HAWAIIAN HOTEL, Jan. 28th.
Sunday was a very pleasant day here. Church bells rang, and the
shady streets were filled with people in holiday dress. There are
two large native churches, the Kaumakapili, and the Kaiwaiaho,
usually called the stone church. The latter is an immense
substantial building, for the erection of which each Christian
native brought a block of rock-coral. There is a large Roman
Catholic church, the priests of which are said to have been somewhat
successful in proselytizing operations. The Reformed Catholic, or
English temporary cathedral, is a tasteful but very simple wooden
building, standing in pretty grounds, on which a very useful
institution for boarding and training native and half-white girls,
and the reception of white girls as day scholars, also stands. This
is in connection with Miss Sellon's Sisterhood at Devonport.
Another building, alongside the cathedral, is used for English
service in Hawaiian. There are two Congregational churches: the
old "Bethel," of which the Rev. S. C. Damon, known to all strangers,
and one of the oldest and most respected Honolulu residents, is the
minister; and the "Fort St. Church," which has a large and
influential congregation, and has been said to "run the government,"
because its members compose the majority of the Cabinet. Lunalilo,
the present king, has cast in his lot with the Congregationalists,
but Queen Emma is an earnest member of the Anglican Church, and
attends the Liturgical Hawaiian Service in order to throw the weight
of her influence with the natives into the scale of that communion.
Her husband spent many of his later days in translating the Prayer-
Book. As is natural, most of the natives belong to the denomination
from which they or their fathers received the Christian faith, and
the majority of the foreigners are of the same persuasion. The New
England Puritan influence, with its rigid Sabbatarianism, though
considerably worn away, is still influential enough to produce a
general appearance of Sabbath observance. The stores are closed,
the church-going is very demonstrative, and the pleasure-seeking is
very unobtrusive. The wharves are profoundly quiet.
I went twice to the English Cathedral, and was interested to see
there a lady in a nun's habit, with a number of brown girls, who was
pointed out to me as Sister Bertha, who has been working here
usefully for many years. The ritual is high. I am told that it is
above the desires and the comprehension of most of the island
episcopalians, but the zeal and disinterestedness of Bishop Willis
will, in time, I doubt not, win upon those who prize such qualities.
He called in the afternoon, and took me to his pretty, unpretending
residence up the Nuuanu Valley. He has a training and boarding
school there for native boys, some of whom were at church in the
morning as a surpliced choir. The bishop, his sister, the
schoolmaster, and fourteen boys take their meals together in a
refectory, the boys acting as servitors by turns. There is service
every morning at 6.30 in the private chapel attached to the house,
and also in the cathedral a little later. Early risers, so near the
equator, must get up by candlelight all the year round.
This morning we joined our kind friends from the Nevada for the last
time at breakfast. I have noticed that there is often a centrifugal
force which acts upon passengers who have been long at sea together,
dispersing them on reaching port. Indeed, the temporary enforced
cohesion is often succeeded by violent repulsion. But in this
instance we deeply regret the dissolution of our pleasant
fraternity; the less so, however, that this wonderful climate has
produced a favourable change in Mr. D., who no longer requires the
hourly attention they have hitherto shown him. The mornings here,
dew-bathed and rose-flushed, are, if possible, more lovely than the
nights, and people are astir early to enjoy them. The American
consul and Mr. Damon called while we were sitting at our eight-
o'clock breakfast, from which I gather that formalities are
dispensed with. After spending the morning in hunting among the
stores for things which were essential for the invalid, I lunched in
the Nevada with Captain Blethen and our friends.
Next to the advent of "national ships" (a euphemism for men-of-war),
the arrivals and departures of the New Zealand mail-steamers
constitute the great excitement of Honolulu, and the failures,
mishaps, and wonderful unpunctuality of this Webb line are highly
stimulating in a region where "nothing happens." The loungers were
saying that the Nevada's pumps were going for five days before we
arrived, and pointed out the clearness of the water which was
running from them at the wharf as an evidence that she was leaking
badly. {40} The crowd of natives was enormous, and the foreigners
were there in hundreds. She was loading with oranges and green
bananas up to the last moment,--those tasteless bananas which, out
of the tropics, misrepresent this most delicious and ambrosial
fruit.
There was a far greater excitement for the natives, for King
Lunalilo was about to pay a state visit to the American flag-ship
California, and every available place along the wharves and roads
was crowded with kanakas anxious to see him. I should tell you that
the late king, being without heirs, ought to have nominated his
successor; but it is said that a sorceress, under whose influence he
was, persuaded him that his death would follow upon this act. When
he died, two months ago, leaving the succession unprovided for, the
duty of electing a sovereign, according to the constitution,
devolved upon the people through their representatives, and they
exercised it with a combination of order and enthusiasm which
reflects great credit on their civilization. They chose the highest
chief on the islands, Lunalilo (Above All), known among foreigners
as "Prince Bill," and at this time letters of congratulation are
pouring in upon him from his brethren, the sovereigns of Europe.
