Estancia en Madrid (1920-1924)

Those unacquainted with the politics of late nineteenth-century Hawaii will naturally wonder why the native rulers were fearful of the kahuna curse. Among many forces that created animosities of an in-ternecine nature, and not necessarily of the white man's making, the principal ones were rivalries among the Hawaiian royal and chiefly per-sonages, and between rival dynasties, and the jealousy and hatred a small element of Hawaiians felt toward their own chieftains.¹ There were Hawaiians who could be bribed by the white antiroyalists to oppose their hereditary Tulers, or who needed no bribe to hire the kahuna ar.a'ana to destroy one of them. It is certain that some well-educated, natural leaders among the commoners had the prophetic vision to antici-pate the renascence of native political power that was to occur during the first two decades of democratic processes under territorial status. That power through the ballot was greater than they had enjoyed at any time since the rule of Kamehameha the Great. Those visionary commoners, who appeared to be traitors to the cause of Hawaiian autonomy, who wanted to hasten the exit of alii rulers, were perhaps not as venal and unpatriotic as some historians have painted them.

There is really not enough space in this brief essay to enumerate fully the many ways in which a Hawaiian political figure might offend a member of his own race to the point that they would employ a kahuna to destroy him. Moreover, many nonpolitical reasons for inviting the black magic existed among all classes and races of Hawaii's people. One such reason involved the acquisition of real property by foreclosure, which in pre-European times was unknown. Another involved romantic

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44 The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present liaisons or arbitrary betrothals where*disapproving relatives or disgruntled suitors sought to prevent a marriage by having a party to such affairs assassinated by voodoo.

Certain historical authorities have supported the legend that Princess Kaiulani was done in by a kahuna ana'ana employed by white revolution-aries who believed that, if the immensely popular heiress-apparent to the throne were out of the way, there would be slight likelihood of a restora-tion ever in the future.

This good, gentle, and beautiful princess whose full name was Kaiulani Victoria Kalaninuiahilakalapa Kawekui I Lunalilo, was such an idol of the Hawaiian people that it is hard to believe anyone among them would wish her evil. Nevertheless, several weeks before her death, ostensibly of rheumatism of the heart, which occurred on March 6, 1899, rumors were rife throughout Honolulu that a powerful kahuna had told her that she must die in order to propitiate certain gods. It was also whispered about that she had been placed under a spell because a number of powerful old royalists distrusted her liberalism, and deplored her strong opposition to the old ways. She had spent most of her school years in England, a process that had imbued her with Western cultural values that seemed much to overshadow the early Hawaiian heritage. There is evidence that she regarded most black sorcery as superstitious nonsense, but that traces of belief in some aspects of it remained with her.

Prince Samuel C. Amalu, a cousin of Kaiulani and himself half Hawaiian, apparently holds still another opinion as to why there was opposition to her rulership. He has often said that the pure Hawaiians would never have allowed either Kaiulani or Dowager Queen Emma to occupy the throne, because they were only half Hawaiian. They main-tained with a certain logic that a royal person of mixed ancestry could not be truly royal Hawaiian.

Kaiulani's sweetheart since her childhood, was the dashing and urbane Prince K , of pure Hawaiian ancestry and a distant cousin, but she was strongly attracted to certain aristocratic white men. She and the Prince were prevented from marrying for a number of cruel reasons. Some said the Prince died of a broken heart many years after death took his beloved Kaiulani, although his brief final illness was not diagnosed as such. Others said that the terrible shock sustained by the heirs of the Kalakaua dynasty through annexation, added to the years of grieving for one another, depleted the mana of the royal lovers, making them vulner-able to schemes of political enemies who had curses placed on them.

In passing, I shall mention two others whose names were linked romantically to that of Princess Kaiulani—Captain P. B. Strong and Andrew Adams. Captain Putnam Bradley Strong arrived in Honolulu aboard the U.S. troopship Peru, as chief of staff to Major General Otis.

The Kahuna ^{4 5} Strong's father was an ex-mayor of New York, where he and Kaiulani had attended school together years before. The two met several times to swim or ride horseback during the several weeks the Peru was detained in Honolulu. When the gallant captain sailed for Manila, Kaiulani is reputed to have been quite desolated. Captain Strong never again appeared in

Hawaii.-Kaiulani was not to pine for long. She soon met the dashing Andrew Adams, a New Englander of excellent background whose fine looks, proud bearing, and elegant speech made him one of the most desirable catches of the season.

Adams came to Honolulu from Winchester, Massachusetts, soon after graduating from Brown University, in the fall of 1896, taking quarters in the old Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which was situated downtown at the intersection of Hotel and Richards Streets. He claimed descent from John Quincy Adams, and his mother belonged to an old Eastern family of almost equal distinction.

Soon after their meeting late in the summer of 1898, the Princess's doting and very particular father, Governor Archibald Cleghorn, invited young Adams to reside at Ainahau, his splendid estate near Waikiki.

For a few halcyon months a romance seemed to be in the making, but finally the clashing of their wills drove this very eligible house guest to take a luna's (overseer's) position at the then remote Ewa Plantation.' I remember seeing Andrew Adams last in 1934. He was then widely regarded as one of the handsomest white men in Honolulu, and in my opinion he was probably the haughtiest. Many wondered if Andrew's hauteur was a result of his having courted a royal princess. He spent his last years with' a Hawaiian wife of lesser alii lineage than Kaiulani, as master of picturesque House in the Garden on Upper Jack Lane, Nuuanu district. To my knowledge the only person with whom the dash-ing Andrew in later years reminisced about his lost love was her brother, Prince Thomas Alexander Kaulaahi Cleghorn.

