Pat here:
So, shoot me, every once in a while I take a trip that has utterly nothing whatsoever to do with writing—unless one counts a need to rest my erratic brain and tired Muse. This year, the trip was to Maui. And if our Hawaiian guide wasn’t spinning yarns, then in Hawai’ian, Maui probably ought to be pronounced Ma-oo-ee, but it isn’t. There are all sorts of guides on how to pronounce all the vowels in the twelve-letter language, but my brain quits after three vowels strung together. You can listen to pronunciation here or read the guidelines here . As a book reader, I’m always concerned about how words actually sound and then bemused by the many pronunciations beyond the one in my head.
We stayed in Lahaina, which has a long history as well as gorgeous blue waters. (And gets pronounced Lahina more often than La-ha-ee-na.) I doubt anyone knows precisely when the Polynesians traveled from the Big Island to the smaller volcanic islands, but after taking 80 person canoes across the Pacific, the original settlers certainly had the ability to populate the other islands as soon as they saw the need.
The Big Island makes all the history books, but anything that happened there, eventually reached the smaller ones. Spanish sailors probably visited the islands, but the first recorded westerner was Captain James Cook in 1779—because of his timing. He arrived on the Big Island in the middle of a sacred festival and
was mistaken for Lono, the God of Fertility and Music. Oops. In another year, the natives figured out he was a mere mortal and killed him. Good luck only lasts so long.
Mostly, Cook introduced the battling chieftains to western weapons so their battles could be even more deadly. You gotta love civilization. After the dust was settled, one chieftain emerged as king ,and this is where Lahaina’s history becomes more visible. In 1802 (look, our Regency era!) Kamehameha made Lahaina the capital of Hawaii and built a brick palace there. A town grew around it, and this was the center of Hawaiian government for over fifty years.
Once the western world discovered the creature comforts offered by Lahaina, it became an enormous whaling port. As we can attest, the sun always shines there, the sea is calm, and the weather seldom varies—tropical paradise. At times, there were as many as 400 ships in port—with the accompanying hard-drinking, wenching, fighting sailors from around the world. So much for paradise.
Which means—ta-da—it was time to allow in the missionaries, which happened in the 1820s. While the Regency world was slowly following Reformist movements and buttoning up for the Victorian era, so were the Hawaiians, sorta. The missionaries provided schools, new ways of dressing (I’m going to guess not in gossamer gowns and heels), a printing press, and officially translated the native
tongue into a simple alphabet. Because of the rugged terrain and sparse population on the other side of the island, the high school in Lahaina remains one of the few public boarding schools in the country. (Hana and the wonderful waterfalls are on the rugged side of the island.)
The missionary compound in Lahaina, built in 1834, is now the oldest house still standing on Maui. It’s open to the public, as is the old prison, built in 1854 to confine fractious sailors.
In 1860, the first sugar plantations were started and lasted until 1999. Today, the cane and pineapple fields are mostly empty as the companies that owned them departed for cheaper labor climates. Magnificently, the Maui government decided those fields must remain agricultural so the island doesn’t develop into a sea of high-rise condos and shopping centers as they have elsewhere.
Oh, and that banyan tree I tried to photograph above? It was planted in 1873. There's a better picture here. It's a wonderful gathering place and often shades street musicians and family groups.
I don’t know, maybe I should put my Regency heroes on ships to Hawaii. What do you think? What would be your dream vacation?