PU'UKOHOLA HEIAU NHS • KALOKO-HONOKOHAU NHP • PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NHP A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island

CHAPTER VI:
DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN ACTIVITY ON THE WEST COAST OF THE ISLAND OF HAWAI'I

A. Population

The island of Hawai'i lies at the southeastern end of the Hawaiian archipelago. Located about 148 miles southeast of Honolulu, it owes its existence to the actions of five volcanoes — Kohala, Mauna Kea, Hualalai, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea (actually a caldera on Mauna Loa). The island is 76 miles wide, 93 miles long, and has an area of 4,030 square miles, with its highest point the top of Mauna Kea, 13,784 feet above sea level. [1]

Exact historical figures are uncertain, but at the time of the arrival of Capt. James Cook in 1778, the population of Hawai'i Island was estimated at about 120,000. [2] The most continuously and densely populated area stretched along the coasts of North and South Kona; [3] that population was estimated at about 20,000 individuals. The Reverend William Ellis, who circled the entire island in 1823, recommended the establishment of missionary stations at Kailua, Kealakekua, and Honaunau because of their density (Illustration 21). Possibly some Europeans other than missionaries lived along the west coast of Hawai'i Island by 1825, but there is no mention of them in the literature. Most Europeans living in the islands were tradesmen working for the king, who stayed in close proximity to him in Honolulu. [4] Although Ellis believed that Hawai'i supported a larger population than the rest of the islands, he observed that Honolulu was regarded as the chief port for foreign trade as well as the home base of the missionaries and that the king and major chiefs were already forsaking Hawai'i for O'ahu. [5]

Illustration 21. Route of William Ellis and his associates on their tour of Hawai'i Island in 1823. From Newman, "Hawaii Island Agricultural Zones, Circa A.D. 1823," p. 337.