William N. Armstrong - Around the World with a King

AROUND THE WORLD WITH A KING

CHAPTER I

King Kalakaua Plans a Tour The First Sovereign to Put a Girdle Around the World Selects His Companions His Valet Proposes to Travel Incognito Scope of His Tour Delay in Publication of This Memoir The King Addresses His Subjects Ceremonies Attending the Departure The King's Character His Minister and Chamberlain Kalakaua's Knowledge of Royal Etiquette His Unfortunate Predecessors Theoretical and Practical Astronomy.

K ALAKAUA I, King of the Hawaiian Islands, said to me, his Attorney-General, early one morning in January, 1881, while we sat under the cocoanut palms which towered above his little Summer Palace at Waikiki, near Honolulu, and the surf of the Pacific Ocean, foaming over the coral reef, broke nearly at our feet,"Now that my troubles are over, I mean to take a trip around the world, and you must go with me."

He had been upon the throne for six years, and, with the true instincts of sovereigns, had availed himself of several opportunities to engage in difficulties with some of his white subjects, who held the brains and most of the property of the kingdom. They had lately threatened insurrection because he had committed several serious political errors, but he had yielded to their demands, and on the nightpreceding this declaration of intention to travel heand a hundred of his white subjects had met in agrand banquet; they had together emptied the lovingcup; and the white doves of peace again sweptthrough the tropic air.

I took his remark as an idle fancy which wouldquickly be replaced by other similar ones. But as werode into the city I said:

"If your Majesty makes a tour of the world, youwill be the first sovereign of the earth who has evertravelled around it, and your subjects should erecta high monument of lava stones on the crown ofPunch Bowl with this inscription upon it:

" TO THE FIRST SOVEREIGNWHO PUT A GIRDLE AROUND THE EARTH.A.D. 1881."

Since the concert of the morning stars, or theappearance of man on the. globe, sovereigns havedone many great and many small things; but notone of them, even in these later days, has had theaudacity or pluck to circumnavigate this little planet.Like certain sagacious animals which never travelfar from their holes in the earth through fear ofbeing dispossessed of them by an enemy, rulers seldomstray far from their thrones lest rivals seizeand occupy them. Besides,. there are the perils ofland and sea. Sir John Mandeville, that great traveller,said in 1356: "Although it be possible to goround the world,- yet of a thousand persons not onemight happen to return to his country." The sovereigns before his time anticipated his forecast, and those who came after him observed his cautions and the wisdom of the brute creation and left to a Polynesian king the honour, if there be any, of achieving this deed.

Before night I discovered that his Majesty was in a serious mood, for he convened his Cabinet, of which I was a member, declared his intention to make the journey, and requested a meeting of his Privy Council, at which the necessary funds could be provided. The Cabinet and the Council approved of the project and were willing to provide abundantly for it. He declared also that he should take with him, as companion, the author of this memoir, who would receive the commission of "Minister of State," which would place him in the same rank as the Cabinet Ministers of any sovereign, and entitle him to the respect and courtesies due that rank, while, in order to give the appearance of a useful purpose to the royal expedition, he made him also, "Royal Commissioner of Immigration," with instructions to seek over the world recruits to the depleted population of the kingdom, a depletion so steadily growing that there was imminent danger, within a few generations, of the singular case of a native monarchy without a native subject. In addition to the Minister of State he selected Colonel C. H. Judd, his Chamberlain, and one of his most trustworthy friends, as his second companion. His personal attendant, or valet, was a German known as "Robert," an educated man of prepossessing appearance and a remarkable linguist. Owing to his intemperate habits he never remained long in any situation. He had served as cook on sailing-vessels, and on landing in Hawaii had become the King's chef. But his unreliability had cast him out of this situation. There was a rumour that he was the Baron von OThis was verified by the suite during the tour. In spite of his habits, the King, for reasons which I did not then know, consented to engage him as valet upon a new pledge of sobriety; but the engagement was made under the mild protest of the suite.

Before recording the incidents of this royal tour it may be said, in anticipation, that the King of Hawaii executed his mission as a circumnavigator within the ten following months, during which time he became the guest of, or was received in state ceremonies by, the Emperor of Japan; General Li Hung Chang, of China; the Governor of Hongkong, in the name of the British Queen; the King of Siam; the British Governors or Commissioners of Singapore, Penang, the Malacca Straits, and of Burmah; the Vice-Regal Court of India; the Viceroy of Egypt; the King of Italy; the Holy Father in Rome; the British Queen; the King of Belgium; the Court of Emperor William of Germany; the officials of the Austrian Empire, in the absence of the Emperor; the officials of the French Republic; the officials of the Spanish Court, whose Regent was absent; the King of Portugal; and finally, the President of the United States, from which country he returned to his own kingdom.

The memoir of the incidents of this tour were noted from day to day by the writer, his "Minister of State" and companion; but its publication has been delayed for some years, and until after his death, in order to permit a freedom of narration, an adherence to truth, and "the painting of a portrait with the wrinkles;" nor has it been found necessary to follow Macaulay's aphorism, that "the best portraits are those in which there is a slight admixture of caricature." Kings, above all men, resent any language but that of adulation, and if one would avoid censure he is wise to await the co-operation of Death, and reserve his narrative until the subject of it is in the other world, where, according to Lord Bacon, Menippus, in his travels through hell, found the kings of the earth distinguished from other men chiefly by their louder wailings and tears.

Before the King began his tour I incidentally called his attention to certain omens which might disturb his Polynesian and somewhat superstitious mind.

One of his predecessors, Kamehameha II, King of the Sandwich Islands, as they were called in the early days, and his spouse Kamamalu, in the year 1824, while the people were pagans, visited England as guests of the British monarch. Both of them died of the measles, in London, and their bodies were conveyed with royal honours to their kingdom in the British frigate "Blonde," commanded by Lord Byron, a cousin of the poet. Their sudden and nearly simultaneous deaths were reported to Theodore Hook, giving the wit the opportunity for his well-known couplet, announcing the sad event: