Statewide County HI Archives News.....Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop. - Part 23: Letter # XIII - Part 1. October 31, 2008
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com November 16, 2008, 9:01 am

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 31, 2008

Contributed for use in 
USGenWeb Archives
by Darlene E. Kelley
donkeyskid@msn.com
Oct 31, 2008

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Historical Collections of Hawai'i
Keepers of the Culture
A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Islands
Isabella L. Bird Bishop Letters
" Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs , and Volcanoes of the
Sandwich Islands."
Letter # XIII - Part 1
Transcribed

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Letter # XIII 

Part 1


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, &c., 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 simular fashion on Bude or
Tobermory.
There were amusing attempts to bring about a practical reconciliation
between the free-and easiness of Republication notions and the respect
due a sovereign who reigns by " the will of the people " as well " as
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 rch
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 shinning 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
soverign 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 sufference, 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 brow, significant
at once of brains and straightforwardness, a straight proportionate
nose, and a good mouth. The slight tendecy to Polynesian overfulness
about his lip 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 seem 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, wth 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, and my friend Upa beating the big
drum, and an irregular rabble 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
Mondat, 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 the beach round a sharp
corner, when we had to pull our horses almost on their haunches to void
knocking down the King, the American admiral, the Captian 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 as 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 careflly, as the pahoehoe lies in the
rivers, coils, tortuosities, and holes partially concealed by a
luxuriant growth of ferns and convolvuli. The country is thickly
sprinkled with coca-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 enture six feet from the track without
a 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  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 in,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 serinity 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 some news to the sheriff that a man had been killed a few hours
before. He was riding to 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 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 a habtual church-goer, 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 his advisors
confessedly the best men in the kingdom, and all his public actions snce
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 chieftess of the
highest rank, and one of the quees of Kmehameha 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 systen 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 Hawaiian Kings,
but of a far older family. His father was a commoner, but Hawaiian rank
is inherited through the mother. He received a good 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 lokoimaikai, " 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 asperations 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 said he had been
taught as they were, and hoped hereafter to profit by the instruction he
had received.

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Next -part 2 of letter # XIII



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