Robert Napu?uako Boyd (September 2, 1864 - September 9, 1914) was a Native Hawaiian insurgent leader during the latter years of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Educated under the government-funded study program of King Kal?kaua, he attended the Royal Naval Academy at Livorno. He became a friend of Robert William Wilcox, another Hawaiian student enrolled at Turin. They were both recalled back in Hawaii after the government stopped funding their education. Back home, he participated with Wilcox in the unsuccessful Wilcox rebellion of 1889 aimed at restoring political power to the king.
Video Robert Napu?uako Boyd
Early life
Boyd was born September 2, 1864, in Honolulu, to Edwin Harbottle Boyd (1834-1875) and Maria Punapanaewa Adams Boyd (1841-1891). His family background was of British and Hawaiian descent. His two-time great-grandfather John Harbottle (1781-1830) was a British naval officer, who was one of the first foreign residents in Hawaii and Kamehameha I's port pilot. Harbottle's wife, High Chiefess Papapaunauapu, was the adoptive granddaughter of Kamehameha I. His paternal grandfather Robert Lopaka Boyd (1785-1870), who married one of Harbottle's daughters, had served as the King's shipbuilder, and it is believed that he came from the British West Indies. Boyd's maternal grandfather, Alexander Adams, of Scottish descent, was another well-known foreign advisor of the King and has been credited by some historians as the designer of the flag of Hawaii.
The Boyds were considered among the most prominent families of Hawaii, and their residence in Maunawili was often frequented by Hawaiian royalty, visiting foreign dignitaries, and world-famous writers and artists. Boyd's father made his fortune as a merchant and cattle rancher and served many political posts in the legislature of the kingdom while his elder brother James Harbottle Boyd was a court official and colonel on the staffs of King Kal?kaua and Queen Liliuokalani
Maps Robert Napu?uako Boyd
Education
Boyd began his education at Punahou School, known as Oahu College at the time. In 1880, King Kal?kaua established a government-funded program for promising Hawaiian youths to be educated abroad. Boyd, James Kaneholo Booth, his Punahou classmate, and Robert William Wilcox, a Maui-born schoolteacher in Honolulu, were chosen as the first students of the Hawaiian study abroad program. They were sent to Europe along with Celso Caesar Moreno, a former cabinet minister who had been controversially dismissed. Kal?kaua intended for them to be sent to Prussian military academies; however, once in Prussia, Moreno decided they were unsuited for the rigors of the Prussian schooling system. The three Hawaiian youths were enrolled in different military academies in Moreno's native Italy instead. Wilcox and Booth were enrolled at the Royal Military Academy in Turin and Royal Military Academy in Naples, respectively, while Boyd was enrolled in the Royal Naval Academy at Livorno.
During his 1881 world tour, the king and his entourage were greeted by Moreno, Booth and Boyd at the pier of Naples. Later, in an audience with Umberto I of Italy and his wife Margherita of Savoy, they learned that Moreno had misrepresented the three students as Kal?kaua's natural (i. e. illegitimate) sons). After this revelation, Moreno was dismissed as the guardians of the three students and Michael Cerulli, the future Hawaiian consul-general in Naples, was appointed to take care of their needs.
