Morning of Fire

by Scott Ridley

  Woman of Sandwich Islands by John Webber. Hawaiian women often formed strong bonds with foreign sailors who in turn stayed and supported chiefs.

  Man of Sandwich Islands by John Webber. This figure is often noted to be Kaiana, the young chief with a widely varying reputation.

  Kendrick sent for the Hawaiian chief Kaiana, who was at Kawaihae Bay on the northwest corner of the island. He was expecting the sloop. The Columbia had stopped there in August and left a letter for the American commander before departing for Macao. When Kaiana paddled out to the Washington, he was bearing the letter. Kendricktook it below and opened it. In a quick, urgent message the Columbia’s clerk, Richard Howe, warned of the duplicity of the natives. He said that a month before the Columbia arrived, the Iphigenia had been attacked and Douglas and his men barely escaped. Despite the laughter and amiable trading on deck, what the chiefs wanted was not beads or looking glasses or nails. They wanted guns and powder and shot. Kendrick could expect that any pistols or muskets bartered might suddenly be turned on the ship and her crew.

  Security on the Washington had to remain tight. Kendrick could forbid canoes coming to the ship after dark, and they would have to closely guard against their anchor cable being cut. The reality was that they were on a small sloop with less than thirty men, surrounded by hundreds of warriors. Their best chances for survival rested on Kendrick’s negotiating ability and the behavior of the crew.

  From Kaiana and Douglas, Kendrick learned that Hawaii had been ruled until a few years before (1782) by the supreme chief, Kalaniopuu, the old man Cook had attempted to take hostage. As he lay dying, he designated his son, Kiwalao, as his heir, and his nephew, Kamehameha, as war lord.

  Kamehameha was a great bull of a man, about thirty years old, and one of the most talked-about figures in the islands. People feared his approach and his scowling and fierce countenance. His life was enveloped in an aura of violence and legend, and he was seen as a man of destiny. He was said to have been born to a queen of Kona during a time of storms and strange lights in the sky, which some historians believe was the passage of Haley’s Comet in 1758, but others date his birth to February 1753. Spirited away as a child, he was later trained by his uncle, supreme chief Kalaniopuu, in religion, navigation, the arts of ruling, and warfare. He soon earned a reputation as a fearless warrior, and as the one foretold to rule over all the islands.

  The arrangement of shared power with his cousin, Kiwalao, raised old jealousies and created shifting alliances for power and land. Fighting soon broke out. Because he was an ali’i of lesser royal blood, Kamehamehahad difficulty attracting and maintaining allies. To bolster his stature and diminish his cousin, Kamehameha took Kiwalao’s daughter captive and made her his wife. Then, adding insult to injury, he captured and married a girl that Kiwalao had betrothed. Finally, Kiwalao was killed in battle in 1786 after four years of fighting. Nevertheless, control of the island remained divided. Kiwalao’s brother, Keoua, who ruled the northern part of the island, now became Kamehamha’s rival.

  Kaiana sided with Kamehameha when he was brought back to the islands by Douglas in 1788. Kaiana was a noted warrior who had collected a small arsenal of pistols and muskets during his time among the traders. He was made a district chief at Kawaihae, a village likely to face the first onslaught of attack from Keoua’s northern district, or from Maui. Kaiana was also the leader for an inter-island battle with Maui that was anticipated to happen soon. This would not be like the bloodless clash and taking of ships at Yuquot, or the village raiding of the Mowachaht. It would involve everyone. Kamehameha was about to wage war on two fronts with more than ten thousand warriors under his subchiefs.

  Beyond the conflict with Keoua for control of Hawaii, Kamehamha saw Kahekili as his primary foe. Kahekili was the most powerful chief in the four kingdoms of the islands. He ruled Maui, Oahu, and Lanai and controlled Kauai with his half-brother Kaeokulani (Kaeo). The old island lord was rumored by some to be Kamehameha’s father, and many believed he was also the one foretold to control all the islands. His name was associated with lightning, and half his body was tattooed black. The troop of fanatical warriors he led were tattooed in the same way and wore their eyelids propped up. They were called pahupu’u, and mention of their name and the vicious attack dogs that accompanied them struck fear into native hearts.

