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THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

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HAWAII :
THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF
ITS ISLAND -KINGDOM.
AN HISTOEICAL ACCOUNT OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS (POLYNESIA).
BY MANLEY HOPKINS,
HAWAIIAN CONSUl-GENEKAX, ETC.
WITH A PREFACE BY THE BISHOP OF OXFORD.

Cascade in the Waialua Valley.

LONDON:
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS.
1862.

MV/57

LONDON
PRINTED BY BPOTTIBWOODE AND CO.
NEW-STREET SQUAHE

TO

THE EIGHT HONOURABLE

JOHN, EARL RUSSELL, KG.

VISCOUNT AMBEELEY,

HER MAJESTY'S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

THESE PAGES ARE

("WITH HIS lordship's PEEMISSION)

GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

TT is not much that need be said by way of preface to
-¦- this volume. Few will begin to read it who will
not soon find that it is not a book to be laid down when
it has been commenced. It is, indeed, a notable record
of a very peculiar form of our common humanity. The
character of the Sandwich Islanders is, in many respects,
one of those clearly marked developments of national
life on which we always gaze with peculiar interest,
from the distinctness with which we trace the lines of
dissimilarity to ourselves, even whilst we feel every
where present the great underlying basis of our essen
tial brotherhood.
There is about these islanders a remarkable union
of the attractiveness of childhood with the strength of
maturity. And this union of diverse elements in their
nature has embodied itself strikingly in their institu
tions, and fixed itself in their history. In this they
greatly resemble the Coral Islands of their own seas,

X PREFACE
which combine in such picturesque unity the conditions
of freshness and perfection. But as yesterday, the secret
labours of a million of animalculae deposited that coral
reef to chafe the blue waters, and let them sleep in the
still lagoon. Then some volcanic eruption cast up far
above the ocean plain the mountain which startles the
eye with its abrupt suddenness of elevation — and, now,
the palm-tree, and the cocoa-nut, and the sandal- wood,
and all the prodigality of tropical nature, are clothing
every spot of the well-watered island with fertility and
grace. This volume will conduct the reader through the
great national changes which, in our own age, have
passed over the critical youth of this people. Some of
its scenes can hardly be equalled elsewhere. The rapid
development of true principles of commerce ; the
struggle for independence ; the passage from barbarity
to a great degree of refinement ; the ripening of such
a character as that of the present king — all of these are
transacted with a strange singularity of event, in the
most glowing colours before our eyes. But perhaps of
all others the religious history of the people is the
strangest. The sudden abandonment of their whole
heathen mythology — not for the verities of a sounder
faith, but from very weariness of the intolerable and de
grading burden of heathendom itself, — and the entire de
struction of their idols, stand almost alone in the history

PKEFACE XI
of man. Most strange is it to contrast this with the long
remaining fears of their old idols and love for their old
idolatry, which in the apostolic epistles we trace as cling
ing to and haunting the earliest converts to Christianity.
It is not a little remarkable, too, that in this sudden
and entire deliverance of the people from the meshes of
their old superstition, the leading instrument should be
a woman — a Queen-mother, strengthening the halting
hands of the young and trembling king, to break the
bondage under which he groaned, but before the threats
of which he quailed.
Nor is this the only instance of the sort. It would
be difficult to find in any history the record of a nobler
act of faithful courage than that of the . descent of
'-another noble woman into the very crater of the volcano,
in order to convince her countrymen that they might
fearlessly brave the supposed deadly indignation of the
evil god to whom tradition had assigned the crater as a
home, and of whose wrath it had taught the islanders
to believe that the destroying eruptions were the mani
fested consequence.
All of this, moreover, has at this time a special inte
rest for us. The Eoyal Family of those islands have
long, sought to cultivate an English alliance ; but it has
been reserved for the present enlightened king to seek
it in the way in which it can be most certainly secured
— by planting among his people, with all the advan-

Xll PREFACE
tages which can be derived from his own adhesion to it,
a branch of our Eeformed Church. At his desire, and
with the concurrence of our Queen, a Bishop of our
nation has been consecrated at Lambeth, to bear the
precious seed to the distant island of his adoption. To
him is to be committed the training of the future heir
to the throne. For the Bishop's coming the public
reception of the young prince into the Church has been
postponed ; whilst to mark our gracious Queen's interest
in the movement, she, even in this day of her sorrow, has
consented to be sponsor to the royal youth, and sends
out sponsorial gifts befitting England's Queen, as pledges
of the reality of her interest in the religious act in which,
though absent, she is to partake.
May it please God greatly to bless and prosper this '
new undertaking of our Sovereign and Her nation's
church. In venturing on it we are but paying the debt
which in virtue of our own Christianity and our own
national prosperity we owe to less favoured tribes of men.
It is surely specially appropriate that such gifts as these,
— the high gifts of the doctrine and perfect organization
of the Church of Christ, which have built up her own
liberties and greatness, should be imparted by the Ocean
Queen to her sister islands. Our relation, too, to New
Zealand adds greatly to the interest of this undertaking.
From the New Zealand church, our own Bishop Patteson
— clarum et venerabile nomen — is making his way of

PREFACE Xlll
blessing northward through the Melanesian group.
Southward, on his way of benediction, may the Bishop
of Honolulu speed, until the two advancing currents of
the living waters of the living Gospel of our Lord
knit in one long grasp the hands of the two Island-
Prelates; and they kneel together on the shore of
some jointly conquered island, to exclaim in grateful
adoration, This hath God done !
S. OXON.
Cuddesdon Palace:
May 24, 1862.

AUTHOE'S PEEFAOE.

WHEN a native of Tahiti was shown a map of the
world, he convicted the geographer of jealousy
and untruth in having made Tahiti so small, and other
parts of the earth so disproportionately large.
I have to apologise to a world in which there is
already a greater number of writers than readers, for
adding one more volume to the printed burthen it sus
tains ; — a book, too, about a very small and very distant
nation. I feel that in taking this responsibility, I have
the public nausea audiendi against me.
Those, however, who are still left with time enough
to go through a new book, will perhaps find something
to interest them in the history, or, as I may venture to
call it, the biography of a nation, so circumscribed that
the story from its pre-historic period to the present
time embraces scarcely more than eighty years; and
relating to an island-group so far removed from us in
space, that it affects our vision only like ' some bright

xvi author's preface
particular star.' It is even hoped that something useful
may be learned from such a recital, in which we have
before us the life of a community, its efforts, its errors,
its failures, its escapes, its repentances; its vivacious
childhood, its noon-day struggles, and — must we add?
— its instructed but premature decay. If such exam
ples afford no lesson, we are compelled to arrive at
Coleridge's melancholy conclusion, that experience is
like the stern-lights of a vessel, which only illumine the
tract that is passed.
A book of this kind must necessarily be to a con
siderable extent a compilation. I have, consequently,
made the fullest use of what writings exist on the sub
ject of the Sandwich Islands, either in a separate form
or included in volumes of voyages. The industrious
and well-arranged history of Mr. James Jackson Jarves
(Honolulu, 1847) has been of the greatest service to
me in transactions previous to that date. A little cir
cumspection is, of course, required in accepting the
views of an American citizen on points wherein other
nations are concerned ; and as a corrective, I had before
me Mr. A. Simpson's pamphlet entitled, ' Progress of
Events,' which deals with a very important period of
Hawaiian history, the cession of the islands to this
country, through Lord George Paulet, in 1843 ; Mr.
Simpson, who took a leading part in that transaction,
being very much opposed to the Americans, the mis
sionaries, and, as far as I can judge, to everybody.
I have consulted the Rev. S. Dibble's History (La-
hainaluna, 1843) in which is embodied the information

AUTHOR S PREFACE XVli
derived directly from the native pupils at the Govern
ment Seminary, Lahaina.
I have found useful information scattered through
the volumes on the Sandwich Islands by Mr. Cheever,
Mr. Hill, and some other travellers.
Sir George Simpson's Overland Journey round the
World contains some chapters devoted to the Hawaiian
Archipelago. The views of that acute observer relative
to the then and the future condition of the islands are
important and enlightened. Sir George sent me his
MS. to see through the press, and I published it, in two
volumes, with the late Mr. Colburn, in 1847. The
arrival in England during the progress of my work, of
my brother, after a residence in Hawaii of sixteen years,
was very opportune. His emendations have been valu
able, and I have embodied in my pages some original
information he has given me on subjects of which they
treat. His office of Director of the Government Press
at Honolulu, and, latterly, the part which he has himself
taken in public affairs, as a member of the House of
Nobles, qualify him to speak with distinctness, as he has
been able to observe from a central point of view.
The archives of my own office and the official and
unofficial communications I constantly receive from the
islands enable me to give statistical and other informa
tion down to the latest date.
The Rev. William Ellis, author of Polynesian Re
searches, A Journey through Hawaii, and a more
recent work on Madagascar, to which island he has just
returned, very kindly sent me his most interesting

XVlil AUTHOR S PREFACE
Narrative, published in the year 1825. It is a sort of
text-book, to all subsequent writers, of the earliest
history of the islands, their traditions and old customs,
collected by Dibble and the first American missionaries,
assisted by the natives themselves. Though a dissenter
from the Church of England, Mr. Ellis's large and Liberal
mind shows itself in every line of his writing, and in the
personal intercourse with which he obliged me. I have
to thank the London Missionary Society for supplying
me with the Reports of the Boston Board of Foreign
Missions ; and I own my obligations to the Hon. Hudson's
Bay Company for permitting me to read in their library
the early editions of oceanic explorers.
I have not, of course, omitted to examine the splendid
volumes of the United States Exploring Expedition,
commanded by Commodore Wilkes, — an officer whose
reputation will depend more on the scientific than the
belligerent part of his profession.
For earlier events I have also gleaned from the
agreeable pages of my friend the late Admiral Beechey,
in his interesting Narrative of the Voyage of the
' Blossom.' After such preparations, my book will appear but a
slight sketch of the subject on which it treats. It was
intended for nothing more. Its design is to give a
popular but connected account of an interesting and
imperfectly known group of islands, which have had,
during eight decades, an association with our own coun
try, unusually close and frequent for so small and
distant a nation. If one word may be permitted as to

AUTHORS PREFACE XIX
the execution of my task, I have to own, and that with
regret, that owing to the unceasing nature of other
occupations, I have not been able to expend on my book
so much of the labor limes as a writer would desire for
his own satisfaction, or the public have a right to ex
pect in every printed work which solicits its notice.
London : May 1862.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEK I. PAGE
Geographical Position and Origin — Harbours ... 1

CHAPTER II.
Physical Features and Phenomena — Volcanoes ... 12
CHAPTER HI.
Climate — Productions — Commerce  30
CHAPTER IV.
Our Royal City of Honolulu  43
CHAPTER V.
Derivation of the Hawaiian Race — Traditions ... 57
CHAPTER VI.
Early Island Discoveries — Native History — Captain
Cook's first Arrival  77
CHAPTER VII.
The Tragedy in Kealakeaxua Bay  89

XX11 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII. PAGE
The Sequel op Cook's Death — Subsequent Visits . . 105
CHAPTER IX.
Historical Sketch — 'A Dust op Systems' — 'The Lonely
One'  131
CHAPTER X.
Historical Sketch — Kamehameha the Conqueror — In-
eptness for the Lyre  145
CHAPTER XL
Historical Sketch — Kamehameha the King — His Death
— ' I come to bury CiESAR, and to praise him ' . . . 157
CHAPTER XH.
Historical Sketch — Accession op Liholiho — The Abo
lition op Idolatry .... ... .... 174
CHAPTER XIK
Historical Sketch — Arrival op American Missionaries
— Visit op the King and Queen to England, and
their Death. ...  188
CHAPTER XIV
Historical Sketch — The Brook becomes a Stream —
An Apostolic Prefect arrives — The Argonauts . . 206
CHAPTER XV.
Historical Sketch— The Stream becomes a River —
Reign op Kamehameha III. . . . . .... 220
CHAPTER XVI.
Historical Sketch — The first French Tribulation . 238

CONTENTS. XXlil
CHAPTER XVII. PAGE
Historical Sketch — Essays in Constitution-making . 253
CHAPTER XVTIL
Historical Sketch — The Carysfort Affair .... 274
CHAPTER XIX.
Historical Sketch — The Envoys Extraordinary — The
Belgian Contract  292
CHAPTER XX.
Historical Sketch — The Treaties of Commerce and
Friendship, and consequent Hostilities  306
CHAPTER XXI.
Historical Sketch — Reign op Kamehameha IV. . . . 322
CHAPTER XXII.
Hawaiian Characteristics  343
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Depopulation op the Islands — Kibroth-Hataava 362
CHAPTER XXIV.
Missionary Achievement and Failure  376
CHAPTER XXV.
Glances at the Past, and Guesses at the Future . . 394
APPENDIX: — Coral Islands  413

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
Poeteait of King Kamehameha IV. To face Title Page.
(From a Daguerreotype. On Stone by R. J. Lane, A.E.R.A.)
Map  To face Page 1
Cascade in the Waialua Valley ( Vignette in Title Page) W.J.Linton
(Drawn on "Wood by Miss G. Lane.)
Ceatee of Kilauea . . {G.Pearson) . . To face Page 12
Honolulu — The Haeboue . . . „ . . „ 43
Enteance of the NuuAjrn Valley „ . . „ 56
Ewa  , . '. 164 :
s ¦
The Bev. W. Eichaeds .... ,. . . ;j 242
(A Sketch from memory, by the Author.)
Poeteait of Queen Emma  322
(From a Daguerreotype. On Stone by R. J. Lane, A.E.R.A.)
Pboposed Chuech at Honolulu  ( <y. Pearson) 341
(Designed by W. Slater.)
Diamond Head   g»/j

London; £oa^*rtcui. & Co. . J

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE I.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND ORIGIN — HARBOURS
TpO the imagination of the ancient Greek or Eoman
J_ the pillars of Hercules formed the entrance into a
dark and mysterious sea ; yet, somewhere in its un
known waters, towards the setting of the sun, lay, in
his belief, the Fortunate Islands, under a clearer sky
and in a happier climate than any known in the world
of men. This dream of a land, of which they spoke
sometimes as an Elysium for departed spirits, sometimes
almost as a region which might be reached by the
living, was not altogether without an influence for good.
It kept awake a longing curiosity, which might one day
give birth to active enterprise ; it prevented the mind
from accepting the bounds of one or two inland seas as,
the limits of the habitable world.
Such dreams were doomed to be dispelled, when,
eighteen centuries later, the march of geographical dis
covery began ; but in their place was left the fact, that
the earth was larger than antiquity had taken it to be ;
and the belief gradually grew up that even another
B

2 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
continent lay interposed in the untraversed sea between
Europe and the Indian land. The conviction was jus
tified by the discoveries of Columbus, and his successors.
One of the latest results of geographical research may
be thus stated:— All the continents stretch downwards
from the northern pole of our planet, and terminate in
points ; as if its waters, receding to the south, had left
bare at the lower extremities of the land the central
ridges only. In the Southern hemisphere, islands form
a partial equipoise to these continental masses of land,
and declare themselves, by several indications, to be
peaks of land, once elevated but afterwards submerged
by the increased depth of ocean. Islands elevated by
volcanic action constitute exceptions to this general
formula. Lieutenant Julien, of the French navy, gives, as a
farther fruit of his own investigation, that, in proceed
ing from the North to the South Pole, the ratio of land
to water diminishes regularly with every parallel of
latitude. Islands, comparatively few in number above the
Tropic of Cancer, stud the southern waters of the world
in countless abundance. Group after group spreads
onwards like the constellations of the firmament. In
size, they vary from the vast mass of Australia, and of
Borneo, with its fifty millions of inhabitants,* to little
pulos and low lagoon-islands,' rising but a few feet
above the sea-level.
The whole of this tropical and southern realm of
waters has been named Oceanica, and has been divided
hydrographically, for convenience of reference, into five
districts — as the stars have been mapped out into ima-
* Its population is so reported by the bishop of Labuan.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 3
ginary figures with corresponding names. The divisions
of the Ocean World are the following:— To the east
ward, Polynesia; comprising the Sandwich,. Mar
quesas, Society, Harvey, Friendly, New Zealand, and
Samoan groups. To the south, Melanesia — inhabited
by black races ; it includes the Figi (or Feejee), New
Hebrides and Solomon Archipelagoes, and New Guinea.
Still more south, Australasia — comprehending the
great land of Australia, and its dependencies. West
ward, Malaisia — embracing the East India Islands,
and inhabited principally by the Malay races. These
islands, six thousand in number, contain the largest in
the world, with the exception of Australia. Lastly,
situated somewhat centrally with respect to the other
groups, a region of small isles and islets, fitly named
Micronesia. It is proposed in the following pages to give an
account of the most northerly cluster of the Polynesian
Archipelago, viz. the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands.
And if on close inspection we find rsason to remove the
place of the Islands of the Blest still onward with the
retreating horizon, and discover that, amidst natural
charms and delicious climate, vice and death and sorrow
hold their place, we only confirm the poet's discovery
that— 'things which to the world belong,
So false doth sad experience find,
She learns betimes among the throng,
To bound the kingdom to the mind.'
But we shall be made acquainted with a very interesting
people, evincing an extraordinary aptitude for European
civilisation, and possessing a ' government which, youth
ful as it is, will bear comparison with those of the beSt-
15 2

4 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
ruled states in Europe.'* These islands have, more
over, a special interest to our countrymen at the present
moment, inasmuch as, at the invitation of their sove
reign, the English Episcopal Church is about to be
planted for the first time on their shores ; not merely,
it is hoped, to enlighten that immediate spot, but to
shed its light across the waters to other island-homes.
The importance of the Sandwich Islands, politically
and commercially, arises from their particularly central
situation. They lie in a diagonal position from south
east to north-west, in a parallelogram rather exceeding
one formed by the 19th and 22nd degrees of north
latitude, and the 155th and 160th meridians of west
longitude ; and it will be seen, by reference to a map,
that the group is nearly equidistant from the coasts of
America and Japan, and that a radius from its centre
would touch in succession the shores of central America,
the north-west States, the Eussian territory, the Aleu
tian Archipelago, Japan, the Philippine Islands, Torres'
Straits, New Zealand, and the Feejee Islands. And
whilst Australia is just beyond the ambit, California
and Vancouver's Island are within a shorter distance of
the Hawaiian Islands.
Thus they form an oasis in the ocean desert — a step
ping-stone between two worlds ; and they afford a place
of refreshment of the utmost value for merchantmen
and the large fleet of whalers in the northern Pacific.
Commerce is establishing for itself a new road from east
to west, and from west to east, across the ocean ; and
we still wait in expectation to see an opening forced
through the Isthmus of Panama, by which ships may
sail from sea to sea, carrying on the interchange of

Jo^

C. St. Julian.—' Report on Central Polynesia.'

importance of their situation 5
human labour and natural production, without the ne
cessity of a protracted voyage round the South American
Continent, and consequent exposure in the inclement
and dangerous latitudes of Cape Horn.* Should the
Darien Ship Canal be constructed, the Hawaiian Islands
will assume a far greater importance than they have
yet had, for they lie in the very path which navigation
would then take. Even now, says a recent visitor, ' the
islands, on account of their position and the extent of
cultivable land they contain, enjoy advantages above
any other of the numerous groups which lie scat
tered over the Pacific Ocean.' f
Humboldt, writing before the year 1822, says — "The
Sandwich Islanders are excellent sailors  They
have attempted to build schooners, and even armed
vessels, with which they project distant expeditions.
. . . They have profited more from their communi
cation with Europeans than all the other South Sea
islanders. The sphere of their ideas has been extended ;
wants have been communicated to them which they
were ignorant of; and within these twenty years they
have made a considerable progress towards that social
state which we very improperly designate by the word
" civilisation." . . . Perhaps this people will one day
be as formidable on the Great Ocean as the privateers
and pirates of the Bermudas and Bahama Islands and
Barbary who are dreaded in the Atlantic Ocean and the
Mediterranean.' J
The origin of the Islands is clearly volcanic. This
* On the globe of John Sehoner, made in 1520, and preserved in the
library of Nuremberg, a passage through, the Isthmus of Panama is laid
down: — an interesting anachronism.
f Hill  'Travels in the Sandwich and Society Islands.' London, 1856.
J ' Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain.' 1822.

6 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
tremendous agency, by which they were elevated from
the depths of the sea, and which has tossed up moun
tain peaks in Hawaii 14,000 feet above the water-level,
appears to have taken a direction from South-east to
North-west; the first exertion of force having been
greatest, and diminishing in intensity as it proceeded.
Thus Hawaii, the most Southerly island, has an area
of 4000 out of 6000 square miles, the whole super
ficial contents of the group; and it possesses also the
highest elevation ; the two mountains Mauna Kea and
Mauna Loa being of nearly equal altitude, viz., 14,000
feet. On the side of the latter mountain is situated the
great volcanic crater Kilauea. Next in position to
Hawaii, is the island of Maui, with an area of 620
miles, and having in its neighbourhood the smaller
islands of Lanai and Kahoolawe. To the north-west of
Maui lies Molokai, a long narrow island extending east
and west, formed by a mountain ridge, which runs its
whole length. Next comes Oahu, with an area of 530
miles. Nearly two degrees beyond Oahu is situated
Kauai, 500 miles in extent. Last in order of the
greater islands is Niihau ; and farther westward Kaula
rises, which, with one or two islets and uninhabited
rocks, shews itself the expiring effort of Plutonic energy.
The observations of Mr. Hill led him to an opposite
conclusion with regard to the direction and order in
which the islands were projected. He is of opinion that
Niihau was the first thrown up, and that the volcanic
action advanced towards the south-east, and increased
in energy till it culminated in Hawaii, the last and
largest link of the chain. As the grounds of this opinion,
he gives the more or less advanced state of the soil, the
progress of vegetation, and the cessation or diminution
of eruptions and earthquakes. Upon all these data he

THEIR ORIGIN 7
decided Kaui to possess the greatest antiquity, and
Hawaii the least. He feels his opinion fortified by the
volcanic activity existing in Hawaii, and by the fact
that in 1837 an extraordinary retreat of the sea took
place from the shores of that island, followed by a
returning wave, indicating great disturbance, and giving
rise to the impression that another island was about to
rise to the south-east of Hawaii. The phenomena do
not appear quite conclusive in establishing the relative
dates of the islands. The oldest lava in Hawaii may
be, and probably is, overlaid by newer deposits, and
thus concealed ; and the present volcanic activity may
only shew that the original seat of energy remains un
changed; and that the action, greatest at Hawaii, ex
panded itself in a north-west direction, — its last result
being the rudimentary island of Niihau, and the rock
called Bird Island.*
The volcanic, though it is the primary, is not the
sole origin of the group. From the flanks of the sub
merged mountains the coral insect builds upwards its
wonderful structure, till it emerges from the waves as a
reef, more or less distant from the shore. The antiquity
of the islands is shewn by their coralline formations,
which could only have attained their present elevation
by the incessant labours of an infinitude of insects,
acting through vast periods of time. In some places
there is a double reef; the outer line indicating, per
haps, the slow upheaving of the base of the mountains
from the sea-bottom subsequently to its first projection,
until it approached sufficiently near the surface of the
water to fulfil the conditions necessary to insect exist-
* Two slight earthquakes have been experienced since the commence
ment of the present year (1862) at Honolulu. On both occasions the
motion was from east to west.

8 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
ence. The coral reefs of the Hawaiian islands are,
however, of much smaller extent than those of more
southern groups, and only appear on some of the
coasts. As might be supposed from the igneous origin of the
islands, no metals are found on them.* Scorise, decom
posed lava, with sand, &c, are the materials of the soil ;
but ledges of compact limestone are found at consi
derable elevations above the sea ; portions of the bottom
of the ocean, probably forced upwards by the great
submarine eruptions which have produced the lofty
craters which abound. There is also found on the shore
a species of white stone, which, from the description re
ceived of it, would seem to be analogous to the English
' chinch,' used in the restorations of Ely Cathedral ;
which, from the ease with which it is worked, is very
valuable for carved tracery. This stone, found in the
districts of Ewa and Waianae, island of Oahu, is soft
whilst lying in the water or under the sand, and easily
cut ; but hardens by exposure to the sun. For building
purposes there are basalt, compact lava, coral rock and
sandstone. * Ellis remarks a fact which appears an exception to the absence of
metals stated above. In journeying from the village of Keapuana, in
Hawaii to the foot of Mauna Loa, he crossed a waste or desert of fine
sparkling sand, into which the feet sank at every step. It was of a
dark olive colour, and adhered readily to the magmt. Unless meteoric,
it is difficult to account for its presence ; and it recalls the tracts of steel
or ferruginous sand abundant on some of the shores of New Zealand.
Mr. Goodrich, one of Mr. Ellis's fellow missionaries, remarked also,
that when ascending the great mountain Mauna Kea, the compass,
which pointed true North whilst held in the hand, was deflected be
tween two and three degrees to the eastward when placed on the blocks
of lava which abounded; and he attributed this effect to iron con
tained in the mountain. May not the mass of the mountain in proximity
alone have produced the deflection ?

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS 9
The regions of fertility lie at the bases of the moun
tains and in the valleys, where abrasion and disintegra
tion have proceeded for untold years, and rich deposits
of vegetable mould have accumulated. Such a valley
runs up from the capital, Honolulu, among the hills;
and from the beautiful views it affords, — its grassy
slopes ; its bridged rivulets ; its villas ; and especially
its air, which becomes more invigorating as the road
winds upward, — the Nuuanu Valley is one of the
favourite rides of the residents of Honolulu.
The soil is generally thin and poor, but this is not
universally the case ; and it affords fine pasturage. On
the ' lands,' or grazing farms, are raised large herds,
which supply meat for the whalers and merchant-ship
ping, and thus find a ready market. Vast numbers of
horses also subsist on the islands, mostly of an inferior
kind ; and it would be an advantage to the kingdom if
four-fifths of them were destroyed. They unnecessarily
consume the grass, and break the fences ; but horse-
riding is a passion with the natives of both sexes.
Some of the islands are well supplied with rivers
and streams, particularly Hawaii and Kauai. Along
the shore of Hilo, a district of that island, sixty per
manent streams of various sizes fall into the sea ; whilst
their numerous branches and feeders thread the coun
try, and give unrivalled facilities for irrigation.
Large forests abound, very dense, and broken with
chasms, ravines, and extinct craters. In making the
ascent of the two great mountains in Hawaii, twelve
miles of forest have to be passed through.
The great harbour of the group is Honolulu, situated
on the south side of Oahu. It is formed by an inden
tation of the coast, protected by a broad coral reef.
The channel through the reef has only twenty-two and

10 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
a half feet water at its shallowest part ; so that though
the harbour is commodious, vessels drawing more than
twenty feet are excluded, and lie in the roadstead out
side, where there is excellent anchorage, except during
a Souther, or ' Kona.' For shipping of less draught,
pilots are in attendance, and the vessels either run
through the channel on a wind, or, more generally,
are towed in. Ships go out of harbour under sail, as
for nine months in the year the trade wind is blowing
seaward. Within the harbour there is plenty of space and every
convenience. On the right hand a battery, seated on
Punch-bowl Hill, commands the port. There are
wharves and warehouses ; conveniences for heaving ships
down for repairs ; and pipes for supplying fresh water.
A steam-dredging machine is at work deepening and
cleaning the harbour. The inhabitants of Honolulu
speak with pride of 150 sail of shipping having been
seen in their port at one time.
During the year 1859, Honolulu was visited by two
British, one French, one American, and one Eussian
ships of war; 109 merchantmen*, and 170 whalers
entered the harbour; whilst nineteen merchant ships
and seventy-nine whalers remained outside.
Eight miles westward, at Ewa, on the same island,
is an inland basin, in which the entire commerce of
the Pacific might lie : but this great harbour is almost
useless, from there being only twelve feet water on the
bar at low tide.
The next place of importance, as regards commerce,
is Lahaina, on the south-west or leeward side of Maui.
Five merchantmen and 116 whalers entered this road-
* This number includes second and third visits of some of the vessels.

HARBOURS 11
stead in 1859. On the north-west side of Hawaii, in
Byron's Bay, is the harbour of Hilo ; spacious, and with
a good entrance through the wide coral reef. This port
is on the windward face of the island, and is not now
much frequented. Only two merchant-ships entered it
in 1859, and forty-nine whalers. Formerly it appears
to have been a place of greater resort. In 1846 four
men-of-war, sixty-seven whalers, and thirty-four trading
schooners arrived there. Three or four other harbours
are accessible ; and other parts of the coast possess un
developed potentialities. The estuary of Pearl Eiver
(Oahu), for example, is a port, safe, large, and deep
enough to contain all the shipping of that ocean ; but
its shallow channel will only permit small vessels to
enter. Independent of the harbours, ships can lie at anchor
with safety in many of the roadsteads ; which, though
they are exposed, have good holding ground ; have no
dangers from hidden reefs or rocks ; and the winds pre
vailing for nine or ten months in the year are more or
less favourable, according to the bearing of the Trades
and Konas upon the coasts.

12

CHAPTER II.
PHYSICAL FEATURES AND PHENOMENA  VOLCANOES
ON approaching the group from certain directions the
first objects which meet the sight are the two lofty
peaks on Hawaii, each 14,000 feet in height, — two miles
and a half, — one of them capped with perpetual snow,
which contrasts with the deep blue of the tropical skyfc
above, and with the darkness of the lava forming the
sides of the mountains. A rude and irregular outline of
high lands then presents itself; and on the north side
are seen, on a nearer view, the dark forests which clothe
the lower region of the mountains ; whilst giddy
precipices front the sea, of from 1000 to 3000 feet in
perpendicular height, against whose walls the waves
beat, and surge, and thunder through the caverns which
they have hollowed for themselves in their ceaselesp
war. In some places, streams which have united their
waters on their way, rush together over one of these
palis, or precipices, into the ocean. Still nearer, the
white foam is seen pouring in sheets over coral reefs,
of which there is sometimes an outer and inner ridge.
The islands are generally lofty ; the small isle of Lehua,
near Niihua, having an elevation of 1000 feet. The|
upland region of Kauai has an uniform height above
the sea of 4000 feet. Once through the reefs, or an
chored in a leeward roadstead, scenes of gentler beauty^

PHYSICAL CONFORMATION 13
are discovered, — pleasant bays, with sandy shores, a
native village, often with its small chapel, and generally
with its school, sheltered by groves of palms and cocoa-
nut, and the deeper green of the bread-fruit tree ; rivers
running to the sea, down some of whose cascades the
native girls and youths cast themselves with laughter,
and take a bath which must exceed any douche ever
experienced at the severest of our water-cure establish
ments. At the mountain-foot grassy plains meet the
forest, roamed over by herds of cattle, which in many
instances have become wild. Coffee plantations and
sugar-cane give their verdure to the cultivated districts.
The construction of the islands being essentially vol
canic, the character of the scenery depends on that con
dition. Indeed, it is probable that they are but domes
concealing the vast internal fires, and the crust which
separates living nature from this great agent of destruc
tion seems in places to be thin enough. Not that it is
to be supposed there is any want of permanence in
their existence ; forests have grown old, and a hundred
generations of men have trod the hills and valleys in
security. During the late great eruption «f Mauna Loa,
one of the newspapers published in Honolulu spoke of
the volcano as a national institution, of which the in
habitants of the islands were proud, and to which they
were, perhaps, almost attached.
The crater of Kilauea is the largest active one in the
world. Other volcanoes, of great size, exist in a state
of partial or entire quiescence. The crater on Mauna
Haleakala (House of the Sun), on Maui, has not been
active within the traditions of the people. Its dimen
sions exceed those of any crater known, being nine miles
in diameter, and 2000 feet in depth. Extinct volcanoes
are very common. They are of every age, size, and

14 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
shape ; at some places crowning the summits of lofty
hills and mountains ; elsewhere rising precipitously
from plains, or projecting into the ocean they form
prominent landmarks for navigators. The singular
promontory, near Honolulu, called Diamond Head, is a
well-known instance. One uninhabited island of the
group, Molokini, is an extinct crater, crescent-shaped,
of slight elevation, with one side open to the sea.
The very remarkable salt lake, named Aliapaalcai,
situated four miles from Honolulu, and one mile inland
from the sea, is probably the remains of a volcanic
crater. Its form is oval, being about a mile in circuit;
its elevation above the ocean is only a few feet, and its
general depth but eighteen inches. It is a natural
evaporating pan for the production of salt, which forms
abundantly on its surface at certain seasons, even to
bearing a man's weight on the deposit. The level of
the pool is slightly affected by the tides, which appears
to act through a hole which exists in its centre, and to
which it is said no bottom has been found. If a syphon
like connection is maintained, however, with the sea, it
is difficult to understand how the waters of the lake are
supported above the general hydrostatic level.
Deep conical pits are met with in the dense forests,
which have probably also been craters. These are very
dangerous in traversing the woods, their mouths being
often concealed by trailing and orchidaceous plants.
One member of an expedition which ascended Mauna
Loa, in February, 1859, to observe the great eruption,
lost his life by falling into a oavity of this kind. He was
recovered from the pit, but his spine was injured, and he
died a few days afterwards. Chasms and ravines also in
terrupt the forest, the scars of former cosmic convulsion.
In such a volcanic region earthquakes are not un-

VOLCANIC PHENOMENA 15
common ; but they are severe only in Hawaii. At Hilo,
in that island, in the year 1838, the earth continued
in a state of agitation for two days and nights,, causing
the plants to tremble, and producing in human beings
a sensation of nausea. Forty or fifty shocks occurred
in the space of eight days. In 1841, an earthquake
more severe was experienced ; throwing down large
portions of rock from one of the palis of sheer cliffs,
but not destroying either house or life. Slight shocks
in all the islands are not uncommon.
In the Pacific there are various indications of the
submarine volcanic action. Ships occasionally feel a
blow from beneath, when traversing the deep sea, as
if they had struck on ground. Nearer the coast of
South America marine geysers occur. From a small
circular space vapour is seen ascending, and on entering
the circle the water is found to be of scalding heat.
The great wave, or rising of the sea which occasionally
takes place, and sometimes with lamentable results, is
in all probability due to an earthquake below the
depths of ocean, producing unusually deep oscillation of
the waters. In December, 1860, during fine weather
with very little wind, the sea gradually rose in the har
bour of Kahului, Island of Maui, eight or ten feet above
its ordinary high-water level, spreading over the beach,
destroying several fences, but doing no further damage.
The next morning the sea, though still very full, had
greatly subsided in height, but throughout the day the
bay was full of rip-tides, and the water boiled as in
a kettle. At Maliko, on the same island, the sea ran
inland up a little valley, and washed away a small
hamlet of ten or twelve native houses, leaving only
one standing. As the rising was gradual, the people
received warning, and no lives were lost.

16 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
In 1746, the town of Callao, Peru, was destroyed by
a great wave ; and during the present century risings
of the sea have occurred three or four times in the
Hawaiian Islands. The first, mentioned by Mr. Jarvis,
happened in Honolulu harbour, in the year 1809; but
that was caused by the bursting of a water-spout. It
caused the sea to rise three feet on the beach. In 1819,
another oscillation took place, but unattended with any
fatal consequences. On the 7th of November, 1837,
the sea was observed, at 5 p.m., to be suddenly and
rapidly retiring in the harbour of Honolulu. The baro
meter had not indicated any atmospheric change. The
fall was eight feet, and the reefs were left entirely dry.
Hundreds of the natives, who are as much at their ease
in water as they are on the land, pursued the retreating
wave, gathering up fish which were left stranded. The
sea then returned, and in about half an hour, had reached
the mark of its highest spring-tides. On receding again,
it fell six and a half feet. These marine vibrations
continued for about twenty hours, gradually diminish
ing, and then ceased. Their effects in the other islands
were more disastrous than at Oahu. On the windward
side the phenomena were increased by the trade wind
and the tides, which act on the north side of the group
with greater force. On Maui, the sea, having retired
about twenty fathoms, returned with great speed in one
great wave, sweeping before it canoes, houses, trees, and
human beings. At Kahului, the inhabitants followed'
the retreating waters, full of delight ; but suddenly they
rose like a steep wall, and, returning to the shore,
rushed forward, burying the natives in foam, and de
stroying the whole hamlet. Nevertheless, so perfect is
the islander's swimming science that only two persons
lost their lives. In Byron's Bay, Hawaii, far more

RISING OF THE SEA 17
disastrous events occurred. In consequence of a reli^
gious meeting in the village, it was crowded with people.
At 6.30 p.m. the sea ran out at the rate of five miles
an hour, and left great part of the harbour dry. The
multitude gathered eagerly on the beach to witness
the unusual spectacle, when a gigantic wave came
roaring towards them, at the speed of seven or eight
miles per hour, its height being twenty feet above high-
water mark, and dashed itself upon the shore with a
crash like thunder. The ruin was universal. People,
animals, houses, canoes, all property, were mingled, en
tangled, and overwhelmed together — as when the horse
and his rider were buried by the Eed Sea. Loud
wailing and cries of shrill distress were joined with the
hiss and roar of the flood, and made themselves heard
above it. The water was full of human beings struggling
for their lives among the floating wreck, or entangled
by it. The great wave had dashed over the deck of an
English whaler at anchor in the bay. As soon as her
crew recovered from the shock, they lowered their boats
and succeeded in saving many lives, for not a canoe had
escaped, and numbers of people, stunned and insensible,
were being floated seaward. In one hamlet sixty-seven
habitations were destroyed, and eleven lives lost. The
destruction of food and other property was universal.
The wave struck the several islands from the same di
rection, rendering it probable that the force was gene
rated at a distance from the group. Although the
action of the crater of Kilauea, on Mauna Loa, had been
unusually furious during the previous night, and new
chasms opened in it with violent explosions, no earth
quake or terrestrial disturbance was observed.
Of aerial phenomena, it is recorded that, on the 25th
of September, 1825, a great shower of meteoric stones
c

18 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
fell at Honolulu, attended with very loud noises. Large
fragments fell to the ground, and with such force as to
indent deeply the coral rock. Pieces of the stone were
found of fourteen to twenty pounds weight.
The great volcano of Kilauea is situated on the eastern
ascent of Mauna Loa, in Hawaii. The crater is gene
rally in activity; but as it never emits smoke, only
its moods of anger and of rarer violence are obser
vable from a distance. Several powerful eruptions have
occurred in the memory of the present generation. The
crater is situated about 4000 feet above the base of the
mountain, and is approached by a not very difficult
ride. Deep forests have to be traversed, and then rough
ground, formed of broken lava, and interrupted by
strong rapids and deep ravines. The brink of the gulf
being attained, an abyss confronts the spectator too
wide and too deep to allow him to see its opposite side
or its bottom, except the active portion of matter within,
burning and fusing, and hourly changing form. The
circumference of the orifice has been variously stated to
be six and nine miles, and its depth from 400 to 1000
feet. A gloomy mythology has not let escape so apt an
arena without adding her ' supernumerary horror.'. This
was the dwelling-place of the terrible goddess Pele, the
most dreaded divinity of the Hawaiian Pantheon. Here,
in this fiery abyss, she, with attendant demons, bathed
and sported in its sulphurous waves. This, too, was
the scene of Christian courage triumphing over material
and supernatural terrors, when the converted chiefess,
Kapiolani, in the year 1825, dared the anger of the
invaded goddess and the dangers of the way, and de
scended alone into the crater, casting from her hands
into the seething lava the sacred berries, as an open act
of desecration.

CRATER OF KILAUEA 19
Though no smoke is emitted, a thin vapour arises
from the orifice, and by day hangs above it like a silvery
cloud. Mr. Hill, who made the ascent of Mauna Loa
in 1849, describes the varying effects of the light pro
jected upwards from the crater as day declined to be
very beautiful. At a distance of twenty miles from the
volcano, he perceived a faint light in the sky when first
daylight began to diminish. As darkness increased, the
light assumed the appearance of the Aurora borealis in
its most fixed condition. When night was complete,
the glare, seen from the brow of a hill, was like that of
a vast forest in flames ; while the vapour, which floated
high above the crater, threw down its reflection of the
volcanic fire, enhancing the effect by a mirror-like re
petition. On reaching the brink of the gulf, lava was
seen issuing from a dark cone, apparently in the centre
of the pit, and ran down in a vast stream of liquid fire
into a bed of luminous vapours. At sunrise the crater
assumed a very different appearance. Mr. Hill and his
companions turned their eyes from the splendid effects
of light, as the two great peaks ' stood up and took the
morning,' gathering colour from the unseen orb, and
rising into the heavens, as by some magic power, from
the abyss of vapours floating lower down, whilst peaks,
hills, forests, and deep ravines, caught in succession the
sun's beams, till day was again established upon a beau
tiful earth. They looked into the crater, which nothing
could exceed in frightful desolation. By the latest
actual surveys, its form is oval, having the length of
three miles and a half, and a breadth of two miles and
a half, giving a circumference of nine miles. Its height
above the sea-level is about 6000 feet. Within, two
high blaok cones rose in the midst of a rude plain of
black and pink-coloured lava, rocky substances being
c 2

20 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
thrown up into hills of no mean dimensions. Around
the cones lay a lake of liquid fire, which appeared ready
to overflow the cool beds forming the more even part of
the lava plain. A curious fibrous substance, resembling
threads of flax, but brittle as glass, is found adhering to
the bushes round the banks of the crater. In many
places it covers the shrubs like cobwebs. ' Pete's hair-'
is the appropriate name given to these fibres found so
near the dwelling of that most feared and dread divinity.
Eight hundred feet below the brink of the abyss a
ledge of hard lava encircles the changing contents of
the volcano. The descent to this ledge is rough and
difficult, but not impracticable : it occupied Mr. Hill
about half an hour. Continuing on the ledge, and
steering by a compass and by recollection of the appear
ance of the crater from above, he and his companions
proceeded for a quarter of a mile, till they were stopped
by huge basaltic blocks, confusedly piled up, and rising
to the height of three or four hundred feet. Taking a
new direction, they again approached the banks of the
crater, which they found in one place were formed of
immense deposits of pure sulphur. The plain on which
they now walked was smoother ; but several deep cavi
ties were passed, caused by sinkings of the volcanic
matter after cooling. Two more hours of difficult march
brought them to the brink of the great lake of liquid
fire—' the Stygian lake forlorn ' —in the midst of which
rose the two remarkable cones they had previously seen.
Jets of the seething cauldron were thrown upwards at
intervals, and hissing vapour oozed from many fissures
in the fixed lava-bed on which they trod, the form of
which was continually changing. The appearance of
.the inner walls of the crater was remarkable, exhibiting
irregular patches of calcareous and other earths; and

DESCENT OF THE CRATER 21
the whole effect was so illusive, that it was impossible
to decide how far the explorers were from the sides.
This uncertainty was probably in part caused by hete
rogeneous vapours mixing at different temperatures,
and from the novelty of the whole circumstances. As
they gazed, the illusion took an extraordinary form.
They seemed to see before them an immense country
stretching from the lava-plain at their feet, varied by
hills and dales, upon whose slopes flocks of sheep were
grazing, whilst cities and villages studded this land of
faery. The adventurous travellers next descended about one
hundred feet, through fissures and by ledges, till they
stood beside some small pools of molten elements —
detached outposts of the great central, unbroken sea of
fire.* Enduring a good scorching, and covering their
faces, they were able to dip the ends of their staves into
these pools, and the green wood was reduced instantly
to ashes. The two great cones, rising high and dark
amidst the fiery turmoil, excited their extremest interest..
Seeking some means of approaching nearer to tbem,
and proceeding along the ledge of firm lava, they arrived
at a sort of natural bridge, or inclined causeway, across
the gulf, connecting the ledge with one of the cones.
They commenced traversing the ascending causeway,
the upper part of which was, in places, a thin, brittle
crust, separated from one to five feet from the more
solid matter below, and through which upper lamina
one of the party fell. When halfway across, they paused
to contemplate the terrible scene. At a great depth
beneath boiled the fiery pool ; above them appeared a
huge conduit of unchained fire ; and on all sides a region
* It is proper to say that the descent has been frequently made 'by
ladies.

22 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
of frightful desolation. The two travellers and their
native guide had not long recommenced climbing when
their course was suddenly arrested. The infirm lava-
crust beneath their feet began to shake ominously, whilst
frightful, unearthly sounds from the mouth of the cone
pierced their ears. As soon as they were released from
the first panic, which transfixed them, they commenced
the most rapid retreat in their power along the cause
way. But before they had advanced many paces towards
the lava-plain, the prelude of mighty blasts changed to
cracks of near thunder, and immense masses of hot lava
were thrown to a great height. The travellers' imme
diate danger was that of being crushed by the falling
lava, and from this there was no shelter. At first the
blocks, issuing perpendicularly, fell back into the crater ;
but they then began to fall beyond the cone, plunging
into the gulf on both sides the causeway, or rolling
past the travellers with a terrible impetuosity. Some
even fell on their frail bridge, broke through, and
were lost beneath it. Through the wild uproar and
confusion Mr. Hill and his companions finally reached
the firm ledge in safety. Within the general crater,
which they explored, there are several more of these
volcanic tumuli, some extinct, or active at intervals
only. There are on Mauna Loa several other ancient
craters, from which, at present, streams of vapour alone
issue. The temperature on the mountain varied, during
the twenty-four hours, from 17 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
The many volcanoes on the sides of the sister heights of
Mauna Kea are entirely inactive.
From about the middle of 1856, for nearly three
years, the volcano continued in a state of more than
usual energy. Eivers of lava rolled downwards, through
the forest, and over precipices, destroying the native

ERUPTION OF 1859 23
halo grounds, and rendering villages uninhabitable.
They found their way through valleys even to the shore,
until in deadly struggle with the waves their course
was stayed, — the temperature of the sea being so raised
during the conflict as to kill great quantities of fish.
On the 23rd of January, 1859, a great eruption com
menced on Mauna Loa. The lava took a northerly
direction, rounded the side of another mountain, and by
the 28th, had debouched over the plateau, and run
some distance into the sea ; destroying in its way a small
fishing village. At the same time an interruption of
the trade-wind took place, probably having some con
nection with the volcanic action. Sight-seers, who are
indigenous to all lands, hastened to Hawaii. They were
rewarded by a spectacle of indescribable grandeur. The
fire rose 250 feet above the crater, taking, sometimes,
the form of a cone of flame ; at others, that of a jet de
feu, before which all artificial pyrotechnics would have
had to ' pale their ineffectual fires.' The descending
lava presented a head of incandescence 200 rods in
width, curving over the mountain-sides like a blood-red
snake, and occasionally leaping sheer down a pali.
On the 9th of February an observing party left the
College at Honolulu for the purpose of ascending to the
crater. It was one of their number who was killed, as
previously mentioned, by falling into a concealed pit in
the forest. On the 15th, Capt. Montresor, in H. B. M.'s
ship, ' Calypso,' conveyed the king and his suite, from
Oahu to Hawaii, to observe the phenomena of the erup
tion. Its first appearance, seen at night from sea, was
that of a star having two rays of light depending from
it, — a double-comet, in fact, — hanging two-thirds up
the mountain-side. Landing at Kaawoloa, or Cook's
Bay, the expedition commenced their. ascent, and having

24 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
passed through a forest seven miles in breadth, emerged
on a plateau 5000 feet above the sea-level, affording a
good site for observation. By daylight, two great and
solemnly moving rivers were seen flowing northward
and westward from the crater, with subsidiary streams.
Their motion was marked by the sudden ignition of
trees, which fell in that short, fiery embrace. The ap
pearance at night is thus described : ' The immense
arena; the intense glare of the flows and fissures cover
ing the mountain-side, to the height of some 6000 feet
above us, describing .horizontal lines and points of
molten mineral matter; the sullen glow above the
crater and inferior orifices from which the lava issued ;
the fire and smoke rising from the far-off streams, and
those nearer at hand, in which latter, every now and
then, the burning trees threw up their wreathed flames,
like the arms of an agonised victim — added to the sort
of glimmer and twinkle seen on a frosty night, produced
a spectacle of such grandeur that words before it become
powerless. If on some mountain-side the largest fire
that ever devastated San Francisco could be reproduced,
and four or five hundred domes, like that of St. Peter's
at Eome when illuminated, be dotted about on the
slopes below, the general effect might be that of a very
pretty miniature on ivory of the eruption on Mauna
Loa. Every five minutes or so, some new chasm or
torrent shewed itself, comparable at first to the spark
of a glow-worm, but suddenly extending like a train of
gunpowder.' Lest this picture should seem to be somewhat deeply
tinged with that excusable exaggeration in which new
impressions from great natural phenomena often clothe
themselves, we will add to it the more scientific ac
count of the eruption given by Professor Alexander,

ERUPTION OF 1859 25
of the Punahou College. He describes the jet, when
first seen by his party, as 300 feet in height ; in form
and movement exactly like a fountain, and accompanied
by immense columns of steam. By day his companions
explored the craters. The principal sources of action
were two cones, about 150 feet high, composed of
pumice and fragments of lava. The suffocating gases
which escaped from the red-hot ventholes of these fur
naces, rendered it a matter of danger to approach them.
At night, the party encamped by a fresh lava-stream,
which served well for all cooking purposes. The next
morning they followed the central flow from the lower
crater, and reached its outlet from its subterranean
channel. Its appearance, there, was that of a- pool of
blood, a few rods in width, boiling up like a spring, and
spouting up thick, clotted masses to the height of ten
or twenty feet. On the lower side it poured like a cata
ract of molten metal at white heat, down a descent of
about fifty feet, with a roar like that of a heavy surf.
Keeping to windward, and protecting their faces with
their hats, they approached the brink. The lava ap
peared almost as fluid as water, and ran with a velocity
which the eye could scarcely follow. For several miles
the fiery river was a continuous series of rapids and
cataracts. They travelled for three or four hours along
the edge of the stream. The open part of the canal was
from twenty to fifty feet wide ; but the stream was
really broader, because both its banks were undermined
to a considerable distance. Over this part of it, flowing
beneath their steps, there were frequent openings,
through which they could see the rushing torrent a few
inches below their feet. ' To describe the scene,' says
Professor Alexander, ' is impossible. For the first time
we saw actual waves and actual spray of liquid lava.

26 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
As its surges rolled back from the enclosing walls of
rock, they curled over and broke like combers on the
reef. There was, besides, an endless variety in its
forms. Now we passed a cascade ; then a smooth ma
jestic river ; then a series of rapids, tossing their waves
like a stormy sea ; now rolling into lurid caverns, the
roofs of which were hung with red-hot stalactites ; and
then under arches, which it had thrown over itself in
sportive triumph.' After pursuing the great stream
some miles, it reticulated into so many rivulets, which
formed the ground between them into islands, that it
required great caution not to be isolated on the latter.
The lava often penetrated caves, and blew them up with
loud explosions. Where the flow debouched upon the
ocean, it filled up a bay, and formed a promontory in
its stead. Through the first six months of the year 1859,
the volcano continued in unabated activity. Among
its results, it produced a drought in the district of
North Kona, all the wells there having become dry.
When Mr. Ellis* visited Kilauea in 1823, he and his
companions observed fifty-one conical crater-islands of
various sizes rising round the edge, or from the surface
of the burning lake. Twenty-two of these constantly
emitted columns of grey smoke, or pyramids of brilliant
flame, and several of them vomited streams of lava.
The conclusion they arrived at, as to the present form
ation and condition of the crater was, that it had been
originally full to the horizontal black ledge of lava 400
feet below the surface of the ground. From this ledge,
the cliffs, composed of strata of ancient lava, rose per
pendicularly. This we may call the first or upper crater.
The second, or inferior crater, descended from the black
* 'Missionary Tour through Hawaii.' London. 1826,1827.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE CRATER 27
ledge some three or four hundred feet, with sloping
sides ; its floor being the burning lake with extended
cones, described above. It was Mr. Ellis's opinion, that
this fiery bottom was only a roof or diaphragm, of no
great thickness, the upper and solidified portion of
incandescent matter of the volcano ; and that the liquid
mass had quite recently sunk away from it, and found a
subterranean outlet to the ocean ; inasmuch as the great
rising of the sea, previously spoken of, had occurred
only three weeks before his visit to the volcano. The
pent-up gases and fluid matter found vents through the
numerous mammelons on the upper flooring of the
crater. The natives, too, believed that Pete had an
underground exit from the mountain to the sea; and
we know that heathen myths are often poetic render
ings of natural facts. There were other symptoms of a
great flow of lava about the same time, though unseen.
At Kaimu, a village on the south-east coast, about two
months previous to Mr. Ellis's arrival, a slight earth
quake was felt; and after the tremulous motion, the
earth cracked in a fissure, taking a direction from north-
by-east to south-by-west, and extending several miles.
The fracture was perpendicular, and the chasm not
more than Wo feet in width. Smoke and luminous
vapour were emitted from it at the time of the occur
rence. ¦ Of the craters on Mauna Hualalai, on the western
side of Hawaii, the largest seen by Mr. Ellis was about
one mile in circumference, and 400 feet deep. This
was extinct at the time of his visit ; but in 1800 a
great eruption took place from it. On that occasion
the stream of lava, which flowed from the volcano filled
up a bay nearly twenty miles long, and formed a head
land, which runs out three or four miles into the ocean.

28 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Adjoining this pit was a much smaller one, from which
sulphurous vapour ascended. Sixteen other craters
were examined by his party on the same mountain.
On the next island, Maui, lying north-west of Hawaii,
is the mountain Mauna Hale-a-ka-la, ' the house of the
sun.' A journey on horse of about six hours brings the
traveller from the foot of the mountain to the brim of
the largest crater in the world. Mr. Cheever, who
visited the spot in 1850, says that as he and his party
advanced to its edge, there suddenly opened upon them
a pit, twenty-five or thirty miles in circumference, and
two or three thousand feet deep. They counted in it
about sixteen basins of old volcanoes — volcano within
volcano. To the north-east and to the south-east two
vast openings broke the lava walls ; sluice-gates, out of
which the molten lava and sand once poured down to
the sea. On the sides of the volcanic cones grew large'
plants of the silver-sword (ensis argentea), looking,
at that distance from the spectator, like little white
pebbles. From the elevated position where the party
stood, 10,000 feet above the sea level, the scene was
magnificent. Four thousand feet below them was a vast
expanse of cloud, like new-fallen snow, rolled in drifts
and ridges, and which reflected the sunbeams upwards
with dazzling splendour. When this sea of cloud broke;
the island of Lanai was seen, lying directly west, over the
mountain-tops of Lahaina, themselves having a height
of 6000 feet. Trending off to the horizon, a hundred
miles, lay the blue Pacific, not seeming far beneath
them, but as if lifted up to their own plain of vision.*
Eising out of the ocean was the dome of Mauna Loa,
* Edgar Poe gives a graphic description of the effect of the rising
of the horizon round an aeronaut as he ascends from the earth in a
balloon.

CRATER OF HALE-A-KA-LA 29
on Hawaii, its snow-capped summit flashing in the sun
like a bank of alabaster. The clouds, and their shadows
seen on other clouds far beneath, hovered over the blue
deep, sometimes seeming to float in it like great ice
bergs. The extent covered by the vision on each of
three sides of the mountain, was at least 200 miles.
From the foregoing accounts of the volcanic .condi
tion of the islands, it is possible that some readers, who
may have entertained an idea of visiting them, may
infer that there is a degree of general instability about
the country, and a consequent want of permanence in
its institutions. The supposition is a mistaken one ;
the Hawaiian Islands and their institutions are probably
as permanent as other portions of the globe which are
removed a little farther from the central fires. And
with regard to persons who are not certain about the
strength of their nerves, it is by no means incumbent
on them to make the actual descent into the crater of
Kilauea.* * Prom experiments instituted by Arago, Marcet, and others, and
lately by observations made in sinking a deep mine at Dukinfield, in
which a depth of 2,100 feet has been attained, it is well ascertained
that a gradually increasing temperature attends the descent from the
surface of the earth, and bears at different depths ascertainable ratios
to the depression; any irregularities being dependent, apparently,
on the different strata pierced, their conducting power for heat, &c.
The rate of increase varies from about 1 degree in 50 feet to 1
degree in 100 feet. On this scale, boiling point of water would be
reached at a depth of two and a half miles ; and at forty miles beneath
the earth's surface the deduced temperature would be 3000 degrees, at
which heat every metal and every rock would be in a state of fusion.
Mr. W. Fairbairn, LL.D., read an interesting paper upon the thermo-
metrical experiments in the Dukinfield mine, at the Manchester
Literary and Philosophic Society, in April 1861.

30

CHAPTEE HI.
CLIMATE — PRODUCTIONS — COMMERCE
THOUGH situated within the tropics, the Hawaiian
Islands enjoy a propitious climate; one belong*
ing rather to the temperate than to the torrid zone.
There is scarcely a place on the globe which has a tem
perature so equable as that of Honolulu, one of more
desirable register, or where the elements are kindlier
mixed. So invisible is the subject of weather to the
islanders, that Mr. Jarvis remarks their language has
no word to express the general idea. The diurnal range
of the thermometer in Honolulu, is twelve degrees.
During twelve years the extremes of temperature in
shade were 90°, and 53°; the entire range during that
long period not exceeding 37°. In Canada, near
Montreal, about the beginning of March of last year
(1861), a variation of 80° occurred in forty-eight hours.
The mean temperature of the capital of the islands is
about 75°. At Lahaina the thermometrical range in
ten years was 32°; viz., from 54° to 86°; and during no
day in that period did the variation exceed 19°. What
may be called the summer and winter seasons cor
respond pretty nearly with our own. June being the
warmest month, January the coldest. Honolulu, La
haina, and some other places on the shores, are, from
their genial climate, eminently serviceable to invalids
suffering from pulmonary complaints. On the leeward

CLIMATE 31
side of the islands, and away from the mountains, little
rain falls, and the sun is rarely obscured by cloud. For
about nine months of the year the north-east trade wind
blows uninterruptedly ; that north-east wind so dreaded,
so disliked, often so fatal, in our own Continent, — 'neither
good for man nor beast ; ' but there a wind coming down
from the temperate regions, and softened by passing
over 2000 miles of ocean. During its prevalence, the
leeward side of the islands basks in the ' bright sunny
lapse of a long summer day;' inducing by the very
beauty of the weather some degree of enervation in the
human system, and a corresponding c lotus-eating ' con
dition of mind. A more bracing air may be obtained by
ascending the mountains. A. mere ride from the capital
up the Nuuanu Valley will give a cooler climate in an
hour. Lahaina and some other leeward spots on the
shore, possess the refreshing influence of a regular land
and sea breeze. Above Lahaina, at an elevation of 3000
feet, is Mountain Eetreat, with a temperature varying
from 40° to 75°, and at Waimea, Hawaii, the average
reading is 64°, the minimum being 48°. But though
on the mountains, owing to the nature of the soil, the
ground does not remain damp, rains are very frequent ;
and on the upland region of Kauai, at a height of 4000
feet, fires are required even in the month of July. The
vast quantity of vapour absorbed into the atmosphere
below, becomes condensed by the masses of the moun
tains, so that showers and mists are habitual with them,
and the two loftiest peaks of Hawaii are rarely free from
a belt of cloud. On the windward side of the islands
the climate is rougher, and the rain-fall much more
abundant. Whatever there is of disagreeable in the
weather of the leeward districts, occurs at the time of
the change, or rather interruption, of the Monsoon.

32 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Then violent winds sweep through Honolulu, eddying
in the streets, and, no doubt, do their work in purifying
and dispelling stagnant air and unwholesome exhala
tions. Eains of a tropical character fall at this season,
and also play their part in flushing streets and cleansing
hidden corners. But the sybarites of the capital dislike
the three months' interval of settled calmness, — com
plain of it, — and write little pasquinades on the weather
in their newspapers. Sometimes, perhaps, this may not
be without cause. In January of the present year it
rained at Lahaina continually for eight days, and the
rain was accompanied by furious squalls from the east
ward. A shower that lasts eight days may seem to
indicate weather not so genial ; but it occurs only at one
season. After all, it is not much worse than the climate
of Killarney, and is not to be compared with the rains
of intertropical India, or to Venezuela where, according
to Humboldt, it rained incessantly for ten months.*
Of the natural productions of the islands, the indi
genous Fauna is small. It consists of swine, dogs, rats,
and a bat which, forgetful of the decencies, flies by
day. Of birds, domestic fowls appear to be native. In
the mountainous region of Hawaii wild geese abound,
but do not approach the shore. Snipes, plovers, and
wild ducks are found on all the islands. There are only
a few species of singing birds ; Ellis mentions one with
an exceedingly sweet note, resembling that of the
English thrush. Some of the. birds are remarkable for
the beauty of their plumage, a small paroquet of glossy
purple ; the tropic bird, the feathers of which are used
to form the kahili, a kind of fan carried near the king
* Ellis gives a meteorological table kept by the American mis
sionaries in Oahu during one year. Ey this, rain fell on only forty days
of the twelve months, and only forty-seven days beside were cloudy.

ZOOLOGY OF THE ISLANDS 33
and chiefs as one of their insignia; a species of wood
pecker, with a variegated plumage of yellow, red, and
green, from which the heads of some of the idols and
the beautiful cloaks and helmets of the chiefs were
made. A bird * inhabits the mountainous parts of the
islands having under each wing a single feather of
yellow colour, one inch in length. The birds were
caught by means of a viscous substance smeared on
poles, and the two precious feathers were secured. Of
such feathers alone was the mamo, or war-cloak, of
Kamehameha composed. This invaluable mantle was
four feet long, and eleven feet and a-half in width at
the bottom. Its formation occupied nine successive
reigns. Formerly, no poisonous or noxious reptile was a denizen
of the islands, except centipedes; and these were not
large in size or numerous. Since intercourse with other
nations commenced, however, insects and vermin, the
camp-followers of civilisation, have made their appear
ance. A small lizard was abundant. Few species of
insects were found, but they numbered among them
some which were destructive to vegetation, particularly
a caterpillar, having the native name of pelua.
Many varieties of fish frequented the shores, but not
in such abundance as in some other groups. The Ha-
waiians were expert fishermen ; and they used, as once
was done in Europe, to preserve and fatten fish in tanks
or stews. Such perfect confidence had the natives in
the water, that one of their amusements was to attack a
shark, and after having evaded and taunted him, to kill
him with a dagger carried in the rnaro or girdle.
The vegetable kingdom in the islands included among
* Melithreptes Pacifica.
D

34 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
its indigens the sugar cane, the bread fruit, plantain,
banana, cocoa-nut, candle-nut, calabash, and other
palms ; tree-ferns, having the stem fifteen feet in
height, and cycas. Valuable timber trees grew in the
forests on the flanks of the mountains ; the Kou tree
(Cordid), and others of hard and heavy wood with a
handsome grain. Sandal wood abounded on the heights,
but was lavishly cut down as an article of commerce,
till the tree was nearly exterminated. Of fruit-bearing
trees, shrubs, and flowering plants, there were the Hi
biscus, Pandamus odoratissime, the Ohia, a tree pro
ducing plentifully a juicy, pulpy, but rather insipid
fruit, red, and of the size of an apple ; the Mairi, a very
fragrant plant, from which wreaths were made; the
Ohelo, a shrub bearing abundantly edible berries, and
which belonged in an especial manner to the goddess of
the volcano, Pele; the prickly pear, &c. Strawberries and
raspberries were plentiful on the highlands of Hawaii —
their fruit large, but inferior in flavour to the British
kinds. From the Kukui was obtained a useful oil ; from
the sweet potatoe, an intoxicating drink ; and they had
the Gardenia among the flowers with which they were
accustomed to adorn themselves. On the whole, how
ever, vegetation was not so bountiful in this group as in
the Society Islands.
Three indigenous plants require special notice from
their extreme value and importance to the natives.
The first is the taro (Arum esculentum). It formed
the staple of their food, and is still very generally used.
This succulent root was sometimes cooked, but was more
generally pounded into a semi-fluid mess, and allowed
partially to ferment, when it was called poi. Among
the reasons which made some Hawaiians object to visit
ing England was that poi could not be obtained here.

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS 35
Pox requires very industrious cultivation. It is grown
in pits or beds, kept very wet; but under diligent culture
it is so productive that it has been said, a taro pit
a few. yards in length will supply food for one man
throughout the year. Beechey says* that at the time
of his visit to the Hawaiian Islands, ' On gaining the
heights at Oahu, extensive taro plantations were seen
filling every valley ; and Oahu was distinguished by the
name of the Garden of the Sandwich Islands.'
Another esculent arum, the mountain taro, grows
on the higher ground, and in very dry soil. Its value is
comparatively little.
The second to be mentioned is the cloth-plant (Morus
papyrifera), in the native tongue wauti. From the
inner bark of the young shoots was made the fine and
very beautiful cloths for which the islands were famous.
The osier-like plants are very carefully tended, and
when the rods springing from the roots attained the
length of ten or twelve feet, which they did in a year
or eighteen months, they were cut, at a certain season ;
and by careful and delicate processes, the inner bark or
liber was separated ; and women, sometimes a chiefess
and her female attendants, devoted themselves to make
from it tapa, or cloth, of various degrees of fineness.
By beating it with a mallet, having different patterns
carved on its four faces, several varieties of cloth were
produced. These formed the pau, or women's garment,
reaching from the waist nearly to the ancles ; the maro,
or narrow cloth worn by the men round the loins ; the
sleeping cloths of the chiefs, &c. The people had a
method of printing the tapa with very beautiful colours,
derived from vegetables and earths ; and they even
* 'Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific,' &c, vol. i. 316.
D 2

36 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
scented the somewhat scanty habiliments of the female
with sandal wood and pandanus seeds.
The last indigenous plant of importance is the ti
(draccena). Its leaves are used in thatching houses and
huts, and were also employed for symbolical purposes
connected with religion and tabu. A branch of this
plant was the emblem of peace, corresponding with the
olive of Europe. In times of war it was carried, to
gether with a young plantain tree, as a flag of truce.
Its lustrous green leaves woven by their stalks formed
a short cloak used by the islanders in their mountain
journeys. It was planted round enclosures, its inter
twined stems forming a valuable permanent hedge. Its
roots, large, woody, and fusiform, were, baked and eaten.
When macerated and fermented there is produced from
them an intoxicating drink. Another plant, the Awa
(piper mythysticum), yields a beverage still more potent,
and has been a constant subject of legislation and police.
The effects of Awa do not end in inebriation; it possesses
curative powers in disease, and its action, from Beechey's
account, is very remarkable in obstinate cutaneous dis
orders.* Ellis also thinks it an excellent antiscorbutic.
Vancouver, in 1792—93, introduced cattle in the
islands; and various useful seeds were given to the
natives by that great and generous navigator. From that
time foreign animals and plants have been imported.
Large herds of cattle are now grazed, and a very profit
able trade was, till lately, carried on in supplying the
merchant shipping and whalers with beef, which is also
exported to California. Flocks, too, are raised, but sheep
are not always successful; the temperature of the low
lands being too high for their proper habitude. They
* ' Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific, 1831.' Vol. ii. 120

HORSES 37
answer better in the mountain districts; but the Ha-
waiians are not fond of the hills as a residence, with
their chill and showers. Horses have multiplied since
their introduction with extraordinary rapidity. Numbers
of them roam about at their own sweet will, breaking
fences and treading down crops, having lost a good deal
of their equine civilization, and re-entered on a semi-
savage state. There is almost a plague of horses in
Oahu ; and their abundance has encouraged a passion in
both sexes for furious riding, dangerous in itself, and to
one part of the community very detrimental. It is not
to be wondered at that a people whose former delight
was in war, who would fight without armour, and make
a single battle last eight days ; who, at the present time,
for their pleasure plunge down waterfalls, swim amongst
the breakers that burst over the reefs, and fight sharks
in single combat, should seize on a new muscular ex
citement with animation, and ride the last hobby nearly
to death. If nine-tenths of the common horses now
on the islands were destroyed it would prove a great
advantage to the inhabitants.
The table of Inland Eevenue for 1860, gives 27,663
horses returned for taxation; and we may conclude the
actual number to have been greater, when we consider
the nature of the return. If to the horses be added
2781 mules, we have one animal to nearly every two
persons in the Hawaiian Islands. The value of horses
fluctuates a good deal : sometimes they fetch a fair
price, up to about a hundred dollars. The supply must
occasionally exceed the demand ; and a sale of stock
was noticed in the ' Polynesian ' lately, in which a
mare and two fillies were sold for a quarter of a
dollar — about one shilling ! A moderate price " for
horse-flesh in any country.

38 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Among exotic plants introduced, the most important
are the coffee-tree, cotton, indigo, tobacco, wheat, the
Irish potatoe, cocoa, the grape-vine, orange, citron,
melon, cucumber, pine-apple, fig, tamarind, guava,
and other fruits; beans, onions, cabbages, pumpkin,
and other vegetables. Coffee has thriven well, and
forms a valuable article of export from the islands,
where there are now large, well -cultivated plantations.
The berry is of a fine kind, but for two or three years
past a blight produced by an insect of the coccinea
tribe has injured the trees and greatly reduced the crop.
Indigo grows freely, and some specimens or samples
of the dye have been sent to Hamburg ; but the quahty
was too inferior to encourage its manufacture. The silk
worm may some day be tended successfully, and the
mulberry flourishes well. Wheat and potatoes thrive
on the uplands of Maui; the sweet potatoe is indi
genous. Commerce is carried on to some extent with most
parts of the world. About four-tenths of the imports
are from the Atlantic side of the United States, and
about one-fourth is from the Pacific coasts of North
America. Great Britain stands next in order; then
Hamburg and Bremen ; China and Japan each send
their contingent of merchandise ; France furnishes her
wines and brandy ; and by the custom house returns for
the year 1860, goods were entered at Honolulu from
Vancouver's Island, the Bussian possessions, Tahiti,
Chili, and some other places. Guano was brought from
the Chincha Islands, and from some islands named
Baker's and Jarvis's, a few days' sail from Hawaii.
The commerce of the islands is dependent in a great
measure on the whaling trade of the North Pacific. A
large quantity of oil and bone is landed and re-exported.

COMMERCE 39
In 1860, the trans-shipments of oil from Honolulu
and Lahaina were 829,945 gallons, and of whalebone
571,966 lbs. The total number of whalers entering
Hawaiian ports in that year was 325 vessels; but several
ships made their appearance at more than one port,
and are entered for the spring and fall seasons. The
actual number of separate whalers engaged during the
autumn or fall of 1860 was 132 ; of which nine belonged
to the Hawaiian Islands, and 113 were American owned.
The fishery had been comparatively an unsuccessful
one. In the previous year the quantities of oil and
bone had respectively exceeded those of 1860 by 86,256
gallons of the former article, and 20,522 lbs. of the latter.
The total number of whalers visiting the Hawaiian
ports in 1859 was 549 visits, against 325 visits in 1860.
The failing of the 'catch' in the North Pacific does
not appear to be a temporary fluctuation, but has indi
cated itself for three successive seasons. The whales
appear to have been over fished — a consequence of the
great profits made by vessels employed in this trade
in the previous years — and to have migrated to other
seas. Of domestic exports, exclusive of oil and bone, sugar,
wool, hides, and coffee are the most important. The
following table shows the nature and quantities of
Hawaiian productions shipped at Honolulu in 1860.
Sugar . 1,444,271 lbs., or 645 tons
Molasses and syrup . . 108,613 gallons
Coffee  48,966 lbs.
Pulu* .... 649,204 lbs.
* A silky substance, collected from the trunks of the large tree-ferns
which abound on the island of Hawaii. It has been used for cen
turies by the natives for making pillows and mattresses, and is now
exported to California and British Columbia for the same purpose.

40

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

Hides .

577,341 lbs.

Beef .

. 252 barrels
Poi* .
. 649 barrels
Salt .
. 884 tons
Flour .
1,094 barrels
Hay .
. 11^ tons
Sweet potatoes
1,013 barrels
Fungiis |
178,794 lbs.
Cattle
. 104
Horses
. 81
Mules .
. 59
Donkeys
. 27
Sheep
. 572
Wool .
70,524 lbs.
Tallow
90,300 lbs.
Whale oil
140,185 gallons
Whalebone .
39,958 lbs.
Goat skins .
37,473
Horns
8,359
Hogs .
. 83
Calf skins .
. 716
Goats
. 12
Tobacco
1,000 lbs.
Squasliis
1,600
Ginger
. 51 casks & cases
Pish
. 15 packages
Other articles, no
; nam
ed
¦ . 198 packages
The supplies furnished in the course of that year to the
shipping which visited the port, is estimated at 90,600
dollars value.
The whole commerce of 1860 showed a decrease on
the preceding year — the defect arising from a less suc
cessful whaling season, a drought affecting the sugar .
* Preparation from the taro root.
t Used as an article of food by the Chinese.
COMMERCE 41
plantations, and a blight in the coffee-trees. 'The total
value of the imports in 1859, was #1,555,558 ; in 1860,
#1,223,749 ; showing a falling off of a quarter of a
million of dollars. The export trade suffered also, but
in a smaller ratio. In 1859, the value of goods exported
was #931,329 ; in 1860, #807,459 ; exhibiting a decrease
in value of #123,870..
The causes leading to a decline in Hawaiian com
merce are natural ones, and it is to be hoped, tempo
rary ; whilst increasing relations with California, China,
and probably Japan, are opening out new markets of
export and import. About 1000 of the natives are
usually absent from their country, engaged in the whaling
trade at sea, or on the guano islands of the Pacific.
The average passage of sailing vessels, from San
Francisco to Honolulu, between the 1st of October and
1st of January, is sixteen days : the average voyage
from Victoria, Vancouver's Island, is twenty-seven days ;
from Kanagawa, Japan, twenty-six days; and from
Hong-Kong, sixty-seven and a half days.
The merchant-fleet under the Hawaiian flag, in 1860,
consisted of one steamer, the Kilauea, of 414 tons
burthen and 100-horse power ; eleven whalers, with
a total tonnage of 2303 tons; seven foreign traders,
aggregate, 1426 tons; and thirty-two coasters, schooners,
and sloops, together 1475 tons. The Government owns
a steam-tug, the Pele, of thirty-horse power.
Treaties of commerce exist between Hawaii and the
following nations: — Great Britain, and France, made
in 1846; Denmark, in 1846; Hamburg, in 1848;
United States, in 1850; Bremen, in 1851; Sweden
and Norway, in 1852; new treaty with Great Britain,
in 1851 ; new treaty with France, in 1857. In 1860,
the admiral commanding the Eussian fleet in the Pacific,

42 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
visited Honolulu, and a treaty with Eussia will pro
bably result from the communications which then took
place ; probably, also, with Japan, the ambassadors of
which nation stayed at Honolulu for nearly a fortnight,
on their way to Washington.
The Hawaiian Government is represented by consular
agents in Great Britain, France, Chili, Australia, New
Zealand, Japan, and the Eussian Settlements on the
Amoor.

43

CHAPTEE IV.
OUR ROYAL CITY OF HONOLULU
MOST of the views- whhih we have seen of the city
of Honolulu have this grave fault, that they
have evidently been taken before the city was erected.
They usually represent a good deal of mountain in
the background, and in front a large expanse of
water; — the harbour, bearing upon it a considerable
amount of shipping ; — but they omit the buildings.
The lithographic view of Honolulu, from which the
photograph given in this volume is taken, is compara
tively modern; but even this scarcely gives the idea
of a city containing 12,000 inhabitants,— the metro
polis of the North Pacific. It rather recals those
pictures we are so accustomed to in our water-colour
exhibitions, where, under the catalogue-name of ' View
of Calais, with Fishing-Boats,' we see a brilliantly-
coloured chasse-marSe occupying the foreground, and
the town of Calais represented in a small corner by
a white windmill and a couple of boarding-houses.
Few cities have a more noble situation than Honolulu.
In approaching it from the south-west, the island of
Oahu presents a very picturesque appearance. A chain
of lofty hills, stretching from north-west to south-east,
is the most prominent object inland. A remarkable
point of land closes in the bay at its lower extremity.

