As mentioned in a post above, in 1849, 75 Kanakas were found by Rev. Damon at one diggings in the California gold fields and there were others.
A brief summary on "Kanaka Colonies in California," R, H. Dillon, Pacific Historical Review, v. 24, touches on the subject.
One group of 24 Kanaka miners was reported at Indian Creek, El Dorado Co., and 40 at La Grange.

Many of the Hawaiians returned home because of oppressive laws imposed in Oregon and California. Thurston, the first Oregon delegate to Congress, said that Canakers, or Sandwich Islanders, "are a race, too, that we do not desire to settle in Oregon." Land was offered free to settlers, but members of the Hudsons Bay Co. and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company were barred. In 1849, some Hawaiians in Oregon Terr. applied for American citizenship in order to vote, but were denied on racial grounds.
A tax was instituted for Sandwich Islanders.
In California, the California Senate passed a resolution to bar "Chinese of Kanaka carpenters, masons or blacksmiths..."
In the gold fields, the Kanakas had no protection from thieves and claim-jumpers except what they themselves could provide.
(Blacks were barred from giving evidence against whites and escaped slaves could be returned to their owners. Islanders and others came under these oppressive regulations).

In the meantime, the Hudsons Bay Company was being forced out of Fort Vancouver. The U. S. Army had requested, and received, permission to establish a post near the Fort to quell disturbances between Indians and white settlers. The lands of the Company were encroached upon and occupied. The last of the Kanakas to go was the teacher/minister Kanaka William, whose house was burned down by U. S. soldiers in 1860. The Company withdrew to its Post in Fort Victoria.
The story is told by Yvonne Kearns Klan, in "Kanaka William," The Beaver, Spring, 1979.
Also see Janice K. Duncan, "Minority Without a Champion: Kanakas on the Pacific Coast," Oregon Historical Society, 14, 1972.   

Enough history- can anything be added to answer mg's original post???