Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

Land section, Makuʻu qd., Hawaiʻi, where Ka-mehameha I was struck on the head with a paddle while his foot was caught in a crevice (see PE, māmala hoe); now called King's Landing. (RC 125.) Lit., crab.

Beach, Puna, Hawaiʻi. Narrow, crescent black and green sand beach fronting a coconut grove and the ruins of the former fishing village of Pāpaʻi. It was here in 1793 that King Kamehameha I lead a small raiding party in an attack on the village. Leading his warriors, Kamehameha leaped out of his canoe and gave chase to several fishermen, but as he ran, he stepped in a crevice in the lava, catching his foot. One of the fishermen picked up a canoe paddle and broke it over Kamehameha's head. By this time other men from the village were arming themselves and were coming to assist, so Kamehameha's warriors freed him, and they retreated. Years later, after Kamehameha had successfully united all the Hawaiian Islands, he visited the town of Hilo. Members of his retinue, still incensed that a commoner had struck the king and had not been punished, rounded up the fishermen at Pāpaʻi who had attacked Kamehameha, brought them before the king, and demanded their execution. Kamehameha answered these demands with a pardon in the form of the now legendary decree known as the Law of the Splintered Paddle.