Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands -  Part 5 - The Ancients

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Historical Collections of Hawaii
Keepers of the Culture
Influence of Foreigners on the Ancients
Part 5 - The Ancients
The Coming of Foreigners to Hawaii

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Part 5.

In view of the strife of contending chieftains, it is not strange to
find in the contempory literature of the period repeated references to
the efforts to obtain cannons, muskets, and ammunition. The nature of
the trade that developed in the north Pacific makes it even less strange
that the efforts of the chiefs were in many cases sucessful. Capt.
Douglas in the spring of 1789 supplied Kamehameha with a quantity of
arms and ammunition, including a swivel gun mounted on a platfom of a
double canoe. The latter chief in 1791 informed Lieutenant Quimper that
all ships which anchored at the island of Hawaii gave him firearms.
Vancouver, during his visits to the islands, found evidence of a regular
traffic in arms, by which the chiefs on all the islands were supplied
with the means of carrying on their factional warefare. He was given to
understand that some of the traders encouraged the chiefs to continue
their ruiness strife with each other. Worse still, the traders had sold
the chiefs defective guns, some of which burst on the first discharge,
causing bad accidents. Vancouver himself resolutely refused to have
anything to do with the business and condemned it in scathing terms. 

When Captain Douglas was at Kawaihue in December, 1788, with the
Iphigenia and the little sloop North West America, Kamehameha was
greatly impressed with the story of the building of the latter vessel a
Nootka Sound and "he intreated that a carpenter might be left at
Owhyhee" to supervise the building of a simular one for him. Even that
early the Hawaiians were attempting to improve their own navigation by
imitating foreign methods, for in January, 1789, Captain Douglas saw, at
Waikiki, Oahu, a double canoe schooner rigged, with jib, main-sail, and
fore-sail. A few years afterwards, Kamehameha secured the services of
Vancouver's carpenters to assist in the construction of the Britannia,
the first foreign style vessel built at the islands.
In 1795-1796, when Kamehameha was at Oahu preparing to invade Kauai,
foreigners in his service built for him a small sailing vessel of about
forty tons. In two cases, other and less honorable methods were used in
order to get possession of the coveted foreign ships, and this statement
brings us to a series of acts of violence which stain the history of the
early intercourse between Hawaiians and foreigners.

Two of these acts concerned an American trader, Capt. Simon Metcalfe,
who had two vessels, the Eleanora commanded by himself and a tiny
schooner called the Fair American commanded by his son Thomas
They had been on the Northwest Coast in 1789. The smaller vessel had
been seized by the Spaniards and taken to San Blas, but had then been
released and sailed to Hawaii, arriving there in the early part of 1790.
The elder Metcalfe had already gone to the islands with the Eleanora and
at the end of January was anchored off Honolulu, Maui, engaged in
trading for supplies. During the night a small boat tied to the stern of
the Eleanora was taken away by some natives and a sailor in the boat was
killed by them. Metcalfe's retaliation for this deed can hardly be
surpassed for downright fiendishness. He tried unsuccessfully to recover
the boat and the sailor, fired some rounds of shot into the village,
thereby killing several of the inhabitants, and then, learning that the
natives who stole the boat had come from Olowalu, he sailed around to
that place. Having found out definately that the boat had been broken up
and the sailor killed. Metcalfe planned his revenge. He first placed all
his cannons on the starboard side of the ship and loaded them with
musket balls and langrage shot. He then encouraged the natives to come
off in their canoes to trade, but he kapued the larboard side of the
ship and thus contrived to get the canoes--scores of them --closely
grouped to starboard. Outward appearances were friendly, when suddenly
the ship's whole broadside was fired into the canoes. The saughter was
horrible; more than a hundred of the natives were killed and many others
wounded. This affair is known in the Hawaiian annals as the " Olowalu
massacre."

