SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
119 
when three, not ill-looking steeds, were brought to us, there 
arrived with them two girths and one green leather saddle ; 
but sailors are proverbially fertile in resources, and we con¬ 
trived to ride, at least, round the capital of the Sandwich 
Isles, though we were not able to attempt the hills. Ho- 
noruru is a considerable town, in general very irregular, each 
house having a small enclosure secured by stakes or wicker¬ 
work around it; there are, however, two or three tolerably 
regular streets, and what may be called the public place, 
where Karaimoku’s house is situated, and near it the Chris¬ 
tian church. The houses vary in size from the small hut 
of the kanaka, which barely holds him and his few domestic 
utensils, to the roomy dwelling of the chief, which is often 
fifty and sometimes eighty feet in length, and of proportion- 
able width and height. They are all, however, constructed of 
the same materials, i. e. poles or timbers fastened together 
with cord made of the twisted fibres of various plants, and 
covered with either the leaves of the ti (dracaena) or a long 
kind of grass, and lined with various leaves, often elegantly 
plaited. In the chief's houses there is usually a raised plat¬ 
form at one end, covered with beautiful mats of various pat¬ 
terns, and usually woven of the split leaves of the pandanus. 
On this platform the chief himself reposes, and his relations 
and dependents occupy, indiscriminately, the lower part of the 
