Old John Coxe 1811

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John Jacob Astor was a very wealthy and successful business man from New York who created the Pacific Fur Co. In 1811, he sent a crew of 33 men, and Captain Johnathan Thorn to the Northwest with a scheduled stop in Honolulu. When the boat made it's first stop, many of the crew were fed up with their captain, who ran his ship like a dictator, and deserted him. Thorn replaced many of his men with local Hawaiians and at least a dozen of them headed to the mouth of the Columbia later that year. Thorn and the origional crew were impressed with the Kanakas ablities both on deck and in the water, they were avid swimmers and were able to prevent losses of men and equipment.

King Kamehameha of Hawaii sent Nukane to be a royal observer of the happennings in Astoria. Soon, his took on the nickname John Coxe, which stayed with him for the rest of his life. At some point in his journey, Coxe was traded by the Paficic Fur Co. to the Northwest Trading Co. for a Canadian who was familiar with the Indian population in the area. Coxe became a companion with famous surveyor and map maker David Thompson. Together they reached the Spokane House in 1811.

Coxe became loyal to the British company, and when the war of 1812 broke out, he travelled to England to gather necessary supplies and men to take over the American fort in Astoria only to discover when he returned in 1813, that Astor had already made a business deal and sold the company to the British. He remianed at the fort for another year before returning to Hawaii.

In 1826, Coxe settled in the NW for good. He was the first Kanaka to travel the interior of Washington terriory. He helped famous He became a long time employee of HBC and ended up being a hog farmer and herder. He became a free man no longer employed by anyone in 1843, and stayed in the Vancouver area until his death in 1850.

Sources: Hawaiian History in Vancouver

Historylink.org

Answers.com

Koppel, Tom. Kanaka: The Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. (21)