Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sarona Road

Mai ka Lani mai nei ka leo kahea,
Pio mai la kona nani i ka lua kupapau.
A o oe la e, e Opukahaia, Hauoli avanei,
ke ike aku oe, O kou aina hanau, ke pua mai nei;
Opuu ae la na rose, aala mai hoi,
Nani loa o Sarona, hiehie moana.

The call came from Heaven,
His glory faded from the grave.
And you, Opukahaia, be happy now,
when you see, Your native land is blooming;
The roses bloomed and smelled,
Sharon is very beautiful, the sea is beautiful.
(Ka Moolelo o Heneri Opukahaia; Chris Cook)

ʻIsaia 65:10, A e lilo nō ʻo Sārona i pā no nā hipa, A ʻo ke kahawai ʻo ʻAkora i wahi moe no nā bipi, No koʻu poʻe kānaka i ʻimi mai ai iaʻu.

Isaiah 65:10, Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me.

Song of Solomon 2:1, “ʻO wau nō ka rose o Sārona, A me ka līlia o nā awāwa.“ “I am the rose of Sharon, And the lily of the valleys.” (Hawaiian Baibala)

“The Rose of Sharon is a flower that grows on mountaintops, and that’s why the Lord referred to Himself as The Rose of Sharon. His mountaintop was Golgotha, and the Lord let me know that people can only find this Rose on Mount Calvary.”

“Roses are noted for their fragrances, and the fragrance from this great Rose travels down from the mount of God and into the valley for us.” (Ernest Angley Ministries)

Sharon is the Mediterranean coastal plain between Joppa and Caesarea. In the time of Solomon, it was a place of great fertility. It is in North Palestine, between Mount Tabor and Lake Tiberias. (Bible-org)

Sarona is the name of a road in Kailua-Kona in the immediate vicinity of Moku‘aikaua Church. As noted in the translations above, Sarona is the Hawaiian word for Sharon.

Moku‘aikaua Church started in 1820 with the arrival of the first American Protestant missionaries. With the permission of Liholiho (Kamehameha II), the missionaries built a grass house for worship in 1823.

It soon was found that the church was incapable of holding the growing following of the missionaries. The Kona District had by the mid-1820s, an estimated population of 20,000 and congregations became so large that a considerable number had to be excluded from services.

Governor Kuakini immediately agreed to help in the erection of a new structure. Every male in the district was sent into the mountains to help cut and haul timber. On September 27, 1826, the church was dedicated. (NPS)

It was destroyed by fire in 1835; the present lava rock and coral mortared church, capped with a gable roof, was dedicated on February 4, 1837. It is the oldest intact Western structure on the Island of Hawai‘i.

Moku‘aikaua Church is on a small level lot near the center of Kailua-Kona. Its high steeple stands out conspicuously and has become a landmark from both land and sea.

Some believe Sarona Road was the path people took to/from Mokuaikaua Church that takes an idyllic biblical name (reminiscent of the Rose of Sharon and other Sharon references in the Bible) that was named by Asa Thurston.

Reverend Asa and Lucy Thurston were in the Pioneer company of American Protestant Missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands, arriving in Kailua-Kona on the Thaddeus in 1820.

The Thurstons made their home in Kailua Village, in a house the Hawaiians named Laniākea. Thurston received Laniākea, a 5.26-acre homestead parcel as a gift from Governor Kuakini.

As noted by Rev. Sereno Edwards Bishop, in his book “Reminiscences Of Old Hawaii”: “In the early [1830s,] Kailua was a large native village, of about 4,000 inhabitants rather closely packed along one hundred rods [1650-feet] of shore, and averaging twenty rods [330-feet] inland.”

“It had been the chief residence of King Kamehameha, who in 1819 died there in a rudely built stone house whose walls are probably still standing on the west shore of the little bay. Nearby stood a better stone house occupied by the doughty Governor Kuakini.”

