I may here state, and on my faith as an honest man, that though
more than three years have elapsed since I left this same
identical vessel, she still continues; in the Pacific, and but a
few days since I saw her reported in the papers as having touched
at the Sandwich Islands previous to going on the coast of Japan.

But to return to my narrative. Placed in these circumstances
then, with no prospect of matters mending if I remained aboard
the Dolly, I at once made up my mind to leave her: to be sure it
was rather an inglorious thing to steal away privily from those
at whose hands I had received wrongs and outrages that I could
not resent; but how was such a course to be avoided when it was
the only alternative left me? Having made up my mind, I
proceeded to acquire all the information I could obtain relating
to the island and its inhabitants, with a view of shaping my
plans of escape accordingly. The result of these inquiries I
will now state, in order that the ensuing narrative may be the
better understood.

The bay of Nukuheva in which we were then lying is an expanse of
water not unlike in figure the space included within the limits
of a horse-shoe. It is, perhaps, nine miles in circumference.
You approach it from the sea by a narrow entrance, flanked on
each side by two small twin islets which soar conically to the
height of some five hundred feet. From these the shore recedes
on both hands, and describes a deep semicircle.

From the verge of the water the land rises uniformly on all
sides, with green and sloping acclivities, until from gently