The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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But She Is Clean, And As Sweet As A Boat Can Be Which
Carries Through The Tropics Cattle, Hides, Sugar, And Molasses.
She
is very low in the water, her deck is the real "fisherman's walk,
two steps and overboard;" and on this occasion was occupied solely
by natives.
The Attorney General and Mrs. Judd were to have been my
fellow voyagers, but my disappointment at their non-appearance was
considerably mitigated by the fact that there was not stowage room
for more than one white passenger! Mrs. Dexter pitied me heartily,
for it made her quite ill to look down the cabin hatch; but I
convinced her that no inconveniences are legitimate subjects for
sympathy which are endured in the pursuit of pleasure. There was
just room on deck for me to sit on a box, and the obliging,
gentlemanly master, who, with his son and myself, were the only
whites on board, sat on the taffrail.
The Jenny spread her white duck sails, glided gracefully away from
the wharf, and bounded through the coral reef; the red sunlight
faded, the stars came out, the Honolulu light went down in the
distance, and in two hours the little craft was out of sight of land
on the broad, crisp Pacific. It was so chilly, that after admiring
as long as I could, I dived into the cabin, a mere den, with a
table, and a berth on each side, in one of which I lay down, and the
other was alternately occupied by the captain and his son. But
limited as I thought it, boards have been placed across on some
occasions, and eleven whites have been packed into a space six feet
by eight! The heat and suffocation were nearly intolerable, the
black flies swarming, the mosquitos countless and vicious, the fleas
agile beyond anything, and the cockroaches gigantic. Some of the
finer cargo was in the cabin, and large rats, only too visible by
the light of a swinging lamp, were assailing it, and one with a
portentous tail ran over my berth more than once, producing a
stampede among the cockroaches each time. I have seldom spent a
more miserable night, though there was the extreme satisfaction of
knowing that every inch of canvas was drawing.
Towards morning the short jerking motion of a ship close hauled,
made me know that we were standing in for the land, and at daylight
we anchored in Koloa Roads. The view is a pleasant one. The rains
have been abundant, and the land, which here rises rather gradually
from the sea, is dotted with houses, abounds in signs of
cultivation, and then spreads up into a rolling country between
precipitous ranges of mountains. The hills look something like
those of Oahu, but their wonderful greenness denotes a cooler
climate and more copious rains, also their slopes and valleys are
densely wooded, and Kauai obviously has its characteristic features,
one of which must certainly be a superabundance of that most
unsightly cactus, the prickly pear, to which the motto nemo me
impune lacessit most literally applies.
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