44 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
It is a long hill, truncated above ; which, while it shows
seaward a peak, named Diamond Head, when seen from
the town, or from the south-eastern direction at sea,
looks like a straight, detached ridge, a little elevated at
its end. The particular form of this promontory results
from its volcanic origin. Another remarkable hill of
the same character, crowned with a battery, guards the
entrance of the smaller bay which forms the harbour of
Honolulu. At the foot of the mountains extends a
fertile plain, ten miles in length, and, in parts, two miles
in width from the sea to the base of the hills. On this
plain Honolulu is built. The remarkable shapes of
the mountains, torn by ravines or divided by green
valleys, and of the plain also, unmistakeably speak the
fiery agencies which produced them. Those agencies
were exerted at a very ancient period. The substratum
of the plain is a deposited calcareous rock, containing
bones of animals and fish, marine shells, and branches
of white coral. This rock is hardest at its upper ex
tremity, and becomes softer and more porous as its
depth increases. Above the chalk lies a layer of fine
volcanic ashes and cinders ; and over all a rich alluvial
soil of the depth of two or three feet. By boring little
more than a dozen feet into the chalk stratum, excel
lent water is obtained. It is a remarkable circumstance,
that though the water in the wells rises and falls with
the tide, — showing that it reaches them by infiltration
from the sea, — it is never salt or brackish to the taste.
The city is, therefore, blest with great ' water privileges,'
and a corresponding facility for drainage. It is built
round the harbour, which possesses quays and warehouses,
and slips for heaving up and repairing ships. Near it
are the custom-house, and a large building containing
the public offices. There is also the fort, which, at

HONOLULU 45
the time of Beechey's visit, mounted forty guns; but
has now been dismantled, and applied to other govern
ment uses.
The central portion of the town consists of regularly
laid out streets, many of the houses standing within
gardens. There are two stone churches, belonging to
the American Congregationalists; a Native church; and
the Eoman Catholic Cathedral. A distinguishing feature
of Honolulu is, that this large town is built without a
single chimney, — a cheerful city, under its brilliant,
unclouded sky ; the blue sea spreading at its feet, with
a silvery line of breakers on the distant reef. The masts
of shipping in the port rise into view above the spread
ing roofs of the houses and stores ; the flags on the
fort and at the consulates flutter in the fanning breeze ;
and the sound of hammers, — welcome indication and
type of industry, — comes from the shipyards of the
harbour. People of all nations are meeting in the
wide streets ; English, American, French, German,
Chinese, South Polynesians, are represented here ; busy
with commerce, with politics, with dinner at the very
excellent hotels, or, in that rest-inviting climate, busy
doing nothing. The Queen's Hospital is to be visited ;
or a salute from the battery on Punch-bowl hill an
nounces that a foreign man-of-war, — in the neater
American form, a national ship, — has arrived. Numbers
of Hawaiians, more or less in European dress, fill the
streets, giving a smile and the cheerful aloha, or
greeting, as they pass you. Women bring in plantains,
and oranges, or the delicious chirimoya, from gardens ;
vegetables, and fish, and taro roots. The younger
women, though they have thrown off idolatry and thrown
on some clothes, must still crown themselves with flowing
chaplets as of old. They have discarded many things,

46 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
but cannot abandon that graceful taste and apprecia
tion of nature which led them to deck themselves, —
both sexes occasionally, — with perfumed and many-
coloured blossoms, formed in elegant wreaths.
Look, too, at these large placards ; the Eoyal Ha
waiian Theatre is open this evening. Great stars are
announced, — brilliant stars ; though, like those of the
Southern Cross, unknown in our northern hemisphere.
The Equestrian Circus also invites to its new and amaz
ing 'acts,' and it will not be left empty by a people
so devoted to horseflesh. See, now, even whilst we
speak, how many riders of both sexes the eye takes in,
as one looks along the road ! and we must take care
that we are not ridden down, for the police, with all
their care, cannot prevent the inconvenience of occa
sional racing in the streets. There seems an unusual
stir in the streets to-day; a greater than ordinary
crowd. Many country people are flocking in ; and that
salute meant something more than the arrival of a na
tional ship in the harbour. Let us walk onward, and
inquire what this gala appearance means ; for flags are
flying, and we hear music at a distance. We can inquire
here at the office of the 'Polynesian,' an excellently
conducted weekly newspaper, of many years standing,
and the Government official organ, and semi-official.
Nearly vis-a-vis is the bureau of the 'Commercial
Advertiser,' also a weekly journal, in English, devoted
to the interests of the American missionaries; and
claiming, by its generally adverse criticisms on minis
ters and measures, to occupy, in the room of any sena
torial body, the place of 'His Majesty's Opposition.'
The same party have also a monthly publication, of
many years standing, 'The Friend.' We remark, in
passing, that two newspapers in the vernacular make

HONOLULU 47
their appearance in Honolulu, — the ' Hae Hawaii,'
weekly, and the ' Hohuloa,' monthly; a third paper,
upon liberal principles, has lately been added, named
'The Star of the Pacific'
The animation of the capital is soon accounted for ;
it is the 9th of February, and the king's birthday, who
completes this morning his twenty-seventh year. We
learn that there has been already a reception at the
Palace. His Majesty was attended by his executive
and judicial officers ; the members of the Privy Council ;
the Governors of Oahu and Maui ; his Aides-de-camp,
&c. And first, the Chancellor and Chief-Justice ap
proached, and in the name of himself and his fellows of
the ermine robe offered, in a few loyal and pious words,
sincere congratulations on the day. Then the diplo
matic body arrived, headed by M. Perrin, who, as senior
of the foreign representatives, presented, in French,
their felicitations. General Miller, the British Com
missioner, being absent from the Islands, sent a written
address, which was read by the king's Foreign Minister.
The Consular body next expressed the kind feelings of
their respective governments. The king replied, seve
rally, to the addresses, shortly, and with that good taste
which characterises his Majesty's communications.
As the day advances the town puts on a completely
gala look. It announces for itself a national holiday ;
covers itself with flags ; fires more salutes ; and expa
tiates in picnic parties, in races, in amusements. Now
we see a procession coming from the direction of the
Palace. After the judiciary and foreign services had
had their audience, the king received a very important
domestic body, — the Fire Department of Honolulu ; the
members of which, after passing before his Majesty,
tersely expressed their joy in three hearty cheers. In

48 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the United States, the functions of the community for
protecting their cities from fire have been wisely ele
vated into an unpaid and honourable service. The
citizens who thus band themselves together against fire
as a threatening enemy, are actuated in the same
manner as our Eifle Volunteers, and evince a similar
corporate spirit. The Hawaiians have adopted the same
organization of Fire Companies, and hold them in the
same honour as in the States. Now the procession
appears. Three Engine Companies, with engines and
hose-carts ; and one ' Hook-and-Ladder ' Company, with
fire-wardens and engineers, all in uniform ; and the
engines decked with flowers, ribbons, and flags. A boy
rides on each engine, buried among the blossoms, like a
young Love ; and on the carriage of the ' Hooks,' beneath
a floral canopy, sit two pretty children, in gala dress ;
but whether to impersonate the genius of fire and water,
or lively to represent a ' hook '' and a ' ladder,' is left
undetermined. The city numbers four Fire-Companies ;
and 140 of their associated members are now doing
honour to their sovereign. o
Whilst the 140, and some other guests, after their pro
gress through the streets of Honolulu, are gone to lunch
in the rooms of No. 1 Engine, let us direct our steps to
the Palace, which they have lately left. The reception
is over; and we guess, by some vivas at a distance,
that the royal family are driving, and are coming this
way. Preceded by two outriders, in an open carriage,
—the most elegant that London can turn out — sits the
Queen, — fair and young, with an engaging expression
of face. Her embonpoint makes Her Majesty appear
some years older than she really is. A noble boy, the
Prince of Hawaii, sits opposite his mother; and the
King, on horseback, in a field-marshal's uniform, follows

THE PALACE 49
the carriage. Very heartfelt are the alohas which greet
the modest cortege as it passes.
We enter the open gates of the Palace enclosure, and
find ourselves in a garden, or pleasure grounds, of about
an acre, with an avenue leading through it formed by the
deep green leafed kukui and koa trees. A flight of steps
leads to a large hall, decorated in the European style.
Portraits of King Louis Philippe and his queen, presented
by the French monarch to Kamehameha III., hang
on the walls ; and also a likeness of the late Admiral
Thomas, for whom, as the medium through which the
sovereignty of the islands was restored to their own
rulers, after Lord George Paulet's possession of them,
the Hawaiians have always entertained feelings of the
deepest regard. Vases and miniature copies of some of
Thorwaldsen's works ornament the hall. The left wing
of the small, sunny palace is occupied by the throne
room. This apartment has a completely European
air, and resembles a drawing-room in London or Paris,
with the addition of a decorated chair at one of its sides,
the modest throne of the dynasty —
.' Simplex munditiis.'
Another room contains a very beautiful billiard-table,
also a present from the late King of the French ; and
the present Emperor, — not behind his predecessor in
making rich donations, — has recently sent the king a
large service of silver.
' On a small scale,' said King Kamehameha III. to
Mr. Hill, when the latter was presented to him in
1849, 'I am endeavouring to do, with the blessing of
God, what Peter the Great, of Eussia, did on a large
scale.' Suffice it to say of the palace, without tedious de-
E

50 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
scription, that it is appropriate, and is in proportion to
the kingdom and the capital of the islands ; and in this
it differs from the royal residences in some of the small
German States, where the palace occupies half the
town, and its gardens a quarter of the territory.
And now to horse ; and let us do what several others
are already doing this afternoon, ride over the plain be
hind Honolulu, and up the Nuuanu valley. There we
shall be refreshed and invigorated by the moving air
breathed at a higher elevation. The road leads across
the plain, which is level and fertile, but shows the scars
of ancient disturbance in some occasional ravines. Pro
ceeding along this highway, which is in places planted
with trees and dotted with houses and villas, we reach,
at less than a mile's distance, the hills, rising on each
hand, and forming at their interspace the winding vale
through which a river reaches the sea. The mouth of
the valley, says Mr. Ellis, which opens immediately
behind the town, is a complete garden, carefully kept
by its respective proprietors in a state of high cultiva
tion ; and the ground being irrigated by the water from
a river that winds rapidly down the valley, is remarkably
productive. The valley rises with a gradual ascent;
and after walking about three miles through an un
broken series of plantation, it becomes gradually nar
rower, and the mountains rise more steeply on either side.
The scenery is romantic and delightful. The bottom
of the valley is gently undulated ; and a rapid stream
takes its serpentine way from one side of it to the other,
sometimes wandering along with an unruffled surface,
at other times rushing down a fall of several feet, or
dashing and foaming among the rocks that interrupt its
progress. The sides of the hills are clothed with ver
dure; even the barren rocks that project from among

THE NUUANU VALLEY 51
the bushes are ornamented with pendulous or creeping
plants of various kinds ; and in several places beautiful
cascades leap down the steep mountain's side' into flow
ing rivulets beneath. The beauty of the scenery in
creases, until at length, after walking some time on
a rising ground rather more steep than usual, and
through a thicket of hibiscus and other trees, the
wanderer suddenly emerges into an open space, and as
he turns round a small pile of volcanic rocks, the famous
Pali, or precipice, bursts upon him with an almost over
powering effect. The distance of this remarkable spot
from the city is seven or eight miles. Immense masses
of black and ferruginous rock, many hundred feet in
height, and nearly perpendicular, present themselves on
both sides to his sight, while immediately before him,
he looks down the fearful steep, several hundred feet,
and beholds hills and valleys, trees and cottages, wan
dering streams and winding paths, cultivated planta
tions and untrodden thickets, and a varied landscape
many miles in extent, bounded by lofty mountains on
the one side, and the white-crested waves of the ocean
on the other, spread out before him as if by the hand
of enchantment. The natives ascend the precipice from
the northern side, the height being about 500 feet,
sometimes carrying considerable weights ; but the ascent
and descent are difficult.* In two places near the.
highest edge the rocks rise with an apparently perpen
dicular and even projecting point, which, it seems to
* A contributor to the ' Commercial Advertiser ' gives a graphic de
scription of a party of women he met several miles north of Honolulu,
who were bringing to market an immense hog which they had fattened,
and which -he estimated to weigh nearly 500 lbs. This unwieldy
animal had to be carried up the pali by the five or six females who had
charge of it. E 2

52 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the traveller, impossible to surmount. Two idols stood
beside the path, in former days tutelars of the dan
gerous pass. These were propitiated by those intending
to descend the pali by a garland of flowers, a piece of
tapa (cloth), or the oblation of a green bough only:
whilst those who had effected the ascent in safety, made
an acknowledgment of a similar kind for the supposed
protection which they had received from these idol
deities. The lines which separate piety and superstition
are not strongly marked; and if the heart were grateful, it
wanted but additional light as to the object of adoration,
to convert a heathen impulse into a Christian act of
devotion. Ellis makes a remark which shows an en
lightened tolerance and moderation not always mingled
with missionary zeal. He says his converted native
guides used to overturn or break these presiding idols
which are found at all dangerous passes, or they would
roll them down the pali : — ' but their conduct was
never the consequence of our directions, and seldom
received our approbation ; for we were not desirous to
become iconoclasts : our object was rather to enlighten
the minds of the people, to lead them to the exercise of
a better faith, and the adoption of a purer worship.'
He probably even thought that till the true sunlight
had risen on their night, they had better not extinguish
the taper which was their only guide.
The Pali of Nuuanu was an important strategic posi
tion, and is a spot of historical celebrity. Several battles
have been fought in its neighbourhood; and in 1790,
it was the scene of the last battle fought between the
King of Oahu, and the great warrior Kamehameha I.,
who had invaded his island, and who finally subdued the
whole group under his single sovereignty. The King
of Oahu, with his ally Kaeo, King of Kauai and Niihau,

JAPANESE EMBASSY 53
had assembled his forces a few miles north-west of
Honolulu. His army having been defeated in an en
gagement with the invader's forces, and Kaeo slain,
he retreated to the valley of Nuuanu, where he was
joined by an ambitious chief of Hawaii, named Taiana.
Taking their stand two miles from the precipice, they
awaited the victorious Kamehameha; but they could
not resist the momentum of the body of his troops.
The King of Oahu fell, and his broken army was
chased wildly up the valley. Once more rallied by the
warlike Taiana, the patriots turned to bay. Before
them were the war-gods of the enemy, behind them the
sheer destruction of the pali. Taiana fell. After the
death of their chiefs, Despair was the leader of that
gallant and diminished' band. What was in man's
command they did. Four hundred warriors were driven
headlong over the precipice, and dashed to pieces at its
base among the rocks. The rest of the little army was
entirely routed, and Kamehameha the conqueror was
left undisputed sovereign of the island.
In the month of March 1860, the city of Honolulu
was startled out of its proprieties by the arrival of the
Japanese embassy, on its way to Washington. The
sudden influx of eighty distinguished foreigners was an
event sufficient to tax the resources of etiquette. Baron
Merten and Elliot were consulted. All that the former
authority affords of the usages observed at a solemn
audience given to an ambassador or nuncio of the Pope
was digested, and made the groundwork of the reception
of th ese Eastern visitors. The royal remise was searched,
and every practicable carriage found therein was sent
down, together with a guard of honour, to escort to the
palace the two Ambassadors and their suite, with Ad
miral Tattnall, commanding the United States East

54 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
India Squadron, Captain Pearson, and the other officers
of the Powhattan steam frigate. The civilities on each
side were completely en regie. An audience of the
servants of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan was
appointed for two o'clock of the 9th of March. On the
arrival of the United States officers at the Palace
grounds', they were received at the lower gate by the
King's household troops on duty, and at the palace
stairs by the Honolulu Eifles. The gallant Admiral
and suite, having been introduced by Mr. Wyllie,
Minister of Foreign Kelations, were presented to the
King by the United States Commissioner, Mr. Borden,
The Legation from the Tycoon then arrived, and was
received at the foot of the stairs by Mr. Wyllie and
other officers of the King. His Majesty welcomed
them to his Court; and the Ambassadors expressed
their acknowledgments, — the conversation being con
ducted in Dutch, with the assistance of an English
interpreter. The King then retired ; and Her Majesty
Queen Emma entered the throne-room, accompanied
by the Princess Victoria, and attended by her ladies
and maids of honour, and with her usual grace received
the Ambassadors and the officers, asked their impressions
of her country, &c. ; and the ceremonies terminated.
The high courtesies were continued the same after
noon. The Ambassadors sent, through the American
Commissioner, some presents to the King. In acknow
ledging these, the Foreign Minister was 'happy to have
the opportunity of again assuring their Excellencies of
the very high respect and very distinguished considera
tion with which he had the honour to be,' &c. ; and a
few' days later, the Minister wrote a despatch, in which
the King proposes that a treaty should be at once made,
conditionally on after ratification, ' of perpetual friend-

JAPANESE EMBASSY 55
ship, commerce, and navigation,' between Japan and
Hawaii. To this despatch, Sinmi Bozenno Cami, First
Ambassador; Mooragaki Awageno Cami, Second Am
bassador; and Ogooli Bungono Cami, First Associate
and Eemembrancer, — being three princes, — reply, on
' the 25th day of second month of the seventh year of
Ansey,' — a date difficult for the historian to syn
chronise with our own era, but probably shortly after
Mr. Wyllie's despatch, — that they could not conclude
such a treaty under their powers, and that, therefore, the
despatch would be forwarded to Japan.
Not but that the two-sworded princes were ready ' to
swear eternal friendship on the stairs ;' for they received
the kindest hospitality from the King, who placed his
house in Beritania Street at the disposal of the Ambas
sadors, and his marine villa at the command of the
Admiral. The following sequence of adjectives will
describe the Japanese Embassy, — quick, intelligent,
and inquisitive ; possessed of a curiosity constant and
vivacious ; polite, affable, and patient under the corre
sponding curiosity exhibited by the Hawaiians towards
them. They inspected every object, inquired into it,
described it, and sketched it, — an accomplished draughts
man forming one of the suite.
Other calls of ceremony and of kindness having
been made, the Japanese, after a stay in the islands of
about ten days, prepared to depart; and a P.P.C.
audience was held at the palace. If Austria piques
herself on the Vienna code of etiquette, she will learn
in Japan a transcendental rigueur which quite eclipses
her own. The First Ambassador commenced a graceful
acknowledgment of all the attentions shown to himself
and his suite ; and having spoken two or three sentences,
he was so overcome by his feelings, — no doubt at the

56 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
exact place indicated in his instructions, — that his voice
shrank up to a piping treble, and he had to conclude
his speech in a suffocating whisper. So contagious
is deep feeling, that all the suite were affected in the
same manner and at the same moment, and could only
whisper their adieux, interrupted by their sighs.
And so they departed.

Il.l'.t, «*tt

b bo Bo M ?} <!> g baE<OE4

57

CHAPTEE V.
DERIVATION OF THE HAWAIIAN RACE — TRADITIONS OF
FEW persons, probably, who walk in Greenwich Park,
realize to themselves, as they pass Flamsteed House,
that they have stepped from one hemisphere of the
globe into another. Yet the meridian of zero is of
great geographical importance ; and the line which bi
sects the earth longitudinally gives us the definite idea
of an eastern and a western world. Great Britain is con
tained in the western hemisphere ; for the convenience
of which statement, we overlook the kingdom of Kent,
the Eastern Counties, etc., which lie eastward of this
imaginary line. And since the western world is our
world, the Hawaiian Islands claim to have a geogra
phical kindred with us, for they, too, are situated in the
western hemisphere.
From the east or from the west the population of
those islands has been derived ; the only other solution
of the question of origin being that of ' Centres of Cre
ation,' a hypothesis which finds favour in the United
States. We do not enter upon this theory ; but seek in
personal similitude, in analogies of language and insti
tutions and in cherished traditions, to identify the
Hawaiians with one of the divisional races of men, and
to trace the steps across the ocean by which they arrived
in this small archipelago.
The inquiry assumes larger proportions when we find

58 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
that it involves the derivation of the red inhabitants of
the American Continent, between whom and the Pacific
islanders there are points of resemblance.
Stephens came to the conclusion, moreover, that
there was a unity of race throughout the continents of
America, and that the present Indian nomads represent
the old city-builders of Yucatan and Central America.
A fact supporting this view may be noticed here.
Stephens relates that in removing some of the large
flat stones that faced buildings, there was frequently
found on the plaster beneath, the impression of a
small outspread hand. When Catlin exhibited his
Indian Museum in London, some years ago, there was
to be seen on the buffalo leather, of which the tents
were formed, the print of a small outspread hand,
which had been dipped in red pigment and pressed
upon the leather. Thus this sort of crowning impri
matur on the plaster of the ancient buildings and oh
the tents of the living race, the size and the attitude of
the hand being similar, may go for a small but auxiliary
proof of identity between the past and present inha
bitants of America; who, nevertheless, need not be
strictly its autochthones, but may have arrived on the
continent by an ancient immigration. The points of
resemblance mentioned byEllis between the aboriginesof
the mainland and of the Pacific Islands, are ' their modes
of war, instruments, gymnastic games, rafts or canoes,
treatment of their children, dressing their hair, feather
head-dresses of the chiefs, girdles, and particularly the
tiputa of 'the latter, which in shape and use exactly
resembles the poncho of the Peruvians.'
There seems also some resemblance traceable in the
building of parallel walls, which have been found in
Hawaii as well as in Central America. Whilst the

ORIGIN OF THE HAWAIIAN RACE 59
people who on the continent have left their pyramids
and sculptured stones used hieroglyphic writing, few
traces of the latter art exist among the islanders ; and
the symbols found by Ellis on the compact lava rocks in
Hawaii were of the most rudimentary character. They
consisted of a number of straight lines, semicircles, and
concentric rings, with some rude imitations of the human
figure, cut out with a stone hatchet. Those who are
acquainted with Stephen's volumes and Mr. Cather-
wood's elegant illustrations, will, however, remark a
connection between the primitive symbols just men
tioned and the recurring hieroglyphs of the American
sculptures, the cartouches, batons, and pellets, and the
grotesque human figure.
All the islanders of the Pacific are placed by Dr.
Latham in the division of Oceanic Mongolidae. These
may be subdivided into the Papuans, with black skins
and crisp hair, and the Malayans, or copper-coloured
race. We have at present to deal with the latter ; pre
mising that we do not assume the fact of their Eastern
origin contained in the name of Malayan, — that being
the subject of our present discussion.*
* ' Hervas, a Spanish Jesuit, anticipated Humboldt in establishing a
new family — the Malay, or Polynesian — spread over no less than 208
degrees of longitude ; from Madagascar to the Easter Islands, on the
West Coast of America. This family is now included in the great
division called Turanian.' — Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Lan
guage. 1861.
Hervas says (Catalogo de las Lenguas) : ' Yo no sin trabajo material
de ojear muchos libros, y principalmente los que contienen las relaciones
modernas de los desoubrimientos de Cook y de Bougainville, he notado
y recogido las palafaas que en ellas he hallado de diversos lenguages de
varias islas del mar del Sur, y habiendolas cotejado con las de dialeetos
claramente Malayos, he hallando que son tales dialeetos las lenguas que
se hablan en las seguientes islas del mar del Sur, 1. En el hemisferio
boreal, las islas de Sandwych, a 20 grados de latitud y a 210 de longi-
tud;" &c. "Vol. 2, chap. 1.

60 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
No writer, probably, is entitled to more weight in his
views of the identity and the heterogeneity of the
oceanic races than Mr. Ellis, who has spent many
years of a useful life among the groups of the Pacific,
noting intelligently and investigating patiently their
history, traditions, language, and relationship to each
other. He authoritatively states, from his own observa
tions, that the natives of Chatham Island* and New
Zealand in the south, the Sandwich Islands in the
north f, the Friendly Islands in the west J, and all the
intermediate islands, as far as Easter Island in the east§,
are one people. ' Their mythology, traditions, manners
and customs, language, and physical appearance, in their
main features, are, so far as we had an opportunity of
becoming acquainted with them, identically the same,
yet differing in many respects from those of the islands
to the westward of Tongatabu.' ||
This grouping, though extensive, stretching through
seventy degrees of latitude and seventy degrees of lon
gitude, is still comprised in the western hemisphere,
with the exception of New Zealand; and we presume in
these island-peoples a homogeneity of race; and also,
though with less pronounced characters, an identity
with the red and copper-coloured inhabitants of the
American continent.
We will examine first the probability of an Eastern
immigration. We know that, at least as far back as the
end of the tenth century, Icelandic voyagers, themselves
emigrants from Denmark, had discovered the north
eastern coasts of America, and had made many excur-
• * Lat. 43.46, S. Lon. 176.14 W. f Centre Lat. 20 N. Lon. 155 W.
\ Centre Lat. 21 S. Lon. 175 AV. § Lat. 26.6 S. Lon. 109.17 W.
|| ' Missionary Voyage,' 410.

EASTERN IMMIGRATIONS 61
sions from Snowland thither, and had traced the conti
nent downward till they entered latitudes where sun
shine and verdure enamoured them with a land which,
in comparison with their own, they may well have ima
gined to be the outskirts of heaven, — shores where the
wfld vine grew so abundantly that the country was
named by them Vinland.* If the direction of one wave
may indicate the course of a whole tide, the appearance
of North American Indians passing over Bhering's
Straits into Asia might perhaps show that a circulation
had been established towards the sun-setting. In a
passage quoted by Chateaubriand from the Lettres
Edifiantes of the Jesuits, it is said that a missionary of
that order met in Tartary a Huron woman whom he
had previously known in Canada ; and that he concluded,
from this strange adventure, that the American conti
nent approached on its north-west limit the continent
of Asia.f
* ' Whilst the Caliphate of Bagdad still flourished under the Abas-
sides, and while the Samanides, whose reign was so favourable to
poetry, bore sway in Persia, America was discovered in the year 1000
by a Northern route, as far as 41^° north latitude, by Leif, the son of
Eric the Red. The first but accidental step towards this discovery was
made from Norway. In the second half of the ninth century, Naddod,
having sailed for the Faroe Islands, which had been previously visited
from Ireland, was driven by storms to Iceland, and the first Norman
settlement was established there by Ingolf, in 875. . . . The coloniza
tion of Iceland, which had been first called by Naddod Snowland
(Snjoland), now conducted in a south-westerly direction, passing by
Greenland, to the New Continent. . . . The tract which received from
Leif the name of Vinland it Goda, Vinland the Good, comprised the
coastline between Boston and New York, therefore parts of Massachu-
sets, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
' Parts of America were seen, but not landed on, fourteen years be
fore Lief Eireksson, in a voyage which Bjarne Herjulfson undertook from
Greenland to the southward in 986.' — Humboldt, Cosmos (Sabine), ii.
233 and note.
t This rather credulous account concludes thus : ' Et i] devina ainsi

62 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Beechey says, 'The objection' (that of such fraiL
vessels as canoes proceeding from the Malayan and
other great islands lying to the westward of Polynesia),
' has so powerfully influenced the minds of some authors,
that they have had recourse to the circuitous route
through Tartary, across Bhering's Straits, and over the
American continent, to bring the emigrants to a situa
tion whence they might be drifted by the ordinary
course of the winds to the lands in question. But had
this been the case, a more intimate resemblance would
surely be found to exist between the American Indians
and the natives of Polynesia.'*
If the march of mankind was towards the west, and
they had already swarmed downwards and peopled the
upper continent of America, there would indeed be no
difficulty in the supposition that from the western shores
men had taken another departure and reached the
nearest of the islands of the Pacific. For the trade
winds blow steadily from the north-east during nine
months of the year, and cattle have been conveyed
in an open boat from the Californian coast to the
Hawaiian Islands, which can be reached in a few days.
So that either accident, or a desire to make maritime
discoveries, might have thrown upon the shores of
Hawaii the crew of a lost canoe or a more organised
band of emigrants. With regard to the small craft that
drift away from the coast of a continent it must, how
ever, be remembered that the chances are manifold
against one that a single canoe should strike upon a
single island or a small group of islands distant a couple
of thousand miles, so that many drifting boats would be
l'existence du detroit qui, long-temps apres a fait la gloire de Bering et
de Cook.' — Genie da Christianisrne, 432.
* ' Narrative ef Voyage,' &c, vol. i. 252.

EMIGRATIONS 63
lost altogether before one would land its living freight ;
whilst, on the other hand, any number of canoes drifting
in the opposite direction from the islands, must even
tually impinge on the sea-board of an immense con
tinent. Ellis, however, and his missionary associates,
never heard of a canoe voyage made to the eastward,
though they knew instances of canoes being out two or
three weeks at sea, and arriving at places 500 or 600
miles in direct distance from their starting-point.
We must always allow a lengthened period to conse
cutive migrations. The settlers in one spot will gene
rally stay long enough to increase in numbers, before a
new exodus from their adopted habitat becomes desi
rable or necessary. Sometimes the whole community
moves onward in search of ' pastures ever new ; ' but
more frequently a part of the community goes forth,
like a swarm from a hive, carrying with them the tra
ditions and idiosyncrasies of the parent tribe. Thus
Tyre begets a Carthage, and Carthage begets a Cartha-
gena. In each new home gradual changes take place ;
the settlers acclimatise to the hew locality ; dirt, misery,
and other influences produce constitutional differences ;
and, what is important, these pioneers of a descending
civilisation, with a half resemblance to the Bourbon
dynasty, learn nothing, but forget a great deal. Never
theless, the aroma lingers perseveringly about the
emptied phial. Under new skies, and after centuries
of absence, original events remain as myths in the
popular memory ; and arts, dwarfed and degraded, are
found among people of too deficient an intelligence to
have invented them. By these fragmentary arts, these
distorted histories, these shadowy recollections, a scarcely
discoverable thread of identity is kept along the pro
gressive steps by which they traversed half our sphere.

64 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
In the midst of degradation, and with landmarks re
moved out of sight, nations which have become savage
still cherish the memory of a past that was glorious, and
turn their eyes towards their deified progenitors,
' And the august abode from whence they came.'
Speculations as to an Eastern emigration are scarcely
more than glanced at here ; and it may appear almost
superfluous to refer to two groundless hypotheses which
have been formed — the first, that Greek remains have
been discovered in South America, and that faint ves
tiges of Greece are also traceable "in the islands of
Hawaii. The other supposition is that of the Hawaiian
race being of Hebrew origin, and that these islanders
represent the lost tribes of the house of Israel.
With regard to Greek resemblances, they may be
classed under the following heads. First, the form of
the feather helmet of the chiefs, which bears a con
siderable likeness to the metal casque and crest of
the Grecians. Secondly, the employment of the dual
number in the Hawaiian language. Thirdly, the use of
the spear and the bow and arrow, and the recumbent
position at meals. Fourthly, sortilege by the entrails of
slain animals before battle.
As to the form of the helmet, it is probably a mere
coincidence. A covering for the head will generally
conform to the shape of the head (although the hats
worn in Europe are a large exception to such a rule) ;
and hence some resemblance must be established. As
defensive armour, the Hawaiian helmet was useless,
being formed of feathers closely arranged on a network.
The people, instead of using armour in war, like the
Greeks, went into battle with nothing on but the maro,
a girdle round the loins, — the smallest quantity of

SUPPOSED GREEK RESEMBLANCES 63
clothing conceivable. They used no shield, and it was
the chiefs only who wore the feather helmets, and that
for distinction and as insignia of their rank.
The dual form in speaking may have been intro
duced into the language by the native courtesy which
characterises the chiefs, and have been followed by ple
beians in the same manner in which ' you ' has super
seded ' thou ' in the speech of Europe. The Hawaiians
had a double form of dual for their pronoun ; the first
including the speaker and the spoken-to, the second
embracing the speaker and the person spoken-of.* In
other respects there is little in common in the two lan
guages. The Hawaiian alphabet contains only seven con
sonants f and five vowels. It has no sibilants, or sound
equivalent to the / or <p. It is so destitute of consonant
diphthongs that the natives cannot pronounce two con
sonants together without the interposition of a vowel ;
and their words have invariably a vowel termination.
With regard to the bow and arrow, although these
instruments are complex and involve a practical ac
quaintance with some physical laws, the weapon is
found so frequently among savage nations as well as
civilised, that one is almost tempted to say that the
bow and arrow is an innate idea. The recumbent posi
tion at meals may have been experimentally found an
easy one in a warm climate, and have suited well with
a people whose indoles is indolence.
Sortilege by the entrails of slain animals is more dif
ficult to account for.
There are a few words having an apparent similarity
* Vide Ellis, who gives a table of the changes effected by duality, at
length. t So generally numbered : but nine, if the two pairs of interchange-
ables be reckoned as four distinct letters. F

66 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
to the Greek. Little weight, however, is due to a small
number of coincident vocables in two languages, when
the proper deduction is made for necessity and accident.
The following examples have been adduced: —

Hawaiian.

English.

Greek.

mele

a song

IxiXoQ.

arpha

love

tplOQ.

arii

a chief

"Apjje.

rani

the heavens

ovpavoQ,

maliina

the moon

unv.

The similarity of sound in the last example is greater
than is at first apparent. When the universal terminal
vowel is thrown off, the two first syllables, pronounced
quickly, come very near the Greek word for month.
The three words which in the list contain the letter r,
lose their resemblance to the Greek when written with
an I, which has been invariably substituted in modern
orthography for the former letter.
The number of customs among the Hawaiians corre
sponding to Hebrew practices is admitted at once to be
very remarkable. But even if such proofs were con
sidered strong enough to substantiate the fact of Jews
having reached the islands, it would not necessitate an
emigration from the Mediterranean ; the probability
would be as great of their course having been in the
opposite direction. As, however, the tribes of North
America have been claimed to have a Hebrew origin,
the points of Jewish resemblance may be properly enu
merated here. These consisted of —
1. Circumcision, which, previous to the establishment
of the American missionaries, was commonly practised
among the natives as a religious ceremony.
2. Separation and purification of women after child
birth, &c, enforced under penalty of death.

HEBREW RESEMBLANCES 67
3. Cities of refuge, — an institution found in no other
heathen nation.
4. Pollution by touching a dead body, and purifica
tion therefrom by religious ceremonies.
5. Offering of the first-Truits to their gods.
6. Wearing sackcloth in mourning.
7. The custom of the chiefs of washing their hands
before and after eating.
8. Traditions resembling those in the Hebrew Scrip
tures. 9. A resemblance which Mr. Dibble perceived be
tween the poetry of the Hebrews and the Hawaiians ;
and a structural likeness in the two languages, especially
in the causative form of the Hawaiian verb, which is
precisely the same as the Hiphil of the Hebrew.*
Of the similarity of the native traditions to the
histories of the Old Testament, the following examples
will serve ; and they are probably the most striking that
Mr. Dibble could adduce.
Hawaiian tradition relates, that man was originally
made of the dust of the earth, by Kane and Kanaloa,
two of their principal deities.
In the story of Waikelenuiaiku, we have a pretty
close counterpart of that of Joseph. His father had ten
* 'The Hawaiians have no auxiliary verb "to be;" there are no
variations in nouns for case, number, or person ; but the moods and
tenses of verbs are pretty clearly distinguished by simple prefixes and
suffixes. The mode of conjugating verbs, the existence of a causative
form, and the derivation of words from roots of two syllables, are
thought to indicate a resemblance and cognate origin with the Hebrew
and other Oriental tongues.' — Cheever, Life in the S. Islands. London,
1851. Mr. Cheever also remarks a coincidence relating to the very frequent
addition of the word wai to names of places, and the similar addition
in the East of wadi, both words meaning water, — the changed Hawaiian
form arising from a consistent rejection of consonants where practicable.
V 2

68 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
sons and one daughter. He was beloved by his father
and hated by his brethren, who cast him into a pit ; his
eldest brother having, moreover, a greater pity for him
than the rest. He escaped into a country, the king of
which was Kamohoalii, by whom he was confined in a
dark place underground, together with many persons
imprisoned there for various crimes. Whilst in prison
he bid his companions dream, and he interpreted the
dreams of four of them. One had seen a ripe ohia, and
his spirit ate it ; the second saw a ripe banana, which
his spirit ate ; the third had seen a hog, which his spirit
ate ; the fourth dreamed that he saw awa, that he pressed
out the juice, and his spirit drank it. Like Joseph, he
interpreted the three first visions unfavourably to their
dreamers, and they were afterwards slain ; to the last he
gave an interpretation of deliverance and life, and he
was accordingly saved. The king being informed by
this person of the wonderful powers of Waikelenuiaiku,
the latter was liberated and made a principal chief in
the kingdom.
There is also a tradition of a person who, like Jonah,
was swallowed by a fish, and afterwards cast out upon
dry land.
The natives also believed that a state of perpetual
night, or chaos, had preceded creation, in which antece
dent state nothing existed but some of the gods. The
myth relating to Maui, a demi-god, has an analogy to
Joshua when he commanded the sun to stand still. This
same Maui was an important person in the Pantheon of
New Zealand. The Hawaiians preserved a tradition of
a deluge; when rain fell, and the waters rose up until
all the land was covered, except the summit of Mauna
Kea. Some of the inhabitants saved themselves in a
laau, a vessel the height, length, and breadth of which

DANGER OF HASTY CONCLUSIONS 69
were equal ; it was filled with men, animals, and their
food ; and after floating for some time, finally rested on
the mountain Mauna Kea.
It must be remembered, however, that whilst these
myths of the Hawaiians bear a considerable resem
blance to the relations of the Hebrew Scriptures, the
evidence of their coming from Jewish sources is not
conclusive. The belief of the North American Indians
in a Great Spirit, has been regarded as the inherit
ance of ages : Captain Burton, in his recent work on
the Mormon States, looks upon it as derived from the
teaching of Christian missionaries, and denies that the
Indian theology embraced any notion of the immortality
of the soul. These traditions of Hawaii (it may as easily
be supposed), have arisen from casual intercourse with
Europeans. It is unnecessary to remark, that in Ha
waiian society, as in that of the Greek heroic age, a
very short time will suffice to impart an air of antiquity
to recently imported legends.
A great danger, too, exists in claiming cognation be
tween two distant peoples from the coincidence of a few
words in both languages. This Persian name for slipper
is said to be almost the same as the North American
Indian word mocassin. The coincidence should not be
allowed to prove that the Persians and the Indians of
Canada are kindred. The Sanscrit name tala (wine
made from the juice of palms), closely resembles the
Hawaiian name of their universal edible, talo; but
we do not thence jump at the conclusion that the
Polynesian language is a derivative of the Sanscrit. The
human organs of voice are the same throughout' our
race, and are only capable of producing, a certain num
ber of sounds and articulations, the great majority of
which articulations are common to all people, and must

70 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
be employed by them in expressing ideas. Then, if
the copia verborum of each of two nations consisted of
5000 separate words, there would be several probabili
ties of coincidence, viz., that in each language the same
articulation should be used to express one idea, and that
only accidentally ; and the chances of selection in the
case of onomatopes would be still greater. The coinci
dence, therefore, of a few corresponding words is a
meagre proof of identity of nations.*
Equal circumspection is required before, claiming
identity between nations upon mere similarities, how
ever close, in arts, utensils, &c. Such resemblances
often argue nothing more than that common wants,
seeking to supply their defect by the most obvious and
simple methods, lead to a similarity of forms of construc
tion ; — in the same way that the uniformity of the hu
man organs of voice necessarily restricts the number of
producible sounds, and tends accidentally to some iden
tities in vocables. Otherwise we shall have a Celtic
origin claimed for the Polynesian islands in virtue of
the Kist-vaens which are found upon them. There is
* It is not remarkable that nations should frequently express ideas in
onomatopes, nor that a word of very easy pronunciation should be
selected in different languages for the same purpose. Papa, mamma, and
the monosyllable ta, are words so easily produced that they are amongst
the very first uttered by children. The syllables pa-ta become pater;
and it has been proposed to call Patarian that vast family of languages
which adopt this word and its metamorphoses to express Father. It is
more remarkable that some one idea should be independently selected
by several nations for expression under an onomatope, whilst in each
language the word is formed according to its own genius and without
reference to the imitative form used by other nations. Take for example
the English word whisper, corresponding in French with chuchotement,
chuchoter; in Italian with bisbiglio, bisbigliare; in Latin with susurrus,
susurro ; in Greek with i|«e»pf{-», Wlpur/ta. Each language imitates the
whispering sound in the name, but each does so according to its own
plan, and in a manner quite divergent from all the others.

KIST-VAENS 71
in Hawaii an ancient lava road, ascribed to Umi, a
king who flourished about 500 years ago. It remains
very perfect, and is defined on each side with a kerb or
bordering of stones. Along this road and near it are
several of the structures of four stones, such as are
found in this country, Brittany, &c. ; three stones being
set upright and edgewise, the fourth forming a roof or
covering. They are between three and four feet in
height, and would afford shelter to human beings from
the weather. An account has been received of similar
structures existing in greater numbers upon Maiden's
Island, a low coral isle situated in 4° S. lat., and 155°
W. long". It is uninhabited, but bears traces of its for
mer occupants ; and though only thirty feet in elevation
above the water, it gives evidence of several distinct up
heavals. Captain Goddard, who visited the island in
the summer of 1861, found seven distinct, well defined
beaches traced on its shore line. On the centre ridge
were counted more than a hundred made platforms,
cruciform in shape, outlined with coral slabs standing
three feet out of the ground, the area between the slab-
walls being filled in with coral blocks, stones and shells,
in a compact mass. In several places paths formed of
stones and shells led from a cluster of these platforms
down to the shore, traversing in their course the five
upper or oldest beaches, but never in any instance going
beyond the sixth, or down to the present beach of the
sea. A number of other constructions were also dis
covered, consisting of three upright coral blocks, with
a fourth lying on top, resembling a box with one end
out. Upwards of thirty wells were examined. Many
were from six to nine feet in depth, cut through the
coral rock, and were either dry, or had salt water in
them. A great number of very shallow graves were

72 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
found, containing human bones more or less decayed,
and egg-shaped shell ornaments.*
We dismiss the idea of an immigration from the sun-
rising ; and we come now to consider the probabilities
of the Hawaiian people having approached their home
in the opposite direction — from the shores of Asia
lying to their west, which front them.
First, there is the expressed conviction of those who
have visited the islands of Polynesia ; and this, from
their opportunities of comparing the inhabitants of sepa
rate groups, and of the Asiatic islands and continent, is
of great importance. One of the latest writers, Mr. St.
Julian, in his 'Official Eeport on Central Polynesia,'
endorses the general idea that the Malayan tribes ' came
direct from Asia, travelling to the eastward, from island
to island, across the broad Pacific, until they poured upon
the western shores of the great American continent.'
Secondly, there is the unity of the tribes inhabiting
the islands of the Pacific. ' The New Zealander and
Hawaiian,' says Mr. Jarves, who resided four years in
the Sandwich Islands, ' though more than four thousand
miles apart, with all the intermediate tribes, are mem
bers of one family, and require but a short period to
acquire the faculty of a free exchange of ideas.'
The same writer remarks : ' The language spoken in
the groups so widely diffused over the Pacific Ocean has
the same common structure, with but such differences
as maybe resolved into dialects, — the result of long
non-intercourse ; while other peculiarities are to be at
tributed to difference of soils, climates, governments,
and other local causes.' And he urges that ' when affini
ties of language, physiological resemblances, correspond
ing manners, and religious belief, and, more particularly,
* 'Polynesian,' 21 September, 1861.

JUNK AND CANOE VOYAGES 73
well established traditions, pointing to a common ori
gin, appear among tribes which, in modern times, have
lost all means of communication, the inquirer finds
tenable grounds for believing in a general relationship.
This appears to be the case throughout Polynesia.'
The habitat will account for special differences in the
physique of nations belonging to one family. ' The hair
of the Hawaiians,' says Mr. Ellis, ' is black or brown,
strong, and frequently curly ; their complexion is neither
yellow, like the Malays, nor red, like the American In
dians, but a kind of olive, and sometimes reddish brown.'
Thirdly, as to the possibility of long voyages from the
Asiatic shores, they have been demonstrated to be prac
ticable by actual instances. Japanese junks, which have
been blown out to sea, have been finally stranded with
their occupants on distant islands, and have even reached
the continent of America in the 46th degree of north
latitude. And an example still more in point is, that in
the year 1832 one of these junks was wrecked on Oahu,
Sandwich Islands, after having been tossed about at sea
for eleven months ; four persons out of her original crew
of nine surviving. It is certain that every year many
canoes, crowded with people of both sexes, are picked
up at sea, after having drifted at the mercy of the ele
ments to great distances from their places of departure.
The great number of islands, which may almost be said
to continue the continent of Asia far into the ocean,
form comparatively easy stepping stones for a popula
tion projecting itself towards the Pacific Polynesia, and
thence by a last flight to the finality of the American
mainland. Ellis's assertion has been already quoted,
that of many stray canoes reaching Tahiti from eastern,
unknown islands, the voyages have always been in a
westerly direction ; the missionaries never heard of one
towards the sun-rise. Beechey says : c All have agreed

74 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
as to the manner in which these migrations between the
islands have been effected, and some few instances have
actually been met with ; but they have been in one di
rection only, and have rather favoured the opinion of
migration from the eastward. The accident which threw
in our way Tuwarri and his companions, who were driven
600 miles in a direction contrary to the trade wind, in
spite of their utmost exertions, has fortunately enabled
us to .remove the objections which have been urged
against the general opinion. The fact being so well
attested, and the only one of the kind upon record, is,
consequently, of the highest interest, both as regards
its singularity, and as it establishes the possibility of the
case. Though this is the only instance that has come to
our knowledge, there is no reason why many other canoes
may not have shared a similar fate ; and some few of
many thousands,perhaps, may have drifted to the remotest
islands of the Archipelago, and thus peopled them.' *
Fourthly, the native traditions. These are scanty;
but one of them relates to a man and woman arriving
at Hawaii in a canoe, bringing with them a hog, a dog,
and a pair of fowls. These persons became the progeni
tors of the Hawaiian people. By another story, preva
lent among the inhabitants of Oahu, a number of per
sons arrived in a canoe from Tahiti, and perceiving that
the Sandwich Islands were fertile, and were dwelt in .
only by gods and spirits, they asked and obtained permis
sion to settle there. The early missionaries found the
general opinion as to the origin of the Hawaiian race,
to be either that their first parents had been created on
the islands, or that the chiefs were descended from Akea
the first king, who appears to have been a demi-god ; or
the more popular view, that their ancestors had arrived
* ' Narrative of a Voyage,' &c, voL i. 252.

TRADITIONS OF ORIGIN 75
in a canoe from Tahiti. Now the island of Tahiti, the
principal of the Society group, lies on the ecliptic, in
about lat. 18° S., and long. 150° W. It is consequently
nearly forty degrees south of Hawaii, and rather to the
westward of the latter group. There is nothing against
the probability of an emigration from Tahiti ; but the
name tahiti itself is in the Georgian and Society Islands
a verb ; and it has also a signification in the language of
the Sandwich Islands, being equivalent to the word
abroad, and is frequently employed to denote any foreign
country. But, as in this country, some centuries ago,
the word Spanish, though necessarily derived from the
country Spain, was used with the meaning of outland
ish or foreign ; so Ellis thinks that the name Tahiti was
primarily employed to denote the whole of the southern
group or its principal island ; but it did not include the
more contiguous group of the Marquesas.
According to native tradition frequent intercourse
existed between the various groups of islands, and the
canoes then used were larger and of a better construc
tion. In the Hawaiian MeUs, or songs, the names of
Nuuhiva and Tahuata, two of the Marquesan islands, —
Upolu and Savaii, belonging to the Samoan group, — and
Tahiti, with others in that neighbourhood, frequently
occur ; besides the names of headlands and towns in
those islands. These songs also make allusions to voy
ages from Oahu and Kauai to islands far west.
As the traditionary lore of the Hawaiians is rapidly
dying out, and printing is taking the place of memory,
it is probable that little more of such transmitted in
formation will be procured from native bard or eld.
Mr. Ellis mentioned to me his conviction that if he
returned to the Sandwich Islands he should not now
obtain one tenth of the myths or histories which he

76 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
gathered there five-and-thirty years ago. The chapter,
therefore, of popular palaeontology must be a short one ;
and it may be closed with a question that arises in the
mind when we consider the present state of this or any
particular society of mankind, viz. : How has this peo
ple arrived at its present status ? Has it been by pro
gression or retrogression ? Have they advanced from a
somewhat Gorilla condition, such as still holds the
Earthmen of Africa ; or have degrading influences been
at work and marred gradually the goodly image which
the Creator formed? Are we to hold with Monboddo, the
'Vestiges,' and Darwin; — or, with the more glowing and
regretful belief of South, that ' Aristotle was but the
ruin of an Adam, and Athens only the rudiments of
Eden ? ' In this world of flux and change it is probable
that the light shines on and is withdrawn from different
nations in turns. Those who love light and use it well
may be privileged to keep their faces turned towards it,
and follow it wheresoever it goes. ' It does not appear,'
says Humboldt, ' to belong to the destinies of the human
race that all portions of it should suffer eclipse or ob
scuration at the same time. A preserving principle
maintains the ever-living process of the progress of
reason.' * And the Christian philosopher has something
to add to this, which seems a somewhat cold estimate of
the human destiny. We may believe that the lamp of
religious truth emits rays of warmth as well as of light;
and that a nation will receive a blessing from on high,
and that a shield will be extended over her head, whilst'
she diligently trims that lamp and carries it forth in
zeal and love to enlighten other nations and the isles
that sit in darkness. * ' Cosmos.' (Sabine), ii. 232.

77

CHAPTEE VI.
EARLY ISLAND DISCOVERIES — NATIVE HISTORY — COOK'S
FIRST ARRIVAL
EAELY in the sixteenth century the pioneers of
navigation from Portugal, Spain, and Genoa had
burst into the great Pacific Ocean. Magellan entered
the Pacific in 1520, and discovered the Marianas, the
Philippines, and some smaller islands. Gaetano dis
covered one of the Sandwich Islands in 1542 ; and
following him, Quiros found Tahiti and the New Hebrides.
Sea voyages in the Pacific multiplied, but that sea long
continued the exclusive theatre of the enterprises of the
Spaniards and Portuguese. Its hydrography was, how
ever, unfixed and imperfect, and, as Humboldt remarks,
the islands by which it was studded, from want of exact
astronomical determination of position, strayed to "and
fro on the map, like floating islands.* That great
observer says : ' It has been asljed, how it was possible
for Spanish vessels since the sixteenth century to cross
the great ocean from the western coast of the New
Continent to the Philippine Islands without discovering
the isles with which that vast sea basin is strewed ? ' He
answers the question by the small number of voyages
made ; one ship went and returned between New Spain
and Manilla during the year ; scarcely more between
the latter place and Lima ; by the difficulties of navi-
* ' Cosmos.'

78 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
gation at a period when the use of lunar distances and
chronometers was unknown to navigators ; and by the
necessity felt of following an ascertained track, from
which, if they deviated, they feared falling in with shallows
and shoals. He enumerates the discoveries made by the
Spaniards in the great ocean, and says that the names
of Viscayno, Mendana, Quiros, and Sarmiento, un
doubtedly deserve a place beside the names of the most
illustrious navigators of the eighteenth century. 'In
1542,' he says, ' Gaetano had already found several
scattered islands not far from the group of Sandwich
Islands ; and it cannot be called in question that even
this last group was known to the Spaniards for more
than a century before the voyage of Cook; for the
island of Mesa indicated on an old chart of the galleon
of Acapulco is the same with the island of Owhyhee,
which contains the high mountain of The Table or Mowna
Roa.'* Christian missionaries, too, were pressing for
ward into the newly discovered tropical lands of America:
one or more possibly reached Hawaii. Ellis found a
tradition preserved there among the people, and he
heard it from them in three different places, that in the
reign of Kahoukapu, a priest (Kahuna) arrived in
Hawaii from a foreign country. He was a white man,
having the name of Pato, and he brought with him two
idols or gods, one of which was large and the other
small. These were adopted by the nations, admitted
into the national pantheon, and were worshipped ac
cording to the direction of Paao ; the temple called
Mokini, in the district of Pauepu, near the north point
of the island, was built for them, as tradition states
by a priest, who afterwards became a powerful man in
* ' Polit. Essay on New Spain.'

TRADITIONS OF EARLY VISITORS 79
the nation. It requires no great effort of the imagina
tion to see, under the native name Paao, a metamorphic
form of Paolo ; in the two idols, large and small, images
of the Virgin and Holy Child ; in the temple, a small
church or chapel. After Paao's death, his son (we pre
sume the priest's son is meant, and it militates a little
against the supposition just mentioned), whose name
was Opiri, officiated in the temple of Mokini. Of Opiri
an interesting record is preserved orally, that he acted
as interpreter between the king and a party of white
men who arrived at the island.
A tradition of white men, still more involved in
nrystery, was found by the same inquiring author. The
great volcanic mountain, now extinct, Mauna Kea, is
said to have to have taken its name, not from the snow
by which it is perpetually capped, — Kea being the
obsolete term for white, — but on account of some white
men, who are reported to have resided on the mountain,
and to have come down to the seashore frequently in
the evening, and to have frightened the natives. These
people were called na Kea, ' the whites.'
One more native tradition deserves mention as indi
cating the knowledge the Hawaiians had in early times
of the existence of other groups, and as also connecting
a relation of the same order given by the old traveller
Eubruquis. In 'The Voyage of Kamapiikai,' it is
stated, that one of the gods appeared to the priest
Kamapiikai in a vision, revealed to him the existence,
situation, and distance of Tahiti, and directed him to
make a voyage thither. He accordingly sailed with
forty companions in four double canoes. On the return
of this party after an absence of fifteen years, they
described the country they had visited, and which they
called Haupokane, as possessing handsome inhabitants,

80 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
delicious and plentiful fruits, &c. ; and that there was
there a stream or fountain called the ' wai ora roa,' ' the
water of enduring life.' The priest made subsequently
three more voyages to the newly discovered country, ac
companied by many Hawaiians ; and from the fourth
voyage they never returned ; having either taken up
their permanent abode at Haupokane, or perished at sea.
The inducement to the priest's fellow countrymen to
accompany him was mainly the qualities of the 'water
of enduring life.' It produced marvellous changes in
those who bathed in it. The infirm, the emaciated, and
the deformed came out of its wave young, strong, and
handsome. The island is not improbably one of the
Marquesan group, but under a name which cannot be
identified. The story preserved in Eoger Bacon from
the travels of Eubruquis, and analogous to the relation
above, is his description of a land near Cathay, bounded
by the Eastern Ocean, — a happy land, 'where men and
women arriving from other countries cease to grow
old.' The marvellous waters of the wai ora roa agree
also with ' The Fountain of Youth,' which Ponce de
Leon sought for in vain in Florida in 1512. The
native legend may be a transformed version of a relation
given by early Spanish visitors.
It has been already mentioned that in proportion as
printing has become used in the islands, oral tradition is
dying out. It was fortunate, therefore, that the early
American missionaries collected and preserved as much
as they did of the prescriptive history of Hawaii. Mr.
Ellis, at the time of his visit found the bards able to
recount the successive reigns of about seventy kings ;
and with regard to the thirty-five reigns nearest to
our own day, the accordance between the bards was
very exact.

TRADITIONARY VISITANTS 81
Native traditions refer to the arrival of strangers a
long time before Cook's appearance. In the seventeenth
century Spanish merchantmen were crossing the Pacific,
and might have refreshed at these islands. The
buccaneers, too, may have found the small harbour a
convenient place of concealment. On Captain Cook's
first visit, he found two pieces of iron in the possession
of the natives, — one a portion of a hoop, the other
apparently part of a broadsword. The islanders were
acquainted with the use of iron. It is not wonderful
that more of that metal was not found in an unchanged
state, because it would be converted into fish-hooks,
which the Hawaiians preferred making in their own
fashion from pieces of iron, to the hooks brought to
them ready made. Tradition states that many genera
tions since, ships were seen passing the islands at a
distance. The name they gave them, and which is still
retained in the native language for all vessels, was
Moku, or islands. A more precise tradition relates that
a boat arrived in Kealakeakua Bay, on "the west side of
Hawaii, — the bay where Cook met his death, — that it
had no masts or sails, but was painted, and had an
awning over the stern. The persons who arrived in the
boat were clad in white and yellow cloth, and one of
them wore a hat with a plume, and had a pahi, i. e. a
sword, at his side. These people remained, and formed
alliances with the natives, rose to be chiefs and famous
warriors, and for a considerable period governed Hawaii.
The date of their coming, as far as it can be deduced
from circumstances, may have been about the year
1600. Later than this, perhaps in 1620, a vessel was
wrecked in the south side of the same bay. The Captain
of her, and a white woman, were the only persons
saved. On reaching the beach they prostrated them-
G

82 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
selves there for a long while. The strangers were
hospitably received by the natives, formed connections
with them, and from this mixed race it is said that many
of the chiefs and common people have descended.
Those who are supposed to represent this race at the
present day, are distinguished by their lighter skin, and
by brown or red curly hair, called ehu.
We have to pass over more than a whole century,
and then we find that in the map of the world attached
to Anson's Voyages, published in 1748, the Sandwich
Islands are delineated under their Spanish appellations,
correct as to latitude, and but ten degrees too far to the
west. What use was made of this chart towards the
great re-discovery of the islands thirty years afterwards,
is not known ; but, Mr. Jarves remarks, Cook enquired
at Tahiti if any islands lay to the north of them ; and
in his journal no great surprise is evinced at discovering
land in that direction. The same writer observes of
that great navigator, that ' a silence in regard to the
maritime efforts of his predecessors is observable
throughout his journals.'
It was in the pause between two revolutions ; two
years after the United States of America had in 1776
signed the Declaration of Independence ; while France
had not yet broken out into those flames which reduced
her to a temporary dissolution, — that an English seaman,
somewhat in the spirit of Columbus, was calmly pur
suing discoveries in the great ocean of the Pacific.
Ere the French revolution commenced, Cook's life had
been taken away under circumstances that have arrested
the attention of the world; but it happens that his
successor, Vancouver, visited the Hawaiian Islands in
that memorable year when news of the decapitation of
Louis XVI. caused every monarch in Europe to rise

COOKS DISCOVERY 83
the next morning with a crick in his neck. It is
interesting to relate cotemporaneous events so different
in their nature as a popular cataclysm and a geographical
discovery ; and to remark that science, though en
gendered by social wants, has an existence independent
of the social life, and often pursues her way, as she
did in France at that very epoch, indifferent to the
madness or the misery of a nation. And so it was, that
whilst the New World was emerging from war, and the
Old World was about to plunge into that great calamity,
fair countries, lying gem-like on the ocean, unknown or
forgotten, welcomed in peace the flag that brought them
at once and for ever iiace to face with the benefits and
the ills of civilisation.
In January 1778, Captain Cook's two ships, the
' Eesolution ' and ' Discovery,' approached for the first
time the islands of Kauai and Niihau, the most westerly
of the Hawaiian group. The apparition naturally excited
the wonder and curiosity of the natives, who flocked
about the" two ships in their canoes, bartering their
productions for iron, but could not be induced to go
on board. The next morning, when the islanders were
stirring, their amazement was even increased by seeing
the moving islands or forests at anchor in Waimea Bay.*
The first meeting of the savage and the civilised man
was not to take place without a display of evil passions ;
and before day declined, Death, in a new form to the
Hawaiians, was at his work. The chiefs of the island
sent people to examine the ships, who reported the great
quantity of iron that they observed about them. The
thirst for iron in those distant islands was as strong as
* Three of the islands, if not more, have places- named Waimea.
This one is on the south of Kauai. There is an inconvenient repetition
among native names : thus, that of Kona occurs on four of the islands.
G 2

84 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the thirst for gold is in more enlightened communities.
A warrior at once decided to plunder the ships, feeling
strong within himself the ferri sacra fames. In his
attempt he was fired on by the crew and killed. The
incident did not, however, interfere with the intercourse
that was established between the white men and the
natives ; the former gratified their passions, the latter
indulged, wherever practicable, their propensity for
thieving. Cook endeavoured to preserve the islanders
from the ill effects of this intercourse, but any disci
pline he could enforce on board was neutralized by
the facilities offered on shore by a people with whom
ehastity was not counted among <the virtues, nor shame
esteemed a feminine grace.
The appearance and get-up of the ' British seaman '
of that day, was a peculiar one ; it was especially won
derful in the eyes of the Kanaka* The cocked hat
adhering to the head, was to them identified strictly
with the wearer, so that the spies who went to examine
the ships described the people on board as having
' heads horned like the moon.' They had fires burning
at their mouths, — no doubt cigars; they ate the raw
flesh of men; — this was the red, juicy water-melon
brought from Monterey ; they took, like Peter Schlem-
mil, anything they wanted out of their bodies, — such
was the first impression of pockets on the native mind ;
and what was more laughable than all (for the Hawaiians
are essentially a risible people), was the utterly un
intelligible gibberish that the strangers spoke. All
these circumstances, together with the firing of some
more guns, made the natives conclude that their
visitors were gods.
* The native name for an inhabitant of the islands.

L0N0 S RETURN 85
There was an additional reason for such a belief.
Xono, the Hawaiian Hercules, was one of the major
gods. In a fit of jealousy he killed his wife ; but,
driven to frenzy by the act he had committed, he
wandered through the islands, boxing and wrestling
with all he met : his answer to every astonished en
quirer being, ' I am frantic with my great love ! '
Having instituted the athletic games known as the
Mahakiki, in honour of his wife's memory, and which
were held annually, he sailed from the islands in a
triangular canoe, for a foreign land ; but ere he departed
he uttered this prophecy : ' I will return in after times
on an island bearing cocoa-nut trees, swine and dogs.'
Cook's two ships, so much larger than any floating
objects the natives had hitherto seen, appeared to
them, not unplausibly, islands, the masts being trees ;
and now Lono was returning to his own country. From
Lono were supposed to have proceeded the thunder and
lightning of the ship's guns which were fired. Still
the islanders thought at first of attacking the vessels ;
but a female chief advised conciliatory measures ; and
to propitiate the strangers, she sent her own daughters
and other women on board. This measure may only
have anticipated an evil which was certain to arise as
soon as shipping should make the island a place of
refreshment during their voyages, or a market for their
commodities. Nevertheless the seeds of a disease pre
viously unknown were immediately communicated to
the natives, a disease which has spread through the
whole group, attended with the most fatal consequences.
'I said, ye are gods,' was the emotion of a simple
people at the first impact of the civilised world ; but,
alas! the visitors showed themselves to be but frail,
passionate men. 'The great revolutions,' remarks'

86 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Mr. Jarves, ' the islands were to undergo, commenced' on
one side with theft and prostitution, which was repaid
by death and disease. Still the superior knowledge,
humanity, and forbearance of the whites had been seen
and acknowledged, and their first moral lessons in the
distinctions of property, the foundation of all commer
cial prosperity, received.
The ships had remained a fortnight, principally at
Niihau, and then sailed with the south-west trade wind,
which prevails in the early months of the year, for the
north-west coast of America. The news of the great
event spread rapidly from Kauai to the next island,
Oahu. At that time each island was under the rule of
a separate king. Kalaniopuu reigned over the great
island of Hawaii, whose name in the journals of Cook,
Ledyard, and Beechey, appears as Terreoboo, Teraiobu,
and Teriapu. To account for the differences in the
orthography of native names, it is to be remarked that
the language is essentially vocal, having but seven con
sonants, and consequently it was difficult to transfix a
previously unwritten tongue, and give its sounds their
true phonetic value. The difficulty was increased by two
pairs of consonants being interchangeable, viz. : k with
t, and I with r; and the difference between another
pair, b and p, not being perceptible. Whether it is
that the ear of the Hawaiians does not distinguish the
difference, or that the consonant they use is a com
promise between each pair of letters, is uncertain. The
American missionaries did much to systematise the
spelling of the language ; and in all recent books and
papers the letter I has displaced its interchangeable r
—generally, but not always. The important root which
forms the food of the people is still spelt taro, very
rarely kalo. The older writers used the t and the r;

COOKS FIRST VISIT 87
and Ellis, who wrote five-and-thirty years ago, adopts
a mixed orthography in respect of the above letters.
To Kalaniopuu, then, the great news was carried from
Oahu ; and the account of the strangers was embellished
and added to in the usual manner with oral traditions.
By Mohu's description the ships, as well as their crews,
were animated beings, the latter perhaps seeming a para
sitical life attached to the former, or to have the same
relation which the coral insect bears to the common
coral branch. A small piece of canvas procured from
the English had been sent by the Chief of Kauai to the
King of Oahu, who presented the rarity to his wife. It
was not long before a public procession gave the fit
opportunity for female vanity, and the queen walked
proudly with the rag of canvas worn in the most con
spicuous part of her dress. As that dress was particu
larly scanty, this exotic addition to it must have been
well displayed, and attractive of much attention. It
probably had an effect as dissipating to the wearer's
mind as Hans Christian Andersen's red shoes at his
confirmation. Whilst Cook was absent, war had broken out between
Hawaii and Maui ; the king of the latter island being
Kahekili — called by Cook and others Titeree. Kalanio
puu, King of Hawaii, invaded his neighbour's island ;
and on that occasion he was accompanied by a youth in
whom was already lighted the fire of military and admi
nistrative genius, who became afterwards a great con
queror, and the founder of the present dynasty of
Hawaii-Nei — i. e. the whole group of Hawaii, as dis
tinguished from the single island of Hawaii. This was
Kamehameha, the future warrior king.
It is the effect both of sorrow and of success to
make men superstitious. The war-gods were carried

88 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
in the forefront of the armies, and in battle the islanders
trusted as much to the effect of terror produced by the
frightful countenances of their idols on their enemy,
as to their own prowess. The gods were at this
juncture in exaltation ; and the minds of those who
trusted in them were more than usually accessible to
any fresh manifestation of divinity. This particular
state of feeling is woven up with the mixed narrative of
events which follows.
On the 26th of November a pitched battle was fought,
in which the invading king was triumphant. The vic
tors at evening retired to Wailuku, a bay on the north
side of Maui, to refresh themselves after the battle ; and
lo ! a marvel awaits them : at morning they beheld in
the bay the very islands of gods, report of which had
been previously brought to them. Is not this the re
ward of victors ? Can this be other than Lono returned
to salute the conquerors? The belief that Cook was
indeed Lono, a belief which that great navigator thought
it his interest to acquiesce in, if not to cherish, became
in the end a proximate cause of his untimely death.
Kalaniopuu sent off a present to the ships of some hogs,
and afterwards made a state visit to the commander on
board, accompanied by the young Kamehameha. The
latter, with a few attendants, remained on board all
night, greatly to the consternation of those on shore,
who seeing the vessels stand out to sea, supposed the
god had carried away their young warrior, and made
loud and bitter lamentations for his loss. Kamehameha
was soon landed in safety, and Cook pursued his way for
Hawaii, and on the 2nd of December arrived at Kohala.

89

CHAPTEE VII.
THE TRAGEDY IN KEALAKEAKUA BAY
CONTINUING his course round the island, occasion
ally trading with the natives, Cook's two ships
anchored, January 17, 1779, in the bay on the western
side of Hawaii, called variously Kaawaroa, Karakakoua,
and Kealakeakua. The time of his arrival there was
a week of tabu. An oppressive sacerdotaHsm united
itself with an absolute monarchy in governing the
nation. The priesthood and the kingship were obliged
to respect each other ; and their union, instead of
counterbalancing the power which each possessed, and
so ameliorating it to the common people, was an alliance
which riveted the chain of feudalism more completely
round that people's neck. One of the great instruments
used by both king and priests for maintaining their
power and their revenue, was the system of tabu or
taboo. It was a consecration of any object, or person, or
period of time, for some exclusive purpose ; and it was
enforced with sanguinary penalties. There were per
manent tabus, as of the king's fish-ponds and bathing-
places : there were long-continued tabus, not taken off,
in some cases, for many years ; and there were shorter
tabus, existing a week, or a single day. Sometimes a
whole district, or an entire island, was placed under
tabu, during the continuance of which it was excommu
nicated, no canoe or person being allowed to approach

90 HAWAIIAN. ISLANDS
it. In the tabu season, if it were strict, — for there was a
lighter and a more stringent kind, — every light and fire
was to be extinguished ; all avocations were suspended ;
on that wave which all the people, young and old of
both sexes, loved so much, no canoe might be launched ;
and in it none might bathe. No .one might be seen
out of doors ; and as the purpose of the tabu would
be frustrated by any sound emitted by animal or bird,
to prevent such a catastrophe, the mouths of dogs
and pigs were tied up ; and as for the poor garrulous
fowls, after having had their eyes bandaged, they were,
by way of further precaution, put under a calabash, and
their quietus made in double darkness Such a tabu
was a living death. Nothing that the Church of Borne
has effected by her severest ban approached its com
pleteness ; the silence of an Indian dhurna was not so
depressing. The sacred chiefs alone, those who claimed
origin from the gods, the king and the priests, were
allowed locomotion. Before these the common people
prostrated themselves with their faces in the dust ; but
neither priest nor king might touch anything them
selves, and food was put into their mouths by other
hands than their own. It was at such a season that
Cook arrived in Kealakeakua Bay.
This bay is one of volcanic formation. In parts of it,
as along the whole of its north-west shore, the deep
water is close to land, so that a boat may pull close to
the rocks, which are entirely formed of lava, dark,
porous, and hard. At other places the bay has a beach
composed of the same material ; and at the head of the
bay the lava rocks rise up steeply ; and 'it would seem
that at some time a land-slip or an earthquake had torn
away a portion of the cliff, which has sunk below the
level of the sea, and has left exposed in the face of the

KEALAKEAKUA BAY 91
rock caverns, through some of which can be traced the
flow of lava from the volcano. These caves are used
for places of sepulture.
Though silence reigned on sea and on shore when the
' Discovery' and ' Eesolution ' cast anchor in the bay, it
is a proof that their commander had quite acquired the
reputation of the returned Lono, that the tabu was taken
off in consequence of his approach. Great numbers of
people then went on board, accompanied by a high
chief, Palea. With the Hawaiians, Mokualii was the god
of canoe-makers, and when the natives saw some of the
seamen caulking the vessels, they pronounced them to
be Mokualii's clan. Some of the ships' company were
smoking cigars, and these received the name of Lono-
volcano. Many women, as before, visited the vessels,
and numerous persons of both sexes flocked round Cook
and paid him divine honours. An old priest, who had
once been a famous warrior, approached the captain
with the utmost veneration, threw over his shoulders a
piece of red cloth, and offered a pig, pronouncing at the
time a long oration. The Apostles at Lystra, when the
priests under similar circumstances were preparing to
sacrifice to them the garlanded ox, cried out with horror,
' We are men ! ' and prevented the intended rite ; but
in the history of Cook's behaviour at Hawaii we do not
find that he deprecated the religious ceremonies of
which he was frequently the object, or disclaimed the
character of the god which the heathen people assigned
to him.
The multitudes who were attracted to the bay were
very great for a sparse population. Ledyard computed
the number of persons at upwards of 15,000, and he
states that 3,000 canoes were counted afloat at one
time. The latter fact appears more remarkable than the-

92 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
number of human beings whom curiosity drew to the
shore. Cook landed, and conspicuous honours awaited
him. The king, Kalaniopuu, was still absent, engaged
with his conquest in Maui ; but the tabu was broken, and
Cook was treated with a more than regal deference, — a
demonstration of respect which would have been ludi
crous had it not been painful. Heralds announced his
approach, and opened a way for him through the crowds
that thronged him. Those among the people who were
more fearful, peeped at him from the houses, from behind
stone walls, and from the tops of trees. As he moved, the
assemblage covered their faces, and those nearest to
him prostrated themselves on the earth in the deepest
humility. As soon as Lono had passed, the people sprang
up erect, and uncovered their faces ; and some among
them not being rapid in their movements got trod
den down by the advancing crowd. The evolution of
prostration and erection was found at last so inconve
nient, and to require so unwonted an agility, that the
practical minded people found that they could best
meet the case by going permanently on their hands and
feet ; and so, at last, the procession changed a good
deal in character and appearance, and 10,000 men and
women, having little else on them than their nudity,
were seen pursuing or flying from Captain Cook on all
fours. One feels ashamed at this ovation ; ashamed at the
degradation of one section of humanity bowing down in
such servile sort to their fellow men ; ashamed at one's
own countryman in his triumph, and for his enduring the
profane apotheosis which followed. He was led to the
chief heiau, or temple, and was presented in great form
to the idols ; was taken to the most sacred part of the
enclosure, and then, being placed on a scaffold, ten men,

COOK'S APOTHEOSIS 93
bearing a large hog and some bundles of red cloth,
entered and prostrated themselves before him : he was
encircled in the cloth, and the hog was offered to him
in sacrifice, two priests the while chanting an antiphonal
hymn in honour of Lono. By them he was led to the
chief idol, which, following their example, he kissed.
Indeed, in that mad hour, Cook's own degradation
seems to have been equal to that of his ignorant wor
shippers. He was supported by the chief priest and by
Captain King, and placed between two wooden images ;
then his face, hands, and arms were anointed with
chewed cocoanut ; he drank awa — a drink prepared in
a manner most disgusting to our notions, — and finally
he ate pork, which had been previously masticated for
him by an old man. The natives assert that Cook went
through all these heathen ceremonies without the
slightest opposition.
Again, on the 19th, Cook visited another temple or
residence of priests, taking with him his artist, who
sketched the scene. He was treated with the same
honours as before; and always afterwards, when he
landed from the ships, a priest attended him, and regu
lated the religious ceremonies which constantly took
place on his account.
A collection of histories, traditions, and Meles was
made in the early days of the Seminary of Lahainaluna
by some of the adult pupils, in the native tongue, the
Volume having the name of Ka Moolelo Hawaii. In
this are recorded some of the circumstances of Cook's
visit and death in Hawaii. It states, that in conse
quence of the people's belief that Lono, for so Cook
was called by them, was a god, divine honours were
paid to him, and all the offerings they were accustomed
to make to their deities, were made in a similar spirit

94 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
to him. During the prevalence of this belief, the island
was heavily taxed to supply the wants and to contribute
to the gratification of the officers and crews of the ves
sels. The people, as usual, suffered ; and the screw of
despotism, which always pressed on them, received an
additional turn in order to keep up the supplies lavished
by the chiefs on their visitors. From the Englishmen's
point of view all was kindness, liberality, and frankness,
and it seemed to them that their arrival had produced
a general jubilee throughout the island. This was only
in appearance. There was a curiosity mixed with
adoration, and a frivolous mirth, which oppressed people
easily indulge in ; but to the cultivators the stay of the
haole, or foreigner, was a heavy burthen, and whenever
they found the opportunity, they made reprisals, in the
way of pilfering, to recoup themselves for their forced
gratuities. On the 24th the King, Kalaniopuu, returned from
Maui, and a change took place immediately in conse
quence. A tabu was proclaimed, the people were
rigidly confined to their houses, and the ships did not
receive the customary supply of vegetables, &c. The
crews endeavoured to make the natives break the tabu ;
a chief restrained them from doing so, till he was in
timidated by a musket-shot fired over his head from
the ships, and the traffic was made to recommence in
defiance of the religious restriction.
Two days afterwards the King, attended by his chiefs
and by Kamehameha, visited Captain Cook in great
state. They came in three large double canoes, with
all barbaric pomp. In the first canoe were the King
and the royal retinue. They wore their bright cloaks
and helmets of feathers, the King's being all yellow.
In their hands were long shining lances. Under the

MUTUAL CIVILITIES 95
brilliant sun the paddles of the rowers flashed out of the
shining water —
' The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn'd like one burning flame together.'
In the second boat came the high priest and his
brethren, bringing with them hideous idols — frightful
caricatures of the human being. The third canoe was
filled with offerings of swine and fruits. After rowing
round the two ships to the solemn chanting of the
priests, the party proceeded to the shore, and landed at
the observatory, where Cook received them in a tent.
The King threw over Lono's shoulders his own cloak,
placed his own helmet on his head, and placed in his
hands a curious fan, one of the insignia of royalty.
He presented other cloaks of great beauty and value.
The offerings of pigs and fruit were then made with
religious rites and responsive chants. The ceremony
concluded with an exchange of names, the greatest pos
sible pledge of friendship. The King and some of his
chiefs were then carried in the pinnace to the flag-ship,
where they were received with due honour. Cook gave
Kalaniopuu a linen shirt, and his hanger or cutlass.
This rather reminds the reader of the reciprocity in
dealing between the Dutch settlers at New York and
the natives there, described by Knickerbocker, and the
system of weights established in buying furs, according
to which a Dutchman's hand in one scale was a pound,
and his foot was equivalent to two pounds.
Profound silence reigned in the bay during these
ceremonious visits ; no canoe was afloat ; and on shore
the few inhabitants who were visible were lying pro
strate on the ground. Afterwards, at Captain Cook's
request, the tabu was removed as far as related to the

96 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
King's male subjects, but the females were still inter
dicted all communication.
On shore, the followers of Lono who wandered about
the island, alone or in companies, continued to receive
kindness and hospitality. The natives could not, how
ever, deny themselves the enjoyment of pilfering a
little; and this infraction of the rights of meum and
tuum, seen by the white men on the meum side, led to
some small shot being fired at the offenders, and to the
flogging a native on board the 'Discovery.' Our country
men seem to have inaugurated a reign of liberty in that
oppressed country, — under which the natives had a per
fect freedom to give, but were not at all free to take.
Probably, by this time familiarity with Lono and his
followers, and the expensive nature of such intercourse,
were producing changed ideas in the natives' minds re
specting him. The Deus ex machina measured but the
height of a man, and exhibited in several particulars
very human tendencies. Most of us are, intellectually,
inclined to the deification of members of our race — to
entertain — ' proud views of human kind,
Of men to gods exalted and refined ; ' —
' And to make idols, and to find them clay — '
and to feel the consequent disappointment; — and when
at last our eyes are opened, and the idol, 'despised
and broken,' lies in fragments at our feet, we are
sometimes apt to resent the misplacement of our
reverence, and the exhibition we have given of our
credulity. A huge mistake was committed, which precipitated
the unfavourable impressions commencing in the natives'
minds. On the 2nd of February, Captain King, on the

COOK S INTERCOURSE WITH THE NATIVES 97
part of Captain Cook, requested of the priests to pur
chase the wooden fence which surrounded the top of the
heiau, or temple, for fuel. It was not refused; the
wood was given, and nothing was demanded in return
for it. Many idols were attached to, or, leaned against,
the wooden fence of the temple, and these were also
carried with it to the ships' boats. King says that he
from the first doubted the propriety of the request he
had conveyed ; and fearing that the taking away the
idols would be looked upon as an impious act, spoke on
the subject to the high-priest; but the latter simply
requested that the central figure might be restored. It
is possible that though no open opposition or resentment
was shown for an act so much in conflict with the
reverence felt by the natives towards their divinities
and their temples, it was because they looked upon the
living Lono with still greater reverence and fear; or
that the ' double sacrilege on things divine,
To rob the altar and deface the shrine,'
struck them dumb by its profane audacity.
Ledyard's narrative of this event differs from Captain
King's. He says that Cook offered for the fence two
hatchets, which were indignantly refused ; and, upon the
refusal, he ordered his men to break down the fence and
carry it to the boats, he clearing the way for them ; that
the images were taken off and destroyed by a few
seamen, in presence of the priests and chiefs, who had
not sufficient resolution to make resistance, — that the
hatchets were again offered, but were again refused;
that Cook insisted on their receiving them, and thrust
them into the folds of the priest's garment to whom he
spoke, and who trembled with emotion ; and that mean
while a concourse of natives assembled, expressed their
H

98 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
sense of the wrong in no quiet mood, and even at
tempted to replace the fence and the idols, which, how
ever, in spite of their resistance, were safely conveyed
on board.
Other causes of dissatisfaction followed. The rudder
of the ' Eesolution ' had been sent on shore for repairs.
The master's mate, who had it in charge, requested
assistance from the natives in carrying it. In giv
ing this help the natives, either in frolic or by
design, worked confusedly, and several of them were
struck by the mate. A chief who was present in
terposed, the people mocked the white men, and
stones were thrown. The English seamen, seizing some
wooden treenails, struck the natives with them about
their heads and shoulders. The fray increasing, a guard
of marines was ordered from the ship ; but they were
furiously pelted with stones, and retired, leaving the
ground in possession of its rightful owners.
The death of one of the ships' company, and his
burial on shore, by proving Lono's followers to be
mortal, still further reduced the natives' faith in the
divine origin of their visitors. The very eupeptic con
dition of the white men, their voracious appetites, might
not have militated against that idea ; but the quantity
of food which they daily consumed became highly incon
venient; the island was heavily taxed to provide the
necessary supplies the ships required, and the Hawaiians
became alarmed by the prospect of a famine. When
our countrymen came to be regarded in the light of
locusts, their presence, in spite of their higher civilisa
tion, was looked upon as undesirable; and the news
that the ships were about to sail, created such genuine
pleasure, that the people joyfully collected and took
on board a farewell present of food, cloth, and other

THE SHIPS OBLIGED TO RETURN 99
articles, exceeding in quantity and value anything which
they had previously offered. They received nothing
in return for this munificent gift, unless an exhibition
of fireworks was considered an equivalent for this and
other favours. The pyrotechnical display created among
the natives the greatest astonishment and alarm.
On the 4th the ships set sail ; but being becalmed in
sight of land during that day and the following, the
king sent off another present of hogs and vegetables.
It would have been well if intercourse between the
white and coloured races had then been discontinued
for a season. It is possible that lapse of time
might have softened into a pleasing picture the
realities of a visit in which good and ill were min
gled. The benefits of that intercourse would, perhaps,
have been remembered ; the evil overcome and forgotten.
After a time the natives might have desired to see again
the wonderful moving islands and their inhabitants
who were armed with such extraordinary powers. On
their first visit the white people were beheld with
astonished curiosity; at another approach they might
have been welcomed with a desire to learn from them.
Unfortunately it happened otherwise. A week after
sailing, the ships returned and anchored again in Kea
lakeakua Bay. As the ' Eesolution ' had sprung her
foremast in a gale, the spar and some damaged sails
were sent on shore to be repaired, under a small guard
of marines, whose tents were pitched in the heiau they
had occupied before, and the priests protected the place
by proclaiming it tabu. The silence, the absence of
welcome, struck Cook, and he sent to inquire the cause
of the change. He was informed that the King was
absent, and had left the bay under a strict tabd. Some
degree of intercourse was at length reestablished with
H 2

100 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the natives of both sexes, and it is probable that con
nections formed by the sailors excited the jealousy of
the men. Already, at the first visit, a blow had been
struck at the integrity of their religion, such as it was.
Whilst the chiefs had preserved the tabu on the heiau
in which were situated the English observatory and
workshop, with the utmost strictness, the seamen broke
through the protective restriction themselves, and caused
the native women to do the same by entering the
enclosure at night. The latter did this at first with
fear and trembling, but they perceived that they had
done so with impunity, and no indignant god had
avenged himself of the profanation. Thus the edifice
of superstition received a preliminary shake. There
remained, however, a general feeling of disapprobation
on the part of the natives at the sacrilege they had wit
nessed, for the hospital and sail-loft had occupied the
most sacred part of the heiau. As soon as the English
had taken their departure on the first occasion, the house
so used was burnt.
There was a pervading irritation in the minds of
the Hawaiians. It showed itself in disputes about the
traffic which recommenced. On the 13th of February,
some chiefs ordered the natives who were engaged
watering the ships, to disperse. The latter then armed
themselves with stones, as if for some attack. On Capt.
King and a marine approaching, the stones were put
aside, and the work continued ; and Cook on being
informed of the occurrence, gave orders that if the
natives threw stones or behaved insolently, they should
be fired upon with ball.
If we were writing the history of English adventure
and daring, we should probably justify and even applaud
every action of our countrymen,— as exhibiting the

CAUSES OF QUARREL 101
resolution and skill by which they were guided under
all circumstances and in every emergency. The rights,
the property, the feelings, the religion of native races,
would only be the rudely painted scenes before which
the Briton enacted his noble part to an admiring
audience. But writing some transactions which form to
a native race part of its history, we cannot look with
exclusive favour on one of the two performers ; we even
place ourselves in the position of regarding the action
of the piece from a different point of view.
New causes of offence quickly arose. The same day
some musket shots were fired at a canoe from the
' Discovery.' The English narrative states that a theft
was the occasion of this act : the natives relate that the
foreigners seized a canoe belonging to a chief named
Palea, who, whilst endeavouring to recover it, was
knocked down by one of the white men. Cook and
King did not see this part of the transaction, as they,
with a marine, were running along the beach attempting
to cut off the canoe by which the theft had been com
mitted. Its occupants escaped them and fled into the
country, pursued by Cook and his two associates, who,
after a chase of some miles were obliged to desist. The
natives on the shore who saw their chief knocked down
interfered, and with showers of stones drove the seamen
into the water. The latter swam to a rock out of reach
of the missiles. The ship's pinnace was taken and
plundered, and would have been destroyed, had not
Palea, on recovering from the effects of the blow he
had received, exerted his authority. He drove the
natives away, made signs to the sailors to come and
take away their boat, and restored to them all the
articles which could be recovered, expressing his regret
at the affrav.

