It had still another effect which brought about a radical change in the population of the islands. As sugar cultivation became very profitable, it was largely extended, and this occasioned an unusual demand for labor. It could not be supplied from the native population, as the aboriginal race was unwilling to undergo the fatigues and hardships of the plantations. Efforts were made to obtain laborers from the other Polynesian islands, but they proved unsatisfactory. Over ten thousand Portuguese were brought from the Azores, but the supply from that source was limited. As the area brought under cultivation was enlarged, the planters; turned to the overflowing populations of China and Japan, and more than twenty thousand from each of those countries were brought into the islands. By these means the native inhabitants, decreasing steadily in numbers, became a minority, idle, thriftless, and comparatively unimportant. The property and wealth had, in great measure, passed into the hands of people of alien races.[1]
The duration of the reciprocity treaty was fixed at seven years, but after some negotiation it was renewed in 1884 with an important additional clause. This was the granting to the United States of the exclusive use of Pearl Harbor for a naval station, with the right to improve and fortify it. In 1873 General Schofield had been sent by President Grant to the islands to make a survey with a view to the location of such a station, and he made a report in favor of Pearl Harbor, and later appeared before a Congressional committee and
- ↑ Allen's Report (cited), 19–22; Alexander's Hist. Hawaii, 303–311.
