The cabin is small; and as you are likely to have fine weather, you will, even if you are a lady, pass the time more pleasantly on deck, where the steward, a Goa man and the most assiduous and tactful of his trade, will place a mattress and blankets for you.  You must expect to suffer somewhat from sea-sickness if you are subject to that ill, for the passage is not unlikely to be rough.  On the way you see Lahaina, and a considerable part of the islands of Maui and Hawaii; in fact, you are never out of sight of land.

If you start on Monday evening you will reach Hilo on Wednesday—­and “about this time expect rain,” as the almanac-makers say.  They get about seventeen feet of rain at Hilo during the year; and as they have sometimes several days without any at all, you must look for not only frequent but heavy showers.  A Hilo man told me of a curious experiment which was once made there.  They knocked the heads out of an oil-cask—­so he said—­and it rained in at the bung-hole faster than it could run out at the ends.  You may disbelieve this story if you please; I tell it as it was told me; but in any case you will do well to provide yourself for Hilo and the volcano journey with stout water-proof clothing.

Hilo, on those days when the sun shines, is one of the prettiest places on the Islands.  If you are so fortunate as to enter the bay on a fine day you will see a very tropical landscape—­a long, pleasant, curved sweep of beach, on which the surf is breaking, and beyond, white houses nestling among cocoa-nut groves, and bread-fruit, pandanus, and other Southern trees, many of them bearing brilliant flowers; with shops and stores along the beach.  Men and boys sporting in the surf, and men and women dashing on horseback over the beach, make up the life of the scene.

Hilo has no hotel; it has not even a carriage; but it has a very agreeable and intelligent population of Americans, and you will find good accommodations at the large house of Mr. Severance, the sheriff of Hawaii.  If his house should be full you need not be alarmed, for some one will take you in.

This is the usual and most convenient point of departure for the volcano.  Here you hire horses and a guide for the journey.  Having gone to Hilo on the steamer, you will do best to return to Honolulu by schooner, which leaves you at liberty to choose your point and time of departure.  Hawaii lies to windward of Oahu; and a schooner, which might need four or five days to beat up to Hilo, will run down from any part of Hawaii in twenty-four hours.  If you are an energetic traveler, determined to see every thing, and able to endure a good deal of rough riding, you may spend six weeks on Hawaii.  In that time you may not only see the active volcano of Kilauea, but may ascend Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, whose immense slopes and lofty and in the winter snow-clad summits show gloriously on a clear day from Hilo; and you may ride from Hilo along the north-eastern coast, through the Hamakua and Kohala districts, ending your journey at Kealakeakua Bay where Captain Cook was killed.  There you can take schooner for Honolulu; or if your energies hold out ride through Kau and Puna back to Hilo.