104 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.

barsts send down their valleys to devastate their culti-vated fields. The scope of this sketch will not admit ofmore than an allusion to the chief events of his reign:his expensive journey around the world, his costly coro-nation nine years after his accession to the throne, hiscoinage of a million dollars at an expense of$150,000,his scheme for a sort of empire of the Pacific, his promo-tion of the traffic in ardent spirits and opium, and his fre-quent arbitrary changes of his cabinet, which gave it thename of being““ kaleidoscopic.”

Through all the changes of his cabinet one ministerwas retained, Walter M. Gibson . He had gone to theislands as an emissary of Brigham Young and had en-riched himself by Mormonism , and afterwards renouncedthat irreligion and had been excommunicated by the Lat­ ter-day Saints ,‘‘handed over to Satan, to be buffettedfor a thousand years,” because he would not return athousand dollars lent to him by Brigham Young . Heposed as the friend of the Polynesian race against thewhite people, and thereby got himself elected to thelegislature, and finally to the leadership of the king'scabinet, and for many years aided the king.in his prodi-gality and usurpations.

The worst influences of Kalakaua were exerted todemoralize the churches, the only remaining bulwarkagainst his corrupt measures. The faithful pastors ofthese churches found their influence counteracted bysorcerers who were employed by the king, and theirsupport cut off through the exertions of governmentofficials, while large offers of help were made if they