Who Was Chief Ka'iana of Hawaii?

Kaʻiana was a powerful Hawaiian warrior chief who lived during a pivotal time in the islands’ history. In 1778, Captain James Cook and his crew were the first Europeans to make contact with the Hawaiian (Native spelling: Hawaiʻian) people. A decade later, Kaʻiana boarded a British ship and became the first Hawaiian to travel the world. Upon his return, Kaʻiana fought alongside the legendary King Kamehameha in an attempt to unify the Hawaiian islands under one ruler. In the end, Kaʻiana betrayed Kamehameha and was killed in battle at age 40.  

At the time of his death, Kaʻiana was the “most famous Hawaiian in the world”—a subject of endless fascination for European explorers and writers, and a fixture of precolonial Hawaiian history. John Meares, a British explorer and trader who took Kaʻiana on voyages to China, the Philippines and the Northwest Coast of North America, provided an indelible description of the Hawaiian warrior chief: 

"He was near six feet five inches in stature, and the muscular form of his limbs was of an Herculean appearance," wrote Meares. "His carriage was replete with dignity, and having lived in the habit of receiving the respect due to superior rank in his own country, he possessed an air of distinction." 

In the 1700s, the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four major kingdoms based on the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Oahu and Kauai. Hawaiian society was a class system ruled by the aliʻi, a royal line of chiefs and kings. Kaʻiana was a high-ranking chief thanks to royal pedigrees from both his father and mother. 

Throughout Kaʻiana’s life, the four island kingdoms were frequently at war with one another, and Kaʻiana shifted his allegiances many times. (While he lived for a time on Kauai, he was born on Hawaii and moved back there after his travels.) It was Kamehameha who was finally able to subdue the other kingdoms and unify the Hawaiian Islands in 1810.  

In the decade after Cook reached Hawaii, several more explorers visited the islands, including John Meares, a British fur trader. In 1787, Kaʻiana convinced Meares to take him aboard the Nootka, which was bound for China. Kaʻiana became the first Hawaiian chief to travel beyond the islands to the outside world.  

Landing in the bustling port city of Macao, Kaʻiana stood out even among the throngs of foreign sailors and traders. “Striding through the streets clad in malo (loincloth), feathered cape and helmet, and carrying his spear, Kaʻiana was a gigantic figure who terrified the Chinese,” writes Hawaiian historian David Miller.  

Leaving China, Kaʻiana traveled across the Pacific to the coast of Alaska, where he met Indigenous Alaskans and Native Americans, but longed for the warm weather of his native Hawaii.  

Returning to Hawaii in 1788, Kaʻiana was welcomed home by Kamehameha, who sought Kaʻiana’s knowledge of the outside world. In fact, it was long believed that Kaʻiana was responsible for introducing gunpowder and firearms to Hawaii, brought back from his Chinese travels.  

But according to Miller, it was British sailors like Captain William Douglas who armed Kamehameha and other Hawaiian kings with the muskets and cannons that transformed warfare on the islands. It was Douglas’ ship, the Iphigenia Nubiana, that returned Kaʻiana to Hawaii, so Kamehameha was able to capitalize on Kaʻiana’s friendship with the captain to get weapons.  

The trouble between Kaʻiana and Kamehameha is said to have started when Kaʻiana allegedly slept with the king’s favorite wife, the beautiful Kaʻahumanu. That rumor was spread by Captain George Vancouver, who made five visits to Hawaii and characterized Kaʻiana as a villain in his published journals.  

In other accounts, Kaʻiana and his two half brothers were excluded from an important war council held by Kamehameha. Fearing that Kamehameha and his Hawaiian chiefs had turned against them, Kaʻiana and his brothers made the fateful decision to defect to the side of Kamehameha’s enemy, Kalanikūpule of Oahu.  

During the historic Battle of Nuʻuanu in 1795, Kaʻiana was killed along with one of his brothers and 300 of his warriors. Kamehameha’s resounding victory at the Battle of Nuʻuanu paved the way for the complete unification of the Hawaiian islands 15 years later.