James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands, His Findings

I read James Jackson Jarves’s History of the Hawaiian Islands for the traditions a later writer can set beside the flood stories and the migration claims. The copy in front of me has no dated title page. The half-title reads Jarves’ History. The dedication page says it was printed at the Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. Henry M. Whitney’s appendix, bound in the same volume, is dated 1872, and Whitney writes that Jarves brings the history of the people down to the year 1847. A preface speaks of the first and second editions. I do not call this copy a third edition, because that word is not on the pages I read. The text is out of copyright. The quotes below are his sentences, or the sentences he quotes. Page numbers are the printed headers.

He does not mention Atlantis. The findings I would carry are in the opening chapters: where the people came from, the flood of Hinalii, and the genealogies. The rest of the book is the political history from Cook to 1847, and Whitney’s commercial sketch. I do not treat that later narrative as an origin claim.

The book at a glance

• Title: History of the Hawaiian Islands. The half-title in this copy reads Jarves’ History. Whitney’s appendix is titled as a sketch of the present commercial and agricultural condition of the islands.
• Author: James Jackson Jarves. The 1872 appendix is by Henry M. Whitney, who says he is not continuing the history, only outlining the condition Jarves left.
• Edition I read: Printed at the Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu. Whitney’s appendix is dated 1872. Jarves’s narrative, on Whitney’s word, stops at 1847.
• What he claims: Tahiti, or Kahiki, is the name popular opinion gives as the source from which Hawaii was peopled. The first inhabitants brought a hog, a dog, and a pair of fowls from Tahiti. A flood called Kaiakahinalii, the great deluge of Hinalii, overflowed all the land except the summit of Mauna Kea. Some people were saved in a laau, a vessel as high as it was long and broad, and the vessel rested on Mauna Kea. Kahiko and Kupulanaikahau are the first man and the first woman, and their son is Wakea. Another pair, Kukalaniehu and Kakulaua, are among the first settlers from abroad, and their daughter married Wakea. Seventy-seven generations of kings are preserved in the meles, down to Kamehameha. He reports a theory that the Hawaiians are a remnant of Israel, and he says that theory still needs proof. He also says the wonder-tales of the bards have neither interest nor value as history.

