CHAPTER V.

At Death of Pakaa’s Enemies, Calm Prevails.—The Boy Is Made Sailing Master.—He Directs the Canoes to Hawaii.—The Men Are Made Glad, but the King Is Sad at Failing to Find Pakaa.—Kuapakaa Foretells His Neglect by the King.—Landing at Kawaihae He Is Deserted.—He Joins Two Fishermen and Makes a Fair Catch.—Falling in with a Six-manned Canoe He Wagers on a Race, Single-handed, Against All Eight and Wins.—He Hides the Fish in the King’s Canoe.—They Plan a Canoe Race to Take Place in Kau, Life to Be the Forfeit.

When Kuapakaa saw that the enemies of his father, Pakaa, were dead, he closed the wind calabash, Laamaomao, and immediately the storm abated and a great calm came over the ocean. At the coming of the pleasant weather, the office of sailing master was given over to the boy. But before this, the king said to the boy, that he wished to continue the search of Pakaa at Kaula. After giving this order the king and the men all fell asleep, for they were worn out with the efforts to save themselves during the storm.

After they had all fallen asleep a fair wind from land sprung up; Kuapakaa then swung the canoe around as well as the sail and sailed straight for Hawaii, all that day and night until daylight of the next day, when they saw the top of Maunakea above the mist, passing and repassing in the distance like a pointed cloud. At this the men all woke up at the call, “There is Hawaii.” Some said that it was not Hawaii; but when they got nearer to Kawaihae, they were made certain that it was Hawaii. This was the cause of great rejoicing amongst the men; but Keawenuiaumi was not at all made happy for he had failed to find his servant Pakaa, and had not reached Kaula.

As the canoe drew near the land the men became excited, for they were to see their wives and children after a long separation. Upon seeing this, Kuapakaa said to them: “Say, what a disappointment it will be for the boy.” They asked: “Why?” Kuapakaa replied: “He will be neglected as soon as the canoe touches land.” Lapakahoe then asked: “Why should you be neglected?” Kuapakaa replied: “I see that you are all excited and are anxious to land; and when you do, and meet your wives and children you will forget me and I will get left, for I have no friends here.” Lapakahoe said: “The king will not forget you, because by you these bones were saved.” “That may be so, but the boy will be forgotten as soon as the canoe touches land.” These words of Kuapakaa were realized and proved too true, as the following events will show.

When they touched land at Kawaihae, everybody landed and there was weeping by the women and by the children, and while doing this, the boy was entirely forgotten. Kuapakaa, not having any other place to go to, stayed by the canoes day and night, sleeping under them at night. In living at this place, the boy had no friends, and the food he lived on was the dried potatoes saved in his log of wood.

Some time after this, Kuapakaa heard that the season for flying-fish had commenced at Kohala, so very early one morning he came upon a couple of fishermen, who were fastening on the lashings of their canoe, making preparations for going out fishing for flying-fish. When he saw the men, he said: “What are you two going to do with the canoe?” “We are making ready to go out fishing for flying-fish.” “Will you let me accompany you in your canoe?” “No, it will be too much of an extra load for the canoe.” Kuapakaa replied: “Do you think so? I believe every canoe ought to have a bailer. If I accompany you, I know that I don’t share with you on your catch. I know how to fish, and if I make a large catch, I will have to share with the rowers; and even if the catch be small, I must share with you on my catch. In this way, you can see, I will not in any way be entitled to a division of your catch.” As the boy spoke pleasantly and in a way, wisely, the men gave their consent and expressed their willingness to take Kuapakaa along with them.

Upon coming to the fishing grounds, several flying-fish were caught, a fair division was then made and they headed for home. On their return they met a canoe which was manned by six paddlers, while the canoe in which Kuapakaa was a paddler had only three. When Kuapakaa saw the other canoe, he said to his two companions: “Let us have a race with that canoe, and make a wager, [133] our flying-fish, that we can beat them.” This proposition angered one of his companions, who said: “Why, who said so? How can you beat six men in a canoe race?” Kuapakaa said to the one who made the answer: “You had better get into that other canoe, making seven of you, and the two of us will race the seven of you.”

The other man then replied: “I am afraid I will be deprived of my share of our catch. How can our strength be compared to the strength of all such full grown men? We will never be able to beat them.” When Kuapakaa heard this, he said to the man: “You can take the other canoe then, making eight of you, while I shall take this canoe all by myself; and let us place our shares as our wagers. If you get ashore first, you can have my catch and if I make land first I will take your catch.”

This satisfied the others and they asked that Kuapakaa hand over his share of the fish for them to hold; but to this Kuapakaa replied: “No, I think you ought to give me the fish and I act as the stake-holder; because if I beat you, you will be apt to keep the stakes, and if I jump in to take it from you, you would beat me, for there are too many of you and I am all alone. But on the other hand, if you beat me, I will not be able to keep the stakes away from you for you are too many for me, you can take the stakes away from me anyhow.” There was nothing wrong in this, so it was agreed, and the fish were handed over to Kuapakaa. Soon after this, the preparations for the race commenced and the canoes were brought to the mark. As soon as the word was given, the paddles all came down with a jerk and away the two canoes went.

On the start the canoe containing the eight men took the lead, while the one containing Kuapakaa was left to the rear. As soon as Kuapakaa saw this, he called out to his grandmother, Laamaomao, to send him three surfs to carry his canoe to shore. Soon after the call, a large surf came from behind him and then another and another; by these surfs he was taken ashore. The other people, when they saw the surfs coming, were frightened, they being too large, and so they held back their canoe; in this way Kuapakaa rode in on the surfs alone and landed ahead of the others. As soon as Kuapakaa landed, he took the flying-fish and hid the whole lot within the canoe of Keawenuiaumi. When the others came ashore, they asked of Kuapakaa about the fish, saying: “Where is our fish?” “There is none left, I have given the whole lot away, for I knew it was mine.”

When the men heard this, they were satisfied, but were greatly surprised that such a small boy should beat them. They were, however, determined to try again, and proposed another race, saying to Kuapakaa: “Let us have another race.” Kuapakaa replied: “You can satisfy yourselves on that matter; but the trouble is I have nothing to wager against you.” They all said: “There is always one wager, our bones. If we beat you, you forfeit your life to us, and if you should beat us, why we forfeit ours.” Kuapakaa replied: “I do not want to wager our lives, for if I should win, your wives and children and your friends would weep for you; whereas on my side I am all by myself, without a single relative and can afford to die; but this is not the case with you. So therefore, if you think best we will wager some property, for there is my double canoe over there which you can have if you beat me.” The men replied: “That is not your canoe, it belongs to Keawenuiaumi.” Kuapakaa said: “Keawenuiaumi has no canoe there, that is my canoe. They were merely passengers, for I am the one that is keeping it; had the canoe been theirs they would have stayed by it and taken care of it.” The men then replied: “We do not want the canoe. We would much prefer that our lives be the wager.” The boy assented to this, saying: “All right, why not?”

The result of the first race was spread abroad about Kohala, Hamakua and Hilo. In the arrangement for the second race the men said to the boy: “The race must take place in Kau. Each canoe must be six fathoms in length.” This arrangement was also spread abroad until it went the whole round of Hawaii.