🧚 The Alapa Regiment

17761

Ka-lani-opuu was the Moi, or king, of Hawaii, at whose feet Captain Cook was slain in 1779.2 He had been the ruling chief since 1754.3 He was a restless warrior and signalised his reign by bloody battles with the chiefs of the neighbouring island of Maui.4 The decimation of the Hawaiian race began in these inter-island wars before the coming of the white race.5

About 1760 Kalaniopuu attacked the southern coast of Maui and captured the famous fort of Kau-wiki.6

For fifteen years the Maui chiefs were not able to recapture it.7 During these years Kalaniopuu had frequently gathered his best company of warriors and attacked the Maui seacoast.8 From each invasion he had returned laden with captives and spoil.9 At last, in 1775, the king was the victim of his own ambition.10 His supreme desire was to rule two islands instead of one, and he was willing to fight for it.11

He carried the war close to the home of Kahekili, king of Maui.12 A battle was fought.13 There was a great destruction of life and property.14 This raid received the name “Kalae-ho-hoa”—“pounded on the forehead”—because, as the records say, “The captives were unmercifully beaten on their heads with war clubs.”15 For a time victory was with the invaders; the Maui forces were not prepared for the onset, but warriors were hastily assembled from all parts of the island.16

There was a bloody hand-to-hand struggle, in which thrusting with spears and striking with clubs meant almost certain death to those who were not able to get in the first blow.17

It was a terrible defeat for Hawaii.18 The old king had been taken to the coast and placed in his royal double canoe ready to escape if his army could not win the day.19

One of the most noted and daring warriors of the time, Ke-ku-hau-pio, held his place against the Maui men while his comrades were driven back.20 Several antagonists crowded around him.21 When one fell another took his place.22 Heavy blows from war clubs and spears beat down the weapons of the stalwart warrior and rained blows upon his head and body.23 Once and again he swept back the circle of his enemies.24 But they clung to him.25 They wearied and wounded him until he began to stagger under the blows against which he furnished imperfect guard.26 His strength was gone, and hands were outstretched to seize him and carry him as a living sacrifice to the nearest heiau.27

Suddenly a giant Hawaiian with a very long and heavy war club scattered the group around the fainting warrior.28

As he beat down the Maui warriors his cry rang out: “E kokua!29 E kokua!”—“To the rescue!30 To the rescue!”31

He gave the old chief a moment’s rest while he kept the surrounding crowd at bay; then he dashed against the wall of warriors and broke it down.32 Turning, he caught the old chief and aided him in hurried retreat, while his terrible war club played with lightning strokes against his foes.33 The young giant screamed with joy when he struck to earth enemy after enemy.34 With the insane inspiration of battle he made charge upon charge, as he pushed the confused mass of chiefs and people into an impetuous flight.35 Then he hastened back to his friend and aided him still further in the retreat.36

“It is Ka-meha-meha the sacred,” the Maui warriors cried; “the gods are in him.37 Kaili, the war god, strikes through his arms.38 We cannot fight against the gods.”39

So they made way for the whirlwind warrior as he helped his friend to the sea.40 In a few moments they were in a waiting canoe making their escape to Hawaii.41

Ka-meha-meha came from this battle an idolised chief.42 He fulfilled Carlyle’s definition of “King”—“König,” “the man who can”—the man who, after the battle, would be “lifted upon his comrades’ shields and hailed as hero.”43 From that time the young giant was a recognised leader.44 His position was substantially the same as that of the king’s own sons.45

This was a sore defeat for the king of Hawaii.46 He was humiliated and angry.47 His self-love and ambition were sorely stricken, but he did not pour out his wrath upon his followers.48 He cheered them and encouraged them to prepare for new endeavours.49

He called upon the high chiefs of the various districts of his island for a more thorough preparation of men and war supplies, that with a new and larger army he might make complete subjugation of Maui.50

This was in 1775, at the same time that in America the “Boston tea party” and Battle of Bunker’s Hill were being followed by the struggle for freedom on the part of England’s colonies.51 In England, King George was calling upon Parliament for advice and funds wherewith to subdue the blood brothers in America.52 Both King George and King Kalaniopuu were equally obstinate in the determination to rule the lands across the waters.53

The chiefs devoted all the energies of their districts to the preparation for the new war.54

The warriors went up into the mountains to find the Kauila—the spear tree—that they might cut down and dry the wood for spears and war clubs and daggers.55

The lava ledges were searched for the hardest pa-hoe-hoe—the fine-grained, compact lava, well fitted for tools with which to hew out and smooth the many new canoes needed.56 The stone age is not so very far away from to-day—in some parts of the world.57 The forests were searched for the best trees from which canoes could be made.58 The sound of stone axes and adzes rang throughout the land.59 Hundreds of workmen hewed and scraped and other hundreds polished, until at last a large fleet of canoes and a vast quantity of weapons were prepared.60

The fishermen made new offerings to their gods.61 Large quantities of fish were caught and dried for the commissary department of the new army.62

