CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XIX.STRONG'S ISLAND.The first duty that engaged our attention after coming to anchor was, of course, to stop the leak; which was done much in the same manner as in the former case at Dominica, except that it was necessary to stow all the heavy articles forward, and bring the ship down by the head, instead of the stern. We also attached a purchase to the mainmast head, and to a tree on the shore, to assist in careening the ship.The natives appeared to watch all these operations with great interest; and our decks were alive with them, both men and women, the day after our arrival. Compared with the savages, whom we had previously visited, these people might be called gentle and quiet in their habits. Nothing could exceed the eagerness and the perseverance displayed, particularly by the women, in acquiring a thorough knowledge of our language. Every word that could be picked up to add to their English vocabularies seemed to afford them a peculiar source of delight. "What name o' this? What name man?" were questions put to us at every turn, and our answers were echoed and repeated overand over, till the sound was fully mastered. Thus the English spoken by these women was not murdered, for each word was thoroughly learned before passing on to the next.Suddenly a muttered signal or countersign passes from mouth to mouth; all noise and conversation cease; and each remains fixed to the spot, as if struck by an enchanter's wand. Not immediately seeing any adequate cause for this, I asked, in great surprise, what it meant? One of the girls ventured to whisper an answer to me:"You see? King George come!"I looked over the sail. Our boat, which had been ashore, was just coming alongside, and, seated with the old man in the stern sheets, was this potent autocrat, "King George," a rather goodlooking, portly barbarian, whose royal robes consisted of nothing less—or more—than a common sailor's checkshirt, his legs disdaining any covering whatever. He had doubtless received his title from some ironical Englishman, and his subjects had adopted it as proudly, as it is said our ancestors did, the music of "Yankee Doodle."As his majesty's head appeared above the quarter-rail, every one of his submissive subjects, man, woman and child, fell upon deck in a kneeling or crouching attitude, with bowed heads, and thus remained till their sovereign had completed his survey of matters above board, and passed below with the captain. During this time they rigidly maintained their positions, however uncomfortable, as immovable as a well drilledbattalion of troops at "parade rest." As soon as he was invisible, everything resumed its former status, and the stir and bustle went on as before. The same etiquette, I afterwards observed, was necessary at the advent of any chief of high rank, or any of the juvenile princes of the blood royal.Courtenay, the English captain, had visited this island several times before, and was on very intimate terms with King George. He told us to be on our guard against treachery; and informed us that an English whaleship, called the Harriet, had been taken and burnt in the other harbor on the lee side of the island about eighteen months previous, though her fate had been a mystery until quite recently, as the natives, adopting the motto of ancient sea-rovers, that "Dead men tell no tales," had massacred every man of her crew. For more than a year she had been a "missing ship," when another English whaler, touching at this island, short-handed, shipped two natives, who, a few days after getting to sea, incautiously let out the secret. The ship at once put back and came to anchor in the lee harbor, and as Captain Courtenay happened to be there at the time, the two ships, acting in concert, succeeded in fishing up the Harriet's anchor and chain, with the charred remains of her bow, still attached. The two captains, by stratagem, secured the persons of some of the chiefs, and they confessed the truth, but no punishment had yet been inflicted by the English, though there was good reason to believe that other vessels had been cut off here, at more remote dates, and no one left alive to tell thetale. They had even destroyed the ship's chronometers, supposing them to be alive; for King George when questioned by Captain Courtenay concerning the chronometer of the Harriet, answered expressively, "Kill him. Take big stone, kill him."The Seringapatam still lay wind-bound for two or three days after our arrival, but at last, taking advantage of a morning when the air was quite light, though blowing directly into the bay, we put the boats of all three ships ahead of her, and assisted by the whole flotilla of canoes we towed her to sea, keeping the sails furled, and the yards pointed to the wind. We thought King George seemed rather relieved when he got rid of her. He professed great friendship for Captain Courtenay. But his regard was, doubtless, based on the wholesome fear in which he stood of him; for the ship mounted eight guns in regular broadside, besides small swivels on her topgallant forecastle and taffrail, and even had her arm-chests in her tops.We were successful in reaching and repairing the injury under our counter, and, on righting and trimming the ship, had the satisfaction to find her bottom perfectly tight. We could not, of course, tell how much external injury she had received under the bow.I did not fail, on going ashore, to notice the stone walls of which I had heard, and in which I observed some stones of great size and weight, at such heights from the ground as would indicate that the builders must have made use of mechanical power to raisethem. I could get no information as to how long they had been there, or for what purpose they had been raised.On showing ourselves near the door of a house, we were always invited to enter and take a seat among the family on the floor, and the women immediately put us through a catechism, commencing, according to established form, with the question, "Name o' you?" This question must be answered, and the name repeated by the whole family, until they have the pronunciation perfect. But instead of following this up by asking "Who give you that name?" the next query is, "Name o' ship?" and then, "Name o' captain?" We thought it very remarkable that we found sufficient knowledge of English in every family to conduct these exercises, in view of the fact that so few ships had visited the place, and no white man was then living among them. After these points are all settled, a pipe is produced, with the request, usually made by one of the younger women in her most seductive tones, "You fill pipe belong to me?" Of course you feel bound to honor this draft upon your pocket store of tobacco, and, if you intend to make many calls while on shore, your pockets must be well filled. It is observable that the pipe produced on these occasions is invariably one with a large bowl, while those used for smoking are always small.We strolled into a large building near the beach abreast of our anchorage, which appeared to be a feast-home, a royal banqueting hall. It may, perhaps have been used also as a hall of council, if so absolutea monarch as King George can be supposed to consult with any one on affairs of state. I should suppose, from what I saw of this despot, that he might have had that peculiarity for which the first Napoleon is said to have been famous, of making up his mind first, and asking the advice of his generals afterwards. In this building, in a line extending nearly the whole length of it, flat stones, slightly hollowed so as to form basins, were set into the ground, and at each of these was seated a man, pounding kava-root with a smooth stone of convenient weight to be swung in his hand. The right arms of all these men, perhaps twenty in number, rose and fell in concert, with a slow and measured stroke, uniting the sounds produced by the twenty stone hammers upon the basins into one loud clang. Outside, fires had been built, and mysterious processes of cookery were being carried on. I inquired the meaning of all this preparation, and learned that this was a funeral feast. A woman of some rank, the wife of a chief, had died, and all the high dignitaries were then attending the burial, after which they would return to the feast-house, and "partake of a grand collation," as the celebration programmes have it. I was too late to see anything of the funeral ceremonies, for they were even now on their return. The kava-root, after being pounded to a fibrous mass, is mixed with clear water in the stone basins, and the infusion is strained, or rather wrung, through a sort of coarse cloth of grassy appearance, into calabashes, and is ready for the banquet. The first strength goes to the king and chiefs; it is "spliced" two or three times,the common natives being glad to get a very indifferent article. At many of the islands of Polynesia, the kava, instead of being beaten with stones, is chewed, and the masticated mass is ejected from the mouth into a vessel, and then water added to it; this chewing operation being performed chiefly by the women. But at Strong's Island, no woman is allowed to take any part in its preparation, or even to be present at the ceremony of preparing or drinking it.His majesty and suite being at hand, the "funeral-baked meats" were brought in, with piles of roasted bread-fruit and large bunches of bananas, and all the natives sat or squatted in their proper places, according to rank. The king, seeing us whites looking on, beckoned us to take seats near his royal person, and personally saw that we were liberally supplied with meat and fruit. We did ample justice to the fare, as became distinguished guests, and made a hearty meal. The remains of the feast were being cleared away, and we were about to leave in quest of further adventures, when the cooper made his appearance among us, with his pipe in full blast."Well, boys," said he, "you've been having a glorious wake, I suppose, for the old duchess, or marchioness, or whatever her rank may be. You won't get drunk on kava, though, after the aristocracy have had the first wringing of it. You might drink a deck bucketful of the slops that's handed around afterwards. How did they feed you, pretty well?""Yes, cooper," said I, "you should have been here sooner. You lost a good dinner by being too late for it.""Why what did you have for dinner?" he asked."Something that we sailors don't get every day in the week;" I answered. "We can appreciate roast pig when we do get it.""Did you have roast pig for dinner?" asked the cooper."Certainly, we did," said I, triumphantly."Well, I presume you did—all but the pig," said he, dryly."What do you mean by that?" I inquired, dubiously. There was no smile on the cooper's face, but that twinkling of his beard was perceptible, which always denoted a high state of inward enjoyment."Why, pigs that are raised down our way," said he, "have a different tone of voice in expressing themselves. They don'tbark.""Bark!" I exclaimed, as light began to dawn upon me, while some of my companions already began to look a little qualmish. "You don't mean to say that—""I don't mean to say anything," returned the cooper. "Come outside and see the sacrificial altar, and its trimmings."We followed him a short distance back from the house till he halted, and pointed significantly to an ensanguined block of wood, near which lay four sets of paws, and four heads, unmistakably canine, corresponding in number to the four "roast pigs" at the banquet."I acknowledge the corn," said I. "I suppose if I had known the fact before dinner, I shouldn't have relished it, but it is too late to repent.""But you might say," said one of boys from the Leonidas, unwilling yet to admit that he had been sold, "that we don'tknowwhat animals we had for dinner.""It needs no naturalist to tell us what animals have suffered at the block;" said I, laughing. "We may as well face the music, for there's hardly 'a loop to hang a doubt upon.' And, as another link in the chain of evidence, I now recollect that those pigs had been decapitated before they were served up, though I hadn't thought of it before. I never knew that these people were in the habit of eating dogs.""Yes, I could have told you that," said the cooper, "that is to say, as regards another island of this group. I know they do at Ascension, and they prefer them to pigs.""Well," said I, "I suppose all of us can now testify that they are as good as pigs, if eaten with a sauce of ignorance.""After the collation comes the ball;" said the cooper. "You see those fellows backing down wood, and getting ready to make a bonfire. They will light up the fire after dark, and then dance and sing round it. But here's another game going on. Let's go and see what this means."The natives were all gathering on a large plat of greensward, near the feast-house, and the young men were seating themselves in a circle on the ground, several ranks deep, so as to leave an arena of convenient size in the centre. The women, children and old men closed up outside of this ring as spectators, aspace being kept clear for King George and the principal chiefs, where they could overlook the whole scene. It was evident some sort of gladiatorial show or sparring exhibition was now to begin.At a signal from the king, an athletic young man sprang lightly from his seat in the circle to the centre of the ring, bringing his hands together with a loud clap of defiance. He was instantly confronted by another, and the sparring was commenced. Passes were rapidly made and warded off, no harm being done to the combatants, as all blows were struck open-handed. Great dexterity was displayed on both sides, the object aimed at by all this, being, for some little time, a mystery; but at length the challenger, watching his opportunity, rushed under the other's guard and seized him at the waist, which closed the combat, amid tumultuous applause from king, court and spectators. Both fell back to their places in the circle, the victor to be petted and patted by his delighted comrades, and instantly a fresh champion bounded into the arena to be met by another. Thus the entertainment continued, till nearly every young man had put in at least one appearance, and some particularly smart fellows had come off victors in several matches, so that their challenges were not readily accepted. Sometimes a careless or over-confident youth would be caught almost instantly, calling down upon himself the jeers and uproarious mirth of the whole assembly; and, on the other hand, when two of the most skilfull of the gladiators were about equally matched, the struggle would be prolongedamid the eager and breathless attention of the excited audience. Everything was expected to be done with the most perfect good humor; and if, as was sometimes the case, the vanquished party lost his temper, he was greeted with such yells of derisive laughter, that he was soon glad to join in the laugh against himself, in order to escape further ridicule. The men were naked, with the sole exception of a broad belt about the hips, and their eager attitudes and quick movements displayed their figures and the development of their muscle to the best advantage. We all agreed that the exhibition was a most beautiful one, possessing all the wholesome excitement that belongs to athletic sports of this kind, without the drawbacks of brutality and smothered hatred.We remained on shore in the evening to see the dance round the fire, which is accompanied with wild chants or recitations, and has no very striking points about it. There is but little variety in the movements, and the interest depends simply upon the almost perfect concert of voice and gesture among a large number of performers. Its scenic effect is heightened by the uniform system of tattooing, the chief point in which is a stripe running the whole length of the arm on the outside, and a wider one up and down the leg, like those worn by sergeants in our army. But on the whole, the display is inferior in variety and vigor to the Marquesan "hula hula," or to the war-dances of the North American tribes. An incident occurred during this performance, which forcibly illustrated the absolute control over the lives of his subjects possessedby the irresponsible despot, King George. One of the young men engaged in the dance failed to give satisfaction to the critical eye or ear of the king, being, as I thought, a little out of time in the chant, when, without a word, the king picked up a stone, and hurled it at him, striking full in his breast, and effectually knocking him out of the ranks, while the dance went on without interruption, as if this was merely an ordinary recreation, in which the monarch was wont to indulge when the humor seized him. A shudder and murmur of indignation ran through us visitors from the ships at this cruelty, but what could we do or say about it? The poor delinquent gathered himself up and slunk away, evidently suffering dreadful pain. He must have been severely, if, indeed, not dangerously injured; but it seemed a matter of indifference to his royal master whether he lived or died."I suppose," said Mr. Grafton, who was standing near me, "you feel just as I do about that affair; as if you'd like to hurl that same rock back at the king's breast with a will.""Yes sir," I replied; "but it wouldn't be policy for us to attempt anything of that kind.""Hardly;" returned the mate. "We should have a hornet's nest about our ears in short order, if we touched his sacred person. I presume these young men consider it all right, and a mere matter of course, each one feeling that it may be his turn next. I have no doubt that the old savage has killed more than one of them in getting them up to their present state of drill. He holds his subjects' lives at his own disposal,as much as the Czar of all the Russias, or even more so; and, as a general rule, these savage races are very reckless of human life, seeming to attach but little value to it.""Didn't you admire the sparring match, this afternoon?" I asked."I didn't see it;" the said mate. "I took my gun, and went out in the woods pigeon shooting. I had pretty good luck. I got about twenty pigeons, and saw a great deal of sport besides the shooting. The old chief Seelic went with me, he is the second in rank below King George, as near as I can get at it. He took another chief of lower rank with him, and a couple of boys of no rank at all. Old Seelic and I kept company, the petty chief fell into our wake at a short distance, and the two youths jogged along astern of him. Whenever we stopped a moment down they went on their beam-ends right into the mud or wherever they chanced to be, and waited there till we started on again, keeping their stations in line. When we got into the woods, they were signalled to keep in close order, but it was amusing to see manœuvres when one of the youngsters got the first sight of a pigeon. You see, he could not speak to his superior in a standing position, nor speak to old Seelic at all, until commanded or invited to do so. So he would go down on his marrow-bones and tell the petty chief, and then he would go down the same way with his head almost in the mud, to tell old Seelic, and sometimes while all this etiquette was going on, the pigeon would take the alarm and leave the tree, beforeold Seelic could bring his gun to bear on him. The old fellow is a good shot and would drop his bird almost every time. But the war dance is about finished for to-night, and it's time to muster the boys and shove off."We got all our water and wood on board, and a good stock of fruit, though the only recruits to be got to serve as sea stores for any length of time were yams, and these of indifferent quality. When ready for sea, we lay wind-bound two days, but on the third the trades were so far to the northward that we could lay our course through the passage in the reef, and both ship's windlasses were at once manned to take advantage of the start. It was observed that, as we began to get under way, nearly all the natives left us, and that very few were in sight even on the beach. As our anchor made its appearance at the surface it brought with it the bight of a small chain, which had caught across the stock. The few natives about the ship got sight of it as quick as we did, and, as conscious guilt needs no accuser, in the twinkling of an eye, they were off for the shore, some in canoes and others jumping overboard. It was a critical moment for us, as the ship was swinging, and we could not afford to lose the wind, so we "hooked cat," and secured our anchor, the bight of the chain slipping off the anchorstock, and falling back to its submarine bed, where it had probably lain for several years. It might have been the cable to a vessel of a hundred and fifty to two hundred tons. In a few minutes both ships were standing out through the narrow passage, the Leonidas leading,as the increased strain on our windlass in lifting the anchor had given her the start.It was barely possible that the chain might have been slipped or accidentally lost by some vessel; but probabilities were strong to the contrary. The evident uneasy feeling of the natives, when we were about taking up our anchor, was a significant circumstance. Could we have let go the other anchor, and taken time to investigate the matter by underrunning the small chain, we should, no doubt, have found positive evidence of treachery, and might have shed light upon the fate of some long-missing vessel.We ran to leeward of the island and shaped our course to the northward and westward, not sighting any other island of the Caroline group. In a few days we parted company with the Leonidas, and went our way alone toward the Japan cruising-ground.CHAPTER XX.ON JAPAN.—ORMSBEE'S PEAK.—WHALING INCIDENTS.—A YANKEE TRICK.The words, "on Japan," as used by sperm whalemen, do not necessarily indicate the near vicinity of the islands of that name, but indicate all that part of the North Pacific Ocean to the eastward of them, even to the meridian of 180 degrees, between the parallels of twenty-five and forty degrees. The "Japan Sea," lying between the islands and the main coast of Asia, had not, at the time of which I write, been penetrated by whalers, though it has since become well known as a right whaling ground.The season "on Japan," as usually made, was from April or May to September, and the usual route was to run well to the westward in the early part of the season, and then work back again, making the autumn port at one of the Sandwich Islands; a group which has derived great importance from its position, seeming to have been providently dropped midway in the North Pacific, as a "half-way house," between the two continents, as well as a haven of refuge for the belated whalemen from all the northern cruising grounds.The first part of our cruise we visited the BoninIslands, where we added somewhat to our stock of vegetables, and in this vicinity we took considerable oil. At an uninhabited island of this group we also made a good haul of green turtle, which afforded us high living for the time being. We stood to the northward, cruising up the east coast of Niphon, one of the principal of the Japan Islands, and saw the walls of the great city of Jeddo, but, at that period, this great empire was a sealed book to all foreigners except the Chinese and Dutch, and even to these favored nations but few pages were opened. We met with a junk now and then, but they shunned all communication with us, and, by putting off dead before the wind, their best point of sailing, generally managed to keep clear of us, as we did not care to devote all day to a stern chase. The class of "junks" of which we were now especially in search were not to to be found here, the cetaceous monsters which bear them not appearing to frequent the immediate vicinity of this coast. So we hauled to the southward again and soon fell in with sperm whales, and with numerous ships, among which were our old consorts, the Fortitude and the Pandora, both of them having met with fair success.An accident happened while on this cruising ground, which had well-nigh terminated the career of our worthy chief officer. We lowered and struck a large whale, having a new line in our boat, which had been stretched and coiled down only a few days before, and was somewhat wiry, as any whale line is liable to be when first used. The whale sounded heavily, and Iwatched the tub anxiously as the line ran spinning and smoking round the loggerhead. Already half our line was out and had run clear thus far when I noticed a lifting of the centre or "heart" of the coil in the tub; it was rising up through the larger bights; the alarm was cried, "Foul line!Cut!" but it was too late. I writhed myself clear of it, as it flew by me in a snarl and whizzed between the heads of the oarsmen as they leaned outboard to escape the danger. The snarl was gone, and the mate with it! The bowman seized the hatchet and divided the line as quickly as possible. There was a moment of anxious suspense which seemed an hour. The head of Father Grafton rose to the surface nearer the old man's boat than ours; he was seized by strong hands before he could sink again, though I could see that he was almost at the last agony, and, as they pulled him in, the blood started from his nose, and eyes, and even from his ears! The whale went to windward, spouting clear, and we soon gave up the pursuit as hopeless. But we had saved our mate, and a few hours sufficed to bring him all right again."It seemed to me," said he, "that I must have passed half an hour under water, though, of course, I know that the whole transaction did not occupy more than a minute, from the time I went out of my boat till I was in the captain's. I was to blame myself for being caught so much off my guard, for knowing that my new line was dangerous, I ought to have had the hatchet or boatknife in my hand the whole time the whale was sounding. But after the alarm wasshouted, I hadn't time to pull the knife out of the becket before I was overboard. I was caught with a round turn round my thigh, though, of course, I cannot tell how it got there. I know that I made a grab for the boat knife, but was hurried away out of the reach of it; that I felt in my pocket for my jackknife, and drew it partly out; that I then felt the strain suddenly ease up at the moment the line was cut inboard; that I seized it with my hands and shoved it off my leg; but from that time I can tell nothing till I began to revive in the other boat on my way to the ship. I can give you no idea, in words, of how I felt while I was being dragged through the water by the leg, but I should say there was a resistance like passing through a solid wall that seemed toflattenme, as it were, and that a thousand sledge-hammers were clanging right in my ears. We lost our second mate in that way, when I was in the Plutarch," continued Mr. Grafton, thoughtfully; "and many another good man has met his death in the same manner, gone past help almost before he could see the danger.""Ah! Misther Grafton," said Farrell, "I may say that's the only time I ever felt glad to get my fist clutched in yer hair, was when I see it bobbing up close to our boat, sir. But, I'm thinking ye had about as narrow a chance for yer life as meself had, the night I went after the parr-puses, bad luck till 'em."The next morning, Fisher, who was at the masthead, reported four sails in sight, three to the leeward of us, and one off the weather beam running down for us under all sail."Look sharp!" cried the old man, "he must see something if he is running off. Don't let him get a large whale right under our noses!"I observed that he and the mate exchanged significant glances, and I thought too that there was a merry twinkle in his eye. I relieved Fisher at the masthead after breakfast, and not long afterwards, the captain, who had been getting sights to determine his longitude by chronometer, hailed me from the deck."How does that sail to windward bear now?""Two points abaft the beam, sir," I answered."Is he running off yet?""Yes, sir; headed right at us," said I."We ought to see him from deck by this time, then," said the old man."I don't think you can, sir," I answered. "He don't seem to near us much."I heard a loud laugh from the mate, but supposed, of course, it was called forth by something transpiring on deck; and a few minutes afterwards perceived the captain coming up the rigging, with the spyglass slung over his neck. He took a comfortable seat on the crosstrees (which was more than he allowed me to do, for I was required to stand the whole two hours), and, bringing his telescope to bear on the strange ship, said to me:"So you think he don't near us much, eh?""I cannot perceive that he nears us at all," said I. "And yet there he is, coming right at us with to'gal'antsails set, and the breeze on his quarter.""Well," said he, "by all accounts, you are not the first one by dozens who has been mystified by that same craft. According to our observation, that is Ormsbee's Peak; a rock that rises out of the sea like a tower, at a considerable distance, too, from any other land. It tapers upward very much like the sails of a ship. I never saw it before, myself, but I am told that it is almost always raised from the masthead as a sail. So you needn't take any further note of Ormsbee's manœuvres, for he won't come down near enough to us to-day. Keep a sharp eye on those fellows under our lee. If a whale comes up among the fleet here, we want to be in the suds as quick as any of 'em."This ship off the lee quarter," said he, after a good look through his glass, "is the Pandora, I know by that new cloth in his mainsail, and the paint of his starboard boat, too.Thatone I don't know," he muttered, "but the farthest one, nearly ahead of us, looks very much like our Strong Island partner, the Leonidas, though I can't swear to her at that distance."He soon after went down on deck, after again enjoining upon me to keep my eyes about me. My trick was nearly out, and I had as yet seen nothing to attract especial attention, the four ships still maintaining about the same relative positions, all on the starboard tack. I