Island Tales / On the Makaloa Mat

In Short

Jack London’s final short story collection offers a vivid, mature portrait of early twentieth-century Hawaii in the throes of transformation. Set across lush ocean estates, remote valleys, and Honolulu drawing rooms, these tales follow aging chieftains, wealthy planters, dynamic women, and cunning traders navigating the overlap of indigenous heritage and American influence. London abandons his earlier brute survivalism for a introspective look at legacy, memory, social hypocrisy, and the enduring power of myth. The book endures because it captures a pivotal historical threshold with sharp social detail, irony, and deep affection for the islands and their people.

The Story

The narrative arc of the collection shifts steadily from the twilight reflection of Hawaii's older generation to the modern, fast-paced tensions of the early 1910s. It begins in the shaded grandeur of Waikiki, where the elderly Martha Scandwell and her sister Bella sit beneath a giant hau tree. Bella, now sixty-eight, recounts her youth as a high-born chiefess caught between two realities: her marriage to a cold, miserly American land speculator who hoarded every dollar, and her brief, brilliant romance with Prince Lililo, a man who embodied the royal vitality of old Hawaii. Her recollections capture the emotional tragedy of a feudal culture being quietly bought up and replaced by ledgers and dividend checks.

As the collection moves deeper into the island landscape, it encounters figures who span both traditions. Among them is Hardman Pool, a seventy-one-year-old former New Bedford whaler who landed on the coast fifty years prior, married a chiefess, and became a patriarch and cattle baron. While resting during his sacred siesta, he trades stories with Kumuhana, an old Hawaiian who recalls narrowly escaping sacrifice in his youth during the burial of a king. Through their conversation, London traces the sheer weight of ancient custom—the terrifying taboos, the chantings, and the willingness to die—contrasted against the modern coolness of gin and hard times. Yet even as the old ways wane, their psychological power lingers, as demonstrated when an old Hawaiian man pines away under the superstitious dread of a sorcerer's death-curse until he is taken on an arduous mountain trek to find peace.

The later stories shift fully into the modern, multi-ethnic society of Honolulu and Waikiki. In one thread, an evangelical revival sweeping the city prompts Alice Akana to publicly confess the sins of the community, hilariously exposing the hidden greed, corrupt land deals, and illicit pasts of the city’s most respected white and native citizens. In another, a Chinese merchant named Ah Kim navigates his filial duty to his domineering mother while pursuing a modern, independent woman to help run his thriving tourist emporium. Finally, on the surf of Waikiki, the young and wealthy play out their own dramas of vanity and marriage. In the immense swells of the Kanaka Surf, Lee and Ida Barton face down a towering ocean wave together, an elemental trial that strips away their social pretenses and leads to a quiet, mature reconciliation over a lingering marital jealousy. Across every tale, the arc moves from memory to modern life, showing a paradise perpetually redefining itself.

How It Unfolds

Memories under the hau tree Two elderly sisters of chiefess blood sit on a luxurious Waikiki lawn and reflect on their pasts. Bella contrasts her grey, miserly late husband with the royal grandeur of her true love, Prince Lililo.

The patriarch’s siesta Hardman Pool, an aged American whaler turned Hawaiian cattle baron, rests beneath the monkey-pod trees. He listens to old Kumuhana recount a youthful escape from a bloody ritual sacrifice during the burial of King Kahekili.

The weight of the ancient taboos A dying man, convinced he is being prayed to death by a sorcerer who holds a lock of his hair, seeks help from a skeptical chief. He is led on a perilous, secret trek across dizzying mountain cliffs to break the psychological spell.

The fisherman’s theology An old fisherman named Kohokumu chants the ancient myths of the demigod Maui pulling up the islands and snaring the sun. He wittily defends Polynesian folklore against a skeptical narrator, arguing it is far more reasonable than missionary doctrine.

The public confession A religious revival in Honolulu turns chaotic when Alice Akana takes the pulpit to unburden her conscience. Instead of modest prayers, she gleefully airs the dirty laundry, land steals, and hidden vices of the island's elite.

The merchant’s choice Ah Kim, a Honolulu Chinese merchant who has spent years submitting to traditional beatings from his mother, decides to choose his own path. He courts a modern, Western-dressed woman to build a future for his growing business.

