His moral character, however, has been very low, which
makes the outburst of feeling at his fate the more remarkable.
Yesterday, he wrote a letter to Sheriff Severance, giving himself up
as a leper to be dealt with by the law, expressing himself as ready
to be expatriated to-day, but requesting that he might not be put
into the leper-house, and that he might go on board the steamer
alone. The fact of his giving himself up excited much sympathy, as,
in his case, the signs of the malady are hardly apparent, and he
might have escaped suspicion for some time.
He was riding about all this morning, taking leave of people, and of
the pleasant Hilo lanes, which he will never see again, and just as
the steamer was weighing anchor, walked down to the shore as
carefully dressed as usual, decorated with leis of ohia and
gardenia, and escorted by nearly the whole native population. On my
first landing here, the glee club, singing and flower-clad, went out
to meet him; now tears and sobs accompanied him, and his countrymen
and women clung to him, kissing him, to the last moment, whilst all
the foreigners shook hands as they offered him their good wishes.
He made a short speech in native, urging quiet submission to the
stringent measures which government is taking in order to stamp out
leprosy, and then said a few words in English.
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