Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii (2 page)

I should close with a word about native language sources. Hawaiian is a highly complex tongue that is not merely capable of great subtlety; it is a language in which subtlety is its daily stock-in-trade, with nuances of expression that escaped the American voyagers and still lead Anglo scholars astray. Most words have multiple meanings: first the literal meaning of the thing or action spoken, and then the
kaona
, the hidden meanings, either a spiritual overtone and/or, often, a highly irreverent sexual raspberry or double entendre. Among the historical sources one can consult, for instance, the reminiscences of John Papa ‘I‘i, who was raised in the Conqueror’s court as a companion to his son and successor, Liholiho. Papa ‘I‘i provided a highly illuminating look at royal circles until his death midway through the reign of Kamehameha V. However, one recent skillful study
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details the pitfalls of using the English translation of Papa ‘I‘i’s memoirs, which first became available in 1959. My general examination of the Americanization of Hawai‘i for a mainland audience that, mostly, does not know the story at all, may not be crucially dependent upon such sources, but I am wistful about how much better it would be had I a lifetime’s facility in this language, whose gradations of meaning were honed by centuries of chant and high oratory.

Written Hawaiian utilizes twelve letters plus the
‘okina
, the reversed apostrophe that indicates a glottal stop to break two syllables, or to begin a syllable with a closed throat (with a tiny cough, if you will). At the risk of provoking the impatience of a mainland audience, in this text I have opted to use the
‘okina
, not to be pedantic but because it simplifies pronunciation for the mainland eye. The name, for instance, of the sister of King Kamehameha III, whom he desperately desired to marry, Nahienaena, is a confusing mouthful unless broken down as Nahi‘ena‘ena. Similarly, without the
‘okina
, virtually all mainlanders would misread the name of the crater Halemaumau; it is pronounced Halema‘uma‘u. Absent the
‘okina
, however, paired vowels are indeed pronounced as a diphthong, but with more attention to the vowels’ individual sounds than in English, as in Honaunau. The Western eye is also accustomed to reading double vowels in a standard way that would be incorrect in Hawaiian, hence the utility of the
‘okina
in references to the Ko‘olau mountain range, or the island of Kaho‘olawe, or names such as Princess Ruth Ke‘elikolani.
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Finally, standard current usage has developed no fixed rules on which form of a word or name to use when it changed with the adoption of an alphabet. Before the language was standardized, the unifying conqueror-king of the islands, Kamehameha, was almost always referred to, and his documents were subscribed, Tamehameha. This form was used by his son Liholiho (or Rihoriho in the old style) as Tamehameha II, and then by Liholiho’s younger brother as Tamehameha III.
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The
K
that replaced
T
with the adoption of the alphabet is now universally backdated to the beginning, and one reads of Kamehameha from the arrival of Captain Cook. The same is true of Kamehameha’s rival Kaumuali‘i, the king of Kaua‘i. Before the subsitution of
K
and
L
, he is referred to most often as Tamoree. And there was a small fishing village on the south shore of O‘ahu that was called Honoruru until
L
took the place of
R
, but is now referred to as Honolulu from the beginning.

Contrary to this,
taro
, the starchy food staple brought from lower Polynesia by the first settlers, became
kalo
after the language was standardized, but modern usage has continued to use the archaic form. Similarly, Princess Ruth Ke‘elikolani saw her name modify from Ruth to Luka after the alphabet was adopted, and she is so referred to in correspondence among the royal family, but the newer iteration is never seen in modern print—a fate opposite to that of Kamehameha the Conqueror, her great-grandfather.

My goal has been to confuse people as little as possible, and I have followed these established practices. In cases where a person’s name changed significantly—Lydia Kamaka‘eha Paki did not become Princess Lili‘uokalani until her brother became king (although Elizabeth Kina‘u gave her elements of the name at her birth)—a brief phrase in the text suffices to tip off the reader that this person has a significant future role to play.

The Kings and Queens of Hawai‘i

KAMEHAMEHA DYNASTY

Kamehameha I, r. 1810–19; Queen Keopuolani (d. 1823), Queen Ka‘ahumanu (d. 1832).

Paramount chief of Hawai‘i Island from 1782; king of Hawai‘i, Maui, Lana‘i, and Moloka‘i from 1794, O‘ahu from 1795, Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau from 1810.

Liholiho (Kamehameha II), r. 1819–24; Queen Kamamalu (d. 1824).

Son of Kamehameha I; under premiership of Ka‘ahumanu.

Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), r. 1824–54; Queen Kalama (d. 1870).

Younger son of Kamehameha I; under regency of Ka‘ahumanu to 1832; under premiership of Kina‘u to 1839.

Alexander Liholiho (Kamehameha IV), r. 1854–63; Queen Emma (d. 1884).

