r6 



HA WAIL 



[letter m, 



Outside this motley, genial, picturesque crowd about 200 

 saddled horses were standing, each with the Mexican saddle, 

 with its lassoing horn in front, high peak behind, immense 

 wooden stirrups, with great leathern guards, silver or brass 

 bosses, and coloured saddle-cloths. The saddles were the only 

 element of the picturesque that these Hawaiian steeds possessed. 

 They were sorry, lean, undersized beasts, looking in general as if 

 the emergencies of life left them little time for eating or sleeping. 

 They stood calmly in the broiling sun, heavy-headed and heavy- 

 hearted, with flabby ears and pendulous lower lips, limp and 

 rawboned, a doleful type of the " creation which groaneth and 

 travaileth in misery." AH these belonged to the natives, who are 

 passionately fond of riding. Every now and then a flower- 

 wreathed Hawaiian woman, in her full, radiant garment, sprang 

 on one of these animals astride, and dashed along the road at 

 full gallop, sitting on her horse as square and easy as a hussar. 

 In the crowd and outside of it, and everywhere, there were 

 piles of fruit for sale — oranges and guavas, strawberries, 

 papayas, bananas (green and golden), cocoanuts, and other 

 rich, fantastic productions of a prolific climate, where nature 

 gives of her wealth the whole year round. Fishes, strange in 

 shape and colour, crimson, blue, orange, rose, gold, such fishes 

 as flash like living light through the coral groves of these en- 

 chanted seas, were there for sale, and coral divers were there 

 with their treasures — branch coral, as white as snow, each 

 perfect specimen weighing from eight to twenty pounds. But 

 no one pushed his wares for sale — we were at liberty to look 

 and admire, and pass on unmolested. No vexatious restric- 

 tions obstructed our landing. A sum of two dollars for the 

 support of the Queen's Hospital is levied on each passenger, 

 and the examination of ordinary luggage, if it exists, is a mere 

 form. From the demeanour of the crowd it was at once 

 apparent that the conditions of conquerors and conquered do 

 not exist. On the contrary, many of the foreigners there were 

 subjects of a Hawaiian king, a reversal of the ordinary relations 

 between a white and a coloured race which it is not easy yet 

 to appreciate. 



Two of my fellow-passengers, who were going on to San 

 Francisco, were anxious that I should accompany them to the 

 Pali, the great excursion from Honolulu; and leaving Mr. 



M to make all arrangements for the Dexters and myself, 



we hired a buggy, destitute of any peculiarity but a native 

 driver, who spoke nothing but Hawaiian, and left the ship. 



