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I            ":;, I I L
HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO.








't
I.   I '




aA IGOHT  CEiN [N TIE CRTE  OF TlHE VOLCANO Oi  ILAUEA, HAWAI[. WFonUylc Il.I  H




THE HTAIVAIIAAY ARCHIPELAGO.
SIX MONTHS
PALMI GROVIES,-~, (CORPAL REEFS, & VOLCANOES
OF THll
SANDWICH ISLANDS.
1<ISABELLA J2'BJRD,          Q 
AUTHOR (0F THE "EINGLISHWOMA.N IN AMERICA."
Somarucor isles of Edon lying
I n dark purple spheres of 8ea."
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
JOHN MAURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1876.




Al
CcJr) of
I  I  1'1t  e - I 
It      l
B6-22


LONDON:
BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WtTITEFRIARI.




TO
MY SISTER,
"O WHOM THESE LETTERS WERE ORIGINALLY WRITTEN,
THEY ARE NOW AFFECTIONATELY
Debicateb.








a\tRT, St,
\- a-PREFACE.
PREFACE.
WITHIN the last century the Hawaiian islands have
been the topic of various works of merit, and some
explanation of the reasons which have led me to enter
upon the same subject are necessary.
I was travelling for health, when circumstances induced
me to land on the group, and the benefit which I derived
from the climate tempted me to remain for nearly seven
months. During that time the necessity of leading a
life of open air and exercise as a means of recovery, led
me to travel on horseback to and fro through the islands,
exploring the interior, ascending the highest mountains,
visiting the active volcanoes, and remote regions which
are known to few even of the residents, living among the
natives, and otherwise seeing Hawaiian life in all its
phases.
At the close of my visit, my Hawaiian friends urged
me strongly to publish my impressions and experiences,
on the ground that the best books already existing, besides being old, treat chiefly of aboriginal customs and
habits now extinct, and of the introduction of Christianity




PREFACE.


and subsequent historical events. They also represented
that I had seen the islands more thoroughly than any
foreign visitor, and the volcano of Mauna Loa under
specially favourable circumstances, and that I had so
completely lived the island life, and acquainted myself
with the existing state of the country, as to be rather a
lJamaina* than a stranger, and that consequently I should
be able to write on Hawaii with a degree of intimacy as
well as freshness. My friends at home, who were interested
in my narratives, urged me to give them to a wider circle,
and my inclinations led me in the same direction, with a
sort of longing to make others share something of my
own interest and enjoyment.
The letters which follow were written to a near relation,
and often hastily and under great difficulties of circum-n
stance, but even with these and other disadvantages,
they appear to me the best form of conveying my impressions in their original vividness.  With the exception of certain omissions and abridgments, they are
printed as they were written, and for such demerits as arise
from this mode of publication, I ask the kind indulgence of my readers.
ISABELLA L. BIRD.
Janmlry, 1875.


* A native word used to signify an old resident.




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
A NIGHT SCENE IN THE CRATER OF THE, VOLCANO OF KILAUEA,
HAWAII.(Fron~tispiece)
~~/, MAP OF THE HAWAIIAN A-RCHIPELAGO..     1
\jTHE NUUANU PALI, OR PRECIPICE, NEAR HONoLULU  29
THE PAU' OR HAWAIIA.N LADIES' HOLIDAY ]RIDING DRESS  31
THE MOUNTAIN MAUNA KEA FROM HILO..       193:
O1RDINARY FEMALE COSTUME..               229~
A HAWAIIAN LADY..                    265
NATIVES OF HONOLULU..                  274
I/A FOR.EST STREAM IN KA'UAI..           316.
MAP OF THE, CRATER OF HIALEAKAL-..      3333
JPIT CRATERS ON HUALALAT..               432




I




ERRATA.
On p. 26, fifth line from the top, for Bougainvilliers read Bougainvillea.
On p. 347, fourth line from the bottom, for Victorian read Australian.
On p. 385, in title of diagram, for Jan. 4 read Jan. 31.




~I
1








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LTAI~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MIUA ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~OOK[ARCHIPELAGO
MAP -A  C t  I  a A  X 
SANDWICH ISLES  A
HlAWAIIAN ARCHIP LA0  J AIASK" Ai X ~, ~_ _____   I^f'   Ad - ^   AKAROO AUI
i^'C __^ _S^-^_____   ^ Ir:^J             foc- -ogo 1-of SOO' lB
^';'*~!^ ^ ~ ensG   cs~
I wo"  P  AE5"sr         i`    ~O"U"~
~~ L:(rY   II;AIIIOU ~ ~ ~!'VmccpooI Ofitaut*




TRAVELS
IN THE
SANDWICH ISLANDS.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
-4 ---
CANON KINGSLEY, in his charming book on the West
Indies, says, "The undoubted fact is known I find to few
educated English people, that the Coco palm, which
produces coir rope, cocoanuts, and a hundred other useful
things, is not the same plant as the cacao bush which
produces chocolate, or anything like it. I am sorry to
have to insist upon this fact, but till Professor Huxley's
dream and mine is fulfilled, and our schools deign to
teach, in the intervals of Greek and Latin, some slight
knowledge of this planet, and of those of its productions
which are most commonly in use, even this fact may need
to be re-stated more than once."
There is no room for the supposition that the intelligence of Mr. Kingsley's "educated English" acquaintance is below the average, and I should be sorry to form
B




2


HAWAII.


[INTRODUCTORY


an unworthy estimate of that of my own circle, though I
have several times met with the foregoing confusion, as
well as the following and other equally ill-informed questions, one or two of which I reluctantly admit that I
might have been guilty of myself before I visited the
Pacific: "Whereabouts are the Sandwich Islands?
They are not the same as the Fijis, are they? Are they
the same as Otaheite? Are the natives all cannibals?
What sort of idols do they worship? Are they as pretty
as the other South Sea Islands? Does the king wear
clothes?  Who do they belong to?  Does any one live
on them but the savages? Will anything grow on them?
Are the people very savage? " etc. Their geographical
position is a great difficulty. I saw a gentleman of very
extensive information looking for them on the map in the
neighbourhood of Tristran d'Acunha; and the publishers
of a high-class periodical lately advertised, "Letters from
the Sandwich Islands" as "Letters from the South Sea
Islands." In consequence of these and similar interrogatories, which are not altogether unreasonable, considering the imperfect teaching of physical geography,
the extent of this planet, the multitude of its productions,
and the enormous number of islands composing Polynesia,
Micronesia, and Melanesia, it is necessary to preface the
following letters with as many preliminary statements as
shall serve to make them intelligible.
The Sandwich Islands do not form one of the South
Sea groups, and have no other connexion with them than
certain affinities of race and language. They constitute
the only important group in the vast North Pacific Ocean,




CHAPTER.]


HAWAIIAN GEOGRAPHY.


3


in which they are so advantageously placed as to be pretty
nearly equidistant fiom California, Mexico, China, and
Japan. They are in the torrid zone, and extend from
18~ 50' to 22~ 20' north latitude, and their longitude is
from 154~ 53' to 160~ 15' west from Greenwich. They
were discovered by Captain Cook in 1778. They are
twelve in number, but only eight are inhabited, and these
vary in size from Hawaii, which is 4000 square miles in
extent, and 88 miles long by 73 broad, to Kahoolawe,
which is only 11 miles long and 8 broad. Their entire
superficial area is about 6,100 miles. They are to some
extent bounded by barrier reefs of coral, and have few safe
harbours. Their formation is altogether volcanic, and
they possess the largest perpetually active volcano and
the largest extinct crater in the world. They are very
mountainous, and two mountain summits on Hawaii are
nearly 14,000 feet in height. Their climate for salubrity
and general equability is reputed the finest on earth. It
is almost absolutely equable, and a man may take his
choice between broiling all the year round on the sea
level on the leeward side of the islands at a temperature of
80~, and enjoying the charms of a fireside at an altitude
where there is frost every night of the year. There is no
sickly season, and there are no diseases of locality. The
trade winds blow for nine months of the year, and on the
windward coasts there is an abundance of rain, and a
perennial luxuriance of vegetation.
The Sandwich Islands are not the same as Otaheite
nor as the Fijis, from which they are distant about 4,000
miles, nor are their people of the same race. The natives
B 2




4


HAWAII.


[INTRODUCTORY


are not cannibals, and it is doubtful if they ever were so.
Their idols only exist in missionary museums. They
cast them away voluntarily in 1819, at the very time
when missionaries from America sent out to Christianize
the group were on their way round Cape Horn. The
people are all clothed, and the king, who is an educated
gentleman, wears the European dress.    The official
designation of the group is " Hawaiian Islands," and
they form an independent kingdom.
The natives are not savages, most decidedly not. They
are on the whole a quiet, courteous, orderly, harmless,
Christian community. The native population has declined from 400,000 as estimated by Captain Cook in
1778 to 49,000, according to the census of 1872. There
are about 5,000 foreign residents, who live on very
friendly terms with the natives, and are mostly subjects
of Kalakaua, the king of the group.
The islands have a tOi6roughly civilized polity, and the
Hawaiians show a great aptitude for political organization.
They constitute a limited monarchy, and have a constitutional and hereditary king, a parliament with an upper
and lower house, a cabinet, a standing army, a police
force, a Supreme Court of Judicature, a most efficient
postal system, a Governor and Sheriff on each of the
larger islands, court officials, and court etiquette, a common school system, custom houses, a civil list, taxes, a
national debt, and most of the other amenities and appliances of civilization.
There is no State Church.    The majority of the
foreigners, as well as of the natives, are Congregationalists.




CIIAPTER.]  EXPLANATIONS AND THANKS..5


The missionaries translated the Bible and other books
into Hawaiian, taught the natives to read and write, gave
the princes and nobles a high class education, induced
the king and chiefs to renounce their oppressive feudal
rights, with legal advice framed a constitution which
became the law of the land, and obtained the recognition
of the little Polynesian kingdom as a member of the
brotherhood of civilized nations.
With these few remarks I leave the subject of the
volume to develop itself in my letters. They have not
had the advantage of revision by any one familiar with
the Sandwich Islands, and mistakes and inaccuracies
may consequently appear, on which, I hope that my
Hawaiian friends will not be very severe. In correcting
them, I have availed myself of the very valuable "History
of the Hawaiian Islands," by Mr. Jackson Jarves, Ellis'
"Tour Round Hawaii," Mr. Brigham's valuable monograph on "The Hawaiian Volcanoes," and sundry reports
presented to the legislature during its present session. I
have also to express my obligations to the Hon. E.
Allen, Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Hawaiian
kingdom, Mr. Manley Hopkins, author of " Hawaii,"
Dr. T. M. Coan, of New York, Professor W. Alexander,
Daniel Smith, Esq., and other friends at Honolulu, for
assistance most kindly rendered.
ISABELLA L. BIRD.




LETTER I.


STEAMER NEVArDA, NORTII PACIFIC,
January 19.
A WHITE, unwinking, scintillating sun blazed down
upon Auckland, New Zealand. Along the white glaring
road from Onehunga, dusty trees and calla lilies drooped
with the heat. Dusty thickets sheltered the cicada, whose
triumphant din grated and rasped through the palpitating
atmosphere.  In   dusty enclosures, supposed to be
gardens, shrivelled geraniums scattered sparsely alone
defied the heat. Flags drooped in the stifling air. Men
on the verge of sunstroke plied their tasks mechanically,
like automatons.  Dogs, with flabby and protruding
tongues, hid themselves away under archway shadows.
The stones of the sidewalks and the brick of the houses
radiated a furnace heat. All nature was limp, dusty,
groaning, gasping. The day was the climax of a burning
fortnight, of heat, draught, and dust, of baked, cracked,
dewless land, and oily breezeless seas, of glaring days,
passing through fierce fiery sunsets into stifling nights.
I only remained long enough in the capital to observe
that it had a look of having seen better days, and that its
business streets had an American impress, and, taking a
boat at a wharf, in whose seams the pitch was melting, I
went off to the steamer Nevada, which was anchored out




LETTER I.1  THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL LINE.


7


in the bay, preferring to spend the night in her than in
the unbearable heat on shore. She belongs to the Webb
line, an independent mail adventure, now dying a natural
death, undertaken by the New Zealand Government, as
much probably out of jealousy of Victoria as anything else.
She nearly foundered on her last voyage; her passengers
unanimously signed a protest against her unseaworthy
condition.  She was condemned by the Government
surveyor, and her mails were sent to Melbourne. She
has, however, been patched up for this trip, and eight
passengers, including myself, have trusted ourselves to
her. She is a huge paddle-steamer, of the old-fashioned
American type, deck above deck, balconies, a pilot-house
abaft the foremast, two monstrous walking beams, and two
masts which, possibly in case of need, might serve as jury
masts.
Huge, airy, perfectly comfortable as she is, not a
passenger stepped on board without breathing a more
earnest prayer than usual that the voyage might end
propitiously. The very first evening statements were
whispered about to the effect that her state of disrepair
is sueh that she has not been to her own port for nine
months, and has been sailing for that time without a
certificate; that her starboard shaft is partially fractured,
and that to reduce the strain upon it the floats of her
starboard wheel have been shortened five inches, the strain
being further reduced by giving her a decided list to port;
that her crank is "bandaged," that she is leaky, that
her mainmast is sprung, and that with only four hours'
steaming many of her boiler tubes, even some of those




8


HAWAII.


[LETTER I.


put in at Auckland, had already given way. I cannot
testify concerning the mainmast, though it certainly does
comport itself like no other mainmast I ever saw; but the
other statements and many more which might be added,
are, I believe, substantially correct. That the caulking of
the deck was in evil case we very soon had proof, for during
heavy rain above, it was a smart shower in the saloon and
state rooms, keeping four stewards employed with buckets
and swabs, and compelling us to dine in waterproofs and
rubber shoes.
In this dilapidated condition, when two days out from
Auckland, we encountered a revolving South Sea
hurricane, succinctly entered in the log of the day as
" Encountered a very severe hurricane with a very heavy
sea." It began at eight in the morning, and never spent
its fury till nine at night, and the wind changed its
direction eleven times. The Nevada left Auckland two
feet deeper in the water than she ought to have been, and
laboured heavily. Seas struck her under the guards with
a heavy, explosive thud, and she groaned and strained as
if she would part asunder. It was a long weird day. We
held no communication with each other, or with those who
could form any rational estimate of the probabilities of
our destiny; no officials appeared; the ordinary invariable
routine of the steward department was suspended without
notice; the sounds were tremendous, and a hot lurid
obscurity filled the atmosphere.  Soon after four the
clamour increased, and the shock of a sea blowing up a
part of the fore-guards made the groaning fabric reel and
shiver throughout her whole huge bulk. At that time, by




LETTER I.]    A SOUTH SEA HURRICANE.


9


common consent, we assembled in the deck-house, which
had windows looking in all directions, and sat there for
five hours. Very few words were spoken, and very little
fear was felt. We understood by intuition that if our
crazy engines failed at any moment to keep the ship's head
to the sea, her destruction would not occupy half-an-hour.
It was all palpable. There was nothing which the most
experienced seaman could explain to the merest novice.
We hoped for the best, and there was no use in speaking
about the worst. Nor, indeed, was speech possible, unless
a human voice could have outshrieked the hurricane.
In this deck-house the strainings, sunderings, and
groanings were hardly audible, or rather were overpowered
by a sound which, in thirteen months' experience of the
sea in all weathers, I have never heard, and hope never to
hear again, unless in a staunch ship, one loud, awful,
undying shriek, mingled with a prolonged relentless hiss.
No gathering strength, no languid fainting into momentary
lulls, but one protracted gigantic scream. And this was
not the whistle of wind through cordage, but the actual
sound of air travelling with tremendous velocity, carrying
with it minute particles of water. Nor was the sea running
mountains high, for the hurricane kept it down. Indeed
during those fierce hours no sea was visible, for the whole
surface was caught up and carried furiously into the air,
like snow-drift on the prairies, sibilant, relentless.
There was profoundc quiet on deck, the little life which
existed being concentrated near the bow, where the
captain was either lashed to the foremast, or in shelter in
the pilot-house. Never a soul appeared on deck, the force




10


HAWAII.


[LETTER     I.


of the hurricane being such that for four hours any man
would have been carried off his feet. Through the swift
strange evening our hopes rested on the engine, and
amidst the uproar and din, and drifting spray, and shocks
of pitiless seas, there was a sublime repose in the spectacle
of the huge walking beams, alternately rising and falling,
slowly, calmly, regularly, as if the Nevada were on a
holiday trip within the Golden Gate. At eight in the
evening we could hear each other speak, and a little later,
through the great masses of hissing drift we discerned
black water. At nine Captain Blethen appeared, smoking
a cigar with nonchalance, and told us that the hurricane
had nearly boxed the compass, and had been the most
severe he had known for seventeen years. This grand
old man, nearly the oldest captain in the Pacific, won our
respect and confidence from the first, and his quiet and
masterly handling of this dilapidated old ship is beyond
all praise.
When the strain of apprehension was mitigated, we
became aware that we had not had anything to eat since
breakfast, a clean sweep having been made, not only of
the lunch, but of all the glass in the racks above it; but
all requests to the stewards were insufficient to procure
even biscuits, and at eleven we retired supperless to bed,
amidst a confusion of awful sounds, and were deprived of
lights as well as food. When we asked for food or light,
and made weak appeals on the ground of faintness, the
one steward who seemed to dawdle about for the sole
purpose of making himself disagreeable, always replied,
"You can't get anything, the stewards are on duty."




LETTER I.]


THE NAVIGATOR GROUP.


We were not accustomed to recognize that stewards had
any other duty than that of feeding the passengers, but
under the circumstances we meekly acquiesced.   We
were allowed to know that a part of the foreguards had
been carried way, and that iron stanchions four inches
thick had been gnarled and twisted like candy sticks, and
the constant falling of the saloon casing of the mainmast, showed something wrong there. A heavy clang;
heard at intervals by day and night, aroused some suspicions as to more serious damage, and these were afterwards confirmed. As the wind fell the sea rose, and for
some hours realized every description I have read of the
majesty and magnitude of the rollers of the South
Pacific.
The day after the hurricane something went wrong with
the engines, and we were stationary for an hour. We all
felt thankful that this derangement which would have
jeopardised or sacrificed sixty lives, was then only a
slight detention on a summer sea.
Five days out from Auckland we entered the tropics
with a temperature of 80~ in the water, and 85~ in the
air, but as the light head airs blew the intense heat of our
two smoke stacks aft, we often endured a temperature of
110~. There were quiet heavy tropical showers, and a
general misty dampness, and the Navigator Islands, with
their rainbow-tinted coral forests, their fringe of coco
palms, and groves of banyan and breadfruit trees, those
sunniest isles of the bright South Seas, resolved themselves into dark lumps looming through a drizzling mist.
But the showers and the dampness were confined to that




.12


HAWAII.


[LETTER I.


region, and for the last fortnight an unclouded tropical
sun has blazed upon our crawling ship.   The boilei
tubes are giving way at the rate of from ten to twent3
daily, the fracture in the shaft is extending, and so
partially maimed, the old ship drags her 320 feet of lengtl
slowly along. The captain is continually in the engine-room
-and we know when things are looking more unpropitiom
than usual by his coming up puffing his cigar with unusua
strength of determination. It has been so far a ver1
pleasant voyage. The moral, mental, and social qualities
of my fellow-passengers are of a high order, and since
the hurricane we have been rather like a family circl
than a miscellaneous accidental group. For some time
our days went by in reading aloud, working, chess
draughts and conversation, with two hours at quoits ii
the afternoon for exercise; but four days ago the only soI
of Mrs. Dexter, who is the only lady on board beside,
myself, ruptured a blood vessel on the lungs, and lies ii
a most critical state in the deck-house from which he ha.
not been moved, requiring most careful nursing, incessan
fanning, and the attention of two persons by day amn
night. Mrs. D. had previously won the regard of every
-one, and I had learned to look on her as a friend fromwhon
I should be grieved to part. The only hope for the younl
man's life is that he should be landed at Honolulu, an(:she has urged me so strongly to land with her there
where she will be a complete stranger, that I havy.consented to do so, and consequently shall see the Sand
wich Islands. This severe illness has cast a great gloon,over our circle of six, and Mr. D. continues in a state o




LETTER I.]


ODDITIES OF THE NEVADA.


13


so much exhaustion and peril that all our arrangements
as to occupation, recreation, and sleep, are made with
reference to a sick, and as we sometimes fear, a dying
man, whose state is much aggravated by the maltreatment
and stupidity of a dilapidated Scotch doctor, who must
be at least eighty, and whose intellects are obfuscated by
years of whiskey drinking. Two of the gentlemen not
only show the utmost tenderness as nurses, but possess
a skill and experience which are invaluable. They never
leave him by night, and scarcely take needed rest even in
the day, one or other of them being always at hand to
support him when faint, or raise him on his pillows.
It is not only that the Nevada is barely seaworthy, and
has kept us broiling in the tropics when we ought to have
been at San Francisco, but her fittings are so old. The
mattresses bulge and burst, and cockroaches creep in and
out, the deck is so leaky that the water squishes up under
the saloon matting as we walk over it, the bread swarms
with minute ants, and we have to pick every piece over
because of weevils. Existence at night is an unequal
fight with rats and cockroaches, and at meals with the
stewards for time to eat. The stewards outnumber the
passengers, and are the veriest riff-raff I have seen on
board ship. At meals, when the captain is not below,
their sole object is to hurry us from the table in order
that they may sit down to a protracted meal; they are
insulting and disobliging, and since illness has been on
board, have shown a want of common humanity which
places them below the rest of their species. The unconcealed hostility with which they regard us is a marvellous




14


HAWAII.


LLETTER I.


contrast to the natural or purchasable civility or servility
which prevails on British steamers. It has its comic side
too, and we are content to laugh at it, and at all the
other oddities of this vaunted " Mail Line."
Our most serious grievance was the length of time that
we were kept in the damp inter-island region of the
Tropic of Capricorn.   Early breakfasts, cold plunge
baths, and the perfect ventilation of our cabins, only just
kept us alive. We read, wrote, and talked like automatons, and our voices sounded thin and far away. We
decided that heat was less felt in exercise, made up an
afternoon quoit party, and played unsheltered from the
nearly vertical sun, on decks so hot that we required
thick boots for the protection of our feet, but for three days
were limp and faint, and hardly able to crawl about or
eat. The nights were insupportable. We used to lounge
on the bow, and retire late at night to our cabins, to
fight the heat, and scare rats and kill cockroaches with
slippers, until driven by the solar heat to rise again
unrefreshed to wrestle through another relentless day.
We read the " Idylls of the King " and talked of misty
meres and reedy fens, of the cool north, with its purple
hills, leaping streams, and life-giving breezes, of long
northern winters, and ice and snow, but the realities of
sultriness and damp scared away our coolest imaginations. In this dismal region, when about forty miles
east of Tutuila, a beast popularly known as the " Flying
fox " * alighted on our rigging, and was eventually captured


* A Frugiferous bat.




LETTER I. ]


A FRUIT-EATING BAT.


15


as a prize for the zoological collection at San Francisco.
lie is a most interesting animal, something like an
exaggerated bat. His wings are formed of a jet black
membrane, and have a highly polished claw at the
extremity of each, and his feet consist of five beautifully
polished long black claws, with which he hangs on head
downwards. His body is about twice the size of that of
a very large rat, black and furry underneath, and with
red foxy fur on his head and back. His face is pointed,
with a very black nose and prominent black eyes, with a
savage, remorseless expression. His wings, when extended,
measure forty-eight inches across, and his flying powers
are prodigious. He snapped like a dog at first, but is
now quite tame, and devours quantities of dried figs,
the only diet he will eat.
We crossed the Equator in Long. 159~ 44', but in
consequence of the misty weather it was not till we
reached Lat. 10~ 6' N. that the Pole star, cold and
pure, glistened far above the horizon, and two hours
later we saw the coruscating Pleiades, and the starry
belt of Orion, the blessed familiar constellations of
"auld lang syne," and a "breath of the cool north,"
the first I have felt for five months, fanned the tropic
night and the calm silvery Pacific.  From  that time
we have been indifferent to our crawling pace, except
for the sick man's sake. The days dawn in rose colour
and die in gold, and through their long hours a sea of
delicious blue shimmers beneath the sun, so soft, so
blue, so dreamlike, an ocean worthy of its name, the




16


ILAWAlI.


LLET'TER I.


enchanted region of perpetual calm, and an endless
summer. Far off, for many an azure league, rims of
rock, fringed with the graceful coco palm, girdle still
lagoons, and are themselves encircled by coral reefs on
which the ocean breaks all the year in broad drifts of
foam.   Myriads of flying fish and a few dolphins and
Portuguese men-of-war flash or float through the scarcely
undulating water. But we look in vain for the "sails
of silk and ropes of sendal," which are alone appropriate to this dream-world. The Pacific in this region is
an indolent blue expanse, pure and lonely, an almost
untraversed sea. We revel in these tropic days of transcendent glory, in the balmy breath which just stirs the
dreamy blue, in the brief, fierce crimson sunsets, in the
soft splendour of the nights, when the moon and stars
hang like lamps out of a lofty and distant vault, and
in the pearly crystalline dawns, when the sun rising
through a veil of rose and gold " rejoices as a giant to
run his course," and brightens by no "pale gradations"
into the "perfect day."
P.S.-To-morrow morning we expect to sight land.
In spite of minor evils, our voyage has been a singularly pleasant one. The condition of the ship and her
machinery warrants the strongest condemnation, but her
discipline is admirable, and so are many of her regulations, and we might have had a much more disagreeable voyage in a better ship. Captain Blethen is beyond
all praise, and so is the chief engineer, whose duties




LETTER I.]      CALMS IN THE TROPICS.              17
are incessant and most harassing, owing to the critical
state of the engines.    The Nevada now presents a
grotesque appearance, for within the last few hours she
has received such an added list to port that her starboard wheel looks nearly out of the water.
I. L. B.




LETTER II.


HAWAIIAN HOTEL, HONOLULU, Jan. 26th.
YESTERDAY morning at 6.30 I was aroused by the news
that " The Islands " were in sight. Oahu in the distance,
a group of grey, barren peaks rising verdureless out of
the lonely sea, was not an exception to the rule that the
first sight of land is a disappointment. Owing to the
clear atmosphere, we seemed only five miles off, but in
reality we were twenty, and the land improved as we
neared it. It was the fiercest day we had had, the deck
was almost too hot to stand upon, the sea and sky were
both magnificently blue, and the unveiled sun turned
every minute ripple into a diamond flash. As we approached, the island changed its character. There were
lofty peaks, truly-grey and red, sun-scorched and windbleached, glowing here and there with traces of their fiery
origin; but they were cleft by deep chasms and ravines
of cool shadow and entrancing green, and falling water
streaked their sides-a most welcome vision after eleven
months of the desert sea and the dusty browns of Australia and New Zealand. Nearer yet, and the coast line
came into sight, fringed by the feathery cocoanut tree of
the tropics, and marked by a long line of surf. The
grand promontory of Diamond Head, its fiery sides now




LETTERt II.]


FIRST VIEW OF HONOLULU.


19


softened by a haze of green, terminated the wavy line of
palms; then the Punchbowl, a very perfect extinct crater,
brilliant with every shade of red volcanic ash, blazed
against the green skirts of the mountains. We were
close to the coral reef before the cry, " There's Honolulu! " made us aware of the proximity of the capital of
the island kingdom, and then, indeed, its existence had
almost to be taken upon trust, for besides the lovely
wooden and grass huts, with deep verandahs, which nestled
under palms and bananas on soft green sward, margined
by the bright sea sand, only two church spires and a few
grey roofs appeared above the trees.
We were just outside the reef, and near enough to hear
that deep sound of the surf which, through the ever
serene summer years girdles the Hawaiian Islands with
perpetual thunder, before the pilot glided alongside,
bringing the news which Mark Twain had prepared us to
receive with interest, that " Prince Bill" had been unanimously elected to the throne. The surf ran white and
pure over the environing coral reef, and as we passed
through the narrow channel, we almost saw the coral
forests deep down under the Nevada's keel; the coral
fishers plied their graceful trade; canoes with outriggers
rode the combers, and glided with inconceivable rapidity
round our ship; amphibious brown beings sported in the
transparent waves; and within the reef lay a calm surface of water of a wonderful blue, entered by a narrow,
intricate passage of the deepest indigo. And beyond the
reef and beyond the blue, nestling among cocoanut trees
and bananas, umbrella trees and breadfruits, oranges,
c2




20                   HAWAII.              [LETTER II.
mangoes, hibiscus, algaroba, and passion-flowers, almost
hidden in the deep, dense greenery, was Honolulu.
Bright blossom of a summer sea! Fair Paradise of the
Pacific!
Inside the reef the magnificent iron-clad California
(the flag-ship) and another huge American war vessel, the
Benicia, are moored in line with the British corvette
Scout, within 200 yards of the shore; and their boats
were constantly passing and re-passing, among countless
canoes filled with natives. Two coasting schooners were
just leaving the harbour, and the inter-island steamer
Kilauea, with her deck crowded with natives, was just
coming in. By noon the great decrepit Nevada, which
has no wharf at which she can lie in sleepy New Zealand,
was moored alongside a very respectable one in this
enterprising little Hawaiian capital.
We looked down from the towering deck on a crowd of
two or three thousand people-whites, Kanakas, Chinamen-and hundreds of them at once made their way on
board, and streamed over the ship, talking, laughing, and
remarking upon us in a language which seemed without
backbone. Such rich brown men and women they were,
with wavy, shining black hair, large, brown, lustrous
eyes, and rows of perfect teeth like ivory. Everyone was
smiling. The forms of the women seem to be inclined
towards obesity, but their drapery, which consists of a
sleeved garment which falls in ample and unconfined
folds from their shoulders to their feet, partly conceals
this defect, which is here regarded as a beauty. Some
of these dresses were black, but many of those worn by




LETTER II.]


A BROWN CROWD.


21


the younger women were of pure white, crimson, yellow,
scarlet, blue, or light green. The men displayed their
lithe, graceful figures to the best advantage in white
trousers and gay Garibaldi shirts. A few of the women
wore coloured handkerchiefs twined round their hair, but
generally both men and women wore straw hats, which
the men set jauntily on one side of their heads, and
aggravated their appearance yet more by bandana handkerchiefs of rich bright colours round their necks, knotted
loosely on the left side, with a grace to which, I think,
no Anglo-Saxon dandy could attain. Without an exception the men and women wore wreaths and garlands of
flowers, carmine, orange, or pure white, twined round
their hats, and thrown carelessly round their necks,
flowers unknown to me, but redolent of the tropics in
fragrance and colour. Many of the young beauties wore
the gorgeous blossom of the red hibiscus among their
abundant, unconfined, black hair, and many, besides the
garlands, wore festoons of a sweet-scented vine, or of an
exquisitely beautiful fern, knotted behind and hanging
half-way down their dresses.  These adornments of
natural flowers are most attractive. Chinamen, all alike,
very yellow, with almond-shaped eyes, youthful, hairless
faces, long pigtails, spotlessly clean clothes, and an expression of mingled cunning and simplicity, " foreigners,"
half-whites, a few negroes, and a very few dark-skinned
Polynesians from the far-off South Seas, made up the
rest of the rainbow-tinted crowd.
The " foreign " ladies, who were there in great numbers, generally wore simple light prints or muslins, and




22


HAWAII.


[LETTER II.


white straw hats, and many of them so far conformed to
native custom as to wear natural flowers round their hats
and throats. But where were the hard, angular, careworn, sallow, passionate faces of men and women, such
as form the majority of every crowd at home, as well as
in America and Australia?  The conditions of life must
surely be easier here, and people must have found rest
from  some of its burdensome conventionalities.  The
foreign ladies, in their simple, tasteful, fresh attire, innocent of the humpings and bunchings, the monstrosities
and deformities of ultra-fashionable bad taste, beamed
with cheerfulness, friendliness, and kindliness. Men and
women looked as easy, contented, and happy as if care
never came near them. I never saw such healthy, bright
complexions as among the women, or such "sparkling
smiles," or such a diffusion of feminine grace and graciousness anywhere.
Outside this motley, genial, picturesque crowd about
200 saddled horses were standing, each with the Mexican
saddle, with its lassoing horn in front, high peak behind,
immense wooden stirrups, with great leathern guards,
silver or brass bosses, and coloured saddle-cloths. The
saddles were the only element of the picturesque that
these Hawaiian steeds possessed. They were sorry, lean,
undersized beasts, looking in general as if the emergencies of life left them little time for eating or sleeping.
They stood calmly in the broiling sun, heavy-headed and
heavy-hearted, with flabby ears and pendulous lower lips,
limp and rawboned, a doleful type of the " creation which
groaneth and travaileth in misery."  All these belonged




LETTER II.]


FRUIT AND 'FISHI.


23


to the natives, who are passionately fond of riding. Every
now and then a flower-wreathed Hawaiian woman, il her
full radiant garment, sprang on one of these amimals
astride, and dashed along the road at full gallop, sitting
on her horse as square and easy as a hutssar. In the
crowd and outside of it, and everywhere, there were piles
of fruit for sale-oranges and guavas, strawberries, papayas, bananas (green and golden), cocoanuts, and other
rich, fantastic productions of a prolific climate, where
nature gives of her wealth the whole year round. Strange
fishes, strange in shape and colour, crimson, blue, orange,
rose, gold, such fishes as flash like living light through
the coral groves of these enchanted seas, were there for
sale, and coral divers were there with their treasuresbranch coral, as white as snow, each perfect specimen
weighing from eight to twenty pounds.    But no one
pushed his wares for sale-we were at liberty to look and
admire, and pass on unmolested. No vexatious restrictions obstructed our landing. A sum of two dollars for
the support of the Queen's Hospital is levied on each
passenger, and the examination of ordinary luggage, if it
exists, is a mere form.  From the demeanour of the
crowd it was at once apparent that the conditions of conquerors and conquered do not exist. On the contrary,
many of the foreigners there were subjects of a Hawaiian
king, a reversal of the ordinary relations between a white
and a coloured race which it is not easy yet to appreciate.
Two of my fellow-passengers, who were going on to
San Francisco, were anxious that I should accompany




24


HAWAII.


[LETTER II.


them to the Pali, the great excursion from Honolulu;
and leaving Mr. M    to make all arrangements for the
Dexters and myself, we hired a buggy, destitute of any
peculiarity but a native driver, who spoke nothing but
Hawaiian, and left the ship. This place is quite unique.
It is said that 15,000 people are buried away in these
low-browed, shadowy houses, under the glossy, darkleaved trees, but except in one or two streets of miscellaneous, old-fashioned looking stores, arranged with a
distinct leaning towards native tastes, it lo looks like a large
village, or rather like an aggregate of villages. As we
drove through the town we could only see our immediate
surroundings, but each had a new fascination. We drove
along roads with over-arching trees, through whose dense
leafage the noon sunshine only trickled in dancing, broken
lights; umbrella trees, caoutchouc, bamboo, mango,
orange, breadfruit, candlenut, monkey pod, date and coco
palms, alligator pears, "prides" of Barbary, India, and
Peru, and huge-leaved, wide-spreading trees, exotics from
the South Seas, many of them rich in parasitic ferns, and
others blazing with bright, fantastic blossoms. The air
was heavy with odours of gardenia, tuberose, oleanders,
roses, lilies, and the great white trumpet-flower, and myriads of others whose names I do not know, and verandahs
were festooned with a gorgeous trailer with magenta
blossoms, passion-flowers, and a vine with masses of
trumpet-shaped, yellow, waxy flowers.  The delicate
tamarind and the feathery algaroba intermingled their
fragile grace with the dark, shiny foliage of the South
Sea exotics, and the deep red, solitary flowers of the




LETTEIR II.]


TROPICAL TREES.


2.5


hibiscus rioted among dear familiar fuschias and geraniums, which here attain the height and size of large
rhododendrons.
Few of the new trees surprised me more than the
papaya. It is a perfect gem of tropical vegetation. It
has a soft, indented stem, which runs up quite straight to
a height of from 15 to 30 feet, and is crowned by a
profusion of large, deeply indented leaves, with long
foot-stalks, and among, as well as considerably below
these, are the flowers or the fruit, in all stages of development. This, w-hen ripe, is bright yellow, and the size
of a musk melon. Clumps of bananas, the first sight of
which, like that of the palm, constitutes a new experience, shaded the native houses with their wonderful
leaves, broad and deep green, from five to ten feet long.
The breadfruit is a superb tree, about 60 feet high, with
deep green, shining leaves, a foot broad, sharply and
symmetrically cut, worthy, from their exceeding beauty
of form, to take the place of the acanthus in architectural
ornament, and throwing their pale green fruit into delicate contrast. All these, with the exquisite rose apple,
with a deep red tinge in its young leaves, the fan palm,
the chirimoya, and numberless others, and the slender
shafts of the coco palms rising high above them, with
their waving plumes and perpetual fruitage, were a perfect
festival of beauty.
In the deep shade of this perennial greenery the people
dwell. The foreign houses show a very various individuality. The peculiarity in which all seem to share is,
that everything is decorated and festooned with flowering




26


HAWAII.


[LETTER It.


trailers. It is often difficult to tell what the architecture
is, or what is house and what is vegetation; for all angles,
and lattices, and balustrades, and verandahs are hidden
by jessamine or passion-flowers, or the gorgeous flamelike Bougainvilliers. Many of the dwellings straggle over
the ground without an upper story, and have very deep
verandahs, through which I caught glimpses of cool,
shady rooms, with matted floors. Some look as if they
had been transported from the old-fashioned villages of
the Connecticut Valley, with their clap-board fronts
painted white and jalousies painted green; but then the
deep verandah in which families lead an open-air life has
been added, and the chimneys have been omitted, and
the New England severity and angularity are toned down
and draped out of sight by these festoons of large-leaved,
bright-blossomed, tropical climbing plants. Besides the
frame houses there are houses built of blocks of a creamcoloured coral conglomerate laid in cement, of adobe,
or large sun-baked bricks, plastered; houses of grass
and bamboo; houses on the ground and houses raised
on posts; but nothing looks prosaic, commonplace, or
mean, for the glow and luxuriance of the tropics rest on
all. Each house has a large garden or "yard," with
lawns of bright perennial greens and banks of blazing,
many-tinted flowers, and lines of Dracaena, and other
foliage plants, with their great purple or crimson leaves,
and clumps of marvellous lilies, gladiolas, ginger, and
many plants unknown to me.     Fences and walls are
altogether buried by passion-flowers, the night-blowing
Cereus, and the tropeolum, mixed with geraniums,




LETTER II.]


THE NUUANU VALLEY.


27


fuschia, and jessamine, which cluster and entangle over
them in indescribable profusion. A soft air moves through
the upper branches, and the drip of water from miniature
fountains falls musically on the perfumed air. This is;
midwinter! The summer, they say, is thermometrically
hotter, but practically cooler, because of the regular trades
which set in in April, but now, with the shaded thermometer at 80~ and the sky without clouds, the heat is not
oppressive.
The mixture of the neat grass houses of the natives
with the more elaborate homes of the foreign residents
has a very pleasant look. The "aborigines" have not
been crowded out of sight, or into a special " quarter."
We saw many groups of them     sitting under the trees
outside their houses, each group with a mat in the centre,
with calabashes upon it containing poi, the national
Hawaiian dish, a fermented paste made from the root of
the kalo, or arumr escidentum. As we emerged on the
broad road which leads up the Nuuanu Valley to the
mountains, we saw many patches of this kalo, a very
handsome tropical plant, with large leaves of a bright
tender green. Each plant was growing on a small hillock,
with water round it.   There were beautiful vegetable
gardens also, in which Chinamen raise for sale not only
melons, pineapples, sweet potatoes, and other edibles of
hot climates, but the familiar fruits and vegetables of the
temperate zones. In patches of surpassing neatness,
there were strawberries, which are ripe here all the year,
peas, carrots, turnips, asparagus, lettuce, and celery. I
saw no other plants or trees which grow at home, but




'28


HAWAII.


[LETTER II.


recognized as hardly less familiar growths the Victorian
Eucalyptus, which has not had time to become gaunt
and straggling, the Norfolk Island pine, which grows
superbly here, and the handsome Moreton Bay fig. But
the chief feature of this road is the number of residences;
I had almost written of pretentious residences, but the
term would be a base slander, as I have jumped to the
conclusion that the twin vulgarities of ostentation and
pretence hlave no place here. But certainly for a mile
and a half or more there are many very comfortablelooking dwellings, very attractive to the eye, with an ease
and imperturbable serenity of demeanour as if they had
nothing to fear from heat, cold, wind, or criticism. Their
architecture is absolutely unostentatious, and their one
beauty is that they are embowered among trailers,
shadowed by superb exotics, and surrounded by banks
of flowers, while the stately cocoanut, the banana, and
the candlenut, the aborigines of Oahu, are nowhere
displaced. One house with extensive grounds, a perfect
wilderness of vegetation, was pointed out as the summer
palace of Queen Emma, or Kaleleonalani, widow of
Kamehameha IV., who visited England a few years ago,
and the finest garden of all as that of a much respected
Chinese merchant, named Afong. Oahu, at least on this
leeward side, is not tropical looking, and all this tropical
variety and luxuriance which delight the eye result from
foreign enthusiasm and love of beauty and shade.
When we ascended above the scattered dwellings and
had passed the tasteful mausoleum, with two tall Kahilis,*


* The kahili is shaped like an enormous bottle brush.  The fines




I




THE NUUANIJ PALL, OR PRECIPICE, NEAR HONOLULU.  [page 29.




LETTER II.]


THE PALI.


29


or feather plumes, at the door of the tomb in which the
last of the Kamehamehas received Christian burial, the
glossy, redundant, arborescent vegetation ceased.        At
that height a shower of rain falls on nearly every day in
the year, and the result is a green sward which England
can hardly rival, a perfect sea of verdure, darkened in
the valley and more than half way up the hill sides by
the foliage of the yellow-blossomed and almost impenetrable hibiscus, brightened here and there by the pea-green
candlenut.   Streamlets leap from crags and ripple along
the roadside, every rock and stone is hidden by moistlooking ferns, as aerial and delicate as marabout feathers,
and when the windings of the valley and the projecting
spurs of mountains shut out all indications of Honolulu,
in the cool green loneliness one could image oneself in
the temperate zones. The peculiarity of the scenery is,
that the hills, which rise to a height of about 4,000 feet,
are wall-like ridges of grey or coloured rock, rising
precipitously out of the trees and grass, and that these
walls are broken up into pinnacles and needles. At the
Pali (wall-like precipice), the    summit of the      ascent
of 1,000 feet, we left our buggy, and passing through a
gash in the rock the celebrated view burst on us with
are sometimes twenty feet high, with handles twelve or fifteen feet
long, covered with tortoiseshell and whale tooth ivory.  The upper part
is formed of a cylinder of wicker work about a foot in diameter, on which
red, black, and yellow feathers are fastened. These insignia are carried
in procession instead of banners, and used to be fixed in the ground near
the temporary residence of the king or chiefs. At the funeral of the late
king seventy-six large and small kahilis were carried by the retainers of
chief families.




30


HIAWAII.


[LETTER II.


overwhelming effect.  Immense masses of black and
ferruginous volcanic rock, hundreds of feet in nearly
perpendicular height, formed the pali on either side, and
the ridge extended northwards for many miles, presenting
a lofty, abrupt mass of grey rock broken into fantastic
pinnacles, which seemed to pierce the sky. A broad,
umbrageous mass of green clothed the lower buttresses,
and fringed itself away in clusters of coco palms on a
garden-like stretch below, green with grass and sugarcane, and dotted with white houses, each with its palm
and banana grove, and varied by eminences which looked
like long extinct tufa cones.  Beyond this enchanted
region stretched the coral reef, with its white wavy line
of endless surf, and the broad blue Pacific, ruffled by a
breeze whose icy freshness chilled us where we stood.
Narrow streaks on the landscape, every now and then
disappearing behind intervening hills, indicated bridle
tracks connected with a frightfully steep and rough zigzag
path cut out of the face of the cliff on our right. I
could not go down this on foot without a sense of insecurity, but mounted natives driving loaded horses descended with perfect impunity into the dreamland below.
This pali is the scene of one of the historic tragedies
of this island. Kamehameha the Conqueror, who after
fierce fighting and much ruthless destruction of human
life united the island sovereignties in his own person,
routed the forces of the King of Oahu in the Nuuanu
Valley, and drove them in hundreds up the precipice,
from which they leaped in despair and madness, and their
bones lie bleaching 800 feet below.




I~~~~~~~.  I I.  
$,   6




THE PAU' OR HAWAIIAN LADIES' HOLIDAY RIDING DRESS. [Page 31.




LETTER IT.]   HAWAIIAN EQUESTRIANISM.


31


The drive back here was delightful, from the wintry
height, where I must confess that we shivered, to the
slumbrous calm of an endless summer, the glorious
tropical trees, the distant view of cool chasm-like valleys,
with Honolulu sleeping in perpetual shade, and the still
blue ocean, without a single sail to disturb its profound
solitude. Saturday afternoon is a gala-day here, and the
broad road was so thronged with brilliant equestrians,
that I thought we should be ridden over by the reckless
laughing rout. 'here were hundreds of native horsemen
and horsewomen, many of them doubtless on the dejected
quadrupeds I saw at the wharf, but a judicious application of long rowelled Mexican spurs, and a degree
of emulation, caused these animals to tear along at full
gallop. The women seemed perfectly at home in their
gay, brass-bossed, high peaked saddles, flying along
astride, barefooted, with their orange and scarlet riding
dresses streaming on each side beyond their horses' tails,
a bright kaleidoscopic flash of bright eyes, white teeth,
shining hair, garlands of flowers and many-coloured
dresses; while the men were hardly less gay, with fresh
flowers round their jaunty hats, and the vermilion-coloured
blossoms of the Ohia round their brown throats. Sometimes a troop of twenty of these free-and-easy female
riders went by at a time, a graceful and exciting spectacle,
with a running accompaniment of vociferation and
laughter. Among these we met several of the Nevada's
officers, riding in the stiff, wooden style which AngloSaxons love, and a horde of jolly British sailors from
H.M.S. Scout, rushing helter skelter, colliding with




32


HAWAII.


[LETTIER II.


everybody, bestriding their horses as they would a topsailyard, hanging on to manes and lassoing horns, and
enjoying themselves thoroughly. In the shady tortuous
streets we met hundreds more of native riders, dashing
at full gallop without fear of the police. Many of the
women were in flowing riding-dresses of pure white, over
which their unbound hair, and wreaths of carmine-tinted
flowers fell most picturesquely.
All this time I had not seen our domicile, and when
our drive ended under the quivering, shadow of large
tamarind and algaroba trees, in front of a long, stone,
two-storied house with two deep verandahs festooned
with clematis and passion flowers, and a shady lawn in
front, I felt as if in this fairy land anything might be
expected.
This is the perfection of an hotel. Hospitality seems
to take possession of and appropriate one as soon as one
enters its never-closed door, which is on the lower
verandah. There is a basement, in which there are a
good many bedrooms, the bar, and billiard-room. This
is entered from the garden, under two semicircular flights
of stairs which lead to the front entrance, a wide corridor
conducting to the back entrance. This is crossed by
another running the whole length, which opens into a very
large many-windowed dining-room which occupies the
whole width of the hotel. On the same level there is a
large parlour, with French windows opening on the
verandah. Upstairs there are two similar corridors on
which all the bedrooms open, and each room has one or
more French windows opening on the verandah, with




LETTER II.]


THE HAWAIIAN HOTEL.


33


doors as well, made like German shutters, to close instead
of the windows, ensuring at once privacy and coolness.
The rooms are tastefully furnished with varnished pine
with a strong aromatic scent, and there are plenty of
lounging-chairs on the verandah, where people sit and
receive their intimate friends. The result of the construction of the hotel is that a breeze whispers through
it by day and night.
Everywhere, only pleasant objects meet the eye. One
can sit all day on the back verandah, watching the play
of light and colour on the mountains and the deep blue
green of the Nuuanu Valley, where showers, sunshine,
and rainbows make perpetual variety. The great diningroom is delicious. It has no curtains, and its decorations
are cool and pale. Its windows look upon tropical trees
in one direction, and up to the cool mountains in the other.
Piles of bananas, guavas, limes, and oranges, decorate
the tables at each meal, and strange vegetables, fish, and
fruits vary the otherwise stereotyped American hotel fare.
There are no female domestics. The host is a German,
the manager an American, the steward an Hawaiian, and
the servants are all Chinamen in spotless white linen, with
pigtails coiled round their heads, and an air of superabundant good-nature. They know very little English,
and make most absurd mistakes, but they are cordial,
smiling, and obliging, and look cool and clean. The
hotel seems the great public resort of Honolulu, the
centre of stir-club-house, exchange and drawing-room
in one. Its wide corridors and verandahs are lively with
English and American naval uniforms, several planters'




34


IAWAII.


[LETTER II.


families are here for the season; and with health seekers
from  California, resident boarders, whaling captains,
tourists from the British Pacific Colonies, and a stream
of townspeople always percolating through the corridors
and verandahs, it seems as lively and free-and-easy as a
place can be, pervaded by the kindliness and bonhommie
which form an important item in my first impressions of
the islands. The hotel was lately built by government
at a cost of $120,000, a sum which forms a considerable
part of that token of an advanced civilization, a National
Debt. The minister whose scheme it was seems to be
severely censured on account of it, but undoubtedly it
brings strangers and their money into the kingdom, who
would have avoided it had they been obliged as formerly
to cast themselves on the hospitality of the residents.
The present proprietor has it rent-free for a term of
years, but I fear that it is not likely to prove a successful
speculation either for him or the government. I dislike
health resorts, and abhor this kind of life, but for those
who like both, I cannot imagine a more fascinating
residence. The charges are $15 a week, or $3 a day,
but such a kindly, open-handed, system prevails that
I am not conscious that I am paying anything! This
sum includes hot and cold plunge baths ad libitum, justly
regarded as a necessity in this climate.
Dr. McGrew has hope that oui invalid will'rally in this
healing, equable atmosphere. Our kind fellow-passengers
are here, and take turns in watching and fanning him.
Through the half-closed jalousies we see bread-fruit
trees, delicate tamarinds and algarobas, fan-palms, date



LETTER II.]


A HONOLULU NIGHIT'
i


35


palms and bananas, and the deep blue Pacific gleams here
and there through the plumage of the cocoanut trees. A
soft breeze, scented with a slight aromatic odour, wanders
in at every opening, bringing with it, mellowed by
distance, the hum and clatter of the busy cicada. The
nights are glorious, and so absolutely still, that even the
feathery foliage of the algaroba is at rest.  The stars
seem to hang among the trees like lamps, and the crescent
moon gives more light than the full moon at home. The
evening of the day we landed, parties of officers and ladies
mounted at the door, and with much mirth disappeared
on moonlight rides, and the white robes of flower-crowned
girls gleamed among the trees, as groups of natives went
by speaking a language which sounded more like the
rippling of water than human speech. Soft music came
from the ironclads in the harbour, and from the royal
band at the king's palace, and a rich fragrance of dewy
blossoms filled the delicious air. These are indeed the
" isles of Eden," the " sun lands," musical with beauty.
They seem to welcome us to their enchanted shores.
Everything is new but nothing strange; for as I enjoyed
the purple night, I remembered that I had seen such
islands in dreams in the cold gray North.    " How
sweet," I thought it would be, thus to hear far off, the
low sweet murmur of the " sparkling brine," to rest, and
"' Ever to seem
Falling asleep in a half-dream."
A half-dream only, for one would not wish to be quite
asleep and lose the consciousness of this delicious outer
D 2




36                   HAWAII.             [LETTER II.
world. So I thought one moment. The next I heard a
droning, humming sound, which certainly was not the
surf upon the reef. It came nearer-there could be no
mistake. I felt a stab, and found myself the centre of a
swarm of droning, stabbing, malignant mosquitos. No,
even this is not paradise! I am ashamed to say that on
my first night in Honolulu I sought an early refuge from
this intolerable infliction, in profound and prosaic sleep
behind mosquito curtains.
I. L. B.




LETTER III.


HAWAIIAN HOTEL, Jan. 28th.
SUNDAY was a very pleasant day here. Church bells
rang, and the shady streets were filled with people in
holiday dress. There are two large native churches, the
Kaumakapili, and the Kaiwaiaho, usually called the stone
church. The latter is an immense substantial building,
for the erection of which each Christian native brought a
block of rock-coral. There is a large Roman Catholic
church, the priests of which are said to have been somewhat successful in proselytizing operations. The Reformed Catholic, or English temporary cathedral, is a
tasteful but very simple wooden building, standing in
pretty grounds, on which a very useful institution for
boarding and training native and half-white girls, and the
reception ofwhite girls as day scholars, also stands. This is
in connection with Miss Sellon's Sisterhood at Devonport.
Another building, alongside the cathedral, is used for
English service in Hawaiian. There are two Congregational churches: the old "Bethel," of which the Rev. S. C.
Damon, known to all strangers, and one of the oldest and
most respected Honolulu residents, is the minister; and
the "Fort St. Church," which has a large and influential
congregation, and has been said to " run the government,"




38


HAWAII.


[LETTER III.


because its members compose the majority of the Cabinet.
Lunalilo, the present king, has cast in his lot with the
Congregationalists, but queen Emma is an earnest member of the Anglican Church, and attends the Liturgical
Hawaiian Service in order to throw the weight of her
influence with the natives into the scale of that communion. Her husband spent many of his later days in
translating the Prayer-Book. As is natural, most of the
natives belong to the denomination from which they or
their fathers received the Christian faith, and the majority of the foreigners are of the same persuasion. The
New England Puritan influence, with its rigid Sabbatarianism, though considerably worn away, is still influential
enough to produce a general appearance of Sabbath observance. The stores are closed, the church-going is
very demonstrative, and the pleasure-seeking is very
unobtrusive. The wharves are profoundly quiet.
I went twice to the English Cathedral, and was interested to see there a lady in a nun's habit, with a number
of brown girls, who was pointed out to me as Sister
Bertha, who has been working here usefully for many
years. The ritual is high. I am told that it is above
the desires and the comprehension of most of the island
episcopalians, but the zeal and disinterestedness of Bishop
Willis will, in time, I doubt not, win upon those who
prize such qualities. He called in the afternoon, and
took me to his pretty, unpretending residence up the
Nuuanu Valley. He has a training and boarding school
there for native boys, some of whom were at church in
the morning as a surpliced choir. The bishop, his sister,




LETTER III.]  THE LAST OF TIIE NEVADA.


39


the schoolmaster, and fourteen boys take their meals
together in a refectory, the boys acting as servitors by
turns. There is service every morning at 6.30 in the
private chapel attached to the house, and also in the
cathedral a little later. Early risers, so near the equator,
must get up by candlelight all the year round.
This morning we joined our kind friends from the
Nevada for the last time at breakfast. I have noticed
that there is often a centrifugal force which acts upon
passengers who have been long at sea together, dispersing
them on reaching port. Indeed, the temporary enforced
cohesion is often succeeded by violent repulsion. But
in this instance we deeply regret the dissolution of our
pleasant fraternity; the less so, however, that this wonderful climate has produced a favourable change in Mr.
D., who no longer requires the hourly attention they have
hitherto shown him. The mornings here, dew-bathed
and rose-flushed, are, if possible, more lovely than the
nights, and people are astir early to enjoy them. The
American consul and Mr. Damon called while we were
sitting at our eight-o'clock breakfast, from which I gather
that formalities are dispensed with. After spending the
morning in hunting among the stores for things which
were essential for the invalid, I lunched in the Nevada
with Captain Blethen and our friends.
Next to the advent of " national ships " (a euphemism
for men-of-war), the arrivals and departures of the New
Zealand mail-steamers constitute the great excitement of
Honolulu, and the failures, mishaps, and wonderful unpunctuality of this Webb line are highly stimulating in a




40


HAWAII.


[LETTER III.


region where "nothing happens."     The loungers were
saying that the Nevada's pumps were going for five days
before we arrived, and pointed out the clearness of the
water which was running from them   at the wharf as an
evidence that she was leaking badly.*    The crowd of
natives was enormous, and the foreigners were there in
hundreds.   She was loading with oranges and green
bananas up to the last moment,-those tasteless bananas
which, out of the tropics, misrepresent this most delicious
and ambrosial fruit.
There was a far greater excitement for the natives, for
King Lunalilo was about to pay a state visit to the American flag-ship California, and every available place along
the wharves and roads was crowded with kanakas anxious
to see him. I should tell you that the late king, being
without heirs, ought to have nominated his successor;
but it is said that a sorceress, under whose influence he
was, persuaded him that his death would follow upon this
act. When he died, two months ago, leaving the succession unprovided for, the duty of electing a sovereign,
according to the constitution, devolved upon the people
through their representatives, and they exercised it with
a combination of order and enthusiasm    which reflects
great credit on their civilization.  They chose the highest
chief on the islands, Lunalilo (Above All), known among
foreigners as "Prince Bill," and at this time letters of
* A week after her sailing, this unlucky ship put back with some
mysterious ailment, and on her final alrival at San Francisco, her condition
was found to be such that it was a marvel that she had made the passage
at all.




LETTER III.


A STATE PAGEANT.


41


congratulation are pouring in upon him from his brethren,
the sovereigns of Europe.
The spectacular effect of a pageant here is greatly
heightened by the cloudless blue sky, and the wealth of
light and colour. It was very hot, almost too hot for
sight-seeing, on the Nevada's bow. Expectation among
the lieges became tremendous and vociferous when
Admiral Pennock's sixteen-oared barge, with a handsome
awning, followed by two well-manned boats, swept across
the strip of water which lies between the ships and the
shore. Outrigger canoes, with garlanded men and women,
were poised upon the motionless water or darted gracefully round the ironclads, as gracefully to come to rest.
Then a stir and swaying of the crowd, and the American
Admiral was seen standing at the steps of an English
barouche and four, and an Hawaiian imitation of an
English cheer rang out upon the air. More cheering,
more excitement, and I saw nothing else till the Admiral's
barge, containing the Admiral, and the King dressed in a
plain morning suit with a single decoration, swept past
the Nevada. The suite followed in the other boats,brown men and white, governors, ministers, and court
dignitaries, in Windsor uniforms, but with an added
resplendency of plumes, epaulettes, and gold lace. As
soon as Lunalilo reached the California, the yards of the
three ships were manned, and amidst cheering which
rent the air, and the deafening thunder of a royal salute
from sixty-three guns of heavy calibre, the popular descendant of seventy generations of sceptred savages stepped
on board the flag-ship's deck. No higher honours could




42


IIAWAII.


[LETTER III.


have been paid to the Emperor " of all the Russias."  I
have seen few sights more curious than that of the representative of the American Republic standing bare-headed
before a coloured man, and the two mightiest empires on
earth paying royal honours to a Polynesian sovereign,
whose little kingdom in the North Pacific is known to
many of us at home only as " the group of islands where
Captain Cook was killed." Ah! how lovely this Queen
of Oceans is! Blue, bright, balm-breathing, gentle in
its supreme strength, different both in motion and colour
from the coarse " vexed Atlantic! "
STEAMER KILAUEA,
Jan. 29th.
I was turning homewards, enjoying the prospect of a
quiet week in Honolulu, when Mr. and Mrs. Damon
seized upon me, and told me that a lady friend of theirs,
anxious for a companion, was going to the volcano on
Hawaii, that she was a most expert and intelligent traveller, that the Kilauea would sail in two hours, that
unless I went now I should have no future opportunity
during my limited stay on the islands, that Mrs. Dexter
was anxious for me to go, that they would more than fill
my place in my absence, that this was a golden opportunity, that in short I must go, and they would drive me
back to the hotel to pack! The volcano is still a myth
to me, and I wanted to "read up" before going, and
above all was grieved to leave my friend, but she had already made some needful preparations, her son with his
feeble voice urged my going, the doctor said that there




LETTER, III.]


THE STEAMER KILAUEA.


43


was now no danger to be apprehended, and the Damons'
kind urgency left me so little choice, that by five I was
with them on the wharf, being introduced to my travelling
companion, and to many of my fellow-passengers. Such
an unexpected move is very bewildering, and it is too
experimental, and too much of a leap in the dark to be
enjoyable at present.
The wharf was one dense, well-compacted mass of
natives taking leave of their friends with much effusiveness, and the steamer's encumbered deck was crowded
with them, till there was hardly room to move; men,
women, children, dogs, cats, mats, calabashes of poi,
cocoanuts, bananas, dried fish, and every dusky individual
of the throng was wreathed and garlanded with odorous
and brilliant flowers. All were talking and laughing, and
an immense amount of gesticulation seems to emphasize
and supplement speech. We steamed through the reef
in the brief red twilight, over the golden tropic sea, keeping on the leeward side of the islands. Before it was
quite dark the sleeping arrangements were made, and the
deck and skylights were covered with mats and mattresses
on which 170 natives sat, slept, or smoked,-a motley,
parti-coloured mass of humanity, in the midst of which I
recognized Bishop Willis in the usual episcopal dress,
lying on a mattress among the others, a prey to discomfort
and weariness! What would his episcopal brethren at
home think of such a hardship?
There is a yellow-skinned, soft-voiced, fascinating Goa
or Malay steward on board, who with infinite goodwill
attends to the comfort of everybody. I was surprised




44


HAWAII.


[LETTER III.


when he asked me if I would like a mattress on the skylight, or a berth below, and in unhesitating ignorance
replied severely, " Oh, below, of course, please," thinking
of a ladies' cabin, but when I went down to supper, my
eyes were enlightened.
The Kilauea is a screw boat of 400 tons, most unprepossessing in appearance, slow, but sure, and capable of
bearing an infinite amount of battering. It is jokingly
said that her keel has rasped off the branch coral round
all the islands.  Though there are many inter-island
schooners, she is the only sure mode of reaching the
windward islands in less than a week; and though at
present I am disposed to think rather slightingly of her,
and to class her with the New Zealand coasting craft, yet
the residents are very proud of her, and speak lovingly of
her, and regard her as a blessed deliverance from the
horrors of beating to windward. She has a shabby, obsolete look about her, like a second-rate coasting collier,
or an old American tow-boat. She looks ill-found, too;
I saw two essential pieces of tackle give way as they were
hoisting the main sail.*  She has a small saloon with a
double tier of berths, besides transoms, which give accommodation on the level of the lower berth. There is
a stern cabin, which is a prolongation of the saloon, and
not in any way separated from it. There is no ladies'
cabin; but sex, race, and colour are included in a promis-.cuous arrangement.
* Dear old craft! I would not change her now for the finest palace
which floats on the Hudson, or the trimmest of the Hutchesons' beautiful
West Highland fleet.




LETTEI III.]  A REMARKABLE ARRANGEMENT.


45


Miss Karpe, my travelling companion, and two agreeable ladies, were already in their berths very sick, but I
did not get into mine because a cockroach, looking as
large as a mouse, occupied the pillow, and a companion
not much smaller was roaming over the quilt without
any definite purpose.  I can't vouch for the accuracy
of my observation, but it seemed to me that these
tremendous creatures were dark red, with eyes like
lobsters', and antennae two inches long. They looked
capable of carrying out the most dangerous and inscrutable designs.  I called the Malay steward; he
smiled mournfully, but spoke reassuringly, and pledged
his word for their innocuousness, but I never can believe
that they are not the enemies of man; and I lay down
on the transom, not to sleep, however, for it seemed
essential to keep watch on the proceedings of these
formidable vermin.
The grotesqueness of the arrangements of the berths
and their occupants grew on me during the night, and
the climax was put upon it when a gentleman coming
down in the early morning asked me if I knew that I was
using the Governor of Maui's head for a footstool, this
portly native "Excellency" being in profound slumber on
the forward part of the transom. This diagram represents
one side of the saloon and the "happy family" of English,
Chinamen, Hawaiians, and Americans:Governor Lyman.   ]  Miss Karpe.   Miss -
Afong.               Vacant.    I   Miss -.
Governor Nahaolelua.  Myself.      An Hawaiian.
I noticed, too, that there were very few trunks and




46


HAWAII.


[LETTER III.


portmanteaus, but that the after end of the saloon was
heaped with Mexican saddles and saddlebags, which I
learned too late were the essential gear of every traveller
on Hawaii.
At five this morning we were at anchor in the roads of
Lahaina, the chief village on the mountainous island of
Maui.   This place is very beautiful from the sea, for
beyond the blue water and the foamy reef the eye rests
gratefully on a picturesque collection of low, one-storied,
thatched houses, many of frame, painted white; others
of grass, but all with deep, cool verandahs, half hidden
among palms, bananas, kukuis, breadfruit, and mangoes,
dark groves against gentle slopes behind, covered with
sugar-cane of a bright pea-green. It is but a narrow
strip of land between the ocean and the red, flaring,
almost inaccessible, Maui hills, which here rise abruptly
to a height of 6,000 feet, pinnacled, chasmed, buttressed,
and almost verdureless, except in a few deep clefts, green
and cool with ferns and candlenut trees, and moist with
falling water. Lahaina looked intensely tropical in the
roseflush of the early morning, a dream of some bright
southern isle, too surely to pass away. The sun blazed
down on shore, ship, and sea, glorifying all things
through the winter day. It was again ecstasy " to dream,
and dream" under the awning, fanned by the light seabreeze, with the murmur of an unknown musical tongue
in one's ears, and the rich colouring and graceful grouping of a tropical race around one. We called at Maaleia,
a neck of sandy, scorched, verdureless soil, and at
Ulupalakua, or rather at the furnace seven times heated,




LETTER III.]


NATIVE PETS,


47


which is the landing of the plantation of that name, on
whose breezy slopes cane refreshes the eye at a height of
2,000 feet above the sea. We anchored at both places,
and with what seemed to me a needless amount of delay,
discharged goods and natives, and natives, mats, and
calabashes were embarked. In addition to the essential
mat and calabash of poi, every native carried some
pet, either dog or cat, which was caressed, sung to, and
talked to with extreme tenderness; but there were hardly
any children, and I noticed that where there were any, the
men took charge of them. There were very few fine,
manly dogs; the pets in greatest favour are obviously
those odious weak-eyed, pink-nosed Maltese terriers.
The aspect of the sea was so completely lazy, that it
was a fresh surprise as each indolent undulation touched
the shore that it had latent vigour left to throw itself
upwards into clouds of spray.    We looked through
limpid water into cool depths where strange bright fish
darted through the submarine chapparal, but the coolness
was imaginary, for the water was at 80.~* The air above
* This temperature is, of course, in shallow water. The United States
surveying vessel, Tuscarora, lately left San Diego, California, shaping a
straight course for Honolulu, and found a nearly uniform temperature of
from 33~ to 34~ Fahrenheit at all depths below 1100 fathoms. The following table gives a good idea of the temperature of ocean water in this
region of the Pacific:100...... 64~  7
200......48~ 7
300...... 42  4
400.....    400 4
500......  39  4
600..... 38~ 6
700.. 38~ 3




48


HAWAII.


[LETTER III.


the great black lava flood, which in prehistoric times had
flowed into the sea, and had ever since declined the
kindly draping offices of nature, vibrated in waves of
heat. Even the imperishable cocoanut trees, whose tall,
bare, curved trunks rose from the lava or the burnt red
earth, were gaunt, tattered, and thirsty-looking, weary of
crying for moisture to the pitiless skies. At last the
ceaseless ripple of talk ceased, crew and passengers slept
on the hot deck, and no sounds were heard but the
drowsy flap of the awning, and the drowsier creak of the
rudder, as the Kilauea swayed sleepily on the lazy undulations. The flag drooped and fainted with heat. The
white sun blazed like a magnesium light on blue water,
black lava, and fiery soil, roasting, blinding, scintillating,
and flushed the red rocks of Maui into glory. It was a
constant marvel that troops of mounted natives, male and
female, could gallop on the scorching shore without being
melted or shrivelled. It is all glorious, this fierce bright
glow of the Tropic of Cancer, yet it was a relief to look
up the great rolling featureless slopes above Ulupalakua
to a forest belt of perennial green, watered, they say, by
perpetual showers, and a little later to see a mountain
summit uplifted into a region of endless winter, above a
steady cloud-bank as white as snow. This mountain,
800...... 37~  5
900...36~             6
1000......  35~  6
1200....           35~  4
3054....       33~ 2
The Tuscarora found the extraordinary depth of 3023 fathoms at a
distance of only 43 miles from Molokai.




LETTEI IiI.]  ANTI-MISSIONARY STATEMENTS.


49


Haleakala, the House of the Sun, is the largest extinct
volcano in the world, its terminal crater being nineteen
miles in circumference at a height of more than 10,000
feet. It, and its spurs, slopes, and clusters of small
craters form East Maui. West Maui is composed mainly
of the lofty picturesque group of the Eeka mountains. A
desert strip of land, not much above high water mark,
unites the twain, which form an island forty-eight miles
long and thirty broad, with an area of 620 square
miles.
We left Maui in the afternoon, and spent the next six
hours in crossing the channel between it and Hawaii, but
the short tropic day did not allow us to see anything of
the latter island but two snow-capped domes uplifted
above the clouds. I have been reading Jarves' excellent
book on the islands as industriously as possible, as well
as trying to get information from my fellow-passengers
regarding the region into which I have been so suddenly
and unintentionally projected.  I really know nothing
about Hawaii, or the size and phenomena of the volcano
to which we are bound, or the state of society or of the
native race, or of the relations existing between it and
the foreign population, or of the details of the constitution. This ignorance is most oppressive, and I see that
it will not be easily enlightened, for among several intelligent gentlemen who have been conversing with me, no
two seem agreed on any matter of fact.
From the hour of my landing I have observed the
existence of two parties of pro and anti missionary
leanings, with views on all island subjects in grotesque
E




50


HAWAII.


[LETTER III.


antagonism. So far, the former have left the undoubted
results of missionary effort here to speak for themselves;
and I am almost disposed, from the pertinacious aggressiveness of the latter party, to think that it must be weak.
I have already been seized upon (a gentleman would write
"button-holed ") by several persons, who, in their anxiety
to be first in imprinting their own views on the tabula rasa
of a stranger's mind, have exercised an unseemly overhaste in giving the conversation an anti-missionary twist.
They apparently desire to convey the impression that the
New England teachers, finding a people rejoicing in the
innocence and simplicity of Eden, taught them the knowledge of evil, turned them into a nation of hypocrites,
and with a strange mingling of fanaticism and selfishness, afflicted them with many woes calculated to accelerate their extinction, clothing among others. The animus
appears strong and bitter. There are two intelligent and
highly educated ladies on board, daughters of missionaries, and the candid and cautious tone in which
they speak on the same subject impresses me favourably.
Mr. Damon introduced me to a very handsome half white
gentleman, a lawyer of ability, and lately interpreter to
the Legislature, Mr. Ragsdale, or, as he is usually called,
" Bill Ragsdale," a leading spirit among the natives. His
conversation was eloquent and poetic, though rather
stilted, and he has a good deal of French mannerism; but
if he is a specimen of native patriotic feeling, I think that
the extinction of Hawaiian nationality must be far off. I
was amused with the attention that he paid to his dress
under very adverse circumstances. He has appeared in




LETTER III.]


WINDWARD IAWAII.


three different suits, with light kid gloves to match, all
equally elegant, in two days. A C1Fnese gentleman, who
is at the same time a wealthy merchant at Honolulu, and
a successful planter on Hawaii, interests me, from the
quiet keen intelligence of his face, and the couriesy and
dignity of his manner.  I hear that he possesses the
respect of the whole community for his honour and
integrity. It is quite unlike an ordinary miscellaneous
herd of passengers. The tone is so cheerful, courteous,
and friendly, and people speak without introductions,
and help to make the t;ne pass pleasantly to each
other.
HILO, HAWAII.
The Kilauea is not a fast propeller, and as she lurched
very much in crossing the channel most of the passengers
were sea-sick, a casualty which did not impair their
cheerfulness and good humour.   After dark we called
at Kawaihae (pronounced To-wee-hye), on the northwest of Hawaii, and then steamed through the channel
to the east or windward side. I was only too glad on
the second night to accept the offer of " a mattrass on
the skylight," but between the heavy rolling caused by
the windward swell, and the natural excitement on
nearing the land of volcanoes and earthquakes, I could
not sleep, and no other person slept, for it was considered " a very rough passage," though there was hardly
a yachtsman's breeze. It would do these Sybarites good
to give them a short spell of the howling horrors of
the North or South Atlantic, an easterly snowstorm off
2




52


HAWAII.


[LETTERI III.


Sable Island, or a winter gale in the latitude of Inaccessible Island!  The night was cloudy, and so the
glare from  Kilauea which is often seen far out at sea
was not visible.
When the sun rose amidst showers and rainbows (for
this is the showery season), I could hardly believe my
eyes. Scenery, vegetation, colour were all changed.
The glowing red, the fiery glare, the obtrusive lack of
vegetation were all gone.   There was a magnificent
coast-line of grey cliffs many hundred feet in height,
usually draped with green, but often black, caverned,
and fantastic at their bases. Into cracks and caverns
the heavy waves surged with a sound like artillery,
sending their broad white sheets of foam high up among
the ferns and trailers, and drowning for a time the endless baritone of the surf, which is never silent through
the summer years.    Cascades in numbers took one
impulsive leap from the cliffs into the sea, or came
thundering down clefts or "gulches," which, widening
at their extremities, opened on smooth green lawns,
each one of which has its grass house or houses, kalo
patch, bananas, and coco-palms, so close to the broad
Pacific that its spray often frittered itself away over
their fan-like leaves. Above the cliffs there were grassy
uplands with park-like clumps of the screw-pine, and
candle-nut, and glades and dells of dazzling green, bright
with cataracts, opened up among the dark dense forests
which for some thousands of feet girdle Mauna Kea and
Mauna Loa, two vast volcanic mountains, whose snowcapped summits gleamed here and there above the clouds,




LETTER III.]  FIRST GLIMPSE OF PARADISE.


at an altitude of nearly 14,000 feet. Creation surely
cannot exhibit a more brilliant green than that which
clothes windward Hawaii with perpetual spring. I have
never seen such verdure. In the final twenty-nine miles
there are more than sixty gulches, from 100 to 700 feet
in depth, each with its cataracts, and wild vagaries of
tropical luxuriance.  Native churches, fiame-built and
painted white, are almost like mile-stones along the coast,
far too large and too many for the notoriously dwindling
population. Ten miles from Hilo we came in sight of
the first sugar plantation, with its patches of yet brighter
green, its white boiling house and tall chimney stack;
then more churches, more plantations, more gulches, more
houses, and before ten we steamed into Byron's, or as it
is now called Hilo Bay.
This is the paradise of Hawaii.   What Honolulu
attempts to be, Hilo is without effort.  Its crescentshaped bay, said to be the most beautiful in the Pacific,
is a semi-circle of about two miles, with its farther
extremity formed by Cocoanut Island, a black lava islet
on which this palm attains great perfection, and beyond
it again a fringe of oocoanuts marks the deep indentations of the shore. From this island to the north point
of the bay, there is a band of golden sand on which the
roar of the surf sounded thunderous and drowsy as it
mingled with the music of living waters, the Waiakea
and the Wailuku, which after lashing the sides of the
mountains which give them birth, glide deep and fernfringed into the ocean. Native houses, half hidden by
greenery, line the bay, and stud the heights above the




54


HAWAII.


[LET'lTE     III.


Wailuku, and near the landing some white frame houses
and three church spires above the wood denote the foreign
element. Hilo is unique. Its climate is humid, and the
long repose which it has enjoyed from rude volcanic
upheavals has mingled a great depth of vegetable mould
with the decomposed lava. Rich soil, rain, heat, sunshine,
stimulate nature to supreme efforts, and there is a
luxuriant prodigality of vegetation which leaves nothing
uncovered but the golden margin of the sea, and even
that above high-water-mark is green with the Convolvulus
maritimus. So dense is the wood that Hilo is rather
suggested than seen.  It is only on shore that one
becomes aware of its bewildering variety of native and
exotic trees and shrubs. From the sea it looks one
dense mass of greenery, in which the bright foliage of
the candle-nut relieves the glossy dark green of the breadfruit-a maze of preposterous bananas, out of which
rise slender annulated trunks of palms giving their
infinite grace to the grove. And palms along the bay,
almost among the surf, toss their waving plumes in the
sweet soft breeze, not "palms in exile," but children
of a blessed isle where "never wind blows loudly."
Above Hilo, broad lands sweeping up cloudwards, with
their sugar cane, kalo, melons, pine-apples, and banana
groves suggest the boundless liberality of Nature. Woods
and waters, hill and valley are all there, and from the
region of an endless summer the eye takes in the domain
of an endless winter, where almost perpetual snow crowns
the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Mauna
Kea from Hilo has a shapely aspect, for its top is broken




LETTERl III.]  A POLYNESIAN WELCOME.


55


into peaks, said to be the craters of extinct volcanoes,
but my eyes seek the dome-like curve of Mauna Loa
with far deeper interest, for it is as yet an unfinished
mountain. It has a huge crater on its summit 800 feet in
depth, and a pit of unresting fire on its side; it throbs
and rumbles, and palpitates; it has sent forth floods of
fire over all this part of Hawaii, and at any moment
it may be crowned with a lonely light, showing that its
tremendous forces are again in activity. My imagination
is already inflamed by hearing of marvels, and I am
beginning to think tropically.
Canoes came off from the shore, dusky swimmers
glided through the water, youths, athletes, like the
bronzes of the Naples Museum, rode the waves on their
surf-boards, brilliantly dressed riders galloped along the
sands and came trooping down the bridle-paths from all
the vicinity till a many-coloured tropical crowd had
assembled at the landing. Then a whaleboat came off,
rowed by eight young men in white linen suits and white
straw hats, with wreaths of carmine-coloured flowers
round both hats and throats. They were singing a glee
in honour of Mr. Ragsdale, whom they sprang on deck to
welcome.   Our crowd of native fellow-passengers, by
some inscrutable process, had re-arrayed themselves
and blossomed into brilliancy. Hordes of Hilo natives
swarmed on deck, and it became a Babel of alohas, kisses,
hand-shakings, and reiterated welcomes.   The glee
singers threw their beautiful garlands of roses and ohias
over the foreign passengers, and music, flowers, good-will
and kindliness made us welcome to these enchanted




HAWAII.


