in scarlet coats, and conducted their illustrious guests to the cabin,
where they were regaled with wine. In this interview the partners
endeavored to impress the monarch with a sense of their importance, and
of the importance of the association to which they belonged. They let
him know that they were eris, or chiefs, of a great company about to
be established on the northwest coast, and talked of the probability
of opening a trade with his islands, and of sending ships there
occasionally. All this was gratifying and interesting to him, for he
was aware of the advantages of trade, and desirous of promoting frequent
intercourse with white men. He encouraged Europeans and Americans to
settle in his islands and intermarry with his subjects. There were
between twenty and thirty white men at that time resident in the island,
but many of them were mere vagabonds, who remained there in hopes
of leading a lazy and an easy life. For such Tamaahmaah had a great
contempt; those only had his esteem and countenance who knew some trade
or mechanic art, and were sober and industrious.

On the day subsequent to the monarch's visit, the partners landed and
waited upon him in return. Knowing the effect of show and dress upon men
in savage life, and wishing to make a favorable impression as the eris,
or chiefs, of the great American Fur Company, some of them appeared in
Highland plaids and kilts to the great admiration of the natives.

While visits of ceremony and grand diplomatic conferences were going
on between the partners and the king, the captain, in his plain,
matter-of-fact way, was pushing what he considered a far more important
negotiation; the purchase of a supply of hogs. He found that the king
had profited in more ways than one by his intercourse with white men.
Above all other arts he had learned the art of driving a bargain. He was
a magnanimous monarch, but a shrewd pork merchant; and perhaps thought