> Quite likely, Davis and his mates were English speakers wot dropped their H's.

I'm not sure that this would have been true in the mid 19th C., when Davis was learning English. H-dropping has been around for a long time, but it grew and grew during the last century and more. We don't know anything about Davis's prnunciation.

Do we know where Davis was from? He was obviously educated. Did *he* make the suggestion that "Hilo" was really "Ilo...in Peru" because it

a) was not impossible
b) was an interesting idea, and
c) he personally pronounced the word as "eye-low" because linking it to "Ilo" made more sense than assuming it meant nothing?

Of course, somebody did, and whether that somebody was Davis or Tozer or an anonymous shantyman may be beyond our knowing.

At any rate, an initial pronunciation of "Ilo" (if that's how it appeared on maps) as "eye-low" could just as easily be turned into "high-low" as a printed "Hilo" could become "eye-low" through h-dropping.

Sonme singers were likely thinking thinking "Ilo," some "Hilo," some "High-low," and most probably had no idea what it was supposed to mean.

I don't think we'll ever know.