Kohala of Hawaii. A Story of the Sandwich Islands Revolution: A Story of the ...

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Introduction

No ALIEN land in all the world has so strong an attraction, so profound a charm for the American who has trod its emerald shores, as beautiful "Hawaii" — the native, and hence the proper, name for what Captain Cook, their discoverer, called the ''Sandwich Islands." Sleeping or waking, how lovingly its beauties haunt me as I, fresh from its ever-blooming gardens and ever-burning volcanoes, sit down to write, from a heart that is full of it, the story of the last great drama enacted in that fair land, for whose possession the maritime nations of the world are intriguing to-day.

Chapter I. The Paradise Of The Pacific

Two MILES back from the capital city of Honolulu there rises an extinct volcano, known far and near as the * 'Punch Bowl," and accessible from the town by a fine toad.

People in carriages, well-mounted equestrians and energetic pedestrinns usually swarm about the Punch Bowl's rugged crest when the sun is setting, for then the ocean breeze is always cool and refreshing, and from Diamond

Head, to the east, to Pearl Harbor, on the west, there is such a panorama of exquisite beauty spread oud before the observer as entrances newcomers and gives a never- . ceasing delight to those who have seen it before.

The short twilight of the tropics was fading over Honolulu, but this evening th^ Punch Bowl appeared t6 be deserted, no- dotabt because the black cloud banners that threatened one of those brief but violent storms peculiar, to these islands streamed out from Diamond Head and veiled the Pali's bloody cliff. The pulsating glow of sheet lightning illuminated these clouds, and a hoarse grumbling came down from the mountains to the gardenembowered city by the sea.

From the jungle of lantana, that clothes the Punch Bowl from base to crest, two young men, with a backward glance to make sure their horses were secpire, walked out to the circular protecting wall around the summit. That they were men of nerve, or so familiar with thp scene that they had a contempt for, its dangers, was shown by the fact that they sat down on the wall, nor seemed to give thought to the fact that a stone, loosened by one as he adjusted himself to the place, plunged down for eight hundred feet of nearly precipitous descent.

Both these young men were dressed after the fashion of horsemen in Hyde Park, the Bois de Boulogne or Central Park. One was short, stout, blue-eyed, and had the florid face and thick neck which are usually found, associated with men who know no enjoyment beyond those of the senses. Yet there was a set to the jaws, an expression about the chin and a certain firmness in his bearing that denoted force and had in it the suggestion of a military training.

The other man, although not above medium height, looked taller, because of his slender, erect figure and a certain easy, tigerish grace in his movements that indicated a rare union of strength and activity. The long Jl>lack hair, the well-cut, olive features, the gleaming white teeth, and the dark eyes, that seemed to glow as if with an internal light, told that the man, whose age could not have been more than fi ve-and-twenty, was a native, but a native of higher type and finer fiber than the average people of his race.

One by one, from amid the groves of palm and crimson hybiscus, the lights in Honolulu became visible, and the breakers that had seemed, as the man advanced to the wall, like rising and fading lines of snow on the shore became banks of liquid fire — never seen outside the tropics — banks that glowed with a strange, green, phosphorescent light, suggestive of cold rather than heat, like the flashing of the aurora borealis on an arctic wintry night.

That these men had not come up to Tiew the scenery was shown by the fact that they did not look at it, but sat on tlfe wall for some minutes without speaking, each appearing to be wrapped in his own thoughts and in the contemplation of the other's face.

Captain Paul Featherstone, the white man, was tlie first to break the silence. Speaking in accents that un mistakably bespoke his English nationality, and that indicated association with cultured people if not culture itself, he said :

"Kohala, I agree with you that the time is ripe for action. Since we first met, when you were studying in Paris two years ago, my faith in your claims to the throne of Hawaii and my appreciation of your fitness for the position have grown stronger and stronger. But

I would be a fool and not your friend if I closed my eyes to the diflSculties that beset you — that beset us — for I have linked my fate with yours. Now that we are on the ground, we find a quebn on the throne, whom your countrymen regard as legitimate, and with Americanff among her advisers ; but she is too blind to see that they are planning to depose her and to make Hawaii a part of their overgrown republic."

