Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-07-24

but not until IT'S did their eonseeu- tive connection with the west begin.
 In that year Capt. Cook landed on Kauai and was looked upon by the natives as an incarnation of the god Lono. They considered his crew as supernatural beings. Cook returned the next year, but became involved in disputes with the natives, and was killed February II, 1779.
 From the beginning almost the Hawaiians have sought protection from Europeans, in which, of course, are included the Americans. In 1794 the king, Kamehameha, and his chiefs voluntarily placedthemselyes under the protection of England, and the British flag was hoisted in Hawaii. This Kamehameha had secured supreme power through sanguinary civil war, lasting nine years. He was nephew of King Kalaniopuu, whose son he dispossessed and finally got assassin ated. A civil war in the Leeward islands gave Kamehameha chance to inter- fere. He did so; reduced Oahu to sub jection to himself, and for the rest of his days had peace. His domains in cluded all the Hawaiian islands ex- cept Kauai and Niihau, the extreme western ones. But his work was not yet done. In March. 1910, the last king of Kauai was persuaded to pay tribute to Kamehameha and hold his island during the remainder of his life as lief Of the king If Hawaii. in 1915 the Russians attempted to annex Kauai, but the firmness of Kamehameha frus- trated their designs. When he died, in 1879. he had consolidated the Hawaiian islands into one strong kingdom.
 His eldest son, Liholiho, succeeded him and took the name of Kameham- cha H. The reign of this prince was distinguished by the introduction of Christianity into the islands. But the conversion of the Hawaiians oc- cured in perhaps the most curious fashion in which such a change was ever effected. Vancouver had visit ed the islands several times during the last part of the eighteenth century, and is still remembered as "a wise and generous benefactor of those islands" The words are taken from an Ha- waiian document He taught the Ha- waiians many things, and among others a dislike for their crude sys- tems of idolatry. The king went so
 far as to ask him to send out mis-
 sionaries from England, but Van couver, in 1794, sailed away for the 1 last time, and no missionaries came,
 However, his teachings were working
 a reformation in Hawaii, and under l Kamehameha II. it came to head.
 In 1879 there was a general breaking 1 of idols and burning of temples l throughout Hawaii. A cousin of the l king, indeed, rallied the conservatives, and civil war broke out, but in the | battle of Kuamoo, December 20, 1879,
 he was defeated and slain.
 The peculiarity of this reformation
 is that it was purely negative. No mis-
 sionaries had yet arrived. The island CTS were not establishing Christianity. | They had simply sickened of their old | religion and had cast it out. They had | created a religious vacuum: they were
 people without faith. and their
 minds stood empty for the entrance of a new creed.
 It came to them April 1. 1920, by the
 arrival of the pioneer party Of Ameri- can missionaries. sThe missionaries
 were well received" says Chambers. | ''and the work of instruction was at once begun. In less than 40 years they l had taught the whole Hawaiian peo- 1 pie to read and write, to cipher and sew" "They soon reduced the lan- guage 10 writing" says an official re- port of the Hawaiian republic, "and | commenced printing their first book in January, 1892. They found the Ha-
 wa:ians an amiable and highly recer- tive race. eager for knowledge and easily influenced for good or evil.'' King l<amehameha H., with the queen and six chiefs. embarked. November
 ?. 1923, for voyage to England. The
 king and queen never returned. They died of measles in London after hav- ing been shown royal honors. Their