to the privates they did not
want to be near them. Our ship had fifteen hundred men on board.

We reached the port of Honolulu, after several days' sailing on rough
seas, October twenty-fifth; five days were taken to coal for our long
voyage to Manila. Honolulu is a fine city, about 2,190 miles from San
Francisco. Located as it is, away out in the Pacific Ocean, makes it the
more attractive to a Georgia soldier who was on his first sea voyage.
There are some fine views in and around Honolulu. As our transport
steamed into the harbor of the city I thought it a grand sight. From
what I could learn I had but one objection to it as a desirable place to
live--leprosy is too prevalent. A small island is used for the lepers'
home, where all who are afflicted with this most loathsome of diseases
are carried, yet the fact that those poor victims are in that country is
a disagreeable one and makes one shudder to look at the island. No one
is allowed to go there, except on business, and they have to get passes
from the authorities to do so. I had no desire to visit the place.

Honolulu is a very good city, with some of the modern city improvements,
such as water works, electric lights, street railroads and ice
factories. These are the results of emigration, people of other
countries going in with money and experience. The natives are called
Kanakis. Agriculture consists in the cultivation of rice, bananas,
cocoanuts and coffee. It was there where I first saw bananas, cocoanuts
and coffee growing. A lieutenant, with about twenty-five men, including
myself, went out about six miles along the beach. We went to the Diamond
Head, six miles eastward from Honolulu. This is an old crater of an
extinct volcano. Returning to the beach we went in bathing and enjoyed
it very much.

Our party had to get passes and present them to guards on going out and
returning. Our transport having coaled and made all the necessary
preparations for the voyage to Manila, we went on board and sailed about
four o'clock in the afternoon of October the thirtieth. But few of the
soldiers had been sea-sick before arriving at Honolulu, but after
leaving there many of them were ill for several days.

I think that the native drink called swipes was the cause of much of it.
This had been very freely imbibed by the soldiers. It is a peculiar
beverage, producing a drunkenness that lasted several days. Some of the
men getting over a drunk on this stuff, by taking a d