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.
The next morning the island of Maui was seen in the distance. Then
Molokai and Lanai; and the morning following, when we arose, we were
sailing alongside of Oahu, the island on which the town of Honolulu,
the capital of the kingdom, is situated.
Chapter 3
Honolulu, Its Location and Harbor--Prayer to the Almighty--The Elders
Separate, and Commence Labor on the Four Principal Islands
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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