I have seldom spent a
more miserable night, though there was the extreme satisfaction of
knowing that every inch of canvas was drawing.
Towards morning the short jerking motion of a ship close hauled,
made me know that we were standing in for the land, and at daylight
we anchored in Koloa Roads. The view is a pleasant one. The rains
have been abundant, and the land, which here rises rather gradually
from the sea, is dotted with houses, abounds in signs of
cultivation, and then spreads up into a rolling country between
precipitous ranges of mountains. The hills look something like
those of Oahu, but their wonderful greenness denotes a cooler
climate and more copious rains, also their slopes and valleys are
densely wooded, and Kauai obviously has its characteristic features,
one of which must certainly be a superabundance of that most
unsightly cactus, the prickly pear, to which the motto nemo me
impune lacessit most literally applies.
I had not time to tell you before that this trip to Kauai was
hastily arranged for me by several of my Honolulu friends, some of
whom gave me letters of introduction, while others wrote forewarning
their friends of my arrival. I am often reminded of Hazael's
question, "Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?"
There is no inn or boarding house on the island, and I had hitherto
believed that I could not be concussed into following the usual
custom whereby a traveller throws himself on the hospitality of the
residents.
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