M A U N A L O A. 127 



until eight o'clock, to allow time for the natives to cook their food and 

 serve out the rations of poe. 



It will scarcely be possible to form a full idea of our company : that 

 of my Lord Byron is described as a sort of triumphal procession ; 

 ours was very different from this, and was more allied to a May-day 

 morning in New York, or a vast caravan. It consisted, as my friend 

 Dr. Judd informed me, of two hundred bearers of burdens, forty 

 hogs, a bullock and bullock-hunter, fifty bearers of poe (native food), 

 twenty-five with calabashes, of different sizes and shapes, from two 

 feet to six inches in diameter. Some of the bearers had larg-e and 

 small panels of the portable house on their backs ; others, frying-pans or 

 kettles ; and others tents or knapsacks. Then there were lame horses, 

 which, instead of carrying their riders, were led by them ; besides a 

 large number of hangers-on, in the shape of mothers, wives, and 

 children, equalling in number the bearers, all grumbling and com- 

 plaining of their loads; so that wherever and whenever we stopped, 

 confusion and noise ensued. I felt happy in not understanding the 

 language, and of course was deaf to their complaints. It was very 

 evident that the loads were unequally divided ; and I must do the 

 natives the justice to say, they had reason to complain, not of us, but 

 of each other. It was impossible for the thing to be remedied at 

 once, although it was not a little provoking to see several natives 

 staggering under their loads, while one or two would be skipping 

 along with a few pounds' weight only. At first, many of them pre- 

 ferred the hog-driving business ; but I understood that they afterwards 

 found out that it was no sinecure to drive a hog either of large or 

 small size, and still less so to have charge of the bullock, who was 

 half wild. The terror and fright he produced among the natives, 

 proved a source of much amusement to us ; and some droll scenes 

 took place as the natives rushed in all directions to get beyond the 

 reach of his horns, throwing down their loads without regard to the 

 consequences. This was, however, prevented afterwards, by sending 

 on the bullock, with his attaches or drivers, in front. 



I found Olaa to be one thousand one hundred and thirty-eight feet 

 above the level of the sea, and the temperature there was 72°. 



While we were getting a slight nap. Dr. Judd was engaged in 

 superintending the distribution of food to the multitude, during 

 which time much confusion and noise existed. The natives put me 

 in mind of wild beasts in this respect; they seldom make any noise, 

 unless their appetite and ease are in some way concerned. 



