Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Gladstone

A memorial chiseled into a hard to find boulder is a vigilant reminder of the hazards of hiking in Hawaiʻi’s wilderness – and it continues the memory of its focus.

We often read about rockfalls on houses, cars and other property; in this case a 7½-pound rock killed a boy on a hike in Mānoa Valley.

The sentinel, with a cross carved into a neighboring boulder, commemorates the tragic death of a young boy on a Sunday school outing.

The Sunday school teacher carried him unconscious down the trail to his carriage and drove to Queen’s Hospital; there, treated by Dr. Hildebrand, unfortunately, he died. (Krauss)

He was 11-years old, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Wright. They came to Hawaiʻi in the early-1880s. Apparently, Thomas was a carriage maker who came to Hawaiʻi with two brothers who apparently operated a carriage business. (Krauss)

The memorial simply states: Gladstone Wright Killed May 14 1891

Apparently, Gladstone’s cousin was George Fred Wright (April 23, 1881 – July 2, 1938,) later Mayor of Honolulu from 1931 to 1938. Wright, a native of Honolulu, died in office in 1938 while traveling aboard the SS Mariposa. (Krauss) (Mayor Wright Housing in Kalihi was named after him.)

The memorial is located on Waiakeakua Stream in Mānoa Valley. It’s between its upper and lower falls on the east side of Mānoa Valley.

Waiakeakua (“Water of the Gods”) is the easternmost spring and stream at the back of Mānoa Valley. Only the high chiefs were allowed to use this spring; it was kapu to others. A chief would often test the courage and fidelity of a retainer by dispatching him at night to fill a gourd at this spring. (Beckwith)

Legends tell of Kāne and Kanaloa in Mānoa Valley.

“As they stood there facing the cliff, Kanaloa asked his older brother if there were kupua (descendants of a family of gods and has the power of transformation into certain inherited forms) in that place. The two climbed a perpendicular cliff and found a pretty woman living there with her woman attendant.”

“Kamehaʻikana (‘a multitude of descendants’) was the name of this kupua. Such was the nature of the two women that they could appear in the form of human beings or of stones. Both Kane and Kanaloa longed to possess this beauty of upper Manoa. The girl herself, after staring at them, was smitten with love for the two gods.”

“Kamehaʻikana began to smile invitingly. The attendant saw that her charge did not know which one of the two gods she wanted and knew that if they both got hold of her, she would be destroyed, and she was furious. Fearing death for her beloved one, she threw herself headlong between the strangers and her charge and blocked the way. Kane leaped to catch the girl, but could not reach her. … The original trees are dead but their seedlings are grown and guard Waiakeakua, Water of the Gods.” (hawaii-edu)

Regarding the trickling stream, Pukuʻi’s ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, No. 2917 notes, Wai peʻepeʻe palai o Waiakekua. The water that plays hide-and-seek among the ferns.

Waihi is a tributary that feeds into Waiakeakua. Just east of the popular Mānoa Falls are three other waterfalls: Luaʻalaea (pit of red earth), just off of the Luaʻalaea trail; the tall Nāniuʻapo (the grasped coconuts), which also has a fresh spring; and Waiakeakua Falls, which features bathing pools. (MalamaOManoa)

The spring, Pūʻahuʻula, just west of Waiakeakua Stream is where Queen Kaʻahumanu, the favorite wife of Kamehameha I, had a green-shuttered home near Pūʻahuʻula, where she died in 1832. (MalamaOManoa)

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The Chinese Revolution Started with a Hawaiʻi Hui

The first unified Chinese imperial state was established by Qin Shi Huang of the Qin state in 221 BC (it had been made up of provisional states/dynasties before that.) Over the succeeding centuries, China was under dynastic rule; to name only a few: Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan (Mongol) and Ming.

It was rare for one dynasty to change peacefully into the next, since dynasties were often established before the overthrow of an existing regime, or continued for a time after they had been defeated.

The Qing Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing (including the Manchus,) was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917.

