RECENT HAWAIIAN HISTORY. 



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His wars were by no means puny either in proportions or 

 slaughter, as, for instance, when he meditated the conquest of 

 Kauai, his expedition included seven thousand picked warriors, 

 twenty-one schooners, forty swivels, six mortars, and an abund- 

 ance of ammunition ! His victories are celebrated in countless 

 miles or unwritten songs, which are said to be marked by real 

 poetic feeling and simplicity, and to resemble the Ossianic 

 poems in majesty and melancholy. He founded the dynasty 

 which for seventy years has stood as firmly, and exercised its 

 functions for the welfare of the people on the whole as effici- 

 ently, as any other government. 



The king was forty-five years old when, having u no more 

 worlds to conquer," he devoted himself to the consolidation of 

 his kingdom. He placed governors on each island, directly 

 responsible to himself, who nominated chiefs of districts, heads 

 of villages, and all petty officers ; and tax-gatherers, who, for 

 lack of the art of writing, kept their accounts by a method in 

 use in the English exchequer, in ancient times. He appointed 

 a council of chiefs, with whom he advised on important matters, 

 and a council of "wise men" who assisted him in framing 

 laws, and in regulating concerns of minor importance. In all 

 matters of national importance, the governors and high chiefs 

 of the islands met with the sovereign in consultations. These 

 were conducted with great privacy, and the results were pro- 

 mulgated througli the islands by heralds whose office was 

 hereditary. 



Kamehameha enacted statutes against theft, murder, and 

 oppression, and though he wielded oppressive and despotic 

 authority himself, his people enjoyed a golden age as compared 

 with those that were past. The king, governors, and chiefs 

 constituted the magistracy, and there was an appeal from both 

 chiefs and governors to the king. It was usual for both par- 

 ties to be heard face to face in the enclosure in front of the 

 house of the king or governor ; no lawyers were employed, and 

 every man advocated his own cause, sitting cross-legged before 

 the judges. Swiftness and decision characterized the redress of 

 grievances and the administration of justice. 



Kamehameha reduced the feudal tenure of land, which had 

 heretofore been the theory, into absolute practice, claiming for 

 the crown the sole ownership of the land, and dividing it 

 among his followers on the conditions of tribute and military 

 service. The common people were attached to the soil and 

 transferred with it. A chief might nominate his wife, or son, 



