Frank Coffee

“ Honolulu and Hawaii HAWAII, the pearl of the Pacific! What a group of islands abounding with romance and beauty! Truly, this is the land of Arcadia, where fauns and dryads and all the other favorites of Pan must disport. ”

“ The island scenery through Puget Sound is rery beautiful, with unexpected nooks tucked away amid forests of luxuriant growth. After a stop of three hours at Victoria we continued our voyage to Honolulu. With the exception of one day, when head-winds emptied the saloon of sea-sick passengers, the sea was untroubled.
The nine hours' stop at Honolulu is the pleasantest kind of break in the trans-Pacific journey. Indeed, that delightful spot is the pearl of the Pacific, the place to which good Americans ought to wish to go when they die. ”

“ All the islands are clothed with rich tropical vegetation, feathered with waving cocoanut palms, and upon any of them the jaded seeker after rest might easily be content to spend the rest of his days —"the world forgetting, by the world forgot"—for Tonga is one of the few places that remain absolutely cut off from the outside world, save for the monthly service provided by the Union Steamship Company and occasional sailing crafts. ”

“ Significant to me is the fact that large numbers of Chinese children are sent to be educated at Japanese schools. The Japanese are certainly a clever people and alive to all advantages. For many years Japan subsidized her mercantile marine to the extent of seventy-five per cent, of the running expenses—which demonstrates her clever commercial insight. If an impecunious Japanese inventor has a device, and makes known his need to the government, it will investigate the worth of his article, and if practicable, money will be advanced to him to make his invention and put it on the market. ”

“ Countless thousands of dollars have been reaped from the rookeries of Alaska, where the fur-seal made its home. Romantic are the stories that could be written of the early days of the whaling fleets, that made their ways north from Victoria, British Columbia, and strange and startling the experiences of the men in charge of the trim little schooners that fought their way through storm, wave, and bergs, to the habitat of that muchly prized swimmer of the Northern Seas, to provide the glad raiment for milady. ”

“ CRICKET is as popular in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga as it was in pre-war days in Australia and England. In those paradises of peace and plenty, where the actual necessaries of life (anyway, enough to satisfy the average native) are obtainable without the smallest amount of labor, there is ample time for indulgence in the pastime. So in many places they play cricket every day, and, inasmuch as practice makes perfect, are skilful with bat and ball. Cricket is elsewhere a summer game, but it being practically perpetual summer in the tropics, is played there all the year round. ”

“ At all events, my book will serve the purpose if, even in a small measure, it contributes to the growing interest now apparent in the Pacific and its islands. I have often wondered why more people do not take the trip to the Antipodes and the Orient. Steamship rates are reasonable enough, and the service is high-class. Rich in folklore, in quaint peoples, in the beauty of reef and palm, the islands of the Pacific are certain to charm and enthrall the visitor. ”

“ Sharks from five to seven feet long like to sleep in some coral caves beneath the surface of the water in a deep and spacious lagoon- These haunts are known to the natives of the island, and when they go shark hunting, a party of them takes a boat and pulls out to the place where the sharks repose. An expert diver, to whom apparently is given all the honor and glory, and also all the danger, first ascertains that they are "at home" in their caves and sleeping soundly. Then he leaps overboard, dives down to them and nooses the tail of the shark that is nearest to him. ”

“ Tahiti is formed by two distinct mountains of great elevation, which are connected by a long, narrow isthmus of about three miles in width. Consisting as it does of volcanic ridges of inexhaustible fertility, and valleys watered by abundant streams, this island is of much commercial value. Its delightful climate brings to maturity all the products of the tropics, which are nowhere to be found in greater fulness and perfection. Papeete, the capital, is a gay little town, remarkably cosmopolitan in its elements and Parisian in its tone and manners. ”

“ It is one of our human weaknesses to remember one stormy voyage longer than a dozen tranquil trips, and we never forget to refer to our trying experience. The longest voyage I made was from San Francisco to Sydney. ”