  From the villagers, Kendrick and his men heard that Kamehameha would attack Kahekili after the close of the makahiki period. Kaiana was particularly interested in acquiring muskets, powder, and shot from Kendrick in preparation for the war. Kendrick most likely traded the few arms he could spare at this point. He recognized the circumstances and set out to build alliances as he had on the Northwest Coast.

  Kamehameha, King of the Sandwich Islands by Louis Choris. Kamehameha I, the legendary ruler of the Hawaiian Islands, at about age sixty.

  Kaiana and weapons were Kendrick’s entry to the world of the ali ‘i. Keaweaheulu, one of the five chiefs of the Kona district, befriended Kendrick. The American commander may have indicated to him that he wanted to establish regular trade with island chiefs instead of just gathering provisions for his ship.

  How the first opportunity for permanent trade came about is not known, but one tale says it was a coincidence: firewood brought to the Lady Washington burned with a sweet-smelling smoke. Perhaps women brought the wood aboard to fumigate the foul odors below deck, or to soothe aching joints. Kendrick recognized it as sandalwood (santalum). The natives called it la-au-ala (“sweet wood”) or iliahi (“fiery surface”) for its reddish blooms and red-tinted new leaves. They used it for scenting bark cloth, for making dyes, and for medicinal purposes.

  Somehow Kendrick knew that the Chinese prized this wood and used it in religious rituals and as an aphrodisiac. He also knew that no sandalwood grew in China; it was shipped from India. Like the sea otter furs of the Northwest Coast, Kendrick believed this scented wood might offer a key to trade in these islands and the chance to gain a foothold here. Permission to cut trees and cure the wood would have to come from the chiefs, and in particular from Kamehameha.

  The royal house at Kaawaloa sat apart from the others, surrounded by a fence that commoners could not cross on pain of death. Not even a blade of grass could be bent by a commoner. The short walls and high peaked roof were thatched with dried golden-brown pili grass. Inside was a large, airy space standing open to the ridgepole. The floor was covered with printed leaf and rush mats. A large opening was cut in the high peak of the wall for light and ventilation. Kamehameha’s companions were all about the room, people called the mako’u after the torch that burned all night as they stayed up telling stories, gossiping, or playing games. At the head of the room was Kamehameha, wrapped in a long, scented tapa (bark cloth) robe. James King, who had sailed with Cook, described him as having one of the most savage faces he had ever seen. His broad, squat head atop a massive body was marked by a wrinkled forehead, down-turned mouth, and fiercely bright eyes.

  Accompanied by Kaiana, Kendrick probably presented his gifts and attempted to explain his wishes.. With little to trade except a few guns, Kendrick would have offered a share in the profits, seeking tomake Kamehameha, Keaweaheulu, and Kaiana partners. This was consistent with local sharing of island harvests and ensured that the chiefs would protect the venture. Kendrick may have proposed more as well. He was ultimately seeking an outpost here, as with Fort Washington at Nootka. He would leave a man in the Kona district to start that outpost, to harvest trees and help train Kamehameha’s men in warfare with muskets. Kamehameha may have perceived the deal as a way to put his profits toward a shipment of guns. Whatever the final terms, Kamehameha agreed.

  Many of the Washington‘s crew most likely vied to stay, though the logical choice was one man who had experience in warfare aboard privateers and knew how to prepare and cure wood: the carpenter Isaac Ridler. Given the danger inherent in remaining, Kendrick would have given Ridler a partnership in the enterprise. There were no extra provisions to trade other tha
n bits of metal. Ridler would need to make his own way, trading, fishing, and foraging, and directing the harvest of sandalwood under the protection of Kamehameha and the unpredictable and jealous lesser ali ‘i. Although Ridler had a wife and children in Boston, he was enthralled. With two younger crew members, James Mackay and Samuel Thomas, he agreed to take up Kendrick’s effort to gain the first American foothold in this volatile paradise.

  Despite any misgivings about Kaiana, and perhaps to direct other captains through a man he was allied with, Kendrick wrote a letter of recommendation for the young chief on December 11, 1789: “During the stay of these three weeks at this place we have received every attention of the chiefs … Cianna [Kaiana] (who accompanied Capt. Meares to China and back again) he having supplied us with every refreshment the islands afforded. It is therefore recommended to the notice of any commanders who may here after stop here to refresh he being a chief of consequence in whom the greatest trust may be placed as was ever experienced.”

