3 1822 00194 1046
 
 A 
 
 
 
 JNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 3 1822 00194 1046 
 
 L6?
 
 LOVE AND LONGITUDE
 
 Websdale, Shoosmith and Co., Printers, 117 Clarence- street, Sydney
 
 LOVE AND 
 LONGITUDE 
 
 A STORY OF THE PACIFIC IN THE YEAR 1900 
 
 R. SCOT SKIRVING 
 
 ANGUS AND ROBERTSON 
 SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE l()Ol
 
 The English edition is published by The Australian 
 Boole Coy., 38 West Smithfield, London, E.G.
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PACK 
 
 I IN WHICH I INTRODUCE MYSELF . . . 1 
 II MY MEETING WITH CAPTAIN LEIGH, AND WHAT 
 
 CAME OP IT 4 
 
 III I AM TOLD THE OBJECT OF THE VOYAGE AND 
 
 INTRODUCED TO MISS LEIGH . . 16 
 
 IV WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY .... 22 
 
 V WE LEAVE COOK STRAIT . . 36 
 
 VI THE RATS DIE ON BOARD THE SHIP . . 47 
 
 VII WE LOSE A MAN ... .54 
 
 VIII FRESH TROUBLES OVERTAKE US . .65 
 
 IX CAPTAIN LEIGH HAS A PRESENTIMENT . . 74 
 
 X WE REACH THE CLIMAX OF OUR MISFORTUNES 83 
 
 XI WE LOSE OUR GREENWICH DATE, BUT FIND 
 
 AN ISLAND ...... 93 
 
 XII WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND . . . 107 
 
 XIII HOW I RECOVERED TIME AND PLACE . .119 
 
 XIV WE FIND A COMPASS AND PREPARE TO SAIL 126 
 
 XV A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OF IT . 136 
 
 XVI II. M.S. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN . 150
 
 v CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAQB 
 
 XVII TOWARDS APIA, A DIGRESSION, AND A TRAGEDY 
 
 BY THE WAY . . . . .164 
 
 XVIII THE STORY OP THE MARION C. COLBOItNE . 177 
 
 XTX CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA . . 185 
 
 XX THE ADMIRAL'S DINNER AND HIS OFFER TO us 203 
 
 XXI WE SAIL FOR LEIGH ISLAND . . .215 
 XXII SHOWS THAT IT IS AS EASY TO FALL OVER- 
 BOARD AS TO FALL IN LOVE . . 229 
 XXIII THE ISLAND AT LAST .... 239 
 XXIV IN WHICH I COIL UP ROPES GENERALLY 
 
 AND SAY GOOD-BYE .... 248 
 
 APPENDIX 258
 
 
 ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 MEASURING A LUNAR DISTANCE . . Frontispiece 
 
 ' THERE'S YOUR SHIP,' SAID MY COMPANION facing page 12 
 
 THE SKIPPER TOLD US TO BRING THE BODY 
 
 RIGHT AFT ,, 64 
 
 SHORTLY AFTERWARDS HESTER AWOKE . 96 
 
 PLAN OF PANDORA ISLAND ... ,, 140 
 THE LITTLE VESSEL LAY HEAVILY OVER 
 
 TO PORT ..... 148 
 
 BEHIND US CAME THE NOBLE SHIP . ,, 220 
 TRACK CHART OF THE VOYAGE OF THE 
 
 PANDORA 240
 
 CHAPTER I 
 IN WHICH I INTRODUCE MYSELF 
 
 the adventurous keels of Elizabethan 
 seamen furrowed the Atlantic, oversea voyages 
 were new and strange. 
 
 Beyond every horizon lay the great unknown wild 
 countries, alien peoples, gold, and I know not what 
 gallant possibilities 
 
 ' Magic casements opening on the foam 
 Of perilous seas in faery lands forlorn.' 
 
 The simplest events of the sea-day were then full 
 of mystery and wonder. 
 
 The Grulf Stream, the trade wind, the variation of 
 the compass, all spoke of some unseen Power. Need 
 we wonder then at the spirit of religion which 
 coloured with its picturesque tints the minds and 
 actions of the sixteenth-century adventurers ? Ship 
 boys sing vespers at the foot of the main mast ; 
 Drake solemnly takes communion with a ship-mate he 
 is about to execute ; the privateersman goes to 
 prayers before plundering the galleon ; while to the 
 seeing eyes of Spaniards, St. James himself leads the 
 ranks of Catholic Christendom against the enemy.
 
 2 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 Even a hundred years ago, when our grandfathers 
 ambled over the world, their logbooks were filled with 
 the swift surprises, the strange vicissitudes, which old 
 ocean gave to these tough, pig-tailed seamen, the 
 makers of this larger Britain this imperial realm 
 which we are still enlarging. 
 
 Now all is changed and prosaic. 
 
 In these days the parallels have shrunk, and the 
 meridians are no longer vague to the navigator. He 
 knows well where he is, and he knows, too, that the 
 untiring thrust of the propeller will surely bring him 
 to his port on a certain day, nay, at a certain hour. 
 
 There are now no quaint stoppings on the ocean 
 highway, no high-pooped Indiamen nod sea courtesies 
 to each other over tropic swells, nor is the pirate a 
 possible event in a Southern voyage. 
 
 In these days of hurry, steamers pass each other 
 with a careless waft, or in pre-occupied, surly silence. 
 The sea is safer than Piccadilly, and each step of our 
 journey upon it is heralded by the electric pulse which 
 throbs around the world. Yet every now and then 
 there comes to our ears some story of the ocean, some 
 echo of its vanished life, sometimes curious, more 
 often tragic, which, as it were, rolls the clock back to 
 those days of oak and hemp when steam was not. 
 
 Such a story I propose to tell. I wish I could tell 
 it deftly, but as I can only set forth a plain tale in 
 plain language, I must ask my readers to judge me 
 leniently. 
 
 I shall first say who I am that write this narrative. 
 My name, then, is Richard Blackburne, and I am 
 twenty-eight years old. My father was a rector in
 
 IN WHICH I INTRODUCE MYSELF 3 
 
 Devonshire, and sent me to school at Rugby, where I 
 remained several happy years. I insisted on going to 
 sea, but being too old for the Royal Navy, I went into 
 the Merchant Service and served my apprenticeship 
 in a vessel trading to Australia. 
 
 How well I remember her, with her white masts, 
 black yards, and chequered sides. Years before I 
 was born, years before steam elbowed sailing ships 
 into humbler trades, this grand old clipper had carried 
 passengers to Sydney. How many partings must her 
 decks have witnessed ? How many merry dances and 
 soft speeches must have taken place on her long poop 
 as she rolled to the southward in the push of the 
 trade wind ? 
 
 Her captain was a good sailor, a very father to the 
 boys, and a kindly gentleman. His memory is still 
 fragrant to me. I stayed in this ship till I was her 
 second mate. There followed short voyages in steam 
 tramps, then back to sail again as mate, in both square- 
 rigged and fore-and-aft craft. 
 
 Finally, I got into a good employ on the coast of 
 China, and would soon have held command had not 
 my health broken down and forced me to return to 
 England. 
 
 A rich cousin now offered me the chance of joining 
 him in squatting pursuits in New South Wales. The 
 chance I gladly took, and the year 1899 saw me in 
 that colony. 
 
 Unfortunately, my cousin and I fell out. Perhaps 
 I was to blame, perhaps he. Anyway we parted. I 
 never saw him again, and, in February, 1900, I found 
 myself in Sydney looking for something to do.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MY MEETING WITH CAPTAIN LEIGH, AND 
 WHAT CAME OF IT 
 
 T HAD looked about some time for a shore job, 
 but found, as I might have expected, that billets 
 such as I was fit for were few and far between ; so I 
 made up my mind that nothing remained but to go 
 once more to sea. 
 
 One Sunday afternoon I was in a tram-car on my 
 way to a suburb, and opposite me sat an elderly man 
 with a deeply-tanned face, keen, kindly eyes, and hair 
 salted with grey. 
 
 He had apparently gone past his proper stopping- 
 place, and discovering his mistake, suddenly started 
 up to get out on the wrong side. 
 
 He did not see, as I did, that another tram was 
 crossing us. 
 
 I caught him by the arm just as he was making a 
 spring, which most surely would have been his last. 
 
 ' Thanks, awfully ! ' he said. ' I fancy, if you 
 hadn't brought me up all standing, there would have 
 been an inquest to-morrow/ 
 
 'Well,' I replied, ' there was no time for ceremony.
 
 MY MEETING WITH CAPTAIN LEIGH 5 
 
 I saw you didn't notice that juggernaut coming along, 
 and I am thankful I was quick enough to block your 
 being immolated.' 
 
 ' I don't know your name, sir,' he said. ' But I am 
 exceedingly obliged to you I quite recognise that 
 your quickness saved my life. Here is my card I 
 shall be glad to see you again.' 
 
 I was about to hunt for one of my own to give him 
 in return when the tram stopped and he jumped out, 
 leaving me fumbling for my card case, on which I can 
 never lay my hands when I want it. 
 
 I read the address on the pasteboard : ' Nicholas 
 Leigh, Australian Club.' 
 
 The man's personality interested me, and his 
 manner, when he asked me to see him again, seemed 
 more than the conventional ' Look-me-up-when-you- 
 can ' kind of invitation which we carelessly fling 
 about to all sorts of people whom we don't want to 
 see, and who happily do not often want to see us. 
 
 However, in this case, I did call at his club one 
 afternoon, found him in, and thus was laid the 
 foundation of an acquaintanceship which, as you will 
 learn, had the most momentous consequences on my 
 fortunes. 
 
 ' I am glad that you have turned up/ he said, * for 
 in the hurry of a tram car I went off without your 
 name and address.' 
 
 I had my card in a get-at-able position on this 
 occasion, and handed it to him. 
 
 He looked at it, and then turning his face round to 
 me, he said : ' What is your occupation ? ' 
 
 ' None at present, unfortunately,' I replied, { but I 
 am a sailor.'
 
 6 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' So I imagined/ said he with a smile, ' and you are 
 out of a ship. Is that the case ? ' 
 
 ' Yes/ I answered. 
 
 'Well/ he said, 'I've been stewing indoors all 
 day, and I want to go out now. Suppose we go into 
 the Palace Gardens and have a pipe. I daresay no 
 one will stop us smoking, and if they do, we can at 
 least talk/ 
 
 I assented, aud shortly afterwards we were seated 
 with one of the noblest panoramas in the world spread 
 out before us. 
 
 Behind us lay the busy, rich city with its thousand 
 industries and that strange subdued hum which is the 
 complex result of countless diverse sounds blended by 
 distance. 
 
 Between us and the town itself lay the long rampart 
 of Macquarie-street surely one of the handsomest 
 highways in any capital, combining the most dis- 
 similar interests stately Government buildings, 
 palatial clubs, handsome dwelling-houses, and a great 
 hospital. Imagine Pall Mall Park Lane, and 
 Victoria-street rolled into one, and Macquarie-street 
 gives you such a picture in miniature. 
 
 The westering sun lit up the scene in front of us 
 with a mellowed glory. 
 
 Furthest away was the bold ridge of land which 
 shuts in Sydney Harbour from the ceaseless beat of 
 an ocean which does not always deserve its name. 
 Closer to us, lay here an island, there a peninsula, 
 crowned with timber, that gave variety to the land- 
 scape ; the sombre greys and dark greens of native 
 trees being relieved by the more vivid colours and
 
 MY MEETING WITH CAPTAIN LEIGH 7 
 
 shapely forms of Norfolk Island pine or English oak. 
 Between the points of land, vistas of sparkling water, 
 ships at anchor, and white-sailed yachts, gave the 
 interest of movement, and of human life, to the noble 
 setting in which the city stands. Beside us stood the 
 statue of Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of the 
 territory of New South Wales, the face turned towards 
 the Heads, looking to the ocean, as if, after a hundred 
 years, his anxious eyes still swept the horizon for the 
 succour on which the life of the infant colony once so 
 greatly depended. 
 
 Several minutes passed before either of us began 
 conversation. I think the striking scene, and all that 
 had been done since the brave seaman, whose statue 
 stood at our side, had lived and toiled, was in both 
 our minds, and we smoked in silence. 
 
 At length my companion turned to me. ' I do not 
 think,' ho said, ' that I sufficiently thanked you for 
 your smartness in saving me from an accident last 
 Sunday.' 
 
 I made some reply. He then went on to talk of 
 other matters the South African war, and the plague 
 topics which were in all men's mouths about that 
 time. 
 
 With the easy frankness of colonial society, ho 
 asked mo a few questions about my own career. 1 
 told him somewhat of my life and times, and of my 
 various employments at sea. He listened with interest, 
 and I felt sure before long that he belonged to the 
 same craft as my own. 
 
 'What should you take me to be ?' said he, with a 
 twinkle in his eye.
 
 8 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' May I use the method of exclusion ?' I replied. 
 
 He laughed. ' Yes, if you don't exclude too many 
 things. I'll only give you three chances.' 
 
 ' I shall only want one, I think,' said I, for I had a 
 very shrewd notion that I was going to make a good 
 guess. 
 
 ' Well, go on,' he answered. 
 
 ( You're not a squatter?' 
 
 ' No ; I wish I was one. That is, if I owned the 
 station, if there were no droughts, and wool was 
 half a crown a pound. Guess again/ 
 
 1 Well, then, you have been a sailor,' I answered. 
 ' If I'm wrong I give the matter up, and you'll have 
 to give me something easy.' 
 
 ' Quite right,' said my new friend : ' only it is not 
 " have been " I am a sailor now.' 
 
 He then went on to tell me that he owned and 
 commanded an Island trader. 
 
 He was clearly a man of good breeding and 
 education, and I speculated, as one often does, as to 
 what had been his history. 
 
 I had an appointment in the city that afternoon, so 
 I mentioned presently that I should have to make a 
 move. He said he wanted a walk, and so he accom- 
 panied me as far as the Post Office. 
 
 The Post Office of Sydney is a handsome building, 
 but it has one grotesque blot. Absurd carvings 
 disfigure part of its front. They are supposed to 
 represent certain industries. To anyone with the 
 slightest artistic sense they are poisonous in the 
 extreme. 
 
 As we walked towards this building we saw two
 
 MY MEETING WITH CA1TAIN LEIGH 9 
 
 young people, evidently ' new chums/ in front of us 
 globe-trotters, probably; one, a young man, 
 unmistakably just out from England high collar, 
 stick, trousers turned up, &c. ; the other a rosy- 
 cheeked girl. But both wholesome specimens of our 
 home folks. 
 
 Suddenly they stopped : stiffening like two pointers 
 close on game : astonishment on their faces. 
 
 ' I'll bet they're looking at the carvings/ said 
 Captain Leigh. f Let's be mean and listen to what 
 they say.' 
 
 ' All right/ I replied, and we walked quietly up 
 behind them and stood still, also looking at these 
 carven caricatures of human beings. 
 
 ' My goodness/ said the young man to the girl at 
 his side, ' what a country ! What a people ! How 
 can they bear it ?' 
 
 ' Awful/ said the girl. ' After this, old England is 
 good enough for me. Why, such an outrage would 
 not be tolerated, even in the middle of the Potteries ! ' 
 
 We looked at each other and laughed quietly. 
 
 ' Isn't it wonderful that these poisonous things 
 have not been taken away ?' said my companion. 
 
 * It is/ I answered, ' but I should miss them ; for 
 ever since I have sailed out of this port I can find a 
 certain amount of diversion in looking at their 
 absurdities. They act as a kind of fun-doctor to me.' 
 
 ' Nevertheless, it is bad for a new country to have 
 things like these distorting the rising generation in 
 their sense of what is fitting in art. They are not 
 realistic; they are simply libels on humanity/ replied 
 Captain Leigh.
 
 10 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I then bade him good-bye. 
 
 I met him several times during the next fortnight, 
 and learned more of his interesting personality. His 
 information on all sorts of subjects was great and 
 exact. He told me that his monetary circumstances 
 would allow him to live on shore, but that asthma, 
 from which he suffered, drove him to sea, to obtain a 
 respite. He seemed a strong-willed, somewhat silent 
 man, yet I felt greatly attracted to him. 
 
 At the end of about ten days I received a letter 
 from him asking me if I had yet succeeded in finding 
 employment, and saying that if I had not, he might 
 be able to offer me something that would suit. 
 
 I need not say what satisfaction this communication 
 gave me, for in truth I was passing weary of playing 
 the part of the importunate widow of Biblical fame. 
 I do not mean to imply that all the people whom I 
 pestered were unjust. But they certainly did not 
 seem to hunger after my services. I answered all 
 sorts of advertisements ; I hunted round the shipping 
 offices. Two or three tutorships I inquired after, but, 
 apparently, the applicant was expected to possess 
 every known branch of knowledge fine sewing and 
 crochet-work perhaps excepted. I therefore saw 
 within reasonable distance a time when I should find 
 myself truly ' on my uppers ' and sharing in the 
 ample caravanserai afforded by Hyde Park or the 
 Domain. 
 
 How punctual I was in keeping this appointment ! 
 How full of hope and expectation I came to 
 Macquarie-street that same morning ! 
 
 1 Well, Blackburne not got a billet yet ? ' he began.
 
 MY MEETING WITH CAPTAIN LEIGH 11 
 
 ' Colonies not what they used to be, eh ? Too much 
 Labour Party ? Is that what's wrong?' 
 
 * I don't exactly know what's wrong. But it seems 
 at least certain that I'm all wrong/ I answered rather 
 bitterly. 
 
 ' Tut, tut, my boy,' he rejoined, ' your case is not a 
 very evil one. How old are you ? ' 
 
 ' Twenty-eight,' I answered. 
 
 ' Well, you've got youth. Are you in good health?' 
 
 ' Excellent,' I replied. ' Indeed, it is my appetite I 
 so much dread.' 
 
 'A valuable ailment/ said Captain Leigh; 'cherish 
 it, Blackburne, cherish it carefully. In truth, you are 
 grumbling without cause. You confess to youth and 
 an excellent digestion. What the deuce have you to 
 complain about. Isn't the sun shining ? How will 
 you relish growing old?' 
 
 ' Well, then, sir, if these troubles are trifles, what 
 about idleness? I am suffering from that badly.' 
 
 1 Good/ said he, ' that is a serious malady. But 
 believe I can cure it. You have a master's certificate, 
 haven't you ? ' 
 
 ' Yes/ I replied. 
 
 ' Have you been in fore-and-afters and small craft ? 
 I don't want the sticks taken out of the Pandora some 
 fine night. Eh ? ' 
 
 ' I was nearly two years in a schooner/ I answered. 
 
 ' I'm glad to hear that, for I have a vacancy in one 
 of my vessels the Pandora. If you like you may sail 
 in her as mate.' 
 
 ' I gladly accept your offer/ I replied at once, ' and 
 thank you.'
 
 12 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' No thanks, no thanks, please/ he interrupted. 
 ' I'd. have offered you the place a week ago, only my 
 last mate was uncertain whether he would leave me or 
 not. He has been trying for a shore job and has got 
 it. Good chap he is, too ! ' 
 
 He paused a moment, and then added : 
 
 ' Well, the thing's fixed, so now we'll go over to 
 Balmain and I'll show you your ship/ 
 
 We got over to John stone's Bay, and there my eye 
 quickly caught sight of a very handsome topsail 
 schooner, painted white, and rather heavily sparred 
 for her size. 
 
 * There's your ship/ said my companion. 
 
 1 She's a beauty/ I replied. 
 
 ' Yes/ he said, ' she is, and you'll find her as good 
 as she looks.' 
 
 As we came closer to her one could hardly believe 
 that she was a vessel designed for trade She had a 
 single topsail, and a mainsail that I thought relatively 
 larger than I cared for. It was a sail that, I fore- 
 saw, needed careful management. 
 
 ' By Jove/ I exclaimed, ' she's a regular flyer. 
 Looks like a yacht ! ' 
 
 Captain Leigh seemed pleased. 
 
 'Yes, she does look well. Walter Smokes, the 
 marine architect, designed her for me ; she's well put 
 together and as tight as a drum. Martin/ said he to the 
 elderly seaman who pulled us on board, ' this gentle- 
 man is our new mate/ He turned aside to me and 
 added, ' You'll find him a prime sailor, and one of the 
 most honest men you ever met. I have had him with 
 me in prosperity and adversity for many years, and I 
 don't know anybody I trust and respect more highly.'
 
 " THKKK'S vui u snii','' SAID MY COMPANION
 
 MY MEETING WITH CAPTAIN LEIGH 13 
 
 The man looked the good character just given him 
 a sturdy, broad-shouldered Englishman, about the 
 Captain's own age, with bright, intelligent eyes, a 
 weather-beaten skin, and close, curling grey hair 
 the type of alert, active seaman who manned our 
 ships fifty years ago, before steam and the influence 
 of foreigners made a British sailor about as common 
 as a dodo. 
 
 1 Come below, Blackburne,' said the Skipper, as he 
 descended the companion. 
 
 I followed and looked round me in some surprise. 
 
 The trade in which the ship was employed necessi- 
 tated the occasional carriage of passengers, and 
 consequently her cabin accommodation was unex- 
 pectedly handsome for a small vessel. 
 
 Comfort and the best utilisation of space were 
 everywhere apparent. 
 
 We stood in a plain, bright little saloon, lit by a 
 skylight let into the small raised deck-house. Flowers 
 stood on the swing tray, and broke the rays of the 
 sun as they streamed through the open sides of the 
 aperture above. Round the table were four or five 
 revolving chairs. 
 
 Opening out of this cabin were two staterooms, 
 right aft on each side of the rudder trunk. 
 
 ' Come into my room/ said Captain Leigh. 
 
 It was a simple little sea bedroom. A standing cot 
 was on one side ; on the other, a chest of drawers, the 
 top of which opened with a lid, and underneath which 
 were stowed two chronometers and other nautical 
 tools. The deck was uncarpeted and of a snowy 
 whiteness. On the walls hung a few small sketches,
 
 14 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 chiefly of ships. By the side of the bed were two 
 pictures one of a handsome young matron, the other 
 of a girl, whose strong, bright face at once suggested 
 relationship with the man who stood looking at it. 
 
 ' My wife and my daughter/ he said simply. ' My 
 daughter sails with me sometimes. She is coming 
 with us this trip.' 
 
 We walked into the adjoining stateroom. It needed 
 nothing more than a glance to see the touch of a 
 woman's hand the hand of a woman with an artistic 
 sense. 
 
 This cabin was carpeted, and contained two berths, 
 the upper of which could be unshipped if there was 
 only one occupant of the stateroom. 
 
 The walls were a faint grey, picked out with some 
 other colour. Cunningly sewn hanging pockets and 
 neatly-made brackets clothed the bulkheads. And 
 here and there were photographs prettily framed, 
 whilst a pair of flowering plants afforded pleasant 
 rest to the eye. 
 
 ' This is my girl's room,' said the Captain. ' She 
 takes great pride in it.' It was one of the cosiest 
 cabins I ever saw on board a ship, and I said as much. 
 
 Forward of these two rooms were two smaller 
 cabins, one of which I found would be mine. These, 
 with a pantry, a lavatory, and a small berth for a 
 steward, or a cabin boy, completed the domestic 
 arrangements under the quarter deck. 
 
 The schooner which, by the way, was about two 
 hundred tons burden carried, besides Captain Leigh 
 and myself, a second mate, six seamen, a cook, and a 
 boy.
 
 MY MEETING WITH CAPTAIN LEIGH 15 
 
 Altogether the vessel pleased me immensely. She 
 was a wholesome, stout, and capable little craft. 
 
 ' Come to dinner to-morrow night ; I wish you to 
 meet my daughter/ said the Captain as we parted on 
 our return to town. ( Come a little after five, as I 
 intend first to go into a number of business matters.'
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 I AM TOLD THE OBJECT OF THE VOYAGE 
 AND INTRODUCED TO MISS LEIGH 
 
 'T^HE following afternoon I called at the boarding- 
 house in Macquarie-street where Captain Leigh 
 and his daughter were staying, and found myself 
 in their sitting-room, looking over the gardens. 
 Presently my host came in, and we were soon deeply 
 immersed in ship's business work which he wished 
 done on board, directions as to stores and cargo, and 
 so forth. All this took a good deal of time ; but at 
 last we had finished, and I said : 
 
 1 What is our destination ? ' 
 
 ' Well,' he replied, ( that's a secret ; you will 
 therefore regard what I am about to tell you as con- 
 fidential. The voyage is an out-of-the-way trip, and 
 may lead to nothing ; on the other hand it may prove 
 a most profitable undertaking. 
 
 ' I propose,' continued the Captain, ' to sail from 
 Sydney to a certain uncharted island in the Eastern 
 Pacific, where I have reason to think there is a large 
 deposit of guano, and upon which I have secured the 
 necessary rights to work. If the deposit is of payable
 
 I AM TOLD THE OBJECT OF THE VOYAGE 17 
 
 quantity and quality, I intend to load the schooner 
 partially, by way of a sample cargo, and then 
 proceed to Apia, where I shall get fresh information 
 as to visiting certain copra stations in which I am 
 interested, and for which I am carrying stores, even 
 if by rather a circuitous route. This done, we return 
 here. I shall clear the schooner " for Guam." ' 
 
 I may explain that in Sydney, as well as other 
 places, the curious fiction obtains of taking out a 
 vessel's clearance for Guam when you don't wish the 
 public to know where she is going, or don't quite 
 know yourself. Our conversation now came to an 
 end, for just then Miss Leigh entered the room. 
 
 The picture I had looked at on the schooner 
 certainly had given me the impression of a handsome 
 face ; but the artist had evidently not done justice to 
 the original. 
 
 She was tall and well proportioned, strong and 
 healthy looking ; but her real strength lay concealed 
 by the grace which was present in her every 
 movement. I shall not commit myself as to the 
 colour of her eyes, but I think hazel is nearest 
 to the correct hue. She had a low, broad fore- 
 head, and her shapely head was covered by masses 
 of dull-gold hair, which glistened in the sunshine 
 with an infinite fascination. Her chin was firm, 
 her eyebrows well marked ; her whole face, indeed, 
 was a charming blend of strength and sweetness. 
 Altogether, as she entered the room and stood 
 looking towards us, her soft muslin frock half 
 expressing the curved lines of her figure, she seemed
 
 18 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 to me the best picture of a wholesome, gentle- 
 mannered girl upon which my eyes had ever rested. 
 
 ( Hester, here is Mr. Blackburne, about whom I 
 have several times spoken. He is coming in the 
 Pandora in Mr. Jones' place. Mr. Blackburne, my 
 daughter is quite an old sailor.' 
 
 I bowed, and Hester Leigh, for such was her name, 
 smiled, and held out her hand, which, by the way, as 
 I found time to notice, was small and firm. 
 
 ' My father has told me of the way in which you 
 saved him from a horrible accident,' she said. ' I am 
 glad to be able to thank you myself. My father, I 
 always tell him, requires a London policeman to keep 
 him from the perils of trams and 'busses.' 
 
 Dinner was announced, and we three sat down. 
 
 The meal was a cheery one. Captain Leigh was in 
 excellent spirits, told us stories of past voyages, and 
 spoke very hopefully of the venture in which we were 
 about to embark. His daughter said little. Indeed, 
 her father was in such excellent vein that he kept us 
 both well entertained. We were good listeners, and 
 his talk and his jokes were worth listening to. 
 
 After dinner coffee was served on the balcony, 
 and we men smoked. Darkness fell ; the Gardens 
 and the Harbour sparkled with many lights ; the 
 silence occasionally broken by the whistle of a passing 
 steamer or a bugle call from one of the men-o'-war. 
 By and bye the Captain went into the sitting-room. 
 
 ( Hess, dear, I shall leave you to entertain Mr. 
 Blackburne. To-morrow will be English mail day, 
 and I want to polish off a few millstones in the way 
 of letters.'
 
 I AM TOLD THE OBJECT OF THE VOYAGE 19 
 
 I lit a fresh pipe, and Miss Leigh went on with her 
 knitting a work which women seem able to do under 
 any conditions. 
 
 There are some men and women between whom the 
 springs of talk refuse to flow. Perhaps one is dull 
 perhaps both. It is then said that ' they don't get 
 on/ and that they bore each other. I think, if the 
 truth were really known, most people rather do bore 
 each other. -Spontaneity, the power of interesting 
 others, is a rare faculty. Those who have it are social 
 successes. On the other hand, there are people who 
 find each other interesting only after a considerable 
 acquaintance. They have learned, in fact, that they 
 are mutually worth cultivating. This memorable 
 evening I say memorable, for the day must always 
 be marked by a red letter on which you meet ' the 
 not impossible she ' of your life I felt a strange 
 shyness upon me, and I remained silent for some little 
 time. 
 
 At last my companion began to ask me some simple 
 questions about England, and where I had been in 
 Australia. It was conversation of the most ordinary 
 type ; yet there is an indefinite sympathy and interest 
 of manner in some people which makes all the 
 difference between attraction and repulsion. Such 
 sympathy and interest of manner Miss Leigh 
 possessed, and by their power charmed me outside of 
 the barrier of shyness which fenced me round, and 
 which, no doubt, was largely the result of my solitary 
 life. I take it, too, that we were of interest to each 
 other in so far that we were both young people, and 
 were about to be thrown much together in the intimate
 
 20 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 association of a small vessel. In a few minutes I 
 found myself telling her about my home and family in 
 Devonshire and feeling happy in doing so. 
 
 'Do you come from Devonshire ?' she asked. 
 
 ' Yes/ I replied. 
 
 ( I know that county, and Somersetshire, pretty 
 well. I used to spend my holidays down there.' 
 
 One thing led to another and I found that she had 
 stayed with an aunt of mine and knew my small 
 cousins. It is odd how a trifling link like this puts 
 people on a friendly footing. From England and 
 common friends we drifted into other subjects books, 
 travel, amusements. She had not, so far, mentioned 
 her mother, and I wondered if she was alive. She 
 told me, however, that her father had once been a 
 lieutenant in the Royal Navy, but ever since she 
 could remember he had been at sea in the Merchant 
 Service. Just then I heard the clocks striking ten, 
 and I rose to go. 
 
 ' Well, Blackburne,' said the Captain, looking up 
 from his writing table, ' you had better turn up here 
 in a day or two and let me know how the schooner is 
 getting on. I shall not be aboard myself, as I have 
 a number of other matters to look to.' 
 
 During the next ten days I was very busy on board 
 getting the run of things, but I nevertheless managed 
 to see a little of the Leighs. Once we went to the 
 theatre together, and one day she and Mrs. Rawlinson 
 the wife of her father's agent came 011 board to 
 arrange the cabins. I gave them tea, and we had a 
 pleasant afternoon. 
 
 A good many matters required attention on the
 
 1 AM TOLD THE OBJECT OF THE VOYAGE 21 
 
 Pandora. The standing rigging needed lifting, as 
 some signs of wear and tear were apparent. The 
 sails had to be bent, and gear of all kinds to be 
 shipped. 
 
 Of cargo we were taking much less than our carry- 
 ing capacity, and it consisted largely of goods on the 
 owner's account for copra stations in which he had an 
 interest. 
 
 We took, however, a good deal of timber, with 
 which to erect stagings to handle the guano. We 
 likewise shipped several large buoys and moorings to 
 be laid down for the use of vessels when loading the 
 deposit. We also carried a condenser, a good deal of 
 coal, and some hundreds of gunny bags, for Captain 
 Leigh did not intend to stow in bulk the guano he 
 proposed bringing to Sydney. 
 
 All this freight, with a sufficiency of ballast, left the 
 schooner in excellent sailing trim. And when the 
 little hooker was painted, and everything set up and 
 hauled taut, she made one think of Cowes week in 
 August, rather than of a trader, and the vast Pacific.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY 
 
 T TTE left the wharf on the afternoon of March 23rd, 
 ' and, to say the truth, I was not sorry to do so. 
 It was a moist, muggy month in Sydney, and, what 
 between the war in South Africa and the plague in 
 the city, it was anything but a cheerful place. More- 
 over, a Wynyard-square boarding-house at night and 
 Darling Harbour stenches during the day formed an 
 environment which made a wholesome schooner and 
 fresh sea breezes something to wish for. 
 
 We proceeded as far as Watson's Bay, the pilot 
 station, and then anchored for the night. 
 
 I took one of our boats ashore to the little quay to 
 meet Miss Leigh, who joined us later in the evening, 
 having come down from the city by steamer. As we 
 pulled off, I noticed with some personal pride the 
 trim, yacht-like appearance of the Pandora. 
 
 I could not call to mind a vessel I had ever known 
 which took my fancy more as an example of marine 
 architectural grace. 
 
 That night the second mate and I picked the 
 watches, and three sturdy, likely-looking men fell 
 to me. 
 
 22
 
 WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY 23 
 
 Martin Johnston, an old man-of-war's man, of 
 whom I have already spoken, and who will appear 
 frequently in this narrative ; a Swede named Olaf 
 Svin, who had long been on coasters running to the 
 Northern rivers of the colony ; and lastly, a youth 
 from New Zealand, about twenty years old, a fine 
 hearty young fellow, McKeowen by name. 
 
 To the second mate's watch fell two cockneys, 
 Jones and Simpson, and a huge Sandwich Islander 
 called ' Jack.' 
 
 The boy's name was Alf Nash. He and the cook 
 kept no watch. The boy was a great character, and 
 some of his conversation I have kept a note of. He 
 and Martin had both sailed in the Pandora on previous 
 trips. One or two of the others were not strangers to 
 Captain Leigh, as they had sailed in other vessels 
 belonging to him. 
 
 At five a.m. the following morning we got our 
 anchor, and with a light air from the west we cleared 
 the Heads about six o'clock or thereby. We remained 
 in sight of the land till about ten in the forenoon, 
 when we picked up a fresh breeze from the N.E., and 
 soon saw the last of the Australian coast. 
 
 I found that the Skipper had decided to make his 
 easting to the southward, and so wo laid off a course 
 to take us through Cook's Strait. 
 
 During the dog watch I had a long talk with him, 
 and he gave me the story of the guano island we 
 were now bound for. 
 
 'We have quite a long passage before us,' he 
 remarked, ' for I make the island to be in lat. 1 ( J 
 5 S. and long. 105 14' W.'
 
 24 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' Why/ I answered, f that is four or five hundred 
 miles north or so of Easter Island.' 
 
 ' Just so/ replied Captain Leigh. ' It is placed in 
 about as island- vacant a patch of the ocean as you can 
 well find.' 
 
 ' I should like to hear how you came across it/ I 
 said. 
 
 ' It was this way/ he answered. ' You know how I 
 like to read old accounts of voyages. Well, I came 
 across the report of an American whaler, in 1805, 
 sighting land about the position I have given you. 
 The report of this discovery was noted in several of 
 the earlier sailing directions, but with a query after 
 it, as no subsequent observers had verified the 
 American's discovery. Indeed all notice of it is 
 omitted from both modern charts and Findlay's 
 Directory? 
 
 ( That is curious/ I said, ' for when we consider the 
 number of whalers in the South Pacific during the 
 first forty years of the century it seems strange that 
 none of them picked it up.' 
 
 ' It is odd/ he replied, ' for fifty years ago there 
 were far more ships scattered over these seas than 
 furrow them now. So much does the latter-day carry- 
 ing trade confine itself to certain ocean highways 
 marine Oxford or Regent streets. As for the grimy 
 old whaler, well, oil-hunting is a vanished industry. 
 
 ' Several years ago/ he continued, ' I happened to 
 be somewhere near the supposed position and I hauled 
 the ship up a point or two on the chance of seeing 
 land, if, indeed, it existed at all. My curiosity was 
 rewarded, for some hours afterwards land was sighted
 
 WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY 25 
 
 whore none was laid down on the charts. I therefore 
 certainly identified this discovery with that of the 
 American captain made ninety years previously. I 
 stood close in, sounding all the time, and ascertained 
 that the island contained a large amount of guano. 
 I would have made a fuller examination, but the 
 weather was unfavourable, so I kept the ship off on 
 her course without closer scrutiny. My observations, 
 which were good ones, placed it twenty odd miles 
 further to the east than that assigned by the 
 discoverer. 
 
 ' I suspected that the guano could be worked to 
 profit, and then and there determined to return armed 
 with the necessary legal rights to ship the deposit. 
 Hence this voyage/ 
 
 During the next few days, after leaving the coast, 
 we had rather unsettled weather, rain and squalls, and 
 though the Pandora made excellent weather of it, still 
 it was wet, raw, and miserable, and I remembered, 
 with regret, the comforts of my cousin's station, and, 
 after the manner of my kind, cursed the hour I went 
 to sea. 
 
 When we had fairly cleared the land I saw com- 
 paratively little of the Captain for some days. Ho 
 was just recovering from a bad attack of asthma; 
 moreover, he was, as I already knew, a good deal of a 
 bookworm ; and when not engaged in navigating his 
 ship he was absorbed in literature. He had a pro- 
 found acquaintance with the history of navigation 
 and maritime enterprise ; but, quite apart from 
 professional lore, ho seemed to have ' made all know- 
 ledge his province.' Whether it was a point in
 
 26 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 history, in biography, or general literature, was 
 immaterial. I learned to look upon him as a sort of 
 animated Encyclopaedia Britannica. His daughter 
 used to call him her ' Times Edition.' 
 
 As the days passed I found with inward comfort 
 that he left me to myself to carry on the routine of 
 the ship. On the whole I had much to give me satis- 
 faction. I saw he trusted me ; and nothing, to a man 
 of my temperament, could give more satisfaction 
 than the trust and good opinion of a man whom I 
 recognised as my professional superior. 
 
 The schooner proved as good as she looked, staunch, 
 weatherly, and dry. We were well manned for our 
 size, and the men struck me as a particularly able, 
 clean-looking crowd. We had fair winds, and the 
 Pandora was hardly off her course all the way across 
 the Tasman Sea. 
 
 On the eighth or ninth day out we sighted the high 
 land of Mount Egmont, lying fifty miles away to the 
 nor'ard. How glorious it looked with the sunlight 
 glistening on its snow-crowned top ! 
 
 Miss Leigh was an early riser, and invariably came 
 up as soon as the decks were washed down. On this 
 particular morning she had been about for some time 
 before we brought the mountain abeam. 
 
 How impossible it seems to write an adequate des- 
 cription of a pretty woman ! I shall not, then, 
 attempt to place on paper the charm of this simple, 
 unaffected girl as she stood that morning, her figure 
 swaying to the movement of the schooner. But her 
 picture remains with me, so that in the after years, 
 when youth has long vanished, I can summon it up
 
 WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY 27 
 
 and live anew in those bright hours when love first 
 began to vibrate in my heart's strings. 
 
 I walked across towards the companion where she 
 stood and handed her the glasses, which she turned 
 upon Mount Egmont. 
 
 ' Have you been in New Zealand, Miss Leigh ? ' I 
 asked. 
 
 ' Yes, many years ago, in Dunedin but I do not 
 remember it, Mr. Blackburne, for I was a small baby. 
 I was born off the Cape of Good Hope on the same 
 voyage/ 
 
 ' Have you been often at sea since ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' Oh, yes ; several voyages with my father when my 
 mother was alive ; and I have done some yachting in 
 the Channel. My mother died when I was about ten. 
 Father has never recovered from it ; he grew old 
 almost at once ; he felt it so hard that she should 
 have shared his poverty and not have lived to see 
 him prosperous. Father had a deal of trouble in past 
 years, and he always says that Mother dragged him 
 through it/ 
 
 This, then, was the explanation of her father's 
 silence concerning his wife. 
 
 Miss Leigh continued : ' I was left at school in 
 England ; my Mother's people looked after me ; but 
 Father, to my great joy, took me on a couple of trips.' 
 
 ' You were talking about hospitals the other day, 
 Miss Leigh, and I understood you to say you had 
 been in one.' 
 
 ' Oh, yes/ she answered. ' Becoming an hospital 
 nurse is the same kind of thing to girls that going to 
 sea is to many boys. I determined to do it and did.
 
 28 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I have been two years in a London hospital, and I 
 suppose I should be there now only Father has so 
 many interests in Sydney that he couldn't come home 
 to England to see me, so he sent for me. If his 
 asthma would only let him stay ashore I should keep 
 his house. But as that seems impossible I have gone 
 a voyage or two with him instead. It isn't two years 
 yet, Mr. Blackburne, since I came to New South 
 Wales; so you see, even if I'm an old sailor, I'm 
 quite a " new chum." 
 
 ' Don't you hate living in a boarding-house ? ' I 
 asked. 
 
 ' I should just say I do/ said Miss Leigh ; ' but, as 
 a matter of fact, I have had very little of it, for part 
 of the time I have been at sea in this ship, and when 
 in Sydney I have stayed with the Rawlinsons. You 
 met Mrs. Rawlinson. She has been kindness itself 
 and I have made a number of friends who have been 
 very good to me Australian hospitality is a reality. 
 So I have been 011 visits to various places both in 
 Sydney and up country, and my rather isolated 
 position has not pressed on me. All the same I wish 
 Father could stay ashore and have a home. When 
 Mother was alive and he had to go to sea, Father 
 longed for a home. Now she is gone, and he could 
 live anywhere he wished, he says he must keep at sea 
 or else he'll die.' 
 
 Just then Alf Nash came aft. I had already found 
 a good deal of amusement in his droll ways. Miss 
 Leigh knew him from a former voyage, and used to 
 divert herself by drawing him out. 
 
 This boy was an odd specimen of humanity. He
 
 WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY 29 
 
 might have been thirteen or he might have been that 
 age and one hundred added to it, so meagre, so aged- 
 looking, was this waif of a great city. He had the 
 curious accent of the Sydney larrikin, the strange 
 mingling of the twang of the East End of London 
 with the softer drawl of New South Wales. His face 
 and expression were grotesque. His left eyelid as 
 the result of some injury drooped permanently over 
 his eye, and the orb which was uncovered was dark, 
 deep set, restless, and merry. When he wanted to be 
 particularly impressive he hitched the dropped lid up 
 with his left thumb. 
 
 His face was somewhat like that of an aged and 
 cunning, but kindly, monkey. 
 
 He had a huge mouth, which will be best described 
 by saying that it was happily arrested by his ears, 
 and these stuck out like those of a listening elephant. 
 
 Miss Leigh called him up to where we were standing. 
 
 ' I asked you the other day, Alf, where you were 
 born ? ' 
 
 'On the Rocks,* Mum.' 
 
 'Where is that?' said Miss Leigh. 
 
 ' Why, it's hup or near the 'ights of Church 'ill, 
 hoverlooking the 'arbour/ replied the boy, breaking 
 his neck over every aspirate. 
 
 ' What age are you now, Alf ? ' 
 
 1 1 doesn't rightly .know, but the old woman, she 
 thinks Hi'm sixteen ; but the old man, 'e reckons 
 Hi'm more. Blime me if I knows, Lydy.' 
 
 ' What took you to sea ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' It wur this w'y,' said the urchin. ' I wur pickin' 
 
 * A remnant of old Sydney ; not now an aristocratic quarter.
 
 30 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 hup a livin' any'ow. See this eye ? Well, I wur in a 
 ricing stible, an' I gets busted agin a Curdle, an' 
 knocked silly loike. They tikes me to the 'orspital, 
 and the doctor bloke, 'e works away at me 'ead, an' 
 finds a hulster on me brine. 'E 'as to cut it hout and 
 they 'ad to let down this 'ere heyelid to cover hup the 
 'ole. See the scar, Lydy ? ' 
 
 ' Well, my boy, go on.' 
 
 ' After I gets discharged I goes back to the ricing 
 stible and I does well enough. But a fly bloke I 
 knows on, 'e gives me somethin' hup my sleeve, and 
 my horse goes and run second when by roights 'e 
 oughter run first. Well, I gets the chuck from that 
 job " disqualerfied " they calls it " suspichus run- 
 nin'." 
 
 ' Then, one day, I meets the 'orspital doctor. 
 
 1 Says 'e, " Well, Alf, what's on now ? " 
 
 ( Says I, " No luck, Doctor. I've got the ' chaff- 
 bag.'"* 
 
 ' " 'Ow's that ? " says 'e. 
 
 ' And I tells 'im stright 'ow it were, man to man, 
 jes' as Hi'm a-tellin' ye now, Lydy. 
 
 ' " Well," says J e, " Hi'll get you a job as boot-boy 
 and ginerly useful in a genelman's family, if you'll 
 keep honest." 
 
 ' " I'll be stright,' says I ; ' Gor blime me if Hi'm 
 not." 
 
 ' So I thanks 'im, and tells 'im Hi'm fair on the 
 job. 
 
 ' " Well," 'e says, " you'll 'ave to get somethin' 
 temporey-like till the family comes down to town." 
 
 * ' The sack ' or his dismissal.
 
 WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY 31 
 
 ' So I goes a-sellin' pipers. Sings liout the 'codings, 
 I does " Special edeetion " " Sooicide of a lamp 
 post ' " Doin's in Divorce " " Society in 'ell." I does 
 pretty well, too, for I knows a lot o' ricing blokes, 
 and a heap of coves buys from me because I'm that 
 damned ugly (beg yer parding, Miss ; that word were 
 a haccident). Well, I knocks hout a few shillin's 
 over and above hexpenses, w'ich I gives to the old 
 woman, and then my old man, 'e goes and snaffles 
 them from 'er. 'E's a reg'lar l ' Jimmy Woods' "* 'e is. 
 'E'd scoff a prayer meetiii', 'e would, if it 'ad a drink 
 hinside o' it, tho' I'll allow I 'ave seen 'im a little 
 sober once or twice, but not orften. 'Im an' me 
 don't 'it it. So one noight 'e 'its me that 'ard that 
 Oi goes off silly-loike and 'e gets jugged over the 
 job. 'E swore 'e'd finish me w'en 'e come hout from 
 doin' time. So Mother, she thinks it best for me to 
 clear hout for a bit and so I does, and dosses in the 
 Domain. f 
 
 Alf was evidently in a communicative vein, and I 
 was anxious to hear if he had really been an indoor 
 servant. I should have thought a dingo in a lambing 
 paddock would be about as suitable a combination. 
 I therefore asked him what next befell. 
 
 ' By and by,' he continued, ' I really gets tho job as 
 boot-boy in a toff's 'ouse in Potts Point. A Jew 
 gent 'e were. Lord, Lydy, the eatin's in that 'ouse 
 hevery think hup to the 'ammer. I gets quite fat, I 
 does. But the Cook she couldn't abear me. 
 
 * A man who drinks by himself. 
 
 | A large park in Sydney where ' sundowners ' and homeless 
 people generally camp at night.
 
 32 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' She wur a big, fat Hirish gal, an' it was, " 'Ere 
 you boy, there ! " " 'Ere, you gutter-snipe ! " " Where 
 are you ?" and such like. One day we 'as some words. 
 I seen 'er kissin' the cove what bought the drippin' 
 an' I gives 'er away to the other gals. So I says, 
 " Look 'ere, Miss O'Toole," says I, " 'ow long is it since 
 you were a-hoeing taties with your toes?" 
 
 ' " None of your durrty impurrtenince," says she, 
 quite grand like. 
 
 ' " 'Ullo," says I, " what 'ave we 'ere ? One of the 
 quality, with six-button gloves hup to 'er helbows, 
 and clean stockin's on Sundays." 
 
 ( My heye, she lets drive at me with a stoo-pan, and 
 it 'its the lydy of the 'ouse (she was a-comin' 
 inter the kitchen) full in 'er stummick. Gor blime 
 me, Miss, I gets my ribs nigh loose with larfing. 
 There was a proper fust-class row. Anyw'y, I gets my 
 walkin' ticket hover it. And 'ere I ham goned for 
 a s'ilor.' 
 
 ' Well, Alf,' said Miss Leigh, ' now you are at sea, 
 try to be a good sailor and learn your work. It is 
 far better to have a trade than live anyhow, as you 
 have been doing.' 
 
 'That's roight, lydy, I'm a-goin' to graft proper 
 and steady. Drink'll kill the old man, sure enough ! 
 And then the old woman will be middlin' comf'rt'ble. 
 She can keep lodgers and do a bit of washiii'. I'll 
 'elp 'er a bit, too. No morebloomiii' "'eavy fathers" 
 for me, as I 'ear them say at the Tivoli Theayter.' 
 
 The wind was drawing ahead, and I had to trim 
 sail, so the further experiences of Master Alf Nash, 
 of Miller's Point, Sydney, were adjourned for the time.
 
 WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY 33 
 
 We did not slip through Cook Strait as quickly 
 as we hoped. 
 
 Strong head winds and thick, rainy weather 
 bothered us not a little. And an incident now 
 occurred which went near to bringing us all to an 
 abrupt end. 
 
 We had been under short canvas for nearly two 
 days, and had with difficulty done little more than 
 hold our own against the strong gale and head sea. 
 
 On the afternoon of April 2nd we were off the 
 high, timber-clad hills of D'Urville Island. We were 
 sure of our position, for the prevailing thickness had 
 lifted about three p.m., and we had got good cross 
 bearings. 
 
 But about four o'clock the weather was thicker 
 than ever, and vicious squalls of wind and rain swept 
 over the struggling little vessel. The schooner was 
 then under reduced sail ; but, even so, she had as 
 much as she could carry. 
 
 We were bursting through the head sea, with her 
 lee-rail smothered, and white torrents pouring along 
 her water-ways. We wished, indeed, to get through 
 the Straits, out of narrow waters, and the Skipper was 
 pressing her. 
 
 At dusk we were well in the fairway, and were 
 keeping a sharp lookout, both by eye and ear, for 
 there is a considerable traffic round this part of the 
 New Zealand coast. 
 
 Captain Leigh and his daughter were standing well 
 aft on the weather side of the deck-house. 
 
