letter in.] A POLYNESIAN WELCOME. 



37 



waters, hill and valley are all there, and from the region of an 

 endless summer the eye takes in the domain of an endless 

 winter, where almost perpetual snow crowns the summits of 

 Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Mauna Kea from Hilo has a 

 shapely aspect, for its top is broken into peaks, said to be the 

 craters of extinct volcanoes, but my eyes seek the dome-like 

 curve of Mauna Loa with far deeper interest, for it is as yet 

 an unfinished mountain. It has a huge crater on its summit 

 800 feet in depth, and a pit of unresting fire on its side ; it 

 throbs, rumbles, and palpitates ; it has sent forth floods of fire 

 over all this part of Hawaii, and at any moment it may be 

 crowned with a lonely light, showing that its tremendous forces 

 are again in activity. 



Canoes came off from the shore, dusky swimmers glided 

 through the waters, youths, athletes, like the bronzes of the 

 Naples Museum, rode the waves on their surf-boards, brilliantly 

 dressed riders galloped along the sands, and came trooping 

 down the bridle-paths from all the vicinity till a many-coloured, 

 tropical crowd had assembled at the landing. Then a whale- 

 boat came off, rowed by eight young men in white linen suits 

 and white straw hats, with wreaths of carmine-coloured flowers 

 round both hats and throats. They were singing a glee in 

 honour of Mr. Ragsdale, whom they sprang on deck to welcome. 

 Our crowd of native fellow-passengers, by some inscrutable 

 process, had re-arrayed themselves and blossomed into brilliancy. 

 Hordes of Hilo natives swarmed on deck, and it became a 

 Babel of a/o/ias, kisses, hand-shakings, and reiterated welcomes. 

 The glee singers threw their beautiful garlands of roses and 

 ohias over the foreign passengers, and music, flowers, good-will 

 and kindliness made us welcome to these enchanted shores. 

 We landed in a whaleboat, and were hoisted up a rude pier 

 which was crowded, for what the arrival of the Australian mail- 

 steamer is to Honolulu, the coming of the Kilauea is to Hilo. 

 I had not time to feel myself a stranger, there were so many 

 introductions, and so much friendliness. Mr. Coan and Mr. 

 Lyman, two of the most venerable of the two surviving mis- 

 sionaries, were on the landing, and I was introduced to them 

 and many others. There is no hotel in Hilo. The residents 

 receive strangers, and Miss Karpe and I were soon installed 

 in a large, buff frame-house, with two deep verandahs, the resi- 

 dence of Mr. Severance, Sheriff of Hawaii. 



Unlike many other places, Hilo is more fascinating on closer 

 acquaintance, so fascinating that it is hard to write about it in 



