This has been a great day in Hilo. The old native custom of hookupu
was revived, and it has been a most interesting spectacle. I don't
think I ever enjoyed sight-seeing so much. The weather has been
splendid, which was most fortunate, for many of the natives came in
from distances of from sixty to eighty miles. From early daylight
they trooped in on their half broken steeds, and by ten o'clock
there were fully a thousand horses tethered on the grass by the sea.
Almost every house displayed flags, and the court-house, where the
reception was to take place, was most tastefully decorated. It is a
very pretty two-storied frame building, with deep double verandahs,
and stands on a large lawn of fine manienie grass, {199} with roads
on three sides. Long before ten, crowds had gathered outside the
low walls of the lawn, natives and foreigners galloped in all
directions, boats and canoes enlivened the bay, bands played, and
the foreigners, on this occasion rather a disregarded minority,
assembled in holiday dress in the upper verandah of the court-house.
Hawaiian flags on tall bamboos decorated the little gateways which
gave admission to the lawn, an enormous standard on the government
flagstaff could be seen for miles, and the stars and stripes waved
from the neighbouring plantations and from several houses in Hilo.
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