2 7 S 



HAWAII. 



[LETTER XXX. 



by drink and the persuasions of Kaahumanu, broke tabu, and 

 made an end of the superstitions of heathenism. Not far off 

 is the battle field on which the adherents of the idols rallied 

 their forces against the iconoclasts, and were miserably and 

 finally defeated. Recent lava streams have descended on 

 each side of the bay, and from the bare, black rock of the 

 landing a flow may be traced up the steep ascent as far as 

 a precipice, over which it falls in waves and twists, a cata- 

 ract of stone. A late lava river passed through the magni- 

 ficent forest on the southerly slope, and the impressions of 

 the stems of coco and fan palms are stamped clearly on the 

 smooth rock. The rainfall in Kona is heavy, but there is 

 no standing water, and only one stream in a distance of 100 

 miles. 



( This district is famous for oranges, coffee, pineapples, and 

 silence. A flaming, palm-fringed shore with a prolific strip of 

 table land 1500 feet above it, a dense timber belt eight miles 

 in breadth, and a volcano smoking somewhere between that 

 and the heavens, and glaring through the trees at night, are 

 the salient points of Kona if anything about it be salient. It 

 is a region where falls not 



" . . . Hail or any snow, 

 Or ever wind blows loudly." 



Wind indeed, is a thing unknown. The scarcely audible 

 whisper of soft airs through the trees morning and evening, 

 rain drops falling gently, and the murmur of drowsy surges far 

 below, alone break the stillness. No ripple ever disturbs the 

 expanse of ocean which gleams through the still, thick trees. 

 Rose in the sweet cool morning, gold in the sweet cool even- 

 ing, but always dreaming ; and white sails come and go, no 

 larger than a butterfly's wing on the horizon, of ships drifting 

 on ocean currents, dreaming too ! Nothing surely can ever 

 happen here : it is so dumb and quiet, and people speak in 

 hushed, thin voices, and move as in a lethargy, dreaming too ! 

 No heat, cold, or wind, nothing emphasised or italicised, it is 

 truly a region of endless afternoons, " a land where all things 

 always seem the same." Life is dead, and existence is a 

 languid swoon. 



This is the only regular boarding house on Hawaii. The 

 company is accidental and promiscuous. The conversation 

 consists of speculations, varied and repeated with the hours, as 

 to the arrivals and departures of the Honolulu schooners 



