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In The Footprints
of Keoua
by Betty Fullard-Leo
An easy 3.6 mile hike off Route 11 in the barren Ka‘u
Desert leads to sets of footprints imbedded in lava
along the trail to Mauna Iki dome. A Hawai‘i Volcanoes
National Park pamphlet mentions that the footprints
were left by Hawaiian warriors after a violent eruption
of ash and cinder in 1790. But the pamphlet doesn’t
say that those indentations of bare feet from two centuries
ago hold a tale of terror, of war and of an extended
power struggle between ambitious warriors.
Kalaniopu‘u, king of the island of Hawai‘i,
died in 1782, leaving his domaine to his son Kiwalao
with his nephew Kamehameha next in line to inherit the
throne. The scorned Kamehameha gathered his forces and
had soon dispatched with his rival Kiwalao, but Kiwalao’s
half brother Keoua Ku‘ah‘ula escaped to the
vast Ka‘u district in southwest Hawai‘i. The
two young rivals’ uncle, Keawemauhili, retreated
to Hilo to continue ruling southeast Hawai‘i. Kamehameha
waged warfare to gain control of Hilo, eventually convincing
his uncle to accept him as the rightful ruler.
Kamehameha had been warned by Kapoukahi, a prophet,
in regards to Keoua, “Do not go to war lest the
skin be hurt; here is the house of the god—it will
gain the control for your government.” So Kamehameha
set about building a “house of the god,” a
great stone temple to the war god Kuka‘ilimoku
overlooking Kawaihae Bay in the Kohala District to fulfill
the prophecy that said he would become ruler of all
the islands. But when Kamehameha took command of Hilo,
the equally angry Keoua attacked Hilo, killed his own
uncle and ransacked the lands along the northeastern
side of the island which belonged to Kamehameha. The
two warriors met in battle on the Waimea plain. Kamehameha
proved victorious.
Kamehameha went on to ravage the districts that remained
loyal to his cousin, which caused Keoua to leave the
Hilo area and hurry across the island through Ka‘u.
His army marched not far from Kilauea Crater in three
divisions. In those days, wives and children often accompanied
the warriors to provide comfort and care, particularly
to those wounded in battle. During the march, earthquakes
shook the land. The marchers offered prayers to Pele
for safe passage.
Nearly 80 years later, a native writer reported this
version of the disaster that descimated Keoua’s
army: “Sand, ashes and stones grew up from the
pit into a very high column of fire, standing straight
up....When this column became great, it blew all to
pieces into sand and ashes and great stones, which for
some days continued to fall around the sides of Kilauea.
Men, women and children were killed. Mona, one of the
army who saw all this but who escaped, said that one
of the chiefesses was ill and some hundreds of the army
had delayed their journey to guard her and so escaped
this death.”
An earlier account by Reverend Sheldon Dibble, a missionary
living in Hilo in the 1830s, gave this version: “The
army of Keoua set out on their way in three different
companies. The company in advance had not proceeded
far before the ground began to shake and rock beneath
their feet, and it became quite impossible to stand.
Soon a dense cloud of darkness was seen to rise out
of the crater, and almost at the same instant the electrical
effect upon the air was so great that the thunder began
to roar in the heavens and lightening to flash...Soon
followed an immense volume of sand and cinders which
were thrown in high heaven and came down in a destructive
shower for many miles around. Some persons of the forward
party were burned to death by the sand and cinders and
others were seriously injured. All experienced a suffocating
sensation upon the lungs and hastened on with all possible
speed.
“The rear body, which was nearest to the volcano
at the time of the eruption, seemed to suffer the least
injury, and after the earthquake had passed over, hastened
forward to escape the dangers which threatened them,
and rejoicing in the mutual congratulations that they
had been preserved in the midst of such immminent peril.
“But what was their surprise and consternation
when, on coming up with their comrades of the centre
party, they discovered all of them to have become corpses.
Some were lying down, and others sitting upright clasping
with dying grasp their wives and children and joining
noses (their form of expressing affection) as in the
act of taking a final leave. So much like life they
looked that they at first supposed them merely at rest,
and it was not until they had come up to them and handled
them that they could detect their mistake. Of the whole
party, including women and children, no one of them
survived to relate the catastrophe that had befallen
their comrades.”
Since then it has been surmised that sulphurous gases
or the scorching heat might have caused the sudden loss
of life.
Kamehameha’s people saw the disaster as a sign
that the gods, particularly Pele, favored him over Keoua.
In the meantime, Pu‘ukohola Heiau at Kawaihae was
nearing completion. After seven years of warfare, Keoua
was disheartened, and when emmissaries came from Kamehameha
to invite him to a meeting at the new temple, Keoua
accepted.
Along the northwest coast of Hawai‘i, he stopped
to perform purification rites, and he instructed those
in his canoe to leave behind their weapons and to be
prepared to die. No one knows what Kamehameha intended
to do as he waded out into the water and invited Keoua
ashore. But a chief from Kona, Ke‘eaumoku, rushed
ahead and threw his spear. Fighting erupted and all
but one in Keoua’s canoe were killed. The rest
of the canoe fleet departed safely.
Keoua’s body became the first sacrifice for the
completed heiau, Pu‘ukohola. Over the next several
years, Kamehameha achieved control of Maui with the
death of Kahekili in 1994 and of O‘ahu after his
army invaded in 1795. In none of the ensuing battles,
did the gods manifast such a clear sign that they were
on his side as in the sudden death of a third of Keoua’s
army during the march through Ka‘u.
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Story
appeared originally in Coffee Times print magazine and
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