was getting tired, and wondering why the relief bell did not strike, when I noticed the Pandora was nearer the wind than she should be. I thought for a moment that this was merely the effectof carelessness on the part of the helmsman, but determined not to be caught napping, I hailed the deck, that "the Pandora was coming in stays.""No, he isn't," said the old man. "He has got too nigh the wind, that's all. There, he is filling again."But, as he spoke, the maintopsail of the next ship, the stranger, swung in to the mast, and his lee quarter boat could be seen projecting from under his counter."He sees whales!" I shouted; but the old man was already shaking me on my perch, as he strided up the rigging, two ratlines at each step."Hard up your helm!" said he. "Square in the after yards, Mr. Grafton, and get the boats ready as fast as possible.Call all hands there, one of ye!"The Pandora showed as yet no manœuvres, having filled again on the same tack, and his starboard boat was still in its place on the cranes; but three boats were down from our next neighbor, and the supposed Leonidas was in the act of wearing round to close with the rest of us."Where's the whale?" asked the captain, as he appeared by my side. "Steady, there!""I've seen no whale yet, sir," I answered, "and I can't see any boats down from the Pandora.""Perhaps the stranger has lowered his boats, blackfishing," he suggested. "Worth has got no extra men aloft, and keeps his course as usual. If that is all, we may as well luff to again."He gave no order to that effect, however, and we continued running off, rapidly nearing the other ships. A few minutes of puzzled suspense followed, whenthe Pandora's main tack, sheet and lee braces were all let go at once, and she, also, lay hove-to, just as her two boats shot out of range of their ship under her lee,fast to a whale, as was evident from the white water flying, and from the speed at which they were moving."Pretty well done, Worth!" said Captain Upton, his keen admiration of his brother whaleman getting the better of his vexation. "Luff to the wind there, and stand by to lower away! There may be other whales, though, if there's only one, I'll sell outmyshare at a low figure."Further concealment was unnecessary; down went Captain Worth's boat, and down went all of ours, pell-mell, but before we got very near the fast boats it was plain that the whale was in his flurry, and we "hove up," seeing that there was no other one for us to attack."Now, I shouldn't be at all surprised," said Mr. Grafton, "if that was the game whale that dragged me so far on the road to Davy's locker. They've killed him so quick that I think he must have been more than half-dead when they struck him; and besides, that would account for his not being seen by any of us, as his spout would be very faint and broken. She must have been very near to the whale herself, before she raised him.""I have no doubt it was a wounded whale," answered the old man; "and if so, it may or may not be ours. If our iron is not in him of course we have no claim; and I presume they'll take care that it sha'n'tbe in him, when they take him alongside. But you and Mr. Dunham may as well go aboard and keep company, and I'll make Worth a visit when he flukes the whale, and see what discoveries I can make.""There's our boat to windward coming down," said the mate, "and that's Captain Taber in the stern of her, or else I don't know him. So that's the Leonidas. Come, pull ahead, boys, and let's get home again, we can do no good here. It'll be Worth's turn to blow now, as it was ours off the Western Islands."We jogged leisurely to windward, and by the time we had our boats secured, the Pandora was hauling her whale alongside, while all the captains' boats were clustered round her, to learn the particulars of the affair, the others returning to their respective ships. One of the stranger's boats pulled across our stern just within hail, and the mate asked what ship it was. The officer answered us without stopping his boat, and all we could make out of the sound was "Arrowroot.""Hard up and let her go off!" said the mate to the man at the helm. "We'll run to leeward, so the old man wont have to pull up hill. Arrowroot," said he, musingly, "what name can it be that sounds like that? O, I know now who it is," with a laugh, as the truth occurred to him, "it's the Lalla Rookh, of New Bedford. I knew she was on the ground here somewhere."It was evening before the old man returned, and lights were set by all the ships; for the four captainshad improved this occasion for a gam, and much time was consumed in detailed accounts of their adventures during the season, and in examining the Pandora's "medical stores" and testing their quality. The only effect upon our worthy captain was to make him rather more talkative than usual."I could not lay any claim to the whale," he said, "though I have little doubt that it is the same that towed you over the bows by the leg. The whale floated, jaws towards the ship, when he was fluked, and there was the iron hole in his starboard side, just about as it was in our whale. The whale was badly wounded when they raised him, and spouting very faintly. He dropped his two lee boats in the water when he saw his sails shivering, and they went right down to leeward with their paddles, not setting any sails, and, keeping in range of the ship, we knew nothing till after they were fast. The Lalla Rookh being more out ahead of him, could see the boats, and, of course, lowered hers, but they could see no sport at that distance when they lowered. Well, I cornered Mr. Ray up pretty sharp, and he admitted there was an iron hanging in the whale when he struck him, but he says it worked out before they got him fluked. Perhaps it did, and perhaps they helped it a little. I think I should have been sorely tempted to do so under similar circumstances. As it is, he has got eighty or ninety barrels of oil, and no one else can touch it, as there is no 'craft' to claim it by."The general rule, as established among whalemen is, that "marked craft claims the fish so long as he isin the water, dead or alive." The irons are usually marked with the ship's name, or a convenient abbreviation of it, cut with a small chisel on the flat of the shank, near the head, and if this be found it claims the whale, provided the claimant arrives before the whale is peeled of his blubber. But if another ship has succeeded in cutting him in, no claim can be made. In case the claimant appears during the process of cutting, and a mark is found, he has a right to cut off the blubber square with the plankshear, and take what is below it, but can claim nothing that has been raised above it. Such is whaler's law, as settled by established usage; and perhaps nothing could be devised that would be more just than this.A few days after this, we played another of those tricks that are so amusing to talk of, being perfectly justifiable in this as in any other business where there is competition and the rule is to "take care of number one." It was a calm day, one of those hot calms that every whaleman must have experienced who has been "on Japan" in July and August, and which sometimes last unbroken for a period of several days, during which the heat seems more fierce and unendurable than one has ever found it within the tropics. One ship was in sight about two miles distant from us, showing marks of an Englishman about her rig and general appearance. She had shown her signal, but as there was no wind to open it we were none the wiser for seeing it.We raised a large whale about three miles off, and had the run of his movements two or three risingsbefore we put our boats in the water, so that we knew pretty nearly where to "prick for him." We took our paddles after we had pulled about half the distance we wished to go, and jogged more slowly in this way, but with less noise. Meanwhile the strange ship had put four boats down, and they were coming with their oars pulling with a will, so as to stand an equal chance with us. The whale had one rising after we had lowered, and again "turned flukes" undisturbed, and now the crisis was to come on his next appearance. We had spread our chances so as to be ready for him, knowing very nearly where he would appear. The strange boats came on, "smashing in" with their oars, and showing no intention of heaving up or of taking their paddles. The old man took to his oars and pulled near to us."Mr. Grafton," said he, "they'll gally the whale if they come pulling over him when he is about coming up. I think we are far enough, and would like to lie still where we are. But we must get rid of these four boats, and if it'spullingthey want, they shall have it. Do you take your oars and pull hard right on in the same direction we have been going. The whale won't be up for twenty minutes yet, and no harm will be done. Speak to Mr. Dunham as you pass, and tell him to pull ahead too. This will toll those four boats off, so that they will lose the scent. But keep your eyes on me when the whale comes up."The strange boats come on, and seeing two of us pulling with might and main, while the third had apparently abandoned the chase, three of them followedthe lead of the majority, and "gave way," with a laudable ambition to outpull us, which we were quite willing to allow them to do, while the fourth hove up to speak the old man. He inquired the name of our ship, and reported himself as first officer of ship Bermondsey, of London. The captain, he said, was on board, not being in the habit of going in the boat himself. He asked Captain Upton what he thought of the chance for the whale."Well," said our captain, "I don't think I shall chase him any further. I shall let my mates try him a spell, but I don't think much of my chance, for I see that your boats pull so much faster than mine, they will have a long start of them before the whale comes up again.""O, yes sir," said John Bull, "our boats can houtpull any bl——y boats on the ground.""No doubt of it; indeed I can see that myself," said the old man, seeing how eagerly his flattery was swallowed."Well, pull ahead, boys!" said the English mate, "and let's show them fellows how we can pass them."The result was, fifteen minutes later we were about a mile from the spot where we received orders to pull; the English boats a smart mile and a half, except the mate who was just triumphantly passing us; the whale up within a ship's length of the old man, and he just shooting alongside of him. Our shouts of laughter as we laid round to pull to the assistance of the fast boat, gave the English mate the first intimationof the Yankee trick by which he had been humbugged. An hour later the breeze struck us, and we hauled the largest whale of our season's work alongside, while the Bermondsey down tacks and stood away from us, in spite of our signals inviting communication.CHAPTER XXI.RADACK CHAIN.—WATERING AT OCEAN ISLAND.—INCIDENTS OF THE RUN TO SYDNEY, N. S. W.We continued working to the eastward until we were in longitude 170 degrees east, but the captain, not wishing to visit the Sandwich Islands, determined to leave this ground early, and finish out the season among the groups, recruiting at some island where he could drive a barter trade, in which our stock of tobacco and cloth could be made available. Up to the middle of August we had taken about five hundred barrels since leaving Strong's Island. In company with our old consort, the Leonidas, we steered to the southward, working down through those intricate and dangerous archipelagoes known as the Radack and Ralick chains of islands, where we carried sail days, and lay to nights with two men in the foretopmast crosstrees, and all the rest of the watch above the rail. Ragged reefs of coral, little more than flush with the surface of the sea, stretched here and there in unexpected directions, and sunken rocks waylaid us at every turn. At times we seemed to be embayed among these dangers, seeming the more formidable from the unpronounceable Russian names on the charts, while ever and anon a green islet with cocoanut trees popped into view, as if it had been forced upfrom the depths of the sea, while we had been looking for hidden dangers in another quarter of the horizon, and two or three canoes would dodge out from a lagoon, whence the only passage of egress seemed to us to have been by a submarine route under the reef of rocks. The old saying among us, "Where there's a cocoanut tree there's a Kanaka," though not infallible, held good through all this labyrinth. Sperm whales were seen several times, and in one instance we took two small whales and cut them with canoes alongside of us from a pretty little island, nestled among ugly reefs which stretched out like antennæ to draw luckless mariners into destruction. What it was called by the Russian officers I cannot now remember, but the name itself was ragged enough to bring a ship up all standing. We were not sorry when we had wound our way clear of these perils without accident, and emerged into a comparatively open sea.We struck the equator between the longitudes of Ocean and Pleasant Islands, where we got a "cut" of a hundred and fifty barrels, and stood in under the lee of Ocean Island to get a few casks of water. We bargained with one of the white "beach-combers" to fill them by contract at so many heads of tobacco for each cask. I went ashore in the boat, with the second mate, having the casks in tow. We rolled them up on the reef and then high and dry on the beach. I was conscious all the time of a strange, giddy feeling, which seemed to be occasioned by the odors from the land, and as I went up from the reef to the soil and drew near to the cocoanut grove near the landing, this feelingoverpowered me, my strength seemed to have left me all at once, I felt a tingling pain in my legs, and fell helpless to the ground. I was surprised, and rather indignant withal, to perceive that Mr. Dunham was laughing at me."Ah!" said he, "it's well for you that you came ashore. It's time we all had a land cruise and a good run among the fruit trees. We shall all be better for this day's work.""Why," I asked, "what do you suppose ails me?""It's the scurvy working out of you, I suppose," said he. "That's what we call it. I have seen the same phenomenon once or twice before in men who had shown no symptoms of the disease while at sea, but the first contact with the land affected them as it does you now. That will soon pass off and you will feel better than ever."His prediction proved true. In a few minutes a slight attack of vomiting relieved me, and I rose to my feet. The dizziness gradually passed away, and I felt stronger and fresher than when I landed.The casks, in the mean time, had been rolled in a tier with the bungs out, I saw no watering-place from which they were to be filled. I naturally asked, "where is the water?""O," said Dan, the white man, "the water here is away up inland, in a sort of cave under ground.""Is that the only fresh water here?" I inquired."That's all," said he. "I shall put on my gang to bring it down. Here's some of 'em; they're beginning to muster now."To my further astonishment, his "gang," as he termed them, were all of the female "persuasion.""You don't mean to say that these woman are going to lug all this water two or three miles?""Yes, certainly," said he. "The men are too lazy to do any such drudgery, and think women were born expressly for it, and not fit for much else. Besides, only women are allowed to enter the water-cave. Gentlemen are not admitted."Each of these women brought some half a dozen cocoanut shells, slung with short strings, so as to be carried, two or three in each hand."Why don't you get the ship's buckets?" I asked."O, they don't want buckets," said Dan: "they wouldn't use 'em if they had 'em. You must let 'em work in their own way."Theydidwork their own way; and all day long, and day after day, for it took them several days to fill twenty casks. The battalion of women, in Indian file, could be seen on their winding way as they carried their burdens to the beach, inverted their cocoanut shells over the tunnel, and retraced their weary steps to the subterranean pool, while the men looked complacently on, and Dan, the contractor, lay drunk the best part of the time on fire-water of his own manufacture.As a consequence of his carelessness, he was obliged to fill four or five casks the second time, as we found the water salt on taking it on board, and the captain refused to pay the tobacco until he had fulfilled his contract. It was evident the women had gone astrayin their wanderings, and filled some of their shells at the ocean instead of at the inland lake.The manufacture of intoxicating liquor follows close upon the advent of white men as settlers or dwellers among savage tribes; indeed the sight of a whiskey still would have been as satisfactory evidence to the shipwrecked mariner of the presence of civilized men, as, it is said, was that of the gallows. With a rude apparatus, a liquor is distilled from the sap of the cocoanut tree, which is warranted to "kill at as many yards" as any article of tangle-foot dispensed over the bar of the most notorious "chainlocker" in New York or London. The exhilarating cordial, known among seamen by the name of "dent" (the word being a contraction of the Spanish aguardiente), is smuggled on board at almost every island where a white man has located himself; and it is well known that Jack will "suck the monkey" in whatever form or wherever he presents himself, as well in the Pacific as at the West Indies.Here we parted company with our friends of the Leonidas, she being bound to Otaheite, to examine the head of her mainmast, which had been discovered to be rotten to a considerable depth. We worked slowly down to the westward, hauling to the wind during the night, and running off under easy sail in the daytime, so as to look the ground over carefully. We picked up another hundred barrels of oil before we reached the parallel of 160 degrees east, and as we had now twenty-one hundred, the remainder of our voyage was a sort of running cruise towards our last port and home.In this longitude we hauled on the southern tack, running near Lord Howe's group and through the Solomon Archipelago. We took three small whales so near to one of the former, that, when the third one turned up, he was within less than a hundred yards of the reef, the savages yelling at us from the shore. The ship was about a mile and a half from us, with two whales fluked alongside, and carrying sail to hold her position. As the old man dared not run off to take the third whale alongside, he sent the other two boats to our assistance, with orders to tow the whale on a wind. We set our sails and took the oars, and accompanied by howling barbarians both on shore and in canoes, we towed the whale about ten miles to the southward, until clear of the island and adjacent reefs, so that the ship could come down to us without danger. During the four or five hours that we were thus employed, those in the canoes kept within a short distance outside of us, while their comrades on the beach, women, children, and all, travelled along shore abreast of us, an infernal serenade rising on both sides of us without cessation. They would have attacked us if they had dared; but, though of course constantly on our guard, we did not much fear them. They mustered about fifty canoes, containing between two and three hundred warriors, but dared not venture within reach of our whaling weapons. They at one time seemed to be making preparations to give us a volley of stones, at long shot, but the captain, seeing a suspicious movement among them, fired the six-pounder, which was kept trained upon them allthe time, and sent a shot whizzing over their heads, which had the effect of cooling their ardor. They were more wary after this, and made no further hostile demonstrations, but escorted us the whole distance, and lay on their paddles until the ship had approached quite near us, evidently waiting in the hope that some accident or turn of fortune would place us in their power. As a general rule, savages will not make an attack, unless all the circumstances are overwhelmingly in their favor. We saved our three whales, and made a safe offing with the ship, before night, but the wild din of their voices seemed to ring in my ears for a week afterwards. These people had the gristles of their noses split, and many of them had inserted large ornaments (?) of shell or bone, which hung down, so as in a great measure to hide their mouths. They were a hideous looking race, and I confess to a decided reluctance to becoming a subject of their tender mercies.At San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, we drove a smart trade for yams and fruit, the currency used here being hoop-iron, cut into pieces a few inches long, like the money of the ancient Spartans in the days of Lycurgus. Here, for the first time, we met with people possessing the characteristic of the African, for there are two great families of races in Polynesia. These Ethiops of the Pacific, or Oceanic negroes as they are called, are even more repulsive in appearance than the wearers of the ponderous nasal ornaments at Lord Howe's group. Their hair, or wool, has the true African kink in it, both ends seeming to growinto the skull, and is turned a dull reddish color by the application of lime, or something of that nature, giving them the appearance of having the head protected by what seamen call a "thrummed mat." The teeth are colored or discolored by the use of the betel-nut, till they are darker than their skins; in fact those of men past middle age are jet black. But they seem well-disposed to whites, and inoffensive, and our intercourse with them was marked by no unpleasant occurrence. The canoes used by these people are very light, and neatly ornamented, giving evidence of considerable taste and skill in their construction, while the dexterity of the natives in balancing and managing them seems perfectly miraculous, as they have no beam to spare and no outriggers; yet they come off several miles to sea in them, keeping their equilibrium seemingly without difficulty, and jeered and shouted with true negro delight at our bungling attempts to manage them.We pressed through Indispensable Straits, continuing our running cruise towards the coast of Australia, but without taking any more oil till we reached the latitude of twenty-two degrees, being about midway between Booby Shoal and Cato's Bank, when two large sperm whales were raised in the morning, and down we went in pursuit. The waist boat got the lead and was soon fast to one of them and her line going out of the tub at a rate that promised soon to empty it. Seeing this state of things, our line was cast off from the craft, and I stood ready to throw the end into the other boat; but the second mate, anxious to "drownhim out" without bending on another line, snubbed him too hard and parted. We pulled ahead in pursuit of the whale, but when he came up again he was pushing to the windward much faster than any boat could pull. There was nothing for us but to return to the ship and take the boats up, very ill-satisfied with our forenoon's work, for we had lost an iron and nearly a tubful of line, and had nothing to show for it.We made sail on a wind, and soon after raised a whale on the weather beam coming to leeward. From his actions, as at times he lashed the water into foam, we were satisfied that it was the same whale that we had struck. Soon another was seen off the lee beam coming to windward. We hauled aback and lowered away again, spreading our chances well. The two whales came together, and jogged to leeward in company. The next chance fell to our boat, and, as the mate called me up to dart, I perceived that the whale with the iron hanging at his side was farthest from me, and, seeing not much choice in them for size, I pitched my iron into the other one. The other boats were on hand to assist us, and we soon killed and secured this whale, while the wounded one again escaped, spouting strong and clear.We had light airs for three or four days succeeding this, and were not slow to express our discontent, as we made but little progress towards Sydney, the port we were all so anxious to see. We had cut and boiled out our first whale, and still the wind was lighter than ever, almost gone entirely, while our ship, seeming as impatient as ourselves, lay rolling on the glassy sea,when a black object was seen from the masthead, five or six miles off, abeam of us, tossing into view on the swell, and disappearing again; and, after examining it through the spyglass, we were satisfied that it was a dead whale. So our boat was lowered away to examine him, and found a large whale, but little blasted, having been dead, apparently about forty-eight hours. We cut out the iron from his side and found, as we expected, the name "Arethusa," underrun our line, and saved the whole of it, set a waif for the other boats, and towed him down to the ship in triumph. We now had reason to congratulate ourselves upon the light airs that had been the occasion of so much growling, and instead of having lost a line, with nothing to show for it, as at one time seemed to be the result of our attack upon these two whales, we had saved it, and added a hundred and fifty barrels of sperm oil to our cargo.The next day we got the breeze, and trimmed to it as soon as we had finished cutting. A few days found us running down the coast of New Holland, with the land well aboard and a fair wind, only thirty miles between us and the entrance to our port, and every prospect of being at anchor before night. But we were doomed to disappointment, for the wind suddenly shifted to the southward, heading us off, and blew up a gale about as fast as we were able to strip the canvas off the ship. Noon saw us lying to, on the off-shore tack, under a goose-winged maintopsail and storm staysails. The wind still increased, and we rode out a wild night under this short sail, while the wind,meeting a counter current which sets to the southward along this coast, occasioned a short, chopping sea, which knocked us about rather roughly, and, in one of her heavy lurches, the waist boat was rolled under and lost. This was the only accident we met with, however; the gale blew out in twenty-four hours and the wind having settled light from the southward, we were compelled to make out our log for four or five days at least. So we made all sail, and boarded our tacks, standing off and on.While we were beating here, having stood well in on the inshore stretch, a small steamer, which plied as a packet between Sydney and Newcastle, passed us, shearing nearer as she approached, enough to read the name on our stern. The sight of a steamboat was, of itself, a sufficient novelty to fix the attention of every man on deck, but what a burst of emotion greeted the appearance of a woman on the deck of the steamer! The word was passed below, and the other watch were all on deck in a twinkling to look at her. She appeared to be the only lady passenger on board, or at least the only one who was able to show herself on the upper deck. At that distance, it was difficult to say whether she was young and beautiful, or otherwise, but she was at least a white woman in a civilized dress, an object which had not greeted our eyes for more than two years. We had taken our last look at a phenomenon of this kind when we left Talcahuano, four months out."Well, Mr. Grafton," said the old man, as they both drew a long breath after the vision had passed out of view, "how do you feel? homesick?""Well, yes, sir," replied the mate; "I suppose that's what you may call it. The sight of a woman of our own color and race, after we have been outcasts so long,doeshave a humanizing influence, and starts up associations of home, and of near and dear ones left there.""Yes, that's true," said the captain. "That lady, who ever she is, may safely boast that she has created a sensation at least once in her life. Here's Mr. Dunham has lost half his watch below on her account, and Cooper has dropped a shook that he had half-raised in the hoop, and seems in no hurry to pick up the staves again. There are two boys up in the fore-rigging, trying to get another look at her yet."The two boys, still so called, were Obed B. and Kelly; no longer boys, but broad-chested, muscular young men, worthy representatives of the ocean chivalry of their native island, and still as inseparable as ever, the very Pythias and Damon of our little circle.We got a slant of wind the next day after this incident, and worked up near the headlands of Port Jackson, so that we took a pilot. But having the wind light, it was late in the day before we passed inside the heads, and from there we had seven miles to work up, to the anchorage before the town. The whole British navy might find ample room to moor in this beautiful bay, and might all ride in safety, under any ordinary circumstances. It was a fine moonlight evening when we went in, and as we shot handsomely into our berth among the fleet of vessels, it wasdifficult to realize that we had actually arrived among civilized white men. The whole thing seemed like enchantment, coming, as we did, from recent contact with howling savages, the echo of whose infernal gibberish had hardly ceased ringing in our ears. Our anchor rattled merrily to the bottom for the first time in eight months, and we furled our sails leisurely, lingering on the yards to look wonderingly on the numerous lights in the town, and to listen to the pealing of a sweet chime of bells, for it was Sunday evening on shore, though Saturday by our reckoning.As the reality of it all came home to our minds, as we gradually became assured that the unwonted sounds and sights were no dream, but tangible truth, a good influence was exerted upon all. No noisy demonstrations hailed the event so ardently looked forward to, but a feeling of tranquil happiness and gratitude seemed to pervade the whole ship's company. No night of the voyage was spent more quietly on board the Arethusa, certainly none more happily, than the first night after her canvas was furled in the last Pacific port.

