Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/111

Rh to see the children after their long confinement on board revelling in the luxury of their mother nature, and at the same time eagerly helping their parents and elder brothers at their work. Such a camping out never was.

We were rather hasty in fixing upon this spot for our home, as soon appeared by the scarcity of water, and after a few days we again shipped our passengers and sailed round the island in search of the town of Honolulu. When we found it we were much surprised that, although there could be no mistake about the spot, of habitations there was no sign. A few months had sufficed, with the aid of the luxuriant vegetation, to obliterate all trace of what had once been a thriving port. It needed however but a few weeks' hard labour to restore it to something not unlike its former appearance and to something more than its former prosperity, if prosperity is to be reckoned by the virtue and happiness of the citizens. Our early trials and struggles were much like those of any other Colonists of a new country, and I do not propose to dwell upon them. Without any formal sanction except the general consent I governed the