Page 71 - Hawaii: Diving, Surfing, Pearl Harbor, Volcanoes and More

y 1843, in his “History of the Sandwich is based on western interpretations, and ly cast off their centuries-old superstitions
B Islands” the Rev. S. Dibble writes: “the representations, of law and order in Hawai- was deemed a remarkable act of civilized
practice was not common, and it is due ian society. behavior. Geography texts of the 1800s,
to the Hawaiians to say that those few in- which paid little more than lip-service to
stances that did exist were looked upon by s Protestant missionaries from New the existence of Pacific islands, included
most of the people with horror and detes- A England were en route to the islands, special mention of Hawaii.
tation”. Dibble saw life through the white King Kamehameha died, and his son
man’s eyes and did not take the time to Liholiho, under pressure from his step- pon Kamehameha the greats death his
understand the meaning of the act. mother Ka’ahumanu, publicly brought an U eldest son, Liholiho, became king as
end to the traditional kapu system. Most Kamehameha II. Liholiho was the ruler of
aptain Cook’s arrival in the Hawaiian important, this eventuated in the inability the Hawaiian kingdom upon the arrival of
C Islands signaled more than just the ar- of the ruling chief (now king) to sanctify the first missionaries. His people loved him
rival of western geographical and scientific luakini, the heiau of human sacrifice that and his kingdom advanced under his rule.
order; it was the arrival of British social and emblemized the power of his sacred posi- The ancient kapu system, wich supressed
political order, of British law and order as tion. However, the chiefly power to impose women and commoners, was abandoned
well. From Cook onward, westerners com- kapu did not end, nor did the everyday and Hawaii opened up to the world. In 1823
ing to the islands used their own social religious lives of the people, but the idols throngs of native Hawaiians sobbed when
civil codes as a basis to judge, interpret, at most-not all-heiau were burned, and Liholiho and his wife departed for London
describe, and almost uniformly condemn the sacredness of those places officially to negotiate an alliance between the two
Hawaiian social and civil codes. With this rendered profane. To the western world, nations. Their worries about their King and
condemnation, westerners justified the which knew of Hawai’i already as the sacred Queen proved to be justified in the end
imposition of their own order on the Hawai- ground of Cook’s martyrdom, this sudden however, both died of measels on their
ians, leading to a justification of colonial- turn of events was astounding. The “evil” voyage.
ism and the loss of land and power for the and “barbarous” tradition of human sacri-
indigenous peoples. That is, a fundamental fice at their “charnel house” temples was no
premise for the colonization of the islands longer. That a savage people would willing-