He was regarded at Maui and Oahu as supreme king.

The king of Kauai even went so far as to send messengers to declare to him that he recognized his sovereignty.

Such is the origin of Keawe's power.
By his numerous marriages with chiefesses and common women without distinction, this king has made the Hawaiian nobility, the present alii say, bastard and dishonored.

The chiefs descended from Keawe conceal their origin, and are by no means flattered when reminded of it.

From Keawe down, the genealogies become a focus of disputes, and it would be really dangerous for the rash historian who did not spare the susceptibilities of chiefs on this subject.
The principle on which those who condemn the conduct of Keawe rests is the purity of the blood of the royal stock, required by ancient usages, whose aim was to preserve the true nobility without alloy.