AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE.

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the abandonment of the Islands by Europeans and Americans, or their permanent absorption by some stronger and stable power. Whether this is destined to be Japan, England, or the United States time and legislation will decide.

LONDON, December 1897.

M. H. K.

HAWAII AND A REVOLUTION.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIRST IMPULSE.

N 1892, in the course of a conversation with a

IN

friend who had recently returned from the Hawaiian Islands, it was remarked that a revolution, with a demand for annexation to the United States, was impending. At the time of his visit there was apparent tranquillity; but those who were capable of forecasting the future, basing their prophecies upon past history, were of the opinion that the crisis might come at any moment. The people might go to bed at night, and in the morning wake to confront revolution and anarchy and find themselves without a government.

So far as it was destined to influence my personal movements within the four years that followed, the speech was a momentous one. It meant thousands of miles of travel by land and sea, hours and days

1

and weeks of arduous and responsible toil, conferences with personages in exalted places, interviews with heads of governments, and, mingled with these rapid changes of time and place, harrowing anxiety and racking and protracted physical pain. It will be impossible to write of it impersonally, so indulgence must be craved for the recurrence of the personal pronoun.

With the natural instinct of a "newspaper woman” - which is the preferred American substitute for the more polite English term "lady journalist”—I was immediately inspired with an ardent desire to be present when the crisis came. This was not the gratification of a nature disposed to bloodshed and violence, but the realisation of the professional opportunity to be the one special correspondent in the field. With this was a more creditable desire to witness the actual making of history, the evolution of a people from a semi-barbarous monarchy to a state of intelligent and rational self-government.

My friend took his leave, and forgot all about his speech. For more than a year I brooded over it, and never ceased to plan and devise ways and means of carrying my plans into effect. To be there prior to prospective revolution, and so able to give an accurate résumé of the causes which led to it, or, better still, at the time, became the only thing in life worth living for. It might have seemed an altogether hopeless ambition to a woman of very limited

1892.]

A NEWSPAPER MANAGER.

35

means and of uncertain health, but it was never relinquished.

Finally, a gentleman of great wealth, of reputed public spirit and enterprise, assumed control of the paper upon whose staff I had been employed for some years, and in him I believed I had found a sympathising friend and a congenial spirit.

One afternoon early in September 1892 I plucked up courage and invaded his private office, resolving to make a confession of my astonishing project, feeling almost confident of his approval. It was a luxurious office, a contrast to the sooty den to which he had relegated me shortly after taking possession. He did not ask me to be seated a courtesy which was never forgotten by his elders and his betters in the staff — and, without apology, he interrupted the interview from time to time to carry on a conversation over the telephone with the members of his household some miles away.

His incivility was in a measure pardonable; and although the accurate account of it is necessary to the completeness of this record, I do not bear him the slightest grudge on that account. It was apparently a most foolish proposition — especially to one who was not a profound student of history. There was not the slightest breath of rumour at that time which could indicate any disturbance of Hawaiian political affairs. A little mild disturbance, half riot, half insurrection-well, yes, that would be as natural