[LETTER      III.


shores.  We landed in a whaleboat, and were hoisted
up a rude pier which was crowded, for what the arrival of
the Australian mail-steamer is to Honolulu, the coming
of the Kilauea is to Hilo. I had not time to feel myself
a stranger, there were so many introductions, and so much
friendliness.  Mr. Coan and Mr. Lyman, two of the
most venerable of the few surviving missionaries, were on
the landing, and I was introduced to them and many
others.  There is no hotel in Hilo.  The residents
receive strangers, and Miss Karpe and I were soon installed in a large buff frame-house, with two deep
verandahs, the residence of Mr. Severance, Sheriff of
Hawaii.
Unlike many other places, Hilo is more fascinating on
closer acquaintance, so fascinating that it is hard to write
about it in plain prose. Two narrow roads lead up from
the sea to one as narrow, running parallel with it.
Further up the hill another runs in the same direction.
There are no conveyances, and outside the village these
narrow roads dwindle into bridle-paths, with just room
for one horse to pass another. The houses in which
Mr. Coan, Mr. Lyman, Dr. Wetmore (formerly of the
Mission), and one or two others live, have just enough
suggestion of New England about them to remind one of
the dominant influence on these islands, but the climate
has idealized them, and clothed them with poetry and
antiquity.
Of the three churches, the most prominent is the
Roman Catholic Church, a white frame building with
two great towers; Mr. Coan's native church with a spire




LETTER II.


PARADISE IN DETAIL.


57


comes next; and then the neat little foreign church, also
with a spire. The Romish Church is a rather noisy
neighbour, for its bells ring at unnatural hours, and
doleful strains of a band which cannot play either in
time or tune proceed from it. The court-house, a large
buff painted frame-building with two deep verandahs,
standing on a well-kept lawn planted with exotic trees,
is the most imposing building in Hilo. All the foreigners
have carried out their individual tastes in their dwellings, and the result is very agreeable, though in picturesqueness they must yield the palm to the native
houses, which whether of frame, or grass plain or
plaited, whether one or two storeyed, all have the deep
thatched roofs and verandahs plain or fantastically
latticed, which are so in harmony with the surroundings.
These lattices and single and double verandahs are
gorgeous with trailers, and the general warm  brown
tint of the houses contrasts pleasantly with the deep
green of the bananas which over-shadow them. There
are living waters everywhere.  Each house seems to
possess its pure bright stream, which is arrested in
bathing houses to be liberated among kalo patches of
the brightest green. Every verandah appears a gathering place, and the bright holuku8s of the women, the
gay shirts and bandanas of the men, the brilliant wreaths
of natural flowers which adorn both, the hot-house
temperature, the new trees and flowers which demand
attention, the strange rich odours, and the low monotonous
recitative which mourns through the groves make me feel
that I am in a new world. Ah, this is all Polynesian!




68                    HAWAII.                [LETTER III.
This must be the land to which the " timid-eyed" lotoseaters came.   There is a strange fascination in the
languid air, and it is strangely sweet "to dream of
fatherland".. 
I. L. B.




LETTER IV.
HILO, HAWAII.
I FIND that I can send another short letter before leaving
for the volcano. I cannot convey to you any idea of the
greenness and lavish luxuriance of this place, where everything flourishes, and glorious trailers and parasitic ferns
hide all unsightly objects out of sight.  It presents a
bewildering  maze  of lilies, roses, fuschias, clematis,
begonias, convolvuli, the huge appalling looking granadilla,
the purple and yellow water lemons, also varieties of
passiflora, both with delicious edible fruit, custard apples,
rose apples, mangoes, mangostein    guavas, bamboos,
alligator pears, oranges, tamarinds, papayas, bananas,
breadfruit, magnolias, geraniums, candle-nut, gardenias,
dracmenas, eucalyptus, pandanus, ohias,* kamani trees,
kalo, + noni,  and quantities of other trees and flowers,
of which I shall eventually learn the names, patches of
pine-apple, melons, and sugar-cane for children to suck,
kalo and sweet potatoes.
In the vicinity of this and all other houses, Chili
peppers, and a ginger-plant with a drooping flower-stalk
with a great number of blossoms, which when not fully
developed have a singular resemblance to very pure porcelain tinted with pink at the extremities of the buds, are
* Metrosideros Polymorpha. t Colocasia antiquorum (arum esculentum).
+ Morinda Citrifolia.




60


HAWAII.


[LETTE'I  IV.


to be seen growing in "yards," to use a most unfitting
Americanism. I don't know how to introduce you to
some 'of the things which delight my eyes here; but I must
ask you to believe that the specimens of tropical growths
which we see in conservatories at home are in general
either misrepresentations, or very feeble representations
of these growths in their natural homes. I don't allude
to flowers, and especially not to orchids, but in this
instance very specially to bananas, coco-palms, and the
pandanus. For example, there is a specimen of the
Pandanus odoratissimus in the palm-house in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, which is certainly a malignant
caricature, with its long straggling branches, and widely
scattered tufts of poverty stricken foliage. The bananas
and plantains in that same palm-house represent only the
feeblest and poorest of their tribe. They require not only
warmth and moisture, but the generous sunshine of the
tropics for their development. In the same house the
date and sugar-palms are tolerable specimens, but the
cocoa-nut trees are most truly " palms in exile."
I suppose that few people ever forget the first sight of
a palm-tree of any species. I vividly remember seeing
one for the first time at Malaga, but the coco-palm groves
of the Pacific have a strangeness and witchery of their own.
As I write now I hear the moaning rustle of the wind
through their plume-like tops, and their long slender.stems, and crisp crown of leaves above the trees with
shining leafage which revel in damp, have a suggestion
of Orientalism about them. How do they come too, on
every atoll or rock that raises its head throughout this




LETTER Iv.]  THE COCO-PALM AT HOME.


61


lonely ocean? They fringe the shores of these islands.
Wherever it is dry and fiercely hot, and the lava is black
and hard, and nothing else grows, or can grow, there they
are, close to the sea, sending their root-fibres seawards
as if in search of salt water. Their long, curved, wrinkled,
perfectly cylindrical stems, bulging near the ground
like an apothecary's pestle, rise to a height of from
sixty to one hundred feet.    These stems are never
straight, and in a grove lean and curve every way, and
are apparently capable of enduring any force of wind or
earthquake. They look as if they had never been young,
and they show no signs of growth, rearing their plumy
tufts so far aloft, and casting their shadows so far away,
always supremely lonely, as though they belonged to the
heavens rather than the earth. Then, while all else that
grows is green they are yellowish. Their clusters of nuts
in all stages of growth are yellow, their fan-like leaves,
which are from twelve to twenty feet long, are yellow, and
an amber light pervades and surrounds them. They
provide milk, oil, food, rope, and matting, and each tree
produces about one hundred nuts annually.
The pandanus, or lauhala, is one of the most striking
features of the islands. Its funereal foliage droops in Hilo,
and it was it that I noticed all along the windward coast
as having a most striking peculiarity of airial roots which
the branches send down to the ground, anld which I now
see have large cup-shaped spongioles. These air-roots
seem like props, and appear to vary in length from three
to twelve feet, according to the situation of the tree. There
is one variety I saw to-day, the " screw pine," which is




62


HAWAII.


[LETTFR, IV.


really dangerous if one approached it unguardedly. It is
a whorled pandanus, with       long sword-shaped leaves,
spirally arranged in three rows, and hard, saw-toothed
edges, very sharp.  When unbranched as I saw them, they
resemble at a distance pine-apple plants thiriy times
magnified,   But the mournful looking trees along the
-coast and all about Hilo      are mostly the    Pandanus
odoratissimus, a spreading    and branching tree which
grows fully twenty-five feet high, supports itself among
inaccessible rocks by its prop-like roots, and is one of the
first plants to appear on the newly-formed Pacific islands.*
Its foliage is singularly dense, although it is borne in
tufts of a quantity of long yucca-like leaves on the branches.
The shape of the tree is usually circular. The mournful
look is caused by the leaves taking a downward and very
decided droop in the middle.      At present each tuft of
leaves has in its centre an object like a green pine-apple.
This contains the seeds which are eatable, as is also the
fleshy part of the drupes. I find that it is from the seeds
of this tree and their coverings that the brilliant orange
leis, or garlands of the natives, are made. The soft white
case of the leaves and the terminal buds can also be eaten.
The leaves are used for thatching, and their tough
longitudinal fibres for mats and ropes.   There is another
* I have since learned that it is the same as the Kaldera bush of
Southern India, and that the powerful fragrance of its flowers is the subject
of continual allusions in Sanskrit poetry under the name of Ketaka, and
that oil impregnated with its odour is highly prized as a perfume in India.
The Hawaiians also used it to give a delicious scent to the Tapa made for
their chiefs from the inner bark of the paper mulberry.




LETTER IV.]


THE "SCREW PINE."


63


kind, the Pandanus vacoa, the same as is used for making
sugar bags in Mauritius, but I have not seen it.
One does not forget the first sight of a palm. I think
the banana comes next, and I see them in perfection here
for the first time, as those in Honolulu grow in "yards,"
and are tattered by tfe winds. It transports me into the
tropics in feeling, as I am already in them in fact, and
satisfies all my cravings for something which shall represent and epitomize their luxuriance, as well as for
simplicity and grace in vegetable form. And here it is
everywhere with its shining shade, its smooth fat green
stem, its crown of huge curving leaves from four to ten
feet long, and its heavy cluster of a whorl of green or
golden fruit, with a pendant purple cone of undeveloped
blossom below. It is of the tropics, tropical; a thing of
beauty, and gladness, and sunshine. It is indigenous
here, and wild, but never bears seeds, and is propagated
solely by suckers, which spring up when the parent plant
has fruited, or by cuttings. It bears seed, strange to say,
only (so far as is known) in the Andaman Islands, where,
stranger still, it springs up as a second growth wherever
the forests are cleared. Go to the palm-house, find the
Musa   sapientum, magnify it ten times, glorify it
immeasurably, and you will have a laggard idea of the
banana groves of Hilo.
The ground is carpeted with a grass of preternaturally
vivid green and rankness of growth, mixed with a handsome fern, with a caudex a foot high, the Sadleria
cyathoides, and another of exquisite beauty, the Micro



64


HAWAII.


[LETTER IV.


pia tenuifolia, which are said to be the commonest ferns
on Hawaii. It looks Elysian.
Hilo is a lively place for such a mere village; so
many natives are stirring about, and dashing along
the narrow roads on horseback. This is a large airy
house, simple and tasteful, with pretty engravings. and
water-colour drawings on the walls. There is a large
bath-house in the garden, into which a pure, cool stream
has been led, and the gurgle and music of many such
streams fill the sweet, soft air. There is a saying among
sailors, "Follow a Pacific shower, and it leads you to
Hilo."  Indeed I think they have a rainfall of from
thirteen to sixteen feet annually. These deep verandahs
are very pleasant, for they render window-blinds unnecessary; so there is nothing of that dark stuffiness which
makes indoor life a trial in the closed, shadeless Australian
houses.
Miss Karpe, my travelling companion, is a lady of
great energy, and apparently an adept in the art of
travelling.  Undismayed by three days of sea-sickness,
and the prospect of the tremendous journey to the
volcano to-morrow, she extemporised a ride to the
Anuenue Falls on the Wailuku this afternoon, and I
weakly accompanied her, a burly policeman being our
guide. The track is only a scramble among rocks and
holes, concealed by grass and ferns, and we had to cross
a stream, full of great holes, several times. The Fall
itself is very pretty, 110 feet in one descent, with a
cavernous shrine behind the water, filled with ferns.




LETTIE Iv.]  POT-HOLES ON THE WAILUKU.


65


There were large ferns all round the Fall, and a jungle
of luxuriant tropical shrubs of many kinds.
Three miles above this Fall there are the Pei-pei
Falls, very interesting geologically. The Wailuku River
is the boundary between the two great volcanoes, and its
waters, it is supposed by learned men, have often flowed
over heated beds of basalt, with the result of columnar
formation radiating from the bottom of the stream.
This structure is sometimes beautifully exhibited in
the form of Gothic archways, through which the torrent
pours into a basin, surrounded by curved, broken, and
half-sunk prisms, black and prominent amidst the white
foam of the Falls. In several places the river has just
pierced the beds of lava, and in one passes under a thick
rock bridge, several hundred feet wide. Often, where the
water flows over beds of dark grey basalt, masses of
trachyte, closely resembling syenite, have formed " potholes," and by mutual action have been worn to pebbles.
At Pei-pei there are three circular pools, each about fifty
feet in diameter, and separated by walls six feet thick, in
a bed of columnar basalt.*  During freshets the river
sometimes rises thirty feet, and hides these pools, but
during the dry season the upper bed is bare, and after a
succession of cascades of various heights the stream
pours into the first basin, filling it with foam. From this
there is no apparent outlet, but leaves thrown in soon
appear in the second basin, whose tranquillity is only
disturbed by a few bubbles. Between this and the third
* See Brigham, on the "Hawaiian Volcanoes."
F




66


HAWAII.


[LETTER IV.


there are two subterranean passages, and the water there
leaps over a fall about forty feet high, nearly covering a
perfect Gothic arch which is the entrance to a shallow
cave. The scene is enclosed by high and nearly perpendicular walls.*
Near the Anuenue Fall we stopped at a native house,
outside which a woman, in a rose-coloured chemise,
was stringing roses for a necklace, while her husband
pounded the kalo root on a board. His only clothing
was the mal), a narrow strip of cloth wound round the
loins, and passed between the legs. This was the only
covering worn by men before the introduction of Christianity. Females wore the pan, a short petticoat made
of tapa, which reached from the waist to the knees. To
our eyes, the brown skin produces nearly the effect of
clothing.
Everything was new and interesting, but the ride was
spoiled by my insecure seat in my saddle, and the
increased pain in my spine which riding produced. Once
in crossing a stream the horses have to make a sort of
downward jump from a rock, and I slipped round my
horse's neck. Indeed on the way back I felt that on the
ground of health I must give up the volcano, as I would
never consent to be carried to it, like Lady Franklin, in a
litter. When we returned, Mr. Severance suggested that
it would be much better for me to follow the Hawaiian
fashion, and ride astride, and put his saddle on the
horse. It was only my strong desire to see the vol* In explorations some months later, I found nearly similar phenomena,
in two other of the streams on the windward side of Hawaii.




LETTER, IV.]


CUSTOMS OF SOCIETY.


67


cano which made me consent to a mode of riding against
which I have so strong a prejudice, but the result of the
experiment is that I shall visit Kilauea thus or not at all.
'The native women all ride astride, on ordinary occasions
in the full sacks, or holukus, and on gala days in the
pau, the gay, winged dress which I described in writing
from Honolulu. A great many of the foreign ladies on
Hawaii have adopted the Mexican saddle also, for greater
security to themselves and ease to their horses, on the
steep and perilous bridle-tracks, but they wear full
Turkish trowsers and jauntily-made dresses reaching to
the ankles.
It appears that Hilo is free from the universally
admitted nuisance of morning calls.  The hours are
simple-eight o'clock breakfasts, one o'clock dinners, six
o'clock suppers. If people want anything with you, they
come at any hour of the day, but if they only wish to be
sociable, the early evening is the recognized time for
"calling."  After supper, when the day's work is done,
people take their lanterns and visit each other, either in
the verandahs or in the cheerful parlours which open
upon them. There are no door-bells, or solemn announcements by servants of visitors' names, or " not-athomes."  If people are in their parlours, it is presumed
that they receive their friends: Several pleasant people
came in this evening. They seem to take great interest
in two ladies going to the volcano without an escort, but
no news has been received from it lately, and I fear that
it is not very active as no glare is visible to-night. Mr.
Thompson, the pastor of the small foreign congregation
F 2




68


HAWAII.


[LETTER IV.


here, called on me. He is a very agreeable, accomplished
man, and is acquainted with Dr. Holland and several of
my New England friends. He kindly brought his wife's
riding-costume for my trip to Kilauea. The Rev. Titus
Coan, one of the first and most successful missionaries to
Hawaii, also called. He is a tall, majestic-looking man,
physically well fitted for the extraordinary exertions he
has undergone in mission work, and intellectually also, I
should think, for his face expresses great mental strength,
and nothing of the weakness of a sanguine enthusiast.
He has admitted about 12,000 persons into the Christian
Church. He is the greatest authority on volcanoes on the
islands, and his enthusiastic manner and illuminated
countenance as he spoke of Kilauea, have raised my
expectations to the highest pitch. We are prepared for
to-morrow, having engaged a native named Upa, who
boasts a little English, as our guide. He provides three
horses and himself for three days for the sum of thirty
dollars.
I. L. B.




LETTER V.


VOLCANO OF KILAUEA, Jan. 31.
BRUISED aching bones, strained muscles, and overwhelming fatigue, render it hardly possible for me to
undergo the physical labour of writing, but in spirit
I am so elated with the triumph of success, and so
thrilled by new sensations, that though I cannot communicate the incommunicable, I want to write to you
while the impression of Kilauea is fresh, and by "the
light that never was on sea or shore."
By eight yesterday morning our preparations were
finished, and Miss Karpe, whose conversance with the
details of travelling I envy, mounted her horse on her
own side-saddle, dressed in a short grey waterproof, and
a broad-brimmed Leghorn hat tied so tightly over her
ears with a green veil as to give it the look of a double
spout. The only pack her horse carried was a bundle
of cloaks and shawls, slung together with an umbrella
on the horn of her saddle. Upa, who was most picturesquely got up in the native style with garlands of
flowers round his hat and throat, carried our saddle-bags
on the peak of his saddle, a bag with bananas, bread,
and a bottle of tea on the horn, and a canteen of water
round his waist. I had on my coarse Australian hat
which serves the double purpose of sunshade and




70


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


umbrella, Mrs. Thompson's riding costume, my great
rusty New Zealand boots, and my blanket strapped
behind a very gaily ornamented brass-bossed demi-pique
Mexican saddle, which one of the missionary's daughters
had lent me. It has a horn in front, a low peak behind,
large wooden stirrups with leathern flaps the length of the
stirrup-leathers, to prevent the dress from coming in contact with the horse, and strong guards of hide which hang
over and below the stirrup, and cover it and the foot up to
the ancles, to prevent the feet or boots from being torn
in riding through the bush. Each horse had four fathoms
of tethering rope wound several times round his neck. In
such fashion must all travelling be done on Hawaii,
whether by ladies or gentlemen.
Upa supplied the picturesque element, we the grotesque.
The morning was moist and unpropitious looking. As
the greater part of the thirty miles has to be travelled at
a foot's-pace the guide took advantage of the soft grassy
track which leads out of Hilo, to go off at full gallop,
a proceeding which made me at once conscious of the
demerits of my novel way of riding. To guide the horse
and to clutch the horn of the saddle with both hands
were clearly incompatible, so I abandoned the first as
being the least important. Then my feet either slipped
too far into the stirrups and were cut, or they were
jerked out; every corner was a new terror, for at each
I was nearly pitched off on one side, and when at last
Upa stopped, and my beast stopped without consulting
my wishes, only a desperate grasp of mane and tethering
rope saved me from going over his head. At this ridi



LETTER V.]


A TROPICAL FOREST.


71


culous mollent we came upon a bevy of brown maidens
swimming in a lakelet by the roadside, who increased my
confusion by a chorus of laughter.  How fervently I
hoped that the track would never admit of galloping
again!
Hilo fringes off with pretty native houses, kalo patches
and mullet ponds, and in about four miles the track,
then formed of rough hard lava, and not more than
24 inches wide, enters a forest of the densest description, a burst of true tropical jungle. I could not have
imagined anything so perfectly beautiful, nature seemed
to riot in the production of wonderful forms, as if the
moist hot-house air encouraged her in lavish excesses.
Such endless variety, such depths of green, such an
impassable and altogether inextricable maze of forest
trees, ferns, and lianas!. There were palms, breadfruit
trees, ohias, eugenias, candle-nuts of immense size,
Koa (acacia) bananas, noni, bamboos, papayas, (Carica
papaya) guavas, ti trees (Cordyline terminalis), treeferns, climbing ferns, parasitic ferns, and ferns themselves the prey of parasites of their own species. The
lianas were there in profusion climbing over the highest
trees, and entangling them, with stems varying in size
from those as thick as a man's arm to those as slender
as whipcord, binding all in an impassable network, and
hanging over our heads in rich festoons or tendrils
swaying in the breeze.  There were trailers, ie, (Freycinetia scandens) with heavy knotted stems, as thick as
a frigate's stoutest hawser, coiling up to the tops of tall
ohias with tufted leaves like yuccas, and crimson spikes




72


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


of gaudy blossom. The shining festoons of the yam
and the graceful trailers of the maile (Alyxia Olivaeformis), a sweet scented vine, from which the natives
make garlands, and glossy leaved climbers hung from
tree to tree, and to brighten all, huge morning glories of
a heavenly blue opened a thousand blossoms to the sun
as if to give a tenderer loveliness to the forest. Here
trees grow and fall, and nature covers them where they
lie with a new vegetation which altogether obliterates
their hasty decay. It is four miles of beautiful and
inextricable confusion, untrodden by human feet except
on the narrow track. " Of every tree in this garden
thou mayest freely eat," and no serpent or noxious
thing trails its hideous form through this Eden.
It was quite intoxicating, so new, wonderful, and
solemn withal, that I was sorry when we emerged from
its shady depths upon a grove of cocoanut trees and the
glare of day. Two very poor-looking grass huts, with a
ragged patch of sugar-cane beside them, gave us an
excuse for half an hour's rest. An old woman in a red
sack, much tattooed, with thick short grey hair bristling
on her head, sat on a palm root, holding a nude brown
child; a lean hideous old man, dressed only in a malo,
leaned against its stem, our horses with their highly
miscellaneous gear were tethered to a fern stump, and
Upa, the most picturesque of the party, served out tea.
He and the natives talked incessantly, and from the
frequency with which the words " wahine haole " (foreign
woman) occurred, the subject of their conversation was
obvious. Upa has taken up the notion from something




LETTER V.]


A SEA OF LAVA.


73


Mr. S-    said, that I am a " high chief," and related to
Queen Victoria, and he was doubtlessly imposing this
fable on the people.  In spite of their poverty and
squalor, if squalor is a term  which can be applied to
aught beneath these sunny skies, there was a kindliness
about them which they made us feel, and the aloha with
which they parted from us had a sweet friendly sound.
From this grove we travelled as before in single file
over an immense expanse of lava of the kind called
2)ahoehoe, or satin rock, to distinguish  it from  the
a-a, or jagged, rugged, impassable rock. Savants all use
these terms in the absence of any equally expressive
in English.  The pahoehoe extends in the Hilo direction from hence about twenty-three miles. It is the
cooled and arrested torrent of lava which in past ages
has flowed towards Hilo from Kilauea. It lies in hummlocks, in coils, in rippled waves, in rivers, in huge convolutions, in pools smooth and still, and in caverns
which are really bubbles. Hundreds of square miles of
the island are made up of this and nothing more. A
very frequent aspect of pahoehoe is the likeness on a
magnificent scale of a thick coat of cream  drawn in
wrinkling folds to the side of a milk-pan. This lava is
all grey, and the greater part of its surface is slightly
roughened. Wherever this is not the case the horses slip
upon it as upon ice.
Here I began to realize the universally igneous origin
of Hawaii, as I had not done among the finely disintegrated lava of Hilo. From the hard black rocks which
border the sea, to the loftiest mountain dome or peak,




74


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


every stone, atom of dust, and foot of fruitful or barren
soil bears the Plutonic mark. In fact, the island has
been raised heap on heap, ridge on ridge, mountain on
mountain, to nearly the height of Mont Blanc, by the
same volcanic forces which are still in operation here,
and may still add at intervals to the height of the blue
dome of Mauna Loa, of which we caught occasional
glimpses above the clouds.  Hawaii is actually at the
present time being built up from the ocean, and this
great sea of pahoehoe is not to be regarded as a vindictive eruption, bringing desolation on a fertile region,
but as an architectural and formative process.
There is no water, except a few deposits of rain-water
in holes, but the moist air and incessant showers have
aided nature to mantle this frightful expanse with an
abundant vegetation, principally ferns of an exquisite
green, the most conspicuous being the Sadleria, the
Gleichenia Hawaiiensis, a running wire-like fern, and
the exquisite Microlepia tenuifolia, dwarf guava, with
its white flowers resembling orange flowers in odour, and
ohelos (Vaccinium reticulatum), with their red and white
berries, and a profusion of small-leaved ohias (Metrosideros polymorpha), with their deep crimson tasselled
flowers, and their young shoots of bright crimson, relieved
the monotony of green.  These crimson tassels deftly
strung on thread or fibres, are much used by the natives for
their leis, or garlands. The ti tree (Cordyline terminalis)
which abounds also on the lava, is most valuable. They
cook their food wrapped up in its leaves, the porous root
when baked, has the taste and texture of molasses candy,




LETTER V.1


THE HALF-WAY HOUSE.


75


and when distilled yields a spirit, and the leaves form
wrappings for fish, hard poi, and other edibles. Occasionally a clump of tufted coco-palms, or of the beautiful
candle-nut rose among the smaller growths. To our left a
fringe of palms marked the place where the lava and the
ocean met, while, on our right, we were seldom out of
sight of the dense timber belt, with its fringe of treeferns and bananas, which girdles Mauna Loa.
The track, on the whole, is a perpetual upward
scramble; for, though the ascent is so gradual, that it is
only by the increasing coolness of the atmosphere that the
increasing elevation is denoted, it is really nearly 4,000
feet in thirty miles. Only strong, sure-footed, well-shod
horses can undertake this journey, for it is a constant
scramble over rocks, going up or down natural steps, or
cautiously treading along ledges. Most of the track is
quite legible owing to the vegetation having been worn
off the lava, but the rock itself hardly shows the slightest
abrasion.
Upa had indicated that we were to stop for rest at the
"Half Way House;" and, as I was hardly able to sit on
my horse owing to fatigue, I consoled myself by visions
of a comfortable sofa and a cup of tea. It was with real
dismay that I found the reality to consist of a grass hut,
much out of repair, and which, bad as it was, was locked.
Upa said we had ridden so slowly that it would be dark
before we reached the volcano, and only allowed us to
rest on the grass for half-an-hour. He had frequently
reiterated " Half Way House, you wear spur;" and, on
our remounting, he buckled on my foot a heavy rusty




76


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


Mexican spur, with jingling ornaments and rowels an inch
and a half long. These horses are so accustomed to be
jogged with these instruments that they won't move without them. The prospect of five hours more riding looked
rather black, for I was much exhausted, and my shoulders
and knee-joints were in severe pain. Miss K.'s horse
showed no other appreciation of a stick with which she
belaboured him than flourishes of his tail, so, for a time,
he was put in the middle, that Upa might add his more
forcible persuasions, and I rode first and succeeded in
getting my lazy animal into the priestly amble known at
home as " a butter and eggs trot," the favourite travelling
pace, but this not suiting the guide's notion of progress, he frequently rushed up behind with a torrent of
Hawaiian, emphasized by heavy thumps on my horse's
back, which so sorely jeopardised my seat on the animal,
owing to his resenting the interference by kicking, that
I "dropped astern " for the rest of the way, leaving Upa
to belabour Miss K.'s steed for his diversion.
The country altered but little, only the variety of trees
gave place to the ohia alone, with its sombre foliage.
There were neither birds nor insects, and the only travellers we encountered in the solitude compelled us to
give them a wide berth, for they were a drove of half wild
random cattle, led by a lean bull of hideous aspect, with
crumpled horns. Two picturesque native vaccheros on
mules accompanied them, and my flagging spirits were
raised by their news that the volcano was quite active.
The owner of these cattle knows that he has 10,000 head,
and may have a great many more. They are shot for




LETTER V.]


A GREAT DARKNESS.


77


their hides by men who make shooting and skinning
them a profession, and, near settlements, the owners
are thankful to get two cents a pound for sirloin and
rump-steaks. These, and great herds which are actually
wild and ownerless upon the mountains, are a degenerate
breed, with some of the worst peculiarities of the Texas
cattle, and are the descendants of those which Vancouver
placed on the islands and which were under Tabl for ten
years. They destroy the old trees by gnawing the bark,
and render the growth of young ones impossible.
As it was getting dark we passed through a forest
strip, where tree-ferns from twelve to eighteen feet in
height, and with fronds from five to seven feet long,
were the most attractive novelties.  As we emerged,
"with one stride came the dark," a great darkness, a
cloudy night, with neither moon nor stars, and the track
was further obscured by a belt of ohias. There were
five miles of this, and I was so dead from fatigue and
want of food, that I would willingly have lain down in
the bush in the rain. I most heartlessly wished that
Miss K. were tired too, for her voice, which seemed
tireless as she rode, ahead in the dark, rasped upon
my ears. I could only keep on my saddle by leaning
on the horn, and my clothes were soaked with the
heavy rain. "A dreadful ride," one and another had
said, and I then believed them. It seemed an awful
solitude full of mystery.  Often, I only knew that my
companions were ahead by the sparks struck from their
horse's shoes.
It became a darkness which could be felt.




78


HAWAII.


[LETTEr. V.


" Is that possibly a pool of blood? " I thought in horror,
as a rain puddle glowed crimson on the track. Not that
indeed! A glare brighter and redder than that from any
furnace suddenly lightened the whole sky, and from
that moment brightened our path.  There sat Miss K.
under her dripping umbrella as provokingly erect as when
she left Hilo. There Upa jogged along, huddled up in
his poncho, and his canteen shone red. There the ohia
trees were relieved blackly against the sky. The scene
started out from the darkness with the suddenness of a
revelation. We felt the pungency of sulphurous fumes in
the still night air. A sound as of the sea broke on our
ears, rising and falling as if breaking on the shore, but
the ocean was thirty miles away. The heavens became
redder and brighter, and when we reached the craterhouse at eight, clouds of red vapour mixed with flame
were curling ceaselessly out of a huge invisible pit of
blackness, and Kilauea was in all its fiery glory. We
had reached the largest active volcano in the world, the
place of everlasting burnings."
Rarely was light more welcome than that which
twinkled from under the verandah of the lonely craterhouse into the rainy night. The hospitable landlord of
this unique dwelling lifted me from my horse, and carried
me into a pleasant room thoroughly warmed by a large
wood fire, and I hastily retired to bed to spend much of
the bitterly cold night in watching the fiery vapours
rolling up out of the infinite darkness, and in dreading
the descent into the crater. The heavy clouds were
crimson with the reflection, and soon after midnight jets




LETTER V.]


THE CRATER OF KILAUEA.


79


of flame of a most peculiar colour leapt fitfully into the
air, accompanied by a dull throbbing sound.
This morning was wet and murky as many mornings
are here, and the view from the door was a blank up to
ten o'clock, when the mist rolled away and revealed the
mystery of last night, the mighty crater whose vast terminal
wall is only a few yards from this house. We think of a
volcano as a cone. This is a different thing. The abyss,
which really is at a height of nearly 4,000 feet on the flank
of Mauna Loa, has the appearance of a great pit on a
rolling plain. But such a pit! It is nine miles in circumference, and its lowest area, which not long ago fell
about 300 feet, just as ice on a pond falls when the water
below it is withdrawn, covers six square miles. The
depth of the crater varies from 800 to 1,100 feet in different years, according as the molten sea below is at flood
or ebb. Signs of volcanic activity are present more or
less throughout its whole depth, and for some distance
round its margin, in the form of steam cracks, jets of
sulphurous vapour, blowing cones, accumulating deposits
of acicular crystals of sulphur, &c., and the pit itself is
constantly rent and shaken by earthquakes. Grand eruptions occur at intervals with circumstances of indescribable
terror and dignity, but Kilauea does not limit its activity
to these outbursts, but has exhibited its marvellous phenomena through all known time in a lake or lakes in the
southern part of the crater three miles from this side.
This lake, the Hale-mau-mau, or House of Everlasting
Fire of the Hawaiian mythology, the abode of the dreaded
goddess Pele, is approachable with safety except during




80


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


an eruption.  The spectacle, however, varies almost
daily, and at times the level of the lava in the pit within
a pit is so low, and the suffocating gases are evolved in
such enormous quantities, that travellers are unable to
see anything. There had been no news from it for a
week, and as nothing was to be seen but a very faint
bluish vapour hanging round its margin, the prospect
was not encouraging.
When I have learned more about the Hawaiian volcanoes, I shall tell you more of their phenomena, but tonight I shall only write to you my first impressions of
what we actually saw on this January 31st. My highest
expectations have been infinitely exceeded, and I can
hardly write soberly after such a spectacle, especially
while through the open door I see the fiery clouds of
vapour from the pit rolling up into a sky, glowing as if
itself on fire.
We were accompanied into the crater by a comical
native guide, who mimicked us constantly, our Hilo
guide, who "makes up " a little English, a native woman
from Kona, who speaks imperfect English poetically, and
her brother who speaks none. I was conscious that we
foreign women with our stout staffs and grotesque dress
looked like caricatures, and the natives, who have a keen
sense of the ludicrous, did not conceal that they thought
us so.
The first descent down the terminal wall of the crater
is very precipitous, but it and the slope which extends to
the second descent are thickly covered with ohias, ohelos
(a species of whortleberry), sadlerias, polypodiums, silver




LETTER V.]


CRATER OF KILAUEA.


81


grass, and a great variety of bulbous plants many of which
bore clusters of berries of a brilliant turquoise blue. The
"beyond " looked terrible. I could not help clinging to
these vestiges of the kindlier.mood of nature in which
she sought to cover the horrors she had wrought. The
next descent is over rough blocks and ridges of broken
lava, and appears to form part of a break which extends
irregularly round the whole crater, and which probably
marks a tremendous subsidence of its floor. Here the
last apparent vegetation was left behind, and the familiar
earth. We were in a new Plutonic region of blackness
and awful desolation, the accustomed sights and sounds
of nature all gone. Terraces, cliffs, lakes, ridges, rivers,
mountain sides, whirlpools, chasms of lava surrounded
us, solid, black, and shining, as if vitrified, or an ashen
grey, stained yellow with sulphur here and there, or white
with alum. The lava was fissured and upheaved everywhere by earthquakes, hot underneath, and emitting a
hot breath.
After more than an hour of very difficult climbing we
reached the lowest level of the crater, pretty nearly a
mile across, presenting from above the appearance of a
sea at rest, but on crossing it we found it to be an expanse of waves and convolutions of ashy-coloured lava,
with huge cracks filled up with black iridescent rolls of
lava, only a few weeks old. Parts of it are very rough.
and ridgy, jammed together like field ice, or compacted
by rolls of lava which may have swelled up from beneath,
but the largest part of the area presents the appearance
of huge coiled hawsers, the ropy formation of the lava
G




82


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


rendering the illusion almost perfect. These are riven
by deep cracks which emit hot sulphurous vapours.
Strange to say, in one of these, deep down in that black
and awful region, three slender metamorphosed ferns were
growing, three exquisite forms, the fragile heralds of the
great forest of vegetation, which probably in coming
years will clothe this pit with beauty. Truly they seemed
to speak of the love of God. On our right there was a
precipitous ledge, and a recent flow of lava had poured
over it, cooling as it fell into columnar shapes as symmetrical as those of Staffa. It took us a full hour to
cross this deep depression, and as long to master a steep
hot ascent of about 400 feet, formed by a recent lava-flow
from Hale-mau-mau into the basin. This lava hill is an
extraordinary sight-a flood of molten stone, solidifying
as it ran down the declivity, forming arrested waves,
streams, eddies, gigantic convolutions, forms of snakes,
stems of trees, gnarled roots, crooked water-pipes, all
involved and contorted on a gigantic scale, a wilderness
of force and dread. Over one steeper place the lava had
run in a fiery cascade about 100 feet wide. Some had
reached the ground, some had been arrested midway, but
all had taken the aspect of stems of trees. In some of
the crevices I picked up a quantity of very curious filamentose lava, known as " Pele's hair." It resembles
coarse spun glass, and is of a greenish or yellowishbrown colour. In many places the whole surface of the
lava is covered with this substance seen through a glazed
medium. During eruptions, when fire-fountains play to
a great height, and drops of lava are thrown in all direc



LETTER v.]  FIRST VIEW OF IIALE-MAU-MAU.


83


tions, the wind spins them out in clear green or yellow
threads two or three feet long, which catch and adhere to
projecting points.
As we ascended, the flow became hotter under our feet,
as well as more porous and glistening. It was so hot
that a shower of rain hissed as it fell upon it. The crust
became increasingly insecure, and necessitated our walking in single file with the guide in front, to test the security of the footing.  I fell through several times, and
always into holes full of sulphurous steam, so malignantly
acid that my strong dog-skin gloves were burned through
as I raised myself on my hands.
We had followed a lava-flow for thirty miles up to the
crater's brink, and now we had toiled over recent lava for
three hours, and by all calculation were close to the pit,
yet there was no smoke or sign of fire, and I felt sure
that the volcano had died out for once for our especial
disappointment. Indeed, I had been making up my
mind for disappointment since we left the crater-house,
in consequence of reading seven different accounts, in
which language was exhausted in describing Kilauea.
Suddenly, just above, and in front of us, gory drops
were tossed in air, and springing forwards we stood on
the brink of Hale-mau-mau, which was about 35 feet
below us. I think we all screamed, I know we all wept,
but we were speechless, for a new glory and terror had
been added to the earth. It is the most unutterable of
wonderful things. The words of common speech are
quite useless. It is unimaginable, indescribable, a sight
to remember for ever, a sight which at once took possesG 2




84


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


sion of every faculty of sense and soul, removing one
altogether out of the range of ordinary life. Here was
the real "bottomless pit "-the "fire which is not
quenched "-" the place of hell"-" the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone" ---the "everlasting
burnings "-the fiery sea whose waves are never weary.
There were groanings, rumblings, and detonations, rushings, hissings, and splashings, and the crashing sound of
breakers on the coast, but it was the surging of fiery
waves upon a fiery shore. But what can I write! Such
words as jets, fountains, waves, spray, convey some idea
of order and regularity, but here there was none. The
inner lake, while we stood there, formed a sort of crater
within itself, the whole lava sea rose about three feet, a
blowing cone about eight feet high was formed, it was
never the same two minutes together. And what we saw
had no existence a month ago, and probably will be
changed in every essential feature a month hence.
What we did see was one irregularly-shaped lake, possibly 500 feet wide at its narrowest part and nearly half a
mile at its broadest, almost divided into two by a low
bank of lava, which extended nearly across it where it
was narrowest, and which was raised visibly before our
eyes. The sides of the nearest part of the lake were
absolutely perpendicular, but nowhere more than 40 feet
high; but opposite to us on the far side of the larger lake
they were bold and craggy, and probably not less than
150 feet high. On one side there was an expanse entirely occupied with blowing cones, and jets of steam
or vapour. The lake has been known to sink 400 feet,




LETTER V.]


FIERY FOUNTAINS.


85


and a month ago it overflowed its banks. The prominent
object was fire in motion, but the surface of the double
lake was continually skinning over for a second or two
with a cooled crust of a lustrous grey-white, like frosted
silver, broken by jagged cracks of a bright rose-colour
The movement was nearly always from the sides to the
centre, but the movement of the centre itself appeared
independent and always took a southerly direction.
Before each outburst of agitation there was much hissing
and a throbbing internal roaring, as of imprisoned gases.
Now it seemed furious, demoniacal, as if no power on
earth could bind it, then playful and sportive, then for a
second languid, but only because it was accumulating
fiesh force.  On our arrival eleven fire fountains were
playing joyously round the lakes, and sometimes the six
of the nearer lake ran together in the centre to go wallowing down in one vortex, from which they reappeared
bulging upwards, till they formed a huge cone 30 feet
high, which plunged downwards in a whirlpool only to
reappear in exactly the previous number of fountains in
different parts of the lake, high leaping, raging, flinging
themselves upwards. Sometimes the whole lake, abandoning its usual centripetal motion, as if impelled southwards, took the form of mighty waves, and surging
heavily against the partial barrier with a sound like the
Pacific surf, lashed, tore, covered it, and threw itself over
it in clots of living fire. It was all confusion, commotion,
force, terror, glory, majesty, mystery, and even beauty.
And the colour! " Eye hath not seen " it! Molten metal
has not that crimson gleam, nor blood that living light!




86


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


Had I not seen this I should never have known that such
a colour was possible.
The crust perpetually wrinkled, folded over, and
cracked, and great pieces were drawn downwards to be
again thrown up on the crests of waves. The eleven
fountains of gory fire played the greater part of the time,
dancing round the lake with a strength of joyousness
which was absolute beauty. Indeed after the first half
hour of terror had gone by, the beauty of these jets made
a profound impression upon me, and the sight of them
must always remain one of the most fascinating recollections of my life. During three hours, the bank of lava
which almost divided the lakes rose considerably, owing
to the cooling of the spray as it dashed over it, and a
cavern of considerable size was formed within it, the roof
of which was hung with fiery stalactites, more than a foot
long. Nearly the whole time the surges of the further
lake taking a southerly direction, broke with a tremendous
noise on the bold craggy cliffs which are its southern
boundary, throwing their gory spray to~a height of fully
forty feet. At times an overhanging crag fell in, creating
a vast splash of fire and increased commotion.
Almost close below us there was an intermittent jet of
lava, which kept cooling round what was possibly a blowhole forming a cone with an open top, which when we
first saw it was about six feet high on its highest side, and
about as many in diameter. Up this cone or chimney
heavy jets of lava were thrown every second or two, and
cooling as they fell over its edge, raised it rapidly before
our eyes. Its fiery interior, and the singular sound with
p




LETTER v.]   GLORIES OF HALE-MATU-MAU.


87


which the lava was vomited up, were very awful. There
was no smoke rising from the lake, only a faint blue
vapour which the wind carried in the opposite direction.
The heat was excessive. We were obliged to stand the
whole time, and the soles of our boots were burned, and
my ear and one side of my face were blistered. Although
there was no smoke from the lake itself, there was an
awful region to the westward, of smoke and sound, and
rolling clouds of steam and vapour whose phenomena it
was not safe to investigate, where the blowing cones are,
whose fires last night appeared stationary. We were able
to stand quite near the margin, and look down into the
lake, as you look into the sea from the deck of a ship,
the only risk being that the fractured ledge might give
way.
Before we came away, a new impulse seized the lava.
The fire was thrown to a great height; the fountains and
jets all wallowed together; new ones appeared, and
danced joyously round the margin, then converging
towards the centre they merged into one glowing mass,
which upheaved itself pyramidally and disappeared with
a vast plunge. Then innumerable billows of fire dashed
themselves into the air, crashing and lashing, and the
lake dividing itself recoiled on either side, then hurling
its fires together and rising as if by upheaval from
below, it surged over the temporary rim which it had
formed, passing downwards in a slow majestic flow,
leaving the central surface swaying and dashing in fruitless agony as if sent on some errand it failed to
accomplish.




88


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


Farewell, I fear for ever, to the glorious Hale-maumau, the grandest type of force that the earth holds!
"Break, break, break," on through the coming years,
"No more by thee my steps shall be,
No more again for ever!"
It seemed a dull trudge over the black and awful
crater, and strange, like half-forgotten sights of a world
with which I had ceased to have aught to do, were the
dwarf tree-ferns, the lilies with their turquoise clusters,
the crimson myrtle blossoms, and all the fair things
which decked the precipice up which we slowly dragged
our stiff and painful limbs. Yet it was but the exchange
of a world of sublimity for a world of beauty, the " place
of hell," for the bright upper earth, with its endless
summer, and its perennial foliage, blossom, and fruitage.
Since writing the above I have been looking over the
"Volcano Book," which contains the observations and
impressions of people from all parts of the world. Some
of these are painstaking and valuable as showing the
extent and rapidity of the changes which take place in
the crater, but there is an immense quantity of flippant
rubbish, and would-be wit, in which "Madam   Pele,"
invariably occurs, this goddess, who was undoubtedly
one of the grandest of heathen mythical creations, being
caricatured in pencil and pen and ink, under every
ludicrous aspect that can be conceived. Some of the
entries are brief and absurd, "Not much of a fizz," " a
grand splutter," "Madam Pele in the dumps," and so
forth. These generally have English signatures. The
American wit is far racier, but depends mainly on the




LETTER V.]


THE CRATER-HOUSE.


89


profane use of certain passages of scripture, a species of
wit which is at once easy and disgusting. People are all
particular in giving the precise time of the departure
from Hilo and arrival here, "making good time" being
a thing much admired on Hawaii, but few can boast of
more than three miles an hour. It is wonderful that
people can parade their snobbishness within sight of
Hale-mau-mau.
This inn is a unique and interesting place. Its existence is strikingly precarious, for the whole region is in a
state of perpetual throb from earthquakes, and the sights
and sounds are gruesome and awful both by day and
night. The surrounding country steams and smokes
from cracks and pits, and a smell of sulphur fills the air.
They cook their kalo in a steam apparatus of nature's
own work just behind the house, and every drop of water
is from  a distillery similarly provided. The inn is a
grass and bamboo house, very beautifully constructed
without nails. It is a longish building with a steep roof
divided inside by partitions which run up to the height of
the walls. There is no ceiling. The joists which run
across are concealed by wreaths of evergreens, from
among which peep out here and there stars on a blue
ground.  The door opens from the verandah into a
centre room with a large open brick fire place, in which a
wood fire is constantly burning, for at this altitude the
temperature is cool. Some chairs, two lounges, small
tables, and some books and pictures on the walls give a
look of comfort, and there is the reality of comfort in
perfection. Our sleeping-place, a neat room with a matted




90


HAWAII.


[LETTER V.


floor opens from this, and on the other side there is a
similar room, and a small eating-room with a grass
cookhouse beyond, from which an obliging old Chinaman
who persistently calls us "sir," brings our food. We
have had for each meal, tea, preserved milk, coffee, kalo,
biscuits, butter, potatoes, goats' flesh, and ohelos. The
charge is five dollars a day, but everything except the
potatoes and ohelos has to be brought twenty or thirty
miles on mules' backs. It is a very pretty picturesque
house both within and without, and stands on a natural
lawn of brilliant but unpalatable grass, surrounded by a
light fence covered with a small trailing double rose. It
is altogether a most magical building in the heart of a
formidable volcanic wilderness. Mr. Gilman, our host,
is a fine picturesque looking man, half Indian, and speaks
remarkably good English, but his wife, a very pretty
native woman, speaks none, and he attends to us entirely
himself.
A party of native travellers rainbound are here, and
the native women are sitting on the floor stringing flowers
and berries for leis.  One very attractive-looking young
woman, refined by consumption, is lying on some blankets, and three native men are smoking by the fire. Upa
attempts conversation with us in broken English, and the
others laugh and talk incessantly. My inkstand, pen,
and small handwriting amuse them very much. Miss K.,
the typical American travelling lady, who is encountered
everywhere from the Andes to the Pyramids, tireless, with
an indomitable energy, Spartan endurance, and a genius
for attaining everything, and myself, a limp, ragged,




LETTER v.]  AN IRRESPONSIBLE VAPOUR BATH.


shoeless wretch, complete the group, and our heaps of
saddles, blankets, spurs, and gear tell of real travelling,
past and future. It is a most picturesque sight by the
light of the flickering fire, and the fire which is unquenchable burns without.
About 300 yards off there is a sulphur steam vapourbath, highly recommended by the host as a panacea for
the woeful aches, pains, and stiffness produced by the
six-mile scramble through the crater, and I groaned and
limped down to it: but it is a truly spasmodic arrangement, singularly independent of human control, and I
have not the slightest doubt that the reason why Mr.
Gilman obligingly remained in the vicinity was, lest I
should be scalded or blown to atoms by a sudden freak
of Kilauea, though I don't see that he was capable of preventing either catastrophe! A slight grass shed has been
built over a sulphur steam crack, and within this there is
a deep box with a sliding lid and a hole for the throat,
and the victim is supposed to sit in this and be steamed.
But on this occasion the temperature was so high, that
my hand, which I unwisely experimented upon, was
immediately peeled. In order not to wound Mr. Gilman's feelings, which are evidently sensitive on the subject of this irresponsible contrivance, I remained the
prescribed time within the shed, and then managed to
limp a little less, and go with him to what are called the
Sulphur Banks, on which sulphurous vapour is perpetually depositing the most exquisite acicular sulphur
crystals; *these, as they aggregate, take entrancing
forms, like the featherwork produced by the "frost-fall" in




62


HAWAII.


[LETTEPR V.


Colorado, but, like it, they perish with a touch, and can
only be seen in the wonderful laboratory where they are
formed.
In addition to the natives before mentioned, there is an
*old man here who has been a bullock-hunter on Hawaii
for forty years, and knows the island thoroughly. In
common with all the residents I have seen, he takes an
intense interest in volcanic phenomena, and has just been
giving us a thrilling account of the great eruption in
1868, when beautiful Hilo was threatened with destruction. Three weeks ago, he says, a profound hush fell on
K(ilauea, and the summit crater of Mauna Loa became
active, and amidst throbbings, rumblings, and earthquakes, broke into such magnificence that the light was
visible 100 miles at sea, a burning mountain 13,750 feet
high! The fires after two days died out as suddenly,
and from here we can see the great dome-like top, snowcapped under the stars, serene in an eternal winter.
I. L. B.




LETTER VI.


HILO. HAWAII, Feb. 3.
MY plans are quite overturned. I was to have ridden
with the native mail-carrier to the north of the island to
take the steamer for Honolulu, but there are freshets in
the gulches on the road, making the ride unsafe. There
is no steamer from Hilo for three weeks, and in the
meantime Mr. and Mrs. S. have kindly consented to
receive me as a boarder; and I find the people, scenery,
and life so charming, that I only regret my detention on
Mrs. Dexter's account.  I am already rested from the
great volcano trip.
We left Kilauea at seven in the morning of the 1st Feb.
in a pouring rain. The natives decorated us with leis of
turquoise and coral berries, and of crimson and yellow
ohia blossoms. The saddles were wet, the crater was
blotted out by mist, water dripped from the trees, we
splashed through pools in the rocks, the horses plunged
into mud up to their knees, and the drip, drip, of vertical, earnest, tepid, tropical rain accompanied us nearly
to Hilo. Upa and Miss K. held umbrellas the whole
way, but I required both hands for holding on to the
horse whenever he chose to gallop. As soon as we left
the crater-house Upa started over the grass at full speed,
my horse of course followed, and my feet being jerked




HAWAII.


[LETTER, VI.


out of the stirrups, I found myself ignominiously sitting
on the animal's back behind the saddle, and nearly slid
over his tail, before, by skilful efforts, I managed to
scramble over the peak back again, when I held on
by horn and mane until the others stopped. Happily
I was last, and I don't think they saw me. Upa
amused me very much on the way; he insists that I am
4'a high chief."  He said a good deal about Queen
Victoria, whose virtues seem well known here: " Good
Queen make good people," he said, " English very good!"
He asked me how many chiefs we had, and supposing
him to mean hereditary peers, I replied, over 500.
" Too many, too many!" he answered emphatically" too much chief eat up people! "  He asked me if all
people were good in England, and I was sorry to tell him
that this was very far from being the case. IHe was incredulous, or seemed so out of flattery, and said, "You
good Queen, you Bible long time, you good!"  I was
surprised to find how much he knew of European politics,
of the liberation of Italy, and the Franco-German war.
He expressed a most orthodox horror of the Pope, who,
he said, he knew from his Bible was the " Beast! " He
said, " I bring band and serenade for good Queen sake,"
but this has not come off yet.
We straggled into Hilo just at dusk, thoroughly wet,
jaded, and satisfied, but half-starved, for the rain had
converted that which should have been our lunch into a
brownish pulp of bread and newspaper, and we had subsisted only on some half-ripe guavas. After the black
desolation of Kilauea, I realized more fully the beauty of




LETTER VI.]


LOMI-LOMI.


95


Hilo, as it appeared in the gloaming.  The rain had
ceased, cool breezes rustled through the palm-groves and
sighed through the funereal foliage of the pandanus.
Under thick canopies of the glossy breadfruit and banana,
groups of natives were twining garlands of roses and ohia
blossoms. The lights of happy foreign homes flashed from
under verandahs festooned with passion-flowers, and the
low chant, to me nearly intolerable, but which the natives
love, mingled with the ceaseless moaning of the surf and
the sighing of the breeze through the trees, and a heavy
fragrance, unlike the faint sweet odours of the north, filled
the evening air. It was delicious.
I suffered intensely from pain and stiffness, and was
induced to try a true Hawaiian remedy, which is not only
regarded as a cure for all physical ills, but as the greatest
of physical luxuries; i.e. lomi-lomi. This is a compound
of pinching, pounding, and squeezing, and Moi Mloi, the
fine old Hawaiian nurse in this family, is an adept in the
art. She found out by instinct which were the most
painful muscles, and subjected them to a doubly severe
pounding, laughing heartily at my groans. However, I
must admit that my arms and shoulders were almost altogether relieved before the lomi-lomi was finished. The
first act of courtesy to a stranger in a native house is this,
and it is varied in many ways. Now and then the patient
lies face downwards, and children execute a sort of dance
upon his spine.* Formerly, the chiefs, when not engaged
in active pursuits, exacted lomi-lomi as a constant service
from their followers.
* "Reef Rovings."




96


HAWAII.


[LETTER VI.


A number of Hilo folk came in during the evening to
inquire how we had sped, and for news of the volcano. I
think the proximity of Kilauea gives sublimity to Hilo,
and helps to lift conversation out of common-place
ruts. It is no far-off spectacle, but an immediate source
of wonder and apprehension, for it rocks the village with
earthquakes, and renders the construction of stone houses
and plastered ceilings impossible. It rolls vast tidal waves
with infinite destruction on the coast, and of late years
its fiery overflowings have twice threatened this paradise
with annihilation. Then there is the dead volcano of
Mauna Loa, from whose resurrection anything may be
feared. Even last night a false rumour that a light was
to be seen on its summit brought everyone out, but it was
only an increased glare from the pit of Hale-mau-mau.
It is most interesting to be in a region of such splendid
possibilities.
I. L. B.




LETTER VII.
HILO, HAWAII.
THEwhie p     l   n he  white population here, which constitutes "society,'
is very small. There are two venerable missionaries
" Father Coan " and " Father Lyman," the former pastoi
of a large native congregation, which, though much
shrunken, is not only self-sustaining, but contributes
$1200 a year to foreign missions, and the latter, though
very old and frail, the indefatigable head of an industrial
school for native young men. Their houses combine the
trimness of New England, with the luxuriance of the
tropics; they are cool retreats, embowered among breadfruit, tamarind, and bamboo, through whose graceful
leafage the blue waters of the bay are visible. Innumerable exotics are domesticated round these fair homesteads. Two of " Father Lyman's " sons are influential
residents, one being the Lieutenant-Governor of the
island. Other sons of former missionaries are settled
here in business, and there are a few strangers who have.
been attracted hither. Dr. Wetmore, formerly of the
mission, is a typical New Englander of the old orthodox
school. It is pleasant to see him brighten into almost
youthful enthusiasm on the subject of Hawaiian ferns.
My host, a genial, social, intelligent American, is sheriff
of Hawaii, postmaster, &c., and with his charming wife
H




98


HAWAII.


[LETTER VII.


(a missionary's daughter), and some friends who live
with them, make their large house a centre of kindliness,
friendliness, and hospitality. Mr. Thompson, pastor of
the foreign church, is a man of very liberal culture, as
well as wide sympathies. The lady principal of the
Government school is a handsome, talented Vermont
girl, and besides being an immense favourite, well deserves her unusual and lucrative position.
There are hardly any young ladies, and very few young
men, but plenty of rosy, blooming children, who run
about barefoot all the year. Besides the Hilo residents,
there are some planters' families within seven miles, who
come in to sewing circles, church, &c. There is a small
class of reprobate white men who have ostracized themselves by means of drink and bad morals, and are a curse
to the natives. The half whites, among whom   "Bill
Ragsdale " is the leading spirit, are not numerous. Hilo
has no carriage roads and no carriages: every one must
ride or travel in a litter. People are very kind to each
other. Horses, dresses, patterns, books, and articles of
domestic use, are lent and borrowed continually. The
smallness of the society and the close proximity are too
much like a ship. People know everything about the
details of each other's daily life, income, and expenditure, and the day's doings of each member of the little
circle are matters for conversation. Indeed, were it not
for the volcano and its doings, conversation might degenerate into gossip. There is an immense deal of personal talk; the wonder is that there is so little ill-nature.
Not only is what everybody does here common property,




LETTER VII.]


HOME LIFE IN 'IILO.


99


but the sayings, doings, goings, comings, and purchases
of every one in all the other islands are common property
also, made so by letters and oral communication. It is
all very amusing, and on the whole very kindly, and
human interests are always interesting; but it has its
perilous side. They are very kind to each other. There
is no distress which is not alleviated. There is no nurse,
and in cases of sickness the ladies take it by turns to
wait on the sufferer by day and night for weeks, and even
months. Such inevitable mutual dependence of course
promotes friendliness.
The foreigners live very simply.  The eating-rooms
are used solely for eating, the "parlours" are always
cheerful and tasteful, and the bedrooms very pretty,
adorned with all manner of knick-knacks made by the
ladies, who are indescribably deft with their fingers.
Light Manilla matting is used instead of carpets. A
Chinese man-cook, who leaves at seven in the evening, is
the only servant, except in one or two cases, where, as
here, a native woman condescends to come in during the
day as a nurse. In the morning the ladies, in their fresh
pretty wrappers and ruffled white aprons, sweep and dust
the rooms, and I never saw women look more truly graceful
and refined than they do, when engaged in the plain
prose of these domestic duties. They make all their own
dresses, and when any lady is busy and wants a dress
in a hurry, two or three of them meet and make it for
her. I never saw people live such easy pleasant lives,
They have such good health, for one thing, partly no
doubt because their domestic duties give them wholesome
iI 2




100


HAWAII.


[LETTEI, VII.


exercise without pressing upon them. They have abounding leisure for reading, music, choir practising, drawing,
fern-printing, fancy work, picnics, riding parties, and
enjoy sociability thoroughly. They usually ride in dainty
bloomer costumes, even when they don't ride astride.
All the houses are pretty, and it takes little to make
them so in this climate. One novel fashion is to decorate the walls with festoons of the beautiful fern Microlepia tenuifolia, which are renewed as soon as they fade,
and every room is adorned with a profusion of bouquets,
which are easily obtained where flowers bloom all the
year. Many of the residents possess valuable libraries,
and these, with cabinets of minerals, volcanic specimens,
shells, and coral, with weapons, calabashes, ornaments,
and cloth of native manufacture, almost furnish a room
in themselves. Some of the volcanic specimens and the
coral are of almost inestimable value, as well as of exquisite beauty.
The gentlemen don't seem to have near so much occupation as the ladies. There are two stores on the beach,
and at these and at the Court-house they aggregate, for
lack of club-house and exchange. Business is not here
a synonym for hurry, and official duties are light; so
light, that in these morning hours I see the governor,
the sheriff, and the judge, with three other gentlemen;
playing an interminable croquet game on the Court-house
lawn. They purvey gossip for the ladies, and how much
they invent, and how much they only circulate can never
be known!
There is a large native population in the village, along




LETTER VII.]


THE NATIONAL DISH.


101


the beach, and on the heights above the Wailuku River.
Frame houses with lattices, and grass houses with deep
verandahs, peep out everywhere from among the mangoes
and bananas. The governess of Hawaii, the Princess
Keelikalani, has a house on the beach shaded by a large
umbrella-tree and a magnificent clump of bamboos, 70 feet
in height. The native life with which one comes constantly in contact, is very interesting.
The men do whatever hard work is done in cultivating the kalo patches and pounding the kalo. This
kalo, the Arum esculentum, forms the national diet.
A Hawaiian could not exist without his calabash of
poi. The root is an object of the tenderest solicitude,
from the day it is planted until the hour when it is
lovingly eaten. The eating of poi seems a ceremony of
profound meaning; it is like the eating salt with an Arab,
or a Masonic sign. The kalo root is an ovate oblong, as
bulky as a Californian beet, and it has large leaves, shaped
like a broad arrow, of a singularly bright green. The
best kinds grow entirely in water. The patch is embanked and frequently inundated, and each plant grows
on a small hillock of puddled earth. The cutting from
which it grows is simply the top of the plant, with a
little of the tuber. The men stand up to their knees in
water while cultivating the root. It is excellent when
boiled and sliced; but the preparation of poi is an elaborate process. The roots are baked in an underground
oven, and are then laid on a slightly hollowed board, and
beaten with a stone pestle. It is hard work, and the
men don't wear any clothes while engaged in it. It is




102


HAWAIT,


[LETTER VI I.


not a pleasant-looking operation. They often dip their
hands in a calabash of water to aid them in removing the
sticky mass, and they always look hot and tired. When
it is removed from the board into large calabashes, it is
reduced to paste by the addition of water, and set aside
for two or three days to ferment. When ready for use it
is either lilac or pink, and tastes like sour bookbinders'
paste. Before water is added, when it is in its dry state,
it is called paiai, or hard food, and is then packed in ti
leaves in 20 lb. bundles for inland carriage, and is exported to the Guano Islands. It is a prolific and nutritious plant. It is estimated that forty square feet will
support an Hawaiian for a year.
The melon and kalo patches represent a certain
amount of spasmodic industry, but in most other things
the natives take no thought for the morrow.  Why
should they indeed? For while they lie basking in the
sun, without care of theirs, the cocoanut, the breadfruit,
the yam, the guava, the banana, and the delicious
papaya, which is a compound of a ripe apricot with a
Cantaloupe melon, grow and ripen perpetually.  Men
and women are always amusing themselves, the men
with surf-bathing, the women with making leis-both
sexes with riding, gossiping, and singing. Every man
and woman, almost every child, has a horse. There is a
perfect plague of badly bred, badly developed, weedy
looking animals.  The beach and the pleasant lawn
above it are always covered with men and women riding
at a gallop, with bare feet, and stirrups tucked between
the toes. To walk even 200 yards seems considered a




LETTER VII.]


POLYNESIAN COOKERY.


103


degradation.  The people meet outside each others'
houses all day long, and sit in picturesque groups on
their mats, singing, laughing, talking, and quizzing the
haoles, as if the primal curse had never fallen. Pleasant
sights of out-door cooking gregariously carried on greet
one everywhere. This style of cooking prevails all over
Polynesia. A hole in the ground is lined with stones,
wood is burned within it, and when the rude oven has
been sufficiently heated, the pig, chicken, breadfruit, or
kalo, wrapped in ti leaves is put in, a little water is
thrown on, and the whole is covered up. It is a slow but
sure process.
Bright dresses, bright eyes, bright sunshine, music,
dancing, a life without care, and a climate without
asperities, make up the sunny side of native life as
pictured at Hilo. But there are dark moral shadows,
the population is shrinking away, and rumours of leprosy
are afloat, so that some of these fair homes may be
desolate ere long. However many causes for regret
exist, one must not forget that only forty years ago the
people inhabiting this strip of land between the volcanic
wilderness and the sea were a vicious, sensual, shameless
herd, that no man among them, except their chiefs, had
any rights, that they were harried and oppressed almost
to death, and had no consciousness of any moral obligations.  Now, order and external decorum    at least,
prevail. There is not a locked door in Hilo, and
nobody makes anybody else afraid.
The people of Hawaii-nei are clothed and civilized in
their habits; they have equal rights; 6,500 of them have




104


HAWAII.


[LETTER VII.


kuleanas or freeholds, equable and enlightened laws are
impartially administered; wrong and oppression are
unknown; they enjoy one of the best administered
governments in the world; education is universal, and
the throne is occupied by a liberal sovereign of their
own race and election.
Few of them speak English. Their language is so
easy that most of the foreigners acquire it readily. You
know how stupid I am about languages, yet I have
already picked up the names of most common things.
There are only twelve letters, but some of these are
made to do double duty, as K is also T, and L is also R.
The most northern island of the group, Kauai, is as
often pronounced as if it began with a T, and Kalo is
usually Taro. It is a very musical language. Each
syllable and word ends with a vowel, and there are none
of our rasping and sibillant consonants. In their soft
phraseology our hard rough surnames undergo a metamorphosis, as Fisk into Filikina, Wilson into Wilikina.
Each vowel is distinctly pronounced, and usually with
the Italian sound.  The volcano is pronounced as if
spelt Keel-ah-wee-ah, and Kauai as if Kah-wye-ee. The
name Owhyhee for Hawaii had its origin in a mistake,
for the island was never anything but Hawaii, pronounced Hah-wye-ee, but Captain Cook mistook the prefix
0, which is the sign of the nominative case, for a part of
the word. Many of the names of places, specially of those
compounded with wai, water, are very musical; Wailuku,
"water of destruction;" Waialeale, "rippling water;"
Waioli, " singing water;" Waipio, " vanquished water;"




LETTE'R VII.]  "PILIKIA" AND "ALOIA."


105


Kaiwaihae, " torn water." Mauna, " mountain," is a mere
prefix, and though always used in naming the two giants
of the Pacific, Mauna Kea, and Mauna Loa, is hardly ever
applied to Hualalai, " the offspring of the shining sun;"
or to Haleakala on Maui, "the house of the sun."
I notice that the foreigners never use the English or
botanical names of trees or plants, but speak of ohias,
ohelos, kukui (candle-nut), lauhala (pandanus), pulu (tree
fern), mamans, koa, &c. There is one native word in
such universal use that I already find I cannot get on
without it, pilikia. It means anything, from a downright trouble to a slight difficulty or entanglement. "I'm
in a pilikia," or "very pilikia," or "pilikia!" A revolution
would be "a pilikia." The fact of the late king dying
without naming a successor was pre-eminently a pilikia,
and it would be a serious pilikia if a horse were to lose a
shoe on the way to Kilauea. Hou-hou, meaning "in a
huff," I hear on all sides; and two words, makai, signifying "on the sea-side," and mauka, " on the mountain side."
These terms are perfectly intelligible out of doors, but it
is puzzling when one is asked to sit on " the mauka side
of the table."  The word aloha, in foreign use, has
taken the place of every English equivalent.  It is a
greeting, a farewell, thanks, love, goodwill. Aloha looks
at you from tidies and illuminations, it meets you on the
roads and at house-doors, it is cpnveyed to you in letters,
the air is full of it. "My aloha to you," "he sends you
his aloha," "they desire their aloha."  It already represents to me all of kindness and goodwill that language
can express, and the convenience of it as compared with




106


HAWAII.


[LETTER VII.


other phrases is, that it means exactly what the receiver
understands it to mean, and consequently, in all cases
can be conveyed by a third person. There is no word
for "thank you."  Maikai "good," is often useful in its
place, and smiles supply the rest. There are no words
which express " gratitude " or " chastity," or some others
of the virtues; and they have no word for "weather,"
that which we understand by "weather" being absolutely unknown.
Natives have no surnames.   Our volcano guide is
Upa, or Scissors, but his wife and children are anything
else. The late king was Kamehameha, or the " lonely
one."  The father of the present king is called Kanaina,
but the king's name is Lunalilo, or " above all." Nor does
it appear that a man is always known by the same name,
nor that a name necessarily indicates the sex of its possessor. Thus, in signing a paper the signature would be
Hoapili kanaka, or Hoapili wahine, according as the
signer was man or woman. I remember that in my first
letter I fell into the vulgarism, initiated by the whaling
crews, of calling the natives Kanakas. This is universally but very absurdly done, as Kanaka simply means
man. If an Hawaiian word is absolutely necessary, we
might translate native and have maole, pronounced maori,
like that of the New Zealand aborigines. Kanaka is to me
decidedly objectionable, as conveying the idea of canaille.
I had written thus far when Mr. Severance came in to
say that a grand display of the national sport of surfbathing was going on, and a large party of us went down
to the beach for two hours to enjoy it. It is really a




LETTER VII. ]


SURF-BOARD RIDING.


107


most exciting pastime, and in a rough sea requires immense nerve. The surf-board is a tough plank shaped
like a coffin lid, about two feet broad, and from six to
nine feet long, well oiled and cared for. It is usually
made of the erythrina, or the breadfruit tree. The surf
was very heavy and favourable, and legions of natives
were swimming and splashing in the sea, though not
more than forty had their Papa-he-nalil, or "wave sliding
boards," with them. The men, dressed only in malos,
carrying their boards under their arms, waded out fiom
some rocks on which the sea was breaking, and, pushing
their boards before them, swam out to the first line of
breakers, and then diving down were seen no more till
they re-appeared as a number of black heads bobbing
about like corks in smooth water half a mile from shore.
What they seek is a very high roller, on the top of
which they leap from behind, lying face downwards on
their boards. As the wave speeds on, and the bottom
strikes the ground, the top breaks into a huge comber.
The swimmers but appeared posing themselves on its
highest edge by dexterous movements of their hands and
feet, keeping just at the top of the curl, but always apparently coming down hill with a slanting motion. So
they rode in majestically, always just ahead of the
breaker, carried shorewards by its mighty impulse at the
rate of forty miles an hour, yet seeming to have a volition
of their own, as the more daring riders knelt and even
stood on their surf-boards, waving their arms and uttering
exultant cries. They were always apparently on the verge
of engulfment by the fierce breaker whose towering white




108


HAWAII.


[LETTER VII


crest was ever above and just behind them, but just as
one expected to see them dashed to pieces, they either
waded quietly ashore, or sliding off their boards, dived
under the surf, taking advantage of the undertow, and were
next seen far out at sea preparing for fresh exploits.
The great art seems to be to mount the roller precisely
at the right time, and to keep exactly on its curl just
before it breaks. Two or three athletes, who stood erect
on their boards as they swept exultingly shorewards, were
received with ringing cheers by the crowd. Many of
the less expert failed to throw themselves on the crest,
and slid back into smooth water, or were caught in the
combers which were fully ten feet high, and after being
rolled over and over, ignominiously disappeared amidst
roars of laughter, and shouts from the shore. At first I
held my breath in terror, thinking the creatures were
smothered or dashed to pieces, and then in a few seconds
I saw the dark heads of the objects of my anxiety bobbing
about behind the rollers waiting for another chance. The
shore was thronged with spectators, and the presence of
the elite of Hilo stimulated the swimmers to wonderful
exploits.
These people are truly amphibious. Both sexes seem
to swim by nature, and the children riot in the waves from
their infancy. They dive apparently by a mere effort of
-the will. In the deep basin of the Wailuku River, a
little below the Falls, the maidens swim, float, and dive
with garlands of flowers round their heads and throats.
The more furious and agitated the water is, the greater
the excitement, and the love of these watery exploits is




LETTER VII.]   A LAND OF AFTERNOONS.


109


not confined to the young. I saw great fat men with
their hair streaked with grey, balancing themselves on
their narrow surf-boards, and riding the surges shorewards with as much enjoyment as if they were in their
first youth. I enjoyed the afternoon thoroughly.
Is it "always afternoon" here, I wonder? The sea
was so blue, the sunlight so soft, the air so sweet. There
was no toil, clang, or hurry. People were all holidaymaking (if that can be where there is no work), and enjoying themselves, the surf-bathers in' the sea, and hundreds of gaily-dressed men and women galloping on the
beach. It was so serene and tropical.  I sympathize
with those who eat the lotus, and remain for ever on such
enchanted shores.
I am gaining health daily, and almost live in the open
air. I have hired the native policeman's horse and saddle,
and with a Macgregor flannel riding costume, which my
kind friends have made for me, and a pair of jingling
Mexican spurs am quite Hawaiianised. I ride alone once
or twice a day exploring the neighbourhood, finding some
new fern or flower daily, and abandon myself wholly to
the fascination of this new existence.
I. L. B.




LETTER VIII.


ONOiMEA, HAWAII.
JUDGE AUSTIN'S.
MRS. A. has been ill for some time, and Mrs. S. her sister
and another friend "plotted" in a very "clandestine"
manner that I should come here for a few days in order
to give her " a little change of society," but I am quite
sure that under this they only veil a kind wish that I
should see something of plantation life. There is a plan,
too, that I should take a five days' trip to a remarkable
valley called Waipio, but this is only a "castle in the
air."
Mr. A. sent in for me a capital little lean rat of a horse
which by dint of spirit and activity managed to keep
within sight of two large horses, ridden by Mr. Thompson,
and a very handsome young lady riding "cavalier
fashion," who convoyed me out. Borrowed saddle-bags,
and a couple of shingles for carrying ferns formed my
outfit, and were carried behind my saddle.  It is a
magnificent ride here. The track crosses the deep, still,
Wailuku River on a wooden bridge, and then after winding
up a steep hill, among native houses fantastically situated,
hangs on the verge of the lofty precipices which descend
perpendicularly to the sea, dips into tremendous gulches,
loses itself in the bright fern-fringed torrents which have
cleft their way down from the mountains, and at last




LETTER VIII.]


HILO 11GULCHIEES."


111


emerges on' the delicious height on which this house is
built.
This coast looked beautiful from  the deck of the
Kilauea, but I am now convinced that I have never
seen anything so perfectly lovely as it is when one is
actually among its details. Onomea is 600 feet high,
and every yard of the ascent from Hilo brings one into a
fresher and purer air. One looks up the wooded, broken
slopes to a wild volcanic wilderness and the snowy peaks
of Mauna Kea on one side, and on the other down
upon the calm blue Pacific, wrinkled by the sweet tradewind, till it blends in far-off loveliness with the still, blue,
sky; and heavy surges break on the reefs, and fritter
themselves away on the rocks, tossing their pure foam over
ti and lauhalac trees, and the exquisite ferns and trailers
which mantle the cliffs down to the water's edge. Here
a native house stands, with passion-flowers clustering
round its verandah, and the great solitary red blossoms
of the hibiscus flaming out from dark surrounding leafage,
and women in rose and green hollukus, weaving garlands,
greet us with "Aloha " as we pass. Then we come upon a
whole cluster of grass houses under lauhalas and bananas.
Then there is the sugar plantation of Kaiwiki, with its
patches of bright green cane, its flumes crossing the
track above our heads, bringing the cane down from the
upland cane-fields to the crushing-mill, and the shifting,
busy scenes of the sugar-boiling season.
Then the track goes down with a great dip, along
which we slip and slide in the mud to a deep broad
stream. This is a most picturesque spot, the junction




112


HAVRAII.


LET'I'TE     VIII.


of two clear bright rivers, and a few native houses and a
Chinaman's store are grouped close by under some palms,
with the customary loungers on horseback, asking and
receiving nuhou, or news, at the doors. Our accustomed horses leaped into a ferry-scow provided by Government, worked by a bearded female of hideous aspect, and
leaped out on the other side to climb a track cut on the
side of a precipice, which would be steep to mount on
one's own feet. There we met parties of natives, all
flower-wreathed, talking and singing, coming gaily down
on their sure-footed horses, saluting us with the invariable "Aloha."  Every now and then we passed native
churches, with spires painted white, or a native schoolhouse, or a group of scholars all ferns and flowers. The
greenness of the vegetation merits the term " dazzling."
We think England green, but its colour is poor and pale
as compared with that of tropical Hawaii. Palms, candlenuts, ohias, hibiscus, were it not for their exceeding
beauty, would almost pall upon one from their abundance,
and each gulch has its glorious entanglement of breadfruit,
the large-leaved ohia, or native apple, a species of Eugenia
(Eugenia Malaccensis), and the pandanus, with its aerial
roots, all looped together by large sky-blue convolvuli and
the running fern, and is marvellous with parasitic growths.
The distracting beauty of this coast is what are called
gulches-narrow deep ravines or gorges, from 100 to 2,000
feet in depth, each with a series of cascades from 10 to
1,800 feet in height. I dislike reducing their glories to
the baldness of figures, but the depth of these clefts
(originally, probably, the seams caused by fire torrents),




Jl:rTEr viii.]  THE MEXICAN SADDLE.


113


cut and worn by the fierce streams fed by the snows of
Mlauna Kea, and the rains of the forest belt, cannot otherwise be expressed. The cascades are most truly beautiful,
gleaming white among the dark depths of foliage far
away, and falling into deep limpid basins, festooned and
overhung with the richest and greenest vegetation of this
prolific climate, from the huge-leaved banana and shining
breadfruit to the most feathery of ferns and lycopodiums.
Each gulch opens on a velvet lawn close to the sea, and
most of them have space for a few grass houses, with
cocoanut trees, bananas, and kalo patches. There are
sixty-nine of these extraordinary chasms within a distance
of thirty miles!
I think we came through eleven, fording the streams
in all but two. The descent into some of them is quite
alarming. You go down almost standing in your stirrups,
at a right angle with the horse's head, and up, grasping
his mane to prevent the saddle slipping. He goes down
like a goat, with his bare feet, looking cautiously at
each step, sometimes putting out a foot and withdrawing
it again in favour of better footing, and sometimes gathering his four feet under him and sliding or jumping. The
Mexican saddle has great advantages on these tracks,
which are nothing better than ledges cut on the sides of
precipices, for one goes up and down not only in perfect
security but without fatigue. I am beginning to hope
that I am not too old, as I feared I was, to learn a new
mode of riding, for my companions rode at full speed
over places where I should have picked my way carefully
at a foot's pace; and my horse followed them, galloping




114


HAWAII.


[LETTER VIII.


and stopping short at their pleasure, and I successfully
kept my seat, though not without occasional fears of an
ignominious downfall. I even wish that you could see
me in my Rob Roy riding dress, with leather belt and
pouch, a lei of the orange seeds of the pandanus round
my throat, jingling Mexican spurs, blue saddle blanket,
and Rob Roy blanket strapped on behind the saddle!
This place is grandly situated 600 feet above a deep
cove, into which two beautiful gulches of great size run,
with heavy cascades, finer than Foyers at its best, and a
native village is picturesquely situated between the two.
The great white rollers, whiter by contrast with the dark
deep water, come into the gulch just where we forded the
river, and from the ford a passable road made for hauling
sugar ascends to the house. The air is something absolutely delicious; and the murmur of the rollers and the
deep boom of the cascades are very soothing. There is
little rise or fall in the cadence of the surf anywhere on
the windward coast, but one even sound, loud or soft,
like that made by a train in a tunnel.
We were kindly welcomed, and were at once "made at
home." Delicious phrase! the full meaning of which I
am learning on Hawaii, where, though everything has the
fascination of novelty, I have ceased to feel myself a
stranger. This is a roomy, rambling frame-house, with
a verandah, and the door, as is usual here, opens directly
into the sitting-room. The stair by which I go to my
room suggests possibilities, for it has been removed three
inches from the wall by an earthquake, which also brought
down the tall chimney of the boiling-house. Close by




LETTER VIII.]


A BUSY SEASON.