The frugal spending allowance given to the three Hawaiian youths were often only enough to spend for their basic necessities. Boyd often wrote home to Walter Murray Gibson, the king's prime minister, to ask for additional funds. Encouraged by Moreno, they sought the same lifestyle as their more affluent Italian classmates who were able to travel during school holidays. In 1884, Boyd's failure to pass his final exam greatly distressed him. in a letter dated March 27, 1884, he wrote home to the king, informing him about his failure to pass his exams and begging him to allow him return to the islands:
Now Your Majesty must know the truth, and nothing else but the truth, I am five years abroad, and during this short period I have suffered more than a man of forty; I have had vengance, I have had a duel, and lastly I have had enemies: all for the sake of my country. Their has been times in which I wished to runaway and beg for my living, but when I think of your kindness towards me, my passion calms quickly, and I dream of the happy future: But at last I have come to the conclusion not to suffer anymore, my studies to the present are not at all little; and perhaps sufficient to earn my living as a gentleman; Theirfore I am ready to come home and serve thee Sire, or else I shall run away because I would rather die a beggar than to be a slave. I will take a square resolution as soon as I receive Your Majesty's letter; but I swear int he name of my dead father that I will stay no longer in this revengeful country. The schooling ends on the 3rd of June, and I should wait for your answer in August, if at the end of this month I receive no answer, Your Majesty may calculate that I have no Country, I have no parents, and I have no king; I will be a roamer all the days of my life, like a Jew: I will come back to serve you as a souldier, and even as a shoeblacker; but I will never be a slave. Your Majesty may be sure that these words are as true as If I had my hands on the bible while writtin it, theirfore give me hope, and let me die in peace: I will repeat again, that my education is quite sufficient. I can come home alone, not as a child, but as a young man of 21 years old. I have the honor to wish his Majesty a prosperous reign and a long life.
Despite these setbacks, Boyd continued in his education until the summer of 1887. After passing his final examinations in June, Boyd reunited with his brother Colonel James Harbottle Boyd and attended the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria with the Hawaiian delegation led by Queen Kapiolani and Crown Princess Liliuokalani. While in London, Colonel Boyd wrote to the Hawaiian government about the future for his brother. However, news of political unrest back home prompted the Hawaiian royal party returned to the islands in July. Boyd stayed behind in Liverpool until he also returned to Hawaii on October 22, 1887, aboard the steamer Adriatic.
Return to Hawaii
Back in Hawaii, the Bayonet Constitution of 1887 was imposed on King Kal?kaua by the Reform Party (led by many descendants of American missionaries) with the help of the Honolulu Rifles. Funds for the study abroad program were discontinued by the legislature in 1887 and 1890 and most of the remaining students were asked to return to Hawaii with the exception of a few allowed to stay. Boyd and his friend Wilcox were recalled by the Reform cabinet headed by Lorrin A. Thurston, who believed that "the government had spent enough money on the education of these young men". Boyd and Wilcox returned to a political atmosphere unfavorable to the king and his Hawaiian protège and no jobs were available to fit their years of military training.
Frustrated with these difficulties, Boyd joined his friend Robert William Wilcox in his 1889 rebellion to overturn the Bayonet Constitution and restore the 1864 Constitution and the political power of the monarchy. Both men helped recruited the men to participate in the rebellion. Boyd allegedly fired the first shot of the rebellion, on July 30, 1889. They took the grounds of ?Iolani Palace. However, the king was absent from the palace and feared the rebellion was an attempt to depose him in favor of his sister. The rebellion failed and a number of the rebels were arrested by the governmental forces. Boyd was shot during the fighting, receiving a scalp wound on the rightside of his head, as well as being wounded in the thighs. He was not tried for his involvement in the rebellion. George Markham and Boyd turned evidence against their fellow rebels and served the primary witnesses for the prosecution. Wilcox, the leader of the rebellion, was arrested and tried for treason and conservation, but he was acquitted of the crimes by a sympathetic Hawaiian jury.
After the failed rebellion, Boyd continued to take an active part in politics. In 1900, he became a member of the Home Rule Party of Hawaii led Wilcox, but he was later elected surveyor of Oahu County in 1903, as a Republican. He died on September 9, 1914, while giving a speech at a political rally in Mo'ili'ili. He was buried in the Oahu Cemetery. He married Josephine Williams (1860-1932) and they had four children: Victor Keliimaikai, Annie, Robert Napu?uako Jr., and Lehia. His granddaughter Kina?u Boyd Kamali?i (1930-2005) became a politician and served as a member of Hawaii House of Representatives for several years.
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Source of article : Wikipedia
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