  WITH THE DEAL SETTLED, Kendrick left Kealakekua and passed westward through the island chain, stopping at Kauai for water, and at Niihau, the last westward island, for yams and hogs. Once fully provisioned, the Washington sailed due west. The five-thousand-mile trip to Macao, across the western Pacific and threading through the islands between Formosa and the Philippines, would take about five weeks with fair weather.

  Kendrick had somehow skated through danger once again. The rapid launching of the American presence in the islands, with little or no resources, was more evidence of his ability to garner the confidence of his men and win the cooperation of chiefs who considered themselves in part divine.

  Kamehameha had come away impressed with the American captain’s comfort with power. But the situation remained volatile, and quickly deteriorated. Kamehameha wanted much more than muskets—he wanted a European ship with cannon to attack the canoe fleet of Kahekili. He did not have long to wait. Three months after the Washington left, the New York brig Eleanora came to the islands. At Maui, her boat was stolen and a sailor was killed. Captain Simon Metcalfe sought revenge. He had a chief put a taboo on the port side of his ship, and lured canoes to trade at the starboard side where he had mounted all his guns. When the canoes came crowding in, he opened fire with grapeshot, killing more than a hundred men, women, and children. Some accounts put the number as high as three hundred.

  At Hawaii, Metcalfe continued his harsh treatment of native people, punishing the district chief Kameeiamoku with a rope for some perceived slight. Humiliated, the chief vowed to destroy the next foreign ship that arrived. That ship was the thirty-three-foot schooner Fair American, which had a crew of four and was captained by Metcalfe’s nineteen-year-old son, Thomas.

  While the Elenora was anchored at Kealakekua, Thomas Metcalfe brought the Fair American into Kawaihae Bay, about forty or fifty milesto the northwest. Both Kaiana and Kameeiamoku went aboard. They placed a brilliant feathered cape around young Metcalfe as a gift, and then one of the chiefs picked him up and tossed him overboard. Warriors alongside in canoes speared and clubbed him. The four remaining crew were quickly seized and thrown overboard. Three were killed. The fourth, a young Welshman named Isaac Davis, tried to swim off and they beat him with paddles and pushed him underwater. Regardless of how long they held him down, he refused to succumb. He was finally hauled ashore and beaten mercilessly until he was blind and fell unconscious. He was left for dead, tied facedown in a canoe.

  Ridler received word of the attack and of one possible survivor. After finding Davis in the canoe, terribly bruised and bleeding but still alive, he had him carried to his house. Ridler realized that he and the two younger crew members with him were in grave danger.

  Fearing that the elder Metcalfe would find out what had happened, Kamehameha restricted the movements of Kendrick’s men and made it taboo for anyone to go out to the Eleanora. He also seized one of her crew who was ashore, an English boatswain, John Young. When no canoes would come out to the ship and Young failed to return, Metcalfe sent a message ashore to Ridler, which threatened “to take ample revenge” unless Davis was brought to the ship. Getting no response, he sensed that something was terribly wrong and hauled out of the bay. Kamehameha took the Fair American from Kaiana and hid it in a cove. To save his own life, as well as that of Davis and Young, Ridler continued to serve Kamehameha, teaching his warriors how to fire cannons and sail the small schooner.

  With the Fair American, and assistance from the foreigners, Kamehameha invaded Maui. Kahekili was away at Oahu. Kamehameha’s forces pursued Kahekili’s son, Kalanikupule, and other chiefs deep into the Iao Valley. Battles were traditionally fought with a volley of short spears, then at close range with long spears, shark-toothed clubs, slings, swordlike knives, and shields. Kamehameha had the cannons hauledoverland and slaughtered so many of Kalanikupule’s warriors that their bodies dammed a stream. The battle became known as Kepaniwai—the battle of the dammed waters of Iao.

