Ulumaheihei Hoapili

Kii: Hawaii State Archives

Ruling Chiefs

of Hawaii

Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau

Kamehameha School Press 1961

CHAPTER XXVII

Troubles Under the Premiership of

Miriam Ke-ka-ulu-ohi, 1839-1843

Pgs. 351-353 

    This year 1839 was a year of heavy troubles. Many chiefs died in this year, and there was trouble with the French government. Scarcely was the mourning over for Kinaʻu when word came that Pale-ka-luhi Ka-iki-o-ʻewa had died after a serious illness. The king sent Ulu-maheihei to Kauai to attend to the burial of the body and keep things in hand until he could arrange for a successor, and he placed Keawe-a-Mahi, the wife of Ka-iki-o-ʻewa, as ruling chief for Kauai.

    Ka-iki-o-ʻewa was a chief of high rank. His mother was Ke-kikoʻo-la Ka-lani-kau-lele-ia-iwi; his father Kaʻiana-kukuʻe Ka-ʻolohaka-a-Keawe. He was thus a cousin of Kamehameha on both sides, by an older brother on one side, by a younger on the other. He was born at Waimea on Kauai in 1765 and died in 1839 in his seventy-fourth year. He was reared on Kauai, and at the time of Ka-lani-ʻopuʻu's death he was a grown man living under Kiwalaʻo at Hilo. Between 1782 and 1790 when Kamehameha was at war with Keawe-maʻu-hili, some of the chiefs of Hilo joined Kamehameha and some of Kamehameha's chiefs joined those of Hilo. It was about these years that Ke-aulu-moku composed the chant for Kaʻiana-kukuʻe which appears in the 13th part of the mele of Haui-ka-lani referring to his joining first one side and then the other. When Keawe-maʻu-hili was killed by Keoua Kuahu-ʻula, then that chief's followers joined Kamehameha, Kaʻiana-kukuʻe among them with his sons Ka-iki-o-ʻewa and Koa-kanu, his daughters, and all the chiefs of Hilo. After the battle of Koapapaʻa therefore, Ka-iki-o-ʻewa fought on the side of Kamehameha and was present on the day of battle when Hawaii and Oahu were united under one chief. Once he was almost killed in battle; at another time he almost died of a beating administered by a konohiki chief whose wife he had stolen, a woman named Na-hau-kapu. Perhaps this man was merely fulfilling Kamehameha's law that "the thief must die." He tied Ka-iki-o-ʻewa's hands, feet, and neck with a rope. Kamehameha had retired to the tabu district of Mailekini below Puʻukohola' when the news reached him, and he at once took canoe and landed at Waipiʻo. ʻUhuʻuhu was put to death, and Ka-iki-o-ʻewa set free. While Ka-iki-o-ʻewa was with the king, Kamehameha gave him his sister Ka-lani-ka-uli-hiwa-kama for a wife, and Ku-wahine was born. By Na-hau-kapu, Ka-iki-o-ʻewa had another daughter, Likelike. He became guardian of one of Kamehameha's sons, no other than Kau-i-ke-aouli, Kamehameha III. After the rebellion on Kauai the chiefs met in Honolulu and gave up the island of Kauai to the boy king. Luanuʻu Kahala-iʻa retired as district chief, and in 1825 Kau-i-ke-aouli chose his guardian Ka-iki-o-ʻewa to be district chief of Kauai.

    At that time Ka-iki-o-ʻewa was living at Lahaina with the young king. He had no knowledge of the word of God and took pleasure in drunkenness and sensual indulgence. The foreign traders and liquor sellers were his boon companions. He joined Boki in drinking and did not become converted to the word of God while Boki was alive, but indulged with him in the pleasures of drink. Only when Boki sailed away and was lost in the land of Nanapua did Ka-iki-o-ʻewa begin to think seriously about the word of God. Even before that Ka-ʻahu-manu's frequent visits to Kauai had converted many of the chiefs and commoners of that island such as S. Kaʻiu, Ka-pule Haʻa-kulou, Oliver ʻAlapa, Na-hinu, and later Daniel ʻOle-loa, Ahukai Ka-ʻuʻuku-aliʻi, Keawe-a-Mahi, and a great many others. When Ka-iki-o-ʻewa turned to the word of God in his old age he remained steadfast for it. Under minister Samuel Whitney he tried hard as an old man to learn to read and write in order to read the Bible, and he learned by heart the lessons taught him by the preacher on the Sabbath. He loved to read the Bible. He and his wife Keawe-a-Mahi used to read God's word every Sabbath at his houses in Ulukou at the place called "Canaan" (Kanaʻana) and they taught Sunday School in the church. At the opening of the Lahainaluna school he was eager for knowledge and wisdom to spread among his race and he sent his teachers to study and supported them at the school. Ka-ʻanaʻana', Na-imu, Malua-ʻai-koa, Oliver ʻAlapa, ʻOpu-nui-ʻeke, Na-ʻaina-ko, and Kahi-ʻumiʻumi were among those sent by him to Lahainaluna. His activity and kindness in thus spreading the faith on his island proves him a Christian chief.

