Upon a Stone Altar

341 Pages·2012·21.34 MB·English

Upon a Stone Altar
Pacific Islands Monograph Series, No. 5
Upon a Stone Altar
A History of the Island of Pohnpei
to 1890
DAVID HANLON
Center for Pacific Islands Studies
School of Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Studies
University of Hawaii
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS • Honolulu
© 1988 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hanlon, David L.
Upon a stone altar.
(Pacific islands monograph series; no. 5)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Ponape (Micronesia)-History. I. Title.
II. Series.
DU568.P7H36 1988 996' .6 87-34288
ISBN 0-8248-1124-0
Cartography by
Manoa Mapworks
Honolulu, Hawaii
For Kathy
PACIFIC ISLANDS MONOGRAPH SERIES
Robert C. Kiste
General editor
Linley Chapman
Manuscript editor
EDITORIAL BOARD
ReneeHeyum
Alan Howard
Brij V. La!
Norman Meller
Peter Pirie
Donald Topping
Deborah Waite
The Pacific Islands Monograph Series is a joint effort of the University
of Hawaii Press and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of
Hawaii. The series includes works in the humanities and social sciences
that focus on the insular Pacific.
OTHER VOLUMES IN THE
PACIFIC ISLANDS MONOGRAPH SERIES
No. I The First Taint of Civilization: A History of the Caroline and
Marshall Islands in Pre-Colonial Days, 1521-1885, by Francis X.
Hezel, 1983
No. 2 Where the Waves Fall: A New South Sea Islands History from
First Settlement to Colonial Rule, by K. R. Howe, 1984
No.3 Wealth of the Solomons: A History of a Pacific Archipelago,
1800-1978, by Judith A. Bennett, 1987
No.4 Nan'yo: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese in Micronesia, 1885-
1945, by Mark R. Peattie, 1988
Editor's Note
To FULLY APPRECIATE this volume, the reader needs to be informed
about David Hanlon's personal relationship with Pohnpei. He first went
to this island in the Eastern Carolines in 1970 as a Peace Corps volunteer
and remained there for three years. He became fluent in the language and
earned the respect and friendship of many of the Pohnpeian people.
After taking an MA degree at Johns Hopkins University and spending
two years at the Japanese embassy in Washington, DC, Hanlon returned
to Pohnpei to teach at the Community College of Micronesia for the aca
demic years 1977 and 1978. Another year was spent conducting an
archaeological survey of historical sites in the north of the island; then,
in the summer of 1983, Hanlon returned for more research directly
related to this volume. Part of that summer was spent in archival
research at the Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam.
Hanlon completed his PhD in Pacific history at the University of Hawaii
the following year.
In what is becoming a healthy tradition in Pacific scholarship, Hanlon
essentially rejects long-standing traditional disciplinary boundaries to
present an insightful mixture of cultural anthropology, archaeology, oral
traditions, and archival history, tempered by almost seven years of resi
dence on Pohnpei. Combined with his thoughtfulness and his ability as a
young and promising historian, the blend is rewarding and makes this
work a pleasure to read.
The publication of the Pacific Islands Monograph Series is subsidized
by private funds raised by the University of Hawaii Foundation. From
the outset, the Foundation's staff members have shown great interest and
support for the series, and their assistance and that of the Foundation is
greatly appreciated.
ROBERT C. KISTE
vii
Contents
Ma~ ~
Figures xii
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxiii
Spelling and Pronunciation of the Pohnpeian Language xxvii
1. The Other Side of Yesterday 3
2. Ghosts from the Open Ocean 26
3. The Terms of Trade 59
4. God versus Gods 87
5. Strategies of Salvation 113
6. Mesenieng 144
7. The Struggles over Ohwa 166
8. The Persistence of Tiahk en Sapw 198
Appendixes
1. Pohnpeian Clans 211
2. Pohnpeian Chiefly Titles 212
3. The Jamestown Treaty 214
4. Reaffirmation of the 1852 Land Grant to the Protestant
Mission at Rohnkiti 216
5. The 1880 Missionary Deed to Mesenieng 217
6. The 1886 Deed to the Protestant Mission Land at Ohwa 218
7. The Formal Proclamation of Possession of the Island by
Spain with Accompanying Articles of Submission 220
8. Descriptions of the Two Spanish Proclamations Dividing
Madolenihmw between the Chiefdoms of Kiti and U 223
ix
X Contents
Abbreviations 227
Notes 229
Glossary 261
Bibliography 277
Index 309
Maps
The Pacific Islands endpapers
1. Pohnpei 5
2. Nan Madol, by Hambruch 10
3. Pohnpei at the end of the Saudeleur Era 22
4. Eastern Caroline Islands 32
5. The earliest European map of Pohnpei 35
6. Southern Kiti-Madolenihmw area 53
7. Central Kiti area 68
8. Sokehs-Net-U-Madolenihmw area 149
9. The Spanish colony 168
10. U-Madolenihmw area 184
11. A Spanish map of the Pohnpeian fortifications at Kitamw 193
xi
Figures
1. An aerial photograph of the Nan Madol ruins 12
2. The exterior west wall of Nan Dauwas 13
3. The Pohnpeian reception of Liitke's expedition at
Mwudok harbor 33
4. A portrait of the beachcomber James F. O'Connell 37
5. A depiction of the "life-saving" jig performed by O'Connell 38
6. An example of Pohnpeian pelipel or tattooing 42
7. A Pohnpeian body tattoo 43
8. A Pohnpeian warasapw or canoe of a ranking chief 48
9. The harbor at Rohnkiti in December 1840 61
10. An early drawing of Pohnpeians from the 1840s 77
11. The first members of the Micronesian Mission 90
12. The young Reverend Edward T. Doane 91
13. A frontal view of a Pohnpeian nahs or feast house 106
14. The internal design of a Pohnpeian nahs 107
15. The Nahnken of Kiti with his wife and stepson 116
16. Opatinia, the da.ughter of Wasai Ejikaia 136
17. A Pohnpeian missionary couple who worked in the
Mortlock Islands 137
18. The Protestant mission station at Ohwa in Madolenihmw 171
19. Henry Nanpei in 1891 at the age of thirty-one 175
20. The guarded entrance to the Spanish colony 196
21. An 1895 photograph of a Kiti chief 200
22. The entrance to the island's northern harbor at the end of
the nineteenth century 205
xii