BOOKS.

MISS GORDON CUMMING'S FIRE FOUNTAINS OF HA.WAIL* THE, nineteenth century will certainly be able to boast, among other products of its inquiring genius, of the group of lady travellers whose adventurous careers have recently been re- corded by an appreciative admirer of the courage and patience with which they have fronted the perils and endured the dis- comforts of travel in the remotest corners of the globe. Miss Gordon Cumming is by no means the least conspicuous member of the group in question, comprising names so well known as those of Miss Ida Pfeiffer, Lady Hester Stanhope, and Miss Bird, and abundantly displays in these volumes the ease and strength which have characterised her previous narratives. She possesses the rare power of being at once graphic and true. She rather, indeed, prefers, on the whole, to lag a half-tone or so behind, than to be in advance of Nature, and her readers feel a pleasant assnredness that they are not being deluded by fine words into an acceptance of a counterfeit for a reality. Yet she is no mere word-photographer, and never fails to combine with her descriptions that subtle human element which distin- guishes the artist from the savant. We can safely say that Hawaii, which has been so often described by previous writers, will less easily bear description hereafter. The autotype illus- trations, we feel constrained to add, do not by any means rise to the level of the text in picturesqueness and clearness.

To Miss Cumming, as to her predecessors, the principal attrac- tion of the Sandwich Isles was the volcanic district of Hawaii, the largest and southernmost of the eight islands which form the realm of our recent amiable visitor, King Kalakaua. Here, on the grandest scale, the cosmical energy developed when the nebulous mass, torn off from some parent agglomeration and cast spinning into space, was condensed, some fifty or sixty thousand millenniums ago, into the solider globe of our earth, still displays itself in phenomena rivalling the tremendous cataclysms which have scarred, pitted, and seamed the surface of the moon. Miss Camming's first view of Kilauea, even of the famous inner crater, Halemanman, was a disappointing one, and for scenic effect, she declared it inferior to a great conflagration. A day or two's patience, however, was duly rewarded :-

"Last night was Hallowe'en, the great fire-festival of our ancestors, • Firs Fountains : the Kingdom nj Hnosii. its Volcanoes and the History of its Minims. By C. 1). Gordon Cumming. 2 vols., Illustrated. Elinbmrsh and liondon : Blackwood and Bons. 1882.

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and here it has been celebrated in right royal style, for the fire, spirits hare broken loose, and are holding high revel. The flow is increasing rapidly, and is magnificent. The fire has burst out at so- many points together that it has formed a new lake in the outer crater, in which fire-jets are spouting, molten lava thrown high in

mid-air, great masses of red-hot solid lava being tossed to a height of from 40 ft. to 50 ft., while from the overflowing rim or from weak

points in the sides of the lake basin flow rivers of lava, forming a

network of living, rushing fire, covering fully two square miles of the very ground over which I was walking only two days ago. It is a

scene of marvellous beauty, and is inexpressibly fascinating. From

the edge of the crater wall I have watched each stao.e in the growth of this strange new lake, I have seen it gradually rise higher and higher,. till at last it overflowed in glowing streams, like rivers of golden syrup,

but brighter far, and of indescribable colour. The centre of the lake is

oftenest of a silvery-grey, only crossed by zigzag lines of flame-colour and deep rosy-red ; but all round its shores it is continually surging

and npheaving great crested billows, which break in fiery surf, and toss up clouds of fire-spray. Sometimes the whole lake appears to- be in a tremendous commotion, heaving and trembling, as if acting obedient to some pressure from the furnace below."

Of Manna Loa, Miss Cumming did not attempt the ascent, under the impression that it was not worth while to climb' 10,000 feet above Kilauea to see nothing more than what was to be seen in the lower crater. Miss Bird's greater faith, how- ever, was rewarded by the magnificent spectacle of a fountain of living fire, a glorious incandescence attaining at times a height of 600 feet, and glowing with the intense yellow of liquid gold. In 1852, a light like that of a solitary star burst out with amazing splendour 4,000 feet below the summit. For twenty days and nights it threw and sustained a column of liquid fire 700 feet high, and 200 to 300 feet in diameter- " The descending showers," adds Miss Cumming, quoting Mr..

