Acknowledgements
In the preparation of a work of this kind, which requires the consultation of so many authorities, it is difficult to specify one’s indebtedness in all cases. The author desires to express his obligations in that part of his work which treats of the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands to:
The author has been materially assisted in the part devoted to China by the works of Colquhoun, Thompson, Boulger, Lord Charles Beresford, Mrs. Bishop, Miss Scidmore, and several others, aside from many miscellaneous papers and documents.
For aid in illustrating the work, the publishers wish to express their thanks to Hon. Gorham D. Gilman who generously allowed them such selections as they desired from his extensive collections of photographs on Hawaii, probably the largest in the country, and to Professor Fryer, of the University of California, for similar courtesies in relation to the illustrations of China.
G. Waldo Browne
GENERAL INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD S. ELLIS, A.M.
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| From New America |
For more than a hundred years, the United States of America was confined to the American continent. Through the travail and bloody sweat from Lexington, in 1775, to the surrender at Yorktown, in 1781, the thirteen colonies were engaged in the struggle for existence, for life, for independence. The war of 1812 was necessary to demonstrate the right of the United States to a membership among the brotherhood of nations. The crucial test of all came a half-century later, when the house divided against itself had yet to prove that it should not fall. Such proof was given with a grandeur, with a majesty, and with a completeness of triumph and accomplishment that placed our country among the very foremost in the van of civilization, of progress, of humanity, and all that tends to make a people great.
When the constitution was adopted, the settled portions of the United States fringed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. The western boundary was the Mississippi River. Beyond the Father of Waters stretched an expanse of mountain, river, and prairie, far exceeding in area the region which constituted the original United States. Then followed the acquisition of Florida, Louisiana Territory, and, later, the countries obtained by the conquest of Mexico, and, finally, the immense purchase of Alaska from Russia, our traditional friend.
Thus far, it will be noted, our acquisition of territory was restricted to the continent itself. It is a fact, of which perhaps not all are aware, that the present population of the United States can be expanded twelve-fold before its density will equal that of some of the most prosperous countries of Europe. But for the Spanish-American war, it is not conceivable that the out-reaching of the United States, or the “earth hunger,” as it has been aptly termed, would have extended beyond either of the enclosing oceans. To our north lies Canada, so immovably chained to the mother country that not a link can be severed ; south of the Rio Grande our tropical neighbor has acquired a prosperity and power, under the admirable rule of its President, which ensure an indefinite continuance of the greatness that has lifted it to a plane never before attained, and scarcely dreamed of by its most patriotic sons.
Never was there a more holy war than that in which the United States engaged for the liberation of Cuba. For more than a century her people had been ground into the very dust by the brutality of the most merciless nation in the world. Spain, from the very hour that her explorers first set foot on American soil, proved a curse and a blight, and the inherent ferocity of the Spaniard quickly shriveled into idiocy. When the wit of a child would have taught the groping visitors to cultivate the goodwill of the simple-minded natives, who were eager to show their friendship, and to provide plentiful food for the starving intruders, the latter, in pure wantonness, murdered, massacred, and tortured to the utmost limit of human ingenuity. Balboa, in the early years of the sixteenth century, was guided across the isthmus by a devoted band of Indians who willingly acted as slaves for him and his companions, and risked their lives to secure the indispensable food for them. Then, when Balboa climbed the rocky height on the western shore and looked out over the limitless expanse of the South Sea, and was thrilled and overcome by the thought that he was the first white man that had gazed upon the vastest ocean of the globe, he sank upon his knees, thanked God for his mercies, and then, like true Spaniards, he and his men turned about and cut and slashed the Indians to death.
The horrible crime of Balboa was repeated by all the Spanish explorers, without exception, who came after him. The story is one long, ghastly record of cruelty, treachery, crime, blood, and idiocy. Providential indeed was it for the future of our country that the interest of Spain was diverted to the far south, and that the United States was colonized by the English, the Dutch, the Swedes, and the French, --- peoples who were sturdy, honest, enterprising, and who believed to a practical extent in the Golden Rule. Had it been otherwise, and had Spain been our mother, the history of Cuba, with all its terrifying atrocities, miseries, and failures would have been our own.
The first conflict between the young Giant of the West and the decaying monarchy of Spain could have but one issue. The Titan blows of the resistless hammer crushed the paste jewel to powder, and the war, lasting but a few months, humbled the pride of the decrepit kingdom deeper than when the lusty sons of Albion and the storms of a wrathful heaven sent the Grand Armada to the bottom of the ocean. The forces of Castile were driven out of Cuba by the cyclonic heroism of the American regulars and volunteers; Admiral Cervera’s fleet was riddled like so much pasteboard; the campaign in Porto Rico resembled an opera bouffe ; and Admiral Dewey, sailing into Manila Bay on that memorable May morning in 1898, smote the opposing fleet and forts with his unerring cannon, as if they were so many children’s toys, set up to be demolished by those to whom the task was the merest sport itself.
If Spain had acted the zany for centuries, the time now came when her own existence forbade her to play it any longer. The Treaty of Paris followed, and by its terms the United States became sovereign over the Philippines, Porto Rico, Guam, (the largest of the Ladrone Islands), and subsequently acquired the ownership of the island and harbor of the Samoan island of Tutuila. Thus was ushered in the era of expansion, and our country gained a prestige and momentous interest in the Far East which give to the present work a value of the highest importance.
The first step of our country, however, toward its entrance into the ranks of Powers whose interests touch both hemispheres, was taken during the progress of the Spanish-American war by the annexation of Hawaii. In answer to a petition from the islands, Congress passed an act, on July 7, 1898, to annex them, and the formal ceremony of raising the United States flag took place on the 12th of the following August. This group was formerly known as the Sandwich Islands, and includes eight inhabited and four uninhabited islands, which are situated about one-third the distance between San Francisco and Sydney, Australia. They are the most important of all the Pacific islands, and their acquisition by the United States was not only valuable, but a necessity, in order to prevent their falling into the possession of some other power which, in case of war, would have used them with disastrous effect to our interest. These islands were first opened to the world by American whale men, and, with the decline of that industry and the increase of general commerce, they became recruiting ports to the merchant marine. Americans own nearly all the fertile area, and the larger part of their commerce is with our own country. Hawaii is one of the greatest sugar producing countries of the world.
Although the transition of these islands from their independent form of government to a possession of the United States was attended at first with some friction, yet on the whole the change was effected quietly, and the government today is of the most orderly and praiseworthy character.
As evidence of the prosperity of the islands under the new regime, the exports from the United States to Hawaii nearly doubled in the year following annexation. In the year ending June 30, 1905, our trade with the islands amounted to $47,865,235, of which nearly three-quarters was sugar imported from the island ports. Among the other products of the island are rice, fruits and nuts, coffee, hides and skins, and copra or dried coconut. The goods imported by the islands include wheat flour and all kinds of manufactured articles.
The natives of Hawaii are called Kanaka, and are rapidly dying off, but their places are more than filled by a new population. There was a danger at one time of the islands being overrun by Chinese coolies, but they are now excluded. Emigrants are mainly composed of Portuguese, Americans, and Japanese, and the increased productiveness of the islands is due to their industry and enterprise.
Few countries have more interesting history than Hawaii. Leaving the vague, misty traditions running backward for centuries, it is shown in the following pages that the discovery of this group of islands was accidentally made by the famous English navigator, Captain Cook, who, in the month of January, 1778, sighted the island of Oahu, followed a few days later by the discovery of other islands. Captain Cook, however, did not see Hawaii until the following year, when, sad to say, like many another pioneer, his life paid the forfeit of his great achievement. A singular fact, having no connection with the incidents just narrated, is that the widow of Captain Cook survived his death for more than half a century.
Since Hawaii is now an integral part of the great Republic, all relating thereto is of the highest interest and value. The author of “The Far East” sets forth in accurate, well-chosen, and graphic language the fullest information regarding the topography of the islands, all that is known of their history, the numerous productions, the facilities, the picturesque people, their social and civil condition, the cities, towns, and settlements, and indeed, all that the student or immigrant can possibly wish to know.
The Treaty of Paris made the island of Porto Rico an American possession. It ranks fourth in size among the West Indies, has a length of ninety-five miles from east to west, and about thirty-five miles from north to south. Since its population is estimated at nearly a million, it will be seen that it is one of the most thickly settled regions of the world. San Juan, on the northern coast, is the capital, while Ponce, in the south, is the largest port. It exports a fine quality of coffee, sugar, and tobacco, and imports manufactured goods, flour, and fish. Porto Rico, in 1905, exported goods to the United States to the amount of $15,633,145, importing nearly as much, its total business with the United States now being seven times as great as in 1901.
Another possession acquired by the United States through the Spanish-American war was Guam, the largest of the Ladrone Islands. Its area, however, is so insignificant that its importance is due to its being a convenient telegraph and coaling station on the voyage from Hawaii to the Philippines.
The island and harbor of Tutuila, Samoa, passed by treaty of Great Britain and Germany into the hands of the United States in 1899. The island has only a few thousand inhabitants, and possesses little commercial importance, but it has one of the best harbors in the Pacific, and gives to us a fine coaling station on the route from San Francisco to Australia.
The greatest and most valuable possession secured to the United States by the Treaty of Paris was the immense group of islands known as the Philippines. These are more than a thousand in number, with a land area exceeding a hundred thousand square miles, or greater than the combined extent of the six New England States and the State of New York. From north to south, they extend fully a thousand miles, with a breadth of six hundred from east to west. Naturally, many of the islets are uninhabited. The principal islands are twelve in number. Luzon, the most northerly, is as large as the State of Ohio, and contains the city of Manila, the metropolis of the Philippines, while Mindanao, the most southerly island, is of less extent. The chief products of these islands are tobacco, sugar, hemp, and coffee. Tobacco has been grown for more than a century, and the export of cigars to Europe amounts to a hundred millions a year. The famous Manila hemp is produced from the fiber of a species of banana, and is also used as a paper stock. Our exports to the Philippines were only $1,150,613 in 1899, but in fiscal year 1905 they had increased to $5,761,498, while the imports rose from $3,840,894 to $15,668,026.
The natural wealth of these islands is prodigious. Stretching through fifteen degrees of latitude, with mountains of considerable elevation, with numerous streams and fertile valleys, these productions display the choicest richness of the torrid and temperate zones. In the depths of the vast forest are found the most valuable species of woods, such as cedar, ebony, mahogany, logwood, sapanwood, gum-trees, and scores of other kinds of woods, unknown on the American continent. The pa nave and ma lave are two woods which have been exposed to the action of water for hundreds of years, without showing the slightest deterioration. Probably the most attractive and useful tree is the bamboo, which seems to grow everywhere, and supplies an endless variety of needs. It is the chief material in the construction of bridges, houses, and even churches, while from it are made baskets, mats, chairs, vessels for liquids, measures for grain, musical instruments, household utensils, vehicles, rafts to float on the rivers, and head-gear. Indeed, there seems to be no vegetable production so calculated to meet the general wants of man. The tender shoots of the bamboo are considered a delicacy by the inhabitants, and the horses and cattle are fond of the leaves. One variety of the cane contains a stone said to be a sovereign remedy for many of the ills of the flesh, while still another kind produces a gum which is a specific for inflamed eyes.
Though it would seem, from what has been stated, that the bamboo is the most valuable tree of the Philippines, yet the inhabitants gain a larger income from the coconut palm, which is universally cultivated. The demand of the foreign market for the fruit is never fully met, and there is no part of the tree itself which is not utilized. The framework of the native dwellings is made from the smooth trunk, the roof from its leaves, and the chairs and tables from its wood. The fiber of the tree furnishes the native with the mats on which he sleeps ; its nuts form his meat ; the shells his household utensils, while the value of the “milk in the coconut” is proverbial. The sap yields an oil which, in a cool climate, becomes a solid, and is made into soap and candles. It may be said that every hut and house in the interior is illuminated by means of coconut oil. Moreover, the delicate flowering stalk affords a delicious beverage, known as the tuba, and the most comfortable of raiment is made from its fine, fibrous particles.
Another highly useful plant is a species of bush rope, which sometimes attains the astonishing length of one thousand feet. It may be described as a natural rope or cord with no end to its diversified uses.
The mango is the most important fruit of the Archipelago. Its meat is creamy and delicious, and the tree grows to great size. Two, and sometimes three, pickings are obtained every year. There are over fifty varieties of bananas. The papaw yields a fruit resembling in shape and flavor the melon ; guava, tamarind, pineapples, lemons, huge oranges, the custard-apple, citron, breadfruit, strawberry, and other products peculiar to the tropics flourish in great luxuriance. A remarkable fruit found in the western islands is the durian, --- a dainty, delicious production which, however, bears only once in twenty years. Investigations made since our acquisition of the Philippines have brought to light numerous plants and herbs of great medicinal value. A striking proof of the amazing fertility is afforded by the common sight, seen on the same plot of land, of the planting, cultivating, harvesting, going on in alternation. In the words of the author, “From the great storehouse of natural treasures of Luzon, the largest and richest of the pearls of the Pacific, to the hundreds of smaller gems, all resplendent in a vegetation which clothes not only the plains and the lowlands, but the mountains and the seashore, with a verdure of many hues and never-fading gloss, the florist finds his paradise, the botanist his wonderland.”
Although the Philippines group for centuries has poured treasures into the lap of Spain that are beyond estimate, yet it would be unjust to overlook the many serious drawbacks which must be encountered by every settler among the islands. Our soldiers, who have spent weary months in the attempt to crush the rebellion led by Aguinaldo, tell of the seasons described as “six months of mud, six months of dust, six months of everything.” The northern islands are swept by the Chinese typhoon, which in one season destroyed four thousand houses and three hundred people. Earthquakes are so numerous that multitudes of lives are lost every year from that cause. In 1863, one-half of the city of Manila was tumbled into ruins, and more than three thousand of its inhabitants were killed or injured. Tidal waves have been equally destructive to life and property. Fever, malaria, and other tropical diseases are common, and the heat is especially oppressive to un-acclimated persons, women and children being particularly subject to the perils of the climate. The experience of our soldiers in Cuba and in the Philippines, where sanitary conditions have been bad, has been attended with many fatalities. Such men, from natural carelessness, are certain to suffer severely. Still, the Philippines are not as unhealthy as would be supposed from the foregoing statements. When American thrift and enterprise shall have had time in which to introduce modern systems of sanitation, the improvement will be marked and decisive.
Animal life in the Philippines is less prominent than in many other countries of the same latitude. The wildcat, wild boar, buffalo, hog, deer, and monkey abound in the forest. The reptiles and venomous insects are a pest, the most prominent being frogs, lizards, snakes, centipedes, gigantic spiders, tarantulas, hornets, beetles, ants, horned toads, and enormous bats. Some of the bats have a spread of six feet, with bodies as large as cats. One of the deadliest of all serpents is the Philippine Cobra, whose bite is as fatal as the East Indian cobra. It is occasionally encountered in the rice fields, but, fortunately, it is quite rare. Crocodiles of huge size abound in the fresh water streams, and a species of cobra is sometimes seen in Samoa and Mindanao. Ants and mosquitos form an almost intolerable pest. The white ants work in the dark, and destroy the hardest pieces of furniture. It is said that the whole framework of a house has been known to collapse from the ravages of these insects. Every few years, swarms containing numberless millions of locusts sweep the country bare of all the crops, with the single exception of the hemp plantations, which are exempt. The only way by which the natives even up matters with the locusts is to eat them, and they are considered such a delicacy that, in many instances, the parish priest has prayed for their coming. The Philippines contain more than six hundred species of birds. Some of these have wonderfully brilliant plumage but among them all there is not one sweet singer. The game birds include the snipe, pheasant, pigeons, ducks, woodcocks, and various waterfowl's.
It is impossible, in an introduction of this character, to do more than outline in the vaguest and most imperfect manner the wealth of subjects treated in the pages that follow. As we have already intimated, the acquirement of Porto Rico, Hawaii, a portion of the Ladrone, and the immense Archipelago in the Far East, gives an interest and value to all the knowledge obtainable regarding them. Their history, their natural productions and capabilities, their inhabitants, their attractions, their advantages and disadvantages as a field for American enterprise, are of the deepest moment to the citizens of the United States. That the field thus opened to our commerce, trade, and industry is of vast and far-reaching importance is self-evident. To meet the widespread demand for full and accurate information regarding our possessions in the Far East, these volumes are now offered to the American public.
Edward S. Ellis
HAWAII BY HON. HENRY CABOT LODGE U.S. SENATOR
In the year 1893 the Hawaiian question was one of the leading issues of our politics. Mr. Cleveland then undertook to reverse the traditional policy of the United states in regard to the islands, parties divided over the question, the deposed queen found eager partisans, and the successful leaders of the revolt against her were warmly defended and as earnestly attacked. Five years later, in the midst of a war which furnished an argument so conclusive upon the subject that no man could successfully gainsay it, the islands were annexed to the United States. With annexation actually accomplished, the Hawaiian question came to an end, and it was all so natural, and, indeed, so inevitable, that it now requires an effort to understand how there could ever have been any difference of opinion in regard to it. The islands have come so easily into our system, and so obviously belong there, that once ours they have been in a measure forgotten, and, while the country has been filled with discussion in regard to Porto Rico and the Philippines, Hawaii has dropped out of sight. This is due, of course, to the fact that the islands for more than fifty years had been practically ruled by Americans, and had become thoroughly Americanized by the New England missionaries, who had settled there in the first half of the nineteenth century, and by their descendants. But it would be most unfortunate if, on account of our familiarity with the islands so closely connected with us for so long a time, and because they have so smoothly and quietly become a part of our system, we should overlook their value and their meaning to us, --- past, present, and in the time to come.
Among the new possessions which have come to us in these last three years, so crowded with great events, none is more important to our future than Hawaii. This seems a very strong statement in view of the almost incalculable importance of the Philippines to our position, both military and commercial, in the East. And yet, although the statement is strong, it is not overdrawn, and the Philippines themselves have greatly enhanced the value of Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands are rich, very fertile, capable of producing most valuable crops of sugar, coffee, and bananas, and of sustaining a large and prosperous population. This intrinsic worth is, however, the least of their value to us. Look at the map, and their importance, their vital importance, to the United States becomes at once apparent. The largest of the Pacific island groups, Hawaii, lies far away to the north and east of the Polynesian chain of islands, and almost in the center of the great ocean which stretches from China to California. The master of Hawaii can reach more quickly to more essential points east and west, north and south, than anyone else in the Pacific. In Hawaii, also, is Pearl Harbor, one of the two deep-water and naturally sheltered harbors to be found in all the islands, the other being Pago-Pago, in Tutuila, which is also in our possession, but far inferior in geographical position to that in Oahu. With moderate improvement Pearl Harbor would shelter a navy, and with comparatively small expenditure can be made impregnable. A foreign nation holding Oahu and Pearl Harbor would be not only a constant menace to America, but in the event of war would have an advantage in attacking our Pacific coast which it would be almost impossible to overcome. The mere possession of the islands by the United States is great protection, and if we fortify them and create a naval station there no enemy would dare to assail the Pacific coast, with Pearl Harbor, so easily made impregnable, behind them. The strategic importance of the islands is, moreover, as obvious commercially as from a military and naval point of view. Hawaii has been called the “crossroads of the Pacific,” and although the shortest route to Japan from San Francisco, sailing on a great circle, is just south of the Aleutian Islands, Honolulu is none the less the central point for the intersection of steamship routes and ocean cables between America, on the one side, and Polynesia, Australia, the Philippines, and Southern China on the other.
Islands possessing the military and commercial importance which has just been indicated deserve to be well known and thoroughly understood by the people who have so lately added them to their domain. Very fortunately it is possible not only to write the history of these islands fully and accurately, but that history is picturesque and interesting in a very high degree. Their old name of the Sandwich Islands, now happily extinguished, carries us back to an English eighteenth century minister who was himself a remarkably stupid and worthless nobleman, but whose title and office are associated with some of the most important voyages of discovery made at that period. The death of Captain Cook is indissolubly associated with Hawaii in the tragic ending of a narrative of adventure which has charmed generations of children to a degree second only to that enjoyed by Robinson Crusoe. Then we meet with Vancouver, and then comes the career of Kamehameha I., a man of real genius, both military and civil, who consolidated the islands under one government and founded the monarchy which has endured down to our own time. Next comes the arrival of the American missionaries, the development of the islands under their influence, and the gradual intertwining of of the fate of the islands with that of the United States. From this period we trace the steady growth of the American influence in Hawaii and the seemingly narrow escape of the islands from the domination of European powers. We meet as we proceed, with the great name of Webster, who warned foreign states of American interest in these islands, and of Marcy preparing to annex them just on the eve of a civil war which drove all policies, but the one desperate determination to save the country, from the hearts and the minds of the people. Then comes the gradual reawakening of interest in Hawaii, the reciprocity treaty which placed them practically within our control, the Harrison treaty of annexation, and at last the movement which in the shock of another war brought about their final acquisition by this country. The History of Hawaii ought to be read now by all Americans, and the story of the natives and of our own people who went among them so many years ago should become familiar to us all, for it is now one of the most interesting chapters in the westward march of the United States.
Henry Cabot Lodge
CHAPTER 1 CAPTAIN COOK'S DISCOVERY
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| New America |
The seafarer crossing the Pacific Ocean under the imaginary line of the Tropic of Cancer, sailing from Cape St. Lucas, at the southern extremity of Lower California, due west for over eight thousand miles, or one-third the distance around the globe, meets with only a solitary spot of land in all that long water journey. Should he traverse the sea in a slightly northwesterly direction, from Panama to Japan, he would make a trip of equal length and loneliness, passing midway on his voyage the same ocean isle as before. If he should start from San Francisco, bound to Queensland, he would again compass his stupendous passage greeted by the same lonely sentinel of the mighty deep. But this time he would find soon after passing this spot innumerable islands, isles, and coral reefs scattered along the way. On the north, however, not a speck dots the watery expanse until the polar lands are reached.
This breakwater of the Central Pacific, which old ocean has tried in vain to swallow for numberless ages, is Kauai, the most northerly of the Hawaiian Islands. Forming a happy resemblance to a huge cornucopia of 360 miles curve to southeast, between latitude 18 degrees, 55 minutes; and 22 degrees 20 minutes; N., and longitude 154 degrees 55 minutes; and 160 degrees 15 minutes; W., this group of islands is the most northerly cluster of the Polynesian Archipelago.
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| From New America |
While numbering twelve in all, four of these islands are really nothing but the brown heads of rocky pillars thrust forbiddingly above the surface of the deep, and the fifth is too small and meager in its resources to afford a population, which leaves the poet’s “seven sunny isles of the southern seas.” Beginning with the point of this horn of plenty and running southward the list of eight comprises Niihau, 80 square miles in area; Kauai, 590 miles; Oahu, 600 miles; Molokai, 270 miles; Maui, 760 miles; Lanai, 150 miles; Kahoolawe, 63 miles; Hawaii, 4210 miles in extent. The entire group contains 6740 square miles, or about the amount of territory of the State of Massachusetts, Hawaii having almost two-thirds of the whole area.
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| From New America |
The written history of the Hawaiian Islands covers a period of less than a century and a quarter, beginning with the discovery of Captain Cook in 1778. Running into this from the centuries before there is another story told by the tongue, the traditions of an uncivilized race. Behind these vague accounts of warlike deeds and religious mysticisms, there is yet another era on the scrolls of the silent ages. This takes us back into the misty past thousands of years, --- back to a period when all the waters were locked in crystal prisons, and plant and animal life were unknown. The war of the elements ensued; the ice king retreated before the equatorial god; the silence of the solitude was broken by the grinding and crashing of the glaciers. The white pinnacles of the ice-floes melted away, and in their place of desolation rose the mountains of a productive land; instead of the icy fields and frozen spikes came fertile valleys, with trees, plants, and flowers; in place of the bitter cold, the balmy climate; on the scene of lifelessness, a race of human beings. This is the mysterious and awe-inspiring picture of the birth of a world.
Captain Cook’s discovery of this group of islands was an accident. The British government, pleased with this great navigator’s previous voyages of exploration in the then unknown Pacific Ocean, with the counsel and assistance of Lord Sandwich of the Admiralty, fitted him out for a third trip, placing under his command the two ships Resolution and Discovery. He sailed from Plymouth, England, July 12, 1776, only eight days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the representatives of the thirteen colonies of America.
Captain Cook’s orders were to revisit the islands of the southern seas, where he had twice wintered, “to disseminate and naturalize” some of the useful animals of Europe in that remote region, and to find a northern passage to the Atlantic Ocean. He cruised around in the Polynesian Archipelago for a year and a half, leaving on the different islands those domestic animals which have proved of such value to the inhabitants. Then he sailed from the Society Islands on his way to the north.
On the eighteenth of January, 1778, he sighted the island of Oahu, and sailing along its southwestern coast, the next day he discovered the islands of Niihau and Kauai. The following morning, January 20th , he anchored at Waimea, on the shore of Kauai, a place noted in the traditions of the natives as having been the battle-ground of ancient kings.
As the vessels sailed up the coast, the inhabitants of the island began to appear in large groups, alarmed and mystified over the arrival of the strange ships. In such numbers did the natives rush to the water’s edge, as the first boat started for the shore, Captain Cook ordered a volley of shot to be fired over their heads. One of the excited mob was killed, but, as the firing was not continued, the natives received their visitors in a friendly manner. Presents were exchanged, and the newcomers were highly pleased with what they saw.
After staying on this island a few days, and laying in a fresh stock of water and provision, the English ships headed away to Niihau, where they remained until February 2nd . Believing he had discovered a group of islands, Captain Cook named them for his patron, Lord Sandwich, and set sail for the polar regions, on what he fondly anticipated was his homeward voyage.
In sight of the beach at Waimea is still pointed out a large, flat rock, bearing the mark of a broad arrow, claimed to have been made by Captain Cook to designate the place of his first landing. In the village are three other stones with similar markings made by the English commander for the same purpose.
His northern voyage proving a disappointment, though he explored the coast of Alaska, Bering Straight, and the Arctic Ocean until finding his progress stopped by the ice-fields, Captain Cook was glad to return to the south, where he might spend the approaching winter, to resume his search for the northern passage another summer.
On the morning of November 26th , he sighted for the first time the island of Maui, and he anchored at Waimea. The news of his visit to Kauai seemed to have preceded him here, for he was greeted by a larger crowd than before, that considered him a god, and his followers as supernatural beings. His ships were thought to be moving islands, which could send forth thunder and lightning at the command of their master. The natives showed no signs of hostility.
After laying off Maui several days, during which time he had a brisk trade with the inhabitants, Captain Cook sailed along the coast until, on the thirtieth, he discovered Hawaii. Judging this to be larger and of more importance than the others, he decided to make its circuit, which took him seven weeks before he dropped anchor in the ill-fated bay of Kealakekua. He had called at numerous villages on his trip, and everywhere had been treated with generosity and loaded with divine honors. Here over a thousand canoes swarmed in the waters around his ships, most of them crowded with people, and laden with the richest tributes the land afforded, choice fowls and hogs, fruits and vegetables of many kinds and rare excellence. In all that vast number not a weapon was seen, one and all having come to pay their free and spontaneous worship to the newcomers.
No sooner had the English commander and a portion of his crews gone ashore, than the natives announced a season of festivities and sacrificial ceremonies to their visitors. Captain Cook was looked upon as the reincarnation of their god Lono, whose return to the earth their high priests had prophesied, and he was escorted to the heiau or temple built in his honor, while the people and chiefs, even to the king, prostrated themselves before him.
Captain Cook and his reckless tars quickly caught the spirit of their tempters, and for eighteen days they reveled in the prodigal simplicity of their worshipers. There under the dome of the sleeping Hualalai, on the rich lava beds builded (sic) by this mighty volcano in the centuries unrecorded, and fringed with tall, sinuous, dark-crested cocoa-palms, half concealing the sea below, unrestrained nature ran riot with itself.
