# Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen/Chapter 21

CHAPTER XXI
BOSTON AND NEW YORK—EN ROUTE FOR ENGLAND
Leaving Washington, we next visited the city of Boston, where on arrival we found that apartments had been engaged for us at the Parker House. We considered these the pleasantest rooms we had seen, and enjoyed excessively the liberality and good taste with which the city council had arranged for our comfort and pleasure. A committee from that body waited upon us, and did everything possible to make our visit a success. Receptions were given to us by His Excellency Governor Ames, and by His Honor Mayor O’Brien, to which cards of invitation were sent to well-known and prominent citizens, But besides these there was a general reception held at the Mechanics’ Pavilion, an audience chamber capable of holding some twelve thousand persons; and it seemed as though everybody came, for it was packed with dense masses of people of either sex, to its farthest corner, We shook hands with multitudes. They seemed to enjoy it; and I know we took its fatigues most good-naturedly, as a delightful experience of democratic good-will.
Many pleasant excursions were arranged for our party while in Boston; amongst these was one to the Waltham Watch Factory, in which we were very much ​interested. To see each part of so delicate a piece of mechanism as a watch made from its very beginning until the perfect timepiece was ready for the wearer, afforded us much pleasure, and gave a new enjoyment to the possession of these indispensable articles.
We were shown the harbor or port of Boston, by means of a trip to Deer Island, and made visits to the city institutions for the care of criminals and paupers, and to other localities of interest. A small steamer was provided for our party and the invited guests of the city; refreshments were served on board, and everything was done to make the afternoon pleasant for us. Queen Kapiolani was much interested in the quarters assigned to the women at Deer Island, and went through them with careful inspection, There was one inmate with whom the Queen spoke most kindly; she was a woman said to be over a hundred years old, and was yet in the possession of her faculties.
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Keola Pitman, formerly residents of the Hawaiian Islands, accompanied us that day. From Mr. Benjamin Pitman, Sr., we had already received a visit at the Parker House. Which sudden reversion to personal friends leads me naturally to say, that, apart from the hospitalities received from the city of Boston, a day was reserved in which we received the relatives of my husband in a family gathering. At the hour appointed we descended to the reception room, and I found myself indeed amongst friends. There were the Lees, the Snellings, the Joneses, the Jacobses, the Emersons, and others whose names I cannot at this moment recall. I also remember one most welcome ​guest, not of our own family, Mr. George W. Armstrong.
There were a hundred or more, old and young, relatives of whom General Dominis had often spoken to me, and even some whom he himself now met for the first time, but all cordially happy to recognize their relations from those distant Sandwich Islands of which they had so often heard. There were kisses, affectionate embraces, and many other expressions of regard, which made me feel that I was at home with my own family rather than with strangers in a foreign land. The day passed speedily and pleasantly away.
But the time arrived when we must bid adieu to our hospitable entertainers, and depart for the city of New York. In New York we remained eleven days before sailing for England; but I was ill during this time, apparently from a severe cold, and obliged to rest quietly in my rooms at the hotel. During my illness Mrs. James B. Williams was very attentive to me, often calling to see me, accompanied by her husband and daughter. She even sent her own family physician. The Queen and the rest of the party improved the time in the great metropolis, seeing as much as possible of all there was to be seen, and receiving many attentions from prominent individuals. Admiral Gherardi’s ship was lying in port, to which Queen Kapiolani and her party made a visit, being received by the gallant sailor with all the honors due to her rank and station. She was also much interested in her visit to the Metropolitan Museum, the mummies exciting her curiosity and wonder, as speaking of the people of a remote antiquity.
