HAWAIIAN GROUP. 19 



a small quantity of brandy ; that, were not his honour concerned, he 

 would willingly sacrifice the twenty thousand dollars which Captain 

 Laplace held as security for the faithful performance of the treaty, if 

 by so doing he could prevent the demoralization of his people ; that 

 the commercial treaty had been forced upon him by Captain Laplace 

 and the French consul, who threatened to renew the war and destroy 

 Honolulu ; that they refused him time to consult with his chiefs or any 

 other person, and insisted on receiving his signature the next morning. 

 Having no one with whom to advise, his own impulse was to do any 

 thing that might serve to preserve peace and prevent injury to his 

 people and the foreigners under his protection. 



He said further, that this was not the only instance in which his con- 

 sent had been extorted by threats, to measures of which he disapproved, 

 and that there had been instances when he had been called upon to 

 perform alleged promises which he had never given, for there were 

 some of the foreigners who misrepresented every thing that took place 

 in their interviews with him. 



I at once pointed out a simple remedy for this, namely, that he 

 should hereafter transact all business in writing, and have no verbal 

 communication with people of this stamp or indeed with any one ; 

 telling him that by keeping their letters, and copies of his own, he 

 would always be in possession of evidence of what had passed. I 

 assured him that I considered his government to have made sufficient 

 progress towards a position among civilized nations to authorize him 

 to require that official business should be carried on in this manner, 

 and expressed my belief, that should he adopt this method, the 

 " bullies" of whom he had spoken would give him no further trouble. 



I now found that his principal object in requesting an interview with 

 me was, that he might renew and amplify his treaty with the United 

 States, for which purpose he thought it probable that I might have had 

 instructions. When he found that this was not the case, and that I had 

 no official communication for him, he was evidently disappointed ; for 

 he appeared most desirous to enter into a close friendship with the 

 United States, and spoke in the highest terms of the kind manner in 

 which he had ever been treated by our consul Mr. Brinsmade and the 

 commanders of the United States vessels of war that had visited his 

 islands. In conclusion, he intimated his hopes that the United States 

 would acknowledge his people as a nation, and enter into a new treaty 

 with him as its ruler. 



All this was well and intelligently expressed by him, but the main 

 subject of the conversation, which lasted for three hours, was his re- 

 gret that he had ever permitted foreigners to interfere with his laws 



