was the recipient of a basket of delicious pineapples, and, as a memento of the enjoyable day, a scarf-pin bearing the coat-of-arms of the Hawaiian Islands.
Honolulu, on the Island of Oahu, is the most beautiful section of the earth I have visited; the climate varies little, and it can be more properly termed a temperate clime than tropical, although tropical vegetation is indigenous. Kilauea, on the eastern slope of Mauna Loa mountain, is the loftiest and most active volcano in the world, its crater being nine miles in circumference. Mauna Loa has an altitude of nearly fourteen thousand feet and is covered with perpetual snow.
A few hours before the departure of the transport for “Frisco,” “Jack” London, the writer, arrived in the harbor on the Snark, a twenty-four foot schooner, in which he was making a tour of the globe. As the ship cast loose from the pier, it was with a feeling of regret that I had to leave this delightful country and such amiable people. Wafting an Aloho to my friends and their country, we departed for the American
coast, passing en route, the second day out, an American fleet of war-vessels. As the transport approached the city of the “Golden Gate” in the darkness of the night, myriads of lights glittered along the distant shore.
Steaming through the channel, we entered the bay in the break of the early morning. Off the starboard side stood the grand old landmark the Cliff House, overlooking the bay and city of San Francisco; on the port side, Fort McDowell and the old Island prison, San Quentin. After docking at the pier, relatives and friends of the soldiers were permitted on board, shore leave was granted, and the boys roamed at will through the city that had recently risen from a mass of ruins, caused by the telluric flames that followed the dreadful earthquake of 1906.
Three days were pleasantly spent in “Frisco” ere the regiment departed for the Atlantic coast in three sections, over the Santa Fé Railroad, the First and Second battalions for Forts Porter and Niagara, N. Y., the Third battalion, non-commissioned staff, and band for Governor’s Island,
N. Y. Being a soldier of the Third battalion, the balance of my enlistment was spent at this post in the capacity of record clerk at headquarters of the Twenty-ninth Infantry.
Governor’s Island is a small island situated at the junction of the East River and New York Bay. It is connected with Battery Park, near South Ferry, by a government ferry-boat, which makes a trip between the island and South Ferry every half-hour. The island was first settled by the Dutch in 1614. When the English took New York in 1684, they built Ft. Columbus, the present site of Ft. Jay. Castle William, facing the harbor, was completed in 1810. It is used at present as a military prison.
Besides the palatial residence of the commanding general of the Department of the East, there are various buildings in which the business of this department is transacted; also homes of the officers, barracks of the soldiers, chapel, library, post exchange, quartermaster’s supply depot, the officers’ club, and a museum containing relics of wars dating back to the revolution. Here may be
seen in a large glass repository, in a state of preservation, the noble steed fully equipped as it appeared when carrying General Sheridan through the valley of the Shenandoah.