Which distant seas keep lonely;
A noble island, in whose face
The stars are watchers only.
Those bright still stars! they need not seem
Brighter or stiller in my dream.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
In the nineteenth degree of north latitude1, and one hundred and fifty-five degrees west, lies a large and important island, one of a group stretching for several hundred miles in a north-westerly direction. At the date of this tale, it was wholly unknown, except to its aborigines. Situated2 in the centre of the vast North Pacific, not another inhabitable land within thousands of miles, it was quietly biding3 its destiny, when in the circumnavigating advance of civilization westward4 to its original seat in the Orient, it should become a new centre of commerce and Christianity; and, as it were, an Inn of nature’s own building on the great highway of nations.
Up to this time, however, not a sail had ever been seen from its shores. Nothing had ever reached them within the memories of its population, to disprove to them that their horizon was not the limits of the world, and that they were not its sole possessors. It is true, that in the songs of their[30] bards5, there were faint traces of a more extended knowledge, but so faint as to have lost all meaning to the masses, who in themselves saw the entire human race.
Hawaii, for such was the aboriginal6 name of the largest and easternmost island, was a fitting ocean-beacon to guide the mariner7 to hospitable8 shores. Rising as it does fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, snow-capped in places, in others shooting up thick masses of fire and smoke from active volcanoes, it could be seen for a great distance on the water, except, as was often the case, it was shrouded9 in dense10 clouds. Generally, either the gigantic dome11 of Mauna Loa, which embosomed an active crater12 of twenty-seven miles in circumference13 on its summit, which was more than two and a half miles high, or the still loftier, craggy and frost-clad peaks of Mauna Kea, met the sight long before its picturesque14 coast-line came into view. As usually seen at a long distance, these two mountain summits, so nigh each other and yet so unlike in outline, seemingly repose15 on a bed of clouds, like celestial16 islands floating in ether. This illusion is the more complete from their great elevation17, and coming as they do with their lower drapery of vapor18, so suddenly upon the sight of the voyager, after weeks, and, as it often happens, months of ocean solitude19.
Nowhere does nature display a more active laboratory or on a grander scale. At her bidding, fire and water here meet, and, amid throes, explosions, upheavings and submergings, the outpourings of[31] liquid rock, the roars of a burning ocean, hissing22, recoiling24 and steaming at the base of fiery25 mountains, which amid quakings and thunders shoot up high into air, not only flame and smoke, but give birth to other mountains, which run in fluid masses to the shore forming new coast-lines, she gradually creates to herself fresh domains26 out of the fathomless27 sea, destined28 by a slower and more peaceful process to be finally fitted for the abode29 of man. For ages before the human race appeared, this fierce labor20 had been going on. Slowly decreasing in violence as the solid fabric30 arose from the sea, the vegetable and animal kingdom at last successively claimed their right to colonize31 the land thus prepared for them. Nature, however, had not yet finished the substructure; for although she had extinguished a portion of her fires and allowed the forests to grow in some spots in undisturbed luxuriance, yet there were others still active and on a scale to be seen nowhere else on the globe. At intervals32, rarer as they became older, they belched33 forth34 ruin, to add in time greater stability and more fertility to the new-formed earth.
Even to this day, Hawaii continues in a transition state. The vast agencies to which the island owes its origin, not unfrequently shake it to its centre, giving a new impetus35 to its geological growth. Sometimes it rocks, so it seems, on its centre, and alternately rising and falling, the ocean invades the land, sweeping36 from the coast by its fast rushing tide,—piled up by its velocity37 into such a wall of water as in its recoil23 overwhelmed Pharaoh’s host[32] in the Red Sea,—whole villages, and carrying off numbers of their struggling population to perish in its vortex. So rapid is its reflux and over so vast a space, that it often leaves bare its own bed, with the finny tribes stranded38 amid its coral forests, or flapping helplessly on its sandy bottom. When this phenomenon occurs it is generally in quick successive waves, without previous warning, and so rapidly, that were it not for the amphibious habits of the islanders, the destruction of life would be great.
