

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from the northeast United States, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Hawaiian Islands – they anchored at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”), about 180-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. Collaboration between Native Hawaiians and American Protestant missionaries resulted in, among other things, the

Introduction of Christianity;
Development of a written Hawaiian language and establishment of schools that resulted in widespread literacy;
Promulgation of the concept of constitutional government;
Combination of Hawaiian with Western medicine; and
Evolution of a new and distinctive musical tradition (with harmony and choral singing)

On August 15, 1993, ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s remains were returned to Hawai‘i from Cornwall and laid in a vault facing the ocean at Kahikolu Church.

Saturday, February 17, 2018 marks the Bicentennial of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s death.

Hawaiian Mission Houses will be hosting a Free Open House that afternoon.

10 am (HST), February 17, 2018 State-wide bell ringing;
10 am, Feb 17, Haili Church, Kawaiaha’o Church & Hawaiian Mission Houses;
10:15 am, Feb 17, Mokuaikaua Church, Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia Memorial Concert;
3 pm (Eastern) Feb 17, Remembrance at original ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s gravesite at Cornwall, CT;
9:30 am, February 18, 2018, commemoration services at Kahikolu Church;
9 am & 11 am, Feb 18, Mokuaikaua Church Services, Speaker to discuss Life of ‘Ōpūkaha’ia;
10 am, Feb 18, service at Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia Memorial Chapel/Hokuloa Church, Punalu‘u;
10 am (Eastern), February 18, 2018 Services at UCC Cornwall;
6 pm, February 17, 18, 24, 25 at Kalihi Union Church, a musical drama on life of ʻŌpūkahaʻia.

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Henry_Opukahaia,_ca. 1810s

February 11, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Kī

Kī, the Ti plant, was an emblem of high rank and divine power. The kāhili, in its early form, was a kī stalk with its clustered foliage of glossy, green leaves at the top.

The kahuna priests in their ancient religious ceremonial rituals used the leaves as protection. Ki planted around dwellings is thought to ward off evil. (ksbe)

To dispel evil, fresh leaves were worn around the neck, waist, and ankles and hung around dwellings. Masses of plants were planted around homes to ward off evil and bring good fortune. (CTAHR)

It is a canoe crop, brought to the Islands by the early Polynesians. Kī was considered sacred to the Hawaiian god, Lono, and to the goddess of the hula, Laka. (ksbe)

The kī leaf was a most useful article to the Hawaiians in caring for food. The leaf is long and wide (20 in. x 6 in. is an average size,) smooth, shiny, tough, and, except for the midrib, the veins are unobtrusive.

It has no odor and is clean and fresh looking. Small foods were wrapped in a ti leaf laulau piʻao, larger in a flat bundle called laulau lāwalu.

Broiling wrapped food (lāwalu) was used a great deal. Food that had been cut into pieces, or small fish that would be lost in an imu, or burned crisp if broiled, were wrapped in leaves of the ti, occasionally in leaves of the wild ginger, which is said to have added a delicious fragrance to the fish.

The leaf bundle was toasted over the open fire, turning it occasionally and the food was cooked when the juice ceased to drip from the bundle. Mullet was “cooked with such perfection that when the banana leaves in which it had been steamed were taken off, it had received hardly a slight alteration in form and color.” (Titcomb)

Lieut. James Burney and Astronomer William Bayly, while anchored off Kaua‘i in 1779 with the Cook expedition wrote: “… the natives came off with hogs and sweet potatoes in plenty, and a Root that appears like a Rotten Root of a tree, and as large as a man’s thigh. It is very much like brown Sugar in tast but Rather Sweeter – the natives call it Tee (ki or ti.)”

Ti, grown in a favorable location for many years, may have a root weighing 200 to 300 pounds. Roots on the ordinary garden ti may weigh 50 to 60 pounds.

A favorite confection years ago was kī baked in the imu for about 24 hours or until it became a sweet, brown, candy-like food. (Mitchell)

Missionary William Ellis wrote of the ti root in 1823: “The natives bake it in large ovens underground. After baking, it appears like a different substance altogether …”

“… being of a yellowish brown colour, soft, though fibrous and saturated with a highly saccharine juice. It is sweet and pleasant to the taste, and much of it is eaten in this state”.

Foreigners first fermented, and then distilled, the Kī root into an alcoholic beverage. It is said to have started when Captain Nathaniel Portlock, part of Captain Cook’s crew in 1779, baked roots in an imu to convert its starches to sugars, added water and let it ferment with wild yeast into a mild beer.

Lieut. James Burney and Astronomer William Bayly, while anchored off Kauaʻi in 1779 with the Cook expedition wrote: ‘… The Natives eat it sometimes Raw and other times Roasted. We made exceeding good Beer, by boiling it in Water, then let it ferment, so as to purge itself.’

