temperature had been above eighty degrees in the daytime, it
fell below thirty at night. I contracted a cold which developed
into pneumonia, from which I did not recover for many months. It
was during my convalescence that I went with Colonel B. S. Alexander
to the Hawaiian Islands, under an arrangement previously made with
the War Department.

It was the year 1872 when I and Colonel Alexander, the senior
engineer officer on the Pacific coast, who had applied to the War
Department and obtained an order to visit the Hawaiian Islands for
the purpose of reporting to the War Department, confidentially,
the value of those islands to the United States for military and
naval purposes, went to Hawaii with Rear-Admiral Pennock on the
flag-ship _California_, and returned, three months later, on the
war-steamer _Benicia_. During our stay we visited the largest
island of the group,--Hawaii,--and its principal seaport,--Hilo,--
and the great crater of Kilauea. We made a careful examination of
the famous harbor of Pearl River, in the island of Oahu, a few
miles from Honolulu, including a survey of the entrance to that
harbor and an estimate of the cost of cutting a deep ship-channel
through the coral reef at the extremity of that entrance toward
the sea.

At that time the young king Lunalilo had just ascended the throne
made vacant by the death of the last of the ancient reigning house
of Hawaii. The policy of the preceding king had been annexation
to the United States; but the new sovereign and his advisers were
opposed to that policy, although very friendly to Americans, and
largely controlled by their influence in governmental affairs. It
was manifest that the question of annexation ought not to be
discussed at that time, but that action ought to be taken at once
to secure to the United States the exclusive right to the use of
Pearl River harbor for naval purposes, and to prepare the way to
make annexation to the United States sure in due time. This could
readily be done by making such concessions in favor of the products
of Hawaiian industries as would develop the resources of the islands
and increase their wealth, all of which would be to the ultimate
benefit of the United States when the islands should become a part
of this country.

A VISIT TO HAWAII

The continuous and rapid decay of all the ancient families of
chiefs, from which alone would the people ev