The sister islands further to the west have long since ceased to fear earthquake or volcanic39 eruption40. Their surfaces are covered with extinct craters41, lined in general with verdure and melodious42 with the notes of birds. Around each of the group, by the labors43 of the tiniest of her creatures, as if to show how the feeblest agencies at her bidding can control the strongest, Nature is slowly but surely constructing a coral frame, a fit setting to her sunny picture. The busy little zo?phyte, by its minute industry sets that bound to the ocean, which Canute in all his power was unable to do. Over its barriers and through its vegetable-like forms, trees and shrubs44, blossoms and flowers, rich in every hue45 which gives beauty to the land, the rushing wave can pass only by giving toll46 to these water bees. They have not to seek their food, but they make the everlasting47 waters bring it to their door, and pour over them, in their struggle to reach the shore, a glad symphony of power and praise.
On the northeast of Hawaii lies a deep bay,[33] fringed with coral reefs, but in many places presenting high cliffs, precipitous masses of volcanic rock, rent by deep chasms48, or forming valleys through which pour streams of fresh water along banks of surpassing fertility. Everywhere the soil is good and the vegetation profuse49. Numerous cascades50 tumble from the hills in all directions, giving life and music to the scene. Some are mere51 threads of water lost in spray amid rainbow arches, before reaching the rocky basins underneath52. Others shoot from precipices53, waving, foaming54 torrents56, which thunder over stream-worn rocks, far away beneath in sunless and almost inaccessible57 dells. Emerging from these into placid58 rivers, they flow quietly on till meeting the incoming surges of the ocean, which, as they struggle over the coral bars at their mouths, whiten their surfaces with foam55 and break into eddies59 and uncertain currents, creating trying navigation for the frail60 canoes of the islanders.
The vegetation was unequal in luxuriance. In some spots it pushed its verdure quite into the brine, which not unfrequently watered the roots of trees that overhung it. In others, broad belts of sand came between the grasses and the water. These glistened61 in the sun’s rays in contrast with the back ground of dense green, like burnished62 metal. Earth, the provident63 mother, had not, however, so overdone64 her good works, as in some of the more southern groups to provide a meal without other labor than plucking. There were fine groves65 of the different species of food-bearing palms,—orchards[34] of bread-fruit and other kinds of trees, from which man could derive66 both sustenance67 and material to clothe and house him; but for these purposes and the culture of the taro68 plant, which was his main resource, no little labor and skill were necessary.
Metals were unknown. The animal and feathered creature were scanty69 in species and numbers, and much of the island surface was still a wilderness70 of basaltic rock or fields of lava71 and cinders72. But such was the salubrity of the climate and the activity of nature, that its resources for the comfort, and to a considerable degree of the civilization of man, were making rapid development; not sufficient as yet to release him from the active exercise of his faculties73, and thus induce a sensual repose, but just enough to reward him for exertion74, while indolence was sure to beget75 actual want.
The little caravel with her famished76 and sickly crew that we left in the midst of the North Pacific, rolling before a fresh breeze from the northeast, which proved to be the regular trade-wind, had continued her course for several days in the same direction. During this time, several others of the ship’s company had died and been cast overboard. Frequent showers, and the occasional catching77 of flying-fish, and now and then a dolphin or porpoise78, did somewhat to restore the physical energies of the survivors79, while the balmy condition of the air, the exhilaration of rapid motion, and the prospect80 of novel adventure, had much weight in raising the spirits of all.
[35]
Still there were no indications of land. The sun had set for the tenth time behind the same purple canopy81 of clouds; the same birds screamed and flew overhead; the waves rose and toppled after them with gushing82 foam, just so high and no higher; the sails bellied83 out with monotonous84 fulness; not a rope was stirred nor oar21 moved; on, on, rolled the caravel, now dipping this bulwark85, now that, surging aside the water and trailing it in her wake with the noise of a mill-course; no variety, except that the north-star sank lower each night, until the very evenness of their way, hour answering to hour and day to day, began to beget in them a feeling of doubt as to the actual existence of land in the direction they were heading. This, combined with the weariness which inevitably86 steals over the senses when long at sea without change, led to greater carelessness in the night-watches. They fancied themselves borne onward87 by a fate which their own precautions could neither alter nor avert88. Hence it was, that having worn out conjecture89 and argument as to their positive and probable destiny, they had on the tenth evening more than ordinarily abandoned themselves to chance. The day had been thicker than usual, and there was no light at night except the uncertain twinkling of stars through driving masses of clouds.
