Statewide County HI Archives News.....Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop. - Part 20: Letter #XI - Part 2. October 28, 2008
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Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com November 16, 2008, 8:58 am

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 28, 2008

Contributed for use in 
USGenWeb Archives 
by Darlene E. Kelley
donkeyskd@msn.com
October 28, 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 Plam Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes in the
Sandwich Islands "
Letter #XI - Part 2

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Letter # XI 

Part 2.


We rode on again, somewhat unwillingly on my part, for though I thought
my apprehensions might be cowardly and ignorant, yet Deborah, was but a
child, and had the attractive willfulness of childhood, and she was. I
saw, determined to get back to her husband, and the devotion and
affection of the young wife were so pleasnt to see, that I had not the
heart to offer serious opposition to her wishes, especially as I knew
that I might be exaggerating the possible peril. I gathered, however,
from what she said, that her people wanted us to remain until Monday,
epecially as none of them could go with us, their horses being at some
distance. I though it a sign of difficulties ahead, that on one of the
most frequented tracks in Hawaii, we had not met a single traveller,
though it ws Saturday, a special travelling day.

We crossed one gulch in which the water was strong, and up to our
horses' bodies, and came upon the incorrigible Kaluna, who, instead of
catching his horse, was recounting his adventures to a circle of
natives, but promised to follow us soon. Deborah , than said that the
next gulch was rather a bad one, and that we must not wait for Kaluna,
but ride fast, and try to get through it. When we reached the pali above
it, we heard the roaring of a torrent, and when we descended to its
brink it looked truly bad, but Deborah rode in, and I waited on the
margin. She got across safely, but when she was near the opposite side
her large horse plunged, slipped, and scrambled in a  most unpleasant
way, and she screamed something to me which I could not hear.
Then I went in, and  

" At the first plunge the horse sank low,
And the water broke o'er the saddle bow:" 

but the brave animal struggled through, with water up to the top of her
back, till she reached the place where Deborah's horse had looked so
insecure. In another moment she and I rolled backwards into deep water,
as if she ad slipped from a submerged rock. I saw her fore feet pawing
the air, and then only her head was above water. I struck her hard with
my spurs, she snorted, clawed, made a desperate struggle, regained her
footing, got into shallow water, and landed safely. It was a small but
not an agreeable adventure.

We went on again, the track now really dangerous from denudation and
slipperiness. The rain came down, if possible, yet more heavily, and
coursed fiercely down each pali track. Hundreds of cascades leapt from
the cliffs, bringing down stones with a sharp rattling sound. We crossed
a bridge over on gulch, where the water was thundering down in such
volume that it seemed as if it must rend the hard basalt of the palis.
Then we reached the lofty top of the great Halalau gulch, the largest of
all, with the double river, and the ocean close to the ford. Mingling
with the deep reverberations of the surf, I heard the sharp crisp rush
of a river, and of " a river that has no bridge."

The dense foliage, and the exigencies of the steep track, which had
become very difficult, owing to the washing away of the soil, prevented
me from seeing anything till I got down. I found Deborah speaking to a
native, who was gesticulating very emphatically, and pointing up the
river.
The roar was deafening, and the sight terific. Where there were two
shallow streams a week ago, wit a house and good sized piece of ground
above their confluence, there was now one spinning, rushing, chafing,
foaming river, twice as wide as the Clyde at Glasgow, The land was
submerged, and, if I remember correctly, the house only stood above the
flood, And, most fearful to look upon, the ocean, in three huge
breakers, had come quite in, and its mountains of white rage looked
fearfully near the only possible crossing. I entreated Deborah not to go
on. She said we could not go back, that the last gulch was already
impassable, that between the two there was no house in which we could
sleep, that the river had a good bottom, that the man thought if our
horses were strong we could ross now, but not later, &c. In short, she
overbore all opposition, and plunged in, callin to me, 
"spur, spur, all the time."

Just as I went in, I took my knife and cut open the cloak which
contained the cocoanuts, one only remaining. Deborah's horse I knew was
strong, and shod, but my unshod and untried mare, what o her? My soul
and senses literally reeled among the dizzy horrors of the wide, wild
tide, but with an effort I regained sense and self-possession, for we
were in, and there was no turning. Deborah, ahead, screeched to me what
I could not hear; she said afterwards it was " spur, spur, and keep up
the river." the native was shrieking in Hawaiian from the hindr shore,
and waving to the right, but te torrents of rain, and the crash of the
breakers, and the rsh and hurry of the river confused both sight and
hearing. I saw Deborah's horse carried off is leggs, my mare, too, was
swimming, andshortly afterwards, between swimming, struggling, and
floundering, we reached what had been the junction of the two rivers,
where there was foothold, and the water was only up to the seat of the
saddles

Remember, we were both sitting nearly up to our waists in water, and it
was only by screaming that our voices were eard above te din, and to
return orgo on seemed equally perilous. Under these critical
circumstances the following colloquy took place, on my side, with teeth
chattering, and on hers, with a sudden forgetfulness of English produced
by her first sense of the imminent danger we were in.

