HAWAIIAN HOTEL, HONOLULU. March 20th.
Oahu, with its grey pinnacles, its deep valleys, its cool chasms,
its ruddy headlands, and volcanic cones, all clothed in green by the
recent rains, looked unspeakably lovely as we landed by sunrise in a
rose-flushed atmosphere, and Honolulu, shady, dew-bathed, and
brilliant with flowers, deserved its name, "The Paradise of the
Pacific." The hotel is pleasant, and Mrs. D.'s presence makes it
sweet and homelike; but in a very few days I have lost much of the
health I gained on Hawaii, and the "Rolling Moses" and the Rocky
Mountains can hardly come too soon. For Honolulu is truly a
metropolis, gay, hospitable, and restless, and this hotel
centralizes the restlessness. Visiting begins at breakfast time,
when it ends I know not, and receiving and making visits, court
festivities, entertainments given by the commissioners of the great
powers, riding parties, picnics, verandah parties, "sociables," and
luncheon and evening parties on board the ships of war, succeed each
other with frightful rapidity. This is all on the surface, but
beneath and better than this is a kindness which leaves no stranger
to a sense of loneliness, no want uncared for, and no sorrow
unalleviated. This, more than its beauty and its glorious climate,
makes Honolulu "Paradise" for the many who arrive here sick and
friendless. I notice that the people are very intimate with each
other, and generally address each other by their Christian names.
Very many are the descendants of the clerical and secular members of
the mission, and these, besides being naturally intimate, are
further drawn and held together by a society called "The Cousins'
Society," the objects of which are admirable. The people take an
intense interest in each other, and love each other unusually.
Possibly they may hate each other as cordially when occasion offers.
It is a charming town, and the society is delightful. I wish I were
well enough to enjoy it.
For people in the early stages of consumption this climate is
perfect, owing to its equability, as also for bronchial affections.
Unlike the health resorts of the Mediterranean, Algeria, Madeira,
and Florida, where great summer heats or an unhealthy season compel
half-cured invalids to depart in the spring, to return the next
winter with fresh colds to begin the half-cure process again, people
can live here until they are completely cured, as the climate is
never unhealthy, and never too hot. Though the regular trades,
which blow for nine months of the year, have not yet set in, and the
mercury stands at 80 degrees, there is no sultriness: a tremulous
sea-breeze and a mountain breeze fan the town, and the purple
nights, when the stars hang out like lamps, and the moon gives a
light which is almost golden, are cool and delicious. Roughly
computed, the annual mean temperature is 75 degrees 55', with a
divergence in either direction of only 7 degrees 55'. As a general
rule the temperature is cooler by four degrees for every thousand
feet of altitude, so that people can choose their climate to suit
themselves without leaving the islands.
I am gradually learning a little of the topography of this island
and of Honolulu, but the last is very intricate. The appearance of
Oahu from the sea is deceptive. It looks hardly larger than Arran,
but it is really forty-six miles long by twenty-five broad, and is
530 square miles in extent. Diamond Hill, or Leahi, is the most
prominent object south of the town, beyond the palm groves of
Waikiki. It is red and arid, except when, as now, it is verdure-
tinged by recent rains. Its height is 760 feet, and its crater
nearly as deep, but its cone is rapidly diminishing. Some years
ago, when the enormous quantity of thirty-six inches of rain fell in
one week, the degradation of both exterior and interior was
something incredible, and the same process is being carried on
slowly or rapidly at all times. The Punchbowl, immediately behind
Honolulu, is a crater of the same kind, but of yet more brilliant
colouring: so red is it indeed, that one might suppose that its
fires had but just died out. In 1786 an observer noted it as being
composed of high peaks; but atmospheric influences have reduced it
to the appearance of a single wasting tufa cone, similar to those
which stud the northern slopes of Mauna Kea. There are a number of
shore craters on the island, and six groups of tufa cones, but from
the disintegration of the lava, and the great depth of the soil in
many places, it is supposed that volcanic action ceased earlier than
on Maui or Hawaii. The shores are mostly fringed with coral reefs,
often half a mile in width, composed of cemented coral fragments,
shells, sand, and a growing species of zoophyte. The ancient reefs
are elevated thirty, forty, and even 100 feet in some places,
forming barriers which have changed lagoons into solid ground.
