Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands

CHAPTER XIII.. The Columbia River and Puget Sound--Hints to Tourists

THE COLUMBIA RIVER AND PUGET SOUND--HINTS TO TOURISTS

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APPENDIX.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF A VENERABLE SAVAGE TO THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

NOTES

ILLUSTRATIONS.

MAP OF THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO

KING KALAKAUA

DIAMOND HEAD AND WAIKIKI

HONOLULU--GENERAL VIEW

HAWAIIAN HOTEL, HONOLULU

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, HONOLULU

ROYAL SCHOOL, HONOLULU

COURT-HOUSE, HONOLULU

MRS. LUCY G. THURSTON

KAWAIAHO CHURCH--FIRST NATIVE CHURCH IN HONOLULU

DR. JUDD

DR. COAN

BETHEL CHURCH

DR. DAMON

QUEEN'S HOSPITAL, HONOLULU

NATIVE SCHOOL-HOUSE IN HONOLULU

COCOA-NUT GROVE, AND RESIDENCE OF THE LATE KING KAMEHAMEHA V., AT WAIKIKI, OAHU

HAWAIIAN POI DEALER

THE PALACE, HONOLULU

EMMA, QUEEN OF KAMEHAMEHA IV.

A HAWAIIAN CHIEF

THE CRATER OF KILAUEA--ONE PHASE

KEALAKEAKUA BAY, WHERE CAPTAIN COOK WAS KILLED

THE VOLCANO HOUSE

HAWAIIAN TEMPLE, FROM A RUSSIAN ENGRAVING, ABOUT 1790

LAVA FIELD, HAWAII--FLOW OF 1868

VIEW OF THE CRATER OF SOUTH LAKE IN A STATE OF ERUPTION, FROM THE CREST OF THE NORTH LAKE

HILO

SURF BATHING

LAHAINA, ISLAND OF MAUI

CASCADE AND RIVER OF LAVA--FLOW OF 1869

MAP OF THE HALEAKALA CRATER

WAILUKU, ISLAND OF MAUI

KEAPAWEO MOUNTAIN, KAUAI

CHAIN OF EXTINCT VOLCANOES NEAR KOLOA, ISLAND OF KAUAI

WAIALUA FALLS, ISLAND OF KAUAI

IMPLEMENTS

GRASS HOUSE

HAWAIIAN WARRIORS

LUNALILO

KAMEHAMEHA I.

QUEEN OF KAMEHAMEHA I.

ANCIENT GODS OF HAWAII

HAWAIIANS EATING POI

NATIVE HAT PEDDLER

HULA-HULA, OR DANCING-GIRLS

HAWAIIAN STYLE OF DRESS

NATIVE PIPE

NECKLACE OF HUMAN HAIR

MAP OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

A CALIFORNIA VINEYARD

WINE VATS

TRAINING A VINE

A BOTTLING-CELLAR

INDIAN RANCHERIA

PIEDRAS BLANCAS

POINT ARENA LIGHT-HOUSE

SHIPPING LUMBER, MENDOCINO COUNTY

A WATER-JAM OF LOGS

MOUNT HOOD, OREGON

COAST VIEW, MENDOCINO COUNTY

INDIAN SWEAT-HOUSE

ANOTHER COAST-VIEW, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

A SAW-MILL PORT ON PUGET SOUND

CAPE HORN, COLUMBIA RIVER

SAW-MILL

WOOD-CHOPPER AT WORK

MOUNT HOOD, OREGON

INDIANS SPEARING SALMON, COLUMBIA RIVER

CHINOOK WOMAN AND CHILD

VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER

LUMBERING IN WASHINGTON TERRITORY--PREPARING LOGS

VICTORIA HARBOR, VANCOUVER'S ISLAND

PORT TOWNSEND, WASHINGTON TERRITORY

POINT REYES

COLUMBIA RIVER SCENE

STREET IN OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON TERRITORY

"TACOMA," OR MOUNT RAINIER

INDIAN CRADLE, WASHINGTON TERRITORY

RUNNING THE ROOKERIES--GATHERING MURRE EGGS

LIGHT-HOUSE ON THE SOUTH FARALLON

ARCH AT WEST END, FARALLON ISLANDS

SEA-LIONS

THE GULL'S NEST

SHAGS, MURRES, AND SEA-GULLS

CONTEST FOR THE EGGS

THE GREAT ROOKERY

INDIAN GIRLS AND CANOE, PUGET SOUND

SALEM, CAPITAL OF OREGON

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON TERRITORY

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

MAP OF PUGET SOUND AND VICINITY

THE DUKE OF YORK

QUEEN VICTORIA

NANAIMO, VANCOUVER'S ISLAND

ANCIENT HAWAIIAN IDOL

THE TARO PLANT

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, OREGON,

AND

THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.. Honolulu and the Island of Oahu.

HONOLULU AND THE ISLAND OF OAHU.

