TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIAS. 
33 
of vowels with great volubility. Poi (the name of their 
national dish), wyhini (woman), and iri (chief), were the 
only words I then understood ; and these occurred very 
often in their animated dialogues. Poor fellows ! they had 
been five years absent from their poi ; five years separated 
from the brown beauties of their native isles ; five years 
away from their venerated sovereign. No wonder, there¬ 
fore, they were charmed with the dim outline of their native 
land ! A mass of vapor hung along its heights and con¬ 
cealed them from view, save here and there a volcanic spire 
which stood out on the sky, overlooking cloud, mountain, 
and sea. As the light increased to full day, this cloudy mass 
was fringed on the edge nearest us with delicate golden 
hues ; but underneath it and inward toward the cliffs, the 
undisturbed darkness reached far eastward, a line of night 
belting the mountains mid-heaven. Downward from this 
line to the sea, sloped red mountains of old lava, on which 
no vegetable life appeared. On a few little plains near the 
beach the cocoa-tree sent up its bare shaft; and as the 
clouds broke away we discerned clumps of rich foliage on 
the heights. But generally the aspect was that of a dreary 
broken desert. 
We sailed past the western cape of Moratai, and laid our 
course for the southeastern part of Oahu. At two o’clock 
our good old ship lay becalmed under the lofty piles of ex¬ 
tinct craters, six miles northeast of Honolulu. At four the 
breeze freshened, and bore us down abreast of the town. 
Soon after a boat came rapidly from the shore with a pilot 
on board by the name of Reynolds; a generous, jolly old 
American gentleman, of long residence in the islands. He 
greeted his countrymen with great kindness, and having 
brought the ship to anchor outside the reef, invited us to 
go ashore in his boat. It was manned with islanders. They 
rowed to the entrance of the channel, rested on their 
oars while the angry swells lifted us at one instant on the 
summit of the waters and at another dropped us into the 
