The beauty of Hawai'i

An amazing description of Hawaii by Hiram Bingham. Mr. Bingham was in the first group of missionaries that sailed to the Sandwich Islands. When he wrote this, he had been in Hawaii for three or four years. He had ministered on Oahu and then traveled to Kauai for a time. 

To a spectator from the missionary's door, or from the fort, or either precipice, is presented a good specimen of Sandwich Islands scenery. On a calm and bright summer's day, the wide ocean and foaming surf, the peaceful river, with verdant banks, the bold cliff, and forest covered mountains, the level and fertile vale, the pleasant shade-trees, the green tufts of elegant fronds on the tall cocoanut trunks, nodding and waving, like graceful plumes, in the refreshing breeze ; birds flitting,, chirping, and singing among them, goats grazing and bleating, and their kids frisking on the rocky cliff, the natives at their work, carrying burdens, or sailing up and down the river, or along the sea-shore, in their canoes, propelled by their polished paddles that glitter in the sun-beam, or by a small sail well trimmed, or riding more rapidly and proudly on their surf-boards, on the front of foaming surges, as they hasten to the sandy shore, all give life and interest to the scenery. But the residence of a Christian missionary, toiling here, for elevating thousands of the heathen, and an humble house of God erected by once idolatrous hands, where from Sabbath to Sabbath the unsearchable riches of Jesus were proclaimed, amid the ruins of the bloody temples of heathenism, gave the peculiar charm to the scene which it never had for ages of pagan darkness, and which Cook, when he gazed on this landscape, did not expect it would ever have. For it was the opinion of that navigator, that the fairest isles of the Pacific would never be evangelized.
When the golden sun, declining in the west, had sunk below the ocean horizon, and the short twilight had disappeared, I walked out with Mrs. B. to enjoy the evening scene, on the bank of the gentle river, which on a former visit had so cheered and delighted her. We united in adoring that goodness which had hitherto led us beside the still waters. The natives of the valley were gathered to their little cottages. The wind breathed softly through the foliage. The moon rolled silently her silver orb smiling on our evening landscape. The starry host glittered with tropic brightness, in the lofty blue canopy. The up ruffled surface of the silent river, like a polished mirror, beautifully reflected the exact inverted image of the native huts, the shrubs and trees on the opposite bank, and of the spangled arch above. With such a view of the exterior of our little Waimea, the capital of Kauai, who would not have breathed the aspiration, that its spiritual aspect might soon be equally engaging ! For this, the utmost efforts of the missionary were required.

A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands
Or the civil, religious, and political history of those islands : Comprising a particular view of the missionary operations connected with the introduction and progress of Christianity and civilization among the Hawaiian people. 
by Hiram Bingham