Los Gringos Part 15

We were told that it is only necessary to use this violence with puppies, on becoming older and docile they take to the food more kindly.

Among other novel sights, I saw with calm pleasure the native boys climb cocoanut-trees, by tying the big toes together by a wythe of bark, then aided by hands and knees they run up the tall, waving columns. Down come bounding the nuts; a small dusky imp at your elbow whisks off the husks with his teeth! cracks a hole in the skull--up! up! gurgle! gurgle!--and down your throat glides the cooling and delicious draught. Pine-apples, too!--large, perfumed, luscious fellows!--thirty for sixpence, and considered exorbitantly dear at that price! Then there is the spreading bread-fruit, with the greenest of dark green leaves; but my juvenile impressions of the fruit I discovered were entirely erroneous; for instead of being like bakers' loaves, or even French rolls, they were different as possible; the fruit being enveloped in a coa.r.s.e, thick rind, tinged with yellow, with white meat, about twice the bulk of pippins; and when properly roasted has the taste of an insipid potato.

I have been perfectly sheltered, too, in a pelting, pitiless shower, by an extempore umbrella, constructed of two big banana leaves; and sipped water from native cups, made in a trice from a goblet-shaped leaf s.n.a.t.c.hed at the road side; and on a certain occasion, when wearied by a long walk, I threw myself beneath the heavy shade of a fan-leafed pandanmus, and submitted to the _loammi-loammi_. It is a more delicate operation than the Turkish mode of shampooing, and when the operators are laughing native girls the sensations are far pleasanter.

They commence a running succession of pinches from heels to shoulders, accompanied by kneadings, and pokings with the tips of their fingers; then selecting a clear s.p.a.ce, they begin a diapason of light thumps and blows, interspersed by a gentle trip-hammer movement with outer edges of the hands; now slow, now fast, faster--like flashes of light--until the cadence dies languidly away, in soft, melodious tappings, leaving the patient in a quiet frame of mind, and the body very much refreshed.

The high chiefs, who are all immensely corpulent, and said to be rather given to overfeeding themselves, use the _loammi-loammi_ to make them comfortable after repletion, so that they may go on again, without personal inconvenience--always keeping a number of expert pract.i.tioners in their trains.

All cla.s.ses at Hilo evince an enthusiastic admiration for flowers, and the maidens particularly are never without natural wreaths, or necklaces of woodbine and jessamine, prettily woven for the occasion. There is a yellow bud of the candle-nut, which is not so pleasant to eye or nose, though more generally worn. But in all the tastes and diversions of the natives, there was not one that charmed us so much, and in which the natives indulged with such wild delight, as bathing in the river Wailuku.

Along the whole eastern face of the island of Hawaii there are numberless rills and streams that come bounding from the lofty sides of the giant mountains, in cataracts and cascades, until at last they jump from the green-clad sh.o.r.es into the salt foam of the ocean. One of the largest of them is the Wailuku. No farther than a league from the harbor inland is a miniature Niagara, of more than a hundred feet, which dashes a ma.s.s of broken water into a bowl-like basin, flashing upon, either side brilliant rainbows, from which the fall takes its name. Retracing our steps towards the village, the banks of the little river become less abrupt, and within a few hundred yards of the bay the water is diverted into a mult.i.tude of channels--here, a torrent boiling over scattered rocks, with a clear, sleeping pool beyond--there, the white cataract plunging swiftly through narrow straits, and leaping gaily down below, like a liquid portcullis to some ma.s.sive gateway--again, whirling eddies playing around rocky islets, until at last by one sparkling effort the waters re-unite, and go roaring and struggling down a steep chasm into the noisy surf of the bay.

It is here the young of both s.e.xes pa.s.s most of their time. Troops of boys and girls, and even little ones scarcely able to walk, are seen in all directions, perched on broad shelving crags and gra.s.sy mounds, or, still higher up, clinging from the steep sides and peeping out from amid the foliage. On every side they come leaping joyously into the rushing waters! There on a bluff--thirty, forty--ay! seventy feet high--a score of native maidens are following each other in quick succession into the limpid pools beneath. The moment before their flight through the air they are poised upon the rocky pedestals, like the Medicean Venus. One buoyant bound--the right arm is thrown aloft, knees brought up, and at the instant of striking the water the head falls back, feet dashed straight out--when they enter the pools with the velocity and clearness of a javelin, shooting far away, just beneath the surface, like a salmon.

