Columbia. In 1817, one of these, the Columbia, was instructed to bring as many of the Sandwich Islanders to the Columbia River as it could conveniently accommodate and brought 60 of them to Astoria that year.[1] These vessels also on the out going voyage to China took home the Hawaiians who had fulfilled their terms of service.
When in 1821 the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company were merged under the name of the latter the Hawaiians entered the employment of the new company. At that time there were about 35 of them and George Simpson, the new governor who was on the Columbia in 1824 recommended bringing 15 more on the first vessel that passed the is lands on her way to Oregon. In his opinion they were useful as guards and for "common drudgery" about the posts and were especially valuable in newly occupied districts "as they can be depended on in cases of danger" from the Indians. Later he recommended the employment to two "good stout active Sandwich Islanders who have been to Sea for 1, 2 or 3 years" as sailors on the company's boat the Cadboro, which was used in the coastwise trade.[2]
In order to secure the Hawaiians it was necessary to make a contract with their king. One such contract was made in 1840 between G. Pelly, acting as agent for the Hudson's Bay Company at Honolulu, and Kekuanaoa, governor of the island of Oahu. It permitted 60 men to be taken to the Columbia for a term of three years, at the end of which time they were to be returned to Honolulu, with a proviso that $20 must be paid for each man missing from the original number with the exception of those who had died.[3]
These laborers had been given only food and clothing for their services by the North West Company. In 1823 they were given in addition the wage paid other servants, 17 pounds a year. However, as this occasioned "much dissatisfaction"
- ↑ Barry, "Peter Corney's Voyages, 1814-17," Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXXIII, 364-65.
- ↑ Merk, Fur Trade and Empire, (1931), 91, 298.
- ↑ Blue, "A Hudson's Bay Company Contract for Hawaiian Labor," Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXV, 72.
