Kalakaua's first act was to proclaim his brother, Prince Leleiohoku,
his successor, investing him at the same time with the title, "His
Royal Highness," and his second was to reorganize the military
service, with the view of making it an efficient and well-
disciplined force.
There is something melancholy in the fact that this small Pacific
kingdom has to fall back upon the old world resource of a standing
army, as large, in proportion to its population, as that of the
German Empire.
Those readers who have become interested in the Sandwich Islands
through the foregoing Letters, will join me in the earnest wish that
this people, which has advanced from heathenism and barbarism to
Christianity and civilization in the short space of a single
generation, may enjoy peace and prosperity under King Kalakaua, that
the extinction which threatens the nation may be averted, and that
under a gracious Divine Providence, Hawaii may still remain the
inheritance of the Hawaiians.
NOTES.
{0} A native word used to signify an old resident.
{14} A Frugiferous bat.
{28} The kahili is shaped like an enormous bottle brush. The fines
are sometimes twenty feet high, with handles twelve or fifteen feet
long, covered with tortoiseshell and whale tooth ivory. The upper
part is formed of a cylinder of wicker work about a foot in
diameter, on which red, black, and yellow feathers are fastened.
These insignia are carried in procession instead of banners, and
used to be fixed in the ground near the temporary residence of the
king or chiefs. At the funeral of the late king seventy-six large
and small kahilis were carried by the retainers of chief families.
{40} A week after her sailing, this unlucky ship put back with some
mysterious ailment, and on her final arrival at San Francisco, her
condition was found to be such that it was a marvel that she had
made the passage at all.
{44} Dear old craft! I would not change her now for the finest
palace which floats on the Hudson, or the trimmest of the
Hutchesons' beautiful West Highland fleet.
{47} This temperature is, of course, in shallow water. The United
States surveying vessel, Tuscarora, lately left San Diego,
California, shaping a straight course for Honolulu, and found a
nearly uniform temperature of from 33 degrees to 34 degrees
Fahrenheit at all depths below 1100 fathoms. The following table
gives a good idea of the temperature of ocean water in this region
of the Pacific: -
100 . . 64 degrees 7
200 . . 48 degrees 7
300 . . 42 degrees 4
400 . . 40 degrees 4
500 . . 39 degrees 4
600 . . 38 degrees 6
700 . . 38 degrees 3
800 . . 37 degrees 5
900 . . 36 degrees 6
1000 . . 35 degrees 6
1200 . . 35 degrees 4
3054 . . 33 degrees 2
The Tuscarora found the extraordinary depth of 3023 fathoms at a
distance of only 43 miles from Molokai.