Findings worth setting beside other writers

• One family across the Pacific. The language spoken through the groups of the Pacific has one common structure, with differences he would resolve into dialects. The New Zealander and the Hawaiian, more than four thousand miles apart, are members of one family (p. 12).
• The road from the south. The southern extremities of Kahoolawe and Hawaii were called the foreign roads. In the meles appear Nuuhiva and Tahuata, of the Marquesas, Upolu and Savaii, of Samoa, and Tahiti. Voyages from Oahu and Kauai to islands far west are alluded to. Tahiti or Kahiki, synonymous names, were the most visited, and popular opinion points to that island as the source whence Hawaii was peopled. Bolabola, the name of an adjoining island, is usually applied to Tahiti. He thinks the latest voyages were made there, and that after they ceased it was the only foreign country the common people still knew (p. 12).
• What they brought. The first inhabitants are related to have brought from Tahiti a hog, a dog, and a pair of fowls. Before landing they asked the gods, and obtained permission to be the sole denizens of the region (p. 13).
• A voyage of fifteen years. A priest sailed from Hawaii with forty companions, in four double canoes, commanded by his god to go to Tahiti. After fifteen years they returned and described a country called Haapokane, with sandy beaches, shell-fish, and delicious fruits. The navigator’s name was Kamapiikai, “a child running over the sea.” He made three further voyages and did not return from the fourth. In that land was the wai-ola-loa, the water of enduring life, which Jarves compares with the fountain Ponce de Leon sought in Florida in 1512 (p. 13).
• The flood. All the land, except the summit of Mauna Kea, was overflowed by copious rains and risings of the waters. Some inhabitants saved themselves in a laau, equal in height, length, and breadth, filled with men, food, and animals. It rested upon Mauna Kea. The waters subsided and the people dwelt in the land again. The flood is called Kaiakahinalii, the great deluge of Hinalii (p. 13). Before the world existed, their traditions, like those of the Hebrews, speak of a period of perpetual night, or a state of chaos. Nothing that now is was created, except some of the gods.
• Not yet the lost tribes. Customs and a weekly sabbath, four sacred seasons in the month, cities of refuge, and circumcision look to him like fragments of a faith not unlike the Hebrews. Dibble, in his history of the American mission, favors the idea that the Hawaiians are a part of the scattered tribes of the children of Israel. Jarves prints Dibble’s list, and then says further research and more proof are required before that conclusion can be adopted (p. 15).
• The first people, in two forms. Man was made of the dust of the earth by Kane and Kanaloa. Kahiko, “ancient,” is the first man, and Kupulanaikahau the first woman. They gave birth to Wakea. Among the first settlers from abroad were Kukalaniehu and his wife Kakulaua, whose daughter married Wakea, and this couple became the progenitors of the whole Hawaiian race (pp. 15 and 16). I keep both accounts.
• Seventy-seven generations. The names are preserved in the historical meles. Kamehameha claimed descent from the last of them (p. 16). A genealogy of the kings and their wives exists from a period long antecedent to 1778, though few facts of an interesting nature have been preserved (p. 15).
• The tales he will not use. Papa was believed to be the mother of the islands, and to have created the kalo plant by planting a deformed child. Kana was so tall he could wade the ocean, one foot on Oahu and the other on Kauai, seventy miles apart, and he walked through the sea to Tahiti, where Kahoaalii, the maker of the sun, lived. Jarves says stories of this class, originating in the imaginations of the bards, have neither interest nor value, and that it seems impossible to extract any truth worth preserving (p. 16).

For other flood narratives, see Great Flood Stories. For a Hawaiian creation account already on this site, see Hawaiian Accounts of Creation. For the Chaldean tablet with a named mountain, see Zénaïde A. Ragozin’s The Story of Chaldea.

Tahiti, or Kahiki (p. 12)

He argues from language, appearance, manners, and traditions that the Polynesian groups are one family, even where they have lost all means of communication. The canoes of former times were larger. From some of the circumstances told of them, it is not improbable that they were the very boats, or proas, perhaps of Malay origin, which brought the first inhabitants, and which afterwards kept up the intercourse. Modern canoes are ill adapted to voyages of two and three thousand miles. He cannot ascertain when the adventurous voyages were relinquished. It must have been many ages since.

The New Zealander and Hawaiian, though more than four thousand miles apart, with all the intermediate tribes, are members of one family

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 12

Tahiti or Kahiki, which are synonymous, were the names most commonly known, and appears to have been the island most visited. Popular opinion points to it as the source whence Hawaii was peopled.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 12

Their ideas had become so vague that Kahiki was applied to any foreign country, and in his day the word answers to the English “abroad.” The names of Nuuhiva, Tahuata, Upolu, Savaii, and Tahiti remain in the meles. The southern points of Kahoolawe and Hawaii were the foreign roads.

The flood of Hinalii (p. 13)

Few of the traditions of the earliest history are, in his judgment, worthy of recital. He recites them anyway.

The first inhabitants are related to have brought with them from Tahiti, a hog, a dog, and a pair of fowls.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 13

A chief arrived at Hawaii and finally settled on Kauai, and sent for his son, who improved the canoes or perhaps introduced the more recent improvements of Tahiti. A priest, told by his god of Tahiti, sailed from Hawaii with forty companions in four double canoes, was gone fifteen years, and described Haapokane. Kamapiikai, a child running over the sea, made three more voyages with numerous followers and is supposed to have perished on the fourth. Jarves then gives the flood.

