Letters signed
by isle kings
bought in N.Y.

A Hawaii-born stock trader
buys them for $11,000

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Letters signed by two of Hawaii's native kings were part of a collection of Aloha State memorabilia sold at auction yesterday for $11,000.

The letters include one signed by Kamehameha V and two signed by (David) Kalakaua. In one of the latter, written in 1875, the king tells a friend in Boston of his winter visit to the mainland, where he apparently saw snow for the first time and took a sleigh ride in Chicago.

A second letter, from 1867, refers to the purchase of rifles for the royal palace in Honolulu. It suggests that the king was budget-conscious, in limiting the size of the purchase, said the buyer of the collection, Glenn Frank Woo, a Hawaii-born stock trader.

Woo said he was primarily interested in another part of the collection -- 24 documents relating to a Hawaiian cargo vessel's rescue of 31 sailors from a whaling ship icebound near the North Pole 127 years ago.

Woo said he planned to use the documents to research the story of the cargo ship and the rescue of the sailors.