Others, again, are diving in foaming torrents--plashing and skirling--laughing, always laughing--plunging--swimming, half-revealing their pretty forms before sinking again beneath the stream. Others, still more daring and expert, go whirling through narrow pa.s.sages, thrown from side to side in the white waters--now completely hidden in the cataracts--anon rising up in a rec.u.mbent att.i.tude, when away they are hurled over a cataract of twenty feet, emerging far below, with long tresses streaming behind, and with graceful limbs cleaving the river, like naught else in nature more charming than themselves.

It is a sight to make a lover forget his mistress, or a parson his prayers. I know it would have been my case, had I been so fortunate as to be either! Here I pa.s.sed all my leisure hours, never tired of beholding the beautiful panorama of life and water moving before me; and there were others, on these occasions, who were wont to mingle bravely in the sport--portly post-captains--husbandly lieutenants--mad-cap reefers, of course--staid chaplains, too!--but all declared it was pleasant, exceeding pleasant! although mingled with a few indifferent remarks as to what the good missionaries might think of it.

Many of the _wyheenees_ have pretty faces, expressive black eyes, and long, jet-black hair; then there are others, who make good imitations of Blenheim spaniels in the visage; but nearly all have rounded, voluptuous forms, perfectly natural and beautiful when young, with small hands and feet: but such larks they are for fun and laughter! with a certain air of sly demureness that renders them quite bewitching.

In the cool of the afternoons, a number of us in company with half a dozen of these attractive naiads, would amuse ourselves sliding over a gentle water-fall that poured into a secluded basin stretching calmly away below: hand in hand--and very soft, pretty hands they were!--or, forming a long link, one after another, in a sitting posture, we threw ourselves upon the mercy of the lively foam above, and like lightning dashed over the brink of the falls, and were drawn with magical celerity for a great depth beneath the surface; until our ears tingled and senses reeled with the rushing noise, when we would again be swept swiftly by a counter-current up to the air of heaven, and carefully stranded on a sand bank near by, wondering very much how we got there, and always greeted by the gay laughter of the water nymphs around us. Nor is it the safest sport imaginable, for in some of these submarine excursions an inexperienced person is sometimes given to beat his head or body against rocks, or be carried to the wrong eddies and floated among dangerous straits, to the great detriment of his breath and digestion. However, no one need entertain the slightest fears when attended by the natives.

They may, when saving you in the last gasp of drowning, hold you up in the combing breakers, and ask, "how much? tree monee?" with a prospective glance at a reward. But when diverting yourself with these nut-brown naiads, they guide you in safety through perilous labyrinths, and shield you from all harm. On one occasion, a laughing, good-humored damsel, whom we christened the Three-decker, in compliment to a double row of ports tatooed around her waist, was seated beside me on a flat ledge, and opened the conversation by asking, "Watee namee you?" "Bill,"

said I. "Liee namee Harree," she archly replied, and shoved me into the torrent for laughing at her curiosity. But on gaining my lost position, she broached another theme, which was so appallingly ludicrous, that, losing all command of soul and body, I rolled off the rocks, and had it not been for the stout arms of a nimble _wyheenee_, who gallantly came to the rescue, I should in all probability, as the Three-decker jocosely remarked, have been _muckee moi_--defunct; for the water had so nearly filled me up, that there was not the faintest vestige of a laugh left in my body. I rewarded her with a plug of tobacco, which is occasionally used as a currency.

We experienced much rain during our sojourn, and when prepared to leave, were detained some days by the wind. The harbor is protected by a sweeping sunken reef, that forms a _cul de sac_ of the port, with an entrance like the neck of a bottle. On the 28th of August, by the a.s.sistance of our pilot, Mr. Kit Baker, who played corkscrew on the occasion, we were safely drawn out--shook the wet canvas from the yards, and away we coasted along the island.

