HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT By WILLIAM R. CASTLE, JR, M Author of "The Green Vase" With Illustrations And A Map NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1913 Copyright, 1918, bt DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY Published March, 1913 Wo MY FATHER Lifelong friend of the Hawaiian People ; foremost among those who have laboured for the upbuilding of the Islands — his unselfish devotion is the inspiration of his children 262629 PREFACE This book has a double purpose : to tell those who stay at home something about Hawaii, the young- est of American Territories ; and to help those who are going there to plan their trip intelligently. Baedeker has not yet extended his labours to the Pacific Islands, and no guidebook is available for the traveller. Many books have been written about special phases of Hawaii — its history or its com- merce or its industry — but none has attempted to give concisely a survey of its history, its present conditions, and its natural beauty. This book, therefore, falls naturally into two divisions, the first part explanatory, the second, as well as may be, descriptive. The information it contains has been gathered from most diverse sources, books, pamphlets, and even railroad folders, the whole checked by my own personal knowledge. The facts, I am sure, are accurate. The descriptions are largely from my own observations, and I have tried not to fall into the error of exaggeration so common in books of this kind. The very comprehensiveness of the book has made it difficult to write. It would have been easy to devote all the space to discussion of industrial conditions, or of the Hawaiian people, or of the Volcano, but this would have been to write an essay vii viii PREFACE for specialists. It would have been still easier to tell of my own boyhood experiences, of thrill- ing climbs over the mountains in search of land- shells, of amusing experiences on the funny little old inter-island boats, but this would have resulted only in another "Diary," this time of a quite ordinary boy. I have tried, however, to keep my- self in mind in so far as to tell things as I myself have seen them, expressing so far as possible in the descriptions my own feelings about the scenes described. And I hope the book may do something toward stirring in others an interest in Hawaii, an interest which, with fuller knowledge, must issue in something of the affection for the Islands that is felt by all of us who have there spent our childhood days. X- I have drawn freely on Dr. W. J^. Alexander's excellent book, " A Brief History of the Hawaiian People," and on Mr. C. W. Baldwin's clear and accurate " Geography of the Hawaiian Islands," and to the authors of both these books I want to express my thanks for the cordial permission they have given me to make use of the result of their study. Most of all I must thank my father, who has read my manuscript and who, from his almost inexhaustible knowledge of Hawaiian affairs, has made suggestions without which this book would hardly have been possible. W. R. Castle, Jb. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGX I Introduction .... 1 II The Hawaiian People . . 13 III History to 1898 . 30 IV Hawaii as a Territory . . 53 /v Commerce and Industry . 68 VI Honolulu .... 84 VII Oahu . . 109 VIII Kauai 131 IX MOLOKAI AND MaUI . 144 X Hawaii 164 XI The Volcanoes . 193 XII Island Life . 216 Appendix . 231 Index of Places . 239 ILLUSTRATIONS Statue of Kamehameha I Hawaiian grass house, Kona, Hawaii . . . . Spearing fish at Napoopoo, Hawaii .... Hawaiian surf-riding . Ascending Pali road six miles N. E. of Honolulu . Executive Building, formerly the Royal Palace, Honolulu " Washington Place," resi- dence of Queen Liliuoka- lani, Honolulu . Diamond Head and Waikiki from Punch Bowl Sugar cane in flower; will be ripe and ready to grind in from six to eight weeks Oahu sugar mill, near Hono- lulu, cane ready for grind- ing Pineapple plantation, Wa- hiawa, Oahu View of Port of Honolulu and Harbour ; Nuuanu Valley behind .... Frontispiece Facing page 8 16 26 34 46 56 62 70 76 82 90 xii ILLUSTRATIONS Banyan tree and Royal Palms, Honolulu . . Facing page 104 Oahu College grounds, show- ing Royal Palm Avenue and one of the school buildings " " 112 Hilo Bay and town, Mauna Kea, 14,000 feet high, in the background ... « « 12g Waianae Mountains across rice field, Oahu ... « « 134 Waimea River and Valley, Kauai .... « « 140 Bridge over crack on floor of crater .... « « I54 Scene at Onomea on east coast of Hawaii . . « « y^Q Visitors scorching postal cards and letters in lava in Kilauea communicating with internal fires . . « « Ig^ The rim of the crater of Haleakala .... « « 196 Liquid lava in Halemaumau, Kilauea .... « « 210 Hawaiian " pounding poi " . " " SI 8 Hawaiian lei and flower sellers, Honolulu . . « « 226 Map Hawaii .... " " 230 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION At the time of their annexation to the United States much was heard of the Hawaiian Islands as the Key to the Pacific, a name which, unlike most tags, seems to be a fairly accurate descrip- tion. Situated between 19° and 23" north latitude and between 154" 40' and 162° west longitude, they are at the junction of the principal steamer routes across the Pacific and indeed are the only land of any extent within a radius of two thousand miles. This situation gives them, inevitably, great strategic and commercial importance. To the north the nearest land is Alaska with the chai. of the Aleutian Islands, 2,000 miles away; to the east, the North American Continent, 2,000 miles ; and to the west, the Philippine Islands, 4,500 miles. Honolulu is distant 2,100 miles from San Francisco, 2,460 miles from Victoria, B. C, 4,700 from Manila, 3,400 from Yokohama, 3,810 from Auckland, and 4,410 from Sydney. It is reached from San Francisco and the Orient by ships of the Pacific Mail S. S. Co., and of the Toyo Kisen Kaisha of Japan ; from British Columbia and Australia by steamers of the Canadian-Austra- 2 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT Han Steamship Co. There are also local boats running between the Islands and San Francisco. As the steamers on all these lines have adequate passenger accommodations and as the six-day pas- sage from San Francisco is usually smooth, the Islands are easily accessible, and, as their attrac- tions become better known, will inevitably be more and more the resort of tourists. The Hawaiian group consists of twelve islands, of which the principal, and indeed the only in- habited, islands are, in order of their size : Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe. They were formed by lava poured out from a fissure in the earth's crust which ex- tended for about two thousand miles along the bottom of the ocean. To the northwest these lava mountains reached only to the surface of the water, just appearing in Midway, Nekkar, Ocean, and other islets and never forming important land until Kauai, the most northwesterly of the Ha- waiian group, was built far above sea level. On this island the volcanic fires first went out and so were successively extinguished on island after island toward the southeast until Hawaii was reached. This island is still in the process of building. Erosion is therefore greatest on Kauai, and, with the exception of parts of those islands which have little or no water, least on Hawaii. All the islands of the group were originally lofty and INTRODUCTION S gently sloping mountains, but these have been worn by streams on the leeward side into deep ravines and valleys, and on the windward sides have been literally cut away by rains and winds, so that the mountains are now precipitous, rising from the sea in sheer cliffs, hundreds and even thousands of feet high. Geologically the Islands are composed of two kinds of lava rock, one completely fused and very hard, the other only partly fused (tufa), which was thrown out by the ancient volcanoes in masses and in smaller particles. Tufa decomposes under the action of erosion much more quickly than does the solid lava, but this, after centuries of wear and tear by the weather and of being broken by the roots of plants that somehow find means of life even on very recent lava flows, makes a far richer soil. Where there is not too much rain it becomes a deep red earth, the best on the Islands for agri- cultural purposes except the sedimentary soil in the valley bottoms and along the coast. The only non-volcanic rock, a certain amount of sandstone and of coral, is the result of the uplifting of ancient reefs. In climate the Hawaiian Islands are exception- ally favoured. The northeast trade winds blow for nine months in the year, and ocean currents, also from the northeast, further moderate the tempera- ture so that it averages 10° lower than in any 4 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT other region in the same latitude, at sea level from 60** to 85°, with a mean of about 74°, and pro- portionally lower as one ascends to higher eleva- tions. There are no cyclones, and thunderstorms are very rare. The rainfall is much greater on the windward than on the lee sides of the Islands, the average rainfall of Honolulu being, for ex- ample, 35 inches, and of Hilo, 150 inches. In some districts the average falls as low as two inches, and in some rises as high as 300 inches. This necessarily results in a much more luxuriant vegetation on the windward slopes, wherever excess of rain has not washed away the soil, but the mountain forests extend well down the southern and western slopes, and artesian wells, combined with an excellent system of irrigation, permit culti- vation in almost all parts. The flora is varied and very beautiful. There are, first, the indigenous plants, growing wild on the mountains, among them many ornamental and useful trees, such as the koa, or Hawaiian mahog- any, which is extensively used for furniture, and the ohia, which is very hard, takes a high polish, and is used for furniture, floors, and panelling, as well as for railroad ties and permanent fence- posts. The koa is a wonderful golden brown in colour, full of light and shadows, and exquisitely grained. The ohia is darker, in texture more like the teak-wood of the Orient. The second group INTRODUCTION 5 of plants are those which were introduced from the south by early Hawaiian voyagers. Useful plants they were, — cocoanuts, bananas, bread- fruit, taro, sugar-cane, mulberries, and fibre plants for the manufacture of mats, ropes, and fish-nets. Of the third group are the plants now growing wild but introduced more recently from abroad, such as the guava, orange, mango, and algaroba tree, which last forms almost impenetra- able forests near the seacoast. Every effort is be- ing made by both Federal and Territorial officials toward intelligent conservation of already exist- ing forests and toward reforestation. Many bar- ren spaces have already been reclaimed with heavy planting of algaroba, eucalyptus, ironwood, and other trees. In animal life the Islands are not so rich. At the time of their discovery dogs, hogs, mice, and domestic fowls, beside wild fowls and migratory birds, were the only animals. Of reptiles there were only a few harmless lizards. Snakes were and are unknown. There were about seventy varieties of wild birds, however, many of which, owing to the recession of the forests, have become extinct. Insects, including the mosquito (the malarial mosquito is fortunately unknown), have since been brought in, and, with the careless intro- duction of foreign plants, certain blights, for which the natural enemies have been discovered 6 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT in time to prevent any wholesale destruction of vegetation. The most distinctive form of animal life, and the only one peculiar to the Islands, is the land-shells (achatinella), of which there are 341 species. These shells grow on the leaves of forest trees, and are often exquisite in colouring. The industries, of which sugar is far in the lead, are discussed in another chapter. The population of the islands has fluctuated greatly, decreasing from perhaps 250,000 in 1778 to 57,985 in 1878, since when it has steadily in- creased until, by the census of 1910, it was found to be 191,909. Of this number only 26,041 were of pure Hawaiian blood, with 12,606 of mixed Hawaiian and Caucasian or Asiatic blood. Of the remainder, 22,303 were Portuguese, 4,890 Porto Rican, 1,990 Spanish, 14,867 other Caucasian (principally American), 21,674 Chinese, 70,674 Japanese, 4,533 Korean, and 3,431 of different or mixed races. The native-born population num- bered 98,157 and the foreign-born 93,752. From this table it is clear that the increase of popula- tion common to all the islands of the group has been principally due to the importation of labour- ers, since the Portuguese and Porto Ricans as well as the Orientals have been introduced to work on the plantations. Of these the Portuguese generally turn at last to independent agricultural pursuits, settle permanently in the country, and become INTRODUCTION 7 good citizens. Many of the Orientals also become merchants or lease land to raise fruit or vegetables on their own account, but the great majority are a floating population who have left home only temporarily to earn money. An encouraging sign, except in one respect, is the steady growth of the native-born population. During 1911 the birth rate among all races except the Hawaiian was materially in excess of the death rate. But among pure Hawaiians there were, sadly enough, 1,010 deaths as against only 592 births, a decrease only partly compensated by the fact that of part- Hawaiians there were 467 births as against 172 deaths. The race, as a pure race, must inevitably disappear, but it may well be that the traces of Hawaiian blood in the future inhabitants of the Territory will add dignity and grace and gentle- ness. This seems now to be the case among those of mixed Hawaiian and Oriental lineage, and some- times, especially among the women, is it true of the children of Hawaiians and Caucasians. The population of the Islands must always be very cosmopolitan, but this does not mean that they cannot be a strong outpost of American civilisa- tion, since the climate, unlike that of the Philip- pines, for example, is wholly favourable to the growth of a preponderantly Caucasian popula- tion. This very mixture of races makes the Islands, 8 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT from the point of view of the tourist, far more interesting than they would otherwise be. Most of the primitive Hawaiian life has disappeared for ever, and the people themselves are, of neces- sity, more sophisticated in outlook. They have, however, kept their simplicity of manner and with it many of the customs so deeply rooted in their nature. Their love of colour is ineradicable. Uni- versally they wear wreaths or " leis " of flowers or of feathers. The women dress in the " holoku," a kind of Mother Hubbard gown that is often of bright red or blue or purple. Still, especially in the country districts, the men sit in front of their houses pounding " poi," the national dish. Some- times a cavalcade of riders passes, the women astride, wearing " pads," which are strands of brilliant cloth wound around the legs and stream- ing out behind the horses like wings. The fisher- men cling to the picturesque but heavy dug-out canoe with its huge outrigger of lighter wood. Still, when a chief dies, the ancient wailing makes nights and days tragically musical. And when one does not see the Hawaiians themselves there are the Chinese and Japanese and Koreans to make one realise that Honolulu is also a gateway to the Orient. In the city are lines of deep, dark shops where Chinamen sit stolidly on carved teak-wood stools before their queer baskets and rows of lacquered boxes and rolls of silk; noisy corners O eg as INTRODUCTION 9 where voluble Japanese congregate to bargain and to discuss excitedly all sorts of profound or trivial questions. Through the streets trudge the Orien- tal market-gardeners, their wares displayed in two flat, round, open baskets suspended from each end of a long pole — lettuce and purple eggplant and white, twisted lotus roots, or little tins of the scarlet strawberries that fruit the whole year round. Or on the plantations one sees them — these sturdy men of the East — cutting the cane with long, keen knives and loading it on little cars to be carried to the mill; or in the mill itself, stripped to the waist, shovelling the warm raw sugar into sacks; or, after work is over, playing the hose on each other, quite naked, before their cottages in the cool of the day. Even the Caucasians, the Americans and English and Germans, are obviously the deni- zens of another land. Their white linen suits and muslin dresses, their skins tanned with the tropical sun, the very freedom of their motions, differen- tiate them from their brothers and sisters in the north. But here there is no suggestion of illness, as in so many tropical countries. There is no fever in the clean trade winds. They are as sturdy physically as ever their fathers and mothers were at home. Their children do not have to be sent away like the children of those who are expatriated to India, but grow up as strong as the children of the home land. All this makes them not restless 10 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT sojourners in a foreign country, but rather adven- turers who have found a new home and broader opportunity. / Hawaii is a land of law and order. Different / as it may be in its outward aspects, one feels it to be essentially an outpost and a distant centre of American civilisation. Partly consciously, partly unconsciously, the missionaries saw to that. English is the official language, even though in the courts and in the legislature speeches are by courtesy translated into Hawaiian. The schools are conducted in English. American enter- prise has built up the country, although much British and German capital is also invested. The Hawaiian people themselves have so absorbed the essential ideals of America that one feels the coun- try, with all its superficially un-American traits, to rest on a thoroughly American foundation. The complexity of races gives a picturesqueness that is utterly absent from a blatant Western town. There is all the vigour of young American life, but with an added grace and stability brought about through contact with other more