 Our ship was close-hauled on the starboard tack, 
 
 standing towards the northern side of the passage. 
 
 c
 
 34 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I myself was forward on the lee-side of the quarter 
 deck, when I heard the most fearful yell from the fore 
 rigging : 
 
 ' A vessel on the starboard beam ! ' 
 
 I ran over to the weather rail and beheld a most 
 appalling sight, for there, oozing out of the dense 
 obscurity, I could discern the huge bulk of a steamer 
 coming right down on top of us wind and sea on her 
 quarter, and a mountain of white foam at her bows. 
 
 I turned aft. The Captain was perfectly calm. 
 
 1 Shout ! All of you ! ' he cried. 
 
 Then, turning to the steersman, I heard his clear 
 voice say : 
 
 ' Don't shift your helm ! ' 
 
 We yelled and shouted all we knew, and I blew the 
 fog horn. 
 
 A few moments of suspense followed, then slowly 
 it seemed an age to us whose lives hung in the 
 balance the great imminent iron mass fell away to 
 port, and brushed past our taffrail not twenty feet 
 distant. 
 
 Her huge wall-side came into view and swept out 
 of sight in a roar of wind, and crushed, foam-covered 
 sea. 
 
 I think we all looked pretty pale after so near a 
 shave, nevertheless I could not help admiring the 
 coolness of Miss Leigh. No one could have behaved 
 more calmly in the stress of those few fateful 
 moments. She was holding on to a back-stay, wrapped 
 in a long yellow oilskin coat, and from under the 
 thatch of her sou'-wester there blew out a stray rain- 
 soaked curl.
 
 WE SAIL FROM SYDNEY 35 
 
 She looked curiously like her father as she stood 
 beside him on that wind-swept, spray-drenched deck, 
 while the gale played its mad music through the 
 half-naked spars of the groaning storm-beaten ship.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 WE LEAVE COOK STRAIT 
 
 weather moderated towards morning, and we 
 made sail; nevertheless several days elapsed 
 before we got through these narrow waters ; and we 
 were all pretty tired of ' 'Bout ship ! ' before we finally 
 took our departure from Cape Palliser on the eastern 
 coast of the North Island. 
 
 Still it was interesting sailing; and of all places in 
 the world which I have visited I think I prefer New 
 Zealand climate, scenery, vegetation, productions 
 all make it charming c where/ I concluded, ' every 
 prospect pleases/ 
 
 ' Yes/ added the Captain, who had been listening 
 as I confided the above impressions to his daughter, 
 ' but politics are vile/ 
 
 Hester (I was already beginning to call her so to 
 myself) and I laughed, for I had already learned how 
 intensely conservative he was in his views on legis- 
 lation. Indeed, it is only by studying the ways of 
 colonial politicians of the professional type that one 
 realises the risk of giving ignorant and self-seeking 
 demagogues power over the property of others.
 
 WE LEAVE COOK STRAIT 37 
 
 Commend me to colonial life to make a hard-working 
 man a Conservative. 
 
 It generally happened that Miss Leigh and I fell 
 into talk in the second dog watch. I had begun to 
 look forward to these meetings in a way which sur- 
 prised myself. 
 
 One particularly fine evening we were sailing fast, 
 but the sea was smooth and the vessel as steady as a 
 church. 'How glorious the sea looks and how sweetly 
 the Pandora is going along/ said Miss Leigh. 
 
 ' Yes/ I replied, ' if the ocean was always like this 
 one might indeed "sell a farm and go to sea" without 
 doing a very foolish thing/ 
 
 ' Well, at any rate/ she replied, ' you feel on a 
 vessel like this that you are really at sea. For myself 
 I never feel so on a mail steamer. The smells, the 
 engines, the noise, the crowd of people, and above all, 
 the " amusements," make me long for a lonely little 
 ship like this. " White wings " may flap us across 
 the ocean very slowly, but they do it very sweetly 
 and very beautifully.' 
 
 ' You came out in a large steamer, Miss Leigh ? ' 
 
 'Yes. It was interesting enough touching at 
 Malta and Colombo. But I wearied of the passage. 
 And oh, the terrors of the " sports committee." Life 
 on a mail steamer might be quite tolerable if it were 
 not for its amusements.' 
 
 ' I agree with you wholly/ I replied. ' I once made 
 a trip as a passenger from Bombay to London, and it 
 was impossible to find peace anywhere. Crowds of 
 people, quoits, and cricket made the decks hideous, 
 while swarms of spoilt Indian children made the
 
 38 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 cabins impossible. In self-defence I had to join the 
 rioters. That trip was the most arduous idleness I 
 ever embarked upon.' 
 
 ' I am afraid/ said Miss Leigh, ' that you must be 
 rather a solitary man. Is "a crowd not company, 
 and are faces but a gallery of pictures ? " 
 
 I smiled and felt pleased when I heard her trans- 
 pose those words of Bacon. 
 
 1 Do you read Bacon, Miss Leigh ? ' 
 
 ' A little at least I know his Essays pretty well. 
 But I wish he hadn't been so worldly and mean. I 
 declare it hinders my self-improvement when I think 
 how his precepts and practice disagreed.' 
 
 I thought this a very feminine view, for I had 
 learned to dissociate the man from his teaching else 
 what would we not seldom feel on Sundays ? The 
 parson and his preaching are not always in keeping. 
 Let us take both at their proper worth, and not allow 
 the benefit of the one to depend on the worthiness of 
 the other. 
 
 1 By the way/ I said, ' talking of Bacon, I always 
 think the Sydney people ought to put up a statue to 
 him as the real founder of the frozen meat industry.' 
 
 < Why so?' 
 
 'Don't you remember the manner in which he died?' 
 
 Miss Leigh thought a moment and then said : 
 
 ' Do you mean the incident of stuffing the dead fowl 
 with snow to see if decay were thereby averted f ' 
 
 ( Yes/ I answered, f and he thus got a chill, and 
 died of it. But he lived long enough to record that 
 the experiment succeeded " excellently well." 
 
 ' I remember all about it now/ she answered. ' By
 
 WE LEAVE COOK STRAIT 39 
 
 and by, when you have become a rich shipowner, and 
 carry thousands of frozen carcases to London, you 
 must erect such a statue to your favourite.' 
 
 ' I think, then,' I replied, ' that Bacon will remain 
 uncommemorated, for I fear me I shall always be a 
 poor man.' 
 
 We fell silent. I think my readers may possibly 
 have already guessed that this girl's sweetness and 
 beauty were beginning to fill a large part of my daily 
 thoughts. But with any idea of love came the cold 
 reflection that the beggarly pay of the sea, and my 
 own commercial ineptitude, would probably never 
 give me an income sufficiently large or settled to 
 justify me in asking Miss Leigh to marry me. Besides 
 this, she was an only child, and herself somewhat of 
 an heiress; hence it would be a very unequal match. 
 
 ' What are you thinking about, Mr. Blackburne ? ' 
 she suddenly asked. 
 
 I flushed as I answered : 
 
 ' I am thinking of what a hard mistress Old Ocean 
 is to those whose misfortune it is to serve her.' 
 
 ' Please don't say misfortune. Where would our 
 country be without her sailors ? A sailor a British 
 sailor I ought to say is a live man at any rate. And 
 in spite of hardship and poverty you know the sea is 
 a fine profession.' 
 
 ' True/ I answered, ' but, nevertheless, it is some- 
 times very full of bitterness even " when skies are 
 sweet as a psalm." 
 
 I was leaning over the rail at the time and I felt 
 her eyes upon me. Presently she turned away, and, 
 as our conversation was interrupted, we said no more.
 
 40 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 During the past few weeks I had learned what a 
 strong, wholesome mind this dear lady possessed. 
 How true and attentive to her father ! How indus- 
 trious and cheerful ! How well read ! 
 
 One evening we dropped upon the time-worn subject 
 of women's rights and the opening of professions to 
 women. I was curious to learn what she would say 
 on such a matter. I recollect it was the day we lost 
 sight of Cape Palliser. 
 
 Her father pointed to the land which lay away 
 astern like a faint smudge against the after-glow of 
 the sunset. 
 
 ' Look, Hess, there lies the country of experimental 
 legislation female suffrage and a lady-mayor. Do 
 you think it would satisfy your aspirations ? ' 
 
 His daughter made a little pout of contempt. 
 
 ' What ! ' said her father with a laugh, ' you turn 
 up your nose at the political and social excesses of 
 New Zealand, and yet the last time I was in England 
 I remember a certain little girl declaring she intended 
 to have a profession, and would not be a drag on any 
 man.' 
 
 1 So I did, Father, dear, but I didn't ask for a vote. 
 And I don't want to be a mayor. And I didn't say 
 that a woman should have the entree to every pro- 
 fession. One has to be just, and remember that the 
 poor men have to live somehow ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, you shifty politician ! ' retorted her father. 
 ( What, then, are your views ? Here's Blackburne as 
 a witness, and we'll take them down in writing.' 
 
 ' Just like men/ said Miss Leigh gaily ; ' you get 
 courage in numbers to hunt down a poor lone woman.
 
 WE LEAVE COOK STRAIT 41 
 
 I hate one's opinions being written to confute one 
 afterwards. To alter them only shows how progressive 
 one is at least so say politicians in want of votes. 
 Besides, in these matters, you know that women have 
 " intuitive perceptions." 
 
 ' Never mind the political villains,' said her father, 
 1 let us have your deliberate opinions your " rational 
 deductions." I say, Blackburnc, we'll interview this 
 lady. 
 
 ' Do you approve of women having votes ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly not/ said his daughter, with a toss of 
 her shapely head. 
 
 'Why not?' 
 
 ' Because women, for the most part, take no real 
 interest in the subjects at issue at an election, and 
 would be swayed by hustings oratory far more even 
 than the man in the street.' 
 
 ' Now, Blackburne, it is your turn.' 
 
 1 What about the professions, Miss Leigh ? Say 
 the church ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, the church ! Father, I never asked to be 
 admitted to holy orders now, did I ? It makes me 
 quite ill to see a woman conducting a prayer meeting. 
 I know one who smooths her eyebrows when she gets 
 off her knees vain thing ! Of course it is possible 
 that a woman might become an excellent bishop. All 
 the same, I don't think hers would bo a peaceful 
 diocese.' 
 
 < But what about a woman curate ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' A high church curate, even if athletic, is not a 
 very consoling spectacle at any time. But what a 
 high church curatess would be like I tremble to think.
 
 42 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 What excitements in sacred millinery would she not 
 invent ? What heart-burnings over the fit of one's 
 alb or stole ? ' 
 
 'Hessie, you quite shock me,' said her father. 
 ' Tell us now about medicine.' 
 
 ' Well, Father, I think medicine is a fair field for a 
 small number of specially gifted women. But I don't 
 think I disparage my sex when 1 say that of fifty 
 male medical students, thirty will turn out pretty 
 good doctors, while of the same number of women 
 students I doubt if more than fifteen will do any good 
 in their profession.' 
 
 Miss Leigh turned to me and laughed as she said, 
 ' Mr. Blackburne, don't believe my father I mean 
 he's trying to make out I've got " views." I haven't 
 got any, really. I wanted to become a nurse, because 
 it is the natural outlet and the best and most suitable 
 work for many women who have to earn their own 
 living, *>r who have no immediate home duties. But 
 truly I don't want to see men as a body joining the 
 unemployed driven out by female competition ! ' 
 
 1 Well done, Daughter,' said her father, evidently 
 pleased. ' I'll ask you only one more question ' 
 
 ' Now, Father, when is the inquisition going to 
 cease ? ' 
 
 ' In a moment, Child. Should matrimony be 
 abolished by law ? ' 
 
 ' Father, the worm will turn, and I refuse to auswer 
 the question.' 
 
 ' Well, Blackburne, I commit her for contempt of 
 court, and imprison her till the rising of the same.' 
 
 As he said this the kindly old man linked his arm in
 
 WE LEAVE COOK STRAIT 43 
 
 hers, and added, ' Well, my lady, I don't think I'll 
 punish you after all, for I'm satisfied that you at least 
 understand all about being kind to your grumpy old 
 dad.' 
 
 It was dusk, and we stood in the shadow of the 
 mainsail ; yet it was light enough to see the quick 
 glance of affection which filled the girl's eyes as she 
 patted her father's handsome face. 
 
 I thought to myself that this girl's true profession 
 was to be the centre and the sunshine of a home, 
 and of those nearest and dearest to her. For this I 
 hold to be the best crown of womanhood to be a 
 wife and mother. 
 
 For those who unhappily miss these joys the cold 
 glory of a profession is a wise provision against 
 dependence, against want, and against those grey 
 days when youth is past, which truly press harder on 
 an unwedded woman than on a solitary man. 
 
 The next few days slipped pleasantly away. 
 
 I don't think I have said anything yet about the 
 second mate, whose name, by the way, was William 
 Cassidy. He was a stout, ignorant sailor who, under 
 a rough exterior, had a heart of gold. An Irishman, 
 witty, kind, and an excellent practical seaman. He 
 had sailed in another schooner belonging to Captain 
 Leigh. Ho was an amusing character, and full of 
 stories of all sorts. He was, unlike most Irishmen, 
 rather fond of the Chinese, with whom he had had 
 many dealings both afloat and ashore. 
 
 He amused me very much by describing how a 
 countrywoman of his sat on an amiable and polite 
 ' Chow.'
 
 44 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 Told by Cassidy, a quid in his cheek, the narrative 
 punctuated by expectoration, any story was funny. 
 
 ' Moy counthry wimmin is anythin' but poloite at 
 toimes. I moind three years ago come Juloy ; I was 
 comin' from the Cape to Melbourne and we had a 
 power of steerage passengers. A lot of Oirish and a 
 good sphrinkling of Choinese. It was morthal cowld, 
 and the decks were that wet nobody wanted to 
 wash. 
 
 ( I sees a Chinkey a-goin' f or'ard in his pyjamas, 
 and his schlaping coat was a-flappin' in the wind. 
 
 ' He gets as far as the steerage companion and 
 there, in the lee soide av it, was sittin' an ould crone 
 av the name av Mistress Flynn ; she were suckin' the 
 thin end of a dudheen. 
 
 1 Welly cowld, Ma'm, welly cowld, Missy Tymm/ 
 says the Choiuaman, shiverin' loike. 
 
 ' " Cowld be damned," says the ould girl. " Ye 
 durrty haythen, why don't ye tuck the tail av yer 
 shirt into yer pants ? and thin, begorra, it's not 
 cowld ye'll be miscallin' it. " 
 
 ( Bedad, Mr. Blackburne, I thought I'd never finish 
 wid the divarsion it giv' us.' 
 
 I don't exactly know why I laughed as much as I 
 did. I suppose it was the Irish drollery of speech 
 and gesture. Just then Miss Leigh came on deck, 
 and Cassidy went below. 
 
 The men were at various jobs on the rigging, and 
 noticing that a certain rope was beginning to chafe at 
 a particular place, I sang out to one of the watch to 
 1 end for end it.' 
 
 Shortly afterwards Hester (for I now constantly
 
 WE LEAVE COOK STRAIT 45 
 
 thought of her to myself by her Christian name) 
 walked across to where I was standing. 
 
 'Mr. Blackburne, what does " end-for-ending " 
 mean ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' If you watch what that sailor is about to do, it will 
 give you a better answer than I can by words. It's 
 this way : when one part, say of a halliard, is fast, 
 and the other end is the part hauled upon, the rope 
 must evidently get worn chiefly at one particular 
 place, where friction comes most. In this case, you 
 see, he is reversing the parts, and making fast the 
 end which previously was the loose end, and was used 
 for hauling. Why do you ask ? ' 
 
 1 I'll tell you. Last night, after you had relieved 
 Mr. Cassidy, I heard him telling my father, in his 
 funny Irish way, of a christening he had attended at 
 the Mariners' Church. One of the hands on a ketch 
 he sailed in took his little one to be christened. The 
 company assembled close to the font or, as Mr. 
 Cassidy expressed it, " All hands were standing jist 
 forninst the dish." The sailor grasped his child by 
 the loose clothes at the baby's back and held it sus- 
 pended face downwards. The clergyman leant 
 forward and said in an audible whisper, " Hold the 
 babe the other way." 
 
 ' Well, the poor man, in real trepidation, began 
 to turn the infant in roley-poley fashion, but only 
 made it cry the louder. " The other way round," 
 again whispered the parson, but with more emphasis. 
 This still further confused the parent, who began re- 
 versing the process. Mr. Cassidy apparently grasped 
 the difficulty, for he simply called out, " End-for-end 
 the kid, Jack."
 
 46 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' " Right you are," said the parent, and lightly tossed 
 the child from one hand to the other, bringing it 
 neatly face up to the minister. The infant, of course, 
 was now lying snugly on its back, as it should have 
 been at first. 
 
 ( My father seemed very diverted, but I confess I 
 was not sailor enough to see much wit in the story 
 beyond the not very hilarious fact that Mr. Cassidy 
 had evidently given the correct order. But " I hae 
 ye noo." : 
 
 Up to this our voyage had been a pleasant one, but 
 we were soon to experience a change, in which the 
 merry laugh and funny story of the dogwatch were 
 to be replaced by bitter tragedy, and some of the 
 sorest trials which come to those whose fate it is to 
 spend their lives upon the sea.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE RATS DIE ON BOARD THE SHIP 
 
 OOME time in the first or second week in April we 
 noticed a very bad smell in the lazarette ; and the 
 cook, having shifted a few cases, reported that he had 
 found some half-dozen rats lying dead, also that he 
 had seen several others apparently so ill as scarcely 
 to attempt to escape. 
 
 This matter we discussed at breakfast. 
 
 I think we felt as if a cold shower had been thrown 
 over us when Hester remarked, apropos of the dead 
 rats : 
 
 'Why, it makes me think of plague. You know 
 it is said that rats and, I think, mice, die first, and 
 then plague breaks out among human beings. In 
 Sydney no end of trouble was taken to destroy all 
 the rats.' 
 
 < Yes,' I said ; ' I've heard the same thing in the 
 East. At Hong Kong, two years ago, the rats died 
 in thousands before the outbreak of disease.' 
 
 ' Did the health authorities board you when you 
 were at the loading berth in Darling Harbour?' asked 
 Captain Leigh.
 
 48 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 'No, sir/ 1 replied, 'but I had "rat-stoppers" put 
 on all the shore lines/ 
 
 ' I saw them/ remarked Hester ; ' the things like 
 gigantic mushrooms strung on ropes/ 
 
 ' Well,' said the Captain, ( I knew the ship had rats 
 on board, for I remember seeing a lot of them when 
 I was at the Gilbert Islands last year. In fact, a 
 Chinaman came on board at Butaritari expressly to 
 catch them. I asked him what he wanted them for, 
 and he said, " Me muchee tired grub here ; tucker 
 allee samee every day ; me wantee little muttons 
 new bland." I hoped, at any rate, that we hadn't 
 any of the Sydney brand of rats on this passage, but 
 it looks as if we had.' 
 
 We all three remained silent and thoughtful during 
 the remainder of the meal ; for the incident, to say 
 the least, was a suggestive one, sailing, as we were, 
 from a plague-infected port. 
 
 I went on deck and relieved Cassidy ; and shortly 
 afterwards the skipper joined me on the quarter deck, 
 where I was seeing fresh serving put on one of the 
 toppinglifts. 
 
 ' My girl/ said he, ' has been telling me that, even 
 now, our best plan is to get rid of the rats, in case it 
 is indeed plague which is killing them off in this odd 
 fashion/ 
 
 ' Very good, sir/ I answered. ' Shall I get the boy 
 and two or three of the hands to make an organised 
 raid upon them ? ' 
 
 c Do so/ replied the Skipper, ' but my daughter 
 says the rats should be handled as little as possible, 
 because of their fleas jumping from them to you, as 
 they are said to be the carriers of the mischief.'
 
 THE RATS DIE ON BOARD THE SHIP 49 
 
 This rat hunt was duly carried out. We caught a 
 good many, and they were mostly easy to catch, their 
 weakness and tameness being dreadful to behold. A 
 good many were discovered dead. We also tried 
 burning sulphur down below probably doing no great 
 good thereby. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is pleasant to feel you are doing 
 something ; just as on shore many worthy women 
 appear to get great inward peace, when they have 
 infectious disease in their houses, by placing saucers 
 filled with Condy's Fluid about the sick-room. 
 
 Some days of noble sailing passed away. The little 
 packet lay her course, bowed to her covering board. 
 Her sails were dark with spray, as the shapely fabric 
 swung over the seas elbowing her liquid way towards 
 the East. It must have been about the tenth of 
 April, or perhaps a little later. We were now in 
 lat. 43 south, and in long. 167 40' W. I had the 
 morning watch. We had finished washing down. 
 The sun was already eleven or twelve degrees up, and 
 flung a whitish scintillating glare all over the eastern 
 horizon. Elsewhere the sea ran in an unbroken circle 
 of sparkling blue. 
 
 The wind and sea were just forward of the beam, 
 and the rows of surges ran in endless processions, to 
 which we curtsied with the grace and liveliness 
 which come of perfect lines and splendid trim. 
 
 The little galley funnel smoked cheerfully, and the 
 fragrance of frying bacon came aft to my nostrils 
 with a relish born of good health and crisp sea air. 
 Presently Hester came on deck. What shall I say of 
 her as her dear face appeared above tho companion ?
 
 60 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 Like a sailor, she took in the ship, the sea, the sky, 
 looked aloft, to windward, and then turned towards 
 me, smiling, fresh, and sweet ; her face flushed with 
 health and the pouring of the wind out of the hollow 
 of the great mainsail ; her hair shining and sparkling 
 as the shadow of the canvas came and went with the 
 rhythmical swing of the ship. 
 
 From what I have already said you will gather that 
 I had had many opportunities of seeing her.! 
 
 The close companionship of a small vessel ; the fact 
 that we were both young (she was twenty-three) ; and 
 a common liking for the picturesque side of seafaring 
 drew us together. 
 
 The men were forward at various little jobs, the 
 sails needed no trimming, and I fell very easily jnto 
 talk with this girl, whose radiant presence was daily 
 making irremediable inroads on my peace of mind. 
 
 Hitherto I had remained fancy free. The poor 
 profession of the sea, and perhaps a somewhat sorrow- 
 ful temperament, had kept me out of the way of women 
 folk, and certainly immune to their attractions. But 
 here, at sea, even had I wished, I could not fly away 
 from my ever-increasing danger. 
 
 We walked over to windward and sat down on the 
 top of the little house. 
 
 1 Father is still asleep/ she began. ' He has been 
 so worried over the rats dying. I was half sorry I 
 told him what I did, for after all their deaths may be 
 due to some cause other than plague. What do 
 animals die of, Mr. Blackburn e ? ' 
 
 ' I don't know/ I said. ' I suppose much the same 
 ailments as we have save worry. No wonder alligators
 
 THE RATS DIE ON BOARD THE SHIP 51 
 
 and unintellectual beasts of that kind live long ; their 
 nervous systems are too simple to get deranged ; they 
 might go on for ever bar violence and hunger.' 
 
 ' Yes/ she answered, ' I expect you are right. Sir 
 Andrew Clark, the great London doctor, told father 
 some years ago that " work never killed people ; it was 
 always worry." Now you- must help me to keep my 
 father from fretting over the question of plague/ 
 
 Then our talk turned on other matters, and time 
 slipped swiftly away. 
 
 ' Seven bells ' was struck. Alf, the boy, came on 
 deck and said : 
 
 ' Captain wushes me to s'y, with 'is comperiments, 
 that 'e ain't dressed yet, and that 'e reckons 'e won't 
 be on deck afore brekfus. Miss Leigh, mum, yer 
 father wushes to see yer/ 
 
 Hester went below and quickly reappeared. 
 
 ' Oh, Mr. Blackburne,' she said, ' Father wants you 
 to take sights without waiting for him. I'll take the 
 time for you you may trust me,' she added with a 
 smile, t as I have done it many times before. Father 
 has tried to teach me a little navigation, and I can 
 take an altitude fairly correctly/ 
 
 I got out my sextant, Hester went to the chro- 
 nometer, and in due course the observation was 
 completed. 
 
 This ended, I hove the log. Hardly had these 
 necessary duties of navigation been attended to when 
 I saw Martin Johnston, the old man-of-war sailor of 
 whom I have already spoken, coming along the deck, 
 evidently full of something. 
 
 I do not know why a presentiment of evil should
 
 52 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 have come to my mind, but, somehow, my thought 
 forestalled the evil news the old man had to give. 
 
 Johnston was a privileged person on board the 
 Pandora. He had been a bluejacket in the navy, 
 and had known the Skipper in his early years when 
 in Her Majesty's service. After finishing his period 
 of service he had come across his old officer during 
 the latter's career in the mercantile marine and had 
 sailed with him. Martin, therefore, had known 
 Hester pretty well all her life, and took the deepest 
 interest in her. As I said before, he was a prime 
 sailor of a rapidly-vanishing type. 
 
 The old man came up to where I stood, and I could 
 see at a glance that there was trouble in his eye. 
 
 'Well, Johnston, is there anything wrong ?' I asked. 
 
 ' Yes, Mr. Blackburne, I'm afeard there is a lot 
 amiss.' 
 
 ' Well, let's hear it.' 
 
 ' It's this, sir : Jim Simpson Vs in Mr. Cassidy's 
 watch 'e's been terrible ill al! night ; and since eight 
 bells in the middle watch 'e's been worse. 'E seems 
 to me to be pretty bad/ 
 
 f What is he complaining of ?' 
 
 ' 'E's got a powerful 'eadache, and 'e's throwing up 
 some, and 'e says 'e's pains all over just the same 's if 
 'e'd got a regular 'ammerinV 
 
 ' All right, Johnston,' I replied. ' The Captain 
 hasn't been on deck this morning, and won't be until 
 after breakfast. I'll report it to him, and he'll see 
 Simpson as soon as possible.' 
 
 'Very good, sir,' answered the seaman, as he 
 returned forward.
 
 THE RATS DIE ON BOARD THE SHIP 53 
 
 Mr. Cassidy came to relieve me and I gave him the 
 news. He looked grave as he said : 
 
 ' Begorra, that's bad intoirely.' 
 
 The breakfast bell rang, and with a good deal of 
 foreboding I went below and made my report to 
 Captain Leigh.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 WE LOSE A MAN 
 
 A HEAD wind and other nautical annoyances make 
 greetings curt and dry at times on board ship. 
 Nor did my report of sickness forward sweeten 
 matters. 
 
 Breakfast, therefore, was not a cheerful meal that 
 morning, and it was quickly finished. 
 
 ( Father/ said Hester, ' I've found something among 
 my belongings which may be of use to us.' 
 
 1 What is it, Child?' said her father, his gloom 
 melting as he turned towards his girl. 
 
 ' During the plague scare a Sydney professor 
 published a pamphlet on plague to give ordinary 
 people a common-sense view of the situation. I got 
 one why or how I forget, and how it came on board 
 I don't know. But here it is. And it seems written 
 in simple language " to be understanded of the 
 people." 
 
 Her father was soon immersed in its perusal, and I 
 went on deck to let the second mate get his breakfast. 
 
 Alf Nash, the boy, emerged from the forecastle 
 and came aft. His clothes, the set of his cap, the 
 
 64
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 56 
 
 cut of the trousers, and his high-heeled boots all mado 
 him the 'compleat larrikin.' Even the sea could not 
 wash it out of him. A Bulletin artist would have 
 revelled in committing him to paper. 
 
 ' Alf/ I sang out, ' come here.' I suspected he had 
 been loafing. ' What were you doing below ? ' 
 ' I wanted to get my knife, sir, I did/ 
 I knew the boy had some other object, so I said 
 ' You young scamp, you know that's not true.' 
 ' Gawd's truth, sir, it is a fack ; yet I'll allow it 
 ain't all the truth. S'elp me, I wanted to have a look 
 at Jim Simpson.' 
 
 ' What the deuce did you want to see him for ?' 
 ' It's this w'y, sir : Hi've bin that orfen in 'orspital 
 that I seems a bit of a hammyturo doctor meself,' 
 and he cocked his cross-jack eye till I shook with 
 laughter. 
 
 You couldn't really be angry with the boy. He 
 was a pure Arab, and acted after the manner of his 
 kind. Moreover, he was honest and faithful in the 
 main, and one couldn't help liking him, whilst as to 
 amusement he was an absolutely unconscious comic 
 artist of the first water. 
 
 ' I suppose you wanted to diagnose the case.' 
 
 ' Yes, that's about hit. sir. I wanted to dognose 
 
 * f O 
 
 the chap's bailment. That's the reg'lar 'orspital 
 word. I sees ye knows hit. Been there yerself, 
 sir?' 
 
 ' And what did you make of it, Alf ? ' 
 
 'It's w'ot they calls a differcult case, it is. A kind 
 
 o' combination of diseases, Mr. Blackburne. Fust of 
 
 all 'e's got the dry belly-hache for sartain. I knows
 
 56 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 'e has, for I've 'ad it xneself arter a feed o' geebungs.* 
 But that ain't all. 'E's got pains 'ere and there all 
 over the shop. A kinder spotted rheumatiz I calls it.' 
 
 1 Good Lord/ said I, ' what is spotted rheumatism ?' 
 
 ' There ain't no herruption with that hailment. I 
 reckons it's this w'y. Wen a cove's down on 'is 
 huppers, and 'is shirt and pants is too well vintilated, 
 and 'e's, say, loyin' in the hopen (Domain-dossin 1 , I 
 means), the hatmosphere there's a bit searchin', 
 finds out the cracks in the clothes, and ye gets the 
 rheumatiz where the hair strikes hin. That's w'ot 
 I calls spotted rheumatiz.' 
 
 Alf Nash's further opinions on poor Simpson's 
 condition were cut short by the arrival of the Skipper 
 on deck. He went forward to see the sick man. 
 
 In a few minutes he sent for me to join him. 
 
 I dropped down into the little triangular den which 
 was the living room of our small company. 
 
 An upright ladder led into a dimly-lighted space, 
 which vanished into obscurity towards the eyes of the 
 ship. 
 
 However, in the matter of light, she was better off 
 than most vessels of her class, for she was fitted witli 
 two glass deck-lights and a couple of fixed ports on 
 each side. 
 
 But the ventilation was only through the scuttle, 
 and hence the air was stagnant and close, and full of 
 an indescribable mixture of smells. 
 
 Damp clothing, kerosene, tobacco smoke, and 
 human beiugs tightly packed, all went to make an 
 odour neither sweet nor wholesome. 
 * A small, indigestible berry eaten by children in New South Wales.
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 57 
 
 There were eight berths in this forecastle, and in 
 the after lower bunk on the starboard side lay the 
 sick man. 
 
 The little dark interior was lively and resonant 
 with the sense of buoyant liftings and sinkings, of 
 crushed seas and hurrying foam, while the dim light 
 became greenish at times when the schooner dipped 
 her bows to meet the kiss of the Pacific. 
 
 Inside, the creak and groan of timbers, the endless 
 little sounds which came from the hold, and the rustle 
 of spectral oilskins, as they swung to and fro, all 
 made one of those strange and impressive pictures of 
 marine life which sink into the eye and ear, and etch 
 themselves on the memory for evermore. 
 
 The seaman was obviously grievously ill. 
 
 ' How do you feel, my man ? ' asked the Skipper. 
 
 ' Very weak, sir/ replied the sailor. ' I'm orf my 
 tucker, got a bad 'ead, and 'as pains all over me.' 
 
 His temperature was high, his tongue thickly 
 furred, his breathing hurried ; he complained of much 
 pain in his right groin, and he had a sore shin. 
 
 The Captain examined his groin. There was a little 
 tender swelling. The skin wound on his shin was 
 red and angry-looking. 
 
 1 How did you get that ? ' I asked, pointing to the 
 sore on his leg. 
 
 ' When I was down in the lazaretto the other day 
 'untin' them rats, I hits my leg agin an empty case.' 
 
 ' Was it a clean case ? Your sore looks as if you 
 had got some dirt into it.' 
 
 'Maybe I did, sir/ said he. 
 
 The man went on to describe the case on which he
 
 58 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 barked his sliin. From his account the rats had 
 evidently used it for the dual purpose of a lying-in 
 chamber and sepulchre combined. 
 
 Captain Leigh and I returned on deck and dis- 
 cussed the man's sickness. The Skipper's mind was 
 evidently full of the pamphlet on plague which he 
 had just digested. 
 
 1 Look over what the professor says about the 
 disease/ said he, handing me the booklet. 
 
 I read rapidly while he walked up and down. By 
 and by he stopped. 
 
 ' Well, what do you think of it. The description 
 tallies fairly well, doesn't it ? Plague port rats die 
 man gets sick has handled the beasts gets a 
 wound on leg swollen glands ill generally. Pretty 
 suspicious combination, eh ? ' 
 
 I had reluctantly to admit that the evidence in 
 favour of plague was very strong. 
 
 Hester now joined us, and her father described the 
 man's condition, and asked her how she read the 
 riddle. 
 
 'I'm afraid it is plague, father. But, of course, 
 with the sore oil the leg, and the swollen tender 
 glands, it might be simple blood-poisoning. Still I 
 think I would do here as they would in a hospital if 
 the doctors weren't sure of the disease.' 
 
 'Well, child,' said her father, 'what would they do?' 
 
 ' They would take all the precautions which ex- 
 perience shows to be best on the assumption that it is 
 plague. If it turns out that it's something else say 
 blood-poisoning all the better ; the precautions can 
 do no harm. Suppose you turn that big cargo boat
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 59 
 
 into a hospital, and clear out and disinfect the fore- 
 castle.' 
 
 ' Excellent suggestion/ said her father. * I shall 
 certainly have it done.' 
 
 This cargo boat was quite a big craft. We carried 
 it for lightering freight and stores, and for use at the 
 guano island. It was stowed in chocks on the top of 
 the main hatch, just abaft the galley. 
 
 We put its contents elsewhere, fixed a sleeping- 
 place in the bottom, and spread an awning over it, 
 using a ridge-pole from stem to stern. 
 
 This we could easily do, as the boat had a great 
 sheer. The after end we left uncovered. 
 
 We next stripped the forecastle of its contents, 
 sent everybody and everything on deck, and then 
 shut it up with sulphur burning in it for twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 If this fumigation did nothing else, possibly it 
 killed the fleas, of which pest the men had lately com- 
 plained. Having done all these things we heartened 
 up the sailors and hoped for the best. 
 
 Hester now took charge of the sick man. She 
 insisted that it was only her clear duty. 
 
 1 1 have learned something of nursing,' she said : 
 1 moreover, if it be plague, as it probably is, I run less 
 risk than the others, for I was inoculated in Sydney 
 during the early part of the scare.' 
 
 Her father began to demur, but she said : 
 
 1 Now, Father, don't refuse me. You know well it's 
 my duty. You wouldn't respect me if I didn't " take 
 on the job," as Alf Nash would say.' 
 
 Her father's face was a study. Pride in his
 
 60 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 daughter and fear for her safety could be read as 
 clearly in his varying expression as if he had spoken 
 his inmost thoughts. 
 
 ' Very well/ said Miss Leigh, ' I'll go on duty now, 
 and I'll take Alf Nash as assistant nurse, and we'll 
 split the twenty-four hours between us. He's a handy 
 boy, and Mr. Blackburne tells me he rather fancies he 
 knows a thing or two in medicine above all, he has 
 also been inoculated.' 
 
 Captain Leigh shrugged his shoulders, and turned 
 away. His daughter smiled across to me and said : 
 
 ( My dear old dad thinks of everyone but himself. 
 He is always in terror in case I get ill or am hurt. I 
 wish he would think more of himself and less of me.' 
 
 Thus passed the day. Miss Leigh reported at 
 night that the patient was worse, if anything. She 
 had given him what medicine our circumstances 
 admitted of. 
 
 During the night the indefatigable Alf Nash was 
 on duty in charge of the sick man. ( Night Sooperin- 
 tendent I reckons meself,' he informed Martin. The 
 old sailor replied tartly : ' You be off to your dooties, 
 uiy W oxford-street* Book, or I'll whack the stuffin' 
 out o' yer.' However, the boy turned out a perfect 
 brick, and was kindness itself to the dying sailor. 
 For it was evident, even to Cassidy and myself, that 
 his hours were numbered. 
 
 During the night I went several times to bo sure 
 
 that Simpson wanted for nothing, and Miss Leigh 
 
 came on deck a couple of times, but we always found 
 
 Alf Nash awake, and this, however, was chronic 
 
 * One of the lowest streets in Sydney.
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 61 
 
 with him very much inclined for conversation. He 
 was evidently a young man who had tried ' to warm 
 both hands before the fire of life ' and found it a very 
 chilly blaze. Moreover, he had usually occupied a 
 back seat in the room. But he had tried to make the 
 best of it. 
 
 The second time Hester came on deck, she said to 
 him : 
 
 'Alf, when you were so terribly ill, after you were 
 " busted agin the 'urdle," did you think you would 
 recover ? ' 
 
 ' Well, Miss, a missionary bloke what comes about 
 " the Rocks," he were allus on the " faith racket." 
 And I sez to meself as I lies in bed with a dashed 
 leaky 'ead " Gawd's truth," I sez, " 'ere's a 
 bloomin' chance for faith. The doctor says I'll 
 recover, and garn me if I don't." And 'ere I am/ 
 he added, with an air of success that made us laugh 
 in spite of our sad surroundings. 
 
 ' Yus, lydy,' he continued. ' Tork about faith ! It 
 minds me of suthin' I 'card when I was sick that very 
 time you're askin' me about. 
 
 ' It was this w'y : One night an old Scotch cove 
 was a-lyin' in the next bed to me. A fair cooker 'e 
 was. I reckon he was just about pcggin' hout. His 
 missis was a-sittin' by 'irn. By and by the 'ouse 
 doctor comes in, and 'e 'as a good look at the poor 
 covey. 
 
 ' " Is there any 'opes ? " sez the old girl. " None 
 whatever," sez the doctor, " in fack, your good man's 
 just dyiii' ; yer may say in a manner Vs dead." 
 
 ' Gor blime me, Miss, if the sick bloke didn't sit up 
 in bed. 'E did 's true 's I'm tellin' ye.
 
 62 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' " No, doctor," sez he, " no exackly dead yet." 
 
 1 " Sit doon, Jock, sit doon," sez 'is missis ; " the 
 doctor maun ken best." : 
 
 'Now I calls that faith. "Believin' agin the 
 evidence," as I 'eard the Beak say in the Water 
 Perlice Court.' 
 
 As the hours passed poor Simpson got steadily 
 worse. He lost consciousness about daybreak, and 
 lay with half-opened eyes, and a brown crackled 
 tongue, muttering incoherencies. He died about noon 
 of the same day. 
 
 As we felt almost certain that the malady of which 
 he died was plague, we determined to bury him as 
 soon as possible. 
 
 We wrapped him in his blanket, and marled him 
 down in it. It seemed folly to prolong contact with 
 the living by sewing him up in canvas, ship-shape 
 fashion. I take it that a man sleeps as well in his 
 last toss whichever way he goes dressed. 
 
 The schooner was braced sharp up on the port tack 
 and was bursting through a lumpy sea., with a good 
 deal of motion; so at four o'clock we hauled in our 
 weather braces, laid the topsail to the mast, half- 
 masted the ensign, and let her jog along quietly. 
 
 I had seen a number of funerals at sea, but always 
 in large ships with a great company never in a small 
 vessel with a few. Nor, as in this case, where the 
 circumstances of the death were so full of dread and 
 menace to those who were left. 
 
 There was so much water knocking about in the 
 waist, that the Skipper told us to bring the body 
 right aft. The boy and I placed the body upon a
 
 WE LOSE A MAN 63 
 
 plank, covered it with the spare ensign, and laid one 
 end on the rail and the other on an empty cask. 
 Captain Leigh came to the edge of the raised quarter- 
 deck and read the burial service. 
 
 He read well, and with feeling. The picture was 
 one, indeed, to strike the dullest eye and heart. 
 
 The little vessel, arrested as it were in her mid- 
 ocean course with the sea emblem of trouble blowing 
 out in one spot of flame, not inappropriately symbolised 
 the termination of the life of the poor seaman we 
 were about to launch into the dark places of the 
 deep. 
 
 The smallness of the fabric, the immensity of the 
 surrounding sea and sky, the loneliness and helpless- 
 ness of human beings in the presence of nature and 
 of death, stirred the emotions, and turned one's 
 thoughts from the vanity of earthly things to the 
 belief and hope in an hereafter. 
 
 It is the peculiar happiness of the Church of 
 England to possess a burial service, the pathetic 
 sweetness of which can never be wholly marred by 
 the most ignorant or unsympathetic reader. 
 
 In this case the earnest and musical voice of the 
 Captain gave a deeper meaning to those words of 
 sorrow and of hope with which we committed our 
 poor shipmate to the element whereon he had toiled 
 and suffered. 
 
 Oh ! the pathos of a seaman's life ! ' Prisoners of 
 the ocean.' A hard lot ! A hopeless prospect ! And 
 what had been the fortune of this poor fellow? A 
 life of hardship ; a chest of worn-out clothes ; and a 
 toss overboard at the finish !
 
 64 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 In such fashion does the Mistress of the Seas 
 reward those who make our national greatness. Truly 
 indeed 
 
 Beneath no stone or trophy, beneath no minster tower, 
 Lie those who gave her empire, who stretched her arm to power, 
 Below those markless pathways, where commerce shapes the trail, 
 Unsung, unrung, forgotten, sleeps the Sailor of the Sail.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 FRESH TROUBLES OVERTAKE US 
 
 R the next two days or thereabouts we had calms 
 and head winds. 
 
 Trimming sail, eating and sleeping, and making no 
 progress, was a condition which some time passed in 
 steam did not allow me to accept with the resignation 
 of our fathers in the days of tacks and sheets. 
 
 In these leisurely old times a handful of degrees 
 east or west did not seem greatly to trouble them. 
 The era of the twenty-two knotter and a large coal 
 consumption had not yet come. 
 
 No doubt the physical hardships of the sea are now 
 greatly less. 
 
 Scurvy, starvation, and thirst are little heard of. 
 Yet, so far as a profession goes, the prospects of the 
 sea officer are not so good now as they were in the 
 days of John Company. 
 
 The commander of a large ship in those times had 
 a fair career before him, and his chances of snatching 
 a competence from the waters were infinitely greater 
 than now fall to the brass-bound deity of the bridge, 
 who conducts a marine Pullman car from port to 
 port. 
 
 R 65
 
 66 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 On the evening of the 16th April, two of the men 
 in the second mate's watch complained of feeling sick, 
 and had bad headaches. 
 
 One was Olaf, the Swede, and the other was Jones, 
 poor Simpson's chum. 
 
 Neither of them was able to be on deck during the 
 night. In my watch there were myself, Martin 
 Johnston, and McKeowen, the New Zealand lad. 
 
 Mr. Cassidy's watch was thus very short-handed, 
 for out of his crowd there only remained Jack, the 
 Sandwich Islander. I therefore let him have 
 McKeowen, while I took Alf Nash. This made three 
 in each watch. Cassidy and I took a wheel in rotation 
 with the men. 
 
 Undermanned as ships go nowadays, it is especially 
 in small craft that the loss of two or three of your 
 tiny crowd makes so marked a difference. 
 
 Morning came, and the men were no better nay, 
 they were worse. Later on, the boy found swellings 
 in their groins or armpits, I forget which ; and we 
 were finally satisfied that the dread disease was on 
 board the Pandora. 
 
 Neither of these men had angry sores on their 
 limbs like Simpson, which fact, in his case, had made 
 us half hope that he had died of simple blood poison- 
 ing. Two more distressful days of suffering passed 
 by, when about sundown, within an hour of each 
 other, death released them both from further misery. 
 That same night we hurriedly buried them. 
 
 We were all now feeling rather worn-out with 
 worry, so, as the barometer was inclined to fall, and 
 the weather generally looked uncertain, we shortened 
 sail.
 
 FRESH TROUBLES OVERTAKE US 67 
 
 We took in the top-gallant-sail, reefed the top-sail, 
 hauled down the outer jib and fore-stay-sail, and put 
 two reefs in the mainsail. We also bent a trysail and 
 stowed the foresail altogether. When all that work 
 was finished we reckoned the vessel well snugged 
 down and prepared for contingencies. 
 
 At daylight the wind had freshened and the sky 
 looked very dirty, and, moreover, the wind was dead 
 on end for our port. To make matters worse, Jack, 
 the Sandwich Islander, came aft and began talking 
 wild nonsense about ghosts, which he said he had seen 
 sitting on the gunwale of the cargo boat. 
 
 Hester took his temperature, and our hearts fell as 
 she told us it was 103'8. He breathed hurriedly and 
 coughed somewhat. It was now a question what was 
 best to be done. 
 
 Captain Leigh asked Cassidy and me to come below 
 and talk over matters. Of course, as he was both 
 owner and master, the matter was a less difficult one 
 than if he had been merely sailing the vessel in the 
 interests of someone else. 
 
 On the cabin table he spread out a chart of the 
 South Pacific. 
 
 f We are here,' said he, pointing to where he had 
 pricked off the ship's position, 'in 38 10' South, and 
 134 30' West. 
 
 ' You see,' he added, l how far we still are from our 
 destined port.' 
 
 Neither of us made any remark. It was plainly a 
 position in which we felt that the master should take 
 the initiative. Indeed I felt sure that Captain Leigh 
 bad already made up his mind.
 
 68 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 f This plague is truly a bad business/ said he. 
 'Here, already, we have lost three men and we have a 
 fourth laid up presumably with the same malady. 
 It is unhappily quite probable that our strength may 
 even yet be further reduced. It seems to me, there- 
 fore, bitterly as I regret it, necessary to abandon the 
 voyage. The immediate object I had in view, the 
 investigation of the guano island, is already obviously 
 frustrated, and I am consequently cf opinion that it 
 is unwise to persevere.' 
 
 ( Where would you propose going to, sir ? ' I 
 asked. 
 
 ( New Zealand I put aside,' he replied. ' It lies, as 
 you see, over two thousand miles to the westward ; 
 and, as you know, with the westerly winds down here, 
 it would be an endless job to get back.' 
 
 ' Quite so/ I answered, ' but I understood you in- 
 tended ultimately going to Samoa.' 
 
 1 1 am coming to that at once/ replied the Captain. 
 ' Even if the winds served, it would utterly ruin the 
 objects of the voyage if I returned to Dunedin or 
 Wellington, whereas the wind is now fair to go any- 
 where north. If I let her make a fair wind of it we 
 shall be picking up the South East Trades in a few 
 days and get to Samoa without any great difficulty, 
 shorthanded as we are.' 
 
 ' Yes, sorr/ said Cassidy, ' and we might pick up a 
 few hands in one of them oilands, and make a shape 
 for the manure counthry afther all.' 
 
 Captain Leigh smiled and looked rather pleased 
 with the suggestion. 
 
 ' Well, Cassidy/ he said, ' I don't know. We'll see
 
 FRESH TROUBLES OVERTAKE US 69 
 
 how things go with us. We've got to get to Apia 
 first of all, anyway.' 
 
 ' How shall we stand, sir, as regards quarantine ? ' 
 I asked. 
 
 ' Well, Blackburne,' he answered, ' I think it will 
 pan out in this fashion. If we have disease still on 
 board which God forbid we shall, of course, have 
 to comply with the full requirements of the local 
 regulations. But, on the other hand, if no more 
 cases appear by the time we reach Apia, so many 
 days of freedom from trouble will have passed that 
 we may escape all, or nearly all, detention. Of course 
 we shall have to be officially disinfected.' 
 
 I made a move to go on deck. 
 
 ' Wait a moment/ he said, ' I wish to enter the 
 details of this consultation in the official log and get 
 you two officers to sign it.' 
 
 This was now done, and Cassidy returned on deck. 
 
 ' We may as well lay off her course for Apia before 
 you go/ said the Skipper. 
 
 We returned to the chart. He bent over it and 
 laid the parallel rulers on the paper. 
 
 ' N.W. by W. will do for the present/ he said ; ' let 
 her fall off to that. 3 
 
 I went on deck, and presently the schooner was 
 making a fair wind of it, and we were on our course 
 for Samoa. 
 
 During the day the wind and sea increased so much 
 that we reluctantly had to heave her to, which we did 
 under her fore trysail, with her head to the nor'ard. 
 
 Jack, the sick man, was giving us a good deal of 
 trouble far more than the other poor fellows. \Ve
 
 70 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 had got him into bed, but he was very restless, 
 muttering and talking incessantly. 
 
 Hester was quite the good angel of the ship, busy- 
 ing herself with many kind deeds and words. Hopeful 
 and cheery to her father, devoted to the sick man, my 
 eyes followed her as she went about the decks, and I 
 whispered inly that 'this was the one maid for me,' 
 if only I were spared to win her. 
 
 The buoyant schooner rode easily, taking only an 
 occasional heavy spray. Had she made worse weather 
 of it, I suppose we should have had to move Jack out 
 of the cargo-boat elsewhere into shelter. 
 
 Perhaps if we had done so the dreadful tragedy 
 which happened that evening all in a breath, as one 
 might say might never have occurred. 
 
 At six o'clock Cassidy came on deck with McKeowen. 
 The weather remained unchanged, and there was 
 really nothing much to do, except to see that Jack 
 didn't get into any mischief, as his delirium was dis- 
 tinctly on the increase. 
 
 We learned later what now took place. 
 
 The second mate was aft, close to the companion- 
 way, which opened out of the starboard end of the 
 deck-house ; McKeowen was forward in the galley ; 
 the cook had gone below. While in the galley the 
 New Zealander heard Jack get out of the boat. He put 
 his head outside the galley door and saw him stealthily 
 pick up a belaying pin from the fife-rail and begin to 
 crawl aft, apparently with some dire intent. 
 
