LETTER VI. 



" Too much chief eat up people " — Lomi-Lotni Volcanic Possibilities. 



Hilo, Hawaii, Feb. 3. 



My plans are quite overturned. I was to have ridden with 

 the native mail-carrier to the north of the island to take the 

 steamer for Honolulu, but there are freshets in the gulches on 

 the road, making the ride unsafe. There is no steamer from 

 Hilo for three weeks, and in the meantime Mr. and Mrs. S. 

 have kindly consented to receive me as a boarder; and I find 

 the people, scenery, and life so charming, that I only regret 

 my detention on Mrs. Dexter's account. I am already rested 

 from the great volcano trip. 



We left Kilauea at seven in the morning of the 1st Feb. in a 

 pouring rain. The natives decorated us with kis of turquoise 

 and coral berries, and of crimson and yellow ohia blossoms. 

 The saddles were wet, the crater was blotted out by mist, water 

 dripped from the trees, we splashed through pools in the rocks, 

 the horses plunged into mud up to their knees, and the drip, 

 drip, of vertical, earnest, tepid, tropical rain accompanied us 

 nearly to Hilo. Upa and Miss K. held umbrellas the whole 

 way, but I required both hands for holding on to the horse 

 whenever he chose to gallop. As soon as we left the crater- 

 house Upa started over the grass at full speed, my horse of 

 course followed, and my feet being jerked out of the stirrups, 

 I found myself ignominiously sitting on the animal's back 

 behind the saddle, and nearly slid over his tail, before, by 

 skilful efforts, I managed to scramble over the peak back again, 

 when I held on by horn and mane until the others stopped ! 

 Happily I was last, and I don't think they saw me. Upa 

 amused me very much on the way; he insists that I am "a 

 high chief." He said a good deal about Queen Victoria, whose 

 virtues seem well known here : " Good Queen make good 

 people," he said, " English very good ! " He asked me how 

 many chiefs we had, and supposing him to mean hereditary 

 peers, I replied, over 500. "Too many, too many!" he 