102 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
The local wound was healed for the moment, but there
remained the deeper smart of mutual suspicion. Cook
ordered every islander to be turned out of the ships,
and doubled the guard at the heiau. At midnight a
native who was seen skulking about its walls was fired
at; and during the darkness, Palea, either to avenge
himself of his blow, or for the sake of the iron fasten
ings, stole one of the ' Discovery's ' cutters, which was
moored to a buoy.
The morning which dawned calmly on that fair bay
was Sunday. It was doomed to be neither a day of
rest nor of peace. Cook resolved to recover the stolen
boat, and for that purpose he determined to secure the
Kino- or some of the royal family, and retain them on
board until it was restored. He also gave orders that if
the cutter should not be recovered, every canoe was to
be seized which endeavoured to leave the bay. The
expedition on shore would properly have been led by
Clerke, the second in command, but being ill, he
requested that Cook would undertake the duty ; and so
it happened that the adventurous discoverer set his
foot on the shore, which in a few hours was to witness
his death, and to refuse him a grave.
When in the year 1823, Mr. Ellis made his visit to
Hawaii, he found many persons at Kealakeakua and
other parts of the island who were present themselves
at Cook's death, or were well acquainted with its circum
stances. By the accounts these people gave Mr. Ellis,
and from the collection made at Lahaina-luna, the Ka
Moolelo Hawaii previously mentioned, the native version
of this transaction is distinctly preserved. Their plain,
unvarnished tale, is told in sorrow, not in anger, and
without justification of themselves. They state that
Cook, having come on shore and had an interview with

NATIVE ACCOUNT OF COOK'S DEATH 103
Kalaniopuu, the two walked together towards the shore,
Cook designing to take the King on board his ship and
detain him there till the missing boat should be restored.
The people seeing this, and having their suspicions
already roused, thronged round, and objected to the
King's going farther. His wife, too, entreated that he
would not go on board the ships. Kalaniopuu hesitated;
and whilst he was standing in doubt, a man came run
ning from the other side of the bay, crying, ' It is war !
The foreigners have fired at a canoe from one of their
boats, and killed a chief.' On hearing this the people
became enraged, and the chiefs were alarmed, fearing
that Cook would put the King to death. Again his
wife, Kanona, used her entreaties he would not go on
board, and the chiefs joined with her, the people in the
meantime arming themselves with stones, clubs, and
spears. The King sat down ; and Capt. Cook, who
seemed agitated, began walking towards his boat. Whilst
doing so, a native attacked him with a spear. Cook
turned, and with his double-barrelled gun shot the man
who struck him. Some of the people then threw
stones at the Englishman, which being seen by his men
in the boats, they fired on the natives. Cook endeavoured
to stop the firing, but on account of the noise he was
unable to do so. He then turned to speak to the people
on shore, when some one stabbed him in the back with
a pahoa, or dagger, and at the same time a spear was
driven through his body. He fell into the water, and
spoke no more.
This account agrees very nearly with Captain King's.
King believed, however, that he received the thrust of the
dagger whilst speaking to the boats to stop firing, and
that whilst his face was turned towards shore none of
the natives offered him any violence ; so that his

104 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
humanity in wishing to prevent more bloodshed cost
him his life.
Thus fell Cook in mid career. It causes regret to
think that his life was unnecessarily thrown away
through some failure in judgement and some faults of
temper, which his attached friend, King, admits ' might
have been justly blamed.' Had he lived longer he might
have added more discoveries to his already brilliant list,
but his fame would not have increased. The memory
of great men usually gains when its light is contracted
within a short compass, and when life terminates sud
denly in its zenith. It is like the lustrous fracture of a
mineral ore. About half-a-million of persons die in
Great Britain every year. They go to the grave and
are forgotten; but our maritime nation looks back with
a fond tenacity of memory to some who have won them
selves a name in different paths of honour and adventure.
Hundreds of lives have been hazarded to gain tidings
of an Arctic explorer; and English youth still throw
aside more modern books, to read of Cook and the lost
La Perouse.

105

CHAPTEE VIII.
THE SEQUEL OF COOK'S DEATH — SUBSEQUENT VISITS
THE native account says that when the crowd which
was about Cook and the King, Kalaniopuu, heard
of the death of Kalimu, the chief who was shot in the
canoe, it became clamorous for revenge; and one of
the people with a short dagger in his hand approached
the captain, who, fearing danger, fired at him with his
gun. A general contest began, and Cook struck a chief
named Kalaimano-Kahoowaha with his sword. This
powerful warrior seized him with one hand to hold him,
not with any idea of taking his life, for supposing him
to be the god Lono he believed him incapable of death.
Cook, being about to fall, cried out, which dispelled the
chief's belief in his divinity, and he therefore killed
him. The seamen in the boat fired on the natives,
many of whom were cut down, and guns were dis
charged from the ship, by which more of the people
were killed. The King then fled inland, to the preci
pice, with his chiefs and people, taking with them the
bodies of Cook and four of his companions who had been
slain. The King presented Cook's body in sacrifice:
the flesh was afterwards removed from the bones in
order to preserve them, and the flesh was consumed
with fire. Three children, whose names are known,"
found the heart, and mistaking it for that of a dog, ate

106 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
it. Some of Cook's bones were returned to the ship ;
the rest were retained by the priests and worshipped.
The account of the whole transaction given by Led-
yard, who was near his commander when he fell, though
fuller and more explanatory, does not differ in any
material points from the native narrative — indeed,
not more than do any two independent histories of
one transaction. The English version gives some names
and circumstances which did not come within the
islanders' knowledge. Lieutenant Phillips, who had
landed his marines to support Cook, was close to the
latter, who when he was stabbed, fell with his face
downwards into the water, the margin of which he
had reached, and immediately expired. Phillips,
who was a fine swordsman, threw down his fusee,
and engaging the chief who had stabbed Cook,
dispatched him with his sword. His guard by this
time were all killed, except two, who swam to the
boats, leaving the Lieutenant alone opposed to the
natives. His brave defence astonished the people who
were attacking him; but being at last wounded and
faint, he plunged into the sea sword in hand, and was
taken on board the boats. As soon, however, as he was
safe, one of the marines, who had swum from shore, was
seen lying at the bottom of the water. The wounded
officer hearing this, ran aft, plunged again into the sea,
and brought the man to the surface, and both were taken
into the boat.
Captain King was on the other side of the bay, where
the observatory was situated, and where the mast and
sails of the 'Eesolution' had been landed. As soon as
the news arrived there of the affray, the natives com
menced an attack upon the small force in charge, but
were repulsed, and a truce was agreed to, during which

SEQUEL TO COOK'S DEATH 107
the property of the ship was carried on board. All
reverence for the English was now at an end. Insult
and injuries followed. The natives erected a breastwork
on the beach and sent the women into the interior.
Two men, however, brought off to the ship a portion of
Cook's remains, and mentioned that the rest of his flesh
had been burnt and that his bones were in possession of
the chiefs. In consequence of some taunts and bravadoes
the crews fired on the natives with the great guns, kill
ing some of them, and slightly wounding the young
Kamehameha. On the 17th boats were sent on shore, under fire of
the guns, to water the ships. The natives attacked and
annoyed the party thus engaged, and they in return, set
fire to some houses, which led to the destruction of the
whole village. All forbearance seems to have been lost,
and the English seamen gave way to their cruel and
unchastened passions. They even fired on a man who
approached them with the insignia of peace, and was
attended by a dozen boys. Not daunted by the fire of
the English, the herald reached the commanding officer,
and proved to be the priest who had on all occasions
shown himself the friend of Captain Cook. He came to
expostulate on the ungrateful treatment which he and
his brethren had received. Belying on a promise made
when the natives carried some remains of the com
mander on board, that persons and property of the priests
should be respected, they did not remove their effects,
as did others, to a place of security, and now their trust
was rewarded by the loss of their all.
Such is the natural levity of the Hawaiian cha-.
racter and the shallowness of Hawaiian feelings, that
throughout these hostilities numbers of native women
remained on board the ships, showing no concern when

108 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the heads of their countrymen were brought off to the
vessels; and only remarking when the village was
burning, that it was a very fine sight.
At last, the next evening, messengers were sent from
shore to sue for peace, bringing their usual presents.
The conditions required were that the remains of Cook
should be restored. The messengers stated that the
bodies of the marines who fell had been burnt, except
the limb-bones, which were in the possession of the in
ferior chiefs, and that Kamehameha had the hair of
Captain Cook. Amongst the presents, of provisions
which were sent to the ships that night were two from
the injured but forgiving priest. We cannot scan
motives; but if this lenity and generosity proceeded
from the reverence he bore to his supposed Lono, it is
an instance of religious consistency and forbearance not
very common even in Christian lands.
The next day, all the bones of Cook which could be
recovered were brought on board, wrapped in fine tapa
and adorned with black and white feathers ; and on the
21st a high chief came, bringing Cook's gun, his shoes,
and some other trifling articles. He informed the com
manders that six chiefs had been killed, some of them
being the best friends the English had among the natives.
On the 21st, the remains of their commander having
been solemnly committed to the deep, the ships sailed
from the bay. They touched at Oahu on the 27th, and
proceeded to Kauai, their first station. Here they did
not receive a cordial welcome. A disease had been im
planted among the natives, when the ships first visited
them, which had occasioned deaths and much suffering.
Some goats which Cook had left thinking they might
be useful on the island, proved to be a gift of Ate, and
created a contention which ended in a battle. No longer

A HERO WITHOUT A MONUMENT 109
under the restraint which superstitious reverence for
Lono occasioned, the common people acted towards the
English in a troublesome and aggravating manner. On
the 12th the exploring vessels finally took leave of the
islands. No sufficient monument has been raised to the great
navigator who fell on the shore of Hawaii. A hundred
yards from the fatal beach, part of a cocoa-nut tree has
been set up in a bed of loose stones and broken lava, on
which successive visitors have fixed sheets of copper,
with inscriptions punched upon them. Mr. Hill on his
visit copied them and gives them in his volume, the
earliest being that of Lord George Paulet. The last
plate reads as follows : —
' Near this spot fell Capt. James Cook, R.N., the renowned
navigator, who discovered this island a.d. 1778. His
Majesty's Ship " Imogine," October 17th, 1837.'
Whether the orthography of the ship's name depended
on the ship's carpenter who punched it on the copper,
or is the error of the copyist, is not discoverable.
About a mile from the bay, at an elevation of five
hundred feet above the sea, is another equally unosten
tatious monument. It consists of a post, ten feet high,
set in loose blocks of lava and enclosed in a wall of the
same material. The visit commemorated on the copper
plate it bears is in all probability that of Lord Byron in
the ' Blonde.'—
' In the memory of Captain James Cook, E.N., who discovered
this island a.d. 1778, this humble monument is erected
by his fellow-countrymen a.d. 1825.'
An attempt has lately been made to raise a more suit
able memorial to Cook's fame. Her Majesty's late Con
sul and Commissioner in the Sandwich Islands, General

HO HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Miller, was active in promoting this object when illness
compelled him to leave Oahu for a time. In England,
a few names appeared in an announcement in the
' Times ' responsive to a not uninteresting call ; but the
writer is not informed what success has attended the
effort made.
Cook had named the group The Sandwich Islands,
after his patron, John, Lord Sandwich, First Lord of
the Admiralty in Lord North's Administration. It does
not appear that there had been any collective native
name for the ten islands. Of these the largest was
called by the inhabitants Hawaii ; and the discoverers
hearing the demonstrative article 0 used, ' 0 Hawaii,'
' This Hawaii,' understood it as being part of the name ;
which soft vocable they wrote Owhyhee, not a bad pho
netic equivalent. At present when the word Hawaii is
used there, it indicates the great island of that name,
whilst when the whole group is intended it is expressed
Hawaii-nei, — q.d., ' All this Hawaii.'
It redounds to the honour of our own nation as well as
to that of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, that the
blood-red dawn of intercourse, the violent death of an emi
nent officer of our navy and some English seamen on their
shores, the wrongs and sufferings which unquestionably
the aborigines received at our hands, have issued not in
strife and acts of war and hatred, but, generally speaking,
in works of beneficence on our side, and on theirs in
respect and gratitude. Our sovereigns personally, and
their government, have shown on many occasions great
kindness and consideration to the Hawaiian people and
their rulers ; have taken a parental and rather unusual
interest in a nation which in its nonage exhibited strength
and many fine qualities, and which thirsted for that civi
lisation which they were able to bring to its shores. The

SUBSEQUENT EVENTS 111
Hawaiians have answered these benefits with a genuine
and long-continued affection that is almost filial ; and
they have, on more than one occasion, desired to place
themselves under the English rule by ceding the islands
to us. England has within the last few years seen the
necessity or the duty of refusing several such offers,
when, if ambition only were her impulse, she might
have spangled her robe with island possessions.*
The effect which the account of Cook's death produced
in Europe was so unfavourable that, in spite of the ardent
description given in the journals of the expedition of the
beauty and fruitfulness of the islands, no ships visited
them for some years. They were set down as being a
nation of savage barbarians, cruel, revengeful, and were
even accused of cannibalism. The war with America,
too, occupied men's minds, and probably indisposed
them for adventurous voyages which might be produc
tive of much interest, but of little immediate profit.
During their unvisited period the islands were the
theatre of long and destructive wars. The true
history of Hawaii takes its rise in these fierce commo
tions ; amidst the grim and bloody scenes of which we
begin to see a moving figure, a warrior of sterner stuff
and of higher aim than the rest, who rose to be a leader
of men, who by his talents and powerful will united at
last all the separate islands into one kingdom, and be
came the founder of the present dynasty. This, at the
time of which we are now writing, was the youthful
chieftain Kamehameha.
Among the causes of the rapid decrease of population
in the Hawaiian Islands, the wars of this conqueror, then
* Latterly we may instance Borneo, and the whole Feejan Archi
pelago, consisting of two hundred beautiful islands, which were uncon
ditionally offered to this country two years ago.

112 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
commencing, and long continued, have a conspicuous
place. Cook estimated the islands to contain 400,000
people; but he probably overstated the real number,
as his data were superficial and deceptive. If at
most places where he touched, he saw a crowd upon
the beach and fleets of canoes, it must be remem
bered that many of the same individuals would make
their appearance at the several bays, flocking there
out of curiosity and from other motives. Unquestion
ably, the islands were once comparatively thickly peo
pled. This is seen by the traces of old cultivation, and
of public works ; but it appears doubtful whether within
the last century the population ever amounted to the
mass Cook supposed. The subject of the disappearance
of the native race is one so important that it will be
treated of in a separate chapter.
It is not intended in this place to enter upon the
internal history of the islands, which will be slightly
sketched hereafter, and we proceed to enumerate the
other visitors there before commerce was regularly
established. The first ships which arrived were two
traders from London, the ' King George ' and ' Queen
Charlotte,' under the command of Captains Portlock and
Dixon, the former of whom had accompanied Captain
Cook in his last voyage. This visit was in 1786. The
conduct of the natives was at first unsatisfactory, but
the vessels touched at four of the islands, and, eventu
ally, a fair system of barter was set up. In the autumn
of the same year the ships returned. When off Maui,
they picked up a canoe with four men in it in an ex
hausted state ; the sufferers were restored by the Eng
lish crews, treated with great kindness and presented
with gifts. On their being put on shore, they were
able to tell the story of the white men's humanity.

VISITS OF LA PEROUSE AND OTHERS 113
Captain Portlock seems to have felt the attraction of the
islands, for in December we find the ships still there,
the chiefs at Kauai showing much kindness and libe
rality. Captain Portlock touched at the same islands in
October of the following year.
About the same time we have a momentary view of
La Perouse, as he vanishes into his silent fate. He
anchored his frigates near Lahaina, on the windward
side of Maui, on May 28, 1786, remaining there only
two days, but sufficiently long to form a favourable
opinion of the inhabitants, and to suppose that in their
shrewd turn for barter he found indications of former
communications with the Spaniards. Forty years afters-
wards the remains of this interesting navigator's ships
were discovered on the islands of the New Hebrides.
The next recorded visit was that of two merchant
captains, Meares and Douglass, in the ' Nootka ' and the
'Iphigenia,' in August 1787. A chief, Kaiana, sailed
with the former to Canton, and the friendship formed
on that occasion was the means two years after of
saving the ' Iphigenia,' — some chiefs of Hawaii having
formed a plan for seizing the ship, but the plot was dis
closed by Kaiana. The ambitious Kamehameha obtained
from Captain Douglass, in one of many visits which he
made during two years, a swivel gun, some smaller fire
arms, and some ammunition.
The grim stories which had circulated after Cook's
death in relation to the Sandwich Islands were now dis
pelled, and numerous ships from England and America
sailed thither and commenced the trade which has en
larged and continued to the present time. The islands
were, however, in a state of chronic war; and when
men's minds are agitated by one evil raging passion, other
passions are easily evoked as wicked as the first, Thus,
I

114 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
in the spring of 1 790 an event happened which stains
the page with its story of cupidity and revenge.
The American ship ' Eleanor ' arrived at Hawaii in
the autumn of 1789, and remained there, trading, all
the winter. In the following February, she proceeded
to Maui, and anchored at Honuaula. Two chiefs of a
neighbouring district stole the ship's boat during the
night, whilst it was moored under the vessel's stern, the
watchman in it having fallen asleep. On his waking,
he endeavoured to give an alarm, and on doing this a
second time he was killed by one of the natives. The
boat was successfully taken away, and was broken up
to extract the iron it contained, and which was the
object for which it was stolen. Captain Metcalf then
attacked the village, killed one man and took two others
prisoners, and ascertained that the real depredators had
come from a place on the coast named Oloalu. Thither
he proceeded, planning on his way a great and signal
vengeance. The seaman's life which had been taken
was perhaps expiated already by the blood shed in
return ; but the boat, with its oars and its rollocks, its
iron bolts and the copper on its gunwale, cried aloud
for a larger vengeance, a wider destruction of human
life. On coming to an anchor at Oloalu a strict tabu
was found to prevail there. Death by burning was the
fate of any native who should put off to the ship in a
canoe. However, the bones of the murdered seaman
and some remains of the ravished boat, a reward for
both which had been offered by Metcalf, were delivered
up to him, and the innocent or ignorant natives asked
for the proffered reward. They had not yet read the
fable of the Stork, and the Fox which had swallowed
a bone. The American Captain meditated a battue, and
formed a design similar to that by which Jehu slew

THE 'ELEANOR' AND THE 'FAIR AMERICAN' 115
all Baal's idolatrous priests. 'Yes, you shall have a
reward. As soon as the tabu is removed, come to me,
and I will give you even more than you ask ! ' Multi
tudes of people hastened round the ship in their canoes
to trade. They were all made to lie on the starboard
side, and when all was ready, Metcalf, standing in the
gangway, gave the command, and a large gun loaded
with musket balls and nails was run out and fired into
the midst of the unsuspecting fleet — the terrible destruc
tion being aided by volleys of musketry and small arms.
One hundred natives were killed, besides a vast num
ber wounded. This great victory having been achieved,
Metcalf sailed for . Hawaii ; and the bolts and nails of
the ship's boat seemed now really avenged. One gives
a sigh of relief at remembering that by the Declaration
of Independence all fellow-citizenship between this mis
creant and ourselves had formally ceased.
But the page of retribution is not yet complete,. The
' Eleanor ' was accompanied by a small schooner called
the ' Fair American,' the crew of which, consisting of
five men, was commanded by Metcalf 's son, a youth of
eighteen. The schooner proceeded to Hawaii, and not
falling in with the ' Eleanor,' anchored in Kawaihae
bay. A high chief of the island had, for some trifling
offence, been flogged by the elder Metealf on board his
ship. Kameeimoku had nourished his burning shame
and rage, and had resolved to revenge himself on the
first white men that fell into his power. And now the
white sails of the little schooner appear in the offing,
and the ' Fair American,' like a new Iphigenia, anchors
in the fatal bay. The chief with his people boarded her,
bringing presents, and suddenly they seize young Met
calf and throw him overboard, and massacre all the orew,
except one man, Isaac Davis, whose wounds the natives
I 2

116 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
bound up and carried him on shore, where he was kindly
treated. The schooner was stranded and plundered.
So strangely is woven the web of events, and so often
do we see a hand ' out of e\ril still educing good,' that
we find the shocking transactions just recorded issuing,
through apparently small channels, in the after history
of the islands, and connecting themselves with the pros
perity and peace of the kingdom. Isaac Davis lived to
be of service in the islands, and to obtain the respect
and love of the people. He received presents of valu
able lands near the sea, and was raised by Kamehameha
to the rank of a high chief. Another seaman became a
prisoner in Hawaii at the same time, whose after history
is still more interesting and important than that of
Davis. This was John Young, boatswain of the ' Eleanor.'
He had gone on shore about the time of the 'Fair
American's ' seizure, and on attempting to return was
forbidden to do so by the King. The ' Eleanor ' re
mained two days in Kealakeakua bay, firing guns as
signals for Young to return on board ; but he was not
allowed to leave the island, and the vessel sailed with
out him. Young became afterwards the trusty servant
of Kamehameha. Seamen of that day, as of this, were
not conspicuous for their education or moral discipline ;
yet these two men had lived in lands where law and
civilisation were the atmosphere which all breathed;
and with faults almost equal fo those of barbarians, they
could not but carry with them some degrees of know
ledge and discipline which were not barbaric. Though in
their own country their slight acquirements and imper
fect training showed but as a candle at noonday, yet
when brought into comparison with uncivilised abori
gines, these men, by virtue of that slight education, were
like the same candle shining in a dark room. Some

JOHN YOUNGS INFLUENCE 117
Christian virtues, too, adhered to their natures, as the
jewels stuck to the flesh which Sindbad threw into
the valley of diamonds. Young's career will neces
sarily form part of the sketch of internal Hawaiian his
tory which is to follow, and it is sufficient to say of him
here that he was found faithful, and that he returned
the generosity of his patron and the confidence which
was reposed in him in the very best way. His cha
racter seems to have risen to the emergency, and to
have reacted with a humane influence upon the strong
but passionate nature of the despotic King he served.
His position was also influential as respected his own
countrymen and other foreigners who visited the islands ;
and the last point of interest about him to be noticed is
that he was the grandfather of the present young and
admirable sovereign, Queen Emma.
At first the two unwilling settlers made many attempts
to get away from the islands ; but they were jealously
watched, and upon one occasion being caught whilst
endeavouring to go on board a vessel would have lost
their lives, had it not been for the determined inter
ference of the King. The latter, though ambitious and
covetous of power, was made of nobler stuff than many
of the chiefs, and was open to the counsel and the per
suasions of his two white advisers. He resisted and
overcame several plans of Kaiana and others for seizing
foreign vessels, though the motive- for such robbery was
very strong — that of adding ships to his own navy.
The ' Eleanor' herself only escaped seizure, and her crew
murder, when the chiefs were already on board and
about to carry out their plan, by the King's going off to
the ship and compelling the chiefs to leave the vessel.
We pass on to a visit made by an English voyager, who
to an ardent love for discovery united a noble heart and

118 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
most humane disposition. It is Vancouver. He had
sailed with Cook ; and now, in 1792, returned himself to
the islands with the surveying vessels ' Discovery ' and
' Chatham.' The first bay he entered was that in which
his chief had lost his life ; but he came there with no
retributive thunders from his guns, but in peace.
Dropping * like the gentle dew from heaven,' he coasts
along the islands, enters the bays, and, in passing, he
distributes to the chiefs garden seeds and other objects
which he thought might be useful to the people. Since
his first visit in 1778, fourteen years before, an extensive
depopulation had taken place throughout the group.
This was due to constant internal wars, and to imported
disease. The disposition of the natives had not im
proved. The greed of gain had entered into their souls,
and seemed to be the one motive which actuated them
in their intercourse with the strangers. For this they
were ready to prostitute their wives and daughters, and
to display wantonness in so gross a form that it had the
effect of producing disgust and repulsion. Of the chiefs
Vancouver had formerly known, one alone remained,
and that was Kamehameha.
His arrival and stay in the islands is a good deal
mixed up with their political history ; but as a slight
historical sketch is to be given separately, the internal
events of the kingdom will only be noticed incidentally
and when unavoidable. Vancouver found a foreign
trade already commencing, principally in the hands of
Americans, and confined to the islands of Hawaii and
Kauai, or, as it is spelt in his narrative, Atoovai. The
articles sought for were sandal-wood and furs: the former
grew abundantly in the mountain districts ; the latter
would be sought for in vain, considering that the only
native animals were hogs, rats, and dogs. The English

Vancouver's intercourse 119
who came to the islands were in pursuit of pearls. These
were found there, but not in abundance, and were of
three colours, white, yellow, and lead-hued. Vancouver
speaks in terms of praise of Kamehameha, of his good
faith, and the kindness he received from him. The
King accompanied him from the east to the south-east
of Hawaii, whence Vancouver saw the smoke ascending
from the mountain range which culminates in the great
peak of Mauna Loa. He describes the priests of Pele
as a religious order who performed volcanic rites, sacri
ficing fire productions of the country to propitiate the
enraged deity who presided over the burning mountain.
Among things pilfered from his ships were knives ;
and these were stolen by the natives not so much for
the steel blades, as for the ivory handles, to be con
verted into a species of neck ornament considered sacred,
and which were ordinarily made of fish-bones. Having
already become acquainted with the productions of
Europe and America, the islanders had ceased to care
for objects of mere ornament, and preferred in their
traffic cloth, hardware, and useful articles. It has to be
written with shame, that the white men occasionally
taught, by example, lessons of dishonesty, and even
worse faults, during their intercourse with the Hawaiians.
Scant measure, inferiority of quality in the goods sold,
and frauds more destructive in their effect, characterised
at times their dealings. When Laing and Clapperton
were engaged in their African exploration, they took
with them, among articles of barter, needles. These
were properly packed, and labelled ' Whitechapel Sharps,'
and had not been examined before being used in trade ;
but the manufacturer, for the small saving of labour,
omitted to drill the eyes of the needles ; and the few
shillings gained by the fraud had nearly cost the travel-

120 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
lers their lives, so great was the indignation of the tribe
who took them in exchange when they discovered they
had been deceived and cheated. In the same way, some
of the muskets sold to the Hawaiians were so wretched
that they burst the first time they were fired, — often
producing dangerous injuries to those who used them,
and leaving safety only to those against whom they were
employed. Ill faith on one side may be the model, but it cannot
be the excuse for malpractices in the other party to a
transaction. Unquestionably the islanders acted at times
in accordance with their savage nature, and with a cruelty
which they had not required to learn from civilised
nations. On the 11th of May, in the year of Vancouver's
visit, an English store-ship, the ' Dasdalus,' approached
Oahu, and lay off Waimea, on the north side of the
island. Its advent seems to have produced all the
amazement that was excited by Cook's arrival at Hawaii
in 1 778. The first thought of the natives was that the
coral rocks were floating, and when they saw the officers
and crew they took them to be gods on account of the
brightness of their eyes. Unfortunately, whilst the
seamen were watering the ship, a dispute arose between
them and the inhabitants which resulted in the death of
a Portuguese sailor. Lieutenant Hergest, who had charge
of the shore party, and the astronomer, Mr. Gouch, not
aware of the fracas, had wandered to some distance and
fell into the hands of a lawless band of natives, who, it
appears, owned allegiance to none of the local chiefs.
Again the same process was gone through as with Cook :
— first, there was the belief that the foreigners were
divine, and belonged to the expected Lono ; then the
discovery that they were mortals, which seems to have
been a sufficient signal for attack, and the two unfortu-

VANCOUVER S RETURN TO HAWAII 121
nate officers were killed. The 'Dasdalus' worked nearer
land, and fired on shore till evening, when she took her
departure. The presence of parties of depredators roam
ing about the islands was a consequence of the kings
and chiefs being engaged in their dissensions and wars.
In February 1793, Vancouver returned to Hawaii.
He had taken a voyage in the meantime to the north
west coast of America, and he had brought from Cali
fornia some cattle, intending to leave them at the
Sandwich Islands, with the benevolent design of their
introduction there. They had, however, all died on the
voyage, except a bull and a cow, which he landed, but
the cow died soon afterwards. Vancouver speaks of
Kamehameha with much admiration ; he saw him pos
sessed of great and unusual qualities, and in his inter
course with the famous warrior, he took the opportunity
of instilling into his mind counsels of wisdom and
humanity. The King's sagacious mind seized With
promptitude the opportunities offered him, and he
seems to have become impressed with the idea of the
possibility of lighting in his benighted land the lamp
of civilisation from the torch brought to him by the
English navigator. Another remarkable person came on
board Vancouver's ship. This was Kaahumanu, Kame-
hameha's favourite queen, who plays a. conspicuous part
in the subsequent history of the islands. At the time now
spoken of she was but sixteen, beautiful in person and
pleasing in manner. In after life she grew inordinately
stout ; but the force of her will and character kept pace
with her bodily dimensions, and made itself felt in the
mastery she obtained over every one who approached
her, native or foreigner. Her name, like that of her
husband's, has become a dynastic title, and is assumed
by the female premiers to this day.

122 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Vancouver was able, before he left the islands, to
present Kamehameha with five cows and some sheep.
In return for this kind act the chief gave the most
valuable object he possessed, his own war- cloak, pierced
with spear holes, which he desired might be made a
present to George III., with the injunction that as no
other person than its possessor had hitherto worn it, so
it was to grace no other shoulders than those of the
King of England. Vancouver also made an attempt to
bring about peace between the inhabitants of Hawaii
and those of the other islands with which they were
at war. His counsels were listened to respectfully, but
did not produce the desired result ; and the chiefs of
Hawaii, on their part, asked his assistance in bringing all
the islands under their dominion, which centralisation
of government seems to have shown itself to them as
the only real means of putting an end to hostilities.
Vancouver proceeded to Maui, and repeated his lessons
of peace to the chiefs at Lahaina. At Oahu he earnestly
lectured the people on the distinctions between right
and wrong, and impressed upon them the principles of
justice and humanity. Here was an English seaman,
unpretendingly, and almost unconsciously, acting as a
Christian missionary. More than a quarter of a century
elapsed before the seed then scattered showed life and
put forth leaves; and long before Christianity was
publicly brought to the islands, Vancouver was sleeping
in his grave ; but the leaven, hidden, and even forgotten,
seems, nevertheless, to have been working towards the
remarkable events of 1819 and 1820.
To stamp on the native mind the great lesson of re
tributive justice, Vancouver considered it proper to
punish the people of Oahu, for the murder of Lieutenant
Hergest, of the 'Dsedalus,' Mr. Gooch, and the Portu-

LESSONS OF RETRIBUTION 123
guese sailor. The chiefs of the islands cleared them
selves before him of any complicity in the crime ; and
three men had already been executed by their orders
for participation in the murder. However, as Vancouver
determined to bring the matter into the light of day,
three more men were sent on board his ship and tried ;
and after evidence which seemed satisfactory as to their
guilt, sentence was passed on them, and they were
handed over to their chiefs, by whom they were shot
before a large concourse of people. It is true that it
was afterwards affirmed that the three men who were
thus killed were not the real murderers, and that they
were sacrificed to appease the English captain's anger.
If this were so, it is to be regretted that so good a man
should have made so great a mistake ; and that the
execution which he ordered should have taken effect on
innocent victims. Vancouver's vessels left the islands
on the 30th of March. He returned for his last visit in
January 1794; and among other matters which sig
nalised his stay, a vessel was built and rigged, and
named the * Britannia.' The work was done by the
ship's people, assisted by an English carpenter in the
King's employ. Vancouver also brought about a recon
ciliation between Kamehameha and his favourite queen
Kaahumanu, who had been separated from him through
jealousy fostered by unfriendly chiefs. He gave the
King excellent advice as to the discipline of his troops
and his political conduct ; urged the advantages of
peace, the folly of idolatry, the oppressive evil of the
tabu system, and made known to him the one true God,
Creator, Euler, and Judge of all nations and all men.
Vancouver's visit placed the British in a new and
more favourable light with the native race. The im
pressions of events at and following on Cook's death

124 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
were in a great measure done away ; and the people
rightly conceived England to be the greatest maritime
power in the world. As such, they sought her protec
tion. They considered that she alone could secure peace
and the unification of the entire group under the sway
of the Hawaiian King. That some repressive power
was needed became apparent before Vancouver left ; for
the inhabitants of Maui made a descent upon Hawaii,
and though they were driven back, the event seems to
have been the determining cause of the king and
chiefs ceding Hawaii to this country. This was done
on the 25th of February, on which day the chiefs
assembled on board the ' Discovery,' and Kamehameha
made a formal declaration of submission to the monarch
of Great Britain. He was followed by other chiefs,
who in speeches stated the advantages they expected to
derive from the cession of their country.
Mr. James Jackson Jarves, a candid and industrious
historian, but an American citizen, says, in his account
of the transaction, that the meeting on board the sloop
was, 'as the natives with more justice state, "to request
the King to protect our country." ' That might have
been the motive, but the act itself was to make an
absolute cession of the island, not simply to place it
under a protectorate ; for after the King's declaration,
Lieutenant Paget went on shore, and planted the English
colours, and took possession of the island in the name
of His Britannic Majesty. A salute was fired, and the
natives shouted, ' Kanaka no Beritane ! ' ' We are men
of Britain ! '
Vancouver left a certificate with Kamehameha record
ing the event, and the document was carefully preserved
for a long time. It ran thus : — ' I beg to inform all
visitors, that on the 25th February, 1794, at a grand

CESSION OF HAWAII TO ENGLAND 125
council of the principal chiefs of this island, assembled
on board His Britannic Majesty's ship under my com
mand, Kamehameha made the most solemn concession
of the island of Owhyhee to His Britannic Majesty, his
heirs, &c. ; and himself, with the attending chiefs unani
mously acknowledged themselves subjects to the British
Crown.' Although out of the order of this narrative, it may
be well to relate here, that a few years afterwards, when
Kamehameha had gained possession of the islands of
Maui and Oahu, he wrote to George III., acknowledging
him as his sovereign ; and finally, when he had com
pleted the conquest of the entire group, he wrote again
to that monarch, in the following terms : —
' His Most Sacred Majesty George III., of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the
Faith, &c, &c.
' Brother, — We, Kamehameha, king of the Sandwich
Islands, wishing to render every assistance to the ships of his
most sacred Majesty's subjects who visit these seas, have sent
a letter by Captain Spence, ship ' Duke of Portland,' to his
Majesty, since which Timoree, king of Atooi, has delivered
his island up, and we are now in possession of the whole of
the Sandwich Islands. We, as subjects to his most sacred
Majesty, wish to have a seal and arms sent from Britain, so as
there may be no molestation to our ships or vessels in those
seas, or any hinderanoe whatever. Wishing your Majesty a
long, prosperous, and happy reign, — I am, Brother, ' Kamehameha.'
'Woahoo, August 6, 1810.'
The reason which Vancouver assigns for the voluntary
* The letter is given in a pamphlet by Mr. Alexander Simpson,
'On the Progress of Events, &c, in the Sandwich Islands.' Smith,
Elder, & Co. 1843.

126 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
cession of Owhyhee to H. B. Majesty, and which he
accepted, is that the inhabitants were now commercially
acquainted with four nations whom they were informed
were equally powerful with the English, but that they
deliberately preferred the latter. In making this trans
ference of power, great ceremonies were used. Eeligious
rites were celebrated in the great Morai, to which
Vancouver could not be admitted without going through
certain restrictive observances ; one of which was that
he should not be wetted with sea water, or even sprinkled
with it ; and another, that he was to shun the society of
those who did not attend the ceremonies or worship in
the temple. Profound silence reigned in the temple,
broken only by prayers uttered in the lowest voice,
scarcely audible, for His Britannic Majesty, &c. The
King repeats the prayers after the priests in the same
scarce audible tone ; then in the profound silence he seizes
a hog, the legs of which are bound with oords, and dashes
it to death on the ground. If the animal had made a
moan or any sound, the sacrifice would have been
ineffectual. King, and chiefs, and people, were entangled in the
complex net of idolatry ; often chafing under it, yet un
able to escape from its meshes. Hitherto they had seen
no alternative ; and to change one system of gods for
another, was only to pass from bondage into bondage, —
the inwrought sacerdotalism ruling over and pervadino-
equally all the systems. The king and some of the chiefs
seem, however, to have seen, far-sightedly, that the white
visitants were animated by other motives than their
own pagan religion, and that they possessed a higher
instruction in morality ; and after making the cession of
their islands to a nation which they, seeing only the
foot of Hercules, perceived to be great, powerful, and

APPEAL TO ENGLAND FOR RELIGIOUS TEACHERS 127
wise, they requested of Vancouver that on his return to
England he would procure religious instructors to be sent
to them from the country of which they now considered
themselves subjects. Vancouver did not forget the
earnestness of this appeal ; and, on reaching, England
he urged on the Minister, Mr. Pitt, the advantage of
sending clergy to Hawaii. That was not a missionary
age. It was not the accusation of that generation that
they would compass sea and land to make a proselyte.
That one prayer for religious light made to this land
was unattended to and forgotten. The revolution was
raging in France. Englishmen had shuddered or shed
tears at the story of a monarch publicly murdered by
his subjects; and the best excuse that can be offered
for the cold indifference exhibited when the Hawaiian
nation asked spiritual help of our country, is that
England was absorbed by events nearer home, and was
preoccupied in averting dangers which threatened her
own stability.
The prayer for English teachers was unanswered at
that time. The Hawaiian nation and its ruler continued
to wear the heavy chain of paganism, and Kamehameha
did not live to see the introduction of Christianity in
his kingdom ; but the desire expressed in 1798 seems
to have become traditional, so that when in 1820 the
first American missionaries arrived in the Sandwich
Islands, it was enquired whether these were the religious
instructors whom the king and chiefs expected from
England. Finding that they were not, there was much
opposition to their landing; and it was only on the
assurance of the English settler, John Young, that these
missionaries came to preach the same religion as those
whom they expected, that they were permitted to come
on shore.

128 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Vancouver took his final leave in March 1794 ; and
in 1798 this amiable man closed in death his eminent
but short career.
In the year of his departure, Captain Brown, master
of the English ship 'Butter worth,' discovered and sur
veyed the harbour of Honolulu. As arrivals of ships
became frequent after that time, it ceases to be interest
ing to refer further to their visits, with the exception of
the two made by Captain, afterwards Bear-Admiral,
Beechey, in H.M.S. ' Blossom.' The volumes containing
the interesting narrative of his voyages and dis
coveries in the Pacific and Behring's Strait, published
in 1831, are very well known. Beechey's first visit
took place in 1826. The ' Blossom ' left Tahiti on the
26th of April, and arrived at Honolulu on the 20th
of May. The rapidity of this passage had left the
impressions of the former island strong on the mind
and on the eye, and it was the contrasts between the
two places which first struck the voyagers. They missed
the green and shady forests which skirted the shores of
Tahiti ; and after intercourse with its effeminate inha
bitants, the Hawaiians' darker complexion and coarser
features, together with a wildness of facial expression,
impressed them at first unfavourably ; but they subse
quently learned to respect these signs of a manliness and
boldness which were deficient in the Sybaritic people
of the more southern group. Other symptoms, indi
cating the footsteps of civilisation upon the islands,
met their eyes. The forts in the harbour, the cannon,
the ensign of Kamehameha displayed on the ramparts
of a fort mounting 40 guns, and at the gaff of a man-
of-war brig and of some other vessels, rendered the
distinction between the two countries still more evident.
Old familiar words in their own language greeted them

BEECHETS VISITS 129
as they walked up the town, already laid out in streets
and squares. In one place was the notice, ' An Ordinary
at One o'clock ;' at another, ' Billiards ;' here was the
sign, ' The Jolly Tar ;' there (and we fear at a consider
able distance), ' The Good Woman.'
The reception met with from the King and the chiefs
(including Madam Boki), was friendly in the extreme ;
and as far as possible all the wants of the ship were
supplied. Some astronomical and other observations
were taken, and Mr. Lay, the naturalist of the expedi
tion, being in ill health, was left under the protection
of one of the chiefs, who, in compliment to the great
minister, had adopted the name of Pitt. Early in
June the ' Blossom ' sailed for Kamschatka. She returned
to Honolulu in January 1827. By this time the eti
quette of exchanging salutes had been established ; and
with such forms intercourse was conducted in a land
where thirty years before the naked savage had strug
gled in deadly conflict with armed Englishmen. No doubt
the contrast impressed the visitors, as Eomans from the
capital would have been impressed who visited Britain
a century after the Julian invasion, and marked the
transition taking place in our barbarian ancestors.
The products of civilised nations had immediately be
come a passion with the Hawaiians, and they, being
very imitative, instituted many things which were pro
perly in advance of their then state. 'There were not
only hotels at the time of Beechey's visit, but Kaahu-
manu's furniture numbered sofas and cushions of silk
and velvet, and she had in her chests (perhaps ward
robes), the most costly silks of China. The Chief Boki
had presented a service of plate to the King, for which
he b.ad given three thousand dollars. Boki had similar
K

130 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
services himself; and his glass was from Pellatt and Green
in London. The King was always attended by a guard
under arms ; soldiers paced the ramparts of the fort ;
and in the stillness of the night, there fell on the
Englishman's ear the soothing and familiar words,
' All's Well.'

131

CHAPTEE IX.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — 'A DUST OF SYSTEMS' — 'THE
LONELY ONE'
IT would be a waste of time to give more than the
merest outline of the internal history of Hawaii
before its intercourse with European nations and with
America. Each island had its king, its chiefs, its
dissensions, its ' oppressed nationalities.' To enumerate
the rulers of the eight islands would be uselessly to
encumber the page with native names which the reader
could not pronounce, and would not try to remember.
All that will be attempted here is to describe very
rapidly the dynastic condition of the Archipelago;
dwelling, for a few minutes, on the more salient points
of its story, in order to show how the eight separate
fibres of government were twisted into a single
thread, by the wisdom and determination of one man,
at about the beginning of the present century.
The bards, however, could recite from memory the
names of seventy-seven successive kings; and if only
five years be allowed to a reign, the traditionary history
would extend through nearly 400 years. But the
reigns were probably of greater average length ; since
the first three Kamehamehas occupied the present
K 2

132 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
century till the year 1854, when the now reigning king
ascended the throne, at the age of twenty-one.
An unavoidable pun, arising from dissimilarity of
languages, must be made in recording that the mother
of the islands was Papa. She created the Kalo, and
her history involves the doctrine of metempsychosis.
It is unnecessary to say that she lived in very early
times. Descending, in a bound, to a period when a king
was at least half-man in his nature, we come to Akea,
the first King of Hawaii. At the termination of his
reign, he passed into a region beneath, named Kapapa-
hananaumoku (' the island-bearing stratum '), and there
founded a kingdom. Akea was succeeded in the
monarchy by Miru, the Hawaiian Pluto, who, when he
died, descended to 'that uncomfortable place below,' and
shared the kingdom with Akea. The subterranean
realm has been invested by the native traditions with
strange fanciful poetry. It is a land of darkness.
Its inhabitants feed upon lizards and butterflies ; they
drink from streams of water which flow there ; they
recline beneath wide-spreading kou trees and large
kahiris — (insignia, formed of feathers on a tall handle,
round which they are set cylindrically). Some of the
natives described the hades of departed spirits, as ' a
bourn from which no traveller returns ;' but by others it
was said, that occasionally a newly-arrived soul, after
having been questioned by Miru as to the doings and
pursuits of the kings and people above, was sent back
to the ao marama, ' region of day,' with a monitory
message, to desire them to descend to his kingdom.
These visitations were rare, and little was generally
known of the land of Kapapahanaumoku except
what was communicated in dreams and visions of the
priests.

KINGLY SUCCESSION 133
The Hawaiian kings for many successive generations
resided frequently at a town called Honaunau, on the
western side of the island, a little south of the bay
where Cook met his death. This place was formerly of
greater importance than it is now. It possesses two
interesting objects : — the Hare o Keave,-& mausoleum
containing the bones of about eight generations of
kings ; which bones are carefully cleaned, and tied up
in bundles. A great number of frightful idols keep
guard within and without the regal ossuary. The other
place of interest is a sacred enclosure adjoining this
building, being one of the two pohonuas, or cities of
refuge, which existed on the island of Hawaii. After
the unification of the islands the king and chiefs resided
generally at Lahaina or Maui.
The kingly office was hereditary, but not purely so.
The king could nominate his successor even though he
possessed offspring of his own. In matters of succession,
owing to the great laxity of the marriage tie, the female
descent was preferred, and a female always occupies the
next place to the king in the State. Her office is now
called that of Premier. It is stated in tradition that,
on two or three occasions, queens have reigned in the
island ; and among the chiefdom many were, and still
are, females. There is no reason to doubt that at first,
as with the beginning of other kingdoms, the strong man
ruled, and that the Hawaiians, like other nascent
nations, adopted ' . . . the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.'
Kings and chiefs having attained this social superiority,
maintained it with effect. Because they were strong,

134 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
they were enabled successfully to fortify their position
and become yet stronger. They admitted the priest
hood to somewhat equal privileges, and they found the
advantage of having their aid, as they then possessed
the means of coercing the common people, both by
bodily force and through mental influences, — those of
induced fear and superstition. They held the people in
the most complete subserviency, and the whole system
was rigorously feudal. By the tabu, and the plan of
forced labour, called liana poalima, the chiefs reduced
the commonalty to a servile and tributary condition ;
whilst having abundance of food, rest, and shelter them
selves, the physical difference between the chiefdom
and the common people became so marked, that it caused
a doubt in some observers' minds whether the chiefs
could be of the same race with the plebeian population.
The chiefs, male and female, attained to great height,
strength, and size, and had in later life a strong tendency
towards obesity.
With respect to the Crown, Wilkes * says, that in
former times there was no fixed succession, and that the
practice affecting it varied. Even when the right of
descent became established the rank of the mother was
an element in deciding the successor. Thus the eldest
son and daughter of the first Kamehameha, who had
several wives, were set aside in favour ( of younger
children by a wife of higher birth than their mother.
And with regard to female succession, the same writer
instances Queen Keokeolani, who two generations
before the discovery of the islands by Cook held the
throne, although she had several half-brothers, but who
were of lower rank on their mother's side than her own.
* ' Nar. U. S. Exploring Expedition.'

FORM OF GOVERNMENT 135
The king would also occasionally appoint a younger son
to be his successor.
With all these variations and irregularities, however,
the nation preserved the pyramidal form, into which all
societies crystallise with as much certainty as Maldon
rocksalt. There was the kingly apex ; the chiefs, of
several grades ; and the great substratum of the people.
We have had ample and new opportunity lately of seeing
that the pyramid of society, like that in architecture, is
the most enduring form — a form of divine original ; and
that when it is attempted to truncate or reverse the
figure, it falls into flatness and a ruin.
The king's power was absolute, and the system was
strictly feudatory. The king give lands and whole
districts to chiefs, who, in their turn, lorded it over the
people in the most arbitrary manner. When the king
was personally weak, the true power lodged in the chiefs ;
and the king, though still suzerain, was rather in the
position of a great chief, exercising control over his own
reserved possessions, but with little influence as a
monarch. Like John and his barons, he had some
times to engage in domestic wars with his feudatories.
A king of stronger will would claim his true position and
power, and not remain content with being himself little
more than pri/mus inter pares. The rank of chiefs,
priests, and officers of state was hereditary; indeed,
there seems to have been some approach to caste in the
continuation of occupations and offices; nevertheless,
the power of nomination to all offices remained in
the king, who would occasionally raise men from hum
ble rank to the foremost stations. He could create
Wolseys, when the ' sterner stuff' of which ambition is
made was not deficient in the subject. Thus Kame
hameha raised Karaimokee, surnamed William Pitt,

136 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
after the great Englishman, his contemporary, to a rank
second only to his own. This man, originally a chief
of the third or fourth rank, was advanced to be prime
minister, and he held, in truth, the actual government
of the islands. In this and some other cases the
discernment or the mere affection of the monarch
unearthed a gem of real value. The same remarkable
man was equally happy or equally foreseeing when he
conferred high rank on the English seaman John Young ;
for in him he also had a servant of great capacity and
of the highest importance to the welfare of the nation.
It has been mentioned in a previous chapter that
when Cook arrived at the islands, Kalaniopuu was King
of Hawaii. He appears to have been not one of the
' rois faineants^ but to have possessed the actual as
well as the nominal power of the monarch. His reign
extended through thirty years, and, as stated above, he
conquered the neighbouring isle of Maui and added it
to his kingdom. It was also mentioned that during
Cook's stay in Kealakeakua Bay, in January 1779,
Kalaniopuu, who had just returned victorious from
Maui, paid him a visit in great state, and that he
was accompanied in his canoes by the young chief
Kamehameha. This man, whose name is so closely
associated with the Sandwich Islands, and whose life
and exploits form so material a part of their history,
was born about the year 1754, probably at Kalaua, a
large district on the north-east coast of Hawaii; which
district he inherited as his patrimony. At the time of
his introduction to Captain Cook, he would be about
twenty-five years old. He possessed a vigorous consti
tution, and was unequalled in his acquaintance with all
the warlike games and athletic exercises of his country.
His mental conformation was in keeping with his

Sl'S YOUTH 137
physique. At an early age he was distinguished by his
enterprise, energy, and decision of character, and by
that quality so essential to success, an unwearying per
severance in the accomplishment of his objects. He
had associated to himself a number of young chiefs, his
own contemporaries, whose attachment and coopera
tion he secured, and into whom he instilled his own
daring spirit and resolution. Such was the ore on
which time and opportunity were to work. When he
first immerges on our sight, in Captain King's narra
tive, his appearance is not prepossessing. He is de
scribed as having the most savage face ever beheld ; its
natural ugliness heightened by a dirty brown paste or
powder plastered over his hair. The diamond was in
the rough ; yet, stirred by a restless energy, and
beckoned onward by an irresistible ambition, we shall
see him step forth from among his companions, the
foremost man — the Bonaparte of the Pacific.
Kamehameha had the unusual advantage %f having
two fathers. He was at once reputed to be the son of
Keona, brother of the King Kalaniopuu (Cook's Te-
reobu), and he was equally claimed as the offspring of
Kahekili, King of Maui. As he received inheritances
from both claimants to his paternity, he could scarcely
object to an arrangement which in many cases might
be felt embarrassing. This patrimony he cultivated
and improved Whilst he was young and before en
tering upon public life, with the same industry and
intelligence which characterised him at all times. He
laboured with his own hands in one of his fields, which
in consequence received his name; and his compa
nions, following his example, selected other spots for
their personal industry, and to which their names
became attached. As Mr. Ellis walked through the

138 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
scene of Kamehameha's youth, a chief who accom
panied him pointed out with pride many memorials of
his late sovereign's energetic youth. ' These groves of
noni trees,' he said, 'were planted by Kamehameha
before his beard was grown.' He showed a perpen
dicular pile of rocks on the shore, one hundred feet in
height, through which the young chief and his com
panions had dug and formed a good road to the sea,
with a regular descent, in order that their fishing
canoes might be drawn up and down ; and in another
place he had dug through several strata of rock and
lava in the endeavour to procure water, but was un
successful, — the material offering at last too great a
resistance by its hardness to the imperfect tools which
were employed.
In 1782 an event occurred which changed the cur
rent of Kamehameha's life. Kalaniopuu, King of
Hawaii, died, leaving his dominions jointly to his son
Kiwalao %nd his reputed nephew Kamehameha, who,
however, was to be subordinate to Kiwalao. The
island was divided between the two heirs, the son re
ceiving the fertile districts on the south and east of
Hawaii, whilst the nephew's portion embraced the
mountainous and wilder regions along the western and
northern coasts. Heron-legged Ate was not long in
seeing in this arrangement an opportunity for discord,
and she threw in her lighted brand of strife, by which
the whole island quickly became enkindled.
The name of Kamehameha given to or assumed by
the young chief has the meaning of ' the solitary ' or
' the lonely one.' It is a name very well appropriated
by ambition, which, in the midst of men, dwells apart on
the high mountain of its own dreamy egotism, ready to
use or to sacrifice its willing and devoted adherents —

THE FIRST CONFLICT 139
never admitting them to the inmost enclosure of its
own purposes and hopes and weaknesses.*
It cannot be told now whether Kamehameha had
hitherto conceived such ambitious views, leading to
kingly power, as afterwards brought into action all
his bodily and mental powers, and made him glance
beyond the limits of the small archipelago, now all his
own, for fresh conquests ; or whether the particular posi
tion in which he found himself lighted the lamp within
his breast, which had previously been kept filled and
trimmed, and ready for the taper that should make it
burn ; — and whether, like young Saul, a new heart was
given him as soon as he saw power within his grasp. He
was, however, quickly called upon to act. The calmness
of the sea which washed the shores of Kona, one of
Kamehameha's newly acquired districts, excited the cu
pidity of the chiefs of the neighbouring country of Hilo,
which was the possession of Kiwalao, and they desired
to obtain it for a fishing-ground. Having gained over
Kiwalao to their views, the Hilo chiefs embarked in
a war-canoe, carrying with them the remains of the
late king, and sailed for Kailua, the chief town of
Kona, under pretence of performing there the solemn
rites of sepulture. A sudden storm, however, obliged
the invaders to land at Honaunau where the House of
Keawe was situated, the mausoleum of the Hawaiian
Kings, and there they deposited Kalaniopuu's corpse.
* ' Wakeful he sits, and lonely and unmoved,
Beyond the arrows, views, or shouts of men ;
As oftentimes an eagle, ere the sun
Throws o'er the varying earth his early ray,
Stands solitary, stands immovable,
Upon some highest cliff, and rolls his eye,
Clear, constant, unobservant, unabased,
In the cold light above the dews of morn.'
Waltee Savage Lahdob, ' Count Julian.'

140 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
One of the chiefs, Keeaumoku, secretly detaching
himself from the rest, hastened to Kamehameha, and
acquainted him with these proceedings; and in his
absence the invading party concerted measures for
seizing on the whole of Hawaii. Consistent with his
character, at once bold and cautious, Kamehameha im
mediately approached his enemies' camp, had an inter
view with Kiwalao, and the two leaders were in appear
ance reconciled. Kiwalao, to satisfy his disappointed
chiefs, divided his own territories among them; but
Keona, the reputed father of Kamehameha, dissatisfied
with his share, marched off in a rage, with his followers,
determined on war and plunder. Unrestrained by the
ties of blood, he entered his son's possessions with force
and arms, cut down trees, and engaging in a skirmish
fatal to several, ' cries havoc, and lets slip the dogs of
war.' Hostilities thus commenced, quickly enlarged.
The furious chief was joined by the King who did him
wrong, Kiwalao ; and with all their united forces they
threw , themselves upon their perfectly innocent rival
Kamehameha. There was a fierce battle, in which
Keeaumoku, the discoverer of the plot, was sadly
wounded, and was called derisively the 'yellow-back
crab.' Not content with dagger-wounds, and that
unkindest cut of all, the epithet, his enemies poured
upon him to rob him of a very valuable whale's tooth,
which the chief wore round his neck. The movement
attracted Kamehameha's attention, who, seeing his
friend's danger, rushed to his rescue, charging the
enemy furiously. The weak, but not ill-meaning, king,
Kiwalao, got knocked down with a stone in the mAl'ee, —
an opportunity which the ' yellow-back crab ' saw and
did not neglect, but jumping up, all smarting with his
wounds, put a quietus to the fallen king with a sword.

KXMEHAMEHA INVADES MAUI 141
The immediate effect of this coup-de-grace adminis
tered by his adherent was to terminate the biarchy, and
to leave Kamehameha sole ruler of Hawaii. A rout of
Kiwalao's party took place, some of them seeking shel
ter in the place of refuge at Honaunau, others flying
to the mountains and the sea. The kingdom was des
tined to be no quiet possession. The unnatural Keona
and another chief seized on the fertile possessions of
the late king lying on the westward side of the island,
practically leaving Kamehameha little more territory
than he had before. Divisions and desertions, how
ever, soon followed among the hostile party. The King
recommenced the war, and an obstinately contested en
gagement took place, terminating in a drawn game, in
which victory declared for neither side. Kamehameha
immediately marched upon Hilo, one of the provinces
wrested from him, and in a skirmish received so dan
gerous a blow on the head as nearly to have finished
his career.
It is very advisable in those not actually engaged in a
war to remain strictly neutral. It is dangerous to declare
for either party whilst results are at all doubtful. This
truth was practically discovered by Kahikili, who had
obtained the sovereignty of the four large islands lying
between Hawaii and Kauai, the latter of which, the ex
treme north-westerly member of the group, being also in
the possession of his ally Kaeo. Kahikili sent assistance
to the opponents of Kamehameha, who in return invaded
Maui, the island nearest to Hawaii, in its ruler's ab
sence, and defeated his son in a very bloody battle. So
great was the carnage, that the little river Iao was
dammed by the dead bodies of the foe ; many of the
warriors being hurled down the precipice from the
narrow defile where the fight took place, and from

142 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
which there was little opportunity of escape. It was in
this severe conflict that Kamehameha's extraordinary
powers fully discovered themselves. His immense
strength was already known, and his personal courage
was an established fact ; but now were seen other qua
lities necessary to a general and a ruler of men. He
possessed an observing eye, and a cool sagacity that
enabled him, as he watched the contest from a com
manding point, to issue clear and judicious orders ; but
when the enemy's shock was greatest, when his own
battle reeled or wavered, then he hurled himself into
the midst, like a descending Mars ; and his animating
presence and the resounding tones of his deep voice,
gave new life to his men and turned back the forefront
of the enemy.
The battle of Kepaniwai, ' the stopping of the waters,'
has been celebrated in many meles or historic songs.
These unwritten compositions are marked by simplicity
and feeling, and have about them the minor and melan
choly cadence of the Ossianic poems.
In the meanwhile Kamehameha's chief opponent on
Hawaii, Keona*, had again invaded the provinces of
* Jarves speaks of Keona as the brother of Kalaniopuu, the pre
vious king of Hawaii, whilst Ellis mentions him as his son, and cousin,
therefore, to Kamehameha. He may indeed be a different person,
though having the same name as the reputed father of Kamehameha ; and
it was customary for persons at pleasure to change names with one
another, or to assume new ones. The difficulty of identifying persons
is increased to us by a certain degree of similarity in the construction
of the names, and from the circumstance of the same name being spelt
in at least three different ways by different writers. To this must be
added a general indistinctness of parentage, before alluded to, and which
would hardly allow the Hawaiians to be addressed in the spirited lan
guage of a patriotic Dixie song,
' Ye are sons of your sires, —
(In all probability ') — &c.

KAIANA 143
the former ; but was opposed by Kaiana, a distinguished
warrior of Kauai, the same who has been mentioned as
having made a voyage to Canton in an English vessel.
On his return, in the 'Iphigenia,' Kaiana found evil
influences at work against him in his own island ; and,
being invited by Kamehameha, he settled in Hawaii,
and for his services received large possessions there and
high rank. He was a splendid specimen of his race ; six
feet five inches in height ; very handsome in face and
figure ; active in mind and warlike in disposition. He
had improved the opportunity for observation which the
voyage to China gave him, and he returned to his
country laden, not only with mental acquirements, but
with material stores of arms, ammunition, and other
European and Asiatic articles — possessions which gave
him great advantages at home. From this time fire
arms, became by degrees introduced in the wars of the
islands, and whilst they sharpened the conflict, they
shortened the fight. Traders, who now began to visit
Hawaii, found guns and ammunition ready subjects for
barter ; they also commenced implanting among the
chiefs the taste for ardent spirits, — a taste so new to
them that spirituous liquors were at first offensive to
them. Would that they had ever remained so, and that
the original aversion had never been overcome !
The war proceeding in Hawaii was not without its
omens. Natural phenomena not only disheartened the
army of Keona, but, like a destroying angel, suddenly
transfixed a number of the combatants in death. There
is situated on the island a volcanic mountain of great
size, Mauna Kea, which has been already described.
Keona's troops, accompanied by their wives and children,
were descending the mountain by three nearly parallel
paths, separated from each other by some little distance.

144 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
As they marched, a sudden and very violent earthquake
and eruption of the mountain took place, attended with
noises exceeding thunder in loudness ; the earth shook
and rocked beneath their reeling feet, and a shower of
ashes was thrown high into the air, filling- a circuit of
many miles. The foremost of the three divisions ap
pears to have been nearest to the centre of energy ; a few
of their number were scorched to death, but the great
majority escaped. The division in the rear were subjected
to the same phenomena, which were quickly over, and
the people hastened forward, to come up with their com
panions who were in advance. As they approached
the central division they discovered that the people had
halted, — some of them apparently calmly sleeping on
the ground, whilst others were sitting upright with their
wives and children embraced in their arms, or pressing
their faces together in their usual manner of salutation.
They spoke to them, but there was no reply; they
touched them, but there was no motion ; they examined
their comrades more closely, and discovered that they
were in the camp of Death. Every human being of
those four hundred was stiff and lifeless, killed by the
mephitic vapours that had issued from the mountain.
One living thing alone was left among them. A hog
was turning up the earth in search of roots, indifferent
to that terrible scene of death in life.

145

CHAPTEE X.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — KAMEHAMEHA THE CONQUEROR —
INAPTNESS FOR THE LYRE
THE force under Keona, dispirited and reduced in
number, were soon afterwards met by Kaiana and
by Kamehameha who had now (1791) returned to
Hawaii, and were routed with but feeble resistance.
Keona fled to Hilo and led a vagrant life there for two
years. In 1793 he determined to throw himself on the
conqueror's clemency. Having obtained permission of
Kaiana to pass to the shore, he proceeded to the coast
with a few friends, that he might sail round to a bay on
the north-west of the island, where Kamehameha was at
that time. Kaiana lent them canoes for the purpose,
and they went on, fanned by alternate hopes and fears,
stopping at various villages along the coast ; and at each
place where Keona touched, the people brought presents
of food and other things, and by every means demon
strated their affection for the chief. Some wept when
they saw him, for joy at his visit ; others wept in sad
ness at his departure, with foreboding fears for what his
fate might be. He was casting a hazardous die in sur
rendering himself to his enemy. Generosity is a fre
quent halo of the most savage warfare ; but here too
much of the conqueror's future success and peace de
pended on his rival's existence or death. Nevertheless,
whilst Keona remained at Paraoa, the last village at
L

146 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
which he landed, he received comforting assurances of
Kamehameha's goodwill towards him. On the third
morning he took leave of his friends there, and directed
his canoe towards Kawaihae.
Kamehameha was encamped in that bay ; and, on the
arrival of Keona and his doomed companions, was
standing with his chiefs on the beach, — Ellis adds, with
the intention of protecting him. Jarves says that the
king had determined to rid himself of a valiant com
petitor, and one who had been so prolific a source of
trouble to him. The evidence is conflicting; but the
fact is of importance in the estimate we make of the
man's character. Possibly he hesitated. His warriors
knew enough of his feelings towards his rival generally ;
and when a monarch finds the life of a Beokett in
convenient, there will not be wanting Tracys to turn his
indecision into resolve and his desire into aotion.
Whatever the king and other chiefs might determine,
there was one who had no doubts as to the expediency
of Keona's death. This was our former acquaintance,
Keeaumoku, — 'the yellow-back crab.' He was the
Joab of the piece ; having Joab's devotion to his master,
and all his disregard of blood. This chief, fearing, says
Ellis, that Kamehameha might frustrate his purpose if
Keona's canoe were allowed to land, waded, above his
middle, into the sea, and, regardless of the king's orders
and the expostulation of the chiefs, seized the canoe
with one hand and with the other stabbed Keona to the
heart as he sat in the stern. Having dipped his hand
in blood, he proceeded to murder seven of the chief's
companions and friends who were in the same canoe.
In another boat were a younger brother of Keona, and
some others, whose lives were saved by Kamehameha's
interference. Jarves says that orders had been issued

KAMEHAMEHA THE KING 147
to Keeaumoku to entice the chief on shore and assas
sinate him. Ellis reports, what we would more willingly
believe, that Kamehameha and many of his chiefs re
gretted his death ; and that the murderer justified his.
act on the ground that there could have been no peace ¦
or security if Keona had been allowed to live. He
acted on Bentham's doctrine of the greatest happiness
to the greatest number.
And now Kamehameha was sovereign of all Hawaii^
which in area, is equal to two-thirds of the whole group.
The island of Maui, with the small adjacent ones of
Lauai and Molokai, which he had lately subdued, taking
advantage of his absence, threw off their newly-acquired
yoke, and returned to allegiance to Kahekili their former
king. The visits of Vancouver, which took place in 1792,.
1793, 1794, and 1794, have been already noticed. He
observed with regret the depopulation which had been
caused in the islands by war since his first coming there
with Cook, in 1778. He was also struck with the
powerful character and the abilities of Kamehameha.
' His countenance, which Captain King described, had
changed with years, and its look of stern ferocity had
softened into an expression of firmness mixed with dig
nity. Time, which makes black tresses grey,, had done
something ; responsibility, difficulties encountered and
to be encountered, and the stimulus of ambition,
had effected more. His carriage was majestic, and all
his motions were indicative of an uncommon mind..
His eyes were dark and penetratingj seeming to read
the thoughts of those about him, and the most cou
rageous quailed before his angry glance. In figure he
was Herculean ; his general disposition and bearing were^
frank3 generous, and cheerful. His sagacity was always.
L 2

148 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
on the look-out for opportunities of improvement and
of aggrandisement. He gained much in his intercourse
with the benevolent Vancouver, who, though he could
not force his actions, yet influenced him by wise coun
sels which were remembered long after they were given.
He had a decked vessel built for the king, which was
named the ' Britannia ; ' and he assisted him in forming
and drilling a regular body-guard, armed with muskets
and divided into day and night watches. Here was the
commencement of the small standing army still main
tained in the islands. Polygamy was customary amongthe
people, and especially among the chiefs. Kamehameha's
favourite wife was a beautiful young girl named Kaahu-
manu, who herself became remarkable afterwards for
her character and influence. Among Vancouver's kind
offices, was the reconciliation he brought about between
her — she was then but eighteen — and the king, who
had separated from her owing to her alleged intimacy
with the chief Kaiana ; and he had the pleasure of re
uniting their hands on the deck of the ' Discovery,' she
making the naive request that Vancouver would beg
Kamehameha not to beat her any longer. Vancouver
used all his efforts to put an end to the civil wars ; but
in this he did not succeed. When, in March 1794, he
took his final leave of the islands, he left behind him a
name and a memory long lovingly cherished by the
people he had so earnestly striven to aid ; a memory
unsullied by acts of wrong and violence, and a name
which they will not willingly let die, and of which our
own nation may be proud.
Intercourse with white men, and especially his con
ferences with the estimable Vancouver, afforded Kame
hameha glimpses of a new and wonderful world beyond
the limiting horizon of his own ocean. What he saw

LONGINGS FOR LIGHT 149
were only indications of, or scintillas from, the great
distant light ; but he learned from them something of
the grandeur of nations that had enjoyed civilization
through the dreary ages in which his. own people had
existed in darkness. These strangers were strong ; they
were enlightened, and they were Christians. Could he
not introduce among his own people something of civi
lization and of Christianity, that they too might grow
strong, or at any rate stronger, with the strength which
was in the Europeans. Imbued with this idea, ' Kame
hameha and his chiefs, after the- cession of Hawaii to
the British sovereign through Vancouver, on the 25th of
February 1794, expressed a strong desire to the latter
to have religious instructors sent from England.' And
so definite was their wish that they should be British
teachers, that ' when the first American missionaries
arrived, there was much opposition to their landing, on
the ground that they were not the religious instructors
whom the king and chiefs expected from England.'*
Kamehameha never became a Christian : and it is pos
sible that his invitation to clergymen from this country,
proceeded from a belief that through their means the
islands might be advanced in material prosperity and
political importance.
In the history of most nations there rises up a man
who, if unable to play the lyre when it is handed to him,
has the power of changing a small town into a great
city ; one who by his genius and force of character con
structs his country into what it afterwards continues to
be, or causes it to spring forward in his own lifetime
with an advance equal to several generations. Such a
man was Kamehameha. He is well entitled to his title
* Mr. Wyllie's Despatch to me, 14th December, 1859.

