The Oskaloosa herald., 1893-02-09
NIGHT At KLLAUEA.
BY ROBERT MEREDITH.
God moves in mysterious ways his won
ders to Derforfn -

God moves in mysterious ways his Won
ders to perform"
No doubt every one in his curiou
moments has thought that he shoul'
like to have been present at the dawn o
creation and witnessed the making o
the world. But do you know that b,
a short journey Of only two weeks yol
may arrive at place where God is nov
at work forming beautiful islands TO
the habitation of men?
Sometime far back in the ages thu
waves of the ocean rolled in one un
broken sweep from the shores of JapaI
to California. But as nature abhors {
vacuum, she also dislikes such vast
expanse of deSolatiOn; so in a weal
place in the bottom of the sea, in thu
middle of the Pacific, the internal fires
of the earth broke forth and spouted &
column of lava up through two or three
miles of water and high into the air
Such battle between fire and water
beggars description, yet the natives OF
the Sandwich Islands have often heer
treated to such a sight. The lava
spread out over the bottom of the sea
forming rocks which finally reached
the surface and four thousand feet
higher. This is the island of, Kaui, the
farthest to the northwest of the Ha-
waiian group. The fires here finally
died out and broke forth again some
sixty miles to the southeast, forming
the island of Oahu. Then moving on
in the same direction they threw up the
islands of Molokai, Laui and Maui.
Here the volcanoes left the grandest
specimen of their handiwork to be
found on the globe. On topof noun
tain, nearly two miles high, is crater
two thousand feet deep and ten miles
in diameter. What terrible sight it
must have been when this great caul-
dron was shaking and groaning in a
seething mass of fiery billows!
The natives have beautiful legend
of this great crater of Haleakala, the
House of the Sun. When the fires first
broke forth and began to drink up the
waters of the sea, the god of the Ocean
became very angry and fought hard and
long trying to subdue them, but failed.
Then he called on the god of the Winds,
who sent hurricane that gathered a
mountain of sand from the sea shore
and threw it into the crater. This
aroused the fury of Old Madam Pele,
the goddess of Fire and mistress of the
House of the Sun, who sailed forth, like
mad woman with broom, and hurled
the sand back into the clouds, but it
fell back only to be again thrown up by
the indignant goddess. This continued
for many generations until the goddess
was almost worried to death and finally
concluded to abandon her house to the
sands which soon chOked out the fires.
But Pele, though vanquished, was not
conquered, and would not be outdone.
So she iourneyed for seventy-fve miles
to the southeast and renewed her
attack on Old Ocean, throwing up the
island of Hawaii, which is larger than
all the others together. If the sands
ever came she was vigilant and kept
them swept out until she reared two
mountains fourteen thousand feet high
and reaching above the clouds. Being
so high the god of the Winds could lift
no more sand and the Ocean employed
him to cast snow upon the goddess;
but she only laughs at this and the snow
melts at the gentlest blast of her breath.
Thus is the goddess enthrOned on the
top of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea,
high above the clouds and storms, q
solemn warning to any man who is har-
boring the foolish idea that he can con.
quer woman.
On the side of Mauna Loa is the great
crater of Kilauea, the largest active
volcano in the world, where in cauldron
five hundred feet deep and nine miles
in circumference the fiery billOws have
not ceased to roll since the earliest ira
ditions of the natives.
Once upon a time, when I was walk
ing to and fro on the earth, 1 was seized
with an intense desire to see this great
est of all wonders. But here, as in SC
many other places in this world, the
avarice of man has shut out Gods
richest blessings frem the lot of the
poor. volcano is thirty miles inland
and approached by difficult roads over
lava bed. A rich company has monop
oliZed the travel and tries to extort
about fifty dollars from every one who
sees the great fire. They own all the
taverns on the way, and compel mer
who venture to go afoot and without
guides to pay 81 day for board.
l purposed in my heart that I would
see Kilauea and not even pay these fel
lows dollar for meal. It has beer
said that the trappers in the west used
sometimes to subsist for good while
on parched corn, and that in proportion
to bulk man can live longer on this
food than any other. So with some corr
and little dried beef set out, intend
ing to burst the Hawaiian land, water
and transportation monopoly. 1t was
dangerous experiment, as the seque
will show how nearly we both were
busted"
On the morning of the second day
started early, for the trail led over sew
enteen miles of lava beds, and was 81
rough and crooked that it was like go
ing up awinding stairs. But the though
of such wonder on ahead will stimu,
late any man, and by two o'clock / be
gan to smell the fumes of the everlast
ing fires. AT the volcano house was ;