Page:American Diplomacy in the Orient - Foster (1903).djvu/140

 and in almost all cases their action was on the side of justice and morality. When the exception occurred it was the more noticeable. The controversy which was arbitrated by Captain Jones grew, in part, out of the visit of another naval vessel of the United States, the Dolphin, which anchored in Honolulu on the January previous to the arrival of Captain Jones. Its crew soon created trouble because of the regulations against prostitution. The Hawaiians, before their conversion to Christianity, possessed very loose ideas as to chastity, and upon the arrival of foreign vessels it had been the custom of the native females to go on board in large numbers. When the new order of government was brought about, under the influence of the missionaries, strict rules were enforced putting a stop to this immoral practice. It had met with the bitter opposition of the crews of foreign vessels, but up to the arrival of the Dolphin the new regulations were being successfully enforced. When its crew set itself in opposition to the law, the commander of the Dolphin took up the controversy for his men, and denounced the law as unnecessary, and one which they need not observe. The result was that for a time the law was not enforced, and this action of an armed vessel of the American navy had an evil effect temporarily on the influence of the missionaries.

The arrival a few months after this disgraceful occurrence of an honorable and virtuous representative of the United States navy and his vindication of the missionaries did much to undo the bad example of the crew of the Dolphin. Upon the return of this vessel to the United States a court of inquiry was ordered, and