First published in 2001. This incredible journey began in 1887 and took King Kalakaua to the Unites States of America, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Siam, Singapore, Malaya. India. Egypt, Rome, London~ Belgium, Vienna, Spain, Portugal, France, and back to Hawaii through the United States again. A unique and insightful glimpse into these states and elites at the end of the nineteenth century full of fascinating events~ encounters and stories.
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First published in 2001. This incredible journey began in 1887 and took King Kalakaua to the Unites States of America, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Siam, Singapore, Malaya. India. Egypt, Rome, London~ Belgium, Vienna, Spain, Portugal, France, and back to Hawaii through the United States again. A unique and insightful glimpse into these states and elites at the end of the nineteenth century full of fascinating events~ encounters and stories.
Read Less
The true story of the last Hawaiian king's journey (girdle) around the globe is an often fascinating and frequently frustrating account of David Kalakaua's quest for sugar plantation workers, as well as his own intellectual curiosity fulfillment. Fascinating as he is greeted by many of the nations visited as the monarch of a sovereign nation and generally welcomed with pomp and circumstance worthy of a visitor from afar, but frustrating as the narrator of the story, William Armstrong, has little patience nor respect for the Polynesian monarch he serves. Sadly the attitude of the narrator mirrors the general attitude of the missionaries and business men who would eventually open the doors to throw the monarchy and usher in annexation. Nevertheless David Kalakaua is an intriguing character and the book has so many moments of visual stimuli - the greetings in Japan, at the beginning, are stunning, as is the instant love as Siam as ?home?--I found myself casting it as a movie (starring Forest Whitaker as the King, directed by Terence Malick or Jim Jarmusch...). For those interested in travel or Hawaiian history you won?t be disappointed with this true story about the first monarch ever to navigate the globe.
