15° 



HAWAII. 



[letter xv 



a public opinion averse to flagrant immorality, and the out 

 rageous license of former years would now meet with legal 

 penalties. Many of the old settlers are dead, and others have 

 drifted to regions beyond restraining influences, but still " the 

 Waimea crowd " is not considered up to the mark. Most of 

 the present set of foreigners are Englishmen who have 

 married native women. It was in such quarters as this that 

 the great antagonistic influence to the complete Christianiza- 

 tion of the natives was created, and it is from such suspicious 

 sources that the aspersions on missionary work are usually 

 derived. 



, Waimea has its own beauty— the grand breezy plain, the 

 gigantic sweep of the mountain curves, the incessant changes 

 of colour, and the morning view of Mauna Kea, with the pure 

 snow on its ragged dome, rose-flushed in the early sunlight. 

 I don't agree with Disraeli that " happiness is atmosphere ; " 

 yet constant sunshine, and a climate which never threatens 

 one with discomfort or ills, certainly conduce to equable 

 cheerfulness. 



I am quite interested with a native lady here, the first I have 

 met with who has been able to express her ideas in English. 

 She is extremely shrewd and intelligent, very satirical, and a 

 great mimic. She very cleverly burlesques the way in which 

 white people express their admiration of scenery, and, in fact, 

 ridicules admiration of scenery for itself. She evidently thinks 

 us a sour, morose, worrying, forlorn race. " We," she said, 

 "are always happy; we never grieve long about anything; 

 when any one dies we break our hearts for some days, and 

 then we are happy again. We are happy all day long, not like 

 white people, happy one moment, gloomy another : we've no 

 cares, the days are too short. What are haoles always unhappy 

 about?" Perhaps she expresses the general feeling of her 

 careless, pleasure-loving, mirth-loving people, who, whatever 

 commands they disobey, fulfil the one, " Take no thought for 

 the morrow." The fabrication of the beautiful quilts I before 

 wrote of is a favourite occupation of native women, and they 

 make all their own and their husbands' clothes ; but making 

 lets, going into the woods to collect materials for them, talking^ 

 riding, bathing, visiting, and otherwise amusing themselves, 

 take up the greater part of their time. Perhaps if we white 

 women always wore holokus of one shape, we should have 

 fewer gloomy moments ! 



I. L. B. 