“All other buildings in Kailua were thatched, until Rev. Artemas Bishop built his two-story stone dwelling in 1831 and Rev. Asa Thurston in 1833 built his wooden two-story house at Laniakea, a quarter of a mile inland.”

“Most of the native huts were thatched with the stiff pili grass. The better ones were thatched with lau-hala (pandanus leaf) or with la-i.”

“The second company [of missionaries] consisted of six married couples and two single persons. They sailed from New Haven, Conn., Nov. 19, 1822, and arrived at Honolulu, April 27, 1823, in 158 days. Among the second company was Rey. Artemas Bishop, a native of Pompey, NY …”

“He was married in November, 1822, to Elizabeth Edwards, who was born at Marlborough, Mass., June 17, 1796. Mrs. Bishop had been a girlhood friend of Mrs. Lucy G. Thurston, who had preceded her to Hawaii as a missionary, some four years earlier.”

Missionaries that served at the Kailua-Kona Mission Station, whose principal church was Moku‘aikaua, included, Asa Thurston, Thomas Holman, Artemas Bishop, James Ely, Delia Stone and Seth L Andrews.

Back to the naming of the road … Hawaiian Place Names notes the reference to the Land Commission Award Book and Tax Map, apparently, all references are linked to the Land Commission decisions.

Early references to ‘Sarona’ are found in the Land Commission Awards (LCA) Book 3 related to awards to Leleiōhoku. Leleiōhoku was son of Kalanimōku; Leleiōhoku married Princess Ruth (Keʻelikōlani).

On August 30, 1851, the Land Commission records note LCA 1028 and LCA 9971 Apana 46 and 47 (as well as many other parcels) were in a partial list of lands agreed upon by the Mahele to belong to the more important Aliis and Chiefs and confirmed to Leleiōhoku by Award of the Commission to Quiet Land Titles.

Mapping for LCA 1028 noted ‘Ala Ololi Sarona’ (Narrow Sharon Path) as a boundary and mauka of the parcel the trail/road is noted as ‘Ala Ololi Pii Sarona’ (Narrow Sharon Path going up).

Mapping for the LCA 9971 Apana parcels 46 and 47 note “Alanui Sarona” (Sharon Road/Trail) as a boundary. The ‘Alanui’ reference suggests larger trails/road.

LCA 9971 Apana 47 also notes Alanui Tatina (now spelled Kakina) as a boundary – Tatina was the Hawaiian name for Thurston. Alanui Tatina is likely the trail used by the Thurstons that lead from their home, ‘Laniakea’, down into Kailua-Kona).

Given its location, the early reference of the name (1851), the biblical nature of the name, the religious passion of Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and the other missionaries and their families, it is plausible (probable) that Sarona Road was named by the missionaries and was a trail used by the Hawaiians from the surrounding area to get to Moku‘aikaua Church.

By Resolution 288, dated January 19, 1956, the Hawai‘i County Board of Supervisors approved the ‘Naming of Streets in Kailua Keahou [sic] Area, Kona’; the list of ten streets included Sarona Road.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kona

“The story of the Polynesians began about 6,000 years ago when a seafaring people traveled from Asia or Melanesia to the islands of Samoa and Tonga. Their descendants eventually sailed east to Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.  Later they sailed south to New Zealand, east to Easter Island, and north to the Hawaiian Islands.”

“By A.D. 1200, the ancient Polynesians voyagers had settled nearly every habitable island over some ten million square miles of the Pacific Ocean.” (Hawaiian Encyclopedia A Comprehensive Guide To The Hawaiian Islands History, Culture, Native Species, Science)

“Polynesian is part of a subgroup of Austronesian called Oceanic which includes all the Austronesian languages of Polynesia, Island Melanesia, coastal New Guinea east of 136 degrees East longitude, and Micronesian languages other than two Western Micronesian languages: Chamorro (Mariana Islands) and Belauan (Belau, formerly Palau).”