Then the visitors grew overbearing and independent. The temple of the gods was turned into an observatory; the consecrated platform was transformed into a sail-loft; the sacred palisades of the heiau were carried away to be used as fuel to cook the food of these newcomers! At first amazed, the spectators became indignant. It had been enough that their rich presents had been reciprocated by a few hatchets and knives, and their magnificent gifts of feather mantles and helmets had been taken without thanks.
Though they prudently remained peaceful, it must have been with secret pleasure that they saw the ships sail away with their visitors on February 4th .
The joy of the islanders proved short-lived. Off Kawaihae the ship Resolution sprung a foremast in buffeting a gale, and Captain Cook returned to his old anchorage to repair the damage. Carpenters were sent ashore to work upon the injured mast, when the natives treated them coldly. The king was away, but the priests remained friendly, and the sailors did not hesitate to show their authority, which further incensed the people. Some of them stole a pinnace for its iron fastening, which so angered Captain Cook that he resolved to capture the king, and hold him as a hostage until the stolen property had been restored. Protected by a body-guard of his marines, Cook went at once to the home of the aged king, who, like his priests, still kept his faith with them, and enticed him to go on board the ship.
Already the natives had swarmed in the waters about the vessels, and the officer left in command ordered that a shot be fired to frighten them off. One of the shots took effect in a chief. Meanwhile the chiefs and people on the shore were protesting against the treatment accorded their king. The islanders were now armed with spears and hatchets, and so threatening did the mob become that Captain Cook advanced with all haste possible. Upon reaching the beach a tall islander sprang in front of him, declaring that he had killed his brother. Thereupon Cook fired but missed him. At that moment some one from the wild rabble threw a stone, which struck Captain Cook and brought a groan from him. He now fired his second pistol, killing his man this time. But the cry of anguish coming from his lips caused one of his assailants to shout: “ He feels pain! He is not a god!”
The islanders now rushed upon the seamen so furiously that they were compelled to beat a disorderly retreat, four of their number being killed. The others escaped by swimming to the boats, leaving their commander surrounded by the excited natives. He signaled his men to stop firing and come to his assistance. At that moment a chief ran up behind him and plunged an iron dagger through his body. He fell face downward in the water, his body seized and dragged away by the infuriated mob.
Firing was resumed by the seamen, but the king called off his people and the scene became quiet. Captain Clark, now in command, as soon as he deemed it expedient, sent ashore for the body of Captain Cook, though only a portion of his lower limbs was to be found. The incensed islanders had burned the rest, except the heart, which was eaten by some children through mistake, which gave rise to the story that the natives were cannibals.
Now that the unhappy affair was over, the people showed genuine sorrow over the untimely fate of the great navigator, whose memory is revered to this day by the Hawaiian's. Captain cook was a brave and efficient officer, doing more than all the others toward enlightening the world in regard to the islands of that remote quarter of the globe; but he was quick tempered, and possessed unbridled imperiousness, which brought him his death at the hands of those who had gratuitously provisioned his ships, and everywhere lavished upon him the attention and worshipfulness due a god. If carrying to the enlightened world a knowledge of their existence, these visitors were to leave with these simple people a disease which was to render sad havoc in their numbers and happiness.
The importance Captain Cook attached to his discovery of these islands is told in his own words, the last entry he made in his journal kept of that long and eventful voyage:
“We could not but be struck with the singularity of this scene; and perhaps there were few on board who now lamented out having failed finding a northern passage home last summer. To this disappointment we owed our having the power to revisit the Sandwich Islands, and to enrich our voyage with a discovery which, though last, seemed in many respects to be the most important that had hitherto been made by Europeans, throughout the extent of the Pacific Ocean.”
The memory of this great, but unfortunate, navigator is preserved by a white concrete monument, erected by some of his fellow countrymen on the spot, as nearly as could be ascertained, where he fell. It bears the following inscription:
“In memory of the great circumnavigator, Captain James Cook, R. N., who discovered these islands on the 18th of January, 1778, A.D., and fell near this spot on the 14th of February, 1779. This monument was erected in November, A.D. 1874, by some of his countrymen.”
Thus, while the united colonies of America were fighting their first war for independence with their mother country, a son of the latter discovered and explored those islands in the distant sea which were destined to become eventually a part of the rising republic.
CHAPTER II THE ISLAND WONDERLAND
The last and largest island discovered by Captain Cook was called by the natives Hawaii, --- meaning “Fiery Java,” and pronounced as if spelled Hah-wah-ee, accent on the second syllable, --- and this name has very appropriately been adopted as a designation for the entire group in place of the Sandwich Islands.
The coast of these islands are often bold, rocky, and precipitous, cliffs rising for hundreds of feet perpendicular from the water. Yet there are sheltered bays, and Oahu has one of the finest harbors in the world. There are at different places along the shores dangerous reefs, beautiful fringes of coral, or long, wide stretches of yellow beach, where the murmuring tide kissed by the trade-winds plays at hide-and-seek with harmless glee.
The larger portion of the surface of the islands is mountainous, two of the interior peaks reaching an altitude of nearly fourteen thousand feet; but at their foot lie rich alluvial plains, plateaus, and valleys, with silvery streams leaping in cascades from the overhanging cliffs. With few exceptions the mountains are clothed in dense growth of temperate zone sturdiness, while the lowlands abound with a tropical vegetation of a perpetual green.
Evidence of the volcanic origin of these islands exists on every hand, from the dead and buried cones of Kauai to the living fires of Hawaii. By this it will be observed that the former, as well as being the most northerly, is the oldest of the series. This theory is supported by the fact that only the two cones remain on this isle, and these on the southeastern slope. All others have been destroyed by the march of years, and their slopes covered with dense forest. The land having undergone longer change, is more arable, the soil deeper, and the vegetation more bountiful than on the other islands. Encircled by beaches of silvery brightness, with valleys and hill sides' painted by natures brush a green that never fades, Kauai is the “Garden Isle.”
Lying in a westerly direction, about fifteen miles distant, is Niihau, resembling it in physical features. This island is sparsely settled, its inhabitants being formerly noted for the manufacture of mats made from a sort of rush which only grows on this island and Kauai, and is now the largest sheep range among the islands.
Kuala, southwest from Kauai, is a barren rock, which is the resort of innumerable birds, whose eggs are sometimes sought by the inhabitants of the windward islands.
Oahu, the following island on the southeasterly course, produces more recent and numerous indications of its volcanic formation; but here are valleys of great fertility, and a mountain range of rugged appearance. On account of its fine harbor at Honolulu, it is known as the “Mistress of the Sea.”
Maui, next in order, attests its younger age, having several craters, the largest and highest of which is Haleakala, “the house of the sun,” which lifts its bulky crest ten thousand feet into the air, being the largest extinct volcano in the world. Maui is the “Switzerland of the Hawaiian Islands.”
South of Maui, separated by a channel of only a few miles in width, is Kahoolawe, with its lowlands, except for a species of coarse grass, almost destitute of plant life. It is uninhabited, stock owners of Maui, to which island it no doubt sometime belonged, having it as pasturage for their flocks.
Between these two islands rises a rocky barrier, Molokini, used as a place for the fishermen to spread their nets.
Lanai, separated from Maui by a channel of ten miles in width, has but recently become valuable for sheep raising and sugar growing.
East-southeast of Oahu is a chain of volcanic mountains nearly equal in elevation to those of Maui, which form in the main the island of Molokai, a long irregular ridge, with little level land and a few plantations, and the unenviable reputation of being the lazaretto of exiled lepers.
The youngest and mightiest of the group is the one from which it gets its name, unfinished Hawaii, still smoking, still exhibiting to the wondering beholder the sublime agency of creation. This island is famous for its physical grandeur and volcanic exhibitions. The legends of the Hawaiian's, reaching back over a thousand years, fail to mention any activity of volcanic force on the other islands. The fires of Maui’s mammoth house of the sun burned out before man beheld its riven walls, while concerning the eruptions of the lower and lesser craters the ancient historian is equally silent. What a grand, yet terrible, spectacle it must have been when all the flues of these mountain furnaces were aglow with their liquid flame, which in their bombardment of the sky fairly set ablaze the moonless heavens and the eight Hawaiian seas! But if tradition fails to describe the activity of the volcanoes of the other islands, it is very vivid in its pictures of Hawaii’s volcanic outbreaks. Mauna Kea ( the white mountain ), Mauna Loa ( the long mountain ), Mauna Haulalai ( offspring of the sun ) at irregular intervals have displayed their awful energies in convulsions that have rocked the island like a cradle on the deep and flung their molten contents down the slopes to the sea. A still more realistic representative of the fiery powers is the ever active Kilauea, with a crater nearly nine miles in circumference, the largest constant volcano in the world.
With a uniformity and salubrity of climate unsurpassed, the mean temperature never rising above ninety or sinking below sixty degrees, and whose southern languor is continually refreshed by the ozone breath of the polar seas; with plains and slopes of remarkable fertility covered with vast cane-fields and sugar plantations, groves of kingly palms, sturdy ironwood, delicate tamarind, feathery algarroba, star-eyed oranges, dusky ohias, snowy kukui/candlenut, sunlit papaya, umbrageous breadfruits, flowering mangos, wine-palms, slender cocoa-palms, hardy pomegranate, twisted haus and wide spreading umbrella-trees, of plants and vegetables, the fan-leafed banana (mai`a), tree-like plantain, giant fern, clinging azalea, nutritive yam, bulburous taro, crimson strawberry, and many others, the united offerings of the tropical and temperate zones growing side by side; with a flora that does not stop by decorating the rich alluvial deposits of the valleys in a bewildering array of flowers and reminders of flowers, but fringes the brink of the chasms with the scarlet vine ie-ie and spans the abyss with a network of gold and bronze vines tipped with trumpet-shaped blossoms, tints the mist of the waterfalls with the rainbow hues of the convolvuli, or crimson with the transparent leaves of the ohia the fiery floods of the craters; with gorgeous vines and trailers, magenta blossoms and passion flowers, empowering the homes of the many races of men living here in harmony and contentment; with a landscape clothed in a perpetual green, and mountain-tops floating like a white and brown islands in cloudland; with their summer seas reflecting the azure of the southern skies; with its beaches of a dazzling whiteness fringed with cocoa-palms; over all an indescribable charm of solitude and drowsy peacefulness, to him who looks for the sunny side of nature the Hawaiian Islands are the “Paradise of the Pacific,” the wonderland of the World.
In vivid contrast to Oahu’s Edenic valleys and Maui’s picturesque slopes rises the weather side of Hawaii, lighted by that huge lamp trimmed by no mortal hand, but kept bright against burning sun and waxing moon from time immemorial, and overlooked by the mountain monarch with foot bathed in the sea and whitened head swathed in the clouds. Everywhere the grandeur and sublimity of the scene strikes the beholder with wonder akin to awe. He gazes on the the corrugated streams of congealed lava, on the broken domes of volcanoes long since burnt out, on the furnace fires of Kilauea, sees with his own eyes the startling evidence of the internal powers that builded the mountains, watches the crimson fountains play on the surface of the lake of fire and the fantastic figures dancing in ghoulish glee at their escape from the Plutonian dungeons of the inner earth, until he exclaims in dismay, “The Inferno of the World!”
The indigenous plants are the banana, plantain, coconut, breadfruit, ohia (native apple), sugar-cane, arrowroot, sweet potato, strawberry, raspberry, and the sacred berry ohelo. The imported plants are the lime, orange, mango, tamarind, papaya, guava, and all edible products except those named above.
If prodigal in her floral gifts nature was extremely chary in her bestowal of wild and domestic creatures, and the fauna of the islands a hundred years ago was limited to dogs, swine, mice, lizards, owls, bats, snipe, plover, ducks, a specie of geese peculiar to the place, and a few varieties of birds of simple song and not very brilliant plumage. It seems probable that animal life was almost entirely lacking here when first peopled by the human race.
The natives accounted for the remarkable uniformity and salubrity of the climate by the following legendary tale of the early days of the islands:
A powerful demi-god ruling over Maui, and having his dwelling on Haleakala, got angry because the sun shone every morning on the mountains of Hawaii before it did on his abode. Thereupon he caused to be made a huge net, which he carried one night and spread it quite over his rival. As a result the rising sun got entangled in the meshes of Maui’s beg web, which had been woven so cunningly that the harder the sun tried to break away the more his rays got mixed up in the gauze-like structure. Maui watched the struggle with a merry twinkle in his eye, and when the sun had got tired of his futile efforts, he offered to set him free if he would promise to shine on him and Mauna Loa alike, never too hot or too cold, and never allowing mist or cloud to obscure the favored islands. The sun was fain to obtain his freedom upon such easy terms, and, agreeing to Maui’s demands, received his liberty. Ever since he has bestowed his favor with wonderful equality on the seven islands, so that they have been blessed with their remarkable climate and temperature. Fogs or mists have never risen to mar the sun’s splendor, and lest he should forget his promise and shine too fervidly on his children of the sea, he made a compact with the north wind to keep perpetual vigil over him.
Chapter III A PICTURESQUE PEOPLE
Captain Cook estimated the population of these islands to be not less than four hundred thousand, and that Hawaii alone contained considerably over one hundred thousand inhabitants.
These people were not savages, as we are apt to apply the term, but barbarians of a milder and more progressive type. In personal appearance they were generally above medium stature, well formed, with muscular limbs, frank countenance, and features often resembling the Europeans. An early writer in describing them said: “Their gait is graceful and sometimes stately. The chiefs in particular are tall and stout, and their personal appearance is so much superior to the common people that some have imagined them a distinct race. This, however, is not the fact; the great care taken of them in childhood, and their better living, have probably occasioned the difference. Their hair is black or brown, strong, and frequently curly; their complexion is neither yellow like the Malay nor red like the American Indian, but a kind of olive and sometimes reddish brown. Their arms and other parts of the body are often tattooed, but, except in one of the islands ( Kauai ), this is by no means as common as in many parts of the southern sea.”
They belong to a branch of the Polynesian race, which was undoubtedly of Aryan stock, migrating at a remote period from Asia Minor through India, Sumatra, and Java to the Southern Pacific Islands, from there advancing slowly northward to New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti, and Hawaii. These facts are well substantiated by the close affinity of the names of localities, men, and physical objects, with the general construction of the several languages, so that a person mastering one can easily understand the others.
Early accounts of the people have been preserved through an order of priesthood, which caused to be committed to memory the more prominent affairs of each family, so that handed down from father to son successively the deeds and genealogies of the chiefs could be traced for over forty generations. These traditions, a picturesque background for its romantic modern history, make Hawaii a wonderland in verity. Their legends peopled the sea and sky with all sorts of weird spirits and the volcanic craters of the island world with demons of fantastic figures and terrible demeanor; they scintillated with deeds of prowess and chivalry, if wilder and more barbarous, none the less valorous than those performed by the mailed knights of the continental world; their warriors, without shields or fear of death, sprang to battle under the wings of the great white bird of Kane, as defiantly as the rugged Vikings of Northland followed the dusky ravens of Odin; their sailors, in frail craft and under the sole guidance of the sun and stars, navigated the seas for thousands of miles, and achieved conquest in far distant lands; one of their boldest mariners, in the eleventh century, reached the western shore of America, and carried back to his native isles as captives three of its inhabitants; their kings and priests were men of mighty stature, proving by their genealogies a descent from Adam and a kinship with the gods.
These sages describe a renowned chief by the name of Hawaii, a great fisherman and navigator in ancient times, who, on one of his long cruises, discovered two islands that pleased him so well he returned and brought there his wife and family. The islands he named Maui, for his wife, and Hawaii-Loa for himself, and this family, the legend claims, were the first inhabitants of the islands.
While this statement is to be looked on with suspicion, there is a very clear account of an emigration from Samoa in the sixth century under a chief named Nanaula. This chief, after trouble with some of his relatives in regard to ruling his native isle, gathered a portion of his most adventurous followers about him; and in double canoes, large enough to hold fifty to one hundred persons, this party, accompanied by their priests, taking with them gods, dogs, swine, fowls, and seeds, set forth into the unknown sea on a voyage of discovery. They reached Oahu and Kauai, which they found un-peopled, and took peaceful possession. They were soon followed by a few others from Samoa and Tahiti, when immigration ceased for over four hundred years.
Then another warlike chief of Samoa, known as Nanamoa, not satisfied with fighting at home, set out on a voyage of conquest, eventually coming to the Hawaiian Islands. A long and desperate struggle with the descendants of Nanalua for supremacy followed. Other incursions succeeded, one of which brought from Samoa Paao, a high priest, and Pili, a warlike chief, and Hawaii passed under the sovereignty of these two. Intercourse was maintained with the southern islands for one hundred and fifty years, according to all accounts, an unusually active period, filled with romantic adventures, wild conquests, and perilous voyages at sea.
Isolated and environed by water, dependant to a considerable extent upon the fruits of the sea for their living, the inhabitants of the Pacific islands naturally partook of a maritime character. The Hawaiian was in his true element when disporting in the tide, or daring the dangers of old ocean in his craft with its curved prow and clumsy-looking outrigger.
The building of their seagoing craft, with the tools the mechanic had to use, required no small amount of time, skill, and perseverance. Thus the builder of a canoe became a person of great importance, and the launching of his craft an event celebrated with a feast and the sacrifice of a human life.
There were several classes, as well as sizes and shapes of canoes (Footnote: This name seems to have originated with the natives of America, and, since the discovery of this continent by Columbus, to have been applied indiscriminately to the smaller water craft of the uncivilized races wherever found---AUTHOR). The principal chiefs had boats from fifty to seventy-five feet in length, two feet in width, and from three to four feet in depth. The sterns were often ornamented with crude carvings of grotesque figures. The size and decorations were supposed to indicate the rank and dignity of the chief.
Next to these were the sacred craft of the priests, their ornaments set off with feathers. Small houses were built on these, containing the image of some god, usually in the shape of a bird, and many colored feathers decked the place. Here the prayers for the welfare of the little fleet were offered, and offerings made to Lono, the god of the waters.
Not inferior in size, though less ornamented, were the stoutly built war canoes. With these, sterns were made lower, and covered so as to afford protection from the darts and missiles of the enemy. The bottom was round, with the upper sides narrow, and the prow curved like the neck of a swan and finished to represent the head of some bird. In order to give the rowers and sail-managers more room and security than on the narrow edges, a sort of grating was made from the strong wood of the breadfruit-tree was placed over the hull. The fighting men were stationed on a platform in the forepart of the boat. Ordinarily these craft were about sixty feet in length, and capable of carrying fifty warriors.
There were single canoes built in very much the same style as the others, hewn from the trunk of some tree, with rounded sides and sharp ends. Then there were the big double canoes, made from two tree-trunks, and sometimes over a hundred feet in length.
The very largest of the canoes were made from the trees that had drifted down there from the northwest coast of America, some giant pine caught by a gale and borne thither, a present of the waves attributed by them to be a gift of the gods. One of the single-trunk canoes has been known to be over a hundred feet in length. In case of the double-trunk canoe the builders had often to wait years before a proper mate to the one coming first would be sent to their shores. The coming of such was an event of great rejoicing, and a feast followed with a sacrifice made to the gods.
The canoes always bore particular names, which designated some important incident connected with the craft, or some peculiar characteristic of the boat or its owner.
The navigators of those days had a certain knowledge of the heavens, and the five planets, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, were known to them as “the wandering stars,” while they grouped the fixed stars in constellations. They calculated the transit of the sun and fixed the equatorial line. With such understanding and a trained observation of the winds and currents, the floating debris of the deep, and the flight of birds, they were enabled to make their long, dubious voyages with comparative surety.
The social and civil conditions of the ancient Hawaiians smacked more of despotism than that of any other Polynesian race. The inhabitants were divided into three classes: the nobility, consisting of the kings and chiefs of different ranks; the priests ( kahunas ), including also sorcerers and doctors; the common people
( Makaainana ), or laborers. Between the first and last existed a wide gap, which was of a sacred and religious character. The chiefs claimed descent from the gods, and were allied with invisible powers. In support of this they compared their stature and physique with the common people, which was striking proof of what they said. As late as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Hawaii boasted of such kings as Kiha, Liloa, Umi, and Lono, each eight or nine feet in height, and correspondingly broad of shoulder and girth. Beyond these rises the gigantic figure of Kana, the son of Hina, whose height was measured by paces.
The chiefs were the sole owners of the soil, and considered not only that the land was theirs, but all which grew upon it, the fish swimming in the sea, the time and production of those under them. This was according to the belief that the king, of superior birth, naturally owned everything. He allowed certain portions to be held by his chiefs in trust, on the condition that they render him tribute and military support. Then these chiefs in turn divided their territory among under-chiefs, who in a smaller way paid a like return to them that they gave to the king. These divisions and subdivisions never reached to the toilers, the slaves of the soil, who did the brunt of the work, and must feel amply rewarded if privileged to live as poor tenants.
The head chief of an island was styled moi, and his prestige and power were usually inherited. Of so much importance was he, that when he went abroad he was attended by a body-guard, the foremost of which bore plumed staffs of bright colors. Did he go by canoe, his sails were painted red, and he was the only person who could wear the feather cloak and helmet. The common people were expected to prostrate themselves on the ground as he and his retinue passed. It was the signing of his death-warrant for a common person to remain standing at the mention of the king’s name, at the mere taking past him of the monarchs food, water, or raiment; to put on any article of dress belonging to him, to enter his presence without permission, to cross his shadow or even that of his dwelling. If a man dared to enter, after due consent from his sovereign, the latter’s abode, he must crawl flat on the ground, and depart in the same manner.
Lacking materials of all kinds, the early Hawaiians made their implements of war or industry from wood, bone, or stone, --- axes, adzes, hammers or stone, spades of wood, knives of flint and ivory. Needles were made of thorns or bones, and spears and daggers of hardened wood. With such tools as these they felled trees, from which they built their temples, canoes and barges, dwellings, manufactured cloth and cordage, walls of hewn stone, built roads and fish-ponds, and tilled the soil. They wove mats, cloths, sails, and from the inner bark of the paper mulberry beat out a thin cloth called tapa, which they sometimes ornamented with figures and made in different colors.
They ate the flesh of nearly everything living in the sea, as well as that of swine, dogs, and fowls, yams, sweet potatoes, fruits, berries, and several kinds of seaweed, besides the staple of their foods, poi, a sort of fermented paste made from taro, a bulbous root very similar to an Indian turnip. They drank an intoxicating beverage made from the sweet root of the ti plant ( Footnote: Introduced by Botany Bay convicts at the beginning of present century), and a stupefying liquor from the awa root. They did their cooking by wrapping their food in ti leaves and placing it in an underground oven. Their household utensils consisted of shells, gourds, calabashes of different sizes and shapes, and platters made of wood. They lighted their homes with the oily nuts of the ku-kui, or candlenut-tree.
The dress of the Hawaiian consisted simply of a narrow maro fastened around the loins for the male, a pau or skirt reaching from the waist to the knees for the female. These skirts were invariable made of five thicknesses of tapa, and when the weather was cool a short cape was thrown over the shoulders. Generally the heads of both sexes were uncovered.
Besides the maro the king wore on state occasions the royal mantle, the mamo, so called for the little bird that furnished the feathers to make it. This mantle reached from the neck to the ankle, and it took over ten thousand feathers to make it. As each bird had but two of the kind of feathers desired, one under each wing, it took at least five thousand of them to afford the material for this costly garment.
The chiefs wore short capes of yellow feathers mixed with red. The color of the priest and gods was red. The nobility had feather head-dresses, and charms of bones suspended from the neck. Some of them tattooed their faces, breast, and thighs, while flowers were the universal ornament. At festivals, feasts and other gatherings, all wore garlands of beautiful fragrant leaves, crowns of flowers resting on the head, and wreaths encircling the neck. This beautiful custom still prevails.
The dwellings of the common people were constructed of upright posts planted in the ground with cross beams and rafters, roof and sides constructed of twigs woven together and filled in with a thatch of grass.
The houses of the nobility were larger, stronger, and frequently surrounded by wide verandas. These buildings were built so the main entrance faced east, the home of Kane, the supreme god. These homes consisted of six separate dwellings or apartments; first, the heiau, or idol house; second, the mau, or eating house of the males, from which the females were prohibited from entering; third, the hale-noa, or the house of the women, which men could not enter; fourth, the hale-aina, or eating-house of the wife; fifth, the kua, or the wife’s working house; sixth, the hale-pea, or nursery of the wife. The poorer classes followed as near as possible this plan, though they had often to use screens for partitions.
The Hawaiians enjoyed athletic sports of all kinds, running, boxing, jumping, wrestling, swimming, diving, and other games, but the two pastimes which delighted them most were holua and surf-riding. The former consisted of coasting on narrow sledges down steep descents, with the rider lying prone and borne on with the velocity of the wind. He who reached the foot first was the victor. These sportsmen did not require a snow path over which to fly on their strange sleds, but found the best race-course over slopes covered with dried grass or over lava-floored tracks.
The goddess of the volcano, Pele, was supposed to delight in these contests, coming disguised in some earthly form. As may be imagined, she always became a dangerous rival. Kahawali, a Hawaiian prince, once raced with her when she was impersonating a beautiful young woman. On the first trip he outdistanced her, and she asked for a second trial, claiming that her papa ( sled ) was inferior to his, he laughed at her and started alone down the descent. Hearing wild shouts and great confusion, he saw that she was pursuing him, riding on the crest of a lava wave. In his desperation he fled for the sea, where she could not follow him. But she threw stones after him, making the water so hot he perished. To him who doubts this tale the stones are pointed out on the beach, and the track of the lava stream is shown.
Their musical instruments were the pahus, or drums of different sizes, the ohe, or bamboo flute, the hokio, or rude clarinet, and a few ruder instruments than even these. They had several dances, of which the hula, participated in by males and females, was the most popular.
In their mourning customs the Hawaiians showed their wildest nature, often resorting to the most extravagant performances, excusing all by saying that grief had so un-seated their reason as to not make them not responsible. The masses buried their dead in caves, but the kings were disposed of with the utmost care. There were royal burial-places at Honaunau, and on Maui at Iao valley; but not always did the remains of the king receive sepulture at those places. On account of fear that someone would make fish-hooks or other instruments out of them, for the charm they were supposed to give, all sorts of expedients were resorted to by faithful friends to conceal the bones.
The year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each. The days were named instead of being numbered. As their division gave but three hundred and sixty days to the year, they consecrated to Lono, the god of the elements, the balance, so as to complete the sidereal year regulated by the Pleiades. The new year began with the winter solstice. They had the lunar month by which they regulated their feasts. The seasons were two, wet and dry. In the counting they calculated by four and its multiples.
They had no written language, and their oral speech contained the sounds of but twelve letters, five vowels and seven consonants, as follows: a, e, i, o, u, and h, k, l, m, n, p, w. To these r, t, and b are sometimes added by writers, but r takes the sound of l, the t of k, and b of p. A is pronounced usually as in father; e as in they; i as in marine; o as in mole; u as in mute. W usually has the sound of v. The only exception to these rules is when the vowel has the long or short sound. Every syllable of every word in the language ends with a vowel, and two consonants never come together. The penultimate, or next to last syllable of a word, almost invariably receives the accent. The plural takes the prefix na. In Hawaiian conversation words fall from the tongue with the musical rhythm of a brook gliding over a pebbly bottom, a consonant thrown in now and then as rocks are found in a stream, not to check the current, but to break the monotony of its flow.
In order to maintain the distinction between the classes, the nobility had a language of their own, which was not understood by the common people. This was changed from time to time that it might not be learned by any one outside the favored circle.
If barbarians, the Hawaiians were never cannibals. They sacrificed their prisoners of war on the alters of their gods that they might gain further victories under arms, and bathed those same graven images in the blood of their kindred to appease the imaginary wrath of their over-rulers. In this respect they did not differ from the ancient Gauls and Saxons, whose temples were crimsoned with the blood of human beings, while a father in Israel sharpened his knife to slay his son that his body might be made an offering to the offended God of Abraham.
