The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-21
TIE W|NDWARD COAST
(Continued from page %


sugar cane carrier spans the ravine,
tervals like great bird high up in the
air. When I first saw it, indeed, I
thought it was some monstrous kind
of bird flying across there.
Laupahoehoe would be all but inn
possible if it were not for the skill of
the Kanaka boatmen in surfing. They
are past masters at that craft. I do
not believe that even the dorymen of
the Maine coast can touch them at it.
And they carry ashore in small boats
freight that would puzzle a donkey
engine driver with a derrick at COM
mand to land on wharf. There is a
tale of crew Of Kanaka boatmen who
once landed a great roller for sugar
mill through the surf at Laupahoehoe.
And I suppose the tale is true. There
are sugar mills all along there, and
the rollers must have been carried to
them in some way.
HANDLED LIKE CATTLE.
But skillful above all are the boat
men in the handling of second class
passengers-Japs, for the most part,
but there are natives and Portuguese
and Chinese likewise among them. Ger
tainly the japanese who come to Ha-
wall are of the stupidest class of the
sons of Dali Nippon. They are abso-
lutely wooden, when they get into a
surf boat and try to board steamer
tumbling in the rollers at any landing.
There was a heavy sea at Laupahoe-
hoe, it is true, but the thing is the
same whether there is a sea or not.
The japanese cling to the seats of the
boat as they approach the sides of the
steamer, and cling more closely to any
bundles they may have in hand. II
one has two bundles, or half a dozen.
he tries the harder to cling to all OF
them at once.
The boatmen laugh at them good
naturedly enough-but they handle
them somewhat roughly. In fact, they
must do it in the interest of the safety
of the passengers. The Jap would cling
to the boat and to his bundles until
he fell into the sea, or until the boat
was raised to her davits, if he could.
1t is no joke, at the best Of times, to
board steamer at sea from a small
boat. When the steamer Is dancing
one way on the waves, and the boat
is dancing the other, it comes near to
being a tragedy. And, when a stupid
and terrified Jap is doing the boarding
we'll, l suppose it is a comedy if the
Jap makes the steamer
Anyway, tn" boatmsnt seem TO re-
gard it as a comedy. B,lt they are
most earnest ABOUT it for all that and
the way they tear the Japs loose flom
their hold on The small boat, men end
women and children alike, and tear the
them loose from their various purdles,
and literally throw them aboard the
larger vessel-the people, l mean, not
the bundles, although those are thrown
also-is a revelation in knock-about
horse play.
BACK TO HONOLULU.
1t had seemed to me, when I first
saw the boatmen throwing their pas
sengers about in that way, that it was
needless to be so rough with
them, that the boatmen We're doing it
in mere wantonness. A little study OF
the subject showed that this was not
true. Literally, the Japanese had to
be thrown on board the vessel, in the
interest of their own safety. If they
had been left to their own devices
they would never have got On board at
all. Which brings me around once
more to the conclusion that the Japa-
nese who come to these islands must
be of the most stupid class-or else sea
sickness has strange and most mark
ed effect upon them
Leaving Laupahoehoe, the Kinau
rounded the extreme point of the Big
Island and, because the wind was not
where 1t should have been. being
southerly. found a rough landing at
Mahukona, and rougher at Hawai- |
hae. But for the same reason that the |
wind was in the south the. run across !
the channel to Maui was very smooth |
indeed. 1t was just gray daylight when |
We drew out OF the smooth roadstead |
OF Lahaina, and squared away for the |
last lap on the way to Honolulu and |
home. And the channel here was |
smooth, also although it roughened up
a bit after Molokai Point was passed.
1t always does roughen up after Molo- |
kai Point is passed. You would not |
have the road to Paradise smooth. I |
hope, and all the way easy sailing. |
If it were. everybody would go there
and nobody would want to.