Sandal-Wood and its Commercial Importance. 79 



kinds — the Lau keokeo or white, and the Lau hulahula or red. 

 Botanists have described four species of S ant alum from this 

 group (viz., S. Freycinetianum, paniculatum, ellipticum, and 

 pyrularium), but 8. eUipU&um and pani&ulatum are supposed to 

 be mere varieties of the first named, so that two species only 

 remain, agreeing with the native classification. They are spread 

 over Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai, where they occupy stony, 

 well-drained places. Of the magnificent groves that lormerly 

 covered parts of the islands, only a few isolated specimens now 

 remain, and these would long ago have been converted into 

 fuel had not the law thrown its protecting shield over them. 

 When in 1849 I visited Oahu I saw merely a few bushes, not 

 exceeding three feet in height, at a place called Kuaohe ; but 

 towards the end of last century and the beginning of this, the 

 infant kingdom of Hawaii, then under the able government of 



••IT 



the first Kamehameha, exported vast quantities of the wood ; 

 and without this profitable trade that king would probably not 

 have succeeded in leading his. people, in one generation, from 

 extreme barbarism to nascent civilization. The sandal-wood 

 was to these islanders the start in life, without which few nations 

 or individuals ever succeed in pushing their way in the world. 

 From 1790-1820 numerous vessels called for sandal-wood, 

 bringing all sorts of good things in exchange ; and about 1810 

 Kamehameha I. and his people began to accumulate considerable 

 wealth. In one year near 400,000 dollars were realized. 

 Kamehameha, hearing of the great profits derived from the 

 sales in China, determined to send to Canton a ship of his own, 

 laden with the produce. Extravagant port charges and the 

 misconduct of the English captain and native supercargo led 

 to the commercial failure of this enterprise. The king found 

 himself 3000 dollars out of pocket by it ; nevertheless he had 

 the satisfaction of seeing for the first time his flag displayed in 

 a foreign port, whilst the charges for pilotage, anchorage, and 

 custom dues suggested to him the idea of raising a revenue 

 from the same sources, and thus permanently benefit his domi- 

 nions. Under the reign of his successor (Liholiho), the sandal- 

 wood began to be exhausted, though in 1820 we still hear of 

 80,000 dollars worth of the wood being paid for the barge of 

 the " Cleopatra," and in 1822 of a voyage to Kauai to collect 

 the annual tribute of the wood in that island. But the produce 

 became every day more difficult to procure, and could no longer 

 be demanded in payment of taxes. True, quantities were 

 now and then brought together, but they were insufficient to 

 fill whole vessels as in times gone by. Nor did the discovery 

 of a substitute, Myoporum tenuifoh'vm, a tree from fifteen to 

 twenty feet in height, with small leaves and white flowers, and 

 a scented wood, revive the trade — the spurious sandal proving 



