Statewide County HI Archives News.....Wiki Mo'olelo Part 6 . November 2, 2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com November 16, 2008, 8:46 am Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands November 2, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@webtv.net donkeyskid@msn.com November 2, 2008. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai'i Keepers of the Culture A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Islands Wiki Mo'olelo - part - 6 by Darlene E. Kelley +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wiki Mo'olelo Part 6. Nihoa Island. The first historic discovery of Nihoa that is known at this time is claimed by Captain Douglas, on the Iphigenia, who sighted the island at 3 o'clock on March 19, 1789, but we do know that Nihoa was originally inhabited by the Kanaka maoli ( original natives ) sometime between 1000 and 1500 A.D. The barque Columbia, Captain Peter Corney, with 60 native Hawai'ians on board, sighted and passed close to Nihoa on April 17, 1817, but did not land. Nihoa, also called Bird Island and Moku Manu, is located about 120 miles to the northwest of Niihau and 250 miles from Honolulu, the first chain of leeward Hawai'ian Islands. It is the summit of a huge volcanic peak, which only about 900 feet remains exposed above the sea. This exposed summit in shape resembles half of a cowboy's saddle, Miller's Peak ( 895 feet) being the pommel, and Tanager Peak (852 feet) its upcurved back. The island measures today about 1,500 yards east and west by 300 to 1,000 yards wide. It can be compared only to half as saddle as the northern side drops off sheer in a nearly perpendicular cliff.Near its middle this cliff is 360 feet high; but both ends of its 1,500 foot length reach a height of over 800 feet. In places it appears to overhang. The western side of the island also is a cliff, which forms a right angle with the north face. The cliff also continues around the curve of the east end. The southern side of the island slopes upward in a series of six shallow valleys. A low cliff borders Adams Bay. The foot of the southern slope has been cut into to form a bench of terrace, ten to fifty feet wide and from four to eight feet above mean sea level. In the western much of the bay is a small sandy beach. Breaking waves prevent this from being a good landing place. The best spot at which to land is a rocky shell near near the centre of the south slope. Here, in smooth weather, landing is not dangerous in the morning. The sea frequently becomes a little rougher in the afternoon. And in the stormy weather landing is practically impossible. Nihoa is the remnant of a once much larger volcanic cone. Its summit, as one can tell from the dip of the lava state, formally was higher and to the northeast of the present summit. The entire northern portion of the island has been eroded away. At present the waves are still cutting back the foot of the cliff, so undermining the face that it falls from above, most of the material being carried away as it falls. the rocks are compoed of both dike and flow basalt,some high in olivine crystals. No ash, bombs, or tuff have been found. The present area is about 156 acres, but much of its slope is too steep to be of any practical value. In contrast to the bare cliffs, the southern slopes appear brownish or greyish-green in color from their vegetation. Most of the ridges are covered with two kinds of grass. The valleys are densely carpeted with greyish shrubs. The only large plants are a few small clumps of loulu fan palms of which about 500 were counted in 1923, not including seedlings. Specimens of twenty flowering plants were collected by a expedition in 1923. Archaeological remains and old Hawai'ian legends indicate that the island was both known and, at least intermittently, occupied by Hawai'ians in olden days. They have gone there on fishing trips or on search of bird's featheres, and at an earlier, long forgotten period, stopped there en route to Necker Island or beyond in their migrations. Many interesting archaeological sites have been disovered. Many of the old house sites and terraces used for cultivation have been cleared as well mapped. A total of 66 sites are reported. The total of twelve acres of cultivated terraces might have produced 48 tons of sweet potatoes a year. These, with fish, might have been sufficent to feed quite a population, even the 175 persons which the number of house sites suggests. But the real problem was that of water, there being only three small seeps, none of which today give wager fit to drink. For many years the only regular inhabitants have been bird, and these occur in vast numbers. Black-footed albatross had a colony on the sumit, dome-shaped plateau; Bulwer's petral and wedge-tailed shearwaters occupied caves and burrows; red-tailed tropic birds hid beneath the bushes; and the large frigate birds, three kinds of boobies, and five kinds of terns nested in all sorts of plces from the ground to the crowns of the loulu palms. In addition to these sea birds, there were two species of native land birds, the finch and the miller bird, both endemic species, found only on Nihoa, but were related to species on Laysan. In 1822, Queen Kaahumanu, Premeier of the Hawai'ian Kingdom, heard about Nihoa during a visit to Kaua'i. She heard a chant and stories about Nihoa, west