Chapter XXI: Early History of the Sandwich Islands (2)

"Tahowmotoo was amongst the most constant of our guests; but his daughter, the disgraced queen, seldom visited our side of the bay. I was not, however, ignorant of her anxious desire for a reconciliation with Tamaahmaah; nor was the same wish to be misunderstood in the conduct and behavior of the king, in whose good opinion and confidence I had now acquired such a predominancy that I became acquainted with his most secret inclinations and apprehensions.

"His unshaken attachment and unaltered affection for Tahowmannoo was confessed with a sort of internal self conviction of her innocence. He acknowledged with great candor that his own conduct had not been exactly such as warranted his having insisted upon a separation from his queen; that although it could not authorize, it in some measure pleaded in excuse for her infidelity; and for his own, he alleged, that his high rank and supreme authority was a sort of license for such indulgences.

"An accommodation which I considered to be mutually wished by both parties was urged in the strongest terms by the queen's relations. To effect this desirable purpose, my interference was frequently solicited by them; and as it concurred with my own inclination, I resolved on embracing the first favorable opportunity to use my best endeavors for bringing a reconciliation about. For although, on our former visit, Tahowmannoo had been regarded with the most favorable impressions, yet, whether from her distresses, or because she had really improved in her personal accomplishments, I will not take upon me to determine, but certain it is that one or both of these circumstances united had so far prepossessed us all in her favor, and no one more so than myself, that it had long been the general wish to see her exalted again to her former dignities. This desire was probably not a little heightened by the regard we entertained for the happiness and repose of our noble and generous friend Tamaahmaah, who was likely to be materially affected not only in his domestic comforts, but in his political situation, by receiving again and reinstating his consort in her former rank and consequence.

"I was convinced beyond all doubt that there were two or three of the most considerable chiefs of the island whose ambitious views were inimical to the interests and authority of Tamaahmaah; and it was much to be apprehended that if the earnest solicitations of the queen's father (whose condition and importance was next in consequence to that of the king) should continue to be rejected, that there could be little doubt of his adding great strength and influence to the discontented and turbulent chiefs, which would operate highly to the prejudice, if not totally to the destruction, of Tamaahmaah's regal power; especially as the adverse party seemed to form a constant opposition, consisting of a minority by no means to be despised by the executive power, and which appeared to be a principal constituent part of the Owhyean politics.

"For these substantial reasons, whenever he was disposed to listen to such discourse, I did not cease to urge the importance and necessity of his adopting measures so highly essential to his happiness as a man, and to his power, interest and authority as the supreme chief of the island. All this he candidly acknowledged, but his pride threw impediments in the way of a reconciliation, which were hard to be removed. He would not himself become the immediate agent; and although he considered it important that the negotiation should be conducted by some one of the principal chiefs in his fullest confidence with disdain, was equally hard to reconcile to his feelings. I stood nearly in the same situation with his favorite friends; but being thoroughly convinced of the sincerity of his wishes, I spared him the mortification of soliciting the offices he had rejected, by again proffering my services. To this he instantly consented, and observed that no proposal could have met his mind so completely; since, by effecting a reconciliation through my friendship, no umbrage could be taken at his having declined the several offers of his countrymen by any of the individuals; whereas, had this object been accomplished by any one of the chiefs, it would probably have occasioned jealousy and discontent in the minds of the others.

"All, however, was not yet complete; the apprehension that some concession might be suggested, or expected, on his part, preponderated against every other consideration; and he would on no account consent, that it should appear that he had been privy to the business, or that it had been by his desire that a negotiation had been undertaken for this happy purpose, but that the whole should have the appearance of being purely the result of accident.

"To this end it was determined that I should invite the queen, with several of her relations and friends, on board the Discovery, for the purpose of presenting them with some trivial matters, as tokens of my friendship and regard; and that, whilst thus employed, our conversation should be directed to ascertain whether an accommodation was still an object to be desired. That on this appearing to be the general wish, Tamaahmaah would instantly repair on board in a hasty manner, as if he had something extraordinary to communicate; that I should appear to rejoice at this accidental meeting, and by instantly uniting their hands, bring the reconciliation to pass without the least discussion or explanation on either side. But from his extreme solicitude lest he should in any degree be suspected of being concerned in this previous arrangement, a difficulty arose how to make him acquainted with the result of the proposed conversation on board, which could not be permitted by a verbal message; at length, after some thought, he took up two pieces of paper, and of his own accord made certain marks with a pencil on each of them, and then delivered them to me. The difference of these marks he could well recollect; the one was to indicate that the result of my inquiries was agreeable to his wishes, and the other that it was contrary. In the event of my making use of the former, he proposed that it should not be sent on shore secretly, but in an open and declared manner, and by way of a joke, as a present to his Owhyhean majesty. The natural gaiety of disposition which generally prevails among these islanders, would render this supposed disappointment of the king a subject for mirth, would in some degree prepare the company for his visit, and completely do away with every idea of its being the effect of a preconcerted measure.

