Chiefess Kapiolani

High Chiefess Kapi olani was an important member of the Hawaiian nobility at the time of the founding of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the arrival of Christian missionaries. One of the first Hawaiians to read and write and sponsor a church, she made a dramatic display of her new faith which made her the subject of a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

The father of Kapi olani was Keawemauhili, who was high chief of the district of Hilo on the island of Hawai i. She was probably born there about 1781. Keawemauhili was halfbrother to Kalani pu u who was king of the island during the fatal visit of Captain James Cook in 1779. Her mother was his second wife Kekikipa a, daughter of Kame eiamoku, who had fled with from her first husband Kamehameha I to Hilo in order to marry Keawemauhili.41 She was a first cousin of Kiwala o, the young king of the island who was killed when Kamehameha I first came to power at the battle of Moku hai in July 1782.

Source: Wikipedia