Hawaiʻi's young king inherited the chiefs' sandalwood debt, and the governor who sailed to cut more sandalwood never came back

Kamehameha I held a monopoly on Hawaiʻi's sandalwood trade. After he died in 1819, his son Liholiho let the chiefs take a larger share. The chiefs bought goods from American traders on credit, promising payment in sandalwood. By 1821 the debt stood at $300,000. Kamehameha III inherited a debt of $500,000 owed to American traders. In October 1826 Thomas ap Catesby Jones arrived in Honolulu in command of the US warship Peacock, and on 4 November the chiefs agreed to pay in full. The kingdom's first written law followed. Every man had to deliver half a picul of sandalwood, or four Spanish dollars, by 1 September 1827. By 1826 the sandalwood within reach was gone. Boki, governor of Oʻahu, was in debt himself. On 30 November 1829 he, the king and a sea captain signed an agreement for a voyage to cut sandalwood in the southwest Pacific. Boki said he was going for the chiefs' debts. On 2 December he sailed in the king's brig Kamehameha with about 300 men, followed by the Becket with 179. Nothing was seen of the Kamehameha again. At Erromango the Becket's men met hostility and sickness. It reached Honolulu on 3 August 1830 with 20 survivors. By 1840 the trade had stopped, and Hawaiian sandalwood was long thought extinct.