414 



The iNTational Geographic Magazine 



her, things in other respects look better. 

 She has a prepossessing set of officers, 

 and as the first-cabin passengers are only 

 about forty in number, there will evi- 

 dently be plenty of room. A consider- 

 able part of the passengers appear to be 

 minor French officials, but there are also 

 some Calif ornians, who promise pleasant 

 compan}^, and it appears that many of 

 the passengers are not going to stay, but 

 are on a pleasure trip. We are told that 

 we are to stop at the Marquesas Islands, 

 the scene of Herman Melville's adven- 

 tures in " Typee," there to take on 300 

 Marquesan savages, who are going to 

 Tahiti to participate in the French fete 

 on the 14th of Jul^^ 



The vessel flies the French flag. We 

 get under weigh very promptly at ten 

 o'clock and pass through "the Golden 

 Gate" into the Pacific, running for 

 three or four hours directly down the 

 coast and within a mile or so of it. A 

 great black whale, a mile or two away, 

 thrashing about and throwing up his 

 tail, is an interesting object. The sea 

 is not high, but comes freely onto the 

 main deck, which is perhaps only six 

 feet out of water ! We are accompa- 

 nied by an increasing number of ' ' goo- 

 nies, ' ' a dark brown bird, spreading five 

 or six feet of long narrow wings, the 

 notable character of which is that they 

 are at all times, in sailing flight, car- 

 ried belozv the body. It flapped and 

 then sailed with extreme swiftness, con- 

 stantly turning till the line joining the 

 wings was almost vertical, and in this 

 position tlie tip of the lower wing ap- 

 peared to just graze the water, but I 

 never saw it pick up anything in this 

 flight. 



The table is good for a vessel of the 

 kind There are some pleasant passen- 

 gers, and there is an electric light and 

 ice-making plant, so that the vessel is 

 better than her looks. 



Ju7ie 2j. — It is cold enough to make 

 semi-winter clothing comfortable, and I 

 turned in at 9.30 o'clock and slept for 

 ten hours in spite of the occasional seas 



which broke over the main deck in solid 

 water, once striking against my state- 

 room window on the upper deck (star- 

 board side) with a bang, as if they would 

 stave it in. Our course was south, and 

 even south by east. Vessel rolls less. 

 It is still pleasantly cool ; bright sun. 



June 28. — Slightly overcast and misty; 

 not as cool, but not hot ; read and con- 

 versed with fellow-passengers. 



Jime 2g. — Today, about noon, we 

 enter the tropics. The run has been 

 316 miles. The days are still cool ; the 

 weather is just right. I sit forward on 

 the broad upper deck, beneath the awn- 

 ing, with four or five pleasant people ; 

 read, talk, sleep, and am content. Most 

 of the passengers are on the port side of 

 the main deck below, the vessel rocks 

 lullingly, and there is an occasional 

 mist. The last ' ' goony ' ' left us today. 



" The Injian Ocean sets an' smiles, 



So sof , so bright, so bloomin' blue ; 



There aren't a wave for miles an' miles, 



Excep' the jiggle from the screw." 



June JO. — Sunday ; no observance. 

 Day slightly warmer, but pleasant. We 

 are about half way to the Marquesas, 

 and no sight of a sail nor any sign of 

 man, probably, until we get to them. 

 One does not like to think of fire or an 

 accident happening he) e. 



The captain has an instrument, which 

 he calls a Pelorus, for getting the true 

 course of the vessel by the sun — some- 

 thing like a marine solar compass. 



Got a list of Tahitian words from a 

 lady passenger, Mrs. Hart, the wife of 

 the Captain Hart mentioned in Steven- 

 son's South Seas. Stevenson says that 

 in 1878 (when he wrote) cannibalism 

 was not yet extinct in the Marquesas, 

 whose inhabitants he calls the most 

 savage of the South Seas. Mrs. Hart 

 confirms Stevenson's account of the 

 massacre on her husband's plantation, 

 and his account in general. He men- 

 tions that the natives were prevented 

 by the French Government from carry- 

 ing awa}^ whole the bodies of the slain 



