Page 56 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

42.
55
exacerbated Hawaiian fears. This attitude of American resi­

dents may have stemmed from the fact that they harbored a

belief that the English were determined to expel all American

influence from the Islands. A statement by King Liholiho in

1821 lent credence to such apprehensions. Most likely acting

in response to the growing American hegemony, the King spoke

of placing his Islands under British protection. He failed

to act, howeveru and after his death subsequent Hawaiian

rulers placed increasing emphasis on friendship with the
1
United States. Even in the 1830 s American residents never­

theless persisted in believing that the British desired to
. . 56
1 d
annex t h e Hawaiian Is an s.
When an American naval expedition visited the Islands

in 1829, American residents used the occasion to appeal to the

American government for support of American interests in the

Islands. American Consul John C. Jones, in communications to

the naval commander, spoke for the American community in asking

for greater governmental support and more numerous naval visits.

Jones portrayed American commerce in the Islands as having an
extremely promising future, expecially in trade to South Ameri-

57 1 11
ca. Capt. W.C.B. Finch of the u.s.s. 1Vincennes was skeptical

55
Bradley, American Frontier in Hawaii, pp. 95-96.
56
Extract of Letter, J. Hunnewell to Rev. W. Ellis, Feb.
20, 1833, Hunnewell MSS. Bradley, American Frontier in Hawaii,
pp. 98-99.
57
Charles S. Stewart, A Visit to the South Seas, in the
U.S. Ship Vincennes during the Years 1829 and 1830 (2 vols.;
New York, 1831), II, 213-19.