- end_line
- 11473
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.153Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 11397
- text
- tarry awhile in Imeeo.
I turned the matter over: and at last decided upon quitting the island.
The impulse urging me to sea once more, and the prospect of eventually
reaching home, were too much to be resisted; especially as the
Leviathan, so comfortable a craft, was now bound on her last whaling
cruise, and, in little more than a year’s time, would be going round
Cape Horn.
I did not, however, covenant to remain in the vessel for the residue of
the voyage; which would have been needlessly binding myself. I merely
stipulated for the coming cruise, leaving my subsequent movements
unrestrained; for there was no knowing that I might not change my mind,
and prefer journeying home by short and easy stages.
The next day I paddled off to the ship, signed and sealed, and stepped
ashore with my “advance”—fifteen Spanish dollars—tasseling the ends of
my neck-handkerchief.
I forced half of the silver on Long Ghost; and having little use for
the remainder, would have given it to Po-Po as some small return for
his kindness; but, although he well knew the value of the coin, not a
dollar would he accept.
In three days’ time the Prussian came to Po-Po’s, and told us that the
captain, having made good the number of his crew by shipping several
islanders, had determined upon sailing with the land breeze at dawn the
following morning. These tidings were received in the afternoon. The
doctor immediately disappeared, returning soon after with a couple of
flasks of wine concealed in the folds of his frock. Through the agency
of the Marquesan, he had purchased them from an understrapper of the
court.
I prevailed upon Po-Po to drink a parting shell; and even little Loo,
actually looking conscious that one of her hopeless admirers was about
leaving Partoowye for ever, sipped a few drops from a folded leaf. As
for the warm-hearted Arfretee, her grief was unbounded. She even
besought me to spend my last night under her own palm-thatch; and then,
in the morning, she would herself paddle me off to the ship.
But this I would not consent to; and so, as something to remember her
by, she presented me with a roll of fine matting, and another of tappa.
These gifts placed in my hammock, I afterward found very agreeable in
the warm latitudes to which we were bound; nor did they fail to awaken
most grateful remembrances.
About nightfall, we broke away from this generous-hearted household,
and hurried down to the water.
It was a mad, merry night among the sailors; they had on tap a small
cask of wine, procured in the same way as the doctor’s flasks.
An hour or two after midnight, everything was noiseless; but when the
first streak of the dawn showed itself over the mountains, a sharp
voice hailed the forecastle, and ordered the ship unmoored.
The anchors came up cheerily; the sails were soon set; and with the
early breath of the tropical morning, fresh and fragrant from the
hillsides, we slowly glided down the bay, and were swept through the
opening in the reef. Presently we “hove to,” and the canoes came
alongside to take off the islanders who had accompanied us thus far. As
he stepped over the side, I shook the doctor long and heartily by the
hand. I have never seen or heard of him since.
Crowding all sail, we braced the yards square; and, the breeze
freshening, bowled straight away from the land. Once more the sailor’s
cradle rocked under me, and I found myself rolling in my gait.
By noon, the island had gone down in the horizon; and all before us was
the wide Pacific.
- title
- Chunk 3