User:KAVEBEAR/Eugenie Ninito Sumner

Eugénie Ninito Teraʻiapo Sumner (ca. 1821 or 1838–1898) was princess from the Kingdom of Tahiti who settled in Kingdom of Hawaii.


 * Evening Bulletin
 * The Hawaiian Gazette



Moses, the eldest male of his generation and a lineal descendant of Kamehameha I, was expected to marry a high chiefess of rank to continue the royal line. He was engaged to the Tahitian Princess Ninito Teraʻiapo in one of a series of historical attempts of marriage alliance between the royals of Hawaii and Tahiti. A niece of Tute Tehuiari'i the private chaplain of Kamehameha III, and cousin of Manaiula Tehuiarii, Ninito was also a female relative of the Tahitian Queen Pōmare IV, and the sister of High Chiefess Ariitaimai, the mother of Queen Johanna Marau Ta‘aroa, wife of Pōmare V, the last King of Tahiti. She set sail for Hawaii, but arrived in Honolulu to the news of his death.

He died November 24, 1848 at Honolulu in a measle epidemic. He was 19-years old, unmarried, and without any children.

In the month of January, on the 14th day [1849]. This was the day on which Palala told me that Ninito and her company had arrived. She had been sent for by the king to be the wife of the chief.35 Palala was so anxious to tell the news that his breath seemed exhausted in telling the story. [199]

Ninito Tera'iapo (?-1898), was a Tahitian high chiefess, niece of the Tahitian missionary Tute Tehuiari'i who became the private chaplain of Kamehamehas III and IV. Hawaiian tradition and a 19th century newspaper reference (PCA 22 July 1898) say that Ninito came to Hawai'i to marry Moses Kekuaiwa. In 1926, a Tahitian informant, Madame Marau, gave Alexander Liholiho as the prospective husband: "Niniko" (Place of Rest), (Honolulu: Privately Printed, 1926) 8. Both chiefs were sons of Kekuanao'a and KIna'u. Moses died 24 Nov. 1848 at the age of 19 years and 6 months (P 25 Nov. 1848). This was a marriageable age, whereas in November of 1848 Alexander Liholiho was not yet 15 years of age. Madame Marau gives Ninito's birthdate as 1821: "Niniko" (p. 8); Alfons Korn, News from Molokai (Honolulu: UP of Hawai,i, 1976), gives 1838 (p. 135). Sources that do not give references for their statements (Marau, "Niniko", 6, HA 8 Feb. 1927, and Korn, News . . . p. 135), say that Ninito arrived in August of 1849 on the French frigate Poursuivante under the command of Rear Admiral de Tromelin, commander-in-chief of the French naval forces in the Pacific. There is no mention of Ninito being in the entourage of de Tromelin when he came to Hawai'i from Callao, Peru in 1849 in the referenced works of the historians Ralph S. Kuykendall and Gavan Daws. It is far more likely that Ninito and her company came on either of the French schooners Sophia or Ann, which arrived from Tahiti on 9 and 16 Jan. 1849, respectively: F Feb 1849. These ships would have left

They married on May 28, 1850, at Honolulu.


 * Funeral of Ninito attended by Kaiulani, Kawananakoa, Cleghorn and Kapiolani