Kamehameha I (c. 1758–1819), known as Kamehameha the Great, was the Hawaiian chief who conquered and unified the islands into a single realm, founding the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the dynasty that ruled it for most of the nineteenth century. He is remembered both as a warrior who mastered newly arrived European arms and as a lawgiver whose kingdom outlived him.
On a raid in Puna, the chief's foot jammed in a lava reef and a terrified fisherman smashed a wooden paddle over his head. Years later, master of every island, Kamehameha had that same man dragged before him. Instead of killing him, he pardoned him and turned the beating into a law. Let the old, the women, and the children lie by the road in safety, it commanded. It was a rule of mercy laid down by the fiercest warlord the islands had ever known.