ifferent islands were independent of each other
and governed by separate kings, who were often at war one with the
other; indeed there were sometimes several independent kingdoms within
the same island. But towards the close of the eighteenth century an
energetic and able king of Hawaii, by name Kamehameha (Tamehameha),
succeeded in extending his sway by conquest over the whole archipelago,
and at his death in 1819 he bequeathed the undivided monarchy to his
successors.[16]

[15] U. Lisiansky, _op. cit._ pp. 116 _sq._; A. Campbell, _op.
cit._ pp. 169 _sq._; W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 411 _sq._; C. S.
Stewart, _Residence in the Sandwich Islands_, p. 102; Tyerman
and Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 380; J. J. Jarves, _op. cit._ pp. 30
_sqq._ According to Jarves (_op. cit._ p. 33), "Rank was
hereditary, and descended chiefly from the females, who
frequently held the reins of government in their own right. This
custom originated in the great license existing between the
sexes; no child, with certainty, being able to designate his
father, while no mistake could be made in regard to the mother."

[16] C. S. Stewart, _Residence in the Sandwich Islands_, p. 101;
J. J. Jarves, _op. cit._ p. 30; J. Remy, _op. cit._ pp. lxi
_sq._; _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 9th Edition, xi. 528.

The whole body of chiefs fell into three classes or ranks. The first
included the royal family and all who were intimately connected with it.
The second included such as held hereditary offices of power or
governorships of islands, after the time when the whole archipelago was
united in a single kingdom. The third class embraced the rulers of
districts, the headmen of villages, and all inferior chiefs. The members
of the first two classes were usually called "high chiefs"; they were
few in number and closely related both by blood and marriage. The
members of the third class were known as "small" or "low" chiefs. They
were by far the most numerous body of chiefs in any island, and were
generally called _haku aina_ or landowners, though strictly speaking the
king was acknowledged in every island as the supreme lord and proprietor
of the soil by hereditary right or the law of conquest. When Kamehameha
had subdued the greater part of the islands, he distributed them among
his favourite chiefs and warriors on condition of their rendering him
not only military service, but a certain proportion of the produce of
their