HESE Islands, lying on the borders THESE

of the northern tropic, possess a climate which approaches the golden mean of temperature as nearly as can be desired, or hoped for; remote from the mainland of California, and swept by the refreshing trade wind of the Pacific, they are singularly free from all those elements of disease that are usually the fatal inheritance of warm latitudes. Here the merchant can dwell at his port, and the planter can reside upon his estate, throughout the year, with the glow of health upon their cheeks, and without the fear of any noxious fever, either of the yellow, bilious, or other pleasant variety; and a vigorous old age can be attained and enjoyed by those who would not survive the middle period of life amidst the rigors of the north.

Even the most enthusiastic, imaginative, and patriotic people in the United States, will scarcely class their climate, as among the "institutions" for which they claim the admiration of the world; here, the atmosphere is a "veritable institution;" and breathing for ever this balmy and summer air, renders the mere sense of existence a rare pleasure in itself. Beyond all expression, yea, perhaps beyond the comprehension of all northern minds, is the fascination of the easy out-of-door life common at the Islands; a charm that wins upon one from day to day, and weds him to the spot, as to a bride.

We read with positive horror, of human beings frozen to death, and killed by the heat, within the same twelvemonth of 1853, in or near the cities of Boston and New York, and the bare thought of a return to such an inhospitable clime is vividly suggestive to us, dwellers by the sun, of Dr. Kane's drear extremes, from bathing in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, to his icy search for the lost Sir John Franklin.

The chief want of these Islands, at this moment, is settlers of a good class, from the United States; and if there are any parties within those hyperborean regions who are casting about for a dwelling-place where they shall not know such enemies as "winter and rough weather," let them take into consideration the particular merits of the Hawaiian group, in that respect; and if they can decide in favor of this charming cluster, let them, firstly, do all they can to advance its anVOL. V.-16

nexation to the Union; secondly, embark themselves for Honolulu, and finally, induce as many others as they can to follow their example.

Here, they will not find either hurricanes, tornadoes, or typhoons; here, chilblains, and the whole tribe of frosty diseases, are unknown; here, no one catches his death of cold; here, the most delicate lungs have fair play; here, the children avoid the house the year round, and young buds grow apace; here, in fact, without further tedious enumeration, is an Eden for little folks, and the very Paradise of climate for the more mature.

Having got up so high, it is rather difficult to come down again; but the next thing that may be said, is, that here is the heaven for horses, also-that is, for all those who do not belong to such unmerciful owners, as the natives of these Isles. Veterinary professors would starve in Hawaii, for horses are never sick; running at free quarters upon the plains, and feeding upon the grasses that nature designed them to eat, they are free from those ills that befall their more pampered brethren who are housed in close stables, fed upon heating grains, and undergo the extremes of heat and cold.

Hence it follows that keeping horses is attended with but little trouble or expense, and that luxury is accordingly indulged in most extensively, by high and low. In most other countries, the cost of horses begins immediately after their purchase; here, it may be said to end, when they are once bought and paid for ; thenceforward, a rope for a tether, and a lasso, are sufficient grooming-stock; shoeing is unnecessary, and you may keep a dozen chargers as readily as one, if you have but a paddock to turn them into. Equestrianism, under these advantages, is naturally the rational recreation of the whites, but to the indigenous males and females of Hawaii, it is the most rapturous enjoyment of their existence-to the latter gender, perhaps, a little more so. These brownskinned ladies have their own taste in dress, and are devoted to it, in the due proportion common to their fairer sisters; but their ruling passion is certainly for riding on horseback, and they indulge themselves in this pastime with a constancy and a relish that is all their

own.

In the country, women working in the house, or in the field, for twelve and a-half cents per day, frequently come to their labor on horseback; the men less often, though it is not an uncommon practice with them; parties of both sexes are constantly travelling about, and on Sundays, the going to and from church is, to them, pretty much like "going to the Derby," racing cavalcades throng the roads; and it might be supposed that the moving principle animating all, was the fear, "that the devil would really get the hindmost."

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But on Saturday afternoons, at Honolulu, during the whaling season, the turn out of the women is iumense; regiments of these amazons, with their attendant squires, in the proportion of perhaps, one kanaka," to six “wahines," regularly take the field, and new comers upon such gala occasions are apt to imagine that they have stumbled upon a grand muster and inspection day for all the damsels of the kingdom.

The riding costume of these tawny Dianas is unique, and perhaps indescribable; in general terms, it may be said, that the skirt is of orange, green, or scarlet print, or silk, several fathoms in length, as it is cut from the piece, though one or more breadths are sewed together, to increase its width. This is middled, taken around the waist, and in some mysterious manner envelopes the limbs so as to permit the wearer to ride -as men ride-and conceals the feet; the ends hang below the stirrup nearly to the ground, and flutter like bright streamers in the wind. Low silk or velvet hats, gay with feathers and flowers, and scarfs and ponchos of gaudy hues, complete this novel attire, which presents an original and picturesque combination of garments, exceedingly pleasing to the foreign eye.

