rather valuable words:
"The moment a chief concludes a bargain, he repeats the word Coocoo
thrice, with quickness, and is immediately answered by all the people
in his canoe with the word Whoah, pronounced in a tone of exclamation,
but with greater or less energy, in proportion as the bargain he has
made is approved."

The great and celebrated Kamehameha, who consolidated the government
of the islands, did it by an act of treachery and murder, thus told
in Alexander's history:

"The Assassination of Keoua.--Toward the end of the year 1791 two of
Kamehameha's chief counsellors, Kamanawa and Keaweaheulu, were sent
on an embassy to Keoua at Kahuku in Kau. Keoua's chief warrior urged
him to put them to death, which he indignantly refused to do.

"By smooth speeches and fair promises they persuaded him to go to
Kawaihae, and have an interview with Kamehameha, in order to put an end
to the war, which had lasted nine years. Accordingly he set out with
his most intimate friends and twenty-four rowers in his own double
canoe, accompanied by Keaweaheulu in another canoe, and followed by
friends and retainers in other canoes.

"As they approached the landing at Kawaihae, Keeaumoku surrounded
Keoua's canoe with a number of armed men. As Kamakau relates: 'Seeing
Kamehameha on the beach, Keoua called out to him, "Here I am," to which
he replied, "Rise up and come here, that we may know each other."'

"As Keoua was in the act of leaping ashore, Keeaumoku killed him
with a spear. All the men in Keoua's canoe and in the canoes of
his immediate company were slaughtered but one. But when the second
division approached, Kamehameha gave orders to stop the massacre. The
bodies of the slain were then laid upon the altar of Puukohola as an
offering to the blood-thirsty divinity Kukailimoku. That of Keoua had
been previously baked in an oven at the foot of the hill as a last
indignity. This treacherous murder made Kamehameha master of the whole
island of Hawaii, and was the first step toward the consolidation of
the group under one government."

This is one of those gentle proceedings of an amiable race, whose
massacre of Captain Cook has been so elaborately vindicated by alleged
exponents of civilization.

There is found the keynote of the grevious native government in
an incident of the date of 1841 by which "the foreign relations
of the government became involved with the schemes of a private
firm. The firm of Ladd & Co. had taken