115


there are small pretty frame-houses for the overseer,
bookkeeper, sugar boiler, and machinist; a store, the
factory, a pretty native church near the edge of the cliff,
and quite a large native village below. It looks green
and bright, and the atmosphere is perfect, with the cool
air coming down from the mountains, and a soft breeze
coming up from the blue dreamy ocean. Behind the
house the uplands slope away to the colossal Mauna Kea.
The actual, dense, impenetrable forest does not begin for
a mile and a half from the coast, and its broad dark belt,
extending to a height of 4,000 feet, and beautifully broken,
throws out into greater brightness the upward glades of
grass and the fields of sugar-cane.
This is a very busy season, and as this is a large plantation there is an appearance of great animation. There
are five or six saddled horses usually tethered below the
house; and with overseers, white and coloured, and
natives riding at full gallop, and people coming on all
sorts of errands, the hum of the crushing-mill, the rush
of water in the flumes, and the grind of the waggons carrying cane, there is no end of stir.
The plantations in the Hilo district enjoy special
advantages, for by turning some of the innumerable
mountain streams into flumes the owners can bring a
great part of their cane and all their wood for fuel down
to the mills without other expense than the original cost
of the woodwork. Mr. A. has 100 mules, but the greater
part of their work is ploughing and hauling the kegs of
sugar down to the cove, where in favourable weather they
are put on board of a schooner for Honolulu. This plani 2




116


HAWAII.


[LETTER V'III.


tation employs 185 hands, native and Chinese, and turns
out 600 tons of sugar a year. The natives are much
liked as labourers, being docile and on the whole willing;
but native labour is hard to get, as the natives do not
like to work for a term unless obliged, and a pernicious
system of " advances" is practised. The labourers hire
themselves to the planters, in the case of natives usually
for a year, by a contract which has to be signed before a
notary public. The wages are about eight dollars a
month with food, or eleven dollars without food, and the
planters supply houses and medical attendance.  The
Chinese are imported as coolies, and usually contract to
work for five years. As a matter of policy no less than
of humanity the "hands " are well treated; for if a single
instance of injustice were perpetrated on a plantation
the factory might stand still the next year, for hardly a
native would contract to serve again.
The Chinese are quiet and industrious, but smoke
opium, and are much addicted to gaming. Many of
them save money, and, when their turn of service is over,
set up stores, or grow vegetables for money. Each man
employed has his horse, and on Saturday the hands form
quite a cavalcade.  Great tact, firmness, and knowledge
of human nature are required in the manager of a plantation. The natives are at times disposed to shirk work
without sufficient cause; the native lunas, or overseers,
are not always reasonable, the Chinamen and natives
do not always agree, and quarrels and entanglements arise,
and everything is referred to the decision of the manager,
who, besides all things else, must know the exact amount
Is




LET'ER 'VIII. ]


A SUGAR FACTORY.


117


of work which ought to be performed, both in the fields
and factory, and see that it is done. Mr. A. is a keen,
shrewd man of business, kind without being weak, and
with an eye on every detail of his plantations. The requirements are endless. It reminds me very much of
plantation life in Georgia in the old days of slavery. I
never elsewhere heard of so many headaches, sore hands,
and other trifling ailments. It is very amusing to see
the attempts which the would-be invalids make to lengthen
their brief smiling faces into lugubriousness, and the
sudden relaxation into naturalness when they are allowed
a holiday. Mr. A. comes into the house constantly to
consult his wife regarding the treatment of different
ailments.
I have made a second tour through the factory, and am
rather disgusted with sugar making.  "All's well that
ends well," however, and the delicate crystalline result
makes one forget the initial stages of the manufacture.
The cane, stripped of its leaves, passes from the flumes
under the rollers of the crushing-mill, where it is subjected to a pressure of five or six tons. One hundred pounds
of cane under this process yield up from sixty-five to
seventy-five pounds of juice.  This juice passes, as a
pale green cataract, into a trough, which conducts it into
a vat, where it is dosed with quicklime to neutralize its
acid, and is then run off into large heated metal vessels.
At this stage the smell is abominable, and the turbid
fluid, with a thick scum upon it, is simply disgusting.
After a preliminary heating and skimming it is passed off
into iron pans, several in a row, and boiled and skimmed,




118


HAWAII.


[LETTER VIII.


and ladled from one to the other till it reaches the last,
which is nearest to the fire, and there it boils with
the greatest violence, seething and foaming, bringing all
the remaining scum to the surface. After the concentration has proceeded far enough, the action of the heat
is suspended, and the reddish-brown, oily-looking liquid
is drawn into the vacuum-pan till it is about a third full;
the concentration is completed by boiling the juice in
vacuo at a temperature of 150~, and even lower. As the
boiling proceeds, the sugar boiler tests the contents of
the pan by withdrawing a few drops, and holding them
up to the light on his finger; and, by certain minute
changes in their condition, he judges when it is time to
add an additional quantity. When tle pan is full, the
contents have thickened into the consistency of thick
gruel by the formation of minute crystals, and are then
allowed to descend into an heater, where they are kept
warml till they can be run into " forms " or tanks, where
they are allowed to granulate. The liquid, or molasses,
which remains after the first crystallization is returned to
the vacuum pan and reboiled, and this reboiling of the
drainings is repeated two or three times, with a gradually
decreasing result in the quality and quantity of the sugar.
The last process, which is used for getting rid of the
treacle, is a most beautiful one. The mass of sugar and
treacle is put into what are called " centrifugal pans,"
which are drums about three feet in diameter and two
feet high, which make about 1,000 revolutions a minute.
These have false interiors of wire gauze, and the mass is
forced violently against their sides by centrifugal action,




LETTEP. VIII.]


TIHE SUGAR INTEREST.


119


and they let the treacle?whirl through, and retain
the sugar crystals, which lie in a dry heap in the
centre.
The cane is being flumed in with great rapidity, and the
factory is working till late at night.  The cane from
which the juice has been expressed, called " trash," is
dried and used as fuel for the furnace which supplies the
steam power. The sugar is packed in kegs, and a cooper
and carpenter, as well as other mechanics, are employed.
Sugar is now    the great interest of the islands.
Christian missions and whaling have had their day, and
now people talk sugar. Hawaii thrills to the news of a
cent up or a cent down in the American market. All the
interests of the kingdom are threatened by this one,
which, because it is grievously depressed and staggers
under a heavy import duty in the American market, is
now clamorous in some quarters for " annexation," and
in others for a " reciprocity treaty," which last means the
cession of the Pearl River lagoon on Oahu, with its adjacent shores, to America, for a Pacific naval station.
There are 200,000 acres of productive soil on the islands,
of which only a fifteenth is under cultivation, and of this
large area 150,000 is said to be specially adapted for sugar
culture. Herein is a prospective Utopia, and people are
always dreaming of the sugar-growing capacities of the belt
of rich disintegrated lava which slopes upwards from'the
sea to the bases of the mountains.   Hitherto, sugar
growing has been a very disastrous speculation, and few




120


HAWAII.


[,LE'I"TER VIII.


of the planters at present do more than keep their heads
above water.
Were labour plentiful and the duties removed, fortunes
might be made, for the soil yields on an average about
three times as much as that of the State of Louisiana.
Two and a half tons to the acre is a common yield, five
tons a frequent one, and instances are known of the
slowly matured cane of a high altitude yielding as much
as seven tons! The magnificent climate makes it a very
easy crop to grow. There is no brief harvest time with
its rush, hurry, and frantic demand for labour, nor frost
to render necessary the hasty cutting of an immature
crop. The same number of hands is kept on all the year
round. The planters can plant pretty much when they
please, or not plant at all for two or three years, the only
difference in the latter case being that the rattoons which
spring up after the cutting of the former crop are smaller
in bulk. They can cut when they please, whether the
cane be tasselled or not, and they can plant, cut, and
grind at one time!
It is a beautiful crop in any stage of growth, especially
in the tasselled stage. Every part of it is useful-the
cane pre-eminently —the leaves as food for horses and
mules, and the tassels for making hats. Here and elsewhere there is a plate of cut cane always within reach, and
the children chew it incessantly. I fear you will be tired
of sugar, but I find it more interesting than the wool and
mutton of Victoria and New Zealand, and it is a most important item of the wealth of this toy kingdom, which




LE''TER, vIIi.]  AN IMPORTANT EXPORT.                  121
last year exported 16,995,402 lbs, of sugar and 192,105
gallons of molasses.*    With regard to    molasses, the
Government prohibits the manufacture of rum, so the
planters are deprived of a fruitful source of profit.  It
is really difficult to tear myself from the subject of sugar,
for I see the cane waving in the sun while I write, an(l
hear the busy hum of the crushing-mill.
I. L. B.
* In 1873 the export of sugar reached a total of upwards of
23,000,000 lbs.




LETTER IX.


ONOfEA, I tAWAI I.
Tis  is such a pleasant house and household, Mrs. A.
is as bright as though she were not an invalid, and her
room, except at meals, is the gathering-place of the
family. The four boys are bright, intelligent beings, out
of doors, barefooted, all day, and with a passion for
horses, of which their father possesses about thirty. Tlhe
youngest, Ephy, is the brightest child for three years old
that I ever saw, but absolutely crazy about horses and
mules. He talks of little else, and is constantly asking
me to draw horses on his slate. He is a merry, audacious
little creature, but came in this evening quite subdued.
The sun was setting gloriously behind the forest-covered
slopes, flooding the violet distances with a haze of gold,
and, in a low voice, he said, " I've seen God."
There is the usual Chinese cook, who cooks and waits
and looks good-natured, and of course has his own horse,
and his wife, a most minute Chinese woman, comes in
and attends to the rooms and to Mrs. A., and sews and
mends. She wears her native dress-a large, stiff, flat
cane hat, like a tray, fastened firmly on or to her head;
a scanty loose frock of blue denim down to her knees,
wide trousers of the same down to her ancles, and slippers.
Her hair is knotted up; she always wears silver arm



EIEl'l"ER IX.]


AN ARCADIAN LIFE.


123


lets, and would not be seen without the hat for anything. There is not a bell in this or any house on the
islands, and the bother of servants is hardly known, for
the Chinamen do their work like automatons, and disappear at sunset. In a land where there are no carpets,
no fires, no dust, no hot water needed, no windows to
open and shut-for they are always open-no further service is really required. It is a simple arcadian life, and
people live more happily than any that I have seen elsewhere. It is very cheerful to live among people whose
faces are not soured by the east wind, or wrinkled by the
worrying effort to " keep up appearances," which deceive
nobody; who have no formal visiting, but real sociability;
who regard the light manual labour of domestic life as
a pleasure, not a thing to be ashamed of; who are
contented with their circumstances, and have leisure to
be kind, cultured, and agreeable; and who live so tastefully, though simply, that they can at any time ask a
passing stranger to occupy the simple guest chamber, or
share the simple meal, without any of the soul-harassing
preparations which often make the exercise of hospitality
a thing of terror to people in the same circumstances at
home.
People will ask you, " What is the food?" We have
everywhere bread and biscuit made of California flour,
griddle cakes with molasses, and often cracked wheat,
butter not very good, sweet potatoes, boiled kalo, Irish
potatoes, and poi. I have not seen fish on any table
except at the Honolulu Hotel, or any meat but beef,
which is hard and dry as compared with ours. We have




124


HAWAII.


[LETTERI IX.


China or Japan tea, and island coffee. Honolulu is the
only place in which intoxicants are allowed to be sold;
and I have not seen beer, wine, or spirits in any house.
Bananas are an important article of diet, and sliced
guavas, eaten with milk and sugar, are very good. The
cooking is always done in detached cook houses, in and
on American cooking-stoves.
As to clothing. I wear my flannel riding dress for
both riding and walking, and a black silk at other times.
The resident ladies wear prints and silks, and the gentlemen black cloth or dark tweed suits. Flannel is not
required, neither are puggarees or white hats or sunshades
at any season. T'he changes of temperature are very
slight, and there is no chill when the sun goes down.
The air is always like balm; the rain is tepid and does
not give cold; in summer it may be three or four degrees
warmer. Windows an'd doors stand open the whole year.
A blanket is agreeable at night, but not absolutely neces.
sary. It is a truly delightful climate and mode of living,
with such an abundance of air and sunshine. Mly healtlimproves daily, and I do not consider myself an invalid.
Between working, reading aloud, talking, riding, an(
"loafing," I have very little time for letter writing; but ]
must tell you of a delightful fern-hunting expedition or
the margin of the forest that I took yesterday, accom
panied by Mr. Thompson and the two elder boys. W(
rode in the mauka direction, outside cane ready for
cutting, with silvery tassels gleaming in the sun, till W(
reached the verge of the forest, where an old trail wa,
nearly obliterated by a trailing matted grass four fee:




LETTERP IX. ]


A FOREST PARADISE.


125


high, and thousands of woody ferns, which conceal streams,
holes, and pitfalls. When further riding was impossible,
we tethered our horses and proceeded on foot. We were
then 1,500 feet above the sea by the aneroid barometer,
and the increased coolness was perceptible. The mercury
is about four degrees lower for each 1,000 feet of ascentrather more than this indeed on the windward side of the
islands. The forest would be quite impenetrable were
it not for the remains of wood-hauling trails, which,
though grown up to the height of my shoulders, are still
passable.
Underneath the green maze, invisible streams, deep
down, made sweet music, sweeter even than the gentle
murmur of the cool breeze among the trees. The forest
on the volcano track, which I thought so tropical and
wonderful a short time ago, is nothing for beauty to
compare with this " garden of God." I wish I could
describe it, but cannot; and as you know only our pale,
small-leaved trees, with their uniform green, I cannot
say that it is like this or that. The first line of a hymn,
" Oh, Paradise! oh, Paradise!" rings in my brain, and
the rustic exclamation we used to hear when we were
children, "Well, I never! " followed by innumerable
notes of admiration, seems to exhaust the whole vocabulary of wonderment. The former cutting of some trees
gives atmosphere, and the tumbled nature of the ground
shows everything to the best anvantage. There were
openings over which huge candle-nuts, with their peagreen and silver foliage, spread their giant arms, and the
light played through their branches on an infinite variety




126


HIAWAII.


[FLETTER     IX.


of ferns. There were groves of bananas and plantains
with shiny leaves 8 feet long, like enormous hart's-tongue,
the bright-leaved noni, the dark-leaved koa, the mahogany of the Pacific; the great glossy-leaved Eugenia-a
forest tree as large as our largest elms; the small-leaved
ohia, its rose-crimson flowers making a glory in the
forests, and its young shoots of carmine red vying with
the colouring of the New England fall; and the strange
lauhala hung its stiff drooping plumes, which creak in
the faintest breeze; and the superb breadfruit hung its
untempting fruit, and from spreading guavas we shook
the ripe yellow treasures, scooping out the inside, all
juicy and crimson, to make drinking cups of the rind;
and there were trees that had surrendered their own lives
to a conquering army of vigorous parasites which had
clothed their skeletons with an unapproachable and indistinguishable beauty, and over trees and parasites the
tender tendrils of great mauve morning glories trailed and
wreathed themselves, and the strong, strangling stems of
the ie wound themselves round the tall ohias, which supported their quaint yucca-like spikes of leaves fifty feet
from the ground.
There were some superb plants of the glossy tropicallooking bird's-nest fern, or A splenium Nidits, which
makes its home on the stems and branches of trees, and
brightens the forest with its great shining fronds. I got
a specimen from a koa tree. The plant had nine fronds,
each one measuring from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 7 inches in
length, and from 7 to 9 inches in breadth. There were
some very fine tree-ferns (Cibotiurm Chamissoi?), two




IETTER IX-]


THE FERNS OF ONOMEA.


127


of which being accessible, we measured, and found
them  seventeen and twenty feet high, their fronds
eight feet long, and their stems four feet ten inches
in circumference three feet from the ground.  They
showed the most various shades of green, from the
dark tint of the mature frond, to the pale pea
green of those which were just uncurling themselves.
I managed to get up into a tree for the first time in my
life to secure specimens of two beautiful parasitic ferns
(Polypodium tamariscinum and P. Hymenophylloides?).
I saw for the first time, too, a lygodium and the large
climbing potato-fern (Polypodium  spectrum), very like
a yam in the distance, and the Vittaria elongata, whose
long grassy fronds adorn almost every tree. The beautiful Microlepia tenuifolia abounded, and there were a few
plants of the loveliest fern I ever saw (Trichomanes meifolium), in specimens of which I indulged sparingly,
and almost grudgingly, for it seemed unfitting that a
form of such perfect beauty should be mummied in a
herbarium. There was one fern in profusion, with from
90 to 130 pair of pinnae on each frond; and the fronds,
though often exceeding five feet in length, were only two
inches broad  (Nephrolepis pectinata).  There  were
many prostrate trees, which nature has entirely covered
with choice ferns, specially the rough stem  of the
tree-fern. I counted seventeen varieties on one trunk,
and on the whole obtained thirty-five specimens for my
collection.
The forest soon became completely impenetrable, the
beautiful Gleichenia Hawaiiensis forming an impassable




128


HAWAI1.


[LETl 'TELR IX.


network over all the undergrowth. And, indeed, without
this it would have been risky to make further explorations, for often masses of wonderful matted vegetation
sustained us temporarily over streams six or eight feet
below, whose musical tinkle alone warned us of our peril.
I shall never again see anything so beautiful as this
fringe of the impassable timber belt. I enjoyed it more
than anything I have yet seen; it was intoxicating, my
eyes were "satisfied with seeing."    It was a dream, a
rapture, this maze of form   and colour, this entangled
luxuriance, this bewildering beauty, through which we
caught bright glimpses of a heavenly sky above, while
far away, below glade and lawn, shimmered in surpassing
loveliness the cool blue of the Pacific. To me, with my
hatred of reptiles and insects, it is not the least among
the charms of Hawaii, that these glorious entanglements
and cool damp depths of a redundant vegetation give
shelter to nothing   of unseemly shape and venomous
proboscis or fang.     Here, in   cool, dreamy, sunny
Onomea, there are no horrid, drumming, stabbing,
mosquitos as at Honolulu, to remind me of what I forget
sometimes, that I am not in Eden.
I. L. B.
NOTE.-Throughout these letters the botanical names given are only
those which are current on the Islands. Those specimens of ferns which
survived the rough usage which befel them, are to be seen in the Herbarium of the Botanical Garden at Oxford, and have been named and
classified by my cousin, Professor Lawson.




LETTER X.


WAIPIO VALLEY, HAWAII.
THERE is something fearful in the isolation of this
valley, open at one end to the sea, and walled in on all
others by palis or precipices, from 1,000 to 2,000 feet in
height, over the easiest of which hangs the dizzy track,
which after trailing over the country for sixty difficult
miles, connects Waipio with the little world of Hilo.
The evening is very sombre, and darkness comes on
early between these high walls. I am in a native house
in which not a word of English is spoken, and Deborah,
among her own people, has returned with zest to the
exclusive use of her own tongue. This is more solitary
than solitude, and tired as I am with riding and roughing
it, I must console myself with writing to you. The
natives, after staring and giggling for some time, took
this letter out of my hand, with many exclamations,
which, Deborah tells me, are at the rapidity and minuteness of my writing. I told them the letter was to my
sister, and they asked if I had your picture. They are
delighted with it, and it is going round a large circle
assembled without. They see very few foreign women
here, and are surprised that I have not brought a foreign
man with me.
There was quite a bustle of small preparations before
K




130


HAWAII.


I[LETTER: X.


we left Onomea. Deborah was much excited, and I was
not less so, for it is such a complete novelty to
take a five days' ride alone with natives.  D. is a
very nice native girl of seventeen, who speaks English
tolerably, having been brought up by Mr. and Mrs.
Austin. She was lately married to a white man employed
on the plantation.  Mr. A. most kindly lent me a
favourite mule, but declined to state that she would not
kick, or buck, or turn obstinate, or lie down in the
water, all which performances are characteristic of mules.
She has, however, as he expected, behaved as the most
righteous of her species. Our equipment was a matter
for some consideration, as I had no waterproof; but
eventually I wore my flannel riding dress, and carried my
plaid in front of the saddle. My saddle-bags, which were
behind, contained besides our changes of clothes, a jar
of Liebig's essence of beef, some potted beef, a tin of
butter, a tin of biscuits, a tin of sardines, a small loaf,
and some roast yams.   Deborah looked very piquante
in a bloomer dress of dark blue, with masses of shining hair in natural ringlets falling over the collar,
mixing with her lei of red rose-buds.   She rode a
powerful horse, of which she has much need, as this
is the most severe road on horses on Hawaii, and it
takes a really good animal to come to Waipio and go
back to Hilo.
We got away at seven in bright sunshine, and D.'s
husband accompanied us the first mile to see that our
girths and gear were all right. It was very slippery, but
my mule deftly gathered her feet under her, and slid




LETTER X.]


A NATIVE SCHOOL.


131


when she could not walk. From Onomea to the place
where we expected to find the guide, we kept going up
and down the steep sides of ravines, and scrambling
through torrents till we reached a deep and most
picturesque gulch, with a primitive school-house at the
bottom, and some grass-houses clustering under palms
and papayas, a valley scene of endless ease and perpetual
afternoon. Here we found that D.'s uncle, who was to
have been our guide, could not go, because his horse was
not strong enough, but her cousin volunteered his
escort, and went away to catch his horse, while we
tethered ours and went into the school-house.
This reminded me somewhat of the very poorest
schools connected with the Edinburgh Ladies' Highland
School Association, but the teacher had a remarkable
paucity of clothing, and he seemed to have the charge of
his baby, which, much clothed, and indeed much
muffled, lay on the bench beside him. For there were
benches, and a desk, and even a blackboard and primers
down in the deep wild gulch, where the music of living
waters, and the thunderous roll of the Pacific, accompanied the children's tuneless voices as they sang an
Hawaiian hymn. I shall remember nothing of the
scholars but rows of gleaming white teeth, and splendid
brown eyes. I thought both teacher and children very
apathetic.  There were lamentably few, though the
pretty rigidly enforced law, which compels all children
between the ages of six and fifteen to attend school for
forty weeks of the year, had probably gathered together
all the children of the district. They all wore coloured
K 2




132


HAWAII.


[LETTER X.


chemises and leis of flowers. Outside, some natives
presented us with some ripe ppaayas.
Mounting again, we were joined by two native women,
who were travelling the greater part of the way hither,
and this made it more cheerful for D. The elder one
had nothing on her head but her wild black hair, and
she wore a black holuku, a lei of the orange seeds of the
pandanus, orange trousers and big spurs strapped on her
bare feet. A child of four, bundled up in a black poncho,
rode on a blanket behind the saddle, and was tied to the
woman's waist, by an orange shawl.   The younger
woman, who was very pretty, wore a sailor's hat, leis of
crimson ohia blossoms round her hat and throat, a black
holucu, a crimson poncho, and one spur, and held up a
green umbrella whenever it rained.
We were shortly joined by Kaluna, the cousin, on an
old, big,. wall-eyed, bare-tailed, raw-boned horse, whose
wall-eyes contrived to express mingled suspicion and
fear, while a flabby, pendant, lower lip, conveyed the
impression of complete abjectness. He looked like some
human beings who would be vicious if they dared, but
the vice had been beaten out of him long ago, and only
the fear remained. He has a raw suppurating sore
under the saddle, glueing the blanket to his lean back,
and crouches when he is mounted. Both legs on one
side look shorter than on the other, giving a crooked
look to himself and his rider, and his bare feet are worn
thin as if he had been on lava. I rode him for a mile
yesterday, and when he attempted a convulsive canter,
with three short steps and a stumble in it, his abbreviated




LETTER. X.]


A YOUNG "SAVAGE."


133


off-legs made me feel as if I were rolling over on one
side. Kaluna beats him the whole time with a heavy
stick; but except when he strikes him most barbarously
about his eyes and nose, he only cringes, without
quickening his pace. When I rode him mercifully the
true hound nature came out.  The sufferings of this
wretched animal have been the great drawback on this
journey. I have now bribed Kaluna with as much as
the horse is worth to give him a month's rest, and long
before that time I hope the owl-hawks will be picking
his bones.
The horse has come before the rider, but Kaluna is no
nonentity.  He is a very handsome youth of sixteen,
with eyes which are remarkable, even in this land of
splendid eyes, a straight nose, a very fine mouth, and
beautiful teeth, a mass of wavy, almost curly hair, and a
complexion not so brown as to conceal the mantling of
the bright southern blood in his cheeks. His figure is
lithe, athletic, and as pliable as if he were an invertebrate
animal, capable of unlimited doublings up and contortions,
to which his thin white shirt and blue cotton trousers are
no impediment. He is almost a complete savage; his
movements are impulsive and uncontrolled, and his handsome face looks as if it belonged to a half-tamed creature
out of the woods. He talks loud, laughs incessantly,
croons a monotonous chant, which sounds almost as
heathenish as tom-toms, throws himself out of his saddle,
hanging on by one foot, lingers behind to gather fruits,
and then comes tearing up, beating his horse over the ears
and nose, with a fearful yell and a prolonged sound like




134


HAWAII.


[LETTER X.


har-r-r-ouche, striking my mule and threatening to overturn me as he passes me on the narrow track. He is the
most thoroughly careless and irresponsible being I ever
saw, reckless about the horses, reckless about himself,
without any manners or any obvious sense of right and
propriety. In his mouth this musical tongue becomes
as harsh as the speech of a cocatoo or parrot.  His
manner is familiar. He rides up to me, pokes his head
under my hat, and says, interrogatively, " Cold! " by
which I understand that the poor boy is shivering himself.
In eating he plunges his hand into my bowl of fowl, or
snatches half my biscuit. Yet I daresay he means well,
and I am thoroughly amused with him, except when he
maltreats his horse.
It is a very strange life going about with natives, whose
ideas, as shown by their habits, are, to say the least
of it, very peculiar. Deborah speaks English fairly,
having been brought up by white people, and is a very
nice girl. But were she one of our own race I should
not suppose her to be more than eleven years old, and
she does not seem able to understand my ideas on any
subject, though I can be very much interested and amused
with hearing hers.
We had a perfect day until the middle of the afternoon.
The dimpling Pacific was never more than a mile from
us as we kept the narrow track in the long green grass,
and on our left the blunt snow-patched peaks of Mauna
Kea rose from the girdle of forest, looking so delusively
near that I fancied a two-hours' climb would take us to
his lofty summit. The track for twenty-six miles is just




LETTER X. ]


WINDWARD HAWAII.


135


in and out of gulches, from 100 to 800 feet in depth, all
opening on the sea, which sweeps into them in three booming rollers. The candle-nut or kukui (aleurites triloba) tree,
which on the whole predominates, has leaves of a rich deep
green when mature, which contrast beautifully with the
flaky silvery look of the younger foliage. Some of the shallower gulches are filled exclusively with this tree, which
in growing up to the light to within 100 feet of the top,
presents a mass and density of leafage quite unique, giving
the gulch the appearance as if billows of green had rolled
in and solidified there. Each gulch has some specialty
of ferns and trees, and in such a distance as sixty miles
they vary considerably with the variations of soil, climate,
and temperature. But everywhere the rocks, trees, and
soil are covered and crowded with the most exquisite
ferns and mosses, from the great tree-fern, whose bright
fronds light up the darker foliage, to the lovely maidenhair and graceful selaginellas which are mirrored in pools
of sparkling water.  Everywhere, too, the great blue
morning glory opened to a heaven not bluer than itself.
The descent into the gulches is always solemn. You
canter along a bright breezy upland, and are suddenly
arrested by a precipice, and from the depths of a forest
abyss a low plash or murmur rises, or a deep bass sound,
significant of water which must be crossed, and one reluctantly leaves the upper air to plunge into heavy
shadow, and each experience increases one's apprehensions
concerning the next. Though in some gulches the kukui
preponderates, in others the lazihala whose aerial roots support it in otherwise impossible positions, and in others the




136


HAWAII.


[LETTER X.


sombre ohia, yet there were some grand clefts in which
nature has mingled her treasures impartially, and out of
cool depths of ferns rose the feathery coco-palm, the
glorious breadfruit, with its green melon-like fruit, the
large ohia, ideal in its beauty,-the most gorgeous flowering tree I have ever seen, with spikes of rose-crimson
blossoms borne on the old wood, blazing among its
shining many-tinted leafage, —the tall papaya with its
fantastic crown, the profuse gigantic plantain, and innumerable other trees, shrubs, and lianas, in the beauty
and bounteousness of an endless spring. Imagine my
surprise on seeing at the bottom of one gulch, a grove of
good-sized, dark-leaved, very handsome trees, with an
abundance of smooth round green fruit upon them, and
on reaching them finding that they were orange trees,
their great size, far exceeding that of the largest at
Valencia, having prevented me fiom recognizing them
earlier! In another, some large shrubs with oval, shining,
dark leaves, much crimped at the edges, bright green
berries along the stalks, and masses of pure white flowers
lying flat, like snow on evergreens, turned out to be
coffee! The guava with its obtuse smooth leaves, sweet
white blossoms on solitary axillary stalks, and yellow
fruit was universal. The novelty of the fruit, foliage,
and vegetation is an intense delight to me. I should
like to see how the rigid aspect of a coniferous tree, of
which there is not one indigenous to the islands, would
look by contrast. We passed through a long thicket of
sumach, an exotic from North America, which still retains its old habit of shedding its leaves, and its grey,




LETTER X.]


CROSSING THE GULCHES.


137


wintry, desolate-looking branches reminded me that there
are less-favoured parts of the world, and that you are
among mist, cold, murk, slush, gales, leaflessness, and all
the dismal concomitants of an English winter.
It is wonderful that people should have thought of
crossing these gulches on anything with four legs. Formerly, that is, within the last thirty years, the precipices
could only be ascended by climbing with the utmost care,
and descended by being lowered with ropes from crag to
crag, and fiom tree to tree, when hanging on by the
hands became impracticable to even the most experienced
mountaineer. In this last fashion Mr. Coan and Mr.
Lyons were let down to preach the gospel to the people
of the then populous valleys. But within recent years,
narrow tracks, allowing one horse to pass another, have
been cut along the sides of these precipices, without any
windings to make them easier, and only deviating enough
from the perpendicular to allow of their descent by the
sure-footed native-born animals. Most of them are worn
by water and animals' feet, broken, rugged, jagged, with
steps of rock sometimes three feet high, produced by
breakage here and there. Up and down these the animals
slip, jump, and scramble, some of them standing still until
severely spurred, or driven by some one from behind.
Then there are softer descents, slippery with damp, and
perilous in heavy rains, down which they slide dexterously,
gathering all their legs under them. On a few of these
tracks a false step means death, but the vegetation which
clothes the pali below, blinds one to the risk. I don't
think anything would induce me to go up a swinging




138


HAWAII.


[LETTER X.


zigzag-up a terrible pali opposite to me as I write, the
sides of which are quite undraped.
All the gulches for the first twenty-four miles contain
running water. The great Hakalau gulch we crossed early
yesterday, has a river with a smooth bed as wide as the
Thames at Eton. Some have only small quiet streams,
which   pass   gently through    ferny   grottoes.   Others
have fierce strong torrents dashing between abrupt walls
of rock, among immense boulders into deep abysses, and
cast themselves over precipice after precipice into the
ocean. Probably, many of these are the courses of fire
torrents, whose jagged masses of a-a have since been worn
smooth, and channelled into holes by the action of water.
A few are crossed on narrow bridges, but the majority are
forded, if that quiet conventional term can be applied to
the violent flounderings by which the horses bring one
through.    The transparency deceives them, and however
deep the water is, they always try to lift their fore feet
out of it, which gives them a disagreeable rolling motion.
(Mr. Brigham in his valuable monograph on the Hawaiian
volcanoes quoted below,* appears as much impressed
with these gulches as I am.)
* "The road from Hilo to Laupahoehoe, a distance of thirty miles, runs
somewhat inland, and is one of the most remarkable in the world.
Ravines, 1,800 or 2,000 feet deep, and less than a mile wide, extend
far up the slopes of Mnauna Kea. Streams, liable to sudden and tremendous freshets, must be traversed on a path of indescribable steepness,
winding zig-zag up and down the beautifully-wooded slopes or precipices,
which are ornamented with cascades of every conceivable form. Few
strangers, when they come to the worst precipices, dare to ride down, but
such is the nature of the rough steps, that a horse or mule will pass them
with less difficulty than a man on foot who is unused to climbing. No




LETTER X.]


A PERILOUS PALI.


139,


We lunched in one glorious valley, and Kaluna made
drinking cups which held fully a pint, out of the beautiful leaves of the Arum esculentum. Towards afternoon
turbid-looking clouds lowered over the sea, and by the
time we reached the worst pali of all, the south side of
Laupahoehoe, they burst on us in torrents of rain accompanied by strong wind. This terrible precipice takes
one entirely by surprise. Kaluna, who rode first, disappeared so suddenly that I thought he had gone over.
It is merely a dangerous broken ledge, and besides that
it looks as if there were only foothold for a goat, one is
dizzied by the sight of the foaming ocean immediately
below, and, when we actually reached the bottom, there
was only a narrow strip of shingle between the stupendous cliff and the resounding surges, which came up as
if bent on destruction. The path by which we descended
looked a mere thread on the side of the precipice. I
don't know what the word beetling means, but if it
means anything bad, I will certainly apply it to that pali.
A  number of disastrous-looking native houses are
clustered under some very tall palms in the open part
of the gulch, but it is a most wretched situation; the
roar of the surf is deafening, the scanty supply of water
is brackish, there are rumours that leprosy is rife, and
the people are said to be the poorest on Hawaii. We
were warned that we could not spend a night comfortably there, so wet, tired, and stiff, we rode on other
six miles to the house of a native called Bola-Bola,
less than sixty-five streams must be crossed in a distance of thirty miles."
-Brigham " On the Hawaiian Volcanoes."




140


HAWAII.


[LETTER X.


where we had been instructed to remain. The rain was
heavy and ceaseless, and the trail had become so slippery
that our progress was much retarded. It was a most
unpropitious-looking evening, and I began to feel the
painful stiffness arising from prolonged fatigue in saturated clothes. I indulged in various imaginations as we
rode up the long ascent leading to Bola-Bola's, but this
time they certainly were not of sofas and tea, and I never
aspired to anything beyond drying my clothes by a good
fire, for at Hilo some people had shrugged their shoulders,
*and others had laughed mysteriously at the idea of our
sleeping there, and some had said it was one of the worst
of native houses.
A single glance was enough. It was a dilapidated
frame-house, altogether forlorn, standing unsheltered on
a slope of the mountain, with one or two yet more forlorn
grass piggeries, which I supposed might be the cook
house, and eating-house near it.
A prolonged har-r-r-rouche from Kaluna brought out
a man with a female horde behind him, all shuffling into
clothes as we approached, and we stiffly dismounted from
the wet saddles in which we had sat for ten hours, and
stiffly hobbled up into the littered verandah, the water,dripping from our clothes, and squeezing out of our
boots at every step. Inside there was one room about
18 x 14 feet, which looked as if the people had just:arrived and had thrown down their goods promiscuously.
There were mats on the floor not over clean, and half
the room was littered and piled with mats rolled up,
boxes, bamboos, saddles, blankets, lassos, cocoanuts,




LETTER X.]


BOLA-BOLA'S DWELLING.


141


kalo roots, bananas, quilts, pans, calabashes, bundles of
hard poi in ti leaves, bones, cats, fowls, clothes. A
frightful old woman, looking like a relic of the old
heathen days, with bristling grey hair cut short, her body
tattooed all over, and no clothing but a ragged blanket
huddled round her shoulders; a girl about twelve, with
torrents of shining hair, and a piece of bright green
calico thrown round her, and two very good-looking
young women in rose-coloured chemises, one of them
holding a baby, were squatting and lying on the mats,
one over another, like a heap of savages.
When the man found that we were going to stay all
night he bestirred himself, dragged some of the things to
one side and put down a shake-down of pulu (the silky
covering of the fronds of one species of tree-fern), with
a sheet over it, and a gay quilt of orange and red cotton.
There was a thin printed muslin curtain to divide off
one half of the room, a usual arrangement in native
houses. He then helped to unsaddle the horses, and
the confusion of the room was increased by a heap od our
wet saddles, blankets, and gear. All this time the women
lay on the floor and stared at us.
Rheumatism seemed impending, for the air up there was
chilly, and I said to Deborah that I must make some
change in my dress, and she signed to Kaluna, who
sprang at my soaked boots and pulled them off, and my
stockings too, with a savage alacrity which left it doubtful for a moment whether he had not also pulled off my
feet! I had no means of making any further change
except putting on a wrapper over my wet clothes.




142


HAWAII.


[LETTER X.


Meanwhile the man killed and boiled a fowl, and boiled
some sweet potato, and when these untempting viands,
and a calabash of poi were put before us, we sat round
them and eat; I with my knife, the others with their
fingers. There was some coffee in a dirty bowl. The
females had arranged a row of pillows on their mat, and
all lay face downwards, with their chins resting upon
them, staring at us with their great brown eyes, and
talking and laughing incessantly. They had low sensual faces, like some low order of animal. When
our meal was over, the man threw them the relics,
and they soon picked the bones clean. It surprised
me that after such a badly served meal the man brought
a bowl of water for our hands, and something intended
for a towel.
By this time it was dark, and a stone, deeply hollowed
at the top, was produced, containing beef fat and a piece
of rag for a wick, which burned with a strong flaring
light. The women gathered themselves up and sat round
a large calabash of poi, conveying the sour paste to their
mouths with an inimitable twist of the fingers, laying
their heads back and closing their eyes with a look of
animal satisfaction. When they had eaten they lay down
as before, with their chins on their pillows, and again
the row of great brown eyes confronted me. Deborah,
Kaluna, and the women talked incessantly in loud shrill
voices till Kaluna uttered the word auwe with a long
groaning intonation, apparently signifying weariness,
divested himself of his clothes and laid down on a mat
alongside our shake-down, upon which we let down the




LETTER X. ]


NOCTURNAL DIVERSIONS.


143


dividing curtain and wrapped ourselves up as warmly as
possible.
I was uneasy about Deborah who had had a cough for
some time, and consequently took the outside place under
the window which was broken, and presently a large cat
jumped through the hole and down upon me, followed
by another and another, till five wild cats had effected
an entrance, making me a stepping-stone to ulterior proceedings. Had there been a sixth I think I could not
have borne the infliction quietly. Strips of jerked beef
were hanging from the rafters, and by the light which
was still burning I watched the cats climb up stealthily,
seize on some of these, descend, and disappear through
the window, making me a stepping-stone as before, but
with all their craft they let some of the strips fall, which
awoke Deborah, and next I saw Kaluna's magnificent
eyes peering at us under the curtain. Then the natives
got up, and smoked and eat more poi at intervals, and
talked, and Kaluna and Deborah quarrelled, jokingly,
about the time of night she told me, and the moon
through the rain-clouds occasionally gave us delusive
hopes of dawn, and I kept moving my place to get out of
the drip from the roof, and so the night passed. I was
amused all the time, though I should have preferred
sleep to such nocturnal diversions. It was so new, and so
odd, to be the only white person among eleven natives
in a lonely house, and yet to be as secure from danger
and annoyance as in our own home.
At last a pale dawn did appear, but the rain was still
coming down.heavily, and our poor animals were standing




144


HAWAII.


[LETTER X.


dismally with their heads down and their tails turned
towards the wind. Yesterday evening I took a change of
clothes out of the damp saddle-bags, and put them into
what I hoped was a dry place, but they were soaked,
wetter even than those in which I had been sleeping, and
my boots and Deborah's were so stiff, that we gladly
availed ourselves of Kaluna's most willing services. The
mode of washing was peculiar: he held a calabash with
about half-a-pint of water in it, while we bathed our faces
and hands, and all the natives looked on and tittered.
This was apparently his idea of politeness, for no persuasion would induce him to put the bowl down on the
mat, and Deborah evidently thought it was proper
respect. We had a repetition of the same viands as the
night before for breakfast, and, as before, the women lay
with their chins on their pillows and stared at us.
The rain ceased almost as soon as we started, and
though it has not been a bright day, it has been very
pleasant. There are no large gulches on to-day's journey.
The track is mostly through long grass, over undulating
uplands, with park-like clumps of trees, and thickets of
guava and the exotic sumach. Different ferns, flowers,
and vegetation, with much less luxuriance and little
water, denoted a drier climate and a different soil.
There are native churches at distances of six or seven
miles all the way from Hilo, but they seem too large and
too many for the scanty population.
We moved on in single file at a jog-trot wherever the
road admitted of it, meeting mounted natives now and
then, which led to a delay for the exchange of nuhou;




LETTER X. J


"BULLOCKS AHEAD."


145


and twice we had to turn into the thicket to avoid what
here seems to be considered a danger. There are many
large herds of semi-wild bullocks on the mountains,
branded cattle, as distinguished from the wild or unbranded, and when they are wanted for food, a number of
experienced vaccheros on strong shod horses go up, and
drive forty or fifty of them down. We met such a drove
bound for Hilo, with one or two men in front and others
at the sides and behind, uttering loud shouts.  The
bullocks are nearly mad with being hunted and driven,
and at times rush like a living tornado, tearing up
the earth with their horns. As soon as the galloping
riders are seen and the crooked-horned beasts, you retire
behind a screen. There must be some tradition of some
one having been knocked down and hurt, for reckless as
the natives are said to be, they are careful about this, and
we were warned several times by travellers whom we met,
that there were "bullocks ahead."  The law provides
that the vaccheros shall station one of their number at
the head of a gulch to give notice when cattle are to pass
through.
We jogged on again till we met a native who told us
that we were quite close to our destination; but there
were no signs of it, for we were still on the lofty uplands,
and the only prominent objects were huge headlands
confronting the sea.  I got off to walk, as my mule
seemed footsore, but had not gone many yards when we
came suddenly to the verge of a pali, about 1,000 feet
deep, with a narrow fertile valley below, with a yet higher
pali on the other side, both abutting perpendicularly on
L




146


HAWAII.


[ LETTER LLX.


the sea. I should think the valley is not more than three
miles long, and it is walled in by high inaccessible mountains. It is in fact, a gulch on a vastly enlarged scale.
The prospect below us was very charming, a fertile
region perfectly level, protected from the sea by sandhills,
watered by -a winding stream, and bright with fishponds,
meadow lands, kalo patches, orange and coffee groves,
figs, breadfruit, and palms. There were a number of
grass-houses, and a native church with a spire, and another
up the valley testified to the energy and aggressiveness of
Rome. We saw all this from the moment we reached
the pali; and it enlarged, and the detail grew upon us
with every yard of the laborious descent of broken craggy
track, which is the only mode of access to the valley from
the outer world. I got down on foot with difficulty; a
difficulty much increased by the long rowels of my spurs,
which caught on the rocks and entangled my dress, the
simple expedient of taking them off not having occurred
to me!
A neat frame-house, with large stones between it and
the river, was our destination. It belongs to a native
named Halemanu, a great man in the district, for, besides
being a member of the legislature, he is deputy sheriff.
He is a man of property, also; and though he cannot
speak a word of English, he is well educated in Hawaiian,
and writes an excellent hand. I brought a letter of
introduction to him from Mr. Severance, and we were at
once received with every hospitality, our horses cared for,
and ourselves luxuriously lodged. We walked up the
valley before dark to get a view of a cascade, and found




I,IETTERI X.]


LUXURY IN A GULCI.


147


supper ready on our return. This is such luxury after
last night. There is a very light bright sitting-room,
with papered walls, and manilla matting on the floor, a
round centre table with books and a photographic album
upon it, two rocking-chairs, an office-desk, another table
and chairs, and a Canadian lounge. I can't imagine in
what way this furniture was brought here. Our bedroom opens from this, and it actually has a four-post
bedstead with mosquito bars, a lounge and two chairs,
and the floor is covered with native matting. The washing apparatus is rather an anomaly, for it consists of a
basin and crash towel placed in the verandah, in full view
of fifteen people. The natives all bathe in the river.
Halemanu has a cook house and native cook, and an
eating-room, where I was surprised to find everything in
foreign style-chairs, a table with a snow white cover,
and table napkins, knives, forks, and even saltcellars.
I asked him to eat with us, and he used a knife and fork
quite correctly, never, for instance, putting the knife into
his mouth. I was amused to see him afterwards, sitting
on a mat among his family and dependants, helping himself to lpoi from a calabash with his fingers. He gave us
for supper delicious river fish fried, boiled kalo, and Waipio
coffee with boiled milk.
It is very annoying only to be able to converse witl
this man through an interpreter; and Deborah, as is
natural, is rather unwilling to be troubled to speak
English, now that she is among her own people. After
supper we sat by candlelight in the parlour, and he
showed me his photograph album. At eight he took
L 2




148


HAWAI1.


[LETTERI X.


a large Bible, put on glasses, and read a chapter in
Hawaiian; after which he knelt and prayed with profound reverence of manner and tone.       Towards the end
I recognized the Hawaiian words for " Our Father." *
Here in Waipio there is something pathetic in the idea
of this Fatherhood, which is wider than the ties of kin
and race.   Even here not one is a stranger, an alien, a
foreigner! And this man, so civilized and Christianized,
only now in middle life, was, he said, " a big boy when
the first teachers came," and may very likely have witnessed horrors in the heiau, or temple, close by, of which
little is left now.
This bedroom     is thoroughly    comfortable.    Kaluna
wanted to sleep on the lounge here, probably because
he is afraid of akuas, or spirits, but we have exiled him
to a blanket on the i)arlour lounge.
I. L. B.
* The Lord's Prayer in Hawaiian runs thus:-E ko mako Makua i-loko
b ka Lani, e hoanoia Ko Ilnoa E hiki mai Kou auhuni e malamaia Kou
IMakemake ma ka-nei honua e like me ia i malamaia ma ka Lani e haawi
mai i a makau i ai no keia la e kala mai i ko makou lawehalaana me
makou e kala nei i ka poe i lawehala mai i a makou mai alakai i a makou i
ka hoowalewaleia mai ata e hookapele i a makou mai ka ino no ka mea
Nou ke Aupuni a me ka Mana a me ka hoonaniia a man loa 'ku. Amene.




LETTER     X.-(continued.)
WE were thoroughly rested this morning, and very
glad of a fine day for a visit to the great cascade which is
rarely seen by foreigners. My mule was slightly galled
with the girth, and having a strong fellow feeling with
Elisha's servant, " Alas, master, for it was borrowed!"
I have bought for $20 a pretty, light, half-broken bay
mare, which I rode to-day and liked much.
After breakfast, which was a repetition of last night's
supper, we three, with Halemanu's daughter as guide,
left on horseback for the waterfall, though the natives
tried to dissuade us by saying that stones came down, and
it was dangerous; also that people could not go in their
clothes, there was so much wading. In deference to this
last opinion, D. rode without boots, and I without stockings. We rode through the beautiful valley till we reached
a deep gorge turning off from it, which opens out into
a nearly circular chasm with walls 2,000 feet in height,
where we tethered our horses. A short time after leaving
them, ). said, "She says we can't go further in our
clothes," but when the natives saw me plunge boldly into
the river in my riding dress, which is really not unlike a
fashionable Newport bathing suit, they thought better of
it. It was a thoroughly rough tramp, wading ten times
through the river, which was sometimes up to our knees,




150


HAWAII.


[LETTER X.


and sometimes to our waists, and besides the fighting
among slippery rocks in rushing water, we had to crawl
and slide up and down wet, mossy masses of dislodged
rock, to push with eyes shut through wet jungles of Indian
shot, guava, and a thorny vine, and sometimes to climb
from tree to tree at a considerable height. When, after
an hour's fighting we arrived in sight of the cascade, but
not of the basin into which it falls, our pretty guide
declined to go further, saying that the wind was rising,
and that stones would fall and kill us, but being incredulous on this point, I left them, and with great difficulty
and many bruises, got up the river to its exit from the
basin, and there, being unable to climb the rocks on
either side, stood up to my throat in the still tepid water
till the scene became real to me.
I do not care for any waterfall but Niagara, nor do I
care in itself for this one, for though its first leap is 200
feet and its second 1,600, it is so frittered away and dissipated in spray, owing to the very magnitude of its
descent, that there is no volume of water within sight to
create mass or sound. But no words can paint the
majesty of the surroundings, the caverned, precipitous
walls of rock coming down in one black plunge from the
blue sky above to the dark abyss of water below, the sullen
shuddering sound with which pieces of rock came hurtling
down among the trees, the thin tinkle of the water as it
falls, the full rush of the river, the feathery growth
of ferns, gigantic below, but so diminished by the height
above, as only to show their presence by the green tinge
upon the rocks, while in addition to the gloom produced




LETTEI X.]


THE VALLEY OF WAIPIO.


1.51


by the stupendous height of the cliffs, there is a cool,
green darkness of dense forest, and mighty trees of
strange tropical forms glass themselves in the black mirror
of the basin. For one moment a ray of sunshine turned
the upper part of the spray into a rainbow, and never to
my eyes had the bow of promise looked so heavenly as
when it spanned the black, solemn, tree-shadowed abyss,
whose deep, still waters only catch a sunbeam on five days
of the year.
I found the natives regaling themselves on papapya, and
on live fresh-water shrimps, which they find. in great
numbers in the river. I remembered that white people at
home calling themselves civilized, eat live, or at least raw,
oysters, but the sight of these active, squirming shrimps
struggling between the white teeth of my associates was
yet more repulsive.
We finished our adventurous expedition with limbs
much bruised, as well as torn and scratched, and before
we emerged from the chasm saw a rock dislodged, which
came crashing down not far from us, carrying away an
ohia. It is a gruesome and dowie den, but well worth
a visit.
We mounted again, and rode as far as we could up the
valley, fording the river in deep water several times, and
coming down the other side. The coffee trees in full
blossom were very beautiful, and they, as well as the
oranges, have escaped the blight which has fallen upon
both in other parts of the island. In addition to the
usual tropical productions, there were some very fine fig
trees and thickets of the castor-oil plant, a very hand



152


tIAIWAIII.


[LETTER X.


some shrub, when, as here, it grows to a height of from
ten to twenty-two feet. The natives, having been joined
by some Waipio women, rode at full gallop over all sorts of
ground, and I enjoyed the speed of my mare without any
apprehension of being thrown off. We rode among most
extensive ckalo plantations, and large artificial fish-ponds,
in which hundreds of gold-fish were gleaming, and came
back by the sea shore, green with the maritime convolvulus, and the smooth-bottomed river, which the Waipio
folk use as a road. Canoes glide along it, brown-skinned
men wade down it floating bundles of kalo after them,
and strings of laden horses and mules follow each other
along its still waters. I hear that in another and nearly
unapproachable valley, a river serves the same purpose.
While we were riding up it, a great gust lifted off its
surface in fine spray, and almost blew us from our horses.
Hawaii has no hurricanes, but at some hours of the day
Waipio is subject to terrific gusts, which really justify the
people in their objection to visiting the cascade. Some
time ago, in one of these, this house was lifted up, carried twenty feet, and deposited in its present position.
Supper was ready for us-kalo, yams, spatchcock, poi,
coffee, rolls, and Oregon kippered salmon; and when I
told Halemanu that the spatchcock and salmon reminded me of home, he was quite pleased, and said he
would provide the same for breakfast to-morrow.
The owner of the mare, which I have named " Bessie
Twinker," had willingly sold her to me, though I told
him I could not pay him for her until I reached Onomea.
I do not know what had caused my credit to suffer during




LETTERt X.]


T"MR. WALLACE."


153


my absence, but D., after talking long with him this
evening, said to me, "He says he can't let you have the
horse, because when you've taken it away, he thinks you
will never send him the money."  I told her indignantly
to tell him that English women never cheated people, a
broad and totally unsustainable assertion, which had the
effect of satisfying the poor fellow.
After Halemanu, Deborah, Kaluna, and a number of
natives had eaten their poi, Halemanu brought in a very
handsome silver candlestick, and expressed a wish that
Deborah should interpret for us. He asked a great many
sensible questions about England, specially about the
state of the poor, the extent of the fianchise, and the
influence of religion. When he heard that I had spent
some years in Scotland, he said, "Do you know Mr.
Wallace? "  I was quite puzzled, and tried to recall any
man of that name who I had heard of as having visited
Hawaii, when a happy flash of comprehension made me
aware of his meaning, and I replied that I had seen his
sword several times, but that he died long before I knew
Scotland, and indeed before I was born  but that the
Scotch held his memory in great veneration, and were
putting up a monument to him. But for the mistake as
to dates, he seemed to have the usual notions as to the
exploits of Wallace.  He deplores most deeply the
dwindling of his people, and his manner became very sad
about it.  D. said, "He's very unhappy; he says,
soon there will be no more Kanakas."  He told me
that this beautiful valley was once very populous, and
even forty years ago, when Mr. Ellis visited it, there




154


IIAWAII.


[LETTER X.


were 1,300 people here. Now probably there are not
more than 200.
Here was the Plhonua, or place of refuge for all this
part of the island. This, and the very complete one of
Honaunau, on the other side of Hawaii, were the Hawaiian " Cities of Refuge." Could any tradition of the
Mosaic ordinance on this subject have travelled hither?
These two sanctuaries were absolutely inviolable. The
gates stood perpetually open, and though the fugitive was
liable to be pursued to their very threshold, he had no
sooner crossed it than he was safe from king, chief, or
avenger. These gates were wide, and some faced the
sea, and others the mountains. Hither the murderer,
the manslayer, the tablt-breaker fled, repaired to the presence of the idol, and thanked it for aiding him to reach
the place of security. After a certain time the fugitives
were allowed to return to their families, and none dared
to injure those to whom the high gods had granted their
protection.
In time of war, tall spears from which white flags were
unfurled, were placed at each end of the enclosure, and
until the proclamation of peace invited the vanquished
to enter. These flags were fixed a short distance outside
the walls, and no pursuing warrior, even in the hot flush
of victory, could pursue his routed foe one foot beyond.
Within was the sacred pale of paha tabu, and anyone
attempting to strike his victim there would have been put
to death by the priests and their adherents. In war time
the children, old people, and many of the women of the
neighbouring districts, were received within the enclosure,




LETTEll X.]


HUMAN SACRIFICES.


U15


where they awaited the issue of the conflict in security,
and were safe from violence in the event of defeat. These
pIlioncras contain pieces of stone weighing from two to
three tons, raised six feet from the ground, and the walls,
narrowing gradually towards the top, are fifteen feet wide
at the base and twelve feet high. They are truly grand
monuments of humanity in the midst of the barbarous
institutions of heathenism, and it shows a considerable
degree of enlightenment that even rebels in arms and
fugitives from invading armies were safe, if they reached
the sacred refuge, for the priests of Keawe knew no distinctions of party.
In dreadful contrast to this place of mercy, there were
some very large heiaus (or temples) here, on whose hideous
altars eighty human sacrifices are said to have been
offered at one time. One of the legends told me concerning this lovely valley is, that King Umi, having vanquished the kings of the six divisions of Hawaii, was
sacrificing captives in one of these hleiaus, when the voice
of his god, Kualhilo, was heard from the clouds, demanding more slaughter. Fresh human blood streamed from
the altars, but the insatiable demon continued to call for
more, till Umi had sacrificed all the captives and all his
own men but one, whom he at first refused to give up, as
he was a great favourite, but Kizahilo thundered fromn
heaven, till the favourite warrior was slain, and only the
king and the sacrificing priest, remained.
This valley of the "vanquished waters" abounds in
legends. Some of these are about a cruel monster, King
Hooku, who lived here, and whose memory, so far as he




156                   HAWAII.               [LETTER X.
is remembered, is much execrated. It is told of him
that if a man were said to have a handsome head he sent
some of his warriors to behead him, and then hacked and
otherwise disfigured the face for a diversion. On one
occasion he ordered a man's arm to be cut off and brought
to him, simply because it was said to be more beautifully
tattooed than his own. It is fifty-four years since the
last human sacrifice was exposed on the Waipio altars,
but there are several old people here who must have been
at least thirty when Hawaii threw off idolatry for ever.
IIalemanu has again closed the evening with the simple
iworship of the true God.
I. L. B.




LETTER XI.


HILO, HAWAII.
THERE is a rumour that the king is coming as the
guest of Admiral Pennock in the Benicia. If it turns
out to be true, it will turn our quiet life upside down.
We met with fearful adventures in the swollen gulches
between Laupahoehoe and Onomea. It is difficult to
begin my letter with the plain prose of our departure
from Waipio, which we accomplished on the morning
after I last wrote. On rising after a sound sleep, I found
that my potted beef, which I had carefully hung from a
nail the night before, had been almost carried away by
small ants. These ants swarm in every house on low
altitudes. They assemble in legions as if by magic, and
by their orderly activity carry away all that they do not
devour, of all eatables which have not been placed on
tables which have rags dipped in a solution of corrosive
sublimate wound round their legs.
We breakfasted by lamplight, and because I had said
that some of the viands reminded me of home, our kind
host had provided them at that early hour. He absolutely refused to be paid anything for the accommodation
of our party, and said he should be ashamed of himself
if he took anything from a lady travelling without a
husband.




i 158


HAWAII.


LLETTER XI.


It was such a perfect morning. The full moon hung
over the enclosing pclis, gleaming on coffee and breadfruit groves, and on the surface of the river, which was
just quivering under a soft sea breeze. The dew was
heavy, smoke curled idly from native houses, the east
was flushing with the dawn, and the valley looked the
picture of perfect peace. A number of natives assembled
to see us start, and they all shook hands with us, exchanging alohas, and presenting us with leis of roses and
ohias. D. looked very pretty with a red hibiscus blossom
in her shining hair. You would have been amused to see
me shaking hands with men dressed only in malos, or in
the short blue shirt reaching to the waist, much worn by
them when at work.
I rode my mare with some pride of proprietorship, and
our baggage for a time was packed on the mule, and we
started up the tremendous pali at the tail of a string of
twenty mules and horses laden with kalo. This was in
the form of paiai, or hard food, which is composed, as
I think I mentioned before, of the root baked and pounded,
but without water. It is put up in bundles wrapped in
ti leaves, of from twenty to thirty pounds each, secured
with cocoanut fibre, in which state it will keep for months,
and much of the large quantity raised in Waipio is
exported to the plantations, the Waimea ranches, and the
neighbouring districts.  A square' mile of kalo, it is
estimated, would feed 15,000 Hawaiians for a year.
It was a beautiful view from the top of the pali. The
white moon was setting, the earliest sunlight was lighting
up the dewy depths of the lonely valley, reddening with




LETTER XI.]


NATIVE HOSPITALITY.


159


a rich rose red tile huge headland which forms one of its
sentinels; heavy snow had fallen during the night on
Mauna Kea, and his great ragged dome, snow-covered
down to the forests, was blushing like an Alpine peak at
the touch of the early sun. It ripened into a splendid
joyous day, which redeemed the sweeping uplands of
Hamakua from the dreariness which I had thought
belonged to them. There was a fresh sea-breeze, and
the sun, though unclouded, was not too hot. We halted
for an early lunch at the clean grass-house we had stopped
at before, and later in the afternoon at that of the
woman with whom we had ridden from    Hakalau, who
received us very cordially, and regaled us with poi and
pork.
In order to avoid the amenities of Bola Bola's we rode
thirty-four miles, and towards evening descended the
tremendous steep, which leads to the surf-deafened village
of Laupahoehoe.  Halemanu had given me a note of
introduction to a widow namled Honolulu, which Deborah
said began thus, "As I know that you have the only
clean house in L," and on presenting it we were made
very welcome. Besides the widow, a very redundant
beauty, there were her two brothers and two male
cousins, and all bestirred themselves in our service, the
men in killing and cooking the supper, and the woman in
preparing the beds. It was quite a large room, with
doors at the end and side, and fully a third was curtained
off by a calico curtain, with a gorgeous Crdtonne pattern
upon it. I was delighted to see a four-post bed, with
mosquito bars, and a clean pulu mattrass, with a linen




160


HAWAII.


[LETTERI XI.


sheet over it, covered with a beautiful quilt with a quaint
arabesque pattern on a white ground running round it,
and a wreath of green leaves in the centre. The native
women exercise the utmost ingenuity in the patterns and
colours of these quilts.  Some of them are quite works
of art. The materials, which are plain and printed
cottons, cost about $8, and at complete quilt is worth
from $18 to $50. The widow took six small pillows,
daintily covered with silk, out of a chest, the uses of
which were not obvious, as two large pillows were already
on the bed. It was astonishing to see a native house so
handsomely furnished in so poor a place. The mats on
the floor were numerous and very fine. There were two
tables, several chairs, a bureau with a swinging mirror
upon it, a basin, crash towels, a carafe and a kerosene
lamp. It is all very well to be able to rough it, and yet
better to enjoy doing so, but such luxuries add much to
one's contentment after eleven hours in the saddle.
Honolulu wore a green chemise at first, but when supper
was ready she put a Macgregor tartan hlolulk over it.
The men were very active, and cooked the fowl in about
the same time that it takes to pluck one at home. They
spread the finest mat I have seen in the centre of the
floor as a tablecloth, and put down on it bowls containing
the fowl and sweet potatoes, and the unfailing calabash of
poi. Tea, coffee and milk were not procurable, and as
the water is slimy and brackish, I offered a boy a dime
to get me a cocoanut, and presently eight great, misshapen things were rolled down at the door. The outside
is a smooth buff rind, underneath which is a fibrous




LETTER XI.]


A FOCUSSED STARE.


161


covering, enormously strong and about an inch thick,
which when stripped off reveals the nut as we see it, but
of a very pale colour.  Those we opened were quite
young, and each contained nearly three tumblers of almost
effervescent, very sweet, slightly acidulated, perfectly
limpid water, with a strong flavour of cocoanut.  It is a
delicious beverage. The meat was so thin and soft that
it could have been spooned out like the white of an egg
if we had had any spoons.   We all sat cross-legged
round our meal, and all Laupahoehoe crowded into the
room and verandah with the most persistent, unwinking,
gimleting stare I ever saw. It was really unpleasant,
not only to hear a Babel of talking, of which, judging
from the constant repetition of the words wahine haole,
I was the subject, but to have to eat under the focussed
stare of twenty pair of eyes.  My folding camp-knife
appears an object of great interest, and it was handed
round, inside and outside the house. When I retired
about seven, the assemblage was still in full session.
The stars were. then bright, but when I woke the next
morning a strong breeze was blowing, the surf was
roaring so loud as almost to drown human voices, and
rolling up in gigantic surges, and to judge from appearances, the rain which was falling in torrents had been
falling for some hours. There was much buzzing among
the natives regarding our prospects for the day. I shall
always think from their tone and manner, and the frequent
repetition of the names of the three worst gulches, that the
older men tried to dissuade us from going; but Deborah,
who was very anxious to be at home by Sunday, said that,M




162


IIHAWAII.


[LETTER XI.


the verdict was that if we started at once for our ride of
twenty-three miles we might reach Onomea before the
freshet came on. This might have been the case had it
not been for Kaluna. Not only was his horse worn out, but
nothing would induce him to lead the mule, and she went
off on foraging expeditions continually, which further
detained us. Kaluna had grown quite polite in his savage
way. He always insisted on putting on and taking off
my boots, carried me once through the Waipio river,
helped me to pack the saddle-bags, and even offered to
brush my hair! He frequently brought me guavas on
the road, saying, "eat," and often rode up, saying interrogatively, " tired? " " cold?" D. told me that he was
very tired, and I was very sorry for him, for he was so
thinly and poorly dressed, and the natives are not strong
enough to bear exposure to cold as we can, and a temperature at 68~ is cold to them. But he was quite incorrigible, and thrashed his horse to the last.
We breakfasted on fowl, poi, and cocoanut milk, in
presence of even a larger number of spectators than the
night before, one of them a very old man looking savagely
picturesque, with a red blanket tied round his waist,
leaving his lean chest and arms, which were elaborately
tattooed, completely exposed.
The mule had been slightly chafed by the gear, and in
my anxiety about a borrowed animal, of which Mr. Austin
makes a great joke, I put my saddle-bags on my own
mare, in an evil hour, and not only these, but some fine
cocoanuts, tied up in a waterproof which had long ago
proved its worthlessness. It was a grotesquely miserable




LETTER XI.]


A WET RIDE.


163


picture. The house is not far from the beach, and the
surf, beyond which a heavy mist hung, was coming in
with such a tremendous sound that we had to shout at
the top of our voices in order to be heard. The sides of
the great gulch rose like prison walls, cascades which had
no existence the previous night hurled themselves from
the summit of the cliffs directly into the sea, the rain,
which fell in sheets, not drops, covered the ground to the
depth of two or three inches, and dripped from the
wretched, shivering horses, which stood huddled together
with their tails between their legs. My thin flannel suit
was wet through even before we mounted. I dispensed
with stockings, as I was told that wearing them in rain
chills and stiffens the limbs. D., about whom I was
anxious, as well as about the mule, had a really waterproof cloak, and I am glad to say has quite lost the cough
from which she suffered before our expedition. She does
not care about rain any more than I do.
We soon reached the top of the worst and dizziest of
all the palis, and then splashed on mile after mile, down
sliding banks, and along rocky tracks, from which the
soil had been completely carried, the rain falling all the
time. In some places several feet of soil had been carried
away, and we passed through water-rents, the sides of
which were as high as our horses' heads, where the ground
had been level a few days before. By noon the aspect
of things became so bad that I wished we had a white
man with us, as I was uneasy about some of the deepest
gulches. When four hours' journey from Onomea,
Kaluna's horse broke down, and he left us to get another,
2




164


HAWAII.


[LETTER Xi.


and we rode a mile out of our way to visit Deborah's
grandparents.
Her uncle carried us across some water to their cookhouse, where, happily, a kalo baking had just been
accomplished in a hole in the ground, lined with stones,
among which the embers were still warm. In this very
small hut, in which a man could hardly stand upright,
there were five men only dressed in malos, four women,
two of them very old, much tattooed, and huddled up in
blankets, two children, five pertinaciously sociable dogs,
two cats, and heaps of things of different kinds. They
are a most gregarious people, always visiting each other,
and living in each other's houses, and so hospitable that
no Hawaiian, however poor, will refuse to share his last
mouthful of poi with a stranger of his own race. These
people looked very poor, but probably were not really so,
as they had a nice grass-house, with very fine mats, within
a few yards.
A man went out, cut off the head of a fowl, singed it in
the flame, cut it into pieces, put it into a pot to boil, and
before our feet were warm the bird was cooked, and we
ate it out of the pot with some baked kalo. D. took me
out to see some mango trees, and a pond filled with gold
fish, which she said had been hers when she was a child.
She seemed very fond of her relatives, among whom she
looked like a fairy princess; and I think they admired
her very much, and treated her with some deference.
The object of our visit was to procure a e1 of birds' feathers
which they had been making for her, and for which I am
sure 300 birds must have been sacrificed. It was a very




LETTER XI.]


EVIL OMENS.


165


beautiful as well as costly ornament,* and most ingeniously
packed for travelling by being laid at full length within a
slender cylinder of bamboo.
We rode on again, somewhat unwillingly on my part,
for though I thought my apprehensions might be cowardly
and ignorant, yet D. was but a child, and had the
attractive wilfulness of childhood, and she was, I saw,
determined to get back to her husband, and the devotion
and affection of the young wife were so pleasant to see,
that I had not the heart to offer serious opposition to her
wishes, especially as I knew that I might be exaggerating
the possible peril.  I gathered, however, from     what she
said, that her people wanted us to remain until Monday,
especially as none of them could go with us, their horses
being at some distance. I thought it a sign of difficulties
ahead, that on one of the most frequented tracks in
Hawaii, we had not met a single traveller, though it was
Saturday, a special travelling day.
We crossed one gulch in which the water was strong,
and up to our horses' bodies, and came upon the incorrigible Kaluna, who, instead of catching his horse, was
recounting his adventures to      a circle of natives, but
* A small bird, Melithreptes Pacifica, inhabits the mountainous regions
of Hawaii, and has under each wing a single feather, one inch long, of a
bright canary yellow. The birds are caught by means of a viscid substance
smeared on poles. Formerly they were strictly tabu. It is of these feathers
that the mamto or war-cloak of Kamehameha I., now used on state occasions
by the Hawaiian kings, is composed. This priceless mantle is four feet long,
eleven and a half feet wide at the bottom, and its formation occupied nine
successive reigns. It is one of the costliest of royal ornaments, if the
labour spent upon it is estimated, and the feathers of which it is made
have been valued at a dollar and a half for five.




166


-IAWAII.


[LETTER XI.


promised to follow us soon. D. then said that the next
gulch was rather a bad one, and that we must not wait
for Kaluna, but ride fast, and try to get through it. When
we reached the pali above it, we heard the roaring of a
torrent, and when we descended to its brink it looked
truly bad, but D. rode in, and I waited on the margin.
She got safely across, but when she was near the opposite
side her large horse plunged, slipped, and scrambled in
a most unpleasant way, and she screamed something to
me which I could not hear. Then I went in, and
"At the first plunge the horse sank low,
And the water broke o'er the saddle bow:"
but the brave animal struggled through, with the water
up to the top of her back, till she reached the place where
D.'s horse had looked so insecure. In another moment
she and I rolled backwards into deep water, as if she had
slipped from a submerged rock. I saw her fore feet pawing the air, and then only her head was above water. I
struck her hard with my spurs, she snorted, clawed, made
a desperate struggle, regained her footing, got into slallow water, and landed safely. It was a small but not an
agreeable adventure.
We went on again, the track now really dangerous from
denudation and slipperiness. The rain came down, if
possible, yet more heavily, and coursed fiercely down each
pali track. Hundreds of cascades leapt from the cliffs,
bringing down stones with a sharp rattling sound. We
crossed a bridge over one gulch, where the water was
thundering down in such volume that it seemed as if it




LETTER XI.]


AN ALARMING PROSPECT.


167


must rend the hard basalt of the cmlis. Then we reached
the lofty top of the great Hakalau gulch, the largest of
all, with the double river, and the ocean close to the ford.
Mingling with the deep reverberations of the surf, I heard
the sharp crisp rush of a river, and of " a river that has
no bridge."
The dense foliage, and the exigencies of the steep track,
which had become very difficult, owing to the washing
away of the soil, prevented me from seeing anything till I
got down. I found Deborah speaking to a native, who
was gesticulating very emphatically, and pointing up the
river. The roar was deafening, and the sight terrific.
Where there were two shallow streams a week ago, with a
house and good-sized piece of ground above their confluence, there was now one spinning, rushing, chafing,
foaming river, twice as wide as the Clyde at Glasgow, the
land was submerged, and, if I remember correctly, the
house only stood above the flood. And, most fearful to
look upon, the ocean, in three huge breakers, had come
quite in, and its mountains of white surge looked fearfully
near the only possible crossing. I entreated D. not to go
on. She said we could not go back, that the last gulch
was already impassable, that between the two there was
no house in which we could sleep, that the river had a
good bottom, that the man thought if our horses were
strong we could cross now, but not later, &c. In short,
she overbore all opposition, and plunged in, calling to me,
spur, spur, all the time."
Just as I went in, I took my knife and cut open the
cloak which contained the cocoanuts, one only remaining.




168


HAWAII.


[LETTER XI.


Deborah's horse I knew was strong, and shod, but my
unshod and untried mare, what of her? My soul and
senses literally reeled among the dizzy horrors of the
wide, wild tide, but with an effort I regained sense and
self-possession, for we were in, and there was no turning.
D., ahead, screeched to me what I could not hear; she
said afterwards it was " spur, spur, and keep up the river;"
the native was shrieking in Hawaiian from the hinder
shore, and waving to the right, but the torrents of rain,
the crash of the breakers, and the rush and hurry of the
river confused both sight and hearing. I saw D.'s great
horse carried off his legs, my mare, too, was swimming,
and shortly afterwards, between swimming, struggling,
and floundering, we reached what had been the junction
of the two rivers, where there was foothold, and the water
was only up to the seat of the saddles.
Remember, w w were both sitting nearly up to our waists
in water, and it was only by screaming that our voices
were heard above the din, and to return or go on seemed
equally perilous. Under these critical circumstances the
following colloquy took place, on my side, with teeth
chattering, and on hers, with a sudden forgetfulness of
English produced by her first sense of the imminent
danger we were in.
Self.-" My mare is so tired, and so heavily weighted,
we shall be drowned, or I shall."
Deborah (with more reason on her side).-" But can't
go back, we no stay here, water higher all minutes, spur
horse, think we come through."
Self.-" But if we go on there is broader, deeper water




LETTER XI.]


SWIMMING FOR LIFE.


between us and the shore; your husband would not like
you to run such a risk."
Deborah.-" Think we get through, if horses give out,
we let go; I swim and save you."
Even under these circumstances a gleam of the ludicrous
shot through me at the idea of this small fragile being
bearing up my weight among the breakers.     I attempted to shift my saddle-bags upon her powerful
horse, but being full of water and under water, the
attempt failed, and as we spoke both our horses were
carried off their vantage ground into deep water.
With wilder fury the river rushed by, its waters whirled
dizzily, and, in spite of spurring and lifting with the rein,
the horses were swept seawards. It was a very fearful
sight. I saw Deborah's horse spin round, and thought
woefully of the possible fate of the bright young wife,
almost a bride; only the horses' heads and our own heads
and shoulders were above water; the surf was thundering
on our left, and we were drifting towards it "broadside
on."  When I saw the young girl's face of horror I felt
increased presence of mind, and raising my voice to a
shriek, and telling her to do as I did, I lifted and turned
my mare with the rein, so that her chest and not her side
should receive the force of the river, and the brave animal,
as if seeing what she should do, struck out desperately.
It was a horrible suspense. Were we stemming the
torrent, or was it sweeping us back that very short
distance which lay between us and the mountainous
breakers? I constantly spurred my mare, guiding her
slightly to the left, the side grew nearer, and after




170


HAWAII.


[LETTER XI.


exhausting struggles, Deborah's horse touched ground,
and her voice came faintly towards me like a voice in a
dream, still calling " Spur, spur." My mare touched
ground twice, and was carried off again before she fairly
got to land some yards nearer the sea than the bridle
track.
When our tired horses were taking breath I felt as if
my heart stopped, and I trembled all over, for we had
narrowly escaped death. I then put our saddle-bags on
Deborah's horse. It was one of the worst and steepest
of the palis that we had to ascend; but I can't remember
anything about the road except that we had to leap some
place which we could not cross otherwise. Deborah,
then thoroughly alive to a sense of risk, said that there
was only one more bad gulch to cross before we reached
Onomea, but it was the most dangerous of all, and we
could not get across, she feared, but we might go and look
at it. I only remember the extreme solitude of the region,
and scrambling and sliding down a most precipitous pali,
hearing a roar like cataract upon cataract, and coming
suddenly down upon a sublime and picturesque scene,
with only standing room, and that knee-deep in water,
between a savage torrent and the cliff. This gulch, called
the Scotchman's gulch, I am told, because a Scotchman
was drowned there, must be at its crossing three-quarters
of a mile inland, and three hundred feet above the sea.
In going to Waipio, on noticing the deep holes and
enormous boulders, some of them higher than a man on
horseback, I had thought what a fearful place it would be
if it were ever full; but my imagination had not reached




LETTER XI.]


CROSSING A TORRENT.


171


the reality. One huge compressed impetuous torrent,
leaping in creamy foam, boiling in creamy eddies, rioting
in deep black chasms, roared and thundered over the whole
in rapids of the most tempestuous kind, leaping down to
the ocean in three grand broad cataracts, the nearest of
them not more'than forty feet from the crossing. Imagine
the Moriston at the Falls, four times as wide and fifty
times as furious, walled in by precipices, and with a
miniature Niagara above and below, and you have a feeble
illustration of it.
Portions of two or three rocks only could be seen, and
on one of these, about twelve feet from the shore, a nude
native, beautifully tattooed, with a lasso in his hands, was
standing nearly up to his knees in foam; and about a third
of the way from the other side, another native in deeper
water, steadying himself by a pole. A young woman on
horseback, whose near relative was dangerously ill at Hilo,
was jammed under the cliff, and the men were going to
get her across. Deborah, to my dismay, said that if she
got safely over we would go too, as these natives were very
skilful. I asked if she thought her husband would let her
cross, and she said "No."   I asked her if she were
frightened, and she said "Yes;" but she wished so to get
home, and her face was as pale as a brown face can be. I
only hope the man will prove worthy of her affectionate
devotion.
Here, though people say it is a most perilous gulch, I
was not afraid for her life or mine, with the amphibious
natives to help us; but I was sorely afraid of being bruised,
and scarred, and of breaking the horses' legs, and I said I




172


HIAWAII.


[LETTER XI.


would not cross, but would sleep among the trees; but
the tumult drowned our voices, though the Hawaiians by
screeching could make themselves understood.   The
nearest man then approached the shore, put the lasso
round the nose of the woman's horse, and dragged it into
the torrent; and it was exciting to see a horse creeping
from rock to rock in a cataract with alarming possibilities
in every direction. But beasts may well be bold, as they
have not "the foreknowledge of death."   When the
nearest native had got the horse as far as he could, he
threw the lasso to the man who was steadying himself
with the pole, and urged the horse on. There was a deep
chasm between the two into which the animal fell, as he
tried to leap from one rock to another. I saw for a
moment only a woman's head and shoulders, a horse's
head, a commotion of foam, a native tugging at the lasso,
and then a violent scramble on to a rock, and a plunging
and floundering through deep water to shore.
Then Deborah said she would go, that her horse was a
better and stronger one; and the same process was
repeated with the same slip into the chasm, only with the
variation that for a second she went out of sight altogether.
It was a terribly interesting and exciting spectacle with
sublime accompaniments. Though I had no fear of
absolute danger, yet my mare was tired, and I had made
up my mind to remain on that side till the flood abated;
but I could not make the natives understand that I wished
to turn, and while I was screaming "No, no," and trying
to withdraw my stiffened limbs from the stirrups, the noose
iwas put round the mare's nose, and she went in. It was




LETTER XI.]


THE PERIL OVER.


173


horrible to know that into the chasm as the others went
I too must go, and in the mare went with a blind plunge.
With violent plunging and struggling she got her fore feet
on the rock, but just as she was jumping up to it altogether
she slipped back snorting into the hole, and the water
went over my eyes. I struck her with my spurs, the men
screeched and shouted, the hinder man jumped in, they
both tugged at the lasso, and slipping and struggling, the
animal gained the rock, and plunged through deep water
to shore, the water covering that rock with a rush of foam,
being fully two feet deep.
Kaluna came up just after we had crossed, undressed,
made his clothes into a bundle, and got over amphibiously,
leaping, swimming, and diving, looking like a water-god,
with the horse and mule after him. His dexterity was a
beautiful sight; but on looking back I wondered how
human beings ever devised to cross such a flood. We
got over just in time. Some travellers who reached
Laupahoehoe shortly after we left, more experienced than
we were, suffered a two days' detention rather than incur
a similar risk. Several mules and horses, they say, have
had their legs broken in crossing this gulch by getting
them fast between the rocks.
Shortly after this, Deborah uttered  a  delighted
exclamation, and her pretty face lighted up, and I saw
her husband spurring along the top of the next pali, and
he presently joined us, and I exchanged my tired mare
for his fresh, powerful horse. He knew that a freshet was
imminent, and believing that we should never leave
Laupahoehoe, he was setting off, provided with tackle for
getting himself across, intending to join us, and remain




174


HAWAII.