“[I]t is clear that Proto Polynesian speech and culture (ca. 1-300 A.D.) was a product of something like 1000 years of development in fair isolation from the outside world. ‘Polynesian’ language and culture did not arrive fully formed in Polynesia.”

“The language and culture of the early Oceanic Austronesian speaking settlers who gave rise to the modern cultures we observe in Polynesia were greatly transformed in Polynesia itself before internal diversification became pronounced.”

“‘Polynesian; language and culture ‘came from’ the west as most people have long imagined, but it wasn’t Polynesian when it arrived. It became Polynesian in situ, differentiating from a linguistic and cultural base originating in Insular Southeast Asia and initially transformed as it spread across Melanesia towards Polynesia over a period of hundreds of years.” (Jeff Marck)

“Sikaiana legends record an invasion from ‘Tona’ about 12-14 generations ago in their genealogies (from the 1980s). They associate Tona with Tonga, although Tona is a common Polynesian word for “south” and many Western Polynesian societies have similar legends of people from the ‘south.’” (Kutztown University)

“The people of Tonga (correctly pronounced tona, as in ‘Kona’, Hawaii) met Captain Cook with such warm greetings that he called the islands of Tonga the ‘Friendly Islands’”. (NOAA)

“’[T]onga’ means ‘south’ in the Tongan language and refers to the country’s geographic position in relation to central Polynesia”. (CIA)

Dictionaries state, “Hawaiian Dictionary – Kona 1. nvs. Leeward sides of the Hawaiian Islands; leeward (PPN [Proto-Polynesian language] Tonga.)

“[Parker Dictionary (Hawaiian)] Kona (kō’-na), n. 1. South (opposite of koolau, which is north). 2. The southwest wind; also the south wind. 3. The rain accompanying a south wind: He ua kona, he ua nui loa ia; a kona rain is a very great rain.  4. The south or southwest sides of the Hawaiian islands.”

“In all probability, Tonga and Tona or Kona, the name of a district … of Hawaii, are one and the same word; and, to give an instance of which there can be no doubt, tangata, the Samoan for man, has been softened into the Hawaiian tanata or Kanaka.” (Sir George Simpson, An Overland Journey Round the World (1841-1842))

“Explorers are not new to the Kingdom of Tonga (Pule’anga Fakatu’i ‘o Tonga), an archipelago of 176 islands south of Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean. The Dutch were some of the earliest explorers to arrive on the island in the 17th century, followed by other Europeans, including Captain James Cook of the British Navy.”

“As a word, ‘Kona’ is often translated as ‘leeward’. But the full meaning invites explication.  The word is of ancient origin and exists across the Austronesian language family in other forms.  For example, further south it is spoken as ‘tonga’. And thus the name of the South Pacific island chain and Nation.”

“What kona land areas are leeward of is the direction of the trade winds. Within the Hawaiian island chain, four of the six major islands contain district names Kona by original Hawaiian settlers.”

“The indigenous geographic concept of kona is more than simply a directional relationship. Kona districts have particular environments created by the specific microclimates that exist from being leeward.” (Jolliffe)

“The expressions Tonga, Kona, Toa (Sam., Haw., Tah.), to indicate the quarter of an island or of the wind, between the south and west, and Tokelau, Toerau, Koolau (Sam., Tah., Haw.), to indicate the opposite directions from north to east …”

“… expressions universal throughout Polynesia, and but little modified by subsequent local circumstances point strongly to a former habitat in lands where the regular monsoons prevailed.”

“Etymologically ‘Tonga,’ ‘Kona,’ contracted from ‘To-anga’ or ‘Ko-ana,’ signifies ‘the setting,’ seil. of the sun. ‘Toke-lau,’ of which the other forms are merely dialectical variations, signifies ‘the cold, chilly sea.’” (Fornander I)

“Mr. Hale, in the Ethnological portion of the United States Exploring Expedition under Commodore Wilkes, considers the application of Tonga to the south-western quarter as subsequent to the dispersion of the Polynesians in the Pacific (vid. p. 180).”

