296 NARRATIVE OP A JOURNEY 



top, and mizen-top. Occasionally, also, a white cottage is seen to 

 peep out from some little convenient nook among the loftiest hill 

 behind 



About half a mile eastward of this on the low land, is the 

 Almendral, (almond grove,) so called from a great number of 

 these trees, which formerly grew there. The houses here are 

 the same in appearance as the I'est, and the city extends in this 

 direction for perhaps a mile. Immediately after we dropped our 

 anchor, the captain of the port came on board for the purpose 

 of examining the ship's papers. Then followed the custom- 

 house officers, who also made the requisite investigations, and in 

 about an hour we were allowed to go on shore. We landed ac- 

 cordingly on a large mole in front of the custom house, and Mr. 

 Skinner and myself called upon Mr. Chauncey, of the house of 

 Alsop & Co., to whom we had letters from Oahu, and by 

 whom we were politely received. After sitting about an hour, 

 we strolled out to look at the town. Every thing here is quite 

 new to me ; the style of building, the manner in which the streets 

 are laid out, the customs, and even the language of the inhabi- 

 tants. It is now more than three years since I saw a town 

 which had any pretensions to civilization, and though so far in- 

 ferior in every respect to our cities at home, yet from my first 

 landing, I have enjoyed the opportunity of seeing an approximation 

 to polite society, generally diffused. I do not mean that I have 

 seen no polite society since I left home ; far from it, but the little 

 which I have seen has been so surrounded by baser material, 

 that here, where civilization predominates, I am more deeply 

 impressed with the contrast. 



August 12th. — Here a considerable hiatus occurs in my jour- 

 nal, occasioned by a severe fit of illness which confined me for 

 several weeks to my bed, and from which I did not wholly re- 



