# The Boy Travellers in Australasia/Chapter 2

CHAPTER II.
THE next day was devoted to excursions in the immediate vicinity of Honolulu, a carriage-drive through the principal streets of the town, a visit to the palace and other Government buildings, and two or three calls to present letters of introduction. The visit to the palace included an introduction to the King, Kalakaua, who received his visitors politely and devoted a short time to their entertainment. The conversation referred mainly to the United States, and barely touched upon matters connected with the islands.
In their drive about the city Frank and Fred found that Honolulu is a well-built town with narrow streets. The houses are mostly of wood, dropped down rather carelessly in many places, with little attempt at uniformity, and not much decoration. The amount of tropical verdure, which almost concealed many of the villas and detached residences in the side streets and outskirts of the place, recalled Ceylon and other regions near the equator which they had visited in their former travels. Frank thought he could readily imagine himself in the suburbs of Colombo, while Fred was inclined to close his eyes for a moment and think he had been transported on the enchanted carpet of the Arabian Nights to Batavia or Buitenzorg, in Java. In many of the court-yards fountains were playing, the drops of water sparkling in the bright sunshine, and adding materially to the beauty of the scene.
​There are some fine residences in Honolulu, but none that would be considered of much consequence in a wealthy capital of Europe. The best buildings are the public ones, and in the list we must include the Hawaiian hotel, as it was built by the Government at an expense that was considered a heavy one for the country to bear. Near the hotel is the theatre, which is also a Government affair, and brings very little revenue to its owners. It is in use occasionally whenever a strolling company on a voyage between Australia and America happens along and gives a few performances. Honolulu is hardly able to support a theatre through the entire year, as the portion of the population able and willing to patronize it is very small.
LAHAINA, ISLAND OF MAUI.
Frank and Fred were amused at the equestrian performances of the natives, and particularly at the dash and energy with which the laughing girls pushed their horses at full speed. They rode "man-fashion," bestriding the horse instead of sitting on a side-saddle, and few of them seemed contented with any but the most rapid pace. The horses of the Hawaiian Islands are small but strong, and capable of great endurance; ​in fact, if they were otherwise it is evident they would not live long, when the habits of the natives are remembered. In travelling in the Hawaiian Islands it is necessary to carry your saddle, as carriage-roads are not numerous, and a good many places that one wishes to visit cannot be reached by wheeled vehicles. Of course it is possible to hire saddles when hiring horses, but this is by no means universally the case.
WOMEN ON HORSEBACK, HONOLULU.
The afternoon drive was extended to the Pali, a mountain-pass six miles out of the town, and one of the chief attractions to visitors who can only make a brief stay at Honolulu. Outside of the business portion of the place our friends entered upon a straight and very dusty road, which for the first two miles and more led among the villas belonging to the merchants and other well-to-do people who make Honolulu their home. Each villa stands in a garden by itself, and the houses are often rendered invisible by the masses of foliage that surround them, and the creeping and climbing plants that rise to their very tops. The road steadily rises, and consequently the occupants of the houses have fine views of the bay and town; while the mountains rise behind them to form a background. Fred was so charmed with the beauty of the scene that he wished to sketch some of the villas, but the recollection of their limited time prevented his carrying the desire into execution.
​Beyond this region of villas the carriage entered the foot-hills, where the road wound with a steep grade among taro-fields, in which men were at work up to their knees in water tending the plants which yield to the Hawaiian the staff of life. The water which irrigates the taro-fields is brought by innumerable streams from the sides of the mountains, to which it is supplied by the clouds borne by the trade-winds. Honolulu receives its water from the mountains, and there is certainly an abundance of it.
A MOUNTAIN VALLEY.
HAWAIIAN TEMPLE. (From a Russian Engraving about 1790.)
The Hawaiian cow-boys, or cattle-drivers, were not unlike their American prototypes, as they wore broad-brimmed hats and bright-colored scarfs; they were mounted on tough little horses, and sat in saddles of the American cow-boy pattern, the pommel rising high, and the stirrups made of wood. Then there were strings of pack-mules and horses coming down from the points in the mountains inaccessible to ​wheeled vehicles, and now and then our friends met a Chinese gardener taking the produce of his little patch to market on the back of a pack animal, and in some instances on a wheelbarrow. A few groups of men and women on foot were encountered, but the number was so small that Frank and Fred concluded that the Hawaiians were a home-loving people, and did not wander about much.
