of the Chamberlains of the
Court, save that the buttons bear the impress of the Royal Crown."
The attack made by Great Britain and Brazil upon the independence of the
principality, while it left Harden-Hickey in the position of a king in
exile, brought him at once another crown, which, by those who offered
it to him, was described as of incomparably greater value than that of
Trinidad.
In the first instance the man had sought the throne; in this case the
throne sought the man.
In 1893 in San Francisco, Ralston J. Markowe, a lawyer and a one-time
officer of artillery in the United States army, gained renown as one
of the Morrow filibustering expedition which attempted to overthrow the
Dole government in the Hawaiian Isles and restore to the throne Queen
Liliuokalani. In San Francisco Markowe was nicknamed the "Prince of
Honolulu," as it was understood, should Liliuokalani regain her
crown, he would be rewarded with some high office. But in the star
of Liliuokalani, Markowe apparently lost faith, and thought he saw
in Harden-Hickey timber more suitable for king-making. Accordingly,
twenty-four days after the "protest" was sent to our State Department,
Markowe switched his allegiance to Harden-Hickey, and to him addressed
the following letter:
"SAN FRANCISCO, August 26, 1895.
BARON HARDEN-HICKEY, LOS ANGELES, CAL.:
"Monseigneur--Your favor of August 16 has been received.
"1. I am the duly authorized agent of the Royalist party in so far as
it is possible for any one to occupy that position under existing
circumstances. With the Queen in prison and absolutely cut off from
all communication with her friends, it is out of the question for me to
carry anything like formal credentials.
"2. Alienating any part of the territory cannot give rise to any
constitutional questions, for the reason that the constitutions, like
the land tenures, are in a state of such utter confusion that only a
strong hand can unravel them, and the restoration will result in the
establishment of a strong military government. If I go down with the
expedition I have organized I shall be in full control of the situation
and in a position to carry out all my contracts.
"3. It is the island of Kauai on which I propose to establish you as an
independent sovereign.
"4. My plan is to successively occupy all the islands, leaving the
capital to the last. When the others have fallen, the capital, being cut
off from all its resources, will b
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