Grandson of Kamehameha I; nephew of Kamehameha III.

Lot Kapuaiwa (Kamehameha V), r. 1863–72; unmarried.

Brother of Kamehameha IV.

William Lunalilo, r. 1873–74; unmarried.

First cousin of Kamehameha IV and V.

KALAKAUA DYNASTY

David Kalakaua, r. 1874–91; Queen Kapi‘olani (d. 1899).

Great-grandson of Kamehameha I’s first cousin Kepo‘okalani.

Lili‘uokalani (r. 1891–93; d. 1917); consort HRH John Owen Dominis (d. 1891).

Sister of Kalakaua.

HRH Victoria Ka‘iulani (heiress presumptive 1893–99, d. 1899).

Niece of Kalakaua and Lili‘uokalani.

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Missionaries to the Sandwich Islands (Owhyhee)

First Mission to Hawai‘i, March 30, 1820

Rev. Hiram and Sybil (Moseley) Bingham

Daniel and Jerusha Chamberlain, five children

Rev. Asa and Lucy (Goodale) Thurston

Rev. Samuel and Nancy (Wells) Ruggles

Dr. Thomas and Lucia (Ruggles) Holman

Elisha and Maria (Sartwell) Loomis

Samuel and Mercy (Partridge) Whitney

Rev. William Ellis (from April 15, 1822)

Hawaiians Thomas Hopu, John Honolii, William Kanui, Prince George Kaumuali‘i

Second Mission to Hawai‘i, April 23, 1823

Rev. Charles S. Stewart

Rev. William and Clarissa (Lyman) Richards

Rev. Artemas and Elizabeth (Edwards) Bishop

Rev. Joseph and Martha (Barnes) Goodrich

James Ely

Louisa Everst

Betsey Stockton

Hawaiians William Kamoolua, Richard Kalaioulu, Kupelii

Third Mission to Hawai‘i, March 30, 1828

Rev. Lorrin Andrews

Dr. Gerrit P. Judd

Rev. Jonathan Smith Green and Theodosia Arnold

Rev. Peter and Fanny (Thomas) Gulick

Mary Ward

Hawaiians George Tyler Kielaa, Samuel J. Mills Paloo, John E. Phelps Kalaaauluna

Fourth Mission to Hawai‘i, June 7, 1831

Rev. Dwight Baldwin

Rev. Sheldon Dibble

Fifth Mission to Hawai‘i, May 17, 1832

Rev. William P. and Mary Ann (McKinney) Alexander

Rev. Richard and Clarissa (Chapman) Armstrong

Dr. Alonzo and Mary Ann (Tenney) Chapin

Rev. John S. and Ursula (Newell) Emerson

Rev. Cochran and Rebecca (Smith) Forbes

Rev. Harvey and Rebecca (Howard) Hitchcock

Rev. David and Sarah (Joiner) Lyman

Rev. Lorenzo and Betsy (Curtis) Lyons

Edmund Horton Rogers

Rev. Ephraim and Julia (Brooks) Spaulding

Sixth Mission to Hawai‘i, May 1, 1833

Rev. John and Caroline (Platt) Diell

Lemuel Fuller

Rev. Benjamin Wyman and Mary Elizabeth (Barker) Parker

Rev. Lowell and Abba (Tenney) Smith

Seventh Mission to Hawai‘i, June 6, 1835

Miss Lydia Brown

Rev. Titus and Fidelia (Church) Coan

Henry and Ann Maria (Anner) Dimond

Edwin Oscar and Sarah (Williams) Hall

Miss Elizabeth Hitchcock (later married Edmund Rogers)

