seized the person of His Majesty, dragged him to the wharf, and there, just before the great revolution was effected, was himself killed by a mob of these inconsiderate savages who preferred their own form of government.

This effort to establish Cook's variety of a republic took place during the American Revolution, and since that unfortunate attempt the work has been steadily going on. A good many other Captain Cooks have landed there, sometimes in the guise of speculators, sometimes under the cloak of missionaries. They have carried thither not only theories of the universe which were novel to the islanders, but cannon, powder, rum, tobacco, opium, and a series of complicated and odious diseases of which they had never dreamed. The net result of this determined effort of the white man to reform and improve the condition of the natives is that the population has been reduced about three-quarters.

Mr. Charles Nordhoff, who wrote up the Sandwich Islands with a very friendly pen for the New York Herald,

says:

In 1832 the islands had a population of 130,315 souls; in 1836 there were but 108,579; in 1840, only 84,165, of whom 1,962 were foreigners; in 1850, 69,800, of whom 3,216 were foreigners; and in 1860, 62,959, of whom 4,194 were foreigners. The native population has decreased over 60 per cent in forty years.

Since 1860 they have still further diminished, and the present population is 90,000, of whom 40,500 are natives and 49,500 are foreigners. It will be noticed that the natives have decreased as the foreigners have increased. The representatives of Christian nations who entered the Sandwich Islands with Captain Cook and his followers have taught some of the natives to read, write, and cipher, and to wear a good deal of unnecessary clothing, which has diminished their power of resistance to disease by relaxing their systems, and have introduced there special and insidious diseases, corrupting the blood and transmitting corruption to the progeny. The touch of the white man since Cook has had the same blighting effect in Honolulu that the touch of the white man since Pizarro has had in Peru.

And now it is seriously proposed to annex this impoverished, degraded people-for they are as impoverished as they are degraded. The missionaries have not only looked out for their morals, but for their property. They long ago succeeded in gaining title to nearly all the land, and now they have captured the Government and set up a Government of their own which has no resemblance whatever to what we call a republic. Under Queen Liliuokalani they had a Limited Monarchy; under Dole they have a Limited Republic-limited to about four men. A republic is adapted only to a people who live between the latitudes of 30° and 55°, where competition is sharp; where work is indispensable to life; where the incessant struggle for existence goes on; where the necessity of defending the home fireside from the depredations of winter makes existence difficult. The Hawaiian Islands lie outside of that shining belt of the earth where the constant fight with nature brings out all that is masterful in man, and where, therefore, he finds himself capable of self-government.

All that a man in the Hawaiian Islands is obliged to do to gain a living is to plant a banana tree and steal a fish line. A republic implies intelligence, education, mutual forbearance, tireless energy, enterprise, tremendous industry, the flowering of the domestic virtues. We must not forget that. A monarchy is the best possible form of government for a people who are not fit for anything better. The natives of the Hawaiian Islands to-day dress in calico nightgowns, and, as when Captain Cook's shadow first cursed that summer land, they sleep in grass huts and lazily live on fish and poi.

In the Hawaiian Islands 1 are found the most contradictory conditions. In a small belt along the coast and in the few low-lying valleys the conditions of life are easy, for the heated air makes clothing unnecessary, and the fertile soil enables all tropical fruits and vegetables to grow almost without the planting; but in all the rest of the islands exists the temperature of our Northern winter. Having an area about as large as Massachusetts, and a population about a quarter as large as that of the city of Washington, these islands are 1. Speech in the Senate July 2, 1894.

mostly composed of volcanic scoria, about as unadapted to vegetation as so much cast iron. It is the crater of the vastest volcano in the world, desolated with ice and fire, generally either too hot or too cold for human endurance. Nothing which the face of the planet presents to man is more bleak. barren, inhospitable, menacing, and terrible than the tremendous area which constitutes the peak of this mountain of flame. So, while the maintenance of life in the valleys and along the hot coast seems easy, Hawaii presents no more temptation to the enterprising emigrant than Ecuador or the equatorial regions of South America, where the mango matures with ease and man with difficulty.