"This plan was accordingly carried into execution on the following Monday. Whilst the queen and her party, totally ignorant of the contrivance, were receiving the compliments I had intended them, their good humor and pleasantry were infinitely heightened by the jest I proposed to pass upon the king, in sending him a piece of paper only, carefully wrapped up in some cloth of their own manufacture, accompanied by a message; importing, that as I was then in the act of distributing favors to my Owhyhean friends, I had not been unmindful of his majesty.

"Tamaahmaah no sooner received the summons, than he hastened on board, and, with his usual vivacity, exclaimed before he made his appearance that he was come to thank me for the present I had sent him, and for my goodness in not having forgotten him on this occasion. This was heard by everyone in the cabin before he entered; and all seemed to enjoy the joke except the poor queen, who appeared to be much agitated at the idea of being again in his presence. The instant that he saw her his countenance expressed great surprise, he became immediately silent, and attempted to retire; but, having posted myself for the especial purpose of preventing his departure, I caught his hand and, joining it with the queen's, their reconciliation was instantly completed. This was fully demonstrated, not only by the tears that involuntarily stole down the cheeks of both as they embraced each other and mutually expressed the satisfaction they experienced; but by the behavior of every individual present, whose feelings on the occasion were not to be repressed; whilst their sensibility testified the happiness which this apparently fortuitous event had produced.

"A short pause, produced by an event so unexpected, was succeeded by the sort of good humor that such a happy circumstance would naturally inspire; the conversation soon became general, cheerful and lively, in which the artifice imagined to have been imposed upon the king bore no small share. A little refreshment from a few glasses of wine concluded the scene of this successful meeting.

"After the queen had acknowledged in the most grateful terms the weighty obligations which she felt for my services on this occasion, I was surprised by her saying, as we were all preparing to go on shore, that she had still a very great favor to request; which was, that I should obtain from Tamaahmaah a solemn promise that on her return to his habitation he would not beat her. The great cordiality with which the reconciliation had taken place, and the happiness that each of them had continued to express in consequence of it, led me at first to consider this entreaty of the queen as a jest only; but in this I was mistaken, for, notwithstanding that Tamaahmaah readily complied with my solicitation, and assured me nothing of the kind should take place, yet Tahowmannoo would not be satisfied without my accompanying them home to the royal residence, where I had the pleasure of seeing her restored to all her former honors and privileges, highly to the satisfaction of all the king's friends, but to the utter mortification of those who by their scandalous reports and misrepresentations had been the cause of the unfortunate separtion.

"The domestic affairs of Tamaahmaah having thus taken so happy a turn, his mind was more at liberty for political considerations; and the cession of Owhyhee to his Britannic Majesty now became an object of his serious concern."

Captain Cook makes a strong plea in his journal that he was the very original discoverer of the Sandwich Islands. Referring to the wonderful extent of the surface of the earth in which the land is occupied by the Polynesial race, he exclaims:

"How shall we account for this nation's having spread itself, in so many detached islands, so widely disjoined from each other, in every quarter of the Pacific Ocean! We find it, from New Zealand in the South, as far as the Sandwich Islands, to the North! And, in another direction, from Easter Islands to the Hebrides! That is, over an extent of sixty degrees of latitude, or twelve hundred leagues, North and South! And eighty-three degrees of longitude, or sixteen hundred and sixty leagues, East and West! How much farther, in either direction, its colonies reach, is not known; but what we know already, in consequence of this and our former voyage, warrants our pronouncing it to be, though perhaps not the most numerous, certainly, by far, the most extensive, nation upon earth.

"Had the Sandwich Islands been discovered at an early period by the Spaniards, there is little doubt that they would have taken advantage of so excellent a situation, and have made use of Atooi, or some other of the islands, as a refreshing place to the ships, that sail annually from Acapulco for Manilla. They lie almost midway between the first place and Guam, one of the Ladrones, which is at present their only port in traversing this vast ocean; and it would not have been a week's sail out of their common route to have touched at them; which could have been done without running the least hazard of losing the passage, as they are sufficiently within the verge of the easterly trade wind. An acquaintance with the Sandwich Islands would have been equally favorable to our Buccaneers, who used sometimes to pass from the coast of America to the Ladrones, with a stock of food and water scarcely sufficient to preserve life. Here they might always have found plenty, and have been within a month's sure sail of the very part of California which the Manilla ship is obliged to make, or else have returned to the coast of America, thoroughly refitted, after an absence of two months. How happy would Lord Anson have been, and what hardships he would have avoided, if he had known that there was a group of islands half way between America and Tinian, where all his wants could have been effectually supplied; and in describing which the elegant historian of that voyage would have presented his reader with a more agreeable picture than I have been able to draw in this chapter."

