[Illustration: HONOLULU, SANDWICH ISLANDS.]
THE HARBOUR OF HONOLULU--IMPORTANCE OF ITS SITUATION--THE CITY--CHURCHES AND THEATRES--THE POST OFFICE--THE SUBURBS--THE KING'S PALACE--THE NUUANU VALLEY--POI--PEOPLE COMING DOWN THE VALLEY--THE PALI--PROSPECT FROM THE CLIFFS--THE NATIVES (KANAKAS)--DIVERS--THE WOMEN--DRINK PROHIBITION--THE CHINESE--THEATRICALS--MUSQUITOES.
When I came on deck in the early morning, the sun was rising behind the mountains which form the background of Honolulu as seen from the harbour, tipping them with gold and red, and bathing the landscape in beauty. I could now survey at leisure the lovely scene.
I found we had entered a noble harbour, round which the town of Honolulu is built, with its quays, warehouses and shipyards. Looking seaward, I observe the outer bay is nearly closed in at its lower extremity by the long ridge-like hill, called Diamond Head. Nearer at hand, behind the town, is a remarkable eminence called Punchbowl Hill, evidently of volcanic origin, crowned with a battery, and guarding the entrance to the smaller bay which forms the harbour.
The entrance to the harbour is through a passage in one of the coral reefs which surround the island, the coral insects building upwards from the submerged flanks of the land, until the reefs emerge from the waves, more or less distant from the shore. As the water at the shallowest part of the entrance is only about twenty-two feet, vessels of twenty-feet draught and over have to remain outside, where, however, there is good anchorage and shelter, unless when the wind blows strong from the south. The water inside the reefs is usually smooth, though the waves outside may be dashing themselves to foam on their crests.
A glance at the situation of the Sandwich Islands on the map will serve to show the important part they are destined to play in the future commerce of the Pacific. They lie almost directly in the course of all ships passing from San Francisco and Vancouver to China and Japan, as well as to New Zealand and Australia. They are almost equidistant from the coasts of Russia and America, being rather nearer to the American coast, from which they are distant about 2100 miles. They form, as it were, a stepping-stone on the great ocean highway of the Pacific between the East and the West--between the old world and the new--as well as between the newest and most prosperous settlements in the Western States of America and Australia. And it is because Honolulu--the principal town in the island of Oahu, and the capital of the Sandwich Islands--possesses by far the best, most accessible, and convenient harbour, that it is a place likely to become of so much importance in the future. It has not been unusual to see as many as from a hundred to a hundred and fifty sail riding securely at anchor there.