will be understood by those who have studied our national customs. He made her no reply, but turned from her as he lay on his bed. It was considered best that he should return to Honolulu, to which reluctantly he consented; so, accompanied by the chiefs and their attendants, we returned with him home. As long as he retained consciousness he insisted that the selection of a successor should be left to the people, and even his ministers were powerless to change his determination; and with a full intention of allowing the succession to be settled by ballot rather than by his constitutional right of appointment, he passed away, apparently without pain. Indeed, so peaceful was his end that the appearance of death began long before its reality, and the marshal of the realm, supposing the king to be dead, undertook the draping of the palace; scarcely had the long festoons of crape been hung upon the outer walls when it was discovered that the king was living. It was not thought best to remove these emblems of mourning, for their use might be appropriate at any moment; so an attempt was made to cover or conceal them, and they were really in position about two days before the final scene.

Although Queen Emma was not named by the king as his successor, it was found that he had liberally remembered her in his will. A most important proviso of that instrument was the fund left for the founding of the Lunalilo Home for aged and indigent Hawaiians. This institution admits those of both sexes, the men being in one department and the women in another. It is well managed, and its inmates are happy and con

tented, so much so, indeed, that they often conduct themselves as if youth and hope were still their portion, and from the sympathy of daily companionship they wish to enter the closer tie of matrimony. This they are permitted to do without severing their connection with the institution, and there is a separate department provided for those who have thus agreed to finish the journey of life together.

CHAPTER VII

QUEEN EMMA

THE Contest for the succession which resulted in the elevation of my family- the Keaweaheulu line-to royal honors is of course a matter of history. Since the king had refused to nominate his successor, the election was with the legislature. It must not be forgotten, however, that the unwritten law of Hawaii Nei required that the greatest chief, or the one having the most direct claim to the throne, must rule. The legislature could not choose from the people at large, but was confined to a decision between rival claimants having an equal or nearly equal relation in the chiefhood to the throne.

Queen Emma's claim was not derived through her own family, but as the widow of Liholiho, one of the Kamehamehas. The great-grandfather of Kalakaua (the other claimant), and Kamehameha I. were own cousins; and, as I have already noted, it was to this ancestor and to other chiefs of our family that the late dynasty had owed its succession, and the uniting of the kingdoms of Hawaii under one government.

Now, it is not denied that Queen Emma had a rightful candidacy. It has already been seen that the king hesitated, and finally failed to decide between her rights