VISIT TO THE GREAT VOLCANO. 209 



Smith was right ; we had excellent accommodations, and our 

 sleep was sweet and refreshing. 



January 29th. The landscape was still glittering with the 

 dews of night when I resumed my journey. The morning is 

 the proper time to travel here, as the air is then cool and 

 delicious. After a short walk I reached a village, containing 

 between twenty and thirty houses. As I passed through, 

 many of the inhabitants came out of their dwellings to inquire 

 where I was going, and from whence I came. The Hawaiians 

 are naturally a very curious and inquisitive people. The 

 land in the vicinity of this village appeared fertile, and was 

 in a high state of cultivation. Among other productions, I 

 observed the coffee-tree and sugar-cane. The average height 

 of full-grown coffee trees is about nine feet ; they arrive at 

 their full growth in four or five years, and continue to bear 

 from ten to fifteen years. The coffee-blossom is a beautiful 

 and highly fragrant little white flower, and the berry, when 

 fully ripe, is of a pale red color. I came next to a field of 

 lava, which, like those I passed yesterday, had been torn and 

 shattered, either by the expansive force of the air underneath 

 at the time the lava was in a semi-fluid state, or by some vio- 

 lent convulsion of nature. The traveling over it was exces- 

 sively fatiguing, as the lava was both very rugged and brittle. 



Leaving this barren and solitary waste, I soon passed on 

 my left several conical hills, which were once craters, but now 

 are overgrown with bushes and other vegetation. 



At 3 o'clock I stopped at a shanty, erected by the side of 

 the road, to prepare dinner, and to allow the natives, who car- 

 ried the baggage and specimens, to come up. 

 Having refreshed ourselves, we pursued our way. The path 

 now lay through an open country, covered with light yellow soil 

 producing nothing but grasses, and a few whortleberry bushes. 