150 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
of ' the great,' both on account of what he was and what
he did. If it be objected that his greatness was upon a
very small scale, it is enough to answer, that there may
be a great ruler of a small nation, as there may be a
very small ruler of a great people. It may be said that
he was cruel, disregardful of human life. He was more
humane than his predecessors ; and, being engaged in
wars, regarded life perhaps with no greater indifference
than that with which it is treated during war by the
enlightened commanders of Christian countries, who
work the problem on the chess-board of the field of
battle, and often throw away their pawns with little
compunction. He practised polygamy : that was in ac
cordance with the custom of his country. Christianity
has sanctioned and enforced monogamy, and society has
been the gainer by it ; but moral science had not en
lightened the Hawaiians on the relations of the sexes,
or given them statistics by which they might see, from
their nearly equal numbers, that the appointed com
bination of men and women is a binary one.
We resume the story of Kamehameha's life. He now
found himself surrounded with difficulties. The three
islands he had lately conquered had revolted from his
authority; and the powerful chief Kaiana who had
been so great a support to him, led away afterwards
by ambitious projects of his own, had become his
opponent, and a deep dissatisfaction had for some
time existed between them. It was on account of a
supposed intimacy with Kaiana that the quarrel with
his favourite wife Kaahumanu, and their consequent
separation, had taken place. His attached but unscru
pulous adherent Kameeimoku, whose seizure of the
'Fair American ' and murder of young Metcalf has been
previously related, also occasioned him trouble. The

WARS AND CONQUESTS 151
people of Maui even made a descent upon the coast of
Hawaii, but were repulsed. After Vancouver's depar
ture, war broke out. Keao (king of Kauai) uniting
forces with Kahekili, king of Maui, sailed in a large
fleet of canoes for Hawaii. They were met by the
naval force of Kamehameha, at the head of which was
the schooner 'Britannia' bearing the king's flag, and
armed with three brass guns. In the action which took
place, his enemies were conquered and dispersed; the
aged Kahekili died soon afterwards ; and later, Keao, who
attempted to seize his ally's dominion in wrong of his
nephew and successor Kalanikupule, was killed in battle.
Kamehameha's three brass guns must be looked upon
as an indication of advancing civilization. It is true
that before proof we should not have selected such an
index ; but we find that among what is called, rather
sarcastically, the European family of nations, the carry
ing and destructive powers of projectiles, and the resist
ing powers of steel plates, are adopted as the ultimate
test of the progress of the arts ; and that in the peaceful
convocation of nationalities to be held in the approach
ing Exhibition of 1862, Minies, Armstrongs, Whitworths,
and Lancasters will have the, place of honour beside
models of 'Gloires' and 'Warriors,' to the exclusion, pos
sibly, of other things which might be taken as clearer
symptoms of universal concord.
In 1795 Kamehameha invaded and reconquered the
islands of Maui, Lanai, and Molokai, and he prepared
for the subjugation of Oahu, to which Kalanikupule,
the heir of Kahekili, had retired. Throwing himself on
the island with part of his troops (his entire army now
consisted of sixteen thousand warriors), he left the main
body to follow him, under command of the estranged
and now treacherous Kaiana, The latter looked on the

152 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
king as a rival, and was struck with the opportunity pre
sented to him of crushing him at once. Instead, there
fore, of hastening to his master as he had been instructed,
he deserted, with the whole of the troops under his com
mand, to the enemy. Perhaps he had not calculated on
the energy and elasticity of Kamehameha's nature, who,
as soon as he heard of this great defection, marched
to the Valley of Nuuanu, which has been already de
scribed as running up from the city of Honolulu, and
terminating in a remarkable precipice or pali. Here
he found his enemies encamped in what they supposed
to be an impregnable position, being on a steep hill
side, and protected in front by a stone wall. Young,
who accompanied the king, made such practice with a
field-piece, that the wall became, instead of a defence,
an instrument of destruction to the Oahuan army;
the stones multiplying the effect of each shot fired. The
renegade Kaiana fell, and the ranks of troops were soon
so disordered that they broke and fled.
Then occurred that terrible slaughter which has been
mentioned in the description of this locality. The
routed troops were driven up the narrow valley to the
brink of the precipice, and four hundred of them, it is
said, fell headlong from it and were dashed to pieces on
the rocks below. Those who have seen the remarkable
fortifications at Namur, will remember that Vauban has
made use of a similar position in the defences ; between
the parallel walls, there are turfed spaoes terminating
suddenly in faults or breaks of some thirty feet depth,
towards which it would be the object of the garrison to
drive an attacking force that had gained entrance.
Kalanikupule was amongst the slain. Those who
escaped fled to Kauai; and Kamehameha, by his decisive
victory, was left sovereign of the island. His immediate

THE BATTLE AT THE PRECIPICE 153
intention was to have reduced the two remaining islands
of Kauai and Niihau ; but his fleet was driven back by
violent adverse winds, and the project was deferred to
another season.
The islands were suffering greatly from war whilst
our new Augustus was wading through blood to a throne
of peace. Kamehameha is computed to have lost six
thousand of his troops, and the losses of his opponents
had been far greater. Scarcity prevailed ; the hateful
brood of war — pestilence, famine, and cruel oppres
sion, — followed behind her chariot; and the depopu
lation of the islands went on at a rapid rate. Among
other troubles, a rebellion broke out in Hawaii, headed
by Namakeha, brother to the late chief Kaiana. Some
collisions, also, took place between the natives and
the crew and officers of H.B.M. sloop 'Providence,'
under the command of Captain Broughton. In retalia
tion for an attack made on a landing-party at the island
of Niihau, the English burnt several houses and destroyed
sixteen canoes. This island, however, had not at that
time submitted to Kamehameha.
His restless desires of conquest were now extending
beyond his own little archipelago ; and as soon as he
had subjugated Kauai, his intention was to have sailed
for Tahiti. This idea was frustrated by the insurrection
in Hawaii, which required his presence. He accord
ingly proceeded there at once, slew Namakeha, and put
an end to the rebellion,
If Kamehameha had had no other qualities than those
of a self-taught general to whom war was an exciting
game, as cricket is to our own youth, his title to our
consideration would not have been great. His nature
rose above the mere man-slayer's, civilized or savage,
and showed itself in administrative talent and in the

154 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
manner in which he established his power after asserting
it. He had shed blood freely ; yet to the conquered he
showed more leniency than might have been expected —
more, probably, than natives were accustomed to receive
from conquerors. He was not neglectful of extending
his influence by donations, through which powerful chiefs
became bound to his interest, or by marriage alliances,
as a means of settlement and consolidation of the king
dom. In the latter respect, polygamy is singularly con
venient; and a king whose marriage partnerships are
not limited, may, by judicious courtships, add many
appanages to his crown. Kamehameha had taken
prisoner, when he conquered Maui, Keopuolani, grand
daughter of Kalaniopuu, a lineal descendant of the
ancient kings of Maui and Hawaii ; from being his cap
tive, he now made her his wife, an arrangement attended
with most satisfactory results. Kalaimoku, who had
fought against him, and also become his prisoner, hao]
his life spared ; and such clemency was shown to him as
converted him into an attached friend and counsellor.
The descendants of the late king Kahekili were liberally
provided for. Other chiefs and the people received his
beneficence, and experienced such humanity that their
transfer to a new master was found by them a change
not to be regretted. To many generous impulses
Kamehameha added the kingly faculty of apprehending
character, and of enkindling those about him with his
own natural resolution and energy. With regard to
Kauai, the most westerly of the larger islands, he con
tented himself, for the present, with the nominal sub^
mission of its king; and thus, finding himself ruler of
the entire group, he entered, at about the age of five-
and-forty, upon a more peaceful phase of life, dwelling
for some years in Hawaii, and afterwards living much

THE DAWN OF PEACE 155
at Lahaina, a beautifully situated town in the island of
Maui, and now second in importance only to Honolulu.
His time, though spent in peace, was not passed in
idleness. He was diligently occupied in establishing his
poWer on a permanent basis. The feudal tenure of
lands had been previously an acknowledged principle
throughout the islands ; but Kamehameha, by virtue of
his recent conquests, was able to reduce the theory to
very practical conclusions; and he claimed the entire
and absolute ownership of the land, which he divided
among his followers on the tenure of their paying him
a portion of its revenue and rendering him military ser
vice. We have hitherto considered the feudal system of
the Normans to be a very distinctive one ; yet here we
see, almost at our antipodes, its perfect parallel. It
illustrates the fact that corresponding ideas are some
times independently born in different nations, as in
different minds, among which there has been no inter
course and can have been no collusion ; and ethnologists
should learn a lesson of caution from it, not to declare,
from identity of institutions, the identity or even the
cognation of races.
Kamehameha added to the principle of his being him
self the source of all property and office, the rule of heredi
tary succession : but he did not make this rule invariable,
as he retained to himself the power of confirming or
dispensing with inheritances. He appointed on each
island a governor, to whom it appertained to nominate
chiefs of districts, heads of villages, tax-collectors, and
all petty officers. The tax-gatherers, not being able
to write, kept their accounts by a method not unlike
the ancient tallies in the English Exchequer. Upon a
cord several hundred fathoms long, the several districts
were indicated by knots, loops, and tufts of various size,

156 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
shape, and colour; and by other ingenious devices the
taxable articles and rate of impost were marked upon
it. Kamehameha instituted a council of chiefs, with whom
he advised on all important measures. At the head of
this was Keeaumoku, a chief mighty in strength, and
warmly attached to his master, but unscrupulous in
shedding blood when expediency required it, as has
been seen in his assassination of Keona. He had, in
addition to his council, a number of ' wise men ' (a sort
Saxon Wittenagemote), who assisted him in organising
laws and regulating the minor affairs of his kingdom.
He enacted laws against murder, theft, and oppression ;
peace was everywhere firmly established ; and, compared
with former times, his people had entered upon a golden
age, sitting every one under his vine and under his fig-
tree, with a general security for old and young, for the
innocent and the helpless. It is this part of Kame
hameha's reign which entitles him to the name which
has been, perhaps, fancifully given him, of the Hawaiian
Alfred.

157

CHAPTEE XL
HISTORICAL SKETCH — KAMEHAMEHA THE KING  HIS
DEATH — 'I COME TO BURY OXSAJR, AND TO PRAISE HIM '
KAMEHAMEHA showed his political sagacity in his
relations with the chiefs. To those whom he
could trust, important posts were given. Young was
made Governor of Hawaii, and held that position for
many years. Those chiefs who were dangerous from
their own ambition, or likely, from weakness, to be in
volved in the intrigues of others, he retained about his
person, taking them in his train wherever he went,
keeping them away from their own domains and under
constant observation. Thus Davis remained always
near the king, but enjoyed large possessions and was
freed from taxation. The two Englishmen assimilated
themselves to the native manners, and won popularity
by their usefulness and humanity.
The warrior monarch, now in peace, was not one whit
less a king. Henry the Eighth and ' King ' Elizabeth could
not have entertained higher views of royal dignity and
prerogative than did Kamehameha. He assumed great
state, and the people had less access to his person. All
the ancient king-customs were rigidly enforced, and
were added to. Wherever he went, all people uncovered
their heads and shoulders; and they were obliged to do
this when they approached any residence where the
king was, and even upon hearing his attendants' cry as

158 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
they carried his food to or from him. A greater nuda-
tion was required whenever his servants touched any
article;* and no one might cross the shadow of the
king or of his house. His drinking-water was brought
from certain springs many miles distant ; and his chiefs
were obliged to observe ceremonies, obsequious in a
greater or less degree according to their rank. Never
theless, he was too wise to let material advantages suffer
by his seclusion or routine ; and to promote agriculture
and the fisheries, he set the example of diligence by
occasionally working at each pursuit with his own hands.
With foreigners also, he kept some barbaric state ; but
in his desire to examine the finer specimens of ship
building, and the manufactures and arts of other coun
tries, he would often put aside all forms in visiting
vessels which came, and, after one ceremonious visit,
would row himself off to them in a canoe, and go on
board without any restraints of etiquette. He made
great use of his remarkable powers of observation, and
soon began to found some of his own institutions upon
foreign models, according to the insight he could obtain
of them. He collected a small fleet of foreign-built
vessels ; erected forts ; mounted batteries of heavy guns ;
drilled his soldiers, and gave them a uniform. He en
gaged in his service a number of European and American
artisans and seamen ; and he had the wisdom, in his
treatment of these his foreign subjects, to liberate them
from the troublesome etiquette which the highest of the
natives were obliged to pay, whilst he kept them sub-
* An etiquette tedious and inconvenient, if constantly observed. It
recalls the story, lately current, of a reigning German prince who, rigo
rously insisting that no person of his household should approach him
except in white gloves and a white cravat, was startled by the literal
obedience of one of his attendants, the gentleman entering the Duke's
presence dressed in white gloves and white cravat only.

• KAM13 HAMlS HA'S DOMESTIC LIFE 159
missive to order and his own authority. It is not to be
wondered at that the port of Honolulu became very
well known, and much resorted to by ships ; and in all
parts of his dominion foreign vessels and their crews
were welcomed and well treated ; whilst ships of war
and those commissioned for scientific purposes received
his marked attention and hospitality.
His domestic life must be judged of with reference to
the customs of his country and race. Kamehameha
had two publicly-acknowledged wives or queens. To
Kaahumanu he was warmly attaohed. By her he had
a daughter, born in 1809. His other queen, Keopuolani,
grand-daughter of Kalaniopuu, former King of Hawaii,
was of much higher rank. She took precedence, and
her issue became successors to the throne : but this was
a marriage of state expediency ; and as his attentions to
her were enforced, and he was to her at least a very
intermittent husband, she was allowed the same privi
lege as himself, and had another husband, Hoapili, with
the king's full consent. Besides these two wives, Kame
hameha had Kekauluohi, daughter of Kaiana, his late
premier. She had been educated for him from a child,
a royal virgin brought up in the strictest seclusion and
with the utmost care. Their marriage appears to have
been hardly more than a nominal one, and after the
king's death she became the wife of his son. Besides
these he may have had other heterogamous connexions,
— not essential to this history.
The royal family by Keopuolani consisted of Liholiho,
born in 1797, and invested in 1809 with regal honours,
in order to establish the succession to him. This was the
king who died in London; Kauikeaouli, born in 1814,
and who succeeded his elder brother, under the name of
Kamehameha III., and died in 1856 ; and a daughter,

lfiO HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Nahienaena, born in 1816, now premier of the kingdom,
named the Princess Victoria.
When Kamehameha finally doffed his war-cloak, his
designs for subjugating Tahiti were also abandoned. It
was probably the surplus energy of manhood's noontide
that made him look round for new worlds to conquer.
Later in life, his relations with Pomare were very ami
cable and neighbour-like. Kind messages and friendly
gifts frequently passed between the two sovereigns,
separated from each other by forty degrees of latitude ;
and a project for a double marriage in the royal families
was set on foot; but the death of Kekauluohi, a son
of Kamehameha, who had been selected to marry the
daughter of Pomare, took place, and the plan collapsed.
•Once only after the reign of peace had commenced
was it in actual danger of being broken. In 1801
Kamehameha, like the Israelitish king who remembered
that Eamoth-Gilead was his, but in the enemy's hands,
considered that Kauai had yet to be conquered ; and he
proceeded to Oahu, the island nearest to Kauai, from
which it is distant about a hundred miles, to make pre
parations for war. The soldier, tired of a repose which
had certainly not been indolent, felt all his martial
ardour return, and he spent two years in equipping a
sufficient army and fleet. It was a modern one in con
struction compared with the former system, when men
fought almost naked, without defensive armour of any
sort, their weapons the spear and dagger, Death stalking
the field in a most unattractive and uncompromising
form. Now, the army consisted of seven thousand
native warriors and a contingent of fifty white men,
mostly armed with muskets ; and for artillery it could
muster forty swivel guns, six mortars, with ammunition
in abundance. The fleet, too, was equally changed.

NATIVE CHIVALRY 161
The line of battle was formed of twenty-one small
schoonerSj the largest about fifty tons, some of them
carrying guns, and commanded by Europeans. Sup
porting these was a cloud of war-canoes ; and in 1804
there was added to the navy the ship 'Lady-bird,'
mounting twenty guns, which the king had purchased
of the Americans.
Kaumualii now reigned in Kauai, having succeeded
his father Keao. His nature was noble and chivalric
but inconsistent. He had the devoted attachment of his
own subjects, and not less that of the foreign residents
who had entered his kingdom. He was humane, intel
ligent, and an encourager of commerce ; but in military
talent he was not to be compared with his adversary, and
in force of will was greatly his inferior. Kamehameha's
volition was of iron, — Kaumualii's was of Venetian gold.
There is something romantic in the whole of this
transaction. In continuing the history of a little king
dom far away in the wastes of the Pacific, we are con
stantly surprised by what seem like reproductions or
faint echoes of memorable European events. Here we
have another Henry of England and another Francis of
France in the earlier and more generous period of their
lives, emulating one another in chivalrous deeds. Kau
mualii, supported by his devoted people, who were
pretty well armed, and possessed European weapons
and ammunition, prepared to resist the invader. During
Kamehameha's protracted preparation, the King of
Kauai sent him repeated messages of defiance, and
finally threatened to descend on Oahu, and carry war
there. Kamehameha determined on the bold step of
going with one of his officers to Kauai to examine the
condition of the island, and he was urgent on Captain
Turnbull, who was then at Hawaii with a merchant
M

162 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
vessel which he commanded, to convey him there ; but
his request was refused, and the visit was not made.
When Kamehameha's army was at last ready to em
bark, a very fatal epidemic broke out among the troops,
and spread over the islands, causing a great mortality.
Three hundred corpses are said to have been carried out
to sea from one place in a day, and the king was him
self attacked by the disease. He lost at that time
several chiefs who were his most valuable advisers.
Kaumualii, notwithstanding his defiant cartels, fluc
tuated much in his mind. Courage and terror played
see-saw on his heart ; and, for a last resource, he pre
pared a vessel in which he and his family might fly the
island in case of a defeat. Even this suggestion had
something romantic about it. Launching their little
ship upon the wide untravelled waves, they were to ask
the winds to waft them to a new home in some undis
covered islands, and there found a new dynasty.
The occasion, however, for such a desperate step never
arrived. Kauai was not invaded, and its king took another
proceeding as desperate and as romantic. An American
captain then at Honolulu, whose own interests depended
upon the maintenance of peace in the islands, proposed
to Kamehameha that the former should sail to Kauai
and endeavour to persuade Kaumualii to return with
him to Oahu, and there to negotiate with his adversary.
The offer was accepted ; Kaumualii, too, acceded to the
proposal ; and the first officer of the American vessel
being left in Kauai as a hostage, the king sailed for
Oahu to cast himself upon the good faith of Kame
hameha, who had pledged his word for his safety, — and
whose word was respected and believed. His truth
and honour were established facts. The solution was
perfect. There was a sort of Field of Cloth of Gold.
There were princely greetings and festivities, exhibitions

A FIELD OF CLOTH OF GOLD. 163
of arms and demonstrations of friendship. The golden
will gave way to the will of iron, and Kaumualii ceded
his kingdom to his great entertainer. Kamehameha
had the generosity not to accept this concession, or to
take advantage of his noble rival now within his power
and influence; but in lieu, it was arranged that the
island of Kauai and the small isles adjoining should be
held in fief, having its king's particular rights respected,
and that, in return, they should be protected by the
greater power of Kamehameha. Thus the ' ancestral
voices prophesying war ' were hushed, and the last fiery
' cloud passed away from Hawaii Nek- — United Hawaii.
Kamehameha was able after this episode to devote
himself to the advancement of his kingdom, in carrying
out public works, and in maintaining friendly inter
course with foreigners. He acquired the English lan
guage in speaking, though he never learned to write it.
After remaining nine years in Oahu he sailed for
Hawaii, where he passed the rest of his life, residing
principally at Kailua, on the western side of the island,
and at Kealakeakua Bay, the spot where Cook had met
his death. He built some large heiaus, or temples, and
constructed extensive fish-ponds, which, being mostly
formed by sea-walls enclosing part of the coast, were
works requiring great strength. One of these, at Kiholo,
is remarkable for its size. A small bay there, about
half a mile in width, runs into the land. Kamehameha
enclosed the bay by building a wall across its mouth
twenty feet wide and six feet high, having several arches
filled with a grating of stakes, which admitted the water,
but prevented the escape of the fish. The space or
pond enclosed was two miles in circumference. He
devoted himself warmly to commerce, and in the latter
part of his reign made some steps towards a direct trade

164 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
with the Eussian settlements. The great article of ex
port was sandal wood, and in one year wood to the value
of 400,000 dollars was shipped. In return for this the
natives procured foreign objects in abundance. Kame
hameha fitted out a ship on his own account, loaded her
with this valuable wood, and sent her to Canton. The
officers on board were English, but the supercargo was
a Hawaiian. This was the first occasion of the national
flag being seen in China. The flag adopted has eight
horizontal stripes, representing the eight islands of the
kingdom, with the English union at the upper left
corner. From heavy port charges, extravagance of the
captain and supercargo, &c, the whole proceeds of this
valuable adventure were dissipated ; and on the vessel's
return the king found that, instead of being enriched by
his argosy, it had brought him into debt. Practical in
his character, he gave up kingly trading ; and seeing
that a great deal of his money had gone in port charges,
he took a hint from his own loss, determining to
increase his revenue by a similar impost ; and harbour
fees were accordingly established at that time.
The first horse seen on the islands was landed in
1803 from a Boston vessel. Terror mingled with ad
miration was felt by the natives when they beheld the
noble animal, so much larger than any of their few
indigenous quadrupeds. Other horses, soon after, reached
them from California, and they rapidly increased in
numbers, the people becoming daring and incessant
riders. The king was a good horseman, and was pleased
to exhibit his feats of equitation.
Whatever ideas Kamehameha had formed of Chris
tianity during his intercourse with the' generous Van
couver, and whatever was his anxiety at that time and
thereafter to procure teachers of religion from England,

THE KING NOT PERSUADED TO BE A CHRISTIAN 165
the Christian profession was, unfortunately, during the
subsequent years of his reign, not presented to him in
an attractive aspect. There were seamen nominally
Christians, but their conduct was not likely to illustrate
the purity of the Gospel; there were some English
convicts, who had escaped from our penal settlements
and found their way to Oahu, the riotous and quarrel
some behaviour of whom would not advance in the
king's eyes the religion which white men were supposed
to follow ; there was even a clergyman on the islands,
but he was a recreant one, who had forsaken his pro
fession, and would be little likely to impress others with
the value of holy living, which had had so little power
over himself. Some persons, whether English or Ame
rican does not appear, did make an attempt to con
vince the king of the truth of Christianity. Their zeal
was greater than either their reasoning or their per
suasive capacity, and they were holding an argument
before a man of strong will and acute reason. They
were unsuccessful in results ; and, at the conclusion of a
highly-coloured appeal about the power of faith, Kame
hameha pressed on them the crucial test of throwing
themselves, in faith, from the top of a neighbouring
precipice, — his belief to be dependent on their safe
arrival at the bottom of it.
So, to the end of his life, the king continued devo
tions to his idols. He was probably a very sceptical
worshipper ; but he looked upon the national religion
as a great state instrument, which it was better on his
part to support by his patronage. He built a temple or
house for his special divinity, and at his mortal sickness
his last prayers were made to his feathered god Kukai-
limoku. It has been seen that the subject of religion
had not altogether escaped the attention of visitors to

166 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the islands ; but most of those who came there were
unfitted to promote its holy cause, and the great majo
rity were ignorant and indifferent about it. Some,
however, more thoughtful than the rest, were struck
with the great advantage to be gained if the religion of
Christ could be authoritatively taught to the people.
Such was the view of Captain Turnbull, the commander
of an English merchantman, who, on returning to this
country in 1803, suggested the sending out missionaries
to the Sandwich Islands, a field which he thought more
likely to be successful than Tahiti had showed itself.
Whatever efforts Turnbull made to accomplish this
object, they fell to the ground, and England at that
time did not send out the light and truth of which she
was a favoured depository.
In personal habits Kamehameha must be considered
moderate. He and his subjects acquired a fondness for
rum, which had been introduced by foreigners as an
article of trade. The king drank it, but not intem-
perately, and he kept the monopoly of spirits in his own
hands, and thus was able to restrain its use among his
people ; — an important thing to do, for peace now being
universal, the Hawaiians might, in order to testify the
relief they felt, have fallen to heavy drinking.
For dress he adopted, with good sense, such articles
of European ^costume as were suitable to his own climate.
On occasions he appeared in uniform, of which he had
several rich suits. By recommendation from this coun
try the Windsor uniform was assumed.
Towards the end of Kamehameha's reign, the op
pressive system of the tabu began to be infringed on
and frequently broken. This thraldom was deeply in
terwoven with their religious system, although the king
or a high chief could lay on a tabu at his own pleasure.

THE KING'S DEATH-SICKNESS 167
Light was breaking in upon the native mind, but at
present only fitfully. The people showed their freedom,
but with trembling ; and were obliged to assert new
views in secret, open violations of their superstition
being still visited with vindictive punishments. In
1818 the last case of capital punishment occurred for
breaking the tabus or religious restrictions. One man
was then killed for putting on a chief's malo, or girdle ;
another for eating something which had been tabooed ;
and the third for leaving a house under tabu and enter
ing one which was not so.
The first man-of-war which entered the harbour of
Honolulu was the Eussian ship ' Eurick,' Captain Kot-
zebue. This was in 1816 ; and, on her sailing, she ex
changed salutes with the batteries of the port, — an
etiquette which took place for the first time.
In the year 1819 the king was seized with the sick
ness which terminated his life. There is very little
privacy in Hawaiian houses. Persons of both sexes
remain at night, even in the sleeping chamber of the
possessor, talking or smoking ; and during illness, at a
time when we consider quietude to be particularly
necessary, the kind zeal of friends leads them to remain
in the room, or go in and out in considerable numbers.
It was thus with Kamehameha in his last illness.
Priests, doctors, chiefs, with officious affection, crowded
about him, and must have made his last moments very
unendurable. They brought him food and new idols; they
carried the moribund king from one house to another, —
at one time arranging so as to have his head in one house
and his feet in a dwelling adjoining. In spite of —
may we not say in consequence of — all these attentions
his weakness increased. At about midnight of the 7th
of May he was seen to be sinking. A little food, and a

168 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
cup of water were pressed upon him, but he was no
longer able to swallow. The chiefs about him then
begged the king to give them his counsel ; he was
unable to speak. As a last resource, they carried him
from the eating-house to his dwelling, there being sepa
rate houses for different uses. Then one of the chiefs
addressing him said, ' Here we all are ; your younger
brethren, your son Liholiho, and your foreigner (mean
ing John Young). Impart to us your dying charge that
Liholiho and Kaahumanu may hear.' Kamehameha
faintly enquired, 'What do you say?' Kaikoewa re
peated, ' Your counsels for us.' Making a last effort,
the king began, ' Move on in my good way, and — ' but
strength failed him, and he spoke no more. Young,
the foreigner, embraced the king and kissed his dying
master. Great was the respect and affection which had
sprung up between these two men during an intercourse
of many years. Hoapili also embraced the king, whis
pering something in his ear. Twice more he was
carried from one house to another, and at 2 a.m. of the
8th of May he expired.
It is very much to be regretted that Kamehameha
was unable to express to his heir and to his devoted
followers those counsels and last instructions which they
entreated. The dying words of all persons are received
reverentially and preserved with a pious care ; but the
results of a life so remarkable as this Hawaiian chief's,
and the practical conclusions he had himself drawn from
the chequered drama of which hehadbeentheprotagonist,
would have possessed a great value to his own people, and
would not have been uninteresting to studious observers
of character in other countries. It must also be remem
bered that before the art of writing was acquired, a
will by word of mouth was the necessary form of dis-

DEATH OF KAMEHAMEHA 169
position of honours and property. The words of a tes
tator or donor, especially when formed into distiches or
doggrel rhymes, were retained with accurate fidelity by
the hearers, and handed down by bards or those nearly
interested with almost as much security as a written
document. The last words of Israel, of David, and
other persons recorded in Scripture, will be called to
mind ; and our own Anglo-Saxon grants in lines of four
or five syllables show the means taken for retaining
words exactly in the memory. In the Frithiof 's-Saga of
Bishop Tegner, an admirable picture of ancient north
ern customs and manners, the death-bed scene of a
king, and his charge or will to his children and people,
with his last words of gnomic wisdom, axe given in a
very interesting manner.*
* The passage is too long for quotation, but a few stanzas may not be
out of place as an illustration of oral tradition under the circumstances
mentioned in the text. I translate from the German version of the
Saga by Ernst Jansen : —
' " Children," quoth King Bele, "on me | Death's shadow falls :
Hear me ! Loud for peace and union | the kingdom calls.
Force hives in harmony. — | The ring surrounding
The spear, gives, what beside were weak, ) its strength abounding.
' " For watch and ward at port and frontier | set kingly power;
But let peace within th' enclosure | put forth her flower.
The sword should wake for right, | not king's displeasure,
And shields but padlocks be, to guard | our hoarded treasure.
' " Wisdom lacks he who o'erburthens | his Father-land.
Powerless are kings without | the people's hand.
Droops the plant, its branches dwindle, | when the fountains
Of life and sap are wasted on | the barren mountains.
' " Pillars four with strength uphold | the welkin's vault :
Law, one column, singly doth | kings' thrones exalt.
Misfortune hovers near when might | alone finds hearing ;
Justice is the only robe | befits kings' wearing.

170 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
So passed away from life the first king of Hawaii-
Nei. As soon as he had drawn his last breath, a con
sultation of chiefs was held in the chamber of death,
and one of them, in the ag-ony of his grief, proposed
that they should eat the corpse, raw. This suggested
method of testifying respect and affection was rejected
by the majority, and the body was taken into another
house for the due performance of rites by the priests
and the new king, and for apotheosis. The flesh having
been carefully separated from the bones, according to
custom, the latter were tied in a bundle of tapa and
put safely away — so safely, indeed, that, like some
other objects of value nearer home, they have never
since been found. At his obsequies a sacrifice was
made of three hundred dogs — an important fact to
notice, independent of the value of so large a number
of useful animals, because a few years previously, on
such an occasion, human victims would have been
sacrificed instead of this canine holocaust. One or two
of the king's most attached friends were only prevented
by others from killing themselves, as the procession
moved towards the tomb. Beechey says, indeed, that
some of his more ardent adherents did kill themselves,
and that many knocked out their front teeth, and
' " Build not on thy father's fame, — | 'twas his alone.
If thou canst not bend thy bow | 'tis not thine own.
[ What would' st thou with glory past? | 'Tis flown for ever.
Its own waves only bear along | the seaward river." ,
' Thus the aged gave their counsel | in that old hall
Such the Scald did after utter | in Hawarnal.*
From age to age in Norseland | Wisdom's words descended,
At the grave-place whispered still | with night-winds blended.'
* A Song of the Edda.

PAGAN OBSEQUIES 171
otherwise mutilated themselves on that occasion, ac
cording to custom, and that several human victims
were offered to his manes by the priests in the Morais.
As this is not confirmed by later writers, it is to be
hoped that Beechey's information was erroneous as to
the sacrifice of human life.
A laboured eulogium on the character of Kame
hameha is uncalled for. The reader will form his own
estimate from the facts of his life as set before him,
however slightly. That long reign, lasting a quarter of
a century, witnessed the transition of his country from
savagery to civilisation. And as, when in the articles of
death, the feet of the king were sheltered by the roof of
one house and his head was covered by another, so was
his life itself : its commencement was in the home of
barbarism, and before its close the dayspring of a
rapidly advancing civilisation was flushing the skies.
' His biographer,' writes Beechey, thirty years ago,
' will do him injustice if he does not rank him, however
limited his sphere, and limited his means, among those
great men who, like our Alfred, and Peter the Great of
Eussia, have rescued their countries from barbarism,
and who are justly esteemed the benefactors of man
kind. His loss as a governor, and as a father to his
people, was universally felt by bis subjects.' ' Judged
by his advantages,' says Jarves, in 1843, ' and compared
with the more eminent of his countrymen, he may be
justly styled not only great, but good. To this day his
memory warms the heart and elevates the national
feelings of Hawaiians. They are proud of their old
warrior-king ; they love his name ; bis deeds form their
historical age ; and an enthusiasm everywhere prevails,
shared even by foreigners who knew his worth, that
constitutes the firmest pillar of the throne of his son.'

172 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
' Since I have been king,' said Kamehameha to
Kotzebue, 'no European has had cause to complain of
having suffered injustice here. I have made my islands
an asylum for all nations, and honestly supplied with
provisions every ship that desired them.' The king
conversed, says the same traveller, with a vivacity sur
prising at his age ; asked us various questions, and made
observations which his interpreter was not always able
to translate ; the words which he used being peculiar to
the language of Owhyhee, and so witty that his ministers
often laughed aloud.
One cannot but feel a deep regret that, to a mind
so original and energetic as Kamehameha's, the Chris
tian religion had not been presented under more fa
vourable circumstances. The first impressions of it he
received from Vancouver seem never to have been quite
effaced, but his after acquaintance with its nominal
professors was not likely to give him either a true or an
exalted conception of the power or the purity of the
faith in Christ. ' The changes which had occurred at
Tahiti,' writes Jarves, 'by the final triumph of the
Christian religion, aroused his attention, and he made
many inquiries in regard to the causes and results.
He desired to be instructed in the doctrines, and to
learn the nature of the Supreme Being the foreigners
worshipped. It was his misfortune not to have come
in contact with men who could have rightly influenced
his religious aspirations. The whites around him were
little calculated to explain the sublime truths, or to tell
him of the heavenly tidings of the Gospel.'
' These are our gods, whom I worship,' said Kame
hameha to Kotzebue, whilst showing him one of the
morais or temples. ' Whether I do right or wrong . I
do not know ; but I follow my faith, which cannot be
wicked, as it commands me never to do wrong.'

AN EULOGY AND A REGRET 173
In one of the most beautiful of Dean Alford's son
nets, the poet, walking among the fallen pillars of
'Desert Academe,' sees approach him an Athenian —
' A very sad old man, — his eyes were red
With over- weeping ; ' —
and the cause of his inconsolable grief was that
beautiful Athens, in all her loveliness, was,' in respect
of the boon of Christianity under which it is our own
privilege to dwell, ' only in the prime.' Her existence,
in regard to the highest revelation, was premature.
May we not appropriate to Kamehameha, who died one
year before the arrival of the first missionaries from
America, the mournful sentence of the visionary
Athenian, who ' cried and said,
The light hath eisen — but shineth not on he!'

174

CHAPTEE XII.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — ACCESSION OF LIHOLIHO — THE
ABOLITION OF IDOLATRY
WE are about to relate in this chapter one of the
strangest events that ever happened in the
history of a nation, a fact standing by itself — 'unparal
leled. It is that of a people rising up, and at a blow de
stroying the religious system in which they and their
ancestors had lived, sweeping away their idols, ' casting
them to the moles and to the bats ; ' and, what is more
strange than all, some of the priests concurring in and
assisting at the demolition. This spontaneous movement
was no triumph of Christianity, — for Christianity had
not yet claimed or even approached the Hawaiian Islands.
It was no reforrnation of a religious system, for it was
its total overthrow and abolition. The mountains were
being made low, — but as yet no voice was heard crying
in the wilderness, ' Prepare ye the way of the Lord.' The
thin and torn but accustomed garment of paganism was
to be thrown violently away ; and those who had worn
it were to remain for a time, not ' clothed upon,' but
left naked and shivering in absolute atheism.
We must recall briefly the efficient causes which led to
this event. Liholiho, the son of Kamehameha, succeeded
to the kingdom on his father's death, being at the time
twenty-two years of age. As has been stated, he had

A NATION OF SCEPTICS 175
already, in 1809, been invested with royal honours, in
order to secure a quiet and uninterrupted succession
to the crown. In character he was very unlike his
father. His disposition was frank and humane,
indolent and pleasure-loving. The very force of one
man's character not unfrequently dwarfs that of others
who long have dwelt under its shelter. In his father's
lifetime there was no call, no room for original energy
or action ; and there would be no competition of wills
where the result of a struggle was certain beforehand.
The prince possessed dignified and agreeable manners,
an inquiring mind and a retentive memory; but he
lived a dissipated existence, and was intemperate in the
use of stimulants. As long as his father lived, little or
no change was perceptible in the idolatrous system of
the nation. Unquestionably there had been a growing
scepticism in the people's mind about the gods they
bowed to, and a growing knowledge of and impatience
under the yoke of oppressive services, tabus, &c,
jointly fastened on their necks by the tyranny of king
ship, chiefdom, and sacerdotalism, uniting in the com
mon object of their own aggrandisement. A leaven
was working in the mass. The sparks of light left by
Vancouver were not entirely trodden out. These were
directly for good. Intercourse with foreigners was a
more mixed influence, and a more indirect path towards
better things. Sensual, scornful, and devoted to avarice
as was the life of many of the white visitors, it was
denied even to these, whatever might be in their heart,
to be quite as the heathen were. There was the vital
phenomenon of double consciousness ; and in the fever
of excess they sometimes uttered the words of an early
piety, and reproduced long-forgotten fruits of childhood's
teaching. The foreigners set bad examples of Chris-

176 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
tianity; but the universal 'Nay,' according to Mr.
Carlyle, has to precede the universal ' Yea ; ' and their
open disbelief and ridicule of the idolatrous system
existing, made the Hawaiians sceptical at least; though,
as was natural, fear in many cases mingled with
their disbelief. They were now eating of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, and their eyes were
open : they saw that all things around them were
false, and that they themselves were naked; — but the
other plant, of heavenly growth, the tree of life, had
not been given to them as yet.
The rumour, too, had come to them, that in Tahiti and
in groups farther to the south the idols had been de
stroyed without ill effects to the people. Where Chris
tian missionaries had commenced their work, the rivalry
of pagan images would not be tolerated, and they
would necessarily, as Christian principles prevailed, be
suppressed. Unquestionably there were those among
the Hawaiians whose interest it was to continue the
system of idolatry; Uzzahs, who stretched out both
hands to uphold a tottering ark, and who struggled
hard in every way to support it ; uttering short-sighted
prophecies, — of which the only afflatus was their own
wrath and their own wishes.
The material idols themselves existed in immense
numbers in the islands. They consisted of two or
three kinds ; the greater number were grotesque figures
carved in wood, frightful caricatures of humanity having
a conventional imitation of nature which might have
satisfied our most fastidious art-critics of the present
day ; the features often passing off into ornament, not
the least realistic, and the hair descending, like two
saws, to the feet. Some of the idols, including the plinth
in which they stood or sat, were sixteen feet high.

IDOLS AND TEMPLES 177
Besides these gigantic figures there were others of
various sizes, in black and other woods, and of stone.
One wooden deity had human hair fastened on its
head, and shark's teeth in its huge gaping mouth. The
workmanship of some was fine. The image of Loho,
the Hawaiian Hercules, for whom Cook was mistaken,
was a tall, small, round staff of black wood, terminating
in a head of the same diameter as the rod, the eyes
inlaid with pearl-shell. Some of the idols were of an ob
scene character. The menacing expression and distorted
features of many of them were meant to terrify the ene
mies of their worshippers, the idols being carried during
war in front of the army, with their bearers and the priests
making horrid yells and shrieks to give greater effect to
their ugliness. Besides these there were feather gods,
very skilfully formed of the plumage of birds closely
imbricated, sometimes wrought upon basket-work.
Specimens of the idols can be seen in the British
Museum and in the Museum of the London Missionary
Society. Many were brought to England in 1824,
when Liholiho visited this country; some of them
before being exhibited having received a necessary
castigation. A gradual change of sentiment had been going on dur
ing the last years of Kamehameha's reign, and the mate
rials for combustion were to some extent piled and ready
for the torch' which was to make them ignite. Whilst the
King lived, his strong repressive hand allowed no attack to
be ventured on the idolatrous system which he considered
it advisable to uphold ; indeed, his energy in religion
was in accordance with his entire character. He had
attended to its ritual; he had built and repaired heiaus
(temples), some of great size. Mr. Ellis and his fellow-
missionaries counted nineteen of these buildings in one
N

178 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
day's walk, the dimensions of one morai or heiau being
270 feet by 210 feet, with massive stone walls, and a
circular mound of earth in the centre for an altar,
carefully formed, and having a kerb of stones round it.
Now he was gone, and the heavy restrictive hand was
removed. The death of a king or a high chief was
always signalised by a period of frantic grief and
mourning, which was followed by a kind of popular
madness, — a wild saturnalia, in which the dissolution
of morals was inconceivable. The meal after a Scottish
funeral and its whisky-drinking, and the battle-royal at
an Irish wake, make us less surprised at the phenomena
of grief relieving itself in intoxication and excess. At
the death of Kamehameha there does not appear to
have occurred as great disorder as usual. Opinion was
changing — advancing ; and the time had arrived when
it would make itself heard, though at first timidly
and uncertainly. On the very day of the king's death,
a woman ate a cocoa-nut with impunity, and some
families broke tabu by taking their meal together under
the same roof. Small indications these, but important,
inasmuch as they were the first rending asunder of a
system which had oppressed the nation through unknown
generations. Female influence was greatly concerned in the de
struction of idolatry, for females were the peculiar
objects of its tyranny. It is certain that there were
instances of great conjugal affection among the Ha
waiians, and that women, especially in war, acted with
the noble disinterestedness which belongs so greatly to
woman's character ; but in social position they were little
raised above domestic animals. To eat under the roof
of the men's apartment, was death. The same punish
ment followed women's eating several kinds of food.

INFLUENCE OF KAAHUMANU 17»
Such treatment made the ladies quite.readyfora change
of institutions.
The two queens of Kamehameha had imbibed liberal
tendencies. Unlike each other in every other respect,.
they coincided in this ; and both played an important
part in the overthrow of the old religion. In relation
to one another and to their common husband, they
were as Leah and Eachel. Keopuolani had the higher-
rank and precedence, and she was the mother of the-
two successors of the king. Kaahumanu was beloved
for her own sake. She was a woman of remarkable
character, with strong passions and great failings : but
she was a fit mate for the warrior king, and* made no
unworthy Caia to. his Caius. She seems to have drawn
in, during her long and intimate association with him,
her husband's own disposition ; and when he died she
reproduced his character,, reflected from her woman
hood. It was the moon taking ' up the wondrous tale '
after the setting of her lord from whom she derived
her light., Kaahumanu had secured to herself, even in
Kamehameha's life, a great share of authority, to the
exclusion of her superior but less powerful rival ; and
on the king's death it was Kaahumanu who transferred
the kingdom to Liholiho, announcing at the same time
that by his father's will she was to share the- adminis
tration of government with, him, and in case of his
misconduct the supreme power was to devolve upon
her alone. Kamehameha had had fears on account of
the dissolute tendencies of his son, and had planned
this wise check upon his follies and this succedaneum
for his incapacity. From that time a female has always
occupied the second place in the government; and, under
the name of Premier, her authority is essential in all
public acts. N 2

180 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Both the dowager queens advised the young King
Liholiho, who wavered between his own scepticism and
the persuasions and threats of the interested priests,
to break the tabu. That act was to throw away the
scabbard and to declare war a Voutrance with the
established system. His younger brother, Kauikeaouli,
invited by his mother, took this step by eating with
her. Liholiho had not opposed the intention ; and when
he saw that no bad .effects followed from ai noa, or
* common eating,' he said, ' It is well to renounce tabus,
and for husbands and wives to dwell together,' adding,
'There will be less unfaithfulness and fraud,' Kaa
humanu also urged the King, in his indecision, to dis
regard the restraint of tabus.
Liholiho, richly dressed, and wearing the regal feather-
mantle, surrounded by a brilliant retinue, was crowned;
and received, at his accession, the name of Kame
hameha II. His mother again urged him to violate
the tabu ; and to persuade him more forcibly, set the
example herself. When it is remembered that death
had been the penalty for such an act, it will be seen
that courage was required in taking this open step.
But Liholiho was a waverer. He could not break his
chains at once ; he joined in religious festivals where
revelry and licence mingled with the sacred rites, and
he even consecrated a temple to his special god.
Another female who was instrumental in the over
throw of idolatry, was Kapiolani, wife of Naihe, the
public orator of the kingdom. This is the chiefess
who, some time afterwards, when she was a Chris
tian, won herself a name by descending into the crater
of Kilauea, daring the vengeance of Pele, the divinity
of the volcano, in her own domain, in order to con
vince the wavering spectators of the falseness of their

A PRIESTLY ICONOCLAST 181
superstition and the safety of those who have the Lord
for their God. This action deserves to rank high in the
records of female heroi-sm. We know practically that
when we have escaped from the blackness of spiritual
terrors, we often walk still in the shadow of a mys
terious fear. Our reason is convinced, but our natural
sensibilities still vibrate. Sir Samuel Eomilly has re
corded that to» the end of life, he never quite got over
the effects made on him by ghost stories told him in his
childhood ; and that he often started with a momen
tary apprehension when sitting alone- at night in his
chamber. But the most remarkable and unHkely accessory to
the movement was the High Priest Hewahewa. Hej
instead of striving, as did many of his brethren, to
arrest the course of events, heartily urged it onward,
and became a chief iconoclast, a strange instance of
liberality of mind; for he was not only breaking up
the system which had been interwoven with his whole
life, but in its destruction he was casting away his own
influence, and even the means of existence. He sub
sequently related the steps by which he and the King
came to an understanding between themselves upon the
subject that was working in both their minds. The
danger in which a disclosure would place each of them,
the uncertainty of the other's feelings, made it difficult
to arrive at the intelligence desired. It was obtained at
last during a happy conversation, in which coy questions
were parried by coy answers, yet not denied; and at.
last their sentiments were fully made known to each
other. Those who have loved long and mutually in
timid silence, and at length have tentatively, in a similar
conversation, felt along the delicate clue to each other's
heart, will be able to appreciate all the difficulty and

182 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
all the delight of such an investigation and such a
revelation. In August of the same year, the French Corvette
* L'Uranie,' commanded by Captain Freycinet, arrived
and remained at Honolulu for a few days. Whilst there,
Kalaimoku the prime minister (he to whom the English
residents gave the name of Pitt), and his brother Boki,
governor of Oahu, received the rite of baptism ac
cording to the usage of the Eoman Catholic Church,
and apparently at the hands of the chaplain on board.
The two chiefs do not seem to have been aware of the
meaning of the ceremony, but probably considered it a
piece of French etiquette; nor does the circumstance
appear to have had any great effect on the events which
shortly followed. The two chiefs interchanged presents
with Captain Freycinet and then returned to their
idolatrous practices as before. Mention of the circum
stance is not, however, to be omitted,
Kaahumanu's opposition to the priests was in her,
meanwhile, becoming more determined; and in No
vember she sent a message to the King, that on his
arrival at Kailua she should cast aside his god. Liho
liho did not oppose his imperious coadjutor; but to
avoid bad consequences to himself for this impiety, he
kept off the shore, and remained afloat two days with
his suite, indulging in a drunken revel. At last Kaa
humanu sent and fetched him on shore ; his remaining
fears vanished, and he and the female Premier con
sulted as to the measures necessary for destroying
the tabus and idolatry. The King's first step was to
drink and smoke with the female chiefs. This, though
hitherto wrong and still dangerous, would not be un
pleasant to a man of his disposition. In what ensued,
Mr. Jarves's account will be followed verbatim.

ABOLITION OF IDOLATRY 183
A feast was prepared, after the customs of the country, with
separate tables for the sexes. A number of foreigners were
entertained at the King's. When all were in their seats, he
deliberately arose, walked to the place reserved for the
women, and seated himself among them. To complete the
horror of the adherents of paganism, he indulged his appetite
in freely partaking of the viands prepared for them, directing
the women to do likewise : but he ate with a restraint which
showed that he had but half divested himself of the idea of
sacrilege and of habitual repugnance. This act, however, was
sufficient. The highest had set an example which all rejoiced
to follow. The joyful shout arose, ' The taboo is broken ! the
taboo is broken ! ' Feasts were provided for all, at which both
sexes indiscriminately indulged. Orders were issued to de
molish the heiaus and destroy the idols. Temples, images,
sacred property, and the relics of ages were consumed in the
flames. The high priest, Hewahewa, having resigned his
office, was the first to apply the torch. Without this co-opera
tion the attempt to destroy the old system would have been
ineffectual. Numbers of his profession, joining in the enthu
siasm, followed his example. Kaumualii having given his
sanction, idolatry was for ever abolished by law ; and the
smojse of heathen sanctuaries arose from Hawaii to Kanai.
All the islands uniting in a jubilee at their deliverance, pre
sented the singular spectacle of a nation without a religion.
Certainly the event recorded is one on which a
philosopher may ponder, or an orator open his Hps in
eloquence. It is one on which the Christian will look
with reverent interest, waiting to see the end ; recalling
in the meantime such prophetic words as these, ' And
the idols he shall utterly abolish.' A native Hawaiian
has lately mentioned the fact that he himself saw forty
thousand idols destroyed. They were hurled from their
places, where they had been worshipped upon every
high hill and under every green 'tree ; they were con-

184 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
temptuously tossed aside to perish, or, more contempt
uously, left forgotten, as they stood decaying in grin
ning imbecility. Eemains of these 'despised, broken
idols' are still occasionally to be found in the islands,
but they are regarded as curiosities, interesting only
as belonging to a former state of things.
Then, to fancy's ear, came moaning along the rocky
shores, murmuring in the passionate mountain torrents,
and sighing in the winds, the melancholy wail, ' Great
Pan is dead ! ' Through the old primeval forests cloth
ing the flanks of the volcanoes, echoing from dread
precipices, and heard on the winds that rushed down
smiling valleys, came the same despairing strain, ' Great
Pan is dead ! ' The Ocean, as he ran his waves hoarsely
on the rude shore and into resounding caverns, took
up the universal cry. ' Blush, 0 Zidon, saith the sea,'
was formerly the exhortation, when vile rites polluted
and human sacrifices terrified the Syrian shore : but
now, as the coming tide sent in her white breakers and
boomed over the coral ledges of Hawaii, the trium
phant song which mingled with the roar of waters had
the same burthen, — ' Great Pan is dead ! '
It would have been contrary to all experience that
such a revolution should be accomplished without dis
turbance and opposition. Vested interests scream and
writhe when the destroying foot is set on them. A
fierce, tyrannical sacerdotalism would not consent with
out a struggle to be turned adrift with the prospect
before it of its members having to starve, or, still worse,
of having to obtain a livelihood by the honest labour of
their hands. Accordingly, a party was quickly formed
to oppose the movement, and for its head was selected
Kekuokalani, a priest only inferior in rank to Hewa
hewa, and who was also nephew to the late king.

' GREAT PAN IS DEAD ' 185
Eeligion was made the bait to allure him in revolting
against the established government ; but in addition to
the disinterested honour of being Defender of the Faith,
he was to have the crown of the kingdom, if success at
tended his standard. The rebels were soon encountered
by the government or freedom party, and in a slight
engagement, the former gained a success. On this in
telligence reaching the King, a council was held ; and
Kalaimoku (William Pitt), his trusty adviser, urged an
immediate attack with all the royal forces on the in
surgents at head-quarters. First, however, Hoapili,
guardian to the King's sister, and Naihe the orator,
were sent to the rebel camp on an embassage of conci
liation. They were accompanied by the queen-mother,
Keopuolani, to whom Hoapili had stood, even in her
royal consort's lifetime, in the position of what may, be
called her acting husband. The rebel chief was their
nephew. The negotiation, however well intended, was
ineffectual, and the ambassadors were, glad to retreat
from the enemy's camp with their lives. The rebels
immediately marched from their position to Kailua,
where the King lay, hoping to surprise and take the
position. Kailua is situated in a small bay on the
western side of Hawaii, a few miles north of the scene,
of Cook's death. The King's troops were prepared to
meet the enemy, and advanced to meet them. At
Kuamoo they formed a line on the shore, having the*
sea at their back, and on the enemy appearing, drove
them before them up a rising ground, till the rebels
gained a shelter from a stone fence, and for a time
made a stand ; but they were at length driven from their
position by a party of Kalaimoku's warriors. The in
surgents were now in flight ; but, rallied by their mis
guided chief, himself wounded and weak from loss of

1S6 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
blood, they made a final stand. Kekuaokalani, with
the courage that belonged to his race, fought despe
rately ; but he fainted and fell during the engagement.
He revived, however ; and sitting on a fragment of lava,
for he was too weak to stand, twice loaded his musket
and fired on the advancing party. He was then struck
by a ball in the left breast, and covering his face with
his feather cloak, he expired, amidst friends who sur
rounded him. Again we are called upon to admire a
woman's devotion. His wife, Manona, had fought by
his side the whole day with dauntless courage ; but as
soon as she saw him lying dead, the motive which ani
mated her withered up, and she called for quarter to
Kalaimoku and his sister, who were advancing. As the
words were leaving her lips, a ball struck her temple ;
and the faithful wife fell on the lifeless body of her
husband, and instantly expired.
The engagement, which commenced in the forenoon,
was continued till sunset, the idolaters fighting on,
though dispirited by the loss of their leader. By
evening, the King's troops were left masters of the field,
their enemies having by that time surrendered or fled.
Thus ended the last battle which the narrator of
Hawaiian history has to record. War is a great evil ;
but experience has shown it to be not an unmixed evil.
It evokes fierce passions, but it calls forth at the same
time dormant virtues, which are apt, in the piping time
of peace, to be forgotten, bike an undrawn sword rusting
in its scabbard. Endurance, self-sacrifice, loyalty, dis
cipline, hold no mean rank in the conclave of moral
qualities. The courageous Hawaiian women generally
followed the men to battle, to tend their wants, and
especially to assist them when wounded. The more
courageous of them, or the more affectionate, would

A HEROINES TOMB 187
advance to the front of the battle, side by side with
their husband, bearing a calabash of water in one hand,
and poising a dart or holding a stone with the other.
If their warrior was killed, they seldom thought it
worth while, themselves, to survive.
Mr. Ellis visited the site of the battle of Kuamoo.
He found the place thickly studded with small piles of
stones, marking the graves of those who died in the
conflict. A tumulus larger than the rest, indicated the
spot where the chief and his heroic wife died together.
A few yards nearer the sea, a tomb ten feet long and
six wide, formed of piled stones, covered the grave where
Kekuaokalani and Manona were interred. Many lovely
flowering bushes grew around it, and a beautiful con
volvulus in fullest bloom covered the tomb with its
foliage and blossoms.

188 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XIII.
HISTORICAL SKETCH  ARRIVAL OF AMERICAN MISSION
ARIES — THE VISIT OF THE KING AND QUEEN TO
ENGLAND, AND THEIR DEATH
SOME young Hawaiians had been taken to the
United States, and there educated. The blessings
of Christianity, which they valued in their effects on
themselves, they desired to impart to their fellow
countrymen, by returning to the islands. This desire,
and an interest relating to the Sandwich Islands, which
had sprung up in the minds of the religious community
in America, determined the sending of some mission
aries to Hawaii.. No intelligence had at that time been
received of the events which have just been narrated.
When the missionaries went forth, therefore, it was with
the belief that the idolatrous system which had hitherto
prevailed would be opposed to them.
The courageous pioneers of Christianity despatched
from Boston by the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions, were accompanied by several native
youths, among whom was George Kaumaulii, son of the
former King of Kauai, and who, having acquired the En
glish tongue, were able to render the important assistance
of acting as interpreters. On the 4th of February, 1820,
according to Ellis,* they arrived in Hawaii ; and by a
* By Jarves's account, the day was the 20th of March.

ARRIVAL OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES 189
striking coincidence, if we may not say by a directing
providence, landed at Kairua, the very scene of the last
battle of idolatry. Instead of those difficulties which
they had every right to suppose awaited them, they
found the laws of tabu abolished ; the priesthood, as a
body, dissolved ; the nation set free from its degrading
superstitious system ; and, religionless, lying ready, like
a fallow ground, to receive the seed of a new husbandry.
The difficulties which awaited the missionaries were of
another kind.
They were visited on board their vessel, the ' Thaddeus,'
by Kaliamoku and the two dowager queens, by whom
they had previously been kindly received. Hewahewa,
too, the ex high-priest, welcomed them cordially, calling
them his ' brother priests.' We must respect this man,
who, without law, was a law unto himself, and acted
faithfully to the extent of the light he possessed. He
could not, of course, intuitively precognise the system
of Christianity ; but he was able, before that system was
revealed to him, to discover by reason the falsity of his
national idolatry, and, with a noble self-sacrifice, assist
in the overthrow of the religion which upheld him in a
position only a little inferior to the King's. He had
publicly renounced heathenism, and had apprehended
Monotheism, proclaiming his belief in the One Supreme
Being. ' I knew,' he said, ' that the wooden images of
our deities, carved by our own hands, were incapable of
supplying our wants ; but I worshipped them because
it was the custom of our fathers. My thoughts have
always been, that there is one only great God,' dwelling
in the heavens.' *
* The conduct of the High Priest, Hewahewa, on this occasion recalls
to mind a parallel in the history of our own land, when at the preaching
of Paulinus, Edwin of Northurabria was converted to Christianity.

190 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Some practical difficulties and prejudices had to be
overcome before the missionaries were allowed to land
permanently ; and now was the occasion of that question
which, as we have mentioned, had been asked previously,
— whether they were the white teachers whom Vancouver
promised to send to them. For a fortnight, the Congre-
gationalist ministers had to remain on board the vessel ;
and then, after a council of chiefs had been held, they
were permitted to settle on the islands for one year, with
the understanding that on misconduct they would be
sent away. They were not to send for an increase to
their number, for fear that they might become a burden
to the community. Among the Bostonians who landed
in Hawaii, were a physician, a farmer, a printer, and a
mechanic ; and the three missionary ministers, as well
as their lay associates, brought with them their wives
and families.

Wordsworth in a note to his fine sonnet on this occurrence, thus trans
lates from Bede : —
' " Who,'' exclaimed the King, when the Council was ended, " shall first
desecrate the altars and the temples ? " " I," answered the Chief Priest ;
"for who more fit than myself through the wisdom which the true God
hath given me, to destroy for the good example of others, what in
foolishness I worshipped ? " Immediately, casting away vain superstition,
he besought the King to grant him what the laws did not allow to a
priest, — arms and a courser ; which mounting, and furnished with a
sword and lance he proceeded to destroy the Idols. The crowd, seeing
this, thought him mad : — he, however, halted not, hut approaching, he
profaned the temple, casting against it the lance which he held in his
hand, and exulting in acknowledgment of the worship of the true God,
he ordered his companions to pull down the temple, with all its enclo
sures. Ther place is shown where those, idols formerly stood, not far
from York, at the source of the river Derwent, and is at this day called
Gormund Gaham.'
The remarkable difference between the two events is that the Ha
waiian Pontifex was not impelled by the motive of a knowledge of the
true God, in his work of destruction.

AN UNEXPECTED WELCOME 191
The propagandists of Christianity commenced their
work at once, and it proceeded rapidly. In Kauai,
which was still under the authority of a separate king,
though dependent on the general government, two of
the missionaries were placed, and they took with them
the young Christian, George, son of the King, who was
delighted to receive him and his white protectors.
George's arrival was hailed by a salute of twenty-one
guns, and the King continued till his death a steady
friend to the missionaries. In Hawaii the two ex-
queens and the minister Kalaimoku were the chief
patrons of the new religion ; nor was Kamehameha II.
unfriendly to them; but his personal habits and his
personal associates were not such as would make him a
consistent follower of the Great Example of purity,
temperance, and self-denial.
The facile natives had few prejudices to oppose to the
new religion. Mentally, they were in a condition to
accept as readily that or any other faith which should be
proposed, as their bodies were to receive any new epide
mic. The chiefs eagerly espoused the cause, and begged
that the important subsidiary benefits which were con
nected with the religious teaching might be given to
their people. They requested more artisans, whom they
offered to support liberally. The King himself was very
sensible of the importance of gaining knowledge. He
applied himself so diligently, that by July he could
read intelligibly, and several of the chiefs made rapid
progress in learning. It was characteristic of their
previous ideas, that at first these would not allow the
common people to learn to read, as they considered that
knowledge, like the other good things of life, was the
exclusive right of the governing class. Money, too, was
given, both by natives and foreigners, for the purposes

192 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
of the mission. Six hundred dollars were subscribed
at Oahu for a school for orphan children, and in No
vember, four schools had been established, containing
one hundred pupils. At first the greater number of
learners in the schools were adults.
The quick, observing eyes of the natives found much
and sometimes amusing food for their curiosity. The
dress of the females, in which the ill taste of that time
was added to the primness and unworldliness of attire
befitting missionaries' wives, occasioned much astonish
ment to the dScolletes Hawaiians. Their poke bonnets
were described by the people as ' hats with spouts ; ' and
they must indeed have presented an unbecoming con
trast to the simple but elegantly-formed wreath of
ilima flowers on the brows of the young beauties of the
Pacific. The male missionaries excited watchful atten
tion and even alarm; for when, according to their
custom, they prayed standing, and with their eyes
closed, the natives supposed them to be sorcerers, and
that they were praying them to death, and fled from
such dangerous strangers.
No system like that of the disciplina arcani troubled
the Missionaries. They seem at once to have an
nounced the deepest metaphysical mysteries that are
the objects of our faith, to a race whose language was
peculiarly deficient in words expressing abstract ideas ;
who had not even a name for gratitude; and whose
poor, earth-bound faculties could only see things in a
very direct aspect. When, therefore, the doctrine of
the Holy Trinity was enlarged upon by the American
ministers, we do not wonder that sad confusion was
induced in respect to the Hypostasis, and that no nearer
approach to the truth could be reached by the people
than that the whites worshipped three separate gods, to

MISSIONARY TEACHING AND WORK 198
whom were given the names of three of their own dis
carded deities.
To the honour of the missionaries be it said, that
their little Augustinian band bravely laboured on ; en
countered with patience intellectual and other obstacles ;
and made themselves masters of a difficult and very
vocal language to which, from that peculiarity, it was
very hard to give phonetic expression. There was also
directed against the Americans the opposition of
many careless and depraved foreigners, who were
incensed by any efforts to curtail the freedom with
which they followed their cupidity and their libertinism.
The King had made considerable advance in his studies,
and was acquiring a knowledge of geography and of
the customs, productions, and governments of other
countries ; but, originally infirm of purpose, he forsook
his pursuits and often relapsed into periods of debauch
ery, to which he was often led by his foreign asso
ciates. It will not be out of place to introduce here a
short and approving summary of the missionaries'
labours which appears in the report of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for the
year 1860; which year was the fiftieth of the existence
of the Board. The summary is from the hand of E. H.
Dana, whose name is well known in this country by
his published writings ; and who, being a member of
the Episcopal Church in America and a barrister,
is likely to give an unprejudiced as well as an intel
ligent resume of his own impressions and information
derived from a visit to the Sandwich Islands, from
which place he writes.
It is no small thing to say of the missionaries of the Amer
ican Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this
whole people to read and to write, to cipher and to sew. They
0

194 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
have given them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary ; pre
served their language from extinction ; given it a literature,
and translated into it the Bible and works of devotion, science,
and entertainment, &c. They have established schools, reared
up native teachers, and so pressed their work that now the
proportion of inhabitants who can read and write is greater
than in New England. And whereas they found these island
ers a nation of half-naked savages, living in the surf and
on the sand, eating raw fish, fighting among themselves, ty
rannised over by feudal chiefs, and abandoned to sensuality ;
they now see them decently clothed, recognising the law of
marriage, knowing something of accounts, going to school and
public worship with more regularity than the people do at
home, and the more elevated of them taking part in conducting
the affairs of the constitutional monarchy under which they
five, holding seats on the judicial bench and in the legislative
chambers, and filling posts in the local magistracies.
In a separate chapter, the successes and the failures
of the American missionaries in christianizing the
islands will be dwelt upon; and we need not now
extract more of Mr. Dana's remarks, or the conclu
sion at which he arrived on the subject of a national
religion. The King, whom we will continue to call Liholiho to
distinguish him from his predecessor, notwithstanding
the serious defects of his character and the frequent ex
cesses in which he indulged, retained that noble courage
which distinguished his race. In Europe such courage
would be called chivalrous, or ra6h. Here, Quixotic acts
are sometimes the result of the code of honour, or are
performed under the knowledge that a multitude of
eyes are fixed upon the actor: in less sophisticated
peoples, they are impulsive. In 1821, Liholiho,
being angry or jealous of the titular King of Kauai,

PERILOUS EXPEDITION TO KAUAI 195
father of the youth George who returned with the
missionaries to his country, determined to pay Kau
mualii a personal visit. The latter had addressed his
suzerain as King of the Windward Islands ; an impli
cation which made Liholiho angry and uneasy.. Kauai
was one hundred miles distant from Oahu, where the
King was, residing,, He had never made the passage ; the
channel is rough ; and when he sailed thither in an open
craft the boatmen had neither chart nor compass, nor
even water for the voyage,. The King insisted, howeyer,
on their steering for the island, he himself indicating
the direction. Twice the boat, in which he had; crowded
thirty attendants, including two, women, had nearly
capsized. On his people entreating him to put back to
Ewa, his answer was an order to bale out the water and
proceed; adding that if, against his authority,, they
made the boat return to Oahu, he would leap into the
water and swim to Kauai, With much exertion and
great peril, the island was at last reached, but a night
of danger had yet to be passed through. The day
break saw them cast anchor off the shore, exhausted
with fatigue and hunger. What followed redounds
little to, the honour of Liholiho, however much his
adventurous voyage speaks for his courage.
Directly Kaumualii, the King of Kauai, heard of the
arrival of his suzerain, either ignorant of the spirit in
which he came, or rather, it would appear, from a
high-minded courtesy, he hurried on board the boat in
which his guest arrived, and welcomed him to his
dominions. Had he considered the Hawaiian an
enemy, he might easily have secured him and put him
to death: instead of this, he prepared a house for
Liholiho's use, and sent away two vessels to Oahu to
bring two of his wives, with their retinues. In the
o 2

196 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
same forbearing spirit, Kaumualii, instead of demanding
from the king, so completely placed in his power, a
renunciation of all authority, and a declaration of the
independence of Kauai, fulfilled his agreement made
with Kamehameha ; and offered a formal surrender of
his kingdom to a guest who might have been con
sidered his prisoner. Faithful to the conditions of that
compact, he addressed Liholiho, though with much
emotion, acknowledging the superiority of the first
Kamehameha, and, on that king's death, the rightful
succession of Liholiho. He placed at his guest's dis
posal his ships, his forts, his ammunition, his island,
as being his; inviting him to name a governor for
Kauai, and to send himself (Kaumualii) where he
chose. The chief's magnanimity was met by deceitful con
duct. Liholiho disclaimed in courteous language any
wish- to assume the island, or to alter its guardianship
in any way. His reply commanded shouts of appro
bation on both sides. Kaumualii continued to treat
his guest kindly and hospitably ; but the guest was only
waiting his opportunity. The chiefs he was expecting
having arrived in a fine vessel the king possessed,
he invited his host on board; and whilst Kaumualii
was being entertained below, sail was made on the vessel,
and he found himself, in an instant, a state prisoner.
Keeaumoku was made governor of his island, and the
Kauain king was brought to Honolulu, where, though
he was allowed to retain his suite, all authority was
taken from him. He was even separated from his
favourite wife, and compelled to marry the imperious
Kaahumanu. In 1822 the first printing-press was set up and used.
The energetic chief Keeaumoku was present on the

THE FIRST PRINTING PRESS 197
occasion, and assisted in Working off the first im-1
pressions. This year, also, the missionaries occupied
themselves in forming a Hawaiian alphabet. The
king, Kaahumanu and many of the chiefs, became
diligent scholars ; and, their example being followed by
many others, the schools increased and flourished. In
a short time Liholiho was able to write legibly. In
the spring of the same year Mr. Ellis, a missionary then
engaged in Tahiti, paid a visit to the islands. His zeal
is only equalled by his intelligence ; and the interesting
accounts he has published of his researches, his tour
through Hawaii, and his visit to Madagascar promote
not only the cause of Christianity, but that also of
civilisation, and scientific investigation-
The vessel which Vancouver had promised that his
sovereign would present to Kamehameha I. was sent
by George IV. to Liholiho. It was a schooner carry
ing six guns, and named the ' Prince Eegent.' In ac
knowledging this gift, which was done by a letter
conveyed by Captain Kent on his return to- England,
Liholiho announced to the' king the death of his father
and the conquest of all the islands ; and he- begged to
place them all under the protection of His Majesty.
His letter conveys the intelligence of the abolition in
the islands of ' the former idolatrous system,' and con
tains the following words: — 'We wish the Protestant
religion of your Majesty's dominions to be practised
here.' Whilst we rejoice at seeing barbarism displaced by
growing enlightenment, we cannot but feel some interest
in those outward manifestations of an ancient error
which, now passing for ever away, become invested
almost with sentiment. Pomps and ceremonies no
longer oppressive in their display, pass into the museum

198 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
of what is curious and antique. For this reason the
annual festival commemorating the death of his father,
held by Liholiho in 1823, deserves mention. It was
the last national exhibition of ancient Hawaiian
customs. Just before it was held, a large accession
of missionaries had arrived from America, and many
'organic changes were at hand. This feast was the last
glowing fight of the barbaric sunset. The missionaries
and all respectable foreigners were invited, and were
present at it. Two hundred persons sat down to dinner
in a bower which had the dimensions of a banqueting-
hall. The dress of the whole party was de rigueur.
Black had been adopted as the Court colour. In the
midst Of dinner, a procession entered the salon which
must have been striking from its numbers, its object,
and the contrast it formed with the guests. Four
hundred natives, clad in white, marching in single file,
deposited their taxes at the feet of the King. The
festival^ which lasted several days, was concluded by an
other procession ; this latter being in honour of the five
queens of Liholiho. Solid phalanxes of men bore aloft
platforms covered with cloth and beautifully-coloured
tapa, on Which Were supported boats : the outer rank of
bearers wearing feather cloaks of scarlet and yellow,
and superb helmets of the same material. In the first
boat was seated Kamamalu. She was habited in a
mantle of scarlet silk, and wore on her head a coronet
of feathers. An immense coloured and gilded umbrella,
carried by a chief, sheltered the queen from the sun.
Kalaimoku, the prime minister, and Naihe, the public
orator, clad in the malo, or girdle of the old regime,
of scarlet silk, and lofty helmets, stood on either side of
the queen. Each bore in his hand a kahili, or staff of
royalty, thirty feet high, the upper part being a cylinder

THE SUNSET OF BARBARISM 199
of scarlet feathers eighteen inches in diameter. After
wards came the prince and princess, the queens-
dowager, &c, the chiefs carrying hereditary symbols of
rank. It was a many-coloured procession, brilliant with
gay plumes and wreaths of beautiful flowers whose gem
like setting was their dark green foliage. Songs and
acclamations, many hundred dancers and singers, drums
and other native musical instruments, gave animation
to a scene which the spectators would not forget, because
sufficiently remarkable in itself, and which would also
be remembered because it was the last.
In the autumn, the queen-mother, Keopuolani died.
Her ccnduct having indicated a change of character,
she was baptised before her death, and spent her last
hours in giving directions about the religious welfare
of her relatives and people. She was buried with the
rites of Christian sepulture. Minute guns were fired,
as the corpse, borne by the five wives of the king and by
a high chieftainess, was carried to its last resting-place.
The stones of an old heiau, or temple, desecrated now
from its former idolatrous use, were to be consecrated
by the interment of a Christian neophyte, round whose
grave they were to form a wall. To do honour to the
departed queen, the stones were carried to their destina-
tation by chiefs, male and female : Kaahamanu, who
in size ' towered above her sex,' bore a large stone,
whilst the inferior people walked beside their laborious
superiors, carrying nothing but the feather kahilis.
The king, Liholiho, had entertained a growing desire
to visit England. In October a council was held at
Lahaiana, and he embarked in an English vessel,
'L'Aigle,' together with his favourite wife Kamamalu,
who, at the age of twenty-six, was still beautiful ; Boki,
a chief, brother to the prime minister Kalaimoku, with

200 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
his wife Liliha ; Kapihi, the king's naval commander ;
Kekuanaoa his treasurer, a steward, and some servants.
The king's younger brother Kauikeouli was appointed
successor to the throne and heir to his private lands, in
case he should never return. The 'Aigle,' with the
royal party on board, left Honolulu on the 27th of
November, amid sad forebodings of the people. Kama-
malu, weeping among her weeping attendants, was the
last to leave the shore. Perhaps a prescience of her
doom oppressed her. Before stepping into the boat
which was to convey her to the vessel, she turned to
her affectionate people, whose love she had won by her
amiability and domestic qualities, and uttered one of
those touching laments or farewells which it had been
the custom of her ancestors to make at parting. Simple
and few were its words, but it was the genuine expres
sion of a sad and loving heart.
After touching at Eio Janeiro, where the Brazilian
Emperor treated the royal party with flattering atten
tion, and presented the king with a very handsome
sword, Liholiho and his cortege landed at Portsmouth
on the 22nd of May, 1824. The English Government,
on learning their arrival, appointed the Hon. F. Byng
as a sort of guardian to these children of the far ocean,
and to provide for their comforts. On reaching London
they occupied apartments at Osborne's Hotel in the
Adelphi. There was at first an easy abandon in their
dress. The queen and Liliha, in loose, carnival sort of
trowsers, and improvised robes of original fashion, must
have struck visitors as being, though handsome speci
mens of womanhood, yet ' not of the world,' — the world
in which London and Paris move. However, tailors
and milliners took the royal group speedily in hand.
Liholiho adopted the Windsor uniform ; and a profile

LIHOLIHO'S VISIT TO ENGLAND 201
medallion of him was executed at that time, and presents
a singular likeness to his royal brother George IV.
Their time was occupied in sight-seeing and receiving
visits. The nobility showed them many attentions;
their likenesses were found in the picture shops. They
dined, they travelled, they saw sights, in fact they lived
in a whirl of engagements and excitements, which a
delicate London girl might bear, but which was de
structive to the robust denizens of the Pacific. Before
an opportunity took place for an introduction of the
king and queen to George IV., one of Liholiho's house
hold was attacked by measles. Next day the king
sickened, and by the end of a week the whole party
were suffering from the same malady. The queen
became seriously ill. She was attended by Sir Henry
Halfbrd, Dr. Ley, Dr. Holland, and Mr. Peregrine;
but in spite of every care, the original disease degene
rated into inflammation of the lungs. The Chief Boki
and two more of the suite recovered rapidly. The king,
too, made some progress ; and on the 4th of July was
able to give audience to the newly-appointed English
consul to his kingdom. On the 8th of July the in
teresting queen Kamamalu was seen to b*e sinking.
Her parting with Liholiho was very touching. All
that her sorrowful soul had prophesied when she bade
farewell to her native shore, had come to pass. She
was dying, — far from her land and her beloved
country. The royal pair held one another in a long,
last embrace, their tears flowing unrestrained. In
the evening the queen died. The king is described as
standing by the lifeless body, and apparently receiving
some comfort from the new religion of which he had
been but a partial scholar. Lifting upward his eyes, he
exclaimed, ' She has gone to heaven.' * The body of the
*The Times, 12th July, 1824.

202 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
queen lay in state ; and was then placed in a coffin on
which the following words were inscribed : —
TAMEHAMALU,
QUEEN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS,
DEPAKTED THIS LIFE IN LONDON,
ON THE 8TH JULY, 1824,
AGED 22 TEARS.
At the same time, and within the distance of half a
mile, there was also lying in state a noble of England ;
one who had achieved greatness beside the greatness he
inherited. In the coffin of George Gordon, Lord Byron,
the hand which had written lines of fire was lying mo
tionless and lifeless at his side ; and thousands of his
countrymen went to view the hearse of him who had
so long stirred their souls with his song. Death had
been precipitate with his two victims ; — a queen of two
and twenty ; — a poet of thirty-seven. Lord Byron's
body lay at Sir Edward Knatchbull's house, in Great
George Street. The circumstance is mentioned here,
from the coincidence by which the successor to his title,
Captain, afterwards Admiral Lord Byron, was commis
sioned to carry back the remains of the King and Queen
of Hawaii to their native soil in the ' Blonde ' frigate.
Owing to the death of Kamamalu the King became so
depressed, that the partial recovery he had made was
lost, and he too sank. After much severe sufferinff he
breathed his last on the 14th, The event is thus
described by the Court newsman of the day. ' It is
our painful task to record, this day, the dissolution of the
King of the Sandwich Islands ; which took place yester
day morning, at 4 o'clock precisely, at the Clarendon
Hotel, Eobert Street, Adelphi.' *
* The Times, 15th July, 1824.

DEATH OF THE KING AND QCEEN 203
The same paper shortly afterwards gives an account
of the lying in state of the deceased king : how the room.
was hung with feather tippets, and the regal war cloak
of spotless yellow plumes was displayed; and from
large china vases, draped with white linen, rose many
wax lights; — a semi-barbaric but impressive scene,
with the dark-skinned friends and attendants of dead
royalty, in silent grief, filling the chamber.
Every attention and care had been paid to the suffer
ers. ' The king sent his own physicians, and the Duke
of York his surgeon, and everything that England
produced was at our command.' *
The following is the inscription on the coffin : —
KAMEHAMEHA II.
KING OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS,
DIED JULT 14, 1824,
IN THE 28TH TEAR OF HIS AGE.
MAY WE REMEMBER OUR BELOVED
KING I0LANI. f
The ' Blonde ' sailed from Portsmouth on the 28th of
September, carrying the remains of the king and queen,
and those of the retinue who survived. Before the
latter left England, the king granted them an interview
at Windsor, He received the little suite with his accus
tomed courtesy, and showed them more than accustomed
kindness ; promising protection to their islands, in case
any other power was disposed to encroach upon their
sovereignty. Mr. Canning frequently conversed with
them. All expenses whilst the Hawaiians were in
England were defrayed by the Government.
On the voyage home, at Valparaiso, another of their
* Rives' Letter to the Prime Minister.
, f A name by which he liked to be called by his intimate friends.

204 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
number died, Kapihi, the commander of the King's
ships. Kekuanaoa the treasurer, and Liliha, Boki's
wife, were baptised by the chaplain of the ship, Lord
Byron standing sponsor. On the 4th of May 1825, the
' Blonde ' reached Lahaina. It is not our intention to
enter into a description of the poignant grief with which,
here and at Honolulu, a highly demonstrative nation
greeted the funeral vessel. At Lahaina, the wail of the
multitude, as they lifted up their voices and wept, echoed
over the hills, and drowned the roar of the surf. Wild
sorrow had always been displayed at the death of their
kings and chiefs, although in so many cases they were
hard oppressors. The Scythians- wept at the birth of
a child : it seems more unaccountable that the Hawaiians
should have grieved so greatly at the death of those
who often lorded it over them with tyrannical inso
lence, — but it was so.
The funeral obsequies took place at Honolulu. No
longer were the remains of the royal pair to be concealed,
or carried to some open heiau, where grinning hideous
idols kept watch upon the massy walls ; but amidst
' pious orgies, pious airs,' and attended with ' decent
sorrow, decent prayers,' those earthly relics were borne
in a Christian procession, received in a chapel hung
with black, and consigned to their long silence with
religious services. The coffins were drawn on two cars
surmounted by rich canopies of black, each of which was
moved by forty of the inferior chiefs. The young king
and his sister were followed by Lord Byron and the
English Consul. Lines- of soldiers extended half a mile,
from the fort to the chapel, and the officers, band, and
marines of the ' Blonde,' walked in files, as did the foreign
residents. A hundred seamen of the frigate, in uniform,
closed the procession. Of all the mourners, none felt

A CHRISTIAN FUNERAL 205
more poignantly, than the veteran chief Kalaimoku, the
prime minister. He had loved Kamehameha the war
rior, and he had transferred his love to his king's
offspring.* Now he saw them carried, young, to the
grave : — hence those tears, which flowed freely down
the old man's cheeks in spite of all his efforts to control
them. * Kamamalu was the daughter of Kamehameha, though not the
uterine sister of Liholiho.

