August 6th.
My fate is lying at the wharf in the shape of the Pacific Mail
Steamer Costa Rica, and soon to me Hawaii-nei will be but a dream.
"Summer isles of Eden!" My heart warms towards them as I leave
them, for they have been more like home than any part of the world
since I left England. The moonlight is trickling through misty
algarobas, and feathery tamarinds and palms, and shines on glossy
leaves of breadfruit and citron; a cool breeze brings in at my open
doors the perfumed air and the soft murmur of the restful sea, and
this beautiful Honolulu, whose lights are twinkling through the
purple night, is at last, as it was at first, Paradise in the
Pacific, a bright blossom of a summer sea.
I shall be in the Rocky Mountains before you receive my hastily-
written reply to your proposal to come out here for a year, but I
will add a few reasons against it, in addition to the one which I
gave regarding the benefit which I now hope to derive from a change
to a more stimulating climate. The strongest of all is, that if we
were to stay here for a year, we should just sit down "between the
sun and moon upon the shore," and forget "our island home," and be
content to fall "asleep in a half dream," and "return no more!"
Of course you will have gathered from my letters that there are very
many advantages here.
