CHAPTER IV.

MAUNA LOA.

1840.

IN the Vincennes we were all ready at an early hour on the 3d of December, excepting the pilot, Adams, who was not to be found. He finally came on board, when, from his actions, I concluded that he was intoxicated, and told him so; this it seems he took in high dudgeon. After I had gone on shore to transact some business, he became very noisy and abusive to the first-lieutenant, who very properly told him to leave the ship. Finding he was not to be depended upon, I determined to take the ship to sea myself, and for this purpose stationed boats to act as buoys on the narrowest part of the bar. Shortly after this was done, a fresh breeze sprung up, we cast off, and in a few minutes were safely outside.

I was led, by this circumstance, to lay a complaint before the king against the employment of a drunken pilot, and was in hopes that Adams would, in consequence, have been dismissed, and a competent person appointed in his stead. But through misrepresentations made to the king, no new appointment was made. Mr. Reynolds acts in old Adams's place when he is drunk, and the result, as I have been credibly informed, is, that more than one half of the ships, going in or coming out, get on shore. Some instances of the sort occurred during my stay, among which was the case of the ship Morea. I urged the dismissal of Adams, on the ground that if he were not removed, the price of insurance of vessels bound to the port of Honolulu would be affected, and that, besides, the interest of the owners would suffer by their detention from his inability to take the vessels to sea. The correspondence that passed on this subject will be found in Appendix IX.

Having got safely out of the harbour, we hove-to for the boats; when they joined us they were hoisted up, and we made sail with a fine fresh trade-wind.

I had the pleasure of being accompanied by Mr. Brinsmade, our worthy consul, and my friend Dr. G. P. Judd, both of whom volunteered to accompany me in the novel and arduous enterprise I was about to undertake. The former hoped to improve his health, which had suffered from long confinement in the warm zone of the islands, by the invigorating mountain air; the latter was desirous to share our troubles and fatigues, and undertook to act as our physician, interpreter, adviser, and manager of the natives. To him the Expedition is much indebted for his exertions and enthusiasm. Besides this, I feel personally under great obligations, and take pleasure in making my acknowledgments here for his hospitality, and the kindness received from himself and family while at Honolulu, and for the information I derived from him relative to the islands. We had, also, with us as interpreters, several graduates of the high-school at Lahaina, whom I thought necessary in the management of the natives we were about to employ.

Believing that we should be much more likely to obtain favourable winds to the northward, I determined to pass between the islands of Molokai and Oahu.

We now began to find that our new men, the Kanakas, required much attention; many of them were sea-sick, and, true to their former habits, it was difficult to arouse or induce them to exert themselves. They began to recover in a few days; but though welldisposed men, they are unfitted for service in men-of-war. They do very well when they are working in small parties, but are inclined to be idle, and disposed to let others do all the work. It is, also, extremely difficult to infuse into them a proper degree of attention to personal cleanliness. To judge of those we had on board the Vincennes, they are not apt at learning either the language or the ideas necessary for sailors. The greater portion of them were found very timid, and they did not like to venture aloft. The only place in which we found them useful was in boats, for they were more in their element while in the water than out of it. One or two serious accidents, however, were near occurring to the officers in boats, while passing through the reefs, from the desire of the Kanakas to avoid danger by jumping overboard, and taking to swimming, thus leaving the boat exposed in perilous situations. On the whole, I was disap