206 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XIV.
HISTORICAL SKETCH  THE BROOK BECOMES A STREAM 
AN APOSTOLIC PREFECT ARRIVES — THE ARGONAUTS
DTJEING the expedition to England, several changes
had occurred in the islands. Old things were
passing away. At Kailua, the memorable scene of the
last battle between idolatry and the iconoclasts, a place
of Christian worship had been erected, in which the
average attendance each Sunday was eight hundred
persons. Kapiolani had become a Christian, dismissed
all her husbands except Naihe, and had thoroughly
adopted the habits of civilised life. This is the female
chief who descended the crater of Kilauea. She died
in 1841. The ex-king of Kauai died in 1824, also a
convert, and a sincere one, to the new faith. He be
queathed his possessions to Liholiho. Keeaumoku,
Kamehameha's old warrior, and governor of Kauai, was
also dead a short time previous to the decease of the
sovereign of that island, His powerful grasp of the
government having ceased, the Kauaians, on learning
the death of their late king, threw off restraint, and
renewed many heathen practices. It cannot be a matter
of surprise that the echoes of heathenism would still
return at first, although the body of paganism was re
moved. They would be fainter, and only heard under
favouring circumstances ; but in the present case they

CONVERSION OF KAAHUMANU 207
had also a political association. The people connected
the former system with their former independence ; and
in the anarchy which reigned for a time in the island,
an armed attempt was made to throw off subjection to
the central government, to expel the new governor, and
to promote George Kaumualii, the late king's son, to
the crown. The insurrection was, however, quelled by
the usual vigour of the prime minister, Kalaimoku, after
some vigorous fighting, and the execution of some
chiefs. A grand Council was held to settle the island
finally, and it was formally annexed to the kingdom of
Liholiho. The most conspicuous effect of Christianity was the
change which took place in the Eegent Kaahumanu. In
the days of her heathenism she had been the haughtiest,
the most imperious and the most cruel of her sex. When
angry, her glance carried terror to her trembling vassals.
No subject, however high his station, dared face her
frown. Though friendly to the missionaries, her personal
deportment towards them was lofty and disdainful. She
possessed unusual energy, decision, and ability; which
qualities, united with the experience and judgement of
Kalaimoku, had often extricated the nation from the
difficulties in which it was involved. After she had sat
as a disciple at the feet of Christ, her strong character
underwent an entire change. Her naturally warm
affections-burst through the cold, contemptuous habit
with which she had overlaid them. She walked with
meekness and consistency in her new course; was
attached to those who had been the means of this reno
vation, and kind to all her people. ' The new and good
Kaahumanu ' was the name by which she was frequently
spoken of. If we sometimes think that here and else
where the introduction of Christianity has resulted in

208 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
small arid imperfect effects, it is important to observe
in such instances as this its overcoming and transforming
power. Her example led to the adoption of the Christian
profession by many others, for people took note ' that
she had been with Jesus.' She died in 1832.
Although the name of Kapiolani, the wife of Naihe,
has been already mentioned more than once, and her
daring exploit at the crater of Kilanea alluded to, that
courageous act must be again instanced, as indicating
the reality and power of the faith which she had
adopted. In the vast and wild region occupied on the
island of Hawaii by the great mountain Mouna Loa,
its summit indented with a gigantic crater, its sides
rent with other openings through which at times the
liquid fire flows, the priests of Pele, the dreadful deity
of the volcano, Lived in an almost inaccessible seclusion.
It is in mountain solitudes, amidst crags and precipices,
subject to the more awful phenomena of nature, that
patriotism and superstitions, conquered and driven from
the plain below, find refuge, and preserve through cen
turies a persecuted but obstinate longevity. After
Christianity had taken possession of the more general
and fertile portions of the Hawaiian Islands, the old
worship clung about that lofty and desolate mountain,
the base of which covers 120 square miles; — it even
clings there still, to some extent, nursed by groanings
and utterances from the tormented mountain, rocked by
the fierce wild winds and storms, sheltered by clouds and
mists, lighted by sudden spectral fires, and terrified by
quakings and rendings of the soil. Few dwellers from
below came to disturb the rites practised by the un
canny worshippers of Pele, for their bodies could not
bear the cold and wet of the climate, and their souls
were daunted by the real and imaginary horrors of the

KAPIOLANI 209
spot. It was at the great active crater of Kilanea, on
the side of this mountain, against the threats and vati
cinations of the assembled priests, and against traditions
which till that time formed a part of her own nature,
that Kapiolani, trusting in the Power which has made
all things, — exhibited the courage of a Christian woman,
invaded the fiery sanctum of the goddess, ate the sacred
berries, and cast some of them daringly into the heaving
lava ; and having there praised God aloud, amidst the
most stupendous instances of His power, she reascended
to reprove the idolatry of the amazed worshippers of
Pele, and to urge them to forsake it.
There afterwards grew up in the mountain region a
strange mixture of Christianity and the old heathenism,
in which, like the Taiping in China, a Trinity was
conceived and adopted, Hapu, a former prophetess,
being united with Jehovah and Christ. This heresy
did not last very long. A single missionary coming
among the adherents of it, who were worshipping night
and day in the temple, was the means of their abandon
ing the hastily-constructed faith and burning their
temple. Kauikeaouli, Liholiho's younger brother, succeeded to
the crown, receiving the dynastic name of Kamehameha
III. He had been born in 1814, and consequently was
only eleven years old at the time of his accession. Before
Lord Byron left the islands, a grand council was held
to confirm the succession to the young prince. Besides
Lord Byron, the English Consul and Mr. Bingham the
missionary were present at the meeting, with the high
chiefs of the kingdom. Kaahumanu was continued as
regent during the king's minority, and Kalaimoku as
the prime minister. At the council another important

210 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
act was passed, by which the landed possessions held
by the chiefs became strictly hereditary and inalienable.
By this organic law the feudal rights of the sovereign
in bestowing lands was greatly curtailed, and the in
ferior people were left with very little land of their
own, for the chiefs were found possessed of most of the
available property.
The history of the islands now becomes principally
concerned in internal matters, very interesting to those
who took part in them and to those who study what
may be called the biography of a nation ; but not having
sufficient breadth to detain a slight historical sketch
like the present. The chief point of interest which
marks the following years, was the struggle against
licentious vice, which was carried on by the missionaries,
and by the government and individual chiefs who had
come under the religious influence of the missionaries.
The various ships which touched at the islands had
previously found little obstacle to the association of
their crews with the native" women. Native females
used to visit the ships; and captains going voyages
would not unfrequently carry off with them a young
Hawaiian as a compagne de voyage. But now it was
found both by ships of war and by merchantmen that a
great check had been placed on such licence ; and in
the anger which the new system elicited, attacks were
sometimes made upon the missionaries and others who
interfered with the immoral traffic. Such an event
took place in 1826, on the occasion of the U. S. schooner
' Dolphin ' visiting Honolulu. Its crew made an attack
and riot in the town, demanding to have the law passed
by the chiefs abolished. Some dangerous wounds were
received in the tn&lee, and the captain taking the part
of his ship's company, succeeded by importunity and

ASSOCIATION OF MISSIONARIES WITH GOVERNMENT 211
threats in restoring the visits of the women to the
vessel during her stay there. Similar acts of violence,
fruits of the same passions, were enacted by the crews
of English and other vessels.
It was about the same time that the American mis
sionaries became associated with the native government.
It has been a frequent matter of accusation against them
that they, being, as they consider, sons of Levi, took
too much upon themselves ; that they interfered in and
finally assumed too much of the governmental functions ;
forsaking for this purpose, as Dr. Judd and some others
did afterwards, their ministerial capacity as religious
teachers. Yet it is difficult to see how such a position
could be altogether avoided. The native government
was the head and the heart of that body politic which
the missionaries desired to recover from sickness to
health. With the countenance of the king and chiefs
they could do much for the nation. They could do
most by informing that head, and regulating the action
of that heart. So they became in a strict sense amici
curios ; standing at first in the background, but prompt
ing, teaching, guiding, and efforming the government
to some model, that model having its materials drawn
from the Scriptures of the Old Testament. It is to be
observed that, though they were citizens of the United
States, it never was the object of the missionaries to bring
about a republic in the islands. They had discretion
to see that the genius of the people was utterly unfit for
such a so-called self-government. They saw that king
ship was a necessity, and the extent of their endeavours
and their achievement was to reduce the absolutism
which they found, to the limitations of a constitutional
monarchy, looking to Europe for the necessary types.
In their zeal thgiv were likely enough to introduce too
p 2

212 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
much of the theocratic element, and they took the
decalogue announced by Moses as the basis of the laws
of Hawaii. None can doubt that some motives com
mon to humanity mingled with these disinterested
aspirations. Missionaries, after all, are men. The
desire of power, the charm of influence, the sacred
thirgkJEoj-jjr^ld, are co-extensive with our race, and the
most sacred offices do not always exclude their whis
perings. Parties in the islands soon polarised themselves. In
proportion as the chiefs, influenced by their teachers,
began to set their face against open profligacy and
hidden vice, and to enact laws in favour of morality,
with punishments and penalties annexed to them, the
curb was felt to gall those whose reasons for residing
in the islands were the gratification of their unchecked
passions and the unscrupulous acquirement of money.
Many foreigners and a few of the inferior chiefs formed
a party bitterly opposed to the converted government, and
still more bitterly opposed to the religionists who were
bringing about the change. The latter were accused of
having assumed the entire power ; which however never
was the case, nor cotdd be while the daring will of
Kaahumanu and ¦ the activity of Kalaimoku remained.
Besides, there were some intelligent and well-principled
lay visitors to the islands, whose counsels to the govern
ment were all for order, propriety, and progress.
Unfortunately, the consul appointed by the English
government placed himself on the side of the opposition.
As a secular agent, he might properly feel some jealousy
at the encroaching influences gained by the American
party; but his antagonism does not appear to have
been judicious or temperate, and he held out to the
Protestant missionaries the threat of introducing Eoman

ANTAGONIST PARTIES 213
Catholic priests on the islands for their opponents. Mr.
Charlton's conduct was the more unfortunate, inasmuch
as his American adversaries were to be the historians of
the period, and because the world looks now with a
soberer eye upon the moral delinquencies of public men
than it did thirty years ago, — does not allow, in fact,
for personal peccadilloes, unless in very great men in
deed, where the troublesome little black spots are lost
sight of in the dazzling brilliancy of the luminary.
The missionaries denied the allegations, pleaded mar
tyrdom, and invited examination of their proceedings.
Captain Jones, in the U. S. ship ' Peacock,' arriving at
Honolulu at the end of 1826, was made the umpire in
such an investigation. He found the missionaries
entirely in the right, Mr. Charlton and his lovites
entirely in the wrong. If exuberance of expression can
give additional force to rectitude, the American teachers
must have been very right indeed. ' This great trial,'
writes Captain Jones in his report, ' issued in the most
perfect, full, complete, and triumphant victory for the
missionaries that could have been asked by their most
devoted friends. Not one jot or tittle, not one iota,
derogatory to their character,' &c.
In March 1827 died Kalaimoku (William Pitt), 'the
iron cable of Hawaii,' as the people called him. He
was expiring of dropsy when Beechey visited the island,
and saw him extended on his back in his tent. On his
death the chief Boki, who had visited England and was
governor of Oahu, was appointed guardian to the young
king — an unfortunate transition, for Boki's character
was weak, though not without its good points. At this
time the first attempts were made to codify the scat
tered edicts which had been issued by the king and by
chiefs. The first written laws framed under the new

214 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
regime were founded on the Mosaic decalogue. ' The
opposition ' prevented the whole body going into ope
ration. Those intended as restraints on the sale of
spirituous liquors and on certain immoral facilities were
pretermitted; and enactments against murder, theft,
and adultery were alone put into execution at that
period. When Liholiho and his suite sailed on their expedition
to Great Britain, a Frenchman of very indifferent
character, named Eives, had attached himself to the
party by concealing himself in the vessel till she was
out at sea. The king, with his easy temper, allowed the
volunteer attache to continue with him in London in
the character of his interpreter. He was, however, after
a time dismissed, and he then went to France, and
occupied himself in schemes, the base of which was the
Hawaiian Islands. He projected an agricultural concern
for which he required artisans ; he also demanded priests
for the christianisation of the kingdom. The result
was that Pope Leo XII. appointed Mr. J. C. Bachelot
Apostolic Prefect of the Sandwich Islands, and he sailed
thence in the ship ' Comet,' accompanied by two priests
and four mechanics. Eives, who had done thus much
in the cause of religion, would not venture himself in
the vessel with such a body of divinity, but proceeded
in another, landed on the west coast of South America,
and there disappears from history finally. The ' Comet '
arrived at Honolulu in July 1827, and its captain
succeeded in landing the Bishop, one priest, — the other
having been lost overboard during the voyage, — and the
mechanics, without the permit necessary by Hawaiian
law. Their landing was entirely opposed by the
government. Kaahumanu ordered the captain to take
his living freight away again; whilst Boki, with a

LANDING OF ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY 215
moderation which does honour to his enlightenment,
entered into an explanation with the priests, showing
them the serious disadvantage to a small and unpre
pared community of having within itself the exhibition
of different doctrines. He pointed out that such a
diversity might exist with impunity amongst large and
enlightened nations, whilst it was unfit and dangerous
for the Hawaiians, mere neophytes of the Christian
faith. He stated the universal wish of the chiefs that
the French should not remain on the islands.
However, there they were; and possession is nine
points in ecclesiastical as well as other law. No perse
cution was used, and the authorities at last gave the
settlers permission to remain till an opportunity could
be found for their returning to Europe. Bachelot and
his coadjutor, Short, were gentle and pious men. They
combined the harmlessness of the dove with the wisdom
of the serpent. Perhaps the serpent character a little
prevailed ; for it is clear from their letters, that when
opportunities for their removal did occur, there occurred
always at the same time difficulties which prevented
their taking advantage of them. However, they were
servants of a church that requires obedience in her
ministers. Their mission was to fix that church in the
islands ; and only two courses were open to the priests
— martyrdom abroad, or disgrace at home.
They could not complain of intolerance, either on
the part of the natives or the American missionaries.
In January 1828, they opened a small chapel; and, in
order that the priests might prosecute their necessary
studies, the American mission lent them their own
works in the Hawaiian language. This was very liberal :
but there is a great charm in having one's book read,
even by our adversaries.

216 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Many natives were led to witness the ministrations in
the Eoman chapel; and great confusion of mind was
the consequence on the subject of image-worship. The
native mind was not then in a state to take the distinctions
between dulia and latria, between essence and symbols.
Kaahumanu, with her usual aplomb, cut the matter
short with her own subjects. She punished many of
them who had become converts to the Church of Eome,
referring in justification to the edict against idolatry
promulgated at the eventful period of 1 8 1 9. A polemic
war ensued ; but our little wayside brook of history,
now swelling to the proportions of a stream, is rushing
on too eagerly to busy itself with transactions which
can be imagined as easily as they could be read. So
we leave the sermons and discussions, the articles and
pamphlets, and run along the brink, trying to keep
pace with our busy rivulet.
Boki, the clever but unstable governor of Oahu,
with his wife Liliha, relapsed sadly from the Christian
faith ; and their example was followed by many others,
who, remembering the flesh-pots of Egypt and loathing
the bight food of the new system, made somewhat like
a wilderness by too great restrictions, fell back gladly
into many of the licences of their former fife. Even
the young king, of whom Boki was guardian, fell
into dissipation. A revolution was talked about, and
some steps were taken m it ; but by energy, and judicious
conduct in the ruling powers, it was crushed in the
bud. In 1829 the young king, then sixteen years of age,
first began to take an active part in public affairs. He
issued a proclamation to the effect that the laws would
be enforced against natives and foreigners irrespec
tively.

BOKIS FATAL EXPEDITION 217
At the end of this year an Argonautic expedition was
planned and executed, which ended most disastrously.
Boki had been extravagant, and had encumbered him
self with debts. A large amount of dollars was found
in some manner to be owing to the Americans, and
which it was arranged by the captain of a U. S. man-of
war, who played the part of a national conscience, should
be paid in sandal wood. The crew of a vessel which
arrived at Honolulu informed Boki that they had fallen
in with an island in the South Pacific, which abounded
with this valuable wood. Boki resolved to sail thither,
though the direction was extremely vague, and, with
force and arms if necessary, take possession of the island
and its wood. Another account is, that Boki had re
solved on conquering the New Hebrides, a group of
islands three thousand miles distant from Hawaii.*
The ' Kamehameha,' a beautiful man-of-war brig, was
fitted out, with the 'Becket,' a smaller vessel. Both
ships were well furnished with arms, ammunition, and
stores for colonising. Five hundred people, including
seamen, soldiers, and ten foreigners, embarked in the
two vessels. One hundred and seventy nine crowded on
board the ' Becket,' the burden of which was one hundred
tons ! They sailed on the 2nd of September, a day of
grief and tears to the inhabitants of Oahu, who stood
weeping as they saw the ill-starred adventurers leave
its shores. Boki, with all his faults, seems to have had
something honest and noble in his nature ; and as he
took leave, he turned and addressed the people thus : —
' Attend, my friends ! Hear what I have to say. You
know my sin is great: — it smells from Hawaii to
Kauai: — it is enormous; and it is my own, and
* .The Sandwich Islands, Alexander Simpson. London, 1843.

218 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
not another's. I am about to take a voyage to ex
tinguish the debt of the king, and not for unworthy
purposes.' The poor man who found that his ' offence is rank, — -
it smells to heaven,' and daringly resolved to steer into
unknown seas in order to pay off his debt, was, in spite
of his rashness, more honest than if he had gone through
the Bankruptcy Court on his own petition.
The expedition arrived at the New Hebrides and
landed on the island of Eotuma, where, like the Spanish
adventurers in America, they treated the inhabitants
with harshness, and made them cut sandal wood. Boki
then sailed in the ' Kamehameha ' for Erromanga, an
island only a few days distant from Eotuma. The
' Becket ' had orders to follow him in ten days. Fate
threw her black pall over the bold chief and his com
panions. Nothing was ever afterwards heard of the
' Kamehameha ' or any of those on board. As they had
a quantity of gunpowder with them, and were accus
tomed to smoke in the most careless manner, it has
been thought probable that the ship was destroyed
by an explosion. The companion ship, the 'Becket,'
reached Erromanga, where the Hawaiians committed
many outrages on the natives, Lives were lost in
fighting, and an epidemic broke out amongst the ad
venturers, in whch the leader, Manui, died, and many
others. After a stay of five weeks at the island, to no
purpose, the solitary little vessel set sail for Oahu. Her
original company had been swelled by the addition of
forty-seven natives of Eotuma ; so making two hundred
and twenty-six persons on board a vessel of one hundred
tons. Nothing that the ' Ancient Mariner ' could relate
whilst he enchained listeners ' with his glittering eye '
approached the horrors which were enacted on this
eventful voyage.

THE ANCIENT MARINER 219
Crowded with the sick, the dying, and the dead, the vessel
became a floating charnel-house. The sufferings of the living
were aggravated by famine. They lay under a burning sun,
enduring agonies of thirst, and were destitute of medicines or
medical skill. Feebler and fainter day by day arose the groans
of the suffering passengers, and the wails of the almost equally
helpless crew. The slow progress of the brig was tracked by
corpses. The conduct of the foreigners, who seem to have
been wrapped in the selfishness of despair, was barbarous, and
its remembrance inflames the resentment of relations to this
day. The dying, as well as the dead, were reported to have
been cast overboard : and out of the two hundred and
twenty-six souls that composed the brig's company, but twenty
returned, — and of these eight were foreigners. Twenty na
tives had been left at Eotuma on their way, some of whom
afterwards found their way back. On the 3rd of August, 1830,
the ' Becket ' arrived at Honolulu ; and as the news of the disaster
spread, the voice of weeping and wailing was heard by night
and by day. The loss of so many active intelligent men was
a severe blow to the nation.*
* Jarves, Hist. Hawaiian Islands.

220 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XV.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — THE STREAM BECOMES A RIVER —
REIGN OF KAMEHAMEHA III.
THE Eoman mission had gained a footing upon the
islands, and was determined not to be dislodged.
There were now three parties at work, and amongst them
the natives fared ill. There was the government,
which, inspired by the American independent mission
aries, carried religious restrictions to a Puritanical
extreme, enforcing them by punishments, so that inno
cent amusements ceased. Kaahumanu was much
influenced by Mr. Bingham, the principal member of
the mission, a sincere and disinterested man, possessing
talent and energy, butinjudicousinnot considering the
earthen vessels into which he was zealously pouring
heavenly treasure. No punishment was considered by
him and the associated government too great for the
most venial offence. Eiding on Sunday, even for
foreigners, was forbidden ; the healthy exercise of swim
ming, in which the people ever delighted, was actually
abandoned ; and police constables entered private houses,
and, like the intruders so touchingly described by
Mr. Lillyvick, without any ' with your leave 'or 'by
your leave,' walked away with the fermented liquids
that might be on table.
Then there was the party of reaction. To this the

PURITANS AND PROFLIGATES 221
young king inclined, who unfortunately evinced dissi
pated habits at an early age. It included most of the
foreign trading residents, the ' foreigners,' as they were
called par excellence, and a good many of the natives,
who were discontented with the rigid rule under which
they found themselves, and sought licence under the
name of liberty. The traders or ' foreigners ' as a com
munity, though immoral, were not in every respect- bad.
They are described as ' an easy-going, free-living race ;
associating together on terms of peculiar amity, and
indulging in frolics of the most extravagant description.
There was little rivalry among them.'* They seem
almost to have made a joint stock of their profits, and
were so careless or so trusting, that money and goods
passed about amongst them without a written acknow
ledgement ever being thought of, and they scarcely ever
entered into a settlement of accounts. When they
wanted land for houses, the chiefs friendly to them used
to give it, and it was sometimes received without any
deed or written title. A bitter feud existed between
them and the missionary party. They accused the latter
of being the originators of the unwise restrictions of the
government, and of holding back the inhabitants from
advancement, in order to increase their own influence.
They viewed every aetion of the missionaries, however in
nocent or well meant, with suspicion ; they called them, —
and by frequently calling them so came to believe them to be,
— hypocrites even in religion ; they supported a school for
teaching native and half-caste children English, mainly because
the system was opposed to the views of the missionaries ; and
.they maintained a newspaper for several years, the chief aim of
which was to attack their religious adversaries, and throw doubt
and discredit on all their efforts. \
* A. Simpson, Progress of Events, &e. f Ibid.

222 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Finally, there was the Propagandist party. The
priests had been treated with consideration. They had
not been forcibly ejected from a land that never invited
their presence ; and though Kaahumanu issued an order
forbidding natives to attend their religious services, the
Eomanists were allowed to continue their labours among
foreigners. In spite of this ordinance, numbers - of
native proselytes received instruction from the Eoman
Catholics and met in their chapel ; and it was in the
government's efforts to prevent and restrain its people,
using force to compel the natives' absence from rites
and schools, that ' The Persecution ' consisted.
In thirty years, our own views on the subject of reli
gious liberty have changed materially. We no longer
allow governments to persecute opinions ; we only per
mit that valued privilege to the religious or political
parties themselves ; and they certainly act the tyrant
with considerable zest. Whilst, therefore, we regret
that the Hawaiian government in 1830 should have
unwisely used harsh and repressive measures, we can
scarcely blame them, — certainly cannot feel surprise :
but we do see from our present point of view, that
to impose penalties and imprisonment on the Eomanist
converts, and to treat thirty of them as malefactors, was
exceedingly unwise.
It may be easily conceived that a strong feud would
exist amongst the three parties in whose ranks all the
population was distributed. The American missionaries
had been early in the field, and had laboured, if not
always judiciously, with great activity* In ten years
from the commencement of their mission nine hundred
schools had been established in the islands, taught by
native teachers, and containing 44,895 pupils. It is a
remarkable fact that in the Sandwich Islands education

RELIGIOUS PARTIES AND PERSECUTION 223
has been more diffused, has embraced a larger propor
tion of the population, than it has ever done in Great
Britain, in Prussia, or in New_England. The mission
aries and a missionary government would naturally
look with jealousy and anger upon their Eoman Catholic
rivals. Kaahumanu had appointed her brother Kuakini
governor of Oahu. He was a shrewd, stern man;
understanding the English language very well. With
great energy he suppressed an insurrection which was
developing itself on the island which had been placed
under his charge, and he next proceeded, in 1831, to
send away the priests from the country, to which they
had clung with a parasitic tenacity since their first un
authorised settlement. Three notices at sufficient in
tervals were given to the French priests, as they were
called, though one of them was an Irishman ; but the
priests kept on never minding ; or, rather, they moulded
the affair of extradition into such a form as to look
like a religious persecution of themselves. Govern
ment decided on sending them from the country at its
own expense : and as, opportunely, an invitation had
been given to the priests by the Prefect of the Missions
in California to join him there, where their presence
was much needed, they were shipped on board a brig,
and early in 1832 were landed safely at San Pedro, and
received a welcome reception from the Eoman Mission
there. The artisans were not compelled to leave the
islands. Motives, Like the shield with gold and silver sides,
look very different from opposite points of view. Seen
from the government side, the Eomanists were a set. of
intruders, trespassing upon its patience as they did upon
its territory; disregarding a civil notice to quit, and
requiring an ejectment under the old auspices of John

224 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Doe and Eichard Eoe : and even then, Like the ghost of
the Amundevilles, refusing to be driven away. From
the station occupied by ' the faithful,' the two priests
were a picket of the army of martyrs, holding true to
their sacramental oath, and seeking by all means to
plant in Hawaii the banner of the Cross. The result of
their representations to the French government will be
seen hereafter.
This year, 1832, the year of the passing the Eeform
Bill in England, died Kaahumanu, aged fifty-eight, —
beloved and lamented. She had come late into the
Christian vineyard, but when called within its enclosure
she seems to have laboured, according to her light, with
sincerity and activity. On her death her power and
place were transferred to Kinau, an elder half-sister of
the king's. She, like her powerful predecessor, was
much under the influence of Mr. Bingham. The fol
lowing year the young king assumed the active duties
of government. Unfortunately he was ill-prepared for
such responsibilities. His original temperament was
luxurious ; and the persons he had adopted, or who had
adopted themselves, as his friends, had rather assisted
than restrained the power of his youthful passions,
and the temptations which surrounded a person of his
age and station. Things began to go very badly. The
king relapsed into a state of open immorality, and on
his own authority revoked all the penalties on crimes
affixed by law, except those on murder, theft, and
adultery. He issued a proclamation declaring that all
authority resided in himself, and that he possessed the
arbitrary power of life and death. It is disheartening
to read of the state of society which soon followed this
unhappy change. The people, galled with too severe
a curb on their habits and inclinations, broke loose in

A BRIEF REIGN OF TERROR 225
debauchery and every sort of vice. Moral anarchy
prevailed not only in Honolulu, but throughout the
group. Schools were deserted, the teachers themselves
falling away ; buildings for worship were burned, and
some lives were lost in the violence and confusion which
prevailed. The dark habits of heathenism sprang up
again, Like the heads of Medusa, and, in one district at
least of Hawaii, idolatrous worship was once more per
formed. If we may give full credence to accounts which
come to us through the missionary party, the islands
must for a time have been a pandemonium. During
the height of this misrule, Kinau, the premier, with
all her determination and strictness of principle, had
no controlling power ; nay, was obliged to keep within
the walls of the fort, with a few faithful attendants, to
escape the insult and violence to her person which
would have been offered had she ventured forth.
Happily, the reign of terror and profligacy was not a
long one. Such rein had been given to lust, rage, and
drunkenness, that the subjects of passion sank down
exhausted, sated, sick, and wearied, and a state of pro
stration followed the terrible excitement they had under
gone. So great is the power of public example, when
the exemplar is in high place ! So true Charles Caleb
Colton's epigrammatic expression of the fact : —
' The paltry watch in private pocket borne
Misleads but him alone by whom 'tis worn.
But the town-clock, which domes and towers display,
By going wrong leads half the world astray.'
Happily, the king had the opportunity during a long
subsequent reign, extending to the year 1854, to atone
for that wild Walpurgisnacht of which he had been
the mad leader. One who knew Kamehameha III.

226 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
long and intimately, even till his death, gives me such
a report of him as the following : —
If the first of the name was the one and proper man for his
epoch, the third Kamehameha was equally fitted for the time
on which he fell. He had private moral faults and irregulari
ties over which, as they affected but little his public conduct,
we may well throw the veil of silence ; and then we have a
king who, if any ever deserved the name of the father of his
people, was worthy of that honoured title. To him king-craft
came intuitively. Penetrating, patient, conciliatory, he knew
how to measure and to gain men. Many times, placed in cir
cumstances of extreme danger and perplexity, he steered the
barque of the state out of them with all the caution and devo
tion of a pilot. It is no hyperbole to say of him that he was
ready to sacrifice himself to the public weal, because he actu
ally did so, both on public and great emergencies, and in a
long course of watching and self-restraint. He denuded
himself of privileges and prerogatives that he might clothe his
people with them. He freely gave up to that people his time,
his care, his income, and his territory.
The first turning-point with the young king, indi
cating a coming restoration, was the circumstance of
his confirming Kinau the premier, his half-sister, in
her office. The party in favour of disorder, and which
it is disagreeable to add included Mr. Charlton the
English consul, were desirous of having the princess
displaced. She had remonstrated earnestly with her
brother, and was incessant in her affectionate endea
vours to reclaim him from the disastrous course he had
adopted. Her influence triumphed; and the effect
upon the community when the confirmation of Kinau's
power was known is described as being electrical. The
crisis was over; but Kamehameha oscillated, Like all
bodies acted on by opposite forces : the storm was past,

ADVANCE IN MORAL CONDITION 227
but the heavy sea had not yet found the hydrostatic
level. Sometimes he broke out into open habits of
licentiousness ; at other times he was found respectful
and attentive in the house of prayer. The triumph of
wholesome counsels was marked in 1834, by the king
sanctioning the former laws, and placing restrictions on
the sale of spirits ; so that while the licences produced
a revenue to the government, the evils arising from
excessive use of liquors were kept greatly in check.
This year Captain Seymour, in H.B.M.'s frigate
' Challenger,' arrived at the islands. His was a visit of
retribution. A year or more previously, an English
schooner was seized by part of her crew, who murdered
the master and scuttled the vessel at an uninhabited
island near the equator. The mutineers subsequently
found their way to Honolulu in a whaler. Of course
the Hawaiian government had no right to inflict capital
punishment on English subjects for crimes reported to
have been committed on the high seas ; but it seems to
have been indiscreet, after hearing the acknowledgement
of their guilt, to have harboured them and treated them
as it would have done honest men. Captain Seymour
demanded their execution, and the pirates were hanged.
Advance was now again made in the morality and
religion of the people. The worst features of the old
heathenism were disappearing. Much had been done
by the missionaries and their organisation to raise the
standard of morals and to impart the Christian faith to
natives, who only fifteen years before had existed in the
heavy bondage of idolatry. That the advance was
often forced, often more in appearance than real, must
not be doubted. Outward conformity is more easy
to secure than inward regeneration. Simulation was
a characteristic of the Hawaiian nation. Yet the

228 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
missionaries felt their triumph, and could cry with
some reality, as they pointed to the people decently
clothed, gathering in chapels, thronging to schools, ap
plying themselves to laborious trades, using Christian
prayers and singing Christian hymns, — ' What hath God
wrought ! '
The rumour of what was effected reached the religious
world in America and Great Britain, and created a
great sensation. Letters from zealous men detailing
the power and triumphs of the Cross are usually san
guine. Circumstances told with the best faith seem, on
reading them, almost like miracles, whether in reports
to a Central Board of Missions, or in Lettres Edifiantes
to the Jesuit College. The transactions are far away,
nobody contradicts them ; it coincides with our own
hopes and our own desires that success should attend
the ministry of those whom we sent forth with a hearty
' God Speed.'
In the year 1836 the American missionaries became
more intimately and more openly connected with the
Hawaiian government. It has been a reproach used
towards them that some of the number who went forth
to those heathen islands to save souls by their teaching
and preaching, remained there to put away their mis
sionary character and assume the part of amateur
statesmen, much occupied thereafter in secular matters,
and not altogether foregoing such secular honours as
their connection with that small state could bestow.
The missionaries have considered it necessary to reply
to this reproach, and to justify the course they took.
The substance of their apology is, that a necessity lay
upon them to act as they did; that an opportunity
presented itself of gently guiding the ruling powers of
Hawaii to construct a government upon enlightened

APOLOGY OF THE MISSIONARIES 229
principles, of which the Christian religion should be
the directing star, and which should be free from foreign
influence ; that this was the wish of the chiefs, who in
their darkness and incompetency to build on a model
they had never seen, endeavoured to procure the need
ful assistance where it was to be found ; that to this
end they sent one of the missionary establishment, Mr.
Eichards, to the United States with an invitation to
some public man to come to the aid of the Hawaiian
kingdom ; one who could assist and advise in founding
a new constitution and in making new laws ; that
Mr. Eichards failed in the endeavour, and could not
persuade any ' right man ' that by going to the centre
of the Pacific he should be in the ' right place,' as far
as his own prospects in life were concerned : and
that in consequence of this failure there was no other
alternative than that the missionaries should detach
some from their own ranks to be associated with the
chiefs in guiding, henceforward, the vessel of the State.
They say that the chiefs were at the time in an em
barrassed position with regard to foreign and internal
affairs, greatly needing immediate counsel; and that
they made the choice of those among their religious
instructors whom they considered most fit to walk the
stage in their new part, and to teach the science of
political economy.
And because public bodies, religious or commercial,
can never act except upon ' Eesolutions,' the mission
drew up, in 1838, a series of eight resolutions explana
tory of their conduct, and adumbrating a scheme of
government, or rather of the political ethics which were
to be the basis of government. That the resolutions were
entered on the Minutes some time after the principles
were in operation, is not perhaps of importance to

230 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
notice, and is in accordance with the proceedings of
many other public bodies.
The missionaries had probably felt more fear than
the king and chiefs on the subject of foreign inter
ference. Their own standing in the islands, and their
plans in favour of the people whom they had taken
into their protection, would be greatly damaged if the
influences of such nations as England or France be
came too pronounced. Indeed their fears had been
heightened to a painful degree in the very year of Mr.
Eichards' mission to America.
An outrage, which seems to have been quite wanton,
had been committed on the property of a person named
Chapman, an English subject. His house had been
pulled down by order of the authorities, and his pro
perty plundered by those employed to commit this act
of -violence. The sole cause for the proceeding appears
to have been * a determination to show to white men
that they resided on the islands only by sufferance.*
In the course of 1836 Lord Edward Eussell arrived
in the 'Acteon,' on a visit of observation. Whilst
there, Chapman's wrong was made known to his
lordship, and he obtained reparation from the govern
ment for the injury. Lord Edward maintained very
friendly intercourse with the king, and before leaving
the islands he drew up a paper of Articles, which were
duly signed, conceived in an amicable spirit, and which,
whilst they were intended to protect English subjects
against the recurrence of such wrongs as Chapman had
received, involved nothing derogatory to the indepen
dence of the Hawaiian kingdom, and contained expres
sions of friendship and good-will. The Articles were
three in number. The first permitted English subjects
* Simpson, Progress of Events.

LORD EDWARD RUSSELLS STIPULATIONS 231
to come to the Sandwich Islands with vessels and pror
perty ; to reside there ; and, with consent of the king, to
build houses and warehouses. Such visitors and resi
dents to conform to the laws of the land. This article
concludes with a paragraph that ' good friendship shall
continue between the subjects of both countries, Great
Britain and the Sandwich Islands.'
The second gave liberty to English subjects to leave
the islands at their pleasure, and to dispose of their
houses, effects, &c, giving previous notice to the king,
and to take away the proceeds without impediment.
It declares that the land on which the foreigners' houses
are built remains the property of the king, and stipu
lates that he shall have no power to destroy the houses
or in any way injure the property of English subjects.
The third article relates to the effects of British sub
jects dying in the islands; giving immediate power
over them to the heirs and executors, or failing these,
to the consul or his agent. It also provides for the
collection of debts due in the islands to a deceased
English subject.
The stipulations contained in these three articles
appear reasonable, and their demands most moderate ;
but they awoke the fears and jealousy of the nrission-
arised government, and the king was induced to make
a vehement protest against them. The protest was
contained in a letter addressed to King William IV.,
and was signed by Kamehameha III. and Kinau,
who assumed the official name of Kaahumanu II. It
states that signature to the articles had been obtained
by the urgency of the eommander of a ship of war and
the English consul, who threatened that the vessel
would open fire upon the town in case of refusal. It
concludes by stating that the king, under these circum-

232 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
stances, had given his assent to the stipulations, but not
his real approbation.
Another trouble was impending over the vexed Archi
pelago, arising in a different quarter. A retribution
was preparing for the expulsion of the Eoman Catholic
priests by the government. Eeligion had received a
wrong, and France felt that wrong keenly, and resolved
to punish it severely. In order to forward the reign of
peace, France sometimes finds it necessary to break
through the laws of nations, and to employ heavy
artillery. In September another priest, named Walsh, arrived
in the islands. As soon as his profession became known
he was required to leave ; but he eventually received
permission to remain until the arrival of the ' Acteon,'
which was daily expected. Shortly afterwards it was
notified to him again that he would not be allowed to
reside permanently. Previous to the arrival of Lord
Edward Eussell, the French sloop-of-war ' Bonite '
touched at the islands; Walsh immediately appealed
to her commander, Captain Vaillant, and as the English
consul united in the request that the priest might
be allowed to remain, on the ground that Walsh was
an English subject and that his profession did not
deprive him of his natural rights, permission was
granted, with the proviso that he was not to attempt
to propagate his religion.
In the meantime, Bachelot and Short had received in
California a papal brief, exhorting them to persevere
in their attempt to establish themselves at Oahu. They
were also in correspondence with Mr. Charlton the
English consul, and they were led to believe that the
way was sufficiently prepared for their returning safely
to the Hawaiian Islands. Walsh had violated his pro-

EXCUSE FOR THE PRIESTS 233
mise of not propagating the Eomish religion; but he
was forbidden to open the chapel, and was again re
quested to leave. The names of the priests necessarily
appear in a prominent position, as if they were the chief
offenders. We must, however, be tender in our judg-'
ment of persons who were earnest in their endeavours to
carry forth what they believed to be the true Christian
doctrine; who were good and self-denying men; but
who were so bound by vows of obedience to what they
considered an authority over-riding all other authorities,
that the violation of engagements and even of truth
is almost more chargeable to the system which bound
them than upon their own consciences. We cannot
for a moment praise or defend conduct wherein truth
is sacrificed to expediency, or even, if it were not blas
phemous to say it, to religion ; but the priests of the
Eoman Church look upon their allegiance as invio
lable, and as excusing some acts which the clergy of
other churches would disdain and detest. They are in
the position of privates in an army. When the latter
take away the lives of men standing opposite to their
ranks, men against whom they have no personal quarrel
and whom they have never seen before, they look upon
themselves as instruments only, scarcely more account
able for the bloodshed than their rifles are. The re
sponsibility of life remains with the superior authority ;
their own judgihent seems taken away, — the voice of
conscience to be suspended. All other violence, robbery,
and wrong, follow in the same category. It is war, —
and they are soldiers sworn to the articles of war ; — they
have no choice. We state, but cannot defend the posi
tion. At the great day, this scheme of human ethics
may hang in filthy rags upon its subjects, and every man
must be judged according to his deeds. In the mean-

234 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
time it may explain, even while it does not excuse,
many wrong actions in thoughtful and pious men, who
place themselves under a headship which allows no
questioning. In April 1837 the two priests ventured to return
from California. They were conveyed in a vessel
hoisting English colours, owned by a Frenchman named
Jules Dudoit, who claimed to be an English subject.
The questions of naturalisation and domicil are too full
of intricacies to permit a decision as to which nation
Dudoit actually owed allegiance. The priests were
landed surreptitiously, without notice to the authorities.
On their arrival becoming known to Kekuanaoa, the
governor of Oahu, he wrote them a distinct demand
that they should withdraw from the islands, and re
minded them of their own statement that they only
intended to stay on the islands until they could obtain
a vessel to carry them thence. A despatch was then
sent to the king, who was absent at the time at Maui.
His Majesty issued a proclamation a few days after
wards, of which the following is a copy : —
PK0CLAMATION.
Te strangers from all foreign lands who are in my dominions,
both residents and those recently arrived, I make known my
word to you all, that you may understand my orders.
The Men of France * whom Kaahumanu banished are under
the same unaltered order up to this period. The rejection of
these men is perpetual, confirmed by me at the present time.
I will not assent to their remaining in my dominions.
These are my orders to them, that they go back immediately
on board the vessel on which they have come ; that they stay on
board her till that vessel on board which they came sails, that
is to me clearly right, but their abiding here I do not wish.
* Meaning the priests.

DEPORTATION OF THE PRIESTS 235
I have no desire that the service of the missionaries who
follow the Pope should be performed in my kingdom, not at
all. Wherefore, all who shall be encouraging the Papal mission
aries I shall regard as enemies to me, to my counsellors, to my
chiefs, to my people, and to my kingdom. Kamehameha III.
Unquestionably the hand of Mr. Bingham and his
coadjutors may be traced in the above production,
which, though couched in almost child-like language, is
peremptory enough, and so clear that they should have
run who read it, for that was its intention. The priests,
however, absolutely refused to return on board the
' Clementine,' and that vessel was made ready for an
other voyage ; but the government was absolute, and
determined to put them on board. Officers were sent
to execute this intention. Bachelot enquired whether
violence would be used towards them, and the
English consul, who it may be said here, seems to
have had the faculty of acting in the most injudicious
manner conceivable upon every occasion, took part
against the officers, threatened them that the ' Clemen
tine ' was under tabu, and that any one approaching
her would be shot ; and finally, by inducing them to
touch the priests as they were embarking, made out a
case of constructive violence, which was protested against
in solemn form before himself. M. Dudoit would not
have been a Frenchman in heart if he had let the
occasion pass without a little melodramatic action ; so
he hauled down his flag, — they were English colours, —
and carried it on shore to Mr. Charlton the consul, who
publicly burnt it to proteet it from dishonour ! Never
before had been seen the parts of Virginius and Virginia
performed by an English consul and a Union Jack.

226 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
To complete the transaction, Dudoit protested that the
Hawaiian government had seized his vessel, and claimed
damages therefore.
From the coloured statements of this affair, which
were sent to Europe and to America, it was believed
that a dreadful persecution of Eoman Catholic Chris
tians was raging in the Sandwich islands. On the 7th
of July the ' Sulphur ' surveying sloop, commanded by
Captain, afterwards Sir Edward, Belcher, arrived at
Honolulu ; and three days later appeared there Captain.
afterwards Admiral, Du Petit Thouars, in the French
frigate ' La Venus.' The two commanders demanded the
instant liberation of the priests, who remained on board
the ' Clementine.' As this was not complied with, a
body of marines was sent to the vessel and escorted the
priests to shore, where the two commanders reinstated
them in their former residence. The king was sent for,
and on his arrival an audience took place, when, after
eight hours' discussion it was agreed that the priests
should remain in the islands until an opportunity for
their leaving presented itself. Captain Thouars on
behalf of M. Bachelot, and Captain Belcher on the part
of Mr. Short, wrote a formal undertaking that the
priests should take their departure on the first favour
able occasion, and, until that occurred, should desist
from preaching.
Before the ships of war left the islands two other
documents were signed. The first, dated July 23rd,
1837, was a consent by the king to a certain interpre
tation of the first of the articles agreed upon with Lord
Edward Eussell. It related to the permission granted
to English subjects to come to and settle in the islands,
and it reads rather as an enlargement or variation of
the article. 'In the event of finding it necessary to

THE FIRST FRENCH TREATY 237
exert the power of refusal to admit a subject of Great
Britain, we will grant a fair trial, and give satisfactory
reasons for our act, of which due notice shall be given
to the Consul of His Majesty the King of Great
Britain.' The other document contains the germ of the French
treaty. Its brevity is admirable ; but the doctrine of
development has in our own times caused the small
seed to assume the proportions of a tree with many
branches. It runs thus : —
Honolulu, Sandwich Isles, July 24, 1837.
There shall be perpetual peace and amity between the
French and the inhabitants of the Sandwich Isles.
The French shall go and come freely in all the states
which compose the government of the Sandwich Isles.
They shall be received and protected there, and shall
enjoy the same advantages which the subjects of the most fa
voured nations enjoy.
Subjects of the King of the Sandwich Isles shall equally
come into France, and shall be received and protected there
as the most favoured foreigners. (Signed) Kamehameha III.
A. Du Petit Thouaes,
Capt. Commander of the French
frigate ' La Venus.'
Ere he sailed, Captain Thouars appointed M. Dudoit to
act provisionally as consul for France. The Hawaiian
government made strong objections to receiving his
nominee in this capacity ; but the French commander
was peremptory, and Venus had shown herself to be
Mars in disguise ; and so the appointment was settled.

238 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XVI.
HISTORICAL SKETCH  THE FIRST FRENCH TRIBULATION
THEEE are certain places in a narrative where,
although the stream flows on without natural hiatus,
the historian seems entitled to stop for a couple of
minutes to take breath and to knib his pen. These
nodal points determine the length of his chapters.
The chapter which we now commence is, unfortunately,
like a new scene in a French play, where the persons
are ' les memes.''
' La Venus ' sailed away : her commander's destiny
being to enter into complications at Tahiti, — islands
lying forty degrees south of Hawaii. A few months
after Captain Du Petit Thouars's departure, another
priest, from Valparaiso, presented himself at the Sand
wich Islands, but was not permitted to land.
The attention of France was now called to L'Oceanie.
The subject of propagating the Eoman Catholic religion
in those distant islands, round which imagination, acting
upon slight actual information, knew so well how to
throw her softly-coloured halo, seized the thoughts of
the pious and amiable queen of Louis Philippe. To
the king himself Du Petit Thouars had represented the
advantages which would accrue to France from an

FRENCH PROPAGANDISM 239
occupation of the islands of the Pacific. The means
for procuring the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands
to France lay in the introduction there of the Eoman
Catholic religion. An opportunity for an armed
French vessel again appearing at Honolulu was soon
found. Under Captain Belcher's guarantee that the
English priest, Mr. Short, should withdraw as soon as
possible, the latter gentleman sailed for Valparaiso
Scarcely had he left the island when the ship ' Europa '
arrived there, having on board M. Maigret, Pro-vicar
of the Eoman Catholic Bishop of Nilopolis, the head of
the newly-formed see of Oceanica. H.B.M.'s frigate
' Imogen ' had arrived there j ust previously. On Captain
Bruce sailing from Valparaiso, he had been applied to
by some priests to give them a passage to Oahu. This
he declined to do, and at the same time advised them
not to attempt to force themselves upon that country.
They disregarded his advice, however, and sought other
means of finding their way to the islands. M. Dudoit,
the French Consul pro tern., asked Captain Bruce to
induce the native government to allow the priests, whom
he knew to be on their way, to land ; but the English
commander refused to do so ; and on the government
asking his view of the articles arranged by Captain
Du Petit Thouars, he clearly explained their weight and
scope, and showed them that one nation cannot force
upon another friendly nation either its religion, its laws,
or its language.
The ' Europa,' with M. Maigret on board, was not
allowed to come to anchor : and she was only permitted
to enter the harbour on her owner giving bond in the
sum of $10,000 not to permit the landing of the priest.
The government remaining firm in their resolution,
MM. Bachelot and Maigret purchased a schooner for

240 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the use of their mission, and on the 23rd of November
sailed from the islands, leaving Mr. Walsh the only
priest in the Hawaiian kingdom. A few days after
sailing M. Bachelot died. The pause of several months
between this event and the arrival of Captain Laplace
in the ' Artemise ' may be properly filled up with some
concurrent matters.
Since the transference of the vast dominions of the
East India Company to the Imperial crown of Great
Britain, the Hudson's Bay Company is left the greatest
territorial proprietor extant. The possessions of the
merchant adventurers trading in Hudson's Bay and
Eupert's Land, sweep across the continent of America
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They extend from
corn-growing climates in the temperate zone to those
boundless fields of arctic ice, where land is of a nominal
value, and a fee-simple would remain invisible to its
purchaser for the greater part of each year, but which
have the adventitious value of being the hunting-ground
for the fox, the beaver, the otter, and the bear, as the
great prairies lying towards the Eocky Mountains are
for the bison or buffalo. The adventurers to Hudson's
Bay are essentially a trading company. Their standing-
army consists of about twelve men ; and their adopted
motto 'ProPelle Cutem' might afford to a jocose Latinist
several appropriate readings. Vancouver's Island was
at that time one of their territories ; and as early as
1834, the company, still advancing towards the setting
sun, placed a trading agent in the Sandwich Islands ;
not with a view of obtaining furs, there being no ferai
there, but for the purpose of selling English manu
factures. From the islands they took salt and salmon ;
they also took some of the natives, transporting them
from their sunny climate to the cold northern settle-

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY 241
ments of the Company. Some of the emigrants lived
and became useful servants, but the greater number of
them died in their new and inhospitable home. The
Company continued their agency there, operating with
more or less success till about three years ago, when
they withdrew from the field, concentrating their com
mercial establishments in British Columbia. In the
year 1841, Sir George Simpson, the territorial governor
of the Company, accompanied by his secretary Mr.
Edward M. Hopkins, left London, and passing over
the American continent, crossed the Eocky Mountains,
entered California before the gold discoveries had made
that name so familiar to European ears, and taking ship
at Santa Barbara, proceeded to the Sandwich Islands.
Sir George was able to render some important services
to the Hawaiian government in pecuniary and other
ways. Several chapters of his agreeable volumes, ' An
Overland Journey round the World,' are occupied with
an account of this visit, and with observations made
there. Sir George on leaving the islands made his way
by the north-west settlements of Eussia through Siberia
and Eussia to Europe; and having made a complete
circuit of the globe, reached London almost on the same
day that his secretary arrived there by a homeward
journey over the Eocky Mountains, and the lakes and
prairies of North America.
We must now return to the American missionaries.
The Eev. W. Eichards, who formed one of their number,
was a man originally distinguished by his insignificance.
He was a well-meaning, pious, industrious person,
without any great intellectual power, who, during his
twelve years' residence in the islands as a religious
teacher, had acquired the native language very correctly,
and was principally employed by the mission in trans-
R

242

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

lating. He was selected to go to the United States on
the errand previously mentioned, which proved unsuc
cessful. Eeturning to the islands in 1838, after an
absence of two years, a new Line of life opened itself to
the former humble missionary. He became the adviser
of the sovereign — a sort of conscience to the king ;
resided with him, accompanied him wherever he went,
and acted as his interpreter, or rather as his spokesman.*

EEV. "WILLIAM EICHARDS.

He had put off his definite character of a minister of
religion, to assume the task of making laws and govern
ing a people. Alas ! ambition sometimes dwells beneath
unstarched white cravats and suits of black alpaca.
In 1842, Mr. Eichards was accredited to the United
States and the Courts of London and Paris as a Minis
ter Plenipotentiary and Ambassador Extraordinary.
* See Simpson, ' Progress of Events.'

SECULARIZING MISSIONARIES 243
He was not the only member of the mission who
dropped the purely spiritual office for the secular.
Whilst employes of the American Board of Commis
sioners for Foreign Missions, these teachers of religion
were supported by the Board in a liberal manner, but
they were expected to attend exclusively to the duty
which had been assigned them, and they could not ap
propriate any property which might fall into their hands,
but which was to belong to the Board itself. Thus the
American missionaries were comfortably provided for
against the common needs of life, and their children
were educated by the Society; but whilst in the
capacity of its missionaries, they could not call house or
furniture, land or cattle, their own. A means was found
of liberating themselves from this too parental tutelage,
and of passing from bondage into a position in which
they could acquire and hold money, land, and every
sort of property. This was effected by representing
to the Board that they desired to be no longer a burthen
on the funds of the Society; that they were able to
maintain themselves in the sphere of their labours.
They thus partially detached themselves from the
Board and its rigorous system, whilst they retained the
character of missionaries. Many of their number are
supported by the congregations among whom they live,
by subscriptions in money, provisions, and labour.
Some of the missionaries passed into government em
ploy ; and not a few of the number showed considerable
alacrity in the search of wealth, seeking it diligently,
and investing it in very remunerative securities. Sub
sequently to the time now under consideration, Dr.
Armstrong became President of the Board of Educa
tion, and retained a post which he filled efficiently till
his death, which occurred accidentally in 1861.
R 2

244 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Mr. Bingham, the most energetic of the first mission
aries, appears to have been dissatisfied wth the influence
and proceedings of Eichards, and in 1840 he retired to
the United States. The latter found a coadjutor in the
person of Dr. Judd, the surgeon of the mission, who
on Mr. Bingham's departure took an active but un
defined part in public affairs. In 1842, however,
office came thick upon him. He was appointed a Com
missioner of the Board of Treasury, as well as Eecorder,
Interpreter, and Translator to the government.
That government had continued its opposition to the
encroachment of the Eoman Catholic mission. In 1839
all the priests were gone except Mr. Walsh, and they
would willingly have trodden out the last sparks of
Eomanism, had they been able. Unfortunately, they
used harsh measures to the native converts, — measures
which, in the language of the present day, would unhesi
tatingly be called persecuting. The governor of Oahu
imprisoned many professed native Eoman Catholics.
It does not seem that these severities are to be charged
to the advice of the missionaries. No doubt it was
through them, originally, that the government tried by
repressive means to prevent the spread of a system which
was opposed to that of their own teachers; but ac
cording to Jarves, the missionaries placed themselves
on the side of humanity, and prevented, wherever they
could, intolerant punishments and captivity. So much
did their remonstrances work on the King, that in June
1839 he issued orders that no more punishments should
be inflicted, and that all native Eoman converts should
be liberated from confinement. The stigma of perse
cution had, however, fastened itself upon the Hawaiian
government; and a rod was in preparation which its
public abrogation was not to turn aside.

captain laplace's five conditions 245
On the 10th of July, 1839, the French frigate ' Arte-
mise,' Captain C. Laplace, arrived off Honolulu. Its
commander immediately sent to the King a letter or
manifesto, in which the indulgence and long-suffering
of France were pointed out; the enormities of the
Hawaiian government towards French subjects — their
' victims ' — were portrayed ; and most undisguised
threats were held out to a nation ' misled by perfidious
counsellors.' The government was accused of violating
treaties; and was informed that, to 'tarnish the Eoman
Catholic religion with the name of idolatry, and to expel
it under this absurd pretext, was to offer an insult to
France and its sovereign.' What embittered the sting
planted in Captain Laplace's heart was that, whilst the
French were suffering ' the most cruel persecution, Pro
testants enjoyed the most extensive privileges.'
Five conditions followed these prolegomena. They
were —
First. That the (Eoman) Catholic worship be declared
free throughout all the dominions subject to the King
of the Sandwich Islands ; that the members of this
religious faith shall enjoy in them all the privileges
granted to Protestants.
Second. That a site for a (Eoman) Catholic church be
given by the government at Honolulu, a port frequented
by the French, and that this church be ministered by
priests of their nation.
Third. That all (Eoman) Catholics imprisoned on
account of religion since the last persecutions extended
to the French missionaries be immediately set at
liberty. Fourth. That the King of the Sandwich Islands
deposit in the hands of the Captain of the ' Artemise'
the sum of #20,000 as a guarantee of his future conduct

246 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
towards France ; which sum the government will restore
to him when it shall consider that the accompanying
treaty will be faithfully complied with.
Fifth. That the treaty signed by the King of the
Sandwich Islands, as well as the sum above mentioned,
be conveyed on board the frigate ' Artemise ' by one of
the principal chiefs of the country ; and also that the
batteries of Honolulu do salute the French flag with
twenty-one guns, which shall be returned by the frigate.
This peremptory document concluded by stating that
the foregoing equitable conditions were the price at
which the friendship of France was to be preserved.
The King and his chiefs had their free choice to accept
or reject them, only with this proviso, that if they
refused, Captain Laplace would 'immediately commence
war, with all the devastations and all the calamities which
would be its unhappy but necessary results.' It was
signed on the 10th,— 9th, of July 1839.
Together with the manifesto, a letter was sent on
shore to the French Consul, intimating that in case of
the conditions being refused, hostilities would commence
at noon of the 13th, — 12th, instant, and offering under
such eventualities, asylum on board the frigate to all
compatriots apprehending- danger. A similar com
munication was forwarded to the American Consul ; but
to the latter was added a clause that the offer of asylum
did not extend 'to those individuals born in the United
States, who form part of the Protestant clergy of the
chief of this archipelago, direct his councils, influence
his conduct, and are the true authors of the insults
given by him to France. For me, they compose a part
of the native population, and must undergo the unhappy
consequences of a war which they shall have brought
on this country.'

THE FORCIRLE ARGUMENTS OF ARTILLERY 247
Poor Mr. Eichards and his brethren felt this very
invidious and personal exclusion in its full force ; par
ticularly as Captain Laplace, in the greatness of his zeal
for religion, threw out, in addition, that if one man of his
vessel should be injured,. his was to be a war of ex
termination. So tender is the commander of a French
frigate over the seamen of the navy who compose his
little flock.
The harbour of Honolulu was declared under block
ade. The King was absent ; and as he could not return
within the three days of respite, a further delay of two
days was granted by Captain Laplace before com
mencing hostilities. These days were filled up with
animated discussions, with fears, with rumours of the
extraordinary distance French guns would carry ; also
with very good arrangements made by the native
authorities for preserving order in the'town. There was
some talk, too, of resistance. Even the English Consul,
who arrived whilst matters were progressing, was not
pleased at the prospect of French domination. He
had never wished well to the natives, it is true, but he
wished ill to those who were now threatening them.
The King did not come. The missionaries grew
more and more alarmed. There were their wives and
their numerous and tender families. No doubt, they
stood in a very compromised position, and had real
grounds for fear. The net result of all these circum
stances was, that counsels of fear prevailed ; the Gover
nor of Oahu together with the Premier signed the treaty
in the absence of the King, and the material guarantee
of #20,000, got together with great difficulty, was taken
on board the frigate. Then the salutes were duly fired ;
and when all was finished, the King arrived. The
business happened to be transacted on a Sunday ; and

248 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
when it was accomplished, Captain Laplace went on
shore, and under an escort of 200 seamen with fixed
bayonets celebrated a military mass in a straw palace
belonging- to the King. So the thunders of the ' Arte
mise ' did not wake to avenge the departure of a French
priest, who was formally pledged to leave the islands ;
and the blood of natives and missionaries did not
mingle in a massacre of extermination, which was to
have been the condign punishment for the imprison
ment of some native converts.
Yet Captain Laplace's mission was not complete.
There was an arriere pensee. The admission henceforth
of French bishops was in some manner to be coincident
with the admission of French brandy. A close connec
tion of these two products of France became established ;
and if the historian is obliged to mention, in the same
breath, the duties' of the one with the duties upon the
other, it is done, not with any desire to mingle the
spiritual with the spirituous, but because of an actual
nexus which we cannot dissolve. So identical did these
two interests become, that the same native name, palani,
was applied to brandy and Frenchmen.
To check intemperance, the council had induced the
King the previous year to prohibit the introduction of
ardent spirits, and to lay a heavy duty on wines. The
act seems to have been generally approved, except by
those who drank deeply, or made their profits by selling
these commodities. Another treaty was drawn up by the
French commander : but'the King objected to some of its
provisions, one of which limited the duties on imports
to a maximum of five per cent. Again a little gentle
pressure had to be applied. The treaty was brought to
the King at 5 p. M. one afternoon, and he was required
to sign it by breakfast the next morning. The word

' ONE TOUCH OF NATURE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD KIN ' 249
' extermination ' was not indeed openly used, but rumours
were set afloat in the neighbourhood of the King, that
the ' Artemise ' would be followed by a larger force, and
that the islands might possibly be transferred to another
power. The treaty was of course signed, and the
' Artemise ' sailed from Honolulu.
Soon afterwards the ' Clementine ' arrived from Val
paraiso, bringing passengers, the Bishop of Nicopolis,
M. Maigret, and two other priests. Eoman Catholicism
had now gained a secure footing in the islands ; and
though no chief of importance joined its ranks, a consi
derable number of the inferior natives became proselytes
to its creed. A large stone church was commenced in
Honolulu for the service of the Eoman Catholics.
In taking leave of this part of the subject, a sad
event has to be recorded, which enlists our sympathies
and overlooks denominations. The Bishop returned to
France to procure the instruments and ornaments re
quired for the rites of his religion. On his way back
to Hawaii, with a company of nuns and other persons
who had joined the mission, and bringing with him the
ecclesiastical furniture, and a cargo of goods for their
enlarged establishment, the vessel foundered at sea and
all on board perished.
The divisions among Christians are great; the bond
of a common humanity is still greater. Over the grave
of fellow men who perished in the zealous pursuit of
duty, our tears may mingle together without distinction
and without reproach.
A pause of two years now occurs in the tribulation.
During that time no French Admiral's pennon or Cap
tain's flag fluttered before the city of Honolulu. There
were grudges and complaints between the two sects
which divided the population; and among the lower

250 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
orders, there were occasional collisions between the
Protestants and the Eoman Catholics. The latter would
not contribute their quota towards the public schools,
and this naturally gave dissatisfaction to the govern
ment party, which was greatly the most numerous.
The French fleet was pursuing its destiny in southern
latitudes. In the summer of 1842 news was received
of a French occupation of the Marquesan group, the
rocky and picturesque islands which shelter ' the beauties
of the Pacific' It was not reassuring to the natives of
Hawaii to see in August of the same year the ' Embuscade'
corvette enter the harbour of Honolulu, and come to her
moorings without the customary salute. The premonitory
frown was quickly followed by the rebuke. Captain Mallet
commanding the corvette, placed himself immediately
in communication with the priests ; and on the 1st of
September he sent to the King one of those very decided
documents made up of reprimands and requisitions
to which the Hawaiians were becoming accustomed. It
complained of insults heaped upon ministers of religion ;
of quiet congregations menaced by subaltern authorities;
of converts driven to hear Protestant sermons and to
attend Protestant schools; of churches overthrown,
and of treaties torn. Never have any people been so
persecuted as the French.
Then followed six remedies, which the patient was to
take immediately. They stipulated that a (Eoman)
Catholic high school should be recognised, enjoying
all the privileges of the seminary at Lahainaluna, and
that the government was to make a concession of land
ad hoc. That the Eoman Catholic schools should be
exclusively under the intendance of inspectors profes
sing that faith ; and a provision made for supplying a
kahukula, or inspector, in certain cases. That permis-

FRENCH WRONGS AND FRENCH REMEDIES 251
sion to marry be given to Eoman Catholics nominated
by the kahunas of priests. That Eoman Catholics
should not in future be forced to labour on schools or
churches of a different worship ; and that the parents
of children that have embraced the Eoman Catholic
religion should not be ill-treated on that account. That
no individual, whatever be his rank or position, be
permitted to destroy a church or school, or insult a
minister of the Eoman Catholic religion without being
severely punished.
The above demands were numbered categorically, and
they were followed by a few more without numeration,
but of considerable importance^ By these the King was
desired to confirm a grant of land made by the chief
Boki to the Eoman Catholic mission, and to legalise a
purchase of land made by the Bishop of Nicopolis. His
Majesty was to undertake a more delicate task. He
was required to produce a proof that the Abbe Maigret
had signed a writing by which he acknowledged himself
to be a British subject, to the great scandal of the
French mission ; or, if the report was a mere calumny
invented to ruin a priest in the eyes of the inhabitants
of the islands, then the King should cause the author of
it, John Ii, Inspector-General, to sign a declaration that
he had lied about the matter, or that he had been de
ceived therein.
Then, as the document would not have been complete
or consistent without something about wine and spirits,
Captain Mallet demands explanations about the sixth
article of the treaty of the 17th July ; and asks, with a
certain naivete, whether the King's limitation of the sale
of brandy to a certain number of gallons, was not ' for
the purpose of eluding this article of the treaty, — not
to say violating it.' Captain Mallet admits that he

252 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
cannot prevent the King from making judicious laws
for the welfare and prosperity of his people, only he
would be glad to receive information on this particular
enactment, so that he might report on it to the Admiral
commanding in chief the French forces in L'Oceanie, who
would decide on the course most proper to be taken for
the maintenance of treaties and of the national dignity.'
The King returned an answer which Mr. Jarves very
properly describes as courteous and dignified. It touches
on all the points contained in the French commander's
letter, giving such general replies as would not compro
mise the laws of the land. The question about brandy
and wines is easily disposed of, as being a mere affair
of licences, which are obtainable from the proper officers.
As to John Ii, who was absent from Oahu at the time, an
examination should be held about the report he had cir
culated, and, if necessary, a trial should be granted. The
King concludes by desiring Captain Mallet to inform
the Admiral that he had despatched ministers to the
King of the French to beg that a new treaty might
be negotiated.
This answer, signed by Kamehameha III. and the
Premier Kekauluohi, though conveying the sentiments
of the King, was, without doubt, drawn up by the advisers
he had about him ; and the performance is exceedingly
creditable. It also answered its end: — it satisfied
Captain Mallet, who sailed from the islands. Soon after
the ' Embuscade's ' departure, news arrived of the esta
blishment of a French protectorate over Tahiti, Society
Islands. An alarm occasioned by French encroach
ment was probably not lessened in the ' country party '
among the Hawaiians by the annexation of California
by the United States, which event occurred about the
same time.

253

CHAPTEE XVII.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — ESSAYS IN CONSTITUTION-MAKING
UP to the year 1838 the government of the Hawaiian
Islands was a despotism. The King's power was
absolute ; and, as is usually the case with absolutisms,
his chiefs in their separate spheres were smaller despots.
It depended on the prowess and personal character of
the Monarch to control his chiefs and really be their
king, or to maintain only a nominal headship over
them, and to be simply a chief among chiefs. Of de
fined laws it can scarcely be said that there were any.
Some common prescriptive ones must have existed, for
they are found in every human society. Such are
rather to be called natural and instinctive laws ; and
without them men would dwell together as wild beasts.
From time to time the King and chiefs put forth
changeable decrees ; and the oppressive system of tabu
made itself felt as an immemorial and inevitable con
dition of Life. Usage was almost the only system.
The American missionaries and ex-missionaries, the
latter being those who had ceased upon their own
request to be subsidised by the Boston Board of Mis
sions, had obtained a considerable influence over
Kamehameha III. ; and they began to exert it in

254 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
endeavouring to obtain the King's consent to govern the
nation constitutionally. The endeavour was bold and
humane. It is said that the King felt great repugnance,
and made some resistance, at parting with the absolute
unquestioned power which had always been the right of
kings of Hawaii. The missionaries, however, gained
their point, and a sketch of a constitution, occupying
a sheet or two of foolscap paper, was produced. The
first notion of the Exhibition Palace in Hyde Park of
1851 was scribbled by Sir Joseph Paxton on a piece
of blotting-paper.
Whoever might have been the first investigator of
this essential departure from an ancient despotism, Mr.
Eichards, who has been previously mentioned, took a
leading part, afterwards, in constructing the constitu
tional edifice.
On the 7th of June, 1839, the King signed a Bill of
Eights; and on the 8th of October, 1840, he voluntarily
conferred on the people a constitution which recognised
the three grand divisions of a civilised monarchy, —
king, legislature, and judges, and defined in some re
spects the general duties of each.*
It is worthy of remark that the missionaries, who
were Americans, who had lived under and perhaps
loved republican institutions, never went so far as to
attempt to introduce a republic in the Hawaiian Islands.
Such an idea they knew to be preposterous ; and they
were wise enough to aim at what might be within reach;
to introduce beneficial changes, and reconcile the King to
a system for which models had to be sought among the
old dominions of Europe. Their eyes, however, travelled
farther than mere earthly types, and, consistently with
* Preface to the Statute Laws of the Hawaiian Islands, 1845, 1846.

A THEOCRATIC CONSTITUTION 255
their former profession as teachers of religion, they in
troduced into their scheme the theocratic element. In
the preamble of 'The Constitution of the Hawaiian
Islands,' borrowed partly from Scripture and partly from
the American Declaration of Independence,* they start
with the assertion that ' God hath made of one blood
all nations of men to dwell on the earth in unity and
blessedness. God- has bestowed certain rights alike on
all men, and all chiefs, and all people of all lands.'
We are not to be surprised at religious language in
troduced into a State paper, when the document is
drawn up by a preacher. Possibly a sermon written
by a Secretary of State might be conspicuous for its
reticence concerning the spiritual.
The Constitution was dated October 1840. It pro
vides that no law shall be enacted in the Hawaiian
kingdom which is at variance with the Word of the
Lord Jehovah, or with the general spirit of His Word.
All laws of the islands shall be in consistency with the
general spirit of God's Word. It proceeds to enounce
a feudal system as regards land-possession. 'Kame
hameha I. was the founder of the kingdom ; and to him
belonged, all the land from one end of the islands to
the other, though it was not his private property. It
belonged to the chiefs and people in common, of whom
Kamehameha was the head, and had the management
of the landed property. Wherefore, there was not
formerly, and is not now, any person who could or can
convey away the smallest portion of land without the
consent of the one who had or has the direction of the
kingdom.' There was a good deal of misstatement in these
propositions, for the common people had little or no
* A. Simpson, ' Progress of Events.'

256 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
land as their own property ; and, on the other hand,
Kamehameha had, individually, large possessions.
In the small volume of 200 pages duodecimo, which
contains the English version of the Constitution and
Laws of 1840, the translator remarks —
The laws as they now appear are most of them of quite
recent date. Some of them were enacted as far back as 1833,
and others had their origin as early as 1823. But all the
laws which were enacted previous to the former period, and
some of a later period, have undergone such modifications and
changes that they now appear with a date much later than the
original. At these islands, as well as in more civilised countries,
there is something like a system of common law, independent
of special statutes. It consists partly in their ancient taboos,
and partly in the practices of the celebrated chiefs as the his
tory of them has been handed down by tradition, and at the
present time the principles of the Bible are fully adopted.
The Constitution was to consist of the King ; a House
of Nobles, containing sixteen persons, of whom five
were females ; and a faint adumbration of the repre
sentative system, in seven individuals who were to be
chosen, and would sit in council with the nobles. The
manner of choosing the representatives was not very
carefully defined.
At first, then, the nobles and representatives assem
bled in one chamber, together with the King, who acted
as a kind of president. Subsequently the branches of
legislature occupied separate apartments. At the be
ginning, the sessions of parliament were yearly ; under
the present system they are biennial.
' The Constitution ' proceeds to organic laws. Per
haps, in examining these, they may appear to adhere
more closely to the letter than to the spirit of God's

SEVERITY OF THE NEW LAWS 257
laws under the Mosaic dispensation. Mr. Simpson
pronounces them to be the Blue Laws of Connecticut,
with the addition of powers conferred on officers, to
practise extortion and tyranny, not even possessed by a
Turkish pasha. The code of laws regulates taxation ;
gratuitous labour of the people for the government;
rent of land. It enacts curious regulations for the sup
pression of idleness and unchastity. If a man were
found 'sitting idle, or doing nothing' on one of the
days when he was free from government labour, even
then, an officer inight set him at work for the govern
ment till the evening. Thus, like the boy at school who
was doing nothing, he was effectually taught not to do it
again. But the inventive genius of the new lawgivers
expatiated most ardently in regulations relating to the
vices, crimes, and sins of unchastity. It seems as if
they had spent days and nights in considering the sub
ject, and presenting it in the most new, ingenious, and
unexpected lights. The result of their deliberations
was a sort of network very complex and very severe,
yet unequal in its texture, and even in parts open to
Bion's reproach of laws, that they caught the small
flies and allowed the great ¦ ones to break through.
Suffice it for the present to say, that in the ' Law re
specting Lewdness ' distinctions are drawn which are
rather fine than nice, with heavy penalties for those who
possess money ; while disproportionately severe punish
ments were affixed to irregularities which morality con
demns, but about which European legislation is silent,
conceiving itself concerned with crimes rather than
vices, and leaving the punishment of sin to another
tribunal. As an instance of this disparity, in a case
where the money fine for breaking the law was fixed
at twenty dollars, its equivalent was five months'
s

258 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
imprisonment — an imprisonment in which all the days
were to be spent in hard labour, and all the nights
passed in heavy manacles.
The Declaration of Eights and the Constitution
were led to by a series of lectures upon Political Eco
nomy delivered to the chiefs by Mr. Eichards. The
organic laws, although depriving the chiefs of several
of their old privileges and immunities, were passed by
them unanimously, nor were they afterwards resisted ;
but the severity and the system of espionage which they
induced caused much dissatisfaction to the common
people. The laws established the government of the
islands very much as it now stands. They confirmed the
kingdom to Kamehameha III. and his heirs. The King
was to appoint his successor, and, failing any such ap
pointment by him, then the chiefs and representatives had
the power to appoint. It has been mentioned that, at
first, the three branches of legislature sat in one chamber ;
but this was probably only on particular occasions, as the
Constitution provides that the chiefs and representatives
were to deliberate apart, and in certain cases confer
together. It continued the office of Premier, and ap
pointed four governors, under whose charge the eight
islands were placed.
That the laws were efficiently carried out, is proved
by a chief having been tried for murder and hanged ;
and to give the laws against intoxicating liquids their
utmost force, in 1842 the King and chiefs took a pledge
of total abstinence. The Maine Liquor Law is one of
those enthusiasms which do not last, and which lead to
broken vows and to deception. The ardent spirits that
so discountenance their namesakes have still to learn
that moderation is the virtue set forth by the Word of
God, and not total abstinence.

A POLITICAL PLURALIST 259
On Mr. Eichards leaving Oahu, in 1842, on his joint
diplomatic mission with Haaliliho to the United States
and Europe, Mr., or as he is more generally called Dr.,
Judd received the appointment of Eecorder; such an
office having been suggested by Sir George Simpson.
He also was to act as Translator and Interpreter to
the government. In assuming these characters, Dr.
Judd dissolved his connection with the mission. His
position was indeed more onerous than what these offices -
imply ; for he became the King's Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, and His Majesty's universal minister,
and sole director of the State.* No wonder that the
ex-physician to the mission found his labours and
responsibilities — the blushing honours which he bore
so thick upon him — too great for his own credit and
the King's safety. Mr. Eicord, a native of New Jersey,
of French extraction, bred a lawyer, and who had after
wards been Secretary of State to General Houston in
Texas, whilst that country remained*part of the Mexican
confederation, arrived in the Sandwich Islands in the
beginning of 1844. At the recommendation of Dr.
Judd, Mr. Eicord was appointed in March of that year
to be Attorney-General and the legal adviser of the
government. He was a man well qualified for the
office in which he was placed, and showed considerable
talent in the codification of the laws which he im
mediately set himself to effect. The King had made
some ineffectual efforts to procure such an officer from
England, but no lawyer from this country would give
up his practice and hopes here, unless for a salary which
it would have been impossible for the Hawaiian ex
chequer to afford.
Mr. Eicord commenced his task ; and on the 24th
* Polynesian. July 13, 1861.
s 2

260 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
of June, 1845, the following joint resolution was
passed : — Joint Eesolution.
Be it enacted by the Nobles and Representatives of the
Hawaiian Nation, in Legislative Council assembled,
That having taken into consideration the review of the
constitution made by the Attorney-General, which he read
before us on the 21st of May, he be requested to draw out for
us a digest of the constitution and laws, and also a project of
the organic acts which he recommends, accommodating them to
our condition and circumstances.
Passed in the Council Chamber, this 24th day of June,
1845. (Signed) Kamehameha Keone Ana.
By the end of the year the work was completed, the
preface being dated 1st January, 1846. The course
taken in the compilation of the laws is thus described
by Mr. Eicord : — *
The compiler submitted at intervals portions of the code to
His Majesty in Cabinet Council of his ministers, where they
have first undergone discussion and careful amendment ; they
have next been transferred to the Rev. William Richards for
faithful translation into the native language ; after which, as
from a judiciary committee, they have been reported to the
legislative council for criticism, discussion, amendment, adop
tion, or rejection. The two houses have put them upon three
several readings, debated them section by section, with pa
tience and critical care, altering and amending them in nume
rous essential respects, until finally passed in the form in which
they now appear. *
Thus it appears that a very commendable care was
* Compiler's Preface. Honolulu, 1846.

