CHAPTER XXXVIII. VOLCANO KILAUEA-JOURNEY TO IT-LUXURIANT VEGETATION-HAWAIIAN HIGHWAYFATE OF THE HAWAIIAN-PULU- DOME OF MAUNA LOA KILAUEA. THE object of surpassing interest in Hawaii, indeed one of the wonders of earth, is the Volcano Kilauea. To visit it, some preparation is necessary; for neither on the way to it, nor when there, are bed and board to be had; hence a blanket, food, et cetera, must be provided at Hilo, where precise information can be had of your purveyor as to the essentials of comfort. A sure-footed and hard-hoofed horse must be provided, otherwise he should be carefully shod for a road that looks as if it had been paved with iron for half the distance. And the excursionist should be particular in the selection of a competent and faithful guide, who will also carry baggage and provision in two large calabashes hung by netting from the ends of a shoulder-pole. My experience justifies my speaking favorably of Kaihikaoli, a native Hawaiian living in the suburbs of Hilo. Since my trip to Kilauea I have heard that Mr. Hitchcock, an enterprising citizen, intends to provide relays of horses, and better accommodations on the road for visitors. Suitably equipped and provisioned, and with Mr. Lyman, principal of the native manual labor school, as my intelligent companion, I started for the volcano on a delicious summer morning; pursuing a southerly course over a rugged trail, through tangled shrubbery of oi, amau-mau-fern, ti, and guava, with the silvery-leaved tutui trembling like the aspen in the background. At the distance of rather more than four miles we entered a forest, through which a wide avenue three miles long has been cut, along the greater part of which is a causeway nine feet wide, built of volcanic stones, with gigantic fern logs thrown across corduroy-road fashion. This causeway facilitates travel over an uneven, and in places, marshy surface, but it is overgrown by rank grass and weeds. The principal timber of this forest is the indigenous ohia from fifty to seventy feet high, looking much like the oak, but without its distinctive brawniness and strength. The tutui, dressed in bright green foliage, seeming brighter by contrast with surrounding dark verdure, and with the deep shade of the spreading lauhalla upheld by its numerous props, and having long lancinated leaves resembling those of the pine-apple radiating thickly from the ends of branches, and forming a canopy of umbrellas, giving shelter to the traveller against rain and sun. The long leaves of the lauhalla' tree-the Hawaiian pandanus -smoke dried, trimmed, and split, are used for making the coarser mats of the country, in common use. Ferns abound in great variety; the amau mau, distinguished by the beautiful architectural scrolls into which its tender branches and young leaves are coiled for protection, and the pulu fern with its scrolls cased in silken armor to guard them even from winds that might visit them too roughly, being most remarkable for luxuriance. But in all this dense growth of vegetation nothing surpasses in grace and beauty, and in instructive lesson too, the depending ie, which twines its golden vine around the stalwart trunk, and clasps with tiny tendrils the rough bark of the ohia; while its long and delicate leaves, springing spirally like those of the lauhalla from twigs, expand into sun-shades to shield while they adorn the stern form to which the creeper clings. An emblem of the feeble, lovely, and tender, who, while they seek support of ruder man, yet throw around him their own graces, and strive to shield him from unkindly influences. At seven and a half miles from Hilo-three hours in time-we emerged from the forest, and dismounted in the shade of a cocoanut grove for refreshment. Again in the saddle our course lay next west of south over a path choked with wild grass, and across a plain on which the amau fern and the ti struggled for dominion; the latter mingling with the former for miles, looking like a wilderness of " Indian corn as it swayed its sapling stalks to and fro in swaggering merriment, and gave the slender leaves of its tufted tops like banners to the breeze as if in boastful triumph over its rival. But as the road showed diminishing soil and signs of impoverishment four or five miles further, the fern shook its nodding plumes as master of the field, a few scrubby ohias, like sentries, standing guard in the distance. A tuft of the ti leaves was the flag of truce in the former wars of the islanders; and from its root an ardent spirit called oholehau is distilled, resembling whiskey in color, strength, and flavor, and once much used by the natives for its intoxicating effects. The root possessing considerable saccharine juices, has also been used for food in times of scarcity; and the leaves make wrappers in cooking according to the native mode of baking, and for taro and stiff poi in travelling. From the tenth to the twelfth mile our road was like the proverbial one to Jordan-hard to travel. The almost daily rains, and animals following each other in the same tracks, make deep holes with intervening ridges, perplexing to the poor beasts and dangerous to riders. The former sometimes stick fast on this part of the route, and the latter occasionally plunge headlong into a mudhole, and to extricate themselves are compelled to "follow in the footsteps of their illustrious predecessors." Where