Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Portuguese in Hawaiʻi

Reportedly, the first Portuguese in Hawai’i were sailors that came on the Eleanora in 1790.  It is believed the first Portuguese nationals to live in the Hawaiian kingdom sailed through on whalers, as early as 1794, and jumped ship.

The first recorded Portuguese visitor was John Elliot de Castro, who sailed to Hawaiʻi in 1814.  During his days in Hawaiʻi he became a retainer of King Kamehameha I, serving as his personal physician and as member of the royal court.

After two years in Hawaiʻi, he sailed off to the island of Sitka, Alaska and joined the Russian-American Company under Alexander Baranov, working as a commercial agent.

Later, Whitney notes, “In (1828,) extensive fields of cane were grown in and about Honolulu, and mills were erected in Nuuanu Valley and at Waikapu, Maui. At the latter place, a Portugese, named Antonio Silva, is spoken of as the pioneer sugar planter.”

For 50 years after these early visitors arrived, Portuguese sailors came ashore alone or in small groups, jumping ship to enjoy Hawaiian life and turning their backs on the rough life aboard whalers and other vessels.

The 1853 population of the Hawaiian Islands was 73,134, including 2,119 foreigners, of these, reportedly 86 were Portuguese.  Hawaiians referred to the Portuguese as “Pokiki.”

Eventually several hundred Portuguese made the Islands their home.  Many of the settlers came from Madeira Islands (about half the size of Oʻahu,) off the coast of Africa.  They also came from the Azores, nine islands between Portugal and the US, and about 1½-times the size of Oʻahu.

The reciprocity treaty in 1875 between the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the United States opened the US sugar market to Hawaiʻi and greatly increased the demand for workers.

Jacinto Pereira (also known as Jason Perry,) a Portuguese citizen and owner of a dry goods store in Honolulu, suggested in 1876 that Hawaiʻi’s government look for sugar labor from Madeira where farmers were succumbing to a severe economic depression fostered by a blight that decimated vineyards and the wine industry.

At that time, about 400-Portuguese, a large number of whom formerly served as seamen on whaling vessels, lived in Hawaiʻi.  Then, the numbers grew.

São Miguel in the eastern Azores was also chosen as a source of labor. In 1878, the first Portuguese immigrant laborers to Honolulu arrived on the German ship Priscilla. At least one hundred men, women and children arrived to work on the sugar plantations. That year marked the beginning of the mass migration of Portuguese to Hawaiʻi, which continued until the end of the century.

In 1879 in Hawaiʻi, Portuguese musicians (Madeira Islanders) played on “strange instruments, which are a kind of cross between a guitar and a banjo, but which produce very sweet music” (this Madeiran guitar, the machete, was destined to become known as the Hawaiian ʻukulele.)  (Hawaiian Gazette – September 3, 1879)

On his world tour, in 1881, King David Kalākaua visited Portugal and was entertained in royal fashion by Portugal’s King Dom Luis. That year two ships delivered over 800-men, women and children from São Miguel.  The next year a treaty of immigration and friendship was signed between Portugal and the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Migration to Hawaiʻi became popular to escape poverty and a harsh military system. The dream of settling in islands that looked like home drew workers away from offers to labor in the fields of Brazil and urban seaports of the US.

Mass immigration of the Portuguese to Hawaiʻi also came from New England and California as Portuguese came to replace Chinese workers who left plantations to open stores and work in the trades.

While Chinese and Japanese workers had come as single men, whole families came from Portugal (reportedly, forty-two percent of the early Portuguese emigrants were men, 19% women and 39% children.)

The sponsoring of Portuguese immigration to Hawaiʻi was ceased in 1888 due to its high cost and the success of efforts to recruit Japanese workers. Almost 12,000-people had moved from Madeira or São Miguel, Azores to Hawaiʻi by that time.

Many continued to be employed by the plantations even after their contracts had been fulfilled.  Others, however, sought to take up independent work and turned especially to farming and ranching.  Between 1890 and 1910, many Portuguese left Hawaiʻi and migrated to California, primarily the Bay Area.

The Portuguese have given Hawaiʻi many traditions.  In music – they brought the ʻukulele and steel-string guitar.  Try to image Hawaiʻi without sausage (linguiça,) malasada (malassada) or sweet bread (pão doce) … or Frank De Lima.