CODIFICATION OF THE LAWS 261
taken both in the construction and revision of the code.
The first publication of them is entitled
Statute Laws of His Majesty Kamehameha III., King of
the Hawaiian Islands ; passed by the Houses of Nobles and
Representatives during the Twenty-first year of his reign
and the Third and Fourth years of his Public Recognition.
a. d. 1845 and 1846, &c. Volume I.
The compiler, in speaking of the former system of
laws and the first constitution says —
Some of the most obvious points in civil and criminal
jurisprudence had been in some measure provided for by de
claratory and penal ordinances, either proclaimed by the King
before, or enacted by the legislature after the constitution was
given. * # * * These laws and rules, though univer
sally promulgated at home, and somewhat extensively abroad,
were neither well known nor understood. From detached
fragments they were collated and translated into the English
language in 1842 by the Rev. W. Richards ; that translation
containing 200 pages 12mo. is systematised for reference into
55 chapters, each devoted to some distinct subject of legisla
tion. * * * * Criminally, the old law applies to the
most heinous offences — to open breach of public peace and
decorum — and to wrongs towards the person and property of
individuals. The native dialect not admitting of distinction,
these offences are all indiscriminately called ' hewa,' which
word literally means ' wrong.' It is, however, for the most
part erroneously translated into the English ' crime,' regardless
of the judicial meaning of that word; * * * * And the
legal distinction between crimes, misdemeanors, and torts does
not definitely exist in the old compilation, except by adopting
the European and American measure of offences, the penalty
annexed to them.
Civilly, the old law likewise embraced the most usual
rights and duties of the social relations augmentative of popu
lation and incitative to industry. The fundamental basis of

¦262 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
landed tenures was declared, and cultivation of the soil, under
a feudal tenancy not much differing from that of ancient
Europe, was encouraged by relaxing the vassal service. The
revenue, derived chiefly from the native population, was
slight, and utterly insufficient to maintain the more regular
system demanded by the increase of foreign commerce and the
enhanced value of property ; which required something more
of the Hawaiian counts than mere investigation of facts.
As a scientific work the new code is deserving of
great praise. Mr. Eicord possessed an energetic and
orderly mind, and treated any subject he took up ex
haustively. Among the faults of his production is the
disproportion of the legislation to the wants of the
people for whom it was intended. It was a frame
work large enough to have embraced a dozen such
nations ; and the Hawaiians lived under its provisions
like a family for whom a mansion has been built, but
who had been accustomed to a cottage, and to whom to
dwell in a six-roomed house would have been the ad
vance they desired.
Mr. Eicord gives due credit to the previous labours
of the missionaries in legislating. ' The ordinances, as
results of missionary labour, have been greatly service
able in preparing the nation for what has since become
indispensable to its political existence — a complete
code of laws, embracing organic forms of the different
departments, particularly executive and judicial, with
outlines of their duties and modes of procedure, and
comprehensive civil and criminal digests.'
The constitution and code are contained in two acts
of Kamehameha III., which were supported by after
joint-resolutions of the legislative council. They
bear date respectively the 29th of October and the
10th of December, 1845. The first is entitled ' An Act

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANISATION 263
to organise the Executive Ministry of the Hawaiian
Islands.' It enacts that five ministers shall be ap
pointed and regularly commissioned by the King under
the great seal of the kingdom to conduct the several
executive functions reposed by the constitution in His
Majesty; of whom one shall be the Constitutional
Premier, and the other four be removable at all times
and at the mere pleasure of the King, in concert with
the Premier.
The Premier was to be Minister of Interior Affairs :
the other four ministers were to hold equal rank in the
King's service, but to take precedence in the following-
order : —
1. The Minister of Foreign Eelations. 2. The
Minister of Finance. 3. The Minister of Public In
struction. 4. The Attorney-General.
The second act is entitled 'An act to organise the
Executive Departments of the Hawaiian Islands.' It
is divided into five parts, relating to the five ministers ;
the parts methodically subdivided into chapters and
articles ; and it embraces everything, from the Military
Power, down to Exceptions to the Taxation of Cats.
As a matter of curiosity, a few instances may be cited
from this comprehensive legislation. For example, at
that early day an etiquette of the strictest order was
established. ' All orders of nobility — of etiquette and
precedence — of rank and title — of official dress — of
salutes — of official ceremonies and of national courtesy
— shall be established upon definite rules by orders in
council, signed by the King and attested by the
Premier, and duly promulgated for the information of
the people.' The rules of precedents of the Congress
of Vienna were adopted in all intercourse under the
head of Foreign Eelations. Provisions were made for

264 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the protection of inventions in machinery and art ; for
the issue of patents to inventors, and copyright to
literary authors. The enactment as regarded religion
was ample and distinct. Protestantism was re-pro
claimed as the religion of the government, 'but no
connection was to subsist between the ecclesiastical and
the body politic' The Judaic leaven relative to the
Lord's day remained. It was named the Sabbath ; all
transactions of worldly business on that day were un
lawful, and it was to be a dies non in law. All docu
ments dated on the Sabbath were to be deemed in law
to have no date and to be void in consequence. There
.were some exceptions added for cases of crime and
fraud, where arrest and committal were of immediate
necessity. The Minister of Public Instruction was to show no
partiality towards one denomination of Christians to
the prejudice of others, in conferring offices, or licences
to teach. The laws of Kamehameha III. orally pro
claimed, abolishing all idol-worship and ancient hea
thenish customs, were continued in force, with pains
and penalties attached, in the criminal code. Congre
gations of fifty individuals professing the same religious
tenets were to have permission, on petition, to erect ' a
church or other religious conventicle,' and to receive a
portion of land for a parsonage and for the support and
use of the clergyman.
The King in privy council could by proclamation
set apart days of fasting, humiliation, and thanksgiving ;
and such decree, when promulgated, was to be obligatory
on all persons, provided that the days set apart had
no sectarian tendency, or favoured one sect to the
injury of another. It may here be remarked that, till
the present time, the first of January has always been

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE STATUTE BOOK 265
proclaimed a day of thanksgiving, by public announce
ment; and the people are religiously invited to re
count on that day God's mercies vouchsafed to the
Hawaiian nation during the past year.
The laws relating to filial duties are pretty strict —
children were to submit to correction, and not to run
away. All those above the age of fourteen absenting
themselves from parental control were, when caught, to
be amenable to the labour tax and liable to impressment
into the government service as vagrants. To encourage
the growth of population, fathers of two children were
in certain cases to be free from the chattel tax. Three
children exempted from the labour tax.
This oppressive tax was re-enacted with modifications.
The year was divided into thirteen lunar months, and
during the first week of the month three days' labour
were to be performed for the government, and in the
second week two days' labour. None was required
during the other fortnight.
Provision was made for a census ; — the people are
enumerated every three years. The English standards
and divisions of weights and measures were established.
For currency, the silver coin adopted was the American
dollar, and a copper cent was to be coined with national
inscriptions and the King's head.
There was a law of Fish-tabu, distinguishing the
several kinds ; some of which, like the sturgeon in
England, were royal fish, and were to be divided equally
between the King and the fisherman: with other
provisions respecting piscary.
Not to be tedious, only two other enactments shall
be mentioned. There was a tax on household furniture,
and a dollar a year on dogs and cats : but dogs could
emancipate themselves from the tax by learning to be

266 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
useful in guarding houses, flocks, and herds ; and cats
were not to be impoverished by taxation, if they kept at
home and watched warehouses.
Finally, the organic act was to be published in the
English and Hawaiian languages.
Such is a sketch of the constitution and code of
1845. It was introduced on its completion by a
speech from the throne. Since that occasion a succes
sion of royal speeches have been pronounced. These
addresses of the present and last kings have been col
lected and printed, and they serve as good landmarks for
tracing the onward destinies of the nation. The King's
ministers are, as is usual, responsible for their form
and language, but it is stated that the ideas conveyed
in them are very sincerely expressed, and expose truly
the views of the Monarch upon public questions.
The King spoke on the 20th of May, 1845, as
follows : —
Nobles and Representatives of the People :
I have called you together to deliberate on matters
connected with the good of my kingdom.
In the exercise of my prerogatives, I have appointed
Gerrit P. Judd, Esq., to be my Minister for the Interior Affairs
of my kingdom ; Robert C. Wyllie, Esq., to be my Minister
of Foreign Relations; and John Ricord, Esq., to be my Law
Adviser in all matters relating to the Administration of
Justice. I have ordered my Ministers to lay before you reports of
their several departments.
The Independence of my kingdom has been most expli
citly recognised by the United States, France, and Belgium.
From each of these powers I have received the most friendly
assurances. It is my wish to cultivate the relations of peace and friend-

A SPEECH FROM THE THRONE 267
ship with all nations, and to treat the subjects of all with
equal justice.
With this view, I recommend to your consideration the
better organisation of the Courts of Justice, the division of
powers, and a careful revisal of the laws.
The laws regulating licences, the tenure of lands, the regis
tration of vessels, the harbour regulations, the duties, the fines
for the punishment and correction of offences, the laws for the
collection of debts and taxes generally, deserve your attention.
My Minister of the Interior will lay before you the estimates
of the expenses required for the ensuing year, for which it is
incumbent on you to provide, with a due regard to economy
and the means of my people.
It is my desire that you take measures to ascertain whether
the number of my people be diminishing or increasing ; and
that you devise means for augmenting the comforts and the
prosperity of my islands.
I consider it the first of my duties to protect religion, and
promote good morals and general education. It will, therefore,
be your duty to consider by what means those blessings can be
best promoted and extended among the people of these islands,
and also among the foreigners resident in my dominions.
I am well aware that the Word of God is the corner-stone
of my kingdom. Through its influence we have been intro
duced into the family of the independent nations of the earth.
It shall therefore be my constant endeavour to govern my sub
jects in the fear of the Lord ; to temper justice with mercy in
the punishment of crime ; and to reward industry and virtue.
The Almighty Ruler of nations has dealt kindly with me
in my troubles, in restoring my kingdom, together with
special guarantees for its existence as an independent nation-.
May He also aid you in your deliberations, and may He grant
His special protection to me, to you, and my people.
The constitution as settled in 1845 was not destined
to continue long. As soon as born it began to draw to
its end, or rather to be remodelled, altered, improved.

26S HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
The missionary influence, which had hitherto been all-
prevailing over the government, was beginning to
decline; other elements were being introduced. The
Minister of the Interior, though an American, had
ceased connection with the mission to which he was
originally the physician. Mr. Eicord, the Attorney-
General, also an American, was a man of unusually
strong and independent mind ; retaining a very slight
belief in democracy, and feeling decided tendencies
towards a monarchy, and respect for the advantages of
the British constitution. Indeed he does not hesitate
to say in one of his letters, ' I am a rank Tory in this
matter.' Mr. Wyllie, the Minister of Foreign Eelations, a
Scotch proprietor, who had spent many years in London,
where he was well known, a man of indefatigable habits,
and a thorough Conservative, formed the keystone of
the governmental arch. Nor was there wanting the
inductive effect of outer influence ; for the late English
Consul had been replaced by a man of much higher
character, William Miller, Esquire, whose romantic
valour in the Chilian war of independence rivals that
of Cervantes, and resembles in some points the trans
atlantic portion of Garibaldi's life. Mr. Miller attained
the rank of General and Marshal in Chili, and was
appointed by the English government their Consul-
General in the Hawaiian Islands, which rank was sub
sequently raised to that of English Commissioner. It
is added with regret that news of General Miller's
death has been received a few hours before these lines
were written.*
* The official record of the English Foreign office thus epitomises
General Miller's life: —
'William Miller served in the Field Train Department of the Eoyal

DECLINE OF MISSIONARY INFLUENCE 269
New light was breaking in ; the circumstances of
the world at large were changing ; the Hawaiian nation,
or rather its King and his sagest advisers, saw that it
was necessary to meet the times. The advance of a
true liberality is observed in reading consecutively the
royal speeches. Kamehameha, or as the people still
call him, Kaukeauli the Beloved, showed a sincere de
votion to his people in the disinterested suggestions he
made for the benefit of his subjects, native and foreign,
and still more in what he gave up of ancient privileges
and possessions. From time to time the attention of
the legislative body was called to a reconsideration of
particular statutes. In 1850 the King recommends
the two houses to take into their earliest consideration
the decrease of the native population, and to devise
means to stay its progress. In the same speech he an
nounces the downfall of the old feudal system. ' In '
June, 1848, in concurrence with my chiefs, and with
the aid of my Privy Council, I made a division of lands,
upon the principle of surrendering the greater portion
of my royal domain to my chiefs and people, with a re
serve of certain lands for the support of the fort and
garrison of my capital, and certain other lands as my
own private property, in lieu of the share which I, in
heriting the right of my predecessors, held in all the
lands of the islands.' Under that joint tenure, all. lands
Artillery from January 1, 1811, until the peace of 1815 ; was present in
several of the sieges and actions in the Peninsular war, and also in
North America. Entered the Buenos Ayres Artillery in 1817; served
in Chili and Peru against the Royalist forces ; was raised to the rank
of General of Division, April 8, 1823 ; during 1824 and 1825 was
under the command of General Bolivar; was appointed Consul- General
in the Sandwich Islands and other islands in the Pacific, August 16,
1843 ; and Commissioner and Consul-General in the Sandwich Islands
and their dependencies, December 1, 1855. Died October 31, 1861.'

270 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
howsoever or to whomsoever donated, were revocable at
will; no man's possession, even that of the highest
chief, was secure, and no man thought of improving
land, the possession of which was so uncertain. And
for the farther protection of the interests of his poorer
subjects, the King announces that on the 21st of De
cember, 1849, certain resolutions were passed with a
view of giving to the industrious cultivators of the soil
an allodial title to the portions they occupied, and to
facilitate the acquisition of land, in fee simple, by others
inclined to be industrious.
To render the people provident, the King recom
mends the trial of a savings' bank. He also proposes
for the careful consideration of the legislature the pro
ject for a criminal code, along with several legal enact
ments and amendments of laws, of which experience
has demonstrated the necessity.
Such, and similar to these, were the efforts of the
King and his best counsellors to give the islands the
advantage of a good and enlightened system of govern
ment. It resulted, in the process of time, that three com
missioners were appointed, who were to prepare jointly
the draft of a new constitution. The King was repre
sented in this commission by Dr. Judd, whose demo
cratic prepossessions having been bred in the bone
remained unabated. The chiefs selected Joane Ii, one
of their own order, though not of high rank. He had
been concerned in the first constitution. The repre
sentatives chose Mr. Lee, the Chief Justice, a tenacious,
clear-headed man, born and educated in the United
States, and who had acquired a large measure of in
fluence in the islands. Thus, republican principles were
maintained in the commission in the proportion of two

THE PREMIERSHIP 271
to one ; and even the native representative had but a
small bias towards monarchical institutions.
Under these auspices the constitution of 1852 was
engendered. The draft was submitted to legislature,
and after going through the necessary forms, it was
signed by the King on the 14th of June, 1852, and
became the law of the Hawaiian Islands, vice the con
stitution of 1844, dismissed.
With such a democratic preponderance in the com
mission, we are only surprised that so much of the
monarchical remains in the constitution ; and that so
original and strange an institution as the premiership
should have been retained. Kamehameha I. originated
the office, to which he appointed his beloved. Kaahu
manu. On the death of Kinau the Premier, the idea
was suggested that her infant daughter, Victoria Kinau
Kaahumanu, should in time succeed her mother in the
office nearest the throne. She is sister to the present King
and to Prince L. Kamehameha, the Minister of Interior.
Her third brother is governor of one of the islands.
During the Princess's minority, the chief John Young
(Keone Ana) acted as her locum tenens. The office of
premier of the kingdom is a very peculiar one. Whilst
it adds no security to the operations of government,
it detracts from the King's dignity. Every document
of State requires to be countersigned by the Premier,
an arrangement often fraught with the highest incon
venience, and producing annoying delay. A commis
sion or any other document of immediate necessity,
issued by the advice of Privy Council and bearing the
King's sign-manual, is invalid till it receives the Princess's
counter-signature ; and as the Premier's duties are not
supposed to detain her constantly at the seat of govern
ment, the ill-consequences are sometimes very serious.

272 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Upon a resistance by the Premier to sign a document,
the King has upon more than one occasion dismissed
the drag upon his wheels, and appointed a new Premier;
then, having obtained the desired counter-signature,
has restored his sister to her office.
By the last constitution, the Privy Council became a
more pronounced and important adjunct of the State,
whilst the element of representation still remains unde
fined, and as it were in its nonage. The people chose,
and probably still choose, their representatives, not with
that care and previous inspection with which Mrs.
Primrose chose her wedding-gown, but in an offhand,
al fresco manner. They placed more importance on
the selection of their tax-gatherers and road-inspectors
than they did on the election of their representatives in
parliament, for the operative functions of the former,
the petty officers, touched their purses and personal
well-being the more closely. Questions of irrigation,
and the length[of a day's labour, had greater interest to
the country people than higher and more abstract dis
cussions of the senate, though they soared to the divine
right of kings, or the peaceable relations of great foreign
powers.* Had Mr. Wyllie, the intelligent and indefatigable
Minister of Foreign Affairs, with his stout attachment
to monarchy, been invited to the commission instead
* Since the above passage was written, a remarkable exception to what
is stated has occurred. The biennial election of representatives took
place in January 1862, and was attended with the greatest excitement ;
some acts of violence even, having been committed at the polling-places.
This popular fervour was the effect not so much of an increased value
attributed to the privileges of suffrage, as of religious partisanship —
the Eoman Catholic voters pressing forward their candidates with the
utmost earnestness, and, of course, causing thereby as earnest an oppo
sition.

THE PREMIERSHIP 273
of Dr. Judd, there can be no doubt that more actual
power would have vested in the King. Whatever may
have been the causes which operated on His Majesty's
choice, his able minister had no direct hand in drafting
the constitution. Yet Mr. Wyllie's weight and influence
with the government are well known ; and though not
on board when the ship was launched from the stocks,
a good pilot is at the helm, and is doing all he can to
steer her straight.

274 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XVIII.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — THE CARTSFORT AFFAIR
AN expression occurred in the King's speech given in
the preceding chapter, which must now be ex
plained. It was an expression of thankfulness for an
escape out of troubles, and it spoke of a restoration of his
kingdom. The circumstances alluded to require that
we should retrace our steps several years.
The happy-and-united-family condition of the com
mercial community in its early days, did not always
continue. As interests grew larger, and the mercantile
class comprised English and European traders as well
as Americans, there were occasional bickerings, j ealousies,
lawsuits. The consular appointments had not been
happy. England was represented by Mr. or Captain E.
Charlton, a careless, free-living man, much opposed to
the straight missionary clique, not disliked by the native
population, but deficient in diplomatic knowledge ; for
in a small way the trading consuls were obliged to act
in a political capacity and to exert personal influence.
The first Commercial Agent, as the Americans style their
consuls, was still more unfit for his office; and soobjection-
able did he become to the native government, that upon
their earnest remonstrance at Washington, Mr. Jones was
removed, and was replaced by a Mr. Brinsmade, the
senior partner of a house of business at Honolulu, trading

MR. BRINSMADE AND HIS FIRM 275
under the name of Ladd & Co. Mr. Brinsmade was one
of those rapid, intelligent, all-sided men which the social
hot-bed of the United States produces so quickly and
in such numbers — a man who, if his practice as a sur
geon fell off, would turn merchant ; if he failed in that,
would become an editor ; or meeting with disappoint
ment in the last vocation, would without hesitation climb
the steps of the rostrum as a preacher ; and even at a
pinch would offer himself as a candidate for the presi
dentship. Mr. Brinsmade's manners were not unpleas-
ing ; he wrote with point and rapidity, and his pen had
a scabrous edge. The firm of which he was the leading
member was a peculiar one. Its three constituents
came out from the United States in 1833, to try the
experiment of conducting business on ' purely Christian
principles,' and of making their firm ' a pattern card of
mercantile morality.' It was thought that the house
received pecuniary assistance from the Boston Board
Missions ; * it is certain that the missionary influence in
the islands was strongly exercised in its favour, and the
firm conducted the principal secular affairs of the
Mission. The partners obtained, for an insignificant
consideration, the grant of a long lease of a large tract
of land on the island of Kauai for the establishment of
sugar plantations; it also gained wharfage and ware
house sites in the harbour of Honolulu, together with
valuable privileges in the shape of exemption from
duties, and a supply of native labour. It is humiliating
to think that a house commencing business with an un
limited capital of Christian principles should end in
bankruptcy. The peace of the happy commercial family had
been disturbed towards the year 1840 by claims and
* A. Simpson, 'Progress of Events.'
T 2

276 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
counter claims, arising out of business transactions
between the American and British traders. Such a
case occurred in 1839 ; and upon submitting the dispute
to arbitration, Brinsmade's house was declared indebted
to an English subject to the extent of £6,000. Subse
quently such claims were decided by juries; but as it
was before the promulgation of the Constitution and the
Code, proceedings were most irregular, and entirely of
an amateur character. In 1840, in consequence of the
refusal of English residents to contribute towards the
construction of a new road, the Governor of Oahu
forcibly caused the native servants of non-contributors
to labour on the work. Complaints were in consequence
made to the English Consul, — the Agent of the Hudson's
Bay Company being one of the complainants. A great
deal of ill-feeling was elicited between the British, Gover
nor Kekuanaoa, and the Americans who sided with
him. These difficulties arose about some jury cases and
the proportions of English and American empanelled.
A difficulty of this kind was referred to Captain Jenkin
Jones, who with H. B. M. ship ' Curacoa ; was then in
the harbour ; but the English commander's intervention,
if anything, made matters worse than they were before,
and the acrimony which existed between classes was
excessive. The English Consul, whatever good points
he might have possessed, was unfit for his position ; he
was hasty in temper, and uncouth in his communi
cations, and had made himself many enemies. In the
meantime the influence of Mr. Brinsmade, the United
States Commercial Agent, over the King and the native
government, was rapidly increasing.
Sir George Simpson, the Territorial Governor of
Hudson's Bay, was at the time visiting the islands.
He gave the government the benefit of his advice,

A STAMPEDO 277
and also made them a loan of £10,000. Amongst
other things, Sir George recommended that commis
sioners should be appointed to proceed to the United
States and Europe, to negotiate for an acknowledgement
of the independence of the islands, and for a guarantee
against their usurpation by any of the great powers.
The commissioners appointed on this errand were the
Eev. W. Eichards, the Chief Timoteo Haalilio, and Sir
George Simpson. The last named immediately left for
the North- West Settlements of Eussia, and travelling
through Siberia, made his way to London. In July
1842, Mr. Eichards and Haalilio started for the United
States, via, Mazatlan.
There was quite an eastern emigration. Mr. Brins-
made had already taken his departure for Europe, with
designs which will be hereafter explained. He left his
partner, Mr. Hooper, to act in his absence. Lastly,
Mr. Charlton found, or fancied he found, that he was
dwelling in a wasp's nest, and that everybody was against
him. 'Irritated by the numerous insults he had re
ceived, and the open disregard by the government
officers of his interference when British subjects were
concerned ; thinking also, that it was necessary that the
representations to be made by Eichards and Haalilio
and their backers should be met on the spot, he de
termined to proceed to London, via Mexico.' * He
accordingly took wing from the islands in September
of the same year, leaving as his substitute, Mr. Alexander
Simpson, -who had arrived there on business of the
Hudson's Bay Company. Simpson was a relative of
Sir George's, and brother to the discoverer of the same
name, who, with Dease, completed the survey of the
northern coast of America.
The temper in which the. English Consul left Hawaii
* ' Progress of Events.'

278 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
will be seen by the following letter in which he an
nounced to the King his intended departure : —
British Consulate, Woahoo, Sept. 26, 1842.
Sir, From the insults received from the local authorities of
Your Majesty's government, and from the insults offered to
my Sovereign, Her most Gracious Majesty, Victoria the First,
Queen of the United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Ireland,
by Matthew Kekuanaoa, Governor of this island; and for
other weighty causes affecting the interests of her Majesty's
subjects in these islands, I consider it my bounden duty to
repair immediately to Great Britain to lay statements before
Her Majesty's government, and have therefore appointed, by
commission, as I am fully authorised to do, Alexander Simpson,
Esq., to act as consul until her Majesty's pleasure be known.
Your Majesty's government has more than once insulted the
British flag, but you must not suppose that it will be passed
over in silence. Justice, though tardy, will reach you ; and it
is you, not your advisers, that wiU be punished.
I have the honour to be your Majesty's most obedient
humble servant, Richard Chaelton, Consul.
His Majesty Kamehameha.
This letter is a specimen of Mr. Charlton's written
communications, and are indicative of his humour when
he left the islands, — never to return. But he had
another and a very personal cause of disquietude at that
time. A debt incurred to some persons at Valparaiso,
ten years before, was pressed ; and the claimants had
commissioned Mr. Pelly, the agent of the Hudson's Bay
Company, to collect it for them. A suit was instituted
against Charlton, and shortly after his departure, a
verdict was given by a jury composed of foreigners,
against the English Consul. It was in this mood, and

THE SELF-BANISHED 279
' all smarting with his wounds,' that he fell in on his
way to England with Lord George Paulet, commanding
H. B. M.'s frigate ' Carysfort.' Into his Lordship's ear
he poured the story of wrongs, insults, and expected
dangers. Of Mr. Charlton himself, we now take leave. He
went to the Foreign Office, and was summarily re
lieved from his post by Lord Aberdeen, who disap
proved of his conduct in the islands, and particularly
its ill-judged conclusion. Nor was his Consular re
presentative in Honolulu, Mr. Simpson, in an agreeable
or flattering position. The King and the government
would not recognise him in his official character ; the
bickerings increased; resolutions and counter resolu
tions of the residents were passed, condemnatory,
complimentary, &c, &c. In the meanwhile, though
the English flag drooped listlessly over the consulate,
the consular substitute found himself excluded from the
official circle, and in his turn was lashing himself into
great anger ; and in consequence of the verdict given
against Charlton, in his Valparaiso matter, the property
of the latter was attached for payment by an order of
the Court. The action of the judicature which had been
invoked by the creditors' agent was stigmatised as an
interference, and was condemned by a meeting of
British subjects. On the other hand, a solemn re
solution was come to by other residents, English and
foreign, supporting the government, deprecating the
dangers and difficulties into which it was being brought
by ' machinations and misrepresentations,' and declaring
the conduct of the Consul and Mr. Simpson to have
been ' vexatious, arbitrary, and hostile in the extreme.'
So the quarrel was a very pretty quarrel as it stood.
In November Mr. Simpson addressed a letter to

280 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
H. B. M.'s Consul for the Western coast of Mexico, in
forming him of all the current events. The consul
indoctrinated with his views Eear-Admiral Thomas,
Commander in Chief on the Pacific station. The
English Admiral beUeving the persons and property of
English subjects to be in peril, despatched Lord George
Paulet in the ' Carysfort ; to enquire into and to redress
these wrongs, and to ward off these dangers. On Febru
ary 10, 1843, that is, before the sale of Mr. Charlton's
property had been proceeded with, the 'Carysfort'
arrived at Honolulu, and showed by withholding the
usual salutes, that there was displeasure in her visit.
Mr. Simpson, the English acting consul, immediately
went on board the frigate, and had an interview with
Lord George, from whom he received letters from
Admiral Thomas. Dr. Judd also went on board, with
the intention of paying an official visit, but the King
being absent at the time on another island, he was not
received. Official visits from the consular representa
tives of France and the United States were equally
declined ; but mutual unofficial calls and civilities were
proceeded with. On the 11th Captain Paulet addressed
a letter to the Governor of Oahu, stating that his arrival
at Honolulu was for the purpose of affording protection
to British subjects and support to H. B. M.'s repre
sentative, who had received repeated insults, &c, and
adding that it was his intention to communicate only
with the King in person. In reply to this despatch,
Governor Kekuanaoa wrote that he would immediately
send to Maui where the King was, and His Majesty
might be expected at Honolulu in six days.
On the 13th, the United States corvette 'Boston,'
Captain Long, arrived. Her commander maintained
a proper neutrality during the proceedings ; but her

LORD GEORGE PAULET S DEMANDS 281
presence was gladly, and naturally, welcomed by the
American residents. Proper courtesies passed between
Captain Long and Lord George Paulet.
On the 16th, the King having arrived from Maui,
Lord George wrote, demanding a private interview.
This request having been considered by the King
and his counsellors, the private interview was declined.
The answer to the note stated the readiness of the
King and the Premier to receive a written communi
cation; and that in case any business of a private
nature required to be transacted, the King would
appoint Dr. Judd 'his confidential agent' to confer
with Captain Paulet.
Whether the refusal of the desired interview was the
proper step to have taken, need not be discussed.
Lord George was irritated by it, and wrote the same
day, the 17th, declining to hold any communication
with Dr. Judd, and enclosing a paper of ' demands '
made on the native government, to which compliance
was demanded at or before four p. m. the following day,
- - Saturday. The paper was entitled, ' Demands made
by the Eight Hon. Lord George Paulet, Captain, E. N.,
commanding H. B. Majesty's ship " Carysfort," upon the
King of the Sandwich Islands.' The demands were
six in number. The first required, that the attach
ment on Charlton's property should be removed; that
land stated to be Charlton's, and which the government
had appropriated, should be restored, and reparation
be made for the heavy loss to which his representatives
had been exposed 'by the oppressive and unjust pro
ceedings of the Sandwich Islands government.' The
second demand related to the rights and dignity of Mr.
Simpson, acting for the English consul, and to Her
Majesty the Queen, who had been sorely insulted

282 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
through Mr. Simpson's sides. These blots to be wiped
out by a public reception of the Acting Consul's
Commission, and by a salute of twenty-one guns to the
English flag, which' salute should be returned by the
' Carysfort.' The third demand was for a guarantee that
no English subject should be imprisoned in fetters, unless
for felony. The fourth, that a new trial should be
granted in the matter of Skinner versus Dominis. The
fifth demand related to disputes between British subjects
and natives, proposing that such disputes should be re
ferred to mixed juries, one half the number empanelled
to be English subjects. The sixth, demanded a direct
communication between the King and the English
Acting Consul 'for the immediate settlement of all
cases of grievance and complaint on the part of British
subjects against the Sandwich Islands government.'
Such were the concessions demanded from the King
and his advisers, for deciding on which demands the
King was allowed till four p.m. the following day.
They were the fruits of Charlton's unfitness and violence,
and the egotism of his substitute.
Lord George notified to the commander of the
American corvette his intention to make an attack upon
the town at four o'clock the next day, if the demands
sent to the King were not complied with before that
hour. The Americans and some other foreigners placed
their funds and papers on board the ' Boston,' and pre
pared to take refuge there themselves in the event of
actual hostilities.
The first feeling induced by Captain Paulet's com
munication was that of dismay ; the next, of indignation.
The common people, ignorant of the effect of a broadside
of 64 and 32 pounders from a frigate of a thousand tons
burden, began to arm. They would get them a sword

PERSUASION BY BROADSIDES 283
though it were made of lath, against such an armament
as the ' Carysfort' s.' The next morning the frigate was
cleared for action, and her battery brought to bear
upon the little fort. An English vessel was towed out
of the harbour, and the ladies and children, protected
by that flag, went on board of her. The turmoil of
natural feelings having had its play 'for several hours,
the advisers of the King and his chiefs succeeded in
demonstrating the fallacy of a possible resistance on
shore, or an attack, by boarding, on the frigate.
Before the sanguinary hour arrived, peaceful counsels
were allowed to prevail, and a letter, dated the 18th,
was sent off to the 'Carysfort,' acknowledging the receipt.
of the paper of demands, and making known to Lord
George, that Sir George Simpson and Mr. Eichards had
been commissioned as ministers plenipotentiary to the
Court of Great Britain, with full powers to settle diffi
culties, and to assure Her Majesty the Queen, of
the uninterrupted affection of the King and the Haw
aiian nation, and to confer with her ministers as to
the best means of securing harmony between the two
nations. The King and Premier, whilst they depre
cated some of the demands sent in as embarrassing to
a feeble government and as contravening the laws, yet
would comply with the whole of them under protest,
and with the intention of representing their case to the
English government. The letter was signed by the
King and the Premier Kekauluohi.
This decision, however humiliating, was no doubt the
wisest that could have been come to. Lord George
replied immediately and appointed that an interchange
of salutes should take place at two o'clock the same
day. He also demanded as Her Britannic Majesty's
representative an interview with the King.

284 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Later in the afternoon a formal protest was lodged
against, the proceedings of Lord George Paulet, and
a solemn appeal to the English government was en
tered for redress, justification, &c.
Monday the 20th, was fixed for the interview. The
same day the King and the Premier visited the ' Carys
fort,' and were received with royal honours. This
interchange of civilities proved, however, most fal
lacious. The six demands had been acceded to under
great pressure, and any casus belli seemed to have been
removed; but the following day a new series of de
mands, in the form of claims for money, was sent in,
with some other rather oppressive stipulations attached
to it. There is a well-known fungus, the phallus
impudicus, which grows more rapidly than any vege
table production. It springs up and attains its full
dimensions in a night, and its expansion can even be
observed by the eye. Yet the growth of this un
pleasant cryptogam did not equal in rapidity or
extent the sudden indebtedness of the Hawaiian govern
ment, as noted during a few hours on board the ' Carys
fort ' frigate. In half a day a mushroom debt of
#117,330, 89 c. (so scrupulously exact were the com
puters) had pushed itself into being, and been deli
neated on paper. One item alone may be mentioned
as a finance curiosity. The aid of a naval commander-
in-chief had been invoked to prevent the sale of some
effects of Mr. Charlton, attached for debt. That sale
was happily averted by a captain of a frigate leaving a
lucrative station, and threatening an unprotected town
with his guns. But a ' connection of the sufferer * had
put by #10,000 in order to purchase his relative's
property sold under execution ; and that sale not taking
place, the intended purchaser found himself endamaged

CONDITIONAL CESSION OF THE ISLANDS 285
to the extent of #3,000 by the non-transaction. It will
be unnecessary after this, to audit the account of claims
farther. The new schedule of demands filled the King and his
counsellors with despair. It would occupy too much
space to describe the agitations, the conferences, the
plans which occupied them for the succeeding four
days. They saw that contention was hopeless, that
concession was only provocative of further demands.
An immediate cession of the islands to France or to the
United States was canvassed. The effects which would
follow an attempted resistance were too clear. Inter
views and remonstrances were held with Lord George
Paulet and Mr. Simpson; and at last it was decided
to cut the knot of difficulty by ceding the Hawaiian
archipelago to the English government in the person of
Lord George Paulet ; not so much handing them over
in part payment of the debt so suddenly developed, as
acting on the wise principle of placing oneself and all
one's valuables in a robber's hands, as the last resource
for personal safety.
The cession was made in the following terms: —
In consequence of the difficulties in which we find ourselves
involved, and our opinion of the impossiblity of complying with
the demands in the manner in which they are made by Her
Britannic Majesty's representative upon us, in reference to the
claims of British subjects, we do hereby cede the group of
islands known as the Hawaiian (or Sandwich) Islands, unto the
Right Hon. Lord George Paulet, Captain of Her Britannic
Majesty's ship of war ' Carysfort,' representing Her Majesty
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, from this date,
and for the time being : the said cession being made with the
reservation, that it is subject to any arrangement that may
have been entered into by the representatives appointed by us

286 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
to treat with the Government of Her Britannic Majesty; and
in the event that no agreement has been entered into previous
to the date hereof, subject to the decision of Her Britannic
Majesty's Government on conference with the said representa
tives appointed by us ; or in the event of our representatives
not being accessible, or not having been acknowledged, subject
to the decision which Her Britannic Majesty may pronounce
on the receipt of full information from us, and from the Right
Hon. Lord George Paulet.
In confirmation of the above we hereby affix our names and
seals this twenty-fifth day of February, in the year of
our Lord 1843, at Honolulu, Oahu, Sandwich Islands.
Signed in the presence of G. P. Judd, Recorder
and Translator for the Governmant. Kamehameha IH.
Kekauluoi.
Such was the document by which the Gordian knot
was cut. After four days of misery, doubt, and endless
conference, the King felt the natural relief which attends
a decision of any sort. If therefore he shook hands
with Lord George and Mr. Simpson after that decision
was made, and said, ' Now I'm happy, and L go to take
a ride,' it argues no levity or indifference about the
very grave position in which he and his kingdom had
been placed; it speaks only of the rebound from de
pressing anxieties, the springing up of the heart from
its prison of pain, and the desire to be quit of the
scene of indignity, and to find rest and refreshment in
rapid motion. The same day the cession was signed,
the King issued a patriotic address to the 'chiefs,
people, and commons from his ancestors,' and to ' the
people from foreign lands,' expressing under what
difficulty and perplexities he had given away the ' Life

THE INTERREGNUM 287
of our land' and his hope that it would be restored to
them. Too great weight need not be attached to this
document, because though in the native form of
speaking, the pen was probably guided by Dr. Judd
and his associates.
Provision was immediately made for carrying on the
government of the islands conjointly by the King and
chiefs, and a commission consisting, in addition, of
Lord George Paulet, Mr. Frere, a lieutenant on board
the ' Carysfort,' and a gentleman then visiting the islands,
named Mackay. The Hawaiian flag was hauled down,
as the deed of cession was read in the square of the
fort, and the British colours were hoisted in its place ;
and at the same time the flag that waved over the English
consulate was struck, Mr. Simpson's functions being
at an end. It is worthy of remark that the day when
these transactions, so melancholy and humiliating to the
Hawaiian nation took place, the 25th of February, was
the forty-ninth anniversary of the cession of the islands
made to Vancouver.
The British flag was hoisted on all the islands, but
the people chafed under the new rule. The French
Consul refused to acknowledge the new government, and
his official functions were suspended ; an additional duty
was levied on imports, and certain restrictions upon
vice having been abrogated, the old days seemed to
have returned, prostitution walked open and shameless
in the city, and women went <off to the ships in the
harbour without restraint. It is complained in the
history of that time, that the King and his chiefs were
repeatedly insulted, and that efforts were made to seize
on the national treasury and records.
On the 11th of March Mr. Simpson left Honolulu
for London, with despatches from Lord George Paulet

288 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
to the Foreign Office. The King and his chiefs wishing
to be represented there, Mr. Marshall, an American
subject, was secretly instructed, and travelled in the
same vessel, one belonging to the King, to Mexico,
with the exacting English consul, and thence to the
United States — but without making known the object
of his journey.
At the end of June, Dr. Judd who had previously
withdrawn from his office under the new government
of King's deputy, removed the national records, secretly
from the government house, to the tomb of the Kings.
Thither he retired, himself, to work ; and ' in this abode
of death, surrounded by the sovereigns of Hawaii, using
the coffin of Kaahumanu for a table, for many weeks
he nightly found an unsuspected asylum for his own
labours in behalf of the kingdom.' In reading this
passage we seem to have wandered back to the neigh
bourhood of Damascus, and to be engaged with the age
of the Khalifat of Haroun Er Easchid and his trusty
Vizier. We feel glad that some energy and even romance
still remain in these pigmy times of ours.
On the 6th of July, the U. S. Ship ' Constellation,'
Commodore Kearney, arrived at Honolulu, and pro
tested against the ' seizure ' of the islands, and he treated
the King and Chiefs on all occasions as independent
princes. Lord George Paulet having written remon
strances to the King, the latter came from Maui, to
communicate with Commodore Kearney. Captain
Paulet was irritated by this proceeding, and things
began to look badly, when on the 26th of the month,
the 'Dublin' Frigate bearing Bear Admiral Thomas's
pennant, arrived off Honolulu. He had received letters
from Lord George, and had left Valparaiso in conse
quence. He immediately made known his intention of

RESTORATION OF THE ISLANDS 289
restoring the islands to their natural governors. The
joyful news quickly spread among the people. On the
27th, the Admiral in an interview with the King agreed
to the terms of restoration ; and although stipulations
were contained in these, very favourable to English
interests, and likely to occasion some embarrassments
to the native government in executing them, yet the
inconveniences were as nothing in the scale weighed
against the great and unexpected benefit conferred in
giving back 'the life of the land.' On the 31st, the
restoration was publicly made, amidst acclamations and
joy. Eastward of the city lies an extensive plain, which
was chosen for the scene of this conspicuous act of jus
tice. Thither poured the population of Honolulu early
in the day, under a cloudless and smiling sky. At ten
in the morning, the English marines being drawn up
in line, supported by a corps of artillery, the King,
escorted by his own troops, arrived on the ground. As
the royal standard was unfurled, the brass guns of the
' Dublin's ' corps fired a salute, and simultaneously the
English colours were lowered at the forts, and the Ha
waiian flag rushed up and fluttered joyfully in the
morning breeze. Then spoke out their salutations
the guns of the ships-of-war 'Dublin,' 'Hazard,'
' Carysfort,' and ' Constellation,' together with those of
the two forts and the shipping in the harbour. If ex
plosions of powder can make men glad, the Hawaiians
were glad that day. The military having been reviewed,
the King returned to his house, where the native troops
raised by Lord George Paulet, saluted the King's flag,
and swore fealty to their sovereign. The officers who
had received British commissions kissed the King's hand.
At one, there was divine service at church, and then the
King in the sacred edifice addressed his people, and told
u

290 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
them how 'the life of the land' had been restored to
him. His would be no cold words. The unrealities of
older civilised states had not yet taught the Polynesians
to listen to official eloquence with unbelieving calmness
and a condescending 'hear hear,' in its due place.
Kamehameha III. had serious faults of character, but he
loved his people and his land with a warm, true and
devoted love, and the words which he uttered that day
were genuine and deeply felt both by the speaker, and
his breathless auditory. The King's speech was followed
by a spirited address from one of the chiefs, who an
nounced, in his sovereign's name, a general amnesty, the
release of all prisoners, and a festival of ten days.
During that period of carnival, balls and entertainments
were given by the residents of Honolulu, in which
native chiefs, and the officers of the numerous men-of-
war in port, met in friendly intercourse ; and before the
festal days were over, the U. S. ships ' United States '
and ' Cyane ' arrived, bringing with them news which
increased the general joy, that the independence of the
Hawaiian Islands had been recognised by England and
France. As a final act to that eventful rejoicing, an
endeavour was made to take advantage of it to reconcile
all conflicting parties in the kingdom.
It is a peculiarity with the Hawaiians, that in all the
events in which our own country has been concerned
with them, they look to England with gratitude and
love. They have had to bear from us at times some
wrongs, and some of the arrogance of a superior people.
But they possess the happy temperament of being able
to forget a wound given, and bless the hand — the same
which stabbed — that binds up the wound. Thank
fulness for the restoration of their country immediately
succeeded and supplanted any feelings of resentment ;

NATIONAL GRATITUDE 291
and among the most honoured names in the roll of their
remembrance, stands that of the late Admiral Thomas.
Lord George Paulet was a courteous but firm English
man, who carried out with an unhesitating decision the
duty which seemed to lie before him. Towards him the
people do not seem to cherish any anger, and their joy
at the restoration of their islands has taken the form of
a perennial gratitude to the English officer who was
the instrument of that act of j ustice. Admiral Thomas's
day is one of three yearly celebrations kept at Hawaii,
and on that day the most distant consular agents of the
kingdom are required to hoist the national flag. This
grateful feeling follows him beyond the grave, and seeks
to express itself to his descendants.. There is an unusual
simplicity in all this, very startling in our days of com
plex motives and restrained sentiments. We scarcely
know whether to smile or to blush at the lesson afforded
us, and we are inclined to repeat the words of the great
reflective poet : —
' I 've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds
"With coldness still returning ; —
Alas ! the gratitude of men
Hath oftener left me mourning.'

it 2

292 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XIX.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — THE ENVOYS EXTRAORDINARY —
THE BELGIAN CONTRACT
THE scene now shifts to Europe, whither the principal
actors in our history have simultaneously betaken
themselves. Thither has gone, burning with anger, the
English consul, Mr. Charlton, — to be finally extin
guished. There, too, has gone Mr. Brinsmade, the
United States consul, upon important business to be
mentioned hereafter, about which he laboured long and
with the most perfect unsuccess. Thither have gone,
though by different routes, the ministers plenipotentiary
and envoys extraordinary, viz., Sir George Simpson,
Governor of Hudson's Bay, via Siberia, and Mr. Eichards,
the ex^issianary, and Haalilio, a chief of inferior rank,
and late secretary to the king, via United States. Thither
also has gone Mr. A. Simpson, late acting English
consul ; to carry news to the English government of the
cession of the islands, and to find his news already
known, and himself as coldly received as the messenger
who brought the tidings of Saul's death to David. Lastly,
thither had gone Mr. J. F. B. Marshall, charged with
secret instructions from the king, to act as a corrective
to Mr. Simpson in England, the latter travelling with
him in perfect innocence of his mission, — as quietly

OLD FACES UNDER NEW SKIES 293
as the acid and the alkaline powders rest side by side in
a seidlitz-powder box, though so antagonistic in their
nature, and so ready to fizz when, finally brought into
contact. Simpson was doomed ' to find, too late, that
men betray,' — particularly American citizens. He says
in his pamphlet —
A Mr. Marshall, an American shopkeeper at the' islands,-
by a ruse de guerre of Judd and the American consul, got a
passage in the schooner sent to convey me to Western Mexico.
He spread abroad the news as he passed through the States —
where it excited intense attention ; and, on his arrival in
England, entered,, in conjunction with Richards and Haalilio,
into communication with the Foreign Office.
The first business of Eichards and Haalilio was at
Washington. There, after some negotiation^ though
no declaration of independence was at that time ob
tained, the President, in a message to Congress on the
31st December, 1842, used language respecting the
Hawaiian Islands which was considerate enough, and
coupled with the appointment of a commissioner to
reside at the court of Hawaii, was taken to be tanta
mount to a formal recognition. The commissioner
despatched to Honolulu was Mr. George Brown. The
envoys arrived in London in February 1843, and being
joined by Sir George Simpson, had an interview with
the Earl of Aberdeen, who was at first unfavourable to
the idea of formally recognising the independence of
the islands, believing them to be too greatly under
American influence. On the 8th of March the envoys
went to Belgium, on their way to Paris. They saw
King Leopold, who pledged his influence to aid the
object of their mission. On the 17th they had an inter
view with M. Guizot, who received them with marked
courtesy, and promptly gave a pledge to acknowledge

294 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the independence of the islands. The different impres
sion made on the observant native chief Haalilio by the
two diplomatists is striking and amusing. 'When we
went to Lord Aberdeen,' he said, ' lie was very grave and
angry-looking ; but he gave us all we wanted : when
we went to Monsieur Guizot, he was very polite and
friendly, but would give us no satisfaction.'
Eeturning to London, the commissioners received, on
the 25th of February in an interview with Lord Aber
deen, the assurance that the independence of the islands
would be virtually or really acknowledged, and that
Mr. Charlton would be removed; and on the 1st of
April his Lordship formally communicated to them the
-willingness of the English government, and its deter
mination, to recognise the independence of the Sandwich
Islands under their present sovereign ; adding that Her
Majesty's government desired no special favour or im
munity for British subjects, but on the contrary wished
to see all foreigners residing in the Sandwich Islands
treated on a footing of perfect equality before the law,
and equal protection afforded by the government to all.
Shortly after this satisfactory decision of the English
government, the news was received of the provisional
cession of the group to Lord George Paulet. The same
intelligence had already been made known in the United
States by Mr. Marshall, ' where,' says Mr. Jarves, ' added
to other causes tending to influence the national mind
against England, it created a prodigious excitement.'
The newspapers wrote sensation articles upon English
rapacity, and stump-orators worked up the English
captain's act into excellent political capital.
On the 13th of June Messieurs Haalilio and Eichards
were informed that the English government had no
desire to retain possession of the Sandwich Islands;

INDEPENDENCE OF THE ISLANDS RECOGNISED 295
and this decision was communicated to Paris and to
Washington. At the latter place, our minister informed
the President that the seizure ' was an act entirely un
authorised by Her Majesty's government;' and Mr.
Fox explained, at the same time, that his government
had during the past year instructed the English consul
and the naval officers on the Pacific station to treat the
native rulers of the Sandwich Islands upon all occasions
with forbearance and courtesy, and to avoid interfering
harshly or unnecessarily with their laws and govern
ment. He disclaimed on the part of England any
desire to make the Hawaiians feel their dependence on
foreign powers, or to establish for itself any paramount
influence in the islands at the expense of that enjoyed
by other foreign powers. All that was sought was that
other powers should not exercise, there, a greater in
fluence than that possessed by Great Britain.*
* The following letter from Lord Canning to the late Lord Herbert,
has been communicated to me by Mr. J. Pinhorn, B.N., secretary to
Admiral Thomas, Commander-in-chief of H. B. M.'s Naval Forces in the
Pacific: — Foreign Office, June 13, 1844.
Sir, I am directed by the Earl of Aberdeen to acknowledge the re
ceipt of your letter of the 7th instant, enclosing copies of Kear- Admiral
Thomas' correspondence with the Admiralty, dated the 17 th of February,
from the Sandwich Islands ; and I am to request that you will state to
the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that Her Majesty's Govern
ment have received with the highest satisfaction, the whole of Admiral
Thomas' proceedings at the Sandwich Islands, as marked by great pro
priety and admirable judgement throughout, and as calculated to raise
the character of the British authorities for justice, moderation, and
courtesy of demeanour, in the estimation of the natives of those remote
countries, and of the world. I am, &c, (Signed) Canning.
To the Et, Honble. Sidney Herbert, M.P.,
Secretary, Admiralty.

296 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Subsequently, the claims made against the Hawaiian
government for money compensation, contained in
Lord George Paulet's second paper of demands, were
gone into at the Foreign Office, and were equitably
disposed of. A claim by the envoys for indemnification
to the Hawaiian government for damnification by the
acts of Lord George was disallowed, on the ground of
the spontaneity of the cession made by the king. On
the 28th of November the English and French govern
ments united in a joint declaration of the independence
of the Hawaiian kingdom, in the following terms : —
Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty the King of the French,
taking into consideration the existence in the Sandwich Islands
of a government capable of providing for the regularity of its
relations with foreign nations, have thought it right to engage
reciprocally to consider the Sandwich Islands as an Indepen
dent State, and never to take possession, either directly or
under the title of Protectorate, or under any other form, of
any part of the territory of which they are composed.
The undersigned, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, and the Ambassador Extraordinary of His
Majesty the King of the French at the Court of London, being
furnished with the necessary powers, hereby declare, in conse
quence, that their Majesties take reciprocally that engagement.
In witness whereof the undersigned have signed the present
declaration, and have affixed thereto the seal of their arms.
Done in duplicate, at London, the 28th day of November, in
the year of our Lord 1843. (Signed) Aberdeen (L.S.)
St. Adlaire (L.S.)
Thus, the Hawaiian kingdom was admitted into the
brotherhood of civilised nations. The following spring
the envoys returned to the United States, and on the

INDEPENDENCE OF THE ISLANDS RECOGNISED 297
6th of July, 1844, they received from Mr. Calboun,
then Secretary of State, a ' full recognition, on the part
of the United States, of the independence of the
Hawaiian government.'
Their mission successfully fulfilled, the two commis
sioners sailed from Boston for Honolulu. Mr. Eichards
reached the islands alone, his coadjutor Haalilio having
died at sea on the 3rd of December.* In February
1844 Consul-General Miller arrived at his post. He
brought with him a convention drawn up in London,
requiring the admission of ardent spirits into the '
islands, the limitation of duties to five per cent, ad
valorem, and some regulations about juries in criminal
cases in which foreigners were concerned. As these con
ditions were a restriction on the king's prerogatives, he
gave a very unwilling assent to them. In March the
same year, Mr. Eicord was appointed Attorney-General
to the kingdom ; and the year following, Mr. Wyllie, a
friend of the late General Miller's, and who during a
visit to the Hawaiian Islands had become favourably
known to the king, chiefs, and the foreigners resident
at Honolulu, was invited by His Majesty to fill the
post of Minister of Foreign Eelations. The appoint
ment was one which would tend to upset the theory of
Mr. Alexander Bain; as here, undoubtedly, the right
man was put into the right place, contrary to that
writer's experience. For eighteen years Mr. Wyllie
has devoted his energies and the powers of an en
lightened understanding to the service of the king and
the nation he has adopted — for all government officers
are required to become naturalised Hawaiians. May
* In my own short personal intercourse with this chief, I was struck
by his intelligence and the gentleness of his manner.

298 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
he long Eve to aid the nation in its councils and to
promote its prosperity !
Mr. Dudoit had been appointed consul for France,
and Ms respectful conduct towards the king and his
government, and his tact in the management of his
office, won for him the friendship and esteem of all
classes. The Eoman Catholic clergy ceased to com
plain, ' and formally professed themselves gratified with
the entire toleration of religious beliefs that prevailed,
and the perfect impartiality of government. This was
high praise from the priests of Eome to a Protestant
government.'* In July 1844 Mr. James Jackson Jarves,
an American citizen, was appointed director of the
government Press, and editor of the ' Polynesian,' the
organ of government. The office was held by this
gentleman for about two years, and the power of
access it gave him to national archives and to public
men, greatly enabled him to collect materials for-
additions to his very able and diligent history of the
Hawaiian Islands first published in 1843, in a third
edition dated Honolulu 1847, and to which the present
volume is largely indebted.
We have once more to return to Europe, where one
of our dramatis personce is wandering. This is Mr.
Brinsmade, the American commercial agent or consul
already mentioned. The house of Ladd and Co., of
which he was a partner, had obtained concessions and
privileges in the islands of considerable value. When
they commenced business they put out the platform
that their firm was to be ' a pattern card of mercantile
morality ' and was to be conducted on ' purely religious
principles.' They had the support, accordingly, of the
missionary party, and had great advantages with a
* Jarves' History.

BRINSMADE S PRIVATE POLITICS 299
government which was in a highly missionarised state ;
but in spite of advantages, concessions, and immunities,
the house gradually became insolvent, and in the year
1845 it was indebted to the government $21,000, and
to other creditors #140,000. The state of its affairs
being critical in 1841, though its position was at that
time unknown, except probably by one member of
government, Mr. Brinsmade started for Europe, carrying
with him blank powers for the sale of land, and an ex
tensive contract for grants and leases under certain
conditions entered into by the king with the house of
Ladd and Co. Brinsmade's object was to sell their
private privileges and grants, under a proposal for
getting up a great joint-stock company in Europe, of
which humanity and brotherly kindness were still to be
polar stars, and the main object of which was to be
' the development of the resources of the islands.' The
¦development of the resources of India by our own
nation has shown that, in the process, it may happen
that the country being developed passes into the
possession of those most anxious for its good and its
prosperity 4 and the same danger threatened the Ha
waiian kingdom during the progress of ' The Belgian
Contract.' For these islands, from their weakness, their
loneliness of situation, and their desirableness, have
been for many years past in the condition of the flying-
fish, which springs out of the wave to avoid a shark,
and then back into the water to escape from an
albatross. An escapement has ever been an important
part of the Hawaiian movement. Happily for the in
dependence of the islands Mr. Brinsmade was bound at
the outset with a provision that ' unless the governments
of Great Britain, France, and the United States
acknowledge the sovereignty of the Sandwich Islands

300 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
government, and accord to it all the rights, powers, and
privileges and immunities of an independent State,' the
contract of which he was bearer was to be null and
void. Thus philanthropic feelings, which might have
sold up the independence of the islands to a foreign
nation in order to develop their resources, were kept
in check by political engagements, and one of the most
complete and minutely organised schemes ever put on
paper happily fell to the ground.
Haalilio and Mr. Eichards, whose primary mission
was to obtain a declaration of independence, were
concerned also in this great trading scheme. The
latter bore with bim the most plenary power of attorney
from the king, giving him permission to sign for his
Majesty, and affix the seal of State, with which he
was entrusted. He could also ' revoke, reclaim, nullify,
and render void any and every power and document
heretofore given under the king's hand,' &c. &c. In fact,
the man who began Life as a peripatetic trader in the
United States, who had continued it as a missionary
in the Pacific, and had passed through the stages of
legislator and minister, was now, in Europe, carrying
about with him the powers of a Pope, and had in his
trousers pocket the fate of a kingdom.
The scheme embodied in the Belgian contract was
unquestionably the work of a man of genius. Brins
made had energy and talent, and in the support he had
afforded the native government in 1837? by his forcible
writing on the subject of the Eoman Catholic priests,
he had deserved and won its gratitude. His scheme,
too, was very plausible; for though its effect would
have been to have bound the Hawaiian government
hand and foot, and to have conveyed away the fee
simple of the islands piecemeal to foreigners, the

A JOINT-STOCK COMPANY — UNLIMITED 301
words ' civilisation ' and ' independence ' were never
forgotten or omitted in documents, or in speaking.*
The contract was drawn up in Brussels, and bore
date the 17th of May, 1843. It contained three
chapters, subdivided into thirty-three articles ; and the
'Statutes of the Eoyal Community of the Sandwich
Islands ' were conceived in fifty-three articles ; the
whole being formalised in the strictest notarial manner.
The foundation of the matter was the concession to
the house of Ladd and Co. in 1841. It was really a
gigantic sale of Ladd and Co.'s property, involving all
concessions and privileges obtained by them, the price
for which, taken in the contract, was $1,067,000, or
£42,680. The manner of proceeding was, the transfer
by "Brinsmade of all property material and immaterial
which he had power to pass, together with rights and
concessions over which Mr. Eichards had power, to the
Belgian Company of Colonisation. The contract or
treaty was tripartite, the three parties to it being the
King of Hawaii, represented by Haalilio and Eichards ;
the house of Ladd and Co., acting by Brinsmade ; and
the Belgian Company of Colonisation, by its deputies,
the Count of Hompesch and M. Joseph Vander-
burghen de Binckum. The Colonisation Company was
only instrumental in this transaction. Its office was
to organise the ' Eoyal Community of the Sandwich
Islands ' and to transfer to that society, when formed,
the property, rights, and titles which it was to possess.
The community was, however, on its European side, to
remain under ' the patronage and high administration
* I have a vivid recollection, in Mr. Brinsmade's intercourse with
myself upon this and other subjects connected with the islands, how
fluently such phrases as ' the development of the resources of the
islands ' always glided from his lips.

302 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
of the Belgian Company of Colonisation ; ' whilst in the
scene of its activity, it would be under the patronage
and protection of the Hawaiian king. Four interests
were to be created in the undertaking, namely, the
King of Hawaii; the Belgian Colonisation Company;
the Labourers and Employes; and the Stockholders.
The king was to be a partner, Mr. Eichards to be
president. Its objects were, beyond relieving Ladd
and Co. of their real and doubtful possessions at an
enormous price, to create an emigration to the Sandwich
Islands from Europe, and, in the lubricated language
of the ninth article of the contract, 'to develop as
promptly as possible the civilisation and resources of
the Sandwich Islands, by creating agricultural, manu
facturing, and commercial establishments, and by in
stituting commercial relations between these islands
and Belgium.' To carry out such desirable objects, a
capital was to be raised, of which the first subscription
was to consist of 4,000 shares of 1,000 francs each, or
4,000,000 francs. The property acquired by the Belgian
Colonisation Company was to be divided into 500 titles,
100 of which were to be given to the King of Hawaii,
so that His Majesty would still possess a share of his
own country. By the 28th article, 'all persons, of
whatever profession in the service of the community,
and introduced into the islands under the auspices of
the community, with the approbation of the King of
the Sandwich Islands, shall receive in fee simple twenty
hectares of land.' By the 27th article, 100 titles were
set apart to support schools for the children of the
labourers, a health establishment, an orphanage, and
pensions for impotent and superannuated employes.
It would be tedious to enter into further details of the
complicated machinery of the design; the effect of

EPITOME OF THE BELGIAN CONTRACT 303
which, had it actually become operative, would have
been to have destroyed the independence of the islands
and to have gradually vested all property in them in
the proprietary of the Belgian Company.
Fortunately for the people of Hawaii, this new South
Sea scheme never went into operation. The first blow
which fell on its promoters was the news of Lord
George Paidet's occupation of the islands ; then came
the corroding tooth of delay, and after dragging on till
October 1844, a new suggestion was made by some
merchants in Ghent, to re-construct the plan ' as a
purely commercial company.' Nothing, however, came
of the last proposition ; and even Brinsmade's energetic
nature began to feel the depressing influences of the
failure of magnificent plans, which at one time seemed
so nearly arrived at fruition. Mr. Eichards now withdrew
from all connection with the futile monopoly, having
previously left Europe for America ; but before leaving,
he and Haalilio, as the king's commissioners, had given
their consent to the sale and contract, but the latter did
so with great reluctance. Brinsmade then turned his
thoughts, as he did his steps, towards London, where he
stayed some time, endeavouring to enlist the aid of
Sir George Simpson in getting up a joint-stock company ;
but plans and arguments had now assumed too dream
like a character, and Sir George wisely declined taking
any active part in the matter. Lastly, the very means
of living and moving in Europe dried up, and the
sanguine, intelligent schemer, vanishes from our conti
nent. So ended the immediate danger to the inde
pendence of the islands; but not to after troubles
arising out of the ruined hopes and house of Ladd and Co.,
in Honolulu. The firm was insolvent : the government
had afforded it assistance to the extent of its power, with

304 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the endeavour to uphold its credit and existence, as it
was still a tradition or a superstition, that in some way
Ladd and Co. were pillars of church and state, and that
on them, as on a foundation stone, rested the religion,
honour, civilisation of Hawaii, and, of course, the de
velopment of her national resources. Notwithstanding
that one partner, Brinsmade, had been dealing with
and signing away to the contractors all the property the
house possessed in the islands, the partners out there
mortgaged it largely to creditors. In November 1844,
at the time of Brinsmade's expiring efforts in England,
the Hawaiian government, consulting, however, the
ruined firm, levied on the property of Ladd and Co. : their
store was closed by the sheriff, and their stock, leases,
&c, were sold for the benefit of their judgement credi
tors. From these proceedings originated tedious law
suits, mixed with threats and bluster from one of the
partners of the house. The government had made
large advances, and now a claim was set up against it
for the sum of #378,000 for alleged illegal acts done by
it in the matter of the sale, and in preventing the com
pletion of the Belgian contract. Mr. Brinsmade having
returned to the islands in 1846, the king consented
that the claim set up against his government should
be referred to the arbitration of two American re
sidents, and in case of their disagreement, to the de
cision of Commodore Stockton, commanding the U. S.
naval force in the Pacific, and who was expected to
arrive shortly at Honolulu : failing him, the chief justice
of the state of New York to be final umpire. The
United States government had sent as their commissioner
to the islands, Mr. Anthony Ten Eyck, an experienced
lawyer, and he acted as counsel for Ladd and Co. in
the arbitration, Mr. Eicord appearing for the king.

PROTRACTED LITIGATION 305
Examination of witnesses, books, &c, consumed many
months, and government gave its opponents free access
to the archives of the kingdom for all documents and
information they required to support their case. Seven
hundred printed pages of record were adduced. An
attempt was made to compromise the matter, but was
unsuccessful. The government was willing to cause the
protracted strife to cease, and would have accepted
terms by which Ladd and Co.'s property and liabilities
should have been assumed by government, and thereby a
dividend be secured to all the creditors ; but so much
acrimonious feeling, personal and political, had been
imported into the proceedings as shut the door to
amicable arrangement, and occasionally led to great
loss of temper in the counsel on both sides, during
their contention before the Arbitrators' Court. The suit
continued till the end of the year 1846, and was pursued
with much bitterness against the government. And
amongst the other items of claim, a demand was set
up by Ladd and Co. against Mr. Jarves, editor of the
' Polynesian,' for #50,000 for injury done to the character
of Mr. Brinsmade, by some short remarks in the govern
ment newspaper, and which Mr. Brinsmade called
libellous. On the 29th of December, the French
consul, M. Dudoit, offered his mediation in an endea
vour to terminate this protracted suit amicably, and the
offer was accepted by both the wearied litigants : the
attempted arrangement, however, fell through, and the
unsettled questions are hybernating, probably to bud
and burgeon again at some future season.

306 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XX.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — THE TREATIES OF COMMERCE AND
FRIENDSHIP  AND' CONSEQUENT HOSTILITIES
SEVEEAL treaties have been negotiated between the
Hawaiian and foreign governments.
The first agreement in order of time, approaching
at all to a treaty obligation, was made on the 23rd
of December, 1826, by Captain Ap Catesby Jones, on
behalf of the United States of America, on the occasion
of his interference in settling some claims made by
American citizens upon the Hawaiian government. Cap
tain Jones endeavoured to provide some available
means for settling any future differences, and to prevent
their recurrence.
The next written document of the kind was a short
treaty effected by Captain Lord Edward Eussell, on the
16th of November, 1836, when engaged in arranging
some old disputes between his countrymen and the
native authorities. His intention was to avoid future
disputes, and to promote amity between the subjects of
the two nations.
In 1837, Captain Du Petit Thouars negotiated the
treaty of ' perpetual peace and amity ' already given in
an earlier part of this volume. It introduced the ' most

EARLY TREATIES 307
favoured nation clause,' but did not allude specifically
to brandy or bishops.
The two latter subjects were sufficiently considered
in the treaty which Captain Laplace procured in July
1839. Having established a position for the Eoman
Catholic clergy, the two following articles were framed.
Art. IV. No Frenchman accused of any crime whatever
shall be judged otherwise than by a jury composed of foreign
residents proposed by the Consul of France and accepted by
the government of the Sandwich Islands.
Art. VI. French merchandise, or merchandise known to
be of French origin, and especially wines and brandies, shall
not be prohibited, nor pay a higher duty than 5 per. cent, ad
valorem. The government in giving its constrained consent to
these oppressive clauses, fully saw the infringement of
its prerogative, but it saw at the same time its own
helplessness. Great Britain having in 1844 restored the islands,
which had been conditionally ceded to this country
through Lord George Paulet, appointed a Consul-
General to reside at the Hawaiian court, and offered a
treaty in which the two objectionable articles of La
place's treaty were copied and had a place. Efforts
were immediately made to obtain from the governments
of England and France, treaties that should be more
just, equal, and reciprocal. The two European govern
ments having by their joint declaration secured the
independence of the Hawaiian kingdom, concerted
together new identical treaties, and they were executed
in Honolulu on the 26th of March, 1846. They each
contained eight articles. The preamble of both states,
— mutatis mutandis — that ' It being desirable that a
general convention should be substituted for the various
x 2

308 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
instruments of mutual agreement at present existing
between Great Britain and the Sandwich Islands, the
following articles have for that purpose and to that
intent been mutually agreed upon and signed,' &c, &c.
The first article propounds perpetual peace and amity
between the reciprocating nations. The third article
provides for English subjects accused of any crime
whatever : (the French treaty here makes an important
variation, — 'd'un crime ou delit quelconque'). 'They
are to be judged by a jury composed of native or foreign
residents, proposed by the consul of their country, and
accepted by the government of the Sandwich Islands.'
This stipulation was an advance on the Laplace article
in reference to French subjects.
It was the sixth article which proved the cradle of
troubles that lasted as long as the siege of Troy, which
led to a French invasion, and which have not been
entirely disposed of to this day. It reads thus : —
Goods of France, or those which are recognised as coming
from French possessions, shall not be prohibited or subjected
to an import duty higher than five per. cent, ad valorem.
Wines, brandies, and spirituous liquors are excepted, and shall
be liable to any reasonable duty that the government of the
Sandwich Islands considers it fit to impose ; but on condition
that such duty shall never be so high as to become an absolute
prevention to the importation of the said articles.
The clause from the French treaty is here substituted
for the corresponding English article, because the small
imports from France have consisted almost entirely of
wines and spirits, whilst England is indifferent about
this kind of merchandize.
The identical treaties were ratified by Queen Victoria
on the 8th of October, 1846, and by King Louis Philippe
on the 18th of November, the same year.

ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DANISH TREATIES 309
In the autumn of 1846 the Danish frigate Galathea,
commanded by Captain Steen Bille, in circumnavigating
the globe, under large powers from his government, called
at the Sandwich Islands. Having during some weeks'
stay there informed himself of their condition, Captain
Steen Bille offered an honourable and beneficial treaty.
This was the first perfectly satisfactory compact entered
into by a foreign nation with the Hawaiian kingdom :
and whilst it contained all necessary stipulations for a
free and advantageous intercourse, it did not trammel the
island government with oppressive clauses or ambiguous
expressions which an ambidexter might afterwards turn
to any use he desired. The Hawaiian government have
always regarded this treaty with pleasure and gratitude,
as the initial and model of other equitable mutual
obligations. The Danish treaty was first followed by a treaty in
almost identical words with the free Hanseatic city of
Hamburg, dated the 8th of January, 1848.
In August 1851, a similar treaty was negotiated with
the free Hanseatic city of Bremen.
Previous in time to the last treaty, the long desired
convention with the United States was carried out. It
is styled 'a treaty of friendship, commerce, and naviga
tion ; ' and after a preamble profuse in expressions of
mutual admiration and love, it agrees upon seventeen
articles, stated in the most ample language, affording a
strong contrast to the treaties hitherto mentioned, It
is dated, Washington, the 20th of December, 1849 ; and
ratifications were exchanged in Honolulu, dated the,
24th of August, 1850,
On General Miller's appointment as British Consul-*
General, he brought with him to Hawaii the draft of a,
treaty very similar to that concluded by the United,

310 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
States. It provides for the mutual reception of na
tional ships of war in all harbours, rivers, and places ;
restricts import and export duties to the level of the
most favoured nation ; and provides that the diplomatic
agents and consuls of the Hawaiian Islands in the do
minions of Her Britannic Majesty shall enjoy whatever
privileges, exemptions, and immunities, are or shall be
granted there to agents of the same rank belonging to
the most favoured nation ; with similar enjoyments to
the diplomatic and consular agents of Great Britain in
the Hawaiian Islands. This treaty is signed on the
10th of July, 1851, and ratifications exchanged on the
6th of May, 1852.
On the 1st of July, 1852, another treaty on the same
model was signed in Honolulu, by Captain Virgin,
on behalf of ' the King of Sweden and Norway and of
the Goths and Vandals.' It was ratified on the 5th of
April, 1855. The only alteration of importance in this
compact was in the 15th article, in which it is agreed
that —
All vessels bearing the flag of Sweden or of Norway in time
of war shall receive every possible protection short of actual
hostility (sic) within the ports and waters of His Majesty the
King of the Hawaiian Islands; and His Majesty the King of
Sweden and Norway engages to respect in time of war the
neutral rights of the Hawaiian kingdom, and to use his good
offices with all other powers having treaties with His Majesty
the King of the Hawaiian Islands, to induce them to adopt the
same policy towards the Hawaiian kingdom.
It is easily seen how greatly to the advantage of the
smaller kingdom the foregoing clause was.
Between the signing of the Swedish treaty and the
new treaty with France, which bears date the 29th of
October, 1857, a train of circumstances occurred which

FRENCH GRIEVANCES 3U
it will now be our duty to unravel and give some
account of. They are painful and humiliating. A
great and powerful nation, set in motion by and acting-
through its distant agents, bringing its force to bear on
a small and defenceless people who in its hands are
but as the mouse which a cat dallies with before giving
it a coup de grace with its claw, is not a spectacle to
be proud of. To know that private feuds and j ealousies,
private follies and imaginary grievances among govern
mental and diplomatic officials, led the way to years of
real trouble and crises of actual danger to the country
in which they occurred, converts the reader's smile of
amusement into a frown of impatience and anger. Yet
all this was the case. France invaded the territory
and the capital of a friendly nation, to vindicate na
tional honour and to protect national interests, when
all the while the wrong was to the wounded feelings of
her consular agent; and the interests at stake were
some difference in rent upon a house the Consul hired
near the city. Here was the real Briseis in the Hawaiian
Iliad — hence the gloomy estrangement of the Franco-
Hibernian Achilles in Polynesia.
It began to be rumoured that the French treaty was
not working well ; that France was dissatisfied ; and that
that great nation felt itself oppressed beyond the powers
.of endurance by certain of clauses of the treaty. First
there was subj ect of language. Why was not French to be
used in the diplomacy of Hawaii ? To exclude its em
ployment was a pointed insult and wrong done to his
sovereignty of France. This ought to be altered,
French must be used equally and identically with
English ; and all French documents must be read, and
answers returned to them in the Freneh language, in,
precisely the same time required for reading and writing

312 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
in English. The ' Pourquoi non ' argument is one diffi
cult to answer ; but a similar right might as well have
been claimed on behalf of the Sanskrit, or for the
unknown tongue.
The second grievance was, of course, relative to
brandy. In the interests of sufficient drinking it was
asked, why the government should set their face against
regulated intemperance. Unless a moderate intoxica
tion was* allowed, how were French interests to be
protected? The whole thing was certainly a sham.
Abstinence pledges and Dash-away associations were
abominations about whose origin we will not enquire, but
were certainly directed entirely against the Vignerolles
of sunny France.
There were a few subsidiary grounds of quarrel se
lected, which, Like the pleas in a brief after the two first,
we hastily read, but do not dwell upon or plead. Such
were the management of Eoman Catholic schools ; im
pertinent difficulties thrown in the way of the virtuous
intercourse between French seamen and Hawaiian
females, and a few others ; but the battle-field chosen
was language and brandy.
A community too small to admit of defined political
parties, in which personal antipathies can range them
selves on opposite sides, is capable of no more than
individual hatred, or, at most, of some irascible cliques.
Political virulence is an advantage denied to a very
confined society. The state of parties in Honolulu
must be judged of as being under these circumstances.
The beginning and course of the quarrel, plainly told,
are as follow : — An uncomfortable state of feeling had
sprung up within the ministry. Dr. Judd considered that
by his patronage Mr. Wyllie was helped into office, and
sow growing jealous of his protege; he would willingly

THE DILLON LETTER 313
have assisted him to vacate his post. Mr. Dillon, an
Irishman by parentage, but born in France, had re
placed M. Dudoit as French consul. Mr. Wyllie having
been a friend of Dudoit's, was, by a sort of necessary
antithesis, disliked by his successor in the consulate. To
the immediate antipathy which Mr. Dillon felt towards
the foreign minister, he added a national jealousy of En
glish influence. With these mixed feelings he composed
a remarkable letter addressed to Dr. Judd, dated the
11th of August, 1848, and which was afterwards pro
duced to the privy council and printed. In this letter
are found many sarcastic and disparaging remarks on
Mr. Wyllie, who, as Dillon suggested, was endeavouring
to undermine Dr. Judd, and uproot American influence
around the King • and what was perhaps still worse for
all parties, Mr. Wyllie was misrepresenting everything
said and written by Dillon, ' as in the case of the ratifi
cation of the French treaty ; ' he was conspiring against
Dillon personally; and had 'joined with Dudoit in
organising dark and foolish intrigues both in London
and Paris to the advantage of the latter.' Upon these
and other grounds, among which the rent and furniture
of a house are obscurely mixed, Mr. Dillon makes the
proposal to Dr. Judd to murder (politically) Mr. Wyllie.
And the text which is to justify this proposition is a
French proverb which says, ' When the devil attempts
to kill you, be beforehand with him, and kill the devil,
— if you can.' Mr. Dillon is a diplomatist and a philo
sopher. He 'knows what state necessities are, and
what a diversity of tricks and courses men in office, even
the purest, may stumble into. He is, therefore, full of
indulgence.' But he wishes to disabuse Dr. Judd of
one erroneous impression, viz., 'that the Sandwich
Islands are a kind of little plum-pudding which France

314 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
is anxious to stick her fork into, and that he (Dillon),
is the destined instrument of this carving.'
Now, letters of this kind are dangerous. They were
particularly so in the case we are narrating ; for in the
first place, the communication fell into the hands of
Mr. Wyllie himself, and it did not tend to improve the
-writer's place in his estimation ; and, secondly, it failed
to convert Dr. Judd into the conspirator which was
intended, but had another effect, that of making him
most hungry to know what machinations were being
plotted against himself; so that the letter, missing its
mark, was like a narcotic, which, if it fail to produce
sleep, makes the patient doubly restless.
Dr. Judd, eager to make discoveries in the cabal,
directed, as he puts it, against the government (for as he
considered himself inseparable from government, any
wrong to himself was an injury to the powers that be),
— committed the serious indiscretion of bribing one
Peacock, a printer, to abstract some MSS. from the
office of the newspaper in opposition to the native
government. The act was more detestable than a crime,
it was a blunder. It immediately placed all the foreign
representatives in arms ; they entered their protest to the
King against the unscrupulous minister of finance, and
proceeded to a step opposed to all international pro
priety, that of advising the King to dismiss his ministers.
To Mr. Dillon the time seemed now arrived for finding
and working a French grievance ; and the two clauses
in the late treaty, those which concerned language and
spirits appeared the proper materials for a quarrel, and,
if necessary, a casus belli.
The quarrel prospered to a wish. Ill-will grew up
vigorously. Mr. Wyllie and Mr. Dillon darted their
goose-quill javelins at one another, till each adversary
was brought to the last degree of irritation ; and at last

A FRENCH INVASION 315
the epoch arrived for invoking French interference.
Accordingly in August 1849, Admiral de Tromelin
arrived off Honolulu, in the French steam corvette
' Gassendi.' Another blunder was committed. The
admiral requested an audience of the King, which was
unwisely refused, and the former landed his forces, took,
and occupied the fort, locked, and placed guards before
the public offices, doing a great deal of damage during
these proceedings, and carried off the royal yacht. One
act of triumph he could not, however, accomplish.
The Hawaiian national colours waved high above the
fort ; and as no native could be induced to lower them,
the standard of the vanquished, ' like a tall bully, reared
its head and lied,' above the occupying conquerors.
The few words which have been hitherto spoken
about the French Eoman Catholic missionaries, were
generally those of approbation. Some political crooked
nesses were swallowed up in their earnest and self-deny
ing labours among the ignorant and poor people. The
same tone cannot be continued in relation to the
part the mission took in this humiliating struggle.
They greatly abetted Mr. Dillon in the concoction of
his charges against the government of unfair dealing to
wards France ; and the j ealousy which they had cherished
in secret about school-management now gave evidence
of its intensity and of its unreasonableness.
Towards a solution of the pending difficulties, a con
ference on board the ' Gassendi ' was proposed. The
King appointed for his commissioners the offending
Dr. Judd, and Chief Justice Lee, Mr. Hopkins attending
as secretary. On the Admiral's part were the French
Consul, Mr. Dillon, M. Jam, commander of the frigate
' Poursuivant,' and the Admiral's secretary, M. Erguieo.
A report of what took place on that memorable occasion
has been printed at length. On the French side the

316 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
tone of de haut en bos prevailed generally ; and diplo
matic amenities were not always regarded. Thus
Admiral Tromelin says on one occasion, ' I should be
considered an officer that had no firmness, if I return
-without having settled the matter. I must have either
a pleasant arrangement, or else put this country at war
with France.' Upon which Mr. Dillon courteously
remarks, 'You must remember that we, and French
officers in general, are not picked up in a field and sent
off at once as ambassadors ; we have a known character,
and higher powers.' The Admiral continues, ' If you
refuse to alter the treaty in regard to brandy, we cannot
go into any discussion on the point.' *
The proposal which the commissioners had to make was
that the treaty disputes should be referred to France,
to be settled with a commissioner sent from Hawaii;
an umpire to be chosen if the referees could not come
to an understanding. This proposal was refused for
some time, but at the end of the conference something
of the kind was agreed upon ; and in conclusion the
King's commissioners placed in the Admiral's hands a
document to the following effect : —
The King is perfectly willing to fully fulfil and execute the
treaty of the 26th of March, 1846, according to the interpre
tation which the two nations who jointly proposed it may
jointly agree to give it, in all its parts ; but without prejudice
to the new treaty that His Majesty's special plenipotentiary
may negotiate with France, the United States, and Great
Britain, placing the three nations upon a footing of exact
equality, in all respects. (Signed) G. P. Judd.
Wm. L. Lee.
Chaeles G. Hopkins, Secretary.-)"
* Appendix to Report of the Minister of Foreign Relations, p. 85.
t Appendix, p. 100.