CHAPTER XIX.STRONG'S ISLAND.The first duty that engaged our attention after coming to anchor was, of course, to stop the leak; which was done much in the same manner as in the former case at Dominica, except that it was necessary to stow all the heavy articles forward, and bring the ship down by the head, instead of the stern. We also attached a purchase to the mainmast head, and to a tree on the shore, to assist in careening the ship.The natives appeared to watch all these operations with great interest; and our decks were alive with them, both men and women, the day after our arrival. Compared with the savages, whom we had previously visited, these people might be called gentle and quiet in their habits. Nothing could exceed the eagerness and the perseverance displayed, particularly by the women, in acquiring a thorough knowledge of our language. Every word that could be picked up to add to their English vocabularies seemed to afford them a peculiar source of delight. "What name o' this? What name man?" were questions put to us at every turn, and our answers were echoed and repeated overand over, till the sound was fully mastered. Thus the English spoken by these women was not murdered, for each word was thoroughly learned before passing on to the next.Suddenly a muttered signal or countersign passes from mouth to mouth; all noise and conversation cease; and each remains fixed to the spot, as if struck by an enchanter's wand. Not immediately seeing any adequate cause for this, I asked, in great surprise, what it meant? One of the girls ventured to whisper an answer to me:"You see? King George come!"I looked over the sail. Our boat, which had been ashore, was just coming alongside, and, seated with the old man in the stern sheets, was this potent autocrat, "King George," a rather goodlooking, portly barbarian, whose royal robes consisted of nothing less—or more—than a common sailor's checkshirt, his legs disdaining any covering whatever. He had doubtless received his title from some ironical Englishman, and his subjects had adopted it as proudly, as it is said our ancestors did, the music of "Yankee Doodle."As his majesty's head appeared above the quarter-rail, every one of his submissive subjects, man, woman and child, fell upon deck in a kneeling or crouching attitude, with bowed heads, and thus remained till their sovereign had completed his survey of matters above board, and passed below with the captain. During this time they rigidly maintained their positions, however uncomfortable, as immovable as a well drilledbattalion of troops at "parade rest." As soon as he was invisible, everything resumed its former status, and the stir and bustle went on as before. The same etiquette, I afterwards observed, was necessary at the advent of any chief of high rank, or any of the juvenile princes of the blood royal.Courtenay, the English captain, had visited this island several times before, and was on very intimate terms with King George. He told us to be on our guard against treachery; and informed us that an English whaleship, called the Harriet, had been taken and burnt in the other harbor on the lee side of the island about eighteen months previous, though her fate had been a mystery until quite recently, as the natives, adopting the motto of ancient sea-rovers, that "Dead men tell no tales," had massacred every man of her crew. For more than a year she had been a "missing ship," when another English whaler, touching at this island, short-handed, shipped two natives, who, a few days after getting to sea, incautiously let out the secret. The ship at once put back and came to anchor in the lee harbor, and as Captain Courtenay happened to be there at the time, the two ships, acting in concert, succeeded in fishing up the Harriet's anchor and chain, with the charred remains of her bow, still attached. The two captains, by stratagem, secured the persons of some of the chiefs, and they confessed the truth, but no punishment had yet been inflicted by the English, though there was good reason to believe that other vessels had been cut off here, at more remote dates, and no one left alive to tell thetale. They had even destroyed the ship's chronometers, supposing them to be alive; for King George when questioned by Captain Courtenay concerning the chronometer of the Harriet, answered expressively, "Kill him. Take big stone, kill him."The Seringapatam still lay wind-bound for two or three days after our arrival, but at last, taking advantage of a morning when the air was quite light, though blowing directly into the bay, we put the boats of all three ships ahead of her, and assisted by the whole flotilla of canoes we towed her to sea, keeping the sails furled, and the yards pointed to the wind. We thought King George seemed rather relieved when he got rid of her. He professed great friendship for Captain Courtenay. But his regard was, doubtless, based on the wholesome fear in which he stood of him; for the ship mounted eight guns in regular broadside, besides small swivels on her topgallant forecastle and taffrail, and even had her arm-chests in her tops.We were successful in reaching and repairing the injury under our counter, and, on righting and trimming the ship, had the satisfaction to find her bottom perfectly tight. We could not, of course, tell how much external injury she had received under the bow.I did not fail, on going ashore, to notice the stone walls of which I had heard, and in which I observed some stones of great size and weight, at such heights from the ground as would indicate that the builders must have made use of mechanical power to raisethem. I could get no information as to how long they had been there, or for what purpose they had been raised.On showing ourselves near the door of a house, we were always invited to enter and take a seat among the family on the floor, and the women immediately put us through a catechism, commencing, according to established form, with the question, "Name o' you?" This question must be answered, and the name repeated by the whole family, until they have the pronunciation perfect. But instead of following this up by asking "Who give you that name?" the next query is, "Name o' ship?" and then, "Name o' captain?" We thought it very remarkable that we found sufficient knowledge of English in every family to conduct these exercises, in view of the fact that so few ships had visited the place, and no white man was then living among them. After these points are all settled, a pipe is produced, with the request, usually made by one of the younger women in her most seductive tones, "You fill pipe belong to me?" Of course you feel bound to honor this draft upon your pocket store of tobacco, and, if you intend to make many calls while on shore, your pockets must be well filled. It is observable that the pipe produced on these occasions is invariably one with a large bowl, while those used for smoking are always small.We strolled into a large building near the beach abreast of our anchorage, which appeared to be a feast-home, a royal banqueting hall. It may, perhaps have been used also as a hall of council, if so absolutea monarch as King George can be supposed to consult with any one on affairs of state. I should suppose, from what I saw of this despot, that he might have had that peculiarity for which the first Napoleon is said to have been famous, of making up his mind first, and asking the advice of his generals afterwards. In this building, in a line extending nearly the whole length of it, flat stones, slightly hollowed so as to form basins, were set into the ground, and at each of these was seated a man, pounding kava-root with a smooth stone of convenient weight to be swung in his hand. The right arms of all these men, perhaps twenty in number, rose and fell in concert, with a slow and measured stroke, uniting the sounds produced by the twenty stone hammers upon the basins into one loud clang. Outside, fires had been built, and mysterious processes of cookery were being carried on. I inquired the meaning of all this preparation, and learned that this was a funeral feast. A woman of some rank, the wife of a chief, had died, and all the high dignitaries were then attending the burial, after which they would return to the feast-house, and "partake of a grand collation," as the celebration programmes have it. I was too late to see anything of the funeral ceremonies, for they were even now on their return. The kava-root, after being pounded to a fibrous mass, is mixed with clear water in the stone basins, and the infusion is strained, or rather wrung, through a sort of coarse cloth of grassy appearance, into calabashes, and is ready for the banquet. The first strength goes to the king and chiefs; it is "spliced" two or three times,the common natives being glad to get a very indifferent article. At many of the islands of Polynesia, the kava, instead of being beaten with stones, is chewed, and the masticated mass is ejected from the mouth into a vessel, and then water added to it; this chewing operation being performed chiefly by the women. But at Strong's Island, no woman is allowed to take any part in its preparation, or even to be present at the ceremony of preparing or drinking it.His majesty and suite being at hand, the "funeral-baked meats" were brought in, with piles of roasted bread-fruit and large bunches of bananas, and all the natives sat or squatted in their proper places, according to rank. The king, seeing us whites looking on, beckoned us to take seats near his royal person, and personally saw that we were liberally supplied with meat and fruit. We did ample justice to the fare, as became distinguished guests, and made a hearty meal. The remains of the feast were being cleared away, and we were about to leave in quest of further adventures, when the cooper made his appearance among us, with his pipe in full blast."Well, boys," said he, "you've been having a glorious wake, I suppose, for the old duchess, or marchioness, or whatever her rank may be. You won't get drunk on kava, though, after the aristocracy have had the first wringing of it. You might drink a deck bucketful of the slops that's handed around afterwards. How did they feed you, pretty well?""Yes, cooper," said I, "you should have been here sooner. You lost a good dinner by being too late for it.""Why what did you have for dinner?" he asked."Something that we sailors don't get every day in the week;" I answered. "We can appreciate roast pig when we do get it.""Did you have roast pig for dinner?" asked the cooper."Certainly, we did," said I, triumphantly."Well, I presume you did—all but the pig," said he, dryly."What do you mean by that?" I inquired, dubiously. There was no smile on the cooper's face, but that twinkling of his beard was perceptible, which always denoted a high state of inward enjoyment."Why, pigs that are raised down our way," said he, "have a different tone of voice in expressing themselves. They don'tbark.""Bark!" I exclaimed, as light began to dawn upon me, while some of my companions already began to look a little qualmish. "You don't mean to say that—""I don't mean to say anything," returned the cooper. "Come outside and see the sacrificial altar, and its trimmings."We followed him a short distance back from the house till he halted, and pointed significantly to an ensanguined block of wood, near which lay four sets of paws, and four heads, unmistakably canine, corresponding in number to the four "roast pigs" at the banquet."I acknowledge the corn," said I. "I suppose if I had known the fact before dinner, I shouldn't have relished it, but it is too late to repent.""But you might say," said one of boys from the Leonidas, unwilling yet to admit that he had been sold, "that we don'tknowwhat animals we had for dinner.""It needs no naturalist to tell us what animals have suffered at the block;" said I, laughing. "We may as well face the music, for there's hardly 'a loop to hang a doubt upon.' And, as another link in the chain of evidence, I now recollect that those pigs had been decapitated before they were served up, though I hadn't thought of it before. I never knew that these people were in the habit of eating dogs.""Yes, I could have told you that," said the cooper, "that is to say, as regards another island of this group. I know they do at Ascension, and they prefer them to pigs.""Well," said I, "I suppose all of us can now testify that they are as good as pigs, if eaten with a sauce of ignorance.""After the collation comes the ball;" said the cooper. "You see those fellows backing down wood, and getting ready to make a bonfire. They will light up the fire after dark, and then dance and sing round it. But here's another game going on. Let's go and see what this means."The natives were all gathering on a large plat of greensward, near the feast-house, and the young men were seating themselves in a circle on the ground, several ranks deep, so as to leave an arena of convenient size in the centre. The women, children and old men closed up outside of this ring as spectators, aspace being kept clear for King George and the principal chiefs, where they could overlook the whole scene. It was evident some sort of gladiatorial show or sparring exhibition was now to begin.At a signal from the king, an athletic young man sprang lightly from his seat in the circle to the centre of the ring, bringing his hands together with a loud clap of defiance. He was instantly confronted by another, and the sparring was commenced. Passes were rapidly made and warded off, no harm being done to the combatants, as all blows were struck open-handed. Great dexterity was displayed on both sides, the object aimed at by all this, being, for some little time, a mystery; but at length the challenger, watching his opportunity, rushed under the other's guard and seized him at the waist, which closed the combat, amid tumultuous applause from king, court and spectators. Both fell back to their places in the circle, the victor to be petted and patted by his delighted comrades, and instantly a fresh champion bounded into the arena to be met by another. Thus the entertainment continued, till nearly every young man had put in at least one appearance, and some particularly smart fellows had come off victors in several matches, so that their challenges were not readily accepted. Sometimes a careless or over-confident youth would be caught almost instantly, calling down upon himself the jeers and uproarious mirth of the whole assembly; and, on the other hand, when two of the most skilfull of the gladiators were about equally matched, the struggle would be prolongedamid the eager and breathless attention of the excited audience. Everything was expected to be done with the most perfect good humor; and if, as was sometimes the case, the vanquished party lost his temper, he was greeted with such yells of derisive laughter, that he was soon glad to join in the laugh against himself, in order to escape further ridicule. The men were naked, with the sole exception of a broad belt about the hips, and their eager attitudes and quick movements displayed their figures and the development of their muscle to the best advantage. We all agreed that the exhibition was a most beautiful one, possessing all the wholesome excitement that belongs to athletic sports of this kind, without the drawbacks of brutality and smothered hatred.We remained on shore in the evening to see the dance round the fire, which is accompanied with wild chants or recitations, and has no very striking points about it. There is but little variety in the movements, and the interest depends simply upon the almost perfect concert of voice and gesture among a large number of performers. Its scenic effect is heightened by the uniform system of tattooing, the chief point in which is a stripe running the whole length of the arm on the outside, and a wider one up and down the leg, like those worn by sergeants in our army. But on the whole, the display is inferior in variety and vigor to the Marquesan "hula hula," or to the war-dances of the North American tribes. An incident occurred during this performance, which forcibly illustrated the absolute control over the lives of his subjects possessedby the irresponsible despot, King George. One of the young men engaged in the dance failed to give satisfaction to the critical eye or ear of the king, being, as I thought, a little out of time in the chant, when, without a word, the king picked up a stone, and hurled it at him, striking full in his breast, and effectually knocking him out of the ranks, while the dance went on without interruption, as if this was merely an ordinary recreation, in which the monarch was wont to indulge when the humor seized him. A shudder and murmur of indignation ran through us visitors from the ships at this cruelty, but what could we do or say about it? The poor delinquent gathered himself up and slunk away, evidently suffering dreadful pain. He must have been severely, if, indeed, not dangerously injured; but it seemed a matter of indifference to his royal master whether he lived or died."I suppose," said Mr. Grafton, who was standing near me, "you feel just as I do about that affair; as if you'd like to hurl that same rock back at the king's breast with a will.""Yes sir," I replied; "but it wouldn't be policy for us to attempt anything of that kind.""Hardly;" returned the mate. "We should have a hornet's nest about our ears in short order, if we touched his sacred person. I presume these young men consider it all right, and a mere matter of course, each one feeling that it may be his turn next. I have no doubt that the old savage has killed more than one of them in getting them up to their present state of drill. He holds his subjects' lives at his own disposal,as much as the Czar of all the Russias, or even more so; and, as a general rule, these savage races are very reckless of human life, seeming to attach but little value to it.""Didn't you admire the sparring match, this afternoon?" I asked."I didn't see it;" the said mate. "I took my gun, and went out in the woods pigeon shooting. I had pretty good luck. I got about twenty pigeons, and saw a great deal of sport besides the shooting. The old chief Seelic went with me, he is the second in rank below King George, as near as I can get at it. He took another chief of lower rank with him, and a couple of boys of no rank at all. Old Seelic and I kept company, the petty chief fell into our wake at a short distance, and the two youths jogged along astern of him. Whenever we stopped a moment down they went on their beam-ends right into the mud or wherever they chanced to be, and waited there till we started on again, keeping their stations in line. When we got into the woods, they were signalled to keep in close order, but it was amusing to see manœuvres when one of the youngsters got the first sight of a pigeon. You see, he could not speak to his superior in a standing position, nor speak to old Seelic at all, until commanded or invited to do so. So he would go down on his marrow-bones and tell the petty chief, and then he would go down the same way with his head almost in the mud, to tell old Seelic, and sometimes while all this etiquette was going on, the pigeon would take the alarm and leave the tree, beforeold Seelic could bring his gun to bear on him. The old fellow is a good shot and would drop his bird almost every time. But the war dance is about finished for to-night, and it's time to muster the boys and shove off."We got all our water and wood on board, and a good stock of fruit, though the only recruits to be got to serve as sea stores for any length of time were yams, and these of indifferent quality. When ready for sea, we lay wind-bound two days, but on the third the trades were so far to the northward that we could lay our course through the passage in the reef, and both ship's windlasses were at once manned to take advantage of the start. It was observed that, as we began to get under way, nearly all the natives left us, and that very few were in sight even on the beach. As our anchor made its appearance at the surface it brought with it the bight of a small chain, which had caught across the stock. The few natives about the ship got sight of it as quick as we did, and, as conscious guilt needs no accuser, in the twinkling of an eye, they were off for the shore, some in canoes and others jumping overboard. It was a critical moment for us, as the ship was swinging, and we could not afford to lose the wind, so we "hooked cat," and secured our anchor, the bight of the chain slipping off the anchorstock, and falling back to its submarine bed, where it had probably lain for several years. It might have been the cable to a vessel of a hundred and fifty to two hundred tons. In a few minutes both ships were standing out through the narrow passage, the Leonidas leading,as the increased strain on our windlass in lifting the anchor had given her the start.It was barely possible that the chain might have been slipped or accidentally lost by some vessel; but probabilities were strong to the contrary. The evident uneasy feeling of the natives, when we were about taking up our anchor, was a significant circumstance. Could we have let go the other anchor, and taken time to investigate the matter by underrunning the small chain, we should, no doubt, have found positive evidence of treachery, and might have shed light upon the fate of some long-missing vessel.We ran to leeward of the island and shaped our course to the northward and westward, not sighting any other island of the Caroline group. In a few days we parted company with the Leonidas, and went our way alone toward the Japan cruising-ground.

