3-065-822 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Funeral of the King of the Sandwich Islands, 1874. Engraving from a sketch by Sub-Lieutenant H. J. Morgan, of H.M.S. Tenedos. 'William Charles Lunalilo...was thirty-nine years of age...The accomplishments and virtues of this Hawaiian Prince were, unhappily, marred by the habit of indulgence in spirituous liquors. The early end of his career, by an attack of consumption, is due to that unfortunate cause...The hearse, which was constructed for the occasion, and surmounted with a crown draped with crape, was drawn by four horses, also draped...in advance of it were ranged the kahili bearers, seventy-two in number, each bearing one of these ancient gaudy emblems of Royalty. These kahilis are all made of feathers, and in size vary from four to six feet in length and twelve to twenty inches in diameter...Some were made from the feathers of peacocks, tropical birds and parrots...but the finest were made of the small bright red and yellow feathers of the rare mountain birds of Hawaii. It was a fine sight to see these brilliant plumes borne on lofty poles, and swaying in the breeze, as the procession marched through the streets...[the coffin was deposited in a vault]...at the Royal mausoleum, a small Gothic building of stone, in Nuuanu Valley'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.