SKETCHES OF HONOLULU.
THE KING AND COURT.—AMERICAN COMMISSIONER.—ROYAL RESIDENCE.—THE SALT
LAKE.—SURF SPORTS OF THE NATIVES.—GALA DAY.—THE WOMEN ON
HORSEBACK.—SAILOR’S EQUESTRIANISM.—THE OLD MAN AND THE CHILDREN AT
PLAY.—ADDRESS OF COM. STOCKTON.—CAPT. LA PLACE.—HIS JESUITS AND
BRANDY.—LORD GEORGE PAULET.
THURSDAY, JUNE 18. To-day, at twelve, the officers of the Congress, and
Captain Harrison, of the schooner Shark, assembled at Commodore
Stockton’s rooms, and proceeded in a body to the royal palace. The
object was the installation of Mr. Ten Eyk in his new functions as
United States Commissioner at this court. We were received, on our
arrival, by a small guard posted at the palace, and conducted into a
spacious central hall. From this we were ushered into a large saloon,
rather plainly furnished, but light and airy. In front of us stood the
king, with the heir-apparent and high chiefs on the right, and his
cabinet on the left.
Ex-commissioner Brown advised his majesty of his recall, and introduced
his successor, Mr. Ten Eyk, who presented to the king an autograph
letter from the President of the United States, which he accompanied
with some appropriate remarks. These were followed by a brief address
from Commodore Stockton, in which he expressed the earnest hope that
uninterrupted amity might prevail between the two countries. He assured
the king of the lively interest felt in the United States for the
successful issue of all his majesty’s plans and purposes for the benefit
of his people, and pledged the cordial support of our government in any
aggressive emergencies, which might threaten the tranquillity and
integrity of his realm.
To each of these addresses the king made a brief and pertinent reply.
Not having sufficient confidence in his English, he spoke in the native
language,—his minister of finance, Mr. Judd, acting as interpreter.
There was no parade, or affectation of court phraseology in what he
said. His language was remarkable for its directness and simplicity. His
reply concluded with these words: “Commodore, I thank you for your visit
to our islands; your words will long be remembered; may you be happy.”
The king is about thirty-four years of age, of a stout frame, dark
complexion, and with good humor, rather than strength of intellect,
betrayed in his features. He wore a blue military uniform, with gold
epaulettes and sword. The prince and chiefs were without any badge of
distinction, except a star worn on the breast. Their costume was all in
the European style. The cabinet, consisting of the minister of finance,
the minister of foreign affairs, the minister of instruction, and the
attorney-general, all of whom, except the second, are Americans, were in
plain garb. You see more parade at Rome in five minutes, when the Pope
steps from the Vatican into St. Peter’s, or a red-stockinged cardinal
enters his carriage, than you would here in six months.
The king confides the affairs of government very much to his ministers.
Succeeding to power at an early age, without a political education, or
established principles of action, his policy would be inconsistent and
wavering, but for the steady influence of those around him. He evinces
his moderation in foregoing the dictates of an arbitrary will, and
consulting the judgments of those whose intelligence and experience have
given them a broader scope of vision. The foreigners who have settled in
his island, and who seek to undermine the influence of his counsellors,
are the most subtle and dangerous enemies with which he has to contend.
Their selfish and mischievous dispositions are masked under professions
of friendship. They talk of changes for the better, but they aim at
revolution. They are willing to run the hazard of the great political
earthquake, for the chance of being hove into stations of emolument and
power. But if the present social fabric falls, they will be buried in
its ruins; and there they may lie, sepulchred under the horrors of a
betrayed people, and the execrations of the civilized world.
Preparations are making for the erection of a royal residence, which
shall be in keeping with the progress of the arts in these islands. The
mansion at present occupied by the king, is the property of one of his
chiefs. It is built of coral; a graceful portico adorns the front, and
the whole is surmounted by an elegant belvidere. The grounds are ample,
tastefully laid out, and shaded by beautiful forest trees. No splendid
coach dashes through its avenues; no train of servile retainers lounge
in its shades; no throng of parasites disturb its domestic quietude and
social ease.
