No. 13.
Interview with W. Porter Boyd,
consular cleric, Honolulu, Tuesday, June 13,
1893.
Q. Mr. Boyd, what is your occupation?
A. I am in the consular service.
Q. In what position?
A. I am a consular clerk and vice-consul-general at this place.
Q. Were you at your office on the 16th of January. 1893?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were you on the streets on that day?
A. Not until the afternoon about the time of the meeting.
Q. Where was the meeting held?
A. At the armory.
Q. Was there any signs of disturbance on the streets?
A. No, sir.
Q. Business going on as usual?
A. Yes, up to the time of the mass meeting, when they closed to go there.
Q. Women and children on the street as usual?
A. I think there were very few women and children about.
Q. Was there any excitement looking like disorder?
A. No; I do not think there was. I didn’t see any of that.
Q. Was there any suggestion of disorder except what might come from the movements of the committee of safety?
A. So far as I know there was not.
Q. What I wish to know—was there anything exciting the public mind except those events growing out of the movement of the committee of safety?
A. I should say there was not.
Q. Was there any indication of hostility manifested by the carrying of arms or threats on the part of what may be termed the royalists?
A. To my knowledge there was not.
Q. Did you attend the mass meeting?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. As an observer?
A. Yes.
Q. How many people do you suppose were there?
A. I should say from eleven to twelve hundred.
Q. Many Portuguese there?
A. I can not answer. I do not know.
Q. What did you understand to be the object of that mass meeting from what you saw and heard?
A. It was first to hear the report of that committee of thirteen, and then take other steps for the protection of the persons and property of citizens of the islands.
[Page 732]Q. What did you understand them to mean by the protection of the persons and property of citizens?
A. I understood that it was to prevent the change of the Constitution.
Q. Did you understand that it was to dethrone the Queen and set up another government?
A. That was not my understanding at the time.
Q. Was that the understanding in the community so far as you can gather from contact with people?
A. I should say that of the very pronounced annexationists that was their wish—that was their object—but whether this meeting was for that purpose I do not know.
Q. There was no expression in the crowd, so far as you could gather, containing the idea that this was a movement to dethrone the Queen and set up another government?
A. No, sir.
Q. Had you heard of any meeting of the committee of safety before that meeting?
A. I had heard that they had had meetings, and that they had a report to make.
Q. Did you hear what it was to be?
A. No, sir; and I do not believe any one else did.
Q. After the mass meeting, what did the people do? Did they go to work again that afternoon?
A. I think they did—I think the stores were open.
Q. Don’t you know?
A. No; but that is my impression now. On second thought I am sure that they opened their places again.
Q. Do you think that the crowd that came to that meeting and then went away and went back to their business had any impression that the Queen was going to be dethroned the next day?
A. I do not believe that they thought that. Everything was left in the hands of the committee. The mass meeting gave the thirteen power to go ahead and do what they thought best; and only that thirteen knew, so far as I can learn.
Q. But there was no mention that the power to do what they thought best went so far as to dethrone the Queen?
A. Not any further than the way they denounced the action of the Queen on the Saturday before.
Q. But would that indicate that they meant to dethrone her by denouncing her action?
A. Yes; it was my impression that it would be either that or she would remain on the throne under certain restrictions.
Q. Was there any excitement when the troops landed that evening other than that growing out of the fact of seeing troops landed?
A. Yes; of course much more than if troops had been landed as they have been before for drill.
Q. Were many people down at the wharf when they landed?
A. I do not think so. They did not seem to know until the troops were landed. Both central offices rang us up and asked us why the Boston troops were landed.
Q. Was it understood that they landed at the request of the committee of safety?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Why did the committee of safety want them to land if every thing was quiet?
[Page 733]A. They knew what they were going to do, and they feared some trouble or some interference in their plans.
Q. Now, was it understood, so far as you could gather by both annexationists and antiannexationists, that those troops were friendly to the movement of the committee of safety?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was it encouraging to one side and depressing to the other?
A. I should say it was—for the reason that it was at the request of this committee, and the others did not know what it was for.
