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

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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--
Kalakaua ---- Part 5.
Kalakaua's childhood 
by Darlene E. Kelley
January 26, 2001

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

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Kalakaua's childhood-- 
as told by the ancients -- part 5.

Kalakaua's thirst for knowledge as instilled by the stories told him
from his grandmother's knees as well as the early instruction given to
him by other instructors was to be benificial to him in much later
years. We must remember even though the sometimes harsh treatment he
received at the Royal School, the missionaries took the Hawaiian
Language and translated it into other languages and reproduced it to
written form. They all were being educated in learning how to read and
write and to do simple ciphers. They were being educated in the European
and the American cultures, so that there would be more understanding of
foreign trade. This was a great help to Kalakaua, as he loved to write
in his journals.

Summertime, found him wandering the streets of Honolulu, then a seaport
not much different than seaports the world over in the 1840's, except
for the diverse people. He mingled with the brown-jacketed Chinese and
the Hawaiian commoner wearing a variety of clothing -- top hats and loin
cloths, cast-off pants or shirts. The women wore the new holokus and
muumuus that the missionaries had hastily slipped over their bodies.
Some were large and tent-like, and others were slim. Not even the
clothing could conceal their slender, well formed bodies. There were
also the elegant European clad women, and the high chiefesses, colorful
in their silks and satins-- all bedecked with fresh flowers. Casting a
more somber note on the crowds were the dark clad missionary women with
the high collared men, who waited eagerly for the ships to bring them
six month old news from home. They cherished and reread many times each
letter. The men brought home the barrels of flour or clothing, cast of
and sent by the missions at home.

Of all, Kalakaua loved the ships the most. He pestered sailors to take
him out in the row boats to the ships that he might see the interior of
these fantastic monsters with their high masts and winglike sails. The
Hawaiians were ahead of the Europeans in canoe building and had made
remarkable trips of thousands of miles by the stars. They were skilled
navigators. Although Kalakaua knew this, the sail-borne whaling ships
intrigued him. Proclaiming himself a high chief, he sometimes persuaded
a first mate or even a captain to take him aboard. The persuasive charm
that was his all his life, captivated the men. He found constant
fascination and asked unending questions about the magic of the ship.
How did the navigational instruments work-- the sexton, the compass?

Someday, he imagind, he would sleep in one of the cabins-- not the
hammocks -- for he would always be a captain or first mate, at least.

A favorite companion of his was Denzo, a young Japanese boy who worked
in the kitchen of the school. He had been one of five Japanese boys who
came to Hawaii in a disabled junk in 1841. To Denzo, the oldest of the
five boys, Kalakaua listened avidly as he told tales of Japan and
struggles of the open sea. The Kamehameha brothers and the Cookes
ignored Denzo, a servant unsuitable for friendship, but Kalakaua found
him a delightful companion-- he was different, he was interesting--
Characteristics that would always influence Kalakaua in his choice of
friends and advisors.

In 1848, a measles epidemic struck and Moses died, as did a younger
sister of Kalakaua, then
hanai to the King. Death wailing had been forbidden, but the children
were allowed a 
" silent aloha" for Moses. It was anything but silent. The wailing began
immediately, and when one child stopped, under severe threats from Amos
Starr Cooke, two more raised their voices louder. It was a terrible
experience for the Cookes and a cleansing one for the children.

Shortly thereafter the Cookes closed the High Chiefs' School, called the
Royal School after 1846, and Dr Gerrit Judd decided to take the two
young Princes, Liholiho and Lot, to England. The children of the school
were scattered. Kalakaua returned to Kinimaka.

As a thirteen year old boy, Kalakaua was confused about his place in the
immediate present as well as the future. He had suffered physical and
emotional abuse at school. Then he was deprived of his ohana with the
death of his grandmother.

The structures of the past were seriously damaged. Where once he would
have known his place as a high chief but not as a Kamehameha royal, to
be an advisor to the King and to live in moderate affluence, now he
seemed to belong nowhere. The lands relegated during the Great Mahele
and Land Reform Movement tied any that might be his grandfather.
Aikanaka. He had no money. He had no place in the new society.

He had a growing jealousy of the Kamehamehas and the beginning of an
ambition to suceed where they might fail. His  grandmother had told him
that Liliha, the prophetess, had said that the Kamehameha line would die
out and the Keawe-a-Heulu line would succeed. But at thirteen, Kalakaua
saw no hope.

After Kalakaua left the High Chiefs' School of the Cookes, he attended
the George Beckwith Royal School. Beckworth and his brother, Maurice,
had been teachers at the High Chiefs' School and with the closing of it
by the Cookes, almost immediately reopened it as a day school
of their own.

During this period, Kalakaua's contact with the royal princes was
primarily social. At Moses death in the measle epidemic, Liholiho andd
Lot had become heirs to the throne.

In 1849, when the High Chief's School had closed, the children had been
scattered. Dr Gerrit Judd, who had entered the King's service as advisor
in 1842 and had helped Kamehameha lll regain his country after the
abortive coup of Paulet, decided the two young Princes needed
educational broadening in England and the United States. Both looked
forward to going to London, for they had heard often of Kaehameha ll's
tragic trip and of the hospitality of the British to the Hawaiians.

Thier trip was entirely sucessful in England, but disastrous in the
Unitrd States. Liholiho wrote in his journal that the United States was
indifferent and rude to the young Hawaiians. The young princes had not
been entertained by the United States government as they had been by the
British. Then an unfortunate incident occurred in Philadelphia. The
princes had been mistaken for Negroes and had been relagated to the last
car on the railway.

With their return to Hawaii, they began thinking of the royal
succession. Although Lot was the older, Liholiho had been selected by
Kamehameha lll as next in the sccession line; a sharp rivalry began
between them-- two more different brothers,-- it was hard to imagine.

Lot was taciturn, brooding, resentful of the missionaries, and
determined that Hawaii be kept for the Hawaiians. Liholiho was lithe,
handsome, gallant, fun loving, but also aware of the losses his country
was suffering. The children of the Royal School were not blind to what
was happening to their country. By 1848, the Hawaiian population had
dropped drastically, as a result of haole diseases. The government was
rapidly slipping uner foreign rule; non citizens were being placed in
high positions of government and replacing Hawaiians. Education was
being taken over by the missionaries, and the Haawaiian language had
been replaced by English in official circles and in schools. The old
customs and traditions were called pagan and heathen and were being
trampled out of existence.

Politically Kalakaua's sympathies lay with Lot. Socially he was included
in palace activities and other royal events. His blood sister Lydia 
( Liliuokalani ) lived with Bernice and Charles Reed Bishop, an American
Banker who had married the great granddaughter of Kamehameha l. Bernice
Pauahi Bishop entertained lavishly and included Kalakaua in moonlight
horseback rides, luau, and other youthful activities.

At the age of fourteen, Kalakaua returned to his blood father, Kapaakea,
who commanded a small militia, having taken over from Aikanaka the Punch
Bowl Battery. Kalakaua was placed under the tuteledge of Captain Franz
Funk, a Prussian Soldier.

He loved the military precision and through Funk became strongly
indoctrinated in the importance of military protection for a country.
There were none to speak of in Hawaii except for the Royal Guard  for
the palace.

Kalakaua looked back to the days when Kamehameha had unified the nation
and gloried in the time of warfare and navy supremacy. Like most
Hawaiians, he loved the sea, but unlike most Hawaiians, he also loved
the military-- both the pomp and disciplined from of drill. He also
loved the uniforms and medals. By the time he was sixteen, he receved
his army commission as first lieutenant in Kapaakea's militia of 240
men.
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