The Hawaiian group consists, as you will see on the map, of eleven islands, of which Hawaii is the largest and Molokini the smallest. The islands together contain about 6000 square miles; and Hawaii alone has an area of nearly 4000 square miles, Maui 620, Oahu (which contains Honolulu, the capital) 530, and Kauai 500. Lanai, Kahoolawe, Molokai, Niihau, Kaula, Lehua, and Molokini are small islands. All are of volcanic origin, mountainous, and Hawaii contains the largest active crater in the world--Kilauea--one of the craters of Mauna Loa; while Maui contains the largest known extinct crater, Haleakala, the House of the Sun--a pit thirty miles in circumference and two thousand feet deep. Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are nearly 14,000 feet high, as high as Mount Grey in Colorado; and you can not ride anywhere in the islands without seeing extinct craters, of which the hill called Diamond Head, near Honolulu, is an example.

The voyage from San Francisco to Honolulu is now very comfortably made in one of the Pacific Mail Company's steamers, which plies regularly between the two ports, and makes a round trip once in every month. The voyage down to the Islands lasts from eight to nine days, and even to persons subject to sea-sickness is likely to be an enjoyable sea-journey, because after the second day the weather is charmingly warm, the breezes usually mild, and the skies sunny and clear. In forty-eight hours after you leave the Golden Gate, shawls, overcoats, and wraps are discarded. You put on thinner clothing. After breakfast you will like to spread rugs on deck and lie in the sun, fanned by deliciously soft winds; and before you see Honolulu you will, even in winter, like to have an awning spread over you to keep off the sun. When they seek a tropical climate, our brethren on the Pacific coast have to endure no such rough voyage as that across the Atlantic. On the way you see flying-fish, and if you are lucky an occasional whale or a school of porpoises, but no ships. It is one of the loneliest of ocean tracks, for sailing-vessels usually steer farther north to catch stronger gales. But you sail over the lovely blue of the Pacific Ocean, which has not only softer gales but even a different shade of color than the fierce Atlantic.

We made the land at daylight on the tenth day of the voyage, and by breakfast-time were steaming through the Molokai Channel, with the high, rugged, and bare volcanic cliffs of Oahu close aboard, the surf beating vehemently against the shore. An hour later we rounded Diamond Head, and sailing past Waikiki, which is the Long Branch of Honolulu charmingly placed amidst groves of cocoa-nut-trees, turned sharp about, and steamed through a narrow channel into the landlocked little harbor of Honolulu, smooth as a mill-pond.

It is not until you are almost within the harbor that you get a fair view of the city, which lies embowered in palms and fine tamarind-trees, with the tall fronds of the banana peering above the low-roofed houses; and thus the tropics come after all somewhat suddenly upon you; for the land which you have skirted all the morning is by no means tropical in appearance, and the cocoa-nut groves of Waikiki will disappoint you on their first and too distant view, which gives them the insignificant appearance of tall reeds. But your first view of Honolulu, that from the ship's deck, is one of the pleasantest you can get: it is a view of gray house-tops, hidden in luxuriant green, with a background of volcanic mountains three or four thousand feet high, and an immediate foreground of smooth harbor, gay with man-of-war boats, native canoes and flags, and the wharf, with ladies in carriages, and native fruit-venders in what will seem to you brightly colored night-gowns, eager to sell you a feast of bananas and oranges.

There are several other fine views of Honolulu, especially that from the lovely Nuanu Valley, looking seaward over the town, and one from the roof of the prison, which edifice, clean, roomy, and in the day-time empty because the convicts are sent out to labor on public works and roads, has one of the finest situations in the town's limits, directly facing the Nuanu Valley.

From the steamer you proceed to a surprisingly excellent hotel, which was built at a cost of about $120,000, and is owned by the government. You will find it a large building, affording all the conveniences of a first-class hotel in any part of the world. It is built of a concrete stone made on the spot, of which also the new Parliament House is composed; and as it has roomy, well-shaded court-yards and deep, cool piazzas, and breezy halls and good rooms, and baths and gas, and a billiard-room, you might imagine yourself in San Francisco, were it not that you drive in under the shade of cocoa-nut, tamarind, guava, and algeroba trees, and find all the doors and windows open in midwinter; and ladies and children in white sitting on the piazzas.

It is told in Honolulu that the building of this hotel cost two of the late king's cabinet, Mr. Harris and Dr. Smith, their places. The Hawaiian people are economical, and not very enterprising; they dislike debt, and a considerable part of the Hawaiian national debt was contracted to build this hotel. You will feel sorry for Messrs. Harris and Smith, who were for many years two of the ablest members of the Hawaiian cabinet, but you will feel grateful for their enterprise also, when you hear that before this hotel was completed--that is to say, until 1871--a stranger landing in Honolulu had either to throw himself on the hospitality of the citizens, take his lodgings in the Sailors' Home, or go back to his ship. It is not often that cabinet ministers fall in so good a cause, or incur the public displeasure for an act which adds so much to the comfort of mankind.

The mercury ranges between 68° and 81° in the winter months and between 75° and 86° during the summer, in Honolulu. The mornings are often a little overcast until about half-past nine, when it clears away bright. The hottest part of the day is before noon. The trade-wind usually blows, and when it does it is always cool; with a south wind; it is sometimes sultry, though the heat is never nearly so oppressive as in July and August in New York. In fact, a New Yorker whom I met in the Islands in August congratulated himself as much on having escaped the New York summer as others did on having avoided the winter.

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