It was a beautiful sight, indeed! The smooth, green freshness of the slopes--the distant village, with its groves and fields of coffee and sugar--native huts and plantations fast coming and going, as we went sailing by--white cascades--and intensity of verdure everywhere--spread like a glowing mantle from the mighty shoulders of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa--made me doubt if, in all our future "Polynesian researches," we should behold any scenery so surpa.s.singly lovely as Owyhee, with sweet little Hilo, and its foaming Wailuku.

CHAPTER XLI.

Before dusk the green sh.o.r.es had faded from our sight, although the snow-capped head of Mauna Kea arose as plainly and proudly as if we were within a mile of his feet.

Sometime during the night we entered the Paipolo Pa.s.sage, and the next morning were becalmed, in a triangular sea, between the islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. We were bound to the former; towards meridian the breeze again filled the sails, and in a few hours we were at anchor in the Roads of Laihaina, securely sheltered by the high hills of the island.

The general appearance of this group is not unlike cl.u.s.ters of the Grecian Archipelago: the same reddish hues to the heights, the same basking verdure in the valleys, with perhaps a far grander outline and boldness of scenery. In Maui there is no comparison to the universal greenness and fertility of the east side of Hawaii. The lofty mountains, attaining an alt.i.tude of ten thousand feet, arrest the trade clouds in their westward flight, and the contents are condensed on the opposite side of the island. Yet, although the background shows for a great extent barren and sterile, there is still much to relieve the eye in the deep green reposing between the sharp split gorges, where vegetation creeps in thick profusion to the topmost peaks. And then the town itself--larger than Hilo--built along the sea-sh.o.r.e, radiant with n.o.ble groves of cocoanut, and bread-fruit, and pretty houses half buried in shrubbery. There is also a great red-roofed New England meeting-house--a two-storied square stone edifice, which is the King's country palace, having a double range of verandas in front, and a little lake of black mud in the rear, not in the best possible state of order or cleanliness, but more conspicuous than all, placed a league up the hills, is the large white buildings of the the native High School of Lahainaluna.

Maui is becoming a great resort for whale-ships to recruit from their long cruisings; it has been the means of infusing energy and industry into the native population in the cultivation of the rich soil, and thus for miles around the town the lands are planted with Irish and sweet potatoes, taro, yams, and many kinds of excellent vegetables and grains, which grow all seasons, whenever sown. The markets were well supplied besides with meats and fruits; and nothing can exceed the clean, tasteful manner in which the lighter produce of the island is put up in native baskets. With the fresh leaf of the cocoanut they are woven or braided in a trice--oval, round or square,--with a pliable green handle all ready for transportation. The cocoanut is to these simple islanders what prayers are to the Turks--meat, drink, and pantaloons; or rather, as I have been told by others professing a deeper knowledge of the Mahommedan lingo than myself, when listening to the Muezzins shouting their signals from minarets of mosques. However, here is better authority:--

"The Indian's nut alone, Is clothing, meat and trencher drink and can, Boat, cable, sail, and needle--all in one."

They catch fish, too, with nets, and lash their huts together by braid of the husk. Their couches are mats of the leaves. The milk makes a delicious beverage, and is kept cool, no matter how burning the sun, in the lofty husky reservoirs. The tree itself never ceases bearing while there is a drop of sap in the body, and I have counted more than a hundred of these nutty tanks on a single shaft. If I remember aright, when a boy I was extravagantly fond of a penny's worth of the fruit fished out of gla.s.s jars. I never touch it now, for experience has taught me to confine myself to the milk alone. Indeed, I know of no thin potation more truly refreshing before breakfast, than a cooling draught of cocoanut _wai_. The nut must be neither in its infancy, nor yet matured, but just on the verge of manhood; then commend me to it, and they will be rosy lips to draw one from its mouth.

We found everything more advanced than at Hilo--the bread-fruit particularly--but not only in the vegetable kingdom--for civilization was far ahead, also; or at least so far as creature comforts extend--aided by a good hotel, dinners, and pleasant rides in the vicinity.

