ormer
a volcanic and mountainous group, the latter a low group of atolls or
coral islands, both in the Eastern Pacific and both under the
protectorate of France. The third section is fragmentary, and deals, as
has been said, with only one portion of the writer's experiences in
Hawaii. The last two describe his residence in the Gilberts, a remote
and little-known coral group in the Western Pacific, which at the time
of his visit was under independent native government, but has since been
annexed by Great Britain. This is the part of his work with which the
author himself was best satisfied, and it derives additional interest
from describing a state of manners and government which has now passed
away._

IN THE SOUTH SEAS

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE MARQUESAS,
PAUMOTUS AND GILBERT ISLANDS IN THE COURSE OF TWO CRUISES, ON THE
YACHT _CASCO_ (1888) AND THE SCHOONER _EQUATOR_ (1889)

PART I

THE MARQUESAS

IN THE SOUTH SEAS

CHAPTER I

AN ISLAND LANDFALL

For nearly ten years my health had been declining; and for some while
before I set forth upon my voyage, I believed I was come to the
afterpiece of life, and had only the nurse and undertaker to expect. It
was suggested that I should try the South Seas; and I was not unwilling
to visit like a ghost, and be carried like a bale, among scenes that had
attracted me in youth and health. I chartered accordingly Dr. Merrit's
schooner yacht, the _Casco_, seventy-four tons register; sailed from San
Francisco towards the end of June 1888, visited the eastern islands, and
was left early the next year at Honolulu. Hence, lacking courage to
return to my old life of the house and sick-room, I set forth to leeward
in a trading schooner, the _Equator_, of a little over seventy tons,
spent four months among the atolls (low coral islands) of the Gilbert
group, and reached Samoa towards the close of '89. By that time
gratitude and habit were beginning to attach me to the islands; I had
gained a competency of strength; I had made friends; I had learned new
interests; the time of my voyages had passed like days in fairyland; and
I decided to remain. I began to prepare these pages at sea, on a third
cruise, in the trading steamer _Janet Nicoll_. If more days are granted
me, they shall be passed where I have found life most pleasant and man
most interesting; the axes of my black boys are already clearing the
foundations of my futu