The source and early history of the Hawaiian people, and, in fact,
of the Polynesian race, of which they are a part, are involved in
doubt. They have generally been regarded as an offshoot of the great
Malayan family; but more recent as well as more thorough investigation,
particularly by Judge Fornander, the learned and conscientious
historian, with reasonable conclusiveness shows the Polynesian and
Malayan races to be of distinct and widely different origin.
Accepting this conclusion, we trace the strictly Polynesian tribes to
an Aryan beginning, somewhere in Asia Minor or Arabia. There, in the
remote past, it is assumed, they were brought in close contact with
early Cushite and Chaldeo-Arabian civilizations. Subsequently drifting
into India, they to some extent amalgamated with the Dravidian races,
and, following the channels of the great Chaldean commerce of that
period, at length found a home in the Asiatic archipelago from Sumatra
to Luzon and Timor.
The exact time of their settlement on the large coast islands of
southern Asia cannot be definitely determined, but their legends and
genealogies leave little room to doubt that it was contemporaneous
with the Malay and Hindoo invasions of Sumatra, Java, and other
islands of the archipelago, during the first and second centuries
of the Christian era, that the Polynesians were pushed out--not at
once in a body, but by families and communities covering a period of
years--to the smaller and more remote islands of the Pacific.
Their first general rendezvous was in the Fiji group, where they left
their impress upon the native Papuans. Expelled from, or voluntarily
leaving, the Fijis, after a sojourn there of several generations,
the Polynesians scattered over the Pacific, occupying by stages the
several groups of islands where they are now found. Moving by the way
of the Samoan and Society Islands, the migratory wave did not reach
the Hawaiian group until about the middle of the sixth century.
Nanaula, a distinguished chief, was the first to arrive from the
southern islands. It is not known whether he discovered the group by
being blown northward by adverse winds, or in deliberately adventuring
far out upon the ocean in search of new lands. In either event, he
brought with him his gods, priests, prophets and astrologers, and a
considerable body of followers and retainers. He was also provided
with dogs, swine and fowls, and the seeds and germs of useful plants
for propagation. It is probable that he found the group without
human inhabitants.
During that period--probably during the life of Nanaula--other chiefs
of less importance arrived with their families and followers either
from Tahiti or Samoa. They came in barges and large double canoes
capable of accommodating from fifty to one hundred persons each. They
brought with them not only their priests and gods, but the earliest
of Polynesian traditions. It is thought that none of the pioneers of
the time of Nanaula ever returned to the southern islands, nor did
others immediately follow the first migratory wave that peopled the
Hawaiian group.
For thirteen or fourteen generations the first occupants of the
Hawaiian Islands lived sequestered from the rest of the world,
multiplying and spreading throughout the group. They erected temples to
their gods, maintained their ancient religion, and yielded obedience
to their chiefs. The traditions of the period are so meagre as to
leave the impression that it was one of uninterrupted peace, little
having been preserved beyond the genealogies of the governing chiefs.
But late in the tenth or early in the beginning of the eleventh century
the Hawaiians were aroused from their dream of more than four centuries
by the arrival of a party of adventurers from the southern islands,
probably from the Society group. It was under the leadership of
Nanamaoa. He was a warlike chief, and succeeded in establishing his
family in power on Hawaii, Maui and Oahu. But stronger leaders were
soon to follow from the south. Among the first was the high-priest
Paao, from Samoa. He arrived during the reign of Kapawa, the grandson
of Nanamaoa, or immediately after his death. The people were in an
unsettled condition politically, and Paao, grasping the situation,
either sent or returned in person to Samoa for Pili, a distinguished
chief of that island. Arriving with a large following, Pili assumed
the sovereignty of the island of Hawaii and founded a new dynasty. Paao
became his high-priest, and somewhat disturbed the religious practices
of the people by the introduction of new rites and two or three
new gods. However, his religion did not seem to differ greatly from
that of the native priests, and from him the last of the priesthood,
seven hundred years after, claimed lineage and right of place.
The intercourse thus established between the Hawaiian and southern
groups by Nanamaoa, Paao and Pili continued for about one hundred
and fifty years, or until the middle or close of the twelfth
century. During that period several other warlike families from the
south established themselves in the partial or complete sovereignty of
Oahu, Maui and Kauai, and expeditions were frequent between the group
and other distant islands of Polynesia. It was a season of unusual
activity, and the legends of the time are filled with stories of love,
conquest and perilous voyages to and from the southern islands.