“ It may be pointed out, however, that a man can travel round the world with a tweed and a dress suit.
Before embarking on a sea voyage, ladies should arrange their wardrobe so as to have quick access to their most ravishing costumes, because the rivalry and criticism on board are keen, and the taste displayed equal to that met with in the biggest drawing-rooms and hotels.
There is plenty of time, while the ship plows smoothly through the Tropics, for dressing, eating, dancing and flirting. Many world travelers are met on the Pacific, and wide range of fashions compete for supremacy. ”

“ THE staple product of the South Sea Islands is copra. Probably not one person in four knows what it is. First of all, then, let me explain that copra is the dried flesh of the cocoanut. This product yields an oil which enters very largely into the manufacture of soap. It is also used in the preparation of vegetable butter for cooking, and, owing to the increasing scarcity of animal fats, the demand is a very large and growing one. During the Great War, copra was exported in huge quantities to make glycerine for munitions. Another product, used by confectioners, is known as desiccated cocoanut. ”

“ The Tanna Volcano is always active and is one of the sights of the islands. It has been spoken of as "the great lighthouse of the Southern Isles, which every three or four minutes bursts forth with brilliance, like a revolving light." It is always grand and awe-inspiring.
As far back as all records serve, the Tongan Islands have been noted for volcanic activity. There is a volcano in the island of Tofua. In 1912 the several volcanoes on the island of Niafoou were all in eruption at once and did a great deal of damage. ”

“ Terrific storms play havoc with the lines, but communication must be kept open, entailing great exertion and risk. With the characteristic hospitality of the frontier, they will share their fire and food with the lost traveler. At times, the fierce cold is beyond their endurance and one may succumb, as the pathetic case of one McKenzie, near Hazelton, British Columbia, in 1909. One morning members of a passing pack train found McKenzie frozen to death in his cabin. ”

“ In the cities of the Far East there are no "pubs" or saloon bars as we understand them in America and Australia. Liquor is sold in large family hotels in Hong Kong, Nagasaki and similar centers, but I never saw a man drunk in China or Japan. During 1908 the Japanese hotel keepers laid in a stock of wine and liquors in expectation of a visit of a thousand American excursionists on the steamer Cleveland. Coming from the West, she touched at the ports of Nagasaki and Kobe, but for some reason or other the passengers failed to display any extraordinary thirst. ”

“ Such matches last for the best part of a week, and if at all closely contested, the excitement runs high. Few villages can boast of the possession of a proper bat, so they use a wooden club instead; and I have seen them using stones and small cocoanuts when they could not manage to get even a ball. Under such conditions, the game resembles "shinny." Anyone who can play cricket well can reckon upon having a right royal time in the native villages. One who excels at athletics, and particularly at cricket, immediately commands the respect and admiration of the Fijians. ”

“ It is idle for a layman like myself to speculate upon the origin of the figures on this island. The remains of a forgotten people are not altogether unique in the Pacific, for in the Caroline Islands, in Tonga and elsewhere, are strange monuments just as inexplicable, though very different in form. ”

“ As an old campaigner, meeting all sorts and conditions of people, and mingling with them as one of the eternal human comedy, I have had unusual opportunities of finding out what the average mind responds to. ”

“ I have visited Honolulu during most months in the year, and my impression is that the city and its suburbs are always clothed in exquisite tropical flowers. The foliage is rich and luxuriant and the grass seems always green. ”

“ To those whose ideals of life are realized in short hours of labor, abundance of food and neither poverty nor riches, Tonga should be Utopia.
The Tongans are a big-boned, large-limbed race. They have darker skins than the neighboring islanders, and they surpass these others in intelligence. The consciousness of their superiority is said to affect their tones and even their gait. The relations between the sexes are conspicuously pure. [1] Their girls do not hang about the settlements or congregate on the pier and beaches, as women do in other islands. Many European settlers marry Tongan women. ”

“ The first steamer that made the trans-Pacific voyage that I find record of, was the Monumental City, from Panama to Sydney, in the 'fifties. She put into Tonga for provisions and firewood, and the amazed and fearful natives called her a "fiery sailing ship." Their emotions are not to be wondered at when we remember the bewilderment of our own people at the sight of their first steamer, the Savannah (300 tons) , that crossed the Atlantic in 1819, traveling from her namesake town to Liverpool in twenty-six days. ”