Page:American Diplomacy in the Orient - Foster (1903).djvu/398

 influential member of the native Roman Church. By his artful methods he gained the confidence of the king and was made the head of his government. He kept the amiable, but too convivial, monarch well supplied with money, and in other respects gratified his desires. He readily fell in with his ambitious views and dispatched the embassy to the Samoan king.

The solitary ship of the Hawaiian navy, the little Kaimiloa, was fitted out for the voyage, and carried to Samoa a half-caste native ambassador, with a secretary and the usual staff of a diplomatic mission. On arrival, after a voyage during which the crew mutinied on account of short rations, the embassy established itself in an extravagant style of living. The treaty of alliance was readily made, and was celebrated by a banquet given by the Hawaiians. As morning dawned the floor of the banquet hall was found covered with Samoan chiefs, who had to be carried to their homes. The comment of the Samoan king to one of the embassy was: " If you have come to teach my people to drink, I wish you had stayed away." The Kaimiloa was hypothecated to raise funds to get the embassy away from the islands, its departure being hastened by the jealousy of the Germans. On its return to Honolulu it found Gibson dismissed from office and in jail. His expulsion from the country soon followed. By such exploits and through such advisers Kalakaua's administration was much discredited by the better class of residents and in the United States.

During the sessions of the International American Conference at Washington in 1890, Congress adopted