knees, the body being naked or having a loose waist ornamented with flowers. The laws now prohibit nude dancing, tho such exhibitions are still given in private, for the amusement of tourists with depraved minds.

A gentleman from Rochester who recently witnessed one of the more respectable hulas remarked: "The missionaries have not completed their work yet."

CHAPTER VII

VOYAGE TO MOLOKAI

MOLOKAI, the island of lepers, is perhaps one of the most interesting, but at the same time the most gruesome of the entire group. It is not a desirable place to visit. One may have a curiosity to go there once, but I do not believe any person, however morbid his curiosity may be, will wish to repeat the visit. I had no special curiosity to go to Molokai, tho, as a faithful chronicler of events and the islands, I felt it a duty incumbent on me to pay the leper settlements a visit. It was not easy to secure an opportunity, as I soon ascertained, for tho I mentioned the subject to several of the officials, I received but little encouragement. For prudential reasons the Board of Health keep their semi-annual visits to that island a secret, and there is no way to reach the land of the banished save to accompany that body. When the purpose of a visit is discovered, there are always more applicants among the natives to go and visit banished friends. than there is room for on the ship.

Dr. Rodgers informed me one morning that the board was going to make a visit to Molokai that night,

and all day long I schemed and planned to get standing room on the ship. After setting many traps to interview the secretary of the board, and failing, I at last in despair called upon Mr. John Waterhouse, the acting president, and asked him if I could be an invited guest to the island of lepers, and he answered: "Be at the dock of the Inter-Island Steamship Company at nine sharp!"

That was all-it was enough, and I felt a great relief in the thought that I should not fail in my undertaking. Before the appointed time by some thirty minutes I was at the dock. The Board of Health had not arrived, and while waiting for them I was entertained by a fight between two drunken sailors. By the time peace was restored the Board of Health and a large number of visitors had arrived. The gangplank was run out, and Mr. Waterhouse and Mr. Reynolds, the manager of the settlement, took their stations near it, to see that only such as had been granted permission were admitted to the deck of the little Inter-Island steamer, Ke Au Hou.

The deck of the little vessel was soon crowded with passengers. Among them were Drs. Day, Capron, and Ryder, Professor Richards of the Kamehameha schools, Senator Henry Waterhouse, Judge Luther Wilcox, Bishop Ropert, Father Valentine, Father Pamphile, and some young men who were going to the settlement as missionaries. The priests had come

with me from San Francisco, and were now making their final voyage to their destination. Their journey from their far-off home had almost ended, and they would soon be shut out from all the world, engaged in a noble work in the midst of perils far greater than those met on the battle-field. Among the prominent ladies on board the Ke Au Hou were Mrs. Clark, the wife of the captain of the Kinau, who had a leper daughter at the settlement; Miss Bessie Reynolds, Mrs. H. Lewellyn Jenkins, a deaconess of the Washington Square M. E. Church, New York City; and the late Miss Kate Field, of The Times-Herald of Chicago. Many natives with friends and relatives in the settlement came and begged so earnestly to be permitted to pay them one more visit that Mr. Reynolds took aboard all that the ship could conveniently carry.

The great whistle gave forth its ear-splitting shriek, and all not bound on that mournful voyage hurried ashore, the gangplank was drawn in, and the vessel cast off. A Hawaiian sailor, having imbibed too much okolehao, and being in a most loving humor, was going the round shaking hands with or embracing every person he met.

"He is the most cordial person I have seen," the witty Kate Field remarked. "He has shaken my hand three different times in the last five minutes."

The happy Kanaka was taken below by the mate, and we did not see him any more until he had slept

off the effects of the liquor. We had scarce passed Diamond Head when we entered the rough waters of the channel, and our little ship began to roll. A strange sail was discovered out to sea, and for a while the passengers amused themselves looking at it through the captain's night-glass.

The purser informed us that he had not cabins enough for the ladies and elderly men, so the young men would have to content themselves with the deck. As we were in the tropics, there was little danger of taking cold, and as there were none who wanted to be classed as "elderly gents," all volunteered to “bunk on the deck." The purser assured us that he had plenty of mattresses and blankets for all. Some began early to express a desire to retire. Not feeling any disposition to sleep as yet, I went forward and seated myself on the bench that ran along the rail, and gazed out upon the vast sweep of water and starry heavens. The Southern moon rose high in the cloudless sky. As one always likes to gaze upon a familiar face in a strange land, the moon is ever a welcome guest to the traveler. It is the same moon in one part of the world that we see in the other. Then, again, one can feel that it is the same moon that is shedding its silver light on the loved ones so many thousands of miles away. The heavy breathing of the engine, the rumbling of the wheel, and dashing of the prow into the foam-crested waves, mingled with the moaning