My First Mission

by George Q. Cannon

In considering our narrow escape, afterwards, we felt to give the glory of our deliverance to God. We were His servants, and on His business, and He had preserved us.

That night was one of great anxiety to the captain, officers and crew. Notwithstanding our sickness, we also realized that we were in a critical position, and exerted all the faith we could.

The captain had his wife with him, and so little hope did he have at one time of saving the vessel, that he told her to prepare for eternity, for he did not think we would ever see daylight in this world again.

At last the morning dawned, the storm died away, and we were enabled to take our course.

Oh, the blessed daylight! How joyfully it was hailed on board that vessel! It did not relieve us from our sea-sickness, but it did from our peril.

Several days elapsed before the captain recovered from his fatigue and hoarseness, caused by shouting his orders that night.

The Imaum of Muscat was bound for the East Indies, but was to touch at the Sandwich Islands. We were glad that we had to go no farther, so it was with positive delight that we learned after being nearly four weeks on board, that we would soon be at the end of our voyage.

The sight of land is most welcome to those who have been weeks at sea, especially if they have suffered from sea-sickness. To our eyes, therefore, the rough, mountainous isles of the Hawaiian group were very beautiful. We longed to tread upon them.

For myself, I was scarcely intended for a sailor. I am very easily made sick by the motion of a vessel on the water, and no amount of going to sea prevents this. Some years since, while crossing the Atlantic, I lay sea-sick in my berth, and to divert my mind, I tried to recall the number of different times I had been in that condition. I counted upwards of fifty distinct occasions that I had suffered from this sensation, and I have been sea-sick a number of times since.

During the night we passed the island of Hawaii, the largest of the group, and the one on which Captain Cook, the first white man (so far as known) who discovered these islands, was killed.