Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata (United Provinces of the River Plate)

Starting May 25, 1810, it is called the War of Independence Argentina (known as Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata (United Provinces of the River Plate)) through a number of battles and military campaigns that took place in the framework of the Spanish American wars of independence in several countries in South America.

There are three main military fronts: the eastern front or the coast (Paraguay, the Banda Oriental, the Mesopotamia Argentina and the naval battles in the Rio de la Plata and its tributaries;) the northern front (upper Peru and the Municipality of Salta del Tucumán;) and the front of the Andes (Chile, Peru and Ecuador.)

There were also conflicts at sea.  Corsairs, sometimes called ‘pirates,’ would harass Spanish merchant ships wherever they found them.  From 1815 and 1816 corsair action caused great damage to the trade Spanish.

The war lasted fifteen years and ended in victory for the separatists, who managed to consolidate the independence of Argentina and collaborated in other South American countries.

On July 9, 1816, the independence of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata was declared (which included modern-day Argentina, Uruguay and part of Bolivia) in a meeting of congress in Tucumán. Independence was put into effect in 1817, when General San Martín's troops won definitive victory over the Spanish army.

Viceroyalties continued to exist in Paraguay and in Upper Peru, causing constant confrontations between royalists (loyalists to the Spanish King) and revolutionaries.

OK, so where does Hawaiʻi fit into this story?

One Argentine corsair was Hipólito (Hypolite) Bouchard (1783–1843,) born in St. Tropéz, France, who by 1811 was sailing for the revolutionaries of the La Plata River region of Argentina. He was granted Argentine citizenship in 1813.

In 1817, Bouchard took his vessel, La Argentina, on a two-year trip, the first circumnavigation of the globe by a ship under the Argentine flag, and which included raids against ships and territories of the Spanish Empire.

One trip took him to Hawaiʻi.

On August 17, 1818, Bouchard arrived on ‘La Argentina’ at Kealakekua Bay.  He found the Argentine corvette ‘Chacabuco’ (‘Santa Rosa’) in the Bay and learned that the crew of the Santa Rosa had mutinied near Chile's coast and headed to Hawaiʻi, where the crew had attempted to sell the vessel to the Hawaiian king.

King Kamehameha bought the ship (for “6000 piculs of sandal-wood and a number of casks of rum.”) Bouchard found things to trade (reportedly Bouchard gave Kamehameha the honorary title of colonel together with his own uniform, hat and saber (nava-org)) and he took charge of the Santa Rosa, which he had to partially rebuild.

During negotiations with King Kamehameha, he also signed and Kamehameha placed his mark on an agreement.

In part, the agreement set to “consign to Senor Don Eduardo Butler, resident of the Sandwich Islands, the offices of agent of my nation with full authority in national matters, political affairs, national commerce and in mailers of the Cabinets”.

It also noted, “… when ships from the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata arrive in that dominion that this gentleman (Butler) have authority, in company with Your Majesty Kamehameha, over all matters pertaining to the Government of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata … I beg Your Majesty to recognize Senor Don Eduardo as agent of the Government of the United Provinces”.

Reportedly, in the memoirs of Captain José María Piris Montevideo (member of the expedition) Bouchard asserts that Kamehameha signed a Treaty of Commerce, Peace and Friendship with Hipólito Bouchard, which recognized the independence of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata.  (Some suggest this was that document.)

Under this claim, Hawaiʻi was the first country to recognize Argentina as an independent state, followed by Portugal in 1821 and then in 1822, Brazil and the United States of America in 1822.

The ‘Argentina’ (captained by Bouchard) and ‘Santa Rosa’ (captained by Peter Corney) left Hawaiʻi and headed to California.  They first visited California’s Fort Ross, a Russian settlement north of Monterey, to obtain needed supplies.

On November 20, 1818, the watchman of Punta de Pinos, located in a tip of Monterey Bay, sighted the two Argentine ships. The governor was informed; the Spanish prepared the cannons along the coastline, the garrison manned their battle stations, and the women, children, and men unfit to fight were sent to Soledad.  (MilitaryMuseum)

Before dawn, November 24, Bouchard ordered his men to board the boats. They were 200 of them: 130 had rifles and 70 had spears. They landed and the fort resisted ineffectively; after an hour of combat the Argentine flag flew over it.

