USA > Hawaii > Honolulu: sketches of life, social, political, and religious, in the Hawaiian Islands from 1828 to 1861 > Part 15
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XLII.
Mr. Armstrong's Address-Good Advice-Events in 1850 and 1851-Royal Haw. Agricultural Soc .- Fudge Lee's Address-Extract from Mr. Wyllie's Address-Don Marin's Journal-His Character -Eruption on Mauna Loa-Distilling and Wine- Making.
1850-'51.
E XTRACT from Mr. Armstrong's address to the natives on their receiving their lands :
" Read the resolutions of the Privy Council, published in this paper, which have already designated and settled the rights of the common natives to lands which they occupy. Now, then, my fellow-subjects, let us advise you a little.
" Ist. Be not obstinate in insisting upon every little crook and corner in your land, but consult together and unite one piece with another, so that several may be enclosed in the same patent, so as to accommodate yourselves. This uniting several pieces into one lessens the charge of the Land Commission. Do it quickly. Do not put it off.
"2d. When you have obtained your patents, what will you do ? Just as you did before? Ride about from place to place, work a little and idle about a great deal, sleep, and talk? If so, your trouble and expenses in obtaining patents will be utterly useless. You should act thus :- Let the wife remain at home and put the house in order ; and the husband go out and cultivate the land, day by day. Be industrious, and fit up your houses and house- lots. Furnish yourselves with chairs, beds, plates, bowls, knives and forks, spoons, and glasses. Provide separate sleeping-rooms for parents and children ; and increase the produce of your lands. Rest not until you are comfortably supplied with all these good things. Plant all kinds of trees in your lands-the fig, coffee,
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21 3
Mr. Armstrong's Address.
guava, orange, bread-fruit, cocoanut, and all kinds of flowering shrubs, so that your lands may be embellished with beautiful plants and trees.
"Take proper care of your children, so you be not destitute of heirs to your lands. Let your daughters remain at home with the mother. Teach them to sew, wash, iron, make mats and hats, and seek after knowledge. The little girls should go to school. The older boys should work with their fathers, for, as the land will become theirs, they should work upon and improve it.
" You should also live in accordance with the Word of God- for your lands will do you no good if you disregard His com mands by quarreling, drinking, and licentiousness, devoting your- selves to pleasure and breaking the Sabbath. Furnish your children with maps, books, and other things, to help them acquire knowledge.
"If you now continue poor, needy, living in disorder in mis- erable huts, your lands lying waste and passing into other hands, whose fault will it be? Whose but yours? Some say this country is going to ruin through your laziness and ignorance. Is it so? Then be it so no longer! Rouse up and act as those wish you to do who have a real regard for your welfare !"
In looking over an old journal, I find the following items recorded, as distinguishing the years 1850 and '51 : Publication of the Penal Code of Laws, revised by Judge Lee; Post-office Regulations, naming the streets in Honolulu; laying water-pipes from the valley to the town ; arrival of a new U. S. Commissioner, L. Severance and family ; a Chamber of Commerce ; a fire company ; public reading-room ; market laws; Board of Health and a town clock; proposals, also, to erect a house of worship for foreign residents, so as to leave more room in the Bethel for the crowds of seamen who visit this port ; also the formation of the Royal Agricultural Society.
Extract from Judge Lee's address before the " R. H. Agricultural Society ":
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Honolulu.
" This is no common gathering. In a small island of the Pa- cific, which, thirty years ago, was buried in the darkness of heathenism, and scarcely known to the civilized portions of the earth, in a country whose uplands were then slumbering in the almost unbroken rest of ages, and whose lowlands knew little culture but that of the kalo patch, there has this day assembled the planter, who counts his hundreds of acres of sugar-cane and coffee-trees ; the farmer, raising cargoes of vegetables for Cali- fornia ; and the herdsman, who gathers in his folds a thousand cattle. Indeed, this is no every-day assemblage.
