fornia coast in June, voyaged northward trading with the Indians, entered the Winchester Bay of today at the mouth of the Umpqua River, and arrived at Nootka in the October following. There Captain Baker turned the young women over to Captain George Vancouver who promised to return them to their native country.[1] Vancouver states that they had been carried away from their native island, Niihau, also the home of Attoo, against their will and without consent of friends and kinsmen, but that they testified to kind treatment by Captain Baker. They were taken on board Vancouver's ship Discovery, traveled with him to the Spanish settlement of Monterey in California, and from there to a new home on the most northern of the Hawaiian Islands, Kauai. Vancouver discovered that their native island had been almost abandoned by its people on account of a drought and persuaded one of the chiefs of Kauai to give each of them an estate within his territory. The younger of the girls, named Raheina, about 15 years of age, was of high rank, while the other named Tymarow, was about 20 years old. Vancouver speaks in highest praise of their character and behavior.[2]
John Jacob Astor in 1810 while planning a post on the Columbia River also had in mind to establish friendly relations with the Hawaiian Islands in the hope of securing special commercial privileges there. When the Tonquin which carried his men and goods to the Columbia stopped at those islands, its captain endeavored without success to make a commercial treaty with King Kamehameha.[3] He did, however, succeed in securing needed supplies of food and in enlisting 24 Hawaiians for service as sailors and as laborers at the prospective post. The agreement was that they were to receive food, clothing and $100 in merchandise for three years service.
When entering the mouth of the Columbia the Tonquin lost several members of her crew and among the number was one Hawaiian who was buried at Cape Disappointment. The 12
- ↑ Howay and Elliott, "Voyages of the Jenny to Oregon, 1792-94," Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXX, 197.
- ↑ Vancouver, Voyage, (London, 1801), II, 381; III, 381-400.
- ↑ Irving, Astoria, (New York, 1849), 55-56, 73-74, 82-84.