Later, William Stevenson, an escaped convict from Australia, is credited to have taught the native Hawaiians how to distill the beer beverage into a higher alcoholic concoction. (Kepler) Due to the early means of making the drink, it took on the name ʻōkolehao (lit. iron bottom.)

“Since the perverted ingenuity of some early beachcomber first adjusted a twisted gun barrel to an iron pot, and distilled from the root of the ti this liquor to which the French Republic through the Paris Exposition of 1899 gave a blue ribbon. …”

“ʻŌkolehao has been recognized as something in which Hawaiʻi might well have a proprietary pride, because of its surpassing excellence in its class.” (Hawaiian Star, September 20, 1906)

It had its detractors … “If people will drink, let us at least see, if possible, that they drink a fair article of poison. I hold that no man ever killed his wife when under the influence of good, generous liquor. It is the “tarantula juice,” the ʻōkolehao, that does most of the mischief.” (The Friend, October 1, 1879)

Ti is a member of the agave family; botanists had previously placed it in the lily family. Besides green, the foliage of ti plants can be red, orange, purple, or various combinations of these (blue has not yet been found in ti.)

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Ti Leaves

Ti_plant_(Cordyline_fruticosa)

Ti-red-green

Ti leaf and heiau

Ki Skirt

Hookupu

Ti Root

Okolehao_label (thewhiskyunderground)

February 9, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Emden

The swastika was used at least 5,000 years before Adolf Hitler designed the Nazi flag. The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit svastika, which means “good fortune” or “well-being.”

Archeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the hooked cross on the site of ancient Troy. He connected it with similar shapes found on pottery in Germany and speculated that it was a “significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors.”

In the beginning of the twentieth century the swastika was widely used in Europe. However, the work of Schliemann soon was taken up by völkisch movements, for whom the swastika was a symbol of “Aryan identity” and German nationalist pride

This conjecture of Aryan cultural descent of the German people is likely one of the main reasons why the Nazi party formally adopted the swastika or Hakenkreuz (Ger., hooked cross) as its symbol in 1920.

After World War I, a number of far-right nationalist movements adopted the swastika. As a symbol, it became associated with the idea of a racially “pure” state. By the time the Nazis gained control of Germany, the connotations of the swastika had forever changed.

In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote: “I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika.”

The swastika (or Hakenkreuz (Ger., hooked cross)) would become the most recognizable icon of Nazi propaganda, appearing on the flag referred to by Hitler in Mein Kampf as well as on election posters, arm bands, medallions, and badges for military and other organizations. (Holocaust Memorial Museum)

On September 15, 1935, the Nazi government introduced the Nuremberg Laws, legislation which defined German society and state in fascist and racial terms, and strengthened the legal oppression of Jews. (Telegraph)

The swastika came to Hawai‘i in 1936 – it flew aboard the Emden.

On January 7, 1925 the light cruiser Emden, the first significant warship built after the First World War, was launched at Wilhelmshaven and refitted as a training ship.

On October 23, 1935, the Emden embarked on a cruise through the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific – Azores, Caribbean, Venezuela, Panama Canal, Oregon, Honolulu, Panama Canal, Baltimore, Montreal and Pontevedra (Spain).

Karl Dönitz commanded the 1935 training cruise of the Emden. (He later became commander of submarines and eventually grand admiral. He was also Hitler’s successor and leader of the short-lived Flensburg government (1945)).

They arrived in Honolulu on February 8, 1936. The Royal Hawaiian Band greeted them and played music at Honolulu Harbor. The German crew band broke into music on board.

“In the evening (was a) big reception with dancing. … The next day on the trip to Kailua Beach is better. Here and in the following days in the Waikiki Beach – we experience so much vaunted Hawaii in every respect. With every day it becomes more beautiful.”

“Car and swimming trips alternate with family invitations. Whether German, Hawaiian, American, Military, Japanese or Chinese, we are soon good friends with them.”

“Willingly we are shown the paradisiacal beauty of the island. Who gets to see a hula hula dance, what can add special beauty to his memories.”

“The number of our friends is so great that it is impossible to invite them all to a board fixed, so the commander puts on two afternoons board hard, so we are able to guarantee granted us hospitality to thank all our friends and girlfriends.”

“Again, we are all endowed very rich goodbye. Hours earlier, everything gathered in front of the ship, listening to the … Military band. Then plays and then sing again the Royal Hawaiian band.”

“Each of our friends hanged a wreath of flowers around, pushes us again the hand and says: Aloha! This word of Hawaiians expresses all the feelings of his friends.”

“It is a farewell to one of us probably no one forgets. Even our brave ship carries an Aloha wreath at the bow. Always quieter Aloha calls, nor do we see the Aloha Tower, then the Diamond Head, and then we throw the wreaths – as required by the custom – overboard, the dream of Hawaii is over! – Aloha oe!!” (Witnesses Report; Norderstedter Zeitzeugen)

The Emden left the Islands on February 17, 1936.

