The early morning of 4th September a whale-boat manned by natives dragged us down the green lane of the anchorage and round the spouting promontory.On the shore level it was a hot,breathless,and yet crystal morning;but high overhead the hills of Atuona were all cowled in cloud,and the ocean-river of the trades streamed without pause.As we crawled from under the immediate shelter of the land,we reached at last the limit of their influence.The wind fell upon our sails in puffs,which strengthened and grew more continuous;presently the CASCO heeled down to her day's work;the whale-boat,quite outstripped,clung for a noisy moment to her quarter;the stipulated bread,rum,and tobacco were passed in;a moment more and the boat was in our wake,and our late pilots were cheering our departure.
This was the more inspiriting as we were bound for scenes so different,and though on a brief voyage,yet for a new province of creation.That wide field of ocean,called loosely the South Seas,extends from tropic to tropic,and from perhaps 123degrees W.to 150degrees E.,a parallelogram of one hundred degrees by forty-seven,where degrees are the most spacious.Much of it lies vacant,much is closely sown with isles,and the isles are of two sorts.No distinction is so continually dwelt upon in South Sea talk as that between the 'low'and the 'high'island,and there is none more broadly marked in nature.The Himalayas are not more different from the Sahara.On the one hand,and chiefly in groups of from eight to a dozen,volcanic islands rise above the sea;few reach an altitude of less than 4000feet;one exceeds 13,000;their tops are often obscured in cloud,they are all clothed with various forests,all abound in food,and are all remarkable for picturesque and solemn scenery.On the other hand,we have the atoll;a thing of problematic origin and history,the reputed creature of an insect apparently unidentified;rudely annular in shape;enclosing a lagoon;rarely extending beyond a quarter of a mile at its chief width;often rising at its highest point to less than the stature of a man -man himself,the rat and the land crab,its chief inhabitants;not more variously supplied with plants;and offering to the eye,even when perfect,only a ring of glittering beach and verdant foliage,enclosing and enclosed by the blue sea.