Karemaku is suffering under a confirmed dropsy. Lord Byron's surgeon tapped him; but, by the time we arrived, the increase of his disorder required a repetition of the operation; it was performed with great success by our surgeon. But it is impossible he can survive long, and his death will be the signal of a general insurrection, which Bengham's folly will certainly have accelerated.
Our second visit to Hanaruro was as disagreeable as the first had been pleasant: even our best friend, Nomahanna, was quite altered, and received us with coldness and taciturnity, we therefore laid in our stock of provisions and fresh water as quickly as possible, and rejoiced in being at liberty to take leave of a country from whence one wrong-headed man has banished cheerfulness and content.
Several whalers were lying in the harbour, and among them the Englishman we had met with in St. Francisco, and who had then been so unsuccessful. Fortune had since been more propitious to him, and he was now returning from the coast of Japan with a rich cargo of spermaceti valued at twenty-five thousand pounds sterling: he had touched here to take in provisions for his voyage homewards.
I learnt from another captain the particulars of an accident that had happened to one of his companions, which shows the dangers whale-fishers are exposed to, and is a singular example of a providential escape.
A North American, Captain Smith, sailed in the year 1820 in a three-masted ship, the Albatross, for the South Sea, in pursuit of the spermaceti whale. When nearly under the Line, west of Washington's Island, they perceived a whale of an extraordinary size. The boats were all immediately lowered, and, to make the capture more sure, they were manned with the whole crew: the cook's mate alone remained at the helm, and the ship lay-to. The monster, as it peaceably floated on the surface of the water, was eagerly followed, and harpooned. On feeling the stroke of the weapon, it lashed its powerful tail with fury, and the boat nearest it was obliged to dart with all speed out of the way, to avoid instant destruction. The whale then turned its vengeance on the ship, swam several times round her with prodigious noise, and then struck her so violently on the bows, that the cook's mate could compare the effect of the blow only to the shock of an earthquake. The fish disappeared, but the tremendous leak the ship had sprung sank her in five minutes with all that she contained. Her solitary guardian was with difficulty saved.
The crew were now left in four open boats, several weeks' voyage from the nearest land, and with no provision but the little biscuit they happened to have with them. After a long discussion upon the best course to pursue, they separated: two of the boats steered for the Washington or Marquesas Isles; and the other two, with the Captain in one of them, towards the south, for the island of Juan Fernandez. The former have not since been heard of; but the latter were, a fortnight afterwards, picked up by a vessel, when the captain and four only of his men were found alive: the other ten had died of hunger, and their corpses had afforded nourishment to the survivors.
On the 19th of September, when the first rays of the sun were gilding the romantic mountains of Wahu, we spread our sails, and bade adieu to the Sandwich Islands, heartily wishing them what they so greatly want—another Tameamea, not in name only, but in spirit and in deed.
THE PESCADORES,
THE RIMSKI-KORSAKOFF,
THE ESCHSCHOLTZ,
AND THE
BRONUS ISLES.