Q. Did an tiannexationists seem to be depressed when they found the troops had been landed?
A. Yes.
Q. Were they apprehensive that they would be favorable to the other side?
A. I should say they were.
Q. Was this a continuing feeling up to the dethronement?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, Mr. Boyd, in view of what you have stated and what you observed that day, would you suppose that this feeling restrained action on the part of the Queen and her friends against the committee of safety?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you see Mr. Stevens on Monday, the 16th of January?
A. Yes.
Q. Had he been aboard the Boston?
A. I was told he had been there all afternoon.
Q. By whom?
A. Mr. Severance.
Q. How did Mr. Severance know it?
A. Mr. Stevens, I believe, had told him.
Q. Did he say what he was there for?
A. No, he didn’t.
Q. Was Mr. Stevens at the consulate?
A. Yes. He said the Boston boys were going to land and would detail a guard for the consulate.
Q. Had Mr. Severance any desire for it?
A. No; it was the first knowledge he had of it.
Q. Had you any uneasiness at the consulate-general?
A. None whatever.
Q. Did you hear anything from the telephone or otherwise in reference to the landing of the troops?
A. Only that they were landing, and asked why they were landed.
Q. Who asked?
A. The central office asked first.
Q. Did the people in the city make any inquiry?
A. Yes; some.
Q. Did it seem to be a surprise generally?
A. Yes.
Q. Was it a surprise to you?
A. It was.
Q. There was nothing in the city to indicate the need of military forces, so far as you could see?
A. Nothing, so far as I could see.
Q. Did you have any conversation with Judge Hart well January 14, 1893; did you hear any conversation between him and Lieut. Young?
A. Not further than that he said that something would drop about [Page 734] 3 o’clock, and asked if he was going to be aboard. He said all the officers will know.
Q. Are you sure that was on Saturday?
A. That was immediately after the prorogation on Saturday.
Q. Did Mr. Atherton say anything on the day of the proclamation dethroning the Queen? What did he say?
A. Mr. Draper, I think, Mr. Severance, and myself were with some others in the office, as was Capt. McCullough of the W. G. Irwin. We were all impatient. Everybody was anxious to know what was going to happen. He said something was going to happen about 3 or 4 [o’clock.]
Q. He didn’t say what it was?
A. No. I had no idea what it was. Of course I had some idea.
Q. Were you not thinking about dethronement?
A. Yes; I was.
Q. Is this Mr. Atherton the man in whose yard the Boston men stopped when they first landed?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. After they landed they went up by the palace?
A. Yes. The main body went on up to Atherton’s yard. They stopped there a few hours. It was after dark before they went back to Arion Hall—back of the opera house.
Q. Did Mr. Atherton seem to be satisfied over what was going to happen?
A. Yes. He seemed to be satisfied that everything was coming out as he wished.
Q. Any excitement on the street before the pistol shot?
A. No; just the ordinary crowds walking about.
Q. Did they seem to know what was going on?
A. No.
Q. Were the stores open?
A. Yes.
Q. Any ladies on the street?
A. Yery few.
Q. Any children?
A. I do not know that I noticed any children.
Q. What time did they close the stores?
A. They closed them when the report of the pistol was heard, so far as I remember.
Q. What did they do then?
A. They went out on the street, towards where the shot was fired.
Q. Did they go armed?
A. Not to my knowledge.
Q. As if they were going to fight, or only as if to see what was going on?
A. Just for curiosity.
Q. No manifestation of any hostile movement?
A. None whatever. A Mr. Paris, connected with the “Advertiser,” was our authority. We used to question him, and he used to tell us what was going on. In the afternoon he told us there were three different places where they were enlisting to support any movement the committee wished to make.
Q. Did those men who were enlisted have arms?
A. He didn’t say so, or where they were going to get them.
Q. Was that after the proclamation or before?
A. It was before.
[Page 735]Q. Did he say what they were enlisted for?
A. To carry their point. He did not say what it was.
I have read the foregoing and it is a correct report of my interview with Mr. Blount.