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This island contains five volcanic mountains, of which Kea, 13,805 feet, is the highest; next to that, Loa, 13,675 feet; after these, Hualalai, rising 8273 feet; Kilauea, 4158 feet; and Kohala, 5505 feet above the sea; this last is largely buried beneath the lavas of Mauna Kea.
The transient residents of this sheep station, and those of another on Hualalai, thirty miles off, are the only human inhabitants of a region as large as Kent. These geese are web-footed, though water does not exist. They build their nests in the grass, and lay two or three white eggs.
The natives are very superstitious, and the late king, who was both educated and intelligent, was much under the dominion of a sorceress. I have made the ascent of Hualalai twice from here, the first time guided by my host and hostess, and the second time rather adventurously alone.
He took the field at the head of his army, accompanied by his famous warrior, Piimaiwaa; his friends, Koi and Omakamau; his favorite, Pakaa; and Lono, his Kahuna. He turned the flanks of Mauna Kea, and advancing between this mountain and Hualalai, in the direction of Mauna Loa, arrived at the great central plateau of the island, intending to make a descent upon Kailua.
Hualalai, owing to the vegetation sparsely sprinkled over it, looks as if it had been quiet for ages, but it has only slept since 1801, when there was a tremendous eruption from it, which flooded several villages, destroyed many plantations and fishponds, filled up a deep bay 20 miles in extent, and formed the present coast.
We crossed a flank of Mauna Kea at a height of 6000 feet, and a short descent brought us out upon this vast tableland, which lies between the bulbous domes of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai, the loneliest, saddest, dreariest expanse I ever saw.
Every man in Haupu was killed, and its walls were levelled: Hina was found in her cottage, and although she bewailed the death of her lover, she rejoiced in her restoration to her mother and her sons. The Hawaiian Orpheus and Eurydice Upon the slopes of Hualalai, just under the clouds and among the fragrant sandal-woods, lived Hana and her son, Hiku.
"Never comes the trader, never floats a European flag, Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the crag: Droops the heavy-blossom'd bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree Summer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea." HUALALAI. July 28th.
This forest terminates abruptly on the great volcanic wilderness, with its starved growth of unsightly scrub. But Hualalai, though 10,000 feet in height, is covered with Pteris aquilina, mamane, coarse bunch grass, and pukeave to its very summit, which is crowned by a small, solitary, blossoming ohia.
But ah! how soft and mild and blue the sky was, looking inland, where, for the first time, I saw far aloft, above solid masses of white cloud, sky hung, strangely uplifted, the great volcanic domes of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai, looking as if they had all passed into an endless repose.