NATIVE GRASS HOUSE, HAWAII.
Hawaii is called the "Paradise of the Pacific," and there is little doubt that its climate, fertility and healthfulness justify the name. It is one of the few spots upon earth where one can almost, to use a slang phrase, "touch the button" and obtain any kind of weather he desires. Mark Twain's suggestion to those who go to these islands to find a congenial clime is about as practical as it is humorous—"Select your climate, mark your thermometer at the temperature desired, and climb until the mercury stops there." Everyone who visits Hawaii is charmed with the country, and never forgets its novelty, stupendous and delightful scenery, clear atmosphere, gorgeous sunlight, and profusion of fruits and flowers.
"No alien land in all the world," writes Mr. Clemens, "could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a life-time, as that has done. Other things leave me, but that abides. Other things change, but that remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing; its summer seas flash in the sun; the pulsing of its surf beats in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud rack; I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes; I can hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago."
DISCOVERY AND LOCATION.
Captain Cook discovered the islands in January, 1778, and named them the Sandwich Islands, after Lord Sandwich; but the native name, Hawaii, is more generally used. There is good evidence that Juan Gaetano, in the year 1555—223 years before Cook's visit—landed upon their shores. Old Spanish charts and the traditions of the natives bear out this theory, but they were not made known to the world until Cook visited them. It is popularly believed that the original inhabitants of Hawaii came from New Zealand, though that island is some 4,000 miles southwest of them. The physical appearance of the people is very similar, and their languages are so much alike that a native Hawaiian and a native New Zealander, meeting for the first time, can carry on a conversation. Their ideas of the Deity and some of their religious customs are nearly the same. That the islands have been peopled for a long time is proven by the fact that human bones are found under lava beds and coral reefs where geologists declare they have lain for at least thirteen hundred years.
There are eight inhabited islands in the archipelago, Hawaii, Maui, Kahoolawi, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau, comprising an area of 6,700 square miles, a little less than that of the State of New Jersey, and about five hundred miles greater than the combined areas of Rhode Island and Connecticut. They extend from northwest to southeast, over a distance of about 380 miles, the several islands being separated by channels varying in width from six to sixty miles. They lie entirely within the tropics, not far from a direct line between San Francisco and Japan, 2,080 miles from San Francisco, which is nearer to them than any other point of land, except one of the Carolines. The largest and most southern island is Hawaii, which has given its name to the group.
RAISING THE AMERICAN FLAG IN HONOLULU, AUGUST 12, 1898.
The cut in the corner shows the Royal Palace formerly occupied by the Hawaiian Kings.
THE HIGHEST AND LARGEST VOLCANOES.