[LETTER XrI.


with us till the rivers fell. The presence of a responsible
white man seemed a rest at once. We had several more
gulches to cross, but none of them were dangerous; and
we rode the last seven miles at a great pace, though the
mire and water were often up to the horses' knees, and
came up to Onomea at full gallop, with spirit and strength
enough for riding other twenty miles. Dry clothing, hot
baths, and good tea followed delightfully upon our
drowning ride. I remained over Sunday at Onomea, and
yesterday rode here with a native in heavy rain, and
received a warm welcome. Our adventures are a nine days'
wonder, and every one says that if we had had a white man
or an experienced native with us, we should never have
been allowed to attempt the perilous ride. I feel very
thankful that we are living to tell of it, and that Deborah
is not only not worse but considerably better. E —
will expect some reflections; but none were suggested at
the time, and I will not now invent what I ought to have
thought and felt.
Due honour must be given to the Mexican saddle.
Had I been on a side-saddle, and encumbered with a
riding-habit, I should have been drowned. I feel able
now to ride anywhere and any distance upon it, while Miss
Karpe, who began by being much stronger than I was, has
never recovered from the volcano ride, and seems quite ill.
Last night Kilauea must have been tremendously active.
At ten P.M., from the upper verandah, we saw the whole
western sky fitfully illuminated, and the glare reddened
the snow which is lying on Mauna Loa, an effect of fire
on ice which can rarely be seen.
I. L. B.




LETTER XII.


HILO,
February 22.
MY sojourn here is very pleasant, owing to the kindness
and sociability of the people. I think that so much
culture and such a variety of refined tastes can seldom
be found in so small a community. There have been
pleasant little gatherings for sewing, while some gentlemen
read aloud, fern-printing in the verandah, microscopic
and musical evenings, little social luncheons, and on
Sunday evenings what is colloquially termed, " a sing,"
at this most social house.  One of the things I have
specially enjoyed has been spending an afternoon at the
Rev. Titus Coan's. He is not only one of the most
venerable of the remaining missionaries, but such an
authority on the Hawaiian volcanoes as to entitle him to
be designated " the high-priest of Pel! " In his modest
quiet way he told thrilling stories of the old missionary
days.
As you know, the islands cast off idolatry in 1819, but
it was not till 1835 that Mr. and Mrs. Coan arrived in
Hilo, where Mr. and Mrs. Lyman had been toiling for
some time, and had produced a marked change on the
social condition of the people. Mr. C. was a fervid
speaker, and physically very robust, and when he had
mastered the language, he undertook much of the




176


HAWAII.


[LETTER XII.


travelling and touring, and Mr. Lyman took charge of
the home mission station, and the boarding and industrial school which he still indefatigably superintends.
There were 15,000 natives then in the district, and its
extremes were 100 miles apart. Portions of it could
only be reached with peril to limbs and even life. Horses
were only regarded as wild animals in those days, and
Mr. C. traversed on foot the district I have just returned
from, not lazily riding down the gulch sides, but climbing,
or being let down by ropes from tree to tree, and from
crag to crag. In times of rain like last week, when it
was impossible to ford the rivers, he sometimes swam
across, witl a rope to prevent him from being carried
away, through others he rode on the broad shoulders of
a willing native, while a company of strong men locked
hands and stretched themselves across the torrent, between
him and the cataract, to prevent him from being carried
over in case his bearer should fall.  This experience
was often repeated three or four times a day. His
smallest weekly number of sermons was six or seven,
and the largest from twenty-five to thirty.  He often
travelled in drowning rain, crossed dangerous streams,
climbed slippery precipices, and frequently preached in
wind and rain with all his garments saturated. On every
occasion he received aid from the natives, who were so
kind and friendly, that when he used to sleep in the
woods at night, he hung his watch on a tree, knowing
that it was perfectly safe from pilfering or curious touch.
Indeed the Christian teachers seem to have been regarded
as tabu.




LETTER XII.]


A GREAT BAPTISM.


177


Before the end of that year, Mr. Coan had nmade the
circuit of Hawaii, a foot and canoe trip of 300 miles, in
which he nearly suffered canoe-wreck twice. In all, he
has admitted into the Christian church by baptism, 12,000
persons, besides 4000 infants. IHe gave a most interesting account of one great baptism.  The greatest care
was previously taken in selecting, teaching, watching,
and examining the candidates. Those from the distant
villages came and spent several months here for preliminary instruction. MAany of these were converts of
two years' standing, a larger class had been on the list for
more than a year, and a smaller one for a lesser period.
The accepted candidates were announced by name several
weeks previously, and friends and enemies everywhere
were called upon to testify all that they knew about
them. On the first Sunday in July, 1838, 1705 persons,
formerly heathens, were baptised.  They were seated
close together on the earth-floor in rows, with just space
between for one to walk, and Mr. Lyman and Mr. Coan
passing through them, sprinkled every bowed head, after
which Mr. C. admitted the weeping hundreds into the
fellowship of the Universal Church by pronouncing the
words, "I baptise you all in the Name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."  After this,
2400 converts received the Holy Communion. I. give
Mr. C.'s own words concerning those who partook of it,
"who truly and earnestly repented of their sins, and
steadfastly purposed to lead new lives."  "The old and
decrepit, the lame, the blind, the maimed, the withered,
the paralytic, and those afflicted with divers diseases and
N




178


HAWAII.


[LETTERl XII.


torments; those with eyes, noses, lips, and limbs consumed; with features distorted, and figures depraved and
loathsome: these came hobbling upon their staves, or led
and borne by others to the table of the Lord. Among
the throng you would have seen the hoary priest of idolatry, with hands but recently washed from the blood of
human victims, together with thieves, adulterers, highway
robbers, murderers, and mothers whose hands reeked with
the blood of their own children. It seemed like one of
the crowds the Saviour gathered, and over which He pronounced the words of healing."
Though the people cast off idolatry in 1819, before the
arrival of the missionaries, they were very indifferent to
Christian teaching until 1837, the year before the great
baptism, when a great religious stir began, and for four
years affected all the islands.  I wish you could have
heard Mr. C. and Mrs. Lyman tell of that stirring time,
when nearly all the large population of the Hilo and Puna
districts turned out to hear the Gospel, and how the
young people went up into the mountains and carried the
news of the love of God and the good life to come to the
sick and old, who were afterwards baptized, when often
the only water whicl could be obtained for the rite was
that which dripped sparingly from the roofs of caves. The
Hawaiian notions of a future state, where any existed, were
peculiarly vague and dismal, and Mr. Ellis says that the
greater part of the people seemed to regard the tidings of
ora loa ia Jese (endless life by Jesus) as the most joyful
news they had ever heard, " breaking upon them," to use
their own phrase, "like light in the morning."  "Will




LETTER xii.]  A PROLONGED CAMP-MEETING.


179


my spirit never die, and can this poor weak body live
again? " an old chiefess exclaimed, and this delighted surprise seemed the general feeling of the natives. From
less difficult distances the sick and lame were brought on
litters and on the backs of men, and the infirm often
crawled to the trail by which the missionary was to pass,
that they might hear of this good news which had come
to Hawaii-nei.
There were but these two preachers for the 15,000
people scattered for 100 miles, who were all ravenous to
hear,.and could not wait for the tardy modes of evangelization. " If we die," said they, " let us die in the light."
So this strange thing fell out, that whole villages fiom
miles away gathered to the mission station. Two-thirds
of the population of the district came in, and within the
radius of a mile the grass and banana houses clustered as
thick as they could stand. Beautiful Hilo in a short time
swelled from a population of 1000 to 10,000; and at any
hour of the day or night the sound of the conch shell
brought together from 3000 to 6000 worshippers. It
was a vast camp-meeting which continued for two years,
but there was no disorder, and a decent quiet ruled
throughout the strangely extemporized city.  A new
morality, a new social order, new notions on nearly all
subjects, had to be inculcated as well as a new religion.
Mrs. C. and Mrs. L. daily assembled the women and children, and taught them the habits and industries of civilization, to attend to their persons, to braid hats, and to
wear and make clothes.
During this time, on November 7, 1837, one of the
N 2




180


HAWAII.


[LETTEl': XII.


striking phenomena which make the islands remarkable
occurred. The crescent sand-beach, said to be the most
beautiful in the Pacific, the fiinge of palms, the far-reaching groves behind, and the great ocean, slept in summer
calm, as they sleep to-day. Four sermons, as usual, had
been preached to audiences of 6000 people. There had
been a funeral, the natives say, though Mr. C. does not
remember it, and his text had been " Be ye also ready,"
and larger throngs than.usual had followed the preachers
to their homes. The fatiguing day was over, the natives
were singing hymns in the still evening air, and Mr. C.
"had gathered his family for prayers ' in the very room ini
which he told me this story, when they were startled by
" a sound as if a heavy mountain had fallen on the beach."
There was at once a fearful cry, wailing, and indescribable
confusion. The quiet ocean had risen in a moment in a
gigantic wave, which, rushing in with the speed of a racehorse, and uplifting itself over the shore, swept everything
into promiscuous ruin; men, women, children, dogs,
houses, food, canoes, clothing, floated wildly on the flood,
and hundreds of people were struggling among the billows
in the midst of their earthly all. Some were dashed on
the shore, some were saved by friends who hurried to
their aid, some were carried out to sea by the retiring
water, and some stout swimmers sank exhausted; yet the
loss of life was not nearly so great as it would have been
among a less amphibious people. Mr. C. described the
roaring of the ocean, the cries of distress, the shrieks of
the perishing, the frantic rush of hundreds to the shore,
and the desolation of the whole neighbourhood of the




LETTERl xii.] A HIGH PRIEST AND PRIESTESS.


181


beach, as forning a scene of the most thrilling and awful
interest.
You will remember that I wrote from Kilauea regarding
the terror which the Goddess of the Crater inspired, and
her high-priest was necessarily a very awful personage.
The particular high-priest of whom Mr. Coan told me
was six feet five inches in height, and his sister, who was
co-ordinate with him in authority, had a scarcely inferior
altitude. His chief business was to keep Pele appeased.
He lived on the shore, but often went up to Kilauea with
sacrifices. If a human victim were needed, he had only
to point to a native, and the unfortunate wretch was at
once strangled. He was not only the embodiment of
heathen piety, but of heathen crime. Robbery was his
pastime. His temper was so fierce and so uncurbed that
no native dared even to tread on his shadow. More than
once he had killed a man for the sake of food and clothes
not worth fifty cents. He was a thoroughly wicked savage.  Curiosity attracted him into one of the Hilo
meetings, and the bad giant fell under the resistless,
mysterious influence which was metamorphosing thousands
of Hawaiians. "I have been deceived," he said, " I have
deceived others, I have lived in darkness, and did not
know the true God. I worshipped what was no God. I
renounce it all. The true God has come. He speaks.
1 bow down to Him. I wish to be His son."       The
priestess, his sister, came soon afterwards, and they
remained here several months for instruction. They were
then about seventy years old, but they imbibed the New
Testament spirit so thoroughly that they became as




]82


HAWAII.


[LETTE R XII.


gentle, loving, and quiet as little children. After a long
probationary period they were baptized, and after several
years of pious and lowly living, they passed gently and
trustfully away.
The old church which was the scene of these earlier
assemblages, came down with a crash after a night of
heavy rain, the large timbers, which were planted in the
moist earth after the fashion of the country to support
the framework, having become too rotten to support the
weight of the saturated thatch. Without a day's loss of
time the people began a new church. All were volunteers,
some to remove from the wreck of the old building such
timbers as might still be of service; some to quarry stone
for a foundation, an extravagance never before dreamed
of by an islander; some to bring sand in gourd-shells
upon their heads, or laboriously gathered in the folds of
bark-cloth aprons; some to bring lime from the coral
reefs twenty feet under water; whilst the majority hurried
to the forest belt, miles away on the mountain side, to
fell the straightest and tallest trees. Then 50 or 100
men, (for in that day horses and oxen were known only as
wild beasts of the wilderness,) attached hawsers to the
butt ends of logs, and dragged them away through bush
and brake, through broken ground and river beds, till
they deposited them on the site of the new church. The
wild, monotonous chant, as the men hauled in the timber,
lives in the memories of the missionaries' children, who
say that it seemed to them as if the preparations for
Solomon's temple could not have exceeded the accumulations of the islanders!




LETTER XII.]


NATIVE GENEROSITY.


183


I think that the greater number of the converts of those
four years must have died ere this. In 1867 the old
church at Hilo was divided into seven congregations, six
of them with native pastors. To meet the wants of the
widely-scattered people, fifteen churches have been built,
holding from 500 up to 1000. The present Hilo church,
a very pretty wooden one, cost about $14,000. All these
have been erected mainly by native money and labour.
Probably the native Christians on Hawaii are not much
better or worse than Christian communities elsewhere,
but they do seem a singularly generous people. Besides
liberally sustaining their own clergy, the Hilo Christians
have contributed altogether $100,000 for religious purposes. Mr. Coan's native congregation, sorely dwindled
as it is, raises over $1200 annually for foreign missions;
and twelve of its members have gone as missionaries to
the islands of Southern Polynesia.
Poor people! It would be unfair to judge of them as
we may legitimately be judged of, who inherit the influences of ten centuries of Christianity. They have only
just emerged from a bloody and sensual heathenism, and
to the instincts and volatility of these dark Polynesian
races, the restraining influences of the Gospel are far
more severe than to our cold, unimpulsive northern
natures. The greatest of their disadvantages has been that
some of the vilest of the whites who roamed the Pacific had
settled on the islands before the arrival of the Christian
teachers, dragging the people down to even lower depths
of depravity than those of heathenism, and that there are
still resident foreigners who corrupt and destroy them.




184


HAWAII.


[LETTER XII.


I must tell you a story which the venerable Mrs. Lyman
told me yesterday. In 1825, five years after the first
missionaries landed, Kapiolani, a female alii of high
rank, while living at Kaiwaaloa (where Captain Cook
was murdered), became a Christian. Grieving for her
people, most of whom still feared to anger Pele, she
announced that it was her intention to visit Kilauea, and
dare the fearful goddess to do her worst. Her husband
and many others tried to dissuade her, but she was
resolute, and taking with her a large retinue, she took a
journey of one hundred miles, mostly on foot, over the
rugged lava, till she arrived near the crater. There a
priestess of Pele met her, threatened her with the
displeasure of the goddess if she persisted in her hostile
errand, and prophesied that she and her followers would
perish miserably.  Then, as now, ohelo berries grew
profusely round the terminal wall of Kilauea, and there,
as elsewhere, were sacred to Pl16, no one daring to eat
of them till he had first offered some of them to the
divinity. It was usual on arriving at the crater to break
a branch covered with berries, and turning the face to
the pit of fire, to throw  half the branch over the
precipice, saying,  Pele, here are your ohelos. I offer
some to you, some I also eat," after which the natives
partook of them freely.  Kapiolani gathered and eat
them without this formula, after which she and her
company of eighty persons descended to the black edge
of Hale-mau-mau. There, in full view of the fiery pit,
she thus addressed her followers:-" Jehovah is lmy
God.   He kindled these fires.  I fear not Pele.  If I




LETTE'R XII.]


KAPIOLANI'S CHALLENGE.


185


perish by the anger of Pele, then? yol may fear the powCer
of PWle; but if I trust in Jehovah, and he should save?me
from the wrath of Pele, when I break throughI her tabus,
then you mtust fear and serve the Lord Jehovah. All the
Gods of Iawazii arc vain.  Great is Jehovah's goodness
in sending teachers to turn us from these vanities to the
living God and the way of 1rihteousness! "  Then they
sang a hymn.    I can fancy the strange procession
winding its backward way over the cracked, hot, lava sea,
the robust belief of the princess hardly sustaining the
limping faith of her followers, whose fears would not be
laid to rest until they reached the crater's rim without
any signs of the pursuit of an avenging deity. It was
more sublime than Elijah's appeal on the soft, green
slopes of Carmel, but the popular belief in the Goddess
of the Volcano survived this flagrant instance of her
incapacity, and only died out many years afterwards.
Besides these interesting reminiscences, I have been
hearing most thrilling stories from Mrs. Lyman and Mr.
Coan of volcanoes, earthquakes, and tidal waves. Told
by eye-witnesses, and on the very spot where the incidents occurred, they make a profound, and, I fear, an
incommunicable impression. I look on these venerable
people as I should on people who had seen the Deluge,
or the burial of Pompeii, and wonder that they eat and
(dress and live like other mortals! For they have felt
the perpetual shudder of earthquakes, and their eyes,
which look so calm and kind, have seen the inflowing of
huge tidal waves, the dull red glow of lava streams, and
the leaping of fire cataracts into deep-lying pools, burning




186


HAWAII.


[LETTEll XII.


them dry in a night time. There were years in which
there was no day in which the smoke of underground
furnaces was out of their sight, or night which was not
lurid with flames. Once they traced a river of lava
burrowing its way 1500 feet below the surface, and saw
it emerge, break over a precipice, and fall hissing into
the ocean. Once from their highest mountain a pillar of
fire 200 feet in diameter lifted itself for three weeks 1000
feet into the air, making night day, for a hundred miles
round, and leaving as its monument a cone a mile in circumference. We see a clothed and finished earth; they
see the building of an island, layer on layer, hill on hill,
the naked and deformed product of the melting, forging,
and welding, which go on perpetually in the crater of
Kilauea.
I could fill many sheets with what I have heard, but
must content myself with telling you very little.  In
1855 the fourth recorded eruption of Mauna Loa
occurred. The lava flowed directly Hilo-wards, and for
several months, spreading through the dense forests
which belt the mountain, crept slowly shorewards,
threatening this beautiful portion of Hawaii with the
fate of the Cities of the Plain. Mr. C. made several
visits to the eruption, and on each return the simple
people asked him how much longer it would last. For
five months they watched the inundation, which came a
little nearer every day. Should they fly or not? Would
their beautiful homes become a waste of jagged lava and
black sand, like the neighbouring district of Puna, once
as fair as Hilo? "  Such questions suggested themselves




LETTERl XII.]


A FLOOD OF FIRE.


187'


as they nightly watched the nearing glare, till the fiery
waves met with obstacles which piled them    up in
hillocks, eight miles from Hilo, and the suspense was
over. Only gigantic causes can account for the gigantic
phenomena of this lava-flow.  The eruption travelled
forty miles in a straight line, or sixty, including sinuosities. It was from one to three miles broad, and from five
to two hundred feet deep, according to the contours of
the mountain slopes over which it flowed. It lasted for
thirteen months, pouring out a torrent of lava which
covered nearly 300 square miles of land, and whose
volume was estimated at thirty-eight thousand millions
of cubic feet! In 1859 lava fountains 400 feet in height,
and with a nearly equal diameter, played on the summit
of Mauna Loa. This eruption ran fifty miles to the sea
in eight days, but the flow lasted much longer, and added
a new promontory to Hawaii.
These magnificent overflows, however threatening, had
done little damage to cultivated regions, and none to human
life; and people began to think that the volcano was
reformed. But in 1868 terrors occurred which are without
precedent in island history. While Mrs. L. was giving
me the narrative in her graphic but simple way, and the
sweet wind rustled through the palms, and brought the
rich scent of the ginger plant into the shaded room, she
seemed to be telling me some weird tale of another world.
On March 27, five years ago, a series of earthquakes.
began, and became more startling from day to day, until
their succession became so rapid that "the island
quivered like the lid of a boiling pot nearly all the




188


HIAWAII.


[LETTERi XII.


time between the heavier shocks. The trembling was
like that of a ship struck by a heavy wave."  Then the
terminal crater of Mauna Loa (Mokuaweoweo) sent up
columns of smoke, steam, and red light, and it was
shortly seen that the southern slope of its dome had
been rent, and that four separate rivers of molten stone
were pouring out of as many rents, and were flowing
down the mountain sides in diverging lines. Suddenly
the rivers were arrested, and the blue mountain dome
appeared against the still blue sky without an indication
of fire, steam, or smoke. Hilo was much agitated by
the sudden lull. No one was deceived into security, for
it was certain that the strangely pent-up fires must make
themselves felt.
The earthquakes became nearly continuous; scarcely
an appreciable interval occurred between them; "the
throbbing, jerking, and quivering motions grew more
positive, intense, and sharp; they were vertical, rotary,
lateral, and undulating," producing nausea, vertigo, and
vomiting.  Late in the afternoon of a lovely day,
April 2, the climax came. "The crust of the earth
rose and sank like the sea in a storm."  Rocks were
rent, mountains fell, buildings and their contents were
shattered, trees swayed like reeds, animals were scared,
and ran about demented; men thought the judgment had
come. The earth opened in thousands of places, the
roads in Hilo cracked open, horses and their riders, and
people afoot, were thrown violently to the ground; "it
seemed as if the rocky ribs of the mountains, and the
granite walls and pillars of the earth were breaking up."




LETT ER XII.]


A DIREFUL DAY.


189


At Kilauea the shocks were as frequent as the ticking of
a watch. In Kau, south of Hilo, they counted 300
shocks on this direful day; and Mrs. L.'s son, who was
in that district at the time, says that the earth swayed to
and fro, north and south, then east and west, then round
and round, up and down, in every imaginable direction,
everything crashing about them, " and the trees thrashing
as if torn by a strong rushing wind." He and others sat
on the ground bracing themselves with hands and feet to
avoid being rolled over. They saw an avalanche of red
earth, which they supposed to be lava, burst from the
mountain side, throwing rocks high into the air, swallowing up houses, trees, men, and animals; and travelling
three miles in as many minutes, burying a hamlet, with
thirty-one inhabitants and 500 head of cattle.  The
people of the valleys fled to the mountains, which
themselves were splitting in all directions, and collect'ing on an elevated spot, with the earth reeling under
them, they spent the night of April 2 in prayer and
singing. Looking towards the shore, they saw it sink,
and at the same moment a wave, whose height was
estimated at from forty to sixty feet, hurled itself upon
the coast, and receded five times, destroying whole
villages, and even strong stone houses, with a touch,
and engulfing for ever forty-six people who had lingered
too near the shore.
Still the earthquakes continued, and still the volcano
gave no sign. The nerves of many people gave way in
these fearful days. Some tried to get away to Honolulu,
others kept horses saddled on which to fly, they knew




190


HAWAII.


[LETTE 1' XI.


not whither. The hourly question was, "What of the
volcano?" People put their ears to the quivering ground,.and heard, or thought they heard, the surgings of the
imprisoned lava sea rending its way among the ribs of the
pearth.
Five days after the destructive earthquake of April 2,
the ground south of Hilo burst open with a crash and
roar which at once answered all questions concerning the
volcano. The molten river, after travelling underground
for twenty miles, emerged through a fissure two miles in
length with a tremendous force and volume. It was in a,
pleasant pastoral region, supposed to be at rest for ever,
at the top of a grass-covered plateau sprinkled with
native and foreign houses, and rich in herds of cattle.
Four huge fountains boiled up with terrific fury,
throwing crimson lava, and rocks weighing many tons, to
a height of from 500 to 1000 feet. Mr. Whitney, of
Honolulu, who was near the spot, says:-" From these
great fountains to the sea flowed a rapid stream of red
lava, rolling, rushing, and tumbling, like a swollen river,
bearing along in its current large rocks that made the
lava foam as it dashed down the precipice and through
the valley into the sea, surging and roaring throughout
its length like a cataract, with a power and fury perfectly
indescribable. It was nothing else than a river of fire
from  200 to 800 feet wide and twenty deep, with a.speed rarying fromn ten to twenty-five miles an hour!"
This same intelligent observer noticed as a peculiarity of
the spouting that the lava was ejected by a rotary
motion, and in the air both lava and stones always




LETTER xii.]  TWO THOUSAND EARTHQUAKES!


191


rotated towards the south. At Kilauea I noticed that the
lava was ejected in a southerly direction.  From the
scene of these fire fountains, whose united length was
about a mile, the river in its rush to the sea divided
itself into four streams, between which it shut up men
and beasts.  One stream hurried to the sea in four
hours, but the others took two days to travel tel miles.
The aggregate width was a mile and a half. Where it
entered the sea it extended the coast-line half a mile,
but this worthless accession to Hawaiian acreage was
dearly purchased by the loss, for ages at least, of 4000
acres of valuable pasture land, and a much larger quantity
of magnificent forest. The whole south-east shore of
Hawaii sank from four to six feet, which involved the
destruction of several hamlets and the beautiful fringe of
cocoa-nut trees. Though the region was very thinly
peopled, 200 houses and 100 lives were sacrificed in this
week of horrors, and from  the reeling mountains, the
uplifted ocean, and the fiery inundation, the terrified
survivors fled into Hilo, each with a tale of woe and loss.
The number of shocks of earthquake' counted was 2000 in
two weeks, an average of 140 a day; but on the other
side of the island the number was incalculable.
I. L. B.




LETTER XIII.


HILO. HAWAII.
February.
THE quiet, dreamy, afternoon existence of Hilo is disturbed. Two days ago an official intimation was received
that the American Government had placed the U. S.
ironclad " Benicia" at the disposal of King Lunalilo for
a cruise round Hawaii, and that he would arrive here the
following morning with Acdmiral Pennock and the U. S.
generals Scholfield and Alexander.
Now this monarchy is no longer an old-time chieftaincy, made up of calabashes and poi, feather-cloaks,
kahtilis, and a little fuss, but has a civilized constitutional
king, the equal of Queen Victoria, a civil list, &c., and
though Lunalilo comes here trying to be a private individual and to rest from Hookuqms, state entertainments,
and privy councils, he brings with him a royal chamberlain
and an adjutant-general in attendance.  So the good
people of Hilo have been decorating their houses anew
with ferns and flowers, furbishing up their clothes, and
holding mysterious consultations regarding etiquette and
entertainments, just as if royalty were about to drop down
in similar fashion on Bude or Tobermory. There were
amusing attempts to bring about a practical reconciliation
between the fiee-and easiness of Republican notions and
the respect due to a sovereign who reigns by "the




I I,            m J 
' I, VP,




Fig~::~:;:: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~




LETTER XIII.]


A ROYAL LANDING.


193


will of the people" as well as by "the grace of God,"
but eventually the tact of the king made everything go
smoothly.
At eight yesterday morning the " Benicia " anchored
inside the reef, and Hilo blossomed into a most striking
display of bunting; the Hawaiian colours, eight blue, red
and white stripes, with the English union in the corner,
and the flaunting flag of America being predominant.
My heart warmed towards our own flag as the soft breeze
lifted its rich folds among the glories of the tropical trees.
Indeed, bunting to my mind never looked so well as when
floating and fainting among cocoa-nut palms and all the
shining greenery of Hilo, in the sunshine of a radiant
morning. It was bright and warm, but the cool bulk of
Mauna Kea, literally covered with snow, looked down
as winter upon summer. Natives galloped in from all
quarters, brightly dressed, wreathed, and garlanded, delighted in their hearts at the attention paid to their
sovereign by a great foreign power, though they had been
very averse to this journey, from a strange but prevalent
idea that once on board a U. S. ship the king would be
kidnapped and conveyed to America.
Lieut.-Governor Lyman and Mr. Severance, the sheriff,
went out to the " Benicia," and the king landed at ten
o'clock, being "graciously pleased" to accept the Governor's house as his residence during his visit. The
American officers, naval and military, were received by
the same loud, hospitable old whaling captain who entertained the Duke of Edinburgh some years ago here, and
to judge from the hilarious sounds which came down the




194


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIII.


road from his house, they had what they would call "a
good time."  I had seen Lunalilo in state at Honolulu,
but it was much more interesting to see him here, and this
royalty is interesting in itself, as a thing on sufferance,
standing between this helpless nationality and its absorption by America. The king is a very fine-looking man of
thirty-eight, tall, well formed, broad-chested, with his head
well set on his shoulders, and his feet and hands small.
His appearance is decidedly commanding and aristocratic:
he is certainly handsome even according to our notions.
He has a fine open brow, significant at once of brains
and straightforwardness, a straight proportionate nose,
and a good mouth. The slight tendency to Polynesian
overfulness about his lips is concealed by a well-shaped
moustache. He wears whiskers cut in the English fashion.
His eyes are large, dark-brown of course, and equally of
course, he has a superb set of teeth. Owing to a slight
fulness of the lower eyelid, which Queen Emma also has,
his eyes have a singularly melancholy expression, very
alien, I believe, to his character. He is remarkably
gentlemanly looking, and has the grace of movement
which seems usual with Hawaiians. When he landed he
wore a dark morning suit and a black felt hat.
As soon as he stepped on shore, the natives, who were
in crowds on the beach, cheered, yelled, and waved their
hats and handkerchiefs, and then a procession was formed,
or rather formed itself, to escort him to the governor's
house. A rabble of children ran in front, then came the
king, over whom the natives had thrown some beautiful
garlands of ohia and maile (Alyxia olivseformis), with




LETTER XIII.]


A ROYAL PROCESSION.


195


the governor on one side and the sheriff on the other,
the chamberlain and adjutant-general walking behind.
Then a native staggering under the weight of an enormous
Hawaiian flag, the Hilo band, with my friend Upa beating
the big drum, and an irregular rabble (i.e. unorganised
crowd) of men, women, and children, going at a trot to
keep up with the king's rapid strides. The crowd was
unwilling to disperse even when he entered the house,
and he came out and made a short speech, the gist of
which was that he was delighted to see his native subjects, and would hold a reception for them on the ensuing
Monday, when we shall see a most interesting sight, a
native crowd gathered from all Southern Hawaii for a
hookupu, an old custom, signifying the bringing of giftofferings to a king or chief.
In the afternoon Dr. Wetmore and I rode to the beautiful Puna woods on a botanising excursion. We were
galloping down to the beach round a sharp corner, when
we had to pull our horses almost on their haunches to
avoid knocking over the king, the American admiral, the
captain of the "Benicia," nine of their officers, and the
two generals. When I saw the politely veiled stare of
the white men it occurred to me that probably it was the
first time that they had seen a white woman riding
cavalier fashion! We had a delicious gallop over the sands
to the Waiakea river, which we crossed, and came upon
one of the vast lava-flows of ages since, over which we
*had to ride carefully, as the pahoehoe lies in rivers, coils,
tortuosities, and holes partially concealed by a luxuriant
growth of ferns and convolvuli. The country is thickly
o 2




196


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIII.


sprinkled with cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit trees, which
merge into the dense, dark, glorious forest, which tenderly
hides out of sight hideous broken lava, on which one
cannot venture six feet from the track without the risk of
breaking one's limbs. All these tropical forests are absolutely impenetrable, except to axe and billhook, and after
a trail has been laboriously opened, it needs to be cut
once or twice a year, so rapid is the growth of vegetation.
This one, through the Puna woods, only admits of one
person at a time.   It was really rapturously lovely.
Through the trees we saw the soft steel-blue of the
summer sky: not a leaf stirred, not a bird sang, a hush
had fallen on insect life, the quiet was perfect, even the
ring of our horses' hoofs on the lava was a discord.
There was a slight coolness in the air and a fresh mossy
smell. It only required some suggestion of decay, and
the rustle of a fallen leaf now and then, to make it an
exact reproduction of a fine day in our English October.
The forest was enlivened by many natives bound for
Hilo, driving horses loaded with cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit,
live fowls, poi and kalo, while others with difficulty urged
garlanded pigs in the same direction, all as presents for
the king. We brought back some very scarce parasitic
ferns.
HILO, February 24.
I rode over by myself to Onomea on Saturday to get
a little rest from the excitements of Hilo. A gentleman
lent me a strong showy mare to go out on, telling me
that she was frisky and must be held while I mounted;




LETTER XIII.]


A FATAL ACCIDENT.


197


but before my feet were fairly in the stirrups, she shook
herself from the Chinaman who held her, and danced
away. I rode her five miles before she quieted down.
She pranced, jumped, danced, and fretted on the edge of
precipices, was furious at the scow and fords, and seemed
demented with good spirits. Onomea looked glorious, and
its serenity was most refreshing. I rode into Hilo the
next day in time for morning service, and the mare, after a
good gallop, subsided into a staidness of demeanour
befitting the day. Just as I was leaving, they asked me
to take the news to the sheriff that a man had been killed
a few hours before. He was riding into Hilo with a
child behind him, and they went over by no means one of
the worst of the palis. The man and horse were killed,
but the child was unhurt, and his wailing among the
deep ferns attracted the attention of passers-by to the
disaster. The natives ride over these dangerous palis
so carelessly, and on such tired, starved horses, that
accidents are not infrequent. Hilo had never looked so
lovely to me as in the pure bright calm of this Sunday
morning.
The verandahs of all the native houses were crowded
with strangers, who had come in to share in the jubilations attending the king's visit. At the risk of emulating
" Jenkins," or the " Court Newsman," I must tell you
that Lunalilo, who is by no means an habitual churchgoer, attended Mr. Coan's native church in the morning,
and the foreign church at night, when the choir sang a
very fine anthem. I don't wish to write about his faults,
which have doubtless been rumoured in the English papers.




198


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIII.


It is hoped that his new responsibilities will assist him to
conquer them, else I fear he may go the way of several
of the Hawaiian kings. He has begun his reign with
marked good sense in selecting as his advisers confessedly the best men in his kingdom, and all his public
actions since his election have shown both tact and good
feeling. If sons, as is often asserted, take their intellects
from their mothers, he should be decidedly superior, for
his mother, Kekauluohi, a chieftainess of the highest
rank, and one of the queens of Kamehameha II., who
died in London, was in 1839 chosen for her abilities by
Kamehameha III. as his kuhina nui, or premier, an
officer recognised under the old system  of Hawaiian
government as second only in authority to the king, and
without whose signature even his act was not legal. As
Kaahumanu II. she continued to hold this important
position until her death in 1845.
But the present king does not come of the direct line
of the Hawaiian kings, but of a far older family. His
father is a commoner, but Hawaiian rank is inherited
through the mother. He received a good English education at the school which the missionaries established
for the sons of chiefs, and was noted as a very bright
scholar, with an early developed taste for literature and
poetry. His disposition is said to be most amiable and
genial, and his affability endeared him especially to his
own countrymen, by whom he was called alii lokomaikai,
"the kind chief." In spite of his high rank, which gave
him precedence of all others on the islands, he was
ignored by two previous governments, and often com



LETTER XIIII.


THE HOOKUPU.


199


plained that he was never allowed any opportunity of
becoming acquainted with public affairs, or of learning
whether he possessed any capacity for business. Thus,
without experience, but with noble and liberal instincts,
and the highest and most patriotic aspirations for the
welfare and improvement of his " weak little kingdom,"
he was unexpectedly called to the throne about three
months ago, amidst such an enthusiasm as had never
before been witnessed on Hawaii-nei, as the unanimous
choice of the people. He called on Mr. Coan the day of
his arrival; and when the flute band of Mr. Lyman's
school serenaded him, he made the youths a kind address,
in which he said he had been taught as they were, and
hoped hereafter to profit by the instruction he had
received.
This has been a great day in Hilo. The old native
custom of hookupu was revived, and it has been a most
interesting spectacle. I don't think I ever enjoyed sightseeing so much. The weather has been splendid, which
was most fortunate, for many of the natives came in from
distances of from sixty to eighty miles. From early
daylight they trooped in on their half broken steeds, and
by ten o'clock there were fully a thousand horses tethered
on the grass by the sea. Almost every house displayed
flags, and the court-house, where the reception was to
take place, was most tastefully decorated. It is a very
pretty two-storied frame building, with deep double
verandahs, and stands on a large lawn of fine manienie
grass,* with roads on three sides. Long before ten,
* Cynodon Dactylon (?)




200


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIII.


crowds had gathered outside the low walls of the lawn,
natives and foreigners galloped in all directions, boats
and canoes enlivened the bay, bands played, and the
foreigners, on this occasion rather a disregarded minority,
assembled in holiday dress in the upper verandah of the
court-house. Hawaiian flags on tall bamboos decorated
the little gateways which gave admission to the lawn,
an enormous standard on the government flagstaff could
be seen for miles, and the stars and stripes waved from
the neighbouring plantations and from several houses in
Hilo. At ten punctually, Lunalilo, Governor Lyman,
the sheriff of Hawaii, the royal chamberiain, and the
adjutant-general, walked up to the court-house, and the
king took his place, standing in the lower verandah with
his suite about him. All the foreigners were either on
the upper balcony, or on the stairs leading to it, on which,
to get the best possible view of the spectacle, I stood for
three mortal hours. The attendant gentlemen were well
dressed, but wore "shocking bad hats;" and the king
wore a sort of shooting suit, a short brown cut-away
coat, an ash-coloured waistcoat and ash-coloured trousers
with a blue stripe. He stood bareheaded. He dressed
in this style in order that the natives might attend the
reception in every-day dress, and not run the risk of
spoiling their best clothes by Hilo torrents. The dress
of the king and his attendants was almost concealed by
wreaths of ohia blossoms and festoons of maile, some of
them two yards long, which had been thrown over them,
and which bestowed a fantastic glamour on the otherwise
prosaic inelegance of their European dress. But indeed




LETTER zII.]  AN ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION.


201


the spectacle, as a whole, was altogether poetical, as it
was an ebullition of natural, national, human feeling, in
which the heart had the first place. I very soon ceased
to notice the incongruous elements, which were supplied
chiefly by the Americans present. There were Republicans by birth and nature, destitute of traditions of
loyalty or reverence for aught on earth; who bore on
their faces not only republicanism, but that quintessence
of puritan republicanism which hails from New England;
and these were subjects of a foreign king, nay, several
of them office-holders who had taken the oath of
allegiance, and from whose lips " His Majesty, Your
Majesty," flowed far more copiously than from  ours
which are "to the manner born."
On the king's appearance, the cheering was tremendous,
-regular British cheering, well led, succeeded by that
which is not British, "three cheers and a tiger," but it
was " Hi, hi, hi, hullah!"  Every hat was off, every
handkerchief in air, tears in many eyes, enthusiasm
universal, for the people were come to welcome the king
of their choice; the prospective restorer of the Constitution "trampled upon" by Kamehameha V., "the kind
chief," who was making them welcome to his presence
after the fashion of their old feudal lords. When the
cheering had subsided, the eighty boys of Missionary
Lyman's School, who, dressed in white linen with crimson leis, were grouped in a hollow square round the flagstaff, sang the Hawaiian national anthem, the music of
which is the same as ours. More cheering and enthusiasm, and then the natives came through the gate across




202


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIII.


the lawn, and up to the verandah where the king stood,
in one continuous procession, till 2400 Hawaiians had
enjoyed one moment of infinite and ever to be remembered satisfaction in the royal presence. Every now and
then the white, pale-eyed, unpicturesque face of a foreigner
passed by, but these were few, and the foreign school
children were received by themselves after Mr. Lyman's
boys.  The Americans have introduced the villanous
custom of shaking hands at these receptions, borrowing
it, I suppose, from a presidential reception at Washington;
and after the king hadl gone through this ceremony with
each native, the present was deposited in front of the
verandah, and the gratified giver took his place on the
grass. Not a man, woman, or child came empty handed.
Every face beamed with pride, wonder, and complacency,
for here was a sovereign for whom cannon roared, and
yards were manned, of their own colour, who called
them his brethren.
The variety of costume was infinite. All the women
wore the native dress, the sack or kolklbt, many of which
were black, blue, green, or bright rose colour, some were
bright yellow, a few were pure white, and others were a
mixture of orange and scarlet. Some wore very pretty
hats made from cane-tops, and trimmed with hibiscus
blossoms or passion-flowers; others wore bright-coloured
handkerchiefs, knotted lightly round their flowing hair,
or wreaths of the Microlepia tenuifolia. Many had
tied bandanas in a graceful knot over the left shoulder.
All wore two, three, four, or even six beautiful leis,
besides long festoons of the fragrant maile. Leis of the




LETT'E  XIII.]


THE GIFT BEARERS.


203


crimson ohia blossoms were universal; but besides these
there were leis of small red and white double roses, pohas,*
yellow amaranth, sugar cane tassels like frosted
silver, the orange pandanus, the delicious gardenia,
and a very few of orange blossoms, and the great
granadilla or passion-flower. Few if any of the women
wore shoes, and none of the children had anything on
their heads.
A string of 200 Chinamen passed by, "plantation
hands," with boyish faces, and cunning, almond-shaped
eyes. They were dressed in loose blue denim trousers with
shirts of the same, fastening at the side over them, their
front hair closely shaven, and the rest gathered into pigtails, which were wound several times round their heads.
These all deposited money in the adjutant-general's
hand. The dress of the Hawaiian men was more varied
and singular than that of the women, every kind of dress
and undress, with leis of ohia and garlands of vmaile
covering all deficiencies. The poor things came up with
pathetic innocence, many of them with nothing on but
an old shirt, and cotton trousers rolled up to the knees.
Some had red shirts and blue trousers, others considered
that a shirt was an effective outer garment. Some wore
highly ornamental, dandified shirts, and trousers tucked
into high, rusty, mud-covered boots. A few young men
were in white straw hats, white shirts, and white trousers,
with crimson leis round their hats and throats. Some
had diggers' scarves round their waists; but the most
* Physalis Peruviana.




204


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIII..effective costume was sported by a few old men, who had
tied crash towels over their shoulders.
It was often amusing and pathetic at once to see them
come up. Obviously, when the critical moment arrived,
they were as anxious to do the right thing as a dcbztante
is to back her train successfully out of the royal presence
at St. James's. Some were so agitated at last as to
require much coaching from the governor as to how to
present their gifts and shake hands. Some half dropped
down on their knees, others passionately and with tears
kissed the king's hand, or grasped it convulsively in both
their own; while a few were so embarrassed by the
presents they were carrying that they had no hands at
all to shake, and the sovereign good-naturedly clapped
them on the shoulders. Some of them, in shaking hands,
adroitly slipped coins into the king's palm, so as to make
sure that he received their loving tribute. There had
been a hmi, or native meeting, which had passed resolutions, afterwards presented to Lunalilo, setting forth that
whereas he received a great deal of money in revenue
from the hiaoles, they, his native people, would feel that
he did not love them if he would not receive from their
own hands contributions in silver for his support. So,
in order not to wound their feelings, he accepted these
rather troublesome cash donations.
One woman, sorely afflicted with quaking palsy, dragged
herself slowly along. One hand hung by her side helpless, and the other grasped a live fowl so tightly that she
could not loosen it to shake hands, whereupon the king
raised the helpless arm, which called forth much cheering.




LETTER XIII.]


THE GIFTS.


205


There was one poor cripple who had only the use of his
arms. His knees were doubled under him, and he trailed
his body along the ground. He had dragged himself two
miles "to lie for a moment at the king's feet," and even
his poor arms carried a gift. He looked hardly like a
human shape, as his desire was realised; and, I doubt
not, would have been content then and there to die.
There were ancient men, tattooed all over, who had passed
their first youth when the idols were cast away, and who
remembered the old days of tyranny when it was an
offence, punishable with death, for a man to let his
shadow fall on the king; and when none of " the swinish
multitude" had any rights which they could sustain
against their chiefs. These came up bewildered, trembling, almost falling on their knees, hardly daring to
raise their eyes to the kingr's kind, encouraging face, and
bathed his hand with tears while they kissed it. Numbers
of little children were led up by their parents; there were
babies in arms, and younglings carried on parents' backs,
and the king stooped and shook hands with all, and even
pulled out the babies' hands from under their mufflings,
and the old people wept, and cheers rent the air.
Next in interest to this procession of beaming faces,
and the blaze of colour, was the sight of the presents,
and the ungrudging generosity with which they were
brought. Many of the women presented live fowls tied
by the legs, which were deposited, one upon another, till
they formed a fainting, palpitating heap under the hot
sun. Some of the men brought decorated hogs tied by
one leg, which squealed so persistently in the presence




206


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIII.


of royalty, that they were removed to the rear. Hundreds carried nets of sweet potatoes, eggs, and kalo,
artistically arranged. Men staggered along in couples
with bamboos between them, supporting clusters of bananas weighing nearly a hundredweight.  Others brought
yams, cocoa-nuts, oranges, onions, pumpkins, early pineapples, and even the great delicious granadilla, the fruit
of the large passion-flower.  A few maidens presented
the king with bouquets of choice flowers, and costly
leis of the yellow feathers of the Melithreptes Pacifica.
There were fully two tons of kalo and sweet potatoes in
front of the court house, hundreds of fowls, and piles of
bananas, eggs, and cocoa-nuts.  The hookupu was a
beautiful sight, all the more so that not one of that
radiant, loving, gift-offering throng came in quest of
office, or for any other thing that he could obtain. It
was just the old-time spirit of reverence for the man who
typifies rule, blended with the extreme of personal devotion to the prince whom a united people had placed upon
the throne. The feeling was genuine and pathetic in its
intensity.  It is said that the natives like their king
better, because he was truly, "above all," the last of a
proud and imperious house, which, in virtue of a pedigree
of centuries, looked down upon the nobility of the Kamehamehas.
When the last gift was deposited, the lawn in front of
the court-house was one densely-packed, variegated mass
of excited, buzzing Hawaiians.  While the king was
taking a short rest, two ancient and hideous females, who
looked like heathen priestesses, chanted a monotonous




LETTER XIII. ]


THE KING'S SPEECH.


207


and   heathenish-sounding      chant or mele, in      eulogy of
some ancient idolater. It just served to remind me that
this attractive crowd was but one generation removed
from slaughter-loving gods and human sacrifices.
The king and his suite re-appeared in the upper balcony, where all the foreigners were assembled, including
the two venerable missionaries and a French priest of
benign aspect, and his appearance was the signal for a
fresh outburst of enthusiasm. Advancing to the front,
he made an extemporaneous speech, of which the following is a literal translation:" To all present I tender my warmest aloha. This day, on which you
are gathered to pay your respects to me, 1 will remember to the day of my
death. (Cheers.) I am filled with love for you all, fellow-citizens
(makaainana), who have come here on this occasion, and for all the
people, because by your unanimous choice I have been made your King, a
young sovereign, to reign over you, and to fill the verydistinguished office
which I now occupy. (Cheers.) You are parents to me, and I will be
your Father. (Tremendous cheering.) Formerly, in the days of our
departed ancestors, you were not permitted to approach them; they and
you were kept apart; but now we meet and associate together. (Cheers.)
I urge you all to persevere in the right, to forsake the ignorant ways of the
olden time. There is but one God, whom it is our duty to obey. Let us
forsake every kind of idolatry.
"In the year 1820 Rev. Messrs. Bingham, Thurston, and others came
to these Islands and proclaimed the Word of God. It is their teachings
which have enabled you to be what you are to-day. Now they have all
gone to that spirit land, and only Mrs. Thurston remains. We are greatly
indebted to them. (Cheers.) There are also among us here (alluding to
Revs. Coan and Lyman) old and grey-haired fathers, whose examples we
should endeavour to imitate, and obey their teachings.
" I am very glad to see the young men of the present time so well
instructed in knowledge-perhaps some of them are your children. You
must persevere in your search of wisdom and in habits of morality. Do
not be indolent. (Cheers.) Those who have striven hard after knowledge




208                        HAWAII.                 [LETTER XIII.
and good character, are the ones who deserve and shall receive places of
trust hereafter under the government.
"At the present time I have four foreigners as my ministerial advisers.
But if, among these young men now standing before me, and under this
flag, there are any who shall qualify themselves to fill these positions, then
I will select them to fill their places. (Loud cheers.) Aloha to you all."
His manner as a speaker was extremely good, with
sufficient gesticulation   for the emphasis of particular
points. The address was frequently interrupted by applause, and when at its conclusion he bowed gracefully
to  the  crowd    and  said, "My aloha to you        all," the
cheering and     enthusiasm    were absolutely    unbounded.
And so the great hookupu ended, and the assemblage
broke up into knots to discuss the royal speech and the
day's doings.
I. L. B.




LETTER XIV.


HILO. HAWAII.
THE king "signified his intention to honour Mr. and
Mrs. Severance with his company " on the evening of the
day after the reception, and this involved a regular party
and supper.  You can hardly imagine the difficulties
connected with "refreshments," where few, if any, of the
materials which we consider necessary for dishes suitable
for such occasions can be procured at the stores, and
even milk and butter are scarce commodities.  I had
won a reputation as a cook by making a much appreciated
Bengal curry, and an English "roly-poly" pudding, and
when I offered my services, Mrs. S. kindly accepted them,
and she and I, with the Chinese cook and a Chinese
prisoner to assist us, have been cooking for a day and a
half.  I wanted to make a gigantic trifle, a dish not
known here, and we hunted every store, hoping to
find.almonds and raspberry jam  among the "assorted
notions," but in vain; however, grated cocoa-nut supplied
the place of the first, and a kind friend sent a pot of the
last. The Chinamen were very diverting. The cook
looked on, and laughed constantly, and perhaps was a
little jealous: at all events when he thought we had spoilt
some cakes in the oven, he capered into Mrs. S.'s room,
gesticulating, and exclaiming satirically, "Lu, Lu! cakes




210


HAWAIIl


[LETTER XIV.


so good, cakes so fine!"  No intoxicants were to be
used on the occasion, Hilo notions being rigid on this
subject; but I hope it was not a crime that I clandestinely used two glasses of sherry, without which my
trifle would have been a failure. We worked hard, and
made trifle, sponge cake, pound cake, spiced cake, dozens
of cocoa-nut cakes and drops, custards, and sandwiches
of potted meat, and enjoyed our preparations so much
that we found it hard to exchange kitchen for social
duties, and go to "Father Lyman," who entertained
the king and a number of Hilo folk in the evening.
Their rooms, not very large, were quite full. When
the king entered, the company received him standing,
and the flute band in the verandah played the national
anthem, and afterwards at intervals during the evening
sang some Hawaiian songs of the king's composition. I
was presented to him, and as he is very courteous to
strangers, he talked to me a good deal. He is a very
gentlemanly, courteous, unassuming man, hardly assuming enough in fact, and apparently very intelligent
and well read. I was exceedingly pleased with him. He
spoke a good deal of Queen Emma's reception in
England, and of her raptures with Venice, and some
other cities of the continent.  He said he had the
greatest desire to visit some parts of Europe, Great
Britain specially, because he thought that by coming in
contact with some of our leading statesmen, he might gain
a more accurate knowledge than he possessed of the principles of constitutional government. He said he hoped
that in two years Hawaii-nei would be so settled as to




LETTER XIV.]  A POLYNESIAN SOVEREIGN.


211


allow of his travelling, and that in the meantime he was
studying French with a view to enjoying the continent.
He asked a great many questions regarding things
at home, especially concerning the limitation of the
power of the Crown. He cannot reconcile the theoretical right of the sovereign to choose his advisers
with his practically submitting to receive them  from
a Parliamentary majority.  He seemed to find a difficulty in understanding that the sovereign's right to
refuse his assent to a Bill which had passed both Houses
was by no means the same thing in practice as the
possession of a veto. He said that in his reading of our
constitutional history, the power of the sovereign seemed
almost absolute, while if he understood facts rightly, the
throne was more of an "ornament," or "figure-head,"
than a power at all. He asked me if it was true that
Republican feeling was spreading very much in England,
and if I thought that the monarchy would survive the
present sovereign, on whose prudence and exalted
virtues he seemed to think it rested.  He said he
thought his little kingdom had aped the style of the
great monarchies too much, and that he should like to
abolish a good many high sounding titles, sinecure
offices, the household troops, and some of the "imitation
pomp" of his court.   He said he had never enjoyed
anything so much since his accession as the hookupil of
the morning, and asked me what I thought of it. I was
glad to be able to answer truthfully that I had never
seen a state pageant or ceremonial that I had enjoyed
half so much, or that had impressed me so favourably.
2




212


IIAWAII.


[LETTER XIV.


He has a very musical voice, and a natural nobility and
refinement of manner, with an obvious tact and good
feeling, rather, I should think, the result of amiable and
gentlemanly instincts than of training or consideration,
all which combine to make him interesting, altogether
apart from his position as a Polynesian sovereign.
Where there are no servants, a party involves the hosts
and their friends in the bustle of personal preparation,
but all worked with a will, and by sunset the decorations
were completed. All the Chinese lamps in Hilo were
hung in the front verandah, and seats were placed in the
front and side verandahs, on which the drawing-room
opens by four doors, so there was plenty of room, though
there were thirty people.   The side verandah was
enclosed by a drapery of flags, and the whole was tastefully decorated with festoons and wreaths of ferns. The
king arrived early with his attendants, and was received
by the host and hostess, and like a perfectly civilized
guest, he handed Mrs. S. into the room.   The great
wish of the genial entertainers was to prevent stiffness
and give the king a really social evening, so the " chair
game," magical music, and a refined kind of blind man's
buff, better suited to the occasion, but less "jolly" than
the old riotous game, were shortly introduced. Lunalilo
only looked on at first, and then entered into the games
with a heartiness and zest which showed that he at least
enjoyed the evening.   Supper was served at nine.
Several nests of Japanese tables had been borrowed, and
these, dispersed about the room and verandah, broke up
the guests into little social knots.  Three Hilo ladies




LETTER1 XIV.]


A SOCIAL EVENING.


213


and I were the waitresses, and I was pleased to see that
the good things were thoroughly appreciated, and that
the trifle was universally popular. After supper there
was a little dancing, and as few of the Hilo people knew
any dance correctly, it was very amusing for the onlookers. There was a great deal of promenading in the
verandah, and a great deal of talking and merriment,
which were enjoyed by a crowd of natives who stood the
whole evening outside the garden fence. I don't think
that any of the Hilo people are so unhappy as to possess
an evening dress, and the pretty morning dresses of the
ladies, and the thick boots, easy morning coats, and
black ties of the gentlemen, gave a jolly "break-down "
look to the affair, which would have been deemed inadmissible in less civilized society.
Some of my photographs of some of our eminent
literary and scientific men were lying on the table, and
the king in looking at them showed a surprising amount
of knowledge of what they had written or done, quite
entitling him to unite in Stanley's "Communion of
Educated Men."   I had previously asked him for his
silgnature for my autograph collection, and he said he
llad composed a stanza for me which he thought I might
like to have in addlition. He called with it on the
following afternoon, apologising for his dress, a short
jacket and blue trowsers, stuffed into boots plastered
with muud up to the knees. I was surprised when he
asked me if the lines were correctly spelt, for he speaks
English remarkably well. They are simply a kind wish,
unaffectedly expressed.




214


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIV.


HILO. HAWAII, Feb. 26.
" Wheresoe'er thou may'st roam,
Wheresoe'er thou mak'st thy home,
May God thy footsteps guide,
Watch o'er thee and provide.
This is my earnest prayer for thee,
Welcome, stranger, from over the sea."
LUNALILO R.
It startles one sometimes to hear American vulgarisms
uttered  in   his harmonious   tones.   The American
admiral and generals had just arrived from the volcano,
stiff, sore, bruised, jaded, "(lone," and the king said,
"I guess the Admiral's about used up."     He is really
remarkably attractive, but I am sorry to observe a look
of irresolution about his mouth, indicative of a facility of
disposition capable of being turned to the worst account.
I think from what I have heard that the Hawaiian kings
have fallen victims rather to unscrupulous foreigners,
than to their own bad instincts.
My last day has been taken up with farewell visits, and
I finish this on board the "Kilauea." Miss Karpe and I
had to ride two miles, to a point at which it was possible
to embark without risk, a heavy surf having for three
weeks rendered it impossible for loaded boats to communicate with the shore at Hilo. My clothes were
soaked when we reached the rocks, and Upa, very wet,
carried us into a wet whale-boat, with water up to our
ancles, which brought us over a heavy sickening swell
into this steamer, which is dirty as well as wet. I told
Upa to lead my mare, and ride his own horse, but the




LETTER XIV.]          THE LAST OF UPA.                         215
last I saw of him    was on the mare's back, racing a troop
of natives along the beach.*
I. L. B.
* This was almost his last exploit. A few days later the sheriff ha
the painful duty of committing him as a leper to the leper settlement on
Molokai. He was a leading spirit among the Hilo natives, and his joyous
nature will be missed by everyone. He has left a wife and some beautiful
children, who, it is feared, will eventually share his fate.




LETTER XV.
WAIMEA. HIAWAII.
THERE is no limit to the oddities of the steam-ship
"Kilauea." She lay rolling on the Hilo swell for two
hours, and two hours after we sailed her machinery broke
down, and we lay-to for five hours, in what they here call
a heavy gale and sea. It was a miserable night. No
privacy: the saloon both hot and wet, almost every one
sick. I lay in my berth in my soaked clothes watching
the proceedings of a gigantic cockroach, and listening,
not without amusement, to the awful groans of a Chinaman, and a "rough customer" from    California, who
occupied the next berths.
In the middle of the night the water came in great
dashes through the skylight upon the table, and soon the
saloon was afloat to the depth of from four to six inches.
When the "Kilauea" rolled, and the water splashed in
simultaneously, we were treated to vigorous " douches " in
our berths, which soon saturated the pillows, mattresses,
and our clothing. One sea put out the lamp, and a ship's
lantern, making "darkness visible," was swung in its
stead. In an English ship there would have been a great
fuss and a great flying about of stewards, or pretence of
mending matters, but when the passengers shouted for
our good steward, the serene creature came in with a




LETTER XV.]


L   LEEWAARD IIAW\YAI1.


217


melancholy smile on his face, said nothing, but quietly
sat clown on the transom, with his bare feet in the water,
contemplating it with a comic air of helplessness. Breakfast, of course, could not be served, but a plate was put
at one end of the table for the silent old Scotch captain,
who tucked up his feet and sat with his oilskins and
sou'-wester on, while the charming steward, with trousers
rolled up to his knees, waded about, pacifying us by
bringing us excellent curry as we sat on the edges of our
berths, and putting on a sweetly apologetic manner, as if
penitent for the gross misbehaviour of the ship. Such a
man would reconcile me to far greater discomfort than that
of the " Kilauea."  I wonder if he is ever unaliable, or
tired, or perturbed?
The next day was fine, and we were all much on deck
to dry our clothes in the sun. rThe southern and leeward coasts of Hawaii as far as Kawaaloa are not much
more attractive than coal-fields.  Contrasted with the
shining shores of Hilo, they are as dust and ashes;
long reaches of black lava and miles of clinkers marking
the courses of lava-flows, whose black desolation and deformity nature, as yet, has done almost nothing to clothe.
Cocoa-nut trees usually, however, fringe the shore, but
were it not for the wonderful colour of the ocean, like
liquid transparent turquoise, revealing the coral forests
shelving down into purple depths, and the exciting proximity of sharks, it would have been wearisome. After
leaving the bay where Captain Cook met his death, we
passed through a fleet of twenty-seven canoes, each one
hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree, from fifteen to




218


HAWAII.


[LETTER XV.


twenty-five feet long, about twenty inches deep, hardly
wide enough for a fat man, and high and pointed at both
ends. On one side there is an outrigger formed of two
long bent sticks, to the outer ends of which is bound a
curved beam of light wood, which skims along the surface
of the water, rendering the canoe secure from an upset
on that side, while the weight of the outrigger makes an
upset on the other very unlikely. In calms they are
paddled, and shoot over the water with great rapidity,
but whenever there is any breeze a small sprit-sail is
used. They are said to be able to stand very rough
water, but they are singularly precarious and irresponsible looking contrivances, and for these, as well as for all
other seas, I should much prefer a staunch whale-boat.
WVe sailed for some hours along a lava coast, streamless,
rainless, verdureless, blazing under the fierce light of a
tropical sun, and some time after noon anchored in the
scorching bay of Kawaihae.
A foreign store, a number of native houses, a great
iheiaz, or heathen temple on a height, a fringe of cocoanut palms, and a background of blazing hills, flaring with
varieties of red, hardly toned down by any attempt at
vegetation, a crystalline atmosphere palpitating with heat,
deep, rippleless, clear water, with coral groves below, and
a view of the three great Hawaiian mountains, are the
salient features of this outlet of Hawaiian commerce. But
ah! how soft and mild a blue the sky was, looking inland,
where, for the first time, I saw far aloft, above solid
masses of white cloud, sky hung, strangely uplifted, the
great volcanic domes of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and




LETTER XV.]


A HEATHEN TEMPLE.


219


Hualalai, looking as if they had all passed into an endless repose.
This bay, which affords excellent holding ground, and
is screened by highlands from the sudden and violent
gusts of wind, called " niimu1ku," which sweep down
between the mountains with almost irresistible fury, used
to be a great place of call for whalers, who purchased
large quantities of "recruits " here; yams in the earlier
days, and more lately Irish potatoes, which flourish in
the thirsty soil. But whaling in the North Pacific seems
to be nearly " played out," and the arrival of a whaler is
not a common occurrence.
Shortly before we arrived I found that the sailing of
the San Francisco steamer is put off for a week, so I took
advantage of a kind invitation I received some time ago
to visit Waimea, and go from thence to Waimanu, a
wonderful valley beyond Waipio, very little visited by
foreigners. A gentleman and lady rode up here with me,
and I got a horse on the beach with a native bullock
saddle on him, an uncouth contrivance of wood not
covered with hide, and a strong lassoing horn.  The
great wooden stirrups could not be shortened, but I soon
found myself able, in true savage fashion, to gallop up
and down hill without any.
The chief object of interest on this ride is the great
heiau, which stands on a bare steep hill above the sea,
not easy of access. It was the last heathen temple built
on Hawaii. On entering the huge pile, which stood gaunt
and desolate in the thin red air, the story of the old
bloody heathenism of the islands flashed upon my




220


IAWAII.


[L'IETTER XV.


memory. The entrance is by a narrow passage between
two high walls, and it was by this that the sacrificing
priests dragged the human victims into the presence of
Tairi, a hideous wooden idol, crowned with a helmet, and
covered with red feathers, the favourite war-god of Kamehamelha the Great, by whom this temple was built, before
he proceeded to the conquest of Oahu.
The shape is an irregular parallelogram, 224 feet long,:and 100 wide.  At each end, and on the llmauka side,
the walls, which are very solid and compact, though built
of lava stones without mortar, are twenty feet high, and
twelve feet wide at the bottom, but narrow gradually toxwards the top, where they are finished with a course of
smooth stones six feet broad. On the sea side, the wall,
which has been partly thrown down, was not more than
six or seven feet high, and there were paved platforms for
the accommodation of the alii, or chiefs, and the people
in their orders. The upper terrace is spacious, and
paved with flat smooth stones which were brought from a
considerable distance, the greater part of the population.of the island having been employed on the building. At
the south end there was an inner court, where the principal idol stood, surrounded by a number of inferior
deities, for the Hawaiians had "gods many, and lords
anany."  Here also was the anl, a lofty frame of
wickerwork, shaped like an obelisk, hollow, and five feet
square at its base. Within this, the priest, who was the.oracle of the god, stood, and of him the king used to
inquire concerning war or peace, or any affair of national
importance. It appears that the tones of the oracular
e




LETTER XV.]


IIUMAN SACRIFICES.


voice were more distinct than the meaning of the
utterances. However, the supposed answers were generally acted upon.
On the outside of this inner court was the lWU, or
altar, on which human and other sacrifices were offered.
On the day of the dedication of the temple to Tairi, vast
offerings of fruit, dogs, and hogs were presented, and
eleven human beings were immolated on the altar. These
victims were taken from   among   captives, or those
who had broken Tabct, or had rendered themselves obnoxious to the chiefs, and were often blind, maimed, or
crippled persons. Sometimes they were dispatched at a
distance with a stone or club, and their bodies were
dragged along the narrow passage up which I walked
shuddering; but oftener they were bound and taken
alive into the hciau to be slain in the outer court. The
priests, in slaying these sacrifices, were careful to mangle
the bodies as little as possible. From two to twenty were
offered at once.  They were laid in a row with. their
faces downwards on the altar before the 'idol, to whom
they were presented in a kind of prayer by the priest,
and, if offerings of hogs were presented at the same time,
these were piled upon them, and the whole mass was left
to putrify. 
The only dwellings within the heiau were those of the
priests, and the " sacred house " of the king, in which he
resided during the seasons of strict Tabu. A doleful
place this heiam is, haunted not only by the memories of
almost unimaginable terrors, but by the sore thought that
generations of Hawaiians lived and died in the unutterable




222


HAWAI1.


[LETTER XV.


darkness of this ignorant worship, passing in long procession from these grim rites into the presence of the
Fathe' whose infinite compassions they had never
known.
Every hundred feet of ascent from the rainless, fervid
beach of Kawaihae increased the fieshness of the temperature, and rendered exercise more delightful. From
the fiinge of palms along the coast to the damp hills
north of Waimea, a distance of ten miles, there is not a
tree or stream, though the scorched earth is deeply scored
by the rush of fierce temporary torrents.  Hitherto, I
have only travelled over the green coast which faces the
trade winds, where clouds gather and shed their rains,
and this desert, which occupies a great part of leeward
Hawaii, displeases me.  It lies burning in the fierce
splendours of a zone, which, until now, I had forgotten
was the torrid zone, unwatered and unfruitful, red and
desolate under the sun. The island is here only twenty-two
miles wide, and strong winds sweep across it, whirling up
its surface in great brown clouds, so that the uplands in
part appear a smoking plain, backed by naked volcanic
cones. No water, no grass, no ferns. Some thornless
thistles, a little brush of sapless-looking indigo, and
some species of composite struggle for a doleful existence. There is nothing tropical about it but the intense
heat. The red soil becomes suffused with a green tinge
ten miles from the beach, and at the summit of the ascent
the desert blends with this beautiful Waimea plain, one
of the most marked features of Hawaii. The air became
damp and cool; miles of fine smooth green grass stretched




LETTER XV.] AN INHOSPITABLE INTERROGATION.


223


out before us; high hills, broken, pinnacled, wooded, and
cleft with deep ravines, rose on our left; we heard the
dash and music of falling water: to the north it was like
the Munster Thal, to the south altogether volcanic. The
tropics had vanished. There were frame houses sheltered
from the winds by artificial screens of mulberry trees, and
from the incursions of cattle by rough walls of lava stones
five feet high; a mission and court house, a native church,
much too large for the shrunken population, and other
indications of an inhabited region. Except for the woods
which clothe the hills, the characteristic of the scenery
is baldness.
On clambering over the wall which surrounds my host's
kraal of dwellings, I heard in the dusk strange sweet
voices crying rudely and emphatically, "Who are you?
What do you want?" and was relieved to find that the
somewhat inhospitable interrogation only proceeded from
two Australian magpies.  Mr. S —     is a Tasmanian,
married to a young half-white lady: and her native
mother and seven or eight dark girls are here, besides a
number of natives and Chinese, and half Chinese, who
are employed about the place. Sheep are the source of
my host's wealth. He has 25,000 at three stations on
Mauna Kea, and, at an altitude of 6000 feet they
flourish, and are free from some of the maladies to which
they are liable elsewhere. Though there are only three
or four sheep owners on the islands, they exported
288,526 lbs. of wool last year.*  Mr. S. —  has also
1000 head of cattle and 50 horses.
* In 1873 the export of wool had increased to 329,507 lbs.




224


HAWVAII.


I[LETTER XV.


The industry of Waimea is cattle raising, and some
feeble attempts are being made to improve the degenerate
island breed by the importation of a few short-horn cows
from New Zealand.    These plains afford magnificent
pasturage as well as galloping ground. They are a very
great thoroughfare. The island, which is an equilateral
triangle, about 300 miles in " circuit," can only be
crossed here. Elsewhere, an impenetrable forest belt,
and an impassable volcanic wilderness, compel travellers
to take the burning track of adamant which snakes round
the southern coast, when they are minded to go from one
side of Hawaii to the other. Waimea also has the
singular distinction of a road from the beach, which is
traversed on great occasions by two or three oxen and
mule teams, and very rarely by a more ambitious conveyance. There are few hours of day or night in which the
tremulous thud of shoeless horses galloping on giass is
not heard in Waimea.
The altitude of this great table-land is 2500 feet, and
the air is never too hot, the temperature averaging 64~
Fahrenheit. There is mist or rain on most days of the
year for a short time, and the mornings and evenings are
clear and cool. The long sweeping curves of the three
great Hawaiian mountains spring from this level. The
huge bulk of Mauna Kea without shoulders or spurs, rises
directly from the Waimea level on the south to the altitude of 14,000 feet, and his base is thickly clustered
with tufa-cones of a bright red colour, from 300 to 1000
feet in height.  Considerably further back, indeed forty
miles away, the smooth dome of Mauna Loa appears very




LETTER XV.]


TIIE WAIMEA PLAINS.


225


serene now, but only thirteen years ago the light was so
brilliant, from one of its tremendous eruptions, that here
it was possible to read a newspaper by it, and during its
height candles were unnecessary in the evenings! Nearer
the coast, and about thirty miles from here, is the less
conspicuous dome of the dead volcano of Hualalai. If
all Hawaii, south of Waimea, were submerged to a depth
of 8000 feet, three nearly equi-distant, dome-shaped
volcanic islands would remain, the highest of which
would have an altitude of 6000 feet.  To the south of
these plains violent volcanic action is everywhere apparent, not only in tufa cones, but in tracts of ashes,
scoria-, and volcanic sand.  Near the centre there are
some very curious caves, possibly "lava bubbles," which
were used by the natives as places of sepulture. The
Kohala hills, picturesque, wooded, and abrupt, bound
Waimea on the north, with their exquisite grassy slopes,
and bring down an abundance of water to the plain, but
owing to the lightness of the soil and the evaporation
produced by the tremendous winds, the moisture disappears within two miles of the hills, and an area of rich
soil, ten miles by twelve, which, if irrigated, would be
invaluable, is nothing but a worthless dusty desert, perpetually encroaching on the grass. As soon as the plains
slope towards the east, the vegetation of the tropics reappears, and the face of the country is densely covered
with a swampy and impenetrable bush hardly at all explored, which shades the sources of the streams which fall
into the Waipio and Waimanu Valleys, and is supposed
Q




226


HAWAII.


[LETTER XV.


to contain water enough to irrigate the Saharas of leeward Hawaii.
The climate of the plain is most invigorating. If there
were waggon roads and obtainable comforts, Waimea, with
its cool equable temperature, might become the great
health resort of invalids from the Pacific coast. But
Hawaii is not a place for the sick or old; for, if people
cannot ride on horseback, they can have neither society
nor change. Mr. Lyons, one of the most famous of the
early missionaries, still clings to this place, where he has
worked for forty years. He is an Hawaiian poet; and,
besides translating some of our best hymns, has composed enough to make up the greater part of a bulky
volume, which is said to be of great merit. He says that
the language lends itself very readily to rhythmical expression. He was indefatigable in his youth, and was
four times let down the pali by ropes to preach in the
Waimanu Valley. Neither he nor his wife can mount a
h6rse now, and it is very dreary for them, as the population has receded and dwindled from about them. Their
house is made lively, however, by some bright little native
girls, who board with them, and receive an English and
industrial education.
The moral atmosphere of Waimea has never been a
wholesome one. The region was very early settled by a
class of what may be truly termed " mean whites," the
"beach-combers " and riff-raff of the Pacific.  They
lived infamous lives, and added their own to the indigenous vices of the islands, turning the district into a
perfect sink of iniquity, in which they were known by




LETTER XV.]


THE EARLY SETTLERS.


227


such befitting aliases as "Jake the Devil," &c.  The
conling of the missionaries, and the settlement of moral,
orderly whites on Hawaii, have slowly created a public
opinion averse to flagrant immorality, and the outrageous
license of former years would now meet with legal penalties. Many of the old settlers are dead, and others have
drifted to regions beyond restraining influences, but still
" the Waimea crowd " is not considered up to the mark.
Most of the present set of foreigners are Englishmen who
have married native women. It was in such quarters as
this that the great antagonistic influence to the complete
Christianization of the natives was created, and it is from
such suspicious sources that the aspersions on missionary
work are usually derived.
Waimea has its own beauty-the grand breezy plain, the
gigantic sweep of the mountain curves, the incessant
changes of colour, and the morning view of Mauna Kea,
with the pure snow on its ragged dome, rose-flushed in
the early sunlight. I don't agree with Disraeli that
"happiness is atmosphere;" yet constant sunshine, and a
climate which never threatens one with discomfort or ills,
certainly conduce to equable cheerfulness.
I am quite interested with a native lady here, the first
I have met with who has been able to express her ideas
in English.  She is extremely shrewd and intelligent,
very satirical, and a great mimic. She very cleverly
burlesques the way in which white people express their
admiration of scenery, and, in fact, ridicules admiration
of scenery for itself. She evidently thinks us a sour,
morose, worrying, forlorn race.  "We," she said, "are
Q 2




228


HAIVAII.


LLETTER XV.


always happy; we never grieve long about anything;
when any one dies we break our hearts for some days,
and then we are happy again. We are happy all day
long, not like white people, happy one moment, gloomy
another: we've no cares, the days are too short. What
are haoles always unhappy about?"  Perhaps she expresses the general feeling of her careless, pleasure-loving,
mirth-loving people, who, whatever commands they disobey, fulfil the one, " Take no thought for the morrow."
The fabrication of the beautiful quilts I before wrote of
is a favourite occupation of native women, and they make
all their own and their husbands' clothes; but making
leis, going into the woods to collect materials for them,
talking, riding, bathing, visiting, and otherwise amusing
themselves, take up the greater part of their time.
Perhaps if we white women always wore holukus of one
shape, we should have fewer gloomy moments!
I. L. B.




Ii




I~~r~~i           ORDNAR         FEALE    OSTAM                 -oge229
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:i | | I a 




LETTER XVI.


WAIMANU VALLEY. HAWAII.
I AM sitting at the door of a grass lodge, at the end of
all things, for no one can pass further by land than this
huge lonely cleft. About thirty natives are sitting about
me, all staring, laughing, and chattering, and I am the
only white person in the region. We have all had a meal,
sitting round a large calabash of poi and a fowl, which
was killed in my honour, and roasted in one of their stone
ovens. I have forgotten my knife, and have had to help
myself after the primitive fashion of aborigines, not without some fear, for some of them I am sure are in an
advanced stage of leprosy. The brown tattooed limbs of
one man are stretched across the mat, the others are sitting
cross-legged, making lauhala lecs. One man is making
fishing-lines of a beautifully white and marvellously
tenacious fibre, obtained from an Hawaiian "flax" plant
(possibly Urtica argentea), very different from the New Zealand Phormium tcnax. Nearly all the people of the valley
are outside, having come to see the wahine haole: only one
white woman, and she aresident of Hawaii, having been seen
in Waimanu before. I am really alone, miles of mountain
and gulch lie between me and the nearest whites. This
is a wonderful place: a ravine about three miles long and




230


HAWAII.


[LETTER, XVI.


three-quarters of a mile wide, without an obvious means
of ingress, being walled in by precipices from  2000
to 4000 feet high.    Five cascades dive from  the
palis at its head, and unite to form a placid river about
up to a horse's body here, and deep enough for a horse to
swim in a little below. Dense forests of various shades
of green fill up the greater part of the valley,
concealing the basins into which the  cascades leap,
and the grey basalt of the palis is mostly hidden by
greenery. At the open end, two bald bluffs, one of them
2000 feet in height, confront the Pacific, and its loud
booming surf comes up to within one hundred yards of
the house where I am writing, but is banked off by a
heaped-up barrier of colossal shingle.
Hot and silent, a sunset world of an endless afternoon,
it seems a palpable and living dream.  And a few of
these people, I understand, have dreamed away their lives
here, never having been beyond their valley, at least by
land. But it is a dream of ceaseless speech and rippling
laughter. They are the merriest people I have yet seen,
and doubtless their isolated life is dear to them.
I wish I could sketch this most picturesque scene. In
the verandah, which is formed of mats, two handsome
youths, and five women in green, red, and orange chemises,
all with leis of ferns round their hair, are reclining on the
ground. Outside of this there is a pavement of large
lava stones, and groups in all colours, wreathed and
garlanded, including some much disfigured old people,
crouching in red and yellow blankets, are sitting and lying
there. Some are fondling small dogs; and a number of




LETTER XVI.]


NATIVE CURIOSITY.


231


large ones, with a whole tribe of amicable cats, are picking
bones. Surf-boards, paddles, saddles, lassos, spurs, gear,
and bundles of ti leaves are lying about. Thirteen horses
are tethered outside, some of which brought the riders
who escorted me triumphantly from the head of the valley.
The foreheads of the precipices opposite are reddening in
the sunset, and between them and me horses and children
are constantly swimming across the broad, still stream
which divides the village into two parts; and now and
then a man in a malo, and children who have come up the
river swimming, with their clothes in one hand, increase
the assemblage.
All are intently watching me, but are as kind and
good-natured as possible; and my guide fioml Waipio is
discoursing to them about me. He knows a little abrupt,
disjointed, almost unintelligible English, and comes up
every now and then with an interrogation in his manner,
"Father? mother? married? watch?   How came?"
"You" appears beyond his efforts. "Kilanea? Lunalilo?"
Then he goes back and orates rapidly, gesticulating
emphatically. A very handsome, pleasant-looking man,
with a red sash round his waist, who, I understand from
signs, is the schoolmaster, emerged from-the throng, and
sat down beside me; but his English appears limited to
these words, " How old?" When I told him by counting
on my fingers he laughed heartily, and said "Too old,"
and he told the others, and they all laughed. I have
photographs of Queen Victoria and Mr. Coan in my
writing-book, and when I exhibited them they crowded
round me clapping their hands, and screaming with




232


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVI.


delight when they recognized Mr. Coan. The king's
handwriting was then handed round amidst reverent
"ahs" and "ohs," or what sounded like them. This
letter was also passed round and examined lengthwise,
sidewise, and upside down. They shrieked with satirical
laughter when I pressed some fragile ferns in my blottingbook. The natives think it quite idiotic in us to attach
any value to withered leaves. Myinkstand with its doublespring lids has been a great amusement. Each one opened
both, and shut them again, and a chorus of "lailkai, maikai,"
(good) ran round the circle. They seem so simple and
good that at last I have trusted them with my watch, which
excites unbounded admiration, probably because of its
small size. It is now on its travels; but I am not the
least anxious about it. A man pointed to a hut some
distance on the other side of the river, and appeared
interrogative, and on my replying affirmatively, he mounted
a horse and carried off the watch in the direction indicated.
Mr. Ellis came to this valley in a canoe, and he mentions
that when he preached, the natives, who seemed to be very
indifferent to the general truths of Christianity, became
very deeply interested when they heard of Ora loa ia Jesse
(endless life by Jesus). While I was up the valley the
poor people made a wonderful bed of seven fine mats, one
over the other, on one side of the house, and screened it
off with a flaring muslin curtain; but on the other side
there are ten pillows in a row, so that I wonder how many
are to occupy the den during the night. I am now writing
inside the house, with a hollowed stone, with some beef
fat and a wick in it, for a light, and two youths seem




LETTER XVI.]