    Before the mourning was ended for Kinaʻu and Ka-iki-o-ʻewa, another sorrow came to the chiefs in the death of Kuini Liliha. She was the daughter of Ka-lili-kauoha the daughter of Ka-hekili ʻAhu-manu, king of Maui and Oahu, and of Ulu-maheihei Hoa-pili. Her death is said to have been caused by poison mixed in her liquor by her own relative. She had already taken a drink and went back for another. After finishing what was left in the bottle she fell down moaning and foaming at the mouth and died. Few of the chiefs were so beloved by the common people as Liliha. It is said that never before had there been heard such lamentation for the death of a chief as on the night that she died at Leleo, and her body was brought back to Honolulu. The river of Kikihale was stamped dry by the feet of people of all ranks and races crossing over to the city. Common people loved the name of Liliha, little children loved Kuini Liliha, and when she died they tattooed their skins with the words "Liliha Leleo" as an everlasting memorial of their affection. Her body was sent back to Mokuʻula at Lahaina on Maui and placed with that of the princess Harriet Nahi-ʻenaʻena, and chiefs and commoners bewailed her life with a sorrow that abides in the hearts of many.* As a chiefess she had not obeyed the word of God. She loved pleasure and drink; these were the things she desired. She was a chiefess who was beloved by all the commoners.

    In the same year as died Kuini Liliha there died another chiefess, Ke-ano-meha or Ke-ano, daughter of Ka-poʻo-loku the mother, and Ka-lani-hele-mai-iluna the father. She was a chiefess of high tabu rank and an older relative of the generation of Liliha and of Kau-i-ke-aouli the king.

    On January 2 or perhaps 3, 1840, died Ulu-maheihei Hoa-pili in the stone house at Waineʻe after struggling many days for breath. During these days of weakness he asked that there be no general wailing after his death, and that only one man go to announce his passing. He was a pious chief born during the rule of Ka-lani-ʻopuʻu on Hawaii in 1775, and he died in 1840 in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His mother was Ke-liʻi-o-ka-hekili, daughter of Kane-kapo-lei daughter of Ka-ua-kahi-akua who owned the sea cucumber (loli) ovens of Kaupo. His father was Ka-meʻe-ia-moku, one of the tabu twins of Ke-kau-like, an uncle of Kamehameha, and one of the four war leaders who fought his battles and established his rule . . . and whose children were given positions as chief counselors and governors of districts after the death [of the four war leaders]. That is how Ulu-maheihei came to be selected for the office of counselor for the kingdom. An even greater honor was his than his father had enjoyed, for Kamehameha gave him Ke-opu-o-lani as his wife in order to guard the ruling tabu family of Hawaii. None of the other sons of the four war leaders had such an honor conferred upon him.

    In his younger years Ulu-maheihei was something of an athlete, tall and robust with strong arms, light clear skin, a large high nose, eyes dark against his cheeks, his body well built, altogether a handsome man in those days, given to pleasure-seeking and licentious ways and a great liquor drinker. Once on Oahu he and Ka-pahu-wai were returning from a spree at Kewalo when, as they were crossing the plains of Kahuʻa, they encountered at Koʻula, Kamehameha's great wild bull. Ka-pahu-wai was a dignified man of erect bearing, handsome and powerfully built, some six and a half feet in height with redbrown (ʻehu) hair and light skin. He was only partially intoxicated and when he saw the bull tearing up the ground in a rage he was afraid. When the bull attacked them he saved himself on the banks of the fishpond of Koʻula leaving his companion, who was too drunk to save himself, to fall victim to the bull. When Ulu-maheihei saw the bull charging toward him he sobered up and challenged it with the words, "O bull, I will be your death!" When it charged with horns lowered he seized the bull by the horns and twisted its head about until the animal fell down, and then beat it to death. In Kamehameha's last days when he was old and feeble there was no chief whom he could trust except this chief. "Ulu-maheihei knows everything inside and outside" (O Ulu-maheihei wale no, ia ia oloko, ia ia owaho) was the saying, alluding to matters that came up at court. When Ka-mehameha was king, it was Ulu-maheihei who led the forces in the struggle with the rebels at Waimea on Hawaii. In the time of Kameha-meha III he commanded the forces against the rebels of Hanapepe, Kauai, at the battle of Wahiawa. Some of the rebels were slain and mercilessly treated, and their bodies cast to the hogs; some were taken captive. Ulu-maheihei beqame noted as a war leader for his victory over the rebels.