Eventually, his experience abroad and his fluency in English led to recognition by Kamehameha II when Kānehoa returned to Hawaii.

He survived and served as the official interpreter for High Chief Boki, the new leader of the royal party, when he met King George IV.

[7] Kānehoa accompanied the bodies of his king and queen back to Honolulu aboard HMS Blonde in 1825.

After his funeral, his remains were deposited at the Pohukaina Tomb, located on grounds of ʻIolani Palace.

The wedding ceremony was performed by an English chaplain, and Mrs. Laura Judd states that it may have been the first Christian marriage in the Hawaiian Islands.

He and Sarah had no children of their own but they hānai (adopted) one from Kānehoa's sister Jane Lahilahi and her husband Joshua Kaeo.

Kānehoa willed most of his landholdings to Alebada but he died on October 13, 1851, shortly after his adoptive father.

He made his wishes clear to his wife, Hikoni, that his home in Lawai, a large ahupuaʻa that he owned in the district of Koloa, Kauaʻi where he served as a judge for a time, should one day be given to her.