with the Russian settlements. The great article of export was sandal-wood, and in one year wood to the value of 400,000 dollars was shipped. In return for this the natives procured foreign objects in abundance. Kaméhaméha fitted out a ship on his own account, loaded her with this valuable wood, and sent her to Canton. The officers on board were English, but the supercargo was a Hawaiian. This was the first occasion of the national flag being seen in China. The flag adopted has eight horizontal stripes, representing the eight islands of the kingdom, with the English union at the upper left corner. From heavy port charges, extravagance of the captain and supercargo, &c., the whole proceeds of this valuable adventure were dissipated; and on the vessel's return the King found that, instead of being enriched by his argosy, it had brought him into debt. Practical in his character, he gave up kingly trading; and seeing that a great deal of his money had gone in port charges, he took a hint from his own loss, determining to increase his revenue by a similar impost; and harbour fees were accordingly established at that time.

The first horse seen on the islands was landed in 1803 from a Boston vessel. Terror mingled with admiration was felt by the natives when they beheld the noble animal, so much larger than any of their few indigenous quadrupeds. Other horses, soon after, reached them from California, and they rapidly increased in numbers, the people becoming daring and incessant riders. The King was a good horseman, and was pleased to exhibit his feats of equitation.

Whatever ideas Kaméhaméha had formed of Christianity during his intercourse with the generous Vancouver, and whatever was his anxiety at that time and thereafter to procure teachers of religion from England,

THE KING NOT PERSUADED TO BE A CHRISTIAN. 171

the Christian profession was, unfortunately, during the subsequent years of his reign, not presented to him in an attractive aspect. There were seamen nominally Christians, but their conduct was not likely to illustrate the purity of the Gospel; there were some English convicts, who had escaped from our penal settlements and found their way to Oahu, the riotous and quarrelsome behaviour of whom would not advance in the King's eyes the religion which white men were supposed to follow; there was even a clergyman on the islands, but he was a recreant one, who had forsaken his profession, and would be little likely to impress others with the value of holy living, which had had so little power over himself. Some persons, whether English or American does not appear, did make an attempt to convince the King of the truth of Christianity. Their zeal was greater than either their reasoning or their persuasive capacity, and they were holding an argument before a man of strong will and acute reason. They were unsuccessful in results; and, at the conclusion of a highly-coloured appeal about the power of faith, Kaméhaméha pressed on them the crucial test of throwing themselves, in faith, from the top of a neighbouring precipice, his belief to be dependent on their safe arrival at the bottom of it.

So, to the end of his life, the King continued devotions to his idols. He was probably a very sceptical worshipper; but he looked upon the national religion as a great state instrument, which it was better on his part to support by his patronage. He built a temple. or house for his special divinity, and at his mortal sickness his last prayers were made to his feathered god Kukailimoku. It has been seen that the subject of religion had not altogether escaped the attention of

visitors to the islands; but most of those who came there were unfitted to promote its holy cause, and the great majority were ignorant and indifferent about it. Some, however, more thoughtful than the rest, were struck with the great advantage to be gained if the religion of Christ could be authoritatively taught to the people. Such was the view of Captain Turnbull, the commander of an English merchantman, who, on returning to this country in 1803, suggested the sending out missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, a field which he thought more likely to be successful than Tahiti had showed itself. Whatever efforts Turnbull made to accomplish this object, they fell to the ground, and England at that time did not send out the light and truth of which she was a favoured depository.

In personal habits Kaméhaméha must be considered. moderate. He and his subjects acquired a fondness for rum, which had been introduced by foreigners as an article of trade. The King drank it, but not intemperately, and he kept the monopoly of spirits in his own hands, and thus was able to restrain its use among his people;―an important thing to do, for peace now being universal, the Hawaiians might, in order to testify the relief they felt, have fallen to heavy drinking.

For dress he adopted, with good sense, such articles of European costume as were suitable to his own climate. On occasions he appeared in uniform, of which he had several rich suits. By recommendation from this country the Windsor uniform was assumed.

Towards the end of Kaméhaméha's reign, the oppressive system of the tabu began to be infringed on and frequently broken. This thraldom was deeply interwoven with their religious system, although the King or a high chief could lay on a tabu at his own pleasure.