The Recorded History of the Eruptions. 



We may well begin the record of the unusual activities of the Hawaiian 

 volcanoes which are called eruptions, with Kilauea, for of this volcano we have the 

 earliest authentic account. No word of the then shape of the crater; to the Hawaiians, 

 who are our chroniclers, the cup was naught beside its terrible contents, — and these 



are reported clearl}- and at considerable length. There is no rea.son to doubt 

 1789 the substantial accuracy- of the report of the eruption of 17S9, although such 



a paroxysmal eruption has not since been repeated, for the physical proofs 

 are abundant around the crater in the deposits of liniu and sand. In 1S64 it was 

 thought that these were mainly on the south and west of the crater in desolate regions 

 exposed to the prevailing winds which would carry the vapors and gases constantly, 

 and the ejecta of any explosive eruption, provided the regular winds prevailed, which 

 they probably did not during the explosive eruption of 1789. It is true that vast 

 deposits of black and fine sand still are found to the leeward of the crater, much more 

 than enough to fill the present vast crater, and a still larger portion must have been 

 carried down the mountain side by the rains (often torrential ) of more than a centur}'. 

 Around the greater part of the circumference of the crater bushes and trees had covered 

 the ground, but in recent years the building of a carriage road from Hilo has laid bare 

 deposits of this eruption extending far on the northeast side of Kilauea, and the pres- 

 ent work on a road around Kilauea iki has given sections of great interest, showing 

 the easily recognized sand and the even more conspicuous limu, fresh and bright in 

 coloring as on the days of its eje6lion. A pile of fragments of compact rock of light 

 grey color, then the limu often in green fragments larger than a man's fist ; then the 

 grey sand in slightly indicated layers, heaped over the pile of rocks as a nucleus 

 extending to the surface where the vegetation has concealed the formation (Fig. 32). 

 The bones of the perished warriors I have myself seen in the place where they 

 are said to have died, but the relics were limited to a few thigh bones. To fully appre- 

 ciate the feelings of the Hawaiians at this time we must note the other historical 

 events bearing on the catastrophe we are about to recount. Kamehameha, the young 

 chief at the court of Kalaniopuu, king or moi of Hawaii, noticed b}^ Lieutenant George 

 Vancouver during Cook's visit as a rather savage looking youth, had become moi of 

 Kona, Kohala and Hamakua, and was striving to subdue the rest of the island of 

 Hawaii. In obedience to priestly counsels Kamehameha had built the last of the 



great stone temples of his ancestral worship, Puokohala, on the hill overlooking the 



(36) [414] 



