Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands - Kamehameha  l  (Part 8)

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Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands
" Keepers of the Culture "
A study in time of the Hawaiian Islands
Kamehameha  l 
and stories told by the ancients -- part 8
Capt John Kendrick
Sandalwood
by Darlene E. Kelley
November 10, 2000

http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374

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As told by the ancients -- part 8.

Captain John Kendrick  [ 1740 --1794 ]

Captain John Kendrick was a former privateering captain in the American
Revolution. Kendrick was sent out from Boston in company with Robert
Gray to trade furs on the Northwest Coast of America. On that coast
Kendrick, master of the Columbia Rediviva, traded commands with Gray of
the Lady Washington. The latter vessel first arrived in the Hawaiian
Islands in the autumn of 1791; it returned under Kendrick in 1793 and
1794.
Kendrick and several of his officers were killed in December, 1794, when
William Brown fired a victory salute after a battle in which Kaeo was
killed near Pearl Harbor. A gun from a nearby ship, accidentlly loaded
with grapeshot, crashed through the side of the Lady Washington, which
had to sail to China under another Captain. Kendrick was a pioneer in
the Sandalwood trade ; in 1790 he left two men on the island of Kauai to
collect a cargo of this valuable wood.

Sandalwood --

Sandalwood is an evergreen tree, semi parasitic tree native to Asia,
Pacific, and Australasia. The tree is medium sized which when the center
of its slender trunk [ the heart wood ] has the greatest oil content.
The heartwood and roots are fragrant and contain the oil. The bark and
sapwood are odorless.

Its use was used primarily in making perfume and beauty products, soaps,
and medicines. However, it was used in carvings and in making beautiful
scuptures. Also was used for its beauty and fragrance in fine furniture.
It has a lasting odour and makes an excellant non irritant, non toxic,
fixative in perfumes and soaps.

It was used as a oil in uninary anti-septic. It is a pulmonary
anti-septic useful in the treatment of dry persistent coughs. The
soothing of sore throats is an effective application for the oil. Also
used for its strong effect on throat conditions such as laryngitis.
Other uses include dry eczema, relief of itchng and inflamations,
sensitive skin, tension, stress, nausea and vomiting, and sunstroke.

Once the oil is extracted, it is matured for six months so that it can
achieve the right maturity and perfume. It has a heavy, sweet, woody and
fruity aroma which is pungently balsamic. the flowers of the tree are
small pinky-purple and must be at least 30 years old before it produces
the essential oils.

It is interesting of note; Sandalwood had uninterupted sacred 4000 year
history being mentioned in sanskit and chinese manuscripts. The oil was
used in religious ritals, and many deities and temples were carved from
its wood. The wood is soft to carve and one frequent use is for fragrant
carvings. The ancient Egyptians imported the wood and used it in
medicines, embalming and ritual burning to venerate the Gods.

Captain Kendrick. the American commander of the Lady Washington is given
the credit for discovering sandalwood in Hawai'i. While sitting before
an open fire, he detected the sweet odor of the burning wood.
Investigation revealed that the islands were filled with the precious
trees, and so began the nefarious trade which wrecked many lives. India,
where sandalwood was first known, had for centuries been the only base
of supply. The orient was calling. Both India and China were willing to
pay exorbitant prices for sandalwood, and men grew rich from the
fragrant forests of Hawai'i.

The story of sandalwood in the Hawaiian Islands is a stark and unhappy
tale. It was through sandalwood that slavery touched the freedom of the
people. The native workers were treated like cattle. Up the mountain
trails and down again they toiled, logs of sandalwood strapped to their
shoulders by ropes and thongs of hibiscus and coconut. Men started to
become deformed through the weight of the wood on their backs.
Agriculture was at a standstill. food became scarce, and famine stalked
the land. Disease and death marked the trail of sandalwood from mountain
to waterfront.

Kamehameha was swept along with the tide. His great desire was to own
European and Oriental goods of all sorts. These he acquired in such
quantities that he was forced to build storage houses to care for his
treasures, for many of which he had no use. The monopoly on sandalwood
was his own. He tabooed the oyster beds of Pearl River that he might
alone profit from the sale of the pearls. His love for beautiful and
shining things tempted him to purchase a looking glass for which he paid
$ 800.00, and for a brass cannon he spent 
$ 1,000.00.

Kamehameha was not blind to the ill-effects the sandalwood trade was
having upon the kingdom and his people. When its ravages became clear to
his conscience, he stopped the sandalwood destruction and ordered his
chiefs, instead, to cultivate their lands again. To set an example for
the people, he personally labored at tilling his own lands and planting
his crops. It was not until after Kamehamha's death and sandalwood
monoply was divided among his chiefs, each greedy for a share in the new
mine of wealth, that its scourge was felt again in the Islands.

Meanwhile, Kamehameha's successes in trade had proved so profitable that
he determined to go into the shipping trade himself. From Mr. James
Hunnewell, of Charleston, Massacusetts, he bought the Bordeau Packet and
sent the ship to the Orient with a cargo of sandalwood. This was the
first Hawaiian ship to enter any foreign port, and the venture was a
great disappointment. In Canton, the port charges were so heavy and the
crews, including the captain, became so dissipated that, when the vessel
returned, Kamehameha found he was in debt over $ 3,000,00. The matter of
port charges, however, which included pilotage, storage, and customhouse
fees, suggested to Kamehameha that he might raise funds from the same
sources, and he 
shortly established such fees for the islands.

Kamehameha's astuteness in trade won for him great distinction among the
foreign merchants. There are many records of what the white man thought
of Kamehameha, but little is known of what he thought about the
foreigner. He kept his own council. and in matters and at all times he
was the master of the siuation. Men who knew him best both admired him
and trusted him. Even in the ealy days when Kamehameha had had little
contact with the outside world, those who saw him were impressed with
his mind and judgement and his word was the law.