WVAIMEA BY SUNRISE.


233


delegated to attend upon me. One holds my ink, and if
I look up, the other rushes for something that I am supposed to want. They insist on thinking that I am cold
because my clothes are wet, and have thrown over me
several folds of tapa, made from the inner bark of the
wauti or cloth plant (Brousso'letia yapyrifera). They
brought me a kalo leaf containing a number of living
freshwater shrimps, and were quite surprised when I
did not eat them.
WAIPIO, March 5th.
It seems fully a week since I left WVaimea yesterday
morning, so many new experiences have been crowded
into the time. I will try to sketch my expedition while
my old friend Halemanu is preparing dinner.    The
morning opened gloriously. The broad Waiinea plains
were flooded with red and gold, and the snowy crest of
Mauna Kea was cloudless. We breakfasted by lamp light
(the days of course are short in this latitude), and were
away before six. My host kindly provided me with a
very fine horse and some provisions in a leather wallet,
and with another white man and a native accompanied me
as far as this valley, where they had some business. The
morning deepened into gorgeousness. A blue mist hung
in heavy folds round the violet bases of the mountains,
which rose white and sharp into the rose-flushed sky; the
dew lay blue and sparkling on the short crisp grass; the
air was absolutely pure, and with a suspicion of frost in
it. It was all very fair, and the horses enjoyed the
morning freshness, and danced and champed their bits




234


HAWAII.


[LETTERIZ XVI.


as though they disliked being reined in. We rode over
level grass-covered ground, till we reached the Hamakua
bush, fringed with dead trees, and full of ohids and immense
fern trees, some of them with a double tier of fronds, far
larger and finer than any that I saw in New Zealand.
There are herds of wild goats, cattle, and pigs on the
island, and they roam throughout this region, trampling,
grubbing, and rending, grinding the bark of the old
trees and eating up the young ones. This ravaging is
threatening at no distant date to destroy the beauty and
alter the climate of the mountainous region of Hawaii.
The cattle are a hideous breed-all bones, hide, and
horns.
We were at the top of the Waipio pali at eight, and our
barefooted horses, used to the soft pastures of Waimea,
refused to carry us down its rocky steep, so we had to
walk. I admired this lonely valley far more than before.
It was full of infinite depths of blue-blue smoke in lazy
spirals curled upwards; it was eloquent in a morning
silence that I felt reluctant to break. Against its dewy
greenness the beach shone like coarse gold, and its slow
silver river lingered lovingly, as though loth to leave it, and
be merged in the reckless loud-tongued Pacific. Across
the valley, the track I was to take climbed up in thready
zigzags, and disappeared round a bold headland. It was
worth a second visit just to get a glimpse of such a vision
of peace.
Halemanu, with hospitable alacrity, soon made breakfast ready, after which Mr. S., having arranged for my
further journey, left me here, and for the first time I


I 




LETTER 22VI. ]


A DIZZY "PALI."


235


found myself alone among natives ignorant of English.
For the Waimanu trip it is essential to have a horse bred
in the Waimanu Valley and used to its dizzy palis, andl
such a horse was procured, and a handsome native,.
called Hananui, as guide. We were away by ten, and
galloped across the valley till we came to the nearly
perpendicular pali on the other side. The sight of this
air-hung trail from Halemanu's house has turned back
several travellers who were bent on the trip, but I had
been told that it was quite safe on a Waimanu horse;
and keeping under my fears as best I could, I let
Hananui precede me, and began the ascent, which is
visible from here for an hour.  The pali is as nearly
perpendicular as can be.   Not a bush or fern, hardly
a tuft of any green thing, clothes its bare, scathed sides.
It terminates precipitously on the sea at a height of
2000 feet.  Up this shelving wall, something like a
sheep track, from thirty to forty-six inches broad, goes
in great swinging zigzags, sometimes as broken steps
of rock breast high, at others as a smooth ledge with
hardly foothold, in three places carried away by heavy
rains-altogether the most frightful track that imagination can conceive.*  It was most unpleasant to see the
guide's horse straining and scrambling, looking every
now and then as if about to fall over backwards. My
horse went up wisely and nobly, but slipping, jumping,
scrambling, and sending stones over the ledge, now and
then hanging for a second by his fore feet.  The higher
* The Inspector of Schools has since told me that there is a track as
bad, if not worse, in the Hana district on Maui.




236


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVI.


we went the narrower and worse it grew. The girth was
loose, so as not to impede the horse's respiration, the
broad cinch which usually passes under the body having
been fastened round his chest, and yet it was once or
twice necessary to run the risk of losing my balance by
taking my left foot out of the stirrup to press it against
the horse's neck to prevent it from  being crushed,
while my right hung over the precipice. We came to a
place where the path had been carried away, leaving a
declivity of loose sand and gravel.  You can hardly
realize how difficult it was to dismount, when there was
no margin outside the horse. I somehow slid under him,
being careful not to turn the saddle, and getting hold of
his hind leg, screwed myself round carefully behind him.
It was alarming to see these sure-footed creatures
struggle and slide in the deep gravel as though they
must go over, and not less so to find myself sliding,
though I was grasping my horse's tail.
Between the summit and Waimanu, a distance of ten
miles, there are nine gulches, two of them about 900 feet
deep, all very beautiful, owing to the broken ground,
the luxuriant vegetation, and the bright streams, but
the kona, or south wind, was blowing, bringing up the
hot breath of the equatorial belt, and the sun was perfectly unclouded, so that the heat of the gorges was
intense. They succeed each other occasionally with very:great rapidity. Between two of the deepest and steepest
there is a ridge not more than fifty yards wide.
Soon after noon we simultaneously stopped our horses.
'The Waimanu Valley lay 2500 feet (it is said) below us,




LETTER XVI. ]


OUT OF TIE WORLD.


237


and the trail struck off into space. It was a scene of
loneliness to which Waipio seems the world.    In a
second the eye took in the twenty grass lodges of its
inhabitants, the five cascades which dive into the dense
forests of its upper end, its river like a silver ribbon,
and its meadows of living green.  In ten seconds a
bird could have spanned the ravine and feasted on its
loveliness, but we could only tip over the dizzy ridge
that overhangs the valley, and laboriously descend into
its heat and silence. The track is as steep and broken
as that which goes up from  hence, but not nearly so
narrow, and without its elements of terror, for kukais,
lauhalas, ohias, and ti trees, with a lavish growth of ferns
and trailers, grow luxuriantly in every damp rift of rock,
and screen from view the precipices of the pali.  The
valley looks as if it could only be reached in a long
day's travel, so very far it is below, but the steepness.
of the track makes it accessible in an hour from  the
summit. As we descended, houses and a church which
had looked like toys at first, dilated on our sight, the
silver ribbon became a stream, the specks on the meadows
turned into horses, the white wavy line on the Pacific
beach turned into a curling wave, and lower still, I saw
people, who had seen us coming down, hastily shuffling
into clothes.
There were four houses huddled between the pali and
the river, and six or eight, with a church and schoolhouse on the other side; and between these and the
ocean a steep narrow beach, composed of large stones
worn as round and smooth as cannon balls, on which




:238


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVI.


the surf roars the whole year round.  The pali which
walls in the valley on the other side is inaccessible.
The school children and a great part of the population
had assembled in front of the house which I described
before. There was a sort of dyke of rough lava stones
round it, difficult to climb, but the natives, though they
are very kind, did not, on this or aly similar occasion,
offer me any help, which neglect, I suppose, arises
from the fact that the native women never need help,
as they are as strong, fearless, and active as the men,
and rival them in swimming and other athletic sports.
An old man, clothed only with his dark skin, was
pounding baked klalo for poi, in front of the house; a
woman with flowers in her hair, but apparently not
otherwise clothed, was wading up to her waist in the
river, pushing before her a light trumpet-shaped basket
used for catching shrimps, and the other women wore
the usual bright-coloured chemises.
I wanted to make the most of the six hours of daylight left, and we remounted our horses and rode for some
distance up the river, which is the highway of the valley,
all the children swimmingon our right and left, each holding up a bundle of clothes with one hand, and two canoes
paddled behind us. The river is still and clear, with a
smooth bottom, but comes halfway up a horse's body, and
riders take their feet out of the stirrups, bring them to a
level with the saddle, lean slightly back, and hold them
against the horse's neck.  Equestrians following this
fashion, canoes gliding, children and dogs swimming,
were a most amusing picture. Several of the children




LETTER XVI.]


A DIVERTING GUIDE.


239


swim to and from school every day. I was anxious to
get rid of this voluntary escort, and we took a gallop
over the soft springy grass till we reached some very
pretty grass houses, under the shade of the most magnificent bread-fruit trees on Hawaii, loaded with fruit.
There were orange trees in blossom, and coffee trees
with masses of sweet white flowers lying among their
flaky branches like snow, and the unfailing cocoa-nut
rising out of banana groves, and clusters of gardenia
smothering the red hibiscus. Here Hananui adopted a
showman's air; he made me feel as if I were one of
Barnum's placarded monsters. I had nothing to do but
sit on my horse and be stared at. I felt that my bleached
face was unpleasing, that my eyes and hair were faded,
and that I had a great deal to answer for in the way of
colour and attire. From the way in which lie asked me
unintelligible questions, I gathered that the people were
catechizing him about me, and that he was romancing
largely at my expense. They brought me some bananas
and cocoa-nut milk, which were most refreshing.
Beyond the houses the valley became a jungle of Indian
shot (Canna ildica), eight or nine feet high, guavas and
ohias, with an entangled undergrowth of ferns rather
difficult to penetrate, and soon Hananui, whose soul was
hankering after the delights of society, stopped, saying,
"Lios (horses) no go." "We'll try," I replied, and rode on
first. He sat on    his horse laughing immoderately, and
then followed me. I see that in travelling with natives
it is essential to have a definite plan of action in one's
own mind, and to verge on self-assertion in carrying it




240


IIAWVAII.


[LETTER XVI.


out. We fought our way a little further, and then he
went out of sight altogether in the jungle, his horse having
floundered up to his girths in soft ground, on which we
dismounted and tethered the horses. H. had never been
any further, and as I failed to make him understand that
I desired to visit the home of the five cascades, I had to
reverse our positions and act as guide. We crept along
the side of a torrent among exquisite trees, moss, and
ferns, till we came to a place where it divided. There
were three horses tethered there, some wearing apparel
lying on the rocks, and some human footprints along one
of the streams, which decided me in favour of the other.
H. remonstrated by signs, as doubtless he espied an
opportunity for much gossip in the other direction, but
on my appearing persistent, he again laughed   and
followed me.
From this point it was one perfect, rapturous, intoxicating, supreme vision of beauty, and I felt, as I now believe,
that at last I had reached a scene on which foreign eyes
had never looked.  The glories, of the tropical forest
closed us in with their depth, colour, and redundancy.
Here the operations of nature are rapid and decisive.
A rainfall of eleven feet in a year and a hothouse temperature force every plant into ceaseless activity, and
make short work of decay. Leafage, blossom, fruitage,
are simultaneous and perennial. The river, about as
broad as the Cam at Cambridge, leaped along, clear like
amber, pausing to rest awhile in deep bright pools, where
fish were sporting above the golden sand, a laughing,
sparkling, rushing, terrorless stream, "without mysteries




LETTER XVI.]


LIVING WATERS.


241


or agonies," broken by rocks, green with mosses and
fragile ferns, and in whose unchilled waters, not more
than three feet deep, wading was both safe and pleasant.
It was not possible to creep along its margin, the forest
was so dense and tangled, so we waded the whole way,
and wherever the water ran fiercely my unshod guide
helped me. One varied, glorious maze of vegetation came
down to it, and every green thing leant lovingly towards it,
or stooped to touch it, and over its whole magic length was
arched and interlaced the magnificent large-leaved ohia,
whose millions of spikes of rose-crimson blossoms lit up
the whole arcade, and the light of the afternoon sun
slanted and trickled through them, dancing in the mirthful water, turning its far-down sands to gold, and brightening the many-shaded greens of candlenut and breadfruit.
It shone on majestic fern-trees, on the fragile Polypodiuin
tamariscinumn, which clung tremblingly to the branches of
the ohia, on the beautiful lygodium, which adorned the
uncouth trunk of the breadfruit; on shining banana
leaves and glossy trailing yams; on gigantic lianas,
which, climbing to the tops of the largest trees, descended
in vast festoons, passing from tree to tree, and interlacing
the forest with a living network; and on lycopodiums
of every kind, from those which wrapped the rocks
in feathery green to others hardly distinguishable
from ferns. But there were twilight depths too, where
no sunlight penetrated the leafy gloom, damp and cool:
dreamy shades, in which the music of the water was all
too sweet, and the loveliness too entrancing, creating
that sadness, hardly " akin to pain," which is latent in
R




242


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVI.


all intense enjoyment. Here and there a tree had fallen
across the river, from which grew upwards and trailed
downwards, fairy-like, semi-transparent mosses and ferns,
all glittering with moisture and sunshine, and now and
then a scarlet tropic bird heightened the effect by the
flash of his plumage.
After an hour of wading we emerged into broad sunny
daylight at the home of the five cascades, which fall from
a semicircular precipice into three basins.  It is not,
however, possible to pass from one to the other. This
great gulf is a grand sight, with its dark deep basin from
which it seemed so far to look up to the heavenly blue,
and the water falling calmly and unhurriedly, amidst innumerable rainbows, from a height of 3000 feet. The sides
were draped with ferns flourishing 'under the spray, and
at the base the rock was very deeply caverned. I enjoyed
a delicious bath, relying on sun and wind to dry my
clothes, and then reluctantly waded down the river. At
its confluence with another stream, still arched by ohias,
a man and two women appeared rising out of the water,
like a vision of the elder world in the days of Fauns, and
Naiads, and Hamadryads. The water was up to their
waists, and leis of ohia blossoms and ferns, and masses
of unbound hair fantastically wreathed with moss, fell
over their faultless forms, and their rich brown skin
gleamed in the slant sunshine.  They were catching
shrimps with trumpet-shaped baskets, perhaps rather
a prosaic occupation. They joined us, and we waded
down together to the place where they had left their
horses. The women slipped into their holukus, and the




LETTER XVI.]  A LAPSE INTO SAVAGERY.


243


man insisted on my riding his barebacked horse to the
place where we had left our own, and then we all galloped
over the soft grass.
Waimanu had turned out to meet us about thirty
people on horseback, all of whom shook hands with me,
and some of them threw over me garlands of ohia, pandanus, and hibiscus. Where our cavalcade entered the
river, a number of children and dogs and three canoes
awaited us, and thus escorted I returned triumphantly
to the house. The procession on the river of paddling
canoes, swimming children, and dogs, and more than
thirty riders, with their feet tucked up round their horses'
necks, all escorting a " pale face," was grotesque and
enchanting, and I revelled in this lapse into sav-gery,
and enjoyed heartily the kindliness and goodwill of this
unsophisticated people.
When darkness spread over the valley, clear voices
ascended in a weird recitative, the room filled up with
people, pipes circulated freely, poi was again produced,
and calabashes of cocoa-nut milk. The m6les were long,
and I crept within my curtain and lay down, but the
drowsiness which legitimately came over me after riding
thirty miles and wading two, was broken in upon by two
monstrous cockroaches really as large as mice, with fiercelooking antennae and prominent eyes, both of which
mounted guard on my pillow. On rising to drive them
away, I found to my dismay that they were but the leaders
of a host, which only made a temporary retreat, rustling
over the mat and dried grass with the crisp tread of mice,
and scaring away sleep for some hours. Worse than
R 2




244


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVI.


these were the mosquitoes, also an imported nuisance,
which stabbed and stung without any preliminary droning;
and the heat was worse still, for thirteen human beings
were lying on the floor and the door was shut. Had I
known that two of these were lepers, I should have felt
far from comfortable. As it was, I got up soon after midnight, and cautiously stepping among the sleeping forms,
went out of doors. Everything favoured reflection, but I
think the topics to which my mind most frequently reverted were my own absolute security-a lone white
woman among "savages," and the civilizing influence
which' Christianity has exercised, so that even in this
isolated valley, gouged out of a mountainous coast, there
was nothing disagreeable or improper to be seen. The
night was very still, but the sea was moaning; the river
rippled very gently as it brushed past the reeds; there
was a hardly perceptible vibration in the atmosphere,
which suggested falling water and quivering leaves; and
the air was full of a heavy, drowsy fragrance, the breath
of orange flowers, perhaps, and of the night-blowing
Cereus, which had opened its ivory urn to the moon. I
should have liked to stay out all night in the vague,
delicious moonlight, but the dew was heavy, and moreover I had not any boots on, so I reluctantly returned to
the grass house, which was stifling with heat and smells
of cocoa-nut oil, tobacco, and the rancid smoke from beef
fat.
Before sunrise this morning my horse was saddled, and
a number of natives had assembled. Hananui had disappeared, but the man who lent me his bare-backed horse




LETTER XVI.]


TIIE WAIMANU VALLEY.


245


yesterday was ready to act as guide. My boots could not
then be found, so I adopted the native fashion of riding
with bare feet. We again rode up the river in that slow
and solemn fashion in which horses walk in water, galloped over a stretch of grass, crossed a bright stream
several times, and then entered a dense jungle of Indian
shot, plantains, and sadlerias, with breadfruit, kalkwi, and
ohia rising out of it. There were thousands of plantains, a fruit resembling the banana, but that it requires
cooking. The Indian shot, the yellow-blossomed variety,
was of a gigantic size. Its hard, black seeds put into a
bladder furnish the chic-chac, which in many places is
used as an accompaniment to the utterly abominable and
heathenish tom-tom. Here guavas as large as oranges
and as yellow as lemons ripened and fell unheeded.
Sometimes deep down we heard the rush of water, and
Paalau got down and groped for it on his hands and
knees; sometimes we heard a noise as of hippopotami,
but nothing could be seen but the tips of ears, as a
herd of happy, unbroken horses, scared by our approach,
crashed away through the jungle. Clear rapid streams,
fern-fringed, sometimes offered us a few yards of highway,
but the jungle ever grew more dense, the forest trees
larger, the lianas more tangled, the streams more sunk
and rocky, and though the horses shut their eyes and
boldly pushed through the tangle, we were fairly foiled
when within half a mile from the head of the valley. I
thoroughly appreciated the unsightly leather guards which
are here used to cover the stirrups and feet, as without
them I could not have ridden ten yards. We were so




246


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVI.


hemmed in that it was difficult to dismount, but I bound
some wild kalo leaves round my feet, and managed to get
over some broken rock to a knoll, from which I obtained
a superb view of the wonderful cleft. Palis 3000 feet in
height walled in its head with a complete inaccessibility.
It lay in cool dewy shadow till the sudden sun flushed its
precipices with pink, and a broad bar of light revealed
the great chasm in which it terminates, while far off its
portals opened upon the red eastern sky.  This little
lolely world had become so very dear to me, that I found
it hard to leave it.
There was some stir near the sea, for a man was about
to build a grass house, and they were preparing a stone
pavement for it. Thirty people sat on the ground in a
line from the beach, and passed stones from hand to hand,
as men pass buckets at a fire. It seemed a very attractive occupation, and I could hardly get Hananui to leave
it. The natives are most gregarious and social in their
habits. They assemble together for everything that has
to be made or done, and their occupations and amusements are shared by both sexes. In old days it is said
that a king of Hawaii assembled most of the adults of
the then populous island, and formed a human chain three
miles long to pass up stones for the building of the great
Heiau in Kona.   It is said that this valley had 2000
inhabitants forty years ago, but they have dwindled to
117. The former estimate is probably not an excessive
one, for nearly the whole valley is suitable for the culture
of kalo, and a square mile of kalo will feed 15,000 natives
for a year.




LETTER XVI.]


A SILENT WORLD.


247


Two women were shrimping in the river, the children
were swimming to school, blue smoke curled up into the
still air, kalo was baking among the stones, and a group
of women sat sewing and making leis on the ground. The
Waimanu day had begun; and it was odd to think that
through the long summer years days dawned like this,
and that the people of the valley grew grey and old in
shrimping and sewing and kalo baking. All Waimanu
shook hands with me, the kindly " A loha" filled the air, and
the women threw garlands over us both. I could hardly
induce my host to accept a dollar and a half for my entertainment. From the dizzy summit of the pali, where the
sun was high and hot, I looked my last on the dark, cool
valley, slumbering in an endless calm, the deepest,
greenest, quaintest cleft on all the island.
The sun was fierce and bright, the ocean had a metallic
glint, the hot breath of the kona was scorching. My
hands, swollen from mosquito bites, could not be stuffed
into my gloves, and inflamed under the sun, and my wet
boots baked and stiffened on my feet. Hananui plaited
a crown of leaves for my hot head, which I found a great
relief. I was still minded to linger, for one side of each
glorious gulch was cool with shadow and dripping with
dew. The blue morning glories were yet unwilted, rivulets dropped down into ferny grottoes and lingered there,
rose ohia blossoms lighted shady places, orange flowers
gleamed like stars amidst the dense leafage, and the
crimped-leaved coffee shrubs were white with their mimic
snow. It was my last tropical dream, and I was rudely
roused by finding myself on the unsightly verge of the




248


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVT.


great bluff on the north side of this valley, which plunges
to the sea with an uncompromising perpendicular dip of
2000 feet, and carries on its dizzy brow a shelving trail
not more than two feet wide!
I felt that I must go back and live and die in Waimanu
rather than descend that scathed steep, and being stupid
with terror flung myself from my horse, forgetting that it
was much safer to trust to his four feet than to my two,
and to an animal without " nerves," dizziness, or "the
fore-knowledge of death," than to my palsied, cowardly
self. I had intended to go into details of the horrible
descent, but the "pilikia" is over now, and Halemanu
claps me on the shoulder with an approving smile, ejaculating, " Maikai, mailcai " (good). Besides, my returning
senses inform me that I have not tasted food since yesterday, and some delicious river fishes are smoking on the
table...
I. L. B.




LETTER XVII.


STR. KILAUEA.
I HAVE been spending the day at Lahaina on
Maui, on my way from Kawaihae to Honolulu. Lahaina
is thoroughly beautiful and tropical looking, with its white
latticed houses peeping out from under coco palms,
breadfruit, candlenut, tamarinds, mangoes, bananas, and
oranges, with the brilliant green of a narrow strip of
sugar-cane for a background, and above, the flushed
mountains of Eeka, riven here and there by cool green
chasms, rise to a height of 6000 feet. Beautiful Lahaina!
It is an oasis in a dazzling desert, straggling for nearly
two miles along the shore, but compressed into a width of
half a mile. It was a great missionary centre, as well as
a great whaling station, but the whalers have deserted it,
and missions are represented now only by the seminary
of Lahainaluna on the hillside. An old palace, the remains of a fort, a custom-house, and a native church are
the most conspicuous buildings. The stores and dwellings of the foreign residents are scattered along the shore,
and the light frame house, with its green verandah, buried
amid gorgeous exotics and shaded by candlenut and
breadfruit, looks as seemly and in keeping as in far-off
Massachusetts, under hickory and elm. The grass houses




250


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVII.


of the natives cluster along the waters' edge, or in lanes
dark with mangoes and bananas, and fragrant with gardenia fringing the cane-fields. These, with adobe houses
and walls, the flush of the soil, the gaudy dresses of the
natives, the masses of brilliant exotics, the intense blue
of the sea, and the dry blaze of the tropical heat, give a
decided individuality to the capital of Maui. The heat
of Lahaina is a dry, robust, bracing, joyous heat. The
mercury stood at 80~, the usual temperature of the "flare "
or sea level on the leeward side of the islands; but I
strolled through the cane-fields and along the glaring
beach without suffering the least inconvenience from the
sun, and found the unusual precaution of a white umbrella perfectly needless.
The beach is formed of pure white broken coral; the
sea is blue with the calm, pure blue of turquoise, but
crystalline in its purity, and breaks for ever over the
environing coral reef with a low deep music. Blue water
stretched to the far horizon, the sky was blazing blue, the
leafage was almost dazzling to the eye, the mountainous
island of Molokai floated like a great blue morning glory
on the yet bluer sea; a sweet, soft breeze rustled through
the palms, lazy ripples plashed lightly on the sand;
humanity basked, flower-clad, in sunny indolence; everything was redundant, fervid, beautiful. How can I make
you realize the glorious, bountiful, sun-steeped tropics
under our cold grey skies, and amidst our pale, monotonous, lustreless greens?
Yet Molokai is only enchanting in the distance, for its
blue petals enfold 400 lepers doomed to endless isolation,




LETTER XVIi.] THE LIGHTING OF THE CURSE.


251


and 300 more are shortly to be weeded out and sent
thither. In to-day's paper appeared the painful notice,
" All lepers are required to report themselves to the
Government health officer within fourteen days from this
date for inspection, and final banishment to Molokai."
It is hoped that leprosy may be " stamped out " by these
stringent measures, but the leprous taint must be strong
in many families, and the social, gregarious natives
smoke each other's pipes and wear each other's clothes,
and either from fatalism or ignorance have disregarded all
precautions regarding this woful disease; and now that
measures are being taken for the isolation of lepers, they
are concealing them under mats and in caves and woods.
This forlorn malady, called here Chinese leprosy, in the
cases that I have seen, confers nothing of the white, scaly
look attributed to Syrian leprosy; but the face is red,
puffed, bloated, and shining, and the eyes glazed, and I
am told that in its advanced stage the swollen limbs
decay and drop off. It is a fresh item of the infinite
curse which has come upon this race, and with Molokai
in sight the Hesperides vanished, and I ceased to believe
that the Fortunate Islands exist here or elsewhere on
this weary earth.
My destination was the industrial training and boarding
school for girls, taught and superintended by two English
ladies of Miss Sellon's sisterhood, Sisters Mary Clara and
Phoebe; and I found it buried under the shade of the
finest candlenut trees I have yet seen. A rude wooden
cross in front is a touching and fitting emblem of the
Saviour, for whom these pious women have sacrificed




262


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVII.


friends, sympathy, and the social ihtercourse and amenities which are within daily reach of our workers at home.
The large house, which is either plastered stone or
adobe, contains the dormitories, visitors' room, and
oratory, and three houses at the back, all densely shaded,
are used as schoolroom, cook-house, laundry, and refectory. There is a playground under some fine tamarind
trees, and an adobe wall encloses, without secluding, the
whole.   The visitors' room  is about twelve feet by
eight feet, very bare, with a deal table and three chairs
in it, but it was vacant, and I crossed to the large, shady,
airy schoolroom, where I found the senior sister engaged
in teaching, while the junior was busy in the cook-house.
These ladies in eight years have never left Lahaina.
Other people may think it necessary to leave its broiling
heat and seek health and recreation on the mountains,
but their work has left them no leisure, and their zeal no
desire, for a holiday. A very solid, careful English education is given here, as well as a thorough training in all
housewifely arts, and in the more important matters of
modest dress and deportment, and propriety in language.
There are thirty-seven boarders, native and half-native,
and mixed native and Chinese, between the ages of four
and eighteen. They provide their own clothes, beds,
and bedding, and I think pay forty dollars a year. The
capitation grant from Government for two years was
2325 dollars.  Sister Phoebe was my cicerone, and I
owe her one of the pleasantest days I have spent on
the islands.  The elder Sister is in middle life, but
though fragile-looking, has a pure complexion and a




LETTER XVII.]  LAHAINA "FAMILY SCHOOL."'


253


lovely countenance; the younger is scarcely middle-aged,
one of the brightest, bonniest, sweetest-looking women I
ever saw, with fun dancing in her eyes and round the
corners of her mouth; yet the regnant expression on both
faces was serenity, as though they had attained to " the
love which looketh kindly, and the wisdom which looketh
soberly on all things."
I never saw such a mirthful-looking set of girls.
Some were cooking the dinner, some ironing, others
reading English aloud; but each occupation seemed a
pastime, and whenever they spoke to the Sisters they
clung about them as if they were their mothers. I heard
them read the Bible and an historical lesson, as well as
play on a piano and sing, and they wrote some very
difficult passages from dictation without any errors, and
in a flowing, legible handwriting that I am disposed to
envy. Their accent and intonation were pleasing, and
there was a briskness and emulation about their style of
answering questions, rarely found in country schools with
us, significant of intelligence and good teaching.  All
but the younger girls spoke English as fluently as
Hawaiian. I cannot convey a notion of the blitheness
and independence of manner of these children. To say
that they were free and easy would be wrong; it was
rather the manner of very frolicsome daughters to very
indulgent mothers or aunts.  It was a family manner
rather than a school manner, and the rule is obviously
one of love. The Sisters are very wise in adapting their
discipline to the native character and circumstances.
The rigidity which is customary in similar institutions




254


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVII.


at home would be out of place, as well as fatal here, and
would ultimately lead to a rebound of a most injurious
description. Strict obedience is of course required, but the
rules are few and lenient, and there is no more pressure
of discipline than in a well-ordered family. The native
amusements generally are objectionable, but Hawaiians
are a dancing people, and will dance, or else indulge in
less innocent pastimes; so the Sisters have taught them
various English dances, and I never saw anything
prettier or more graceful than their style of dancing.
There is no uniform dress. The girls wear pretty print
frocks, made in the English style, and several of them
wore the hibiscus in their shining hair. Some of the
older girls were beautiful in face as well as graceful in
figure, but there was a snaky undulation about their
movements which I never saw among Europeans. All
looked bubbling over with fun and frolic, and there was
a refinement and intelligence about their expression
which contrasted favourably with that of the ordinary
female face on the islands.
There are two dormitories, excellently ventilated, with
a four-post bed, with mosquito-bars, for each girl, and
the beds were covered with those brilliant-coloured quilts
in which the natives delight, and in which they exercise
considerable ingenuity as well as individuality of taste.
One Sister sleeps in each dormitory, and these highlyeducated and refined women have no place of retirement
except a very plain oratory; and having taken the vow of
poverty, they have of course no possessions, none of the
books, pictures, and knick-knacks wherewith others adorn




LETTER xvii.]   TRIALS OF THE SISTERS.


255


their surroundings. Their whole lives, with the exception
of the time passed in the oratory, are spent with the girls,
and in visiting the afflicted at their homes, and this
through eight blazing years, with the mercury always
at 800!
The Hawaiian women have no notions of virtue as we
understand it, and if there is to be any future for this
race it must come through a higher morality. Consequently the removal of these girls from evil and impure
surroundings, the placing them  under the happiest
influences in favour of purity and goodness, the forming
and fostering of industrious and housewifely habits, and
the raising them in their occupations and amusements
above those which are natural to their race, are in themselves a noble, and in some degree, a hopeful work, but it
admits of neither pause nor relaxation.  Those who
carry it on are truly " the lowest in the meanest task,"
for they have undertaken not only the superintendence of
menial work (so called), but the work itself, in teaching
by example and instruction the womanly industries of
home. They have no society, until lately no regular
Liturgical worship, and of necessity a very infrequent
celebration of the Holy Communion; and they have
undergone the trial which arose very naturally out of the
ecclesiastical relations of the American missionaries, of
being regarded as enemies, or at least dangerous interlopers, by the excellent men who had long resided on
the islands as Christian teachers, and with whose views
on such matters as dress and recreation their own are
somewhat at variance. In the first instance, the habit




256                         HAWAII.                 [LETTER XVII.
they   wore, their designations, the       presence    of Miss
Sellon, the fame of whose Ritualistic tendencies had
reached the islands, and their manifest connection with
a section of the English Church which is regarded here
with peculiar disfavour, roused       a strongly antagonistic
feeling regarding their work and the drift of their
religious teaching.    They are not connected with what is
known at home as the " Honolulu Mission." 
I. L. B.
* It gives me pleasure to add that the Sisters have lived down this very
natural distrust, and that in a subsequent residence of five months on the
islands, I never heard but one opinion, and that of the most favourable
kind, regarding the Lahaina School, and the excellence and wisdom of the
manner in which it is conducted. I have been told by many who on most
points are quite out of sympathy with the Sisters, not only that their work
is recognized as a most valuable agency, but that their influence has come
to be regarded as among the chiefest of the blessings of Lahaina.




LETTER XVIII.


HAWAIIAN HOTEL, HONOLULU. March 20th.
OAHU, with its grey pinnacles, its deep valleys, its
cool chasms, its ruddy headlands, and volcanic cones, all
clothed in green by the recent rains, looked unspeakably lovely as we landed by sunrise in a rose-flushed
atmosphere, and Honolulu, shady, dew-bathed, and
brilliant with flowers, deserved its name, " The Paradise
of the Pacific." The hotel is pleasant, and Mrs. D.'s
presence makes it sweet and homelike; but in a very
few days I have lost much of the health I gained on
Hawaii, and the "Rolling Moses " and the Rocky
Mountains can hardly come too soon. For Honolulu is
truly a metropolis, gay, hospitable, and restless, and this
hotel centralizes the restlessness.  Visiting begins at
breakfast time, when it ends I know not, and receiving
and making visits, court festivities, entertainments given
by the commissioners of the great powers, riding parties,
picnics, verandah parties, "sociables," and luncheon
and evening parties on board the ships of war, succeed
each other with frightful rapidity.  This is all on the
surface, but beneath and better than this is a kindness
which leaves no stranger to a sense of loneliness, no want
uncared for, and no sorrow unalleviated. This, more
s




258


ttAWAII.


[LETTER XVII[.


than its beauty and its glorious climate, makes Honolulu
"Paradise" for the many who arrive here sick and
friendless. I notice that the people are very intimate
with each other, and generally address each other by
their Christian names.  Very many are the descendants of the clerical and secular members of the mission,
and these, besides being naturally intimate, are further
drawn and held together by a society called " The
Cousins' Society," the objects of which are admirable.
The people take an intense interest in each other, and
love each other unusually. Possibly they may hate each
other as cordially when occasion offers. It is a charming
town, and the society is delightful. I wish I were well
enough to enjoy it.
For people in the early stages of consumption this
climate is perfect, owing to its equability, as also for
bronchial affections.  Unlike the health resorts of the
Mediterranean, Algeria, Madeira, and Florida, where
great summer heats or an unhealthy season compel halfcured invalids to depart in the spring, to return the next
winter with fresh colds to begin the half-cure process
again, people can live here until they are completely
cured, as the climate is never unhealthy, and never too
hot. Though the regular trades, which blow for nine
months of the year, have not yet set in, and the mercury
stands at 80~, there is no sultriness: a tremulous seabreeze and a mountain breeze fan the town, and the
purple nights, when the stars hang out like lamps, and
the moon gives a light which is almost golden, are cool
and delicious. Roughly computed, the annual mean




LETTER XVIII.]


A PERFECT CLIMATE.


259


temperature is 75~ 55', with a divergence in either
direction of only 7~ 55'. As a general rule the temperature is cooler by four degrees for every thousand feet
of altitude, so that people can choose their climate to
suit themselves without leaving the islands.
I am gradually learning a little of the topography of
this island and of Honolulu, but the last is very intricate.
The appearance of Oahu from the sea is deceptive. It
looks hardly larger than Arran, but it is really forty-six
miles long by twenty-five broad, and is 530 square miles
in extent. Diamond Hill, or Leahi, is the most prominent object south of the town, beyond the palm groves
of Waikiki. It is red and arid, except when, as now, it
is verdure-tinged by recent rains. Its height is 760 feet,
and its crater nearly as deep, but its cone is rapidly
diminishing.  Some years ago, when the enormous
quantity of thirty-six inches of rain fell in one week, the
degradation of both exterior and interior was something
incredible, and the same process is being carried on
slowly or rapidly at all times. The Punchbowl, immediately behind Honolulu, is a crater of the same kind,
but of yet more brilliant colouring: so red is it indeed,
that one might suppose that its fires had but just died
out. In 1786 an observer noted it as being composed of
high peaks; but atmospheric influences have reduced it
to the appearance of a single wasting tufa cone, similar
to those which stud the northern slopes of Mauna Kea.
There are a number of shore craters on the island, and
six groups of tufa cones, but from the disintegration of
the lava, and the great depth of the soil in many places,
s2




260


IHAWAII.


[LETTER XVIII.


it is supposed that volcanic action ceased earlier than
on Maui or Hawaii. The shores are mostly fringed with
coral reefs, often half a mile in width, composed of
cemented coral fragments, shells, sand, and a growing
species of zoophyte.  The ancient reefs are elevated
thirty, forty, and even 100 feet in some places, forming
barriers which have changed lagoons into solid ground.
Honolulu was a bay or lagoon, protected from the sea by
a coral reef a mile wide; but the elevation of this reef
twenty-five feet has furnished a site for the capital, by
converting the bay into a low but beautifully situated
plain.
The mountainous range behind is a rocky wall with
outlying ridges, valleys of great size cutting the mountain
to its core on either side, until the culminating peaks
of Waiolani and Konahuanui, 4000 feet above the sea,
seem as if rent in twain to form the Nuuanu Valley.
The windward side of this range is fertile, and is dotted
over with rice and sugar plantations, but the leeward
side has not a trace of the redundancy of the tropics,
and this very barrenness gives a unique charm to the
exotic beauty of Honolulu.
To me it is daily a fresh pleasure to stroll along the
shady streets and revel among palms and bananas, to
see clusters of the granadilla and night-blowing cereus
mixed with the double blue pea, tumbling over walls and
fences, while the vermilion flowers of the Erythrina
umlbrosa, like spikes of red coral, and the flaring magenta
Bougainvillea (which is not a flower at all, but an
audacious freak of terminal leaves) light up the shade,




LETTEP XVIII.]


LIONS OF HONOLULU.


261


and the purple-leaved Dracmena which we grow in pots for
dinner-table ornament, is as common as a weed.
Besides this hotel, and the handsome but exaggerated
and inappropriate Government buildings not yet finished,
there are few "imposing edifices" here. The tasteful
but temporary English Cathedral, the Kaiwaiaho Church,
diminished once to suit a dwindled population, but
already too large again; the prison, a clean, roomy building, empty in the daytime, because the convicts are sent
out to labour on roads and public works; the Queen's
Hospital for Curables, for which Queen Emma and her
husband became mendicants in Honolulu; the Court
House, a staring, unshaded building; and the Iolani
Palace, almost exhaust the category. Of this last, little
can be said, except that it is appropriate and proportioned to a kingdom of 56,000 souls, which is more than
can be said of the income of the king, the salaries of the
ministers, and some other things. It stands in pleasuregrounds of about an acre in extent, with a fine avenue
running through them, and is approached by a flight of
steps which leads to a tolerably spacious hall, decorated
in the European style. Portraits of Louis Philippe and
his queen, presented by themselves, and of the late
Admiral Thomas, adorn the walls. The Hawaiians have
a profound respect for this officer's memory, as it was
through him that the sovereignty of the islands was
promptly restored to the native rulers, after the infamous
atffair of its cession to England, as represented by Lord
George Paulet. There are also some ornamental vases
and miniature copies of some of Thorwaldsen's works.




262


HAWAII.


[LETTER XVIII.


The throne-room takes up the left wing of the palace.
This unfortunately resembles a rather dreary drawingroom in London or New York, and has no distinctive
features except a decorated chair, which is the Hawaiian
throne. There is an Hawaiian crown also, neither grand
nor costly, but this I have not seen. At present the
palace is only used for state receptions and entertainments, for the king is living at his private residence of
Haemoeipio, not far off.
Miss W. kindly introduced me to Queen Emma, or
Kaleleonalani, the widowed queen of Kamehameha IV.,
whom you will remember as having visited England a few
years ago, when she received great attention. She has
one-fourth of English blood in her veins, but her complexion is fully as dark as if she were of unmixed
Hawaiian descent, and her features, though refined by
education and circumstances, are also Hawaiian; but
she is a very pretty, as well as a very graceful woman.
She was brought up by Dr. Rooke, an English physician
here, and though educated at the American school for
the children of chiefs, is very English in her leanings
and sympathies, an attached member of the English
Church, and an ardent supporter of the "Honolulu
Mission."  Socially she is very popular, and her exceeding kindness and benevolence, with her strongly national
feeling as an Hawaiian, make her much beloved by the
natives.
The winter palace, as her town house is called, is a
large shady abode, like an old-fashioned New England
house externally, but with two deep verandahs, and the




LETTER' XVIII. ]


QUEEN EMMA.


263


entrance is on the upper one. The lower floor seemed
given up to attendants and offices, and a native woman
was ironing clothes under a tree. Upstairs, the house is
like a tasteful English country house, with a pleasant
English look, as if its furniture and ornaments had been
gradually accumulating during a series of years, and
possessed individual histories and reminiscences, rather
than as if they had been ordered together as "plenishings " from stores. Indeed, it is the most English-looking
house I have seen since I left home, except Bishopscourt at Melbourne. If there were a bell I did not see it;
and we did not ring, for the queen received us at the door
of the drawing-room, which was open. I had seen her
before in European dress, driving a pair of showy black
horses in a stylish English phaeton; but on this occasion
she was not receiving visitors formally, and was indulging
in wearing the native holkollt, and her black wavy hair
was left to its own devices. She is rather below the
middle height, very young-looking for her age, which is
thirty-seven, and very graceful in her movements. Her
manner is indeed very fascinating from a combination
of unconscious dignity with ladylike simplicity. Her
expression is sweet and gentle, with the same look of
sadness about her eyes that the king has, but she has a
brightness and archness of expression which give a great
charm to her appearance. She has sorrowed much: first,
for the death, at the age of four, of her only child, the
Prince of Hawaii, who when dying was baptized into the
English Church by the name of Albert Edward, Queen
Victoria and the Prince of Wales being his sponsors; and




2(4


ILVAWAII.


[LETTER X-VIII.


secondly, for the premature death of her husband, to
whom she was much attached.     She speaks English
beautifully, only hesitating how and then for the most
correct form of expression. She spoke a good deal and
with great pleasure of England; and described Venice
and the emotions it excited in her so admirably, that I
should like to have heard her describe all Europe.
A few days afterwards I went to a garden party at her
house. It was a very pretty sight, and the "everybody" of Honolulu was there to the number of 250.
I must describe it for the benefit of -, who persists
in thinking that coloured royalty must necessarily be
grotesque. People arrived shortly before sunset, and
were received by Queen Emma, who sat on the lawn,
with her attendants about her, very simply dressed in
black silk. The king, at whose entrance the band played
the national anthem, stood on another lawn, where
presentations were made by the chamberlain; and those
who were already acquainted with him had an opportunity for a few minutes' conversation. He was dressed
in a very well-made black morning suit, and wore the
ribbon and star of the Austrian order of Franlcis Joseph.
His simplicity was atoned for by the superlative splendour of his suite; the governor of Oahu, and the high
chief Kalakaua, who was a rival candidate for the throne,
being conspicuously resplendent.  The basis of the
costume appeared to be the Windsor uniform, but it
was smothered with epaulettes, cordons, and lace; and
each dignitary has a uniform peculiar to his office, so
that the display of gold lace was prodigious. The chiefs




I
I




A HAWAII A  LADY  PIage 265.
*     *Z 




LE5TTER XVIII.]


A ROYAL GARDEN PARTY.


265


are so raised above the common people in height, size,
and general nobility of aspect, that many have supposed
them to be of a different race; and the alii who represented the dwindled order that night were certainly
superb enough in appearance to justify the supposition.
Beside their splendour and stateliness, the forty officers
of the English and American war-ships, though all in
full-dress uniform, looked decidedly insignificant; and I
doubt not that the natives who were assembled outside
the garden railings in crowds were not behind me in
making invidious comparisons.
Chairs and benches were placed under the beautiful
trees, and people grouped themselves on these, and promenaded, flirted, talked politics and gossip, or listened
to the royal band, which played at intervals, and played
well. The dress of the ladies, whether white or coloured,
was both pretty and appropriate. Most of the younger
women were in white, and wore natural flowers in their hair;
and many of the elder ladies wore black or coloured silks,
with lace and trains. There were several beautiful leis of
the gardenia, which filled all the garden with their delicious odour. Tea and ices were handed round on Sevres
china by footmen and pages in appropriate liveries. What
a wonderful leap from calabashes and poi, malos and pans,
to this correct and tasteful civilization! As soon as the
brief amber twilight of the tropics was over, the garden
was suddenly illuminated by myriads of Chinese lanterns,
and the effect was bewitching. The upper suite of rooms
was thrown open for those who preferred dancing under
cover; but I think that the greater part of the assem



266                   HAWAII.            LL'ITTER XVIII.
blage chose the shady walks and purple night. Supper
was served at eleven, and the party broke up soon afterwards; but I must confess that, charming as it was, I
left before eight, for society makes heavier demands on
my strength than the rough open-air life of Hawaii.
The dwindling of the race is a most pathetic subject.
Here is a sovereign chosen amidst an outburst of popular
enthusiasm, with a cabinet, a legislature, and a costly
and elaborate governing machinery, sufficient in Yankee
phrase to "run" an empire of several millions, and here
are only 49,000 native Hawaiians; and if the decrease
be not arrested, in a quarter of a century there will not
be an Hawaiian to govern.   The chiefs, or alii, are a
nearly extinct order; and, with a few exceptions, those
who remain are childless. In riding through Hawaii I
came everywhere upon traces of a once numerous population, where the hill slopes are now only a wilderness
of guava scrub, and upon churches and school-houses all
too large, while in some hamlets the voices of young
children were altogether wanting.  This nation, with its
elaborate governmental machinery, its churches and
institutions, has to me the mournful aspect of a shrivelled
and wizened old man dressed in clothing much too big,
the garments of his once athletic and vigorous youth.
Nor can I divest myself of the idea that the laughing,
flower-clad hordes of riders who make the town gay with
their presence, are but like butterflies fluttering out their
short lives in the sunshine,
"... a reck and residue,
Whose only business is to perish."




LETTEI        XVTIII. ]


A PERISHING NATION.


267


The statistics on this subject are perfectly appalling. If
we reduce Captain Cook's estimate of the native population
by one-fourth, it was 300,000 in 1779. In 1872 it was
only 49,000. The first official census was in 1832, when
the native population was 130,000. This makes the
decrease 80,000 in forty years, or at the rate of 2000 a
year, and fixes the period for the final extinction of
the race in 1897, if that rate were to continue.  It
is a pity, for many reasons, that it is dying out.  It
has shown a singular aptitude for politics and civilization, and it would have been interesting to watch
the development of a strictly Polynesian monarchy
starting under passably fair conditions. Whites have
conveyed to these shores slow but infallible destruction
on the one hand, and on the other the knowledge of the
life that is to colme; and the rival influences of blessing
and cursing have now been fifty years at work, producing
results with which most reading people are familiar.
I have not heard the subject spoken of, but I should
think that the decrease in the population must cause the
burden of taxation to press heavily on that which
remains. Kings, cabinet ministers, an army, a police,
a national debt, a supreme court, and common schools,
are costly luxuries or necessaries.  The civil list is
ludicrously out of proportion to the resources of the
islands, and the heads of the four departments-Foreign
Relations, Interior, Finance, and Law (Attorney-General)
-receive $5,000 a year each!   Expenses and salaries
have been increasing for the last thirty years. For schools
alone every man between twenty-one and sixty pays a




268


HIAWAII.


[LETTER XVIII.


tax of two dollars annually, and there is an additional
general tax for the same purpose. I suppose that there
is not a better educated country in the world. Education is compulsory; and besides the primary schools,
there are a number of academlies, all under Government
supervision, and there are 324 teachers, or one for
every twenty-seven children.  There is a Board of Education, and Kamakau, its president, reported to the
last biennial session of the legislature that out of
8931 children between the ages of six and fifteen,
8287 were actually attending school!   Among other
direct taxes, every quadruped that can be called a
horse, above two years old, pays a dollar a year, and
every dog a dollar and a half. Does not all this sound
painfully civilized? If the influence of the tropics has
betrayed me into rhapsody and ecstacy in earlier letters,
these dry details will turn the scale in favour of prosaic
sobriety!
I have said little about Honolulu, except of its tropical
beauty. It does not look as if it had " seen better days."
Its wharves are well cared for, and its streets and roads
are very clean. The retail stores are generally to be
found in two long streets which run inland, and in a
splay street which crosses both. The upper storekeepers,
with a few exceptions, are Americans, but one street is
nearly given up to Chinamen's stores, and one of the
wealthiest and most honourable merchants in the town is
a Chinaman. There is an ice factory, and icecream is
included in the daily bill of fare here, and iced water is
supplied without limit, but lately the machinery has only




LETTE'R XVIII.]


STORES AND GOODS.


269


worked in spasms, and the absence of ice is regarded as a
local calamity, though the water supplied from the waterworks is both cool and pure. There are two good photographers and two booksellers. I don't think that plateglass
fronts are yet to be seen. Many of the storekeepers employ native "assistants;" but the natives show little
aptitude for mercantile affairs, or indeed for the " splendid
science " of money-making generally, and in this respect
contrast with the Chinamen, who, having come here as
Coolies, have contrived to secure a large share of the small
traffic of the islands. Most things are expensive, but they
are good. I have seen little of such decided rubbish as is
to be found in the cheap stores of London and Edinburgh,
except in tawdry artificial flowers. Good black silks are
to be bought, and are as essential to the equipment of a
lady as at home. Saddles are to be had at most of the
stores, from the elaborate Mexican and Californian saddle,
worth from 30 to 50 dollars, to a worthless imitation of
the English saddle, dear at five.  Boots and shoes,
perhaps because in this climate they are a mere luxury,
are frightfully dear, and so are books, writing paper, and
stationery generally; a sheet of Bristol board, which we
buy at home for 6d., being lalf a dollar here. But it is
quite a pleasure to make purchases in the stores. There
is so much cordiality and courtesy that, as at this hotel,
the bill recedes into the background, and the purchaser
feels the indebted party.
The money is extremely puzzling.    These islands,
like California, have repudiated greenbacks, and the only
paper currency is a small number of treasury notes for




270


IIAWAII.


[LC:;TTE]1R XVIII.


large amounts. The coin in circulation is gold and silver,
but gold is scarce, which is an inconvenience to people
who have to carry a large amount of money about with
them. The coinage is nominally that of the United
States, but the dollars are Mexican, or French 5 franc
pieces, and people speak of " rials," which have no existence here, and of " bits," a Californian slang term for
12- cents, a coin which to my knowledge does not exist
anywhere. A dime, or 10 cents, is the lowest coin I
have seen, and copper is not in circulation. An envelope,
a penny bottle of ink, a pencil, a spool of thread, cost
10 cents each; postage-stamps cost 2 cents each for
inter-island postage, but one must buy five of them, and
dimes slip away quickly and imperceptibly. There is a
loss on English money, as half-a-crown only passes for a
half-dollar, sixpence for a dime, and so forth; indeed,
the average loss seems to be about twopence in the
shilling.
There are four newspapers: the IHonolulu Gazette, the
Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa (the
"Independent Press"), and a lately started spasmodic
sheet, partly in English and partly in Hawaiian, the
Ntlhoat (News).*  The two first are moral and respectable,
but indulge in the American sins of personalities and
mutual vituperation. The   17Nuhou is scurrilous and diverting, and appears "run" with a special object, which I
have not as yet succeeded in unravelling from its pungent
but not always intelligible pages. I think perhaps the
writing in each paper has something of the American
* The Nu1hou has since expired.




LETTER XVIII.]


AMERICAN INFLUENCE.


271


tendency to hysteria and convulsions, though these maladies are mild as compared with the " real thing " in the
Alta California, which is largely taken here. Besides
these there are monthly sheets called The Friend, the
oldest paper in the Pacific, edited by good " Father
Damon," and the Church M3essenger, edited by Bishop
Willis, partly devotional and partly devoted to the Honolulu Mission. All our popular American and English
literature is read here, and I have hardly seen a table
without " Scribner's" or "Harper's Monthly," or " Good
Words."
I have lived far too much in America to feel myself a
stranger where, as here, American influence and customs
are dominant; but the English who are in Honolulu just
now, in transits from New Zealand, complain bitterly of
its "Yankeeism," and are very far from being at home,
and I doubt not that Mr. M ---, whom you will see, will
not confirm my favourable description. It is quite true
that the islands are Americanized, and with the exception
of the Finance Minister, who is a Scotchman, Americans
"run" the Government and fill the Chief Justiceship
and other high offices of State. It is, however, perfectly fair, for Americans have civilized and Christianized Hawaii-nei, and we have done little except
make an unjust and afterwards disavowed seizure of
the islands.
On looking over this letter I find it an olta podrida of
tropical glories, royal festivities, finance matters, and
odds and ends in general. I dare say you will find it
dull after my letters from Hawaii, but there are others




272                     HAWAII.             LLETTER XVIII.
who will prefer its prosaic details to Kilauea and Waimanu;
and I confess that, amidst the general lusciousness of
tropical life, I myself enjoy the dryness and tartness of
statistics, and hard uncoloured facts.
I. L. B.




LETTER XIX.


HAWAIIAN HOTEL, HONOLULU.
My latest news of you is five months old, and though I
have not the slightest expectation that I shall hear from
you, I go up to the roof to look out for the "Rolling
Moses" with more impatience and anxiety than those
whose business journeys are being delayed by her nonarrival. If such an unlikely thing were to happen as
that she were to bring a letter, I should be much tempted
to stay five months longer on the islands rather than try
the climate of Colorado, for I have come to feel at home,
people are so very genial, and suggest so many plans for
my future enjoyment, the islands in their physical and
social aspects are so novel and interesting, and the
climate is unrivalled and restorative.
Honolulu has not yet lost the charm of novelty for me.
I am never satiated with its exotic beauties, and the sight
of a kaleidoscopic whirl of native riders is always fascinating. The passion for riding, in a people who only
learned equitation in the last generation, is most curious.
It is very curious, too, to see women incessantly enjoying
and amusing themselves in riding, swimming, and making
leis. They have few home ties in the shape of children,
and I fear make them fewer still by neglecting them for the
T




274


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIX.


sake of riding and frolic, and man seems rather the helpmeet than the " oppressor" of woman; though I believe
that the women have abandoned that right of choosing
their husbands, which, it is said, that they exercised in
the old days. Used to the down-trodden look and harrassed care-worn faces of the over-worked women of the
same class at home and in the colonies, the laughing,
careless faces of the Hawaiian women have the effect upon
me of a perpetual marvel. But the expression generally
has little of the courteousness, innocence, and childishness
of the negro physiognomy. The Hawaiians are a handsome people, scornful and sarcastic-looking even with
their mirthfulness; and those who know them say that
they are always quizzing and mimicking the haoles, and
that they give everyone a nickname, founded on some
personal peculiarity.
The women are free from our tasteless perversity as to
colour and ornament, and have an instinct of the becoming. At first the holukJc, which is only a full, yoke
nightgown, is not attractive, but I admire it heartily now,
and the sagacity of those who devised it. It conceals
awkwardness, and befits grace of movement; it is fit for
the climate, is equally adapted for walking and riding,
and has that general appropriateness which is desirable
in costume. The women have a most peculiar walk, with
a swinging motion from the hip at each step, in which
the shoulder sympathises. I never saw anything at all
like it. It has neither the delicate shuffle of the Frenchwoman, the robust, decided jerk of the Englishwoman,
the stately glide of the Spaniard, or the stealthiness of




I j   -   S t X  I                       I
NATIVES OF HONOLULU,          IO 27I,




I
I   
I




LETTER XIX.]


HONOLULU MARKET.


275


the squaw; and I should know a Hawaiian woman by it
in any part of the world. A majestic wahine with small,
bare feet, a grand, swinging, deliberate gait, hibiscus
blossoms in her flowing hair, and a le of yellow flowers
falling over her holuku, marching through these streets,
has a tragic grandeur of appearance, which makes the
diminutive, fair-skinned haole, tottering along hesitatingly
in high-heeled shoes, look grotesque by comparison.
On Saturday, our kind host took Mrs. D. and myself
to the market, where we saw the natives in all their
glory. The women, in squads of a dozen at a time, their
Pa-us streaming behind them, were cantering up and
down the streets, and men and women were thronging
into the market-place; a brilliant, laughing, joking crowd,
their jaunty hats trimmed with fresh flowers, and leis of
the crimson ohia and orange lauIhala falling over their
costumes, which were white, green, black, scarlet, blue,
and every other colour that can be dyed or imagined.
The market is a straggling, open space, with a number
of shabby stalls partially surrounding it, but really we
could not see the place for the people. There must have
been 2000 there.
Some of the stalls were piled up with wonderful fish,
crimson, green, rose, blue, opaline-fish that have spent
their lives in coral groves under the warm, bright water.
Some of them had wonderful shapes too, and there was
one that riveted my attention and fascinated me. It was,
I thought at first, a heap, composed of a dog fish, some
limpets, and a multitude of water snakes, and other
abominable forms; but my eyes slowly informed me of
T2




276


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIX.


the fact, which I took in reluctantly and with extreme
disgust, that the whole formed one living monster, a
revolting compound of a large paunch with eyes, and a
multitude of nervy, snaky, out-reaching, twining, grasping, tentacular arms, several feet in length, I should think,
if extended, but then lying in a crowded undulating
heap; the creature was dying, and the iridescence was
passing over what seemed to be its body in waves of
colour, such as glorify the last hour of the dolphin. But
not the colours of the rainbow could glorify this hideous,
abominable form, which ought to be left to riot in ocean
depths, with its loathsome kindred.    You have read
" Les Travailleurs du Mer," and can imagine with what
feelings I looked upon a living Devil-fish! The monster
is much esteemed by the natives as an article of food,
and indeed is generally relished. I have seen it on
foreign tables, salted, under the name of squid.*
We passed on to beautiful creatures, the kihi-kihi, or
sea-cock, with alternate black and yellow transverse
bands on his body; the hinalea, like a glorified mullet,
with bright green, longitudinal bands on a dark shining
head, a purple body of different shades, and a blue spotted
tail with a yellow tip. The Ohua too, a pink scaled fish,
shaped like a trout; the opukai, beautifully striped and
mottled; the mullet and flying fish as common here as
mackerel at home; the hala, a fine pink-fleshed fish, the
* This monster is a cephalopod of the order Dibranchiata, and has eight
flexible arms, each crowded with 120 pair of suckers, and two longer
feelers about six feet in length, differing considerably from the others in
form.




LETTER XIX.]


FISH OUT OF WATER.


277


albicore, the bonita, the manini striped black and white,
and many others. There was an abundance of opilu or
limpets, also the pipi, a small oyster found among the
coral; the ila, as large as a clawless lobster, but more
beautiful and variegated; and turtles which were cheap
and plentiful.  Then there were purple-spiked sea
urchins, black-spiked sea eggs or wZana, and ina or eggs
without spikes, and many other curiosities of the bright
Pacific. It was odd to see the pearly teeth of a native
meeting in some bright-coloured fish, while the tail hung
out of his mouth, for they eat fish raw, and some of them
were obviously at the height of epicurean enjoyment.
Seaweed and fresh-water weed are much relished by
Hawaiians, and there were four or five kinds for sale,
all included in the term limu. Some of this was baked,
and put up in balls weighing one pound each. There
were packages of baked fish, and dried fish, and of many
other things which looked uncleanly and disgusting; but
no matter what the package was, the leaf of the Ti tree
was invariably the wrapping, tied round with sennet, the
coarse fibre obtained from the husk of the cocoa-nut.
Fish, here, averages about ten cents per pound, and is
dearer than meat; but in many parts of the islands it is
cheap and abundant.
There is a ferment going on in this kingdom, mainly
got up by the sugar planters and the interests dependent
on them, and two political lectures have lately been given
in the large hall of the hotel in advocacy of their views;
one, on annexation, by Mr. Phillips, who has something
of the oratorical gift of his cousin, Wendell Phillips; and




278


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIX.


the other, on a reciprocity treaty, by Mr. Carter. Both
were crowded by ladies and gentlemen, and the first was
most enthusiastically received. Mrs. D. and I usually
spend our evenings in writing and working in the verandah, or in each other's rooms; but I have become so
interested in the affairs of this little state, that in spite
of the mosquitos, I attended both lectures, but was not
warmed into sympathy with the views of either speaker.
I daresay that some of my friends here would quarrel
with my conclusions, but I will briefly give the data on
which they are based. The census of 1872 gives the native
population at 49,044 souls; of whom, 700 are lepers;
and it is decreasing at the rate of from 1,200 to 2,000 a
year, while the excess of native males over females on the
islands is 3,216. The foreign population is 5,366, and it
is increasing at the rate of 200 a year; and the number
of half-castes of all nations has increased at the rate of
140 a year. The Chinese, who came here originally as
plantation coolies, outnumber all the other nationalities
together, excluding the Americans; but the Americans
constitute the ruling and the monied class. Sugar is
the reigning interest on the islands, and it is almost
entirely in American hands. It is burdened here by the
difficulty of procuring labour, and at San Francisco by
a heavy import duty. There are thirty-five plantations
on the islands, and there is room for fifty more. The
profit, as it is, is hardly worth mentioning, and few of
the planters do more than keep their heads above water.
Plantations which cost $50,000 have been sold for
$15,000; and others, which cost $150,000 have been




LETTER xix.] "ANNEXATION AND RECIPROCITY."


279


sold for $40,000. If the islands were annexed, and the
duty taken off, many of these struggling planters would
clear $50,000 a year and upwards. So, no wonder that
Mr. Phillips's lecture was received with enthusiastic
plaudits. It focussed all the clamour I have heard on
Hawaii and elsewhere, exalted the "almighty dollar,"
and was savoury with the odour of coming prosperity.
But he went far, very far; he has aroused a cry among
the natives "Hawaii for the Hawaiians," which, very
likely, may breed mischief; for I am very sure that this
brief civilization has not quenched the "red fire " of race;
and his hint regarding the judicious disposal of the king
in the event of annexation, was felt by many of the more
sober whites to be highly impolitic.
The reciprocity treaty, very lucidly advocated by Mr.
Carter, and which means the cession of a lagoon with
a portion of circumjacent territory on this island, to the
United States, for a Pacific naval station, meets with
more general favour as a safer measure; but the natives
are indisposed to bribe the great Republic to remit the
sugar duties by the surrender of a square inch of
Hawaiian soil; and, from a British point of view, I
heartily sympathise with them. Foreign, i.e. American,
feeling is running high upon the subject. People say
that things are so bad that something must be done, and
it remains to be seen whether natives or foreigners can
exercise the strongest pressure on the king. I was unfavourably impressed in both lectures by the way in which
the natives and their interests were quietly ignored, or
as quietly subordinated to the sugar interest.




280


HAWAII.


[LETTER XIX.


It is never safe to forecast destiny; yet it seems most
probable that sooner or later in this century, the closing
catastrophe must come.  The more thoughtful among
the natives acquiesce helplessly and patiently in their
advancing fate; but the less intelligent, as I had some
opportunity of hearing at Hilo, are becoming restive and
irritable, and may drift into something worse if the knowledge of the annexationist views of the foreigners is
diffused among them. Things are preparing for change,
and I think that the Americans will be wise in their
generation if they let them ripen for many years to come.
Lunalilo has a broken constitution, and probably will not
live long.  Kalakaua will probably succeed him, and
" after him the deluge," unless he leaves a suitable successor, for there are no more chiefs with pre-eminent
claims to the throne. The feeling among the people is
changing, the feudal instinct is disappearing, the old
despotic line of the Kamehamehas is extinct; and kingmaking by paper ballots, introduced a few months ago,
is an approximation to president-making, with the canvassing, stumping, and wrangling, incidental to such a
contested election. Annexation, or peaceful absorption,
is the "manifest destiny " of the islands, with the probable result lately most wittily prophesied by Mark
Twain in the New York Tribune, but it is impious and
impolitic to hasten it. Much as I like America, I shrink
from the day when her universal political corruption and
her unrivalled political immorality shall be naturalised
on Hawaii nei.... Sunday evening.   The " Rolling
Moses" is in, and Sabbatic quiet has given place to




LETTER XIX.]  THE "ROLLING MOSES."             281
general excitement.  People thought they heard her
steaming in at 4 a.m., and got up in great agitation.
Her guns fired during morning service, and I doubt
whether I or any other person heard another word of the
sermon. The first batch of letters for the hotel came,
but none for me; the second, none for me; and I had
gone to my room in cold despair, when some one tossed
a large package in at my verandah door, and to my infinite joy I found that one of my benign fellow-passengers
in the Nevada, had taken the responsibility of getting my
letters at San Francisco and forwarding them here. I
don't know how to be grateful enough to the good man.
With such late and good news, everything seems bright;
and I have at once decided to take the first schooner for
the leeward group, and remain four months longer on the
islands.
I. L. B.




LETTER XX.


KOLOA, KAUAI, March 23rd.
I AMI spending a few days on some quaint old mission
premises, and the " guest house," where I am lodged, is a
dobe house, with walls two feet thick, and a very thick grass
roof comes down six feet all round to shade the windows.
It is itself shaded by date palms and algarobas, and is
surrounded by hibiscus, oleanders, and the datura arborea (?), which at night fill the air with sweetness. I am
the only guest, and the solitude of the guest house in
which I am writing is most refreshing to tired nerves.
There is not a sound but the rustling of trees.
The first event to record is that the trade winds have
set in, and though they may yet yield once or twice to the
kona, they will soon be firmly established for nine months.
They are not soft airs as I supposed, but riotous, rollicking breezes, which keep up a constant clamour, blowing
the trees about, slamming doors, taking liberties with
papers, making themselves heard and felt everywhere,
flecking the blue Pacific with foam, lowering the mercury
three degrees, bringing new health and vigour with them,
-wholesome, cheery, frolicsome north-easters.  They
brought me here from Oahu in eighteen hours, for which
I thank them heartily.




LETTER XX.]   THE SCHOONER " JENNY."


283


You will think me a Sybarite for howling about those
eighteen hours of running to leeward, when the residents
of Kauai, if they have to go to Honolulu in the intervals
between the quarterly trips of the Kilauea, have to spend
from three to nine days in beating to windward. These
inter-island voyages of extreme detention, rolling on a
lazy swell in tropical heat, or beating for days against the
strong trades without shelter from the sun, and without
anything that could be called accommodation, were
among the inevitable hardships to which the missionaries'
wives and children were exposed in every migration for
nearly forty years.
When I reached the wharf at Honolulu the sight of the
Jenny, the small sixty-ton schooner by which I was to
travel, nearly made me give up this pleasant plan, so
small she looked, and so cumbered with natives and their
accompaniments of mats, dogs, and calabashes of poi.
But she is clean, and as sweet as a boat can be which carries
through the tropics cattle, hides, sugar, and molasses. She
is very low in the water, her deck is the real " fisherman's
walk, two steps and overboard;" and on this occasion
was occupied solely by natives. The Attorney General
and Mrs. Judd were to have been my fellow voyagers, but
my disappointment at their non-appearance was considerably mitigated by the fact that there was not stowage
room for more than one white passenger! Mrs. Dexter
pitied me heartily, for it made her quite ill to look down
the cabin hatch; but I convinced her that no inconveniences are legitimate subjects for sympathy which are
endured in the pursuit of pleasure. There was just room




284


HAWAII.


[LETTER XX.


on deck for me to sit on a box, and the obliging, gentlemanly master, who, with his son and myself, were the
only whites on board, sat on the taffrail.
The Jenny spread her white duck sails, glided gracefully away from the wharf, and bounded through the coral
reef; the red sunlight faded, the stars came out, the
Honolulu light went down in the distance, and in two
hours the little craft was out of sight of land on the broad,
crisp Pacific. It was so chilly, that after admiring as long
as I could, I dived into the cabin, a mere den, with a
table, and a berth on each side, in one of which I lay down,
and the other was alternately occupied by the captain and
his son. But limited as I thought it, boards have been
placed across on some occasions, and eleven whites have
been packed into a space six feet by eight! The heat
and suffocation were nearly intolerable, the black flies
swarming, the mosquitos countless and vicious, the fleas
agile beyond anything, and the cockroaches gigantic.
Some of the finer cargo was in the cabin, and large rats,
only too visible by the light of a swinging lamp, were
assailing it, and one with a portentous tail ran over my
berth more than once, producing a stampede among the
cockroaches each time. I have seldom spent a more
miserable night, though there was the extreme satisfaction of knowing that every inch of canvas was drawing.
Towards morning the short jerking motion of a ship,close hauled, made me know that we were standing in
for the land, and at daylight we anchored in Koloa Roads.
The view is a pleasant one.    The rains have been
abundant, and the land, which here rises rather gradually




LETTER XX,]


KAUAI HOSPITALITY.


285


from the sea, is dotted with houses, abounds in signs
of cultivation, and then spreads up into a rolling country
between precipitous ranges of mountains.  The hills
look something like those of Oahu, but their wonderful greenness denotes a cooler climate and more copious
rains, also their slopes and valleys are densely wooded,
and Kauai obviously has its characteristic features, one
of which must certainly be a superabundance of that
most unsightly cactus, the prickly pear, to which the
motto nemo me impune lacessit most literally applies.
I had not time to tell you before that this trip to
Kauai was hastily arranged for me by several of my
Honolulu friends, some of whom gave me letters of
introduction, while others wrote forewarning their friends
of my arrival. I am often reminded of Hazael's question,
"Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing  "
There is no inn or boarding house on the island, and I
had hitherto believed that I could not be concussed into
following the usual custom whereby a traveller throws
himself on the hospitality of the residents. Yet, under the
influence of Honolulu persuasions, I am doing this very
thing, but with an amount of mauvaise honte and trepidation, which I will not voluntarily undergo again.
My first introduction was to Mrs. Smith," wife of a
secular member of the Mission, and it requested her to
find means of forwarding me a distance of twenty-three
miles. Her son was at the landing with a buggy, a
most unpleasant index of the existence of carriage
roads, and brought me here; and Mrs. Smith most
courteously met me at the door. When I presented my




286


HAWAII.


[LETTER XX.


letter I felt like a thief detected in a first offence, but I
was at once made welcome, and my kind hosts insist on
my remaining with them for some days. Their house is
a pretty old-fashioned looking tropical dwelling, much
shaded by exotics, and the parlour is homelike with new
books. There are two sons and two daughters at home,
all, as well as their parents, interesting themselves
assiduously in the welfare of the natives. Six brightlooking native girls are receiving an industrial training in
the house. Yesterday being Sunday, the young people
'taught a Sunday school twice, besides attending the
native church, an act of respect to Divine service in
Hawaiian which always has an influence on the native
attendance.
We have had some beautiful rides in the neighbourhood.
It is a wild, lonely, picturesque coast, and the Pacific
moans along it, casting itself on it in heavy surges, with a
singularly dreary sound. There are some very fine specimens
of the phenomena called "blow-holes" on the shore, not
like the " spouting cave " at Iona, however. We spent a
long time in watching the action of one, though not the
finest. At half tide this " spouting horn" throws up a
column of water over sixty feet in height from a very
small orifice, and the effect of the compressed air rushing
through a crevice near it, sometimes with groans and
shrieks, and at others with a hollow roar like the warning
fog-horn on a coast, is magnificent, when, as to-day, there
is a heavy swell on the coast.
Kauai is much out of the island world, owing to the infrequent visits of the Kilauea, but really it is only twelve




LETTER XX.]  PHYS1CAL FEATURES OF KAUAI.


287


hours by steam from the capital. Strangers visit it seldom,
as it has no active volcano like Hawaii, or colossal crater
like Maui, or anything sensational of any kind. It is
called the " Garden Island," and has no great wastes of
black lava and red ash like its neighbours. It is queerly
shaped, almost circular, with a diameter of from twentyeight to thirtymiles, and its areais about 500 square miles.
Waialeale, its highest mountain, is 4,800 feet high, but
little is known of it, for it is swampy and dangerous, and
a part of it is a forest-covered and little explored table-.
land, terminating on the sea in a range of perpendicular
precipices 2,000 feet in depth, so steep it is said, that a
wild cat could not get round them. Owing to these, and
the virtual inaccessibility of a large region behind them,
no one can travel round the island by land, and small as
it is, very little seems to be known of portions of its
area.
Kauai has apparently two centres of formation, and its
mountains are thickly dotted with craters. The age and
density of the vegetation within and without those in this
Koloa district, indicate a very long cessation from volcanic
action.  It is truly an oddly contrived island.  An
elevated rolling region, park-like, liberally ornamented
with clumps of ohia, lauhala, hau, (hibiscus) and koa, and
intersected with gullies full of large eugenias, lies outside
the mountain spurs behind Koloa. It is only the tropical
trees, specially the lauhala or " screw pine," the whimsical shapes of outlying ridges, which now and then lie
like the leaves in a book, and the strange forms of extinct
craters, which distinguish it from some of our most beauti



288


HAWAII.


[LETTER XX.


ful park scenery, such as Windsor Great Park or Belvoir.
It is a soft tranquil beauty, and a tolerable road which
owes little enough to art, increases the likeness to the
sweet home scenery of England. In this part of the
island the ground seems devoid of stones, and the grass is
as fine and smooth as a race course.
The latest traces of volcanic action are found here.
From the Koloa Ridge to, and into the sea, a barren
uneven surface of pahoehoe extends, often bulged up in
immense.bubbles, some of which have partially burst,
leaving caverns, one of which, near the shore, is paved
with the ancient coral reef!
The valleys of Kauai are long, and widen to the sea,
and their dark rich soil is often ten feet deep.  On
the windward side the rivers are very numerous and
picturesque. Between the strong winds and the lightness of the soil, I should think that like some parts of
the Highlands, "it would take a shower every day."
The leeward side, quite close to the sea, is flushed and
nearly barren, but there is very little of this desert
region.  Kauai is less legible in its formation than
the other islands.  Its mountains, from   their impenetrable forests, dangerous breaks, and swampiness,
are difficult of access, and its ridges are said to be more
utterly irregular, its lavas more decomposed, and its
natural sections more completely smothered under a
profuse vegetation than those of any other island in the
tropical Pacific. Geologists suppose, from the degradation of its ridges, and the absence of any recent volcanic
products, that it is the oldest of the group, but so far as




LETTER xx.]    FEATS OF HORSEMANSHIP.


289


I have read, none of them venture to conjecture how
many ages it has taken to convert its hard basalt into the
rich soil which now sustains trees of enormous size.
If this theory be correct, the volcanoes must have gone on
dying out from west to east, from north to south, till only
Kilauea remains, and its energies appear to be declining.
The central mountain of this island is built of a heavy
ferruginous basalt, but the shore ridges contain less iron,
are more porous, and vary in their structure from a
compact phonolite, to a ponderous basalt.
The population of Kauai is a widely scattered one of
4,900, and as it is an out of the world region the people
are probably better, and less sophisticated. They are
accounted rustics, or "pagans," in the classical sense,
elsewhere. Horses are good and very cheap, and the
natives of both sexes are most expert riders. Among
their feats, are picking up small coins from the ground
while going at full gallop, or while riding at the same
speed wringing off the heads of unfortunate fowls, whose
bodies are buried in the earth.
There are very few foreigners, and they appear on
the whole a good set, and very friendly among each
other. Many of them are actively interested in promoting
the improvement of the natives, but it is uphill work, and
ill-rewarded, at least on earth. The four sugar plantations employ a good deal of Chinese labour, and I fear
that the Chinamen are stealthily tempting the Hawaiians
to smoke opium.
All the world over, however far behind aborigines are
in the useful arts, they exercise a singular ingenuity in
uT




290


HAWAII.


[LETTER XX.


devising means for intoxicating and stupifying themselves. On these islands distillation is illegal, and a
foreigner is liable to conviction and punishment for
giving spirits to a native Hawaiian, yet the natives
contrive to distil very intoxicating drinks, specially from
the root of the ti tree, and as the spirit is unrectified it is
both fiery and unwholesome. Licences to sell spirits are
confined to the capital. In spite of the notoriously bad
effect of alcohol in the tropics, people drink hard, and
the number of deaths which can be distinctly traced to
spirit drinking is quite startling.
The prohibition on selling liquor to natives is the
subject of incessant discussions and "interpellations " in
the national legislature. Probably all the natives agree in
regarding it as a badge of the "inferiority of colour;"
but I have been told generally that the most intelligent
and thoughtful among them are infavour of its continuance,
on the ground that if additional facilities for drinking
were afforded, the decrease in the population would be
accelerated. In the printed "ParliamentaryProceedings,"
I see that petitions are constantly presented praying
that the distillation of spirits may be declared free,
while a few   are in favour of "total prohibition."
Another prayer is "that Hawaiians may have the same
privileges as white people in buying and drinking
spirituous liquors."
A bill to repeal the invidious distinction was brought
into the legislature not long since; but the influence of
the descendants of the missionaries and of an influential
part of the white community is so strongly against spirit




LETTER xx.]  THE HAWAIIAN LIQUOR LAWS.


291


drinking, as well as against the sale of drink to the natives,
that the law remains on the Statute-book.
The tone in which it was discussed is well indicated by
the language of Kalakaua, the present king's rival:
" The restrictions imposed by this law do the people no
good, but rather harm; for instead of inculcating the
principles of honour, they teach them to steal behind the
bar, the stable, and the closet, where they may be sheltered
from the eyes of the law. The heavy licence imposed on
the liquor dealers, and the prohibition against selling to
the natives are an infringement of our civil rights, binding
not only the purchaser but the dealer against acquiring
and possessing property. Then, Mr. President, I ask,
where lies virtue, where lies justice? Not in those that
bind the liberty of this people, by refusing them the
privilege that they now crave, of drinking spirituous liquors
without restriction. Will you by persisting that this law
remain in force make us a nation of hypocrites? or will
you repeal it, that honour and virtue may for once be
yours, O Hawaii."   A committee of the Assembly, in
reporting on the question of the prohibition of the sale of
intoxicants to anybody, through its chairman, Mr. Carter,
stated, " Experience teaches that such prohibition could
not be enforced without a strong public sentiment to
indorse it, and such a sentiment does not prevail in this
community, as is evidenced by the fact that the sale of
intoxicating drinks to natives is largely practised in
defiance of law and the executive, and that the manufacture of intoxicating drinks, though prohibited, is carried
on in every district of the kingdom."  So the question
2




292


HAWAII.