Kohala, the young Hawaiian, tossed over the battlement a fragment of rock with which he had been toying and responded in tones that indicated impatience.

"I still think, Captain Featherstone, that you continue to misunderstand me. "

"In what way?" asked the captain, in surprise.

"In this way: Have I not proven clearly to you and to other friends that I^ as the known, though as yet unrecognized, only male descendant of the great Eling Kamehameha, am the rightful sovereign of Hawaii?"

"Unmistakably," replied the captain, in a voice that showed he considered this settled beyond the possibility of doubt.

"And have I not also told you and other friends that personally I cared nothing for the throne, that indeed I was not a believer in the divine right or any other right of kings, that I was and am at heart a republican?" said Kohala, in a voice raised above the previous key, but which only served the more to bring out its melody fand to show that he loved to dwell on vowel sounds, but had no fondness for the harsher consonants that distinguish our Northern speech.

"Surely, you have told me all that," replied the captain, "and, as your friend, I have not hesitated to oppose your views. I am an Englishman, and so believe in kings, and queens, too, and so do not believe in the license of republics, such as we see in that overgrown monster to the east, through which you and I recently traveled.**

"Captain Featherstone," said Kohala, in graver accents and with Iiis fine, expressive face upraised to the lowering clouds, "I must still cling to my opinion about kings.*' "And give up your claims to the throne?" "A man is not fit to be a king whom his people, if left free to choose, would not select for a ruler. I have traveled through many lands, and my heart has bled at the vice, the poverty and the degradation that seem inseparable from civilization where kings rule, and to boine extent in modem republics; but it is from this that I would save the remnant of my race. A century ago we numbered nearly half a million; today we are barely forty thousand. We have had kings and queens in Hawaii since and before the time of Cook*s unfortunate discovery. Yet the work of civilization, of your civilization (?) goes on. The missionary is here, but so is the liquor seller ; and the adventurer who has seized on our most beautiful valleys, and forced into the volcanic hills the natives who will not work in his sugar and coffee fields. I believe that the God of the white man JB the God of the Hawaiian, and that He never meant that we should be destroyed, and that a race that worships only wealth and the power it represents should send us to the grave and erect their palaces where *.ve were once so happy. I. want to arouse the people to a sense of their duty. I want to show them that a descendant of the great king who united them is ready to lead them in the assertion of their rights, and that he is willing to die for them, if his death will accomplish ilie purpose that is so near and so dear to liis heart,

^ KOHAIiA OF HAWAn.

" and that fills him and tlirills him, whether sleeping or waking."

"All this is noble/' said the Englishman, ''but is it practical?''

"Whatever is right must be made practical/' replied Kohala, with spirit.

"True; stiU we must take things as they are and not as we would haye them." Then with a forced laugh that indicated his feelings and character more than anything he said, Captain Featherstone added: "We live in a practical age — an age of selfishness, when dreamers are laughed at or forced to the wall. My country, Eng^ land, has flourished because she realizes that material prosperity is the only foundation of success. If you see fit to adopt her methods, a^ I have told you before, you will find her a friend. She can place you on the throne and keep you on it, but it will be necessary for you to foUow her instructions — "

"And to be her tool— her slave?" broke in Kohala.

"No; to be her ally and her friend. Republics may foster slaves ; it is England's boast that every man breathing the air protected by her flag is a free man. But a storm threatens, let us be getting back. And then, I think the queen will be disappointed if you are not aU the ball to-night."

"She would rather see me there dead than alive," said Kohala, and, as he arose from the wall, another: stone was loosened and went thundering into the valley in the direction of Honolulu.

