Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 12, 1 December 1986 — Book Review [ARTICLE]

Book Review

By Maleolm Naea Chun Culture and Education Officer A Voyage Around the World with the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the Years 1815-1818 By Adelbert Von Chamisso and edited by Henry Kratz Universify of Hawaii Press, 1986 $32.50

Why would such an old travel journal and account be of importance to Hawaiians today? The writer, a Frenchman whose family fled during the French Revolution to Germany, travelled into the Pacific with the Russian exploration at a time when Hawaii was still under the rule of Kamehameha the Great and when there were no missionaries in the islands. Adelbert Von Chamisso was the ship's naturalist, but also a poet, writer and influenced by the Romantic movement in Europe. He represented a different type of Western observer into the Pacific, one who expected to see the "noble savaqe" and was not to be disappointed.

Chamisso's legacy to Hawaii remains in the plants he was able to identify and for writing the first grammar of Hawaiian. However, for it is his observations, although the chapters on Hawaii are not very long, that are of interesting reading, and should provoke some interesting thought and dialogue. His visit to the different Pacific islands left a very deep impression. He noted several similarities like the fishhooks, plants and languages between the islands. He writes (this, of course is a translation from German) on a variety of subjects, basically everything he saw, but especially about people. He carefully noted the mannerisms of Kamehameha and the court about him. He

noted that Captains James Cook and George Vancouver were especially well remembered and beloved. He described a ritual ceremony he calls "kapu poli" and was taken by the hula. In fact, he wrote, "The spectacle of the hurra, the festive dances of the 0-Waihians, filled us with admiration." Many times he wonders who really is the savage, the Pacific islanders or the European society.

Another controversial observation is his prediction concerning what would happen to the Kingdom after the death of Kamehameha the Great. He believed that it would all break apart: "Teimotu, who from the royal line of Owaihi and a brother of Queen Kahumanu, will receive the island of Mauwi as his share. The king of Atuai will reassert his independence over his inherited kingdom. And the natural heir to the throne, the weak, characterless LioLio, the grandson of the last king of O-Waihi, son of Tameiameia and the high Queen Kahumanu, before whom his father may appear only when unclothed, will be limited to the hereditary island of O-Waihi."

Of course we know that things happened differently and the question is why and what made things different. And lastly he thought that any missionary efforts "would bear but little fruit among these sensual people." Again the question is what happened to refute his prediction. Chamisso's writings eome into translation at a time when Hawaiians are reviewing their own history, and he provides some interesting clues to help in that revision. Although it is an expensive book, it is a readable and enjoyable journal, and its section on Hawaii is invaluable as part of one's library on Hawaiian Studies.