In that age, when distant voyages were frequent, the Polynesians were
bold and intelligent navigators. In addition to large double canoes
capable of withstanding the severest weather, they possessed capacious
barges, with planks corded and calked upon strong frames. They
were decked over and carried ample sail. Their navigators had some
knowledge of the stars; knew the prominent planets and gave them
names; were acquainted with the limits of the ecliptic and situation
of the equator. With these helps, and keenly watchful of the winds
and currents, of ocean drifts and flights of birds, they seldom failed
to reach their destination, however distant.
Near the close of the twelfth century all communication between the
Hawaiian and southern groups suddenly ceased. Tradition offers no
explanation of the cause, and conjecture can find no better reason
for it than the possible disappearance at that time of a number
of island landmarks which had theretofore served as guides to the
mariner. The beginning of this period of isolation found the entire
group, with the exception, perhaps, of Molokai and a portion of Oahu,
in the possession of the southern chiefs or their descendants.
It has been observed that the first discovery and occupation of the
islands by Polynesians from the Society and Samoan groups occurred
in the sixth century, and that more than four hundred years later a
second migratory tide from the same and possibly other southern islands
reached the coasts of Hawaii, continuing for more than a century and
a half, and completely changing the political, and to some extent
the social, condition of the people. Although nearly five centuries
elapsed between the first and second migratory influxes from the south,
during which the inhabitants of the group held no communication with
the rest of the world, it is a curious fact that the Pili, Paumakua,
and other chiefly families of the second influx traced back their
lineage to the ancestors of the chiefs of the first migration, and
made good their claim to the relationship by the recital of legends
and genealogies common to both.
At the close of the second migratory period, which concluded their
intercourse with the world beyond them for more than six hundred years,
or from A.D. 1175 to 1778, the people of the group had very generally
transferred their allegiance to the newly-arrived chiefs. The notable
exceptions were the Maweke and Kamauaua families of Oahu and Molokai,
both of the ancient Nanaula line. Although they were gradually
crowded from their possessions by their more energetic invaders, the
high descent of the prominent native chiefs was recognized, and by
intermarriage their blood was allowed to mingle with the royal currents
which have flowed down the centuries since they ceased to rule.
A mere outline of the political history of the islands from the twelfth
century to the nineteenth is all that will be given here. The legends
following will supply much that will be omitted to avoid repetition.
Until the final conquest of the group by Kamehameha I. at the
close of the last century, the five principal islands of the
archipelago--Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai and Molokai--were each governed,
as a rule, by one or more independent chiefs. The smaller islands of
Lanai and Kahoolawe were usually subject to Maui, while Niihau always
shared the political fate of Kauai.
On each island, however, were descendants of distinguished ancient
chiefs and heroes, who were recognized as of superior or royal
blood, and with them originated the supreme chiefs, kings, or mois
of the several islands, whose lines continued in authority, with
interruptions of insurrection and royal feuds, until the consolidation
of the group by Kamehameha. No one was recognized as a tabu chief
unless his genealogical record showed him to be of noble blood,
and intermarriage between the ruling families, as well as between
the lesser chiefs of the several islands, in time united the entire
aristocracy of the group by ties of blood, and gave to all of royal
strain a common and distinguished ancestry. The nobility and hereditary
priesthood claimed to be of a stock different from that of the common
people, and their superior stature and intelligence seemed to favor
the assumption. To keep pure the blood of the chiefly classes, far
back in the past a college of heraldry was established, before which
all chiefs were required to recite their genealogies and make good
their claims to noble descent.
The legends of the group abound in stories of romantic and sanguinary
internal conflicts, and political and predatory wars between the
islands; but down to the time of Kamehameha but a single attempt had
been made to subjugate the entire archipelago. This bold scheme was
entertained by a king of the island of Hawaii who reigned during the
latter part of the thirteenth century. He succeeded in overrunning
Maui, Oahu and Molokai, but was defeated and taken prisoner on Kauai.
