Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1826
Missionaries formulate a 12-letter alphabet (plus glottal stop) for the Hawaiian language and
set up the first printing press; it's said that Queen Kaʻahumanu learned to read in five days.
1828
Missionary Sam Ruggles plants the first coffee tree in the Kona district of the Big Island as a
garden ornamental. Coffee doesn't succeed as a commercial crop until the 1840s.
1830
To control destructive herds of feral cattle (first introduced by British sea captain George Van-
couver), Hawaiians recruit Spanish-Mexican cowboys, dubbed paniolo, who bring their guitars
along with them.
1831
Lahainaluna Seminary, the first secondary school west of the Rocky Mountains, opens in La-
haina; its press later prints Hawaiʻi's first newspaper and first paper currency.
1843
The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi's only foreign invasion occurs when British naval officer George Paulet
seizes Oʻahu for five months; his illegal actions are disavowed by the British government.
1845
Kamehameha III, the first Hawaiian king to convert to Christianity, moves the capital of his king-
dom from Lahaina on Maui to Honolulu. Mail service from San Francisco begins.
1846
At the height of the Pacific whaling era, a record 736 whaling ships stop over in the islands. Four
of Hawaiʻi's 'Big Five' sugar plantation companies get their start supplying whalers.
1848
King Kamehameha III institutes the Great Mahele, a land redistribution act. Two years later, fur-
ther legislation allows commoners and foreigners to own land in Hawaiʻi for the first time.
1852
The first indentured sugar-plantation laborers arrive from China; most are single men who,
upon completing their contracts, often chose to stay in Hawaiʻi, starting businesses and famil-
ies.