“But Mr. Hale, in the very same article, has very lucidly shown that ‘Tonga’ was a term applied to the very first settlement of the Polynesians in the Pacific, on Viti-Iewu, signifying ‘the Western,’ seil. people, in contradistinction from the Viti proper, or ‘Eastern’ people.”

“Hence it is reasonable to infer that the Polynesians brought the term with them as an already existing appellation of the western quarter, as much so as they did the other term of ‘Toke-lau,’ to designate the eastern quarter. (Fornander I)

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Rodney James Tadashi Yano

Born December 13, 1943 on Hawaii’s Kona coast, Rodney James Tadashi Yano’s ancestry included Japanese, Hawaiian and Portuguese. He attended Konawaena High in his hometown of Kealakekua. (Vachon)

“His father, a commercial fisherman for more than 20 years, [grew] coffee on acreage near Kealakekua Bay. Rodney graduated from Konawaena High School in 1961, and while in school served as president of the Konawaena chapter of the Future Farmers of America.”

“Rodney’s school records show that his longtime ambition was to be a soldier, and he volunteered in the Regular Army following his graduation from high school in 1961.”

Mr. Ichiro Shikada, one of his former teachers at Konawaena High School, described young Yano as a student who showed signs of both leadership and courage when he was in school. He recalled that even then Rodney “had the habit of coming through when the chips were down.” (Tribute by Spark Matsunaga)

In 1961 Rodney joined the Army; he was affectionately called ‘Pineapple’ by his fellow soldiers. Known as a fun-loving guy with a serious side, Yano rose to the rank of Sergeant First Class.

Rodney’s younger brother Glenn had later enlisted with the Hawaii National Guard. They mobilized 4,000 men for Vietnam in early 1968, becoming one of the few National Guard units to participate in the war. Army policy at the time prohibited the involuntary simultaneous deployment of immediate family members to the war.

Rodney spent a year in Vietnam, but then volunteered to extend. Glenn said, “Rodney felt that since he had just completed a year in Vietnam he was more experienced than me. He said his chances were better than mine.”

“Sergeant Yano was only a few days away from completing his second voluntary year of combat in Vietnam [when tragic events occurred. Because of his heroism] Rodney [was] the second serviceman from Hawaii to receive the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam war”.   (Tribute by Spark Matsunaga)  (The Medal of Honor was presented posthumously to parents, Mr and Mrs Richard Yano, by President Nixon, April 7, 1970.)

On January 1, 1969, Yano was out on the flight line at Bien Hoa, Vietnam. One of the unit’s helicopters was supposed to make an easy run to pick up an officer in Saigon and return to base. It’s roughly a 70 km trip over the calmest part of South Vietnam.

SP4 Carmine Conti, a crewman on the Huey, said that Yano picked up that Conti’s door gunner was nowhere to be found. Yano immediately ran over and volunteered. Conti said, “Yano loved to fly but, as a technical inspector, wasn’t getting much time in the air. . . . like everyone else in the troop, I liked the guy…a lot. He didn’t have to ask twice.”

Yano performed his duties of crew chief aboard the command and control helicopter.  The aircraft commander was then-Major John “Doc” Bahnsen.  Bahnsen was alerted to a nearby friendly force that was attacking a well-entrenched enemy position.

Bahnsen was diverted to provide fire support, to mark the enemy positions for other close air support aircraft and artillery, and act as the airborne command and control element.

Arriving over the fighting on the ground, the crew went to work. Yano, from his position at the door gun on the side of the aircraft, fired the machine gun and was tossing smoke grenades out the door onto the enemy positions. Once marked, Major Bahnsen could then call-in supporting fire more accurately. (Valor Guardians)

“While marking enemy positions with smoke and white phosphorous grenades for field artillery units, a grenade went off prematurely inside of the helicopter, covering Yano with burning phosphorous and leaving him severely wounded. Ammunition and other supplies began to ignite, and white smoke began filling the helicopter.”

