The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-07

generally SMOOTH upland. We forded
the streams. Beyond Kipapa gulch the
upland was dotted with occasional
groves of Koa trees. On the high plains
/, the ii plant abounded, often so high as
to intercept the view. No cattle then
existed to destroy it's succulent foliage.
According to the statements of the ma
! tiveS, forest formerly covered the
then nearly naked plains. 1t was burn
led off by the natives in seach of sandal
wood, which they detected by it's odor
when burning. There were no bridges
in Waialua. I think we crossed the
icreeks in canoes, swimming the horses.
The Emersons were living in the
then new stone house, which is still
standing, much dilapidated. The wood
Ell upper story was added later. At
one time l spent several weeks there
very pleasantly with my mother Both
Mr.. and Mrs. E. were very kind Mr..
Emerson heard my Virgil lessons, and
indicted me into the mystery of scan
ming heXameters. He was an apt teach
er.
The only disagreeable thing l remem-
Der was a certain monotony of diet at
supper, which consisted chiefly of pal
al and molasses. Mr.. E. made his own
Imolasses, grinding a few bundles of
cane in little wooden mill turned by
oxen, and boiling down the juice in an
old whalers try-pot. The syrup was so
thick as to run with difficulty from the
bottle, and extremely sweet All our
molasses at Eva was supplied by Mr..
Emerson. On one occasion the mission
airy took his ox-cart, and with several
natives, we went some distance along
the beach to the northward, where we
broke out and loaded the cart with
quantity of large blocks of creamy
sandstone. from twelve to fifteen inches
thick. 1t was found beneath the sand
! in the water, and was in so soft a con-
dition as to be cut like cheese. After
a few days exposure, it petrified to
great hardness. just as lime mortar does
/ by carbonating In the air. After get
ting it to the house, all hands went to
work to hollow and shape the blocks
into conical drip stones I was fur
nfshed with mallet and gouge, and hol-
lowed out passable drip stone not very
well proportioned. Such stones were
much used for filtering and cooling
water In those days.
Our journeys to Honolulu were infre-
/
horseback, my father having become the
possessor of a horse or two. The road
was only the native trail, winding up
the various pals on the way. There
were no bridges in these islands until
after 1870 We emerged from Moana-
lua valley a quarter mile above the
present road, fording the fish pond be-
yond Iwilei and wading through the
rai Iyya n
Every two or three months, Mr.. Elmer
son would call at our house on his way
to town. Rev. Lowell Smith was also
a frequent guest, loving to visit his old
parish. and helping to inspire the peo-
pie in spiritual things. He was an alert
and genial missionary, very single
minded and full of zeal In riding, he
always wore a thin black claw hammer
coat. the skirts carefully pinned for
ward to keep them from contact with
the back of the horse. Those old Eva
missionaries would have marvelled
could they have had a vision of pres
, ,ent conditions, with swift railway
trains sweeping through the country,
vast cane fields intersected by rail-
tracks and huge irrigation pipes climb
ing the uplands from the immense
steam pumps. My father, who died in
1872, never saw a railway, nor even a
/, large steamer. During half a century
, his only trip abroad was on a mission
airy errand to the Marquesas.
The lochs or lagoons of Pearl River
were not then as shoal as now. The
subsequent occupation of the uplands
by cattle denuded the country of herb
age, and caused vast quantities of
earth to be washed down by storms into
/ the lagoons, shoaling the water for a
long distance seward. No doubt the
area of deep water and anchorage has
been greatly diminished. In the thir-
!, ties, the small pearl oyster was quite
, abundant, and common on our table.
Small pearls were frequently found in
them. No doubt the copious inflow OF
fresh water favored their presence.
!. think they have become almost entirely
: extinct, drowned out by the mud. There
was also at Pearl River a handsome
speckled clam of delicate flavor, which
contained milk-white pearls of exquis-
, tie luster, and perfectly spherical.
, think that clam Is till found in the Eva
: 1ochs.
, But the greatest change in Eva is In
the almost extinction of the native pop
| ulation. Some 1000 Asiatic laborers
: have taken their places, and few Ha-
: waiians are to be seen. The few who
, remain have abundant means, renting
their lands to the Industrious Chinese
: The greatest destruction to Hawaii
population took place in the summer OF
1858, by an invasion of smallpox This
| broke out in Honolulu. Rev. A. Bishop
: Immediately procured a supply of vac
cine matter. which proved to be spur
l ious. He then proceeded to inoculate
: the people with smallpox, thus saving
: hundreds of lives, and himself coming
down with varioloid having formerly
2 been vaccinated. But more than hall
t the population Of Eva persisted IN a few
weeks. The earliest cases were pa