Chapter XXIII

_The Eruption of 1880-1881--Hilo Threatened as Never Before--A
Day of Public Prayer--Visitors to the Lava-Flow--It Approaches
within a Mile of the Shore--Hope Abandoned--After Nine Months the
Action Suddenly Abates--The Deliverance--The Mechanism of a Great
Lava-Flow--An Idolater Dislodged--Conclusion._

On the 5th of November, 1880, our latest eruption from Mauna Loa broke out at a point some 12,000 feet above sea-level, and a few miles north of the great terminal crater, Mokua-weo-weo. The glare was intense, and was seen at great distances. Brilliant jets of lava were thrown high in the air, and a pillar of blazing gases mounted thousands of feet skyward, spreading out into a canopy of sanguinary light which resembled, though upon a larger scale, the so-called “pine-tree appendage” formed over Vesuvius during its eruptions by the vertical column of vapors with its great horizontal cloud.

Meanwhile a raging river of lava, about three-fourths of a mile wide and from fifteen to thirty feet deep, rushed down the north-east flank of the great dome, and ran some thirty miles to the base of Mauna Kea. This stream was composed mostly of _aa_ or scoria. Its terminus was visited and well described by our townsman, David Hitchcock, Esq. This flow hardened and ceased; but a stream of _pahoehoe_ or field lava was now sent off to the south-east, toward Kilauea. The roaring furnace on Mauna Loa remained in full blast. Down came a third river of lava, in several channels, flowing in the direction of Hilo. This divided itself in places and reunited, leaving islands in the forest. This stream crossed the flow of 1855-56, followed its south-east margin, and fell into our great upland forest in a column from one to two miles wide. There was the sound as of a continuous cannonading as the lava moved on, rocks exploding under the heat, and gases shattering their way from confinement. We could hear the explosions in Hilo; it was like the noise of battle. Day and night the ancient forest was ablaze, and the scene was vivid beyond description. By the 25th of March the lava was within seven miles of Hilo, and steadily advancing. Until this time we had hoped that Hilo would not be threatened. But the stream pursued its way. By the 1st of June it was within five miles of us, and its advance, though slow, was persistent. It had now descended nearly fifty miles from its source, and the action on Mauna Loa was unabated. The outlook was fearful; a day of public humiliation and prayer was observed, as during the eruption of 1855. But still the lava moved onward, heading straight for Hilo. One arm of the stream was now easily accessible on its northern margin, and two more were moving in the deep jungle so far to the south that visitors had not the time or patience to penetrate to them. It now began to appear that should these streams unite no trace of Hilo, or of Hilo harbor, would remain. Some of our people were calm; others were horror-stricken. Some packed up their goods and sent them to Honolulu or elsewhere, and some abandoned their houses.

[Sidenote: _The Eruptions of 1880-81._]

Visitors to the stream were now frequent; and the crater on Mauna Loa was reached, on a third attempt, by the Rev. Mr. Baker, of Hilo. Were I twenty years younger, I should have been on the mountain-top also, but my time to climb such rugged heights is past.

The northerly wing of the stream now hardened, clogging the channel in which the lava was taking its way toward the center of our town. But this check gave additional power to the south-east wing, so that on the 26th of June, a fierce stream broke out from the great lava pond and came rushing down the rocky channel of a stream with terrific force and uproar, exploding rocks and driving off the waters. Hilo was in trouble. We were now in immediate danger. The lava, confined in the water-channel of from fifty to a hundred feet wide, advanced so rapidly that by the 30th of June it was not more than two and a half miles from us, threatening to strike Volcano Street about a quarter of a mile from Church Street, on which I live, and to fall into our harbor about midway of the beach. The stream was fearfully active, and the danger was now close upon us. From the town we could walk up to the living lava in forty minutes, and back again in thirty. A hundred people would sometimes visit it in a day. Its roar, on coming down the rough and rocky bed of the ravine, was like that of our Wailuku River during a freshet, but a deeper and grander sound. Explosions and detonations were frequent; I counted ten in a minute. The glare of it by night was terrific. The daily progress of the flow was now from one hundred to five hundred feet.

When I visited the stream on the 18th of July, I saw a scene like this: Troops of boys and girls, young men and women, were watching the flow. They plunged poles into the viscid lava as it urged itself slowly onward; drawing out small lumps of the adhering fusion, they moulded it, before it had time to cool, into various forms at will. They made cups, canes, vases, tubes, and other articles out of this molten clay, and these they sold to visitors and strangers at from twenty-five cents to a dollar or more for a specimen. All went away with fresh spoils from the spoiler. An artist was there, who had taken sketches in oil; and the photographer has been upon the spot. Our town was now crowded with visitors from all parts of the Islands, from our Princess Regent, sister of the king, then absent, to the least of his subjects. Many spent entire nights upon the banks of the lava river.

