Kahoorie

Kahoorie, a native of Hawaii, enlisted with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1837 in O’ahu and was sent to Fort Umpqua in the Columbia District (now Oregon). In 1841, after service at Fort Vancouver, he returned to Honolulu and re-enlisted in 1843 with the HBC. He returned to the HBC estate at Yerba Buena (earliest Spanish name for ‘San Francisco’), California, as a labourer until 1845, after which he was transferred to Fort Victoria, where he remained until 1848. Two entries in the Fort Victoria Journal indicated his presence at the Fort during 1846 and 1848. Both entries reference his being ill or recovering from illness. On 28th November, 1848, Finlayson recorded an entry indicating that several of the Hawaiian servants intended to return to Hawaii. As Kahoorie’s contract ended around mid-month of November, he was likely one of the islanders Finlayson identified as wishing to return to Honolulu. If so, then Kahoorie left with other Hawaiians on the barque Cowlitz 7th December, 1848.

Sources:

• Barman, Jean and Bruce Watson, Leaving Paradise: Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006).