no bounds placed upon the
advantages and wealth that would follow. Yet, although this policy,
which destroys the energies and resources of the group, is in the
greatest degree narrow-minded and illiberal, still it is the only course
that will sustain the wise statesman who framed it; for their
Excellencies are much too shrewd not to perceive, with prophetic
vision, that the very moment the lands are thrown open to foreign
enterprise and competition, a preponderating influence will be acquired
by the wealth and intelligence of foreigners themselves, the lands will
slip like water through the hands of the chiefs; and not only will the
Lonely One be called upon to throw off the Imperial tappa, but the royal
ministers, also, will be required to resign the purse-strings and
portfolios, and betake themselves to the retirements of simple
citizenship.

It is blameable, too, to pamper these semi-tutored island potentates
with such highly-seasoned dainties, when in a few years, or may be
months, they may be obliged to descend to native life, and without the
interest attached to martyrs or Eastern princes we read of, be made a
laughing-stock to their former subjects. As things remain, the entire
institution of puppet-king, complex government, and scheming advisers,
is at best but an indifferent piece of charlatanism and deception.

Nevertheless we were distressed at the thoughts of leaving these lovely
islands, for we had become deeply imbued with the rage for realizing
rapid fortunes, in the culture of sugar and coffee. Indeed, some of our
party were so thoroughly bitten, as to enter into negociations with
prime ministers, and other great people, wherein special royal
ordinances were to grant certain titles, with many advantageous
exemptions; and we spoke seriously of importing machinery, Malays,
Chinese, and of other operations; until at last we began to fancy
ourselves doomed to pass the remainder of our lives among the kanakas.

CHAPTER XLV.

We were forty days at the Sandwich Islands, and on the 21st of September
weighed anchor, and sailed away from the fertile vales of Oahu. Passing
along the western shores of the group, we steered to the southward,
until the trade winds carried us within a few hundred miles of the
equator; where meeting, between the parallels of seven and ten, a strong
easterly current, reacting from the north-eastern trades, we were swept
three hundred miles to the eastward.

During this per