Without further reference to the intervening years from the twelfth
century to the eighteenth--a long period of wars, festivals,
tournaments, and royal and priestly pageantry--we will now glance
at the condition of the islands at the time of their discovery by
Captain Cook, a little more than a century ago. It was estimated
that the islands then contained a population of four hundred thousand
souls. This estimate has been considered large. But when it is noted
that fifteen years later there were between thirty and forty thousand
warriors under arms in the group at the same time, with large reserves
ready for service, the conclusion is irresistible that the population
could scarcely have been less. Kamehameha invaded Oahu with sixteen
thousand warriors, principally drawn from the island of Hawaii. He was
opposed by eight or ten thousand spears, while as many more awaited
his arrival on Kauai. According to the figures of the Rev. Mr. Ellis,
who travelled around the island of Hawaii in 1821 and numbered the
dwellings and congregations addressed by him in the several coast
districts through which he passed, the number of people on that island
alone could not have been less than one hundred and fifteen thousand.
At the time of the arrival of Captain Cook, Kalaniopuu, of the
ancient line of Pili, was king of the large island of Hawaii, and also
maintained possession of a portion of the island of Maui. Kahekili,
"the thunderer," as his name implied, was moi of Maui, and the
principal wife of Kalaniopuu was his sister. Kahahana, who was also
related to Kahekili, was the king of Oahu and claimed possession of
Molokai and Lanai. Kamakahelei was the nominal queen of Kauai and
Niihau, and her husband was a younger brother to Kahekili, while she
was related to the royal family of Hawaii. Thus, it will be seen,
the reigning families of the several islands of the group were all
related to each other, as well by marriage as by blood. So had it
been for many generations. But their wars with each other were none
the less vindictive because of their kinship, or attended with less
of barbarity in their hours of triumph.
At that time Kahekili was plotting for the downfall of Kahahana and the
seizure of Oahu and Molokai, and the queen of Kauai was disposed to
assist him in these enterprises. The occupation of the Hana district
of Maui by the kings of Hawaii had been the cause of many stubborn
conflicts between the chivalry of the two islands, and when Captain
Cook first landed on Hawaii he found the king of that island absent on
another warlike expedition to Maui, intent upon avenging his defeat
of two years before, when his famous brigade of eight hundred nobles
was hewn in pieces.
Connected with the court of Kalaniopuu at that time was a silent and
taciturn chief, who had thus far attracted but little attention as a
military leader. He was a man of gigantic mould, and his courage and
prowess in arms were undoubted; yet he seldom smiled or engaged in the
manly sports so attractive to others, and his friends were the few who
discerned in him a slumbering greatness which subsequently gave him
a name and fame second to no other in Hawaiian history. He was the
reputed and accepted son of Keoua, the half-brother of Kalaniopuu,
although it was believed by many that his real father was Kahekili,
moi of Maui. But, however this may have been, he was of royal blood,
and was destined to become not only the king of Hawaii, but the
conqueror and sovereign of the group. This chief was Kamehameha.
Such, in brief, was the political condition of the islands when
Captain Cook arrived. He was an officer in the English navy, and,
with the war-ships Resolution and Discovery, was on a voyage in search
of a northwest passage eastward from Behring's Straits. Leaving the
Society group in December, 1777, on the 18th of the following month
he sighted Oahu and Kauai. Landing on the latter island and Niihau,
he was received as a god by the natives, and his ships were provided
with everything they required. Without then visiting the other islands
of the group, he left for the northwest coast of America on the 2d of
February, 1778, and in November of that year returned to the islands,
first sighting the shores of Molokai and Maui. Communicating with the
wondering natives of the latter island, he sailed around the coasts of
Hawaii, and on the 17th of January dropped his anchors in Kealakeakua
Bay. He was hailed as a reincarnation of their god Lono by the people,
and the priests conducted him to their temples and accorded him divine
honors. Returning from his campaign in Maui, the king visited and
treated him as a god, and his ships were bountifully supplied with
pigs, fowls, vegetables and fruits. The ships left the bay on the
4th of February, but, meeting with a storm, returned on the 8th for
repairs. Petty bickerings soon after occurred between the natives and
white sailors, and on the 13th one of the ships' boats was stolen by
a chief and broken up for its nails and other iron fastenings. Cook
demanded its restoration, and, while endeavoring to take the king on
board the Resolution as a prisoner, was set upon by the natives and
slain. Fire was opened by the ships, and many natives, including four
or five chiefs, were killed. The body of Cook was borne off by the
natives, but the most of the bones were subsequently returned at the
request of Captain King, and the vessels soon after left the island.
