Princess Victoria Kaiulani

October 16 marks the 128th anniversary of Princess Victoria Kaiulani's birthday. She was the last hope of the Hawaiian monarchy, died never marrying and fulfilling her destiny to be Queen of Hawaii.

She was half-Hawaiian, only daughter of Princess Miriam Likelike who was a descendant of Kamehameha I। Her father was Archibald Cleghorn, a Honolulu businessman and horticulturist originally from Edinburgh, Scotland. Her mother's siblings were King Kalakaua who ruled Hawaii between 1874 to 1891 and Queen Liliuokalani who ruled between 1891 to 1893. King Kalakaua and his wife Queen Kapiolani were childless as was his sister Queen Liliuokalani and husband John Dominis. This placed the princess to be next in line to the monarchy.

Princess Kaiulani grew up at Ainahau, a beautiful private estate in Waikiki. The residence faced the ocean and the area was filled with lush tropical trees, shrubs, and flowers that Mr. Cleghorn cultivated. Jasmine was a favorite flower of Kaiulani as well as the peacocks that roamed throughout the gardens of Ainahau. One of her names was Princess of the Peacocks because she loved the pet birds and fed them from her hands. The word for peacock is pikake, which came to be the name for the flowers that the she loved.

In February 1887, her mother Likelike died leaving Princess Kaiulani saddened by the loss. She turned to her half-sister, Annie Cleghorn and her governess for comfort and companionship. In 1889, she met Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scottish poet whom she met through her father. He spent countless hours with the princess and her family talking and laughing under the banyan tree at Ainahau. Unfortunately, their friendship was brief as Kaiulani was preparing to leave for school in England. As a going away gift, Stevenson wrote her a poem to comfort and prepare her for the dreaded trip. It reads:

Forth from her land to mine she goes,
The island maid, the island rose,
Light of heart and bright of face,
The daughter of a double race.
Her islands here in southern sun
Shall mourn their Kaiulani gone,
And I, in her dear banyan's shade,
Look vainly for my little maid.
But our Scots islands far away
Shall glitter with unwonted day,
And cast for once their tempest by
To smile in Kaiulani's eye.

The poet and princess never met again and Stevenson died a few years later।

In 1891, Kaiulani's aunt, Queen Liliuokalani was proclaimed Queen and named Kaiulani next in line as heir. At this time, the Hawaiian islands were threatened by annexation to the United States. The annexation would allow Hawaiian sugar access to the huge American market which would be extremely lucrative for the Americans. Queen Liliuokalani on the other hand wanted to give native Hawaiians more power in their own land. However, this proved not to be the case as the monarchy was overthrown in 1893. Following the overthrow of the monarchy, Princess Kaiulani made a diplomatic visit to Washington to plead for the return of the government to her aunt. She was well received but left without making a difference in the political decisions of the U.S. government. In August 1898, Hawaii was officially annexed to the United States.

On March 6th, 1899 the following year, Princess Kaiulani died at the age of 23. She died from rheumatic fever, probably resulting from a riding trip in the rain.