[Sidenote: _The Lava within Half a Mile of Hilo._]

Just in front of one of its branches a stone wall five feet high was built, in hope of protecting the great Waiakea sugar-mill, for which this arm of the flow was heading. It was not a broad or heavy arm, but it was followed up by a column of fusion which no engineering could turn aside. This small advance stream came within a yard or two of the wall, paused there, and fell asleep in its shadow. At a single point the viscid mass, about two feet deep, struck the wall. There it rested a little, until, being supplied with fresh lava from behind, it heaped itself up against the barrier, poured over it, and then stiffened and solidified. It now hangs there, a sheet of vitreous drapery, marking the limit of the flow in that direction. Judge Severance dug a moat around the Hilo prison, with an embankment seven or eight feet high, hoping to avert the necessity of a general jail-delivery; but any considerable body of lava of course defies every obstruction. We made no preparations, however, for quitting our house.

The flood came on until all agreed that in two or three days more it would be pouring into our beautiful bay. On the 10th of August it was but one mile from the sea, and half a mile from Hilo town. On that day, nine months and five days from the outbursting of the great eruption, when hope had perished in nearly every heart, the action began to abate. The raging flood, the steam, the smoke, the noise of the flow were checked; and in a day or two the great red dragon lay stiffened and harmless upon the borders of our village. The relief was unspeakable.

On the 13th of August I visited the flow for the fifth time, and felt radiating heat, but saw no more liquid lava. But the great pall of the eruption lay upon the land for fifty miles. I estimate that the lava-stream covered a hundred square miles of mountain, forest, and farm land, to an average depth of twenty-five feet--enough to cover the State of Connecticut to a depth of six inches. No exact measurements, however, have yet been made.

I may add a word upon the curious process by which this lava flow, like others, has made its way over so great a distance from its source. The average slope of Mauna Loa is seven degrees; but this is made up of secondary slopes, varying from one to twenty degrees. As the lava first rushes down the steeper inclinations it flows uncovered; but its surface soon hardens, forming a firm, thick crust like ice on a river, and under this crust the torrent runs highly fluid, and retaining nearly all of its heat. In this pyroduct, if I may so call it, the lava stream may pour down the mountain-side for a year or more, flowing unseen, except where openings in the roof of its covered way reveal it.

[Sidenote: _How the Lava-Stream Makes Progress._]

When the molten river reaches the more level highlands at the base of the mountain, it moves more slowly, and sometimes spreads out into lakes of miles in diameter. The surface of it soon hardens; the lavas below are sealed within a rigid crust that confines them on every side. Their onward progress is thus checked for hours or days. But as the tremendous pressure of the stream behind increases, the crust is rent, and the liquid lava bursts out and gushes forward or laterally for a hundred, five hundred, or a thousand feet or more, as the case may be. The surface of this extruded mass cools and stiffens in turn, again confining the living lava; then, with the pressure from behind, there is a fresh rupture in the confining shell. While the lava is held in check as I have described, the uninitiated visitor will pronounce the flow to have ceased. But it is only accumulating its forces. The lava presses down from the source, until suddenly the hardened crust is ruptured with a crash, the lava moves forward again, and a new joint is added to the covered way. Thus overcoming all obstacles, the fusion is kept under cover, and moves forward or laterally in its own ducts for an indefinite distance. It may flow at white heat in this way for thirty or forty miles and reach the sea at a distance of more than fifty miles from the mountain source.

By virtue of this pressure from behind, and of its own viscidity, the lava may even be propelled _up-hill_ for a certain distance, if the outbursting rush of lava be directed upon an upward slope. The lava thus grades its own path as it goes seaward.

Five or six miles inland from our town there nestled, some twenty years ago, a quiet hamlet. There was a school-house in the place; and the land produced taro, potatoes, bananas, and other fruit-trees. The scenery was of enchanting beauty. But the population passed away; and of late years only one house remained on this lovely spot. Its occupant was reputed an inveterate heathen. He belonged to the ancient class of native physicians or medicine-men. When the burning flood struck the forest behind his house, he is said to have hoisted his flag in front of the slowly advancing lava, and to have forbidden it, in the name of the ancient gods of his race, to pass that flag. But onward came the flood, regardless of the edict. From time to time the heathen doctor was compelled to remove his flag to the rear, planting it nearer and nearer to his house; and at last the lava expelled him and his friends, and rolled over house, garden, and field, leaving a grisly pile of black lava over all. One circumstance in the case was curious. The lava stream surrounded a single kalo-plant, growing on an islet of eighteen inches in diameter, and on another one twice as broad, a single banana plant. They have survived the heat and are growing finely, the only green things left in the garden from which the idolater was driven.

