I think you’re referring the “Paulet Affaire” in 1842-1843 during which time Capt. George Paulet. Paulet went to the Kingdom of Hawaii seeking legal redress for British citizens after he had been told by the previous British Consul Richard Carlton that the Kingdom of Hawai’i was ignored the rights of British citizens and that it had seized land that was rightfully his. Carlton was on he was to England to plead his case when he ran into Paulet; he would continue on his way to England where he would promptly be fired, replaced, and told that the British crown could not meddle in the affairs of a friendly monarchy. Part of Carlton’s problem was his unpopularity with other British subjects and merchant companies present in the islands and the dubious nature of his land claim. He claimed he had leased much of the land fronting Honolulu Harbor, but the people he claimed to have received from where all dead and none of them had ever held a title to the land to begin with.

Back to Paulet, who continued on his way to the Kingdom after hearing about the alleged abuses against British subjects. When he arrived he grew aggrieved that King Kamehameha III was not in Honolulu and would not return for a week. He believed the Chief Minister Judd, a former missionary who left the church to serve the Hawaiian government, had seized power as a dictator and that the King was but a puppet to American influence. Paulet was not pleased that King Kamehameha III would not unilaterally give redress for the land question and that he simply replied he would respect the outcome of legal proceedings on the issue in the Kingdom and in England. So Paulet threatened violence if the land in question was not transferred to his control and used the demand as a means of seizing sovereignty over Hawaii (really just over the harbor of Honolulu where his cannons could reach).

In the mean time, the Kingdom of Hawaii sent out word to their treaty partners in Washington, London, and Paris requesting assistance with this apparently rogue British captain. Within six months of the affair beginning American and British warships had arrived in the islands to settle the issue. Paulet found himself overruled by British Admiral Thomas (for whom Thomas Square is named in Honolulu), who signed an agreement with Kamehameha III ensuring that British subjects would have their rights respected and that in turn Britain would respect the sovereignty of the Kingdom.

So why did they give it up? Well Paulet acted without orders to seize a Kingdom allied with Great Britain in the Pacific. Hawaiian monarchs and nobles such as Kamehameha II had already visited England as a sign of friendship and the Hawaiian flag featured a British Union Jack to celebrate the close amity of the two Kingdoms. Paulet simply did not have government backing, nor did he have the means to protect his claim. He only had one warship and a couple of hundred British sailors/marines.

One point we should make, to understand the context a bit further, is that this all took place before the general race to claim the Pacific began. There simply was not an impetus to claim Pacific territories, especially ones who had adopted European forms of government and legal traditions.

Just to the South the race to claim Pacific Islands was beginning as the French Admiral Dupetit-Thouars sailed into Papeete Harbor and in a somewhat similar situation demanded redress for alleged crimes against French subjects by the Kingdom of Tahiti. The Kingdom sent messages out to treaty allies in Hawaii, Washington, and England requesting help. One big difference with Depetit-Thouars and Paulet is the fact that the French Admiral had been sent to annex the Marquesas Islands to be used as a naval base and penal colony. He had not been sent to annex Tahiti, but since he was in the business of territorial expansion, he came at the head of a squadron of warships and with several thousand troops. His invasion of Tahiti was recognized by the French government (though not without debate), and both Britain and the US agreed to recognize France’s Protectorate over the Kingdom so long as they did not try to annex islands that were not already under the Kingdom’s control (they agree, but ultimately they would end up annexing the neighboring archipelagos). The Protectorate also inaugurated a bloody four year war between French troops and their allies against supporters of the Queen. From 1843-47 there was a lot of time when French control did not extend outside of the capital of Papeete or further than the shot of a French cannon.

The success of France’s campaign in Tahiti and British intervention in Aotearoa/New Zealand after the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi would kick off a race to claim Pacific Islands that would slowly unfold from that point till the beginning of the 20th century.