By Leilehua Yuen, copyright October 2015, Hilo, Hawai`i

Early Life and Battles of Pai`ea Kamehameha

Pai`ea was born around the year 1758 at Kokoiki, Kohala, Moku O Keawe. Immediately after his birth, he was taken to Waipi`o to be reared until he matured enough for training as a warrior. Due to political considerations which placed his life at risk, he was reared as a solitary child, and thus given the sobriquet Kamehameha, “The Lonely One.”

Although the inculcation of Western literature into Hawaiian schools has made common the names “King Kamehameha” and “Kamehameha the Great,” he is more correctly called “Pai`ea Kamehameha.”

When referring to him as the founder of the Kamehameha Dynasty, he is called Kamehameha I. “Kamehameha Nui” is the name of the ruler of Maui, Lani, and Moloka`i who lived two generations before Pai`ea Kamehameha. In genealogies of Ka`ū, Puna, and Hilo people, he is sometimes called “Kamehameha the Conqueror.”

Upon reaching his teens, Pai`ea Kamehameha was sent to the district of Ka`ū to train as a koa (warrior). He swiftly proved his skill in battle, strategy, and diplomatic negotiations and rose through the ranks to become a well-respected battle chief for his uncle, Kalaniopu`u, the ruling ali`i of Kona, Kohala, and Ka`ū. In 1779 Pai`ea was one of the court members who met with Capt. James Cook onboard the Discovery at Kealakekua. Being an astute tactician, he immediately recognized the usefulness of the European weaponry.

Pai`ea Kamehameha was reared and trained to become the military leader for his cousin Kiwalaō, heir of Kalaniopu`u. In 1781, on the death of Kalaniopu`u, Kiawala’o inherited rulership of the leeward portions of the island of Hawai`i. However, although Pai`ea Kamehameha was of lower rank, and only a nephew of the late king, he had inherited custodianship of the war god.

Pai`ea Kamehameha soon began to challenge Kiwalaōʻs authority. During the funeral for one of Kalani’opu’u’s chiefs, Kamehameha stepped in and performed one of the rituals specifically reserved for Kiwala’ō. This was an insulting act, foreshadowing open rebellion.

In 1782 Pa`ea Kamehamehaʻs and Kiwalaōʻs forces met in battle at Mokuōhai. Kiwalaō was killed. Among Kiwalaōʻs relatives who escaped was an uncle, Keawemauhili (half-brother of Kalaniopu`u, the deceased chief), who was married to the Ali`i Nui of Hilo. Escaping with his life, he returned to Hilo.

Over the next several years Pai`ea Kamehameha instigated and responded to many battles to expand and consolidate his territory. He captured the daughter of Kiwalaō, Keōpūolani, and married her. As the highest ranking woman in the southern Hawaiian Islands, she would produce heirs of unassailable lineage. He also married Ka`ahumanu, who had been betrothed to Kiwalaō.

In marrying Keōpūolani, Pai`ea Kamehameha also adopted her `aumakua, her family god, Kihawahine. From the time of his marriage to Keopuolani, Kamehameha I carried the image of Kihawahine with him. He credited her with his victories in uniting the islands of Hawai`i, and erected her image dressed in deep saffron and light yellow kapa at several Maui and Hawai’i heiau.

In 1783, an incident occurred which would affect all Hawai`i in later years. Pai`ea Kamehameha had just lost a battle with the warriors of Hilo, then in its 7^th generation of rule by the powerful `I family which also had close kinship ties with Puna and Ka`ū.

After retreating, Pai`ea Kamehameha decided to make a stealth attack on Hilo to capture victims for sacrifice. Not finding what he was seeking in Hilo, he continued sailing along the coast to Pāpa`i, in Puna. There, he sighted a group of fishermen and their families. As soon as the people onshore realized it was a war canoe, they ran inland. As his men beached the canoe, he jumped out and gave chase, leaving his men behind. As he chased the commoners, his foot slipped into a crack in the lava and he was trapped. One of the fishermen ran back and hit him over the head with a canoe paddle, stunning him and breaking the paddle. The fishermen and their families escaped.

To be overcome by commoners was a humiliating thing for a ranking chief and warrior, and his men would be blamed for not guarding him properly. Pai`ea Kamehameha tried to keep the incident quiet and protect his companions, but his steersman was killed by the other chiefs, who felt he had failed in his duty. The incident remained in Pai`ea Kamehameha’s mind.

After a decade of warfare, Pai`ea Kamehameha engaged his last major Hawai`i Island rival, Keōua Kūkahau`ula, a younger brother of Kiwalaō who was in the successive line, in two major battles. In the second, Keōua Kūkahao`ula lost much of his army in a volcanic eruption. These were the last major battles fought with indigenous weapons.