The image shows the early influence the Portuguese had on Hawaiian music and hula – the ʻukulele.  I added a couple of other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

David Malo

David Malo, one of the early native Hawaiian scholars, was the son of Aoao and his wife Heone, and was born in Keauhou, North Kona Hawai‘i; his father had been soldier in the army of Kamehameha I.

The exact year of his birth is not known, but it was about 1793, around the time of Vancouver’s second visit to the islands.

During his early life Malo was connected with the high chief Kuakini (Governor Adams,) who was a brother of Queen Ka‘ahumanu.

In 1823, Malo moved to Lāhainā, Maui where he learned to read and write. Malo soon converted to Christianity and was given the baptismal name of David.

In 1831, he entered Lahainaluna High School (at about the age of 38;) the school opened with twenty-five students, under the leadership of Reverend Lorrin Andrews – he graduated in the class of 1835.  

From about 1835, he started writing notes on the Hawaiian religion and cultural history, along with other members of the school and instructor Sheldon Dibble.

Malo came to be regarded as the great authority and repository of Hawaiian lore and was in great demand as a story-teller of the old-time traditions, mele, and genealogies, and as a master in arrangements of the hula.

The law which first established a national school system was the “Statute for the Regulation of Schools” which was enacted on October 15, 1840, and was reenacted, with some important amendments, on May 21, 1841.

Malo was appointed as the general school agent for Maui; he was then voted to be in charge of all the general school agents, therefore becoming the first superintendent of schools of the Hawaiian kingdom (where he served at least until the middle of 1845.

He was described as “tall and of spare frame, active, energetic, a good man of business, eloquent of speech, independent in his utterances.”

“He was of a type of mind inclined to be jealous and quick to resent any seeming slight in the way of disparagement or injustice that might be shown to his people or nation, and was one who held tenaciously to the doctrine of national integrity and independence.”

After being ordained to the Christian ministry, he settled down in the seaside village of Kalepolepo on East Maui where he remained until his death in October 1853.

His book, Hawaiian antiquities (Moolelo Hawaii – 1898,) addressed the genealogies, traditions and beliefs of the people of Hawai‘i.

In the “Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition,” Admiral Wilkes (1840,) commenting on books about Hawai‘i, said, “(s)ome of them are by native authors.  Of these I cannot pass at least one without naming him.”

“This is David Malo, who is highly esteemed by all who know him, and who lends the missionaries his aid, in mind as well as example, in ameliorating the condition of his people and checking licentiousness.”

“At the same time he sets an example of industry, by farming with his own hands, and manufactures from his own sugar cane an excellent molasses.”

In the introduction to his book, the trustees of Bishop Museum acknowledge they “are rendering an important service to all Polynesian scholars.”

They also suggest the book “form(s) a valuable contribution not only to Hawaiian archaeology, but also to Polynesian ethnology in general.”

Click here for a link to the book that you may download (I downloaded it, did an Optical Character Recognition and use it all the time in learning more about Hawai‘i.)

© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa

We are happy to announce that Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA,) serving as the sponsor for the Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa Scenic Byway, has retained Hoʻokuleana LLC to assist in the application, designation and planning processes for the Byway through the Hawaiʻi Scenic Byway Program.

The Hawaiʻi Scenic Byways Program is designed to complement the National Scenic Byways Program, a nationwide effort to identify, promote, manage and invest in roadways that are the most significant in their region with regard to these scenic, historic, recreational, cultural, archeological and natural qualities.

The purpose of the Hawai`i Scenic Byways Program is to formally designate Hawaiʻi Scenic Byways and to establish and implement Corridor Management Plans (CMPs) for our corridors.

The Hawaii Scenic Byways Program identifies and recognizes:
• roads that “tell a story” that is special;
• roads with outstanding scenic, cultural, recreational, archaeological, natural and historic qualities; and
• roads that will benefit from a coordinated strategy for tourism and economic development

First, the name – it is not only descriptive of the meaning and feeling of Waikīkī as we know it today, it is also a metaphor of Waikīkī in traditional (ancient Hawaiian) times, at multiple levels.

In ancient times, a ‘kauhale’ was a cluster of structures [a living compound.]  The traditional Hawaiian home was the kauhale (Lit., plural house;) this was a group of structures forming the homestead – with each building serving a specific purpose.

