CHAPTER VII.

Journey to Kearakomo, and reception there.-Reported eruption of lava in Kapapala.-Sabbath at Kearakomo-Affectionate reception of Mauae at Kaimu.-Conversation with the people.Marks of an earthquake.-Description of Kaimu.-Manner of launching and landing canoes at Kehena.-Preaching and conversation with the people.-Extinguished volcano in the valley of Kapoho.-Traditionary story of a contest between Pele and Kahavari.-Incidents on the journey to Waiakea:

THOUGH We left our encampment at day-break, it was eleven o'clock in the forenoon before we took our final leave of Kirauea.

The path, by which we descended towards the sea, was about south-east-by-east. On the high lands, in the vicinity of the crater, we found the ground covered with strawberry plants, on some of which were a few berries, but the season for them appeared to have gone by. The plants and vines were small, as was also the fruit, which, in its colour and shape, resembled the hautboy strawberry, though, in taste, it was much more insipid. Strawberries, as well as raspberries, are indigenous plants, and are found in great abundance over most of the high lands of Hawaii, though we do not know of their existence in any other islands of the group. The ground, over which we walked, was composed of ancient lava, in a state of decomposition, broken into small pieces, resembling coarse, dry gravel, to the depth of two or three inches, below which it was one solid mass of lava. The surface was covered with ohelo bushes, and a few straggling shrubs, which made travelling much more agreeable, than when we approached the volcano.

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Within a few miles of Kirauea, we passed three or four high and rugged craters. One of them, Keanakakoi, the natives told us, sent forth, in the days of Riroa, king of Hawaii, about fourteen generations back, most of the lava, over which we were travelling. The sides of these craters were generally covered with verdure, while the brown, irregular shaped rocks on their summits, frowned like the battlements of an ancient castle in ruins.

As we approached the sea, the soil became more generally spread over the surface, and vegetation was more luxuriant. About 2 o'clock, P. M. we sat down to rest. The natives ran to a spot in the neighbourhood, that had formerly been a plantation, and brought a number of pieces of sugar-cane, with which we quenched our thirst, and then walked on till about three o'clock, when we reached the edge of the high ground, which, at a remote period, probably formed the eastern coast.

We stopped at a solitary cottage, where we procured a copious draught of fresh water, to us a most grateful beverage, as we had travelled ever since the morning without any refreshment, except a few berries and a piece of sugar-cane. We descended 400 or 500 feet, by a narrow winding path covered with overhanging trees, and bordered by shrubs and grass. We then walked over a tract of lava considerably decomposed, and about five miles wide, at the end of which another steep appeared. Down this we descended by following the course of a rugged current of lava, for about 600 feet perpendicular depth, when we arrived at the plain below, which was one extended sheet of lava, without shrub or bush, stretching to the north and south as far as the eye could reach, and from four to six miles across, from the foot of the mountain to the sea.

The natives gave us the fabulous story of the combat between Pele and Tamapuaa, as the origin of this flood of lava. We crossed it in about two hours, and arrived at Kearakomo, the second divis

ion of Puna. We stopped at the first house we came to, and begged some water. They brought us a calabash full, of which we drank most hearty draughts, though it was little better than the water of the sea, from which it had percolated through the vesicles of lava into hollows from nine to twelve feet from the ocean. It barely quenched our thirst while we were swallowing it, but it was the best we could procure, and we could hardly refrain from drinking at every hollow to which we came. After walking about a mile along the beach, we came to a house, which our guide pointed out as our lodgings. It was a miserable hut, and we asked whether we could not find better accommodations, as we intended passing the Sabbath in the village. Mauae told us it was the only one in the place, that was not thronged with people, and he thought it the most comfortable one. we could procure. The village is populous, and the natives thronged around us like bees; and to our great regret, two thirds of them appeared to be in a state of intoxication, a circumstance we frequently had occasion to lament, in the villages through which we passed. Their inebriation was generally the effect of rum, or of an intoxicating drink made of fermented ti root, sugar-cane juice, or sweet potatoes.