The lanes and avenues were so clouded with fine red dust, that walking any distance was out of the question. Foreigners have many cool, matted-straw-built dwellings on the sea beach, and there are numbers of pleasant cottages near the suburbs; but prettier than all, is one secluded country house, a little way from Lahaina, closely embowered in foliage, with a trickling rivulet at the door-way, that would make a retreat for a princess.

The Governor of Maui was James Young, a half-breed, or _happa houri_, and descended from the English seaman mentioned by Vancouver. He had visited England, and spoke the language perfectly, although with the tone and expression of a common sailor. In person he was large--with a pleasant face--much lighter than the natives generally, and from his conversation he appeared to be a man of excellent practical sense. His residence was within the fort--a large square enclosure--constructed of rough red coral rocks, banked up fifteen feet with earth, and mounting an oddly a.s.sorted battery of some thirty pieces of artillery, of all sorts of carriages and calibre--long, short, and mediums; they command the usual anchorage, and no doubt do very well to prevent any acts of violence from merchant ships; but it is a question, if at the second discharge of shot they do not tumble to pieces. There were a company of Hawaiian troops to man this fortress, who were well uniformed, and looked as well as Kanakas, or any other savages who have been accustomed half their lives to go naked can look, when their natural ease of motion is cramped by European clothing.

Governor Young very sagaciously removed all restrictions from the pleasures of our crew, who had liberty on sh.o.r.e--leaving it a matter of supererogation to bribe the Kaikos, whose integrity is never above suspicion. However, there was no liquor to be bought, but Jack got very comfortably drunk on Cologne water: completely exhausting the large stocks of a long-tailed Chinaman, in whose possession it had for a lengthened period lain an unsaleable drug. Even after it had been all sold, so great was the demand, that an old salt threatened to take the Chinese by the heels and snap him like a coach-whip, in case he did not produce another bottle of "tooloone" water, without more palaver.

One evening, during our visit at Lahaina, I was entertained by a hospitable countryman, at his cool, airy residence, which stood on a little raised embankment of the sea beach. A group of native maidens also favored us with their fascinating society, and without further invitation seated themselves at table, and seizing a pack of cards, soon became deeply engaged in the game. It was like most other games: those who held certain cards, certainly won; but although it was to me incomprehensible, I observed that they cheated in the most expert manner, at the same time slapping the bits of pasteboard on the table with the energy of inveterate whisters; occasionally muttering, when losing or winning, such exclamations as _ka! ka!--maitai!_--meaning "Oh!

I'm ruined!" "Disgusting!" or "I'm in luck!" and the like.

Becoming ennuied with these proceedings, after much entreaty and a gla.s.s of wine, they consented to give me an idea of surf-swimming.

The moon was high and full, throwing a white, bright light athwart the rippling water, like a quivering sea of silver coins. A Kanaka attendant speedily produced slabs of light cotton wood, about a foot longer than the person, and two feet and a half wide. Each provided with one of these boards, they swam, or paddled out to the farthest roller. It may be as well to remark here, that there is no reef, as at Hilo, within whose coral walls shipping can anchor; only a ledge near the sh.o.r.e, that serves to break the force of the waves upon the beach. Boats, however, land without inconvenience, through the agency of a small ca.n.a.l cut from the ledge to the heart of the town, in shape of a letter L.

The girls are at the outermost roller, when awaiting the moment before it breaks, they come flying in on the very crest of the wave, at the speed of a race-horse, the great art being to preserve so nice a poise on the back-bone, as it were, of the breaker, as not to be left behind, nor yet, as I found at the cost of several abrasions, launched too far ahead, and thus have the whole crash of the roller pitching you over and over in a series of hydropathic revolutions by no means safe or pleasant: but to understand the thing properly, it is excessively exciting sport. One of the girls, daughter of a chief, possessed the knack in great perfection, and while dashing in with astonishing velocity--at least the rate of twenty miles the hour--she would spring buoyantly upon the board, and then maintain a _pose_ on one leg, either kneeling or standing, with an _a plomb_-like security of balance, that would have ruined the reputation of Ducrow!

