The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-14

two OF these accounts exactly dSree'
and but two of them-Golovnin's and
J3rve:'s-lend any authority to the the
DRY of rever al just outlined.
\ French II tuIe OF Honolulu harbor
port a. Hanarourou) shows a flag on
fort. flying union down, having nine
stripes-red, white, blue, white, red;
waite, blue, white. red.
Another French picture gives a SINH
lar flag on the fort. without the jack.
Golovnin. Oct, 1918, says in a foot
note: The flag is made up of seven
stripes-red, white, blue, red, white,
blue and red, signifying seven Islands,
and in the corner an English jack.
The same authority says Tameamea
CKamehameha) always fioated British
flag which he had received from VAN
couver. but he did not know the mean
ing of it in a European sense. In the
last war between the Americans and
British. an American sailor jokingly
told him the Americans had right 70
seize his islands because he raised the
flag of country with which they We're
at war. The king answered that he
should not consider him to be 1901,
because he had many flags from OIL
ferent European nations and, II the
English flag were not good. he would
raise another one. But after this IN
cident" the story proceeds, he soon
wished to have his own flag, which an
Englishman invented for him, and 1T is
made, as 1 have said before, of seven
stripes and in a corner the Engllsn
lack. as sign of friendship to the
first European nation with whom he
had made acquaintance"
A penciled note on the margin of Mr..
Ballou's paper says: Captain George
Beckley was the maker, if not the de-
signer. of the first Hawaiian flag"
Freycinet paris, 1880 tells of the Ha-
waiian flag with the English jack and
nine stripes beginning with white.
! A Boston picture 0s25} of ''Wailing on
account of the death of KeOpuolanr
shows nine stripes and jack, colors not
indicated.
Norie, photographer, in plate of
maritime flags of all nations QS2D,
shows the Sandwich Islands flag with
jack and seven alternately red and
white stripes.
Musgrave in a similar plate London,
no date). gives nine red and white
stripes and jack.
Other authorities differ in the same
way with variations, and this is quoted
from the Burton Holmes lectures, 1901:
I'VE are told that long years ago the
king, Kamehameha chose from
among the flags of all the nations the
one he thought the prettiest, the one
his people liked best, and adopted the
stars and stripes as the emblem of Ha-
wall. But to his great amaze
ment, England protested against this
adoption of the stars and stripes, ano
so his majesty. eager to please and
satisfy all parties, struck out the stars,
and in the place of their blue field set
Saint Georges cross, the British en-
blem''
This is labeled in the margin of Mr..
Ballou's paper as evidently false" but
it is curious as being almost an exact
reversal of the story of the American
sailor and Kamehameha above related.
In conclusion Mr.. Ballou says:
"As arranged chronologically, the
number of stripes is alternately given
as nine and seven, four descriptions
calling for nine. stripes and five for
seven Equally conflicting evidence as
authors describing them as of only two
co ors. red and white. while five note
three colors. red, white and blue. /
From such diversity of data there
can obviously be- obtained no authori-
tative conclusion. While it is possible |
that Freycinet, who alone specifically
nine stripes--the three other
for the same number being
only pictures-may have been mistaken !
in the number it does not seem that
the six descriptions emitting the blue
stripes can all be neglected as inaccu-
rate. 1t would rather seem that, like
the tabled two-faced shield, both sets
of descriptions may be right, and that
in the early days of the flag it was
made indifferently of either two or
three colors. Golovnin's 1918 descrip-
ton, the only one expressly agreeing
with the theory of reversal, is too
to give it much authority |
Wntther ia res's red, white and blue
should be construed as so determining
the order of the stripes is doubtful. |
The true history of the Hawaiian flag, |
therefore, still remains to be discOv
ered.'
AFFAIRS OF TONGA.
DR.. w. D. Alexander, the Hawaiian
historian and president of the society.
read the next paper on Economic and
Political Changes in Tonga" No sum-
mary would do it justice, so terse was
it in it's relation of facts, but a few
rNlEV le A