Statewide County HI Archives News.....Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop. - Part 1. October 1, 2008
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Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 October 6, 2008, 2:40 pm

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 1, 2008


Contributed for use in
USGenWeb Archives
by Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
October 1, 2008.

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

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Part 1.

Isabella L. Bird Bishop (1831-1904 )

Isabella Bird Bishop was a Scottish traveler, who became the first woman
fellow of the Royal Society. She arrived in Honolulu in January, 1873,
and spent nearly seven months in the islands during that critical year
of the reign of Lunalilo. She visited the town of Hilo, described the
Kilauea district during a volcanic outburst, and rode astride to such
almost inaccessible valleys as Waipio and Waimanu on the Hamakua Coast.
In March, she explored the crater of Haleakala on Maui and later spent a
month in the valleys of Kauai. 

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SIX MONTHS AMONG THE PALM  GROVES, CORAL REEFS, AND VOLCANOES OF THE
SANDWICH ISLANDS.  by Isabella L. Bird.


" To my sister, to whom these letters were origianally written, they are
now affectionately Dedicated. "


" Summer isles of Eden lying
In dark purple spheres of sea."  


PREFACE.

Within the last century the Hawaiian islands have been the topic of
various works of merit, and some explanation of the reasons which have
led me to enter upon the same subject are necessary.

I was travelling for health, when circumstances induced me to land on
the group, and the benifit which I derived from the climate tempted me
to remain for nearly seven months. During that time the necessity of
leading a life of open air and exercise as a means of recovery, led me
to travel on horseback to and fro through the islands, exploring the
interior, ascending the highest mountains, visiting the active
volcanoes, and remote regions which are known to few even of the
residents, living among the natives, and otherwise seeing Hawiaiian life
in all its phases.

At the close of my visit, my Hawaiian friends urged me strongly to
publish my impressions and experiences, on the ground that the best
books already existing, besides being old, treat chiefly of aboriginal
customs and habits now extinct, and the introduction of Christianity and
subsequent historical events. They also represented that I had seen the
islands more thorougly than any foreign visitor, and the volcano of
Mauna Loa under specially favourable circumstances,
and that I had so completely lived the island life, and acquainted
myself with the existing state of the country, as to be rather a "
kamaina " [ a native word used to signify an old resident. ] than a
stanger, and that consequently I should be able to write on Hawaii with
a degree of intimancy as well as a freshness. My friends at home, who
are interested in my narratives, urged me to give them to a wider
circle, and my inclinations led me in the same direction, with a sort of
longing to make others share something of my own interest and enjoyment.

The letters which follow were written to a near relation, and often
hastily and under great difficulties of circumstance, but even with
these and other disadvantages, they appear to me the best form of
conveying my impressions in their original vividness. With the exception
of certain omissions and abridgements, they are printed as they were
written, and for such demerits as arise from this mode of publication, I
ask the indulgence of my readers.

ISABELLA L. BIRD
January, 1875. 

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INTRODUCTION

Cannon Kingsley, in his charming book on the West Indies, says, " The
undoubted fact is known I find to few educated English people, that the
Coco palm, which
produces coir rope, cocoanuts, and a hundred other useful things, is not
the same plant as the cacao bush which produces chocolate, or anything
like it. I am sorry to have to insist upon this fact, but until
Professor Huxley's dream and mine is fulfilled, and our schools deign to
teach, in the intravals of Greek and Latin, some slight knowledge of
this planet, and of those of its productions which are most commonly in
use, even this fact may need to be re-stated more than once."

There is no room for the supposition that the intelligence of Mr.
Kingsley's 
" educated English " acquaintance is below the average, and I should be
sorry to form an unworthy estimate of that of my own circle, though I
have several times met wth the foregoing confusion, as well as the
folowing and other equally
ill-formed questions, one or two of which I reluctantly admit that I
might have been guilty myself before I visited the Pacific;
" Whereabouts are the Sandwich Islands? They are not the same as the
Fijis, are they? Are they the same as Otaheite? Are the natives all
cannibals? What sort of idols do they worship? Are they as pretty as the
other South Sea Islands? Does the King wear clothes? Who do they belong
to? Does any one live on them but the savages? Will anything grow on
them ? Are the people very savage? " etc. Their geographical position is
a great difficulty. I saw a gentleman of very extensive information
looking for them on the map in the neighborhood of Tristran d'Acunha;
and the publishers of a high-class periodical lately advertised. "
Letters from the Sandwich Islands " as " Letters from the South Sea
Islands." In consequence of these and similar interrogatories, which are
not altogether unreasonable,  considering the imperfect teaching of
physical geography, the extent of the planet, the multitude of its
productions, and the following letters with as many preliminary
statements as shall serve to make them intelligible.