"And the beautiful widow, Mrs. Holmes. Don't you think she will miss you if you are absent from the palace to-nigjht?" laughed the Englishman, as they turned in the direction of the horses.

'* Would the sun miss one of the smaller planets that circle about it, seen only by its light? No; I might miss the face of the fair Englishwoman from the scene, but amid so many admirers, men of her own race, Marguerite Holmes could hardly be aware that Kohala, the Kanaka pretender, was present or absent." • This was said with some bitterness, yet there was that in the young prince's accents, and particularly in the caressing way in which he pronounced the lady's name, that told he did not regard her as an ordinary mortal.

B}^ the time the two men were in the saddle the storm that had been gathering about the mountains to the north burst upon the Punch Bowl and shut out the myriad electric lamps that had been glowing with a cold white light in the direction of Honolulu.

The winding road from the crest of the hill was unobstructed and of easy descent, and the horses were eager to be back in their stalls, so the riders gave them free rein, and flew down to the line at a gallop, which was maintained till they swept into grounds illuminated by lamps and the light coming through the windows of a broad, low building, about which ran a wide piazza, such as is peculiar to the better class of houses in Honolulu.

As the riders dismounted two native men appeared to takie the horses, and the salaams and salutations of love and respect with which they greeted Kohala showed jthat he had at least two strong adherents in the capital of Hawaii.

10 KGHALA OF HAW AH.

Chapter II. The Ball At The Palace

Set amid groves of palms and surroimded by parterres of ever-blooming flowers, the national palace at Honolulu, with its stately architecture and its indications of refined taste and exquisite luxury, presents a pleasing picture when seen under the blaze of the midday sun. At all hours a native soldier, in a white uniform, paces on guard before tlie cataract of marble steps leading up to the grand entrance hall, and this adds to the air of exclusiveness that seems to bar the structure from the outside world, as a great wall might not do.

But beautiful and inviting though the palace is in the golden sunlight, it becomes doubly so at night, when Queen Liliuokialini (pronounced Lily-wak-a-lee-nee) givea a fete champetre, a band concert or a ball. On such occasions the palace is all aglow with light, and the great doors and windows are opened to permit it to pour out in soft golden streams. The cunning of the Chinese gardeners is invoked, and a wonderful transformation is effected. Tiny fairy-lamps are concealed so skillfully among the flower-banks that each blossom seen\^ to glow with its own light. Like luminous fruit, colored lamps flash amid the graceful fronds of the towering palms, and arches of colored lights span the winding walks, and festoons of lights, like vines of iridescent flame, link the trees and dazzle the sight ot the beholder.

Behind a screen of flowering cacti and plumelike ferns the Queen's band is concealed on these festive occasions, but this serves but to increase the effect of the music that fills the palace halls, and sets the light feet of the pleasure-seekers a-moving, and forces the walk of the promenaders into a dancing measure, till even the most prosaic feels that he has left the harsh, materialistic world behind him and is transported to fairyland.

Newcomers to Hawaii, who had been honored by an invitation to the Queen's ball to-night, feared that the storm that burst on the city after sunset would interfere with the attendance, or at least with the pleasure of the occasion ; but the older residents, who knew how brief these storms were, laughed at their fears, and declared that the rain would add to the attractiveness of the ball, * by laying the dust and cooling the air ; and they were right.

By nine o'clock that evening the sky was as clear as if it had never floated a raincloud. The moon and the larger stars shone down with a brilliancy unknown in higher latitudes; and from over the coral barrier reef there came the droning sound of the breakers, lulling the city to sleep. But to the gay throngs in and about the palace the night would be all too short, nor would the morning be welcome that brought repose.

From long lines of carriages, ladies and gentlemen in evening dress< and of all nationalities, descended and poured up the great stairs to the apartments w^here attendants took charge of their wraps, then came down to the drawing-room to pay their respects to the Queen, who, surrounded by her maids of honor, received them with graciousness and dignity, some of which was natural, but much more of which was assumed.

