192 PROTECTION TO STRANGERS. 



maintained a force of fifteen thousand men, all 

 armed with muskets, in the use of which they 

 had been carefully exercised. He took much 

 pains, assisted by the Spaniard Marini, to in 

 troduce the cotton-tree, which answered very 

 well, and yielded fine cotton ; and endeavoured 

 to improve the native flax, already much supe 

 rior to that of New Zealand, and to profit by 

 it as an article of commerce. Nothing which 

 promised advantage to his country escaped his 

 penetrating mind ; he exerted, in short, every 

 faculty of his mind to place the Sandwich 

 Islands in a state of progressive assimilation to 

 the most prosperous nations. Vessels of every 

 nation were as secure from injustice or insult 

 in his ports, as in those of Europe, if not more 

 so. As soon as a strange ship arrived, criers 

 were employed to give notice that the new 

 comers were friends, and must be hospitably 

 received, and that any incivility shown them 

 would be severely punished. 



When Tameamea first sent a ship to Canton 

 with sandal-wood, he was obliged to pay a con 

 siderable duty for anchorage ; whereupon he ar 

 gued, that what was exacted from himself, he 



