The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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But He Went Far, Very Far; He Has
Aroused A Cry Among The Natives "Hawaii For The Hawaiians," Which,
Very
Likely, may breed mischief; for I am very sure that this brief
civilization has not quenched the "red fire" of
Race; and his hint
regarding the judicious disposal of the king in the event of
annexation, was felt by many of the more sober whites to be highly
impolitic.
The reciprocity treaty, very lucidly advocated by Mr. Carter, and
which means the cession of a lagoon with a portion of circumjacent
territory on this island, to the United States, for a Pacific naval
station, meets with more general favour as a safer measure; but the
natives are indisposed to bribe the great Republic to remit the
sugar duties by the surrender of a square inch of Hawaiian soil;
and, from a British point of view, I heartily sympathise with them.
Foreign, i.e. American, feeling is running high upon the subject.
People say that things are so bad that something must be done, and
it remains to be seen whether natives or foreigners can exercise the
strongest pressure on the king. I was unfavourably impressed in
both lectures by the way in which the natives and their interests
were quietly ignored, or as quietly subordinated to the sugar
interest.
It is never safe to forecast destiny; yet it seems most probable
that sooner or later in this century, the closing catastrophe must
come. The more thoughtful among the natives acquiesce helplessly
and patiently in their advancing fate; but the less intelligent, as
I had some opportunity of hearing at Hilo, are becoming restive and
irritable, and may drift into something worse if the knowledge of
the annexationist views of the foreigners is diffused among them.
Things are preparing for change, and I think that the Americans will
be wise in their generation if they let them ripen for many years to
come. Lunalilo has a broken constitution, and probably will not
live long. Kalakaua will probably succeed him, and "after him the
deluge," unless he leaves a suitable successor, for there are no
more chiefs with pre-eminent claims to the throne. The feeling
among the people is changing, the feudal instinct is disappearing,
the old despotic line of the Kamehamehas is extinct; and king-making
by paper ballots, introduced a few months ago, is an approximation
to president-making, with the canvassing, stumping, and wrangling,
incidental to such a contested election. Annexation, or peaceful
absorption, is the "manifest destiny" of the islands, with the
probable result lately most wittily prophesied by Mark Twain in the
New York Tribune, but it is impious and impolitic to hasten it.
Much as I like America, I shrink from the day when her universal
political corruption and her unrivalled political immorality shall
be naturalised on Hawaii-nei. . . . Sunday evening. The "Rolling
Moses" is in, and Sabbatic quiet has given place to general
excitement. People thought they heard her steaming in at 4 a.m.,
and got up in great agitation.
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