The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-09-07
BISHOP pOTTER'S IMPRESSIONS =
OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

most aQHllTdUie monthly IN Amt Ia,
contains Bishop potte-'s impressions
of the Hawaiian Islands," a Gu az
fror,, which appears peioW. Other con-
, tents Of the magazine are "Mid-Ai
Dining Clubs by Cleveland Moffett;
1.-THE Crown of the Continent" by G.
b. Grinnell; AN American Landscape
Painter by Edward Waldo Emerson
Louis Philippe in the United States.
| by Jane Marsh Parker; How I saved
Ben" by Lew Wallace; Edmund Burke
and the French Revolution" by Wood
row Wilson and the usual fine fiction
and poetry:
IMPRESSIONS OF THE HAWAIIAN
ISLANDS.
During a recent voyage across the Pa
cific our evenings In the steamers fine
saloon We're often beguiled by the music
of various races and tongues. modern
ships company has as little homogenelty
in nationality as in interests; and to a
traveller of philosophic temperament few
things are more interesting than to note
the ways In which this fact at first be-
trays itself, only to melt away before a
great while, If there be the opportunity
Of a long voyage, into kindly and
neighborly temper which enforced prox-
unity makes both sensible and mutually
agreeable. Our transatlantic racers, it
Is true, offer little or no chance for any
thing of this sort. The voyage is scahce-
ly begun before it is ended, and the con-
ventions OF social reserve, and some
times the memory Of rather painful ex-
periences, conspire to beget in the tray
- 0f
clusiveness. But in a long Pacific voy-
age it is different People who are des-
tined to be two or three weeks together
In the same ship and at the same table
sooner or later conclude to make the
best of the situation, and one and all
bring out their store of amusements or
accomplishments for the common bene-
fit.
It is to this that we owed, on an even
ing that will always be memorable, the
privilege OF listening to some Hawaiian
songs accompanied by running COM
mentary both descriptive and historical.
to which I am bound to say am indebt-
ed, in it's larger suggestions, for the out
lines of this paper. The singer and per-
former-for he was both-was an Amer
lean gentleman whose name. If were at
liberty to record 1t here, would be famil-
lar to many American ears; and he
brought to his task rare And most In
dividual charm. He was born In Homo
lulu, of an ancestry identified with the
earliest missionary history of the Sand
witch Islands, and he united in himself
the fine insight of his New England fore
fathers and the sunny vivacity Of Oahu.
The instrument which he used was a
primitive guitar consisting OF wooden
bowl with metal strings across its open
nrOdnceG hy n
ipulation analogous to that of banjo;
and along with this he undertook to give
a brief history of the evolution of Ha-
waiian music. Some of us had heard it.
or thought we had-while in the islands,
and had been much struck with both its
plaintiveness and its tunefulness. 1t was
a rude shock to learn that, In its prim-
tive and unadulterated form, Hawaiian
music had neither characteristic; and
that for the obvious reason that 1t con-
sisted in humping the bottom of the
wooden bowl and twanging a single
string. The performer then illustrated
how these elementary modes of express
ing musical ideas had been Influenced
by the incoming of civilization; how the
Hawaiians had caught the airs of the
missionary hymns and modified them by
their own Interpretation of them; and
finally how as the element of civilized
life became more pervasive and potential.
the music of the native and the manipu-
lation of his Instruments took up into
themselves everything-and it was appar-
emily not much-that was Ineligible to
the native mind, even to the last negro
or music-hall melody.
The whole was parable of really large
suggestiveness. For one could not but
see in 1t how what had come to pass in
connection with something that, after all,
was very small part of a peoples life,
was that which had taken place in other
and far graver aspects of that life. There
was, in other words, first the primitive
simplicity and barbarism of that life.
with all It's charm and all its dreamtness;
and then, step by step. there came to
be, out of the mere babel of primal In
stincts and acts like primal noises, some
thing increasingly complex. increasingly
pathetic, and sometimes, alas! increas-
| ingly tragic.
| For one cannot read the history of the
aboriginal days of those beautiful ISL
ands without being sensible first of all OF
their charm. In their merely natural as
pect this, in it's almost dramatic con.
| trasts, has unique fascination. AS the
| Hawaiian Islands rise out of the sea to
| the vision of one who sees them for ths
| first time from the deck of ship, theil
| aspect is Doth rugged ana august Inc
mountain ranges are distinguished by
great strength of outline and boldness OF
proportion; and, as seen against the sky
as we saw them, with the moon rising
| behind them, have In them something
| indescribably mysterious and noble. But
as they are more nearly approached, they
are seen to be clothed almost to theii
SUBMITS with rich verdure, and this
| has singularly gracious quality of soft
| ness and depth.
| This feature in the landscape seems
somehow typical of the people. Their
| history reveals them as distinguished by
| characteristics of great savagery and
| cruelty; but their ordinary aspect, and
their unspoiled manner toward strangers
where 1t stiIl survives, Is one of an in
dividual and most unusual charm. Nc
one who has seen them will find himself
tempted to compare them to any other
| people or race Wherever they derived
the traits of form and feature that dis
| tinguish them-and their racial origin Is
hidden In considerable obscurity--they dc
not resemble the races or people from
| whom they are supposed to be sprung
| The race found by the first explorer
| Juan de Gatan, commander of the Span
| ish exploring expedition sent out when