PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
431 
No duties have as yet been imposed on any goods, either imported CHAP, 
or exported, and the only charges made by the government are the 
port dues, which are very prudently lighter on vessels touching at the Feb. 
islands for refreshments only, than upon those which bring cargoes of 
merchandize ; the charge in the former case is six, and in the latter 
fifty, cents per ton for the outer anchorage, and ten and sixty cents per 
ton respectively for the inner anchorage. 
The Sandwich Islanders will apparently make as good soldiers as 
they do sailors, and are so proud of the honour of being embodied in 
the corps of the state, that they cannot suffer a greater disgrace than 
to have the regimentals taken from them and to be turned out of the 
ranks. They were repeatedly drilled by our serjeant of marines, and 
though under the disadvantage of not understanding the language in 
which the word of command was given, they improved quite as much 
as men in general would have done who had been in the habit of seeing 
the exercise performed. The inhabitants appear disposed to leain any 
thing that does not require labour, and soldiering soon became so com- 
pletely a mania, that the king had the choice of his subjects ; and little 
boys were seen in all parts of the town tossing up a sugar cane, with a 
“ shoulder ump ! ” and some of the troop, even after being dismissed, would 
rehearse the lesson of the day by themselves. The islanders have a 
good idea of acting in concert, derived from their early exercise of the 
palalu, so interestingly described by Vancouver, in which they were ac- 
customed to form solid squares ; and when engaged presented a for- 
midable phalanx, which it w'as not easy to force. 
Among other services which we performed for the king was an 
inspection of his cannon in the forts, some of which were so corroded, 
that in all probability their discharge would have been productive of 
serious accidents to some of his subjects. We also furnished him with 
twenty tons of stones, which we had taken in at Chamissolsland as ballast, 
to be used in rebuilding the wall of his mud fort. 
It is unnecessary to describe further the inhabitants of a country 
which has already been the subject of several volumes. Enough has 
been said to show that the people are fast imbibing foreign customs, 
and daily improving both in their manners and in their dress. 
The harbour of Honoruru is the general rendezvous of all the 