STRONG'S ISLAND.

The first duty that engaged our attention after coming to anchor was, of course, to stop the leak; which was done much in the same manner as in the former case at Dominica, except that it was necessary to stow all the heavy articles forward, and bring the ship down by the head, instead of the stern. We also attached a purchase to the mainmast head, and to a tree on the shore, to assist in careening the ship.

The natives appeared to watch all these operations with great interest; and our decks were alive with them, both men and women, the day after our arrival. Compared with the savages, whom we had previously visited, these people might be called gentle and quiet in their habits. Nothing could exceed the eagerness and the perseverance displayed, particularly by the women, in acquiring a thorough knowledge of our language. Every word that could be picked up to add to their English vocabularies seemed to afford them a peculiar source of delight. "What name o' this? What name man?" were questions put to us at every turn, and our answers were echoed and repeated overand over, till the sound was fully mastered. Thus the English spoken by these women was not murdered, for each word was thoroughly learned before passing on to the next.

Suddenly a muttered signal or countersign passes from mouth to mouth; all noise and conversation cease; and each remains fixed to the spot, as if struck by an enchanter's wand. Not immediately seeing any adequate cause for this, I asked, in great surprise, what it meant? One of the girls ventured to whisper an answer to me:

"You see? King George come!"

I looked over the sail. Our boat, which had been ashore, was just coming alongside, and, seated with the old man in the stern sheets, was this potent autocrat, "King George," a rather goodlooking, portly barbarian, whose royal robes consisted of nothing less—or more—than a common sailor's checkshirt, his legs disdaining any covering whatever. He had doubtless received his title from some ironical Englishman, and his subjects had adopted it as proudly, as it is said our ancestors did, the music of "Yankee Doodle."

As his majesty's head appeared above the quarter-rail, every one of his submissive subjects, man, woman and child, fell upon deck in a kneeling or crouching attitude, with bowed heads, and thus remained till their sovereign had completed his survey of matters above board, and passed below with the captain. During this time they rigidly maintained their positions, however uncomfortable, as immovable as a well drilledbattalion of troops at "parade rest." As soon as he was invisible, everything resumed its former status, and the stir and bustle went on as before. The same etiquette, I afterwards observed, was necessary at the advent of any chief of high rank, or any of the juvenile princes of the blood royal.

Courtenay, the English captain, had visited this island several times before, and was on very intimate terms with King George. He told us to be on our guard against treachery; and informed us that an English whaleship, called the Harriet, had been taken and burnt in the other harbor on the lee side of the island about eighteen months previous, though her fate had been a mystery until quite recently, as the natives, adopting the motto of ancient sea-rovers, that "Dead men tell no tales," had massacred every man of her crew. For more than a year she had been a "missing ship," when another English whaler, touching at this island, short-handed, shipped two natives, who, a few days after getting to sea, incautiously let out the secret. The ship at once put back and came to anchor in the lee harbor, and as Captain Courtenay happened to be there at the time, the two ships, acting in concert, succeeded in fishing up the Harriet's anchor and chain, with the charred remains of her bow, still attached. The two captains, by stratagem, secured the persons of some of the chiefs, and they confessed the truth, but no punishment had yet been inflicted by the English, though there was good reason to believe that other vessels had been cut off here, at more remote dates, and no one left alive to tell thetale. They had even destroyed the ship's chronometers, supposing them to be alive; for King George when questioned by Captain Courtenay concerning the chronometer of the Harriet, answered expressively, "Kill him. Take big stone, kill him."

The Seringapatam still lay wind-bound for two or three days after our arrival, but at last, taking advantage of a morning when the air was quite light, though blowing directly into the bay, we put the boats of all three ships ahead of her, and assisted by the whole flotilla of canoes we towed her to sea, keeping the sails furled, and the yards pointed to the wind. We thought King George seemed rather relieved when he got rid of her. He professed great friendship for Captain Courtenay. But his regard was, doubtless, based on the wholesome fear in which he stood of him; for the ship mounted eight guns in regular broadside, besides small swivels on her topgallant forecastle and taffrail, and even had her arm-chests in her tops.

We were successful in reaching and repairing the injury under our counter, and, on righting and trimming the ship, had the satisfaction to find her bottom perfectly tight. We could not, of course, tell how much external injury she had received under the bow.

I did not fail, on going ashore, to notice the stone walls of which I had heard, and in which I observed some stones of great size and weight, at such heights from the ground as would indicate that the builders must have made use of mechanical power to raisethem. I could get no information as to how long they had been there, or for what purpose they had been raised.

On showing ourselves near the door of a house, we were always invited to enter and take a seat among the family on the floor, and the women immediately put us through a catechism, commencing, according to established form, with the question, "Name o' you?" This question must be answered, and the name repeated by the whole family, until they have the pronunciation perfect. But instead of following this up by asking "Who give you that name?" the next query is, "Name o' ship?" and then, "Name o' captain?" We thought it very remarkable that we found sufficient knowledge of English in every family to conduct these exercises, in view of the fact that so few ships had visited the place, and no white man was then living among them. After these points are all settled, a pipe is produced, with the request, usually made by one of the younger women in her most seductive tones, "You fill pipe belong to me?" Of course you feel bound to honor this draft upon your pocket store of tobacco, and, if you intend to make many calls while on shore, your pockets must be well filled. It is observable that the pipe produced on these occasions is invariably one with a large bowl, while those used for smoking are always small.

We strolled into a large building near the beach abreast of our anchorage, which appeared to be a feast-home, a royal banqueting hall. It may, perhaps have been used also as a hall of council, if so absolutea monarch as King George can be supposed to consult with any one on affairs of state. I should suppose, from what I saw of this despot, that he might have had that peculiarity for which the first Napoleon is said to have been famous, of making up his mind first, and asking the advice of his generals afterwards. In this building, in a line extending nearly the whole length of it, flat stones, slightly hollowed so as to form basins, were set into the ground, and at each of these was seated a man, pounding kava-root with a smooth stone of convenient weight to be swung in his hand. The right arms of all these men, perhaps twenty in number, rose and fell in concert, with a slow and measured stroke, uniting the sounds produced by the twenty stone hammers upon the basins into one loud clang. Outside, fires had been built, and mysterious processes of cookery were being carried on. I inquired the meaning of all this preparation, and learned that this was a funeral feast. A woman of some rank, the wife of a chief, had died, and all the high dignitaries were then attending the burial, after which they would return to the feast-house, and "partake of a grand collation," as the celebration programmes have it. I was too late to see anything of the funeral ceremonies, for they were even now on their return. The kava-root, after being pounded to a fibrous mass, is mixed with clear water in the stone basins, and the infusion is strained, or rather wrung, through a sort of coarse cloth of grassy appearance, into calabashes, and is ready for the banquet. The first strength goes to the king and chiefs; it is "spliced" two or three times,the common natives being glad to get a very indifferent article. At many of the islands of Polynesia, the kava, instead of being beaten with stones, is chewed, and the masticated mass is ejected from the mouth into a vessel, and then water added to it; this chewing operation being performed chiefly by the women. But at Strong's Island, no woman is allowed to take any part in its preparation, or even to be present at the ceremony of preparing or drinking it.

