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 surpassingly lovely as Owyhee, with sweet little Hilo, and its foaming Wailuku.
CHAPTER XLI.
Before dusk the green shores 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 Passage, 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 clusters 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 altitude 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-shore, radiant with noble 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,