and who was the
ancestor of the great Kamehameha, reigned tranquilly and died lamented.

The Japanese Sword

More than two centuries before Columbus reached America on its Atlantic
side a Japanese junk visited the western shore. The tradition is too
vague to specify whether the navigators attempted a landing or not,
but as their boat was small and could not have been provisioned for a
voyage of thousands of miles, it is probable that they took on fresh
supplies of food and water before they put about and started on the
homeward journey. They never saw Japan again, for their vessel went
to wreck on Maui, whose king personally rescued five of them,--three
men and two women. This was the second appearance in the Hawaiian
islands of "white people with shining eyes." When the captain of the
junk reached the shore he still carried the keen sword of steel he had
girded on in the expectation of an attack from savages. There was no
attack. He and his mates were received with kindness, and provided with
houses, although they shocked the multitude by their ignorance of the
taboo, the men and women eating from the same dishes. It was explained
that their gods were poor, half-enlightened creatures, and that it was
as well to let them alone until they should learn truth and manners.

In time these castaways took Mauians to husband and wife, the
captain's sister marrying the king himself, but the captain was held in
superstitious reverence because of his sword. The natives had daggers,
knives, axes, adzes, hammers, and spears of stone, bone, shark teeth,
and fire-hardened wood, but metals were unknown to them, and this long,
glittering blade, that cut a javelin stem as the javelin would crack
a rib, was a daily wonder. It was the common belief on that island
that whoever wielded the weapon would win a victory, though his
enemies should be thousands in number. This belief was comforting,
but it did not last, for Kalaunui, king of Hawaii, undertook in the
year 1260 the subjugation of the whole group, and although his force
was defeated with great slaughter on Kauai, he had subdued Maui,
Oahu, and Molokai, for the time being, with his fleet of two thousand
well-manned, well-armed canoes.

In the great fight on Maui the Japanese warrior fought to the last,
but was struck down by a Hawaiian captain, one Kaulu, who buried the
precious sword on the spot where he had taken it, and recovered it
by starlight. Knowing that the kin