Marriage was forbidden only between mother and son, and yet the kingly line boasted of the finest specimens of manhood and womanhood. The people were in physical bondage to the king and in mental slavery to the priesthood, and yet they were a merry, easy-going, brave, and unselfish race of men and women. Their kings were ever at war, and yet no fear of a foreign invasion reached their hearts. Surrounded by the eight Hawaiian seas they were a little world by themselves, their lives filled with deeds of knightly chivalry, incidents of love and romantic devotion unto death, and examples of unfaltering patriotism and self-sacrifice. If an impassable gulf frowned between the rulers and their subjects, each party went its way careless and contented.
Following the second period of invasion the Hawaiians enjoyed a long spell of peace and isolation, six hundred years of non-intercourse with the outside world, when in 1778 Captain Cook led the way for further conquest, such as ancient history had not told.
CHAPTER IV THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC
Pili’s lineal descendant Kalaniopuu was king of Hawaii at the time of Captain Cook’s visit. He also held sway over part of Maui. Kahekili, “ the Thunderer,” a brother to the wife of Kalaniopuu, was moi of the greater part of Maui. His cousin, Kahahana, was king of Oahu, Molokai, and Lanai. Kauai and Niihau were ruled by a queen related to the royal family of Hawaii, and whose husband was a younger brother to the king of Maui. It will thus be seen that the rulers of the different islands were connected by ties of blood, though little love was lost on this account, when the frequent wars brought the bitterness of strife.
At that time Kahekili was arming to overpower Kahahana of Oahu, expecting to be assisted by Kauai’s queen. Captain Cook found Kalaniopuu away fighting this same Thunderer, to avenge the death of his eight hundred nobles, the flower of his army, who had been hewn down like playthings at Hana the year before by Kahekili’s doughty warriors.
There was then in the court of Kalaniopuu a silent, taciturn man of forty, who was destined to end all these petty strife’s in a Napoleonic conquest of the islands. He was of stalwart frame, and his courage and prowess were well known, though none dreamed of his skill and ambition as a warrior. Born at Halawa, in the Kohala district, during a turbulent period, when all the forces of Hawaii were mustering for an invasion of Maui, he was the accepted son of the king’s half-brother, Keoua, though some believed he was the son of Kahekili, the Thunderer. However that might be, he was of royal blood, and what was more important still, possessed the indomitable, far-seeing spirit of Kamehameha the Conqueror. This Kamehameha took an active part in the fight which resulted in the death of Captain Cook, and more than any other person remarked the great superiority of the weapons of the whites over those of his countrymen. After this unfortunate scene he retired to his estate in Kohala, and was quietly building canoes and looking after his patrimony when the aged king died in 1782. Kiwalao, the moi’s oldest son, now succeeded to the kingship, with Kamehameha second in power.
Usually the death of a king was followed by a civil war, and this case was no exception to the rule. Four chiefs of Kona joined issue under Kamehameha, and a fierce battle ensued just south of Kealakekua Bay, when Kiwalao was killed and his brother became ruler over Kona and Kohala. The rest of the island was divided among a brother and uncle of Kiwalao and Kahekili and his brother Kaeo.
An intense and prolonged warfare between the rival powers followed, during which Kamehameha acted a stirring part in assailing West Maui, while Kahekili and his brother Kaeo attacked the district of Hilo. No faction gained a decisive victory. During a lull in this savage contention, in 1786, American and European ships on their way to Canton began to stop here for supplies, or engaged in the fur trade on the northwest coast of America, ran down here to spend the winter, Waimea, on the island of Kauai, and Kealakekua Bay being the harbors most frequented by them.
Some of the native chiefs were inclined to look with suspicion upon these visitors, and, though a brisk trade soon sprung up, to treat them treacherously. Kamehameha showed a more far-seeing policy by treating with the strangers fairly, trying to gain their confidence by offering them every hospitality at his disposal and even defending them against the faithless treatment of the other chiefs. In this way he secured the better part of the trade, and came into the possession of firearms, powder, and shot, the articles most in demand by the natives.
In 1789 a treacherous act of his enemies was the cause of giving to Kamehameha just such an aid and counsel as he needed in the coming conquest. In February, 1790, an American fur-trader named Metcalf, on his way to China, with two vessels, the Eleanor and Fair American, the latter commanded by his son, a youth of twenty, anchored off Honuaula, Maui. That night, after killing its occupant, some of the natives stole a boat and stove it to pieces to get its nails.
The following morning, learning that the offenders had gone to Olowalu, Captain Metcalf proceeded thither. Arriving there during a religious festival, he waited until it was over, and then, making no mention of the wrong which had been done him, opened trade with the Hawaiians. This called a great number of canoes about the vessel, when he ordered a broadside of shot to be poured upon the unsuspecting crowd. The water was strewn with the bodies of the dead and wounded natives and the ruins of their canoes. Immediately after doing this, Captain Metcalf ran down to the Hawaiian coast, lying off Kealakekua Bay for the coming of the Fair American.
Meanwhile a fleet of canoes had gone out to the other ship, and under pretence of trade gained the deck. The boy captain, taken off his guard, was killed, and the slaughter of his crew quickly followed, the mate, Isaac Davis, being alone spared. The vessel was then ransacked, and taking everything with them, with Davis a captive, the natives retreated from that vicinity.
On March 17th, while waiting in the hope of finding his son or some of the crew, his boatswain, John Young, while on shore was captured and carried off by the natives. Giving up all hope of finding the lost ones, and believing Young to have been killed, Captain Metcalf went on his way. Kamehameha soon obtained possession of the muskets, cannon, and ammunition taken from the Fair American, and the prisoners fell into his hands. In the two foreign sailors, if he could induce them to enter his service, he foresaw valuable assistants in the work he had ahead, and he treated them with kindness and respect.
Realizing that they had little hope of being found and rescued by their countrymen, and being adventurous, ambitious natures, they soon yielded to his overtures, to become his most able advisors and supporters in the long and arduous war to follow. They were in fact, as another has well put it, the marshals of the Hawaiian Napoleon, his Ney and MacDonald. Thus the affair connected with the two American ships, as questionably as it was on both sides, marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Hawaii.
Kamehameha lost no more time in resuming his war with the powers of Maui, and that year, 1790, he defeated its defenders with terrible slaughter in the Iao valley, where it was said the dead fell so fast and thick that the waters of the Wailuku were dammed by the bodies. In his triumph here he was planning to overrun Molokai, when word came that affairs at home were getting into bad shape. The brother of his enemy defeated here had captured Hilo and was sweeping away everything before him.
Returning at once to Hawaii, he made short, if bloody, work in routing this foe; but while he was doing it, the Thunderer and his followers rallied to regain possession of Maui. The next move in this bloody game of conquest was a sea-fight between Kamehameha and his united enemies of Hawaii. This was fought off Waimanu, and owing to the superiority of his arms Kamehameha won a decided victory. He followed this up by the disreputable act of his long and eventful life. Sending Keoua to meet him in a friendly conference at Kawaihae, he then caused him and his attendants to be massacred as they were trying to effect a landing. Thereupon Kamehameha proclaimed himself king of all Hawaii, and there was none to dispute his title. No doubt his enemy would have resorted to the same methods had he been able to make them successful, but it seems none the less a pity that a record otherwise remarkably bright for a heathen should have been stained with a deed like this. This was in 1791, and he celebrated his triumph by building that year a new heiau at Puukohola, offering the bodies of his captives as sacrifices to his favorite war-god.
The following year Hawaii was visited by Capt. George Vancouver, who had been with Captain Cook on his second and third voyages. Kamehameha now learned much more than his American counselors had told him of the power and grandeur of the Christian nations, while he listened with wonder and interest to the other’s teaching of justice and humanity and his description of Christian’s faith in God. Captain Vancouver visited the islands three times during 1792-94, and there is no doubt his teaching made a deep and abiding impression upon the Hawaiian king, who, if he still clung to his idols and pagan rites, showed afterward a milder spirit in all that he did.
Captain Vancouver presented him with cattle and sheep and many useful plants, but refused to let him have powder and firearms. So favorable an impression was made by this humane navigator that February 25, 1794, Kamehameha and his chiefs voluntarily placed Hawaii under the protection of Great Britain, and the British flag was raised on the shore of Kealakekua.
This act, however, did not mean that his spirit of conquest was subdued or tat his wars were over, for inside of a year we find him mustering the greatest army the island ever knew. His old enemy Kahekili, king of the leeward islands, worn out with his fighting as much as his years, left his kingdom to be divided between his son, Kalanikupule, ruler of Oahu, and his brother, Kaeo, moi of Maui. This twain straightaway went to fighting over their respective domains. By the aid of a couple of English traders, Captains Brown and Gordon, then visiting at Honolulu, Kalani of Oahu defeated his rival and put him to death. Immediately he began to grow jealous of his allies, and having an ambition of his own to rule over all of the islands, he planned to kill them and then, with the ships and a fleet of canoes, sail to Hawaii to attack Kamehameha. He managed to murder the captains, but in such a bungling manner that the sailors escaped with the vessels, going to Hawaii direct, when they turned them over to Kamehameha with all their arms and ammunition.
This was the conqueror’s opportunity, and, assisted by his marshals, he mustered over sixteen thousand warriors, and with the best equipped, as well as the largest army Hawaii had known, in the spring of 1795 set sail with his immense fleet of canoes for Maui. This island was given over to him without a battle, and then he captured Molokai in the same easy manner.
By this time Kalanikupule had rallied his forces, ten thousand strong, and prepared to make a desperate stand in the Nuuanu Valley, near where the ice-works are now located. Kamehameha reached Waialae Bay the last of April, where he learned that one of his trusted chiefs, who had agreed to meet him there, had deserted him, and with all of his followers joined the enemy.
Nothing daunted by this, Kamehameha lost no further time in marching against his foes, when the two armies met in that deadly grapple which was not only to decide the fates of kings but the whole future of the Hawaiian Islands. The Oahuans proved themselves true to their reputation as fighters, and there, with the cloud-swept cliffs behind, the homeland of Kaulau below them, with the blue sea shimmering through the cocoanuts, and in plain sight of the thatched roofs of their grass houses, they gave their lives in heroic contest for the lost cause. Slowly pressed back toward the brink, the survivors, rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, hurled themselves over the precipice upon the jagged rocks hundreds of feet below.
Again Kamehameha had proved himself the conqueror, and by this victory all of the Hawaiian Islands, except Kauai and Niihau, passed under his sovereignty. Kaiana, the traitor, had met death from a cannon-ball, and Kalanikupule, finding his warriors completely routed, tried to escape by flight; but he was pursued, overtaken, and captured, to be held as a sacrifice at the heiau at Moanalua.
According to custom the great victory must be celebrated with adequate ceremonies, and the grandest hookupu (festival during which the people made presents to the king) ever witnessed in Oahu followed. Finding that it was policy to treat their new king with as good grace as possible, the Oahuans became extremely liberal, until the offerings reached an amount and variety which astonished every one, even to Kamehameha. But the highest gift was reserved for the last. In the midst of the bustle and confusion, an old man, who had been among the most active and bitter of the island defenders, was seen approaching the alter, or grand stand, leading by the hand a beautiful girl, an ehu (Hawaiian blonde), as a gift to his new king. Not over sixteen years of age, of fair skin, expressive, hazel-brown eyes, tall, perfectly molded figure, and abundant tresses of a glimmering brown mixed with threads of gold falling like a gauze veil down the well-rounded shoulders, she was of that matchless type of beauty rarely found even when the best blood of two races blends. A skirt of yellow tapa, embroidered in dark designs of many birds, and rustling like folds of silk, fell from her slender waist to her knees, while her head was wreathed in yellow oo feathers, and shell bracelets encircled her small wrists. Suspended from her neck, by its three hundred braids of human hair, was the sacred Niho Palaoa, the royal insignia of the gods. Surely never fairer bid for kingly favor was made than this of old Kavari, who hoped to propitiate his new sovereign and thus win back the fortune he had lost by opposing the iron Conqueror.
Frightened by the sight of so many intent spectators, and realizing more than ever her strange position, the maid stood before the king with downcast eyes, wet with tears, and bosom rising and falling tumultuously under great emotion.
Kamehameha the Great smiled, and was about to address the aged chief who came with this human gift, when there was a commotion in the ranks of his soldiers, and a young warrior, who had covered himself with glory in the battle that day, sprang forward to place himself in front of the trembling damsel.
A low murmur of horror came from the watchful crowd as the daring act was witnessed, for all knew it was death to interfere with the royal will. The dark countenance of the king grew black, and his eyes flashed furiously; but instead of ordering the young man to put to death, as the onlookers expected, he demanded of him:
“ What means this interference, rash youth? How dare you meddle with the sacred rights of the king?”
The warrior bowed low, but did not offer to speak.
“What name, sir?” though Kamehameha well knew.
“Hakuole, who led the warriors of Kona on the right, my king.”
“So Hakuole, the dauntless, is tired of being a soldier, and prefers the company of women to that of his comrades in arms?”
At this humiliating question Hakuole bowed lower, and wisely held his peace, while the king ordered the girl to be led forward.
“Knowest this foolhardy young man, who chooses the companionship of women to that of warriors?” he asked of her, who now stood bravely up before him.
“ I wore his wreath at the last hula dance before the battle,” she replied, modestly, “though father would not remember this.”
Then it must have flashed through the mind of the astute king that this bold tableau was a love act, and those nearest imagined they detected a smile under the grim exterior of the Conqueror. But he spoke as sternly as ever, when he said:
“Hakuole, I command you to listen. Today you have done that which you knew would bring you the punishment of a displeased king. You have shown yourself brave officer, now listen to my decree. You are suspended from your official rank for thirteen moons. Go with this girl to her fathers estate, which I now bestow upon her children. Away with you, and forget not the judgment of Kamehameha.”
Covered with confusion at this happy and unexpected termination of the affair, the lovers beat a retreat, amid the cheers of their friends, and there is no doubt they lived to bless the name of Kamehameha, whose true character is best illustrated in the little incidents of his long and checkered career. Of course the hookupu was a great success, and the king soon won the confidence and esteem of his new subjects.
After spending a year in reorganizing and strengthening his army, he set out to conquer Kauai, but the elements this time interfered with his plans, and losing many of his canoes and men in a violent tempest off the coast of the Garden isle, he was obliged to return to Oahu. Then an insurrection on Hawaii next took his attention, and he finished his wars in putting that down, though he still dreamed of adding Kauai o his kingdom.
Kamehameha now turned from warlike to civil affairs, beginning to make many radical changes in the condition and government of the islands. He first divided the land among his followers, after reserving a generous portion for himself, according to their rank and service. He chose governors for each island, made them responsible to him, and empowered them to elect chiefs of districts, heads of villages, and all petty officers, who were held accountable through them to him. He appointed collectors of revenue, who, lacking the art of writing, kept their accounts by a method used by the British exchequer in ancient times. He had his board of advisors, who, with the governors, met with him at regular dates, the meetings being held in strict privacy.
John Young was made governor of Hawaii. In all of his selections to office the king showed remarkable judgment of men, and was seldom, if ever, deceived. So thoroughly did he master every situation and enforce the honesty of his purpose, that crime became almost unknown, and it was a common saying that “old men and children could sleep in the highways in safety.” He also paid considerable attention to the industrial and agricultural interests, doing much in the way to repair the ravages of his wars.
But an evil hd entered his kingdom against which he could not successfully cope. The seeds of disease and intemperance sown by foreigners had developed into a foe which no army could withstand or people combat. In 1800 some Botany Bay convicts introduced the method of distilling liquor, and drunkenness at once became very prevalent. Four years later a pestilence, believed to have been cholera, was brought from China, and half the population of Oahu fell victims, while elsewhere disease and death claimed their victims in overwhelming numbers. Such misery and death as the common people had never known now fell to their unhappy lot.
At this time Kamehameha had just completed his immense fleet of war canoes, called the peleleu, built for the purpose of invading Kauai, but the terrible disease sweeping the islands carried off in a few days half of his army and the majority of his counselors. The Kauai expedition had to be abandoned, never to be considered again by the sobered king, who told his remaining soldiers to go into the fields and work. He joined them for a time, as not only disease but famine stared them in the face.
In March, 1810, Kaumualii, the last king of Kauai, visited Honolulu in the American ship Albatross, Capt. Nathan Winship, and made a voluntary concession of his islands to Kamehameha, who very considerately allowed him to hold them in fief during his lifetime, on condition of paying tribute.
About this time and continuing during the first quarter of a century, the sandalwood trade with foreign markets sprang up. At Canton, China, in particular, this fragrant wood was in great demand for incense and the manufacture of fancy articles. While the wood lasted it was a source of vast profit for the landholders. It was soon almost entirely removed, so it is seldom found now.
While attending to the many details of his government with far-seeing foresight, he neglected to adopt a national flag. With a feeling of friendliness toward all foreign countries, England and the United States in particular, he though it sufficient to fly the flags of those countries as it happened, intending, no doubt to be fair in the matter. All went well in this way until the War of 1812 had been in progress several months. Then a Yankee privateer, putting into Honolulu, saw with amazement the British flag floating in the breeze. He demanded an explanation, when the king, to prove his friendliness, caused the stars and stripes to be run up in place of the other flag. This satisfied the American, but in a short time an English man-of-war appeared on the scene, and again the king was taken to account.
Kamehameha was sorely puzzled, and he thought of flying both flags, until Young and Davis explained to him that two flags of hostile countries could not fly from the same staff. He was then advised to have a flag of his own, and Young suggested that a compromise be made by taking the stars and stripes with the British cross for a field. The nest day the new flag was hoisted and everybody pleased.
During 1825, under the order of Baranoff, the Russian governor of Alaska, Doctor Scheffer, visited Kauai, and urged its aged king to place himself under the protection of Russia, and even went so far as to build a fort at Waimea and hoist the colors of the empire over it. Upon learning this, Kamehameha sent word for doctor Scheffer to leave, which he did, and the Hawaiian king raised a strong fort on the island in 1816.
This year, upon the advise of Young, a fort of stone and embrasure for cannon, with walls about twelve feet high and twenty feet thick, was built at Honolulu. It was nearly square and about three hundred and fifty feet on a side, and stood across what is now Fort Street. Prior to that time the place had been but a fishing-village, with a sandy, treeless background and a fringe of cocoanuts on the seashore. In November, 1820, the court was moved from Hawaii by Kamehameha II., and it became the seat of government for the island states.
On May 8, 1819, at the ripe age of fourscore years, Kamehameha died at Kailua, Hawaii, forbidding in his last illness the usual sacrifice of human beings at his funeral, saying, “The men should be sacred to the king,” meaning his son and successor. If belonging to a barbaric race, he was no ordinary man. A shrewd, sagacious organizer and commander of armed forces, he was none the less gifted in executive ability, and he not only consolidated the islands under a strong government, but he fused a rabble of ignorant people and chieftaincies into a united kingdom, and stimulated among his subjects a patriotism which is felt to this day by their descendants.
So fearful were the ancient chiefs of Hawaii that some harm might be done to their bodies after death, --- that their bones be utilized for making fish-hooks or arrow points for shooting mice, --- it was the invariable custom for the most faithful of the king’s survivors to bear away the remains to some unknown place of sepulture, some dark recess in the volcanic mountains, or to a grave in the sea. Sometimes the ingenuity of the barbaric undertaker devised strange places or methods of concealment. Upon the death of a noted king of Oahu, some two hundred years ago, the bones were stripped of the flesh, and then entrusted to a careful friend for safe internment. Instead of seeking some hidden spot in the mountains to receive them, he pulverized the bones into a fine powder, which he mixed with the poi to be eaten at the funeral feast. The repast over, and asked if he had faithfully done his work, he replied: “Safe, indeed, are the bones of Kaulii. They are hidden in a hundred living sepulchers; you have eaten them!”
Where the bones of Kamehameha I. rest no man knows. A chief, by the name of Hoolulu, was entrusted with the sacred charge, and it is believed he secretly bore the kingly remains to a lonely hiding-place in the hills back of Kailua. Two men met him upon his return, and, being asked if they had seen anyone going in the direction of the hills that morning, saved their lives by answering “No.” Had their reply been different the questioner would have killed them on the spot, that they might not reveal the secret of his errand. This chief left children, and no doubt he entrusted his secret with one of them, according to custom; but in 1853, when secrecy was no longer necessary, Kamehameha III. Sought this favored son of Hoolulu, that he might learn the location of the rude sepulcher of his illustrious ancestor. But he could not persuade the other to reveal the spot, and the secret died with him a few years later.
Chapter V ANCIENT HAWAIIAN RELIGION.
According to the Hawaiian mythology, preserved by the priests, who, at least twice during each generation, met in council to compare their historic and genealogy meles, that nothing might be lost or changed, a trinity of gods ruled over the heavens and earth. These were Kane, the supreme author, Ku, the designer and builder, Lono commander of elements.
Through the Hikapoloa, or united efforts of the trinity, light was created from darkness, and order brought out of chaos, and three heavens were created for the dwelling-place. This done, they made the earth, sun, moon, and stars. A host of angels to administer to their wants was then created from their spittle. Man in the image of Kane was next made from red earth and the spittle of Kane, Lono bringing from the four quarters of the globe a whitish clay for the head. From one of the supreme gods was created woman.
The pair were placed in a beautiful paradise, with three rivers running through it, the waters of life, while on the banks grew inviting fruits, including the tabooed breadfruit-tree and the sacred apple-tree. Legends exist telling how man partook of the forbidden fruit, etc.
Among the angels who had been created was one who proved the Lucifer of Hawaiian mythology, and he caused a riot in heaven, by demanding that the newly ordered man should worship him. This Kane would not allow, as angels as well as man had been the creation of the gods. Thereupon this Kanaloa went to work to make a man after his own heart; that is, one who would worship him. Kane seemed to have no objection, but though Kanaloa did succeed in making a very creditable looking man, he could not endow it with life. In vain he breathed into its nostrils, and maddened by his failure, he resolved to destroy the man made by the gods. He stole into Paliuli, paradise, as a moo or lizard, and beguiled the original pair into committing an offence which caused Kane to expel them from the garden.
This outlawed pair had three sons, the second of whom killed the first. The Hawaiian Cain was named Laka. Ka Pili was the youngest son, whose genealogy is traced through thirteen generations to Nuu, the Hawaiian Noah. A deluge following, Nuu built an ark, and entered it with his wife, three sons, and a male and female of every living creature. After the deluge the ark rested on the mountain, overlooking a beautiful valley. In his gratefulness Nuu offered a sacrifice to the moon, mistaking it for Kane. That god reproved him for his mistake, but left the rainbow as a token of his forgiveness. The genealogy continues for ten generations before coming to Ku Pule, the Hawaiian Abraham, who takes for his wife a slave woman, Ahu. Ku Pule established circumcision, and his grandson had twelve children, of whom were descended twelve tribes of men, from one of which, Menehune, came the Hawaiians.
Hawaii Loa, fourth in descent from this father of the Hawaiian Israel, set sail on the reckless sea, and, guided by the Pleiades, eventually reached the island of Hawaii, to which he gave his name. Papa, a tabu descendant of this chief, married one Wakea beneath her in rank, and in consequence quarrels embittered their lives. Wakea basked in the smiles of the beautiful Hina, and the island of Molokai was the result of their embrace. To offset one wrong by another, Papa gave favor to Lua, and she bore the fair Oahu. Hence the names Molokai-Hina and Oahu-a-Lua.
From Wakea to the Kamehameha fifty-six generations were told, or twenty-nine to the Maweke, who reigned in the eleventh century, when the influx from the southern islands made such changes in the religious and political situation of the islands. New gods were introduced by the high priest, Pao, the tabu enlarged and strengthened, and the priesthood made hereditary, and second only to the royal head of government.
The people were now allowed to mingle less freely in the forms of worship, and the priesthood assumed a more serious and mysterious demeanor. Kanaloa was exalted among the supreme gods, Kane, Ku, and Lono. Pele, the terrible goddess of the volcanoes, was added to the deities and temples to her worship were erected all over the volcanic districts of Hawaii. She was the most picturesque of the Hawaiian deities. Among her sisters and brothers were Hiiaka, the heaven-rending cloud-holder; Maole, the fire-eyed canoe-breaker; Hiiaka-ka, the red-hot mountain-lifting clouds; Kapohoikahiola, god of explosion; Kane-kahili, the thunder god; and as many more with as weird titles.
The gods and goddesses named did not command all of the worship of the people, for heiaus were built to the war-gods of kings, when human sacrifices were offered, and humbler temples were reared to the animals, such as the fish, shark, and lizard. Superstition everywhere abounded, sprites and fairies of every description populating the forest, and nymphs and monsters swimming in the waters. No stream or valley or point of land but had its own wonderful story of supernatural deeds. The people made their own household goods, and destroyed them when they failed to respond to their satisfaction. It was believed that the spirits of the departed remained to hover over their earthly homes, and these shades were objects of prayer.
The high priest did not have anything to do with these lower deities, the heiau over which he presided being dedicated to the trinity or the war-god of the king, to whom he was next in authority. Assisted by seers, and prophets grown gray in years if not wisdom, and pretending to court the favor of the gods, he was consulted on all matters of grave importance. Sometimes he had charge of the king’s war-gods, when he went into the field of battle, many stories being told of such action changing the tide of conflict.
Ailments of the body were attributed to the displeasure of the gods, witchcraft, or the prayers of some kahuna, or witch-doctor, who had been offended. The kahuna called to minister to the afflicted, first sought to discover the cause of his patient’s disorder, and then set himself about counteracting the spell by prayers and incantations. In this way it was believed he sometimes succeeded in transferring the malady to the person whose anger had caused it.
The ancient Hawaiians believed that another person had the power, under certain conditions, to pray him to death. For the kahuna to do this it was necessary that he should possess some article belonging to the victim, such as a lock of hair, a tooth, nail or even some of his spittle. For this reason each king had his spittoon bearer, an office entrusted only to some faithful person.
The Hawaiian heiau or temple was a walled enclosure of from one to five acres in extent, laid out in irregular form, the walls sometimes being as high as twenty feet, and ten feet thick. They were rough barriers, occasionally capped with slabs of hewn coral. Inside was a house of sacrifice, called the luakina, of small dimensions, and built of stone or wood. In front of this stood the lele, or altar, a raised stone platform. Beyond the first temple was another sacred to the priest, and within this was a small wicker enclosure called the amu, from whence the kaulas, or prophets, issued their oracles amid a scene of darkness and in a tragical tone of voice. The walls were covered with images of the principal gods, and the outer and inner walls were surmounted by lines of stones and wooden idols.
Dwellings for the high priest and his associates stood near the temples, while a house for the king, when seeking consultation at the place, stood a little removed from those of the kaulas. At the entrance to the enclosure was an elevated cross, the tabu staff, and near this was a stone building in which the victims for the altar were slain. Human sacrifices were usually offered at the building of a heiau, and when completed they were dedicated with great pomp and ceremony, the altar heaped with human bodies.
The ordinary services consisted simply of offerings of meats and fruits, with chants and prayers, the people being allowed to join, the male portion of the inhabitants being often permitted to participate. The women were not admitted, but if denied entrance to the sacred grounds were exempt from a draft when human lives were required for sacrifice. During an augury, the king would proceed alone or with his high priest to the heiau, asking of the kaulas an answer to his question. If the replies from the amu did not meet his expectations other methods were resorted to, such as the shape and movement of the clouds, pigs and fowls were opened that their intestines, believed to be the seat of thought, be examined. Previous to engaging in war, human sacrifices were generally offered, and the first prisoners taken in battle were kept for the altar. The priests numbered the victims, while the king saw that they were furnished, either from persons held for some misdemeanor or taken where they happened to be found. The victims were slain with clubs, at the place mentioned, and laid on the altar to decay.
There were also temples of refuge, called puuhonuas, on the island of Hawaii, one of these being located at Waipoo, where the great heiau existed for many years, known as Paa-kalani. The gates of the puuhonuas were guarded by priest and always open. Anyone who succeeded in gaining these retreats was safe from king or priest, be he chief or slave, a warrior escaping from the enemy or a criminal flying from justice. The puuhonuas mentioned existed until the destruction of the temples and overthrow of paganism in 1819.
