26 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
Sugar-cane is indigenous, and grows to a large 
size, though it is not much cultivated. Large tracts 
of fertile land lie waste in most of the islands; and 
sugar-cane, together with cotton, coffee, and other 
valuable intertropical productions, might be easily 
raised in considerable quantities, which will, pro¬ 
bably, be the case when the natives become more 
industrious and civilized. 
The local situation of the Sandwich Islands is 
important, and highly advantageous for purposes 
of commerce, &c. On the north are the Russian 
settlements in Kamtschatka, and the neighbouring 
coast; to the north-west, the islands of Japan ; due 
west, the Marian islands, Manilla in the Philip¬ 
pines, and Canton in China ; and on the east, the 
coast of California and Mexico. Hence they are 
so frequently resorted to by vessels navigating the 
northern Pacific. The establishment of the inde¬ 
pendent states of South America has greatly in¬ 
creased their importance, as they lie in the track of 
vessels passing from thence to China or Cal¬ 
cutta, and other parts of India, and are not only 
visited by these, but by those who trade for 
skins, &c. with the natives of the north-west coast 
of America. 
From the time of their discovery, the Sandwich 
Islands were unvisited, until 1786, when Captains 
Dixon and Portlock, in a trading voyage to the 
north-west coast for furs and sea-otter skins, an¬ 
chored, and procured refreshments in the island of 
Oahu. The island of Maui was visited about the 
same time by the unfortunate La Perouse. After 
this period, the islands were frequently visited by 
vessels engaged in the fur trade. Capt. Douglas, 
of the Iphigenia, and Capt. Metcalf, of the Eleanor 
an American snow, were nearly cut off by the lur- 
