other by the gentlemen, while the centre was a room used for banquet hall or ballroom, besides answering the purpose of separating the two lateral apartments so widely that no conversation could be heard from one to the other. When any of the royal party had occasion to go from one place to another, we were drawn in carriages of native construction, the people themselves furnishing the power usually supplied by horses. Sometimes we were stuck in some mud-hole or water-course, from which the most determined efforts of our devoted followers could not extricate us; and it was then necessary to have a horse led to the side of the vehicle to take us off on horseback. But we were light-hearted, merry, and happy; the naval officers were perfect gentlemen, and gallant in their attentions. The king enjoyed the pleasures to which his presence and that of others of the royal line gave a great charm. He even mischievously prevented us from taking an affectionate adieu of our friends aboard the Levant by suddenly signalling that we were to be at once on board of the Kilauea; and that steamer started without as much as a “By your leave, sir,” to the naval commander. At Lahaina the whole party left the ship, and at that port was further increased by the accession of the king’s friends and retainers,
The next trip (1860) proposed by His Majesty was to the extinct volcano of Healeala, and orders were given that we should all go in boats from Lahaina to Wailuku. It was a beautiful sight; the waters were calm, each boat was ornamented with the Hawaiian flag, the royal standard fluttered from that of the king, and as we
