The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-01-19

A VISIT TO THE ISLAND OF uoLoKAI.
Correspondence of the San Francisco Chron-
icle.]
1t was hot August day in Honolulu
and there the weather is hot in su..-
mer time. The weather may not be so
intense as IN some of our eastern states,
| but 1t is more prostrating and enervating.
| l had hardly ventured out Of the hotel
all day, and when I did. no further than
the post, three or four blocks distant.
Not that went to the postoffice for mail
matter; the mails seldom arrive there
days except once a week, when the local
mail matter from the different islands of
the group; but it is generally the walk
or stroll from the hotel to the postoffice
and back again, not for exercise, because
one wants as little Of that as possible in
Honolulu in the summer time. One
must do something to pass away the
time, and the postoficc and government
building are about the only places tne
can stroll to in town; and that day, as l
walked along the street beneath my um.
brella, painting for breath and pausing
occasionally in the shade of some over
hanging balcony, J could not but be in.
terested IN the dreamy appearance Of
everything about me. That is the ma.
ture OF the climate in the summer season.
Even the trees and flowers seemed to be
in dream, and the leaves and petals
hung inert in the motionless air. The
cr'ckets and harvest locusts and miners
Ia pretty speck,ed bird) were asleep and
dreaming. At any rate, they sang not,
nor revealed their whereabouts. The
very dogs along the streets seemed in a
commandment state, and after pausing
and painting few moments on their
launches, with lolling tongues and misty
eyes, they would start up as if in
dream, and dash along few PAGES, and
then fall back on their rear guard to rest
again. kanaka beauties within the yard
enclosures along the streets were sprawl
ed upon their mats beneath the balconies,
faces and forms turned downward, and
dressed in loose calico robes; and even
they, from the slig hit motions visible,
seemed to be
DREAMING OF POI AND RAW FISH
or Of their absent kanes (men.) In the
stores the whites did not appear to be
much more active, and only among the
wharfs, where the native boys were in
bathing like schools of fish, did there ap.
pear TO be any vitality manifest. And
those boys appear to be about half water
animals of some kind. They live in it
the greater part Of the time. They can
dive to almost any depth, and never miss
securing ten-cent piece, tossed into the
water, before it can reach the bottom.
In only a single instance out Of a hun.
dred did I ever know them to fail, and
then ten.year.old boy dove fifteen feet
and brought the money up in handful
OF mud. l have seen school Of forty
boys swim half a mile out to ship, and
there play around her in the water
picking up stray pieces of silver
tossed overheard, for hours, and
then swim back apparently as fresh as
ever. But it was on such day as T
have described above, and after dinner
that assembled to the cupola, or tower,
on top of the Hawaiian hotel, to see the
sunset. Beneath me lay the city in all
It's mystic silence, concealed from view
amid the dense foliage. Thirty years ago
there were but four trees in Honolulu.
Now the city is invisible beneath the
foliage. Stretched all. around the rear
of the city, and thanking it on either side,
was range of mountains, penetrated in
the center by the beautiful Nuusnu VAL
ley running back six or seven miles up to
the Poh, or precipice, 1000 feet hi gh,
which affords such a magnificent view of
the country and sea beyond. On nv left
was Diamond Head. 1000 feet in per-
pendicular height above the sea lashing
its base. A boy, few howitzers and ma.
tive soldiers; and, all, around, the city
seemed girdled with strength and beauty.
| In front of me. on the right, or towards
the west, slept the quite bay, ON whose
gentle bosom slumbered three men-of.war,
representatives of England and Ameri.
cas- navies. Moored to the wharves quiet.
10 lay half dozen merchantmen repre-
sentlng the commerce of the island.
Along the channel, out towards the sea,
bodied half dozen buoys, and on my
left stretched far, far away to
| CALIFORNIA; GOLDEN COAST
the vast expansive sea, across whose
billowy bosom rolled the infrequent
hulks of traffic. Dashing down his aerial
pathway behind the mountains IN the
west, the sinking sun crimsoned the sky
with its last lingering rays of fame. gid
ed the scattered clouds with golden
edges, and made scene of grandeur aud
| sublimity which none but natures great
artist has ever yet painted. And as l
sat there in the twilight admiring the
beauteous scene about me, saw sail
slowly crawling out Of port. Turning to
my friend said, "What vessel is that,
and where is she going!" 1t was a
small schooner towards which I pointed.