22S 



HA WAIi. 



[letter XXIV. 



no worse traces of it than lobster-coloured faces, badly 

 blistered. 



After accepting sundry hospitalities I rode over here, skirt- 

 ing the mountain at a height of 2000 feet, a most tedious ride, 

 only enlivened by the blaze of nasturtiums in some of the 

 shallow gulches. It is very pretty here, and I wish all invalids 

 could revel in the sweet, changeless air. The name signifies 

 " ripe bread-fruit of the gods." The plantation is 2000 feet 

 above the sea, and is one of the finest on the islands ; and 

 owing to the slow maturity of the cane at so great a height, the 

 yield is from five to six tons an acre. Water is very scarce ; 

 all that is used in the boiling-house and elsewhere has been 1 

 carefully led into concrete tanks for storage, and even the walks i 

 in the proprietor's beautiful garden are laid with cement for the : 

 same purpose. He has planted many thousand Australian 1 

 eucalyptus trees on the hill-side in the hope of procuring a 1 

 larger rainfall, so that the neighbourhood has quite an exotic ; 

 appearance. Below, the coast is black and volcanic-looking, , 

 jutting into the sea in naked lava promontories, which nature 

 has done nothing to drape. 



Maui is very " foreign " and civilised, and although it has a 

 native population of over 12,000, the natives are much crowded I 

 on plantations, and one encounters little of native life. There 

 is a large society composed of planters' and merchants' families, 

 and the residents are profuse in their hospitality. It is not 

 infrequently taken undue advantage of, and I have heard of \ 

 planters compelled to feign excuses for leaving their houses, j 

 in order to get rid of unintroduced and obnoxious visitors, 

 who have quartered themselves on them for weeks at a time. 

 It is wonderful that their patient hospitality is not worn out, 

 even though, as they say, they sometimes " entertain angels 

 unawares." 



I. L. B. 



