Horticultural experimenter who introduced countless new plant species to the Hawaiian Islands and with the first application of scientific agricultural methods in the islands ensured their flourishing.
Marín acquired his horticultural knowledge as a youth working in the Andalusian vineyards of Spain.
He was taken to California and then to the Hawaiian Islands then known as the Sandwich Islands sometime between 1791 and 1794 probably on the barque Princess Royal after having been shanghaied according to his own account from the port of San Francisco.
The Spaniard was befriended by the reigning Hawaiian king Kamehameha I who welcomed the castaway seamen of the Western world and valued them for their knowledge of modern technology and armaments and had at that time several such men his employ.
The King gave Marín land for his agricultural experiments in Honolulu near Nuuanu Stream between what is now School and Vineyard Streets. He was also given the island of Mokuumeume in the centre of present-day Pearl Harbor to raise goats that were brought by visiting ships.
Marín also served as Kamehameha´s interpreter and as the King aged the Spaniard assumed many government duties.
He began to experiment with island herbs and developed a wealth of pharmacological lore.
From Spanish colinies all over the world Marín requested and received foreign seeds and plants and devised the best means, time and soil type in which to plant them. Peaches, oranges, olives and others arrived on the trading ships that were now flocking to Hawaii; in exchange Marín sent coconuts.
Much of the diversity of Hawaii´s island flora today is due to Marín´s careful studies.
He became known throughout the kingdom for his flourishing gardens and vineyards and also for his reluctance to bestow his bountiful crops on friends and acquaintances. The Hawaiian corruption of his name Manini has become a slang word in the modern island vocabulary meaning miserly?
Though a Catholic he helped the American Protestant mission that arrived in the islands in 1820. With his influence he could have aided tha Catholic mission which was later persecuted in Hawaii but religious matters did not interest him and he preferred the quiet work of his garden.
Through his industry Manini acquired great wealth and supported a succession of Hawaiian wives. His descendants are numerous in Hawaii today.
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