By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Today I will introduce you to the mysterious Hawaiian who visited London a decade before Kamehameha II made the trip. Kamehameha II died there of measles in 1823. The mysterious Hawaiian was a secret pawn of the British against Americans in the War of 1812.

Tom Koppel, who uncovered the mystery, will tell you more about it at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Outrigger on the Beach in Waikiki. He's going to lecture about Hawaiians who married Indians in the Pacific Northwest.

Koppel lives on Salt Spring Island, five miles south of Vancouver Island and some 30 miles from the city of Vancouver, British Columbia.

When he moved to Salt Spring he became caretaker of tiny Russell Island nearby and learned that its first owners were Hawaiians by the name of Mahoy (Mahoi). A Haumea family also lived there. Then Koppel discovered a Salt Spring restaurant named Kanaka Place.

On the back of the menu was a story about how the Mahoi ancestor of the owner came from Hawai'i on a fur trading ship to work for Hudson's Bay Co.

Before long, Koppel was turning up Hawaiians all over the Pacific Northwest. He said a fellow named John Roland who worked on the ferry between Salt Spring and Vancouver islands looked Hawaiian. That led to the most interesting story of all because the Rolands are descended from Naukana. Let me explain.

The reason so many Hawaiians ended up in the Pacific Northwest was the highly profitable fur trade with the Indians in which Russians, British, Americans, French and Spanish all competed. Fur trading ships wintered in Hawai'i.

John Jacob Astor entered the trade in 1811. His first ship stopped in Hawai'i and picked up Hawaiians to work in his trading post under three-year contracts. Naukana, the king's agent, was in charge of the group. They established a post at Astoria.

During the hostilities of 1812, the British captured Naukana. The British took him overland up the Columbia River and across the Rockies as an interpreter, then to London to plan an attack on the American fort.

By they time the British got back to the Pacific Northwest, the Americans had already been kicked out. Naukana ended up a pig farmer.

Until the 1849 Gold Rush, the British Hudson's Bay Co. had a monopoly on the fur trade. The company hired hundreds of Hawaiians. The Nahanees became a chiefly family of the Squamish tribe in Vancouver. About 100 Hawaiians lived at Fort Vancouver. They had a school in Hawaiian.

Koppel has written a book, "Kanaka," available via e-mail at koppel@saltspring.com.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.