Here is the account Liliuokalani herself gives of her adoption:
"I knew no other father or mother than my foster-parents, no other sister than Bernice. I used to climb up on the knees of Paki, put my arms around his neck, kiss him, and he caressed me as a father would his child; while, on the contrary, when I met my own parents, it was with perhaps more of interest, yet always with the demeanor I would have shown to any strangers who noticed me.
"My own father and mother had other children, ten in all, the most of them being adopted into other chiefs' families; and although I knew that these were my own brothers and sisters, yet we met throughout my younger life as though we had not known our common parentage.
"This was, and indeed is, in accordance with Hawaiian customs. It is not easy to explain its origin to those alien to our national life, but it seems perfectly natural to us.
"As intelligible a reason as can be given is that this alliance by adoption cemented the ties of friendship between the chiefs. It spread to the common people, and it has doubtless fostered a community of interest and harmony."
It is odd to think of a princess, even of an Hawaiian princess, as being educated, like other girls, in a school. But the school she attended was for those pupils only who had some claim on the succession to the throne.
Near-by, however, there was another school, where some of the children of American residents were educated. Among these was John O. Dominis, the son of a sea-captain of Italian descent, and whose mother was a Boston woman.
Young Dominis made the acquaintance of the future Queen by climbing over the wall and talking to the pupils of the Royal School, as it was called.
A number of years later, in 1862, Liliuokalani became his wife.
This long name, by the way, was not given her until 1877, when the heir to the throne died, and she became the next in succession to the reigning King Kalakaua.