The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-06-26

ina means the brig Waverlyi do not
know the price paid for her, but thinks
it could not have exceeded $4,000 or
10000; Reynolds must know.
O. Had the American missionaries
or any OF them anything to do with
the arrangements made by Captain
Jones? II so, state what missionaries
by name?
a. By Kekuanaoa and John Ii.
Do not think they had anything to do
with it.
By Kanaina. The missionaries were
employed simply to interpret for the
chiefs.
A. By John Meek. Thinks all the
missionaries had to do with the settle
ment was, 20 interpret between the
chiefs and Capt lin Jones.
Q. Did the missionaries or any of
them tell the King and chiefs, before
the arrival of Captain Jones, that the
claims of the American traders were
just, and that the chiefs ought to pay
them?
A. By Kekuanaoa AID John Ii.
No, do not recollect that they ever did.
a. BY Kanaina. Does not remem-
Der that the missionaries did, but
knows that Kaahumanu ordered the
chiefs, Boki, Kuakini and HOapili,
also Naihe, always to pay at the time
for whatever they got.
4. BY John Meek: Thinks "all the
missionaries had to do with the settle
ment was to interpret between the
chiefs and Captain Jones'"
Stephen Reynolds diary, kept at
the time contains the following refer
ences:
1926, December II. "Signed re
quest to Captain Jones to speak of old
debts. s December II. Cap
tain Jones and Consul Jones went to
the chiefs to talk of old debts and
other important matters.n
1927, January > cat 10 o'clock the
chiefs assembled under the grove of
coceanut trees below the fort, where
they assembled all the people of the
village to hear their orders, viz: That
every man should 80 to the noun
tains and get half picul of sandal
wood for the Government, and half
! they got over (this) should be their
own; the women to produce tapas or
mats or q dollar apiece. The men who
choose can pay four dollars as an
equivalent for their half picul; a good
regulation if put in practice. Some
came to buy axes before night.n
Mr. Reynolds was then boOkkeeper
for w. French q Co.
Commodore Jones himself, in his
letter of December 30; 1885,, states in
ree%,;u TO the sandal wool cdict; 1.-THE
tariff schedule, the groundwork of
Mr.. Wyllie.s bitterness against me,
was the inception of that gifted noble,
II lat F,1.
was never seen by me until officially
promulgated on the 9th of December,
| 1926"
The sandal wood collected under
this edict was mostly squandered by
Governor Boki, and on the arrival of
the L. 5. S. Vincennes, Captain
| Finch, another conference was held
before Captain Finch, at which the
king and chiefs signed note dated
November ., 1929, promising to pay
400 piculs of sandal wood.
These claims were again brought
, before Commodore Downes, Of the U.
s. ). Potomac, Il July. 1882, without
any settlement being arrived at
At the second visit Of the U. S. s.
Peacock, Commodore Kennedy, in
September, 1896, the claims of the
traders were once more discussed, and
ian old claim for 100000 was acknow-
was acknowledged, besides another
much smuller one"
These claims were finally settled
October 4th, lS43, by the payment of
$4,000 by DR.. G.. p. Judd, for the
| Hawaiian Government, to John G.
Jones, representing the claimants.
The correspondence and the tiral re-
ceipt in full have been preserved.
need hardly add that the Ameri-
can Board has always forbidden its
missionaries to engage in trade.
The traders, who were the actual
claimants, were for the most part Bit
ter enemies of the American mission.
1t is to be regretted that no list or
schedule of their claims has ever been
published. Most of the documents
filed with Commodore Jones' report
were consumed in the great fire that
destroyed the offices of the Navy De-
partment some twenty years ago.
In the testimony above cited Cap
tain Meek said: "He does not know
how long a time Captain Jones took
to examine the accounts, and does not
believe the chiefs know: it would be
impossible TO overhaul so many old
and long accounts in period so short
as stated" After a candid review of
all the existing evidence, it is impos-
sible for one to resist the conviction
that many of those claims were ex-
orbitant and unjust. 1t is hard,
however, to believe that they ever
amounted to anything like 100000,
i'm view of the statements afterwards
made before Captain Finch, and again
before Commodore Kennedy. Ger
tainly nothing like that sum was ever
paid either in money or sandalwood
on that account.
The late Walter Murray Gibson,
soon after his arrival in these Islands
and frequently thereafter, threw out
dark hints about "a great wrong" that
had been perpetrated by the United
States against the feeble government
of Hawaii, which, he said, far ex-
ceeded the injuries inflicted by the
ships of any other nation. He never
dreamed, however, of including the
American missionaries in the charge,
except for an excess of charity toward