A TWO WEEKS' VISIT AT HONOLULU.
By Rosalind A. Young
LEAVING Pitcairn Island on the evening of the 26th of June, the Pitcairn visited in succession the following islands,—Tahiti, Rurutu, Raratonga, Aitutaki, Palmerston and Upolo, in the Samoan group. Here we left Sister Hattie Andre, on the 25th of September, to take the first steamer to San Francisco, while we sailed away for Tongatabu. Four days later we cast anchor in the harbor of Nukalofa. After a few days' stay, the Pitcairn was ready to leave, but had to wait for favorable winds to go to Fiji, so she was still in harbor when the steamer Ovalau came in on the 2nd of September. Owing to circumstances, it was thought best by Captain Graham and Brother McCoy that I should return to Samoa from Tonga, join Sister Andre there, and take passage with her on the steamer going to San Francisco. Accordingly, they engaged a passage for me on the Ovalau, and gave me the passage money for San Francisco. The Ovalau then left for Samoa, calling in at Haapai and Vavau on the way, to discharge passengers and supplies for those places, and on the 6th of September she dropped anchor in Apia Harbor. After a short stay, Sister Andre and I left Samoa, taking passage on the steamer Mariposa for San Francisco. As the steamer was to stay for a day at Honolulu, we were glad of the opportunity of seeing Elder Gates and family, even for so short a visit, but through the kindness of a friend who was traveling with us, we were allowed the privilege of staying at Honolulu for sixteen days, and have our tickets transferred to the Australia. On Wednesday evening, September 16th, the Mariposa lay alongside the wharf, and in a few minutes Elder Gates was on board with his hearty welcome. Words can not express how glad we were to see him and his dear family again; but we were sorry to find his wife in poor health; as she had always been so well and strong. Leaving our luggage in the hands of the custom house officials, to be forwarded to Elder Gates' residence, we accompanied him to his house. It was prayer-meeting night among all the churches, and the little company of Seventh-day Adventists was gathered in a room on the ground floor where the different services of our church are held. It is very well adapted for the purpose, and has ample accommodations for those who at present are members of our church. When the meeting was over we were introduced to the brethren and sisters present, a pleasure we heartily appreciated. The first few days of our stay were spent mostly in resting after our sea voyage, and in the enjoyment of being on land once more, and with those whom we knew and loved. On the first Sunday morning of our stay, Sister Elsie Gates took us to the Chinese chapel, where we were introduced to Mr. Frank Damon, a gentleman whose whole time seems occupied in laboring for the good and the advancement of the Chinese, a work in which he is ably assisted by his lovely and accomplished wife, whom he married in China, where she had been born and brought up. At the time of our visit on Sunday the Sunday-school was in session, so we visited the different departments and waited for the closing exercises, in the singing of which we took part. At Mr. Damon's request, we took up a few minutes of the time, telling about the places we had visited and left, more especially about Pitcairn Island. We did not leave until after their church service was about half-way through, everything being in Chinese. To me the whole thing was very enjoyable, as well as entirely new, not the least being the fact that the nice pipe organ was played by a Chinaman, and the choir consisted of Chinese boys. Quite a goodly company of the women came in, and we noticed that Mrs. Damon came in and sat down in their midst as one of themselves, which we thought was beautiful. Later on in the week, at the gentleman's request, we visited the free kindergarten school, an institution in regard to which he declared himself a perfect enthusiast. The visit over, we took lunch at his home, after which he showed us all over a commodious and well-arranged home lately built for, and now occupied by, Chinese young men and boys. It would seem that so much care and thoughtfulness exercised for their comfort and well-being must result in a large measure for good, physically, mentally, and morally. The next Sunday we visited a native church, where the closing Sunday-school exercises for the quarter were held. The lady superintendent, Mrs. Dillingham, a daughter of one of the earliest missionaries to the islands, received us warmly, and supplied all our party with seats in the best part of the building, where everything could be seen. All but two of the different parts of the exercises were conducted in the Hawaiian language, and the whole scene was interesting. One of the parts rendered in English was by the girls of the Kamehameha School, who sang an anthem, or duet, their well-trained voices, rich and sweet, being fully exercised in the chorus, "Praise ye the Lord!" In the other part given in English, three of the resident ladies of Honolulu, and a gentleman, took part. Most of the exercises consisted of song, and the voices, especially the male voices, were full of richest, sweetest melody. We were invited to visit the Kamehameha Girls' School, so one Friday Elder Gates, Sister Andre and I obtained the use of Brother Covell's horse and carriage, and started off on the visit, going first to the Bishop Museum, as that building was open on Fridays to the public. We spent about an hour and a half going through the rooms, when, to do justice to it, it would require days instead of hours to visit the place. Our visit to the museum ended, we went over to the building of the Kamehameha Boys' School in its near vicinity. The whole building was beautifully planned, and admirably fitted out, the schools and the surrounding homes being founded by the late Mrs. Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a direct descendant of Kamehameha the Great. The splendid museum was built to her memory, and, in the most prominent position of all, hang the beautiful portraits of herself and her husband, among the crowned heads of the little kingdom of Hawaii. When we arrived at the girls' school, the older girls were going through their callisthenics, closing up the school work for the week. We felt too tired to stay, and so left, promising to come another day, but our time was so fully occupied that we were obliged, much to our regret, to leave without fulfilling our promise. Our stay in Honolulu was long enough for us to be introduced to several of the old residents there, who impressed me as being among the "excellent of the earth." Different ones invited us out to their pleasant homes, where we were well entertained, the only thing to regret being that the time spent in such pleasant society was not as long as we could wish. One of the sights to be seen in Oahu is the pali, an opening in the mountains that brings the beholder abruptly, and unexpectedly, face to face with the view of a country totally different in almost every feature from what lay behind him, being a wide stretch of lowland, with the blue sea in the distance, on one side being blue-veiled mountains, and on the other, barren, desolate-looking hills. It was at the pali that Kamehameha the Great drove his on-coming enemies down to destruction and to death. When the Australia arrived, bringing the body of Joseph Nawahi, who had died in California, our party proposed to visit the place where the funeral procession was to pass. We had seen a notice of it in the evening papers, so after breakfast off we started, passing through one street and then another, but seeing nothing at all pertaining to a funeral. We learned when all was over, that the time set for the body to be taken to the Kinau steamer, had been changed, and the funeral postponed till the next day at two o'clock. We were exceedingly sorry to have missed the sight of the native demonstration, as it was said by those who witnessed it, to be something very imposing. The floral display was wonderful, as well as most profuse, and the hearse was drawn by a number of the principal men among the Hawaiians, almost the entire native population turning out to swell the procession that followed the dead body down to the steamer that was to convey it to its last resting-place on the island of Hawaii. The time of our departure drew on rapidly, but the day before we left, we went to another of the native schools, the Kawaiahao Seminary, where the lady superintendent, Mrs. Coan, a daughter of one of the earliest missionaries, Mr. Bingham, received us warmly, and invited us to give a few minutes' talk to the girls. There, as elsewhere, where we listened to the native voices, the singing was very sweet. At the close of the meeting, which we greatly enjoyed, Mrs. Coan's brother and his invalid wife drove up. The sick lady insisted on getting down from the carriage, and having my companion and me get in, her husband driving us home.12We were sorry indeed not to be able to visit more of the excellent schools in Honolulu, but it was impossible, for various reasons, to do so; we took away with us very pleasant impressions, however, of the place and people. On the 3d of October, with the government band playing, and handkerchiefs waving good-bys from the large crowd gathered on the wharf to see the Australia go, we took a farewell leave of Honolulu, and started on the last part of our sea voyage for San Francisco.