Statewide County HI Archives News.....Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop. - Part 26: Letter # XV. November 8, 2008
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Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com November 16, 2008, 9:06 am

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands November 8, 2008

Contributed for use in 
USGenWeb Archives 
by Darlene E. Kelley
donkeyskid@msn.com
November 8, 2008

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

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Letter # XV.

" Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the
Sandwich Islands."


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 after two hours we sailed her
machinery broke down, and we lay-to for five hours, in what they have
here called 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 giant cockroach, and
listening, not without amusement, to the awful groans of a Chinaman, and
a  
" rough customer " from California, whp 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
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 our 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 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, contiplating 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 excellant 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 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 wit the sining
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 be wearisome. After
leavig 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. One 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 tey 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 forsome 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 the varieties of red, hardly toned down by
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
otlet of Hawaian commerce. But ah ! how soft and mild a blue the sky
was, looking inland, where for the first time, I saw far aloft, above
solid masses of white cloud, sky hung, strangly 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 dwn between the mountains with almost irresistible fury,
used to be a great place of call for whalers, who purchased large
quanities of " recruits " here; yams in the earlier days and more lately
Irish potatoes, which flourish in the thirsty soil. But the whaling in
the North Pacific seems to be nearly " played out," and the arrival of a
whaler is not a common occurrance.

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 had 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 nd 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
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
sacificing 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, but whom this
temple was built, before he proceeded to the conquet of Oahu. 

The shape is an irregualar 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 accomodation 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 ws 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 utterancs. 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 this day of the dedication
of the temple of Tairi, vast offerings of fruit, dogs, and hogs were
presnted, and eleven human beings were immolated on the altar. These
victims were taken from among captives, or those who had broken the
Tabu, or rendeed themselves obnoxious to the chiefs, and were often
bind, maimed, or crippled persons. Sometimes they were dispatched at a
distance with a stone or club, and their bodies dragged along the narrow
passage up whch 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 wit 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 dolefule 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 unutterabel darkness of
this ignorant worship, passing in long procession from thes grim rites
into the presence of the Father whose infinate 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 teir rans, and this desert,
which occupies a great part of leeward Hawaii, displeases me. It lies
burning in the fierce splendours of a zone, which, util now, I had
forgotten was the torrid zone, unwatered and unfruitful, red and
desolute 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 vocanic cones. No water, no greas,no ferns. Some thornless
thistles, a little brush of sapless-looking indigo, and some species of
composite struggle for a doleful existence. There is nothing tropicl
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 being damp and cool; miles of fine
smooth green grass stretched out before us; high hills, broken,
pinnacled, wooded, al sleft with deep ravines, rose on our left; we
heard the dash and music of falling water: to the north it was like the
Munster Thal, to the south altogether vocanic. 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 a court house, a native
church, much to large for the shrunken population, and other indications
of inhabited region. Except for the woods which clothe the hills, the
characteristic of the scenery is baldness.

On clamboring over the wall which surround my host's kraal of dwellings,
I heard in the sdusk strange sweet voices crying rudely and
emphantically, " Who are you? What do you want ? and was relieved to
find that somewhat inhospitable interrogation only proceeded from two
Australian magpies. Mr.  Serverance is a Tasmanian, married to a
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 hst's wealth. He
has 25,000 at three stations on Mauna Kea, and, at an altitude of 60000
feet they flourish, and are free from some of the maladies to which they
are liable elsewhere. Though there are only tree or four sheep owners on
the islands, tey exported 288,526 lbs of wool last year.In 1873 the
export of wool had increased to 329,507 lbs. Mr. Severance has also 1000
head of cattle and 50 horses.

The industry of Waimea is cattle raising, and some feeble attempts are
being mad to improve the degenerated island breed by the importation of
a few short-horn cows from New Zealand. These plains afford magnificent
pasturage as well as good galloping ground. They are avery great
throughfare. The island, which is an equilateral triangle, about 300
mile in " circuit," can only be crossed here. Elsewhere, an impenetrable
forest belt, and an impassible volcanic wilderness, compel travellers to
take the back burning track of adament 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 sdistrinction 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
shoelesshorses 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 rainon most days of the year for a short time, and the mornings and
evenings are clear and col.. The long sweeping curves of the tree 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 sltitude of 14,000 feet, and his base is thickly clustered
with tufa-cone of bright red colour, from 300 to 1,000 feet in height.
Considerably further back, indeed forty miles away, and the smooth dome
of Mauna Loa appears very serine now, but onl thriteen years ago the
light was so brillant, from one of its tremendous eruptions, that here
it was possible to read a newspaper by it, and during its height candes
were unnecessary in the evenings. Nearer the coast, and about thirty
miles from here, is the conspicuous dome of the dead volcano Hualalai.
If all  Hawaii, south of Wamea, were submerged to a deepth of 8000 feet,
tree nearly equi-distant, dome-shaped volcanic island would remain, the
hghest of which would have the 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"lva bubbles, which
were used by the natives as places of sepulture. The Kolala hills,
picturesque, wooded, and aburpt, 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, 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 vegetataion 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 o the
streams which fall into the Waiio and Waimanu Valleys, and is supposed
to contain water enoght 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 eqable teperature,
might become the great health resort of invalids from the Pacific Coast.
But Hawaii is not a place for the sick and old; for; if people canot
ride on horseback, they can have neither society or change. Mr. Lyons,
is on 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,
besidestranslating some of our best hymms, has composed enough to make
up the greater amount of a bulky volume, whch 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 Waimenu Valley. Neither he or
his wife can mount a horse now, and it is very dreary for them, as the
population has receded and dwindled from about them. Thier house is made
lively, however by some bright little native girls, who boad with them,
and receive an Englsih and industrial education.

The moral atmsophere of Waimea has never been a wholesome one. The
region was very early settled by a class what may be truly termed " mean
whites," the 
"beach-combers" and the 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 are
know by such befitting aliases as " Jake the Devil." & c. The coming of
the missionaries, and the settlement of moral, orderly whites on Hawaii,
have slowly created a public opinion averse to flagrant immorarality,
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 is in such quarters as this
that the great antogonistic influence to complete Christianization of
the natives was created, and is from such suspicious sources that the
aspersions on missionary
work are usually derived.

Wiamea has its own beauty -- the grand breezy plain, the gigantic sweep
of the mountan curves, the incessant change of colour, and the morning
view of Mauna Kea, and the pure snow on its ragged dome, rose-flushed in
the early sunlight. I don't agree with Disreaeli 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 is
cleverly burlesque the way in which white people express their
admiration of scenry, and, in fact, ridicules admiration of scenery for
itself. She evidently thinks us a sour, morose, worrying,forloin race. 
" We, " she said, " are always happy; we never grieve long about
anything; when any one dies we break out 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 have no cares, the days are too
short. What are haoles always unhappy about ?" Perhaps she xpresse the
general feeling of her careless, pleasure-loving, mirt-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 favorite occupation of native women, and they all make 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.

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Next - Letter #XVI.




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