a smaller steamer came off to meet us; and being made fast alongside, we were transferred, and at once made for the shore. Here we found the people assembled to give us a royal welcome. The wharves were lined with throngs of men and women. The shipping, too, had been utilized for points of observation, and the decks and rigging of all the vessels were filled with those eager to watch the coming of the royal party. And yet, mingled with all the joy felt at our safe return, there was an undercurrent of sadness as of a people who had known with us a crushing sorrow. There were traces of tears on the cheeks of many of our faithful retainers, which we noticed, and of which we knew the meaning, as we passed by. They knew, and we knew, although no word was spoken, the changes which had taken place while we had been away, and which had been forced upon the king.

We were received by the members of the new cabinet of the king, by name Mr. Godfrey Brown, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. L. A. Thurston, Minister of the Interior; Mr. W. I. Green, Minister of Finance; Mr. C. W. Ashford, Attorney-General, - all men of foreign birth; while of the ministry directly preceding, three members had been native Hawaiians.

Mr. Brown shook us warmly by the hands, and attended us to the royal carriage which had been waiting; and then, accompanied by the royal staff of His Majesty, we were quickly driven past the assembled multitudes to Iolani Palace, where King Kalakaua - my brother and the husband of Queen Kapiolani — was prepared to receive us. He appeared bright, and glad

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to welcome us back; yet we could see on his countenance traces of the terrible strain through which he had passed, and evidences of the anxiety over the perilous position, although this was only the commencement of the troubles preparing for our family and nation.

It is necessary now to briefly review the events which had taken place in our absence of about three months abroad. We arrived in Honolulu on the twentysixth day of July, 1887. A conspiracy against the peace of the Hawaiian Kingdom had been taking shape since early spring. By the 15th of June, prior to our return, it had assumed a no less definite shape than the overthrow of the monarchy.

For many years our sovereigns had welcomed the advice of, and given full representations in their government and councils to, American residents who had cast in their lot with our people, and established industries on the Islands. As they became wealthy, and acquired titles to lands through the simplicity of our people and their ignorance of values and of the new land laws, their greed and their love of power proportionately increased; and schemes for aggrandizing themselves still further, or for avoiding the obligations which they had incurred to us, began to occupy their minds. So the mercantile element, as embodied in the Chamber of Commerce, the sugar planters, and the proprietors of the "missionary" stores, formed a distinct political party, called the "down-town" party, whose

purpose was to minimize or entirely subvert other in terests, and especially the prerogatives of the crown, which, based upon ancient custom and the authority of the island chiefs, were the sole guaranty of our nationality. Although settled among us, and drawing their wealth from our resources, they were alien to us in their customs and ideas respecting government, and desired above all things the extension of their power, and to carry out their own special plans of advancement, and to secure their own personal benefit. It may be true that they really believed us unfit to be trusted to administer the growing wealth of the Islands in a safe and proper way. But if we manifested any incompetency, it was in not foreseeing that they would be bound by no obligations, by honor, or by oath of allegiance, should an opportunity arise for seizing our country, and bringing it under the authority of the United States.

Kalakaua valued the commercial and industrial prosperity of his kingdom highly. He sought honestly to secure it for every class of people, alien or native, in his dominions, making it second only to the advancement of morals and education. If he believed in the divine right of kings, and the distinctions of hereditary nobility, it was not alone from the prejudices of birth and native custom, but because he was able to perceive that even the most enlightened nations of the earth have not as yet been able to replace them with a ruling class equally able, patriotic, or disinterested. I say this with all reverence for the form of government and the social order existing in the United States, whose workings have, for more than a century, excited the interest

of the world; not the interest of the common people only, but of nobles, rulers, and kings. Kalakaua's highest and most earnest desire was to be a true sovereign, the chief servant of a happy, prosperous, and progressive people. He regarded himself as the responsible arbiter of clashing interests, and his own breast as the ordained meeting-place of the spears of political contention. He was rightly jealous of his prerogatives, because they were responsibilities which no civic body in his kingdom could safely undertake to administer. He freely gave his personal efforts to the securing of a reciprocity treaty with the United States, and sought the co-operation of that great and powerful nation, because he was persuaded it would enrich, or benefit, not one class, but, in a greater or less degree, all his subjects.

His interviews with General. Grant, his investigations into the labor problems, which the success of the Hawaiian plantations demanded, were all means to the same end, an increase of domestic prosperity. He succeeded, and the joy of the majority was great. The planters were elated, the merchants were encouraged, money flowed into their pockets, bankrupt firms became wealthy, sugar companies declared fabulous dividends; the prosperity for which my brother had so faithfully worked he most abundantly secured for his people, especially for those of foreign birth, or missionary ancestry, who had become permanent residents of Hawaii.

The king did not accomplish these things without some native opposition; although it was respectful and deferent to his decision, as the ideas and customs of