Around the World with a King

by William N. Armstrong

  I took his remark as an idle fancy which would quickly be replaced by other similar ones. But as we rode into the city I said:

  "If your Majesty makes a tour of the world, you will be the first sovereign of the earth who has ever travelled around it, and your subjects should erect a high monument of lava stones on the crown of Punch Bowl1 with this inscription upon it:

  " TO THE FIRST SOVEREIGN WHO PUT A GIRDLE AROUND THE EARTH. A.D. 1881."

  Since the concert of the morning stars, or the appearance of man on the. globe, sovereigns have done many great and many small things; but not one of them, even in these later days, has had the audacity or pluck to circumnavigate this little planet. Like certain sagacious animals which never travel far from their holes in the earth through fear of being dispossessed of them by an· enemy, rulers seldom stray far from their thrones lest rivals seize and occupy them. Besides,. there are the perils of land and sea. Sir John Mandeville, that great traveller, said in 1356: "Although it be possible to go round the world,- yet of a thousand persons not one might happen to return to his country." The sovereigns before his time anticipated his forecast, and those who came after him observed his cautions and the wisdom of the brute creation and left to a Polynesian king the honour, if there be any, of achieving this deed.

  Before night I discovered that his Majesty was in a serious mood, for he convened his Cabinet, of which I was a member, declared his intention to make the journey, and requested a meeting of his Privy Council, at which the necessary funds could be provided. The Cabinet and the Council approved of the project and were willing to provide abundantly for it. He declared also that he should take with him, as companion, the author of this memoir, who would receive the commission of "Minister of State," which would place him in the same rank as the Cabinet Ministers of any sovereign, and entitle him to the respect and courtesies due that rank, while, in order to give the appearance of a useful purpose to the royal expedition, he made him also, "Royal Commissioner of Immigration," with instructions to seek over the world recruits to the depleted population of the kingdom, a depletion so steadily growing that there was imminent danger, within a few generations, of the singular case of a native monarchy without a native subject. In addition to the Minister of State he selected Colonel C. H. Judd, his Chamberlain, and one of his most trustworthy friends, as his second companion. His personal attendant, or valet, was a German known as "Robert," an educated man of prepossessing appearance and a remarkable linguist. Owing to his intemperate habits he never remained long in any situation. He had served as cook on sailing-vessels, and on landing in Hawaii had become the King's chef. But his unreliability had cast him out of this situation. There was a rumour that he was the Baron von O——This was verified by the suite during the tour. In spite of his habits, the King, for reasons which I did not then know, consented to engage him as valet upon a new pledge of sobriety; but the engagement was made under the mild protest of the suite.

  Before recording the incidents of this royal tour it may be said, in anticipation, that the King of Hawaii executed his mission as a circumnavigator within the ten following months, during which time he became the guest of, or was received in state ceremonies by, the Emperor of Japan; General Li Hung Chang, of China; the Governor of Hongkong, in the name of the British Queen; the King of Siam; the British Governors or Commissioners of Singapore, Penang, the Malacca Straits, and of Burmah; the Vice-Regal Court of India; the Viceroy of Egypt; the King of Italy; the Holy Father in Rome; the British Queen; the King of Belgium; the Court of Emperor William of Germany; the officials of the Austrian Empire, in the absence of the Emperor; the officials of the French Republic; the officials of the Spanish Court, whose Regent was absent; the King of Portugal; and finally, the President of the United States, from which country he returned to his own kingdom.

  The memoir of the incidents of this tour were noted from day to day by the writer, his "Minister of State" and companion; but its publication has been delayed for some years, and until after his death, in order to permit a freedom of narration, an adherence to truth, and "the painting of a portrait with the wrinkles;" nor has it been found necessary to follow Macaulay's aphorism, that "the best portraits are those in which there is a slight admixture of caricature." Kings, above all men, resent any language but that of adulation, and if one would avoid censure he is wise to await the co-operation of Death, and reserve his narrative until the subject of it is in the other world, where, according to Lord Bacon, Menippus, in his travels through hell, found the kings of the earth distinguished from other men chiefly by their louder wailings and tears.

  Before the King began his tour I incidentally called his attention to certain omens which might disturb his Polynesian and somewhat superstitious mind.

  One of his predecessors, Kamehameha II, King of the Sandwich Islands, as they were called in the early days, and his spouse Kamamalu, in the year 1824, while the people were pagans, visited England as guests of the British monarch. Both of them died of the measles, in London, and their bodies were conveyed with royal honours to their kingdom in the British frigate "Blonde," commanded by Lord Byron, a cousin of the poet. Their sudden and nearly simultaneous deaths were reported to Theodore Hook, giving the wit the opportunity for his well-known couplet, announcing the sad event:

  "'Waiter! two sandwiches!' cried Death;

  And their wild Majesties resigned their breath."

  At the moment when their successor, nearly sixty years later, proposed to travel in foreign countries, the small-pox broke out in his own capital, with much loss of life. He wisely concluded to let the monster gratify his insatiate appetite on common Sandwiches, while he removed himself, as material for a royal Sandwich, out of the kingdom.

