The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-06-25
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
Rural Sketches
of the 5aluaiiam ISLANDS.
Maui Revisited.

Maui Revisited.
Our narrative of q trip to central Maui and
its plantations, has been interrupted to give
place to a crowd of communications on political
and other matters, though ht to be of more general
interest, and resume notes where we left
off. After visiting Waihee and Waiehu, we re-
turned to Wailuku. From there, across the low
sandy plain to Uiupalakua, although the road is
smooth and nearly level, is one of the most dis
agreeable rides that our islands furnish. In ad
dition to the heat, clouds Of sand are encount-
cred, especially during the after part of windy
DAYS, and it is seldom that the wind does not
sweep through this isthmus gorge, formed by
the two high mountains thanking it. Squads of
horses and cattle grazing here and
there, picking the short and scanty herbage,
aad, notwithstanding the apparent sterility of
the soil, they appear sleek and fat, showing that
the saline properties of the soil produce nourish-
ing food for stock. The popularity has
been observed on other of the low fat lands near
the throughout the group, some of which
constitute the best pasture lands there
Kalepolepo nd its Origin.
On the north shore of this isthmus, Kahului
is the port, and very good little harbor it is
for vessels drawing not over twelve or thirteen
feet, where the schooners Kdmoi and MOI Keiki
have for years OF more run as regular
packets, carrying the freight of the neighboring
district. On the opposite or south shore of this
isthmus is KalepolepO, which signifies in vernac-
ular very dusty or dirty, and never was a
place more appropriately named, for clouds of
dust and sand daily sweep past it. 1t is not
village, and hardly deserves the name of hamlet,
yet serves as the por, or anchorage for vessels
81.
supplies OF irewood are obtained for the Homo
lulu market, and for various plantations.
A Relic Of California Days.
Here, on this dusty sandy beach, stands
large three-stoEy fr~nno building, NrOosed an tho
days when the California gold fever carried off
, men of the strongest nerves, and fortunes were
made and lost in supplying the gold-diggers with
the necessaries of life. To meet the growing
trade, and TO supply the ships, large and small,
that then frequented KalepOepo for potatoes.
this building rather pile of buildings, was
erected to warehouses, stores and dwell
ing. From the wreck and disaster that attended
the wild specuations of those days-which seem
more like fairy tale tran stern reality
the present proprietor, j. j. Halstead, ESD,
sayed it and still lives here, he has for the past
fifteen years, honored and respected by all with
whom he has to deal. Time deals gently with
the patriarch of Kalepolepo, and those who have
had the opportunity, as We have. to enjoy his
hospitality, and sit down and hear him narrate
the adventures and incidents of singularly
eheckered life, will wonder how gentleman so
full of aneedote, narrative and social qualities,
should have settled on this dreary spot,
and MORE that he should be contented and
happy here.
The Cheapest Store in the Group.
1t was mid-afternoon, when, with painting and
tedusted horses we rode up to '' Johnny's, as
the natives call the place, and found a score or
more of horses tied about the premises Hitch
Ing ours entered the store, and found it filled
with men, women, and children, and the major
domo himself behind the counter, busily trading
with his country customers The crowd at first
excited our curiosity, but on inquiry, we found
1t was nothing unusual, and that the store pre-
sented only an everyday scene. n moments
inspection of its contents solved the riddle for
here on this sandy beach, ten miles from any
village, was 4 country store filed with every
description Of goods required by the natives,
(and by foreigners too,) selling at prices that
defed competition even ut :. Archy's' or the
g Beehive in Honolulu. With the instinct of
genuine Yankee trader, who reads the news
papers and keeps posted up, our merchant OF
halePolepo some eighteen months or more ago,
when prices were half what they now are, laid
IN a two years supply of cottons, prints, &C.,
and as n consequence, is able now to undersell
everybody else, and draws customers from Wal
Iuku, Alakawao, alk the districts of East Maui,
and even Lahaina itself, who declare his to be
the best stocked store and cheapest goods on
Maui. And we have even heard of visitors from
Honolulu buying prints and calicoes at Kalepo-
iepo, at prices that would astonish our Honolulu
clerks.
An Embryo Port.
At the opposite angle of this bay there is n
fshermen's hamlet called Maalaea which is said to
afford good landing-place for freight in moder-
ate weather, and where, we learn, a warehouse
has been or is to be erected by Messrs. Louzada
and Cornwell of the Waikapu plantation, and
where the steamer KiLauea is to touch Maalaea
is located just at the foot of tie West Maui
mountains, and though exposed to the furious
winds that sweep across the isthmus. during the
night and early in the morning, affords good
anchorage close in shore.
An extensive Sugar Estate.
The sun was rapidly declining behind the
rfoip ,Sol o,,I Iaft KoIa