WHALING VOYAGE. 
259 
enraptured lovers as they appeared walking together on 
the beach, having but “ one soul in a divided body . 55 
Reader ! the great spirit which so rapidly approached, 
and was bringing to those islanders light to disperse 
their darkness, humanity and religion to abolish their 
cruelties, the arts and sciences to banish their ignorance 
—was the great spirit of our immortal navigator, Cook, 
who had just discovered those fertile islands, and whose 
ship had been observed by the enchanter on the previous 
evening, from the heights of the Pele of Nuanu. 
Several English and American merchants have within 
these last few years taken up their residence at Oahoo ; 
for, being placed midway between the north-w r est coast 
of America and India, it offers many conveniences to 
those who are engaged in trading from those shores. 
Great numbers of ships touch at those islands during 
the year ; besides English and American, others from 
all parts of Europe and from other parts of the world 
pay them visits, but from their near proximity to the 
Japan whale fishery, the greater number of them are 
whalers, who resort to these islands for the purposes of 
refitting their ships and refreshing their crews. It was 
at this place that I first saw that ignis fatuus of the land, 
which is called by some, “ the water of the desert . 55 It 
is an optical illusion, which decoys the traveller from 
his proper road to taste of the imaginary lake w'hieh 
appears in the distance, caused by a refraction of the 
sun’s rays through a peculiar atmosphere ; he may stride 
