Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lydia Panioikawai Hunt French

“’We are fortunate; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ These were her last words. She did not say anything until the day she left, then she said clearly: Aloha, three times, and her body’s work was done.” (Kuokoa, March 6, 1880)

Let’s look back …

Lydia Panioikawai Hunt French (Panio) was born in Waikele, Ewa, on the 15th of July, 1817. She married her husband, Mr. William French (Mika Palani) in 1836 at Kailua, Hawai‘i. Governor Kuakini was the one who married them.

William French arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1819 and settled in Honolulu. He became a leading trader, providing hides and tallow, and provisioning the whaling ships that called in Honolulu. Financial success during the next decade made French known as “the merchant prince.”

It “was with this husband who she lived in aloha with until death separated them. The two of them had three children—a daughter that is still living, and a mother that is admired along with her husband and four children—and twin sons, one who has died, and one who is living in China.” (Kuokoa, March 6, 1880)

French had property on the Island of Hawaiʻi, with a main headquarters there at Kawaihae, shipping cattle, hides and tallow to Honolulu; he hired John Palmer Parker (later founder of Parker Ranch) as his bookkeeper, cattle hunter and in other capacities. (Wellmon)

When French made claims before the Land Commission regarding one of the properties (identified as “slaughter-house premises” that he bought from Governor Kuakini in 1838,) testimony supporting his claim noted it was “a place for a beautiful house which Mr French would not sell for money. … It was enclosed by a stone wall. There were two natives occupying houses on his land.” (Land Commission Testimony)

The 2.8-acre property is in an area of Waimea known as Pu‘uloa; French built a couple houses on it, the property was bounded by Waikoloa Stream and became Parker’s home while he worked for French. (In addition, in 1840, this is where French built his original home in Waimea. (Bergin))

At Pu‘uloa, Parker ran one of French’s stores, which was nothing more than a thatched hut. Although this store was less grandiose than the other one at Kawaihae, it became the center of the cattle business on the Waimea plain.

French, like other merchants in the Islands at the time, grew concerned about decisions and laws that started to be made that affected their ability to trade. These changes also affected French citizens, especially the French Catholics.

On July 21, 1838, the French minister of the navy dispatched orders to Captain Cyrille-Pierre-Theodore Laplace, who at the time was already en route to the Pacific on a voyage of circumnavigation. Laplace received these orders, along with supporting documents, at Port Jackson, Australia, in March 1839.

The plight of French Catholics in Hawai‘i being distressingly similar to that of French Catholics in Tahiti, these orders read: “… What the English Methodists are doing in Tahiti, American Calvinist missionaries are doing in the Sandwich Islands.”

“They have incited the king of these islands, or rather those who govern in his name, to actions that apply to all foreigners of the Catholic faith – all designated, intentionally, as ‘Frenchmen.’”

“They found themselves prohibited from practicing their religion, then ignominiously banished from the Island … You will exact, if necessary with all the force that you command, complete reparation for the wrongs that they have committed and you will not leave those shores until you have left an indelible impression.”

In addition to the religious persecution, “Our wines, brandies, fabrics, and luxury goods find ready purchasers in Honolulu as well as in Russian, British, and Mexican settlements; but these articles are imported by American merchants (or replaced by substitutes of American manufacture).”

“French wines and brandies are subject to excessively high duties, on the grounds that bringing them into the Sandwich Islands would be harmful to the morals of the native population. American rum, on the other hand, is brought in—whether legally or illegally, I do not know—and consumed in prodigious quantities.” (Laplace; Birkett)

Captain Laplace and his fifty-two-gun frigate L’Artemise arrived in the Hawai‘i in July 1839. Laplace was the first Frenchman to visit the Islands with specific instructions from Paris to enter into official diplomatic relations with the Hawaiian government.

“It was my task to end this prohibition so detrimental to our commercial interests. I succeeded in doing so through a convention with the king of the Islands where he agreed that in the future French wines and brandies would be subject to no more than a 6 percent ad valorem duty when imported under the French flag.”

