Isaak Iselin in Hawaiʻi, 1807

Isaak Iselin devotes long passages in his journal to conversations he had with John Young. We have already met the beachcomber and consultant to Kamehameha I in previous exercises. He held an important position as mediator and interpreter between the Maryland and the Hawaiians. Indeed, as the previous exercise showed, Young played an active role in the framing and interpretation of new knowledge in Hawaiʻi. He was the one who gave newspapers to the crew of the Maryland; in the absence of indigenous written records, Young offered a long history of personal engagement with Hawaiian politics and society.

This exercise is about the oral circulation of knowledge during the stay of the Maryland in Hawaiʻi. It offers a specific case study about a story John Young told.

Intertextuality III

This man from Kauaʻi is a pahupu, a «cut–in–two»
who is tattoed black on one half of his body, from
head to toe. Pahupu attacked Hergest and his party
at Waimea in 1792. Drawing by John Webber, 1778.