tamehameha

Updated: May 18, 2025

From the time that Captain Cook was killed on their shores, they had been looked on as among the most savage of the people of the Pacific. The Sandwich Islands, the largest of which is Hawaii, were ruled by a chief of great talent, who had made himself king of the whole group, and was called Tamehameha the First.

William Henry Giles Kingston - Ben Hadden: or, Do Right Whatever Comes Of It

Wiley afterwards remarked to me: 'We do things in a humble way, ye'll obsairve; but royalty is royalty all over the world, and His Majesty Tamehameha is as much Keng of his ain domeenions as Victoria is Queen of Breetain. The relativity of greatness was not to be denied. The men Kanakas, as they are called are fine stalwart fellows above our average height.

Henry J. (Henry John) Coke - Tracks of a Rolling Stone

The Consul carried the day; but the Scot, not to be beaten, informed Tamehameha, in a long prefatory oration, of the object of the ceremony. His Majesty, who did not understand a word of English, or Scotch, looked grave and held tight to the arm of the throne; for the truth is, that although he had relinquished his bottle for the hour, he had brought its contents with him.

Henry J. (Henry John) Coke - Tracks of a Rolling Stone

So far as the natives go, the change will assuredly have been for the worse; for the aborigines, in all parts of the world, lose their primitive simplicity and soon acquire the worst vices of civilisation. Even King Tamehameha III. was not innocent of one of them.

Henry J. (Henry John) Coke - Tracks of a Rolling Stone