“The American missionaries raged and fumed at me, claiming that I was anti-Christian. They brought down on me all the curses of New and Old World Bible societies, to whom they depicted me as championing drunkenness among their converts …”

“… as if the way in which they were running things allowed these poor people to earn enough to buy Champagne, Bordeaux, or even Cognac brandy. Despite these diatribes, as unjust as they were treacherous, I carried my project to completion.” (Laplace; Birkett)

Here’s a portrayal of Panio by Danielle Zalopany during a presentation at Mission Houses– she gives some background on the family, as well as the ‘Laplace Affair.’
https://youtu.be/cCc8dQk1YmQ

William French died at Kawaihae on November 25, 1851. “Many who have made their fortunes in these Islands have owed their rise in the world to the patronage of Mr French.” (Polynesian, December 6, 1851)

“On the 24th of February past (1880,) Panio left this life, at the home of her daughter in Ka‘akopua, after being in pain for several weeks. In her sickness, her great patience was made clear, along with her unwavering faith in the goodness of the Lord, her Redeemer, and her Savior; and she was there until the victorious hour upon her body.” (Kuokoa, March 6, 1880)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pahukanilua

Kamehameha I granted an ahupua’a called Kawaihae Hikina (also referred to as Kawaihae 2) to John Young for his invaluable service. The John Young Homestead was part of the ‘ili‘aina (or estate) known at one time as Pahukanilua.

Young was given the Hawaiian name of “Olohana,” which was the “Hawaiian language imitation of his boatswain’s call ‘All Hands’ during the battles of conquest.”

Young is credited with introducing cattle and goats to the island because of his relationship with Captain Vancouver, and he supported the introduction of Christianity to Hawaii and the establishment of missions.

He operated the kingdom’s warehouse at Kawaihae, where meats and hides were stored, and oversaw the sandalwood trade. Young’s influence is so great that he “seems to have been present and involved in every event of lasting importance in Hawaii from 1790 through 1820.” (Durst)

The John Young Homestead served as Young’s principal residence from 1798 until his death in 1835, at which time it appears to have been essentially abandoned. In 1929, AP Taylor, librarian with the archives of Hawaii, began advocating for the restoration and preservation of the site because of Young’s significant role in Hawaiian history.

Young’s property was actually divided into the lower homestead, near Kawaihae Bay and now underwater, and the upper homestead, which is now part of Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site.

The site was organized in a typical Hawaiian manner as a cluster of eight residential structures serving various functions.  Five of these structures as “Hawaiian-style,” meaning they were built using traditional Hawaiian construction techniques like dry-set masonry, and three as “Western-style,” meaning mortar and coral lime plaster were utilized.

The distinguishing feature between Hawaiian and Western construction techniques at this site was not the absence or presence of plaster but whether or not the stones were set in mortar. Thus, the John Young Homestead represents a transitional period in construction methods on the Hawaiian islands.

“… coral blocks brought by canoe from reef at Puako. Coral blocks were burnt. Mortar and plaster were made from sand, burnt coral and mixed with poi and hair.”  “I finish plastering all houses and have whitewashed the fences around the animal pens. It is as in Wales.”  (Young Diary 1798-1799) (abstracted from Young Diary 1798-1799; Apple)

Young wrote in his diary in 1798 about the establishment of his homestead and indicated the closeness of his relationship with Kamehameha I:

“Have begun four buildings. My house, the cook house, and storage room, the house for the child and tahus [guardians] and near the small temple [perhaps referring to Mailekini Heiau] a house for storage.”

“My house at the small rise below the great temple [referring to Pu‘ukohola Heiau] more suitable than the ravine which washes away with Whymea floods [perhaps referring to the Makeahua gulch]. The great one [Kamehameha I] comes to use my cook house several times. I make biskits and cook a lamb. Have all enjoyed feast.”

The John Young Homestead is described in many contemporary travel accounts … “The house of this interesting old man, was located at the top of a small hill which overlooks the village of Kawaihae, built of stone, well ventilated and sanitary.”  (Freycinet, 1829)

“The north point of Owhyee consists of low land, which rises in a strait line under an acute angle, into the region of the clouds.  As soon as you reach these parts, the monsoon has no longer any effect, and you may expect sea and land winds frequently interrupted by total calms, and light breezes from every point of the compass; this was our case near Tocahai [Kawaihae] Bay, where the wind entirely died away.”

“We now saw Young’s settlement of several houses built of white stone, after the European fashion, surrounded by palm and banana trees; the land has a barren appearance, and is said to be little adapted to agriculture, as it consists, for the most part, of masses of lava.” (Kotzebue 1821)

“From out at sea, we could see the European built houses of John Young towering above the grass shacks of the natives.  The whole beach is encircled by settlements of the people but wholly without any shade.”