It was replaced by the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China who became the ruling governmental authority of China between 1927 to 1948. It was led by the Kuomintang (also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, KMT), until the Government of the Republic of China under the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China was established in its place.

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution on October 10, 1911, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (November 12, 1866 –March 12, 1925) was elected Provisional President and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China.

Sun Yat-sen is the Founding Father of modern China, the Republic of China (Nationalist China) and the forerunner of democratic revolution in the People’s Republic of China.

As part of a philosophy to make China a free, prosperous and powerful nation Sun Yat-sen adopted “Three Principles of the People:” “Mínzú, Mínquán, Mínshēng“ (People’s Nationalism, People’s Democracy, People’s Livelihood.)

But let’s step back a bit and look at the Hawaiʻi ties of Sun Yat-sen and those ties to the China revolution.

As the title suggests, it was here that Sun formed his first revolutionary organization that succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty, bringing an end to more than 4,000 years of imperial rule in China.

In 1879, then 13 years of age, Sun Yat-sen journeyed to Hawaiʻi to join his older brother, Sun Mei, a successful rice farmer, rancher and merchant. Sun entered ʻIolani at age 14. After three years there, he attended Oʻahu College (Punahou School,) and may have had classes at St Louis, as well.

In Sun Yat-Sen’s four years in Hawaiʻi (1879-1883,) he was exposed to Western ideas, was strongly influenced by them and in his young mind, the seeds of Western democracy were planted. The Anglican and Protestant Christian religious teachings at each rounded his western education. (Sun was later baptized.)

He came to Hawaiʻi on six different occasions, initially for schooling and to support his brother’s businesses on Maui. Later, his trips were geared to gain support for revolutionizing China and fundraising for that end.

On his third trip in Hawaiʻi (on November 24, 1894) Sun established the Hsing Chung Hui (Revive China Society,) his first revolutionary society. Among its founders were many Christians, one of them being Chung Ku Ai, his fellow student at ʻIolani (and later founder of City Mill.)

Shortly after, in January 1895, Dr. Sun left Hawaiʻi and returned to China to initiate his revolutionary activities in earnest. The funding of the First Canton Uprising mainly came from the Chinese in Hawaiʻi (that first uprising failed.)

On another visit to Hawaiʻi (in 1903,) Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui into Chung Hua Ke Min Jun (The Chinese Revolutionary Army) in Hilo.

Another Hawaiʻi tie for Sun relates to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that blocked Chinese travel to the US. In March 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaiʻi, stating that “he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870.”

He used it to travel to the continent; then, when it was no longer needed, he renounced it.

In 1905, in Tokyo, Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui and other organizations into a political party called the Tung Meng Hui. Likewise, the Chinese Revolutionary Army was reorganized and all of its members became Tung Meng Hui members.

This party spread all over China and rallied all the revolutionists under its wings. He then made his last visit to Hawaiʻi to form the Hawaiʻi Chapter of Tung Meng Hui.

From 1894 to 1911, Sun traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaiʻi, Canada, the United States and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest. (Damon)

The revolutionary movement in China grew stronger and stronger. Tung Meng Hui members staged many armed uprisings, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and established the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day”. On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-Sen was elected president and on January 1, 1912, he was officially inaugurated. After Sun’s death in March 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT.)

The Republic of China governed mainland China until 1949; in that year, during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist-party-led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Originally based in mainland China, Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Republic of China troops and two million refugees fled from mainland China to Taiwan (formerly known as “Formosa.”)

On December 7, 1949 Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China and it now governs the island of Taiwan. Sun Yat-sen is one of the few Chinese revolutionary figures revered in both the People’s Republic of China (mainland) and Republic of China (Taiwan.)

Hawaiʻi and its people played an important role in the life of Sun Yat-sen, as well as in his revolutionary activities. His first revolutionary organization was formed in Hawaiʻi, it developed into the political party directly responsible for the collapse of the Manchus.