The amusements of the king are with the bow and arrow, in his
bowling-alley, and at his billiard-table. In these pastimes he is cheek
by jowl with his chiefs, and any well-bred gentleman. He was inclined in
his youth to habits of dissipation; and often drained, at the expense of
his dignity, the inebriating bowl. But he is now at the head of a
national temperance society. He is perhaps the only monarch, civilized
or savage, who has abjured, in his own example, all intoxicating drinks.
Go, ye potentates of prouder thrones, and take a lesson of practical
wisdom from this sable brother.
FRIDAY, JUNE 19. Our ride to-day has been to the Salt Lake, which lies
some five miles west of the town, on the margin of the sea. It is
cradled in the crater of an old volcano. You reach it by a steep ascent
of one hundred feet, and rapid descent of as many more. It is the third
of a mile in circuit; and, standing by its breathless margin, the
rock-bound rim of the hollow cone soars above you in wild grandeur.
The lake is on a level with the sea, and is undoubtedly fed from it
through unseen fissures. The salt is crystalized out of the water,
through a rapid evaporation, occasioned by the intense heat to which it
is subjected. It steams up as if the central fires, which once found an
escape here, were again seeking for a vent. Should they burst forth,
this lake will be thrown sky-high; and not only the geologist be
bereaved of a rare curiosity, and the king deprived of an important
source of revenue, but the kanacka will be obliged to eat his poi and
fish without salt.
Nothing here has amused me more than the surf sports of the young
chiefs. Each takes a smooth board, of some eight feet in length, leads
it over the coral shallows far out into the sea, and when a tremendous
roller is coming in, jumps upon it, and the roller carries him upon its
combing top, with the speed of an arrow, to the shore. A young American,
who was among them, not liking to be outdone in a sport which seemed so
simple, thought he would try the board and billow. He ventured out a
short distance, watched his opportunity, and, as the roller came, jumped
upon his plank, was capsized, and hove, half strangled, on the beach.
“There, breathless, with his digging nails he clung
Fast to the sand, lest the returning wave,
From whose reluctant roar his life he wrung,
Should suck him back to her insatiate grave.”
The young females are as fond of the water as the men. We passed in a
boat yesterday a group of them sitting on the coral reef a mile out at
sea. They were enjoying the surf, which broke over them with each
successive billow. Now and then a stronger wave would sweep some of them
from their perch, and bear them to a great distance in its whirling
foam. But they would soon swim back again amidst the laughter of their
companions. They were without covering, and plunged under the water till
our boat had got past, and then recovered their position on the reef;
and there they sat like mermaids,
Serene amid the breakers’ roar,
Their dark locks floating on the surge,
Attuning shells, through which they pour
The solemn ocean’s mimic dirge.
SATURDAY, JUNE 20. Saturday here is a gala day, especially the
afternoon, when the natives give themselves up to amusement. Every horse
is in requisition; and though often without saddle or bridle, has a
rider on him, who is dashing about like an adjutant at a regimental
training. The great plain at the eastern end of the town is alive with
groups that have collected to witness or participate in the fun. The
variety of colors, which blended their hues in Joseph’s coat, hold no
comparison with the motley dyes which flare up here in the costume of
the crowd. They resemble the tints of the forest, when the autumn’s
breath has touched its leaves with frost; the foam of ocean breaking
over their coral reef is not more tumultuous than the roar and rush of
these living tides.
Here streams away a valetudinarian, whose puny frame has been borne to
this shore like a bubble from some foreign clime. His light horse, fleet
of foot, heeds his weight as little as if he were an elf that had left
the forest to frolic on the green. His thin legs lie in the shadow of
his stirrup-straps, while his sharp face peers up between the high
pommel and stern of his saddle like a famished owl, watching between two
old turrets a lunar eclipse.
Near him dashes on the wife of a chief, whose vast bulk shakes over the
plunge of her strong horse as if the fat would fall from her sides in
living flakes. The broad leaves of the koa tremble in the chaplet that
encircles her head; her great shawl floats on the wind like a topsail,
while the vast sweep of her garments rolls down over her courser’s sides
like the folds of an Arab’s tent. By the side of her puny attendant she
shows like the full-orbed moon with a little star twinkling near her
rim; or like a giant oak with an alder in its shade; or like a
ship-of-the-line with a cockle-boat under her lee.