Near the Pali the road passed through thickets of how-trees, which resembled the growths of manzanita on the slopes of the California foothills. These thickets are so dense that it is impossible for man or horse to pass through them; in fact they are impenetrable to any but the smallest animals. Frank thought he would like to cut a cane as a souvenir, but refrained from doing so when reminded by Fred that he could probably buy all the canes he wanted in Honolulu.
MOUNTAIN SCENE IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Suddenly from the other side of the narrow pass a wonderful panorama was presented. Around on each side were the rugged cliffs of the mountain range, while in front they looked from a height of eight or nine hundred feet above the sea-level upon a picture which included every variety of scenery. In the distance was the blue Pacific washing ​the sandy shores and curving reefs of coral, and between the ocean and the point where our friends were standing were grassed and wooded foot-hills, and long stretches of lowlands dotted with coffee and sugar plantations, taro-fields, and other evidences of careful cultivation, together with villages and clusters of huts that marked the dwelling-places of the men engaged in this tropical agriculture.
"We could almost say that we had the colors of the rainbow in this bit of landscape," said Fred, afterwards, while describing the scene. "The blue sky and sea were tinged with purple, the distant mountains varied in shades of blue and gray, the foot-hills and plains gave us every verdant tinge that you can name, from the bright green of the mountain grass to the dark foliage of the vegetation that surrounded the villages; and as for yellow, you had it in every variety, from the reddish tint of the sinuous roads to the bright and almost white belt of sand that separated land from sea. We recalled several similar views in different parts of the world, but could give none of them preference over this. It was the view from the Baidar Gate in the Crimea, combined with Wockwalla near Point de Galle, and a bit of the scene from the Righi Culm in Switzerland."
Whoever goes to the Hawaiian Islands will consider his visit incomplete unless he includes the island of Hawaii and the great volcano of Kilauea in his tour. Doctor Bronson desired that the party should proceed thither at the earliest moment, and found on inquiry that a steamer was to leave for Hilo on the second morning after their arrival at Honolulu.
"Prepare for wet weather," said his informant, "as it rains all the time at Hilo. They say they have seventeen feet of rain there annually, and sometimes there are days and days together when it rains without letting up a minute. Gum-coats and water-proofs are in order, and the more you have of them the better."
Continuing, the narrator said that a Hilo man once made an experiment by knocking out the heads of an oil-cask, and it rained in at the bung-hole faster than the water could run out at the ends! Frank asked for the documents in the case—the affidavits before the justice of the peace, and the certificate of the resident clergyman—but they were not forthcoming. Another story was that the fishes frequently swam up into the air a distance of three or four hundred yards before discovering they were not in the bay, the showers being so dense that it was impossible for them to distinguish the one from the other. Fred declared himself skeptical on this subject, as the showers consisted of ​fresh water, "while the bay was salt, and a salt-water fish does not usually show a willingness to swim up a fresh-water stream except in the spawning season.
HILO.
Fortunately the morning was fine, and the bay of Hilo presented a pretty appearance. Groves of palm and other tropical trees lined the shore, the surf broke in regular pulsations upon the curving stretch of beach, and was made animate by dozens of men and boys at play in the waves. For the first time our friends saw some of the sport in the ​water for which the islanders are famous, though less so at present than in the days that are gone. Fred thus described it:
SURF-BATHING AT HILO.
"Then they tossed up and down for a while, waiting for their chance. What they wanted was an unusually high swell, and they tried to find a place in front of it so that it would sweep them towards the shore just where it broke into a comber. They tried several times but failed, and we began to get out of patience.
"At last they got what they had waited for, while some were kneeling on their planks and others lying extended with their faces ​downward, and just ahead of the great comber they swept on at a speed of little, if any, less than forty miles an hour. There they were just ahead of the breaker, and apparently sliding downhill; one of them was swamped by it, but he dived and came up behind the wave and made ready for the next. The others kept on, and were flung high and dry by the surf, and as soon as they could rise from their planks they ran towards us to receive their pay. One of the fellows stood erect on his plank while in the surf, just as the Nubians at the first cataract of the Nile stand up while descending through the foaming water."