THE STORM PASSES OVER 317
The French invasion was thus terminated. It is a
matter almost of certainty that the unhappy situation
just described would never have been brought about had
Mr. Perrin, who concluded the treaty of the 26th
March, 1846, been sent out instead of Mr. Dillon in
1847. Mr. Perrin on leaving Hawaii proceeded to
Tahiti, and thence to Paris; and he had with him
sufficient documents for elucidating his own treaty, and
for explaining and amending those points in it which
proved such unjust restrictions on the free action and
rights of the Hawaiian government. Unfortunately
Mr. Dillon was accredited as consul of France, and his
particular temperament and egotism led the way to all
the mischief. It is proper to add that the difficulties
were much increased, and ill-will greatly fomented by
the violent part taken by the total-abstinence party in
the islands.
The reference of the disputed treaty to Paris, had
for its fruit a project for a new convention: and Mr.
Perrin was empowered in September 1852 by the
Prince President of the French Eepublic to proceed to
Honolulu as plenipotentiary, consul, and commissioner,
to negotiate a new treaty with Hawaii. Nothing can
be more conciliatory than the preamble of the Power, in
which the motive of the new compact was stated to be
the desire 'to draw closer and closer the relations of
friendship between France and the Hawaiian govern-
'ment, and to regulate the commercial intercourse
established between the two countries.' The new treaty
with Great Britain had already been concluded, — 10th
of July, 1851 ; and also that with the United States in
1850. The way was thus paved for a more enlarged
and considerate dealing with the distant and defence
less people who were anxious to be on good terms
with their great and sometimes crotchety neighbours.

318 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
It was not till July 1855 that preliminaries were
arranged for negotiating this new treaty. The King
empowered Mr. Wyllie, Minister of Foreign Eelations,
in connection with Mr. Allen, Minister of Finance, to
act in his behalf in this important and protracted affair.
The treaty itself bears date the 29th of October, 1857,
and is signed by Mr. Wyllie, Mr. Perrin, and by
Prince Kamehameha, in the place of Mr. Allen. It
contains twenty-seven articles, and was the result of
twenty-two lengthened conferences. The Hawaiian
commissioners fought hard against those articles which
infringed on the King's dignity, or encroached on
national freedom ; and the final inducement with them
to sign a document which they did not hke in many of
its stipulations, was the agreement for an additional
secret article, ad referendum-, which would keep the
door open for emendations and ameliorations.
The treaty on completion was referred to the Privy
Council, who reported on it to the King unfavourably.
They objected, first and generally, because 'several of
its provisions were of a character derogatory to the
King's dignity and rightful authority as the consti
tutional sovereign of an independent state, and as in
terfering with the undoubted right of free legislation
which belongs alike to every independent nation,
whether great or small.' The council then proceeded
through its provisions in detail, stumbhng in limine
over that awkward stone, the official use of the French
language. Next came the 10th article, limiting the
amount of duties on wines and spirits. They could not
fail to see the uselessness of restrictions which would
not affect France, because France was scarcely bringing
any goods to Hawaii, whilst they affected very greatly
the freedom of government in dealing with questions

OBJECTIONS TO THE NEW FRENCH TREATY 319
of excise, revenue, and internal police. In the fifteen
years from 1845 to 1859 inclusive, the total imports
from all parts of the world have been #14,800,000 in
value; of which the goods from French ports direct
were less in amount than $72,000, i.e., less than one
half per cent, of the whole ! And in the three years
1857, 1858, 1859, the importations from direct French
ports were nothing !
The council remarked on the want of reciprocity in
the article relating to rights and privileges of resi
dence, commerce, and navigation; on the subject of
administration of intestate estates ; on the loss of
jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters concerning
the captains and crews of French vessels in Hawaiian
ports and waters. They objected to it on the ground
that the treaty rendered necessary the repeal or modifi
cation of many existing laws; also on the ground of
the expense and loss of revenue involved in some of its
provisions; the article of French translation being
estimated to necessitate a cost of $5,000 or $6,000 per
annum; on the subject of exemption of consuls and
the whole consular staff from appearing as witnesses
in courts of justice. They objected to the treaty, be
cause its provisions were so numerous and complicated,
and its language in several places so dubious as not to
be easily understood, &c. &c. And finally the council
objected that the treaty did not accord with the letter
and spirit of the powers granted by the King to his
plenipotentiaries. They therefore respectfully, in the
discharge of their duties, advised His Majesty not to
ratify the treaty.
This document was signed by three native and two
naturalised foreign Privy Councillors, the first signa
ture being that of Governor Kekuanaoa, the King's
father.

320 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
A serious difficulty had arisen. The labours of more
than two years were rendered nugatory, and the treaty
was -wrecked on the bar of its port. Throughout the con
ferences, it is plain, the King's commissioners had been
making a fighting retreat ; they had used and exhausted
every argument, and but seldom gained a substantial ad
vantage. How exhaustive Mr. Wyllie's reasoning was,
and how ample his illustration, is seen in his fence about
the French language. A memorandum prepared by
him 'for so much of the discussion in 1855, with Mr.
Perrin, as relates to parity of the French with the
English language,' commences thus : - —
'The original language spoken by Adam and the
prediluvian race of man, if not the post-diluvian Hebrew,
has disappeared. So have the languages of the ancient
Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldees, Persians, and even of
the Eomans and the Greeks.'
If ancient precedents would have touched the French
diplomatist's heart, or moved him from his steady
purpose, here he surely should have given way : — but
it is evident that, the production of the grammar of the
Proselenes would have been disregarded by that im
passive negotiator.
More preHminaries to final Protocols, more letters,
more opportunities for expressing the high consideration
&c, a little, almost imperceptible, pressure of the screw,
the political threat expressed in the most oblique
manner, a little more retreating done, a la mode of the
Parthian horsemen, who ' wound us as they fly,' some
reference, if we mistake not, to King David's messengers,
whom Hanum the son of Nahash treated so ignonriniously
in respect to their beards and their clothing; — finally, the
sop of a secret article, and the thing was accomplished.
The treaty was ratified on the 7th September, 1858 : but

RATIFICATION OF THE FRENCH TREATY 321
still ad referendum, as to the additional article. What
has taken place since, what is taking place still, is not
yet ripe for history. Suffice it to say, that the addi
tional secret article was not ratified in Paris, and that
the import duties stand at the present day and for ten
years after the date of this treaty, as follows: — For
low class French wines known by the name of ' vins de
cargaison,' a maximum duty of 5 per. cent, ad valorem
on invoice cost; for wines of less than 18 per. cent.
alcoholic strength, the maximum duty of 15 per. cent, ad
valorem. Duty on brandy not to exceed three dollars
per gallon.

322 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XXI.
HISTORICAL SKETCH — REIGN OF KAMEHAMEHA IV.
11HE decline of missionary influence in the Hawaiian
government constitutes the opening of a new era in
its history. Still leaning on foreign support, both in the
legislative and administrative capacities, the nation
has escaped the leading strings in which it was long
held by American teachers of religion, who became
amateur law-makers and constitution-manufacturers.
Acting from the same instincts which led Eussia to draw
to its court the talent of more advanced nations and to
use it in all departments, the Hawaiian Cabinet is com
posed of British, American, and native elements ; and
naturalised subjects from England and the United
States take their part in the Houses of Nobles and Ee-
presentatives. From exclusive missionary influence
the Hawaiian nation has escaped : the influence now
exercised upon it has probably a useful and corrective
function. In the year 1850, during the reign of Kamehameha
III., Prince Alexander Lihiliho, whom the king had
adopted and appointed for his successor, accompanied
by his brother, Prince Kamehameha, with Dr. Judd for
Mentor, visited Europe. During their short visit they
were introduced to the late deeply-lamented Prince
Consort ; in the drawing-room of the Duchess of Suther-

1IJA,
HEKi ©IF IMlMMAt

PRINCES VISIT TO EUROPE 323
land they had glimpses of the highest English society ;
and in Paris they received flattering attentions. As
those gems which have basked in the effulgence of a
tropical sun are said, afterwards, in colder climates and
in darkness, to emit rays of that imprisoned light, the
impressions received in Europe appear to have been
sealed indelibly on the Princes' nature, and to have
tinged the whole tenour of thought and aim of this
pair of royal brothers in their after life. In returning
to their country through the United States, an insult
ing slight, received in public, produced an opposite but
as ineffaceable effect upon their minds.
In May 1847 the King announced to his legislature
that through Captain Steen Bille he had made a treaty
with the King of Denmark, This was important as
being the first regular treaty of friendship and commerce
negotiated between the Hawaiian kingdom and other
governments, and it was followed by other treaties
which have been enumerated in the preceding chapter.
The King in the same speech informed the houses that
such relations as subsisted with other nations were of
the most friendly kind. ,
In 1848 died Mr. Eichards, who has been frequently
mentioned. At the time of his death he occupied the
position of Minister of Public Instruction. The same
year a treaty was concluded with the city of Hamburg.
It being seen that the tenure of land as it existed was
very embarrassing, a division of lands was amicably
effected between the King and his konohikis, and the
tenure was much simplified. The King set apart a
certain number of lands (estates or domains) to be the
property of the chiefs and people, reserving to himself
a portion of lands as his own private property, to
descend to his heirs in perpetuity. Y 2

324 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
In August 1849, difficulties arose with the French
republic, originating in acts done by French officers at
the islands. These troubles have been sufficiently
treated of in the previous chapter, and need not again
be entered upon. In order to set himself right with
the French government, and to arrange the impending
question, the King despatched, his Minister of Finance,
Mr. Judd, as Plenipotentiary to Paris. He had, previ
ously to the French quarrel, appointed Mr. Jarves as
special commissioner to the United States, Great Britain,
and France, for the purpose of explaining to those
governments the impartiality of his foreign policy, and
the desirableness of their concurrence in adopting
treaties precisely similar, with the Hawaiian kingdom,
and of their giving a mutual engagement to respect its
neutrality, and to lay down for their agents in the king
dom rules which might prevent jealousies among them
selves, insure their respect to the laws, and forbid their
secret or open interference with the internal affairs of
the country. Mr. Jarves being detained too long in
America by .some private affairs, and the French
aggression haying commenced, he was superseded in
his mission by Mr. Judd.
The King, in referring to the distribution of lands
which was carried out in June 1848, remarks that in
surrendering the greater portion of the royal domain to
his chiefs and people, the reservation he had made to
support the fort and garrison of the capital and for his
private use, was in Leu of his right inherited from his
predecessors of a share in all the lands of the whole
islands. Under the former tenure, all lands, to whom
soever donated, were revocable at will ; no man's posses
sion, even that of the highest chief, was secure, and the
effect of such a tenure was that no man thought of

LAST SPEECHES OF KAMEHAMEHA III. 325
improving land, the possession of which was so un
certain. This great bar to improvement was now
removed, and to afford still further protection to the
poorer people, the King, with his chiefs and privy council
concurring, had come to certain resolutions which would
give to industrious cultivators of the soil an allodial
title to the portions they occupied, and would facilitate
the acquisition of land in fee simple, by others inclined
to be industrious.
In the same speech, April 10th, 1850, the King, with
the object of rendering the people industrious and
provident, recommends the institution of a Savings
Bank. He also proposes for the consideration of legis
lature, the project for a new criminal code, which had
been prepared.
About the end of the year 1852, there were grounds
for believing that a filibustering expedition was being
prepared in California, for the invasion of the islands.
The King issued a proclamation on the subject, and
claimed the aid of the United States commissioners, and
the danger passed by. In allusion to such attempts, the
King said : ' It is my anxious desire so to govern my
subjects, as that no one can expect to benefit himself
by any political change. With that view, I voluntarily
and freely granted the constitution of 1840; and I am
ready to grant another now, for the good of my people.'
In the last speech the King made, on the assembling
of the nobles and representatives, April 8th, 1854, His
Majesty began by expressing thanks to the Almighty
for ' the cessation of the frightful pestilence which had
during part of the past year and of the present, carried
to the grave so many thousands of the people, not
withstanding all the efforts made by the government
and commissioners of health, aided by the zealous and

326 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
gratuitous labours of the resident physicians, surgeons,
and other philanthropic individuals.'
The last public document issued under the King's
hand, was a proclamation dated the 8th December,
1854, -against an annexation attempt and design to over
throw the government. If such a new peril was really
imminent, it was by timely action crushed in the bud.
A few days after making this proclamation, the King-
died, at the age of forty-two, having reigned thirty years.
Though not a remarkable man, Kamehameha was a
man of the people. He was a true Hawaiian in his good
qualities, and even in his faults. He was true to Hawaii
in every act of his maturer life, after he had escaped
those evil influences which surround princes in every
nation, and which in his case seemed designed with
the diabolical intention of making shipwreck of his
body and mind. But love of his country was the
guiding star which enabled him to rise above the
waves ; and he carried out faithfully every intention
of his own, every suggestion of others, when the ad
vantage of Hawaii was concerned. Though assuming
his father's name, Kamehameha, he was, and is better
known in his own country by the first in the Est of his
formidable appellations. His names in full were Kaui-
keouli Kaleiopapa Kuakamanolani, Mahinalani Kalani-
nuiwaiakua, Keaweawealaokalani, — a good specimen
of the composite character of the native language.
The King's only two children died in his lifetime ; and
being childless, he adopted as his son and heir, Alexander
Liholiho, son of Kinau, daughter of Kamehameha I., by
Governor Kekuanaoa, and therefore grandson to the
conqueror.
1 In private life, says the obituary, the King was mild, kind,
affable, generous, and forgiving — never more happy than when

ACCESSION OF KAMEHAMEHA IV. 327
free from the cares and trapppings of State. It is hardly pos
sible to conceive a king more generally beloved than was his
late Majesty; more universally obeyed, or more completely
sovereign in the essential respect of independent sovereignty,
that of governing his subjects free from any influence or con
trol coming from beyond the limits of his own jurisdiction.
Although this passage has a strong smack of the ' Court
Newsman ' about it, it may be said with certainty, that
the King was greatly beloved by his people, and that
amidst many difficulties and discouragements, his reign
was a good one, and under it the nation made a great
advance. Prince Liholiho was proclaimed king under the name of
Kamehameha IV., on the 15th of December, 1854. He
was then just twenty-one years of age, and came to the
throne with more preparation, and under better auspices,
than his royal predecessor. 'Chiefs,' said the young
King, in his short and manly address to the privy
council, 'I have become, by the will of God, your
father, as I have been your child. You must help me,
for I stand in need of help.'
On the 11th of January, 1855, the King took the oath
prescribed by the Constitution, in the following form :
I solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, to
maintain the constitution of the kingdom whole and inviolate,
and to govern in conformity with that and the laws.
He then addressed his subjects in the native tongue.
The address was solemn and eloquent, and from its
being pronounced in the Hawaiian language, is far
more valuable than an English speech prepared by
his ministers in English would have been. It is too
long for quotation entire, but a few passages may be

328 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS'
quoted from the translation given in the Polynesian of
the 13th of January : —
Give ear, Hawaii o Keawe ! Maui o Kama ! Oahu o Kui-
hewa ! Kauai o Mano ! *
The good, the generous, the kind-hearted Kamehameha is
now no more. Our great chief has fallen ! but though dead
he still lives. He lives in the hearts of his people ! He lives
in the liberal, the just, and the beneficent measures which it was
always his pleasure to adopt. His monuments rise to greet us
on every side. They may be seen in the church, in the
school-house, and the hall of justice ; in the security of our
persons and property ; in the peace, the law, the order, and
general prosperity that prevail throughout the islands. He was
the friend of the Makaainana,f the father of his people ; and
so long as a Hawaiian lives, his memory will be cherished !
By the death of Kamehiamelia III., the chain that carried us
back to the ancient days of Kamdhameha I. has been broken.
He was the last child of that great chieftain : but how unlike
the father from whom he sprang! Kamehameha I. was born for
the age in which he lived, the age of war and of conquest. The
age of Kamehameha III. was that of progress and of liberty
— of schools and civilisation. He gave us a constitution and
fixed laws ; he secured the people in the title to their lands,
and removed the last chain of oppression. He gave them a
voice in his councils, and in the making of the laws by which
they are governed. He was a great national benefactor, and
has left the impress of his mild and amiable disposition on the
age for which he was born.
To-day we begin a new era. Let it be one of increased
civilisation — one of decided progress, industry, temperance,
morality, and all those virtues which mark a nation's progress.
The importance of unity is what I most wish to impress upon
your minds. Let us be one, and we shall not fall !
* It is impossible to render into English this ancient form of invo
cation to the four principal islands of the group.
t The common people.

A VIGOROUS BEGINNING 329
In these and the remaining parts of the speech, the
translator will no doubt have considerably anglicised
the language, and possibly the editor may have im
proved upon the translator : but that the young King
had acquired the habit of thinking in English is apparent,
by the impromptu remarks which he addressed in that
language to the foreign listeners then present, when it
was suggested to him to do so.
Among other things the King said :
I cannot fail to heed the example of my ancestors. I there
fore say to the foreigner that he is welcome. He is welcome
to our shores — welcome so long as he comes with the laudable
motive of promoting his own interests and at the same time re
specting those of his neighbour. But if he comes here with no
more exalted motive than that of building up his own interests
at the expense of the native — to seek our confidence only to
betray it — with no higher ambition than that of overthrowing
our government, and introducing anarchy, confusion, and
bloodshed — then is he most unwelcome !
On the 7th of April the King opened the session of
legislature with a speech, longer than that which is
heard from the throne of England, but considerably
shorter than the message of the President of the United
States. The several topics touched on, show the
advance which was taking place. The office of Kuhina
Nui, or Premier, was separated from that of the
Ministry of the Interior. To the former post the King
appointed his sister, the Princess Victoria Kamamalu.
His brother, the Prince Kamehameha, occupied the
position held by the King before his accession, of
Commander in Chief. Mr. Lee, the chief justice and
chancellor, had been sent oa a mission to the United
States, where he attended to some practical matters
tending to the improvement of Honolulu, &c. Certain

330 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
proposed changes in the department of Public Instruc
tion were to be submitted to legislature ; the national
finances required to be enlarged ; the duties on spirituous
liquors to be reconsidered. Attention was to be turned
to the state of agriculture, and means taken to procure
some approach to equilibrium between imports and
exports, the latter of which, consisting principally of
sugar, coffee and tobacco, was very much in defect.
The decreasing numbers of the population was feelingly
and seriously alluded to. 'It is a subject,' said the
King, ' in comparison with which all others sink into
insignificance; — our acts are in vain unless we stay
the wasting hand that is destroying our population.. I
feel a heavy and special responsibility resting on me
in this matter.' The King then recommends to the
consideration of the legislature the establishment of
public hospitals, and this is the first germ of the noblest
institution possessed by the Hawaiian people, the
present Queen's Hospital. Disappointment is ex
pressed at the result of Chinese coolie emigrants, and it
is suggested that an immigration from other Polynesian
groups should be "encouraged in preference, as more
congenial in ideas and language, and more easily
acclimated. The session disagreeing on the Bill of Supplies, the
King exercised his prerogative of dissolving the houses,
on the 16th of June, and convening legislature afresh
six weeks afterwards.
The King had addressed letters announcing the
death of his royal predecessor to Her Britannic Majesty;
the Emperor of the French, the Emperor of Eussia;
the Kings of Denmarkj> Prussia, and Sweden and
Norway; and to the Presidents of the United States,
Hamburg, Bremen, Chile, and Peru. Thus did the

THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION 331
little kingdom dwelling far away from the nations of
Europe, keep itself in correspondence, and claim its
brotherhood, with them.
To maintain his foreign relations, the King was
represented abroad by diplomatic or consular agents
in Paris, in London, in the chief ports of Great Britain,
in Copenhagen, Hamburg, Bremen, New York and
other places in the United States, at Lima, Valparaiso,
San Francisco, at Canton, Hongkong, in the Friendly,
Fiji, and Navigators Islands, at Sydney, Melbourne,
and other places ; and he had a political commissioner
to the independent states -and tribes of Polynesia and
Tasmania. The administration, originally containing five de
partments, has been redistributed into three portfolios.
That of the Interior is held by Prince Kamehameha,
and it includes the Bureau of Public Improvements;
Foreign Eelations by Mr. Wyllie, who is also charged
with the duties of Secretary at War ; Finance by Mr.
Gregg, formerly United States commissioner in the
islands. Public instruction is no longer a ministry,
and its President reports to the department of Interior.
The Princess Victoria is Premier of the kingdom:
Mr. E. A. Allen Chief Justice. The appointment of
Mr. Charles G. Hopkins as director of the government
press, and editor of the Polynesian, added to the
liberal character of the executive. The Polynesian
has been avowedly the organ and mouthpiece of the
government, announcing and advocating its views, and
the director was one of the paid officers of the State.
In its columns the government made official announce
ments, or gave semi-official intimations. At the close
of the year 1861, the office of director of the press was
abolished ; the government has made new arrangements

332 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
for the printing of its public documents; and the
Polynesian, though retaining its previous political
characteristics, has become the private undertaking of
its present very able editor and proprietor, Mr. For-
nander. About ten years ago the Hawaiian Agricultural
Society was founded ; an institution which has already
been of very great service in the islands. It ranks among
its members Dr. Hillebrand, Mr. Green, and other men
of enlightened mind and extensive scientific knowledge.
It promotes among the people the knowledge of
natural laws, and gives advice on the several subjects
which the large name of agriculture embraces ; it im
ports seeds, plants, and animals, and maintains a small
experimental garden and arboretum for acclimatisation,
&c. At the opening of the Native Hawaiian Agricul
tural Society, a sister institution, on the 5th of January,
1856, the King, as President, made a remarkable and
very interesting speech, in the native language. This
address was taken down in short-hand and translated
into English. In doing this, the reporter naively says,
The difficulty of taking short-hand notes in English of what
is being said in the native dialect, the construction of which is
peculiar, a sentence often beginning at the end, and ending in
the middle, must be our apology for doing so little justice to
the eloquent language and sound common sense ideas expressed
by the President.
On that occasion His Majesty said :
One of the greatest prospective advantages we see in the
assiduous pursuit of agriculture is the reformation it would
work among the people. It is not in the ranks of modern
farmers that you must look for the most ignorant and immoral
men. We all know that when an individual enters upon an

THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 333
undertaking, of the mode to accomplish which he is ignorant,
he applies for information where it may be found, having
learnt that a man unqualified for his task must fail in it.
Having acquired thus much experience, and being solicitous for
the prosperity and happiness of his children, he will on no ac
count omit sending them to school, so that they may not be
trammelled in after years by ignorance, as their father was.
Thus the rising generation. The children find themselves, on
starting in fife, possessed of the information necessary to suc
cess ; whereas their father had to struggle on his way in the
midst of darkness and misapprehension. Suppose a step,
similar to the one I have described, were made by the young
people from one end of the islands to the other. Would not
ignorance give way to intelligence ? Would not darkness
become light ? Would not inexpertness succumb to profi
ciency ? The general result could only be a largely increased
sum of individual and national prosperity.
The King spoke of the particular advantages of cli
mate with which the Hawaiian Islands are favoured : —
Who ever heard of winter upon our shores ? When was it
so cold that the labourer could not go to his field ? Where
among us shall we find the numberless drawbacks which in less
favoured countries the working classes have to contend with ?
They have no place in our beautiful group, which rests on the
swelling bosom of the Pacific hke a water-lily. With a
tranquil heaven above our heads, and a sun that keeps his
jealous eye upon us every day, whilst his rays are so tempered
that they never wither prematurely what they have warmed
into life, we ought to be agriculturists in heart as well as
practice. The royal speaker then proceeds to point out the ills
arising from a foolish hospitality, which is extended
everywhere, towards the lazy and good-for-nothing
equally with those who are worthy of hospitality. Thus a
class of strong, idle young men, went 'loafing' about the

334 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
country — nati consumere fruges — not ashamed to ap
propriate in any house the scanty meal which had been
provided by hard labour, but which was never denied
to any who claimed hospitality.
I am well aware, says the King, that the sharing of food with
every stranger and visitor that comes along, is dignified with
the name of ancient Hawaiian hospitality. I now tell you it is
not true hospitality. Can that hospitality be correct in theory
or practice which sends old men and sick men to work under a
hot sun, whilst lusty young people fie in the house playing cards ?
At present we are a poor people, for the surplus produced by
the few who work is consumed by the many who claim at their
hands the rights of your boasted hospitality. Never close your
doors on those who are hungry through sickness, misfortune,
or the wrongs they have received ; but, on the other hand,
never help those who are too lazy to help themselves.
Thus the young King, as the father of his people,
gave humane advice to his subjects, preaching from the
text of the cultivation of the soil ; and his suggestions
were none the less benevolent on account of the strong
common sense whch prompted them and clothed them
in words. He tries to check another common fault,
that of impatience for results. He deprecates the dream
in which too many of the people indulged, that of
supposing that a fortune was to be acquired in a very
short time. He tells them that want of perseverance is
the cause of their non-success, when much is in their
favour — when their patches of land are granted to them
by law, and their hands not tied either by natural or
artificial bonds.
This address we are told was listened to by the royal
speaker's audience with great earnestness, and from
time to time subdued expressions of ' Oiaio no ' — ' True,
true,' — broke from different parts of the house.

THE KING'S MARRIAGE 335
Besides the two allied agricultural societies, other
institutions sprang up ; a Chamber of Commerce, a
Chapter and Lodge of Freemasons, the King himself
being Grand Master of the Progres de l'Oceanie. This
fanciful and mystical name itself speaks that love of
progress which has shown itself so strongly in the
dynasty of Kamehameha; and young as his present
Majesty was when he came to the throne, he immedi
ately began to develop the family tradition, and an
nounced himself the man of advance.
On the 19th of June, 1856, the King married Emma,
daughter of Naea, a chief lineally descended from the
ancient kings of Hawaii. Her Maj esty's mother;, Kekela,
is the daughter of the famous Englishman, John
Young, the right hand of Kamehameha I., and whom
the conqueror delighted to honour. Queen Emma has
consequently one-fourth part English blood in her veins,
the remaining stream being high and pure Hawaiian.
Young, who in native is called Keoni Ana, married the
high female chief Kaoanaeha. As a child Her Majesty
was adopted by Dr. Eooke, a physician residing in the
islands ; and both by her education and natural disposi
tion, is eminently adapted to sustain the place she fills
with grace and dignity. She is, moreover, the earnest
seconder of her royal husband in every patriotic design
for the welfare and advancement of their people.
On the 3rd of November in the year of his marriage,
the King issued a proclamation, which had become
customary, calling his subjects' thoughts to thankfulness
for the blessings their land had enj oyed during the year ;
and recommending that on Christmas-day, those not
unprepared feelings should find expression in acts of
public thanksgiving. There is something very sweet and
primitive in such an observance. A young king, not so

336 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
much in the character of a patriarch as that of the elder
brother of a wide-spread family, beaming with newly
acquired domestic happiness, and calling upon all his
great household to choose a day for thankful retrospec
tion, — to rejoice and be glad in it; that day too, when
all the world is invited to hail the rising of the Sun of
Eighteousness, with healing in His wings.
' Whereas,' says the proclamation, ' during the year now
drawing to a close, we have enjoyed as a people, numerous and
great blessings ; peace and tranquillity have prevailed through
out our islands; we have been, not only free from dangers
from abroad, but have continued to enjoy the most friendly
assurances of protection in our independence from the most
powerful governments in the world ; although the times have
been hard through the scarcity of money, and our people have
suffered from a drought almost unparalleled, neither our agri
culture nor commerce have entirely failed; both begin to
revive ; perhaps we have never enjoyed a year of more general
health ; our laws have been sustained ; religion and education
have been free and prosperous. For all of which numerous
and invaluable blessings we owe, as a nation, a formal, general,
and heartfelt tribute of thanksgiving to the Almighty, on whose
favour all prosperity, whether individual or national, depends.'
On the 20th of May, 1858, Her Majesty gave birth
to a son, to the very great delight and happiness of all
classes. Apart from parental joy, the event was auspi
cious as promising to continue a regular succession to
the throne in the present family. The following day, all
the separate services and orders, soldiers and ministers,
native subjects and foreign consuls, hastened to offer
their sincere congratulations at the palace ; the King
replying to each address in feeling and appropriate
expressions. On the 29th, royal letters patent were
issued, constituting and declaring the style and title of

BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF HAWAII 337
the heir-apparent to be L His Eoyal Highness the
Prince of Hawaii.' On the 3rd of October, 1859, at
an extraordinary session of the House of Nobles held at
the palace ' in contemplation of a vacancy in the chief
executive office, at all times liable to occur,' the King
called attention to the importance of having the suc
cession to the crown definitely established in a consti
tutional manner ; and he then designated his infant son
his heir and successor to the throne. The following
proclamation was issued the same day : ¦ —
Kamehameha IV., of the Hawaiian Islands King, to all our
loving subjects and others to whom these presents shall come,
greeting : —
Be it known that We, in concurrence with our House of
Nobles, hereby appoint and proclaim Our son, His Eoyal High
ness the Prince of Hawaii, to be Our Successor and Heir to
the Hawaiian Throne.
Done at Our palace, at Honolulu, this third day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1859, and the fifth year of Our
reign. (Signed) Kamehameha.
(Signed) Kaahumanu.
By the King and Kuhina Nui, (Signed) L. Kamehameha.
In the speech to legislature delivered by commission
on the 14th of August, 1860, the Queen Consort was
named Eegent during the minority of the heir-appa
rent in case of a vacancy of the throne.
The subject of public hospitals had been broached
by the King in his first speech to legislature after his
accession, in 1855. In September, 1859, His Majesty
had the happiness of opening the admirable institution
which had been named after the young Queen. From
the MS. notes of one who was present on that inte-
z

338 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
resting occasion, the following sentences are tran
scribed : —
One of the institutions which should have been first, came
into existence last — the hospital. To the personal exertions
of the present king and queen the hospital owes its being. A
gap in the existing order of things had been talked about and
written about ; the one thing remaining most necessary for the
people had been piously recommended to the legislature by two
kings in their turn, and more than twice by each of them, and
yet there arose no refuge for those who were being plucked into
the grave by penury and pushed into it by disease. At last,
the young father of his people and his younger wife, weary of
protestations of good will, which ended where they began, went
out to beg ; and the stately intimations from the throne merged
into a prayer of earnest heart. One might have thought they
were canvassing for some candidate in whom they had a per
sonal -interest, so pertinacious and so unavoidable was their
request. It was certainly a novel sight to see a king and queen
going about to gather names to a subscription list : but so it
was ; and day after day, and for this end, their Majesties' car
riages ' stopped the'way.' This episode of royalty mendicant
may disarrange the ideas of some who have only seen their
sovereign surrounded by the halo of a triumphal arch, or by a
brilliant setting of lords and ladies, too happy and too grand (as
it seemed) for every-day employments. Yet we might re
member how a queen of mighty England even once begged on
her knees for the lives of half a dozen burgesses, and five hun
dred pictures have since celebrated that pious act of love. That
appeal is bright with aU the colours of romance, whilst tins
before us appears in homespun. Queen Eleanor's prayer was
addressed to a king, and has a grand air about it, but this was
made by a king to the people ; and so prosaically, that a lawyer's
office, a trader's counting-house, or a lady's parlour formed
the background to the humble scene. However, the effort
succeeded: Human charity, and a touch of nature, which ' makes
the whole world kin,' with a fancy-fair or two, established
the hospital, legislature not refusing its due assistance.

THE QUEEN S HOSPITAL 339
The ladies of Honolulu hemmed the sheets, and their
daughters made the pillow-cases. A German gentleman — a
consul in fact — volunteered a design for the building : it was
erected on his plans, and there the hospital stands, solid, fight,
airy, clean, commodious. The King, assisted by his brother
masons, laid the corner-stone ; and to commemorate the
woman's part, they have called the hospital after the Queen.
Within its walls, already, many lives have been saved, many
weary days of sickness have been shortened and sweetened by
gentle ministrations. And well we know that those walls which
often reverberate to the moaning of suffering and weakness,
fail not to hear at night and morning praises to God, and
blessings on their Majesties.
The last act of the King that will fall within the
scope of these pages is the request which he has pre
ferred to the Church and people of England, to establish
a branch of the reformed Episcopal Church in Hawaii.
On the 5th of December, 1859, Mr. Wyllie communi
cated to His Majesty's representative in London, the
desire of the King and the Queen to have a church
erected in their capital ; towards the support of which
the King offers on his own behalf and that of residents
who desire the church's services, a certain income. His
Majesty offers to give a piece of land for the church,
and to erect a house. The King directed his repre
sentative to confer on the subject with the Archbishop
of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the Church
Societies. Subsequently, the King wrote an autograph
letter to Her Majesty, and, by his Minister of Foreign
Eelations, to the Primate, and to Earl Eussell.
In another letter it is explained that under the
second article of the constitution no national or state
religion is to be adopted ; but all Christian denomi- ;
nations are placed on an equal footing of right, and
z 2

340 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
r possess a perfect freedom of religious worship. Hence
i no special appropriation could be made by government
| towards the Episcopal Church. It was desired that the
i services should be performed with all the rites and
j ceremonies sanctioned by the Church; and that all
j vestments, instruments, and ornaments, proper to their
I due celebration, should be sent from England, and that
I it was necessary to provide an organ, bell, font, &c.
This despatch recalls the fact of a request, already
; mentioned in the foregoing pages, having been made
i to the British Sovereign by Captain Vancouver, to send
religious teachers from England to Hawaii. A similar
requisition was afterwards made to George IV. ; but
neither of these appeals was acted upon. To show
that the desire for the introduction of the English
Church was not new or sudden, it is mentioned that in
1844, a subscription list was circulated and numerously
signed in Honolulu for the support of an English clergy-
; man; and other attempts for the same object were
S made in the years 1847, 1851, and 1858. They had
failed hitherto ; but the wish had long existed, and the
first idea was fairly to be ascribed to the first of the
royal line of Kamehameha.
It is written with gratitude, that the appeal made in
England in 1860 has not been neglected. Men's hearts
warmed with the thought that new realms invited the
Church's mission, that the distant islands of the ocean
waited to be embraced in that kingdom which must
extend till the company of preachers who have gone
abroad to the east and to the west, again meet one
, another; and that the craggy heights of far Hawaii
1 might now 'stand up and take the morning.' The
I new mission has produced an additional interest, inas-
\ much as this invitation to our Church is the only one

INVITATION TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

341

that has been made by an independent sovereign. The
sister Church in America welcomed the opportunity of
joining in the labour of love, and was prepared to go
hand in hand with the Church in Great Britain in
sending out clergy. The troubles which have subse
quently broken out in the North American continent
have, for a time, interrupted the intended joint action.
A committee for conducting in England the affairs of

CHURCH PROPOSED TO BE ERECTED IN HONOLULU.

the Hawaiian church mission was formed ; and on the
15th of December, 1861, the Eev. Thomas Nettleship
Staley, D. D., late fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge,
was consecrated first Bishop of Honolulu, in Lambeth
Chapel by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops
of London and Oxford being assessors. The day was
that on which Dr. Thompson was consecrated Bishop of
Gloucester and Bristol, and the service, at all times a

342 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
solemn one, was rendered yet more memorable by the
news which was spreading itself among the congregation
present, of the death of the Prince Consort the previous
night. Nothing remains to add to the present historical
sketch, except that on information of the death of
General Miller, the Queen's Commissioner and Consul
General in the Sandwich Islands, Mr. William W.
Follett Synge, late of the Foreign Office, was appointed
to the vacant post.

343

CHAPTEE XXII.
HAWAIIAN CHARACTERISTICS
' T HAVE visited many parts of the earth,' writes an old
_L voyager, ' but nowhere in my travels have I met
with more than two sorts of human beings, — men and
women.' It will seem trite, after this remark, to say that in the
Hawaiian character good and ill qualities are combined ;
yet, because this is essentially true, it must be said
in spite of its triteness. The important question is,
whether the mixed ore, upon analysis, holds out the
hope of reduction to a valuable metal.
The most salient points in the native race are
courage, hospitality, a friendly and affable disposition,
a constitutional good humour and mirthfulness. This
much for good. On the other hand must be written
against them, indolence, sensuality and licentiousness,
improvidence, and a carelessness about life and death,
apparently arising from ignorance of, or disbelief in, a
future existence. In things indifferent, their natural taste
is aesthetic ; they have a great love of beauty, are imita
tive, and ambitious to copy the manners, habits, dress,
and luxuries of foreigners. • They have as much imagi
nation as other Pacific tribes, but in their religion they
were materialistic idolaters, and in this were strongly
distinguished from the red tribes of North America,

344 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
whose worship is purely spiritual, having no visible
representations of divinity, and is addressed to the
great spirit Manetou. Considerable importance should
be given to the fact of this distinction in comparing the
aborigines of North America with those of Oceanica,
After this short summary, we will proceed to examine
the features of the Hawaiian character more in detail.
And first a word as to the physique of the race. The
Hawaiians are strong, well-made, and active ; in height
rather above the average of om- own country. In
complexion they vary much among themselves. The
fishing and other classes, which expose themselves very
greatly in the sun, become almost black : on the other
hand, there are natives who might be properly called
fair, and these of pure blood ; the half-castes being,
naturally, lighter in hue. Speaking generally, their skin
may be said to be olive brown, approximating to the
tint of the Moors of North Africa. The hair is black
and waving, frequently quite straight. Its curl is per
fectly free from the woolliness of the African, scarcely
differing from the hair of those Europeans who are
fortunate enough not to have straight locks. The
women are unquestionably attractive. Their figures
whilst young keep the juste milieu between Hghtness
and embonpoint; the limbs and bust are finely formed,
and the hands, feet, and ankles are small and delicate.
Their beauty is inferior, on the whole, to the Marquesan
women's, but they retain it much longer than women
generally do in tropical chmates, or even in Europe.
Many Hawaiian females are still handsome at fifty, the
common fault brought by advancing, years being that
of excessive corpulency. In men and women the coun
tenance is characterised by a fulness of the nostrils,
although the nose is not flat ; the face is wide, and the

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 345
eyes bright and black. The women are attractive from
their cheerful, smiling, and lively expression ; whilst their
merry laugh and pleasant aloha, or welcome, show the
face to be an index of their mind. From the remark
able height and bulk of the chiefs, both males and fe
males, the dominant class has been considered by some
writers to be a distinct and conquering race. Eesidents
in the islands are not of this opinion, and account for
the difference in size between the chiefs and the com
mon people as arising from abundance of food and rest
and other hereditary advantages. Sir George Simpson
speaks of a chief and chiefess to whom he was introduced
as so unwieldy, that though in perfect health, they
were unable to walk.
Courage — stronger than battering-rams — is the basis
of every fine character. The Hawaiians possess the
virtue in an unquestionably high degree. It was shown
in the old warlike times by their open, standing up
fight. Their bodies were unprotected by armour or
even by clothes; their weapons were the spear, the
dagger, the club, and stones. They did not resort to
artifice or stratagem in war, and they kept up a fight
with the determination of a Witherington, and for a
length of time which makes Chevy Chase shrink into
insignificance. War has been entirely abolished for
forty years, but their valour shows itself under new
forms. The Hawaiians are now as peaceful a people as
any upon earth ; they are more free from crimes of vio
lence than almost any nation that can be named. Their
natural courage crops out in their love of, and daring
in, riding; in their delight in swimming among the
heavy breakers rolling over the reefs ; their descent of
precipices, and even in their games. Kamehameha I.
would allow six of his warriors to throw their spears at

346 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
him, himself armed only with one of the javelins, with
which he would turn aside the flying weapons, each ready
to let out his Hfe-blood. The women no longer follow
their husbands to the battle, to stanch their wounds or
fight beside them; but they endure long journeys, and
bear heavy burdens, swim through the raging surf, and
plunge down the waterfall into the ocean when the
leap is forty feet and upwards in height. The courage
of both sexes is exhibited in the calm indifference with
which they await death. The king of terrors does not
much appal them. This may arise partly from stoic
ism, and partly from unbelief or want of a strong belief
in an after state ; it probably is also due in part to their
constitutional firmness.*
It appears strange, and contrary to analogy, that a
people of bold and forcible character should express
themselves in a language more fitted for the Sybarites.
We are accustomed to look upon language as among
national idiosyncrasies and indicative of the national
character. The angular teutonic speech with its crowd
of obstructive consonants, seems natural and necessary
to the peoples which use it ; the vocal and emasculated
derivations from the Latin, flow congruously from the
* The following remark of a missionary may seem somewhat at
variance with the above view ; hut superstition is an infection which
saps many bold and even religious minds : —
' The Hawaiians can lay down and die the easiest of any people with
which I am acquainted. I have pretty good reason for the belief that
they sometimes die through fear, believing that some person having the
power to pray them to death is in the act of doing so ; and the imagi
nation is so wrought up that life yields to intense fear.' (' Answers to
Mr. Wyllie's Questions.')
The yielding up of life under these circumstances is not, however,
inconsistent with the possession of great courage; because the Ha
waiians had a settled belief that no degree of courage or resistance
could avail them in such a case, and they in consequence submitted
themselves calmly to their fate.

SOFTNESS OF THEIR LANGUAGE 347
pleasure-loving inhabitants of South Europe. The
Greek language was born of masculine energy and
elegant fancy ; and so delicate was the people's appre
hension of the expressive, that several dialects neces
sarily grew up where there were geographical and other
differencing circumstances within the nation. The
Hawaiian language is so soft as rather to be compared
to the warbling of birds than the speech of suffering-
mortals. It is usually said to contain but twelve letters,
namely, seven consonants, and five vowels. This is,
however, only the case by counting the two pairs of
interchangeables as two letters. The k and t, and the
I and r, are so blended, that the distinction between the
letters of each pair is not observed by the natives, or
even by those who have been long resident in the
islands. It is probable that the two interchangeable
pairs were really two real letters, not found in European
alphabets, and were analytically resolved into two ele
ments by the missionaries, in order to give them known
phonetic expression. The Arabic guttural, combining
g and r, cannot be phonetically expressed in our lan
guage.* Assuming, however, the two pairs to be four letters,
the Hawaiian alphabet consists of the vowels a, e, i, o, u,
and the consonants h, k, and t, I, and r, m, n, p, and w.
The consonants rejected are b, (since the residence of
white people, added for foreign words) c, not used as a
sibilant, and only found under the sound of k ; d, f, g,
j, q, s, v, x, y, and z. Our ears are so accustomed to a
centrifugal language, that we can scarcely conceive how
a people could get on without an /, a g, or an s. Whole
* I do not speak decisively on this point. An informant who knows
the language very thoroughly states that the Jc and t, and the I and r
are as pure in a Hawaiian's mouth as in a European's.

348 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
sentences may consist of vowels without the admixture
of a single consonant.
The language may, on the whole, says Sir George Simpson,
be considered as pleasing and agreeable to the ear after a time,
though at first it sounds childish, indistinct, and insipid. It
lacks, of course, everything like force and expression ; and the
natives are by no means to be compared as orators with the
aborigines of North America. The language is not capable of
reaching the lofty strain of the Blackfeet, the Crees, or the
Saulteaux, but flows on in a mellifluous feebleness, which,
though it never offends the ear, always leaves us unsatisfied.
The indistinctness and confusion which arise from the scan
tiness of its elements, and its consequent repetition of the same
sounds, are considerably aggravated by the copiousness of the
vocabulary — a copiousness which is said to have been in a great
measure caused by the pride and policy of the chiefs, who ha
bitually invented new words for their own peculiar use, and
constantly replaced them, as soon as they became familiar to the
people, with other novelties of the same kind. Under those
circumstances, to say nothing of the intricacy and precision of
the grammar, a foreigner can never hope entirely to master the
tongue ; and even the missionaries, in spite of all their indus
try and zeal, often find their ears at fault, more particularly
when the natives, as is their custom in cracking their jokes at
the expense of strangers, chant their barely articulate strings
of vowels in a quick and monotonous strain.
The Hawaiians have, moreover, different dialect
for their poetry ; or, at least, if the language be the
same, its inflections and construction appear very dif
ferent, and its metaphors and allusions, which give
enjoyment to the native race, elude the comprehension
of residents who are well acquainted with the Hawaiian
language used in prose. A young poetess, lately dead,
who suffered under the intractable name of Poki, en
chained the people with her lyrics ; yet an informant,

LANGUAGE OF POETRY 349
who knew the prose language so perfectly that he could
report in shorthand the speeches made in the houses of
legislature, was entirely baffled in his attempts to com
prehend the poetry, which by turns melted and in
flamed its native hearers. The people were fond of
fabulous tales and songs, and formerly spent much of
their time in telling stories, and crooning their rneles,
or songs, to the accompaniment of the small drum or
the musical stick. Indeed the Hawaiians equalled the
Marquesans, the most lively natives of the Pacific, in
the number of their songs, and exceeded in that respect
the Society Islanders.
The fatal gift of beauty, a delicious climate, which
rendered clothing unnecessary — except the flowery
wreath, which both sexes wore, partly from innate taste,
and partly to shade the eyes — an indolent and pleasure-
loving constitution, abundant opportunity, their houses
small and undivided by partitions, and the absence of
adverse public opinion, are among the prevalent causes
of a general absence of chastity among the Hawaiians.*
Till taught otherwise by the missionaries, the natives
had no conception that aphrodisiac indulgences were
even wrong or hurtful ; they had not even a word to
express chastity in their language. To learn to look
upon sensual love as sin, was to acquire a lesson as new
as it was difficult ; for the teaching of ancient custom
was universally opposite to such a doctrine. It is true
that in special cases adultery was severely punished,
but this seems to have been the fruit of expediency and
* The men wore the wtalo, a narrow girdle of linen passing round the
waist and between the thighs, very similar to the cloth of the Hindoos.
The women used the pau, a short pettieoat reaching from the waist
nearly to the knees. In addition to this scant measure of clothing, the
. people very frequently wore a short mantle or tippet.

350 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
respect for chiefdom. Even hospitality would not have
been complete without an unconditional offer to an
honoured guest of a transient partner, to be selected
from the female household. The fight of nature had
not taught them to restrain their appetites, and society
went on under those licentious conditions. To such a
nation as this, the cold injunctions of morality were
powerless, and a doctrinal rehgion not insisting on
fruits of holiness was as powerless. The highest argu
ment of the schools prevails little against the inexorable
logic of the senses stirred by passion. Why linger
more on so ungrateful a theme? It is perhaps not
quite true that the Hawaiians did not feel some moral
degradation, though they could not rise above it ; and
the sense of want of self-respect led them commonly to
speak of themselves as ' beasts.' * Yet if they did not
love wisely, they could love well, and they had among
themselves many shining instances of constancy, even
to death, under circumstances where it might be sup
posed constancy must have faltered and died.
The American missionaries, and the native govern
ment actuated by the missionaries, threw themselves
unenquiringly and at once into a crusade against the
prevailing Ecentiousness of the people. Fines, im
prisonment, severe labour, and informers, were the
weapons of their warfare. A great apparent change
was rapidly effected. They clothed and converted the
natives, and they produced, not, alas ! a regenerated
people, but a nation of hypocrites. It is no difficulty
to the Hawaiians to dissemble ; simulation and dissi
mulation are dramatic costumes they readily assume.
They not only seemed to do what the missionaries re
quired, but they imitated the manner, tones, and the
* See ' Answers to Mr. Wyllie' s Question,' No. 63.

MORAL FAULTS 351
very appearance of the missionaries themselves. In
fact they are admirable mimics. The missionaries'
gesture and intonation, their soft feline style of ap
proach, their very seat in the saddle, the sun-burnt
black suit, all were exactly counterfeited, — nothing-
escaped them ! It is only doing the missionaries justice
to say that they might well have been deceived by such
a looking-glass resemblance of themselves.
Indolence is another grand fault attributed to the
Hawaiian race. It is very true that the delicious,
equable climate engenders in those constantly within
its influence a lotus-eating habit, a love of the dolcefar
niente. Their absolute wants were few; and as the
chiefs would have pounced down on any little surplus
the people could have acquired by labour, they lost the
powerful stimulus of a desire to accumulate. It is
going beyond the truth to say that indolence was en
tirely ingrained in the people's nature. It was enforced
upon them by circumstances. 'The moral effect of
unpaid labour upon their habits is to do as little as
possible when at work, and that little as unfaithfully as
possible. The influence of unwilling labour when
excessive, as I understand it, is injurious to health, so
far as a healthy state of body depends upon cheerfulness
of mind.' * Thus with a distaste for labour forced upon
them ; with the knowledge that the fruits of labour
would be stolen from them, and with a tolerable cer
tainty that they would not actually starve if they did
the minimum quantity of work, we are not surprised that
many Hawaiians were lazy drones, in the absence of a
rehgion which erects diligence in business to the rank of
a God-beloved virtue. Nor is it correct to say that in
dolence was universal. It is true that a taro pit having
* ' Answer to Mr. Wyllie's Questions,' No. 25.

352 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
the area of an ordinary dressing-room will keep a man in
food the whole year — if it be diligently cultivated* But
there are few species of labour more constant and more
wearing than that of cultivating the esculent arum. The
men work in the heat of the day in the patches or pits,
which require to be kept filled to a certain height with
water. Irrigation has to be attended to, the plant
continually tended, and even when used, the process of
converting the root into poi, which is done by pounding
it for a long time with a heavy stone pestle, is heavy
and tedious work. Ellis remarks, ' We have often been
struck with the restless avidity and untiring effort with
which they pursue even the most toilsome game.'
The natural disposition of the Hawaiians is everything
that is opposite to the gloomy and morose. The plea
sant, universal ' aloha ' or salutation, the merry ringing
laughter of the women wherever found, proclaim the
people to be a light-hearted race. No occasion to
address to them, as Southey does the fair sex, on a
consideration of the shortness of Hfe, "a melancholy
exhortation to be cheerful while they may,'- — for the cares
of life sit Hghtly on them. It is consistent with such
mirthful and good-tempered temperament to be want
ing in very deep human feelings ; but the people are as
kindly and as hospitable as any who inhabit our planet.
Nothing is more offensive to a Hawaiian's feehngs than
that a traveller should not return the ' aloha ' or saluta
tion ; and they are very observant of the ' haole ' or
* It has been calculated that a square mile of taro will feed 15,151
persons during the same period. "When raw the root is acrimonious
and styptic, and is used in that state medicinally. The plant is propa
gated by tops cut from the suckers of one year's growth. Beds are dug
two or three feet deep in the earth, and are beaten hard to make them
hold water. There is a red and a white species, with several varieties
of both kinds.

HOSPITALITY. DWELLINGS 353
foreigner. In Uving, they are simple, having few arti
ficial wants. The chiefs especially exhibited great
courtesy. Their hospitalities were always accompanied
by a polite behaviour peculiarly gratifying to those who
came within their range, and indicated a degree of
refinement seldom found among, uncivilised nations.*
This courtesy was remarkably shown in the use of the
graceful dual in their speaking, and their dehcacy by
the constant practice which prevailed among the chiefs
of washing the hands before and after meals. Personal
cleanliness must have been greatly promoted by the
universal bathing habits of the people.
The dwellings of the natives, writes Sir George Simpson, are
extremely neat and clean both internally and externally. They
are constructed of a framework of bamboos covered with grass.
The furniture is very simple, though generally sufficient for the
wants of the inmates in such a climate. The houses (he is
writing in 1842) are commonly separated into sleeping and
sitting compartments by means of curtains hung across from
wall to wall : but everything, whether exposed to view or not,
whether within the house itself or merely within the surround
ing enclosure, is scrupulously clean and neat, presenting, in this
respect, a wonderful contrast with the filth and confusion of
most of the native lodges of the Continent. At whatever time
of the day we dropped into a house, we found no difference in
any of these particulars ; there was never any unpleasant smell
about the premises. In fact, as far as my experience goes,
cleanliness may be ranked among the cardinal virtues of the
Hawaiians. f
* Ellis mentions, as an instance of their hospitality, that two hun
dred dogs were cooked at one feast : and that Auna, his guide, had seen
four hundred baked dogs at one entertainment, with proportionate quan
tities of fish, hogs, and vegetables. The value of the dogs, which are
bred and fed purposely for eating, would be very great.
f ' Overland Journey,' ii. 41. A A

354 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Other observers, it must be added, give by no means
the same satisfactory account of their cleanliness.
In no country is there greater safety to person and
property. Murders occur at about the rate of one in
three years, and the malefactors are chiefly Chinese
immigrants. A few petty larcenies enliven the criminal
courts ; but the newspapers complained lately that no
burglary has taken place to give animation to their
columns, and interest to their readers.
The Hawaiians are devotedly fond of Etigation. It
is the form the combativeness of their nature has taken
since war and violence have been abandoned. Some of
the natives make shrewd lawyers, and their courts are
always pretty full of business. Justice, is administered
in many parts of the islands by native judges, some of
whom show great aptitude for their office. The writer
of some rural sketches in the ' Commercial Advertiser,'
was much struck by an individual of this order, whom
he describes as a fine-looking fellow about six feet high,
well-proportioned, and with a hand that might well
have belonged to a high-born patrician woman. He
had abundance of the dignity befitting his occupation.
This dignity characterised the chiefs. Those whom we
have seen in Europe possessed it in a large degree.
They were at their ease in the best society ; and whilst
never intrusive, they expressed in their bearing that
sense of nobility which makes itself felt in the leaders
of a civilised or of a savage society.
These Polynesian islanders are, as already stated, an
aesthetic people, having an extreme love of the beautiful.
During the first glimmerings of civilisation they imported
from Europe fine glass and china : the fashions of Paris
are reproduced in Honolulu. Their admiration of per
sonal beauty is extreme in all classes. Some three or four

THE POWER OF BEAUTY 355
years ago, there landed on the wharf at Honolulu a
beautiful stranger, the native of another island of the
group. Beauty will always assert its sway and draw us
with a single hair. The highest instance of beauty in
every race would be admitted- to be admirable in every
other nation. A young beauty from China would
create a sensation in a London drawing-room or a
Parisian salon. This Aphrodite stepping on shore from
the lapping waters was instantly recognised as superla
tively beautiful. She was immediately surrounded by
unaffected admirers, each of whom in his unsophisti
cated adoration saluted her with his lips. Never was a
first-born child more ' petted with sallies of his mother's
kisses.' The news of her arrival spread Like wildfire.
Men left their anvil and their poi, and crowded round
the lovely stranger. She stood there Eke the moon
within a coloured halo, — only the halo pressed rather
close, and came near stifling her. The pohce were
obliged to interfere ; and even then a fate like that of
the late Miss Verey, who was looked to death by ad
mirers, became imminent; when the happy thought
occurred to the chief constable, or (but we hope not)
to the lady herself, of placing a tariff on her ruby lips
of a quarter of a dollar for each salute. The money
was cheerfully paid, but the ' pull ' against the pubUc
had gradually the desired effect, and the beautiful
stranger in a few hours was released.
Their love of the graceful and beautiful was seen in
the universal use of flowers and leaves for coronals.
Even in their churches the people would throw them
selves on the ground in graceful attitudes, wreathed as
at a festival. They have lately been taught better
manners. The writer of the rural sketches previously
A A 2

356 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
mentioned thus describes an unpremeditated picture on
which he chanced : —
It was a group of which a painter might have been proud,
consisting chiefly of a party of native girls. Their hair and
necks were ornamented with the gay flowers of the ohelo
(Gualtheria pendufiflorum), as beautifully interwoven as if
done by fairy fingers. They appeared as unsophisticated and
happy as if they were strangers to every sorrow. In the
centre was an old man, nearly one hundred years of age, who
had lived in the days of Kamehameha I., and had witnessed
the annihilation of several pagan temples, and the destruction
of 40,000 idols.
It is to be hoped that the centenarian was a good old
man, and was teaching that young galaxy of beauty
some useful moral lesson.
The Hawaiians are a somewhat agricultural people,
and were so when first discovered, and indeed from
their earHest history. In this respect they differed
from the aborigines of North and South America, as
they did also in regard to their worship, being idolaters,
whilst the red races of the northern continent main
tained an immaterial worship. This agrarian tendency
may account for their love of animals. They took to
riding as if ' to the manner born.' Every woman has
a pet animal ; and mothers who are nursing their off
spring will suckle a puppy at the same time — a rivalry
by no means in favour of the strength or number of
their own progeny. Sometimes the favourite is a
young pig. Their tenderness towards this unclean ani
mal was amusingly exempEfied by a traveller who came
upon a group of native women surrounding a hog of
five hundred pounds' weight, which lay panting in the
midst. The females had denuded themselves almost

INDOLENCE AND INDUSTRY 357
entirely, and were cooling the pig by dipping their
garments in water and covering him with them.
In old countries where races have amalgamated and
systems changed, where a remnant of the past runs
parallel with the body of the present or blends intri
cately with it, it is not always easy to trace each
peculiarity of the national mind to its source. But in
Hawaii, unconquered and uncolonised, retaining its
language and the broader conditions of social existence
the same at the commencement of this century as they
had been for untold ages gone by, this homogeneity
makes it less difficult to discover the connection between
cause and effect in what is called the genius of the
people. Of their moral failings enough has already
been said, and the sources of the laxity have been suffi
ciently alluded to. Their indolence has also been
accounted for, an indolence which must not be con
founded with sloth. From time immemorial the people
lived under chiefs of greater or less influence. For
them they worked and fought, and from them they re
ceived protection and the necessaries of life, either
directly in the shape of a share of the common product,
or of the produce of their individual labour on little
patches of land set apart for their particular use. They
did the work of the chiefs in companies, each company
having a luna or head man. The rapidity with which
they could build and thatch a large house, or lay up
great lengths of stone wall, or prepare and plant acres
of land with kalo, or cut and carry to the beach cargoes
of sandal-wood, was quite surprising. The particular
work having been done, the people would fall forth
with into a state of repose, or hurry back to resume their
own little affairs at home. Thus their minds acquired
a habit of alternating between action and inaction, which

358 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
distinguishes them to the present day. We have spoken
of them as indolent, but there is hardly an individual
among the natives who is not capable, at times, of very
severe exertion and of great activity. The nature
of their private agricultural employments tended then,
and still tends, to create the same habit of intermittent
labour. To prepare a kalo patch for planting, after it
has lain fallow and its loamy bottom become sun
baked, is no easy matter. To accomplish the task is
very hard work ; but the proper preparations made, its
possessor may spend his time easily enough, for any
woman or child is able to tend the kalo as it advances
towards maturity. To fell a tree and chip out a canoe
and shape it is hard work, and to carry it through the
woods and down rough valleys and precipices on human
shoulders is not less so ; but to paddle it about when
floated and bring it to land on the crest of a breaker is
more a matter of skill and pleasure than of strength.
These instances may suffice to show that habits of con
tinuous labour were not necessary in the social condition
of the people, and were therefore not formed ; but it
would be an injustice to presume that therefore they
cannot be formed under different auspices. The men
who hire themselves on the sugar and coffee plantations
and labour day by day all the year round, might be
pointed to in order to show that the Hawaiian can
assimilate himself to new habits of labour ; and it is to
be observed that they generally re-hire themselves at
the expiration of their engagement. Then there are
the printers and salesmen, the carpenters, blacksmiths,
seamen, tailors, and house-servants, all of whom labour
continuously. No doubt there are many strong, heavy-
Embed young men who prefer riding about on horseback,
calEng from house to house, and eating where hospita-

SOCIAL LABOUR 359
lity offers, to regular industry. But would not a great
many of the working men in England do the same if
they had the opportunity? That drones should be
permitted in the hive is unwise, but as long as they are
permitted there will be no lack of them. These remarks
are important in estimating the calibre of the Hawaiians,
for in this bustling age little interest can be felt in a
hopelessly lazy man or people.
The effect of the ancient custom of the chiefs calling
upon their retainers to go together to labour, and return
together to repose, is observable in many of the popular
habits at the present time. The people of a village
often agree that on a certain day they will in a body
undertake such or such a job, though the work done by
each is on his own account. In our country we are
accustomed to see each individual perform what he has
to do when it best suits bis own convenience, and are
surprised at a procedure so different from our own.
In the same way the women will enter into a con
vention that on a given day they will go into the woods
to pick apples or gather flowers for wreaths, although
the apples would have tasted as sweet and the wreaths
have become them as well if gathered on any inter
vening day.
Among the Hawaiian customs may be mentioned a
fashion of giving a feast on the death-day of those who
were dear to them. On such, to us sad, occasions they
make quite as merry as if they were assisting at the
celebration of a birth. They very frequently, also, keep
the bodies of the dead, coffined, but unburied, in their
dwelEng-houses, eating and enjoying themselves in that
solemn presence, and telling good stories of the departed,
whom they indicate by name, or, more forcibly, by point
ing to the bier. Widows of rank sometimes have a tent

360 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
pitched near the graves of their husbands, to which they
retire with a retinue every evening, to sleep or mourn.
Yet they fear spirits, and when they see one in the dark
(as the females often do), they scream till the hills echo
their alarm.
A common practice existed in Hawaii of giving away
children at their birth. It was, and still is, very much
the custom to do so. Children so made over have at
least as much, and very often more, love for their adoptive
than their natural parents. They regard the real au
thors of their being in much the same light as uncles
and aunts ; and as if to assist an indefiniteness of feeling
in these respects, the real or the adoptive parents go by
the same titleas uncles and aunts ; and it does not require
a near connection to make an uncle or aunt. As a
consequence, it is sometimes difficult to know the exact
relationship of some person alluded to. For instance,
a young Hawaiian may be speaking of his ' makuakane.'
You ask him if he means his actual father ? No. His
adoptive father, then ? No. — Who does he mean ?
Why, the brother of his father's brother's wife. The
father's brother's wife being his aunt, all her sisters are
his aunts, and all her brothers his uncles, and are known
(unless particular distinctness is required) by the same
definition of relationship as his father and mother de
facto. A great many wise things might be said about
a custom which breaks up what has been considered the
nucleus of all government, to wit, the relationship
between parents and their offspring. The custom re
ferred to arose probably in the good old troublous times,
when the people, females as well as men, were a good
deal ordered out by their superiors, and a family of
young children was inconvenient. We may fancy, too,
that the chiefs, who Eked to increase the number of their

GIVING AWAY CHILDREN 361
retainers, encouraged those under them to adopt the
children of others who were less in a condition to be
burthened with them. But then the chiefs did the same
thing ; perhaps from considerations of policy in another
shape. Whatever the origin of the custom, of late years
it has probably been complied with principally from a
desire on the part of the person adopting to have some
young thing to take care of, and be amused by, or to
secure an heir. To whatsoever causes we assign the
present want of fecundity among the Hawaiian females,
we must suppose them to have been more proHfic when
this custom first prevailed. To the desire of the child
less for children, therefore, can hardly be traced the
origin and universaEty of what in most countries would
be called an unnatural practice.

362 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XXIII.
THE DEPOPULATION OF THE ISLANDS — KIBROTH-HATAAVA
THE depopulation of the Hawaiian Islands is a
chapter which must be written, with however
much regret.
There are, of course, some general principles in
volved in the phenomenon of coloured races dying
out in the presence of the white man. They are suffi
ciently obscure; and were the fact of depopulation
confined to a few instances, some obvious natural
causes might seem sufficient to account for the decay
of native races when in contact with white-skinned
settlers or invaders. But as the rule of decay of dark
races seems, rather, to be universal, we must suppose
some more comprehensive agents of destruction. The
fact had attracted the attention of the Hawaiians them
selves many years ago. Mr. Hill, who visited the islands
in 1849, mentions that one of his European friends who
mingled much with the natives informed him that there
was a general impression among them of their early
extinction. Even in the year 1823, when Mr. Ellis
was in Hawaii, a fear of the consequences of the
approach of white men prevailed.
At Waikiki the natives seemed to doubt the propriety of
foreigners coming to reside among them permanently. They
said they had heard that in several countries where foreigners

NUMBER OF THE POPULATION 363
had intermingled with the original natives, the latter had soon
disappeared; and should missionaries come to five there,
perhaps the land would ultimately become theirs, and the
Kanaka Maore (aborigines) cease to be its occupiers.
It is now generally agreed that Captain Cook over
estimated the population of the islands at the time of
his visit. He supposed, from what he saw on the coasts,
that the entire number of people on the group was
about 400,000. He would, perhaps, make allowance for
the concourse at any particular bay which such a great
event as the arrival of his ships would draw together,
but he probably overlooked the identity of the crowd,
as to part of its numbers, when he moved from one
anchorage to another. A theatrical manager would
have put him right at once, because accustomed to
make numerical display of a limited company by many
exits and entrances : or if he had watched a city
pageant, he would have ascertained that part of the un-
satiated spectators in one street filter through side lanes
.and alleys and form a portion of the crowd in another
thoroughfare before the procession arrives there. Two
hundred thousand would be probably the more correct
computation of the Hawaiian population in 1778 — 9.
Even then it seems likely to have been on the decrease,
and that good old times had preceded that age — times in
which a more numerous people covered the islands, and
left traces of their strength and abundance in roads,
walls, temples, and other works. From Cook's time to
the present, the decay of the population has been con
tinuous and rapid. At the time of Mr. ElEs's visit,
(1823) the number on the whole of the islands was
estimated at from 130,000 to 150,000 souls, of which
85,000 Uved on the great island Hawaii. A rapid
depopulation had certainly taken place in the previous

364 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
fifty years ; and among the causes of this decrement
he places the frequent and destructive wars of the early
part of the first Kamehameha's reign ; the ravages of a
pestilence first brought by foreign vessels, and which
twice swept through the islands ; the awful prevalence
of infanticide ; and the increase of depravity and vice,
with their destructive consequences. By the natives'
own account, the population of the islands had dimi
nished to one-fourth its number within forty years.
This statement was probably an exaggeration ; but if
it at all approached the truth, it would give support to
Captain Cook's estimate of the people. In Ellis's time
there was no census or systematic means of ascertaining
the true numbers.
When Mr. Hill was in the islands (1849) the popu
lation had fallen, by the last census, to 80,000. At the
period of his visit the people were suffering from three
distinct diseases, aU of European and American im
portation ; namely, the measles, the influenza, and
dysentery : and they were dying in such numbers that
before he left, the loss was estimated at 10,000, or one
eighth of the entire population.
By the census of 1853, the total number of the
inhabitants of the islands was 73,137, — of whom 2118
were foreigners. By the census of 1860 the numbers
had fallen to 69,800,— viz. 67,084 nations and 2716
foreigners ; showing a decrease in seven years of 3337
persons. To the above numbers, however, must be
added 1000 Hawaiians who were absent from the islands
at the enumeration, being engaged at sea and in the
guano trade. The excess of males over females at the
last census was 6198. It is beUeved that the downward
progress is at present at a stand, and that there is a
probability of the next census showing some small

PREVALENCE OF INFANTICIDE 365
augmentation of numbers. The subjects of most con
cern in the remainder of this chapter are the causes of
the depopulation, the possibility of their removal or
alleviation, and the means for effecting so desirable an
end. Taking the lowest estimate of the population at the
moment of Cook's discovery of the islands, the Ha
waiian race has diminished to one third in the last
eighty years. New elements of destruction have cer
tainly been introduced by the contact of the white
man, and full weight must be given to their action:
nevertheless it is almost certain that destroying causes
were already at work, and that the Hawaiians, — we
may say the Polynesians generally, — were a doomed
race. Ellis (in 1822 — 23) found, from those chiefs who
were induced to be communicative, that infanticide
still prevailed throughout all the islands; and, with
the exception of the higher class of chiefs, was, as far
as he could learn, practised by all ranks of the people.
However numerous the children among the lower
orders, parents seldom reared more than two or three,
and many spared only one ; all the others were des
troyed shortly after birth, generally during the first
year of their age. Foeticide and abortion are meant no
doubt to be included under the general name of infant
murder ; for he says ' the means by which it is accom-
phshed, though numerous, it would be improper to
describe : several methods frequently proved fatal to
the mother also.' From all the information he was able
to obtain, and from facts which came to his knowledge
in the neighbourhood where he resided, there was every
reason to believe that two-thirds of the children were
destroyed. The motives assigned for this wholesale

366 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
infanticide were idleness, the avoidance of restraint to
their habit of wandering, and of the trouble of bringing
up families, and the desire to preserve the mother's
personal charms, which the nursing of children dimin
ished. A greater number of girls were destroyed than
boys : the disproportion of the sexes in the schools was,
very marked.
In the year 1846, Mr. WylEe, the Minister of Foreign
Eelations, issued a circular addressed to aE the mis
sionaries engaged on the islands, to planters, graziers,
and others from whom statistics could be obtained,
relative to the condition of the Hawaiian people, state
of the laws, reEgion, topography of the islands, mineral
wealth, &c, comprising in all 116 questions, to which
were added, in 1858, six more questions relating spe-
ciaUy to the continuance ^and weU-being of the native
race. To the answers to the first 116 questions (those
to the remaining six have not been received), we turn
for the most authentic information obtainable at the
date of the returns, 1848. These answers are from
eleven missionaries stationed on the five principal
islands, and, as may be supposed, the results obtained
from different islands vary considerably, in consequence
of inequaUty of cEmate, foreign immigration, and other
causes. Speaking generally, the foUowing facts were
established. Of epidemic diseases influenza was the
most frequent, prevalent, and fatal. In Oahu it ap
peared during the wet season about once in two years,
sweeping away many persons very suddenly. Asthma
was a common complaint. Of contagious disorders vene
real types were common and destructive. In returns
from two or three districts the annual number of deaths
greatly exceeded the births. The land was much under-
peopled ; the two districts of Hilo and Puna in Hawaii

CAUSES OF DEPOPULATION 367
would alone support 400,000 inhabitants; in most
places the population was not more than one-fifth of
what the land would advantageously maintain. The
prevailing vices were indolence, deceit, lewdness, and
intemperance. Lewdness abounded at the sea-ports,
was encouraged by foreign visitors, and not kept in
check by much social disapprobation. In Maui Ecen-
tiousness prevailed still more among married persons
than the single, and great complaint was made of the
conduct there, of men of standing from Europe and
America. The sin was greatly increased by the num
bers of whalers and merchantmen which put into the
ports to refresh. The consequences were but too ap
parent. The blood of the nation was affected by it ;
energy and procurative power were withered up, and
the probability of a healthy progeny was cut off. Early
decrepitude and barrenness bespoke the miserable taint.
In some places, however, a change for the better
was showing itself in the opinions and habits of the
people. In answer to the direct question No. 73, as to the
cause of the decrease of the population, it was answered,
indolence, improvidence, and ignorance of the laws of
animal Hfe ; but the most direct, certain, and fearful of
all exterminating causes are early and protracted habits
of licentiousness. Oppression was also adduced as a
cause of decrement, and an intelligent native, David
Malo, placed foreign influence among such agents;
and he asked, ' Why did not our children die as fre
quently in the time of our dark-heartedness as they do
now? ' The adoption of foreign materials for clothing
appeared unfavourable to health, though conducive to
decency ; but whatever reasons the respondents to the
questions give for the falling off of population, they are

368 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
invariably brought home tothe enormous dimensions
of the evil which had faEen, and was still falling, on
the Hawaiian race, in consequence of iEicit inter
course with men from Christian countries. One of the
answers differs from the rest, and turns the thoughts to
the general fact of coloured races dying out in the
presence of white-skinned men. Mr. Coan gives as a
cause, ' the mysterious will of God.' There are causes
beyond the reach of human investigation, to which
must be referred the unfruitfulness of many not the
subjects of disease, and the early death of children and
females who might have been expected to Eve and add
to the natural increase of the nation.
Later writers confirm the foregoing views of causes
destructive to population. Sir George Simpson, in
writing of the years 1842 — 3, having referred to a
great waste of Efe caused in obtaining sandal-wood
from the mountains, in the early part of the late king's
reign, refers to two then existing causes which poisoned
the national Efe, — emigration of the men, and the
depravity of the women. A thousand males in the
very prime of Efe were leaving the islands for California,
Columbia, on long voyages, and in whaEng vessels.
As to the women, in addition to infanticide, and that
too in its most appalling form of Eving burial or of
artificial abortion, with its consequent sterility, mothers
were in the habit of exchanging children, and allowing
pet puppies to share nature's food with their own off
spring. As to results, the phenomena of the census
taken in 1840 were but too conclusive. There was
less than one-fourth part of the population of one dis
trict under the age of eighteen. By the census of
Great Britain in 1851, the proportions of persons under
twenty years old and above twenty years were as nine

CENSUS RESULTS 369
and a half milEons to eleven and a half millions.* In
the enumeration of Kauai, referred to above, the pro
geny deducible was about half a child for each couple
that could be classed as men and women.
Mr. Hill, writing of the year 1849, comparing the
waste of Efe in white and coloured populations, re
marks : —
In the islands of the West Indies, and in those near the
coast of Africa, quite free from the pestilential malaria of the
continental shores, and possessing a similar soil to that of these
islands and a not very dissimilar vegetation, beneath the most
brilliant skies and amidst the abundance of Nature, the white
man withers and dies, while the native flourishes ; but in the
islands of the Pacific the white man lives, while the native
dies at such a fearful ratio as to threaten the speedy depopu
lation of the group. . . . For the sickness generally of the
natives we must look chiefly to causes which are perhaps
beyond the reach of any human means to check.
* A tabulated statement issued by authority, comparing the two
census years 1853 and 1860, gives the following results for seven
islands, full details of each of their several districts being exhibited
therein : —
1853. Number of males . . . 37,079 Females . 33,940
1860. „ „ . . 35,379 „ . 31,.705
Total in 1853 . . . 71,019
„ 1860 . . . 67,084

Decrease in 1860 . . 3,935

Persons under twenty years, 1853 . 29,923 Above twenty . 41,096
„ 1860 . 20,829 „ 46,170
Decrease in 1860 . . 9,094 Increase 5.071
Thus the disproportion between the old and the young, the passing
generation and that which should succeed, was greatly increasing, the
proportions being in 1853, 1 young person (under 20) to 1-375 ; whilst
in 1860 the ratio had sunk to 1 young person to 2-216 old.
B B

370 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Still more recently, the author of ' Progress of Events,'
remarking on the decay of the Hawaiian race, says : —
Many will attribute this decrease entirely to. the intercourse
with men from civilised lands ; and that doubtless has had
much effect in one respect — the introduction of disease, which,
from the universal licentiousness of the people, has been widely
disseminated, and of which the numerous sores and cutaneous
affections to be seen among them are melancholy evidence :
but in other respects the intercourse with foreigners has had
no share in this depopulation ; for in secluded districts and
unfrequented islands of the group, where ardent spirits are
quite unknown, and where no white men (save missionaries)
reside, the decrease of the population is even more rapid than
in the country surrounding places where white residents are
concentrated, and which shipping frequents.
The oppressive system of government, the discontinuance of
ancient sports and consequent change in the habits of the
people, have been powerful agents in this work of depopu
lation ; and the ill-judged enforcement of cruel punishments
and heavy penalties for breaches of chastity have much aided
it, by giving an additional stimulus to the practice — always
too common among Polynesian females — of causing abortion,
of which practice sterility is the natural result.
We have treated this painful topic as sEghtly and
delicately as possible, consistently with giving any view
at all of the causes affecting the decay of the Polynesian
population. To have observed greater reticence would
have been simply to have left the subject untouched;
and to have afforded no data for after considerations as
to the conservation of a very interesting race, which the
philanthropist may still hope to see ' take root down
wards and bear fruit upwards' as Heaven rains in
greater measures its heaEng influences on these nations.
It is true that some of the missionaries of whom
Mr. WylEe made his enquiries, and Dr. Armstrong

IMPENDING FATE OF THE NATION 371
himself, the President of the Board of Education, speak
in the language almost of despair as to the chances of
preserving the native race. ' It is hardly worth while,'
writes one of them, ' to seek for the best means of pre
serving a people, when it is a given point that all means
for the purpose will be aUke unavailing.' And in the
summary to the questions answered, the writers say:
' On the whole, it is doubtful whether the native race
will be able to withstand the shock which the over
whelming wave of Anglo-Saxon energy, enterprise, and
cupidity has given it.' The active and benevolent mind
of Mr. WylEe seems to have imbibed some similar des
ponding views. In 1857 he writes, 'It is my frank
belief that unless Hawaiian females can be rendered
more pure and chaste, it is impossible to preserve the
Hawaiian people in being. If that vice (prostitution)
subsist, in less than a century the Hawaiian sovereign
will have no native subjects to govern, and the besom
of destruction will have removed this people from the
face of the earth.'
It is evident that unless by some speedy interposition
the destroying agencies above described can be arrested
or reduced, the unmixed Hawaiian race will follow the
Dodo, and be extinguished within the term of our pwn
generation. It has been marching with accelerating
steps down the fatal slopes, and the remnant which yet
remains is ' . . . but a wreck and residue,
Whose only business is to perish.'
Happily some gleams of hope and encouragement already
are bursting through the gloom. Eeduced in num
ber to little more than 70,000, the population seems to
have touched its lowest point. Some of the causes of
BE 2

372 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
destruction are diminished. Oppression, which makes
wise men mad, is past The falling off of the whaEng
trade of the North Pacific during the past three years,
though attended at first with the inconvenience of a
corresponding decrease of revenue and commercial
activity, is one of the greatest benefits the islands could
receive. The crowd of whalers which visited all the
Hawaiian ports and roadsteads, greatly increased de
pravity and propagated fell disease among the natives,
which evil of course was propagated back among the
visitors of the islands. The false stimulus given by the
whaling trade drew aU the energy of the islands to the
coasts, and left their interior resources undeveloped,
and only utilised for the fattening of herds and the
production of vegetables.
The attention of legislators, physicians, and philan
thropists has been powerfully drawn to the preservation
of the race; and government has engaged itself with
plans tending to regulate and confine vices, which it
may be out of its power to extirpate entirely. Its
recent enactments on the subject of prostitution have
reduced the number of the hetserae of the streets, and the
assignment of a syphilitic ward in the new Queen's
Hospital at Honolulu has already saved many Eves,
and been attended with the most marked sanitory ad
vantages. These weE-intended regulations, deEberately
formed by the two houses, affecting pubEc women,
have led to a protracted discussion, and no small amount
of obloquy has been cast on the legislative body in
consequence. The actions of government receive a very
free criticism in one or two of the newspapers published
in Honolulu, and the governing body has been severely
and sometimes intemperately attacked for its endea
vours to control a vice it has not power to abolish. The

MEANS FOR ARRESTING THE EVIL 373
Missionary journal can see no distinction between
regulating a vicious condition of society and the open
encouragement and legalisation of vice. It views the
syphilitic ward of the Queen's Hospital as a direct
premium for the continuance of a state of things which
legislature ought, in its opinion, to have made vanish
with a magician's wand, or to have exorcised with an
apostle's power. It shuts its eyes to the absolute bene
fits which the community has already received from
medical treatment of the disease, both in its terrible and
destructive effects on the subjects of it, and the check it
has given to its spread even within the twelve months
that the hospital has been opened for patients. It de
mands war to the knife against sin and the sinner, —
unenquiring condemnation and unpitying punishment.
In the mean time government feels its hands strength
ened by the approbation of enEghtened observers, and
by the progress already made in decreasing the power
of a scourge which had been steadily decimating its
subjects. But it is to higher influences we must look for the
possible salvation and regeneration of the Hawauan
nation. The instrument must clearly be the inculcation
of a pure and gentle reEgion ; a holy and exalted doc
trine, illustrated and made Eving by the Christian
conduct and self-denying Eves of its professors and its
teachers. Such influences have already had som e weight ;
but there has been about former efforts of the American
missionaries a ' hidden want,' which shows that vital
power is lacking, the loving power which works by
assimilation, — the leaven which must permeate the
mass and take hold of the affections and will of the
natives, and convert them, not into hypocrites, but
Christians. Whilst in some districts the more open

374 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
forms of vice have been abolished, and some of the
wasting sins which have been alluded to have almost
entirely vanished, the bulk of the people are Christians
only in name. Independents and Eomanists frankly
avow the smaEness of their success in producing a vital
change. There remains for trial the efforts of the
English Church. We wait to see what may be the
effect on the Hawaiian mind of the beauty of her holi
ness, which has usually been made more conspicuous
and intense in missionary spheres. That reEgion which
bears on its credentials that it is pure, must also show
itself gentle. It is not the rod of the avenger, but the
staff of the shepherd, which will reclaim the sheep which
have wandered, and guard and lead the lambs of the
flock. Barnabas may prevail where Boanerges is power-

To take the young Hawanan girls at an age so early
that even they have not fteen contaminated, to keep
them as in a parental home, to watch them by day and
night, and screen them from sights and sounds of im
purity, to teach them to control transmitted passions,
and to fiU their minds with interesting subjects of
thought, to befriend them always, and finally to see them
married respectably — these are the means by which
the nation must rise in true moraEty, and become an
increasing people — a high and inspiring task to those
who undertake it, and in the hands of some Florence
Nightingale an instrument of enormous power : a
subject of earnest prayer for those who long for the
extension of Christ's kingdom, and for the ingather
ing of the farthest isles in the day when the great
trumpet is blown. The painter or the sentimentaEst may
exclaim against this change of natural habit, instincts,
picturesque attitude, this assimilation of the wild and the

M|,l'l;ilfll!!|fi'.wi:;"i;!'