The Queen's dazzlina evening dress served to make more pronounced. the more than becoming plumpness of her figure, while it intensified the darkness of her complexion. The full, sensuous lips and a certain indescribable coquetry in her manner, which was particularly perceptible when she was talking to gentlemen, told that fifty-two years, while they might have left silver streaks in the regal, dowager's hair, had not weakened her opinion of her powers to captivate.

Queen Liliuokalani's maids of honor on this occasion were, with two exceptions, Hawaiians. With more adroitness, or less faith in her own simple but antiquated charms, the Queen might have selected young women whose beauty was less pronounced ; but she had not done so. The exquisite olive faces, f pamed in masses of dark hair, rendered blacker and more luminous by intertwined crimson blossoms, the finely molded arms and busts and the lithe, graceful forms of the Hawaiian maids of honor were well calculated to withdraw from Her Majesty the admiring glances of the uniformed officers and foreign representatives who attended the ball.

It has been said that two of the maids of honor, though their position as such was only for this evening, were not natives. One of these was a beautiful American girl, Alice Ellis, the daughter of one of the richest sugar planters on the island, and the other was an Englishwoman, who at the first glance did not seem to be a person who could attract much attention; this was "Mrs. Marguerite Holmes,*' as her cards indicated.

Mrs. Marguerite Holmes had been in Honolulu less than a year. She had left England for California some eighteen months before this, in the hope of restoring the health of her husband. Professor Holmes, who, it was said, contracted, from overstudy at Oxford, the disease which sent him to the grave before he had been a month at Los Angles. When, soon after her husband's death, Mrs. Holmes came to Hawaii, and said it was for her health, no one was inclined to dispute her, for she was frail to emaciation, and she had such an innocent, girlish expression and was so unworldly as to call for the protection of strong men, and, at first, for the sympathy of her own sex.

If Mrs. Holmes's most ardent admirer — and it will be seen that she had many such — were asked if she were beautiful the unhesitating answer would be **No." If asked if she were pretty, the answer would be varied and qualified ; but if asked if she were attractive, and particularly to men who imagined they had reached years of discretion, it would be generally conceded that she was decidedly so. Biit as she was neither intellect ual nor accomplished, though unmistakably well bred, her most ardent advocate — and she 'needed such — ^would be at a loss to tell in what she excelled or why he was drawn so irresistibly to her.

Mrs. Holmes was of medium height, sRid so slender as to seem angular in contrast with the superbly formed women about her. Her neck was thin, but this, like every other physical defect, was concealed by the skill of her comparatively plain yet perfectly arranged attire.

•

Her finely formed head was covered by a coil of silky, gold-bronze hair, that glistened with a rich metallic sheen under the lights. Over the forehead the wavy fringe looked very much darker and suggested to the trained eye the ravages of the curling-iron. The forehead was low, but fairly broad and full over the temples. The eyebrows were uausually thick, meeting over a by no means classic nose, and they looked black in contrast with the hair. The eyes, long-lashed and gray, and with an expression that momentarily ohanged from girlish coyness to skilled coquetry, were the redeeming feature of the face. The complexion was pale, the mouth almost childish in its pouting uncertainty, and. the chin far from indicating strength. Yet, taken as a whole, and particularly when animated, Mrs. Holmes looked like an innocent, captivating girl of nineteen, though she confessed to being twentj^-six.

This was the woman about whom all Honolulu was now talking, some in unmistakable laudation and others in doubt and denunciation quite as positive. To some she was a gentle, guileless, charming woman, who needed protection and sympathy ; to others she was a heartless, designing adventurer, if, indeed, she were not something far worse.

The crush of visitors had been received by the Queen, and she was about^ to withdraw, when the names of Kohala and Captain Paul Featherstone were announced. Barely bowing to the Englishman, who at once drew Mrs. Holmes to one side and entered into earnest conversation with her, the Queen gave her young countryman her hand, which he did not kiss, as the others had done, and said in good EngUsh :

**I feared, my cousin, that you would not honor us to-night?"

*'I was c5.ught in the storm," he said, **but I am too good a Hawaiian not to regard as a command the invitation of our Queen."