His majesty and suite being at hand, the "funeral-baked meats" were brought in, with piles of roasted bread-fruit and large bunches of bananas, and all the natives sat or squatted in their proper places, according to rank. The king, seeing us whites looking on, beckoned us to take seats near his royal person, and personally saw that we were liberally supplied with meat and fruit. We did ample justice to the fare, as became distinguished guests, and made a hearty meal. The remains of the feast were being cleared away, and we were about to leave in quest of further adventures, when the cooper made his appearance among us, with his pipe in full blast.

"Well, boys," said he, "you've been having a glorious wake, I suppose, for the old duchess, or marchioness, or whatever her rank may be. You won't get drunk on kava, though, after the aristocracy have had the first wringing of it. You might drink a deck bucketful of the slops that's handed around afterwards. How did they feed you, pretty well?"

"Yes, cooper," said I, "you should have been here sooner. You lost a good dinner by being too late for it."

"Why what did you have for dinner?" he asked.

"Something that we sailors don't get every day in the week;" I answered. "We can appreciate roast pig when we do get it."

"Did you have roast pig for dinner?" asked the cooper.

"Certainly, we did," said I, triumphantly.

"Well, I presume you did—all but the pig," said he, dryly.

"What do you mean by that?" I inquired, dubiously. There was no smile on the cooper's face, but that twinkling of his beard was perceptible, which always denoted a high state of inward enjoyment.

"Why, pigs that are raised down our way," said he, "have a different tone of voice in expressing themselves. They don'tbark."

"Bark!" I exclaimed, as light began to dawn upon me, while some of my companions already began to look a little qualmish. "You don't mean to say that—"

"I don't mean to say anything," returned the cooper. "Come outside and see the sacrificial altar, and its trimmings."

We followed him a short distance back from the house till he halted, and pointed significantly to an ensanguined block of wood, near which lay four sets of paws, and four heads, unmistakably canine, corresponding in number to the four "roast pigs" at the banquet.

"I acknowledge the corn," said I. "I suppose if I had known the fact before dinner, I shouldn't have relished it, but it is too late to repent."

"But you might say," said one of boys from the Leonidas, unwilling yet to admit that he had been sold, "that we don'tknowwhat animals we had for dinner."

"It needs no naturalist to tell us what animals have suffered at the block;" said I, laughing. "We may as well face the music, for there's hardly 'a loop to hang a doubt upon.' And, as another link in the chain of evidence, I now recollect that those pigs had been decapitated before they were served up, though I hadn't thought of it before. I never knew that these people were in the habit of eating dogs."

"Yes, I could have told you that," said the cooper, "that is to say, as regards another island of this group. I know they do at Ascension, and they prefer them to pigs."

"Well," said I, "I suppose all of us can now testify that they are as good as pigs, if eaten with a sauce of ignorance."

"After the collation comes the ball;" said the cooper. "You see those fellows backing down wood, and getting ready to make a bonfire. They will light up the fire after dark, and then dance and sing round it. But here's another game going on. Let's go and see what this means."

The natives were all gathering on a large plat of greensward, near the feast-house, and the young men were seating themselves in a circle on the ground, several ranks deep, so as to leave an arena of convenient size in the centre. The women, children and old men closed up outside of this ring as spectators, aspace being kept clear for King George and the principal chiefs, where they could overlook the whole scene. It was evident some sort of gladiatorial show or sparring exhibition was now to begin.

At a signal from the king, an athletic young man sprang lightly from his seat in the circle to the centre of the ring, bringing his hands together with a loud clap of defiance. He was instantly confronted by another, and the sparring was commenced. Passes were rapidly made and warded off, no harm being done to the combatants, as all blows were struck open-handed. Great dexterity was displayed on both sides, the object aimed at by all this, being, for some little time, a mystery; but at length the challenger, watching his opportunity, rushed under the other's guard and seized him at the waist, which closed the combat, amid tumultuous applause from king, court and spectators. Both fell back to their places in the circle, the victor to be petted and patted by his delighted comrades, and instantly a fresh champion bounded into the arena to be met by another. Thus the entertainment continued, till nearly every young man had put in at least one appearance, and some particularly smart fellows had come off victors in several matches, so that their challenges were not readily accepted. Sometimes a careless or over-confident youth would be caught almost instantly, calling down upon himself the jeers and uproarious mirth of the whole assembly; and, on the other hand, when two of the most skilfull of the gladiators were about equally matched, the struggle would be prolongedamid the eager and breathless attention of the excited audience. Everything was expected to be done with the most perfect good humor; and if, as was sometimes the case, the vanquished party lost his temper, he was greeted with such yells of derisive laughter, that he was soon glad to join in the laugh against himself, in order to escape further ridicule. The men were naked, with the sole exception of a broad belt about the hips, and their eager attitudes and quick movements displayed their figures and the development of their muscle to the best advantage. We all agreed that the exhibition was a most beautiful one, possessing all the wholesome excitement that belongs to athletic sports of this kind, without the drawbacks of brutality and smothered hatred.

We remained on shore in the evening to see the dance round the fire, which is accompanied with wild chants or recitations, and has no very striking points about it. There is but little variety in the movements, and the interest depends simply upon the almost perfect concert of voice and gesture among a large number of performers. Its scenic effect is heightened by the uniform system of tattooing, the chief point in which is a stripe running the whole length of the arm on the outside, and a wider one up and down the leg, like those worn by sergeants in our army. But on the whole, the display is inferior in variety and vigor to the Marquesan "hula hula," or to the war-dances of the North American tribes. An incident occurred during this performance, which forcibly illustrated the absolute control over the lives of his subjects possessedby the irresponsible despot, King George. One of the young men engaged in the dance failed to give satisfaction to the critical eye or ear of the king, being, as I thought, a little out of time in the chant, when, without a word, the king picked up a stone, and hurled it at him, striking full in his breast, and effectually knocking him out of the ranks, while the dance went on without interruption, as if this was merely an ordinary recreation, in which the monarch was wont to indulge when the humor seized him. A shudder and murmur of indignation ran through us visitors from the ships at this cruelty, but what could we do or say about it? The poor delinquent gathered himself up and slunk away, evidently suffering dreadful pain. He must have been severely, if, indeed, not dangerously injured; but it seemed a matter of indifference to his royal master whether he lived or died.

"I suppose," said Mr. Grafton, who was standing near me, "you feel just as I do about that affair; as if you'd like to hurl that same rock back at the king's breast with a will."

"Yes sir," I replied; "but it wouldn't be policy for us to attempt anything of that kind."

"Hardly;" returned the mate. "We should have a hornet's nest about our ears in short order, if we touched his sacred person. I presume these young men consider it all right, and a mere matter of course, each one feeling that it may be his turn next. I have no doubt that the old savage has killed more than one of them in getting them up to their present state of drill. He holds his subjects' lives at his own disposal,as much as the Czar of all the Russias, or even more so; and, as a general rule, these savage races are very reckless of human life, seeming to attach but little value to it."

"Didn't you admire the sparring match, this afternoon?" I asked.

"I didn't see it;" the said mate. "I took my gun, and went out in the woods pigeon shooting. I had pretty good luck. I got about twenty pigeons, and saw a great deal of sport besides the shooting. The old chief Seelic went with me, he is the second in rank below King George, as near as I can get at it. He took another chief of lower rank with him, and a couple of boys of no rank at all. Old Seelic and I kept company, the petty chief fell into our wake at a short distance, and the two youths jogged along astern of him. Whenever we stopped a moment down they went on their beam-ends right into the mud or wherever they chanced to be, and waited there till we started on again, keeping their stations in line. When we got into the woods, they were signalled to keep in close order, but it was amusing to see manœuvres when one of the youngsters got the first sight of a pigeon. You see, he could not speak to his superior in a standing position, nor speak to old Seelic at all, until commanded or invited to do so. So he would go down on his marrow-bones and tell the petty chief, and then he would go down the same way with his head almost in the mud, to tell old Seelic, and sometimes while all this etiquette was going on, the pigeon would take the alarm and leave the tree, beforeold Seelic could bring his gun to bear on him. The old fellow is a good shot and would drop his bird almost every time. But the war dance is about finished for to-night, and it's time to muster the boys and shove off."

We got all our water and wood on board, and a good stock of fruit, though the only recruits to be got to serve as sea stores for any length of time were yams, and these of indifferent quality. When ready for sea, we lay wind-bound two days, but on the third the trades were so far to the northward that we could lay our course through the passage in the reef, and both ship's windlasses were at once manned to take advantage of the start. It was observed that, as we began to get under way, nearly all the natives left us, and that very few were in sight even on the beach. As our anchor made its appearance at the surface it brought with it the bight of a small chain, which had caught across the stock. The few natives about the ship got sight of it as quick as we did, and, as conscious guilt needs no accuser, in the twinkling of an eye, they were off for the shore, some in canoes and others jumping overboard. It was a critical moment for us, as the ship was swinging, and we could not afford to lose the wind, so we "hooked cat," and secured our anchor, the bight of the chain slipping off the anchorstock, and falling back to its submarine bed, where it had probably lain for several years. It might have been the cable to a vessel of a hundred and fifty to two hundred tons. In a few minutes both ships were standing out through the narrow passage, the Leonidas leading,as the increased strain on our windlass in lifting the anchor had given her the start.

It was barely possible that the chain might have been slipped or accidentally lost by some vessel; but probabilities were strong to the contrary. The evident uneasy feeling of the natives, when we were about taking up our anchor, was a significant circumstance. Could we have let go the other anchor, and taken time to investigate the matter by underrunning the small chain, we should, no doubt, have found positive evidence of treachery, and might have shed light upon the fate of some long-missing vessel.

We ran to leeward of the island and shaped our course to the northward and westward, not sighting any other island of the Caroline group. In a few days we parted company with the Leonidas, and went our way alone toward the Japan cruising-ground.

CHAPTER XX.ON JAPAN.—ORMSBEE'S PEAK.—WHALING INCIDENTS.—A YANKEE TRICK.The words, "on Japan," as used by sperm whalemen, do not necessarily indicate the near vicinity of the islands of that name, but indicate all that part of the North Pacific Ocean to the eastward of them, even to the meridian of 180 degrees, between the parallels of twenty-five and forty degrees. The "Japan Sea," lying between the islands and the main coast of Asia, had not, at the time of which I write, been penetrated by whalers, though it has since become well known as a right whaling ground.The season "on Japan," as usually made, was from April or May to September, and the usual route was to run well to the westward in the early part of the season, and then work back again, making the autumn port at one of the Sandwich Islands; a group which has derived great importance from its position, seeming to have been providently dropped midway in the North Pacific, as a "half-way house," between the two continents, as well as a haven of refuge for the belated whalemen from all the northern cruising grounds.The first part of our cruise we visited the BoninIslands, where we added somewhat to our stock of vegetables, and in this vicinity we took considerable oil. At an uninhabited island of this group we also made a good haul of green turtle, which afforded us high living for the time being. We stood to the northward, cruising up the east coast of Niphon, one of the principal of the Japan Islands, and saw the walls of the great city of Jeddo, but, at that period, this great empire was a sealed book to all foreigners except the Chinese and Dutch, and even to these favored nations but few pages were opened. We met with a junk now and then, but they shunned all communication with us, and, by putting off dead before the wind, their best point of sailing, generally managed to keep clear of us, as we did not care to devote all day to a stern chase. The class of "junks" of which we were now especially in search were not to to be found here, the cetaceous monsters which bear them not appearing to frequent the immediate vicinity of this coast. So we hauled to the southward again and soon fell in with sperm whales, and with numerous ships, among which were our old consorts, the Fortitude and the Pandora, both of them having met with fair success.An accident happened while on this cruising ground, which had well-nigh terminated the career of our worthy chief officer. We lowered and struck a large whale, having a new line in our boat, which had been stretched and coiled down only a few days before, and was somewhat wiry, as any whale line is liable to be when first used. The whale sounded heavily, and Iwatched the tub anxiously as the line ran spinning and smoking round the loggerhead. Already half our line was out and had run clear thus far when I noticed a lifting of the centre or "heart" of the coil in the tub; it was rising up through the larger bights; the alarm was cried, "Foul line!Cut!" but it was too late. I writhed myself clear of it, as it flew by me in a snarl and whizzed between the heads of the oarsmen as they leaned outboard to escape the danger. The snarl was gone, and the mate with it! The bowman seized the hatchet and divided the line as quickly as possible. There was a moment of anxious suspense which seemed an hour. The head of Father Grafton rose to the surface nearer the old man's boat than ours; he was seized by strong hands before he could sink again, though I could see that he was almost at the last agony, and, as they pulled him in, the blood started from his nose, and eyes, and even from his ears! The whale went to windward, spouting clear, and we soon gave up the pursuit as hopeless. But we had saved our mate, and a few hours sufficed to bring him all right again."It seemed to me," said he, "that I must have passed half an hour under water, though, of course, I know that the whole transaction did not occupy more than a minute, from the time I went out of my boat till I was in the captain's. I was to blame myself for being caught so much off my guard, for knowing that my new line was dangerous, I ought to have had the hatchet or boatknife in my hand the whole time the whale was sounding. But after the alarm wasshouted, I hadn't time to pull the knife out of the becket before I was overboard. I was caught with a round turn round my thigh, though, of course, I cannot tell how it got there. I know that I made a grab for the boat knife, but was hurried away out of the reach of it; that I felt in my pocket for my jackknife, and drew it partly out; that I then felt the strain suddenly ease up at the moment the line was cut inboard; that I seized it with my hands and shoved it off my leg; but from that time I can tell nothing till I began to revive in the other boat on my way to the ship. I can give you no idea, in words, of how I felt while I was being dragged through the water by the leg, but I should say there was a resistance like passing through a solid wall that seemed toflattenme, as it were, and that a thousand sledge-hammers were clanging right in my ears. We lost our second mate in that way, when I was in the Plutarch," continued Mr. Grafton, thoughtfully; "and many another good man has met his death in the same manner, gone past help almost before he could see the danger.""Ah! Misther Grafton," said Farrell, "I may say that's the only time I ever felt glad to get my fist clutched in yer hair, was when I see it bobbing up close to our boat, sir. But, I'm thinking ye had about as narrow a chance for yer life as meself had, the night I went after the parr-puses, bad luck till 'em."The next morning, Fisher, who was at the masthead, reported four sails in sight, three to the leeward of us, and one off the weather beam running down for us under all sail."Look sharp!" cried the old man, "he must see something if he is running off. Don't let him get a large whale right under our noses!"I observed that he and the mate exchanged significant glances, and I thought too that there was a merry twinkle in his eye. I relieved Fisher at the masthead after breakfast, and not long afterwards, the captain, who had been getting sights to determine his longitude by chronometer, hailed me from the deck."How does that sail to windward bear now?""Two points abaft the beam, sir," I answered."Is he running off yet?""Yes, sir; headed right at us," said I."We ought to see him from deck by this time, then," said the old man."I don't think you can, sir," I answered. "He don't seem to near us much."I heard a loud laugh from the mate, but supposed, of course, it was called forth by something transpiring on deck; and a few minutes afterwards perceived the captain coming up the rigging, with the spyglass slung over his neck. He took a comfortable seat on the crosstrees (which was more than he allowed me to do, for I was required to stand the whole two hours), and, bringing his telescope to bear on the strange ship, said to me:"So you think he don't near us much, eh?""I cannot perceive that he nears us at all," said I. "And yet there he is, coming right at us with to'gal'antsails set, and the breeze on his quarter.""Well," said he, "by all accounts, you are not the first one by dozens who has been mystified by that same craft. According to our observation, that is Ormsbee's Peak; a rock that rises out of the sea like a tower, at a considerable distance, too, from any other land. It tapers upward very much like the sails of a ship. I never saw it before, myself, but I am told that it is almost always raised from the masthead as a sail. So you needn't take any further note of Ormsbee's manœuvres, for he won't come down near enough to us to-day. Keep a sharp eye on those fellows under our lee. If a whale comes up among the fleet here, we want to be in the suds as quick as any of 'em."This ship off the lee quarter," said he, after a good look through his glass, "is the Pandora, I know by that new cloth in his mainsail, and the paint of his starboard boat, too.Thatone I don't know," he muttered, "but the farthest one, nearly ahead of us, looks very much like our Strong Island partner, the Leonidas, though I can't swear to her at that distance."He soon after went down on deck, after again enjoining upon me to keep my eyes about me. My trick was nearly out, and I had as yet seen nothing to attract especial attention, the four ships still maintaining about the same relative positions, all on the starboard tack. I was getting tired, and wondering why the relief bell did not strike, when I noticed the Pandora was nearer the wind than she should be. I thought for a moment that this was merely the effectof carelessness on the part of the helmsman, but determined not to be caught napping, I hailed the deck, that "the Pandora was coming in stays.""No, he isn't," said the old man. "He has got too nigh the wind, that's all. There, he is filling again."But, as he spoke, the maintopsail of the next ship, the stranger, swung in to the mast, and his lee quarter boat could be seen projecting from under his counter."He sees whales!" I shouted; but the old man was already shaking me on my perch, as he strided up the rigging, two ratlines at each step."Hard up your helm!" said he. "Square in the after yards, Mr. Grafton, and get the boats ready as fast as possible.Call all hands there, one of ye!"The Pandora showed as yet no manœuvres, having filled again on the same tack, and his starboard boat was still in its place on the cranes; but three boats were down from our next neighbor, and the supposed Leonidas was in the act of wearing round to close with the rest of us."Where's the whale?" asked the captain, as he appeared by my side. "Steady, there!""I've seen no whale yet, sir," I answered, "and I can't see any boats down from the Pandora.""Perhaps the stranger has lowered his boats, blackfishing," he suggested. "Worth has got no extra men aloft, and keeps his course as usual. If that is all, we may as well luff to again."He gave no order to that effect, however, and we continued running off, rapidly nearing the other ships. A few minutes of puzzled suspense followed, whenthe Pandora's main tack, sheet and lee braces were all let go at once, and she, also, lay hove-to, just as her two boats shot out of range of their ship under her lee,fast to a whale, as was evident from the white water flying, and from the speed at which they were moving."Pretty well done, Worth!" said Captain Upton, his keen admiration of his brother whaleman getting the better of his vexation. "Luff to the wind there, and stand by to lower away! There may be other whales, though, if there's only one, I'll sell outmyshare at a low figure."Further concealment was unnecessary; down went Captain Worth's boat, and down went all of ours, pell-mell, but before we got very near the fast boats it was plain that the whale was in his flurry, and we "hove up," seeing that there was no other one for us to attack."Now, I shouldn't be at all surprised," said Mr. Grafton, "if that was the game whale that dragged me so far on the road to Davy's locker. They've killed him so quick that I think he must have been more than half-dead when they struck him; and besides, that would account for his not being seen by any of us, as his spout would be very faint and broken. She must have been very near to the whale herself, before she raised him.""I have no doubt it was a wounded whale," answered the old man; "and if so, it may or may not be ours. If our iron is not in him of course we have no claim; and I presume they'll take care that it sha'n'tbe in him, when they take him alongside. But you and Mr. Dunham may as well go aboard and keep company, and I'll make Worth a visit when he flukes the whale, and see what discoveries I can make.""There's our boat to windward coming down," said the mate, "and that's Captain Taber in the stern of her, or else I don't know him. So that's the Leonidas. Come, pull ahead, boys, and let's get home again, we can do no good here. It'll be Worth's turn to blow now, as it was ours off the Western Islands."We jogged leisurely to windward, and by the time we had our boats secured, the Pandora was hauling her whale alongside, while all the captains' boats were clustered round her, to learn the particulars of the affair, the others returning to their respective ships. One of the stranger's boats pulled across our stern just within hail, and the mate asked what ship it was. The officer answered us without stopping his boat, and all we could make out of the sound was "Arrowroot.""Hard up and let her go off!" said the mate to the man at the helm. "We'll run to leeward, so the old man wont have to pull up hill. Arrowroot," said he, musingly, "what name can it be that sounds like that? O, I know now who it is," with a laugh, as the truth occurred to him, "it's the Lalla Rookh, of New Bedford. I knew she was on the ground here somewhere."It was evening before the old man returned, and lights were set by all the ships; for the four captainshad improved this occasion for a gam, and much time was consumed in detailed accounts of their adventures during the season, and in examining the Pandora's "medical stores" and testing their quality. The only effect upon our worthy captain was to make him rather more talkative than usual."I could not lay any claim to the whale," he said, "though I have little doubt that it is the same that towed you over the bows by the leg. The whale floated, jaws towards the ship, when he was fluked, and there was the iron hole in his starboard side, just about as it was in our whale. The whale was badly wounded when they raised him, and spouting very faintly. He dropped his two lee boats in the water when he saw his sails shivering, and they went right down to leeward with their paddles, not setting any sails, and, keeping in range of the ship, we knew nothing till after they were fast. The Lalla Rookh being more out ahead of him, could see the boats, and, of course, lowered hers, but they could see no sport at that distance when they lowered. Well, I cornered Mr. Ray up pretty sharp, and he admitted there was an iron hanging in the whale when he struck him, but he says it worked out before they got him fluked. Perhaps it did, and perhaps they helped it a little. I think I should have been sorely tempted to do so under similar circumstances. As it is, he has got eighty or ninety barrels of oil, and no one else can touch it, as there is no 'craft' to claim it by."The general rule, as established among whalemen is, that "marked craft claims the fish so long as he isin the water, dead or alive." The irons are usually marked with the ship's name, or a convenient abbreviation of it, cut with a small chisel on the flat of the shank, near the head, and if this be found it claims the whale, provided the claimant arrives before the whale is peeled of his blubber. But if another ship has succeeded in cutting him in, no claim can be made. In case the claimant appears during the process of cutting, and a mark is found, he has a right to cut off the blubber square with the plankshear, and take what is below it, but can claim nothing that has been raised above it. Such is whaler's law, as settled by established usage; and perhaps nothing could be devised that would be more just than this.A few days after this, we played another of those tricks that are so amusing to talk of, being perfectly justifiable in this as in any other business where there is competition and the rule is to "take care of number one." It was a calm day, one of those hot calms that every whaleman must have experienced who has been "on Japan" in July and August, and which sometimes last unbroken for a period of several days, during which the heat seems more fierce and unendurable than one has ever found it within the tropics. One ship was in sight about two miles distant from us, showing marks of an Englishman about her rig and general appearance. She had shown her signal, but as there was no wind to open it we were none the wiser for seeing it.We raised a large whale about three miles off, and had the run of his movements two or three risingsbefore we put our boats in the water, so that we knew pretty nearly where to "prick for him." We took our paddles after we had pulled about half the distance we wished to go, and jogged more slowly in this way, but with less noise. Meanwhile the strange ship had put four boats down, and they were coming with their oars pulling with a will, so as to stand an equal chance with us. The whale had one rising after we had lowered, and again "turned flukes" undisturbed, and now the crisis was to come on his next appearance. We had spread our chances so as to be ready for him, knowing very nearly where he would appear. The strange boats came on, "smashing in" with their oars, and showing no intention of heaving up or of taking their paddles. The old man took to his oars and pulled near to us."Mr. Grafton," said he, "they'll gally the whale if they come pulling over him when he is about coming up. I think we are far enough, and would like to lie still where we are. But we must get rid of these four boats, and if it'spullingthey want, they shall have it. Do you take your oars and pull hard right on in the same direction we have been going. The whale won't be up for twenty minutes yet, and no harm will be done. Speak to Mr. Dunham as you pass, and tell him to pull ahead too. This will toll those four boats off, so that they will lose the scent. But keep your eyes on me when the whale comes up."The strange boats come on, and seeing two of us pulling with might and main, while the third had apparently abandoned the chase, three of them followedthe lead of the majority, and "gave way," with a laudable ambition to outpull us, which we were quite willing to allow them to do, while the fourth hove up to speak the old man. He inquired the name of our ship, and reported himself as first officer of ship Bermondsey, of London. The captain, he said, was on board, not being in the habit of going in the boat himself. He asked Captain Upton what he thought of the chance for the whale."Well," said our captain, "I don't think I shall chase him any further. I shall let my mates try him a spell, but I don't think much of my chance, for I see that your boats pull so much faster than mine, they will have a long start of them before the whale comes up again.""O, yes sir," said John Bull, "our boats can houtpull any bl——y boats on the ground.""No doubt of it; indeed I can see that myself," said the old man, seeing how eagerly his flattery was swallowed."Well, pull ahead, boys!" said the English mate, "and let's show them fellows how we can pass them."The result was, fifteen minutes later we were about a mile from the spot where we received orders to pull; the English boats a smart mile and a half, except the mate who was just triumphantly passing us; the whale up within a ship's length of the old man, and he just shooting alongside of him. Our shouts of laughter as we laid round to pull to the assistance of the fast boat, gave the English mate the first intimationof the Yankee trick by which he had been humbugged. An hour later the breeze struck us, and we hauled the largest whale of our season's work alongside, while the Bermondsey down tacks and stood away from us, in spite of our signals inviting communication.

