precaution, as visitors to the island
are not numerous, and can only arrive by the monthly steamer from
Honolulu.

Having arranged this matter, we went for a stroll, among neat houses
and pretty gardens, to the suspension-bridge over the river, followed
by a crowd of girls, all decorated with wreaths and garlands, and
wearing almost the same dress that we had seen at Tahiti--a coloured
long-sleeved loose gown reaching to the feet. The natives here appear
to affect duller colours than those we have lately been accustomed to,
lilac, drab, brown, and other dark prints being the favourite tints.
Whenever I stopped to look at a view, one of the girls would come
behind me and throw a _lei_ of flowers over my head, fasten it round
my neck, and then run away laughing, to a distance, to judge of
effect. The consequence was that, before the end of our walk, I had
about a dozen wreaths, of various colours and lengths, hanging round
me, till I felt almost as if I had a fur tippet on, they made me so
hot; and yet I did not like to take them off for fear of hurting the
poor girls' feelings.

We walked along the river bank, and crossed to the other side just
below the rapids, jumping over the narrow channels through which the
water hurried and rushed. Some of our attendant girls carried Muriel
and the dogs, and, springing barefooted from rock to rock, led us
across the stream and up the precipitous banks on the other side.
There is a sort of hotel here, kept by a Chinaman, where everything is
scrupulously clean, and the food good though plain. It is rather more
like a lodging-house than an hotel, however. You hire your rooms, and
are expected to make special arrangements for board. Before we got
back to the yacht it had become dark, the moon had risen, and we could
see the reflection in the sky of the fires in the crater of Kilauea. I
do hope the volcano will be active to-morrow. It is never two days in
the same condition, and visitors have frequently remained in the
neighbourhood of the crater for a week without seeing an eruption.

The starlit sky, the bright young moon, and the red cloud from
Kilauea, floating far above our heads, made up a most beautiful scene
from the deck of the 'Sunbeam.'

_Saturday, December 23rd_.--The boatman who brought us off last night
had told us that Saturday was market-day at Hilo, and that at five
o'clock the natives would come in from the surrounding country in
crowds to buy their Sunday and Chr