Page:Off For Hawaii.djvu/156

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142
OFF FOR HAWAII.

there while the craft pulled up anchor and started on the voyage to Hilo.

The scene was an inspiring one, and we remained on deck for the best part of the afternoon, gazing at the scenery on the eastern coast of Maui, from Wailuku to Kauiki Head. Here were deep meadows, high mountains, and magnificent gorges, some covered with tropical trees and brush and some laid out into immense coffee plantations, one said to be thousands of acres in extent.

"It seems to me that a fellow with money can get rich here," observed Dan. "But it's no place for a poor man."

"Not, at least, for an American poor man," I added. "For he would not want to work for the wages the Chinese, Japanese, and Kanakas accept. But a man might come here and take up a small plantation."

"Yes; but he would have to support himself until his crops came," said Oliver. "I take it that in any new country a newcomer ought to have some means, otherwise he had better stay where he is. Even the early American settlers nearly starved to death before they got a firm footing."

"I wonder if we'll run across Dr. Barton at Hilo," mused Dan. "He said he was going on, you know."