 McKeowen made a run and a spring at the bulky 
 figure of the Sandwich Islander, at the same time 
 shouting a warning to Cassidy.
 
 FRESH TROUBLES OVERTAKE US 71 
 
 Poor Jack, with the fire of delirium strong upon 
 him, closed with the lad, and they became locked in a 
 desperate struggle. 
 
 The shout and the fall of the two startled the 
 second mate, who rushed forward to find that, in the 
 brief space of time which had elapsed, the huge 
 Kanaka had dealt a crushing blow to the poor lad, 
 and was now advancing on himself, who was wholly 
 unarmed. 
 
 The poor fellow closed with his maddened assailant 
 as quickly and as gamely as he could, but too late to 
 avoid receiving a heavy stroke, which must have 
 injured his fighting powers. 
 
 It is indeed largely guesswork to know what 
 actually did take place, for McKeowen, after we 
 picked him up, could only give a general idea of the 
 desperate moments which preceded our rush on deck. 
 But events must have progressed swiftly, for, before 
 the few remaining members of the crew reached the 
 spot, the battle had gone badly with poor Cassidy. 
 You may grasp what our feelings must have been 
 when we reached the deck just in time to see the two 
 combatants, both weaponless, stagger against the low 
 rail, over -balance, and, locked in each other's grasp, 
 plunge overboard into the mountainous sea, which the 
 drifting vessel then breasted. 
 
 To lower a boat was impossible as well as futile. 
 It was the early night of the Southern autumn, and 
 we could not see ten fathoms away from the ship's 
 side. Nor, indeed, could one expect that the 
 combatants remained afloat, twined in so deadly a 
 grip. Nor did any shout signify that one or other 
 yet survived.
 
 72 LOVE AMD LONGITUDE 
 
 We found poor McKeowen lying against the main 
 rigging, conscious, but with what we sadly feared was 
 the sweat of death upon him. 
 
 ' My God, my boy, what happened ? ' I could not 
 help asking. 
 
 'Jack was mad, and he started to run amuck, and 
 I tried to stop him. He's finished -me,' groaned the 
 wounded man. 
 
 We carried him below into the second mate's berth, 
 where we examined his injuries, and there Hester 
 washed and bound up the ghastly cut on his head. 
 
 ' That's nothing, Miss/ said the poor chap ; ' it's 
 here where I'm bad/ and he pointed towards the 
 abdomen. ' Jack jammed me against the spindle of 
 the gypsy winch, and I'm sure it's bursted me some- 
 where inside. Oh, the pain ! ' 
 
 Miss Leigh gave him an injection of morphia, and 
 we made him as comfortable as we could. 
 
 He complained dreadfully of the movement of the 
 ship, so we chocked him off with pillows in such 
 fashion that he couldn't shift. 
 
 Miss Leigh thought that he was bleeding internally, 
 for he became of a waxen paleness as the night wore 
 on, and his sighs were unspeakably pathetic to hear. 
 
 There was nothing more to do, and I went on deck 
 and spent the night talking to the Skipper, and 
 watching the drift of the ship. 
 
 Once or twice I went below to get food, and to see 
 if I could help Hester. She spent the hours of 
 darkness by poor McKeowen's side, and once I heard 
 him ask her to sing to him. 
 
 ' What shall I sing ? '
 
 FRESH TROUBLES OVERTAKE US 73 
 
 ' Oh, sing " Abide with Me," ' said the lad. 
 
 I listened a moment as, low and sweet, her rich 
 voice rose and fell with the words of the hymn. 
 Every now and then the thunder of the wind and the 
 groan of tortured timber drowned the voice of the 
 singer, but I felt that the dying sailor lost nothing of 
 it, and that his last hours were made easier and were 
 cheered by the gentle presence and soft voice of this 
 girl, to whose sympathy suffering could never appeal 
 in vain. 
 
 He died about daylight.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 CAPTAIN LEIGH HAS A PRESENTIMENT 
 
 TTTHEN morning came the first thing I did was to 
 wash away the red stains about the starboard 
 main-rigging. 
 
 I next went to rouse up the cook to make coffee for 
 all hands ; he looked very queer. 
 
 f Hullo, Cook/ said I, in a cheery voice, { are you off 
 colour ? ' 
 
 ' Just a bit, sir, but nothing to signify. I 'ad a 
 bad night couldn't sleep no 'ow. I'll 'ave a bit o' 
 fire burnin' in a minute. A drink of 'ot cawfee 'ull 
 set us all up.' 
 
 I said no more, but I didn't like the look of the 
 man. He was a pretty tough customer, was the 
 ' Doctor/ and he wouldn't look ill if he wasn't feeling 
 pretty seedy. 
 
 Of the ship's company of twelve, our complement 
 when we left New South Wales, there remained now 
 only six souls the Captain, his daughter, Martin 
 Johnston, the cook, the boy, and myself. However, 
 there was no use brooding over past misfortunes; 
 and happily work kept our minds occupied. 
 
 74
 
 CAPTAIN LEIGH HAS A PRESENTIMENT 75 
 
 By eight o'clock the sky had cleared somewhat, and, 
 there being a good horizon, we got sights for longi- 
 tude; but we had only an approximate latitude to 
 work them up with. 
 
 A strong gale still blew, and a high sea rolled 
 unpityingly towards our storm-beaten little ship. 
 
 At noon we got a good meridian altitude, and the 
 latitude so obtained gave us the means wherewith 
 to bring the morning sights up to the mid-day 
 position. 
 
 Captain Leigh and I went below to work out these 
 observations, and, having done so, we pricked off the 
 ship's position together. 
 
 We placed her in latitude 36 25' S., and longitude 
 136 30' W. 
 
 The Skipper rolled up the chart and put his pencil 
 and dividers on the rack. He kept a brave face, but 
 it was easy to see that the iron of misfortune had 
 entered very deeply into him. He looked ashy, worn, 
 and aged as he began to talk about the troubles which 
 had befallen us. He then went on to other matters. 
 
 ' Look here, Blackburne,' said he, ' I have not 
 known you very long. How long- is it, by the 
 bye?' 
 
 ' Less than three months, sir.' 
 
 ( Well, well, is that all ? Circumstances ripen 
 men's trust in one another, and this voyage has been 
 a veritable hot-house for letting us understand each 
 other quickly; "for occasions do not make a man weak, 
 but they show him what lie is." Do you understand 
 what I mean? I think "occasions" have shown me 
 that you are strong. I am satisfied that I did right
 
 76 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 to trust you. You have pleased me in many ways, 
 and I believe my first judgment of you was correct/ 
 
 I felt satisfied that I had his good opinion. But I 
 think I fidgeted a good deal on my chair as he 
 addressed me ; I didn't quite know what he was 
 driving at, so I merely said : 
 
 'I have tried to do my best. Besides, I am grate- 
 ful to you, sir. I was beginning not to know which 
 way to turn when you came across me in Sydney/ 
 
 ' I am going to bore you,' he continued, ' with some 
 of my private aud family affairs. I do so because I 
 have confidence in your character as a man of 
 honour, and in your ability as a seaman. Life is very 
 uncertain with any of us just now. I may be the 
 next to die. Indeed, I have a strong presentiment 
 that I shall be. And it is that feeling which makes 
 me open my heart to you, a comparative stranger, and 
 call on your honour and skill to act for me, if it 
 please God that I should die. You understand why ? 
 I should leave a hostage to fortune in your keeping 
 my girl. It is the thought that she may be left alone 
 which gives bitterness to death. Yes, that thought 
 alone,' he added with emphasis. 
 
 ' Don't lay any weight on presentiments,' I replied 
 as cheerfully as I could. ' Why, sir, in a desperate 
 time such as this anyone may have such fancies. I don't 
 suppose the coolest brain could think quite normally 
 sanely, if you like with the uncertainty of our fate 
 so clearly and closely in evidence.' 
 
 ' Perhaps so, my boy,' said the old Captain. ' Never- 
 theless I have had my presentiment, and it was a very 
 plain one. And, with its influence strong upon me, I
 
 CAPTAIN LEIGH HAS A PRESENTIMENT 77 
 
 have broken through the natural reserve which has 
 always been dominant in me to ask you to promise 
 that, whatever may befall, you will play the man of 
 honour, and the skilful seaman, for the sake of my 
 unprotected girl.' 
 
 I held out my hand and he took it and wrung it 
 tightly. 
 
 ' By heaven, sir,' I exclaimed, ' I give you my word 
 I will.' 
 
 'It is enough, Blackburne,' he interrupted. f l 
 trust you you have eased my mind greatly.' 
 
 He then went on to other matters, and told me 
 something of his life and career. 
 
 ' My father/ said he, ' was a well-to-do squire in the 
 Midlands, and my elder brother at this moment reigns 
 in his stead. 
 
 ' I began my sea life in the Navy, but I left it in 
 disgust perhaps I was precipitate youth and im- 
 patience you know ! Anyway I thought I had a 
 grievance unfair treatment at the hands of a superior. 
 My father was very angry over my resigning, and I 
 didn't sweeten his temper when I married my cousin, 
 the penniless daughter of the rector who held the 
 family living.' 
 
 ' How did you shake down into the Merchant 
 Service after ten years in the Navy, sir ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' Not very well at first. And my wife, poor girl, had 
 a pretty bad time of it till I got command. Fortunately 
 I had a little money independently of my father, and 
 with that we made both ends meet. However, to 
 make a long story short, I got a ship at last a sailing 
 ship. Oddly enough I have never commanded a 
 steamer.
 
 78 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 f It was easier to take my wife to sea in sail than 
 even in a steam tramp. I never tried to get into a 
 mail service.' 
 
 ' Miss Leigh was born at sea ? ' I interrupted. 
 
 ( Yes. On the way to New Zealand. We left her 
 in England very often. My wife's sister brought 
 her up. Mrs. Leigh died when the child was very 
 young. It was an awful blow to me. She was a 
 brave woman, and never complained. You know 
 what a cursed poor business sailoring is. She didn't 
 lie soft for many a day. It was only in recent years, 
 when I settled in the colony, and took to trading in 
 little craft of my own, that I became independent. 
 The bitterness to me is, that prosperity came too late 
 for her to share it.' 
 
 His voice shook and he turned away. 
 
 ' Yes/ he continued, ( and when I got my girl out to 
 Sydney and hoped to have a home at last, asthma 
 sends me to sea. I'll make a nice albatross some day, 
 won't I ? * 
 
 ' My girl,' he continued presently, ' is wilful in some 
 things, and she wouldn't be left alone on shore. 
 Truth to tell, I was only too easily persuaded to take 
 her with me.' 
 
 ( I'm sure I don't blame you/ I blurted out, and 
 then felt inclined to bite my tongue. 
 
 Just the faintest gleam of a smile passed over my 
 companion's face, but he said nothing, and I was 
 about to go on deck when he spoke again. 
 
 ' Let me see/ said he, ' have I said all I intended to 
 
 * Referring to the seamen's superstition that deceased sailors' 
 spirits inhabit the bodies of oceanic birds.
 
 CAPTAIN LEIGH HAS A PRESENTIMENT 79 
 
 say to yon ? Wait a minute, Blackburne ; there are 
 one or two other matters I wish to mention. 
 
 'Now, if I should die, I advise you to carry out 
 this voyage later on. I am convinced that there is a 
 fortune in that guano island. I have been making 
 some additions to my will. I leave certain dis- 
 cretionary powers to John, James, and John, my 
 lawyers, giving you a share in the results of the 
 venture, provided you take an active part in its 
 development/ 
 
 As I thanked him for his generosity, he interrupted 
 me again. 
 
 ' Yes, there is one other matter,' said he. ' Martin 
 Johnston has stuck to me through adversity and 
 prosperity. My daughter knows my wishes about 
 him. See that you help her in making the old chap's 
 days easy to him. I think these are all the things I 
 had on my mind/ 
 
 Thus terminated this curious interview. 
 
 I rose to go, and was half through the cabin door 
 when the Captain stood up, and it seemed as if he 
 were going to add something further. But he stopped 
 irresolute, and I waited a moment and wondered, 
 and then he spoke (but it was as if he only said the 
 end of a sentence, and left the other part unuttered) 
 ' and see you be always good to my girl,' were the 
 words I heard. 
 
 These were the very words. I turned them over in 
 my mind, but it needed a woman's wit, long after- 
 wards, to tell me what had been the unspoken 
 thoughts of her father. 
 
 The Captain shortly after joined me on deck, where
 
 80 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 there was an improvement in the look of the 
 weather. 
 
 This fact, combined with our own impatience, 
 tempted us to make sail, and get her going with the 
 wind, which had hauled south of east, well on the 
 quarter. 
 
 Accordingly, between us, we managed to get the 
 inner jib hoisted and sheeted home, and, as she paid 
 off, I ran aloft and loosed the top-sail, which had been 
 furled, reefed. 
 
 The Captain stayed at the wheel, the yards were 
 squared, and with the halliards taken to the winch, 
 the little ribbon of wet canvas slowly rose to the wind, 
 which still blew with plenty of weight and spite, even 
 though half its venom was apparently out of it when 
 we got the ship fairly going. 
 
 We left the second jib and the fore trysail set, the 
 former sheeted hard amidships. 
 
 I relieved the Skipper at four bells, and thereafter 
 he, old Martin, and I relieved each other in turn. 
 
 We kept no regular lookout, but all hands lay 
 about handy for a call. 
 
 That same evening the cook was so ill that we felt 
 justified in taking him out of the forecastle and 
 putting him in the cargo boat. The boy had previously 
 given this unhopeful hospital a good cleaning. 
 
 The cook was a man who had played many parts in 
 his time carpenter, sailor, donkeyman, billiard 
 marker, pew opener ' everythink ' (as he put it) 
 1 short o' bein* a teetotaler/ 
 
 1 Yes/ said he, ' this here trip I reckons to be the 
 tightest corner ill luck has shoved me into. 'Owever,
 
 CAPTAIN LEIGH HAS A PRESENTIMENT 81 
 
 I'm game, you'll see. It's took a mighty big meat 
 haxe to knock me hendways.' 
 
 'That's right, Cookie/ said Martin, 'you sticks to 
 that and you'll be all right.' 
 
 ' Wot bloomin' luxury,' he had the spirit to ejacu- 
 late, as he saw the bottom boards of the cargo boat 
 and the newly-washed planking. ' Stooard,' added 
 he, turning to the boy, 'bring hup my donkey's break- 
 fast.'* 
 
 ' Right,' said the urchin, ready to joke at any time. 
 ' Any other orders, my lord ? ' 
 
 Anyway we fixed him up as dry and as comfortable 
 as the windy deck of the flying schooner permitted. 
 The boy saw to his requirements during the night. 
 
 So passed the sad hours. The wind took off a great 
 deal during the night, and had we had more men, or 
 even felt fresh ourselves, we would certainly have 
 made more sail than the little band of topsail, under 
 which she rolled towards her destination. 
 
 Early the following morning Miss Leigh came on 
 deck to see how the cook had fared. The alert and 
 loquacious Alf was at once in evidence. 
 
 ' G'morning, Miss,' said he. 
 
 ' How is the Cook ? ' asked Hester. 
 
 ' 'Ow's Slushy. 'E's only middlin' bobbish. A bit 
 off 'is happle ; got a shingle short in 'is tork, I 
 reckons. But he's wunderful well considcrin'.' 
 
 Miss Leigh noted, with a nurse's eye, how deftly 
 and tidily the little Arab had tended the sick man, 
 and made the cheerless surroundings as cosy as 
 possible. 
 
 * Sea slang for a sailor's mattress.
 
 82 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' Well done, Alf ; you're quite a nurse/ she said. 
 
 ' So I oughter be, mum/ he replied ; ' haint I bin 
 four times in 'orspital ? The doctor, 'e said I were 
 " a kind o' reg'lar attendant, an' made the institooshin 
 a kind o' club, as a change from the ' Australia ' 
 Hotel." I larfs at this like anythink. " For Gord's 
 sake," ses 'e to the Sister, " put a chin -bandage on 
 this 'ere boy, or the top of 'is bloomin' 'ead '11 come 
 orf. Boy," sez 'e, "it aint safe fer you to larf a 
 peaceful smile is as much as you oughter risk. Con- 
 sider the feelin's o' your frien's." 
 
 ' 'E wur a reg'lar 'ard case, 'e wur, that doctor/ 
 continued Alf, but I didn't hear any more of his 
 reminiscences, as the wheel needed all the energies I 
 had to expend.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WE REACH THE CLIMAX OF OUR 
 MISFORTUNES 
 
 wind had again increased, and shifted a trifle 
 more to the southward. The sea was very 
 heavy, and the schooner needed constant attention. 
 I had come on deck at four and seen the day break, 
 with a high dawn, a red windy sky, and heavy clouds 
 in rapid motion. 
 
 The picture was a very wild one, and doubly so it 
 seemed to me when I looked at the empty silent decks 
 and remembered the significance of their loneliness. 
 The vessel seemed to have shrunk, dwarfed by com- 
 parison with the giant waves which chased her. 
 
 A big sea looks a very different thing when viewed 
 from the thirty or forty foot bridge of a large steamer 
 from what it appears from the low free-board of a 
 small vessel. 
 
 Heavy rain squalls came up at times and blotted out 
 the grey stormy Avater and wind-rent clouds. 
 
 My gloomy thoughts had a fit setting in the travail 
 of the elements. However, the steering was enough 
 to keep one's attention fixed on the ship, without 
 admitting other causes of disquiet.
 
 84 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 The seas, I noticed, ran less regularly, and I wished 
 heartily that we had laid her to before they had 
 increased to their present violence. 
 
 During the forenoon we took the cook below. 
 There had been a good deal of water knocking about 
 the deck, and the poor fellow kept saying that he was 
 sure we would end by getting the decks swept. 
 
 This change increased the difficulty of nursing him, 
 and the risks of infection from contact in a close 
 space compared with the wind-swept but wholesome 
 cargo-boat. 
 
 Throughout the day we towed a couple of oil-bags 
 overboard, and I believe they laid the seas and that we 
 ran drier. 
 
 It sounds easy and simple to write an account of 
 this time, but I assure you, what with the pestilence, 
 the weather, and our short-handedness, we had hard 
 work to keep our hearts from despondency and the 
 schooner right end uppermost ! 
 
 During the afternoon the Captain was at the wheel. 
 The wind now having drawn so much aft, combined 
 with the trend of the sea, made us bear away so fully 
 that it was well to square the yards and stow the 
 trysail. 
 
 The Skipper called to me to get Martin and the 
 boy and do what was required. He had hardly given 
 me the order, when, in a moment, something happened, 
 the gravity of which my nautical readers will 
 appreciate. 
 
 To steer a small vessel before a heavy wind and 
 sea needs much skill and judgment, a clear head, and 
 absolutely good nerves.
 
 THE CLIMAX OF OUR MISFORTUNES 85 
 
 Yet, be you ever so skilful, your whole ' trick ' is 
 ' one grinding monotony of peril, every spoke of the 
 wheel a rash but obliged experiment, rash as a forlorn 
 hope, needful as the leap which lands a fireman from 
 a burning staircase.' 
 
 Much counts in the safe handling of the wheel in 
 ' getting your hand in/ knowing the feel of the ship 
 in short, use and wont a kind of reflex action 
 taking place between the rnind of a good helmsman 
 and the lifting, swaying fabric he controls. 
 
 Well, the Skipper was worn out. I afterwards 
 came to think that not improbably he was even then 
 developing plague. 
 
 Coming up suddenly from rest or sleep to find 
 oneself steering a vessel under the conditions in 
 which the Pandora was fighting for her life would be 
 no small trial to a young and hearty man, far less to 
 one not very young, and anything but well. 
 
 I cannot say how it may have been, but I had hardly 
 left him to see to getting the trysail stowed when I 
 felt by the movement of the ship under my feet what 
 was going to happen. 
 
 We lifted on a huge comber, the sea passed forward, 
 and I daresay left the rudder but little immersed I 
 do not know but this I do know, that she took one 
 wild sheer to port with a tremendous roll to starboard, 
 and round she came. 
 
 I heard the Captain shout something. I fancy it 
 was to hold on for our lives. 
 
 I made a bound for the main rigging, and took in 
 the fact that Martin was getting into the fore, and 
 was already over the sheer-pole.
 
 86 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 The boy I did not see. As it happened, ho was, 
 fortunately, below looking after the cook. 
 
 Above everything else in my mind there loomed 
 the greenish grey bulk of a huge wave as it rolled on 
 board over our port side. 
 
 I heard an awful crash, and saw the cargo boat 
 lifted bodily up and smashed against the starboard 
 rail, which also gave way. 
 
 A tremendous slatting and banging aloft told me 
 what was going on there. We had, in fact, broached 
 to, the topsail was aback, even though, at the time 
 she came round, the yards were but little canted 
 forwards. 
 
 The jerking and jumping of the spars, the furious 
 thunder of the topsail and the jib, the sheet of which 
 had parted, and above all the sudden weight and spite 
 of the gale, which seemed to have doubled in volume 
 (the result of us now lying more or less across its 
 path), all made a most alarming state of affairs. 
 
 To be caught thus was, in effect, to have all the 
 dangers of ordinary broaching to, plus the chance of 
 immediate ruin from the pressure of the wind applied 
 on the wrong side of the square sail yet set. 
 
 I turned my eyes from the menace aloft to the stern. 
 I could nowhere see the Skipper. 
 
 The wheel, I saw, was partially broken, and, 
 further, I saw that a small whaleboat which we kept 
 lashed on the top of the deck-house had been shifted 
 by the sea, and had smashed the binnacle. 
 
 Where was the Captain ? I feared the worst. 
 And the worst was realised ! 
 
 God help poor Hester and comfort her 1 How could
 
 THE CLIMAX OF OUR MISFORTUNES 87 
 
 we break it to her ? It was only too plain that the 
 great sea which had swept our decks had taken her 
 father with it. I only marvelled that it had not 
 swamped us out of hand. 
 
 Now a curious thing had happened. I told you that 
 the trysail was still set when the catastrophe occurred. 
 
 We were just about to take it in, as the wind was 
 so far aft that it no longer drew, and it was inclined 
 to slat and blow about. Happily for us, we had not 
 time to start any of its gear. As the poor sea-hunted 
 vessel took her wild sheer round to port, the jib, 
 which was sheeted flat aft, and the topsail, both filled 
 on the port tack, with a terrific flap and jerk. The 
 trysail stood the strain; but, as I've said, the jib 
 went, and in a breath all that remained of it was a 
 triangular patch at the head, the rest of the canvas 
 blowing away in a cloud of dark-looking streamers. 
 
 To our comfort, and perhaps surprise, we found that 
 the Pandora had hove herself to, with her head to the 
 south'ard and westward, and, better still, was making 
 good weather of it. 
 
 The yards, however, needed bracing up on the port 
 tack, and this we could not do, because a dozen 
 lengths of rent topsail had frapped themselves round 
 mast and rigging till the yards were lashed immovably 
 in their present wrong cant. 
 
 I therefore went aloft and cut and cleared the 
 tough canvas. That done, we let the yard come down 
 on the cap, and braced sharp up to the wind. 
 
 We next got the little whale-boat into its place on 
 the deck-house, and lashed it securely. 
 
 In the middle of this strenuous work the cover of
 
 88 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 the companion was thrust back, and Miss Leigh stood 
 before us. 
 
 She had evidently been asleep, for one cheek was 
 reddened as if by the pressure of the pillow, and her 
 eyes were hollow with trouble. 
 
 None of us spoke for a moment. Indeed, I saw by 
 the swift expression of agony which leapt into her 
 face, that the broken rail, the wrecked steering gear, 
 and her father's absence had told her, without speech 
 from us, of the awful blow which the unpitying sea 
 had just dealt her. 
 
 'And my father?' was all she said, as with upturned 
 face and outstretched hands she stood looking towards 
 old Martin and me, as we steadied ourselves against 
 the side of the house. 
 
 I crossed over to where she stood and took her hand. 
 
 ' Hester ! I will tell you all about it another time,' 
 I said. ' The schooner got out of hand in the Steering, 
 and your father was washed over. We never saw 
 him again. Nor could we have saved him if we had. 
 It all happened in a flash. Go below ! What can I 
 say to you ? God comfort you ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, my poor father ! My poor father ! ' she 
 moaned. She was standing so insecurely that she ran 
 no small risk of tumbling overboard herself; so I 
 insisted on her going to her room. She went ; and 
 we then set to work to get life-lines stretched along 
 the deck, for the cargo-boat had made a great breach 
 in what had now become the lee rail. 
 
 During the next two days the weather improved, 
 but our misfortunes were not yet at an end. 
 
 The cook, it is true, held his own. He and the boy
 
 THE CLIMAX OF OUR MISFORTUNES 89 
 
 seemed to possess an inexhaustible supply of cheerful 
 spirits and funny experiences. The boy had youth 
 and health to excuse his happiness of temperament, 
 but I confess the cook was my admiration and my 
 despair. Here was a man, no longer young, suffering 
 from plague, in a ship in the most parlous condition ; 
 himself the possessor only of a chest of worn clothes, 
 and a record of having spent all his wages in rum 
 indeed, his complexion bore evidence of his extrava- 
 gance and yet his pleasant greeting to me when I 
 went below after we had cleared up our swept decks 
 was as follows : 
 
 ' Didn't I tell yer, Mr. Blackburne, 'ow that 'ere 
 cargo-boat would get washed over ? S'elp me, I 
 knowed it would ! My oath ! ain't they proper broke 
 up in 'ell to-day ! I 'ears my old pals say, " Missed 
 Old Slushie by a hace ! " You'll see ! I'll euchre 
 Old Nick this time ! ' 
 
 This breezy irreverent optimism concerning his fate 
 in this and another world acted rather as a tonic, of 
 which we all were in need, for, in truth, whichever 
 way we looked at it, our case was sufficiently evil. 
 And the loss of the Skipper, apart from my feelings 
 towards his daughter, cut me to the heart. I had 
 liked and respected him very much. 
 
 The vessel was not badly injured as far as we could 
 see. She was still tight and dry, but we had no 
 compass for neither Hester nor I could find a spare 
 one to replace that which had been smashed and 
 swept overboard. This was inexplicable, for Captain 
 Leigh always carried a spare compass or two as part 
 of each vessel's outfit. Then we had practically only
 
 90 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 two sailor-men to work a heavily-sparred vessel of 
 nearly two hundred tons. 
 
 But more trouble was yet to come. 
 
 On the evening of the second day after the loss of 
 the Captain, I felt sick and feverish. I managed to 
 stand my turns on deck, but by morning I could not 
 raise ray head from the pillow, and I had an accursed 
 pain in my armpit. 
 
 To make a long story short, I had plague. 
 
 I lay in my bunk ill, horribly ill in body, but much 
 more so in mind. 
 
 If ever a man wished to be out and about I did 
 then. 
 
 I alone of those on board knew the navigation 
 necessary to take the vessel home ; and, above all, 
 the responsibility of the poor fatherless girl lay heavy 
 upon me. 
 
 I realised now that I loved her, and passionately 
 wished to live, that I might win her. 
 
 I lay and listened to the creaking of the tossed ship 
 a separate groan in every tortured timber and 
 wondered how Johnston and the boy would manage ; 
 and how sickness dealt with the cook. 
 
 But more than anything else did my mind run on 
 the thought how Hester was to live through the 
 terrible position in which she was placed. 
 
 After learning the news of her father's death she 
 had gone to her cabin for some hours, and remained 
 alone with her sorrow. 
 
 When she came out she was very worn and pale, 
 but in her face and eyes one read determination and 
 courage to dare all things, and to be a comfort and
 
 THE CLIMAX OF OUR MISFORTUNES 91 
 
 help to those of us whom pestilence and mischance 
 had yet left alive. 
 
 She said very simply to mo : ' Mr. Blackburne, you 
 will now please consider me absolutely as one of the 
 crew to do all I am able for our common good. I can 
 at least cook and look after the sick/ 
 
 ' Oh, Miss Leigh/ I said, ' we will manage somehow. 
 Things will brighten after a little. Fine weather will 
 allow us to cook, so we hope to spare you as many 
 inconveniences as we can.' 
 
 ( But I don't wish to be spared ; I am strong and 
 willing and well,' she replied bravely, ' so I mean to 
 take my full share of duty. Believe me,' she added, 
 ' work, after all, is the best consoler.' 
 
 She choked as she ended these words, and turned 
 away to hide her tears. 
 
 From that hour she became the mainspring of our 
 fortitude, for truly she possessed 'an equal mind in 
 time of trouble.' 
 
 About noon of the day after that on which I took 
 to my bunk she came to my room to speak to me of 
 certain matters. Said she : 
 
 ' I feel myself a bad doctor in worrying you. If 
 you are too ill to answer, tell me.' 
 
 I felt myself in a condition in which I would have 
 been glad to give anybody a shilling to shoot me, but 
 I was anxious not to discourage the others by appear- 
 ing very ill. 
 
 ' Oh, no,' I answered, ' what is it ? ' 
 
 1 It is this : Martin and I think it better to bring 
 the cook aft here. Of course I know that we run more 
 risk of infection. At least we make contact with a
 
 92 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 fresh surrounding. Nevertheless it is so much more 
 convenient that we wish to bring him here. 
 
 ' Neither the boy nor I are likely to get the disease, 
 and Martin says he is too tough to get anything. 
 
 ' Do you object ? You see, it's very difficult to 
 look after two patients at opposite ends of the ship.' 
 
 I agreed. Alf and Martin came aft to the cabin at 
 the same time. 
 
 This was the last clear recollection of current 
 events which I had for many troubled days. 
 
 The time that followed is largely a blank to me a 
 time of evil dreams and great fears. But through all 
 these poor stragglings for breath there ran a vague 
 consciousness of one beatific presence, which I seemed 
 to know, but could not name.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 WE LOSE OUR GREENWICH DATE, BUT FIND 
 AN ISLAND 
 
 TT was on a day of bright sunshine and soft running 
 swells that my senses came back to me, and I 
 consciously knew my surroundings. 
 
 The ship seemed strangely silent. I heard no foot- 
 falls on deck, and, though I knew in a few minutes 
 that a fresh breeze was blowing, yet the lazy motion 
 of the vessel told me that she had no way upon her. 
 
 I strove to pierce the immediate past, blindly grop- 
 ing among the brain cells, where, I imagine, an 
 imprint, a change of some sort, must take place every 
 hour we live. If an impression is strong enough, each 
 scene, each emotion, is bitten into them, even as the 
 tool of the engraver bites the copper and of these 
 inward pictures is our past made up. 
 
 Such is memory. 
 
 Slowly and haltingly I sought for some outward 
 landmark ; and, presently, one came. As I looked 
 out into the little homely saloon I saw a woman by the 
 cabin table. A lonely figure sitting with her hand on 
 her cheek, an open unread book before her, with 
 sorrow and exhaustion writ large on her pale face. 
 
 93
 
 94 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I knew her in a moment. One thing truly had not 
 altered the wonder of her hair. Again I caught the 
 glister of its burnished gold as the sunlight came and 
 went through the cabin skylight. 
 
 She was fast asleep. I did not wake her, but 
 pieced together the broken thread of our story. I 
 remembered the pestilence ; the great sea which swept 
 our decks, and the loss of my captain. Then came my 
 sickness, and all was chaos. 
 
 I knew that days must have passed, but of how 
 many I had 110 idea. 
 
 No bell was struck, no cabin clock marked the 
 hours. It seemed, indeed, as if a quiet sleep had 
 crystallised the life of the ship. 
 
 The growing dimness of the cabin told me that the 
 time was now afternoon and, further, I felt hungry. 
 
 Shortly afterwards Hester, for of course I need 
 hardly say it was she, awoke, and in a minute her 
 hand was holding mine, and I heard a soft voice 
 saying, ' Thank God ! ' 
 
 Several days elapsed before I heard an account of 
 all the various troubles which befell my shipmates 
 during the long interval in which I had hung between 
 life and death. 
 
 1 Have I been violent or troublesome ? ' I asked. 
 
 1 No, not quite so bad as that only wandering and 
 talking constantly/ 
 
 e What about ? ' I asked, a little uneasily. 
 
 1 Oh, about ships and sheep and other things ; ' 
 and, as Hester spoke, I caught the ghost of a smile in 
 her eyes. 
 
 ' Yes, Mr. Blackburne,' she continued, ' you have
 
 WE LOSE OUR GREENWICH DATE 95 
 
 been dreadfully ill. It was awful to sit here at night 
 alone for Martin and Alf have, on most nights, slept 
 on deck and hear the lapping of the water outside, 
 and your mutterings, and the cook's groans. I often 
 felt beside myself ; but now I have my reward, and 
 you are conscious again. Does the wound under your 
 arm pain you ? ' 
 
 1 Not a bit,' I replied. 
 
 ' Well, that was what frightened me more than 
 anything else. You had a huge, angry swelling in 
 your armpit ; and I didn't know whether to cut it or 
 not. At last I felt sure I ought to do something, and 
 I laid it open with a razor. Alf was consultant in 
 the case. His view was that "the hailment, bein' 
 inside you, tries to get out upsets yer innards, d'ye 
 see, Miss ? 'Ere it's tryin' to bust through 'im. 'Elp 
 'im with the knife. Cut, Miss, cut 'earty." 
 
 ' I don't know if I could have done it without the 
 little imp's assistance. He is the kindest and most 
 cheery little ruffian south of the Line.' 
 
 ' Now tell me about the cook,' I said anxiously. 
 
 ' The cook is fairly well,' she replied. ' He is up 
 and about; but of course he's weak. He never 
 seemed to me to be desperately ill. He was only a 
 little delirious. I'm afraid he must have drunk a 
 great deal in his time.' 
 
 ' Why so ? ' I queried. 
 
 ' Well, all his rambling appeared to me to refer to 
 dealings with tap-rooms. He seemed perpetually to 
 be disputing the reckoning with mine host.' 
 
 ' Well, that's not an uncommon complaint.' 
 
 ' Perhaps not, but the dispute in cook's case was 
 one of great vigour and venom.
 
 96 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' " Yon swine ! " " You dead-beat ! " " Clear out ! " 
 from the one, and " Where's my change ? " "A long 
 sleever, you swab ! " "I ain't knocked down my 
 cheque yet, you dog ! " from the other, made me 
 thankful that he wasn't as delirious as you have 
 been.' 
 
 ' Now tell me about the others and of yourself.' 
 
 ' A people which has no history is a fortunate one. 
 So with us three. We have remained perfectly 
 well.' 
 
 Martin and the boy, whom I saw presently, looked 
 fat and well, but Hester was worn and pale. Yet in 
 spite of all her trials she was obviously in good 
 health. 
 
 I wondered that she had not broken down under 
 her great affliction. But, as she herself had said, 
 ' work had been her best consoler/ 
 
 I thought, too, of the shrewd Frenchman's remark 
 that ' the labours of the body relieve the pains of the 
 mind.' This it is that constitutes the happiness of the 
 poor. 
 
 ' I would like to talk to Martin, Miss Leigh,' I said 
 after a while. 
 
 1 Do you feel strong enough ? ' she asked, doubt- 
 fully, and with an air of being in full charge of her 
 patient that was infinitely comforting to me. 
 
 ( Yes, I think so,' I meekly replied ; ' besides, I am 
 anxious to know a number of things about the ship.' 
 
 ( Very well, I'll bring him down, but I won't have 
 him exciting you.' 
 
 Hester went out of the cabin without turning her 
 back, as she always did, paused for a moment, and,
 
 SHORTLY A1TKKU AKI>- 
 
 'K < OTKSK 1 NKKU IIAKI'I.V SAY 
 A \\OKK J'ti'ie '.'',
 
 WE LOSE OUR GREENWICH DATE 97 
 
 holding one finger uplifted with a pleasant play- 
 fulness 
 
 ' Now, remember/ she said, ' only five minutes and 
 no more.' 
 
 She went on deck, and presently I heard the old 
 sailor's tread, and in a minute he stood before me. 
 
 'Well, Martin,' I said, after receiving his hearty 
 congratulations on my recovery, ' tell me all about the 
 ship, and how you managed with only Miss Leigh and 
 Alf to help you.' 
 
 ' Well, Mr. Blackburne, she didn't need no lookin' 
 after. She pretty well done the job on her own. I 
 just let her drift. We've had fine weather ever since 
 you took bad.' 
 
 ' What should you say had been her drift, John- 
 stone ? ' 
 
 f l reckon, sir, it would lie pretty well between 
 north and west. But, as yer knows, I 'adn't no 
 compass, so I just guesses at it.' 
 
 The position of the ship, at the date at which my 
 illness began, lay to the north of the track of ships 
 bound Home round the Horn. 
 
 Still further north lay the region of the south-east 
 trades, and within these limits a greater likelihood of 
 help. Hence the north-westerly drift was to the 
 advantage of the schooner. Moreover, Martin had 
 really no choice but to let the wind blow her along. 
 What between his single-handed condition, the direc- 
 tion of the winds which had prevailed, and the absence 
 of a compass, I did not see that he could have done 
 anything more than he had done. 
 
 ' Have you any idea of the distance covered ?' I 
 next asked him.
 
 98 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ( Don't ask me to put a figure to the miles we've 
 gone, sir, but I reckons we're well into the sou'-east 
 trades ; nigh the tropics, I should say.' 
 
 ' What makes you think that ? ' I asked, anxious to 
 hear what I knew could be only the half-instinctive 
 reasoning of an observant seaman without scientific 
 knowledge. 
 
 ' Well, sir, 'ere's the wind been a-pourin' steady 
 from what seems to me the same quarter. The 
 clouds, too, looks like a " trade " sky. And then the 
 'eat. See the thermometer 84 tf at this minute. 
 And the flying fish. Take my word for it, Mr. Black- 
 burne, we're hinside the tropic all right.' 
 
 I had little doubt that the old man was correct, but 
 I longed to be on deck and take an observation and 
 be sure. I didn't want to hit something harder than 
 salt water without knowing it. 
 
 Just then Hester rejoined us, and I told her I was 
 impatient to get sights. 
 
 ' By-the-by,' I added, l who wound the chro- 
 nometers ? ' 
 
 I immediately saw a look of deep distress come 
 over Hester's face. 
 
 ' Oh, Mr. Blackburne/ she said, hastily, ' what can 
 I say to excuse myself, for I take the entire blame. 
 I know I could not have done a more foolish thing. 
 And some of the joy at your recovery has been 
 chastened by the knowledge of how you must feel 
 when I confess to you that I forgot the timekeepers 
 utterly for several days after you collapsed/ 
 
 I daresay I looked pretty put out, and I fear she 
 saw my chagrin.
 
 WE LOSE OUR GREENWICH DATE 99 
 
 ' Well, well/ I said, ' it's a complication, but we'll 
 manage somehow. Never mind, Miss Leigh, you 
 
 ' No, no, Mr. Blackburne,' she broke in, ' I don't 
 want to be let off easily. The only thing I can say is, 
 that when you became ill, we all, even Alf, were 
 dreadfully despondent for a time. And, besides, we 
 were up to our eyes in hard work. Anyway, I forgot 
 the clocks, and I could kill myself because I have 
 been guilty of the very kind of forgetfulness I pride 
 myself on avoiding.' 
 
 This news was indeed a great blow to me. My 
 mind ran with greater weight on visions of a dark 
 night, a roar of breakers, and a crash on a low-lying 
 reef. We seemed, indeed, to have drunk deep of the 
 cup of maritime woe. 
 
 But it was well to look at the bright side of things. 
 Surely the pestilence was at an end with us. Surely 
 after all these days of close contact, the others, if 
 susceptible, would, by this time, have been attacked. 
 Moreover the moon and stars still silently pointed to 
 the hours. Our fathers managed without chro- 
 nometers. I could recover my Greenwich date when 
 health came back to me. All would yet go well. We 
 were not going to be permanently ' bushed.' 
 
 I lay very weak for the next few days. The Trades 
 were moderate, and Martin considered that the little 
 ship made northing steadily in her drift. 
 
 During these days, in the afternoon, when domestic 
 duties, ' household chores,' were over for the time, 
 Hester came to my room and brought light and 
 healing in her fragrant presence. She was, indeed,
 
 100 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 the best tonic I could have to help me to strength 
 and usefulness. 
 
 One morning the news was brought to me which I 
 had daily looked for. Alf Nash ran below to tell me 
 that Martin saw land. 
 
 ( Tell Johnstone to come to me as soon as he can/ 
 1 said. 
 
 1 Ay, ay, sir/ said the boy, as he vanished on deck. 
 
 Presently Martin appeared. ' What do you make 
 of the land, Martin ? Is it high or low-lying ? ' 
 
 ' It's too far off, sir, to be sure. I thinks it low 
 reef-like but I'll report later on.' 
 
 ' Now, first, is the steering gear in working order ? ' 
 
 'Yes, sir. I fixed it myself. You can depend 
 on it.' 
 
 ' Good ! Now, you must at once overhaul the 
 ground-tackle, and get au anchor ready for letting go 
 if required. Can you manage that job with what 
 help the others can give you ? ' 
 
 ' I thinks so. Leastwise, I can easily manage the 
 cable. As to the hanchor ? yes, sir, I'll manage ! A 
 watch tackle and a few 'andspikes will do that job, 
 too, I reckon.' 
 
 ' Very well, I hope so. My God, old chap, what 
 would I not give to be up, and well, and at work.' 
 
 ' You cheer up, sir ! I bets you'll be about among 
 hus strong an' 'earty in a jiffy. 3 
 
 'Thanks!' said I. 'I hope so. Another thing, 
 Martin get the jib and stay-foresail ready for 
 hoisting.' 
 
 'I will, sir. I got the main-trysail all ready, sir, 
 while you was ill ; I've got it made up on the top of
 
 WE LOSE OUR GREENWICH DATE 101 
 
 the mainsail, which you'll mind got a good snug stow 
 afore the gale broke on us.' 
 
 Prudent old fellow ! He was therefore in a position 
 to get the Pandora under manageable canvas in a 
 very short time. 
 
 He returned on deck, and from the sounds which 
 came aft to the cabin, I could imagine what strenuous 
 exertions were going on forward to get our ' mud- 
 hook ' ready. 
 
 I daresay each of our bower anchors weighed over 
 eight hundredweight without its stock. So it was 
 a fairly heavy job for one man, a girl, and a boy. 
 
 We were fitted, too, with a cat and fish fall, as 
 most sailing ships are, and not with the modern 
 central crane. The Pandora, too, was well found in 
 all kinds of gear. Of anchors we had four or five, 
 varying, say, from eight and a half hundredweight 
 down to one hundredweight or thereabout. 
 
 Well, to continue, the work forward was successful, 
 and, all hands assisting, a bower anchor was got ready 
 for letting go. This was the difficult matter, compared 
 with which the preparations for getting her under 
 working canvas were comparatively easy. 
 
 During the afternoon we approached the land 
 sufficiently near to see that it rose very few feet above 
 the level of the sea, and that it had a stunted, scanty 
 vegetation growing upon it. 
 
 As the day wore on I got so fidgety and fretful 
 below that I declared I must be taken on deck to see 
 things for myself. 
 
 ' But you will be made ill/ Hester remonstrated. 
 ' You know you are not fit. I shall have spent my
 
 102 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 labour in vain/ she added, with a rather reproachful 
 look. 
 
 ' I cannot help it, Hester ! I mean Miss Leigh/ I 
 hastily corrected. ' I shall fret my temperature up 
 to 212 if I remain out of sight of this reef. For 
 goodness sake take me on deck ! ' 
 
 She called the boy, and said, ' Alf, Mr. Blackburne 
 is going on deck ; you will give me a hand. How do 
 you think he looks ? ' 
 
 ( Suttinly, Miss, I'll give ye both a 'and. Ain't that 
 kerrecter ? ; 0w does Mr. Blackburne look ? Wy, I 
 sez tip-top. He ain't exactly fat, but he ain't a 
 skelleton neither. You'll be fit for 'Omebush* in no 
 time, sir. You ain't no bloomin' deserter from the 
 churchyard. No, not by long chalks.' 
 
 I got out and tried to walk, but everything began 
 to swim, and in a minute I telescoped into a bundle of 
 limp limbs and sleeping clothes on the little seat 
 between my bunk and the bulkhead. 
 
 ' Mr. Blackburne, you must either let us carry you 
 or I shall put you back in bed and lock the door/ said 
 Miss Leigh, with an intonation which told me she 
 would carry out her threat. 
 
 Between physical weakness and a desire to see 
 things on deck I don't know what I said I fear 
 nothing very creditable to either my temper or my 
 patience. Hester's answer was swift and decisive. 
 I found myself being transported deckwards ' ladies'- 
 cushion ' fashion. 
 
 Remonstrance was useless, and, with a helping hand 
 from Martin, who stood at the head of the companion, 
 
 * The Smithfield of New South Wales, where fat stock are sold.
 
 WE LOSE OUR GREENWICH DATE 103 
 
 I quickly found myself on the deck-house and securely 
 fixed in a cane chair. 
 
 I said nothing, but I felt grateful. Perhaps I 
 looked it. I felt a touch on my arm. 
 
 'I hope I was not cross to you just now/ said my 
 nurse. ' I didn't mean to be unkind. I must think 
 for you a little longer yet. In a week or so you 
 shall think for all of us/ she added, after a tiny 
 pause. 
 
 I pressed her hand as I replied : ' Thanks, thanks ! 
 I owe you my life. You know, dear lady, that I am 
 not myself otherwise I would not be so unreasonable 
 and querulous. A man doesn't think quite straight 
 when he is sick and ill so please forgive me.' 
 
 ' Hush no more ! ' and she laid her hand for a 
 second on my lips and vanished. 
 
 I looked around me. Heavens ! how weak and 
 tottery I was ! But the blessed air and sunshine were 
 like a benediction. Oh, the joy of leaving a sick bed ! 
 The physical happiness of breathing and walking 
 without pain ! I thought of Gray's lines on a man 
 recovering from sickness : 
 
 The meanest floweret of the vale, 
 The simplest note that swells the gale ; 
 The common sun, the air, the skies 
 To him are opening Paradise. 
 
 And thus felt I, as I looked around, and once more 
 drew the warm breath of the sea breeze, and drank in 
 the brilliant azure of tropical ocean and cloudless sky. 
 Dear God ! the very waves seemed to laugh a welcome 
 to me in sparkling overfalls !
 
 104 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 But Martin presently brought nay mind into more 
 practical channels. 
 
 ' There's the land, sir/ said he ; ' ye can see it from 
 where ye're sittinV 
 
 It lay dead to leeward of the vessel. I took a long 
 look at it with the glasses. A low reef, with nothing 
 to make us stop for. I called Johnstone. 
 
 ' Get some sail on her, Martin, and let us draw clear 
 of that death-trap.' 
 
 The cheep of blocks and flap of canvas once more 
 were heard. The pleasant murmur of divided waters 
 again caught my ear, seeming to shape itself into 
 words of hope, and to promise that brighter times 
 were yet in store for our sorely tried company. An 
 hour and a half of quiet sailing put the land away to 
 wind'ard of us on our port beam. We had again 
 hove to. 
 
 I knew only too well how weak I was, and I saw I 
 could not yet be of any real use in working the ship ; 
 so my object was simply to keep the vessel out of 
 mischief till I was sufficiently strong to try to take her 
 into safety. Moreover, my mind was now incessantly 
 filled with the necessity of recovering the date, for 
 no one on board had kept any record of time. 
 
 Indeed, the vagueness of my four shipmates was 
 marvellous; any period between a fortnight and six 
 weeks was the time during which they supposed our 
 drift to have lasted. 
 
 Two days passed away, with health coming back to 
 me, and without external incident. We kept some 
 small sail on the ship, and had the head sheets to 
 windward all the time, gybing her round every two
 
 WE LOSE OUR GREENWICH DATK 105 
 
 hours, so that her nett drift, bar currents, was pro- 
 bably pretty well dead before the wind. 
 
 During this time another reef was seen, happily 
 during the hours of daylight. 
 
 Among the preparations for future contingencies 
 was the matter of getting our one boat swung out- 
 board, or at least abreast of the broken rail. 
 
 We therefore got the davits shipped on the starboard 
 side. 
 
 I shall not weary you with detailing how we did 
 these things. 
 
 It sounds easy to say we shifted a boat from one 
 part of the ship to another, but it took our weak 
 company no small time to do it. Anyway, we did it 
 and that was the main point. 
 
 At length, early one morning, land was sighted 
 for the third time, and as we drew closer in we saw 
 that it was of larger extent, and though only a tropical 
 atoll it evidently possessed a fair amount of soil, for 
 we could distinguish the waving of the feathery tops 
 of palms against the sky. And fervently I hoped 
 that it might give us shelter and assistance a short 
 time would settle the question. 
 
 In my own mind I had ' panned out' the position 
 as follows : 
 
 If we could fall in with help on the high seas, so 
 much the better; but if we hadn't that luck, what 
 were we to do ? 
 
 I felt still too weak to take any vigorous share in 
 the sailing of the schooner. Indeed I had but one 
 continuous wish to be at anchor in some decent 
 holding ground, and there lie quiet till food and
 
 106 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 exercise made me able to think and work ( worth a 
 cent/ 
 
 Again : the facts that I had neither day nor 
 Greenwich Time ; no compass ; and only two men 
 and a boy on board ; all contributed to make me feel 
 sure that the sooner I got off the high seas the better, 
 before I blundered into some further mess. 
 
