Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/420

404 Percival, of the United States schooner "Dolphin," "the mischief-making man-of-war," arrived at Honolulu. When he learned that a law was in force which, he said, "deprived [the seamen] of an enjoyment they had always been in participation of when they visit this island," he demanded an interview with Kaahumanu, the queen regent, in order to have it abrogated. Not having been successful in his object, a few days later he returned and said to her, according to the account of Rev. H. Bingham, snapping his fingers and clinching his fists: "Tomorrow I will give my men rum; look out: they will come for women; and if they do not get them, they will fight. My vessel is just like fire." On the following day, Sunday, the sailors landed in force, attacked and partially wrecked the house of the prime minister, also that of the missionary, and would probably have beaten Mr. Bingham to death had he not been rescued by the natives. The chiefs were thus intimidated. Women were taken off to the ships. And Lieutenant Percival and his men remained three months in the harbor of Honolulu.

In 1838 the Hawaiian government passed a law forbidding the importation of "rum, brandy, gin, ale, and all distilled spirits whatsoever," except in small quantities, with the consent of the governor, for medicinal or mechanical purposes—the home manufacture of distilled spirits had previously been prohibited. But in the following year Captain Laplace of the French frigate "Artémise" arrived, and presented a treaty for the king's signature. Should the king and chiefs refuse to sign this document, Laplace declared in his manifesto, "war will immediately commence, and all the devastations, all the calamities, which may be the unhappy but necessary results, will be imputed to themselves alone, and they will also pay the losses which the aggrieved foreigners, in these circumstances, shall have a right to reclaim." Soon the treaty was signed. Immediately Laplace presented another treaty, one of the articles of which provided that French merchandise, "and particularly wines and brandy, cannot be prohibited, and shall not pay an import duty higher than 5 per cent. ad valorem." This treaty was brought to the king at five o'clock in the afternoon, and he was required to sign it by