206 TEE CRUISE OF THE " CAOIIALOT." 



CHAPTER XYII. 



TISIT TO HONOLULU. 



Bight glad were we all when, after much fumbling and 

 box-hauling about, we once more felt the long, familiar 

 roll of the Pacific swell, and saw the dim fastnesses of 

 the smoky islands fading into the lowering gloom 

 astern. Most deep-water sailors are familiar, by report 

 if not by actual contact, with the beauties of the Pacific 

 islands, and I had often longed to visit them to see 

 for myself whether the half that had been told me was 

 true. Of course, to a great number of seafaring men, 

 the loveliness of those regions counts for nothing, their 

 desirability being founded upon the frequent opportuni- 

 ties of unlimited indulgence in debauchery. To such 

 men, a " missionary " island is a howling wilderness, 

 and the missionaries themselves the subjects of the 

 vilest abuse as well as the most boundless lying. 



No one who has travelled with his eyes open would 

 assert that all missionaries were wise, prudent, or even 

 godly men ; while it is a great deal to be regretted that 

 BO much is made of hardships which in a large pro- 

 portion of cases do not exist, the men who are supposed 

 to be enduring them being immensely better off and 

 more comfortable than they would ever have been at 