Meanwhile the guides were busy getting the cavalcade in readiness, and a little before eight o'clock the party was under way for the great volcano. From Hilo to the Volcano House is a distance of thirty miles. The horses go for the most of the time at a walk, and though the ride has been accomplished in six hours, it is better to allow not less than ten for it, and "take things easily." This will give time for a rest of an hour for lunch at the Half-way House—the lunch being the one which we have already prepared.
THE VOLCANO HOUSE.
Frank wanted to try the effect of a gallop, but to guard against accidents Doctor Bronson suggested that gallops would be out of order for the day. The path over the lava is full of holes, and very rough and broken in many places. The natives trot and gallop along the road, but the novice should refrain from so doing. At a walking pace there is little discomfort and practically no danger, and parties of ladies and children can make the journey without excessive fatigue. "Chi va piano va sano," as the Italians say.
The youths found the ride from Hilo to the volcano full of interest. They amused themselves by comparing the lava-fields with those of ​the volcanoes they had visited in other parts of the world, and they studied the ferns, of which there were many varieties, the largest of them having stalks three or four feet in diameter and a height of fifteen or twenty feet. Other ferns were very small, and between the small and large there were all shades of colors and all possible sizes. One of the guides showed that the ferns were not altogether ornamental plants, as he plucked from one of them a woolly substance he called pulu, and said it was used for stuffing beds and pillows. Many tons of pulu are exported every year to America and other countries.
At the Half-way House everybody was hungry, and the lunch was speedily disposed of. A little after six o'clock in the evening the Volcano House was reached, and here the party spent the night. A good supper was prepared and eaten, and the incidents of the day and plans of the morrow were discussed; then the youths joined Doctor Bronson, at the suggestion of the latter, in a sulphur vapor-bath of Nature's own preparation, and after it all retired to sleep. The accommodations were limited, but everybody was weary enough to be willing to put up with the most primitive style of lodging, provided nothing better could be obtained.
Here is what Frank wrote concerning the visit of our friends to the crater of the volcano:
"We took a hearty breakfast and left the house about half-past eight o'clock in the morning, to make acquaintance with the crater. We put on our strongest shoes but did not encumber ourselves with heavy clothing, as the guide said we should not need it. The house is quite near the crater, almost on its edge, and so we didn't have far to go to begin sight-seeing; in fact, we had begun it on the previous evening, and all through the night, as the light of the volcano was almost constantly in our eyes. Two or three times during the night we saw the lava spurting up like a fountain above the edge of one of the small craters, and altogether the scene was an exciting one.
"It is fully three miles from one side of the crater of Kilauea to the other; but you do not walk in a straight course across it, for the simple reason that you can't. The crater is a great pit varying from eight hundred to fifteen hundred feet in depth; its floor consists of lava, ashes, and broken rocks, the lava predominating. It is rough and uneven, and in several places there are small craters sending up jets of flame, smoke, and steam, and there are numerous cracks from which smoke and steam issue constantly. In many places the lava lies in great rolls and ridges that are not easy to walk over, and some of ​them are quite impassable. Consequently the path winds about a good deal, and you may be said to walk two miles to get ahead one.
"The floor of the crater is hardly the same from week to week, and if I should make a map of it, and describe the place very carefully, you might not know it if you come here a year from now. In many places it is so hot that you cannot walk on it. Lava cools very slowly, and the thicker the bed of it the longer the time it requires for cooling.
VIEW OF ONE OF THE BURNING LAKES.
"The Hawaiians say that the volcano is under the control of the Goddess Pele; she is a capricious deity, and you never know for any great length of time beforehand what she will do. Whenever the mood strikes her she orders an eruption, and straightway the fires are lighted, the mountain trembles, and the earth all around is violently shaken. Flames burst forth from the crater and shoot high in air, and sometimes the floor of the whole area is lifted and tossed like the waves of the sea. Kilauea may be said to be constantly active, as the fires never cease; but there are periods of great activity followed by seasons of comparative quiet.
​"Over the floor of the great crater we picked our way for nearly three miles to the Burning Lakes; and what do you suppose these lakes are?