It will be see from this brief outline that the religion of the early Hawaiians was a strange compound of idolatrous forms and sacrifices founded upon the Jewish account of creation, fall of man, revolt of Lucifer, the deluge and repopulation of the earth. One of the most important functions of this religion was the tabu, which meant restriction or denial of certain rights and privileges to particular persons at all or different times. It was a command to do or not to do, and it implied, if not expressed, “obey or die.” There were three kinds, the religious tabus, the personal or perpetual tabus, and the temporal or incidental tabus. The last was the most pernicious, as it was changeable, and less understood by the inhabitants and most likely to be unwittingly broken. The others were well understood by the people.
No one was acknowledged the power of tabu unless he had royal lineage, that is the blood of nobility flowing in his veins which he could prove by his genealogical record. As a distinguishing feature the king and his priesthood had different colors denoting their tabus, the first being yellow and the last red. Thus mantles made from the feathers of the oo and mamo could be worn only by kings and princes. Capes of a mingling red and yellow were worn by the lower nobility.
The priesthood claimed everything pertaining to it as sacred, or tabu. The pig running at large but destined to be part of a regular feast or festival was tabu, while the squid and turtle, with two or three specimens of birds, belonged only to the food of the nobility.
Women more especially than men felt the tabu. No female was allowed to partake of the plantain, banana, or cocoanut, the flesh of swine or certain fish; under no circumstances was she permitted to eat with men.
A common tabu, proclaimed by the king’s heralds, required simply that the people abandon their daily occupations and attend the services at the heiaus or temples. The religious tabus demanded that not only should work be stopped, but that no person save a priest and his assistants should leave his place of abode; all fires and lights must be extinguished; bathing for the time given up; canoeing ended; all domestic creatures confined or muzzled so as not to break the silence, which was not broken by a word above a whisper. Amid this silence and sacrifice the people imagined they were pleasing the gods highly.
During these tabus notice not to enter the sacred groves, paths or bathing-places, the grounds of the temples or the royal residence was given by placing at these places or their entrances the puuloulou, a tall pole tufted with white or black tapa. General tabus were made to please the gods or in celebration of some special event. They were common or “strict,” and included more or less territory, extending in time from one to ten days. However foolish or despotic a tabu may seem to have been, it was rarely broken, as those in power deemed it extremely dangerous to permit any laxness on the part of the people, while they considered it as a safeguard against godly wrath and vengeance.
CHAPTER VI THE LAST DEFENDERS OF THE OLD FAITH
Kamehameha I. had died in the faith of his fathers. The conqueror had been too busy with his wars to give heed to the waning influences of the priests; too much engrossed in strengthening the temporal powers to give thought to the spiritual well-being of his people. But the broken intercourse with the foreigners visiting the islands had somewhat affected the belief of the masses. They had seen these strange men openly violate the tabus and not suffer harm; they had seen them stand erect in the presence of their gods and not be stricken down. So they began to question, and to question was to doubt, the divine origin of that religious code which affected them but not others.
It was left, however, for a woman to lead in the tearing down of the old walls of barbarism, and leaving the field open to whomsoever happened to come that way. Still this was not done from the purest of motives --- at least not instigated from love for the people. Upon the death of Kamehameha I., May 8, 1819, Liholiho, his son, succeeded to the kingship, with his father’s favorite wife, Kaahumanu, second in authority and guardian of the realm. It was this woman who resolved to free her sex from the bondage of tabu.
Though given prerogatives which placed her high in position and influence, she found many restrictions placed on her actions that were irksome and hard to bear. Some of the most palatable foods were denied her through these ancient customs; her meeting with foreigners was marred by certain religious interdictions, in which she was being continually reminded of the inferiority of her sex. She must have been a bold, ambitious woman who could deliberately set herself about this Herculean task. That she was the equal to anything that she chose to undertake subsequent events proved.
She was childless herself, and having no one to turn to in that direction, she first sought the mother of the young king, Keopuolani, who was won over to her support. Then she boldly approached the prime minister, Kalaimoku, and through him she reached the high priest, Hewahewa, who claimed descent from the renowned Pao. Though the political wife of the great conqueror, who always approached her with his face to the earth, Keopuolani was weak in her decisions and easily changed in her purpose. Whatever persuasion Kaahumanu used upon the other two, Hewahewa must have yielded from a deeper conviction of his own. He as a thinking man, who had delved deeper than all the others into this mystery of pagan worship, and seen many of its absurdities. But to enter this conspiracy meant more to him than his companions. He had all to lose or gain. Supreme in his present position as the honored head of a system as old as tradition, to take up this work meant a sacrifice of everything. A faint inkling of the new creed had come to his inquiring mind, and he firmly took his chances with the strong-minded Kaahumanu.
If the son of a conqueror, like his mother, Liholiho was a weakling. His father had so firmly established his power that wars were not looked for, and Liholiho had spent his youth, not as his father had, in warlike practices, but in idleness and dissipation. It was this fact, realized by the late king, which had caused Kaahumanu to have been given so much voice in the rule, and, if Liholiho reigned unworthily, the power to assume entire control of the kingdom.
At the end of the season of mourning, while he tarried away from the royal palace, Kaahumanu sent the young king a message that upon his return she should set the gods at defiance by breaking the tabu. Liholiho had already learned that there was a growing sentiment against certain restrictions, and the high priest had warned him that the power of the priesthood was near its end. Trembling for the result, particularly for himself, if it should be done, he delayed his return to Kailua as long as possible.
Finally, on October 1, 1819, he set sail with a fleet of four canoes toward the royal palace, taking passage himself on the foremost and largest of the craft. Around him were his queen, his royal treasurer, and others of note and power in the kingdom. Dreading his arrival at their destination, as it was likely to bring a crisis of affairs, the worried king allowed his little fleet to move leisurely along the coast, the sails being set to catch just enough wind to keep them on course. Carousing then began in the royal quarters, hula dancers appearing on the exciting scene, their light feet moved to the music of drums and rattling of calabashes. Intoxicating liquors were passed from one to another, until such carousals were under way as had never been witnessed on the eight Hawaiian seas.
In the midst of this drunken revelry the king, not to be undone, tossed into the water two bottles of liquor, shouting:
“Drink, Kuula! Drink, Ukanipo! Let the water-gods be as drunk as men!”
“Let us hope the gods may not be hopelessly offended,” remarked a companion.
“Then you have not lost faith in the gods, Laanui?” asked the king.
“Never,” replied the surprised attendant, and the king dared not continue the conversation.
Two days later Liholiho appeared at the feast prepared for his reception at Kailua, and the quick-eyed Kaahumanu knew that he was in the right condition to commit some flagrant act against the tabu if shrewdly managed. Once an offence committed, he would be forced to take a bold stand in her favor. Hewahewa was still determined to carry out his part, and Keopuolani was still faithful. Accordingly the king was bantered to drink with the females of the household, and he did not refuse. Thereupon his mother ate a banana in his presence, and drank the milk of a cocoanut. This caused the desperate monarch to declare that he would openly break the tabu that day.
“At the feast,” asked Kaahumanu.
“At the feast,” he replied.
“Then you will be greater than your father, and it will be the proudest day Hawaii ever knew,” said the crafty schemer.
But even then the conspirators did not dare to allow the king out of their sight, until they all took their seats at the prospective tables, when Liholiho’s courage began to leave him, as he gazed on the wooden images of Ku and Lono just opposite him. In a frenzy he seized a glass of liquor, which he drained at one quaff. Hewahewa, believing the critical moment had come, rose, and lifting his hands, said in an impressive voice:
“In peace may we eat, one and all, and let our hearts return thanks to the one and only god of all.”
The king listened and his sinking courage revived. Rising impetuously, he crossed over to where the women were seated at the table reserved for them, and seated himself at his mother’s side. Silence now reigned on every hand, while one and all watched the king, whom they believed to be drunk. Never had the gods been so defied and the offender spared, as far as they knew. Then surprise gave place to horror and consternation, as they saw the king partake of the food prepared for the women. Some of those present hastily left the tables; others, seeing that the high priest seemed to sanction the kingly example, watched the scene with breathless interest.
“The tabu is broken!” someone whispered. Others took up the words, until passed from lip to lip the cry, “The tabu is broken!” The murmur swelled in volume to a shout heard beyond the pavilion, and taken up by the crowd outside, was carried to the remotest corner of Kona.
The royal feast over and the multitude clamorous over the late proceedings, Hewahewa capped the climax by saying:
“Seeing we have made such a bold beginning, my king, we can stop only with the death of the gods and the destructions of the heiaus!”
“So be it!” exclaimed the desperate Liholiho, who was beginning to realize what he had done. “If the gods can punish, we have done enough already to cost us our lives. Down with the gods and let the full measure of their wrath make merry with our fates!”
First resigning publicly, then and there, his priestly office, Hewahewa applied the torch to the sacred temple, and the smoke arising above the smoldering ruins of the day spread until it wafted from Hawaii to Niihau, until the heiaus, images, and sacred belongings of a religion more than fifteen hundred years old were ashes, and the reverential people of the island kingdom without a religion or the knowledge of a god.
If a weak king had yielded blindly to this astounding overthrow of religious principles, there were those with belief in the old faith strong enough, and with the courage of their convictions bold enough to attempt to stay the tide of events. The leader of this defense was a cousin of the king, one Kekuaokalani, a true Kamehameha, both in physique and warlike spirit. Standing a full head above ordinary men in height, there was not a chief in all Hawaii with a more superb figure, and he was as brave and sagacious as he was tall and handsome. Having no taste for the frivolities of the court, and there being no war for his to develop his natural energies and inclinations, he had turned his mind to the priesthood. Beginning by mastering the historic meles, he advanced step by step, until he stood next in rank to the high priest, and the equal in every other way to the wise Hewahewa. Younger than the latter, as learned in the esoteric lore and the secret symbols of the religious code, while humane and generous, he was expected to succeed him when the other laid aside the priestly mantle. Kekuaokalani was happy in the companionship of a wife who appreciated the nobility of his character, and bestowed upon him the full wealth of her affections, as she might have worshipped a god.
This loyal supporter of the old religion was present at the feast when Liholiho violated the tabu, and he listened with dismay when the king decreed the destruction of the temples. With horror in his heart he saw Hewahewa apply the torch to the heiau where they had worshipped together, and the strong man wept, throwing himself on the ground, and praying that his sight might be blasted before he should be called upon to witness another scene of such desecration.
Understanding the condition of Liholiho at the time, he found an excuse for him, but Keakuaokalani sought the high priest, believing that he must have acted under some strange power which had rendered him unaccountable for his actions. His feelings may be imagined when he found Hewahewa not only clear in mind, but with a heart in accord with what the king had done. In his anguish he exclaimed:
“To think that I should have lived to hear a high priest of the blood of Pao-”
“I am not the high priest,” replied Hewahewa, calmly. “I have advised the king to that effect.”
“Then the vacant place is mine,” said Kekuaolani.
“By whose appointment?”
“The trinity of gods, whose temples you have turned to ashes,” answered Kekuaokalani, staring in the direction of the pavilion. Upon reaching the place he lifted from the ruins the mutilated and dishonored image of the god Lono, and with the grim form upon his shoulders he marched defiantly past the king’s mansion and disappeared.
During the week that followed, the work of destruction to the temples went on, with here and there mutterings against the wholesale slaughter. From these scattered and dissatisfied opposes, largely the priest who had been suddenly wrested of their fat offices, a formidable conspiracy was formed to reinstate the whole. The people might be willing to give up the tabu at the word of a capricious king, but the priesthood would not consent to see their craft robbed of its ancient glory. Idols of all sorts were snatched from the burning heiaus, and around the desecrated gods a thousand excited and maddened persons gathered to reiterate their allegiance to the old faith, and fight for it if need be.
Liholiho was inclined to treat the rebellion lightly, until Hewahewa pointed out to him that Kekuaokalani would naturally become the leader.
“Then take forty warriors and bring him a prisoner to Kailua,” ordered the king.
“It may be tried , my king,” said Hewahewa, “but not forty times forty can bring Kekuaokalani here a prisoner. Let him alone; it would but excite the multitude. Without him the revolt will amount to nothing; with him it means war.”
“Let him be bribed to peace, since you will have it so.”
“Only one bribe can purchase Kekuaokalani.”
“And that?” asked the king, hopefully.
“must be the rebuilding of the heiaus and the restoration of the tabu.”
Liholiho was silenced. However preparations for war were begun, and a few days later the royal army, numbering nearly two thousand warriors, moved toward the district of Kaawaloa, where the rebels had made their headquarters.
As Hewahewa had predicted, Kekuaokalani had been made leader of the insurgents, and believing that he had been selected by the will of the outraged gods for their defense, he acted with such energy and enthusiasm that within a short time he found himself at the head of a force scarcely inferior to that of the king. He had good reason to believe in a fulfillment of his dreams, and with the stern incentive that sent these warriors to battle, the fate of the line of Kamehameha was seriously threatened.
A few days later the rebels met and put to rout the royal army. It was now the season of tabu, the five days between the winter solstice and the new year sacred to festivities to Lono, and at a heiau near Kaawaloa that he had saved from destruction, Kekuaokalani offered renewed sacrifices to the gods and prayed for final triumph. The king now made overtures of peace, which were candidly considered, but as no promise of what he was fighting for was given he sadly shook his head.
‘Then,” said Keopuolani, the king’s mother, who had been selected for this delicate mission, with sorrow, “I must say to Liholiho that Kekuaokalani will have nothing but war?”
“Not so, honored mother of princes,” replied Kekuaokalani, in a tone so impressive that the listeners were awed.
“Say to Liholiho that Kekuaokalani, the last of the high priests it may be, prefers to die in defense of the gods in whose service he has devoted his life. If they are what he believes them to be, their temples will rise again; if they are not, then he wishes to hide his disappointment under the green sward.”
That very night he marched his army in the direction of Kailua, and the next day the hostile forces met at Kaumoo. Forming his men in battle line, Kekuaokalani sent his high priest to the front with several newly made gods, and he delivered an impassioned address to his warriors, calling upon them in terms of burning eloquence to defend with their lives the gods of their fathers.
The royal army ws now led by Kalaimoku, the prime minister, but so heroically did the rebels fight that the battle opened in their favor, and so would doubtless have ended in the total annihilation of the king’s forces had it not been for their superiority of weapons, having many firearms, and the assistance of some foreigners. His warriors finally breaking in a panic before the deadly fire of a battalion of musketeers, Kekuaokalani, already seriously wounded, rallied them under cover of a stone wall. Here such a desperate stand was made that again it looked so they were to gain the victory. But this situation was near the shore, and a squadron of double canoes under command of Kaahumanu appeared on the scene at the opportune moment. These warriors sent such a volley of shot from the rear that the insurgents were obliged to scatter, never to rally again. The few who managed to escape fled to the hills. Kekuaokalani, whose tall form had been everywhere present in the brunt of the fight, was struck by a stray shot, and fell with a bullet in his heart. As he expired a woman’s voice rang out above the medley of cries, and the dead priest’s wife, who had hovered near the scene and herself rendered many effective blows, sprang to his side. A bullet at that moment pierced her temple, and she dropped lifeless on the body of her husband.
The first to reach them was Kalaimoku, who said impressively, as he gazed on the noble features of the dead priest:
“Truly, since the days of Keawe, a grander Hawaiian has not lived than Kekuaokalani.”
In this manner died the last defenders of the Hawaiian gods, and they sleep where they fell on the battle-field of Kuamoo. A rude monument fittingly symbolizing their wild natures mark the spot, and the Hawaiian passing the place today bows reverently, believing that Kona, the south wind, attunes itself to a mournful requiem for the departed ones who died so bravely for the lost cause.
CHAPTER VII MISSIONARY WORK
Incidents of little moment in themselves often lead to important and widespread consequences. A small boy, dusky skinned, brown-eyed, clad in scanty raiment, and a stranger in a strange land, found on the doorsteps of a resident graduate of Yale College, proved a messenger to awaken the church of New England to the conditions of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands as no one else had. Between his sobs he told in broken language a pathetic tale of the sacrifice of parents to the rites of a pagan people, of his flight with a younger brother and two friends to save themselves from a similar fate, of the capture and putting to death, before his eyes, of his little brother, of the final escape of himself and companions, who managed to conceal themselves on an American vessel, and eventually reached this country. A Mr. Dwight, who listened to this story with great interest, took the three under his charge, teaching them the English language, and in turn learning all he could of the island kingdom. This boy, Opukahaia, did not live to see his dream of freeing his people realized, but his two friends, ten years later, at the very time the last defenders of the old religion of Hawaii were meeting their tragic fates, were among a little congregation of courageous men and women organized in Park Street Church, Boston, with the express purpose of carrying the light of Christianity to the benighted race.
This little band, besides the two young Hawaiians, Kamoree and Hopu, was composed of nineteen persons, two young graduates of Andover Theological Seminary, Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston, Dr. Thomas Holman, Samuel Ruggles, a teacher, Samuel Whitney, a mechanic, Daniel Chamberlain, a farmer, and Elisha Loomis, a printer, all with their wives, and five children belonging to Mr. And Mrs. Chamberlain. This party left Boston on the brig Thaddeus, October 23, 1819, and after a six months’ voyage around Cape Horn, on March 31, 1820, the snow-clad peaks of Mauna Kea rose before the vision of the weary seafarers.
They were received by the foreign population of the islands with opposition, but the king granted the missionaries permission to tarry a year. Mr. Bingham, assisted by his laymen, Messrs. Loomis and Chamberlain, began work at Oahu. Soon the printing press of the former was running, and the first spelling-books were printed. Messrs. Ruggles and Whitney went to Kauai, where a chapel and school were soon built, the king and his chiefs being their first pupils both in the teachings of church and school. Rev. Asa Thurston and Doctor Holman, with their wives, settled at Kailua, on the island of Hawaii, which historic spot is still pointed out to the newcomer as one of great interest.
The Hawaiians were peculiarly well situated to receive the doctrines of the teachers of the new faith. They have always been, indeed, quick to grasp any form of knowledge, and the missionaries found fertile fields for their religious cultivation. The little handful of religious workers in four years found as many as a thousand earnest converts. Among the first to accept the new faith was the chiefess, Kapiolani, who was six feet tall and with the haughty air of the ancient nobility. Knowing better than the missionaries the depth of the superstition which still lingered in the hearts of the people, she resolved to teach them a lesson they would not soon forget. Thus she planned a visit to the crater of Kilauea, the abode of the goddess Pele, then the most feared and revered by the common masses. A party of curious, excited watchers, with awed looks and trembling steps, followed her to the sacred spot.
As she drew near the dwelling of the fiery goddess, she was met by the priestess of Pele, who demanded her errand. Upon telling her object, without revealing the real motive prompting it, and quoting passages from the scripture, she was forbidden to proceed. At the brink of the crater she was met by the missionary, Mr. Goodrich, who had caused a shelter to be built for her, where the brave chiefess passed the night. In the morning, accompanied by the missionary and several believing Hawaiians, with half a hundred doubters lingering near by, she descended into the crater to a place called the “black ledge,” where she paused in sight of the seething fire. In her hand she carried a bunch of ohelo berries, held sacred to the goddess. These berries she deliberately ate in plain sight of the amazed spectators, and threw stones into the burning lake, crying:
“Thus do I defy thee, O Pele! Jehovah is my God. He kindles these fires and he preserves me in breaking tabus.”
Then, while the awestricken beholders looked on in silence, a hymn of praise was sung, when all knelt in humble recognition of the great creator of the universe. Kapiolani’s brave act served to a considerable extent to remove the superstition, though it was impossible to destroy at once the belief of ages. It was made the occasion of a poem by Tennyson.
Other missionaries, from time to time, followed the pioneers we have mentioned, conspicuous among them being the Rev. Titus Coan, a native of the state of Connecticut, New England, who with his young wife landed at Hilo in the early part of 1835. He immediately took charge of the district on the eastern coast of Hawaii, covering a territory a hundred miles in length. Horses in those days were not numerous, nor had the few there been trained to domestic use, so he had to go on foot through pathless forests, or by canoe along streams winding through intricate wildernesses, often at great peril. During the first year he made a complete circuit of the island, a journey of over three hundred miles. He converted fifteen thousand people during his lifetime.
Rev. Thomas Lyman, who had been in Hilo a few years before the arrival of Mr. Coan, lent his assistance toward establishing a station at that place, and so great and widespread was the revival that the natives flocked thither from all parts of the island, until their grass and banana huts clustered as thick as they could stand for a mile back from the seashore. Hilo’s population increased from one to ten thousand at once. This big camp-meeting continued for two years.
As neither houses not churches had seats at that time, the seekers after the baptism were seated in long rows on the ground, facing each other, the missionary passing along between them, sprinkling their bowed heads on one side and then on the other, until he had gone the entire length, when he pronounced these words:
‘I now proclaim you all baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy ghost.”
This was repeated until the last row had been taken into the church. It is a pleasant fact to record that less than a quarter century later these same little hamlets had settled over them ministers from their own race, and neat little wooden buildings had taken the place of the grass huts and open-air churches.
A thrilling incident occurred during this protracted revival which fixed itself indelibly on the minds of the missionaries, while giving terror to the hearts of the superstitious natives. On November 7, 1837, Mr. Coan and his colleague had preached to audiences of from five to seven thousand, four sermons as usual, and the former was just returning from the funeral of a Hawaiian child, when, without any previous warning, the placid ocean suddenly up heaved, lifting gigantic wave after wave upon the shore; these, following each other with the speed of race-horses, swept the coast for a long distance back, carrying men, women, children, dogs, houses, canoes, --- in short everything moveable, --- off on their foaming breasts. Wildest excitement imaginable reigned, the shrieks of hapless persons and creatures drowned by the roar of the billows. It was well then the struggling people in the embrace of the angry elements belonged to an amphibious race, or many more must have been drowned than were. Still, stout swimmers were caried far out to sea, and, in spite of the ready assistance of friends and desperate efforts to escape, quite a number were lost. The crescent-shaped sand-beach, with its fringe of palms and shady groves just beyond, the most beautiful spot on the island, was a scene of ruin and desolation. Mr. Coan, in speaking of the awful event afterward, said that the opening crash sounded as if “a mountain had fallen on the beach.”
Among those who were converted by Mr. Coan was an old man whose wife had been dead for some time, and who entrusted to his care a young son. One night after his father’s conversion the little boy was awakened by the tears of his aged relative falling on his face. In answer to his inquiries, he was told that the other was weeping that he must soon leave him alone in the world. Then, after this good old man had besought the love and grace of the new-found God for his child, his spirit took its flight, leaving the crying boy alone with the silent body. The following morning kind relatives took him to live with them, and his father’s remains were borne to rest in one of the cavern graves. At twelve years of age this boy for the first time listened to one of Mr. Coan’s sermons, was converted, and at fifteen was preaching the gospel in his native language. The name of Samuel Kapu is now well known as a benefactor among his people. This is but one of the many examples of the kind.
July 7, 1827, Roman catholic missionaries arrived in Honolulu. They were members of the “Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.” Through a misunderstanding, trouble soon arose, and the king, believing they were trying to create a division among the people, ordered them to leave the islands in January, 1832. Seven years later the French government sent a frigate to Honolulu, and compelled Kamehameha III. to allow some Catholic priests to land. Catholicism soon gained a foothold, and today there are not far from twenty-five thousand belonging to that church on the islands, and in 1898 sixty-two churches and chapels.
In 1862 an English Reformed Catholic mission was sent to the islands, and, meeting with favor from Kamehameha IV., who was not in as much sympathy with the protestants as his predecessors had been, prospered, and has since attracted interest, and is regularly established.
The entire number of the Protestant missionaries sent to the islands, clerical and lay, with their wives, has been one hundred and fifty-six. The cost of these missions, up to 1862, was borne by the American Board of Missions, when it withdrew the financial support it had been generously giving the missionaries for forty years. Of the several religious denominations which prevail, the Congregationalists are the most powerful. Beside these there is an Episcopal, a Methodist Episcopal, and a Christian Church in Honolulu, and a couple of Mormon churches. Together the Protestants have over a hundred churches and a membership of about forty thousand.
Though laboring in a field not inappropriately styled “Paradise,” the early missionaries led devoted and often heroic lives. They proved to be more than the advisers and promulgators of the spiritual welfare of the natives, but became their temporal counselors, as well as preachers, and helped to establish a civil government capable of protecting the acquired rights of the inhabitants. Thus the term missionary in Hawaii is used in a broader sense than elsewhere in the world. The first Kamehameha laid the corner-stone of a consolidated government; his successor placed another milestone on the historic road when he abolished the tabus, and tore down the temples, and burned the idols; and above these still smoking ruins the missionaries raised the finger-board of religious guidance to the people without a god, teaching them, also without lands, homes or family ties, that the homestead was the seat of prosperity and that the home was the highest kingdom on earth.
Attempts have been made to rob them of much of the credit of their work, and to ascribe selfish motives to them. That they may have erred in minor matters is true, but along the unswerving line of human progress they made a record well worthy of study. Coming of old Puritan stock, the missionaries, perhaps prematurely, made a determined effort to transplant New England ideas of civilization upon the indolent, careless population of a clime whose every influence was antagonistic to active duties. Singularly enough, their most bitter enemies came not from the people they were working to uplift, but from those who, like themselves, were aliens in the land. Many of these were those who fattened upon the harvest of the spoils coming from that race which fell easy victims to the vices as well as the converts to the virtues of civilization. Whatever faults may be found with them, ---and if man were created perfect there would be no calling for missionaries, --- it is certain that a new era dawned upon the island kingdom on that March morning in 1820, when the little band of New England pilgrims landed on the shores of benighted Hawaii.
Chapter VIII THE HAWAIIAN MAGNA CHARTA
Whatever may be the natural resources of a country, or however great its possibilities, its progress in education and government depends in a very considerable measure upon its political influences. This part of the history of Hawaii is a checkered one. If there have been no sanguinary wars of bloodshed, there have been stirring revolutions and many critical situations when the fate of the islands swung in the balance of a precarious power. First taught by American missionaries, and developed under the influences of New England independence, the people naturally partook of puritanical and democratic ideas of government, tempered by the prevailing atmosphere of a tropical climate.
It is the inevitable fate of a barbaric race to fall before the civilized power entering its domains. The result of civilization to the Hawaiians, as well meant as it was, proved pathetic and tragicical, bringing the desolation of empty huts and deserted villages on hillside and in valley. In a little over a century four hundred thousand simple people, strong in physique but weak in knowledge, naked but not ashamed, godless but without fear, fell victims to greed’s and vices hitherto unknown to them, until less than one-eighth of that number represented the picturesque race. Fewer feet trod each year the silvery sands of the coral-banded shores, less frequent and fainter have come their soft-spoken alohas, --- national greeting, “ love to you,” --- until it seems that the Hawaiian in a few years more will live only in the memory of the Kamehamehas and the legends of a vanished day.
Several reasons are advanced as an excuse for this decay of the people. The gravest of them has been the charge of infanticide. If that charge were true Hawaii would have depopulated a long time ago, according to the evidence furnished. But before the advent of the white man the islands were so densely populated that artificial means had to be adopted to support the inhabitants. Ponds built for the storing of fish, and tracts enclosed by stone walls on the mountainsides, where families were obliged to raise more than they needed for their own consumption that they might help to feed others. Now these one-time centers of life and activity are scenes of solitude. The wild vine creeps over the crumbled wall and the unapproachable lantana covers the spot where the tribal circle congregated, while the hills and valleys, spanned by a line of ten thousand men who passed from hand to hand the blocks of lava stone to build one of their temples, are now overgrown by an impenetrable Hawaiian forest. The burdens of civilization proved too heavy for the sluggish Hawaiian, and he was crushed by their weight.
A well-known missionary, in speaking of this candidly, said: “The people, like all savages, proved very susceptible to contagious diseases and the vices of civilization. The measles brought here from California in 1848, alone claimed one in every ten. The smallpox, which also came from California, five years later, did an equally awful work, in spite of all that could be done to prevent it. Thus, disease after disease did its dreadful part, until the leprosy, a legacy from China, added the last and most horrible chapter to the history of the doomed race.”
