HAWAII.

ITS HISTORY.

The First Americans in Hawaii- - The Influence of Vancouver on the Islands-The Inception of the Missionary Movement -- Hawaii Profits by the Whaling Trade - Hawaii Appeals to the United States - The First Enunciation of Our Policy - The Union Jack Raised over the Islands - The French Endeavor to Seize Hawaii - The Commercial Growth of the Islands Hawaii Becomes an Important Whaling Depot California Becomes a Market for Produce - The Reciprocity Movement - The Beginning of Internal Dissensions Kalakaua's Corrupt Regime Liberty Secured by the New Constitution - Liliuokalani Seeks to Reëstablish Absolute Monarchism - The Louisiana Lottery in Hawaii A Popular Revolutionary Movement A Great Political Blunder

An American Minister in an Undignified Rôle — The Republic of Hawaii Proclaimed.

The origin of the inhabitants of the Polynesian group that forms the northern outpost of the Pacific has never been satisfactorily established. In tradition their story goes back to about five hundred years after the birth of Christ, which is the period the natives assign to the settlement of the islands. When or how the first white men came to them it is impossible to surmise. The claim of discovery by Gaetano, the Spanish navigator, appears to be well

founded, but he states that he found Spaniards and Norsemen among the people. These victims of shipwreck had fallen upon an easy lot, received the kindest treatment from the gentle and hospitable Hawaiians and were perfectly contented with their condition. From them some of the chiefs of later days were proud to claim descent. Gaetano's visit occurred in 1542 and the islands sank back into the mists of the unknown and forgotten until brought again to light by the explorations of Captain James Cook, the great English navigator. He spent several months of the year 1778 in and about the group and finally lost his life in a melee occasioned by the theft by the islanders of some metal fittings from a boat. The people as Captain Cook found them were simple and hospitable, leading a happy existence under the easy government of chiefs whose administration was largely influenced by the counsel of priests. Their language was expressive and fully adequate to all their needs but they had no written characters. Polygamy was universally practised and to some extent polyandry also. In fact, the relations of the sexes were of a loose and almost indiscriminate character until reformed by the American missionaries in recent years. They observed a number of superstitions that took the form of strict sacred ordinances. Human sacrifices were commonly made but there is no evidence of their having been addicted to cannibalism.

FIRST AMERICANS IN HAWAII.

250

Deterred perhaps by the false impression of the character of the islanders created by that event, mariners appear to have avoided Hawaii for several years following the murder of Captain Cook.

THE FIRST AMERICANS IN HAWAII.

The first connection of America with the islands, whilst an important incident, is not one upon which we care to dwell unnecessarily. In 1789, two vessels commanded by Captain Metcalf, a fur-trader, touched at the islands on the way to China. During their stay a ship's boat was stolen by the natives and broken up for the sake of its nails and iron. Captain Metcalf's revenge was cruel and unjustifiable. When the waters about his vessel were crowded with heavily laden native canoes he fired a broadside amongst them, killing upwards of a hundred men and women. This barbarity was followed by swift retribution. One of the American vessels was detained and fell into the hands of the enraged Hawaiians who slaughtered all but two of the crew. The survivors, a mate and a boatswain named respectively Isaac Davis and John Young, were treated with kindness and became domiciled among the natives. They were raised to the rank of chiefs and proved highly useful to their protectors by teaching them many of the arts of civilization. The memory of these first American-IIawaiians is still kept green

by the islanders. Davis and Young were the prototypes of that colony of sturdy Yankees who laid the foundation of the prosperity of the islands and through the greatest difficulties guided them to their destiny as a part of the United States.

It is not necessary to recount the internal wars which terminated in 1810 by bringing the Islands for the first time under a single Government in the person of Kamehameha the Great who founded the dynasty of Hawaiian kings. During the period between the Metcalf affair and the establishment of the insular monarchy the islands had been occasionally visited by American and English ships, but no white settlement of consequence was attempted. The nucleus of a foreign trade was however created by Captain Kendrick, of Boston, who in 1791 left three sailors to gather sandalwood and from this beginning grew a considerable traffic in that commodity with China.

THE INFLUENCE OF VANCOUVER ON THE ISLANDS.

The visits of the British commander, Captain George Vancouver, in 1792-3-4, were fraught with important effects. Vancouver was a man of philanthropic disposition and great intellect. He instructed Kamehameha in the Christian religion and in the arts and ethics of civilization as far as the limits of the royal understanding would permit. Whilst he refused to supply the islanders with arms under