Self.-- " My mare is so tired, and so heavily weighted, we shall drown,
or I shall."

Deborah ( with more reason on her side ) 
-- " But can't go back, we no stay here, water higher all minutes, spur
horse, think we come through."

Self -- " But if we go on ther is broader, deeper water between us and
the shore; your husband would not like you to run such a risk."

Deborah -- " Think we get through, if horses give out, we let go; I swim
and save you."

Even under these circumstances a gleam of the ludicrous shot through me
at the idea of this small fragile being bearing my weight among the
breakers. I attempeted to shift my saddlebags upon her powrful horse,
but being full of water and under water, the attempt failed, and as we
both spoke both our horses were carried off their vantage ground into
deep water.

With wilder fury the river rushed by, its waters whirled dizzily, and,
in spite of spurring and lifting with the rein, the horses wre swept
seawards. It was a fearful sight. I saw Deborah's horse pin round, and
thought woefully of the possible fate of the bright young wife, almost a
bride: only the horses' heads and our own heads and shoulders were above
water; the surf was thundering on our left, and we were drifting towards
it  broadside
on. When I saw the young girl's face of horror I felt increased presence
of mind, and raising my voice to a shriek, and telling her to do as I
did, I lifted and turned my mare with the rin, so that her chest and not
hr side should receive the force of the river, and the brave animal, as
if seeing what she should do, struck out desperately. It wasa horrible
suspense. Were we stemming the torrent, or was it sweeping us back that
very short distance which lay between us and the mountainous breakers?
I constsntly spurred my mare, guiding he slightly to the left, the side
grew nearer, and after exhausing struggles, Deborah's horse touched
ground, and her voice came faintly towards me likea voice in a dream,
still calling " Spur, Spur." My mare touched ground twice, and was
carried off again before she fairly got to land some yards nearer the
sea than the bridle track.

When our tired horses were taking brath I felt as if my heart stopped,
and I trebled all over, for we had narrowly escaped death. I then put
our saddlebags on Deborah's horse. It was one of the worst and steepest
of the palis that we had to ascend; but I can't remember anything about
the road excet that we had to leap some place which we could not crss
otherwise. Deborah, then thoroughly alive to a sense of risk, said that
there was only one more bad gulch to cross before we reached Onomea, but
it was the most dangerous of all, and we could not get across, she
feared, but we migt go and look at it. I only remember the extreme
solitude of the region, and scrambling and sliding down a most
precipitous pali, hearing a roar like a cataract upon cataract, and
coming suddenly down upo a sublime and picturesque scene, with only
standing room, and that knee-deep in water, between a savage torrent and
the cliff. This gulch, called Scotchman's gulch, I am told, because a
Scotchman was drowned there, must be at its crossing three-quarters of a
mile inland, and tree hundred feet above the sea. In going to Waipio, on
noticing the deep hoes and enormous boulders, some of them higher than a
man on horseback, I had thought what a fearful place it would be if it
were ever full; but my imagination had not reached the reality. One huge
compessed impetuous torrent, leaping in creamy foam, boiling in creamy
eddies, rioting in deep black chasms, roared and thundered over the
whole in rapids of the most tempestuous kind, leaping down to the ocean
in three grand broad catareacts, th nearest of them not more than forty
feet from the crossing. Imagine the Moriston at the Falls, four times as
wide ad fifty times as furious, walled in by precipices, and with a
miniature Niagra above an below, and you have a feeble illustration of
it.

Portions of two or three rocks only could be seen, and on one of these,
about twelve feet from the shore, a nude native, beautifully tatooed,
with a lasso in hs hands, was standing nearly up to his knees in foam;
and about a third of the way from the other side, another native in
deeper water, steadying himself by  pole. A young woman on horseback,
whose near relative was dangerously ill at Hilo, was jammed under the
ciff, and the men were going to gt her across. Deborah, to my dismay,
said that if she got safely over we would go too, as these natives were
very skillful. I asked if she thought her husband would let her cross,
and she said," No." I asked her if she was frightened, and she said "
Yes," but she wished so to get home, and her face was as pale as a brown
face can be. I only hope the man will prove worthy of her affectionate
devotion.