ON JAPAN.—ORMSBEE'S PEAK.—WHALING INCIDENTS.—A YANKEE TRICK.

The words, "on Japan," as used by sperm whalemen, do not necessarily indicate the near vicinity of the islands of that name, but indicate all that part of the North Pacific Ocean to the eastward of them, even to the meridian of 180 degrees, between the parallels of twenty-five and forty degrees. The "Japan Sea," lying between the islands and the main coast of Asia, had not, at the time of which I write, been penetrated by whalers, though it has since become well known as a right whaling ground.

The season "on Japan," as usually made, was from April or May to September, and the usual route was to run well to the westward in the early part of the season, and then work back again, making the autumn port at one of the Sandwich Islands; a group which has derived great importance from its position, seeming to have been providently dropped midway in the North Pacific, as a "half-way house," between the two continents, as well as a haven of refuge for the belated whalemen from all the northern cruising grounds.

The first part of our cruise we visited the BoninIslands, where we added somewhat to our stock of vegetables, and in this vicinity we took considerable oil. At an uninhabited island of this group we also made a good haul of green turtle, which afforded us high living for the time being. We stood to the northward, cruising up the east coast of Niphon, one of the principal of the Japan Islands, and saw the walls of the great city of Jeddo, but, at that period, this great empire was a sealed book to all foreigners except the Chinese and Dutch, and even to these favored nations but few pages were opened. We met with a junk now and then, but they shunned all communication with us, and, by putting off dead before the wind, their best point of sailing, generally managed to keep clear of us, as we did not care to devote all day to a stern chase. The class of "junks" of which we were now especially in search were not to to be found here, the cetaceous monsters which bear them not appearing to frequent the immediate vicinity of this coast. So we hauled to the southward again and soon fell in with sperm whales, and with numerous ships, among which were our old consorts, the Fortitude and the Pandora, both of them having met with fair success.

An accident happened while on this cruising ground, which had well-nigh terminated the career of our worthy chief officer. We lowered and struck a large whale, having a new line in our boat, which had been stretched and coiled down only a few days before, and was somewhat wiry, as any whale line is liable to be when first used. The whale sounded heavily, and Iwatched the tub anxiously as the line ran spinning and smoking round the loggerhead. Already half our line was out and had run clear thus far when I noticed a lifting of the centre or "heart" of the coil in the tub; it was rising up through the larger bights; the alarm was cried, "Foul line!Cut!" but it was too late. I writhed myself clear of it, as it flew by me in a snarl and whizzed between the heads of the oarsmen as they leaned outboard to escape the danger. The snarl was gone, and the mate with it! The bowman seized the hatchet and divided the line as quickly as possible. There was a moment of anxious suspense which seemed an hour. The head of Father Grafton rose to the surface nearer the old man's boat than ours; he was seized by strong hands before he could sink again, though I could see that he was almost at the last agony, and, as they pulled him in, the blood started from his nose, and eyes, and even from his ears! The whale went to windward, spouting clear, and we soon gave up the pursuit as hopeless. But we had saved our mate, and a few hours sufficed to bring him all right again.

"It seemed to me," said he, "that I must have passed half an hour under water, though, of course, I know that the whole transaction did not occupy more than a minute, from the time I went out of my boat till I was in the captain's. I was to blame myself for being caught so much off my guard, for knowing that my new line was dangerous, I ought to have had the hatchet or boatknife in my hand the whole time the whale was sounding. But after the alarm wasshouted, I hadn't time to pull the knife out of the becket before I was overboard. I was caught with a round turn round my thigh, though, of course, I cannot tell how it got there. I know that I made a grab for the boat knife, but was hurried away out of the reach of it; that I felt in my pocket for my jackknife, and drew it partly out; that I then felt the strain suddenly ease up at the moment the line was cut inboard; that I seized it with my hands and shoved it off my leg; but from that time I can tell nothing till I began to revive in the other boat on my way to the ship. I can give you no idea, in words, of how I felt while I was being dragged through the water by the leg, but I should say there was a resistance like passing through a solid wall that seemed toflattenme, as it were, and that a thousand sledge-hammers were clanging right in my ears. We lost our second mate in that way, when I was in the Plutarch," continued Mr. Grafton, thoughtfully; "and many another good man has met his death in the same manner, gone past help almost before he could see the danger."

"Ah! Misther Grafton," said Farrell, "I may say that's the only time I ever felt glad to get my fist clutched in yer hair, was when I see it bobbing up close to our boat, sir. But, I'm thinking ye had about as narrow a chance for yer life as meself had, the night I went after the parr-puses, bad luck till 'em."

The next morning, Fisher, who was at the masthead, reported four sails in sight, three to the leeward of us, and one off the weather beam running down for us under all sail.

"Look sharp!" cried the old man, "he must see something if he is running off. Don't let him get a large whale right under our noses!"

I observed that he and the mate exchanged significant glances, and I thought too that there was a merry twinkle in his eye. I relieved Fisher at the masthead after breakfast, and not long afterwards, the captain, who had been getting sights to determine his longitude by chronometer, hailed me from the deck.

"How does that sail to windward bear now?"

"Two points abaft the beam, sir," I answered.

"Is he running off yet?"

"Yes, sir; headed right at us," said I.

"We ought to see him from deck by this time, then," said the old man.

"I don't think you can, sir," I answered. "He don't seem to near us much."

I heard a loud laugh from the mate, but supposed, of course, it was called forth by something transpiring on deck; and a few minutes afterwards perceived the captain coming up the rigging, with the spyglass slung over his neck. He took a comfortable seat on the crosstrees (which was more than he allowed me to do, for I was required to stand the whole two hours), and, bringing his telescope to bear on the strange ship, said to me:

"So you think he don't near us much, eh?"

"I cannot perceive that he nears us at all," said I. "And yet there he is, coming right at us with to'gal'antsails set, and the breeze on his quarter."

"Well," said he, "by all accounts, you are not the first one by dozens who has been mystified by that same craft. According to our observation, that is Ormsbee's Peak; a rock that rises out of the sea like a tower, at a considerable distance, too, from any other land. It tapers upward very much like the sails of a ship. I never saw it before, myself, but I am told that it is almost always raised from the masthead as a sail. So you needn't take any further note of Ormsbee's manœuvres, for he won't come down near enough to us to-day. Keep a sharp eye on those fellows under our lee. If a whale comes up among the fleet here, we want to be in the suds as quick as any of 'em.

"This ship off the lee quarter," said he, after a good look through his glass, "is the Pandora, I know by that new cloth in his mainsail, and the paint of his starboard boat, too.Thatone I don't know," he muttered, "but the farthest one, nearly ahead of us, looks very much like our Strong Island partner, the Leonidas, though I can't swear to her at that distance."

He soon after went down on deck, after again enjoining upon me to keep my eyes about me. My trick was nearly out, and I had as yet seen nothing to attract especial attention, the four ships still maintaining about the same relative positions, all on the starboard tack. I was getting tired, and wondering why the relief bell did not strike, when I noticed the Pandora was nearer the wind than she should be. I thought for a moment that this was merely the effectof carelessness on the part of the helmsman, but determined not to be caught napping, I hailed the deck, that "the Pandora was coming in stays."

"No, he isn't," said the old man. "He has got too nigh the wind, that's all. There, he is filling again."

But, as he spoke, the maintopsail of the next ship, the stranger, swung in to the mast, and his lee quarter boat could be seen projecting from under his counter.

"He sees whales!" I shouted; but the old man was already shaking me on my perch, as he strided up the rigging, two ratlines at each step.

"Hard up your helm!" said he. "Square in the after yards, Mr. Grafton, and get the boats ready as fast as possible.Call all hands there, one of ye!"

The Pandora showed as yet no manœuvres, having filled again on the same tack, and his starboard boat was still in its place on the cranes; but three boats were down from our next neighbor, and the supposed Leonidas was in the act of wearing round to close with the rest of us.

"Where's the whale?" asked the captain, as he appeared by my side. "Steady, there!"

"I've seen no whale yet, sir," I answered, "and I can't see any boats down from the Pandora."

"Perhaps the stranger has lowered his boats, blackfishing," he suggested. "Worth has got no extra men aloft, and keeps his course as usual. If that is all, we may as well luff to again."

He gave no order to that effect, however, and we continued running off, rapidly nearing the other ships. A few minutes of puzzled suspense followed, whenthe Pandora's main tack, sheet and lee braces were all let go at once, and she, also, lay hove-to, just as her two boats shot out of range of their ship under her lee,fast to a whale, as was evident from the white water flying, and from the speed at which they were moving.

"Pretty well done, Worth!" said Captain Upton, his keen admiration of his brother whaleman getting the better of his vexation. "Luff to the wind there, and stand by to lower away! There may be other whales, though, if there's only one, I'll sell outmyshare at a low figure."

Further concealment was unnecessary; down went Captain Worth's boat, and down went all of ours, pell-mell, but before we got very near the fast boats it was plain that the whale was in his flurry, and we "hove up," seeing that there was no other one for us to attack.

"Now, I shouldn't be at all surprised," said Mr. Grafton, "if that was the game whale that dragged me so far on the road to Davy's locker. They've killed him so quick that I think he must have been more than half-dead when they struck him; and besides, that would account for his not being seen by any of us, as his spout would be very faint and broken. She must have been very near to the whale herself, before she raised him."

"I have no doubt it was a wounded whale," answered the old man; "and if so, it may or may not be ours. If our iron is not in him of course we have no claim; and I presume they'll take care that it sha'n'tbe in him, when they take him alongside. But you and Mr. Dunham may as well go aboard and keep company, and I'll make Worth a visit when he flukes the whale, and see what discoveries I can make."

"There's our boat to windward coming down," said the mate, "and that's Captain Taber in the stern of her, or else I don't know him. So that's the Leonidas. Come, pull ahead, boys, and let's get home again, we can do no good here. It'll be Worth's turn to blow now, as it was ours off the Western Islands."

We jogged leisurely to windward, and by the time we had our boats secured, the Pandora was hauling her whale alongside, while all the captains' boats were clustered round her, to learn the particulars of the affair, the others returning to their respective ships. One of the stranger's boats pulled across our stern just within hail, and the mate asked what ship it was. The officer answered us without stopping his boat, and all we could make out of the sound was "Arrowroot."

"Hard up and let her go off!" said the mate to the man at the helm. "We'll run to leeward, so the old man wont have to pull up hill. Arrowroot," said he, musingly, "what name can it be that sounds like that? O, I know now who it is," with a laugh, as the truth occurred to him, "it's the Lalla Rookh, of New Bedford. I knew she was on the ground here somewhere."