Emden spent the majority of her career as a training ship; at the outbreak of war, she laid minefields off the German coast and was damaged by a British bomber that crashed into her. (WorthPoint)

During WWII the Emden was used as a training ship but participated also in several combat operations until 1944. In January 1945, “she took on board the mortal remains of General Field Marshal Hindenburg and his wife, which had been disinterred” to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy hands. (Williamson) (Paul von Hindenburg was German President before Hitler.)

Badly damaged by British bombers on April 10, 1945 at Kiel, she was blown up on May 3rd in the Heikendorfer Bay. The remains were broken up for scrap in 1949. (Ships Nostalgia)

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Emden in Honolulu Harbor

Emden Crew with lei

Emden Crew and Boat with lei

Emden-Light_Cruiser_Emden_off_the_US_West_Coast_1930

Emden-Light_Cruiser_Emden-in Honolulu Harbor-1936

Emden landing at Honolulu Harbor

Royal Hawaiian Band welcoming the Emden

Route of the cruise of the Emden-1935-36

February 8, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Friend of the Mission from the First’

“He had been the friend of the Mission from the first – had forsaken his vices, embraced the Gospel, joined the Church of Christ, and maintained a consistent life.”

“When he found that he must die, he resolved to retire to the island, and to that spot in that island, which had been familiar in his early days.”

“As he stood upon the shore of O‘ahu ready to depart, with the Missionaries near him, and multitudes of natives about him weeping because they should see his face no more …”

“… he declared, in the presence of all, his confidence in the Missionaries, and his joy in the religion which they had brought to the Islands and to himself …”

“… and then desired that all might be quiet, while, on the beach and under the open heavens, one of the Missionaries should commend him and them to the protection and guardianship of Almighty God.”

“Having retired to the home of his fathers, he a few days after died; and as he died, this venerable warrior and chieftain said, ‘I am happy – I am happy’ – a speech, which, we venture to say, no dying Islander ever uttered before the Missionaries arrived and preached the Gospel.”

“Some months before his death, he had his parting advice to his people committed to paper. Just before he left O‘ahu, it was read to him.”

“‘These are my sentiments still,’ said he; ‘and, on the day that I am taken away, I wish the people to be assembled, and these words to be read to them as mine.’”

“This document, like his other compositions, since his professed obedience to the Gospel, is described as breathing a spirit of piety, and exhibiting evidence of the Christian hope.”

“The evidences of his Christian character are thus enumerated by Mr. Bingham – ‘The consistency of his life with what he knew of the requirements of the Word of God – his steady adherence to Christian principles, which he professed to follow since his contest, preservation, and victory at Tauai …’”

“‘… his steady, warm, and operative friendship for the Missionaries; and his constant, earnest, and efficient endeavours, while his health would allow it, to promote the cause of instruction and religious improvement among the people …’”

“‘… his constancy in attending the worship of God – his firmness in resisting temptation – his faithfulness in reproving sin – his patience in suffering – his calm and steady hope of heaven, through the atonement of Christ …’”

“‘… whom he regarded as the only Saviour, to whom he had, as he said, given up himself, heart, soul, and body, to be his servant for ever —all combine to give him a happy claim to that most honourable title of Rulers on earth, a Nursing Father in Zion, and to the name of ‘Christian, the highest style of man.’’”

“‘This world,’ he said, ‘is full of sorrow: but, in heaven, there is no sorrow nor pain – It is good! – It is light! – It is happy!’”

“It is a subject of gratitude, that the life of so important a man was preserved during the troubles of last year, when his sudden removal might have been followed by most disastrous consequences.”

“Thanks should be rendered, also, for the gracious support which was afforded him, during his long illness, as death gradually advanced.”

“The power of religion was strikingly manifest in the victory, which, in this instance, faith gained over inveterate habits, pride, the love of sin, and the love of the world: nothing but Christian truth ever obtained such a conquest.”

“Such a man as Karaimoku would be a blessing to any nation.”

“He only wanted an early education, to have made him an accomplished statesman. The nation must long lament his loss, for there is no one who can fill his place.” (Missionary Register, 1828)

“Kalanimōku, whom the natives called (“kaula hao, iron cable, of the country, a compliment higher than the discharge of twenty-one guns from the fort would have been” (Bingham)), died in 1827.”

“Anticipating the approach of his dissolution from the progress of dropsy (edema – a condition characterized by an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body), the old chief sailed from Honolulu for Kailua (Kona), where he wished to die.”

“Here, under an unsuccessful operation for his disease, he fainted, and after a few hours expired, on the 8th of February. In him the heathen warrior was seen transformed into the peaceful, joyous Christian.” (Anderson)

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William Pitt Kalanimoku (c. 1768–1827) was a military and civil leader of the Kingdom of Hawaii-Pellion

February 7, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Oregon Mission

Early missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) on the continent were to the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians of the southeast.

