letter xxvii.] " BILL RAGSDALE. 



245 



Another and sadder " mickle" has been the departure of ten 

 lepers for Molokai. The Kilauea, with the Marshal, and Mr. 

 Wilder, who embodies the Board of Health, has just left the 

 bay, taking away forty lepers on this cruise ; and the relations 

 pf those who have been taken from Hilo are still howling on the 

 beach. When one hears the wailing, and sees the temporary 

 agony of the separated relatives, one longs for " the days of 

 the Son of Man," and that his healing touch, as of old in 

 Galilee, might cleanse these unfortunates. Nine of the lepers 

 were sent on board from the temporary pest-house, but their 

 case, though deeply commiserated, has been overshadowed by 

 that of the talented half-white, "Bill Ragsdale," whom I men- 

 tioned in one of my earlier letters, and who is certainly the 

 most " notorious " man in Hilo. He has a remarkable gift of 

 eloquence, both in English and Hawaiian : a combination of 

 pathos, invective, and sarcasm; and his manner, though the- 

 atrical, is considered perfect by his native admirers. His moral 

 character, however, has been very low, which makes the out- 

 burst of feeling at his fate the more remarkable. 



Yesterday, he wrote a letter to Sheriff Severance, giving 

 himself up as a leper to be dealt with by the law, expressing 

 himself as ready to be expatriated to-day, but requesting that 

 he might not be put into the leper-house, and that he might go 

 on board the steamer alone. The fact of his giving himself up 

 excited much sympathy, as, in his case, the signs of the malady 

 are hardly apparent, and he might have escaped suspicion for 

 some time. 



He was riding about all this morning, taking leave of people, 

 and of the pleasant Hilo lanes, which he will never see again, 

 and just as the steamer was weighing anchor, walked down to 

 the shore as carefully dressed as usual, decorated with lets of 

 ohia and gardenia, and escorted by nearly the whole native 

 population. On my first landing here, the glee-club, singing 

 and flower-clad, went out to meet him j — now tears and sobs 

 accompanied him, and his countrymen and women clung to 

 him, kissing him to the last moment, whilst all the foreigners 

 shook hands as they offered him their good wishes. He made 

 a short speech in native, urging quiet submission to the stringent 

 measures which government is taking in order to stamp out 

 leprosy, and then said a few words in English. His last words, 

 as he stepped into the boat, were to all : " Aloha, may God 

 bless you, my brothers," and then the whale boat took him the 

 first stage towards his living grave. He took a horse, a Bible, 



