Pua o Hawaii

Forth from her land to mine she goes,
The Island maid, the Island rose,
Light of heart and bright of face,
The daughter of a double race.

Her Islands here in southern sun
Shall mourn their Ka`iulani gone.
And I, in her dear banyan’s shade,
Look vainly for the little maid.

But our Scots Islands far away
Shall glitter with unwonted day,
And cast for once their tempest by
To smile in Ka`iulani’s eye.

These words were written by Ka'iulani's dear childhood friend, Robert Louis Stevenson, before she went away to school in England. There is a great deal of nonsense published both in print and on the internet about a romance between the two. This is all utterly baseless. Ka'iulani was 13 years old when Stevenson came to Hawaii with his family. He took a paternal interest in her and she was fascinated by his storytelling abilities. They said farewell four months after they met each other, and never would meet in person again. Stevenson passed away at his plantation in Samoa while Ka'iulani was still in Britain.