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large company of retainers, as was fitting to my regency, I started on this excursion. Mrs. Pauahi Bishop, the Princess Ruth, Mrs. Haalelea, and their immediate attendants, had preceded me; and I invited the Royal Hawaiian Band of native musicians to form part of my retinue, not for my own pleasure especially, although music forms to me a great part of the enjoyment of life, but because I wished to bring with me, to my friends and my people on that island, a delight which I knew to them was quite rare, and in which I was quite sure all would find much satisfaction.

It was in the month of August, six months after I had watched the commencement of that lava flow which is now celebrated in the history of that region of wonders. I found Mauna Loa was still alarmingly active, and that three streams of molten fire were creeping down its sides, so that the good people of Hilo were living in daily apprehension that the fiery element would reach their doors, their houses be consumed, and their lives, perhaps, imperilled by the rivers of flame. It was a grand and beautiful sight, in spite of the suggestion of danger, as you rode along the borders of the lava stream, which had chosen the channels of the water-courses or filled the basins where these had formerly spread themselves out into pools of refreshing fluid; the molten masses retained the heat of the source of their origin, even when rolling along, or falling as a great cascade into some hollow, which was soon filled up with the melted elements of the earth’s centre, making one level plain where had been channels or pits in the earth’s surface.