Book contents
- Frontmatter
- List of Illustrations
- Errata
- Dedication
- PREFACE
- THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO
- INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
- LETTER I
- LETTER II
- LETTER III
- LETTER IV
- LETTER V
- LETTER VI
- LETTER VII
- LETTER VIII
- LETTER IX
- LETTER X
- LETTER X.—(continued.)
- LETTER XI
- LETTER XII
- LETTER XIII
- LETTER XIV
- LETTER XV
- LETTER XVI
- LETTER XVII
- LETTER XVIII
- LETTER XIX
- LETTER XX
- LETTER XXI
- LETTER XXII
- LETTER XXIII
- LETTER XXIV
- LETTER XXV
- LETTER XXVI
- LETTER XXVII
- LETTER XXVIII
- LETTER XXIX
- LETTER XXIX.—Continued
- LETTER XXX
- A CHAPTER ON HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS
- A CHAPTER ON HAWAIIAN HISTORY
- Plate section
A CHAPTER ON HAWAIIAN HISTORY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2012
- Frontmatter
- List of Illustrations
- Errata
- Dedication
- PREFACE
- THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO
- INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
- LETTER I
- LETTER II
- LETTER III
- LETTER IV
- LETTER V
- LETTER VI
- LETTER VII
- LETTER VIII
- LETTER IX
- LETTER X
- LETTER X.—(continued.)
- LETTER XI
- LETTER XII
- LETTER XIII
- LETTER XIV
- LETTER XV
- LETTER XVI
- LETTER XVII
- LETTER XVIII
- LETTER XIX
- LETTER XX
- LETTER XXI
- LETTER XXII
- LETTER XXIII
- LETTER XXIV
- LETTER XXV
- LETTER XXVI
- LETTER XXVII
- LETTER XXVIII
- LETTER XXIX
- LETTER XXIX.—Continued
- LETTER XXX
- A CHAPTER ON HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS
- A CHAPTER ON HAWAIIAN HISTORY
- Plate section
Summary
In the pre-historic days of Hawaii, for 500 years, as the bards sing, before Captain Cook landed, and indeed for some years afterwards, each island had its king, chiefs, and internal dissensions; and incessant wars, with a reckless waste of human life, kept the whole group in turmoil. Chaotic and legendary as early Hawaiian history is, there is enough to show that there must have been regularly organized communities on the islands for a very long period, with a civilization and polity which, though utterly unworthy of Christianity, were enlightened and advanced for Polynesian heathenism.
The kingly office was hereditary, and the king's power absolute. On the different islands the kings and chiefs who together constituted a privileged class, admitted the priesthood to some portion of their privileges, probably with the view of enslaving the people more completely through the agency of religion, and held the lower classes in absolute subserviency by the most rigorous of feudal systems, which included hana poalima, or forced labour, and the tabu, well known throughout Polynesia.
A very interesting history begins with Kamehameha the Great, the Conqueror, or the Terrible; the “Napoleon of the Pacific,” as he has been called.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Six Months among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich IslandsThe Hawaiian Archipelago, pp. 460 - 473Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011First published in: 1875