Captain Cole

Captian Cole, a native of Hawaii, entered the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company at O’ahu in 1840. Barman and Watson infer Captian Cole’s name derived from Captain George Ward Cole (1793-1879), an English officer who acted as treasurer at the O’ahu Charity School (1830s), at which school George Pelly, HBC agent in Honolulu from 1834, enlisted Hawaiians for service to the Company. Finlayson’s entries in early 1848 identify Cole as “Captian Cole,” but in later entries for 1848 and 1849 he is simply referred to as “Cole.” Captian Cole was posted to Fort Stikine in the Columbia District as a “midman,” middleman, from 1841-1843. In April 1842, Captian Cole witnessed the murder of John McLoughlin Jr.. Captian Cole continued in service to the HBC until 23rd November, 1844, when he returned to Honolulu. He re-enlisted in 1847, serving as a labourer at Fort Victoria (1847-1849) and Fort Rupert (1849-1850), where he died of tuberculosis on 12th March, 1850.

Sources:

• Alexander, W. D., “The Oahu Charity School,” Sixteenth Annual Report of the Hawaiian Historical Society and Papers for the Year Ending December 31st, 1908. (Honolulu: Hawaiian Gazette Co. Ltd.: 1909): 20-38. http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/58 .
• Barman, Jean and Bruce Watson, Leaving Paradise: Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006).
• Bate, Weston,Cole, George Ward (1793-1879). http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cole-george-ward-1908 .
• Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. “Captian Cole.” Biographical Sheets. http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/c/cole_captain.pdf .
• Sixteenth Annual Report of the Hawaiian Historical Society and Papers for the Year Ending December 31st, 1908. (Honolulu: Hawaiian Gazette Co., Ltd., 1909). https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/ bitstream/handle/10524/58/AR16.pdf?sequence=2 .