Ke Alahou, Volume I, Number 3, 1 Ianuali 1980 — KANAKA WILLIAM [ARTICLE]

KANAKA WILLIAM

(Mai Ka "Beaver" A PubJjcafion of the Hudson's Bay Co)mpany}

by Yvonne MearflB Klan

(Gontinued from previous issue)

William's letter supports Reverena Beavers charges of excessive disciplinary measures, for he refT6fted:. 1 v . . . the Hawaiians have repeatedly and daily asked me to sefe about their trouhle of being repeatedly abused by~tKe"tohite people without any cause. They thought I had eome as an oficer to settle°their difficulties. I said no, I did not eome to do those things. I had no instructions from the kings and ministers of the government of Hawaii to do those things, All that I have eome for was the word of God and school. As for their difficulties I could not do anything, that is the duty of someone else. That is for the king and ministers to attend. So I told them, but they were not satisfied. They told me that this trouble was at Walamaka [Willamette?] and they almost have a riot . . . 4 The new ehaplain seemed poorly equipped to deal with the enormous cha!lenge facing him. When his parishoners turned to him forleadership and advice he denied them — a move whieh surely did little to lessen their initial antipathy towards him. Indeed, William's actions fulfilledthe Hawaiian community's gloomiest forebodings. His first task was to work towards a decorous observance of the Sabbath, and in this endeavour he was able to report some small success: . . . there is a little order on Sundays now, not like former times when there was mueh disturbance. Men, and women have attended the two meetings on eaeh Sunday, But on aeeounl of daily labor we have not found time to conduct school and meeting. We thought of conducting a school at night but can't because the nights are short. William's next task was to instill the habit of sobriety among his parishQners, and here he was less successful. Reverend Atkinson visited Fort Vancouver in 1848 and commented on the Hawaiian ehaplain and his recalcitrant congregation: This is a striking fact that a converted heathen has left his country and become a christian missionary to his countrymen abroad, He sustains a good reputation. Has not been ordained. Has no church and few members. Has from twenty to forty hearers, every Sabbath. Has mueh difficulty to keep them from drinking. In fact he brings in to Mr. Ogden a weekly report of those who drank on the week or Saturday previous. That of last week was six. The Hawaiians prove their tendencies to become beastly drunkards. They drink without mercy, buy it on Saturday and have Sabbath to get sober in so as !o work on Monday. Some Americans bring it over and sell it clandestinely just below the fort to all classes ... In spite of the difficulties William faced, James Douglas, an officer of the Company t was satisfied with his work and stated that except for his ignorance of English, he was well qualified and *seems to exercise a salutary inAueneē on the minds of his countrymen.' William's parishoners were the shepherds, gardeners, dairymen, sawmill workers and general labourers who worked on the Company's extensive holdings around Fort Vancouver. The Hawaiian temperance journal s The Friend, estimated that by 1844 three to four hundred Islanders were emp!oyed on the Company*s ships or at the isolated outposts up the coast: Forts Nisqually, Langley, Victoria s McLoughlin, Rupert, Simpson, Stikine and Taku. In 1849 news of California's fabulous gold strikes spread along the coast. Gold fever raged like an epidemic, and men deserted families and employers to join the rush to the gold-fields. Gold fever infected the Hawaiians, too, and WiUiam* s little congregation became even smaller. Reverend Damon of Honolulu visited Fort Vancouver in 1849 and noted; Mueh to the credit of the company, it pays the salary of an Hawaiian preacher and school teacher. At the time of my visit he was labouring under serious hindrances, in consequence of so many ofhib countrymen leaving for the mmes, and others indlfferent to religion. He accompanled me to visli an