Between battles, Pai`ea Kamehameha had captured and traded for European weaponry. He became the first Hawaiian chief to use guns and cannons against Hawaiian people. Other chiefs quickly followed his example.

Pai`ea Kamehameha had been building a great war temple in his home district of Kohala, and completed it in 1791. Under diplomatic guise, he invited Keōua Kūkahao`ula to the consecration. Keōua Kūkahao`ula was killed and offered as the consecratory sacrifice. This action consolidated Pa`ieaʻs rule of Kohala, Kona, and Ka`ū.

Hilo chiefs had a long-time relationship with Ka`ū chiefs through alliance and intermarriage. Ululani, Ali`i Nui (High Chief) of Hilo, had been married to the Ka`ū ali`i Keawemauhili, half brother to the late Kalaniopu`u. After his death she married another Ka`ū ali`i of the same lineage, Keaweaheulu Kaluaʻapana.

Keaweaheulu Kaluaʻapana, however, was a high-ranking advisor to Pai`ea Kamehameha. Well versed in court intrigue, it was he who had been the bearer of the invitation to Keōua Kūkahao`ula which resulted in the latter’s death and sacrifice. Pai`ea Kamehameha now had a supremely loyal infiltrator with the ear of Hiloʻs Ali`i Nui.

Hilo

The great Polynesian navigator and culture hero Hilo is said to have been one of the discoverers of Hawai`i, and so the fertile district of Hilo was granted him and named in his honor.

“Hilo” also means to twist fibers into a double helix, as when making rope, string, or thread. It also is the name of the first visible moon of the month, as the thin twist of moon looks like a piece of thread, and it is the name for the thin twisted thread of light that appears briefly on the ocean horizon just at dawn.

Hilo has been populated since ancient times. Many people lived above Hilo One, from where the police station now stands to the medical center, and farmed the fertile lowlands. The area where the Wailoa Art Center and the Tsunami memorial now stand is Piopio, an exceptionally fertile area on which the royal compound for the chiefs of Hilo was built. Pai`ea Kamehamehaʻs own father, Keoua Kupuapāikalani, spent his final days and died there. The area where today’s soccer fields are now was covered with taro fields.

The shoreline portion of Hilo is divided into three areas: Hilo Palikū–the area fronted by the sea cliffs, Hilo One–reaching from the Wailuku River to the Wailoa River, and Hilo Hanakahi–named for the beloved chief Hanakahi whose reign was marked by peace and prosperity.

Much of the prosperity of Hilo Hanakahi derived from its position on the windward side of the island, combined with the rich flood plain of Waiākea (“broad water”), where taro could be cultivated in abundance.

Many heiau (temples) attested to the prosperity of Hilo. Pinao Heiau, mauka in Pi`ihonua, was where Pai`ea had overturned the Naha stone. Just back from the northern bank of the Wailuku River was Kanoa Heiau. Kaipalaoa (Sea Whale) Heiau sat on the southern banks. The village of Kaipalaoa was major trade center, where people from Hilo Palikū and the northern districts met the people of the southern portions of Hilo and Puna.

Makai of Piopio, approximately where Lili`uokalani Park is today, was the luakini heiau (temple of human sacrifice) for Hilo. Just offshore in the bay a pu`uhonua (place of refuge) occupied Moku Ola.

Pai`ea Kamehameha was familiar with the Hilo district from his youth. Kaipalaoa, across the Wailuku River from Pu`u`eo was a favorite surfing area, and at least eight excellent breaks could be found from Pu`u`eo to Waiākea.

Also, just a few years before the arrival of Capt. James Cook, Pai`ea was taken to Pinao Heiau in Pi`ihonua, where he overturned the Pōhaku Naha (Naha Stone), a foundation stone of ancient times, indicating he would fulfill the prophecy of a chief who would overturn the old order of Hawai`i.

He continued to visit Kaipalaoa throughout the years. On one visit, he decided to travel to Koloʻiki, the area now known as Reedʻs Island, on personal business, and ordered his bodyguard to stay behind to guard his canoe. He was gone far longer than expected, and the men became concerned and discussed heading mauka (inland) to see if their chief needed their aid. The incoming tide, however, would raise the canoe while they were gone, and it would float away. One of the men suggested they make ropes to secure the canoe to the nearby coconut trees. He instructed the others on how to gather dry lā`ī (tī leaves), soak them in the sea water, and then twist them into strong ropes in the method known as “hilo.” They did this, and once the canoe was secured, they headed mauka to aid their chief. They soon met him, safe and sound, walking back to the canoe. Angry that they had not stayed with the canoe, he questioned them as to how they had assured its safety. They explained they had made a rope of lā`ī and secured it to the nearby coconut trees. The chief expressed surprise, as only people from Waipi`o practiced the hilo style of rope making. The man who had taught them explained that he was, indeed, from Waipi`o. To commemorate the event, Pai`iea Kamehameha re-named the village “Hilo.”

