i 4 



HAWAII. 



[letter it. 



We were just outside the reef, and near enough to hear that 

 deep sound of the surf which, through the ever serene summer 

 years girdles the Hawaiian Islands with perpetual thunder, 

 before the pilot glided alongside, bringing the news which 

 Mark Twain had prepared us to receive with interest, that 

 " Prince Bill " had been unanimously elected to the throne. 

 The surf ran white and pure over the environing coral reef, and 

 as we passed through the narrow channel, we almost saw the 

 coral forests deep down under the Nevada's keel ; the coral 

 fishers plied their graceful trade ; canoes with outriggers rode 

 the combers, and glided with inconceivable rapidity round om 

 ship; amphibious brown beings sported in the transparent 

 waves ; and within the reef lay a calm surface of water of a 

 wonderful blue, entered by a narrow, intricate passage of the 

 deepest indigo. And beyond the reef and beyond the blue, 

 nestling among cocoanut trees and bananas, umbrella trees 

 and breadfruits, oranges, mangoes, hibiscus, algaroba, and 

 passion-flowers, almost hidden in the deep, dense greenery, 

 was Honolulu. Bright blossom of a summer sea ! Fair Para- 

 dise of the Pacific ! 



Inside the reef the magnificent iron-clad California and 

 another large American Avar vessel, the Bejiicia, are moored in 

 line with the British corvette Scout, within 200 yards of the 

 shore ; and their boats were constantly passing and re-passing, 

 among countless canoes filled with natives. Two coasting 

 schooners were just leaving the harbour, and the inter-island 

 steamer Kilauea, with her deck crowded with natives, was just 

 coming in. By noon the great decrepit Nevada, which has no 

 wharf at which she can lie in New Zealand, was moored along- 

 side a very respectable one in this enterprising little Hawaiian 

 capital. 



We looked down from the towering deck on a crowd of two 

 or three thousand people — whites, Kanakas, Chinamen — and 

 hundreds of them at once made their way on board, and 

 streamed over the ship, talking, laughing, and remarking upon 

 us in a language which seemed without backbone. Such rich 

 brown men and women they were, with wavy, shining black 

 hair, large, brown, lustrous eyes, and rows of perfect teeth like 

 ivory. Everyone was smiling. The forms of the women seemed 

 to be inclined towards obesity, but their drapery, which con- 

 sists of a sleeved garment which falls in ample and unconfined 

 folds from their shoulders to their feet, partly conceals this 

 defect, which is here regarded as a beauty. Some of these 



