CHAPTER XV. 



(1.) The Sandwich Islands. Discovery. Geographical Description. — (2.) Char- 

 acter of the Population. Dress. Manners and Customs. — (3.) Government. 

 Missionaries. — (4.) Soil. Climate. Diseases. — (5.) Vegetable Productions. — 

 (6.) Birds and Animals. — (7.) Principal Towns and Harbors. Dwelling 

 Houses. — (8.) Commerce and Manufactures. Vessels.- (9.) Departure of the 

 American Squadron. 



(1.) With the acquisition of California by the government 

 of the United States, and the introduction of steam naviga- 

 tion in the Pacific, commences a new era in the history of 

 the Sandwich Islands. Heretofore this group has been the 

 mere depot of stores and supplies for the whalemen of the 

 Pacific, but, for the future, a new career opens before it. 

 A glance at the map will show the favorable and important 

 position which it occupies with reference to other countries. 

 Midway it is placed, directly on the track of communication, 

 between two worlds, — one passing, it may be, into decline, 

 yet still teeming with the rich products of the Orient — the 

 other, in the newness and freshness of youth, possessing min- 

 eral and agricultural resources without parallel in the world, 

 inhabited by a persevering, energetic, and industrious people, 

 and advancing on the road to greatness and prosperity with 

 the vigor and stride of a giant. On the one hand are the 

 silks, the teas, and the spices, of China and the East Indies ; 

 on the other, the treasures of the Sierra Nevada, and the 

 cotton and corn of the valley of the Mississippi. These must 

 be exchanged ; and San Francisco and Canton must one dav 

 become to the Pacific, what New York and Liverpool now 

 are to the Atlantic Ocean. This immense trade will, of ne- 

 cessity, pass directly through or by the Sandwich Islands. 

 Whatever, then, may be their fate, in a political sense, — 



