The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-08-03
HONOLULU AND ITS KING.
BY GEORGE AUGUSTUS sAlA.
{" Land Of the Golden Fleece" ia
Auckland Weekly Meas,
JMiY 10, 1850

sight of shark even, or of a
school of porpoises, is kind of
relief; while the descent of shoal
of flying fish reminds you of Vol
taire's bitter apothegm, in which he
likens unto fish that fly those men of
letters who are so foolish as to seek
to shine in "society." 1.-The fish
that remain in the sea hate them for
soaring so high and when they fall,
exhausted, on the deck of the ship,
the sailors knock them on the head"
The advent, too, of an albatross is q
boon, since it enables you to rub up
your memories of Coleridge's can
cient Mariner;" but land-even the
limmest, the most transient glimpse
Whlue-that is the great oasis in
Ihesvast waste of the wide desert of
Ultramarine, for which you most
passionately yearn. Land came at
last, on the morning of the seventh
day after we left San Francisco.
Land, first, in the guise of jutting
headlands and promontories, then of
low-lying, undulating chains Of hills,
glorious in purple and gold in the
rays of the morning sun. We were
among the islands of the Hawaiian
group, and shortly after one o'clock
the good ship Australia was along
side the wharf in the harbor of Homo
lulu. Aloha! 1t is matter of
etiquette to be continually CRYING
"Aloha!' while you are at Homo
lulu. Not being skilled in the Ha-
waiian tongue, am unable to state
what may be the exact Specification
of "Aloha;'' but l take it to be a
convertible term for the American
''Bully for you;'' for the French
"On dirait du veau;'' for the TIA
liam "Viva la bella famiglia;" and
for the English "All serene" Homo
lulu is serener than ever was the
'sarrissima" republic of Venice. 1t
is the loveliest spot.e 'dss@sahese eyes
haze yet -ggaazzed u -lovelier than
Sorrento, lovelier than Ventnor,
lovelier than the view of the Thames
from the. terrace of the Star and
Garter at Richmond, lovelier than
Jackson Square, New Orleans, by
moonlight. Honolulu is terrestrial
Paradise, but with, alas, fell SER
pent lurking among its loneliness.
Aloha!
1 had some business with His
Majesty the King of the Sandwich
Islands, whom | had already had
the honor to meet at dinner at
Kelly's Lodge, Highgatc, at the
time when that intelligent monarch
was making his voyage round the
world, and for whom 1 was the
bearer of some presents from the
Baroness Burdett Coutts. The
Saucy Alameda, which had only dis
tanced us by few hours, had re-
ported the Commissioner of our ar
rival, and it was an odd and far
from unpleasant surprise, so soon as
the Australia had come to her moor
ings, to find her boarded by num-
Der of gentlemen in European dress
AS European dress is understood
in the vicinity of the tropics-who
after violently shaking hands, took
me at once into abiding custody. 1
had never seen any of them before,
in all probability l shall never see
any one of them again, but they
were all exceedingly kind: they all
seemed to be thoroughly well ac-
quainted with the object of my mis-
sion, and they certainly made my
four and half hours stay in the
Sandwich Islands a very happy one.
-Four and half honrs. / should
have liked to stay month, and l
am sure that l had at least half-a-
dozen invitations to "lie over till the
next steamer touched, and have a
high old time;" but Captain Chest
was necessarily memorable. was
due at certain date at Sydney, and
it was imperative that 1 should be
son time" so that it was impossible
to entertain the fascinating contin-
gency of lying over and having a
high old time. Aloha! So / was
amicably jostled into waggonette
in the company-if l remember
aright-of an estimable Protestant
clergyman, couple of editors, q
sugar-pTanter, and the Governor
General of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Whittier my friends in the waggo-
nette intended to carry me | am sure
/ do not know but it was only after
number of piteous appeals on my
part, and meek entreaties, that
should be able to liberate my SOU
from the burden of the presents
from the Baroness to the King, that
/ was temporarily released from Gus
tody, or, the rather, handed over te
another amicable set of algua'
zils, who shunted me, so to speak
into n buggy drawn by two high
spirited horses, and driven by full
bearded gentleman of Enthusiastically
American extraction, in which vehi'