About five weeks later, the Fair American arrived from San Blas and
while making its way down the west side of Hawaii was becalmed near a
place in north Kona where chief Kameeiamoku was residing. This chief had
once committed some petty offense on board the Eleanora for which he had
been struck with a rope's end by Capt. Simon Metcalfe. Smarting under
this affront to his dignity, Kameeiamoku is said to have sworn that he
would have revenge on the next foreign ship that came his way. As fate
would have it, the next ship was the tiny schooner Fair American,
commanded by Metcalfe's son and having a crew of only five men.
Kameeiamoku and his followers, after gaining admittance to the vessel by
pretence of friendly trade, had little difficulty in throwing the
captain and crew overboard, killing all of them except one, and seizing
the vessel. The sole survivor, Isaac Davis, was taken under the
protection of Kamehameha, who by this time had become King of the
northwestern half of the island of the island of Hawaii and who is said
to have rebuked Kameeiamoku for his barbarous deed. Kamehameha likewise
took possession of the schooner and it became the first foreign style
vessel in his war fleet. It may be pointed out that there was no
relationship of cause and effect between the Olowalu massacre and the
capture of the Fair American, the two incidents having occurred at
different islands controlled by rival chieftains.

While the tragedy of the Fair American was taking place, the Eleanora
was at anchor in Kealakekua Bay. On the same or the following day, the
boatswain of the ship, and Englishman named John Young, went ashore for
a visit. He was detained by the stringent order of Kamehameha, who
feared that if Metcalfe learned what happened he might take some signal
revenge. The Eleanora waited several days for Young to return on board
and then sailed away without him. It is believed that Metcalfe left the
islands without learning of the disaster that had overtaken his son.
Young, doubtless looked upon as a deserter. Davis and Young became fast
friends. They made an unsucessful attempt to escape, but were treated so
well by Kamehameha that they were soon reconciled to spending their
remaining days in Hawaii. They were given wives, lands, and servants,
and became in effect Hawaiian chiefs. Though of limited education, they
were, fortunately, men of excellent character
and exerted a wholesome influenece upon
Kamehameha, to whom they afterwards stood in the relationship of
confidential advisers.[ there is some confusion that the above John
Young was an American. But he was an Englishman. There was a later John
Young living temporarily in Hawaii in 1790, according to the Hawaiian
Historical Society.]

A few years later, the island of Oahu witnessed two outbreaks of
violence in the
relations between Hawaiians and foreigners. In May, 1792, the British
naval storeship Daedalus, belonging to Vancouver's squadron, anchored
off the mouth of the Waima stream for the purpose of taking water. The
commander,
Lieutenant Hergest, foolishly went on shore unarmed and accompanied by
the astronomer Gooch and two seaman. Walking a little way up the river,
the party was attacked by a crowd of natives and all killed except one
seaman. There is some evidence tending to show that this may have been
as act of reprisal for a flare-up that occurred at Maui the year before,
when an American trader, Ingraham, believing his small vessel was in
danger of being attacked, fired a number of shots for the purpose of
scaring off the natives. Or it may be that it was simply an isolated
outrage committed, as Kahekili, king of Maui and Oahu, stated to
Vancouver, " by a lawless set of ill-minded men " in the presence of
opportunity and in the absence of any chief who could control them. [ It
is said that it was perhaps carried out under the direction of a minor
chief named Koi for the purpose of getting possession of the firearms
carried by the Englishmen. ] but some of the authorities cited point to
Kahekili himself as being, indirectly, the instigator of the outrage.

On the first day of 1795, two English trading vessels, the Jackball and
the Prince Lee Boo, at anchor at Honolulu harbor, were seized by the
natives and the two Captains killed. In July, 1796, two marines
belonging to the British sloop Providence were killed by natives on the
island of Niihau, apparently for the purpose of getting possession of
the firearms carried by them. 

In spite of the unfortunate accidents which have been mentioned and of
occasional reports of plots by the natives to capture other vessels,
most relations between the Hawaiians and the foreigners who came to the
islands were as general thing, friendly and agreeable.

After 1796, peace prevailed and a normal trade slowly developed,
Kamehameha, however, had not yet completed the consolidation of the
kingdom; Kauai still remained out, and preparations for war went on
until 1810, by Kamehameha for the conquest of Kauai, and by Kaumualii
for the defence of that island. During this time the traffic in arms was
controlled by the two rival kings.