“Although partially blind and unable to use of one of his arms, Yano displayed extreme bravery by hurling blazing ammunition from the helicopter. In taking such action, Yano inflicted additional wounds upon himself to protect his crew from further injury and avert any deaths.” (Veterans Memorial Court Alliance)

Conti said immediately after the explosion, “I tumbled to the cabin floor, unable to hear or see anything but white smoke. I thought I was dead.” Yano was covered in burning White Phosphorus, his left hand nearly blown completely off.

Yano didn’t miss a beat though, he grabbed a first aid kit, pulled out a tourniquet and told Conti that he should tie his left arm off above the elbow.  “By all rights,” Conti recalled, “Yano should have sat down and remained still to avoid aggravating his ghastly wounds. He didn’t.”

Yano, partially blinded by the initial explosion, had his vision fully obscured by the resultant smoke, with the use of only one arm and despite unimaginable pain, started tossing and kicking out munitions that were still exploding unpredictably. (Valor Guardians)

“Fire was burning all around him and the cabin was still full of white smoke,” Conti described. “It was a surreal sight but the most selfless and courageous act of heroism that I saw during the war, and I saw a lot of heroic actions.”

The aircraft’s pilot recovered control and immediately flew Yano to a nearby medical evacuation hospital, where they landed safely. “Our survival that day,” Conti concludes, “was assured only by Yano’s extraordinary courage and calm amid crisis while he personally teetered on death’s door.” (Valor Guardians)

Yano’s colleagues were not surprised that he died putting others before himself. During his second tour in Vietnam, Yano was served as a crew chief in the Air Cavalry Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry, the famed Blackhorse Regiment. (Veterans Memorial Court Alliance)

“SFC Yano distinguished himself while serving with the Air Cavalry Troop. SFC Yano was performing the duties of crew chief aboard the troop’s command-and-control helicopter during action against enemy forces entrenched in dense jungle.”

“From an exposed position in the face of small-arms and antiaircraft fire he delivered suppressive fire upon the enemy forces and marked their positions with smoke and white phosphorous grenades, thus enabling his troop commander to direct accurate and effective artillery fire against the hostile emplacements.”

“By his conspicuous gallantry at the cost of his life, in the highest traditions of the military service, SFC Yano has reflected great credit on himself, his unit, and the US Army.” (Medal of Honor Citation)

Yano’s other awards include a Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal (11th award), Army commendation medal, Purple Heart, good conduct medal, Vietnam service medal and Vietnam campaign medal. (Pacific Citizen, JACL)

Rodney Yano is the namesake of the USNS Yano (T-AKR-297), a Shughart class cargo ship. She is a ‘roll-on roll-off’ non-combat United States Navy designated a “Large, Medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off” (LMSR) ship.

Yano Multipurpose Range at Fort Knox, Yano Fitness Center at Camp Zama, Japan, Sgt. Yano Library at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and Yano Hall Helicopter Maintenance Facility at Fort Novosel, Alabama, Yano Street, Fort Carson, Colorado and Yano Hall Recreational Public Facility (that opened in December 1970), Captain Cook, Kona, Island of Hawaii are also named in his honor.

Sergeant First Class Rodney JT Yano is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii section W plot 614.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hualālai (as viewed by Isabella Bird)

“If all Hawaii, south of Waimea, were submerged to a depth of 8000 feet, three nearly equidistant, dome-shaped volcanic islands would remain, the highest of which would have an altitude of 6000 feet.”  (Isabella Bird)

Hualālai (“the offspring of the shining sun”) is the third youngest and third-most historically active volcano on the Island of Hawai‘i. (USGS)

It is considered to be in the post-shield stage of activity. Six different vents erupted lava between the late 1700s and 1801, two of which generated lava flows that poured into the sea on the west coast of the island.  (USGS)

The Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole, located only 7 miles north of Kailua-Kona, is built atop the larger flow. The oldest dated rocks are from about 128,000 years ago and it probably reached an elevation above sea level before 300,000 years ago. (USGS)

“I very soon left the languid life of Kona for this sheep station, 6000 feet high on the desolate slope of the dead volcano of Hualalai, (“offspring of the shining sun,”) on the invitation of its hospitable owner, who said if I ‘could eat his rough fare, and live his rough life, his house and horses were at my disposal.’”

