Natural History

The flamboyant bougainvillea was brought to Hawaii around 1827 and has flourished in the islands.  It was named after the French navigator Louis de Bougainville (1729 – 1811), who came across the original dark purple variety during an 18th-century visit to Brazil.  The showy vine quickly became a garden favorite and has since been extensively hybridized with forms and colors very different from those of the original plant.

It was called pukanawila in the Hawaiian way.  On the Big Island, the intensity of its flaming reds, purples and oranges caused the islanders to name it pua kepalo, the devil’s flower.  To them, the flowers were echoes of the fires of hell and of the devil.  Paniolos, cowboys, on the Big Island recognized bougainvillea which came from their home in Mexico.

By nature, Bougainvillea is a climber or sprawling shurb with stems that can reach several feet in length, usually clinging with the aid of curved spines.  It can be clipped to form hedges or trained into tree-like and topiary shapes with sizeable trunks.  It really does best with an annual severe pruning.  Most varieties have pale green ovate leaves in pairs, but there is also a form with variegated, green-and-white leaves. 

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Arts & Culture

Maui During The American Civil War

Between 1861 and 1865, people in Hawaii paid close attention to the internal conflict between the American Northern states (the Union) and eleven Southern seceded states (the Confederacy).  This was not surprising.  Americans were major players in Hawaiian national politics and were often leaders in developing the economic well-being of the islands.  Whatever affected America had repercussions for Hawaii.

For one thing, practically every missionary in Hawaii was from New England and had close friends and relatives in the Union army, so their prayers were with the Northern army.  Meanwhile, the court of Kamehameha IV was pro-British and joined with the upper British classes in their outspoken Southern sympathies during the early years of the war when the South scored several quick victories and the permanent dissolution of the Union was freely predicted in the Islands.

Speculation ran high about the effects of the American war on Hawaii.  One rumor had it that California planned to become a separate nation and that it would try to force annexation of Hawaii.  Another rumor circulated through Lahaina that a Confederate privateer was operating in the Pacific with orders to sink every Yankee whaling ship on sight.  People worried that the whalers who made Lahaina their winter headquarters would come under fire.

The first big problem presented by the Civil War was establishing the official neutrality of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a protection against raids by Confederate ships.  The trouble was that an official declaration of neutrality would imply that the Kingdom recognized the Confederate States as a legitimate government.  After a great deal of vacillation, Kamehameha IV finally declared the neutrality of his kingdom.  Although his proclamation went to great lengths to avoid naming the Confederate States of America, he technically recognized the rebels.

The war cut off Louisiana’s sugar plantations from the markets north of the Mason-Dixon Line and the market price for Hawaiian sugar started soaring upwards.  The fledgling Hawaiian sugar industry got its first real boost.  Hawaiian sugar that was once shipped only to San Francisco was sent off around the Horn by every available vessel to New York and Boston.

Many new plantations, sugar mills, and supporting businesses were established at this time.  Among them was a sugar plantation started by a shipwrecked seaman, James Campbell, at Lahaina in 1861.  In the early 1870s, in partnership with Harry Turton, Campbell founded the Pioneer Mill, forerunner of a greater operation that was later sold to H. Hackfield & Company (which later morphed into American Factors).  Campbell eventually owned much of the area where the town of Lahaina now stands.  His nickname became “Kimo-ona-milliona,” James-of-the-millions, as, over the years, he amassed an impressive fortune that is still administered today under the Estate of James Campbell.

In 1861, Lahaina was still the capital of the Kingdom and Maui’s population was principally Hawaiian, with relatively few Caucasians and Chinese immigrants.  Individual towns and plantations were not connected by roads.  A foot trail called the King’s Road circled the island, but the usual method of travel from place to place was by sea.  There were no paved streets anywhere.  Wagons and carriages were driven along the beach.  The commonest structures were still thatched houses. 

One of the wonders in 1861 was the first inter-island steamer, “Kilauea”.  It had been in operation for about a year.  Passengers could take the steamer to Maalaea and from there, travel along a fairly good road to Wailuku.  In addition o Lahaina, Maalaea and Kahakuloa, the other ports on Maui were Makena, Nahiku, Huelo, Maliko and Waihee. 

Small unirrigated sugar plantations were in operation at Lahaina, Waikapu, Wailuku, Waihee, Ulupalakua, Kipahulu, Hana, Keanae, Nahiku, Huelo, Maliko, Haliimaile, and Waihee.  The land around Puunene was a great, barren stretch of sand and dust spread from Wailuku to Paia except for a little bit of pastureland around the present location of Spreckelsville.  (Until the advent of the sugar industry’s irrigation and pumping projects in the 1870’s, this land was too dry for growing sugar cane.)

There were fewer whaling ships wintering at Lahaina in 1861 than there were in the 1850’s.  Petroleum had been discovered in Pennsylvania and the cleaner-burning kerosene lamps were replacing the smelly whale-oil lamps.  The demand for whale oil was diminishing.  Also, during the early years of the Civil War, a number of whalers were recalled to New Bedford.  Very likely, it was more profitable to carry cargo (and maybe run the Union blockade of Confederate ports) than to hunt whales. 

The Lahaina-based whaling fleet was down to about 100 vessels by 1865 when the long-rumored Confederate privateer appeared at Bonobe in the Caroline Islands and sank five whaling ships.  The privateer ship, “Shenandoah,” was a light, combination sail-and-steamship carrying six guns.  She was supposedly outfitted in New Zealand by a British group that sympathized with the Southern cause.  Her master was a Captain Waddell. 

Following the sinking of the ships at Bonobe, the Shenandoah reappeared in June in the Arctic Ocean and set fire to 20 more Lahaina-based whalers.  Five ships were spared by Waddell to carry the crews, including several hundred Hawaiian sailors, to San Francisco.  Ironically, the war had already ended with the surrender of the Confederate commander Robert E. Lee to the Union general Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox.  Waddell refused to believe that the Confederate cause was lost.

At the start of the war, outfitting whaling ships was Lahaina’s principal industry.  By its end, sugar had come into its own and was on its way to becoming King Sugar. 

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD:  He tried but was unsuccessful.
BRADDAH-NICS:  He went chance 'em but no can.

* * * * * *

STANDARD:  What can be done about it?
BRADDAH-NICS:  Wotchu goin' do li' dat?

* * * * * *

STANDARD:  She doesn't go there any more.
BRADDAH-NICS:  Her, she no go no mo'.

Local Grinds

Pansit

Ingredients:

• 7 1/2oz. long rice
  
• 8 oz. fried egg noodles
• 1/2 lb. lean pork
• 1/4 lb. shrimp
• 4 large mushrooms, dried
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbls. salad oil
• 30oz. chicken broth
• 2 tbls. patis
• 1/4 t. pepper
  
  

Procedure:

Place mushrooms and long rice in bowlful of warm water for 30 minutes and drain.
Remove long rice, lay out, and cut into 3 in. strips.
Remove stems from mushrooms and dice mushroom caps.
Shell and slice shrimp into small pieces, thinly slice pork into small strips.

Place oil in a large skillet. Once heated, add garlic and pork. Let saute/brown respectively. Stir in diced mushrooms and sliced shrimp, saute all for approximately 1 minute. Add patis, broth, and pepper to mixture and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add egg noodles and long rice until noodles are fully cooked.

Makes approximately 6 servings.

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