LETTER VI.

HILO, HAWAII, Feb. 3.

My plans are quite overturned. I was to have ridden with the native
mail-carrier to the north of the island to take the steamer for
Honolulu, but there are freshets in the gulches on the road, making
the ride unsafe. There is no steamer from Hilo for three weeks, and
in the meantime Mr. and Mrs. S. have kindly consented to receive me
as a boarder; and I find the people, scenery, and life so charming,
that I only regret my detention on Mrs. Dexter's account. I am
already rested from the great volcano trip.

We left Kilauea at seven in the morning of the 1st Feb. in a pouring
rain. The natives decorated us with leis of turquoise and coral
berries, and of crimson and yellow ohia blossoms. The saddles were
wet, the crater was blotted out by mist, water dripped from the
trees, we splashed through pools in the rocks, the horses plunged
into mud up to their knees, and the drip, drip, of vertical,
earnest, tepid, tropical rain accompanied us nearly to Hilo. Upa
and Miss K. held umbrellas the whole way, but I required both hands
for holding on to the horse whenever he chose to gallop. As soon as
we left the crater-house Upa started over the grass at full speed,
my horse of course followed, and my feet being jerked out of the
stirrups, I found myself ignominiously sitting on the animal's back
behind the saddle, and nearly slid over his tail, before, by skilful
efforts, I managed to scramble over the peak back again, when I held
on by horn and mane until the others stopped. Happily I was last,
and I don't think they saw me. Upa amused me very much on the way;
he insists that I am "a high chief." He said a good deal about