"Their name describes them, as they are literally burning lakes—lakes of fire so hot that if you should be foolish enough to try to bathe in them, or so unfortunate as to fall into their waves, you would be burned up in less than a minute. We had to climb up a steep bank of lava to get in sight of them, and then what a spectacle was presented!
"There were two little lakes or ponds, five or six hundred feet in diameter, and separated by a narrow embankment which the guide said was occasionally overflowed, and either covered entirely or broken down for a while. These lakes are on the top of a hill formed by the cooling of the lava, and at the time we saw them their surface was perhaps one hundred feet below the point where we stood on the outer edge or rim. The wind blew from us over the lakes, and carried away the greater part of the smoke and the fumes of sulphur; but in spite of the favoring breeze we were almost choked by the noxious gases that rose from the burning lava, and the numerous crevices in the solid banks where we stood.
"I said the bank was formed by the cooling of the lava; I should rather say by its hardening, as it was far from cool. It was so hot that it burned our feet through the soles of our thick shoes, and we stood first on one foot and then on the other, as turkeys are said to stand on a hot plate. Fred sat down to rest, but he stood up again in less than half a minute, as it was like sitting on a hot stove. We had brought a canteen of water which the guide placed on the ground near us; when I went to pick it up for a drink, the air and exertion having made me very thirsty, it was so hot that I burned my fingers in trying to hold it. The water in the canteen was like a cup of tea as good housewives like to pour it steaming from the kettle.
"Our faces were blistering with the heat that rose from the surface of the lakes, and then we scorched our hands in trying to protect our faces. We were blinded and suffocated; we coughed and spluttered, and found it difficult to speak, and in a little while concluded we had had quite enough of the lakes. We used our eyes rapidly, as there was a great deal to look at, and the whole scene was such as does not often come into one's opportunities.
"The molten lava seethed, bubbled, boiled, and rolled below us, its surface covered with a grayish and thin crust, out of which rose irregular circles and patches of fire that seemed to sweep and follow one ​another from the circumference to the centre of the lake. Every minute or so the lava in the centre of the lake bulged up and broke into an enormous bubble or wave which sometimes rose twenty or thirty feet into the air, and then broke and scattered just as you see a bubble breaking in a kettle of boiling paste or oatmeal porridge. I know the comparison is a homely one, but I can't think of anything that will better describe what we saw.
"The bank of the lake down near where the lava came against it was red-hot, and so you may imagine if you can a mass of liquid fire rolling and surging against a solid one. One of the lakes was much more agitated than the other, and the liquid lava seemed to break upon its sides very much like a sea upon a rocky shore. Owing to the half-plastic condition of the lava, it could not break into surf and spray like the waves of the ocean, but it made a dull roar, something like that of the Pacific on the beach near San Francisco just after the subsidence of a storm.
VIEW ON A LAVA FIELD.
"The surface of the lava changes its height from time to time. The guide said it occasionally rose until it overflowed the sides of the basin enclosing the lakes, and formed streams that spread out over the level area of the great crater. Sometimes it sank so that it was fully four hundred feet from the edge of the rim down to the lava; but whether it was high or low, there was never a time when it was wholly inactive.
HAWAIIAN WARRIORS OF A CENTURY AGO.
​"We have visited volcanoes in other parts of the world, but none that equalled this, and never have we seen anything to compare with the Burning Lakes of Kilauea. What a magnificent sight it must be to see an eruption of Kilauea or Mauna Loa—especially the latter, as it is much the larger of the two. Just now it is quiet, but when it does break out it is, I believe, the greatest volcano in the world. Let me give you a few figures:
"Mauna Loa has had eight great eruptions in forty years, an average of one eruption every five years. It is 13,700 feet high, and in several of its eruptions it has sent streams of lava fifty miles in length to the sea. The flow of these streams is slow, usually requiring eight or ten days, and sometimes longer, to cover the distance from the mountain to the sea. In one eruption it was estimated that 38,000,000,000 cubic feet of lava were poured out, and in another 17,000,000,000. Kilauea is properly a spur of Mauna Loa, and less than 4000 feet high, but nevertheless it is the largest constantly active volcano in the world.
CHAIN OF EXTINCT VOLCANOES, ISLAND OF KAUAI.
"When the lava from Mauna Loa reaches the sea there is an immense cloud of steam rising from the point where the molten mass enters the water; the ocean is heated for miles around, and fishes by millions perish from the heat. The ground all over the island is devastated, earthquakes are frequent, and altogether Hawaii must be an unpleasant place of residence at that time.