"Who, in the days of the distinguished discoverer of these islands-of the great and good Vancouver, or in the still later times of the arrival of the American missionaries on these savage shores, would have dared to predict that, in the year of our Lord 1850, there would gather in these ends of the earth, from Europe, from Asia, from North and from South America, from Old En- gland and from New England, such a body as we now see? Who, at that time, would have staked his reputation on such a proph- ecy ? Verily, my friends, I hail this assemblage with joy. I hail it as an advancing step toward the thorough civilization of the Hawaiian race, and the security of its national prosperity and independence. Great as is the contrast presented to us between the present and thirty years ago, in the view we have just taken, I venture to predict that those who fill our places thirty years hence, will see a far greater one between that time and the pres- ent year, 1850. They will see our valleys blooming with coffee and fruit trees, our barren hill-sides waving with luxuriant cane- fields, our worthless plains irrigated and fruitful, and the grass. huts now scattered over our lands, replaced by comfortable farm- houses.
" Until the last year the Hawaiian held his land as a mere ten- ant at sufferance, subject to be dispossessed at any time it might suit the will or caprice of his chief, or that of his oppressive 'luna.' Of what avail was it to the common people to raise more than enough to supply the immediate wants of their sub- sistence? Would the surplus belong to them, or afford the means of future independence? Far from it. It would go to add to the stores of their despotic lords, who claimed an absolute right in all their property, and who periodically sent forth their hordes of 'lunas' to scour the country and plunder the people.
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Address by Fudge Lee.
I thank God that these things are now at an end, and that the poor kanaka may now stand on the border of his kalo patch, and holding his fee-simple patent in his hand, bid defiance to the world. Yes, I thank God that He has moved the heart of the king and chiefs of these islands to let the oppressed go free.
" The granting of the royal patents to the common people for their lands is the brightest jewel that adorns the crown of Kamehameha III., and one that will shine with increasing lustre long after his body shall moulder to its mother earth. The lands are now thrown open to all classes-the native and for- eigner, subject and alien. What a fund of wealth lies hid in the slumbering energies of 2,500,000 acres! Enough to feed 5,000,- 000 inhabitants, and load a hundred first-class ships annually with our surplus produce.
" There is one agent, however, that we require, who holds the key of success-the great brawny-armed, huge-fisted giant called labor. Agriculture has been let alone, and the people's rights so long withheld, that now, when the dark cloud, which has hovered upon them for ages, is lifting, there is hardly a nation to save. Alas ! and must this peeple, possessed of so many kind, generous traits, perish from the face of the earth? Perish, too, not by famine, nor pestilence, nor the sword, but by the rust of indo- lence-the canker of sloth? Shall we let them die without making one struggle to save them from the grave to which they are hastening? No, my friends, justice and humanity forbid. Though but a lone remnant remains, let us strive to gird it with strength to wrestle with its approaching destiny; to arm it with the healthy body and vigorous frame, the only weapon that can stay the hands of the destroyer. Then if our last hope fail, if all our efforts to send a quickening life-pulse through the heart of the wasting nation avail not, we can but commend it to Him, in whose hands are the issues of life and death-to Him who num- bereth the nations as the small dust of the balance, and taketh up the isles as a very little thing."
Extract from Mr. Wyllie's address :
" Nor was agriculture unknown to the ancient Hawaiian. The early navigators, Cook and Vancouver, have recorded their skill and ingenuity in conducting water in conduits to fertilize their fields.
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Honolulu.
" We find the following productions on the Islands seventy-two years ago : kalo, of large size, sweet potatoes, bananas, yams, and bread-fruit; sugar-cane, coccanuts, awa, gourds, hogs, fowls, geese, large white pigeons. Fourteen years afterward we find the following new productions : water-melons, musk-melons, and goats. I have taken some pains to ascertain to whom the Isl- ands are indebted for these productions.
"Sunday, February, 1778, Cook left on Niihau goats, hogs, seeds of pumpkins, melons, and onions. Captain Calnet left sheep on Kauai before Vancouver arrived. March 4, 1792, Cap- tain Vancouver left a vine, orange-plants, almonds, and garden seeds, and a goat and kid on the island of Hawaii, for Kaiana and Keeaumaku. February 4, 1793, he landed cattle and sheep from California for Kamehameha Ist."
Among the rubbish in the cellar of the house of the premier, Kekauluohi, which we occupied two years, was found an old dilapidated journal, written in Spanish, which Mr. Wyllie translated.
It appears that Don Francisco De Paulo Marin came to the Sandwich Islands in 1791. The first entry in the journal is November 14, 1809. He speaks of making gardens and planting pine-apples, oranges, beans, cab- bages, fig-trees, melons, tobacco, etc., and making cigars, kukui oil, candles, hay; and of acting in the several capacities of butcher, cook, mason, ship-carpenter, and physician.