It is a marvellous metamorphosis, exceeding that of Billy Button in the ring, and most curious to observe, when these damsels dismount and unrobe, as they do in public; in the twinkling of an eye they disengage themselves from the mystic folds of their flowing skirts, and one is astounded to perceive them step forth in long gowns, reaching to the heel, and intact from any slit or separation whatever.

Goats, calves of six months and upwards, oxen full grown, and donkeys of all sizes, are also converted into riding quadrupeds by ingenious youths, or by adults unfortunately out of horse-flesh;

and it may be said without much exaggeration, that one-half of the time of these indolent people, not spent in sleeping, is passed in locomotion of some kind or other, on any beast with four legs, that can be mounted, and persuaded to go ahead.

It must now be evident, from this little digression, that besides the mildness of the climate, another grand requisite for persons in delicate health can be enjoyed here to perfection.

"Take daily exercise on horseback,” is the panacea of physicians, prescribed for all persons with unsound lungs, and a sovereign remedy it certainly is for those who can avail themselves of it throughout the year. There is no other mode by which so much invigorating excitement can be gained, without injuriously accelerating the breathing or producing too much fatigue; and in the case of the writer hereof, a consumptive exile from a northern clime, he can truly say that he feels as if endowed with a new lease of life while he inhales this delicious air, rides abroad 365 times, more or less, per annum, and every day refreshes his system by a glowing bath, beneath such a waterfall, as would have charmed the inmost soul of the great Priessnitz himself.

Perhaps it will be well to become a little more practical. The healthiest, the most comfortable and the most economical route to the Islands, for those who can bear a voyage of four months, is by Cape Horn, taking care to choose a good ship, well found in proper stores for so long a passage; and the best time to sail from the United States is during the fall or winter months, which will carry the vessel around the Cape in the spring or summer of that latitude.

By the isthmus is of course a much speedier transit, but perhaps more trying to the constitution. When the railway shall be completed, and the present delay in that unhealthy quarter no longer incurred, the danger of contracting fever there may not be so imminent as to deter persons in any stage of health from choosing that route.

From San Francisco to Honolulu, the passage is usually from ten to twenty days long, and frequent opportunities offer in first class clipper ships, touching at the Islands on their way to China, Manilla or Calcutta.

The first difficulty that meets the stranger on landing at Honolulu, is that of procuring good lodgings, as the accommo

dations in that respect are not yet up to the ordinary wants of the place. House rent is high; the market is dear; servants are scarce and their wages extravagant. Coolie boys have been sent for (from China), to supply this latter item; the natives of the Islands of both sexes, never intended by nature to make good, faithful, industrious servants, can no longer be depended on at all, in that capacity, nor indeed in any other, of which more anon.

Much delay, trouble and vexation, attends the purchasing or leasing of land. Most of the soil in the group is in native hands, principally held by the few chiefs who still survive; they are averse to selling at all, and to negotiate a lease with them, is like attempting to make water to run up hill.

Originally, all the earth in the kingdom belonged to the monarch and his chiefs, and for that matter, all the rivers and the sea, also. A common man did not own even the skin he stood in, for that, and his life with it, was at the mercy of his lord; this latter institution, however, was long ago rendered more secure, by being placed under the protection of the law; but it has been within a very few years that "the people have been, in a measure, emancipated from their prior condition of abject serfdom. Each head of a family is now entitled to hold, in fee simple, the houselot upon which is his domicil, and so much "kalo" land, as he has kept in cultivation for a certain term of years. This meed of justice so long and so unaccountably delayed, has rendered the natives comparatively independent of their chiefs, and of the world besides. It is no marvel, that finding themselves their own masters, after a life of worse than negro slavery, they should feel inclined to take things easy; and this they do to perfection.

The remainder of the land, except a small portion pertaining to the government, as public domain, and a still less proportion in alien hands, is held by the king and nobles, as aforesaid, who yet retain many of the old "kapus" or feudal rights, attached to the ownership of the soil. "The people are petitioning parliament, at its present session,' for the privilege of fishing free in the rivers and in the sea; of cutting wood in the mountains; of taking certain

birds, &c., &c.; but the upper house of nobles will kill all such foolish bills as may pass the Commons."

