Kahoolawe and Lanai: Tiny Isles, Were Homes of Exiles
Kings banished men to one inhospitable spot, and women to the other, but lonely males crossed the water and rescued or captured the ladies, so they all became one settlement.
From THRUM’S HAWAIIAN ANNUAL of 1903
Among the events and conditions of dawning Hawaiian civilization that has been overlooked by historians and voyagers, with but two exceptions so far discovered is that of the island of Kahoolawe as a penal settlement.
Many of the older residents recall the common rumor in their early days here of that barren island having been a convict station, but, like the writer, are at a loss to define either the time of its designation as such, or its date of termination.
Notwithstanding the unsavoryness of the subject the fact that a chapter of Hawaiian history, illustrating the development toward civilization has been missed, is of sufficient interest to demand equiry and investigation, hence this effort to embody such factsas can now be ascertained for future reference, or additions if discovered.
Looking for the commencement of banishment for offences in these islands, the “blue book” of first published laws, of 1842, reveals the existence of its practice at that time but defining no locality, for chapter XLIV, entitled “A law respecting banished persons” refers to their treatment, while penalities of banishment are prescribed in the laws on forgery, counterfeiting, perjury, lewdness, assault, theft, burglary and degrees of murder. Its origin, therefore, antidates the first written laws.
It seems evident that in framing these first written laws they were made to embody what had been promulgated by royal edict. In their emergence from heathen darkness the king and chiefs were led to observe grades of punishment according to the depth of crime, instead of many alike being punishable by death, according to their former custom.
Is is thought by some that this law of banishment shows evidence of Kaahumanu’s hand. If so, it would date back to about 1830, or earlier, her death occurring in June, 1832. “Alexander’s Brief History,” under the subject of “Persecution of Catholics,” (page 206) has the following fact confirming its early existence:
“Louisa, a native woman who had been baptized in California, *** remaining firm in her belief, was treated with severity. Kaahumanu even intended to send her to Kahoolawe (which was then used as a place of banishment) but was dissuaded from doing so by Mr. Richards.”
In its origin, doubtless the fact that not a few escaped convicts from Botany Bay, who had made their presence felt on these shores in early days had familiarized the king and chiefs with the subject of banishment, was an influence toward its recognition and adoption here as a penalty for crime. While the time and circumstance of its origin is clouded with uncertainty, it appears to have been a working factor at the time of the visit at these islands of Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition, in 1840-41. The account therein given is the only one published by an early writer, so far met with, and though somewhat contradictory gives important data to work upon. We extract from the record (Vol. IV, pp. 244-5) as follows:
“Kahoolawe *** is fourteen miles long by five miles wide. It is uninhabited except by a few fisherman, and is used as a place of exile; at this time there was one state prisoner confined on it. Lieut. Budd *** set out in search of the town. *** After wandering over the rugged face of this barren island for many miles he discovered, to his great joy, from the top of a ridge, a cluster of huts near the water, which they soon reached. They proved to be inhabited by Kenemoneha, the exile above spoken of, who for the crime of forgery had been condemned to spend five years in exile upon this island. This was effected in a singular manner, and the punishment of the offender will serve to show the mode in which the laws are carried into execution.
“The chief Kenemoneha treated Lieut. Budd with great kindness, supplied him with dry clothing and gave him of his scanty fare. The village is a collection of eight huts and an unfurnished adobe church. The chief has three large canoes for his use. **
“The only article produced on the island is the sweet potato, and but a small quantity of these. All the inhabitants of the island are convicts, and receive their food from Maui; their present number is about fifteen. Besides this cluster of convicts’ huts there are one or two houses on the north end inhabited by old women. Some of the convicts are allowed to visit the other islands, but not to remain.”
The time of this visit was in March, 1841. In the census both of 1832 and 1836 Kahoolawe is credited with a population of eighty, but it has not figured in the census tables of any later period.
In the early part of 1858 it was first leased for a sheep station, which was the occasion of a communication in the Polynesian of April 10th, of that year, in which the following reminiscence relating to the island is given:
“It used to be a penal settlement, and no doubt the convicts enjoyed there as much ease and freedom from both surveillance and labor as their hearts could wish. I have heard that the late Kinimaka had a fine time of it. He was a native of some little rank and had his own dependants who used to swim from the shores of Maui and take him what he wanted to make his banishment entirely agreeable.
