ALOHA WORLD RESOURCES

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he 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 hillsides 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.

Kaula, 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 Hawaiians, 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 ironwoods, delicate tamarinds, feathery algarrobas, star-eyed oranges, dusky ohias, snowy kukui/candlenuts, sunlit papayas, umbrageous breadfruits, flowering mangoes, wine-palms, slender cocoa-palms, hardy pomegranates, twisted haus and wide spreading umbrella-trees, of plants and vegetables, the fan-leafed banana (mai`a), tree-like plaintain, 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 brinks 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 crimsons with the transparent leaves of the ohia the fiery floods of the craters; with gorgeous vines and trailers, magenta blossoms and passion flowers, embowering 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 corregated 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, cocoanut, 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.

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aptain 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 unpeopled, 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 sub-divisions 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 monarch’s 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 thick-nesses 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 unseated 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.

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ili’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.