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In defiance of all commands, I halted on a projecting shelf when we had reached a dizzy height, and gazed down on the scene below. Pen can not describe the panorama spread out beneath me. I seemed on another planet, looking upon another world. The vast expanse of sea, the long rim of snow-white surf, the villages like specks of snow, and the great ranges of mountains in the distance could not be surpassed in splendor. After one glance I was content to toil on with the others, and after two hours of laborious climbing we reached the top.

On the precipice, up which there is but one available path, is a gate. This gate is the only place where one can leave the settlement by land. Lepers are permitted to go as far as the gate, but no farther. Those who had followed us thus far picked wild strawberries and guavas which they kindly offered to us, and shouted many alohas as we wended our way across the vast plateau toward Kalae. At twelve o'clock we reached the home of Mr. Myers, where an excellent meal was provided for us. A few horses were found here for the ladies and some of the men who had given out, but the remainder of us trudged on across twelve miles more of desert, and plain to Kaunakakai.

So overjoyed were we when we saw our ship riding at anchor in a peaceful bay that we gave forth shouts of gladness. Boats came to shore for us, and as we

were being rowed off to the ship we threw the kid gloves we had worn continually while among the lepers into the sea, as a precaution against taking the disease. When all were safe on board the Ke Au Hou, we steamed back to Honolulu. An hour out to sea, and we discovered the Mikahala, another steamer of the same line, which had been sent in search of us. All Honolulu was wild with anxiety at our prolonged absence, and on our return that night there was general rejoicing in the city.

CHAPTER X

VOYAGE TO MAUI

MAUI, which is second of the group of islands in size, was until recent years the second in commercial importance, and at one time the first. Its superficial area is six hundred square miles, and on the map it has a remarkable resemblance to the head and bust of a human being. It consists of two lofty mountains. connected by a low sandy isthmus, about ten miles in length, from Kahului, the port of the northern shore, to Malaea Bay, the port on the southern. The Claudine of the Wilder Steamship Company was to leave Honolulu at 5 P.M. December 3, 1895. I was down for a passage on her, and made my way to the little steamer. The Claudine is of 840 tons burthen, and one of the best of the Inter-Island vessels. It is the vessel which carried the commissioners, immediately after the overthrow of monarchy, to San Francisco on their way to Washington to ask for annexation.

Shortly after five we cast off from the shore, and steamed out of the bay past Diamond Head, which by this time had become a familiar object. Several no

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