IV
INDEPENDENT HAWAII
The situation and resources of the Hawaiian Islands pointed them out to early navigators as destined to play an important part in the commercial and political affairs of the Pacific. Standing alone in the great ocean, the group must necessarily act as an outpost of the North American continent. Lying in the track of navigation from the central part of that continent to the great islands in the South Pacific, and in the direct course from the Isthmus of Panama to Japan and China, it was plain their harbors would become the resort of the shipping of the world. The trade winds which constantly fanned their shores and the cold currents from the Arctic seas made for these islands within the tropics a most healthful and delicious climate. The genial sun, the plentiful rains, and the mountain elevations caused the soil to respond to every desire of man. It was verily the Paradise of the Pacific.
The islands were not discovered until two years after the United States had declared its independence. But in the very year that the new government was set in motion under President Washington, American traders established themselves there and initiated a commerce, which, with these islands as a base of operations, soon
