LETTER XV.] 



THE EARLY SETTLERS. 



149 



natives as places of sepulture. The Kohaia hills, picturesque, 

 wooded, and abrupt, bound Waimea on the north, with ex- 

 quisite grassy slopes, and bring down an abundance of water 

 to the plain, but owing to the lightness of the soil and the 

 evaporation produced by the tremendous winds, the moisture 

 disappears within two miles of the hills, and an area of rich 

 soil, ten miles by twelve, which, if irrigated, would be invalu- 

 able, is nothing but a worthless dusty desert, perpetually en- 

 croaching on the grass. As soon as the plains slope towards 

 the east, the vegetation of the tropics reappears, and the face 

 of the country is densely covered with a swampy and impene- 

 trable bush hardly at all explored, which shades the sources of 

 the streams which fall into the Waipio and Waimanu Valleys, 

 and is supposed to contain water enough to irrigate the Saharas 

 of leeward Hawaii. 



The climate of the plain is most invigorating. If there were 

 waggon roads and obtainable comforts, Waimea, with its cool, 

 equable temperature, might become the great health resort of 

 invalids from the Pacific coast. But Hawaii is not a place for 

 the sick or old ; for, if people cannot ride on horseback, they 

 can have neither society nor change. Mr. Lyons, one of the 

 most famous of the early missionaries, still clings to this place, 

 where he has worked for forty years. He is an Hawaiian poet • 

 and, besides translating some of our best hymns, has composed 

 enough to make up the greater part of a bulky volume, which 

 is said to be of great merit. He says that the language lends 

 itself very readily to rhythmical expression. He was indefati- 

 gable in his youth, and was four times let down the pali by 

 ropes to preach in the Waimanu Valley. Neither he nor his 

 wife can mount a horse now r , and it is very dreary for them, 

 as the population has receded and dwindled from about them. 

 Their house is made lively, however, by some bright little na- 

 tive girls, who board with them, and receive an English and 

 industrial education. 



The moral atmosphere of Waimea has never been a whole- 

 some one. The region was very early settled by a class of 

 what may be truly termed "mean whites," the "beach- 

 combers " and riff-raff of the Pacific. They lived infamous 

 lives, and added their own to the indigenous vices of the 

 islands, turning the district into a perfect sink of iniquity, in 

 which they were known by such befitting aliases as " Jake the 

 Devil," &c. The coming of the missionaries, and the settle- 

 ment of moral, orderly whites on Hawaii, have slowly created 



