WE were going under easy sail, about three or four knots an hour, with a light, fair breeze, which had held, on and off, the last couple of days. But we did not take advantage of it; for the captain was anxious to give a last chance to our companion ship, the Enterprise of Newhaven, to whom we had given the rendezvous these latitudes, before we bore away for California. So at least, he said; but I had my suspicions about what he might really be intending; and all along, a kind of misgiving the captain eyed me with distrust from time to time, and indeed more every day we sailed.
I looked round for some one with whom I might 'take counsel: but could not tell whom to trust. There was, indeed, an honest fellow named Tom Harvey among us, of whom I shall have enough to say by-and-bye: and I could have spoken to him more freely than to any one of the ship’s company beside. But, then, I did not know how far Tom’s discretion might extend: for my experience of life has taught me how few people there are who can keep a secret. The same applied to some of the others, and I knew even less of them. There was a Spanish priest on board, Don Manuel he was called; who had taken his passage on board with us for San Francisco, whither he was going to establish a mission of his order. More than once I resolved to speak to him: but I don’t know what kind of feeling held me back. I had been bred up a protestant; and though, at that time, indeed, had not much religion of any kind, still I felt unwilling to open my mind to a priest, one of a class of men I had always looked on with suspicion.
This priest, in truth, seemed a quiet man, who had a kind word for every one that came across him, though he did not speak much. He kept a good deal in the cabin, and was a hard reader, when he was not sea-sick. He would come up and walk a little on deck, reading his book attentively, and speaking to himself. I thought, as I looked at him, he was saying his prayers; and I used to wonder how any man, priest or layman, could bear to say so many prayers in the course of the day. Once or twice he asked me some questions on medical subjects; chiefly on the treatment of wounds and fevers, and the use of herbs in their cure: and I could easily see he had studied those subjects a good deal. Well, notwithstanding our few conversations, the long and short of it was, I had never spoken to a priest before, and would not make up my mind to tell my thoughts to him.
Things were going on in this way, when, at about eleven in the forenoon of Monday, August the twenty-third, the man in the top suddenly sang out: Land on the larboard bow!” and a refreshing cry it was to us, who had been almost three weeks (including some calms), without seeing anything to break the everlasting sea-line all round us. Up we were at once in the shrouds, in the rigging, out upon the yards, at least the more active, sure-footed ones, all eyes straining to larboard. As for me, who was as eager as the rest, not whether this accident (as we did not expect land) would bring any change to the condition I was in, I made my way up to the mizen-top, with my own glass, and a very clear one it was, and proved a faithful companion to me afterwards, where I did not expect to keep it so long as it and I stayed together.
When I got into the top, I could see, plain enough, and without my glass, a haze stretching away to east-south-east of our course, like a thin bank of fog, and nothing more. It lay some ten or twelve miles from us, but so faint, I never should have taken it for a sign of land. The man on the watch was right, however, as it proved. We were sailing, as I have said, under a light breeze, three or four points from where it lay, our course being almost due south. But the captain now put the ship about, and we stood right in for it.
As we drew nearer, I could observe this haze, or heat, gradually melt away from the land, and leave it clear. But the first thing to be seen in the way of land was the peak of a mountain that seemed pretty near the center of the island (for an island we judged it to be), but nearer to its northernmost end. This ran up out of the mist before we could see the coast and lower grounds. It was in the form of a sugar-loaf, something like the Peak of Teneriffe, Spain's tallest peak and an active volcano, though so much smaller; only that it was somewhat flattened at the top. About halfway up, it was clothed with trees, as far as we could judge at our distance, and this was better seen the nearer we sailed. But all the upper part looked bare, with streaks down the sides of a greyish color: whence I concluded it to be a volcano, or burning mountain, and that those were streams of old lava, or melted rock, that had burst from the top of the mountain, and flowed down the sides, only hardened by cooling, perhaps ages ago. For the rest of the island, as we sailed in, it appeared green and wooded, well enough. We could see some small savannahs, or meadow-lands, very fresh and green, opening out among the woods: whence we judged the place must be furnished with fresh running water; or the heat, for we were now well within the tropics, would surely have burned them brown.
So strange a desire now possessed me, that I must needs go and visit this island, if it were possible, and explore some of those green valleys, to see what they contained, and where they led to. I wished also to have a nearer view of the mountain, having always taken much interest in reading of volcanoes, and tracing out the forms of some I had met with in different parts, though they had long ceased to burn, and had become overgrown with wood. In short, it was of no use for me to reason against myself: I was determined that if there should be a landing-party from the ship, go I would, and see what was to be seen.
Turning my glass from it at length, when I had scanned it over and over again from end to end, from the top of the sugar-loaf to a reef of low rocks that ran out south-west from its base, over which a strong surf was running, I gave a glance down upon deck. There stood the captain in earnest conversation with the first mate, of which I will have more to say.
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