[LETTER XX.


which is rising in every country ruled or colonised by
Anglo-Saxons, is also agitated here with very strong
feeling on both sides.
I was led to this digression by seeing, for the first time,
some very fine plants of the Piper methysticum. This is
awa, truly a " plant of renown " throughout Polynesia.
Strange tales are told of it. It is said to produce profound sleep, with visions more enchanting than those of
opium or hasheesh, and that its repetition, instead of being
deleterious, is harmless and even wholesome. Its sale is
prohibited, except on the production of evidence that it
has been prescribed as a drug. Nevertheless no law on
the islands is so grossly violated. It is easy to give it,
and easy to grow it, or dig it up in the woods, so that, in
spite of the legal restrictions, it is used to an enormous
extent. It was proposed absolutely to prohibit the sale
of it, though the sum paid for the licence is no inconsiderable item in the revenue of a kingdom, which, like
many others, is experiencing the difficulty of "making
both ends meet;" but the committee which sat upon the
subject reported " that such prohibition is not practicable,
unless its growth and cultivation are prevented. So long
as public sentiment permits the open violation of the
existing laws regulating its sale without rebuke, so long
will it be of little use to attempt prohibition." One cannot be a day on the islands without hearing wonderful
stories about awa; and its use is defended by some who
are strongly opposed to the use as well as abuse of
intoxicants. People who like "The Earl and the Doctor"
delight themselves in the strongly sensuous element




LETTER XX.]


A POLYNESIAN NARCOTIC.


293


which pervades Polynesian life, delight themselves too, in
contemplating the preparation and results of the awa
beverage; but both are to me extremely disgusting, and
I cannot believe that a drink, which stupifies the senses,
and deprives a human being of the power to exercise
reason and will, is anything but hurtful to the moral
nature.
While passing the Navigator group, one of my fellowpassengers, who had been for some time in Tutuila,
described the preparation of awa poetically, the root
"being masticated by the pearly teeth of dusky flower-clad
maidens;" but I was an accidental witness of a nocturnal
" aiwa drinking" on Hawaii, and saw nothing but very
plain prose. I feel as if I must approach the subject
mysteriously. I had no time to tell you of the circumstance when it occurred, when also I was completely
ignorant that it was an illegal affair; and now with a sort
of " guilty knowledge " I tremble to relate what I saw,
and to divulge that though I could not touch the beverage,
I tasted the root, which has an acrid pungent taste,
something like horse-radish, with an aromatic flavour in
addition, and I can imagine that the acquired taste for it
must, like other acquired tastes, be perfectly irresistible,
even without the additional gratification of the results
which follow its exercise.
In the particular instance which I saw, two girls who
were not beautiful, and an old man who would have been
hideous but for a set of sound regular teeth, were sitting
on the ground masticating the awa root, the process being
contemplated with extreme interest by a number of adults.




294


HAWAII.


[LETTER XX.


When, by careful chewing, they had reduced the root to
a pulpy consistence, they tossed it into a large calabash,
and relieved their mouths of superfluous saliva before
preparing a fresh mouthful.  This went on till a considerable quantity was provided, and then water was added,
and the mass was kneaded and stirred with the hands till
it looked like soap suds. It was then strained; and after
more water had been added it was poured into cocoa-nut
calabashes, and handed round. Its appearance eventually was like weak, frothy coffee and milk. The appearance of purely animal gratification on the faces of those
who drank it, instead of being poetic, was of the low gross
earth. Heads thrown back, lips parted with a feeble
sensual smile, eyes hazy and unfocussed, arms folded on
the breast, and the mental faculties numbed and sliding
out of reach.
Those who drink it pass through the stage of idiocy
into a deep sleep, which it is said can be reproduced once
without an extra dose, by bathing in cold water. Confirmed awa drinkers might be mistaken for lepers, for they
are covered with whitish scales, and have inflamed eyes
and a leathery skin, for the epidermis is thickened and
whitened, and eventually peels off. The habit has been
adopted by not a few whites, specially on Hawaii, though,
of course, to a certain extent clandestinely. Awa is taken
also as a medicine, and was supposed to be a certain cure
for corpulence.
The root and base of the stem are the parts used, and
it is best when these are fresh. It seems to exercise a
powerful fascination, and to be loved and glorified as




LETTER XX.]  "ISLANDS OF THE BLEST."


295


whisky is in Scotland, and wine in southern Europe. In
some of the other islands of Polynesia, on festive occasions,
when the chewed root is placed in the calabash, and the
water is poured on, the whole assemblage sings appropriate songs in its praise; and this is kept up until the
decoction has been strained to its dregs. But here, as the
using it as a beverage is an illicit process, a great mystery
attends it. It is said that awa drinking is again on the
increase, and with the illicit distillation of unwholesome
spirits, and the illicit sale of imported spirits and the
opium smoking, the consumption of stimulants and
narcotics on the islands is very considerable.*
To turn from drink to climate. It is strange that with
such a heavy rainfall, dwellings built on the ground and
never dried by fires should be so perfectly free from damp
as they are. On seeing the houses here and in Honolulu,
buried away in dense foliage, my first thought was, "how
lovely in summer, but how unendurably damp in winter,"
forgetting that I arrived in the nominal winter, and that
it is really summer all the year. Lest you should think
that I am  perversely exaggerating the charms of the
climate, I copy a sentence from a speech made by Kamehameha IV., at the opening of an Hawaiian agricultural
society:"Who ever heard of winter on our shores? Where
among us shall we find the numberless drawbacks which,
in less favoured countries, the labourer has to contend
* According to the revenue returns for the biennial period ending March
31, 1874, the revenue derived from awa was over $9000, and that from
opium over $46,000.




296


HAWAII.


[LETT"ER XX.


with? The: have no place in our beautiful group, which
rests like a water lily on the swelling bosom of the Pacific.
The heaven is tranquil above our heads, and the sun
keeps his jealous eye upon us every day, while his rays
are so tempered that they never wither prematurely what
they have warmed into life."* The kindness of my hosts
is quite overwhelming.    They will not hear of my buying
a horse, but insist on my taking away with me the one
which I have been riding since I came, the best I have
ridden on the islands, surefooted, fast, easy, and ambitious.
I have complete sympathy with the passion which the
natives have for riding. Horses are abundant and cheap
on Kauai: a fairly good one can be bought for $20.         I
think every child possesses one. Indeed the horses seem
to outnumber the people.
The eight native girls who are being trained and educated
here as a " family school " have their horses, and go out
to ride as English children go for a romp into a play-ground.
Yesterday Mrs. S. said, "Now, girls, get the horses,"
and soon two little creatures of eight and ten came gal* The following paragraph from Dr. Rupert Anderson's sober-minded
book on the Sandwich Islands fully bears out the king's remarks: "The
islands all lie within the range of the trade winds, which blow with great
regularity nine months of the year, and on the leeward side, where their
course is obstructed by mountains, there are regular land and sea breezes.
The weather at all seasons is delightful, the sky usually cloudless, the
atmosphere clear and bracing. Nothing can exceed the soft brilliancy of
the moonlight nights. Thunderstorms are rare and light in their nature.
Hurricanes are unknown. The general temperature is the nearest in the
world to that point regarded by physiologists as most conducive to health
and longevity.  By ascending the mountains any desirable degree of
temperature may be obtained."




LETTER XX. ]


A "FAMILY SCHOOL."


297


loping up on two spirited animals. They had not only
caught and bridled them, but had put on the complicated
Mexican saddles as securely as if men had done it; and I
got a lesson from them in making the Mexican knot with
the thong which secures the cinch, which will make me
independent henceforward.
These children can all speak English, and their remarks
are most original and amusing. They have not a particle
of respect of manner, as we understand it, but seem very
docile. They are naive and fascinating in their manners,
and the most joyous children I ever saw. When they are
not at their lessons, or household occupations, they are
dancing on stilts, acting plays of their own invention,
riding or bathing, and they laugh all day long. Mrs.
S. has trained nearly seventy since she has been here.
If there were nothing else they see family life in a pure
and happy form, which must in itself be a moral training,
and by dint of untiring watchfulness they are kept aloof
from the corrupt native associations. Indeed they are
not allowed to have any intercourse with natives, for,
according to one of the missionaries who has spent many
years on the islands: " None know or can conceive without personal observation the nameless taint that pervades
the whole garrulous talk and gregarious life of all heathen
peoples, and above which our poor Hawaiian friends have
not yet risen." Of this universal impurity of speech every
one speaks in the strongest terms, and careful white
parents not only seclude their children in early years from
unrestrained intercourse with the natives, but prevent
them from acquiring the Hawaiian tongue. In this respect




298                    HAWAII.               [LETTER XX.
the training of native girls involves a degree of patient
watchfulness which must at times press heavily on those
who undertake it, as the carefulness of years might fail of
its result, if it were intermitted for one afternoon.
I. L. B.




LETTER XXI.


MAKAUELI, KAUAI.
AFTER my letters from Hawaii, and their narratives
of volcanoes, freshets, and out of the world valleys, you
will think my present letters dull, so I must begin this
one pleasantly, by telling you that though I have no
stirring adventures to relate, I am enjoying myself and
improving again in health, and that the people are hospitable, genial, and cultivated, and that Kauai, though
altogether different from Hawaii, has an extreme beauty
altogether its own, which wins one's love, though it
does not startle one into admiration like that of the
Hawaiian gulches. Is it because that, though the magic
of novelty is over it, there is a perpetual undercurrent
of home resemblance?  The dash of its musical waters
might be in Cumberland; its swelling uplands, with
their clumps of trees, might be in Kent; and then again,
steep, broken, wooded ridges, with glades of grass, suggest the Val Moutiers; and broader sweeps of mountain
outline, the finest scenery of the Alleghanies.
But yet the very things which have a certain tenderness of familiarity, are in a foreign setting. The great
expanse of restful sea, so faintly blue all day, and so
faintly red in the late afternoon, is like no other ocean




300


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXI.


in its unutterable peace; and this joyous, riotous tradewind, which rustles the trees all day, and falls asleep
at night, and cools the air, seems to come from some
widely different laboratory than that in which our vicious
east winds, and damp west winds, and piercing north
winds, and suffocating south winds are concocted. Here
one cannot ride "into the teeth of a north-easter," for
such the trade-wind really is, without feeling at once
invigorated, and wrapped in an atmosphere of balm. It
is not here so tropical looking as in Hawaii, and though
there are not the frightful volcanic wildernesses which
make a thirsty solitude in the centre of that island,
neither are there those bursts of tropical luxuriance
which make every gulch an epitome of Paradise: I
really cannot define the difference, for here, as there,
palms glass themselves in still waters, bananas flourish,
and the forests are green with ferns.
We took three days for our journey of twenty-three
miles from Koloa, the we, consisting of Mrs. —, the
widow of an early missionary teacher, venerable in years
and character, a native boy of ten years old, her squire,
a second Kaluna, without Kaluna's good qualities, and
myself. Mrs. --     is not a bold horsewoman, and preferred to keep to a foot's pace, which fretted my ambitious
animal, whose innocent antics alarmed her in turn. We
only rode seven miles the first day, through a parklike region, very like Western Wisconsin, and just like
what I expected and failed to find in New Zealand.
Grass-land much tumbled about, the turf very fine and
green, dotted over with clumps and single trees, with




LETTER XXI.]


KALUNA THE SECOND.


301


picturesque, rocky hills, deeply cleft by water-courses
were on our right, and on our left the green slopes
blended with the flushed, stony soil near the sea, on
which indigo and various compositte are the chief vegetation. It was hot, but among the hills on our right, cool
clouds were coming down in frequent showers, and the
white foam of cascades gleamed among the ohias, whose
dark foliage at a distance has almost the look of pine
woods.
Our first halting place was one of the prettiest places I
ever saw, a buff frame-house, with a deep verandah
festooned with passion flowers, two or three guest houses
also bright with trailers, scattered about under the trees
near it, a pretty garden, a background of grey rocky hills
cool with woods and ravines, and over all the vicinity,
that air of exquisite trimness which is artificially produced
in England, but is natural here.
Kaluna the Second soon showed symptoms of being
troublesome. The native servants were away, and he
was dull, and for that I pitied him. He asked leave to
go back to Koloa for a "sleeping tapa," which was
refused, and either out of spite or carelessness, instead
of fastening the horses into the pasture, he let them go,
and the following morning when we were ready for our
journey they were lost. Then he borrowed a horse, and
late in the afternoon returned with the four animals, who
were all white with foam and dust, and this escapade
detained us another night. Subsequently, after disobeying orders, he lost his horse, which was a borrowed one,
deserted his mistress, and absconded!




802


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXI.


The slopes over which we travelled were red, hot, and
stony, cleft in one place however, by a green, fertile
valley, full of rice and kalo patches, and native houses,
with a broad river, the Hanapepe, flowing quietly down
the middle, which we forded near the sea, where it was
half-way up my horse's sides. After plodding all day
over stony soil in the changeless sunshine, as the shadows
lengthened, we turned directly up towards the mountains
and began a two hours ascent. It was delicious. They
were so cool, so green, so varied, their grey pinnacles so
splintered, their precipices so abrupt, their ravines so dark
and deep, and their lower slopes covered with the
greenest and finest grass; then dark ohias rose singly,
then in twos and threes, and finally mixed in dense
forest masses, with the pea-green of the kukui.
It became yet lovelier as the track wound through deep
wooded ravines, or snaked along the narrow tops of spinelike ridges; the air became cooler, damper, and more like
elixir, till at a height of 1500 feet we came upon Makaueli,
ideally situated upon an unequalled natural plateau, a
house of patriarchal size for the islands, with a verandah
festooned with roses, fuchsias, the water lemon, and other
passion flowers, and with a large guest-house attached. It
stands on a natural lawn, with abrupt slopes, sprinkled
with orange trees burdened with fruit, ohias, and hibiscus.
From  the back verandah the forest-covered mountains
rise, and in front a deep ravine widens to the grassy
slopes below and the lonely Pacific,-as I write, a golden
sea, on which the island of Niihau, eighteen miles distant,
floats like an amethyst.




LETTER XXI. ]


A PATRIARCHAL HOME.


303


The solitude is perfect. Except the "quarters" at
the back, I think there is not a house, native or foreign,
within six miles, though there are several hundred natives
on the property. Birds sing in the morning, and the
trees rustle throughout the day; but in the cool evenings
the air is perfectly still, and the trickle of a stream is
the only sound.
The house has the striking novelty of a chimney, and
there is a fire all day long in the dining-room.
I must now say a little about my hosts and try to give
you some idea of them. I heard their history from Mr.
Damon, and thought it too strange to be altogether true
until it was confirmed by themselves.*   The venerable lady at the head of the house emigrated from
Scotland to New Zealand many years ago, where her
husband was unfortunately drowned, and she being left
to bring up a large family, and manage a large property,
was equally successful with both. Her great ambition
was to keep her family together, something on the old
patriarchal system; and when her children grew up, and
it seemed as if even their very extensive New Zealand
property was not large enough for them, she sold it, and
embarking her family and moveable possessions on board
a clipper-ship, owned and commanded by one of her
sons-in-law, they sailed through the Pacific in search of a
home where they could remain together.
They were strongly tempted by Tahiti, but some
* These circumstances are well-known throughout the islands, and with
the omission of some personal details, there is nothing which may not be
known by a larger public.




304 '


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXI.


reasons having decided them against it, they sailed northwards and put into Honolulu. Mr. Damon, who was
seaman's chaplain, on going down to the wharf one day,
was surprised to find their trim barque, with this immense
family party on board, with a beautiful and brilliant old
lady at its head, books, pictures, work, and all that could
add refinement to a floating home, about them, and cattle
and sheep of valuable breeds in pens on deck. They
then sailed for British Columbia, but were much disappointed with it, and in three months they re-appeared
at Honolulu, much at a loss regarding their future
prospects.
The island of Niihau was then for sale, and in a very
short time they purchased it of Kamehamneha V. for a
ridiculously low price, and taking their wooden houses with
them, established themselves for seven years. It is truly
isolated, both by a heavy surf and a disagreeable seapassage, and they afterwards bought this beautiful and
extensive property, made a road, and built the house.
Only the second son and his wife live now on Niihau,
where they are the only white residents among 350
natives.  It has an area of 70,000 acres, and could
sustain a far larger number of sheep than the 20,000 now
upon it. It is said that the transfer of the island involved some hardships, owing to a number of the natives
having neglected to legalise their claims to their kuleanas,
but the present possessors have   made themselves
thoroughly acquainted with the language, and take the
warmest interest in the island population.  Niihau is
famous for its very fine mats, and for necklaces of shells




LETTER XXI.]  THE MAKAUELI HOUSEHOLD.


305


six yards long, as well as for the extreme beauty and
variety of the shells which are found there.
The household here consists first and foremost of its
head, Mrs. --, a lady of the old Scotch type, very
talented, bright, humorous, charming, with a definite
character which impresses its force upon everybody;
beautiful in her old age, disdaining that servile conformity
to prevailing fashion which makes many old people at
once ugly and contemptible: speaking English with a
slight, old-fashioned, refined Scotch accent, which gives
naivete to everything she says, up to the latest novelty
in theology and politics: devoted to her children and
grandchildren, the life of the family, and though upwards
of seventy, the first to rise, and the last to retire in the
house. She was away when I came, but some days
afterwards rode up on horseback, in a large drawn silk
bonnet, which she rarely lays aside, as light in her figure
and step as a young girl, looking as if she had walked
out of an old picture, or one of Dean Ramnsay's books.
Then there are her eldest son, a bachelor, two widowed
daughters with six children between them, three of whom
are grown up young men, and a tutor, a young Prussian
officer, who was on Maximilian's staff up to the time of
the Queretaro disaster, and is still suffering from Mexican
barbarities.  The remaining daughter is married to a
Norwegian gentleman, who owns and resides on the next
property. So the family is together, and the property is
large enough to give scope to the grandchildren as they
require it.
They are thoroughly Hawaiianised. The young people
x




306


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXI.


all speak Hawaiian as easily as English, and the three
young men, who are superb young fellows, about six feet
high, not only emulate the natives in feats of horsemanship, such as throwing the lasso, and picking up a coin
while going at full gallop, but are surf-board riders, an
art which it has been said to be impossible for foreigners
to acquire.
The natives on Niihau and il this part of Kauai, call
lMrs. " —   Mama."   Their rent seems to consist in
giving one or more days' service in a month, so it is a
revival of the old feudality. In order to patronise native
labour, my hosts dispense with a Chinese, and employ a
native cook, and native women come in and profess to
do some of the housework, but it is a very troublesome
arrangement, and ends in the ladies doing all the finer
cooking, and superintending the coarser, setting the table,
trimming the lamps, cutting out and "fixing" all the
needlework, besides planning the indoor and outdoor
work which the natives are supposed to do. Having
related their proficiency in domestic duties, I must add
that they are splendid horsewomen, one of them an
excellent shot, and the other has enough practical knowledge of seamanship, as well as navigation, to enable her
to take a ship round the world! It is a busy life, owing
to the large number of natives daily employed, and the
necessity of looking after the native lunas, or overseers.
Dr. Smith at Koloa, twenty-two miles off, is the only
doctor on the island, and the natives resort to this house
in great numbers for advice and medicine in their many
ailments. It is much such a life as people lead at




LETTER XXI.]


A JOYOUS PARTY.


307


Raasay, Applecross, or some other remote Highland
place, only that people who come to visit here, unless
they ride twenty-two miles, must come to the coast in
the Jenny instead of being conveyed by one of David
Hutcheson's luxurious steamers. If the Clanssman were
" put on," probably the great house would not contain
the strangers who would arrive!
We were sitting in the library one morning when Mr.
I., of Timaru, N.Z., rode up with an introduction, and
was of course cordially welcomed. He goes on to England, where you will doubtless cross-question him concerning my statements. During his visit a large party of
us made a delightful expedition to the Hanapepe Falls,
one of the " lions " of Kauai. It is often considered too
"rough " for ladies, and when Mrs. -   and I said we
were going, I saw Mr. M. look as if he thought we should
be a dependent nuisance; I was amused afterwards with
his surprise at Mrs. -- 's courageous horsemanship, and
at his obvious confusion as to whether he should help
us, which question he wisely decided in the negative.
If "happiness is atmosphere," we were surely happy.
The day was brilliant, and as cool as early June at home,
but the sweet, joyous trade-wind could not be brewed
elsewhere than on the Pacific. The scenery was glorious,
and mountains, trees, frolicsome water, and scarlet birds,
all rioted as if in conscious happiness. Existence was a
luxury, and reckless riding a mere outcome of the animal
spirits of horses and riders, and the thud of the shoeless
feet as the horses galloped over the soft grass was sweeter
than music. I could hardly hold my horse at all, and
x 2




HAWAII.


[LETTER XXI.


down hills as steep as the east side of Arthur's Seat, over
knife-like ridges too narrow for two to ride abreast, and
along side-tracks only a foot wide, we rode at full gallop,
till we pulled up at the top of a descent of 2,000 feet
with a broad, rapid river at its feet, emerging from
between colossal walls of rock to girdle a natural lawn of
the bright marnienie grass. There had been a " drive "
of horses, and numbers of these, with their picturesque
saddles, were picketed there, while their yet more picturesque, scarlet-shirted riders lounged in the sun.
It was a difficult two hours' ride from thence to the
Falls, worthy of Hawaii, and since my adventures in the
Hilo gulches I cannot cross running water without feeling
an amount of nervousness which I can conceal, but cannot reason myself out of. In going and returning, we
forded the broad, rugged river twenty-six times, always
in water up to my horse's girths, and the bottom was so
rocky and full of holes, and the torrent so impetuous,
that the animals floundered badly and evidently disliked
the whole affair. Once it had been possible to ride along
the edge, but the river had torn away what there was of
margin in a freshet, so that we had to cross perpetually,
to attain the rough, boulder-strewn strips which lay
between the cliffs and itself. Sometimes we rode over
roundish boulders like those on the top of Ben Cruachan,
or like those of the landing at Iona, and most of
those under the rush of the bright foaming water were
covered with a silky green weed, on which the horses
slipped alarmingly.  My companions always took the
lead, and by the time that each of their horses had




LETTER XXr. ]


A TYPICAL CANON.


309


struggled, slipped, and floundered in and out of holes,
and breasted and leapt up steep banks, I was ready to
echo Mr. M.'s exclamation regarding Mrs. -,   I
never saw such riding; I never saw ladies with such
nerve."  I certainly never saw people encounter such
difficulties for the sake of scenery.  Generally, a fall
would be regarded as practically inaccessible which could
only be approached in such a way.
I will not inflict another description of similar scenery
upon you, but this, though perhaps exceeding all others
in beauty, is not only a type, perhaps the finest type, of
a species of canion very common on these islands, but is
also so interesting geologically that you must tolerate
a very few words upon it.
The valley for two or three miles from the sea is nearly
level, very fertile, and walled in by palis 250 feet high,
much grooved vertically, and presenting fine layers of
conglomerate and grey basalt; and the Hanapdpe winds
quietly through the region which it fertilises, a stream
several hundred feet wide, with a soft, smooth bottom.
But four miles inland the bed becomes rugged and declivitous, and the mountain walls close in, forming a most
magnificent canon from 1,000 to 2,500 feet deep. Other
canions of nearly equal beauty descend to swell the Hanapdpe with their clear, cool, tributaries, and there are
" meetings of the waters" worthier of verse than those
of Avoca. The walls are broken and highly fantastic,
narrowing here, receding there, their strangely-arched
recesses festooned with the feathery trichomanes, their
clustering columns and broken buttresses suggesting




310


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXI.


some old-world minster, and their stately tiers of
columnar basalt rising one above another in barren grey
into the far-off blue sky. The river in carving out the
gorge so grandly has most energetically removed all rubbish, and even the tributaries of the lateral canons do
not accumulate any " wash " in the main bed. The walls
as a rule rise clear from the stream, which, besides its
lateral tributaries, receives other contributions in the
form of waterfalls, which hurl themselves into it from
the cliffs in one leap.
After ascending it for four miles all further progress was
barred by a pali which curves round from the right, and
closes the chasm with a perpendicular wall, over which
the Hanapepe precipitates itself from a height of 326
feet, forming the Koula Falls. At the summit is a very
fine entablature of curved columnar basalt, resembling
the clam shell cave at Staffa, and two high, sharp, and
impending peaks on the other side form a stately gateway
for a stream which enters from another and broader
valley; but it is but one among many small cascades,
which round the arc of the falls flash out in foam among
the dark foliage, and contribute their tiny warble to the
diapason of the waterfall. It rewards one well for penetrating the deep gash which has been made into the
earth. It seemed so very far away from all buzzing,
frivolous, or vexing things, in the cool, dark abyss into
which only the noon-day sun penetrates. All beautiful
things which love damp; all exquisite, tender ferns and
mosses; all shade-loving parasites flourish there in
perennial beauty. And high above in the sunshine, the




LETTER XXI.]  INHUMANITY TO HORSES.


311


pea-green candle-nut struggles with the dark ohia for precarious roothold on rocky ledges, and dense masses of
Eugenia, aflame with crimson flowers, and bananas, and
all the leafy wealth born of heat and damp fill up the
clefts which fissure the pali. Every now and then some
scarlet tropic bird flashed across the shadow, but it was
a very lifeless and a very silent scene. The arches, buttresses, and columns suggest a temple, and the deep tone
of the fall is as organ music. It is all beauty, solemnity,
and worship.
It was sad to leave it and to think how very few eyes
can ever feast themselves on its beauty. We came back
again into gladness and sunshine, and to the vulgar
necessity of eating, which the natives ministered to by
presenting us with a substantial meal of stewed fowls and
sweet potatoes at the nearest shanty. There must have
been something intoxicating in the air, for we rode wildly
and recklessly, galloping down steep hills (which on
principle I object to), and putting our horses to their
utmost speed. Mine ran off with me several times, and
once nearly upset Mr. M.'s horse, as he probably will tell
you.
The natives annoy me everywhere by their inhumanity
to their horses. To-day I became an object of derision
to them for hunting for sow-thistles, and bringing back a
large bundle of them to my excellent animal. They
starve their horses from mere carelessness or laziness,
spur them mercilessly, when the jaded, famished things
almost drop from exhaustion, ride them with great sores
under the saddles, and with their bodies deeply cut with




312


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXI.


the rough girths; and though horses are not regarded
as more essential in any part of the world, they neglect
and maltreat them in every way, and laugh scornfully if
one shows any consideration for them. Except for short
shopping distances in Honolulu, I have never seen a
native man or woman walking. They think walking a
degradation, and I have seen men take the trouble to
mount horses to go 100 yards.
I have no time to tell you of a three days' expedition
which five of us made into the heart of the nearer mountainous district, attended by some mounted natives. Mr.
K., from whose house we started, has the finest mango
grove on the islands. It is a fine foliaged tree, but is
everywhere covered with a black blight, which gives the
groves the appearance of being in mourning, as the tough,
glutinous film covers all the older leaves. The mango
is an exotic fruit, and people think a great deal of it, and
send boxes of mangoes as presents to their friends. It
is yellow, with a reddish bloom, something like a magnum
bonum plum, three times magnified. The only way of
eating it in comfort is to have a tub of water beside you.
It should be eaten in private by any one who wants to
retain the admiration of his friends. It has an immense
stone, and a disproportionately small pulp. I think it
tastes strongly of turpentine at first, but this is a
heresy.
Beyond Waielva and its mango groves there is a very
curious sand bank about 60 feet high, formed by wind
and currents, and of a steep, uniform angle from top to
bottom. It is very coarse sand, composed of shells, coral,




LETTER XXI.]  THE BLESSING OF PLENTY.


313


and lava. When two handfuls are slapped together, a
sound like the barking of a dog ensues, hence its name,
the Barking Sands. It is a common amusement with
strangers to slide their horses down the steep incline,
which produces a sound like subterranean thunder,
which terrifies unaccustomed animals. Besides this phenomenon, the mirage is often seen on the dry, hot soil,
and so perfectly, too, that strangers have been known to
attempt to ride round the large lake which they saw
before them.
Pleasant as our mountain trip was, both in itself, and
as a specimen of the way in which foreigners recreate
themselves on the islands, I was glad to get back to the
broad Waimea, on which long shadows of palms reposed
themselves in the slant sunshine, and in the short red
twilight to arrive at this breezy height, and be welcomed
by a blazing fire.
Mrs. -, in speaking of the mode of living here,
was telling me that on a recent visit to England she felt
depressed the whole time by what appeared to her "the
scarcity " in the country. I never knew the meaning of
the Old Testament blessing of "plenty" and "bread to
the full" till I was in abundant Victoria, and it is much
the same here. At home we know nothing of this, which
was one of the chiefest of the blessings promised in the
Old Testament. Its genialising effect is very obvious.
A man feels more practically independent, I think, when
he can say to all his friends, " Drop in to dinner whenever you like," than if he possessed the franchise six times
over; and people can indulge in hospitality and exercise




314                    HAWAII.             [LETTER XXI.
the franchise, too, here, for meat is only twopence a
pound, and bananas can be got for the gathering. The
ever-increasing cost of food with us makes free-hearted
hospitality an impossibility, and withers up all those
kindly instincts which find expression in housing and
feeding both friends and strangers.
I. L. B.




LETTER XXII.


LIHUE. KAUAI.
I RODE from Makaueli to Dr. Smith's, at Koloa, with
two native attendants, a luna to sustain my dignity, and
an inferior native to carry my carpet-bag. Horses are
ridden with curb-bits here, and I had only brought a
light snaffle, and my horse ran away with me again on
the road, and when he stopped at last, these men rode
alongside of me, mimicking me, throwing themselves
back with their feet forwards, tugging at their bridles,
and shrieking with laughter, exclaiming Maikai Maikai!
(good).
I remained several days at Koloa, and would gladly
have accepted the hospitable invitation to stay as many
weeks, but for a cowardly objection to " beating to windward" in the Jenny. The scenery in the Koloa woods is
exquisitely beautiful. Such supreme beauty produces on
me some of the effects which fine music has upon those
who have an exquisite sense of it.  It speaks in a
language of its own, like music, and is equally untranslatable.
One day, the girls asked me to go with them to the forests
and return by moonlight, but they only spoke of them as
the haunts of ferns, because they supposed that I should




316


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXII.


think nothing of them after the forests of Australia and
New Zealand! They were not like the tropical woods of
Hawaii, and owe more to the exceeding picturesqueness
of the natural scenery. Hawaii is all domes and humps,
Kauai all peaks and sierras. There were deep ravines,
along which bright fern-shrouded streams brawled among
wild bananas, overarched by Eugenias, with their gory
blossoms: walls of peaks, and broken precipices, grey
ridges rising out of the blue forest gloom, high mountains with mists wreathing their spiky summits, for a
background: gleams of a distant silver sea: and the nearer
many-tinted woods were not matted together in jungle
fashion, but festooned and adorned with numberless
lianas, and even the prostrate trunks of fallen trees took
on new beauty from the exquisite ferns which covered
them.   Long cathedral aisles stretched away in far-off
vistas, and so perfect at times was the Gothic illusion,
that I found myself listening for anthems and the roll of
organs. So cool and moist it was, and triumphantly
redundant in vagaries of form and greenery, it was a forest
of forests, and it became a necessity to return the next
day, and the next; and I think if I had remained at
Koloa I should have been returning still.
This place is outside the beauty, among cane-fields,
and is much swept by the trade winds. Mr. Rice, my
host, is the son of an esteemed missionary, and he and
his wife take a deep interest in the natives. When he
brought her here as a bride a few months ago, the natives
were so delighted that he had married an island lady who
could speak Hawaiian, that they gave them an ahaaina,




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LETTER XXII.]


A NATIVE FEAST.


317


or native feast, on a grand scale. The food was cooked
in Polynesian style, by being wrapped up in greens called
luau, and baked underground. There were two bullocks,
nineteen hogs, a hundred fowls, any quantity of poi and
fruit, and innumerable native dishes.  Five hundred
natives, profusely decorated with leis of flowers and
nailf, were there, and each brought a gift for the bride.
After the feast they chaunted meles in praise of Mr. Rice,
and Mrs. Rice played to them on her piano, an instrument which they had not seen before, and sang songs to
them  in Hawaiian. Mr. and Mrs. R. teach in and
superintend a native Sunday-school, and have enlisted
twenty native teachers, and in order to keep up the
interest and promote cordial feeling, they and the other
teachers meet once a month for a regular teachers'
meeting, taking the houses in rotation. Refreshments
are served afterwards, and they say that nothing can be
more agreeable than the good feeling at the meetings,
and the tact and graceful hospitality which prevail at
the subsequent entertainments.
The Hawaiians are a most pleasant people to foreigners,
but many of their ways are altogether aggravating.
Unlike the Chinamen, they seldom  do a thing right
twice. In my experience, they have almost never saddled
and bridled my horse quite correctly. Either a strap
has been left unbuckled, or the blanket has been wrinkled
under the saddle. They are too easy to care much about
anything. If any serious loss arises to themselves or
others through their carelessness, they shrug their
shoulders, and say, "What does it matter?"    Any
trouble is just a pilikia. They can't help it. If they




318


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXII.


lose your horse from neglecting to tether it, they only
laugh when they find you are wanting to proceed on your
journey.  Time, they think, is nothing to any one.
" What's the use of being in a hurry? "  Their neglect
of their children, a cause from which a large proportion
of the few born perish, is a part of this universal carelessness.  The crime of infanticide, which formerly
prevailed to a horrible extent, has long been extinct;
but the love of pleasure and the dislike of trouble which
partially actuated it, are apparently still stronger among
the women than the maternal instinct, and they do not
take the trouble necessary to rear their infants. They
give their children away, too, to a great extent, and I
have heard of instances in which children have been so
passed from hand to hand, that they are quite ignorant
of their real parents. It is an odd caprice in some cases,
that women who have given away their own children are
passionately attached to those whom they have received as presents, but I have nowhere seen such tenderness lavished upon infants as upon the pet dogs that
the women carry about with them. Though they are so
deficient in adhesiveness to family ties, that wives seek
other husbands, and even children desert their parents
for adoptive homes, the tie of race is intensely strong,
and they are remarkably affectionate to each other,
sharing with each other food, clothing, and all that they
possess. There are no paupers among them   but the
lunatics and the lepers, and vagrancy is unknown.
Happily on these sunny shores no man or woman can be
tempted into sin by want.
With all their faults, and their intolerable carelessness,




LETTER XXIL.]


MISSIONARY MATTERS.


319


all the foreigners like them, partly from the absolute
security which they enjoy among them. They are so
thoroughly good-natured, mirthful, and friendly, and so
ready to enter heart and soul into all haole diversions,
that the islands would be dreary indeed if the dwindling
race became extinct.
Among the many misfortunes of the islands, it has
been a fortunate thing that the missionaries' families
have turned out so well, and that there is no ground for
the common reproach that good men's sons turn out
reprobates.
The Americans show their usual practical sagacity
in missionary matters.  In 1853, when these islands
were nominally Christianised, and a native ministry
consisting of fifty-six pastors had been established, the
American Board of Missions, which had expended during
thirty-five years nine hundred and three thousand dollars
in Christianising the group, and had sent out 149 male and
female missionaries, resolved that it should not receive
any further aid either in men or money.
In the early days, the King and chiefs had bestowed
lands upon the Mission, on which substantial mission
premises had been erected, and on withdrawing from the
islands, the Board wisely made over these lands to the
Mission families as fieehold property. The result has
been that, instead of a universal migration of the young
people to America, numbers of them have been attached
to Hawaiian soil. The establishment at an early date of
Punahou College, at which for a small sum both boys
and girls receive a first-class English education, also




320


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIT.


contributed to retain them on the islands, and numbers
of the young men entered into sugar-growing, cattleraising, storekeeping, and other businesses here.  At
Honolulu and Hilo a large proportion of the residents of
the upper class are missionaries' children; most of the
respectable foreigners on Kauai are either belonging to,
or intimately connected with, the Mission families; and
they are profusely scattered through Maui and Hawaii in
various capacities, and are bound to each other by ties of
extreme intimacy and friendliness, as well as by marriage
and affinity.  This "clan" has given society what it
much wants-a sound moral core, and in spite of all
disadvantageous influences, has successfully upheld a
public opinion in favour of religion and virtue.  The
members of it possess the moral backbone of New
England, and its solid good qualities, a thorough knowledge of the language and habits of the natives, a hereditary interest in them, a solid education, and in many
cases much general culture.
In former letters I have mentioned Mr. Coan and Mr.
Lyons as missionaries.  I must correct this, as there
have been no actual missionaries on the islands for
twenty years. When the Board withdrew its support,
many of the missionaries returned to America; some,
especially the secular members, went into other positions
on the group, while the two first-mentioned and two or
three besides, remained as pastors of native congregations.
I venture to think that the Board has been premature
in transferring the islands to a native pastorate at such




LETTER XXII.]        A MISTAKE.                   321
a very early stage of their Christianity.     Such  a
pastorate must be too feeble to uphold a robust
Christian standard. As an adjunct it would be essential to the stability of native Christianity, but it is not
possible that it can be trusted as the sole depository
of doctrine and discipline, and even were it all it ought
to be, it would lack the power to repress the lax morality
which is ruining the nation. Probably each year will
render the overhaste of this course more apparent, and
it is likely that some other mode of upholding pure
Christianity will have to be adopted, when the venerable
men who now sustain and guide the native pastors by
their influence shall have been gathered to their rest.
I. L. B. 




LETTER XXIII.
LIHUE. KAUAI, April 17.
BEFORE leaving Kauai I must tell you of a solitary
expedition I have just made to the lovely valley of Hanalei. It was only a three days' "frolic," but an essentially
"good time."  Mr. Rice provided me with a horse and a
very pleasing native guide. I did not leave till two in the
afternoon, as I only intended to ride fifteen miles, and, as
the custom is, ask for a night's lodging at a settler's house.
However, as I drew near Mr. B.'s ranch, I felt my false
courage oozing out of the tips of my fingers, and as I rode
up to the door, certain obnoxious colonial words, such as
" sundowners," and " bummers," occurred to me, and I
felt myself a "sundowner" when the host came out and
asked me to dismount. He said he was sorry his wife
was away, but he would do his best for me in her absence,
and took me down to a room where a very rough-looking
man was tenderly nursing a baby a year old, which was
badly burned or scalded, and which began to cry violently
at my entrance, and required the united efforts of the two
bereaved men to pacify it. They had the charge of it
between them. I took it while they went to make some
tea, and it kicked, roared, and fought until they came
back. By that time I had prepared a neat little speech,
saying that I was not the least tired, and would only




LETrER XXIII.]


AN EVENING RIDE.


323


trouble them for a glass of water; and, having covered
my cowardice successfully, I went on, having been urged.by the hospitable ranchman to be sure to stay for the
night at his father-in-law's house, a few miles further on.
I saw that the wishes of the native went in the same
direction, but after my one experience I assured myself
that I had not the necessary nerve for this species of
mendicancy, and went on as fast as the horse could gallop
wherever the ground admitted of it, the scenery becoming
more magnificent as the dark, frowning mountains of
Hanalei loomed through the gathering twilight.
But they were fifteen miles off, and on the way we
came to a broad, beautiful ravine, through which a broad,
deep river glided into the breakers. I had received some
warnings about this, but it was supposed that we could
cross in a ferry scow, of which, however, I only found the
bones. The guide and the people at the ferryman's house
talked long without result, but eventually, by many signs,
I contrived to get them to take me over in a crazy punt,
half full of water, and the horses swam across. Before
we reached the top of the ravine, the last redness of twilight had died from off the melancholy ocean, the black
forms of mountains looked huge in the darkness, and the
wind sighed so eerily through the creaking lauhalas, as
to add much to the effect. It became so very dark that
I could only just see my horse's ears, and we found ourselves occasionally in odd predicaments, such as getting
into crevices, or dipping off from steep banks; and it was
in dense darkness that we arrived above what appeared to
be a valley with twinkling lights, lying at the foot of a
Y 2




324


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIII.


precipice, and walled in on all sides but one by lofty
mountains. It was rather queer, diving over the wooded
pali on a narrow track, with nothing in sight but the
white jacket of the native, who had already indicated that
he was at the end of his resources regarding the way, but
just as a river gleamed alarmingly through the gloom, a
horseman on a powerful horse brushed through the wood,
and on being challenged in Hawaiian replied in educated
English, and very politely turned with me, and escorted
me over a disagreeable ferry in a scow without rails, and
to my destination, two miles beyond.
Yesterday, when I left, the morning was brilliant, and
after ascending the pali, I stayed for some time on an
eminence which commands the valley, presented by Mr.
Wyllie to Lady Franklin, in compliment to her admiration
of its loveliness. Hanalei has been likened by some to
Paradise, and by others to the Vale of Caschmir. Everyone who sees it raves about it. "See Hanalei and die,"
is the feeling of the islanders, and certainly I was not
disappointed, nor should I be with Paradise itself were it
even a shade less fair! It has every element of beauty,
and in the bright sunshine, with the dark shadows on the
mountains, the waterfalls streaking their wooded sides,
the river rushing under ukkuis and ohias, and then lingering lovingly amidst living greenery, it looked as if the
curse had never lighted there.
Its mouth, where it opens on the Pacific, is from two
to three miles wide, but the boundary mountains gradually
approach each other, so that five miles from the sea a narrow gorge of wonderful beauty alone remains. The crystal




LETTER XXIII.]


A VISION OF PARADISE.


325


Hanalei flows placidly to the sea for the last three or four
miles, tired by its impetuous rush from the mountains,
and mirrors on its breast hundreds of acres of cane, growing on a plantation formerly belonging to Mr. Wyllie, an
enterprising Ayrshire man, and one of the ablest and
most disinterested foreigners who ever administered Hawaiian affairs. Westward of the valley there is a region
of mountains, slashed by deep ravines. The upper ridges
are densely timbered, and many of the ohias have a circumference of twenty-five feet, three feet from the ground.
It was sad to turn away for ever from the loveliness of
Hanalei, even though by taking another route, which involved a ride of forty miles, I passed through and in view
of, most entrancing picturesqueness. Indeed, for mere
loveliness, I think that part of Kauai exceeds anything
that I have seen.
The atmosphere and scenery were so glorious that it was
possible to think of nothing all day, but just allow oneself
passively to drink in sensations of exquisite pleasure. I
wish all the hard-worked people at home, who lead joyless
lives in sunless alleys, could just have one such day, and
enjoy it as I did, that they might know how fair God's
earth is, and how far fairer His Paradise must be, if even
from this we cannot conceive "of the things which He
hath prepared for them that love Him." I never before
felt so sad for those whose lives are passed amidst unpropitious surroundings, or so thankful for my own capacity of enjoying nature.
Just as we were coming up out of a deep river, a native
riding about six feet from me was caught in a quicksand.




326


HA~WAII.


[LETTERl XXII1.


He jumped off, but the horse sank half way up its body.
I wanted to stay and see it extricated, for its struggles
only sank it deeper, but the natives shrugged their
shoulders, and said in Hawaiian, "only a horse," and
something they always say when anything happens, equivalent to " What's the odds? " It was a joyously-exciting
day, and I was galloping down a grass hill at a pace which
I should not have assumed had white people been with
me, when a native rode up to me and said twice over,
"maikai! paniola," and laughed heartily. When my
native came up, he pointed to me and again said "paniola;" and afterwards we were joined by two women, to
whom my guide spoke of me as paniola; and on coming
to the top of a hill they put their horses into a gallop,
and we all rode down at a tremendous, and, as I should
once have thought, a break-neck speed, when one of the
women patted me on the shoulder, exclaiming, " mai7ai!
maikai! paniola." I thought they said " spaniola," taking
me for a Spaniard, but on reaching Lihue, and asking the
meaning of the word, Mrs. Rice said, " Oh, lassoing
cattle, and all that kind of thing." I was disposed to
accept the inference as a compliment; but when I told
Mrs. R. that the word had been applied to myself, she
laughed very much, and said she would have toned down
its meaning had she known that!
We rode through forests lighted up by crimson flowers,
through mountain valleys greener than Alpine meadows,
descended steep palis, and forded deep, strong rivers,
pausing at the beautiful Wailua Falls, which leap in a
broad sheet of foam and a heavy body of water into a dark




LETTER XXIII.]


MAUNA KALALEA.


327


basin, walled in by cliffs so hard that even the ferns and
mosses which revel in damp, fail to find roothold in the
naked rock. Both above and below, this river passes
through a majestic canion, and its neighbourhood abounds
in small cones, some with crateriform cavities at the top,
some broken down, and others, apparently of great age,
wooded to their summits. A singular ridge, called
Mauna Kalalea, runs along this part of the island, picturesque beyond anything, and, from its abruptness and
peculiar formation, it deceives the eye into judging it to
be as high as the gigantic domes of Hawaii. Its peaks
are needle-like, or else blunt projections of columnar
basalt, rising ofttimes as terraces. At a beautiful village
called Anahola the ridge terminates abruptly, and its
highest portion is so thin that a large patch of sky can be
seen through a hole which has been worn in it.
I reached Lihue by daylight, having established my
reputation as a paniola by riding forty miles in 71 hours,
"very good time " for the islands. I hope to return
here in August, as my hospitable friends will not allow
me to leave on any other condition. The kindness I
have received on Kauai is quite overwhelming, and I shall
remember its refined and virtuous homes as long as its
loveliness and delicious climate.
HAWAIIAN HOTEL. HONOLULU. April 23rd.
I have nothing new to add. Mr. Dexter is so far
recovered that I fear I shall not find my friends here
on my return.  People are in the usual fever about the
mail, and I must close this.             I. L. B.




LETTER XXIV.


ULUPALAKUA. MAUI. May 12th.
IT is three weeks since I left the Hawaiian Hotel and
its green mist of algarobas, but my pleasant visits in this
island do not furnish much that will interest you. There
was great excitement on the wharf at Honolulu the evening I left. It was crowded with natives, the king's band
was playing, old hags were chanting mrels, and several
of the royal family, and of the "upper ten thousand"
were there, taking leave of the Governess of Hawaii, the
Princess Keelikolani, the late king's half-sister.  The
throng and excitement were so great, that we were outside the reef before I got a good view of this lady, the
largest and the richest woman on the islands. Her size and
appearance are most unfortunate, but she is said to be
good and kind. She was dressed in a very common black
holuku, with a red bandana round her throat, round
which she wore a l6of immense oleanders, as well as round
her hair, which was cut short. She had a large retinue,
and her female attendants all wore leis of oleander. They
spread very fine mats on the deck, under pulu beds,
covered with gorgeous quilts, on which the Princess and
her suite slept, and in the morning the beds were removed, breakfast was spread on the mats, and she, some
of her attendants, and two or three white men who re



LETTER XXIV.]  THE PRINCESS KEELIKOLANI.


ceived invitations, sat on the deck round it. It was a far
less attractive meal than that which the serene steward
served below. The calabashes, which contained the pale
pink poi, were of highly polished kou wood, but there
were no foreign refinements. The other dishes were
several kinds of raw fish, dried devil-fish, boiled kalo,
sweet potatoes, bananas, and cocoa-nut milk.
I had a very uncomfortable night on a mattress on the
deck, which was overcrowded with natives, and some of
the native women and two foreigners had got a whiskey
bottle, and behaved disgracefully. We went round by the
Leper Island.
I landed at Maaleia, on the leeward side of the sandy
isthmus which unites East and West Maui, got a good
horse, and, with Mr. G —, rode across to the residence
of "Father Alexander," at Wailuku, a flourishing district of sugar plantations. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander were
among the early missionaries, and still live on the mission
premises. Several of their sons are settled on the island
in the sugar business, and it was to the Heiku plantation,
fifteen miles off, of which Mr. S. Alexander is manager,
that I went on the following day, still escorted by Mr.
G —. Here we heard that captains of schooners which
had arrived from Hawaii, report that a light is visible on
the terminal crater of Mauna Loa, 14,000 feet above the
sea, that Kilauea, the flank crater, is unusually active, and
that several severe shocks of earthquake have been felt.
This is exciting news.
Behind Wailuku is the Iao valley, up which I rode
with two island friends, and spent a day of supreme,




330


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIV.


satisfied admiration.  At Iao people may throw away
pen and pencil in equal despair. The trail leads down a
gorge dark with forest trees, and then opens out into an
amphitheatre, walled in by precipices, from three to six
thousand feet high, misty with a thousand waterfalls,
plumed with kukuis, and feathery with ferns. A greenclad needle of stone, one thousand feet in height, the last
refuge of an army routed when the Wailuku (waters of
destruction) ran red with blood, keeps guard over the
valley. Other needles there are; and mimic ruins of
bastions and ramparts and towers came and passed
mysteriously: and the shining fronts of turrets gleamed
through trailing mists, changing into drifting visions
of things that came and went, in sunshine and shadow,
mountains raising battered peaks into a cloudless sky,
green crags moist with ferns, and mists of water that
could not fall, but frittered themselves away on slopes of
maiden-hair, and depths of forest and ferns through which
bright streams warble through the summer years. Clouds
boiling up from below drifted at times across the mountain
fronts, or lay like snow masses in the unsunned chasms:
and over the grey crags and piled up pinnacles, and
glorified green of the marvellous vision, lay a veil of thin
blue haze, steeping the whole in a serenity which seemed
hardly to belong to earth.
The track from Wailuku to Heiku is over a Sahara
in miniature, a dreary expanse of sand and shifting sandhills, with a dismal growth in some places of thornless
thistles and indigo, and a tremendous surf thunders on
the margin. Trackless, glaring, choking, a guide is ab



LETTER XXIV.]


AN ISLAND SAHARA.


331


solutely necessary to a stranger, for the footprints or
wheel-marks of one moment are obliterated the next. I
crossed the isthmus three times, and the third time was
quite as incapable of shaping my course across it as the
first, and though I had recklessly declined a guide, was
only too thankful for the one who was forced upon me.
It is a hateful ride, yet anything so hideous and aggressively odious is a salutary experience in a land of so
much beauty. Sand, sand, sand!    Sand-hills, smooth
and red; sand plains, rippled, white, and glaring; sand
drifts shifting; sand clouds whirling; sand in your eyes,
nose, and mouth; sand stinging your face like pin points;
sand hiding even your horse's ears; sand rippling like
waves, hissing like spin-drift, malignant, venomous!
You can only open one eye at a time for a wink at where
you are going. Looking down upon it from Heiku, you
can see nothing all day but the dense brown clouds of a
perpetual sand-storm.
My charming hostess and her husband made Heiku so
fascinating, that I only quitted it hoping to return. The
object which usually attracts strangers to Maui is the
great dead volcano of Haleakala, "The house of the,
sun," and I was fortunate in all the circumstances of my
ascent. My host at Heiku provided me with a horse and
native attendant, and I rode over the evening before to
the house of his brother, Mr. J. Alexander, who accompanied me, and his intelligent and cultured society was
one of the pleasures of the day.
People usually go up in the afternoon, camp near the
summit, light a fire, are devoured by fleas, roast and




332


IAWAII.


[LETTER XXIV.


freeze alternately till morning, and get up to see the grand
spectacle of the sunrise, but I think our plan preferable, of leaving at two in the morning. The moon
had set. It was densely dark, and it was raining on
one side of the road, though quite fine on the other. By
the lamplight which streamed from our early breakfast
table, I only saw wet mules and horses, laden with gear
for a mountain ascent, a trim little Japanese, who darted
about helping, my native, who was picturesquely dressed
in a Mexican poncho, Mr. Alexander, who wore something which made him unrecognisable; and myself, a
tatterdemalion figure, wearing a much-worn green topcoat of his over my riding suit, and a tartan shawl
arranged so as to fall nearly to my feet. Then we went
forth into the darkness. The road soon degenerated into
a wood road, then into a bridle track, then into a mere
trail ascending all the way; and at dawn, when the rain
was over, we found ourselves more than half-way up the
mountain, amidst rocks, scoriTe, tussocks, ohelos, a few
common composite, and a few coarse ferns and woody
plants, which became coarser and scantier the higher we
went up, but never wholly ceased; for, at the very summit, 10,200 feet high, there are some tufts of grass, and
stunted specimens of a common asplenium in clefts.
Many people suffer from mountain sickness on this as-,cent, but I suffered from nothing but the excruciating
ecold, which benumbed my limbs and penetrated to my
bones; and though I dismounted several times and tried
to walk, uphill exercise was impossible in the rarefied
air. The atmosphere was but one degree below the




I




t:                                                                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~t................... 
i                                                                                                        111i        11~~~~~~~~~~~~~C




LETTER. XXIV.]


CRATER OF HALEAKALA.


333


freezing-point, but at that height, a brisk breeze on soaked
clothes was scarcely bearable.
The sunrise turned the densely packed clouds below
into great rosy masses, which broke now and then,
showing a vivid blue sea, and patches of velvety green.
At seven, after toiling over a last steep bit, among scoriae,
and some very scanty and unlovely vegetation, we reached
what was said to be the summit, where a ragged wall of
rock shut out the forward view. Dismounting on some
cinders, we stepped into a gap, and from thence looked
down into the most gigantic crater on the earth. I confess that with the living fires of Kilauea in my memory, I
was at first disappointed with the deadness of a volcano of
whose activity there are no traditions extant. Though
during the hours which followed, its majesty and wonderment grew upon me, yet a careful study of the admirable
map of the crater, a comparison of the heights of the
very considerable cones which are buried within it, and
the attempt to realize the figures which represent its
circumference, area, and depth, not only give a far better
idea of it than any verbal description, but impress its
singular sublimity and magnitude upon one far more
forcibly than a single visit to the actual crater.
I mentioned in one of my first letters that East Maui,
that part of the island which lies east of the isthmus of
perpetual dust-storms, consists of a mountain dome
10,000 feet in height, with a monstrous base. Its slopes
are very regular, varying from eight to ten degrees. Its
lava-beds differ from those of Kauai and Oahu in being
lighter in colour, less cellular, and more impervious to




334


HAWAII.


[LET1'ER XXIV.


water. The windward side of the mountain is gashed
and slashed by streams, which in their violence have
excavated large pot-holes, which serve as reservoirs, and
it is covered to a height of over 2000 feet by a luxuriant
growth of timber. On the leeward side, several black
and very fresh-looking streams of lava run into the sea,:and the whole coast' for some height above the shore
shows most vigorous volcanic action.  Elsewhere the
rock is red and broken, and lateral cones abound near
the base.
The ascent from Makawao, though it is over rather a
desolate tract of land, has in its lower stages such a
dismal growth of pining koa and spurious sandal-wood,
and in its upper ones so much ohelo scrub, with grass
and common aspleniums quite up to the top, that as one
sits lazily on one's sure-footed horse, the fact that one
is ascending a huge volcano is not forced upon one by
any overmastering sterility and nakedness. Somehow,
one expects to pass through some ulterior stage of blackhess up to the summit. It is no such thing; and the
great surprise of Haleakala to me was, that when according to calculation there should have been a summit, an
abyss of vast dimensions opened below. The mountain
top has been in fact blown off, and one is totally powerless to imagine what the forces must have been which
rent it asunder.
The crater was clear of fog and clouds, and lighted in
every part by the risen sun. The whole, with its contents, can be seen at a single glance, though its girdling
precipices are nineteen miles in  extent.  Its huge,




LETTER XXIV.]


INTERIOR OF THE CRATER.


335


irregular floor is 2000 feet below; New York might be
hidden away within it, with abundant room to spare; and
more than one of the numerous subsidiary cones which
uplift themselves solitary or in clusters through the area,
attain the height of Arthur's Seat at Edinburgh. On the
north and east are the Koolau and Kaupo Gaps, as deep
as the crater, through which oceans of lava found their
way to the sea. It looks as if the volcanic forces, content with rending the mountain top in twain, had then
passed into an endless repose.
The crater appears to be composed of a hard grey
clinkstone, much fissured; but lower down the mountain,
the rock is softer, and has a bluish tinge. The internal
cones are of very regular shape, and most of them look as if
their fires had only just gone out, with their sides fiercely
red, and their central cavities lined with layers of black
ash. They are all composed of cinders of light specific
gravity, and much of the ash is tinged with the hydrated
oxide of iron. Very few of the usual volcanic products
are present.* Small quantities of sulphur, in a very
impure form, exist here and there, but there are no
sulphur or steam-cracks, or hot springs on any part of
the mountain.   With its cold ashes and dead force, it is
a most tremendous spectacle of the power of fire.
Some previous travellers had generously left some
faggots on the summit, and we made a large fire for
* According to Mr. Brigham, the products of the Hawaiian volcanoes
are: native sulphur, pyrites, salt, sal anlmoniac, hydrochloric acid,
haematite, sulphurous acid, sulphuric acid, quartz, crystals, palagonite,
feldspar, chrysolite, Thompsonite, gypsum, solfatarite, copperas, nitre,
arragonite, Labradorite, limonite.




336


IIAWAII.


[LETTER XXIV.


warmth, and I rolled my blanket round me, and sat with
my feet among the hot embers, but all to no purpose.
The wind was strong and keen, and the fierce splendour
of the tropic sun conveyed no heat. Mr. A. went away
investigating, the native rolled himself in his poncho and
fell asleep by the fire, and I divided the time between
glimpses into the awful desolation of the crater, snatched
between the icy gusts of wind, and the enjoyment of the
wonderful cloud scenery which to everybody is a great
charm of the view from Haleakala. The day was perfect; for first we had an inimitable view of the crater
and all that could be seen from the mountain-top, and
then an equally inimitable view of Cloudland. There
was the gaunt, hideous, desolate abyss, with its fiery
cones, its rivers and surges of black lava and grey ash,
crossing and mingling all over the area, mixed with
splotches of colour and coils of satin rock, its walls dark
and frowning, everywhere riven and splintered, and clouds
perpetually drifting in through the great gaps, and filling
up the whole crater with white swirling masses, which
in a few minutes melted away in the sunshine, leaving it
all as sharply definite as before. Before noon clouds
surrounded the whole mountain, not in the vague flocculent, meaningless masses one usually sees, but in Arctic
oceans, where lofty icebergs, floes and pack, lay piled on
each other, glistening with the frost of a Polar winter;
then alps on alps, and peaks of well remembered ranges
gleaming above glaciers, and the semblance of forests in
deep ravines loaded with new fallen snow. Snow-drifts,
avalanches, oceans held in bondage of eternal ice, and all




LETTER XXIV.]


CLOUDLAND.


337


this massed together, shifting, breaking, glistering, filling
up the broad channel which divides Maui from Hawaii, and
far away above the lonely masses, rose, in turquoise blue,
like distant islands, the lofty Hawaiian domes of Mauna
Kea and Mauna Loa, with snow on Mauna Kea yet more
dazzling than the clouds. There never was a stranger
contrast than between the hideous desolation of the
crater below, and those blue and jewelled summits rising
above the shifting clouds.
After some time the scene shifted, and through glacial
rifts appeared as in a dream the Eeka mountains which
enfold the Iao valley, broad fields of cane 8000 feet
below, the flushed palm-fringed coast, and the deep blue
sea sleeping in perpetual calm. But according to the
well-known fraud which isolated altitudes perpetrate
upon the eye, it appeared as if we were looking up at our
landscape, not down; and no effort of the eye or imagination would put things at their proper levels.
But gradually the clouds massed themselves, the
familiar earth disappeared, and we were "pinnacled in
mid-heaven" in unutterable isolation, blank forgotten
units, in a white, wonderful, illuminated world, without
permanence or solidity. Our voices sounded thin in the
upper air.  The keen, incisive wind that swept the
summit, had no kinship with the soft breezes which were
rustling the tasselled cane in the green fields of earth
which had lately gleamed through the drift. It was a
new world and without sympathy, a solitude which could
be felt. Was it nearer God, I wonder, because so far from
man and his little works and ways? At least they
z




338


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIV.


seemed little there, in presence of the tokens of a
catastrophe which had not only blown off a mountain
top, and scattered it over the island, but had disembowelled the mountain itself to a depth of 2000 feet.
Soon after noon we began to descend; and in a hollow
of the mountain, not far from the ragged edge of the
crater, then filled up with billows of cloud, we came upon
what we were searching for; not, however, one or two,
but thousands of silverswords, their cold, frosted silver
gleam making the hill-side look like winter or moonlight.
They can be preserved in their beauty by putting them
under a glass shade, but it must be of monstrous dimensions, as the finer plants measure 2 ft. by 18 in. without
the flower stalk. They exactly resemble the finest work
in frosted silver, the curve of their globular mass of
leaves is perfect, and one thinks of them rather as the
base of an epergne for an imperial table, or as a prize at
Ascot or Goodwood, than as anything organic. A particular altitude and temperature appear essential to them,
and they are not found straggling above or below a given
line.
We reached Makawao very tired, soon after dark, to be
heartily congratulated on our successful ascent, and bearing no worse traces of it than lobster-coloured faces,
badly blistered.
After accepting sundry hospitalities I rode over here,
skirting the mountain at a height of 2000 feet, a most
tedious ride, only enlivened by the blaze of nasturtiums
in some of the shallow gulches. It is very pretty here,
and I wish all invalids could revel in the sweet changeless




LETTER XXIV.]


PELE'S REVENGE.


339


air.  The name signifies "ripe bread-fruit of the
gods."  The plantation is 2000 feet above the sea, and
is one of the finest on the islands; and owing to the
slow maturity of the cane at so great a height, the yield
is from five to six tons an acre. Water is very scarce;
all that is used in the boiling-house and elsewhere has
been carefully led into concrete tanks for storage, and
even the walks in the proprietor's beautiful garden are
laid with cement for the same purpose. He has planted
many thousand Australian eucalyptus trees on the hillside in the hope of procuring a larger rainfall, so that
the neighbourhood has quite an exotic appearance.
The coast is black and volcanic-looking below, jutting
into the sea in naked lava promontories, which nature
has done nothing to drape.   Concerning a river of
specially black lava, which runs into the sea to the south
of this house, the following legend is told:"A withered old woman stopped to ask food and
hospitality at the house of a dweller on this promontory,
noted for his penuriousness. His kalo patches flourished,
cocoa-nuts and bananas shaded his hut, nature was lavish
of her wealth all round him. But the withered hag was
sent away unfed, and as she turned her back on the man
she said, 'I will return to-morrow.'
"This was Pele, the goddess of the volcano, and she
kept her word, and came back the next day in earthquakes and thunderings, rent the mountain, and blotted
out every trace of the man and his dwelling with a flood
of fire."
z 2




340                   HAWAII.           [LETTER XXIV.
Maui is very "foreign" and civilised, and although it
has a native population of over 12,000, the natives are
much crowded on plantations, and one encounters little
of native life.  There is a large society composed of
planters' and merchants' families, and the residents are
profuse in their hospitality.  It is not infrequently
taken undue advantage of, and I have heard of planters
compelled to feign excuses for leaving their houses, in
order to get rid of unintroduced and obnoxious visitors,
who have quartered themselves on them for weeks at a
time. It is wonderful that their patient hospitality is
not worn out, even though, as they say, they sometimes
"entertain angels unawares."
I. L. B.




LETTER XXV.


KALAIEHA. HAWAII.
MY departure from Ulupalakua illustrates some of the
uncertainties of island travelling. On Monday night my
things were packed, and my trunk sent off to the landing;
but at five on Tuesday, Mr. Whipple came to my door to
say that the Kilauea was not in Lahaina roads, and was
probably laid up for repairs. I was much disappointed,
for the mild climate had disagreed with me, and I was
longing for the roystering winds and unconventional life
of windward Hawaii, and there was not another steamer
for three weeks.
However, some time afterwards, I was unpacking, and
in the midst of a floor littered with ferns, photographs,
books, and clothes, when Mrs. W. rushed in to say that
the steamer was just reaching the landing below, and
that there was scarcely the barest hope of catching her.
Hopeless as the case seemed, we crushed most of my
things promiscuously into a carpet bag, Mr. W. rode off
with it, a horse was imperfectly saddled for me, and I
mounted him, with my bag, straps, spurs, and a package
of ferns in one hand, and my plaid over the saddle,
while Mrs. W. stuffed the rest of my possessions into a
clothes bag, and the Chinaman ran away frantically to
catch a horse on which to ride down with them.




342


HAtWAII.


[LETTER XXV.


I galloped off after Mr. W., though people called to
me that I could not catch the boat, and that my horse
would fall on the steep broken descent.  My saddle
slipped over his neck, but he still sped down the hill
with the rapid "racking" movement of a Narraganset
pacer. First a new veil blew away, next my plaid was
missing, then I passed my trunk on the ox-cart which
should have been at the landing; but still though the
heat was fierce, and the glare from the black lava blinding,
I dashed heedlessly down, and in twenty minutes had
ridden three miles down a descent of 2,000 feet, to find
the Kilcuea puffing and smoking with her anchor up;
but I was in time, for her friendly clerk, knowing that I
was coming, detained the scow. You will not wonder at
my desperation when I tell you that half-way down, a
person called to me, "Mauna Loa is in action! "
While I was slipping off the saddle and bridle, Mr. W.
arrived with the carpet-bag, yet more over-heated and
shaking with exertion than I was, then the Chinaman
with a bag of oddments, next a native who had picked up
my plaid and ferns on the road, and another with my
trunk, which he had rescued from the ox-cart; so I only
lost my veil and two brushes, which are irreplaceable
here.
The quiet of the nine hours' trip in the Kilauea
restored my equanimity, and prepared me to enjoy the
delicious evening which followed. The silver waters of
Kawaihae Bay reflected the full moon, the three great
mountains of Hawaii were cloudless as I had not before
seen them, all the asperity of the leeward shore was




LETTER XXV. ]


TROPICAL COLD.


343


softened into beauty, and the long shadows of bending
palms were as still and perfect as the palms themselves.
But there was a new sight above the silver water, for the
huge dome of Mauna Loa, forty miles away, was burning
red and fitfully. A horse and servant awaited me, and
we were soon clattering over the hard sand by the
shining sea, and up the ascent which leads to the windy
table-lands of Waimea. IThe air was like new life. At a
height of 500 feet we met the first whiff of the trades,
the atmosphere grew cooler and cooler, the night-wind
fresher, the moonlight whiter; wider the sweeping
uplands, redder the light of the burning mountain, till I
wrapped my plaid about me, but still was chilled to the
bone, and when the four hours' ride was over, soon after
midnight, my limbs were stiff with tropical cold. And
this, within 20~ of the equator, and only 2,500 feet above
the fiery sea-shore, with its temperature of 80~, where
Sydney Smith would certainly have desired to " take off
his flesh, and sit in his bones!"
I delight in Hawaii more than ever, with its unconventional life, great upland sweeps, unexplored forests,
riotous breezes, and general atmosphere of freedom,
airiness, and expansion. As I find that a lady can travel
alone with perfect safety, I have many projects in view,
but whatever I do or plan to do, I find my eyes always
turning to the light on the top of Mauna Loa. I know
that the ascent is not feasible for me, and that so far as I
am concerned the mystery must remain unsolved; but that
glory, nearly 14,000 feet aloft, rising, falling, "a pillar
of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night," uplifted in




344


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXV.


its awful loneliness above all human interests, has an
intolerable fascination. As the twilight deepens, the
light intensifies, and often as I watch it in the night, it
seems to flare up and take the form of a fiery palm-tree.
No one has ascended the mountain since the activity
began a month ago; but the fire is believed to be in " the
old traditional crater of Mokuaweoweo, in a region rarely
visited by man."
A few days ago I was so fortunate as to make the
acquaintance of Mr. W. L. Green (now     Minister of
The Interior), an English resident in Honolulu, a gentleman of wide scientific and literary culture, one of whose
objects in visiting Hawaii is the investigation of certain
volcanic phenomena. He asked me to make the ascent
of Mauna Kea with him, and we have satisfactorily accomplished it to-day.
The interior of the island, in which we have spent the
last two days, is totally different, not only from the
luxuriant windward slopes, but from the fiery leeward
margin.   The altitude of the central plateau is from
5,000 to 6,000 feet, there is not a single native dwelling
on it, or even a trail across it, it is totally destitute of
water, and sustains only a miserable scrub of mamane,
stunted ohias, pukeawe, ohelos, a few composite, and
some of the hardiest ferns. The transient residents of
this sheep station, and those of another on Hualalai,
thirty miles off, are the only human inhabitants of a
region as large as Kent. Wild goats, wild geese (Bernicla sandvicensis), and the Melithreptes Pacifica, constitute its chief population. These geese are web-footed,




LETTER XXV.] '  THE DESERT OF HAWAII.


345


though water does not exist. They build their nests in
the grass, and lay two or three white eggs.
Our track from Waimea lay for the first few miles
over light soil, destitute of any vegetation, across dry
glaring rocky beds of streams, and round the bases of
numerous tufa cones, from 200 to 1500 feet in height,
with steep smooth sides, composed of a very red ash.
We crossed a flank of Mauna Kea at a height of 6000
feet, and a short descent brought us out upon this vast
tableland, which lies between the bulbous domes of
Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai, the loneliest,
saddest, dreariest expanse I ever saw.
The air was clear and the sun bright, yet nothing
softened into beauty this formless desert of volcanic
sand, stones, and lava, on which tufts of grass and a
harsh scrub war with wind and drought for a loveless
existence. Yet, such is the effect of atmosphere, that
Mauna Loa, utterly destitute of vegetation, and with his
sides scored and stained by the black lava-flows of ages,
looked like a sapphire streaked with lapis lazuli. Nearly
blinded by scuds of sand, we rode for hours through
the volcanic wilderness; always the same rigid mamane,
(Sophora Chrysophylla?) the same withered grass, and
the same thornless thistles, through which the strong wind
swept with a desolate screech.
The trail, which dips 1000 feet, again ascends, the
country becomes very wild, there are ancient craters of
great height densely wooded, wooded ravines, the great
bulk of Mauna Kea with his ragged crest towers above
tumbled rocky regions, which look as if nature, dis



346


HIAWAII.


[LETTER XXV.


gusted with her work, had broken it to pieces in a
passion; there are living and dead trees, a steep
elevation, and below, a broad river of most jagged and
uneven a-a.   The afternoon fog, which serves instead of rain, rolled up in dense masses, through
which we heard the plaintive bleating of sheep, and
among blasted trees and distorted rocks we came upon
Kalaieha.
I have described the "foreign residences" elsewhere.
Here is one of another type, in which a wealthy sheepowner's son, married to a very pretty native woman, leads
for some months in the year from choice, a life so rough,
that most people would think it a hardship to lead it
from necessity. There are two apartments, a loft and a
"lean-to."  The hospitable owners gave me their sleeping-room, which was divided from the "living-room" by
a canvass partition. This last has a rude stone chimney
split by an earthquake, holding fire enough to roast an
ox. Round it the floor is paved with great rough stones.
A fire of logs, fully three feet high, was burning, but
there was a faulty draught, and it emitted a stinging
smoke. I looked for something to sit upon, but there
was nothing but a high bench, or chopping-block, and a
fixed seat in the corner of the wall. The rest of the
furniture consisted of a small table, some pots, a fryingpan, a tin dish and plates, a dipper, and some tin
pannikins. Four or five rifles and " shot-guns," and a
piece of raw meat, were hanging against the wall. A tin
bowl was brought to me for washing, which served the
same purpose for every one. The oil was exhausted, so




LETTER xxv.]  AN HAWAIIAN SHEEP STATION.


347


recourse was had to the native expedient of a jar of beef
fat with a wick in it.
We were most hospitably received, but the native
wife, as is usually the case, was too shy to eat with us
or even to appear at all. Our host is a superb young
man, very frank and prepossessing looking, a thorough
mountaineer, most expert with the lasso and in hunting
wild cattle. The " station" consists of a wool shed, a
low grass hut, a hut with one side gone, a bell-tent, and
the more substantial cabin in which we are lodged.
Several saddled horses were tethered outside, and some
natives were shearing sheep, but the fog shut out whatever else there might be of an outer world. Every now
and then a native came in and sat on the floor to warm
himself, but there were no mats as in native houses. It
\vas intolerably cold. I singed my clothes by sitting in
the chimney, but could not warm myself. A fowl was
stewed native fashion, and some rice was boiled, and we
had sheep's milk and some ice cold water, the drip, I
think, from a neighbouring cave, as running and standing water are unknown.
There are 9000 sheep here, but they require hardly
any attendance except at shearing time, and dogs are,
not used in herding them. Indeed, labour is much dispensed with, as the sheep are shorn unwashed, a great
contrast to the elaborate washings of the flocks of the
Victorian Iiverina. They come down at night of their
own sagacity, in close converging columns, sleep on the
gravel about the station, and in the early morning betake
themselves to their feeding grounds on the mountain.




:348


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXV.


Mauna Kea, and the forests which skirt his base, are
the resort of thousands of wild cattle, and there are
many men nearly as wild, who live half savage lives
in the woods, gaining their living by lassoing and
shooting these animals for their skins. Wild black swine
also abound.
The mist as usual disappeared at night, leaving a sky
-wonderful with stars, which burned blue and pale against
the furnace glare on the top of Mauna Loa, to which we
are comparatively near. I woke at three from the hopeless cold, and before five went out with Mr. Green to
explore the adjacent lava.  The atmosphere was perfectly pure, and suffused with rose-colour, not a cloudfleece hung round the mountain tops, hoar-frost whitened
the ground, the pure white smoke of the volcano rose
into the reddening sky, and the air was elixir. It has
been said and written that there are no steam-cracks or
similar traces of volcanic action on Mauna Kea, but in
several fissures I noticed ferns growing belonging to an
altitude 4000 feet lower, and on putting my arm down,
found a heat which compelled me to withdraw it, and as
the sun rose these cracks steamed in all directions.
There are caves full of ferns, lava bubbles in reality,
crust over crust, each from twelve to eighteen inches thick,,rolls of lava cooled in coils, and hideous a-a streams on
-which it is impossible to walk two yards without the risk
-of breaking one's limbs or cutting one's boots to pieces.
While we breakfasted a young man in rags, without
shoes or stockings, but with the accent and address of a
gentleman, came in, a man of good family and education




LETTER xxv.]   ASCENT OF MAUNA KEA.


319


in England, but who had "gone to the bad out here,"
and had joined a gang of bullock-catchers.  Why do
people persist in sending "ne'er-do-weels" to such
regions without a definite occupation? It is certain
ruin.
I will not weary you with the details of our mountain
ascent. Our host provided ourselves and the native servant with three strong bullock-horses, and accompanied
us himself. The first climb is through deep volcanic sand
slashed by deep clefts, showing bands of red and black
ash. We saw no' birds, but twice started a rout of wild
black hogs, and once came upon a wild bull of large size
with some cows and a calf, all so tired with tramping
over the lava that they only managed to keep just out of
our way. They usually keep near the mountain top in
the daytime for fear of the hunters, and come down at
night to feed. About 11,000 were shot and lassoed last
year. Mr. S —     says that they don't need any water
but that of the dew-drenched grass, and that horses
reared on the mountains refuse to drink, and are scared
by the sight of pools or running streams. Unlike horses I
saw at Waikiki, which shut their eyes and plunged their
heads into water up to their ears, in search of a saltish
weed which grows in the lagoons.
The actual forest, which is principally koa, ceases at
a height of about 6000 feet, but a deplorable vegetation
beginning with mamane scrub, and ending with withered
wormwood and tufts of coarse grass, straggles up 3000
feet higher, and a scaly orange lichen is found in rare
patches at a height of 11,000 feet.




.350


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXY.


The side of Mauna Kea towards Waimea is precipitous
-and inaccessible, but to our powerful mountain horses the
ascent from Kalaieha presented no difficulty.
We rode on hour after hour in intense cold, till we
reached a height where the last stain of lichen disappeared,
and the desolation was complete and oppressive. This
-area of tufa cones, dark and grey basalt, clinkers, scoriae,
fine ash, and ferruginous basalt, is something gigantic.
We were three hours in ascending through it, and the eye
could at no time take in its limit, for the mountain which
-from any point of view below appears as a well defined
dome with a ragged top, has at the summit the aspect of
a ridge, or rather a number of ridges, with between 20
and 30 definite peaks, varying in height from 900 to
1400 feet.  Among these cones are large plains of
clinkers and fine gravel, but no lava-streams, and at a
height of 12,000 feet the sides of some of the valleys are
filled up with snow, of a purity so immaculate and a
brilliancy so intense as the fierce light of the tropical sun
beat upon it, that I feared snow-blindness. We ascended
one of the smaller cones which was about 900 feet high,
and found it contained a crater of nearly the same depth,
with a very even slope, and lined entirely with red ash,
which at the bottom became so bright and fiery-looking
that it looked as if the fires, which have not burned for
ages, had only died out that morning.
After riding steadily for six hours, our horses, snorting
and panting, and plunging up to their knees in fine volcanic ash, and halting, trembling and exhausted, every
few feet, carried us up the great tufa cone which crowns




LETTER XXV.]


AN ANCIENT QUARRY.


351


the summit of this vast fire-flushed, fire-created mountain, and we dismounted in deep snow on the crest of the
highest peak in the Pacific, 13,953 feet above the sea.
This summit is a group of six red tufa cones, with very
little apparent difference in their altitude, and with deep
valleys filled with red ash between them. The terminal
cone on which we were has no cavity, but most of
those forming the group, as well as the thirty which I
counted around and below us, are truncated cones with
craters within, and with outer slopes, whose estimated
angle is about 30~. On these slopes the snow lay heavily.
In coming up we had had a superb view of Mauna Loa,
but before we reached the top, the clouds had congregated, and lay in glistening masses all round the mountain about half-way up, shutting out the smiling earth,
and leaving us alone with the view of the sublime desolation of the volcano.
We only remained an hour on the top, and came down
by a very circuitous route, which took us round numerous
cones, and over miles of clinkers varying in size from a
ton to a few ounces, and past a lake the edges of which
were frozen, and which in itself is a curiosity, as no other
part of the mountain " holds water." Not far off is a
cave, a lava-bubble, in which the natives used to live
when they came up here to quarry a very hard adjacent
phonolite for their axes and other tools. While the
others poked about, I was glad to make it a refuge from
the piercing wind.  Hundreds of unfinished axes lie
round the cave entrance, and there is quite a large mound
of unfinished chips.




352


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXV.


This is a very interesting spot to Hawaiian antiquaries.
They argue, from the amount of the chippings, that this
mass of phonolite was quarried for ages by countless
generations of men, and that the mountain top must have
been upheaved, and the island inhabited, in a very remote
past. The stones have not been worked since Captain
Cook's day; yet there is not a weather-stain upon them,
and the air is so dry and rarified that meat will keep fresh
for three months.  I found a mass of crystals of the
greenish volcanic glass, called olivine, imbedded in a
piece of phonolite which looked as blue and fresh as if
only quarried yesterday.
We travelled for miles through ashes and scoriae, and
then descended into a dense afternoon fog; but Mr.
S. is a practised mountaineer, and never faltered for a
moment, and our horses made such good speed that late
in the afternoon we were able to warm ourselves by a
gallop, which brought us in here ravenous for supper
before dark, having ridden for thirteen hours. I hope I
have made it clear that the top of this dead volcano,
whether cones or ravines, is deep soft ashes and sand.
To-morrow morning I intend to ride the thirty miles to
Waimea with two native women, and the next day to go
off on my adventurous expedition to Hilo, for which I
have bought for $45 a big, strong, heavy horse, which I
have named Kahdle. He has the poking head and unmistakable gait of a bullock horse, but is said to be "a
good traveller."
I. L. B.




