Mela (Miller)
Mela was the name Native Hawaiians called the foreign advisor to Kamehameha I and chief builder of the Brick Palace who was on Oahu before the Battle of Nuʻuanu in 1795. He, along with Mr. Keka 'ele'ele, possibly the first African American in Hawaii, built the structure for Kamehameha I's favorite wife, Kaʻahumanu. Mela and Keka 'ele'ele were considered escaped or ex-convicts of Botany Bay. The Brick Palace was the first western-style structure built in the Hawaiian Islands, serving as the first Royal Palace. Located at Lahaina, Maui, the site became the seat of government and capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii until 1845. Mela was the kahu of John Papa ʻĪʻī, who writes of the occasion when, as a young boy who didn't wish to walk on a long journey, his attendants, either Mela or Kiwalao, scared him into wallking by pointing to foreigners and telling the young boy; "Here come the haoles, who do not like children who cry too much".Family tree
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