The cloth-makers sought eagerly for the bark of the woke—the paper mulberry tree.63 They made offerings to their gods, Hia and Lauhuki, of bark and leaves, with the prayer that the bark might be easily manufactured into the finest cloth.64 Then they pounded the bark into sheets which they stained with vegetable and mineral dyes.65 Sometimes they made this paper-cloth into waterproof cloaks and sheets by soaking it in cocoanut or kukui nut oil.66

Every taro field was carefully cultivated, and prayers offered and sacrifices made to the hideous images of gods placed at some corner of each field to watch over the growing plants.67 A large amount of taro must be ready to be pounded into poi the next season for the warriors’ poi-bowls.68

The large number of young chiefs throughout the island was organised into three bands.69 The young men of royal blood, the king’s sons and their cousins, were set apart as the bodyguard of the old king.70 They were the Keawe, or “the bearers.”71 They were the supporters of the king in whatever move he might make.72 They were personally responsible for his safety.73

The chiefs who were the boon companions of the royal family, who had the privilege of eating around the royal poi-bowls, were separated into two regiments: the Alapa—“the slender”—and Piipii—“the furious.”74

The Alapa chiefs were the flower of Hawaiian nobility next to the highest chiefs.75 Eight hundred warriors were in its ranks.76 They were of almost equal stature, averaging nearly six feet in height.77 Their spears were of equal length.78 The bird-hunters of each chief had scoured the forests for the rich crimson feathers of the iiwi, which were woven into glistening war capes.79 The regimental uniform—light bamboo helmets, feather-coated and crested with brilliant plumes, added to the majestic appearance of these stalwart chiefs.80

Many were the chants and stories about the prowess of the individuals belonging to this noble band.81 They were all members of the Aha-alii, or “Company of Chiefs.”82 Their genealogies would give them a welcome and a position in any court on any island.83

Allegiance could be transferred from one king to another, or from island to island, without loss of rank.84 Once a chief, always a chief.85 There could be no system of degradation from the station conferred by birth.86

Allegiance was usually given for family reasons.87 The blood relatives were loyal even unto death to the king of their own blood.88 Sometimes for personal reasons, such as intermarriage or friendship, a chief would be led to espouse the cause of a new king.89 Sometimes captives were given the choice between allegiance or death as a human sacrifice before the gods.90 If they accepted the new service, they were at once treated like friends and property and marriage secured for them.91 Insult or injury at the hands of a superior chief was always considered good grounds for a transfer of allegiance.92

Chiefs were never made slaves, kauwa hooluki—“wearied servants.”93 The common people were in a state of serfdom akin to European feudalism.94 Life and property and family were absolutely at the will of the high chief, but the servant could leave everything and seek another master.95

In time of war a captured chief, unless claimed as a “blood brother” by a friend in the ranks of the enemy, or accepted by the new king, was sentenced to the heiau, or temple, as a human sacrifice.96 Each chief of the “Aha-alii” had the right to wear the beautiful feather lei, or wreath, and the feather cape, and the niho palaoa, or ivory hook, suspended from a heavy necklace of human hair.97 He had the right to sail a canoe stained red, from the mast of which floated a pennant over a red sail.98

The bond of brotherhood among chiefs was a matter of individual concern.99 “Two young men adopted each other as brothers.100 They were bound to support each other in weal or woe.101 If they found themselves in opposing ranks, and one was taken prisoner, his friend was bound to obtain his freedom, and there is no record in all the legends and traditions that this singular friendship ever made default.”102 The highest chiefs were called alii-tabu—the tabu chiefs.103 They were sacred in the eyes of the people, who prostrated themselves with faces in the dust when the high chief came near them.104 “It was said that certain chiefs were so tabu that they did not show themselves abroad by day.”105

Alexander says: “It was death for a common man to remain standing at the mention of the king’s name.”106

While this army was being recruited, great preparations were made for the purchase of the favour of the gods.107 Temples were repaired and the gods reclothed.108 This was a peculiar ceremony.109 New kapa, or paper-cloth garments, were made and consecrated to the god with prayer and sacrifices.110 This cloth for the gods was made from the finest bark of the mulberry tree.111 It was beautifully coloured and brought to the idol.112 Another series of prayers and offerings—and frequently a human victim—then the ornamented kapa was wrapped around the image as a war cloak.113

Such preparations, on so large a scale, could not be concealed from Kahekili, king of Maui.114 He also gathered warriors and weapons as far as possible from his subjects.115 But he felt his weakness and sent an embassy to Oahu.116 He must have a large body of reinforcements and the only available army must come from Oahu.117 He knew of only one priest in the island group who refused absolutely to acknowledge the superiority of Holoae, the high priest of Hawaii.118 Therefore, he had requested the king of Oahu to send the high priest Ka-leo-puu-puu to combat the supernatural powers of the high priest of Hawaii.119 Both of these high priests were of the highest rank.120 Priestly prestige and power depended upon genealogy.121 Each of these priests could look back through a straight line of ancestors, to the days of the Vikings of the Pacific and the sea voyages of the eleventh century.122

Holoae was a direct descendant of Paao, the eleventh century priest coming from Upolu, Samoa, to Hawaii.123 His prerogatives in Hawaii and Maui were unquestioned.124