Chinese in mid-nineteenth century Honolulu

"Previous to the year 1852," C. C. Bennett wrote, "there were but few Chinese on the islands, and they were of the better class, mostly merchants and shop-keepers. Since that period, however, the business of importing Chinese coolies as laborers and house servants has been carried on to some extent."

"According to the census of 1866," he added, "there were then 1,090 male and 110 female Chinese on the islands, or 1,200 in all."

Three years later in a report "by a Chinaman, who is a convert to Christianity, and who professes to have conversed with every one of his countrymen on the islands," it said that "there was 1,201 males, 76 females, and 40 children, or a total of 1,317: there was 121 married to Hawaiian women, and of the half Chinese there were 167."

C. C. Bennett, Honolulu Directory and Historical Sketch of the Sandwich Islands (Honolulu: C. C. Bennett, 1869), p. 60.