[Sidenote: _Conclusion._]

* * * * *

It is time to bring these imperfect sketches to a close. The foregoing pages have been written among interruptions and anxieties, but they make some partial record of a life preserved by its Giver in many scenes of danger and crowned with many blessings. And among its chief blessings I would recognize God’s goodness in granting me precious partners in my life-work. My second marriage, October 13, 1873, was to Miss Lydia Bingham, daughter of the Rev. Hiram Bingham. This faithful helpmeet is the strength and support of my age. But for her suggestions, and her patient labors in copying the manuscript of this volume, I should not have undertaken, at my time of life, the task of writing it.

As I lay aside the pen, our anxieties have passed away. If again, while I remain, the rocks should melt and flow down at the presence of the Lord, again we “will look unto the hills whence our help cometh.”

+Hilo+, _15th August, 1881_.

INDEX.

Adams, John, 227

Agriculture, Hawaiian, 123, 231, 234, 248

Alexander, William P., 162, 186

Andrews, Lorrin, 232

Anderson, Rufus, 136

Armstrong, Richard, 162, 186, 234, 243

Atuona Valley, 204

Auburn Seminary, 13

Austin, Judge, 114

Bachelot, John Alexius, 93

Baker, Mr., 329

Baldwin, Dwight, 231

Baptism in Puna, 90

Bicknell, James, 181, 183, 192, 198, 202

Bingham, Hiram, 95, 242, 244

Bingham Jr., 192

Bishop, Artemas and Sereno, 233

Bond, Elias, 224

Brown, J., 164, 168

Brown, Lydia, 19

Byron, Lord George Anson, 25

Callao, visit to, 22

Canoe, the sacrificial, 206

Canoe voyages in Hawaii, 37

Carpenter, Helen, 235

“Carysfort,” visit of, 106-109

Catholic missionaries, 93, 95-101, 120

Catholics in the Marquesas, 163

Catholics, reformed, 104-106

Chapin, Alonzo, 231

Cheeseman, Lewis, 14

Chicago, visit to, 214

Children of missionaries, 114

Chinese in Hawaii, 123

Church-building, 82

Church organization, 90

Churches, the Hawaiian, 223, 248

Clark, E. W., 232, 234, 243

Coan, Fidelia Church, 9, 18, 61

Coan, Gaylord, 1

Coan, Titus:
parentage and childhood, 1-5;
youth, 6-9;
studies for the ministry, 13;
prison work, 15;
trip to Patagonia, 16;
marriage, embarkation for Hawaii, 18;
arrival in Honolulu, 22;
in Hilo, 24;
foot-tours, 31, 42;
canoe voyaging, 37;
schools, 63, 115;
patients, 63;
Sunday work, 64;
labored with by Mormons, 101;
organized churches under native pastors, 136;
first visit to the Marquesas Islands, 164;
second visit, 192;
visits to various parts of the Hawaiian Islands, 223;
visit to the eruption of 1840, 76;
of 1852, 281;
of 1855-56, 290, 297, 302, 304, 306;
of 1880-81, 330;
on the angle of descent of flowing lavas, 310;
visit to the United States, 213

Colossal images, Marquesan, 177

Conde, Daniel T., 233

Crook and Harris, Messrs., 161

Crossing the torrents, 33

Damon, S. C., 241

Dana, James D., 68;
quoted, 69

Darling, M., in Tahuata, 162

Darwin, Charles, quoted, 184

Decrease of population, 121, 258

Dibble, Sheldon, 64, 232

Diell, S. C., 241

Dimond, Henry, 19

Diseases, epidemic, 81, 198, 202, 239, 259-261

Disputant, a Marquesan, 209

Dole, Daniel, 247

Dominis, John and Lydia, 326

Douglass, David, 225

DuPont, Samuel Francis, 149

Dwight, S. G., 238

Earthquakes of 1868, 86, 313

“Embuscade,” visit of, 94

Epidemic diseases, 81, 198, 202, 239, 259-261

Eruption of 1840, 70;
of 1843, 270;
of 1852, 279;
of 1855-56, 289;
of 1868, 313;
of 1880-81, 327

