SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
39 
protection against the other foreigners, and especially the 
Russians, who had repeatedly threatened to take possession 
of the Islands * : one Schiffer had promoted a rebellion in 
Taui, countenanced by the Russian officers of Petropaul- 
owsky, and other places on the coast, but not acknowledged 
by the Russian government. Tamehameha had sent to the 
King of England a magnificent war-cloak and other pre¬ 
sents by the Cornwallis frigate in 1807; these had been 
graciously received, and in return for them, and in acknow¬ 
ledgment of the hospitality and kindness shown to all 
English ships touching at the Sandwich Islands, a vessel, 
built at Port Jackson for the purpose, was presented to 
Tamehameha in the name of the King of England, a 
letter of thanks having been previously forwarded to the 
following purport. “ King George of England sends to 
his Majesty the King of the Sandwich Islands his sincere 
thanks for the feather cloak sent to him by the frigate Corn¬ 
wallis. He assures him of his friendship, and says that he 
has commanded all his English navy to respect the ships 
under the flag of His Majesty King Tamehameha y.” 
* As several of the Sandwich Islanders had gone to the N. W. coast, and 
had seen how the Russians behaved to the natives, it was not wonderful that 
they dreaded falling into their hands, nor were the North Americans much 
better masters or friends to the tribes with whom they had any intercourse. 
f The Russian observations on this are curiously jealous. The author 