“Only towards the south, along the coast, are cocoanut trees found scattered amongst the houses. The woods that occupy a higher zone on the mountain are not found in the valleys. Columns of smoke were to be seen in different parts of the island.”  (Chamisso 1939)

At Kawaihae, “we were entertained by old John Young, an English runaway sail or, who had been many years on the islands, and had assisted Kamehameha in bis conquests. He had married a native woman of rank, has a fine family of sons and daughters, and is considered a chief.”

“He lived in a dirty adobe house adorned with old rusty muskets, swords, bayonets, and cartridge boxes. He gave us a supper of goat’s meat and fried taro, served on old pewter plates, which I was unfortunate to see his servant wipe on his red flannel shirt in lieu of a napkin.”

“We were sent up a rickety flight of stairs to sleep. I was afraid, and requested Dr Judd to look around the room carefully for concealed dangers, and he was heartless enough to laugh at me.”

“Sleep was out of the question; I was afraid of the wind, which sometimes sweeps down the gorge of the mountain, and got up at midnight, and went down to the grass house of Mrs. Young, which was neat and comfortable.” (Laura Fish Judd, Honolulu: Sketches)

“Mr. Young, taking a female of rank for a wife, was himself promoted to the rank of a chief, partly in consequence of the services he had rendered in the wars of conquest, his strong attachment to the king, and his ability and readiness to serve him. He officiated for a time, as governor of Hawaii.”

“Though at first detained there against his will, he at length preferred to stay rather than to return to England. He had two sons and three daughters, who at length came under the instruction of the missionaries.” (Bingham) Young would spend the rest of his life in Hawai‘i; he died in Honolulu on December 17, 1835.

John Young and his granddaughter Queen Emma are buried at Mauna ‘Ala (the Royal Mausoleum on O‘ahu,) the final resting place of the high chiefs and royalty of the Kamehameha and Kalākaua dynasties.

In John Young’s last will and testament of 1834, bequeathed lands were divided between John Young and Isaac Davis’ children and John Young’s surviving wife Ka‘oana‘eha (Mary Kuamo‘o). Legal separation of the upper and lower portions of the John Young Homestead occurred under the Mahele and Land Commission Awards.

In 1848, Ka‘oana‘eha and Isoba Puna (konohiki) applied for ownership of the lower portion of the John Young Homestead. In 1851, LCA 4522 was awarded to Ka‘oana‘eha and Puna thereby creating the formal separation of the upper and lower portions of the Homestead. (Durst) (Lots of information here is from Apple, Durst, NPS, HABS, Judd, and Bingham)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻŌhaiʻula

ʻŌhaiʻula (red ʻōhai shrub) is a beach at Kawaihae.  The earliest European observers of Kawaihae Bay were members of Captain Cook’s expedition. Arriving in February 1779, they were little impressed, Captain James King noting that,

“Although the NEern part of the bay which … is call’d Toe-yah-ya [Kawaihae] looks green & pleasant, yet as it is neither wooded or hardly any signs of culture, & a few houses, It has certainly some defect, & does not answer the purposes of what the natives cultivate.” (Cook’s Journal, NPS)

A little later (in the early 1800s), Isaac Iselin visited Kawaihae and noted, “This Bay of Toeigh [Kawaihae] is very open … The country around it looks like a hilly barren desert; nothing grows within ten miles of it, except a few cocoanut trees, of which a fine grove stands near the beach.”

“The inhabitants and huts are thinly scattered along the shore, far less numerous than about Karakakooah [Kealakekua], and seem more indigent, indeed, having to go so far for their subsistence, they are not seldom in want of the supports of life.” (Iselin)

Over 100 years later, in the 1920s, the Parker Ranch constructed a wagon road through the Pelekane area past Mailekini Heiau to a charcoal kiln inland of ʻŌhaiʻula Beach. It provided easier access to the beach than the shoreline trail. (NPS)

Attitudes about this area also changed. “Kawaihae is gaining in popularity. According to reports published frequently in this paper’s news columns many folks from all parts of Hawaii are availing themselves of the Kawaihae opportunity.”

“Kawaihae, unquestionably, is one of this island’s most attractive areas. The swimming beach there cannot be exceeded in this county. The chance for pleasurable picnic weather is most excellent. While it rains sometime in that district, storms, certainly, are not frequent.”

“When considering various points of beauty for week-end or holiday outings, give Kawaihae the favor that it should have. If one never has visited this beach he has not seen all of Hawaii, by any means. … We are happy to see Kawaihae gain local favor – pleased because it deserves just that.” (HTH, Sep 8, 1931)

By the 1930s and 1940s, fishermen and some hog raisers moved into the area, living along the beach in raised, temporary huts thatched with grass or coconut supplemented with odd bits of lumber, with tin or iron roofs and lanais, and with small fishponds in between.

