the _Dublin_ frigate,
carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Thomas, entered the harbour of Honolulu.
The excitement that her sudden appearance produced on shore was
prodigious. Three days after her arrival an English sailor hauled down the
red cross which had been flying from the heights of the fort, and the
Hawaiian colours were again displayed upon the same staff. At the same
moment the long 42-pounders upon Punchbowl Hill opened their iron throats
in triumphant reply to the thunders of the five men-of-war in the harbour;
and King Kammahammaha III, surrounded by a splendid group of British and
American officers, unfurled the royal standard to assembled thousands of
his subjects, who, attracted by the imposing military display of the
foreigners, had flocked to witness the formal restoration of the islands
to their ancient rulers.

The admiral, after sanctioning the proceedings of his subaltern, had
brought the authorities to terms; and so removed the necessity of acting
any longer under the provisional cession.

The event was made an occasion of riotous rejoicing by the king and the
principal chiefs, who easily secured a display of enthusiasm from the
inferior orders, by remitting for a time the accustomed severity of the
laws. Royal proclamations in English and Hawaiian were placarded in the
streets of Honolulu, and posted up in the more populous villages of the
group, in which His Majesty announced to his loving subjects the
re-establishment of his throne, and called upon them to celebrate it by
breaking through all moral, legal, and religious restraint for ten
consecutive days, during which time all the laws of the land were solemnly
declared to be suspended.

Who that happened to be at Honolulu during those ten memorable days will
ever forget them! The spectacle of universal broad-day debauchery, which
was then exhibited, beggars description. The natives of the surrounding
islands flocked to Honolulu by hundreds, and the crews of two frigates,
opportunely let loose like so many demons to swell the heathenish uproar,
gave the crowning flourish to the scene. It was a sort of Polynesian
saturnalia. Deeds too atrocious to be mentioned were done at noon-day in
the open street, and some of the islanders, caught in the very act of
stealing from the foreigners, were, on being taken to the fort by the
aggrieved party, suffered immediately to go at large and to retain the
stolen property--Kekuanoa informing the white men, with