A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER.
Mr Charles Matthews, the eelebratcd comedian, writing to a friend in Auck land, gives the following amusing account of his visit to the Sandwich Islands : — " Sailed for the Sandwich Islands at two, in the Moses Taylor, familiarly — but by no means vulgarly — entitled the • Rolling Moses.' Reached Honolulu, the capital of the island of Oahu, and the seat of the Government of the Hawaiian group, on Saturday, the 19th; eighteen days, four thousand and thirteen nr'les and three quarters ! (accuracy again, exact os an architect's estimate, £4,000 Is lfd.) Head winds (of course) all the way ; longest passage (of course) ever known ; and certainly the roughest. Heavy rolling seas — not a sail, a bird, or a fish sighted ; the only excitement we had arising from the old novelty of two Thursdays coming together in one week — two 9ths of February arm-inarm. At Honolulu, one of the loveliest spots on earth, I acted one night by command, in the presence of his Majesty Karaehameha V., King of the Sandwich Islands (uot Hoky-Ponky Wonky-Fong, as erroneously reported), and a memorable night it was. On my way to the quaint little Hawaiian theatre, situated in a rural lane, in the midst of a pretty garden glowing with gaudy tropical flowers, and shaded by cocoa-trees, bananas, banyans, and tamarinds, I met the play- bill of tho evening. A perambulatory Kanaka (or native black gentleman), walking between two boards (called in London figuratively a ' sandwich man,' but here of course literally so), carried aloft a large illuminated lighted lantern, with the announcement in the Kanaka language, to catch the attentiou of the colored inhabitants. I found the theatre (to use the technical expiession) ' crammed to suffocation,' which merely means ' very full,' though, from the state of the thermometer on this occasion, ' suffocation' was not so incorrect a description as usual. A really elegant looking audience (tickets 10s each), svening dresses, uniforms of every cut and every country. • Chieftesses' and ladies of every tinge, in dresses of every color, flowers and jewels in profusion, satin playbills, fans going, windows and doors all open, an outside staircase leading straight into the dress circle, without lobby, checktaker, or money- taker. Kanaku women in the garden Lelow selling bananas by tho glare of flaring torches on a sultry tropical moonlight night. The whole thing was nothing but a midsummer night's dream. And was it nothing to see a pit-full of Kanakas — black, brown, and whitey-brown al) lately cannibuls — showing their white teeth, grinning and enjoying ' Patter v. Clatter,' as much as a Few years ago they would have enjoyed the roasting of a missionary or the baking of a baby. It was certainly a page in one's history never to be forgotten."
A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER.
Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3273, 9 August 1871, Page 3
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