POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
485 
joined not only in watching its receding progress, 
but in acknowledging the protection of the Almighty 
in their preservation. 
When returning from the Sandwich Islands on board 
the ship Russell, in 1825, we experienced a happy 
deliverance from one of these wonderful and alarming 
objects. Our Sabbath afternoon, worship on the quar¬ 
ter deck had just terminated 5 Mrs. Ellis was lying 
on a sofa, and, observing unusual indications of terror 
in the countenance of the boy at the helm, she 
said, ^^What is it that alarms you?’^ He answered, 
in hurried accents, I see a whirlwind coming,^^ 
pointing to a cloud a little to the windward of the 
ship. His actions attracted the notice of the officer 
on deck, who instantly sent an able seamen to the 
helm, and called the captain. I had taken the 
books down into the cabin, and was putting them 
by, when I heard the officer, in a tone of unusual 
earnestness, ask the captain to come on deck. I 
hastily followed, and my attention was instantly 
directed to the waterspout. 
The breeze was fresh, and as the object of alarm 
was still at some distance, it was possible we might 
avoid coming in contact with it. The captain, there- 
fore, took in none of the sails, but called all hands 
on deck, ordered them to stand hy the halyards^ or 
ropes by which the sails are pulled up, so that, if 
necessary, they might let them go in an instant, and 
thus lower down the sails. We all marked its ap¬ 
proach with great anxiety. The column was well 
defined, extending in an unbroken line from the sea 
to the clouds, which were neither dense nor lowering. 
Around the outside of the liquid cylinder was a kind 