During the day every little idle imp and lounger about the town devote the time sporting in the surf; I have watched them for hours, a dozen of them perhaps in a group: their black heads set in a liquid frame of sparkling foam, half lost to view, as the wave subsides, then taken up by another, and borne on the unbroken ridge of a green roller, crossing and recrossing each other's tracks, shouting and laughing, until the moment before striking the coral strand, the boards are turned aside, and off they paddle again for another ride.

I was not successful at the first lesson, although carefully instructed by my amiable companions in boards; and after an hour's practice, finding I had swallowed as much salt water as I could conveniently, we returned to the house.

Never having witnessed a legitimate native dance, all our persuasive eloquence was exerted to induce the young ladies to delight us with a _hexar_, but they proved obdurate; and one a.s.sured me, with great indignity, that she was _mikonaree all ovar_; at the same time making a graceful manipulation with her hands, from head to foot, to add strength to her a.s.sertion. Thus finding myself a.s.sociated with so pious and virtuous a coterie, who, however, did not deem it incompatible with their morality to sit down, with renewed zest, to cards, I desisted from further efforts, and betook myself to a cigar.

In this, as with all my later experience and intercourse with island beauties, I became convinced that I should never fall in love with them out of the water. There is their native element for grace and witchery, whilst cleaving the yielding fluid with rounded limbs and streaming tresses, when one's nice sense of perfume is not offended by rank odors of cocoanut oils, and other villanous cosmetics, which in themselves are enough to transform a Hebe into a Hecate.

CHAPTER XLII.

The large native seminary at Lahainaluna, upon which the Missions place great hopes of future usefulness, was under the superintendence of Messrs. Andrews and Alexander, gentlemen attached to the Presbyterian board, who impressed us very forcibly with their intelligence, by the liberal views they entertained in relation to their charge, and fitness for the office.

It is intended as the high school for the sons of chiefs of the group, and such other youth whose aptness for instruction make them worthy of being educated. The buildings belonging to the inst.i.tution are capable of accommodating more than one hundred pupils. Six hours are devoted to study and recitation: they cook their own food, and a portion of time intended for relaxation is occupied in practical utility--chiefly agricultural pursuits, or as the mission report of the young ladies'

school under Miss Ogden, at the east end of Maui, states, "the time from four to five they devote to exercise with the hoe."

About eighty of the pupils visited the frigate, by special invitation--they appeared between the ages of twelve and twenty--attired in curiously devised European garments, but clean in their apparel, orderly and well-behaved, although awkward and uncouth in movements. I was not struck with many intelligent faces, and their instructors gave no very flattering ideas of their apt.i.tude for the acquisition of learning. Not more than one in twenty could be termed a bright boy; they experience the greatest difficulty in gaining a knowledge of the English language, and it is a question if it would not be advisable, even at this late day, to do away entirely with the native dialect, pen up the children, and subst.i.tute some other idiom having fewer words to express vice, and more, the higher attributes of morality and virtue.

Physically speaking, the students were well formed, robust, and active, but all more or less tinged with scurfy, cutaneous disorders, transmitted to them through their progenitors as an indelible mark of esteem by the first discoverers of the islands. Our visitors remained on board an hour, and everything was done to make it a happy one: they climbed the rigging, went all through the ship, fired cannons shotted, and were loud in their admiration of the band. Upon leaving, they seemed highly delighted, kindly greeted us with the usual expression of good-will--_aloha!_--and very generally offered to shake hands, but we pleasantly declined, I trust without wounding their feelings, for we were ungloved, and a long way from the sulphur banks of Kilauea.

Inst.i.tutions for female scholars are numerous in the group, but there is not one on the same scale of magnitude as that of Lahainaluna, nor are the girls themselves worthy of the benevolence and solicitude extended to them by their excellent teachers. A school at Hilo, under the direction of a missionary lady, highly distinguished for ability and perseverance, had lately been relinquished on account of the abandoned character of the pupils.

