On the 1st of October, 1819, a fleet of four canoes bearing the royal
colors set sail from Kawaihae, in the district of Kohala, on the
northwestern coast of Hawaii. The canoes were large and commodious,
and were occupied by between sixty and seventy persons, a portion of
whom were females. The most of the men were large, muscular and over
six feet in height, while the dress and bearing of many of the women
indicated that they were of the tabu and chiefly classes.
The costumes of a number of those of both sexes who seemed to be
of rank were a strange admixture of native and foreign fabric and
fashion. American and European manufactures were beginning to find a
market in the islands, and the persons of many were adorned with rich
cloths, jewelry and other tokens of civilization. Their weapons and
utensils were largely of metal, and a squad of ten warriors armed with
muskets, in one of the canoes, showed that the white man's methods of
warfare had received the early and earnest attention of the Hawaiian
chiefs and leaders.
The canoe leading the little squadron was double, with covered
apartments extending into and across the united decks of both, and
the persons occupying it, with the exception of soldiers, sailors
and servants, were distinguished alike for their gaudy trappings
and a boisterous merriment infusing a feeling of jollity throughout
the fleet. In this canoe was Liholiho, who, on the death of his
distinguished father, Kamehameha I., something less than five months
before, had become sole monarch of the Hawaiian group. In addition
to two of his queens, he was accompanied by Kapihe, the commander of
the royal vessels; Kekuanaoa, the royal treasurer, and a retinue of
chiefly friends and personal attendants.
On the 8th of the previous May his royal father had died at Kailua,
leaving to Liholiho the kingdom his arms had won, with Kaahumanu as
second in authority and guardian of the realm. The morning following
the death of his father Liholiho left Kailua for Kohala to avoid
defilement, and there remained for ten days, when he returned to
Kailua and formally assumed the sceptre. At the end of the season
of mourning, for superstitious reasons the young king again left for
Kohala, and took up his residence for a time at Kawaihae. Remaining
there until the 1st of October, on the advice of Kaahumanu he had
started on his return to Kailua.
During the brief residence of Liholiho at Kawaihae, Kaahumanu
inaugurated a vigorous conspiracy against the priesthood, and resolved
to persuade the young king to repudiate the religion and tabus of his
fathers. In this scheme she was assisted by Keopuolani, the mother of
Liholiho; Kalaimoku, the prime minister, and Hewahewa, the high-priest,
who claimed descent from the renowned Paao.
In the latter part of the reign of the first Kamehameha the gods and
tabus of the priesthood began to lose something of their sanctity in
the estimation of the masses. Although the first Christian missionaries
to the islands did not arrive until nearly a year after the death of
Kamehameha I., many trading and war vessels had touched at Hawaiian
ports during the two preceding decades. No very clear idea of the
Christian religion had been imparted to the natives by the sailors
and traders with whom they had been brought in contact; but it could
not have escaped their observation that the foreigner's disregard of
the tabu brought with it no punishment, and they very naturally began
to question the divinity of a religious code limited in its scope to
the Hawaiian people.
The results of this growing scepticism were frequent violations of
the tabu. To check this seditious tendency summary punishments were
inflicted. A woman was put to death for entering the eating apartment
of her husband, and Jarvis relates that three men were sacrificed at
Kealakeakua, a short time before the death of Kamehameha--one of them
for putting on the maro of a chief, another for eating a forbidden
article, and the third for leaving a house that was tabu and entering
one that was not. Kamehameha had learned something of the religion of
the foreigners, but not enough to impress him greatly in its favor;
and when questioned concerning it during his last illness he replied
that he should die in the faith of his fathers, although he thought
it well that his successor should give the subject attention.
Different motives influenced the leaders in this conspiracy against
the religion and tabus of the group. Kaahumanu, the favorite wife
of Kamehameha I., but the mother of none of his children, was bold,
ambitious and unscrupulous. Left second in authority under the
young king, she chafed at the restraints imposed by the tabu upon
her sex. Many of the most palatable foods were denied her by custom,
and in her intercourse with foreigners acts of courtesy were chilled
and hampered by numerous and irksome tabu interdictions. To enable
her to eat and drink of whatever her appetites craved, and to do so
in the presence of males, Kaahumanu was prepared to strike at the
roots of a religious system which had maintained her ancestors in
place and power, even though she had no definite knowledge of the
new faith with which she hoped to supplant it.
Although the uncle of one of the wives of Liholiho--Kekauonohi--
Kalaimoku was not of distinguished rank. He was a chief of decided
ability, however, and had been by degrees advanced under the first
Kamehameha, until he became the prime minister of the second. Not
being a tabu chief by birth, he was easily persuaded by Kaahumanu
to lend his assistance in depriving those of higher rank of their
tabu prerogatives, and to this end he and his brother Boki were
baptized by the Roman Catholic chaplain of the French corvette
L'Uranie shortly after the assumption of the government by Liholiho.
