168 TAMAHAMAHA, KING OF OWYHEE. [1787. 



commission of an act of blood or perfidy, in gratification of his 

 desires for revenge or profit. 



The importance of the Sandwich Islands to the commerce of the 

 whole North Pacific was also soon made apparent; and they 

 became, in a few years, the favorite places of refreshment of all 

 vessels navigating between Cape Horn and the north-west coasts 

 of America, and between those coasts and China. Their soil is 

 fertile, their climate delightful, and their productions are precisely 

 those most useful to vessels engaged in long voyages. Their 

 inhabitants, though naturally indolent, false, and treacherous, are 

 not positively ferocious ; and they are endowed with much cunning 

 and mechanical aptitude, w T hich led them quickly to perceive the 

 immediate benefits to be derived from an intercourse with strangers, 

 and to submit to restraints, in order to secure such advantages. At 

 the time of their discovery, the islands were governed by separate 

 chiefs : in the course of the ensuing fifteen years, however, they all 

 fell under the authority of one man, Mahe-Mahe, or Tamahamaha, 

 who, by the possession of extraordinary acuteness and sagacity, 

 combined with courage and steadiness of purpose, overcame all 

 his rivals, and kept up something like a regular government until 

 his death. The most formidable opponent of Tamahamaha was 

 Tianna, a resolute and ferocious chief, who accompanied Meares to 

 Canton in 1787, and there acquired many new ideas, which gave 

 him, for some time, considerable advantages ; but he was, in the 

 end, defeated and slain by his rival. 



The first discoveries, worthy of note, made on the north-west 

 coasts of America, after Cook's voyage, were those of Captains 

 Portlock and Dixon, who were sent from London, in 1785, in com- 

 mand of the ships King George and Queen Charlotte, by a 

 mercantile association, styled the King George's Sound Company. 

 The object of this association was to monopolize the direct trade 

 between the North Pacific coasts and China, with which view its 

 operations were to be conducted in the following manner : — Under 

 the protection of licenses, granted by the South Sea Company, its 

 vessels were to proceed, by way of Cape Horn, to the north-west 

 coasts of America, laden with goods, which were there to be bar- 

 tered for furs ; the furs were to be carried to Canton, and there 

 sold by the agents of the East India Company, agreeably to a con- 

 tract with that body; and the produce of their sale was to be 

 vested in teas, and other Chinese commodities, which were to be 



