The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-04-03

turned from visiting the two great
wonders of the islands-Kilauea
and Haleaka!a-remarked that he
considered the latter of much more
interest than the former. His ac-
count of his visit to the Palace of
the Sum-" which appears below,
will be read with much interest:
In the old legends of India the first
men ate of the earth and found 1t de-
licious. They were thrilled by sun
and moon and stars, and in the dia-
mond-clear mornings and halcyon
sunsets they saw the symbol of God.
There is not so much simple faith and
poetry in the busy world of shams
TODAY, but if a man would be thrilled
with wonder and inspired with
thoughts of the eternal; if he would
forget the narrow, artificial and cur
tailed life of cities and become part
of the elemental world, let him go to
the island of Maui and climb 10000
feet above the level of the sea TO the
Palace of the Sun, which is a slumber-
ing volcano into which Americas
metropolis might be dropped without
Inconvenience.
The sovereign mountain wherein
Haleakala sleeps like dead giant-its
every rent and mound and confOrma-
ton "A history of tremendous energy
is about twenty miles from Spreckels-
vile, the largest plantation in the
world; but when one climbs gradu-
ally up the mountain side until he has
reached the rugged home of wild goats
and aboriginal cattle, the 10000 acres
of sugar cane surrounding Spreckels-
vile do not look much larger than
town lot; and before the apex of the
mountain is reached the land and
ocean in the back ground are OBJ
structed by great banks Of clouds,
which lie far beneath the observer.
There is on the way a delightful
summer residence known as Olinda, a
quiet and picturesque rest for the
weary, which nestles on the sloping
mountain, about four miles below the
spot from which tourists view the
ancient prison wherein the god Maui
chained the sun until he promised
to give the Hawaiian Islands their
bountiful light and heat. The four
miles from Olinda to the crest of this
great mountain are the longest four
miles in the Hawaiian Islands; for the
road is continually washed away by
mountain torrents, the air is thin and
unsubstantial as the fabric of a
dream, and the solitude has a greater
pressure to the square inch than any
barometer can measure.
l have ridden and climbed afoot
over many weary miles in my time
amid Kansas cyclones, about Nag
ara in winter, and through the Jesse
James country at night but the NEST
weird and Oppressively lonesome
Journey | ever made was last weeks
moonlight ride from Olinda to the
Palace of the Sun. The trip must be
made at night. because elves of the
valley and wraiths of the mysterious
mountain vanish at the first peep of
morning, and the fairies that people
the marvellous crater, where once the
orb of day dwelU a prisoner, depart
soon after the appearance of dawn.
The latch string at Olinda hangs
within reach of presentable people,
though no one lives in the house. Its
dread silence is in keeping with the
solitude of the sombre mountain.
Within are many evidences of pros
perity, culture and unequaled hOspi
tality-as seen in neat furniture, bed
clothing, books and signs suspended
from chandeliers, saying: "Please
make yourself at home, but be careful
about matches J"
But when one leaves Olinda he
bids farewell to familiar scenes and
enters realm more fantastic than
any Midsummer Nights Dream of
hakespeare-provided he has sure
footed horse. tits awkward to have a
animal break ones reveries,
and possibly ribs, by sudden miss-steps
over the burrows and powders, which
are called trail out of courtesy, and
by a supreme effort of the imagina-
ton. In the thin air of the rare alti-
tude extending from Olinda to the
top the stars look double
their normal size, while the moon
bursts into a sheen of glory and bur-
nishes the clouds in strange and
tints. These spectacles need
not alarm anyone, however. They are
not freaks of Haleakala, or OmiDous
signs, but merely the everyday dress
of nature, the normal phases OF her
in this neighborhood.
There is nothing in the appearance
of the wild cattle, or in the solid
masses of rock and earth which sur
round one in all directions, to suggest
that this vast mountain once had the
misfortune of losing its bowels; that
a convulsiOn of nature, or volcanic
eruption in ancient times, robbed it of
as much land as would make county
and that this prehistoric loss was
nothing less than the disappearance
of earth enough to leave a chasm 5000
feet deep and thirty miles in circum
ference; but such are the facts, and it
is well worth the journey to see just
how big mountain looks after it has
belched forth so much valuable terri
tory.
The pilgrim finally reaches the edge
of Observation-Disclosures daylight if he is
To his left is cave beneath
a pinnacle of ragged rocks, and before
him the crater. The entire clrcum-
ference of the silent pit is surrounded
by mountain powders and cathedral
shaped cliffs, with here and there a
gap Into which people can walk, and
fIom which they can look upon the |
Su llimaSt Sneotapla on Rarfl-a new |