inary
occasions, a reasonably fair understanding existed between the colonists
and the Kannakas. It is true, that the former were a little too fond of
getting as much work as possible, for rather small compensations, out of
these semi-savages; but, as articles of small intrinsic value still went
a great way in these bargains, no serious difficulty had yet arisen out
of the different transactions. Some persons thought that the Kannakas
had risen in their demands, and put less value on a scrap of old iron,
than had been their original way of thinking, now that so many of their
countrymen had been back and forth a few times, between the group and
other parts of the world; a circumstance that was very naturally to be
expected. But the governor knew mankind too well not to understand that
all unequal associations lead to discontent. Men may get to be so far
accustomed to inferior stations, and to their duties and feelings, as to
consider their condition the result of natural laws; but the least taste
of liberty begets a jealousy and distrust that commonly raises a barrier
between the master and servant, that has a never-dying tendency to keep
them more or less alienated in feeling. When the colonists began to cast
about them, and to reflect on the chances of their being sustained by
these hirelings in the coming strife, very few of them could be
sufficiently assured that the very men who had now eaten of their bread
and salt, in some instances, for years, were to be relied on in a
crisis. Indeed, the number of these Kannakas was a cause of serious
embarrassment with the governor, when he came to reflect on his
strength, and on the means, of employing it.

Fully two hundred of the savages, or semi-savages, were at that moment
either scattered about among the farm-houses; or working in the
different places where shipping lay, or were out whaling to windward.
Now, the whole force of the colony, confining it to fighting-men, and
including those who were absent, was just three hundred and sixty-three.
Of these, three hundred might, possibly, on an emergency, be brought to
act on any given point, leaving the remainder in garrisons. But a
straggling body of a hundred and fifty of these Kannakas, left in the
settlements, or on the Reef, or about the crater, while the troops were
gone to meet the enemy, presented no very pleasing picture to the mind
of the governor. He saw the necessity of collecting these men together,
and of employ