The Story of Piilani

(Continued from last week.)

The next day they moved up the valley and found a place where it was good to stay as there was plenty of water and lots of wild bananas. On that day they heard for the first time the cannon roar and they saw shells strike their old hiding place. They found lots of shrimps and oopu in the river and also some wild taro. During all this time Piilani stood guard half of the time. About a week later the shooting stopped. They stayed in this place about one month and then moved further makai, where there was some kalo patches, lots of fruit and more fish and opae in the river and they stayed around there for nearly two years and often saw their friends, but their friends did not see them.

Always hiding in daytime and foraging in the night, nobody knew what had become of them, some thought they had been killed or were dead from hunger, thirst and exposure.

One day as Piilani was pulling some taro she heard some noise as from a man coming. She crawled up on a high place and saw Willie Kinney coming together with Kelau and George Titcomb. She ran back to where Koolau was hidden and told him. Koolau and family went into hiding further back in the valley, but when they saw who it was they came out and shook hands with them and had a long talk with them, and when they left Kinney told Koolau that he might shoot any bipi that he needed, however, Koolau never killed any of Kinney’s cattle.

A few days after Kinney’s visit Kelau and his wife brought some more clothes for them Continue reading →