My list of high-born Hawaiians whose death has been credited to a black sorcerer must include the colorful patriot Robert W. Wilcox.

Princess Theresa Owana, who had married Wilcox in 1896, had master-minded his final revolutionary attempt a year earlier. Theresa, last titled scion of the Kamehameha royal dynasty, lived until 1944 in a haunting aura of faded elegance and imperial fantasies, to her last days hinting darkly of her husband's death by a hireling of "the haole crowd." She maintained that he was too great a threat to haole supremacy to be allowed to live very long after annexation. In this opinion she is supported by Edith Kalanihiapo Moore, now eighty-two, who is the last surviving niece of the great revolutionary.

Colonel Robert W. Wilcox, whose father was a Yankee sea captain,

46 The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present and whose mother was a chiefess of elalted rank, had stern, romanesque features and would scarcely have been taken for a Hawaiian anywhere abroad. His stature was impressive, his carriage erect, his bearing grand.

Under the sponsorship of King Kalakaua he had graduated from the Royal Military Academy of Turin, Italy, as a sublieutenant of artillery.

After his marriage to Signorina Gina Sobrero of the noble House of Colonna di Stigliano ended in failure, the dashing lieutenant became for some time a favorite of Queen Liliuokalani. His next marriage was to Princess Theresa Owana Cartwright, whose Kamehameha lineage through the exalted High Chief Keoua gave her higher royal status than the Queen's.⁴

By birth, education, and temperament, Robert W. Wilcox was superbly fitted to be the liberator of his people. Although he lent his military genius to several unsuccessful coups, it may be said of him that he was the greatest revolutionary and popular hero of Hawaiian ancestry since Kamehameha the Great, who died in 1819. He was some-times called "the brown-skinned Toussaint L'Ouverture," but he much preferred the appellation of "Garibaldi," after the Italian revolutionary leader who was his alter ego while he was studying in Italy.

Colonel Wilcox's amours, which aroused the jealousy of many proud and willful ladies of the Iolani royal court, might have provoked a plot against his life. He also made many enemies in the House of Nobles, and among the masses of his own people as well. To this day it is not clear whether his political loyalty was to himself, to King Kalakaua, to Queen Liliuokalani, or, as some believe, to all three in degrees he never revealed.

One of the many paradoxes about R. W. Wilcox was that he had joined a number of prominent Hawaiians in support of the National Liberty Party, which advocated a republic and opposed the Queen's restoration. An obvious motive he could have had for opposing the Queen was his jealousy of Marshal Charles B. Wilson, a high-powered ex-blacksmith of English-Tahitian extraction who was generally held in contempt by the Hawaiians, who had dubbed him "King Bola Bola."

For some fifteen years Wilson had been Wilcox's chief rival for Her Royal Highness's attention."'

Wilcox had already stirred up certain Hawaiian malcontents at a meeting of the pro-Monarchial Society of the Hui Kalaiaina, on Decem-ber 4, 1891. At this time he defended his policies, which had been vehemently opposed by that devoted friend of Liliuokalani's, the able Mr. John Lot Kaulukou, by saying:

"To form a republic the point of a bayonet would be necessary; it would not be accomplished by idle talk. We must all be loyal Hawaiians and tell the Queen that her present government is an injustice and dis-grace to the nation."⁰

The Kahuna 4 7

Colonel Robert W. Wilcox served as Hawaii's first Delegate to the U S. Congress (1901-1902). He had spent most of 1903 planning an underground movement to throw off the yoke of American domination when he died suddenly, aged forty-eight. A native populace who idolized the colorful activist formed a vast procession behind the funeral cortege.⁷ During his brief illness the irrepressible rebel told his family that, in fulfillment of his recent premonition, he would not long survive. Many assumed that a kahuna spell was doing its deadly work. They recalled that, in 1810, when Kamehameha gave a feast to welcome the unconquered ruler of Kaua'i, Kaumualii, the great warrior's closest haole advisor, Isaac Davis, was poisoned by vengeful chiefs he had exposed as plotters against the life of Kaumualii. But the following story of her grandfather Robert Wilcox's death was given to the author by the High Chiefess Helena Salazar:

"This talk of kahuna praying my grandfather to death is untrue. That man had too much mana for any kahuna spell to touch him. They refer to a poison, perhaps popo au-huhu, a lethal dose of which was given to Isaac Davis, Kamehameha's trusted adviser, back in 1810. This ancient poisoning method was popular long afterward in the royal court circles.

"The truth of this matter is that Robert Wilcox, Prof. Fred Beckley, and Samuel Toomey were given ground glass at a banquet in the Alex-ander Young Hotel. These three men were then among the most able of our Hawaiian people, and certain powerful white Americans regarded them as serious threats to their supremacy.

"All three got very sick soon after dining, with terrible cramps and a bloody flux. Beckley, who was educated in medicine at Heidelberg, suspected the cause. He persuaded Samuel Toomey to go with him to the Queen's Hospital and get their stomachs pumped. But my grandfather thought there was no reason to take such a step. It was a fatal decision.

He died a few days later. Uncle Fred was turned into a W/e-hater by this affair. In fact he wrote a legislative bill that if passed, would have made Caucasian immigration to Hawaii illegal."

7 Six Prominent