Kawarao succeeded to the government of the greater part of the island of
O Wahi; the rest fell to his relation Tameamea. Kawarao was a tyrant,
and governed with unexampled cruelty. At certain periods of the moon, he
declared himself holy, or under a Tabu: the priests alone had then the
privilege of seeing him so long as the sun was above the horizon; and an
immediate death of the severest torture was the melancholy lot of any
individual not belonging to this sacred order, who by whatever accident
should cast but a momentary glance upon the voluntarily secluded
monarch. To this cruelty of disposition, Kawarao united an unbounded
ambition, which prompted him to make war on his kinsman Tameamea. This
young and powerful chief early distinguished himself, and soon became
celebrated throughout these islands for superiority of intellect and
skill in arms. Kawarao, although he had greatly the advantage in
numbers, could never obtain a victory; fire-arms were not then in use
here, and success long vibrated between the contending rivals. Both
parties at length determined to put the final issue of the war to the
test of a single combat, stipulating that the conqueror should acquire
the sovereignty of the whole island. The two kings armed; their
respective priests carried the images of their gods to the field, and
the fight commenced. Kawarao trusted to his skill in throwing the
javelin; but Tameamea could defend himself from several antagonists at
once, and scarcely ever missed his aim. After some fruitless efforts of
both combatants, Tameamea's spear pierced the side of his bloodthirsty
enemy, who fell dead on the field.
This duel, by which Tameamea became King of O Wahi and of Muwe, which
had also belonged to Kawarao, took place in the year 1781. To establish
his dominion on a firmer basis, Tameamea married the daughter of the
vanquished monarch, and acquired the love of his subjects by his wise
and moderate government. Himself endowed with uncommon powers of mind,
he entrusted the important offices of state only to such as were capable
of discharging them efficiently. He made a very fortunate choice in
Karemaku, who, while quite a young man, entered into all the enlightened
and comprehensive views of his master, forwarded them with ability and
energy, and continued his faithful servant till the death of Tameamea.
The English called him the Pitt of the Sandwich Islands.
Several Europeans now established themselves at O Wahi; among whom Davis
and John Young have been the most useful to the rising nation. Under
their direction, houses and ships have been constructed in the European
fashion; the island has been enriched with many useful plants; and their
advice has been successfully followed in the affairs of government.
With the appearance of Vancouver, arose the fortunate star of these
islands. Among the innumerable benefits he conferred upon them, they are
indebted to him for the possession of sheep and cattle. Tameamea
declared these animals under a Tabu for ten years, which allowed time
for so large an increase, that they now run wild in the forests. Had
Vancouver enjoyed Cook's advantages, the islanders might still have
believed him their Rono.
Tameamea, during Vancouver's visit, swayed the sceptre only over the
islands of O Wahi and Muwe, and was engaged in wars with his neighbour
kings, whom he fought with the assistance of cannon purchased from
European ships. He commanded in every battle, both by sea and land; and
Karemaku, as first in authority under him, was his constant companion.
The O Wahians, however, could not have well understood the use of their
cannons and other fire-arms, as, after Vancouver's departure, the war
was maintained for ten years. O Tuai, the most north-westerly island,
even then held out, though the others had submitted. In the year 1817,
Tameamea conquered this also, after many unsuccessful attempts, and
thus became the supreme governor of the whole Archipelago.
From this time all his efforts were directed to the education of his
people, and the improvement of their trade. Salt and sandal-wood were
the chief articles of exportation. The latter, though bought at rather a
high price by the North-American ships, which almost exclusively
monopolized this trade, sold for a large profit at Canton.
