Hawaii Statewide Files History - Books.....The Hawaiian Archipelago, Part 4

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Book Title and Information: 
Report of the Royal Commission on the Development of the 
Resources of the Kingdom. By Hawaii Royal Commission on 
the Development of the Resources of the Kingdom. 
Published: Island of Hawaii, 1877. Subjects: The land 
and its people, and areas of Kohala, Waimea, Hamakua, 
Hilo, Puna & Kau.
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The Hawaiian Archipelago - Part 4

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 Admiral 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, kahilis, and a little fuss, but has a civilized 
constitutional king, the equal of Queen Victoria, a civil list, etc., and though 
Lunalilo comes here trying to be a private individual and to rest from Hookupus, 
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 free- and-easiness of Republican notions and the 
respect due to a sovereign who reigns by "the 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 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 olivaeformis), with 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 gift-offerings 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 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; 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. 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 
complained 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 
sight-seeing 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, [Cynodon Dactylon (?)] with roads on three sides. Long before 
ten, 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 chamberlain, 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 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 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 had 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 holuku, 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 crimson ohia blossoms were 
universal; but besides these there were leis of small red and white double 
roses, pohas, [Physalis Peruviana.] 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 maile 
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 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 
debutante 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 hui, 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 haoles, 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. 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 king'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 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 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, I 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 very distinguished 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 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 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 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 
hookupu 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. 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 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 
signature for my autograph collection, and he said he had composed a stanza for 
me which he thought I might like to have in addition. He called with it on the 
following afternoon, apologising for his dress, a short jacket and blue 
trowsers, stuffed into boots plastered with mud 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.

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, "done," 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 last I saw of him was on 
the mare's back, racing a troop of natives along the beach. [This was almost his 
last exploit. A few days later the sheriff had 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.]

I.L.B.


LETTER XV

WAIMEA, HAWAII

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 melancholy smile on his face, said 
nothing, but quietly sat down 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 unamiable, or 
tired, or perturbed?

The next day was fine, and we were all much on deck to dry our clothes in the 
sun. The 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 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. We 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 heiau, or heathen temple on 
a height, a fringe of cocoa-nut 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 and 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 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 "mumuku," 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 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 Kamehameha 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 mauka 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 towards 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 
many." Here also was the anu, 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 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 lele, 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 Tabu, 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 heiau 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 heiau 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 darkness of this ignorant worship, passing in 
long procession from these grim rites into the presence of the Father whose 
infinite compassions they had never known.

Every hundred feet of ascent from the rainless, fervid beach of Kawaihae 
increased the freshness of the temperature, and rendered exercise more 
delightful. From the fringe 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 compositae 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 out before us; 
high hills, broken, pinnacled, wooded, and cleft with deep ravines, rose on our 
left; we heard the clash 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. [In 1873 the export of 
wool had increased to 329,507 lbs.] Mr. S--- has also 1000 head of cattle and 50 
horses.

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 grass 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 degrees 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 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, 
scoriae, 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 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 horse 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 such befitting 
aliases as "Jake the Devil," etc. The coming 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 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.


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 leis. 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 tenax. Nearly all 
the people of the valley are outside, having come to see the wahine haole: only 
one white woman, and she a resident 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 
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 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 from 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. "Kilauea? 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 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 blotting-book. The natives think it quite idiotic in us 
to attach any value to withered leaves. My inkstand with its double-spring lids 
has been a great amusement. Each one opened both, and shut them again, and a 
chorus of "maikai, 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 Jesu (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 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 (Broussonetia papyrifera). 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 Waimea 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 Waimea 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 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 ohias 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 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, and 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. [The Inspector of Schools has since told me that there 
is a track as bad, if not worse, in the Hana district on Maui.] 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 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, 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 kukuis, 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 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 any 
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 kalo 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 swimming on 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 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 he 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 indica), 
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 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 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 Polypodium tamariscinum, 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 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 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 savagery, 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 meles 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 fierce-looking 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 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 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, kukui, 
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 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 lonely 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.

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 "Aloha" 
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 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, maikai" (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 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 degrees, 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, 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 
friends, sympathy, and the social intercourse 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 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 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 highly-educated 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 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 80 degrees!

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 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." [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.]

I.L.B.

The Hawaiian Archipelago - End of Part 4