Just before he left the Islands, Mr. Blount impressed upon me with great solemnity the importance of the continuance of the peaceful attitude of the Hawaiian people, assuring me that if any disturbance should take place on our part it would prompt the United States to send vessels of war to the port, men would again be landed, and the result would be the loss of the independence of our country. Believing that he spoke by authority, and that the day of release from the oppression of the stranger was near, I continued from the day of my retirement at Washington Place to impress upon all the necessity for abstaining from riot or disturbance.

  The people listened to my voice, and obeyed my will with a submission that kept the community free from disorder far more than any law or restraint of that which has called itself a government. Many a time have I heard that the Hawaiians would no longer submit to their oppressors, that they were about to appeal to fire and the sword; but I have always dissuaded them from commencing any such measures. This discontent was not confined to the people of native or even part native birth. Those of foreign ancestry not in sympathy with the revolutionists, those whose daily comfort had been disturbed or whose business had been made unprofitable or ruined by the rich and powerful missionary party, appealed to me and my friends to restore the old order of things, that prosperity might again smile on the majority, instead of being locked up in the bank accounts of a very few.

  It subsequently became known to me through other sources, although not until long after the date about which I now write, that the Senate had taken matters out of the hands of President Cleveland, and had conducted an independent investigation in the city of Washington, at which O. P. Emerson, Peter C. Jones, Z. S. Spalding, W. D. Alexander, Lieutenant Lucien Young, Mr. E. K. Moore, L. G. Hobbs, W. T. Swinburne, Lieutenant Laird, Mr. A. F. Judd, W. C. Wilder, J. H. Soper, A. S. Wilcox, C. Bolte, Geo. N. Wilcox, John Emmeluth, C. L. Carter, F. W. McChesney, W. B. Oleson, J. A. McCandless, Minister John L. Stevens, James F. Morgan, William R. Castle, L. A. Thurston, Dewitt Coffman, M. Stelker, William S. Bowen, P. W. Reeder, Charles L. Macarthur, Admiral George Belknap, Ν. B. Delameter, Francis R. Day, Rev. R. R. Hoes, W. E. Simpson, N. Ludlow, and S. N. Castle, gave either by affidavit or in person their testimony against me.

  So far as the above individuals knew anything whatever about the affairs of Hawaii, they were conspirators against my government; the obscurely known amongst the number were from those who had been, as one of them stated, simply rusticating at the Islands a while, and had been poisoned against the native people by my enemies. Not a single witness on the side of constitutional government was examined by the committee, if I except Hon. James H. Blount, who was called, and courageously repeated all the statements of his report to Mr. Cleveland.

  Yet on such ex parte testimony as this, the Senate made a lengthy and partisan report, which I never had an opportunity to examine until my residence in Washington during the winter of 1897. It is altogether too long to find admittance here, but its meaning can be expressed in a very few words. It says that, rightfully or wrongfully, the native monarchy had been overthrown, the parties who succeeded in this fraud and imposition had been acknowledged as a government by the administration of Mr. Harrison, and therefore the question would not be reopened nor the facts reviewed by the United States !

  Where was proper consideration given to my own statement to President Harrison, made through my·commissioner, Mr. Paul Neumann? Why were not the petitions of the patriotic leagues of my people put into the inquiry? Why was not the fact that there was such an inquiry going on communicated to me? Why were my enemies informed of that which was in progress, so that they could hurry to Washington, or send their testimony, while not one of my friends was given the opportunity to raise a voice in behalf of the disfranchised Hawaiian people or their persecuted queen? Whatever may be the answers to these questions, it is true that no message ever reached me. No further communication was ever made to me by the American minister, nor did I even hear, except through the most vague kind of rumor, that probably no more would be done in the cause of justice. Even the fact of the decision of the Senate was not communicated to me; yet it seems that it was all settled the last week in February, 1894, on the testimony of the above aliens.

