Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/209

 CHAPTER XIII.

surveying several small islands and reefs we arrived at Muthewater. The next day King Tuembooa came on board with many hogs and yams as a present  to "the big white chief," the commodore. They were accepted.

August 10. Sunday morning at four bells all hands were called to Divine service. The flags of the squadron were at half-mast, and a deathlike silence pervaded the  ship. All hands, officers and men, listened to the solemn discourse of our chaplain, from the texts, "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a  day may bring forth;" and "It is even as a vapor, that  appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

In the afternoon signal was made to get under way and proceed to Mali, an island about thirty miles north. Here we found all towns deserted, and all canoes hauled up and hid away among the bushes. These natives were getting very shy of us since the news of the destruction of  Sualib and Malolo had spread among them.

After having completed our surveys here we weighed anchor and revisited Ovolau. We found the place nearly deserted. Our garden that we had planted on Observatory Hill was looking finely, but many of the vegetables