Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, about the middle of that month, says:
We were not surpriz'd at the Native's demand for Guns, when we learnt that Mr. Stewart Master of the Jackall and Mr. Brown of the Buttersworth had given ToMaihaMaiha and other chiefs of the Island no less than 30 Muskets in barter for refreshments, this is a most shameful trade, and calls loudly for a stop to be put to it.
And Menzies at the same place soon after, writes:
At the further end of [Kamehameha's] house we observed upwards of two dozen musquets, which the king said he lately procured in the way of traffic from Mr. Brown, master of the ship Butterworth of London, and added that they were so very bad that some of them burst on the first firing, on which account they were now afraid to fire any of them off.[1]
Menzies' statement suggests another feature of this traffic which deserves to be more particularly noticed, namely, the defective character of much of the material sold to the Hawaiian chiefs. On this point Vancouver writes a scathing denunciation.
In many instances, no compensation whatever had been given by these civilized visitors, after having been fully supplied, on promise of making an ample return, with the several refreshments of the very best quality the country afforded. At other times they had imposed upon the inhabitants, by paying them in commodities of no service or value, though their defects could not be detected by the examination of the natives. This was more particularly the case in those articles which they were most eager to obtain, and most desirous to possess, namely, arms and ammunition; which chiefly composed the merchandize of the North-West American adventurers. Muskets and pis-
- ↑ Archibald Menzies, Hawaii Nei 128 Years Ago, edited by W. F. Wilson (Honolulu, 1920), 72. This work contains the Hawaiian portion of the journal of the surgeon and naturalist of Vancouver's flagship, the Discovery. The title is of course supplied by the editor.