With a greater devastation than that wrought by the epidemics, from the seeds of lust and drunkenness sown by the white men sprang a blight which completed the desolation of the field. If the Hawaiian fell an easy victim to the vices of others, whose is the blame? But it has been well said that he dies the easiest of any mortal. Let him but imagine he has any disease and it amounts to the same, fixed on his mind as on his constitution, --- he dies! Let him think he is being prayed to death, and he sets himself about to answer the prayer. Let some malicious person but name the day of his demise, and he did not fail to respond punctually. He did it, too, in the most cheerful mood, with a song on his lips, and aloha in his heart.
Still formerly, if not now, the Hawaiian lived to an age not inferior to ours, though the youthfulness of the features and the suppleness of the figure too speedily gave way to the wrinkled skin in the first case and the fat, squat form in the other. Until very recently it was not uncommon to meet individuals who remembered well the massacre of Captain Cook and other as well authenticated incidents in history, which would prove that in the past generation many lived to the allotted three score and ten. Their simple mode of living, out-of-door exercise, freedom from care, the calm of their surroundings, the favorable climate, all tended, barring accidents or unnatural deeds, to give them long life and perfect health and bodies. Given a grass hut for shelter, a pile of lauhala mats, calabashes or shells for dishes and cupboards, poi for food, and the Hawaiian lived and dreamed in contentment, happy, though he knew it not, to have escaped the unrest of civilization. In the scenes to be described this continually waning influence of the native element in government should be borne in mind.
As has been shown in the religious history, a most despotic feudal system of land tenure had in existed in Hawaii for some centuries. The peasantry, common people, could not be said to have had any personal rights. Upon Kamehameha’s conquest the most rigid application of this principal was carried out, which meant to his defeated enemies loss of all political power and wealth of lands, which was the basis of such power. At first the island of Kauai, through the successful resistance of its king, and then his diplomacy with the Conqueror, escaped this fate; but a rebellion instituted by his son being unsuccessful, the insurgent chiefs were subjected to a confiscation of their lands and the annihilation of their political power. Thus the conqueror placed himself at the head of this ancient tenure for the entire group. This fact is borne out by the land commission in 1847, which says at opening:
“When the islands were conquered by Kamehameha I. He followed the example of his predecessors and divided the lands among his principal warrior chiefs, retaining, however, a portion in his hands to be cultivated or managed by his own immediate servants or attendants. Each principal chief divided his lands anew, and they were sub -divided again and again, passing through the hands of four, five, or six persons, from king to the lowest class of tenants. All these persons, from the king to the lowest class of tenants. All these persons were considered to have rights in the lands or productions of them. The proportions of these rights were not very clearly defined, but were nevertheless, universally acknowledged.”
Kamehameha I. lived long enough and ruled firm enough to settle the matter favorably to permanent individual rights in lands. Upon becoming king, Liholiho, as Kamehameha II., desired to make a redistribution according to custom, but the ambitious Kaahumanu, with the existing landed interest working for her, defeated this scheme, and the old distribution of land made by the Conqueror in 1795 remained practically unchanged, though slightly modified, until 1845, and during that period of over forty years the sovereign held a feudal authority over the entire landed estate of the kingdom, though exercised with decreasing oftenness .
In 1820 Liholiho moved his court to Honolulu, which proved a wise course action. Anxious to broaden his ideas with those of other powers, November 27, 1823, the king and his queen went to England, where they were courteously received; but the party was attacked with the measles and the king and queen both died. The frigate Blonde, commanded by Lord Byron, a cousin of the poet of that name, was commissioned to convey the remains of the unfortunate king and queen, with their retinue, to their native land. This ship reached Honolulu May 6, 1825, when the bodies of the royal couple were placed in a mausoleum, amid impressive funeral ceremonies.
Kamehameha II. having died without naming a successor, a young brother, Kauikeaouli, then but ten years old, was proclaimed king under the title of Kamehameha III., while Kaahumanu became regent and prime minister.
In 1826 Commodore Jones of the Peacock visited the islands and concluded the first treaty with the United States. The following year the first written laws were issued against theft, gambling, adultery, and murder.
June 5, 1832, Kaahumanu, who had so long been such an important person in the management of affairs, and who had persistently clung to old traditions in some respects while seeking to destroy others, died, and was succeeded by the king’s half-sister Kinau. The king’s minority was declared to be at an end in March, 1833, when he assumed the head of the government.. Though but a youth of twenty, he immediately interested himself in public affairs, particularly toward land matters. The situation of the common people was now not only defenseless, but pitiable. Under the existing condition the utterance of two Hawaiian words, Ua pau ( thou art disposed ), might take from hundreds of people, innocent of any greater wrong than offending a capricious land agent, their lands and homes. The king could not well escape the growing responsibility resting on his shoulders. The result was that, on the 7th day of June, 1839, a golden date in Hawaiian history, he proclaimed the Declaration of Rights, the Magna Charta of Hawaii, which made his name respected. In the words of Sanford B. Dole :
“This document, though showing in its phrases the influence of Anglo-Saxon principles of liberty, of Robert Burns, and the American Declaration of Independence, is especially interesting and impressive as the Hawaiian Magna Charta, not wrung from an unwilling sovereign by force of arms, but the free surrender of despotic logic of events, by the needs of his people, and by the principles of the new civilization that was dawning on this land.”
The Declaration of Rights, which guaranteed religious liberty and formed the first step toward establishing individual ownership of land, was followed by the first written constitution on October 8, 1840. A legislature, consisting of a House of Hereditary Nobles, and Representatives to be elected by the people, was instituted, and provision made for a Supreme Court.
But, with the rights of the common people undefined, and no precedent to be the guide in carrying out the professed principles of the ownership of the lands, the king was assailed on every hand by storms of disputes and abuse. The English and French consuls rivaled each other in harassing him with petty grievances generally instigated by themselves.
In 1839 the Laplace episode took place, when the French, in the hope of making an excuse to seize the whole group of islands, made unwarranted demands on the king, and as security for future good behavior called for a deposit $20,000. To the chagrin of the French, American merchants furnished the requisite sum, and the oppressed king was allowed a brief respite. That year, in the rush to get possession of lands, Messrs. Ladd & Co., of the United States, the pioneers in sugar cultivation, secured a franchise which gave them the privilege to lease for a hundred years any unoccupied lands at a low rental. These rights were transferred to a Belgian colonization, and though the original party remained in the company, the king found himself involved in difficulties that were thorns in Hawaiian politics for several years. The plots continuing to thicken, in 1842, the British consul, Richard Charleton, took his turn at trying to involve the island government in troubles that would give him a pretext to claim the islands in the name of Great Britain. He made demands for lands that the king considered illegal, and was refused. In the midst of this difficulty, Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson Bay Company’s territory, arrived at the islands. He advised Kamehameha III. to send an embassy each to the United States, Great Britain, and France, to obtain, if possible, some acknowledgement of his sovereignty. Rev. William Richards, formerly an American missionary, Sir George Simpson, and a native chief named Haalilio were appointed on the first commission.
No sooner were these commissioners started than Charleton, leaving as deputy behind him a nephew of Lord Simpson, but with none of the other’s honesty, departed for England. On his way home Charleton met Lord George Paulet, captain of the British frigate Carysfort, who listened to the consul’s scheme with favor, and hastened at once to the island kingdom, to make demands he knew the besieged king could not meet. As an alternative he asked for the immediate cessation of the of the islands, or he would declare war in the name of Great Britain and open fire on the Hawaiian capital. In this dilemma King Kamehameha issued the following pathetic proclamation:
“Where are you, chiefs, people, and commons from my ancestors, and people from foreign lands?
“Hear ye! I make known to you that I am in perplexity by reason of difficulties into which I have been brought without cause, therefore I have given away the life of our land. Hear ye! But my rule over you, my people, and your privileges will continue, for I have hope that the life of the land will be restored when my conduct is justified.
“Done at Honolulu, Oahu, this 25th day of February, 1843.
“Kamehameha III.
“Kekauluohi.”
On that same day Lord Paulet took formal possession of the islands, the British flag was run up and every Hawaiian flag he could find was destroyed. An embargo was placed on every native vessel, so the news of the seizure could not be carried abroad until such a time and in such a manner as he chose, and a body of native troops was organized. For five months the little kingdom was governed by a mixed commission made up of Lord Paulet, Lieutenant Frere, Mr. James Mackey, and Dr. G. P. Judd, the latter serving but a short time.
Lord Paulet was exalting over the prospect to him and his confederates, as soon as his embassy should state the situation from their standpoints to the British queen. King Kamehameha and his prime minister, Princess Kekauluohi, on the other hand, had taken to the island of Maui that they might be spared their humiliation face to face. But his interests were left in the hands of Dr. G. P. Judd, who proved, with the ready Yankee wit and daring of others, to be a match for the scheming Englishmen.
At the time the only creditable craft on the islands was the king’s yacht Hoikaika (swift runner), and this had been chartered to the American house, Messrs. Ladd & Co., for a voyage to Mazatland and back. This craft had not started, and in order to get possession of it, so he could send his dispatch-bearer to England at once, Paulet offered the Americans the privilege of sending an agent on the vessel, and also of bringing back whatever freight they wished, if they would relinquish their charter. By thus saving the whole expense of the trip, the offer was quickly accepted, without Lord Paulet dreaming of any secret purpose underneath.
The truth was Doctor Judd had seen an opportunity to communicate with the United States and other governments without arousing suspicion, but in a manner to outwit the plotters. This was to make of the commercial agent of Messrs. Ladd & Co. a secret ambassador of the United States and Great Britain. The American merchants were only too glad to help the unfortunate king in this venture, and a young merchant in Honolulu, named Marshall, gladly accepted the trust. Mr. Charles Brewer, a merchant in Honolulu, for whom young Marshall was working, agreed to advance the necessary funds and take his pay in firewood, the only revenue left to the king.
In order to be in readiness to start properly equipped at the word of Lord Paulet, who was impatient, and fitting out the Hoikaika, which he had rechristened “Her Majesty’s tender Albert,” with all dispatch possible, the Americans had to act promptly. There was no lawyer on the islands, so Mr. Marshall’s credentials were copied from the credentials of John Adams as the first American minister to England and recorded in the old Blue Book. Of course certain changes had to be made to suit this case, and these papers were drawn up by Dr. Judd and another in the royal tomb at Honolulu, with a king’s coffin for a table. This done, a trusty messenger was sent to find the king and his premier, who signed the documents at a midnight meeting on the shores of Waikiki. The king then returned to his rendezvous on Maui, while the young minister plenipotentiary to the court of St. James, under the guise of a commercial agent, went on his important errand, leaving Lord Paulet none the wiser for the secret work. The American consul at Honolulu also took advantage of the opportunity to send dispatches to Washington by Marshall, apprising the American government of the situation and its true inwardness.
The effort was not in vain. The over greedy Paulet failed to receive the support of his government, and Admiral Thomas, being sent to investigate, settled the matter peacefully. The exiled king was allowed to return to his office, and on November 28th of the same year England and France, in a joint declaration, not only recognized the island kingdom as within the pale of civilized nations, but mutually agreed “never to take possession, neither directly nor under the title of protectorate, nor under any form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed.” To this compact the United States declined to become a party, though acknowledging the independence of Kamehameha’s kingdom.
Naturally these troubles awakened an antipathy against allowing foreigners to acquire lands, and it showed the king that he needed an organized government outside of his royal house. It was also shown that a sound and judicious code of laws were needed. In 1845, 1846, and 1847 three comprehensive acts were carried into effect. The first was “to organize the executive ministry of the Hawaiian Islands.” the second, “to organize the executive department of the Hawaiian Islands;” and third “to organize the judiciary department of the Hawaiian Islands.” In 1846 the first volume of the statute laws was issued.
From the councils of the above named bodies with the king and his chiefs, it was decided that the king should hold his private lands as his individual property, to descend to his heirs and successors; the balance to be divided equally between the chiefs and the common people. This division required that the chiefs who had held the land with the kings and the tenants should surrender one-third of their rights, or pay a certain sum of money. When the settlement between the king and the chiefs had been accomplished, he again divided the lands which had been surrendered to him between himself and the government, the former being known as Crown lands and the latter as Government lands.
The first mahele (division of land) was made January 27, 1848. The great land reform, fully accomplished, showed great improvement in the condition of the common people. Education began to receive its deserved attention; the masses felt the first impetus of industry; the kingdom quickly assumed a more important position in the judgment of other nations; foreign immigration outside the missionaries flocked hither, and business enterprises at once became assured successes. Kamehameha III. lived six years after the culmination of his humane plans, so that he saw the great benefits resulting from his sagacious course of action.
CHAPTER IX RISE OF THE REPUBLIC.
hile few, if any, doubted the sincerity of the king in the distribution of land, the larger percentage was retained by him and his nobles. Out of the four million acres comprising the area of the islands two million fell to him (more recent surveys make the actual area of the islands as four million and eight hundred thousand acres). Of this he surrendered one million to the government, thus holding one million, or one-fourth of the whole, as his own portion. The comparison in value, however, was more favorable to the common people. The lowlands adjacent to the sea, which were better adapted to raising their principal crops, taro and rice, and which rapidly rose in valuation, were allowed them, while the king and his chiefs held large tracts on the mountainsides, suitable only for hunting and pasturage, in some cases well-wooded , but often barren and worthless. Fee simple titles were given the people for building lots and lands they had actually cultivated for themselves, and known as kuleanas or homesteads.
In this distribution, as well as in the work leading to it, the missionaries had much to do, and they were now blamed by some for not getting better consideration for the masses. Others stoutly praised them for having accomplished so much, and from this division of sentiment, no doubt often prejudiced, sprang two political parties destined to act important parts in the future of Hawaii, two parties, both seeking the favors of the kings, as long as the kingdom lasted, but with diverse objects: one intent on maintaining and strengthening the royal power; the other to so mold it that the island government should eventually become an integral part of their homeland, the United States.
In 1852 the constitution was formed on more liberal lines, and the representatives of the people made to be elected by universal suffrage. The following year was made memorable by the ravages of smallpox, which carried off several thousands of the native inhabitants of Oahu.
Kamehameha III. died suddenly December 15, 1854, while undertaking an annexation treaty with the United States. He was succeeded January 11, 1855, by his adopted son and heir, Alexander Liholiho, was was proclaimed king under the title of Kamehameha IV. This king married the cheifess Emma Rooke, a granddaughter of John Young, the Englishman who figured so prominently in Kamehameha the First's conquest, and who married a Hawaiian woman. The reign of Kamehameha IV., which lasted until his death, November 30, 1863, was comparatively uneventful. In 1857 the fort at Honolulu was demolished by order of the government, as that at Lahaina had been in 1854. The same year John Young (Koni Ana) died. He had been kuhina nui (premier) since 1845. In 1859 the civil code was published, and in 1860 legal steps were taken to establish houses of prostitution, the “law to mitigate,” etc., becoming a law.
Kamehameha IV. died November 30, 1863, in his thirtieth year, and his brother Lot became ruler as Kamehameha V. Almost the first thing this monarch did was to call a convention, May 5, 1864, to amend the constitution. August 13th the old constitution was abrogated and the 20th a new one granted by the king. One of his most important changes was to allow the right of suffrage only to those who could read and write and had some property. During his reign the Board of Education was formed, the Board of Immigration instituted, and in 1865 an act passed the Legislature to segregate the lepers. The king died suddenly December 11, 1872, the last of the line of Kamehamehas. His reign was saddened and his own end hastened by the death of his only son, and seeing the end of the Kamehameha dynasty, the king exclaimed:
“What is to become of my poor country? Queen Emma I do not trust; Lunalilo is a drunkard, ad Kalakaua is a fool.”
Under his rule the old-time paganism was to a considerable extent restored, and its wild revels revived. Seeking the favor of the native population, but not to the neglect of the foreign element, his influence was not always for the good of the kingdom, and his reign marked a period of evil growth, as well as some good.
Kamehameha V. possessed more of the traits of the old chiefs than his predecessor. He made a good record as a government officer before coming to the throne. He had a strong will, and used it as he thought best for his people. He called able men to aid him. Unfortunately, he leaned toward the old customs.
Dying without naming a successor, this king was succeeded by his cousin, William Lunalilo, chosen by the Legislature, January 8, 1873. Lunalilo's reign was short and stormy, though the latter fact rose from no real fault of his. The enforcement of the leper law, passed under the previous administration, agitation of the ceding of Pearl Harbor to the United States in consideration of a treaty reciprocity, with other acts, aroused the anti-missionary party to make the claim that he was against native inhabitants. He died of consumption February 3, 1874, in the midst of the bitter political antagonism, leaving the bulk of his estate to establish the Lunalilo Home for the aged and indigent Hawaiians.
Lunalilo's successor was elected February 12, 1874, by the Legislature, which chose one who had been his rival before, David Kalakaua. The new king was a lineal descendant of Liloa, among the foremost Hawaii's great family of warriors before the days of the Kamehameha. It was largely due, in fact, to this king's assistance that the Conqueror was successful in his conquest. Kalakaua's queen was a granddaughter of the last independent sovereign of Kauai, so the couple represented the last of two great lines of royalty. But if he was of noble birth he was of ignoble character. It was claimed that he had obtained his election over the Queen-dowager Emma by dishonest means, and his election was followed by a riot, which was put down by a body of marines from the United States ships Tuscarora and Portsmouth and H. B. M. ship Tenedos.
Kalakaua before his election had appealed to race prejudice, and now, like Kamehameha V., seemed to consider only the interest of the native Hawaiians, and to look on foreign residents as alien invaders. Under him no foreigner could be naturalized without his consent and approval. He constantly sought to change the system of government into a personal despotism, that he might command the treasury. He filled the Legislature with pliant office-holders, and he did not hesitate to resort to any measure, however questionable , to carry his end. The Louisiana Lottery found in him a friend, and had it not been for the efforts of men of great influence, to whom he was owing money, he would have pressed the bill through the Legislature in spite of public indignation.
There was one act, however, to which he was forced to lend his acquiescence. In June, 1875, the much-talked-of treaty of commercial reciprocity between the islands and the United States was ratified, in spite of intense opposition in both countries. Going into effect in September, 1876, the result was a surprise on both sides, and from that time Hawaii dates the dawn of its prosperity. One of the stipulations of this treaty was the ceding of Pearl Harbor, situated on a small river by that name seven miles from Honolulu, to the United States as a naval and coaling station. This place offers the strongest strategical points “and the finest site for a naval and coaling station in the whole Pacific,” concerning which the London Times, in its alarm of the growing prestige of the United States in Hawaii, declared, in an appeal to Great Britain : “The maritime power that holds Pearl River, and moors its fleets there, possesses the key to the Northern Pacific.”
Leaving Honolulu January 20, 1881, and returning October 27th, King Kalakaua made a tour of the world, visiting Japan, China, Siam, British India, the principal countries of Europe, and the United States.
A crisis in the government of King Kalakaua came when he accepted two bribes, aggregating over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars , in connection with an opium license. This act was followed by the revolution of 1887. In the previous seven years the debt of the government had increased from three hundred and ninety thousand to almost two million dollars. Deserted now by his followers, and appealing in vain to other nations for assistance, the king yielded to the unanimous demands of the opponents of his system of royalty, and July 7, 1887, he signed a constitution which was a revision and improvement over that of 1864. This was framed to make the executive responsible to the people and to end personal government. Office-holders were debarred from seats in the Legislature, and nobles, instead of being appointed by the king, were to be elected by the people for a term of six years. The voters must be owners of property to the value of three thousand dollars, or have an income of six hundred dollars. Though this constitution was a rather peculiar combination of republican and monarchical ideas, engrafted on a kingly power, better results were likely to come from it than had been given the inhabitants. Smarting under the rebuke, the royal party resorted to an insurrection, but it was soon put down, though not without the loss of seven lives of the rioters.
The debauchery of the king was telling on him, and in November, 1890, he went to California for his health. The best medical aid failed to help him, and he died January 20, 1891, his remains being taken to Honolulu in the U.S.S. Charleston, arriving there the 29th of the same month. A few hours after the arrival of the body of the dead king his sister took the oath to support the constitution, and was officially announced as queen, with the title of Liliuokalani.
Notwithstanding the misgovernment of a dissipated and selfish-minded king, the reign of Kalakaua were the golden years of Hawaiian progress and prosperity, though paid for in the end at a high price. Naturally, the profligate management brought a collapse in business matters, the government became deeply involved in debt, and the control of public affairs in the hands of scheming and antagonistic politicians. The people generally understood their grave situation, but both parties looked hopefully forward to good results from Queen Liliuokalani. She had been reared and educated under American missionary influence, which gave those who had the interest of the struggling masses at heart reason to believe she would be their friend. Her husband John O. Dominis, whose parental ancestors were from Italy, but whose mother was an American woman --- a native of Boston
--- with English ancestry. He was governor of Maui and Hawaii, and his influence was expected to be thrown in the interest of good government.
Unfortunately, Governor Dominis, who was made prince consort, who had been in poor health at the time of her coronation, died the following 27th of August, and was buried with royal honors. Had he lived, a different result might have been the outcome of the situation. A more far-seeing policy and firmness of purpose was required to manage affairs successfully than the queen possessed. In her desperation to raise money, instead of cutting down some of the enormous expenses incurred, she listened to the advise of unsafe and unscrupulous counselors, and resorted to such means as were offered by lottery managers and opium smugglers.
The Kamehamehas had, as a rule selected their advisers from the ablest men of the different parties and races, while hers, either from mistaken judgment or evil influences, were men who seldom worked harmoniously together either for the interest of the public or her. The Legislature now held, according to the constitution of 1887, the right to form the cabinets, with her consent, while she claimed first rights, and the long session of 1892 was made memorable for its changes in ministries, as many as four having been selected and discharged. It was during this troublesome period that what became known as the Wilcox-Jones cabinet was formed, which, if allowed to remain, might have settled some of the threatening questions peacefully. But this was forced to give way in the midst of its efforts to another body of advisers, when the Legislature was prorogued by the queen, and the odious lottery and opium bills signed at once. From the first of these the islands were to derive great benefit by way of permanent improvements, and the latter was a license to allow in the market that article, which, with a population of over twenty thousand addicted to its use, had become a commodity dangerous to handle. It was already being smuggled into the islands against the law, and it was claimed by the supporters of the measure that it was better to attempt to regulate an evil than to make laws that would be broken. The opposing party had strong grounds for complaint, and both bills presented grave phases.
A change in the constitution, or a new one entire, eliminating all republican ideas and tending to strengthen the monarchy, was advocated by the royalists. Drafts, varying somewhat in their essentials, were drawn up by the queen's advisers, one of which was accepted by her. Dissatisfied and at odds with the Legislature, she prorogued that body January 14, 1983, and retired to the palace with the intention of proclaiming the new constitution, escorted on her way by the Hawaiian society Hui Kalaiaina. A crowd had now assembled about the grounds, the queen's guard being drawn up in a line from the west gate to the steps of the palace.
The queen summoned her Cabinet to the Blue Room for their signatures to the document. But they did not come until she was worn out waiting. Then, one of them having consulted during the delay the leaders of the opposing party, they demurred. She entreated, claiming that they had led her to the brink of the precipice to desert her at the critical moment. In their desperation, all but one fled, and he persuaded her to postpone her action for two weeks.
The queen's action declared revolutionary by her opponents, they met and chose a committee of Safety, with the view of forming “a provisional government.” Mr. John L. Stevens, the American minister, was asked to land armed troops from the war-vessel Boston in their defense. He refused to do this, but he did order armed men from the war-ship to protect American interests in the threatened trouble.
This action was acceptable by the royalists to mean interposition on the part of the United States government, when excitement ran higher than ever.
The revolutionists now resolved to set up a new government, and on Tuesday, January 17, 1893, the leaders issued from the Government Building a proclamation which declared the Hawaiian monarchy abrogated, and ended by saying:
“1. The Hawaiian monarchical system of government is hereby abrogated.
“2. A provisional government for the control and management of public affairs and the protection of the public peace is hereby established, to exist until terms with the United States of America have been negotiated and agreed upon.
“3. Such provisional government shall consist of an executive council of four members, who are declared to be S. B. Dole, J. A. King, P.C. Jones, W.O. Smith, who shall administer the executive departments of the government, the first named acting as president and chairman of such council and administering the department of foreign affairs, and the others severally administering the departments of interior, finance, and attorney-general, respectively, in the order in which they are above enumerated, according to existing Hawaiian law as far as may be consistent with this proclamation; and also of an advisory council which shall consist of fourteen members, who are hereby declared to be S. M. Damon, A. Brown, L.A. Thurston, J.F. Morgan, J. Emmeluth, H. Waterhouse, J.A. McChandless, E.D. Tenney, F. W. McChesney, F. Wilhelm, W.R. Castle, W.G. Ashley, W.C. Wilder, C. Bolte. Such advisory council shall also have general legislative authority.
“Such executive and advisory councils shall, acting jointly, have power to remove any member of either council and to fill any such vacancy.
“4. All officers under the existing government are hereby requested to continue to exercise their functions and perform the duties of the offices, with the exception of the following named persons: Queen Liliuokalani; Charles B. Wilson, Marshal ; Samuel Parker, Minister of Foreign Affairs ; John F. Colburn, Minister of the Interior ; Arthur P. Peterson, Attorney-General, who are hereby removed. from office.
“5. All Hawaiian laws and constitutional principles not inconsistent herewith shall continue to be in force until further order of the executive and advisory councils
“(Signed) Henry E. Cooper, Chairman.”
And twelve others as the committee of Safety, and dated Honolulu, January 17, 1893.
The overthrown queen, deserted by her ministry, and her guard quartered at the police station, had to remain inactive. At 6 P. M. the following protest was signed by her:
“I, Liliuokalani, by the grace of God and under the constitution of the Hawaiian kingdom queen, do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the constitutional government of the Hawaiian kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established Provisional Government of and for this kingdom.
“That I yield to the superior force of the United States of America, whose minister plenipotentiary, his Excellency John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be landed at Honolulu, and declared that he would support the said Provisional Government.
“Now, to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do, under protest and impelled by said forces, yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the facts being presented to it, undo (?) the action of its representative, and reinstate me in the authority as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.
“Done at Honolulu this seventeenth day of January, A.D. 1893.
“(Signed) Liliuokalani R.
“Samuel Parker, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“Wm. H. Cornwell, Minister of Finance.
“”John F. Colburn, Minister of Interior.
“A.P. Peterson, Attorney-General.
“(Addressed) S. B. Dole, Esq., and others composing the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands.”
The queen sent a letter to the marshal of the kingdom ordering him
to deliver over everything to the Provisional Government, and the next day she retired to Washington Place. The revolution had been accomplished without resorting to arms, and the new government was duly installed. A convention was chosen that sat in Honolulu during the month of June, 1894, when a new constitution was framed, and on July 4th, a memorable date to every American purposely selected for this occasion, the Republic of Hawaii was formally announced to the political powers of the day, with Sanford B. Dole as president.
In summing up the causes and results of this revolution it is easy to find reason for blame on all sides, but the weight of the evidence seems to be against the upholders of the monarchy. That the policy of the queen was short-sighted and reactionary was evident.; that she was stubborn in her determination to restore certain monarchial rights is beyond question; the constitution she would have promulgated would have disenfranchised every white man on the islands unless the husband of a Hawaiian woman, and would have made the property of the whites alone subject to taxation. In her extenuation it may be said that she had been driven to desperate measures by aliens who cared little for the interests of the native population, and who had no love for the monarchy however well managed. One of the most earnest of the revolutionists, four years before was defending the Hawaiian monarchy in the legislature in glowing rhetoric and denouncing those who were advocating annexation as traitors. The republic established, and not getting what he had expected, he was anxious to return to the old form of government with Kaiulani as queen and himself as premier. But such examples need not be multiplied. The Americans were naturally in favor of annexation from the beginning, and the missionaries were the moulders of Hawaiian destiny. That the greatest step had been made without bloodshed is glory enough, not only for them but for the overruled majority which accepted the inevitable so graciously.
CHAPTER X INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
A halo of romance tinges the atmosphere of Hawaiian history whither one turns. He finds it in the story of their discovery, in the traditions of their early races, in their wars and conquests, in their religious affairs, in their revolutions and growth of government, and, last but not the least, in their educational and industrial progress.
