Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1887 — Early Days in Hawall. [ARTICLE]

Early Days in Hawall.

The traveler in the Hawaiian Isles, witnessing some court ceremonials at Honolulu, at which the King and his courtiers wear handsome American uniforms, resplendent with gold lace and orders, while the Queen and her ladies appear in full court dress, w tli feathers and sweeping trains of the most correct Buckingham palace cut (white satin embroidered in gold is in special favor), finds it hard to realize that these, and the reverent worshipers in the cathedral church, are the self-same race which received Captain Cook with such unsavory divine honors. Difficult, indeed, it is to believe, says the SL James Gazett e that only so btief a time ago the dusky maidens of this people swam out to meet Cook’s ships veiled only by their long tresses, having left on shore their scant y robes of bark cloth, a material only suitable for show and sunshine. But oven till within the last three or four years you might have heard the strangest stories from the lips of some of the noble old “fathers” (as the pioneer American missionaries are endearingly called; of their first arrival in the isles in 1820, before which time the Hawaiians were worshipers of all manner of hideous gods, to some of whom they offered human sacrifice. How startled were the ladies of the mission, fresh from New England, when the King, having previously signified his intention of showing them honor by dining on board their vessel, arrived in narrow waistfringe, a crown of scarlet feathers, a necklace of beads, and a green silk scarf thrown over the shoulders, tut they were still further shocked when, as soon as they were established in a house on shore, they received repeated visits from the King and his five wives, all completely naked. After awhile the American ladies mustered courage enough to drop a hint on the subject, whereupon the King, being exceedingly anxious to do the right thing, called next morning attired in a pair of silk stockings and a cocked hat.