Last Days of Kahekili

Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii

Samuel KamaKau

KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS PRESS • HONOLULU 1962

Pgs. 159-167

    When Ka-ʻeo-ku-lani, ruling chief of Kauai, heard how narrowly Ka-lani-ku-pule and the other chiefs of Maui had escaped death in the war on Maui, and how the waters of ʻIao had been choked with the bodies of the slain in this war, he was so perturbed that he set sail to war against Kamehameha. He set out with Peʻapeʻa, son of Kameha-meha-nui, his counselor of war, Kiʻikiki', Kai-ʻawa, and chiefs, warriors, and paddlers, all well armed with muskets and weapons of all kinds, and with his two man-eating dogs. [He also took with him] Maka-ʻeha and Mr. Mare Amara, a man skillful in the use of arms who acted as his gunner.* On Oahu he met Ka-hekili, ruling chief over Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and Maui, and persuaded him to join in a war against Kamehameha. Ka-hekili selected a type of soldier new to Oahu called "Cut in two" (pahupuʻ), strange-looking men tattooed black from top to toe, with eyelids turned inside out and held up by props and only their eyeballs and teeth left in their natural state. They were led by Koi, Kuala-kia, and Manu-o-ka-iwi. Had the black negroes who came later to Nuʻuanu arrived at that time they might have been made favorites and given the lands of "Black waters" (Wai-pouli) and "Daubed black" (Hono-maʻele)! Ka-hekili left his son, Ka-lani-ku-pule, to govern Oahu during his absence and set out to accompany the ruling chief of Kauai, with his chiefs, both high and low, his warriors, the children of chiefs, and among them Ka-niu-ʻula, Ke-poʻo-uahi, the pahupu', and other soldiers newly picked from Oahu.

    The war party landed at Kaunakakai on Molokai, and when the Kauai chief saw for the first time, by the ovens they had left, the size of the camp which Kamehameha had occupied he said, "Where a big squid digs itself a hole, there crab shells are heaped at the opening." Upon their reaching Maui, Ke-kua-poʻi-ʻula [former wife of Ka-hahana] died, a woman famous for her beauty. The army camped at Wailuku, and of Waiehu the Kauai chief remarked, "Here is the land of the warrior to whom Kamehameha owes his kingdom [alluding to Keʻe-au-moku whose wife, Na-mahana, brought him the land of Waiehu]. O Kauai! stand up! This is the land where you shall leave your excrement!" The Kauai people were vulgar in their speech at best. Waiehu fell to Kiʻikiʻi' and it was, alas! the Kauai people who ate the poi of Waiehu. The mouth that eats food should never throw stones at the producer (I pono i kau a na waha, mai noho a pehi wale iho). Ka-hekili gave some of the land of Maui to the ruling chief of Kauai to be divided among his men, and Waiehu fell to Kiʻikiʻi'. This caused discontent among the chiefs of Maui, who had thus to lose some of their land, and they rose against the Kauai chief. A battle was fought at Paukukalo adjoining Waiehu while some of the people were out surfing. Koa-ku-kani was the hero of that day's battle. You know him and the size of his feet. He was surrounded by the Kauai soldiers and in a perilous situation, but he dodged long and short spears and showed his courage in the fight that day.

    Ka-ʻeo-ku-lani made a circuit of the north end of the island, came with all his people, and climbed the fortified hill of Kaʻuiki, and he twirled his war weapon (laʻau kaua), called Ka-moʻo-lehua, and made a thrust upward believing he could reach the sky. Failing in this he remarked, "It is said of Hana that the sky there is low; but it is too high for my weapon, the war-eater Ka-moʻo-lehua, to touch.* I fear therefore that my spear may not be able to strike down Kamehameha. O you of Kauai! chiefs, soldiers, warriors, and dear little ones, be strong, be brave! Drink the water of Waipiʻo and eat the taro of Kunaka!" Ka-hekili and his men set sail for Hawaii from Mokulau in Kaupo, and Ka-ʻeo-ku-lani from Hana. They landed at Waipiʻo. There Ka-ʻeo-ku-lani carried out his vow. He wantonly destroyed everything in Waipiʻo. He overthrew the sacred places and the tabu threshold of Liloa; he set fire to Ka-hou-kapu's sacred threshold of nioi wood and utterly destroyed all the places held sacred for years by the people of Hawaii. No one before him, not even Keoua who had passed through there the year before and destroyed the land and the food, had made such wanton destruction. Perhaps it was a sign of the downfall of the ancient tabus of Hawaii "by the kingdom of God."