conservative peo- ples. The Islands give an admirable example of colonisation which has been able to inspire with its own ideals, its own strength, while it has not imposed such slavish following of externals as would destroy sense of individuality and as would cause irritation through forcing an alien race to \ INTRODUCTION 11 abandon customs that are not incompatible with progress. Every American interested in the achievements of his own country ought to see this youngest Ter- ritory, since here, better than anywhere else, can he appreciate the assimilative and uplifting power of the best American traditions. It is, moreover, an older civilisation than that of California, more suggestive of the Atlantic seaboard than of the Pacific. And this is natural, since the first settlers, the missionaries, came from the Eastern States and came, moreover, not in a spirit of gain and of conquest, but for the express purpose of giving to a new land the best that they had known in an old one. They held fast to their own ideals, but were fortunately able to see that there might be other and different ideals which could exist side by side with theirs. It is true that they destroyed much that was picturesque. They insisted, for example, on trousers and skirts as a necessary adjunct of Christianity, but skirts and trousers, whether considered as insignia of Christianity or of decency, seem inevitably to follow in the wake of civilisation. Beyond this, however, beyond Christianising and educating, the missionaries were willing to admit that God made the climate and that neither tropical customs nor tropical architecture need conform strictly to those of New England. For a hundred years the predomi- 12 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT nant influence has been American, and it is an influence which has become the motive power of the land, so that we have really, to-day, a bit of America that is no less American because it holds as surface decoration some of the colour and some of the strangeness of other lands. Add to all this, which might be called the intel- lectual interest of the place, a climate always mild, but never cruelly hot, such physical traits as su- perb mountains glowing with tropical colour, that spring straight from the shining sea, a varied and a beautiful flora, the greatest active volcanoes in the world, and there seems truth in the other name that has long been given the Islands, "The Paradise of the Pacific." CHAPTER II THE HAWAHAN PEOPLE Early Hawaiian history is entirely legendary. There was no written language, although certain crude outline pictures and characters, apparently depicting historical events, have recently been found. These, however, have not yet been deci- phered. The history, therefore, can be traced only through ancient " meles " or songs, poems without rhyme or metre, but strictly accented and often several hundred lines in length, which were handed down orally for many generations. Every high chief had in his retinue professional bards who, like the minstrels of England, kept alive the tradi- tions of wars and of heroes and who, as well, chanted love songs and dirges and composed poems in honour of the chief. The Islands were settled as early as 500 a. d., a fact proved by the discovery of human bones under ancient lava and coral beds. The Hawaiian people are clearly of the Polynesian race, all branches of which can almost certainly be traced back to the Island of Savaii in the Samoan group. The Hawaiian language is but one dialect of the Polynesian tongue. Indeed, so similar are these 13 14 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT dialects that an intelligent man, well versed in Hawaiian, can understand almost everything said by a Maori of New Zealand. Not only the people, moreover, but the animals and plants in Hawaii, are related to the islands of the south- ern Pacific. This means that the early settlers must have come from the south and southwest, whereas the prevailing winds and currents are from the northeast. Wonderful this passage must have been in any case, across two thousand miles of open ocean in canoes ; still more extraordinary when the voyage was made against winds and currents. There were two periods of migration to Ha- waii, but of the first there are few legends, although to it are ascribed certain temples and the great fish ponds along the coast of Molokai. In the eleventh or twelfth century intercourse with the south was renewed and in the songs are recorded many voyages both to and from Tahiti or Samoa, the voyagers travelling in fleets of canoes and steering by the stars. The canoes were probably built of planks, decked over, and large enough to carry a certain amount of live stock. For some unknown reason the period of this intercourse was very short. During the next five hundred years there are no legends of distant voyages, and ideas of any country beyond the Hawaiian group became indistinct. This time of isolation brought about, THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE 15 naturally, fixed national customs and a very defi- nite and individual national religion. In ancient times the people were divided into three distinct classes, the nobility, the priests and sorcerers, and the common people, and between these classes were absolute and unalterable lines of demarcation. The chiefs, or " alii," were sup- posed to be descended from the gods and their office was, therefore, religious as well as political. So sacred were the highest chiefs considered that when they walked about the people all had to pros- trate themselves. The courts comprised personal attendants of the chief, — men of high rank only on the father's side, — priests, diviners, story- tellers, and dancers, who were trained to the art from infancy. The chief owned all the land and parcelled it out among the nobility, who, in turn, distributed it among the common people. As often as a chief died the land was redistributed. It was the feudal system in its most literal and oppres- sive form, the only check on the power of the nobles being that the people were not fixed to the soil, but might move from place to place at will, thereby entering the service of some other chief. The priests, or " kahunas," were also a heredi- tary order exercising great power, not only be- cause they were the medium of communication with the gods, but because they, only, knew anything of astronomy and medicine. The lower ranks of 16 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT priests were sorcerers, able to pray people to death — one of the few ancient beliefs still held by many Hawaiians. As to the religion itself, four great gods were worshipped in different ways by all Polynesians. According to the Hawaiian interpretation, which does not differ materially from others, the most powerful of these gods was Kane, the creator of the world. He with his brother Kanaloa once lived on the Island of Ha- waii, where they made miraculously many of the springs ; they also introduced the banana and other useful trees. Ku was a cruel god, delighting in suffering and human sacrifice. Lono, of a slightly lower rank, controlled the rains and had his own particular order of priests. In addition to these highest gods, all the forces of nature were deified ; the air, the rocks, the trees, were the expression of invisible beings to whom reverence was due and who must at all times be propitiated. There were also gods of different localities, gods of different professions, gods living in sharks and lizards and owls. Most powerful among the minor deities, as might be expected in a volcanic country, was Pele, the goddess of fire. Near the volcanoes on Hawaii she was most feared, and constant propitiation was therefore necessary. She, with her sisters and her brother, lived in the volcano ; " The roaring of the furnaces and the crackling of the flames were the music of their dance and the red fiery eg O O Ph O o Oh c3 a Ph THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE 17 surge was the surf in which they played." * There were malignant and friendly elves in the woods ; there were demigods of every kind; there were deified ancestors. Not an act of daily life could be performed without reference to one or more of these divine beings. It was this far-reaching super- stition that gave rise to the tabu system, one of the most ^aborate devices of any heathen race. This system was made up of minute regulations, infringement of any one of which was considered both as a sin against the gods and as a political offence, since the office of the chiefs was religious as well as seciilar. The following are a very few of these tabus, which are enough to indi- cate their general character: Men and women were compelled to eat in separate houses and women were not allowed to eat with men or to enter men's eating-houses on pain of death. For women, also, certain food, such as bananas, cocoanuts, and pork, was forbidden. A com- moner was prohibited on pain of death from crossing the shadow of a chief — a law which must have been difficult to obey in the early morning or late afternoon. Certain nights of the month were tabu — the king spent the time in the temple, which was closed to all other persons, nor during those nights could women step into canoes. At certain tabu periods no sound could be heard, no fire could •Ellis: ** Tour of Hawaii.'* 18 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT be lighted ; dogs were muzzled and fowls tied up in calabashes. For four days after the dedication of a temple there could be no fishing, no bathing, no pounding of poi, no work of any kind in the locality. All this system was elaborated by the priests on the basis of tradition and was enforced by the chiefs. Connected with it was an equally com- plicated religious ritual. The more important temples consisted of great stone platforms sur- rounded by thick stone walls. The interior was often terraced and occasionally there was an inner court in which stood the principal idol. In the centre of the main court was the oracle, an obelisk of wicker work, within which the priest stood when acting as intermediary with the gods. In this court also were sacred houses in which the king and priests lived during periods of tabu. On the outer walls of the temple stood innumerable hideous images, probably intended as human scare- crows to frighten away the over-inquisitive. In addition to the temples were houses of refuge, to which criminals of any grade could flee and receive protection until the time of purification was passed, when they could go out under the care of the gods. The idols, after having certain cere- monies performed over them, became representa- tives of the gods and were reputed to have definite powers imparted by their respective deities. THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE 19 Every family, moreover, had its private idol, the power of which was very limited as compared with that of the temple idols. The prayers composing the temple ritual were, like the songs, handed down orally through many generations. They were in reality charms rather than prayers, and had to be recited accurately to be effective, — a very difficult task, since they were so long that they often took hours to repeat and were in an ancient dialect not much more understood by the common people than in Russia is the old Slavonic tongue of the Orthodox ritual. Human sacrifice, the su- preme act of worship, was reserved for the most solemn occasions only, such as the dedication of a temple, the funeral rites of a chief, or the launch- ing of a war canoe. The victims, who were se- cretly slain by the Mu, the official executioner, were either prisoners of war or men who had in- fringed the tabu. Women, being inferior and therefore not worthy to be offered to the gods, were, in this instance at least, safe. The common people, who were hardly more than serfs, had little to make life happy unless they were fortunate enough to be attached to a benevo- lent chief. All were liable to military service, and wars, after the beginning of the fifteenth century, were nearly continuous. Weapons consisted of long and short spears, daggers, clubs, and slings. There were no shields, but trained warriors be- 20 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT came very expert in warding off attack. Van- couver says that in a sham battle he saw " six spears cast at once at Kamehameha I, of which he caught three, parried two, and avoided the sixth by a quick movement of the body." After a battle it was customary to give no quarter to the defeated enemy. In spite of the wars, however, much time was of necessity given to peaceful pursuits. As there was no metal, tools were made of stone, or sharks' teeth, or wood, yet with these rude imple- ments the people carried on extensive agricultural works, terraced the land when necessary, built irri- gation ditches and tunnels, and constructed fields for the growing of taro. This was their principal crop, as it was, and is, the staple food. The best of it, and indeed the larger proportion, grows in fields which must be covered with water to the depth of a few inches and which must, therefore, be very carefully laid out. The root is boiled or steamed until soft, pounded with stone pestles into a paste, mixed with water, and allowed slightly to ferment. This is poi, the national food, very healthful, and, to those who are accustomed to it, very good. (It may be noted that the glutinous qualities are such that it is used also as a paste in hanging wallpaper.) In addition to taro, the ancient Hawaiians cultivated sweet potatoes, yams, and bananas. Of animal food they had only pork. -Fishing was, therefore, a most important industry. THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE 21 and the fishermen, who formed a class by them- selves, were expert in the use of hook and line, net, and spear. Fish, too, were preserved in huge fish ponds, which were made by building rock walls, sometimes a mile or more in length, in rude semi- circles into the sea, each end resting on the shore. These walls were built close enough to prevent the fish from escaping, while the tide water could still pass through them. Some of these fish ponds are still in use, but the most interesting are the ancient ones, now, owing to the subsidence of the land, many feet under water, which one sees from the hills of Molokai. Both fish and vegetables were prepared in underground ovens. They - were wrapped in leaves and laid on heated stones ; water was then poured into the cavity and the whole covered, the food being cooked by the steam. Houses, varying in size according to the rank of the owner, consisted of rough wooden frames, tied together, and thatched over with grass or ti leaves. The doors were low and narrow and there were usually no windows. There was little or no attempt at ornamentation. To some extent the same style of house is used at the present day, and, like the peasant cottage of Brittany, seems the real expression of the land and of the native character. As one finds them occasionally on the southwest coast of the Island of Hawaii, nothing could be lovelier than one of these gray-brown huts, 22 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT with tapering cocoanuts at one side, a great mass of vivid green banana trees on the other, and be- hind, the red foothills. Civilisation seems to slip away and one is conscious only of the old man and the old woman sitting cross-legged in the sun, busy with the same primitive tasks that oc- cupied their ancestors hundreds of years ago. For furniture they had only mats, those of finer quality spread over the sleeping-platform at the end of the room; calabashes and water bottles made of gourds, which were sometimes decorated by burn- ing ; and bowls and platters of polished wood. At night they burned kukui nuts (Aleuritis moluc- cana) for light. Their clothing was made of kapa, or, as it is usually called, tapa, a kind of paper cloth manufactured by the women from the bark of certain trees. This kapa was of different grades, some as heavy as leather, some as fine as linen.