LETTER III.] 



A STATE PAGEANT. 



29 



ing of the crowd, and the American Admiral was seen standing 

 at the steps of an English barouche and four, and an Hawaiian 

 imitation of an English cheer rang out upon the air. More 

 cheering, more excitement, and I saw nothing else till the 

 Admiral's barge, containing the Admiral, and the King dressed 

 in a plain morning suit with a single decoration, swept past 

 the Nevada. The suite followed in the other boats, — brown 

 men and white, governors, ministers, and court dignitaries, in 

 Windsor uniforms, but with an added resplendency of plumes, 

 epaulettes, and gold lace. As soon as Lunalilo reached the 

 California, the yards of the three ships were manned, and 

 amidst cheering which rent the air, and the deafening thunder 

 of a royal salute from sixty-three guns of heavy calibre, the 

 popular descendant of seventy generations of sceptred savages 

 stepped on board the flag-ship's deck. No higher honours 

 could have been paid to the Emperor " of all the Russias." I 

 have seen few sights more curious than that of the representa- 

 tive of the American Republic standing bare-headed before a 

 coloured man, and the two mightiest empires on earth paying 

 royal honours to a Polynesian sovereign, whose little kingdom 

 in the North Pacific is known to many of us at home only as 

 " the group of islands where Captain Cook was killed." Ah ! 

 how lovely this Queen of Oceans is ! Blue, bright, balm- 

 breathing, gentle in its strength, different both in motion and 

 colour from the coarse " vexed Atlantic ! " 



Steamer Kilauea, January 29th. 



I was turning homewards, enjoying the prospect of a quiet 

 week in Honolulu, when Mr. and Mrs. Damon seized upon me, 

 and told me that a lady friend of theirs, anxious for a com- 

 panion, was going to the volcano on Hawaii, that she was a 

 most expert and intelligent traveller, that the Kilauea would 

 sail in two hours, that unless I went now I should have no 

 future opportunity during my limited stay on the islands, that 

 Mrs. Dexter was anxious for me to go, that they would more 

 than fill my place in my absence, that this was a golden oppor- 

 tunity, that in short I must go, and they would drive me back 

 to the hotel to pack ! The volcano is still a myth to me, and I 

 wanted to " read up " before going, and above all was grieved 

 to leave my friend, but she had already made some needful 

 preparations, her son with his feeble voice urged my going, the 

 doctor said that there was now no danger to be apprehended, 