Here, though people say it is a most perilous gulch, I was not afraid
for her life or ine, with the amphibibious natives to help us; but I was
sorely afraid of being bruised, and scarred, and of breaking the horses'
legs, and I said I would not cross, but would sleep among the tees; but
the tumult drowned our voices, though the Hawaiians by screetching could
make themselves understood. The nearest man then approached the shore,
put the lasso round the nose of the woman's horse, and dragged it into
the torrent; and it was exciting to see a horse creeping from rock to
rock in a cataract with alarming possibilities in every direction. But
beasts may well be bold; as they have not " the foreknowledge of death."
When the narest ative had got the horse as far as he could, he threw the
lasso to the man who was steadying himself with the pole, and urged the
horse on. There was a deep chasm between the two into which the anaimal
fell, as he tried to leap from each rock to another. I saw for a moment
only a woman's head and shoulders, a horse's had, a commotion of foam, a
native tugging at the lasso, and thena violent scramble on to a rock,
and a plunging and floundering through deep water to shore.

The Deborah said she would go, that her horse was abetter and stronger
one; and the same process was repeated with the same slip into the
chasm, only with the variation that for a second she went out of sight
altogether. It was a terribly interesting and exciting spectacle with
sublime accomplishments. Though I had no fear of absolute danger; yet my
mare was tired, and I ad made up my mind to remain on that side till the
flood abated; but I could not make the natives understand that I wished
to turn, and while I was screaming " No,No." and trying, to withdraw my
stiffened limbs from the stirrups, the noose was put round the mare's
nose, and she wnt in. It was  horrible to know that into the chasm as
the others went i too must go, and the mare went with a blind plunge.
With violent plunging and struggling she got her fore feet on the rock,
but just as she was jumping up to it altogether she slipped ack snorting
into the holes, and the water went over my eyes. I struck her with my
spurs, the men screeched and shouted, the hinder man jumped in, they
both tugged at the lasso, and slipping and struggling, the animal gained
the rock, and plunged through deep water to the shore, the water
covering that rock with a rush of foam, being two feet deep.

Kaluna came up just after we had crossed, undressed, made his clothes
into a bundle, and got over amphibiously, leaping, swimming, and diving,
looking like a water-god, with the horse and mule after him. His
dexteity was a beautiful sight; but on looking back I wonder how human
beings ver devised to cross such a flood. We got over just intime. Some
travellers who reached Laupahoehoe shortly after we left, more
experienced than we were, suffered a two days' detention rather than
incur a simular risk. Several mules and hirses, they say, have had their
legs broken in crossing this gulch by getting them fast between the
rocks.

Shortly after this, Deborah uttered a delighted exclamation, and her
pretty face lighted up, and I saw her husband spurning along the top of
the next pali, and he presently joined us, and I exchanged my tired mare
for his fresh, powerful horse. He knew that the freshet was imminent,
and believing that we should never leave Laupahoehoe, he was setting
off, provded wth tackle for getting himself across, intending to join
us, and remain with us till the rivers fell. The presebce of a
responsible man seemed a rest at once. We had several more gulches to
cross, but none of them dangerous; and we roe the last seven miles in
great pace, though the mire and wate were often up to the horses' knees,
and came up to Onomea at full gallop, with spirit and strength enough
for riding other twenty miles. Dry clothing, hot baths, and good tea
followed delightfully upon our drowning ride. I remained over Sunday at
Omomea, and yesterday rode here wit a native in heavy rain, and recived
warm welcome. Our adventures are a nine days' wonder, and everyone says
that if we had had a white man or an experienced native with us, we
should never have been allowed to attempt the perilous ride. I feel very
thankful that w are living to tell of it, and that Deborah is not worse
but considerably better. E -- will expect some reflections; but none
were suggested at the time, and i wil not now invent what I ought to
have thought and felt.

Due honour must be given to my Mexican saddle. Had I had been
side-saddle, and encombered with a riding-habit, I should have been
drowned. I feel able now to ride anywhere and any distance upn it, while
Miss Karpe, who began by being much stronger than I was, has never
recovered from the volacano ride, and seems quite ill.

Last night Kilauea must have been tremendoously active. At ten P.M..,
from the upper verandah, we saw the whole western sky fitfully
illuminatd, and the glare reddened the snow which is lying on Mauna Loa,
an effect of fire on ice which can rarely be seen.

I.L.B

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Next Letter # XII



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