* The women wrapped strips of it about three feet wide around the waist, and the men used it as a " malo " or loin cloth. It was also some- times worn as a mantle by both men and women. This simplicity of dress was more than compen- sated by the national love of ornament. Both men and women wore wreaths of flowers or of bright- coloured feathers, or strings of orange-coloured * *I saw recently in London a book containing over a hundred specimens of this tapa, brought to England by Captain Cook's Expedition. THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE 28 pandanus fruit on head and neck. The chiefs wore also hooks of walrus ivory suspended from the neck on braids of human hair. No costume could have been, after all, more appropriate than this brightly-dyed kapa and these brilliant flowers against the bronze skin, which seems in itself a dress. The Hawaiians were a sport-loving people. Boxing, wrestling, foot racing, and bowling with polished stone discs were among the favourite amusements. Still to be seen, also, are the long slides on steep hillsides, down which they darted on wooden sleds. Swimming and diving were the delight of all, chiefs and common people, and surf riding remains to this day one of the favourite sports. It is this surf riding, as popular now \vith foreigners as with the natives, which makes Waikiki, near Honolulu, unique among bathing resorts. The surf rider takes a long, smooth, pol- ished board and with it swims out a half-mile or so from the shore. He then lies flat on his board and swims rapidly toward shore until a roller catches the board and carries him on its crest to the beach. Expert surf riders can raise them- selves to a standing position after the wave takes them and so ride, standing, for hundreds of yards, or as far as the wave will carry them. The game has all the excitement of tobogganing without the eff^ort of dragging the toboggan uphill again, be- 24 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT cause the swim out to sea, diving under the waves as one goes, has almost the fun of the ride back. For those who cannot swim the tamer sport of surf riding in long Hawaiian canoes, the outrig- gers of which make an upset next to impossible, is a good substitute. Like this sport, Hawaiian dancing and music remain to recall the ancient times. The primitive flute can be heard only as it is played by the pen- sioners at Lunalilo Home, and even the ukulele, a tiny guitar, is an improvement almost beyond rec- ognition over the old " ukeke," although its use as a metrical accompaniment is much the same. The songs still have the old melody, with minor cadences and a haunting sadness that sets them off from all other songs. And when a chief dies the wailing is still heard, — a piercing rhythmical lamentation lasting for hours or even days within and around the house of the dead. It can never be forgotten, and somehow, after one has heard it, one can recog- nise always, even in the love songs that are chanted in the moonlight outside of hotel windows, a strain of the same hopeless sadness which is so fully ex- pressed in the dirges and which is perhaps a note of the passing Hawaiian race. For a passing race it surely is. No one knows when the number of inhabitants was greatest, but it is certain that the continuous wars which rav- aged the country for two centuries and over before THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE 25 its discovery by Captain Cook had already reduced the population by a large proportion. Foreigners — even Captain Cook's own crew — introduced dis- eases unknown before. The people had never been moral according to Anglo-Saxon standards, the marriage tie being of the loosest, polygamy a com- mon practice, and fidelity an unknown virtue. This meant that the diseases of civilisation could do their worst. What made the situation even more deplorable was the almost complete lack of medical knowledge. It is true that the uses of certain herbs were understood, but sickness, ac- cording to the common belief, was caused by evil spirits and its cure was in sorcery. Relatives of the sick man made offerings for him. If this did not prove effective the sick man himself, whatever his disease, was given a steam bath and then dipped in the sea, or was made to eat pieces of squid. The sorcerers, however, were more often employed to make men sick than to relieve suffering, and so absolute was the belief in evil spirits, so powerful the imagination, that they were always successful. A man who knew that a kahuna was praying him to death promptly died. The wonder is, not that the population declined, but that it did not decline even more rapidly. At the time of the discovery of the Islands the native population numbered, according to Cook, ,000, but on what he based his data is not 26 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT known; 250,000 is probably nearer the truth. To-day there are not 30,000 pure-blooded Hawaiians, about 40,000 including the part-Ha- waiians. The race, already decimated by war, decreased rapidly under the scourge of measles, smallpox, venereal diseases, and strong drink. Now that there is adequate medical knowledge, and with the protection given to the Hawaiians by the better class of white people, the race might again increase were it not for intermarriage with for- eigners. So general is this intermarriage that, although the number of those with Hawaiian blood is greater with every census, the number of pure- blooded natives proportionally decreases. It is a question of only a few generations before the Hawaiians, as a people, will be only a memory, just as their language will soon be extinct as a pure tongue. \ And in many ways this disappearance of the race is sad, for the Hawaiians are a people with a past that is often noble. In spite of their weak- nesses and their follies they are very lovable. The best of them are physically admirable, tall, well- formed, with high foreheads, good features, deep chests, slender limbs. In colour they are some- thing like the American Indian, although not as red, and their high cheekbones and straight hair accentuate the resemblance. There is nothing about them to suggest the negro, and they them- • •«• .« :t* eg I THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE ' 27 selves consider him as an inferior being. Their manners are excellent, their motions graceful. Among the higher ranks, of whom the Queen is a good example, there is a courtliness of demeanour which recalls the salons of the old European aris- tocracy. They carry themselves well, walk firmly and lightly. Nothing could be more physically beautiful, more harmonious in line, than a Ha- waiian fisherman, naked except for his loin cloth, as he stands poised on a rock ready to cast his net. He is classic in the moulding of his form, in the perfection and symmetry of his muscular development, insistently reminiscent of some Greek bronze of an athlete stripped for the games. The Hawaiians are also an intelligent people, so that teaching them is a pleasure. Nor are they merely imitative. They make good teachers in the schools, good overseers on the plantations. They never steal. They are honest and trustworthy. They are affectionate and grateful for kindness. Like children, however, they are emotional and easily led, voting often, for example, against their principles on the advice of some unscrupulous agitator and keenly regretting afterwards what they have done. They are now, as they always have been, abnormally fond of games of chance, and in the excitement of the moment will wager everything they possess, which, fortunately for them and unfortunately for " beasts of prey," is 28 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT usually very little. Their most besetting sin is what might be called moral laziness. On the plantations, for instance, they make splendid workmen, accomplishing in a day twice the amount of hard labour that a Japanese is willing to do, but when pay day comes they go home and, for- getting to return in the morning, fish a little, sleep and eat a great deal, until their money is ex- hausted and their credit gone. Then, with perfect cheerfulness, they go back to work. According most satisfactorily with this habit is the ancient custom, loyally adhered to even at present, of dependence on a chief. The Queen has very many who look to her for food and shelter because their ancestors looked to her ancestors, and she, as loyal to custom as they, supports them out of her meagre resources. The same is true in greater or less degree of all the remaining chiefs. Except in the case of intermarriage with the Chinese, the mixture of Hawaiian with foreign blood does not usually result well. There are notable exceptions of part-Hawaiians in important public and private positions, but as a rule, among the men at least, it seems to be the weak qualities of both races which are exemplified in the children of mixed marriages. As the Hawaiian blood be- comes more and more diluted this may not be the case, but as it is now it makes even sadder the breaking up of the race, because too often in the THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE 29 half-Hawaiian it is the moral weakness that will be noted and imputed to the native blood, not the physical strength; the love of gambling, not the honesty; the vacillation, not the loyalty; the trickiness, not the childlike simplicity. An eth- nologist a few generations hence, in attempting to reconstruct from the predominant characteristics of their mongrel descendants a picture of the ancient Hawaiian race, will make them a people despicable and thoroughly degraded. And those who have known them in their integrity, like chil- dren faulty and volatile, but like children eager to be taught and susceptible to every good influence, will no longer be there to defend them. The man who would see the remnants of a genial, kindly, aff'ectionate race must see them now or never. CHAPTER III HISTORY TO 1898 From the time of settlement to about the end of the thirteenth century the Hawaiian Islands, di- vided almost from the first into independent king- doms, seem on the whole to have been peaceful. From this time on, however, strife became more and more general, and after 1450 a. d. there were continual wars, which had the inevitable effect of lowering standards, materially, as well as intel- lectually and morally, and also of seriously de- creasing the population. Many and barbarous were the battles and, as no quarter was given the conquered, whole districts were devastated and depopulated. One chief after another, arrogant and rapacious, led his brutal army from district to district, from island to island. Sometimes a chief gained control of a large part of the group, only to lose what he had conquered through suc- cessful rebellion during his own lifetime; surely, so far as the establishment of a dynasty was con- cerned, to lose it when, after his death, quarrels broke out as to redistribution of land among the competing nobles. In November, 1736, during one of these ferocious and unnecessary civil wars, 30 HISTORY TO 1898 31 Kamehameha I was born, but before his work of uniting the country under one sovereign was be- gun, the Islands were discovered by Captain Cook. From old maps it is clear that the Spaniards had known as early as the sixteenth century that there was land somewhere in the vicinity of the Islands, but the world had no information as to its exact position and extent until Captain Cook, on a voy- age of discovery to the northwest coast of America, sighted the Island of Oahu on January 18th, 1778. He saw soon afterwards the Islands of Niihau and Kauai, and landed at Waimea Bay on the latter island on the 20th. He then sailed to Niihau, where he spent a week taking on provisions and water, and trading. The general impression among the natives seems to have been that Captain Cook was a reincarnation of the god Lono, and that his crew were supernatural beings. Runners, who sailed in the swiftest canoes, and ran from end to end of the successive islands, were sent to carry to the different chiefs the news of these strange arrivals. This is a translation of their message : " The men are white ; their skin is loose and folding; their heads are angular; fire and smoke issue from their mouths ; they have openings in the sides of their bodies into which they thrust their hands and draw out iron, beads, nails, and other treasures, and their speech is unintelligible. This is the way they speak: 'a hikapalale, hika- 32 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT palale, hioluai, oalaki, walawalaki, waiki poha.' " * Apocryphal as this account may conceivably be, it differs from similar accounts in history and fic- tion of the effect produced on the savage mind by the first sight of civilised white men, in the extraor- dinary and probably authentic exposition of the English language as it sounded to the astonished ears of the Hawaiians. It will be noted that no letters are used which are unknown in the native tongue. In the following November Captain Cook re- turned, and, after cruising about among the Islands, in January set up winter quarters for purposes of trade and for making observations, at Kealakekua Bay, on the southwest coast of Ha- waii. The priests constituted themselves his bodyguard, offered sacrifices to him in the temple, and made the people worship him as a god. Large quantities of provisions were supplied and there was no more question of payment than there would have been for offerings made to any other god. But in this case the offerings were in large quan- tities and were continuous, so that, after the nov- elty had worn off, the heavy tax began to make the people restless. The outrageous conduct of the crew, also, over whom there seems to have been no control, disgusted them, and only their ♦Alexander: "Short History of the Hawaiian People," p. 107. HISTORY TO 1898 83 terror of the priests kept them in subordination. The departure of the strangers, therefore, after about three weeks, was a time of great rejoicing among the natives — a joy unfortunately short- lived, as the ships ran into a severe storm and were compelled to return for repairs. The recep- tion this time was very different. The priests were still faithful, so provisions were grudgingly supplied, but the people were convinced that the white men were not gods, treated them with con- tempt, and finally became so bold as to steal a ship's boat. In the fighting which ensued Captain Cook was killed by being stabbed in the back with an iron dagger. His body was held by the natives and was that night given formal funeral rites. His bones were deified. There is no doubt that in this last affray the natives were the aggressors. There is also no doubt that, had the sailors been kept in check and the people been treated with decent consideration, the final tragedy would not have occurred. Stories, believed at the time and by many believed to this day, that Captain Cook's body was eaten, are absolutely groundless. The Hawaiians were never at any time in their history cannibals. Captain Cook named this new land the Sand- wich Islands, in honour of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, but it was a name never adopted offi- cially and is gradually falling out of use the world 34 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT over. The discovery of the Islands was the in- auguration of a new era in Hawaiian affairs. Their isolation was over. New forces were hence- forth to control their destiny, but it is sad that the first gift of the white men was disease and that the feeling for them left in the minds of the natives was one of fear mingled with contempt. The history of the next thirty years is the story of the gradual conquest of the Islands by Kame- hameha. Left, on the death of the old King, as second in power on the Island of Hawaii, he was soon involved in one of the endless civil wars, and after many reverses succeeded in making himself the most powerful chief in the island, not even excepting the King, to whom he was nominally subject. In 1790 a great eruption of Kilauea, which destroyed a large part of his rival's army that was actually marching against him, convinced Kamehameha that the goddess Pele was on his side. It was, however, not a brilliantly successful battle, but an act of gross treachery, culminating in the murder of the King of Hawaii, which gave him the sovereignty of the island. In 1795 dis- sensions in the leeward islands made Kamehameha believe that the time had come to carry his con- quests across the water. Tradition reports the strength of his army as 16,000 men. Maui he took with comparative ease, and Oahu after a fierce struggle in Nuuanu Valley, where the survivors of o o HISTORY TO 1898 35 the opposing army were driven over the precipice at the head of the valley. The invasion of Kauai was prevented once by a storm which destroyed many of the canoes which had already set sail, once by a pestilence which carried off half of Kamehameha's army. The island was finally, in 1810, voluntarily ceded by its king, who was, how- ever, given permission to hold it in fief during his lifetime on condition that he make Liholiho, Kame- hameha's heir, his successor. The conquest of the Islands was greatly facilitated by the facts that Kamehameha was superior to other chiefs in the number of his firearms and that he had in his service two or three intelligent white men. After the death of Captain Cook the Islands were visited by successive expeditions, among them those of the well-known navigators. Port- lock and Dixon, and La Perouse, both in 1786. Captain Mears in 1787 took a high chief, Kaiana, a friend of Kamehameha, on a visit to China. On the whole, explorers were friendly, but when the captains of ships visiting the Islands did not treat the natives fairly reprisals were often severe. Thus, for example, in 1789, a sloop, the Fair American, was captured and the crew killed. The sloop was for years used by Kamehameha. Firearms were obtained by barter and sometimes by theft. One explorer. Captain George Vancouver, who had been sent out by the 36 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT British Government, made three visits to Hawaii and has always been considered a benefactor of the Hawaiian people. He refused to sell firearms ; he gave much good and sadly needed advice ; he tried to act as mediator between warring factions ; and landed cattle, which had been hitherto unknown, but which now increased rapidly and were of great benefit to the people. He it was, also, who super- intended the construction of the first vessel built in the Islands, the Britannia^ which formed an im- portant addition to Kamehameha's little navy. At his instigation a council of the chiefs was held in 1794, at which it was determined to place the Islands under the protection of Great Britain, and in February of the same year the British flag was hoisted. If England had ratified this voluntary cession the subsequent history of the group would have been very different. After the conquest of Oahu in 1795 Kameha- meha's chief work consisted in consolidating the government. All the power he centralised in his own hands. He broke up the dangerous influence of ambitious chiefs by apportioning to them land in small scattered parcels instead of assigning whole districts, as had been the custom, and by keeping the more turbulent at the court as his personal attendants. He promoted agriculture by every means in his power, and so sternly reproved and punished crime that serious off^ences became HISTORY TO 1898 87 very rare. He made intelligent and successful efforts to win the approval and co-operation of foreigners. He supported rigorously the whole, complex mass of the ancient tabu system, which was probably wise, since there was nothing as yet to replace the old religion, and the tabus were of great service to him in upbuilding and perfect- ing the power of his own personal rule. He was eminently judicious in the choice of his counsellors and in his appointments. He left to his successor a consistent, efficient governmental system, so thoroughly centralised, its power so impressed on the minds of the people, that even a weak king and the sweeping changes of the next few years did not affect its stability. For his power as a warrior, still more for his sagacity as a ruler, Kamehameha I is rightly considered the greatest of the Hawaiians, and under similar conditions would have been a great man in any country. At the time that the internal affairs of the Islands were being put on a stable basis their opportunities of contact with the outer world became more frequent and their foreign relations more important. