SANDWICH ISLANDS, OR HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



723 



Caspian Sea was regarded as fraught with 

 danger to the English empire in India and to 

 English influence in Persia and Afghanistan. 

 Apprehension was freely expressed, not only 

 that Eussia might eventually reach a point 

 from which an actual attack upon some Brit- 

 ish possession would be practicable, but also 

 that the mere fact of the gradual approach of 

 Kussia toward the British lines might encour- 

 age the discontented in India to revolt. The 

 news that the Russians had secured from the 

 Shah of Persia a cession of the territory lying 

 on the north side of the river Attreck served 

 to increase these apprehensions. 



The English Government was also mindful 

 of the effect of the Russian movement upon 

 its interests in the East, and in due season 

 opened a correspondence with the Russian 

 Government, with a view of coming to an un- 

 derstanding as to what should be the limit of 

 the Russian annexations. On the 8th of Octo- 

 ber, Lord Granville addressed a dispatch to 

 the British ambassador at St. Petersburg, ask- 

 ing assurances from the Russian Government 



that it would not encroach upon territory 

 claimed by the Ameer of Cabul as belonging 

 to Afghanistan. This dispatch contained also 

 a very distinct description of the lines and 

 points which the English Government re- 

 garded as marking the northern boundary of 

 Afghanistan. Prince Gortchakoff replied, on 

 the Tth of December, on behalf of the Russian 

 Government, admitting generally the reason- 

 ableness of the English demands, but express- 

 ing doubts as to the right of the Ameer of 

 Cabul to some' parts of the territory claimed 

 by the English as belonging to him. Toward 

 the end of December, the Russian Government 

 dispatched Count Schouvaloff to London, to 

 represent more fully its views to the British 

 Government, and endeavor to secure a modifi- 

 cation of the demands made by Earl Granville 

 in his dispatch of October 18th. This was the 

 condition in which affairs stood at the close 

 of 1872. It is proper to add here that the 

 British demands were subsequently conceded, 

 and an agreement was entered into upon the 

 basis proposed by Earl Granville. 



SANDWICH ISLANDS, OR HAWAIIAN 

 ISLANDS, a chain of islands situated in the 

 North-Pacific Ocean, formerly the kingdom of 

 Hawaii. They consist of 13 islands, eight of 

 which are inhabited. Area, 7,416 square miles ; 

 population in 1866, 62,959 ; in 1872, 57,145. 

 The number of foreigners, in 1866, was 4,194, 

 among whom there were 1,206 children. The 

 largest islands are Honolulu, with 13,521, Hilo, 

 with 4,655, and Lahaina, with 3,501 inhabitants. 

 The revenue for the term from April 1, 1870, 

 to March 31, 1872, amounted to $964,959, and 

 the expenditures to $969,784. The public 

 debt on March 31, 1872, was $177,971. The 

 imports in 1871 were valued at $1,626,000 ; the 

 exports at $1,892,000. The number of com- 

 mercial vessels entering the ports of the king- 

 dom amounted to 171, of an aggregate burden 

 of 105,993 ; the number of whalers, 31. The 

 principal articles of export, in 1871, were : 

 sugar, 21,761,000 pounds ; rice, 1,284 pounds ; 

 coffee, 47 pounds ; tallow, 185 pounds ; palm, 

 293 pounds. The principal port is Honolulu ; 

 of the 151 vessels entering the port in 1870, 

 95 were North American, 31 English, 14 Ha- 

 waiian, and 11 German. 



The population of the islands, since their dis- 

 covery by Captain Cook, has been decreasing 

 at a fearful rate. In 1779, their number was 

 estimated at 400,000 ; now they number less 

 than 60,000 ; and, during each year, the most 

 distressing accounts have come in from the 

 country districts of excessive mortality among 

 the natives. In 1872, from one school district, 

 the agent stated that the deaths for the first 

 quarter were forty-seven ; births, eight. From 

 another district a report came in, unofficial, 



that the deaths were nearly one hundred 

 against six births. 



The King of the islands, Kamehameha V., 

 died in Honolulu on December 11, 1872. He 

 died childless, and, as he failed to avail himself 

 of the privilege conferred by the Constitution, 

 of naming his successor, there was a short 

 interregnum. Prince William Lunalilo, who 

 was naturally one of the claimants to the va- 

 cant throne, issued a plebiscitum, calling on 

 the people to vote for him, and promising them, 

 in the event of his election, to restore the old 

 Constitution of 1852. This Kamehameha had 

 overturned in 1864, and set up a new and usurp- 

 ing one of his own manufacture, according to 

 which the choice of a new ruler, in the event of 

 his failure to appoint a successor, fell to the 

 Legislature. Thus the plebiscitum of Lunalilo 

 was entirely informal, put forth only as a means 

 to gain an expression of the people's wishes. 

 A vote was taken in all the districts of the 

 island on January 1, 1873. Over 12,000 ballots 

 were cast, all but 19 of them being for Lu- 

 nalilo. In the capital district, that of Hono- 

 lulu, 3,049 were cast, every one of them being 

 for Lunalilo. Another claimant, David Kala- 

 kana, had appeared, asking the suffrages of 

 the people, but so firm were they in their at- 

 tachment to Lunalilo, that hardly any one could 

 be found to espouse his cause. The Legisla- 

 ture was convened on the 8th of January, ac- 

 cording to Kamehameha's Constitution, to vote 

 for his successor, or, rather, to ratify in a con- 

 stitutional way the popular voice which had 

 already declared so unanimously for Lunalilo. 

 In spite of his crushing defeat at the polls a 

 week previous, Kalakana had attempted to 