 Of course, I wanted an island with assistance of all 
 kinds, but failing such a haven, I was prepared to go 
 into shelter anywhere, and wait till physical and 
 mental strength came back, sufficient to let me cope 
 with the strange pass to which we had been brought 
 by the pestilence.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND 
 
 AS we opened out the land, old Martin, who was 
 ^^ aloft, reported that the reef enclosed a fairly 
 large lagoon, within which was a small island. It was 
 on this island that the trees grew, for the most part. 
 
 ' D'ye see any signs of people ? ' I hailed, as he stood 
 on the topgallant yard shading his eyes under the 
 sharp of his hand. 
 
 'None whatever, sir no smoke, no vessels, no 
 nothing, Mr. Blackburne ! ' 
 
 ' Stay where you are just now, Martin/ I called 
 back ; ' watch closely the colour of the water in every 
 direction. And keep a sharp look out for an entrance. 
 I wish to goodness the sun was astern of us going in 
 here.' 
 
 ' Ay, ay, sir.' 
 
 Martin had been in a surveying vessel, and was 
 quite at home in this kind of navigation. 
 
 By good luck the Trade-wind blew a moderate 
 sailing breeze, and so, if happily an entrance in the 
 reef were discovered, I felt we could negotiate its 
 passage with greater ease. 
 
 107
 
 108 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 But what of the lagoon inside ? Was I to risk 
 everything by sailing in with Martin conning her from 
 aloft ? Or, on the other hand, dare I commit the 
 manoeuvring of the ship to the inadequate charge of 
 two invalids and a girl while I sent Martin and Alf 
 Nash away to make a rough survey of the dangers to 
 be avoided ? 
 
 These thoughts were rapidly passing through my 
 mind when Martin hailed the deck again. 
 
 ' I see an entrance, sir. It's about three points on 
 the starboard bow you'll hardly see it from the deck 
 it's a bit round the corner.' 
 
 We were steadily rising the land, and in a short 
 time the entrance was visible from the deck. It was 
 situated apparently at the south-eastern end of the 
 reef, and consequently we had a leading wind if we 
 determined to attempt its passage. 
 
 After much inward questioning, I made up my 
 mind to let the boat go away on a sounding expedition. 
 Desperate diseases need desperate remedies, and I 
 allowed myself no second thoughts. The whale-boat 
 was swung out, and in her we put rations for two 
 days, a lamp, and a hand-lead, with other necessary 
 gear. She was quite big enough for two hands. 
 
 ' Now, Martin/ said I ; ' listen to me closely ! You 
 are an old hand at this game ! Be careful and look 
 out for " Bumboras." } * 
 
 'I will, sir/ replied the old shellback. 'I once sees 
 an officer and several men lost that way anchored 
 
 * The local name used on the Australian coast for a place where 
 the sea suddenly breaks heavily, due to a rocky outcrop at the 
 bottom, over which the tide runs.
 
 WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND 109 
 
 right atop of the place where the sea broke. Trust 
 me ! I'll be careful.' 
 
 ' All right. Now, when you get to the entrance see 
 which way the tide is running, and if it's strong. Use 
 the lead ; see what sort of channel there is, and the 
 depth. In short, Martin, do your best to find if we 
 dare take the Pandora through the passage. Once 
 you are there, seek for an anchorage.' 
 
 ' I'll do my best, sir.' 
 
 ' All right ! I know you will. Work quickly ; you 
 know the anxiety we shall be in till you are on board 
 again. I'll run the schooner a little way to leeward, 
 so that you won't have any pull to windward with 
 that boat. You'll be tired enough by that time, I've 
 no doubt, not to wish for any more pulling. If your 
 report is good, and we decide to go in, a couple of 
 short tacks will put us to wind'ard again, and we'll 
 try our luck with the passage with a fair wind.' 
 
 The Pandora was now hove to ; Hester and the 
 cook slacked off the falls, and Martin and Alf were 
 soon pulling for the reef, leaving three very uneasy 
 people in charge of the ship. 
 
 I am afraid I shall bore you if I give you an account 
 of the anxieties of the next two hours, during which 
 we could see nothing of the boat. 
 
 I had set my watch going on the strength of an 
 altitude taken the day before at supposed noon by 
 Hester, who could measure an angle very correctly. 
 
 The minutes as they passed seemed hours, and the 
 hours themselves an eternity of disquietude. 
 
 Hester tried to make the time pass by various 
 devices. We talked of books which we both loved,
 
 110 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 and she repeated some verses from the ' Rubaiyat ' of 
 Omar Khayyam. I knew nothing of it beyond the 
 bare name, which, indeed, I had believed to bo that 
 of a much advertised mineral water. I somehow 
 mixed it up with Hunyadi-Janos. Such was my ignor- 
 ance. I told Hester this, and the deck echoed to her 
 delighted laughter the first for many a day. 
 
 ' You dreadful Philistine/ said she. ' I forgive you 
 not knowing Omar's poetry. But you a sailor man 
 and not know that he was a great astronomer and 
 reformed the calendar. I blush for you ! ' 
 
 Our chief distraction, however, was the ship. We 
 gybed her round every half-hour, and that manosuvre 
 kept us occupied. But, try as we might, the two 
 hours of waiting were among the worst I ever put in. 
 At last we saw the boat coming round the point of a 
 reef to the north of that by which we had entered. 
 Evidently she had emerged by a second channel. We 
 now let the schooner run off a few points, and were 
 soon sufficiently far to leeward, where we waited for 
 the coming of Martin and the boy, who got safely on 
 board. We then hoisted up our boat, and a nice 
 tough job that was, falls to the winch notwithstanding. 
 
 1 Well, Martin, what have you to tell me ? ' I asked, 
 as soon as the last turn was taken. 
 
 ' First/ said the old sailor, ' the channel we've just 
 corned out by ain't no good for a vessel, it's only a 
 boat passage.' 
 
 ' All right,' I said, perhaps a little impatiently ; 
 ' what about the other ? ' 
 
 ' I was a-comin' to it, sir. I reckons it's well over 
 two hundred feet wide, though I'll not give ye an
 
 WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND 111 
 
 exact account o' the soundings, Mr. Blackburne. But 
 it'll take a ship a sight bigger than this hooker, 
 anyway. O' that I'm sartain.' 
 
 ' That's good news. How's the tide ? ' 
 ' Runnin' in, sir but not makin' strong. I reckons 
 we've plenty time to go in with the tail end o' this 
 flood. Ye arst me about a hanchorage ; well, I thinks 
 we're all right ; we'll 'ave to run up perhaps better 
 nor 'alf a mile to the west o' the entrance. There's 
 room there to bring up comfortable, and the depth is 
 right enough between seven and ten fathoms.' 
 
 Hester clapped her hands and turned to me, saying : 
 
 'Now, Mr. Blackburne, the island is going to be 
 
 our Mascotte. You will see ! We are going into 
 
 that lagoon on the flood, and it is a tide which will 
 
 lead us to fortune.' 
 
 I looked across at her brave smiling face and kind 
 eyes, and I said to myself, ' Hang the island ! You're 
 our Mascotte ! ' Our eyes met for a moment. How 
 I would have liked to have said some of the thoughts 
 which choked me but the cheery voice of Johnstone 
 recalled me to duty. 
 
 1 Shall I let the 'ead sheets draw, sir ? ' 
 ' Do so,' I said, ' and we'll soon beat up. A couple 
 of short boards will do it.' 
 
 The breeze was a sufficiently commanding one, and 
 we were quickly heading for the opening, all of us 
 filled with anxious thoughts, or, as my father used to 
 say when we took him boat sailing in a hard breeze, 
 ' with one's liver in one's mouth.' However, ' nothing 
 venture, nothing have,' and I held my breath as we 
 swept past the coral heads of the little passage.
 
 112 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 When we rose on the great swell of the Pacific we 
 seemed to look down on possible destruction, and our 
 ears were filled with the thunder of many waters. A 
 moment more, and our trial was over, we passed 
 beyond these dangers into peace. 
 
 Starboarding the helm we headed up the lagoon, 
 keeping pretty close to the shore of the islet. 
 
 ' Get the fore trysail and the stay foresail off her, 
 Martin/ was the next order. This was done, and he, 
 the cook, and Alf went forward to stand by to let go 
 our anchor when we came up in the wind. 
 
 The outer jib was now hauled down, and Hester, 
 who had gone to the wheel after Martin had taken 
 the schooner through, at a sign from me put the helm 
 down, and when the ship had lost her way I gave the 
 order to ' Let go ! ' 
 
 A welcome plunge and rattle followed. At last we 
 were at anchor ! The depth gave us sufficient room 
 to swing clear of both encircling reef and central 
 islet; nevertheless, I was not, I confess, too happy 
 about our holding ground, but one cannot have every- 
 thing one wants in the world, no not even mud. 
 
 Now I do not intend to weary you with all our 
 doings in this place, but some of them I may speak 
 of j certain other events came later during our stay 
 on Pandora Island as we soon began to call our 
 refuge and I shall tell you about them in due course. 
 
 The first consideration was naturally the safety of 
 our vessel, and this we saw to, with infinite travail to 
 ourselves, so far as in us lay. 
 
 Then for two of us strength to work was a boon 
 which perhaps the island would give, so we wooed
 
 WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND 113 
 
 Hygeia. We also planned further measures of disin- 
 fection, which, as I shall tell you, were faithfully 
 carried out. 
 
 For all of us rest and a run ashore was an excellent 
 prescription. 
 
 A week swiftly and not unpleasantly slipped away. 
 
 We explored the island ; we caught fish and 
 Martin knew fairly well which were edible and which 
 not, but we avoided rash experiments. To our dis- 
 appointment we found no permanent well or spring, 
 though there were several good water holes. We got 
 a plentiful supply of cocoanuts, but no other eatable 
 fruits. 
 
 In the evenings the two men played euchre, whilst 
 the boy devoted himself to the study of the mouth- 
 organ, an instrument capable, in his hands, of inflict- 
 ing great torture, and quite new to me. 
 
 I do not think I ever shall forget those days. I 
 hope not, anyway, for the memory of them is very 
 dear to me. We used to have our supper on deck, or 
 call it our evening meal that is a generic term and 
 means anything you like at about six. Hester took 
 a hand in its preparation, as the cook was too weak to 
 do much as yet, and his acquirements didn't run to 
 invalid cookery. 
 
 After the meal was over we would bring our chairs 
 right aft, close to the rail, and there, while I smoked 
 and hourly gained health, this gem among women, 
 without art, and in the unconscious simplicity of her 
 character, made deeper inroads on my affections, 
 whilst I could only hope that I was not indifferent 
 
 to her. 
 
 u
 
 114 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 Sometimes she opened the stores of a mind richly 
 furnished with solid knowledge of all kinds; some- 
 times she touched on the lighter paths of literature ; 
 and in either case I marvelled how in her three and 
 twenty years she had garnered so great a mental 
 harvest. 
 
 But what I liked best of all was when she sang, soft 
 and low, some of those simple songs which are not the 
 least happy part of the lyrical heritage of the English- 
 speaking people. 
 
 Not once, but often, was the wish to risk my all on 
 one momentous question almost overpowering. But 
 I crushed it back, remembering just in time that ' the 
 sped arrow and the spoken word come not back.' I 
 had no right, I thought, to speak then. < No/ said I 
 to myself, < I shall not spoil the happy, frank relation- 
 ship which exists between us.' And so we drifted on, 
 perhaps half conscious that there must come a day 
 when the curtain which I had drawn would be pulled 
 aside, allowing me to find my future golden, or else 
 to see it vanish into the outside night of lasting dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 It was one of Hester Leigh's best charms that she 
 possessed a keen sense of humour. You can well 
 believe that an unconscious humourist like Alf Nash 
 was a veritable treasure trove for exploitation. He 
 was a new and strange type to be studied. I found 
 him excellent value myself, though he did not possess 
 for me the novelty he did for Hester, for I knew the 
 Sydney larrikin pretty well. 
 
 Miss Leigh had a strong memory, and like the sun 
 dial, she remembered only sunny hours and things.
 
 WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND 115 
 
 At least so it seemed to me in many of the darker 
 days of this strange voyage, which she lightened by 
 her stories and sayings. 
 
 During her probation in a London hospital she had 
 been a close observer of the lights and shadows which 
 surround the life of the ' submerged tenth/ whose 
 world is Whitechapel and the Docks, and whose sins 
 and sorrows bring them, sooner or later, to receive the 
 secular absolution of hospital treatment. 
 
 We had, on one of these evenings, drifted over 
 various subjects of converse, from graver things such 
 as I have alluded to, down to the misuse and mis- 
 pronunciation of words, when our attention was 
 directed to a little bickering forward. 
 
 We could hear the rumble of the men's voices as 
 they sat on the corner of the main hatch playing 
 cards. Close beside them sprawled the boy, discours- 
 ing music of a kind out of his mouth-organ. A 
 smoky lamp flung its uncertain radiance over the 
 group, and even painted the mottled face of poor old 
 Cookie with a counterfeit hue of wholesomeness. 
 
 ' Wot kind o' a noise d'yer call that ? ' asked the 
 cook all at once. 
 
 ' Music, Doctor/ said the boy. 
 
 ' Music ! Seems to me yer must 'a' swallered a mob 
 o' kittens and they're a-fightin' oo's to be fust hont.' 
 
 1 Cook, I'm sorry for yer/ retorted the imp. I could 
 see the scamp hitch up his dropped lid as he spoke. 
 ( Yus, yer've lost yer taste for a 'igh class hentertain- 
 meut. Sp'iled it goin' to them shillin' " Saturday 
 Pops " in the Town 'All. I'm rilly sorry for yer. 
 'Struth I am ! '
 
 116 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' Are yer ? ' said the cook, ' then take yer 'igh class 
 noises for'ard. Yer kin serinade the blarsted moon if 
 yer likes ; she ain't " walkin' out " with no one, and 
 will be glad of the hattentions of a torff like you. Be 
 orf ! Yer gives me the yaller ja'ndice to look at yer. 
 I wouldn't trust yer in a dairy. Yer'd curdle all the 
 milk with that sour heye o' yourn.' 
 
 The boy rose to go, but he evidently had a Par- 
 thian dart to launch at his opponent. 
 
 ' Well, mates, I'm orf. I'm only wastin' my talents 
 'ere. Besides, I ain't goin 3 to be monopolised over by 
 you, old grog-blossom ! 'Ow much rum did it cost 
 yer to buy that hexpensive complexion, Slushy ? ' 
 
 The aggravated cook made a movement to hit his 
 tormentor, but the boy was out of reach in a 
 moment. 
 
 ' Good-bye for the present, old Lush-up/ said he. 
 ' My word, yer must 'a' bin 'ard up for a drink last 
 time you was in Sydney.' 
 
 ' 'Ow's that ? ' asked the cook with interest, and 
 quite taken off his guard. 
 
 ( W'y, I 'ears yer took to 'avin' fits in the street, 
 and gammons to choke, and when they opens yer 
 shirt they finds a tally on yer : " Brandy revives me." 
 The fust few times yer gets a nobbier or two, but 
 later on they "jugs" yer " Obtainin' drinks under 
 false pretences." 
 
 The deep voice of Martin now came into the 
 wrangle. 
 
 ' Oh, dry up, both of yer. Cook, leave the bloomin' 
 young larrikin alone. Now, play yer card, old 
 whiskev-tacket.' And so the banter ended.
 
 WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND 117 
 
 ' Did you hear that delightful malapropism ? ' Miss 
 Leigh asked. 
 
 ' Yes,' I answered, ' I did, but I can cap it easily. 
 I once heard a leash of them flung at me in a single 
 sentence. When the Pandora was lying at the loading 
 berth in Darling Harbour, one of the wharf-labourers 
 injured his ribs and drew sick pay from his Benefit 
 Society. 
 
 ' Notwithstanding this he went out in the evening 
 to amuse himself. He was seen by the argus eyes of 
 an official of his lodge, who promptly pounced on him 
 for breaking the rule which ordered him to stay at 
 home when receiving sick pay. 
 
 ' The official thus stated the matter to me one day 
 during a " Smoke-Oh. " 
 
 ' " Look 'ere, sir. Bill Johnson ain't very sick' e's 
 foxin', I believe. 'E's been a-gallawantin' down 
 Hoxford-street hafter height o'clock at night. Think 
 o' that, and 'im on sick pay ! If 'e 'ad the doctor's 
 transgression to go hout well au' good. But if 'e 
 were hout on 'is hown rumpossibility, w'y then by 
 'eavens we 'as a clue on him." 
 
 Half the pleasure of telling Hester a story lay in 
 the joy of hearing her laugh. There are some people 
 who, when they laugh, put your teeth on edge. I 
 confess I occasionally hear sounds supposed to be duo 
 to mirth which simply create murder in my heart. 
 
 But Hester Leigh's laugh was like the ripple of 
 pleasant waters; it was a joy to listen to it. 
 
 ' Well,' she answered, ' your story reminds me of 
 when I was doing duty in the out-patient department 
 of the hospital. The Assistant Physician was a dapper 
 little man ; the day was hot, and he was irritable.
 
 118 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 1 An over-dressed woman came in, wearing cheap 
 jewellery ; evidently a person too well off to come to a 
 charity for treatment. 
 
 ( " What do you complain of ? ' asked the doctor." 
 
 ' " Oh/' said the woman with a mincing air, " I'm 
 just full of diseases." 
 
 '"Indeed," said the peppery doctor, "are you? 
 Then just tell me one as a start." 
 
 ' " Well," replied the over-dressed one, " I've lately 
 been suffering severely from fatal syncope." 
 
 ' Tableau ! angry doctor laughing students 
 demure nurses exit the ornate lady !' 
 
 In quietness, and in such duties and simple amuse- 
 ments as I have sketched, the first week or so of our 
 sojourn in the island sped away. In this remote spot 
 I spent, indeed, many happy hours with Hester a 
 happiness, however, tinged with grief for the past, 
 and uncertainty as to the future.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A FTER several days of this easy life, in which for 
 
 me ' it seemed always afternoon/ I set myself 
 
 seriously to consider the methods by which I could 
 
 recover our lost reckoning, and so obtain the data to 
 
 work out the ship's position. 
 
 Now, what was our exact plight ? I was ignorant 
 of the month and of the day. My chronometers had 
 long run down. I had no compass, and I was totally 
 ignorant of the latitude and longitude of the island. 
 
 Captain Leigh, in addition to the ordinary ship's 
 equipment of nautical tables and almanacs, possessed 
 a good sea library, an Encyclopaedia, several books on 
 mathematics, and a number of treatises on navigation, 
 old and new, from Robertson to ' Wrinkles.' 
 
 He was about the best informed sailor I had 
 ever met. 
 
 Of course, I knew pretty well I must be in south 
 latitude, but as for longitude well, I hardly thought 
 we could have made so great a westing in our drift as 
 to cross the one hundred and eightieth meridian. 
 But, granting even this, my readers will agree with 
 me that my information was certainly rather vague. 
 
 119
 
 120 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I was truly in a ' navigational fix ' not contemplated 
 by the Board of Trade. 
 
 How I wished I had had a good mathematical 
 education ; or that I was Lord Kelvin or Captain 
 Lecky, or one of the men who write astronomical 
 conundrums in the Nautical Magazine. 
 
 I have little doubt that a better navigator, or any 
 well educated mathematician, would have solved my 
 difficulties in other and more excellent ways than I 
 did. I had simply to grope, and do the best I could. 
 
 With this acknowledgment of my navigational 
 shortcomings, I will briefly sketch the means I took 
 to find time and place. 
 
 Clearly the first thing to do was to recover the day 
 of the month. 
 
 Now, there are several means by which this may be 
 accomplished. 
 
 The simplest for me, who possessed that most 
 perfect book of prophecy, the Nautical Almanac, was 
 to find the declination of the snn or moon ; and to 
 check the date so obtained, by the time indicated, 
 from a measurement of the distance between the 
 moon and the sun, or other star. 
 
 To my shore-going reader I may explain in a 
 popular way that declination is the distance of a 
 heavenly body north or south of the celestial equator. 
 I should point out that it corresponds in a general 
 way to terrestrial latitude, which is distance north or 
 south of the terrestrial equator. Though this com- 
 parison may not satisfy all my readers, it gives a fair 
 enough explanation of the term. 
 
 In the case of the sun, its declination is set down
 
 HOW I RECOVERED TIME AND PLACE 121 
 
 in the Nautical Almanac for every day at noon at Green- 
 wich. If, then, I could find the sun's declination at the 
 island, I could also, by hunting in the Almanac, 
 discover the declination nearest to that obtained 
 locally in the island. The day on which the two 
 amounts (degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc) most 
 nearly corresponded would be the day of the month 
 which I sought. 
 
 The same method could be employed in making use 
 of the moon. 
 
 Having got the date, the time at Greenwich could 
 be obtained by a ' lunar observation/ that is, by 
 measuring the distance between the moon and either 
 the sun or certain other stars or planets. 
 
 The distance of these bodies from each other is set 
 down in the Nautical Almanac for every third hour at 
 Greenwich. If then, on the island, I observed that 
 the distance, say between the moon and sun, was such 
 and such an amount, I coiild compare it with the 
 nearest preceding distance in the Nautical Almanac. 
 And, next, with a little proportion, I could get thereby 
 the hour, minute, and second of Greenwich mean time. 
 
 To find the local time at the island was an easy 
 matter from a suitable morning or evening observation 
 of sun or star. The difference between the local 
 time so found and the time at Greenwich obtained by 
 lunar observation, converted into a measure of arc, 
 would be the longitude of the island. 
 
 The latitude I easily found from observation of 
 several stars. And with the help of the latitude so 
 obtained and the sun's zenith distance, also got by 
 observation I was able to find the declination of the
 
 122 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 sun at noon at place, and thus begin by fixing the 
 date. 
 
 As I have, at the end of my account of this voyage, 
 set forth at considerable length the exact methods I 
 adopted to find the above data, I think I may refer 
 curious readers, if there be any, to that portion of the 
 book for fuller details, and not burden the present 
 pages with further technicalities. 
 
 Stated as above, the affair seems quickly and easily 
 done. But, as a matter of fact, to do it practically, 
 with anything like a reliable result, required no small 
 amount of time, patience, and a good deal of careful 
 calculation. 
 
 But this kind of work, always interesting to me, 
 had a new attractiveness on Pandora Island. Very 
 pleasant in the evening it was to watch the stars 
 begin to show out of the azure vault as the daylight 
 waned. It was at this hour that I got my best stellar 
 observations. And Hester was so curiously keen on 
 them that presently I told her that she would develop 
 into a Caroline Herschell or an Agnes Clerke. Indeed 
 she had already a pretty good knowledge of the 
 principal constellations. ' Nothing/ she said to me, 
 ' gives me so visible a token of absence from England 
 as the unfamiliar look of the heavens on a glorious 
 night like this/ 
 
 ' I can well understand the feeling,' I answered, 
 'although I have been so often out to the south'ard 
 that the sky looks as familiar to me here as in the old 
 world/ 
 
 ' " The stars change ; the mind remains the same," : 
 she half whispered to herself.
 
 HOW I RECOVERED TIME AND PLACE 123 
 
 ' Fortunately/ I quickly said, ' otherwise Europe 
 would not now be having the excellent object lesson 
 which the colonies are giving the world of their 
 affection for their mother country.' 
 
 ' Ah/ she replied, ' you heard the old-world saying 
 I quoted just now. Listen to the pleasant modern 
 lines in which a much loved Australian* has re- 
 dressed it : 
 
 ' Here from the Parent Land divided far, 
 For us, her children, shines no better star 
 Changed are the skies, not so the British name, 
 Or mind or heart, which still remain the same.' 
 
 ' How do you like his verse ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Charming and true/ I replied. 
 
 ' And made on the spur of the moment/ she added. 
 ' How pleasant to be able to do things both quickly 
 and well. Yes/ she continued, looking up at the sky, 
 ' these sparklers are still very strange to me. I sadly 
 miss the Bear overhead and the faithful Pole-star. 
 Here, the Cross does not give you the points of the 
 compass in the same easy way.' 
 
 ' Yes/ I replied, 'I must say I wish we had a bright 
 Southern Pole-star. But you ought to go down to 
 the " Forties and Fifties " on a clear frosty night to 
 realise the full glory of these heavens. 5 
 
 Close to the Cross there is a curious patch of dark 
 sky, apparently untenanted with stars. It shows up 
 so blackly against the rest of the sparkling firmament 
 that it has aptly been called the ' Coal Sack.' 
 
 Miss Leigh's sharp eyes picked it out at once. 
 
 * Sir Alfred Stephen.
 
 124 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' Oh, there is the " Coal Sack," ' she exclaimed. 
 ' And after all, it is not unpeopled. 
 
 ' Thanks to photography,' I added. 
 
 ' Do you know those lines,' asked Miss Leigh, ' by 
 the Duke of Argyll where the photography of stars is 
 referred to in words which are as correct as they are 
 beautiful ? ' 
 
 ' No, I don't. Will you repeat them ? ' 
 
 'Well, the poet is talking of ethereal impulses 
 passing from souls on earth to souls in heaven, and he 
 compares them to the rays of light from invisible 
 constellations reaching us here : 
 
 ' As rays unseen, abysmal light, 
 
 Are caught by films of silver salt 
 When these are set to watch by night 
 The wheelings of the starry vault.' 
 
 1 1 do not know,' she continued, ' of any instance 
 where a discovery of recent science is so correctly and 
 so finely enshrined in poetic thought.' 
 
 I love to recall the memory of those Island nights 
 in which the arch of the sky sparkled as with 
 diamonds, and the waters of the Pacific ran in 
 streaks of silver. The prosaic observations of moon 
 or star took on a new charm when my assistant and 
 companion was this brave and sweet-faced woman 
 whose presence and counsel had been an inspiration 
 to fortitude, and whose smiles I counted no mean 
 reward for any toil or danger. 
 
 To cut short the account of my astronomical 
 difficulties, which I see threatens to become tiresome, 
 I may say that the nett result of my observations was 
 as follows : I made the date to be June 5th, 1900.
 
 HOW I RECOVERED TIME AND PLACE 125 
 
 The island was situated in lat. 20 40' S., and in 
 long. 164 284' W. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the Greenwich time to which I 
 set my chronometers was very nearly correct, for my 
 longitude deduced therefrom was, as I afterwards 
 found out, less than ten miles in error. 
 
 Our haven of rest, therefore, lay in a not unfrequented 
 part of the ocean, but, to my surprise, was apparently 
 uncharted. 
 
 Raratonga, one of the best known islands of the 
 Cook Group, lay a little to the south of east, only 
 about two hundred and forty miles distant ; while 
 Apia, in Samoa, our destined port, lay north-east, 
 about six hundred miles.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 WE FIND A COMPASS AND PREPARE TO SAIL 
 
 VI OW that we had, as I believed, fixed the position 
 of Pandora Island fairly correctly, and had 
 the chronometers once more at work, our next trouble 
 was to make shift for a compass. ' This infernal 
 question of magnetism ' is one which only a few 
 favoured mariners seem to grasp satisfactorily, and I 
 am not one of these. It was, therefore, in rather a 
 disconsolate spirit that I set about finding out how to 
 make a compass. 
 
 I ransacked the bookcase of the Pandora, and read 
 more of the theoretical aspect of magnetism than I 
 had ever done before. But when it came to actually 
 making a serviceable compass, which would work 
 reasonably in a seaway and not chase its own tail, I 
 found little or nothing to guide me. 
 
 Our talk, therefore, was of nothing but the mag- 
 netisation of needles, a:.d of how to make a cap and 
 pin on which to swing the compass card. 
 
 Where was I to find a suitable bowl ? Would wood 
 or porcelain do ? Would it be better to try to make 
 a spirit compass instead of one of the ordinary type ? 
 
 126
 
 WE FIND A COMPASS AND PREPARE TO SAIL 127 
 
 With the less friction of a partially supported card, 
 the cap and pin difficulty might be more easily over- 
 come. 
 
 These were the practical questions which agitated 
 my mind questions in which all the others took the 
 liveliest interest. Whether our various contrivings in 
 the matter would have been crowned with success, I 
 am not sure : if so, it would have been through 
 the ingenuity of the cook, who really was a very 
 good mechanic. However, our plans and strivings 
 were unnecessary in the end, for a fortunate, a really 
 fortunate, discovery took place, which very probably 
 saved us much disappointment and perhaps ultimate 
 failure ; for I am thoroughly satisfied it is not an easy 
 matter for unskilled people to make a reliable compass. 
 
 But let me tell you about our lucky find. 
 
 We had decided to carry out an elaborate disinfec- 
 tion of the ship, and to that end a good deal of our 
 small cargo and stores had been got on deck to air, 
 and to facilitate the fumigation of the hold. 
 
 Hester had been looking over various business 
 papers connected with the ship when she came on an 
 invoice for two spirit compasses. 
 
 : Look at this, Mr. Blackburne,' she exclaimed, 
 1 surely these must be on board ! My father had no 
 other vessel in Sydney when we left. They could 
 only have been intended to be taken with us.' 
 
 I looked at the paper and replied, ' Yes, they must 
 be stowed away somewhere. These compasses arc for 
 use in boats probably for inter-island cargo boats 
 craft like the one we lost.' 
 
 ' I suppose,' remarked Hester, 'that we had better 
 begin a methodical search into everything.'
 
 128 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' It may come to that/ I said. ' But I think we can 
 narrow the field somewhat. Have you got the manifest 
 and the list of stores ? ' 
 
 Thereupon Hester wished to know what a manifest 
 was, and when I explained that it was the name given 
 to a list of the cargo, she at once said that she knew 
 where it was to be found. 
 
 We then went through the items, and of course in 
 almost every instance the contents of each case or 
 barrel was specified. In a few, such expressions as 
 ( sundries,' ' small stores,' and the like, made it 
 possible that the compasses might be contained in 
 them. It took a day or two to hunt through these 
 various packages, but at last our perseverance was 
 rewarded, and we possessed two good spirit com- 
 passes. 
 
 Our handy man, the cook, fitted up a respectable- 
 looking binnacle ; and as he gained in strength he 
 tackled the larger job of mending the broken rail. 
 
 1 Didn't I tell you/ said Hester, with triumph in her 
 voice and eye, ( that the island would prove to be our 
 Mascotte ? ' 
 
 'Call not a man happy till he is dead, nor us 
 fortunate till we're home/ I replied with a smile. 
 
 1 God's sun's in the heavens and all's well. If your 
 face didn't belie your words I'd brand you as a 
 croaker/ replied Hester. 
 
 'I believe I am one. My mother used to say that 
 all her children must be Scotch, because they " joked 
 wi' deeficulty." She declared that she suffered from 
 their gravity, and that when she was merry her off- 
 spring merely looked at her in a shocked reproving
 
 WE FIND A COMPASS AND PREPARE TO SAIL 129 
 
 sort of way which killed at once all her Irish gaiety 
 of heart.' 
 
 t Well, sir/ she rejoined with playful archness (I 
 think that is how story writers would express her 
 bewitching brightness of manner), ' it is not too late 
 to begin better things. Some scattered fragments of 
 youth yet remain to you ! But remember 
 
 ' The Bird of Time has but a little way 
 To flutter and the Bird is on the wing ! ' 
 
 I said to myself, if this monitress will only be 
 always by me to preach the gospel of cheerfulness, 
 then I shall find it easy to be merry. But if not, what 
 then ? It was best for me to think of something else. 
 At least our ship was a cause for congratulation. Not 
 only was she in excellent order, but her crew had re- 
 gained their health and strength, and we began to 
 look forward to an early day to get out of the lagoon, 
 which had so far proved itself a kindly haven. The 
 voyage to Apia of six hundred miles was likely to be 
 an uneventful one, our port lying in the direct line of 
 the South-East Trades, so we hoped to have a fair 
 wind all the way. 
 
 During these many days the constant association on 
 the ship and Island, and the strange dependence on 
 each other which the hard usage of the sea and the 
 evils of illness had brought to pass, drew Hester and 
 me together in a way that months of ordinary con- 
 ventional shore-going life would never have done. 
 
 The obligation to protect her, to work for her 
 safety, and pity for her orphaned state, on my side ; 
 on her part, remembrance of the long days of weak- 
 ness and wandering when I came near to dying,
 
 130 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 through which her goodness and nursing knowledge 
 had brought me back to life these passages, I say, 
 made links between us which I had begun to hope 
 might yet ripen into love itself. 
 
 But I was all unlearned in such matters, and knew 
 nothing of the ' ensigns of affection.' 
 
 For myself, I felt that my peace of mind was quite 
 gone ; and that, if I missed gaining Hester's love, I 
 had surely missed the greatest thing in the world for 
 me, and without it I would go sadly all the days of 
 my life. 
 
 So thought I then. So think I yet. Nor do I 
 forget that time, which happily wipes most tears 
 away, softens love-losses also. But, nevertheless, I 
 knew if this, my great venture of the heart, came not 
 back, the sky would be less blue and the sun less 
 glorious to my eyes for all the after time. 
 
 Even had I known that Hester loved me, I would 
 not now have asked her to marry me, because I felt 
 that it would not be quite fair to ask her when she 
 was, so to speak, dependent on my skill to bring her 
 back to Australia. 
 
 Then she was so alone, so pathetically isolated, and 
 without that correct judgment in affairs of the heart 
 which naturally comes from being surrounded by the 
 diverse interests of the land, and by the companion- 
 ship of men and women of her own way of life and 
 education. Over and above all this, she was com- 
 paratively a rich girl and I a penniless sailor ! 
 
 I have always considered that shipboard engage- 
 ments are the better for the mellowing and sifting 
 effects of a subsequent acquaintance on shore.
 
 WE FIND A COMPASS AND PREPARE TO SAIL 131 
 
 Idleness, the freedom of life on board, and not 
 infrequently the absence of solid intellectual qualities 
 and attainments upon which, in times of inaction, to 
 chew a kind of mental cud, are the factors which 
 cause a shipboard engagement, rather than real 
 affection or suitability of character. 
 
 On all grounds, therefore, I thought it only right to 
 say nothing of my feelings towards her until I had 
 landed her safe in Sydney. 
 
 I imagined I concealed my mind fairly well ; yet I 
 know now that this dear woman read me like an open 
 book. Besides, what had I not babbled of her, and 
 to her, during my illness ? 
 
 Although the really important preparations for 
 renewing the voyage were completed, we found that 
 there were a good many odd jobs still to be done 
 which postponed the date of our sailing. I was not 
 sorry for the delay. Neither the cook nor I, though 
 both now in good health, felt able for the arduous 
 work which would fall upon us with so meagre a 
 crew whenever we left the protecting arms of the 
 reef. 
 
 Being stronger, I was able to get about the island 
 and the reef in a way I could not do at first. It was 
 not of any great extent. The little plan I drew will 
 give you an idea of its size. It was rather a common- 
 place island. Certainly, it did not possess all the 
 interesting features of the Coral Island of our youth. 
 There wore no inhabitants. I question if anyone 
 had ever landed on it. At any rate, there were no 
 signs of a lasting occupancy by either brown men or 
 white.
 
 132 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I think I told you that we had discovered early that 
 it had no permanent water supply, though one would 
 not have died of thirst by any means, as there were 
 several large collections of rain water, both on the 
 reef (where they were brackish from spray) and on 
 the central islet. 
 
 Pandanus and coco trees grew fairly profusely, and, 
 likewise, a rough, coarse grass. At one or two places 
 the foreshore sloped to the water in a kind of low 
 beach ; in one place in particular, where there was a 
 small cove-like indentation in its contour, nearly 
 opposite our anchorage. 
 
 The reef was irregular in height and width. 
 Opposite to the Pandora it rose to quite a respectable 
 altitude, and had a good, broad back, while at other 
 places it had very little elevation above the sea, and 
 I could readily believe that in heavy weather a good 
 deal of broken water would roll over the coral 
 rampart into the shut-in expanse of lagoon. 
 
 This reef was an immense source of interest to all 
 of us except Martin, who said that he had spent 
 five years of his life about the Great Barrier, and 
 ' anybody could have his whack of coral.' Hester 
 found endless amusement in rambles over it. 
 
 We sometimes took the boy with us to look after 
 the boat. He was very anxious to bathe, a thing I 
 would not let him do for fear of sharks. On one 
 occasion he landed with us, and loaded himself with 
 lumps of coral and so forth. Then, whilst trying to 
 jump on to the whaleboat, he fell into the lagoon with 
 a loud yell. He could swim well enough, but the load 
 ho had about him made me anxious for a moment.
 
 WE FIND A COMPASS AND PREPARE TO SAIL 133 
 
 However, his head and drooped eye (' the one with 
 the dead light on/ as Johnston used to say) suddenly 
 shot up. 
 
 ' My word ! ain't that a shave ? I reckoned I was 
 drownded ! ' he exclaimed. 
 
 ' No fear of that/ said Miss Leigh, dryly, ' your 
 levity will always keep you up.' 
 
 But the sarcasm was quite lost on Alf, who thought 
 she had referred to his left eye, and he cheerfully 
 rejoined : 
 
 ' It ain't no hodds, Miss. My eye bein' " cronk " 
 don't make no difference to me swimmin' ! ' 
 
 We heard him afterwards recounting his adventures 
 to the cook, whom he assured that he had remained 
 fully five minutes under water. 
 
 ' Well, Alf/ said the cook, ' I can 'ardly believe 
 it. Lord, boy, the likes o' you couldn't stay that long 
 underneath the water quiet-like without comin' up to 
 blow ! ' 
 
 The cook had a lively wit as well as Alf, and 
 knew that the latter was given to amplifying his 
 deeds. 
 
 Hester and I had come to like our three companions 
 very much. 
 
 Of Johnston I have already spoken. He evidently 
 looked on himself as her natural protector; and it was 
 sometimes comical and once or twice embarrassing 
 the way in which he showed his sense of guardianship. 
 Hester had a warm liking for the sturdy and faithful 
 seaman. The cook, also, though he may have wasted 
 most of his life, was, nevertheless, a kindly, honest, 
 and plucky fellow. The boy I have already said a
 
 134 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 good deal about. He had capital stuff in him. And, 
 as Hester often said, his consideration, his kindness, 
 and his helpfulness to her, especially during the dark 
 days following her father's death and my illness, were 
 things she could never forget. He was a larrikin, of 
 course, but a right good-hearted one. 
 
 During these times in which we wandered together 
 about the island or sat on deck at night, I sometimes 
 wondered at her silence regarding her father's death. 
 I myself kept as clear of the subject as possible. 
 
 However, one evening the conversation drifted on 
 some of the graver things of life of belief, of bereave- 
 ment, and so forth. 
 
 I was sorry our talk had taken this direction. My 
 companion's face was turned a little from me, and I 
 now knew her varying expressions so well that the 
 tightened lip and the tense nostril told me that her 
 terrible loss was very present in her mind. 
 
 ' Let us talk of other things, Miss Leigh,' I remarked 
 tentatively. 
 
 ' No, Mr. Blackburne, I am thankful to talk to you 
 to-night of my poor father. I could not unveil my 
 misery to strange eyes or ears, but you have been 
 brought very near to me in these weeks. I preach 
 to you the gospel of cheeriness ; and I do so partly 
 for the same reason that children sing to themselves in 
 the dark it reacts on my own heart-sadness. But the 
 pain the pain of my loss of what has happened 
 is with me all the time.' 
 
 She paused, and we both sat silent. How my 
 sympathy went out to her in her loneliness ! What 
 self-control ! What fortitude had she not shown ? 
 What an example to weaker spirits !
 
 WE FIND A COMPASS AND PREPARE TO SAIL 135 
 
 Presently she turned round and we talked of her 
 father. A little later Martin struck two bells (nine 
 o'clock), and Hester began to gather up her belongings. 
 
 ' It has been a relief to me to speak to you, Mr. 
 Blackburne. Up to now I have repressed myself, for 
 I did not like to say to you what sometimes choked 
 me when I am alone. But you have been so truly 
 good to me that to-night my talking to you of my 
 poor father gives me a kind of unhappy happiness. 
 I thank you ! I thank you ! Good night ! ' 
 
 She rose to go below, and held out her hand. 
 
 I took it, and held it for a moment. 
 
 ' God bless you ! Hester and keep you ! And I 
 thank you for all you did for me/ I said in a whisper. 
 
 I felt the warm pressure of her hand while I heard 
 her answer in a low voice 
 
 ' And may He bless you, too, Dick ! ' 
 
 And in a moment she was gone.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 
 
 A DAY or two before we reckoned to start we had 
 "^*" been hard at Avork all the morning. 
 
 My abscess had now soundly healed, and I could 
 use my arm pretty well exercising, of course, a 
 cautious boldness. 
 
 I had gone below about half-past nine to get a drink 
 of water out of the filter, when I happened to look at 
 the mercurial barometer. 
 
 Now, in these latitudes, I would have expected the 
 mercury to stand rather high at that hour in the 
 forenoon. There is a regular diurnal ebb and flow, 
 and ten a.m. is not far off the normal time of the 
 mercurial high tide. 
 
 Instead of this being the case I found that the 
 glass had fallen considerably, and that the quicksilver 
 was cupped.* 
 
 I felt uneasy, and took a careful note of the read- 
 ing ; it was 29 '85, a height which the aneroid closely 
 confirmed. 
 
 * Concave on its surface. 
 136
 
 A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 137 
 
 I now returned on deck to talk to Martin and to 
 observe the look of the weather. On my way to the 
 bowsprit, where he was at work, I met Hester Leigh. 
 
 'Mr. Tell-tale-Face/ said she, 'what has put you 
 out ? I am sure something has. What is it ? ' 
 
 ' The barometer is not behaving itself ; it has 
 developed irregular habits/ I replied. 
 
 She pressed for an explanation, and according to 
 my lights 1 gave it to her. 
 
 ' Why/ answered Hester, 'you complain of it being 
 too low this morning ; but last night, and even this 
 morning early, I happened to look at the mercurial 
 barometer and I particularly noted that it stood over 
 thirty inches ; and I thought to myself " what a fine 
 day we must be going to have ! " 
 
 This information of further irregularity did not 
 help to reassure me, for any divergence in these 
 parallels from the usual behaviour of the mercury is a 
 symptom which ought to put the weather doctor on 
 the alert. 
 
 I noticed that a haze had crept up all round, and 
 that our horizon had become contracted. A light 
 north-easterly air still wrinkled the surface of the 
 lagoon ; but the surf outside seemed unusually heavy; 
 its everlasting thunder and white glory, as it broke, 
 seemed menacing this morning. It was always 
 wonderful to behold. To-day it seemed both wonder- 
 ful and terrible. The aspect of the heavens was 
 sullen and lowering. 
 
 I was not reassured by my survey of sea and sky. 
 Their indications were quite in keeping with those of 
 the silent finger of the mercurial column.
 
 t 
 
 138 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I could not, however, easily bring myself to believe 
 that anything worthy of the name of cyclone was 
 about to burst upon us. 
 
 I took this view, if for no other reason than that 
 such storms are not very common ; but, more 
 especially, because it was not now the season for 
 hurricanes in that part of the ocean where, according 
 to my observations, we must be lying. 
 
 Still, game is sometimes killed in the close season; 
 and it was possible that a stray hurricane might find 
 itself wandering round in June or July. I, therefore, 
 thought it wise to do everything in order to make the 
 schooner snug. 
 
 We did not attempt to send down yards or masts, 
 but we saw to it that the gaskets were not likely to 
 get adrift, and that everything was made secure on 
 deck as well as aloft. We got the other bower anchor 
 over the rail, with plenty of chain ranged ready for 
 letting go. To the shore we carried out a strong 
 steel wire hawser, and made it fast to the stems of 
 two stout trees which grew chock-a-block with each 
 other. 
 
 We could slip this line at once, if necessary, and 
 let her swing out towards the reef, or, if we wished, 
 we could even hang on to it, and ride stern to shore, 
 if by any chance it seemed to our advantage to do so. 
 At any rate it was there it might be useful it did 
 no harm. 
 
 On the starboard chain, to which we rode, I got a 
 luff to ease the strain should a sea come into the 
 lagoon, and we rode heavily. 
 
 1 Would you like the boat 'oisted hin, sir ? ' asked 
 Johnston.
 
 A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 139 
 
 ' I think so/ I made answer. ' If we go on either 
 the reef or the island the boat won't be of much use 
 to us in getting ashore. And if we leave her in the 
 water, and things get really bad, she'll run a good 
 chance of swamping or getting stove. Yes, Martin, 
 by all means hoist her. We'll get her inboard and 
 lash her alongside the rail.' 
 
 The gloomy day drew towards afternoon. The air 
 was sultry and the sky obscured. The few land birds 
 of the island had sought shelter and repose in the 
 wooded portions of their domain. Screaming ocean 
 fowl flew about, filling the air with their hoarse calls, 
 evidently apprehensive of some atmospheric change. 
 All nature seemed expectant. 
 
 The barometer had fallen still further by five p.m. 
 a tenth and heavy puffs of wind were beginning to 
 pipe through our naked spars, and to make a sad 
 music in the coco groves ashore. These gusts of 
 wind did not seem to be steady from one quarter, but 
 ranged anywhere from N.E. to S.E. I felt distinctly 
 uneasy, as you may well believe. 
 
 By eight o'clock in the evening it was blowing a 
 whole gale of wind from the east, with violent squalls 
 of rain. It was very dark, except when the moon 
 shone out between flying legions of tattered clouds. 
 I sent the boy to light the binnacle, and told him to 
 keep handy for a call. By the compass I noted care- 
 fully the direction of the wind. 
 
 We braced the yards sharp up, and gave the 
 schooner as much chain as possible, always keeping 
 in mind that she would probably be swinging in more 
 directions than one.
 
 140 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 If my readers will glance at the plan of Pandora 
 Island, they will find a circle within the lagoon with 
 the varying directions taken by the wind during the 
 passage of the storm. A glance at it will explain the 
 following account of the troubles which overtook our 
 vessel. 
 
 I told you just now, that among other preparations 
 for the gale I had carried a hawser ashore, and made 
 it fast to some trees. With the wind at east, you will 
 see that if we held on to it, we should be forced to 
 expose our broadside to the pressure of the storm. 
 
 We therefore slacked it right away early in the 
 evening, so as to allow us to ride head on to the wind. 
 
 We did not let go of it altogether, for, in the event 
 of this being a true circular storm, it crossed my 
 mind, as I said before, that we might yet find it of 
 some service. For, by holding on to it, the little 
 indentation in the island, opposite which we were 
 anchored, might be used as a shelter. One always in 
 every emergency of life regrets the omission of some 
 precaution, and I then felt sorry that I had not let go 
 a second anchor earlier in the day. It is, no doubt, 
 often said that one anchor with a long range of cable 
 is better than two with less ; but, nevertheless, it is 
 not pleasant to go ashore and be asked why you had 
 still another anchor at the bows not yet let go. 
 
 During the next six hours the ground tackle held 
 bravely, although in addition to the weight of the 
 wind a nasty little sea found its way into the lagoon, 
 and the Pandora strained heavily. 
 
 I wondered, indeed, how one anchor held as it did 
 in that poor holding ground ; and I suspected that a
 
 PANDORA ISLAND. 
 
 LAT. 2 
 
 *i 
 
 Nautical Miles 
 
 The, circle within the reef indicates the 
 chandes in the direction of the wind during theoale 
 which cast the schooner ashore.
 
 A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 141 
 
 fluke must have got hooked under an overhanging 
 ledge of coral. If we ever came to sail, I speculated 
 on the probability of our succeeding in weighing with 
 the small power we possessed. 
 
 As the night wore on, I observed that the wind 
 drew into the south-east and south, with the result, as 
 you will see on referring to the chart, that we swung 
 directly towards the island, which was absolutely 
 invisible. 
 
 I was inclined to think, from the way in which the 
 wind altered in direction, that this was a cyclonic 
 gale; and, further, I took a somewhat favourable 
 view of our position in it, because the barometer had 
 fallen no more since eleven o'clock, when the mercury 
 stood at 28'70, its lowest reading. Moreover, the 
 wind, with the exception of an occasional squall, blew 
 with no increase of violence. 
 
 I suspected that we were quite out of the dangerous 
 area, and I reckoned that the centre of the gale lay 
 nor'-nor'-west or thereabouts. 
 
 I also took it that the storm must be recurving, yet 
 it seemed unlikely that it should be doing so at a 
 latitude so near the Equator as I put our island. 
 
 Still things were quite bad enough in all conscience. 
 Holding ground anything but reliable ; darkness, and 
 all its added dangers, encompassing us ; a reef on one 
 side, and an islet on the other. 
 
 What if we started dragging ? Two of us kept 
 forward anxiously watching the cable, and ready to 
 let go the other anchor in case of the starboard chain 
 parting. During the flying gleams of moonlight I 
 tried to get bearings, but without success, all the time
 
 142 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 anxiously watching the direction of the wind, while, 
 like the apostle of old, I wished for the day. 
 
 In this fashion passed the slow hours of night, of 
 storm and darkness. 
 
 Between two and three o'clock someone touched me 
 as I crouched close to the binnacle. It was not easy 
 to make out who it was ; I thought it was the boy. 
 But I soon knew it was Hester. 
 
 1 Come below for a minute. IVe lit my Primus 
 stove, and have made a huge jug of hot cocoa, and, as 
 I'm sure you're hungry, I've got cold beef and other 
 things. Come along ! ' 
 
 ' Thanks, so much!' I shouted, 'I but won't leave the 
 deck yet. Let the others go down first, and I'll see 
 how it looks in a few minutes. Stay here a moment 
 till I fetch them from forward.' 
 
 ' Please let me go with you,' she entreated. 
 