Ewa station, 245

Fatuiva, 169

Finney, Charles, 14, 49

Forbes, A. O., 238, 243

Forbes, Cochran, 42, 229

Franklin, Lady, 146

Frear, Walter, 242

French in the Marquesas, 163, 165, 191, 200, 202, 210

“Galatea,” visit of the, 85

General meetings, 27, 59

Golett, Captain, 168

Goodrich, Joseph, 26, 64

Green, Jonathan, 64, 234

Gulick, L. H., 243

Gulick, O. H., 245

Gulick, Peter G., 229

Halley, Edouard Michel, 165

Hana station, 232

Hanahi Valley, 181

Hanatita Valley, 182

Hanavave Valley, 173-178, 207

Hawaiian character, 79, 250, 252

Hawaiian government, old and new, 30, 124-126

Hawaiian mission, work of closed, 249

Hawaiian pastors, 136-138

Hawaiian population diminishing, 121, 258

Hakahekau Bay, 195

Haleakala crater, 235

Hall, Edwin O., 19

Hanamenu Valley, 202

Heteani Valley, 185

High-priest of the volcano, 44

Hilo, village and district described, 24, 31;
churches of, 42, 55, 135, 139;
their trials, 67, 97;
buildings, 82;
contributions, 85, 118-121;
statistics of, 57;
methods, 87;
boarding-school, 27;
girls’ school, 61;
volcanic waves at Hilo, 51, 316, 320

Hitchcock, David, 328

Hitchcock, E. M., 19

Hitchcock, H. R., 238

Hivaoa Island, 202, 204

Honolulu, 22, 239

House of Keawe, 226

Hopuku, 204, 205

Hapa (“Happar”) Valley, 200

Hoopili, 231

Hunt, T. D., 229

Hyde, C. M., 251

Images, Stone, at Puamau, 177

Jarves, J. J., history by, 59

Johnson, Edward, 247

Jones, Ap Catesby, 84

José, David, 201

Judd, G. P., 125

Kaivi, 170

Kalakaua, King, 134

Kamehameha I., 127

Kamehameha II. (Liholiho), 127

Kamehameha III. (Kauikeaouli), 124, 127-130

Kamehameha IV. (Alexander Liholiho), 130

Kamehameha V. (Lot), 131

Kaneohe station, 245

Kapohaku Paul, 183

Kauai, 246

Kaukau, A., 182

Kauwealoha, 169, 171, 195, 202, 205, 210

Kekai, 281

Kekela, James, 176, 178, 202, 205, 207-210

Kekuanaoa, 130

Kilauea compared with Vesuvius, 69;
action in, 263, 295;
eruption of 1840, 70;
of 1868, 313;
visitors to, 269

Killingworth revisited, 219

Kinau, 130

King, Asa, 5, 7

Kinney, Henry, 229

Kuaihelani, 174

Kuakini, 227

Lafon, Thomas, 247, 264

Lahaina, 230

Lahainaluna, 231

Laioha, 201

Land-slips in Kau, 315

Laplace’s visit, 93

“La Poursuivante,” visit of, 94

Lava chimneys, 78;
streams, how supplied, 310;
angles of descent in flowing, 309;
Hilo threatened by, 328;
mechanism of their progress, 312, 332

Lee, William L., 131, 143

Lepers, settlement of on Molokai, 239, 260

Lima, visit to, 22

Lincoln, President, sends a gift to Kekela, 179

Lunalilo, King, 132-134

Lyman, Chester S., 144

Lyman, David B., 23-28, 30, 60, 64

Lyons, Lorenzo, 224

Mallet, Captain, 94

Marquesas Islands described, 159, 169;
mission to, 154, 161-164;
its decline, 211;
fighting of the clans, 165, 169, 173;
feudal government in, 180;
tattooing, 181;
physique of the Marquesans, 181;
tabu system, 187;
ancient stone images in, 177;
scenery of, 183, 197;
offering of the sacrificial canoe, 206

Mauna Kea, 225

Mauna Loa, average slope of, 332;
eruption of 1843, 270;
of 1852, 279;
of 1855-56, 289;
of 1880-81, 327