The spectacular effect of a pageant here is greatly heightened by
the cloudless blue sky, and the wealth of light and colour. It was
very hot, almost too hot for sight-seeing, on the Nevada's bow.
Expectation among the lieges became tremendous and vociferous when
Admiral Pennock's sixteen-oared barge, with a handsome awning,
followed by two well-manned boats, swept across the strip of water
which lies between the ships and the shore. Outrigger canoes, with
garlanded men and women, were poised upon the motionless water or
darted gracefully round the ironclads, as gracefully to come to
rest. Then a stir and swaying of the crowd, and the American
Admiral was seen standing at the steps of an English barouche and
four, and an Hawaiian imitation of an English cheer rang out upon
the air. More cheering, more excitement, and I saw nothing else
till the Admiral's barge, containing the Admiral, and the king
dressed in a plain morning suit with a single decoration, swept past
the Nevada. The suite followed in the other boats,--brown men and
white, governors, ministers, and court dignitaries, in Windsor
uniforms, but with an added resplendency of plumes, epaulettes, and
gold lace. As soon as Lunalilo reached the California, the yards of
the three ships were manned, and amidst cheering which rent the air,
and the deafening thunder of a royal salute from sixty-three guns of
heavy calibre, the popular descendant of seventy generations of
sceptred savages stepped on board the flag-ship's deck. No higher
honours could have been paid to the Emperor "of all the Russias." I
have seen few sights more curious than that of the representative of
the American Republic standing bare-headed before a coloured man,
and the two mightiest empires on earth paying royal honours to a
Polynesian sovereign, whose little kingdom in the North Pacific is
known to many of us at home only as "the group of islands where
Captain Cook was killed." Ah! how lovely this Queen of Oceans is!
Blue, bright, balm-breathing, gentle in its supreme strength,
different both in motion and colour from the coarse "vexed
Atlantic!"
STEAMER KILAUEA, Jan. 29th.
I was turning homewards, enjoying the prospect of a quiet week in
Honolulu, when Mr. and Mrs. Damon seized upon me, and told me that a
lady friend of theirs, anxious for a companion, was going to the
volcano on Hawaii, that she was a most expert and intelligent
traveller, that the Kilauea would sail in two hours, that unless I
went now I should have no future opportunity during my limited stay
on the islands, that Mrs. Dexter was anxious for me to go, that they
would more than fill my place in my absence, that this was a golden
opportunity, that in short I MUST go, and they would drive me back
to the hotel to pack! The volcano is still a myth to me, and I
wanted to "read up" before going, and above all was grieved to leave
my friend, but she had already made some needful preparations, her
son with his feeble voice urged my going, the doctor said that there
was now no danger to be apprehended, and the Damons' kind urgency
left me so little choice, that by five I was with them on the wharf,
being introduced to my travelling companion, and to many of my
fellow-passengers. Such an unexpected move is very bewildering, and
it is too experimental, and too much of a leap in the dark to be
enjoyable at present.
The wharf was one dense, well-compacted mass of natives taking leave
of their friends with much effusiveness, and the steamer's
encumbered deck was crowded with them, till there was hardly room to
move; men, women, children, dogs, cats, mats, calabashes of poi,
cocoanuts, bananas, dried fish, and every dusky individual of the
throng was wreathed and garlanded with odorous and brilliant
flowers. All were talking and laughing, and an immense amount of
gesticulation seems to emphasize and supplement speech. We steamed
through the reef in the brief red twilight, over the golden tropic
sea, keeping on the leeward side of the islands. Before it was
quite dark the sleeping arrangements were made, and the deck and
skylights were covered with mats and mattresses on which 170 natives
sat, slept, or smoked,--a motley, parti-coloured mass of humanity,
in the midst of which I recognized Bishop Willis in the usual
episcopal dress, lying on a mattress among the others, a prey to
discomfort and weariness! What would his episcopal brethren at home
think of such a hardship?
There is a yellow-skinned, soft-voiced, fascinating Goa or Malay
steward on board, who with infinite goodwill attends to the comfort
of everybody. I was surprised when he asked me if I would like a
mattress on the skylight, or a berth below, and in unhesitating
ignorance replied severely, "Oh, below, of course, please," thinking
of a ladies' cabin, but when I went down to supper, my eyes were
enlightened.