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century there grew up a large trade in sandal-wood, which was bought at a preposterously low figure, while at the same time foreign articles were sold in Honolulu at ex- orbitant prices. The sandal-wood trade was so S8 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT extensive and was carried on with so little thought of the future that the trees were practically exterminated and are even now very rare. Vast quantities of rum were imported and stills for the manufacture of a crude liquor, which was prac- tically all alcohol, were set up on the different islands, doing untold injury to the natives. At this time also the Russians carried on an extensive trade with the Islands and took an interest in the country apparently dangerous to its inde- pendence. One trader went so far as to build forts and to hoist the Russian flag, a proceeding which was naturally intensely irritating to the King. To insure the safety of Honolulu a fort was constructed in a position commanding the harbour. This old fort was long since destroyed, but has left its name in Fort Street, which once led to it and is now the principal business thor- oughfare of the city. Immediately after the death of Kamehameha I the whole tabu system fell to pieces and with it went the ancient religion, in which the majority of the people had long since ceased to believe. There were, as might have been expected, some few who at first refused to give up their gods, but it is probable that even these were actuated largely by political ambition, not by any real faith; there was fighting in several places, but the new King and the Queen Regent soon put down this incipient HISTORY TO 1898 89 insurrection. In general the fervour of renuncia- tion was such that the chief priests themselves set the example of burning the idols, and so complete was the holocaust that but very few were saved. Even the museums have found it difficult to obtain fair specimens of ancient Hawaiian idols. Out- wardly the destruction of the old religion was com- plete, but certain superstitions were too deeply rooted in the national character to be quickly eradicated and have for generations influenced the lives of the people, even aff'ecting their understand- ing of the dogmas of Christianity. It is, however, fair to say that in 1819 Hawaii was a land abso- lutely without a religion. The destruction of the idols came about through realisation of their im- potence, as manifested in the freedom from punish- ment of foreigners who made mock of the tabus and who desecrated the temples. This voluntary abolition of the old religion made much easier the task of the American missionaries who arrived a year later. The coming of the missionaries was the real beginning of civilisation in the Islands. Up to 1820 the outside world had given the Hawaiians little beside trinkets, firearms, rum, and more expert methods of deceit. Now it was to give to them their part in the civilisation of Western na- tions, to teach them that this involved the accept- ance of new and higher ideals of conduct, of a 40 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT religion to replace their outworn superstitions; that it meant a life regulated according to civi- lised law. The missionaries undoubtedly went to Hawaii fired with the desire to save souls in danger of eternal damnation. They seem very quickly to have realised that wholesale baptism, misunder- stood, was less important than a general quicken- ing of spirit, a training in the decencies of life. They never neglected the religious side of their teaching, but they also never neglected the secular side. They learned the Hawaiian language; they reduced it to writing and imported printing presses ; they did their best as doctors and taught the elementary rules of health. At first only per- mitted to land on sufferance, they soon became of prime importance to the chiefs, and were their advisers on almost all questions. It is fair to them to say that if this function seemed an undue exten- sion of their religious duties — and their severest critics never accuse them of anything else — they were the only foreigners in the Islands who would advise the chiefs impartially, and the only ones, moreover, who would have advised in such fashion as to save the dwindling remnants of the Hawaiian race. They were pioneers seeking results in bet- ter men, not in riches for themselves; they were trying to give the people their own standards of decency and honour. This soon resulted in bitter opposition from the foreign riffraff who infested HISTORY TO 1898 41 the Islands, and especially from the ships that called more and more frequently. It was the fixed belief of ship captains in those distant days that no laws, whether of God or man, were in force west of Cape Horn. The call at Hawaii for water and provisions was most of all an opportunity for debauchery and unchecked crime. Hawaiian women were often captured and carried off on cruises to the North. When a whaler appeared off the coast many of the native women fled to the mountains as their only sure protection. It is easy to understand, therefore, that when the King promulgated laws against im- morality, laws evidently intended to be enforced, the whaling crews considered themselves cheated out of their rights and turned with rage against the missionaries, whom they correctly held to be responsible. In more than one instance brutal attacks were made on missionaries in isolated sta- tions, who were saved only by the devoted natives. It is sad to think that the commander of a United States frigate was among the most insolent in the demand for the repeal of these laws against vice, and that he permitted his men to attack both the house of a chief and the mission premises in Honolulu for the purpose of frightening the Government into submission. Drink was carry- ing off the Hawaiians by hundreds, and when, in recognition of the danger, a heavy duty 42 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT was laid on spirits, it was the commander of a French frigate who gave the King a few hours to decide whether he would abolish the duty or undertake a war with France. These outrages and many others of a similar kind directed against efforts really to uplift the coun- try were seconded by a party in Honolulu, a party,, unfortunately, headed by the British consul who was for years allowed to retain his post in spite of repeated protests and requests for his removal on the part of the Hawaiian Government. Internal affairs, in the meantime, had been ably managed by the Queen Regent, Kaahumanu, who was a wife of Kamehameha I. The King, Liholiho, or Kamehameha II, was weak and dissipated and finally died while on a trip to England. The Queen Regent held the power until her death, and then appointed Kinau, a daughter of Kamehameha I, who, although an able woman, was not as forceful as Kaahumanu, to succeed her during the minority of the young King. It seems to have been a well- established custom to have a woman hold, with the King, the regal power. Kamehameha III also was inclined to be of weak moral fibre, and every effort was made by the lower class of foreigners to destroy his health and to subvert his vaguely good intentions by leading him into every form of dis- sipation. He was, however, protected, as his predecessor had not been, and his long reign HISTORY TO 1898 43 (1824-1854) was, on the whole, a time of pros- perity and of rapid progress. Education became general, laws were fixed, the troubles concerning the Roman Catholic religion were brought to a satisfactory conclusion by an edict of general toleration. These troubles, which at one time threatened to produce international complications, the King refusing to permit Catholic missionaries to land, were occasioned largely by the fact that Hawaiians had been accustomed for centuries to look on religion as an integral part of the Gov- ernment and, therefore, to consider a man who professed a different creed from that of the King as necessarily a rebel. To Kamehameha III also is due the credit of giving to the kingdom a liberal constitution, which allowed it to be ranked in the company of civilised nations. It was during this reign that a great impetus was given to the development of property by the enactment of laws concerning private owner- ship of land, which laws finally did away with the ancient theory that the title of all lands rested in the chief. A land commission decided that one- third of all the land was the property of the King, one-third the property of the chiefs, and the final third of the common people. The King, a few days after this decision, turned over half of his share to be forever used as Government land, his own portion being called the Crown land. As many 44 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT of the chiefs followed his generous example, the Government came into possession of nearly a third of the land of the Islands. The land commission also undertook the arduous task of proving claims and issuing titles. It being now possible to hold real property in fee simple, to buy it and to sell it, men who were at last owners instead of merely tenants were willing to make extensive improve- ments. Foreigners also were able to acquire land and were no longer considered as sojourners at the will of the King. Another important achievement was the success of the King's commissioners in obtaining definite recognition of Hawaiian independence by England, France, and the United States, Daniel Webster stating on behalf of the United States that " the government of the Sandwich Islands ought to be respected ; that no power ought to take possession of the Islands, either as a conquest or for the pur- pose of colonisation; and that no power ought to seek for any undue control over the existing government, or any exclusive privileges or prefer- ences in matters of commerce." News of this for- eign recognition was not received, however, before Lord George Paulet, commanding H. M. S. Carys- fort, had provisionally annexed the Islands to Great Britain. He acted arbitrarily on the insti- gation of the deputy of that indefatigable trouble- maker, the British consul, who, after this episode, HISTORY TO 1898 45 was finally removed. The alleged reason for the annexation given by Lord Paulet was the unwill- ingness of the Hawaiian Government to settle cer- tain disputes in favour of British subjects. The King, refusing to accede to any further demands, said, " I will not die piecemeal ; they may cut off my head at once." The lowering of the Ha- waiian flag and the hoisting of the British flag in its place occurred on February 18th, 1844, and for five months the Islands were governed by a British commission. In July Admiral Thomas, in command of Her Majesty's forces in the Pacific, arrived in Honolulu, and with all possible cere- mony promptly restored the Hawaiian flag. The open space east of the town, where the restoration was made, was set aside as a public park and is called Thomas Square. It is interesting to note also that in a speech at a great meeting of thanks- giving and rejoicing in the afternoon the King used the words which were afterwards adopted as the national motto : " Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono," meaning " The strength of the land is perpetuated by righteousness." Except for an absurd and meaningless occupation by France for a few days in 1849, the autonomy of the Islands was never again questioned. At this time the diff*erent departments of gov- ernment, executive, legislative, and judicial, were created in substantially the form that they held HISTORY TO 1898 47 ably from the Orient, about 1850, and was spread- ing among Hawaiians in an alarming manner. The Islands were made more accessible by the starting of a line of steamers between San Fran- cisco and Australia which made Honolulu a port of call. With the death of Kamehameha V, after a short reign, the old royal line came to an end. The King had not exercised his right of appointing a suc- cessor and, therefore, a general election was held, in which Prince William C. Lunalilo, who was considered the chief of highest rank in the Islands, was elected as sovereign. He died a year later, not neglecting to appoint his successor, but declar- ing that the King ought to be elected by the people. In 1874, therefore, David Kalakaua, also a high chief, was elected to succeed him. The triumph of his reign was the securing of a treaty of commercial reciprocity by which Hawaiian sugar and a few other products were admitted free of duty into the United States. In return Hawaii, besides making a general remission of duties, gave to the United States the use of Pearl Harbour, as a coaling or naval station. This treaty assured the prosperity of the Islands and marked the definite establishment of the great industries. Labourers were imported from China, Japan, the Azores, and Madeira. From these At- 48 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT lantic islands over ten thousand Portuguese mi- grated to Hawaii, where climatic conditions were similar to what they were accustomed to and where opportunities for remunerative industry were greater. King Kalakaua was, however, unable to read the signs of the times in the rapid decrease of the native population and in the even more rapid increase of the foreign population, and was determined to restore to his government much of the autocratic royal authority that had been volun- tarily ceded in the constitution given by Kame- hameha III. So strained did popular feeling run that in 1887 there was a bloodless revolution, in consequence of which the King was forced to sign an even more liberal constitution, that made the cabinet responsible only to the legislature, and that prevented the legislators from holding any other office. This reform, which was bitterly op- posed by the personal adherents of the King, led t\\^o years later to an insurrection, in which the I^ihg himself, however, took no direct part, and which was promptly quelled, with the loss of seven ^men among the rebels. Kalakaua was a pictur- esque figure, personally affable and intelligent. On a trip around the world, ostensibly to look into the question of the importation of labourers, he was everywhere treated with royal honour, was universally liked, and was given the most friendly aid in cgllecting information for the good of his HISTORY TO 1898 49 own kingdom. In a book entitled " Around the World with a King," this tour has been most amusingly treated, although, it must be admitted, with ungenerous sarcasm, by Mr. W. N. Arm- strong, who accompanied him as Commissioner of Immigration. Kalakaua died in San Francisco in January, 1891, and his body was brought to Honolulu in the U. S. S. Charleston. His sister, Liliuokalani, whom he had nominated as his successor, was im- mediately proclaimed Queen. Even more than her brother had been was she, unfortunately, eager to remove the constitutional restrictions on the power of the Crown, and her wishes were fervently sec- onded, if not actually induced, by unscrupulous advisers, who saw in any political upheaval op- portunities for their own aggrandisement. Polit- ical intrigue became the business of certain ambi- tious foreigners and Hawaiians of mixed blood, whose purely selfish purposes were evident from the fact that when the Queen was not with them they intrigued with unabated ardour against her. It was significant that the best of the Hawaiians, as well as the better element of the white popula- tion, stood aloof from the struggles. During the last week of the long legislative sessions of 1892 two obnoxious bills were passed, one licensing the sale of opium, one granting" a franchise to estab- lish a lottery. Public feeling was intense, and 50 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT when it became known that a new constitution, doing awaj with all restrictions on the royal au- thority, limiting the franchise to Hawaiians, and destroying the guarantees of the judiciary, had been drawn up and was about to be promulgated, the leading citizens saw that decisive action had become necessary. On January 16, 1893, a Com- mittee of Safety was appointed and on the next day a Provisional Government, having general legislative authority, was established. Unfortu- nately, troops were landed from the U. S. S. Bos- ton to protect the lives and property of American citizens, an act that later gave to the royalists the claim which so appealed to President Cleveland, that the royal government had submitted only to the forces of the United States. In view of this landing of troops, the Queen surrendered her au- thority under protest, pending her appeal to Washington. A commission of the Provisional Government was immediately sent to the United States to negotiate a treaty of annexation. Such a treaty was actually drawn up by the Secretary of State, signed, and submitted to the Senate. It was not acted upon before the end of the session, but in the meantime a Provisional Protectorate of the Islands was proclaimed. President Cleveland, immediately after his inauguration, sent a com- missioner to Honolulu to take evidence, declared the protectorate at an end, and later urged the HISTORY TO 1898 51 restoration of the Queen. To this, however, the Provisional Government refused to accede, and, as annexation seemed indefinitely postponed, took immediate steps toward the framing of a constitu- tion. On July 3, 1894, the Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed, with Sanford B. Dole, a man who throughout his life had been identified with all that was least partisan and most upright in the Islands, as the first President. In 1895 there occurred an insurrection, again planned by the disaffected part-Hawaiians rather than by the full-blooded natives. It was put down with the loss of very few lives, but resulted in a trial for treason of the Queen and nearly two hun- dred others, to all of whom conditional pardons were granted. This ended the internal troubles of the Republic, but complications with Japan concerning immigration grew more and more diffi- cult to cope with, and the only safety seemed to be in annexation to the United States. Negotia- tions to this end were renewed immediately after the inauguration of President McKinley. Whether these negotiations under ordinary circumstances would have been more successful than were their predecessors is a question, but during the war with Spain the strategical importance of the Isl- ands to the United States becoming evident, a joint resolution of annexation was put through Congress on July 