Kiana: a Tradition of Hawaii

by James Jackson Jarves

Olmedo, seeing the unfortunate turn Beatrix’s endeavor to save him was taking, here interposed, as a new idea suggested itself, saying, “Calm yourselves and listen to me. If these good men,” speaking of his guards, “will consent, we can be all saved.”

“How! What do you propose? I will answer for my people,” eagerly exclaimed Liliha.

“Then let us all fly at once, taking the shortest and safest route to Kiana’s territory. Some of you must know the country well. He will reward you all to the extent of your desires, and protect you from the vengeance of your chief.”

“And leave my father! What will he think of me? I must not forsake him,” said Liliha, with a filial firmness that threatened to extinguish the last hope of rescue for Beatriz.

“It will be but for a short time, noble maiden,” urged Olmedo. “He will pardon you for an act of mercy—for saving the life of your friend and sister. You have gone so far that there is safety in no other course. Finish your merciful work, my daughter, and the blessings of the God of the Christian will ever attend you, and his holy saints have you always in their keeping. The Great God wills it. Your heart is too tender to leave her to suffer so cruelly from the malice of a stranger to your race and ours. Your women, too; think of them; their visit here cannot long be concealed. As soon as it is known, they will be inhumanly tortured, and sacrificed to demons. Would you have the blood of all these upon your head? No. Your father will not blame you.”

“The stranger priest speaks well,” interposed Umi, the captain of the guards, glad of an opportunity to desert the service of Pohaku for that of Kiana, and seeing in this affair an occasion to recommend himself to that chieftain. “By sunrise we can reach the territories of Kiana if we start now. I know a city of refuge near the frontier, where we can be in safety until he comes to our rescue. Let us go at once.”

“For my sake, for the love you bear your father, save mine,” pleaded Beatriz, embracing her.

The women and guards added their entreaties, so that Liliha hesitated no longer. “Be it so,” said she, “I yield for your sakes, but my heart misgives me for deserting my father.” But there was no time for further indecision, so they bore her half-reluctantly forward, leaving the heiau by the gate farthest from the fortress, fortunately meeting no one. It wanted an hour and a half of midnight. The moon rose as they reached a path that skirted the crater on its northern side. By its light they made tolerably quick progress over the rough country, in the direction of the eastern shore of Hawaii.

They had been gone about three hours, when Tolta walked once more towards the heiau, desirous of seeing his captive again before he was wholly given up to Hewahewa, for the terrible rites of the dawning festival. Surprised and angry at finding the temple wholly deserted, his first thought was, that the guards and priests, whose duty required them to have been there at that hour, had left their captive and gone to indulge in the orgies at the fort. He searched everywhere without finding a trace of Olmedo, and was on the point of going back to seek Hewahewa, and demand why the prisoner had been removed, when he saw something bright lying on the ground, close by the gate farthest from Pohaku’s quarters. Picking it up he recognized the well-known rosary of Beatriz. Immediately the misgiving crossed his mind that by some means he was unable to account for, she had been able to release Olmedo, and they had fled. Alone and unassisted, such a deed was impossible. She must, therefore, have secured aid from some one, able either to overawe or bribe those who had the custody of Olmedo. His suspicion fell at once upon Hewahewa. “He seeks to ingratiate himself with Kiana,” thought he, “by revealing the plot and restoring the prisoners. But why? What motive can there be for such a step, when our joint plans were so nigh success?” Confiding his discovery to no one, he went back to the fortress, hoping that he might find Hewahewa, and learn from him that he was wrong in his conjecture. He was as unsuccessful in getting tidings of him as of Olmedo. Doubt now ripened into certainty, and he felt sure that Hewahewa had not only released the prisoners, but accompanied them in their flight. “The traitor, does he think to foil me thus? I will have his head and one rival the less. I never liked his ominous silence,—his thought is as secret as the grave. But they cannot have gone far. I must pursue and capture them before this gets to the ears of Pohaku. Caught in the act, he will then be sure not to spare even his favorite priest. Beatriz must still be kept from his sight. The war once begun, he will hence have enough to glut his passions without thinking of the white woman. It will go hard with me if some lucky blow may not put an end to him. Then, Tolta, you are supreme.”

So musing, pleased at the opportunity that offered for catching Hewahewa in the same net which he had been spreading, and not doubting but that in a few hours he should return successful from the pursuit, he apprised his most trusty partisans that he had need of their services, and without letting them know his object until fairly upon the road, he made all possible haste to come up with the fugitives. Trained to forest warfare, his men once upon the route found no difficulty in tracking, even by the uncertain light of the moon, the party in advance, whose progress, encumbered as it was with women, was necessarily much slower than their own.