HAWAIIAN GROUP. 



17 



alarm, and holding up in dismal colours the prospect of the bloodshed 

 and rapine that were to fall on the devoted community, in case the 

 demands of the French captain were not complied with ; and on the 

 part of the chiefs in forming an efficient police to suppress any intes- 

 tine commotion. Their conduct ought to have put to the blush those 

 whose property they thus prepared to guard, and I can conceive no- 

 thing more disgraceful than the conduct of the foreigners on this 

 occasion. Even the American consul fell in the tirst instance into an 

 error, in not asserting the right of his flag to protect all Americans, 

 and in not throwing back upon the French commander the unmanly 

 threat he had uttered against the missionaries and their families. He, 

 however, fully retrieved his error before the affair ended. 



It would appear that the sum demanded by Captain Laplace had 

 been made so large by the advice of the French consul, who knew 

 that the resources of the native government would not enable them to 

 raise it, and who hoped that, in lieu of it, any commercial arrange- 

 ments he might choose to dictate would be granted, or that a good 

 pretext would exist for the occupation of the island by the French, 

 either of which might be turned to his (the consul's) pecuniary ad- 

 vantage. The same reasons operated in a different manner upon the 

 other foreign residents; for after their first alarm had somewhat sub- 

 sided, they became aware of the injury to which the latter alternative 

 would have subjected them, while from actual hostilities they would 

 be the greatest sufferers; and thus, to the great disappointment of the 

 French consul, they determined to lend the demanded sum to the 

 government. The king did not arrive at the specified time; but the 

 regent and governor, being thus furnished with funds, at a high rate 

 of interest, signed the treaty. 



Although the hopes of the French consul to see the island taken 

 possession of by his countrymen were frustrated, he took advantage 

 of the state of affairs to secure a personal advantage to himself, by 

 procuring a commercial treaty which should abrogate, in favour of 

 the French, the laws against the importation of spirituous liquors. 

 Captain Laplace lent himself to this design, and a commercial treaty 

 was drawn up, which, under the avowed intention of protecting 

 French commerce, provided for the free admission of brandy and 

 wine, in which the consul had hitherto been an illicit trader. This 

 treaty was presented to the king, who had by this time arrived, late 

 in the afternoon, and he was required to put his signature to it by the 

 next morning, failing which, it was intimated that hostile measures 



VOL. IV. 5 



