New Fields for American Commerce [pp. 475-486]

COMIMERCE OF SANDWICH ISLANDS.
with diamonds or any otlher figures whatever. In itself the article
is of a light color, while, by bleaching, it may be rendered perfectly
white. But to the simplicity of nature the aborigines of both sexes
generally prefer a gayer hlne; and for this purpose they stain the
cloth with a number of indigcenous dyes, comprising all the possible
shades of brown, yellow, green, and red, several colors being fre quently contrasted in a kiniid of MIosaic on one and the same piece
or web. Of all the natisve manufactures perhaps this alone enters
into general commerce. It is used for the sheathing of ships, for
which purpose it is, ill tlhe north Pacific, preferred to felt; it has
certainly the recommend(lation of cheapness, as five or six sheets of
twelve feet square may be had for a dollar. In this article the king
is the principal dealer, for. in the shape of taxes, his majesty is glut ted with cloth, and is glad to part with it at a reasonable rate."
COMMERCE OF TIlE SANDWVICH ISLANDS.
There are views opened here over which every American ought to
ponder. Taken in cotnnection with the great purposes of a canal
now contemplated betwveen the oceans, or a railroad, they have a most
special bearing and application.
; "When the ports of Japan are opened, and the two oceans are
connected by means of a navigable canal, so as to place the group in
the direct route between Europe and the United States on one hand,
and the whole of Eastern Asia on the other, then will the trade in
question expand in amount and variety, till it has rendered Woahoo
the emporium of at least the Pacific ocean, for the products, natural
and aitificial, of every corner of the globe. Then will Honolulu be
one of the marts of the world, one of those exchanges to which Nature herself grants in perpetuity a more than royal charter.
"If these anticipations-and even now they are not dreams-be
ever realized, the internal resources of the islands will find the readciest and ampl)lest develolpment in the increase of domestic consumption, and the demands of foreign commerce. In some direction or
other every native production will follow its appropriate outlet; anrid,
in a word, the Sandwich islands will become the West Indies of all
the less favored climes from California to Japan. As I have already
remarked of one or two articles in particular, the greater part of the
exports will most probably meet their best market in the Russian
settlements. In them, the necessaries, as well as the luxuries, of
life are pearls of inestimable value; and, if expedience could justify
aggression, the czar might more excusably have seized this Archipelago than ever any one else appropriated a foot of land that did
not belong to him. Even now France and America and England
might be more willing to let the Sandwich islands fall into the hands
of Russia, than to see them continue liable to be seized, on some pretext or other, by any one of themselves.
" In all this mighty work, whether it be wholly or partly accomplished, our own race will furnish the principal actors. The commerce of this ocean will be Truled and conducted by England, aided
and RIVALED ONLY BY HIER OWN REPUBLICAN OFFSPRING OF AMERICA (let the reader mark this from an Englishman); and the merchants
of these two nations, the most enterprising merchants and the most
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