" June 27, 1813 .- Engaged in making nails.
" February 24, 1815 .- Engaged in planting vines for the king.
" July 6, 1815 .- Made fifty-eight gallons of wine.
" July 13, 1815 .- Made five flasks of brandy.
" December, 1815 .- Made a barrel of beer.
" December 30, 1817 .- Planted coffee, cotton, made pickles, lime, soap, molasses ; sowed wheat, barley, planted cloves, toma- toes, saffron, cherries, turnips, pepper, etc.
" April 15, 1819 .- Sent for to cure the king" (with whom he resided until May 8th, when he says), "King Kamehameha Ist died, aged sixty years and six months,
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The Plant-Bringers.
" August 27th .- Engaged in selling vegetables to a French ship-of-war.
" September 22d .- They brought me the first oranges, though I planted the seeds eight years ago.
" November 4th .- Bartered sandal-wood for rum.
" December 8th .- Received the commission of captain.
" May 4, 1820 .- This day arrived a middling-sized brig, called the Thaddeus. bringing American missionaries to these Islands."
It is enough to say that the old gentleman lived till October, 1837, when he died at the age of sixty-three. I am sorry to add that he was very selfish about his plants, never parting with a seed or slip, if he could avoid it. When he trimmed his vines and roses, he would make bonfires, instead of distributing among others what he prized so highly himself. When we arrived at Honolulu, in 1828, there was not a vine or fig-tree to be found out- side of his garden, except a few obtained from other sources. A farmer accompanied the first missionaries to these Islands, who brought a great variety of plants and seeds.
Lord Byron brought coffee plants from Rio Janeiro in 1824; Captain Little, from Batavia, some years later. Richard Charlton, Esq., English Consul, brought others from Manilla, which Governor Kekuanaoa planted in Manoa Valley. The latter were the parent stock of Hawaiian coffee plantations.
In August, 1851, it was stated, on good authority, that Hawaiian produce to the amount of four hundred thousand dollars could be furnished at short notice; but unfortunately the market was over-stocked, and there were no purchasers or ships to take it to California. Irish potatoes rotted in the ground, and onions and other vegetables scarcely paid the expense of digging. This was very discouraging to the agriculturists who had ex-
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Honolulu.
pected to realize fortunes speedily by turning over the soil.
In the same year there occurred an extraordinary eruption from the crater on Mauna Loa, rolling down the sides of the mountain fourteen thousand feet, sweeping everything before it, bearing trees and rocks with resist- less force upon its bosom. The light was seen seventy miles at sea, and reflected shadows distinctly at Kau, thirty miles off. It broke out with a tremendous report, like the explosions of cannon.
While this magnificent display of fire-works was pouring out of nature's great laboratory on Hawaii, the cham- pions of progress across the channel, at the metropolis, were maintaining a spirited paper warfare on the subject of native distilleries, and the cultivation of the grape in order to make wine; and the reduction of duty on spir- ituous liquors.
On one side it was argued that high duties increased smuggling, that cheap liquor diminished drunkenness, and that a moderate use of wine was Scriptural, and con ducive to benevolence and long life. These arguments brought down an avalanche of statistics to prove a con- trary opinion. The contest continued week after week, and month after month, consuming pages of our weekly journal, with increasing temperatures, till the subject was threadbare.
XLIII.
Filibusters-Report of Minister-Military Prepara- tions-Counter Arguments-The Atmosphere Clear- ing up-Progress.
1852.
T HE increased intercourse between California and the Islands led to an intimate acquaintance. The knowledge of our physical weakness had well-nigh made us a prey to our daring neighbors. Our little com- munity was thrown into spasms by reading the following in a California paper :
"It would appear that our eagles, in their westward flight, have not yet found a resting-place.
"Several young eaglets are trimming their wings for a flight to the Sandwich Islands. To speak plainly-it is said that a party are about to embark, with the intention of settling there. · They take their arms with them, with the design of forcibly abolishing the monarchy, and establishing a republic."