He moved on; on December 14, 1818 Bouchard brought the La Argentina and the Santa Rosa to within sight of Mission San Juan Capistrano and sent some of his crew ashore with a demand for provisions.

There he requested food and ammunition; a Spanish officer said "he had enough gunpowder and cannonballs for me". Threats annoyed Bouchard; he sent one hundred men to take the town. After a short fight the corsairs took some valuables and burned the Spanish houses.

The Argentines held the city for six days, during which time they stole the cattle and burned the fort, the artillery headquarters, the governor's residence and the Spanish houses. The creole population was unharmed.

On April 3, 1819 Hipollyte de Bouchard's long expedition ended. He went to Valparaíso, in Chile in order to collaborate with José de San Martín's campaign to liberate Perú.

While Bouchard was authorized to seize the Santa Rosa, the reference of the ‘treaty’ and recognition of Argentina as an independent state were made by others. Bouchard does not make that claim and he apparently did not have the authority to do so, anyway.

In Argentina, Bouchard is honored as a patriot and several places are named after him (among these a major avenue in Buenos Aires.)  In addition, in recognition of the reported ‘treaty’ and recognition of Argentina as an independent state by the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, there is a street in Buenos Aires, Argentina named Hawai (a bit misspelled, but the point was made.)

(Lots of information here from Alexander (Hawaiian Historical Society) and Military Museum; the inspiration for it came from Catherine Black.  A special thanks to the Hawaiʻi State Archives for allowing me to see and photograph the agreement between Bouchard and Kamehameha.)

The image shows the September 11, 1818 agreement signed by Bouchard and acknowledged with a mark by Kamehameha.  In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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It all happened in about a year …

A lot went on in other parts of the world:

Oct 20, 1818 – it was agreed that the 49th parallel forms as border between US & Canada; Nov 21, 1818 - Russia's Czar Alexander I petitioned for a Jewish state in Palestine; Dec 24, 1818 - "Silent Night" was composed by Franz Joseph Gruber and first sung the next day (in Austria;) Dec 25, 1818 - Handel's Messiah, premiered in the US in Boston.

January 2, 1819 – The Panic of 1819, the first major financial crisis in the United States, began; January 25, 1819 – Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia; February 22, 1819 – Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

May 22, 1819 - SS Savannah left port at Savannah, Georgia on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, she arrived at Liverpool, England, on June 20; August 7, 1819 – Battle of Boyacá: Simón Bolívar was victorious over the Royalist Army in Colombia. Colombia acquired its definitive independence from Spanish monarchy.

A lot went on in the Islands:

To set a foundation, we are reminded that in 1782 Kamehameha I began a war of conquest, and, by 1795, with his superior use of modern weapons and western advisors, he subdued all other chiefdoms, with the exception of Kaua‘i.  King Kamehameha I launched two invasion attempts on Kaua‘i (1796 and 1804;) both failed.

In 1804, King Kamehameha I moved his capital from Lāhainā, Maui to Honolulu, O‘ahu.  In the face of the threat of a further invasion, in 1810, Kaumuali‘i decided to peacefully unite with Kamehameha and ceded Kauaʻi and Ni‘ihau to Kamehameha and the Hawaiian Islands were unified under a single leader. The agreement with Kaumuali‘i marked the end of war and thoughts of war across the archipelago.  Later, Kamehameha returned to his home, Kamakahonu, in Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

Here is some of what happened in Hawaiʻi in that fateful time:

On September 11, 1818, Argentine corsair Hipólito (Hypolite) Bouchard (1783–1843,) signed and Kamehameha placed his mark on a Treaty of Commerce, Peace and Friendship with Hipólito Bouchard, that, reputedly, made Hawaiʻi the first country to recognize United Provinces of Rio de la Plata (Argentina) as an independent state.  In recognition of the reported ‘treaty’, there is a street in Buenos Aires, Argentina named Hawai (a bit misspelled, but the point was made.)

Later, in April of 1819, Don Francisco de Paula Marin was summoned to the Big Island of Hawai‘i to assist Kamehameha, who had become ill.  Although he had no formal medical training, Marin had some basic medical knowledge, but was not able to improve the condition of Kamehameha.  On May 8, 1819, King Kamehameha I died.