People in Hawaiʻi joined the Hui, contributed their efforts and funds and in many instances even their lives to China’s revolution. Sun once said: “overseas Chinese are the mother of revolution”. (Lots of information here from Damon, SunYatSenHawaii-org) (By the way, Hui is Chinese and it means “to gather together.”)

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Sun Yat-sen (2nd from left)-Yeung Hok-ling (L) Chan Siu-bak (2nd from right) Yau Lit (R) & Guan Jingliang (stand)
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Establishment of the republic of China with display of two flags of the Wuhan Uprising
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Hong Kong’s Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park-HongKong
Kamaole, Maui-sign noting it as the Maui Branch revolutionary headquarters where Sun had stayed-(SunYatSenHawaii)
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Soldiers of the Wuchang uprising
Street view of Young Goon Fancy Dry Goods store fronting Market St. in Wailuku Maui-(SunYatSenHawaii)
Sun Yat Sen statue at Keokea Park, located along Lower Kula Road. Photo courtesy, County of Maui.
Sun Yat-sen (middle, dressed in white) and Chiang Kai-shek (on stage in uniform) Whampoa Military Academy-1924
Sun Yat-sen statue in Kepaniwai Park, located in Iao Valley. Photo courtesy, County of Maui
Sun Yat-sen to James Cantlie announcing he has assumed the Presidency of Republic-Jan_21_1912
1911 Revolution Plaza. Sculpture of Tsun Yee Sen, the National Father of modern China.
1911 Revolution Plaza. Sculpture of Tsun Yee Sen, the National Father of modern China.
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Wing Cheong Lung store-Honolulu's Chinatown at Maunakea and Hotel Streets-revolutionay meetings and transient quarters

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The Beaver Block

Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was a fur trading company that started in Canada in 1670; its first century of operation found HBC firmly focused in a few forts and posts around the shores of James and Hudson Bays, Central Canada.

Fast forward 150-years and in 1821, it merged with North West Company, its competitor; the resulting enterprise then spanned the continent – all the way to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day Oregon, Washington and British Columbia) and the North (Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.)

On January 21, 1829 the Hudson’s Bay Company schooner ‘Cadboro’ arrived at Honolulu from Fort Vancouver. While the HBC fur trade focused furs of beavers, sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska to be sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, their interest in Hawaiʻi was to sell lumber and other goods, not furs.

When the Hudson’s Bay Company entered the Hawaiian scene in 1829, Honolulu had already become a significant Pacific port of call and major provisioning station for trans-Pacific travelers.

The earliest location of the Agency in Honolulu was on the north side of Nuʻuanu Street (between King and Merchant Streets,) where it occupied a two-story, shingle-sided building.

“The premises were named “Aienui,” meaning “great debt,” perhaps in reference to the Company’s liberal policy of granting credit on reasonable security, such as was and still is granted to the Indians on their prospective winter catch.” (The Beaver, June 1930)

In 1846 the Agency moved to a new site closer and more convenient to the waterfront at the corner of Fort and Queen Streets. They had a two-story coral building with slate roof, fronting on Queen Street, and one-story storage building along Fort Street.

Thereafter, the location of their establishment became known as the “Beaver Block,” named after the HBC ‘mascot’ (and primary economic resource,) the beaver.

As the year 1859 started, Pacific whaling entered its decline, HBC’s competition in the importation of goods increased. Janion Green and Co (forerunner of Theo H Davies), Hackfeld and Co (forerunner of Amfac,) C Brewer, and Castle and Cooke (the beginnings of the Big Five) were established firms.

Instructed to wind up affairs in 1860, the last Company representative left Honolulu in March 1861. The Company’s old Fort and Queen business site, however, continued to be known as the Beaver Block. Other businesses moved into the premises.

Twenty years passed, during them, Lunalilo ascended to the throne and died within a year; his estate took control of the property and their trustees sold it to James Campbell. In 1882, Campbell built a new building and put the old iron beaver weathervane of the Hudson’s Bay Company on its roof – affirming the Beaver Block tradition.