7, 1898. This was accepted by 52 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT the Government of the Republic of Hawaii and annexation became an accomplished fact on Au- gust 12th. Hawaii ceased to exist as an independ- ent nation and became an integral part of the United States. CHAPTER IV HAWAH AS A TERRITORY Under the Republic of Hawaii many Hawaiians had refused to take the oath of allegiance and had, therefore, been unable to vote. Even the most in- tractable saw, however, that no dissatisfied element in a United States Territory would have the re- motest chance of carrying through a revolution. Restoration of the monarchy suddenly became a dead issue. But to the leaders such restoration had never been more than an incident in the scramble for personal power and, instructed by Americans even more frankly rapacious than they were them- selves, they saw in the control of the Territorial Government political opportunities that were well worth seizing. The Governor was appointed by the President. That office was, at least for the moment, therefore, out of reach, but the election of a delegate to Washington and the control of the home legislature were both worth striving for. A so-called Home Rule party was promptly formed — the meaningless name was intended to catch the ignorant and disgruntled — and all Hawaiians were urged by the agitators to cast their votes in the coming elections. The victory of the new party 54 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT was overwhelming. It controlled the legislature and it sent as Congressional Delegate Robert Wil- cox, a confirmed intriguer, who had in the past plotted against nearly everything, including the monarchy itself, and who had led the abortive insurrection of 1895. In Washington, to his great surprise, he found himself an extremely unimpor- tant personage. Congressmen preferred to con- sult the unofficial representative of the Honolulu Merchants' Association and Chamber of Com- merce, a man who really understood and would tell the truth about Island conditions and needs. Only a small amount of Hawaiian business was transacted by Congress, and even with that little the delegate's most staunch supporters were unable to credit him. At home, in the meantime, the Home Rule legislators were showing their inca- pacity. Bills of no importance were discussed at great length, and so much time was spent by the legislature of 1901 in the consideration of a bill for the encouragement of female dogs that it suc- ceeded in immortalising itself under the name of the Female Dog Legislature. Its more absurd measures were naturally vetoed by the Governor, and the Home Rule party finally made itself so ridiculous that although it still exists in name it controls very few votes. Very soon, also, the two regular American parties had properly organised and have never been outnumbered by the Home HAWAII AS A TERRITORY 55 Rulers except in the first election, that of 1900. The votes cast for the Delegate to Congress at that election were : Republican 3,856, Democratic 1,650, Home Rule 4,083. In 1910 the numbers were : Republican 8,049, Democratic 4,503, Home Rule 989. The Republicans, who have been in the majority since 1902, sent as delegate Prince Kuhio Kalaneanaole, a nephew of the Queen of King Kalakaua, and himself a chief by birth.* The political machinery of the Territory is at present similar to that of any of the States on the mainland. As there is no prohibitive clause in the organic act there is no reason why the Territory should not eventually apply for admission to the Union as a State. There is every reason, on the other hand, why such application should not be made until conditions have become fixed and the American population is greater. This ultimate possibility was recognised by the United States when the Islands were constituted a Territory instead of a " possession " with a dis- tinct form of government such as was devised for Porto Rico and the Philippines. It was a pos- sibility which Congress was willing to accept, since they saw that Hawaii was already American in language and institutions and that for it, in con- sequence, a Territorial Government was as proper In 1912 the Territory, like most of the States on the main> land, went Democratic. 56 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT as for Arizona, whereas a people whose ideals and language were Spanish must go through a long period of probation before they were fit to take their independent place in the American political system. From the beginning the policy pursued toward Hawaii has been a wise one. The Gov- ernors appointed have not been strangers, but citizens of Honolulu thoroughly conversant with Island problems. And to a large extent this has been the case with other Federal appointments. Hawaii has so far mercifully been spared purely political appointments dealt out as rewards. The result has been proper appreciation of Island needs because of proper representation at Washington, and at home steady progress that would not otherwise have been possible. Looking at the matter purely from the Hawaiian point of view, American annexation has been, in the main, of great benefit. One often hears the remark, to be sure, " It was not this way before," — " before " always referring to the years prior to 1898, — and certain it is that society, without the court as a picturesque centre, with many of the delightful English residents replaced by a purely commercial class of Americans, has lost much of its charm. Economically, also, the operation of the Chinese exclusion law has caused serious difli- culties to Island industries. In contrast to this, however, the ever present, if perhaps unfounded, o G c o o D o HAWAII AS A TERRITORY 57 fear of seizure by Japan was at once removed. Trade benefits, already enjoyed under the Reci- procity Treaty, were made certain for all time. The very difficulty of the labour situation should lead eventually to the forming of a more stable population and of a more dependable labouring class. The aid of the Federal Government makes pos- sible the prosecution of necessary public works, which the limited resources of the Kingdom and of the Republic did not permit. The Islands have long been in dire need of adequate harbour facilities. The work of dredging, deepening, and building breakwaters is rapidly being carried on under ap- propriations of Congress, supplemented by grants from Territorial funds. Honolulu harbour is good but small, and is being enlarged, not only to satisfy present needs, but to meet the greater demands that will arise after the completion of ^he Panama Canal. At Hilo a breakwater 2,528 feet long has been contracted for, and docks are being con- structed to accommodate the largest seagoing ves- sels. A breakwater at Kahului, the principal port of Maui, is being built as an extension of one already constructed by the local railway company. Surveys are being made to decide what harbour on Kauai is most suitable for extensive development. It is intended eventually to have, on all the im- portant islands, landing places which will afford 58 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT adequate shelter in all weather. So far the most notable work of the kind has been, of course, that at Pearl Harbour, already carried out by the Navy Department. In the Archives Building in Honolulu was re- cently found an old letter written by Lieutenant Curtis on board the U. S. frigate Constitution — " Old Ironsides " — to the Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs. In it he said : " Allow me to call your attention to the importance of Pearl Har- bour, the perfect security of the harbour, the excel- lence of its water, the perfect ease with which it can be made one of the finest places in the Islands, all of which combine to make it a great consideration. While the harbour was clearing out fortifications could be built, troops could be drilled, the forts might be garrisoned. Government storehouses built. The amount of money to be expended will be but a feather in comparison with the almost incalcula- ble amount of wealth that will result upon the completion of these objects." So, for the last half- century and more. United States naval officers ' have dwelt on the limitless strategic importance of this remarkable harbour, which actually came under American domination, not when the Islands were annexed under President McKinley, but when the Reciprocity Treaty was carried through dur- ing the administration of President Grant. Pearl Harbour, eight miles west of Honolulu, is con- HAWAII AS A TERRITOiaY 6^ nected with the open sea by a narrow channel only. It contains 10 square miles of navigable water that is absolutely calm in any weather. The only harbour of real importance in the Islands, it is much finer than any on the Pacific slope of the mainland. The difficulty in making it practicable lay in the shallow bar at the entrance and in the tortuous channel leading to the deep inner locks. In 1908 a contract was signed with a Hawaiian company for the dredging work, which included the removal of the bar, the straightening of the channel, and the excavation for a drydock. The first part of this extremely difficult work has been completed, and on December 14, 1911, the United States armoured cruiser California steamed through the entrance, up the almost straight four- and-a-half-mile channel, and anchored in the inner harbour opposite the partly finished drydock. This was the first large vessel ever to reach the inner harbour. Among the admiral's invited guests were Queen Liliuokalani and Judge Dole, first Governor of the Territory — a pleasant commentary on the relations between the warring factions of old. Thus, at a cost of about $3,000,000, this part of the great work is nearing completion, and to-day the entire United States Navy, or any navy that we may eventually have, might steam into the harbour and find safe anchorage. Curiously have the old-time recommendations of 60 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT Lieutenant Curtis to the Hawaiian Government been followed by the Army and Navy of his own country. While the dredging was being done seven great industrial buildings, including forge shops, a power house, a foundry, repair shops, and a storehouse, have been constructed. Marine barracks and officers' quarters are standing on the plain back of the harbour. Fort Kamehameha, with its powerful guns of most modern type, guards the channel leading to the sea. In different army posts throughout the Islands troops have been drilling. Lieutenant Curtis did not mention a drydock because he could not foresee the dread- noughts of modem days. So, in addition to his recommendations, this is being constructed, a dry- dock 820 feet long, 110 feet wide, and 35 feet deep, which will require in the making thousands of tons of rocks and over 250,000 barrels of cement, which will cost $4,000,000 but will, when completed, hold the greatest naval vessels in the world. Connected with the station there will be also an administration building, a coaling plant, an immense floating crane, hospitals, and a powder magazine. Much work must still be done in the construction of sea walls, street paving, and in general yard development, yet it is expected that the station will be completed early in 1915. All this has, of course, given work to thousands of American citizens on the spot, and has been, as HAWAII AS A TERRITORY 61 well, a stimulus to industrial enterprises in Hono- lulu, both in the furnishing of material and in the extension of transportation facilities. But the work at Pearl Harbour is in preparation for only one of the many military posts that are expected to make Oahu one of the most strongly fortified places in the world. All these posts will be on the southern and western slopes of the island, since the precipitous mountains on the windward side make an attack from that quarter physically impossible. What is more, the impreg- nability of Oahu will make untenable in case of war the permanent occupation of any of the other islands, since there are in them no harbours suit- able for battleships which could possibly be de- fended. At the base of Diamond Head, Fort Ruger, with its concrete buildings for barracks and quarters and its heavy seacoast guns, garrisoned by two companies of the Coast Artillery Corps, is the headquarters of the Artillery District of Hono- lulu. Fort de Russy at Waikiki, a fortified post without, as yet, permanent barracks, is the head- quarters of the Engineer Battalion. Fort Arm- strong, guarding Honolulu harbour, is also a fortified post and serves as saluting station of the port. Fort Shafter at Moanalua, a few miles northwest of Honolulu, is a post consisting of frame buildings, and is garrisoned by a battalion of infantry. Schofield Barracks, on the upland 62 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT plains between the Waianae and Koolau ranges of mountains, is garrisoned by a large force, which includes all branches of the mobile forces. The District of Hawaii, which includes the Hawaiian Islands and their dependencies, was, in October, 1911, created an independent military department, with headquarters in Honolulu. All the garrisons are gradually being increased, and it is probable that eventually 10,000 men, exclusive of naval and marine forces, will be stationed on the Island of Oahu. Already the military is almost as much in evidence in Honolulu as it is in Gibraltar, and, unless the city continues to grow, it seems as though in a few years the civil costume would be the exception rather than the rule. All this costly military preparation may seem to the unthinking, or to those so peace-loving that they see in every gun a threat of war, a waste of national funds. It is, on the contrary, profoundly foresighted, since the Pacific Ocean is rapidly be- coming the theatre where world powers are striving for commercial and military supremacy. The Hawaiian Islands, situated at the cross-roads of traffic, the only available stopping-place in the whole vast extent of the North Pacific, will enable the United States absolutely to command the ocean against an Asiatic or any other power, by making an overseas attack too dangerous to be attempted. No modern war-fleet would dare to o o C S3 c 3 HAWAII AS A TERRITORY 63 get 4,000 miles away from a base of supplies. This great, impregnable oasis of the ocean, more- over, will insure the safety of the important trade routes and will thus supplement the international value of the Panama Canal. The Territory has been, aside from its naval and military value, a paying investment for the United States. The customs receipts have in- creased every year, and in 1911 amounted to more than $1,650,000. Imports from the mainland have increased in value from $12,000,000 in 1903 to $22,000,000 in 1911. By the terms of annexa- tion both the Government and Crown lands became the property of the United States, lands aggre- gating over half of the real property in the Isl- ands. It has always been a disputed question with regard to the Crown lands as to whether or not some compensation should be made to the Queen, the income of these lands having been at the per- sonal disposition of the sovereign. Legal opinion seems to hold, however, that the lands were held by the Crown in virtue of office, and that the trans- fer of the sovereignty carried with it transfer of title. In spite of this, most inhabitants of the Territory feel that it would not have been a strain- ing of justice to give the Queen some compensa- tion, and that the courtesy of the act would have done away finally with any lingering resentment among the Hawaiian people. Laws relating to 64 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT all public lands are enacted by Congress and have been so framed as to offer every inducement to bona-fide homesteading, and at the same time to discourage occupancy for speculative purposes. The amount of arable land is comparatively small, and it is rightly considered wiser to get whatever income is possible by leasing than to allow it to fall permanently into other hands than those of desir- able settlers, men who will not only improve their own holdings, but will raise community standards. The schools in the Territory, all of which are conducted in English, had enrolled in 1911 26,122 pupils, of whom 20,597 were in the public schools, 5,525 in the private. There was a total of 799 teachers, of whom 374 were American. Education is compulsory and free, and is as efficient in Hawaii in all branches below those of the university as it is in any part of the United States. It was said a few years ago that, excluding the Orientals, the proportion of illiterates in the Islands was lower than in the State of Massachusetts. A public library, toward which Mr. Carnegie gave $100,- 000, is building in Honolulu. By legislative en- actment it will have an income of $15,000 a year, and will contain at the outset some 20,000 volumes, including the important collection belonging to the Hawaiian Historical Society. Nowhere is more efficient care taken of the public health. This is essential, since Honolulu, HAWAII AS A TERRITORY 65 with its cosmopolitan population, its tropical climate, its immigration from all parts of the world, its situation at the junction of Pacific trade routes, is peculiarly liable to infection. And the very reasons which make it so liable are the same which make freedom from disease imperative. The water supply and the sewage system of Hono- lulu are excellent, as indeed they are rapidly be- coming in all centres of population. The Terri- torial Board of Health has almost unlimited pow- ers in the inspection of immigrants, of whom they send away hundreds annually, in passing on im- ported fruit, in the cleaning up of unsanitary districts, in the control of tuberculosis, and in the enforcement of pure-food laws. The legislature, realising the dangers, is very liberal in its appro- priations to cover this work. The counties assist various hospitals, and the Territorial Government itself is interested financially in several general hospitals, in four tuberculosis hospitals, and in the dispensaries, and supports entirely the insane asylum and the leper settlement on Molokai. It is said that fear of leprosy deters many from visiting the Islands, yet probably in no part of the globe is there less danger of infection, because nowhere is the disease so well understood, nowhere so well cared for, and