Or, Hawaii on Horseback: Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands by Isabella L. Bird. First published in 1875 under the title "The Hawaiian Archipelago"
An Equestrian Travel Classic.
Bound from New Zealand to San Francisco, Isabella had come ashore at Hawaii on an impulse. What she discovered was not what she had been expecting. Soon after cattle were introduced onto the island, they went wild and could not be managed by islanders on foot. The King therefore enlisted the aid of imported Mexican vaqueros, who brought with them not only their horses and saddles, but also their sense of equestrian panache. When Isabella Bird landed she discovered a still untrammelled tropical paradise. However, the once pedestrian Hawaiians had taken to the saddle with a vengeance. The islanders rode - everywhere - and the clergyman's daughter soon joined them. Having never ridden astride because of the English cultural taboo, Isabella was reluctant to cast aside her native equestrian traditions. When she did, the greatest female equestrian traveller of the Victorian age came to life. This book recounts the first of Isabella Bird's remarkable mounted adventures. Though she went on to explore the Rocky Mountains, Japan, Persia, and Tibet on horseback, Isabella first stepped astride into the saddle and onto the pages of history in Hawaii. This classic account of thrilling equestrian adventure tells the story of one woman's discovery of both her own soul and the wide world beyond.
Publisher: Long Rider's Guild Press; Nov 2004
Paperback; 428 pages