Identifier: hawaiipastpresent00cast (find matches)
Title: Hawaii, past and present
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Castle, William R. (William Richards), 1878-1963
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Dodd, Mead and company
Contributing Library: Brigham Young University Hawaii, Joseph F. Smith Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Consortium of Church Libraries and Archives

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e storyof the gradual conquest of the Islands by Kame-hameha. Left, on the death of the old King, assecond in power on the Island of Hawaii, he wassoon involved in one of the endless civil wars, andafter many reverses succeeded in making himselfthe most powerful chief in the island, not evenexcepting the King, to whom he was nominallysubject. In 1790 a great eruption of Kilauea,which destroyed a large part of his rivals armythat was actually marching against him, convincedKamehameha that the goddess Pele was on hisside. It was, however, not a brilliantly successfulbattle, but an act of gross treachery, culminatingin the murder of the King of Hawaii, which gavehim the sovereignty of the island. In 1795 dis-sensions in the leeward islands made Kamehamehabelieve that the time had come to carry his con-quests across the water. Tradition reports thestrength of his army as 16,000 men. Maui he tookwith comparative ease, and Oahu after a fiercestruggle in Nuuanu Valley, where the survivors of
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z x HISTORY TO 1898 35 the opposing army were driven over the precipiceat the head of the valley. The invasion of Kauaiwas prevented once by a storm which destroyedmany of the canoes which had already set sail,once by a pestilence which carried off half ofKamehamehas army. The island was finally, in1810, voluntarily ceded by its king, who was, how-ever, given permission to hold it in fief during hislifetime on condition that he make Liholiho, Kame-hamehas heir, his successor. The conquest of theIslands was greatly facilitated by the facts thatKamehameha was superior to other chiefs in thenumber of his firearms and that he had in hisservice two or three intelligent white men. After the death of Captain Cook the Islandswere visited by successive expeditions, amongthem those of the well-known navigators, Port-lock and Dixon, and La Pcrouse, both in1786. Captain Mears in 1787 took a high chief,Kaiana, a friend of Kamehameha, on a visit toChina. On the whole, explorers were friendly,but wh

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