“This house is in the great volcanic wilderness of which I wrote from Kalaieha, a desert of drouth and barrenness. There is no permanent track, and on the occasions when I have ridden up here alone, the directions given me have been to steer for an ox bone, and from that to a dwarf ohia.”

“There is no coming or going; it is seventeen miles from the nearest settlement, and looks across a desert valley to Mauna Loa. … A brisk cool wind blows all day; every afternoon a dense fog brings the horizon within 200 feet, but it clears off with frost at dark, and the flames of the volcano light the whole southern sky.”

“I came up to within eight miles of this house with a laughing, holiday-making rout of twelve natives, who rode madly along the narrow forest trail at full gallop, up and down the hills, through mire and over stones, leaping over the trunks of prostrate trees, and stooping under branches with loud laughter, challenging me to reckless races over difficult ground …”

“… and when they found that the wahine haole was not to be thrown from her horse they patted me approvingly, and crowned me with leis of maile. I became acquainted with some of these at Kilauea in the winter, and since I came to Kona they have been very kind to me.”

“I thoroughly like living among them, taking meals with them on their mats, and eating ‘two fingered’ poi as if I had been used to it all my life. Their mirthfulness and kindliness are most winning; their horses, food, clothes, and time are all bestowed on one so freely, and one lives amongst them with a most restful sense of absolute security.”

“They have many faults, but living alone among them in their houses as I have done so often on Hawaii, I have never seen or encountered a disagreeable thing.”

“But the more I see of them the more impressed I am with their carelessness and love of pleasure, their lack of ambition and a sense of responsibility, and the time which they spend in doing nothing but talking and singing as they bask in the sun, though spasmodically and under excitement they are capable of tremendous exertions in canoeing, surf-riding, and lassoing cattle.”

“I sat for an hour on horseback on a rocky hill while they hunted the woods; then I heard the deep voices of bulls, and a great burst of cattle appeared, with hunters in pursuit, but the herd vanished over a dip of the hill side, and the natives joined me. …”

“I have made the ascent of Hualalai twice from here, the first time guided by my host and hostess, and the second time rather adventurously alone.”

“Forests of koa, sandal-wood, and ohia, with an undergrowth of raspberries and ferns clothe its base, the fragrant maile, and the graceful sarsaparilla vine, with its clustered coral-coloured buds, nearly smother many of the trees, and in several places the heavy ie forms the semblance of triumphal arches over the track.”

“This forest terminates abruptly on the great volcanic wilderness, with its starved growth of unsightly scrub. But Hualalai, though 10,000 feet in height, is covered with Pteris aquilina, mamane, coarse bunch grass, and pukeave to its very summit, which is crowned by a small, solitary, blossoming ohia.”

“For two hours before reaching the top, the way lies over countless flows and beds of lava, much disintegrated, and almost entirely of the kind called pahoehoe.”

“Countless pit craters extend over the whole mountain, all of them covered outside, and a few inside, with scraggy vegetation. The edges are often very ragged and picturesque. The depth varies from 300 to 700 feet, and the diameter from 700 to 1,200.”

“The walls of some are of a smooth grey stone, the bottoms flat, and very deep in sand, but others resemble the tufa cones of Mauna Kea. They are so crowded together in some places as to be divided only by a ridge so narrow that two mules can scarcely walk abreast upon it.”

“The mountain was split by an earthquake in 1868, and a great fissure, with much treacherous ground about it, extends for some distance across it. It is very striking from every point of view on this side, being a complete wilderness of craters, and over 150 lateral cones have been counted.”

