OF THE SOUTH SEAS 29 



to seize the first sign of land, and was leaning over 

 the cathead, watching the flying-fish leaping in advance 

 of the bow, and the great, shining albacore throwing 

 themselves into the rush of our advance, to be carried 

 along by the mere drive of our bows. 



I drew a deep breath of the salt air when there came 

 to me a new and delicious odor. It seemed to steal 

 from a secret garden under the sea, and I thought of 

 mermaids plucking the blossoms of their coral arbors 

 for the perfuming and adornment of their golden hair. 

 But sweeter and heavier it floated upon the slight 

 breeze, and I knew it for the famed zephyr that carries 

 to the voyager to Tahiti the scents of the flowers of that 

 idyllic land. It was the life vapor of the liinano, the 

 tiare and the frangipani exhaled by those flowers of Ta- 

 hiti, to be wafted to the sailor before he sights the scene 

 itself, the breath of Lorelei that spelled the sense of the 

 voyager. No shipwrecked mariner could have felt 

 more poignancy in his search for a hospitable strand 

 than I on the plunging prow of the Noa-Noa in my 

 quest through the bright sunshine of that afternoon for 

 the haven of desire. I strained my eyes to see it, to 

 realize the gossamer dream I had spun since boyhood 

 from the leaves of beloved poets. 



It was shortly after three o'clock that the vision came 

 in reality, more marvelous, more exquisite, more un- 

 imaginable than the conception of all my reveries — a 

 dim shadow in the far offing, a dark speck in the lofty 

 clouds, a mass of towering green upon the blue water, 

 the fast unfoldment of emerald, pale hills and glittering 

 reef. Nearer as sailed our ship, the panorama was 

 lovelier. It was the culmination of enchantment, the 