This was done while the young king was residing at Kawaihae, and
without his knowledge.
Keopuolani, the political wife of Kamehameha I., and the mother of
Liholiho, Kauikeaouli and Nahienaena, was the daughter of Kiwalao,
and of supreme tabu rank. So well was this recognized that her
distinguished husband, it is related, always approached her with
his face to the earth. She lacked decision of character, however,
and her adhesion to the conspiracy against the tabu was doubtless
due to the influence over her of the crafty Kaahumanu.
Whatever may have been the motives of others, the apostasy of Hewahewa
seems to have been the result of conviction. Being the high-priest
of Hawaii, he had everything to lose and nothing to profit by the
destruction of the religious system of which he was the supreme
and honored head. Of an inquiring mind, the little knowledge he had
gained of the new creed had convinced him of the inconsistency of his
own, and when the time came to strike he acted boldly. His hand was
the first to apply the torch to the temples. Had he hesitated the
conspiracy would have failed, for the influence of the high-priest
with the masses at that time was second only to that of the king.
Liholiho was strong only in his attachments. Born in 1797, when the
group had been consolidated under one government and further wars
were not apprehended, he had not been given that austere and solid
training in civil and military life imparted to the princes of the
previous generation. He was attracted by the vices rather than the
virtues of the foreigners at intervals visiting the islands, and,
realizing that his future was secure, had devoted almost exclusively to
pleasure the ripening years of his youth. Light-hearted, affectionate
and gentle, he had shown so little taste for public affairs at the age
of twenty-two that his dying father, in bequeathing to him the sceptre,
deemed it prudent to accompany it with the condition that, should he
wield it unworthily, the supreme power should devolve upon Kaahumanu.
These were the prominent actors in the scheme for the destruction
of the priesthood, and this the character of the young king who had
been tarrying for some months at Kawaihae, and to whom a message had
been sent by Kaahumanu, informing him that, on his return to Kailua,
she would openly set the gods at defiance and declare against the
tabu. This information did not greatly astonish Liholiho. He knew
of the growing hostility to the tabu; had talked with Hewahewa on
the subject; had learned that his mother had failed to respect it on
late occasions, and had himself seen it violated without harm to the
offender. Yet he feared the consequences of an open declaration against
the priesthood. He remembered the fate of Hua, whose bones whitened
in the sun. He knew that his arrival at Kailua would precipitate the
crisis, and compel him either to renounce or defend the gods of his
fathers; and after leaving Kawaihae, as we have seen, with a party
occupying four canoes, he pursued his way very leisurely toward Kailua,
seemingly in no haste to reach his destination.
Moving southward, and passing the rocky point immediately north
of Puako, sail was shortened in the royal fleet, and the canoes
drifted slowly along the coast, taking just wind enough to hold
their course. Carousings were heard in the royal quarters. Liholiho
appeared, and, waving his hand to a group of men and women forward,
a wild hula dance was soon in progress, to the accompaniment of drums
and rattling calabashes. The king watched the dancers for some time
with a vacant air, and then began to mark the drum-beats with his
feet. The emphasis of the movement increased, until, dismissing his
dignity, his voice finally rose above the rude music, and he began to
dance with an enthusiasm which seemed to be almost frenzied. Others
of the royal party joined in the revelry, and for half an hour or
more the vessel was the scene of tumultuous merriment. Bottles and
calabashes of intoxicating liquors were then passed from one to another
of the companions of the king, and the hula was continued, followed by
chants, meles and other methods of enjoyment. Drinking was frequent,
and the humbler members of the party were sparingly supplied with gin,
whiskey and other stimulants. Similar scenes were transpiring in the
canoes following, and the debauch was the wildest ever witnessed on
any one of the eight Hawaiian seas.
"Let us make drunk the water-gods!" exclaimed the king. "Here, Kuula,
is a taste for you; and here, Ukanipo, is your share!" And he tossed
into the ocean two bottles of liquor.
"Let us hope the gods may not be angered by the unusual sacrifice,"
said Laanui, one of the favorite companions of the king. He spoke
seriously, and Liholiho's face wore a troubled expression for a moment
as he replied:
"Then you have not yet lost faith in the gods, Laanui?"
"No," was the prompt answer of Laanui.
The king did not continue the conversation. Turning and beckoning
to a servant, more liquor was brought, after which the revelry was
continued all through the day and far into the night. Meanwhile,
so little progress had been made that at noon the next day the fleet
was off Kiholo.