 I took her hand and we groped our way in the 
 darkness. Once or twice a gust fairly took charge, 
 and we had to crouch down and hold on to one 
 another. Miss Leigh had on a tanned leather coat, 
 but no hat, and, consequently, the first staggering, 
 blinding gust broke out, and blew in a mane her 
 masses of wonderful hair till she must have looked 
 like the embodied spirit of the storm. It came across 
 my eyes and round my face till it seemed as if billows 
 of gold encompassed me about. Not even could that 
 howling gale rob this living Vallombrosa of its 
 fragrance. 
 
 I found Martin and the cook sitting or lying on 
 deck. They had made some sort of shelter for them- 
 selves, and were watching the cable. The boy was
 
 A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 143 
 
 asleep. Even the mad hooting of the wind in the 
 rigging and the uneasy motion of the vessel could not 
 keep this waif from forgetting his wild surroundings. 
 Much ' park-dossing ' had ' blooded him to the open/ 
 and he slept like a tired drover. The two men were 
 trying to smoke, and were obviously very alert. 
 
 Hester went up to the old man and put her lips 
 close to his ear. 
 
 ' I have made food for all hands and a hot drink 
 cocoa. Go down at once all three of you and eat. I 
 shall stay here with Mr. Blackburne till you return.' 
 
 ' Thank ye, Miss/ I could hear him say, as he shook 
 his head and pointed to the cable. But Hester 
 motioned him to go. And presently all three went 
 aft, leaving Miss Leigh and me to watch the ship. 
 
 Conversation was out of the question, so we silently 
 awaited the return of the sailors. The rain had taken 
 off for the time, and the men had got a couple of 
 gratings to huddle together upon, which kept us off 
 the wet deck. One could realise the vast force of the 
 wind more startlingly here than aft. The sea striking 
 against the bows, the jump of the vessel, and the 
 surge and grind of the chain in the hawse-hole all 
 added to the wildness of the situation. The vessel 
 was a plaything in the grasp of a giant ; and we two 
 weak mortals felt our nothingness in the presence of 
 the vast powers of nature let loose around us. 
 Involuntarily, in the wild shriekings of the wind, I 
 felt my companion lean closer to me till her head lay 
 against mine. Once she tried to speak, but her voice 
 was lost in the hoot and moan drawn out of tense wire 
 and strained timbers.
 
 
 144 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 The men soon returned. They looked the better 
 for their refreshment. 
 
 The cook bent down with elephantine courtesy, and 
 bellowed his thanks. I could only catch the termi- 
 nation of his remarks. 
 
 ' The 'ot drink, Miss, was tip-top ! Nothin' like 
 summat wet and warm of a night like this. We're all 
 much obliged. Reg'lar jumped my claim to-night, 
 Miss you did ! ' 
 
 Once more we went along the decks together; this 
 time we were shot forcibly by the wind, and I wished 
 we had been tethered to a log to keep us from going 
 over the taffrail altogether. We dropped down the 
 companion and drew the scuttle. 
 
 What a contrast ! It was noisy enough, no doubt, 
 but coming from that bedlam of wild sounds on deck 
 the cabin was as quiet as the crypt of St. Paul's after 
 the roar of central London ! 
 
 ' Now begin to eat, Mr. Blackburne,' said Hester, 
 ' and I'll pour out your cocoa. I think it's hot 
 enough. Try it. Is it right?' 
 
 ' Yes, excellent/ I replied, ' but you must have 
 something as well. Let me cut you some cold beef.' 
 
 1 Don't waste your time, Mr. Blackburne. We are 
 not at a ball politely boring each other. I command 
 you to eat ! ' 
 
 ' Very well/ I said, ' I shall stoke myself swiftly, 
 but do thou likewise else digestion will not attend 
 on appetite with me.' And we both began to eat. 
 
 How comforting one found the cocoa ! How one 
 enjoyed the simple, wholesome sea fare ! 
 
 1 How much better this is than most of the tasteless
 
 A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 145 
 
 tinned rubbish which we persuade ourselves is fresh 
 meat/ I said to Hester. 
 
 ' Oh, don't imagine/ she replied, ' that it is only at 
 sea that the worship of tinned trash obtains. I 
 assure you that even in New South Wales, with 
 mutton and beef within the reach of everyone, many 
 women of the working classes are two lazy or too 
 incompetent to cook a decent meal for their families, 
 but waste their wages on what the Americans call 
 " canned goods." ' 
 
 ' I haven't a brief for " canned goods," but some of 
 them are good, surely/ I said. 
 
 f Of course they are the majority, probably, and 
 especially the fruits. But it makes me inclined to 
 shake a lazy, untidy woman, with no buttons on her 
 frock and pins everywhere else like a chevaux-de- 
 frise who gives her children tinned herrings or 
 canned salmon because she is too indolent to make a 
 wholesome meat and vegetable soup. But, good 
 gracious ! I forgot to give the men a glass of grog ! ' 
 she suddenly exclaimed. 
 
 It was curious to hear this girl in so strange a 
 surrounding, indifferent and forgetful of the perils of 
 the night, plunge into so alien a topic as domestic 
 economy. She once, you may remember, told us she 
 had no views. She was not quite correct, for on the 
 question of being a good housekeeper they were very 
 decided. However, the shortcomings of bad house- 
 keepers, and the omission to serve out rum, were 
 alike forgotten in the next minute. 
 
 At that moment it was close on three o'clock an 
 unusually heavy blast struck the schooner. I hoard,
 
 146 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 even in the cabin, a report, accompanied by a heavy 
 jerk. The vessel trembled throughout. 
 
 I realised at once that our chain had parted and I 
 sprung up the companion, and in an instant was 
 rushing along for'ard, where I found that Martin had 
 already let go the other anchor, and was giving her 
 chain. 
 
 Would it bring her up ? It was no good talking 
 about cutting away the masts. To say the truth, I 
 preferred to chance the alternative of crashing into 
 the islet to facing a future with our wings clipped. 
 
 However, the question whether we drove ashore or 
 not was one which would be very quickly settled. By 
 the time we had payed out all the cable we dared, we 
 were not more than a hundred feet or so from the 
 shore. 
 
 I could even hear at times the crash of falling 
 trees. 
 
 Unfortunately, luck was still against us, and from 
 the sudden bringing up, followed by brief moments of 
 easy movement, I knew that the anchor was dragging 
 and catching on broken ground. 
 
 All at once the shadow of night and tempest seemed 
 to take a deeper hue, and I knew in a moment that 
 we were within the little indentation on the foreshore 
 of the island, and that we would strike immediately. 
 
 Hester Leigh was standing by me at the after end 
 of the deck-house. It was certainly a moment of 
 great suspense and excitement. I flung open the 
 companion, and, hardly knowing what words I used, 
 I exclaimed : 
 
 ' We are going to strike ! Get below at once ! The
 
 A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OP IT 147 
 
 spars may come down ! And Oh ! my dear heart ! 
 remember I love you now and for all time ! ' 
 
 The words were scarcely cold on my lips when a 
 heavy crash took place. 
 
 The little vessel lay heavily over to port. I thought 
 she was about to turn right over. I fell heavily 
 against the side of the companion, missed my hold, 
 and along with Hester was precipitated to the bottom, 
 and for the moment I remembered no more. 
 
 When I came to I found myself lying on one of the 
 settees with a handkerchief tied round my head. The 
 cabin lamp still burned, but plate, glasses, and food 
 were lying in one common ruin in every direction. 
 At my side sat my dear one. 
 
 ' Are you hurt ? What has happened ? ' were my 
 first words. 
 
 ' I am absolutely unhurt,' Hester replied. ' When 
 the schooner took the ground she heeled heavily over 
 and flung us down the companion ; that you must 
 remember. On your way you struck your head and 
 you were almost senseless for a short time.' 
 
 The Pandora lay over at a great angle, but had now 
 fallen to starboard. And although I heard some 
 grinding and movement in her, she was infinitely 
 quieter than I should have thought possible under the 
 circumstances. I wondered how it had fared with 
 the others. I tried to get up, but my head at o,nce 
 began to swim, and I felt deadly faint. 
 
 I crawled towards the companion-way, but even 
 this mode of progression I could not yet accomplish 
 by myself. 
 
 In an instant I felt a firm arm around mo, and I
 
 148 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 got back upon the couch. I felt choked with a voiceless 
 misery, in that, for the time, I could not be on deck 
 and see how things went. 
 
 But I lay quiet, and soon felt better. Then I turned 
 to Hester and began to say something about my ill 
 luck. I forget utterly what I did say probably 
 something bitter and impatient. 
 
 I cannot now tell what swift, what speaking ex- 
 pression, may have passed over both our faces and 
 shone from our eyes which are truly the windows of 
 the soul. But all at once I felt two dear arms around 
 my neck and a wet fresh face pressed to mine. 
 
 I know not what I said ; what she replied 
 Lives, like eternal sunshine, in my heart. 
 
 There are inward holy places in everyone's life, 
 which it is sacrilege to tell of carelessly or publicly ; 
 and of such sacred things was that radiant gate 
 through which Hester Leigh and I then passed. 
 
 Our wrecked plight, the appalling heel of the ship, 
 and the roaring of the wind and sea, all melted for 
 the moment into the infinitely distant, and the living 
 present became ourselves only. 
 
 Two beings and one soul, 
 Two hearts so madly beating, 
 To mingle and be whole. 
 
 Thus, in this stormy setting, did I at last know 
 that I had won my heart's desire. 
 
 In a few minutes I was able to get on deck, where, 
 to my unspeakable relief, I found Martin, the cook, 
 and Alf all sheltered safely in the galley. 
 
 Apparently, the port anchor had held in the end 
 at least there was a firm strain on the cable, which
 
 A GALE OF WIND, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 149 
 
 mitigated the action of the little seas in forcing the 
 schooner against the coral. 
 
 Martin and the others had managed to get in the 
 slack of the wire hawser I spoke about ; so that we 
 were, in fact, made fast head and stern, with our port 
 side jammed on to the island. 
 
 The fore-topmast had carried away, and being held 
 by its gear, hung alongside. 
 
 It was now daylight, the glass had risen, and the 
 wind undoubtedly taken off very much. The cook lit 
 a fire in the galley, we got into dry clothes, and in 
 about half-an-hour coffee was ready. 
 
 Warmth, a hot drink, and the promise of the sun, 
 all gave new heart and hope to men whom weariness, 
 wet, and darkness had held in their evil embrace for 
 many anxious hours. 
 
 ' Things might ha' bin a damned sight wus/ was 
 the opinion of Martin Johnston a view which I 
 heartily endorsed. Our whale boat had not suffei^d 
 any harm ; there was abundance of provisions, and we 
 had a reasonable hope that the schooner had received 
 no mortal injury. While, as to floating her, 
 ' sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.' And so we 
 drank our coffee and cracked a biscuit that morning, 
 not sorrowing wholly. 
 
 For myself, I seemed to see the sun smiling through 
 its tears that for which I now cared most on earth 
 was with me. What could I wish better ? 
 
 The very island, with a new washed face, looked 
 towards the recovered skies, with a strange freshness, 
 the reflection perhaps of my own roseate thoughts.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 H.M.S. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN 
 
 A FTER breakfast we took stock of our position. 
 '^^ Save the accident to the topmast, the schooner 
 had taken little or no harm aloft, but as she lay with 
 sloped spars and bare exposed hull the question of 
 getting her off into deep water was an awkward riddle 
 for our small company to answer. 
 
 It was now low tide. The second anchor had 
 indeed proved of use, for it had prevented the vessel 
 getting so far up the shelving bank as to make the 
 launching of her an impossibility to us. 
 
 The stern line had likewise not been without service. 
 I felt sure that it had materially controlled the range 
 of the vessel's grinding and rubbing. 
 
 Now what damage had happened to the hull ? She 
 was not leaking so much was certain at least 
 nothing to signify. 
 
 But the rudder was immoveablc, and we feared for 
 it, and for the stern post as well. 
 
 We went below into the run, but failed, from the 
 interior of the ship, to find any evidence of grave 
 injury. 
 
 150
 
 H.M.S. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN 151 
 
 One of the first things wo did during the day was 
 to get stout hawsers from the lower mastheads to the 
 shore, both to port and starboard, and there make 
 them fast. We next got the whale boat hoisted out. 
 There was space and water to float her on the port 
 side, between the ship and the shore. We took her 
 outside, and with a hand-lead sounded all round the 
 stranded schooner. To our satisfaction we discovered 
 that the bank or shelf on which she lay was steep to. 
 Thus, if we could lighten the ship (she shifted, by the 
 way, without ballast) and get her stirred at all, there 
 undoubtedly existed a fair chance of her slipping off 
 into deep water. 
 
 All these matters took many hours, and it was night 
 before we had concluded such necessary labours. 
 
 My chief cause of anxiety was, of course, the 
 condition of the rudder, and the fear that damage 
 had been done to the immersed side of the vessel, 
 which lay beyond our reach, or beyond our powers of 
 repair. Nevertheless, we did not think so evilly of 
 the chances if for no other reason than that she 
 remained so tight. 
 
 The gale had played sad havoc in the islet ; leaves 
 and nuts were gone, and gaunt stumps and prostrate 
 trunks bore eloquent testimony to the strength of the 
 wind. 
 
 The week following the storm found us very fully 
 employed. The cook turned to and worked with the 
 rest of us, while Hester cooked for all hands. 
 
 First, we cleared away the wreck of the fore- 
 topmast, and got the yards ashore. 
 
 We next began to get the cargo and stores landed.
 
 152 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 This was a big job, for we had to build a kind of 
 staging between the shore and the vessel. 
 
 Ashore we made a kind of basement of broken 
 coral on which to store everything we took out of the 
 ship. We left several stout trees growing in the 
 space occupied by this coral flooring, and by a careful 
 use of stays and purchases, we made gear attached to 
 the trees serve in place of a yard tackle in handling 
 the goods between the ship and their resting place. 
 At night we covered them with old sails. Most of 
 the stuff was within the handling powers of our small 
 company. 
 
 Some of it, however the buoys and moorings we 
 left untouched. 
 
 We next tackled the ballast. 
 
 During this exploration and clearing out of the 
 hold several dead rats were encountered, and their 
 remains were solemnly cremated. One or two live 
 rats were also seen, but they were apparently in 
 excellent health. Having now got the ship practically 
 empty, we determined to use some of the disinfectants 
 which formed part of the various goods Captain Leigh 
 was taking to the islands. 
 
 Hester made a solution of some preparation of 
 mercury, of great potency and virtue, and with it we 
 mopped down the whole interior of the vessel. Then 
 we pumped water into her, washed out her bilges, 
 cleared her limbers, and pumped her dry again. 
 
 In these various sanitary measures the forecastle 
 and the accommodation aft received full attention. 
 
 All this time the little hooker lay quiet and snug, 
 and took no further harm. We were letting the
 
 H.M.S. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN 153 
 
 rudder trouble stand over till the advent of spring 
 tides, when we hoped that the increased range would 
 allow us at ebb to free it, and afterwards to float the 
 ship off at the top of the flood. And to assist in this 
 purpose we carried out another anchor from aft 
 besides that already down, so as to heave the schooner 
 off sideways. 
 
 The various events and duties which I have 
 recounted had carried us on to the 8th of July, a 
 Sunday, and chiefly a day of rest. I had taken 
 Hester out in the whale boat, and we had sailed round 
 to the lee side of the islet. 
 
 The view of the horizon between north and west 
 had just opened out as we passed the end of the atoll, 
 when, simultaneously, an object caught our eyes. 
 
 ' A sail ! ' we both exclaimed at once. 
 
 ' How exciting ! ' said Hester. 
 
 ' Dash my wig, Hess,' I said, ' we haven't got the 
 glasses with us. What a nuisance ! ' 
 
 But glasses were hardly necessary, though I was 
 mad to think I hadn't got them. I could have 
 devoured that ship, so keen was I to know all about 
 her. 
 
 ' What do you think of her ? ' Hester asked. 
 
 1 She's a rnan-of-war,' I made answer, ' that's cer- 
 tain. She's not a chicken, either, I should say, and 
 she's probably British.' 
 
 I looked at her again, long and attentively. 
 
 ' I bet I know her, dear,' I remarked at last. ' I'm 
 almost sure she's the Albatross, a surveying ship.' 
 
 1 knew the vessel well ; and I thought I could not 
 be mistaken. I had been several times on board her
 
 154 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 in Sydney. Her first lieutenant and his wife were my 
 personal friends. 
 
 ' Well ; hadn't we better attract their attention in 
 some way ? ' said my companion. ' What shall we 
 do ? scream, wave a handkerchief, or make a smoke?' 
 
 ' I don't think any of these things are necessary,' 
 I replied. ' You watch her. She's stopped ! And 
 they are manning a boat ! However, we had better 
 show ourselves. 
 
 We pulled for the south side of the boat passage 
 and landed, and stood on the dryest place we could 
 find, whilst the giant rollers, spending themselves in 
 creamy spray, came to our very feet. The noise of 
 their breaking was ear-deafening when so close. 
 There was a pretty fair jump of a sea on, so the boat 
 of the man-of-war had to exercise some caution in 
 entering the passage. When they came near enough 
 to speak, the officer in charge hailed me 
 
 ' Can we come in here ? ' 
 
 f Yes. It's quite safe with ordinary caution. Watch 
 for a smooth ! ' I shouted back to him. 
 
 ' All right/ he sang out, and in a few minutes the 
 fine, able little craft was within the lagoon and lying 
 alongside our grimy old whaler. You could read the 
 consuming curiosity in the eyes of the lieutenant and 
 his crew. But with true British reticence he scarcely 
 asked a question, but waited for us to enlighten him. 
 Meanwhile he made talk bravely. 
 
 1 Rather a surprise to us to find you here. This 
 island isn't charted has been reported, though. 
 Admiral hardly believed it. However, he sent us 
 down to have a look. Glad to meet you. Nothing
 
 H.M.S. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN 155 
 
 new in the world nowadays. Suppose you have got 
 an up-to-date legislature here, payment of members, 
 and everything else, eh ? ' 
 
 Thus he rattled on. He was evidently a waggish 
 fellow. Curiosity and admiration struggling in his 
 fresh, rather boyish, face, and as he looked at Hester 
 one knew his thoughts ran something like this : 
 
 'How on earth came these two people, one of them 
 a lovely lady ' (I use his own subsequent expression) 
 ' on an unknown island in the South Pacific ? Who 
 are they ? ' 
 
 Presently he walked across to Hester and began a 
 conversation in exactly the same style as if he had 
 met her at a Government House garden party. 
 
 ' Awfully hot, isn't it ? Anything to see or do 
 ashore ? ' 
 
 ' It is rather warm/ said Hester. ' There are few 
 amusements here. You will find it dull if you are 
 making a stay. Won't you come round to the other 
 side and let me give you tea ? ' 
 
 ' Thanks awfully ! Delighted later on, if you'll ask 
 me, don't you know ! But the fact is, I must be off 
 at once. Captain wants to see if we can get our ship 
 inside the reef. I didn't quite catch your name.' 
 
 ' Leigh is my name/ returned Hester. ' I also 
 failed/ she added, with a twinkle in her eye, ' to 
 catch yours.' 
 
 ' Ah, my name ? Almost forgot it so hot, don't 
 you know. It's Drury, however ; belong to that ship 
 there, the Albatross. Fancy I've met you, Miss 
 Leigh, in Sydney. But I really must be off, or I'll 
 get a wigging.'
 
 156 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 He still never asked us a word of who or what we 
 were. It was delightfully British and wholly admir- 
 able. But I had mercy, else he had surely died of 
 curiosity. 
 
 I therefore gave him the outline of our story, to 
 which he listened with interest strong in his eyes and 
 attitude. 
 
 I told him about the ship passage, and that I 
 thought it safe for the Albatross. 
 
 He thanked me, but said that he would nevertheless 
 have to examine it in person, otherwise his captain 
 would not be satisfied. He evidently had a very 
 clear idea of the work he was sent to do, and I 
 guessed him to be a smart sailorman in spite of his 
 casual manner and that he was so I was afterwards 
 assured by his shipmates. Thank goodness, the naval 
 officer seems to know his job, which is more than can 
 be said of half the men who hold commissions in the 
 army. 
 
 We parted for the time, and he pushed off to carry 
 out his duty. 
 
 ' Weren't his " company manners " delicious ? ' said 
 Hester, when we were once more by ourselves. '' But 
 what a rencontre ! It reminded me of "Dr. Living- 
 stone, I presume ? " in Stanley's travels. We're a 
 curious race. Imagine a Frenchman under similar 
 circumstances. He would scatter his emotions and 
 his arms to the four winds in his first sentence of 
 greeting. And this young man only thought "it 
 awful hot, don't you know ! " Hester mimicked him 
 till I laughed ' my ribs loose ' to quote the vernacular 
 of Alf Nash.
 
 H.M.S. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN 157 
 
 We now sailed or pulled home, and gave our ship- 
 mates the news. They had seen nothing of the 
 newcomers, for all three had spent Sunday afternoon 
 in sound sleep. The man-of-war's men were too busy 
 examining the entrance and looking for a berth for 
 their ship, as it was likely she might remain at 
 Pandora Island for some time. Hence our crew had 
 remained undisturbed, and unconscious of the advent 
 of strangers. 
 
 As I afterwards was told, the island had been 
 reported some six months previously by a small trader. 
 The admiral had, therefore, in rather a sceptical 
 spirit, ordered the Albatross to seek for, and if 
 found, ' to make a note of it.' Naturally, during the 
 survey of the place, the ship would be sheltered inside 
 the reef, if it were feasible to get her there. 
 
 There was good reason for the doubting attitude 
 of the admiral, because the part of the ocean where 
 our island lay must have been traversed by many 
 keels ; and it was strange that no trader's eye had 
 lighted on it years ago. 
 
 By six o'clock that evening the Albatross was 
 anchored vei^y nearly in the Pandora's old berth, and 
 I was shaking hands with my friend the first lieu- 
 tenant, Gerald Ocksap by name. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the kindness of the captain. 
 He at once put his cabin at Hester's disposal ; and to 
 me he offered every help in the matter of the 
 schooner. 
 
 On the day following, we dined on board the 
 Albatross. I do not know what fairy tales our people 
 had told the crew of the man-of-war, but the interest
 
 158 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 and homage paid to Hester was really quite touching. 
 When she got into the boat sent to fetch us she had 
 on some simple white frock and thin shoes, and the 
 manner in which boat-cloaks and other weather- 
 dodging gear were stuck about made her half shy 
 she was so evidently the object of respectful admira- 
 tion to the ship's company. 
 
 At dinner I was introduced to the surgeon, to whom 
 I recounted the main incidents of the outbreak of 
 plague, and the means of disinfection we had adopted. 
 He approved of all our precautions, but wished us to 
 use some further fumigation by means of a new sub- 
 stance, the name of which I have forgotten. He 
 offered to carry out the process for us, and very 
 kindly did so before we left the island. We enjoyed 
 the dinner immensely; and it gave me no small 
 pleasure to see how much my dear one was admired. 
 After dinner I left Hester to be entertained by the 
 doctor and the captain while I went and smoked, and 
 talked to Ocksap. 
 
 1 1 say, old chap,' he asked at length, f you must 
 forgive the curiosity of a friend of some standing, but 
 are you engaged to Miss Leigh ? I see you call each 
 other by your Christian names, and one reads between 
 the lines. Hope you don't think I'm a bounder, ask- 
 ing you such a question, but I should be more than 
 human if I didn't.' 
 
 ( Well,' I answered, ' I see no reason why I should 
 not tell you. Yes, we are engaged.' 
 
 ' Well, I congratulate you. Heavens, how my little 
 girl at home would revel in a piece of real romance 
 like this ! I suppose I may tell her all about it ? '
 
 H.M.S. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN 159 
 
 At this I laughed and shrugged my shoulders in 
 non-committal fashion. 
 
 It was now time to go, so the boat was called away 
 and we were soon on board our lop-sided domicile, 
 looking small indeed after the Albatross. 
 
 ' Dick, you bad boy/ remarked Hess as we said 
 good night, ' what did you tell that merry-eyed little 
 first lieutenant ? ' 
 
 I looked innocent and answered, 'The truth, madam. 
 Was it well ? And is it well ? ' 
 
 And it was well. I was forgiven. 
 
 The following day the ship's carpenter and a diver 
 made a thorough examination of the hull of the Pan- 
 dora, and found that nothing was seriously damaged. 
 
 The rudder was jammed against some coral, and 
 she had lost some copper. ' Barked 'er shins, an' got 
 a gravel rash on 'er bilge,' as the highly medical Mr. 
 Alf Nash explained to some inquiring blue-jackets. 
 Luckily the vessel's sternpost was uninjured. 
 
 It was during this day and that evening that the 
 surveyors took their first observations for longitude. 
 And, perhaps just a little to my surprise, and certainly 
 to my satisfaction, the Greenwich mean time obtained 
 from lunar observations by me was a pretty correct 
 one, as my longitude by lunar only differed about nine 
 and a half miles from their longitude by chronometer. 
 
 It would, I fear, weary my readers, except those 
 keen on technical details, were I to tell them minutely 
 of the various measures taken to get the Pandora afloat. 
 As a matter of fact it Avas not a very difficult job. Once 
 we got movement on her hull she slid off the edge of 
 coral very quickly. The bank, I think I told you, was
 
 160 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 very steep to. The empty hull and a good spring 
 tide were of course the essentials. Martin and I both 
 thought we could have managed the job alone. But 
 we would have been hard put to it to free the rudder 
 without the aid of the diver. We had one hawser to 
 the opposite shore of the cove in which she had 
 stranded, and steady strains were kept going on the 
 cable and on the anchor we had laid out. Some move- 
 ment was given to the hull by swaying alternately on 
 the masthead lines. 
 
 These measures sufficed without invoking the aid of 
 the Albatross herself. I was glad of this, for I did 
 not wish to be the cause of one of H.M. ships running 
 any risk in salvage work in such narrow waters. 
 Anyway, the floating was accomplished with great 
 eclat, and we quickly got our two anchors. The steam 
 launch now towed us to a convenient berth where the 
 two ships could swing clear of each other ; and the 
 work of reloading the vessels quickly proceeded. 
 
 I never till now realised how laborious a process the 
 making of charts really is. We Britishers are practi- 
 cally the chief cartographers of the world. And, when 
 made, the charts are sold at prices which in no case 
 can ever cover the expense of their production. Take 
 that of Pandora Island for instance ; not the plan 
 which is in this book I drew it but the splendid 
 and accurate map which the Admiralty will issue later 
 on. Here was a vessel of about one thousand tons, 
 with between one and two hundred men, lying at this 
 lonely spot for a number of weeks. Think of the 
 labour and the expense, and all to produce a small 
 chart, at a price from between half-a-crown and five
 
 H.M.8. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN 161 
 
 shillings perhaps three hundred copies being sold. 
 Still, a great maritime nation must needs do such work. 
 
 I do not know that anyone has written a popular 
 account of the work of this most useful branch of our 
 Navy. The officers of the survey branch are, I 
 suppose, the most scientific in the service. I need 
 only mention Cook, Fitzroy, Franklin, Owen Stanley, 
 or Wharton to emphasize this fact. And I am sure 
 they are the most laborious. Our casual friend, 
 Drury, I discovered, was a mine of mathematics and 
 sea lore, hidden under the ' don't-you-know ' drawl of 
 a fine gentleman. 
 
 Half the crew were away in boats all day, and the 
 rest seemed fully occupied ; and neither Hester nor I 
 half liked having so many sailors away from their 
 ship working for us. They made us a new topmast, 
 and helped us to refit all the damaged gear ; in fact 
 there was no end to their kindness. 
 
 Both of us felt we must have some sort of an 
 understanding with the captain. It was all very well 
 to succour the distressed, but they never seemed tired 
 of doing something extra for us. What with floating 
 us, loading us, and refitting us, and finally the 
 promise to lend me four seamen, one felt very deeply 
 in the debt of the British Navy as represented by the 
 Albatross. We wished to discuss the matter with the 
 captain of the Albatross, and he invariably put us off, 
 which worried us both. 
 
 We, therefore, asked him to dine with us on the 
 Pandora, and there we thrashed the matter out. 
 That evening, before he returned to his ship, I had a 
 quiet talk with him.
 
 162 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 He began by telling me that he would lend me four 
 hands to work the schooner to Apia, where I would 
 probably meet the admiral. 
 
 I thanked him in Miss Leigh's name and my own, 
 and I further said that, as much more had been done 
 for us than the actual necessities of our predicament 
 had demanded, we wished to pay the Imperial Govern- 
 ment for the services of his men. This he would not 
 hear of. But, at last, he agreed that Miss Leigh, 
 without contravening any usage of the service, might 
 give a donation to a certain fund the blue-jackets had 
 started on his ship. Hester gladly gave a good sum 
 of money. But she and I both told him, and asked 
 that the crew should know it, that we appreciated 
 their kindness and help in a way that money could 
 not repay. 
 
 He knew, of course, of my engagement to Miss 
 Leigh; and I told him generally how it had come 
 about. As he was a man much older than I was, 
 and in command of a man-of-war, and, above all, a 
 kindly man of common sense, I asked him what he 
 thought best for Miss Leigh to do whether to go on 
 with me, or to stay, as he had invited her, as his 
 guest, till the Albatross went to Sydney or Auckland. 
 
 ' My dear Blackburne/ he replied, ' if my ship were 
 going back at once I should certainly advise your 
 fiancee to return in her. But, you see, I cannot leave 
 this place till the survey is complete. Hence I 
 certainly cannot advise Miss Leigh to stay on here, 
 nor can I see any good reason why she should not go 
 on with the Pandora. Take my advice, my boy, and 
 leave it to her.'
 
 H.M.S. ALBATROSS THE GOOD SAMARITAN 163 
 
 When this kind man had gone, Hester and I leaned 
 over the rail, looking at his ship, whilst we talked the 
 matter all over and discussed the various pros and 
 cons. 
 
 'Now, Hess, yon must decide yourself. Which 
 will you do ? ' I said. 
 
 Her reply settled the matter. 
 
 'You dear and very proper person, fate made me 
 dependent on your skill and your honour. You are 
 my husband to be. Except for you I feel alone. I 
 have had enough of partings, and I shall sail with 
 you, sweetheart Mrs. Grundy notwithstanding/ 
 
 Next morning I told the captain her decision. He 
 laughed and said : 
 
 ' Well done, Miss Leigh ! For my part I think 
 you're quite right in your decision. By the way, 
 young lady, I had forgotten one of my powers. I 
 believe, in emergencies, a man-of-war captain is 
 empowered to marry persons so desiring, at least he 
 used so to do, unless the plethora of parsons has 
 stopped the practice. I was intended for the church, 
 and I am very ready to take on the function of a 
 parson now. Shall I ? ' 
 
 Hester reddened under her sun-browned skin as 
 she answered prettily that he had already done her so 
 many kindnesses that she could not accept this last 
 obligation. 
 
 And thus ended the matter.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 TOWARDS APIA, A DIGRESSION, AND A 
 TRAGEDY BY THE WAY 
 
 IT^ARLY one morning, before the trade wind had 
 "^ gathered weight, we began to heave in our 
 chain. How different was our present sailing from 
 the maimed condition in which we had first groped 
 our way into the unbroken solitude of this ultimate 
 island. 
 
 Renewed health, a sufficient crew, and a wholesome 
 stout vessel, made truly a very different setting out, 
 from what our plight was, when we first saw this 
 lonely spot. 
 
 As a last courtesy to us the steam pinnace was sent 
 to give us a pluck through the entrance in the reef. 
 This was a great comfort, nay a necessity, for what 
 trifling wind there was was from the south-east, and 
 consequently dead on end for getting through the 
 passage. 
 
 My good friend the first lieutenant, together with 
 the surgeon and Drury, came with us to see the 
 schooner get an offing. 
 
 Our crew made quick work of heaving short. Then
 
 TOWARDS APIA 165 
 
 we broke ground, and while the anchor was being 
 secured we were soon towed down to the entrance, 
 which Ocksap said they intended to chart as f Sunday 
 Passage', after the day on which the Albatross 
 entered it. 
 
 I was in some little doubt as to the power of the 
 pinnace to bring us safely out should there chance to 
 be anything of a swell setting into the lagoon. 
 Happily my fears were groundless, and a few minutes 
 sufficed to put us clear of the reef, and the Pandora 
 once more found herself on the long heave of the 
 Pacific, which on that day certainly deserved its 
 name. 
 
 The pinnace took us out to the east, and we rapidly 
 made sail and cast off the towline. 
 
 We hove the schooner to just about abreast of the 
 boat-passage, and then the steamer came alongside. 
 
 ' Good-bye, Miss Leigh,' said Ocksap, coming for- 
 ward to the break of the little poop, ' I hope to see 
 you in Sydney, and there you must meet my wife. I 
 wish her to know you.' 
 
 ' Good-bye, Mr. Ocksap. I shall make a point of 
 meeting your wife. I cannot thank the Albatrotses 
 enough for all their countless kindnesses to us.' 
 
 The lieutenant bowed and shook hands. He walked 
 towards the rail and I went with him. 
 
 ' Blackburne,' he said, as we reached the gangway, 
 ' we must be off, or the skipper'll think we've deserted. 
 For myself, I wish I could be forcibly detained.' 
 Then, lowering his voice, ho added, ' Good-bye again, 
 my boy ! I hope you realise what a pearl beyond 
 price you have had the luck to win.' He pressed my
 
 166 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 hand and dropped into the boat, in which the others 
 were already seated. 
 
 We now let the headsails draw, and two hands went 
 aloft to loose the topsail and topgallantsail and over- 
 haul the gear. We quickly gathered way, for the 
 wind had hardened a good deal since we got outside, 
 and the pinnace was rapidly dwindling in size. Her 
 crew gave us a parting cheer, the sound of which 
 came down to us on the wind. 
 
 We replied and dipped our ensign and, with our 
 head at nor-nor-west, we felt that we were fairly off. 
 Martin and I picked each two men, which made three 
 in a watch. Should we have bad weather, the cook and 
 Alf, in addition, would give us four hands if required. 
 But with a fair wind all the way, this was not a likely 
 contingency, and we soon settled down into the 
 ordinary sea routine. 
 
 After the troubled events of the earlier part of the 
 voyage, the quiet monotony of the next few days was 
 infinitely restful. These halcyon times were not, 
 however, to continue indefinitely. 
 
 Old ocean had something yet to show us of the 
 sorrow and privation which may fall to the lot of 
 those ' who do business in great waters.' But of that 
 later on. Just then all was peace. 
 
 One morning, soon after we left Pandora Island, I 
 had the morning watch; it was just daylight, and the 
 incomparable glory of a tropic dawn was upon the 
 sea. I often think that town dwellers lose half the 
 pleasure of their lives by missing nature in her most 
 striking aspects. 
 
 Whether at sea, in the bush, or on the veldt, the
 
 TOWARDS APIA 167 
 
 advent of another day comes to my eyes with a glory 
 and freshness which seem to be always new. The 
 shadows of night begin to lose their depth, and the 
 innumerable army of stars take on a delicate wanness 
 as the rays of the sun shoot upward. 
 
 The horizon line for a short time becomes more 
 clearly defined, and in this strange twilight it is easy 
 to take observations. On shore, too, the shapes of 
 tree or hill take on definiteness, the ugliness and 
 bareness of fuller day is softened. Even a dirty town 
 may look lovely under the magic light of early 
 morning. 
 
 In the deepening of dawn when it dapples 
 
 The dusk of the sky, 
 With streaks like the redd'ning of apples, 
 
 The ripening of rye. 
 To eastward, when cluster by cluster, 
 Dim stars and dull planets, that muster, 
 Wax wan in a world of white lustre 
 
 That spreads far and high. 
 
 These beautiful lines, which were written of the 
 coming of daylight in the Australian bush, are equally 
 applicable to dawn upon the ocean. 
 
 How often, as a boy, have I drunk in such a scene, 
 standing voiceless with admiration I had almost 
 written adoration as the great luminary began to 
 show his rim above the eastern horizon ? But ' this 
 speaking, this impressive silence ' is soon broken in 
 upon. I hear the short ' turn to ' of the mate of the 
 watch ; I seize a brush or a bucket, and the work of 
 the day in all its commonplace ugliness swiftly 
 banishes the fancies that for a brief space had filled 
 my mind.
 
 168 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 Such a morning was this of which I write. I 
 turned to the illumined sea rim, and by-and-by the 
 golden limb of the sun himself appeared above the 
 horizon. 
 
 I went to the compass as he rose from the glowing 
 waters, and took his bearing ; amplitude* is the term 
 used by sailors. 
 
 This observed bearing is compared with the true 
 direction of the sun as deduced by spherical trigo- 
 nometry, and the difference is the error of the 
 compass. 
 
 In the case of our ship, which was built of wood, 
 the error found was the variation ; for, not being 
 made of iron, the Pandora had no appreciable 
 deviation. 
 
 As I took this common observation, the stanzas of 
 Falconer, in his ' Shipwreck/ came into my mind. 
 It must have been difficult indeed to clothe the dry 
 process of finding the compass error by altitude 
 azimutht in the pleasant garments of poetry. Yet 
 he did it, and the following are his learned lines. 
 The description may well endure as a correct record 
 of one of the methods of navigation of a bygone 
 race of sailors a method which still lives lustily, 
 at least in examination papers. 
 
 The pilots now their azimuth attend, 
 On which all courses, duly formed, depend : 
 The compass placed to catch the rising ray, 
 The quadrant's shadows studious they survey ; 
 
 * Amplitude is the bearing of a heavenly body, when rising or 
 setting, reckoned from the true east or west point of the horizon. 
 
 t Azimuth is the bearing of an elevated body, reckoned from true 
 north or south.
 
 TOWARDS APIA 169 
 
 Along the arch the gradual index slides, 
 While Phoebus down the vertic-circle glides ; 
 Now seen on ocean's utmost verge to swim, 
 He sweeps it vibrant with his nether limb. 
 Thus height and polar distance are obtained ; 
 Then latitude, and declination, gained ; 
 In chiliads next the analogy is sought, 
 And on the sinical triangle wrought : 
 By this magnetic variance is explored, 
 Just angles known, and polar truth restored. 
 
 Falconer may, perhaps, not have written poetry of 
 the highest type, but he is the one poet who wrote 
 poetry which also contains correct seamanship, for 
 Falconer was a consummate seaman first, and a poet 
 afterwards. 
 
 It is of interest also to note how quaintly and 
 pleasantly the common language of the sea is used in 
 the poem of ' The Shipwreck/ The work itself 
 deserves to live, if for no other reason than that it 
 preserves in liquid verse much of the seamanship of 
 the day. A noble art which in these times of steam 
 and electricity promises soon to be a lost one. It 
 shows, too, that little ships in those times went to sea 
 with big crews ; and, better still, that these crews 
 were British seamen, and not the mixed crowd of 
 Dutchmen and Dagoes which fills the forecastle of our 
 merchant ships; and which, still worse, is beginning 
 to push its way on to the bridge and the poop as well. 
 
 This creeping in of foreign seamen, and the dis- 
 appearance of the British sailor from our mercantile 
 marine, is, to my mind, one of the most serious 
 menaces to the greatness and continuance of the 
 Empire. Imagine a country like Great Britain, which 
 is, in the main, dependent on sea-borne food supplies,
 
 170 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 permitting the corn and meat, on which her very 
 existence hangs, to be brought to her shores in ships, 
 owned perhaps in England, but manned by foreigners, 
 who on an outbreak of war might hand over the ships 
 they sail to the enemy. An evil and suggestive fact 
 also, is the small popularity of the sea as a profession, 
 especially among Australian boys. 
 
 Better pay, better food in deep-water ships, better 
 accommodation, restrictions as to the number of 
 foreign seamen employed, and perhaps a revived form 
 of apprenticeship, are all methods by which it is 
 possible to bring about a more hopeful state of affairs 
 and increase the number of British or colonial-born 
 men who follow the sea, and who will man our 
 merchant ships and add to the numbers of a Naval 
 Reserve for defence purposes in times of national 
 emergency. 
 
 This small record of a humble voyage is not the 
 place, I admit, to discuss these great and pressing 
 subjects. Nevertheless, it is worth while, in season 
 and out of season, to call attention to this immensely 
 important matter. I commend the consideration of it 
 to every British or Australian subject of the Queen. 
 It is absolutely astounding to contemplate the ignor- 
 ance of the average man in affairs of the sea. 
 And this is the most maritime Empire in the world ! 
 It would indeed be well if the country would arouse 
 itself from its criminal indifference in the matter, 
 else one day it may awake to find the carrying trade 
 of the world in the hands of foreigners, and Great 
 Britain in a condition of surrender, owing to the fact 
 that the over-sea grain ships had been carried over to 
 the enemy by their alien crews.
 
 TOWARDS APIA 171 
 
 We must, I suppose, sadly accept the fact that the 
 art of seamanship that is, the management of a 
 sailing ship must pass away, and a new seamanship 
 of steam take its place. Doubtless, a great art this, 
 in its way, for the taking of a ten-thousand-ton vessel 
 through a crowded channel needs skill and knowledge 
 of a very high order. Nevertheless, I question if 
 ever the assemblage of qualities which made the 
 ' Sailor of the Sail ' the many-sided man he was, can 
 be learned on a steamer. The minute observation of 
 barometer, sea and sky ; the management of the ship 
 under a hundred diverse conditions of wind and 
 weather ; all find their true school on a ' wind- 
 jammer.' Only on her deck, and in her airy breadths 
 of canvas does the true sailorman learn his trade. 
 The man who is in very truth 
 
 Lord of the Bunt and Gasket, and Master of the Yard, 
 To whom no land was distant, to whom no sea was barred. 
 
 Who battled with the current, who conquered with the wind, 
 Who shaped the course before him by the wake he threw behind. 
 
 Who on the space of waters has fought the killing gale, 
 Has hoard the crying of the spar, the moaning of the sail. 
 
 Who followed Drake, who fought with Blake, who broke the bar of 
 
 Spain, 
 And who to timid traffic gave the Freedom of the Main. 
 
 But this strange and pathetic figure will gradually 
 disappear, and with him also the giant wings of 
 canvas which he controlled. In their place the 
 c black squad ' shovel, the kettle boils, the bell rings, 
 and the screw revolves. The sailor of the past is 
 represented by a deck hand, who understands brass- 
 work and paint cleaning, and not much else.
 
 172 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 How lads are to be trained to deal with the great 
 emergencies of the sea, outside a sailing ship, is 
 not easy to understand. It is, indeed, not a little 
 difficult to feel confidence in the seamanship of a man 
 who has not spent his youth under the noble umbrage 
 of stately mast and far-reaching yard, and whose ear 
 cannot correctly interpret all the diverse sounds which 
 come from these soaring heights, the creak of a parral, 
 the cheep of a block, and the thunderous flap of spilled 
 canvas. But the answer to all these hankerings after 
 a vanished life is that the old sea-lore must die and a 
 new one be born. 
 
 My reader must really forgive me for this long 
 digression. Where was I ? Let me see ! I had the 
 morning watch and I had just taken an observation to 
 find the Error of the Compass. 
 
 One of the men was aloft on some job when he 
 hailed the deck saying that away on the starboard bow 
 he saw something, the nature of which he could not 
 quite make out. I went below, got my glasses, and 
 climbed aloft. 
 
 Presently the object swam into the circle of the 
 lenses ; and, so far as I could say, it was either a boat 
 or a piece of wreckage. 
 
 ' Haul her up two points/ I sang out to the man 
 at the wheel. 
 
 This was done, and presently our bowsprit pointed 
 clean for the object, whatever it was. I returned on 
 deck and sent word down to Hester to come up as soon 
 as she could. 
 
 In less than an hour the boat, for such it was, was 
 pretty close aboard.
 
 TOWARDS APIA 173 
 
 It was obviously a good-sized ship's lifeboat, painted 
 white, and floating high. She was rigged as a yawl, 
 but had nothing set save a tiny reefed mizzen ; and, 
 further, we saw that she lay to a sea anchor. 
 
 ' Oh, Dick/ said Hester to me, ' do you think there 
 is anyone on board ? ' 
 
 ' No, dear,' I replied, with the telescope at my eye ; 
 ' I can see no one, but we shall know for a certainty in 
 a very few minutes. Here is the glass. Look for 
 yourself.' 
 
 'There is something moving in the boat,' she 
 presently called again, ' and part of it is alive. I am 
 sure I saw a movement.' 
 
 Once more I took the glass, and without doubt I 
 saw there were people in the boat ; and I realised 
 that we were about to witness the end of some ocean 
 tragedy. 
 
 However, a few minutes more would tell us every- 
 thing, and I laid down the telescope. Hester went 
 forward to the galley, as I afterwards discovered, to 
 see that there was plenty of hot water ready. I lent 
 a hand in getting our boat clear for lowering. 
 
 As we swept past the nearly stationary craft, I saw 
 at a glance that her occupants were in no position to 
 board us. So I brought the schooner to the wind, and 
 sent off Martin and two of the men to bring her 
 alongside. This took some little time, as Martin would 
 not cut adrift their sea anchor, but carefully hauled 
 it in. It was composed of oars, with their jib and 
 kellick a neat and seaman-like job. 
 
 Fortunately the wind was light and the sea smooth, 
 so the whole business of getting the boat alongside.
 
 174 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 and its helpless occupants on deck, was not very 
 difficult. 
 
 Our crew clustered to the lee rail as our boat 
 brought the stranger to the gangway. We were all 
 alive with curiosity, which quickly changed to deep 
 sympathy as we took in the grimness and horror of 
 this drama of the sea. 
 
 How can one do justice in words to the desperate 
 picture of sorrow and privation which rose and fell 
 in the boat before our eyes ? She was a good, whole- 
 some lump of a craft, and in her lay several men, two 
 women, and an infant. All the men save one were 
 obviously dead. 
 
 Across the face of a sailor was a track of dark- 
 coloured blood, which had oozed from a wound in his 
 forehead. At his side lay a revolver. The skin of 
 his face was drawn and sere, and his retracted lips 
 disclosed a serrated row of discoloured broken teeth. 
 He was dressed in blue dungaree trousers tucked into 
 his half boots. His jumper lay open, showing a 
 mossy breast covered with tattooing. 
 
 About the boat, in various attitudes, lay the other 
 seamen, all dead. 
 
 In the stern sheets, reclining in a strained attitude, 
 was a man, probably an officer. His head was sunk 
 forwards, while his right arm encircled the neck of 
 one of the women, whose head and shoulders lay half 
 across his breast. They were prevented from slipping 
 wholly down by the left arm of the man, which hung 
 over the side with the rigidity of comparatively 
 recent death. The hand was gone from the arm, 
 evidently torn off by some passing shark, and the
 
 TOWARDS APIA 175 
 
 bare white tendons lazily streamed in the water like 
 loose ribbons. 
 
 He seemed to be a man of about thirty, probably 
 an officer, as I said, and perhaps the husband of the 
 dead woman by his side. 
 
 This poor lady was young, comely, and refined- 
 looking. Even the manner of her death had not 
 robbed her face of beauty; nor could life have 
 departed many hours previously. 
 
 In her arms, secured by a shawl, in a last grasp of 
 love, lay a little baby, apparently only a few months 
 old. 
 
 It was yet alive, and from the dry shrunk breast of 
 its mother it feebly sought for the nourishment of 
 which death had robbed it. Its cry had sunk to a 
 voiceless whisper, and it seemed certain that it could 
 not long outlast its mother. 
 
 On the gratings aft lay two other occupants of the 
 boat. One, a girl in the flush of early womanhood, 
 perhaps two-and- twenty, was still alive. She raised 
 herself feebly as the boat came alongside ; but her 
 eyes, reddened with salt water and fierce sunlight, 
 showed that she did not realise her rescue. 
 
 Her face and lips were cracked and burnt, and her 
 tongue was visible, dry and brown. It seemed indeed 
 doubtful if she would live to tell her story. 
 
 Beside her on the grating lay a third sufferer, a 
 man, youngish, say about five-and-twenty, and 
 strangely like in feature to the girl, who pillowed his 
 head upon her lap. Ho was likewise still alive, but 
 evidently far spent. 
 
 Very carefully we got the two surviving adults and
 
 176 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 the baby on board, and it was at this juncture that 
 Hester showed us once more what a wholly admirable 
 and useful training that of a nurse can be. 
 
 The castaways were quickly got below, and we left 
 them to her to do the best she could for them. 
 
 The dead men and the poor lady we also got on 
 board. From each we took what trifling valuables 
 they possessed ; and from the lady and the officer we 
 cut off locks of hair. Of all we wrote down a brief 
 description for purposes of identification. These 
 matters finished, we quickly prepared the bodies for 
 burial. 
 
 From the boat we removed a chronometer, a couple 
 of sextants, and a few other articles. The timekeeper 
 had stopped, which showed that two days, at any rate, 
 of complete helplessness must have passed. 
 
 There were some damp biscuits and a tin or two of 
 meat, but not one drop of water. God knows how 
 long they had been without a drink, but one could 
 interpret much of their story without words. On 
 thinking the matter over I determined for various 
 reasons to hoist the boat on board. 
 
 This was done, and we stowed it on the hatch in 
 the space which our own big cargo boat had formerly 
 occupied. 
 
 The name of the ship to which she had belonged 
 was the Marion C. Colborne, of Portland, Maine. So 
 we knew at least the nationality of the people we had 
 rescued.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE STORY OF THE MARION C. COLBORNE 
 
 TDREA.KFAST was soon over, and the forenoon of 
 the day on which we picked up the survivors of 
 the American ship Marion C. Colborne passed quickly ; 
 raid-day was upon me almost before I knew it. I had 
 not slept, nor, in fact, left the deck, so much was there 
 to see to. I got a meridian altitude and went below 
 to work out our position at noon. 
 
 I found Hester full of work and excitement. 
 
 ' What's your report ? How are they getting on ? ' 
 I asked. 
 