And yet there seems to be reason for believing that there was a Spanish ship cast away on one of the Hawaiian group, and that their descendants are distinctly marked men yet: There was also a white man and woman saved from the sea at some unknown period, of course since Noah, and they multiplied and replenished, and the islanders picked up somewhere a knack for doing things in construction of boats and the weaving of mats that hint at a crude civilization surviving in a mass of barbarianism.

Captain George Dixon names the islands discovered by Captain Cook on his last voyage:

"Owhyhee (Hawaii), the principal, is the first to the southward and eastward, the rest run in a direction nearly northwest. The names of the principals are Mowee (Maui), Morotoy (Molokai), Ranai (Lanai), Whahoo (Oahu), Attooi (Kauai), and Oneehow (Niihau)."

This account Dixon gives of two curious and rather valuable words: "The moment a chief concludes a bargain, he repeats the word Coocoo thrice, with quickness, and is immediately answered by all the people in his canoe with the word Whoah, pronounced in a tone of exclamation, but with greater or less energy, in proportion as the bargain he has made is approved."

The great and celebrated Kamehameha, who consolidated the government of the islands, did it by an act of treachery and murder, thus told in Alexander's history:

"The Assassination of Keoua.--Toward the end of the year 1791 two of Kamehameha's chief counsellors, Kamanawa and Keaweaheulu, were sent on an embassy to Keoua at Kahuku in Kau. Keoua's chief warrior urged him to put them to death, which he indignantly refused to do.

"By smooth speeches and fair promises they persuaded him to go to Kawaihae, and have an interview with Kamehameha, in order to put an end to the war, which had lasted nine years. Accordingly he set out with his most intimate friends and twenty-four rowers in his own double canoe, accompanied by Keaweaheulu in another canoe, and followed by friends and retainers in other canoes.

"As they approached the landing at Kawaihae, Keeaumoku surrounded Keoua's canoe with a number of armed men. As Kamakau relates: 'Seeing Kamehameha on the beach, Keoua called out to him, "Here I am," to which he replied, "Rise up and come here, that we may know each other."'

"As Keoua was in the act of leaping ashore, Keeaumoku killed him with a spear. All the men in Keoua's canoe and in the canoes of his immediate company were slaughtered but one. But when the second division approached, Kamehameha gave orders to stop the massacre. The bodies of the slain were then laid upon the altar of Puukohola as an offering to the blood-thirsty divinity Kukailimoku. That of Keoua had been previously baked in an oven at the foot of the hill as a last indignity. This treacherous murder made Kamehameha master of the whole island of Hawaii, and was the first step toward the consolidation of the group under one government."

This is one of those gentle proceedings of an amiable race, whose massacre of Captain Cook has been so elaborately vindicated by alleged exponents of civilization.

There is found the keynote of the grevious native government in an incident of the date of 1841 by which "the foreign relations of the government became involved with the schemes of a private firm. The firm of Ladd & Co. had taken the lead in developing the agricultural resources of the islands by their sugar plantation at Koloa and in other ways, and had gained the entire confidence of the king and chiefs. On the 24th of November, 1841, a contract was secretly drawn up at Lahaina by Mr. Brinsmade, a member of the firm, and Mr. Richards, and duly signed by the king and premier, which had serious after-consequences. It granted to Ladd & Co. the privilege of "leasing any now unoccupied and unimproved localities" in the islands for one hundred years, at a low rental, each millsite to include fifteen acres, and the adjoining land for cultivation in each locality not to exceed two hundred acres, with privileges of wood, pasture, etc. These sites were to be selected within one year, which term was afterwards extended to four years from date."

Of course there are many safeguards, particularly in this case, but the points of the possession of land conceded, the time for the people to recover their rights never comes.

One of the difficulties in the clearing up of the foggy chapters of the history of the Hawaiian islands is that within the lifetime of men who were young at the close of the last century, the Hawaiian tongue became a written language, and made the traditions of savages highly colored stories, in various degrees according to ignorance, prejudice and sympathy, accepted as historical. The marvels accomplished by the missionaries influenced them to deal gently with those whose conversion was a recognized triumph of Christendom, and there was an effort to condemn Captain Cook, who had affected to nod as a God, as a warning to blasphemers. Still, the truth of history is precious as the foundations of faith to men of all races and traditions, and the Englishman who surpassed the French, Spaniards and Portuguese in discoveries of islands in the vast spaces of the Pacific Ocean, should have justice at the hands of Americans who have organized states and built cities by that sea, and possess the islands that have been named its paradise because endowed surpassingly with the ample treasures of volcanic soil and tropical climate. There the trade winds bestow the freshness of the calm and mighty waters, and there is added to the bounty of boundless wealth the charms of luxuriant beauty. All Americans should find it timely to be just to Captain Cook, and claim him as one of the pioneers of our conquering civilization.