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J. Webber del. I. Andrews. Sc.
A Hawaiian Chief.
KIANA:
A TRADITION OF HAWAII.
BY
JAMES J. JARVES,
Author of “History of the Hawaiian Islands,” “Parisian” and “Italian Sights,”
“Art-Hints,” &c., &c.
BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE:
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.
LONDON:
S. LOW, SON, AND COMPANY,
Ludgate Hill.
M DCCC LVII.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
James Munroe and Company,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE:
THURSTON AND TORRY, PRINTERS.
TO
HIS MAJESTY
ALEXANDER LIHOLIHO,
WHO NOW SO WORTHILY FILLS THE THRONE OF THE
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS,
AS
KAMEHAMEHA IV.,
THIS TRADITION OF HIS KINGDOM IS
RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as Fiction.Every emotion, thought, or action embodied into literaturehas been human experience at some time. We canimagine nothing within the laws of nature, but what hashad or may have an actual existence. A novel, therefore,but personifies the Truth. In giving a local interest toits actors, it introduces them to the reader through themedium of sympathies and passions, common to his ownheart, of reason intelligible to his own mind, or of moralsentiments that find an echo in his own soul. Its successdepends upon the skill and feeling with which the authorworks out his characters into a consistent whole—creatinga simple and effective unity out of his plot, locality,and motive. Still every reader likes to feel that the personswhose fates warm his interest in the pages of aromance, actually lived and were as tangibly human ashimself, and his degree of interest is apt to be in ratio tohis belief that they were real personages. I am glad,therefore, to be able to assure my readers of the followingfacts.
In my youth I spent several years in different parts ofthe Pacific Ocean, but chiefly at the Sandwich or Hawaiian...