The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-01-03
THE KINGS

THE KINGS BIRTHDAY.
Wednesday, the 18th of December, 1872, like most
tropical days rose bright and warm on Honolulu, the
Hawaiian capital. 1t was the birthday of Kameha-
meha ", the King, and preparations for its custom
ary observance or a national holiday were in full
progress in the early morning. Flags futtered from
the Government and private masts and shipping IN
the harbor. Business houses and shops were closed,
and working men of all classes rested from labor.
Parties of townspeople were starting out into the
eanntry- to enjoy the holiday in rural festivities,
while q scattered army of natives on their half
trained horses, galloped gaily into town over the
various roads, from all parts Of the island, men,
women and children, and even the horses crowned
and garlanded with flowing wreaths of the fragrant
MALE, all eager to join in whatever of merry-making
or excitement the city had to offer.
In the mean time while these signs of festival and
pleasure were thus prosperously progressing, a scene
of quite a different character was taking place at the
Palace of Iolani. Before light the principal Govern
ment officials and the most intimate friends of the
King had been hastily sent for as he had been failing
rapidly through the night and had at length gone
into a state of stupor. Shortly after sunrise his con-
seriousness returned, and those around him took
immediate measures to have a will drawn up for
him to execute. After some general conversation in
u III uCCSSSAO IL UANNh ~ RO"NS
sions were reached, and a few illusions to the dis
tribution of certain items of his personal property,
the Governor of Oahu taking down in writing his
words, he told his friends that he was not so sick as
they thought he was, and that they all had better
have breakfast before going on with the will. Some
of the company then left the room, and the King
with assistance got up and walked around a little
and ate a small quantity of food; then reclining
,ooS, ~, he oorcb in a few Minutes without sion of
approaching dissolution, he suddenly and quietly
expired, at twenty minutes after ten O'Clock.
The public were aware that the King had been
seriously i'll for many months, in spite of the studied
concealment on the part of the administration of the
fact and the repeated statements in the Government
Gazette that His Majesty was in &c excellent health
but as to the nature of his malady or the severity
of his illness they had to content themselves with the
vaguest AMI most indefinite umors. Still the fact
of the Kings absence during the preceding two Or
three months from the public drives, and all state
occasions left them not wholly unprepared for the
report which was made through the town about
breakfast time, that the King was dying. Here and
there in the yet quiet streets, knots of people gath
cred and anxiously discussed the event with its pos
sibilities. At about nine O'Clock in the forenoon the
Kings Chamberlain passed through the business
lOA " VI lDI tAaNC anu WIN RNORASN -NE A-2 1890 8
was better, and was eating his breakfast. This news
greatly relieved the prevailing anxiety and changed
the hush of gloomy anticipation which already
brooded over the community, to the more lively and
noisy scenes belonging to the anniversary of a Kings
birthday. But before ~half-past ten O'Clock, the guns
of the Puowaina battery above the town, which had
been loaded to give at noon the royal salute, began
to thunder forth in mournful minute guns, the an
nouncement that he whose birth the people were
then commemorating, vas dead; national festivities
scattered over many a league were checked and
hushed with the ominous warning, and the echoes of
the death peal reverberating among the cliffs and
crags of the mountains bore to the distant parts Of
the island a vague hint Of the breeding of a public
crisis.
The deep feeling caused by the event of the Kings
decease was rather alarm at the situation and its
possibilities than regret for the dead. No royal testa-
ment had been signed. No successor to the throne
had been appointed and proclaimed; and the King
no nearer kin them Ruth KeeIikolani, Governess
OF the Island of Hawaii, his h~alf-sister and not in the
line Of royal descent. 1t was a crisis without prece-
dent in the history Of the nation; and it was impos-
sible to divine the empe of the people or guess at
the line of seton which different claimants to the
throne might adopt.
As the country jewellers Of the morning struggled
in the evening, Ioo Eaourners perchance,
lad many of them true 20 the aueient customs which