Hilo Harbor was once called after Lord Byron, cousin of the poet, who nearly a century ago dropped the anchor of his frigate Blonde in the offing, and surveyed the bay as well as the Volcano Kilauea. Captain Vancouver, that thoroughgoing benefactor of Polynesia, saw the possibilities of this port, for he wrote:
“Byron Bay will no doubt become the site of the capital of the island. The fertility of the district of Hilo, ... the excellent water, and abundant fish pools which surround it, the easy access it has to the sandalwood district, and also to the sulphur, which will doubtless soon become an object of commerce, and the facilities it affords for refitting vessels, render it a place of great importance.”
It was the Blonde which brought back in that year of 1825, to his native land the remains of Kamehameha II, Liholiho, and his queen, Kamamalu, from England, where they had been made much of at court. Both fell victims to measles—always one of the deadliest of diseases to islanders throughout the South Seas.
Poor things! Three years before, this favorite queen of Liholiho, Kamamalu, on the last day of a long revel, had been the most gorgeous object ever described by a reverend missionary:
“The car of state in which she joined the processions passing in different directions consisted of an elegantly modeled whaleboat fastened firmly to a platform of wicker work thirty feet long by twelve wide, and borne on the heads of seventy men. The boat was lined, and the whole platform covered, first with imported broadcloth, and then with beautiful patterns of tapa or native cloth of a variety of figures and rich colors. The men supporting the whole were formed into a solid body so that the outer rows only at the sides and ends were seen; and all forming these wore the splendid scarlet and yellow feather cloaks and helmets of which you have read accounts; and than which, scarce anything can appear more superb. The only dress of the queen was a scarlet silk pa’u or native petticoat, and a coronet of feathers. She was seated in the middle of the boat and screened from the sun by an immense Chinese umbrella of scarlet damask, richly ornamented with gilding, fringe and tassels, and supported by a chief standing behind her, in a scarlet malo or girdle, and feather helmet. On one quarter of the boat stood Karimoku (Kalaimoku) the Prime Minister, and on the other Naihe, the national orator, both also in malos of scarlet silk and helmets of feathers, and each bearing a kahili or feathered staff of state near thirty feet in height. The upper parts of these kahilis were of scarlet feathers so ingeniously and beautifully arranged on artificial branches attached to the staff as to form cylinders fifteen or eighteen inches in diameter and twelve to fourteen feet long; the lower parts or handles were covered with alternate rings of tortoise shell and ivory of the neatest workmanship and highest polish.”
King Liholiho had a very engaging streak of recklessness that more than once spread consternation amongst his following. As once in 1821, when he left Honolulu in an open boat for a short trip to Ewa. The boat was crowded with thirty attendants, including two women. But when off Puuloa, he refused to put in to the lagoon, and kept on into the very lively water around Barber’s Point. Then, with royal disregard of the fear and protests of his entourage, without water or provisions, he set the course for Kauai, ninety miles of strong head wind and sea.
“Here is your compass!” he cried to the helmsman, flinging up his right hand, the fingers spread. “Steer by this!—And if you return with the boat, I shall swim to Kauai, alone!”
Good seamanship and luck vindicated him, and they arrived safely off Waimea, Kauai, after a night of peril. And to think that the measles should have had their way with such a prince as that!
From the second station out of Hilo, moored near the main wharf, we could make out the dear little Snark.
The observation car was filled with well-to-do Hilo residents bound for the week-end at their volcano lodges, and I could see Jack planning two more island homes.