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54  KŌ-LOA  I trust our children will all learn that life is not given us, that we may enjoy ourselves, but that we may glorify God by denying ourselves. Peter Gulick, 1841 Described by the Gulicks’ son Luther as “one of the pleasantest localities on those diamond-isles” of Hawai‘i, the village of Kō-loa, Kaua‘i, was well known for its sugarcane. Brought to Hawai‘i by the islands’ first settlers around 800 a.d., sugarcane grew naturally in Kō-loa (which means “Great Cane”), because the village received plenty of rainfall. It also boasted “fields and hills of perennial verdure,” which enchanted Luther’s brother John. He described Kō-loa as unforgettable, because it was linked in his mind with “the swell of the sea, the songs of the birds, the freshness and quiet of the shaded glens and the glory and sheen of the morning light.” The charms of Kō-loa never faded for John Gulick. Nor did they fade for Peter, who described the rich soil in Kō-loa as more tillable than the arid plains of Wai-mea. “The air is also cooler & less debilitating here, & the country around us far more verdant & agreeable to the eye,” Peter wrote, and he felt fortunate to live in such a “beautiful & fertile region.” He also liked Kō-loa because it gave him “the pleasure of laboring where I need not ‘build’ on another man’s foundation.” Despite its many advantages, Kō-loa initially seemed like a “dreary” place to Fanny, who disliked “being 15 miles distant from any neighbor, except the tawny Hawaiians.” Of these there were 2,166 in Kō-loa when the Gulicks arrived in the village and moved into the thatched house the native residents had built for them. The house was smaller than their abode in Wai-mea, and Peter described the new place as “a native house, without floors, damp and uncomfortable.” To make it more livable, he immediately remodeled it, putting up indoor partitions. These puzzled the Hawaiians in Kō-loa, because a traditional Hawaiian house consisted of one room that was shared by the family and its animals. Kō-loa 55 The Hawaiian tradition of communal living did not appeal to missionaries such as Peter. He believed that unmarried people of different sexes should sleep in separate rooms, and he objected to the communal rooms in Hawaiian houses. He also criticized Hawaiian houses because they lacked windows and therefore retained odors that he found unpleasant. To release such odors, he no doubt installed windows in the house in Kō-loa, from which he could probably see nearby landmarks such as the Ma‘ulili Pool and its tributary, the Wai-komo River. Described by the Gulicks’ son Luther as a “crystal pure stream,” the Waikomo River passed by the Kō-loa Mission’s land, which included ten to fifteen acres of “good cane land,” a taro field, and around a hundred acres of pastureland for cattle. These animals came from the Wai-mea Mission’s herd, but the land where they grazed came from Governor Ka-iki-o‘ewa, who further helped the Kō-loa Mission by ordering twelve Hawaiian church members from Wai-mea to go to Kō-loa and work for the Gulicks. Because of the governor’s generosity, Peter wrote, “we had as many domestics as we needed, & a few herdsmen & cultivators of the soil,” all of whom worked “for merely food & clothing.” Hawaiian servants helped the Gulicks to run their household, and to entertain guests, such as the pioneering naturalists John Townsend and Thomas Nuttall. They boarded with the Gulicks during the winter of 1834–35, and the family to some extent enjoyed the men’s company. “They are quite familiar & courteous in deportment; but apparently, altogether earthly in view & feelings,” Peter wrote, and he noted that the naturalists’ visit coincided with a visit to Kō-loa by King Kamehameha III in January 1835. “He was friendly here,” Peter reported after the king’s visit. Three months later, builders completed Kō-loa’s first church. It was a thatched building of eighteen hundred square feet, and Peter was pleased with it. But before he could dedicate the structure he and his family suffered a calamity when their house was accidentally burned down by an elderly Hawaiian servant on April 10. Not wanting the Gulicks to catch her smoking, the servant hid her pipe in the cookhouse, setting it on fire. From there the fire quickly spread to the...

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