THROUGH HAWAII. 
433 
they give, nor liable to suffer from any conduct the 
king may pursue. He, however, always pays a defer¬ 
ence to their opinion, and seldom acts in opposition to 
their wishes. In all matters of importance, it is cus¬ 
tomary to summon the governors and principal chiefs 
of the several islands to a national council, when the 
subject is freely discussed. Their deliberations are 
generally conducted with great privacy, and seldom 
known among the people till finally arranged, when 
they are promulgated throughout the island by the 
king’s heralds or messengers. The king sends his 
orders directly to the governor of the island, or princi¬ 
pal chief of the district. Formerly a courier bore a 
verbal message*, now he carries a written despatch. 
The office of messenger, as well as that of herald, is 
hereditary, and considered honourable, as those who 
sustain it must necessarily have possessed the confi¬ 
dence of the king and chiefs. 
Occasionally they hold public meetings for discussing 
national affairs. These are interesting assemblies, par¬ 
ticularly when hostile chiefs, or the agents of opposite 
parties, meet; national orators, and counsellors, whose 
office is also hereditary, are then employed. In gene¬ 
ral, however, these meetings are convened only for the 
purpose of promulgating what has been previously 
arranged between the king and chiefs. 
The Hawaiian system of government—whether de¬ 
rived from the country whence the first settlers emi¬ 
grated, or established by warlike chieftains in a subse¬ 
quent period of their history, as an expedient to secure 
conquests, to command the services of their tenants on 
occasions of war, and to perpetuate the influence which 
military prowess or success in the first instance had 
3 K 