Literally, ‘Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa’ translates to ‘Waikīkī – Home of Hospitality.’  But, this context of “Home” can expand and also represent the community of Waikīkī.

Starting with Māʻilikūkahi, who ruled in the 1400-1500s (at about the same time Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic,) Waikīkī became the Royal Center for Oʻahu’s ruling Aliʻi.  It remained as such, through Kamehameha I.

The Royal Centers were areas selected by the Ali‘i for their residences and Ali‘i often moved between several residences throughout the year.  The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources (water, fishing, fertile land, etc) and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

The Scenic Byways program serves to identify “Intrinsic Qualities” along the corridor; these include Scenic, Natural, Historic, Cultural, Archaeological and Recreational.

These intrinsic qualities break into two clusters:
“Land” (Scenic, Natural and Recreational,) and
“People” (Historic, Cultural and Archaeological)

Sites and Stories of Waikīkī, as illustrated through its Intrinsic Qualities, help tell the stories of the Land (‘Āina) and its People from the earliest beginnings of Hawai‘i to today.  Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa will be incorporating several core story themes:
• Royal Residences
• Visitor Industry
• Military
• Natural/Geologic
• Socio-Economic-Political
• Side Trips

Although many of the sites and structures of Waikīkī from the ancient times are long gone, many of these pre-contact Hawaiian places, environment, people, history and culture still convey the sense of earlier importance through continued use of original place names for areas, streets, surf sites, symbols, etc and other references to these people, places and times.  Though gone, they are not forgotten and continue to express the ways of the past.

Through the telling of stories of Waikīkī (and a goal of the establishment of a Scenic Byway (and dream of NaHHA founder, George Kanahele,)) we help to restore Hawaiianness to Waikīkī in a positive, productive and respectful way.

The sense of place of Waikīkī lies within these stories, under the overarching contexts of “Aloha” and “Hoʻokipa” (Hospitality.)

“Waikīkī’s significance is as a place of history, not destination.” (George Kanahele)  Restoring some of Waikīkī’s historical and cultural integrity through Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa Scenic Byway will help to illustrate “I ka wā mamua, ka wā mahope” (The future is in the past.)

This is our third Scenic Byway opportunity.  We also assisted the Kona Sponsor of “Royal Footsteps Along the Kona Coast” with their Corridor Management Plan (the first approved in the State,) as well as helping the Kōloa Sponsor of Holo Holo Kōloa Scenic Byway with their permits and CMP.

In addition to each of those receiving Historic Preservation Commendations from Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation, the Kona project also received the Environment/Preservation Award from the American Planning Association-Hawaiʻi Chapter and the Pualu Award for Culture & History from the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce.

For more information on this project, you can click the following link for a background summary of Waikīkī,  the Scenic Byway Program and the many stories that are told along its roadways.

Click here for more information on the Waikīkī – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa

The image shows our theme image, theme statement and mission/vision – ultimately, we see this Scenic Byway helping to “Restore Hawaiianness to Waikīkī.”

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Keʻelikōlani – Princess Ruth

A great-granddaughter of Kamehameha, a grand-niece to Kamehameha II and III, and a half-sister of Kamehameha IV and V, Ruth Keʻelikōlani was born in Pohukaina, O‘ahu on February 9, 1826.

Ruth’s heritage was controversial.  She was the poʻolua (“two heads”) child of Kāhalaiʻa and Kekūanāoʻa.  (Johnson)

Her mother, Pauahi, was said to be carrying the child of Kāhalaiʻa when she married Kekūanāoʻa. Kekūanāoʻa claimed Keʻelikōlani as his own in court, and the matter was officially settled, though it would be debated again in later years, even by her own half-brother, Lot.  (Nogelmeier)

After Pauahi’s death, Kekūanāoʻa married Kīna‘u, and they became the parents of Lot Kapuāiwa, Alexander Liholiho, and Victoria Kamāmalu, making Keʻelikōlani a half-sister to these three.

Her mother, Pauahi, died while giving birth to Keʻelikōlani, who was then cared for by Kamehameha’s wife, Ka‘ahumanu, who herself died six years later. The Princess was then sent to live with her father, Kekūanāoʻa, and her stepmother, Kīnaʻu.