LETTER XXVI.


"MY CAMP," HAWAIIAN SLOPES. May 21.
THIS is the height of enjoyment in travelling. I have
just encamped under a lauhala tree, with my saddle
inverted for a pillow, my horse tied by a long lariat to a
guava bush, my gear, saddle-bags, and rations for two
days lying about, and my saddle blanket drying in the
sun. Overhead the sun blazes, and casts no shadow; a
few fleecy clouds hover near him, and far below, the great
expanse of the Pacific gleams in a deeper blue than the
sky. Far above, towers the rugged and snow-patched, but
no longer mysterious dome of Mauna Loa; while everywhere, ravines, woods, waterfalls, and stretches of lawnlike grass delight the eye. All green that I have ever
seen, of English lawns in June, or Alpine valleys, seems
poor and colourless as compared with the dazzling green
of this sixty-five miles. It is a joyous green, a glory.
Whenever I look up from my writing, I ask, Was there
ever such green? Was there ever such sunshine?
Was there ever such an atmosphere? Was there ever
such an adventure? And Nature-for I have no other
companion, and wish for none-answers, "No."    The
novelty is that I am alone, my conveyance my own horse;
no luggage to look after, for it is all in my saddle-bags;
no guide to bother, hurry, or hinder me; and with knowAA




354


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXVI.


ledge enough of the country to stop when and where I
please. A native guide, besides being a considerable expense, is a great nuisance; and as the trail is easy to find,
and the rivers are low, I resolved for once to taste the
delights of perfect independence! This is a blessed
country, for a lady can travel everywhere in absolute security.
My goal is the volcano of Kilauea, with various diverging expeditions, involving a ride of about 350 miles; but
my health has so wonderfully improved, that it is easier
to me now to ride forty miles in a day than ten some
months ago.
You have no idea of the preparations required for such
a ride, and the importance which " littles " assume. Food
for two days had to be taken, and all superfluous weight
to be discarded, as every pound tells on a horse on a
hard journey. My saddle-bags contain, besides " Sunday
clothes," dress for any " gaieties " which Hilo may offer;
but I circumscribed my stock of clothes as much as possible, having fallen into the rough-and-ready practice
of washing them at night, and putting them on unironed in the morning. I carry besides, a canvas bag on
the horn of my saddle, containing two days' provender,
and a knife, horse-shoe nails, glycerine, thread, twine,
leather thongs, with other little et ceteras, the lack of which
might prove troublesome, a thermometer and aneroid
in a leather case, and a plaid. I have discarded, owing
to their weight, all the well-meant luxuries which were
bestowed upon me, such as drinking cups, flasks, etnas,
sandwich cases, knife cases, spoons, pocket mirrors, &c.




LETTER XXVI.]


KAHELL


355


The inside of a watchcase makes a sufficient mirror, and
I make a cup from a kalo leaf. All cases are a mistake,
-at least I think so, as I contemplate my light equipment with complacency.
Yesterday's dawn was the reddest I have seen on the
mountains, and the day was all the dawn promised. A
three-mile gallop down the dewy grass, and slackened
speed through the bush, brought me once again to the
breezy slopes of Hamakua, and the trail I travelled in
February, with Deborah and Kaluna. Though as green
then as now, it was the rainy season, a carnival of rain
and mud. Somehow the summer does make a difference,
even in a land without a winter. The temperature was
perfect. It was dreamily lovely. No song of birds, or
busy hum of insects, accompanied the rustle of the
lauhala leaves and the low murmur of the surf. But
there is no hot sleep of noon here-the delicious trades
keep the air always wakeful.
When the gentleman who guided me through the bush
left me on the side of a pali, I discovered that Kahele,
though strong, gentle, and sure-footed, possesses the
odious fault known as balking, and expressed his aversion
to ascend the other side in a most unmistakable manner.
He swung round, put his head down, and no amount of
spurring could get him to do anything but turn round and
round, till the gentleman, who had left me, returned, beat
him with a stick, and threw stones at him, till he got him
started again.
I have tried coaxing him, but without result, and have
had prolonged fights with him in nearly every gulch, and
AA2




356


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXVI.


on the worst pali of all he refused for some time to breast
a step, scrambled round and round in a most dangerous
place, and slipped his hind legs quite over the edge before
I could get him on.
His sociability too is ridiculously annoying. Whenever he sees natives in the distance, he neighs, points his
ears, holds up his heavy head, quickens his pace, and as
soon as we meet them, swings round and joins them,
and can only be extricated after a pitched battle. On a
narrow bridge I met Kaluna on a good horse, improved
in manners, appearance, and English, and at first he
must have thought that I was singularly pleased to see
him, by my turning round and joining him at once; but
presently, seeing the true state of the case, he belaboured
Kahele with a heavy stick. The animal is very gentle
and companionable, and I dislike to spur him; besides,
he seems insensible to it; so the last time I tried Rarey's
plan, and bringing his head quite round, twisted the
bridle round the horn of the saddle, so that he had to
turn round and round for my pleasure, rather than to
indulge his own temper, a process which will, I hope,
conquer him mercifully.
But in consequence of these battles, and a halt which I
made, as now, for no other purpose than to enjoy my
felicitous circumstances, the sun was sinking in a mist of
gold behind Mauna Loa long before I reached the end of my
day's journey. It was extremely lovely. A heavy dew
was falling, odours of Eden rose from the earth, colours
glowed in the sky, and the dewiest and richest green was
all round. It was eerie, but delightful. There were




LETTER XXVI.]


A NATIVE ASSEMBLAGE.


357


several gulches to cross after the sun had set, and a
silence, which was almost audible, reigned in their leafy
solitudes. It was quite dark when I reached the trail
which dips over the great pali of Laupahoehoe, 700 feet
in height; but I found myself riding carelessly down
what I hardly dared to go up, carefully and in company,
four months before. But whatever improvement time
has made in my health and nerves, it has made none in
this wretched zoophyte village.
Leading Kahele, I groped about till I found the house
of the widow Honolulu, with whom I had lodged before,
and presently all the natives assembled to stare at me.
After rubbing my horse and feeding him on a large bundle
of ti leaves that I had secured on the road, I took my
own meal as a spectacle. Two old crones seized on my
ankles, murmuring lomi, lomi, and subjected them to the
native process of shampooing. They had unrestrained
curiosity as to the beginning and end of my journey. I
said " Wainea, Hamakua," when they all chorused,
"Maikai; " for a ride of forty miles was not bad for a
wahine haole. I said, " Wai, lio," (water for the horse),
when they signified that there was only some brackish
stuff unfit for drinking.
In spite of the garrulous assemblage, I was asleep
before eight, and never woke till I found myself in a
blaze of sunshine this morning, and in perfect solitude.
I got myself some breakfast, and then looked about the
village for some inhabitants, but found none, except an
unhappy Portuguese with one leg, and an old man who
looked like a leper, to whom I said, "Ko " (cane) " io"




358 -

HAWAII.


[LETTER XXVI.


(horse), exhibiting a rial at the same time, on which he
cut me a large bundle, and I sat on a stone and watched
Kahele as he munched it for an hour and a half.
It was very hot and serene down there between those
palis 700 and 800 feet high. The huts of the village
were all shut, and not a creature stirred. The palms
above my head looked as if they had always been old, and
there was no movement among their golden plumes. The
sea itself rolled shorewards more silently and lazily than
usual. An old dog slept in the sunshine, and whenever I
moved, by a great effort, opened one eye. The man who
cut the cane fell asleep on the grass. Kahele ate as
slowly as if he had resolved to try my patience, and be
revenged on me for my conquest of him yesterday, and
his heavy munching was the only vital sound. I got up
and walked about to assure myself that I was awake,
saddled and bridled the horse, and mounted the great
southward pali, thankful to reach the breeze and the
upper air in full possession of my faculties, after the
torpor and paralysis of the valley below.
Never were waters so bright or stretches of upland
lawns so joyous as to-day, or the forest entanglements so
entrancing. The beautiful Eugenia malaccensis is now in
full blossom, and its stems and branches are blazing in
all the gulches, with bunches of rose-crimson stamens
borne on short spikelets.
HILO. HAWAII, May 24th.
Once more I am in dear beautiful Hilo. Death entered
my Hawaiian "home" lately, and took " Baby Bell"




LETTER XXVI.]


THE CLIMATE OF HILO.


359


away, and I miss her sweet angel-presence at every turn;
but otherwise there are no changes, and I am very happy
to be under the roof of these dear friends again, and indeed each tree, flower, and fern in Hilo is a friend. I
would not even wish the straggling Pride of India, and
over-abundant lantana, away from this fairest of the island
Edens. I wish I could transport you here this moment
from our sour easterly skies to this endless summer and
endless sunshine, and shimmer of a peaceful sea, and an
atmosphere whose influences are all cheering. Though
from 13 to 16 feet of rain fall here in the year the air is
not damp. Wet clothes hung up in the verandah even
during rain, dry rapidly, and a substance so sensitive to
damp as botanical paper does not mildew.
I met Deborah on horseback near Onomea, and she
told me that the Austins were expecting me, and so I
spent three days very pleasantly with them on my way
here.
I. L. B.
That old Kilauea has just come in, and has brought
the English mail, and a United States mail, an event which
sets Hilo agog.  Then for a few hours its still, drowsy
life becomes galvanized, and people really persuade themselves that they have something to do, and all the foreigners
write letters hastily, or add postscripts to those already
written, and lose the mail, and rush down frantically to
the beach to send their late letters by favour of the obliging purser. The mail to-day was an event to me, as it
has brought your long-looked-for letters.




LETTER XXVII.


HILO. June 1.
MR. and Mrs. Severance and I have just retured from a
three-days' expedition to Puna in the south of Hawaii,
and I preferred their agreeable company even to solitude!
My sociable Kahele was also pleased, and consequently
behaved very well. We were compelled to ride for twentythree miles in single file, owing to the extreme narrowness of the lava track, which has been literally hammered
down in some places to make it passable even for shod
horses. We were a party of four, and a very fat policeman on a very fat horse brought up the rear.
At some distance from Hilo there is a glorious burst
of tropical forest, and then the track passes into green
grass dotted over with clumps of the pandanus and 'the
beautiful eugenia. In that hot dry district the fruit was
already ripe, and we quenched our thirst with it. The
" native apple," as it is called, is of such a brilliant crimson colour as to be hardly less beautiful than the flowers.
The rind is very thin, and the inside is white, juicy, and
very slightly acidulated. We were always near the sea,
and the surf kept bursting up behind the trees in great
snowy drifts, and every opening gave us a glimpse of deep
blue water. The coast the whole way is composed of great
blocks of very hard black lava, more or less elevated,
upon which the surges break in perpetual thunder.




LETTER XXVII. ]


A LAVA FLOW.


361


Suddenly the verdure ceased, and we emerged upon a
hideous scene, one of the many lava flows from Kilauea,
an irregular branching stream, about a mile broad. It is
suggestive of fearful work on the part of nature, for here
the volcano has not created but destroyed. The black
tumbled sea mocked the bright sunshine, all tossed,
jagged, spiked, twirled, thrown heap on heap, broken,
rifted, upheaved in great masses, burrowing in ravines of
its own making, full of broken bubble caves, and torn by
a-a streams. Close to the track crystals of olivine lie in
great profusion, and in a few of the "crevices there are
young plants of a fern which everywhere has the audacity
to act as the herald of vegetation.
Beyond this desert the country is different in its features from the rest of the island, a green smiling land of
Beulah, varied by lines of craters covered within and
without with vegetation.  For thirty miles the track
passes under the deep shade of coco palms, of which
Puna is the true home; and from under their feathery
shadow, and from amidst the dark leafage of the breadfruit, gleamed the rose-crimson apples of the eugenia, and
the golden balls of the guava. I have not before seen
this exquisite palm to advantage, for those which fringe
the coast have, as compared with these, a look of tattered,
sombre, harassed antiquity. Here they stood in thousands, young as well as old, their fronds gigantic, their
stems curving every way, and the golden light, which is
peculiar to them, toned into a golden green. They were
loaded with fruit in all stages, indeed it is produced in
such abundance that thousands of nuts lie unheeded on




362


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXVII.


the ground. Animals, including dogs and cats, revel in
the meat, and in the scarcity of good water the milk is a
useful substitute.
Late in the afternoon we reached our destination, a
comfortable frame house, on one of those fine natural
lawns in which Hawaii abounds. A shower at seven each
morning keeps Puna always green. Our kind host, a
German, married to a native woman, served our meals in
a house made of grass and bamboo; but the wife and
children, as is usual in these cases, never appeared at
table, and contented themselves with contemplating us
at a great distance.
The next afternoon we rode to one of the natural
curiosities of Puna, which gave me intense pleasure. It
lies at the base of a cone crowned with a heiau and a
clump of coco palms. Passing among bread-fruit and
guavas into a palm grove of exquisite beauty, we came
suddenly upon a lofty wooded cliff of hard basaltic rock,
with ferns growing out of every crevice in its ragged but
perpendicular sides. At its feet is a cleft about 60 feet
long, 16 wide, and 18 deep, full of water at a temperature of 90~. This has an absolute transparency of a
singular kind, and perpetrates wonderful optical illusions.
Every thing put into it is transformed.  The rocks,
broken timber, and old cocoa nuts which lie below it,
are a frosted blue; the dusky skins of natives are changed
to alabaster; and as my companion, in a light print
holuku, swam to and fro, her feet and hands became like
polished marble tinged with blue, and her dress floated
through the water as if woven of blue light. Everything




LETTER XXVII.] THE BLUE LAKELET OF PUNA.


363


about this spring is far more striking and beautiful than
the colour in the blue grotto of Capri. It is heaven in
the water, a jewelled floor of marvels, "a sea of glass,"
"like unto sapphire," a type, perhaps, of that on which
the blessed stand before the throne of God. Above, the
feathery palms rose into the crystalline blue, and made an
amber light below, and all fair and lovely things were
mirrored in the wonderful waters. The specific gravity
must be much greater than that of ordinary water, for it
(lid not seem possible to sink, or even be thoroughly immersed in it. The mercury in the air was 79~, but on
coming out of the water we felt quite chilly.
I like Puna. It is like nothing else, but something
about it made us feel as if we were dwelling in a castle of
indolence. I developed a capacity for doing nothing,
which horrified me, and except when we energised ourselves to go to the hot spring, my companions and I
were content to dream in the verandah, and watch the
lengthening shadows, and drink cocoa-nut milk, till the
abrupt exit of the sun startled us, and we saw the young
moon carrying the old one tenderly, and a fitful glare
60 miles away, where the solemn fires of Mauna Loa are
burning at a height of nearly 14,000 feet.
HILO.
There are many "littles," but few "mickles" here.
It is among the last that two foreign gentlemen have successfully accomplished the ascent of Mauna Loa, and the
mystery of its fires is solved. I write " successfully," as
they went up and down in safety, but they were involved




HAWAII.


[LETTER XXVII.


in a series of pilikias: girths, stirrup-leathers, and cruppers slipping and breaking, and their sufferings on the
summit from cold and mountain sickness appear to have
been nearly incapacitating.  Although much excited,
they are collected enough to pronounce it "the most
sublime sight ever seen." They, as well as several natives
who have passed by Kilauea, report it as in full activity,
which bears against the assertion that the flank crater becomes quiet when the summit crater is active.
Another and sadder "mickle " has been the departure
of ten lepers for Molokai. The Kilauea, with the Marshal,
and Mr. Wilder who embodies the Board of Health, has
just left the bay, taking away forty lepers on this cruise;
and the relations of those who have been taken from
Hilo are still howling on the beach. When one hears
the wailing, and sees the temporary agony of the separated
relatives, one longs for " the days of the Son of Man,"
and that his healing touch, as of old in Galilee, might
cleanse these unfortunates. Nine of the lepers were sent
on board from the temporary pest-house, but their case,
though deeply commiserated, has been overshadowed by
that of the talented half-white, "Bill Ragsdale," whom
I mentioned in one of my earlier letters, and who is
certainly the most "notorious" man in Hilo.     He
has a remarkable gift of eloquence, both in English and
Hawaiian: a combination of pathos, invective, and sarcasm; and his manner, though theatrical, is considered
perfect by his native admirers.  His moral character,
however, has been very low, which makes the outburst of
feeling at his fate the more remarkable.




LETTER XXVII.]


"BILL RAGSDALE."


365


Yesterday, he wrote a letter to Sheriff Severance,
giving himself up as a leper to be dealt with by the law,
expressing himself as ready to be expatriated to-day, but
requesting that he might not be put into the leper-house,
and that he might go on board the steamer alone. The
fact of his giving himself up excited much sympathy, as,
in his case, the signs of the malady are hardly apparent,
and he might have escaped suspicion for some time.
He was riding about all this morning, taking leave of
people, and of the pleasant Hilo lanes, which he will never
see again, and just as the steamer was weighing anchor,
walked down to the shore as carefully dressed as usual,
decorated with leis of ohia and gardenia, and escorted by
nearly the whole native population. On my first landing
here, the glee club, singing and flower-clad, went out to
meet him;-now tears and sobs accompanied him, and his
countrymen and women clung to him, kissing him, to the
last moment, whilst all the foreigners shook hands as
they offered him their good wishes. He made a short
speech in native, urging quiet submission to the stringent
measures which government is taking in order to
stamp out leprosy, and then said a few words in English.
His last words, as he stepped into the boat, were to all:
" Aloha, may God bless you, my brothers," and then the
whale boat took him the first stage towards his living
grave. He took a horse, a Bible, and some legal books
with him; and, doubtless, in consideration of the prominent positions he has filled, specially that of interpreter to the Legislature, unusual indulgence will be
granted to him.




366


HAWAII.


At the weekly prayer meeting held this evening in the
foreign church, the medical officer gave a very pathetic
account of his interview with him this morning, in which
he had feelingly requested the prayers of the church. It
was with unusual fervour afterwards that prayer was
offered, not for him only, but for " all those who, living,
have this day been consigned to the oblivion of the grave,
and for the five hundred of our fellow-subjects now suffering on Molokai." A noble instance of devotion has just
been given by Father Damiens, a Belgian priest, who has
gone to spend his life amidst the hideous scenes, and the
sickness and death of the ghastly valley of Kalawao.
I. L. B.
A CHAPTER ON THE LEPER SETTLEMENT ON MOLKAI.
IN 1865, the Hawaiian Legislature, recognizing the
disastrous fact that leprosy is at once contagious and incurable, passed an act to prevent its spread, and eventually the Board of Health established a leper settlement
on the island of Molokai for the isolation of lepers.  In
carrying out the painful task of weeding out and exiling
the sufferers, the officials employed met with unusual
difficulties; and the general foreign community was not
itself aware of the importance of making an attempt to
" stamp out" the disease, until the beginning of Lunalilo's
reign, when the apparently rapid spread of leprosy, and
sundry rumours that others than natives were affected
by it, excited general alarm, and not unreasonably, for




LEPROSY IN HAWAII-NEI.


367


medical science, after protracted investigation, knows less
of leprosy than of cholera. Nor are medical men wholly
agreed as to the manner in which infection is communicated; and, as the white residents on the islands associate
very freely and intimately with the natives, eating poi out of
their calabashes, and sleeping in their houses and on their
mats, there was just cause for uneasiness.
The natives themselves have been, and still are, perfectly reckless about the risk of contagion, and although
the family instinct among them is singularly weak, the
gregarious or social instinct is singularly strong, and it
has been found impossible to induce them to give up
smoking the pipes, wearing the clothes, and sleeping on
the mats of lepers, which three things are universally regarded by medical men as undoubted sources of infection.
At the beginning of 1873, it was estimated that nearly
400 lepers were scattered up and down the islands,
living among their families and friends, and the healthy
associated with them in complete apathy or fatalism.
However bloated the face and glazed the eyes, or however
swollen or decayed the limbs were, the persons so afflicted
appeared neither to scare nor disgust their friends, and,
therefore, Hawaii has absolutely needed the coercive
segregation of these living foci of disease. When the
search for lepers was made, the natives hid their friends
away under mats, and in forests and caves, till the peril of
separation was over, and if they sought medical advice,
they rejected foreign educated aid in favour of the highly
paid services of Chinese and native quacks, who professed
to work a cure by means of loathsome ointments and




368


HAWAII.


decoctions, and abominable broths worthy of the witches'
cauldron.
However, as the year passed on, lepers were "informed
against," and it became the painful duty of the sheriffs of
the islands, on the statement of a doctor that any individual was truly a leper, to commit him for life to Molokai. Some, whose swollen faces and glassy goggle eyes
left no room for hope of escape, gave themselves up; and
a few, who, like Mr. Ragsdale, might have remained
among their fellows almost without suspicion, surrendeied
themselves in a way which reflects much credit upon
them. Mr. Park, the Marshal, and Mr. Wilder, of the
Board of Health, went round the islands repeatedly in
the Kilauea, and performed the painful duty of collecting
the victims, with true sympathy and kindness. The woe
of those who were taken, the dismal wailings of those
who were left, and the agonised partings, when friends
and relatives clung to the swollen limbs and kissed the
glistering bloated faces of those who were exiled from
them for ever, I shall never forget.
There were no individual distinctions made among the
sufferers. Queen Emma's cousin, a man of property, and
Mr. Ragsdale, the most influential lawyer among the
half-whites, shared the same doom as poor Upa, the
volcano guide, and stricken Chinamen and labourers from
the plantations. Before the search slackened, between
three and four hundred men, women, and children were
gathered out from among their families, and placed on
Molokai.
Between 1866 and April 1874, eleven hundred and forty



THE ISLAND OF EXILE.


369


five lepers, five hundred and sixty of whom were sent from
Kahili in the spring of 1872, have arrived on Molokai, of
which number four hundred and forty-two have died, the
majority of the deaths having occurred since the beginning of Lunalilo's reign, when the work of segregation
was undertaken in earnest. At the present time the
number on the island is 703, including 22 children.
These unfortunates are necessarily pauperised, and the
small Hawaiian kingdom finds itself much burdened by
their support. The strain on the national resources is
very great, and it is not surprising that officials called
upon to meet such a sad emergency should be assailed
in all quarters of the globe by sentimental criticism and
misstatements regarding the provision made for the
lepers on Molokai. Most of these are unfounded, and
the members of the Board of Health deserve great credit
both for their humanity and for their prompt and careful
attention to the complaints made by the sufferers.
At present the two obvious blots on the system are,
the insufficient house accommodation, involving a herding together which is repulsive to foreign, though not to
native, ideas; and the absence of a resident physician to
prescribe for the ailments from which leprosy is no exemption. Molokai, the island of exile, is Molokai aina
pali, "the land of precipices," in the old native meles,
and its walls of rock rise perpendicularly from the sea
to a height varying from 1000 to 2500 feet, in extreme
grandeur and picturesqueness, and are slashed, as on
Hawaii, by gulches opening out on natural lawns on the
sea level. The place chosen for the centralization and
B B




370


HAWAII.


segregation of leprosy is a most singular plain of about
20,000 acres, hemmed in between the sea and a precipice
2000 feet high, passable only where a zigzag bridle track
swings over its face, so narrow and difficult that it has
been found impossible to get cattle down over it, so that
the leper settlement below has depended for its supplies
of fresh meat upon vessels. The settlement is accessible
also by a very difficult landing at Kalaupapa on the windward side of Molokai.
Three miles inland from Kalaupapa is the leper village
of Kalawao, which may safely be pronounced one of the
most horrible spots on all the earth; a home of hideous
disease and slow coming death, with which science in
despair has ceased to grapple; a community of doomed
beings, socially dead, " whose only business is to perish;"
wifeless husbands, husbandless wives, children without
parents, and parents without children; men and women
who have " no more a portion for ever in anything that is
done under the sun," condemned to watch the repulsive
steps by which each of their doomed fellows passes down
to a loathsome death, knowing that by the same they too
must pass.
A small stone church near the landing, and another at
Kalawao, tell of the extraordinary devotion of a Catholic
priest, who, with every prospect of advancement in his
Church, and with youth, culture, and refinement to hold
him back from the sacrifice, is in this hideous valley, a
self exiled man, for Christ's sake. It was singular to
hear the burst of spontaneous admiration which his act
elicited.  No unworthy motives were suggested, all




THE LEPER HOSPITAL.


371


envious speech was hushed; it was almost forgotten by
the most rigid Protestants that Father Damiens, who
has literally followed the example of Christ by " laying
down his life for the brethren," is a Romish priest, and
an intuition, higher than all reasoning, hastened to
number him with " the noble army of martyrs."
In Kalawao are placed not only the greater number of
the lepers, but the hospital buildings.  Most of the
victims are of the poorer classes and live in brown huts;
but two of rank, Mrs. Napela and the Hon. P. Y. Kaeo,
Queen Emma's cousin, have neat wooden cottages on the
way from the landing, with every comfort which their
means can provide for them. The hospital buildings are
about twelve in number, well and airily situated on a
height; they are built of wood thoroughly whitewashed,
and are enclosed by a fence. Although it is hoped that
a leper hospital is not to be a permanent institution of
the kingdom, the soft green grass of the enclosure has been
liberally planted with algaroba trees, which in a year or
two will form a goodly shade, and water has been brought
in from a distance at considerable expense, so that an
abundant supply is always at hand. The lepers are dying
fast, and the number of advanced cases in the hospital
averages forty. In the centre of the hospital square there
are the office buildings, including the dispensary, which is
well supplied with medicines, so that in the absence of a
doctor, common ailments may be treated by an intelligent
English leper. The superintendent's office, where the
accounts and statistics of the settlement are kept, and
where the leper governor holds his leper court, and the
BB2




372


HAWAII.


post-office, are also within the enclosure; but the true
governor and law-giver is Death.
When Mr. Ragsdale left Hilo as a leper, the course he
was likely to take on Molokai could not be accurately
forecasted; and it was felt that the presence in the leper
community of a man of his gift of eloquence and influence might either be an invaluable assistance to the
government, or else a serious embarrassment. In every
position he had hitherto occupied, he had acquired and
retained a remarkable notoriety; and no stranger could
visit the islands without hearing of poor "Bill Ragsdale's " gifts, and the grievous failings by which they
were accompanied.
Hitherto the hopes of his well wishers have been
fulfilled, and the government has found in him a most
energetic as well as prudent agent. " It is better to be,first in Britain than second in Rome;" and probably
this unfortunate man, superintendent of the leper settlement, and popularly known as " Governor Ragsdale,"
has found a nobler scope for his ambition among his
doomed brethren than in any previous position. His
remarkable power of influencing his countrymen is at
present used for their well being; and though his
authority is practically almost absolute, owing to the
isolation of the community, and its position almost outside the operation of law, he has hitherto used it with
good faith and moderation. He is nominally assisted in
his duties by a committee of twenty chosen from among
the lepers themselves; but from his superior education




DIETr AND INSTRUCTION.


373


and native mental ascendancy, all immediate matters in
the settlement are decided by his judgment alone.
The rations of food are ample and of good quality, and
notwithstanding the increase in the number of lepers,
and the difficulty of communication, there has not been
any authenticated case of want. Each leper receives
weekly 21 lbs. of paiai, and from 5 to 6 of beef, and when
these fail to be landed, 9 lbs. of rice, 1 lb. of sugar, and
4 lbs. of salmon. Soap and clothing are also supplied;
but, for all beyond these necessaries, the lepers are
dependent on their own industry, if they are able to
exercise it, and the kindness of their friends. Coffee,
tobacco, pipes, extra clothing, knives, toys, books, pictures, working implements and materials, have all been
possessed by them in happier days; and though packages
of such things have been sent by the charitable for distribution by Father Damiens, it is not possible for
island benevolence fully to meet an emergency and needs
so disproportionate to the population and resources of
the kingdom. Besides the two Catholic churches, there
are a Protestant chapel, with a pastor, himself a leper,
who is a regularly ordained minister of the Hawaiian
Board, and two school-houses, where the twenty-two children of the settlement receive instruction in Hawaiian
from a leper teacher. There is a store, too, where those
who are assisted by their friends can purchase small
luxuries, which are sold at just such an advance on cost
as is sufficient to clear the expense of freight.  The
taste for ornament has not died out in either sex, and
women are to be seen in Kalawao, hideous and bloated




374


HIAWAII.


beyond description, decorated with leis of flowers, and
looking for admiration out of their glazed and goggle
eyes.
King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani have paid a visit
to the settlement, and were received with hearty alohas,
and the music of a leper band. The king made a short
address to the lepers, the substance of which was " that
his heart was grieved with the necessity which had separated these, his subjects, from their homes and families,
a necessity which they themselves recognised and acquiesced in, and it should be the earnest desire of himself
and his government to render their condition in exile as
comfortable as possible."  While he spoke, though it is
supposed that a merciful apathy attends upon leprosy,
his hideous audience showed signs of deep feeling, and
many shed tears at his thoughtfulness in coming to visit
those, who, to use their own touching expression, were
"already in the grave."
The account which follows is from the pen of a gentleman who accompanied the king, and visited the
hospital on the same occasion, in company with two
members of the Board of Health.
"As our party stepped on shore, we found the lepers
assembled to the number of two or three hundred-there
are 697 all told in the settlement-for they had heard in
advance of our coming, and our ears were greeted with
the sound of lively music. This proceeded from the
'band,' consisting of a drum, a fife, and two flutes, rather
skilfully played upon by four young lads, whose visages
were horribly marked and disfigured with leprosy. The




A VISIT TO THE LEPERS.


375


sprightly airs with which these poor creatures welcomed
the arrival of the party, sounded strangely incongruous
and out of place, and grated harshly upon our feelings.
And then as we proceeded up the beach, and the crowd
gathered about us, eager and anxious for a recognition
or a kind word of greeting-oh, the repulsive and sickening libels and distorted caricatures of the human face
divine upon which we looked! And as they evidently
read the ill-concealed aversion in our countenances, they
withdrew the half-proffered hand, and slunk back with
hanging heads. They felt again that they were lepers,
the outcasts of society, and must not contaminate us with
their touch. A few cheerful words of inquiry from the
physician, Dr. Trousseau, addressed to individuals as to
their particular cases, broke the embarrassment of this
first meeting, and soon the crowd were chatting and
laughing just like any other crowd of thoughtless
Hawaiians, and with but few exceptions, these unfortunate exiles showed no signs of the settled melancholy
that would naturally be looked for from people so hopelessly situated. Very happy were they when spoken to,
and quite ready to answer any questions.  We saw
numbers whom we had known in years past, and who,
having disappeared, we had thought dead. One we had
known as a Representative, and a very intelligent one,
too, in the Legislature of 1868. On greeting him as an
old-time acquaintance, he observed, ' Yes, we meet again
-in this living grave!' He is a man of no little consideration among the people, being entrusted by the
Board of Health with the care of the store which is kept




376


HAWAII.


here for the sale of such goods as the people require. All
do not appear to be lepers who are leprous. We saw
numbers who might pass along our streets any day without being suspected of the taint. They had it, however,
in one way or another. Sometimes on the extremities
only, eating away the flesh and rotting the bones of the
hands or feet; and sometimes only appearing in black
and indurated spots on the skin, noticed only on a somewhat close examination. This last sort is said to be the
worst, as being most surely fatal and easiest transmitted.
We saw women who had the disease in this stage, walking about, whom it was difficult to believe were lepers.
" If our sensibilities were shocked at the sight of the
crowd of lepers we had met at the beach, walking about
in physical strength and activity, how shall we describe
our sensations in looking upon these loathsome creatures
in the hospital, in whom it was indeed hard to recognise
anything human?   The rooms were cleanly kept and
well ventilated, but the atmosphere within was pervaded
with the sickening odour of the grave. At each end,
squatted or lying prone on their respective mats or mattresses, were the yet breathing corpses of lepers in the
last stages of various forms of the disease, who glanced
inquisitively at us for a moment out of their ghoul-like
eyes-those who were not already beyond seeing-and
then withdrew within their dreadful selves. Was there
ever a more pitiful sight?
"In one room we saw a sight that will ever remain
fixed indelibly on the tablets of memory. A little blueeyed, flaxen haired child, apparently three or four years




SCENES IN THE HOSPITAL.


377


old, a half-caste, that looked up at us with an expression
of timorous longing to be caressed and loved; but alas,
in its glassy eyes and transparent cheeks were the unmistakable signs of the curse-the sin of the parents visited
upon the child!
"In another room was one-a mass of rotting flesh,
with but little semblance of humanity remaining —who
was dying, and whose breath came hurried and obstructed.
A few hours at most, and his troubles would be over,
and his happy release arrive. There had been fourteen
deaths in the settlement during the previous fortnight.
On the day of our visit there were fifty-eight inmates of
the hospital."
Though the lifting of the veil of mystery which hangs
over the death valley of Molokai discloses some of the
most woeful features of the curse, it is a relief to know
the worst, and that the poor leprous outcasts in their
"living grave " are not outside the pale of humanity and
a judicious philanthropy. All that can be done for them
is to encourage their remaining capacities for industry,
and to smooth, as far as is possible, the journey of death.
The Hawaiian Government is doing its best to " stamp
out" the disease, and to provide for the comfort of those
who are isolated; and, with the limited means at its
disposal, has acted with an efficiency and humanity
worthy of the foremost of civilised countries.




LETTER XXVIII.


HILO. June 2nd
OFTEN since I finished my last letter has Hazael's
reply to Elisha occurred to me, " Is thy servant a dog,
that he should do this thing? " For in answer to people
who have said, " I hope nothing will induce you to attempt
the ascent of Mauna Loa," I always said, " Oh, dear, no!
I should never dream of it;" or, " Nothing would persuade
me to think of it!"
This morning early, Mr. Green came in, on his way to
Kilauea, to which I was to accompany him, and on my
casually remarking that I envied him his further
journey, he at once asked me to join him, and I joyfully
accepted the invitation! For, indeed, my heart has been
secretly set on going, and I have had to repeat to myself
fifty times a day, " no, I must not think of it, for it is
impossible."
Mr. Green is going up well equipped with a tent,
horses, a baggage mule, and a servant, and is confident of
being able to get a guide and additional mules fifty miles
from Hilo. I had to go to the Union School examination where the Hilo world was gathered, but I could
think of nothing but the future; and I can hardly
write sense, the prospect of the next week is so exciting,




LETTER XXVIII.] MOUNTAINEERING IN PROSPECT.


379


and the time for making preparations is so short. It is
an adventurous trip anyhow, and the sufferings which our
predecessors have undergone, from Commodore Wilkes
downwards, make me anxious not to omit any precaution.
The distance which has to be travelled through an uninhabited region, the height and total isolation of the
summit, the uncertainty as to the state of the crater,
and the duration of its activity, with the possibility of
total failure owing to fog or strong wind, combine to make
our ascent an experimental trip.
The news of the project soon spread through the
village, and as the ascent has only once been performed
by a woman, the kindly people are profuse in offers
of assistance, and in interest in the journey, and every
one is congratulating me on my good fortune in having
Mr. Green for my travelling companion. I have hunted
all the beach stores through for such essentials as will
pack into small compass, and every one said " So you
are going to 'the mountain; ' I hope you'll have a good
time; " or, " I hope you'll have the luck to get up."
Among the friends of my hosts all sorts of useful
articles were produced, a camp kettle, a camping blanket,
a huge Mexican poncho, a cardigan, capacious saddlebags, &c. Nor was Kahdle forgotten, for the last contribution was a bag of oats! The greatest difficulty was
about warm clothing, for in this perfect climate, woollen
underclothing is not necessary as in many tropical
countries, but it is absolutely essential on yonder mountain, and till late in the afternoon the best intentions and
the most energetic rummaging in old trunks failed to




380


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXVIII.


produce it. At last Mrs. -, wife of an old Scotch
settler, bestowed upon me the invaluable loan of a stout
flannel shirt, and a pair of venerable worsted stockings,
much darned, knitted in Fifeshire a quarter of a century
ago. When she brought them, the excellent lady exclaimed, "Oh, what some people will do!" with an
obvious personal reference.
She tells us that her husband, who owns the ranch
on the mountain at which we are to stay the last
night, has been obliged to forbid any of his natives
going up as guides, and that she fears we shall not
get a guide, as the native who went up with Mr. Whyte
suffered so dreadfully from mountain sickness, that they
were obliged to help him down, and he declares that he
will not go up again.  Mr. Whyte tells us that he
suffered himself from vomiting and vertigo for fourteen
hours, and severely from thirst also, as the water froze in
their canteens; but I am almost well now, and as my
capacity for " roughing it " has been severely tested, I
hope to " get on " much better. A party made the ascent
nine months ago, and the members of it also suffered
severely, but I see no reason why cautious people, who
look well to their gear and clothing, and are prudent
with regard to taking exercise at the top, should suffer
anything worse than the inconveniences which are inseparable from nocturnal cold at a high elevation.
My preparations are completed to-night, the last good
wishes have been spoken, and we intend to leave early tomorrow morning.
I. L. B.




LETTER XXIX.*


CRATER HOUSE, KILAUEA.
June 4th.
ONCE more I write with the splendours of the quenchless fires in sight, and the usual world seems twilight and
commonplace by the fierce glare of Halemaumau, and the
fitful glare of the other and loftier flame, which is burning
ten thousand feet higher in lonely Mokua-weo-weo.
Mr. Green and I left Hilo soon after daylight this
morning, and made about " the worst time " ever made on
the route. We jogged on slowly and silently for thirty
miles in Indian file, through bursts of tropical beauty,
over an ocean of fern-clad pahoehoe, the air hot and
stagnant, the horses lazy and indifferent, till I was awoke
from the kind of cautious doze into which one falls on a
sure-footed horse, by a decided coolness in the atmosphere, and Kahele breaking into a lumbering gallop,
which he kept up till we reached this house, where, in
spite of the exercise, we are glad to get close to a large
wood fire. Although we are shivering, the mercury is
57~, but in this warm and equable climate, one's sensa* I venture to present this journal letter just as it was written, trusting
that the interest which attaches to volcanic regions, will carry the reader
through the minuteness and multiplicity of the details.




382


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


tions are not significant of the height of the thermometer.
It is very fascinating to be here on the crater's edge,
and to look across its deep three miles of blackness to the
clouds of red light which Halemaumau is sending up,
but altogether exciting to watch the lofty curve of Mauna
Loa upheave itself against the moon, while far and faint,
we see, or think we see, that solemn light, which ever
since my landing at Kawaihae has been so mysteriously
attractive. It is three days off yet. Perhaps its spasmodic
fires will die out, and we shall find only blackness.
Perhaps anything, except our seeing it as it ought to be
seen! The practical difficulty about a guide increases,
and Mr. Gilman cannot help us to solve it. And if it be
so cold at 4000 feet, what will it be at 14,000?
KILAUEA. Jtune 5th.
I have no room in my thoughts for anything but
volcanoes, and it will be so for some days to come. We
have been all day in the crater, in fact, I left Mr. Green
and his native there, and came up with the guide, sore,
stiff, bruised, cut, singed, grimy, with my thick gloves
shrivelled off by the touch of sulphurous acid, and my
boots nearly burned off.  But what are cuts, bruises,
fatigue, and singed eyelashes, in comparison with the
awful sublimities I have witnessed to-day? The activity
of Kilauea on Jan. 31 was as child's play to its activity
to-day: as a display of fireworks compared to the conflagration of a metropolis. Then, the sense of awe gave
way speedily to that of admiration of the dancing fire




LETTER XXIX. ]


DESCENT INTO KILAUEA.


383


fountains of a fiery lake; now, it was all terror, horror,
and sublimity, blackness, suffocating gases, scorching
heat, crashings, surgings, detonations; half seen fires,
hideous, tortured, wallowing waves. I feel as if the terrors
of Kilauea would haunt me all my life, and be the Nemesis
of weak and tired hours.
We left early, and descended the terminal wall, still as
before, green with ferns, ohias, and sandalwood, and
bright with clusters of turquoise berries, and the red fruit
and waxy blossoms of the ohelo. The lowest depression
of the crater, which I described before as a level fissured
sea of iridescent lava, has been apparently partially
flooded by a recent overflow from Halemaumau, and the
same agency has filled up the larger rifts with great
shining rolls of black lava, obnoxiously like boa-constrictors in a state of repletion. In crossing this central
area for the second time, with a mind less distracted by
the novelty of the surroundings, I observed considerable
deposits of remarkably impure sulphur, as well as sulphates
of lime and alum in the larger fissures. The presence of
moisture was always apparent in connexion with these
formations.  The solidified surges and convolutions in
which the lava lies, the latter sometimes so beautifully
formed as to look like coils of wire rope, are truly
wonderful. Within the cracks there are extraordinary
coloured growths, orange, grey, buff, like mineral lichens,
but very hard and brittle.
The recent lava flow by which Halemaumau has considerably heightened its walls, has raised the hill by
which you ascend to the brink of the pit to a height




384


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


of fully five hundred feet from the basin, and this
elevation is at present much more fiery and precarious
than the former one.   It is dead, but not cold, lets
one through into cracks hot with corrosive acid, rings
hollow everywhere, and its steep acclivities lie in waves,
streams, coils, twists, and tortuosities of all kinds, the
surface glazed and smoothish, and with a metallic lustre.
Somehow, I expected to find Kilauea as I had left it in
January, though the volumes of dense white smoke which
are now rolling up from it might have indicated a change;
but after the toilsome, breathless climbing of the awful
lava hill, with the crust becoming more brittle, and the
footing hotter at each step, instead of laughing fire
fountains tossing themselves in gory splendour above
the rim, there was a hot, sulphurous, mephitic chaos,
covering, who knows what, of horror?
So far as we could judge, the level of the lake had
sunk to about 80 feet below the margin, and the lately
formed precipice was overhanging it considerably. About
seven feet back from the edge of the ledge, there was a
fissure about eighteen inches wide, emitting heavy fumes
of sulphurous acid gas. Our visit seemed in vain, for on
the risky verge of this crack we could only get momentary
glimpses of wallowing fire, glaring lurid through dense
masses of furious smoke which were rolling themselves
round in the abyss as if driven by a hurricane.
After failing to get a better standpoint, we suffered so
much from the gases, that we coasted the north, till we
reached the south lake, one with the other on my former
visit, but now separated by a solid lava barrier about




LETTER XXIX.]  THE TWO LAKES OF FIRE.


385


three hundred feet broad, and eighty high. Here there
was comparatively little smoke, and the whole mass of
contained lava was ebullient and incandescent, its level
marked the whole way round by a shelf or rim of molten
lava, which adhered to the side, as ice often adheres to
the margin of rapids, when the rest of the water is


HALEMAUMATT, JAN. 4.


liberated and in motion. There was very little centripetal action apparent. Though the mass was violently
agitated it always took a southerly direction, and dashed
itself with fearful violence against some lofty, undermined cliffs which formed its southern limit. The whole
region vibrated with the shock of the fiery surges. To
C 0




386


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


stand there was "to snatch a fearful joy," out of a pain
and terror which were unendurable. For two or three
minutes we kept going to the edge, seeing the spectacle
as with a flash, through half closed eyes, and going back
again; but a few trials, in which throats, nostrils, and
eyes were irritated to torture by the acid gases, convinced
us that it was unsafe to attempt to remain by the lake, as
the pain and gasping for breath which followed each inhalation, threatened serious consequences.
Soulk   lab.
Ba; i             feot iHlgk
North   lake 
OUTLINE OF [HALEMAUMAU, JUNE 4.
With regard to the north lake we were more fortunate,
and more persevering, and I regard the three hours we
spent by it as containing some of the most solemn, as well
as most fascinating, experiences of my life. The aspect
of the volcano had altogether changed within four months.
At present there are two lakes surrounded by precipices
about eighty feet high. Owing to the smoke and confusion,




LETTERXXTX.] SIGHT SEEING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.        387


it is most difficult to estimate their size even approximately,
but I think that the diameter of the two cannot be less
than a fifth of a mile.
Within the pit or lake by which we spent the morning, there were no fiery fountains, or regular plashings of
fiery waves playing in indescribable beauty in a faint blue
atmosphere, but lurid, gory, molten, raging, sulphurous,
tormented masses of matter, half seen through masses as
restless, of lurid smoke. Here, the violent action appeared centripetal, but with a southward tendency.
Apparently, huge bulging masses of a lurid-coloured lava
were wallowing the whole time one over another in a
central whirlpool, which occasionally flung up a wave of
fire thirty or forty feet. The greatest intensity of action
was always preceded by a dull throbbing roar, as if the
imprisoned gases were seeking the vent which was afforded
them by the upward bulging of the wave and its bursting
into spray. The colour of the lava which appeared to be
thrown upwards from great depths, was more fiery and less
gory than that nearer the surface. Now and then, through
rifts in the smoke we saw a convergence of the whole
molten mass into the centre, which rose wallowing and
convulsed to a considerable height. The awful sublimity
of what we did see, was enhanced by the knowledge that
it was only a thousandth part of what we did not see,
mere momentary glimpses of a terror and fearfulness
which otherwise could not have been borne.
A ledge, only three or four feet wide, hung over the
lake, and between that and the comparative terrafirma of
the older lava, there was a fissure of unknown depth,
cc2




388


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


emitting hot blasts of pernicious gases. The guide would
not venture on the outside ledge, but Mr. Green, in his
scientific zeal, crossed the crack, telling me not to follow
him, but presently, in his absorption with what he saw,
called to me to come, and I jumped across, and this
remained our perilous standpoint.*
Burned, singed, stifled, blinded, only able to stand on
one foot at a time, jumping back across the fissure every
two or three minutes to escape an unendurable whiff of
heat and sulphurous stench, or when splitting sounds
below threatened the disruption of the ledge: lured as
often back by the fascination of the horrors below; so we
spent three hours.
There was every circumstance of awfulness to make the
impression of. the sight indelible.   Sometimes dense
volumes of smoke hid everything, and yet, upwards, from
out "their sulphurous canopy" fearful sounds rose,
crashings, thunderings, detonations, and we never knew
then whether the spray of some hugely uplifted wave
might not dash up to where we stood. At other times
the smoke partially lifting, but still swirling in strong
eddies, revealed a central whirlpool of fire, wallowing at
unknown depths, to which the lava, from all parts of the
lake, slid centrewards and downwards as into a vortex,
where it mingled its waves with indescribable noise and
fury, and then, breaking upwards, dashed itself to a great
* Since then, the Austins of Onomea were standing on a similar ledge,
when a sound as of a surge striking below, made them jump back hastily,
and in another moment the projection split oft, and was engulfed in the
fiery lake.




LETTER XXIX.]


THE "BLOWING CONES."


389


height in fierce, gory, gouts and clots, while hell itself
seemed opening at our feet. At times, again, bits of the
lake skinned over with a skin of a wonderful silvery,
satiny sheen, to be immediately devoured; and as the
lurid billows broke, they were mingled with misplaced
patches as if of bright moonlight. Always changing,
always suggesting force which nothing could repel, agony
indescribable, mystery inscrutable, terror unutterable, a
thing of eternal dread, revealed only in glimpses!
It is natural to think that St. John the Evangelist, in
some Patmos vision, was transported to the brink of this
"bottomless pit," and found in its blackness and turbulence
of agony the fittest emblems of those tortures of remorse
and memory, which we may well believe are the quenchless flames of the region of self-chosen exile from goodness
and from God. As natural, too, that all Scripture phrases
which typify the place of woe should recur to one with
the force of a new interpretation, " Who can dwell with
the everlasting  burnings "  " The  smoke of their
torment goeth up for ever and ever," " The place of hell,"
" The bottomless pit," " The vengeance of eternal fire,"
" A lake of fire burning with brimstone." No sight can
be so fearful as this glimpse into the interior of the earth,
where fires are for ever wallowing with purposeless
force and aimless agony.
Beyond the lake there is a horrible region in which
dense volumes of smoke proceed from the upper ground,
with loud bellowings and detonations, and we took our
perilous way in that direction, over very hot lava which
gave way constantly. It is near this that the steady fires




3o9


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXTX.


are situated which are visible from this house at night.
We came first upon a solitary " blowing cone," beyond
which there was a group of three or four, but it is not
from these that the smoke proceeds, but from the extensive area beyond them, covered with smoke and steam
cracks, and smoking banks, which are probably formed of
sulphur deposits. I only visited the solitary cone, for the
footing was so precarious, the sight so fearful, and the
ebullitions of gases so dangerous, that I did not dare to
go near the others, and never wish to look upon their
like again.
The one I saw was of beehive shape, about twelve feet
high, hollow inside, and its walls were about two feet thick.
A part of its imperfect top was blown off, and a piece of its
side blown out, and the side rent gave one a frightful view
of its interior, with the risk of having lava spat at one at
intervals. The name " Blowing Cone " is an apt one, if
the theory of their construction be correct. It is supposed
that when the surface of the lava cools rapidly owing to
enfeebled action below, the gases force their way upwards
through small vents, which then serve as "blow holes"
for the imprisoned fluid beneath. This, rapidly cooling
as it is ejected, forms a ring on the surface of the crust,
which, growing upwards by accretion, forms a chimney,
eventually nearly or quite closed at the top, so as to form
a cone. In this case the cone is about eighty feet above
the present level of the lake, and fully one hundred yards
distant from its present verge.
The whole of the inside was red and molten, full of
knobs, and great fiery stalactites. Jets of lava at a white




LETTER XXix.]  HORRORS OF HALEMAUMAU.


391


heat were thrown up constantly, and frequently the rent
in the side spat out lava in clots, which cooled rapidly,
and looked like drops of bottle green glass. The glimpses
I got of the interior were necessarily brief and intermittent.
The blast or roar which came up from below was more
than deafening; it was stunning: and accompanied with
heavy subterranean rumblings and detonations.  The
chimney, so far as I could see, opened out gradually
downwards to a great width, and appeared to be about
forty feet deep; and at its base there was an abyss of
lashing, tumbling, restless fire, emitting an ominous surging sound, and breaking upwards with a fury which
threatened to blow the cone and the crust on which it
stands, into the air.
The heat was intense, and the stinging sulphurous gases
which were given forth in large quantities, most poisonous.
The group of cones west of this one, was visited by Mr.
Green; but he found it impossible to make any further
explorations. He has seen nearly all the recent volcanic
phenomena, but says that these cones present the most
"infernal" appearance he has ever witnessed.   We
returned for a last look at Halemaumau, but the smoke
was so dense, and the sulphur fumes so stifling, that, as
in a fearful dream, we only heard the thunder of its hidden
surges. I write thunder, and one speaks of the lashing
of its waves; but these are words pertaining to the familiar
earth, and have no place in connection with Kilauea. The
breaking lava has a voice all its own, full of compressed
fury. Its sound, motion, and aspect are all infernal.
Hellish, is the only fitting term.




HAWAII.


392


[LETTER XXIX.


We are dwelling on a cooled crust all over Southern
Hawaii, the whole region is recent lava, and between this
and the sea there are several distinct lines of craters thirty
miles long, all of which at some time or other have
vomited forth the innumerable lava streams which streak
the whole country in the districts of Kau, Puna, and Hilo.
In fact, Hawaii is a great slag. There is something very
solemn in the position of this crater-house: with smoke
and steam coming out of every pore of the ground, and in
front the huge crater, which to-night lights all the sky.
My second visit has produced a far deeper impression
even than the first, and one of awe and terror solely.
Kilauea is altogether different from the European volcanoes which send lava and stones into the air in fierce
sudden spasms, and then subside into harmlessness.
Ever changing, never resting, the force which stirs it never
weakening, raging for ever with tossing and strength like
the ocean: its labours unfinished and possibly never to be
finished, its very unexpectedness adds to its sublimity
and terror, for until you reach the terminal wall of the
crater, it looks by daylight but a smoking pit in the midst
of a dreary stretch of waste land.
Last night I thought the Southern Cross out of place;
to-night it seems essential, as Calvary over against Sinai.
For Halemaumau involuntarily typifies the wrath which
shall consume all evil: and the constellation, pale against
its lurid light, the great love and yearning of the Father,
"who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up
for us all," that, "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive."




LETTER XXIX.]  "THE FIRE'S GONE OUT."


393


AINEPO, HAWAII, June 5th.
WE had a great fright last evening. We had been
engaging mules, and talking over our plans with our halfIndian host, when he opened the door and exclaimed,
" There's no light on Mauna Loa; the fire's gone out."
We rushed out, and though the night was clear and frosty,
the mountain curve rose against the sky without the
accustomed wavering glow upon it. " I'm afraid you'll
have your trouble for nothing," Mr. Gilman unsympathisingly remarked; "anyhow, its awfully cold up there,"
and rubbing his hands, reseated himself at the fire. Mr.
G. and I stayed out till we were half-frozen, and I persuaded myself and him that there was a redder tinge
than the moonlight above the summit, but the mountain
has given no sign all day, so that I fear that I " evolved"
the light out of my " inner consciousness."
Mr. Gilman was eloquent on the misfortunes of our
predecessors, lent me a pair of woollen socks to put on
over my gloves, told me privately that if anyone could
succeed in getting a guide it would be Mr. Green, and
dispatched us at eight this morning with a lurking smile
at our " fool's errand," thinly veiled by warm wishes for
our success. Mr. Reid has two ranches on the mountain, seven miles distant from each other, and was expected every hour at the crater-house on his way to Hilo,
but it was not known from which he was coming, and as
it appeared that our last hope of getting a guide lay in
securing his good will, Mr. G., his servant, and packmule took the lower trail, and I, with a native, a string
of mules, and a pack-horse, the upper. Our plans for




394


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


intercepting the good man were well laid and successful,
but turned out resultless.
This has been an irresistibly comical day, and it is just
as well to have something amusing interjected between
the sublimities of Kilauea, and whatever to-morrow may
bring forth. When our cavalcades separated, I followed
the guide on a blind trail into the little-known regions on
the skirts of Mauna Loa. We only travelled two miles
an hour, and the mules kept getting up rows, kicking, and
entangling their legs in the lariats, and one peculiarly
malign animal dealt poor Kahele a gratuitous kick on his
nose, making it bleed.
It is strange, unique country, without any beauty.
The seaward view is over a great stretch of apparent
table-land, spotted with craters, and split by cracks emitting smoke or steam. The whole region is black with
streams of spiked and jagged lava, meandering over it,
with charred stumps of trees rising out of them.
The trail, if such it could be called, wound among koa
and sandalwood trees occasionally, but habitually we
picked our way over waves, coils, and hummocks of
pahoehoe surrounded by volcanic sand, and with only a
few tufts of grass, abortive ohelos, and vigorous sow
thistles (much relished by Kahele) growing in their crevices. Horrid cracks, 50 or 60 feet wide, probably made
by earthquakes, abounded, and a black chasm of most
infernal aspect dogged us on the left. It was all scrambling up and down. Sometimes there was long, ugly
grass, a brownish green, coarse and tufty, for a mile or
more. Sometimes clumps of wintry-looking, dead trees,




LETTER XXIX.1


EARTHQUAKES.


395


sometimes clumps of attenuated living ones; but nothing
to please the eye. We saw neither man nor beast the
whole way, except a wild bull, which, tearing down the
mountain side, crossed the trail just in front of us, causing a stampede among the mules, and it was fully an
hour before they were all caught again.
The only other incident was an earthquake, the most
severe, the men here tell me, that has been experienced
for two years. One is prepared for any caprices on the
part of the earth here, yet when there was a fearful internal throbbing and rumbling, and the trees and grass
swayed rapidly, and great rocks and masses of soil were
dislodged, and bounded down the hillside, and the earth
reeled, and my poor horse staggered and stopped short; far
from rising to the magnitude of the occasion, I thought I
was attacked with vertigo, and grasped the horn of my
saddle to save myself from falling. After a moment of
profound stillness, there was again a subterranean sound
like a train in a tunnel, and the earth reeled again with
such violence that I felt as if the horse and myself had
gone over. Poor K. was nervous for some time afterwards. The motion was as violent as that of a large ship
in a mid-Atlantic storm. There were four minor shocks
within half an hour afterwards.
After crawling along for seven hours, and for the last
two in a dripping fog, so dense that I had to keep within
kicking range of the mules for fear of being lost, we
heard the lowing of domestic cattle, and came to a place
where felled trees, very difficult for the horses to cross,
were lying. Then a rude boundary wall appeared, inside




396


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


of which was a small, poor-looking grass house, consisting of one partially-divided room, with a small, ruinouslooking cook-house, a shed, and an unfinished frame
house. It looked, and is, a disconsolate conclusion of a
wet day's ride. I rode into the corral, and found two or
three very rough-looking whites and half-whites standing,
and addressing one of them, I found he was Mr. Reid's
manager there. I asked if they could give me a night's
lodging, which seemed a diverting notion to them; and
they said they could give me the rough accommodation
they had, but it was hard even for them, till the new
house was put up. They brought me into this very rough
shelter, a draughty grass room, with a bench, table, and
one chair in it. Two men came in, but not the native
wife and family, and sat down to a calabash of poi and
some strips of dried beef, food so coarse, that they apologised for not offering it to me. They said they had sent
to the lower ranch for some flour, and in the meantime
they gave me some milk in a broken bowl, their " nearest
approach to a tumbler," they said. I was almost starving,
for all our food was on the pack-mule. This is the place
where we had been told that we could obtain tea, flour,
beef, and fowls!
By some fatality my pen, ink, and knitting were on the
pack-mule; it was very cold, the afternoon fog closed us
in, and darkness came on prematurely, so that I felt a
most absurd sense of ennui, and went over to the cook
house, where I found Gandle cooking, and his native wife
with a heap of children and dogs lying round the stove.
I joined them till my clothes were dry, on which the man,




LETTER XXIX.]  A PICTURESQUE SCENE.


397


who in spite of his rough exterior, was really friendly and
hospitable, remarked that he saw I was "one of the sort
who knew how to take people as I found them."
This regular afternoon mist which sets in at a certain
altitude, blotting out the sun and sky, and bringing the
horizon within a few yards, makes me certain after all
that the mists of rainless Eden were a phenomenon, the
loss of which is not to be regretted.
Still the afternoon hung on, and I went back to the house
feeling that the most desirable event which the future
could produce would be-a meal. Now and then the
men came in and talked for a while, and as the darkness
and cold intensified, they brought in an arrangement extemporised out of what looked like a battered tin bath,
half full of earth, with some lighted faggots at the top,
which gave out a little warmth and much stinging smoke.
Actual, undoubted, night came on without Mr. Green, of
whose failure I felt certain, and without food, and being
blinded by the smoke, I rolled myself in a blanket and
fell asleep on the bench, only to wake in a great fright,
believing that the volcano house was burning over my
head, and that a venerable missionary was taking advantage of the confusion to rob my saddle-bags, which in
truth one of the men was moving out of harm's way,
having piled up the fire two feet high.
Presently a number of voices outside shouted Haole!
and Mr. Green came in shaking the water from his waterproof, with the welcome words, "Everything's settled for
to-morrow." Mr. Reid threw cold water on the ascent,
and could give no help; and Mr. G. being thus left to




398


IAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


himself, after a great deal of trouble, has engaged as
guide an active young goat-hunter, who, though he has
never been to the top of the mountain, knows other parts
of it so well that he is sure he can take us up. Mr. G.
also brings an additional mule and pack-horse, so that
our equipment is complete, except in the matter of cruppers, which we have been obliged to make for ourselves
out of goats' hair rope, and old stockings. If Mr. G.
has an eye for the picturesque, he must have been gratified as he came in from the fog and darkness into the
grass room, with the flaring fire in the middle, the rifles
gleaming on the wall, the two men in very rough
clothing, and myself huddled up in a blanket sitting on
the floor, where my friend was very glad to join us.
Mr. Green has brought nothing but tea from Kapapala,
but Gandle has made some excellent rolls, besides feasting us on stewed fowl, dough nuts, and milk! Little
comfort is promised for to-night, as Gandle says with a
twinkle of kindly malice in his eye, that we shall not
" get a wink of sleep, for the place swarms with fleas."
They are a great pest of the colder regions of the islands,
and like all other nuisances, are said to have been imported! Gandle and the other man have entertained us
with the misfortunes of our predecessors, on which they
seem to gloat with ill-omened satisfaction.
I. L. B.




LETTER XXIX.-Continued.
KAPAPALA,
June 8th.
THE fleas at Ainepo quite fulfilled Mr. Gandle's prognostications, and I was glad when the cold stars went out
one by one, and a red, cloudless dawn broke over the
mountain, accompanied by a heavy dew and a morning
mist, which soon rolled itself up into rosy folds and
disappeared, and there was a legitimate excuse for getting
up. Our host provided us with flour, sugar, and dough
nuts, and a hot breakfast, and our expedition, comprising
two natives who knew not a word of English, Mr. G.
who does not know very much more Hawaiian than I
do, and myself, started at seven. We had four superb
mules, and two good pack-horses, a large tent, and a
plentiful supply of camping blankets. I put on all my
own warm clothes, as well as most of those which had
been lent to me, which gave me the squat, padded, look
of a puffin or Esquimaux, but all, and more were needed
long before we reached the top. The mules were beyond
all praise. They went up the most severe ascent I have
ever seen, climbing steadily for nine hours, without a
touch of the spur, and after twenty-four hours of cold,
thirst, and hunger, came down again as actively as cats.
The pack-horses too were very good, but from the com



400


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


parative clumsiness with which they move their feet they
were very severely cut.
We went off, as usual, in single file, the guide first,
and Mr. G. last. The track was passably legible for
some time, and wound through long grass, and small
koa trees, mixed with stunted ohias and a few common
ferns. Half these koa trees are dead, and all, both living
and dead, have their branches covered with a long hairy
lichen, nearly white, making the dead forest in the slight
mist look like a wood in England when covered with
rime on a fine winter morning. The koa tree has a
peculiarity of bearing two distinct species of leaves on
the same twig, one like a curved willow leaf, the other
that of an acacia.
After two hours ascent we camped on the verge of the
timber line, and fed our animals, while the two natives
hewed firewood, and loaded the spare pack-horse with it.
The sky was by that time cloudless, and the atmosphere
brilliant, and both remained so until we reached the same
place twenty-eight hours later, so that the weather
favoured us in every respect, for there is "weather" on
the mountain, rains, fogs, and wind storms. The grass
only grows sparsely in tufts above this place, and though
vegetation exists up to a height of 10,000 feet on this
side, it consists, for the most part, of grey lichens, a little
withered grass, and a hardy asplenium.
At this spot the real business of the ascent begins, and
we tightened our girths, distributed the baggage as fairly
as possible, and made all secure before remounting.
We soon entered on vast uplands of pahoehoe which




LETTER XXIX. ]


A WASTE OF LAVA.


401


ground away the animals' feet, a horrid waste, extending
upwards for 7000 feet. For miles and miles, above and
around, great billowy masses, tossed and twisted into an
infinity of fantastic shapes, arrest and weary the eye,
lava in all its forms, from a compact phonolite, to the
lightest pumice stone, the mere froth of the volcano,
exceeding in wildness and confusion the most extravagant nightmare ever inflicted on man. Recollect the
vastness of this mountain. The whole south of this large
island, down to, and below the water's edge, is composed of
its slopes. Its height is nearly three miles, its base is
180 miles in circumference, so that Wales might be
packed away within it, leaving room to spare. Yet its
whole huge bulk, above a height of about 8000 feet, is one
frightful desert, at once the creation and the prey of the
mightiest force on earth.
Struggling, slipping, tumbling, jumping, ledge after
ledge was surmounted, but still, upheaved against the
glittering sky, rose new difficulties to be overcome. Immense bubbles have risen from  the confused masses,
and bursting, have yawned apart. Swift-running streams
of more recent lava have cleft straight furrows through
the older congealed surface. Massive flows have fallen
in, exposing caverned depths of jagged outlines. Earthquakes have riven the mountain, splitting its sides and
opening deep crevasses, which must be leapt or circumvented. Horrid streams of a-a have to be cautiously
skirted, which after rushing remorselessly over the
kindlier lava have heaped rugged pinnacles of brown
scoriae into impassable walls. Winding round the bases
D D




402


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


of tossed up, fissured hummocks of pahoehoe, leaping
from one broken hummock to another, clambering up
acclivities so steep that the pack-horse rolled backwards
once, and my cat-like mule fell twice, moving cautiously
over crusts which rang hollow to the tread; stepping
over deep cracks, which, perhaps, led down to the burning fathomless sea, traversing hilly lakes ruptured by
earthquakes, and split in cooling into a thousand fissures,
painfully toiling up the sides of mounds of scoriae frothed
with pumice-stone, and again for miles surmounting
rolling surfaces of billowy ropy lava-so passed the long
day, under the tropic sun, and the deep blue sky.
Towards afternoon, clouds heaped themselves in brilliant snowy masses, all radiance and beauty to us, all fog
and gloom below, girdling the whole mountain, and interposing their glittering screen between us and the dark
timber belt, the black smoking shores of Kau,'and the blue
shimmer of the Pacific. From that time, for twenty-four
hours, the lower world, and " works and ways of busy
men " were entirely shut out, and we were alone with this
trackless and inanimate region of horror.
For the first time our guide hesitated as to the right
track, for the faint suspicion of white smoke, which had
kept alive our hope that the fire was still burning, had
ceased to be visible. We called a halt while he reconnoitred, tried to eat some food, found that our pulses
were beating 100 a minute, bathed our heads, specially
our temples, with snow, as we had been advised to do by the
oldest mountaineer on Hawaii, and heaped on yet more
clothing. In fact, I tied a double woollen scarf over all




LETTER XXIX.]  "WRONG" )N MAUNA LOA.


403


my face but my eyes, and put on a French soldier's
overcoat, with cape and hood, which Mr. Green had
brought in case of emergency. The cold had become
intense. We had not wasted words at any time, and on
remounting, preserved as profound a silence as if we were
on a forlorn hope, even the natives intermitting their
ceaseless gabble.
Upwards still, in the cold bright air, coasting the
edges of deep cracks, climbing endless terraces, the
mules panting heavily, our breath coming as if from
excoriated lungs,-so we surmounted the highest ledge.
But on reaching the apparent summit we were to all
appearance as far from the faint smoke as ever, for this
magnificent dome, whose base is sixty miles in diameter,
is crowned by a ghastly volcanic table land, creviced,
riven, and ashy, twenty-four miles in circumference. A
table-land, indeed, of dark grey lava, blotched by outbursts, and torn by streams of brown a-a, full of hideous
crevasses and fearful shapes, as if a hundred waves of
lava had rolled themselves one on another, and had congealed in confused heaps, and been tortured in all directions by the mighty power which had upheaved the whole.
Our guide took us a little wrong once, but soon recovered himself with much sagacity.  "Wrong" on
Mauna Loa means being arrested by an impassable a-a
stream, and our last predecessors had nearly been stopped
by getting into one in which they suffered severely.
These a-a streams are very deep, and when in a state
of fusion move along in a mass 20 feet high somej) I 2




404


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


times, with very solid walls. Professor Alexander, of
Honolulu, supposes them to be from the beginning less
fluid than pahoehoe, and that they advance very slowly,
being full of solid points, or centres of cooling: that a-a,
in fact, grains like sugar. Its hardness is indescribable.
It is an aggregate of upright, rugged, adamantine points,
and at a distance, a river of it looks like a dark brown
3lfer (le Glace.
At half-past four we reached the edge of an a-a stream,
about as wide as the Ouse at Huntingdon Bridge, and it
was obvious that somehow or other we must cross it:
indeed, I know not if it be possible to reach the crater
without passing through one or another of these obstacles. I should have liked to have left the animals
there, but it was represented as impossible to proceed on
foot, and though this was a decided misrepresentation,
Mr. Green plunged in. I had resolved that he should
never have any bother in consequence of his kindness in
taking me with him, and, indeed, everyone had enough
to do in taking care of himself and his own beast, but
I never found it harder to repress a cry for help. Not
that I was in the least danger, but there was every risk
of the beautiful mule being much hurt, or breaking her
legs. The fear shown by the animals was pathetic; they
shrank back, cowered, trembled, breathed hard and
heavily, and stumbled and plunged painfully. It was
sickening to see their terror and suffering, the struggling
and slipping into cracks, the blood and torture. The
mules with their small legs and wonderful agility were
more frightened thaw hurt, but the horses were splashed




LETTER XXIX.] THE CRATER OF MOKUXAWEOWEO.


405


with blood up to their knees, and their poor eyes looked
piteous.
We were then, as we knew, close to the edge of the
crater, but the faint smoke wreath had disappeared, and
there was nothing but the westering sun hanging like a
ball over the black horizon of the desolate summit. We
rode as far as a deep fissure filled with frozen snow, with
a ledge beyond, threw ourselves from our mules, jumped
the fissure, and more than 800 feet below yawne I the
inaccessible blackness and horror of the crater of
Mokuaweoweo, six miles in circumference, and 11,000
feet long by 8,000 wide. The mystery was solved, for at
one end of the crater, in a deep gorge of its own, above
the level of the rest of the area, there was the lonely fire,
the reflection of which, for six weeks, has been seen for
100 miles.
Nearly  opposite us, a thing of beauty, a perfect
fountain of pure yellow fire, unlike the gory gleam of
Kilauea, was regularly playing in several united but
independent jets, throwing up its glorious incandescence,
to a height, as we afterwards ascertained, of from 150 to
300 feet, and attaining at one time 600! You cannot
imagine such a beautiful sight. The sunset gold was not
purer than the living fire. The distance which we were
from it, divested it of the inevitable horrors which surround it. It was all beauty. For the last two miles
of the ascent, we had heard a distant vibrating roar:
there, at the crater's edge, it was a glorious sound,
the roar of an ocean at dispeace, mingled with the
hollow murmur of surf echoing in sea caves, booming




406


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


on, rising and falling, like the thunder music of windward Hawaii.
We sat on the ledge outside the fissure for some time,
and Mr. Green actually proposed to pitch the tent there,
but I dissuaded him, on the ground that an earthquake
might send the whole thing tumbling into the crater;
nor was this a whimsical objection, for during the night
there were two such falls, and after breakfast, another
quite near us.
We had travelled for two days under a strong impression that the fires had died out, so you can imagine the
sort of stupor of satisfaction with which we feasted on
the glorious certainty. Yes, it was glorious, that far-off
fire-fountain, and the lurid cracks in the slow-moving,
black-crusted flood, which passed calmly down from the
higher level to the grand area of the crater.
This area, over two miles long, and a mile and a half
wide, with precipitous sides 800 feet deep, and a broad
second shelf about 300 feet below the one we occupied,
at that time appeared a dark grey, tolerably level lake,
with great black blotches, and yellow and white stains, the
whole much fissured.  No steam or smoke proceeded
fiom  any part of the level surface, and it had the
unnaturally dead look which follows the action of fire.
A ledge, or false beach, which must mark a once higher
level of the lava, skirts the lake, at an elevation of
thirty feet probably, and this fringed the area with various
signs of present volcanic action, steaming sulphur banks,
and heavy jets of smoke.  The other side, above the
crater, has a ridgy broken look, giving the false impres



LETTER XXIX.]  CAMPING ON THE SUMMIT.


407


sion of a mountainous region beyond. At this time the
luminous fountain, and the red cracks in the river of lava
which proceeded from it, were the only fires visible in the
great area of blackness.  In former days people have
descended to the floor of the crater, but owing to the
breaking away of the accessible part of the precipice, a
descent now is not feasible, though I doubt not that a
man might even now get down, if he went up with suitable
tackle, and sufficient assistance.
The one disappointment was that this extraordinary
fire-fountain was not only 800 feet below us, but nearly
three-quarters of a mile from us, and that it was impossible to get any nearer to it. Those who have made the
ascent before have found themselves obliged either to
camp on the very spot we occupied, or a little below it.
The natives pitched the tent as near to the crater as
was safe, with one pole in a crack, and the other in the
great fissure, which was filled to within three feet of the
top with snow and ice. As the opening of the tent was
on the crater side, we could not get in or out without
going down into this crevasse. The tent walls were held
down with stones to make it as snug as possible, but
snug is a word of the lower earth, and has no meaning
on that frozen mountain top. The natural floor was of
rough slabs of lava, laid partly edgewise, so that a newly
macadamised road would have been as soft a bed. The
natives spread the horse blankets over it, and I arranged
the camping blankets, made my own part of the tent as
comfortable as possible by putting my inverted saddle
down for a pillow, put on my last reserve of warm




408


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


clothing, took the food out of the saddle bags, and then
felt how impossible it was to exert myself in the rarified
air, or even to upbraid Mr. Green for having forgotten
the tea, of which I had reminded him as often as was
consistent with politeness!
This discovery was not made till after we had boiled
the kettle, and my dismay was softened by remembering
that as water boils up there at 187~, our tea would have
been worthless. In spite of my objection to stimulants,
and in defiance of the law against giving liquor to
natives, I made a great tin of brandy toddy, of which
all partook, along with tinned salmon and dough-nuts.
Then the men piled faggots on the fire and began their
everlasting chatter, and Mr. Green and I, huddled up in
blankets, sat on the outer ledge in solemn silence, to
devote ourselves to the volcano.
The sun was just setting: the tooth-like peaks of
Mauna Kea, cold and snow slashed, which were blushing
red, the next minute turned ghastly against a chilly sky,
and with the disappearance of the sun it became severely
cold; yet we were able to remain there till 9'30, the first
people to whom  such a thing has been possible, so
supremely favoured were we by the absence of wind.
When the sun had set, and the brief red glow of the
tropics had vanished, a new world came into being, and
wonder after wonder flashed forth from the previously
lifeless crater. Everywhere through its vast expanse
appeared glints of fire-fires bright and steady, burning
in rows like blast furnaces; fires lone and isolated, unwinking like planets, or twinkling like stars; rows of




LETTER XXIX. ]


A WORLD OF FIRE.            4


409


little fires marking the margin of the lowest level of the
crater; fire molten in deep crevasses; fire in wavy lines;
fire, calm, stationary, and restful: an incandescent lake
two miles in length beneath a deceptive crust of darkness, and whose depth one dare not fathom even in
thought. Broad in the glare, giving light enough to
read by at a distance of three-quarters of a mile, making
the moon look as blue as an ordinary English sky, its
golden gleam changed to a vivid rose colour, lighting
up the whole of the vast precipices of that part of the
crater with a rosy red, bringing out every detail here,
throwing cliffs and heights into huge black masses there,
rising, falling, never intermitting, leaping in lofty jets
with glorious shapes like wheatsheaves, coruscating, reddening, the most glorious thing beneath the moon was the
fire-fountain of Mokuaweoweo.
By day the cooled crust of the lake had looked black
and even sooty, with a fountain of molten gold playing
upwards from it; by night it was all incandescent, with
black blotches of cooled scum upon it, which were perpetually being devoured. The centre of the lake was at a
white heat, and waves of white hot lava appeared to be
wallowing there as in a whirlpool, and from this centre
the fountain rose, solid at its base, which is estimated
at 150 feet in diameter, but thinning and frittering as it
rose high into the air, and falling from the great altitude
to which it attained, in fiery spray, which made a very
distinct clatter on the fiery surface below. When one jet was
about half high, another rose so as to keep up the action




410


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


without intermission; and in the lower part of the
fountain two subsidiary curved jets of great volume continually crossed each other. So, "alone in its glory,"
perennial, self-born, springing up in sparkling light, the
fire-fountain played on as the hours went by.
From the nearer margin of this incandescent lake there
was a mighty but deliberate overflow, a " silent tide " of
fire, passing to the lower level, glowing under and
amidst its crust, with the brightness of metal passing
from a furnace. In the bank of partially cooled and
crusted lava which appears to support the lake, there
were rifts showing the molten lava within. In one place
heavy white vapour blew off in powerful jets from the
edge of the lake, and elsewhere there were frequent jets
and ebullitions of the same, but there was not a trace of
vapour over the burning lake itself. The crusted large
area, with its blowing cones, blotches and rifts of fire, was
nearly all visible, and from the thickness and quietness of
the crust it was obvious that the ocean of lava below was
comparatively at rest, but a dark precipice concealed a
part of the glowing and highly agitated lake, adding
another mystery to its sublimity.
It is probable that the whole interior of this huge
dome is fluid, for the eruptions from this summit crater
do not proceed from its filling up and running over, but
from the mountain sides being unable to bear the enormous pressure; when they give way, high or low, and
bursting, allow the fiery contents to escape. So, in 1855,
the mountain side split open, and the lava gushed forth




LETTER XXIX.]  THE PLEASURES OF TENT LIFE.


411


for thirteen months in a stream which ran for 60 miles,
and flooded Hawaii for 300 square miles.*
From  the camping ground, immense cracks parallel
with the crater, extend for some distance, and the whole
of the compact grey stone of the summit is much fissured.
These cracks, like the one by which our tent was pitched,
contain water resting on ice. It shows the extreme difference of climate on the two sides of Hawaii, that while
vegetation straggles up to a height of 10,000 feet on the
windward side in a few miserable blasted forms, it absolutely ceases at a height of 7,000 feet on the leeward.
It was too cold to sit up all night; so by the "fire
light " I wrote the enclosed note to you with fingers nearly
freezing on the pen, and climbed into the tent.
It is possible that tent life in the East, or in the Rocky
Mountains, with beds, tables, travelling knick-knacks of
all descriptions, and servants who study their master's
whims, may be very charming; but my experience of it
having been of the make-shift and non-luxurious kind,
is not delectable. A wooden saddle, without stuffing,
made a very fair pillow; but the ridges of the lava were
severe. I could not spare enough blankets to soften
them, and one particularly intractable point persisted in
making itself felt. I crowded on everything attainable,
two pairs of gloves, with Mr. Gilman's socks over them,
and a thick plaid muffled up my face. Mr. Green and
the natives, buried in blankets, occupied the other part of
the tent. The phrase, " sleeping on the brink of a vol* Since white men have inhabited the islands, there have been ten
recorded eruptions from the craters of Mauna Loa, and one from Hualalai.




412


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


cano," was literally true, for I fell asleep, and fear I
might have been prosaic enough to sleep all night, had it
not been for fleas which had come up in the camping
blankets. When I woke, it was light enough to see that
the three muffled figures were all asleep, instead of spending the night in shiverings and vertigo, as it appears that
others have done. Doubtless the bathing of our heads
several times with snow and ice-water had been beneficial.
Circumstances were singular. It was a strange thing
to sleep on a lava-bed at a height of nearly 14,000 feet,
far away from the nearest dwelling, "in a region," as
Mr. Jarves says, "rarely visited by man," hearing all the
time the roar, clash, and thunder of the mightiest volcano
in the world. It seemed all a wild dream, as that majestic sound moved on. There were two loud reports,
followed by a prolonged crash, occasioned by parts of the
crater walls giving way; vibrating rumblings, as if of earthquakes; and then a louder surging of the fiery ocean, and
a series of most imposing detonations. Creeping over
the sleeping forms, which never stirred even though I
had to kneel upon one of the natives while I untied the
flap of the tent, I crept cautiously into the crevasse in
which the snow-water was then hard frozen, and out upon
the projecting ledge. The four hours in which we had previously watched the volcano had passed like one; but
the lonely hours which followed might have been two
minutes or a year, for time was obliterated.
Coldly the Pole-star shivered above the frozen summit,
and a blue moon, nearly full, withdrew her faded light




LETTER XXIX.]  MIDNIGHT ON THE VOLCANO.