People also came just for the weekend, including wealthy haole (whites), who erected boat houses and dry-docked their boats in the area of the coconut trees. The marine railway must have been built about that time for repairing these boats. (NPS)

ʻŌhaiʻula started to take on a new name, ‘Kawaihae Beach’ …

“Kawaihae beach will invite with its cool, peaceful setting, the sparkling water at its feet, and the wealth of its vegetation. Yet Kawaihae beach last year was a barren stretch of sand on Kohala. It was a popular week-end picnic spot because, despite the great possibility for improvement, it was the closest to ideal in that district.” (HTH, Nov 17, 1931)

“So many people go there over week-ends and on holidays that its facilities and space already are hopelessly inadequate. As we hardly need point out here, it is about the only piece of shoreline on the whole island that actually qualifies as a beach.”

“The only piece of shoreline, we should add, that qualifies as a real beach and that is open to the public.  There are, of course, other superb beaches on Big Island shores but all the best of these are either privately owned or inaccessible except by boat.” (HTH, Sep 13, 1947)

(Note: under today’s laws, beaches in Hawai‘i are generally publicly owned and accessible. As part of the public trust doctrine, they are essential public coastal recreational resources. Providing coastal recreational opportunities accessible to the public is a fundamental objective set forth in Chapter 205A, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS).)

“The end of the war, more freedom to move about, and a decent highway leading to Kawaihae beach has made that attractive spot one of the most popular on the Big Island. As a county park, it should pay big dividends in recreation.” (HTH, Sep 13, 1947)

Per Real Property Tax records, the land was owned by the Territoy of Hawai‘i and transferred to the County through Executive Order #729 for the Kawaihae Beach Park in the late-1930s.

“[T]he County operated a public park known as the Kawaihae park, near Kawaihae, district of south Kohala, and employed one Victor Laau as caretaker and custodian … the upkeep and maintenance of Kawaihae park was a ‘governmental” function’”. (Lovell v. County of Hawaii. Hawai‘i Supreme Court)

Its name changed again from Kawaihae Beach to Spencer Beach …

The park was renamed to honor Samuel Mahuka Spencer (1875–1960), the Chair of the Hawai‘i Island Board of Supervisors (equivalent to the present position of Mayor, from 1924-1944; the island’s longest serving). (McElroy)

Spencer was born in Waimea, Island of Hawaiʻi. He attended Kamehameha Schools where he was an outstanding baseball player. In 1895 he married Alice Kinimaka.

His career included Territorial Land Office clerk, deputy sheriff, bookkeeper for Henry Waterhouse Co., Parker Ranch, and deputy country clerk Country of Hawaiʻi, and in 1915, he became special auditor for the County of Hawaiʻi, then he was elected chairman of the Board of Supervisors in 1924. (Men of Hawai‘i)

Then, the ʻŌhaiʻula name returned to the place; in 2003 the park was renamed “Spencer Park at ʻŌhaiʻula Beach.”

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kawaihae Harbor

Kawaihae is also generally referenced as Pelekane, which means ‘British,’ possibly named after the Young and the Davis families who lived there (when Isaac Davis (born in Pembrokeshire, Wales) died in 1810, his friend and co-advisor to Kamehameha, John Young (an Englishman born in Liverpool,) looked after Davis’ children.)

The vicinity around what is now Kawaihae Harbor (“the water of wrath”) has been the scene of many important events, from the killing of Kamehameha’s rival and cousin, Keōua in 1791, to interactions with foreign visitors, including Captain George Vancouver of Great Britain, Otto von Kotzebue of Russia, and dignitaries from France, the United States and other nations.

Kamehameha had a house here.  Following his death in 1819 and the succession of Liholiho to rule as Kamehameha II, Kawaihae served as the initial Royal Center for Liholiho, who sought consolidation of his forces and consecration of his leadership role, there.  (Kelly)

When the Pioneer Company of the American Protestant missionaries arrived the next year, they first stopped at Kawaihae; this is where the missionaries first learned that the kapu system had been abolished and heiau were destroyed.

