upon the mind will long remain. The brief stay had been full of
interest and enjoyment; it was, indeed, only too brief.

Our good ship the "Alamada" got up steam in the early morning and was
under way by nine o'clock, steering through the coral reef seaward. The
king graciously sent his military band to play for us some parting airs,
while a thousand spectators consisting of mingled races and equally of
both sexes, gorgeously wreathed in flowers, thronged the capacious pier.
It was high tide, so that the "Alamada" loomed up high above the heads
of the motley assembly. In the middle foreground lay the tropical city
enshrined in palms, cocoas, and flower-bedecked trees, beyond which the
picturesque valley of Nuuanu formed a long perspective reaching into the
volcanic hills. To the right and left the mountain range extended for
miles, forming a series of valleys, gulches, and abrupt precipices, with
here and there a plateau of table-land, all clothed in exquisite
verdure. The shore was dotted by native huts, cocoanut-groves, and
banana-orchards, adding infinite variety to the whole scene.

We had taken on board as passengers some native residents, whose friends
had come to bid them good-by with all the earnest demonstrations of a
tropical race. Amid the waving of handkerchiefs and the reiterated
farewells came the hoarse command from the bridge to cast off the shore
lines. Then the grand old flag--the Stars and Stripes--was run up at
the peak, and the waiting band played "Hail Columbia," followed by
"Home, Sweet Home," responded to by many moistened eyes and quickened
pulsations of the heart. As we glided away our forecastle gun barked
forth a sharp, ringing farewell which was echoed back a score of times
by the mountain gorges.

CHAPTER III.

The Samoan Islands.--A Unique Race of Savages.--Diving for
Money.--A Genuine Samoan Mermaid.--German Aggressiveness.--A
South-Sea Nunnery.--A Terrible Disease.--Christianity _vs._
Paganism.--Under the Southern Cross.--Grandeur of the
Heavens at Sea.--Landing at Auckland.--A Stormy Ocean.--The
Famous Harbor of Sydney.--England and her Australian Colony.
--The Modern Eldorado.--Early Settlers.

In our course southward we made the islands known as the Samoan, or
Navigator's group, and stopped to land the American and European mails
at Tutuila, which is about two thousand three hundred miles from
Honolulu. The six islands which form