    Ka-hekili in the meantime went to Halawa in Kohala where some desultory fighting occurred while Kamehameha was in Kona. Eight-eyed-bat (Peʻapeʻa-maka-walu Ka-maka-uahoa), a son of Kameha-meha-nui, performed great feats of valor. It was said that Kamehameha himself could not have overcome him in combat. His strength is shown by his famous deeds. At Kahahawai he uprooted a kou tree; at Napoko he pulled up the ti plant of Muleiʻula and Polipoli. He tore in pieces the banana-eating monster (mu ʻai maiʻa) of Laʻauhaele. He rent the hairless one (olohe) of Puʻukapele, and did other wonderful feats. At Kohala he seized men by fours, lifted them up and broke their backs so that they fell lifeless. It was not until the close of the war that his death occurred at Kapelenui-a-Haho, while Ka-hekili and Ka-ʻeo-ku-lani were staying at Hana and Peʻapeʻa was living for a time on Kaʻuiki with his followers. One day as he fired off a gun a spark fell into a keg of powder, and an explosion followed which blew up the house and burned Peʻapeʻa. He was carried still alive to Honokalani in Kaʻanapali and there he died. What a terrible disaster!

Wela kalani - e, wela kalani,                                     Burned is the heavenly one,

                                                                                        burned is the heavenly one,

Wela Kaʻuiki i ka hulili,                                           Burned is Kaʻuiki, the top of

                                                                                        Kaʻuiki!

Pau ai Peʻapeʻa-maka-ʻwalu,                              Peʻapeʻa-of-the-eight-eyes has per-

                                                                                        ished in the flames

Iluna o Hawaii Kua-uli.                                             On top of Hawaii of the green

                                                                                        back.

Oia ka ʻuhane e o nei                                               His spirit lives on,

O ka ʻuhane heahea makani,                                   The spirit that calls, calls to the

                                                                                        wind,

ʻUhane noho i ka hala i ka peʻe,                           The spirit that hides in the hala

                                                                                        grove,

Ulu mahiehie pua hinalo,                                          Beautiful with its white blossoms,

Ma kai o Honokalani - o-e.                                       Seaward of Honokalani.

    Ka-hekili sailed from Halawa and joined forces with Ka-ʻeo at Waipiʻo. When Kamehameha heard of this he consulted his counselors and those men who understood wise sayings, and they coined this phrase, "The fish have entered the net; they are gone into the bag." Believing this to be true, Kamehameha set sail with his forces and blocked the entrance of Waipiʻo Bay. He had several double canoes and a sloop owned by Ka-meʻe-ia-moku on board of which were John Young and Isaac Davis. Ka-hekili and Ka-ʻeo met the fleet off the Waimanu cliffs, and a fight took place at sea which ended indecisively with the loss of warriors on both sides. This battle, called Ke-pu-waha-ʻula, took place in 1791. It was Ka-hekili's last battle. He and his men all returned to Maui and he died in 1793. Keoua was at this time still living, and Kaʻi-ana and some of the men had gone to Kaʻu to make war against him because they were unwilling, or perhaps ashamed, to make war on Kamehameha.*

    Fourteen years after the arrival of Captain Cook in Hawaii came Captain George Vancouver seeking new lands for Great Britain. With his two ships he followed the trail first marked out by Captain Cook from the north Atlantic to the south, through the cold ocean of the south to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, north and south, to the cold ocean of the north. The latitude and longtitude in the northern and southern hemispheres [were] all clearly marked so that the course was known by which he had come and the places where he had planted his feet. Captain George Vancouver was a man from the land of Albion, as it is called, in Great Britain. At that time the [Hawaiian] group was not united under one government. Vancouver was the friend of every chief and of every government. He came from the south following a course which led to Kealakekua on Hawaii, but did not stop there; he merely hove to, and inquired for Ka-lani-ʻopuʻu. He was told that Ka-lani-ʻopuʻu was dead and the government belonged to Kamehameha. Vancouver went on to Waikiki at Oahu and met Ka-lani-ku-pule, the son of Ka-hekili chief of Oahu, who gave him forty hogs and a great quantity of foodstuff in return for red cloth, and the two became friends. Vancouver next touched at Waimea, Kauai, and set off fireworks as a sign of its being the first land discovered by an Englishman [by Cook on his first discovery of the group]. "Atooi" was the name by which the English called it. Here he met Ka-umu-aliʻi, the ruling chief of Kauai, who was a mere child at the time. His country [was] ruled by his kahu, Na-kaikuaʻana and others, while Ka-ʻeo-ku-lani, his father, was still on Maui with Ka-hekili. Vancouver gave Ka-umu-aliʻi the name of the British monarch King George and in return Ka-umu-aliʻi gave hogs and yams of Niihau. To the red cloth called kanekopa which Vancouver brought they gave the names ke-kupu-ohi and ke-akua-lapu because of its beautiful red color.