The Minister of Foreign Relations made the following report before the Hawaiian Legislature, April, 1852 :
. Under a sense of loyalty to the king, it became my duty to lay before His Majesty, in Privy Council, the warnings I had received, of the organization in San Francisco of a band of adventurers, with the intention of invading this kingdom. Where the danger appeared imminent, it did not seem wise to trust entirely to the protection of the U. S. Commissioner and of their naval forces in the harbor, or to neglect the sound and friend- ly advice of Captain G -. Accordingly, on the 10th of November last, the king being absent, I gave notice that I would move before
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Honolulu.
his council for the organization of a force of thirteen hundred men for the Island of Hawaii, eleven hundred for Maui, eighteen hundred for Oahu, five hundred and seventy for Kauai, two hun- dred and fifty for Molokai, thirty for Niihau, and fifty mounted lancers in Honolulu, for the guard of His Majesty's person. . ... It has pleased His Majesty to create the crown prince, Alex- ander Liholiho, his Lieutenant-General over the armed forces of his Islands; and to appoint Prince Lot Kamehameha a General of Division.
" Now it occurs to me, Ought the small force, organized at an expense of thirteen thousand five hundred dollars, and of much labor on the part of Lieutenant Reed (in drilling) to be kept up, or ought it to be disbanded ? Are we, who were rich enough to spend twenty-five thousand eight hundred and ninety-two dol- lars, in the years 1850 and '51, for the support of public schools, so poor now that we can not continue to raise money for the schools, and to support a body of properly-armed and disci- plined men to quell an intestine riot, to drive off pirates, 01 repel from our shores a band of desperadoes bent on war and plunder on private account? I am one who thinks we are not. I would say, Keep up the State, and let every district or parent support its own schools."
Other friends, equally loyal to both king and nation, argued against this policy, for the following reasons :
Ist. That the nation's strength is not and can not be made to consist in physical force, but in moral power ; and the more we rely on the first and discard the second, the weaker we shall be.
2d. We have no men to spare for the indolent life of soldiers. We need all the natives for work, to be pro- ducers, and not mere consumers.
3d. The expense of a standing army would drain the treasury and involve the Government in a debt which would ruin it. The money is all wanted for internal improvements, such as building bridges, making roads, improving the wharves, and in erecting a new prison, which is a national necessity.
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The Question of Defences.
4th. Because an army is demoralizing, fosters vanity, promotes discord, and weakens the sympathy of friends whose aid alone can sustain us in the right.
A well-organized, strong police force is all our exi- gencies require, and this we have without troops.
The schoolmaster's spelling-book and Bible are better than swords and muskets; and it is a far more convinc- ing evidence of strength and civilization to know that twenty thousand letters are passing through our post- offices, written by natives, than to know that a thousand men can keep step passably to fife and drum.
Thanks to the friendly and protective policy of the Commissioner of the United States, the Hon. L. Sever- ance, who detained the United States ship-of-war Van- dalia in port all winter, the king's Government was un- molested, and families felt secure from any sudden sur- prise or invasion. A few suspicious persons appeared, but the only misdemeanor proved against them was ab- stracting some letters from the mail-bag on their way hither, by which they hoped to escape an unpleasant introduction.
XLIV.
A Dark Chapter-The Small-pox-How Introduced -Vaccination - Board of Health - Sedition Fo- mented- Indignation Meetings - Committee of Thirteen-Petitions-Panic at the Palace-Resig- nation of the Ministers-A Torchlight Procession -Dr. Fudd a Private Citizen-Letter from La- haina.
1853.
I TT is always a pity to stir up the muddy pools of the past, especially when once fairly settled. I prefer the sunny side of life, and leave those whose tastes it may suit to open up dark dens to public view, and rake in noisome gutters for aliment.
Unhappily, life is not all sunshine, but clouds and shadows must form a part of its history, to remind us that we are pilgrims in a sin-stricken world.
Early in the summer of 1853 that terrible pestilence, the small-pox, made its appearance in our beautiful islands; how or whence introduced is still a mystery. It is supposed that the infection was brought in some trunks of old clothes sold at auction and scattered among the natives. The first victims were two women, who washed some of these articles. The first cases were so light as not to be noticed or known till a whole neighborhood had been infected; and before efficient sanitary regulations could be enforced, the victims, in their ignorance and fright, had scattered the infection far and wide. .
Great efforts had been made in tormer years to vacci-
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2.23
The Small-pox Epidemic.
nate the people very extensively, and thus avert a calam- ity so much to be dreaded. Medical men and mission- aries had taken great pains to procure vaccine virus ; but a long sea voyage often injured its vitality or de- stroyed it altogether. When obtained, the very best depreciated rapidly in the native system, affording pro- tection to a few hundreds only before losing all its virtue.
