Kepelino
[3] His father Namiki was a descendant of the priestly lineage of Paʻao, and his mother Kahiwa Kānekapōlei was a daughter of King Kamehameha I, the founder of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Rémy would also use of Namiki's unpublished works in his narrative Récits d'un vieux sauvage pour servir à l'histoire ancienne de Havaii (Contributions of a Venerable Savage to the Ancient History of the Hawaiian Islands).
[5][6][7][8] Until the 1839 Edict of Toleration, Roman Catholicism was banned, French missionaries were deported and Hawaiians converts persecuted under the reign of the ultra Protestant Queen Kaʻahumanu who ruled as regent for King Kamehameha III.
French military intervention in 1839 eventually forced the Kamehameha III to lift the persecution and allow the Catholic missionaries to establish a mission in the Hawaiian Islands.
Father Heurtel, fearing the young Hawaiian would be "lost in this Babylon of ours", wrote a letter to Bishop Maigret on August 25, asking Kepelino be sent back to Hawaii:[5] Something else.
Since then Zepherin, having nothing more to occupy him, has got bored; he has begun to play some little pranks and as I am afraid that idleness may become a cause of [his] getting lost in this Babylon of ours, I have resolved to send him back to his parents.
From 1860 to 1861, he wrote for the Hawaiian Catholic newspaper Ka Hae Kiritiano where he published what were described as “controversial letters” under the name of “Z.
[14] Historian Alfons L. Korn notes: "His activities as Emma’s secretary are reflected only flickeringly in written records of the period, but it seems probable that he assisted both in matters of genealogy and rhetoric, and composed certain of her proclamations to her native audience.
[5] Upon the announcement of Kalākaua's victory over Emma on February 12, 1874, her supporters instigated the Honolulu Courthouse riot which saw the destruction of government property and assault of multiple legislators who had voted against the queen.
In order to quell the civil disruption, American and British troops were landed with the permission of the Hawaiian government, and the rioters were arrested.
[16] After the riot, Kepelino continued his political support for his employer and the Emmaites or the Queen Emma Party which formed to oppose the new king.
[17][18] The petition, which was dated July 14 and signed under the name "John P. Zephyrina Kahoalii", argued "D. Kalakaua is not the rightful King, Therefore we grieve for the broken peace, and the loss of our independence.
[19][17][18] On October 12, Kepelino was sentenced to death by hanging by the presiding judge Supreme Court Justice Charles Coffin Harris.
Writing on August 8, 1874, shortly after the arrest and before the trial, Kaʻeo stated "I most sincerely hope that Kepelino will escape all harm and be Victorious in every way.
"[28] Korn commented on Emma's calculating manner and continued political ambition despite what had happened to her supporters: Unfortunately, because of the loss of important letters (drafts as well as originals) on which to base conclusions, it is difficult to describe, let alone try to appraise, the queen’s conduct during this period.
It is as if the polar strands of her character, the teachings of her Anglican faith and her mid-Victorian and womanly devotion to duty and civic good works, had become confusedly entangled with her yearning as an alii to wield political power: to win the Kamehameha throne and play her rightful part, as she saw it, on the ancestral stage.
In any event, while poor Kepelino languished in prison, the queen’s suppressed but restless conspiratorial impulses continued uneasily to cast about for satisfaction.
[30] Kepelino's works place him among the ranks of other early Hawaiian writers such as David Malo, John Papa ʻĪʻī, Samuel Kamakau and S. N.
