In the afternoon Dr. Wetmore and I rode to the beautiful Puna woods
on a botanising excursion. We were galloping down to the beach
round a sharp corner, when we had to pull our horses almost on their
haunches to avoid knocking over the king, the American admiral, the
captain of the "Benicia," nine of their officers, and the two
generals. When I saw the politely veiled stare of the white men it
occurred to me that probably it was the first time that they had
seen a white woman riding cavalier fashion! We had a delicious
gallop over the sands to the Waiakea river, which we crossed, and
came upon one of the vast lava-flows of ages since, over which we
had to ride carefully, as the pahoehoe lies in rivers, coils,
tortuosities, and holes partially concealed by a luxuriant growth of
ferns and convolvuli. The country is thickly sprinkled with cocoa-
nuts and bread-fruit trees, which merge into the dense, dark,
glorious forest, which tenderly hides out of sight hideous broken
lava, on which one cannot venture six feet from the track without
the risk of breaking one's limbs. All these tropical forests are
absolutely impenetrable, except to axe and billhook, and after a
trail has been laboriously opened, it needs to be cut once or twice
a year, so rapid is the growth of vegetation.
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