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States will not be unobservant of its rights and interests, and will be neither unwilling nor unprepared to support the Hawaiian government in the faithful discharge of its treaty obligations.

At the expiration of the seven years' duration of this treaty of reciprocity, negotiations were opened for another treaty of similar import, so far as its main provisions were concerned. This was effected December 6, 1884, by a convention in which the treaty of 1875 was renewed for the further period of seven years; and, further, the King of the Hawaiian Islands granted to the United States the exclusive right to enter Pearl River, in the island of Oahu, and to establish there a coaling and repair station for the use of vessels of the United States. The ratification of this extension of the treaty was strenuously opposed by the sugar-refining interests of the United States and by Great Britain, that government contending that the granting of exclusive privileges in Pearl Harbor was in contravention of the Anglo-Hawaiian treaty, and “would infallibly lead to the loss of the independence of the Islands." The opposition from both these sources was at length

overcome; and the convention was finally ratified and proclaimed in November, 1887. This treaty was allowed to continue as it stood at the expiration of its term, no notice, since the close of its seven years of limitation, having been made looking toward that end. In the Fifty-fourth Congress, however, an earnest effort was made by a formidable party, apparently in the interest of the American sugar refiners, to secure abrogation; but the effort was unsuccessful, and the treaty, at the time of the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the territory of the United States in July, 1898, remained in full force.

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BEGUN. THE point of time at which the attention of the government of the United States was drawn to the Hawaiian Islands, and to the increasing interests of its citizens there, was almost exactly coeval with the establishment in the Islands of the American missions. The rapidly increasing commerce with the Islands, and the practical establishment there of a depot for supplies for whale-ships, and for transshipment of the product of those fisheries to home ports, had served to give America an important stake in the mid-Pacific, which our government recognized and prepared itself to preserve. On September 19, 1820, John C. Jones was appointed by President Monroe to be "Agent of the United States for Commerce and Seamen " at the Hawaiian Islands. This office was practically that of consul, for to the duties of agent was added general supervision of American interests in the Islands. Reports were made to the Department of State at Washington, from time to time, of matters touching American interests; and, at irregu

lar intervals, reports were received from commanders of naval vessels of the United States, which occasionally touched at the Islands for fresh supplies and other purposes.

In the autumn of 1823 the king, Liholiho, determined that he would go forth from his island kingdom, and see something of the great world of which he had been told so much. In October of that year, in company with his queen, Kamamalu, and attended by a retinue, he set sail in the English ship L'Aigle. His view of his native islands as they faded from his sight beyond the horizon was his last.

In May, 1824, the royal party landed in England; and their majesties were treated with great consideration by George IV. A sudden and severe attack of measles seized both king and queen, and in July of the same year the deaths of both occurred. Their bodies were enclosed in coffins of lead, encased in wood, and covered with crimson velvet, and conveyed to their island home in the frigate Blonde, commanded by Lord Byron, a cousin of the poet.

The younger brother of Liholiho, named

Kauikeaouli, then eleven years of age, succeeded to the throne, in accordance with the will of the late king, prudently executed just before his departure from home. The executive authority, however, was to rest for a time in the hands of the dowager queen, Kaahumanu, second in rank in the kingdom, and Kalaimoku, otherwise known as "William Pitt," the prime minister. After a few years, however, Kauikeaouli assumed full authority in the kingdom, under the title of Kamehameha III. It was during the period of his guardianship that the first formal visit was made to these Islands of a naval vessel flying the American flag. This was the United States steamship Peacock, Captain Thomas ap Catesby Jones, which dropped anchor in the harbor of Honolulu in the year 1826. This call of the Peacock was in pursuance of instructions received in May, 1825, by Commodore Hull, then in command of the Pacific squadron. The instructions from Washington, which were received by him at Callao, Peru, were to the effect that a naval vessel should proceed to Honolulu on a visit of friendly inspection, to re

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