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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The Upper Ridges Are Densely Timbered, And Many Of
The Ohias Have A Circumference Of Twenty-Five Feet, Three Feet From
The Ground.
It was sad to turn away for ever from the loveliness of
Hanalei, even though by taking another route, which involved a ride
of forty miles, I passed through and in view of, most entrancing
picturesqueness.
Indeed, for mere loveliness, I think that part of
Kauai exceeds anything that I have seen.
The atmosphere and scenery were so glorious that it was possible to
think of nothing all day, but just allow oneself passively to drink
in sensations of exquisite pleasure. I wish all the hard-worked
people at home, who lead joyless lives in sunless alleys, could just
have one such day, and enjoy it as I did, that they might know how
fair God's earth is, and how far fairer His Paradise must be, if
even from this we cannot conceive "of the things which He hath
prepared for them that love Him." I never before felt so sad for
those whose lives are passed amidst unpropitious surroundings, or so
thankful for my own capacity of enjoying nature.
Just as we were coming up out of a deep river, a native riding about
six feet from me was caught in a quicksand. He jumped off, but the
horse sank half way up its body. I wanted to stay and see it
extricated, for its struggles only sank it deeper, but the natives
shrugged their shoulders, and said in Hawaiian, "only a horse," and
something they always say when anything happens, equivalent to
"What's the odds?" It was a joyously-exciting day, and I was
galloping down a grass hill at a pace which I should not have
assumed had white people been with me, when a native rode up to me
and said twice over, "maikai!
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