Following the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, his son, Liholiho (King Kamehameha II) declared an end to the kapu system.   “An extraordinary event marked the period of Liholiho’s rule, in the breaking down of the ancient tabus, the doing away with the power of the kahunas to declare tabus and to offer sacrifices, and the abolition of the tabu which forbade eating with women (ʻAi Noa, or free eating.)”  (Kamakau)

“The custom of the tabu upon free eating was kept up because in old days it was believed that the ruler who did not proclaim the tabu had not long to rule….The tabu eating was a fixed law for chiefs and commoners, not because they would die by eating tabu things, but in order to keep a distinction between things permissible to all people and those dedicated to the gods”. (Kamakau)

Kaluaokalani, Liholiho’s cousin, opposed the abolition of the kapu system and assumed the responsibility of leading those who opposed its abolition.  Kekuaokalani (who was given Kūkaʻilimoku (the war god) before his death) demanded that Liholiho withdraw his edict on abolition of the kapu system.  (If the kapu fell, the war god would lose its potency.)  (Daws)  The two powerful cousins engaged at the final Hawaiian battle of Kuamoʻo; Liholiho’s forces defeated Kekuaokalani..

On October 23, 1819, led by Hiram Bingham, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.)  The Mission Prudential Committee in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said:

“Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. … Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high. You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.”  (The Friend)

(After 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, the Thaddeus arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi.  Over the years, the missionaries set up missions across the islands.  Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 - the “Missionary Period”,) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.)

At the time, “This village (Honolulu,) which contains about two hundred houses, is situated upon a level plain extending some distance back from the bay part of which forms the harbour, to the foot of the high hills which abound throughout the Island. The little straw-huts clusters of them in the midst of cocoanut groves, look like bee-hives, and the inhabitants swarming about them like bees.”

“In passing through the midst, in our way to the open plain, it was very pleasant to hear their friendly salutation, Alloah (Aloha,) some saying, e-ho-ah, (where going?) We answered, mar-oo, up yonder. Then, as usual, they were pleased that we could num-me-num-me Owhyhee (talk Hawaiian.)”  (Sybil Bingham)

“Passing through the irregular village of some thousands of inhabitants, whose grass thatched habitations were mostly small and mean, while some were more spacious, we walked about a mile northwardly to the opening of the valley of Pauoa, then turning south-easterly, ascended to the top of Punchbowl Hill an extinguished crater, whose base bounds the north-east part of the village or town.”  (Hiram Bingham)

“Below us (below Punchbowl,) on the south and west, spread the plain of Honolulu, having its fish-pond and salt making pools along the sea-shore, the village and fort between us and the harbor, and the valley stretching a few miles north into the interior, which presented its scattered habitation and numerous beds of kalo (taro) in it various stages of growth, with its large green leaves, beautifully embossed on the silvery water, in which it flourishes.”  (Hiram Bingham)

“The soil is of the best kind, producing cocoanuts, bananas, and plantains, bread fruit, papia, ohia, oranges, lemons, limes, grapes, tamarinds, sweet potatoes, taro, yams, watermelons, muskmelons, cucumbers and pineapples, and I doubt not would yield fine grain of any kind.”  (Ruggles, The Friend)

“We were sheltered in three native-built houses, kindly offered us by Messrs. Winship, Lewis and Navarro, somewhat scattered in the midst of an irregular village or town of thatched huts, of 3,000 or 4,000 inhabitants.”  (Hiram Bingham)  “(O)ur little cottage built chiefly of poles, dried grass and mats, being so peculiarly exposed to fire, beside being sufficiently filled with three couples and things for immediate use, consisting only of one room with a little partition and one door.”  (Sybil Bingham)

“In addition to their homes, the missionaries had grass meeting places, and later, churches.  One of the first was on the same site as the present Kawaiahaʻo Church.  On April 28, 1820, the Protestant missionaries held a church service for chiefs, the general population, ship's officers and sailors in the larger room in Reverend Hiram Bingham's house.  This room was used as a school room during the weekdays and on Sunday the room was Honolulu's first church auditorium.”  (Damon)

The image shows Liholiho eating with women (Mark Twain-Roughing It.)   In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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