Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen/Chapter 3
Chapter III
KAMEHAMEHA IV
Alexander Liholiho, known to history as Kamehameha IV., had all the characteristics of his race; and the strong, passionate nature of the Kamehamehas is shown in his benevolent as in his less commendable acts. To him was due the introduction of the Anglican Mission. He personally translated the English Prayer-Book into our language. He also founded the Queen’s Hospital, as has already been noticed; and both the foreign and domestic affairs of his government were ably administered. Hon. R. C. Wylie continued as his Minister of Foreign Affairs throughout his reign.
In 1859, or just prior to my engagement to Mr. Dominis, a pleasant party was made up in Honolulu for an excursion to the other islands, on which I went, being, as indeed I always was at this time, under the special charge of Mrs. Bishop. We visited the volcano on Hawaii, and descended to the city of Hilo, on whose beautiful bay was then lying the United States ship Levant. At this place we were joined by the king with his party; and having many most agreeable acquaintances amongst the naval officers, the time sped quickly in social pleasures, We lived in a large grass house, one side of which was occupied by the ladies and the other by the gentlemen, while the centre was a room used for banquet hall or ballroom, besides answering the purpose of separating the two lateral apartments so widely that no conversation could be heard from one to the other. When any of the royal party had occasion to go from one place to another, we were drawn in carriages of native construction, the people themselves furnishing the power usually supplied by horses. Sometimes we were stuck in some mud-hole or water-course, from which the most determined efforts of our devoted followers could not extricate us; and it was then necessary to have a horse led to the side of the vehicle to take us off on horseback. But we were light-hearted, merry, and happy; the naval officers were perfect gentlemen, and gallant in their attentions. The king enjoyed the pleasures to which his presence and that of others of the royal line gave a great charm. He even mischievously prevented us from taking an affectionate adieu of our friends aboard the Levant by suddenly signalling that we were to be at once on board of the Kilauea; and that steamer started without as much as a “By your leave, sir,” to the naval commander. At Lahaina the whole party left the ship, and at that port was further increased by the accession of the king’s friends and retainers,
The next trip (1860) proposed by His Majesty was to the extinct volcano of Healeala, and orders were given that we should all go in boats from Lahaina to Wailuku. It was a beautiful sight; the waters were calm, each boat was ornamented with the Hawaiian flag, the royal standard fluttered from that of the king, and as we coasted along the shores, we could see the people on the land following our course and interested in our progress; there were, I think, twelve boats in all. We arrived without accident, ascended the mountain, and passed a night on the border of the crater. We had our tents, and there was shelter in the caves and crevices for the remainder of the party. All passed off gayly. There was little sleep, however, some of us being afflicted with asthmatic attacks which the excessive rarity of the air at that altitude made very severe. Such was my portion; but as I sat up, not daring to lie down lest I might lose my breath, I could hear the merry sounds of the singing and dancing which from one tent or another was going on around me.
The first halt in our enjoyment was when word was received that the little Prince of Hawaii, then but a little more than a year old, was ill.
The king was deaf to the entreaties of the queen to be allowed to go directly to her child, because he thought it would delay his own departure and arrival at the bedside of his boy. Fortunately the illness passed away without serious consequences; yet it seemed the first break in our festivities, and was followed by an event of a most tragical nature.
We descended the mountain and returned to Lahaina, where I, accompanied by Mrs. Bishop, left them, and went back to Honolulu. The first news we received was that the king in a fit of passion had shot and mortally wounded one of the party, his own secretary, Mr. H. A. Neilson. After the occurrence all that the tenderest of brothers could have done was proffered by the king to the wounded man; but after lingering for some months, Mr. Neilson died. No legal notice of the event was in any way taken; no person would have been foolhardy enough to propose it. It is not my purpose to defend the right of the king to this execution of summary vengeance, especially as it was done in a moment of anger; yet beyond the sadness of the act, it has a certain bearing on this sketch of my life as one of the descendants from the ruling families of Hawaii.
There were causes which were apparent to any of our people for something very like righteous anger on the part of the king. His Majesty was trying to make us each and all happy; yet even during moments of relaxation, undue familiarity, absence of etiquette, rudeness, or any other form which implied or suggested disrespect to royalty in any manner whatsoever, would never be tolerated by any one of the native chiefs of the Hawaiian people. To allow any such breach of good manners to pass unnoticed would be looked upon by his own retainers as belittling to him, and they would be the first to demand the punishment of the offender. It was in this case far too severe. No one realized that more than the king himself, who suffered much distress for his victim, and was with difficulty dissuaded from the abdication of his throne. The temper of the Kamehamehas had descended to the young prince, and was also the cause of his death. For when the child was about four years old, he became dissatisfied with a pair of boots, and burst into an ungovernable fit of passion. His father sought to cool him off by putting the boy under an open faucet of cold, running water. The tle one appeared to be unharmed, but later in the day broke down with nervous weeping, and could not be comforted, Then it was discovered that the cold douche and shock had brought on an attack of brain fever. From this he did not recover, but died on the 27th of August, 1862, The king and queen had the sympathy of all parties in their bereavement; but Kamehameha IV. completely lost his interest in public life, living in the utmost possible retirement until his death.
It may be in place here to notice the opening of the reign of Kamehameha IV.’s successor. It has already been seen that the right of life and death was unchallenged; that whatever it may be in other countries, as late as an epoch thirty years in the past it belonged to the highest chief of the Hawaiian people. In like manner it may be said that the whole people owed its national life to the throne. The first constitution was given to the realm in 1840, and was a voluntary act on the part of the king, Kamehamehal III. The second succeeded it in 1852. Both of these were doubtless drafted under the supervision and advice of the missionaries, of whom, even at the latter date, the Hawaiian nation was beginning to feel a little justifiable jealousy. So when Prince Lot came to the throne in 1863, under the title of Kamehameha V., his first official act was to refuse to take the oath to maintain the existing constitution, His success as Minister of the Interior wader his brother had been remarkable, and his character was said to resemble that of Kamchameha the Great; it is presumable, therefore, that he understood the needs of his people better than those of foreign birth and alien affinities, In the month of May, 1864, the king issued a call for a constitutional convention, subsequently making a tour of the islands to explain his plans to the electors. In July of that year the convention assembled in Honolulu; but its time being given to what Kamehameha considered useless deliberations instead of business, on Aug. 13 he declared the convention dissolved, dismissed the delegates, publicly abrogated the constitution of 1852, and one week after that date he proclaimed a new constitution of his own devising, under which Hawaii was happily ruled for twenty-three years. There will be no disputing the fact that this was a period of increasing prosperity; yet until the late King Kalakaua was constrained by the foreign element to abrogate this constitution (which my brother did much against his own will and better judgment in 1887), all parties had lived together in harmony throughout the kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, under a constitution devised and promulgated by one man, and he of the race of the Hawaiian chiefs. I hope this fact will be recalled when I come to speak of the history of the reign of my brother Kalakaua, and my own administration of public affairs. Let it be repeated: the promulgation of a new constitution, adapted to the needs of the times and the demands of the people, has been an indisputable prerogative of the Hawaiian monarchy.