Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/238

 CHAPTER XV.

the 9th we made Hilo Bay, and took a pilot, who proved to be John Ely, who had been a shipmate of  the commodore when he was a midshipman in the  Guerriere frigate in 1820. Meanwhile both had grown into manhood and forgotten each other. Ely said that he had been living among these ignorant savages ever  since.

At five o'clock we dropped anchor in six fathoms of water with muddy bottom. The two great mountains on this island offer a grand sight. They can be seen out at sea at a distance of sixty miles. Their summits were covered with snow, and a belt of dark, heavy clouds  hung below. Father Coan lived in this village, in a little red house with white sills and a double row of  small windows. Nearly all hands went to his church on Sunday. It was a very large building, seating nearly seven thousand people. Many of the native houses were surrounded by bread-fruit and cocoanut trees,  clusters of pine-apples and rows of sugar-cane.

On arrival, our observatory was established at Point Waiakea. An expedition to the mountains was fitted out, consisting of the commodore, ten officers, Mr. Brinsmade, Dr. Judd, a number of seamen, and two