Kaiana In 1787, when the British fur trader Nootka on its way to Canton, China, arrived at Waimea, Kaua‘i, its captain, John Meares, found many Hawaiians eager to sail with him to see “Britannee” and the world beyond Hawai‘i. Of
Kaiana
In 1787, when the British fur trader Nootka on its way to Canton, China, arrived at Waimea, Kaua‘i, its captain, John Meares, found many Hawaiians eager to sail with him to see “Britannee” and the world beyond Hawai‘i. Of these, Meares chose the high chief Kaiana (1756?-1795), a brother of both King Kaeo of Kaua‘i and Maui’s King Kahekili.
At Canton, Kaiana met a young Hawaiian woman named Wainee, who’d gone to sea earlier in 1787 as the maid of the captain’s wife of the British ship Imperial Eagle, but had become ill and had been left behind at Canton. When Nootka sailed on, Kaiana remained with her.
Not long afterwards, the couple sailed off together aboard another fur trader bound for the Pacific Northwest, the first leg of a return voyage to Hawai‘i, but Wainee died and was buried at sea.
In December 1788, Kaiana sailed for Hawai‘i with Captain Douglas in the Iphigenia, along with a cargo containing muskets, cannon and ammunition he’d purchased in Canton — western arms that Hawaiian chiefs throughout the islands sought to gain dominance over their enemies.
Douglas stopped first on the Big Island. There Kaiana learned that Kaua‘i was in the midst of civil war and that his jealous brother, King Kaeo, did not favor his return.
Thwarted in his desire to go home, Kaiana then became a chief under Kamehameha, where his armaments and his knowledge of their uses in warfare bolstered Kamehameha’s army.
But bad blood came between the two in 1793 after Kaiana was suspected of having an affair with Kamehameha’s wife, Kaahumanu.
Fearing a plot against him in 1795, Kaiana deserted Kamehameha, joined the O‘ahu army of Kalanikupule and was killed in the battle of Nuuanu Pali during Kamehameha’s conquest of that island later in the year.