At the age of sixteen, Keʻelikōlani married William Pitt Leleiōhoku. While serving as governor of Hawai‘i Island, Leleiōhoku died, only twenty-two years old. They had two children, only one of whom – William Pitt Kīnaʻu – survived childhood. Tragically, he died at the age of seventeen in an accident on Hawai‘i.

Keʻelikōlani’s second husband was the part-Hawaiian Isaac Young Davis, grandson of Isaac Davis (a Welsh advisor to King Kamehameha I.)

In 1862, they had a son, Keolaokalani (‘The Life of the Heavenly One.’)  (No one knew then that Keolaokalani would be the last baby born into the Kamehameha line.)  Keʻelikōlani gave him as a hānai to Bernice Pauahi.

Lot (Kamehameha V,) forced Ruth to renounce all ties with Keolaokalani as her heir. (But six months was all the time Pauahi would have with her son. He died on August 29, 1862.)

Then Lot insisted that she adopt William Pitt Leleiōhoku II, King Kalākaua’s youngest brother and heir apparent.    She did; however, Leleiōhoku predeceased Ruth.

Determined to uphold the honor of her ancestors, she retained many traditional religious practices. Although she learned English among other subjects at the missionary-run Chief’s Children’s School, she was a staunch supporter of the Hawaiian language and traditional cultural practices.

Able to speak and write English, she chose not to. Trained in the Christian religion, she held fast to practices and beliefs that were considered pagan, including her patronage of chanters and hula dancers.  (Nogelmeier)

When Madame Pele threatened the town of Hilo with a lava flow in 1881, the people asked Keʻelikōlani to intercede. The Hawaiian-language newspaper Ko Hawai‘i Pae Aina published a letter with the heading “Ka Pele ai Honua ma Hilo” (Pele, devourer of land at Hilo) that describes the immediate danger, “Hapalua Mile ka Mamao mai ke Koana aku” (the distance from town being only one half mile). Ke‘elikōlani offered traditional oli (chants) and hoʻokupu (tribute) to Pele and later reportedly camped at the foot of the flow. The flow stopped just short of town.  (Bishop Museum)

She was a member of the Privy Council (1847,) the House of Nobles (1855-1857) and served as Governor of the island of Hawaiʻi (1855-1874.)

She was godmother to Princess Kaʻiulani. At Kaʻiulani’s baptism, Ruth gifted 10-acres of her land in Waikīkī where Kaʻiulani’s father Archibald Cleghorn built the ʻĀinahau Estate.

Keʻelikōlani was respected as one of considerable rank, and as time passed, she was said to be “Ka Pua Alii Kiekie pili ponoi o ko Kamehameha Hale – the highest-ranking descendant of Kamehameha’s line … ke Alii kahiko aku i ko na Alii e ae a pau – the chiefess with the most historic lineage of all”.  (Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, 1883 – Nogelmeier)

Throughout her life she was regularly addressed by all as Ka Mea Kiʻekiʻe – Highness. Foreigners knew her as “Princess Ruth.”

By the time King Kalākaua was elected, Keʻelikōlani was the richest woman in the kingdom, having inherited the estates of her parents and siblings.

Despite owning Huliheʻe Palace, a Western-style house in Kailua-Kona, she chose to live in a large, traditional grass home on the grounds of that oceanfront property.

She later chose to build Keōua Hale, a large, ornate mansion on her land in Honolulu.  Keōua Hale was a Victorian-style mansion, and the most expansive residence of the time; it was larger than ʻIolani Palace.

The house was completed in 1883; however, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani never lived in the palace. She became ill immediately after the house warming and birthday luau.

Her doctors recommended that she return to Huliheʻe, her Kailua-Kona residence, where they believed she would more quickly regain her health.  She died in 1883 at Haleʻōlelo at her large native-style home (thatch house) on the grounds of Huliheʻe Palace in Kailua, Hawaiʻi.

At her death, Keʻelikōlani’s will stated that she “give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers.” (about 353,000 acres)

This established the land-base endowment for Pauahi’s subsequent formation of Kamehameha Schools at her death.  Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop passed away a year later.

