This is the only notice we have of the 1823 eruption from Kilauea. In Plate 26 may be seen a sketch of its position and area, party of as and partly of pahoehoe, occupying a space,about fifteen miles square and surrounding the small hills known as Kearaarea. The plan is taken from the recent survey of Kapa pala by E. D. Baldwin and George F. Wright, executed under the direction of Walter E. Wall, Government surveyor. These small craters must have been formed long before this eruption, otherwise their names would not have been known. I have never seen any account of them, but they are quite conspicuous as seen from the Kau volcano road.
After reaching Kaimu, several miles east of Kilauea, the depu tation listened to accounts of an earthquake which had been ex perienced about two months earlier. The ground after several minutes of quaking had been rent for several miles in the direc tion north-by-east, and emitted a quantity of smoke, ashes and luminous vapor, but none of the people were injured. One house was situated directly over the chasm and the people were disturbed in their slumbers. Probably this disturbance was connected with the general eruption of 1823 from Kilauea.
After Kilauea had been visited Mr. Ellis questioned the natives about its history. They represented that it had been burning from time immemorial: it often had boiled up and overflowed its banks in the earlier ages, inundating the surrounding country ; but for many reigns past it had kept below the level of the sur rounding plain, continually extending its surface, increasing its depth, occasionally throwing up large rocks and red-hot stones. These eruptions were always accompanied by dreadful earth quakes, loud claps of thunder and quick succeeding lightning. No great eruption had taken place since the days of Keoua (1790), but many places near the sea had been overflowed ; the streams of lava had taken subterranean courses to the shore.
The first incoming of immigrants, as corroborated and dated by the historian Fornander, was in the days of Wakea, A. D. 190, when the volcano was active. The later immigration dates from A. D. logo; and it was claimed that eruptions had taken place during every reign since that date ; which may be estimated as once for every generation. The legend of Pele, detailed later, relates clearly to an eruption from Kilauea, which must have taken place a few years after 1175. About fourteen generations back, in the days of Liloa, 1420, a violent eruption broke out from Keanakakoi. As this seemed to be well known to the natives, it was probably of unusual importance, and is referred to again later. There was also an eruption at Kaimu in the days of Alapai,
whose date proves to be from 1730 to 1754, according to Professor W. D. Alexander.
Another tradition relates to the disturbances at Kapoho, a very interesting crater in Puna near the eastern extremity of Hawaii, belonging to Mr. Shipman, who entertained me in 1883, and later to Mr. H. J. Lyman, whom I visited in 1899. Kapoho signifies the sunken in. It is the largest of all the craters in Puna, one mile in diameter ,enclosing two hills and a pond of clear water, which is said to be quite saline. Inasmuch as Pele is represented as coming here to engage in the game of holna, it seems probable that Kapoho is connected with Kilauea. It was in the reign of Keariikukii ,an ancient king of Hawaii, that Kahavari, a chief from Puna, with others, came to Kapoho to amuse themselves with sliding downhill. Many people came to witness the game, among them Pele. She challenged Kahavari to slide with her, and she was beaten. She asked for his sledge, which he refused to give her. Becoming incensed, she stamped upon the ground, whence followed an earthquake, rending the hill in sunder ; and in response to her call liquid fire made its appearance, and pursued Kahavari. He had great difficulty in making his escape down the hill to the sea, whence he was closely followed by fire and stones while his family were overwhelmed. The special site of this action was the crater Kukii, a crater of black and red lapilli half a mile northeasterly from Lyman's. The scoriae are pumiceous like that on the south side of Kilauea. The time of Kahavari's domination in Puna is placed by Kalakaua at A. D. 1340 to 1380, in the resign of Kahoukapu.
Another eruption was described by the natives as having been manifested about thirty-five years earlier, say 1788. There are three hills contiguous to each other, to the west of Kapoho, Ho nualula, Malama (Puulena) and Mariu (Kaliu). These arrested the progress of an immense torrent of lava which inundated the country to the north. This flow must have been analogous to the later discharge from Kilauea in 1840.
One cannot resist the impression that the earlier eruptions were comparable with what are called the Vesuvian or explosive type of action ; and Plate 27A is a humble attempt to represent the conditions attending the discharge of vapors, stones and ashes, when the whole adjacent region was covered with the ejectamenta.