Facing the father of waves At Waikiki, a beautiful woman in a daring swimsuit draws the jealousy of the beach crowd before paddling out into giant surf. She and her husband face down a massive, ocean-wide wave, using the shared danger to heal a rift in their marriage.

The People

• Martha Scandwell: A dignified sixty-four-year-old matriarch of high chiefess descent. She presides over vast estates and a large family, serving as the serene listener to her sister's passionate historical memories.
• Bella: Martha’s sixty-eight-year-old sister. Possessed of a striking, regal presence, she spent her youth married to a cold land-bargainer while harboring a lifelong devotion to Prince Lililo.
• Hardman Pool: A seventy-one-year-old former whaler from New Bedford. By marrying a native chiefess, he inherited vast lands and chief status, becoming a feared, respected, and immensely wealthy cattle lord.
• Kumuhana: An old Hawaiian who survived the violent end of the feudal era. He shares vivid, haunting memories of old rituals, thirst, and close calls with sacrificial knives.
• Alice Akana: A former hostess turned religious convert whose dramatic public confession at a tabernacle exposes the hidden corruption and hypocrisy of Honolulu’s leading citizens.
• Ah Kim: A thirty-seven-year-old Chinese merchant in Honolulu. torn between traditional filial piety toward his mother and his desire for a modern, independent wife to inherit his business.
• Ida Barton: A strikingly beautiful, athletic woman whose physical presence and daring presence at the beach provoke envy, but whose emotional honesty saves her marriage after a brush with infidelity.
• Lee Barton: Ida’s husband, a prosperous man who wrestles with quiet insecurity and jealousy over his wife's admirers until a dangerous swim restores their mutual trust.

In Its Own Voice

“And I was nineteen, and sun-warm Hawaiian in spite of my three-quarters haole blood, and I knew nothing save my girlhood splendours at Kilohana and my Honolulu education at the Royal Chief School, and my grey husband at Nahala with his grey preachments and practices of sobriety and thrift...”

Bella recalls the sharp, painful contrast between her vibrant youth and the austere home of the husband her family chose for her.

“Anapuni was nearest. But she looked at me. Have you ever heard a call, Kanaka Oolea, that is without sound yet is louder than the conches of God?”

Kumuhana describes the irresistible, silent pull of passion that sparked a deadly rivalry in his younger years.

“The wall of the wave was truly a wall, mounting, ever mounting, and thinning, far up, to a transparency of the colours of the setting sun shooting athwart all the green and blue of it.”

The narrator observes the terrifying beauty of the giant ocean swell that threatens to crush two swimmers off Waikiki.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book explores the inevitability of cultural loss and the strange, hybrid world that rises from its ashes. London examines how cold Western commercialism—represented by contracts, ledgers, and land development—dismantled the feudal, romantic, and often brutal Hawaiian kingdom. Yet the collection is not a simple tragedy; it is an investigation of memory and endurance. The characters carry their pasts inside them like hidden treasures or secret sins. London asks how individuals survive radical historical shifts: some adapt by turning land into fortunes, others by holding fast to ancient myths, and some by laughing at the absurd hypocrisy of the new social order. Underneath the tropical romance lies a sharp meditation on time, aging, and the persistence of human desire.

Why Read It Today

Island Tales offers a surprisingly nuanced, empathetic view of Hawaii from an author best known for arctic dog sleds and rugged adventure. Modern readers will find a rich tapestry of voices—Polynesian chiefesses, Chinese merchants, American traders, and local fishermen—all rendered with a keen ear for social dynamics and island dialogue. It feels lush, atmospheric, and occasionally razor-sharp in its satire of colonial high society.

The reading experience demands a slight adjustment to early twentieth-century literary rhythms and period phrasing. London uses local terminology, Hawaiian words, and occasional renditions of dialect that reflect his era's writing style. Furthermore, the stories deal directly with the harsh realities of colonial displacement and changing racial hierarchies. Yet for those interested in historical Hawaii, brilliant descriptions of the natural world, and mature stories about aging, love, and compromise, this final collection reveals a master storyteller working at the very height of his descriptive powers.