SOLAR ECLIPSE, MAY (i, 1S83. 17 



at Gallao, Miircli 20. I at once (sailed on Capt. C G. (Jakpenter, coiimiandiiig the Hart/ord, from 

 whom I learned that he would be ready to sail on March 22. March 21 was spent in Lima, and 

 on March 22 the Hartford left Oallao for Caroline Island, a distance of 4,324 miles. 



On the twenty-third day out from Callao we sighted one of the islands of the Marquesas group. 

 and at 8 a. m. of April 20 Caroline Island was seeu as a low green streak on the Innizon. We 

 had come 4,324 miles in twenty-nine days, mostly under sail (an av^erage of 149 miles per day), 

 without seeing a single sail or any land, except Magdalena Island of the Marquesas, which we had 

 gone out of our course to sight. I cannot refrain from quoting here Darwin's entry in his Jour- 

 nal of a Voyage in the Beagle, under date of December 19, 1835 : 



" We may now consider that we have nearly crossed the Pacific. It is necessary to sail over 

 this great ocean to comprehend its immensity. Moving quickly onwards for weeks together, we 

 meet with nothing but the same blue, profoundly deep ocean. Even within the archipelagoes the 

 islands are mere specks and far distant one from the other. Accustomed to look at maps drawn 

 on a small scale, where dots, shading, and names are crowded together, we do not rightly judge 

 how infinitely small the proportion of dry land is to the water of this vast expanse." 



STAY ON CAROLINE ISLAND. 

 (From April 21 to Miiy 9.) 



It must be remembered that we knew absolutely nothing of Caroline Island, except that it had 

 been inhabited in 1874 by at least one white man and some thirty natives. The boat landing was 

 known to be somewhere on the southwestern side, and iiu •' entrance to the lagoon" was spoken of 

 on the eastern side. The Hartford approached the island from this side, and from end to end there 

 was nothing to be seen but a line of heavy breakers, then a strip of white beach, and above this a 

 growth of trees, the highest of which were cocoa palms. Finally, in among these, was seen the 

 gable roof of a European house, but no inhabitants. Coasting round the island, everywhere sur- 

 rounded by high surf, the Hartford came opposite the place where the boat landing was reported, 

 and the whale-boat was lowered aud Lieutenant Qualtrough sent in her to land if possible. It 

 seems all very simple now, after Caroline Island, its reefs, its lagoon, and its landing are as famil- 

 iar to us as the beaches of New England ; but at the time it was all quite strange and new. The 

 advent of a man and a dog on the reef was an event. It seemed to settle one thing, at least, and 

 that was that we should find some assistance in lauding. But the native disappeared and Lien- 

 tenant Qualtrough was left to find his own way among the breakers, which he did in a capital 

 manner. 



The ocean reef forms a solid wall all round the islands, except at one narrow and crooked en- 

 trance, just wide enough for a boat and oars, aud through this entrance each boat must come or be 

 broken into bits against the steep face of the coral wall. The whale-boat returned shortly with the 

 news that there were four native men, one woman, and two children on the islands, that two frame 

 houses were standing, and that we could land at once. Un the 2()th of A]>ril the first of our boxes 

 were sent ashore. The boats were loaded alongsule and rowed to the entrajice of the naiTow pas- 

 sage. This was entered on the top of a wave aud the boat was skillfully steered by the cockswain 

 through its windings. As soon as the bow came over the flat surface of the reef the crew jumped 

 out and hauled it up into the shallow'water covering the whole surface of the reef. At high water 

 this ocean reef was covered to a depth of about 30 inches and at low water to about 10 inches. 



The boxes were then lifted from the boat and transported by carrying parties to the high-water 



mark — a distance of 1,400 feet. This transport had to be made over the rugged surfixce of the 

 S. Mis. 110 3 



