My Last Cruise; Or, Where We Went and What We Saw an Account of Visits to the Malay and Loo-Choo Islands [&C] (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857 Excerpt: ...no observations for some days, were enveloped in a fog that might apparently have been 'cut with a knife, ' knew that strong and unknown currents swept around us, had no chart from which to get even an idea of said northeastern coast, were any thing but certain as to our locality, felt that a gale of wind was coming down upon us, and were nervously anxious to reach shelter in the harbour of Ha-ko-da-di before night. This harbour was supposed to be some fifty miles off; that was where our dead reckoning placed it: but then dead reckoning was proverbially unreliable, and the unknown currents already alluded to only added to this uncertainty. We were steering what we also supposed to be the right course to make the northeast point of Nipon, before starting to cross the straits that separated it from Jesso, so that we might use it as a fresh starting-point in finding our way WHERE ARE WE RUNNING TO? 259 through the fog; but we had expected to discover it before breakfast, and it was now getting toward noon, and there was still nothing to be seen but fog, fog, and occasionally a heavy-winged sea-bird breaking through its dense folds, hovering over us for a moment, and then darting away from sight as suddenly as it had appeared. "We were going along very fast, too, for the 'old John, '--at least eight or nine knots the hour; for the wind and sea were both astern, and, like any other collection of matter, she could not have stood still under such circumstances had she been so disposed. Besides, we had also got up steam that morning, and the boiling water under her Dutch galliot-like stern told that the propeller was also lending a hand to urge her ahead. No wonder, then, that she waddled along through the water and fog at the above unusual rate. "This unus...