The Kilauea is a screw boat of 400 tons, most unprepossessing in
appearance, slow, but sure, and capable of bearing an infinite
amount of battering. It is jokingly said that her keel has rasped
off the branch coral round all the islands. Though there are many
inter-island schooners, she is the only sure mode of reaching the
windward islands in less than a week; and though at present I am
disposed to think rather slightingly of her, and to class her with
the New Zealand coasting craft, yet the residents are very proud of
her, and speak lovingly of her, and regard her as a blessed
deliverance from the horrors of beating to windward. She has a
shabby, obsolete look about her, like a second-rate coasting
collier, or an old American tow-boat. She looks ill-found, too; I
saw two essential pieces of tackle give way as they were hoisting
the main sail. {44} She has a small saloon with a double tier of
berths, besides transoms, which give accommodation on the level of
the lower berth. There is a stern cabin, which is a prolongation of
the saloon, and not in any way separated from it. There is no
ladies' cabin; but sex, race, and colour are included in a
promiscuous arrangement.
Miss Karpe, my travelling companion, and two agreeable ladies, were
already in their berths very sick, but I did not get into mine
because a cockroach, looking as large as a mouse, occupied the
pillow, and a companion not much smaller was roaming over the quilt
without any definite purpose. I can't vouch for the accuracy of my
observation, but it seemed to me that these tremendous creatures
were dark red, with eyes like lobsters', and antennae two inches
long. They looked capable of carrying out the most dangerous and
inscrutable designs. I called the Malay steward; he smiled
mournfully, but spoke reassuringly, and pledged his word for their
innocuousness, but I never can believe that they are not the enemies
of man; and I lay down on the transom, not to sleep, however, for it
seemed essential to keep watch on the proceedings of these
formidable vermin.
The grotesqueness of the arrangements of the berths and their
occupants grew on me during the night, and the climax was put upon
it when a gentleman coming down in the early morning asked me if I
knew that I was using the Governor of Maui's head for a footstool,
this portly native "Excellency" being in profound slumber on the
forward part of the transom. This diagram represents one side of
the saloon and the "happy family" of English, Chinamen, Hawaiians,
and Americans:
Governor Lyman. Miss Karpe. Miss ---.
Afong. Vacant. Miss ---.
Governor Nahaolelua. Myself. An Hawaiian.
I noticed, too, that there were very few trunks and portmanteaus,
but that the after end of the saloon was heaped with Mexican saddles
and saddlebags, which I learned too late were the essential gear of
every traveller on Hawaii.
At five this morning we were at anchor in the roads of Lahaina, the
chief village on the mountainous island of Maui. This place is very
beautiful from the sea, for beyond the blue water and the foamy reef
the eye rests gratefully on a picturesque collection of low, one-
storied, thatched houses, many of frame, painted white; others of
grass, but all with deep, cool verandahs, half hidden among palms,
bananas, kukuis, breadfruit, and mangoes, dark groves against gentle
slopes behind, covered with sugar-cane of a bright pea-green. It is
but a narrow strip of land between the ocean and the red, flaring,
almost inaccessible, Maui hills, which here rise abruptly to a
height of 6,000 feet, pinnacled, chasmed, buttressed, and almost
verdureless, except in a few deep clefts, green and cool with ferns
and candlenut trees, and moist with falling water. Lahaina looked
intensely tropical in the roseflush of the early morning, a dream of
some bright southern isle, too surely to pass away. The sun blazed
down on shore, ship, and sea, glorifying all things through the
winter day. It was again ecstasy "to dream, and dream" under the
awning, fanned by the light sea-breeze, with the murmur of an
unknown musical tongue in one's ears, and the rich colouring and
graceful grouping of a tropical race around one. We called at
Maaleia, a neck of sandy, scorched, verdureless soil, and at
Ulupalakua, or rather at the furnace seven times heated, which is
the landing of the plantation of that name, on whose breezy slopes
cane refreshes the eye at a height of 2,000 feet above the sea. We
anchored at both places, and with what seemed to me a needless
amount of delay, discharged goods and natives, and natives, mats,
and calabashes were embarked. In addition to the essential mat and
calabash of poi, every native carried some pet, either dog or cat,
which was caressed, sung to, and talked to with extreme tenderness;
but there were hardly any children, and I noticed that where there
were any, the men took charge of them. There were very few fine,
manly dogs; the pets in greatest favour are obviously those odious
weak-eyed, pink-nosed Maltese terriers.
