Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I (of 2)

o the breeze, that follows us out to sea like the baying of a hound. Out spreads the canvas-alow, aloft-boom-stretched, on both sid

d whither wend

westward from Pitcairn's island, where the mutineers of the Bounty settled. At Ravavai I had stepped ashor

herwise called the Enchanted Islands, by reason

ere the Spanish bucaniers once hived their gold moidores,

rtheast from the vicinity of Ravavai are fain to take something of a circuit; a few thousand miles or so. First, in pursuit of the variable winds, they make all haste

l conscience a weary one it was. Never before had the

ts base.-We turned aside, and, at length, when day dawned, passed Massafuero. With a glass, we spied two or three hermit goats winding down to the sea, in a ravine; and presently, a signal: a tattered flag upon a summit beyond. Well knowing,

, as is often the case, in a very sharp squall; the shock of which carried away one of our

r our prey. For some of their hunters believe, that whales, like the silver ore in Peru, run in veins through the ocean. So, day after day, daily; and week after week, weekly, we trave

our way straight along the very Line itself. Westward sa

t symptoms of that bitter impatience of our monotonous cra

with whom to mingle sympathies; save in deploring the calms with which we were now and then overtaken; or in hailing the breeze when it came. Under other and livelier auspices the tarry knaves might have developed qualities more attractive. Had we sprung a le

ity; and had a tongue for a sailor. Let me do him justice, furthermore: he took a sort of fancy for me in particular; was sociable, nay, loquacious, when I happe

e Devils; what to me, indeed, were flat repetitions of long-drawn yarns, and the everlast

uneventful as cycles in space. Time, and time- pieces; How many centuries did my hammock tell, as pendulum-like it swung to the ship's dull roll, and ticked the hours and ages. Sacred forever be the Areturion's fore-

he beginning and end dovetailed into each other, and were united for aye. Ned Ballad's songs were sung till

westward we quitted the Line in high disg

illustrate the Whistonian theory concerning the damned and the comets;-hurried from equinoctial heats to arctic frosts. To be short, with the true fickleness of his tribe

rt monsters rafting the sea all round like Hartz forest logs on the Rhine, and submitting to the harpoon like half-stunned bullocks to the knife; this horrid and indecent Right whaling, I say, compared to a spirited hunt

shipped but for a single cruise, I had embarked aboard his craft as one might put foot in stirrup for a day's following of the hounds. And here, Heaven help me, he was going to carry me off to the Pole! And on such a vile errand

ood at the wheel one day, "It's very hard to carry me

years, and something or other must be got; for the ship is hungry for oil, and her hold a gulf to look into. But che

p for it; put me ashore somewhere, I beseech." He stared, but no answer vouchsafed; and for a moment I thought

us you must. Putting you ashore is now out of the question. I make no port till this ship is full to the combings of her

my ear like a bravado. It savored of the turnkey's compliment

rnt down to the water's edge. But who credited their tale? Like many others, they were keepers of a secret: had doubtless contracted a disgust for some ugly craft still afloat and hearty, and stolen away from her, off soundings. Among seamen in the Pacific such adventures not seldom occur. Nor are they accounted great wonders. They are but incidents, not events, in the career of the brethren o

weigh well the chances. It's worth noticing, this way we all have of pond

s point, let me say, that were I placed in the same situation again, I would repeat the thing I did then. The captain well knew that he was going

away, illimitably rolled the ocean beneath. Where we then were was perhaps the most unfrequented and least known portion of these seas. Westward, however, lay numerous groups of islands, loosely laid down

planks of the dull, plodding ship, si

leading to worlds beyond. To and fro, and all over the towers of this Nineveh in the sky, flew troops of birds. Watching them long, one crossed my sight, flew through a low arch, and was lost to view. My spirit must have sailed

aloft. But coming upon me at this time, it wrought upon me so, that the