Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1875 — The Royal Line of Hawaii. [ARTICLE]

The Royal Line of Hawaii.

Ka-la-Kaua, pronounced Kaa-laa-Kow-wah, the name of His Hawaiian Majesty, means, when translated, the “ day [of] battle.” The Hawaiians, like the American Indians, name their children after some personal or family peculiarity or some jmportant event. His Majesty’s name is, however, an ancestral one. His predecessors, upon ascending the throne, assumed the dynastic name of Kamehameha; but King David belongs to a different family, and is the first of a new dynasty. When Capt. Cook visited the Sandwich Islands Kamehameha I. was young and not a very high chief; but he was ambitious, ana when he reached manhood he conceived the idea of subjugating the chiefs of Hawaii, on which island he exercised limited sway, and the chiefs of the islands of Maui, Oahu and Kauai. It is probable that these schemes of conquest were first suggested by white men, several of whom rendered him valuable aid in the battles which he subsequently fought. But Kamehameha himself was a man of remarkable abilities. His skill as a warrior, and afterward as an organizer of government, won for him the title of Kamehameha Nui, or “the great.” After conquering the islands he was most successful in conciliating the chiefs and winning the affections of the people, so that at his death he was sincerely mourned by the inhabitants of the whole group. After conquering the islands of Oahu he chose that as his place of residence, and gathered around him, at his court at Honolulu, the chiefs of the different islands. Those connected with himself held the first rank at his court, and they constituted hie royal family. There seems to be a peculiar significance in the name of Kamehameha in view of his achievements. It means The Solitary [one]. At his death his son ascended the throne without opposition, with the title of Kamehameha 11. He and his Queen and suite visited England, and while there he contracted a cold which soon terminated in death. The fact is, it is a dangerous experiment for a Hawaiian ruler to leave his kingdom in the sunny isles of the Pacific to visit a northern climate. The Hawaiians, since the death of Kamehameha 11., have been averse to their Kings visiting Europe or America, and hardly anything less than a political necessity would have brought King David here. The .islanders are extremely susceptible to colds, and when seized with sickness are apt to become apathetic and readily give up to disease. On the Sandwich Islands perpetual summer reigns. The climate is superb, and is said to be as near that of paradise, as can be found on the globe. Then, to add to the difficulty, there is the change of food. The Hawaiians, from the King to the serf, live on poi, a food made from the root of the kalo. It is the national food, for which, when deprived of it, they long with a desire that is inconceivable to Americans. There is no food that can take its place with them. It was these causes, added to a fondness for alcoholic mixtures, which hastened to a fatal termination the illness of Kamehameha 11. in England. Kamehameha 11. died without offspring, and his brother became King, with the title of Kamehameha 111. As he was likely to have no heir by his Queen he adopted a singular expedient to preserve the royal line. It was one, however, not unfrequently resorted to in the olden time. The Governor of Oahu, Kekuandoa, had been one of the suite of Kamehameha 11. in England. He was not himself a high chief, but his wife was of the best blood on the islands—in fact, her blood was as blue as the King’s himself. As the story goes the King tabooed this lady. Under the effect of this taboo (kapu) the Governor was practically excluded from the society of his wife and the King became his successor. The proceeding was sanctioned by ancient usage. A son was born to the Governor’s wife, and he was named Liholiho. As long as Kamehameha 111. lived this young Prince was looked upon as the heir apparent, though he had an older brother, Lot, who, however, had only the credit of being the Governor’s son. ’ Liholiho ascended the throne of the Hawaiian Islands as Kamehameha

IV. Queen Emma, who recently vuited Europe and America, and more recently ■ contested our royal victor’s right to the throne, is the widow of Liholiho. He died childless, and his brother Lot became King as Kamehameha V. The latter’s right to the throne he derived through his mother. For some reason, in the old times it was through the mother that Princes on the Sandwich Islands derive their nobility. The father might be a plebeian, but if the mother were noble she ennobled her children. Queen Emma is a half-white. Her father was a doctor; but her mother had good blood in her veins and her daughters inherited rafik from her. Of course, where father and mother were both noble, as in the case of Liholiho, the offspring would outrank a child of the same mother whose father was of a lower station, as in the case of Lot. “ King Bill,” as Lunalilo was called, was the next occupant of the throne. His reign was a short one. In the estimation of the people he was really a higher chieftain than his predecessor on the throne and ought to have preceded him, but there were reasons for setting him aside. Good blood, however, is getting scarce on the islands. There are but few left who can, by any showing, lay claim to the blood of the chiefs, and Lunalilo conld not be ignored. He was a prince of a liberal mind and much beloved by his people; but his habits were not good. In fact, royalty on those islands has not been remarkable for the excellence of its morals. His Majesty, King David Kalakaua, is a descendant of the chiefs of Maui, one of the finest islands in the group. Though they occupied, in the estimation of Hawaiian genealogists, the first rank among the chiefs of that group, because of their illustrious and pure descent from remote times, yet when conquered by Kamehameha they had to occupy places among the nobles second to the chiefs of the island of Hawaii, Kamehameha’s immediate kindred. — St. Louis Globe.