  In order to prevent a large retinue of his loyal native and white subjects from following him in his tour, at his own great expense, he announced that he would travel incognito under the title of Prince. His sister, the Princess Liliuokalani, now the ex-Queen of Hawaii, was by royal proclamation designated as Regent during his absence.

  Several days before his departure he invited his native subjects to meet him in the largest church of his capital, and although he had not, during the six years of his reign, taken any special interest in the welfare of his people, he announced to them from the platform that his chief object in travel was to avail himself of the experience of other nations for their benefit. This paternal solicitude greatly pleased his native subjects, who had fallen far behind their white neighbours in the march of progress, because, as one of the King's predecessors had frankly said, they were "shiftless, lazy, and incompetent." The King's declaration led them to believe that he would return laden with patent and miraculous contrivances which would give them abundance without labour, and enable them to scratch themselves with tropical serenity, which was the habit of their inheritance, and they cordially approved of this royal act of self-sacrifice. The Protestant missionaries had brought to them the blessings of civilisation, but the sea-faring countrymen of the missionaries had also brought to them its curses, and it was an act of kingly philanthropy for their sovereign to seek in foreign lands some method of relief, if there was any, from their unfortunate sufferings between the upper and nether millstones of Christian civilisation.

  When the day arrived on which the steamer from Australia, bound to San Francisco, was due, the natives loyally gathered at the Palace, to fulfil those rites and ceremonies which were fitting on such an unusual event as the departure of the King from his country, and groups of singers and dancers gathered on the thick sward under the royal palms. Each dancer had a gourd filled with pebbles, and shook it, in measured time, with one hand, while with the other he described graceful motions in the air. Wreaths of sweet-scented vines and many-coloured flowers encircled or streamed from their bodies, or were entwined with their glossy black locks. No jewelled necklace or spangled dress of the European ballet rival these natural ornaments from the flower-bearing valleys. The singers, squatting in groups, dressed in th
e glory of the fields, told the story, in a plaintive minor key, of the greatness of the Hawaiian kings, their miraculous exploits, and their imperishable renown. Many of the words of the songs were in the ancient language and were understood only by the older people; but if translated they would have promoted intense activity in a Society for the Promotion of Moral Literature, if one had existed there. As one group of singers and dancers became exhausted, relays of new performers replaced them, in order that there might be no gap in movement or melody.

  The steamer did not arrive on time, but traditional etiquette required that these ceremonies should continue unbroken until the King embarked. Many hours passed, and there was no end to the dancing or singing, and at midnight the trade winds died away and the moon arose. In the dreamy stillness of the soft air the low monotonous chanting, the measured rattling of the gourds, rose above the trees, with intervals of European music by the military band. I was on a high balcony overlooking this strange scene, with its extraordinary mixture of the airs of Polynesia and of Europe. Beyond the forest of tall cocoanut palms I heard the surf of the Pacific Ocean, with "great white avalanches of thunder," rolling up on the coral beach. This music of intermingled paganism, civilisation, and ocean ended only with the dawn, and with the dawn the steamer arrived, and the King promptly embarked. Some ancient cannon of large calibre, situated on the height above the city, discharged a royal salute of twenty-: one guns, and the King and his suite stood on the deck, buried in a wilderness of flowers; for it is the agreeable custom of the country to decorate departing friends with wreaths of flowers and scented vines, and their quantity on this occasion was sufficient to have dressed the masts, yards and rigging of the steamer from stem to stern. Every native had brought a tribute of these, and their perfume filled the air. As the "City of Sydney" swung away from the dock, the national band played "Auld Lang Syne," and "Hawaii Ponoi" (po-no-ee), the national anthem; and the wailing of the natives followed her to the mouth of the harbour until their piercing cries were lost in the roar of the surf.

  The tour thus auspiciously begun, the King, in the expressive words of Lord Bacon, was now ready to "suck" the experience of the world.

  The Queen, who had supervised the packing of the King's luggage, had filled many packages with shoes and clothing of all kinds; among them were six hat-boxes, and a canvas bag which, I soon discovered, held the royal standard. I then suspected that the "Prince," for he began his journey incognito, was providing for the fortunes of travel, and, if he desired, could throw off his borrowed plumes and assume his crown; but his manceuvre was praiseworthy in that it had prevented the burden and expense of a retinue.

  This memoir will not be understood without a preliminary description of the King, and the personal relations which existed between him and his suite. Although a Polynesian, he was capable of appearing as a well-bred man in any society or in any court. He was above the medium height and of large proportions, and had received an education in the English language in a school especially organised to instruct the young chiefs of Hawaii. Its instructors were carefully selected by the white men of the government for the purpose of giving the future rulers the best preparation for their coming responsibilities. In this royal school there were at one time four young chiefs, who afterward became kings of Hawaii, and two young women of rank, who afterward became queens. The children of the white members of the King's Cabinet were, by favour, admitted to the school, and the Chamberlain, Colonel Judd, and I, now Minister of State, were scholars in 1849. Thirty years afterward, and after three of our schoolmates had become kings and had died, and two of them had become queens, it so happened that Kalakaua ascended the throne, and with his two old school-mates began his royal tour. Of the queens, one, Oueen Emma, an attractive young woman, now the Queen Dowager, had been the guest of the British Queen, and of the Empress Eugenie in Paris, where she became a favourite; while the other, Liliuokalani, the sister of the King, who became his successor on his death, and ruled so unwisely that she drove her white subjects into revolution and extinguished the Hawaiian monarchy.