“The object of my second ascent was to visit one of the grandest of the summit craters, which we had not reached previously owing to fog.”

“This crater is bordered by a narrow and very fantastic ridge of rock, in or on which there is a mound about 60 feet high, formed of fragments of black, orange, blue, red, and golden lava, with a cavity or blow-hole in the centre, estimated by Brigham as having a diameter of 25 feet, and a depth of 1800.”

“The interior is dark brown, much grooved horizontally, and as smooth and regular as if turned. There are no steam cracks or signs of heat anywhere. Superb caves or lava-bubbles abound at a height of 6000 feet. These are moist with ferns, and the drip from their roofs is the water supply of this porous region.”

“Hualalai, owing to the vegetation sparsely sprinkled over it, looks as if it had been quiet for ages, but it has only slept since 1801, when there was a tremendous eruption from it, which flooded several villages, destroyed many plantations and fishponds, filled up a deep bay 20 miles in extent, and formed the present coast.”

“The terrified inhabitants threw living hogs into the stream, and tried to propitiate the anger of the gods by more costly offerings, but without effect …”

“… till King Kamehameha, attended by a large retinue of priests and chiefs, cut off some of his hair, which was considered sacred, and threw it into the torrent, which in two days ceased to run. This circumstance gave him a greatly increased ascendancy, from his supposed influence with the deities of the volcanoes.”

“I have explored the country pretty thoroughly for many miles round, but have not seen anything striking, except the remains of an immense heiau in the centre of the desert tableland, said to have been built in a day by the compulsory labour of 25,000 people …”.

“I left Hualalai yesterday morning, and dined with my kind host and hostess in the wigwam. It was the last taste of the wild Hawaiian life I have learned to love so well, the last meal on a mat, the last exercise of skill in eating ‘two-fingered’ poi.”

“I took leave gratefully of those who had been so truly kind to me, and with the friendly aloha from kindly lips in my ears, regretfully left the purple desert in which I have lived so serenely, and plunged into the forest gloom.”

“Half way down, I met a string of my native acquaintances, who, as the courteous custom is, threw over me leis of maile and roses, and since I arrived here, others have called to wish me good bye, bringing presents of figs, cocoa-nuts and bananas.”  (Isabella Bird, 1894)

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Plain of Numbering

At about the same time of Christopher Columbus crossing the Atlantic to America (he was looking for an alternate trade route to the East Indies,) exciting stuff was happening here in the Hawaiian Islands.

The political governance and land management system by Aliʻi-ai-moku, was expanding and developing after two centuries since its inception, and there was a wake of progress taking place on our shores.

It was a natural progression, which began with three brothers as the first Aliʻi-ai-moku in the 12th century; Kumuhonua on Oʻahu, Olopana on Hawaiʻi, and Moikeha on Kauai, as grandsons of Maweke.  (Yardley)

When they arrived from Tahiti with their new system, their first cousins were already serving as High Chiefs – “Laʻakona, High Chief of ʻEwa; Nuakea, Queen Consort of Molokai; Mōʻī, kaula (prophet) of Molokai; and Hinakaimauliawa, High Chiefess of Koʻolau.” (Beckwith, Yardley)

Then, in the time of Columbus, the new Aliʻi-ai-moku were: Māʻilikūkahi on Oʻahu, Piʻilani on Maui, ʻUmi-a-Līloa on Hawaiʻi and Kukona on Kauai.

ʻUmi-a-Līloa (ʻUmi) from Waipiʻo, son of Līloa, defeated Kona chief Ehunuikaimalino and united the island of Hawai‘i.  He then moved his Royal Center from Waipi‘o to Kona.

At about the time of ʻUmi, a significant new form of agriculture was developed in Kona; he is credited with starting it.  Today, archaeologists call the unique method of farming in this area the “Kona Field System.”