A tradition of the flood likewise exists, which states that all the land, except the summit of Mauna Kea, was overflowed by copious rains and risings of the waters.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 13

Some of the inhabitants preserved themselves in a "laau," a vessel whose height, length and breadth were equal, and which was filled with men, food and animals.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 13

This flood is called Kaiakahinalii, the great deluge of Hinalii.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 13

The laau, after floating awhile, rested upon Mauna Kea. The waters subsided. The people went forth and again dwelt in the land. He adds that their traditions, like those of the Hebrews, refer to a period of perpetual night, or a state of chaos, before the world existed. Nothing that now is was created, except some of the gods.

An opinion was prevalent that the first inhabitants descended from the gods, or were created on the islands. He refers that opinion to a still earlier period, and a different locality. Each nation, once isolated, would consider its own territory the site of the miraculous creation, and itself divinely descended.

Kane, Wakea, and the seventy-seven kings (pp. 15, 16)

Whatever the origin, he finds in the traditions ground for a simpler and purer idea of divinity than the islands showed when Cook arrived. The ideas look to him like fragments of a faith not unlike that of the Hebrews, perhaps come down from primeval ages, before mankind had become wholly corrupt. Other customs point to a later period, when the Israelites had become a nation under the ceremonial law. He will not close the question.

But it requires further research and more proof before we can adopt the conclusion that they sprung from the lost ten tribes.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 15

Dibble does favor it. Jarves quotes him: every barbarous nation has traditions of events narrated in the Scriptures, and some trace of an ancient weekly Sabbath, yearly feasts, and feasts of the new moon. Dibble writes that it is not difficult to imagine that the Hawaiians are a part of the scattered tribes of the children of Israel. There is also a tradition, dated back to the reign of Owai, of a head seen in the heavens which looked out of a cloud and asked which king had behaved well. The head answered that his name was Owai, an impious man. The parallel Jarves himself introduces, in an abridged form, is Waikelenuiaiku, one of ten brothers and one sister, hated by his brothers, cast into a pit, sold, and later a reader of dreams, which Jarves leaves the reader to compare with Joseph. Another tradition has a man swallowed by a fish and afterwards cast upon dry land, which he says may refer to Jonah. The Hawaiian verb, he says, quoting the same discussion, is the same with the Hiphil of the Hebrew, while very few words resemble each other. The page numbers he prints for that discussion are 26 to 28 of the work he is quoting.

Hawaiian tradition says that man was originally made of the dust of the earth by Kane and Kanaloa, two of their principal deities.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 15

Kahiko, (ancient,) the first man, and Kupulanaikahau, the first woman, gave birth to a son, called Wakea.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 15

The next sentence runs onto p. 16. Among the first settlers from abroad were Kukalaniehu and his wife Kakulaua, whose daughter married Wakea. This couple became the progenitors of the whole Hawaiian race.

The names of seventy-seven generations of kings have been preserved in their historical meles, from the last of whom Kamehameha claimed descent.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 16

Many marvelous things are related of these men and their consorts. Papa was believed to be the mother of the islands, and to have created the kalo plant by planting a deformed child. In her history he finds the eastern idea of transmigration: she inhabited different bodies by passing from one to another. Kana could wade the ocean, one foot on Oahu and the other on Kauai, seventy miles apart. When the king of Tahiti deprived the Hawaiians of the sun, Kana walked through the sea to Tahiti, took the sun from Kahoaalii, and put it back. Jarves then draws the line.

But stories like these, originating in the imaginations of the bards, or superstitions of the people, have neither interest nor value.

James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu), p. 16

Those given, he says, are a specimen of the better class. As a whole they are characterized by wonder and absurdity, from which it seems impossible to extract any truth worth preserving. The lives of the rulers were stained with the usual crimes of heathenism, wars, and dissensions. Before the conquest of Kamehameha the islands were ruled by independent kings. The rich valleys were claimed by separate tribes. The highlands were arrayed against the lowlands.

