GOVERNMENT. 
411 
receive Spanish dollars; but the sandal wood, &c. 
they usually exchange for articles of European or 
Chinese fabrication: the silks, crapes, umbrellas, 
furniture, and trunks of the latter, are most in 
demand; while those of the former are hardware, 
earthenware, linens, broad-cloth, slops, hats, shoes, 
canvass, cordage, &c. 
The season was approaching when the whalers, 
fishing on the coast of Japan, usually put in to 
some of the harbours of these islands. Hence 
Karaimoku had sent the Nio for a cargo of hogs, 
to meet the demand for these animals, which he 
expected would follow their arrival. 
About noon on the 28th, Mr. Bishop reached 
Towaihae; and, in the evening of the 30th, they 
received the unexpected information that the brig 
would sail that evening : Messrs. Bishop and Good¬ 
rich therefore went on board, leaving Mr. Thurston 
at Towaihae to preach to the people there on the 
next day, which was the Sabbath, and afterwards 
join the vessel at the north point of the island, 
where they were going to take in hogs for Karai¬ 
moku, to whom the division of Kohala belonged, 
though the island in general was under the juris¬ 
diction of Kuakini the governor. Their system of 
government is rather complex; and, having occa¬ 
sionally mentioned several of its leading members, 
some further account of it will, perhaps, be ac¬ 
ceptable. 
The government of the Sandwich Islands is an 
absolute monarchy. The supreme authority is 
hereditary. The rank of the principal and inferior 
chiefs, the offices of the priests, and other situa¬ 
tions of honour, influence, and emolument, descend 
from father to son, and often continue through 
many generations in the same family, though the 