Kawaihae’s position as the center of inter-island trade and transport on northwest Hawai‘i is detailed in a description published in the Merchant’s Magazine and Commercial Review in 1858:

“Kawaihae is a small village in the bay of the same name in the western shore of Hawaii…It derives its importance from being the port of the rich and extensive grazing uplands of Waimea, one of the finest agricultural districts of the islands, which has not yet developed its full resources.”

“Forty or fifty whale ships have annually visited this port for the last few years, to procure salted beefs and Irish potatoes, which are considered the finest produced in the islands.“

Features of the village in 1861 were described by Charles de Varigny, the secretary of the French Consulate in Honolulu (who later served Kamehameha V as finance minister and minister of foreign affairs.)

Varigny observed how much of the village was given over to its commercial functions: “The village consists chiefly of a single large wooden structure which serves as a country store and warehouse for the products of the district. Around the shop are clustered several makeshift buildings providing annexes for further storage.”

“A small wharf serves for the departure and landing of travelers. At a short distance from shore floats an old stripped-down vessel, its melancholy hull balancing at anchor and providing storage for products arriving from Honolulu.” (pacificworlds)

Over time, Kawaihae and Waimea (up the hill) developed a synergistic relationship.  The area was a canoe landing area, whether for commerce or combat.  (This is where Maui’s chief Kamalālāwalu landed in his assault against Lonoikamakahiki’s Hawaiʻi forces (Lono won.))  But Kawaihae’s presence was really focused on commerce as a landing site.

A 1914 map of Kawaihae Village shows a concentration of development along the shoreline; the uplands of the Kawaihae region remained undeveloped pasture land.

During WWII war years (1941-1945,) Kawaihae’s role as the shipping outlet for Waimea was intensified.  Troops were shipped in and out through Kawaihae. At the southern end of the bay, in Kawaihae 2, amphibious landing exercises were conducted and military emplacements were set up in the area of Puʻukohola Heiau.

The war in the Pacific had been over less than a year when on April 1, 1946, an earthquake off the Aleutian Islands caused a tsunami that devastated the Hawaiian Islands.  Although no lives were lost at Kawaihae, its effects wiped out commercial fishing activity there and it was reported that the tsunami “…was the beginning of the end for the Kawaihae Fishing Village. People left.”  (Cultural Surveys)

The old landing had been destroyed in the 1946 tsunami and the one built in 1937 had proven unsafe in high seas. By the 1950s, the need for improved harbor facilities at Kawaihae was apparent.

The Kawaihae Deep-Draft Harbor project was authorized by the US Congress in 1950; to be constructed were: “an entrance channel 400 feet wide, approximately 2,900 feet long, and 40 feet deep; a harbor basin 1,250 feet square and 35 feet deep; and a breakwater with a maximum crest elevation 13 feet above low water and approximately 4,400 feet long, of which 3,200 feet would be protected with heavy stone revetment.”

The harbor was created by dredging part of an extensive coral reef which extended 4,000-feet seaward and ran along the shore more than a mile south of Kawaihae town; the reclaimed reef area created a coral flat peninsula that extends approximately 1,000-feet makai (seaward) of the piers across the natural reef, forming a beach along the south harbor boundary and terminating at the outer breakwater.

The harbor’s construction was hailed as an “economic shot in the arm,” for sugar planters in the Kohala region of the island would no longer had to ship their crops overland to Hilo or to Kailua-Kona. The harbor would serve military needs as well. The Army was about to acquire a 100,000-acre training site nearby and could unload supplies at Kawaihae Harbor.  (Cultural Surveys)

At the completion of construction in 1959 (officially dedicated on October 5, 1959,) the Kawaihae facilities included an inter-island terminal, mooring areas, and a large harbor basin with a wide entrance channel.  Harbor modifications in 1973 widened the entrance channel and enlarged the basin (a little over 71-acres.)

The South Kawaihae Small Boat Harbor entrance channel and 850-foot West breakwater was constructed as part of Operation Tugboat and completed in December 1970.  As part of Project Tugboat, the Army used conventional high explosives to blast an 830-foot entrance channel, 120-feet wide/12-feet deep and a 200 by 200-foot turning basin.

(“Project Tugboat” was conducted by the Army’s Nuclear Cratering Group; perhaps because of this, some suggest nuclear explosives were used to clear the small boat harbor.  However, twelve 10-ton charges of an aluminized ammonium nitrate slurry explosives (placed 36-feet deep and 100 to 120-feet apart) were used; they were meant to simulate the yield of a nuclear explosion, but were not radioactive.)

