The Hartford herald., 1879-12-10
THE TRAVELLER.
Rn.nbIes la the sand " Ieh Islands.
by "DOLLy WARDEN" IN THE oTAGO
DAILY TIMES.
ICONCLUDED.

(CONCLUDED.
The dark forms sat like black
witches, grimacing me with their hide
Gus shapes. had only these CHASTITY
demons of darkness grouped over this
wild, weird, unearthly scene for COM
pany. The bats, and owls. and lizards
had left the scene. No sound came to
the ear, or movement broke the solitude
of this dreary prison house of silence,
as stiffness reigned king over the plain.
The black crags sat confronting each
other as they were thrown when out of
the fiery caverns they We're formed.
My flesh crawled at such gloomy as
pect. No birds We're to be seen, not
even a cricket or grasshopper broke the
monOtony with his song. An ant, or
scorpion, could not find u living here
Loneliness of the most wearisOme nature
sat heavily on me.
This great lava-fiow burst out of
Mauna LOa i'm '63, and went cOursing
down 10 the sea, deluging fertile plain
covering up hundreds of terrOr-stricken
cattle, aud burying villages of natives
80 feet beneath its fiery waves, and left
this hOrrid wreck, as gravestOnes to
mark their sepulchres, over the theatre
of its devastation. At this great erup-
ton five acres fell i'm and disappeared
out of sight, and the red molten lava,
like boiling river of fire, burst out of
the great gap and ran down twelve
miles into the sea, and overspread the
shore with its fiery flood.
For five consecutive days these FAM
ing vents poured forth stream of lava
"A mile i'm width. The lava was rs thin
as water, and ran over the mountain
and leaped into chasms of crimson cat
aracts of fire. Streams of lava a mile
long were spOuted from the mountain,
and thrown like red water into the sky
to the height of 600 feet, then fell in
teeming showers to mix with the roar
ing flood tearing down the mountain
side. Solid waves Offluid lava, league
in length, shot up like sheets of fire 100
feet into the air. The sea boiled around
the coast of Kau, and hundreds of fish
were cooked to death. The island was
ut MONDAY wrapped in black pail of
darkness, and the sea was beclOuded
with smoke for miles around. COasting
vessels were enveloped, lost, and be-
wildered in the dense haze that hung
like dark curtains over the sea. The
sky was dark blank, distance was
void; and dense masses of mist rolled
over the ocean.
Farther on came to the site of ma
tive village, that with all its inhabi-
tants was carried away by tidal wave
that followed this memorable eruption.
Rushing i'm from the ocean i'm wave
40 feet high, it plunged inland for miles
and receding far out to sea, bore the
grass thatched huts of the poor natives,
of whom were drowned. A grove Of
many cOcOanut trees stands among the
old foundations.
A high bluff overlOOks this saddened
scene. on whose brow the trembling ma
tives, who escaped a watery grave and
a burning casket from the sudden mes
senger of destruction above gathered
from the east and from the west. On
its highest top, filled with consterna-
tiOn, they collected together from miles
around, without previous appointment,
agreement, or any bulletin notice what
sOever, but by universal instinct that it
was the highest and safest resort. Some
natives who were up i'm the mountains,
contrary to the statutes, ,secrtly distilling
native spirits, reused by the earthquake
simultaneously fled, and came tearing
down the mountain side with suspicious
looking implements i'm their hands.
On this knoll they met, and under the
excitement, the few dissenters and
frightened pagans forgot their idols and
superstitiOus deities, and even the
staunchest followers of Pele, the vol
canic goddess, let her existence slip their
memory, and all prayed aloud to the
God of heaven for refuge.
A native minister, who witnessed the
scene, informed me that great num-
Der Of old idOlatrous natives who scOrn-
ed the religion of the church, and
never darkened his sanctuary with
their presence, disowned his God and
clung to the old Hawaiian heathenism,
when this great test came to try their
honesty, they all with one unanimous
accord Joined the Christian natives i'm
earnest, and even led i'm the universal
chorus to heaven for protection, and
had ever since been conducting them
selves with becoming propriety.
Passing this noted promOntOry, l ut
length emerged from this gloomy world
of cinders, and rode out upon the green
grass-coated slopes of Kau, where
leagues on leagues of luxuriant mead
Ows mantled in rich growth of verdi
ure, as prolific as the famous plains of
Texas or the pampas of Brazil, lay
sleeping in waving beauty for 70 miles
eastward, and extend up to the black
timber-be high up on the mountain
top, and spread In one grand and mag
nificent sweep of greenery down to the
blue ocean, that lay below in sheets of