    Vancouver remarked at this time a decrease in the population of the country and in the number of chiefs since the time of the arrival of Cook, who reported the land covered with people and the chiefs numerous. This was due to the fact that on Cook's arrival so many men, women, and children had come to see Captain Cook; also Cook saw them at the time when many men had gathered for the war against Maui. The white man was then an object of wonder, and many had come to see the men with brightly shining eyes. This was not the case in Vancouver's day. Moreover, a period of war had followed Captain Cook's visit, and many had been slaughtered, baked in the imu, and pounded out of existence.

    The second of Vancouver's ships, called the Daedalus, sailed to Koʻolau on Oahu and anchored at Waimea in Koʻolauloa, a good harbor close to Waialua and often visited by ships. It was here that the captain and the astronomer were killed. Koi, one of the tattooed men, was a man of great influence with Ka-hekili. He was a leader of the tattooed forces called pahupu' and a kahuna of the class of Ka-leo-puʻupuʻu who had charge of the heiau and the house of Koi at Kapokea, Waiheʻe, Maui. All the natives were eager to secure muskets, which they had seen kill men instantly at a distance, the year before at the battle of Ka-pu-waha-ʻulaʻula off the cliffs of Hawaii. Koi and his men accordingly determined to kill the foreigners in order to secure these weapons of war. When the sloop arrived at Waimea two ships' boats were sent ashore for water to the mouth of the Piliʻaʻama Stream on the south side of Waimea. They were supplied with barrels and equipped with muskets, swords, and bayonets. Men from Koʻolau and Waialua belonging to Ka-hekili's black division called pahuku' were on the watch, and when they saw the arms carried by the captain and astronomer they determined to secure them. They persuaded the men to go further up the stream to escape the brackish waters and directed them farther up than necessary. While the men were filling the barrels and rolling them down the stream, they [Koi and his men] enticed the captain and astronomer to go to see some hogs, potatoes, and bananas that were being offered for sale, thus separating them from their party. They then stoned them with stones which they had carried concealed under their clothing. The two men who threw the first stones were Ka-pale-ʻai-uku and Kua-niu. These hit the white men on the chin and knocked them down. Then they were killed. When the other foreigners saw what was happening they stopped rolling the barrels and ran to the boats and began firing at the people. The men on the ship, seeing what was going on, swung the ship around and fired at Waimea. This they continued all that day until night, when the ship lay to outside. At daylight the firing began again and this went on for five days, when they sailed for Niihau. The two men who were killed were dragged along from Waimea to Waialua and from there to Mokuleia, all because of hatred for the foreigners. In the hearts of [the plotters] there was no fear of God who had made all men of one blood. I met one of the men who did the killing and he told me, "The men were killed to get the guns; the chiefs had commanded the lesser chiefs and warriors who lived in the back country that if a ship came into those parts with guns [they were] to kill the strangers and get the guns." The guns and swords were taken to Ka-lani-ku-pule at Waikiki, and when the chief saw what Koi had seized he rejoiced to have the muskets, for those were times of war on this group from Kauai to Hawaii, war both within the island and with other islands. The land mourned the blood of men shed without cause, because of the pride and arrogance of the chiefs who desired to get land and riches at the sacrifice of human blood. Let the Hawaiians ponder these things.