"We got back to the hotel about five o'clock in the afternoon, thoroughly tired out with the day's excursion, which had given us so ​many curious and terrible sights. It has been an experience which we shall long remember."
Our friends wanted to visit the great crater of Haleakala, on the island of Maui, in order to be able to compare an extinct volcano with a live one, but time did not permit. They talked with a gentleman who had been there, and that, said Fred, was the next best thing to seeing with their own eyes. Here is the substance of what they learned concerning Haleakala:
"You have a ride of about twelve miles to reach the summit, and you ought to go up so as to sleep at the top and get the view at sunrise. There is no house there, but of this there is no need, as there are several caves in the lava—they are really broken lava-bubbles, which are each large enough to shelter half a dozen persons comfortably. Of course you must have a guide and must carry plenty of blankets, or you will suffer from the cold. Water and wood can be found near the top of the mountain.
"The crater of Haleakala is thirty miles in circumference, or ten miles across, and it is two thousand feet from the edge of the rim that surrounds it to the floor of the crater; over this floor are spread ten or twelve smaller craters and cones, some of them large enough to be good-sized mountains by themselves, as they are nearly, if not quite, a thousand feet high.
"You can descend into the great crater if you wish, and there is a path by which you can traverse it; but it is very necessary that you should not turn from the path, as the lava is so sharp that it would endanger your horse's feet to go even a few yards over it. Stick to the route, and implicitly obey your guide."
Fred obtained a map of Haleakala, which we give on the following page. It shows the shape of the crater and the openings at either end, where the lava is supposed to have made an outlet for itself; these openings are called Koolau Gap and Kaupo Gap, the former being something more than two miles across, and the latter a trifle less.
Before leaving Hilo, Doctor Bronson arranged for a schooner to meet the party at a point on the Puna coast, which was easily reached in a day's ride from the crater of Kilauea. Before sunset they had paid the guide for the hire of the horses and his own wages, and the evening saw them dashing through the waters on the way to Honolulu. The trade-wind bore them swiftly along; Hawaii is to windward of Oahu, and while it takes a schooner or other sailing-vessel four or five days to beat from Honolulu to Hilo, the return journey can be made ​in from twenty-four to thirty hours. The second morning from Puna saw the schooner anchored in the harbor of the capital, and our friends had the satisfaction of breakfasting at the spacious and comfortable Hawaiian hotel.
Through the courtesy of a gentleman engaged in the sugar culture, our friends made a visit to a sugar plantation, the culture of the saccharine product being the principal industry of the Hawaiian Islands. We have not space for an account of all they saw and heard, but will give a summary from Fred's note-book.
MAP OF THE HALEAKALA CRATER.
"Sugar is grown on all the four large islands of the group, but the principal seat of the industry is on Maui, which seems peculiarly favorable to it. We were told that the yield was sometimes between five and six tons to the acre, four tons was not an unusual amount, and it would be considered a poor plantation that did not give two or two and a half tons. The volcanic soil seems to be just what the sugar-cane loves; the seasons are such that planting can be done in many places at any time of the year, and there is not the least danger of frost, as in the sugar area of the United States.
"The common custom is to raise two crops, and then let the ground lie idle for two seasons; so that taking a series of years together, allowance must be made for the idle time in estimating the yield of sugar. In some localities, especially those where the ground is artificially ​irrigated, this plan is not always followed, as it does not appear to be necessary. To show the growth of the industry, let me say that the export of sugar in 1860 was 1,414,271 pounds, while in 1871, eleven years later, it was 21,760,773 pounds. Last year it was in the neighborhood of fifty million pounds.
KAMEHAMEHA I., FIRST KING OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. "In the early years of the sugar culture the work was performed by the natives, but in course of time it grew to such an extent that the local supply of labor was not sufficient. A great number of Chinese and Portuguese were introduced, and laborers have been brought from other islands of the Pacific Ocean, so that the population of the country is now a mixed one. By the census of 1878 the population was 57,985; 44,088 of these were natives, 5916 Chinese, 4561 whites, and 3420 half-castes. In 1882 the population was estimated at 66,895, including 12,804 Chinese. In the two years ending March 31, 1884, there was an immigration of 6166 Portuguese from the Azores Islands. Among the whites the Americans are most numerous, but the Germans are steadily increasing in numbers, a large part of the sugar interest and the commerce dependent upon it being in their hands. The commercial king of the islands is Claus Spreckels, who is of German origin, and practically controls the sugar culture. He owns a steamship line between Honolulu and San Francisco, and the local steamers plying to the various islands are mostly in his hands.