​My interest was also aroused, and in spite of illness I accompanied the party. I recall a queer little mummy, centuries old, of whose history we learned some most peculiar details. After yards and yards of linen cloth had been unrolled, there was exhibited to us a prettily formed little hand; it was very lifelike, dark-colored, but appearing as that of a person who had but recently died; we were told that the mummy was of a woman, and that the writings with it signified she had been the mother of three children. It was very wonderful how perfectly everything had been preserved by the embalmer's art, even the cloth in which the form had been wrapped being in a perfect state of preservation. But the naturalness of the hand made the curiosity almost too startling for enjoyment, and I turned away from the sight because it spoke too plainly of death and burial.
We met many pleasant people in the city of New York, yet it is natural that I should recall best those of whose history I knew something in my own country. We visited Mrs. Kaikilani Graham, a lady of Hawaiian birth, who had married a resident of this city. She and her husband received us very cordially in a convenient little suite of rooms, or "flat," just cosey enough for the newly wedded pair. She took great pride in showing to us their child, a pretty baby; and she was happy in the fact that it was born on American soil.
But our eleven days' visit was drawing to a close, and the steamer by which we were to embark for our destination was ready for our reception. This was the City of Rome, the largest steamship I had ever seen, and ​at that time about the largest afloat in the world. As we stood on the deck to bid farewell to the land, it was very amusing to me to see the four little steamers ply. ing about our slowly moving hull, pushing the bow this way and that, so that our course might be directed towards the broad ocean; finally it would appear that their purpose was accomplished, and drawing away from us, they allowed the huge ship to make her own way down the harbor and off to sea.
She was crowded with passengers, at least a thousand souls being on board, all sorts and conditions of men and women. There were a large number of musical people—well-known singers or musicians—going abroad for study, or leaving for their homes after professional engagements in America; the usual number of health seekers; those tourists who may be found everywhere intent on seeing the world; then a few like ourselves, to whom the Queen's Jubilee was the grand attraction abroad. A strange mixture of humanity, and just at the place where one has little to occupy the mind save to study those by whom one is surrounded. It was interesting to see the different methods by which each person sought to pass away the time; to me it was natural to turn to music, my usual solace in either happy or sad moments, so I composed songs, one of which certainly was written in anticipation of meeting in the person of the good queen all that was greatest and noblest in a woman or a sovereign. These hopes were fully realized during our stay in London.
Many of the passengers had recourse to the ship's library, which was well supplied with books from the ​best authors; and with these they beguiled the time away reading, while reclining in their steamer chairs. on the decks. Some with less of literary taste played games; while there were also the languid or lazy, who did nothing but lounge about the decks and wish the time away. By the kindness of the musical part of our company, some two or three concerts were given in the main saloon of our great ship, and were well attended. Through them quite a sum was raised for sundry charitable objects. Although the names of the performers have passed from my memory, yet I remember that it was asserted at the time that these voices, of which they made a gift to the cause and a pleasure to us, were of great value in the musical or operatic world.
There was one purpose for which an entertainment was given which was peculiar to this ship and this voyage. It was for the benefit of a shipwrecked crew we had on board. Just outside of the port of New York there had been a frightful collision, and the City of Rome had been fortunate enough to rescue a goodly number of those who otherwise might have found a watery grave. Their condition, however, was pitiable; for they had saved nothing of their effects, and in the confusion of the wreck had lost husbands, wives, or travelling companions. After their rescue some were lying in pain and suffering on board our ship, uncertain what had become of those dear to them. Their desolate condition appealed to all hearts, and we were only too glad. to attend the concert and contribute our share to their relief. Then there was the regular concert which is held aboard all the steamships which ply the Atlantic route, ​that for the British sailors, whose widows and orphans look to the multitude of tourists for funds to aid them in the hour of need.
There was but one hinderance to our enjoyment of the passage across, and this was not to be avoided. For a few days the weather was thick and misty, so that the dismal sound of the great fog-horn of the City of Rome never ceased by day or night. But, after all, the delights and troubles of the trip were soon over. In about five days we were told to prepare to see the coast of Ireland; in another twenty-four hours we had landed the mails at Queenstown, and were on our way from thence to our port of destination, Liverpool.