Laimana - by Lei Collins
ʻIke aku i ka nani Ka home aʻo Laimana Home kau i ka nuʻu Home piha hauʻoli Home piha hauʻoli Nanea me nā hoaloha Ma ka lihi kai aʻo Kona No Kona ke kai malino No Hualālai kou makua No Hualālai kou makua He kohu kula kaimana ʻAlohi nei i ka lā Ua `ohu `oe a kūpaʻa Nā keiki aloha ʻo ka ʻāina Nā keiki aloha ʻo ka ʻāina E ō mai kou inoa Ka home aʻo Laimana Home kau i ka nuʻu Home piha hauʻoli Home piha hauʻoli	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 & Marnie Weeks- 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 Niʻihau 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 Kona in 1835. Their new home had a walled enclosure to isolate their children from native playmates and heathen ways. Over the years, their attitudes softened, they called Hawaiʻi home and referred to the mainland as the Fatherland. Sarah and David Lyman became naturalized citizens of Hawaiʻi, 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. In 1956, Barbara and Howard Lyman built their home at Holualoa Bay, a historic area between Kailua-Kona and Keauhou Bay in the Kona District of Hawaiʻi Island. Lei Collins, then curator of Huliheʻe Palace, was a long-time friend and frequent visitor to the home. She composed this now classic mele for that place she called a "home full of happiness," describing its beauty overlooking the gentle sea, in the shelter of Hualālai mountain.