After years of delay, it was recently announced that a project to improve the eastern portion of Kawaihae Small Boat Harbor is moving forward.  Among the improvements are a 445-foot long floating dock, as well as a 47-foot-long access ramp, gangway and 25 berthing stalls. Later a paved access road and new water system is planned.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Young

It’s hard to tell the story of John Young without including Isaac Davis. They arrived in Hawai‘i at the same time (on different boats) and they served Kamehameha I as co-advisors.

John Young, a boatswain on the British fur trading vessel, Eleanora, was stranded on the Island of Hawai‘i in 1790. Kamehameha brought Young to Kawaihae, where he was building the massive Pu’ukoholā Heiau.

For the next several years, John Young, and another British sailor, Isaac Davis, went on to assist Kamehameha in his unification of the Hawaiian Islands.

Because of his knowledge of European warfare, Young is said to have trained Kamehameha and his men in the use of muskets and cannons. In addition, both Young and Davis fought alongside Kamehameha in his many battles.

With these powerful new weapons and associated war strategy, Kamehameha eventually brought all of the Hawaiian Islands under his rule.

Young was instrumental in building fortifications throughout the Islands, which included the conversion of Mailekini Heiau (below Pu‘ukoholā Heiau) into a fort, which he armed with as many as 21 ship cannons.

Because of his common practice of yelling “All Hands!” during battle and training, the Hawaiians came to know Young by the name Olohana, a Hawaiian use of this English phrase.

Young also served as a negotiator for the king, securing various trade and political agreements with many of the foreigners that visited the Islands.

When Captain George Vancouver visited Hawai‘i Island in 1793, he observed that both Young and Davis “are in his [Kamehameha’s] most perfect confidence, attend him in all his excursions of business or pleasure, or expeditions of war or enterprise; and are in the habit of daily experiencing from him the greatest respect, and the highest degree of esteem and regard.”

Because of his knowledge of European warfare, Young is said to have trained Kamehameha and his men in the use of muskets and cannons. In addition, both Young and Davis fought alongside Kamehameha in his many battles.

With these powerful new weapons and associated war strategy, Kamehameha eventually brought all of the Hawaiian Islands under his rule.

Kamehameha appointed John Young as Governor of Kamehameha’s home island, Hawai‘i Island, and gave him a seat next to himself in the ruling council of chiefs.

He was married twice. His descendants were also prominent in Hawaiian history. The most prominent of his descendants was his granddaughter, Queen Emma.

In 1819, Young was one of the few present at the death of Kamehameha I. He then actively assisted Kamehameha II (Liholiho) in retaining his authority over the various factions that arose at his succession to the throne.

Young was also present for the ending of the kapu system in 1819 and, a few months later, advised the new king to allow the first Protestant missionaries to settle in the Islands

Of the missionaries, on November 27, 1826, he stated, “Whereas, it has been represented by many persons, that the labours of the missionaries in these Islands are attended with evil and disadvantage to the people, I hereby most cheerfully give my testimony to the contrary.”

“I am fully convinced that the good which is accomplishing, and already effected, is not little. The great and radical change already made for the better, in the manners and customs of this people, has far surpassed my most sanguine expectations.”

“During the forty years that I have resided here, I have known thousands of defenceless human beings cruelly massacred in their exterminating wars. I have seen multitudes of my fellow beings offered in sacrifice to their idol gods.”

“I have seen this large island, once filled with inhabitants, dwindle down to its present numbers through wars and disease, and I am persuaded that nothing but Christianity can preserve them from total extinction.”

“I rejoice that true religion is taking the place of superstition and idolatry, that good morals are superseding the reign of crime, and that a code of Christian laws is about to take the place of tyranny and oppression.”

“These things are what I have long wished for, but have never seen till now. I thank God, that in my old age I see them; and humbly trust I feel them too.” (John Young; Ellis)

Both Davis and Young lived out their lives in the Islands. When Davis died in 1810, Young adopted the Davis children. Although Young had died by the time of the Great Māhele land division, his property was awarded to his wife and children, including the children of Isaac Davis.

Finally, in 1835, at the age of 93, John Young, statesman, high chief, friend and advisor to Kamehameha the Great, died at his daughter’s home on O‘ahu.

His service to Kamehameha was considered to be so great that Young’s heirs did not have to pay commutation for their māhele awards.

John Young and his granddaughter Queen Emma are buried at Mauna ‘Ala (the Royal Mausoleum on O‘ahu,) the final resting place of the high chiefs and royalty of the Kamehameha and Kalākaua dynasties.

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