“Thousands of Honolulans who pass up and down Fort Street and visit the wharves have probably never lifted their eyes high enough on such trips to notice on the Makai-Waikiki cornice of the Campbell block at Fort and Queen Streets a weather-beaten weather vane, with the letter “N” missing from that particular arm and to notice that the vane itself resembles a well-known forest and stream animal…. It took a visitor from Winnipeg, Canada, to notice that the animal was a beaver …” (Advertiser, March 31, 1930; The Beaver)

Beaver Block was a large building that included uses such as storage, shops and offices that stretched along Fort Street and Queen. That year, Campbell, who owned the adjacent land (fronting Fort and Merchant Streets) built the “Campbell Block,” a similarly-large building that included uses such as storage, shops and offices.

“The activity of building, throughout Honolulu and its suburbs, continues. That in the business portion of the city gives it the most substantial aspect of any years undertaking, the most prominent of which is the Campbell Block, extending from the Bank premises on Merchant street around onto Fort street to join the Beaver Block …. In the buildings that have been constructed a more lavish style is observed, and ornamentation externally and internally is now the rule rather than the exception, both in business houses and private dwellings.” (Hawaiian Almanac and Annual, 1884)

The first elevators in Hawai‘i were installed in the early 1880s. One was in the Beaver Block, a two-story structure at Fort and Queen Streets, completed in 1882. (The elevator was replaced by an electric elevator.)

Another pioneering elevator was located near the front of a two-story brick building occupied by Wing Wo Chan & Co., on Nu‘uanu Avenue between King and Merchant Streets. This structure was lost in the 1886 Chinatown fire.) (Hawaiian Historical Society)

A notable Beaver Block tenant was GW MacFarlane & Co, shipping and general wholesale merchants. George W. MacFarlane was born in Honolulu in 1849. He got a job with Theo Davies in 1868 and stayed with the firm until 1876.

McFarlane became a prominent attendant to King Kalākaua and merchant in Honolulu during the 1870s-1880s. He was also associated with Spreckels and other financiers in sugar interests. He died in 1921.

Another tenant in the building was the Beaver Saloon, opened on April 5, 1882 by HJ Nolte (who also had “The Casino” on his property at Kapiʻolani Park.)

The Beaver Saloon was “a favorite lunch resort for a large majority of the business element, the civil service, the factory and waterfront toilers, judges, lawyers and doctors … (and) has indeed been the most frequented noonday club in Honolulu, a recognized exchange for public opinion and clearing house for community gossip.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 29, 1907)

Then, on October 11, 1964, the Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser noted, “Office-Parking Building Planned by Campbell Estate on Fort Street.”

Plans called for a combined office and parking structure to replace the 2-story on Fort and Merchants Streets; this new building was considered an important part of the redevelopment of downtown Honolulu. (Adamson) The Beaver Block and Campbell Block buildings were torn down and a new building was completed in May 1967.

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Carved wooden beaver for the Hudson's Bay Company store, Honolulu-HSA-PP-37-4-009
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Hudson Bay Co Beaver On Branch Pendant Tag
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Fort St near makai-Waikiki corner with Queen St-King St crossing in distance-1880s-Beaver_Block_to_Left
Fort_St-left are G.W. Macfarlane & Co., Gency Hall's Safe & Lock Co, and H.J. Nolte's Beaver Saloon-HSA-PP-38-6-012
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View of Queen Street, Honolulu in 1857, left, Hudson's Bay store-right work begun on the demolition of 1816 fort wall-1857
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Honolulu and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 04-Map-1906-noting_Beaver_Block
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Oʻahu Country Club

Nuʻuanu Ahupua‘a consisted of one of the largest valleys within the Kona District on the island of Oʻahu. The valley floor was wide and relatively flat due both to a late volcanic eruption at the head of the valley and to the heavy rains captured by Kōnāhuanui, the highest peak in the Koʻolau range.