Where I leave the book

The pages I would carry are p. 12 (one Polynesian family, Tahiti or Kahiki as the source popular opinion names), p. 13 (the landing gifts, Kamapiikai, and Kaiakahinalii on Mauna Kea), p. 15 (Kane and Kanaloa, Kahiko and Wakea, and Jarves’s refusal to adopt the lost tribes without more proof), and p. 16 (the settlers Kukalaniehu and Kakulaua, seventy-seven generations, and his rejection of the bard wonders).

I have not entered the reigns after that, the tabus, the conquests, Cook’s death, the constitution of 1840, or Whitney’s trade tables. Whitney, in 1872, says the population has decreased by tens of thousands since the missionaries arrived in 1820, and that Cook’s estimate has been thought too large, though native tradition makes the islands much fuller at discovery. The census rows that follow are his appendix, not Jarves’s tradition. I do not copy them here.

He is plain that the earliest traditions are few, and that most of what is marvelous is not history. The work of comparison is to keep Kaiakahinalii, which he reports as a tradition of the flood, apart from Kana wading the channel, which he reports as a bard’s imagination.

Where to read it

The narrative is Jarves’s, printed at the Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu, and carried, on Whitney’s statement, to 1847. The appendix in this copy is Whitney’s, dated 1872. The text is out of copyright. A scan that identifies itself as this book is on the Internet Archive under the identifier historyofhawaiia00jarvrich. The page numbers above are the printed headers. This copy’s title page, if it had a year, is not in the pages I could read. I use the press line and Whitney’s date.

FAQ

Does he place Atlantis?

No. The foreign source he names is Tahiti, also spelled Kahiki, which in his day also meant abroad. He mentions the Marquesas and Samoa as names preserved in the meles. He does not name a sunken continent.

What year does he use for the flood?

He does not. Kaiakahinalii overflowed every land except the summit of Mauna Kea. The vessel is a laau, equal in height, length, and breadth, and it rested on that summit. There is no count of days and no count of people.

Are the Hawaiians the lost tribes of Israel, in his book?

Dibble thought it was not difficult to imagine that they were. Jarves prints the parallels, including a weekly sabbath, cities of refuge, a Joseph-like story, and a Jonah-like story, and he says further research and more proof are required before that conclusion can be adopted.

How long is the king list?

Seventy-seven generations, preserved in the historical meles, from the last of whom Kamehameha claimed descent. A genealogy of kings and their wives exists from a period long antecedent to 1778. He does not multiply the generations into years.

Related on this site

1. Great Flood Stories: other flood narratives. His is Kaiakahinalii, a laau on Mauna Kea, with no year.
2. Hawaiian Accounts of Creation: a creation account already filed here. His first pair are Kahiko and Kupulanaikahau, and the makers of the first man are Kane and Kanaloa.
3. Zénaïde A. Ragozin’s The Story of Chaldea: a deluge tablet with a named mountain, Nizir, and with birds. Jarves’s flood has a mountain and a vessel, and no birds.
4. Noah’s Family: the biblical landing. Jarves compares the Hawaiian chaos and the flood with Hebrew tradition, and he does not equate the laau with the ark by a measurement.

Sources

The book

• James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands. Printed at the Pacific Commercial Advertiser Press, Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. The half-title reads Jarves’ History. Henry M. Whitney’s appendix in this copy is dated 1872, and says Jarves’s history comes down to 1847. Page numbers above are the printed headers.

The traditions, as he prints them

• New Zealander and Hawaiian, more than four thousand miles apart, one family. Tahiti or Kahiki the source popular opinion names (p. 12). Hog, dog, and fowls from Tahiti. Flood Kaiakahinalii, all the land except Mauna Kea, a laau of equal height, length, and breadth, resting on Mauna Kea (p. 13). Man made from dust by Kane and Kanaloa. Kahiko and Kupulanaikahau, parents of Wakea. Lost tribes not yet proved (p. 15). Kukalaniehu and Kakulaua among the first settlers from abroad. Seventy-seven generations to the line of Kamehameha. Bard tales, including Kana’s seventy miles, set aside (p. 16).