A Hilo Plantation [pp. 186-191]

A Hilo Plantation.
appeal to the law. No doubt managers are
sometimes domineering, as all employers
may be, and plantation hands are sometimes
exasperating as other employes frequently
are; yet, on the whole, good feeling seems to
exist on both sides, and it is quite common for
those whose time has expired to be anxious
to recontract. They live as well and are as
well housed on the plantation as their countrymen of equal ability, whose time has been
served out. Their children are educated, an
advantage, by the way, which all of them do
not seem to value, and they have medical
attendance free of cost. Whatever objection
may be brought against the system in theory, it must be remembered that in practice
it works well. Labor must be cheap, and
cheap labor is not conscientious nor educated, and there seems, as yet, to be no better
and fairer way of establishing the mutual
rights and duties of both planter and laborer.
Before the above digression, we were about
to dismount before the house of our host, the
manager. Within, you will soon be made at
home. The simple, straightforward welcome
of your hostess does that, and they all have
somehow caught that prime requisite of entertaining, the art of helping every one to do
as he pleases. Whatever the plantation affords is the guest's upon one condition, that
he enjoy himself. Does he fancy exercise?
the horses are his. Does he prefer lotuseating? he may lie all day in a hammock
under the wide veranda roof, and watch the
sunlight and shadow shift on the ocean, or
the gray fringe of a shower trailing in and
shutting off the distant points of the coast
long before the rapid drops sound on the
roof above him; and when the shower is
over, he may see the white cloud-galleons
sail, and the vivid green flash out, above the
surf, when the sunlight falls on the coast ten
miles away. If his indolence is not too great
for the exertion of eating, he may feast on
all the tropic fruits and unlimited sl,gar-cane,
fresh from the field, and not hardened by a
week's sea-voyage.
If he likes the bath, there is the stream
below, and the young people of the family always ready to accompany him. In
the one I have now in mind, there are
two large pools not a dozen feet apart,
just below the break in the bed of the
stream, which marks its backward cut from
the line of the sea cliffs. Into one the main
stream pours, making it cool as may be in
that climate; into the other the water, coming slowly by a little offset from the river
some yards up stream, and moving slowly
among the rocks, falls several degrees warmer. In either of these one may simply luxuriate, or he may imitate his guides in jumping over the fall, or from the over-hanging
rocks upon the bank into the depths below.
Unless he is more than ordinarily expert, he
will find more than a match in this and in
all the swimmers' feats among the youngest
of his companions.
If he fancy sea-bathing, there is the whole
Pacific before him, and breakers whose curving crests invite to a trial of the surf board.
Any six-foot piece of plank will do for the
trial. It looks easy, too; just wait for the
wave to be on the point of combing, then
throw your feet backward like a frog till you
get the start, and away you go. But the sea
and the sailor both enjoy hazing a green
hand. It is not so easy to dive under the
breakers as you go out with so large a thing
as a board under your arm, and provided you
finally get out beyond them without having
one comb'squarely on top of you, it requires
the judgment of an expert to tell just when
to start. If you start too soon, the wave tips
you over; if too late, it glides out from under and you have your kicking for your pains.
If you strike just the nick of time, and steer
well so as not to fall off sideways, you go in
toward the shore in grand style, but then the
chances are that you have your chest tattooed with the end of the board till you look as
though you wore an American flag for a
shirt front.
For the scientist, the plantation is also full
of interest. The botanist will find treasures
in the woods: ferns that a man may ride
under on horseback, and never stoop; walking ferns, that start rootlets and frondlets
from the tips of the fronds; climbing ferns,
the stems of which cling like ivy to the tree
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