Page 51 of The Last Kingdom

Kalakaua laughed. “I suppose he does. As much as your creditors own you. But I face a much graver danger than a greedy merchant. Three thousand Americans handle all of the money, carry on all of the commerce and agriculture, and dominate the religion and education of my lands. On the one hand they bring order, wealth, and prosperity. But onanother they want it all for themselves. My fear is that they may well succeed. Thankfully, my family’s hold on power depends solely on my naming a designated heir.”

Exactly as von Löher had reported.

Once chosen, that person inherited it all, without question.

A sadness filled Kalakaua’s brown face. “We once had a bird, the mamo. A lovely creature. My ancestors would lay snares to catch them. Once caught, they carefully plucked out only the golden feathers. There are but a few on each bird, right behind the wing, among its many black feathers. Once those features were removed, though, the birds were released back to the wild to live, reproduce, and make more golden feathers. It took eighty thousand golden feathers to create one cloak for the chiefs. What a magnificent garment. I own one. But not with feathers from birds that still exist. The foreigners brought in a horrible little animal called a mongoose to control the rats in the sugarcane fields. The mongooses eat the mamo’s eggs. The birds are now nearly all gone.”

He did not know what to say.

“My kingdom is likewise disappearing,” Kalakaua said. “Sugarcane, cattle ranching, and pineapple plantations are replacing the taro patches, fish ponds, and forest. I have traveled to the American capital and met with presidents. I saw it in their eyes. They want my islands. They want free tariffs on goods in and out. They want to use one of my bays, a place we call Pearl Harbor, as a military outpost. To obtain these concessions, they ridicule me in their press. Insult me and my people. One newspaper called my home a playhouse kingdom.”

He shook his head. “That is insulting.”

“To say the least. These people who live on my land have high-handed ideas of taking my property, as if it were theirs. The American newspapers call me ambitious. Dangerously flighty. Capable of being manipulated by merchants and planters. They arrogantly think that I wish to sell my kingdom. What they do not realize is I have no intention of doing that. I prefer instead to give it away.”

Chapter 27

COTTON WAS IMPRESSED AT MARC FENN’S KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY.He doubted many Americans knew how the fiftieth state came to be.

“Within two days of the 1893 overthrow, every nation with a diplomatic presence in Hawaii, except for the United Kingdom, recognized the new provisional government,” Fenn said. “The arrogant usurpers officially declared the Republic of Hawaii on July 4, 1894.”

He was curious. “The Hawaiians did not retaliate?”

“Oh, they did. With a four-day uprising in January 1895 intent on restoring the monarchy. Blood was shed, but it failed. Poor Queen Lili’uokalani was arrested again, this time tried by a military tribunal, convicted of treason, and imprisoned in her own home. It was then she abdicated, formally ending the Hawaiian monarchy.”

He had to admit, this subject fascinated him. The first adult fiction novel he’d ever read, at age sixteen, wasHawaiiby James Michener. He loved Michener’s work. He was his favorite author. He recalled the massive epic spanning the centuries, recounting in story form the arrival of the Polynesians, the missionaries, the Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos who all came and left their mark. The book had been published in 1959, at the same time that statehood was granted.

“When the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy occurred, to his credit, President Grover Cleveland called for an investigation,” Fenn said. “A congressional report concluded the United States diplomatic and military representatives had abused their authority and were directly responsible for the change in government. The American minister was recalled and your military commander there was forced to resign. Cleveland stated publicly that a substantial wrong had been done, which should be undone. He told Congress in his 1893 State of the Union address that ‘upon the facts developed it seemed to me the only honorable course for our Government to pursue was to undo the wrong that had been done by those representing us and to restore as far as practicable the status existing at the time of our forcible intervention.’ Of course, that did not happen. Instead, the islands were brought within the American sphere, and annexed by the next president, McKinley, in 1898.”

“Like I said, not our finest moment.”

“And then there was the apology,” Fenn said.

That he knew a little about. In 1993, on the one hundredth anniversary of the overthrow, Congress passed a resolution offering an apology to native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States for its involvement in the overthrow.

“The Apology Resolution,” Fenn said. “Signed by your President Clinton. It acknowledged that the overthrow happened with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States. Quite an admission for America. It then went further and said that the native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished any of their claims of sovereignty. Instead, they were simply taken away.”

“And the point of all this?”

“It’s quite simple, Herr Malone. In the early morning hours of August 8, 1881, at Altach, near the cold waters of the Walchensee, a deed was executed in proper legal form whereby King David Kalakaua of Hawaii deeded away his kingdom to Ludwig II.”

“So what if he did? A lot has happened since that deed was executed. As you say, a coup d’état occurred in Hawaii and Bavaria ceased to be independent.”

“But the Apology Resolution contained a curious clause. Section 1, paragraph 6. Let me read it to you.” Fenn stood and walked over to his desk where he lifted a sheet of paper. “‘The Congress validates any and all actions and decisions by the kingdom of Hawaii that occurred prior to January 17, 1893, as legitimate and lawful, with nothing that occurred during the illegal overthrow to affect those actions in any manner whatsoever.’ This language implements what Grover Cleveland said in 1893, that ‘the only honorable course for our Government to pursue was to undo the wrong that had been done by those representing us and to restore as far as practicable the status existing at the time of our forcible intervention.’”

Now he saw the point.

“The king of Hawaii owned the islands in their entirety,” Fenn said. “The land was his. Whatever he had sold to third parties prior to that night in 1881 was conveyed and gone. But whatever remained as of the date of the deed was conveyed to Ludwig. We’ve checked. That was a substantial part of the Hawaiian Islands. The vast majority of the land, in fact. So if Kalakaua deeded away his kingdom then, under Hawaiian law that existed at the time, that deed takes precedence.”

His mind quickly filled in the gaps with what little Koger had told him.

“Bavaria ceased to be a kingdom and became part of the Weimar Republic in 1918,” Fenn said. “All claims and ownership, along with any claims the Wittelsbachs may have had, were transferred to the republic, all of which was ultimately seized by the Third Reich. Then, after the war, those claims were vested in the new Federal Republic of Germany, where they have remained. The current German government would now be the valid successor in interest to any deed that may have existed between Ludwig II and King Kalakaua. At a minimum, even if that claim is deemed dubious, the current Duke of Bavaria would clearly be that successor.”

He could not believe what he was hearing. “We’re after a hundred-and-forty-year-old deed?”

Fenn nodded. “One that meant little to nothing until the mid-twentieth century. The Nazis knew about the last kingdom and they searched for the deed. They wanted to use it as a bargaining chip with the Japanese, who wanted ownership of the Hawaiian Islands. But they found nothing. The Allies, after the war ended, searched for a while too. But found nothing. Now Prince Stefan of Bavaria is on the hunt.”

“To do what?”

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