Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii Read Online Free

Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii
Pages:
Go to
attention to the front of the hall as the ceremony commenced. Young’s recollection of the occasion was typical of what had come to be the American attitude toward Hawai‘i, mocking the ceremony as buffoonery in blackface. As the queen’s entourage entered the front of the chamber from a side door, Young wrote:
    First came the Chamberlain, supporting in front of him a large portfolio containing the Queen’s message of prorogation. From it were streaming the ends of white and blue silk ribbons. Next came four dusky aides-de-camp in full uniform.… They were stiff and pretentious, and exhibiting the air of fully realizing the importance of their exalted position. After them were the feather kahili bearers, supporting the emblems of savage royalty. These were followed by her Majesty the Queen, dressed in a light colored silk which tended to add somewhat to her dark complexion and negro-like features, and more plainly exhibiting in the facial outlines a look of savage determination.… Next came four homely ladies in waiting, dressed in the loud colors so much admired by all dark-colored races. Then the two royal princes, modest in demeanor, but dudish in appearance.
    Only after these came the cabinet and the justices of the Hawaiian supreme court—the only American-Hawaiians in the queen’s retinue—including Associate Justice Sanford Ballard Dole. Young marked him particularly, seeing a man “whose manly bearing and intellectual appearance gave a relief to what had preceded.”
    Dole was tall, now not quite fifty, still rail thin, his age denoted by his gray hair and long, square beard that affected a close impersonation of King Leopold II of the Belgians. His apple cheeks, however, and his unlined face and delicate features made him seem many years younger. Observers always felt that he conveyed great dignity. It was Lorrin Thurston and others who had prosecuted the revolution of 1887 and forced the king to sign the Bayonet Constitution, but it was Dole whose later approval made it seem solemn and acceptable.
    The queen seated herself at the front desk, but not before she had tripped over her long train, which caused her to snap at her train bearers—the four “lackeys,” Lieutenant Young called them, in knee breeches, blue velvet cutaway coats, and buckled slippers. 11 (The two “modest … but dudish” princes Young mentioned were David Kawananakoa and Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana‘ole, twenty-four and nineteen, respectively, sons of Kapi‘olani’s sister Victoria Kinoiki, who had begun taking part in court life.) After the ceremony Lili‘uokalani withdrew to an anteroom, and a receiving line formed for her to greet. When it came his turn, Lieutenant Young recorded that she received him coldly, but his presence was probably the first indication she had of the Boston ’s return. She would naturally be sorry to see the ship back so quickly; any day that Minister Stevens was out of Honolulu was a good day.
    Leaving the Ali‘iolani Hale, the queen and her attendants crossed the square toward the ‘Iolani Palace. Her palace guard was present, turned out in their dress uniforms for the greater ceremony to follow. On the palace grounds the Royal Hawaiian Band was playing light airs in the pavilion that her brother had built for his coronation. The queen was an expert pianist and composer, and always listened to the band and its German conductor with a more critical ear than did her people, who just enjoyed the music and always gathered when the band played.
    After entering, on her left she saw that the marshal of the kingdom, her trusted friend Charles Wilson, stood at the entrance to the blue room. She paused and asked him if everything was ready, and he said that it was. All four of the arched doors on the right side of the hall passed into the throne room, which occupied the entire east side of the first floor. At the north end of the room, two thrones reposed upon the canopied dais, flanked by two tall kahilis .
Go to

Readers choose

Jeffe Kennedy

RaeAnne Thayne

Christobel Kent

John Lawrence Reynolds

Megan Mulry

Marc Krulewitch

David Halberstam