The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-11-18
LETTER FROM HA Wan


Hawiian Ter, Sunday, October l8, 1908
AS no mail steamers have come in
since we arrived, and will not before
we leave, l will write again and prob
ably for the last time In this port We
leave with the seven other cruisers on
the 22nd for Magdalena, have battle
practice, finish about Dec lst, and take
three and one half months cruise,
visiting Panama. Callao, Peru, Gala
pagos ID, and Coquimbo and Talcu
huano In Chile, returning to Magda.
lena by March 18th, have record target
practice and return north arriving at
Frisco about the first of May. have
been ashore since last writing and had
a very enjoyable time. hired horse,
but remembering with pain my last
experience in this port on horse,
] obtained carriage instead of saddle
and travelled In comfort. | was accom-
panied by Bourbean and our aim was
the Nuuanu "Pali". Nuuanu is the
name Of a valley and Pail is the Hawai-
ian name for cliff. This Pail is six
miles from the city proper and 32l0
feet above it and is reached by fine
macadamized road; the valley, as nature
designed it came to an abrupt end at
the Pail, where is a sheer drop OF 1900
feet. In recent years road has been
cut into the cliff and one can continue
on to the other side of the island.
On our visit to the Pail we drove out
the Nuuanu Valley, past groves of
cocoanuts, bananas, pine apples, sugar
cane and many other tropical fruits,
past beautiful residences, Japanese and !
Chinese districts, and finally up In the |
valley, the superb scenery of cloud |
wreathed mountains and water falls,
jungles, anf a fine view of the city.
When the Pail is reached one can
imagine almost what it is to be up in
balloon II 1t we're not for the fearful
breeze coming In from the sea. Below
lays rich fertile valley covered with
plantations and farms, beyond the sea
rolling In with thunderous noise OF
the heavy surf. or course it was some
what difficult at times to navigate that
horse, but the craft responded to the
tiler ropes nobly and aside from
grounding on few shoals and un-
chartered rocks 1--WE not possessing
charts) we made port In fine shape. |!
The engines were heated trife, judg-
ing from the sweat running from the
legs, but after good rub down and
put in dry dock at the livery she was
ready to take two more blue jackets
to the Pali Bourbean aud | made
numerous notes of the Pail and also
ransacked all the libraries In town for
information on that SUBJECT. Borbean
intends to sell an article to some
magazine. we are beginning to make
ourselves known for the tour of the
world we will make later on. For
supper we had some "poi.' You may
think it is pie, but II you can imagine
poi looks like; as to its taste 1t is very
unlike anything l ever before tasted.
The natives call it lone finger" or 1.-TWO
finger" poi, according to whether a
good mouthfulis thick enough to stick
to one finger or II 1t takes two. Poi
is made OF the roots Of the Tara, a
plant growing like an onion, leaves like
lily and roots like potato. The
roots are beaten into pulp and cooked
and there is poi, the national dish.
The Navy Department is making
strong preparations for large naval
base at Pearl Harbor, about eight miles
east of here. I believe II there would
be fine work it would be at the navy
yard, provided the government did not
employ cheap Jap, Chinese or Kanaka
labor. The climate here is the finest
God ever created but unless a white
man is sure of his daily bread this is
no place for him; too much cheap labor.
The people here are fine, just as court
eOuS anu kluu dS eau Ue, anu Tue
Pacific feet loves this port. The
whole eight armored cruisers are here
now, also the seven destroyers, after
the sixteen battleships it is the most
powerful fleet in the pavy. The people
here like the Pacific fleet immensely
as is demonstrated by the balls and
social entertainments given us.
This afternoon there was an out
rigger canoe race between men OF the
ships Of the "Big A.. l have not
learned the result. The French cruiser
"Catiaat" is here from Tahiti, she is
small and has the anormons ram |