The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-03-15
THE HAPPY ISLES.
Continued from LIST Pages

that l would here speak. The day
when | had the honor of last seeing
her Majesty at the Royal town resi-
dence in Honolulu was a typical one
of those delicious attitudes. 1t was
at the beginning of March, in the
bygone year, the worst Of all our
Northern seasons for bitter winds
and chilling skies; but there, as
usual, a weather of Paradise prevail
ed. The islands lay under the azure
vault--,n peszo di ciclO cddWto in terra
as il indeed they had themselves
fallen from Heaven. These higher
Archipelagoes of the Pacific do not
exhibit, indeed, that lavish richness
of vegetation which marks the more
southerly groups. You will not see
on the slopes of Hawaii, or of Oahu,
or of MolDkai, the dark-green thick
cts which climb the hills of the islets
clustered nearer to the Equator.
The volcanic ridges of the Sandwich
Islands rise in most places, severe,
bare, and yellow with tho glow of a
perpetual sunshine upon their
grasses and dwarf-bushes. Nature at
Hawaii does not overpower tho
senses with her floral and sylvan
luxuriance as she does in the groves
and lanes of Ccylon or the gardens
of Singapore. But she girdles these
lovely isles with Cestus of wonder.
full beauty; and wherever the rains
have washed fertile debris down into
the glens and valleys, there she EN-
broiders every hollow with flowers
and foliage; and makes even the
heritage wonderful with plentiful
variety of blade and blossom. Once
clear of the somewhat too American
looking streets aud tramways of the
little city, the soft and sunny coun-
try commences with a delightful alb
ruptness. The ugly side walls change
into tall hedges of hibiscus and
milk-bush, interlaccd with passion
vines. The unpleasing stone stores
and Offices are transformed into
pretty rural houses or picturesque
native huts. The palms, which could
hardly be banished even from the
streets and wharves, rise now in
clusters and avenues, all leaning to-
wards the ocean as if they could not
live without hearing that perpetual
voice of the seas thunder upon the
circlng reef, and without catching
the salt breath of the sea in their
feathery and everlasting branches.
The commonplace awnings and
"piazzas" of the town are replaced
by overhanging curtains of the pur-
pie clematis, the large blue and
white convolvulus, and of the splen-
did Bourgainvilliers-this last being
the well-known Indian creeper,
which has mass Of colored leaves
for blossoms, and Sits the sunlight
down through myriad fingers, all
translucent with lilac light, as when
delicate hand is held up against a
lamp. The gardens are all full of
flowers, some familiar, some strange;
and every house possesses its gar
den. The roads are lined with mas
sive shade-trees, many bearing large
blossoms; and underneath them the
banana waves it's long green flags
the champak fills the air with per,
fume from delicate blooms of creamy
white and gold; and slender
smooth-leaved plant with tiny YER
million flowers climbs everywhere up
the stems of the breadfruit and pep
per-trees and iron-woods. Roses are
growing on all sides, and mingle,
we'll acclimatised, with the red hi
discus blossoms and the silver trum-
pets of the daturu. Nobody regards
flowers as luxury in these lovely
islands. They are an accepted neces,
sity of daily life, like rice and bread
and fresh water. The Kanaka, go.
ing down to fish, winds them round
his grass hat. The Hawaiian girl
riding astride to market upon hel
pony, has twisted spray of shell
flowers, or some pomegranate buds
in her black hair; the brown-skinneC
clerk sticks "morning- glory" behinC
his ear along with the pen; and you
coachman carries bouquet in hi.
waist-cloth. On one hand, as you
drive, are always the mountains; OF
the other shines always the sea
with, between them, the narrow bu
verdant lowland and fore shore
where rice-fields spread, with patches
of banana and sugar.cane, and wher,
amongst hocks of waterfowl, thu
mynas and rice-birds fit and CHR
rup. Above and around spreads al
ways the charm of the soft, warm
benignant Heaven, which seems t.
brood in peace over these brigh
islands; an air breathes which i
like balm to inhale, fresh and crisl
and sailed from the neighborine
?; waves, and yet sweet and mild will
/ the flowers and the sunshine, SO tina
a new pleasure arises in the simpl,
act of breathing. l imagine, too
that all this has been thrown III
! primevally from the bottom of thu
ocean in some fiery CONFUSION of tn
Earth's crust, and has slowly, b,
silent magic of Nature, develope,
into such grace, and peace, ant
, beauty. When you walk along tn
seashore between Honolulu and Dia
q mond Head, you smile at the disma
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