Here sweeps past a compact figure on a horse half wild from the woods.
His white trowsers, his blue roundabout, and tarpaulin with its yard of
black ribbon streaming over the right ear, show him to be a tar fresh
from the deck. His hammock-blanket, with its nettings for a girth, serve
him for a saddle; while his bridle is a rope bent on a small anchor,
which is wreathed with leaves and flowers, and which he can let go, when
he would bring up his unkeeled craft. A shout follows wherever his
unmanageable horse dashes,—unless it be among the crowd, and then there
is such a scattering as there would be among sheep at the pounce of a
wolf, or among pigeons at the swoop of the hawk.
Foremost in a gazing group bends an aged chief, who has come out to see
one gala day more before he descends to the land of shadows. He erects
his tall stature, but not in pride, and half forgets the tufted wand
that has long sustained his tottering years. He thinks not of the
feathered mantle which falls from his shoulders, or the badges of rank
which glitter on his breast. His eyes are on a group of children wildly
at play. Fourscore summers have shed their vernal honors since he was
young as they, and yet their glee this day makes his pulses fly as if he
were again a child. He watches their light footsteps, their laughing
eyes, and timid hands as they garland with flowers the arching horns of
the old patriarch of his flock.
[Illustration]
“A band of children, round a snow-white ram,
There wreathe his venerable horns with flowers;
While peaceful as if still an unweaned lamb,
The patriarch of the flock all gently cowers
His sober head majestically tame,
Or eats from out the palm, or playful lowers
His brow as if in act to butt, and then,
Yielding to their small hands, draws back again.”
SUNDAY, JUNE 21. I exchanged with Mr. Damon this morning; he officiating
on board the Congress, while I took his place in the Seamen’s chapel.
The frigate had the advantage in the arrangement, but I intend to look
out for my floating parish. In the afternoon I was, by appointment, in
the pulpit of the king’s chapel. The spacious edifice was crowded. His
majesty, the court, and chiefs were present, and an auditory of some
three thousand. They had assembled under the vague expectation that
Commodore Stockton might address them, for a report to that effect,
without the commodore’s knowledge, had been circulated through the town.
I felt, in common with the missionaries, a desire that they should not
be disappointed. But as the commodore was wholly unprepared, and averse
to any arrangements that might seemingly trench upon proprieties, it was
no easy matter to have their wishes realized.
Backed by the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, I made a bold push, and, having
addressed the audience for half an hour, through him as interpreter, on
the religious enterprises in our own country, which were throwing their
light and influence into other lands, stated that I was aware of their
desire that Commodore Stockton should address them, and that I would
take the liberty of expressing the hope that he would gratify their
wishes. He was sitting at the time by the side of the king; and while
the choir were singing a hymn, Mr. Armstrong descended from the pulpit
and urged with him the public expectation. He finally assented, and
taking the platform under the pulpit, commenced a train of pertinent and
eloquent remarks.
He spoke of the previous condition of those around him,—of the dark and
cruel rites in which their ancestors were involved,—of the humanizing
and elevating influences of that Christianity which had reached them,—of
the philanthropy, faith, and devotedness of their missionaries,—of the
destruction of nations where the true God was disowned, and of the
stability of governments and institutions founded on the precepts and
moral obligations of the Bible. He adjured them, by all the hopes and
fears which betide humanity, to persevere in their great and good work
of social, civil, and moral improvement. He urged upon them systematic
industry, wholesome rules and regulations in their domestic economy, a
respect for law and order, the advantages of education, the importance
of the Sabbath-school system, the necessity of temperance; and assured
them, that in all their good endeavors they would have the sympathy and
support of the Christian world.
Such was the tenor of his remarks, which were delivered with as much
freedom and force as if they had been well-considered and arranged.
Their effect was obvious in the eager attention which pervaded the great
assemblage. At the conclusion, the king and the chiefs came up, and,
with undisguised emotion, thanked the commodore for his address. The
commodore may win laurels on the deck, but none that can bloom more
lastingly than these. If there be consolations in death, they flow from
efforts made and triumphs won in the cause of humanity and God.
