46 THE SEA. 



good - looking-, and most intelligent gentleman. The Ex- Queen Emma, who visited 

 England some years ago, has a villa beautifully situated a few miles out of town. 

 The king devotes his energies to bettering the condition of his people, and some 

 few years ago, when the money was voted to build a new palace, declined to accept 

 it, at least for two years. The Hawaiian Parliament consists of a House of seventeen 

 nobles and twenty-eight commoners, who, strange to say, sit in the same hall, their 

 votes being o equal weight. There are always several Europeans or Americans in this 

 council. 



Mr. Guillemard thus describes Honolulu* : te The town, which is built on the low 

 land bordering the shore partly, indeed, on land reclaimed from the sea, thanks to 

 the industry of the architects of the coral reef looks mean and insignificant from the 

 harbour, but on going ashore to breakfast we get glimpses of fine public buildings and 

 numerous shops and stores, of neat houses nestling among bowers of shrubs and flowers, 

 and evidences of a busy trade and considerable population. The streets are narrow, and the 

 houses built of wood, without any attempt at decoration or even uniformity. In the by- 

 streets or lanes pretty verandah -girt villas peep out from shrubberies of tropical foliage,, 

 honeysuckle, roses, lilies, and a hundred flowers strange to English eyes. Tiny fountains 

 are sending sparkling jets of water up in the hot, still air; and other music is not 

 wanting, for here and there we hear the tinkle of a distant piano, telling us that 

 early rising is the rule in Honolulu, and suggesting as a consequence a siesta at. 

 mid-day. 



" But here we are at the grand Hawaiian Hotel, a fine verandahed building, standing 

 back from the road in a pretty garden, the green lawn, cool deep shade, and trickling 

 fountain of which are doubly grateful after the glare of the scorching sunlight, scorching 

 even though it is not yet seven a.m. The theatre, half-hidden by its wealth of 

 honeysuckle and fan-palm, is not fifty yards distant, but is quite thrown into insignificance 

 by the hotel. This was built by Government, at a cost of 25,000, and is admirably 

 planned and appointed."" Its large airy rooms and cool verandahs, shaded with masses 

 of passion flowers, its excellent food and iced American drinks, all combine to make it 

 a capital resting-place. 



In the streets Mr. Guillemard noted bevies of gaily-attired girls on horseback, their robes 

 being gathered in at the waist with bright scarves, which fling their folds far over the 

 horses' tails. Their jaunty straw hats were wreathed with flowers, and now and then some 

 dark-eyed beauty would be found wearing a necklace of blossoms. The girls rode astride 

 up and down the main streets, making them ring again with their merry laughter. 

 Mosquitoes were abundant, and, as some compensation, so also were delicious melons, 

 guavas, mangoes, bananas, and commoner fruit. 



The sugar-cane was first grown on these islands in 1820; now over 20,000,000- 

 pouuds of sugar are produced annually by the aid of Hawaiian and Chinese labour and 

 steam-mills. Not a quarter of the land suitable for this purpose is yet under cultivation, 

 though some of the plantations are of thousands of acres in extent. Hides and wool are- 

 staple exports. 



* Vide " Over Land and Sea." 