An early historic account in 1820 by the missionary Hiram Bingham described the ahupua‘a of Nuʻuanu as viewed from ‘Punchbowl Hill’:

“Below us, on the south and west, spread the plain of Honolulu, having its fishponds and salt making pools along the seashore, the village and fort between us and the harbor, and the valley stretching a few miles north into the interior, which presented its scattered habitations and numerous beds of kalo in its various stages of growth, with its large green leaves, beautifully embossed on the silvery water, in which it flourishes …”

“Through this valley, several streams descending from the mountains in the interior, wind their way some six or seven miles, watering  and overflowing by means of numerous artificial canals, the bottoms of kalo patches, and then, by one mouth, fall into the peaceful harbor.”  (Bingham, Cultural Surveys)

Naʻeʻepa o Waolani is a proverb that refers to the magical ways of the menehune that are “the extraordinary ones of Waolani.”  The proverb refers to magical ways that “can make big things happen from what may seem to be only small gestures.”  (Kaʻikena)

Pukui notes of Waolani, “Kāne and Kanaloa lived here and here the first man, Wākea, was born.”

“In the valley of Waolani, a side valley from the great Nuuanu, stood one of the sacred Heiaus called Kawaluna, which only the highest chief of the island was entitled to consecrate at the annual sacrifice.”

“As Moi of Oahu the undoubted right to perform the ceremony was with Kualii, and he resolved to assert his prerogative and try conclusions with the Kona chiefs, who were preparing to resist what they considered an assumption of authority by the Koolaupoko chief. …”

“Kualii assembled his men on the ridge of Keanakamano, overlooking the Waolani valley, descended to the Heiau, performed the customary ceremony on such occasions, and at the conclusion fought and routed the Kona forces that had ascended the valley to resist and prevent him. The Kona chiefs submitted themselves, and Kualii returned to Kailua.”  (Fornander II)

Thomas CB Rooke, hānai father of Emma (granddaughter of John Young and later wife and Queen of Kamehameha IV,) acquired Waolani Valley (“heavenly mountain area”) on the north side of Nuʻuanu Valley (as such it was also known as Rooke’s Valley.)

In 1906, a group of men selected land in Waolani Valley as the best site for the fourth golf club in the Islands; the new club was to be named Oʻahu Country Club.

The three existing courses at that time were the Moanalua Golf Club (built in 1898,) the Manoa Golf Club (1904) and the Haleiwa Hotel Golf Course (1906.) Of these, only the Moanalua Club is still in existence.

“The history of the movement toward the organization of the Country Club dates back two years, when a self-appointed committee visited the lands known as Waolani valley for the purpose of investigating its feasibility as a site for such an organization.”

“The committee found the land to be so splendidly adapted for the purpose that overtures were made to the owners of the property for a lease with an option of purchase.” (Evening Bulletin, April 6, 1906)

The group leased part of Waolani Valley for an annual rent of $900 in US gold coins. Two years into the lease, they decided to purchase the land outright and reportedly paid 6,000 sterling, the equivalent of $30,000 at that time, for the 378-acres.

The Club’s charter was approved by officials of the Territory of Hawaiʻi on June 8, 1906; thus was the founding of Oʻahu Country Club.

Construction of the first nine holes at Oahu Country Club golf course began in August 1906, and a formal opening of the 2,813 yard course was held on April 27, 1907.

Reportedly, the first golf ball struck at the club was hit by a woman, Annie Walker Faxon Bishop (wife of the Club’s first president, Eben Faxon Bishop.)

The second nine holes were completed in September 1913; the driving range was opened in 1988.

The original OCC Clubhouse was opened with the golf course on April 27, 1907, and in September of that year, two tennis courts were added. (The courts later deteriorated and were torn out due to lack of use.)

Clubhouse changes, renovations and expansions continued until July 31, 1970 when, after 16 months of construction, the present Clubhouse was opened on the same site.

Extensive changes have been made to the layout, lengthening the course to 5,820 yards and a par of 71.