I have been told, that the Americans have purchased sandal-wood here to
the amount of three hundred thousand Spanish dollars a-year. Tameamea
bartered this wood for some large American merchant-ships, manned them,
and other ships built in the Sandwich Islands, partly with his own
subjects, and partly with Europeans, and traded on his own account. He
had even found means to create a small fleet of ships of war; and his
warehouses, built of stone, were filled with European and American
merchandise. He possessed a considerable treasure in silver money and
utensils; his fortresses were planted with cannon of a large calibre,
and he maintained a force of fifteen thousand men, all armed with
muskets, in the use of which they had been carefully exercised. He took
much pains, assisted by the Spaniard Marini, to introduce the
cotton-tree, which answered very well, and yielded fine cotton; and
endeavoured to improve the native flax, already much superior to that of
New Zealand, and to profit by it as an article of commerce. Nothing
which promised advantage to his country escaped his penetrating mind; he
exerted, in short, every faculty of his mind to place the Sandwich
Islands in a state of progressive assimilation to the most prosperous
nations. Vessels of every nation were as secure from injustice or insult
in his ports, as in those of Europe, if not more so. As soon as a
strange ship arrived, criers were employed to give notice that the new
comers were friends, and must be hospitably received, and that any
incivility shown them would be severely punished.
When Tameamea first sent a ship to Canton with sandal-wood, he was
obliged to pay a considerable duty for anchorage; whereupon he argued,
that what was exacted from himself, he might with a safe conscience
demand from others; and every ship is now required to pay forty Spanish
dollars for anchorage in the outer, and eighty in the inner harbour of
Hanaruro.
Wahu is the most fertile of all the islands, and the only one enjoying a
secure harbour; it therefore naturally advances the most rapidly in
civilization. Several European and American traders have settled in
Hanaruro; shops have been opened, and houses built in the European
style, of wood and stone; some of the former were made in America, and
brought here to be put together. The exertions of Marini introduced here
many European vegetables, the vine and other fruits, which are all in a
flourishing state. He collected and tamed a herd of cows. Goats, sheep,
and poultry of all kinds are common. The frequent voyages which the
Sandwich islanders now made, partly in Tameamea's vessels, partly
foreign ones, on board which they served as sailors, gradually
familiarised them with the manners of more civilized nations. They
adopted our costume, but after the Tahaitian fashion; considering a
complete suit as an unnecessary luxury. Even Tameamea himself, for his
usual attire, wore only a shirt, trowsers, and red waistcoat, without a
coat; he possessed, however, many richly embroidered uniforms, but kept
them for grand occasions.
These islanders had made great progress in the English language: many of
them could speak it very tolerably. Tameamea understood, but did not
speak it. If any of my readers should wish for a farther acquaintance
with the character of this distinguished sovereign, I must refer them to
Vancouver, and to my former voyage; but for the benefit of those who may
not be disposed to take this trouble, I cannot forbear repeating from
the latter some of his remarks to myself. He presented me with a collar
most ingeniously worked with coloured feathers, which he had sometimes
worn in war, and on solemn occasions, saying, "I have heard that your
monarch is a great warrior, and I love him, because I am a warrior
myself; bear to him this collar, which I send as a token of my regard."
Once as he embraced an image in his Marai, he said, "These are our Gods
whom I adore; whether in so doing I am right or wrong, I know not, but I
follow the religion of my country, which cannot be a bad one, since it
commands me to be just in all my actions."
On the 8th of May, in the year 1819, Tameamea terminated his meritorious
career, to the great sorrow as well of the foreign settlers as of his
native subjects. His remains were disposed of according to the rites of
the religion he professed. After they had remained some time in the
Marai, the bones were cleaned, and divided among his relatives and the
most distinguished of his attendants. According to the custom of this
country, two persons had long before been destined for interment with
him at his death; but by his express desire this ceremony was dispensed
with.
His eldest son and legitimate successor, Lio Lio, or, as the English
call it, _Rio Rio_,--for there is some difficulty in distinguishing
between the L and the R of the Sandwich Islanders,--now assumed the
government, under the name of Tameamea the Second. Unhappily, the
father's talents were not hereditary; and the son's passion for liquor
incapacitated him for ruling with the same splendid reputation an infant
state, which, having already received so strong an impulse towards
civilization, required a skilful guide to preserve it from degeneracy
and error.
