PREFACE. ix 



depths ; and, finally — beyond all these — of man emerging 

 from the depths of barbarism through Christian self-denying, 

 divinely-aided effort, and churches and school-houses standing 

 as central objects of interest and influence in a native village. 



On the other hand, there were occasional events not so 

 agreeable. 



Even the beauty of natural objects had, at times, a dark 

 back-ground. When, for example, after a day among the 

 corals, we came, the next morning, upon a group of Feejee 

 savages with human bones to their mouths, finishing off the 

 cannibal feast of the night ; and as thoughtless of any impro- 

 priety as if the roast were of wild game taken the day before. 

 In fact, so it was. 



Other regions gave us some harsh scenes. One— that of 

 our vessel, in a tempest, fast drifting toward the rocks of 

 Soutliern Fuegia, and finding anchorage under Noir Island, 

 but not the hoped-for shelter Irom either winds or waves ; the 

 sea at the time dashing up the black cliffs two and three 

 hundred feet, and shrouding in foam the high rocky islets, 

 half-obscured, that stood about us ; the cables dragging and 

 clanking over the bottom; one breaking; then another, the 

 storm still raging: finally, after the third day, -near midnight, 

 the last of the four cables giving way, amid a deluge of waters 

 over the careering vessel from the breakers astern, and an 

 instant of waiting among all on board for the final crash ; then, 

 that instant hardly passed, the loud calm command of the 

 Captain, the spring of the men to the yard-arms, and soon the 

 ship again on the dark, stormy sea, with labyrinths of islands, 

 and the Fuegian cHffs to leeward ; but, the wind losing some- 

 what of its violence and slightly veering, the ship making a 

 bare escape as the morning dawned with brighter skies. 



And still another scene, more than two years later, on a 

 beautiful Sunday, in the summer of 1841, when, after a cruise 

 of some months through the tropics, we were in full expecta- 

 tion of soon landing joyously on the shores of the Columbia ; 



