The Hawaiian Archipelago

The Hawaiian Archipelago

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Title: The Hawaiian Archipelago
Author: Isabella L. Bird
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6750] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 22,
2003]
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THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO.
SIX MONTHS AMONG THE PALM GROVES, CORAL REEFS,
AND VOLCANOES OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
BY ISABELLA L. BIRD.

"Summer isles of Eden lying In dark purple spheres of sea."

To my sister, to whom these letters were originally written, they are
now affectionately dedicated.

PREFACE.
Within the last century the Hawaiian islands have been the topic of
various works of merit, and some explanation of the reasons which
have led me to enter upon the same subject are necessary.
I was travelling for health, when circumstances induced me to land on
the group, and the benefit which I derived from the climate tempted me
to remain for nearly seven months. During that time the necessity of
leading a life of open air and exercise as a means of recovery, led me to
travel on horseback to and fro through the islands, exploring the
interior, ascending the highest mountains, visiting the active volcanoes,
and remote regions which are known to few even of the residents,
living among the natives, and otherwise seeing Hawaiian life in all its
phases.
At the close of my visit, my Hawaiian friends urged me strongly to
publish my impressions and experiences, on the ground that the best
books already existing, besides being old, treat chiefly of aboriginal
customs and habits now extinct, and of the introduction of Christianity

and subsequent historical events. They also represented that I had seen
the islands more thoroughly than any foreign visitor, and the volcano of
Mauna Loa under specially favourable circumstances, and that I had so
completely lived the island life, and acquainted myself with the
existing state of the country, as to be rather a kamaina {0} than a
stranger, and that consequently I should be able to write on Hawaii
with a degree of intimacy as well as freshness. My friends at home,
who were interested in my narratives, urged me to give them to a wider
circle, and my inclinations led me in the same direction, with a sort of
longing to make others share something of my own interest and
enjoyment.
The letters which follow were written to a near relation, and often
hastily and under great difficulties of circumstance, but even with these
and other disadvantages, they appear to me the best form of conveying
my impressions in their original vividness. With the exception of
certain omissions and abridgments, they are printed as they were
written, and for such demerits as arise from this mode of publication, I
ask the kind indulgence of my readers. ISABELLA L. BIRD. January,
1875.

TRAVELS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
Canon Kingsley, in his charming book on the West Indies, says, "The
undoubted fact is known I find to few educated English people, that the
Coco palm, which produces coir rope, cocoanuts, and a hundred other
useful things, is not the same plant as the cacao bush which produces
chocolate, or anything like it. I am sorry to have to insist upon this fact,
but till Professor Huxley's dream and mine is fulfilled, and our schools
deign to teach, in the intervals of Greek and Latin, some slight
knowledge of this planet, and of those of its productions which are
most commonly in use, even this fact may need to be re-stated more
than once."
There is no room for the supposition that the intelligence of Mr.
Kingsley's "educated English" acquaintance