nowhere are the patients — even those in whom there is even a suspicion of leprosy — so rigorously isolated. The leper set- 66 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT tlement is situated on a triangle of land on the north side of Molokai, separated from the rest of the island by practically impassable cliffs. Here, during 1911, were treated 649 patients, of whom 559 were Hawaiians. There are in Honolulu a receiving station and homes for non-leprous boys and girls of leprous parents. Thoroughly scientific investigation of the disease is being con- ducted, and it has lately been found possible arti- ficially to cultivate the bacillus, an advance in knowledge which augurs well for the ultimate dis- covery of a cure. Leprosy is not contagious, can be contracted only through inoculation, and takes years to manifest itself, — three facts which prove the nonsense of the frequent scare headlines in American newspapers about the disease. Many devoted men and women have given their lives to service in the leper settlement, and none, with the exception of Father Damien, has contracted the disease. Stevenson's magnificent philippic, cruelly unfair to Dr. Hyde as it was, has made the name of Father Damien known and reverenced the world over. All honour must be given to him as the pioneer, as the first man willing to isolate himself for the benefit of the unfortunate patients, a self-sacrifice even more noble since he evidently expected to die a leper, as he did. Because he took the disease, however, is often the reason that he is praised, whereas, as a matter of fact, he con- HAWAII AS A TERRITORY 67 tracted leprosy only through gross carelessness and because he did not take the trouble to keep clean. Because he was the pioneer he is a hero, but hardly less heroes are those who have followed him, who have not contracted leprosy because they have been reasonably careful and willing to bathe. Lepers are never seen in the Islands. Practically no Americans have become lepers. The inhab- itants of the Islands never think of the disease except to glory in the splendid work which is being done toward finding a cure. Since Hawaii became a Territory it has grown rapidly in population, its old industries have in- creased and new industries have been developed. The trans-Pacific cable has put it into immediate communication with the rest of the world, enabling its business interests to keep constantly in touch with the great marts of trade. It is fortunate in having as the backbone of its population a force of intelligent citizens who have loyally transferred their allegiance to the United States, but who love their own little land and put its well-being above all personal considerations. \Its affairs have been wisely conducted in Washington, so that it is justified in looking forward toward a bright future, in which it will have its own honourable share in the progress of its mother countrj^ CHAPTER V COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY The Hawaiian Islands are industrially a busy and progressive place, and, unlike other tropical countries, physical activity is not limited to the dark-skinned races. The climate is such that Cau- casians can not only work in the open but, for the sake of health, need vigorous out-door exercise. The result is that agricultural opportunities are limited only by the extent of available land. The variety of crops that can be raised, moreover, is almost endless, ranging from the fully tropical near the seashore to crops of the temperate zone on the higher levels. Only one industry has so far been developed to its fult capacity. All the large tracts of land suitable to the raising of sugar-cane are already taken up by the plantations. The only increase in production can be through the growing of cane on small parcels of land by individuals who will sell what they raise to the plantations to be ground at the mills. There was sugar-cane on the Islands when they were discovered. The first exportation of sugar was made as far back as 1837. A man who visited one of these primitive sugar mills has 68 COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 69 described the curious granite rollers used to extract the juice, and the crude iron pans used as boilers, adding, as something hard to believe, that one mill was able to produce as many as 300 pounds of sugar in a day. The great impetus to sugar production was given by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1878, which insured a market, and since then the industry has steadily grown, until in 1912 the fifty-six plantations produced 566,821 tons, valued at $45,345,680, this being an increase in the ten years since annexation of 200,000 tons. The value of incorporated and private sugar property is about $70,000,000. Over 200,000 acres of land, about half of which has been re- claimed, are devoted to the growing of cane. Artificial irrigation of this formerly arid land is carried on by means of extensive series of arte- sian wells, from which water is pumped to the higher fields, and by great mountain reservoirs, from which ditches distribute water over thousands of acres. An immense amount of fertiliser is used annually, and the plantations devote large sums to scientific study of soils and to improvement by hybridisation of the different varieties of cane. Indeed, the scientific precision with which the in- dustry is conducted, the perfection of the machin- ery, the success in adapting different kinds of cane to different soils, and in raising those soils eco- nomically to their highest producing power, 70 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT should be a lesson to agriculturists the world over. On the large plantations the soil is ploughed to a depth of about three feet and the cane is planted in rows about eight feet apart; on irrigated land the distance is less. The first crop is ready for the mill in about eighteen months, is followed by a rattoon crop in fourteen months, and by another rattoon crop about eighteen months later. The third rattoon crop is not profitable, so the land is usually allowed to rest until a new planting is made. As no proper harvesting machinery has been invented to cut the cane, which grows in tangled masses, it is cut by hand and sent to the mill on cars, or, where water is plenty and the slope of the land sufficient, in flumes. It has been found best to burn the fields before harvesting, as the value of the small amount of juice lost is incommensurate with the great expense of stripping the cane. At the mill the cane is passed through three sets of rollers, which so thoroughly extract the juice that the refuse or bagasse is immediately fed into the boiler furnaces. The juice goes first into the boilers, from them into the settling tanks and into the evaporator, which may have a capacity of 1,500 tons of juice per twenty-four hours. From the evaporator, which has reduced it seventy-five per cent in vol- ume, the juice is sent to the vacuum pans on the ^W^^-'^.irA Sugar Cane in Flower — ^Will be Ripe and Ready to Grind in from Six to Eight Weeks c y c '■ » , ' i COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 71 upper floor of the mill. Under these are the crystallisers, and lastly the sugar is sent for dry- ing to the centrifugals. As it drops out of these it is shovelled into bags and is ready for ship- ment. The whole process, which is intensely interesting, can most easily be seen in one of the great mills near Honolulu, that of Ewa, Oahu, or the Hono- lulu Plantation, the latter being the only planta- tion which refines its own sugar. These three plantations, which are among the most pro- gressive in the Islands, produced, respectively, in the last year for which there are figures, 31,000, 33,000, and 17,000 tons. The average yield per acre on Ewa plantation has run as high as eight tons and a single acre has pro- duced eleven tons. This is the more remarkable when one realises that the average yield through- out the Islands is a little over four tons, being 6.44 tons on irrigated land and 3.69 on unirri- gated land, and that the average yield of the plantations in Cuba is only a little over two tons. The largest plantation in the Islands, and indeed in the world, is the Hawaiian Commercial on Maui, which produces between 50,000 and 60,000 tons a year. The plantations along the coast of Hawaii and on Kauai are, with one or two exceptions, com- paratively small, although they are often as pros- perous and as progressive as any. 72 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT The great problem of the sugar planters is labour, which must be cheap and to produce the best results ought to be stationary. The planta- tions have suffered immeasurably through the ex- clusion of the Chinese, an exclusion which here loses its point, since they do not, as labourers, compete with the whites. The Japanese are excitable and restless. The Hawaiians and the Portuguese are far too few to supply the de- mand. Field labourers get from $18 to $25 a month in addition to comfortable houses. The planters are testing also various co-operative schemes, as well as a sliding scale of wages, the amount increasing according to the length of time during which the labourer has worked for the plantation. Profits are large, few of the planta- tions being over-capitalised, but they are by no means extravagant, as they occasionally were in the early days of the industry, and a serious in- crease in the cost of production could be borne by very few plantations. The abolition of the duty on raw sugar would permit most of them to con- tinue with greatly reduced profits, whereas it would probably kill the sugar industry of the Southern States, benefiting only the Sugar Trust, the sole business of which is refining. Among other Island industries the cultivation of rice, carried on almost exclusively by Orientals and according to Chinese methods, is almost as COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 73 old as sugar and long held second place. Some 12,000 acres are devoted to this industry, and even under the primitive methods employed the profits are large. Japanese rice is still imported, but probably would not be were modern machinery used in the cleaning and polishing of the home- grown crop. As it is, water-buffaloes, strong, patient, deformed-looking creatures, do most of the work, not only in the fields but in threshing the grain. Picturesque they certainly are, but it is equally certain that they are neither as thor- ough nor as clean as is modern machinery. The commercial cultivation of pineapples is an industry of comparatively recent introduction, al- though pineapples for table use have been grown for many years. For its best development the fruit requires an elevation of from 500 to 1,200 feet and a rainfall of 35 inches or over. The plants are set out in numbers varying from 2,500 to 12,000 to the acre, according to the size of fruit desired. The first crop, of about 10 tons to the acre, matures in from eighteen months to two years, and a rattoon crop of from 15 to 18 tons is harvested a year later. A second rattoon crop is not, as in the case of sugar cane, profitable, so the fields must be then reset. About 6,000 acres of land are now devoted to the cultivation of pineapples, and in 1912 approximately 1,000,- 000 cases of two dozen two-pound cans were ex- 74 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT ported, worth about $3.50 per case — this in addi- tion to fresh fruit and to bottles of pineapple juice. There are several canneries in the Islands, that in Honolulu being the largest in the world, so the fruit is sent away ready for the market, which is still by no means satisfied.* Hawaiian pineapples, both raw and canned, are said to have the finest flavour of any grown. With the canneries at hand the fruit has now a definite market value, and the time has gone by when a passenger on an inter-island steamer could buy from the canoes surrounding the ship at some port of call a hun- dred delicious little pineapples for the extravagant sum of one dollar. These three are the principal agricultural in- dustries of the Islands, with sugar, of course, far in the lead — too extravagantly in the lead, per- haps, for a really safe financial situation. In calm weather a ship does well enough with one anchor, but in a storm it is more prudent to have several to windward. At present sugar is the Hawaiian anchor, and in comparison to it all the other in- dustries are but larger or smaller fish-hooks attached to slender cords. It is very satisfactory, therefore, to note the growing interest in other agricultural ventures. For example, there are now * A drummer told me that he had distributed a dozen cans of Hawaiian pineapple in Minnesota in 1909; that in 1910 he had orders for two dozen cases; and in 1911 for thirty carloads. COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 75 about 3,000 acres in sisal, with an annual output of several hundred tons of fibre. That this will in time become an important industry is almost certain, since there are in the Islands large tracts of arid land where sisal, which requires only two inches of rain a year, will grow, and where little else can ever be cultivated. The Hawaiian fibre is of the highest quality and is much preferred in the San Francisco market to that coming from Mexico, where ninety-eight per cent of the sisal used in the United States is at present grown. Another prom- ising experiment is the cultivation of rubber, but, whereas the first returns from sisal come in three years, rubber trees do not begin to pay until the eighth year. This, of course, necessitates a large initial outlay and means that the money will for a long time be unproductive. There are, however, some 1,500 acres planted in rubber, and prospec- tive rubber growers have been encouraged by the discovery that it is possible, while the trees are young, to get small immediate returns by inter- cropping, that is, by planting some quickly matur- ing crop such as soy beans between the rows of trees. Another young industry is the cultivation of tobacco, of which the finest grades can be grown successfully and economically. There are, at the lowest estimate, some 30,000 acres of soil excellent for tobacco culture, and with intelligent manage- ment the industry should be one of real importance. 76 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT Coffee has been raised since 1817, but at present the low wholesale price has cut down the profits to a minimum and has discouraged the starting of new plantations. Hawaiian coffee, especially that grown in Kona, is, however, of such delicious flavour that if a co-operative association could be formed properly to introduce it into the United States there is no reason why it should not again become one of the most attractive and well-paying industries.* Bananas grow wild all through the Islands and are also extensively cultivated for export. The banana fruits about a year and a half after planting, and the tree is then cut down to give room for the suckers which spring from the roots. From 800 to 900 bunches per acre is the usual crop. Some fifty varieties are grown at various altitudes. Many of them are, so far, unknown commercially — especially is this true of the cooking varieties, which are even better than those eaten raw. If a market were created for these new kinds of banana they could be raised very profitably and in quantities limited only by the amount of suitable land. Other crops which have been planted to some extent and have grown well and which, therefore, seem to offer good op- portunities to intelligent farmers are cotton, pro- * A New York dealer said not long ago that if the Hawaiian coffee agents, instead of being modest about it, had called it by some fancy name and insisted that it was of i xncy grade, they could have got high prices and sold all the Islands could raise. COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 77 ducing here a more valuable and finer lint than any grown in the Southern States ; cassava, Manila hemp, citrus fruits, vanilla beans, which flourish in very wet regions ; corn, and forage plants. Full development of all these agricultural possibilities would be of inestimable benefit to the Islands and would be also excellent investments to those who carried them through. The ranching business, almost entirely in the hands of Americans, uses as grazing lands some 160,000 acres. So far these ranches have sup- plied the home demand for beef, but the demand is increasing rapidly and to keep up with it the ranchers will have to raise large quantities of forage plants to supply the cattle in time of drought, since the natural grazing lands will not support many more. This is, of course, recog- nised, and the ranchers prefer to plant extensively rather than to lose control of the market. Sheep are raised, but not yet in sufficient quantities to meet the demand for home consumption of mutton. Nor up to now has enough attention been paid to selection of breeds which will produce the finest quality of wool. Much work is at last being done along this line, and the wool exported in the future ought to be far above the standard of that ex- ported in the past. No hogs were imported during 1911, enough, for the first time, being raised to supply the home demand. Both horses and mules 78 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT are imported annually as draught animals, al- though the Island ranches should, and probably eventually will, furnish all that are needed. Poul- try raising is carried on to some extent, but quan- tities of chickens and eggs are brought from the mainland. Poultry diseases are troublesome here as elsewhere, but are no more troublesome nor harder to deal with. It would certainly seem, therefore, that there is an excellent opportunity for a few men who are experts in the business. The vital need of the Islands is to insure settle- ment on a satisfactory basis of the labour problem, and the only proper settlement would seem to be the creation of a class of independent small farm- ers. The time of unrestricted Oriental immigra- tion is over. More and more the balance must turn in favour of the Caucasian labourers, who are brought in large numbers annually, at great expense to the Territory and the planters, from southern Europe. These men bring their families. They cannot be expected, and ought not to be expected, to hoe cane all their lives. Their ambi- tion to become independent