118 MAUN A LOA. 



passed, at eight miles distance, the chasm that divides the Hilo from 

 the Puna district. As the darkness set in, we began to experience the 

 difficulties we had anticipated from our late start : the bustle and noise 

 became every moment more audible along the whole line as the night 

 advanced: what added not a little to our discomfort, was the bad road 

 we now had to encounter, rendered worse as each native passed on in 

 the tracks of those preceding him, until at last it became in places 

 quite miry. 



We continued on, however, until we found most of the natives had 

 come to a stand, and were lying about among the grass by the road- 

 side near a few grass-houses. One of these was hired for our accom- 

 modation and to protect us from the heavy dew, to which the natives 

 seemed accustomed : here we proposed to stay until the moon arose, 

 and in the interim to get what little rest we could. 



After it became sufficiently light we again set out with a part of our 

 host. The cloud of the volcano of Kilauea lay before us like a pillar 

 of fire, to guide us on our Way. We reached Olaa, the habitation of 

 Pea, about half-past four. 



Here we found Messrs. Waldron and Drayton, who had preceded 

 us, taking their breakfast on a large round of baeuf d. la mode and 

 coffee, in which we all cheerfully joined. We concluded to stop here 

 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 large 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, 



