He had doubtless been promised prompt aid and a prompt
success; he had seen himself surreptitiously helped, privately ordered
about, and publicly disowned; and he was still the king of nothing more
than his own province, and already the second in command of Captain
Brandeis. With the adhesion of some part of his native cabinet, and
behind the back of his white minister, he found means to communicate with
the Hawaiians. A passage on the _Kaimiloa_, a pension, and a home in
Honolulu were the bribes proposed; and he seems to have been tempted. A
day was set for a secret interview. Poor, the Hawaiian secretary, and J.
D. Strong, an American painter attached to the embassy in the surprising
quality of "Government Artist," landed with a Samoan boat's-crew in Aana;
and while the secretary hid himself, according to agreement, in the
outlying home of an English settler, the artist (ostensibly bent on
photography) entered the headquarters of the rebel king. It was a great
day in Leulumoenga; three hundred recruits had come in, a feast was
cooking; and the photographer, in view of the native love of being
photographed, was made entirely welcome. But beneath the friendly
surface all were on the alert. The secret had leaked out: Weber beheld
his plans threatened in the root; Brandeis trembled for the possession of
his slave and sovereign; and the German vice-consul, Mr.
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