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. Four young Hawaiians joined the Pioneer Company.
They were, Hopu (Thomas Hopu) ‘ Hopoo’; Kanui (William Kanui) ‘Tennooe’; Humehume (George Prince) ‘Tamoree’ and Honoli‘i (John Honoli‘i) ‘Honoree’.
“The Hawaiian boys who came back with the missionaries … were able to reassure the Hawaiian people as to the friendliness of the relations between America and Hawaii and to serve as guides to the missionaries upon their arrival.” (Kamakau, Ka Nupepa Ku‘oko‘a, Jan 4, 1868; Ruling Chiefs)
Honoli‘i had arrived in Boston in the fall of 1815. He came over in a ship belonging to Messrs. Ropes & Co merchants of Boston. He was taken on board the ship by the consent of his friends, and replaced a sailor, who died before the ship arrived at Hawai‘i. He was curious and wanted to see the world.
“A place was soon found for him at the Rev. Mr. Vaill’s of Guilford, where he began to learn the first rudiments of the English language. Messrs. Ropes & Co., in whose ship he came to this country, not only cheerfully released him for the purpose of being educated, but very generously gave one hundred dollars towards the expense of his education.”
“He was ignorant of our language. And of every species of learning or religion, when he began to study. In about six months he began to read in a broken manner in the Bible. In the mean time, he also learned to write, which cost him but little time or labour. … He is industrious, faithful, and persevering, not only in his studies, but in whatever business he undertakes.” (ABCFM)
Honoli‘I enrolled in the Cornwall school in 1817. His teachers considered him to be mild-mannered and industrious. He was also thought to be “tactful, persevering, and faithful.” (Morris & Benedetto)
Honoli‘i became a valuable Hawaiian language instructor because, having come at a later age (about 19), he still had good command of his native tongue. He also won praise for his considerable vigor and intellect and his discreet and stately deportment. (Kelley)
Back in the Islands, “The king Kaumualii appears exceedingly interested in what he now learns from the bible through the interpretation of Honolii.” (Sybil Bingham)
Then, David Douglas visited the Hawaiian Islands. Douglas first visited in 1830, on his way from England to the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. On this brief visit, he climbed several peaks on O’ahu and was “splendidly” entertained by “Madame Boki”, the wife of the governor.
Douglas left the Columbia region in December of 1830 and traveled to California. He visited Hawai‘i a second time in September of 1832 enroute from Monterey in California to the Columbia River. He was in the Islands for just a few short weeks; he returned to Honolulu in December of 1833.
“I arrived here on the 23rd of December, and after spending Christmas Day with two English ladies, the wife of our Consul, Mr. Charlton, and her sister, I started on the 27th for the island of Hawaii, which I reached on the 2nd of January, 1834.”
“You know I have long had this tour in contemplation, and having spent three winter months in botanizing here, I proceed to give you a short notice of my proceedings.” (Douglas; Greenwell)
When Douglas was exploring Hawai‘i in 1833 and 1834, he knew Honoli‘i and deemed him a friend as well as a guide. Honoli‘i accompanied Douglas on several ascents of Mauna Kea. It is clear the Honoli‘i was still practicing his faith: on one of their trips the Douglas party stopped at Kapapala where Honoli‘i preached at the Sunday service. (Morris & Benedetto)
“Honoli‘i had probably been chosen as a guide because of his command of the English language. He had spent a number of years in America and had returned to Hawai‘i … in 1820. Douglas referred to Honoli‘i as ‘my guide, friend, and interpreter, Honori, an intelligent and well-disposed fellow’”. (Greenwell)
They first made their way up Mauna Kea; Douglas next visited Kilauea crater and ascended Mauna Loa, again traveling with Honoli’i and a large retinue of Hawaiians.
Douglas’s little terrier, Billy, accompanied him on these trips and in all his travels. The botanist once wrote in his journal: “my old terrier, a most faithful and now to judge from his long grey beard, venerable friend, who has guarded me throughout all my journies, and whom, should I live to return”. (Memoir of David Douglas-in Companion to the Botanical Magazine Vol II-1836)
Honoli‘i was not with Douglas when he died on Mauna Kea, in a bullock pit. On July 12, 1834, while exploring the Island; “Douglas, a scientific traveller from Scotland, in the service of the London Horticultural Society, lost his life in the mountains of Hawaii, in a pitfall, being gored and trampled to death by a wild bullock captured there. (Bingham)
“It was a native custom to trap the wild long-horned Spanish cattle by digging pits and covering them with brush. … When some natives came by later in the morning, they first saw the feet of a man sticking out of a mass of rubbish and stones.”
“A bull was already entrapped in the pit and the angry beast was standing on the chest of the young plant-hunter. … Thus ended 9 years of botanical adventure along the Pacific for David Douglas. His death at 35 is one of the tragedies of botanical history. But in his short span of life, as one scientist wrote …”
“‘No other explorer personally made more discoveries, or described more genera or species. No other collector of rare plants ever reaped such a harvest or associated his name with so many economically useful and beautiful plants as David Douglas.’” (Gould; Vassar)
Honoli‘i died in February 1838. David Douglas was buried in the native churchyard of Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu; Honoli‘i was buried in the cemetery of Ka‘ahumanu Church at Wailuku, Maui.