The image shows Keʻelikōlani in 1877; in addition, I have added related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Na Pōhaku Ola Kapaemahu A Kapuni – The Healing (Wizard) Stones of Kapaemahu

Pōhaku or stones are believed to hold mana or spiritual power. Pōhaku are featured in shrines as manifestations of ʻaumakua (family guardians,) akua (deities) and ʻuhane (spirits.) Throughout the islands are famous and named pōhaku which figure prominently in healing and health.

At Waikīkī, Oʻahu on Kūhiō Beach Hawaiian legend says Na Pōhaku Ola Kapaemahu A Kapuni were placed here in tribute to four soothsayers, Kapaemahu, Kahaloa, Kapuni and Kinohi, who came from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi (long before the reign of Oʻahu’s chief Kakuhihewa in the 16th century.)

Kapaemahu was the leader of the four and honored for his ability to cast aside carnality and care for both men and women. Kapuni was said to envelop his patients with his mana. While Kinohi was the clairvoyant diagnostician, Kahaloa— whose name means “long breath”—was said to be able to breathe life into her patients.

The art of healing they practiced is known in the Islands as la‘au lapa‘au. In this practice, plants and animals from the land and sea, which are known to have healing properties, are combined with great wisdom to treat the ailing.

They gained fame and popularity because they were able to cure the sick by laying their hands upon them. Before they returned to Tahiti, they asked the people to erect four large pōhaku as a permanent reminder of their visit and the cures they had accomplished.

Legend says that these stones were brought into Waikīkī from Waiʻalae Avenue in Kaimuki, nearly two miles away. Waikīkī was a marshland devoid of any large stones. These stones are basaltic, the same type of stone found in Kaimukī.

On the night of Kāne (the night that the moon rises at dawn,) the people began to move the rocks from Kaimukī to Kūhiō Beach.  During a month-long ceremony, the healers are said to have transferred their names — Kapaemahu, Kahaloa, Kapuni and Kinohi — and or spiritual power, to the stones.

One of the pōhaku used to rest where the surf would roll onto the beach known to surfers as “Baby Queens”, the second pōhaku would be found on the ʻEwa side of ʻApuakehau Stream (site of Royal Hawaiian Hotel), and the last two pōhaku once sat above the water line fronting Ulukou (near the site of the present Moana Hotel.)

It was not until the first decade of the 1900s that Gov. Archibald Cleghorn discovered two stones on his property and two on an adjacent property.

Recognizing their significance, Cleghorn had them excavated and placed together on his estate with the stipulation that they should not be moved.

However, in 1941, the estate land was leased out for the building of a bowling alley.   Upon the bowling alley’s demolition, in 1958, the stones were identified and repaired.  (They were used in the building’s foundation.)

Then, in 1963, they were relocated to Kūhiō Beach.  In 1980, the stones were moved again, approximately 50 feet mauka (toward the mountains) from their 1963 location.

Finally, in 1997, action began to create a permanent and more appropriate home for the stones.  Cultural historian and great-great-grandson of Archibald Cleghorn, Manu Boyd, reportedly said, “The value and meaning of the stones had faded over time with the changing values and mores of the day. Then, their importance was remembered and embraced by people who wanted to restore them.”

For years, committed individuals collaborated on plans to create a wahi pana (sacred place) where Na Pohaku could be honored and protected.  This wahi pana (or legendary site) was restored with the Assistance of Papa Henry Auwae and the Queen Emma Foundation 1997.

In addition to the many involved with the restoration, a delegation from Tahiti was present for the final ceremonies. These individuals blessed the stones with wild basil, traditionally used for cleansing, and presented a small stone from Tahiti named Ta‘ahu ea as a ho‘okupu (offering). That stone is now set on top of the altar in front of Na Pohaku.

Following the direction of Papa Auwae, four plants with medicinal value were added to the site—ma‘o (Hawaiian cotton), ‘ohe (bamboo), makahala (wild tobacco) and naupaka kahakai (beach naupaka).

The group Na Haumana La‘au Lapa‘au O Papa Auwae is the adoptive caretaker of Na Pōhaku. Babette Galang, who studied la‘au lapa‘au under Auwae, explained, “We were advised by Papa Auwae before his passing that we were to malama [take care of] the site.”

The image shows Na Pōhaku Ola Kapaemahu A Kapuni.  Lots of information here from Karyl Reynolds.  In addition, I have included other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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