If Captain Cook was not the first of European navigators to discover
the Hawaiian Islands, he was at least the first to chart and make
their existence known to the world. It has been pretty satisfactorily
established that Juan Gaetano, the captain of a Spanish galleon sailing
from the Mexican coast to the Spice Islands, discovered the group as
early as 1555. But he did not make his discovery known at the time,
and the existence of an old manuscript chart in the archives of the
Spanish government is all that remains to attest his claim to it.
Native traditions mention the landing of small parties of white men
on two or three occasions during the latter part of the sixteenth
century; but if the faces and ships of other races were seen by the
Hawaiians in the time of Gaetano, their descendants had certainly lost
all knowledge of both two hundred or more years later, for Cook was
welcomed as a supernatural being by the awe-stricken islanders, and
his ships were described by them as floating islands. A simple iron
nail was to them a priceless jewel, and every act and word betrayed
an utter ignorance of everything pertaining to the white races.
Kalaniopuu, the king of Hawaii, died in 1782, and Kamehameha, through
the assistance of three or four prominent chiefs, succeeded, after a
struggle of more than ten years, in securing to himself the supreme
authority over that island. This done, encouraged by the prophets,
assisted by his chiefs, and sustained by an unwavering faith in
his destiny, he conquered Maui, Oahu, Kauai and their dependencies,
and in 1795 was recognized as the sole master of the group.
Although of royal stock, the strain of Kamehameha from the old line of
kings was less direct than that of his cousin, Kiwalao, from whom he
wrested the Hawaiian sceptre; but his military genius rallied around
him the warlike chiefs who were dissatisfied with the division of
lands by the son and successor of Kalaniopuu, and in the end his
triumph was complete. To farther ennoble his succession he married
the daughter of his royal cousin, and thus gave to his children an
undoubted lineage of supreme dignity.
The existence of the Hawaiian Islands became generally known to the
world soon after the final departure of the Resolution and Discovery,
but it was not until 1786 that vessels began to visit the group. The
first to arrive after the death of Captain Cook were the English
ships King George and Queen Charlotte, and the same year a French
exploring squadron touched at Maui. In 1787 several trading vessels
visited the group, and the natives began to barter provisions and
sandal-wood for fire-arms and other weapons of metal.
In 1792, and again in 1793, Captain Vancouver, of an English exploring
squadron, touched and remained for some time at the islands. He landed
sheep, goats and horned cattle, and distributed a quantity of fruit
and garden seeds. His memory is gratefully cherished by the natives,
for his mission was one of peace and broad benevolence. Thenceforward
trading-vessels in considerable numbers visited the group, and during
the concluding wars of Kamehameha the rival chiefs had secured the
assistance of small parties of white men, and to some extent had
learned the use of muskets and small cannon, readily purchased and
paid for in sandal-wood, which was then quite abundant on most of the
timbered mountains of the islands. The harbor of Honolulu was first
discovered and entered by two American vessels in 1794, and it soon
became a favorite resort for the war, trading and whaling vessels of
all nations.
In the midst of these new and trying conditions Kamehameha managed the
affairs of his kingdom with distinguished prudence and sagacity. He
admonished his people to endure with patience the aggressions of the
whites, and to retain, as far as possible, their simple habits. With
his little empire united and peaceful, Kamehameha died on the 8th of
May, 1819, at the age of about eighty; and his bones were so secretly
disposed of that they have not yet been found.
Liholiho, the elder of his sons by Keopuolani, the daughter of
his cousin Kiwalao, succeeded his warlike father with the title of
Kamehameha II. Some knowledge of the Christian religion had reached
the natives through their white visitors, but the old chief died in
the faith of his fathers.
The death of Kamehameha was immediately followed by an event for which
history affords no parallel. In October, 1819--six months before
the first Christian missionaries arrived on the islands--Liholiho,
under the inspiration of Kaahumanu, one of the widows of his father,
suddenly, and in the presence of a large concourse of horrified
natives, broke the most sacred of the tabus of his religion by
partaking of food from vessels from which women were feasting, and
the same day decreed the destruction of every temple and idol in the
kingdom. He was sustained by the high-priest Hewahewa, who was the
first to apply the torch; and within a few weeks idols, temples,
altars, and a priesthood which had held prince and subject in awe
for centuries were swept away, leaving the people absolutely without
a religion.
