The Arizona sentinel., 1896-03-14
A Journey to the Great Volcano.
 A Mysterious Plantation Owner.

A Mysterious Plantation Owner.
 Of course, no visitor to the Ha- waiian Islands fails to see the great volcano Kilauea. The journey to this volcano can now be made very com fortably. The Wilder Steamship Company runs a line of steamers from Honolulu to Hilo which there con- meet with a stage. This stage takes one to the Volcano House, about three miles from the crater.
 On Dec. 10, I boarded the Kinau, a steamer of the Wilder line, for Hilo. The next morning we were at one of the ports on the northern part of the island called Wahumacoua, where there was large sugar plantation for which our ship was bringing some heavy machinery. AS the vessel was anchored half mile from shore, the transportation of that ponderous ma chinery to land was an interesting sight. Two of the boats were lowered and lashed together with ropes and heavy beams of timber. Then the great iron rollers and cylinders were let down by means of steam derrick and placed on the two boats, which were then rowed ashore by the native sailors.
 The water in this bay is so clear that we could sec pebbles on the bot tom at the depth of forty or fifty feet Schools of fish, some weighing twenty to thirty pounds. could be seen swim ming about the ship. The natives on board cast over hooks and caught one fine large fellow.
 When the cargo for this port had been all taken ashore, we continued our voyage down the coast of the great island which, with its miles of stone fences and brown earth, seemed a barren waste. But as we proceeded the scene changed. duts and mills in abundance, with green pastures, cane fields, and forests succeeded bar rcn wastes Then soon, as we steam ed along the shorc, the snow-capped peak of Mauna Kel arose be fore our vision, ill strong contrast with the tropical sun and summer breeze that famed our cheeks.
 During the afternoon we passed the landing call. d Panilo, where Min iSter Stevens daughter, an estimahle young lady, was drowned. Miss S;evens had been visiting some friends at this place and was taking the vessel for Honolulu when the beat which was conveying her to the ship was overturned by the surf and she was drowned in fifty feet of water A native sailor afterward dived to the bottom and recovered her body,
 We arrived at Hilo at about eight in the evening, and going ashore I W taken in hack to the Hilo Hotel kept by Portuguese named Joseph Vierra. From here to the Volcano House one goes over a fairly good road thro lgh the Puma district in a stage, which makes the trip every other day.
 On the morning of December 14th we boarded the stage and left HilO. In the suburbs we halted to pick up a Japanese woman who was going up Il the road, and at the bridge beyond Hilo we took native man and an empty goods box on board Then the four horses with the stage swept down the road, through lane with rich cane fields on either side.
 After few miles the cane fields disappeared, and we plunged into vast forests of ahia wood mingled with which will coffee was growing Occasionally we passed narrow path leading into the dense jungle, and whenever one glanced down 1t, the n shanty of Japanese might have been seen snugly hidden away like a ground birds nest.
 | The stage carried the mail, and l was surprised at the mann r il which this Was distributed by the driver x At every path along the way he gave blast on his stage horn, and threw off letter or paper. Sometimes there was a po5t-box at the roadside . and as we whitled by the stage driver deftly dropped into it the mail for the owner of the plantation.
 One practise in Hawaii might teach valuable lesson to the United States and that is the employment of con vict labor on public roads Hawaii r- -r..n l. r.- best and some at the