74 



HA WAIL 



[LETTER Vlll. 



the gulch just where we forded the river, and from the ford a 

 passable road made for hauling sugar ascends to the house. 

 The air is something absolutely delicious ■ and the murmur of 

 the rollers and the deep boom of the cascades are very soothing. 

 There is little rise or fall in the cadence of the surf anywhere 

 on the windward coast, but one even sound, loud or soft, like 

 that made by a train in a tunnel. 



We were kindly welcomed, and were at once "made at 

 home." Delicious phrase ! the full meaning of which I am 

 learning in Hawaii, where, though everything has the fascina- 

 tion of novelty, I have ceased to feel myself a stranger. 

 This is a roomy, rambling frame-house, with a verandah, and 

 the door, as is usual here, opens directly into the sitting-room. 

 The stair by which I go to my room suggests possibilities, for it 

 has been removed three inches from the wall by an earth- 

 quake, which also brought down the tall chimney of the boil- 

 ing-house. Close by there are small, pretty frame-houses for the 

 overseer, bookkeeper, sugar boiler, and machinist ; a store, the 

 factory, a pretty native church near the edge of the cliff, and 

 quite a large native village below. It looks green and bright, 

 and the atmosphere is perfect, with the cool air coming down 

 from the mountains, and a soft breeze coming up from the blue 

 dreamy ocean. Behind the house the uplands slope away to 

 the colossal Mauna Kea„ The actual, dense, impenetrable 

 forest does not begin for a mile and a half from the coast, and 

 its broad dark belt, extending to a height of 4000 feet, and 

 beautifully broken, throws out into greater brightness the up- 

 ward glades of grass and the fields of sugar-cane. 



This is a very busy season, and as this is a large plantation 

 there is an appearance of great animation. There are five or 

 six saddled horses usually tethered below the house; and with 

 overseers, white and coloured, natives riding at full gallop, 

 and people coming on all sorts of errands, the hum of the 

 crushing-mill, the rush of water in the flumes, and the grind of 

 the waggons carrying cane, there is no end of stir. 



The plantations in the Hilo district enjoy special advantages, 

 for by turning some of the innumerable mountain streams into 

 flumes the owners can bring a great part of their cane and all 

 their wood for fuel down to the mills without other expense 

 than the original cost of the woodwork. Mr. A. has 100 

 mules, but the greater part of their work is ploughing and 

 hauling the kegs of sugar down to the cove, where in favourable 

 weather they are put on board a schooner for Honolulu. This 



