he smaller bay which forms the harbour.

The entrance to the harbour is through a passage in one of the coral
reefs which surround the island, the coral insects building upwards
from the submerged flanks of the land, until the reefs emerge from the
waves, more or less distant from the shore. As the water at the
shallowest part of the entrance is only about twenty-two feet, vessels
of twenty-feet draught and over have to remain outside, where,
however, there is good anchorage and shelter, unless when the wind
blows strong from the south. The water inside the reefs is usually
smooth, though the waves outside may be dashing themselves to foam on
their crests.

A glance at the situation of the Sandwich Islands on the map will
serve to show the important part they are destined to play in the
future commerce of the Pacific. They lie almost directly in the course
of all ships passing from San Francisco and Vancouver to China and
Japan, as well as to New Zealand and Australia. They are almost
equidistant from the coasts of Russia and America, being rather
nearer to the American coast, from which they are distant about 2100
miles. They form, as it were, a stepping-stone on the great ocean
highway of the Pacific between the East and the West--between the old
world and the new--as well as between the newest and most prosperous
settlements in the Western States of America and Australia. And it is
because Honolulu--the principal town in the island of Oahu, and the
capital of the Sandwich Islands--possesses by far the best, most
accessible, and convenient harbour, that it is a place likely to
become of so much importance in the future. It has not been unusual to
see as many as from a hundred to a hundred and fifty sail riding
securely at anchor there.

[Illustration: (Map of Oahu, Sandwich Islands)]

As seen from the harbour, Honolulu is an extremely pretty place. It
lies embowered in fresh green foliage, the roofs of the houses peeping
up here and there from amongst the trees, while the waving fronds of
the cocoa-nut palms rise in some places majestically above them,
contrasting strangely with the volcanic crags and peaks which form the
distant background. In the older part of the town, to the right, the
houses are more scattered about; and from the first appearance of the
place, one would scarcely suppose that it contained so large a
population as twelve thousand, though many of the houses are
doubtless hidden by the foliage a