When the fact became known that the disease was here, prompt measures were adopted by the authorities to arrest and confine its progress, and ameliorate the suf- ferings of its victims. An ample appropriation of money was made to purchase suitable food and medicine, and a committee was chosen to visit and distribute them.
It is sickening to recall those days, when a little patch of yellow calico, waving on a pole, indicated pestilence and suffering within. The Board of Health and under- takers were busy men. Physicians and the visiting com- mittee bowed down and became at times utterly pros- trate in their untiring efforts by night and by day to dis- pense medicine, food, and comfort. The Pale Horse and his rider strode on, counting the vanquished by thousands, in spite of human effort, till the destroying. angel had finished his work.
There were those who saw and acknowledged the hand of God in this visitation, and hastened to bow themselves in prayer and penitence. A portion of the foreign element in Honolulu, I regret to say, took this occasion to foment strife, sedition, and other evil work. That ubiquitous family of croakers had its representa- tives, who affirmed that the direful disease would never be eradicated in such a climate. Ships would forsake forever our once sunny isles. Our commercial prospects were entirely ruined, and the nation's doom sealed.
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Honolulu.
Indignation meetings were held, and inflammatory speeches addressed to the rabble. A committee of thir teen was chosen to revolutionize the Government, and reconstruct it to suit themselves. The first act was to fix upon a victim on whom to charge the calamity. The lot fell upon the Rev. R. Armstrong and Dr. G. P. Judd, two men who perhaps had done more than any other to avoid it. They were accused of introducing the scourge, for the purpose of destroying the people. They were stigmatized as traitors and wholesale murderers of the deepest dye, and no pains were spared to rouse the natives, and exasperate them to deeds of revenge. Peti- tions were addressed to the king, to remove them from office, under vague and unfounded charges. Agents were hired to take the petitions around the island for signatures, under various pretenses; some signed, ex- pecting relief from taxes; others supposed the census was being taken, and very few discerned the truth from falsehood.
I would not drag before the public the names of those . who suggested, at the sitting of the Secret Tribunal, the idea of tearing a father from his family, and at the hour of midnight, without judge or jury, commit him in an open boat to the broad ocean, unprovided with oars, food, or water! I had this confession from the lips of one of the Thirteen. May God forgive them, as I do, and as I hope to be forgiven. To the credit of human- ity, be it said, some of the actors in these scenes were strangers in the land and grossly misled. They saw their folly too late, and lived to regret it.
The leaders were men of selfish ambition, with little to lose and much to gain. If successful in revolution- izing the Government, they hoped to fill their pockets with spoils, and then annex the Islands to the United
225
A Secret Tribunal.
States. The native rulers were cajoled and threatened by turns, and promised, that by sacrificing the obnox- ious ministers, peace and harmony would be restored.
One day the sheriff, an Englishman, was seized by three of the Thirteen, kept a close prisoner for some hours, thoroughly frightened, and made to believe that unless the Minister of Finance at least resigned, blood would be shed. This bold move produced a panic at the palace. Field-pieces were hastily dragged in at night to protect the person of the king, whose life was supposed to be in danger. The old heroes, Hoapili, Kaahumanu, and Kuakini, were in their graves, and the race of Hawaiian braves was nearly extinct. Wearied with turmoil, and overcome with strong drink, the king sent a messenger for Dr. Judd one evening, and de- manded his resignation. This was very unexpected surely, but as the royal wish was about to be complied with on the following morning, persons of rank and in- fluence requested him to wait a little, as other counsels were likely to prevail with the king.
Such was the attitude of affairs, when, for reasons best known and approved by themselves, the other ministers of the Cabinet sent in their commissions to the king. Dr. Judd did the same. He was the more ready to re- tire from the Government service (although he consid- ered the manner in which it was brought about dishon- orable), as the candidate for his office was an experienced lawyer, and in every way qualified to cope with the in- trigues of the time.
The august Thirteen were checkmated, although they boasted of triumph and victory. A torchlight procession with music and banners paraded the town, and called at the house of the new incumbent, with speeches and hurrahs. The following is the preamble to one of the IO*
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Honolulu.
resolutions passed at their last meeting, after which they disbanded :
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