dreams of Polynesian independence to find their own city in the hands of
a clique of white shopkeepers, and the great Gibson once again in gaol.
Yet the farce had not been quite without effect. It had encouraged the
natives for the moment, and it seems to have ruffled permanently the
temper of the Germans. So might a fly irritate Caesar.

The arrival of a mission from Hawaii would scarce affect the composure of
the courts of Europe. But in the eyes of Polynesians the little kingdom
occupies a place apart. It is there alone that men of their race enjoy
most of the advantages and all the pomp of independence; news of Hawaii
and descriptions of Honolulu are grateful topics in all parts of the
South Seas; and there is no better introduction than a photograph in
which the bearer shall be represented in company with Kalakaua. Laupepa
was, besides, sunk to the point at which an unfortunate begins to clutch
at straws, and he received the mission with delight. Letters were
exchanged between him and Kalakaua; a deed of confederation was signed,
17th February 1887, and the signature celebrated in the new house of the
Hawaiian embassy with some original ceremonies. Malietoa Laupepa came,
attended by his ministry, several hundred chiefs, two guards, and six
policemen. Always decent, he withdrew at an early hour; by those that
remained, all decency appears to have been forgotten; high chiefs were
seen to dance; and day found the house carpeted with slumbering grandees,
who must be roused, doctored with coffee, and sent home. As a first
chapter in the history of Polynesian Confederation, it was hardly
cheering, and Laupepa remarked to one of the embassy, with equal dignity
and sense: "If you have come here to teach my people to drink, I wish you
had stayed away."

The Germans looked on from the first with natural irritation that a power
of the powerlessness of Hawaii should thus profit by its undeniable