But all did not peacefully submit to this royal edict against their
gods. In the twilight of that misty period looms up a grand defender of
the faith of Keawe and Umi and the altars of the Hawaiian gods. This
champion was Kekuaokalani, a nephew, perhaps a son, of the first
Kamehameha, and a cousin, perhaps a half-brother, of Liholiho. In his
veins coursed the royal blood of Hawaii, and his bearing was that of
a king. He was above six and one-half feet in height, with limbs well
proportioned and features strikingly handsome and commanding. He was of
the priesthood, and, through the bestowal of some tabu or prerogative,
claimed to be second in authority to Hewahewa, who traced his lineage
back to Paao, the high-priest of Pili. His wife, Manono, was scarcely
less distinguished for her courage, beauty and chiefly strain.
The apostasy of Hewahewa left Kekuaokalani at the head of the
priesthood--at least so he seems to have assumed--and the royal order
to demolish the temples was answered by him with an appeal to the
people to arm and join him in defence of their gods. He raised the
standard of revolt on the island of Hawaii, and was soon at the head
of a considerable army. A large force was sent against him, and every
effort was made to induce him to lay down his arms. But he scorned
all terms, refused all concessions.
A battle was fought at Kuamoo, at first favorable to the defenders
of the gods; but the fire-arms of the whites in the service of the
king turned the tide of war against them, and they were defeated and
scattered. Kekuaokalani was killed on the field, and Manono, his
brave and faithful wife, fighting by his side, fell dead upon the
body of her husband with a musket-ball through her temples. A rude
monument of stones still marks the spot where they fell; and it is
told in whispers that the kona, passing through the shrouding vines,
attunes them to saddest tones of lamentation over the last defenders
in arms of the Hawaiian gods.
Four or five months before the death of Kekuaokalani, Kalaimoku, the
prime minister of Liholiho, and his brother Boki, were baptized under
the formula of the Roman Catholic Church by the chaplain of a French
corvette on a passing visit to the islands. They scarcely knew the
meaning of the ceremony, and it is safe to say that, at the time of
the destruction of their temples and the repudiation of their gods,
the Hawaiian people knew little or nothing of any other religion. The
abolition of the tabu, which had made them slaves to their chiefs
and priests, and held their fathers in bondage for centuries, was
hailed with so great a joy by the native masses that they did not
hesitate when called upon to consign the priesthood and their gods
to the grave of the tabu.
On the 30th of March, 1820--some months after this strange religious
revolution--the first party of Christian missionaries arrived
at the islands from Massachusetts. They were well received. They
found a people without a religion, and their work was easy. Other
missionary parties followed from time to time, and found the field
alike profitable to the cause in which they labored and to themselves
individually. They acquired substantial possessions in their new home,
controlled the government for the fifty or more years following, and
their children are to-day among the most prosperous residents of the
group. This is not said with a view to undervalue the services of the
early missionaries to Hawaii, but to show that all missionary fields
have not been financially unfruitful to zealous and provident workers.
And now let it be remarked with emphasis that the value of missionary
labors in the Hawaiian group should not be measured by the small
number of natives who to-day may be called Christians, but rather
by the counsel and assistance of these thrifty religious teachers
in securing and maintaining the independence of the islands, and by
degrees establishing a mild and beneficent constitutional government,
under which taxation is as light and life and property are as secure
as in any other part of the civilized world. They were politicians as
well as religious instructors, and practical examples of the value of
Christian discipline when prudently applied to the acquisition of the
needful and inviting things of life, and the establishment of a civil
system capable of protecting the possessor in his acquired rights.
In 1824 Liholiho and his queen died while on a visit to England,
and their remains were sent back to the islands in an English man-of
war. Kauikeaouli, a youth of ten years, and brother of the deceased
king, was accepted as the rightful heir to the throne under the title
of Kamehameha III., and Kaahumanu, one of the wives of Kamehameha I.,
acted as regent and prime minister.
In 1827, and ten years later, Roman Catholic missionaries arrived,
and were sent away by order of the government; but in 1839 the
priests of that denomination were finally landed under the guns of
a French frigate and allowed to remain. Meantime churches, schools
and printing-presses had been established, the Hawaiian had become
a written language, and the laws and decrees of the government were
promulgated in printed form.
In 1840 the first written constitution was given to the people,
guaranteeing to them a representative government. In February,
1843, Lord Paulet, of the English navy, took formal possession
of the islands, but in the July following their sovereignty was
restored through the action of Admiral Thomas. In November of the
same year France and England mutually agreed to refrain from seizure
or occupation of the islands, or any portion of them, and the United
States, while declining to become a party to the agreement, promptly
acknowledged the independence of the group.
