New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-01-02
The Ekamcls;srne.sa

Death, who, as Horace rcnaks, visits with
unpleasant impartiality the cellars Of Water
street and the mansions of Fifth avenue, has
recently knocked at the door of n royal pal
ace, and summoned the last representative
Of royal line to abandon forever the pleas
ures of "poee-poee" and the chaste delights
of the ''hula-hula.' In short, Kamehameha
V. is dead, and by his death the reigning
family OF the Sandwich Islands becomes ex-
tinct.
The history Of the house Of Kanehamehs
is one full of exciting incident and curious
change. In the year l77S, Capt. Cook, who
had landed at the Sandwich Islands in the
interests Of science and with a view to fresh
pork. was murdered by the subjects of ka-
mehameha l, and, if report speaks truly, was
much relished by that monarch in a roasted
state, and in connection with plantain sauce.
| Though history, in the shape of that garrul-
Gus sca-fariEg man, has fixed the name of
"Kamehameha" upon the pleasant cannibal
such practical use, there is good reason to
doubt whether that name was not wholly
creation Of an inventive and irreverent mar
| liner. OF course, a naked cannibal cannot be
credited with any large amount OF good taste,
but 1t is improbable that even the eater Of
| the tough wcather-beaten Cook would have
called himself by q name so obviously absurd
as Kamehameha. This, however, is d.
erosion. In time the founder Of the royal
house of tho Sandwich Islands died, In the
pungent odor Of cannibalism, and his son
reigned in his stead. The latter, having
conceived high opinion of European civili-
cation from the samples of rum obtained by
him from casual sailors, abolished paganism
by a royal decree. What particular form of
worship he proposed to establish in its place
is not certainly known, though unquestion-
ably the spirit Of rum would have had tho
highest place in his new pantheon. Luckily,
O number of missionaries landed in his do
minion soon after the abolition of heather.
ism, and the new religion brought by them
was cheerfully adopted, as being beyond
doubt an improvement upon the original pa
ganism Of the Kanakas snd the riotous rcl!.
giou of the average mariner.
Until now the Kamehamehas have relgne(
uudsturbed, and, as rule, have been un
) shaken in their support Of the Christian re
lgion. Az times, the second, third, ant
fourth monarchs Of that name are UNDERSTOOD
to have lapsed, for brief intervals, into tn
pagan ways of their ancestors. The herald
: tary longing for roasted human being woul'
3 occasionally impcl Kamehameha to lool
, with suspiciously -unpleasant interest upol
t a particularly edible missionary, and to hin
3 that, IN the good old days of Kamehameha I.
= INDIGESTION never haunted the cheerful boar
G of the weli-fed kanaka. Still, this longin
: never resulted in the actual cooking of an
= one, and the hungry king invariably abar
= doned his half-conceived cannibalistic pul
! pose, and sadly solaced himself with tn
;. harmless but hardly toothsome pig. 1t
e also believed that occasionally a Kameham(
N ha displayed threatening tendency to abo
: ish Christianity, and to set up the simpl
IS worship of New England rum, in accordanc
te with the original design of Kamehameha II
&c Nothing serious, however, came of these h
al retical impulses, and the king, after havir
% passed through temporary drunkenness to
state Of headache and repentance, prompt
in arrested the first available drunken sailo
1g and convinced him that the royal governme
ng cherished hearty hatred of drunkenness o,
Of debauchery.
- The extinction of the reigning house,
lie the death of Kamehameha ", leaves the n
nd ton without head. Had, however, I
ed supply of Kamehamehas held out few yea
longer, the equally annoying contingency
the extinction Of all their subjects would ha
of occurred. The Sandwich Islanders, who,
1923, numbered 10000 souls, such as th