Booth had an engagement to play in that distant section, and with
five members, the nucleus of a company, started from San Francisco.
They had occasion to stop at Honolulu en route. The stop there
being longer than originally anticipated, and the news of his
arrival having spread, King Kamehameha sent a request that he give
a performance of "Richard III" in the local theater. In spite of
managerial difficulties, Booth (being then a young man, ardent and
ambitious) sought to give a semblance with the scanty material at
hand, of a fair performance. He had to secure the cooperation of
members of the local amateur company. The best he was enabled to
do for the part of Queen Elizabeth was an actor, short in stature,
defective in speech and accent, but earnest in temperament, whom
he cast for this eminent role. The other parts were filled as
best he could, and the principals with him enabled Mr. Booth to
give some semblance of a decent performance. In order to properly
advertise the event, he secured the assistance of several Hawaiians,
and furnished them with a paste made out of their native product
called "poi." He discovered later, to his amazement, that not
a bill had been posted, and that the "poi," being a valuable food
article, had been appropriated by the two individuals, who decamped.
Mr. Booth, with his colleagues, then personally posted the town
with the bills of the impending performance. On the evening the
house was crowded. The King occupied a seat in the wings, there
being no place for him in the hall. When the throne scene was to
be set for the play, word was sent to His Majesty humbly asking
the loan of the throne chair, which he then occupied, for use in
the scene--a favor which His Royal Highness readily granted. At
the end of the performance, word was brought to Booth that the King
wished to see him. Booth, shy and modest as he was, and feeling
that he could not speak the language, or that His Royal Highness