Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/145

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Northwest Trader Hawaiian Islands 125 The latter part of this statement has to do with events which will be referred to later. We do not know what Captain Brown's "flattering promises" were which failed of fulfillment, but from Mr. Greatheed's account it is made to appear that Brown gave very substantial aid to Kalanikupule in the present emergency. Some details in reference to the fighting have been preserved. It is probable that in the early stages of the campaign Captain Brown furnished only guns and am- munition, but as the forces of Kaeo came nearer the har- bor and threatened, if they prevailed, to attack the ships, Capt. B. consulted his people, and Mr. Geo. Lamport, mate of the Jackall, with eight others, agreed to join Taetere's [Kalanikupule's] forces, to repulse the enemy. In the first engagement the natives de- serted them, and one of the English was killed, and the rest narrowly escaped to the canoes. Sev- eral actions afterwards took place, but on the 12th December they obtained a complete victory, with great slaughter, and returned the 13th, after six days absence from the ships. 32 Kamakau gives the arrangement of the armies in the final battle, and says that Captain Brown and his men were in boats along the shore. They thus occupied the left wing of Kalanikupule's line of battle and were able to throw a flanking fire into Kaeo's army. The same authority says that the fighting was very severe, and that Kaeo would have escaped had not his brilliant ahuulu (red feather cloak) given him away. In the meantime, while the campaign was in progress, another vessel, the American brig Lady Washington, in command of Captain John Kendrick, came into the har- bor of Fairhaven and cast anchor near the two English been made by Kahekili to Captain Brown the preceding year. Whatever the transaction was, it is entirely probable that it meant one thing to Brown and quite a different thing to the Hawaiian chief. This will be clear to anyone who has studied the discussions evoked by Kamehameha's cession of the island of Hawaii to England through Vancouver. 32 Greatheed.