The Kona Field System was planted in long, narrow fields that ran across the contours, along the slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualālai.  As rainfall increases rapidly as you go up the side of Hualālai, the long fields allowed farmers to plant different crops according to the rainfall gradients.

In lower elevations all the way to the shore, informal clearings, mounds and terraces were used to plant sweet potatoes; and on the forest fringe above the walled fields there were clearings, mounds and terraces which were primarily planted in bananas.

This intensive agricultural activity changed farming and agricultural production on the western side of Hawai’i Island; the Kona field system was quite large, extending from Kailua to south of Honaunau

In the lower reaches of the tillable land, at elevations about 500-feet to 1,000-feet above sea level, a grove of breadfruit half mile wide and 20 miles long grew.  Sweet potatoes grew among the breadfruit.  Above the breadfruit grove, at elevations where the rainfall reached 60-70 inches or more, were fields of dry land taro.

The Kona Field System was described as “the most monumental work of the ancient Hawaiians.”  The challenge of farming in Kona is to produce a flourishing agricultural economy in an area subject to frequent droughts, with no lakes or streams for irrigation.

The field system was not the only contribution of ʻUmi.

The history of data processing in Hawaii covers almost five centuries, from the legendary census of King ʻUmi (c. 1500) to the present time.

It embraces at least five forms of technology: pre-contact manual methods, post-contact manual methods (including the abacus and slide rule,) the adding machine and desk calculator, punched-card equipment and the modern computer.  (Schmitt)

No statistical record of pre-contact population still exists, unless you look at the legendary census of ʻUmi.  ʻUmi’s census, taken at the beginning of the 16th century, was an early example of data processing.

For this census, each inhabitant of the Island of Hawaiʻi was instructed to come to a place called the “Plain of Numbering” to put a rock on the pile representing his own district. The result, still visible today, was a three-dimensional graphic portrayal of population size and distribution.

ʻUmi collected all the people of Hawaiʻi at a small plain between the cones on the inner side of Hualālai.  Two small hills are said to have been the seats of the king and queen, with their retainers, while the census was being taken

Later all the people went down on the plain, where each deposited a stone, the strongest the largest, making huge stone-pile memorials around the heiau, one for each district and on the sides toward the districts.  (Baker)

Here are some early accounts getting there.  “… after a day’s travel they reached the site of the ancient temple … These ruins lie equally distant from three mountains, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Hualālai.  This temple is said to be built by ʻUmi ….”  (Wilkes, 1841)

“Up the long slope of Hualālai we ascended to Kaʻalapuali, following the old Judd trail through fields of green cane, through grass lands, through primeval forests, over fallen monarchs, finally out on that semi-arid upland which lies between Hualālai and Mauna Loa.  Here we turned up the slope of Hualālai, climbing through a forest cover of ʻōhiʻa lehua and sandalwood carpeted with golden-eyed daisies – another picture of Hawaii, never to be forgotten.”

 “Farther up the Judd trail, we came to that unique “Plain of Numbering”, where King ʻUmi built his heiau over four centuries ago and called his people together from all the Island of Hawaiʻi. There is a romantic glamor hanging around those heaps of rocks which numbered the people who gathered at Ahu a ʻUmi that will remain as a fond memory throughout eternity.”  (Thrum, 1924)

 “… we unexpectedly fell upon an ancient temple of the Hawaiian gods, built in a dreary wilderness, far from the habitations of men. … (it) is a square, 100 feet on a side. Its walls, built of the fragments of ancient lava, were eight feet high, and four feet thick. … Around the principal structure, and at the distance of ten to twenty feet, there were eight pyramids, about twelve feet in diameter, and twelve to fifteen in height.”  (Hiram Bingham, 1830)

The piles (pyramids, as Bingham called them) showed the relative size of the population of the districts.  “Kona is the most populous of the six great divisions of Hawaiʻi.” (Kohala is next.)  (Lots of information here from Baker, Schmitt and Thrum.)

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