were a little
afraid; but as our horses were not, we gathered courage. At times a
precipice rose above us three or four hundred feet on one side, and on
the other descended perhaps a hundred feet. The rock was of lava, much
broken, sometimes looking like the waves of the sea, or like a stream
rolling over the precipice. A portion of the road was cut out of the
side of the rock. Mrs. Paris's cordial greeting repaid us for our hot
and dusty ride. Here, for the first time, I saw orange-trees in full
bloom. They were large and elegant trees, with blossoms and green and
ripe fruit growing at the same time. How we enjoyed the fruit, luscious
and juicy, and so refreshing after our ride! The arbutulum grows here
like a large tree, and blossoms profusely. In the garden we saw young
pine-apples, green mangoes, and Chinese oranges,--a perfect orange in
miniature, but acid as a lemon.

Toward sunset, we returned to the ship. Darkness covered us before
reaching the shore; but our sure-footed horses took us down without a
mishap. At the head of the bay rises a pali, or precipice, six or seven
hundred feet high, and it is said to go down perpendicularly into the
water perhaps as much more.

[Illustration: VALLEY OF WAIPIO.--Page 83.]

On Thursday, we sailed all day along grand precipices rising from the
ocean, some of them seven hundred or a thousand feet high, with
waterfalls leaping the whole distance, or broken into smaller cascades.
Sometimes the streams seemed like a silver ribbon, bordered with green
moss; these steeps being generally covered with verdure. Here and there
was a deep gorge or gulch, as they are there called. The first and only
valley of importance we saw was Waipio, whose sides rose exceedingly
grand and beautiful, with zigzag mule-paths up the slopes. Far in the
distance, amid its shadows, fell a ribbon-like cascade, said to be two
thousand four hundred feet high; behind it lay mountains with their
summits resting in the clouds. A village with its pretty church nestled
in a grove of cocoa-nuts on the beach. After this the precipices grew
lower and lower, until finally the scene changed to undulating hills,
and a rain storm notified us that we were approaching Hilo. We reached
that place about ten o'clock at night, and landed through the surf;
that is, the little boat stopped about fifty feet from the shore, and a
man waded out and took grandma in his arms; but there being a little
delay in getting ashore, the