  Both Minister of State and Chamberlain, the only companions of the King besides his valet, were sons of American missionaries who had enlarged their usefulness by entering the Cabinet of one of the King's predecessors thirty years before, and had done important service in organising and maintaining civil government. The Chamberlain had always lived in the islands, but I had lived in the United States for many years, and had returned at the King's request and taken office in his Cabinet, as Attorney-General, a few:weeks before the beginning of this tour.

  The King had a retentive memory. He had read many books in the English language on religion, science, and politics; but he had not digested his reading, and his learning was therefore somewhat dangerous, although its extent surprised visitors to his kingdom, as well as many persons whom he met during his long tour. He was an excellent musician, and had collected a band of native musicians, numbering about thirty, who, under a German leader, had made a reputation for skill in rendering foreign music which reached Europe through the reports of tourists and of the officers of warships. He often referred with a smile to his first savage predecessor on the throne, who once received a serenade from the band of a British warship; and when at the close of it he was asked if he desired the repetition of any piece made it known, but not without some difficulty, that the tuning of the instruments gave him the most pleasure.

  The King knew the usages and customs of European courts, for after the independence of his islands had been recognised, and treaties had been negotiated with nearly all the civilised states of the world, a diplomatic and consular corps was established at his capital; and this, with the ceremony of receiving the officers of warships and other noted visitors, had established the etiquette of civilisation in his own court. His kingdom was recognised as civilised by all nations, and he was a monarch in good and regular standing among his royal brethren. This was due to the unselfish labour of the American missionaries and their allies, who had created the framework of an institutional government and placed the administration of law in the hands of intelligent and honest white men who had the confidence of both foreign traders and residents.

  But, the King being Polynesian, neither he nor his native subjects understood the nature of Anglo-Saxon government, and if they had been allowed to have their own way political conditions would have quickly fallen into those which are found in the South American republics or among even less-civilised people. The self-rule of the Anglo-Saxons is not the working out of a theory, but the evolution of long-acquired political habits and customs. The King could not understand this, nor could he be criticised for his ignorance when the majority of Anglo-Saxons cannot lucidly explain their own system of rule, but govern themselves mainly on inherited sentiments. The King's mind was naturally filled with the crude ideas, the superstitions, the absolutism of a Polynesian chief, though his experience with the whites had modified their exaggerated forms; and, where experience was lacking, a vague fear of the white men's superior intelligence took its place. So in kingly behaviour he was, and proved to be, the peer of any monarch he met on his tour. His three predecessors on the throne had fallen into what moralists call "drunkards' graves;" but the graves were an impressive mausoleum, situated in a beautiful valley, shaded by trees of everlasting green, and by no means repelling or likely to serve as a deterrent from the downward course to whose end they bore peaceful witness. The King was unlike his predecessors in this regard, and did not exhibit the great vice of Christendom oftener than his official duty demanded. It was his pagan humour to say, when he gave way to the custom of civilisation, "I am drunk, but I am also civilised."

  The party was a singular one. They were school-mates who had rubbed each other's noses in the dirt thirty years before, and were now King, Minister of State, and Lord Chamberlain, with a German baron for a valet; and though the kingdom they represented was a tiny affair, it was, for all that, one of the family of Christian nations, and the
y were entitled to royal ceremonies according to the usage of nations. But because our country was only a few dots or elevations in the Pacific Ocean, an insignificant affair so far as territory went, we modestly anticipated no royal receptions. If the monarchs, the brothers of my royal master, gave him a brief audience and shook his hand, it would be, we thought, after the manner of rich and powerful men who greet an obscure relation by extending two fingers of the hand, and, if generous, serve him some refuse meat in a side chamber. We were ready to be satisfied if we received the slightest greeting; and, in order to avoid any embarrassment, had our incognito dress at hand, so that we could quickly jump into it. At no time did the King make any formal announcement to the court of any country that he intended to visit it; in short, we travelled modestly, so as to avoid a snubbing.

  Among our passengers on the voyage to San Francisco was a well-known Englishman, a lecturer on astronomy, returning from Australia. He discussed with the King the astral theories of the Polynesians, which were, it must be confessed, not as advanced as those held by the present generation of Europeans, but quite as valuable as those of learned men two centuries before, who believed that comets were sent by the Almighty to frighten men into obedience. The King became much interested in these semi-scientific conversations, and at the end of the voyage their effect upon him was shown after a not altogether unexpected fashion.

  During the usual celebration which occurs before a vessel enters port, the Australian passengers, who had much respect for royalty, so entertained the King, with the aid of the distinguished man of science that when he reached the upper deck, long after midnight, his royal eyes were able to perceive double stars and planets without the aid of a telescope. As the sun rose above the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay, I entered this note in these memoirs: "His Majesty has sucked his first experience of foreign civilisation."