For another twenty-four hours the feasting, drinking and dancing
continued, when the revelers were met by a double canoe sent by
Kaahumanu from Kailua in search of the royal party. The messengers
of his chief counselor were courteously received by Liholiho, and,
hoisting all sail, he was escorted by them to Kailua, where he was
warmly welcomed by Kaahumanu and the members of the royal family.
Appearances of dissipation were plainly visible in the language and
bearing of the king, and Kaahumanu regarded the moment as auspicious
for committing him to some flagrant and public act of hostility to the
tabu. Both she and Keopuolani, the queen-mother, had been secretly
violating it, since the death of Kamehameha I., by eating of foods
interdicted to their sex, and to screen themselves from exposure it
was necessary that the religious system should be destroyed of which
the tabu was the vital force. This could be accomplished only through
the united efforts of the king and high-priest. Hewahewa was prepared
to do his part as the religious head of the kingdom, but the young
king, notwithstanding the pressure that had been brought to bear
upon him by Kaahumanu and a few of the leading chiefs of his court,
was still undecided.
A feast was prepared in honor of the king's return to Kailua. In
accordance with native custom, separate tables for the sexes were
spread, and a number of foreigners were present as the invited
guests of Kaahumanu. During the afternoon Liholiho, in response to
well-devised banters, had been induced to drink and smoke with the
female members of his family. This was a favorable beginning, and,
farther emboldened by his mother, who deliberately ate a banana in
his presence and drank the milk of a cocoanut, he declared that he
would openly set the tabu at defiance during the approaching feast.
It was feared that his courage would fail, and he was not left to
himself for a moment until he led the way to the feast. His step was
unsteady, and his face wore a troubled expression as he proceeded
to the pavilion, accompanied by Kaahumanu, Keopuolani and other
members of the royal household. As they separated to take seats at
their respective tables, the queen-mother gave Liholiho a look of
encouragement, and Kaahumanu said to him in a low tone:
"If you have the courage of your father, this will be a great day
for Hawaii."
The king made no reply, for at that moment his eyes fell upon wooden
images of Ku and Lono, on opposite sides of the entrance, and he
stepped briskly past them and seated himself at the head of one of
the tables. The sight of the idols almost unnerved him, and some of
the guests observed that his hand trembled as he raised to his lips
and drained a vessel of what seemed to be strong liquor.
The guests were all seated. Hewahewa rose, and, glancing at the
troubled face of the king, lifted his hands and said with firmness:
"One and all, may we eat in peace, and in our hearts give thanks to
the one and only god of all."
The words of the high-priest restored the sinking courage of
the king. He rose from his seat, deliberately walked to one of
the tables reserved for the women, and seated himself beside his
mother. During the strange proceeding not a word was spoken, not a
morsel touched. Some believed him to be intoxicated; others were sure
that he was insane. Since the age of Wakea no one had so defied the
gods and lived. Many natives rose from the tables, and horror took the
place of astonishment when Liholiho, encouraged by his mother, began
to freely partake of the food prepared for the women. Interdicted fish,
meats and fruits were then brought to the tables of the women by order
of the king, who ate from their plates and drank from their vessels.
Now satisfied that the king was acting deliberately and with the
approval of the most influential dignitaries of the kingdom, including
the supreme high-priest, a majority of the chiefs present promptly
followed the example of their sovereign, and an indescribable scene
ensued. "The tabu is broken! the tabu is broken!" passed from lip to
lip, swelling louder and louder as it went, until it reached beyond
the pavilion. There it was taken up in shouts by the multitude, and was
soon wafted on the winds to the remotest corners of Kona. Feasts were
at once provided, and men and women ate together indiscriminately. The
tabu foods of palace and temple were voraciously eaten by the masses,
and thousands of women for the first time learned the taste of flesh
and fruits which had tempted their mothers for centuries.
At the conclusion of the royal feast a still greater surprise
bewildered the people. "We have made a bold beginning," said Hewahewa
to the king, thus adroitly assuming a part of the responsibility;
"but the gods and heiaus cannot survive the death of the tabu."
"Then let them perish with it!" exclaimed Liholiho, now nerved to
desperation at what he had done. "If the gods can punish, we have
done too much already to hope for grace. They can but kill, and we
will test their powers by inviting the full measure of their wrath."
To this resolution the high-priest gave his ready assent, and orders
were issued at once for the destruction of the gods and temples
throughout the kingdom. Resigning his office, Hewahewa was the first to
apply the torch, and in the smoke of burning heiaus, images and other
sacred property, beginning on Hawaii and ending at Niihau, suddenly
passed away a religious system which for fifteen hundred years or
more had shaped the faith, commanded the respect and received the
profoundest reverence of the Hawaiian people. No creed was offered
by the iconoclasts in lieu of the system destroyed by royal edict,
and until the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, in March
of the year following, the people of the archipelago were left without
a shadow of religious restraint or guidance.