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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They Saw An Avalanche Of Red Earth, Which They
Supposed To Be Lava, Burst From The Mountain Side, Throwing Rocks
High Into The Air, Swallowing Up Houses, Trees, Men, And Animals;
And Travelling Three Miles In As Many Minutes, Burying A Hamlet,
With Thirty-One Inhabitants And 500 Head Of Cattle.
The people of
the valleys fled to the mountains, which themselves were splitting
in all directions, and collecting on an elevated spot, with the
earth reeling under them, they spent the night of April 2 in prayer
and singing.
Looking towards the shore, they saw it sink, and at
the same moment a wave, whose height was estimated at from forty to
sixty feet, hurled itself upon the coast, and receded five times,
destroying whole villages, and even strong stone houses, with a
touch, and engulfing for ever forty-six people who had lingered too
near the shore.
Still the earthquakes continued, and still the volcano gave no sign.
The nerves of many people gave way in these fearful days. Some
tried to get away to Honolulu, others kept horses saddled on which
to fly, they knew not whither. The hourly question was, "What of
the volcano?" People put their ears to the quivering ground, and
heard, or thought they heard, the surgings of the imprisoned lava
sea rending its way among the ribs of the earth.
Five days after the destructive earthquake of April 2, the ground
south of Hilo burst open with a crash and roar which at once
answered all questions concerning the volcano.
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