The chiefs of some of the islands, and especially of O Tuai, had, even
in Tameamea's lifetime, founded a hope of future independence, on the
weakness of his successor, and immediately upon his death proceeded to
attempt the accomplishment of their desires. But Karemaku, the faithful
friend and counsellor of the deceased King, to whom the whole nation
looked up with affection, and whose penetration easily discerned the
evil consequences that would ensue from a political disunion of the
islands, devoted to the son all the zeal and patriotism with which he
had served the father. By the influence of his eloquence, and the force
of his arms, he quelled the insurrection, and re-established peace and
order; but to enthrone the new monarch in the hearts of his people
exceeded his ability; and their disaffection proved that the germ of
future disorders was not wholly extinct. The King chose Wahu for his
residence, because this island was in the best state for defence; and
giving himself up entirely to dissipation, sunk lower and lower in the
estimation of his subjects. Karemaku was the good genius who watched
over the welfare of the country, while its monarch was wasting his hours
and his health in orgies, at which he was frequently known to empty a
bottle of rum at a draught. It was not to be supposed that a king
addicted to such habits should conceive any projects of utility or
advantage for his people; he wished, however, to distinguish himself by
some effort in their favour, or at least to relieve them from the
trammels of superstition. He was a freethinker in a bad sense. He hated
the religion of his country, because it laid some restraints upon his
inclinations, and he determined to overthrow it; not for the purpose of
introducing a better, a task to which his feeble mind was unequal, but
for that of at once relieving himself and his subjects from ceremonies
which he considered useless, because he undervalued the precepts of
morality interwoven with them, and for the sake of which his father had
always conscientiously observed them.
In the fifth month of his reign, he proceeded in a violent and brutal
manner, notwithstanding all the remonstrances of Karemaku, to the
execution of his design. Having previously arranged his plans with some
chiefs, the companions of his excesses, he invited the principal
inhabitants of the islands to a sumptuous banquet. After the wine and
rum had produced their wonted effects, females were introduced, and
compelled to partake of the feast. These poor creatures, having no
suspicion of the King's intentions, shrunk with terror from a
profanation punishable with death. But their resistance was unavailing:
they were not only constrained to sit down to the repast in company with
the men, but even to eat pork; and thus, to the great astonishment of
such guests as were not in the secret, to violate, at the royal command,
a double Tabu. A murmur arose; but the greater part of the company were
under the influence of liquor, and the King now openly proclaimed his
intentions. His auditors inquired in alarm what crime the Gods had
committed, that they should be thus unceremoniously dismissed; and
besought him not to occasion his own destruction and that of the
country, by provoking their indignation. The King started from his seat,
and exclaimed with violent gestures, "You see we have already violated
the strongest Tabus, and yet the Gods inflict no punishment, because
they have no power; neither have they power to do us good. Our faith was
erroneous and worthless. Come, let us destroy the Marais, and from
henceforth acknowledge no religion!" The immediate dependents of the
King rose to second him: the inhabitants of Hanaruro had been depraved
by their intercourse with foreign sailors, and a tumultuous crowd, who
held nothing sacred, soon followed the revellers. Arrived at the royal
Marai, some of them, terrified by the aspect of their idols, would have
receded; but when the King himself, and his friends and followers, began
to maltreat them, and no divine vengeance followed, the courage of the
multitude revived, and the Marais were soon utterly destroyed. This
outrage to what the people at large most venerated, introduced a scene
of confusion and violence, and would indeed have entailed destruction
both on the King and the country, had not Karemaku again stood forward
in their defence. Several Yeris who, disapproving the sentiments of the
King, had retired privately from the banquet, joined the priests in
exciting the people to defend their gods by force of arms. An army was
raised, and, animated by the presence of the war-god, commenced
hostilities against his sacrilegious opponents. When the news of the
destruction of the Marais reached the other islands, insurrections also
broke out in each of them. Karemaku had condemned the sacrilege, and
abstained from any part in it; but as it could not now be prevented, and
he foresaw the mischievous consequences of civil commotions, he
assembled an army, and, victorious wherever he appeared, succeeded in
restoring tranquillity. On the large island O Wahi, however, he
encountered a formidable resistance; but at length, after several bloody
contests, he captured the war-god: the insurgents, who had also lost
their leaders in the last battle, believing themselves quite abandoned
by the gods, now dispersed, and Karemaku, on the restoration of
tranquillity, returned to Wahu.
