amehameha 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.

ncidents 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.

hatever 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 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.

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.

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.

he 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.