MONDAY, JUNE 22. The forcible introduction of the Roman Catholic faith
into these islands was artfully disguised under the plea of religious
toleration. The manifesto of La Place, acting under the authority of the
French cabinet, sets forth, that, “Among civilized nations there is not
one which does not permit in its territory the free toleration of all
religions:” therefore he demands, under the batteries of his frigate,
that the Roman Catholic faith shall have ample scope and verge here.
The basis of this demand is an assumption, contradicted by the most
glaring facts. In countries no further removed than Chili and Peru, the
organic laws of the land declare that “no religion except the Roman
Catholic shall be tolerated;” and these laws are enforced. So much for
universal toleration, in those countries where that religion is
predominant, which La Place comes here, under the sanction of his
government, to shoot down into the consciences of this people. A very
expeditious mode this of making converts, and quite consonant with the
theological tactics of a military propagandist. If you cannot reason
your religion into a man, why, shoot it into him. You may, it is true,
in doing this shoot his life out; but what of that, if you shoot your
creed in. A dead man with your creed in him, is perhaps better than a
living one without it.
This demand of La Place was accompanied by another, which would
disparage the most petty prince in Christendom. It required the Hawaiian
king to place on board the French frigate twenty thousand dollars, as a
guarantee that Roman Catholic priests shall in future be undisturbed in
propagating their faith. These priests, it was well known, were Jesuits,
belonging to an order which France herself was at the time endeavoring
to suppress. Perhaps she intended the Sandwich Islands as a sort of
Botany Bay for these men, whom state policy had proscribed from her own
soil. They had given the French monarch trouble enough, and it was time
his Hawaiian majesty should take his turn.
Another demand, forced under the disguise of a treaty, was that French
brandies should be admitted into all the Hawaiian ports, with only a
duty of five cents on the gallon. It seemed to be thought that this
liquor, among all its other wonderful achievements, would promote
Christian charity, and open the way for the Jesuits among the natives.
Brandy is good in cases of colic, but I never before heard of it as a
specific against the evils of religious intolerance. But the French are
a very sagacious people; and if they have found in it an antidote to
bigotry, they ought not to be deprived of the honor and advantage of the
discovery.
All these demands of the French government were compulsorily complied
with under the batteries of an armed ship. The king had no alternative;
he must either submit, or suffer Honolulu to be levelled with the
ground, and its helpless inhabitants driven into the mountains. On the
one hand lay rapine and massacre; on the other, Jesuits and brandy. Of
the two evils, the king submitted to the latter. Mahomet propagated his
religion with the sword; but he did not force on those whom he
subjugated the elements of intoxication. It was reserved for the French,
it seems, to discover this new ally, and give to shame its last blush.
The American missionaries were arraigned, and denounced by the French,
on the charge of having stimulated the king and regent of the Hawaiian
islands to measures of hostility against the introduction of the Roman
Catholic faith. This accusation is met and annihilated by the well-known
fact, that they who came here to preach that faith were supplied by
these very missionaries with the books through which they obtained a
knowledge of the native language. Fanatics, filled with intolerance,
never supply their opponents with the means of propagating their faith.
They may surround them with fagots, but never with books.
The truth is, the king and regent apprehended that the introduction of a
new religion might produce dissensions among their people. They could
not comprehend why a Protestant should not be permitted to marry a Roman
Catholic, and very naturally dreaded the introduction of a system which
set up such exclusive pretensions. Their untutored sagacity discovered
the discord which this marriage prohibition must of itself create.
Before Roman propagandists raise the cry of proscription, let them
accommodate their antiquated faith to the more liberal and enlightened
spirit of the age. Let them lift the ban from the sacred rights of
marriage, and admit the possibility of a Protestant’s getting into
heaven, or at least of throwing his shadow in; that will save the
Swedenborgians!
But the king and regent were also apprehensive that the images used in
the forms of the Romish worship might lead their people back again into
idolatry. They could not see clearly any difference between praying to
an image, or praying to a spirit through that image. They could not
detach the substance from its seeming shadow, and worship the latter
without an obtrusion of the former. My venerable friend, the bishop of
New York, with his metaphysical acuteness, can undoubtedly accomplish
this; but a poor kanacka here would be very apt to commit a blunder; and
this, too,
In that dread creed, in which a truth and blunder
Are deemed as wide as heaven and hell asunder.