Honolulu was a bay or lagoon, protected from the sea by a coral reef
a mile wide; but the elevation of this reef twenty-five feet has
furnished a site for the capital, by converting the bay into a low
but beautifully situated plain.
The mountainous range behind is a rocky wall with outlying ridges,
valleys of great size cutting the mountain to its core on either
side, until the culminating peaks of Waiolani and Konahuanui, 4000
feet above the sea, seem as if rent in twain to form the Nuuanu
Valley. The windward side of this range is fertile, and is dotted
over with rice and sugar plantations, but the leeward side has not a
trace of the redundancy of the tropics, and this very barrenness
gives a unique charm to the exotic beauty of Honolulu.
To me it is daily a fresh pleasure to stroll along the shady streets
and revel among palms and bananas, to see clusters of the granadilla
and night-blowing cereus mixed with the double blue pea, tumbling
over walls and fences, while the vermilion flowers of the Erythrina
umbrosa, like spikes of red coral, and the flaring magenta
Bougainvillea (which is not a flower at all, but an audacious freak
of terminal leaves) light up the shade, and the purple-leaved
Dracaena which we grow in pots for dinner-table ornament, is as
common as a weed.
Besides this hotel, and the handsome but exaggerated and
inappropriate Government buildings not yet finished, there are few
"imposing edifices" here. The tasteful but temporary English
Cathedral, the Kaiwaiaho Church, diminished once to suit a dwindled
population, but already too large again; the prison, a clean, roomy
building, empty in the daytime, because the convicts are sent out to
labour on roads and public works; the Queen's Hospital for Curables,
for which Queen Emma and her husband became mendicants in Honolulu;
the Court House, a staring, unshaded building; and the Iolani
Palace, almost exhaust the category. Of this last, little can be
said, except that it is appropriate and proportioned to a kingdom of
56,000 souls, which is more than can be said of the income of the
king, the salaries of the ministers, and some other things. It
stands in pleasure-grounds of about an acre in extent, with a fine
avenue running through them, and is approached by a flight of steps
which leads to a tolerably spacious hall, decorated in the European
style. Portraits of Louis Philippe and his queen, presented by
themselves, and of the late Admiral Thomas, adorn the walls. The
Hawaiians have a profound respect for this officer's memory, as it
was through him that the sovereignty of the islands was promptly
restored to the native rulers, after the infamous affair of its
cession to England, as represented by Lord George Paulet. There are
also some ornamental vases and miniature copies of some of
Thorwaldsen's works. The throne-room takes up the left wing of the
palace. This unfortunately resembles a rather dreary drawing-room
in London or New York, and has no distinctive features except a
decorated chair, which is the Hawaiian throne. There is an Hawaiian
crown also, neither grand nor costly, but this I have not seen. At
present the palace is only used for state receptions and
entertainments, for the king is living at his private residence of
Haemoeipio, not far off.
Miss W. kindly introduced me to Queen Emma, or Kaleleonalani, the
widowed queen of Kamehameha IV., whom you will remember as having
visited England a few years ago, when she received great attention.
She has one-fourth of English blood in her veins, but her complexion
is fully as dark as if she were of unmixed Hawaiian descent, and her
features, though refined by education and circumstances, are also
Hawaiian; but she is a very pretty, as well as a very graceful
woman. She was brought up by Dr. Rooke, an English physician here,
and though educated at the American school for the children of
chiefs, is very English in her leanings and sympathies, an attached
member of the English Church, and an ardent supporter of the
"Honolulu Mission." Socially she is very popular, and her exceeding
kindness and benevolence, with her strongly national feeling as an
Hawaiian, make her much beloved by the natives.
