and with several others I
have received a Christmas present of great value. As before noted,
there came on shore from the wreck when it was being stripped a box of
Manila cigars, and it has been supposed that they were all
distributed by the generous owner and had been smoked. To-day,
however, Mr. Blye discovered that three of them lay in the bottom of
his chest, and to be impartial he divided them into three parts each
and doled them out. My present was thankfully and cheerfully accepted,
and while I am writing my journal, is passing off in wreaths of hope
above my head.

Mr. Bailey and myself have for several days been having the joint use
of an old clay pipe he had saved, and we have been trying to smoke the
dried leaves and bark of the bushes around us. It is a failure with
me. Now much has been said by learned men _for_ as well as _against_
the use of tobacco, but I do not hesitate to testify to its great
value in conditions such as ours. It has been a cheering companion to
our thoughts in solitude, and a comfort in depression of spirits. I
have even seen one man offer his only coat for a piece of plug about
the size of a silver dollar.

_Sunday, January 1, 1871._ New Year's Day--"Happy New Year"! I think
no one but the marine sentry at the storehouse saw the birth of the
new year or cared to see the new year come in. For myself I hope there
will be no more holidays to chronicle here except it may be the one
that liberates us from these surroundings. They have--the three we
have had here--aroused too many sombre reflections in contrasting
those of the past with the present.

Talbot has now been away forty-three days and it seems almost beyond
probability that he should have reached the Sandwich Islands before
the food was exhausted. There is a lingering hope, however, that some
delay in starting relief for us may have occurred or that he may have
reached some island other than Oahu, where Honolulu is situated, and
that communication with Oahu may be limited. We are "threshing out"
the whole situation to-night in earnest discussion between the
sanguine and non-sanguine members of the mess.

VI

RESCUED

_Tuesday, January 3._ At midnight. It is near an impossibility sanely
and calmly to write up my journal to-night--my nerves are shaken and
my pencil falters. I have climbed into the storehouse to get away from
the commotion in the tent and all over the camp. No one can possibly
sleep, for I can see