"Rice and coffee are also products of the islands, but they occupy a low position when compared to that of sugar. Hides, tallow, wool, and salt are also exported, but the quantity is not great. The value of the exports of the islands is from eight to ten million dollars annually, and the imports amount to about two millions less than the exports. The principal imports are textile fabrics, clothing, implements, machinery, and provisions."
​So much for the commercial condition of the kingdom of Hawaii. Let us now turn to other matters.
Our friends took a day, or rather two nights and a day, for a visit to the famous Leper Hospital on Molokai Island. Leaving Honolulu late one evening, they were landed the next morning on Molokai for their strange excursion. We will let Frank tell the story of the visit.
WATER FALL ON ISLAND OF KAUAI.
"The leper settlement is on a plain, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides and the sea on the fourth. The mountains are so rugged as to be impassable except at a few points, which are always carefully guarded. The sea-front is also watched, so that escape from the settlement is practically impossible.
IMPLEMENTS OF DOMESTIC LIFE. a, Calabash for poi.—b, Calabash for fish.—c, Water-bottle.—d, d, Poi mallets.—e, Poi trough.—f, Native bracelet.—g, Fiddle.—h, Flute.—i, i, Drums.
"The doctor who accompanied us through the settlement assured us that leprosy is neither epidemic nor contagious in the ordinary sense of the latter word. It can only be communicated by an abraded surface coming in contact with a leprous sore; and he said that the practice among the natives of many persons smoking the same pipe had done much to spread the disease. He shook hands freely with the victims of leprosy during our visit, and did not take the trouble to wear gloves, even when the hands of the others were covered with sores.
"He told us that the disease first showed itself by a slight swelling under the eyes and in the lobes of the ears; then the fingers contracted like birds' claws, the face swelled into ridges that were smooth and shiny, and later these ridges broke into festering sores. Sometimes these symptoms on the face do not appear, the attacks being principally on the hands and feet. The fingers and toes wither and decay; they seem to dry up and shrink, as we saw several persons whose finger-nails were on their knuckles, the fingers having shrunk away and disappeared.
HAWAIIAN PIPE "It is a curious circumstance that the victims of leprosy rarely suffer pain. The decay of the extremities is gradual, and the shiny ridges on the face may be pinched with the fingers or punctured with a pin without giving any sensation. Among the nine hundred and odd persons in the leper settlement we saw very few sad faces. The people were enjoying themselves very much as they would in Honolulu—talking and laughing, walking or lounging about, or riding horses, and in one place they were playing a game that evoked a good deal of shouting and hilarity. Many were at work in the fields and gardens, or making salt along the shore. There is a leper governor for the settlement, and the usual number of subordinates that such a place requires. There is a store where goods are sold at cost, and many of the lepers ​receive money from their friends and spend it at the store. The Government provides the lepers with clothes and lodging, and gives them sufficient food for their subsistence. Those who can work are encouraged to do so, and all that they produce is bought by the Board of Health and paid for out of the store.
"Then they have two churches—one Catholic and the other Protestant. The latter has a native pastor, and the former a white priest, who has volunteered to seclude himself among these unfortunate people for their religious good. There are three white men and eight Chinese who have been sent here as lepers. It has been charged that the Chinese brought leprosy to the islands, but the doctor says this is not so, the disease having existed here before the Chinese came; and besides, it is quite unlike the malady of that name in China. There it principally attacks the skin, while the Hawaiian form belongs to the blood.
"The location of the settlement is an excellent one, as it is on the windward side of the island, and constantly swept by the pure breezes from the ocean. For those who are unable to move about there are large and well-kept hospitals, where the patients are waited upon by other lepers that have not reached the disabled stage. Access and escape are alike difficult, and everything seems to have been done to make life as comfortable as possible to the unfortunate victims who are sent here."