Siler - Lost Kingdom

Lost Kingdom

Lost Kingdom

Hawaiis Last Queen, the Sugar Kings,
and Americas First Imperial Adventure

Julia Flynn Siler

Atlantic Monthly Press

New York

Copyright 2012 by Julia Flynn Siler

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Endpaper map by Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-0-8021-9488-6

Atlantic Monthly Press

an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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Table of Contents

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Cast of Characters
( in order of appearance )

King Kamehameha I The warrior chief who united the eight inhabited islands of Hawaii into a kingdom by 1810, using Western weapons and advisors. He founded the Kamehameha dynasty.

Queen Liliuokalani Born in a grass house in 1838 and adopted by Hawaiis then ruling Kamehameha dynasty, Liliu (pronounced Lee-lee-ooh ), as she was known by intimates, was a fervent patriot and the last queen of Hawaii.

Claus Spreckels This German immigrant to the United States was a driven entrepreneur from the mainland who, on his periodic trips to the islands, carved out a Hawaiian sugar empire from former royal lands and became known as the uncrowned king of Hawaii.

Lorrin Andrews Thurston A grandson of New England missionaries to the islands, Thurston was a fiery orator, lawyer, and entrepreneur who led Lilius overthrow and, afterward, became the publisher of what is now the Honolulu Star-Advertiser .

Amos Starr Cooke Amos and his wife, Juliette, were missionaries who ran the Chiefs Childrens School and taught Liliu and other royal children there. After retiring in 1850, Amos went on to found Castle & Cooke, which became one of the Big Five sugar firms.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Lilius hnai , or foster who married the American banker Charles R. Bishop and inherited the largest share of the Kamehameha dynastys royal lands from Princess Ruth, making her the islands largest landholder.

King David Kalkaua Lilius older brother, born in 1836, David ascended to the throne in 1874 and was the first ruling monarch to circumnavigate the globe. A man of large appetites and even larger ambitions, he became deeply indebted to American sugar planters.

Lord George Paulet A renegade commander of a British frigate, he forced the first cession of the islands to a foreign power in 1843a move his superiors quickly reversedin what became known as the Paulet Affair.

John Owen Dominis This American-born son of a ship captain married Liliu and became prince consort when she ascended to Hawaiis throne in 1891. Their sometimes difficult marriage produced no biological children.

Queen Emma Rooke An anglophile alii who married Kamehameha IV in 1856. As a widow, Emma sought the throne in a bitter contest in 1874 with David Kal kaua and warned against rising influence of American planters and merchants.

Sanford Ballard Dole A missionarys son and cousin of the Dole Food Company (Hawaiian Pineapple Co.) founder who described himself as of American blood but Hawaiian milk, he was the first president of the newly formed Republic of Hawaii and played a key role in Lilius overthrow, though afterward he privately expressed remorse.

Princess Miriam Likelike Liliu and David Kal kauas fun-loving sister, she was the mother of Princess Kaiulani and wife of Scotsman Archibald Cleghorn. Miriam Likelike was Lilius closest friend and confidant until her early death.

Archibald Cleghorn Miriam Likelikes husband, a Scotsman, was Oahus governor and a royalist who sought to protect his daughters interests. Like King Kalkaua he, too, became deeply indebted to sugar interests, although British instead of American.

Princess Kaiulani Niece to Queen Liliuokalani and heir to the throne, this lovely half Scottish, half Hawaiian princess captivated the author Robert Louis Stevenson and died in 1899 shortly after Americas annexation of Hawaii in 1898.

Walter Murray Gibson A white adventurer with a murky past, Gibson came to Hawaii to preach the Gospel as a Mormon missionary. After being excommunicated he became King Kalkauas prime minister and a supporter of sugar interests.

Princess Ruth Keelik lani A member of the Kamehameha dynasty, Ruth sold her stake in the crown lands to the American sugar baron Claus Spreckels in a questionable deal. Upon her death, Ruth willed her remaining lands to Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

Joseph Nwah This missionary-educated Hawaiian who was a journalist, legislator, landscape painter, and one of the leaders of an uprising in support of the monarchy. He opposed a treaty leasing Pearl Harbor to the Americans, calling it a nation-snatching agreement.

Robert William Wilcox A Native Hawaiian who led two insurrections, six years apart, in support of the monarchy. Wilcox fashioned himself after the Italian revolutionary Garibaldi, leading a team of red-shirted revolutionaries and marrying an Italian contessa he was twice tried for treason.

Colonel Sam Parker Descended from a daughter of Kamehameha the Great, he was a cabinet minister and a member of the family that owned the vast Parker Ranch on the island of Hawaii. Like others in the royal circle he, too, succumbed to sugar fever.

Charles Wilson A tall, powerfully built, half Tahitian, Wilson stepped into the role as Lilius protector after her husbands death. He was Marshal of the Kingdom at the time of the overthrow and was married to the former Eveline Kitty Townsend, Lilius particular personal friend.

John Leavitt Stevens He was the U.S. minister to Hawaii who supported the overthrow of the monarchy. A former Universalist pastor, newspaperman, and state Republican party leader, he authorized the landing of U.S. troops.

Albert Francis Judd Longtime Chief Justice of Hawaiis Supreme Court, he presided over Lilius trial in 1895. His father, Gerritt P. Judd, an early missionary, served as a royal advisor and legislator and founded what became the Punahou School.

Glossary

What follows is a selection of the most frequently used Hawaiian terms in the book. Definitions are adapted from the Hawaiian Dictionary by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert, which is available online at www.wehewehe.org.

ahupuaa Traditional Hawaiian land division, in which wedge-shaped parcels stretch from their broadest points at the fertile land near the sea to the uplands at their tip. They often followed the paths of streams, giving each family group that worked them access to fish, arable land, timber, and fresh water.

ina Land or earth.

ali i Chief, ruler, noble or monarch, depending on the context. Traditionally, the term alii nui was used to denote the highest rank of chiefs, who were treated like gods and in turn, had obligations to fulfill to the commoners, with alii signifying a chief of secondary rank.