  The victory had little meaning, however, because while Kamehameha was warring on Maui, his rival Keoua took the opportunity to come down from the north and ravage Kamehameha’s villages on Hawaii’s west coast. Kamehameha returned to fight two battles against Keoua in the expanding island war. In the midst of it, Ridler, along with Davis, Young, and the other two Washington crew members, Mackay and Thomas, lived under constant threat of death and prayed for Kendrick to soon return.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  House of Cards

  Macao

  JANUARY 1790

  OFF THE COAST OF CHINA, the Washington sailed into a dawn light that unveiled a forest of fishing boats on the horizon to the north and west. Through his glass, Kendrick could see vessels of all sizes, some with high broad sterns, fishing in pairs. With her flag snapping in the breeze, the sloop made her way to them, calling out and receiving little or no intelligible response. The shoals they were on lay two days offshore, and the Washington was seeking a lone white rock jutting from the water, known as Pedro Blanca, that marked the approach to the Pearl River Delta and Macao. By the end of the day, a scattering of small islands appeared—the Ladrones (Spanish for “thieves”)— showing they were on the correct course. Douglas had warned that pirates lurked here, hunting in packs and preying on unsuspecting vessels. The crew armed themselves and loaded the swivel guns.

  The wind stiffened and the weather grew cloudy as they came toward the long, mountainous shore. At night they saw lights of many fires dotting the horizon, and boat traffic thickened again. In the morning, amid the hubbub of so many vessels, from tiny fishing boats, to junks, to huge seven-hundred-ton merchant ships, no one took much notice of a small sloop. Most foreign ships took a Chinese pilot on board from one of the junks that approached flying a marked flag. Kendrick could afford nothing at this stage and most likely wanted to make his own way in. Smoke and the smells of the land came over the water as Kendrick followed the inbound ships. Then the small city appeared. By midday January 26, 1790, the Washington had dropped anchor about a mile offshore from Macao in three fathoms of water with a muddy bottom.

  From the bay you couldn’t notice that the buildings were on an island. Macao lay at the end of a peninsula two miles long and a half mile wide and was connected to the mainland by a causeway guarded by high double gates. Along the shore stood a row of square two-and three-story Mediterranean-style houses and buildings. Behind them, several steep hills rose above tile-roofed houses crowded into the valleys. Pine trees and green shrubs clustered around a few larger villas. A white-walled fort overlooked the bay from the peak of a hill near the center of the city. On another hill was a church. More steeples rose in the background. Though its population was only about four thousand, this was the first civilized town or city the men had seen in two years.

  Kendrick’s first order of business was to register the ship’s arrival and collect letters from Barrell’s American agents, Samuel Shaw and Thomas Randall, who had located here just two years before. In the buffeting wind, Kendrick lower
ed a boat into the muddy yellow-brown water and sent to the customs house for permission to enter the Typa, a sheltered area lying near the entrance to the inner harbor. A few hours later the request was denied. It was a sign of things to come.

  Gray and the Columbia were already thirty miles up the Pearl River at Whampoa. He had arrived at Macao on November 2 and tried to take advantage of getting into the market early. Caught in the politics of the mandarins and Chinese merchants, he quickly encountered difficulties of his own.

  The Praia Grande, Macao by Thomas Allom. For nearly three hundred years, the small city of Macao was the only entry point to China for foreign merchants.

  As much as Hawaii was a raw, chaotic paradise, Macao seemed a bureaucratic nightmare. China was a nation of laws, rules, and regulations wielded by silk-robed mandarins and an army of customs officials and soldiers. As the only port open to the Fan Kwae, or “foreign devils,” Macao was under the nominal oversight of a Portuguese governor, whose country had held ownership of the port since 1557. The real control, however, lay with the Chinese viceroy at Canton and the resident mandarin.

  Merchants, and especially foreign merchants, had little standing in the larger scheme of things in the “Celestial Kingdom.” The Chinese emperor claimed sovereignty over all things under heaven, dismissing Christian assumptions of superiority, or even equality. Further, any type of trade was considered a demeaning occupation, beneath contempt, by the Chinese gentry, literati, and government officers. The emperor, as the father of all human beings, allowed people to follow their base instincts to trade for silk, porcelain, and tea under strict regulations and penalties. Europeans who could not learn the Chinese language or understand its customs were regarded as barbarians. The official policy was that these barbarians could not be trusted or governed under the same enlightened wisdom as the Chinese people, and misrule was what was called for. Many foreign captains who found themselves considered below the level of Chinese workers believed that the only purpose of Chinese regulation was to create as much difficulty for traders and to extract as much tribute and as many gifts as possible for Chinese merchants and officials.