The Kauai Gambit

The remains of a once-formidable Russian fortress rest atop a Kauai hilltop that offers a sprawling view of the Pacific. Looking out over the historic black sand beach where British explorer Captain James Cook made his first landfall in the Hawaiian islands in 1778, the fort is a silent reminder of a strange episode in nineteenth century history, a seemingly insignificant event that could have changed the course of history.

The Russian side of this story begins in 1799, with the founding of the state-backed Russian American Company. As part of its charter, the RAC was granted a monopoly over trade (primarily furs for export to China) with the Russian territories in the Pacific. The charter focused the company’s efforts on North America, but for all practical purposes the only limit to Russian exploration and expansion in the Pacific was the reach of the Spanish and British empires.

In August 1803, the Russian navy sent a pair of ships – the Nadezhda and the Neva – to the Pacific to support the efforts of the RAC and to explore the feasibility of maritime trade with China (as well as with Japan and South America). The expedition was led by Captain Adam Johann von Krusenstern, a Baltic German who had served in the British Royal Navy and been heavily influenced by Cook’s expeditions. When Krusenstern and his second in command, Lt. Commander Yury Fyodorovich Lisyansky, returned to Kronstadt Naval Base three years later, they were feted as the first Russians to circumnavigate the globe.

The historic trip was Krusenstern’s idea. On a previous voyage he had seen firsthand the prices Chinese merchants paid for furs in Canton. He believed it would be more efficient for Russians to send their Alaskan furs on ships than to trade via overland routes.

“Why should we Russians,” Krusenstern wrote, “transport our furs overland to China along a route that sometimes takes two years or more, with heavy losses resulting from the spoiling of the skins, while others carry them more cheaply by ships across the Pacific and keep the profit, forcing us to lower our prices in Kyakhta?[1] Why could we not open a sea route from Sitka to Canton ourselves? We could, but with what ships? We might build a few in Okhotsk or Sitka, but such construction would be difficult without [a proper] shipyard, experienced men and equipment. Better with ships brought from Russia.”

During their voyage, Krusenstern and Lisyansky followed Cook’s route and stopped at the Hawaiian Islands (then known to Europeans as the Sandwich Islands). Afterwards, Krusenstern’s naturalist, Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff speculated that the islands could become important to future Russian voyagers: they could be a safe anchorage for ships traveling the Pacific, providing plenty of fresh provisions and water.

“The group of the Sandwich Islands is very commodious for all ships going to the north-west coast of America, to the Aleutian Islands, or to Kamchatka, to touch at; it has very secure bays,” Langsdorff wrote. “Here may be procured abundance of swine, breadfruit, bananas, cocoa-nuts, taro, yams, salt, wood, water, and other things particularly desirable for ship stores.”

Langsdorff also hypothesized that conditions were ideal in the islands for large sugar-cane plantations. “If this were cultivated to any degree of perfection, in time Kamchatka and indeed all Siberia might be supplied with sugar from hence,” Langsdorff wrote. Indeed, by the late nineteenth century, sugarcane became Hawaii’s chief agricultural crop.

Even today, the scientific work of the naturalists and artists on Krusenstern’s voyage is considered extraordinary. They provided an accurate glimpse into the court of King Kamehameha, and the technical skill of their architectural drawings allowed modern-day architects to reconstruct ancient Hawaiian temples. Langsdorff is credited with writing the first dictionary of the Hawaiian language.

Due to its discovery by Lisyansky, a small, uninhabited, northwestern Hawaiian island (where he was the first to describe the Hawaiian monk seal), bears his name: Lisyansky Island. Adjacent is Neva Shoals, named for Lisyansky’s ship, which, in 1805, had run aground on the shoals, luckily without major damage. Today, both the island and shoals are part of the PapahāNaumokuāKea Marine National Monument.

The Hawaiian side of the story also begins at the turn of the 1800s. Hawaiian King Kamehameha, who ruled the six main islands in the chain, was a shrewd monarch and well-informed. He heard of problems the Russians were facing with provisions in Russian America and in 1806 offered his assistance to Alexander Baranov, head of the RAC.

