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NEW ENGLATsT) FAEMER. 



July 



For ihe Netc England Farmer. 



LETTER FKOM THE SANDWICH 

 ISLANDS. 



Makawao Maui, Hawaiian Islands, ) 

 December 27, ISOO. \ 



Messrs. Editoks : — Gentlemen, — I have not 

 been able to make you out a communication, I 

 find, since Februai-y. Let me hasten to sj^cak v/ith 

 you ere the year closes. In my closing para- 

 graphs, I promised you something touclung Pele, 

 the once famed goddess of Hawaii, and of her 

 recent doings. Glad am I to say that I have 

 quite recently returned from a tour round that 

 island, in making which I revisited the crater 

 of Kilanea, and looked upon the lava flow as it 

 mingled its burning waters with the Avaters of the 

 Pacific. I think that I can say something of what 

 I saw on old Hawaii which will interest our 

 friends, the farmers, and others who read your 

 periodicals. 



Hawaii is the largest island of the group from 

 which it receives its name, Hawaii, or Hawaii nei, 

 being the true appellation ; this island being 88 

 miles long and OS broad. Near the end of Octo- 

 ber of the present year, 1 landed from a small 

 schooner at Kohala, the north-west district of the 

 island. Some seven miles in a horse cart took us 

 to the station occupied by Rev. Elias Bond, Avho 

 has occupied the station some sixteen years. Ho 

 has been an active and successful laborer, and has 

 seen great improvements since ho commenced his 

 labors. He has an excellent, Avell-finished meet- 

 ing-house, and some seven school-houses, beauti- 

 ful, though small, structures of wood or stone. 

 These houses will accommodate meetings for con- 

 ference and prayer during the week. The coun- 

 try is a grazing one, also adapted to the cultiva- 

 tion of corn and vegetables. I\Ir. Bond has done 

 a great deal for the heathen population around 

 him ; many of them now have lands, and are pros- 

 perous farmers ; all might do Avell but for their 

 native indolence. I hope you may hear again 

 from this district. From Kohala we rode to Wai- 

 raca. Our road lay over the Kohala mountains, 

 6000 feet high, and as we ascended and ap- 

 pro.'.ched the summit, we came into the region of 

 Iri.sh potatoes, large quantities of which are raised 

 here for the Kawaihae niarket, fifteen miles dis- 

 tan^. Whale shij)s, after taking wood and water 

 at Kilo, touch at Kawaihae on their way to La- 

 haina and Honolulu, and purchase their potatoes. 

 Small vessels also take them to Lahaina and Hon- 

 olulu. I remarked, too, that cattle looked finely 

 in this mountainous region ; the feed seemed 

 scanty, but has the reputation of being very sweet 

 and nutritious, more so than the grass at Kohala, 

 ■which is plenty, but coarse and unsavory. The 

 prospect on reaching the highest land 6000 feet 

 above the sea, and on descending to Waimea, 

 2000 feet below, was grand. To our left, Mauna 

 Kea, the highest mountain on the island, being 

 nearly 14,000 feet high, towered majestically, 

 showing signs of winter patches of snow remain- 

 ing near the top. To the right, Hualalai, 9000 

 feet, reflected the rays of the setting sun, while in 

 the centre, but at a greater distance, ^launa Loa, 

 like a vast dome, stretched upward to nearly the 

 height of Mauna Kea, and nearly spanned the 

 island in regular slopes. But alas ! with all its 

 grandeur, the sight was a deeply melancholy one. 

 ^Before us lay an area of country, say 50 miles by 



30, embracing the three huge mountains men- 

 tioned above. Between these there was stretched 

 a vast plain dotted with conical hills of various 

 sizes and heights, craters covered with red and 

 black sand and scoria. Through all this plain we 

 saw a single river, and such a stream ! Gentle- 

 men, may you never sec the like in New England. 

 It was a river of liquid fire, of molten lava, issu- 

 ing from the sloping side of Mauna Loa. This 

 was apparent by the columns of smoke ascend- 

 ing from the ignited mouths of several craters, 

 and we could easily trace the stream for many 

 miles by the smoke and gases along its course, 

 and by the fresh and shining lava which it had 

 thrown up in its progress. The whole plain 

 seemed a bed of lava — now, acres of slabs of pa- 

 hoehoe, like a pavement of immense dimensions, 

 and anon, fields of lava thrown into shapes almost 

 innumerable, from large boulders to pebble 

 stones, and from flat and smooth ones to the 

 sharp-like hatchel teeth and needles. Not a riv- 

 er, brook or fountain of water met our eye on all 

 this plain. Nothing but desolation spread over 

 these immense fields. How unlike the view I once 

 had in crossing the Green Mountains from the 

 east to the west side. As I looked down on vrest- 

 ern Vermont in the town of Chittenden, I think, 

 and saw the forests, the rivers, the cultivated 

 plains, the grazing herds, and habitations of men, 

 I was most pleasantly aflected with the goodness 

 of God to my country. You may Avell be thank- 

 ful, friends in New England, that you are spared 

 the seeing rivers of fire — thankful that rivers and 

 brooks of sweet water irrigate your plains and 

 make fertile your fields, and that your mountains, 

 even, are covered with forests and other vegeta- 

 tion. True, there are forests at the base and along 

 the sides of the Hawaiian mountains, but the up- 

 per parts of them are nothing but lava, ashes and 

 scoria, and Mauna Loa, as you have now seen, is 

 sending out her burning matter in constant 

 streams. More I will ttU you of this fearful phe- 

 nomenon, ere I am through. 



On descending to the plains of Waimea I was 

 happy to find some mitigation of the desolate ap- 

 pearance of things as seen from the mountain 

 above. We found a small river or brook near 

 the station of Rev. L. Lyons. It issued from the 

 Kohala side of the island, and irrigated a small 

 portion of land about Waimea. Considerable im- 

 provement had been made here since, in 1829, 

 thirty years ago, I visited the place as one of a 

 Committee seeking in liehalf of the Mission a 

 health station. Then all was primitive — purely 

 Hawaiian. Now, there is a pleasant meeting- 

 house, two or three stores, and quite a number of 

 dwelling-houses ; cattle, sheep and horses were 

 plenty ; but I saw but little in -^he shape of agri- 

 culture, and I am sorry to say that the plains of 

 Waimea were covered with a wild and noxious 

 weed which threatens to destroy the hope ot the 

 husbandman. Yours, v/ith much esteem, 



J. S. Green. 



P. S. I must tell you more of Waimea lest ycu 

 think it, like Sodom of old, blighted by the wrath 

 of a holy God. I have given you Waimea only 

 as seen from the high lands which divide it from 

 Kohala. This portion of the district is certainly, 

 as a M-hole, sufficiently desolate and forbidding, 

 though the climate is cool, ond the prospect is 