Eighth Mission to Hawai‘i, April 9, 1837

Dr. Seth and Parnelly (Pierce) Andrews

Edward and Caroline (Hubbard) Bailey

Rev. Isaac and Emily (Curtis) Bliss

Samuel Northrup and Angeline (Tenney) Castle

Rev. Daniel Toll and Andelucia (Lee) Conde

Amos Starr and Juliette (Montague) Cooke

Rev. Mark and Mary Ann (Brainerd) Ives

Edward and Lois (Hoyt) Johnson

Horton Owen and Charlotte (Close) Knapp

Rev. Thomas and Sophia (Parker) Lafon

Edwin and Martha (Rowell) Locke

Charles and Harriet (Halstead) MacDonald

Bethuel and Louisa (Clark) Munn

Miss Marcia M. Smith

Miss Lucia Garratt Smith

William Sanford and Oral (Hobart) Van Duzee

Abner and Lucy (Hart) Wilcox

Ninth Mission to Hawai‘i, May 21, 1841

Rev. Elias and Ellen (Howell) Bond

Rev. Daniel and Emily (Ballard) Dole

Rev. John and Mary (Grant) Paris

William Harrison and Mary Sophia (Hyde) Rice

Joseph—Hawaiian translator

Levi—Hawaiian translator

Tenth Mission to Hawai‘i, September 24, 1842, and after

Rev. George and Malvina (Chapin) Rowell

Dr. James William and Millicent (Knapp) Smith

Rev. Samuel and Julia (Mills) Damon

Rev. Asa and Sarah (White) Smith

Eleventh Mission to Hawai‘i, July 15, 1844

Rev. Claudius Buchanan Andrews

Rev. Timothy Dwight and Mary (Hedges) Hunt

Rev. John Fawcett Pogue

Rev. Eliphalet and Elizabeth (Baldwin) Whittlesey

Twelfth Mission to Hawai‘i, February 26, 1848

Rev. Samuel Gelston Dwight

Rev. Henry and Maria Louisa (Walsworth) Kinney

Antecedent: Captain Cook

On January 18, 1778, Capt. James Cook, RN, strode the quarterdeck of his vessel of exploration, the converted collier HMS
Resolution
. She was stocky and slow, 460 tons. With a thirty-foot beam across a ninety-three-foot keel, she was a third wide as she was long, like sailing a great rectangular box. But she was overengineered, built to weather an epic voyage and withstand almost any challenge to her construction. Cook had pronounced her the fittest ship for service that he had seen, and if there was one kind of vessel on earth that James Cook knew how to handle, it was a collier—a coal carrier. The legendary Captain Cook had just turned fifty, with penetrating blue eyes set in a taut, angular face. On his last visit home he found himself such a celebrity that his likeness was painted by the great Nathaniel Dance. Unlike most of the serene portraiture of this era, dominated by the paintings of Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, with their subjects often recumbent in gardens of classical statuary, Cook was shown seated at a table, leaning forward, pointing to a speck on a map, his head cocked to one side and with the glint in his eye of a man possessed.

Indeed, his life’s story had been one of dissatisfaction and hurry.
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Unhappy on his parents’ farm and unhappy as a grocery clerk when he was apprenticed out at sixteen, he was apprenticed again to coal merchants in Whitby and first went to sea on one of their colliers. While still a teenager, he devoured in his off-duty hours the study of astronomy, navigation, and mathematics, and by twenty-four he attained the rating of mate. He gained his own merchant command at twenty-seven, of another collier working the Baltic Sea, but joined the Royal Navy in June of 1755 once it was apparent that England and France were headed for a fight. As a junior officer in the Seven Years’ War (known in America as the French and Indian War) he took part in numerous sea battles, sat successfully for his master’s examination in 1757, and then in 1759 proved instrumental in winning Canada for Britain: Showing early his skill at cartography, as master of HMS
Pembroke
he charted the shore of the St. Lawrence River, piloting Gen. James Wolfe and his army to a landing from which they scaled the heights and surprised the French on the Plains of Abraham, leading to the capture of Quebec. This, and then his three years mapping the entire coast of Newfoundland with punctilious accuracy, marked him as an officer of singular determination and ability.

After the war the Royal Society—in full, the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, with its century of exploration and scientific quest already accomplished—desired to mount an expedition to Tahiti to observe the expected transit of Venus across the sun. After a canvass of the Royal Navy for its best navigator and mapmaker, it was Cook who was promoted to lieutenant and seconded to the Royal Society. In a momentous three-year voyage he delivered his onboard astronomer to Tahiti to have his gaze at Venus, and then sailed west, circumnavigated and mapped the coast of New Zealand and explored the eastern coast of Australia. He returned home in July 1771 with thousands of botanical specimens, journals that were published to wide fascination, and claim to a vast South Seas addition to the British Empire.

Although the Royal Society did not know much more about Venus than it had before, Cook was lionized for his exploration, promoted to commander, and offered another mighty journey. The ignorance of the West concerning the undiscovered regions was as massive as it was opaque. The most knowledgeable geographers for years had postulated the existence of a great southern continent, a
Terra Australis
, a mighty landmass that must fill the far-southern Pacific to counterbalance the weight of Asia—otherwise the planet must wobble out of its orbit. In his second voyage Cook’s commission was to discover
Terra Australis
, and claim it for the empire. From 1772 to 1775 Cook pursued the goal, running a vast search pattern in the open waters of the southern ocean, becoming the first mariner to cross the Antarctic Circle. But in the six thousand miles west-to-east of the southern Pacific, traversed not once but twice, he proved that there was no
Terra Australis
. When he was back home again, the geographers would not have it, but Cook left them to grapple with the earth’s rotation as best they could: He had been there, and he knew better. Cook was brusquely thanked with the Copley Gold Medal and made a fellow of the Royal Society; then he was retired from active service and given a post at Greenwich Hospital.