Chapter 1

Foot In Stirrup

We are off! The courses and topsails are set: the coral-hung anchor
swings from the bow: and together, the three royals are given to the
breeze, that follows us out to sea like the baying of a hound. Out
spreads the canvas--alow, aloft-boom-stretched, on both sides, with
many a stun' sail; till like a hawk, with pinions poised, we shadow
the sea with our sails, and reelingly cleave the brine.

But whence, and whither wend ye, mariners?

We sail from Ravavai, an isle in the sea, not very far northward from
the tropic of Capricorn, nor very far westward from Pitcairn's
island, where the mutineers of the Bounty settled. At Ravavai I had
stepped ashore some few months previous; and now was embarked on a
cruise for the whale, whose brain enlightens the world.

And from Ravavai we sail for the Gallipagos, otherwise called the
Enchanted Islands, by reason of the many wild currents and eddies
there met.

Now, round about those isles, which Dampier once trod, where the
Spanish bucaniers once hived their gold moidores, the Cachalot, or
sperm whale, at certain seasons abounds.

But thither, from Ravavai, your craft may not fly, as flies the
sea-gull, straight to her nest. For, owing to the prevalence of
the trade winds, ships bound to the northeast from the vicinity of
Ravavai are fain to take something of a circuit; a few thousand miles
or so. First, in pursuit of the variable winds, they make all haste
to the south; and there, at length picking up a stray breeze, they
stand for the main: then, making their easting, up helm, and away
down the coast, toward the Line.

This round-about way did the Arcturion take; and in all conscience a
weary one it was. Never before had the ocean appeared so monotonous;
thank fate, never since.

But bravo! in two weeks' time, an event. Out of the gray of the
morning, and right ahead, as we sailed along, a dark object rose out
of the sea; standing dimly before us, mists wreathing and curling
aloft, and creamy breakers frothing round its base.--We turned aside,
and, at length, when day dawned, passed Massafuero. With a glass,
we spied two or three hermit goats winding down to the sea, in a
ravine; and presently, a signal: a tattered flag upon a summit beyond.
Well knowing, however, that there was nobody on the island but two or
three noose-fulls of runaway convicts from Chili, our captain had no
mind to comply with their invitation to land. Though, haply, he may
have erred in not sending a boat off with his card.

A few days more and we "took the trades." Like favors snappishly
conferred, they came to us, as is often the case, in a very sharp
squall; the shock of which carried away one of our spars; also our