y brilliant green.

Early the next morning we left for Honolulu. Soon after we started, our
baggage-horse ran away. One of the bags which he bore got loose and
frightened him. Our horses saw him coming with one bag swinging back and
forth under his body, and began to be uneasy, so we turned them off to
the side of the road, and he rushed past us. The gentlemen and natives
started in pursuit. The poor horse crossed a river, and was finally
caught in a taro-patch. Our bags were torn to pieces, and many of their
contents scattered over the plain; some were wet through or stained with
the green mud from the taro-fields.

"Did you find all your things?" asked Harry.

Almost everything; the poor horse looked sadly jaded and tired, but he
had to carry the baggage the rest of the way.

We rode up a precipitous ascent two or three thousand feet high, by a
zigzag road cut into its sides. The adjacent precipices are some of them
much higher. Over one of these Kamehameha I. drove the defeated warriors
of Oahu, in his last battle on the island. That was savage warfare. The
precipice up which we rode is called "The Pali," or precipice; it is at
the head of Nuuanu valley. The finest approach to it is from Honolulu.
Masses of rock rise high above you on either side, while a beautiful
panorama of hills, valleys, cottages, winding streams, and verdant
plantations all opens to your astonished eye, and bounding the distant
view is the ocean.

Riding down Nuuanu valley, we were again surrounded by our Honolulu
friends. Our tour of the Hawaiian Islands was ended.

The next day, May 30, the steamer Kilauea came into port, bringing
missionaries from the other islands to attend the general meeting
appointed to be held in Honolulu in the month of June.

The meeting opened June 3, and every morning and afternoon there were
business meetings until the 16th, when the examination of Oahu College
at Punahou commenced. It was a fine examination,--the same studies as in
our New England academies. It lasted through two days, and on the third
day there was an exhibition in the evening at the stone church. The
house was prettily decorated, the king lending his royal reception-flag
for the occasion, an enormous banner forty feet long. This was suspended
by the four corners from the ceiling, forming a sort of canopy over the
platform. There were also American, French, British, Spanish, and
Hawaiian flags, together with wreaths, mottoes, and bouquets.