THE HAWAIIAN FLAG
As we rounded the promontory of Diamond Head (bringing into view a grove of
coconut trees, first ocular proof that we were in the tropics), we ran up the Stars and
Stripes at the main spencer gaff, and the Hawaiian flag at the fore. The latter is suggestive
of the prominent political elements of the Islands. It is part French, part English, part
American, and is Hawaiian in general. The union is the English cross; the remainder of
the flag (horizontal stripes) looks American, but has a blue French stripe in addition to
our red and white ones. The flag was gotten up by foreign legations in council with the
Hawaiian Government. The eight stripes refer to the eight islands which are inhabited;
the other four are barren rocks incapable of supporting a population.
