304 APPENDIX II 



and thread, &c. ; while to those who had acquitted themselves with 

 willingness and activity, I added a small present in addition. Most of 

 them preferred money, especially the lazy fellows. The whole of the 

 number employed in carrying my baggage and provisions, was five men, 

 which left eleven for the conveyance of their own Tapas and food. Nor 

 was this unreasonable, for the quantity of Poe which a native will consume 

 in a week, nearly equals his own weight ! a dreadful drawback on expedi- 

 tion. Still, though the sixteen persons ate two bullocks in a week, besides 

 what they carried, a threatened scarcity of food compelled me to return 

 rather sooner than I should have done, in order that the Calabashes 

 might be replenished. No people in the world can cram themselves to 

 such a degree as the Sandwich Islanders ; their food is, however, of a 

 very light kind, and easy of digestion. 



" On the 22nd of January, the air being pleasant, and the sun occa- 

 sionally visible, I had all my packages assorted by nine A.M., and engaged 

 my old guide, Honori, and nine men to accompany me to the volcano 

 and to Mouna Roa. As usual, there was a formidable display of luggage, 

 consisting of Tapas, Calabashes, Poe, Taro, &c., while each individual 

 provided himself with the solace of a staff of sugar-cane, which shortens 

 with the distance, for the pedestrian, when tired and thirsty, sits down 

 and bites off an inch or two from the end of his staff. A friend accom- 

 panied me as far as his house on the road, where there is a large church, 

 his kind intention being to give me some provision for the excursion, 

 but as he was a stout person, I soon outstripped him. On leaving the 

 bay, we passed through a fertile spot, consisting of Taro patches in ponds, 

 where the ground is purposely overflowed, and afterwards covered with 

 a deep layer of Fern-leaves to keep it damp. Here were fine groves of 

 Bread-fruit and ponds of Mullet and Ava-fish ; the scenery is beautiful, 

 being studded with dwellings and little plantations of vegetables and of 

 Morus papyri/era, 1 of which there are two kinds, one much whiter than 

 the other. The most striking feature in the vegetation consists in the 

 Tree-Fern, some smaller species of the same tribe, and a curious kind of 

 Compositae, like an Eupatorium. At about four miles and a half from 

 the bay, we entered the wood, through which there is a tolerably cleared 

 path, the muddy spots being rendered passable by the stems or trunks 

 of Tree-Ferns, laid close together crosswise. They seemed to be the 

 same species as I had observed on the ascent to Mouna Kuah. About 

 an hour's walk brought us through the wood, and we then crossed another 

 open plain of three miles and a half, at the upper end of which, in a most 

 beautiful situation, stands the church, and close to it the chief's house. 

 Some heavy showers had drenched us through ; still, as soon as our 

 friend arrived, and the needful arrangements were made, I started and 

 continued the ascent over a very gently rising ground, in a southerly 

 direction, passing through some delightful country, interspersed with low 

 timber. At night we halted at a house, of which the owner was a very 

 civil person, though remarkably talkative. Four old women were inmates 

 of the same dwelling, one of whom, eighty years of age, with hair white 

 1 Broussonetia papyrifera, Hillebrand, Fl. Hawaiian Isl. p. 407. 



