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The Chairman. You identify this book, Two Weeks of Hawaiian History, of which you spoke in your examination?
Mr. McCandless. I read the resolutions of that.
The Chairman. Now, this book you will take with you and examine carefully, and see if you have any statements to make to the contrary of anything therein contained, on your own knowledge or information.
SWORN STATEMENT OF DEWITT COFFMAN—Continued.
Senator Gray. Were you on duty on the Pensacola at Honolulu in the fall of 1891 and during January and February, 1892?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. Were you frequently on shore?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
The Chairman. On the Pensacola?
Mr. Coffman. I served on both ships.
Senator Gray. Were you frequently on shore?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. Did you mix with the people of Honolulu?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. So that your acquaintance with Honolulu was not confined to the few days that you were attached to the Boston, at the time of this revolution?
Mr. Coffman. I was there very nearly six months, the first time.
Senator Gray. After the passage of what was known here as the McKinley bill, the tariff bill of 1890, did you find from your contact with business people there that the prosperity of those islands had been affected by the provisions of that bill in regard to making sugar free in the United States?
Mr. Coffman. Yes; generally so.
Senator Gray. And was that very generally marked?
Mr. Coffman. Yes; I have heard it stated that they thought the monetary trouble they were laboring under at the time was generally due to the fact that the United States Government, by the passage of the McKinley bill, had killed, to a certain extent, if not altogether, the sugar industry of the islands.
Senator Gray. Now, what I was going to ask you is, did that have its effect on annexation sentiment?
Mr. Coffman. I believe that is at the bottom of it.
Senator Gray. Did it, to your knowledge, have the effect of creating a sentiment of annexation?
Senator Frye. For or against it?
Senator Gray. Have you knowledge that it did create annexation sentiment?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. Did you hear any persons who before that were opposed to it say they were in favor of it?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. You have already testified that you commanded one of the companies of the battalion that was landed on Monday, the 16th of January, 1893?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. You landed at the wharf. What did you do at the wharf, so soon as you got out of the boats ?
Mr. Coffman. So soon as we landed we formed our battalion.
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Senator Gray. Did you form immediately?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. Was it understood before you left the boat where you were to march?
Mr. Coffman. Yes; I think our route of march was mapped out before we left the ship.
Senator Gray. Who piloted you, if anybody?
Mr. Coffman. When we got to the Government building, after detaching the marines, Mr. Hugh Gunn, I think, guided us to Mr. Atherton's place.
Senator Gray. What relation did he have to the Provisional Government, if any?
Mr. Coffman. He commanded a company of volunteer soldiers of the Provisional Government after that, and was known as one of the Provisional Government men or people.
Senator Gray. Was there, to your knowledge, any other building suitable for the use of the troops of the Boston than the opera house and Arion Hall?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. Where?
Mr. Coffman. On Nuuanu avenue, a little more than halfway between the United States consulate and the American minister's residence.
Senator Gray. What sort of building was that?
Mr. Coffman. It was a large three-story, brand-new hotel, and unoccupied.
Senator Gray. Do you know who owned it?
Mr. Coffman. Mr. John Thomas Waterhouse, who was present while our troops were standing in the street waiting to find out where Mr. Atherton's was.
Senator Gray. Do you know whether that building was obtainable?
Mr. Coffman. I have no doubt in the world that it was obtainable.
Senator Gray. Is that simply an opinion?
Mr. Coffman. That is my opinion.
Senator Gray. Did you hear Mr. Waterhouse say anything about it?
Mr. Coffman. I heard Mr. Waterhouse say that he was glad to see the troops, and marched down in front of us after we had halted. He said, "I am glad to see this," and passed on in front of our troops as much as to say he was glad to see our troops.
Senator Gray. He owned that hotel building?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. Is the situation of that building in a more thickly built up part of the town?
Mr. Coffman. I can not say more thickly built up; but there are fine residences around there, and it is more accessible to the business portion.
Senator Gray. Was it nearer to what you considered the property of American citizens than Arion Hall?
Mr. Coffman. Yes.
Senator Gray. More so, or how?
Mr. Coffman. It was nearer to the residence portion, which was the part which would be attacked in any incendiary work to go on.
Senator Gray. Will you point on that map where it is?
Mr. Coffman. On Nuuana avenue.
Senator Gray. You say it is on Nuuana avenue, a little more than half way between the U. S. consulate and the U. S. legation?
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