413


into infinite space. The Southern Cross had set. Two
peaks below the Pole-star, sharply defined against the sky,
were the only signs of any other world than the world of
fire and mystery around. It was light, broadly, vividly
light; the sun himself, one would have thought, might
look pale beside it. But such a light! The silver index
of my thermometer, which had fallen to 23~ Fahrenheit,
was ruby red; that of the aneroid, which gave the height
at 13,803 feet (an error of 43 feet in excess), was the
same. The white duck of the tent was rosy, and all the
crater walls and the dull-grey ridges which lie around
were a vivid rose red.
All Hawaii was sleeping. Our Hilo friends looked out
the last thing; saw the glare, and probably wondered how
we were " getting on," high up among the stars. Mine
were the only mortal eyes which saw what is perhaps the
grandest spectacle on earth. Once or twice I felt so
overwhelmed by the very sublimity of the loneliness, that
I turned to the six animals, which stood shivering in the
north wind, without any consciousness than that of cold,
hunger, and thirst. It was some relief even to pity them,
for pity was at least a human feeling, and a momentary
rest from the thrill of the new sensations inspired by the
circumstances.  The moon herself looked a wan unfamiliar thing-not the same moon which floods the palm
and mango groves of Hilo with light and, tenderness.
And those palm and mango groves, and lighted homes,
and seas, and ships, and cities, and faces of friends, and
all familiar things, and the day before, and the years
before, were as things in dreams, coming up out of a




414


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


vanished past. And would there ever be another day,
and would the earth ever be young and green again, and
would men buy and sell and strive for gold, and should
I ever with a human voice tell living human beings of the
things of this midnight? How far it was from all the
world, uplifted above love, hate, and storms of passion,
and war, and wreck of thrones, and dissonant clash of
human thought, serene in the eternal solitudes!
Things had changed, as they change hourly in craters.
The previous loud detonations were probably connected
with the evolutions of some "blowing cones," which
were now very fierce, and throwing up lava at the
comparatively dead end of the crater. Lone stars of fire
broke out frequently through the blackened crust. The
molten river, flowing from the incandescent lake, had
advanced and broadened considerably. That lake itself,
whose diameter has been estimated at 800 feet, was rosered and self-illuminated, and the increased noise was
owing to the increased force of the fire-fountain, which
was playing regularly at a height of 300 feet, with the
cross fountains, like wheat-sheaves, at its lower part.
These cross-fountains were the colour of a mixture of
blood and fire, and the lower part of the perpendicular
jets was the same; but as they rose and thinned, this
colour passed into a vivid rose-red, and the spray and
splashes were as rubies and flame mingled. For ever
falling in fiery masses and fiery foam: accompanied by a
thunder-music of its own: companioned only by the solemn
stars: exhibiting no other token of its glories to man than
the reflection of its fires on mist and smoke; it burns for




LETTER XXIX.]


THE FINAL SPECTACLE.


415


the Creator's eye alone. No foot of mortal can approach it.
Hours passed as I watched the indescribable glories of
the fire-fountain, its beauty of form, and its radiant
reflection on the precipices, eight hundred feet high, which
wall it in, and listened to its surges beating, and the ebb
and flow of its thunder-music. Then a change occurred.
The jets, which for long had been playing at a height of
300 feet, suddenly became quite low, and for a few
seconds appeared as cones of fire wallowing in a sea of
light; then with a roar like the sound of gathering waters,
nearly the whole surface of the lake was lifted up by the
action of some powerful internal force, and rose three times
with its whole radiant mass, in one glorious, upward
burst, to a height, as estimated by the surrounding
cliffs, of six hundred feet, while the earth trembled,
and the moon and stars withdrew abashed into far-off
space. After this the fire-fountain played as before. The
cold had become intense, 11~ of frost; and I crept back
into the tent; those words occurring to me with a new
meaning, " dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto."
We remained in the tent till the sun had slightly warmed
the air, and then attempted to prepare breakfast by the
fire; but no one could eat anything, and the native from
Waimea complained of severe headache, which shortly
became agonizing, and he lay on the ground moaning,
and completely prostrated by mountain sickness. I felt
extreme lassitude, and exhaustion followed the slightest
effort; but the use of snow to the head produced great




416


HAWAII.


[LETTER    XXIX.


relief. The water in our canteens was hard frozen, and
the keenness of the cold aggravated the uncomfortable
symptoms which accompany pulses at 110~. The native
guide was the only person capable of work, so we were late
in getting off, and rode four and a half hours to the camping ground, only stopping once to tighten our girths.
Not a rope, strap, or buckle, or any of our gear gave way,
and though I rode without a crupper, the breeching of a
pack mule's saddle kept mine steady.
The descent, to the riders, is far more trying than the
ascent, owing to the continued stretch of very steep
declivity for eight thousand feet; but our mules never
tripped, and came into Ainepo as if they had not travelled
at all. The horses were terribly cut, both again in the
a-a stream, and on the descent. It was sickening to follow
them, for at first they left fragments of hide and hair on
the rocks, then flesh, and when there was no more hide
or flesh to come off their poor heels and fetlocks, blood
dripped on every rock, and if they stood still for a few
moments, every hoof left a little puddle of gore. We had
all the enjoyment and they all the misery. I was much
exhausted when we reached the camping-ground, but soon
revived under the influence of food; but the poor native,
who was really very ill, abandoned himself to wretchedness,
and has only recovered to-day.
The belt of cloud which was all radiance above, was all
drizzling fog below, and we reached Ainepo in a regular
Scotch mist. The ranchmen seemed rather grumpy at
our successful ascent, which involved the failure of all
their prophecies, and, indeed, we were thoroughly unsatis



LETTER XXIX.]


EARTHQUAKES.


417


factory travellers, arriving fresh and complacent, with
neither adventures nor disasters to gladden people's hearts.
We started for this ranch seven miles further, soon after
(lark, and arrived before nine, after the most successful
ascent of Mauna Loa ever made.
Without being a Sybarite, I certainly do prefer a comfortable pulit bed to one of ridgy lava, and the fire which
blazes on this broad hearth to the camp-fire on the frozen
top of the volcano. The worthy ranchman expected us,
and has treated us very sumptuously, and even Kahele is
being regaled on Chinese sorghum. The Sunday's rest,
too, is a luxury, which I wonder that travellers can ever
forego. If one is always on the move, even very vivid
impressions are hunted out of the memory by the last new
thing. Though I am not unduly tired, even had it not
been Sunday, I should have liked a day in which to recall
and arrange my memories of Mauna Loa before the fortyeight miles' ride to Hilo.
This afternoon, we were sitting under the verandah
talking volcanic talk, when there was a loud rumlbling,
and a severe shock of earthquake, and I have been twice
interrupted in writing this letter by other shocks, in
which all the frame-work of the house has yawned and
closed again. They say that four years ago, at the time
of the great " mud flow" which is close by, this house was
moved several feet by an earthquake, and that all the
cattle walls which surround it were thrown down. The
ranchman tells us that on January 7th and 8th, 1873, there
was a sudden and tremendous outburst of Mauna Loa.
The ground, he says, throbbed and quivered for twenty
E E




418


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX.


miles; a tremendous roaring, like that of a blast furnace,
was heard for the same distance, and clouds of black
smoke trailed out over thA sea for thirty miles.
We have dismissed our guide with encomiums. His
charge was $10; but Mr. Green would not allow me to
share that, or any part of the expense, or pay anything,
but $G for my    own mule.   The guide is a goathunter, and the chase is very curiously pursued. The
hunter catches sight of a flock of goats, and hunts them
up the mountain, till, agile and fleet of foot as they are,
he actually tires them out, and gets close enough to them
to cut their throats for the sake of their skins. If I understand rightly, this young man has captured as many
as seventy in a day.
CRATER HOUSE, KILAUEA. June 9th.
This morning Mr. Green left for Kona, and I for
Kilauea; the ranchman's native wife and her sister riding
with me for several miles to put me on the right track.
Kahele's sociable instincts are so strong, that, before they
left me, I dismounted, blindfolded him, and led him round
and round several times, a process which so successfully
confused his intellects, that he started off in this direction
with more alacrity than usual. They certainly put me on
a track which could not be mistaken, for it was a narrow,
straight path, cut and hammered through a broad horrible
a-a stream, whose jagged spikes were the height of the
horse. But beyond this lie ten miles of pahoehoe, the lavaflows of ages, with only now and then the vestige of a trail.




LETTER XXIX.]


A DESOLATE REGION.


419


Except the perilous crossing of the Hilo gulches in
February, this is the most difficult ride I have had-eerie
and impressive in every way.    The loneliness was
absolute. For several hours I saw no trace of human
beings, except the very rare print of a shod horse's hoof.
It is a region for ever "desolate and without inhabitant,"
trackless, waterless, silent, as if it had passed into the
passionless calm of lunar solitudes. It is composed of
rough hummocks of pahoehoe, rising out of a sandy desert.
Only stunted ohias, loaded with crimson tufts, raise themselves out of cracks: twisted, tortured growths, bearing
their bright blossoms under protest, driven unwillingly to
be gay by a fiery soil and a fiery sun. To the left, there
was the high, dark wall of an a-a stream; further yet, a
tremendous volcanic fissure, at times the bed of a fiery
river, and above this the towering dome of Mauna Loa, a
brilliant cobalt blue, lined and shaded with indigo where
innumerable lava streams had seamed his portentous sides:
his whole beautywthe effect of atmosphere, on an object in
itself hideous.  Ahead and to the right were rolling
miles of a pahoehoe sea, bounded by the unseen Pacific
3,000 feet below, with countless craters, fissures emitting
vapour, and all other concomitants of volcanic action;
bounded to the north by the vast crater of Kilauea.
On all this deadly region the sun poured his tropic light
and heat from one of the bluest skies I ever saw.
The direction given me on leaving Kapapala was, that
after the natives left me I was to keep a certain crater on
the south-east till I saw the smoke of Kilauea; but there
were many craters. Horses cross the sand and hummocks
E E 2




420


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXIX


as nearly as possible on a bee line; but the lava rarely
indicates that anything has passed over it, and this morning a strong breeze had rippled the sand, completely
obliterating the hoof-marks of the last traveller, and at
times I feared that losing myself, as many others have
done, I should go mad with thirst. I examined the sand
narrowly for hoof-marks, and every now and then found
one, but always had the disappointment of finding that it
was made by an unshod horse, therefore not a ridden one.
Finding eyesight useless, I dismounted often, and felt with
my finger along the rolling lava for the slightest marks
of abrasion, which might show that shod animals had
passed that way, got up into an ohia to look out for
the smoke of Kilauea, and after three hours came out
upon what I here learn is the old track, disused because
of the insecurity of the ground.
It runs quite close to the edge of the crater, there 1,000
feet in depth, and gives a magnificent view of the whole
area, with the pit and the blowing cones. But the region
through which the trail led was rather an alarming one,
being hollow and porous, all cracks and fissures,
nefariously concealed by scrub and ferns. I found a place,
as I thought, free from risk, and gave Kah6le a feed of
oats on my plaid, but before he had finished them there
was a rumbling and vibration, and he went into the ground
above his knees, so snatching up the plaid and jumping
on him I galloped away, convinced that that crack was
following me! However, either the crack thought better
of it, or Kahdle travelled faster, for in another half-hour
I arrived where the whole region steams, smokes, and




LETTER XXIX.]


HILO.


421


fumes with sulphur, and was kindly welcomed here by
Mr. Gilman, where he and the old Chinaman appear to
be alone.
After a seven hours' ride the quiet and the log fire are
very pleasant, and the host is a most intelligent and sympathising listener. It is a solemn night, for the earth
quakes, and the sound of Halemaumau is like the surging
of the sea.
HILO. June 11th.
Once more I am among palm and mango grove-, and
friendly faces, and sounds of softer surges than those of
Kilauea. I had a dreary ride yesterday, as the rain was
incessant, and I saw neither man, bird, or beast the whole
way. Kahele was so heavily loaded that I rode the thirty
miles at a foot's pace, and he became so tired that I had
to walk.
It has been a splendid week, with every circumstance
favourable, nothing sordid or worrying to disturb the
impressions received, kindness and goodwill everywhere, a
travelling companion whose consideration, endurance, and
calmness were beyond all praise, and at the end the
cordial welcomes of my Hawaiian "home."
I. L. B.




LETTER XXX.*


RIDGE HOUSE, KONA, HAWAII. June 12.
I LANDED in Kealakakua Bay on a black lava block, on
which tradition says that Captain Cook fell, struck with
his death-wound, a century ago. The morning sun was
flaming above the walls of lava 1,000 feet in height which
curve round the dark bay, the green deep water rolled
shorewards in lazy undulations, canoes piled full of
pineapples poised themselves on the swell, ancient cocopalms glassed themselves in still waters-it was hot,
silent, tropical.
The disturbance which made the bay famous is known
to every schoolboy; how the great explorer, long supposed
by the natives to be their vanished god Lono, betrayed
his earthly lineage by groaning when he was wounded,
and was then dispatched outright. A cocoanut stump;
faced by a sheet of copper recording the circumstance, is
the great circumnavigator's monument.         A   few  miles
* Several letters are omitted here, as they contain repetitions of journeys
and circumstances which have been amply detailed before. I went to the
Kona district for a few days only, intending to return to friends on Kauai
and Maui; but owing to an alteration in the sailings of the Kilauea,
was detained there for a month, and afterwards, owing to uncertainties
connected with the San Francisco steamers, was obliged to leave the
Islands abruptly, after a residence of nearly seven months.




LETTER XXX.]  CHARACTERISTICS OF KONA.


423


beyond, is the enclosure of Haunaunau, the City of Refige
for western Hawaii. In this district there is a lava
road ascribed to Umi, a legendary king, who is said to
have lived 500 years ago. It is very perfect, well defined
on both sides with kerb-stones, and greatly resembles
the chariot ways in Pompeii. Near it are several structures formed of four stones, three being set upright, and
the fourth forming the roof. In a northerly direction is
the place where Liholiho, the king who died in England,
excited by drink and the persuasions of Kaahumanu,
broke tabu, and made an end of the superstitions of
heathenism. Not far off is the battle field on which the
adherents of the idols rallied their forces against the
iconoclasts, and were miserably and finally defeated.
Recent lava streams have descended on each side of the
bay, and from the bare black rock of the landing a flow
may be traced up the steep ascent as far as a precipice,
over which it falls in waves and twists, a cataract of
stone. A late lava river passed through the magnificent
forest on the southerly slope, and the impressions of the
stems of coco and fan palms are stamped clearly on the
smooth rock. The rainfall in Kona is heavy, but there
is no standing water, and only one stream in a distance
of 100 miles.
This district is famous for oranges, coffee, pineapples,
and silence. A flaming palm-fringed shore with a prolific strip of table land 1,500 feet above it, a dense timber
belt eight miles in breadth, and a volcano smoking somewhere between that and the heavens, and glaring through
the trees at night, are the salient points of Kona if any



424


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXX.


thing about it be salient. It is a region where falls
not
*"..  Hail or any snow,
Or ever wind blows loudly."
Wind indeed, is a thing unknown. The scarcely audible
whisper of soft airs through the trees morning and
evening, rain drops falling gently, and the murmur of
drowsy surges far below, alone break the stillness. No
ripple ever disturbs the great expanse of ocean which
gleams through the still, thick trees. Rose in the sweet
cool morning, gold in the sweet cool evening, but always
dreaming; and white sails come and go, no larger than a
butterfly's wing on the horizon, of ships drifting on
ocean currents, dreaming too! Nothing surely can ever
happen here: it is so dumb and quiet, and people speak
in hushed thin voices, and move as in a lethargy,
dreaming too! No heat, cold, or wind, nothing emphasised or italicised, it is truly a region of endless afternoons, "a land where all things always seem the same."
Life is dead, and existence is a languid swoon.
This is the only regular boarding house on Hawaii.
The company is accidental and promiscuous. The conversation consists of speculations, varied and repeated with
the hours, as to the arrivals and departures of the
Honolulu schooners Uilama and Prince, who they will
bring, who they will take, and how long their respective
passages will be. A certain amount of local gossip is
also hashed up at each meal, and every stranger who has
travelled through Hawaii for the last ten years is picked
to pieces and worn threadbare, and his purse, weight,




LETTER XXX.]


DREAMLAND.


425


entertainers, and habits are thoroughly canvassed. On
whatever subject the conversation begins it always ends
in dollars; but even that most stimulating of all topics
only arouses a languid interest among my fellow dreamers.
I spend most of my time in riding in the forests, or
along the bridle path which trails along the height,
among grass and frame-houses, almost smothered by
trees and trailers.
Many of these are inhabited by white men, who, having
drifted to these shores, have married native women, and
are rearing a dusky race, of children who speak the
maternal tongue only, and grow up with native habits.
Some of these men came for health, others landed from
whalers, but of all it is true that infatuated by the ease
and lusciousness of this languid region,
"They sat them down upon the yellow san(d,
Between the sun and moon upon the shore;
And sweet it was to dream of Fatherland,..; but evermore
Most weary seem'd the sea, weary the oar,
Weary the wandering fields of barren foam.
Then some one said, " We will return no more."
They have enough and more, and a life free from toil, but
the obvious tendency of these marriages is to sink the
white man to the level of native feelings and habits.
There are two or three educated residents, and there is
a small English church with daily service, conducted by
a resident clergyman.
The beauty of this part of Kona is wonderful. The
interminable forest is richer and greener than anything I




426


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXX.


have yet seen, but penetrable only by narrow tracks
which have been made for hauling timber. The trees
are so dense, and so matted together with trailers, that
no ray of noon-day sun brightens the moist tangle of
exquisite mosses and ferns which covers the ground.
Yams with their burnished leaves, and the Polypodium
spectrum, wind round every tree stem, and the heavy ie,
which here attains gigantic proportions, links the tops of
the tallest trees together by its stout knotted coils.
Hothouse flowers grow in rank profusion round every
house, and tea-roses, fuchsias, geraniums fifteen feet high,
Nile lilies, Chinese lantern plants, begonias, lantanas,
hibiscus, passion-flowers, Cape jasmine, the hoya, the
tuberose, the beautiful but overpoweringly sweet ginger
plant, and a hundred others: while the whole district is
overrun with the Datura brugmansia (?) here an arborescent shrub fourteen feet high, bearing seventy great trumpet-shaped white blossoms at a time, which at night vie
with those of the night-blowing Cereus in filling the
air with odours.
Pineapples and melons grow like weeds among the
grass, and everything that is good for food flourishes.
Nothing can keep under the redundancy of nature in
Kona; everything is profuse, fervid, passionate, vivified
and pervaded by sunshine. The earth is restless in her
productiveness, and forces up her hothouse growth perpetually, so that the miracle of Jonah's gourd is almost
repeated nightly. All decay is hurried out of sight, and
through the glowing year flowers blossom  and fruits
ripen; ferns are always uncurling their young fronds and




LETTER XXX.]


LIFE ON HUALALAI.


427


bananas unfolding their great shining leaves, and spring
blends her everlasting youth and promise with the fulfilment and maturity of summer.
"Never comes the trader, never floats a European flag,
Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the crag:
Droops the heavy-blossom'd bower, hangs the heavy-fruited treeSummer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea."
HUALALAI. July 28th.
I very soon left the languid life of Kona for this sheep
station, 6000 feet high on the desolate slope of the dead
volcano of Hualalai, (" offspring of the shining sun,")
on the invitation of its hospitable owner, who said if I
" could eat his rough fare, and live his rough life, his
house and horses were at my disposal."    He is married
to a very attractive native woman who eats at his table,
but does not know a word of English, but they are both
away at a wool-shed eight miles off, shearing sheep.
This house is in the great volcanic wilderness of which
I wrote from Kalaieha, a desert of drouth and barrenness.
There is no permanent track, and on the occasions when
I have ridden up here alone, the directions given me
have been to steer for an ox bone, and from that to a
dwarf ohia. There is no coming or going; it is seventeen miles from the nearest settlement, and looks across
a desert valley to Mauna Loa. Woody trailers, harsh
hard grass in tufts, the Asplenium trichomanes in rifts,
the Pellea ternifolia in sand, and some ohia and maman6
scrub in hollow places sheltered from the wind, all hard,
crisp, unlovely growths, contrast with the lavish greenery




428


HIAWAII.


[LETTER XXX.


below. A brisk cool wind blows all day; every afternoon a dense fog brings the horizon within 200 feet, but
it clears off with frost at dark, and the flames of the
volcano light the whole southern sky.
My companions are an amiable rheumatic native
woman, and a crone who must have lived a century, much
shrivelled and tattooed, and nearly childish. She talks to
herself in weird tones, stretches her lean limbs by the fire
most of the day, and in common with most of the old people
has a prejudice against clothes, and prefers huddling herself up in a blanket to wearing the ordinary dress of her
sex. There is also a dog, but he does not understand
English, and for some time I have not spoken any but
Hawaiian words. I have plenty to do, and find this a
very satisfactory life.
I came up to within eight miles of this house with a
laughing, holiday-making rout of twelve natives, who rode
madly along the narrow forest trail at full gallop, up and
down the hills, through mire and over stones, leaping
over the trunks of prostrate trees, and stooping under
branches with loud laughter, challenging me to reckless
races over difficult ground, and when they found that the
wahine haole was not to be thrown from her horse they
patted me approvingly, and crowned me with leis of
maile. I became acquainted with some of these at
Kilauea in the winter, and since I came to Kona they
have been very kind to me.
I thoroughly like living among them, taking meals
with them on their mats, and eating "two fingered"
poi as if I had been used to it all my life. Their mirth



LETTER XXX.]


LASSOING CATTLE.


429


fulness and kindliness are most winning; their horses,
food, clothes, and time are all bestowed on one so freely,
and one lives amongst them with a most restful sense of
absolute security. They have many faults, but living
alone among them in their houses as I have done so often
on Hawaii, I have never seen or encountered a disagreeable thing. But the more I see of them the more
impressed I am with their carelessness and love of
pleasure, their lack of ambition and a sense of responsibility, and the time which they spend in doing nothing
but talking and singing as they bask in the sun, though
spasmodically and under excitement they are capable of
tremendous exertions in canoeing, surf-riding, and
lassoing cattle.
While down below I joined three natives for the purpose of seeing this last sport. They all rode shod horses,
and had lassoes of ox hide attached to the horns of their
saddles. I sat for an hour on horseback on a rocky hill
while they hunted the woods; then I heard the deep
voices of bulls, and a great burst of cattle appeared, with
hunters in pursuit, but the herd vanished over a dip of
the hill side, and the natives joined me. By this time I
wished myself safely at home, partly because my unshod
horse was not fit for galloping over lava and rough
ground, and I asked the men where I should stay to be
out of danger. The leader replied, " Oh, just keep close
behind me! " I had thought of some safe view-point,
not of galloping on an unshod horse with a ruck of half
maddened cattle, but it was the safest plan, and there
was no time to be lost, for as we rode slowly down, we




430


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXX.


sighted the herd dodging across the open to regain the
shelter of the wood, and much on the alert.
Putting our horses into a gallop we dashed down the
hill till we were close up with the chase; then another
tremendous gallop, and a brief wild rush, the grass
shaking with the surge of cattle and horses. There was
much whirling of tails and tearing up of the earth-a
lasso spun three or four times round the head of the
native who rode in front of me, and almost simultaneously a fine red bullock lay prostrate on the earth,
nearly strangled, with his foreleg noosed to his throat.
The other natives dismounted, and put two lassoes round
his horns, slipping the first into the same position, and
vaulted into their saddles before he was on his legs.
He got up, shook himself, put his head down, and
made a mad blind rush, but his captors were too dexterous
for him, and in that and each succeeding rush he was foiled.
As he tore wildly from side to side, the natives dodged
under the lasso, slipping it over their heads, and swung
themselves over their saddles, hanging in one stirrup, to aid
their trained horses to steady themselves as the bullock
tugged violently against them. He was escorted thus for
a mile, his strength failing with each useless effort, his
tongue hanging out, blood and foam dropping from his
mouth and nostrils, his flanks covered with foam and
sweat, till blind and staggering, he was led to a tree,
where he was at once stabbed, and two hours afterwards
a part of him was served at table. The natives were
surprised that I avoided seeing his death, as the native
women greatly enjoy such a spectacle. This mode of




LETTER xxx.]     "PRAYING TO DEATH."


431


killing an animal while heated and terrified, doubtless
accounts for the dark colour and hardness of Hawaiian
beef.
Numbers of the natives are expert with the lasso, and
besides capturing with it wild and half wild cattle, they
catch horses with it, and since I came here my host
caught a sheep with it, singling out the one he wished to
kill, from the rest of the galloping flock with an unerring
aim. It takes a whole ox hide cut into strips to make
a good lasso.
One of my native friends tells me that a native man
who attended on me in one of my earlier expeditions has
since been "prayed to death." One often hears this
phrase, and it appears that the superstition which it
represents has by no means died out. There are persons
who are believed to have the lives of others in their
hands, and their services are procured by offerings of
white fowls, brown hogs, and awa, as well as money, by
any one who has a grudge against another. Several
other instances have been told me of persons who have
actually died under the influence of the terror and despair
produced by being told that the kahuna was "praying
them to death." I cannot learn whether these over
efficacious prayers are supposed to be addressed to the
true God, or to the ancient Hawaiian divinities. The
natives are very superstitious, and the late king, who
was both educated and intelligent, was much under the
dominion of a sorceress.
I have made the ascent of Hualalai twice from here,
the first time guided by my host and hostess, and the




432


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXX.


second time rather adventurously alone. Forests of koa,
sandal-wood, and ohia, with an undergrowth of raspberries and ferns clothe its base, the fragrant maile, and the
graceful sarsaparilla vine, with its clustered coral-coloured
buds, nearly smother many of the trees, and in several
places the heavy ie forms the semblance of triumphal
arches over the track. This forest terminates abruptly
on the great volcanic wilderness, with its starved growth
of unsightly scrub. But Hualalai, though 10,000 feet in
height, is covered with Pteris aquilina, mamanm, coarse
bunch grass, and pukeave to its very summit, which is
crowned by a small, solitary, blossoming ohia.
For two hours before reaching the top, the way lies
over countless flows and beds of lava, much disintegrated,
and almost entirely of the kind called pahoehoe. Countless pit craters extend over the whole mountain, all of
them covered outside, and a few inside, with scraggy
vegetation. The edges are often very ragged and picturesque. The depth varies from 300 to 700 feet, and
the, diameter from 700 to 1,200. The walls of some are
of a smooth grey stone, the bottoms flat, and very deep




LETTER XXX.] LAST ERUPTION OF HUALALAI.


433


in sand, but others resemble the tufa cones of Mauna
Kea. They are so crowded together in some places as
to be divided only by a ridge so narrow that two mules
can scarcely walk abreast upon it. The mountain was
split by an earthquake in 1868, and a great fissure, with
much treacherous ground about it, extends for some distance across it. It is very striking from every point of
view on this side, being a complete wilderness of craters,
and over 150 lateral cones have been counted.
The object of my second ascent was to visit one of the
grandest of the summit craters, which we had not reached
previously owing to fog. This crater is bordered by a
narrow and very fantastic ridge of rock, in or on which
there is a mound about 60 feet high, formed of fragments
of black, orange, blue, red, and golden lava, with a cavity
or blow-hole in the centre, estimated by Brigham  as
having a diameter of 25 feet, and a depth of 1800. The
interior is dark brown, much grooved horizontally, and as
smooth and regular as if turned. There are no steam
cracks or signs of heat anywhere.  Superb caves or
lava-bubbles abound at a height of 6000 feet. These are
moist with ferns, aid the drip from their roofs is the
water supply of this porous region.
Hualalai, owing to the vegetation sparsely sprinkled
over it, looks as if it had been quiet for ages, but it has
only slept since 1801, when there was a tremendous
eruption from it, which flooded several villages, destroyed
many plantations and fishponds, filled up a deep bay 20
miles in extent, and formed the present coast. The
terrified inhabitants threw living hogs into the stream,
and tried to propitiate the anger of the gods by more
F F




434


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXX.


costly offerings, but without effect, till King Kamehameha,
attended by a large retinue of priests and chiefs, cut
off some of his hair, which was considered sacred, and
threw it into the torrent, which in two days ceased to
run. This circumstance gave him a greatly increased
ascendancy, from his supposed influence with the deities
of the volcanoes.
I have explored the country pretty thoroughly for many
miles round, but have not seen anything striking, except
the remains of an immense heiau in the centre of the
desert tableland, said to have been built in a day by
the compulsory labour of 25,000 people: a lonely white
man who lives among the lava, and believes he has discovered the secret of perpetual motion: and the lava-flow
from Mauna Loa, which reached the sea 40 miles from
its exit from the mountain.
I was riding through the brushwood with a native, and
not able to see two yards in any direction, when emerging
from the thick scrub, we came upon the torrent of 1859
within six feet of us, a huge, straggling, coal-black river,
broken up into streams in our vicinity, but on the whole,
presenting an iridescent uphill expanse a mile wide.
We had reached one of the divergent streams to which it
had been said after its downward course of 9000 feet,
"Hitherto shalt thou come and no further," while the
main body had pursued its course to the ocean. Whatever force impelled it had ceased to act, and the last
towering wave of fire had halted just there, and lies a
black arrested surge 10 feet high, with tender ferns at its
feet, and a scarcely singed ohia bending over it. The
flow, so far as we scrambled up it, is heaped in great




LETTER XXX. ]


ROUGH LIVING.


435


surges of a fierce black, fiercely reflecting the torrid sun,
cracked, and stained yellow and white, and its broad glistening surface forms an awful pathway to the dome-like
crest of Mauna Loa, now throbbing with internal fires,
and crowned with a white smoke wreath, that betokens the
action of the same forces which produced this gigantic
inundation. Close to us the main river had parted above
and united below a small mamane tree with bracken under
its shadow, and there are several oases of the same kind.
I have twice been down to the larger world of the woolshed, when tired of strips of dried mutton and my own
society. The hospitality there is as great as the accommodation is small. The first time, I slept on the floor of
the shed with some native women who were up there,
and was kept awake all night by the magnificence of the
light on the volcano.  The second time, several of us
slept in a small, dark grass-wigwam, only intended as a
temporary shelter, the lowliest dwelling in every sense of
the word that I ever occupied. That evening was the
finest I have seen on the islands; there was a less abrupt
transition from day to night, and the three great mountains and the desert were etherealised and glorified by a
lingering rose and violet light. When darkness came on,
our great camp fire was hardly redder than the glare from
the volcano, and its leaping flames illuminated as motley
a group as you would wish to see; the native shearers,
who, after shearing eighty sheep each in a day, washed,
and changed their clothes before eating; a negro goatherd with a native wife and swarthy children, two native
women, my host and myself, all engaged in the rough
cooking befitting the region, toasting strips of jerked
F F 2




436


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXX.


mutton on sticks, broiling wild bullock on the coals,
baking kalo under ground, and rolls in a rough stone
oven, and all speaking that base mixture of English and
Hawaiian which is current coin here. The meal was not
less rude than the cookery. We ate it on the floor of the
wigwam, with an old tin, with some fat in it, for a lamp,
and a bit of rope for a wick, which kept tumbling into the
fat and leaving us in darkness.
The next day I came up here alone, driving a packhorse, and with a hind-quarter of sheep tied to my saddle.
It is really difficult to find the way over this desert,
though I have been several times across. When a breeze
ripples the sand between the lava hummocks, the footprints are obliterated, and there are few landmarks except
the "ox bone" and the "small ohia." It is a strange
life up here on the mountain side, but I like it, and never
yearn after civilization. The one drawback is my ignorance of the language, which not only places me sometimes in grotesque difficulties, but deprives me of much
interest. I don't know what day it is, or how long I have
been here, and quite understand how possible it would be
to fall into an indolent and aimless life, in which time is
of no account.
THE RECTORY, KONA.
Augu8t 1st.
I left Hualalai yesterday morning, and dined with my
kind host and hostess in the wigwam. It was the last
taste of the wild Hawaiian life I have learned to love so
well, the last meal on a mat, the last exercise of skill in
eating "two-fingered" poi. I took leave gratefully of
those who had been so truly kind to me, and with the




LETTER xxx.]    THE "HONOLULU MISSION."


437


friendly aloha from kindly lips in my ears, regretfully
left the purple desert in which I have lived so serenely,
and plunged into the forest gloom. Half way down, I met
a string of my native acquaintances, who, as the courteous
custom is, threw over me leis of mailW and roses, and
since I arrived here, others have called to wish me good
bye, bringing presents of figs, cocoa-nuts and bananas.
This is one of the stations of the " Honolulu Mission,"
and Mr. Davies, the clergyman, has, besides Sunday and
daily services, a day-school for boys and girls.  The
Sunday attendance at church, so far as I have seen, consists of three adults, though the white population within
four miles is considerable, and at another station on
Maui, the congregation was composed solely of the family
of a planter. Clerical reinforcements are expected from
England shortly; but from what I have seen and heard
everywhere, I do not think that the coming clergy, even
if inspired by the same devotion and disinterestedness as
Bishop Willis, will make any sensible progress among the
people.
In truth, I believe that the " Honolulu Mission," from
the first, has been a mistake. As such, strictly speaking,
there is no room for it, for all the natives are nominal
Christians, and are connected more or less with the
Congregational denomination.  To attempt to proselytize
them to the English Church, or to unsettle their religious
relations in any way, would, on the whole, be a hopeless,
as well as an invidious task, and would not improbably
result in driving some among them into the greater
apparent unity of the Church of Rome. Those who believe in the oneness of the invisible church, and that all




438


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXX.


who hold "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," are within
the pale of salvation, may well hesitate before expending
energy, men, money, and time on proselytizing efforts.
Among the whites who have sunk into the mire of an
indolent and godless, if not an openly immoral life, there
is an undoubted field for Evangelistic effort; but it is very
doubtful, I think, whether this class can be reached by
services which appeal to higher culture and instincts
than it possesses, and, indeed, generally, the island Episcopalians are not in sympathy with the "symbolism "
and " high ritual" which from the first have been outstanding features of this " mission." The education of
the young in the principles of the Prayer Book is aimed
at by the Bishop and his coadjutors, but in spite of zeal
and devotion, I doubt whether the English Church on
these islands can ever be anything but a pining and
sickly exotic.
Kona looks supremely beautiful, a languid dream of all
fair things. Yet truly my heart warms to nothing so
much as to a row of fat English cabbages which grow
in the rectory garden, with a complacent, self-asserting
John Bullism about them. It is best to leave the islands
now. I love them better every day, and dreams of
Fatherland are growing fainter in this perfumed air and
under this glittering sky. A little longer, and I too
should say, like all who have made their homes here
under the deep banana shade,"We will return no more,... our island home
Is far beyond the wave, we will no longer roam."
I. L. B.




LETTER XXXI.
HAWAIIAN HOTEL, HONOLULU.
August 6th.
MY fate is lying at the wharf in the shape of the Pacific
Mail Steamer Costa Rica, and soon to me Hawaii-nei
will be but a dream. " Summer isles of Eden! "  My
heart warms towards them as I leave them, for they have
been more like home than any part of the world since
I left England. The moonlight is trickling through
misty algarobas, and feathery tamarinds and palms, and
shines on glossy leaves of breadfruit and citron; a cool
breeze brings in at my open doors the perfumed air and
the soft murmur of the restful sea, and this beautiful
Honolulu, whose lights are twinkling through the purple
night, is at last, as it was at first, Paradise in the Pacific,
a bright blossom of a summer sea.
I shall be in the Rocky Mountains before you receive
my hastily-written reply to your proposal to come out
here for a year, but I will add a few reasons against it, in
addition to the one which I gave regarding the benefit
which I now hope to derive from a change to a more
stimulating climate. The strongest of all is, that if we
were to stay here for a year, we should just sit down
" between the sun and moon upon the shore," and forget




440


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXXI.


" our island home," and be content to fall " asleep in a
half dream," and "return no more!"
Of course you will have gathered from my letters that
there are very many advantages here.    Indeed, the
mosquitoes of the leeward coast, to whose attacks one
becomes inured in a few months, are the only physical
drawback. The open-air life is most conducive to health,
and the climate is absolutely perfect, owing to its
equability and purity.  Whether the steady heat of
Honolulu, the languid airs of Hilo, the balmy breezes of
Onomea, the cool bluster of Waimea, or the odorous
stillness of Kona, it is always the same. The grim gloom
of our anomalous winters, the harsh malignant winds of
our springs, and the dismal rains and overpowering heats
of our summers, have no counterpart in the endless
spring-time of Hawaii.
Existence here is unclogged and easy, a small income
goes a long way, and the simplicity, refinement, kindliness, and sociability of the foreign residents, render
society very pleasant. The life here is truer, simpler,
kinder, and happier than ours.  The relation between
the foreign and native population is a kindly and happy
one, and the natives, in spite of their faults, are a most
friendly and pleasant people to live among. With a
knowledge of their easily-acquired language, they would
be a ceaseless source of interest, and every white resident
can have the satisfaction of helping them in their
frequent distresses and illnesses.
The sense of security is a very special charm, and one
enjoys it as well in lonely native houses, and solitary days




LETTER XXXI.]


GOSSIPPING TENDENCIES.


441


and nights of travelling, as in the foreign homes, which
are never locked throughout the year. There are no
burglarious instincts to dread, and there is no such thing
as "a broken sleep of fear beneath the stars."  The
person and property of a white man are everywhere
secure, and a white woman is sure of unvarying respect
and kindness.
There are no inevitable hardships. The necessaries,
and even the luxuries of civilization can be obtained everywhere, and postal communication with America is now
regular and rapid.
When I began this letter, a long procession of counterbalancing disadvantages passed through my mind, but
they become " beautifully less " as I set them down in
black and white. If I put gossip first, it is because I
seriously think that it is the canker of the foreign society
on the islands. Its extent and universality are grotesque
and amusing to a stranger, but to live in it, and share in
it, and learn to enjoy it, would be both lowering and
hurtful, and you can hardly be long here without being
drawn into its vortex. By gossip I don't mean scandal
or malignant misrepresentations, or reports of petty strifes,
intrigues, and jealousies, such as are common in all cliques
and communities, but nuhou, mere tattle, the perpetual
talking about people, and the picking to tatters of every
item of personal detail, whether gathered from fact or
imagination.
A great deal of this is certainly harmless, and in some
measure arises from the intimate friendly relations which
exist between the scattered families, but over-indulgence




442


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXXI.


in it destroys the privacy of individual existence, and is
deteriorating in more ways than one. From the north of
Kauai to the south of Hawaii, everybody knows every
other body's affairs, income, expenditure, sales, purchases,
debts, furniture, clothing, comings, goings, borrowings,
lendings, letters, correspondents, and every thing else:
and when there is nothing new to relate on any one of
these prolific subjects, supposed intentions afford abundant
matter for speculation. All gossip is focussed here, being
imported from every other district, and re-exported, with
additions and embellishments, by every inter-island mail.
The ingenuity with which nuhou is circulated is worthy
of a better cause.
Some disadvantages arise from the presence on the
islands of heterogeneous and ill-assorted nationalities.
The Americans, of course, predominate, and even those
who are Hawaiian born, have, as elsewhere, a strongly
national feeling.  The far smaller English community
hangs together in a somewhat cliquish fashion, and
possibly cherishes a latent grudge against the Americans
for their paramount influence in island affairs. The
German residents, as everywhere, are cliquish too. Then,
since the establishment of the Honolulu Mission, church
feeling has run rather high, and here, as elsewhere, has a
socially divisive tendency. Then there are drink and
anti-drink, pro and anti-missionary, and pro and antireciprocity-treaty parties, and various other local naggings
of no interest to you.
The civilization is exotic, and owing to various circumstances, the government and constitution are too experi



LETTER XXXI.]


SMALL CRITICISMS.


443


mental and provisional in their nature, and possess too
few elements of permanence to engross the profound
interest of the foreign residents, although for reasons of
policy they are well inclined to sustain a barbaric throne.
In spite of a king and court, and titles and officials without
number, and uniforms stiff with gold lace, and Royal
dinner parties with menus printed on white silk, Americans,
Republicans in feeling, really "run " the government, and
in state affairs there is a taint of that combination of
obsequious and flippant vulgarity, which none deplore
more deeply than the best among the Americans themselves.
It is a decided misfortune to a community to be divided
in its national leanings, and to have no great fusing
interests within or without itself, such as those which
knit vigorous Victoria to the mother country, or distant
Oregon to the heart of the Republic at Washington.
Except sugar and dollars, one rarely hears any subject
spoken about with general interest. The downfall of an
administration in England, or any important piece of
national legislation, arouses almost no interest in
American society here, and the English are ostentatiously apathetic regarding any piece of intelligence
specially absorbing to Americans. The papers pick up
every piece of gossip which drifts about the islands, and
snarl with much wordiness over local matters, but crowd
into a small space the movements which affect the masses
of mankind, and in the absence of a telegraph one hardly
feels the beat of the pulses of the larger world. Those
intellectual movements of the West which might provoke




444


HAWAII.


[LETTER XXXI.


discussion and conversation are not cordially entered
into, partly owing to the difference in theological beliefs,
and partly from an indolence born of the climate, and
the lack of mental stimulus.
After all, the gossip and the absence of large interests
shared in common, are the only specialities which can be
alleged against Hawaii, and I have never seen people
among whom I should so well like to live. The ladies
are most charming, essentially womanly, and fulfil all
domestic and social duties in a way worthy of imitation
everywhere.  The kindness and hospitality, too, are
unbounded, and these cover " a multitude of sins."
There are very few strangers here now. It is the
"dead season." I have met with none except Mr.
Nordhoff, who is writing on the islands for Harper's
Monthly, and his charming wife and children. She is a
most expert horsewoman, and has adopted the Mexican
saddle even in Honolulu, where few foreign ladies ride
" cavalier fashion."
My friends all urge me to write on Hawaii, on the
ground that I have seen the islands and lived the island
life so thoroughly; but possibly they expect more indiscriminate praise than I could conscientiously bestow!
Honolulu is in the midst of the epidemic of letter
writing which sets in on the arrival of the steamer from
"the coast," and people walk and drive as if they really
had business on hand: and the farewell visits to be made
and received, the pleasant presence of Mr. Thompson,
and Mr. and Mrs. Severance, of Hilo, and the hasty
doing of things which have been left to the last, make




LETTER XXxi.] DEPARTURE FROM HONOLULU..445


me a sharer in the spasmodic bustle, which, were it
permanent, would metamorphose this dreamy, bowery,
tropical capital. The undeserved and unexpected kindness shown me here, as everywhere on these islands,
renders my last impressions even more delightful than
my first. The people are as genial as their own sunny
skies, and in more frigid regions I shall never sigh for
the last without longing for the first..
S. S. COSTA RICA.
August 7th.
We sailed for San Francisco early this afternoon.
Everything looked the same as when I landed in
January, except that many of the then strange faces
among the radiant crowd are now the faces of friends,
that I know. nearly everyone' by sight, and that the
pathos of farewell blended with every look and word.
The air still rang with laughter and alohas, and the
rippling music of the Hawaiian tongue; bananas and
pineapples were still piled in fragrant heaps; the drifts of
surf rolled in, as then, over the barrier reef, canoes with
outriggers still poised themselves on the blue water; the
coral divers still plied their graceful trade, and the lazy
ripples still flashed in light along the palm-fringed shore.
The head-ropes were let go, we steamed through the
violet channel into the broad Pacific, Lunalilo, who came
out so far with Chief Justice Allen, returned to the
shore, and when his kindly aloha was spoken, the last
link with the islands was severed, and half an hour later
Honolulu was out of sight..




446                  HAWAII.            [LETTER XXXI.....    The breeze is freshening, and the Costa
Rica's head lies nearly due north. The sun is sinking,
and on the far horizon the summit peaks of Oahu gleam
like amethysts on a golden sea. Farewell for ever, my
bright tropic dream! Aloha nui to Hawaii-nei!
I. L. B.




A CHAPTER ON HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS.


A FEW facts concerning the Hawaiian islands may
serve to supplement the deficiencies of the foregoing
letters. The group is an hereditary and constitutional
monarchy. There is a house of nobles appointed by the
Crown, which consists of twenty members. The House
of Representatives consists of not less than twenty-four,
or more than forty members elected biennially. The
Legislature fixes the number, and apportions the same.
The Houses sit together, and constitute the Legislative
Assembly. The property qualification for a representative is, real estate worth $500, or an annual income of
$250 from property, and that for an elector is an annual
income of $75.    The Legislators are paid, and the
expense of a session is about $15,000.   There are
three cabinet ministers appointed by the Crown, of the
Interior, Finance, and Foreign Affairs respectively, and
an Attorney-General, who may be regarded as a minister
of justice. There is a Supreme Court with a Chief
Justice and two associate justices, and there are circuit
and district judges on all the larger islands, as well as
sheriffs, prisons, and police. There is a standing army
of sixty men, mainly for the purposes of guard duty, and
rendering assistance to the police.




448


HAWAII.


The question of " how to make ends meet" sorely
exercises the little kingdom. All sorts of improvements
involving a largely increased outlay are continually
urged, while at the same time the burden of taxation
presses increasingly heavily, and there is a constant
clamour for the removal of some of the most lucrative
imposts. Indeed, the Hawaiian dog, with his tax and
his " tag," is seldom out of the Legislative Assembly.
What may be termed the per capita taxes are, an
annual poll tax of one dollar levied on each male inhabitant between the ages of seventeen and sixty, an
annual road tax of two dollars upon all persons between
seventeen and fifty, and an annual school tax of two
dollars upon all persons between twenty-one and sixty.
There is a direct tax upon property of 2 per cent. upon
its valuation, and specific taxes of a dollar on every
horse above two years old, and a dollar and a half on
each dog. Of the $206,000 raised by internal taxes
during the last biennial period, the horses paid $50,000,
the mules $6,000, and the dogs $19,000!
The indirect taxation in the shape of customs' duties
amounted to $350,000 in the same period. The poor
Hawaiian does not know the blessing of a " Free Breakfast Table."
The islands are large importers. The value of imported goods paying duties was $1,437,000 in 1873, on
which the Hawaiian Treasury received $198,000 as
customs' duties. Twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of
ale, porter, and light wines, and thirty thousand dollars'
worth of spirits, show that the foreign population of 6,000




EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.


449


is more than sufficiently bibulous. The Chinamen,
about 2,000 in number, are, or ought to be, responsible
for $13,000 worth of opium; and the $34,000 worth of
tobacco and cigars is doubtless distributed pretty equally
over all the nationalities. Twenty-one thousand gallons
of spirits were imported in 1873. The licences to sell
spirits brought $18,000 dollars into the treasury in the
last biennial period, but those for the sale of awa and
opium brought in $55,000 during the same time. These
licences are confined to Honolulu.
There are two interesting items of customs receipts, a
sum of $924, the proceeds of a per capita tax of two
dollars levied on passengers landing on the islands, for
the support of the Queen's Hospital, and a sum of
$1,477, the proceeds of a tax levied on seamen for the
support of the Marine Hospital. There is a sum of
$700 for passports, as no Hawaiian or stranger can leave
the kingdom without an official permit.
There are 58 vessels registered under the Hawaiian
flag, of which 40 are coasters, and 18 engaged in foreign
freighting and whaling.
The value of domestic exports in 1873 was $1,725,507.
Among these are bananas, pineapples, pulu, cocoanuts,
oranges, limes, sandal-wood, tamarinds, betel leaves,
shark's fins, paiai, whale oil, sperm oil, cocoanut oil, and
whalebone.  Among other commodities there was exported, of coffee 262,0001bs., of fungus 57,000 bs., of
pea nuts 58,000 lbs., of cotton 8,000 lb., of rice 941,0001bs.
of paddy 507,0001bs., of hides 20,000 packages, of goat
skins 66,000, of horns 13,000, and of tallow 609,000 lbs.
G G




450


IIAWAII.


The expense of "keeping things going" on the islands
for the two years ending March 1st, 1874, amounted to
$1,193,276, but this included the funeral expenses of
two kings, as well as of two extra sessions of the
Legislature, which amounted to $42,000. The decrease
in the revenue for the same period amounted to $45,000.
The'items of Hawaiian expenditure were as follows:

For Civil List....                     $47,689.73,, Permanent Settlements, Queen Emma.      12,000.00,, Legislature and Privy Council..15,288.50,, Extra Legislative Expenses..19,011.87,, Department of the Judiciary...   72,245.64,,,,     of Foreign Affairs and War..    78,145.85,,,,     of the Interior....389,009.08,,,    of Finance...          202,117.05,,,,  of the Attorney-General..   97,097.00,, Bureau of Public Instruction..          89,432.40,, Miscellaneous Expenditures....  170,474.67
The balance on hand in the Treasury, March 31st,
1874......764.57
$1,193,276.36


That, under the head Finance, includes the interest on
borrowed money. The funded national debt is $340,000.
Of this sum a portion bears no stated interest, only such
as may arise. from  the very dubious profits of the
Hawaiian hotel. The interest charges are 12 per cent. on
$25,000, and 9 per cent. on $272,000. The estimates
for the present biennial period involve a large increase of
debt. The present financial position of the kingdom is,
an increasing expenditure and a decreasing revenue.
The statistics of the Judiciary Department for the last




CRIMES AND CONVICTIONS.


451


two years present a few features of interest. There were
4,000 convictions out of 5,764 cases brought before the
courts, equal to a fourteenth part of the population. The
total number of offences in the category is 125. Of these
some are decidedly local. Thus, for "furnishing intoxicating liquors to Hawaiians " 92 persons were
punished; for " exhibition of Jiula," 10; for " selling
awa without licence," 12; for "selling opium without
licence," 24. It is not surprising to those who know the
habits of the people, that the convictions for violations of
the marriage tie, though greatly diminished, should reach
the number of 384, while under the head "Deserting
Husbands and Wives," 67 convictions are recorded. For
" practising medicine without a licence," 56 persons were
punished; for "furious riding," 197; for "cruelty to
animals," 37; for "gaming," 121; for " gross cheating,"
32; for " violating the Sabbath," 61. We must remember
that the returns include foreigners and Chinamen, or else
the reputation for " harmlessness" which Hawaiians
possess would suffer seriously when we read that within
the last two years there were 178 convictions for
"assault," 248 for "assault and battery," 12 for
" assaults with dangerous weapons," 49 for "affray,"
674 for " drunkenness," 87 for " disturbing quiet of the
night," and 13 for " murder."   Yet the number of
criminal cases has largely diminished, and taking civil
and criminal together, there has been a decrease of 656
for the last biennial period, as compared with that immediately preceding it.
The administration of justice is confessedly one of the
GG 2




452


HAWAII.


most efficient departments of Hawaiian affairs. Chief
Justice Allen, both as a lawyer and a gentleman, is
worthy to fill the highest position in his native country
(America), and the Associate Justices, as well as the
native and foreign judges throughout the islands, are
highly esteemed for honour and uprightness. I never
heard an uttered suspicion of venality or unfairness
against anyone of them, and apparently the Judiciary
Department of Hawaii deserves the same confidence
which we repose in our own.
The Educational System has been carefully modelled,
and is carried out with tolerable efficiency. Eighty-seven
per cent. of the whole school population are actually at
school, and the inspector of schools states that a person
who cannot read and write is rarely met with. Each
common school is graded into two, three, or four classes,
according to the intelligence and proficiency of the pupils,
and the curriculum of study is as follows:CLASS I.-Reading, mental and written arithmetic,
geography, penmanship, and composition.
CLASS II.-Reading, mental arithmetic, geography,
penmanship.
CLASS III.-Reading, first principles of arithmetic,
penmanship.
CLASS IV.-Primer, use of slate and pencil.
The youngest children are not classified until they can
put letters together in syllables.
Vocal music is taught wherever competent teachers are
found.
The total sum expended on education, including the




EDUCATION.


453


grants to "family" and other schools, is about $40,000
a year.*
It has been remarked that the rising race of Hawaiians
has an increased contempt for industry in the form of
manual labour, and it is proposed by the Board of Education that such labour shall be made a part of common
school education, so that on both girls and boys a desire
to provide for their own wants in an honest way shall be
officially inculcated. There is a Government Reformatory School, and industrial and family schools for both
girls and boys are scattered over the islands. The supply
of literature in the vernacular is meagre, and few of the
natives have any intelligent comprehension of English.
The group has an area of about 4,000,000 acres, of
which about 200,000 may be regarded as arable, and
150,000 as specially adapted for the culture of sugar-cane.
Sugar, the great staple production, gives employment in
its cultivation and manufacture to nearly 4,000 hands.
Only a fifteenth part of the estimated arable area is under
cultivation.  Over 6,000 natives are returned as the
possessors of Kuleanas or freeholds, but many of these
are heavily mortgaged.    Many of the larger lands are
* The schools of the kingdom are as follows:NuSchol  Boys. Girls. Total.
Common Schools.196                      3193  2329  5522
Government Boarding Schools..    3    185......  185
Government Haw.-Eng. Day Schools    5    415   246   661
Subsidized Boarding Schools..   10   168   191   359
Subsidized Day Schools..          9   201   210   411
Independent Boarding Schools..    3    14     62   76
Independent Day Schools..    16   287   254   541
Total....    242  4463  3292  7755




454


I HAWAII.


held on lease from the crown or chiefs, and there are
difficulties attending the purchase of small properties.
Almost all the roots and fruits of the torrid and
temperate zones can be grown upon the islands, and the
banana, kalo, yam, sweet potato, cocoanut, breadfruit,
arrowroot, sugar-cane, strawberry, raspberry, whortleberry, and native apple, are said to be indigenous.
The indigenous/ fac'na is small, consisting only of hogs,
dogs, rats, and an anomalous bat which flies by day.
There are few insects, except such as have been imported, and these, which consist of centipedes, scorpions,
cockroaches, mosquitoes, and fleas, are happily confined
to certain localities, and the two first have left most of
their venom behind them. A small lizard is abundant, but
snakes, toads, and frogs have not yet effected a landing.
The ornithology of the islands is scanty. Domestic
fowls are supposed to be indigenous. Wild geese are
numerous among the mountains of Hawaii, and plovers,
snipe, and wild ducks, are found on all the islands. A
handsome owl, called the owl-hawk, is common. There
is a paroquet with purple feathers, another with scarlet,
a woodpecker with variegated plumage of red, green, and
yellow, and a small black bird with a single yellow feather
under each wing. There are few singing birds, but one of
the few has as sweet a note as that of the English thrush.
There are very few varieties of moths and butterflies.
The flora of the Hawaiian Islands is far scantier than
that of the South Sea groups, and cannot compare with
that of many other tropical as well as temperate regions.
But all the islands are' rich in cryptogamous plants, of
which there is an almost infinite variety.




PRODUCTIONS OF IAWAII.


455


Hawaii is still in process of construction, and is subject
to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tidal waves.
Hurricanes are unknown, and thunderstorms are rare and
light.
Under favourable circumstances of moisture, the soil is
most prolific, and "patch cultivation" in glens and
ravines, as well as on mountain sides, produces astonishing results.  A  Kalo patch of forty square feet will
support a man for a year. An acre of favourably situated
land will grow a thousand stems of bananas, which will
produce annually ten tolls of fruit. The sweet potato
flourishes on the most unpromising lava, where soil cal
hardly be said to exist, and in good localities produces
200 barrels to the acre. On dry light soils the Irish
potato  grows anyhow   and  anywhere, with no other
trouble than that of planting the sets. Most vegetable
dyes, drugs, and spices can be raised. Forty diverse
fruits present an overflowing cornucopia. The esculents of
the temperate zones flourish. The coffee bush produces
from three to five pounds of berries the third year after
planting. The average yield of sugar is two and a half
tons to the acre. Pineapples grow like weeds in some
districts, and water melons are almost a drug.  The
bamboo is known to grow sixteen inches in a day.
Wherever there is a sufficient rainfall, the earth teems
with plenty.
Yet the Hawaiian Islands can hardly be regarded as a
field for emigration, though nature is lavish, and the
climate the most delicious and salubrious in the world.
Farming, as we understand it, is unknown.  The dearth
of insectivorous birds seriously affects the cultivation of




456


HAWAII.


a soil naturally bounteous to excess. The narrow gorges
in which terraced "patch cultivation," is so successful,
offer no temptations to a man with the world before him.
The larger areas require labour, and labour is not to be
had. Though wheat and other cereals mature, attacks of
weevil prevent their storage, and all the grain and flour
consumed are imported from California.
Cacao, cinnamon, and allspice, are subject to an apparently
ineradicable blight. The blight which has attacked the
coffee shrub is so severe, that the larger plantations have
been dug up, and coffee is now raised by patch culture,
mainly among the guava scrub which fringes the forests.
Oranges suffer from blight also, and some of the finest
groves have been cut down. Cotton suffers from the
ravages of a caterpillar. The mulberry tree, which, from
its rapid growth, would be invaluable to silk growers, is
covered with a black and white blight. Sheep are at
present successful, but in some localities the spread of a
pestilent " oat-burr" is depreciating the value of their
wool. The forests, which are essential to the wellbeing of the islands, are disappearing in some quarters,
owing to the attacks of a grub, as well as the ravages of
cattle.
Cocoanuts, bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, kalo, and
breadfruit, the staple food of the native population, are
free from blight, and so are potatoes and rice. Beef
cattle can be raised for almost nothing, and in some
districts beef can be bought for the cent or two per pound
which pays for the cutting up of the carcase. Every one
can live abundantly, and without the "sweat of the
brow," but few can make money, owing to the various




PROSPECTS OF THE ISLANDS.


457


forms of blight, the scarcity of labour, and the lack of a
profitable market.
There is little healthy activity in any department of
business. The whaling fleet has deserted the islands.
A general pilikia prevails. Settlements are disappearing,
valley lands are falling out of cultivation, Hilo grass and
guava scrub are burying the traces of a former population. The natives are rapidly diminishing,* the old in* The population by the last census, taken in 1872, is as follows:Total number of natives in 1872.         49,044,,,    half-castes in 1872... 2,487,,,,    Chinese in 1872... 1,938,,,,    Americans in 1872...              889,,,,   Hawaiians born of foreign parents, 1872.  849,,,    Britons in 1872...              619,,,    Portuguese in 1872..        395,,,    Germans in 1872...              224,,,,    French in 1872.....        88,,,,   other foreigners in 1872.          364
Total population in 1872... 56,897
Total number of natives, including. ha7f-castes, in 1866. 58,765,,.,,,,,,,,      1872. 51,531
Decrease since 1866...7,234
The excess of males over females is 6,403 souls.
AREA AND POPULATION OF EACH ISLAND.
Acres.          Height      Population
in Feet.      in 1872.
Hawaii.. 2,500,000         13,953          16,001
Maui...    400,000         10,200          12,334
Oahu...   350,000          3,800          20,671
Kauai...    350,000          4,800           4,961
Molokai..   200,000          2, 800          2,349
Lanai...    100,000          2,400            348
Niihau..    70,000            800            233
Kahoolawe..      30,000            400
Total......56,897




458


HAWAII.


dustries are abandoned, and the inherent immorality of
the race, the great outstanding cause of its decay, still
resists the influence of Christian teaching and example.
An exotic civilization is having a fair trial on the
Hawaiian Islands. With the exception of the serious
maladies introduced by foreigners in the early days, and the
disastrous moral influence exercised by worthless whites,
they have suffered; none of the wrongs usually inflicted
on the feebler by the stronger race. The rights of the
natives were in the first instance carefully secured to
them, and have since been protected by equal laws,
righteously administered.  The Hawaiians have been
aided towards independence in political matters, and the
foreigners who framed the laws and constitution, and have
directed Hawaiian affairs, such as Richards, Lee, Judd,
Allen, and Wyllie, were men above reproach; and
missionary influence, of all others the most friendly to
the natives, has predominated for fifty years.
The effects of missionary labour have been scarcely
touched upon in the foregoing letters, and here, in preference to giving any opinion of my own, I quote from
Mr. R. H. Dana, an Episcopalian, and a barrister of the
highest standing in America, well known in this country
by his writings, who sums up his investigations on the
Sandwich Islands in the following dispassionate words:
" It is no small thing to say of the missionaries of the
American Board, that in less than forty years they have
taught this whole people to read and to write, to cipher
and to sew. They have given them an alphabet, grammar,
and dictionary; preserved their language from extinction;




TESTIMONIES TO THE MISSIONARIES.


given it a literature, and translated into it the Bible, and
works of devotion, science, and entertainment, &c. They
have established schools, reared up native teachers, and
so pressed their work, that now the proportion of inhabitants who can read and write is greater than in New
England. And whereas they found these islanders a nation
of half-naked savages, living in the surf and on the sand,
eating raw fish, fighting among themselves, tyrannized
over by feudal chiefs, and abandoned to sensuality, they
now see them decently clothed, recognizing the law of
marriage, knowing something of accounts, going to school
and public worship more regularly than the people do at
home, and the more elevated of them taking part in conducting the affairs of the constitutional monarchy under
which they live, holding seats on the judicial bench and
in the legislative chambers, and filling posts in the local
magistracies."
If space permitted, the testimony of " Mark Twain,"
given in " Roughing It," might be added to the above, and
the remaining missionaries may well point to the visible
results of their labours, with the one word Circumtslice!




A CHAPTER ON HAWAIIAN HISTORY.


IN the pre-historic days of Hawaii, for 500 years, as
the bards sing, before Captain Cook landed, and indeed
for some years afterwards, each island had its king,
chiefs, and internal dissensions; and incessant wars, with
a reckless waste of human life, kept the whole group in
turmoil. Chaotic and legendary as early Hawaiian history is, there is enough to show that there must have
been regularly organized communities on the islands for
a very long period, with a civilization and polity which,
though utterly unworthy of Christianity, were enlightened and advanced for Polynesian heathenism.
The kingly office was hereditary, and the king's power
absolute. On the different islands the kings and chiefs
who together constituted a privileged class, admitted the
priesthood to some portion of their privileges, probably
with the view of enslaving the people more completely
through the agency of religion, and held the lower classes
in absolute subserviency by the most rigorous of feudal
systems, which included hazna poalima, or forced labour,
and the tabu, well known throughout Polynesia.
A very interesting history begins with Kamehameha
the Great, the Conqueror, or the Terrible; the
" Napoleon of the Pacific," as he has been called. He




RECENT HAWAIIAN HISTORY.


461


united an overmastering ambition to a singular gift of
ruling, and without education, training, or the help of a
single political precedent to guide him, animated not
only by the lust of conquest, but by the desire to create
a nationality, he subjugated every thing that his canoes
could reach, and fused a rabble of savages and chieftaincies into a united nation, every individual of which to
this day inherits something of the patriotism  of the
Conqueror.
His wars were by no means puny either in proportions
or slaughter, as, for instance, when he meditated the
conquest of Kauai, his expedition included seven thousand
picked warriors, twenty-one schooners, forty swivels, six
mortars, and an abundance of ammunition! His victories
are celebrated in countless mneles or unwritten songs,
which are said to be marked by real poetic feeling and
simplicity, and to resemble the Ossianic poems in
majesty and melancholy. He founded the dynasty which
for seventy years has stood as firmly, and exercised its
functions for the welfare of the people on the whole as
efficiently, as any other government.
The king was forty-five years old when, having "no
more worlds to conquer," he devoted himself to the
consolidation of his kingdom. He placed governors on
each island, directly responsible to himself, who nominated chiefs of districts, heads of villages, and all petty
officers; and tax-gatherers, who, for lack of the art of
writing, kept their accounts by a method in use in the
English exchequer in ancient times. He appointed a
council of chiefs, with whom he advised on important




462


HAWAII.


matters, and a council of " wise men " who assisted him
in framing laws, and in regulating concerns of minor
importance. In all matters of national importance, the
governors and high chiefs of the islands met with the
sovereign in consultations. These were conducted with
great privacy, and the results were promulgated through
the islands by heralds whose office was hereditary.
Kehamameha enacted statutes against theft, murder,
and oppression, and though he wielded oppressive and
despotic authority himself, his people enjoyed a golden
age as compared with those that were past. The king,
governors, and chiefs constituted the magistracy, and
there was an appeal from both chiefs and governors to
the king. It was usual for both parties to be heard face
to face in the enclosure in front of the house of the king
or governor, no lawyers were employed, and every man
advocated his own cause, sitting cross-legged before the
judges. Swiftness and decision characterized the redress
of grievances and the administration of justice.
Kamehamaeh reduced the feudal tenure of land, which
had heretofore been the theory, into absolute practice,
claiming for the crown the sole ownership of the land,
and dividing it among his followers on the conditions of
tribute and military service. The common people were
attached to the soil and transferred with it. A chief
might nominate his wife, or son, or any other person to
succeed him in his possessions, but at his death they
reverted to the king, whose order was required before the
testamentary wish became of any value. There were
some wise regulations generally applicable, concerning




RECENT HAWAIIAN HISTORY.


463


the planting of cocoanut trees, and a law that the water
should be conducted over every plantation twice a week
in general, and once a week during the dry season.
This king constructed immense fish-ponds on the sea
coast, and devoted himself to commerce with such success that in one year he exported $400,000 of sandalwood (felled and shipped at the cost of much suffering to
the common people), and on finding that a large proportion of the profit had been dissipated by harbour dues
at Canton, he took up the idea and established harbour
dues at Honolulu.
From Vancouver Kamehameha learned of the grandeur
and power of Christian nations; and in the idea that his
people might grow great through Christianity, he asked
him, in 1794, that Christian teachers might be sent
from England. This request, if ever presented, was disregarded, as was another made by Captain Turnbull in
1803, and this exceptionally great Polynesian died the
year before the light of the Gospel shone on Hawaiian
shores.
Some persons, it does not appear whether they were
English or American, attempted his conversion;.but the
astute savage, after listening to their eloquent statements
of the power of faith, pressed on them as a crucial test
to throw themselves from the top of an adjacent precipice,
making his reception of their religion contingent on their
arrival unhurt at its base. He built large heiats, amongst
others the one at Kawaihae, at the dedication of which
to his favourite war god eleven human sacrifices were
offered. To the end he remained devoted to the state




464


HAWAII.


religion, and the last instances of capital punishment for
breaking tabu, a thraldom deeply interwoven with the
religious system, occurred in the last year of his reign,
when one man was put to death for putting on a chief's
girdle, another for eating of a tabooed dish, and a third
for leaving a house under tabu, and entering one which
was not so.
His last prayers were to his great red-feathered god
Kukailimoku, and priests bringing idols crowded round
him in his dying agony. His last words were " Move on
in my good way and " --  In the death-room the high
chiefs consulted, and one, to testify his great grief, proposed to eat the body raw, but was overruled by the
majority. So the flesh was separated from the bones,
and they were tied up in tapa, and concealed so
effectually that they have never since =been found. A
holocaust of three hundred dogs gave splendour to his
obsequies. " These are our gods whom I worship," he
had said to Kotzebue, while showing him one of the
temples. " Whether I do right or wrong I do not know,
but I follow my faith, which cannot be wicked, as it
commands me never to do wrong."
Kamehameha the Great died in 1819, and his son
Liholiho, who loved whisky and pleasure, was peaceably
crowned king in his room, and by his name. He, with
the powerful aid of the Queen Dowager Kaahumanu,
abolished tabl, and his subjects cast away their idols,
and fell into indifferent scepticsm, the high priest
Hewahewa being the first to light the iconoclastic torch,
having previously given his opinion that there was only




RECENT IAWAIIAN HISTORY.


465


one great akua or spirit in lani, the heavens. This
Kamehameha II. was the king who with his queen, died
of measles in London in 1824, after which the Blonde
frigate was sent to restore their bodies with much
ceremony to Hawaiian soil.
Kamehameha III., a minor, another son of the Conqueror, succeeded, and reigned for thirty years, dividing
the lands among the nobles and the people, and conferring upon his kingdom an equable constitution. The
law officially abolishing idolatry was confirmed by him,
and while complete religious toleration otherwise was
granted, the Christian faith was established in these
words:-" The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ shall
continue to be the established national religion of the
Iawaiian Islands."  His words on July 31st, 1843,
when the English colours, wrongfully hoisted, were
lowered in favour of the Hawaiian flag, are the national
motto:-" The life of the land is established in
righteousness." In his reign Hawaiian independence
was recognised by Great Britain, France, and America.
His Premier for some time was Mr. Wyllie, who with a
rare devotion and disinterestedness devoted his life and a
large fortune to his adopted country.
Kamehameha IV., a grandson of the Conqueror, succeeded him in 1854. H e was a patriotic prince, and
strove hard to advance the civilization of his people, and
to arrest their decrease by reformatory and sanitary
measures. He was the most accomplished prince of his
line, and his death in 1863, soon after that of his only
child, the Prince of Hawaii, was very deeply regretted.
H H




466


HAWAII.


His widow, Queen Kaleleonalani, or Enmma, visited
England after his death.
He was succeeded by his brother, a man of a very
different stamp, who was buried on January 11, 1873,
after a partial outbreak of the orgies wherewith the
natives disgraced themselves after the death of a chief
in the old heathen days. It is rare to meet with two
people successively who hold the same opinion of
Kamehameha V. He was evidently a man of some
talent and strong will, intensely patriotic, and determined not to be a merely ornamental figure-head of a
government administered by foreigners in his name.
He ardently desired the encouragement of foreign immigration, and the opening of a free market in America for
Hawaiian produce. He ruled, as well as reigned, and
though he abrogated the constitution of 1852, and introduced several features of absolutism into the government, on the whole he seems to have done well by his
people. He is said to have been regal and dignified,
to have worked hard, to have written correct state papers,
and to have been capable of the deportment of an educated Christian gentleman, but to have reimbursed himself
for this subservience to conventionality by occasionally
retiring to an undignified residence on the sea-shore,
where he transformed himself into the likeness of one
of his half-clad heathen ancestors, debased himself by
whisky, and revelled in the hula-hula. He is said also
to have been so far under the empire of the old superstitions, as to consult an ancient witch on affairs of importance.




RECENT HAWAIIAN HISTORY.


467


He died amidst the rejoicings incident to his birthday, and on the next day "lay in state in the throne-room
of the palace, while his ministers, his staff, and the
chiefs of the realm kept watch over him, and sombre
kahilis waving at his head, beat a rude and silent deadmarch for the crowds of people, subjects and aliens, who
continuously filed through the apartment, for a curious
farewell glance at the last of the Kamehamehas."
His death closed the first era of Hawaiian history, and
the orderly succession of one recognised dynasty. No
successor to the throne had been proclaimed, and the king
left no nearer kin than the Princess Keelikolani, his halfsister, a lady not in the line of regal descent.
Under these novel circumstances, it devolved upon
the Legislative Assembly to elect by ballot "some native
Alii of the kingdom as successor to the throne."  The
candidates were the High Chief Kalakaua, the present
King, and Prince Lunalilo, the late King, but the " WellBeloved," as Lunalilo was called, was elected unanimously,
amidst an outburst of popular enthusiasm.
From his high resolves and generous instincts much
was expected, and the unhappy failing, to which, after
the most painful struggles, he succumbed, on the solicitation of some bad or thoughtless foreigners, if it lessened
him aught in the public esteem, abated nothing of the
wonderful love that was felt for him.
He died, after a lingering illness, on February 3,
1874. Although the event had been expected for some
time, its announcement was received with profound
sorrow by the whole community, while the native sub



468


IAWAII.


jects of the deceased sovereign, according to ancient
custom, expressed their feelings in loud wailings, which
echoed mournfully through the still, red air of early daylight. On the following evening the body was placed on a
shrouded bier, and was escorted in solemn procession by
the government officials and the late king's staff, to the
Iolani Palace, there to lie in state.  It was a cloudless
moonlight; not a leaf stirred or bird sang, and the
crowd, consisting of several thousands, opened to the
right and left to let the dismal death-train pass, in a
stillness which was only broken by the solemn tramp of
the bearers.
The next day the corpse lay in state, in all the
splendour that the islands could bestow, dressed in
the clothes the king wore when he took the oath of
office, and resting on the royal robe of yellow feathers,
a fathom square.* Between eight and ten thousand
persons passed through the palace during the morning,
and foreigners as well as natives wept tears of genuine
grief; while in the palace grounds the wailing knew no
intermission, and many of the natives spent hours in
reciting kanakaus in honour of the deceased. At midnight the king's remains were placed in a coffin, his aged
father, His Highness Kanaina, who was broken-hearted
for his loss, standing by. When the body was raised
from the feather robe, he ordered that it should be
wrapped in it, and thus be deposited in its resting place.
0 Only one robe like this remains, that which is spread over the throne
at the opening of Parliament. The one buried with Lunalilo could not be
reproduced for one hundred thousand dollars.




RECENT HAWAIIAN HISTORY.


469


He is the last of our race," he said; " it belongs to
him." The natives in attendance turned pale at this
command, for the robe was the property of Kekauluohi,
the dead king's mother, and had descended to her from
her kingly ancestors.
Averse through his life to useless parade and display,
Lunalilo left directions for a simple funeral, and that
none of the old heathenish observances should ensue
upon his death. So, amidst unbounded grief, he was
carried to the grave with hymns and anthems, and the
hopes of Hawaii were buried with him.
He died without naming a successor, and thus for the
second time within fourteen months, a king came to be
elected by ballot.
The proceedings at the election of Lunalilo were marked
by an order, regularity, and peaceableness which reflected
extreme credit on the civilization of the Hawaiians, but in
the subsequent period the temper of the people had considerably changed, and they had been affected by influences to which some allusions were made in Letter XIX.
In politics, Lunalilo's views were essentially democratic,
and he showed an almost undue deference to the will of
the people, giving them a year's practical experience of
democracy which they will never forget.
An antagonism to the foreign residents, or rather to
their political influence, had grown rapidly. Some of
the Americans had been unwise in their language, and
the discussion on the proposed cession of Pearl River
increased the popular discontent, and the jealousy of




470


HAWAII.


foreign interference in island affairs. " America gave us
the light," said a native pastor, in a sermon which was
reported over the islands, "but now that we have the
light, we should be left to use it for ourselves." This
sentence represented the bulk of the national feeling,
which, if partially unenlightened, is intensely, passionately, almost fanatically patriotic.
The biennial election of delegates to the Legislative
Assembly occurred shortly before Lunalilo's death, and
the rallying-cry, " Hawaii for the Hawaiians," was used
with such effect that the most respectable foreign candidates, even in the capital, had not a chance of success,
and for the first time in Hawaiian constitutional history
a house was elected, consisting, with one exception, of
natives. Immediately on the king's death, Kalakaua,
who was understood to represent the foreign interest
as well as the policy indicated by the popular rallyingcry, and Queen Emma, came forward as candidates; the
walls were placarded with addresses, mass meetings were
held, canvassers were busy night and day, promises impossible of fulfilment were made, and for eight days the
Hawaiian capital presented those scenes of excitement,
wrangling, and mutual misrepresentation which we associate with popular elections elsewhere, and everywhere.
The day of election came, and thirty-nine votes were
given for Kalakaua, and six for Emma.   On the announcement of this result, a hoarse, indignant roar,
mingled with cheers from the crowd without, was heard
within the Assembly chamber, and on the committee
appointed to convey to Kalakaua the news of his election,




RECENT HAWAIIAN HISTORY.


471


attempting to take their seats in a carriage, they were
driven back, maimed and bleeding, into the Courthouse;
the carriage was torn to pieces, and the spokes of the
wheels were distributed as weapons among the rioters.
The " gentle children of the sun " were seen under a
new aspect; they became furious, the latent savagery
came out, the doors of the Hall of Assembly were
battered in, the windows were shattered with clubs and
volleys of stones, nine of the representatives, who were
known to have voted for Kalakaua, were severely injured;
the chairs, tables, and furnishings of the rooms were
broken up and thrown out of the windows, along with
valuable public and private documents; kerosene was
demanded to fire the buildings; the police remained
neutral, and conflagration and murder would have followed, had not the ministers dispatched an urgent
request for assistance to the United States' ships of
war, Portsmouth and Tuscarora, and H. B. M. ship Tenedos, which was promptly met by the landing of such a
force of sailors and marines as dispersed the rioters.
Seventy arrests were made, the foreign marines held
possession of the Courthouse, Palace, and Government
offices, Kalakaua took the oath of office in private; the
Representatives, with bandaged heads, and arms in slings,
limped, and in some instances were supported, to their
desks, to be liberated from their duties by the king in
person, and in ten days the joint protectorate was withdrawn.
Those who know the natives best were taken by
surprise, and are compelled to recognise that a restive,




472


IIAWAI1.


half-sullen, half-defiant spirit is abroad among them,
and that the task of governing them may not be the easy
thing which it has been since the days of Kamehameha
the Great. Nor do the foreign residents, especially the
Americans, feel so safe as formerly, without the presence
of a man-of-war in the harbour, since the 'people of
Oahu have so unexpectedly developed one of the prominent arts of civilized democracy, cruel, reckless, and
unreasoning mobbing.
Of King Kalakaua, who began his reign under such
unfortunate auspices, little at present can be said. Island
affairs have not settled down into their old quietude, and
party spirit, arising out of the election, has not died out
among the natives. The king chose his advisers wisely,
and made a concession to native feeling by appointing a
native named Nahaolelua to a seat in the cabinet as
Minister of Finance, but his first arrangement was
upset, and a good deal of confusion has subsequently
prevailed.
The Queen, Kapiolani, is a Hawaiian lady of high
character and extreme amiability, and both King and
Queen have been exemplary in their domestic relations.
Kalakaua's first act was to proclaim his brother, Prince
Leleiohoku, his successor, investing him at the same
time with the title, "His Royal Highness," and his
second was to reorganize the military service, with
the view of making it an efficient and well-disciplined
force.
There is something melancholy in the fact that this
small Pacific kingdom has to fall back upon the old world




RECENT HAWAIIAN HISTORY.


473


resource of a standing army, as large, in proportion to
its population, as that of the German Empire.
Those readers who have become interested in the
Sandwich Islands through the foregoing Letters, will
join me in the earnest wish that this people, which has
advanced from heathenism and barbarism to Christianity
and civilization in the short space of a single generation,
may enjoy peace and prosperity under King Kalakaua,
that the extinction which threatens the nation may be
averted, and that under a gracious Divine Providence,
Hawaii may still remain the inheritance of the Hawaiians.
THE END.


BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.




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