If the American missionaries were teaching the masses the way to a higher civilization, dotting the seashores, hillsides, and valleys with churches, schoolhouses, and comfortable dwellings, American businessmen were soon establishing enterprises of agriculture and manufacture hitherto undreamed of by the original inhabitants.
As early as 1786, only eight years after their discovery by Captain Cook, Joseph Burrell, a merchant of Boston, Mass., conceived the idea of the value of trade with the islands, and a stock company was formed with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. The plan was to obtain by barter with the natives of the northwestern coast of North America the furs and other products of that country, and from the Hawaiian Islands sandalwood, cocoanut oil, and any other product the newly discovered islands afforded. The project was reasonably successful, and the returning ships have the credit of bringing to Boston the first Hawaiian chief to visit this country. The traffic in sandalwood soon became of considerable importance, and was a source of great profit to those who engaged in it. This wood, as has been mentioned, was largely taken to China for a market, where it was exchanged for teas, silks, and other articles from that land.
A Boston vessel, in 1803, landing at Hilo on January 23rd, carried to the islands the first horse the natives had ever seen, and the animal, one of the highest prizes to their descendants, was an object of wonder to them. Others were desired, and several were sent from California, then a Spanish province, until the islands were stocked with this useful quadruped. Still it was many years before they became thoroughly domesticated and the Hawaiian came to consider himself at his best astride one of them.
As soon as the supply of sandalwood was exhausted, a trade in pearls and pearl-shells followed, Hawaii proving by this time a ready market for cloths of several kinds, and hardware such as nails and small articles of iron.
Whale fisheries in the Pacific next attracted the attention of the thrifty Yankees, and in 1820 the ship Mary, commanded by Captain Allen, entered the harbor of Honolulu. This industry immediately receiving an impetus, other vessels soon followed, until as many as a hundred vessels would put into harbors at this port and Lahaina, Maui, in a single season, and the furnishing of supplies for them became the chief source of profit to the islanders. Quite a number of English whalers, and a few French, found their way to these ports. But all that these vessels brought was not desirable, for they were the means of introducing such pests as mosquitoes and scorpions, all of which thrive in this ocean paradise with wonderful vitality.
In 1823 a Boston ship named Paragon bore to the islands as second officer one whose name was soon to become connected with the ruling family in after years. He was John Dominis, whose son, John O. Dominis, was the husband and prince consort of Queen Liliuokalani, the last of the royal rulers. Among the crew of this ship was Charles Brewer, who afterward became a prominent Hawaiian merchant, whose house is still well known both in that land and the United States.
The whale fisheries declining in 1860-1870, the energetic mind of the New Englander again turned into another channel, and the sugar industry was the result. This plant was found growing wild in every valley visited by Cook and Vancouver, and excited the wonder and admiration of every visitor on account of its astonishing growth and remarkable sweetness. The Hawaiians had made it a common article of food and cultivated it in their simple manner. The Chinese saw something of its possibilities and attempted to make both sugar and molasses from it. Their primitive methods were succeeded in 1835 by the first successful efforts, when the American firm of Ladd & Co. obtained possession of a tract of land in the Koloa district on the island of Kauai, and in 1837 erected the first iron sugar mill seen on the group. This was a crude affair compared to modern machinery, and was propelled first by mules and oxen, then by water, and finally by steam power. The cane of the Hawaiian Islands was soon found to yield more per acre than in any other land in the world. Thus it became a source of great profit to the wealthy producer, and gigantic enterprises have sprung up, among which is the American Sugar Company's plantation on the fertile plains of Central Maui, said to be the largest in existence. The business requires expensive machinery, and too extensive capital for the small investor for the small investor to live by it.
The coffee industry gained its supporters, and in 1845 two hundred and forty-eight pounds of this berry was exported. For years it was believed that this shrub would only grow in the Kona district, Hawaii. But in the famous Olaa district, on the same island, large coffee plantations are being successfully managed, and the industry is fast reaching large proportions.
Rice has been raised considerably by Chinamen on the marshy lands near the seacoast, but the other races have not been successful with it.
Banana raising has become a paying industry; over a hundred thousand bunches, worth one hundred thousand dollars are being shipped annually, and this amount might be largely increased. Though sugar, rice, coffee, and tropical fruits are the chief export, it is possible to grow the products of the temperate zone on the uplands.
The rapid settlement of California between 1850 and 1860 furnished a new market for the productions of the islands, and potatoes became a profitable crop, while wheat was successfully cultivated in the Makawao district, and a steam flouring mill was erected in Honolulu in 1854. But neither of these crops became permanent industries. During the reign of Kamehameha IV., from 1855 to 1863, little progress was made in the industrial pursuits. The cultivation of wheat was finally given up, and that of coffee for a time abandoned, though in 1860 the culture of rice was begun with considerable success.
The period of the war of the Great Rebellion was one of the most critical to American interests. The tide of sentiment turned toward Great Britain, which through its astute diplomacy won the confidence of the king and queen, the first being then Kamehameha V. Already the English government had realized the coming importance of Hawaii as an ocean stronghold, and the possibilities of its agricultural industries. It was seen that rice, cotton, coffee, and sugar-cane could be raised to advantage. The beauties of the climate were also beginning to attract people hither, so that its population was increasing faster than ever. Minister McBride explains the situation in the following words:
“I beg leave further to say that American interests greatly predominate here over all others combined, and not less than four-fifths of the commerce connected with these islands is American. The merchants, traders, dealers of all kinds, and planters are principally Americans. The English have no commerce here worthy of the name, and but one or two retail stores; the Germans, about the same amount of business as the English. Many American merchants here are doing quite a large business, and would extend their business still more but for the danger of British rule over the group, which if it should become the dominant or governing power, American interests would be crushed out with eagerness and dispatch.”
This report was made in 1863, and it will be seen that American interest lost very little in vitality.
The treaty of commercial reciprocity with the United States in 1875, by which sugar in all its states and several other articles were admitted there free, gave an unprecedented growth to industry in all branches, and an intoxicating increase in wealth followed. Men seemed to go wild over the prospects, and in the lack of cheap labor to help develop enterprises as fast as they wanted to, the importation of low-priced labor succeeded with startling rapidity, as will be shown in the chapters devoted to the Japanese and Chinese in the islands. The valuation of property advanced, but the price of labor suffered from the great influx from abroad. Less than one-tenth of the help were natives. The proportion of the immigrants procured for contract labor was twenty-five women to one hundred men as a rule, and from the poorest and least-educated classes of foreigners.
But this headlong rush has been checked, and Hawaii is rapidly recovering from the shock, with the brightest prospects for the future. The islands which are foremost in industrial interests are Hawaii, with its great varieties of soil and climate, affording numerous sugar plantations and coffee lands; Maui, following in the same line; Oahu, with its rich sugar and rice lands, and the finest harbor in the Pacific; Kauai, for its well watered slopes and luxuriant vegetation the “Garden Island,” largely devoted to sugar and rice growing.
Still the industries of Hawaii are only in their infancy. Less than one-fourth of the land which can be cultivated is now under improvement, and scarcely one-tenth of the grazing land is used. It is estimated that under ordinary management the islands can be made to afford homes for a population of half a million agriculturists. As fine wool can be grown here as in Australia. The exports for 1898, made principally to the United States, reached over ten million dollars. These can be increased ten times. Its present income is almost one million and eight hundred dollars. Should manufacturing enterprises be started here, which is quite likely at an early date, the future will show it to be one of the richest spots on earth. All this without saying a word as to its possibilities as a health and pleasure resort, for which it is so admirably adapted.
A glance at its educational institutions show that these have kept abreast of the agricultural interests. Schools were begun and houses built soon after the arrival of the missionaries, and as early as 1831 a high school was established at Lahaina. In 1836 Mr. Lyman opened a high school at Hilo, and the same year the female seminary at Wailuku, Maui, was commenced. In August, 1838, the chiefs commenced the study of political economy under the instruction of Mr. William Richards, and May 10th, the following year, the first edition of the Hawaiian Bible was finished. A year later a school for young chiefs, Mr. And Mrs. Cooke, teachers, was opened at Honolulu, and May 21, 1841, the school for missionaries' children was begun at Punahou, now Oahu College. New schools have been established from time to time, until there is no district, however remote, which does not have its school.
The system is that of free public schools similar to the plan of the United States, from where many of the teachers come. The text-books are uniform, and can be bought as cheap as in the latter country. Those native born, or born on the island of foreign parents, are compelled to attend school by law. The only people who cannot read and write are among those who have come from abroad. The schools are non-sectarian, and besides the common school system there are opportunities for getting a higher education, such as the grammar grade of the United States affords, while at Honolulu a high school and collegiate course can be obtained. Instruction in the common schools is conducted in the English language.
There are papers published in the Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese languages, besides several in the English language. Honolulu has three evening dailies, one morning daily, and two weeklies, besides monthly magazines. Some of the latter are finely illustrated.
The islands have regular communication with San Francisco, once a month with British Columbia, and twice a month with Australia and New Zealand. Steamers also ply between Honolulu and Japan and China. Intercourse between the islands is by steamers, which are constantly plying between the different ports, giving frequent communications to and from the capital. There are three public railroads, and more contemplated, besides several plantations, each operating ten to thirty miles of track. Since annexation, the steam traffic has greatly increased.
all of the principal islands have a regular postal system, so that on the arrival of a steamer at any main point, mail carriers are ready to distribute the mail through all parts of the district. On Oahu, Hawaii, and Kauai telephone connections are found at every important place, and Maui is beginning to have its line. The islands are in a direct course from San Francisco to the Philippines, being about one-third of the distance, and, though over two thousand miles from the nearest point of mainland, in these days of rapid ocean transit are not so lonely in their situation as might at first seem. Under the changed condition of affairs the native has become a trusted and valued citizen. History in no other land shows such a rapid advance from paganism to respectable civilization, as the descendants of the followers of Kamehameha.
CHAPTER XI The Japanese and Contract Labour in Hawaii.
The Japanese and Chinese now comprise over forty percent of the population of the Hawaiian Islands, and are already more than half of the male inhabitants. This situation becomes more striking when it is realized that the former have more than doubled in number during the last seven years. This influx has been due largely to the influence of the sugar planters, who have looked to the homeland of these races for cheap labor with which to carry on their industry.
Naturally these Asiatic elements are beginning to be felt. Of all the foreign immigrants to Hawaii the Japanese have excited the most talk, if not real concern, as to the dangerous outcome of the rapid increase of this race on the islands. Since the annexation of the islands to the United States the situation has been modified somewhat, but the grave fact remains that the Oriental element is still a power in the island territory. In 1894 Admiral Walker, who was in command of the American navy in these waters, said: “They (the Japanese) are inclined to be turbulent; they stand together as a solid body, and their leaders are said to have political ambitions, and propose to claim for their free men the right to vote under the conditions with which that right is granted to other foreigners. They are a brave people, with military instincts, and would fight if aroused to violence.”
Japan is the England of the East. Admiral Ammen, in 1896, wrote a letter to the Congressional committee: “It does not require a prophet to foresee that those islands in the near future will be either American or Japanese .” This oriental power, still in its infancy, had then a larger naval force in that vicinity than the United States. But there were other reasons than a desire to possess the islands which prompted Japan to its watchfulness and jealousy over the country. That was the Hawaiian-Japanese treaty relative to Japanese immigration.
Early in the sugar industry Japanese labor was sought to help in raising of cane and manufacture of sugar. A treaty was made with Japan which should give that country a certain sum for for every man or woman permitted to came to Hawaii, and a strict account was kept of laborer furnished. Upon arrival in Honolulu those desiring help were permitted to select their laborers and take them to their plantations. Each man was allowed from twelve to fifteen dollars a month, and each woman thirteen, a house to live in, fuel, free water and medical attendance. This system gave rise to spirited opposition, and has been compared to slavery as it existed in the Southern States of America before the Great Rebellion, though there was scarcely a point of resemblance between the two systems. But there was this to be said in its favor: The laborer was allowed to return to his country at the end of three years, and while here he was not to be separated from his family. Neither was the planter upheld in resorting to violence, and was liable to a fine for assault. Living largely upon rice raised by himself, and under favorable condition of climate, the laborer could lay by a modest sum each year if he chose. The Japanese consulate at Honolulu received at the rate of four percent interest. Frugal and temperate in their habits, the Japanese could save a part of his salary to take home, or to help him to found a home in this country if he decided to remain, and thus many of them were only too glad to improve the opportunity. But there was a clause in this treaty which soon fomented trouble, began to mobilize Hawaii with a troublesome people, and led to a collision with Japan.
The treaty provided that Hawaii could not prevent Japanese from coming to the islands as free immigrants in any numbers that they chose, and Oriental
immigration increased with startling rapidity. In 1896 they came at the rate of a thousand a month, and the adult males of that nationality outnumbered any other race of immigrants. The result be readily anticipated unless some restriction was made by the government. This was done, when the Japanese government remonstrated, and the planters complained that they could find no laborer to take the place of the wiry, active, progressive Japanese. The Portuguese, considered the superior of any foreign laborer, would not come in sufficient numbers, other Europeans, and Americans failed to do so, and the Hawaiian already there refused to do it. While but a few Japanese on the islands could read and write English or Hawaiian, a qualification necessary to obtain the right of suffrage, the Americans became alarmed lest Hawaii become a Japanese colony and under their control.
The first measure to check this increase of them was made in 1895 by the immigration committee, which issued an order obliging planters to import two-thirds of their contract labor from China or some other country except Japan. This aroused Japan, and a sharp controversy followed when the Hawaii authorities refused, on technical grounds, to allow two cargoes of immigrants to land. Free laborers were entitled to enter Hawaii without any preliminary action of the authorities, but it was stipulated that they should possess fifty dollars. A thousand of the newcomers had written agreements from the Japanese Immigration Company that in consideration of twelve yen they were to be returned to Japan, providing labor could not be secured for them. This made them the Hawaiian committee claimed, not free laborers, but contract laborers not agreeing with the intention of the treaty. Then, when the immigrants showed each fifty dollars fifty dollars, which was intended to make them appear as free immigrants, it was held that these sums had been loaned them by the society for the object of evading the law. The Hawaiian authorities were firm and Japan took home her immigrants, and instead of sending more at the time, dispatched a war-ship to the islands. Learning of this intended movement, the United States sent the cruiser Philadelphia to Honolulu, which was in the harbor when the Japanese vessel, Naniwa, arrived on May 5, 1897.
Japan acknowledged the predominant interest of the United States in Hawaii, but claimed that its own interests there demanded careful and watchful attention. Then Hawaii offered to arbitrate the immigration question, and Japan agreeing in July, the following September immigration of free laborers from that country was resumed. This time the Japanese was careful that the regulations of the treaty were fully complied with and Hawaii was obliged to continue to accept the influx of this people. It may be well to say here that the matter of the previous trouble was satisfactorily settled before the annexation of the island republic to the United States.
There are many educated and intelligent Japanese on the islands, who are prominent in business and have thrifty homes, but the class most drawn hither is ignorant, impetuous, and hard to control. If industrious, they are ambitious, and, seeing better than the Chinese the real inwardness of their situation, are dissatisfied with it, waiting, watching for the opportunity to strike a blow at the power which attempts to hold them in check. There is too much of the Yankee about them to be held long in surveillance, and, with their high percentage of population, what the outcome is to be is hard to forecast, though probably no cause for serious alarm.
While there is a great difference between these “slaves of Hawaii” and those of the old regime of the South, plantation life in the islands is much the same as that w as in the slave States of America before 1861. The common visitor sees only the surface. The vast estate is conducted in a patriarchal manner; the big house occupied by the high-salaried manager, set with wide verandas and embowered n flowers, stands where it can command the best view of the situation. In the distance are collections of the flat, plain houses of the laborers. The Japanese are usually nearest; they have picked up Occidental ways so rapidly they like to be near their masters; and these like to have them as closely under their eyes as possible, knowing the volcano of discontent rages under the calm surface and is liable to break forth at any moment without warning. The coolies, less mindful of their future, are not as dangerous. Their houses are perhaps a mile or even two miles farther up the mountainside. There is nothing striking about these villages, except the painful uniformity of the dwellings, possessing no ornaments and few comforts, other than the little plot of cultivated ground around them.
Next to the broad acres of rank cane rustling in the breeze are the mills where the giant plants are sent down the water-flume in a furious passage, until torn, and crushed into a shapeless mass which is dropped at the foot of the sluice. But it is not left here to rest long, before it is taken through the different stages of crushing and pressing, purifying, until the black sticky, ill-smelling syrup comes out in a beautiful golden tint, pure and delicious, the perfection of sugar. Everywhere the machinery is attended by Japanese, even to the last act in the shifting scene, where the sugar bags are sewn together by the deft fingers of a little Japanese woman in a holoku. In spite of the grinding competition in the sugar business, through the industry of this army of lean, brown, active toilers, it has been made to yield in the aggregate great profit here in Hawaii. But for this and for them, without a voice in their management, the history of the islands must have been told with far different results.
The plantation store is an important feature in the scene, for through that the money of the laborer largely finds its way back to the power controlling this mass of workers. The prices here are usually high, but the buyer is helpless. So the wheel turns, crushing not only the cane but a human grist. It is true many of these laborers are of the lowest class, --- criminals it may be, --- the refuse of an inferior humanity brought together promiscuously. Riots and outbreaks are common. It requires a stern, strong overseer to hold in control such a gang, and doubtless there are those who take advantage of their position to abuse those who are powerless to help themselves.
If they attempt to desert, the only way for them to escape from their bondage, the police force of the island is ready to hunt them down. When captured, as they usually are, they are sometimes sent to the hot “reef: to work until they are glad to get back to the cooler cane-field.
The worst of the situation is the common herding of the laborers --- male and female --- much as a drove of cattle would be driven into their pen. In the great yard of the station every morning, at one of these plantations, hundreds of Japanese men and women can be seen marching sullenly to the fields. At midday this little army returns to the quarantined men and women who have prepared their simple meal of rice, boiled turnips, and meat, their daily fare. They lodge, as they eat, promiscuously. In a big, poorly ventilated room they have their bunks or wide, bare beds, where as many as half a dozen sleep together. It can be truthfully said of them that few if any have seen better days, but under the sun of American civilization it is to be hoped a new day will soon dawn for the unfortunate race. A new treaty with Japan, which went into effect in 1899, allows the United States to regulate the immigration of Japanese laborers. They are now free to come from Hawaii to this country, but as yet none have shown a disposition to do so.
There is a Japanese Methodist Episcopal church founded by Rev. H. Kihara, a native of Japan, who was converted in California, who then came to Hawaii. His membership consists of about eighty of his own people, but who are poor.
CHAPTER XII. THE CHINESE IN PARADISE
Prejudiced as the average American is against the Oriental races, it is not easy for him to realize the different standing and importance of the Chinese in Hawaiian to that of his own country. Unlike the clannish and ignorant inhabitants of Chinatown, San Francisco, or of any of the continental cities, in a climate suited to his nature and under influences tending to develop his better elements, the Chinaman in Hawaii is really a useful and respected citizen. He has become, in fact, a Hawaiian, just as much as the Irishman, German, and Swede, under conditions equally favorable to them, have become accepted as Americans. This does not mean, by any means, that he has entirely lost the inherent characteristics of his countrymen, --- it will require many generations to do this, ---but that he is a faithful and zealous subject of his adopted land, where so many of its population are aliens.
Early in the days of modern Hawaii, through the sandlewood trade, being the principal market for this valuable export, China began to play an important part in the development of the islands. To a Chinese merchant, who came to Hawaii in 1802, in the sandlewood business, belongs the credit of first manufacturing sugar from cane growing wild on the island. But the process was too slow to make the work a success, and it was left for the inventive genius of the Americans to reduce the enterprise to a profitable science.
Chinese immigration then followed, very much after the manner of the coming of the European races into the United States at the outset of opening up of the countrymen. The better class of Chinamen, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure coupled with the natural desire to better their fortunes, came as traders or laborers having the genuine purpose of staying permanently. Liking the climate and country, they soon lost all desire to return to their native land, and those who had left their wives and families at home sent for them to help found new homes here. More than the race has done in any other country they associated with the other inhabitants, intermarrying with them, until today a Chinaman is considered the best match possible for a native Hawaiian.
The pioneers came about three-fourths of a century ago, but the tide of immigration had not fairly set in that direction until 1840, and even then the rush did not begin. This came comparatively a few years since, when the fright over the flood of Japanese caused the authorities to compel the planters and seekers after cheap labor to look to China for their help. This of course brought an influx of the lower class, but the better element had gained a footing and a higher standing than the natives of Japan have yet acquired, or will for a long time to come.
In the grave perils of the eighties, when immigration was overrunning the islands to the menace of its civil liberties, this class joined with others zealous for the good of the government to minimize the common evil by weeding out as much as possible the masses of those who, their term of bondage over, tended to become hangers-on of the country, --- paupers and criminals. The consequence was that a large percentage of the Chinese, who had no tie to bind them longer to the islands, were sent home as soon as their time of service had expired. The end of the century will find the last contract closed, and but a few of these laborers in the country.
It is true fewer Chinese women come to the islands than of the other races, yet they do come in considerable numbers, and the homes of the people, from the humble huts of the plantation toilers on the mountainsides to the luxurious dwellings in the centers of population, are found in all parts of the seven isles. The following statistics will give a good idea of the situation: According to the census of 1896 there were 21,616 Chinese on the islands, --- 19,167 males and 2,449 females. There were 2,234 who had been born in Hawaii, and of 19,317 Chinese over six years of age, 48.47 percent can read English or Hawaiian or both. Of 665 Chinese children within school age, 92.48 percent attend school. The Hawaiian-born Chinese are 10.3 percent of the population born of foreign parents. One-fourth of the Chinese men over fifteen years of age are married, and the average number of children born to a Chinese mother is 2.83 percent. Of these children 87.56 percent survive. Since 1845, notwithstanding that the naturalization of the Chinese has been discouraged, and since the overthrow of the monarchy no one of any race or nationality has been so favored, 722 Chinese have been given their naturalization papers.
In regard to occupation, the Chinese, male and female, are divided as follows: Laborers, 10941; farmers, 1,278; rice planters, 718; teamsters, 105; mechanics, 220; fishers, 294; ranchers, 98; coffee planters, 36; mariners, 15; merchants and traders, 823; clerks and salesmen, 295; doctors, 15; other occupations, such as teachers, law clerks, etc., 303; miscellaneous occupations, 1,569. Nearly a thousand of the Chinese have professed the Christian religion, sixty-seven having joined the Roman Catholic Church, and 886 the Protestant.
The number of Chinese owning their homes is 800, all but 200 of their houses being built on long-leased lands, which is the prevailing custom among all nationalities. They own more horses and working-cattle than any other race, having over three thousand horses and nearly half as many cattle. They own 7,862 pigs, a larger number than any other race on the islands. In Hawaii each business is licensed, and the Chinese in 1897 held 1,623 licenses, paying to the government in these fees $48,724. They own property assessed at $125,274.31, and they paid in 1897, with their license fees, nearly one-eighth of the amount raised in taxes for the year. An observant writer says of the race:
"As independent farmers and agriculturists, the Chinese number 1,278. Most of these have only small holdings. They raise vegetables, which are largely sold to the white families, and when away from the centers of population, corn, potatoes, and figs are their chief sources of income. As rice planters they have almost a monopoly, numbering 718 out of 844. In this line the Chinese have been of great benefit to the country. Large areas of land which were unfit for ordinary cultivation, great reed-covered swamps, which were the home of the wild duck and the water-hen, have been made productive by them, and now yield a fine rent to the owners of the land and a revenue in taxation to the government. As fishermen, the Chinese stand next to the Hawaiians, numbering no less than 294. But the Hawaiian fishermen work chiefly for themselves or in little companies of from three to half a dozen. The Chinese work in large companies, a firm of small capitalists owning the boats, nets, and drying-houses and other buildings, and employing their own countrymen at wages, and sometimes with a small interest in the firm, to do the work. If there is one thing that this race understands better than another, it is co-operative labor. By means of it they get more out of their workers than any other race can obtain out of them. The Chinese take the lead among merchants and traders, more than half of those so employed being Chinese. "
The Chinese servants, of which there are many, with Japanese a good second, seldom live in the house with their employers, but have dwellings of their own, going to their place of occupation in the morning and returning to their homes in the evening. They ask for only one holiday, the Chinese New Year, which comes on February 1st. Then they absent themselves for the time, and their places must be filled by other persons. Before going it is the custom to make their "mamma," or mistress , a present of some Chinese trinket, a high colored vase, some fancy work, or sweetmeats, receiving in turn some gift that is sure to be appreciated by them.
The Chinese are among the most generous contributors to educational and benevolent enterprises, calling less on the general resources for charity than any other nationality. The fountainhead of the philanthropic work is the United Chinese Society of Honolulu, a representative body including all the smaller organizations, concerning which it has been said:
"The functions of the United Chinese Society includes all those things, whether of business, philanthropy, public spirit, race, or national matters, or matters of intellectual uplift, which can be better done through organization than by individual interests. It succors the poor, finds work for the unemployed, takes care of the sick, relieves widows and orphans, buries the dead, sees to the return to China of the bones of those who, dying here, wished their bones buried on their ancestral soil. It has charge of the public celebrations, of national holidays and events; it entertains those who are guests of the whole people. It looks after the general interest of the Chinese in Hawaii. "
Honolulu has been aptly termed the Paradise of the Chinese. In their quarters, for even in Hawaii they collect together more or less, one sees none of the filthy alleys and unsightly homes. The yards are surrounded by neat fences and flowers. The walls of the dwellings are festooned with vines, and over trellises are seen ripening figs and other fruits. Everywhere peace and contentment reign, for the industrious Mongolian here follows his busy routine or work or business without fear or molestation. His tiny shops, instead of show-windows having their entire fronts open during the day and closed with stout shutters at night, line the streets. Numerous occupations have been taken up by them, one of the most common being that of the tailor, John in his native dress and queue, running a sewing-machine in making cotton holokus for the Hawaiian women, presenting an odd picture of Oriental and Occidental life. But this is not at all noticeable in the Hawaiian capital, which affords a shifting panorama of lives of many colors and combinations of customs.
Chinatown would lose its most prominent trait without it joss-houses with their curious architecture and worshipers crooning and mumbling before their hideous gods. These are not lacking in Honolulu, though they are less pretentious in appearance than those seen in San Francisco. The Chinese here, too, have two theaters, where actors of repute and ability perform their parts to appreciative audiences.
In close proximity to their temples of worship are the schools, the largest Chinese schools outside the empire where the pupils, numbering about one hundred and fifty , are taught English as well as their own language, which is soon forgotten when they have acquired the former. They have a most attractive kindergarten, separate rooms being fitted up with charts, pictures, blackboards, and tables, for the boys and girls, all of whom look very picturesque, if not pretty, in their native costumes, and show great eagerness to master the tasks before them.
The Chinese of Honolulu support two churches, the Christian, of Congregational affiliations, and St. Paul's, whose patron is the Anglican Bishop of Honolulu. There is also a Chinese Young Men's Christian Association, the first of its kind in the world. This is well organized and supported, but for more effective work among its class is the Mills Institute, the Chinese name of which is Chum Chan Shue Shat, meaning "searching for truth literary institution." A home day and boarding school for Chinese youth occupies commodious buildings, set in beautiful grounds near the center of Honolulu. Its influence is felt all over the islands, and it is generously maintained by Chinese and whites.
What is likely to prove a popular benevolent institution is the Chinese hospital recently completed in Honolulu on grounds given by the government for that purpose. It is in charge of a physician and surgeon graduated in Hong Kong according to Occidental system of medicine and surgery, also another trained in the same city but under the Chinese methods of treatment, the patient being allowed his choice. This hospital is liberally supported by the Chinese and is free to receive patients from that nationality .
Honolulu has a well equipped and well-disciplined Chinese fire brigade, which has its own engine-house, and bought its engines and uniforms from money raised by subscription among its own countrymen.
