The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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159 degrees 44', but in consequence
of the misty weather it was not till we reached Lat.
10 degrees 6'
N. that the Pole star, cold and pure, glistened far above the
horizon, and two hours later we saw the coruscating Pleiades, and
the starry belt of Orion, the blessed familiar constellations of
"auld lang syne," and a "breath of the cool north," the first I have
felt for five months, fanned the tropic night and the calm silvery
Pacific. From that time we have been indifferent to our crawling
pace, except for the sick man's sake. The days dawn in rose colour
and die in gold, and through their long hours a sea of delicious
blue shimmers beneath the sun, so soft, so blue, so dreamlike, an
ocean worthy of its name, the enchanted region of perpetual calm,
and an endless summer. Far off, for many an azure league, rims of
rock, fringed with the graceful coco palm, girdle still lagoons, and
are themselves encircled by coral reefs on which the ocean breaks
all the year in broad drifts of foam. Myriads of flying fish and a
few dolphins and Portuguese men-of-war flash or float through the
scarcely undulating water. But we look in vain for the "sails of
silk and ropes of sendal," which are alone appropriate to this
dream-world. The Pacific in this region is an indolent blue
expanse, pure and lonely, an almost untraversed sea. We revel in
these tropic days of transcendent glory, in the balmy breath which
just stirs the dreamy blue, in the brief, fierce crimson sunsets, in
the soft splendour of the nights, when the moon and stars hang like
lamps out of a lofty and distant vault, and in the pearly
crystalline dawns, when the sun rising through a veil of rose and
gold "rejoices as a giant to run his course," and brightens by no
"pale gradations" into the "perfect day."
P.S. - To-morrow morning we expect to sight land. In spite of minor
evils, our voyage has been a singularly pleasant one. The condition
of the ship and her machinery warrants the strongest condemnation,
but her discipline is admirable, and so are many of her regulations,
and we might have had a much more disagreeable voyage in a better
ship. Captain Blethen is beyond all praise, and so is the chief
engineer, whose duties are incessant and most harassing, owing to
the critical state of the engines. The Nevada now presents a
grotesque appearance, for within the last few hours she has received
such an added list to port that her starboard wheel looks nearly out
of the water.
I.L.B.
LETTER II.
HAWAIIAN HOTEL, HONOLULU, Jan. 26th.
Yesterday morning at 6.30 I was aroused by the news that "The
Islands" were in sight. Oahu in the distance, a group of grey,
barren peaks rising verdureless out of the lonely sea, was not an
exception to the rule that the first sight of land is a
disappointment.
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