Polynesian., 1844-06-08
TIL POLY ESIAN N.
HONOLULU, SATURDAY, JUNE g, 1874,

creating an interest among the commercial
classes of France, in Polynesia, have not
unfrequently been led to put forth exagger-
ated or distorted statements. Individuals, as
well as the nation, will meet with disappoint-
ment, if from statements like those we give
below, they have been led prematurely to
embark in commercial or colonial enterpri-
scs. 1t is pleasant to witness the extension
wise and powerful as France, but the pion-
GERS in the undertaking will reap suffering
and disappointment. Whether the govern
ment itself will consider the acquisition of
the few islands the French have already oc-
cupied, as worth the treasure expended up
on them, is vet doubtful. Il is evident from
a variety of documents which we have seen,
that their present Importance has been great
ly magnifed. Our readers will smile at the
mistakes in the following article, and the au-
thor will find no better sources from which
tables prepared by r. c. Wyllie, Esq, and
published in the May and June Nos. of the
Friend. In reference to this subject, we
extract from Hunts Merchants Magazine,
for Aug. 1843, a few remarks which we pre-
pared in the United States for that periodical:
"The Sandwich Islands have abundant
resources within themselves, to support a
population tenfold greater than the present.
To be a lourishing kingdom, they must be-
come both an agricultural and commercial
nation. Whether the indigenous population
are of themselves capable Of sustaining such
relations successfully, when in competition
with the g~rasping policy, the avaricious spir-
it, and chivalrous enterprise of older nations,
remains to be proved. The aggregate
wealth, refinement, and responsibility of the
Hawaiians, have made, of late years, slow,
Their population, which was rapidly hasten
ing towards determination, has now a tend
ency to recover itself; and, although de-
population is still going on, the ratio is small,
when compared with former years. The
present native population numbers about one
hundred thousand, being about one-third of
what they were in 1878. Heathenism, how
ever, has now ceased to claim its victims for
its horrible religious rites-the wars in which
tens of thousands were either slain in battle,
massacred, or persisted by famine, are now
ended-the fearful diseases introduced by
white men have either exhausted themselves.
or been checked by medical aid-the one
rous taxes, which crushed the zone and sim
ew of the nation, are discontinued; and a be-
n~efcent and humane legislation, based upon
the principles Of Christianity, is now pouring
a fresh stream oflife blood into the arteries of
the nation"
"The natural resources of these islands,
both in fertility, population, and products,
are too inconsiderable to produce any sud-
den and rapid commercial growth. Their
prosperity will chiefly be commensurate and
contemporary with the progress of the coasts
of the neighboring continents, and the civili-
cation of the southern archipelagoes. A
fair proportion of increasing trade in that
quarter must necessarily, from their pecu-
liarly advantageous situation, fall to their
lot. The completion of the Panama canal.
which is destined to unite the waters of the
Pacific with the Atlantic, would greatly in
crease their commerce. Already are they
the stopping point, the ~resting-place of the
valuable trade between Mexico, Peru. and
China. Let the canal be finished. and it
would be found that much of the prosperity
which the French so confidently predict for
the Marquesas and Society groups, which
they have so recently seized, would centre
at the Sandwich islands. The course oft the
tr%ade-winds and the currents, so favorable
for vessels bound from the western coasts of
America to China, the Philippine islands,
or the East Indies, are equally so for their
touching, for purposes oftrade, refreshments,
or repairs, at these islands; while the other
groups cannot be reached except by a de-