“in countless upward-stirring waves

the moon-drawn tide-wave strives:

in thousand far-transplanted grafts

the parent fruit survives;

so in the new-born millions,

the perfect adam lies.

not less are summer mornings dear

to every child they wake,

and each with novel-life his sphere

fills for his proper sake.”

emerson.

a year had passed. there was no iron on the island, consequently no means of building a vessel, which could carry the exiles back to mexico. their only hope lay in the possibility that some caravel, equipped as theirs had been for discovery, might sight hawaii and explore its coasts. but this hope was so faint as rarely to form a theme of discussion; so they wisely identified themselves with the interests and welfare of their generous host, whose kindness and confidence grew with their stay.

kiana and juan became firm friends. the former had long since learned the origin and history of the shipwrecked party, as indeed had the more intelligent among his chiefs, but their superior knowledge, and the polite deference of the nobles towards them, continued to keep them in the same sacred relation to the common people as at first. this was the more useful, that it gave to their efforts to instruct them the sanction of religion.

[72]

to properly understand the condition of the people under the government of kiana, it will be necessary to go more into detail. i have already observed, that their climate and soil combined that happy medium of salubrity and fertility, which gave ample returns in health and harvests, but did not dispense with care and labor. hence, they were an active and industrious race. nature was indeed a loving, considerate mother to them. as yet no noxious reptiles or insects infested the land; ferocious animals were equally unknown; storms were so rare as scarcely to be ever thought of, while the temperature was so even, that their language had no term to express the various changes and conditions of physical comfort or discomfort, we combine into the word weather. this, of course, was a sad loss to conversation, but no doubt a compensation for lack of this prolific topic existed somehow in their domestic circles.

[73]

the households of the chiefs were in one sense almost patriarchally constructed. “my people” had a meaning as significant as upon a slave plantation in america, with the difference that here they were only transferred with the soil. they were literally “my people;” and as with all purely despotic institutions, their welfare depended mainly upon the character of their lords.

in some respects there existed a latitude of deportment between the chiefs and their serfs, which gave rise to a certain degree of social equality. this freedom of manner is common to that state of society in which the actual gulf between the different classes is irrevocably fixed. it grows out of protection on the one hand and dependence on the other. on hawaii there existed a partial community of property; for although all that the serf possessed belonged to his lord, yet he had the use and improvement of the property in his charge, and besides certain direct interests in it, was protected by what might be termed their “common law.” the chief was both executive and judiciary, as obtains in all rude society. self-interest became a powerful incentive to humanity, because cruelty or injustice towards his tenantry was a direct injury to his own property, and a provocation to desert his lands. there was also the family bond, derived from direct intermingling of blood, the perpetuity of estates and the familiarity of personal intercourse between the chiefs and their dependents, fortified by a condition of society that knew no contrasts to this state. the lack of other commerce than barter[74] and a partial feudal system, which required the people not only to furnish their own arms, but upon all occasions to follow their lords to the field, helped to develop this social union of extremes.

all lands were in reality held in fief of the supreme chief. his will was in the main the code of law, and indeed the religious creed; that is, the ultimate appeal in all questions was vested in him. but public opinion, based upon old habits and certain intuitive convictions of right and justice common to all mankind, held even him in check; so that while rarely attempting any forcible violation of what was understood to be the universal custom, he had it in his power indirectly to modify the laws and belief of his people. while to some extent the spirit of the clan existed, giving rise to devotion and attachments similar to those recorded of the highlanders of scotland, there prevailed more extensively the servile feeling common to oriental despotism. numerous retainers of every grade and rank surrounded each chief, forming courts with as varied and as positive an etiquette as those of europe or asia. the most trivial necessity was dignified into an office. thus there were “pipe lighters,” masters of the pipe as they might be called, masters of the spittoon, of the plumes or “kahilis,” and so on, while there was no lack of idle clients, the “bosom friends” of the chief, his boon companions, buffoons, pimps and every other parasitical condition in which the individual merges his own identity into the caprices or policy of his ruler, or by deceit, flattery, or superior address, seeks to advance his own selfishness at the general expense.

[75]

in this arrangement the analogy to the courts of europe is so evident as to form a striking satire upon them. here we find amid petty, semi-naked tribes, the same masters and mistresses of royal robes and other useless paraphernalia; the same abject crowd of parasites quarrelling and intriguing for honors and riches they are too lazy or dishonest rightfully to earn; the same degrading etiquette which exalts a knowledge of its absurdities above all morality, and imposes penalties upon its infringement, not bestowed upon crime itself: in fine, a parody of all that in european monarchies tends to make human nature base and contemptible.

justice, however, requires me to state, that while the vices of the systems were allied, their virtues were no less in common. despotism corrupts the many, but there are a choice few in all aristocracies who receive power and homage only as in deposit for the public good. its conditions are favorable to their moral growth, when perhaps the rugged necessities of life, in conflicts of equality, would dwarf their souls to the common level of material wants or selfish interests. besides these exceptions, as familiar to savage as to civilized life, because founded not upon acquired knowledge, but upon natural instincts, the very superiority of position begets desire for superior manners and external advantages. thus we find in not a few of the privileged orders, rare politeness and outward polish, and a chivalric loyalty to the institution of titled aristocracy, as if in partaking of its birthright, it brought with it a loftier and more refined standard of feeling and action than that of the masses.