As might be expected in a community as numerous and prominent as that of the Chinese in Hawaii, there are to be found many men of thought and action, who are not only leaders among their countrymen , but who are prominent among the business and professional men of all nationalities. Under the Hawaiian government, monarchy or republic, the race has been treated fairly and has no complaint to make, though from apparent reason a large percentage are not really citizens and cannot become such, but are aliens. The treaty of annexation to the United States prohibits any further immigration of the Chinese to Hawaii, or from that territory to the continent. But unlike the Japanese, the Chinese are not much inclined to meddle with politics, and appear a contented people in American Hawaii.
CHAPTER XIII ANNEXATION
Within a hundred years the flags of European countries have floated over the islands four times : first, the Russian in 1815 ; second, the French in 1839 ; third, the British in 1843 ; and fourth, the French again in 1849, when Admiral Tromelin, of the navy of France, seized the fort at Honolulu. Reluctantly each time these powers had with drawn their hold upon the little kingdom, and ever afterward stood expectantly waiting for the opportunity when they could lay their hands on this “Key of the Pacific.” Another power, too, Japan, had sprung into the front rank of aspiring nations, presenting a stronger threat than all the others against the safety of the new government.
The idea of annexation to the United States was transplanted by the Yankees along with their business connections. Thus, with their Americanizing influences, we see, from the days of the first Kamehameha through all the changes of rulers, a continual agitation of this subject, and time and time again appeals were made for some sort of alliance with the great American republic.
The Provisional Government was no sooner formed than a commission was sent to Washington to reiterate in stronger terms than ever this claim. This commission consisted of Hon. L. A. Thurston, W.C. Wilder, W.R. Castle, J. Marsden, and C. L. Carter, and the same steamer that conveyed them to San Francisco carried a letter of remonstrance from the ex-queen.
Benjamin Harrison was then president of the United States, and he was believed to feel friendly toward the measure. Minister John L. Stevens and Captain Wiltse of the navy decided to establish a temporary protectorate over the islands, and raised the flag of the United States on February 1, 1893, when the first issued the following proclamation :
“At the request of the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Islands, I hereby, in the name of the United States of America, assume protection of the Hawaiian Islands for the protection of life and property, and occupation of public buildings and Hawaiian soil, so far as may be necessary for the purpose specified, but not interfering with the administration of public affairs by the Provisional Government. This action is taken pending and subject to the negotiation at Washington.”
The American Secretary of State, however, did not approve of the action, claiming that it was not consistent with the existing state of affairs between the countries to impair “in any way the independent sovereignty of the Hawaiian government by substituting the flag and power of the United States as symbol and manifestation of paramount authority.” A new political power came into possession of the government at Washington, and upon the inauguration of President Cleveland on March 4, 1893, he withdrew the treaty. On the 11th instant he sent Commissioner Blount to Hawaii to investigate the situation.
March 31st Commissioner Blount notified President Dole that the American protectorate must end, and April 1st the American flag was hauled down without any public notice, as President Dole feared an outbreak from the masses if it should be known abroad at the time. The royalist now believed there was hope for them, while the European powers did not attempt to conceal their pleasure over the turn of affairs.
Though severely censured by some, no doubt Commissioner Blount made such an investigation as he could under the peculiar circumstances in which he was placed. At any rate his report was not favorable to annexation, and it became apparent the administration had little objection toward reinstating the deposed queen if it could be done quietly, professing to believe that she had been treated unfairly by the American minister in landing troops at the critical period of the revolution. We have seen that this was done without any motives of intervention, except to protect American property, which this government was bound to do in case of any outbreak. If restored to power the queen must “grant full amnesty to all who had participated in the move against her, including persons who are or have been officially connected with the Provisional Government, depriving them of no right or privilege which they enjoyed before the so-called revolution. All obligations created by the Provisional Government in the course of administration should be assumed.”
At first the queen flatly refused to accept these terms, but finally agreed to them and signed the proper papers, when Mr. Willis, who had succeeded Minister Stevens, presented it to the president of the Provisional Government, who declined to agree to the proposition, or to yield the power which had been vested in him as the chief executive of Hawaii, and also as minister of foreign affairs. Upon receiving this report President Cleveland commended the vexatious matter “to the extended powers and wise discretion of Congress,” where no special action was taken.
The Provisional Government remained firm in its possession, though the royalists and their sympathizers continued to hope that the United States would yet step in and reinstate the queen. When the republic was formally announced on July 4, 1894, the United States recognized its authority, and other national powers did so during the year, so that the republic was fairly established, though the government rested upon a volcano, which, like its fiery mountains, was liable to break out at any moment .
The political leaders and plotters of the defeated party kept the natives in a continual condition of alarm, fearful that their property or liberty would be taken from them. By some it was believed that the color line would be drawn as it had never been. Plots and schemes were soon afoot, no doubt with the knowledge if not the assistance of the queen, to restore her to power. Arms were procured and concealed to be in readiness for use in case the plans should mature. Secret meetings were held in the vicinity of Honolulu with increasing frequency, and early in the new year, on the afternoon of Sunday, January 6th, the police were notified that a party of suspicious characters, mostly natives, were gathered at a house near Diamond Head. Captain R. W. Parker immediately sent some officers with search warrants to the place. On their way they were joined by four Americans, but native born. Upon reaching the houses the party was fired upon, and one of the volunteers, Mr. Charles L. Carter, who had been a member of the late commission to the United States, was mortally wounded, so that he died a few hours later. The situation now looked serious.
At the time religious services were being held at the Central Union Church, where a large congregation had gathered, and the Rev. Mr. Bernie was in the midst of one of his eloquent discourses when, unnoticed by the listeners, a man entered the building and whispered to a member of the National Guards sitting near the door:
“The natives have opened hostilities at Bertlemann's house beyond Waikiki. They have killed Carter, and wounded two or three. Notify the members of the Guards to meet at their quarters at once.”
This man, whose name was Benner, went silently and swiftly from pew to pew, and whispered to those here and there the call, when each individual went out without disturbing the preacher, who must have felt surprise at so many quietly leaving him. If those who were left were curious as to the cause which had taken so many of their number away, quiet reigned in the house until the clatter of horses' feet, as the calvary dashed past, and the report of firearms aroused all to a sense of the situation. A rush was immediately made for the door, and Mr. Bernie, thus rudely broken in his sermon, followed his congregation to learn the extent of the alarm and its cause.
Soldiers were to be seen forming and marching away; there was news of fighting near Diamond Head; flying reports of many killed and wounded were repeated on every hand, while intense excitement reigned in all sections. An insurrection was on foot, but beyond that the best posted could give nothing definite. That was the most anxious night Honolulu ever knew. The gravity and danger of the situation was now fully realized, and the following day twelve hundred armed men were called to the assistance, and martial law proclaimed.
Sharp fighting ensued for several days, until the native forces under the command of Samuel Nowlein, formerly colonel of the queen's bodyguard, and Robert Wilcox, who had been at the head of the uprising in 1887, were forced to surrender. Several of their number had been killed, and the uprising was at last under control. During this and all previous revolutions seven lives had been lost on the republic's side, and as many wounded.
A trial was given the captured conspirators, beginning January 17th and lasting for thirty-six days. The leaders were sentenced to pay heavy fines, and to suffer long terms of imprisonments. The ex-queen, believed to have been concerned in the insurrection, was arrested and given trial with the others. Her sentence was a fine of five thousand dollars and imprisonment for five years. She remained in detention until December, when her sentence was remitted, and signing a formal letter of abdication on January 24, 1895, she was fully pardoned. She then started on a journey abroad, coming to the United States during her tour.
Uninterrupted peace succeeded, while the Hawaiian republic grew steadily stronger and more prosperous. It was now showed that it had level-headed men at its head, and that it was deserving of consideration; that annexation to the United States meant a “consummation, not a change.” The politics of the United States government, which had ever had much to do with the policy of Hawaiian annexation, again had changed. Hawaiian commissioners appeared in Washington soon after the inauguration of President McKinley, and an annexation treaty was sent to the Senate. While this body hesitated and considered the matter, the Spanish-American war broke out; Admiral Dewey won his famous victory at Manila, and with the prospect of the United States' new power in the Far East, the need of the Hawaiian Islands as a half-way station on the broad Pacific was realized as it never had been before. The bill of annexation now met with little opposition, and on Thursday, July 7, 1898, President McKinley approved the work of Congress by his official signature, when the dream of American Hawaii was at last fulfilled.
July 18th, the steamer Coptic reached Honolulu from San Francisco, carrying the news of annexation. As this fact had been anticipated, the people were prepared to receive the messenger with demonstrations of delight. Whistles from mills, foundries, and steamers screamed out the announcement of the tidings from every quarter; fireworks set the town ablaze; while the streets were paraded by marching columns and bands played patriotic airs. Altogether it was a great jubilee, and Captain Sealby, who had brought the news, was presented with a souvenir cup bearing the following inscription:
“Annexation. Presented by the citizens to Capt. Inman Sealby, R. N. R., who brought the good news to Honolulu.”
The final act in the long and momentous drama of annexation was enacted on August 12, 1898, when, at precisely eight minutes to twelve o'clock noon, the Hawaiian flag was hauled down from the flagstaffs on all government buildings, and just three minutes later the stars and stripes were run up in their places. The ceremonies were simple and impressive, as became the scene. A noticeable feature of the occasion was the small number of Hawaiians witnessing the event. They were showing their affection for their former queen, who had returned to her native land a few days before. No people have a stronger love for their rulers than the natives of Hawaii. At a public reception given Liliuokalani a short time before, many of them had come miles to pay her homage. Today their absence spoke, more forcibly for them than any words could have done, their feelings. In more ways than one the occasion reminded the spectators of a funeral, which it partly was: the last rites over a traditional government. The national anthem, “Hawaii Ponoi,” was played for the last time; the bugle tapped, and the Hawaiian ensign of the Kamehamehas, under which many of those present had been born, sank from sight for ever as a national emblem. Amid the intense silence of the onlookers came the bugle call again, the band played the “Star Spangled Banner,” when “Old Glory” rose on the tropical breeze, henceforth the national flag of the first republic of the Pacific. Cheers now rang on the air; eyes were moist with tears a minute before brightened as the new colors made a beautiful picture overhead, which seemed to augur well for the future.
The hour fraught with so much sadness to the Hawaiian passed, and having a better and fuller appreciation of the new era dawning upon their homeland, the new subjects of Uncle Sam moved about with lighter hearts than they had known since the beginning of the revolution. The republic has nothing to fear from them, for more loyal subjects never acknowledged fealty to a sovereign.
The population of the islands in 1896 was 109,020, divided as follows among the different races: Hawaiian, 31,019; mixed Hawaiian 8,485; Japanese, 24,000; Chinese, 21,000; Portuguese, 15,000; other Europeans, 4,000; Americans, 3,086. But these figures do not forecast the true situation. Notwithstanding the small percentage of their number, the islands are an American colony. What Hawaii has gained of civilization, of religion, of education, and government has been derived from American sources. Neither have the islands been unmindful of this. Everywhere American influence has been acknowledged, and American counsel sought. They proved their loyalty to the Union by sending into the army during the civil war more than their quota of soldiers voluntarily. Our patriotic days have been observed with enthusiasm as at home. In Honolulu Fourth of July is as faithfully kept as here ; Memorial Day sees its lines of marching veterans filing in solemn manner to the graves of her soldier dead, followed by citizens of every nationality as sincere mourners; and Thanksgiving Day is observed with even greater faithfulness than in New England. No territory of the United States has been annexed with so strong a leaven of Americanism as these islands.
Chief Justice Judd administered the oath of allegiance to President Dole and the other officials, all of whom were authorized to conduct the local government of the islands until Congress should take further action in the matter of administration.
CHAPTER XIV VISTAS OF OAHU
Oahu, if not the largest, the most fertile or picturesque of the group, is the most important of the Hawaiian Islands, a supremacy gained for it by its harbors, the finest in the Pacific. Its seacoast, broken on the southeast by rocky islands, and on the southwest, or windward side, by rugged cliffs thrusting their high, craggy breasts down to the very edge of the water, where the surf beats with an incessant roar, is generally bordered by a belt of fertile plains from a quarter of a mile in width to six miles, ascending toward the interior until stopped by the mountain ranges, whose brown and yellow tints, showing their volcanic origin, contrast vividly with the perennial green of the lowlands. Between these ridges, which look in the sea distance like terraced hills and detached peaks, are frequent valleys and elevated plateaus of great fertility, the lava beds of unrecorded days.
Long sections fringed with graceful cocoa-palms raising their plumed crests on fragile stems, a coral reef, often half a mile in width, nearly encircles the island.
Trending from southeast to northwest parallel mountain ranges cross the island on the east and west sides. The highest altitude is the peak of Kaula, 4,060 feet above the sea, and belonging to the western and shorter line. Between these backbones of Oahu, and forming its largest agricultural districts, is Ewa Plain, at places ten miles in width and twenty in length, extending from the shore of Pearl River harbor on the south to the sandy plains of Waialua Bay district on the north. Next in size, and exceeding it in fertility, is the rich alluvial plain of Honolulu, ten miles in length and two in width. Another ideal tract is Nuuanu Valley, bounded by a mountain wall twenty miles in length on the upper side, and below by the green, rolling plain. Among the other fertile lands are Manoa Valley, inland from Waikiki, six miles south of the capital, and the favored rice-fields and coconut groves of Moanalua, scarcely five miles from Honolulu in the opposite direction.
At the foot the eastern range of mountains, on what was seventy-five years ago a treeless sand-plain, sits the "Mistress of the Pacific," her back to the wide framework of lava domes, volcanic peaks, and truncated cones, grim reminders still of those days when this scene was the amphitheater of that fiery power still at work upon its still unfinished task of building the Island Paradise. Decked with her flowers and profusion of palms, the queen sits looking out upon the shimmering bay, a native of the tropics , with the blood of the temperate zone coursing through her veins.
Honolulu is on the south shore of Oahu, nearly central of the whole group of islands, and has a harbor well suited to the needs of a commercial metropolis. It is said that Captain Brown, of the English ship Butterworth, was the first white man to discover the bay, and he gave it the name of Fairhaven. This was very appropriate, but was soon forgotten when its Hawaiian substitute was found. As has been mentioned, Kamehameha's John Smith, whose surname was Young, advised making this the site of the Hawaiian capital, and in November, 1820, the little fishing hamlet was occupied as the future seat of power.
The entrance to the harbor is somewhat difficult to those ignorant of the winding of its passage, but once the way is made the incoming craft ride safely at anchor within its protecting arms. One of the most striking landmarks that attracts the approaching seafarer is Leahi, or Diamond Head, looking in the distance like a huge watch-dog crouching on his forepaws at this exposed point, while he continues his long and lonely vigil over the sea. Once, when its sides throbbed with the mighty forces at play within, it must have presented a majestic form, --- a stupendous lighthouse illuminating far and wide the troubled waters. But its mighty walls fell with the blowing out of its light thousands of years ago, and ever since its ruins have remained as a memento of its former greatness.
Honolulu has a population in round numbers of thirty thousand, a cosmopolitan people, refined, intelligent, prosperous, earnest in whatever they undertake. You see this in the cleanliness of the seventy miles of streets, in its well-built brick and stone business blocks, in its handsome residences, in its public buildings, in its good roads about the city, and its attractive drives into the country. It is a city of foliage and flowers, whose tropical trees and plants are laden with a wide variety of fruit and fragrance; it is preeminently the city of homes, where tenement houses are comparatively unknown.
The public buildings are in keeping with the thriving city, among which can be named the Government Building and National Palace, fine buildings both of them in settings of trees, flowers and beautiful lawns, with spacious grounds; Honolulu Free Library, which contains over twelve thousand volumes of general literature; Post-Office Building; Bishop Museum; Public Hospital; Iolani Palace, claimed to cost five hundred thousand dollars; Aliiolani Hall, the main government building, where the legislature meets; Lunalilo Home, built by that king as a home for aged and indigent Hawaiians; Queen's Hospital, intended for the relief of Hawaiians of both sexes free; Young Men's Christian Association Building; Old Folks' Home; Opera House, capable of seating one thousand people; Oahu Jail; Insane Asylum; Royal Mausoleum, and many others. Handsome churches of various denominations, as has been described, and good schools of the several grades and Oahu College speak of the moral and educating influences of the people. The city has a good system of water-works, and a well equipped fire department with the latest steam fire engine.
Honolulu is favored with a fine lookout, Punch Bowl Hill, the burnt-off cone of an extinct crater, rising in a circular form to a height of almost five hundred feet, with the town and its suburbs at its base. From this sightly spot the surrounding country, from Diamond Head on the east to Pearl River on the west, is spread out like a panorama.
The most popular resort of the island is the famous Waikiki, the Long Branch of Honolulu. Here are the fine residences, picturesque cottages, cool and delicious groves of coconut-trees which were the favorite resort of early kings; in the background the corrugated mountain range; in front, the wide crescent beach, one horn tipped by the red crag of Diamond Head, and the other by the opal tints of Waianae range; outside the emerald sea, dancing, sparkling, inviting all to its soothing embrace. There are attractive bath-houses, and ocean bathing here has none of the chill freshness of a New England atmosphere. There is no fairer beach, no smoother bottom, no cleaner water than at Waikiki, and what is better, every one seems to catch the spirit of the native, who is never so much at home as when, he rides the rolling billows. The poet proves something of its entrancing beauty, when he says:
'The cocoa, with its crest of spears,
Stands sentry round the crescent shore,
An algaroba, bent with years,
Keeps watch beside the lanai door.
The cool winds fan the mango's cheek,
The mynah flits from tree to tree,
And zephyrs to the roses speak
Their sweetest words at Waikiki.
"Like truant children of the deep
Escaped behind a coral wall,
The lisping wavelets laugh and weep,
Nor heed old oceans stern recall.
All day they frolic with the sands,
Kiss pink-lipped shell with wanton glee,
Make windrows with their patting hands,
And singing sleep at Waikiki."
One of the most noted spots on the island of Oahu is the historic Pali, that rugged pass in the Waianae range where, in the last great battle of the early Hawaiians, the ill-fated Oahuans met their tragic fate from the triumphant warriors of Kamehameha the Conqueror. This famous place is reached from Honolulu by a wide, well-worn road leading through the most beautiful dale on the island, Nuuanu Valley. Over this broad way in the shifting scenes of the busy years has passed many a procession of historical importance: the dusky ranks of an invading army, the dazzling cortege of a triumphant monarchy, the trooping throng of women and children carrying their leis to the coronation of kings, the noisy mob of insurrectionists, the funeral of the dead monarch marching silently to the royal mausoleum, the sad-eyed columns of foreign laborers, with hopeless homes behind and homeless hopes ahead, the standard bearers of a new government, --- all these, with many others, natives and strangers, have passed along Nuuanu Avenue.
The traveler today over this memorable route passes a long line of summer villas, --- it is always summer in Nuuanu Valley, --- crosses the bridge spanning the brawling stream running from the mountain to the sea, passes a landscape touched with the skill of Japanese artists, passes gray-walled cemeteries where sleep the dead of the pioneers of Honolulu, and the royal mausoleum, where the funereal cypress bows in grief over the long sleep of kings more generous than wise, passes the odd, grotesque-looking tea-houses of the Chinese, passes the summer palace of the ill-treated Dowager Queen Emma, set back beyond rows of stately palms, passes taro patches and banana plantations, and large pineapple fields in the distance, to find himself at last fairly in the country.
Now he passes less frequently the homes of the foreigners, the American, the European, and the Asiatic, the walls and wide verandas of whose dwellings are overhung with trailing vines and flowering plants. If he is an American he is struck by the unvarying architecture of the houses, which seem to him a combination of the New England and Southern styles of building, by the absence of chimneys, and the ever open doors and windows. He soon learns to tell at sight the home of a Portuguese by the grapevine and fig tree before his door, as if the owner would not feel at home without these reminders of his fatherland. A native cottage, the frame house introduced by the missionaries, --- few grass huts being seen now, more's the pity --- occasionally greets his vision, a taro patch and a bed of carnations --- red, pink, and white --- defining his nationality as surely as the fig and vine bespeaks that of his foreign neighbor.
Around these dwellings are seen the Kanaka, the native Hawaiian, in his course cotton shirt and trousers, his waihine mare, wife, in her bright colored calico holokus falling loosely from a yoke at the shoulder and without girdle or gathering. Thus simply and singly attired she might be thought to be unattractive, but with her profusion of raven hair, tied with a gay bandelet of feathers and ohia blossoms, softly expressive dark eyes, pleasant countenance, erect figure, graceful and steady carriage, she commands the admiration of the beholder. The young waihine, woman, a dazzling vision of sparkling eyes, pearly teeth, bright flowers, and bare legs, is never more happy than when, astride of her flying pony, she startles the timid stranger with her boldness of address, her voluptuous bust rounding in graceful curves, her undaunted head bound with brilliant bandeau, a riding-robe of a rich red, orange and crimson encircling her waist, hips, and limbs, and thence suspended waving on each side like triumphal banners in token of confident victory, as she dashes past as free and fleet as the trade-wind fanning her brow. Saturday afternoon is the time usually given over to the wild spell of horsemanship. Then the whole native population seems to be on horse.
Gradually ascending, the road leads into the region of perpetual showers, clothing the brown sods of the hill sides with a dense sward outrivaling for freshness and tenderness the famed blue grass of Kentucky, and decorating the vales with matchless ferns, whose long fronds are tipped with a rich red, brown, and crimson. Now the rank grass and ferns yield to forests of wild banana, guava, and candlenut, with occasionally cocoa-palm. The walls of the valley grow higher, steeper, and narrower. Waterfalls tumble headlong over perpendicular chasms, and the chill wind hat constantly fans the peaks strikes the newcomer, sending a shiver through his frame for the first time since landing on Oahu's shore. He has now been suddenly transported to the temperate zone.
Many have described the beauty and sublimity of the scene from the Pali, many more will attempt it, but human powers of description will never exhaust the theme or do credit to the wide panorama of tropical plains, valleys, mountains, forests, rocky pinnacles, and sunny sea laid at the feet of the admiring beholder. The Pali, which is simply a Hawaiian word for precipice, is the natural gateway between the two sections of Oahu, separated by the mountain range running across the island from shore to shore. This is seen as the approaching traveler winds up the wide road, with its rocky wall along the west side, the perpendicular cliff on the other hand. Through this gorge the wind constantly rushes as if propelled by a pair of bellows hung somewhere beyond, and he is glad to seek the protection of the small lookout erected at the summit. Honolulu now lies a thousand feet below, and between five and six miles away; its grove-like retreat of home and churches and public buildings, the masts of the ships in its harbor, and that always-to-be-seen Diamond Head are just distant enough to lend charm to their fair environments.
Other towns and hamlets, other church spires and schoolhouses, rice and sugar plantations, isolated dwellings, broad plains covered with their growing crops, ridges of smaller hills, with dales between, said to have been the beds of an inland sea, and far beyond, meeting the horizon, where the vision ends, rests the ocean, looking like a huge mirror.
Upon turning in the opposite direction, toward Windward Oahu, the sightseer is amazed at the vivid contrast in the vistas. Instead of the pretty villages and metropolis of men, the numerous plantations and scattered dwellings of thrifty husbandmen, green-clad plains and verdant valleys, he gazes on an extensive domain of un-reclaimed lands, of fragmentary mountains whose splintered pinnacles pierce the overarching sky, and half-hidden ravines running back into the rugged heights, narrowed to points like so many huge wedges driven by some giant hand to hold the ridges apart, that there might be room at their feet for the lowlands belting the shore. It is seen now that Oahu is composed of two dissimilar parts, its sunshine and its shadow. Amid this broken fastness a sugar plantation is occasionally seen, here and there the black stack of a sugar mill, a village or two, isolated homes of adventurous fortune-seekers, nearer the coast the few rice fields of ambitious Chinamen, but on the whole man has done little to break in upon the solitude of nature. Beyond this wild, mountainous country the coral reefs of the placid Pacific, its ultramarine of mid-ocean in the shallow waters of the Hawaiian seas becoming an emerald hue, glimmer faintly in the vanishing light.
The descent into this shadow land is abrupt, the road winding down at an angle of forty-five degrees. The tourist gladly turns back from whence he came, and no longer doubts the frenzy of the doomed warriors whose wild retreat over the Pali gave the spot such a tragic interest.
Next to Honolulu, the most important towns on the island are Kanehoe, at the foot of the Pali, the largest village on Windward Oahu, and considerably cooler than at the capital city; Waianae, nestling at the base of the mountains in a narrow valley on the southwest coast; Waialua, a large and prosperous village at the north end of the plain of that name; and last, but not least, Pearl City, nineteen miles from Honolulu by rail, and the rival of that fair city in its beautiful setting of tropical verdure. This town, founded by the Oahu Land and Railroad Company, and belted on the north by a fertile strip of level land extending back to Ewa Plains, now famous for the big Ewa sugar plantation, stands on a peninsula which extends into the harbor that may be considered the best in the world as soon as it has been properly dredged. It was here the United States secured such valuable rights in 1875. Pearl City has long been a favorite resort for boating, bathing, and fishing, and is destined to rival its sister only twelve miles distant by water line.
Above all else, this place and Honolulu lend to the Hawaiian Islands their real value as a possession to any country. Already the rapid increase of population on the Pacific slopes of America has set the tide of navigation toward that shore; with the United States controlling the Philippines and the Nicaragua canal a reality, who can foretell the vast amount of ocean traffic in this direction? However great its growth or mighty its power, Hawaii will still remain, as it is today, the one great strategic point and half-way station between the continents, the arbiter that shall control and guide the commerce of the Northern Pacific. With her important interest at home and abroad, her capital will soon be not only "Mistress of the Pacific," but Empress of the maritime world.
CHAPTER XV GRIM MOLOKAI
The Garden of Eden had its serpent, and a shadow fell across the path of man even in that fairy-land. The modern Adam is not always satisfied with seeing only the bright side of the picture, and he must look for the darker coloring. He imagines there is a shadow somewhere, --- a skeleton in the closet. Hawaii's skeleton is the leper; its closet grim Molokai.
Though he really hears less of them after reaching the islands than he had before coming, the newcomer feels that it is his duty to visit that dark corner holding the banished victims of an incurable disease. It is not as easy as he had expected to obtain passage to the out-of-the-way place. It is true the Board of Health make a semi-annual trip, but only those in the secret know when it is to be made. The object of this is not to be overcrowded with a mob of curious foreigners or natives who have friends or relatives there. Having, through some special influence, gained permission to accompany one of these parties, he is likely then to find a stormy passage, as if it were not intended that the lonely spot should be easy of access.
The history of leprosy on the islands begins in 1853, when, in addition to other epidemics and evils thrust upon the inoffensive Hawaiians, a new disease appeared among them, which they named Mai Pake, or Chinese sickness, as it had been brought to the islands by some Chinamen. In the poor condition of their blood, this new disorder soon gained a startling hold on the native population, so that as early as 1864 it had spread to an alarming extent. January 3, 1865, the Legislature passed an act to have those afflicted with the dread disease taken from the midst of others who had so far escaped its contaminations. This necessitated the breaking up of families, but it would enable those suffering from it to be better treated, and it was hoped to stop in a measure the spread of the complaint, for, singularly enough, the natives showed no fear of it, but persisted in mingling freely with their afflicted kin.
A peninsula containing some five thousand acres, on the north coast of Molokai, was seleced as the most fitting place to carry out the really humane purpose of the government. This comprised the fertile valley of Kalawao, surrounded on three sides by the open sea, and on the other by a steep pali from two to three thousand feet in height, so that the retreat was cut off in every direction.
The enforcement of the law for the segregation of lepers created no little trouble for the authorities. Having no fear of catching it, the inhabitants did not take kindly to the idea of having their loved ones separated from them, and they did everything they could, in many cases, to baffle the officers. Others went willingly, and in many instances gladly, for it meant support for them and a certain release from work.
