1894.]

ON BOARD THE BOSTON.

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the upper part of the deck, where I looked on enjoying the picturesque scene intensely, and where I had no less than seven separate relays of cake and ice cream offered me by my attentive hosts. One of them, more courageous than the rest, if that were possible, insisted on carrying me down the gangway that I might see with my own eyes the glory of the supper-table. He assured me that his wife was an invalid, and that, when he was on leave, he was accustomed to carry her all about the house. I did not doubt it, but nevertheless would not consent to put his gallantry to such a test, though I managed the descent after another fashion.

The English and Japanese officers the latter talking French very fluently when they could not speak English were resplendent in showy uniforms, besides which those of the Americans looked modest in the extreme. Yet I preferred my own countrymen, who, if they were outshone in the matter of gold lace and brass buttons, were certainly not lacking in any of the essentials that are the characteristics, natural and acquired, of what the service terms "an officer and a gentleman."

A

CHAPTER XXII.

AN INTERLUDE.

FEW uneventful weeks slipped by upon my

return from Hilo, and while deliberations were still going on concerning the new Constitution an opportunity was given me to visit New Zealand and Australia, of which I gladly availed myself.

Up to within a few hours of sailing, however, my departure was uncertain. I had written to my newspaper asking leave of absence, but had received no reply. The Alameda was sighted at ten o'clock, and having been detained by rough weather was to remain in port but two hours. The letters I had expected by her were not received, so I took the matter into my own hands and decided to go without permission. I had but two hours in which to pack my trunks, and was intent upon this when Mr. W telephoned that the captain had decided to remain until evening. That gave me an opportunity to breathe again, and to finish my preparations with some sort of system and deliberation. the afternoon President Dole called personally, and brought me the passport which I was required to

264

In

1894.] A TRIP TO NEW ZEALAND.

265

have a courtesy and an honour which was thoroughly appreciated. At nine the W-s drove me down to the dock. There was the inevitable concert in the hotel grounds, the streets were flooded with moonlight, and the air was sweet with the fragrance of jasmine and orange flowers. There was a ball on board the U. S. cruiser Adams, which had succeeded the Mohican, the Boston, and the Alliance: The strains of the band came softly across the water, and the forms of the dancers could be seen floating along the brilliantly lighted deck. The steamer had been coaling, and when she was ready to cast off a solid line of natives extending from bow to stern pushed against her side, and so literally shoved her from the edge of the wharf.

Good-byes were exchanged again and again, the departing ones were smothered in leis, the last words were spoken, and we were off. The seas which we were to cross stretched out illimitable before us, a sheet of shimmering silver; the stars hung low overhead; and I sat upon the deck alone long after the other passengers had turned in, watching the lights of Honolulu fade in the distance, enjoying the rush of the waves and the enchantment of the tropical night. The Alameda, on which I had taken passage down, and the Mariposa, returning, both belonged to the Oceanic Steamship Line of San Francisco; they were clean and comfortable, the cabins large and airy, the service good, and the table excellent.

Both called at Apia in Samoa, and this was one of the most interesting parts of the journey, partly because of the loveliness of the shore, but most of all because I had the great good fortune to see Robert Louis Stevenson: this, however, was on the return voyage. Samoa from the sea is much more verdant than the Sandwich Islands. There is the same volcanic formation, and in profile the mountains are peaked and pinnacled, rounding here and there into domes and minarets, covered with banana, mango, bread-fruit, and the ti trees to their summits. When we woke in the early morning, the breeze blowing through the open port was like the moist, heavy, scented air of a greenhouse. I rose, dressed hurriedly, swallowed a cup of tea, and then went on deck to go ashore with Professor Koebele, who had also taken passage in the Alameda en route to Australia. He was familiar with Samoa as with all the other South Sea islands.

The deck was already taken possession of by the favoured few natives permitted to come on board and offer their wares to the passengers, wares that

consisted of tapa, beautiful mats, shells, baskets, and the airy native dancing-dress that consists of a scanty fringe of green and scarlet wood fibre of some sort, and fragile little rings of horn beautifully inlaid with silver, which broke with the slightest blow. We were anchored about a mile out, and all around the ship the sea was covered with boats

1894.]

SAMOA.

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the narrow, apparently clumsy craft of the Polynesians, which are kept afloat only by the huge outrigger with its heavy, curved timbers. The natives were magnificent creatures. We had grown somewhat familiar with them during the World's Fair in Chicago, where a company of them those we had seen en route in Honolulu

formed an interest

ing part of the great ethnological exhibition in the Midway Plaisance. They were big, burly fellows, laughing and chattering like magpies; they had not yet acquired the bad habit of wearing European clothes, although I was told that the remarkble draperies that were a substitute-prints of gorgeous colour and alarming designs were a Manchester product. It seems that the English cotton-spinning town has a monopoly in the manufacture of these prints, and drives a thriving trade, not only with the natives of Samoa, but of Tahiti, the Fijis, and other groups. Having long catered to the barbarous taste of 'Arriet, the English manufacturers find in these simple savages only wider fields where they can carry their abnormal ideas in design and colour to the last baleful extreme.

The outrigger boats were loaded with articles like those that had been brought on deck-tapa, mats, prints, mangoes, alligator pears, the most delicious. pineapples in the world, and big round oranges, sweet as honey, with a thin greenish rind. We selected our boat out of the dozens that offered