land-owners, to have their own little farms and orchards, which they can cultivate and leave to their children, ought to be realised within the Territory. So far as land is concerned, there is no difficulty, but these men do not want land unless it can be proved to them that small farming is profitable. For this reason COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 79 efforts are being made to test all kinds of crops, to establish a central marketing agency for the small farmers, and when these experiments are completed, when it can be demonstrated that this kind of farming is feasible and profitable as well in Hawaii as on the mainland, then, it is hoped, the plantation labourers will work to earn enough money to buy an upland farm, not tickets to San Francisco. They and their children will come down to the cane fields to work in harvesting the crop, just as the similar cla&s of small farmer works in the harvesting season in California. In this way only will the problem of labourers for the plantations be permanently simplified, and at the same time the Territory will have gained a steady and reliable rural population. Manufacturing, aside from the manufacturing processes connected with the production of sugar and with the canning of fruit, can never be of great importance. This is inevitable owing to the dis- tance of the Islands from world markets, and still more to the absence of coal and of minerals. Only one company, the Honolulu Iron Works, has, in the face of these obstacles, worked itself into a position of prime importance. This company has a large plant and manufactures all the machinery for the sugar mills and pumping stations, except, of course, those parts controlled elsewhere by patent. Indeed, so well known is it for its accurate 80 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT and excellent work that it ships sugar machinery to the Orient and even to Cuba. This success, however, is an exception, brought about by de- mands arising from special local conditions, and does not affect the truth of the statement that general manufacturing would be unprofitable. In public service corporations the Islands can take their place with any advanced community. Honolulu has an unusually well-equipped and well- conducted electric car service, with twenty-four miles of track. The cars serve all parts of the city, are of the most modern make, and are thor- oughly comfortable. A franchise for an electric line for the town of Hilo has lately been granted. The steam railroads in the Islands are capitalised at about $7,500,000 and have about 220 miles in operation. The Oahu Railway and Land Com- pany has a hundred miles of track, including the main line and branches, and is connected on the north side of the Island with twelve miles of the Koolau Railway. The Oahu Railway Company has excellent terminal facilities and docks and offers good passenger and freight service. On Maui, the Kahului Railroad Company operates some sixteen miles of track, which connects, how- ever, with 125 miles of plantation track. On Hawaii the Hilo Railroad Company has built some 50 miles of road and is rapidly extending its lines in all directions from Hilo. The line northward COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 81 along the coast, which is extremely difficult to build on account of the deep gulches, will eventu- ally carry all the sugar of the district to Hilo for transportation, thus doing away with the many dangerous plantation landings where the sugar is now lowered over the cliffs into small boats or run on cables to the steamers. These lines are mainly for the transportation of freight, but their passenger service is also good, and they make easy of access some of the best scenery in the Territory. Honolulu was one of the first cities anywhere to have a general telephone service. The company has now taken over also the management of inter- island wireless telegraphy. All important centres are equipped with electric lights, and the capital is also supplied with gas. In so far, therefore, as modern conveniences are concerned, the Islands are quite on a par with the mainland. Water transportation facilities are continually increasing. The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company has a fleet of seventeen steamers, which call at all ports in the Territory. During the year 1911 they carried 64,108 passengers and 409,714 tons of freight. The steamers are small, but three of them, the Maunakea, the Maunaloa, and the Kilauea, have accommodations for a hun- dred passengers and are as well fitted up and as comfortable as any boats of corresponding size. 82 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT This company controls nearly all of the inter- island traffic. There are local lines, with boats plying between the mainland and the Hawaiian Islands, which operate their steamers mainly for freight transportation. One of these lines, the Matson Navigation Company, has excellent pas- senger accommodations on three of its larger steamers, and the Oceanic Steamship Company has one passenger steamer on a regular tri-weekly schedule between Honolulu and San Francisco. Honolulu is also a port of call for various through lines of steamers, which, however, owing to United States navigation laws governing the coastwise service, can carry neither passengers nor freight to or from the Islands except on payment of a heavy fine. These laws do not apply, fortunately, to the steamers of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which is an American line running between San Francisco and the Orient, nor do they apply to the steamers of the Canadian- Australian Steamship Company, which, taking passengers and freight to Vancouver, is not acting as a carrier between two American ports. So far as freight is concerned, these laws are no particular hardship, but they are a serious inconvenience to the passenger traffic, which is larger than can be handled with comfort by American ships. A suspension of the law relat- ing to the carrying of passengers would not be a k :3 as '■.:'", COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 83 hardship to American companies and would be, for the Territory, relief from a special burden. It would seem only fair, moreover, since the possi- bility of outlying Territories was not considered when the laws were enacted. With the opening of the Panama Canal the shipping of the Islands must enormously increase. Honolulu will inevita- bly become a great commercial centre, since, being the only available port of call in the North Pacific, it will do an immense business in trans-shipment of freight. As a shipping centre, indeed, it has grown in importance for several years. The ton- nage entered in 1901 was 952,504; in 1911 it was 1,343,876, excluding the United States transport service, which is very large. There is every reason to believe that with the opening of the Canal the amount will be immediately doubled or trebled. Steamers from Panama will call at Honolulu for coal and other supplies, and to meet this demand the traffic with California will be much larger. As a mercantile centre, -^llKlff^^, the future of Honolulu seems as sure as does the agricultural future of the group. It means a busy port, a meeting ground for the ships and people of all nations, less of the calm always associated with the tropics, more dirt and confusion, but with these disadvantages it means more colour, more of the cosmopolitan life that is so attractive to the^ onlooker. CHAPTER VI HONOLULU The American tourist to the Hawaiian Islands will probably take ship at San Francisco, although the steamers from Vancouver are also good. He must remember that from a United States port it is possible to sail to Honolulu only on a ship under American register, unless he has a through ticket to the Orient and plans merely to stop over. The first day or two out of San Francisco are usually cold, so that heavy wraps are essential, but as the rest of the trip is warm, rooms on the starboard side, getting the trade winds, are preferable. After the hills of the Coast Range have dropped below the horizon there is almost nothing to see — a whale perhaps, or porpoises, but no land and very rarely a passing ship. But to the man who has never been in the tropics the ocean, so utterly different from the North Atlantic, is a revelation. There usually are no waves, as the Atlantic trav- eller knows waves, but the whole surface of the sea sways gently in great, silent, lazy swells. Day by day the blue grows more intense until it becomes that brilliant, translucent, but seemingly not 64 HONOLULU 85 transparent, ultramarine that is seen only in trop- ical waters and that once seen is never forgotten. On the sixth day there comes the restless feeling that one always has on approaching land. The ocean, near the Islands, loses its glassy surface, which, after a long time, is uneasily suggestive of the "painted ocean" in the "Ancient Mariner," ripples again as the ocean should, and breaks into spurts of foam. The cloud-bank ahead finally reveals the land beneath, and one sees the rocky eastern end of the Island of Oahu. To the left ap- pears the long coast line of Molokai, but at no time near enough to be interesting, except as being more land. It is on the Island of Oahu, straight ahead, that attention is riveted, on the barren promontories, at the foot of which the surf marks its feathery, ever changing line. On the point reaching out furthest toward the east stands the magnificent Makapuu Point Light, installed in 1909, one of the most powerful lights in the world, and in a position where it is vitally necessary to mariners. All black this land looks, like rude piles of huge volcanic, storm-beaten rocks. The north side of the Island is shrouded with clouds, but, if the day is propitious, as it usually is, the clouds break again and again, revealing distant but en- chanting glimpses of colour — the soft green of cane fields, the vivid yellow of salt grasses along the shore, and the purple blue of the precipitous 86 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT mountains across which the trade wind is blowing masses of sparkling white and silver grey clouds. But these are only glimpses, lost as the steamer approaches the Island and, rounding the Point, proceeds westward along the southern shore. Oahu geologically is made up of two ranges of mountains. Those in the southwestern part, the Waianae Mountains, form a group dominated by Kaala (4,040 feet), flat-topped, as though the original volcanic cone had been blown away, as it in fact may have been, since there are still vestiges of an ancient crater. The Koolau Range, forming the backbone of the Island, extends in an unbroken chain from northwest to southeast. On arriving from the north it is the geologically younger end of this range that one sees first, bar- ren because not yet has sufficient time elapsed to allow erosion to do its full work of disintegrating the ancient lava and forming fertile soil. As the steamer rounds Koko Head, long and rounded, like a gigantic mound of desert sand, so named because of its blood-red colour in certain lights — koko means blood in the Hawaiian language — there come into view the shores of the great shallow bay of Waialae. Here, at last, is vegetation. The beach is fringed with cocoanut trees, and a little way back the land rises abruptly, breaking into deep, narrow, fertile valleys and rocky ridges that on their higher slopes lose themselves in the verdure HONOLULU 87 of the mountain tops. After a half-hour skirting the coral reef that protects the bay from the great swells of the Pacific, the boat passes another prom- ontory, Leahi, or Diamond Head, and the city of Honolulu comes into sight. The tourist knows at last that he is surely in the tropics, knows, too, if he has travelled far, that nowhere is there a more beautiful, peaceful scene. The ocean outside the reef is blue — the same blue that it has been for days, but darker, so deeply dyed that it looks almost opaque, until one gazes straight down and catches the twisted sun rays that are gleaming far below the surface. The reef makes a sharp line of white surf, and beyond it the wide shoals are pink and green and bufF, according to the nature of the sea-bottom and the angle of the light — a brilliant Oriental carpet along the shore. The mile or two of gently rising land between the beach and the spurs of the moun- tains is a mass of trees, the green line of them broken only by the roofs of the houses. This vegetation, a little monotonous in colour, as an artist would have made it to lead from the brilliance of the sea to the still more brilliant mountains, extends from the suburb of Waikiki, clinging about the foot of Diamond Head, past the city itself, westward, until the misty green of cane fields carries it insensibly into the still more misty, pale- bluish purple of the distant Waianae Mountains. 88 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT Back of the city, to right and left, stretches the Koolau range of mountains, not very high (3,105 feet is the highest), but seeming higher than is the case because toward the top they rise sharply ; because there is the space of a few miles only from sea level to their crests ; because the quality of the atmosphere and the clouds that hover almost always over and above their summits give them that crystal blue which the mind naturally asso- ciates with far vistas of lofty peaks. It is on the slopes of these mountains that one finds the hot exaggeration of tropical colour — the yellow splotches that are kukui trees, the grey of fern masses, the emerald of ohia and banana trees, made more brilliant through contrast with dashes of brick red earth. The picture is never for two days the same. Sometimes there is an opalescent mist that is not really mist, but rather a denser atmosphere which fuses the colours. Occasionally the clouds hang sullenly over the mountains and the water along the shore is black, with streaks of pale green. Another day the trade wind is blowing — and this is true three-quarters of the time — the air sparkles, the mountains shine against a sky clean swept except where the great, lazy, cream-white and pearl-grey clouds, gathering somewhere beyond the hills, pile through the gaps and then make veils of sudden showers high in the valleys, or, HONOLULU 89 sailing onward toward the south, disintegrate and disappear. The traveller knows the approach to San Francisco, to Southampton, to Madeira. The first view of Honolulu, as the steamer rounds Dia- mond Head, is in its own way quite equal to these ; remains always in memory as a vision, lovely and radiant and supremely satisfying. The harbour of Honolulu is not large. The entrance is 35 feet deep and 400 feet wide; the inner harbour is 35 feet deep and 900 feet wide, but this width is being extended to 1,200 feet. The water is always still. Indeed, the name Honolulu means "the sheltered" and is appropriate, since there are few severe storms and no weather affects the safety of the harbour, which, in consequence, is usually crowded with shipping. As the steamer enters the channel people watch the Japanese and Hawaiian fishing boats, usually dories painted some bright colour, that contrast with the grey tenders of the men-of-war. Near the dock the water is alive with Hawaiian boys swimming about and shouting, ready to dive for nickels and dimes, not one of which do they miss. They are marvel- lously dexterous swimmers and give incoming passengers amusement that is pleasanter and more unusual than looking at the undoubtedly practical but also undoubtedly ugly warehouses and United States Government storehouses which line the shore. Not much more attractive in looks is the 90 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT nearby quarantine station. This, however, is an excellent modern station under Federal control and is capable of caring for SO sick people, 100 first cabin and 300 second cabin passengers, 600 immigrants, and 1,600 troops. Nor is the dock more suggestive of an exotic tropical city. White linen suits on the men, sometimes the sickly smell of sugar, always Hawaiian women with wreaths — " leis " they are called — of flowers to sell, at least make one realise, however, that one is not landing in a northern port. The piles of coal, the dust, the hurry are alike in all ports where commerce is of more importance than is the sensation-hunting tourist. Nor is the first glimpse of the city more reas- suring. Indeed it may as well be admitted that Honolulu is, architecturally, very bad ; that in the business portion, where vines and trees do not hide, the ugliness is sometimes depressing. There are fine modern business blocks, as completely fireproof and as completely uninspired as any in Chicago. Next to them may be low, shoddy wood or brick buildings. Some of the newer buildings, and especially, let it thankfully be said, public build- ings, such as the fire station, built of blue-grey Hawaiian stone, would be pleasant to look at any- where, but in general the business part of the city is in that sad intermediate state which is neither trimly new nor picturesquely old. It pleases only QJ as ;^ o -e X O o Ph O HONOLULU 91 those who live there, and then not aesthetically, but as its growth indicates material progress. This accusation of commonplaceness is true only, how- ever, when one takes the city as a whole. Single glimpses are often wonderfully attractive — the fish market with its piles of gaudy fish, every colour of the rainbow, the different booths presided over by Hawaiians or Orientals ; the sidewalk on Hotel Street, lined with Hawaiian flower-sellers with their basketfuls of cut flowers and their leis of every colour, laid in rows on the sidewalk ; or some queer comer giving a vista up the Nuuanu stream ; or some little wooden house lost under a great mass of bougainvillea. These, fortunately, are the things which one never forgets. In a month the commonplaceness is gone, but the beauty and the strangeness remain. Honolulu, a city of about 50,000 inhabitants, stretches for several miles on the narrow plain between sea and mountains, reaches up into the valleys, and sometimes actually climbs the steep hillsides. The most thickly settled portion is on the slopes of Punch Bowl — so named from the shape of its crater — a comparatively recent cone, 500 feet high, thrown up by some expiring volcanic action between the spurs of the mountains and the ocean. At its base, a little to the westward, lies the business portion of the city; huddled on its higher slopes is the Portuguese settlement ; to the Q^ HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT east, as far as the suburb oif Waikiki, and to the west, in the mouth of Nuuanu Valley and beyond in parts of the Palama region, are the houses of the better class of citizens. One who intends to stay more than a day or two in Honolulu should drive as soon as possible to the top of this hill, because from here one can get the best idea of the topography of city and surrounding country. The streets, in so far as the uneven character of the land permits, are laid out at right angles. Fort Street and Nuuanu Avenue running from the sea toward the mountains, and King, Hotel, and Beretania* Streets, more or less parallel to the coast, give, as being the principal thorough- fares, sufficient indication of the street plan. All, after leaving the business centre, pass between luxuriant gardens, which are never shut in by walls, but are enclosed only by low hedges, usually of red flowering hibiscus. In many parts of the city the streets are bordered with tropical flower- ing trees that are a glory in the late spring months. An admirable electric car service covers the entire district of Honolulu, traversing or crossing all the main streets. This car service, which makes distance unimpor- tant, makes also less important the situation of the hotel chosen by the tourist. In the city proper the Young Hotel, a modem stone building, •The Hawaiian word for Britannia. HONOLULU 95 and the Royal Hawaiian, standing in its own little tropical garden, are the best. There are good hotels also at Waikiki, and these, with the Pleas- anton, near the mouth of Manoa Valley, are to be recommended for a prolonged stay. The Pleas- anton, a residence that has been converted into a hotel, is surrounded by large and really beautiful grounds.