According to Langsdorff, Kamehameha “made it known… that he understood from persons trading to the coast how much the Russian establishment had sometimes suffered in winter from a scarcity of provisions; that he would therefore gladly send a ship every year with swine, salt, yams, and other articles of food, if they would in exchange let him have sea-otter skins at a fair price.”

Meanwhile, Kamehameha was engaged in a long power struggle with King Kaumualii, who ruled the islands of Kauai and Niihau.[2] In 1810, the kings negotiated a truce that resulted in Kaumualii becoming Kamehameha’s vassal. But over the next few years Kaumualii sought to use Americans resident on Kauai to reassert his sovereignty. It was the time of the War of 1812, and since Kamehameha had the backing of the British, the local Americans naturally rallied to Kaumaulii’s side.[3]

Then, in late 1814, fed up with traders’ machinations and interference in Hawaiian affairs, Kamehameha ordered all foreigners associated with trading ships to leave the islands. One of the last to go was the Russian ship Bering, which ran aground in January 1815 while making its final stop at Waimea, Kauai. This, to Kaumualii, made the ship and its cargo (a full load of furs headed for China) his personal spoils.

Contemporaneous portrait of King Kamehameha I

The crew and captain of the Bering were stranded on Kauai for three months, and when the captain finally returned to RAC headquarters in Sitka, he tried to convince Baranov to use force to regain the RAC’s ship and cargo. But Baranov chose diplomacy instead. Lacking anyone more qualified, Baranov sent Dr. Georg Anton Schäffer, a German-born medical doctor recently arrived in Sitka, to negotiate with Kaumualii and Kamehameha. Baranov also apparently authorized Schäffer to negotiate trade relations with the islands, if he were successful in regaining the lost cargo. At least one contemporaneous account claimed that Schäffer also had a secret mission: to plant a Russian colony on the islands. But what happened was something else entirely.

Schäffer arrived on the big island of Hawaii and established good relations with King Kamehameha after healing him and his wife of sickness, for which he received some land in Honolulu, Oahu in exchange.

Yet Kamehameha refused to intervene with Kaumualii or otherwise help Schäffer regain the cargo. So Schäffer sailed on to Oahu, where he laid the foundation for a small settlement on the land Kamehameha had granted him, and where he raised a Russian flag before sailing on to Kauai. Soon thereafter, Kamehameha learned what the Russians were up to and sent sufficient forces to compel them to leave Oahu for Kauai.

On Kauai, Schäffer expected confrontation but was welcomed with open arms. Kaumualii quickly agreed to return all of the company’s cargo still in his possession and to also pay restitution in highly-prized sandalwood for the items that had vanished. What is more, he asked that his islands be placed under Russian protection, while suggesting that Russia could easily take control of the rest of the islands. Clearly, Kaumualii saw Russia as a powerful ally to replace the recently expelled Americans, an ally that could help him cast off his status of vassal and possibly even usurp Kamehameha.

Indeed, on July 1, 1816, Schäffer and Kaumualii signed a secret treaty whereby Kaumualii would provide 500 men and Schäffer would provision the ships, weapons and ammunition for the conquest of Oahu, Lanai, Maui and Molokai, in exchange for which Russia would get an exclusive trade deal for sandalwood. Additionally, Kaumualii engaged Dr. Schäffer to oversee the construction of three forts on Kauai, structures that were central to Kaumualii’s plan to wage war against Kamehameha.

All three forts were built. On the northern shore of Kauai two smaller earthen-work forts were constructed by imported Alaskan laborers: Fort Alexander (named to honor Alexander I) and Fort Barclay-de-Tolly (to honor Mikhail Barclay-de-Tolly, the general who had vanquished Napoleon). Today, little remains of these forts.

The southern fort, Elizabeth, named for Russian Tsarina Elizabeth Alexeyevna, wife of Tsar Alexander I, was completed in 1817. It was built almost entirely by Kauai islanders and its construction was a significant cultural event. According to the ancient island religion, men and women were forbidden from eating and working together. Yet, according to anthropologist Peter Mills, who directed archaeological investigations at the site in the early 1990s, more than 300 women, including the wives of the king, helped built the fort.

