32 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
to keep good sea-room, and accordingly shortened sail and 
lay off a part of the night. 
This was Christmas eve, that nucleus of so much social 
and religious joy throughout the Christian world, and a 
merry one it was to us. Not so in the ordinary sense of 
the trencher and cup, the music, dance, and the embrace of 
kindred ; nor rendered such by the pealing anthem or the 
solemn prayer, swelling up through the lofty arches hung 
with boughs of ever-green and the prophetic star of Beth¬ 
lehem! But nature herself seemed worshipping! The 
heavens were unmarred by a single breath of mist, except 
what rested upon the heights of Hawaii; and on all its vault 
the stars shone, not as brightly as in the frosty skies of the 
temperate zones, but with a quiet subdued lustre, as if they 
were the watch-fires of angels assembled to celebrate the 
earth’s great jubilee. 
The Pacific, too, lent the scene its most charming condi¬ 
tion. Wide and gently curved swells rolled down from the 
north, smooth, and noiseless, except when they dashed upon 
our noble ship, or were broken by the dolphin coursing 
through and dotting them with phosphorescent light! The 
sea-birds were hailing each other a merry Christmas. The 
grey and mottled albatross, flying from billow to billow, 
occasionally clipped the waves with his sword-shaped wings, 
and shouted gladly to the elements ! The gulls and other 
birds sat in countless flocks in every direction, sinking, 
rising and chattering on the panting sea ? And schools of 
tiny fish with bright golden backs swam by the side of the 
ship, as children, after long absence, gather with cherish¬ 
ed remembrances around the old homestead on this blessed 
night. 
At dawn on the 25th one of the islands lay six mile dis¬ 
tant in the southeast. The sky was clear; the sea smooth ; 
the porpoises blowing about us ; aright whale was spouting 
a hundred rods astern ; and our Hawaiians, looking from the 
mainstays at the land, were uttering their beautiful language 
