The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-13

not worth the bother OF carting away
after 1t had served its end in con-
vincing this Kamehameha that he was
not king enough to take hand In the
game of American transportation. Neg
Elected and forgotten the coal lay in
the air, the tropical rains bleached out
all its combustible material and the
heap was no more than a pile of soft
and friable black rock which looked
like coke but would not burn at all
| Sitting socially on the stringpiece
of the wharf at the foot of Alakea
I'street in Honolulu an amateur of the
out of the way and little visited is
lands of the Pacific in the middle sos
shore information as to the feasibility
of visiting Midway. Beckley was Ad-
miral by inheritance; on the English
and named side he came from one of
the hardy adventures who jumped
their ships under the spell of South
Sea life and came to preferment in the
train of the first Kamahameha, war.
rior great in any history, who was
keen to acquire white men who had
the art of firing such artillery as he
was able to buy from visiting whalers.
On the distaff side Beckley was Ad-
miral by descent from an ancestral
. line of Polynesian navigstors, the most
marvellous seamen of all geography.
. With his instinct for the sea he had
r come to interisland preferment as
skipper of the steamship Kinau, re.
diculOLs little tub which wallOwed pig
wise in tumultuous seas of the Alenui.
haha channel on her weekly voyages
from Honolulu to Hilo in Hawaii, al
ways about to be engulfed and always
rescued by a portion of good luck and
by greater portion of Beckley's skill
in jockeying her through the worst
, Beas that any ocean can show There
fore Beckley was the source of all in
formation as to the navigation Of the
Pacific in Hawaiian waters and in the
seas Immediately adjacent thereto.
"Brookss Island-say, you don't
want to go to Brooks's Islands, was
, the positive reply of Admiral Beckley
: when his pipe was drawing well and
, the random dogs of Alakea street and
=. the fish market had been clouted
. away.
The question had been put in terms
+. of Midway Islands, but Capt. Reynolds
, and the Lackawanna had then so re
9 Gently been along on the annexation
=. cruise that the new name still rank
. led in the memory of a Hawaiian roy
b. alist in whose mind it was impossible
! for the notion to take root that his
own kingdom of the eight islands
| would in time become an American
r territory Midway between the devi
, and the deep sea, that's the only kind
! Of Midway those islands are; they're
> Brookss Islands, named after the skip
. per who found them, and l knew hin
2 well when he was here in Honolulu il
| the old Gambia, and | ought to know
r islands, Brookss Islands, and that!
t good enough for us.
l But first off you don't want to &c
, to Brookss Islands at all, for there.
r nothing there but birds Then if you
Y do go there you don't want to go il
2 that boat of yours. You charter one
of these cockroach schooners for the
! cruise, then therell be something fol
/. your estate to realize on when you
5 don't come back. And even then you
t don't want to CO."
I Pressed for more definite sailing di
t rections, for the notes in Findlay's
D Directory of the Pacific" were found
3 singuarly vague and Meinecke haC
3 found material for less than a page, il
! proved that the Kinsu's Admiral haC
; never been that far and did not know
= any one who had ventured on so un
3 promising a voyage.
4 when you take your departure
c from Niihau and little Lehua close
+ abreast of it the next land you picI
+ up is Nihoa; that's the. first of the birt
y islands and sometimes it's called Birt
i Island; but we don't, for Hawaiian
canoes had been out there in the days
of the great kings of Kauai. TheI
= the next island you'll come to is Neck
!, er, still sailing westnorthwest; more
[ birds there; and the next is French
o Frigate, that's a dangerous shoal will
- big rock showing up on it at tn,
e northwest end; and then comes Gar
I diners Island, which you can pick NJ
t plainly enough if you don't pile up oil
f Two Brothers reef that lies just to tn,
t southwark.
= Then there's big jump to Lay
c san, only Mary reef and Dowsett rec
. ale close inboard before you reach Lay
l. san and you've got to keep sharI
r lookout for them. That's the home o
y all the birds there are in the Pacific
e Ocean.
o UTbav oil cOna IN I.aVsan IN bui1i