of Kaua'i, the direction from which the winter rains came: 'ea mai ana ke ao ua o Kona 'ea mai ana ma Nihoa Ma ka mole mai o Lehua Ua iho a pula ke kahakai The rain clouds of Kona come, Approaching from Nihoa, From the base of Lehua, Pouring down, drenching the coast. Intrigued, Ka'ahumanu and a royal party including Kaumuali'i, Liholiho,. Keopuokalani and Kahekili Ke'eaumoku organized an expedition and sailed in two or three small vessels, with Captain William Summer in command. They landed on the once inhabited, but long deserted island 150 miles WNW of Kaua'i and annexed it to the Hawai'ian Kingdom. The waterfront area around Ka'ahumamu Street in Honolul was named Nihoa in honor of the visit. The island was annexed to the Hawai'ian Kingdom again by Kamehameha IV, who landed on the island in 1857. In 1885, Queen Lili'uokalani, with 200 excursionists, visted Nihoa on the steamer 'Iwalani, and brought back artifacts; - a stone bowl, a stone dish, a coral rubbing stone, and a coral file. In the party were Sereno E. Bishop, to make geological observations and a map; Sanford B. Dole to observe the birds; Mr. Jaeger, to collect plants; and Mrs. E. M. Beckley, as representative of the Hawai'ian Government Museum. The survey of Mr. Bishop was cut short however, as the visitors had to take to their boats in a hurry, when someon carelessly set fire to the dry vegetation, and much of the slope was burned over. Much difficulty was experience in getting back onto the ship, because of which but few scientific specimens were obatined. +++++++++++++++ What Archaeologists Surmise about Nihoa. Archaeologists surmise that the terraces were planted with sweet potatoes, a crop requiring less water than thirsty taro. They estimate that the 12 -16 acres under cultivation might have supported 100 to - 175 people. Fish, shellfish, crabs, lobsters, turtles, seals, sharks, as well as seabirds and their eggs, were abundant sources of food. The lack of firewood might have created a hardship, as the only tree on the island is the loulu palm and its fan-like leaves were used for pliating, and its trunk could have been used for building shelters or for firewood, but if they were cut down for firewood, the supply would have eventually been depleted. Without the numerous kinds of palms of the forest of the larger islands, the settlers could not have provided themselves with canoes, wood containers, nets, fishing line, clothing and blankets, mats, and medicines. The colony was probably supplied with these products from Kaua'i or Ni'ihau. Several gourd fragments have been found; other bowls of stone and containers were carved of stone. Landing on the island is difficult. High, sheer cliffs prevent landing on the east, north, and west sides; the island slopes down to the south, but the shoreline i rocky and unprotected from the surge of southerly swells. Large vessels anchor offshore; and those who wish to land have to go in on a smaller boat or swim ashore. In ancient times, small canoes could have been carried up onto the rocky coast on calm days. If the canoes used to reach the island were somehow damaged inthe rough surf, the settlers would have not been able to repair their canoes with resources on the island. They would have been trapped until other canoes arrived from Ni'ihau or Kaua'i. Partial skeletons of men, women, and children have been found on the island, and two burial sites have been located. The journey of spirits to the afterworld ( in the west, towards the setting sun ) would have been shorter from this western outpost than from the islands to the east. The name of a place on the island where spirits of the dead departed for the afterworld is still remembered; it was called Mau-loku ( " Continuous falling"; Puaui et al Place names). How the island was discovered is not known ---possibly by fisherman working the seas west od Kaua'i, or following sea birds to gather their feathers or eggs. red feathers were coveted for making sacred objects, and the red-tailed tropic birds is one of the seabirds that nests on the islands. Polynesians traveled great distances to obtain such feathers; one Marguesan tradition tells of a 1.200 mile voyage,from Hiva Oa tp Rarotonga, to obtain red featers of a kura bird'; and the voyaging chief Hema is said to have sailed back to Kahiki to obtain a girdle of red feathers for his son, Kaha'i. Another motive of the natives for visiting the island is suggested by the chant of Ni'ihau describing the Kona rain clouds coming from Nihoa and soaking the west coasts of Kaua;i and Ni'ihau. Small, low islands like Ni'ihau and also the leeward coasts of high islands like Kaua'i depend on the heavy rains of annual Kona storms to bring life to their crops. But if the storms stay west or pass to the north without reaching Hawai'i, as they sometimes do, droughts and, in ancient times, famine could occur. Could the people of Ni'ihau or leeward Kaua'i have sailed west to get closer to the source of these rain clouds or the deities who controlled them in order to pray for rain and make offerings??? Water represented life and ealth in ancient Hawai'i, and such a voyage might have been worth the effort and risk. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Next - part 7. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/wikimool88nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 11.1 Kb