old kanaka who had been nearly forty years in \he Company's service, during whieh period he had visited England. He said that he had been away from the Islands "three tens and nine years." The 4 old kanaka' v/as }ohn Coxe. Defections caused by the gold rush wire only one of the many problems facing Fort Vancouver. j The Qregon Treaty of 1846 placed the Canadian- i boundary at 39° but allowed the Company 4 pos£essory rights' to land already occupied. * What started out as a thin trickle of American settlers into the area turned into a surging flood of homesteaders who either settled on acreage whieh hadbeen cleared and cultivate.dby.the Company, or built on land claimed hy native Indians. The inevitable cbnflicts between settlers and Indians gave rise to fears of a bloody, full-scale Indian uprisihg, so when the United States Army requested the Company's permission to establish'a post adjacent to Fort Vancouver the Company agreed. Relations between Company officials and United States Army officers.were initially cordial but soon deteriorated when eaeh side placed a different interpretation on the*meaning of 'oeeupied land' and i possessory rights.'J3it by bit the Company's holdings were pre-empted, whieh led one irate official to eomplain that ,jsince 1846, between squatters and concessions to the military, there remained but the wreck of our onee flourishing settlement |t Vancouver. 5 In 1846 the fort boasted 16 officers, 215 employees under articles of agfēement, and a large number of Indian workers. By 1860 there were only about fourteen, employees of all grades. William's fortunes parallelled those of Fort Vancouver. The fort's drastically reduced holdings required fewer Hawaiians workers and William's diminished congregation was further reduced. His 'Owhyhee Church' was torn down sometime between 1855 and 1858 and was not replaced. At some point prior to 1850 William was moved from the fort to the less prestigious village. The village typified the disintegratfon of Fort Vancouver. The colourful, bustling community of the 1840s was virtually deserted by 1860. United States military officials considered the area was no longer f occupied land' and decided it shouid be cleared o-ut and put to more productive use. They appointed a board 'to examine and report upon the value of certain improvements on the military reserve, placed there by the Hudson's Bay Company.' . And so began the ehain of events whieh eventually thrust Kanaka William into the centre of an international storm. The military board found the improvements claimed by the Company were < . . , mere shells, rapidly going to decay, most of them propped up to prevent their falling down, the only exception being the dwelling-house in front of the depoi quartermaster's office, whieh althoughoccupied, is also fn a dilapidated condition. The dilapidated dwelling belonged to Kanaka William and although it was undoubtedly humble it was his home. WilUam was ordered to evacuate he consultejd John Work who was then in charge of Fort Vancouver. Work told William not to leave unlil directed to do so by Work himself, then \\Tote an ixidignant protest to the military o£ficials: ~. one o.f the Company's oldest and most faithful servants, wha has occifpied his preseiit residence - whieh with the udjoinii,i£ ficld cultivated by hiiu is a part of the Company's broperty — for more than ten yearf?. has feeen notifiea thai he must leave his house next week, or be forcibly removed by a file of soldiers. as his house was to We torn Jlown and his garden thrown open. I The army respon4edbyjtating that if any oT Ihe huildln§s on the area pgssessed any value.

you are at liberty to remove them, and in fact you are respectfully requested to do so withiri the ensuing week . . . The execution of these instructions will make it necessary that "Kanaka William" find shelter elsewhere. " But William and_WQrk he f ld f fts3t v On M&rch 1860, William watched the army remove the fences from around the Company's fields. On the 16th he saw the soldiers burn down a vacated house whieh had been used for storing hay. On the 19 th the soldiers destroyed the Company's old hospital and house, and then they turned their attention to William's dwelling. Whan they remqved the doors and the windows William finally left, The nextday, 20 March, the Hawaiian watched helplessly while soldiers set fire to the remains of his old home. The outrage was quickly reported to officials in London, British protests were presented to President Buchanan, who immediately dispatched orders to military officials in Oregon *whieh will prevent effectually any interference with the conditions of the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company.' The 4 Kan.aka WiUiam incident' hastened the Company's decision to abandon Fort Vancouver, and what little was left in the way of ser\ ices and personnel was transferred to Victoria. Company records indicate that William R, Kaulehelehe worked as an in Victoria until at least 1868-69, Mary, William's wife, is not mentioned aftēr 1845, and it is possible that she is one of the many Hawaiians who died at Fort Vancouver and who were buried in the nearby . AfterlB69 Kanaka Wiliiam fades from history's pages, Did his twenty-five years of service with the Company terminate beeause of his death? Or did he, iike many of his fellow-Islanders, retire to a small farm on the coast of British Columbia? Most Hawaiians who settled on the West Goast iook Indian wives and became a part of Indian communities. Today many coastal families recall a Hawaiian ancestor whose name has vanished from memory. It is quite possible that one of these forgbtten ancestors was Kanaka William. o*PAU*o