Each year the course is home to the historic Manoa Cup. The Mānoa Cup was donated to Oahu Country Club by the Manoa Golf Club when Mānoa was disbanded in 1908.

Lots of information here is from Oʻahu Country Club and many of the images are © Gary Wild.

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Mrs_Faxon_Bishop-First_Shot-(GaryWild)
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Nuuanu Valley, Honolulu, Hawaii, circa 1900
Nuuanu Valley, Honolulu, Hawaii, circa 1900
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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Poi Prohibited

“The sale of poi is now officially prohibited.”

Thus was the March 2, 1911 directive of Food Commissioner Blanchard (as noted in an announcement on the front page of the Hawaiian Gazette, March 3, 1911.)  (While not being sold, there was still plenty of poi available to consumption.)

“Over seventy-five hundred pounds of poi is being distributed free every day to Hawaiians in this city by the board of health under a resolution by the legislature appropriating $2000 out of the contingent fund for the expense subject to the approval of the Governor.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 10, 1911)

“About one ton of poi a day is given out at each of the four stations Kalihi, Palama, Mōʻiliʻili and Kawaiahaʻo Church.  At each place there is a health inspector representing the board of health who is in charge of the operation assisted by deputies of Mr Rath superintendent of the Palama settlement work, who is superintending the poi distribution.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 10, 1911)

“At first the distribution was in the shape of sacks of poi of about ten pounds each put up at the Kalihi factory but such a great demand was immediately developed that the factory had no time to sack the poi and now it is being sent to the distributing points in barrels.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 10, 1911)

“A number of bacteriological tests made with poi have convinced the health officers of the territorial and federal government that that staple can transmit and impart the germs of cholera and probably all other disease of similar nature.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, March 17, 1911)

“With but two exceptions every case of cholera in the two outbreaks during the past two months has been traced to one source of infection – the Manoa valley taro patches and the poi manufactured from this taro.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, April 18, 1911)

“In Manoa valley is a Chinese named Hong Fong who had a taro patch. He carried taro to a shop on Fort street near School. This was made into poi and each day he carried poi from this shop up to Manoa and delivered it to Manana and Mrs Gonsalves who were the first of the Manoa cases.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, April 18, 1911)

“Then comes the Perry family cases in Manoa where cholera wiped out almost an entire family. There were four cases of cholera.  They lived on the bank near this taro field.  They raised their own taro but sometimes bought poi from Hong Fong.”

“They filled their water barrels for drinking purposes from this stream which had been contaminated by Manana when he became sick.” (Hawaiian Gazette, April 18, 1911)

“In this stream Manana’s contaminated clothing was washed by members of his family and water from this polluted stream was used to mix with poi.  A Japanese dairyman nearby used this water to dilute the milk product and the children in the Perry family drank milk so diluted and contaminated.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, April 18, 1911)

“From February 25, when the first case was reported, to March 14, 1911, the date of the last case, there had been reported a total of 31-cases with 22 deaths.  Twenty four days having elapsed since the occurrence of the last case, Honolulu may properly be considered to no longer harbor the disease.”  (Public Health Reports)

The medical conditions led the territorial legislature to enact regulations on the processing of poi.  The “Poi Bill” gave the board of health the authority to close any poi shop which is found to be making poi under filthy and disease-breeding conditions (the first law to regulate poi factories.)

This is not the Islands’ last legislative fight over processing poi.

A hundred years later, in 2011, another “Poi Bill” (SB101) was enacted after it made its way through the legislature and onto the Governor’s desk.

It exempted paʻi ʻai (traditional “hand-pounded poi”) from certain food-processing requirements/permits under certain conditions.  (Up to that passage, the Department of Health deemed paʻi ʻai unsafe.)

(Cholera is an infection of the small intestine caused by the bacteria; the main symptoms are watery diarrhea and vomiting.  It is typically transmitted by either contaminated food or water.   Worldwide, there have been several cholera pandemics, killing millions of people.)