66 HA WAIL [LETTER XVII< 



the sun, and found the unusual precaution of a white umbrella 

 perfectly needless. 



The beach is formed of pure white broken coral; the sea is 

 blue with the calm, pure blue of turquoise, but crystalline in its 

 purity, and breaks for ever over the environing coral reef with a 

 low deep music. Blue water stretched to the far horizon, the 

 sky was blazing blue, the leafage was almost dazzling to the 

 eye, the mountainous island of Molokai floated like a great 

 blue. morning glory on the yet bluer sea; a sweet, soft breeze 

 rustled through the palms, lazy ripples plashed lightly on the 

 sand ; humanity basked, flower-clad, in sunny indolence ; every- 

 thing was redundant, fervid, beautiful. How can I make you 

 realize the glorious, bountiful, sun-steeped tropics under our 

 cold grey skies, and amidst our pale, monotonous, lustreless 

 greens ? 



Yet Molokai is only enchanting in the distance, for its blue 

 petals enfold 400 lepers doomed to endless isolation, and 300 

 more are shortly to be weeded out and sent thither. In to- 

 day's paper appeared the painful notice, "All lepers are re- 

 quired to report themselves to the Government health officer 

 within fourteen days from this date for inspection, and final 

 banishment to Molokai." It is hoped that leprosy may be 

 " stamped out " by these stringent measures, but the leprous 

 taint must be strong in many families, and the social, gregarious 

 natives smoke each other's pipes and wear each other's clothes, 

 and either from fatalism or ignorance have disregarded all pre- 

 cautions regarding this woful disease ; and now that measures 

 are being taken for the isolation of lepers, they are concealing 

 them under mats and in caves and woods. This forlorn 

 malady, called here Chinese leprosy, in the cases that I have 

 seen, confers nothing of the white, scaly look attributed to 

 Syrian leprosy ; but the face is red, puffed, bloated, and shining, 

 and the eyes glazed, and I am told that in its advanced stage 

 the swollen limbs decay and drop off. It is a fresh item of 

 the infinite curse which has come upon this race, and with 

 Molokai in sight the Hesperides vanished, and I ceased to be- 

 lieve that the fortunate Islands exist here or elsewhere on this 

 weary earth. 



My destination was the industrial training and boarding 

 school for girls, taught and superintended by two English ladies 

 of Miss Sellon's sisterhood, Sisters Mary Clara and Phcebe ; 

 and I found it buried under the shade of the finest candlenut 

 trees I have yet seen. A rude wooden cross in front is a touch- 



