enabled to supply themselves with schooners, boats, arms, ammunition, liquors, etc. Writers of the period refer to sandalwood as "the standard coin," it being for the natives the chief article of barter.[1]
In the course of time, however, the character of the commerce and intercourse with the islands changed. For various reasons the fur trade lost much of its value, and the supply of sandalwood began to be exhausted. In this languishing state of trade, an industry, new to the North Pacific, suddenly sprang into importance, but fortunately for the American supremacy in the islands it was one in which they had long held preeminence in other parts of the world. The first vessel engaged in whaling arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1819, but the number rapidly multiplied and the commerce of the islands was soon transformed by them.
While they were yet colonists of Great Britain, the Americans had shown their superior skill in the whaling industry. The statistics show that in 1775 the principal countries engaged in it were as follows: France, a very few vessels; Holland, 129 vessels; England, 96; while the American colonies had 309 vessels, manned by 4000 seamen, with a product in oil and whalebone of $1,111,000 in value. Edmund Burke, in his famous speech for conciliation with the colonies, devoted one of his eloquent passages to the American whaler. He said: "Look at the manner in which the people of New England have of late carried on the
- ↑ 1 A Voyage of Discovery, etc., Captain George Vancouver, London, 1798, pp. 172, 188; Delano's Voyages, 397, 399 ; Alexander's Hawaii, 156 ; Papers of Hawaiian Hist. Society, No. 8, p. 15.