The Hawaiian Islands are fifteen in number. Five of them are inhabited. They lie between longitude 154° and 160° west, and between latitude 18° and 22° north. The island of Neehau contains 97 square miles and a population of fourteen families. It has an area of 62,000 acres. It is the first of the group to the westward that has any population. It is owned by a citizen of Great Britain, a New Zealander, who bought it from the King many years ago and uses it for grazing purposes. Upon it are raised from thirty to forty thousand sheep, and their wool is admitted to the United States free of duty, although we impose a high duty upon wool from every other country in the world. Certainly no American interest is promoted by our method of dealing with the island of Neehau.

Kauai, the next island, has 590 square miles, and contains 377,000 acres of land, and a population of 15,392. It is owned almost exclusively by German planters, who are raising sugar by the employment of Asiatic labor, and their products are imported to the United States free of duty. There is no American plantation upon this island. Some of the stock in the German companies is owned by the so-called American citizens of Hawaii, but no American citizen owns any property on this island whatever. Yet the people of the United States are taxed to sustain the remission of duties to the extent 1. Speech in the Senate June 23, 1898.

of millions of dollars, and the only purpose served through this favoritism is that their products come in free and they profit enormously on the one side through an abatement of duty on our part and through the medium of contract or slave labor on the part of the planters.

Oahu is an island of 600 square miles, containing 384,000' acres, and it has a population of 40,205 people. On this island is situated the city of Honolulu, containing about 30,000 people. The island also contains many sugar plantations, owned almost entirely by natives of the Hawaiian Islands, men whose fathers or grandfathers were citizens of the United States, who were born on the island, whose ancestors went there to confer upon those people the blessings of civilization, and whose sons have beaten them out of their property and out of their Government.

Molokai is an island of 270 square miles, containing 172,800 acres, with a population of 2,307, 1,200 of whom are lepers. This island is a leper colony. On one side it is fertile. There are one or two sugar plantations, but the island is given up almost entirely to the custody and care of lepers. They are isolated, and have been placed upon this island because the disease is contagious.

I notice, as one of the assets paraded by the advocates of annexation, the cost of this leper plant. It is given as one reason why we should annex the island that this is a part of the property we will acquire if the Government takes Hawaii. It is a wonderful, a most desirable, asset! There are 1,200 lepers, and as an inducement for us to accept the island these enterprising sons of missionaries throw in among the assets. the value of this leper colony plant.

Maui is an island of 760 square miles, containing 467,000 acres, with a population of 17,726, engaged in the production of sugar. This island is exceedingly fertile, and there are vast areas yet uncultivated and capable of producing sugar, and upon it there is considerable in the way of American interests. Upon this island are the plantations of Spreckels and his boy,

and the stock in those companies is quite largely held in this country.

Lanai is an island of 150 square miles, containing 96,000 acres, and has a population of 105 people. There is no American interest there. It is a grazing island.

Hawaii, which is the principal island of the group, has an area of 4,210 square miles, or 2,649,000 acres. Its population is 33,285. This island, like all the others, is a product of volcanic action. They were thrown up from the bed of the Pacific. The island of Hawaii is 14,000 feet in height, and has upon it one of the greatest volcanoes in the world. The crater upon the summit, which is 13,600 feet above the sea, and Kilauea, the crater upon its side, being 4,000 feet above the sea, are always active. This island is exceedingly rich. There are vast areas of tropical vegetation capable of producing great quantities of the products of tropical lands.

The total area of all these islands is 6,677 square miles, or 4,208,000 acres. The Hawaiian Islands are within the Tropics. They are capable of producing only the products of the Tropics. They are susceptible of great development beyond that which has already occurred. They are capable of maintaining, in my opinion, three or four times the population that they now possess.

It was argued by the friends of annexation when the debate opened upon the treaty presented for the annexation of these islands that they were enormously rich; that they would produce a valuable trade, and would therefore confer a great benefit upon the people of the United States. I am willing to accept that statement.

Now it is argued that we only need a coaling station and that the islands are barren, volcanic rocks, not capable of population, and therefore that question is unimportant, hardly worthy of consideration. We will, however, go into that subject farther along.

MR. PRESIDENT,1 I propose to show the character of the people who inhabit the Sandwich Islands; I propose to show

1. Speech in the Senate March 2, 1895.