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Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 1 (1835-1866) by Mark Twain
page 133 of 146 (91%)
he gives some advice to San Francisco as to the treatment of
whalers. He says:

"If I were going to advise San Francisco as to the best strategy to
employ in order to secure the whaling trade, I should say, 'Cripple
your facilities for "pulling" sea captains on any pretence that
sailors can trump up, and show the whaler a little more
consideration when he is in port.'"

In No. 11, May 24th, he tells of a trip to the Kalehi Valley, and
through historic points. At one place he looked from a precipice
over which old Kamehameha I. drove the army of Oahu, three-quarters
of a century before.

The vegetation and glory of the tropics attracted him. "In one open
spot a vine of a species unknown had taken possession of two tall
dead stumps, and wound around and about them, and swung out from
their tops, and twined their meeting tendrils together into a
faultless arch. Man, with all his art, could not improve upon its
symmetry."

He saw Sam Brannan's palace, "The Bungalow," built by one Shillaber
of San Francisco at a cost of from thirty to forty thousand dollars.
In its day it had outshone its regal neighbor, the palace of the
king, but had fallen to decay after passing into Brannan's hands,
and had become a picturesque Theban ruin by the time of Mark Twain's
visit.

In No. 12, June 20th (written May 23d), he tells of the Hawaiian
Legislature, and of his trip to the island of Maui, where, as he
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