The winter palace, as her town house is called, is a large shady
abode, like an old-fashioned New England house externally, but with
two deep verandahs, and the entrance is on the upper one. The lower
floor seemed given up to attendants and offices, and a native woman
was ironing clothes under a tree. Upstairs, the house is like a
tasteful English country house, with a pleasant English look, as if
its furniture and ornaments had been gradually accumulating during a
series of years, and possessed individual histories and
reminiscences, rather than as if they had been ordered together as
"plenishings" from stores. Indeed, it is the most English-looking
house I have seen since I left home, except Bishopscourt at
Melbourne. If there were a bell I did not see it; and we did not
ring, for the queen received us at the door of the drawing-room,
which was open. I had seen her before in European dress, driving a
pair of showy black horses in a stylish English phaeton; but on this
occasion she was not receiving visitors formally, and was indulging
in wearing the native holuku, and her black wavy hair was left to
its own devices. She is rather below the middle height, very young-
looking for her age, which is thirty-seven, and very graceful in her
movements. Her manner is indeed very fascinating from a combination
of unconscious dignity with ladylike simplicity. Her expression is
sweet and gentle, with the same look of sadness about her eyes that
the king has, but she has a brightness and archness of expression
which give a great charm to her appearance. She has sorrowed much:
first, for the death, at the age of four, of her only child, the
Prince of Hawaii, who when dying was baptized into the English
Church by the name of Albert Edward, Queen Victoria and the Prince
of Wales being his sponsors; and secondly, for the premature death
of her husband, to whom she was much attached. She speaks English
beautifully, only hesitating now and then for the most correct form
of expression. She spoke a good deal and with great pleasure of
England; and described Venice and the emotions it excited in her so
admirably, that I should like to have heard her describe all Europe.
A few days afterwards I went to a garden party at her house. It was
a very pretty sight, and the "everybody" of Honolulu was there to
the number of 250. I must describe it for the benefit of ----, who
persists in thinking that coloured royalty must necessarily be
grotesque. People arrived shortly before sunset, and were received
by Queen Emma, who sat on the lawn, with her attendants about her,
very simply dressed in black silk. The king, at whose entrance the
band played the national anthem, stood on another lawn, where
presentations were made by the chamberlain; and those who were
already acquainted with him had an opportunity for a few minutes'
conversation. He was dressed in a very well-made black morning
suit, and wore the ribbon and star of the Austrian order of Francis
Joseph. His simplicity was atoned for by the superlative splendour
of his suite; the governor of Oahu, and the high chief Kalakaua, who
was a rival candidate for the throne, being conspicuously
resplendent. The basis of the costume appeared to be the Windsor
uniform, but it was smothered with epaulettes, cordons, and lace;
and each dignitary has a uniform peculiar to his office, so that the
display of gold lace was prodigious. The chiefs are so raised above
the common people in height, size, and general nobility of aspect,
that many have supposed them to be of a different race; and the alii
who represented the dwindled order that night were certainly superb
enough in appearance to justify the supposition. Beside their
splendour and stateliness, the forty officers of the English and
American war-ships, though all in full-dress uniform, looked
decidedly insignificant; and I doubt not that the natives who were
assembled outside the garden railings in crowds were not behind me
in making invidious comparisons.
Chairs and benches were placed under the beautiful trees, and people
grouped themselves on these, and promenaded, flirted, talked
politics and gossip, or listened to the royal band, which played at
intervals, and played well. The dress of the ladies, whether white
or coloured, was both pretty and appropriate. Most of the younger
women were in white, and wore natural flowers in their hair; and
many of the elder ladies wore black or coloured silks, with lace and
trains. There were several beautiful leis of the gardenia, which
filled all the garden with their delicious odour. Tea and ices were
handed round on Sevres china by footmen and pages in appropriate
liveries. What a wonderful leap from calabashes and poi, malos and
paus, to this correct and tasteful civilization! As soon as the
brief amber twilight of the tropics was over, the garden was
suddenly illuminated by myriads of Chinese lanterns, and the effect
was bewitching. The upper suite of rooms was thrown open for those
who preferred dancing under cover; but I think that the greater part
of the assemblage chose the shady walks and purple night. Supper
was served at eleven, and the party broke up soon afterwards; but I
must confess that, charming as it was, I left before eight, for
society makes heavier demands on any strength than the rough open-
air life of Hawaii.