The crowning act of shame perpetrated here by La Place, was in his
communication to the American consul, in which he informs that
functionary, that in the havoc which will follow a non-compliance with
his demands by the government, the missionaries, with their families,
will not escape. They are singled out as objects of special vengeance.
Their houses are delivered over to rapine, their wives and daughters to
pollution. This communication our consul should have returned
indignantly to its brutal author, and our government should have visited
the insult which it conveyed with the rebuke and chastisement which it
merited. If we would have our consular flag respected, we must not allow
its sanctity to be trampled upon by every insolent bravado of the sea.
La Place, having achieved these triumphs, having bullied an unarmed
government, menaced with massacre a helpless people, intimidated the
wives and children of the missionaries, forced on a reluctant community
his Jesuits and brandy, and filched all the small change in circulation,
took his departure, much to the relief of all good men, and to the great
disappointment, no doubt, of the devil, who had further work for him.
The officers of the American squadron, under the command of Commodore
Reed, who arrived here a short time after the departure of La Place,
issued a circular, from which the following is an extract:—
“Being most decidedly of opinion that the persons composing the
Protestant mission of these islands are American citizens, and, as such,
entitled to the protection which our government has never withheld; and
with unwavering confidence in the justice which has ever characterized
it, we rest assured that any insult offered to this unoffending class,
will be promptly redressed.”
This circular, which honors the intelligence and moral justice in which
it had its source, is signed by Commodore George A. Magruder;
Lieutenants Andrew H. Foot, John W. Livingston, Thomas Turner, James S.
Palmer, Edward R. Thompson, Augustus H. Kelly, George B. Minor; Surgeons
John Hazlett, John A. Lockwood, Joseph Beale; Purser Dangerfield
Fauntleroy; Chaplain, Fitch W. Taylor; Professors of Mathematics, J.
Henshaw Belcher, Alexander G. Pendleton.
Captain La Place having succeeded so brilliantly with his
powder-and-shot diplomacy, Lord George Paulet, the commander of her
Britannic majesty’s ship Carysfort, thought he would try his hand at the
business. He arrived here a short time after his illustrious
predecessor; but, having no Jesuits and brandy to introduce, it became
necessary to find something else as a basis of action.
In this emergency, he drummed up a set of claims on the government, to
which he deemed its resources unequal, and demanded for them immediate
satisfaction. To his utter surprise, these claims were recognised: he
had now no alternative but to bring in a new set, of such a magnitude as
to render all adjustment impracticable. The government remonstrated
against the injustice of the proceeding; but it was of no avail: payment
must be made instanter, or the sovereignty of the islands surrendered.
Lord George accordingly hauled down the Hawaiian flag, and run up that
of her Britannic majesty. The little ships belonging to the government
were all re-christened: one taking the name of Victoria; another the
Adelaide; and even the old fort was honored with a Georgian title.
Dispatches were immediately sent by Lord George to the British ministry,
informing them of the acquisition of all the Hawaiian islands to her
Majesty’s dominions. But in the mean time, Admiral Thomas, the senior
officer of the English fleet in this sea, arrived here, in the Dublin,
from Valparaiso. He requested an interview with the king: the real
difficulties were at once amicably adjusted; the fictitious ones, which
were the basis of Lord George’s proceeding, were thrown by the Admiral
to the wind, and the sovereignty of the islands restored. This was
rather an imposing ceremony. The king and his chiefs appeared on the
plain, east of the town, where fifteen or twenty thousand of the
inhabitants had assembled. Admiral Thomas entered the grounds under a
brilliant escort of marines from his squadron. The standard of the king
was now unfurled, and his flag run up on the two forts. They were
saluted by the guns of the Dublin and Carysfort, and Kamehameha III. was
again on the throne of his ancestors.
Thus ended the brilliant conquest of Lord George, and thus vanished his
dream of empire, when touched by the wand of moral rectitude. He was not
only compelled to see the Hawaiian flag restored, but to salute it from
his own ship, and with those very guns with which he had demanded its
surrender under a threat that Honolulu should be blown sky-high. Verily,
as the proverb hath it, “he that governs his own spirit, is greater than
he that taketh a city.” The conduct of Admiral Thomas was sustained by
the British ministry, and Lord George went to the wall.