398 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
trade of four American merchants in the Sandwich 
Islands amounts to one hundred thousand dollars 
a year; this, however, is a far greater amount than 
that of all the other islands of Polynesia. The 
demand will increase in the exact proportion in 
which industry shall augment the produce of the 
islands, and the property of their inhabitants. This 
is a consideration which, though confessedly very 
inferior to many, ought not to be disregarded by 
those who take an interest in the alteration of 
society which is now attending Missionary efforts 
in various parts of the world, but particularly in 
such countries as Africa, Madagascar, and the 
islands of the Pacific. 
Shoes and hats are not much less in demand 
than cottons or woollens ; and these also must, for 
the present, and probably for many years to come, 
be supplied from England or America. Although 
the light hats, made with a fine sort of grass, or 
the bark of a tree, are, in our estimation, remark¬ 
ably well adapted to the climate, most of the 
men, making any pretensions to respectability, 
strive to possess an English hat. We were for a 
long time surprised at the partiality of the natives 
for woollen cloth, and hardly knew how to account 
for it, as it does not altogether arise from its being 
more durable. At one time, no article of dress 
was more acceptable to the men than a thick 
shaggy great coat, which, to us, it was quite op¬ 
pressive even to behold. Many purchased with 
avidity a thick blanket, which they would wear as 
an ahubuu over the shoulders, or a pareu round 
the waist. Frequently, when we have been bur¬ 
dened with the lightest crape or nankeen dress, a 
native, by no means deficient in corpulency, would 
walk several miles with an ordinary great coat, 
