256 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



cupidity of the islanders of the South Sea ? " TV/ii/ 

 beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, 

 ajidperceivestnot the beam that is in thine ow?i eye?** 

 We do not here allude to the early ages of the 

 conquests of the Spaniards, but we have before our 

 eyes what deeds rapacious adventurers have com- 

 mitted even in our days, in these seas, where our 

 laws cannot reach them. We have touched upon 

 many of them in our pages ; others are enveloped 

 in the gloomy veil of night. It is our duty to be 

 the advocates of the weaker party. Let our testi- 

 mony be rejected, but let the accounts of all mari- 

 ners, who have navigated these seas since they 

 were opened to our trade, be impartially examined, 

 from Vancouver's voyage to Nicolas*s New Zea- 

 land. The reader will judge for himself. While 

 we condemn and punish, men of our own colour, 

 unjudged and unpunished, exercise kidnapping, 

 robbery, cunning, v iolence, treachery, and murder. 

 Sciences and arts have given us this power over 

 our weaker brethren. 



The commerce of these seas is said to employ 

 two hundred North American ships, which number 

 appears to us, however, exaggerated. The princi- 

 pal branches of it are the smuggling trade on the 

 Spanish coast of both Americas, which is carried 

 on, upon the Spanish side, by the monks, the fur- 

 trade of the N. W. coast, the exportation of the 

 furs collected in the Russian American factories, 

 the sanders-wood of the Sandwich, Fidji, and 