It is a remarkable fact, that a people who regarded their faith and
their priests with so much reverence, as I had myself witnessed
previously to this occurrence, should in so short a period, acquiescing
in the decree which denounced their creed as error, and consigned their
sanctuaries to demolition, contentedly submit to the total deprivation
of all external signs of religion. Karemaku had judgment enough to
perceive that this state of things would not endure, and that a religion
of some kind was indispensable to the people; he therefore resolved to
set his countrymen a good example, and yielding to an inclination he had
long entertained, to declare himself publicly a convert to Christianity.
In the same year, 1819, Captain Freycinet, on his voyage round the
world, landed at Hanaruro, and a clergyman accompanying him, Karemaku
and his brother Boki received the sacrament of baptism according to the
forms of the Catholic Church.
At this time, a society of missionaries was formed in the United States
of America, for the purpose of introducing Christianity into the
Sandwich Islands. Of the extinction of the ancient faith, which must of
course facilitate their undertaking, they had as yet received no
information. Six families of these missionaries arrived at Wahu in
1820, bringing with them two young Sandwich Islanders, who had been
previously prepared in their schools. The King, hearing of their
intention, would not allow them to land, but commanded them immediately
to depart from his shores. Here, again, Karemaku interposed, and
endeavoured to convince the King that the Christian religion would be
one of the greatest benefits he could confer on his subjects. The King
then assembled the most distinguished Yeris, and after fourteen days'
deliberation, decreed that a piece of land should be granted to the
missionaries, with permission to build a church, and to preach their
doctrines, under the condition that they should immediately leave the
island if the experiment should be found to have a prejudicial influence
on the people. The missionaries agreed to the terms, took up their
residence on Wahu, and from thence extended settlements over the other
islands. Their first efforts were successfully directed to the
conversion of the King, his family, and the most distinguished Yeris.
When these personages had openly professed the new faith, the
Missionaries considered themselves firmly established, and proceeded
with more confidence to the full execution of their plan. They quickly
acquired the language of the islands, which from the largest of them
they called the O Wahi language, printed the first book in it, (a
collection of Hymns,) in the year 1822, and instructed the natives, who
proved apt scholars, in reading and writing. These missionaries were
Protestants; but the Catholic Karemaku, having no notion of the points
of doctrine in dispute between the Churches, joined without hesitation
in communion with them; and the Christian religion spreading rapidly
among the Sandwich Islanders, without any of the constraint or
persecution which had disgraced it at O Tahaiti, promised the happiest
effects.
Notwithstanding, however, all the efforts of Karemaku, the people were
not yet entirely pacified. The former faith had still many secret
adherents, and the King was unable to acquire either the esteem or
affection of his subjects. Insurrections were continually dreaded; and
Rio Rio, not feeling sufficiently secure even in his entrenchments at
Wahu, determined, by the advice of some Europeans, to make a voyage to
England, in the hope that these discontents would subside during his
absence. He confided the administration of the government to the
faithful Karemaku, and Kahumanna, the favourite wife of his father, and
in the year 1824 sailed for England in a North American ship,
accompanied by his consort, Karemaku's brother Boki, and some other
persons of rank; taking with him twenty-five thousand Spanish piastres
from the treasure amassed by his father.
Soon after the King's departure, a regular rebellion broke out in the
island of O Tuai. Its former ruler, Tamari, was dead, and his son, a
young man who had been brought up in the United States of America, and
had unfortunately fallen into bad company, was desirous to recover for
himself the independent dominion of the island. Karemaku and Kahumanna
immediately hastened thither with an army, and on our arrival at
Hanaruro we found the war still raging at O Tuai, though it was supposed
to be near its close. The government of Wahu was entrusted, during the
absence of the Regents, to another wife of Tameamea, named Nomahanna,
conjointly with a Yeri called Chinau.
