This is our second day the
views were incrediable
Every where you looked it
was beautiful
We saw this on our way back
from the Hula Bowl
This is going thru the rainforest,
We all felt like a York Peppermint Patty
This doesn't look to big but
it really was, people would dive off this waterfall
Every morning when we got
off the elavators we would be greeted by a picture of Queen EMMA
Biography of Queen Emma
In 1836, Honolulu was just a large village with only one street, King
Street, and less than 6,000 people. About 500 were haole or foreigners
and the rest ka Hawaii. It was a major port for whaling ships and as one
writer put it, one of the most "unattractive" places in the world.
Emma, the future queen, was born in Honolulu on January 2, 1836 to Fanny
Kekelaokalani Young, daughter of John Young, King Kamehameha I's haole
counselor, and Ka'oana'eha, Kamehameha's niece. Her father was high chief
George Nae'a.
The little chiefess had been promised, as was the custom, to her mother's
sister, Grace Kamaikui Rooke and her husband, Dr. T. C. B. Rooke. Unable
to have children of their own, the Rookes adopted Emma.
Dr. Rooke was a young English surgeon who had arrived in Hawaii in 1830
and was serving as the court physician. He doted on the baby girl, a small,
pretty child with a fair complexion and delicate features. As she grew,
her nature was fun-loving, sensitive, bright and a little stubborn.
While Dr. Rooke raised Emma to be very British, her aunt Grace raised
her to be Hawaiian as well. She learned about the world from her scholarly
father, with the help of many letters from her paternal grandmother in
England who instructed Dr. Rooke how to raise Emma properly.
The British idea on raising children did not indulge them, while the
Hawaiian style did. Dr. Rooke did his best not to allow Emma to be spoiled
rotten by her aunt Grace and her hanai mother, whom she called Kiawai.
Emma grew up speaking both Hawaiian and English, the latter "with a
perfect English accent". She began formal schooling at age 5 in the Chief's
Children's School, where she was quick and bright in her studies.
At age 13, Dr. Rooke hired an English governess, Sarah Rhodes von Pfister,
to tutor young Emma. He also encouraged reading from his extensive library.
As a writer, he influenced Emma's interest in reading and books. By the
time she was twenty years old, she was a beautiful and accomplished young
woman.
She was 5'2", slender, well-proportioned, with large beautiful black
eyes. Her musical talents as a fine vocalist, talented pianist and good
dancer were well known. She was also a skilled horsewoman.
Emma became engaged to the king of Hawaii, Alexander Liholiho, also
called Kamehameha IV, a twenty-two year old who had ascended to the throne
in 1855. The couple had known each other since childhood. The young king
was tall, dark and handsome, very intelligent and well-read, fluent in
both Hawaiian and English.
At the engagement party, accusations were made that Emma's Caucasian
blood made her not fit to be the Hawaiian queen, and her lineage was not
suitable enough to be Alexander Liholiho's bride. Tempers flared, Emma
burst into tears, and the party was a shambles.
The wedding was held as planned however, and the new queen soon became
involved in the business of the kingdom, particularly that of saving the
Hawaiian people from extinction.
In his first speech as king, Kamehameha IV stated the need for a hospital
to treat the native population. Due to introduced diseases, the Hawaiian
population had plummeted from 350,000 at the time of Captain Cook's arrival,
to 70,000, with extinction a very real possibility. The treasury was empty,
so the king and his queen undertook the mission of soliciting enough funds
to establish a proper hospital in Honolulu. Within a month, their personal
campaign had raised $13,530, almost twice their original goal.
To recognize and honor Emma's efforts, it was decided to call the new
hospital "Queen's". The original building, housing just eighteen patient
beds, opened its doors on August 1, 1859. Within a year a much larger building,
with room for one hundred twenty-four beds, was built on the same site
where The Queen's Medical Center stands today. It took time to convince
the native Hawaiians to take advantage of the new hospital, as many preferred
the traditional Hawaiian methods of healing.
The king and queen rejoiced at the birth of their son, Albert Kauikeaouli
Leiopapa a Kamehameha on May 20, 1858. The entire populace welcomed the
new heir to the throne with joy, only to be stricken by utter grief four
years later when the little boy died suddenly of "brain fever". Just fifteen
months later, the young king, weakened by chronic asthma and a broken heart,
died at age twenty-nine. Queen Emma was alone.
In her grief, the queen took a new name, Kaleleonalani, which means
"flight of the heavenly chiefs". To ease her pain, Emma dedicated herself
to many worthy causes, among which was organizing a hospital auxiliary
of women to help with the ill. She also helped found two schools, St. Andrews
Priory in Honolulu and St. Cross on Maui. Her work included the development
of St. Andrews Cathedral. In fact, she journeyed to England where she and
her friend, Queen Victoria, raised $30,000 for construction purposes.
When King Lunalilo died in 1874, Emma became a candidate for the throne
(the Kingdom had become a constitutional democracy). Lunalilo had wanted
her to succeed him, but he failed to make a legal pronouncement. Instead,
an election was held, and, although Emma campaigned actively and had many
vigorous supporters, she lost the throne to David Kalakaua.
Queen Emma was much loved by the people and hundreds of mele have been
composed in her honor. Her humanitarian efforts set an example for Hawaii's
royal legacy of charitable bequests. After her death on April 25, 1885
at age forty-nine, she was given a royal funeral and laid to rest in Mauna
'Ala beside her husband and son.
Emma Kaleleonalani left the bulk of her estate, some 13,000 acres of
land on the Big Island and in Waikiki on Oahu, in trust for the hospital
that honors her.
Mission and History
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