Several weeks of weary warfare followed.
Kapawa was driven from refuge to refuge. All the district chiefs finally deserted him, and gave adherence to Paao.
The defeated king fled across the channel between the Islands of Hawaii and Maui.
He sought the Maui branch of the Ulu descendants, a discouraged and ruined king.
The legends say that here he died. His body was placed in the royal burial cave, in Iao Valley, back of the village Wailuku. The native custodians of this cave guard its secrets jealously. Probably [[77]]none of the white residents have seen its mysteries.
Thus the old royal family of Hawaii was overthrown, and the way prepared to introduce “Pili, the king, from a foreign land.”
Paao was afraid that the district chiefs would ask him for a high chief as soon as they should come together. Some of the chiefs had already said, “It may be the will of the gods that the high priest become the high chief also.”
But Paao knew the inherent reverence of the Polynesians for blood-royal. He knew his own power. He felt that his position as high priest was unassailable. He wanted no civil entanglements. He had managed through all the campaign, to surround himself with mysteries, and had gained unbounded influence through arousing superstitious fears as well as through warlike deeds.
The Hawaiian legends tell us Pili, a very high chief of Samoa, was persuaded by messengers from Paao to move to the islands of the north.
Pili journeyed with, what the legend called, a “cloud of boats.” It was an eleventh century migration of a small nation to a distant home.