    Vancouver disappeared from Kauai and sailed to the northwest coast of America, to the harbors just visited by Captain Cook, and he called also at harbors in Mexico and California. He returned to the Hawaiian group and reached Kawaihae, February 14, 1793. There he was urged to sell muskets and powder, but he replied, "It is not right to sell things for killing people." Vancouver was a Christian and a true Englishman. He may well be called the father of the Hawaiian people. He was the first to point out "the true God in heaven." He is well-known as the friend of the chiefs from Hawaii to Kauai. He did not furnish some chiefs with weapons and deny them to others, but to all the chiefs from Hawaii to Kauai his advice was, "Stop making war; live in peace; be friends with each other." All the chiefs were anxious at this time to obtain guns and powder because of the wars that lasted until the whole group was brought under the rule of Kamehameha. On this second visit of Vancouver he met Kamehameha and his foreigners, Isaac Davis and John Young—called "Olohana." He thanked Kamehameha for the good care he had given the foreigners, and when they told him that the chief had given them lands he did not ask to take Young back to England, but recommended both men to the chief's care. In return for the chief's kindness to them and for the food with which he had been himself provided he gave Kamehameha a bull and a heifer brought from Monterey in California. The Hawaiians were grateful for these cattle, and because they stared so strangely they were given the name "Pig-beef" (puaʻa-bipi). This was the beginning of the wild herds of Waimea and Mauna Kea.*

    At the close of Vangouver's stay at Kawaihae, on February 22, he took Kamehameha with him to Kealakekua. The chief gave him provisions to stock the ship. When there was trouble about getting fresh water he had his men take the ship's barrels and fill them with cool mountain water and return them to the ship, where the men received a few inches of iron each for their labor. When Vancouver saw Kameha-meha's great following of lesser chiefs and soldiers and how the whole island was his and he was the sole ruling chief over the island of Hawaii, he advised Kamehameha to stop fighting the chiefs of Maui, Oahu, and Kauai; but Kamehameha did not commit himself on the subject. Vancouver gave him some fine clothes, and the chief in return gave Vancouver feather cloaks, feather leis, helmets, and kahili to be delivered as presents to the King of England.

    On March 8 Vancouver left Kealakekua and sailed for Maui and on March 12 reached Lahaina. Here he met Ka-hekili, the ruling chief of Maui, a very old man at this time and strange in appearance because of his black tattooing. Vancouver told him to stop fighting and establish friendly relations with the chiefs of Hawaii. Ka-ʻili-naoa spoke for him and said that Ka-hekili would agree to peace, but it was not right for the chiefs of Hawaii to raid Maui and rob and pillage without cause. Ka-hekili requested Vancouver, if he desired peace, to stay there all the time and guard him against further wars. Vancouver remarked that Kamehameha "had many chiefs in his following" (nuinui aliʻi Kamehameha), [but because of his imperfect knowledge of the language he used the words, "is a great chief"]. Ka-hekili, thinking he referred to Kamehameha's rank, protested, saying, "Kamehameha has come up from nothing; I am a great chief." Vancouver answered, "Ho! you have few chiefs, he has many." "No, no! I am the great chief, he is not a chief!" All this time Ka-hekili was speaking of their respective ranks, Vancouver of the number of their followers, because he had seen Kamehameha's men and how many there were and how well equipped with arms. The chiefs of old were very jealous of each other. And because Vancouver had called him a "little chief" (ʻuʻuku aliʻi) Ka-hekili called his grandchild, Ahukai, who was named after the sea-sprayed land of Waialua, "The little chief" (Ka-ʻuʻuku-aliʻi). She was the daughter of Manono Ka-ua-kapeku-lani and of Ka-ʻili-naoa, who was the daughter of Mano-haʻaipo, the daughter of Ke-kau-like with Holau, who was the daughter of Ka-ua-kahi-hele-i-ka-iwi.

    Vancouver went on to Oahu and landed at Waikiki. There he met Ka-lani-ku-pule, ruling chief of Oahu, and took up with him the matter of the murder of the foreigners at Waimea, saying, "Those who killed the white men should be stoned to death for their crime." Ka-lani-ku-pule consented to put to death those who had committed the crime, but Ka-mohomoho, whose man Koi committed the murder, refused to have Koi and his men killed for the foreigners. [Therefore] some other men were brought and put to death on March 25, 1793, in the presence of Vancouver, after which Vancouver sailed to Kauai and from there to the west coast of America. Thus ended his second visit to the coasts of Hawaii . . . His third visit occurred January 9, 1794 on his return from the American coast after the death of Ka-hekili and while Ka-ʻeo was ruling over Maui.

