For seven years after the death of Captain Cook no foreign vessel ventured to touch at the Islands. After that time many of the vessels engaged in the fur trade on the northwest coast of America called at the Islands for supplies on their way to Canton or ran down here to spend the winter. Waimea, Kauai, and Kealakekua bay were the two harbors most frequented by them. Fire arms, powder and shot were the articles most in demand among the natives.
THE RISE OF KAMEHAMEHA.
At the death of Kalaniopuu, Moi, of Hawaii, in 1782, a civil war broke out, which rent the Island into three petty sovereignties, which were presently reduced to two.
The districts of Kohala and Kona were held by Kamehameha, a nephew of the late king, while the other districts were loyal to his son, Keoua. After a sanguinary war lasting nine years (during which Kamehameha had ravaged West Maui and conquered the district of Hamakua), he became master of the whole of the Island of Hawaii by the assassination of his rival, Keoua, at Kawaihae, in 1791.
VISITS OF VANCOUVER.
The name of Capt. George Vancouver is still cherished as that of a wise and generous benefactor to these Islands. During his
survey of the northwest coast of America in 1792-1794, he made three visits to the Islands. He uniformly refused to sell fire arms or ammunition to the chiefs, but gave them useful plants and seeds, and presented Kamehameha with the first cattle and sheep ever landed in the Islands. On the 25th of February, 1794, Kamehameha and his chiefs voluntarily placed Hawaii under the protection of Great Britain, in token of which the British flag was hoisted on shore at Kealakekua.
CONQUEST OF OAHU.
After the death of Kahekili, the sovereign of the leeward Islands, in 1794, a civil war broke out between his brother Kaeo and his son Kalanikupule, in which the former was killed. Soon after Kalanikupule treacherously massacred Captains Brown and Gordon, who had assisted him in the late war, and seized
their vessels in the harbor of Honolulu.