Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands - Kamehameha V --- (Part 2)

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Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands
" Keepers of the Culture "
A study in time of the Hawaiian Islands
As told by the ancients--
Kamehameha V -- Part 2.
Leprosy-- earthquake -- eruption-- tidlewaves
by Darlene E. Kelley
December 17, 2000

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

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As told by the ancients--
Kamehameha V -- Part 2.--

To Kamehameha V there was no such thing of greater importance in the
Kingdom than the continued effort to establish the educational  program
which had been so carefully planned. He envisioned te day when Hawaiians
would be able to fill all offices in their own government. But he was
always practical. He said over and over again that the children and
young people should be taught to work with their hands as well as with
their heads; that if the chldren were not taught to work while in school
they would not work when they left school. The King said further, that
if young men did not work with their hands they would think they must be
lawyers, or something of the kind, and perhaps get their living by
rascality if money did not come fast enough to suit them.

The year 1865 brought several important matters to a head. Through the
Bureau of Immigration, established earlier that year, a representative
was sent to China, India, and the Malay Archipelago to procure laborers
for the Islands. In July, 1865, five hundred Chinese laborers arrived in
Hawaii. The representative was to learn, if possible, something further
regarding the treatment of leprosy.

Leprosy first made its appearance in the Islands in 1853. By 1864 the
disease had spread to an alarming extent. It was decided that something
more definate must be done about it at once. Accordingly, a bill was
passed to isolate the lepers, providing a separate establishment for
them and their care. The first hospital for the treatment of leprosy was
opened at Kalihi. About this time, a permanent location was selected at
the present site of the leper settlement on the north side of the island
of Molakai. This is a peninsula comprising of some five hundred acres,
surrounded on three sides by the ocean, and shut in on the south side by
steep precipice rising to a height ranging between two thousand and
three thousand feet. In 1866, one hundred forty lepers embarked for
Molokai.

Ignorance was the fate of the Hawaiian Leper,
brought up on fear and misunderstanding, wrought by missionary
influence. Bible passages from both the New Testament and the Old
Testament affected the perceptions of lepers as sinful and unclean.
Actually it was neither. The old Testament provided many religious
stigma against the lepers, while the New Testament also exemplied Jesus'
holiness and compassion in dealing with the lowest of the social strata.
Most quoted scriptures taught by the missionaries was taken from "
Leviticus 13: 1-14: -57 " " The mark of the Beast "

It was said that the leprosy was brought to the islands by foreigers. It
was blamed on the Chinese, but there is no proof of ths fact. Physicians
were ignorant to its treatment., as well as fearful to treat for its
contagion. Because it was considered as unclean, water baths were
recommended. They were unaware of its varients and subtelties. Very
little knowledge was available to them in pinpointing its cause and
origin. A person did not even need to have extended contact with a leper
to contract the disease. Many patients, who were not infected, were
labeled lepers. Fearful doctors did not take the time to make complete
examinations. If a patient came in with symptoms that even resembeled
those of leprosy, he/she was deemed wicked and unpure.

To understand the disease in actuality requires one to look at evidence
found in the 20th century, In studies, leprosy is found to be caused by
a microbe called Mycobacterium leprae. It has been deemed as contagious
and is endemic only in certain areas of the world.
Visible signs include a change in the texture of the skin, enlarged
veins, and lesions on the skin. Its indications are usually
neurological, with a great deal of tingling or numbness throughout the
body. The stages can lead to paralysis and cause disfiguration of the
hands and feet. It is hard to distinguish the disease from others such
as syphilis and various fungous infections, which explains how it could
be tossed into the category of being sexually transmitted. It not only
attacks the skin, peripheral nerves and mucous membranes [eyes and
respiratory tract ] it is usually accompanied by sensory loss. In many
advanced cases, gangarene sets in, causing parts of the body to die.
Early stages of the disease could be hidden in places where it is not
seen, like the nose, wrinkles in the neck, the eye, the ear, under the
arm pit,the sole of the foot, the nail, the head, and beard. So many
cases could be hidden for some time. Later the stigma of the name
leprosy was called Hansen's Disease.

At Kohala, the scourge of leprosy was keenly felt, claiming many who
were sent to the newly founded Leper Settlement on Molokai. In 1865, a
permanent quarentine area was established when the Legislature passed
the Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy after Kamehameha V issued a
decree ordering incurables be segregated from the population. Rewards
were issued for people turning in any known leper.

The first boat load of patients departed from Honolulu Harbor for the
settlement in 1868. After the rough journey across the Molokai channel,
arrival at Kalaupapa brought more hardship and despair. Abandoned by
society and the medical profession, the patients were left without hope
in a hostile envirnmont. Conditions were notoriously bad. In that place
there were no laws, only to exist, only to eventually die. Other
patients rounded up and torn from their families, caged in cages like
animals, loaded on boats whose Captains braved the scourge, and the sea,
and upon arrival, dumped the lepers off the coast of Molakai. They were
expected to swim ashore and make a home for themselves with virtually no
help from the outside world. Some of the lepers actually died in the
water trying to swim ashore. Later a Missionary priest, by the name of
Joseph Van Veuster from Belguim who was called later, Damien, of the
Fathers of the Sacred Heart, did much for these poor individuals.and
gave them some compasision and hope.

