Pakee

Pakee, a native of Hawaii, enlisted with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1840 from O’ahu and over a long career served at several HBC stations and on several HBC ships. Employment at various forts included: Fort Vancouver (1840-1842), Fort Nez Perces (1843-1845), Fort Simpson (1845-1850), Fort Victoria (1851-1852), and Belle Vue (now San Juan Island) sheep farm (1858-1859). Aboard ships, Pakee served on the Barque Vancouver (1845), the brigantine Mary Dare (1850-1851), and the steamer Beaver (1852-1853). The Fort Victoria Journal records Pakee, along with five other men, were drafted on 14th January, 1850, to discharge the American brigantine Cayagua {Cayuga}. On 22nd April, 1850, the Journal recorded four men deserting the Cowlitz. Entries on 29th and 30th April, 1850, in the Nisqually Journal identified “deserters from Victoria reported to be at Steilacoom, are Malo, Pake & two Islanders [Hawaiians].” “Pakee” is likely a variant of ?Pake?. This recording of Pakee’s presence in Fort Victoria during the early months of 1850 places his engagement at the fort earlier than Barman and Watson had attributed. It is likely he was drawn for labour in the fort from the Mary Dare, which arrived in Victoria Harbour on 1st November, 1849. He enlisted in 1853 with the Victoria Voltigeurs, a Colonial Militia composed of Metis, Victoria area natives, French-Canadians, and Hawaiians. The Voltigeurs were disbanded in 1858, and Pakee began employment on San Juan Island. After his service at Belle Vue sheep farm, Pakee returned to Victoria before settling in Nanaimo. On 7th November, 1865, Pakee was sentenced to three months hard labour for selling liquor to local natives.

Sources:

• Barman, Jean and Bruce Watson, Leaving Paradise: Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006).
• Farrar, Victor J., “The Nisqually Journal, Continued from Vol. XI, Page 149, [April, 1850],” The Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3, (July, 1920): 218-229. http://journals.lib.washington. edu/index.php/index/search/titles?searchPage=174 .