 After the 1819 death of King Kamehameha of the Hawaiian Islands, queen regent Kaahumanu came to power, the powerful newly converted Protestant widow of Kamehameha the Great.New England Protestant ministers convinced her to illegalize Catholicism in Hawaii.Following the enactment of the new policy, chiefs loyal to her forcibly deported French Roman Catholic priests on to the "Waverly" in Honolulu Harbor on December 24, 1831.