  Since the bold admissions of members of the missionary party made to Minister Blount of their own guilt, since the confession, by those who had established themselves at the head of a provisional government, of the intended crime of which my brother was to be the victim, all of which appears in black and white on the pages of their own testimony, the scornful title of "P. G." has clung to them, to their children, and will be passed down to their children's children. After the truth was made public they became ashamed to hear themselves called "P. G.'s," and, repudiating the name, called themselves instead "Annexationists."

  The so-called Provisional Government began in the spring of 1894 to consider again a change of name. So they allowed a few of their chosen tools to vote for what was called a constitutional convention, of which the original conspirators, to the number of nineteen, who had no warrant for their position save their own self-given nominations, and eighteen others in sympathy with them, enacted what they called a constitution; and in order to have some guns fired at its adoption, and to curry favor with the United States, they announced the so-called Republic on the fourth day of July, 1894, and it was declared from the steps of Iolani Palace, while the vessels of war in the harbor were saluting for a totally different occasion.

  During that same month Mr. Samuel Parker had mentioned to me the necessity, in his opinion, of sending a Hawaiian commissioner to the United States to see what could be done for our people. Mr. Cornwell also consulted me upon the same matter. By conference with these gentlemen, it was decided that, instead of sending five commissioners, as we had at first designed to do, that Hon. Samuel Parker, Mr. John A. Cummins, Judge H. A. Widemann, with Major W. T. Seaward as secretary, should visit the capital of the United States, and represent those in Hawaii, whether native or foreign, opposed to the missionary party, that so the government of the majority might get a hearing in the councils of that great nation to which alone I yielded my authority.

  What was the result of this commission? That is impossible for me to say. They went and they returned. They brought me no papers giving an official account of their proceedings or actions while on the mission. Each had some bit of information to communicate verbally. About the only definite remark which recurs to me now is, that Secretary Gresham had informed them that Mr. Cleveland was suffering from a slight illness, and would be unable to see them for three or four days, at which intelligence they became discouraged, and left Washington. They had absolutely nothing to show to me for their time and the expenditure of my money.

  A month after word was sent to me that the merchants of Honolulu, who were in sympathy with the monarchy, had decided to send Judge Widemann on a foreign mission in our interests, at which I was pleased, and acquiesced in the choice. He was gone about three months, and again returned with only a verbal statement to the effect, that, while on his way to England, he had heard that that nation was sending a message of recognition to the Republic of Hawaii. He continued on his journey as far as Germany, where he reported that the minister to whom he meant to present the statement of our side of the case was absent from the country on a tour of business or pleasure. So Judge Widemann returned without any favorable results.

  All the expenses of these commissions from the very commencement, when I sent Mr. Paul Neumann to follow the original commissioners of the first supporters of the rebellion, were paid by me from my private purse. And from the seventeenth day of January to the present hour, that remains true of every effort which has been made to induce the government of the United States to act under the righteous decision of its President, Grover Cleveland, supported by the impartial report of Hon. James H. Blount. No one, outside or inside the Hawaiian Islands, has contributed a cent to the repeated outlays I have made for the good of the Hawaiian people.

  Further, from the date of the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy to the present day, I have never received from the Provisional Government, nor from its successor, the "Republic of Hawaii/' a single cent of income from any source whatever. Even those revenues of the crown lands which had been collected prior to the seizure of the public treasury by the insurgents, and which remained in the hands of the commissioner at the time of my retirement from public life, were never paid to me. What became of these moneys I do not say, but not a dollar of it was ever handed to me.

  For four years and more, now, these people have confiscated and collected the revenues reserved from all time in order that the chief highest in rank, that is, the reigning sovereign, might care for his poorer people. Never were the revenues of these lands included in government accounts. They comprise 91 5,000 acres out of a total extent of four millions, or about one-quarter, and yield an income of about $50,000 a year. They are by legislative act and the rulings of the Supreme Court my own property at this day. But notwithstanding this, the doctrine that might makes right seems to prevail; and not content with depriving me of my income, and employing it to forward their own schemes, the present government is now striving to cede these lands, which they do not own and never can own, to the United States.