All except the helmsman slept. He dozed90. Habit kept him sufficiently91 awake to keep the caravel to her course, but nothing more. Suddenly a dull, weighty sound was heard, like the roll of[36] heavy waters, dying slowly away in the distance. Another; then another; quicker and quicker, each louder and nearer. The caravel was lifted high on one sea and fell heavily into the trough of another, rolling so uneasily as to start up all on board. At this moment the pilot, catching the gleam of a long line of breakers, hoarsely92 shouted “all hands, quick, or by the saints we are lost,” at the same moment putting the helm hard down to bring her into the wind. He was too late. The craft fell broadside into the rollers and became unmanageable. The mast snapped off close to the deck, and was pitched into the water to the leeward93. At the same instant a grinding, crushing sound was heard underneath, as the caravel was lifted and thrown heavily upon the reef, breaking in the floor timbers and flooding her hold with water. It was too dark to distinguish anything but the white crest94 of the breakers all around, while their noise prevented any orders being distinctly heard. Indeed so sudden and complete was the disaster, that there was nothing to be done by the crew but to cling to the wreck95 and passively await their fate. Death came soon to a number, who were washed overboard and taken by the undertow seaward, where sharks fed upon them. Waves washed over the vessel96 in quick succession, gradually breaking her up. The after cabin held together longest, affording some shelter to its occupants. In a little while, however, even this was gone. All left on board were floated off, they knew not whither, clinging to whatever they could grasp, and rolled over in the surf until[37] most of them became insensible. Beatriz, however, retained her presence of mind, and aided by the almost superhuman efforts of Tolta, a Mexican captive, was finally cast upon a soft beach, without other injury than a few skin bruises97 and the swallowing of a little water, of which she was soon relieved. It was too dark to learn the fate of the others. Dragging themselves beyond the wash of the breakers, in anxious suspense98 they awaited daybreak to disclose more fully99 their situation.
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1
latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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3
biding
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| v.等待，停留( bide的现在分词 )；居住；（过去式用bided）等待；面临 | |
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4
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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5
bards
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| n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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7
mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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8
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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10
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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11
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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12
crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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13
circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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14
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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15
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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16
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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17
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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18
vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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19
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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20
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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21
oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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22
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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23
recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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24
recoiling
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| v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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26
domains
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| n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产 | |
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27
fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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28
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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29
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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30
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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31
colonize
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| v.建立殖民地，拓殖；定居，居于 | |
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32
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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33
belched
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| v.打嗝( belch的过去式和过去分词 )；喷出，吐出；打（嗝）；嗳（气） | |
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34
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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36
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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37
velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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38
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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39
volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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40
eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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41
craters
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| n.火山口( crater的名词复数 )；弹坑等 | |
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42
melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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43
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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44
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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45
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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46
toll
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| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
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47
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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48
chasms
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| 裂缝( chasm的名词复数 )； 裂口； 分歧； 差别 | |
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49
profuse
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| adj.很多的，大量的，极其丰富的 | |
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50
cascades
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| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
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51
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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52
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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53
precipices
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| n.悬崖，峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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54
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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55
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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56
torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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57
inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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58
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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59
eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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60
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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61
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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63
provident
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| adj.为将来做准备的，有先见之明的 | |
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64
overdone
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| v.做得过分( overdo的过去分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度 | |
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65
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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66
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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67
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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68
taro
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| n.芋，芋头 | |
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69
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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70
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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71
lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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72
cinders
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| n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 )；炭渣；煤渣路；煤渣跑道 | |
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73
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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74
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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75
beget
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| v.引起；产生 | |
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76
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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77
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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78
porpoise
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| n.鼠海豚 | |
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79
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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80
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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81
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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82
gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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bellied
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| adj.有腹的，大肚子的 | |
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84
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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85
bulwark
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| n.堡垒，保障，防御 | |
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86
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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87
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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89
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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90
dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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91
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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92
hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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93
leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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94
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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96
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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97
bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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98
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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99
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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