Poor old ship! I say again: for six months she has been rolling
and pitching about, never for one moment at rest. But courage,
old lass, I hope to see thee soon within a biscuit's toss of the
merry land, riding snugly at anchor in some green cove, and
sheltered from the boisterous winds.

. . . . . .

'Hurra, my lads! It's a settled thing; next week we shape our
course to the Marquesas!' The Marquesas! What strange visions
of outlandish things does the very name spirit up! Naked
houris--cannibal banquets--groves of cocoanut--coral
reefs--tattooed chiefs--and bamboo temples; sunny valleys planted
with bread-fruit-trees--carved canoes dancing on the flashing
blue waters--savage woodlands guarded by horrible
idols--HEATHENISH RITES AND HUMAN SACRIFICES.

Such were the strangely jumbled anticipations that haunted me
during our passage from the cruising ground. I felt an
irresistible curiosity to see those islands which the olden
voyagers had so glowingly described.

The group for which we were now steering (although among the
earliest of European discoveries in the South Seas, having been
first visited in the year 1595) still continues to be tenanted by
beings as strange and barbarous as ever. The missionaries sent
on a heavenly errand, had sailed by their lovely shores, and had
abandoned them to their idols of wood and stone. How interesting
the circumstances under which they were discovered! In the
watery path of Mendanna, cruising in quest of some region of