* Of public buildings the first in importance is the Executive Building, formerly the Royal Pal- ace. This stands near the centre of the city, on King Street, in its own open park. It is used now as the offices of the Governor and of Territorial officials and contains also the chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives. Built in 1880 of blocks of concrete, much over-ornamented, to suit the King's ideas of beauty, it follows no recognised style of architecture, would be in any northern city amazingly ugly, but standing alone as it does, with no other buildings as contrast, ap- proached on all four sides by short avenues of superb royal palms, surrounded by splendid great trees and gay shrubs, cream-coloured, its wide, cool galleries giving an effect of lightness, it has an appropriateness that makes it almost beauti- ful. It is best on public holidays, when flags and bunting, flowers and brightly dressed women give the effect of gaiety that it so often had years ago ♦For list of hotels and prices see Appendix, pp. 231, 232. 94 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT when the King held public receptions or enter- tained his friends at native feasts. One could never take the little Court quite seriously and the impermanent " World's Fair " quality of the building that so suited the playing at royalty and that still suits the sunshine of the tropics, makes it less suitable as the theatre of legislative squab- bles and as the source of heavily serious guberna- torial messages. It was as the palace of a king, unimportant in the world's sight but immensely important in his own, that the building's outward purport was best fulfilled. The interior has dig- nity. The entrance hall, with its portraits of kings and queens and princes, is simple and stately^ as is the excellently proportioned Chamber of Representatives, formerly the throne-room, at the right of the hall. The dining-room, reception- rooms, and bedrooms have been changed beyond recognition in being remodelled to suit office needs. Around this building centres much of the later history of the Islands. It was the scene of the insurrection of 1889. On its steps the body of King Kalakaua, brought home from San Fran- cisco, was met by the Queen Dowager and the new Queen, Liliuokalani. Here, in January, 1893, the Queen, after dissolving the legislature, let it be known that she was about to promulgate a new constitution — the fact which was the immediate cause of the revolution that resulted in the estab- HONOLULU 95 lishment of the Republic. Here, in her old throne- room, in 1895, the Queen was tried for treason. Here to-day the Territorial laws are enacted. Opposite the Executive Building stands the Court House, formerly the Government Building, where the legislature of the Kingdom held its ses- sions. The Court House is a long, two-story build- ing, its two wings connected by verandas lined with Ionic columns. In front, among the palm trees, stands the statue of Kamehameha I, a spear in his hand, the cloak of royal yellow feathers over his shoulder, and a helmet of feathers on his head. The original bronze, of which this is a replica, was lost at sea, but years later was recovered and sold to the Hawaiian Government. It now appropri- ately stands in Kohala, on the Island of Hawaii, the last home of the great King. These two, the Executive Building and the Court House, make the official centre of the city, and, with their sur- roundings, it would be fair to say the picturesque centre as well. A few steps to the east stands Kawaiahao Church, with the mausoleum of King Lunalilo be- side it. This church is the impressive monument of the early missionary labour. It was dedicated in 1842 and was the royal chapel until the coming of the English Mission twenty years later. Built of blocks of coral, it is in shape a rectangle. Over the main entrance is a low, square tower, which 96 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT used to have an inappropriate wooden spire. White, surrounded with huge algaroba trees, through the filmy leaves of which perpetual sun- light plays, it typifies in its Puritanic dignity and rigorous simplicity the lasting work of its founders. Behind it, in a cemetery as unpreten- tious as they were themselves, most of these found- ers are buried. Beyond, in the section of the town formerly known as the Mission, what remain of their houses are clustered. One of these, the Cooke homestead, which was the first frame house built in the Islands, is now a missionary museum. The Castle homestead, greatly enlarged from the original, one-story plaster cottage, is now used by the Y. W. C. A. Whatever one may think of missionary work in general, whatever absurd tales one may hear of the self-seeking of these par- ticular missionaries, the imagination and the heart must be touched by this plain old church and these pathetic little old houses where, nearly a hundred years ago, a band of devoted men and women, desperately poor, separated by six months from home and friends, gave up their lives to what they believed was God's work. That their children and their grandchildren chose, most of them, to remain in this land of their birth and to enter secular life; that they have largely guided politics and business, has been a lasting blessing to the Islands. Their presence only has made the people capable HONOLULU 97 of becoming normally and naturally American citizens. Kawaiahao, which still has the largest Hawaiian congregation in the Islands, and where the serv- ices are still conducted in the Hawaiian language, is the only church in Honolulu built in a style characteristic of the tropics, a style which should be equally characteristic of Honolulu. Central Union (corner Beretania and Richards Streets), a non-sectarian church, the place of worship of most of the descendants of the missionaries, and the strongest numerically and financially in the city, is built of grey-blue native stone, but is architecturally characteristic of a New England town during the period, about twenty or thirty years ago, when buildings were most unprepos- sessing. St. Andrew's Cathedral (Emma Street), formerly the property of the Church of England and the seat of an English bishop, who was Royal Chaplain, now under a bishop of the American Episcopal Church, is a simple and beautiful build- ing in a style which people are pleased to call Victorian Gothic. The Roman Catholic Cathedral (Fort Street) is a plain, square stone building, which is rapidly being ruined in appearance by the application on the outside of what is believed to be Gothic ornamentation. Like all small Ameri- can cities, Honolulu has, too, meeting-houses rep- resenting most of the normal and abnormal of 98 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT the Christian denominations. With one or two exceptions these buildings are unsubstantial and hideous, but are fortunately inconspicuous. The excellent school system of the city is ap- propriately housed. The public grammar and high school buildings, most of them comparatively new, are built according to approved methods of school-house construction, and in their outward appearance suggest a hopeful reaction in the direc- tion of suitable architecture. They are long, low, and cool-looking, in a style adapted from the Span- ish, which is admirably suited to the surroundings. One older school is established in the Bishop home- stead on Emma Street, the house where Mrs. Bishop, the last of the royal line of Kamehameha, died in 1884. It has not been changed and still looks like an expensive private house of forty years ago, but is worth a visit because of its historic associations and because of the beauty of its grounds. A little further up the same street, opposite the gloriously tropical gardens of Judge Dole, are the plain wooden buildings of the old royal school where formerly the chiefs were edu- cated. Mrs. Bishop, who was the finest type of Ha- waiian woman, refused the throne to which she was heir and at her death left her large property for educational purposes. It has been used in building the Kamehameha School for Hawaiians, HONOLULU 99 situated about two miles west of the city. Mr. Bishop, a man of power, charm, and loyalty, has supplemented her gift by adding to the school equipment a biological laboratory, by generous endowment, and by building the great Museum. Kamehameha is a semi-military school, with a membership of about 250 Hawaiian and partly Hawaiian boys. Across the street from the boys' school is situated a girls' school, with about 125 pupils. The large group of buildings of native stone, the walls covered with vines, would com- pare favourably with the buildings of any Ameri- can school, and in their setting of trees, with the nearby mountains as a background, are unique. Here the boys are taught trades as well as ele- mentary subjects. To see them marching to chapel in the morning, neat and manly in their grey uniforms, to watch them working at their desfcs or in the lathe or forge shops, or playing football on the campus, makes one understand why it is that the school turns out the most useful class of native citizens. Another school or group of schools primarily for Hawaiians is the Mid-Pacific Institute, situ- ated in Manoa Valley. The best known of this group is the Kawaiahao Seminary, now established in a large building of rough stone in a high, cool site, which is in every way preferable to the old situation an King Street, near Kawaiahao Church. 100 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT This school was started by the missionaries and has educated many of the best Hawaiian women. Another school in this group is the Mills Institute, established about twenty-five years ago by Mr. F. W. Damon for the education of Chinese and Japanese youth. It has now broadened its scope to cover other nationalities. The Mid-Pacific In- stitute, which represents work of a semi-missionary character, occupies about 75 acres of land, and will probably establish other schools for the study of theology and mission work. Only one other school need be mentioned, Oahu College, or, as it is familiarly called, Punahou, situated on Punahou Street, at the mouth of Manoa Valley. The city has grown out and sur- rounded it now, but when the school was started by the missionaries for the education of their chil- dren and the children of other foreigners in the Islands it was well out in the country. At Puna- hou most of the girls and boys who go to American colleges are prepared. It sends every year stu- dents to Harvard, Yale, the University of Cali- fornia, and elsewhere. The school has well- equipped buildings in a park of 90 acres. The great algaroba trees at the entrance are the finest in Honolulu; there are beautiful avenues of royal palms ; a pond of wonderful pink and blue water lilies ; orchards of various tropical fruits ; and all this in one of the coolest situations near the city. HONOLULU 101 On the hill back is the splendid athletic field where most of the football and baseball games of the city are played, a spot where spectators can look from the game over the plains to the sea and to Dia- mond Head. A building of real interest, constructed of brown tufa stone from Punch Bowl and surrounded by striking gardens, is Lunalilo House. This was established by bequest of King Lunalilo as a home for aged and indigent Hawaiians, and here about a hundred of them live on and on. Some are blind ; some deaf; all are decrepit. They sit in the sun under the palm trees and talk of times seventy years ago, quarrel happily and vociferously, and sometimes marry — these octogenarians and nono- genarians. They have plenty to eat, comfortable quarters, a weekly excursion to church in an omni- bus, and, life having become something nearly approximate to Heaven, they see no valid reason for changing their state. Not seldom do they pass the century mark and many remember, or claim to remember, the death of the first Kame- hameha. Another monument to the generosity of a sov- ereign is the Queen's Hospital, near the centre of the city. In 1859, by large donations and by personal solicitation of Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, the money for this institution was raised. It is well worth a visit on account of the beauty 102 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT of its grounds, which are almost a jungle of tropical growth and contain many uncommon plants. The winding avenue of date palms could not be surpassed, and directly behind the palms are masses of most luxuriant and often sweet- smelling vegetation. If one could only look out from the jungle on wastes of golden sand instead of on busy streets it would be easy to imagine one- self in Count Landon's garden in Biskra. There are in Honolulu two public collections of the highest importance and interest, the Bishop Museum at Kamehameha School and the Aquarium at Waikiki. The Museum, covering all aspects of the islands of the Pacific, zoological, geographical, ethnological, and historical, has become, under the able management of Mr. William T. Brigham, one of the great world museums. Its collections, which are admirably arranged, are of incompa- rable value to the student of science, and — which is not always the case — are keenly interesting to the layman. Here one sees the ancient royal re- galia, superb yellow feather cloaks and helmets, as well as kahilis, the great feather standards of every colour, which were the insignia of rank. These regalia, which had been inherited by Mrs. Bishop, formed the nucleus of the Museum collec- tions. Passing from the room where these are, one sees weapons of all kinds ; implements of stone and of wood and of bone ; life-sized groups illustrating HONOLULU lOS the tenacious but nevertheless passing customs of the Hawaiians, as well as the life of other Pacific islands ; innumerable birds, many of them extinct ; land-shells with their exquisite colouring; speci- mens of flora and of fauna. The Museum is dis- tinctly divided into a Hawaiian and a Polynesian section, but the collections are being so rapidly augmented and are so often changed that no guide can be given. There are attendants to show people about and there are handbooks. The Museum is open daily, except Sunday, and ought not to be omitted by any one who is visiting Honolulu. In its more limited way, the Aquarium at Wai- kiki — open every day — is of equal interest. It is said to be second in importance to the aquarium at Naples, but certainly far surpasses it in the beauty of its collection. The fish are indescrib- ably beautiful, and some of them — which is one of the delights of an aquarium — are indescribably funny in their actions and in their expressions. And the queer Hawaiian names also are sometimes amusing. One queer little fish, for example, is named the Humiihumunuikunukeapuaa. The bril- liance of their colours, the extraordinary blending and striping and spotting, seemingly impossible in their combinations, yet always resulting in har- mony, might well be ^ the life study of an artist, whether sane or " futuriste." One feels that these 104 HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT fish have absorbed all the vivid colours of the sun- shot tropical sea which was their home. The Aquarium is at the edge of Kapiolani Park. Here there are charming drives and walks along palm-lined avenues, between canals and ponds filled with red and white and blue and pink water lilies or with masses of the pale lavender water hyacinth, across rustic bridges to little islands dotted with fan palms, between masses of brilliant-leaved cro- tons or of hibiscus or of oleanders. And always through the trees there are glimpses of the distant blue mountains, always, when the wind is at rest, there is the murmur of the sea. The park covers about 125 acres, and with proper financial support could be made one of the loveliest gardens in exist- ence. As it is, it looks and is unkempt; many of the plants are allowed to spread too much and are not properly cared for, but no lack of care can destroy the colour of the flowers nor the charm of the frame. The city controls other smaller parks, but in the tropics, where every house, how- ever humble, has its garden, there is not the im- perative need for breathing space that there is in most cities, and as down-town parks Thomas Square, of five or six acres, and Emma Square, of hardly more than an acre, serve as public gardens and places for band concerts. The other public parks are laid out, therefore, primarily as play- grounds and athletic fields. o Ph o p:; as