We sent to the head man of the village for some refreshment, but he was intoxicated, and though we had walked upwards of twenty miles since the morning, and had but scanty fare since leaving Kapapala, we could only procure a few cold potatoes, and two or three pieces of raw salt fish. Multitudes crowded around our hut; and with those who were sober we entered into conversation. When they learned that we had been to Kirauea, they were unwilling to believe we had broken the sulphur banks, eaten the ohelos, descended to the craters, or broken any fragments of lava from them; as they said, Pele ma, Pele and her associates, would certainly have revenged the insult. However, when our boys showed them the ohelo berries, with the specimens of

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sulphur and lava, that we had brought away, they were convinced that we had been there, but said that we had escaped, only because we were haore, (foreigners.) No Hawaiian, they added, would have done so with impunity, for Pele was a dreadful being.

They also told us, that, no longer than five moons ago, she had issued from a subterranean cavern, and overflowed the low land of Kapapala. The inundation was sudden and violent, burnt one canoe, and carried four more into the sea. At Mahuka, the deep torrent of lava, bore into the sea a huge rock, according to their account nearly a hundred feet high, which, a short period before, had been separated, by an earthquake, from the main pile in the neighbourhood. It now stands, they say, in the sea, nearly a mile from the shore, its bottom surrounded by lava, its summit rising considerably above the water. We exceedingly regretted our ignorance of this recent inundation, at the time we passed through the above mentioned districts, for had we known of it then, we should certainly have descended to the shore, and examined its extent and appearance. We now felt convinced, that the chasms we had visited at Ponahohoa, and the smoking fissures we afterwards saw, marked the course of a stream of lava, and thought it probable that, though the lava had burst out five months ago, it was still flowing in a smaller and less rapid stream. Perhaps the body of the lava, that had filled Kirauea up to the black ledge, which we saw between 300 and 400 feet above the liquid lava, at that time had been drawn off by this subterranean channel, though the distance between the great crater and the land overflowed by it, was not less than thirty or thirty-five miles.

When the day began to close, and we wished the people to retire, we told them that to-morrow was the sacred day of Jehovah, the true God, and directed them to come together early in the morning to hear his word, and unite with us in his worship. We then spread our mats upon some poles, that lay at

one end of the house, and as we had no lamp, and could procure no candle-nuts, we laid ourselves down as soon as it became dark, and notwithstanding our uncomfortable lodging place, slept very soundly till day-break.

Aug. 3d. "Welcome sweet day of rest," was the language of our hearts, as we beheld the Sabbath's early light dawn on the desolate shores of Puna, and saw the bright luminary of day, emblem of the Sabbath's Lord, rise from the eastern wave of the extended Pacific. After the fatiguing journey and unusual excitement of the past week, a day's rest was necessary, and we were happy to spend it in the populous village of Kearakomo, as it afforded us an opportunity of unfolding the Saviour's love to many of its inhabitants, and inviting them to seek that everlasting rest and happiness reserved for his followers in the heavenly world.

Between six and seven o'clock, about two hundred of the people collected in front of our house. We sang a hymn, after which one of our number preached to them a discourse, which occupied rather more than half an hour, and another concluded the service with prayer. They were all sober and appeared attentive. Several proposed questions to us, and when we had answered them, we directed them to return to their houses, abstain from fishing, or other ordinary employments; and, when the sun was over their heads, to come together again, and hear more about Jehovah and Jesus Christ. Many, however, continued talking with the natives belonging to our company, and gazing at us through most of the day.

About 9, A. M. a friend of Mauae brought us a fowl and a bundle of potatoes. We procured another, and our boys cooked them in an oven of stones under ground, and they made us a good breakfast. All that we wanted was fresh water, that which we were obliged to drink being extremely brackish.

At 12 o'clock, about three hundred of the people again assembled to hear the word. The head man