lowed. The earnestness and zeal of Bishop Willis have done much to conciliate those who were at

first most adverse to the Church. The present king and queen being themselves zealous Episcopalians, throw the weight of their example into the scale; but the position of the Episcopal Church in Congregational Hawaii resembles on a miniature scale that of the Episcopal Church in Presbyterian Scotland. It is a Church beloved of its own members, but altogether antipathetic to the bulk of the community.

To such foreigners as value the services of the Church in their own country, whether England or America, it is of course a most real privilege to be able to join in them, here in mid-ocean, whensoever they may chance to find themselves in the kingdom of Hawaii; and what with the facilities of travel, and the sugar-producing prospects of these isles, there is every probability that these will form a rapidly increasing body, and that whenever the long-talked-of cathedral at Honolulu is erected, it will not fail to find a full congregation.

tr

THE last of the Kamehamehas" died at the close of 1872, having reigned but ten years. Though in many respects he gave proof of great capacity and vigour, and ruled with a strong hand, he was nevertheless a very different man from his excellent brother. His jovial temperament could not brook the restrictions imposed upon him by high station, and by his spiritual pastors; so he indulged in a periodical relapse to the manners and customs of heathen days.

On one of these festive occasions, he died suddenly, and various evil practices of heathendom were revived during the days of mourning.

He was the last of his race, with the exception of a half-sister, Princess Keelikolani (commonly called Ruth), whose mother was not of sufficiently high rank to entitle her to the succession.

.

It therefore rested with the Legislative Assembly to elect a new sovereign by ballot. Queen Emma, Prince Lunalilo, and the high chief Kalakaua, were the three candidates.

Lunalilo was the darling of the people. The son of Kekauluohi-a chiefess of the very highest rank in her own right, as the daughter of a previous dynasty, and also as being one of the queens of Kamehameha II.-he commanded the old feudal reverence of the people; while, having lived among them as one of themselves, his never-failing kindness and gentle sympathy had won for him the title of the "Well - beloved." He was said to be

witty when drunk, and very

His election was unanimous.

wise when sober.

For one short year he reigned over the hearts of the Hawaiians, the king of their choice, responding deeply to the love which all, down to the poorest and feeblest, rejoiced to lavish on him. It was a year of gladness ever, to be remembered. But, alas the evil foreign influences which had proved the ruin of so many of his countrymen, were brought to bear on him. Constantly tempted to indulge his inborn craving for drink, he struggled bravely for a while, then yielded—and to yield was perdition.

Lacking the strength of constitution of the white men who led him on to ruin, he. broke

DEATH OF "THE WELL-BELOVED."

225

down, and perished miserably, thirteen months after his predecessor.

Until

The grief of his people knew no bounds, and death seemed but to intensify their love. its cruel change had marred the beloved countenance, he lay in state at the Iolani Palace, and about ten thousand of his subjects came to look once more upon him. Beneath him was spread a priceless cloak of the royal golden feathers, which had descended to him from his mother, having for generations been a family heirloom. Now the family was extinct, and his heartbroken father, Kanaina, bade the attendants wrap the feather cloak around the dead king, ere laying him in his coffin. Thus, shrouded in the most costly fabric of the isles, he lay in state for four weeks; and though he had himself strictly forbidden all the old heathen orgies (knowing how prone to these many might be in their excess of grief), nevertheless thousands from all parts of the isles came to look upon his coffin, round which watched relays of mourners, waving the black kahilis, and wailing ceaselessly. They sat on the ground rocking themselves as if in dire grief, and uttering shrill cries, while singing - women chanted wild funereal dirges; and from time to time some orator would approach, and with gesticulations expressive of anguish, delivered an impassioned address, either

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to the dead or in his praise, to which the people responded with wails.

Nor was the mourning confined to the palace. Throughout the isles the dismal moans of sorrow were heard; bursts of passionate grief resounded from valley to valley, and echoed among the hills and rocks, as the people gathered round their watch-fires bewailing the king of their choice. Night and day the air was filled with the sound of bitter lamentation, the mournful moan, au we! au we! (alas! alas !)—now uttered as a loud wail, then subsiding to a low sad murmur.

When, on the 28th February 1874, the king was carried to his burial in the Nuuanu valley, the funeral-car was preceded by seventy-two kahilibearers the custom of the isles requiring that each high chief should send these, his family insignia, to do honour to his late sovereign.1

While this multitude of waving kahilis recalled olden times, modern progress was represented by

1 How strangely the customs of the Eastern and Western isles recall one another! In Hawaii a multitude of feather kahilis are waved around the dead. In Britain nodding plumes of ostrich-feathers wave above the hearse.

In Hawaii the highest chiefs appeared on State occasions with feather-crowns and leis; and, in presence of their king, were required to strip to the waist. Our further advance in civilisation (though more stringent in the matter of feather head-dresses as a necessity of Court dress) only requires loyal female subjects to strip to the shoulders-a compromise which, to the lean and antiquated, is quite sufficiently trying, in the full light of noonday.