The Sandwich Islands do not form one of the South Sea groups, and have
no other connection with them than certain affinities of race and
language. They constitute the only important group in the vast North
Pacific Ocean, in which they are so advantageously placed as the be
pretty nearly equidistant from California, Mexico, China, and Japan.
They are in the torrid zone, and extend from 18 degrees 50' to 22
degrees 20' north latitude, and their longitude is from 154 degrees 53'
to 160 degress 15' west from Greenwich. They were discovered by Captain
Cook in 1778. They are twelve in number, but only eight are inhabited,
and these vary in size from Hawaii, which is 4000 square miles in
extent, and 88 miles long by 73 broad, to Kahoolawe, which is only 11
miles long and 8 broad. Their entire superficial area is about 6,100
miles. They are to some extent bounded by barrier reefs of coral, and
have few safe harbours. Their formation is altogether volcanic, and they
possess the largest perpetually active volcano and the largest extinct
crater in the world. They are very mountainous, and two mountain summits
on Hawaii are nearly 14,000 feet in height. Their climate for salubrity
and general equability is reputed the finest on earth. It is almost
absolutely equable, and a man may take his choice between broiling all
the year around on the sea level on the leeward side of the islands at a
temperature of 80 degrees, and enjoying the charms of a fireside at an
altitude where there is fost every night of the year. There is no sickly
season, and there are no diseases of locality. The trade winds blow for
nine months of the year, and on the windward coasts there is an
abundance of rain, and a perennial luxuraince of vegetation.

The Sandwich Islands are not the same as Otaheite nor as the Fijis, from
which they are distant about 4,000 miles, nor are their people of the
same race. Thenatives are not cannibals, and it is doubtful if they ever
were so. Their idols only exist in missionary museums. They cast them
away voluntarily in 1819, at the very time when missionaries from
America sent out to Christianize the group were on their way round Cape
Horn. The people are all clothed, and the King, who is an educated
gentleman, wears the European dress. The official designation of the
group is 
" Hawaiian Islands," and they form an independant kingdom.

The natives are not savages, most decidely not. They are on the whole a
quiet, courteous, orderly, harmless, Christian community. The native
population has declined from 400, 000 as estimated by Captain Cook in
1778 to 49,000 according to the census of 1872. There are about 5,000
foreign residents, who live on very friendly terms wth the natives, and
are mostly subjects of Kalakaua, the King of the group.

The islands are a thoroughly civilized polity, and the Hawaiians show a
great aptitude for political organization. They constitute a limted
monarchy, and have a constitutional and hereditary king, a parliament
with an upper and lower house, a cabinet, a standing army, a police
force, a Supreme Court of Judicature, a most efficiant postal system,
custom houses, a civil list, taxes, a national debt, and most of the
other amenities and appliances of civilization.

There is no State Church. The majority of the foreigners, as well as the
natives, are Congregationalists. The missionaries translated the Bible
and other books into Hawaiian, taught the natives to read and write,
gave the princes and nobles a high class education, induced the kng and
chiefs to renounce their oppresive feudal rights, with legal advice
framed a constitution which became the law of the land, and obtained the
recognition of the little polynesian kingdom as a member of the
brotherhood of civilized nations.

With these few remarks I leave the suject of the volume to develop
itself in my letters. They have not had the advantage of revision by
anyone familiar with the Sandwich Islands, and mistakes and inaccuracies
may consequently appear, on which, I hope that my Hawaiian friends will
not b very severe. In correcting thm, I have availed myself of the very
valuable 
" History of the Hawaiian Islands." by r. Jackson Jaris, Ellis' " Tour
Round Hawaii," Mr. Brigham's valuable monograph on the " Hawaiian
Volcanoes." and sundry reports presented to the legislature during its
present sessin. I have also to express my obligations to the Honorable
E. Allen, Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Mr.
Manley Hopkins, author of " Hawaii," Dr. T. M. Coan, of New York,
Professor W. Alexander, Daniel Smith, Esq., and other friends at
Honolulu,for assistance most kindly rendered.

ISABELLA L. BIRD.


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Continued in Part 2- Letter # I.


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