*' I might, indeed, believe your presence a compliment and an indication of your loyalty did I not fear tliat another and a more powerful attraction than myself

KOHALA OP HAWAir. 15

brought you to the palace to-night." Here the Queen smiled and inclined her head toward Mrs. Holmes ; then before the young ma^ could recover from his evident confusion and reply, she added: *'But as we can talk again this evening, I shall not detain you, I fully appreciate your eagerness to be with another."

With this sally Her Majesty waved her hand, and, followed by nearly all her maids, left the drawing-room.

One of the girls, who remained back, was a Hawaiian of not more than seventeen. She was a lithe, beautiful girl, with a face as perfect as ever sculptor's chisel formed, and eyes such as never a painter transferred to canvas. This girl was Leila, daughter of Keona, a renowned prince or chief of the great fire island of Hawaii, to the southeast of Oahu, on which Honolulu is situated.

As Kohala moved in the direction of Mrs. Holmes he felt a light touch on his arm, and turning, With the quick start of one rudely aroused from a dream, he saw the beautiful Leila standing with drooping head beside him.

«Taking her hand, after a pause, like one obeying a second impulse, Kohala said :

* 'Leila, I did not expect to see you here. When did you leave your father, and how did you leave him?" • **I left him well, two days ago," she replied. Then in a" voice sunk to a flutelike whisper: "I bear you a message from my father, Kohala, and must see you to-night."

"I shall find you within the hour," was his response,

Leila followed in the direction the Queen had taken, but Kohala did not see that as she passed out her left hand was pressed to her heart, as if to still a pain.

The instant Captain Featherstone saw the young Hawaiian approaching h«* turned to Mrs. Holmes, gave her a meaning glance and then moved off toward the dancers.

Kohala was evidently confused, and hesitated for a second as he held" Mrs. Holmes's ungloved hand, but with grace and tact, and .one of those arch smiles that were the strongest weapons in her armory, she said :

*'I have been standing here looking for you all evening, Kohala, and now that you have rested my heart by coming I want you to take me to a place where I can rest my feet and we can talk without being disturbed."

**When you so well express my wishes," he said, with a pleased smile and a blush that lighted up his olive face, *' there is no need for me to talk; indeed, I never can talk when you are near me. At such times I am quite content and happy in looking and watching."

**And in coining princely compliments," she said, with the slightest additional pressure on the arm she had taken and a glance through those wonderful long lashes that would have been potent with a more experienced man than Kohala.

The Queen's enemies, and there were many such, wondered why he had taken such a fancy to the young English widow, and some thought they saw in it an indication of England's secret diplomacy; while still others shrugged their shoulders and whispered the old adage: * 'Birds of feather flock together." And now as Kohala made his way to the gardens, evidently unconscious of everything but the slender, girlish figure by his side, men and women of both parties and all parties looked after them, and there were meaning nods and winks; and one lady, speaking with a decided New England accent, said to her escort :

*'Well, she has a fin** «!election of sweethearts. To my

KOHAtA OP- HAWAII. 17

certain knowledge she is leading an old Mormon priest who lives near here to believe she is in love with him ; and one of her greatest admirers, a young fellow who felt he must wear good clothes to stand well with her, Was arrested a few days since for forgery. Old or 3«oung, black or white, she doesn't seem to care so that he's a man easily led and ready to be fooled. Bah I I loathe women of that class; they foster scandal and breed divorces!"

At the further end of the grounds from the palace there was and is a little summer-house, where at times the Queen retires when she wishes to be undisturbed. To-night, with the moonlight sifting through the tangle of vines and falling on the broad rustic seat, it was an ideal place for lovers.