  CHAPTER XLII

  ATTEMT TO RESTORE THE MONARCHY

  AT the time of the return of Mr. Widemann from abroad, the intensity of the feeling was at its height amongst the Hawaiian people that something should be done to save their country. Of their own accord they bought rifles, pistols, and other arms, stealthily keeping these for future use. During this time, too, they were privately informed where arms belonging to the men in power were kept; for although it is generally conceded all over the world, and common sense would seem to show how one should act toward one's enemies, yet there was the strangest intermingling of those of the two parties, which were called the "Royalists" and the "P. G.'s." Instead of recognizing each other as enemies, and keeping apart as such, they associated as in former days.

  Visiting went on just the same, exchanges of thought and opinion were the same. The Royalists, open hearted and free of speech, socially ignored the fact that the P. G.'s were, in every material sense, their enemies. These latter kept the situation in view, and with soft words studied to worm out of the unsuspecting all that they could in the way of information as to Royalist hopes and plans, that the particulars might be communicated to the P. G. government.

  Moreover, many who swore allegiance to the Republic of Hawaii "began to regret bitterly that they ever permitted themselves to support the revolutionary party. They had been in comfortable circumstances, had even laid aside for a rainy day, and felt that the savings of their years of prosperity would find them independent in life's decline. But since the overthrow of honest government they had lost, or been forced to spend, all they had accumulated, and the little business left to them would scarcely sustain their families.

  Weary with waiting, impatient under the wrongs they were suffering, preparations were undoubtedly made amongst some in sympathy with the monarchy to overthrow the oligarchy. How and where these were carried on, I will not say. I have no right to disclose any secrets given in trust to me. To the time of which I now write their actions had been peaceful, out of respect and obedience to their queen. If, goaded by their wrongs, I could no longer hold them in check with reason; if they were now, by one accord, determined to break away, and endeavor, by a bold stroke, to win back their nationality, why should I prohibit the outburst of patriotism? I told them that if the mass of the native people chose to rise, and try to throw off the yoke, I would say nothing against it, but I could not approve of mere rioting.

  On Jan. 6, 1895, came the beginning of a revolt. For three months prior to that date my physician, Dr. Donald McLelan, had been in attendance on me, and, a3 I was suffering very severely from nervous prostration, prescribed electricity. For two years I had borne the long agony of suspense, a terrible strain, which at last made great inroads on my strength.

  The knowledge of the secreting of arms on my premises, the distribution of munitions of war amongst the people who were guarding my house and grounds, has been imputed to me. Whether any arms were brought there, where they were, or what they were, I never took occasion to inquire. I never saw a single pistol or rifle by day or by night. I remember that I had occasion to scold my gardener for the disturbed condition in which I often found my plants. It seemed as though some persons had been digging up the ground, and replacing the disturbed soil. But no arms were secreted by me or by my orders about the place, from the roof to the cellar, or from one end to the other of the garden, nor were any kept there to my knowledge, save parlor rifles and harmless old-fashioned muskets.

  My husband had a passion for collecting ancient specimens of firearms, and for this purpose he set apart in the yard a small cottage which had once been a favorite retreat of his bachelor days. He had everything arranged prettily, and on its walls was a formidable show of antiquated instruments of war. I recall the appearance of one very old Arabian musket, which he took special pride in exhibiting to his friends. There was also an old-fashioned flute, and a sword which, so it was said, had formerly belonged to General Washington.

  There were many other relics of antiquity in this line, which had been contributed by his friends, — large pistols and small pistols, loading with ramrods from the muzzle, clubs and spears from the South Sea Islands; and, in fact, it was quite a cabinet of curiosities of obsolete warfare.

