Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
During the four months that I lived here, I got well acquainted with
all of them, and took the greatest pains to become familiar with their
language, habits, and characters. Their language, I could only learn,
orally, for they had not any books among them, though many of them had
been taught to read and write by the missionaries at home. They spoke
a little English, and by a sort of compromise, a mixed language was
used on the beach, which could be understood by all. The long name of
Sandwich Islanders is dropped, and they are called by the whites, all
over the Pacific ocean, "Kanákas," from a word in their own language
which they apply to themselves, and to all South Sea Islanders, in
distinction from whites, whom they call "Haole." This name, "Kanaka,"
they answer to, both collectively and individually. Their proper
names, in their own language, being difficult to pronounce and
remember, they are called by any names which the captains or crews may
choose to give them. Some are called after the vessel they are in;
others by common names, as Jack, Tom, Bill; and some have fancy names,
as Ban-yan, Fore-top, Rope-yarn, Pelican, etc., etc. Of the four who
worked at our house one was named "Mr. Bingham," after the missionary
at Oahu; another, Hope, after a vessel that he had been in; a third,
Tom Davis, the name of his first captain; and the fourth, Pelican, from
his fancied resemblance to that bird. Then there was Lagoda-Jack,
California-Bill, etc., etc. But by whatever names they might be
called, they were the most interesting, intelligent, and kind-hearted
people that I ever fell in with. I felt a positive attachment for
almost all of them; and many of them I have, to this time, a feeling
for, which would lead me to go a great way for the mere pleasure of
seeing them, and which will always make me feel a strong interest in
the mere name of a Sandwich Islander.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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