Byron Bay, on the eastern shore, is a spacious harbour, which lies south and north: it is protected from the north-east wind by a coral reef, half a mile wide, which leaves a channel three-quarters of a mile wide, and from ten to eleven fathoms deep. It is the best harbour belonging to the island, and the only one on the eastern shore. On the western coast are the harbours of Towairae and Karakakos. In Karakakoa harbour Captain Cook was killed, in 1779.
Maul, or Moves, is situated north-west of Hawaii, and separated from it by a strait 24 miles wide. Its length is 48 miles, and its breadth, in the widest part, 29 miles. It is composed of two masses of rock, surrounded by a narrow tract of low land, and united by a low and sandy isthmus which is nine miles in width. The larger mountain mass, which occupies the eastern portion of the island, is supposed to rise nearly 10,000 feet above the sea, but it contains only a small portion of low and cultivable land. The smaller moun tain mass or peninsula has a fine tract of level land along the south western coast. At the back of it there are well-wooded slopes, with broad valleys, which terminate, towards the summit of the mountains, in deep ravines. The mountains, which rise to about 5000 feet, are also well wooded. The harbour of Laheina nearly in the centre of the plain, is formed by two low projecting rocks, two miles distant from each other.
Tohaurawe lies south-west of the larger peninsula of Maul. It is about 11 miles long from east to west, and 8 miles wide in the broadest part. The surface hardly exceeds 60 square miles. Like the other islands, it is composed of lava, which however rises only to a moderate elevation. The soil is thin, and covered with a species of coarse grass.
Rama, which lies west of the smaller peninsula of Maul, is separated from that island by a strait nine or ten miles wide. It is 17 miles long and about nine miles wide. It is a mass of volcanic rocks, but does not rise to a great elevation. A great part of it is barren, and the remainder is only of moderate fertility.
Merokai, or Morotor, lies north-west of Maul and north of Banat ; it extends 40 miles from east to west, and 7 miles from south to north. It consists of one mass of rocks, the most elevated portion of which rises about 5000 feet above the sea, and the sides are furrowed by deep ravines full of trees. Level tracts of small extent occur along the shores, and many of them are fertile.
Oahu, or Weakoe, lies north-west from Morokal, and extends 46 miles from south-east to north-west, and is 23 miles across in the widest part. It is the seat of government for the islands, and the place in which the foreign commerce is concentrated. It coutains a larger proportion of cultivated land than the other islands of the Sandwich group.
A mountain rauge traverses the island : it begins at the north eastern point, called blocapu, and runs first southward and afterwards inclines to the south-west, terminating, at Diamoud Point, the south western cape of the island, in a hill about 400 feet high. This range is more than 3000 feet above the sea-level, and, with the valleys by which it is intersected, covers about half the surface of the island. Another mountain mass occupies the north-western part, but it is not connected with the chain, being separated from it by a plain extending from the mouth of Pearl River to Waiarua on the northern coast, a distance of nearly 20 miles. It is called the Plain of Eva, and is fertile and well wooded, but not much cultivated. The soil consists of a deep mould resting on lava. The plain of Houolulu, on the south side of the island, extends about teu miles along the shore, with a width varying from two to three miles, has a very rich alluvial soil, and is carefully cultivated. Several wide valleys, which extend north ward into the mountain range, open into this plain, and are also cultivated to the distance of six or seven miles from the shore, where they be-ziu to be narrow, and to be inclosed by steep mountains on each side.
Honolulu is the capital of the Sandwich Islands, and the residence of the king. It consists of a considerable number of atone houses built by foreign merchants, and numerous huts of the natives not arranced in regular streets. The harbour is small, being not more than half a mile long and a quarter of a mile broad ; but it is tolerably deep, and perfectly safe. It is formed by a coral reef, which extends along the shore at the distance of some hundred yards, and against which the swell of the sea breaks. These reefs have a considerable width, and are dry at low-water. A uarrow opening in them opposite to Honolulu forms the entrance to the port, which however is not deep enough for large vessels, and they remain in the roadstead, which is capacious, but has a rocky and uneven bottom.