From about 1790, there grew up, very slowly at first, a foreign
population in Hawaii. Many of these early settlers were common sailors,
but a few were of higher status. Some left ships with the permission of
their officers; others simply deserted. As early as the time of
Vancouver it was reliably reported that there were scatered through the
group many runaway sailors variously described as " vagabonds " and, "
renegadoes." But at the time and in later years there were a number of
foreign residents of better character, John Young and Isaac Davis and
the Spaniard Francisco de Paula Marin, whom the Hawaiians called Manini,
were the best known but by no means the only representatives of the
latter class. In the early part of 1794, there were eleven foreigners
with Kamehameha at Kealakekua; they were of several nationalites,
including Chinese. A dozen or more foreigners aided Kamehameha in the
conquest of Oahu in 1795. In 1798, Townsend saw six foreigners at
Kawaihae, Hawaii, where John Young was then residing, and five at
Waimea, Kauai. Archibald Campbell, who resided on Oahu for more than a
year in 1809-1810, states that at one time during his stay there were
nearly sixty white people upon that island; but the number varied
greatly and before his departure was considerably diminished. He states;

" Although the great majority had been left by American vessels, not,
above one third of them belonged to that nation; the rest were almost
all English, and on these six or eight were convicts, who had made their
escape from New South Wales. Many inducements are held out to sailors to
remain here, if they conduct themselves with propriety, they rank as
chiefs,...... at all events they are certain of being maintained by some
of the chiefs, who are always anxious to have white people around them.
The king has a considerable number in his service, chiefly carpenters,
joiners, masons, blacksmiths, and bricklayers; these he rewards
liberally with grants of land .....
Most of the whites have married native women, by whom they have
families; but they pay little attention either to the education or to
the religious instruction of their children."    

The time of which Campbell writes, Honolulu was becoming a place of some
importance commercially. It was situated in a rich and productive island
and its protected harbor, the only accessible one in the entire group,
caused foreign ships to go there in preference to other palces. To the
Hawaiians themselves, Honolulu and its snug harbor had been of little
importance compared with the nearby reef
protected romantic beach and town of Waikiki. But the foreigners'
rendezvous at Honolulu caused the natives to congregate there. Campbell
described Honolulu as a village of several hundred houses, well shaded
by large coconut trees. He states that while he was living
at Oahu, Kamehameha resided in Honolulu and a house in the European
style was being built for him. Two and a half years earlier, when Isaac
Iselin visited the islands in 1807, Kamehameha was living at Waikiki.

The rise of Honolulu at the expense of Waikiki is an illustration of the
general
disturbance of conditions in Hawaii caused by the coming of the
foreigners 
The foreign trade was an influence which caused a shift of population
and the growh of towns adjacent to the ports and roadsteads where ships
could lie at anchor. This trade also had a tendency to increase the
burdens of the common people, wh now had to supply the needs not only of
the local population but of the foreign ships as well. The presence of
foreigners before long manifested itself in a biological modification of
the population, the introduction of new blood and the appearance of a
class of part-Hawaiians.

The things brought to Hawaii by forigners were a strange mixture of good
and evil. Firearms and gunpowder, cloth and clothing, furniture and
household utensils, iron tools and a thousand small manufactured
articles were introduced by early traders and explorers. Goats, sheep,
and new breeds of pigs were left by Cook and other early visitors;
turkeys by Barkley in 1787, Cattle from California by Vancouver in 1793
and 1794; horses also from California by Cleveland and Shaler in 1803,
and the list goes on and on. By the same means were introduced plants of
various kinds, fruit trees, and garden vegetables. Among the
importations were some not intended and certainly not desired, such as
fleas, mosquitoes, centipedes,flies, scorpions, spiders and  rats from
ships The coming of plants and animals, while beneficial in many
respects, caused some unforeseen and unfortunate results by upsetting
nature's balance in the islands.

Besides their other gifts to the Hawaiians, the foreigners initiated
them into the use of alcoholic liquors and tobacco, taught them the art
of distillation, engrafted upon the primitive social order some of their
vicious habits, and were the means of bringing in diseases which started
the Hawaiian people on a toboggan slide down the slope of depopulation.[
Plague and epidemic diseases caused many deaths.]

In the realm of ideas, the new concepts and different ways of
interpreting the phenomena of nature, new points of view in regard to
the relationship between social classes and in regard to the position of
women, the new economic practices inevitably raised questions and
generated a skeptical attitude which weakened the foundation of the old
system and prepared the way for its collapse.

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To be continued in Part 6.