 ' Of the baby I have no hope whatever/ she replied, 
 with a catch in her voice. 
 
 ' Yes, but how about the others ? ' I said. 
 
 ' They are both alive,' replied Hester. ' I feel sure 
 that the girl will live, for she is strong and well 
 nourished. The man I am not so confident about. He 
 looks ill, apart from thirst and exposure.' 
 
 ( Does the girl talk rationally ? ' I inquired. 
 
 ' That is the odd thing, Dick ! She is utterly weak, 
 of course ; yet she takes food, says she is feeling 
 better, and shows an evident and deep interest in the
 
 178 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 infant. Nevertheless, she neither knows her own 
 name, nor the name of the ship, nor the date, nor 
 indeed anything about her immediate past. What do 
 you think of that ? Is it going to be permanent ? ' 
 
 ' Oh/ I answered, ' she will remember everything 
 in a few days ! I've twice fallen in with men who 
 had been lost one in the backblocks of New South 
 Wales, and the other on the open veldt in South 
 Africa. The latter a soldier. How he got lost in 
 such a place goodness only knows, except that he was 
 a Tommy, to whom all such things are possible. 
 
 ' Both these men looked as these people look ashy, 
 drawn, fatuous, and quite forgetful of time. The 
 soldier I spoke of didn't even know his name or regi- 
 ment. Yet he and the " sun-downer" both recovered 
 their memory in a few days. Wait, Hess, and see 
 what sleep and beef tea will do for them.' 
 
 1 How I hope you will be a true prophet,' said Hess. 
 ' I do wish them to get better ; and, goodness, how 
 I do burn to know their story ! ' 
 
 After dinner, about four bells, I was again in 
 charge of the deck, when Hester came up to ask me 
 to go with her and see the baby, as she feared it was 
 dying. 
 
 I went to her cabin, and found that the poor little 
 mite had been washed in warm water, rubbed with 
 oil, and wrapped in a soft blanket. Hester had fed it 
 with sips of condensed milk and brandy. 
 
 Its sunken, yet staring eyes, its aged, wrinkled 
 appearance, and the sinking in on the top of its head, 
 where the bones had not yet come together, made its 
 aspect ominous even to the most ignorant eye. A
 
 THE STORY OF THE MARION C. COLSORNE 179 
 
 more complete picture of depressed vital powers could 
 hardly be imagined. 
 
 ' Oh, Dick ! ' said my dear one, ' I am afraid we are 
 looking upon death. Think what it all means ! I 
 would to God I could keep it alive. But it's dying 
 now, even as we stand by it.' 
 
 ' Perhaps, dear girl,' said I, with a keen sense of 
 how length of days serves a good many folk in this 
 life, ' it is happier away, orphaned and perhaps friend- 
 less. The charity of this world is pretty chill, sweet- 
 heart.' 
 
 ' Dick ! Dick ! ' she cried, ' I would have looked 
 after it always, if no one claimed it. The sea has 
 thrown it on my love and protection. And now it is 
 leaving me.' 
 
 It is indeed not a bad index of the character of a 
 woman to see how she manages children and l takes 
 to babies,' as old women express it. I never knew a 
 woman yet who had an antipathy to young children 
 who possessed a wholly wholesome personality. It is 
 an instinct in a healthy-minded normal woman. It is 
 rather trying when it is perverted and finds a 
 vicarious outlet in a foolish and disgusting fondness 
 for cats and dogs. One may do one's best to forgive 
 it as evidence of unused maternal feelings ; but it is 
 certainly very annoying to live in a house where 
 pampered poodles dominate the situation. 
 
 If ever these primal instincts of fondness and care 
 for the helpless and the young shone in a woman's 
 eyes they did now in Hester's, as she bent over the 
 dying infant and kissed its chill face. She laid her 
 cheek against my shoulder and cried quietly, and
 
 180 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 asked me to be sure to bury the poor little thing with 
 its mother. And this of course I promised. 
 
 Then she closed the poor child's staring eyes, 
 and we both turned away. As we did so I saw her 
 lips move and caught her whispered words, ' For of 
 such is the Kingdom of Heaven.' 
 
 Late in the afternoon was the sad scene of a burial 
 at sea enacted once more in this strange voyage a 
 voyage in which more events and incidents had been 
 crowded together than in all the laborious years of my 
 previous seafaring. 
 
 The dead mother, with the babe she could not save, 
 went first ; then her husband (as we afterwards came 
 to know), and lastly the seamen. 
 
 With the last sullen plunge it seemed as if a heavy 
 cloud had been raised from our hearts. We brought 
 the schooner again upon her course, and once more 
 felt the strong thrust of the trade wind and the swing 
 of the vessel in the following sea as we rapidly loft 
 the neighbourhood of so much sorrow and so much 
 pain. 
 
 We made excellent runs during the days imme- 
 diately following the rescue of the castaways, and 
 during this time both the girl and the young man 
 made good progress towards recovery. 
 
 The girl's memory came back, but, of course, as 
 she realised her losses, she remained profoundly 
 depressed. But she took heart when she found that 
 her brother (for the likeness of their features was 
 here a true indication of the blood tie) was alive and 
 likely to mend. 
 
 He, poor chap, was very weak, and told us that he
 
 THE STORY OF THE MARION O. COLBORNE 181 
 
 had recently been laid up with fractured ribs received 
 in a gale, in which a spare topmast lashed on deck got 
 adrift and jammed him against the rail. 
 
 Little by little we gathered their story. Their vessel 
 was the Marion C. Colborne, of 1400 tons, a wooden 
 North American built ship. The captain was their 
 brother indeed, the ship was largely owned by their 
 father, who was a man possessing considerable shipping 
 interests in the State of Maine. 
 
 From the girl we learned that the lady and the 
 baby had been her brother's wife and child, whilst 
 the officer we had saved was second mate of the 
 ship. 
 
 The vessel had been in the Pacific trade for a 
 couple of years. From a lumber port to Sydney, 
 thence to Newcastle, N.S.W., for coal, and thence 
 across to Honolulu, 'Frisco, or the West Coast such 
 was her usual round. On this last voyage they were 
 bound to Tahiti. 
 
 Miss Dorothy Langstaff, for such was her name, had 
 come over from her eastern home, and found the ship 
 in Puget Sound, as she wished to see her brothers and 
 help her sister-in-law, who had only been married a 
 year or two. Thus they were quite a family party in 
 this fine, wholesome craft. 
 
 Her brother, Christopher Langstaff, next gave us 
 the outline of the fatal voyage. 
 
 From the day of leaving Newcastle, N.S.W., they 
 had bad luck. First foul weather and loss of sails; 
 then the cargo ignited and days of anxiety were 
 passed, in which all the measures which experience 
 has shown to be of value were used in keeping the
 
 182 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 smouldering volcano beneath their feet under control. 
 But at last the fire was extinguished, and they began 
 to congratulate themselves that the butt end of their 
 troubles had arrived first and all would now be plain 
 sailing. 
 
 But this respite from disaster quickly came to an 
 end, for they ran into bad weather again, during 
 which ho had been injured while securing a spare spar 
 which had broken adrift. One man had his skull 
 fractured at the same time and died the next day. 
 They also lost their jib-boom, which took the fore- 
 topgallant mast with it. Worse still, three hands 
 were washed overboard off the forecastle head when 
 clearing away the wreckage. Then the vessel, during 
 the gale, got considerably to the nor'ard of her course. 
 
 Even after these various troubles hope shone 011 
 them again, and new spars would have made the ship 
 look as if she had never met a blow and got a dusting 
 at all. But more evil was still to come. One night 
 the ship apparently struck some wreckage, and began 
 to leak seriously. Neither the donkey engine nor the 
 hand pumps could keep her clear. Most likely she 
 had started a butt-end forwards. At any rate, the 
 water came in from right up in the eyes of the ship 
 and nothing that they could do, from a thrummed sail 
 over the bows to continuous pumping, was able to 
 keep the Marion C. Colborne right end up. Finally, 
 they were forced to take to the boats. 
 
 In the skipper's boat were his wife, the baby, Miss 
 Langstaff, a coloured girl, eight seamen, and the 
 second mate, who was unfit for duty. 
 
 During the first night after leaving the sinking ship
 
 THE STORY OF THE MARION C. COLBORNE 183 
 
 the boats became separated. A course was steered 
 for Samoa, which, lying to leeward in the lino of the 
 S.E. Trades, seemed no hard port to fetch. 
 
 The following morning a terrifying discovery was 
 made, namely, that a most insufficient supply of water 
 had been put on board. How the oversight had 
 occurred young Langstaff did not know, as during the 
 time in which the coal was a-fire, his brother had taken 
 the most minute care and forethought to equip the 
 boats fully so as to be ready to go in the event of the 
 fire overmastering the crew and forcing them to 
 abandon the vessel. Thus at the very outset of their 
 boat voyage they were confronted by a speedy death 
 from thirst unless they had the luck to run into con- 
 venient rain-squalls. 
 
 It did not rain. The sun soared through a vault 
 of unpitying blue from dawn to dusk, and parched 
 them with his heat as they drove before the strong 
 wind, with dry lips and sinking hearts. 
 
 The grim history of such events at sea repeated 
 itself. Some of the men drank salt water, and died 
 raving. 
 
 The coloured girl followed. Each fresh sunrise 
 revealed a new tragedy. 
 
 Several unfortunate days of calm cut from them the 
 hopes which strong winds gave of reaching or bring- 
 ing help before thirst or exhaustion made the boat 
 their common sepulchre. At last, once more, a breeze 
 blew indeed, but it soon hardened into a gale. 
 
 Sail was carried as long as possible, but, finally, 
 with sadly diminished numbers and feeble hands, the 
 boat had to be laid to, and rode to a sea anchor for one
 
 184 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 long desperate night, during which it seemed as if 
 every soaring rise or breathless plunge would be their 
 last. 
 
 In such fashion two distressful days passed by. 
 
 Drenched with spray, burnt by the sun, chilled at 
 night, and mad with thirst, a falling sea and less wind 
 found the survivors too weak and too helpless to get 
 the boat on her course. And in this plight they 
 remained till we picked them up. Of the particulars 
 of the intervening time neither the brother nor the 
 sister had any clear remembrance. 
 
 Mercifully, therefore, the final scenes of despair, 
 during which one of the men had shot himself, and 
 the captain and his wife were not divided in their 
 death, had been hidden from their sight. Such had 
 been their most sorrowful story. 
 
 The wind held steady, and the distance between 
 Pandora Island and Samoa was soon covered. One 
 forenoon we were all pleased to see the island of 
 Tutuila on our starboard bow, a place where, it may 
 be remembered, some of the members of the ill-fated 
 expedition of La Perouse were cut off by the natives. 
 
 A run of less than forty miles brought us to the 
 east end of Opolu, on which is situated the town of 
 Apia. We sailed between that island and Tutuila, 
 and late in the afternoon entered our port and let go 
 in seven fathoms. At anchor were several ships of 
 the Australian squadron, among them one bearing the 
 Admiral's flag.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA 
 
 T SHALL commence this chapter by assuring my 
 readers that I am not going to bore them with 
 any references to Island politics ; to the great hurri- 
 cane ; no, not even shall I give an account of a visit 
 to the place which Robert Louis Stevenson, whoso 
 memory is dear to many, has made a household word 
 in Eugland and America. All these things have been 
 done ad nauseam by every globe-trotting scribbler of 
 either sex who returns home and thinks himself or 
 herself an authority on Greater Britain generally, and 
 the South Seas in particular, on the strength of a 
 voyage round the world in mail steamers of sorts. I 
 know the breed well, and I love them not. The 
 travelled idler, the would-be wise politician, and the 
 literary lady who worries the ship's officers for 
 nautical matter they are all bores who unconsciously 
 climb to a bad eminence in their profession. 
 
 The day following that on which we anchored, we 
 went ashore and reported the loss of the Marion C. 
 Colborne. 
 
 I made a separate report of our various troubles to 
 
 1S5
 
 186 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 the Admiral to whom I likewise delivered a mail 
 from the Albatross. The authorities did not ask us to 
 undergo quarantine. 
 
 Hester and Miss Langstaff were the recipients of 
 various invitations to stay on shore, one of which 
 from her father's agent, an old friend, Hester 
 accepted. 
 
 She and the American girl evidently liked each 
 other ; and Hester told me she enjoyed the mere fact 
 of seeing a woman again as if it were some strange 
 new experience of life. 
 
 The girl's brother, Christopher Langstaff, who 
 turned out an excellent fellow, stayed on board the 
 Pandora with me. 
 
 It was now necessary, with as little delay as possible, 
 to make up our minds what our next move should be. 
 
 Miss Leigh, Mr. Peek, who was her host, and I, 
 therefore talked the matter over after lunch on the 
 broad verandah of Mr. Peek's pleasant home. 
 
 'What are our chances of getting a cargo here, or 
 in the Islands just now ? ' I asked. 
 
 1 Very small, indeed,' replied Mr. Peek. ' At this 
 moment there is no copra belonging to Captain Leigh 
 ready for shipment ; nor is there anything else to fill 
 up with. Hence you will either have to go seeking, 
 which means a long, devious, and uncertain voyage, or 
 else return to Sydney in ballast.' 
 
 ' Of course,' I said, ' I will discharge all the stores 
 we brought for the stations in which Captain Leigh 
 was interested.' 
 
 ' Quite so,' replied the agent, ' but it is the return 
 freight which is the difficulty just now. You can
 
 CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA 187 
 
 easily understand how we didn't expect your arrival 
 hero for some considerable time.' 
 
 I was about to propose a solution of the difficulty 
 when my intention was forestalled by Hester. 
 
 No one who looks at her face can fail to be struck 
 with the curious blending of strength with sweetness 
 which exists in every line, and in the shapely carriage 
 of her head, and I was not at all surprised when she 
 settled the matter of our next move out of hand. 
 This she might very well take upon herself to do, as 
 she was now the absolute owner of the vessel. 
 
 ' Mr. Peek, you have just told us that, for the 
 present, we must either go wandering about on the 
 chance of getting a cargo, or that we must return in 
 ballast to New South Wales ; in fact make a dead loss 
 of the voyage, with nothing whatever to our credit. 
 Does that describe the case ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, Miss Leigh, that is so.' 
 
 1 Then,' rejoined Hester, ' I am clearly of opinion 
 that if there are no special difficulties of navigation 
 standing in the way, it is best for us to prosecute our 
 original plan and seek for the guano island. What 
 say you, Dick ? ' 
 
 ' I was just about to propose the same scheme if 
 we can get a crew. As to the difficulty of navigation, 
 well, we'll take some time to do it. We'll have to 
 stand right down close-hauled through the South-East 
 Trades till we strike westerly winds before we can 
 make any Easting. However, it can be done, and I 
 think we should do it.' 
 
 ' I am so glad you agree, if for no other reason 
 than that it would please my poor father. You can-
 
 188 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 not think, Mr. Peek, how he had set his heart on the 
 matter. I never knew him so keen on any scheme 
 before. Indeed I regard it as a kind of duty to prose- 
 cute the voyage pretty much as he planned it. I am 
 sure this is the right thing to do. You remember 
 father's eagerness over the thing, don't you, Dick ? ' 
 
 I viewed the scheme with rather mingled feelings. 
 In good truth I was so full of my new found happi- 
 ness that I would only have been too happy to 
 return to Sydney, and let somebody else ' smite the 
 sounding furrows ; on our behalf. 
 
 My common sense, however, and my respect for 
 Captain Leigh's wishes, told me that what Hester 
 said was not only right from a sentimental point 
 of view, but also that, from a commercial aspect, it 
 was wise to prosecute the voyage. If the quest was 
 worth beginning at all it was still more worth per- 
 severing in. 
 
 ' Well, we shall need men/ I said at last, f a mate, 
 a few stores, and repairs done. Can we get these 
 things here. Mr. Peek ? ' 
 
 ' You can get some Kanakas good enough sailors. 
 But a mate, at least such a mate as you would 
 tolerate, I cannot promise. The stores we will find 
 you. But, of course, you must expect to pay 
 heavily for them.' 
 
 ' Now,' said Hester, ' is it finally settled that, if 
 we can get a crew, the Pandora sails for the guano 
 island ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' I answered ; and so that matter was settled, 
 and our host left us. 
 
 'I must be off to the schooner/ I said presently. 
 ' Will you come with me i j '
 
 CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA 189 
 
 ' I will/ replied Hester, ' but wait a moment till 
 I ask Dorothy Langstaff to come with us.' 
 
 ' No/ I said, ' I wish to talk to you about several 
 things, now that the objective of the voyage is 
 settled.' 
 
 ' Well, dear/ she answered, ' I believe I know 
 what makes you look so solemn, so we may as well 
 talk first, get the solemnity over, and then take the 
 beautiful American out with us later ? ' 
 
 Mr. Peek's verandah was broad and cool. The 
 strong moist breath of the sea breeze swept through 
 the palms and made music overhead. Between the 
 stems of the trees we could see the brilliant blue 
 of the sea, and the white flash of breaking waves. 
 No sweeter picture of a tropical home could one 
 wish for. Nevertheless, let me live in a latitude 
 no lower than thirty degrees, where children can 
 grow ruddy cheeks, and one can sleep with a blanket. 
 Anyone else may have, and keep and enjoy, if he 
 can, the glories of the ' Summer of the World.' 
 
 Hester looked across at me from out of her chair. 
 
 ' Now, Dick, you begin. You have something to 
 say. What is it ? ' 
 
 ' It is simply this. I don't like leaving you here to 
 find your way back to Sydney. There won't be a 
 steamer for a month, as the Alameda left the morning 
 of the day we got in.' 
 
 ' Richard/ she replied with a little laugh, ' by 
 whose orders are you condemned to sail by yourself ? ' 
 
 ' What do you mean, Hess ? ' 
 
 ' Why, I intend going to the Island, too ? ' 
 
 I looked at her and saw a quaint shy look in her face.
 
 190 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' But, dear, do you ? I mean, are you ? ' 
 
 1 Am I going to run off with you ? ' she broke in. 
 ' No ! Not exactly ! Miss Langstaff and her brother 
 don't want to go back to America just now.' 
 
 I began to see daylight. 
 
 'Miss Langstaff/ continued Hester, 'left home 
 (but this is a deadly secret) partly because she 
 wished to avoid the attentions of a man whom she 
 didn't want to marry. I know that she'd like to 
 stay with me. I shall therefore ask her to come 
 with us as my guest. 
 
 1 Her brother, I am pretty certain, is ready to 
 come too. You must know better than I do if you 
 can trust him as mate.' 
 
 ' Oh, you most managing of women ! And is this 
 then your little scheme ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, it is ; and I'm rather pleased with it. Duty 
 bids me urge the prosecution of the voyage. Affec- 
 tion determines me to " go where thou goest.' And 
 kindly feelings and self-interest make me wish to 
 take these two nice Americans with us. You see,' 
 she added, ' I am quite frank in my small scheming.' 
 
 ' I like your plans,' I answered, enthusiastically. 
 f May these things be ! But suppose that the Lang- 
 staffs choose to go home ? What then ? ' 
 
 ( In that case,' replied my dear, blushing a little 
 as she spoke, ' we must do two things. You must 
 find a clergyman and I a mate.' 
 
 I shall not set forth in writing what answer I 
 gave to this speech. 
 
 1 Dick,' said Hester, presently, looking up, ' I hope 
 you will not think me unmaidenly, but 1 am so
 
 CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA 191 
 
 alone. And you are my all. I cannot part with 
 you. No, not for a thousand Mrs. Grundys. I very 
 much wish not to marry till we get back to Aus- 
 tralia, but, if the Langstaffs cannot come, then you 
 must accept a certain alternative with fortitude; for 
 I don't intend to be left alone here when I see a 
 way, even if an unusual one, out of the dilemma.' 
 
 'I am afraid, my dear heart,' I answered, 'that 
 I'll not be too pressing with young Langstaff to 
 come with me as mate if you really mean that his 
 refusal commits me to the "alternative" forced 
 on us.' 
 
 Hester laughed and exclaimed : 
 
 ' No, no, Dick ! You must play fair ! J 
 
 ' Well, well,' I replied, ' I'll try and behave honestly, 
 but you put a premium on double-dealing.' 
 
 ' All in good time " answered my sweetheart ; 
 'haven't we heaps to do before settling into placid 
 matrimony ? I am not greedy, but I wish to see 
 you in the way of erecting that statue to Lord 
 Bacon about which we once talked. So we must 
 find and work my poor father's island. Remember 
 that we are partners in the venture ! ' 
 
 ' I am quite content, Hess,' I said, ' but you flash 
 a golden hope suddenly before my eyes and then 
 as suddenly extinguish it ; like unto the blotting 
 out of the sun. No wonder I am dazzled.' 
 
 I held her hand. Her face was half turned from 
 me. I could note the clear brown skin (for she was 
 rather dai'kened by exposure) and the soft fringe of 
 curved eyelashes. Her lips were slightly parted as 
 if to speak, a sweet half hesitancy expressed on 
 their full outlines.
 
 192 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 'Dick/ Hester murmured, 'you will think me a 
 very woman in what I am going to say. But I 
 wish with all my heart to be married in St. James's 
 Church in Sydney. You know the dear old church ; 
 we went there together on the Sunday before we 
 sailed.' 
 
 ' I know it well/ I answered ; ' the Westminster 
 Abbey of the colony. I have gone there many times 
 when I was a boy, coming voyages out to Sydney. 
 I used to read the tablets on the walls, and weave 
 all sorts of stories of the life in the old Colonial 
 days. And I peopled the quaint, stiff-backed 
 pews with old-world figures Macquarie and Darling 
 early pioneers, and all the sturdy vanished life 
 which has made England great at the ends of the 
 earth.' 
 
 ( Good ! ' said Hester, ' I, too, have built a hun- 
 dred fancies, grave and gay, about the long-dead 
 people whose lives are commemorated in those dull 
 old walls. The church attracts me strongly, and it 
 is in it that I wish to marry you, sweetheart.' 
 
 ' So be it/ said I thankfully; 'now let us be off 
 to the schooner.' 
 
 Hester went into the house to find Miss Langstaff, 
 and I lit a cigarette and mingled its blue smoke with 
 a glowing cloudland of happy imagery. 
 
 Presently I heard voices and footsteps coming 
 round the end of the verandah on which I sat, and 
 soon the two girls appeared. Both perfect types of 
 womanly beauty in their own different ways. Of 
 Hester's I have written already ; nor could I now 
 write dispassionately of her, or her good looks.
 
 CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA 193 
 
 Hester had shared her wardrobe with the com- 
 panion who had so strangely been thrown on her 
 hospitality. They were both dressed in white, in a 
 soft kind of muslin much affected by Hess, the 
 clinging lightness of which the better expressed the 
 outlines of their lithe figures. Both wore Honolulu 
 hats, with wide brims. That of the American girl 
 had a bright circle of scarlet flowers, which made a 
 happy contrast to Hester Leigh's soft band, gay 
 with the yellow feathers of the o-o bird. 
 
 In old days the use of this bird's feathers was 
 only permitted to those of royal blood in the Sand- 
 wich Islands. I thought that out of the ashes of 
 their volcanoes two princesses of a fairer race had 
 arisen to gladden the hearts and eyes of white men 
 from other far distant lands. 
 
 The girls were nearly of the same height, but the 
 American was slighter and looked taller. She pos- 
 sessed soft expressive eyes, which perhaps looked 
 larger than they really were, for her face still bore 
 traces of privation and sorrow. It was somewhat 
 thin and pale, and only coloured when lit up with 
 animation. 
 
 Her hair was dark, of a rich shining hue, as were 
 also her eyebrows and eyelashes. I could not help 
 thinking what a noble contrast the two girls were 
 to each other. I thought of Scott's 'Pirate/ and 
 mentally I christened them ' Minna and Brenda.' 
 
 Miss Langstaff's blue-black hair was parted in the 
 middle, and fell in soft rippling lines over either 
 brow, with sometimes a stray curl in the centre, 
 which deepened the darkness of her soft violet eyes.
 
 194 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 Her skin was a clear white, with a promise of re- 
 turning colour whenever she smiled or spoke. Her 
 tall willowy figure had a natural grace in " every 
 movement. In truth, to see them together suggested 
 the thought that a more striking picture of the 
 diverse beauty of our race, wherever born, would 
 indeed have been difficult to find. 
 
 Youth and a good constitution would, no doubt, 
 soon bring back roses to Miss Langstaff's cheeks, and 
 Hester's sisterly kindness and affection had done 
 much to soften her bereavement. Indeed, to both 
 of them, the strange novelty of their position, their 
 physical trials, and the necessity of " being brave," 
 had been the blessings in disguise whereby their 
 sorrow and loss had been mitigated and more easily 
 borne. 
 
 We started for the landing-place, and had not gone 
 very far when whom should we meet but no less a 
 personage than His Excellency the Admiral. 
 
 Hester had met him in Sydney, in fact he had been 
 a shipmate of her father's nearly thirty years ago. 
 I knew him already, as I had given him an official 
 account of our voyage and our doings at Pandora 
 Island. He stopped and spoke. 
 
 ' Where are you young people going ? ' was his 
 greeting. 
 
 'On board our schooner, sir/ I replied. 
 
 ' Oh, on board the schooner, eh ! What are your 
 plans, Miss Leigh ? I hear you are staying with the 
 Peeks just now/ said the Admiral, as he looked 
 admiringly at the two girls. 
 
 ' Yes/ replied Hester, ' Mrs. Peek was kind enough
 
 195 
 
 to ask us. We are going on with the voyage, if Mr. 
 Blackburne can ship a crew and get a few stores and 
 repairs done.' 
 
 'Indeed/ said His Excellency, ' and are you 
 going too ? ' 
 
 With the corner of my eye I could see the colour 
 deepen in Hester's face, but she looked, nevertheless, 
 quite collected as she answered the question in the 
 affirmative. 
 
 I saw the Admiral's brown wrinkled face pucker up 
 yet more as a kindly smile crept over his face. 
 
 ' Well ! well ! my dear ! ' said he at last. ' I 
 daresay you are quite right.' 
 
 Suddenly a thought seemed to strike him, and he 
 continued : f Will you three young people, and your 
 brother, Miss Langstaff/ bowing slightly to the 
 American girl, ( give me the pleasure of your company 
 at dinner to-night at seven, on the flagship ? I wish, 
 Miss Leigh, to have a little business talk with Mr. 
 Blackburne and you.' 
 
 Miss Langstaff excused herself and her brother, 
 but Hester and I accepted ; and Hester added that 
 as she was staying with Mrs. Peek she must ask that 
 lady. 
 
 'Oh/ said Admiral Carey, 'Iain just on my way 
 to call on her, and as I wish particularly to talk busi- 
 ness to you both, I will take it on me to answer for 
 her, and, if possible, to get her to come too. I shall 
 send my barge for you at six forty-five.' 
 
 He then said good-bye, and we three continued our 
 walk to the landing-slip. 
 
 On board the schooner we found Christopher Lang-
 
 196 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 staff hard at work, and looking much better in 
 health. 
 
 He came below with us, and we four sat solemnly 
 round the little cabin table, while Hester told Alf 
 to get afternoon tea ready. 
 
 ( Langstaff,' I said, ' we have just come from 
 settling whether to hang about these islands seeking 
 a freight, and then return to Sydney, or to 
 complete the original plan of the voyage and sail 
 for the guano island. We have decided on the 
 latter plan, contingent on our finding a mate and 
 a crew. 
 
 ( I have not before asked you what your plans 
 were, but I took it that you would probably come to 
 Sydney with us. Now, however, we won't go there 
 for some time. You have been in fore-and-afters. 
 What do you say ? Will you come the round trip 
 with us as mate ? ' 
 
 ' What do you say, Dorothy ? ' asked the young 
 man, as he looked at his handsome sister. ' And 
 where do you come in ? ' 
 
 'Oh! I come in right here,' replied his sister, 
 1 for I believe I originated Mr. Blackburne's pro- 
 position. (Oh, Hess, what a fraud you must have 
 been !) You know, Chris, I don't want to go back 
 to Portland for some time. I am ready to stay away 
 quite awhile yet, and and well, what's the use of 
 giving reasons ? I want to go to the island with 
 our friends, and that's the end of it.' 
 
 ' All right, Sis ! ' replied her brother, after hang- 
 ing in the wind for a minute. ' But what about our 
 folks nt home ?'
 
 CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA 197 
 
 ' I think, dear/ said she, ' that both father and 
 mother will be satisfied when I write fully about the 
 matter. Even if I went to 'Frisco by the Mariposa 
 I could not go East right away. They understand 
 that. Therefore I might as well be here as in 
 California. We'll write by next mail, and they will 
 hear everything at once.' 
 
 To make a long story short, Langstaff agreed to 
 come as mate. His sister was to accompany us as 
 Hester's guest. It was an arrangement which none 
 of us had cause to regret. 
 
 Young Langstaff soon got quite well. He was a 
 fine seaman, a good navigator, and a well-bred gentle- 
 manly fellow. He was, too, a man who could look 
 after himself and enforce discipline, but anything 
 more unlike the ' Bucko Mate ' of Yankee ships, 
 who keeps his crew more or less terrorised by boot 
 or knuckle-duster, could hardly be imagined. 
 
 Talking of ' Bucko mates,' I remember, when a 
 lad, playing a football match at Port Adelaide in 
 which the players were all officers or apprentices of 
 sailing ships then in port. The Yankees turned up 
 in half Wellingtons, or sea boots, and didn't they 
 wade-in in a scrimmage ! 
 
 I bear the marks on my shins to this day of a 
 hack I got from the gigantic mate of a smart 
 Yankee barque. After the play was over, or had 
 been stopped by the police 1 forget which this 
 pirate came up and clapped me on the back 
 
 ' Say, kiddie, did I kick you some ? ' asked the 
 Bucko ruffian, whose heart, perhaps after all, was 
 as big as his fist or his boot.
 
 193 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I looked at him with evil in my eye, for the 
 carnage had been great, and at least two broken 
 limbs had resulted among the players. 
 
 ' Yes, I should think you did ! I've got no skin 
 left/ I answered. 
 
 ' Well, sonny/ said he, ' you come along o* me. 
 The old man's ashore, and you kin have a square 
 feed on aour packet. I know you damned " lime- 
 juicers " have nothing fit to eat. Come and see if 
 good crackers and maple syrup will help grow new 
 leather/ 
 
 I went, and forgot my resentment against his 
 boots in the enjoyment of a capital meal. But to 
 return to the Pandora and Miss Langstaff. I des- 
 cribed her good looks a little while ago; well, her 
 heart and mind matched them. She and Hester 
 drifted soon into a fast friendship, which weeks of 
 ocean voyaging only deepened. 
 
 Finally, as I shall tell you, the coming of the 
 Americans with us was ultimately the means of 
 bringing a good deal of pecuniary compensation to 
 the owners of the Marion C. Colborne for the loss of 
 their vessel. 
 
 Thus, on the same day on which we decided to 
 seek the island, was the difficulty of a mate over- 
 come, and Hester enabled to continue her voyage 
 in the schooner, as the two girls agreed to chap- 
 eron each other, I being thereby made supremely 
 happy in the thought that there need be no separa- 
 tion from my dearest. 
 
 No doubt Mrs. Grundy would be shocked. But, 
 as Miss Langstaff cheerfully suggested, ' that lady
 
 CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA 199 
 
 fell overboard as soon as a vessel crossed the 
 Equator going south, so we needn't worry too much 
 over the opinions of persons deceased/ 
 
 The difficulty of getting a crew alone remained. 
 
 The advent of tea and the boy put an end to 
 serious talk. Alf Nash was evidently suffering from 
 conversational starvation. Miss Langstaff, who, one 
 could see, possessed no small share of the quickness 
 and humour of the American, found him as enter- 
 taining as Hester did. And, as time went on, I 
 often discovered her drawing out the little rogue, 
 who presently became her absolute slave as much as 
 he had long been Hester's. 
 
 After the tea had been poured out and handed 
 round, Alf took his place on the bottom rung of the 
 companion steps, standing with all the gravity of a 
 footman. But his grotesque appearance gave an 
 indescribably funny aspect to his attitude. 
 
 ' Alf ! How have you been getting along since 
 we went ashore ? ' asked Hester. 
 
 'Very ordinary, Miss. Very ordinary. Feels 
 kind of 'omesick, I does/ said ho. 
 
 ' Homesick, Alf/ said Miss Langstaff, ' for what ? ' 
 
 ' I doesn't rightly know meself, lydy. Per'aps it's 
 for my mother and my 'appy 'ome ; per'aps it ain't. 
 I feels dull somehow, since the wessel got in here. 
 That 'ipped and derpressed, as I 'ears a bloke say 
 when he lost his mother-in-law.' 
 
 1 Your mother is alive, Alf, isn't she ? ' asked Miss 
 Langstaff. 
 
 ' Yus, miss, she are/ replied Alf. 
 
 ' I hope you are always kind to her/ continued his 
 fair catechist.
 
 200 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' Suttinly I am. Ketch me turning dorg on 'er. 
 My oath, she's been real good to me. Orfen took a 
 lickin' from the old man to save my bloomin' 'ide. I 
 tells 'er one d'y that she wur always in the 'ight of 
 fashion. " 'Ow's that ? " says she. " Why, mother," 
 I says, "you're in 'arf mournin'." 
 
 ( The fact was the old man 'ad bunged hup 'er 
 right eye proper the night before. 
 
 1 She larfs. But it wur only on one side o' 'er 
 mouth. A 'arf larf, I colls it. Yus, miss, I'll be 
 kind to 'er I'll graft for 'er all right.' 
 
 'Did you ever think of marrying, Nash ?' I 
 questioned, for the boy amused me greatly, not so 
 much for what he said, but the look, the manner, and 
 the unreproducible accent gave his simplest speech a 
 drollness which was often not in keeping with his 
 conversation. Also, his views of life, I assure you, 
 not seldom contained sad home truths gleaned from 
 the field of a hard experience. 
 
 Alf looked at me, and lifted his left eyelid with his 
 left thumb, and disclosed a dark, beady, merry eye, 
 which gazed out on a world which no doubt had 
 treated him hardly enough at times. He squinted a 
 little, and the action and his expression were in- 
 describably comical. 
 
 ' Not immediately, sir,' he replied, after a moment's 
 thought, ' I won't go for to say that I've swore horf 
 it altogether. For hiustance, if the only darter of a 
 Hamericaii inillyenair insisted, I might 'ave to look 
 into the matter.' 
 
 ' Wouldn't you like to have a home of your own 
 to go to ? ' asked Hester.
 
 CONCERNING OUR STAY IN APIA 201 
 
 ' Well, I dunno,' said the boy. ' There's 'omes and 
 'omes, ye see ! I dursay it's all right among the 
 torfs. But when there's only two rooms, and ten 
 kids, mostly twins, lydy, it ain't allus too easy to keep 
 the peace. Specially come Saturday night, and a 
 skin full o' booze ! Now, in our street, I thinks 
 'usbands and wives seems to like each other best arter 
 one of 'em's gone.' 
 
 ( Gone ! ' interrupted Miss Langstaff ; ' what do 
 you mean by that ? ' 
 
 ' Croaked, jugged,* or cleared hout, whichever 
 you likes, Miss. Wy, among our push a funeral is 
 a reg'lar fust class 'oliday for the neighbours. And 
 an inquitch ! My oath, lydy, it's a real treat.' Alf 
 paused, and then continued : 
 
 ' This will tell yer 'ow some wimmin takes their 
 'usbands croakin'. 
 
 ' One night 1 goes hup to the 'orspital to see a 
 cove I knowed. Come from Cobar, 'e did. 'E was 
 dyiu' ; and the 'ouse-doctor sends a wire that mornin' 
 up country to 'is missus tcllin' her so, and expectin' 
 'er to start down. My oath ! Think she come ? Not 
 much ! But the cove 'isself gets a wire from 'er : 
 
 " If you die, be sure you are buried by the Hodd- 
 fellows ! " 
 
 I seen the telegraft meself. That'll tell yer now ! 
 No ! ' added Alf emphatically, ' i aint in a 'urry to 
 keep another man's darter. It's 'ard enough to 
 keep meself. I don't want no donah just at present.' 
 
 Such, then, were the sentiments of Alf Nash on 
 the institution of marriage. From his point of view 
 * Imprisoned.
 
 202 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 of life I suspect there was ample justification for 
 their pessimistic character. 
 
 ( Good gracious ! ' said Hester, looking at the 
 clock, ' do you see what time it is ? I must fly 
 to prepare for the feast ! I shall not clothe myself 
 in shining apparel. But I certainly cannot go as I 
 am, and the change takes time. Please put us 
 ashore.'
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE ADMIRAL'S DINNER AND HIS 
 OFFER TO US 
 
 T^HE dinner on board the flagship was a very 
 
 quiet one. Mrs. Peek and her husband, the 
 
 Admiral, a lieutenant, a globe-trotting member of 
 
 Parliament, and his daughter, with Hester and 
 
 myself, made up the party. 
 
 After dinner the others went on deck, our host 
 saying, f l wish to talk business to these two young 
 people. We shall join you presently.' 
 
 We went into another cabin, and the Admiral, 
 producing a chart of the Paci6c Ocean, said, ' Show 
 me the position of your Guano Island.' 
 
 I bent over the table and pointed to the spot of 
 ocean. The Admiral marked it with a pencil. He 
 then pricked off the distance from a certain meri- 
 dian, and reflectively tapped his chin with the 
 dividers. 
 
 ' What steps did your father take, Miss Leigh, to 
 secure this island for his own use and benefit ? ' he 
 next asked. 
 
 1 I cannot tell you exactly/ replied Hester. ' But 
 
 203
 
 204 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 I know he was well advised legally, and that what- 
 ever formalities were necessary, he complied with 
 them, both as regards the Government of New 
 South Wales and the Imperial authorities.' 
 
 ' That is well/ was the reply. ' For annexing 
 islands privately is ticklish work so far as fixity of 
 tenure goes. I don't suppose the Torrens Act 
 applies to that side of the Pacific.' He chuckled, 
 but Hester didn't understand what he meant. I 
 had been long enough iu the colonies to know 
 what an excellent hold a ' Torrens Title ' gives. 
 Thus I dropped to his meaning at once. 
 
 The Admiral remained silent for a few moments and 
 then continued : 
 
 ' According to the position you lay it down in, your 
 island lies without the limits of my Station. But 
 under the circumstances I think I shall not exceed my 
 duty if I act as if it were within the boundaries of the 
 Australian command. I have therefore an offer to 
 make to you. 
 
 ' Your island,' he went on to say, whilst we won- 
 dered what was coming, ' is, you tell me, an uncharted 
 one ; indeed, 1 see and know that it is so. Therefore, 
 the sooner its position is known and laid down with 
 certainty the better. 
 
 ' Suppose I make use of your vessel, and send an 
 officer with you to fix its latitude and longitude and 
 make a rough survey. You want a crew. I'll let you 
 keep the four men you borrowed from the Albatross 
 and you can ship a couple of Kanakas here, if you 
 wish. What do you say to my plan ? Can you take 
 the survey party ? And on what terms ? '
 
 THE ADMIRAL'S DINNER 205 
 
 Hester and I looked at each other. The difficulty 
 of a crew would be more than half solved by this 
 arrangement. 
 
 ' I'll accept your offer at once, sir/ I replied ; ' and 
 I am glad to do so. I will take it partly as a com- 
 mand if I may.' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Hester, ( if my father were here I know 
 that he would like your kind offer. And as for terms 
 why ! Dick ! ' she broke off, f we don't want any 
 terms ! Do we ? If you give us the use of your 
 sailors, your Excellency, we will gladly pay them. 
 And we will be delighted to take your officer as our 
 guest.' 
 
 The Admiral laughed as he answered 
 
 'You are evidently green hands at Government 
 transport work. It's quite refreshing to do business 
 in this fashion. I must, however, have some sort of 
 an agreement drawn up. But its basis shall be that 
 I give you a crew to work your schooner in return for 
 their passage and the service rendered to Her Majesty's 
 Government. I'll either leave you the four men you 
 got at Pandora Island, or give you others equally good 
 and accustomed to fore-and-aft craft. A lieutenant 
 will go down with you of course. How will that suit 
 you?' 
 
 ' Excellently, sir,' I said. ' There is only one other 
 matter. If I can, I intend to fill the schooner up 
 with guano as a sample cargo and perhaps put up 
 some staging for working the deposit.' 
 
 ' I quite see what you mean/ agreed tho Admiral. 
 ' The men shall be told that they will have to work 
 car of o.'
 
 206 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' Thanks ! ' I replied. ' We are perfectly willing to 
 give the current wages to the blue jackets in addition 
 to what the Imperial Government wages may be.' 
 
 ' Good heavens ! ' said His Excellency, ' if that offer 
 gets about I'll have the fleet unmanned in the rush 
 for a gilded trip of this sort. You may do as you see 
 fit about any extra payment, but I require none. And 
 it must be a purely voluntary act of generosity on 
 your part. I therefore make no such stipulation. You 
 people are doing the Government as good a turn as 
 the Government is doing you. My secretary shall 
 draw up the agreement to-morrow.' 
 
 ' By-the-by/ he added as we thanked him, ' I spent 
 three months in the Chincha Islands when I was a 
 midshipman, and I know something about guano. 
 I'm going to lend you a kind of drill (Wentworth, 
 who will go with you, knows all about its working) 
 used in finding the depths of soft strata. By its use 
 you will be able to gauge how horribly rich you are 
 going to become. Now come on deck and I'll intro- 
 duce your future shipmate to you.' 
 
 As we left the cabin he said, ' His name is Went- 
 worth. He has been surveying for the last few years, 
 and is a capital officer and a man both of you will 
 like. I envy him his luck. The rogue ! A yachting 
 voyage, and two charming girls to talk to.' 
 
 He gave Hester a kindly little pat and added with 
 a sigh : 
 
 ' Ah, dear me ! what would one not give to put the 
 clock back five- and- twenty years ? ' 
 
 We went on deck, and the Admiral, calling the 
 ruddy-faced officer who had been our fellow-guest at 
 dinner, said to him :
 
 THE ADMIRAL'S DINNER 207 
 
 1 Went worth, I have a little surprise for you. I 
 have asked Miss Leigh and Mr. Blackburne to take 
 you with them to fix the position and make a rough 
 survey of an uncharted island which is their 
 property, and of which they are going to take posses- 
 sion.' 
 
 The lieutenant certainly looked astonished. But 
 he replied promptly : 
 
 ' Very good, sir ! When do you wish me to be 
 ready ? ' 
 
 ( In a day or two, I think. You will get your 
 instructions to-morrow/ 
 
 Several officers had joined the others, and the con- 
 versation became general. We discussed Cronje's 
 surrender, and the relief of Ladysmith and Mafeking, 
 all happy news to us whom the silence and isolation 
 of the ocean had shut in for several months. On 
 board a man-of-war distance from home vanishes. It 
 is a bit of Old England wherever the ship may be. 
 Presently the band began to play a well-known air, 
 and Mr. Upton, a strangely intelligent man for a 
 member of Parliament, aptly quoted Kipling : 
 
 You may take hold on the wings of the morning, 
 And flop round the world till you're dead ; 
 But you can't get away from the tunes that they play 
 To the blooming old rag overhead. 
 
 The conversation naturally was on little else than 
 South African affairs. I was deeply interested, for I 
 had once spent several months at the front during 
 one of our little *vars, and knew something of the 
 country, and a little about the Boers. 
 
 Everyone seemed to think pretty much alike on the
 
 208 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 subject, and especially, that brave as our army was, 
 it needed a lot of reformation and reorganisation, and 
 I thoroughly agreed with what the captain of one of 
 the cruisers said : 
 
 ' A naval war will find out our weak spots, and 
 there will be lots of them. But they won't be of the 
 same kind which mildew the army. 
 
 ' The British soldier, whether he be a " Tommy " or 
 an officer, isn't caught as young as we sailors are. 
 He isn't trained in the same practical way. Our 
 people are learning how to fight from the Boers, and 
 to unlearn a lot of obsolete foolishness. But, Heavens, 
 how we have had to pay for the education ! ' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Wentworth, ' if we in the Navy, or you 
 people in the Merchant Service, hit anything harder 
 than salt water, there's a court martial or an inquiry, 
 and somebody gets in the soup. But one reads of all 
 sorts of mistakes in this war, and never hears who's 
 to blame. It's " a regrettable incident," and there's 
 the end of it.' 
 
 1 You will see,' said the member of Parliament, 
 1 that there will be a searching inquiry when the show 
 is finished. It's no use saying too much just now, 
 and making too many changes. " Swapping horses 
 when you're crossing a creek " isn't a very good plan.' 
 
 1 Oh/ remarked his daughter, ' you politicians 
 always say what fine improving things you will do. 
 But you know, father, that nothing ever is done. 
 We British always begin everything by making a 
 mess.' 
 
 ' Heaven knows,' replied her father, ' we have 
 marie plenty of messes in South Africa, not only
 
 THE ADMIRAL'S DINNER 209 
 
 military but political. The only consolation I can 
 give myself is that the French or Germans would 
 probably have done just as badly. It's no joke to 
 move an army there. And think, too, of the unpaid 
 army of spies which the unfriendly population of 
 Dutch are, even within the Cape Colony itself. I know 
 them well.' 
 
 ' Do you ? ' I asked. ' I suppose, then, that you 
 must have lived among them.' 
 
 ( I lived six years in South Africa the Cape, 
 Transvaal, and Bechuanaland. I know, therefore, 
 something of the Boer character, both for good and 
 evil. The thing which worries me more than any- 
 thing else is an incident like Cronje's surrender. It 
 was, I think, most unnecessary to treat a man with 
 the record of Cronje with the stately courtesy which 
 would be the just due of some chivalrous foe. Such 
 consideration is thrown away and misunderstood. 
 Leniency, just now, is construed by the Boers into 
 weakness. You will see it will only prolong the war.' 
 
 When you hear sentiments exactly your own 
 coming from someone else, you easily regard the 
 speaker as a person of superior discernment. Such 
 was my attitude towards this politician. 
 
 From the Imperial soldier and his deficiencies the 
 conversation drifted into the defence of Australia. 
 I listened to the various views, especially when Mr. 
 Peek, who was an Australian, gave his opinion. 
 
 ' Yes/ he said to the Admiral, ' I don't believe in 
 universal disarmament. We're not holy enough for 
 that yet in this world. War is a good moral tonic 
 for everyone; it teaches that best form of public
 
 210 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 unselfishness, the virtue of patriotism. I don't want 
 to see us become a nation of land-grabbing fili- 
 busters, but I rejoice in what the colonies are doing 
 for the Empire. We have been too comfortable in 
 Australia ; our success has come too easy ; we are 
 too fond of pleasure, too materialistic ; we require 
 the chastening hand of war and trouble at our 
 doors. I don't want to see a standing army. But 
 I want to see every young colonial taught to ride 
 and shoot, and to undergo a certain amount of 
 common sense training. Let us be as able to defend 
 ourselves as the Boers are ; we can do so without 
 damaging a lad's civil career or making him think 
 of nothing but military schemes.' 
 
 ( Ay,' said the Admiral, ' and I hope you are not 
 going to forget, Mr. Peek, that you have a sea- 
 board to defend. I wish I heard more of Australian 
 boys going to sea. I don't believe in the whole of 
 the Australian Squadron you will find thirty Aus- 
 tralian-born men. I wish I could see a way to alter 
 this. The adventurous spirit of colonial boys does 
 not seem to find an outlet in seafaring. I wish to 
 goodness it did ! However, I am hopeful that this 
 business in South Africa will make a change, and 
 that some sort of military and naval training will be 
 originated from the British people themselves rather 
 than from any act of forced legislation.' 
 
 It was now getting late, and Mrs. Peek rose to 
 go. The boat put me on board the Pandora, while 
 the others landed at the slip. I smoked a pipe with 
 Langstaff while we listened to the erratic singing of 
 some slightly sober individuals on board a schooner 
 moored near us. We then turned in.
 
 THE ADMIRAL'S DINNER 211 
 
 The following morning I set about the prepara- 
 tions for our departure. The cabins were cleaned 
 out and repainted, and I saw to the accommodation 
 required for Miss Langstaff, her brother, and Lieu- 
 tenant Wentworth. The forecastle was also made 
 glorious with fresh paint and a couple of ventilators. 
 
 I shipped two Kanakas, both good sailormen, on 
 the understanding that if I wished, they were to 
 remain on the island until ships arrived to load guano. 
 
 Christopher Langstaff was, I found, a smart hand, 
 who, like many Down-East sailors, seemed to me 
 to be as good with an adze as with a marline-spike. 
 During the next few days our preparations went 
 on with unabated vigour. Hester paid a mysterious 
 visit on board to make ready for ' people coming 
 to stay/ as she put it. She was accompanied by a 
 young person from a large store in the town, bear- 
 ing various burdens. I never saw a woman so full 
 of hostess-like anxiety to make her guests comfort- 
 able. Dorothy Langstaff was to share the starboard 
 after-cabin with her. This room required very little 
 alteration, as it was already fitted with two berths. 
 Still, Hester contrived to give a few new touches to 
 it, so that the American girl, when she came on board, 
 would find that something fresh had been added for 
 her comfort. When Miss Leigh had finished with 
 her room she went into mine. 
 
 1 Are you ready to carry your things from here to 
 your new cabin ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' What for?' I asked, a little astonished. ' Alf 
 cleared everything out two days ago, and it is newly 
 painted as you see.'
 
 212 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' But you/ said Hester, ( are going into my father's 
 room, aren't you ? Of course you are I don't wish 
 anyone else to occupy it.' 
 
