Bole

Bole, a native of Hawaii, joined the Hudson’s Bay Company as a labourer at O’ahu in 1844. He was stationed for his entire service at Fort Victoria. Like many Hawaiians, Bole fell ill with measles on 17th April, 1848, (measles had spread northwards from Fort Vancouver as far as Sitka; treatment involved taking a mixture of opium and tonic, and patients often suffered dysentery following recovery from the measles). In May 1848, Bole became ill with dysentery. On 28th November, 1848, Bole passed on engagement for two years. It is likely he intended to return to Hawaii aboard the barque Cowlitz, which arrived in Honolulu 7th December, 1848. There is no account as to why Bole did not re-enlist, but his decision to remain at Fort Victoria may have originated either from reports of deteriorating tenancy for commoner Hawaiians caused by the 1846-1855 enactment of the Great M?hele (land division) guidelines (see Linnekin, 1990), or news of epidemics which swept over the Hawaiian islands in the latter months of 1848 and early 1849. Finlayson recorded Bole’s presence in the Fort on 17th January, 1850, indicating Bole had not departed for Hawaii in November 1848. In 1852, Bole completed his service with the HBC and remained in the Victoria area for another five years.

Sources:

• Boyd, Robert, The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874. (Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 1999).
• Linnekin, Jocelyn, Sacred Queens and Women of Consequence: Rank, Gender, and Colonialism in the Hawaiian Islands. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999).
• Schmitt, Robert C. and Eleanor C. NorDyke, “Death in Hawai?i: The Epidemics of 1848-1849,” The Hawaiian Journal of History, Vol. 35 (2001): 1-13. https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/ handle/10524/339/JL35007.pdf?sequence=2 .