Coao, " formed a cataract of fire upon the rim of the crater, and the molten flood of millions of tons of sparkling lava rolled down

the mountain in a deep broad river, at the rate of, probably, ten miles an hour." In 1840 a stream of lava issued from its flanks three miles wide, and fell into the sea near Hilo, "leaF- iog

a basaltic precipice about fifty feet in height, and forming a

magnificent fire-cataract about a mile in width So- intense was the glare, that at places forty miles distant fine print could be read all night by its fiery glow."

But after all, volcanic phenomena on a grand scale defy description. No words can, with any approach to adequateness, paint a Niagara of fire, or a Mississippi of molten, glowing rock, or a fusion-fountain 800 feet high. Such tremendous displays of the interior forces of our globe must be seen to be- realised, even in part; once seen, no language is needed to.

recall their terrible sublimity. For ourselves, we confess that. the chapters of Miss Cumming's book which have given us the- greatest pleasure are those dealing with the past fortunes and present condition of the Hawaiian people. To thiEs portion of her subject the second volume is entirely devoted,

and the treatment is as full as it is sympathetic. Like the.

Japanese, and much more completely than the Japanese, the. Hawaiians within less than a decade accomplished a complete.

revolution, not only in their polity, but in their religion, and even in the form of their society. On the death of Kamehamehs.- the Great, his successor, after consultation with the principal

chiefs, publicly and ostentatiously broke through the system of tabu, which for countless generations had held the Hawaiians, in common with other Polynesian peoples, enthralled in an oppressive, and visibly useless bondage. The high Priest. of the War God luckily sided with the King, and con- curred in the abolition of idolatry, as well as of tabu. The heroic defiance of Pee, the dread Goddess of the Volcanoes, by Kapiolani, a high " chiefess," was in very truth " a grand, brave deed," well worthy of the glowing record Miss Lamming has given of it. The Conservative party took up arms in defence of the deposed gods, and the question of light against•

darkness was fought out on the shores of Hawaii in November,.

1819, when tabu, priestcraft, and idolatry perished for ever out of the land. With this reform, unexampled in the rapidity of

its accomplishment and the practical universality of its accept- ance, the foreigner had nothing to do ; for the terrible moral disorganisation that supervened, the rowdy sailors and strangers that infested Honolulu were, on the other hand, in great mea- sure responsible. Meanwhile, however, the means of deliverance had been shaping themselves, in the person of a " dark-skinnect lad," whom some Yale students found crying on a door-step, and who turned out to be a poor, deserted, Hawaiian boy. He was properly cared for, and grew up to be a fervent Christian. Death overtook him before he could carry the Gospel to his countrymen; but the task was taken up by worthy hands. and in 1819, the very year of the revolution, a band of American Missionaries sailed for Hawaii.

The story of their struggles and eventual success is one of the most interesting episodes in the history of Hawaii, the pleasanter to dwell upon, because from the days of Captain Cook up to quite a recent period, the little insular kingdom has had but little reason to bless foreigners. Even the great navigator's treatment of the islanders, who received him with every courtesy, believing him indeed, to be a god—a dignity which he seems to have accepted. with great complacency—was harsh and tyrannical, and fully explains, if it does not justify, according to the only code of ethics with which the Hawaiians could then be acquainted, the manner of his death. The French, the Americans, and the English vied with each other in oppressive and ungenerous treatment of this poor and dwindling people, until Admiral Thomas, on July 31st, 1843 —the 4th of July of Hawaii—formally established and acknow- ledged Hawaiian independence. The gradual dying-out of the native population is a curious and not easily explicable fact. Since the visit of Captain Cook, it has dwindled from 400,000 to 50,000 in 1872, and the process is said to continue. It is quite possible that the apparently trivial circumstance of ceasing to oil the body, since the habit of wearing cotton dresses has become established, in a wet and changeable climate, where very different temperatures obtain at different heights, has not a little to do with the great mortality. In adopting European modes of life, again, the islanders are exposed to risks which the lives of their forefathers have not fitted them to meet, and that this may be an efficient cause is shown by the fact that half- castes display much more tenacity of life than the pure-blood natives. Let us hope that the name of the heiress-apparent may be an omen of greater longevity to the race. She is H.R.H. the Princess Victoria - Sawekira Saiulani-Lanalilo - Kalaui- nuiahi-lapa-lapa.