The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-03-05
PROF. ALEXANDER'S HISTORY.
AN IMPORTANT WORK.
(Concluded.)


ple," commences with the installation
of Liholiho, or Kamehameha IL, and |
extends to the accession Of Her |
Majesty Liliuokslani. 1t is replete |
with interest, and no shadow of JUS |
tice can be done it in the short space
to which we are necessarily confined.
Liholiho's reign lasted only little
more than five years, over seven
months of which he was absent from
the country, and yet the most i'm
portant event in the annals of the
land occurred during that period.
We refer, of course, to the abolition
of idolatry in 1919. "The effect of
it," says the Professor, "was like that
of displacing the keystone of an
arch. The whole structure, both OF
idol-worship and of the tabus, fell at
once into ruins" The old order of
things, however, found its champion
10 Kekuaokalani, ga brave aud popu-
lar young Chief" but he and his fol-
lowers were defeated on the Goth of
December, 1910, at the bloody battle
of Kaumoo, and, as Jarves expresses
it, Hawaii presented to the world
the strange spectacle of a nation
without religion" Divine Provi-
dence thus opened the way for the
religion of the Cross. The pioneer
missionaries had left Boston the
same month in which idolatry was
abolished, and, reaching here on the
31st of March in the following year,
commenced the long and tedious Ia
bors which have ultimately lifted the
Hawaiian people from condition of
degradation into a nation command
ing the respect and admiration OF the
world.
OF the life and character Of Ka-
mehameha IL. (Liholiho) little need
be said. He lacked ell the traits of
character that have made his dis
tinguished father admired, and pos
sessed no others that subjects justly
demand that their king should
possess. His early death opened
the way for greater and better
sovereign, whose reign was to be
distinguished by stirring events and
highly important reforms. A little
less than a year after the death of
Liholiho, Prince Kauikeaouli (Kame-
hameha ILL.,, then not IL years of
age, was proclaimed King, with
Kaahumanu as regent during his
minority. She was the favorite wife
of Kamehameha' l., and, next to her
royal husband, was perhaps the
wisest and ablest Hawaiian that has
ever figured in the history of the
kingdom. During the early part of
her reign measures were taken to
suppress vice, and promote educa-
ton, which, as might have been ex-
pected, aroused the pronounced oppo-
sition of those whose only creed was
that "there was no God this side of
Cape Horn" This opposition bore
its legitimate fruit in the outrages
committed in 1926, 1926 and 1927
at Lahaina and that of the
U. S. schooner Dolphin" COM
manded by Lieut.. Percival, in 1926.
The closing years of Kaahumanu's
regency were marked by three i'm
portant events-O the arrival and
subsequent persecution of the Cath
Ollie missionaries, ~ the conspiracy
of Governor Boki, followed by the
wildly conceived expedition in which
he lost his life, and 81 the promul-
CATION of the first laws of the king
dom. The Catholic missionaries ar
rived here in July, 1927, and aroused
by their presence the opposition of
the Crown. An order was issued in
1929 forbidding the natives to at
tend Catholic worship. In 1880,
Louisa, a native woman who had
been baptized in California
was treated with severity. Kaahu-
manu- even intended to send her to
Kahoolawe (which was then used as
place of banishment), but was dis
suaded from doing SO by the Pro
testant missionary Mr.. Richards,
and sent her back to Honolulu. Dur
ing her absence at the windward,
Kinau caused several persons to be
punished for the same offense by
hard labor in building stone walls
or in braiding mats. On her return
from the windward, Kaahumanu con-
tinued the same policy, and in some
cases had the offenders put In irons
for what she considered .insolent Ian
guage" An Order in Council in
1881 decreeing the Punishment of
the priests eventually resulted in
internal and diplomatic complied
tions, which failed to reach final
solution until the arrival of NJ
Perrin 20 years later. Professor
Alexander proves his impartiality as
a historian by frankly conceding that
the early Catholics were the objects
of persecution. 1t was due to him
self, however, as a historian as well
as to the truth of history itself, that
he should say something more, and
this he does in the following words
With the lapse of two generations
the bitter animosities of those
days have nearly died out, and al
parties now regret that any religious
persecution should ever have taker
place ID this kingdom. Justice tc
the native Government, however
requires some further explanation
It would have been strange, indeed
if the chiefs of that generation
brought up under the old regime
had been able to understand the
principles of religious federation OF
tha liof;poI;O,o lDot-oo,, CI,-l - )