“I have also heard that one George Morgan was the last convict placed there, and that one or two females used to render passable that utter solitude which is never so well enjoyed as in agreeable company. George used to hunt the wild hogs and cultivate a little patch of land. I believe he used, also, to back down his drinking water from some considerable distance. He was a shoemaker by trade, and if, as many followers of Crispin have been, he was of a poetical turn of mind, he must have had a fine opportunity for the indulgence of his fancies.”
Enquiring among Hawaiians upon this subject we have an account from a venerable native writer of this city, formerly of Honouaula, Maui who testifies of his own knowledge not only of the existence of the penal settlement of Kahoolawe about the year 1840, but one also at Lae-o-kaena, Lanai; the former island being designated for the men, and the women being banished to the latter place. He states he know whereof he spoke, for his own mother was among the parties sent there. In the narrative he furnishes we gather some particulars of the daring escapade of the Kahoolawe convicts, vaguely touched upon in the foregoing extract from the Polynesian.
According to this statement the new law was by decree in a council of the kings and chiefs, before legislative enactments, and was promulgated by Kaukeaouli. The crime of murder was punishable by death; theft and adultery by exile, the men being sent to Kahoolawe and the women to Lanai. The narrator claims to have been born in 1832 at a place on Maui that had much to do with Kahoolawe, being right opposite it, and these things were freely talked of among the people. There was much sadness and wailing at the arrests made under the new law on the parties being locked up at Lahaina for a subsequent trial, before the governor, and sentenced to one island or another.
The women were conveyed across to Lae-o-kaena by the schooner Hooikaika, afterwards the men were sent to Kahoolawe, among whom was the Maui chief Kinimaka, who was designated as superintendent of the exiles. The work he assigned to them was the erection of houses of stone and dirt (adobe) at a place called Kaulana, a small bay, where with some residents they numbered 80 or more. After its designation as a convict station the former settlers left and returned to Honuaula, whence most of them had come.
In those days much trouble existed among the exiles for want of food; they even eat of the kupala in their distress. This was found of good size; usually it is fed to the hogs. It somewhat resembles a sweet potato, but on a steady diet dysentery and its attendant conditions would result. At this critical time they considered what course to pursue and decided to swim over to Maui, for life or death. Fifteen of the number, good swimmers, were chosen for the venturesome trip, and their return was to be looked for with a food supply in six days, or be considered drowned, or captured.
These deliverers prepared for their errand in the month of February, 1841. Before starting they procured a wiliwili log to which they fastened a rope and with a stone anchored it out at a depth of fifteen fathoms where the tide ran swiftly, as a buoy, that on its indication of the tide running towards Maui would be the time to start. Meanwhile they held old-time devotions at an altar called Aikupau, then set out to swim across. And as they swam vigorously it was not long before they reached Molokini, the cluster of rock in mid-channel, where they rested awhile. Toward nightfall, they resumed their swimming till they landed at Puuolai, near Makena, not so much tired as they were hungry. They therefore quickly sought out a grove of cocoa-nut trees from which they obtained a food supply. Six of their number were familiar with the locality and guided the party inland to a cave where they remained till morning, when they set out for the potato patches and gathered a quantity in bundles, making three trips nightly for three nights. They then appropriated several canoes for their needs and loading them returned to Kahoolawe according to the time agreed upon.
Subsequently they returned for further supplies and commited like depredations. From Kalepolepo and Maalae they stole five canoes then proceeded along the shore to Ukumehame and Olowalu, where they took others. They pulled all the taro of these two places, and also of Waikapu, which they loaded into the canoes and set out for Kahoolawe. With these canoes they afterward went over to Lae-o-kaena, Lanai, and brought all the women to Kahoolawe to share their solitude. By these acts of the convicts a fear of them prevailed so that they were not molested by the government, but they lived peacably together until in 1843, during Lord George’s rule when, it is said, he put an end to the ridiculous law and sent the exiles to their respective localities to work upon the roads.
The acts of Lord George’s admistration are all matters of record, but they reveal nothing which confirms this story of his abrogating the law or laws of penal servitude as above stated, though he did release a number of persons that were confined in the fort for certain offences. It is possible, however, that in the “Act of Grace” of Kamehameha III, in commemoration of the restoration of the flag by Admiral Thomas July 31st of that year, whereby “all prisoners of every description” committed for offenses during the period of cession “from Hawaii to Niihau be immediately discharged,” royal clemency was extended to include prisoners of earlier conviction, since which time the laws on banishment appear to have been a dead letter long before, dropped from the statutes, apparently without special repeal.
