"He told us that the disease first showed itself by a slight swelling under the eyes and in the lobes of the ears; then the fingers contracted like birds' claws, the face swelled into ridges that were smooth and shiny, and later these ridges broke into festering sores. Sometimes these symptoms on the face do not appear, the attacks being principally on the hands and feet. The fingers and toes wither and decay; they seem to dry up and shrink, as we saw several persons whose finger-nails were on their knuckles, the fingers having shrunk away and disappeared.
"It is a curious circumstance that the victims of leprosy rarely suffer pain. The decay of the extremities is gradual, and the shiny ridges on the face may be pinched with the fingers or punctured with a pin without giving any sensation. Among the nine hundred and odd persons in the leper settlement we saw very few sad faces. The people were enjoying themselves very much as they would in Honolulu—talking and laughing, walking or lounging about, or riding horses, and in one place they were playing a game that evoked a good deal of shouting and hilarity. Many were at work in the fields and gardens, or making salt along the shore. There is a leper governor for the settlement, and the usual number of subordinates that such a place requires. There is a store where goods are sold at cost, and many of the lepers receive money from their friends and spend it at the store. The Government provides the lepers with clothes and lodging, and gives them sufficient food for their subsistence. Those who can work are encouraged to do so, and all that they produce is bought by the Board of Health and paid for out of the store.
"Then they have two churches—one Catholic and the other Protestant. The latter has a native pastor, and the former a white priest, who has volunteered to seclude himself among these unfortunate people for their religious good. There are three white men and eight Chinese who have been sent here as lepers. It has been charged that the Chinese brought leprosy to the islands, but the doctor says this is not so, the disease having existed here before the Chinese came; and besides, it is quite unlike the malady of that name in China. There it principally attacks the skin, while the Hawaiian form belongs to the blood.
"The location of the settlement is an excellent one, as it is on the windward side of the island, and constantly swept by the pure breezes from the ocean. For those who are unable to move about there are large and well-kept hospitals, where the patients are waited upon by other lepers that have not reached the disabled stage. Access and escape are alike difficult, and everything seems to have been done to make life as comfortable as possible to the unfortunate victims who are sent here."
[CHAPTER III.]
SUDDEN CHANGE OF PLANS.—THE YACHT PERA.—DEPARTURE FROM HONOLULU.—VOYAGE TO THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS.—NOOKAHEEVA BAY.—HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE MARQUESAS.—WHAT OUR FRIENDS SAW THERE.—TATTOOING AND HOW IT IS PERFORMED.—THE DAUGHTER OF A CHIEF.—NATIVES AND THEIR PECULIARITIES.—COTTON AND OTHER PLANTATIONS.—PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE ISLANDS.—VISITING A PLANTATION AND A NATIVE VILLAGE.—MISSIONARIES AND THEIR WORK.—THE TABU.—CURIOUS CUSTOMS.—PITCAIRN ISLAND AND THE MUTINEERS OF THE BOUNTY.—WONDERS OF EASTER ISLAND.—GIGANTIC MONUMENTS OF AN UNKNOWN RACE.
Those who have followed the Boy Travellers in their journeys in other parts of the world will remember that their plans were often changed by circumstances which could not be foreseen. At Honolulu one of these change took place, and this is how it happened:
When the Alameda entered the harbor on her arrival from San Francisco our friends observed at anchor a trim-looking yacht displaying the English flag. They were too busy with the novelties of the place to give her any attention, and her presence was soon forgotten.