The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
- Page 111 of 244 - First - Home
Some Of My Photographs Of Some Of Our Eminent Literary And
Scientific Men Were Lying On The Table, And The
King in looking at
them showed a surprising amount of knowledge of what they had
written or done, quite entitling
Him to unite in Stanley's
"Communion of Educated Men." I had previously asked him for his
signature for my autograph collection, and he said he had composed a
stanza for me which he thought I might like to have in addition. He
called with it on the following afternoon, apologising for his
dress, a short jacket and blue trowsers, stuffed into boots
plastered with mud up to the knees. I was surprised when he asked
me if the lines were correctly spelt, for he speaks English
remarkably well. They are simply a kind wish, unaffectedly
expressed.
HILO. HAWAII, Feb. 26.
"Wheresoe'er thou may'st roam,
Wheresoe'er thou mak'st thy home,
May God thy footsteps guide,
Watch o'er thee and provide.
This is my earnest prayer for thee,
Welcome, stranger, from over the sea."
LUNALILO R.
It startles one sometimes to hear American vulgarisms uttered in his
harmonious tones. The American admiral and generals had just
arrived from the volcano, stiff, sore, bruised, jaded, "done," and
the king said, "I guess the Admiral's about used up." He is really
remarkably attractive, but I am sorry to observe a look of
irresolution about his mouth, indicative of a facility of
disposition capable of being turned to the worst account. I think
from what I have heard that the Hawaiian kings have fallen victims
rather to unscrupulous foreigners, than to their own bad instincts.
My last day has been taken up with farewell visits, and I finish
this on board the "Kilauea." Miss Karpe and I had to ride two
miles, to a point at which it was possible to embark without risk, a
heavy surf having for three weeks rendered it impossible for loaded
boats to communicate with the shore at Hilo. My clothes were soaked
when we reached the rocks, and Upa, very wet, carried us into a wet
whale-boat, with water up to our ancles, which brought us over a
heavy sickening swell into this steamer, which is dirty as well as
wet. I told Upa to lead my mare, and ride his own horse, but the
last I saw of him was on the mare's back, racing a troop of natives
along the beach. {215}
I.L.B.
LETTER XV.
WAIMEA. HAWAII.
There is no limit to the oddities of the steam-ship "Kilauea." She
lay rolling on the Hilo swell for two hours, and two hours after we
sailed her machinery broke down, and we lay-to for five hours, in
what they here call a heavy gale and sea. It was a miserable night.
No privacy: the saloon both hot and wet, almost every one sick. I
lay in my berth in my soaked clothes watching the proceedings of a
gigantic cockroach, and listening, not without amusement, to the
awful groans of a Chinaman, and a "rough customer" from California,
who occupied the next berths.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 111 of 244
Words from 57404 to 57921
of 127766