As for the women, although travelers have spread abroad reports of their beauty, I was unable to see it. While the "Moses Taylor" lay in the harbor, the saloon was sometimes full of native girls, who came down from the country to see the ship and admire themselves in the two large saloon mirrors, before which they stood laughing and giggling. Their usual dress consists of a long, loose gown, reaching down to the ankles, with no fastening round the waist; and their heads and necks are usually adorned with leaves or flowers of some sort. They seemed to me very like the Maori women, but without the blue tattoo-mark on the lips; nor are their features so strongly marked, though they had the same wide faces, black eyes, full nostrils, and large lips. Their skins are of various hues, from a yellow to a dusky brown. Their feet and hands are usually small and neat.

I am told that the race is degenerating and dying out fast. The population of the islands is said to be little more than one tenth of what it was when Captain Cook visited them, and this falling off is reported to be mainly due to the unchaste habits of the women. The missionaries have long been trying to make a salutary impression on them, but, though the natives profess Christianity in various forms, it is to be feared that it is a profession, and little more. The king, also, has tried to make them more moral by putting in force a sort of Maine liquorlaw; but every ship that enters the harbor is beset by natives wanting drink, and they adopt various methods of evading the law. The license charged by the government to a retailer of spirits is a thousand dollars a year; but he must not sell liquor to any foreigner on Sunday, nor to any native at any time, under a penalty of five

hundred dollars. This penalty is rigidly exacted; and if the spirit-dealer is unable to pay the fine, he is put on to the coral-reefs, to work at twenty-five cents a day until he has worked off the amount. Accordingly, the liquor-trade is followed by very few persons, and the consumption of drink by the natives is very much curtailed, compared, for instance, with what it is among the drink-consuming natives of New Zealand, who are allowed to swallow the "fire-water," to the great profit of the publicans and to their own demoralization, without any restriction whatever.

I find the government here also levies a very considerable sum from the Chinese for the privilege of selling opium. It is put up annually to auction, and in some years as much as forty-five thousand dollars have been paid for the monopoly, though this year it has brought considerably less, in consequence of the dullness of trade. From this circumstance it will be inferred that there is a considerable Chinese population in the place. Indeed, some of the finest stores in Honolulu are kept by Chinamen. I did not at first observe many of these people about; but afterward, when exploring, I found whole back streets full of Chinamen's huts and houses.

From the announcements of theatrical and other entertainments I see about, the people here must be very fond of amusement. Indeed, Honolulu seems to be one of the great centres of pleasure in the Pacific. All wandering "stars" come hither. When I was at Auckland, in New Zealand, I went to the theatre to see a troupe of Japanese jugglers. I had seen the identical troupe in London, and "All Right" was among them. They were on their way to Honolulu, to star it here before return

ing to Japan. Charles Mathews, with whom I made the voyage from Melbourne to Sydney, is also advertised to appear, "for a few nights only," at the Royal Hawaiian Theatre.* And now here is The Bandman, my fellowpassenger from Auckland, advertised, in big placards, as "The World-renowned Shakspearian Player," etc., who

* I find in a Californian paper the following amusing account, by Mr. Mathews himself, of his appearance before a Honolulu audience:

"At Honolulu, one of the loveliest little spots upon earth, I acted one night by command, and in the presence of his majesty Kamehameha V., King of the Sandwich Islands' (not Hoky Poky Wonky Fong,' as erroneously reported), and a memorable night it was. On my way to the quaint little Hawaiian theatre, situated in a rural lane, in the midst of a pretty garden, glowing with gaudy tropica! flowers, and shaded by cocoatrees, bananas, banyans, and tamarinds, I met the play-bill of the evening. A perambulating Kanaka (or native black gentleman), walking between two boards (called in London, figuratively, 'a sandwich man,' but here, of course, literally so), carried aloft a large illuminated white lantern, with the announcement in the Kanaka language to catch the attention of the colored inhabitants: Charles Mathews: Keaka Keia Po (Theatre open this evening). Ka uku o Ke Komo ana (reserved seats, dress circle), $2 50; Nohi mua (Parquette), $1; Noho ho (Kanaka pit), 75 cents.' I found the theatre (to use the technical expression) 'crammed to suffocation,' which merely means 'very full,' though, from the state of the thermometer on this occasion, 'suffocation' was not so incorrect a description as usual. A really elegant-looking audience (tickets 10s. each), evening dresses, uniforms of every cut and every country. 'Chieftesses' and ladies of every tinge, in dresses of every color, flowers and jewels in profusion, satin play-bills, fans going, windows and doors all open, an outside staircase leading straight into the dress-circle, without lobby, check-taker, or money-taker. Kanaka women in the garden below selling bananas and pea-nuts by the glare of flaring torches on a sultry tropical moonlight night. The whole thing was like nothing but a midsummer night's dream. And was it nothing to see a pit full of Kanakas, black, brown, and whiteybrown (till lately cannibals), showing their white teeth, grinning and enjoying 'Patter v. Clatter' as much as a few years ago they would have enjoyed the roasting of a missionary or the baking of a baby? It was certainly a page in one's life never to be forgotten."

is about to give a series of such and such representations at the same place.

Beautiful though the island of Oahu may be, I soon found that I could not live there. Even in winter it was like living in a hot-house. The air was steamy with heat, and frightfully relaxing. At intervals my nose streamed with blood, and I grew sensibly thinner. Then I suffered terribly from the musquitoes; my ankles were quite swollen with their bites, and in a day or two more I should have been dead-lame. There are, besides, other tormentors-small flies, very like the Victorian sandflies, that give one a nasty sting. I was very glad, therefore, after four days' stay at Honolulu, to learn that the "Moses Taylor" was ready to sail for San Francisco.

CHAPTER XXII.

HONOLULU TO SAN FRANCISCO.

Departure from Honolulu. — Wreck of the "Saginaw.'

-The "Moses Taylor."-The Accommodation.-The Company on Board.-Behavior of the Ship.-Death of a Passenger.-Feelings on Landing in a new Place.-Approach the Golden Gate.-Close of the Pacific Log.-First Sight of America.

THE departure of the "Moses Taylor" was evidently regarded as a great event at Honolulu. At the hour appointed for our sailing a great crowd had assembled on the wharf. All the notabilities of the place seemed to be there. First and foremost was the king of the Sandwich Islands himself, Kamehameha V.-a jolly-looking, portly old fellow, standing about six feet high, and weighing over five-and-twenty stone-every inch and ounce a king. Then there were the chief ministers of his court, white, yellow, and dusky. There were also English, Americans, and Chinese, with a crowd of fullblooded Kanakas, all very orderly and admiring; and round the outskirts of the throng were several carriages filled with native ladies.

Punctually at half past 4 P.M. we got away from our moorings, with "three cheers for Honolulu," which were raised by a shipwrecked crew we had on board. Leaving the pier, we shortly passed through the opening in the reef which forms the entrance to the harbor, and steamed steadily eastward in the direction of San Francisco.