Kamehameha III. died in 1854 and was succeeded by Kamehameha IV. The
latter reigned until 1863, when he died and was succeeded by Prince
Lot, with the title of Kamehameha V. In 1864 Lot abrogated the
constitution of 1840 and granted a new one. He reigned until 1872, and
died without naming a successor, and the Legislative Assembly elected
Lunalilo to the throne. He was of the Kamehameha family, and with his
death, in 1873, the Kamehameha dynasty came to an end. He, too, failed
to designate a successor, and as but two of the accepted descendants of
the first Kamehameha remained--one a sister of Kamehameha V. and the
other a female cousin of that sovereign--David Kalakaua was elected
to the throne by the Legislative Assembly in 1874, receiving all but
five votes of that body, which were cast for the queen-dowager Emma,
widow of Kamehameha IV.
Provision having been made for the event by a previous Legislative
Assembly, King Kalakaua, with his queen, Kapiolani, was formally
crowned on the 12th of February, 1883, in the presence of the
representatives of many of the nations of the Old World and the
New. Since the coronation the last of the Kamehamehas has passed away,
including the queen-dowager Emma, and King Kalakaua remains the most
direct representative in the kingdom of the ancient sovereigns of
Hawaii. He draws his strain from Liloa through the great I family of
Hawaii, who joined their fortunes with the first Kamehameha in the
conquest of the group. His queen, Kapiolani, is a granddaughter of
the last independent sovereign of Kauai, and is thus allied in blood
with the early rulers of the group. She is childless, and the Princess
Liliuokalani, the elder of the two sisters of the king, has been named
as his successor. She is the wife of His Excellency John O. Dominis,
an American by birth and present governor of the islands of Oahu and
Maui. The only direct heir in the families of the king and his two
sisters is the Princess Kaiulani, daughter of the Princess Likelike,
[1] wife of Mr. Cleghorn, a merchant of Honolulu.
Following is a list of the sovereigns of Hawaii, with the dates
and durations of their several governments, from the eleventh to
the nineteenth century. It embraces only the rulers of the island of
Hawaii, who eventually became the masters of the group. Until the reign
of Kalaniopuu, which began in 1754, the dates are merely approximate:
Pilikaeae, from A.D. 1095 to 1120
Kukohau, ,, 1120 to 1145
Kaniuhi, ,, 1145 to 1170
Kanipahu, ,, 1170 to 1195
Kalapana (including the usurpation of
Kamaiole), ,, 1195 to 1220
Kahaimoelea, ,, 1220 to 1260
Kalaunuiohua, ,, 1260 to 1300
Kuaiwa, ,, 1300 to 1340
Kahoukapu, ,, 1340 to 1380
Kauholanuimahu, ,, 1380 to 1415
Kiha, ,, 1415 to 1455
Liloa, ,, 1455 to 1485
Hakau, ,, 1485 to 1490
Umi, ,, 1490 to 1525
Kealiiokaloa, ,, 1525 to 1535
Keawenui, ,, 1535 to 1565
Kaikilani and Lonoikamakahiki, ,, 1565 to 1595
Keakealanikane, ,, 1595 to 1625
Keakamahana, ,, 1625 to 1655
Keakealaniwahine, ,, 1655 to 1685
Keawe and sister, ,, 1685 to 1720
Alapanui, ,, 1720 to 1754
Kalaniopuu, ,, 1754 to 1782
Kamehameha I, ,, 1782 to 1819
Kamehameha II.--Liholiho, ,, 1819 to 1824
Kaahumanu regency, ,, 1824 to 1833
Kamehameha III.--Kauikeaouli, ,, 1833 to 1854
Kamehameha IV, ,, 1854 to 1863
Kamehameha V.--Lot, ,, 1863 to 1872
Lunalilo, ,, 1872 to 1873
Kalakaua, ,, 1874 to ----
Having thus briefly sketched the outlines of the prominent political
events of the islands, the ancient religion of the Hawaiians will next
be referred to; and as the tabu was no less a religious than a secular
prerogative, it may properly be considered in connection with the
priesthood. A knowledge of the power, scope and sanctity of the tabu
is essential to a proper understanding of the relations existing in
the past between the people and their political and religious rulers,
and this great governing force will now claim our attention.