Hilo was a wealthy district with easy access to fresh water, the largest rivers on the island, and abundant forest resources. Koa, needed for building large canoes, hau, and niu, needed for rope making, taro, needed for carbohydrates to feed large numbers of people, and fishponds needed to provide protein and sea vegetables, were all in abundance in Hilo. Personally, Pai`ea Kamehameha was especially fond of the young mullet from the Wailoa pond.

With one of his closest advisors, Keaweaheulu Kaluaʻapana, married to the Ali`i Nui of Hilo, the high chiefess Ululani, Kamehameha had easy access to its resources.

In 1794, he decided to move his base of operations to Hilo, and celebrated that yearʻs Makahiki, the Hawaiian New Year and a major religious observance, at Moku Ola.

By 1795, Pai`ea Kamehameha had subjugated Hilo, Puna, and Ka`ū on Hawai`i, as well as the remaining southern Hawaiian islands: Maui, Moloka`i, Lāna`i, and O`ahu. The continued independence of the northern islands, Kauai and Ni`ihau which were ruled by Ali`i Nui Kaumuali`i, rankled him and he decided to do whatever it took to overwhelm Kaumuali`iʻs forces. He moved to the district of Hilo to build his Peleleu fleet, the largest navy the Pacific Ocean had known.

Keaweaheulu Kaluaʻapana was from a family with traditional ties to the Hilo chiefs, but in this case his loyalty lay with the Kohala chief, Pai`ea Kamehameha. With his chief now privy to all the strengths and weaknesses of Hilo, Ululani had had a choice of leading peaceful agrarian Hilo in a fight against the largest, best trained, and most heavily armed military force Hawai`i had ever known, or save her people’s lives by graciously playing hostess to the invading forces.

Heavy taxes were levied on the people of Hilo to provide food for the many artisans, shipwrights, rope makers, weavers, kahuna, and all who were needed to build the great broad canoes of the fleet, as well as the warriors who would man them.

The people of Hilo also paid taxes of koa logs, felled and dragged down the slopes from Haili, Mokaulele, and Kaūmana to the broad black sand beach of Hilo One. When complete, the flotilla was so large that the first wave of the invasion was landing at Lāhaina, Maui before the last canoes were launched from the sands of Hilo – a distance of about 150 miles by sea.

While he was living in Hilo to oversee the building of his fleet, some of Pai`ea Kamehamehaʻs wives joined him. Keōpūolani became pregnant, and it was his wish that the child be born at Kukaniloko on O`ahu, a sacred birth center. However, she was too ill to travel, and so in 1797 Liholiho, the royal heir, was born in Hilo.

It was at this time that Pai`ea Kamehameha recalled the incident with the fisherman of Pāpa`i. He had all of the people of Hilo and Puna questioned as to the location of the man. At last the fisherman was brought before him. Everyone was convinced the man would be executed. Instead, Pai`ea Kamehameha asked his forgiveness. The chief then proclaimed Hawai`iʻs first national law:

Kānāwai Māmalahoe 

E nā kānaka,
E mālama ‘oukou i ke akua
A e mālama ho‘i ke kanaka nui a me kanaka iki;
E hele ka ‘elemakule, ka luahine, a me ke kama
A moe i ke ala
‘A‘ohe mea nāna e ho‘opilikia.
Hewa nō, make.

 Law of the Splintered Paddle

Oh people,
Honor thy god;
respect alike [the rights of] people both great and humble;
May everyone, from the old men and women to the children
Be free to go forth and lie in the road (i.e. by the roadside or pathway)
Without fear of harm.
Break this law, and die.

Until that time, laws were not applied consistently, but at the whim of the ali`i or kahuna. Common people were essentially the property of the chiefs. With the proclamation of the Kānāwai Māmalahoe, Hawai`i counteracted centuries of royal prerogative with a law of human rights. In honor of the fishermanʻs attempt to defend himself, the law was named for the paddle which had been splintered over the chiefʻs head. To this day, the main road (known in English as the Belt Highway) around Hawai`i Island and runs more or less where the original royal road once lay, is named the Māmalahoa Highway.

