Among the residents living at Nawiliwili, Kauai, during the late 1800s and early 1900s was an interesting but now all but forgotten character by the name of Johnny Kualokai. He was a Native Hawaiian, and as to his appearance, he
Among the residents living at Nawiliwili, Kauai, during the late 1800s and early 1900s was an interesting but now all but forgotten character by the name of Johnny Kualokai.
He was a Native Hawaiian, and as to his appearance, he possessed a muscular, athletic build, and on one of his arms was tattooed the word “Kualokai,” along with a picture of his deceased girlfriend.
Johnny had been a petty criminal early on in life who’d been jailed several times on various charges.
He’d first achieved notoriety in the community by being arrested after stealing 100 pounds of blasting powder from a country store, which he intended to detonate in pools along the seashore to stun and kill fish for easy collection.
And, at one time, he made his living as a thief by stealing ducks from a number of people.
To do so, he’d hide among bulrushes along the edges of a duck pond and then swim underwater to where ducks happened to be.
Then he’d grab one or two from the surface, shove them into a bag and swim below surface back to the bulrushes to catch his breath for another attempt.
But, by the later years of the 1890s, he’d become a peaceful, hardworking citizen of Kauai.
As a diver there were few men, even among the incomparable Native Hawaiians of his day, who could surpass him.
In diving after lobsters, he would take a deep breath and boldly swim underwater great distances into caves that contained no opening above water in pursuit of his catch.
Within these dangerous places he would feel around, and without fail would surface with lobster.
On goat hunts, he would fearlessly chase feral goats barefooted all over dangerous pali that fall away abruptly thousands of feet below to the sea.