To this place Kohala escorted Mrs. Holmes,* and when they were seated he still retained her hand. It was steady and cool, and his trembled and was feverish. • "Ah, with you by my side, Kohala," she said, with a touch oh his arm that thrilled him, "this is far more delightful than the crowd, of which I have a horror, or the dancing, for which I never care — unless I can select my own partner, and as yet the world has not advanced enough to give us poor women that privilege."

"The world will soon be advanced enough," said Kohala, "to give to every human being every right that Grod intended that his children should enjoy — "

"Oh, now you are going to talk about liberty, and ail that; things that I do not understand," she said, poutingly,

"No," he responded, "to-night I am going to talk of something that you, more than any woman I ever met, should imderstand per^*^tly."

IS KOHALA OF HAWAII.

*'Oh, Kohala, you frighten me !" she said, as sh© drew nearer to him in her winning, childlike fashion, and clung to his arm as if to be protected from himself. Then, as if reassured by the contact: "But go on, and tell me what this subject is."

"It is love !" he said, and he bent over her till she must have felt his hot breath on her cheek.

"Love?" she repeated, questioningly.

"Yes, love ; my love ! But why should I tell you that of which your own heart must have convinced you. Marguerite?"

"Do not call me 'Marguerite' ; those who like me call me Flossy," she said.

"Flossy let it be! Flossy, you know how I love you! You know that I haVe one great purpose in life, a purpose for which I would give my life! Yet you are nearer and dearer than that. Now give me the ansyrer for which my heart has hungered since first we met !"

His arms were about her, and she made a faint effort to avoiji the torrent of kisses which he rained on her face, that was never for an instant averted.

At length, though it may have been because of a rustle in the vines near by, he released her, and gasped :

"Now give me my answer ! Do you love me?"

"I love you as I never loved man before," she replied.

"And you will be my wife? my queen?"

"Do not ask me that now. You must have patience. Wait, Kohala, wait till I have had time to think. No, not now!" she said, for she had risen to her feet and he was trying to draw her down to his side. "Let us go back to the palace. I — I am afraid we are watched !"

She had no fear of their beinc watched, nor did she

6uspe«t it, as on his arm she returned to the palace, yet such was the case.

It was not to. play the spy, but to ease the anguish at her own heart that Leila stole away from her friends in the palace and sought the seclusion of the garden. She was about to enter the summer-house when the low murmur of voices told her it was occupied. Before she could retrace her stepB, Kohala and Marguerite Holmes camie out, and as they disappeared in the direction of the palace the beautiful girl clung to the arbor for support and sobbed:

"Oh, she is heartless, ,and her plaything is the most precious thing in life to me !

CHAPTER m.

THE CONSPIRATORS.

"How DOES she live?" was a question which people skeptical as to Mrs. Holmes often asked each other. The answer was usually an arching of the eyebrows or a shrug of the shoulders. This question applied to the lady's resources and not to the manner of her living. It was well known that with a maid, brought with her from England— this "maid," as her mistress called her, was a taciturn woman of five-and-forty — Mrs. Holmes lived in the one-half of a large furnished cottage, rented from a respectable couple who had more room than they needed.

As Mrs. Holmes neither borrowed nor ran into debt her enemies were disappointed, for from their first dis-

W KOHAIiA OF HAWAII.

like they had prophesied that she would do both before long, and that she would skip away on some steamer, when she was quite ready, and leave her creditors to curse their credulity.

It was the morning following the Queen's ball, and those who had attended, and whose duties did not call tliem up, were asleep. Mrs. Holmes, dressed in a loose red wrapper of some soft material that gave by its reflection a becoming glow to her usually -pale cheeks, had had her breakfast by nine o'clock and was out in the garden attending the flowers, in her great love for which there certainly was no affectation. Suddenly, she came upon a lame kitten under the bushes, and though she had never seen it before, with a cry of mingled pain and sympathy she caught the little creature up, pressed it to her breast and ran into her own bedroom, which opened by swinging windows on the piazza.