  He had, during his lifetiine, rifles and shotguns of modern style of manufacture, which he took with him on his visits to the estates of Hon. Samuel Parker, or when we went to our country residence at Waialua. But these latter, after his death, were appropriated by his personal friends; and there was therefore nothing on the place by which the least harm to any one could be done. Yet it was on the opening of this curiosity shop, as harmless as any gallery of family portraits, that the word was passed around town that a large quantity of firearms of different styles had been found secreted in a small house on the grounds of the queen.

  I slept quietly at home the night of the outbreak. The evening before Captain Samuel Nowlein came in, and told me that his party was in readiness. This must have been about eight o'clock in the evening, as the meeting in the Congregational church had just begun as Captain Nowlein bade me farewell. He had not been gone very long when there seemed to be quite a commotion amongst the church members. They appeared to be hastening from the building. By this time it was quite dark. I retired, and heard nothing more about the uprising until the morning following. When Captain Nowlein went, he had left the premises under guard of one Charles H. Clark. The men who were usually on duty about my estate were still at their stations, without any firearms, without the least appearance of anticipated disturbance.

  Now, as to the disturbance itself. At six o'clock in the afternoon of the sixth day of January, it was telephoned from Diamond Head that there was a conspiracy developed into action, and that the parties engaged therein would be found at the house of Mr. Henry Bertelmann. Captain Robert Waipa Parker took some half dozen native policemen with him, and started for the locality. On their way they stopped at the house of Mr. Charles L. Carter, son of the Hon. H. A. P. Carter, whom they informed of the nature of their errand. Upon hearing it, Mr. Carter immediately said that he would like to go with them, and "have a little fun too," and suited the action to the word by clapping two pistols into his belt. When they arrived at the Bertelmann place there was some resistance, and shots were exchanged between the police and the persons assembled there. In the course of the fray Mr. Carter was shot. It was reported that the wound was not in a locality where it would be likely to be at all dangerous, yet he soon expired. A policeman received a shot through the lungs at the same time, but he is alive and well to-day. These, I believe, were all the serious casualties of the day.

  CHAPTER XLIII

  I AM PLACED UNDER ARREST

  ON the sixteenth day of January, 1895, Deputy Marshal Arthur Brown and Captain Robert Waipa Parker were seen coming up the walk which leads from Beretania Street to my residence. Mrs. Wilson told me that they were approaching. I directed her to show them into the parlor, where I soon joined them. Mr. Brown informed me that he had come to serve a warrant for my arrest; he would not permit me to take the paper which he held, nor to examine its contents.

  It was evident they expected me to accompany them; so I made preparations to comply, supposing that I was to be taken at once to the station-house to undergo some kind of a trial. I was informed that I could bring· Mrs. Clark with me if I wished, so she went for my hand-bag; and followed by her, I entered the carriage of the deputy marshal, and was driven through the crowd that by this time had accumulated at the gates of my residence at Washington Place. As I turned the corner of the block on which is built the Central Congregational church, I noticed the approach from another direction of Chief Justice Albert F. Judd; he was on the sidewalk, and was going toward my house, which he entered. In the mean time the marshal's carriage continued on its way, and we arrived at the gates of Iolani Palace, the residence of the Hawaiian sovereigns.

  We drove up to the front steps, and I remember noticing that troops of soldiers were scattered all over the yard. The men looked as though they had been on the watch all night. They were resting on the green grass, as though wearied by their vigils; and their arms were stacked near their tents, these latter having been pitched at intervals all over the palace grounds. Staring directly at us were the muzzles of two brass field-pieces, which looked warlike and formidable as they pointed out toward the gate from their positions on the lower veranda. Colonel J. H. Fisher came down the steps to receive me; I dismounted, and he led the way up the staircase to a large room in the corner of the palace. Here Mr. Brown made a formal delivery of my person into the custody of Colonel Fisher, and having done this, withdrew.