“We do not know if Kaumualii asked his wives to carry the stones to build the fort,” Mills writes in Hawaii’s Russian Adventure, “or if they did so on their own accord to form alliances with the Europeans, but [their] involvement was novel, at least for what we understand regarding construction of what was [a war temple].”

Strategically located at the mouth of the Waimea River, on the island of Kauai, the octagonal fort’s stacked-stone walls comprise what is today known as Russian Fort Elizabeth State Historical Park. It is the largest stone-monument ever constructed on the island of Kauai and in 1962 was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. It is also one of Kauai’s busiest tourist attractions, yet most visitors do not stop by the site to learn of the Russo-Kauaian history leading to its construction, but to use the park’s restrooms; it is a convenient stop off the main highway for those travelling to nearby Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.

Decommissioned in 1862 by the Kingdom of Hawaii, the fort has fallen into disrepair, yet its size continues to impress. It occupies over an acre-and-a-half of land, with walls more than 15 feet thick and 12 feet high. Architecturally, it is an admixture of early nineteenth century European military design and native Hawaiian religious structures. While its star-shape resembles fortresses built in Europe after the advent of siege cannons, its dry stonework construction is similar to that of ancient Hawaiian temples (heiau). Its architecture, however, bears no resemblance to frontier Russian forts of the era, which were typically wooden stockade-style structures. Interior structures (since disappeared) were built using adobe bricks, a first for Kauai and among the earliest uses of adobe in Hawaiian architecture.

Mills suggests that the similarity between the fort and ancient Hawaiian temples is not coincidental. The location, design, history and use of the fort, Mills argues, all indicate that the structure was built to satisfy both European and Hawaiian goals.

Built on a defensible hill on the east bank of the Waimea River, the fortress’s location conforms to nineteenth-century European defensive strategies, and its stone walls were angled to deflect a barrage of cannon-fire from ships off-shore. The location also protected access to the mouth of the Waimea River and defended the village of Waimea.

From the Hawaiian perspective, the east bank of this river had strong religious connotations. The fort was sited on or near the location of religious structures and chiefs’ residences; it had been the site of important battles. Now it would be the site of a new form of war temple.

Unfortunately for Schäffer, just about the time that construction on Fort Elizabeth was being completed, Kaumualii and Kamehameha learned that he was freelancing, that he lacked any support from either Baranov or the tsar to establish Russian dominion over the islands. The truth became known when another Russian expedition, this one led by Captain Otto von Kotzebue, visited the islands in December 1816 as part of a round-the-world voyage.

Kamehameha knew of Schäffer and Kaumualii’s construction activities and had been hearing rumors about the imminent arrival of Russian warships. The secret treaty between Kaumualii and Schäffer was clearly far from secret and Hawaiians were spooked, such that when Kotzebue’s Rurik dropped anchor, 400 locals lined the shore, armed with muskets.

“When confronted by Kamehameha,” Mills writes, “Kotzebue quickly made it known that he had no intentions of conquest, and he eventually sailed from Hawaii without ever visiting Schäffer on Kauai.”

Once Kaumualii realized Schäffer did not have the backing of the Russian government, he ended their erstwhile alliance. Not wanting to give Kamehameha a reason to wage war, he expelled Schäffer and his employees. Yet Kaumualii continued to control the fort, as well as the rest of his kingdom, for the rest of his life. In fact, the dashing king not only outlived Kamehameha, but in 1821 he shrewdly married Kamehameha’s favorite wife, Queen Ka‘ahumanu, ensuring that he would remain one of the kingdom’s most powerful men.

Most Russians, including Schäffer, fled the island in 1817, though a shipwreck left some stranded on Oahu until the spring of 1818. Needless to say, Russian-Hawaiian relations suffered, the RAC lost a huge sum – an estimated R200,000 – on the venture, and was forced to rely on American traders to provision their far-flung settlements in Fort Ross and Alaska.