Measles, epidemic of, 259

Meeting of the American Board for 1870, 217

Melville, Herman, 190, 199, 200

Meto, death of, 193

Mineral smoke, 310

Missionaries’ children, 114

Mokuaweoweo crater, 295

Molokai, 238

Molokai, Leper settlement on, 239

Mormons, 101-103, 120, 213

“Morning Stars,” the three, 155, 158, 196

Morse, Captain, 156

Mountain climb in the Marquesas, 183

Munn, Bethuel, 238

Nettleton, Asahel, 1, 7, 13, 49

Nettleton, Tamza, 1

Norton, Helen, 244

Nuuhiva Island, 170, 199

Ogden, Maria, 334

Oleson, W. B., 28

Olinda, 236

Omoa Valley, 163, 169, 174, 204

Paris, John D., 57, 150, 229, 270

Parker, Benjamin W., 162, 186, 192, 208, 245

Paulet, Lord George, 106

Paumotu Archipelago, The, 194

Pearson, Admiral, 149

Pele, high-priest of, 9, 44

Pele’s hair, 267

Pogue, John F., 229

Population, Hawaiian, diminishing, 121, 258

Porter, Joseph, 187, 199

Puamau Valley, 176, 179, 207-210

Puna district described, 39;
a trip in, with Prof. Lyman, 144

Punahou school, 244

Pyrometer, the lost, 264

Reformed Catholics, 104-106

Resolution Bay, 164

Revival of 1836-37, 43-51, 59

Rice, W. H., 147

Richards, William, 230

Road across Hawaii, attempted, 311

Rodgersons, the, in Tahuata, 162

Rogers, Edmund H., 19

Sacraments, how dispensed, 90

Salt Lake City visited, 213

Santiago, visit to, 21

Shipman, W. C., 229

Small-pox in Hawaii, 81

Small-pox in the Marquesas Islands, 198, 202

Smoke, mineral, 310

Smith, J. W., 247

Smith, Lowell, 238, 243

Spaulding, Ephraim, 231

Staley, Bishop, 104

Stallworthy, M., in Tahuata, 162

Statues, colossal, in the Marquesas Islands, 177

Streams in Hilo, crossing the, 33

Sugar culture, 123, 231, 234, 248

Tabu system in Hawaii

Tabu system in the Marquesas, 187

Taiohai Bay, 186, 189

Taipi (“Typee”) Valley, 190, 199, 201

Thompson, Frank, 135

Thouars, Du Petit, 163

Thunderstorm on Mauna Loa, 272

Thurston, Asa, 227

Tromelin, Admiral de, 94

“Typee” (Taipi) Valley, 190, 199, 201

Uahuna Island, 201

Uapou Island, 195

United States Exploring Expedition, 66

Valparaiso, visit to, 21

Vaitahu Bay, 164

Van Duzee, William S., 229

Visit to the United States, 212

Visitors to Kilauea, 269

Volcanic chimneys, 78

Volcanic eruptions, 70, 270, 279, 289, 313, 327

Volcanic waves, 51, 316, 320

Voyaging in the Hawaiian Islands, 23, 111-114

Waialua Station, 245

Wailuku, 234

Waimea, visits to, 224

Waipio Valley, 224

Washington City, visit to, 217

Wetmore, Charles H., 63, 281

Whalon, mate, escapes the cannibals, 177

Whitney, Samuel, 247

Whittlesey, Eliphalet, 233

Wilcox, Abner, 64, 247

Wild bull confronted, the, 287

Wilkes, Charles, 66, 195

Transcriber’s Notes

For possible printer’s errors in punctuation, hyphenation, spelling, etc., only the changes listed below were made.

_Italics_, +Small Caps+, and +ALL SMALL CAPS+ were converted as so.

Descriptive text in the page header--exclusively on odd pages--was formatted as sidenotes. These were then moved to the beginning of the nearest paragraph break, depending on context.

Ditto marks within tables and the Index were replaced with the words they represent for consistency across page breaks.

Footnotes were reindexed and moved to the next paragraph break.

Page number references in the index were not verified for accuracy; they were kept as printed.

On page vi in the Table of Contents in the summary for Chapter X, a missing em-dash was added to connect “Reigning King” to “The Foreign Church”.

On page 180, a missing period was added to end the sentence “There are no laws to forbid or to punish crime”.

On page 259, “physiogical” was corrected to “physiological”.

On page 338 in the Index entry for Hilo, “discribed” was corrected to “described”.

On the same page in the Index entry for Kamehameha, “Alexander Lihöliho” was corrected to “Alexander Liholiho”.

On page 339 in the Index entry for the Marquesas Islands, spaced out text in “Islands” was formatted as normal text.

On the same page in the same Index entry, a missing comma was added after “feudal government in”.

On the same page in the Index entry for Mauna Loa, an aberrant comma was removed from “eruption of, 1843” to make “eruption of 1843”.

On page 340 in the Index entry for the Tabu system in Hawaii, the missing page number next to “Tabu system in Hawaii” is intentional, for there is no mention of the Tabu system in Hawaii, only in the Marquesas.