One Summer In Hawaii (Paperback)

ONE IN HA IV A II BY HELEN MATHER NEW YORK CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 104 106 FOURTH AVENUE COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY HELEN MATHER. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. WHILE spending the winter of 1889 and 1890 in Southern California and San Francisco, I was repeatedly asked if I should not visit the Islands be fore going away and was told that A run down to the Islands is the thing, you know everybody goes to the Islands. What islands they referred to I had not the slightest idea, suppos ing them to be in near proximity to San Francisco, from the familiar way people spoke of running down to them, and perhaps the kind of excur sion one takes when going from New York to Coney Island. iv INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. - Being told they were the Sandwich, or Hawaiian Islands as they are now called, in the mid-Pacific Ocean, more than two thousand one hundred miles distant, I was startled at the flippant suggestion of the Occidentals to whom time and space seemed as nothing. To cross the Atlantic had always seemed to me to be a. grave undertak ing, but here I was seriously advised to pack my satchel and run down two thousand miles into the Pacific, as if for a days outing. The Sandwich Islands have always been floating about in my mind in a vague, uncertain way, never having, been able to quite locate them, any more than I have the heaven I hope some day to reach. The missionary boxes to which we INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. used to contribute were the most nota ble facts connected with them in my memory. Mark Twains humorous ac count of his visit, and. the appearance of the natives when dressed in the clothing distributed from the boxes, was ludicrous enough, and I had sup posed that the same modes and man ners were still invogue, forgetting that twenty or twenty-five years had civil ized and Christianized the people who once went about barefooted to their eyes and who smacked their lips over a cannibal feast. It did not require much urging to induce me to accompany a party of friends who were to sojourn in this Paradise of the Pacific for two or three months for health and pleasure. The subjoined pages have been vi INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. transcribed from a journal kept to please my sister and I have been in duced, perhaps unwisely, to print and put them into covers. If I have succeeded in getting my impressions upon paper, and in preserv ing for my friends the reminiscences of a delightful trip, I shall be more than satisfied. Aloha Nui It is a word of greet ing in the Hawaiian tongue and is used by the islanders to express all the kindly sentiments of the heart. Aloha means, I greet you. Aloha Nui is a stronger term. To the many friends I found in that island paVadise, and from whom I parted with regret, I dedicate the book with the words Aloha Nui, HELEN MATHER. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. The Australia Sea Gulls and Flying Fish The Southern Cross Concert Honolulu, . I II. Island Homes Tropical FoliagePublic Build ings The Palace, 16 III. A Moonlight Drive to Waikiki Social Hono lulu An Unconventional Banquet, . . 24 IV. A Day at Pearl Harbor Taro Patches Poi Factories The Lanai Sharks, . . .30 V. Reception at the Home of the American Min ister Breakfast on Board the Flagship Charles ton, ........ 40 VI. Public Concerts The Birds of the Island Wailai Hibiscus Hedges, . . . . 48 VII. King Kalakaua and the Queen A Ball at the lolani Palace The Hawaiian Band, . .57 VIII. The Pali Queen Emmas Palace Mausoleumof Kings and Queens of Hawaii Gorgeous View from the Pali, 66 IX. The Telephone System Birdie The Palms The Climate Base-ball, . . . .83 X. Presentation at Court Sailing of the Aus tralia Flower-decked Passengers, . . 91