REPORT. 181 



in those regions, it is certain that the best of feathers might be 

 obtained, and in the greatest abundance. Some of the beds 

 brought from the Northwest coast are nearly equal in quality to 

 the eider-down beds of Russia. The demand for feathers is 

 great, and constantly increasing in this country. The finest quills 

 might be obtained in pursuing this trade, and the demand for them 

 is now great, and constantly increasing. The manner of preparing 

 them, as the Dutch prepare them, might easily be taught to those 

 engaged in the business ; and instead of paying near half a million 

 of dollars a year to Holland and Russia, and other countries, for 

 quills, we could by this trade, supply our own market and others. 



The articles which we export for this trade are now all within 

 ourselves. Rice, tobacco, rum, whiskey, blankets, coarse wool- 

 lens, cottons, calicoes, the ordinary kinds of cutlery, and trivial 

 jewellery, and agricultural utensils, and some articles of household 

 furniture, will soon find a market in the Sandwich islands. 



It should be taken into consideration that these voyages are in 

 the character of double voyages. The Northwest-coast cargoes 

 are now, in small vessels, sent to China, and their proceeds 

 furnish cargoes for large vessels sent direct from this country to 

 Canton : and, by these means, we save the precious metals at 

 home, which the direct China trade has so long drained us of. 



To show the profitableness of this trade, we have only to look 

 to those who have been engaged in it, and we shall find that most 

 of them who began it early, have made large fortunes, and but 

 very few of them have been unsuccessful. The cry is, that the 

 trade, or business, is overdone. This is natural : those who have 

 enjoyed the profits, are not willing to share them with others. 



The extent of our commerce in those seas, in the whale, fur, 

 and other trades, may, in some measure, be estimated by a report 

 of Captain Hull, who was sent into the Pacific, to protect our 

 commerce there. He says that, from the 30th March, 1824, to 

 December 1st, 1825, he boarded two hundred and thirty-two 



