appropriately named the man-of-war's-hawk, with his blood-red
bill and raven plumage, would come sweeping round us in gradually
diminishing circles, till you could distinctly mark the strange
flashings of his eye; and then, as if satisfied with his
observation, would sail up into the air and disappear from the
view. Soon, other evidences of our vicinity to the land were
apparent, and it was not long before the glad announcement of its
being in sight was heard from aloft,--given with that peculiar
prolongation of sound that a sailor loves--'Land ho!'

The captain, darting on deck from the cabin, bawled lustily for
his spy-glass; the mate in still louder accents hailed the
masthead with a tremendous 'where-away?' The black cook thrust
his woolly head from the galley, and Boatswain, the dog, leaped
up between the knight-heads, and barked most furiously. Land ho!
Aye, there it was. A hardly perceptible blue irregular outline,
indicating the bold contour of the lofty heights of Nukuheva.

This island, although generally called one of the Marquesas, is
by some navigators considered as forming one of a distinct
cluster, comprising the islands of Ruhooka, Ropo, and Nukuheva;
upon which three the appellation of the Washington Group has been
bestowed. They form a triangle, and lie within the parallels of
8 degrees 38" and 9 degrees 32" South latitude and 139 degrees
20" and 140 degrees 10" West longitude from Greenwich. With how
little propriety they are to be regarded as forming a separate
group will be at once apparent, when it is considered that they
lie in the immediate vicinity of the other islands, that is to
say, less than a degree to the northwest of them; that their
inhabitants speak the Marquesan dialect, and that their laws,