In 1848 the Cooke’s closed the Royal School to enter into business. Liliu and her brother David Kalakaua (future King) continued their schooling with tutors. Liliu lived with Paki and Konia at Haleakala in Honolulu. The name meant House of Fire, and this was the home which Liliu dearly loved. Located on a vast estate, Haleakala was decorated with both imported furnishings, and a collection of Hawaiian antiques. Liliu was always drawn to the tapas, the feathered capes, and necklaces of animal teeth, her Hawaiian heritage. The Hawaii she had known as a small child was changing, as more and more foreigners brought their culture and values with them, supplanting the old Hawaiian culture and way of life.[i] The increasing influence of foreigners, especially Americans, would eventually lead to the downfall of the Hawaiian monarchy, but that part of Liliuokalani’s story is yet to come…
Liliu attended Beckwith School, run by the Beckwith brothers, as a day student, beginning in 1848. She was an enthusiastic student, hungry for knowledge. She was especially interested in codes and deciphering. She enjoyed learning Greek, precisely because she looked at it as a fascinating code to be deciphered. She also was caught up in the myths and legends of the Greek gods and goddesses. Her interest in codes lasted throughout her life. According to Helena Allen, her later diaries were written in “two different numerical codes.”[ii]
[i] Helena G. Allen, The Betrayal of Lili’uokalani, Last Queen of Hawaii 1838-1917 (Arthur H. Clark Company: Glendale, 1982), 70.
[ii] Allen, 76.
