The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-01-06
"HE HE 1.-THE GREAT SPEAR.
A LEGEND OF EAMEHAMEHA THE

GREAT
Written for the P. C. ApvERr1sER.l
When the conqueror came from tn,
south, and his army with bloody
red spears
Swept over the land, like deluge
and filled it with wailing and tears
| He knew that the Chieftains of Oahu
though conquered, might some day
arise
And against him make war, and tC
watch them, appointed some wo.
men as spies.
| One night when a banquet was ready
and he and his chiefs had sat down
A spy to his side swiftly glided, and
his face wore a terrible frown
AS she told him in terrified accents,
that chiefs numbering fifty or more,
Were in conclave assembled that
night in hut by the Pearl Lake
shore.
Grimly he smiled as he rose from his
seat, this hero of hundreds of wars,
He appointed a chief to preside, and
went out meath the lone silent
stars;
Charging that none should him fol-
/,
And carried the spear in his hand
that had carved him his way to a
throne.
By the rim of the ocean that thunder
ed, and tossed its wild spray in his
face,
With strides like a giant he hurried,
and each moment he quickened his
space,
Till his path laid through glens and
through gulches, through fens and
through Doggy morass,
And the waters flew round him in
spray, as he strobe through the
treacherous grass.
Yet he swerved not, or stayed ON his
journey through glens and through
gulches, and soon
He was free from the glens and their
windings, and stood by the Pearl
Lagoon;
Boldly he plunged in the waters so
dark, and swan to the opposite
strand.
With long, steady strokes, while over
his head "ihe nui' was held in one
hand.
With the stealthy-like tread of tiger
he tripped DER the soft cushioned
sands,
Reached his goal at the dark noon of
night, by the door of the grass hut
he stands;
There silently standing he listens, as
each rebel chief takes the floor,
Till he 1earneth their plots and their
plans, then he planteth his spear at
the door.
Then back as he wendeth his way
through the waters, the glens and
defiles,
He thinks, while his passions are ris-
ing, of these rebel chiefs treacher-
Gus smiles;
How they f1attered and lied to him
once, how they cringed and fawned
to his face,
Sure never before such arrogant
knaves the courts of a king did dis
grace.
Then the chiefs that had gathered
at night in the lonely grass hut
by the shore,
Were appalled, and dismayed when
they found 'fhe nui," the spear, at
the door;
Their faces with terror were blanched,
and with voices despairing they
cry
'STo the ear of the king all our plots
are revealed. Alas! for us; we
must die"
Some fled to the mountain, and hid |
them in the caves of the steep |
Waianae,
Some launched their canoes and in
terror, padded off to the far
Kauai
But some of them holder than others,
remembering that mercy was !
shown
By the monarch sometimes to the |
sinner, determined to plead at the |
throne.
So they gathered and travelled to-
gether, the bravest one bearing the
spear,
Till they came to the house of the
king, where they bowed them low |
down in their fear
Grovelled and crawled on the earth at |
his feet, and prayed the good king |
to forgive
Them their sins and absolve them,
"E ola oukou y" You may
live p'
sc E ola oukou," was the answer he |
gave, and he deigned not to say a
word more.
The sinners bowed down with re-
pentance and shame, on Bonded |
knees crawled to the door.
Would the monarchs in civilized |
lands have deemed this the trait
or's just need?
Yet We sheer at the king as a savage |
who did this magnanimous deed !
CHARLES III. EwART.
Dalbeattie, Scotland,
29th November, 1898.