Roughing It

Note: The contents of Chapter 5 correspond to Chapters 73-79 in print editions of the book.

Twain takes a short trip in an outrigger canoe to see another one of the sights on the big island of Hawaii. Along the way, he notices a school of porpoises: “We dashed boldly into the midst of a school of huge, beastly porpoises engaged at their eternal game of arching over a wave and disappearing, and then doing it over again and keeping it up” (526).

After watching these aquatic gymnastics for a while, Twain reaches his destination: the ancient City of Refuge, surrounded by an immense enclosure. The author wonders how a culture he regards as primitive could have hauled and assembled the tons of stone required to build the city’s 20-foot walls. According to Hawaiian beliefs, a criminal seeking to avoid vengeance could flee to this stronghold and receive sanctuary. Twain paints a breathless picture of those who succeed in reaching the refuge and those who do not:

Then a chase for life and liberty began—the outlawed criminal flying through pathless forests and over mountain and plain, with his hopes fixed upon the protecting walls of the City of Refuge, and the avenger of blood following hotly after him! (527).