“Other Indian missions were begun shortly after this; in fact the next two decades saw the most widespread efforts of the Board upon the American continent. Many of these missions to Indian tribes were short lived and not very productive but there are three which stand out as of special interest: the mission to the Cherokees, the Oregon mission and the mission to the Dakotas.”

“The Oregon mission is famous for the part in it of Dr. Marcus Whitman and for its connection with the settlement of the northwest and the final inclusion of what are now the states of Washington and Oregon within the Union.”

“There are two controversies connected with this enterprise which have enhanced the interest it would have on other grounds.”

“One has to do with a very human feud between two families growing out of the fact that a certain young lady. Narcissa Prentiss, turned down one suitor and accepted another.”

“The rejected suitor was Rev. H. H. Spaulding who carried on a very successful work among the Nez Perce Indians in Idaho and the successful one was Dr. Marcus Whitman.”

“After Dr. Whitman had been commissioned by the Board to go on an exploratory expedition among the western Indians he was strongly advised to find him a wife to take with him. That didn’t seem hard to do for. in fact, he had already met Miss Prentiss and things were ripe for a proposal.”

“But he found it very difficult to find another couple who had the proper qualifications and who were willing and able to undertake the long and dangerous journey over the Oregon trail. It finally became apparent that the only such couple were Spaulding and his bride.”

“Now quite understandably Mr. Spaulding never liked Narcissa Whitman and eventually bad feeling developed between him and the doctor although there never seemed to be any between Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding.”

“It is greatly to the credit of all concerned that the quarrel was finally settled and settled for good by frank and prayerful conferences and the help of other members of the mission.”

“Both the Spauldings and the Whitmans were completely devoted Christian missionaries; had they not been it is not likely that they could have worked together so long and finally disposed of their quarrel.”

“The other controversy has to do with the historic ride of Dr. Whitman back to the east in the winter of 1842-43. The question in dispute is whether he went east primarily to counsel with the Prudential Committee of the Board about the continuance of the mission …”

“… or to intercede at Washington in the interest of emigration into Oregon and the claiming of the northwest as United States territory. Did he ride as a patriot or as a missionary?”

“As a matter of fact it seems that Marcus Whitman went east with both objectives in mind. The Mission Station at Waiilatpu which was the Whitman’s place of work, a few miles from the present city of Walla Walla, was on the main trail then travelled to the Willamette Valley.”

“Every year larger and larger parties of immigrants passed the station. They started from Missouri in the spring and arrived at Waiilatpu late in the autumn sadly in need of supplies and human help generally. Dr. Whitman had become increasingly interested in this flow of immigration.”

“He was forever pleading with Secretary Greene of the Board to send out pious and industrious families to settle in that part of the territory.”

“While the Board didn’t do anything to help him hundreds and finally thousands came, some pious hut more who were not of any particular help to the cause of the Indian mission.”

“That part of the mission about Waiilatpu was never so prosperous as the one among the Nez Perces. The Indians were the Cayuses, a small and restless tribe number numbering not more than three hundred. “

“There were some among them who were faithful Christians and who worked at the farms which they cultivated under the instruction of Dr. Whitman and his helpers.”

“They had learned something of the Christian gospel before the Whitman party arrived and were accustomed to having daily devotions. Some children came to the school which was conducted when conditions permitted.”

“But the Indians finally came to feel, probably with some justification, that Dr. Whitman’s main interest was in the white settlement of the country. It seemed to them that he was a friend of the whites and they looked upon the white immigrants as threatening their own possession of rights to the land. They certainly had sufficient grounds for that fear.”

“Another and rather curious cause for antagonism toward Dr. Whitman contributed to the eventual tragedy. It was quite customary among the Indians to kill the ‘te wat’ or medicine man if the patient that he treated died.”

“Inevitably some of those whom Dr. Whitman treated died and he was held to blame for it. When there was an epidemic of measles the Indians suffered more than the whites …”

“… and many died as they had developed no immunity to the white man’s disease and also because they treated it by first sweating the patient and then having him plunge into cold water. So the sickness and deaths were blamed on the white men.”

“After a period of increasing tension and irritation, one day a general massacre was carried out and both Dr. and Mrs. Whitman along with a dozen others were killed.”

“The inevitable result was the pursuit and punishment of the Indians and this part of the mission was ended. The Cayuse tribe eventually lost its identity.”

“But the Nez Perces continued to make progress as a Christian community. The beginnings of the Church for the white population had been made in Oregon and Washington. Whitman College also constitutes a permanent memorial and fruit of the short and troubled career of Dr. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman.” (All from Hugh Vernon White, Secretary, The Congregational Church)

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