# Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen/Chapter 54

CHAPTER LIV
MY LITERARY OCCUPATION
In the early part of May it became necessary for my companion, Mrs. Kia Nahaolelua, to return to Honolulu. Three months was the length of time I had expected to be absent when I asked her to accompany me; but five months had passed away, and her husband and large family of children needed her. So I sent her to San Francisco under the charge of Captain Palmer, where he was to meet Mrs. Joseph Heleluhe, and conduct her to Washington.
During their absence I invited my cousin, Mrs. William Lee, whom, after leaving Boston, I had met in New York on the occasion of the dedication of the Grant mausoleum, to visit me at the Cairo. In her honor I issued cards for a special reception given in the elegant ballroom of that hotel. Manager Sherman spared neither pains nor money to make the occasion worthy of the guest; choice flowers and music, some of it from Hawaiian sources, made the celebration a charming one. Mrs. Lee is a very handsome woman, of commanding presence, brilliant in conversation, cultivated in mind, and of a high order of intellect. During her short stay, for the days sped quickly by, she attracted much attention by her social qualities, ​and won the hearts of many of those with whom she came in contact.
The synopsis of my social pleasures for the six months or so I was in Washington is necessarily incomplete, and to render it perfect would be to extend these leaves into too much of a volume. With such numberless callers as I have daily received from all parts of the United States, the frequent courtesies from the families of congressional members, and the occasionally accepted invitations to the theatre, the opera, or other public entertainments (many of which invitations, while appreciating the kindly spirit, I was obliged to decline), my leisure moments were much occupied. It was singular, and at times amusing, to notice the question in the public journals, asking, "What is the queen doing in Washington?" and in reply, to read the ingenuity shown in inventing all sorts of political falsehoods, and publishing these as facts.
Besides what has been stated, my time was much engrossed with correspondence and literary labors, in which latter might be included my music. For I have been engaged on two other works besides "Hawaii's Story." During my imprisonment I had nearly translated an ancient poem which has been handed down exclusively in our family from the earliest days. This I completed during my visit to the national capital; and it is now issued from the press of Lee & Shepard, Boston. It is the chant which was sung to Captain Cook in one of the ancient temples of Hawaii, and chronicles the creation of the world and of living creatures, from the shell-fish to the human race, according to Hawaiian tra​ditions. It is not designed for general circulation, but for my friends, and will be placed in the libraries of some scientific societies.
For years my name has been at the head of a list of members of the Polynesian Society, as patron. This organization, with headquarters in New Zealand, is devoted to the study of languages, literature, folk-lore, history, in short, all things connected with the inhabitants of that vast extent of archipelago in the Pacific Ocean known as Oceanica. When I accepted the position as patron, Mr. Alexander assured me that it was tendered to me, not only because of the fact that the Hawaiians were the most highly civilized of any of the ancient people of those seas, but further, because I had been known so long as the friend of education, of art, and of all those refining influences which exalt the nation, and elevate the character of the individual. Therefore it seemed fitting for me to send to this society some account of our earliest days.
I have had more calls for my music than I could possibly supply. An edition of “Aloha Oe,” published by me in Washington this winter, simply for gifts to my friends, is nearly exhausted. No copies have ever been offered for sale; but in response to the very general wish, I have collected a number of my songs, chants, and pieces written or translated by me during the past twenty years or more, and hope soon to put them into the hands of the publisher, so that any stranger desiring to possess samples of Hawaiian music may have that opportunity. Two specially prepared volumes of such compositions were appropriately bound and inscribed in ​Washington the past winter. One of these was placed in the new Congressional Library; the other was sent abroad as my contribution to the souvenirs of this Jubilee year of Her Majesty, the great and good Queen Victoria.
From this brief sketch of my life at the capital, it would appear that my mind was fully employed, had there been no political questions to interest me. Yet was it natural that I should forget my own people and their misfortunes? Let me, therefore, return to the annexationists and their plots. While I had been no more than an interested observer, quietly awaiting the course of justice, and conscious of the strength derived from truth and right on my side, their commissioners, with such influences as their indomitable assurance could command, had been working very hard to get the present rule in Hawaii out of its political and financial difficulties, by passing over to the United States a country whose hospitality they have betrayed, a land which they do not and never can own.
My friends in Honolulu had never forgotten me, and the arrival of every mail kept me informed of all that transpired throughout Hawaii. With the advantages which were mine of learning the attitude of men and parties in Washington, there was little that took place with which I was not thoroughly acquainted before it reached the columns of the newspapers. Thus, understanding perfectly the kind of men sent one after another by the so-called Republic of Hawaii to Washington, I was easily able to separate truth from falsehood in the accounts inspired by the missionary party, ​published by them or their agents in Honolulu, written from thence to the press in America, or invented by enterprising scribblers for the purpose of deceiving the American public.
Having tried in vain to excite the American people against Great Britain, and having wilfully violated treaty obligations with the friendly power of Japan, they then got the Senate into a hopeless quarrel over the reciprocity treaty and the sugar schedule; so that to allay all these disturbances, and yet do nothing decisive, on June 16, 1897, President McKinley sent their annexation treaty to the Senate. Congress had been in session ever since December, and had shown no interest whatever in the troubles of a few adventurers two thousand miles from California, claiming to be both Americans and Hawaiians.
Nothing was done by me in the matter until the treaty was officially made public in the Senate. These commissioners had often said that there would soon be a treaty signed, and had so often deceived the people that it was well to await knowledge from the proper authority. But just as quickly as I learned that action had been taken upon the proposed cession of Hawaii to the United States, I sent my secretaries, Mr. Joseph Heleluhe and Captain Julius A. Palmer, to the Department of State with the following protest.