HAWAIIAN GROUP. 



which, on his arrival, he found stalking abroad, regardless of moral 

 laws, and setting at nought all those enacted by the government for 

 the protection of the peace and quietness of the well-disposed, as well 

 as for punishing those who were guilty of crime. 



As the natives, under the tuition of the missionaries, emerged from 

 barbarism, instead of deriving encouragement from their intercourse 

 with foreigners, difficulties were thrown in the way. The chief 

 agents in the vexations to which the government has been exposed, 

 are the designing individuals who hold the situation of consuls of the 

 two great European powers ; and through their baleful influence the 

 difiiculties have been continually increasing, until, finally, these 

 islands and their government have been forced upon the attention of 

 the whole civihzed world. All the laws and regulations established 

 by the kings and chiefs for repressing immorality and vice, were not 

 only derided, but often set at open defiance, because they clashed 

 with the interests of some of the individuals settled here. If attempts 

 were made to enforce them, official remonstrances were resorted to, 

 accompanied by threats of punishment. As this, for a long time, did 

 not follow, the matter came to be considered as a systematic course of 

 bullying, which soon lost its effijct, and remained unheeded. When 

 these idle threats failed to effect their object, the new one of the 

 arrival of a man-of-war was held out as a terror. In these disputes 

 the missionaries seldom took a part, even in the way of advice, and 

 left the chiefs to their own guidance. They did not feel themselves 

 competent to give advice upon international questions, and, besides, 

 considered them as of a temporal character ; for which reason they 

 believed it their duty to abstain from any connexion with the disputes. 

 They could not, however, avoid being as much surprised as the chiefs 

 themselves were, at the continually renewed difficulties which were 

 made by these troublesome officials, and which there was nothing in 

 the laws or regulations to justify. 



As to the threat of the coming of a man-of-war, the natives rather 

 looked to it as the sure termination of the vexations to which they 

 were exposed. They had formed their opinion of the character and 

 probable course of action of the naval officers of either of the two 

 great powers from the visit of Lord Byron in H. B. M. frigate Blonde. 

 This vessel had been the bearer of the bodies of the late King Liho- 

 liho and his wife from England, and her commander had made a 

 most favourable impression upon the chiefs and people. They there- 