These instances must indeed dampen the ardor of the most sanguine philanthropists, who have been so many years striving to emanc.i.p.ate these Indian races from the depths of vice and ignorance. The whites themselves, to their shame, be it said, are far from lessening the evil, and I heard Mr. Cohen feelingly and truthfully remark, in connection with the difficulties encountered in their labors, that the missionaries' voices were but a breath in stemming the torrent of bad examples, caused by hundreds of loud voices from every merchant vessel and ship-of-war touching at the group. a.s.suredly much has been accomplished in the outer crust of civilization, by an a.s.sociation for so long a period with the whites, but notwithstanding the almost unparalleled efforts of the missions, they have gained little in true morality, though everything, perhaps, in decency, contrasted with the native state in former times.

The Hawaiians are naturally indolent, voluptuous and deceitful, more imbecile than vicious, dest.i.tute of morality, preserving of late years, the form, not from principle, but fear of exposure, and subsequent punishment. Infanticide, always prevalent in the Polynesian tribes, is here more alarmingly frequent than even during their darkest days of sacrifice and idolatry, caused, no doubt, in a great degree, by unnecessarily severe laws against illegitimacy. There are no government hospitals, and the disease brought by Cook is sweeping still, with the deadly strides of a pestilence. These causes serve to check and diminish the population to an extent hitherto unprecedented, and not unless their very existence as a nation becomes obliterated, does there appear to be any reasonable prospect of reform.[5] And now, it can be asked, if, with all these evils entailed upon them by strangers, does it not seem problematical, if in their days of superst.i.tion and ignorance they were not morally better? Happier they certainly were! Then, their very indolence, induced by an equable and delicious climate, where Nature so bountifully scatters her fruits in their path, produced an enervating languor, where neither cares nor sorrows surrounded them! Now, their natural sense and experience teach, that they cannot cope with the skill or energy of the foreigner, and hopelessly and inevitably they must look forward to the rapid future, when their lands will be in strange hands, and the few remnants of their race the slaves or puppets of their white masters. Although sad the picture, the results bear no comparison to the world at large, in the benefits accruing to civilization by acquiring a foothold on these islands, which, from their position and resources, are shortly destined to become of vast importance to commercial enterprise in the Pacific.

The Board of Presbyterian Missions, first in the grand work of redemption, have done all that philanthropy could suggest, in earnest and unceasing efforts towards reclaiming the race from barbarism--in a spirit of the greatest liberality, expending nearly a million of dollars, distributed through a period of thirty years--wherein, if naught else had been adduced than the beneficial results resting upon the simple fact, that out of a population of about a hundred thousand, which compose the Hawaiian cl.u.s.ter, more than half have been taught to read and write, instructed in the rudiments of education, and generally conversant with the Scriptures--this is of itself sufficient to claim the lasting grat.i.tude of all who have the progress of civilization at heart. But what is still more surprising, this has been begun and completed within the s.p.a.ce of but thirty years--a point of time inconceivably brief in the history of a nation, even in the age of rapid advancement in which we live.

The groundwork of Christianity has also been firmly planted, and so long as the Hawaiians do exist, it will go on slowly but steadily to increase. Yet the reports from the Board, detailing such immense numbers of conversions made so miraculously of late years, under missionary auspices, should be received _c.u.m grano salis_. Surely they cannot be intended purposely to mislead--but still it has the semblance of a sort of paid-up imaginary capital, to swell and exaggerate the amount of their labors. On all sides it was universally believed, that there are not five hundred true converts in the group, instead of over thirty thousand, as these reports would make out! Then why these incorrect statements? And again, a retired missionary quoting the Honorable J. P.

Judd, another gentleman formerly attached to the Board and now at the head of the Hawaiian government, says: "The moral condition of the Islands may compare favorably with that of any other country."[6] Such glaring mendacity is beneath the contempt of any visitor to the group blessed with eyes; and as a slight proof of the estimate, at this late day, in which this morality is held, the missionaries, themselves, who have young families, never permit them to acquire the native dialect, and most carefully guard them from any intercourse with the natives, fearing probably the contaminating influences of an a.s.sociation, so deplorably exhibited in the children of the English Mission in one of the groups of Southern Polynesia.