The aspect of the sea was so completely lazy, that it was a fresh
surprise as each indolent undulation touched the shore that it had
latent vigour left to throw itself upwards into clouds of spray. We
looked through limpid water into cool depths where strange bright
fish darted through the submarine chapparal, but the coolness was
imaginary, for the water was at 80. degrees {47} The air above the
great black lava flood, which in prehistoric times had flowed into
the sea, and had ever since declined the kindly draping offices of
nature, vibrated in waves of heat. Even the imperishable cocoanut
trees, whose tall, bare, curved trunks rose from the lava or the
burnt red earth, were gaunt, tattered, and thirsty-looking, weary of
crying for moisture to the pitiless skies. At last the ceaseless
ripple of talk ceased, crew and passengers slept on the hot deck,
and no sounds were heard but the drowsy flap of the awning, and the
drowsier creak of the rudder, as the Kilauea swayed sleepily on the
lazy undulations. The flag drooped and fainted with heat. The
white sun blazed like a magnesium light on blue water, black lava,
and fiery soil, roasting, blinding, scintillating, and flushed the
red rocks of Maui into glory. It was a constant marvel that troops
of mounted natives, male and female, could gallop on the scorching
shore without being melted or shrivelled. It is all glorious, this
fierce bright glow of the Tropic of Cancer, yet it was a relief to
look up the great rolling featureless slopes above Ulupalakua to a
forest belt of perennial green, watered, they say, by perpetual
showers, and a little later to see a mountain summit uplifted into a
region of endless winter, above a steady cloud-bank as white as
snow. This mountain, Haleakala, the House of the Sun, is the
largest extinct volcano in the world, its terminal crater being
nineteen miles in circumference at a height of more than 10,000
feet. It, and its spurs, slopes, and clusters of small craters form
East Maui. West Maui is composed mainly of the lofty picturesque
group of the Eeka mountains. A desert strip of land, not much above
high water mark, unites the twain, which form an island forty-eight
miles long and thirty broad, with an area of 620 square miles.
We left Maui in the afternoon, and spent the next six hours in
crossing the channel between it and Hawaii, but the short tropic day
did not allow us to see anything of the latter island but two snow-
capped domes uplifted above the clouds. I have been reading Jarves'
excellent book on the islands as industriously as possible, as well
as trying to get information from my fellow-passengers regarding the
region into which I have been so suddenly and unintentionally
projected. I really know nothing about Hawaii, or the size and
phenomena of the volcano to which we are bound, or the state of
society or of the native race, or of the relations existing between
it and the foreign population, or of the details of the
constitution. This ignorance is most oppressive, and I see that it
will not be easily enlightened, for among several intelligent
gentlemen who have been conversing with me, no two seem agreed on
any matter of fact.
From the hour of my landing I have observed the existence of two
parties of pro and anti missionary leanings, with views on all
island subjects in grotesque antagonism. So far, the former have
left the undoubted results of missionary effort here to speak for
themselves; and I am almost disposed, from the pertinacious
aggressiveness of the latter party, to think that it must be weak.
I have already been seized upon (a gentleman would write "button-
holed") by several persons, who, in their anxiety to be first in
imprinting their own views on the tabula rasa of a stranger's mind,
have exercised an unseemly overhaste in giving the conversation an
anti-missionary twist. They apparently desire to convey the
impression that the New England teachers, finding a people rejoicing
in the innocence and simplicity of Eden, taught them the knowledge
of evil, turned them into a nation of hypocrites, and with a strange
mingling of fanaticism and selfishness, afflicted them with many
woes calculated to accelerate their extinction, CLOTHING among
others. The animus appears strong and bitter. There are two
intelligent and highly educated ladies on board, daughters of
missionaries, and the candid and cautious tone in which they speak
on the same subject impresses me favourably. Mr. Damon introduced
me to a very handsome half white gentleman, a lawyer of ability, and
lately interpreter to the Legislature, Mr. Ragsdale, or, as he is
usually called, "Bill Ragsdale," a leading spirit among the natives.
His conversation was eloquent and poetic, though rather stilted, and
he has a good deal of French mannerism; but if he is a specimen of
native patriotic feeling, I think that the extinction of Hawaiian
nationality must be far off. I was amused with the attention that
he paid to his dress under very adverse circumstances. He has
appeared in three different suits, with light kid gloves to match,
all equally elegant, in two days. A Chinese gentleman, who is at
the same time a wealthy merchant at Honolulu, and a successful
planter on Hawaii, interests me, from the quiet keen intelligence of
his face, and the courtesy and dignity of his manner. I hear that
he possesses the respect of the whole community for his honour and
integrity. It is quite unlike an ordinary miscellaneous herd of
passengers. The tone is so cheerful, courteous, and friendly, and
people speak without introductions, and help to make the time pass
pleasantly to each other.