HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.	429
two native policemen to guard the Herald correspondent's lodgings. In view of the 
fact that Mr. Nordhoff is as safe in Honolulu as he could be at his sequestered home 
on Coronado Beach, the whole episode becomes a tax upon the risibles.
Careful inquiry shows that the only basis for the Herald man's fears - apart from 
that conscience which, as the poet says, "Doth make cowards of us all" - was a stray 
remark here and there that he ought to he tarred and feathered. As Mr. Nordhoff's 
well aware, small talk is often heard in times of political debate, and is but the 
smallest of small change in the circulation of public opinion. It is the coinage of idle 
chat merely; in this case particularly so, an the annexation party is standing on its 
dignity as a representative Hawaiian body, asking admission to the American brother- 
hood on the ground, among other grounds, that in civilization, Christianity, and 
moral purpose it is worthy of the fellowship. It could not be induced to do or per- 
mit a ruffianly act, a fact which we believe Mr. Nordhoff himself appreciates as well 
as anyone else.
Why, then, did he ask protection?  Wait and see! If he doesn't use the fact that 
he got it to fill the columns of the Herald with a lurid tale of how he escaped death 
at the hands of an infuriated annexation mob, only to be saved by the intervention 
of Minister Blount and the reluctant display of provisional force, then the Star misses 
a reasonable guess. The two shirt-sleeved native policemen who dawdle about his 
palace dozing and yawning will doubtless be magnified into a garrison of men in 
buckram surrounded and besieged by bloodthirsty planters or missionaries all eager 
to flesh their daggers in the heart of the one bold correspondent who had exposed 
their foul conspiracies and haled their cause to the bar of public judgment. Life 
will hardly be worth Mr. Nordhoff's living until he can got some such phantasma- 
goria before the Herald's readers, as evidence that all he had previously said against 
the nature and personnel of the annexation movement is true.
In the meantime it is to bo hoped that the two native guardians of Mr. Nordhoff's 
person and peace will manage to keep awake during the drowsy days and soporific 
nights which envelop the pastoral region of Nuuanu street.
Mr. Blount to Mr. Gresham,
No. 4.]	LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Honolulu, June 1, 1893.
SIR : I send yon a communication today signed as special commis- 
sioner because it relates to the object for which my appointment in that 
capacity was made.
I was sworn in us minister because I believed that some public rea- 
son for my temporary appointment influenced it. I could not under 
the circumstances do otherwise.
I now earnestly urge the immediate appointment of some person as 
my successor.
My resignation was forwarded in the form which you have seen be- 
cause I did not deem it respectful to tender it absolutely when some 
temporary and public reason might have made it seem improper for me 
to do so.
If you have appointed a good man for consul-general here I do not 
see why he might not take charge of the affairs of the legation. 
I am, etc.,
JAMES H. BLOUNT.
Mr. Blount to Mr. Gresham,
No. 5.]	LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Honolulu, June 1, 1893.
SIR: Last night about 11 o'clock three sticks of giant powder were 
found, accompanied by some preparation of mercury. Suspicion is 
rife with royalists and annexationists.

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