The Hawaiian Archipelago | Page 7

we expect to sight land. In spite of minor
evils, our voyage has been a singularly pleasant one. The condition of
the ship and her machinery warrants the strongest condemnation, but
her discipline is admirable, and so are many of her regulations, and we
might have had a much more disagreeable voyage in a better ship.
Captain Blethen is beyond all praise, and so is the chief engineer,
whose duties are incessant and most harassing, owing to the critical
state of the engines. The Nevada now presents a grotesque appearance,
for within the last few hours she has received such an added list to port
that her starboard wheel looks nearly out of the water. I.L.B.

LETTER II.
HAWAIIAN HOTEL, HONOLULU, Jan. 26th.
Yesterday morning at 6.30 I was aroused by the news that "The
Islands" were in sight. Oahu in the distance, a group of grey, barren
peaks rising verdureless out of the lonely sea, was not an exception to
the rule that the first sight of land is a disappointment. Owing to the
clear atmosphere, we seemed only five miles off, but in reality we were
twenty, and the land improved as we neared it. It was the fiercest day
we had had, the deck was almost too hot to stand upon, the sea and sky
were both magnificently blue, and the unveiled sun turned every
minute ripple into a diamond flash. As we approached, the island
changed its character. There were lofty peaks, truly--grey and red, sun-
scorched and wind-bleached, glowing here and there with traces of
their fiery origin; but they were cleft by deep chasms and ravines of
cool shadow and entrancing green, and falling water streaked their
sides--a most welcome vision after eleven months of the desert sea and
the dusty browns of Australia and New Zealand. Nearer yet, and the

coast line came into sight, fringed by the feathery cocoanut tree of the
tropics, and marked by a long line of surf. The grand promontory of
Diamond Head, its fiery sides now softened by a haze of green,
terminated the wavy line of palms; then the Punchbowl, a very perfect
extinct crater, brilliant with every shade of red volcanic ash, blazed
against the green skirts of the mountains. We were close to the coral
reef before the cry, "There's Honolulu!" made us aware of the
proximity of the capital of the island kingdom, and then, indeed, its
existence had almost to be taken upon trust, for besides the lovely
wooden and grass huts, with deep verandahs, which nestled under
palms and bananas on soft green sward, margined by the bright sea
sand, only two church spires and a few grey roofs appeared above the
trees.
We were just outside the reef, and near enough to hear that deep sound
of the surf which, through the ever serene summer years girdles the
Hawaiian Islands with perpetual thunder, before the pilot glided
alongside, bringing the news which Mark Twain had prepared us to
receive with interest, that "Prince Bill" had been unanimously elected
to the throne. The surf ran white and pure over the environing coral reef,
and as we passed through the narrow channel, we almost saw the coral
forests deep down under the Nevada's keel; the coral fishers plied their
graceful trade; canoes with outriggers rode the combers, and glided
with inconceivable rapidity round our ship; amphibious brown beings
sported in the transparent waves; and within the reef lay a calm surface
of water of a wonderful blue, entered by a narrow, intricate passage of
the deepest indigo. And beyond the reef and beyond the blue, nestling
among cocoanut trees and bananas, umbrella trees and breadfruits,
oranges, mangoes, hibiscus, algaroba, and passion-flowers, almost
hidden in the deep, dense greenery, was Honolulu. Bright blossom of a
summer sea! Fair Paradise of the Pacific!
Inside the reef the magnificent iron-clad California (the flag-ship) and
another huge American war vessel, the Benicia, are moored in line with
the British corvette Scout, within 200 yards of the shore; and their
boats were constantly passing and re-passing, among countless canoes
filled with natives. Two coasting schooners were just leaving the
harbour, and the inter-island steamer Kilauea, with her deck crowded
with natives, was just coming in. By noon the great decrepit Nevada,

which has no wharf at which she can lie in sleepy New Zealand, was
moored alongside a very respectable one in this enterprising little
Hawaiian capital.
We looked down from the towering deck on a crowd of two or three
thousand people--whites, Kanakas, Chinamen--and hundreds of them at
once made their way on board, and streamed over the ship, talking,
laughing, and remarking upon us in a language which seemed without
backbone. Such rich brown men and women they were, with wavy,
shining black hair, large, brown,