William Ijywthian Green. — Hitchcock. 3 
hood. Though full of imagination, his mind seemed forcibly 
bent by the very love of theorizing towards those mechanical 
and practical studies by means of which he was aware he 
would eventually have to fortify his views. In his youth spec- 
ulative geology, volcanic agencies and cosmogonies were the 
rage. As a mere boy these things had occupied his thoughts. 
The accident of his birth and his family interests threw him 
into mercantile pursuits, with which he never had any real 
sympathy: still he endeavored to follow them loyally. He 
entered a commercial firm in Liverpool which still bore his 
deceased father's name. In its employ he sailed to Buenos 
Ayres. He rode the conventional ride over the Pampas to 
Mendoza and crossed the Andes into Chile by the usual route, 
the Aspallata pass. From Valparaiso he took ship to Lima, 
where he remained some time in the exercise of his duties in 
a merchant's ofifice. 
It was on his return to Liverpool, about 1843, that, already 
wearied with the drudgery of business, he conceived the no- 
tion of building a screw steamer and trying his luck as a 
mercantile free lance or Spanish Adelantado on the coast of 
South America, between Rio Grande do Sul and the Rio de 
la Plata. His little craft, the "Flecha," was the first screw 
steamer that had reached those regions. 
The adventure — like most others somewhat premature in 
idea — was unsuccessful; yet soon after this failure any posi- 
tion he might have desired to hold in a large mercantile house, 
with branches in four diflferent parts of South America, was 
placed at his disposal. He preferred to throw in his lot with 
the miscellaneous crowd that in 1848 made a rush to Cali- 
fornia. Some of his companions, including a relative of his 
own, were fortunate and in due time amassed wealth. Green 
himself was soon reduced to extremities, and chose to work 
his passage before the mast in a small trading vessel from 
San Francisco to Honolulu. The tradition is that his super- 
ioiity was quickly recognized on board and that he gave ma- 
terial assistance in navigating the ship. 
Those who remember W. L. Green will have no hesita- 
tion in deciding that the gold of California was a trifling mat- 
ter in his mind and that the real attractions which had origin- 
ally lured him westward were the volcanoes of Hawaii. He 