There are many pathetic tales told concerning the enforcement of the law. On the island of Kauai a very beautiful girl was found to be afflicted with the fearful scourge, and it was decided best to take her to the leper colony. But this doomed maid had a lover, who stoutly remonstrated against this course, and, in his desperation to save his loved one from such a fate, he fled with her to the fastness of the forest. Finding themselves pursued by some officers, this couple ascended one of the highest palis, and, locked in each others arms, leaped to death on the rocks below. Their mangled bodies were buried in one grave. There is still at large upon this island a leper man, on whose head is offered a large bounty to him who can effect his capture. Defying those who have hunted him, this hapless victim of an incurable malady has killed several men who have attempted to take him to Molokai. Those who have seen him lately say that ere long he will be obliged to yield to that disease whose power is greater and more terrible than man's.
Another story is of a little child, whose parents were believed to be in good health, but who was pronounced to have the fatal disease. In this case the officials could not do better than to order that she be taken to the leper colony. The distracted mother would not listen to this, and she pled
so pitifully that a respite of three weeks was allowed, at the end of which the little girl must be removed. Thereupon the mother prayed that her darling Maunoa might die before the end of that time, and though no one accused her of harming the child, she began to fail soon after, and on the morning the officers came for her she lay dead in her distracted mother's arms. The little one was buried close to the parents door, and the mother watched the grave as tenderly as she had in life watched over the child. It was not long before she discovered that she was afflicted with the same malady. As long as she could she kept her secret from others, but the day finally came when she was told that she must go to Molokai. Threatened with a separation from home and the little grave dearer to her than all else, she resisted stoutly, when officers came to carry out their intentions. It was said that she burst a blood-vessel in the frantic resistance; but be it that, or grief and terror, she dropped dead on the mound covering her child, and was buried beside her.
The rich sought to buy off the officials, and no doubt often did for a time, and the poor sought concealment, and resorted to desperate means rather than yield, so it was little wonder if the enforcement of the law was not all that it should have been.
The example set by a learned and influential Hawaiian named Bill Ragsdale did more than anything else to show the natives the good intentions of the government, and caused many afterward to submit with a good grace to the inevitable. Ragsdale was a lawyer, rich, and of great influence in public affairs, with a most flattering future, when he realized that he was a leper. No one else had discovered it, and in his position he might have evaded the law for several years. Instead of doing that, he voluntarily gave himself up to the authorities, after having bade adieu to friends and relatives, all of whom tried to persuade him from his course. He had great influence among his race, though he was part white, and when they witnessed his unselfish act it had a beneficial effect on others. The name of Bill Ragsdale at once became a term of respect and endearment. This man was for a time governor of Kalawao, and many of the improvements for the comfort and the beauty of the colony are due to him.
Another name loved and revered by the unfortunates of Molokai is that of Father Damien, a native of Belgium, born in 1841, who, hearing of the suffering and hopeless condition of the lepers, went to Kalawao in 1873, to devote the balance of his life to their well-being. Everyone believed then that leprosy was infectious, and he expected to have the dread disease soon or late, but he went about his task with a calm resignation as to duty. He not only ministered to their spiritual welfare, but he dressed their horrible wounds, amputated diseased parts, sat by their bedsides, and even helped dig their graves, ever living in the tainted atmosphere. He lived among them ten years before he contracted the disease, and he died in 1889, mourned by every person who had known him.
Lepers are not great sufferers as a rule, and they meet their fate with an indifference which is melancholy. The average life at Kalawao is four years. Women are less likely to have it than men, and it is swifter in its results with children than with grown people. Sometimes those not afflicted are allowed to accompany friends there. Women have married leper husbands, and children have been born of such unions that showed no signs of the disease. Leprosy is not as contagious as it was at first supposed, still it is not well understood even after all the investigation that has been made. But under the present enforcement of the law, and the efficient work done by the Board of Health, its spread has been pretty thoroughly checked, and but few afflicted with it are now at large. In time it is believed that the last will be found and the terrible scourge stamped out.
There are now at Kalawao eleven hundred cases, all but fifty being Hawaiians. Thirty two of the balance belong to the Chinese race, and the rest are whites, who were mostly dissipated persons. It cost the government about a hundred dollars each annually to care for these charges, everything being done that can be for their comfort and welfare. There are Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Mormon churches, a Young Men's Christian Association Building, schools, reading rooms and libraries, besides dwellings built by the government and wealthy inhabitants of the place.
With the approved methods and careful study given to the disease, the white population of the islands have no fear of it, and the visitor might travel the country over without seeing any evidence of it, until he found it in his way to go to Molokai's lonely north peninsula. Few of those who have visited this dark corner of the Island Paradise have come away without feeling that they had been paid for their pains, and yet having no desire to repeat the experience.
Molokai ( Ania Pali in the native tongue ) means "Land of Precipices," and no truer definition was ever given a name. The island is formed by a chain of volcanic mountains forty miles in length by seven in width. The lofty heights are broken by deep ravines and gorges, down many of which are swift-flowing streams. Still nearly a third of the entire area, comprising the west end, is desolate of vegetation, and will remain so until given a more plentiful supply of water. The larger portion of the population live on a narrow strip of coast land along the southern shore; but this fertile land is too dry to afford many kinds of vegetation, so that the people have to cultivate the uplands to get food. On the whole, aside from its unpleasant reputation as the home of a leprous population, though imported, it is the least promising of the seven Hawaiian Islands.
CHAPTER XVI PICTURESQUE MAUI
The tourist, arriving at Honolulu and wishing to visit the larger islands and their principal points of interest, finds that he has the choice of two routes, with their variations. One of these, after taking him along the lee side of Molokai and between that island and Lanai, touches at Lahaina. Not only the capital and principal town of Maui, this place was once the metropolis of the islands, when kings had their palaces and foreign consuls their courts here when whale-ships filled its harbor, and its broad, sandy beach alive with many races of people. The mountains, with their bare, brown slopes, crowd down close to the sea here, so close that the village is composed of but one street overhung with groves of cocoa-nuts, tamarinds, oranges, and breadfruits. Lahaina has changed only since those halcyon days of royalty and commerce, in a backward course, and like Mount Eka, which long since lost its fiery vigor, it has gone to sleep. But this slumber is now being broken by the sugar industry, which is rapidly giving a new life to the antiquated place, proving over and again how the fickle hand of business guides the destiny of towns as well as men. But the stop of the steamer is short here, and we leave the old town in its dreams —
“Where the wave tumbles,
Where the reef rumbles,
Where the sea sweeps,
Under bending palm branches.
Where the hills smoulder,
Where the plains smoke,
Where the peaks shoulder,
The clouds like a yoke;
Where the dear isle
Has a charm to beguile,
As she lays in the lap
Of the sea that enfolds her”
Leaving Lahaina, the steamer coasts along the southern shore, soon passing under the lee of the western islands, presenting a landscape that cannot be excelled by any other in the world, overtopped by Mount Eka wrapped in its lava cloak, grim and silent, thence across the watery inlet which nearly makes two of the island. Keeping close in to the shore of East Maui, where the mountains protect the coast from the trade-winds, the dreary little village Ulupalakua is reached. Here those who wish to make a trip to Haleakala, “The House of the Sun,” leave the steamer. Rising ten thousand feet into the air, and having a crater thirty miles in circumference, this exhausted monster, with a pit 2,700 feet deep, is almost capable of swallowing Vesuvius entire, while from its interior rise cones of scoria to heights which dwarf St. Paul’s Cathedral. The poetical Stoddard declared that a trip to its summit was “ a horseback journey to Heaven,” while another, less pleased with the result, turns away, declaring that “ it should be called the Tomb, and not the House of the Sun, and that volcanoes have no business to be dead!”
Next leaving the rocky islet of Molikini to the southeast, and farther off in the same direction Kahoolawe, the course is across Alalakeiki Channel, where trade-wind rushes as if through a flume, to Upolu Point, the northern extremity of the island of Hawaii. Back of this port — more properly speaking roadstead — stretch cane fields, through which runs a line of railroad.
Coasting along this shore in a southerly course, this region of rich verdure is soon exchanged for the barren, rainless land of Lee Hawaii. Twenty miles of this passage, and the steamer enters the little Bay of Kawaihe, which has the very poetical definition of “ torn water .” It is evening, and the southern moon, climbing the distant mountains, throws far and wide over the placid sea her soft, purple beams, while Hualalai, a stark, brown dome against the sky, casts his ten thousand feet of shadows over the checkered landscape. This volcano has shown no signs of life since 1805, when it seemed to have spent its final fury. Standing on an eminence overlooking the coast remains an evidence of paganism in the last heiau built on the islands, done at the command of Kamehameha I., in 1791. This structure, one of the best specimens of its kind, has walls a dozen feet thick at the base, ten feet high on the upper side and double that on the lower, — a rude parallelogram a hundred feet wide and over two hundred feet in length.
The next anchorage is not found until historic Kailua, the ancient capital of the islands, standing by a bay of that name, is reached, when the sun has replaced the moon, and the mellow atmosphere of a Hawaiian dawn makes clear the scene. Bordered by a rim of feathery palms and set with an A-shaped cluster of cottages, this place presents an odd-mixture of bygone days and modern times. Here is another reminder of Kamehameha the Great, — an old fort-like building made of mud and lava. Once surrounded by hideous idols, tabu staffs, and grotesque wooden images, intended to awe the ignorant masses, it was here the old religion had its headquarters, and here the tabus were first broken by his son Liholiho, upon whom the influence of women was stronger than priestly power. The gods set at defiance, the destruction of the idols and temples followed, amid the consternation of the people. In memory of the wild deeds done within its sacred precinct, the ruins are known as the “ Place of Ghosts,” where no one with ever so slight a lingering of the old faith sets foot after nightfall. In later years Kalakaua had his country residence here, the royal mansion being now the property of the dowager queen Kapiolani. A presentation in more ways than one of former days, the walls of this spacious house have echoed to the semi-barbarous merriment of the profligate king’s noted luaus and hulas, witnessed by the nobility seated in rows of famous red chairs. In marked juxtaposition to this abode of a monarch who was not willing to see the ancient customs revived, stands the oldest Christian church on the islands. Built of lava blocks, some of which had been hewn by one of the ancient kings of Hawaii as the corner-stones of a pagan temple, this house of modern worship is bare and desolate enough to have suited the most austere of Puritan worshipers. It requires no grievous strain of the imagination to transport one back to the scenes of the early missionaries and their odd congregation of uncivilized listeners who had but a faint inkling of the new creed they professed to accept. The church is now under charge of a native pastor. But it is not so much as a religious seat that Kailua is noted today. The coffee industry is the prevailing element, and a large coffee mill is seen, the most noticeable of modern buildings. Terms of the Circuit Court are held here.
Kealakekua Bay, famous for its association with the name of Captain Cook, is the best anchorage on the western and southern coasts. A steep pali, honeycombed with the burial caverns of the Hawaiians, a rude Polynesian catacomb, forms the background of the scene here. In plain sight of the shore is the white shaft which marks the place where the Great Navigator paid the price of his perfidy to the native race, and a quarter of a mile distant are the ruins of the heiau of Kiki Au, where he received the homage due a god.
Above the narrow coast rim are great coffee plantations, which get their supplies largely at Napaupau, across the bay from Kealakekau. A little lower down the coast is another ancient of modern interest, Honaunau, the old city of refuge. It was here that criminals and fugitives from any and every cause fled for safety in the troublesome days of yore. Hawaii had two of these places, planned very much as those of the Hebrew Scripture. The other was on the windward side of the island, at famous Waipio, the one-time seat of royal dynasty, that of the renowned Kihi line of kings. These cities of refuge were walled towns and the pagan idea of a court of justice. Idols were set around the enclosure and guards stationed round about, but whoever was fortunate enough to gain their shelter was safe. After a certain time passed within, he was supposed to be innocent of any crime, and given his liberty. There was an old saying that “ all roads led to Honaunua, ” which fact is pretty well attested today by the many paths and roads winding out into the country above.
Still farther south, defying with its solid front several miles in breadth the stormy sea, stands Lepeampa Rock. This hard lava stone bed extends back from the shore for nearly a mile before it becomes invested with a soil of sufficient depth to bear the ohia, the pioneer of Hawaiian vegetation. Two miles from the seaside are forests of large trees, made impenetrable by an undergrowth of reeking vines and towering ferns, the density of the growth showing , where the mountains have wrung more than an an equal share of the moisture from the clouds.
The volcano, always an objective point to the tourist can be reached by a road at Honuapo, on the southeastern coast, and reached after the mariner has doubled the Cape Horn of Hawaii, Ka lae, and made a long stretch of coast exposed to winds and high swells. From thence to Hilo, the general destination of all steamers, the shore is precipitous, and above that city it is even wilder, but favored with generous foliage, which always exists in the tropics where rain falls plentifully.
So it is with Hawaii wherever one turns his footsteps, a blending of fertile lands and barren wastes, the first clothed with a verdure so rank and dense as to be impassable in its original state, and the other lava beds requiring the fertilization of the atmosphere for centuries to come before producing a representative covering of Hawaiian vegetation.
The second route from Honolulu to Hilo takes the traveler to the windward of Maui and Hawaii, the picturesque side of the islands. East and West Maui are separated by a wide, arid plain, where even the hardy kukui hesitates to place foot. But on either side of this broad gateway of the mountains the scene swiftly changes to unsurpassed grandeur and sublimity. In the midst of these, embowered in trailing vines and gorgeous lantana, are the clustering roofs of the sugar planters, scattered far and wide, here and there the black stack of some mill, and on the line of the railroad the hamlet of houses constituting the nucleus of civilization.
In this region is the Spreckels plantation, the largest in the world. In this scene is Kahului, an important port for the importations of this part of the island, which smacks so strongly of the Orient that the visitor soon comes to think that he is in the homeland of the Chinese and Japanese.
Better than this picture is that of Wailuku, — at its back, the flowering palis ; at its feet, the Pacific combing the long beach with anything but the placidity of its name, laying, with eternal perseverance, roll after roll of snowy fleece on the sandy shore; beside it, the river from which it gets its name, losing here the impetuosity of its early course as old age loses its fiery zeal of youth on nearing its earthly goal beyond; that matchless corridor of nature filled with the melody of waterfalls and the perfume of orange-flowers, Iao Valley; above, the gray clouds which give to this landscape its vesture of fadeless beauty, floating dreamily in the cerulean space.
This Mauian valley, which no tourist fails to visit, has been compared to the Yosemite of California. This is unjust to both. There can be no equitable comparison in the masterpieces of nature. The entrance to the Iaoan storehouse of wonders is through a long, narrow, massive gateway, whose perpendicular walls finally reach a height of two thousand feet, the roughness of their masonry concealed by a lacework of dark green foliage sparkling with silvery waterfalls flashing from turret and cornice. At last the passage broadens into a court of such lonely grandeur and majesty of architecture that the intruder instinctively shrinks back as if suddenly brought into the presence of the Omnipotent Judge. The floor, laid in lava blocks, is broken on the one hand by a deep ravine, through which flow the sullen “Waters of Destruction,” while on the other, amid a setting of splintered cliffs, stands that Iaoan sphinx, the towering Needle, which far overtops Cleopatra’s famous obelisk.
The early kings of Maui showed their apt appreciation of matters earthly and immortal, when the selected this as their tomb. Many of the remains of kings and chiefs have been found, grim links connecting barbarism to civilization. A veritable burial-ground this ast natural coliseum became when the faithful followers of Kahekili the Thunderer sacrificed their lives on these rocks rather than yield to Kamehameha the Conqueror. Not until the last soldier had fallen did the battle end, and the waters of the Wailuku, breaking through their human dam, flowed crimson to the sea. Nowhere in history is there a more vivid association of the tragic and the sublime.
But Iao Valley is as famous for its prodigal display of vegetation as it is for its tradition of human tragedy and natural sublimity. Everywhere, even to its most rugged battlements, are draperies of clinging foliage and festoons of graceful creepers, while miniature forests of guavas, overtopped by breadfruit trees, and bordered by rose fringes, meet the eye. If there is one thing above all else in which it excels, it is in its display of ferns, no kind or species of which seem to be wanting in this gorgeous wealth of flowers and foliage. In no part of the Hawaiian Islands, famous for their ferns, are so many kinds found as are growing here. Who enters here becomes fern-wild. In the words of one of these admirers:
“ The tourist is pretty sure to forget everything else in Hawaii. In vain the great Pacific rolls before him from pole to pole; he spies a fern in the cranny of the rock, and have it he must. Is he walking the high bridge which spans the deep-flowing Wailuku at Hilo (another river on the larger island by this same name), and are the deepening shades of evening lighting up the summit fires of Mauna Loa, he is lost to the rare scene if he but thinks he sees a new fern growing out of the trunk of the old breadfruit-tree. All through the lively woods of Puna, or along the forest path to Kilauea, his eyes are searching the undergrowth for his particular prey. And even as he comes home from Iao the terrible, the beautiful, the only, for surely the world has no other valley like it, his thoughts are busier with the pressed volume of leaves which he hugs to his side, than with the majesty and wonder of the scenery he has been contemplating.”
Still, when this innocent bewitchery has flown, when the ferns have crumbled to dust, the mind will cherish the memory of that great natural wonder of Maui, its legends and associations of another day and another people.
CHAPTER XVII THE ISLAND BUILDER
Windward Hawaii has less of historic interest than the lee side of the Island; but it is far richer in its great abundance of natural wealth, which is accounted for by the fact that here there is plenty of rain, while on the opposite side of the mountains the atmosphere is dry. The country is broken and rugged, the coast line often being long ridges of rock pushing down to the water’s edge, rising sometimes to the height of two or three hundred feet.
The only harbor on the entire northeastern coast is Hilo Bay, or Byron Bay, as it is sometimes called, for the commander of the English frigate Blonde, which it will be remembered brought home the remains of Kamehameha II., and his queen , both of whom died while on visit to England. The natives named the place Waiakea, meaning “broad water,” and on the south shore, separated from the city of Hilo by a crescent-shaped beach, on which the breaking surf “looks like frosted silver,” is a little village by that name. The bay is seven miles wide and three miles deep, a submerged coral reef running from Cocoanut Island on the south to within half a mile of the north side of the harbor, leaving a passage of that width for the entrance of vessels. With this protecting arm, the ships riding at anchor here are still exposed to the northeast trade-wind.
On the west shore of the harbor, on an inclined plane, amid extensive groves of cocoanuts, bananas, plantains, and breadfruits, with large sugar plantations in the background, stands Hilo, “the ambitious city.” It has been aptly said that what Honolulu aspires to be, Hilo is. It is also the common expression that it rains every day in Hilo. If an occasional day is missed it is certain that this locality has the largest amount of rainfall of any part of the islands, and it is due to this fact that the country in this vicinity is remarkable for its verdure, — a vegetation which is always green.
The appearance of the town is less American than at Honolulu, the architecture of the buildings being a sort of cross of European and Oriental designs. But there is nothing sleepy about the place, and the American element predominates, though Japanese and Chinese have each got a good hold. It has its share of public buildings, its churches, its schoolhouses, and the largest public library on the islands.
At Hilo we are on historic ground, and its meles take us back into the past many generations beyond those of Honolulu. It was here the Conqueror had one of his early battles in laying the foundation for his conquest, while many legends of the curious and mysterious beings that peopled the superstitious minds of the Hawaiians still cling to the romantic dales, waterfalls, palis, and deep-wooded mountainsides. Only a mile from the town is Rainbow Falls, whose waters are so delicately colored by the sun’s rays that the natives believed a fairy lived in the waters clothed in variegated hues of the rainbow.
Above the chain of sugar plantations flanking Hilo, and extending up and down the coast for sixty miles, is a wider band of open country, covered with a cloak of rank grass; still above this is a yet broader belt of forest, whose foliage presents a gradual but marked change from the verdure of the tropics to a polar clime, until, far above, the snowy crest of Mauna Kea stands boldly out against the sky.
Hawaii has the loftiest and mightiest mountains of any islands in the world. Considered from their base at the bottom of the Pacific, the two giants, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, lift their volcanic heads thirty thousand feet into the air, — almost six miles ! The first is thirteen thousand and nine hundred feet above the surface of the sea, while its mate is less than two hundred feet its inferior in height, and more than its equal in every other respect.
At Hilo we begin to get a vivid idea of the greatest of island wonders, the volcanoes. The beauty and picturesque features of the flora and forests, the palis and valleys, the waterfalls and coral shores, are overshadowed by the volcanic cones whose fires have illuminated land and sea for ages beyond the computation of man. Its summit crater, Mokuaweoweo, wrapped in its vestment of clouds, is a grand spectacle of volcanic majesty.
Though sleeping now, the fires of this volcano are only banked, and at what moment they may break forth is unknown. Several eruptions, some of which cost many lives and great loss of property, have occurred during the present century. In 1832 there was an overflow lasting four weeks, and again in 1843 an eruption took place, when the lava flowed for a distance of twenty-five miles. Other eruptions followed, one of which, after sending out its stream of lava for a mile, was suddenly checked, the molten river disappeared into the earth, and that seemed to be the last of it. But four days later another shock shook the island to every extremity,
and the lava stream burst through the earth in the forest of northeastern Puna, rushing down to the sea with terrific power, overwhelming many people and destroying the country as far as it reached. In the Puna district are yet to be seen strange reminders of the overflows in the shape of lava-tree forests. The molten lava having covered the trees, often to a height of twenty feet, congealed before the encased wood burned, and now stands hollow skeletons of the greenwood hundreds of years old.
In 1859 an immense flow rushed down between Mauna Kea and Hualalai, reaching the sea at Wainanalii, a distance of thirty-three miles, in eight days. The worst eruption of which there is written record took place in 1868. This time severe earthquakes rocked the whole island like a cradle, and the southeast coast of Puna sank several feet. A fountain of lava was thrown upward a thousand feet, which abruptly collapsed, and the mountain dome appeared clear against the sky. Five days later, on April 2d, a molten river burst through a fissure in the earth just south of Hilo with a terrific force and volume. It had traveled over twenty miles underground before finding this vent, and now four huge fountains seethed and tossed hissing lava and rocks, tons in weight, high into the air. From this a furious stream of red lava — a river of fire from two to eight hundred feet in width and twenty feet deep — swept down to the sea at a rate of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour. Everything in its pathway was destroyed, and one of the fairest pastoral regions of the island transformed into a tract of barren earth. The entire southeastern coast sank from four to six feet, destroying several villages and their inhabitants. The terrified people in the vicinity fled into Hilo, and consternation everywhere reigned.
The horrors of this eruption were repeated in 1881, the outburst having begun November 5th the preceding year. Portions of the shore sank this time, while others were lifted up; tidal waves fifty feet in height swept the coast at the engulfed places, and the people left the island as fast as they could find means. Three streams of lava flowed from the summit of Mauna Loa, one of them coming within three-fourths of a mile of Hilo. The city seemed doomed, and the vessels for Honolulu were crowded with the fugitives.
At this critical period an instance occurred which showed how deeply were still fixed the roots of the old superstition. Amid the digging of trenches, building of walls to protect the town, and the making of prayers for the deliverance of the people, a surviving sister of the Kamehamehas Fourth and Fifth, at the time living in Honolulu, declared that she could check the wrath of the goddess of the volcano. " I will save the fish-ponds of Hilo," she said. " Pele will not refuse to listen to the prayers of a Kamehameha." She went to the threatened town, and, surrounded by a large and anxious crowd of spectators, caused to be built an altar in the pathway of the approaching stream. Here she made her appeals to the goddess Pele, offered her sacrifices to the lava, and then returned to her home. As if in answer to her commands, the fiery river ceased its advance at once, and its congealed flood stands to-day as a wall to the Hawaiian belief in the power of the gods disowned more than half a century before.
Other examples of the work of Mauna Loa, though less striking than these mentioned, are recorded, while tradition kindles with cataracts of leaping fire and clouds of crimson smoke and hissing steam. There were years which had no days clear from the smoke of underground furnaces nor nights that were not lurid with flames. The Hawaiian meles tell of rivers of fire bursting out of the hot earth and flinging its liquid masses over a pali a thousand feet in height to fall hissing and seething into the ocean. A pillar of fire six hundred feet in circumference once spouted from the crest of Mauna Loa to a distance of over a thousand feet, which lasted for twenty days, without a night, so brilliant was the scene for the distance of nearly a hundred miles ! As a monument of this grand display a cone a mile in circumference was built on its summit. Thus has been built by this master workman an island, layer on layer, hill on hill, from the seacoast to the volcanic crest, the melting, forging, welding, casting out of the molten matter by the ever-living fires of the furnaces within the crater, while the surcharged products have been fertilized by sun and wind, heat and moisture, until the naked and deformed rock has been clothed in a tropical verdure.
For an active example of the work of this mighty island builder we have only to turn to that lateral orifice of Mauna Loa, Kilauea. With the exceptions of the brief intervals when an overflow or breaking out was taking place on the main mountain, this crater has kept up a continual exhibition of its internal forces. For a period antedating the known history of the islands this volcano has been building within, laying its foundations deep down in the sea, thickening and strengthening its walls, until to-day this " House of Fire," Halemaumau, holds within its compass the greatest evidence of volcanic energy in the world. Before that it was different. Barrier after barrier must have been broken down, and deluge after deluge of the fiery floods flung out upon the surroundings, until the walls had been lifted four thousand feet above the sea, its present height. Now, when the interior has again been filled with its molten mass, and the surging waves and breakers of the " burning lake " dash over the rim of the cone, or become strong enough to break down its wall, again will the surrounding country be overlaid with lava deposits, each layer adding so much to the present height of the mighty shell. That this stage is surely coming is foretold by the gradual rise of the successive exhibits of the " rock-consuming forces."
The only overflow of Kilauea, so far as is known, took place in 1789, while the army of Keoua was on its march from Hilo to meet Kamehameha at Kau in a decisive battle for the supremacy of the island. The course taken by this body of warriors led near to the crater, which had been silent longer than any of their priests knew, and as they drew near by night the darkness was suddenly illumed with dazzling sheets of flame, and such a storm of cinders and rocks fell about the natives that they fled for their lives. Rallied by their chief in the valley below, for two days they were witnesses of a scene which carried terror to the stoutest hearts. All the time deep peal upon peal of thunder rolled over their heads, while clouds so black they darkened the sun at midday rose from the crater, lighted at intervals by flashes of lightning so vivid that they were compelled to close their eyes. At last they were urged to resume their march, but as they were passing the volcano, such a shower of lava, sand, and rocks was flung upon them that the majority were overwhelmed, the survivors fleeing in dismay. This was believed by the natives to be a direct interposition on the part of Queen Pele in behalf of Kamehameha.
A public highway leads from Hilo to the volcano twenty miles distant from that town, and the sightseer who has climbed the steady ascent from the sea, after passing through a typical Hawaiian forest and green fields, finds himself on the very brink of the crater without having received any warning of his approach to the "regions infernal." If he had come from Kau, on the other side, the only difference would have been an exchange of forest for desert, of the green of the growing crops for the brown of the lava fields. If he has missed the anticipated trembling of the earth, the deep, sullen roar of the Plutonian hosts imprisoned here, the effect is the more impressive as he stands suddenly on the threshold of this "House of Fire," with walls seamed and twisted by earthquakes, and floor laid in blocks of melted stone. With feeling akin to terror he gazes spellbound on the upheavals of lurid fountains sending their spiral columns high into the air, of huge boulders tossed on the crests of crimson waves; on tides of liquid flames surging against the sides of this burning lake; on ten thousand torches lighted by no human hand, fading and rekindling with startling rapidity; on the areas of boiling lava, now rising on the swelling flood, now sinking deep into the bottomless regions from whence came all this molten mass, — on all this and more that cannot be described, until he feels, as he never has before, the power and the presence of the infinite builder of the world. Before this sight all else on earth pales into insignificance and is forgotten.
As this is written, report comes that Mauna Loa is again in convulsion. that Hilo is once more threatened, and the people are seeking safety in flight. Shocks of earthquake shook the island for twenty-five miles, and were felt in Honolulu. There are two streams of lava flowing, one toward Kau, and the other in the direction of Hilo. The damage to property has already been considerable. So it will be until the volcanic forces which have been building the islands shall be spent, and Hawaii, like her sister islands, be emancipated from its thraldom of fire. Then, indeed, with its happy people, will it be the Paradise of the Pacific.
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