CHAPTER IV. 



MAUNA LOA. 

 1840. 



In the Vincennes we were all ready at an early hour on the 3d 

 of December, excepting the pilot, Adams, who was not to be found. 

 He finally came on board, when, from his actions, I concluded that he 

 was intoxicated, and told him so; this it seems he took in high dudgeon. 

 After I had gone on shore to transact some business, he became very 

 noisy and abusive to the first-lieutenant, who very properly told him to 

 leave the ship. Finding that he was not to be depended upon, I 

 determined to take the ship to sea myself, and for this purpose stationed 

 boats to act as buoys on the narrowest part of the bar. Shortly after 

 this was done, a fresh breeze sprung up, we cast off, and in a few 

 minutes were safely outside. 



I was led, by this circumstance, to lay a complaint before the king 



against the employment of a drunken pilot, and was in hopes that 



Adams would, in consequence, have been dismissed, and a competent 



person appointed in his stead. But through misrepresentations made 



to the king, no new appointment was made. Mr. Reynolds acts in 



old Adams's place when he is drunk, and the result, as I have been 



credibly informed, is, that more than one half of the ships, going in or 



coming out, get on shore. Some instances of the sort occurred during 



my stay, among which was the case of the ship Morea. I urged the 



dismissal of Adams, on the ground that if he were not removed, the 



price of insurance of vessels bound to the port of Honolulu would be 



affected, and that, besides, the interest of the owners would suffer 



by their detention from his inability to take the vessels to sea. 



The correspondence that passed on this subject will be found in 



Appendix IX. 



(in) 