    After the battle of Ke-pu-waha-ʻulaʻula and the fighting along the cliffs of Hawaii, Ka-hekili returned and ruled Maui for three years and some months. In Ikiiki (May) he fell ill and, returning to Oahu, died at Ulukou, Waikiki, in the month of Kaʻaona at the age of eighty-seven. His bones were carried away by Ka-meʻe-ia-moku and Ka-manawa and hidden in a secret cave, perhaps at Kaloko in North Kohala. Ka-hekili was a famous chief, a tabu chief, one who ruled men, and so sacred that whatever had touched his body was burned with fire [after he was through with it, so that no one else could use it]. He was a famous leaper from a cliff into water (lelekawa), sometimes from a height of 500 or 600 feet or even higher, and he could climb cliffs which no other person could ascend. He elected to have his skin black; one half of his body from head to foot was tattooed black, and his face was tattooed black, and this became an established law with him: Any person taken in crime who passed on his dark side, escaped with his life. He delighted in war and fought many battles with Ka-lani-ʻopuʻu, with Puna, with the chiefs of Molokai, with Keʻe-au-moku, Mahi-hele-lima, and Ka-hahana, ruling chief of Oahu, and in strife with Kamehameha. While he ruled over Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and Oahu he appropriated to himself the gods of these islands. Here are the names of the gods he worshiped as a means of keeping control of the government: Ku-ke-oloewa, Kuhoʻoneʻe-nuʻu, Kalai-pahoa, Ololupe, Kamehaʻikana, Kala-mai-nuʻu, and Kiha-wahine, Haumea, and Wali-nuʻu. These gods were deities whose heiaus were tabu and in which human sacrifices were offered. Ka-hekili was a man prudent in warfare and skilled in statecraft (kalaiʻaina) and oratory (kakaʻolelo). He took the greatest delight in feats of strength. Rolling the maika stone was his favorite sport, and there were many maika courses constructed from Maui to Oahu. He liked solitude and would separate himself from the other chiefs and from his wives. He erected living quarters on high points of land and admitted only those who were special favorites. No woman entered his house, not even his wives; his house was set perhaps a quarter or half a mile from the house of his wife, and perhaps it was for this reason that he was so studious. He would go out at night to spy about, accompanied by his two favorite friends, Ka-hui and Ka-halawai. He did this in order to detect rebellion or conspiracy, to find out which men ate with their wives, whether men asked the gods for the life of the ruling chief when they drank ʻawa, whether they were worshipers or not, whether they ate things sacrificed to the gods, and whether they were carousing at night and making false vows. He was cruel to his enemies. Ka-umu-pikaʻo at Hana was a place famous for the roasting of chiefs and lesser chiefs. On Oahu he had even roasted tabu chiefs in the imu. His cruelty to chiefs and people on Oahu is notorious. But God punished him for his cruel deeds for, although he had many sons and daughters, none of his children produced a long line of descendants (puko loa i ke ao). He was nevertheless a religious man and heeded well the laws of his gods, and this is why he was victorious over his enemies, and it was for this reason that he had half of his body tattooed black like Kane-of-the-thunder (Kane-hekili) and Kane-hekili-nui-ʻahu-manu, and he lived to a good old age.

    Many persons [of his time] were famous for their skill in oratory, administration, genealogies, prophecy, and knowledge of the configuration of the earth. Kane-wahine was a noted priestess, both prophet (kaula) and reader of signs (kilo). Manewa was her child, of the priesthood of Kaʻeka', Maliu, and Malela, and of Luhau-ka-pawa. Ka-leo-puʻupuʻu also is famous for the erection of the heiau Kaluli and for the prediction of the coming of the pestilence known as the Piʻipiʻi at Kakanilua, the downfall of the independent chiefs of Oahu, and the taking-over of the government of Oahu. Ka-ʻo-pulupulu was noted for his prophecy that white men would become rulers, the native population would live [landless] like fishes of the sea, the line of chiefs would come to an end, and a stubborn generation would succeed them who would cause the native race to dwindle. There were such historians as Kaha-walu, Kane-hahei, Ka-ʻopeʻapeʻa, and Kai-akea, who knew the genealogies of the chiefs.*