Coxe was a "sandwich islander" who was brought to the Pacific NW by David Thompson, a Canadian explorer. He was the first Hawaiian to visit the Spokane house, Coxe spent the winter of 1811 there. He meant many explorers, trappers and frontiersmen, and each seemed to think highly of him. "Bold and trustworthy," "anxious to aquire our language" are words his fellow travellers used to describe him. He also was helpful in canoe making, and his stature made him easily power through hard physical labor.
Coxe's origional name was Naukane. He was the son of a Hawaiian king. He travelled to England as part of the royal court of the current king and queen of the Kona coast in 1823. Sadly, 5 of the people in his party died of smallpox while on their journey, including his and her majesty. When Coxe returned to Hawaii, people suspected him foul play. He ended up moving permanently to the mainland where he settled near Fort Vancouver. He was a long time employee of the Hudson Bay Co. and was buried in their cemetery in 1850.
Painted by Paul KaneSources: HistoryLink.org Essay 8413
April, nice little post here. Informative. Sounds like this guy Coxe had quite the turn of events on his arrival back to Hawaii from meeting Royalty. Sounds like he may have influenced more Hawaiians to come to Washington?
ReplyDeleteApril, this post is a good way of working your way into your final project. I am confused by something, however: your one citation is HistoryLink, but looking at the HistoryLink article, you go well beyond it in developing the story -- what is your source for that extra information?
ReplyDeleteThe other is from the national park services, it's on there, it just got moved when I actually published it.
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