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Even the fearless Kapiolani stood in awe as she looked. But she did not flinch, though here and there, as she walked, the crust of the lava cracked under her feet and the ground was hot with hidden fire. She came to the very edge of the crater. To come so far without offering hogs and fish to the fiery goddess was in itself enough to bring a fiery river of molten lava upon her.
At Honannau, Hawaii, two young girls of the highest rank, Kapiolani and Keoua, having been detected in the act of eating a banana, their kahu, or tutor, was held responsible, and put to death by drowning. Shortly before the abolition of the tabus, a little child had one of her eyes scooped out for the same offense.
Only four years before this, Kapiolani had according to the custom of the Hawaiian chieftainesses, married many husbands, and she had given way to drinking habits. Then she had become a Christian, giving up her drinking and sending away all her husbands save one. She had thrown away her idols and now taught the people in their huts the story of Christ.
"Pélé is nought," she declared, "I will go to Kilawea, the mountain of the fires where the smoke and stones go up, and Pélé shall not touch me. My God, Jehovah, made the mountain and the fires within it too, as He made us all." So it was noised through the island that Kapiolani, the queenly, would defy Pélé the goddess.
She is the granddaughter of the heroic Princess Kapiolani, who, when the worship and fear of the goddess Pélé were at their height, walked boldly up to the crater of Kilauea, in defiance of the warnings and threats of the high-priestess of the idolatrous rites, proclaiming her confidence in the power of her God, the God of the Christians, to preserve her.
Kapiolani offered nothing save defiance. Audacity, they thought, could go no further. Here, a priestess of Pélé came, and raising her hands in threat denounced death on the head of Kapiolani if she came further. Kapiolani pulled from her robe a book. In it for it was her New Testament she read to the priestess of the one true, loving Father-God.
Civilization once introduced, the way to Christianity was paved; and the chiefs with their wives setting the example, the mission was soon full of hopes for the future. The great women of the islands, when converted themselves, endeavored to propagate the truths of the Gospel; and amongst them, one of the most justly celebrated Christians was Kapiolani.
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