commanding the Peacock, and the mission was discharged with much credit to him and profit to the two governments. He negotiated and signed, December 23, 1826, the first formal treaty ever entered into by the island government with any foreign power. It contained the usual stipulations of a commercial treaty of the period, and it is especially noticeable that it recognized the right and duty of the courts of the country to exercise jurisdiction over the persons and property of the American residents. It was a high testimonial to the progress which had been made by the Hawaiians in civilization that the American authorities were willing to allow the native judges, who had so recently emerged from barbarism, to pass upon the rights of their citizens resident there. When the American government negotiated a treaty with China twenty years later, and with Japan thirty years later, it reserved to its own consuls jurisdiction over their countrymen. The treaty with the Hawaiian king was not submitted to the Senate and ratified in the usual form, but it continued to be observed by both parties to it until superseded by the treaty of 1849.[1]
Captain Jones found other duties to perform during this visit. Notwithstanding the good effects of the work of the missionaries on the natives and the rulers, they had incurred the bitter opposition of many of the foreign element. The character of the latter was not in all respects commendable. It was made up in considerable numbers of deserters from vessels touching at
- ↑ Foreign Relations, 1894, App. ii. 8, 35. As to exterritoriality in Hawaii, 7 Opinions of Attorneys-General, 29.