In 1801, Hualalai, on the other side of the island, erupted. Pai`ea Kamehamehaʻs kahuna advised that he had not been generous enough with offerings to Pele, and that she wanted to eat the breadfruit in his orchards and the sweet fish in his ponds. He asked the kahuna to take additional offerings, but the kahuna stated that as the offence was the chiefʻs, the chief needed to go. He told the kahuna that if Pele was so angry, it was likely he would be killed. His two most prominent wives, Keōpūolani and Ka`ahumanu, said that if he were to die, they would be with him and die at his side. Ululani, the ali`i nui of Hilo, was related to Pele. As a member of the Pele clan, when her first child died in infancy the baby was taken to Pele to be deified and become an `aumakua. Ululani offered to go with the party to appeal to her child to intercede for them. At the flow, an unusual flame was seen dancing at the edge of the lava closest to them. The kahuna stated that this was Ululaniʻs child. The chiefesses followed Pai`ea Kamehameha in making offerings, but the eruption continued until he cut off his hair and cast it into the flow, which then stopped.

Shortly after the eruption, the Peleleu fleet was ready. “Peleleu” translates to English as “broad.” Compared to traditional Hawaiian war canoes, these were built short and broad with reinforced superstructure to accommodate European weaponry and rigging.

Since meeting Westerners, Kamehameha had astutely traded for goods to reinforce his social status and his military capability. By the time the 800 canoe Peleleu Fleet was complete he had amassed 14 cannon ranging from three to six pounders, 40 swivels, 6 mortars, and 600 muskets.

Shortly after returning from Hualalaiʻs cooling eruption, Pai`ea Kamehameha ordered the Peleleu Fleet to set sail for Maui

While the Peleleu Fleet was being constructed in Hilo, in his home district of Kohala, Pai`ea Kamehameha had ordered the establishment of a shipyard complete with forges and blacksmiths. There, Hawaiian and haole (foreign) shipwrights constructed between 20 and 30 European style vessels of between 20 and 25 ton burthen. As the Peleleu Fleet reached the Alenuihāhā Channel the western-style ships were launched. In 1802, the massive fleet landed at Maui for staging. After a year of sea trials, training, and staging, the fleet, with nearly 8,000 trained warrior-seamen launched for O`ahu.

Final staging would be held on O`ahu. Pai`ea Kamehameha planned to throw the entire might of his military forces against Kaumuali`i, the Ali`i Nui of Kauai and Ni`ihau, the last remaining independent ruling chief in the Hawaiian Islands.

In 1804, while staging the fleet on O`ahu, disaster struck, and Pai`ea Kamehamehaʻs forces were devastated by cholera. The plan to invade Kauai was abandoned.

At last, in 1809, fearing that as separate kingdoms the islands would be overwhelmed by the larger and aggressively expanding Western nations, Kaumuali`i traveled to O`ahu to formally join the northern islands to the southern as a tributary kingdom. The entire chain was now one nation under Pai`ea Kamehameha.

Pai`ea Kamehameha maintained his seat of government on O`ahu for the next three years, but in 1812 decided to return to the island of his birth. Settling at Kamakahonu in Kailua-Kona, he ruled over his kingdom. He turned his skills in managing warfare to managing diplomatic affairs.

Timeline

Appox 1758 – Pai`ea born, taken to Waipi`o

Approx 1760 – Pai`eaʻs father dies in Hilo

Approx 1763 – Pai`ea taken to court of Kalaniopu`u at Kailua, Hawai`i.

Approx 1770 – Pai`ea overturns Pōhaku Naha

1779 – Pai`ea meets Capt. James Cook

1781 – Kalaniopu`u dies

1782 – Pai`ea engages in open rebellion

1783 – Fishermen attacked

1792 – Pu`ukohola Heiau consecrated with body of Keōuakū`ahu`ula

1794 – Pai`ea Kamehameha celebrates Makahiki at Moku Ola, Hilo. Hilo begins to function as base of operations

1796 – Pai`ea Kamehameha moves full-time to Hilo, starts building Peleleu Fleet

1797 – Keōpūolani gives birth in Hilo to Pai`ea Kamehameha’s highest ranking son,  Liholiho (Kamehameha II)

1797 – Kānāwai Māmalahoe proclaimed

1801 – Hualalai erupts, Pai`ea Kamehameha, his wives, and Hilo Ali`i Ululani travel to the eruption to make offerings

1802 – Peleleu fleet sails for Maui

1804 – Plans to invade Kauai abandoned

1809 – Kaumuali`i and Kamehameha unite their kingdoms

1812 – Kamehameha returns to Moku Hawai`i

1819 – Pai`ea Kamehameha dies, Liholiho becomes Mō`ī