On the morning after our arrival, I rowed ashore with some of my
officers, to pay my respects to the Queen Nomahanna, and on landing was
met by the Spaniard Marini, who accompanied us to her Majesty as
interpreter. On the way I was recognised by several old friends, with
whom I had become acquainted on my former visit. They saluted me with a
friendly "_Aroha_." I cannot say there was much room for compliment on
any visible improvement in their costume; for they still wore with much
self-complacency some ill-assorted portions of European attire.
The residence of Nomahanna lay near the fortress on the sea-shore: it
was a pretty little wooden house of two stories, built in the European
style, with handsome large windows, and a balcony very neatly painted.
We were received on the stairs by Chinau, the governor of Wahu, in a
curious dishabille. He could hardly walk from the confinement his feet
suffered in a pair of fisherman's shoes, and his red cloth waistcoat
would not submit to be buttoned, because it had never been intended for
so colossal a frame. He welcomed me with repeated "_Arohas_," and led me
up to the second floor, where all the arrangements had a pleasing and
even elegant appearance. The stairs were occupied from the bottom to the
door of the Queen's apartments, by children, adults, and even old
people, of both sexes, who, under her Majesty's own superintendence,
were reading from spelling-books, and writing on slates--a spectacle
very honourable to her philanthropy. The Governor himself had a
spelling-book in one hand, and in the other a very ornamental little
instrument made of bone, which he used for pointing to the letters. Some
of the old people appeared to have joined the assembly rather for
example's sake, than from a desire to learn, as they were studying, with
an affectation of extreme diligence, books held upside down.
The spectacle of these scholars and their whimsical and scanty attire,
nearly upset the gravity with which I had prepared for my presentation
to the Queen. The doors were, however, thrown open and I entered, Chinau
introducing me as the captain of the newly-arrived Russian frigate. The
apartment was furnished in the European fashion, with chairs, tables,
and looking-glasses. In one corner stood an immensely large bed with
silk curtains; the floor was covered with fine mats, and on these, in
the middle of the room, lay Nomahanna, extended on her stomach, her head
turned towards the door, and her arms supported on a silk pillow. Two
young girls lightly dressed, sat cross-legged by the side of the Queen,
flapping away the flies with bunches of feathers. Nomahanna, who
appeared at the utmost not more than forty years old, was exactly six
feet two inches high, and rather more than two ells in circumference.
She wore an old-fashioned European dress of blue silk; her coal-black
hair was neatly plaited, at the top of a head as round as a ball; her
flat nose and thick projecting lips were certainly not very handsome,
yet was her countenance on the whole prepossessing and agreeable. On
seeing me, she laid down the psalm-book in which she had been reading,
and having, with the help of her attendants, changed her lying for a
sitting posture, she held out her hand to me in a very friendly manner,
with many "_Arohas!_" and invited me to take a seat on a chair by her
side. Her memory was better than my own; she recognised me as the
Russian officer who had visited the deceased monarch Tameamea, on the
island of O Wahi. On that occasion I had been presented to the Queens;
but since that time Nomahanna had so much increased in size, that I did
not know her again. She was aware how highly I esteemed her departed
consort; my appearance brought him vividly to her remembrance, and she
could not restrain her tears, in speaking of his death. "The people,"
said she, "have lost in him a protector and a father. What will now be
the fate of these islands, the God of the Christians only knows." She
now informed me with much self-gratulation that she was a Christian, and
attended the prayer-meeting several times every day. Desirous to know
how far she had been instructed in the religion she professed, I
inquired through Marini the grounds of her conversion. She replied that
she could not exactly describe them, but that the missionary Bengham,
who understood reading and writing perfectly well, had assured her that
the Christian faith was the best; and that, seeing how far the Europeans
and Americans, who were all Christians, surpassed her compatriots in
knowledge, she concluded that their belief must be the most reasonable.
"If, however," she added, "it should be found unsuited to our people, we
will reject it, and adopt another."