It was evening before the old man returned, and lights were set by all the ships; for the four captainshad improved this occasion for a gam, and much time was consumed in detailed accounts of their adventures during the season, and in examining the Pandora's "medical stores" and testing their quality. The only effect upon our worthy captain was to make him rather more talkative than usual.

"I could not lay any claim to the whale," he said, "though I have little doubt that it is the same that towed you over the bows by the leg. The whale floated, jaws towards the ship, when he was fluked, and there was the iron hole in his starboard side, just about as it was in our whale. The whale was badly wounded when they raised him, and spouting very faintly. He dropped his two lee boats in the water when he saw his sails shivering, and they went right down to leeward with their paddles, not setting any sails, and, keeping in range of the ship, we knew nothing till after they were fast. The Lalla Rookh being more out ahead of him, could see the boats, and, of course, lowered hers, but they could see no sport at that distance when they lowered. Well, I cornered Mr. Ray up pretty sharp, and he admitted there was an iron hanging in the whale when he struck him, but he says it worked out before they got him fluked. Perhaps it did, and perhaps they helped it a little. I think I should have been sorely tempted to do so under similar circumstances. As it is, he has got eighty or ninety barrels of oil, and no one else can touch it, as there is no 'craft' to claim it by."

The general rule, as established among whalemen is, that "marked craft claims the fish so long as he isin the water, dead or alive." The irons are usually marked with the ship's name, or a convenient abbreviation of it, cut with a small chisel on the flat of the shank, near the head, and if this be found it claims the whale, provided the claimant arrives before the whale is peeled of his blubber. But if another ship has succeeded in cutting him in, no claim can be made. In case the claimant appears during the process of cutting, and a mark is found, he has a right to cut off the blubber square with the plankshear, and take what is below it, but can claim nothing that has been raised above it. Such is whaler's law, as settled by established usage; and perhaps nothing could be devised that would be more just than this.

A few days after this, we played another of those tricks that are so amusing to talk of, being perfectly justifiable in this as in any other business where there is competition and the rule is to "take care of number one." It was a calm day, one of those hot calms that every whaleman must have experienced who has been "on Japan" in July and August, and which sometimes last unbroken for a period of several days, during which the heat seems more fierce and unendurable than one has ever found it within the tropics. One ship was in sight about two miles distant from us, showing marks of an Englishman about her rig and general appearance. She had shown her signal, but as there was no wind to open it we were none the wiser for seeing it.

We raised a large whale about three miles off, and had the run of his movements two or three risingsbefore we put our boats in the water, so that we knew pretty nearly where to "prick for him." We took our paddles after we had pulled about half the distance we wished to go, and jogged more slowly in this way, but with less noise. Meanwhile the strange ship had put four boats down, and they were coming with their oars pulling with a will, so as to stand an equal chance with us. The whale had one rising after we had lowered, and again "turned flukes" undisturbed, and now the crisis was to come on his next appearance. We had spread our chances so as to be ready for him, knowing very nearly where he would appear. The strange boats came on, "smashing in" with their oars, and showing no intention of heaving up or of taking their paddles. The old man took to his oars and pulled near to us.

"Mr. Grafton," said he, "they'll gally the whale if they come pulling over him when he is about coming up. I think we are far enough, and would like to lie still where we are. But we must get rid of these four boats, and if it'spullingthey want, they shall have it. Do you take your oars and pull hard right on in the same direction we have been going. The whale won't be up for twenty minutes yet, and no harm will be done. Speak to Mr. Dunham as you pass, and tell him to pull ahead too. This will toll those four boats off, so that they will lose the scent. But keep your eyes on me when the whale comes up."

The strange boats come on, and seeing two of us pulling with might and main, while the third had apparently abandoned the chase, three of them followedthe lead of the majority, and "gave way," with a laudable ambition to outpull us, which we were quite willing to allow them to do, while the fourth hove up to speak the old man. He inquired the name of our ship, and reported himself as first officer of ship Bermondsey, of London. The captain, he said, was on board, not being in the habit of going in the boat himself. He asked Captain Upton what he thought of the chance for the whale.

"Well," said our captain, "I don't think I shall chase him any further. I shall let my mates try him a spell, but I don't think much of my chance, for I see that your boats pull so much faster than mine, they will have a long start of them before the whale comes up again."

"O, yes sir," said John Bull, "our boats can houtpull any bl——y boats on the ground."

"No doubt of it; indeed I can see that myself," said the old man, seeing how eagerly his flattery was swallowed.

"Well, pull ahead, boys!" said the English mate, "and let's show them fellows how we can pass them."

The result was, fifteen minutes later we were about a mile from the spot where we received orders to pull; the English boats a smart mile and a half, except the mate who was just triumphantly passing us; the whale up within a ship's length of the old man, and he just shooting alongside of him. Our shouts of laughter as we laid round to pull to the assistance of the fast boat, gave the English mate the first intimationof the Yankee trick by which he had been humbugged. An hour later the breeze struck us, and we hauled the largest whale of our season's work alongside, while the Bermondsey down tacks and stood away from us, in spite of our signals inviting communication.

CHAPTER XXI.RADACK CHAIN.—WATERING AT OCEAN ISLAND.—INCIDENTS OF THE RUN TO SYDNEY, N. S. W.We continued working to the eastward until we were in longitude 170 degrees east, but the captain, not wishing to visit the Sandwich Islands, determined to leave this ground early, and finish out the season among the groups, recruiting at some island where he could drive a barter trade, in which our stock of tobacco and cloth could be made available. Up to the middle of August we had taken about five hundred barrels since leaving Strong's Island. In company with our old consort, the Leonidas, we steered to the southward, working down through those intricate and dangerous archipelagoes known as the Radack and Ralick chains of islands, where we carried sail days, and lay to nights with two men in the foretopmast crosstrees, and all the rest of the watch above the rail. Ragged reefs of coral, little more than flush with the surface of the sea, stretched here and there in unexpected directions, and sunken rocks waylaid us at every turn. At times we seemed to be embayed among these dangers, seeming the more formidable from the unpronounceable Russian names on the charts, while ever and anon a green islet with cocoanut trees popped into view, as if it had been forced upfrom the depths of the sea, while we had been looking for hidden dangers in another quarter of the horizon, and two or three canoes would dodge out from a lagoon, whence the only passage of egress seemed to us to have been by a submarine route under the reef of rocks. The old saying among us, "Where there's a cocoanut tree there's a Kanaka," though not infallible, held good through all this labyrinth. Sperm whales were seen several times, and in one instance we took two small whales and cut them with canoes alongside of us from a pretty little island, nestled among ugly reefs which stretched out like antennæ to draw luckless mariners into destruction. What it was called by the Russian officers I cannot now remember, but the name itself was ragged enough to bring a ship up all standing. We were not sorry when we had wound our way clear of these perils without accident, and emerged into a comparatively open sea.We struck the equator between the longitudes of Ocean and Pleasant Islands, where we got a "cut" of a hundred and fifty barrels, and stood in under the lee of Ocean Island to get a few casks of water. We bargained with one of the white "beach-combers" to fill them by contract at so many heads of tobacco for each cask. I went ashore in the boat, with the second mate, having the casks in tow. We rolled them up on the reef and then high and dry on the beach. I was conscious all the time of a strange, giddy feeling, which seemed to be occasioned by the odors from the land, and as I went up from the reef to the soil and drew near to the cocoanut grove near the landing, this feelingoverpowered me, my strength seemed to have left me all at once, I felt a tingling pain in my legs, and fell helpless to the ground. I was surprised, and rather indignant withal, to perceive that Mr. Dunham was laughing at me."Ah!" said he, "it's well for you that you came ashore. It's time we all had a land cruise and a good run among the fruit trees. We shall all be better for this day's work.""Why," I asked, "what do you suppose ails me?""It's the scurvy working out of you, I suppose," said he. "That's what we call it. I have seen the same phenomenon once or twice before in men who had shown no symptoms of the disease while at sea, but the first contact with the land affected them as it does you now. That will soon pass off and you will feel better than ever."His prediction proved true. In a few minutes a slight attack of vomiting relieved me, and I rose to my feet. The dizziness gradually passed away, and I felt stronger and fresher than when I landed.The casks, in the mean time, had been rolled in a tier with the bungs out, I saw no watering-place from which they were to be filled. I naturally asked, "where is the water?""O," said Dan, the white man, "the water here is away up inland, in a sort of cave under ground.""Is that the only fresh water here?" I inquired."That's all," said he. "I shall put on my gang to bring it down. Here's some of 'em; they're beginning to muster now."To my further astonishment, his "gang," as he termed them, were all of the female "persuasion.""You don't mean to say that these woman are going to lug all this water two or three miles?""Yes, certainly," said he. "The men are too lazy to do any such drudgery, and think women were born expressly for it, and not fit for much else. Besides, only women are allowed to enter the water-cave. Gentlemen are not admitted."Each of these women brought some half a dozen cocoanut shells, slung with short strings, so as to be carried, two or three in each hand."Why don't you get the ship's buckets?" I asked."O, they don't want buckets," said Dan: "they wouldn't use 'em if they had 'em. You must let 'em work in their own way."Theydidwork their own way; and all day long, and day after day, for it took them several days to fill twenty casks. The battalion of women, in Indian file, could be seen on their winding way as they carried their burdens to the beach, inverted their cocoanut shells over the tunnel, and retraced their weary steps to the subterranean pool, while the men looked complacently on, and Dan, the contractor, lay drunk the best part of the time on fire-water of his own manufacture.As a consequence of his carelessness, he was obliged to fill four or five casks the second time, as we found the water salt on taking it on board, and the captain refused to pay the tobacco until he had fulfilled his contract. It was evident the women had gone astrayin their wanderings, and filled some of their shells at the ocean instead of at the inland lake.The manufacture of intoxicating liquor follows close upon the advent of white men as settlers or dwellers among savage tribes; indeed the sight of a whiskey still would have been as satisfactory evidence to the shipwrecked mariner of the presence of civilized men, as, it is said, was that of the gallows. With a rude apparatus, a liquor is distilled from the sap of the cocoanut tree, which is warranted to "kill at as many yards" as any article of tangle-foot dispensed over the bar of the most notorious "chainlocker" in New York or London. The exhilarating cordial, known among seamen by the name of "dent" (the word being a contraction of the Spanish aguardiente), is smuggled on board at almost every island where a white man has located himself; and it is well known that Jack will "suck the monkey" in whatever form or wherever he presents himself, as well in the Pacific as at the West Indies.Here we parted company with our friends of the Leonidas, she being bound to Otaheite, to examine the head of her mainmast, which had been discovered to be rotten to a considerable depth. We worked slowly down to the westward, hauling to the wind during the night, and running off under easy sail in the daytime, so as to look the ground over carefully. We picked up another hundred barrels of oil before we reached the parallel of 160 degrees east, and as we had now twenty-one hundred, the remainder of our voyage was a sort of running cruise towards our last port and home.In this longitude we hauled on the southern tack, running near Lord Howe's group and through the Solomon Archipelago. We took three small whales so near to one of the former, that, when the third one turned up, he was within less than a hundred yards of the reef, the savages yelling at us from the shore. The ship was about a mile and a half from us, with two whales fluked alongside, and carrying sail to hold her position. As the old man dared not run off to take the third whale alongside, he sent the other two boats to our assistance, with orders to tow the whale on a wind. We set our sails and took the oars, and accompanied by howling barbarians both on shore and in canoes, we towed the whale about ten miles to the southward, until clear of the island and adjacent reefs, so that the ship could come down to us without danger. During the four or five hours that we were thus employed, those in the canoes kept within a short distance outside of us, while their comrades on the beach, women, children, and all, travelled along shore abreast of us, an infernal serenade rising on both sides of us without cessation. They would have attacked us if they had dared; but, though of course constantly on our guard, we did not much fear them. They mustered about fifty canoes, containing between two and three hundred warriors, but dared not venture within reach of our whaling weapons. They at one time seemed to be making preparations to give us a volley of stones, at long shot, but the captain, seeing a suspicious movement among them, fired the six-pounder, which was kept trained upon them allthe time, and sent a shot whizzing over their heads, which had the effect of cooling their ardor. They were more wary after this, and made no further hostile demonstrations, but escorted us the whole distance, and lay on their paddles until the ship had approached quite near us, evidently waiting in the hope that some accident or turn of fortune would place us in their power. As a general rule, savages will not make an attack, unless all the circumstances are overwhelmingly in their favor. We saved our three whales, and made a safe offing with the ship, before night, but the wild din of their voices seemed to ring in my ears for a week afterwards. These people had the gristles of their noses split, and many of them had inserted large ornaments (?) of shell or bone, which hung down, so as in a great measure to hide their mouths. They were a hideous looking race, and I confess to a decided reluctance to becoming a subject of their tender mercies.At San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, we drove a smart trade for yams and fruit, the currency used here being hoop-iron, cut into pieces a few inches long, like the money of the ancient Spartans in the days of Lycurgus. Here, for the first time, we met with people possessing the characteristic of the African, for there are two great families of races in Polynesia. These Ethiops of the Pacific, or Oceanic negroes as they are called, are even more repulsive in appearance than the wearers of the ponderous nasal ornaments at Lord Howe's group. Their hair, or wool, has the true African kink in it, both ends seeming to growinto the skull, and is turned a dull reddish color by the application of lime, or something of that nature, giving them the appearance of having the head protected by what seamen call a "thrummed mat." The teeth are colored or discolored by the use of the betel-nut, till they are darker than their skins; in fact those of men past middle age are jet black. But they seem well-disposed to whites, and inoffensive, and our intercourse with them was marked by no unpleasant occurrence. The canoes used by these people are very light, and neatly ornamented, giving evidence of considerable taste and skill in their construction, while the dexterity of the natives in balancing and managing them seems perfectly miraculous, as they have no beam to spare and no outriggers; yet they come off several miles to sea in them, keeping their equilibrium seemingly without difficulty, and jeered and shouted with true negro delight at our bungling attempts to manage them.We pressed through Indispensable Straits, continuing our running cruise towards the coast of Australia, but without taking any more oil till we reached the latitude of twenty-two degrees, being about midway between Booby Shoal and Cato's Bank, when two large sperm whales were raised in the morning, and down we went in pursuit. The waist boat got the lead and was soon fast to one of them and her line going out of the tub at a rate that promised soon to empty it. Seeing this state of things, our line was cast off from the craft, and I stood ready to throw the end into the other boat; but the second mate, anxious to "drownhim out" without bending on another line, snubbed him too hard and parted. We pulled ahead in pursuit of the whale, but when he came up again he was pushing to the windward much faster than any boat could pull. There was nothing for us but to return to the ship and take the boats up, very ill-satisfied with our forenoon's work, for we had lost an iron and nearly a tubful of line, and had nothing to show for it.We made sail on a wind, and soon after raised a whale on the weather beam coming to leeward. From his actions, as at times he lashed the water into foam, we were satisfied that it was the same whale that we had struck. Soon another was seen off the lee beam coming to windward. We hauled aback and lowered away again, spreading our chances well. The two whales came together, and jogged to leeward in company. The next chance fell to our boat, and, as the mate called me up to dart, I perceived that the whale with the iron hanging at his side was farthest from me, and, seeing not much choice in them for size, I pitched my iron into the other one. The other boats were on hand to assist us, and we soon killed and secured this whale, while the wounded one again escaped, spouting strong and clear.We had light airs for three or four days succeeding this, and were not slow to express our discontent, as we made but little progress towards Sydney, the port we were all so anxious to see. We had cut and boiled out our first whale, and still the wind was lighter than ever, almost gone entirely, while our ship, seeming as impatient as ourselves, lay rolling on the glassy sea,when a black object was seen from the masthead, five or six miles off, abeam of us, tossing into view on the swell, and disappearing again; and, after examining it through the spyglass, we were satisfied that it was a dead whale. So our boat was lowered away to examine him, and found a large whale, but little blasted, having been dead, apparently about forty-eight hours. We cut out the iron from his side and found, as we expected, the name "Arethusa," underrun our line, and saved the whole of it, set a waif for the other boats, and towed him down to the ship in triumph. We now had reason to congratulate ourselves upon the light airs that had been the occasion of so much growling, and instead of having lost a line, with nothing to show for it, as at one time seemed to be the result of our attack upon these two whales, we had saved it, and added a hundred and fifty barrels of sperm oil to our cargo.The next day we got the breeze, and trimmed to it as soon as we had finished cutting. A few days found us running down the coast of New Holland, with the land well aboard and a fair wind, only thirty miles between us and the entrance to our port, and every prospect of being at anchor before night. But we were doomed to disappointment, for the wind suddenly shifted to the southward, heading us off, and blew up a gale about as fast as we were able to strip the canvas off the ship. Noon saw us lying to, on the off-shore tack, under a goose-winged maintopsail and storm staysails. The wind still increased, and we rode out a wild night under this short sail, while the wind,meeting a counter current which sets to the southward along this coast, occasioned a short, chopping sea, which knocked us about rather roughly, and, in one of her heavy lurches, the waist boat was rolled under and lost. This was the only accident we met with, however; the gale blew out in twenty-four hours and the wind having settled light from the southward, we were compelled to make out our log for four or five days at least. So we made all sail, and boarded our tacks, standing off and on.While we were beating here, having stood well in on the inshore stretch, a small steamer, which plied as a packet between Sydney and Newcastle, passed us, shearing nearer as she approached, enough to read the name on our stern. The sight of a steamboat was, of itself, a sufficient novelty to fix the attention of every man on deck, but what a burst of emotion greeted the appearance of a woman on the deck of the steamer! The word was passed below, and the other watch were all on deck in a twinkling to look at her. She appeared to be the only lady passenger on board, or at least the only one who was able to show herself on the upper deck. At that distance, it was difficult to say whether she was young and beautiful, or otherwise, but she was at least a white woman in a civilized dress, an object which had not greeted our eyes for more than two years. We had taken our last look at a phenomenon of this kind when we left Talcahuano, four months out."Well, Mr. Grafton," said the old man, as they both drew a long breath after the vision had passed out of view, "how do you feel? homesick?""Well, yes, sir," replied the mate; "I suppose that's what you may call it. The sight of a woman of our own color and race, after we have been outcasts so long,doeshave a humanizing influence, and starts up associations of home, and of near and dear ones left there.""Yes, that's true," said the captain. "That lady, who ever she is, may safely boast that she has created a sensation at least once in her life. Here's Mr. Dunham has lost half his watch below on her account, and Cooper has dropped a shook that he had half-raised in the hoop, and seems in no hurry to pick up the staves again. There are two boys up in the fore-rigging, trying to get another look at her yet."The two boys, still so called, were Obed B. and Kelly; no longer boys, but broad-chested, muscular young men, worthy representatives of the ocean chivalry of their native island, and still as inseparable as ever, the very Pythias and Damon of our little circle.We got a slant of wind the next day after this incident, and worked up near the headlands of Port Jackson, so that we took a pilot. But having the wind light, it was late in the day before we passed inside the heads, and from there we had seven miles to work up, to the anchorage before the town. The whole British navy might find ample room to moor in this beautiful bay, and might all ride in safety, under any ordinary circumstances. It was a fine moonlight evening when we went in, and as we shot handsomely into our berth among the fleet of vessels, it wasdifficult to realize that we had actually arrived among civilized white men. The whole thing seemed like enchantment, coming, as we did, from recent contact with howling savages, the echo of whose infernal gibberish had hardly ceased ringing in our ears. Our anchor rattled merrily to the bottom for the first time in eight months, and we furled our sails leisurely, lingering on the yards to look wonderingly on the numerous lights in the town, and to listen to the pealing of a sweet chime of bells, for it was Sunday evening on shore, though Saturday by our reckoning.As the reality of it all came home to our minds, as we gradually became assured that the unwonted sounds and sights were no dream, but tangible truth, a good influence was exerted upon all. No noisy demonstrations hailed the event so ardently looked forward to, but a feeling of tranquil happiness and gratitude seemed to pervade the whole ship's company. No night of the voyage was spent more quietly on board the Arethusa, certainly none more happily, than the first night after her canvas was furled in the last Pacific port.

