THE MALAY RACE. 



97 



ing down from the heights above; but there is probably less real 

 danger here, than in many other situations. This district consists 

 exclusively of a bare surface of rock ; on which, in despite of a comr 

 monly received opinion, the natives have the art of raising crops. It 

 is true, a handful of soil is brought from a distance, to start the seeds ; 

 but the only addition subsequently made to the growing plants of the 

 sweet potato, consists of pebbles. The inhabitants, moreover, are 

 obliged to resort to a variety of devices to procure water for their own 

 use; since the porous lava absorbs the rain as fast as it falls. 



We stopped for the night at the chief's house, half way up the 

 slope. A monument had been erected "to the memory of the sister 

 of the chief's wife," with thick stone walls, and having the form of 

 an ordinary Hawaiian house. " Old times were back again in this 

 portion of the island ; together with gambling, and drinking of the 

 sourish liquor, which is procured from sweet potatoes." The chief 

 accompanied me for the two following days, and on parting, refused 

 any remuneration for his services. 



In the plain above, I inspected most of the pit-craters, which extend 

 in a line from Kilauea to where the surface begins gradually to de- 

 cline towards the northern coast. I also fell in with a party of about 

 twenty natives, on their way to the woods beyond Kilauea, to drag a 

 canoe down to the coast. 



On the 15th of February, I left Hilo in a Hawaiian schooner, during 

 a spell of fine weather at that place, an unusual and suspicious cir- 

 cumstance; accounted for, when we got clear of the island, by the 

 existence of a southwestern gale. We found a lee for four days 

 under the lofty mountain at the eastern end of Maui; and on the 

 fifth day, we landed on that island, at Lahaina, the present seat of 

 government. The king, it was said, had been influenced in the selec- 

 tion, by " a desire to avoid as far as possible, being appealed to by 

 the resident Whites, in disputes growing out of mercantile transac- 

 tions." Lahaina may be recommended as a favourable station for 

 the study of marine Zoology ; especially as the natives are accessi- 

 ble, and they, in common with the other islanders of the Pacific, 

 possess more practical knowledge than Europeans do, of marine ani- 

 mals and their habits. 



I ascended the before-mentioned mountain, which is called Mauna 

 Haleakala, and which, though regarded as of secondary importance, 

 attains the height of more than ten thousand feet. It is an extinct 

 volcano, having in place of a crater a wide open crevice, down which 



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