Koamalu : a story of pioneers on Kauai, and of what they built in that island garden / by Ethel M. Damon. [Vol. 1, no. 2]

Expanding Interests

Paul Isenberg's arrival in the islands in 1858 had been
sufficiently early to bring him into close contact with the
Hawaiians, to whom he soon became attached. This
interest and affection was mutual, and the natives had
such confidence in "Paulo" that before he had been here
very long they began to come to him with their pilikias,
grave or trivial, just as they were wont to do with most
kama-ainas, or old residents. His own nature was such
as to engender and foster this confidence, and together
with William Hyde Rice, who was a Hawaiian among
the Hawaiians, the two did much to fill the place left
vacant by Father Rice, for whom the inhabitants of three
islands had the utmost affection and respect.
Moreover, Paul Isenberg came gradually to wield the
influence of one who understood local conditions and
knew how to remedy their faults or to avail himself of
their advantages. So at home did he become in the language of the Hawaiians with whom he worked constantly
on the plantation that one of the large ledgers, the plantation diary for 1868, is written in Hawaiian in Paul
Isenberg's own hand. Those were the days when many
of the laborers on the plantation were Hawaiian men and
women, and most of the best lunas, or overseers, were of
the same race. In ten years, and less, Paul Isenberg had
become a kama-aina, a familiar and well-known figure,
and it is no exaggeration to state that, as with William
Hyde Rice, who had been born among them, his position
corresponded not a little to that of the konohiki, or landlords, of olden times, and even to that of the alii, or chiefs,
themselves. This was true of many other white men in
similar stations of trust and responsibility. With his
duties as postmaster Paul Isenberg for a time combined
those of taxgatherer, a fact which, with his commanding