RADACK CHAIN.—WATERING AT OCEAN ISLAND.—INCIDENTS OF THE RUN TO SYDNEY, N. S. W.

We continued working to the eastward until we were in longitude 170 degrees east, but the captain, not wishing to visit the Sandwich Islands, determined to leave this ground early, and finish out the season among the groups, recruiting at some island where he could drive a barter trade, in which our stock of tobacco and cloth could be made available. Up to the middle of August we had taken about five hundred barrels since leaving Strong's Island. In company with our old consort, the Leonidas, we steered to the southward, working down through those intricate and dangerous archipelagoes known as the Radack and Ralick chains of islands, where we carried sail days, and lay to nights with two men in the foretopmast crosstrees, and all the rest of the watch above the rail. Ragged reefs of coral, little more than flush with the surface of the sea, stretched here and there in unexpected directions, and sunken rocks waylaid us at every turn. At times we seemed to be embayed among these dangers, seeming the more formidable from the unpronounceable Russian names on the charts, while ever and anon a green islet with cocoanut trees popped into view, as if it had been forced upfrom the depths of the sea, while we had been looking for hidden dangers in another quarter of the horizon, and two or three canoes would dodge out from a lagoon, whence the only passage of egress seemed to us to have been by a submarine route under the reef of rocks. The old saying among us, "Where there's a cocoanut tree there's a Kanaka," though not infallible, held good through all this labyrinth. Sperm whales were seen several times, and in one instance we took two small whales and cut them with canoes alongside of us from a pretty little island, nestled among ugly reefs which stretched out like antennæ to draw luckless mariners into destruction. What it was called by the Russian officers I cannot now remember, but the name itself was ragged enough to bring a ship up all standing. We were not sorry when we had wound our way clear of these perils without accident, and emerged into a comparatively open sea.

We struck the equator between the longitudes of Ocean and Pleasant Islands, where we got a "cut" of a hundred and fifty barrels, and stood in under the lee of Ocean Island to get a few casks of water. We bargained with one of the white "beach-combers" to fill them by contract at so many heads of tobacco for each cask. I went ashore in the boat, with the second mate, having the casks in tow. We rolled them up on the reef and then high and dry on the beach. I was conscious all the time of a strange, giddy feeling, which seemed to be occasioned by the odors from the land, and as I went up from the reef to the soil and drew near to the cocoanut grove near the landing, this feelingoverpowered me, my strength seemed to have left me all at once, I felt a tingling pain in my legs, and fell helpless to the ground. I was surprised, and rather indignant withal, to perceive that Mr. Dunham was laughing at me.

"Ah!" said he, "it's well for you that you came ashore. It's time we all had a land cruise and a good run among the fruit trees. We shall all be better for this day's work."

"Why," I asked, "what do you suppose ails me?"

"It's the scurvy working out of you, I suppose," said he. "That's what we call it. I have seen the same phenomenon once or twice before in men who had shown no symptoms of the disease while at sea, but the first contact with the land affected them as it does you now. That will soon pass off and you will feel better than ever."

His prediction proved true. In a few minutes a slight attack of vomiting relieved me, and I rose to my feet. The dizziness gradually passed away, and I felt stronger and fresher than when I landed.

The casks, in the mean time, had been rolled in a tier with the bungs out, I saw no watering-place from which they were to be filled. I naturally asked, "where is the water?"

"O," said Dan, the white man, "the water here is away up inland, in a sort of cave under ground."

"Is that the only fresh water here?" I inquired.

"That's all," said he. "I shall put on my gang to bring it down. Here's some of 'em; they're beginning to muster now."

To my further astonishment, his "gang," as he termed them, were all of the female "persuasion."

"You don't mean to say that these woman are going to lug all this water two or three miles?"

"Yes, certainly," said he. "The men are too lazy to do any such drudgery, and think women were born expressly for it, and not fit for much else. Besides, only women are allowed to enter the water-cave. Gentlemen are not admitted."

Each of these women brought some half a dozen cocoanut shells, slung with short strings, so as to be carried, two or three in each hand.

"Why don't you get the ship's buckets?" I asked.

"O, they don't want buckets," said Dan: "they wouldn't use 'em if they had 'em. You must let 'em work in their own way."

Theydidwork their own way; and all day long, and day after day, for it took them several days to fill twenty casks. The battalion of women, in Indian file, could be seen on their winding way as they carried their burdens to the beach, inverted their cocoanut shells over the tunnel, and retraced their weary steps to the subterranean pool, while the men looked complacently on, and Dan, the contractor, lay drunk the best part of the time on fire-water of his own manufacture.

As a consequence of his carelessness, he was obliged to fill four or five casks the second time, as we found the water salt on taking it on board, and the captain refused to pay the tobacco until he had fulfilled his contract. It was evident the women had gone astrayin their wanderings, and filled some of their shells at the ocean instead of at the inland lake.

The manufacture of intoxicating liquor follows close upon the advent of white men as settlers or dwellers among savage tribes; indeed the sight of a whiskey still would have been as satisfactory evidence to the shipwrecked mariner of the presence of civilized men, as, it is said, was that of the gallows. With a rude apparatus, a liquor is distilled from the sap of the cocoanut tree, which is warranted to "kill at as many yards" as any article of tangle-foot dispensed over the bar of the most notorious "chainlocker" in New York or London. The exhilarating cordial, known among seamen by the name of "dent" (the word being a contraction of the Spanish aguardiente), is smuggled on board at almost every island where a white man has located himself; and it is well known that Jack will "suck the monkey" in whatever form or wherever he presents himself, as well in the Pacific as at the West Indies.

Here we parted company with our friends of the Leonidas, she being bound to Otaheite, to examine the head of her mainmast, which had been discovered to be rotten to a considerable depth. We worked slowly down to the westward, hauling to the wind during the night, and running off under easy sail in the daytime, so as to look the ground over carefully. We picked up another hundred barrels of oil before we reached the parallel of 160 degrees east, and as we had now twenty-one hundred, the remainder of our voyage was a sort of running cruise towards our last port and home.

In this longitude we hauled on the southern tack, running near Lord Howe's group and through the Solomon Archipelago. We took three small whales so near to one of the former, that, when the third one turned up, he was within less than a hundred yards of the reef, the savages yelling at us from the shore. The ship was about a mile and a half from us, with two whales fluked alongside, and carrying sail to hold her position. As the old man dared not run off to take the third whale alongside, he sent the other two boats to our assistance, with orders to tow the whale on a wind. We set our sails and took the oars, and accompanied by howling barbarians both on shore and in canoes, we towed the whale about ten miles to the southward, until clear of the island and adjacent reefs, so that the ship could come down to us without danger. During the four or five hours that we were thus employed, those in the canoes kept within a short distance outside of us, while their comrades on the beach, women, children, and all, travelled along shore abreast of us, an infernal serenade rising on both sides of us without cessation. They would have attacked us if they had dared; but, though of course constantly on our guard, we did not much fear them. They mustered about fifty canoes, containing between two and three hundred warriors, but dared not venture within reach of our whaling weapons. They at one time seemed to be making preparations to give us a volley of stones, at long shot, but the captain, seeing a suspicious movement among them, fired the six-pounder, which was kept trained upon them allthe time, and sent a shot whizzing over their heads, which had the effect of cooling their ardor. They were more wary after this, and made no further hostile demonstrations, but escorted us the whole distance, and lay on their paddles until the ship had approached quite near us, evidently waiting in the hope that some accident or turn of fortune would place us in their power. As a general rule, savages will not make an attack, unless all the circumstances are overwhelmingly in their favor. We saved our three whales, and made a safe offing with the ship, before night, but the wild din of their voices seemed to ring in my ears for a week afterwards. These people had the gristles of their noses split, and many of them had inserted large ornaments (?) of shell or bone, which hung down, so as in a great measure to hide their mouths. They were a hideous looking race, and I confess to a decided reluctance to becoming a subject of their tender mercies.

At San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, we drove a smart trade for yams and fruit, the currency used here being hoop-iron, cut into pieces a few inches long, like the money of the ancient Spartans in the days of Lycurgus. Here, for the first time, we met with people possessing the characteristic of the African, for there are two great families of races in Polynesia. These Ethiops of the Pacific, or Oceanic negroes as they are called, are even more repulsive in appearance than the wearers of the ponderous nasal ornaments at Lord Howe's group. Their hair, or wool, has the true African kink in it, both ends seeming to growinto the skull, and is turned a dull reddish color by the application of lime, or something of that nature, giving them the appearance of having the head protected by what seamen call a "thrummed mat." The teeth are colored or discolored by the use of the betel-nut, till they are darker than their skins; in fact those of men past middle age are jet black. But they seem well-disposed to whites, and inoffensive, and our intercourse with them was marked by no unpleasant occurrence. The canoes used by these people are very light, and neatly ornamented, giving evidence of considerable taste and skill in their construction, while the dexterity of the natives in balancing and managing them seems perfectly miraculous, as they have no beam to spare and no outriggers; yet they come off several miles to sea in them, keeping their equilibrium seemingly without difficulty, and jeered and shouted with true negro delight at our bungling attempts to manage them.

We pressed through Indispensable Straits, continuing our running cruise towards the coast of Australia, but without taking any more oil till we reached the latitude of twenty-two degrees, being about midway between Booby Shoal and Cato's Bank, when two large sperm whales were raised in the morning, and down we went in pursuit. The waist boat got the lead and was soon fast to one of them and her line going out of the tub at a rate that promised soon to empty it. Seeing this state of things, our line was cast off from the craft, and I stood ready to throw the end into the other boat; but the second mate, anxious to "drownhim out" without bending on another line, snubbed him too hard and parted. We pulled ahead in pursuit of the whale, but when he came up again he was pushing to the windward much faster than any boat could pull. There was nothing for us but to return to the ship and take the boats up, very ill-satisfied with our forenoon's work, for we had lost an iron and nearly a tubful of line, and had nothing to show for it.

We made sail on a wind, and soon after raised a whale on the weather beam coming to leeward. From his actions, as at times he lashed the water into foam, we were satisfied that it was the same whale that we had struck. Soon another was seen off the lee beam coming to windward. We hauled aback and lowered away again, spreading our chances well. The two whales came together, and jogged to leeward in company. The next chance fell to our boat, and, as the mate called me up to dart, I perceived that the whale with the iron hanging at his side was farthest from me, and, seeing not much choice in them for size, I pitched my iron into the other one. The other boats were on hand to assist us, and we soon killed and secured this whale, while the wounded one again escaped, spouting strong and clear.

We had light airs for three or four days succeeding this, and were not slow to express our discontent, as we made but little progress towards Sydney, the port we were all so anxious to see. We had cut and boiled out our first whale, and still the wind was lighter than ever, almost gone entirely, while our ship, seeming as impatient as ourselves, lay rolling on the glassy sea,when a black object was seen from the masthead, five or six miles off, abeam of us, tossing into view on the swell, and disappearing again; and, after examining it through the spyglass, we were satisfied that it was a dead whale. So our boat was lowered away to examine him, and found a large whale, but little blasted, having been dead, apparently about forty-eight hours. We cut out the iron from his side and found, as we expected, the name "Arethusa," underrun our line, and saved the whole of it, set a waif for the other boats, and towed him down to the ship in triumph. We now had reason to congratulate ourselves upon the light airs that had been the occasion of so much growling, and instead of having lost a line, with nothing to show for it, as at one time seemed to be the result of our attack upon these two whales, we had saved it, and added a hundred and fifty barrels of sperm oil to our cargo.

The next day we got the breeze, and trimmed to it as soon as we had finished cutting. A few days found us running down the coast of New Holland, with the land well aboard and a fair wind, only thirty miles between us and the entrance to our port, and every prospect of being at anchor before night. But we were doomed to disappointment, for the wind suddenly shifted to the southward, heading us off, and blew up a gale about as fast as we were able to strip the canvas off the ship. Noon saw us lying to, on the off-shore tack, under a goose-winged maintopsail and storm staysails. The wind still increased, and we rode out a wild night under this short sail, while the wind,meeting a counter current which sets to the southward along this coast, occasioned a short, chopping sea, which knocked us about rather roughly, and, in one of her heavy lurches, the waist boat was rolled under and lost. This was the only accident we met with, however; the gale blew out in twenty-four hours and the wind having settled light from the southward, we were compelled to make out our log for four or five days at least. So we made all sail, and boarded our tacks, standing off and on.

While we were beating here, having stood well in on the inshore stretch, a small steamer, which plied as a packet between Sydney and Newcastle, passed us, shearing nearer as she approached, enough to read the name on our stern. The sight of a steamboat was, of itself, a sufficient novelty to fix the attention of every man on deck, but what a burst of emotion greeted the appearance of a woman on the deck of the steamer! The word was passed below, and the other watch were all on deck in a twinkling to look at her. She appeared to be the only lady passenger on board, or at least the only one who was able to show herself on the upper deck. At that distance, it was difficult to say whether she was young and beautiful, or otherwise, but she was at least a white woman in a civilized dress, an object which had not greeted our eyes for more than two years. We had taken our last look at a phenomenon of this kind when we left Talcahuano, four months out.

"Well, Mr. Grafton," said the old man, as they both drew a long breath after the vision had passed out of view, "how do you feel? homesick?"

"Well, yes, sir," replied the mate; "I suppose that's what you may call it. The sight of a woman of our own color and race, after we have been outcasts so long,doeshave a humanizing influence, and starts up associations of home, and of near and dear ones left there."

"Yes, that's true," said the captain. "That lady, who ever she is, may safely boast that she has created a sensation at least once in her life. Here's Mr. Dunham has lost half his watch below on her account, and Cooper has dropped a shook that he had half-raised in the hoop, and seems in no hurry to pick up the staves again. There are two boys up in the fore-rigging, trying to get another look at her yet."

The two boys, still so called, were Obed B. and Kelly; no longer boys, but broad-chested, muscular young men, worthy representatives of the ocean chivalry of their native island, and still as inseparable as ever, the very Pythias and Damon of our little circle.

We got a slant of wind the next day after this incident, and worked up near the headlands of Port Jackson, so that we took a pilot. But having the wind light, it was late in the day before we passed inside the heads, and from there we had seven miles to work up, to the anchorage before the town. The whole British navy might find ample room to moor in this beautiful bay, and might all ride in safety, under any ordinary circumstances. It was a fine moonlight evening when we went in, and as we shot handsomely into our berth among the fleet of vessels, it wasdifficult to realize that we had actually arrived among civilized white men. The whole thing seemed like enchantment, coming, as we did, from recent contact with howling savages, the echo of whose infernal gibberish had hardly ceased ringing in our ears. Our anchor rattled merrily to the bottom for the first time in eight months, and we furled our sails leisurely, lingering on the yards to look wonderingly on the numerous lights in the town, and to listen to the pealing of a sweet chime of bells, for it was Sunday evening on shore, though Saturday by our reckoning.

As the reality of it all came home to our minds, as we gradually became assured that the unwonted sounds and sights were no dream, but tangible truth, a good influence was exerted upon all. No noisy demonstrations hailed the event so ardently looked forward to, but a feeling of tranquil happiness and gratitude seemed to pervade the whole ship's company. No night of the voyage was spent more quietly on board the Arethusa, certainly none more happily, than the first night after her canvas was furled in the last Pacific port.

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