The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-02-21
IS HISTORICAL FICTION
WORK AMERICA
IN HAWAII"
A Few Errors of Fact and Some Exu-
berance of Fancy in the Latest Book
on the Islands.

on the Islands.
OF books and articles upon Hawaii
there have been swarms, some good
| some bad, some Indifferent and most
| containing errors more or less. At
any rate the photography about the Is
| lands keeps increasing and one has TO
| read assduously to keep up with It,
The latest contribution to the stock is
entitled America in Hawaii" by Ed
mund James Carpenter and is publish
ed by Small Maynard & Co., Boston,
who have done the typographical part
of the work well. The author has
reading knowledge of the Islands.
The object of Mr.. Carpenter is TO
! trace the connection of the Islands
| with the United States and to show
that the annexation of the Islands last
year was the outgrowth of a series CT
events which date back sixty or seven
| ty years. Such a subject could be wen
| handled, and argued with plenty Of
material to support the thesis. The
author has been at pains to,gather eX-
tracts from documents in the posses
sion of the United states government
and has also applied for information to
the Hawaiian Foreign Office. In so far
as he uses this information and gives
the actual extracts from dispatches of
Webster. Marcy, Severance, the mes
,sages and letters of Harrison CleVe-
land. and the writings of others, he
makes a straightforward story. But
when he begins to give his own views
he is entirely at sea, and his efforts at
historical sketChing are so faulty and
| so inaccurate that the book is entirely
vitated. 1t may be said that the idea
of the book is reasonable, but the
workmanship is the most slipshod that
it has been the writer's lot to wade
through and out-Herods the inaccura-
cy of ephemeral magazine literature.
A few extracts may be cited in sup
port of this criticism. Some of the
mistakes are, it is true, trivial, but a
writer who sets up to give an historical
account and saws his statements are
for the future guidance" of the histo-
rian of half a century hence, has no
business to have such glaring misstate-
ments or allow his imagination to run
riot and say what he thinks happened
when nothing of the kind occurred.
To run through the book quickly and
leaving much for the readers to pick
out for themselves, one CLEANS:
Page s. ut is interesting to know
that the Island natives of the present
day have preserved the memory of tbs
= first white discoverer of the Islands II
the erection of a marble monument up.
on the spot where he Cook met his
death"
| Cooks monument at Kealakekua Is
not of marble, but of concrete, that the
subscriptions for 1t came from the for
\ eign residents, and that it was erect
ed by the crew of a British man 81
war, and not by the Island natives.
Page 10. OF Isaac Davies and JONI
Young it is said: Their memories ar,
still cherished by the Hawaiians."
/ 1t would be safe to bet a large sun
that the average Hawaiian does no
even know who Davies and Young are
Certainly there is no cherishing of thei
memories.
Page 28 OF Tamoree, a native yout
who accompanied the first misslona
ries from Boston, whittier he had drift
ed from a Whaler, and who died in 1884,
the historian says: He was born il
a simple grass hut; he died in tn
beautifully appointed Queens Hospi
tai in Honolulu"
This is a gem of accuracy. The cor
ner stone Of the Queens Hospital wa
laid by Kamehameha " on July Il
1860, and the building was completed
I i'm December of the same year! O
: course it is a pretty sentence which i
=, written. and if it did not happen, VIII.
it ought, and Carpenter is not afrai'
il to state it in spite of whatever AleXan
+ der's history might say.
on Page SO ct sequitur there is
= flight of Imagination about the larg
Il focks of wild cattle, goats and sheel
@ which attracted settlers from tn
% whaleships, who gathered the pro
ducts of the roaming herds for mercan
q tile purposes while waiting ships CARR
ed them to American markets.
y 1t is almost needless to point on
d other errors Of this class, but the
abound. The Roman Catholic priest
who landed here are described as Jes
uits when they were nothing of tn
r kind, but belonged to the Order of tn
Sacred Heart, a fact which Professo
Alexander distinctly states on page 20
] of his history. DR.. Gerrit p. Judo
. whom certainly a Boston man nigh
- have been supposed to know some
e thing about, appears on page rs as d.
George p. Judd, and on page "a a
George r. Judd. Evidently a differen
person in the mind of this accurate
author. That Consul Charlton's nam
should be misspelled "Charleton" o.
pages 81 and 60 and correctly on page
n and 70, while it appears incorrectl
= in the index, is not a thing to be sur
prised at.
/ But when recent events are reached
the errors become more glaring. TIL
description of the court house riot o
1 the election of Kalakaua is very incor
rect. The landing of the Tenado
sailors and marines being asserted Z
h have been without request from tn
e authorities" and, 1T is said, indeed
e without orders from the officers of tn
I ship" What opinion has the author o
s the discipline upon man of war
= There are further inaccuracies in tn
y account of the 1889 attempted revolu
ton.
Continued on Page Ski