 She looked so set on this arrangement, and I knew 
 well that she wanted no stranger to live in a room 
 where her father had lived, that I didn't like refusing 
 her. Still, I thought that Wentworth should have it. 
 
 1 Look here, Hess/ I said at last. ' It's this way. 
 This man is our guest. Besides which he must have 
 some place where he can do his chart work. He will 
 be certain to bring some gear with him : a couple of 
 chronometers, an artificial horizon, a theodolite, and 
 so forth and we must stow them somewhere. There's 
 no room in here. If I take the after cabin he'll think 
 he's intruding every time he comes in to work. No, 
 no, we'll put his chronometers alongside of ours and 
 give him the after room.' 
 
 ' Well, Dick/ she agreed, ' I suppose I must obey 
 you. But I didn't wish him to have it. Anyway I'll 
 fix up yours. Away you go on deck ! and don't come 
 back till I give you leave.' 
 
 When I did return I went into all the cabins, and 
 Hess took me round to see her handiwork. The rooms 
 looked marvellously cosy. Art serge pockets on the 
 walls of each, new curtains in my room and in young 
 Langstaff's, a tidy little drop-table in each, and one 
 or two bookcases ; and even a rack for the girls' 
 violins and Wentworth's banjo. 
 
 ' Have I done well ? ' she inquired, looking expec- 
 tantly at me. 'Now praise me, dear for I really love 
 looking at the rooms myself. Do you think they will 
 like them ? I do so want to make them comfortable.'
 
 THE ADMIRAL'S DINNER 213 
 
 ' You have done wonderfully well, dearest/ I replied, 
 ' and if they are not pleased, they deserve to be made 
 to listen to a parliamentary debate as a penance for 
 their sin. Now I must be off to work again.' 
 
 ' So must I/ replied Hess. ' Mrs. Peek is waiting 
 for me in the big German store. Send Alf to scull 
 me ashore/ 
 
 The following morning Lieutenant Wentworth came 
 on board. 
 
 He was a merry, pleasant-faced sailor, with a tanned 
 complexion and lots of thick chestnut hair. Imagine 
 1 Bubbles ' grown up, and you have his appearance in 
 a word. 
 
 He came to talk over various matters with me, and 
 I found him a business-like fellow. He brought all 
 his traps with him, and I showed him his room. 
 
 ' But am I " jumping your claim ? " ' he said, ' for, 
 if so, I shall be most unhappy. Any berth will do 
 for me and not this boudoir.' 
 
 ' It's all right/ I answered, ' Miss Leigh and I wish 
 you to have this berth. You would have to stow your 
 gear somewhere, and this is the best place. So here 
 you shall stop.' 
 
 ' Well, I do it under protest and I must make my 
 peace with Miss Leigh afterwards, for I'm sure she 
 must dislike a stranger having her father's cabin/ 
 
 I left him to arrange his things. Later on he came 
 on deck, and we had a yarn together on various 
 subjects. ' I think we'll be a happy party/ I finally 
 said. 
 
 1 I'm very sure of it/ replied he, heartily, as he went 
 over the side.
 
 214 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' By the way/ I sang out, ' you might call at Mrs. 
 Peek's and tell Miss Leigh that I cannot leave the 
 vessel to-night; there is too much to do. You might 
 also bring the two ladies off to-morrow about ten. 
 I expect we shall sail at noon.' 
 
 I saw him look surprised when I said ' two ladies/ 
 but his boat was now out of speaking distance, so 
 nothing further was said. 
 
 Our four sailors and the two Kanakas were on 
 board, and had settled themselves once more in the 
 little forecastle. A fine handy whaleboat was sent 
 by the Admiral to be used during the survey. We, 
 therefore, had now three boats altogether. 
 
 That evening I finished a very full account of 
 our strange voyage, and of our plans for the future, 
 which I intended mailing to Mr. Eawlinson, Captain 
 Leigh's agent in Sydney, of whom I have already 
 spoken. To this Hester added a further letter to 
 his wife, telling her of our engagement. 
 
 The Langstaffs had also written fully to their 
 people. 
 
 All was now ready, and I sent a note to the 
 Admiral, saying that we wished to sail on the 
 following day.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 WE SAIL FOR LEIGH ISLAND 
 
 IV /TORNING came and about ten o'clock I saw a 
 man-of-war's boat leaving the landing place. 
 She was quickly alongside the Pandora. Mrs. Peek 
 and her husband were with the two girls. They had 
 come to see us sail. Humphrey Wentworth was also 
 in the boat. 
 
 I had almost forgotten two other passengers cats 
 which Hester had brought. One was a very good 
 Persian, the other a less aristocratic animal. I do 
 not know that they ' earned their tucker/ for we had 
 made a pretty clean sweep of all the rodents in the 
 ship ; but it contented us to think we were armed with 
 an additional safeguard against rats, if any had 
 escaped destruction. 
 
 The ladies went below, and from the delighted 
 exclamations which came up the open companion I 
 judged that Hester was showing her guests the 
 changes in the cabins, and that they were approved of. 
 
 Hester has less vanity than any woman I know, 
 and more justification for it, in my opinion; neverthe- 
 less, she has a little. And I now knew the point of 
 
 215
 
 216 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 glorification on which she was absolutely pleased with 
 herself. I chaffed her upon it that very evening 
 when we got clear of the land. Her reply was, like 
 herself, frank and honest. 
 
 ' I acknowledge/ she said, ' that I am conceited 
 about the matter. I know I can make a room look 
 pretty. If I was penniless to-morrow, I'm certain I 
 could earn my living at dressing either shop windows 
 or silly women.' 
 
 But to return to the schooner. The wind was fair, 
 and we needed no help in getting out of the harbour. 
 I confess, too, that I was anxious to show the critical 
 eyes of the fleet how smartly we could get under 
 weigh. 
 
 The good-byes were spoken ; Hester kissed Mrs. 
 Peek and thanked her for all her motherly kindness. 
 And I also told her how grateful I was for her hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 ' Yes, and see you deserve the girl you have won. 
 You are the luckiest of men/ said the old lady as she 
 concluded some kindly admonitions to me. 
 
 As our visitors descended the side, calling out their 
 last good-byes, I sang out to ' man the windlass/ 
 
 In the Royal Navy they do not sing when on heavy 
 work ; but in our little ship both Langstaff and Martin 
 were past masters in the knowledge of ' chanties;' 
 nor were the Kanakas ignorant of this music. The 
 harbour, therefore, soon re-echoed to the sounds of 
 one of the best of all sailors' songs ' Shenandoah.' 
 The blue jackets quickly joined in the refrain as if 
 they had been accustomed to get their anchor by it 
 all their lives. Out across the little port broke the
 
 WE SAIL FOR LEIGH ISLAND 217 
 
 sound of their singing as link by link the chain 
 came in 
 
 Oh, Shenandor ! I love your daughter, 
 
 A' way you rolling river. 
 
 Oh, Shenandor ! I long to hear you 
 
 Across the wild Missouri. 
 
 Oh, Shenandor ! I'll ne'er forget you, 
 A'way you rolling river. 
 Till the day I die I'll love you ever, 
 Across the wild Missouri. 
 
 And so on, verse after verse, repeated till we 
 were under weigh. 
 
 The words of these songs may often be poor stuff, 
 or even actually silly ; but sung on a ship's forecastle, 
 or when the drenched watch are tailing on to a 
 halliard up to their waists in water, they seem to me 
 to be full of meaning. The hidden language of the 
 sea keeps calling in every hoarse chorus and quaint 
 reiteration. I declare I never listen to these songs 
 without my heart stirring. It seems only yesterday 
 since I heard one for the first time on a certain day 
 in February. It was ' Rio Grande/ and we were 
 getting our anchor outward bound on a long voy- 
 age: 
 
 Then fare ye well, my bonny fair maid, 
 We are bound to the Rio Grande. 
 
 The wild despairing note of the hoarse voices, the 
 click of the pawls, the clank of the chain, and the 
 thunderous flap of loosened canvas away aloft in the 
 obscurity of a winter's morning in the Downs, made 
 up a memory which never loses its vividness or its 
 pathos; at least is this the case with anyone who 
 knows the inner life of the sailing ship with its curious
 
 218 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 interests, its strange monotony, its unrecorded hard- 
 ships. And the hopeless outlook in the lives of the 
 homely bent figures who 'man these shuttles of an 
 Empire's loom/ and, unrewarded and neglected, so 
 largely help to weave the fabric of our national 
 greatness, lends an added emphasis to the scene. 
 
 Canvas was soon upon the schooner, and dipping 
 our ensign we quickly got outside the harbour thus 
 for the third time making a start to reach our original 
 objective. 
 
 Langstaff and I picked the watches. When we had 
 finished Went worth came up to me. 
 
 ' Look here, Blackburne,' said he, ' I am no fonder 
 of keeping a lookout than other people, and I've had 
 a good dose of it lately, for I've been in schooners 
 over three years right on end. But I don't want to 
 be an idler while you and Langstaff work. Suppose 
 you let me stand a watch ? You're skipper, and you 
 can turn in all night.' 
 
 ' It's awfully good of you,' I answered, ' to make so 
 kind an offer. But I could not dream of accepting it. 
 We look on you as our guest, and guests don't do the 
 housework, dear boy.' 
 
 He looked positively disappointed, and I saw he 
 was in earnest. 
 
 1 Well,' he said, ' suppose you make three watches 
 of officers and let me stand one of them.' 
 
 ' Good,' I replied; 'if you really wish it, I'll agree. 
 But it's not fair getting you to do duty.' 
 
 ' Not at all,' he replied. ' I wish to be of use. The 
 arrangement will give us all more leisure and make 
 the passage a pleasant one.'
 
 WE SAIL FOR LEIGH ISLAND 219 
 
 The matter was therefore arranged in the above 
 fashion. 
 
 I don't remember a happier little party than that 
 which met at our evening meal the first night out. 
 The table had the glory of the land upon it, tropical 
 flowers and fruits, arranged by the two girls, till Alf 
 gasped in admiration. 
 
 ' A Town 'All Banguitch ain't in it along o' this set 
 out,' he exclaimed. 
 
 After tea we went on deck. Hester and I went 
 forward and leant against the rail opposite the main 
 rigging. We were tired with the events and excite- 
 ments of the day, and remained silent and happy, 
 while the surpassing beauty of the sunset held us 
 tongue-tied. 
 
 ' God's bright and intricate device ' of times and 
 seasons, as Stevenson finely says, glorifies the 
 homeliest landscape, and equally so the beginning 
 and ending of a day at sea are full of beauty. I never 
 weary of their manifold wonders. 
 
 It is at these times that one beholds a new heaven 
 and a new earth. The cares and labours which fill 
 the day are either not yet or, in the dog-watch, are 
 forgotten for a little. 
 
 I think early recollections last most strongly I 
 know, in my case, they do. All the physical wonders 
 and sights of the sea which last as mental pictures 
 are those impressed on my brain in the earlier part of 
 my career. 
 
 I carry in my memory as one of these first recollec- 
 tions of my sea life the deep impression made by the 
 glory of a certain sunset. Such a sunset as Hester
 
 220 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 and I were then gazing upon. My ship was in the 
 North-east Trades, and they were light and the day 
 had been hot. I had been engaged in blacking down 
 the chain topsail sheets with coal tar, and a liberal 
 application of slush (salt dripping) had got me clean 
 in a blistered piebald sort of way. 
 
 I went out on the jibboom and was trying to catch 
 fish and failing to do so. 
 
 The carpenter, an intelligent but uneducated man, 
 came out after me to suggest improvements in my 
 methods of fishing. 
 
 The azure concave dome above us was still glorious 
 with moving islands of white cloud. Away down 
 towards the western horizon these white clouds had 
 taken on half a dozen marvellous shades of delicate 
 pink, while here and there, close to the now rapidly 
 sinking sun, their edging was a broad band of 
 resplendent gold. 
 
 The day had lost the fervour of its earlier hours, a 
 cool breeze blew, and the swish of parted water made 
 our airy swaying perch resonant with pleasant sounds. 
 Over us were the arched jibs, yearning as if towards 
 some invisible beckoning hand. 
 
 Behind us came the noble ship, heeling and bowing 
 with stately slowness her sails like carven marble, 
 asleep from lofty skysail down to the ample bosoms of 
 the courses. 
 
 The great glowing sun was already on the sea-rim ; 
 swiftly it dipped, and with its disappearance the royal 
 edging of the clouds took paler tints ; the deep colour 
 of the blue vault above us became a more delicate 
 hue, and in the East we could see a large low planet

 
 WE SAIL FOR LEIGH ISLAND 221 
 
 beginning to show out of the gathering darkness. 
 Night had begun upon the ocean. 
 
 Just as Hester and I, on this later evening, stood 
 silent and entranced, so, in that earlier day did this 
 ' vision splendid ' impress the carpenter and me. 
 
 The silence was at last broken by my companion's 
 voice : 
 
 ' Ever 'eard of a bloke called Ruskin ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' You mean a chap who wrote about pictures ? * 
 said I. 
 
 < That's the bloke,' said ' Chips.' ' 'E makes me 
 both angry and happy. 'E's a wonder. 'Ow 'e points 
 out the innards o' things ! And Lord ! 'ow well 'e 
 does it ! All such beautiful things as we've been 
 a-lookin' at just now. 'E tells you what to look for 
 and then, blarst 'im, if 'e 'asn't the damned cheek 
 to talk as if ord'nary common coves like you and mo 
 'adn't enough savvy in us to admire to happreciate 
 I think 'e calls it a sight like this here sunset. 
 Curse his imperence ! ' 
 
 This carpenter swore picturesquely, got drunk 
 whenever he could, and did a lot of other things he 
 shouldn't do. But he read Ruskin and knew many 
 things, even his own trade. Well done, Chips ! 
 
 But to return to the deck of the Pandora. 
 
 Our long silence was broken by the sound of eight 
 bells ; and Hester said good-night and went below. 
 
 It was rather a long journey to the island. If the 
 reader will look at the track-chart it will be seen that 
 we did not go straight from Samoa to our port. In a 
 sailing vessel this would have been impossible. The 
 best and indeed the only way was to stand south-
 
 222 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ward after leaving Apia right across the South-East 
 Trades, close-hauled throughout on the port tack. 
 When we got beyond the limit, of these winds we 
 looked to pick up westerlies to enable us to run down 
 the easting before we again turned north for the 
 island this time, of course, on the starboard tack, 
 and in the S.E. Trades once more towards the end of 
 the passage. 
 
 As a matter of fact I had to get south between the 
 thirty-fifth and fortieth parallels before I began to 
 make any easting. Indeed even then we were not far 
 enough to pick up good westerlies. 
 
 We made rather a slow passage and thus many days 
 passed before we saw Captain Leigh's long-sought 
 island. Still it was a very happy voyage. All hands 
 were contented, and we had on the whole very fine 
 weather. The schooner was hardly ever snugged 
 down. However, one of these few occasions on which 
 we were thus forced to shorten sail might have been 
 most disastrous in its effects. But of that later on. 
 
 The naval man and the young American were both 
 excellent seamen, and had a larger experience of fore- 
 and-aft vessels than I possessed. My mind was 
 therefore quite easy in regard to the schooner being 
 well looked after when they were in charge of the 
 deck. 
 
 The men forward settled down again very quietly 
 into sea routine. I think I told you that the Admiral 
 allowed the bluejackets lent by the Albatross to remain 
 with us. Martin Johnson was a sort of uncrowned 
 king of the forecastle, and the boy and cook the 
 court jesters.
 
 WE SAIL FOR LEIGH ISLAND 223 
 
 Alf, under the advice of the two girls, had begun 
 to study in his spare time, and could read fairly well 
 and ' do sums.' Miss Langstaff sketched prettily, and 
 did a number of pieces illustrating ship-board life. 
 She drew the boy in several of his characteristic 
 attitudes ; and he was more than ever the devoted 
 slave of Hester and the American, to whom the 
 history of his shifty, troubled life was always inter- 
 esting and often amusing. Miss Langstaff was 
 anxious to know if he had had any kind of rational 
 amusements, so one morning after he had finished his 
 work in the pantry I heard the following conversa- 
 tion : 
 
 ( Alf, you seem to have had a lot of very curious 
 experiences.' 
 
 'You bet, mam/ replied the boy, ' that I 'ave ! 
 Livin' on the game, any'ow, for the most part.' 
 
 1 1 want to know if you had any amusements ? ' 
 
 'Wot'sthat?' 
 
 ' Oh, games cricket, football, or swimming.' 
 
 'My oath! Yus, miss, I used ter go swimmin' 
 orfen. But none of them other things 'adn't no 
 time when I wus in the ricing stible. But I wus 
 what the orspital doctor called a Paitron of the 
 Dramar leastways I used ter go to the Tivoli 
 Theayter whenever I 'ad a odd tanner. Tip-top it 
 wur ! My word ! ' 
 
 ' But had you no out-of-door fun ? ' 
 
 1 Well, I dunno 'xactly abaout fun, but I knows a 
 public 'oliday and specially a review wur a good 
 chuck in fur the like o' me. 
 
 ' The missus/ he continued, ' wus arsking me yes-
 
 224 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 terday about findin' lorst dorgs, and I tells her that 
 there wus a little to be done in that line sometimes. 
 Wot with old lydies and their fat poodles a-getting 
 separated, I've several toimes earned a sprat or two 
 for bringin' them together ag'in restorin' lorst 
 proputty, ma'am. D'ye understand, lydy ? ' 
 
 And here Alf twitched his eye up and tried to 
 assume an expression of innocence quite refreshing to 
 behold. 
 
 ( But torking o' lorst dorgs/ he went on, ' minds me 
 o' a queer start I seen one review day in the Centen- 
 nial Park that's near Sydney, ma'am. Well, there 
 wus a Scotch regiment dressed in them things like 
 petticoats (savin' yer favour, lydy), I carn't mind o' 
 the nime. Well, it 'ad a band of bagpipes, d'ye see ? 
 And the coves wot wus a-blowin' of them wus struttin' 
 in front o' the rest o' the push. Gor blime me, miss, 
 like peacocks wi' two tails ! Well, there wur a chap 
 o' the nime o' Mike a bit ratty, he wur druv a 
 bottle cart fur a livin'. Struth, lydy ! 'E gets 'old 
 of a dead dorg one properly swollen hup a reg'lar 
 pisened pup and wot does 'e do ? 'E sticks the tile 
 inter 'is maouth, tucks the dorg's body under 'is arm 
 and works 'is fingers on one of the legs as if it wur a 
 kind of flute. And hoff 'e goes in front o' the regi- 
 ment a-pretendin' to pl'y the pipes on the corpse, and 
 a-makin' a dashed queer 'ummin' noise with his 
 maouth. 
 
 ' Larf ! Gawd luve ye ! it reg'lar fitched daown 
 the 'aouse ! I thort me bloomin' ribs was adrift with 
 the shakin' I give them. But the best o' the show 
 was to see the band. My oath, they was properly 
 narked, I tell yer.'
 
 WE SAIL FOR LEIGH ISLAND 225 
 
 ' Good gracious ! What a dreadful sight it must 
 have been ! Was anything done to the man ? ' said 
 Miss Langstaff, evidently somewhat shocked by this 
 unsavoury tale of the deceased dog. 
 
 ' Oh no, miss ! I reckons if them piper coves 'ad a 
 right to make a squealin' in a bag made o' dead skin 
 without the 'air on, the bottle-cart bloke 'ad a right 
 to make a row with a dead dorg with the 'air on.' 
 
 1 But you haven't told me anything much yet of 
 amusements of a constant kind a review happens 
 only rarely.' 
 
 ' That's right, miss. But ye see if ye was 'ard hup 
 fur a lark there wus allus a chance to poke borack at 
 the coppers.' 
 
 1 To poke borack at the coppers ! What in the 
 world is that ? ' 
 
 I was in my room while this talk was going on, and 
 I chuckled inwardly as this river of Sydney street 
 slang flowed from the lips of Alf into the horrified but 
 amused ears of the lively American. I judged she 
 was taking it all in for subsequent repetition, even if 
 she did suffer from a little pardonable trepidation as 
 to what the boy might say next. 
 
 ' W'y, 'utnbugging the bobbies the perlico I 
 means,' answered the young larrikin. 
 
 ' lint that must be a dangerous game, Alf. In my 
 country you have to be very civil indeed to the man 
 in blue, and he, at least in New York, is not often 
 very civil to you.' 
 
 ' Well, miss, it ain't as risky as it oughter be. Our 
 Sydney coppers does put hup with a lot, from bad 
 language to road metal, afore they runs you In'n. 
 Decent blokes some of them is, too.' 
 
 o
 
 226 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' Were you ever " run in," Alf ? ' 
 
 ' I've been run in, miss as I'll presently tell yer. 
 But never actooally put in the Big Jug I means 
 Darlin'urst Jail, in Sydney, lydy tho* I've bin orful 
 near it. 
 
 'Well, it wur this w'y,' continued Alf, on being 
 being pressed by his fair hearer : ' Some o' the Rocks 
 Push* was a'chiacking a bobby, and 'e got a bit 
 narked and went to cop 'old of a chap of the name of 
 Sullivan, a reg'lar flash cove. They 'as a bit of a 
 barney, an' things begun to look a bit ugly fur the 
 Rocks push is a bad crowd when there's blue metal 
 'andy and there's a good mob of 'em together. 
 
 'Well, as luck would 'ave it, there was a man 
 standin' by waterin' the street with a big 'ose. 
 Suddint-like a little bloke, who 'ad a runnin' from 'is 
 ear, sings out : 
 
 ( " Bobby ! Yer've got no blarsted sense ! W'y 
 doesn't yer blow yer blooming whistle ? S'elp me 
 Gawd ! I'll syringe yer ears, same as they does at the 
 'orspital, an' give yer a noo set o' brains ! " 
 
 ' With that they knocks the water-man endw'ys and 
 lets the copper 'ave the squirt full in the side o' 'is 
 'ead. My oath ! There was fun fer yer, miss, I tell 
 yer ! All the same I gets run in all right ! But I gets 
 let orf with a caution " fust hoffence," the Beak 
 called it.' 
 
 I heard Miss Langstaff's merry laugh as she went 
 on deck to Lieutenant Wentworth, who, by the way, 
 seemed to take quite a touching interest in the 
 
 * A band of larrikins of a certain district in Sydney who at one 
 time gave great trouble to the police.
 
 WE SAIL FOR LEIGH ISLAND 227 
 
 troubles of the Americans and not only in their 
 troubles ! Humphrey Wentworth was an enthusiast 
 in navigation, and there was a small nautical school 
 going on on board quite often. Hester pointed out 
 with a twinkle in her eye that Miss Langstaff was Mr. 
 Wentworth's especial pupil ' an anxious enquirer 
 after truth/ as an evangelical old lady with whom I 
 once lodged used to say. She had an elderly crony 
 who also kept boarders medical students, I fancy. 
 She once complained to my landlady of their late 
 hours and rowdy habits. ' Why don't you get them 
 to go and hear Moody and Sankey ? ' said my land- 
 lady. 
 
 1 Good gracious ! ' replied her friend, ' they are there 
 every night/ 
 
 ' la that possible ? And what do they say ? ' 
 
 ' That it's the best fun out.' 
 
 I told Hester this story and she laughed. 
 
 ' But I am more interested in the loves of Humphrey 
 and Dorothy just now than the hymns of Moody and 
 Sankey, good as they are. 
 
 1 Yes/ continued Hester, ' the sea is a most fatal 
 place for young people. They inevitably fall in love 
 or fight. Look at these two innocents ! They don't 
 know where they are. How interested I am in 
 them!' 
 
 This was said with all the seriousness of a chaperone 
 of sixty. 
 
 For myself, I confess I looked after Hester's nautical 
 education to a considerable extent. Indeed, to be 
 honest, young Langstaff informed us all four, one 
 afternoon, that he guessed he would have to begin
 
 228 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 teaching Alf Nash spiritual songs Sankey's hymns 
 for a start to keep himself from feeling lonesome.' 
 
 Hester and I laughed and didn't care ; we knew the 
 shot was a deserved one, and when we got on deck all 
 she said was : 
 
 ' If Mr. Christopher Langstaff, mate of the Pandora 
 schooner, doesn't have a mauvais quart d'heure at the 
 hands of a certain young lady, then I know nothing 
 about my own sex. And he deserves it too ! ' 
 
 But if these two young people, Wentworth and 
 Miss Langstaff, were in a fair way to fall in love, 
 something now occurred which might easily have 
 finished their budding affection for ever and a day.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 SHOWS THAT IT IS AS EASY TO FALL OVER- 
 BOARD AS TO FALL IN LOVE 
 
 passage, as I expected, was not a short one, 
 and if we had been less happily situated from a 
 social point of view, I suspect we would have found it 
 exceedingly wearisome. 
 
 As it was, however, none of us suffered from bore- 
 dom except poor Christopher Langstaff, who, in 
 common with us all, saw well enough how things were 
 going with his sister and Wentworth, and who 
 obviously was placed in a position to ' do gooseberry ' 
 chronically. 
 
 One afternoon he button-holed Hester and poured 
 forth his woes to her as indeed everyone does after 
 they have known her a short time. 
 
 ( Look you, Miss Leigh,' said he, 'I can see that 
 you four people are having a pretty fair time on this 
 packet. But I'm not I never was so lonesome in 
 my life. 
 
 ' There's Dorothy/ he continued ; ' you heard me 
 saying " I'd teach Alf hymns for something to do." 
 Well, you should have heard what she said to me 
 
 229
 
 230 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 afterwards fur flying everywhere ! I wish the " old 
 man"* would give me deck duty all day, and let 
 me turn in all night, and then I'd not feel so much as 
 if I'd been sent to Coventry.' 
 
 ' Mr. Langstaff/ replied Hester, ' I feel quite 
 ashamed of myself, and you shall not have to com- 
 plain of being left out in the cold any more/ 
 
 ' Well, you're a brick, Miss Leigh/ said Langstaff. 
 ' I've got a good nerve, I know, to howl to you as I've 
 done. But Dot's too bossy for me to tackle ! And 
 she's not in a frame of mind to look at things right 
 here in a usual way. Now, is she ?' 
 
 Hester laughed as she said : 
 
 ' Well, Mr. Christopher, Fam not going to express 
 an opinion, so you needn't question me. But I'm 
 quite normal anyway, am n't I ? You wouldn't have 
 dared to unbosom yourself to me if you weren't sure I 
 was. Anyhow I am, so you shan't be neglected.' 
 
 How Hester revelled in a conversation of this kind ! 
 I think one of her many charms is, that whilst she is 
 the most level-headed counsellor that ever man had at 
 his elbow, she remains, at the same time, a very 
 woman. 
 
 The length of our passage made no difference to 
 the men, as they liked the change from a man of war, 
 and they knew, also, that the trip would not be an 
 unprofitable one to their pockets. 
 
 Altogether we were a happy ship. 
 
 I shall not weary you with the details of our voyage ; 
 it is enough to say that we kept her full and by 
 all the way down to about thirty-five degrees, and 
 * Sea slang for the Captain.
 
 EASY TO FALL OVERBOARD 231 
 
 making our easting, with moderate lack in westerly 
 winds, finally turned up for the last stretch to the 
 assigned position of Leigh Island, as we called it. 
 This brings me to a place not very far to the westward 
 of Easter Island. 
 
 It was blowing fresh, and the wind was increasing. 
 We had just finished stowing the topgallantsail, and 
 had hauled down the outer jib and put a reef in the 
 mainsail. 
 
 It was exciting sailing, the little craft leaping like 
 a mad thing from wave to wave. There was a large 
 sea, but we were making excellent weather of it. I 
 was in charge of the deck. 
 
 Miss Langstaff and Wentworth were in interested 
 talk by the rail near the lee main-rigging. 
 
 I could hear snatches of their conversation. He 
 was telling her about the discovery of Easter Island, 
 near which we then were, by Roggewein, on Easter 
 Sunday, 1721. Humphrey Wentworth had a keen 
 sense of the picturesque in sea story, and I could not 
 help listening to his word-painting of the navigator 
 with his curious old high-pooped frigate coming upon 
 this strange isolated spot, with its handsome light- 
 coloured people, and the remnants of a past civilisa- 
 tion, the story of which no man knoweth. Their talk 
 passed on to other things, and every now and then I 
 heard his pleasant English voice alternating with her 
 bright and lively sallies, spoken with the faintest 
 touch of an American accent, which gave zest to her 
 quaint, picturesque sayings. 
 
 Miss Langstaff, I would have you know, was as 
 clever, as agile-witted, as even a clever American girl, 
 well bred, and educated in Boston, can be.
 
 232 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 She was half sitting on the low rail, with her back 
 out-board, and holding on to a back stay. 
 
 I heard Wentworth call her attention to the height 
 of the seas, as they under-ran the vessel, and raced 
 away to leeward like wild horses. 
 
 She replied ; and I caught her silvery laugh, and 
 piquant intonation, as she said : 
 
 'Oh! The Rockies are just good enough for me. 
 1 don't want any mountain scenery on this trip.' 
 
 At that moment an unusually great sea rolled up, 
 the vessel pitched heavily, Miss Langstaff lost her 
 hold, and in a breath I saw her tumble backwards, 
 and there, in the white smother by the quarter, for a 
 moment, I saw a hat and a pair of outstretched hands. 
 
 Wentworth never hesitated. In a flash he had 
 taken her bearing, and was overboard after her. 
 
 Such things happen at sea in a moment, yet you 
 endure hours during their passage. The shouting 
 which ensued on board came from Alf Nash and a 
 Kanaka who was aloft in the main crosstrees. 
 
 This South Sea Islander was a smart fellow, and 
 never let his eyes wander from the two heads fighting 
 for their lives in that yeasty waste of troubled sea. 
 As for Alf Nash, I could hear his high-pitched twang 
 yelling : 
 
 ' There's two of 'em in the drink the noo lydy, and 
 the naivy gent !' 
 
 As quick as thought two or three things were flying 
 overboard. I believe I had a life buoy over almost 
 as soon as Wentworth jumped and, thank God, he 
 got it too while Alf Nash distinguished himself by 
 flinging over the oilcan he had in his hand. This
 
 EASY TO FALL OVERBOARD 233 
 
 turned out an unexpectedly splendid thing, for the 
 contents smoothed a patch of sea, and marked the 
 neighbourhood of the swimmers in a way which was a 
 revelation to me. 
 
 The helmsman, of course, saw the whole affair, and 
 even before the words of command left my lips, he 
 had begun to revolve the wheel, and the brave little 
 vessel, with slatting sails and jumping spars, was soon 
 up in the wind. 
 
 I let her remain in the same position, with head- 
 sheets over to windward and the tack of the mainsail 
 hauled up, whilst I let go the topsail halliards and 
 hauled in the slack of the weather braces. 
 
 Young Langstaff, who was below, had heard the 
 commotion, and with a spring he came on deck and 
 took in the situation in a glance. He was here, there, 
 and everywhere, doing the right thing with wonderful 
 smartness. The double-ended boat, happily swung 
 out-board and on our lee side, was lowered and in the 
 water before the schooner had lost all her way. In 
 a minute more they were pulling for our two ship- 
 mates. 
 
 ' By God, sir/ said Martin, his face working with 
 excitement, ' it couldn't ha' been done smarter in a 
 frigate or a whaler.' 
 
 The Kanaka was all this time closely watching the 
 swimmers. 
 
 I have gone through some uncommonly unpleasant 
 times at sea, and, as my reader will allow, I had had 
 a fair experience of them during this same voyage, 
 but I do not remember ever feeling the passage of 
 time more terrible than the actually short period of
 
 234 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 minutes which elapsed while I stood in the main 
 rigging watching the tops of the waves, and passion- 
 ately thinking prayers that our friends might be saved 
 from the hungry sea. 
 
 Hailing the cross-trees I sang out : 
 
 ' Do you see them ?' 
 
 ' Yes, sar.' 
 
 'Is the boat pulling in the right direction?' 
 
 ( Yes, sar ! All right ! Misser Langstaff he stan' 
 up ! He see all right ! ' 
 
 This was reassuring. But would they get to the 
 swimmers in time before the ' barbarous mishandling ' 
 of the seas had knocked the breath out of their lungs 
 and water-logged them ? A very few minutes would 
 settle the question. 
 
 Hester stood close by me. She watched the waves, 
 silent, colourless, and with ashy lips. 
 
 'Boat got 'em, sar!' suddenly came in a loud hail 
 from aloft. 
 
 < Got both ? ' 
 
 1 Yes, sar ! Lady she dragged in ; officer, he try 
 climbing now.' 
 
 Then I heard a cheer from the men, and I dropped 
 from the rigging on to the deck. 
 
 The boat was not very far away, yet I judged it 
 best to get to leeward of her, and then heave to ; and 
 this I did. I am not too sure that this was the best 
 practice. A light schooner would drift, perhaps, 
 faster than the boat, and it might have been as well 
 to heave to to windAvard, and drop down on the boat. 
 However, as long as the picking-up vessel makes a 
 lee for the boat, the main point is served. We then
 
 EASY TO FALL OVERBOARD 235 
 
 emptied more oil over the side and had an area of 
 smoothness close to the ship. I was surprised for 
 the moment to see the oil spreading itself so quickly 
 away to windward, forgetting that our drift was 
 faster that that of the oil. However, what did 
 spread out to leeward served its turn, and that to 
 windward laid the sea for both schooner and boat. 
 So we did well out of the oil treatment. 
 
 The boat was soon alongside, and the boarding was 
 managed with consummate skill. I never saw the 
 thing done better, and I soon had the unspeakable 
 happiness of finding everyone safe on board and the 
 boat hoisted up unharmed. 
 
 Miss Langstaff was quite sensible, but utterly pros- 
 trate, and I reckoned that she had more salt water 
 inside her than was wholesome. Therefore we 
 promptly handed the case over to Hester to deal 
 with. 
 
 Blankets, hot water bottles, and sleep, no doubt, 
 would soon cure her. 
 
 As for Wentworth he icas tough. Perhaps you 
 could kill him with a meat-axe ? I am not sure. He 
 went below, changed his clothes, drank hot coffee and 
 rum, came on deck, and looked none the worse for his 
 ducking. 
 
 The girl's brother walked across to him and took 
 his hand. But what young Langstaff said I don't 
 know. However, Wentworth reddened, returned the 
 shake, and looked uncommonly satisfied, whilst I 
 remarked to myself in confidence : ' How pleased some 
 men are to stand well with the brothers of charming 
 girls ! '
 
 
 236 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 Hester, who had just run up to find out if Went- 
 worth had had his coffee, saw the little incident, 
 smiled across to me, and we felt like aged people as 
 we saw a new romance developing under our very 
 eyes 'right here/ as the Langstaffs would have 
 said. 
 
 After tea Langstaff went in to see his sister. I am 
 sure they must have had a pretty affectionate meeting, 
 for when he came out his eyes were filled with tears, 
 and my dear one's filled in happy sympathy as she 
 witnessed his emotion. 
 
 Late on that evening Hester called Lieutenant 
 Went worth, saying : ' I have a message for you, Mr. 
 Wentworth. Miss Langstaff wishes to see you ! You 
 may go in if you stay five minutes only ; I shall time 
 you.' 
 
 Wentworth looked delighted as he asked, ' You are 
 sure I shan't disturb her ?' 
 
 1 Oh, of course you'll disturb her,' replied Hester, 
 with the faintest ripple of a smile, ' but counter- 
 irritants are sometimes good in depressed conditions. 
 Anyway I'll risk the remedy. You may go, sir.' 
 
 Wentworth's face was a study. His thoughts were 
 evidently chaotic. He didn't quite know how to take 
 Hester's mischievous raillery. But he was collected 
 enough to take her at her word, and enter the cabin. 
 
 When the lieutenant came out he evidently thought 
 he was treading on air, for he stumbled over the 
 Persian cat, and then profusely begged the Tabbie's 
 pardon. The cat received his apology with such loud 
 lamentations that he was effectually awakened from 
 cloudland.
 
 EASY TO FALL OVERBOARD 237 
 
 The incident did not escape Hester's eye. ' These 
 are signs of the times/ said she, with an air of long 
 experience of such things, ' and I hear the sound of 
 wedding bells.' 
 
 The swift and tragic ending which two of our party 
 had so narrowly escaped drew us all still closer to- 
 gether. I do believe that there never was a more 
 united party gathered together in a little ship. 
 
 It was now quite plain to all of us that Wentworth 
 and Dorothy Langstaff. were very much interested in 
 each other, and that her brother looked on with 
 apparent approval. He evidently was quite satisfied 
 about the matter as long as his sister was. What 
 ' Poppa/ far away in Portland, Maine, U.S.A., might 
 say was another matter. 
 
 But it seemed to us that though Hester was in a 
 sense Dorothy's chaperone, as well as her hostess, 
 there was no call to interfere. The girl had her 
 brother with her. She was accustomed to the large 
 freedom accorded in America to women, even more 
 than in Australia; and, above all, Wentworth was an 
 honourable gentleman. 
 
 I already knew him to be a brave and capable sea- 
 man ; besides this, he was not without some private 
 means beyond his pay. All things considered, we let 
 matters alone. Dorothy Langstaff might very easily 
 do worse than marry this manly Englishman who had 
 risked his life to save hers. 
 
 Hester, of course, was daily on the tip-toe of 
 expectation . 
 
 What an unfading interest women seem to take in 
 the love affairs of other people.
 
 238 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 But her expectations of a denouement remained long 
 ungratified ; for the announcement of their engage- 
 ment did not bring satisfaction to her soul till Sydney 
 Heads were within a few days' sail. 
 
 This was well ; for people do right to know each 
 other very thoroughly before they take the weighty 
 and solemn step of plighting their troth. 
 
 I always think that a too precipitate understand- 
 ing takes from life one of its few really interesting 
 incidents the exploring of the soul of another a 
 voyage of discovery, with all the strange glamour of 
 as yet unconfessed love, gilding every word and look.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 THE ISLAND AT LAST 
 
 A S we drew near the position assigned by Captain 
 Leigh to the island, we watched the runs and 
 our position with particular care. If the wind had 
 allowed us, I would have got on the right parallel and 
 run down the longitude upon it. However, as you 
 shall presently hear, we made a good landfall. On a 
 certain day at noon we found we were in lat. 20 40' S., 
 long. 107 20' W., about one hundred miles S.S.W. of 
 our port. With the wind then prevailing we reckoned 
 to run our distance in some fourteen hours ; but we 
 reckoned too quickly. The glorious uncertainty of 
 canvas stepped in. We had baffling winds and light 
 airs, and without avail whistled ourselves hoarse and 
 longed for a breeze. In the end, we took over three 
 days to do this distance. 
 
 I assure you that certain of the stars justified their 
 existence during the last night before making the 
 island ; and we made full use of them as long as we 
 had an horizon to which to bring them. 
 
 Hester stayed up all night, fidgetting about the 
 deck. Her loyalty and respect for her father made 
 
 239
 
 240 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 her anxious that his observation should be con- 
 firmed. 
 
 Considering the strength of the breeze, and the 
 fact that there was no moon, I was afraid that we 
 might over-run our distance; so, about 10 p.m., we 
 shortened her down and let the schooner go easy, for 
 I reckoned, if our calculations were correct, to make 
 the land about daybreak. 
 
 It certainly was a time of much interest to Hester 
 and to me. Sentiment, professional curiosity, and 
 financial possibilities, all combined to make us keep a 
 very wakeful look-out. 
 
 I sent a man aloft long before dawn, and I daresay 
 I wearied him most consumedly by my repeated hails 
 as to whether he saw anything. Hester had offered a 
 reward to the man who should first sight land, as I 
 discovered presently from the fact that there was more 
 than one hand aloft sweeping the sea line. 
 
 At last we saw the eastern sky beginning to lighten 
 as the twilight of morning began. Almost simul- 
 taneously I heard two hails of ' Land ho ! ' 
 
 I ran aloft, and there, where sea and sky met ' In 
 the dim east, blue and blind ' I saw a faint smudge 
 of deeper colour. My eyes told me it could be noth- 
 ing else but land. It was far too large for a ship, too 
 definite, I thought, for a cloud. Nevertheless, it is 
 very easy to be mistaken ; I have seen the most 
 practised seamen fall into error over such matters. 
 So I held my judgment for a little, knowing that a 
 few minutes would certainly settle the question. 
 With increase of light the indefinite smudge took on 
 a clearer outline, and shortly we knew that the object
 
 THE ISLAND AT LAST 241 
 
 of our devious voyage, a voyage which had cost so 
 many lives and so much sorrow, lay before us. 
 
 It was after seven o'clock, the lead going all the 
 time, before we were close in with the land, and struck 
 soundings. 
 
 The island was apparently about two miles long, 
 and, probably, less than that in breadth. It was 
 shaped somewhat like a kidney, with the hollow lying 
 towards the north-west. Acting on Wentworth's 
 advice, we sailed completely round it before making 
 any effort to anchor. 
 
 Nothing in the nature of a harbour could be dis- 
 covered. But, on the lee side, an indentation existed, 
 with something like a cleft in the shore line. This 
 looked rather hopeful as a possible landing place for 
 boats. We saw no trees, and very little evidence of 
 herbage of any kind. It appeared a dreary, sad- 
 looking spot ; even bird life was not much in evidence, 
 though possibly it might not have been the season for 
 the feathered population to visit the island. 
 
 In truth it was by no means a convenient place 
 either to anchor off or to land upon, and I foresaw 
 many difficulties in loading at so exposed a spot. 
 However, it was no use meeting troubles half way, 
 and we cautiously crawled in towards the indentation 
 I spoke about, and finally let go our anchor in about 
 thirty fathoms, on broken ground. 
 
 With the south-east trade blowing we lay fairly easy, 
 but a shift of wind anywhere between north-east and 
 south-west would have made the island a lee shore, 
 brought a sea into the anchorage, and altogether made 
 the place anything but a healthy spot to be in.
 
 242 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 As it was, we knew what wear and tear there would 
 be with our ground tackle ; and we discussed the 
 question whether it would not be better to keep the 
 schooner under weigh, standing off and on under 
 steering canvas except, of course, when we were 
 actually putting the guano into her hold. 
 
 The afternoon on which we arrived some of us 
 landed. 
 
 It was not a perfect day for the purpose, and the 
 disembarkation required the exercise of a good deal 
 of skill and care. It was not even an average good 
 day ; for, although there were occasions on which I 
 may safely assert that no one could have effected a 
 landing, yet, on the other hand, days occurred during 
 which landing was absolutely simple, and even work- 
 ing cargo presented no serious difficulty. 
 
 I was, however, uneasy about the chance of a 
 succession of vast unexpected waves rolling in upon 
 us. I remembered at Tristan da Cunha seeing a boat's 
 crew dashed to pieces before our eyes, and even the 
 safety of the ship herself jeopardised by a sudden 
 mountainous wave rolling on shore. ' Damn all 
 Oceanic Islands ; I'll never go near one again, far 
 less let go an anchor,' said my skipper after the wave 
 had spent itself, and the incident remained in my 
 mind. However, there was, here, only an ordinary 
 large ocean swell, and we backed the fine sharp-ended 
 boat into the cove. And as we got abreast of a low, 
 shelving ledge, Humphrey Wentworth jumped and 
 landed safely at the expense of nothing worse than a 
 wetting. I, however, refused to let either of the girls 
 try to land on this occasion. I had agreed to take
 
 THE ISLAND AT LAST 243 
 
 them in the boat, but I would not let them risk a 
 jump with the chance of being swept into the sea 
 or getting their limbs broken. 
 
 Two of the men joined Wentworth ; and they 
 turned to and looked about them as to the best means 
 of landing with less risk and more ease, if we were to 
 regard this first attempt as a specimen of the con- 
 ditions which usually obtained. 
 
 They first fixed two pieces of driftwood at a suitable 
 distance from each other, and shored them up with 
 large pieces of rock. To each of these posts Ave made 
 fast a three-inch coir rope, and buoyed each end, 
 finding them of great value in going alongside the 
 landing shelf. Between the posts we stretched a life 
 line with one or two short man ropes to lay hold of. 
 We then returned to the schooner and laid out a kedge 
 anchor, and buoyed it also, just at the mouth of the 
 little creek. We intended this for use when we had 
 need of the heavy cargo boat, and desired to drop it 
 alongside a loading stage. 
 
 The following day there was much less surf, and 
 Hester and Miss Langstaff went with us, each with 
 an oilskin and suitable foot-gear. There was no diffi- 
 culty on this occasion, and all landed dry-shod without 
 adventure. 
 
 A rough survey of the island showed us that it 
 contained no permanent water supply at least we saw 
 none. There were pools, however, the contents of 
 which were none too sweet. 
 
 No timber grew, but there was a fair amount of 
 logs, and timber to be got where it had been cast up 
 by the sea.
 
 244 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 The extent of the guano astonished us. We felt 
 millionaires. 
 
 Miss Langstaff and the naval officer walked on 
 ahead. 
 
 ' This place seems to be worth pots of money/ I 
 exclaimed. 
 
 ' How much is it worth a ton in London ? ' asked 
 Hester. 
 
 'I don't know/ I replied, 'and we haven't got it 
 there yet. You remember how the wicked little 
 Scotch boy rebuked the Cockney who said that cattle 
 would fetch higher prices in town than in the High- 
 lands. " Yes," said the boy, " but if I had Loch 
 Lomond in hell, maybe it's sixpence a glass I'd be 
 getting for it." We're in the same trouble. We 
 haven't got the stuff to a market.' 
 
 1 But we shall ! I know we shall ! ' exclaimed 
 Hester with emphasis. 
 
 She paused, looked around, and continued : 
 
 'I shall certainly found schools for the dissemina- 
 tion of useful knowledge.' 
 
 ' Such as / I asked innocently. 
 
 ' " The Compleat Art of Flirting," ' said Hess, with 
 a smile, as we looked across a little valley and beheld 
 Wentworth quite needlessly helping the exceedingly 
 agile Miss Langstaff up the other side. 
 
 1 Any other subjects ? ' 
 
 1 Yes, sir ! " The Influence of Evil Example," as 
 exemplified by you doing the same while I am yet 
 sound of limb, and neither fat nor fifty.' 
 
 ' Joking apart, dear/ I said, ' this place promises to 
 make you so horribly, so unapproachably rich, that I 
 become afraid of you.'
 
 THE ISLAND AT LAST 245 
 
 'Dick/ replied Hess, ' these subterfuges are as 
 transparent as they are valueless. You know my 
 father intended that you should share in this venture, 
 Thus you are really my partner in the unsavoury 
 treasure trove. Besides ' Hester paused, and then, 
 with a laugh, she added, ' are you not the " Captive 
 of my bow and spear ? " For you there is no escape.' 
 I forget exactly how this badinage ended ; but I 
 have an indefinite recollection that it did so agreeably. 
 It would be tedious to relate all our proceedings in 
 detail during the weeks which we were obliged to 
 spend on or about this desolate spot. 
 
 At first I was half inclined to land Martin and the 
 two Kanakas and leave them with stores, the 
 condenser, and a supply of coal, to prepare stagings 
 and other facilities for the shipment of the guano. 
 But after thinking the matter over, I saw clearly that 
 to make a success of the venture, the business should 
 be done once for all on a much larger scale than was 
 possible with the small resources contained in the 
 Pandora. 
 
 We, however, did do a great deal of preparatory 
 work. For instance, we laid down two heavy moorings. 
 One of them, in forty fathoms, was strengthened by 
 attaching a chain to it, the other end of which was 
 brought ashore, and made fast securely. In the 
 creek, a rough landing stage, the foundation of which 
 was large masses of rock, was tumbled together ; and 
 by means of it we loaded the schooner with what 
 guano we took away. 
 
 A rough road was also made to the nearest deposit, 
 and this was the pioneer of a future tramway.
 
 246 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 We put up a hut and stored the condenser in it, 
 together with a little coal. But as a matter of fact, 
 there was sufficient driftwood to make such provision 
 unnecessary. 
 
 On the highest point of the island we erected a 
 stout flagstaff and fitted it with a large wooden 
 painted Union Jack an idea of one of the man-of- 
 war's men. It creaked horribly as it swung like a 
 great wind vane ; however, it served its turn 
 admirably. It was with this somewhat ungraceful 
 emblem of our country that we took possession of 
 Leigh Island as we called it in the name of Great 
 Britain in general and ourselves in particular. 
 
 Wentworth tried his drill in various places ; and, 
 being given to calculations, he figured out a rough 
 estimate of the quantity of guano on the island. 
 Truly, the wealth represented by it on this remote 
 spot reached a vast sum ! We also took special 
 samples of the deposit obtained by means of the drill 
 from various depths. 
 
 Of course a good deal of the time and labour was 
 expended over the survey of the island and the 
 determination of its position ; and it made Hester 
 especially happy to find how closely Wentworth's 
 longitude agreed with that noted by her father. 
 
 But the main labour, and it was very hard and 
 terribly disagreeable, was getting the guano shipped. 
 It was, indeed, a long, odious, difficult, and unsavoury 
 business, often interrupted by adverse conditions of 
 weather. 
 
 We had brought hundreds of gunny bags with us 
 (with which to stow the lower part of the hold), as we
 
 THE ISLAND AT LAST 247 
 
 did not wish to carry the stuff in bulk in case the 
 limbers or pumps should get choked with guano grit. 
 You can easily believe that the filling of these bags 
 and their transportation to the improvised jetty meant 
 an immense amount of toil for our small crew, part of 
 whom, remember, were engaged most of the time in 
 survey work. However, I must record that the two 
 girls helped Wentworth very much, and so gave me 
 an extra hand. 
 
 Still, the loading was accomplished at last, and 
 hateful as the smell of our cargo was at first to us, 
 and irritating to the eyes and nose, as it was, we 
 came at last to be perfectly indifferent to it. Our one 
 lasting desire was to get the job done and to be off. 
 And at last that happy day did arrive, when the last 
 boat-load was aboard, the hatches on, and the wedges 
 driven. 
 