Holding on so tenaciously to these old perquisites of their rank, and profoundly and stupidly impressed with the belief that to retain the lordship of these immense tracts of land, is the only means by which they can preserve their importance in the eyes of the people and of the State, these illustrious nobles are as unwilling to part with an acre of ground, as they are adverse to make any attempt to cultivate it themselves. Improvident and often in want of money, they will borrow at any rate of interest to meet the occasion, and turn a deaf ear to applications for their lands, which have been waste and untilled since the creation.

How this state of things is to be remedied remains with the future; at present it operates as a bar to the agricultural advancement of the Islands, and is one of those obstacles which must be removed in some way, whenever the group shall be annexed to the United States.

Still, it is not now impossible to obtain land, and persons with sufficient means and a fair stock of patience, need not despair of suiting themselves.

As to other modes of business it is not easy to say what openings offer; but this much may be ventured, that when the "Territory of Hawaii," shall become a portion of the Union, there will be ways and means in abundance for immigrants by the thousand.

Just at this moment* we are surprised by a statement in a New York paper, "that in 1843 Mr. Upshur agreed, on the part of the United States, never to seek for greater advantages here than such as might be obtained by British subjects," &c., &c.

If this announcement should prove true, that "Tyler knot" should be cut without delay; a more unequal or disadvantageous arrangement for American interests could not have been concocted; and such untoward instances of diplomacy may well justify recent opinions in favor of having all State matters publicly discussed.

Virginia minds, even at that day, might have comprehended the paramount importance of these Islands, geographically, to the United States, and rhould have been aware, that the com

merce and the capital of the group, as well as its Christianity, were in American hands. These well-known facts make it difficult to believe that an American Secretary of State could have consented to place his own country only on an equal footing, with nations whose immediate interests here were trifling, and whose political interests were also insignificant and remote, in comparison with those of the United States. Mr. Everett understood matters of this kind somewhat differently, when he argued the Cuban case, in his recent letter to Lord John Russell, and that he understood them rightly, is evident from the response which that able and patriotic letter meets with in most American hearts.

If such a pledge was really made by Mr. Upshur, let it be abrogated at once; if necessary, reasons of State can be found to justify its supersedure, in the subsequent history of California, and there is surely no need to be over scrupulous in applying them to such nations as England and France, who are not in the habit of suffering other pledges or treaties however solemn or national, to be obstacles in their way, when they have a purpose to gain.

It is impossible to convey, in words, an adequate idea of the earnest and yearning desire for annexation, that absorbs the good citizens of the United States who are domiciled at the Islands. Here, they are of the intellectual class, and yet are, of course, secondary and subordinate to the aboriginal; and they are kept down, kept back, and "can't go ahead," accordingly, under the irksome and rather unusual order of things.

Withdraw the white element from the government, and it would not stand a single day; there is not business capacity or knowledge in the native mind, sufficient to transact the affairs of one solitary ship, much less to administer the judicial and other relations of the community. It must be evident, therefore, that the whites here are placed under peculiar temptation, as they wield more than a moiety of the authority of the group, to seize the whole.

Without claiming for the American residents a better nature than the common one of their countrymen, it must be set down to their credit that they have not forced matters, but have borne faithfully with the native rule; that they have been willing to await events, and that they prefer the Islands should be

acquired after the mode usual with their own government, by fair treaty, and purchase at a sum sufficient to satisfy these people for all they give up..

Had British subjects, British capital, British interests, lay and clerical, been dominant at the Islands, instead of American, the primitive sway here would have been extinguished long ago. Neither that unscrupulous government, nor its subjects, would have been content to play second fiddle to Kamehameha III., up to this late period, but on the contrary, we should have had him set aside, according to the humane, pacific, just and liberal policy, which has ever characterized their “annexations" of territory, perhaps after the very latest recorded fashion, in India, where they are by no means novices at that business. Not that little matter of the Burman Empire, however, the subject of an unsavory comparison, in Mr. Everett's letter before mentioned-but the more recent affair of Nagpore, whereat and wherein the British functionaries peremptorily prevented the sovereign from naming his successor whilst he lived, and at his death, marched in an army and usurped the government of the country.

THE QUESTION OF ANNEXATION.

THE marvellous rise of California has had its due influence upon the Islands of Hawaii, its nearest neighbor by sea, and events here have been precipitated to a climax which might not have been reached, under the old order of things, for a century to come.

There is now a market close at hand, for everything the Islands can produce, and communication with the Atlantic coast is regular, rapid, and comfortable. This facility of intercourse has greatly aided emigration, and the American population is constantly increasing by a much more convenient transit than formerly around Cape Horn.

The commerce of the group keeps pace with this addition to its inhabitants; and with the demand for its productions, agriculture has made a fair commencement, and the higher mechanical branches are being gradually introduced.

While all these attributes of a civilized community are thus establishing a foothold in Hawaii, the native race, now