200 



HA WAIL 



[letter xxi. 



an atmosphere of balm. It is not here so tropical looking as 

 in Hawaii, and though there are not the frightful volcanic 

 wildernesses which make a thirsty solitude in the centre of that 

 island, neither are there those bursts of tropical luxuriance 

 which make every gulch an epitome of Paradise : I really can- 

 not define the difference, for here, as there, palms glass them- 

 selves in still waters, bananas flourish, and the forests are green 

 with ferns. 



We took three days for our journey of twenty-three miles from 



Koloa, the we, consisting of Mrs. , the widow of an early 



missionary teacher, venerable in years and character, a native 

 boy of ten years old, her squire, a second Kaluna, without 



Kaluna's good qualities, and myself. Mrs. is not a bold 



horsewoman, and preferred to keep to a foot's pace, which 

 fretted my ambitious animal, whose innocent antics alarmed her 

 in turn. We only rode seven miles the first day, through a 

 park-like region, very like Western Wisconsin, and just "like 

 what I expected and failed to find in New Zealand. Grass- 

 land much tumbled about, the turf very fine and green, dotted 

 oyer with clumps and single trees, with picturesque, rocky 

 hills, deeply cleft by water-courses were on our right, and on 

 our left the green slopes blended with the flushed, stony soil 

 near the sea, on which indigo and various compositae are the 

 chief vegetation. It was hot, but among the hills on our right, 

 cool clouds were coming down in frequent showers, and the 

 white foam of cascades gleamed among the ohias, whose dark 

 foliage at a distance has almost the look of pine woods. 



Our first halting place was one of the prettiest places I ever 

 saw, a buff frame-house, with a deep verandah festooned with 

 passion flowers, two or three guest houses, also bright with 

 trailers, scattered about under the trees near it, a pretty 

 garden, a background of grey, rocky hills cool with woods 

 and ravines, and over all the vicinity, that air of exquisite 

 trimness which is artificially produced in England, but is 

 natural here. 



Kaluna the Second soon showed symptoms of being trouble- 

 some. The native servants were away, and he was dull, and 

 for that I pitied him. He asked leave to go back to Koloa for 

 a " sleeping tapa," which was refused, and either out of spite 

 or carelessness, instead of fastening the horses into the pasture, 

 he let them go, and the following morning when we were ready 

 for our journey they were lost. Then he borrowed a horse, 

 and late in the afternoon returned with the four animals, 



