The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1897-04-26

/ period. What saooharine matter was
| consumed there came either from Chi
ma or Batavia. Had there been a sugar
| industry then, as now, the scheme
| planned out in San Francisco by the
| shrewd old Garry" Ryckman might
have been brought about comparative
! ly without anything like a severe
struggle. From March till September
] all was peace and quiet. Occasionally
| big clipper would arrive from San
| Francisco and carry away in her ca
paciouS hold the cargoeS of five or six
whalerS (Which never exceeded 500
tons register) had brought down from
the land of the midnight sun. But be-
yond that Honolulu was very quiet for
seven months.
Influences at Washington were not
wanting at that period TO aid the plan
which old Captain Wright saw must
be brought about to perfect his enter
prises. One of his trusted friends was
James O'Meara, who had previously
been assistant editorial writer on John
Nugent's Daily Herald in San Fran
cisco. He was the political figurehead
in the case although Ryckman and his
coadjutorS in San Francisco were near
er to the throne than he. O'Meara is
still alive. though broken in health,
living at Santa Rosa or thereabouts.
Just what his position was nobody but
himself knows TO this day, but the gen.
eral belief was that he was paid a
handsome salary, and that the money
came from parties in Washington who
were very close to President Pierce. He
could write up the true story, the Gin
side history of that affair. and just at
this time it would be mighty interest
ing reading.
PREPARED FOR ANNEXATION.
Everything was in readiness for the
annexation of the Sandwich Islands to
the United States on the 1st of Janu-
ary, 1855. The group of Islands was to
be called the State of Hawaii, and
King Kamehameha's son Alexander
(who afterwards ascended the throne
with the title of Kamehameha IV) was
to be one of the two United States Sen
ators and the other was to be of Am
erican birth. But on the 18th day of
December, 1854, just as O'Meara and
Wadsworth were ready to leave for
Washington, via San Francisco, old
Kamehameha III. was taken violently
i'll and died two days later. The streets
of Honolulu were rife with rumors of
his having been poisoned, and accusing
Prince Alexander of completely in the
plot to remove him. The first part of
this story may be true, but the latter
portion seems beyond credence.
This knocked the whole thing into
"pi," as our typographical friends put
it, Alexander convoked the Council OF
Mobiles at once and was proclaimed
King under the title of Kamehameha
w. with a degree of haste that SEEM
ed almost indecent. The missionary
element aided by a faction of the no
bility that had always viewed Ameri-
cans with distrust. were the chief or
ganizers in the affair. Annexation
passed away like any other nine days
wonder. and the American element
soon returned to California. Wads-
worth was "out and injured" to the
tune of nearly 100000 in the whole
transaction, as the boats ran at a dead
loss for eight months in the year In
1860 he made a second fortune in the
Gould and Curry mine at Virginia City,
but lost it by being too confiding in
the friendship of Ralston and Sharon.
In 1887 Governor Bartlett appointed
him State Insurance Commissioner and
at the close of his official term he re-
moved East to reside with relatives.
He was, more than any other ten men
in the State, living ir dead, entitled TO
be called the father of the Society OF
California Pioneers. His liberality and
public spirit were too much even for
the two ample fortunes that once stood
to his credit in the banks of San Fran
cisco.
There is no particular bearing of the
above narrated circumstances upon the
present situation of Hawaiian affairs,
but the Times has a large clientage OF
readers who never heard of the incl
dents above narrated and it has, for
fTaTr nf
unwritten history.