 I never listened to a chanty with greater zest than 
 when the voices of our small crowd broke the solitude 
 of this desolate island with their song : 
 
 We are homeward bound to Liverpool Town, 
 Good-bye, fare ye well ! good-bye, fare ye well ! 
 
 Get up, Jack, and let John sit down, 
 Good-bye, fare ye well ! 
 
 We are homeward bound, good-bye, 
 Fare ye well ! 
 
 If Cloacina, the goddess of such places, were still 
 there, she must have wondered who dared thus to 
 wake the slumbers of her malodorous palace. 
 
 By nightfall we had run it out of sight, and our 
 head at last pointed west for New South Wales.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 IN WHICH I COIL UP ROPES GENERALLY 
 AND SAY 'GOOD-BYE' 
 
 TT is a far cry from Leigh Island to New South 
 * Wales. But it is, for the most part, a fine 
 weather passage. And, for us, it was, of course, 
 mostly a voyage of fair winds. I shall say nothing 
 about it, except that it was a most happy one. 
 
 How shall I ever forget the glorious morning on 
 which we at last sighted the Australian coast ! We 
 had made the land near Broken Bay, and slipped 
 quickly down from Barranjoey to Sydney Heads. 
 Several vessels were in sight, and there was a fine 
 sailing breeze. As we approached the entrance to 
 Port Jackson we saw what I shall always think the 
 noblest sight in the world a large clipper ship under 
 canvas. The tug had let her go, and cloth after cloth 
 was being piled on the three tapering spires of lofty 
 mast. As she lifted to the swell and leaned over to 
 the breeze one saw the long clean glistening hull, 
 greyish green at the water line, and with its chequered 
 ports shining in all the glory of a recent overhaul. I 
 knew the ship in a moment. Built in Aberdeen, she 
 
 248
 
 I COIL UP ROPES GENERALLY 249 
 
 was one of the last of the true ' Gypsies of the Horn ' 
 which have for so many years carried the fleeces of 
 the great Southland to the Thames. But their day is 
 over, and Sydney soon will no longer know their 
 graceful shapes and all their splendid rivalries of 
 record passages. 
 
 We had our number flying, and so had the noble 
 vessel passing us JWTV. Nor did I need to look 
 her up in the signal book to know that these letters 
 meant Torridon. I waved a good-bye to a familiar 
 figure I saw upon her poop, and the vessels rapidly 
 separated she to her long struggle with the giant 
 combers of the Southern Ocean, we to rest in the 
 land-locked haven of Sydney. 
 
 We anchored in Watson's Bay, in almost the same 
 spot from which we had started. And there we were 
 detained for some hours, pending the decision of the 
 Health Board. At last we were allowed to proceed, 
 and under our own canvas we slowly sailed up the 
 glorious sheet of water, finally letting go our anchor 
 in Elizabeth Bay. The long voyage was at an end. 
 
 Wentworth, Hester, and I landed; and he at once 
 went off to report himself to the Senior Naval Officer 
 in port. 
 
 With what curious, what mingled feelings, we two 
 once more found ourselves ashore in the colony which 
 we now regarded as our home ! Funnily enough, we 
 had never discussed what we would do when we did 
 reach New South Wales. And when Wentworth had 
 disappeared in a cab we turned to one another with 
 interrogative looks, signifying that we didn't exactly 
 know our next move.
 
 250 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' What shall we do now ? ' I said. 
 
 ' I'd like to rest for a while/ replied Hess. 
 
 We sat down on one of the seats near the jetty, and 
 before us both the strange vicissitudes, the tragic 
 events, the sorrows of the past few months, spread 
 themselves out in a kind of panorama, leading at last 
 to the consolation of our love, and our hopes for the 
 future. Tears came into my dear one's eyes. 
 
 ( Oh, Dick, Dick ! ' she exclaimed. ' if only poor 
 father had been spared ! I'll tell you now what I 
 have never told to you before. Father knew you liked 
 me, and the day before I lost him he said all sorts of 
 good things of you, and ended by saying that he 
 would be satisfied if I cared for you. "For," he 
 added, " I see, well enough, that this same Blackburne 
 will one day rob me of you; so- 1 may as well be 
 robbed cheerfully as not." And the dear kind father 
 smiled, and stroked my cheeks, which were hot 
 enough, I can remember now, for it was perfectly 
 true of me then I loved you.' 
 
 ' Ah, now,' I said, ' I understand his curious parting 
 words to me after that interview, of which I once told 
 you " And be sure you are good to my girl." I 
 understand.' 
 
 1 Of course, sweetheart, that is what was in my 
 father's mind,' agreed Hester. ' It makes rne doubly 
 happy to think he liked you.' 
 
 I am sure we must have remained talking half an 
 hour before the necessity of settling something forced 
 itself upon us. But at last we rose and walked up 
 the hill above the jetty. 
 
 ' I'll put you in a cab,' I said, as we gained the top,
 
 I COIL UP ROPES GENERALLY 251 
 
 'and you'd better drive right off to Mrs. Rawlinson's. 
 I will go down to the Custom House and to Mr. 
 Rawlinson's office and fix up the ship's business. I'll 
 meet you there at four this afternoon and report 
 progress.' 
 
 We parted, she to Woollahra, and I into town. 
 
 One of the first things I learned was that I was 
 no longer absolutely dependent on my profession. 
 My cousin, the squatter, was dead, and perhaps 
 thinking he had dealt somewhat hardly with me, 
 he had left me a moderate competence ; not riches, 
 indeed, but sufficient to take from my mind the 
 unpleasant thought that I was about to hang up my 
 hat in my wife's house, an idea filled with gall and 
 wormwood to a man of my temper. 
 
 My interview with Mr. Rawlinson was a long one. 
 He was deeply interested in the voyage, and as he was 
 co-trustee under Captain Leigh's will, as well as agent 
 in his business, naturally my account of the guano 
 island arrested his attention, being, as it was, very 
 material to the value of the estate. He advised me 
 to write a detailed report of the deposit, which I 
 at once did. I recounted the tests made to gauge 
 the depth of the guano, and I mentioned Went- 
 worth's rough estimate of the amount of the material, 
 and the data on which that estimate was based. I 
 further described what preliminary work had been 
 carried on by us ; such as the making of the road 
 and stagings, and the laying down of the moorings. 
 A preliminary account and plan of the island by 
 Went worth was given me by the naval people, and 
 finally I attached this and a report on the samples 
 of guano from a competent agricultural chemist.
 
 252 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 Although not of the very highest grade, his 
 examination showed that it had lost comparatively 
 little in ammoniacal richness by atmospheric action. 
 In short, that it was of good fertilising power. The 
 Government, indeed, became the purchaser of our 
 cargo for use on their experimental farms. 
 
 Mr. Rawlinson thought most favourably of the 
 prospects of the venture, and advised that we 
 should float the undertaking into a company. He 
 and Captain Leigh's solicitors, Messrs. John, James, 
 and John, took the matter in hand. It took time; 
 but in the end the affair was successfully carried 
 through on terms sufficiently favourable to the original 
 proprietrix or proprietors, for I found that by Captain 
 Leigh's wish I stood in as an original owner of one- 
 third of the whole. Hester and I wished also that the 
 Langstaffs and Wentworth should share in what the 
 island was going to give us. Nor did we overlook the 
 interests of Martin and the two others who had been 
 with us in the time of the pestilence. 
 
 To make a long story short, the undertaking was 
 successfully launched, and we were well satisfied with 
 the terms on which we stood. 
 
 Langstaff was so certain of the prospects of the 
 same company that he cabled home for permission to 
 take some of the shares offered to the public on 
 account of hia father's firm. 
 
 Nor did he stop at that, for the first two ships 
 chartered to load at Leigh Island were the Abraham 
 Lincoln and the Governor Rooseveldt, both vessels 
 belonging to his employ. They were first to load coal 
 for the West Coast, and then to go down to the island
 
 I COIL UP ROPES GENERALLY 263 
 
 for guano, Langstaff agreeing to sail as mate of the 
 last-named ship. What I have just recounted took, of 
 course, a considerable time to carry through. 
 
 At four in the afternoon, as arranged, I went up 
 to Mr. Rawlinson's office, and at the door Hester met 
 me,accompanied by Mrs. Rawlinson, who greeted me 
 with all the kindliness for which she was deservedly 
 liked. 
 
 ' I wish Miss Leigh and her American friends to 
 come out to Woollahra and stay with us/ she said, 
 ' and I shall be delighted if you can come, too, Mr. 
 Blackburne. 
 
 'My children are simply wild to see you and hear 
 about all your wonderful adventures. It is quite a 
 romance ! ' 
 
 'Thanks very much, Mrs. Rawlinson,' I replied; 
 'but I think Langstaff and I must stick to the 
 schooner for the present. But if I may I should 
 like to call/ 
 
 'If you may, you'd like to call/ she repeated, 
 scornfully. ' Listen to him, Hester ! How polite he 
 is ! Well, you may call ; and you shall find more 
 people glad to see you than one. We are going 
 off to your wonderful little ship to tea. But I 
 must just run in and see my husband for a moment.' 
 
 She entered the handsome office, and Hess and I 
 were left standing on the steps. 
 
 ' Isn't she a dear/ exclaimed Hester. ' She couldn't 
 have been sweeter to me than if she had been my own 
 mother. It is now, when I am once again in civilisa- 
 tion, that I realise what a lonely brace of people we 
 are in the sense of having no relations. So this dear 
 woman's motherliness touches TUP.'
 
 254 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 ' By Jove, Hess ! ' I said, ' she is good to ask the 
 whole crowd of us up. I suppose you'll accept for 
 Dorothy Langstaff ? " 
 
 1 Yes, I shall,' replied Hess. ' She won't be leaving 
 Sydney for some little time.' And Hester smiled. 
 
 ' I know, I know ! ' I returned. ' The happy brides- 
 maid makes the happy bride.' 
 
 'Well, not quite. Since you ask, Mr. Inquisitive, 
 Dorothy is going to see me finally handed over to 
 you, sir. But her own plans are not yet settled. 
 She is going to stay with me till she hears from 
 her people. I think she and Mr. Wentworth won't 
 marry for some time. His commission here is up 
 in six months, and his present intention is to go to 
 the United States on his way to England and marry 
 Dorothy at her father's house/ 
 
 'Now, young people/ said Mrs. Rawlinson, re- 
 appearing, 'I'm ready. Where shall I tell the man 
 to drive us ? ' 
 
 We were soon on board the schooner, and our 
 American friends and Mrs. Rawlinson made known 
 to each other. The girls now busied themselves 
 packing up, while Mrs. Rawlinson went all round 
 the vessel, looked into and criticised every cabin, 
 and finally interviewed the irrepressible Alf, who, 
 having brought tea and set it out on the top of the 
 little house, remained close by, longing for a yarn 
 and full of a request, which Mrs. Rawlinson retailed 
 to us later on. 
 
 ' What position do you fill on board, my boy ? ' 
 asked Mrs. Rawlinson, unsuspiciously. 
 
 ' I'm a s'ilor, lydy, and I'm a stooard as well/ 
 said Alf, unabashed.
 
 I COIL UP ROPES GENERALLY 255 
 
 'Have you been ashore yet?' continued Mrs. 
 Rawlinson. 
 
 'No, ma'am, but I'll 'ave a squint round the 
 block arter we gets alongside, an' look hup a few o' 
 nay mates.' 
 
 After a few commonplace remarks the boy looked 
 cautiously round to see that we were all out of 
 ear-shot. 
 
 f A word with you, lydy, No hoffense, I 'opes, 
 but I've a hambition.' 
 
 ' Good gracious/ exclaimed comfortable Mrs. 
 Rawlinson. ' What is it ? ' 
 
 ' Well, it's this w'y : I've been readin' a lot about 
 weddin's in the Fam'ly 'Erald, and the w'y they 
 manages things in 'igh life, gettin' 'ooked on an' 
 sich like in real tip-top style tucker an' lush till 
 further borders bridesmaids cakes and a break- 
 fast at three in the arternoon fancy that now ! 
 But what I wants is this. They torks in them torf 
 yarns about a pyge. I knows, all right, that the 
 " old man " and our young lydy are keepin' company, 
 and is a-goin' to get spliced. Well, lydy, you're a 
 friend of theirs, haint yer? Will you arst them to 
 let me be a pyge ? ' 
 
 Mrs. Ilawlinson laughed a little, and told Alf that 
 she couldn't promise that he would be a page, but 
 that she would see that he was at our wedding. 
 
 ' Thankee, ma'am ! ' said Alf, as he removed the 
 tea things; 'I'm dead nuts on the job; I'd like to 
 see meself happearin' in the sassiety column of the 
 pyper as bein' fust bottle-washer in a 'igh class 
 'ookin' on.'
 
 256 LOVE AND LONGITUDE 
 
 At last the girls had their traps put together, and I 
 handed Mrs. Rawlinson into the boat. They followed, 
 arid all hands joined in giving them a cheer as they 
 went over the side. Hester had not forgotten one of 
 our crew ; and, in addition to the extra pay which we 
 gave them for their services, she had at once gone and 
 purchased something personal for each man on board. 
 This accounted for the vast array of parcels which 
 loaded up Mrs. Rawlinson's carriage on the way to 
 the boat. 
 
 Langstaff and I had a pipe and a yarn, then he 
 went on superintending the unbending of sails and 
 other matters preparatory to our unloading and 
 docking, while I went below to clear up and to 
 write. But to compose a letter was, I found, an 
 impossibility. 
 
 All the events of the past months passed before 
 me in review. The ordinary incident which led to 
 my acquaintance with Captain Leigh; the tragic 
 voyage to Pandora Island ; the rescue of the Lang- 
 staffs and our subsequent experiences all these 
 strands of this strange voyage laid themselves up 
 in one moving coil, while there ran through its 
 heart the crimson thread of my love for Hester. 
 And as I sat I could do no more than bow my head 
 and thank God for all His goodness to me. 
 
 Within a month of the day on which we reached 
 Sydney, Hester and I were married, as she wished, 
 in St. James' Church. Our wedding was a very 
 quiet one. Mr. Rawlinson gave the bride away, and 
 Alf had the satisfaction of seeing us f 'ooked on.' 
 
 I feel that my seafaring is not yet over, and that
 
 I COIL UP ROPES GENERALLY 257 
 
 I shall see Leigh Island again. But, perhaps, that 
 will make another story. Martin will always be with 
 us, whether at sea or on shore. And I think I may 
 almost say the same of the cook and of Alf Nash. 
 
 And now, dear reader, my little tale is told, and 
 the last rope is coiled down so I have nothing left 
 to say, except Farewell ! 
 
 EPILOGUE 
 
 IT is evening, and we have reached the homestead 
 after our long journey. 
 
 An occasional call of some bird comes from the 
 encircling bush. The crack of a whip is heard as 
 one of the station hands turns our horses into the 
 paddock. 
 
 Dick and I are sitting on the broad verandah. 
 We see the glisten of the creek which flows in silver 
 at the bottom of the garden. A debutante moon is 
 rising over the near hills. 
 
 Within the house is warmth and peace a log fire 
 and a cheerful table. 
 
 My husband turns to me ; our hands touch and 
 clasp ; and the world seems very fair to both of us. 
 
 Destiny prolong the present ; 
 Time stand still here.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 ON FINDING A LOST DATE, DECLINATION, AND 
 GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 
 
 A CHAPTER FOR SEAFARING PEOPLE ONLY 
 
 TN my narrative of the voyage of the Pandora I 
 briefly described how I recovered my date and 
 found the position of the uncharted island to which 
 the schooner had drifted. The problems involved in 
 the recovery of time and place are always interesting 
 to the navigator, and I thought, therefore, that 
 possibly some of my nautical readers might be 
 sufficiently attracted to the subject to care to read the 
 details of the methods by which the necessary facts 
 were obtained. I have, therefore, not only set forth 
 the actual means by which I recovered my time, and 
 my latitude and longitude, but have discussed the 
 methods generally most likely to be of service for 
 this purpose, at least so far as finding the day of the 
 month is concerned. 
 
 A hundred years ago, when the nautical almanac 
 and a dozen short cuts to astronomical knowledge 
 had not reached the pitch of perfection to which they 
 have now attained, the navigator who desired to be 
 
 258
 
 APPENDIX 259 
 
 armed at all points in his profession was obliged to 
 be familiar with the methods by which many of the 
 data, that we now take out at sight from tables or 
 almanacs, might be computed. One of the best 
 teachers of such knowledge was Dr. Robertson, at one 
 time Master of Christ's Hospital. 
 
 Among Captain Leigh's effects was this author's 
 treatise on navigation, a book published in the middle 
 of the last century, and I doubt not the text-book 
 which Cook and Nelson thumbed and conned. 
 
 I was struck on looking over it by the excellent 
 way in which the trigonometrical bases of the modern 
 epitome methods are therein handled. 
 
 In the present ' fix ' in which I found myself I 
 obtained a good many useful wrinkles from it. I 
 like to take this opportunity of acknowledging my 
 indebtedness to this ancient treatise, and I wish the 
 book were better known, and wonder why some 
 competent hand has not re-edited the matter, still of 
 value, and thus continued the career of usefulness of 
 so admirable a work. 
 
 As I said in a former chapter, I cannot doubt that 
 a better navigator than I am would have solved my 
 difficulties in other and more excellent ways than I 
 did. But I merely wish to record the methods I 
 made use of in solving a problem, that evidently, 
 judging by the discussions which crop up occasionally 
 in nautical journals, must possess some interest for 
 the seafaring community. 
 
 You will remember that I had lost all count of 
 time. I knew the year, but not the month or day, or 
 Greenwich date the timekeepers had stopped, and
 
 260 APPENDIX 
 
 I had no compass ; the latitude and longitude of the 
 island were unknown to me. Obviously my first duty 
 was to recover the day of the month. 
 A. To find the date and the latitude. 
 
 1. The first thing I did was to obtain the sun's 
 meridian altitude, which, when reduced, gave me a 
 true altitude of 46 45' 4". From this observation I 
 therefore obtained a fairly approximate apparent 
 time at ship, and with the time so got I set going a 
 good watch. The following day, I may add, the sun's 
 meridian altitude was 46 38' 46", showing that he 
 was still on the vernal side of the northern solstice. 
 I used an artificial horizon for both these' observa- 
 tions, as it gave greater precision. 
 
 2. About half -past four or thereby, in the afternoon 
 of the same day, I took several distances between the 
 sun and moon, the mean of which, after index error 
 and the approximate semi-diameters of the two 
 objects had been applied, gave me an apparent 
 distance of 99 17' 8". The sun, I believed, was west 
 of the moon, because that satellite, being a waxing 
 one, had her western limb the illuminated portion. 
 This was in keeping with the fact that the moon was 
 in her first quarter in the first week of June. (N.A.) 
 
 Using this rough observation as if it were a true 
 distance, I turned to the nautical almanac and 
 scanned all the sun and moon distances for May and 
 June. In May, the distance 99 17' 8" fell between 
 the 6th at XXI. hours and the 7th at noon at Green- 
 wich, with likewise a waxing moon. 
 
 Secondly, the same distance likewise fell between 
 June 5th at XIV. hours and June 5th at XVIII. hours.
 
 APPENDIX 281 
 
 I noted both the times, knowing that it was pretty 
 sure to be one or the other, for we could not really 
 have unwittingly got into the month of July. More- 
 over, the lesser meridian altitude of the sun on the 
 following day negatived such an inference by showing 
 that the sun was still going north. 
 
 I suspected that the June date was the correct one, 
 but I now proceeded to check that presumption in 
 several ways. 
 
 3. When night came I observed if the apparent 
 time of the meridian passages of certain stars took 
 place at the hours they should for the 5th of June, 
 using here the A.T.S. by my watch, which I had set 
 by the sun's meridian altitude that day, which day my 
 rough lunar made me believe to be the 5th June, 1900. 
 Assuming the date to be 5th June, I found from the 
 tables that the following bright stars crossed the 
 meridian as under: Spica at 8h. 21m.; B Centauri 
 at 8h. 59m. ; and A Centauri at 9h. 34m. I next 
 observed that their meridian altitudes were obtained 
 just about the times stated, whereas if the date had 
 been May 6th, the hours at which their meridian 
 passages occurred would have been : Spica, lOh. 
 22m.; B Centauri, lOh. 57m.; A Centauri, llh. 34m. ; 
 which farther confirmed me in the belief that the date 
 was the 5th June. Even if I had no rousfh lunar 
 
 o 
 
 observation or other help that afternoon to give me a 
 date, I would, by perseverance and patience, have got 
 the apparent time of meridian passage of a star and 
 so identified the day of the month. Happily this Job- 
 like altitude was not necessary. 
 
 4. I now wished to further identify the date by
 
 262 APPENDIX 
 
 using the declination of the sun or the moon. First I 
 sought for the sun's declination. The easiest way to 
 obtain it is by means of the latitude of the place. I 
 therefore worked up the stellar observations. 
 
 The true altitudes of the three stars observed 
 were : 
 
 Spica. B Centauri. A Centauri. 
 
 T. A. 79 58' 40" N. T. A. 50 46' 0" S. T. A. 50 14' 36" S. 
 
 and the resulting latitudes therefrom were : 
 
 Lat. 20 40' 0" S. Lat. 20 39' 51" S. Lat. 20 40' 9' S. 
 
 The mean of which was 20 40' 0" S., and this I 
 accepted as correct. 
 
 Having got my latitude I found the sun's declina- 
 tion as follows : From the meridian altitude I 
 obtained the zenith distance, and to this I applied the 
 latitude obtained by stellar observations. Obviously 
 it was subtractive, and the result was the sun's 
 declination for noon of that day at ship. Substituting 
 the declination thus gained for the latitude by star we 
 get 20 40' as the latitude by meridian altitude of the 
 sun. I give the small calculations below : 
 
 On supposed 5th 
 June Sun's Mer. 
 
 Alt 46 45' 4" Sun's Mer. Alt. 46 45' 4" N. 
 
 90 0' 0" 90 0' 0" 
 
 Sun's Meridian, 
 
 Zenith, Dist. ... 43 14' 56" Sun's M. Z. D. 43 14' 56" S. 
 Latitude by star ... 20 40' 0" Sun's Uecln. ... 22 34' 56" N. 
 
 Declination of Sun 
 on 5th June at 
 ship 22 34' 56" Lat 20 40' 0" S.
 
 APPENDIX 263 
 
 This same method can be practised by using the 
 declination of the moon, the only trouble being the 
 weary waiting to get her meridian altitude, for when 
 one does not yet possess a longitude by which to 
 correct the time of her meridian passage at Green- 
 wich to the hour of local transit, there is nothing 
 for it but simply to wait, sextant in hand, for that 
 event. In latitude 20 J 40' S., with a change in 
 declination so swift as was the moon's on June 5th, 
 and always remembering also that the maximum 
 altitude was, therefore, not quite the true meridian 
 elevation, not only could the correct day be obtained, 
 but a pretty close approximation to the correct hour 
 and minute of Greenwich mean time. 
 
 5. Yet another means of obtaining the date by 
 means of the declination is that by two altitudes of 
 the sun a method worth knowing if no stars are 
 visible, or no lunar distance available. 
 
 In Robertson's Navigation a number of problems 
 are to be found dealing with the above question. The 
 one most applicable to our present plight was one 
 which I have found absolutely satisfactory in higher 
 latitudes and at other seasons of the year. The data 
 required are the sun's meridian altitude, and a second 
 altitude, taken at a known interval of time after the 
 meridian. With these elements the midnight depres- 
 sion is obtained. (This is often got without the aid of 
 trigonometry.) 
 
 Half the sum of the midnight depression and the 
 meridian altitude = = co-latitude, while half their 
 difference = = the declination. Thence you readily 
 obtain the date and the latitude.* 
 
 * See Robertson's Navigation, Book V., page 252, Prob. XLI1.
 
 264 APPENDIX 
 
 I found, however, that in lat. 20 40' S., with the 
 sun so far north, the problem was not a very suitable 
 one to make use of. Moreover, I did not really need 
 its help, for the heavens, till after midnight, sparkled 
 with familiar stars, while the moon, like the hand of a 
 great clock, had already pointed to the time, and 
 given me what I sought. 
 
 6. Having found the declination of the sun or moon 
 when either cross the meridian at ship, I proceeded to 
 compare the declination so obtained, with the declina- 
 tions in their proper places, in the pages of the 
 nautical almanac. For the sun as follows : 
 
 Declination at Greenwich, June 5th = 22 31' 52-2' N. 
 Declination at Place . = 22 34' 56 -0" 
 
 3' 3-8" 
 
 Declination at Greenwich, June 6th = 20 38' 21" N. 
 Declination at Place = 22 C 34' 56" 
 
 3' 35" 
 
 The declination found for the sun at noon at place 
 is therefore that for the 5th of June at Greenwich 
 as may be seen on reference to the N.A. Using the 
 declination of the moon found in the same way 
 (always remembering the insufficient data in correct- 
 ing the semidiameter and horizontal parallax) the 
 date indicated was likewise the 5th June and further, 
 a M.T.G. was indicated which corresponded fairly 
 closely with the M.T.G. obtained from the rough lunar. 
 
 It was now clear that the date was the 5th of June, 
 and I had a rough idea of the hour and minute at 
 Greenwich.
 
 APPENDIX 265 
 
 It is worth while noting that an approximation to 
 the hours and minutes of Greenwich mean time, and 
 thence the longitude, may be obtained from the 
 declination of the sun by simple proportion, thus : 
 
 June 5th, Declination 22 31' 52 -2" N. 
 
 June 6th, Declination 22 38' 21'0" N. 
 
 Difference in 24 hours 6' 28 -8" 
 
 June 5th, Declination at Greenwich 20 31 ' 52'2" N. 
 June 5th, Declination at Place ... 22 34' 56 '0" N. 
 
 Difference in (X) hours 3' 3'8" 
 
 H. H. M. S. 
 
 6' 28-8" : 3' 3'8" :: 24 (or 360) : 11 21 8 
 
 The inference being that the Greenwich date was 
 5d. llh. 21m. 8s. 
 
 Longitude can also be obtained by proportioning as 
 above, but usually it is very far from the truth over 
 six degrees in this case. I have, however, elsewhere, 
 and at other times, found in this way a longitude 
 within half a degree of correctness. The time 
 obtained, however, is sufficiently near to be of use in 
 correcting the elements for a subsequent lunar obser- 
 vation. The G.M.T. got from the lunar could then be 
 at once used for re-correcting the elements, for the re- 
 working of the problem, and thus getting a more 
 accurate result. In my own case I used an approxi- 
 mate Greenwich date obtained from my first rough 
 lunar, which was almost the same as that deduced 
 from the moon's declination ; but the difference in 
 time between the rough lunar and the time obtained 
 by proportion from the two declinations for correction
 
 266 APPENDIX 
 
 purposes was really not very great as 15-5 is to 15-9 
 a difference of four decimal points. 
 
 I now knew my date and latitude, and I had a 
 chronometer set going to an approximate Greenwich 
 mean time, sufficiently near the truth for the correction 
 of elements from the nautical almanac. The night, 
 however, had become overcast, and so I went to bed, 
 pretty satisfied with my progress so far. The follow- 
 ing day, in the afternoon, the sky was clear, and I 
 prepared to take some lunar distances. I wished, of 
 course, to get a good apparent time at ship from one 
 of the objects observed. I found that the sun set 
 about 5h. 23m. p.m., but with latitude and declination 
 of opposite names, he would never come to the prime 
 vertical, so I had to try to get his altitude as near the 
 horizon as possible, always remembering the effect of 
 refraction at low altitudes, especially in the afternoon. 
 
 B. To find Greenwich mean time and thence the 
 longitude. 
 
 Somewhere about four-fifteen (A.T.S. obtained 
 from the sun's mer. alt. obs.) I began the observation, 
 Hester taking the times. I took the sun's altitude 
 first, as he was furthest from the meridian the moon's 
 altitude and the distances in due sequence, and then 
 the altitudes again in the reverse order. Being 
 single-handed I had to use proportion, of course, for 
 the mean middle time of the distance. Hence both 
 the observation and the preliminary calculations made 
 a lengthy business. But Hester checked every figure, 
 and we looked out the logarithms separately, so the 
 risks of aggravating clerical errors were small. It is 
 maddening ' to clear a distance ' and find you have
 
 APPENDIX 267 
 
 taken out a sine instead of a cosine, and perhaps have 
 to tackle it all anew. Or, worse still, to have got 
 some of the elements incorrectly stated. 
 
 I so far fell from grace that I used Thomson's 
 tables in 'clearing the distance.' Their use saved 
 me several chances of error, for Borda's method with 
 ten logarithms to look out is a large order. The 
 true distance now obtained gave me a Greenwich 
 mean time, which, with the mean time at ship got 
 from the sun's altitude, put the island in longitude 
 164 37' 45" W. I now re-worked the calculation with 
 the more accurate G.M.T. just obtained, with a 
 resulting longitude of 164 30' 15" W. 
 
 The sun's distance from the moon was rather large 
 (over 110), still I took comfort in the fact that Captain 
 Leigh's sextant was a very fine one, and I had seen 
 that the line of collimatiou was perfect, and that the 
 index error was known. During the next few days 
 I took a number of lunar distances with Jupiter E 
 of the moon and Regulus W. of the moon, and again, 
 later on, before we left the island, when the sun 
 was east of the moon, and the results of these ob- 
 servations went to show that our longitude was 
 164 28' 34" W., and with that I rested content it 
 was under ten miles in error, as I afterwards found 
 out. 
 
 And now having got my timekeepers fairly going 
 with what I hoped was a G.M.T. near enough to 
 keep us from getting ashore, it is time for me to 
 apologise for this dull recital of my crude efforts 
 after ' Time and Place.' Happily for me I had for 
 a number of years taken a good deal of interest in
 
 268 APPENDIX 
 
 lunars, for I hold that this 'dead' (Lecky), 'this 
 foolish, though fascinating, problem ; (Dunraven), 
 deserves to be kept alive, not only because it might 
 be useful, as in our strange case, but also because 
 the man who is a good ' lunarian ' is, of a con- 
 sequence, a good all-round observer. Moreover the 
 calculations necessary to reach even a passable 
 result need care, and are themselves a mental 
 discipline. No one now proposes to navigate either 
 narrow channels or great oceans by lunars, nor, if 
 he can get a well-known point of land, or a time 
 signal, does he wish to rate his chronometers by 
 them. Nevertheless, I grieve over the disuse of 
 the ' lunar/ even as I sorrow over the passing of 
 the sailing ship.
 
 APRIL, 1901. 
 
 A SELECTED 
 
 LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 ANGUS & ROBERTSON 
 
 89 CASTLEREAGH STREET, SYDNEY 
 205 SWANSTON STREET, MELBOURNE 
 
 SOLD IN ENGLAND BY 
 
 THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK COMPANY 
 38 WEST SM1THF1ELD, LONDON, E.C.
 
 VERSES: POPULAR AND 
 HUMOROUS. 
 
 By HENRY LAWSON, Author of "When the 
 World was Wide, and Other Verses," " On the Track 
 and Over the Sliprails," and " While the Billy Boils." 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. 
 
 The Bulletin : " He is so very human that one's 
 humanity cannot but welcome him. ... To the 
 perpetuation of his value and fame many pieces in 
 ' Verses : Popular and Humorous/ will contribute." 
 
 Melbourne Ag"e : " They exhibit the old power of 
 rhythm, cynical humour, and knowledge of the seamy 
 side of Australian life, and will not lessen the writer's 
 claim to be the first of purely Australian authors." 
 
 Sydney Morning 1 Herald : " Buy the poems in one 
 volume or in two; for Henry Lawson painter, 
 rouseabout, shearer, and whatever else is all through 
 a poet." 
 
 The Queenslander : " It is to Lawson alone among 
 our poets that we must look if we want pen pictures 
 of the Never-Never and Out Back. Others have 
 essayed the drawing of these pictures, and have given 
 us, maybe, better verse ; but Lawson devotes his soul 
 to the hard, clear line of realism and no one can 
 draw that line more definitely." 
 
 Evening News : " They are always fresh, amusing, 
 pathetic, descriptive, human, original, strong, thrilling, 
 or poetic whichever mood you feel inclined to touch 
 upon."
 
 ON THE TRACK AND OVER 
 THE SLIPRAILS. 
 
 A New Volume of Australian Stories. 
 
 BY HENRY LAWSON, Author of "While the Billy 
 Boils ;" " When the World Was Wide and Other 
 Verses:" "Verses, Popular and Humorous." 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Glasgow Herald : " Mr. Lawson must now be 
 regarded as/aci/e princeps in the production of the 
 short tale. Some of these brief and even slight 
 sketches are veritable gems that would be spoiled by 
 an added word, and without a word that can be looked 
 upon as superfluous." 
 
 Sydney Morning 1 Herald : " It is not too much to 
 say for these sketches that they show an acquaintance 
 with bush life and an insight into the class of people 
 which is met with in this life that are hardly equalled 
 to-day in Australia." 
 
 Queenslander : "The ( yarns' are, of course, ' of 
 the bush bushy,' tales of hard, unending toil, grim 
 greyness of prospects, the hundred and one drawbacks 
 to life in the back blocks, which Lawson knows so 
 well and treats so cleverly." 
 
 Wellington (N.Z.) Evening Post: "His sketches 
 are literally alive with the life of the land which gave 
 them birth, and they cannot but appeal strongly to 
 all Australians." 
 
 Melbourne Punch : " Often the little stories are 
 wedges cut clean out of life, and presented with 
 artistic truth and vivid colour."
 
 WHILE THE BILLY BOILS. 
 
 Australian Stories. 
 
 BY HENRY LAWSON, Author of "When the World 
 Was Wide and Other Verses ;" " On the Track and 
 Over the Sliprails ;" "Verses, Popular and Humorous." 
 
 Fifth Edition, completing the Twenty-third 
 Thousand. With eight plates and vignette 
 title, by F. P. Mahony. Crown 8vo, cloth 
 gilt, 3s. 6d. 
 
 The Academy : ' ' A book of honest, direct, sympa- 
 thetic, humorous writing about Australia from within 
 is worth a library of travellers' tales. Mr. Lawson 
 shows us what living in the bush really means. The 
 result is a real book a book in a hundred. His 
 language is terse, supple, and richly idiomatic." 
 
 Mr. A. PATCHETT MARTIN, in Literature : " A book 
 which Mrs. Campbell Praed, the Australian novelist, 
 assured me made her feel that all she had written of 
 bush life was pale and ineffective." 
 
 The Spectator : " In these days when short, dra- 
 matic stories are eagerly looked for, it is strange that 
 one we would venture to call the greatest Australian 
 writer should be practically unknown in England. 
 Short stories, but biting into the very heart of the 
 bushman's life, ruthless in truth, extraordinarily 
 dramatic, and pathetically uneven " 
 
 The Times : " A collection of short and vigorous 
 studies and stories of Australian life and character. 
 A little in Bret Harte's manner, crossed, perhaps, with 
 that of Guy de Maupassant/'
 
 WHEN THE WORLD WAS WIDE 
 AND OTHER VERSES. 
 
 BY HENRY LAWSON, Author of "While the Billy 
 Boils ; " " On the Track and Over the Sliprails ; " 
 " Verses, Popular and Humorous." 
 
 Tenth Thousand. With photogravure por- 
 trait and vignette title. Crown 8vo, cloth 
 gilt, gilt top, 5s. 
 
 MR. R. LE GALLIENNE, in The Idler : " A striking 
 volume of ballad poetry. A volume to console one for 
 the tantalising postponement of Mr. Kipling's pro- 
 mised volume of sea ballads." 
 
 Newcastle Weekly Chronicle : " Swinging, rhyth- 
 mic verse." 
 
 Sydney Morning 1 Herald : " The verses have 
 natural vigour, the writer has arough, true faculty 
 of characterisation, and the book is racy of the soil 
 from cover to cover." 
 
 Melbourne Age : " ' In the Days when the World 
 was Wide and Other Verses/ by Henry Lawson, is 
 poetry, and some of it poetry of a very high order." 
 
 OtagO Witness : " It were well to have such books 
 upon our shelves . . . they are true history." 
 
 New Zealand Herald : " There is a heart-stirring 
 ring about the verses." 
 
 Bulletin : " How graphic he is, how natural, how 
 true, how strong."
 
 THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER 
 AND OTHER VERSES. 
 
 BY A. B. PATERSON. 
 
 Twenty-Second Thousand. With photo- 
 gravure portrait and vignette title. Crown 
 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt top, 5s. 
 
 The Literary Year Book : " The immediate 
 success of this book of bush ballads is without parallel 
 in Colonial literary annals, nor can any living English 
 or American poet boast so wide a public, always 
 excepting Mr. Eudyard Kipling." 
 
 The Times : " At his best he compares not unfavour- 
 ably with the author of ' Barrack Room Ballads/ ' 
 
 Spectator : " These lines have the true lyrical cry 
 in them. Eloquent and ardent verses." 
 
 Athenaeum : " Swinging, rattling ballads of ready 
 
 humour, ready pathos, and crowding adventure. 
 
 Stirring and entertaining ballads about great 
 
 rides, in which the lines gallop like the very hoofs of 
 
 the horses." 
 
 Mr. A. PATCHETT MARTIN, in Literature (London) : 
 "In my opinion it is the absolutely un-English, 
 thoroughly Australian style and character of these 
 new bush bards which has given them such immediate 
 popularity, such wide vogue, among all classes of the 
 rising native generation." 
 
 London: Macmillan tk Co., Limited.
 
 AT DAWN AND DUSK: POEMS. 
 
 BY VICTOR J. DALEY. 
 
 Third Thousand. With photogravure 
 portrait and vignette title. Crown 8vo, 
 cloth gilt, gilt top, 5s. 
 
 The Bookman : " Most of these verses had already 
 seen the light in Australia, but they are worth more 
 permanent form. They are very full of graceful 
 .poetic fancy musically expressed." 
 
 The Australasian : " It is unmistakable poetry . . 
 . Mr. Daley has a gift of delicate construction 
 there is barely a crude idea or a thought roughly 
 moulded in the book." 
 
 RHYMES FROM THE MINES 
 AND OTHER LINES. 
 
 BY EDWARD DYSON, Author of "A Golden Shanty.' 
 
 Second Thousand. With photogravure 
 portrait and vignette title. Crown 8vo, 
 cloth gilt, gilt top, 5s. 
 
 The Academy : " Here from within we have the 
 Australian miner complete : the young miner, the old 
 miner, the miner in luck, and the miner out of it, the 
 miner in love, and the miner in peril. Mr. Dyson 
 knows it all. What we prize in Mr. Dyson, as in Mr. 
 Lawson, is the presentation of some observed oddity 
 of human nature."
 
 WHERE THE DEAD MEN LIE 
 AND OTHER POEMS. 
 
 Br BARCROFT HENRY BOAKE. 
 
 Third Thousand. With portrait and 32 
 illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt 
 top, 5s. 
 
 J. BRUNTON STEPHENS, in The Bulletin: "Boake's 
 work is often praised for its local colour; but it has 
 something better than that. It has atmosphere 
 Australian atmosphere, that makes you feel the air of 
 the place breathe the breath of the life." 
 
 THE MUTINEER 
 
 A Romance of Pitcairn Island. 
 
 By LOUIS BECKE AND WALTER JEFFERY. 
 
 New Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. 
 
 FOR THE TERM OF HIS 
 NATURAL LIFE. 
 
 By MARCUS CLARKE. 
 
 With a Memoir of the Author, by A. B. 
 PATERSON, 15 full page plates and a por- 
 trait, Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt top, 3s. 6d.
 
 TEENS. A Story of Australian Schoolgirls. 
 BY LOUISE MACK. 
 
 Third Thousand. With 14 full-page illus- 
 trations by F. P. Mahony. Crown 8vo, cloth 
 gilt, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Sydney Morning: Herald : " Ought to be welcome 
 to all who feel the responsibility of choosing the read- 
 ing books of the young ... its gaiety, impulsiveness, 
 and youthfulness will charm them." 
 
 Sydney Daily Telegraph : " Nothing could be 
 more natural, more sympathetic." 
 
 The Australasian : " 'Teens' is a pleasantly-written 
 story, very suitable for a present or a school prize." 
 
 Bulletin : " It is written so well that it could not be 
 written better." 
 
 GIRLS TOGETHER. 
 
 A Sequel to " Teens." BY LOUISE MACK. 
 
 Second Thousand. Illustrated by G. W. 
 Lambert. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Sydney Morning Herald: "'Girls Together' should 
 be in the library of every girl who likes a pleasant 
 story of real life. . . Older people will read it for 
 its bright touches of human nature." 
 
 Queenslander : "A story told in a dainty style that 
 makes it attractive to all. It is fresh, bright, and 
 cheery, and well worth a place on any Australian 
 bookshelf."
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE BUSH FIRE 
 AND OTHER AUSTRALIAN FAIRY 
 
 TALES. BY J - M - WHITPELD. 
 
 Second Thousand. With 32 illustrations 
 by G. W. Lambert. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 
 3s. 6d. 
 
 Sydney Morning" Herald : "It is frankly written 
 for the young folks. The youngster will find a delight 
 in Miss Whitfeld's marvellous company." 
 
 South Australian Register : " A number of fas- 
 cinating creations of the imagination . . . will last 
 and be popular." 
 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN 
 BUSH RANGING. BY CHARLES WHITE. 
 
 To be completed in two vols. Crown 8vo, 
 cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. each. [Vol. I. now ready. 
 
 Press Notices of Volume I. 
 
 Year Book Of Australia : " There is ' romance ' 
 enough about it to make it of permanent interest as a 
 peculiar and most remarkable stage in our social 
 history." 
 
 Queenslander : " A highly-acceptable resume of the 
 conditions of life in the colonies during the early days. 
 Mr. White has supplied material enough for twenty 
 such novels as ' Robbery Under Arms.' " 
 
 10
 
 OUR ARMY IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 By R. SCOT SKIRVING, late Consulting Surgeon to 
 the Australian Contingents. 
 
 Crown 8vo, paper cover, 2s. 
 
 THE ANNOTATED CONSTITU- 
 TION OF THE AUSTRALIAN 
 COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 By Sir JOHN QUICK, LL.D., AND R. R. GARRAN, 
 C.M.G. 
 
 Royal 8vo, cloth gilt, 36s. 
 
 Sydney Morning" Herald : " There has been a wide 
 field for research, and the authors have not drawn 
 back from the labour involved in working it. Indeed, 
 every page of this large volume bears witness to the 
 energy and discriminating care which they have 
 brought to bear on their task." 
 
 Melbourne ArgUS : " The authors may be warmly 
 thanked for a book which has a value inadequately 
 represented by the price charged for it. It goes 
 without saying that persons who have reason for 
 seeking an intimate knowledge of the constitution 
 politicians and journalists particularly will gladly 
 avail themselves of the assistance now placed within 
 their reach." 
 
 The Bulletin : " It is a work which no student of 
 the Commonwealth can afford to be without. It repre- 
 sents an enormous amount of brain-sweat and general 
 research, and is at present far and away the standard 
 work on the subject." 
 
 11
 
 THE GROWTH OF THE EMPIRE. 
 
 A Handbook to the History of Greater Britain. 
 
 BY ARTHUR W. JOSE, Author of " A Short History 
 of Australasia." 
 
 Second Edition. With 14 Maps. Crown 
 8vo, cloth gilt, 5s. 
 
 Morning: Post : " This book is published in Sydney, 
 but it deserves to be circulated throughout the United 
 Kingdom. The picture of the fashion in which British 
 enterprise made its way from settlement to settlement 
 has never been drawn more vividly than in these pages. 
 Mr. Jose's style is crisp and pleasant, now and then 
 even rising to eloquence on his grand theme. His 
 book deserves wide popularity, and it has the rare 
 merit of being so written as to be attractive alike to 
 the young student and to the mature man of letters." 
 
 Literature : " He has studied thoroughly, and 
 writes vigorously. . . . Admirably done. 
 We commend it to Britons the world over." 
 
 Saturday Review " He writes Imperially ; he also 
 often writes sympathetically. . . . We cannot 
 close Mr. Jose's creditable account of our misdoings 
 without a glow of national pride." 
 
 Yorkshire Post : " A brighter short history we do 
 not know, and this book deserves for the matter and 
 the manner of it to be as well known as Mr. 
 McCarthy's * History of Our Own Times.' ' 
 
 The Scotsman': "This admirable work is a solid 
 octavo of more than 400 pages. It is thoughful, well 
 written, and well- arranged history. There are fourteen 
 excellent maps to illustrate the text." 
 
 12
 
 HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA. 
 
 From the Earliest Times to the Inauguration of the 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 BY ARTHUR W. JOSE, Author of " The Growth of 
 the Empire." The chapter on Federation revised by 
 R. R. Garran, C.M.G. 
 
 With 6 maps and 64 portraits and illustra- 
 tions. Crown 8vo, cloth, Is. 6d.; paper 
 cover, Is. 
 
 Town and Country Journal : " His language is 
 graphic and simple, and he has maintained the unity 
 and continuity of the story of events despite the 
 necessity of following the subject along the seven 
 branches corresponding with the seven separate 
 colonies. The whole book shows evidence of much 
 careful work and a large amount of research among 
 the original sources of information." 
 
 Sydney Daily Telegraph : "There was ample room 
 for a cleverly-condensed, clear, and yet thoroughly live 
 account of these colonies, such as Mr. Jose now 
 presents us with." 
 
 The Australasian : " It is a useful summary of the 
 eventful history of Australia, Tasmania, and New 
 Zealand, from the voyages of De Quiros and Torres 
 down to the virtual accomplishment of federation." 
 
 West Australian : " A valuable feature about this 
 little work is its accuracy. This, with the author, has 
 evidently been a condition precedent, and in pursuance 
 of it he has had recourse to original sources for his 
 information, and to specially authentic and contem- 
 porary documents." 
 
 13
 
 THE GEOLOGY OF SYDNEY AND 
 THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 A Popular Introduction to the Study of Australian 
 Geology. 
 
 BY REV. J. MILNE CURRAN, Lecturer in 
 Chemistry and Geology, Technical College, Sydney. 
 
 Second Edition. With a Glossary of Scien- 
 tific terms, a Reference List of commonly- 
 occurring Fossils, 2 coloured maps, and 83 
 illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6s. 
 
 Nature : " This is, strictly speaking, an elementary 
 manual of geology. The general plan of the work is 
 good ; the book is well printed and illustrated with 
 maps, photographic pictures of rock structure and 
 scenery,, and figures of fossils and rock sections." 
 
 Melbourne ArgUS : " The book is written in a 
 popular style, and it deals with a subject of general 
 and perpetual interest. As a handbook for schools in 
 which it is desired to interest the advanced classes 
 in the study of nature, the volume has great value." 
 
 Sydney Morning Herald: "Mr. Curran is the 
 most admirable guide that any geological student can 
 require for the interpretation of the hieroglyphics of 
 Nature." 
 
 South Australian Register : " Mr. Curran has ex- 
 tracted a charming narrative of the earth's history out 
 of the prosaic stone. Though he has selected Sydney 
 rocks for his text, his discourse is interestingly Aus- 
 tralian." 
 
 14
 
 SIMPLE TESTS FOR MINERALS; 
 
 Or, Every Man his Own Analyst. 
 
 BY JOSEPH CAMPBELL, M.A., F.G.S., M.I. ME. 
 
 Fourth Edition, revised and enlarged (com- 
 pleting the ninth thousand). With illus- 
 trations. Cloth, round corners, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Newcastle Morning- Herald : " The book is a 
 thoroughly practical one." 
 
 Bundaberg 1 Star : " A handy and useful book for 
 miners and all interested in the mining industry." 
 
 Daylesford Advocate : " A very useful and valu- 
 able work." 
 
 Bendigx) Evening 1 Mail : " Should be in every 
 prospector's kit. It enables any intelligent man to 
 ascertain for himself whether any mineral he may 
 discover has a commercial value." 
 
 Omeo Standard : " Exactly the work required." 
 
 Bendig-0 Advertiser : " To those engaged in pros- 
 pecting for minerals this book should be invaluable." 
 
 QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS; 
 
 Notes and Tables for the Use of Students. 
 
 BY REV. J. MILNE CURRAN, Lecturer in Chemistry 
 
 and Geology, Technical College, Sydney, Author of 
 "The Geology of Sydney and the Blue Mountains." 
 
 With illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, 
 4s. 6d. 
 
 15
 
 THE KINGSWOOD COOKERY 
 BOOK. 
 
 BY MRS. WICKEN, M.C.A., Late Teacher of Cookery, 
 Technical College, Sydney. 
 
 Fifth edition, revised, completing the Nine- 
 teenth Thousand. 382 pages, crown 8vo, 
 paper cover, Is.; cloth, Is. 6d. 
 
 %* This is the largest book ever published at 
 the price in Australia. 
 
 ANNOUNCEMENTS 
 
 RIO GRANDE'S LAST RACE AND OTHER 
 VERSES. 
 
 By A. B. PATERSON, author of " The Man 
 from Snowy River." Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 
 gilt top, 5s. 
 
 HISTORY OF 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BUSHRANGING. 
 
 By CHARLES WHITE. Vol. 21863 to 
 1878, illustrated, crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. 
 
 THE POETICAL WORKS OF 
 BRUNTON STEPHENS. 
 
 With photogravure portrait, crown 8vo, cloth 
 gilt, gilt top, 5s.
 
 II I I II II I II 1 1 I II II I 1 1 I II II 
 
 A 001 193 612 7