The dwindling of the race is a most pathetic subject. Here is a
sovereign chosen amidst an outburst of popular enthusiasm, with a
cabinet, a legislature, and a costly and elaborate governing
machinery, sufficient in Yankee phrase to "run" an empire of several
millions, and here are only 49,000 native Hawaiians; and if the
decrease be not arrested, in a quarter of a century there will not
be an Hawaiian to govern. The chiefs, or alii, are a nearly extinct
order; and, with a few exceptions, those who remain are childless.
In riding through Hawaii I came everywhere upon traces of a once
numerous population, where the hill slopes are now only a wilderness
of guava scrub, and upon churches and school-houses all too large,
while in some hamlets the voices of young children were altogether
wanting. This nation, with its elaborate governmental machinery,
its churches and institutions, has to me the mournful aspect of a
shrivelled and wizened old man dressed in clothing much too big, the
garments of his once athletic and vigorous youth. Nor can I divest
myself of the idea that the laughing, flower-clad hordes of riders
who make the town gay with their presence, are but like butterflies
fluttering out their short lives in the sunshine,
". . . a wreck and residue,
Whose only business is to perish."
The statistics on this subject are perfectly appalling. If we
reduce Captain Cook's estimate of the native population by one-
fourth, it was 300,000 in 1779. In 1872 it was only 49,000. The
first official census was in 1832, when the native population was
130,000. This makes the decrease 80,000 in forty years, or at the
rate of 2000 a year, and fixes the period for the final extinction
of the race in 1897, if that rate were to continue. It is a pity,
for many reasons, that it is dying out. It has shown a singular
aptitude for politics and civilization, and it would have been
interesting to watch the development of a strictly Polynesian
monarchy starting under passably fair conditions. Whites have
conveyed to these shores slow but infallible destruction on the one
hand, and on the other the knowledge of the life that is to come;
and the rival influences of blessing and cursing have now been fifty
years at work, producing results with which most reading people are
familiar.
I have not heard the subject spoken of, but I should think that the
decrease in the population must cause the burden of taxation to
press heavily on that which remains. Kings, cabinet ministers, an
army, a police, a national debt, a supreme court, and common
schools, are costly luxuries or necessaries. The civil list is
ludicrously out of proportion to the resources of the islands, and
the heads of the four departments--Foreign Relations, Interior,
Finance, and Law(Attorney-General)--receive $5,000 a year each!
Expenses and salaries have been increasing for the last thirty
years. For schools alone every man between twenty-one and sixty
pays a tax of two dollars annually, and there is an additional
general tax for the same purpose. I suppose that there is not a
better educated country in the world. Education is compulsory; and
besides the primary schools, there are a number of academies, all
under Government supervision, and there are 324 teachers, or one for
every twenty-seven children. There is a Board of Education, and
Kamakau, its president, reported to the last biennial session of the
legislature that out of 8931 children between the ages of six and
fifteen, 8287 were actually attending school! Among other direct
taxes, every quadruped that can be called a horse, above two years
old, pays a dollar a year, and every dog a dollar and a half. Does
not all this sound painfully civilized? If the influence of the
tropics has betrayed me into rhapsody and ecstacy in earlier
letters, these dry details will turn the scale in favour of prosaic
sobriety!
I have said little about Honolulu, except of its tropical beauty.
