Everything looked
the same as when I landed in January, except that many of the then
strange faces among the radiant crowd are now the faces of friends,
that I know nearly everyone by sight, and that the pathos of
farewell blended with every look and word. The air still rang with
laughter and alohas, and the rippling music of the Hawaiian tongue;
bananas and pineapples were still piled in fragrant heaps; the
drifts of surf rolled in, as then, over the barrier reef, canoes
with outriggers still poised themselves on the blue water; the coral
divers still plied their graceful trade, and the lazy ripples still
flashed in light along the palm-fringed shore. The head-ropes were
let go, we steamed through the violet channel into the broad
Pacific, Lunalilo, who came out so far with Chief Justice Allen,
returned to the shore, and when his kindly aloha was spoken, the
last link with the islands was severed, and half an hour later
Honolulu was out of sight. . . . .
. . . . The breeze is freshening, and the Costa Rica's head lies
nearly due north. The sun is sinking, and on the far horizon the
summit peaks of Oahu gleam like amethysts on a golden sea. Farewell
for ever, my bright tropic dream! Aloha nui to Hawaii-nei!
I.L.B.
A CHAPTER ON HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS.
A few facts concerning the Hawaiian islands may serve to supplement
the deficiencies of the foregoing letters.
