Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/50

 40 RALPH S. KUYKENDALL sailed for England in a ship belonging to the East India Company. 9 The instructions for the voyage to Japan are dated at Canton, July 25, 1791. 10 Colnett gives no dates, except the one just noted, nor does he mention that he stopped at the Sandwich Islands on his way to China, his only reference to these Islands being contained in the statement previously quoted. In these statements there is certainly no ground for supposing that after his return from Nootka Sound to China, following his release from captivity, Colnett made another voyage to the Hawaiian Islands. It is however, reasonable to conclude that his arrival in China from Nootka occurred only a short time before the date July 25, 1791. Bearing these^faings in mind, let us examine two other statements by Colnett. Soon after the arrival of the Princess Royal at the Hawaiian Islands, in March, 1791, her Spanish com- mander, Don Manuel Quimper, received from the hands of Kaiana 11 a letter, in English, which was intended for several Englishmen then resident on the island of Ha- waii. Quimper gives a Spanish translation of this letter. Translated back into English it reads as follows: The natives inform me that there are three or four Englishmen among them. If you need anything with which I can supply you, write to me or let me know and I will send you that which you want; I with my ship have been a prisoner of the Spaniards for twelve months, but the king of England demanded that my ship and crew should be liberated, and they have paid the costs; the Spaniards are coming to this island immediately to make a settlement on it and so you should be careful because they will give no quarter, the same as at Nootka. The natives inform me of the Tabu Morea and that they do not wish to trade their hogs except for canons 9 Colnett, op. cit., Introduction. On the point of the furs obtained by Colnett, cf. Vancouver, Voyage (London, 1801), II, pp. 341-2. 10 Colnett, op. cit., pp. 101-102. "Kaiana was the Hawaiian chief who was taken to China by Meares and who figures so largely in the pages of his book. Kaiana was known to all the early traders, by whom his character is variously estimated. He played an important part in local Hawaiian affairs.