We reached Makawao very tired, soon after dark, to be heartily
congratulated on our successful ascent, and bearing no worse traces
of it than lobster-coloured faces, badly blistered.
After accepting sundry hospitalities I rode over here, skirting the
mountain at a height of 2000 feet, a most tedious ride, only
enlivened by the blaze of nasturtiums in some of the shallow
gulches. It is very pretty here, and I wish all invalids could
revel in the sweet changeless air. The name signifies "ripe bread-
fruit of the gods." The plantation is 2000 feet above the sea, and
is one of the finest on the islands; and owing to the slow maturity
of the cane at so great a height, the yield is from five to six tons
an acre. Water is very scarce; all that is used in the boiling-
house and elsewhere has been carefully led into concrete tanks for
storage, and even the walks in the proprietor's beautiful garden are
laid with cement for the same purpose. He has planted many thousand
Australian eucalyptus trees on the hillside in the hope of procuring
a larger rainfall, so that the neighbourhood has quite an exotic
appearance.
The coast is black and volcanic-looking below, jutting into the sea
in naked lava promontories, which nature has done nothing to drape.
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