the fern is the sole vegetation a waste of lava is seen, with no soil but that which exists in the clefts and crevices of the metallic-looking crust. Beyond this as far as fifteen miles and a half from Hilo the surface is a slightly-inclined plane, apparently of iron, modified by small elevations and depressions, ridges and chasms, metallic-looking plates broken and bent, and of various shapes; swells, wavelets, and ripples, some circular, others serpentine; as if a black tenacious fluid, in every condition of obstructed flow, had become suddenly solidified. Compared with the reality on a previous part of the road it was a transition from soft to hard, and after debating the question we were left in doubt of the relative advantages of mud and metal as materials for road-building. At the end of this stage of our journey-fifteen and a half miles from Hilo-we came to the stopping-place for the night; time, seven hours and three quarters; gait, a walk nearly all the way, and a slow one too, the guides on foot carrying from forty to fifty pounds each of baggage and provision, in calabashes two feet in diameter, absolutely distancing our horses. Of half a dozen thatched huts we selected the largest, and dismounting and giving our horses to the guides to be tethered and grassed, we entered, without any notice being taken of our intrusion by the native occupants; one of whom, engaged in pounding and kneading taro, had his nakedness very partially hidden by a much abridged garment-the shortest specimen of that mystery which has neither definite form, fit, fashion, nor right to be recognized, and even to name which is forbidden by the fastidiousness of an affected refinement, except when the plaintive "song of the shirt" sometimes touches our heartstrings. Another native similarly attired, with the vague addi-. tion of a "maro"-a Hawaiian device which has superseded the primitive fig-leaf-was transferring poi from one calabash to another, making a dipper of his hand. And a third, a gray haired old woman in long loose slip, was occupied in assorting the vegetable ingredients of a decoction, slowly and thoughtfully, as if preparing "a charm of powerful trouble" for some miserable martyr. Perhaps she belonged to the sisterhood of modern medicine. Like the "strong-minded " new-lights nearer home, she “Looked gravely dull, insipidly serene, It was an agreeable reflection that we were not dependent for the creature comforts of food on the manipulated poi before us. But the contemplation was not pleasant of a platform of logs—a "hikiee”-occupying nearly one-fourth of the room, on which was spread dried fern leaves and a mat for our bed; the common bed of the country, as it was to be our bed in common. Nor were our anticipations of "balmy sleep " enhanced by the knowledge that seven kanakas, including our guides, and three wahines, were to be joint occupants of the one apartment of the hut for the night. Necessity is a great leveller, however, and teaches the wisdom of adopting a practical philosophy and conforming cheerfully to imperious circumstances. So, after discussing the merits of a rough road as a surpassing appetizer, over a cold chicken and a cup of tea-for the making of which we found a kettle at hand, the only cooking utensil on the premises-we wrapped ourselves in our blankets and courted the slumber tendered by a corduroy bedstead; after having concluded that the lady who undertook a journey to the volcano showed neither wisdom, love of adventure, nor amiable adaptability to unavoidable requirements, who, on reaching this halfway house, and seeing no American hotel elegances, would not enter, but burst into tears, and, like Rachel, "refused to be comforted." Ladies must forego a sight of the world's greatest wonder, or forego crinoline, and turn bloomer in dress, daring, and disregard of the customs and conveniences of fashionable life. The lurid light of the Lake of Fire, when at night we looked abroad, was seen reflected by the overhanging clouds in the distance; and a throe of that vast mystery which sensibly lifted our platform of logs, made us think that our Hawaiian hotel, although in truth "built on a rock" of lava, might nevertheless be readily toppled over. The novelties of our situation, with the anticipations of the coming day, made sleep a stranger to my eyelids that night; and seeing the swarthy figure of a native crouching by the fire that glimmered from a shallow pit in the middle of the earthen floor, rolling its smoke upward to escape through the thatched roof, and observing his painfully thoughtful countenance, which seemed to tell of memories of the past of his race, and meditations on the fate that awaits it, as the tide of Caucasian civilization rolls on to bury it beneath its resistless surges, my mind, following a similar train of thought, recalled the strange vicissitudes of nations who had risen, flourished, and fallen; and a profound sympathy for the doomed Hawaiian before me came of the reflection, that then my own country, surpassing in its progress to prosperity and power all that had preceded it, was endangered by a convulsion which would shake it to its centre, and might shatter it into fragments. Never was the day more cordially welcomed than when, looking forth, the morning was seen successively to put on its garments of gray, and roseate, and gold; and coffee, our own, |