Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands - Kalakaua -- Part 2 The US GenWeb Archives provide genealogical and historical data to the general public without fee or charge of any kind. It is intended that this material not be used in a commercial manner. All submissions become part of the permanent collection. Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands " Keepers of the Culture " A study in time of the Hawaiian Islands As told by the ancients-- Kalakaua --- part 2. Kalakaua's Early Years by Darlene E. Kelley January 1, 2001 http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kalakaua --- part 2. As told by the ancients Kalakuana's Early Years Liliha, wearing a fashionable holoku and many flower lei, came to collect her hanai child. Preceeding her entourage, arms open, she moved barefoot toward the tapa-wrapped infant. Then the large Kinau stepped between her and the child. " The child is to go to Haaheo" she decreed. Kinau was a Christian, and Haaheo was not only a new convert, she lived on the Honolulu royal grounds as a Kamehameha linal heir. In the early decades of the monarchy the palace and the court moved to where ever the King resided. At this time the King had his court primarily in Lahaina. But when the twenty -three year old King visited in Honolulu, he lived at he compound of Kinau. It became the official palace in 1845. Liliha protested bitterly but knew she could not win, for Kinau's word was law in this matter. She swept her way out of the compound, followed by her entourage. Once in the privacy of her home, she began to wail and keen, mourning the child that should have been hers. She continued, it was reported, long after the sun, a red ball of fire, had dipped into the ocean. It had not rained. " His, " Liliha declared, having already studied the Keawe-a-Heulu line carefully, " shall carry the flaming torch as his symbol into his reign. For reign, he shall. Kamehamehas shall be gone, and from him, shall our ancestors' bones have life. Our traditions, our heritage shall live because of him." She looked toward the ever-misty Nuuanu Valley, and there shimmered a pale rainbow as fleeting as a memory. But Liliha smiled. The gods had sent their blessing. The tiny Kalakaua was wrapped in a feted mulberry tapa and taken by his hanai mother, Haaheo, to the royal grounds, followed by the entourage of Kinau. Kalakaua was given to a kahu [ a wet nurse ] to be fed and nurtured. His warm infancy was, however, short-lived, for Haaheo died a year later and Kinimaka, her husband, took the baby to live in Lahaina, Maui. However, he lived only a short time on the palace grounds there -- as Kinimaka's high chief linage was less than his late wife's. Kinimaka moved to a frame house on the outskirts of Lahaina. Within the year he married a Tahitian woman, Pai, who welcomed Kalakaua with love and tenderness, but he no longer had a kahu [ servant ] of his own. Pai shortly gave birth to another child, and Kalakaua became second in her affections. Before he was three, he had a fragmented life. The old ohana [ family ] system was disappearing. Ohana was a family system in which the older members reached out loving and welcoming arms to all-- no matter how distantly related -- or sometimes not related at all. Hanai was also disappearing under the Missionaries' stern edict that one did not give children away " like puppies." Two customs that had served the Hawaiians well were soon to be lost forever. When Kalakaua was nearly four, his biological mother, who served on the King's privy council with one of the most powerful woman in Hawaii, Konia, the granddaughter of Kamehameha l, appealed to her to have Kalakaua sent to the High Chiefs' Children's School in Honolulu. Kinau, the premier, had died the year previously, and the young twenty-six year old King had taken things into his own hands. He at first rebelled against Kinau and spent years in drunkeness and debauchery, but he had finally acceded to her wishes of a stable government. He approved of the High Chiefs' Childrens School and had sent his three hanai sons there-- Moses, Lot, and Liholiho. Thus Kalakaua was admitted to the school, but not before he was baptized and given the name of " David." Hence -- David Kalakaua. Amos Starr Cooke and his wife. Juliette Montague Cooke had taken charge of the High Chiefs' Children's School in 1838. They were both missionaries of the Eighth Company from Boston. In their thirties, with young children of their own. They were overly pleased with the growing number of children in the school, but a Kamehameha decendant such as Konia could not be refused. The High Chiefs' Children's School [ often shortened to " High Chiefs' School " ], the boarding school for the royal children and those of the highest chiefs, was a long, two story frame building with a large dining room and separate sleeping quarters for the children and for the Cooke family. There was also the New England parlor, furnished with handmade and treasured frniture sent from home, and with much brought from China. It resembled nothing Hawaiian in its appearence nor its atmosphere.. It stood near the palace, near Beretania street, on ground that Kamehameha lll had givn the Cookes for the school. In 1839. when Kalakaua entered the school, the three throne aligned princes were also attending: Moses, twelve; Lot. ten; and Liholilo, nine. Other Kamehameha related children were also at the school: Pauahi, the great-granddaughter of Kamehameha l , also nine; and Lunalilo, the child of the new premeir [ Auhea ], only six. The two youngest were Kalakaua and Emma Rooke [ a Kamehameha descedant through John Young's wife and hanai to Dr. T.C.B. Rooke]. Desite their youth, the children were well aware that they were Kamehameha while Kalakaua [ now called by his christian name, David ] was not a direct descendant. The Cookes. in general, had a shaky understanding of the high chiefs. They had little real knowledge of the royal children except that Kamehameha lll, their father, was the King and had power to give or withhold lands, supplies, or moneys from the school. they were puzzled about where other high chiefs' children belnged on the scale of importance. The bottom line was that they were heathens who must be saved from themselves by education and religion. Two childhood events were to stay in Kalakaua's memory that pointed out to him his inferior status and fueled his resentment against the missionaries. Dr. Gerrit Judd, a missionary, years later was to write that Liholilo was not so much anti-haole as anti-missionary " his heart hardened to a degree unknown to the heathen. " The stern discipline of the Cookes had made him rebellious. The same could have been said about Kalakaua, but even in even stronger terms. When Kalakaua was six years old, the Cookes sent him to see his grandfather hanged. Had the Cookes not been indifferent as to who the boy was, this would never have happened. But Juliette Cooke wrote almost casually in her journal. " A man is to be hanged and wants to see David." Had David been a Kamehameha there is no doubt the " man" would have been checked out more thoroughly. as it was, David was sent to the gallows n the plain of Honolulu to witness the hanging of his grandfather, Kamanawa. It was said that he had poisoned his wife to circumvent punishment for adultery. Strong punishment was imposed for adultery--banishment to the barren island of Kahoolawe. Kamanawa now wasto be hanged for both adultery and murder. There ws no evidence of why Kamanawa wished to see his grandson, but one can certainly surmise that it was not to praise the missionaries for their strict laws against adultery that had been incorporated into the Hawaiian justice system. [ it was also whispered amongst the other children that it was a punishment put upon David for not being a Kamehameha. ]. Seeing a man hanged was a traumatic experience for a six year old child, and to know it as his own grandfather did not lessen the experience. Kalakaua, coming from the tradition of ohana-- close family relationships --had known his grandfather. Rumor later had it that he saved a piece of the rope to remind him of the atrocity. But it seems unlikely that a six year old would have been given a piece of hanging rope no matter how indifferent the executioners were. At the school after that, Kalakaua, was not known for his scholorship as for inattentiveness, singing, and fighting. he frequently fought the older Kamehameha boys, especially Moses, when they teased him or others who were not Kamehamehas. He frequently suffered illnesses and bruises and even broken bones, sometimes inflicted by the stern disciplinarian, Amos Starr Cooke. There was an incident involving Cooke that caused him to miss out on a historical celebration. Kalakaua, who loved celebrations, remembered his disappointment long enough to write to his sister, Lydia, about it in later years.