wild goats were also to be found; and the flocks of sheep, the progeny of a few pairs imported soon after the arrival of the cattle, were found to yield an excellent quality of wool. The value of the cocoanut-trees, with which the shores of the Islands were fringed, especially for their yield of oil, was also early recognized. The commercial utility of the wild flocks and herds and of the vegetable products of the Islands was perceived by scattering white men, who, cast ashore from wrecked vessels or deserting from ships in the harbors, had settled here and there throughout the Islands. From these men, mainly, were purchased wool, hides, goat-skins, tallow, and cocoanut oil, which were loaded upon the waiting ships and conveyed to market at American ports.

The promoters of the American whale-fisheries soon discovered that time and money might be saved by unloading their oil at Honolulu and there depositing it for transshipment in merchant vessels for home ports. The whale-ships were thus enabled to return to the fishing-grounds, avoiding a long and at times dangerous voyage homeward with

their cargoes. Honolulu thus, until the decline of the whale-fisheries, which marked their highest point in the year 1854,-became an important point toward which the eyes of hundreds of New England people were eagerly turned. The ship-owner awaited news from that port of the safe arrival of his vessels from the fishing-grounds, and from thence received the cargoes of oil which had there received temporary storage. The families of the seamen, who had been left at home, eagerly watched the newspapers for announcements of arrivals from Honolulu; for such announcements brought with them a feeling of hope, if not certainty, that letters from the absent ones would soon come to their hand.

The adaptability of the soil and climate of the Islands to the raising of sugar-cane was discovered at an early day, and some of the first white settlers engaged in its culture. As early as 1853 nearly three thousand acres of cane were under cultivation, and the acreage has rapidly increased until the cultivation and exportation of sugar has become the chief industry of the Islands. In the year

1897 nearly two hundred and fifty thousand tons of sugar were exported, the entire amount being sent to the United States.

In the year 1855 a treaty of reciprocity was concluded between the United States and the king of the Hawaiian Islands, Hon. William L. Marcy, Secretary of State, acting in behalf of this country, and Judge Lee, the king's commissioner, in behalf of the native government. This treaty appears to have been approved by the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs; but, on submission to the vote of the Senate, the required twothirds majority was not obtained, and the treaty failed of ratification.

In the year 1864, during the progress of the Civil War, the subject of a revival of this treaty was broached; but on account of the probable effect of such a measure on the public revenue, at a time when the financial resources of the country were strained to the last degree, it was not deemed advisable that the subject should then be revived. A few years later another attempt was made, though with no better success. On the first day of February, 1867, Hon. Edward McCook, then

minister of the United States at Honolulu, was instructed by Hon. William H. Seward, then at the head of the Department of State, to the effect that the United States would look favorably upon a plan for a revival of the reciprocity treaty of 1855, but upon terms more liberal to the United States. Acting upon this suggestion, a new treaty was framed and concluded by Mr. McCook, on the part of the United States, and Hon. C. C. Harris, Hawaiian minister at Washington, acting as a commissioner representing the Hawaiian king. This convention was concluded at San Francisco in May, 1867, and received the approval of President Johnson; but it, too, met the fate of its predecessors, failing of ratification in the Senate. Pending the Senate's discussion, Mr. McCook, in a private note addressed to Secretary Seward, asked for leave to visit Washington at about the time of the assembling of Congress, to communicate his views to the senators.

"Should the treaty be ratified," writes Mr. McCook in confidence to the Secretary of State, "I shall feel that I have accomplished