"COME aunty, come!" said Alice; "Willie and Carrie sent me to call you." So I went with my little messenger.
We left Mr. Krull's on the morning of May 15, and had a sandy and uninteresting ride until noon. The only pleasant thing about it, beside good company, was an exquisite bouquet of beautiful tea-rosebuds, from our kind entertainer's garden. At noon a carriage met us, kindly sent by a foreign resident at Lihue, and the older members of the party got into it. It was a heavily-built English barouche drawn by two horses. Two native outriders, when a steep hill was to be ascended, attached lassos to the carriage, which were fastened to their saddles, so that, with the aid of their horses, the carriage went steadily and quickly over the ground, and the occupants had the satisfaction of riding in a coach and four.
Wailua Falls.—Page [175].
"What are lassos?" asked Alice.
A lasso is a long rope, sometimes made of leather. It is generally used to catch wild horses or cattle with; but it did excellent service in the way in which it was used that day.
We arrived at Mrs. Rice's, Lihue, in good season, and stayed there overnight. We visited another sugar-mill there, and found it like the others,—a sweet place.
Early on Saturday morning, I started on an excursion to Wailua Falls, about six miles distant. We rode over field and meadow, when suddenly my companion reined in his horse, and came for me to dismount. "But where are the falls?" said I. "You will see soon." A few steps brought me to the brink of an abyss. What a beautiful scene burst upon my astonished eye! Right before me was this huge sheet of water, pouring into a dark circular pool beneath. One side of the fall was heavy, the other so thin that it seemed as if every drop fell by itself; while covering the black rocks beneath, as if with emerald velvet, were delicate ferns and mosses. How pure and fleecy it looked! while far, far below us the river gleamed like silver through the leaves. The hight of this fall is one hundred and eighty-six feet, and it is fifty feet broad. Two miles farther up the river is another fall nearly as high, but divided into two cascades, one about one hundred feet, the other perhaps seventy.
There is a fine estate not far from the falls that seemed more like an American country-seat than any I saw on the islands. A large square house is built upon the edge of what was once an old crater, but which is now transformed into a fine garden, abounding in flowers. This is a dairy-farm, and is well kept. Our sixteen miles' ride was performed in less than three hours, which we thought fast riding, there being no road most of the way.
We left Lihue at ten o'clock, and rode over to Koloa, ten miles, in the barouche, arriving there in time for dinner.