Laimana - by Lei Collins
`Ike aku i ka nani Ka home a`o Laimana Home kau i ka nu`u Home piha hau`oli Home piha hau`oli Nanea me nâ hoaloha Ma ka lihi kai a`o Kona Nô Kona ke kai malino No Hualâlai kô makua No Hualâlai kô makua He kohu kula kaimana `Alohi nei i ka lâ Ua `ohu `oe a kûpa`a Nâ keiki aloha `o ka `âina Nâ keiki aloha `o ka `âina E ô mai kou inoa Ka home a`o Laimana Home kau i ka nu`u Home piha hau`oli Home piha hau`oli	Lei Collins	See the beauty Of the Lyman home Home placed up high Home filled with happiness Home filled with happiness Friends relax and View of the sea of Kona Kona of the calm sea And the guardian, Hualalai And the guardian, Hualalai Like a precious diamond That glitters in the sun You are faithful The children of the land The children of the land Answer. when I call your name Home of the Lymans Home placed up high Home filled with happiness Home filled with happiness
Source: Baker Collection - This song was composed in honor of the Lyman Estate in Kona. Sarah Joiner and Rev. David Belden Lyman left New Bedford, Massachusetts, Nov. 26, 1831, with the 5th company of missionaries on board the whaling ship, Averick. They arrived in Honolulu May 17, 1832, a voyage of 173 days, and stayed in Honolulu 2 months, learning Hawaiian language and customs, before transferring to the Hilo Mission. Overwhelmed by the beauty and lushness of Hilo, the young couple soon realized they did not bring enough warm clothes or shoes. Unfortunately, they did bring their New England predjudices and were appalled at the native lifestyle, the smoking, drinking and sexual mores. Intent on saving these wretched souls, they studied the Hawaiian language diligently. The early missionaries established the written Hawaiian language with seventeen recognizable sounds/letters, later reduced to 12. This reduction was probably made to accomodate the limited printing press. Letters and sounds probably incorporated or dropped were: B with P, R with L, S/Sh/cha dropped, T (retained in the Ni`ihau dialect) and G with K, V with W or sometimes dropped. Hilo had 30 schools, while the outlying schools were staffed by native teachers, some as young as 14 years old, sent out to teach as soon as they were pronounced proficient. By 1832, more than half of the adult population was literate, due in part to the teaching skills and dedication of the missionaries and a law requiring the native population to attend school. This was truly an amazing feat since there was no written language in 1820. The Lymans moved to their new home in 1835, with a walled enclosure, to isolate their children from native playmates and heathen ways. Over the years, their attitudes softened, they called Hawai`i home and referred to the mainland as the Fatherland. Sarah and David Lyman became naturalized citizens of Hawai`i, June 10, 1851, and opposed annexation of the islands to America. One of their sons married into Hawaiian royalty and a grandson was the first part-Hawaiian to attend West Point.