Waimea-based historian Aletha Goodwin Kaohi, manager of Waimea’s West Kauai Technology and Visitor Center, provides guided walking tours at the Fort Elizabeth site. She said she would like to see Hawaiians rediscover the fort for its place in the islands’ history, not as some obscure outpost of Russian ambitions. In fact, she would like the official name of the fort to be changed to Pā ‘ula‘ula (“the red enclosure”).[4]

“In truth, the Russian experience on Kauai was limited to two short years,” Kaohi said, “hardly enough time to give them a prominent place in Hawaiian history.”

Kaohi, herself a descendant of the island’s last king, said that if the name of the state park emphasized its Hawaiian history, it would command more respect. “To Kaumualii,” she said, “Pā ‘ula‘ula was imbued with sacred history. It had been his father’s residence, it was the pu’uhonua (“place of refuge”) where he had taken refuge from his [rival], and it was where once heiau (“temples”) had stood in the past. So we can conclude it was much more than a Russian fort.”

Kaumualii died on Maui in 1824 and granted full sovereignty of Kauai and Ni’ihau to Kamehameha’s son and successor, Liholiho. Unfortunately, a brief civil war erupted when some of Kauai’s chiefs became outraged by Kaumualii’s decision.

Led by Prince George Humehume, a son of Kaumualii who had spent 15 years in America as a student and in the US Navy, rebels attacked the fort. They were quickly defeated, however, and the prince was captured and died two years later.

For decades afterwards, until 1853, the Hawaiian Kingdom actively maintained the fort. For a time, it was even used as a prison. In 1885, the royal government hired a British army officer, Captain George Jackson, to map Waimea and its surroundings. In his handwritten notes he described the site as “Russian fort.”

“There is reason to believe that Captain George Jackson did not intend to officially designate the site as the Russian fort,” Kaohi said. “It was merely a notation on his maps. It is my fondest hope that Hawaiians will reclaim the area and restore its rightful name of Pā ‘ula‘ula.” RL

NOTES:

1. The focal point of trade between Russia and China, see article in this issue on Siberian Tea Road.

2. We have chosen to use simpler, unaccented spellings for Hawaiian names. Common, more phonetical spellings of some of the names in this articles are Kaumuali‘i, Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i, etc.

3 Around this same time, in 1809, a naval expedition led by Leonty Hagermeister, at Baranov’s instigation, seriously explored the idea of establishing a Russian colony in the islands, yet nothing came of it.

4. Mills wants the name to include o Hipo, but Kaohi does not. There is some ambiguity as to the meaning of “o Hipo.” Not all Hawaiian sources use it.

Schäffer's Odyssey

After Schäffer’s departure, he traveled in China and Europe lobbying for a Russian annexation of the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. He was later joined in his effort by an Irishman, Peter Dobell, who far exceeded Schäffer in his zeal. In a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Karl Nesselrode, Dobell laid out a plan for taking the islands with two ships, four frigates and two brigantines, loaded down with cannon and 5000 troops, half of them sailors, half soldiers, with 300 Cossacks for cavalry, “without spilling a drop of blood.”

“Nature,” Dobell wrote, “seems to have lavished her rich gifts on the Sandwich Islands expressly to invite us to establish ourselves there!”

Schäffer also wrote to the tsar through Nesselrode, pleading for Russia to attack Hawaii “in one blow, with such a military force that would be sufficient to both guarantee Russian possession and instill respect.”

Needless to say, Nesselrode was not swayed, being more concerned with maintaining good relations with England, which at the time had the greatest influence in the Sandwich Islands.

Matvey Muravyov, head of the RAC from 1820-1825, noted that “Schäffer staged a funny comedy and the Company paid dearly for it. I do not think that it can ever be played again. As for merely having a midway harbor and a supply of fresh food — there are no and there will be no obstacles to it anyway.”

After a brief legal spat with the RAC about who was to blame for their huge losses in Hawaii, in the 1820s Schäffer became an agent of the Empire of Brazil and led thousands of German emigrants to resettle there.