1894.]

MY RETURN TO HONOLULU.

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protracted and violent grinding of coffee and beating cheerful reassurance as to breakfast, but a

of eggs

dreadful interruption to one's slumbers.

me.

On Monday a piece of great good fortune befell My friend Mrs. W came in her carriage and carried me off, and I quitted with joyful alacrity the cave-like room in the basement and the chamber over the kitchen. It seemed blissful to be removed from the noise and smells and bustle of the hotel to the great, airy, peaceful chamber which was given me in my friend's beautiful house, with the mountains and valleys on one hand, and the sweep of the sea stretching away for leagues beyond my windows on the other.

I could now walk short distances with comparative ease, and this greatly simplified my work, and, in spite of everything, added greatly to my renewed pleasure. My special mission was to investigate the sources of information from which Mr. Blount had made up his report to President Cleveland, which was soon accomplished. Much of my writing was done in the throne-room of the Palace, where I had been given a desk by the Vice-President, and which was used as a Council Chamber by the Advisory Council. It was an instance of the meeting of extremes to sit writing reports for a Chicago daily newspaper confronting the empty throne of the deposed Queen.

The weeks slipped away pleasantly, the President

and Council drafting the new Constitution and deliberating over it, which was to be submitted to the Convention that was to assemble the last day of May. There were the customary entertainments— dinners and "at homes," and receptions on board the U. S. S. Adams, which had been sent out when the Mohican, Alliance, and the Boston were ordered to other stations.

CHAPTER XIX.

HA

IN HILO.

AWAII, from which the entire group derive their name, is the largest and southernmost of the Hawaiian Islands. Like the others, it is a barren lava plain on the leeward side, while to the windward there are vast plantations of sugar-cane covered by myriads of unfailing streams. These not only furnish power for electric motors, but supply the mills which, though driven by steam, require a great water supply, and also feed the conduits which cross the fields, sometimes for miles, in which the cane, after it is cut and stripped, is sent down to the mills.

The approach to Hawaii on the windward side is. of unsurpassed loveliness. The shores are a mass of verdure, with the still greener plantations in the distance; and down the lava crags of the coast, through clefts and over precipices, pour a thousand leaping watercourses-sometimes a tiny rivulet that scarcely stirs the ferns that overshadow it, sometimes a rippling and dancing brook, and again a rushing torrent churned into foam white as the surf into which it falls and melts. Far away, if the sky is

215

clear, may be seen the peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, rising out of the dark forests interspersed with patches of the grey-green kukui which girdle their lower slopes-cones of purest crystal, covered with unmelting snow.

On my first visit I had been unable to accept kind invitations that were sent me to visit Hawaii from friends living in Hilo; but having now partially recovered, I considered myself extremely fortunate that the opportunity a most unlikely thing to have happened should have been thrown in my way a second time. There had come a lull in affairs in Honolulu, and I was assured that there would be no new revolution, no attempt to restore the Queen, and no invasion by the Japanese during my absence; so that I felt I might venture to go away for a fortnight's holiday. I left Honolulu the first week in February on the Kinau. She was a tiny craft to brave the rough seas.

It is two hundred and seventy-five miles from Honolulu to Hilo, and it is here that the tourist takes the stage for the Volcano of Kileauea, which is still thirty miles distant. The channels between the islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Hawaii are said to be the roughest waters on the globe; and whether his experience be limited or extensive, the tourist will at once admit that it is true. If he has travelled much, his experience will bear out the truth of the assertion; and if he has not, his natural intel

1894.]

MAHUKONA.

217

ligence will still lead him to the same conclusion. To me the voyage is a blurred memory of remaining on deck, the solitary watcher there, until the stars came out, of retiring to my cabin, and emerging no more until the afternoon of Wednesday — one day of dreadful qualms and two nights of spasmodic clutching at any support that presented itself to keep me from being tossed from the berth. Among the passengers who had come on board at Honolulu was an American physician and his ward, who had taken cabins on the upper deck. It was found, upon inspection, that they were separated only by a curtain over the connecting doorway. When this was discovered, the physician asked me to exchange cabins with him, which I willingly did. After this was agreed upon, the steward came into my room to make up the berth, and placed in it a wide mattress, which he squeezed down until it formed the half of a cylinder. I looked at this arrangement with great disfavour, but had reason afterwards to thank myself that such support had been supplied me.

We stopped the next morning to take on board a load of sugar at Mahukona, which was brought out to the steamer in flat boats attached to a cable connecting the vessel and the shore. This place is the terminus of the railroad which runs up to the plantations beyond the arid ridge facing the sea. Near the beach was a cluster of bungalows embowered in algaroba trees—that blessing which brightens the