The same year, the King's sister, the Princess Victoria, heir-apparent
to the throne, died at the age of twenty-seven. A newspaper of 1866
gives the following notice;

" Assembly : Minister Hutchinson presents a letter from his Majsety----

" To the Nobles and Representatives of my people, it has pleased God to
again afflict myelf, my family and the nation by recalling to Himself my
beloved sister, Her Royal Highness, Princess Victoria Kamamalu
Kaahumanu, who died at her residence this morning at 10 A.M. While
bowing submissively to the will of the Almighty, your love and sympathy
for myself and my father, your venerable president,of which we feel
assured in this hour of bereavement, will be chiefest earthly
consolation.'  Signed, Kamehameha (R) Iolani Palace.  May 29, 1866 "

The death of the father of Kamehameha lV and Kamehameha V, [ Hon.
Kekuanaoa ] soon followed, and the King again addressed the Assembly of
nobles and friends. He spoke of the loss to himself and to the Kingdom,
adding:
" The best wish that I can have for you is that I may ever preserve the
rememberance of his precepts and follow his example of pure patriotism."

It was the custom, after death of a monarch or someone in authority, for
the native people to stop all work and spend days in idleness. This
custom, Kamehameha V determined to change. Following the death of
Kekuanaoa, he called his father's retainers together and said to them: "
You have mourned with me for my father and now it is time for you to go
to work, and if you need money to buy clothes I will advance it on
account, and I will pay you so many dollars for your work."

The men did not like this. They replied, " Your father fed us all the
time and did not make us work, and you should do the same. " Kamehamea
answered firmly: " I am not the King to teach the nation to be idle, but
it is my place to teach the people to work and support their families. I
do not want anybody to work for nothing. Those who want to work for me
will e paid for it, and those who not want to work must go elsewhere to
live, as after a certain timeno food will be given out to those who are
able to work and will not work. Youhave shown great respect for my
father and now you cannot do him or the nation any good by sitting in
idleness and saying ' We do this in aloha for your father." the King put
the men to work reclaiming the marshes at Waikiki, planting and fishing.

It was about this time that, through the continued interest of the King
and his officials, the first Board of Education was founded, and,
following the work of Mr. Richards, the Office of Inspector of Schools
was created. A reformatory school was opened, and a special school for
Hawaiian girls was started, filling the need in the Hawaiian community.

The Treaty of Reciprocity, so long pending between the United States and
Hawaii, was still in question in Washington. This was a constant worry
to the King and his cabinet. There was encouragement, however, in the
rapid development of ocean travel between America and Hawaii, and from
Australia to the Islands. Kamehameha was empathatic regarding the need
of the greatest possible promotion of interchange of commerce between
Hawaii and other countries. He told the assembly that he wish to commend
to their fostering care the matter of steam communucation between the
islands of the Hawaiian group, believeing that liberality in this
respect was the wisest economy.

While serious and concentrated thought and attention were given to these
government and national concerns, Honolulu and the Islands did not want
for excitment. The people never knew when to expct an eruption from old
Mauna Loa, and an eruption of a great magnitude took place in
March.1868. In March, preceeding the actual eruption, there was
eartquake shocks; in April, a terrific earthquake shook down the every
stone wall and nearly every house in Kau. All Hawaii was affected.
Ancient historians give the following story;

In eastern Kau the earthquake, which is known as a 'mud flow' an
enormous mass of earthy clay, detached itself from the bluff at the head
of the valley, and in a few minutes a stream about half a mile wide and
thirty feet deep in the middle, swept down for a distance of three
miles. It moved so swiftly that it buried thirty people, and more than
five hundred horses and cattle."

Immediately following the earthquake, a tremendous tidal wave, said to
have been forty or fifty feet high, rolled in upon the coast of Kau,
sweeping away villages and killing more than eighty people in few
moments. At the same time, the crater of Kilauea emptied its lava
through the underground. The floor of the crater fell in, forming a pit
three thousand feet long and five hundred feet deep. The following month
Mauna Loa again erupted on the southwest slope of the mountain,
spreading over the Kahuku country from five thousand six hundred feet
above the sea. Great masses of lava, forming fountains several hundred
feet high, flowed ten miles into the sea, destroying thousands of acres
of good land, numerous homes, and many people. The government at once
sent help to the island of Hawaii. The King personally, accompanied the
Kilauea, which was loaded with supplies for the stricken area. Large
sums of money were contributed by private citizens, and a second ship
was soon on its way to relieve the suffering of people.