It does not look as if it had "seen better days." Its wharves are
well cared for, and its streets and roads are very clean. The
retail stores are generally to be found in two long streets which
run inland, and in a splay street which crosses both. The upper
storekeepers, with a few exceptions, are Americans, but one street
is nearly given up to Chinamen's stores, and one of the wealthiest
and most honourable merchants in the town is a Chinaman. There is
an ice factory, and icecream is included in the daily bill of fare
here, and iced water is supplied without limit, but lately the
machinery has only worked in spasms, and the absence of ice is
regarded as a local calamity, though the water supplied from the
waterworks is both cool and pure. There are two good photographers
and two booksellers. I don't think that plateglass fronts are yet
to be seen. Many of the storekeepers employ native "assistants;"
but the natives show little aptitude for mercantile affairs, or
indeed for the "splendid science" of money-making generally, and in
this respect contrast with the Chinamen, who, having come here as
Coolies, have contrived to secure a large share of the small traffic
of the islands. Most things are expensive, but they are good. I
have seen little of such decided rubbish as is to be found in the
cheap stores of London and Edinburgh, except in tawdry artificial
flowers. Good black silks are to be bought, and are as essential to
the equipment of a lady as at home. Saddles are to be had at most
of the stores, from the elaborate Mexican and Californian saddle,
worth from 30 to 50 dollars, to a worthless imitation of the English
saddle, dear at five. Boots and shoes, perhaps because in this
climate they are a mere luxury, are frightfully dear, and so are
books, writing paper, and stationery generally; a sheet of Bristol
board, which we buy at home for 6d., being half a dollar here. But
it is quite a pleasure to make purchases in the stores. There is so
much cordiality and courtesy that, as at this hotel, the bill
recedes into the background, and the purchaser feels the indebted
party.
The money is extremely puzzling. These islands, like California,
have repudiated greenbacks, and the only paper currency is a small
number of treasury notes for large amounts. The coin in circulation
is gold and silver, but gold is scarce, which is an incovenience to
people who have to carry a large amount of money about with them.
The coinage is nominally that of the United States, but the dollars
are Mexican, or French 5 franc pieces, and people speak of "rials,"
which have no existence here, and of "bits," a Californian slang
term for 12.5 cents, a coin which to my knowledge does not exist
anywhere. A dime, or 10 cents, is the lowest coin I have seen, and
copper is not in circulation. An envelope, a penny bottle of ink, a
pencil, a spool of thread, cost 10 cents each; postage-stamps cost 2
cents each for inter-island postage, but one must buy five of them,
and dimes slip away quickly and imperceptibly. There is a loss on
English money, as half-a-crown only passes for a half-dollar,
sixpence for a dime, and so forth; indeed, the average loss seems to
be about twopence in the shilling.
There are four newspapers: the Honolulu Gazette, the Pacific
Commercial Advertiser, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa (the "Independent Press"),
and a lately started spasmodic sheet, partly in English and partly
in Hawaiian, the Nuhou (News). {270} The two first are moral and
respectable, but indulge in the American sins of personalities and
mutual vituperation. The Nuhou is scurrilous and diverting, and
appears "run" with a special object, which I have not as yet
succeeded in unravelling from its pungent but not always
intelligible pages. I think perhaps the writing in each paper has
something of the American tendency to hysteria and convulsions,
though these maladies are mild as compared with the "real thing" in
the Alta California, which is largely taken here. Besides these
there are monthly sheets called The Friend, the oldest paper in the
Pacific, edited by good "Father Damon," and the Church Messenger,
edited by Bishop Willis, partly devotional and partly devoted to the
Honolulu Mission. All our popular American and English literature
is read here, and I have hardly seen a table without "Scribner's" or
"Harper's Monthly" or "Good Words."
I have lived far too much in America to feel myself a stranger
where, as here, American influence and customs are dominant; but the
English who are in Honolulu just now, in transitu from New Zealand,
complain bitterly of its "Yankeeism," and are very far from being at
home, and I doubt not that Mr. M---, whom you will see, will not
confirm my favourable description. It is quite true that the
islands are Americanized, and with the exception of the Finance
Minister, who is a Scotchman, Americans "run" the Government and
fill the Chief Justiceship and other high offices of State. It is,
however, perfectly fair, for Americans have civilized and
Christianized Hawaii-nei, and we have done little except make an
unjust and afterwards disavowed seizure of the islands.
On looking over this letter I find it an olla podrida of tropical
glories, royal festivities, finance matters, and odds and ends in
general. I dare say you will find it dull after my letters from
Hawaii, but there are others who will prefer its prosaic details to
Kilauea and Waimanu; and I confess that, amidst the general
lusciousness of tropical life, I myself enjoy the dryness and
tartness of statistics, and hard uncoloured facts.
I.L.B.