¦ . , t'i i\\' *\\ ;v; 'JH
/i'jniiill'i '.'/in vil

PRINCIPIIS OBSTA 375
beautiful to the thoughts, manners, dress, and expression
of a hackneyed Europe. Well, something must be
sacrificed. We may have to forsake the temple of art,
to dwell in the temple of God. Hawaiian maids may
be no longer allowed to rise on the traveller's sight from
their favourite streams, like laughing naiads ; they must
be won from the hula dance, and led away from every
temptation, though at some loss of natural beauty and
grace. Clothed, and in a better mind, they may them
selves consent, willingly, to abandon tastes and pursuits
in which they once rej oiced, to learn a more enduring j oy
in the narrow but not uncheerful path that leads towards
the gates of Heaven. Even the simpEcity of their
flower garlands it may be found wise to lay aside,
though a sigh follow the long-loved ornament, plucked
from Nature's own wardrobe; and a loving regimen
may find it necessary to teach the Polynesian girls con
tentedly to walk discrowned on earth, that hereafter
their brows may be wreathed with flowers which cannot
wither.

376 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XXIV.
MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENT AND FAILURE
CHEISTIANITY has now been on its trial in Hawaii
for forty years. During aU that time, its exponents
have been United States missionaries of the Congrega
tional or Independent denomination. For a quarter
of a century the Church of Eome has also had a footing
in the islands, and during the last ten years has pro
selytised with activity, and greatly extended the cords
of her tent. The Eoman Church, however, dweEs in
lands foreign to the sway of the Pope, as a body of
exiles, — or rather, as a reEgious cEque, differing some
what in form, under the atmospheric pressure of
Protestant opinion, from the perfect development she
exhibits in lands which she calls her own. As she does
not exert any direct poEtical influence in the Sandwich
Islands, her action is to be regarded rather as a large
exception than as an operative rule, and we do not at
present concern ourselves, except incidentaUy, with her
communion. But forty years afford a fair opportunity of observing
what life and potentiaEty there may be in the largest
and most forcible form of dissent, unimpeded for the
greater part of that time by any rival or antagonist,

THE MISSIONARIES' SUCCESS 377
and unfettered by any open connection with the State.
If the American missionaries have not succeeded in all
that they have attempted, or filled the large programme
they had sketched, it is nevertheless no small work
which they have accompEshed in the Hawaiian Archi
pelago. In an age of ' immeasurable desires and weak
voEtions ' failure and incompleteness are seen around
us at every step : and it is with no unfriendly hand that
we trace the proceedings of the missionaries, and en
deavour to form some estimate of the ultimate effects
and capabilities of reEgion as taught by them and
exempEfied in their conduct.
We will first Esten to their own voice in the summary
of their successes given in the Annual Eeports of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,
published at Boston, Mass., and to the evidence of an
impartial observer who lately exercised his intelligent
eyes on men and things during two months' wandering
through the islands of Hawaii. In recording the im
pressions of Mr. E. H. Dana, the persons who are
responsible for drawing up the above reports have
quoted so much of his letters as eulogised the mis
sionaries. We have no right to complain that they
omitted further remarks commendatory of the Eoman
CathoEc clergy, and on other important subjects, which
would have been unsuitable to the objects of the Eeport,
if not unsatisfactory to the supporters, of the mission.
To the omitted portions of Mr. Dana's letters we shall
have to call attention in the latter part of this chapter.
' Before the introduction of the Gospel,' writes the Eeport of
1859, ' a feudal despotism held the mass of the people in the
most abject bondage. The land all belonged to the King ; and
all kinds of property, and even life itself, were subject to his

378 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
caprice. Under the benign influence of the Gospel a constitu
tional monarchy has been introduced. Lands have been
divided among chiefs and peoples, and a fee-simple title given.
A liberal constitution and an enlightened system of laws have
been adopted. The lower house of the legislature which meets
biennially is chosen by the universal suffrage of the people.
Regular courts of law are established throughout the Islands,
with a supreme court at the metropolis. Life and property
are as safe as in any nation of the earth. Taxes are fight, and
the government is administered on just and economical princi
ples. Industry, comfortable houses, a civilised dress, and the
other blessings of civilisation follow in the train of these
changes. Foreign aid, of various kinds, is called in to help
forward this onward progress ; but Christianity has been the
foundation and support of all these improvements.'
Claiming for Christianity the material prosperity and
advancement of the islands, the Eeport of 1860 chal
lenges comparison of their condition in the year 1820 and
the fortieth year after. In national finance, the pubEe
income in two years ending the 31st March, 1860, was
#655,866, and the expenditure #643,088. The imports
in the year 1859 were #1,089,660, and the exports
#931,329. The judicial statistics show the convictions
in 1859 to have been 4007, exhibiting a decrease of 800
on the previous year. Two-thirds of the entire number
of persons convicted were for drunkenness, fornication,
and adultery ; whilst there were only nine convictions
for burglary, and a portion of these may have been
foreigners. Attention is called to public improvements,
viz., the water-supply of Honolulu, the inter-island
steamer, the harbour dredging, &c. Coming to subjects
more cognate to the special work of a religious mission,
the income raised by the School-tax in 1859 was
#31,491.

SCHOOLS AND MISSIONS 379
The number of Free Schools in that year was . . 285
The number of scholars  8628
Schools in which English is taught . . . . iq
Native youths in the latter  804
White children in school  190
Mixed children in do.  Igg
Total number in the schools  9782
More noticeable, perhaps, is the fact that the Hawaiians
are themselves missionaries, and possess a missionary
vessel, the ' Morning Star,' which keeps up communi
cation with the stations estabEshed in the Marquesan
and Micronesian groups, making occasional visits to
other islands. The Marquesan mission is supported by
the Hawaiian 'churches,' which contributed for the
purpose #1918; the total receipts of the Hawauan
Missionary Society being #3310. The people are Eberal
in supporting their ministers and edifices, — very Eberal
considering their small means. At Lahaina the inha
bitants of the town had expended #4341 in rebuilding
their meeting-house.
We turn now to Mr. Dana's excerpted remarks,
contained in the Mission Eeport of 1860, and quote
the passage of the report which contains them in
extenso :
' It is no small thing to say of the missionaries of the American
board,' says a gentleman who visited the Sandwich Islands the
past year, and wrote from thence, ' that in less than forty years
they have taught this whole people to read and to write, to
cipher and to sew. They have given them an alphabet,
grammar, and dictionary ; preserved their language from ex
tinction ; given it a literature, and translated into it the Bible
and works of devotion, science and entertainment, &c. They
have established schools, reared up native teachers, and so
pressed their work that now the proportion of inhabitants who

380 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
can read and write is greater than in New England ; and
whereas they found these islanders a nation of half-naked
savages, living in the surf and on the sand, eating raw fish,
fighting among themselves, tyrannised over by feudal chiefs,
and abandoned to sensuality, they now see them decently
clothed, recognising the law of marriage, knowing something of
accounts, going to school and public worship with more regu
larity than the people do at home, and the more elevated of
them taking part in conducting the affairs of the constitutional
monarchy under which they live,' holding seats on the
judicial bench and in the legislative chambers, and filling posts
in the local magistracies.'
The gentleman who writes thus is Eichard H. Dana,
Esq., a respected member of the Episcopal Church, and
of the Boston Bar, who describes himself as, in the two
months spent in the Islands, ' the guest of many of the
mission families, more or less acquainted with nearly
all of them.' After commending their hospitality,
intelEgence, general information, and soEcitude for the
education of their children, he says :
' I have seen in their houses collections of minerals, shells,
plants, and flowers, which must be valuable to science ; and the
missionaries have often preserved the best, sometimes the only,
records of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and other phenomena
* and meteorological observations. Besides having given, as I
have said, to the native language an alphabet, grammar, dic
tionary, and literature, they have done nearly all that has been
done to preserve the national traditions, legends, and poetry.
But for the missionaries, it is my firm belief that the Ha
waiian would never have been a written language ; there would
have been few or no trustworthy early records, historical or
scientific ; the traditions would have perished ; the native go
vernment, would have been overborne by foreign influences :
and the interesting, intelligent, gentle race would have sunk

M. DANAS TESTIMONY 381
into insignificance, and perhaps into servitude to the dominant
whites.' The testimony is so explicit that the committee make
further extracts from the letters of Mr. Dana.
' Among the traders, shipmasters, and travellers who have
visited these islands, some have made disparaging statements
respecting the missionaries ; and a good deal of imperfect in
formation is carried home by persons who have visited only the
half Europeanised ports, where the worst view of the condition'
of the natives is presented. I visited among all classes — the
foreign merchants, traders, and shipmasters, foreign and native
officials, and with the natives, from the King and several of
his chiefs to the humblest poor whom I saw without constraint
in a tour I made alone over Hawaii, throwing myself upon
their hospitality in their huts. I sought information from all,
foreign and native, friendly and unfriendly ; and the conclusion
to which I came is, that the best men, and those who are best
acquainted with the history of things here, hold in high esteem
the labours and conduct of the missionaries.
' Doubtless the missionaries have largely influenced the legis
lation of the kingdom and its police system ; it is fortunate they
have done so. Influence of some kind was the law of the
native development. Had not the missionaries and their
friends among the foreign merchants and professional men
been in the ascendant, these islands would have presented only
the usual history of a handful of foreigners exacting everything
from a people who denied their right to anything. As it is, in
no place in the world that I have visited, are the rules which
control vice and regulate amusement so strict, yet so reason
able and fairly enforced.
'The government and the best citizens stand as a good
genius between the natives and the besieging army. As to
the interior, it is well known a man may travel alone, with
money, through the wildest spots unarmed. Having just come
from the mountains of California, I was prepared with the
usual and necessary belt and its appendages of that region,

3S2 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
but was told that these defences were unheard of in Hawaii.
I found no hut without its Bible and hymn-book in the native
tongue, and the practice of family prayer and grace before
meat, though it be over no more than a calabash of poe and a
few dried fish, and whether at home or on journeys, is as com
mon as in New England a century ago.'
These statements, with those in the Eeport of last year
(which was drawn up by one of the older missionaries, then
in this country), contain, doubtless, a correct representation
of the results of divine grace at the Sandwich Islands. Yet
so imperfect is language, and so foreign to our experience is
the social condition of the Hawaiian people, that it is difficult
to convey correct impressions concerning them, to untravelled
minds. The correspondence between the Prudential Com
mittee and their brethren at those islands on the subject of a
' native pastorate for the churches now in progress, has called
forth some affecting representations concerning that people ;
enough almost to create a doubt, whether gospel institutions
can ever become entirely self-supporting amongst them. The
more important parts of this testimony has been published in
the ' Missionary Herald.' The testimony, however, is strangely
conflicting, and we must suppose either that the character of
the people stands at very different points of elevation, on the
scale of moral purity, in different parts of the islands, or else
that the witnesses take too strong views, probably on both
sides. It must be admitted, however, that while the Chris-
tianisation of the Sandwich Islanders is as real as that of any
nominally Christian nation in the world — the proofs of a na
tional Christianity being all there — the people must needs
be far below the standard of the other Protestant Christian
nations, which have been nominally Christian for ages.
Now, we can supplement these statements with data
from other sources. The statistics given below are
from a government return, and a chief source of their
interest Ees in comparing the numbers against those

STATISTICS OP EDUCATION AND CRIME

383

of the population. In the non-census years, the number
of the people is deduced.

Years

Population

Number of
Schools

Number of
Scholars

Cost of
Schools

Average
Days each Convictions
School

1845

640

20,000

1846
18,644
#'20,000
1847
625'
19,644
'21,706
1848
87,063
527
19,028
22,319
145-8
1849
84,165
540
15,620
21,990
164-1
1850
83,988
543
15,308
25,890
153-3
1851
80,620
535
15,482
25,271
1378
1852
79,650
440
13,948
24,049
30
3043
1853
73,137
423
12,205
20,563
127-8
3173
1854
73,079
412
10,241
20,705
132-5
3571
1855
73,032
4946
1856
72,740
332
8,671
25,827
143
3932
1857
72,338
312
8,460
27,578
164
4007
1858
71,954
293
8,628
29,215
192
1859
71,275
289
8,628
34,165
179
And we select from the answers given to Mr. Wyllie's
questions these repEes, which speak greatly in favour
of the missionaries : —
Question 54. What fees, if any, are charged either by Pro
testants or Catholics for baptisms, funerals, or marriages ?
Answer. No fees have ever been charged, and no gifts are
received in this district by Protestants for any of these services
(Hilo, Hawaii), and the only exception in the answers to this
question is, that a small fee or present, half-a-dollar, is received,
sometimes, when a marriage is performed in a private house.
Question 56. What, if any, sources of jealousy exist between
the Protestant and Catholic missionaries and teachers ?
Answer. None of a personal nature exist.
Question 57. Suggestions to promote mutual concord and
charity ?
Answer. A free and full declaration of religious sentiments
on the part of each is not inconsistent with the most enlarged
384 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Christian charity. The only suggestions, therefore, to be
offered are, that free toleration of sentiments be allowed, and a
truly evangefical course pursued in propagating doctrine, and
that urbanity and Christian kindness characterise every move
ment in personal intercourse.
And now, possibly, some will ask, in respect to the
American missionaries, what lack they yet ? what are
the faults they can be charged with; and, if these be
their successes, what, and to what extent, are their
failures ?
To such questions we offer a candid and impartial
reply. The missionaries have not attained the measure
of success which might have been expected from the
long and strenuous efforts they have made. They have
not truly Christianised or regenerated the nation.
Their proceedings have been attended with grave and
obvious faults. They have been wrong in their pre
sentment of Christianity to the native mind. They '
have presented Christianity as a severe, legal, Jewish
religion, deprived of its dignity, beauty, tenderness,
and amiability. They have not made the people love
rehgion. Like the Jewish Law, their system has been
the office of a pedagogue leading children to the school
of Christ; but the scholars have attended His porch
reluctantly, and have gladly escaped from His teaching.
In their rigorous Sabbatarian view of the Lord's Day,
in their desire to enforce a Maine Equor law, and in
some other matters, they have attempted to infringe on
the natural rights of men, and have in native eyes
reproduced the detested tabu system, — the night-mare
from which the nation escaped in 1820.
They have been wrong in their hot-house plan of
forcing Christianity on an unprepared people, en
deavouring to make them run before they could walk,

ERRORS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 385
f
or even stand alone ; pouring water out of buckets on
small-mouthed phials ; and, by using the means of
secular punishments and espionage, converting the
nation into hypocrites instead of Christians. They
have been wrong in using their former great influence
with the native government, in urging a hard repressive
system of legislation. They have been wrong in some
of their views of education, especially in setting their
face against the teaching of the English language,
although they know that the civilisation and the re
ligion of Europe and America cannot be conveyed to
the people's mind in the meagre copia verborum of the
Hawaiian language, which has not words to express
ideas of every-day occurrence in the civilised world.
They have been wrong — at least, they have been un
fortunate — in the personal disquaEfications of many of
their teachers for their task, when so much of a mis
sionary's success depends upon appearance, manner,
and knowledge.
They have made, indeed, an essential mistake in their
conception of a religion, — producing it in a cold di
dactic form, with nothing to allure the heart and under
standing through the medium of the senses and aesthetic
tastes. They have not chosen to see that all religions
worthy of the name of systems, combine moral sanctions
with an outward worship. At the commencement of
the Scriptures we read of sacrifices and altars ; and in
the Apocalyptic wonders which conclude the inspired
canon, we read of elders and Eving beings worshipping
before God's throne, and the infinite choir of harpers
sending forth their everlasting melody.
It must not be supposed that these accusations are
gratuitous and unfounded. They are all based on facts
contained in many documents, and from the mouths of
c c

386 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
many witnesses. They lead to the conclusion that
reEgion stiE waits to be seen in the Hawaiian islands
in its true colours, — winning, persuasive, holy, and
altogether lovely. We proceed to adduce remarks from
several late observers.
And first we call the testimony of Mr. Dana himself,
whose impartiality we can hardly doubt, after the kind
and ample praise he has given of the missionaries, and
which we have already quoted. His remarks are con
tained in a letter to the ' New York Tribune ' news
paper. Having spoken of the CongregationaEsts, he
has something to say in commendation of the Eoman
CathoEc clergy : —
I had a letter of introduction to the Eoman Catholic Bishop
(M. Maigret), and visited several churches and schools under
their jurisdiction, which extends over all the islands of the
group. So far as I observed, the missions are successfid : the
churches are well filled, and the priests bear good reputations
for fidelity and self-denial, and several whom I met I found to
be men of thorough education. They gained, especially in
public, esteem by their conduct during the terrible visitation
of the small-pox a few years ago.
The minds of the natives of this zone of the globe peculiarly
require something to retain their attention and interest. The
missionaries have recognised this law in their schools, and find
it expedient to fix the attention of the scholars in recitation by
classes, by responsative and general reading and answers ; by
the use of figures on black boards ; and by maps and pictures.
The only system of worship and discipline which the mission
aries have introduced has been that which is known at home
as the Puritan or Independent ; and in this they have had the
field to themselves. The houses of worship are plain, naked
buildings, with pews and benches and a large desk, in which the
preacher, sometimes dressed in the tweed sack coat of the shop
and market (or, as I once saw, with the spurs on his boots),
stands to read, preach, and pray. The congregation sit through
the whole service, not only never kneeling or standing in

INDEPENDENTS AND ROMANISTS 387
prayer, but not even bending the head forward in token of
reverence. The music is solely the singing of one or two
rhyming hymns, performed by a small choir. The congrega
tion have no part in the service — they are simply listeners
from beginning to end ; young or old, learned or unlearned,
they are expected to be attentive listeners for some two
hours, without a word to say, a thing to do, a sound to utter
for themselves. My observation, after attending several
places of worship in the principal islands, is, that the natives,
except there be some stirring passage in the sermon, are
languid and easily-distracted listeners and irreverent actors.
In their family worship they kneel, and are more reverent,
being left more to their instincts. At public worship they
come in at all times, sit, look about, easily fall asleep, and
when the last prayer ends, start for the door, a good deal as a
theatre breaks up — hardly ever waiting for the benediction.
It is not difficult to see the Eoman Catholic Church, with its
open doors, free sittings, daily mass and vespers, its corps of
teaching and visiting nuns, its sacramental system, its worship
addressed to the mind and heart through the eye and ear, as
well as by the word to the understanding ; with its service,
which gives a part to all, and especially its system of commemo
rations, and, in the modern sense, its ' spiritualism ' of angels
and departed saints, has strongly enlisted the almost vacant
native faculties.
As an instance, too, of the power of the accommodation
possessed by the Eoman Catholics, it is not too small a matter
to notice that, while in the open assemblies of the American
missionaries, the natives sit on benches in constrained attitudes,
and come dressed in imitation of the European fashion, the
men in black hats, boots, tight coats and trowsers, and the
women in out-of-fashion bonnets and unaccustomed shoes, — in
the Roman Catholic places of worship, they kneel on mats and
chairs, wear the looser and easier dress of every day — the
women with bare heads, and never-failing garlands of flowers
and berries ; and young men come to the porch in straw hats
decked with flowers and green leaves.
c c 2

388 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
The subject has attracted attention in the islands. I found
that many who agreed with me in a high estimate of the good
the missionaries have done, yet felt the defects of the public
worship ; and one of the missionaries told me he had long
thought that changes must be made in their system in the
direction of the ritual and liturgy of the English Church.
Then as to internal and external personal quaEfica-
tions of the American missionaries, as compared with
those of the Eoman communion, Dr. Eae, in a series of
articles pubEshed in the 'Eolynesian' during 1861,
entitled ' Thoughts on the System of Legislation,' says
in a foot-note : —
I do not recollect having been in any mixed company in
these islands where the subject of the Protestant mission was
introduced, without hearing either a sneer, a sarcasm, or a
reproach against it. On the other hand, wherever I have been,
and with whomsoever I have met, I have never encountered
one, except in controversy, who did not speak in terms of
respect of the Catholic Priesthood. Some have expressed
surprise, that men could be found at this time of day thus
to sacrifice their lives : some have spoken of their culte
as savouring of superstition ; but aU have granted them the
praise of sincere self-devotion — all have expressed a desire that
their labours might benefit the natives. I simply note a fact —
it is for the reader to draw the conclusion.
The same writer, remarking more especially on the
hitherto prevalent system of legislation, brought about
by the missionaries, says : —
Those in the seat of power will deceive themselves into the
belief that their preaching has made true Christians of the
whole population, or, at least, that it ought to have done so ;
and they will proceed to mete out punishments against
transgressors of what they conceive to be Christian morality,
with all the severity of then- fathers in the days of the ' blue

AN INOPERATIVE RELIGION 389
laws.' A code of coercive morality will be established, which
would not be submitted to by any European or American
community, but which the Hawaiians, accustomed to bend to
the will of their superiors, will not resist, but will evade.
Prom this source a tissue of lying and deception will spring
up and spread among them, pushing its poisonous meshes
through every household, and everywhere contaminating and
destroying the native virtues of the people. For it were
altogether a mistake to imagine that virtue — though that
virtue may be of the earth earthy — does not exist in this
race. They have ever had a right and a wrong — a pono and
a pono ole — no words are more frequent in their mouths ;
and then their native virtues have hitherto sufficed to give
prosperity to the land ; to give industry to the man — fecundity
to the woman. Destroy them — give nothing better in their
place — and you take from their system every sustaining
prop, and cause it to fall to the ground in, it may be,
irremediable confusion.
Again, in commenting on the Queen's Hospital, the
editor of the ' Polynesian,' in an article dated July 6th,
1861, writes : —
There is one fact, as revealed by these reports, to which, sad
and disgraceful as it is, we must nevertheless call the attention
of the civilisers — the instructors and preachers of this people,
who think that all morality lies in the Hawaiian spelling-book,
and that the principles of civilisation culminate in vulgar
fractions; and it is this — that out of the 873 women on the
register (of public women), 220 were married women, having
lived apart from their husbands for a longer or shorter period,
while 23 were actually living with their husbands while
professedly leading a life of vice and infamy ! How low the
moral condition of these people must be it is fearful to con
template. What a mockery of the marriage institution ! How
horribly loose the bonds which sanctify and knit together
society ! What revolting examples ! What hideous prospects
for the unhappy children of such unions ! We have seen vice

390 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
and depravity in their most loathsome forms in numerous
other cities ;****** yet never was it known
before that two-thirds of the abandoned women in any place
were recruited from the marriage-bed. And where are the
husbands of these lost ones ? We hazard nothing in saying
that the greater part are living in adultery with other women.
And thus morality is undermined, and society crumbles from
its very foundations. And yet we are asked to admire and
let alone an educational system, which indirectly does not
prevent such results in this people, by leaving the religious in
struction of the young heart to the operation of chance or
of political convenience ; and that, too, when, as is well known,
and must of necessity be the case with a people so lately
emerged from barbarism, an abiding moral sentiment and
religious duty are not imbibed with the mother's milk, but
must be engrafted on the rising generation, by whatever
means — at whatever sacrifice so great an object may require.
Porty years' assiduous evangelising — two entire generations
born and bred in the Christian faith — public schools in every
l village — religious revivals almost every year — prayer-
meetings innumerable, — and yet two-thirds of the abandoned
women married persons ! The thing is incredible were it not
attested. And when we remonstrate against such a state of
things, we are called a ' crazy fanatic,' and coolly told that 'the
gradual change of time ' will repair all present ills : — in the
grave, we surmise.
We need not pursue such testimony. EeEgion as
taught by the American missionaries zealously, fiercely,
has hitherto failed to affect the hearts of the mass.
Many superior natives have doubtless submitted them
selves earnestly to the yoke, and a few guileless
Nathaniels may be reckoned among ten thousands of
professors; but the national moraEty is not what it
should be, — the nation is not regenerated.
Estranged for many years from, or originally ignorant
of, the old paths of established reEgion, the missionaries

ICED RELIGION 391
have committed mistakes, which, though lamentable,
may be pardonable in those who made them. No
wonder that the Eoman Church saw an opportunity in
this failure, and succeeded in winning a large propor
tion of the people to her banner. It is true that the
natives were perplexed at the entire difference between
two religions, each of which called itself by the name
of Christ ; and, in the homage paid before images of the
Virgin and the Saviour, thought they saw a return to
their old idolatry. But they felt the attractiveness of
the forms of worship, and they felt relief at a system of
dependence on a conscience not their own.
Obedience, says Sir James Stephen, prompt, absolute, blind
and unhesitating . . . such submission, however arduous
in appearance, is, in reality, the least irksome of all self-sacri
fices. The mysterious gift of free-will is the heaviest burthen j
of the vast multitude of mankind. . . . Men everywhere i
desire to walk by sight, not by faith — to obey the stern com
mand of a superior, if so they may be absolved from listening
to the still smaU voice of conscience — to bear the yoke of
spiritual bondage, if so they may escape the fatigue of study,
the labour of meditation, the pains of doubt, and the anxieties
of mental freedom.*
Well, the missionaries have made many mistakes,
and not among the least is the impatience they have
shown for rapid and immense results. But forty mis
sionary families, even if no earthly interest ever at
tracted them, are not numerous enough fo convert a
heathen nation in forty years to an all-permeating
Christianity. To bring up a couple of children as true
Christians may well, and almost exclusively, occupy
many years of their parents' Eves ; and can the most
zealous religionist hope that partial efforts on 80,000
* Essays. ' Founders of Jesuitism.'

392 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
human beings, surrounded by many temptations, should
be crowned with a so much larger and more rapid
success ? The mistake of the missionaries was a very
common one — they were treating symptoms instead of
the disease. Outward acts,. which were but eruptive in
dications of the inward ailment, they sought to get rid
of by a severe repressive hygiene. The disease under
which the patient suffered was one of the heart — and
the heart they had not touched, and scarcely prescribed
for. Yet, had this charge been made against the mis
sionaries, they would possibly have replied, indignantly,
that they had gone to the fountain-head of all cure ;
that they had taught the Hawaiians the highest heights
of theology ; that they had set before them the doctrines
of the Trinity, Justification, Original Sin, and that great
mystery, which ' — binding Nature fast in Fate,
Left free the human will.'
Alas! between that transcendental teaching and the
actual workings of a depraved nature, there was a great
chasm which their doctrine did not bridge over. A
more simple and parental education was required — Ene
upon Ene and precept upon precept, but patiently and
lovingly applied, and dropped like the gentle dew from
heaven. As the angler casts his fly deEcately upon the
water, watches, waits, withdraws it, and throws it again,
so the fisher of souls must by many tentative essays
perseveringly strive to catch men. Men will not be
driven into Christianity like sheep into a pen ; and the
human heart refuses to be transformed by enactments,
penalties, and imprisonments. Of means within our
own power for reEgious advancement, the contemplation
of examples is the most certain and the most powerful —

THE TEACHING OP PRACTICE 393
to gaze on hoEness in fellow-men, and, most of all, to
gaze upon the Prince of Purities, until He becomes in
pur eyes 'fairest among ten thousand, and altogether
lovely.' ' It is the burthen of Xavier's letters,' writes
Sir James Stephen, 'that the living exhibition of the
Christian character is the first great instrument- of
Christian conquests over idolatry ; and that the incul
cation of elementary truth is the second.'

394 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

CHAPTEE XXV.
GLANCES AT THE PAST AND GUESSES AT THE FUTURE
THE day upon which Hawaii has entered is one in
which the Eght is neither clear nor dark. She ranks
among the family of nations, as the last baby in a
household, when it can speak and run, is graduaEy ad
mitted into the companionship and games of its brothers
and sisters. The isolation of her position in the centre
of the ocean gives a special value and interest to the
group, but leaves it open to every assailant that chooses
to bring a frigate's broadside to bear on the capital.
Her defences must be the equal treaties of other nations,
supported by mutual jealousies, rather than the sixty
guns of the forts of Honolulu. But treaties, even, will
not guard her from the testy act of one foreign govern
ment in the absence of the others' ships of wai-, or from
piratical and filibustering expeditions. Like the mid
night puE at the house beE, the annoyer will have
vanished before the arrival of the poEce, and the whole
strength of a division will not repair the injury done to
the nerves of the disturbed inmates.
Under the guarantee of America, France, and England,
writes Sir George Simpson, referring to the period of his visit
(1843), the Sandwich islands are secured as effectually as any
other community against foreignjnterference, excepting that,

PROCLAMATIONS OF NEUTRALITY 395
from their position and the inexperience of their rulers, they
are peculiarly liable to come into collision with the very
powers that have guaranteed their independence. Their posi
tion alone, with respect to the trading interests of England and
America, will render neutrality extremely difficult, if not alto
gether impossible, in the melancholy event of a war between
those kindred States ; while any infringement of the law of
nations in this respect will be sure to lead to the occupation of
the group on the part of England, either as the avenger of her
own wrongs, or as a protector against the vengeance of America.
But, unlike this occasional danger, the inexperience of their
rulers is a rock on which they may be dashed at any time with
fatal effect ; and within these few short years the cause ha
question has placed the native government at the mercy both
of France and of England.
During the progress of the Crimean war, the possible
extension of which was uncertain, the King Kameha
meha III. issued a proclamation of neutrality, with a
prohibition to his subjects to engage, directly or indi
rectly, in privateering. Such a step may be cynically
compared to the frogs in the fable protesting against
the battle of the bulls. Admitting the similitude, it
must be granted that the danger which threatened the
Hawaiian kingdom from an European war was that
which the frogs deprecated, and theirs was a situation
in which insignificance would not act as a safeguard.
On the breaking out of hostiEties between the States
of North America, a similar manifesto was issued. The
proclamation is as follows : —
Kamehameha IV., King op the Hawaiian Islands.
Be it known to all whom it may concern, that we, Kame
hameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands, having been offi
cially notified that hostilities are now unhappily pending
between the Government of the United States and certain

396 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
States thereof styling themselves ' The Confederate States of
America,' hereby proclaim our neutrality between said con
tending parties.
That our neutrality is to be respected to the full extent of
our jurisdiction, and that ah captures and seizures made within
the same are unlawful, and in violation of oiu- rights as a
sovereign. And be it further known, that we hereby strictly prohibit
all our subjects, and all who reside or may be within our juris
diction, from engaging, either directly or indirectly, in priva
teering against the shipping or commerce of either of the
contending parties, or of rendering any aid to such enterprises
whatever ; and all persons so offending will be liable to the
penalties imposed by the laws of nations, as well as by the
laws of said States ; and they wfil in nowise obtain any pro
tection from us as against any penal consequence which they
may incur.
Be it further known, that no adjudication of prizes will be
entertained within our jurisdiction, nor will the sale of goods
or other property belonging to prizes be allowed.
Be it further known, that the rights of asylum are not
extended to the privateers or their prizes of either of the con
tending parties, excepting only in cases of distress or of com
pulsory delay by stress of weather or dangers of the sea, or in
such cases as may be regulated by treaty stipulation.
Given at our Marine Eesidence of Kailua, this 26th day of
August, a.d. 1861, and the Seventh of Our Eeign.
Kamehameha.
By the King, Kaahumanu.
By the King and Kuhina Nui,
K. C. Wyllie.
The ' Polynesian,' the government organ, in repeating
the foregoing proclamation, remarks : —
To proclaim neutrality, however, is one thing, and to

THREATENED INVASIONS 397
enforce it is another. Strong and powerful governments are
seldom imposed upon in this respect ; and when they are, they
right themselves as the occasion may call for,-— as the United
States did in the Anglo-French war with Eussia, when they
sent the English Minister his passports for violating the
neutrality of their country. But weak and small powers may
not always be in a position to repel or resent an infraction of
their neutrality. Still, if they have done their best, and shown
a proper disposition and spirit, there is no doubt that, in
justice and international law and equity, the will will be taken
for the deed, and such a power be held guiltless in the eyes of
the world.*
If, therefore, whilst the Hawauan kingdom labours
for peace, other nations make them ready to battle, the
fault does not lie at the door of the former. Peace,
with all its arts and advancements, the gentle plants
that flourish in its soil, is unmistakeably the boon for
which Hawau must earnestly pray ; but it requires all
the prudence of her rulers to avoid stepping on the
corns or the gout of the nationaEties with which she is
brought into close contact. And for the eventualities
of private invasion there can be no guarantee. Upon
two occasions already this danger has threatened. The
first of these is thus announced in the King's speech of
the 13th of April, 1852 : —
The peace of my kingdom has been threatened with an
invasion of private adventurers from California. An appeal
was made to the United States' Commissioners, which, being
promptly acted upon by Captain Gardner, of the United
States' ship 'Vandalia,' tranquillised the public mind. I have
taken some measures to create a military force. * * * *
Such a force is considered indispensable, to enable me to
protect efficiently the fives and property of all who live under
* ' Polynesian,' Sept. 14, 1861.

398 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
my dominion. It will be for you to provide the means of
maintaining such a force permanently, so as that the very
defencelessness of my kingdom may not invite the evil-disposed
to invade it.
On the second occasion of danger the King issued a
proclamation — the last made before his death : —
Whereas, it has come to my knowledge from the highest
official sources, that my government has been recently
threatened with overthrow by lawless violence ; and, whereas,
the representatives at my Court of the United States, Great
Britain, and France, being cognizant of these threats, have
offered me the prompt assistance of the naval forces of their
respective countries ; I hereby publicly proclaim my ac
ceptance of the aid thus proffered in support of my sovereignty.
My independence is more firmly established than ever before.
Kamehameha.
Palace, 8th December, 1854.
Reading the future by the past, the necessity for
keeping up some miEtary defences and a small standing
army seems to be established. The very efficient vo
lunteer rifle corps, now of several years' standing, and a
considerable body of police, render a large number of
regular troops unnecessary. The inherent courage of
the race would, with a very Ettle preparation, offer a
strong resistance to attempts of violence.
In the contest of progress in the arts and civilisation,
the monarchs of the dynasty of Kamehameha have
shown themselves determined not to be kings of Colo-
phonia. Indeed, their avid adoption of the luxuries and
etiquette of European nations appeared for many years
precocious and disproportioned to the general state of
the nation. The passion of the chiefs for European
luxuries was remarked by Beechey when he visited the
islands in 1827, and was the more extraordinary at that

PRECOCIOUS CIVILISATION 399
time in a nation which had so lately emerged from bar
barism. He mentions that articles of American manu
facture, the productions of the China market, wines, &c,
were found in the stores or shops of Honolulu. There
were at that period two hotels and two billiard rooms.
KaahUmanu's house was furnished with silk and velvet
sofas and cushions. She had chests filled with the most
costly silks of China. The chief Boki paid three thou
sand dollars for a service of plate to be presented to
the King, notwithstanding he had other services for the
table in his possession, one of which was of expensive
cut glass from Pellatt and G-reen in London. The King
was always attended by a guard under arms. Admiral
Beechey remarks on the unusual advance which had
been made in the islands so remote and holding so little
intercourse with the civilised world, and he expresses a
hope that it may not prove too rapid to be advanta
geous to the country, which had already several ex
pensive estabEshments to maintain and extravagant
ideas to satisfy.* In education he thought the pro
gress slower 'than every well-wisher of the country
could desire. . . . Many of the natives remain
ignorant even of the nature of the prayers they
repeat; and in other subjects are entirely uninstructed.
The missionaries appear to be very anxious to diffuse a
due knowledge of the tenets of the Gospel among all
the inhabitants, and have laboured much to aocompEsh
their praiseworthy purpose ; but the residents in Hono
lulu well know what little effect their exertions have
produced, probably on account of the tutors having
mistaken the means of diffusing education. In the
Sandwich islands, as in all other places, there is a mania
* ' Voyage of the " Blossom," ' ii. 97, et seq.

400 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
for everything new, and, with due reverence to the
subject, this was very much the case with reEgion in
Honolulu, where almost every person might be seen
hastening to the school with a slate in his hand, in the
hope of being able soon to translate some part of the
palapala (Scriptures).' At a later period the adoption
of the code of etiquette of Vienna showed 'an un
bounded stomach' to rank with old and advanced
nations. The method and language of the diplomatic
correspondence of the Hawaiian government has called
forth expressions of surprise and praise in Paris. At
the present time, crinoline is as expansive, rooms as well
Eghted, evening assembEes and morning picnics as
agreeable, and beauty probably more abundant in
Honolulu than in London and other capitals. Whether
these things are desirable is another matter. Older
civilisations, those which eventuaEy enlarged themselves
and became permanent, began in a hardy plainness,
and slowly ' degreed themselves ' in conveniences and
luxury. Marco Polo found the nomadic population of
Tartary using paper-money. This prophetic dash at
currency science has not made the hordes advance in
other respects. The Eon money of Sparta was perhaps
as desirable in her early days as if her sons had carried
about notes issued by the Bank of Lacedaemon. Indeed,
restraint is necessary even in national progress, lest a
spurious and showy external cover a low and inchoate
civilisation in essential things. To desire to advance
in arts and poEteness is good, but the feet must not run
as fast as the aspirations.
Were the crawling caterpillar to feel within himself the
wings that are to be, and to be haunted with the intuitive
forebodings of the time when he shall hover above flowers and
meadows, and expatiate in heavenly air — yet the wisdom of

TRANSITIONAL STATE OF TRADE 401
that caterpillar would be to remember his present business on
the leaf — to feed on green herbs and weave his net, lest, losing
himself in dreams, he should never become a winged insect
at all* The advance of national prosperity, as indicated by
income and expenditure, has been, on the whole, satis
factory. It is an undisputed fact that commerce is in
every country subject to fluctuations, and that its
periods of exaltation and depression have something of
the regularity of cycles. It is wise, therefore, not to
over-estimate the permanence of high activity, or to
despair when the tide runs out, as if it never would
return. But these violent fluctuations have their use
in throwing commercial energy into new directions.
The Hawauan Islands had grown to depend too exclu
sively on the great North Pacific whaling fleet. In
providing meat, vegetables, and some other articles for
the whalers, ready markets were found on its shores,
and the activity of the people for good and for evil was
on the surface of the islands, whilst interior resources
were much, neglected. The whales, thinking that
fishing had been carried to fanaticism or from other
motives, began, three years ago, to forsake their habitat.
Disappointment and loss to those engaged in the pur
suit was the consequence, and year after year the trade
of Hawau declined. The tables of imports and exports
show a corresponding diminution in their figures ; and
as the scarcity of whales appears to have become per
manent, some of the business houses have withdrawn
from the islands ; the fine herds on the pastures are
comparatively worthless, and are being replaced with
sheep, rice, and other sources of wealth. Things are in
* ' Eobertson's Lectures on Cor.'
D D

402 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
a state of transition, painful at the moment, but fraught
with future benefit. If the Hawanans resolutely turn
their faces inland, and ' develop the resources of their
islands,' the present pinch wiE do more for their
eventual prosperity, and effect more moral change, than
if the whales had laid their prejudices aside and had
continued to be caught in greater numbers than before.
The following Table of revenue and expenditure
between the years 1845 and 1860 exhibits a fair fiscal
progress; not indeed uniform, but, on the contrary,
indicating one or two panic years, with a consequent
sudden fluctuation. The last two biennial periods
show that the decrease of whaEng success was teEing
upon the commercial prosperity of the islands.
The imports, as far as they depend on home con
sumption, have been no doubt affected, also, by the decay
of the population ; but the degree to which the defect
in numbers has acted cannot be so well ascertained, be
cause although the people have been, till lately, decreas
ing, new customers among the islands have been brought
into contact with foreign productions by the opening
of roads and facilities for inter-island communication.
There is a great deal of locomotive activity among the
Hawaiians. Thus in the first nine months of 1861,
5,093 passengers arrived at Honolulu by saiEng vessels,
and 3,762 by steamer, making together 8,855 passengers.
As an equal number may be supposed to have left the
capital in the same time, the entire number of pas
sengers during the three first quarters of the year wiE
be 17,716, or nearly one-fourth of the population.
During the same period 489 persons arrived at Hono
lulu from abroad, and as many left. This internal
communication is Ekely to increase, and another steamer
is intended to commence running among the islands.

Table of Public Income and Expenditure in the Hawaiian Islands, from, the year
1845 to 1860 inclusive.

Foreign Imposts

Internal
Commerce (Excise)

Internal Taxes

Total Revenue
from all
Sources.

Expenditure

1845 18461847 1848
1849 1850185118521852185318531854

#61,144-42

'. 73,947-08 12,353-80

$ 27,638-42

] (from 1st March 1852 to 1st Jan. 1853) .
] (from 1st Jan. 1853 to 1st Jan. 1854)
jggg ] (from 1st Jan. 1854 to 1st Jan. 1855)
Jggg 1 (from 1st Jan. 1855 to 1st Jan. 1856)
1858 } (from lst Jan- 1856 t0 April 1858) "
1860 } (from 31st Malel1 1858 10 3lst Mardl 186°)

118,901-38140,131-79 68,699-72
139,457-59135,797-30146,171-17
231,201-23213,209-08

22,514-7525,194-4922,065-1426,769-8535,157-5037,766-47
63,471-5362,528-26

52,455-26
57,3601638,117-93
43,033-1845,057-5883,579-27
134,30609108,841-85

#138,352-44 153,242-20
196,751-34 215,430-42166,286-41301,576-61
330,546-03
385,993-95234,169-44
336,386-77 393,984-75473,565-34667,138-03
656,215-92

#138,352-44 161,678-91 183,546-63
166,480-20
179,034-34
250,707-56 330,408-67
224,272-77 265,195-36
339,647-67424,778-24
f 666,788-79 or
[ 296,350-57 pr. An.
643,088-40 or
321,544-20 pr.An.

404

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

In a former chapter a table of population was given,
with deduced numbers for those years in which no
census was taken ; those figures lead to the inference
that the downward progress of the people has at last
ceased, and that the coming years may present more
cheering results.*
The foEowing Tables exhibit the import trade of the
Sandwich Islands in the years 1845 to 1859, and the
shares which the several nations have contributed with
whom there has been a direct trade : — #546,939 598,391
710,143 605,114 729,734
1,035,0531,791,080 619,635
1,375,1301,540,6971,334,430
1,118,614 873,134759,383
1,173,366
Participation of Foreign nations in the direct import
trade during the same period : —
America (United States) : Atlantic and Pacific ports . . #8,635,405
Great Britain : British ports and colonies .... 2,897,380
France : French ports direct  71,937

Value of imports in 1845

, 1846

, 1847

ji

, 1848

, 1849

M

, 1850

, 1851
JJ
, 1852
}»
, 1853
, 1854
)J
1855
„
, 1856
»»
, 1857
it
, 1858
ij
, 1859
* It is quite certain that population will increase in the direction of
half breeds, of fairer skin than their mothers, — but whether with higher
virtues remains to be tested. The half-blood race in Mexico has certainly-
not led to the conclusion of great good arising from human hybridising;
but the future is all uncertain. Strange things have happened, and do
happen, and in the last twelve months a mule has given birth to a fine
foal in the islands.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS 405
Bremen  #422,441
Chae  . . 521,631
Central America  4 593
China  995,734
Fanning's island  8 822
Hamburg  378il05
Kamschatka and Sitka  53,863
Mexico^  70,768
Philippine islands  109 145
Society islands  106,693
Sea. Whalers ; and from other Ports .... 530,377
Japan  1;108
Peru  175
Ascension island  220
Jarvis' island  1,421
Marquesas islands ... .... 15
French Frigate Shoals  955
M'Kean's island ... .... 55
Total  #14,810,843
In 1860, the value of imports was #1,223,749, and
the value of exports #807,459.
The export trade during the first three quarters of
the year 1861 consisted of,
Domestic produce, value #299,297
Foreign „ „ 136,330
Supplies to Whalers „ 15,262
Total „ #450,889
The value of exports for the whole year may be
roughly estimated at #600,000, besides transhipments.
These figures certainly show a considerable decEne of
commerce, Jbut on a nearer examination of them the
falEng off is not so great as is apparent at first sight.
Compared with the same three quarters of the previous
year, the domestic produce exported has increased by
#35,377. The principle article on which the excess is
fbundin 1861, is sugar, of which 2,387,3861bs. (1,065

406 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
tons) were exported, against 1,444,271 lbs. (645 tons)
in 1860. During the year 1861, increased attention
has been paid to rice, and a considerable quantity of
land has been thrown into its cultivation. Its quaEty
is said to be equal to the finest CaroEna. The sugar
and coffee also grown in Hawau are of very fine quaEty.
The coffee plantations had suffered for three successive
years very greatly from the bEght which infests the
plants in Ceylon, called the white and the black bug.
The last accounts from the islands bring the intelEgence
that the new coffee crop promises to be a good one, and
that a large quantity had been picked, being chiefly
the first yield from young trees. The young trees do
not suffer so readily from the bEght ; and as there is
abundance of land applicable to coffee-growing, a
succession of young crops may probably be resorted to,
till the scourge has been eradicated from the old trees
by running sheep among them, thinning plantations,
and other experimental means.
Coffee and sugar, then, with wool and hides, may be
set down as the great future staples of the islands.
The sugar cane, says a very late observer, continues to
grow for two years, and attains a size which is almost
incredible. The quantity raised per acre is about two
tons ; but four and even six tons have often been ob
tained. As labour, including the labourer's food, costs
only eight dollars per month, and as the sugar commands
in the San Francisco market eight and nine cents, per
pound (fourpence and fourpence halfpenny), the
profit on this article is very great. Tobacco, though
it grows freely, is affected, apparently, by the nature of
the soE, and its quaEty is not so good as to promise
great or profitable results for its cultivation.
The Indigo plant, which is indigenous and exists as a

STAPLE PRODUCTS OF THE ISLANDS 407
troublesome and ineradicable weed over the islands,
will probably prove of greater importance. Knowledge
and capital are required for utilising this valuable
plant, and those are advantages which the coming years
must bring with them.
Cotton, the watchword of the day, is beginning to
receive attention. The natives inhabiting the district of
Kau, Hawaii, are planting cotton extensively on their
mountain side, and it flourishes admirably. A mercan
tile house is buying up the article largely, paying eight
cents per pound, cash (fourpence) — ¦ a remunerative
price to the growers in a cheap country as to labour.
Silk is cultivated in small quantities. -The morus
papyrifera abounds in parts of the islands. From the
native grapes a fair wine is made. The proof of wine
is in the drinking; and none has yet reached this
country. Some beautiful woods adapted for cabinet-making
grow in the forests. Specimens have been received of
articles made of the Koa and Kau wood. It was hoped
that these woods would form part of the products shown
at the International Exhibition of 1862 ; and at the
same time that there would be exhibited the magnetic
sand, and the Echen called pulu : it proves, unfortu
nately, that no Hawaiian products will be received in
time for exhibition.
On the whole, the future looks smiling as to the com
mercial and, consequently, the fiscal, prosperity of the
islands. Even the right whales appear to be returning
to their old haunts, and though during the past autumn
season the number of vessels engaged in fishing has
been greatly reduced, the average of results is materi
ally higher. It is not desirable, however, that after a
temporary suffering from the falling off of this trade, the

408

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

energy which has been thrown into internal resources
and industry should be checked, or again largely
diverted to the more transient and often hurtful trade
of the coasts and extremities of the country. The
national revenue has suffered, and it may be some years
before internal production will replace the immediate
income derived from customs, duties, &c. Having this
state of things in view, the government have wisely de
termined to make large reductions in every branch of
public expenditure capable of contraction : and as they
are thus endeavouring to meet the times, the outer
pubEe, on its part, urges the necessity for economy. The
avoidance of pubEe debt is the more important in a coun
try of high interest. The use of money commands from
one per cent, per month to twenty per cent, per annum
and even higher rates of interest. The following Table,
showing the fluctuations "of interest from 1846 to 1860,
was prepared by the registrar of public deeds and con
veyances : —
MnnMinu: and Maximum Kates of Imterest on Promissory Notes,
secured by Bond and Mortgage.
Minimum Rate Maximum Rate
1846 . . 0-5 per. cent per. month 1 per cent per month
I 1-5
2
4-55
3
2
3 5

1847 1S4818491850
18511852'
1853 1854
18551856
1857
185818591860 1861

4 2
2-5 1 1-25

INTEREST OF MONET — JOURNALS 409
With regard to journalistic literature in the islands,
the f Polynesian ' has ceased to be a government institu
tion, though still selected by government for semi-offi
cial purposes. The ' Commercial Advertiser ' continues
to reflect in strong colours the views of the American
missionary party, and constitutes itself ' His Majesty's
Opposition.' The ' Hae Hawaii ' and another small paper
in the native language circulate amongst the people ;
and a new journal of more ambitious pretensions and
of more enlarged views has just been started, also in
native, under the name of the Hoku o Ka Pakipika —
'The Star of the Pacific.'
On a retrospect of the moral changes which have
taken place in the Hawauan people, we are struck with
the extreme vigour with which, in the year 1820, the
nation Eberated itself from the thraldom of an ancient
and universal idolatry. It was an act which stands
alone upon the page of history. The whole transaction
¦remains — ' A truth so strange, 'twere bold to think it true,
If not still bolder far to disbelieve.'
The overthrow of idolatry shows that the Hawaiian
race possesses not only great energy of character but
some unusual idiosyncrasies, capable of being turned
to bad or good account. There was a dumb and scep
tical reasoning going on in the popular mind about
their pantheon, its worthlessness, its falsity. The system
was withering in their estimation, and required but a
spark to enkindle it with a destructive fire, in which it
was consumed with the rapidity of a heap of crackEng
thorns and dry leaves. Then their hatred to it as a
system broke out amain, and the unutterable groanings
Which their spirits had been subject to under the,

410 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
oppression of priestcraft, and especiaEy the tabu institu
tion, found a voice in action. With regard to idolatry
itself, whatever may have been the best aspect of
paganism, seen in the halo of Grecian art and inteEectual
cultivation, with uncivilised peoples it always takes the
form of a cruel and .bloodthirsty system. The King
of Dahomy, who sacrifices two thousand victims at once
as a holocaust to his deceased father; the Tahitan
King, who was accustomed to tread on the warm bodies
of slain men each time he landed on any of his islands ;
and the mis-shapen idol Pele of the Hawaiians, to
which rites of blood were performed, are among the
instances of this general tendency. In HaWau it has
been seen that the whole structure feE to pieces at the
first gEmmering approach, the faintest twiEght rays of
Christianity and mental enEghtenment, — or rather,
before the watching eye could detect in the sky any
beams of the Sun of Eighteousness. The trooping
ghosts were ready to retire and crouch in their con
genial darkness. 'Ev $e <j>aei teal oXeairov.
The change of character produced by the aboEtion of
idolatry, and the reception of Christian truths imperfectly
understood, and Christian practice imperfectly accepted
as it was, was marked and wonderful. From a fierce
people deEghting in war, the Hawaiians became gentle
and peaceable; their very countenance softened in
expression, and hospitality and kind affections sprang
up vigorously throughout the islands. It was not, how
ever, that the people became saints or sages. Their
hearts were not the rasa tabula which the reEgious
theorist so earnestly desires. They were pages scribbled
over with many evil and stubborn Enes which had first

EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 411
to be erased. But still there is something very hopeful
in that mixed character. The Hawaiians are not dull
and torpid ; and they can love ; — that is something.
Let it be seen what will be the effect upon the nation
at large as the services and teaching of the Church are
generally extended among them ; services that have a
warmth in them ; which give the worshippers a part to
take ; that symboEse with decent forms and sympathetic
attitudes the humiliation, the gratitude, the praise, the
petition, as they come in their oft-repeated round. Let
it 1* seen what the effect upon their minds will be
when gathered within the walls of a temple solemn
yet cheerful, cared for, but accessible to all at all times —
a church in which art walks as the handmaid of reEgion,
and never arrogates to herself the higher place. Let
them mingle their voices with the diapasons of the
organ; let them hear the invitation of the bell as it
chimes its gracious welcome. Let spire, and cross,
and ornate doorway be there, and a meaning be set on
each part, till the people come to love the gift which
this country is prepared to make them, and say of their
Church, 'this is none other than the house of God,
and this is the gate of heaven ! '

413

APPENDIX

CORAL ISLANDS

IT is the general assumption that coral islands are built up
from the bottom of the ocean by the unaided labour of
lithophytes. Doubts of this fact have, however, been enter
tained and expressed. Captain Wilkes, who commanded the
United States Exploring Expedition (1838 — 1842), has stated
his decision, that coral islands cannot possibly be entirely the
work of zoophytes. He pronounces the labours of these minute
animalcule inadequate to produce effects so enormous, and
says- that the appearance of the reefs themselves contradicts
such a presumption ; and he adds that Darwin's ingenious
theory of an equal growth and subsidence of coral taking place
is at variance alike with the configuration, extent, and general
construction of the reefs. Darwin argues thus: — From the
limited depth at which reef-building polypifers can. flourish,
one ought to conclude that both in atolls and barrier-reefs the
foundation to which the coral primarily is attached has sub
sided, and that during the gradual depression of the base of the
coral, reefs have grown upward. He says this will satisfac
torily explain their outline, general form, and distribution ;
that the existence of reefs and islands dispersed in large tracts
of ocean, which islands and reefs are formed by the growth of
kinds of coral, the insects of which cannot live at great depths,
is inexplicable, except on the theory that the base to which the
reefs are first attached slowly and successively sinks whilst the
corals grow upwards ; that no positive facts are opposed to this
view, &c. (' Voyages of the Beagle.')
E we consider the stupendous workmanship required to

414 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
upheave a reef hundreds of miles in length, — and such exist :
that on the north-east coast of New Holland and New Cale
donia extending four hundred miles, — or islands many hundred
square miles in area, and befieve the hthophytes' labour to be
a sufficient cause, it requires a credulity as to Nature's workings
such as commonly existed before the time of Bacon and even that
of Boyle, but which has since been rebuked by experimental
philosophy. Soundings made by Beechey, Flinders, and others,
show that depths of two and three hundred feet of water some
times occur near the raised reef, within the enclosure of lagoon-
islands, whilst outside the depth is often unfathomable. Wilkes
found no bottom with a fine of 150 fathoms (900 feet) at that
distance from the perpendicular cliffs of Aurora Island ; and
Dana says that within three-quarters of a mile from the
southern point of the island of Clermont Tonnere, the lead
brought up suddenly at 350 fathoms (2,100 feet) and then
dropped off again and descended to 600 fathoms (3,600 feet)
without reaching bottom. The lagoons within the circular
reefs are, however, generally shallow in comparison, and a
great depth inside is exceptional.
In the Indian Ocean and Coral Sea still deeper soundings
have been made than those mentioned. Dr. Maury (' Physical
Geography of the Sea ') quotes a letter from Mr. Brooke stating
that the sounding-rod reached bottom in the Indian Ocean with
a line of 7,040 fathoms (42,240 feet). It must, however, be
observed that the length of line alone does not express the per
pendicular distance, as there is always a driftage of the line,
sometimes a very great one. Maury mentions a specimen of
the bed of the Coral Sea brought up with Brooke's sounding-
rod at a reported depth of 2,150 fathoms, — two miles and a
half. Mr. Cheever, in his volume on Hawaii,* has given an
interesting chapter on the subject of coral formations. He
reasons that as some of the reefs, lagoons, and islands of coral

* ' Life in the Sandwich Islands ; or, the Heart of the Pacific,' &c.
By the Rev. H. T. Cheever. London, 1851.

GALVANO-ELECTRIC THEORY 415
rock rise from the sea-bottom at an unfathomable depth, to the
conditional height required for the hthophytes to work, the
lower portion or foundation must be produced by different and
independent causes; and he seeks such agencies in sudden
submarine galvanic action, sufficient to separate from the water
of the ocean and deposit ridges and piles composed of lime and
other substances existing in sea- water in enormous quantities,
and so universally diffused as to be ever at hand for any pur
pose. Giving full weight to the amount of material combined
with or in solution in the water of the depths of ocean, it is,
nevertheless, difficult to conceive a single voltaic action (and it
must be single or the effect would not follow) sufficiently
strong to raise from the bottom a ridge of separated lime many
thousand feet in height, and having a base wide enough to
support such a superstructure. As an auxiliary argument
Mr. Cheever quotes the opinion of another missionary in the
South Seas, Mr. Williams, who puts forward a theory that the
calcareous coverings of marine molluscs are not necessarily
secreted by the animals themselves, but suggests that they only
secrete a sort of gluten, to which calcareous particles in the
water adhere, and form a shell. Mr. Williams had probably
in his thoughts the common caddis worms found in fresh
water. Mr. Cheever goes on to say : — ' Eet there be a
chemical precipitation of the minute calcareous particles float
ing in sea-water, by any means, and there might be formed a
reef — agreeably to the experiment in which the passing of a
stream of electric fluid through water having calcareous and
siliceous particles in solution produces stone. The lightning
in tropical regions, and the electric fluid engendered by sub
marine and other volcanoes which abound in the South Seas,-
may thus produce an effect adequate to the formation of those
wonderful and invaluable structures. This is a much more
rational theory to account for the existence of immense coral
reefs and coral islands in the Pacific than that alluded to above,
which supposes them wholly the work of saxigenous polypes
or lithophytes.'
We need not commit ourselves to the lightning theory, or to

416 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
that which supposes the inorganic matter suspended in sea-
water to become organic by mere adhesion and agglutination
to a living animal, to admit readily that the quantity of mate
rial suspended in sea-water is sufficient for the production of
very extensive formations; and that its elimination is very
rapid. Its lime, magnesia, soda, &c, are diffused so generally
and so abundantly, that there wants but the creative word and
the necessary condition, to cause them- to pass into our sight as
organic forms. The growth of shelled animals in tropical seas is
astonishingly rapid. A friend informs me that, when an officer
on board one of the East India Company's ships, in 1819, on a
voyage from Singapore to China by the eastern passage, the
vessel off the south coast of Borneo passed through, during
calm weather, continuous tracts of slimy water. Several
streaks or planks of the ship about the water-line became
covered with small gelatinous substances, — apparently derived
from the slimy water. In a short time these substances
became small shells, of the Lepas or barnacle kind ; and at the
end of about four weeks the cephalopods had completely coated
that part of the vessel, from stem to stern. They were of all
lengths, up to one and a half and two inches ; and it was found
necessary to take advantage of a calm day to lower all the
boats, and to scrape off these rapidly-increasing obstacles to
the sailing of the ship. I have myself, quite recently, seen
brought on shore on the English coast, two pieces of wood,
each about the size of the two open hands, studded as closely
with barnacles as the peduncles could be packed, and of greater
length than those of the Indian Seas just described.
All this growth proceeded from inorganic material in the
water selected and transformed into organic matter by a vital
process, as soon as the necessary opportunity for adhesion pre
sented itself. The mference follows, that if the accidental
passage of a ship afforded the condition sufficient to reveal or
cause organic life to so large an extent, the amount of possible
fife, even in the one field traversed, that did not receive the
proper conditions for its developement, must have been enor
mous. What, then, must be the entire chemical potentialities

LAGOON AND CHAIN ISLANDS 417
of the ocean for producing solid matter ? Other shelled
molluscs and infusoria, unlike those described, may not require
for their production and developement adhesion to fixed or
floating substances. Their production may go on in the water,
unaided by such conditions, rapidly and with constancy. Each
individual in its short existence transforms inorganic matter
into the beautiful forms of ammonites, naviculas, nummulites,
&c. ; and after the animal's death, the shell sinks. At a short
distance below the surface of the sea its waters, free from agi
tating winds and currents, probably remain in stagnant immo
bility ; and in those depths, during ages untold, the two pro
cesses of formation of shells and their quiet deposit go on.
Thus will have been produced the wonderful chalk deposits,
hundreds of feet in thickness, all parts of which showing, under
the microscope, that they are mainly composed of entire shells
or the detritus of shells. In a similar manner the emery stone
may have been formed from the beautiful siliceous wing-cases
of diatomaceaa.
Several passages in Dr. Maury's valuable contribution to
science, his Physical Geography of the Sea, are so con
firmatory of the preceding remarks, and are in themselves so
interesting, that I have selected and strung together at the end
of this chapter some detached portions of his work which bear
upon the subjects herein treated of.
It is, in fact, to volcanic action that we must look for the
production of long ridges and vast circular reefs forming chain
and lagoon islands rising from the profound depths of the
ocean. Darwin, whilst he dismisses the volcanic hypothesis,
says, ' the theory generally received is that lagoon-islands or
atolls are based on submarine craters.' * Wilkes remarks that
all the coral islands lie within an ocean subject to the effects
of volcanic action ; and his presumption is that many islands
and groups now separated, were once united in extensive tracts
of land, and that their alteration and dismemberment have
been brought about by the same causes that affect other lands, f
* Voyages of the Beagle.
t United States Exploring Expedition.
E E

418 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
The late Admiral Beechey, in his Narrative of a Voyage
to the Pacific, states that he examined fifty coral islands, and
that for thirty-two of them he sent plans, soundings, &c, to
the Admiralty. He is, consequently, entitled to form an
opinion upon their character and origin. Twenty-nine of
these thirty-two islands had lagoons in their centres, and the
rest appeared to have once possessed an internal depression,
but which had become obliterated by having been filled up
with coral and such substances as the sea casts upon these low
islands. He says, ' the general opinion now is that they have
their foundations upon submarine mountains, or upon extin
guished volcanoes, which are not more than four or five hun
dred feet immersed in the ocean ; and that their shape depends
upon the figure of the base whence they spring.'* He also
detected in what were called Chain-islands, consisting of a
number of islets grouped in a circular or oval form, that the
visible islets were only the higher portions of a ridge having
that general shape ; and that the ridge was continuous at forty
and thirty fathoms below water, and even at less depths. The
comparatively large group of the Gambier Islands, of which a
eareful plan with soundings is given in his volumes, is, in all
probability, the irregular wall of a very large submarine vol
cano. The islands which rise in the central space are probably
cones, which are always thrown up within craters in activity.
In most, or all, cases a current sets out from the lagoon within
a coral island through an opening in the wall or ridge ; and
the hiatus in the reef is nearly always on the windward side.
Its place is sometimes determined by the course of fresh water,
when there are springs on these islands, as the Hthophytes do
not work or live within the influence of fresh water. Beneath
the gaps, as has already been said, at some fathoms' depth, the
ridge even in these places is continuous.
The circular ridges forming lagoons and chains of islands
must, then, be regarded as the walls of craters. Above water
these are illustrated by the rocky ridges of immense diameter
which surround the craters of Kileaua and Hale-a-ka-la,
* Vol. i. p. 261.

GROWTH. OF CORAL 419
described in the text of this volume. They represent a
lagoon-island, only still farther elevated, and discharged of the
water it enclosed.
The straight reefs or ridges must be looked upon as having
been lifted up by linear volcanic action, or ejected from fissures
formed in the crust of the globe, as the outer strata in cooling
contracted upon the incompressible core within. The process
may be seen by allowing a poker to heat to redness in the fire
and remain long enough for the surface to become well oxi
dised. On exposure to the air, the incrustation on the metal
cools first, and is caused by the hot unelastic iron beneath to
split with irregular fissures, and
to fall off. Apply this to the
earth. Let a and b represent ,=_  -.
portions of the cool and con
tracted crust. Let c be the in
ternal fluid mass ; e the fissure '
formed in consequence of the
crust contracting on the incompressible core. The arch of
cohesion being broken, one side of the fracture will be free
to gravitate downwards and fall in, displacing an equivalent
of fluid matter, which will be ejected in a form the section of
which is that of an unequal prism, d. Let the fissure take the
direction north and south, and Andes and CordiUeras are pro
duced, with unequal sides, a scalene triangle in section,
descending rapidly with a short base of detritus into the ocean
depths on one side ; spreading out gradually, or in waves, on
the other side. Such cosmic agonies are not without visible
and audible phenomena, tempered according to depth, if below
water; agitating the ocean, and throwing huge waves on to
shores with corresponding retirements, until the disturbance
has subsided and the equilibrium is regained. Earthquakes
and waterquakes are also the attendants of these fractures, which
are now only on a small scale compared with the gigantic
fissures which formed the continuous range of Andes and Eocky
Mountains, the spine of North and South America ; the Lidian
Ghauts, &c. E E 2

420 HAWAIIAN. ISLANDS
A ridge, whether longitudinal or circular, having been
uplifted sufficiently near the surface of the sea, offers the
condition proper for coral formation. It seems necessary that
the hthophytes be covered generally with water, but the depth
of water must not be tocgreat. Light appears essential to
the polyps ; and it is probable that it is the loss of light at
considerable depths, which limits their workmanship to certain
distances below water. The rapidity of coral formation is in
opposite ratio with the depth of water in which it proceeds.
Thus, in water from three to ten fathoms deep, the coral
attains its average height, viz., ten to twelve inches, in eight
years. Ten years are required for an equal growth in fifteen
fathoms ; twenty-five or thirty years where the depth is in
creased to 100 fathoms (600 feet) ; whilst at 900 feet, at least
forty years are occupied in producing the same height of coral.
It is presumable that below a thousand feet of water the pro
duction of coral does not take place. In the Mediterranean
and Eed Seas, coral is never met with in less than about ten
feet of water, nor at a greater depth than 900 feet ; but in the
Pacific, Mr. Cheever mentions having collected at the island of
Molokai, Sandwich Islands, fine living specimens from a reef
which never had more than two feet of water on it, and which
must sometimes at low water have been laid bare. An even
temperature of 76 degrees Fahr. seems most congenial to the
growth of coral.
The coral stem is very destructible: it is quickly .abraded
by tides and currents, and is found pierced in every part by
worms. Its attachment at the base is easily overcome. It
becomes pulverised and mixed with chalk and sand, and with
other organisms ; and in this state it forms the amorphous part
of the coral rock, and itself the foundation for a fresh growth
of coral, rising from its surface, each successive growth being
not more than twelve inches in height. Even the amorphous
coral rock is based on a deposited substratum of rock less
organised than itself. ' The more solid and compact texture
of the rock, often stratified, would also lead one to ascribe it to
a different origin from the corals, whose exact and beautiful
cellular structure evinces an animal agency as plainly as the

GROWTH OF CORAL 421
honeycomb of a bee-hive. It is therefore unnecessary to
suppose the calcareous coral rock either secreted by insects, or
the exuvias of insects, or the dead bodies of insects themselves ;
but they are simply carbonate of lime precipitated from the
sea-water which holds its particles in solution, mixed and
cemented together with broken shells and pieces of coral.'
Such rocks are the true base of the coral islands, where the
base is not volcanic or a platform of chalk or inorganic rock
lifted up above the general sea-bottom. It is one of the most
established cosmical processes that elevations and depressions
of the crust of the earth are constantly taking place — some
rapid, as by volcanoes and earthquakes, others slow and
gradual, acting through long or secular periods. Thus some
shores of the Baltic are rising with a very minute yearly ele
vation. Ln volcanic regions the alterations of level are often
sudden and conspicuous. The island of Molokai, one of the
Hawaiian group, bears evidence of rapid local elevation ; well-
defined coral being found on it at the height of 500 feet above
the sea-level. A missionary reports a statement made by the
natives of Kauai that a bed of coral or coral sand exists on one
of the mountains there, 4,000 feet above the ocean. Beechey
describes Henderson's Island as bearing unmistakeable symp
toms of having been raised. It is composed of dead coral,
elevated eighty feet above the sea, and having perpendicular
cliffs nearly all -the way round it ' as if, after being formed in
the ocean, it had been pushed up by a subterranean convul
sion.' It is now nearly encompassed by a reef of living coral.*
Maiden's island, mentioned in the earlier part of the text
of this work, was examined by Captain Goddard during the
year 1861. It indicates by seven distinct beaches or
water-lines, six successive elevations since its first emergence
from the ocean, the last upheaval being so recent, that paths
made from the higher platform where the remains of human
dwellings appear, pass through six of the beaches on their way
to the sea, and invariably terminate before reaching the seventh
beach. * Narrative, vol. i. p. 264.

422 HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
The following excerpted passages from Maury's Physical
Geography of the Sea will form a proper and interesting
pendent to the chapter.
I was delighted to find that all these deep soundings are filled
with microscopic shells : not a particle of sand or gravel exists in them.
They are chiefly made up of little calcareous shells (Foraminiferce), and
contain also a small number of siliceous shells {Diatomacea).
' It is not probable that these animals lived at the depths where these
shells are found, but I rather think that they inhabit the water near the
surface ; and when they die, their shells settle to the bottom.' — (Letter
from Professor Bailey, of West Point).
These shells were from the great telegraphic plateau, and the infer
ence is that there, if anywhere, the waters of the sea are at rest. There
was not motion enough there to abrade these very delicate organisms, &c.
§271. It is now suggested that henceforward we should view the surface of
the sea as a nursery teeming with nascent organisms, its depths as the
cemetery for families of living creatures that outnumber the sands on
the sea-shore for multitude. § 723.
These oceans of animalcule that make the surface of the sea sparkle
and glow with life, are secreting from its surface solid matter for the
very purpose of filling up those cavities below. These little marine
insects are building their habitations at the surface, and when they die,
their remains, in vast multitudes, sink down and settle upon the bottom.
They are the atoms of which mountains are formed and plains spread
out. Our marl-beds, the clay in our river-bottoms, large portions of
many of the great basins of the earth, are composed of the remains of
just such little creatures as these, which the ingenuity of Brooke and
the industry of Berryman have enabled us to fish up from the depth of
more than two miles (12,000 feet) below the sea-level. § 730. The
diatoms from the coral sea were very few in number, and mostly frag
mentary. § 753. However, the specimens of sea-bottom from the
ocean between 168° to 175° E. and Latitude 56-46 to 60-30 N. were
very rich in the siliceous shells of the Diatomacese, which were in an
admirable state of preservation, &c. § 758, note.
The deep sea-soundings from the Pacific differ considerably from those
of the Atlantic. The latter soundings were composed almost wholly of
calcareous shells of the Foraminiferse ; those from the coral sea contain
very few Foraminiferee, and are of a siliceous rather than of a calcareous
nature, § 754. (This seems a little discrepant.)
As to the repose of the sea at great depths, the unabraded appear
ance of these shells, and the almost total absence of the mixture of any

VITALITY IN THE OCEAN 423
detritus from the sea, or foreign matter, suggest forcibly the idea of
perfect repose at the bottom of the deep sea. § 760. Indeed, these
soundings suggest the idea that the sea, like the snow-cloud with its
flakes in a calm, is always letting fall upon its bed showers of these
microscopic shells. § 71.
And as to the immensity of life and the power of converting inorganic
material, we have now had specimens from the bottom of the ' blue
water ' in the narrow coral sea, the broad Pacific, and the long Atlantic,
and they all tell the same story, namely, that the bed of the ocean is a
vast cemetery. § 759. The ocean, especially within and near the tropics,
swarms with life. The remains of its myriads of moving things are
conveyed by currents, and scattered and lodged in the course of time all
over its bottom. The process, continued for ages, has covered the depths
of the ocean as with a mantle, consisting of organisms as delicate as
the macled frost, and as light as the undrifted snow-flake on the moun
tain. § 761. The rivers convey to the sea this solid matter mixed with
fresh water, which being lighter than that of the ocean, remains for a
considerable time at or near the surface. Here the microscopic organisms
of the deep sea lead are continually at work, secreting this same lime
and soda, &c, and extracting from this sea-water all this solid matter
as fast as the rivers bring and empty it into the sea. They live and
die at the surface, then sinking, the bottom of the sea is strewed with
them. § 738. The task of secreting the calcareous matter from the sea-
water appears to have been left by these little mites of creatures to the
madrepore and shell-fish, while these little mites themselves undertook
the hard task of getting the siliceous matter out. § 757.

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