The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-29

of the population. Chinese and lana
nese in great numbers, Porto Ricans,
Portuguese, all brought into work the
sugar cane and of course many native
Hawaiians, fine. goodnatured. we'll
built people but averse to work and
consequently not amounting to much
as a race in their little archipelago.
Probably most of us associate Homo
lulu with leprosy in our minds and
imagine that cases may be seen on
the streets now and then The fact
is that all cases were long since
segregated and cared for at the leper
colony in Molokai, an island about
80 miles from Honolulu. In the year
that I spent in the city 1 never saw
a single case.
The history of these isolated Poly
nesians has always appealed to me
markable. How they were first dis
covered by Captain Cook in 1916 who
found them divided into MANY indie
pendent tribes: the conquest and unit
ing of them all by Kamehameha l.,
the greatest Of all Hawaiians. who
drove the last of his enemies over a
precipice 1000 feet high back of the
present city of Honolulu, at the foot
of which may be found even now, I
am told, the bones of the vanuuished.
This occurred about 1888 and for near
ly a century this little kingdom main
tanned its independence even though
Russia, England and the United
States at different times planted their
flags on the soil or made oyertures
threatening the extinction of the
kingdom. OF course you remembered
Norman Watkins of the Emerson
School and the E. B. H. S. He went
out to Honolulu years ago, fell in love
with the place and girl at about
the same time and is now a prosper
Gus merchant, of whom everybody
speaks we'll.
One always comes away from Homo
lulu with regret and many happy
memories; the scene at the departure
of ship is one long to be remember
ed. The departing travellers are load
ed with flower wreaths, called leis,
by the friends left and these are
placed round the neck and over the
shoulders, until, if one is very popu-
lar, little can be seen of the victim
but the top of his head. The native
boys who are among the most expert
of all peoples in the water play about
the ship and dive for coins thrown
over by the amused passengers, and
the territorial band on the pier plays
the most plaintive song, Aloha De, an
air that is enough to bring the tears
to the eyes of anyone.
On leaving Honolulu the long leg of
this journey is begun. The next stop
is at Guam a 13 days run. You cannot
help but ask yourself as you leave
Honolulu astern to enter this abSo-
lutely unfrequented part of the ocean,
| what would happen to these 1000
souls aboard in case of dangerous fire
or other disaster and our ship unpro-
vided with wireless as some are not.
| However, the voyage has always been
| made in safety and one usually does
not borrow trouble about such things.
| About the trip to Guam, all that re-
mains in ones memory, besides the
monotony, is that the nights are hot
| the days are hotter and some days are
hotter than others. Everyone is ready
! to see land when the steep high shores
! appear in the haze. The island, may
| remind you, is the southern most OF
| the Mariana group and is the only one
| owned by the {. s., having been ceded
| by Spain in 1885, the others being
| owned by Germany. Magellan first
discovered the group just before he
| stumbled upon the Philippines, but as
the natives stole from him everything
! that wasn't fastened down, he called
the Islands, the Ladrone Group, isles
of Thieves. Now, / see that our Gov
eminent has officially dropped this
name, believing, I suppose, that the
present generation should no longer
be obliged to suffer for the sins Of
! their fathers. The island resembles
in all respects one of the Philippine
| Group, and the people, 1 believe, are
similar to those of the Christian
tribes there. We have a little nava
station with a marine guard in the
principal town but the harbor is sc
insecure in a blow, that there is little
| value to the possession for the United
States.
The only benefit I have seen come
with the island is in the form of &
loathsome disease which has provided
much interesting material for Ameri
can Naval Surgeons who have recent
ly studied and identified it (Gaugosa)
and thus is added to the laurels o
Military Surgeons in the tropics
must tell you a story related to M
by a chaplain of the Army who ac
companied the first expedition to cap
ture Guam. 1t must be a true stor.
considering it's source. The island i
50 isolated and Spain had her hand
so full at the time of the war, tina
! word never got to the commandment 0
Guam that peace between the tw
countries had been broken. The Amer
lean squadron on arriving off the har
Dor threw few solid shots over in tn
direction of the Anticipated little for
at the lower end of the bay just t
let them know that it was time t
[ haul down the colors. Soon the Amer
leans saw small boat rowing out
| them carrying the flag of Spain, s
= firing was stopped and aboard wer
2 the commandment who paid his respect
5 to the Admiral and stated that he wa
= very sorry he could not return tn
i American salute because he had n
e powder, but if he were given the me-
: essary amount he would return an
e render the proper honors
n On leaving Guam for the 5 day
r sail to Manila, we get into the are
Of fFrYNh