6 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, January, 1947 
New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, New Hebrides—* 
S. austrocaledonicum Vieillard 
Fiji— S. Yasi Seem. 
Tahiti, Raiatea, Austral Islands, Rapa, Marquesas 
— S. insulare Bertero 
Henderson Island— S. hendersonense F. B. H. Br. 
Juan Fernandez—5*. fernandezianum Phil, (now 
extinct) 
Hawaiian Islands— S. ellipticum Gaud., S. Frey- 
cineiianum Gaud., S. haleakalae Hbd., S. lanai- 
ense Rock, S. paniculatum H. & A., S. Pilgeri 
Rock, S. pyrularium Gray 
Bonin Islands— S. boninense (Nakai) Tuyama 
THE SANDALWOOD ERA IN HAWAII 
The Hawaiian people were familiar with 
the pleasant aroma of the iliahi. They called 
its wood laau ala (or laau aala), meaning 
"fragrant wood,” and they sprinkled finely 
powdered heartwood on their kapa or bark 
cloth to perfume it. 
Just how the Hawaiian sandalwood trade 
began is not known. Perhaps the Hawaiians 
showed the pleasantly scented wood to the 
white voyager or "haole.” Perhaps, as has 
been suggested, logs of iliahi were included 
in firewood furnished to sailing vessels in an 
island port and some sea captain, veteran of 
the China trade, recognized the sweet per¬ 
fume of sandalwood oil coming from the 
burning wood in the cook stove. The actual 
beginning is not certainly known, but the 
first record is as follows (Bradley, 1942: 
26-27; see Ingraham, 1791: 15, 19, 20, 23, 
24): 
The earliest specific mention of sandalwood at the 
Islands is attributed to Isaac Ridler, a deserter 
from the "Columbia.” Ridler was at Kealakekua 
Bay in March 1790, during the visit of the "Elea- 
nora”; a year later, he told Captain Joseph Ingra¬ 
ham that while at Kealakekua Captain Metcalfe 
had engaged in "taking in sandalwood.” Metcalfe 
may have purchased the sandalwood for use as 
firewood; it is also possible, if we may credit 
Ridler’s testimony, that he was the first to carry 
sandalwood from the Hawaiian Islands to China 
for commercial purposes. 
In 1790, Captain John Kendrick of the 
"Lady Washington” left two men on Kauai 
to collect sandalwood for his next return 
from Boston. Before May, 1791, Captain 
William Douglas of the "Grace” (Ingra¬ 
ham, 1791: 15, 19) put two men ashore on 
Kauai to collect sandalwood, "which wood 
he had discovered or a wood similar to it.” 
There is doubt about the accuracy of these 
early records, for Amasa Delano (1817: 
399; see Bradley, 1942: 27) observed in 
1801 that the first sandalwood shipped from 
the islands to China was not the real sandal¬ 
wood and was of such inferior quality that 
the Chinese merchants refused to purchase 
it. 
From 1790 to 1810 sandalwood may have 
been exported, but if so, in very small quan¬ 
tity, for little record is found. Then, in 
1809, two brothers, the American ship cap¬ 
tains Jonathan Winship of the "Albatross” 
and Nathan Winship of the "O’Cain,” 
started on a voyage that established the san¬ 
dalwood trade. After trading for furs on 
the coast of Oregon, they sailed in October, 
1811, for Honolulu, where they and Cap¬ 
tain William Heath Davis of the "Isabella” 
took on cargoes of sandalwood. The ships 
sailed to Canton, where the fragrant wood 
was sold at a large profit. Returning to 
Honolulu, the three captains persuaded King 
Kamehameha I to grant them a monopoly of 
the sandalwood and cotton trade for 10 years. 
Loading five ships, the three captains sailed 
to Canton and thus established a highly re¬ 
munerative traffic. While they were in 
China, the startling news came that America 
and Great Britain were at war, and when 
the captains returned to Honolulu they 
found Kamehameha unfriendly. He can¬ 
celed their trade monopoly and refused to 
renew it, his changed attitude being due, 
they reported, to British influence (Davis, 
1816: 52-53). 
Thereafter, though no longer a trader’s 
monopoly, the sandalwood trade developed 
rapidly and throve from 1815 to 1826. The 
successive Hawaiian kings at first followed 
the example of the shrewd Kamehameha I 
and kept sandalwood as a royal monopoly, 
