The next morning we went down again to the shore, and were more successful, for the boat was there waiting for us. As the wind was fair, the boat-boys raised their sail, and we danced over the waves swiftly and merrily. After an hour's easy sailing, the wind left us, and our men took their oars for a two hours' rowing to Lahaina. For a part of the time we passed through shallow water over a coral reef, where we could look down upon forests of coral, shaped like branches of trees, white, or tinged slightly with red or green. It was a beautiful sight, and I longed to get some to bring home. We came safely through the surf. Lahaina looks beautifully as you approach it from the sea. It has some very pretty houses, and they seem to be embowered by cocoa-nut and other trees, so that the whole scene is more tropical in its appearance than any other place on the islands. We landed at the same spot where we had done six weeks before, and found our friends all ready to greet us, having seen our boat approaching. Our three hours' sail had been a very pleasant one, and the only sail we had had in a whale-boat.
After dinner, without stopping to rest, we mounted our horses, and sped up the hill to Lahainaluna, a distance of two miles, over a hot, dusty road, to attend the examination of the native seminary or college there. Most of the services were conducted in an unknown tongue, but the answers were prompt, and seemed to be in most instances satisfactory. After sitting and hearing recitations for about three hours, we left, and visited some of the rooms of the students. They looked very neat and clean, many of them having gay patchwork quilts on their beds, and quite a number of them had our illustrated newspapers pinned on the wall, with their favorite general occupying a conspicuous place.
The first of May was commencement day. The exercises were held in the church at Lahaina. We went down about nine. The alumni walked in a procession to the church, and were a fine-looking, intelligent set of men. The addresses were very creditable. The audience were attentive and quiet, and were well-dressed. The singing was very good,—Hawaiian words set to some of our familiar college tunes, which were sung with a great deal of spirit.
After the exercises in the church, the alumni had a dinner in the yard of the church, under a grove of cocoa-nut trees. The foreign guests were honored with a table by themselves, and were served by students. At the end of the table was a pig roasted whole, stuffed with greens, baked with hot stones in one of their ovens in the ground. This dish they call "luau" [lu-ow]. Besides whole pig, they had other pork, veal, poi, bread, cake, and cocoa-nut water. The whole dinner was well-served, and the white guests showed their appreciation of the good things by making a hearty dinner.
But we must wait for our ride in Lahaina until to-morrow.
XVI.
Lahaina—Kauai.
"COME, aunty," called Alice, "we want to take our ride in Lahaina."
We started soon after the alumni dinner, and rode down towards the beach, where we saw the American consul's residence, a cozy, thatched house, then turned off upon a road leading to the hospital. Here is the finest grove of cocoa-nut trees to be seen anywhere on the group of islands. Soon after the arrival of the missionaries, they perceived that no one planted cocoa-nuts, and that there was danger of the trees dying out. A missionary was talking to a high chief woman, and said to her, "Why don't you plant cocoa-nuts, so that trees may grow?" "Oh! I shall never live to eat them," she carelessly remarked. "True," said the missionary, "you may not live to eat them, but your children may live and enjoy the fruit."