Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/166

 feet. To escape from our tormentors we sought shelter in the tops and cross-trees. Here they were not so numerous, but they were just as ravenous, and their bite equally venomous.

At noon we passed the islands of Honga Tonga and Honga Hapai. On the 5th we made Turtle and several other small islands. After leaving Tonga all hands were more or less afflicted with ulcers, caused by those terrible  mosquito bites. The sores were inflammatory, and difficult to cure. During the night we had a strong wind from the sou’east. The ship was hove to, to wait for daylight. Just at dawn we discovered several small islands close aboard on our lee bows, also a large reef right  ahead. Our close vicinity to them was caused by a strong current setting to the northward. Had darkness continued a little longer, no doubt our ship would have  been wrecked, and the crew massacred by the natives.

May 6. Weather hazy, with heavy gale blowing from the south. Ship under close-reefed top-sails. It is not very pleasant to cruise in bad weather where there are  so many sunken reefs and shoals as are found in these  seas.

May 7. Weather fair, with a light wind from the south, and a heavy, chop sea. At daylight we found ourselves surrounded with several beautiful islands, girt  about by coral reefs. It was a grand sight to view them from aloft, and see the deep-blue waters of the ocean  curling into white foam, and dashing its silvery spray  over them. When the rising sun shone upon them the scene was gorgeous, the surf having the appearance of  beautiful rainbows resting on the bosom of the ocean.