| | 1 | Author: | Melville
Herman
1819-1891 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Typee  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | Wiley & Putnam's library of American books | wiley & putnams library of american books | | | | Description: | Six months at sea! Yes, reader, as I live, six months out of
sight of land; cruising after the sperm-whale beneath the scorching
sun of the Line, and tossed on the billows of the wide-rolling
Pacific—the sky above, the sea around, and nothing else!
Weeks and weeks ago our fresh provisions were all exhausted.
There is not a sweet potato left; not a single yam. Those glorious
bunches of bananas which once decorated our stern and
quarter-deck, have, alas, disappeared! and the delicious oranges
which hung suspended from our tops and stays—they, too, are
gone! Yes, they are all departed, and there is nothing left us
but salt-horse and sea-biscuit. Oh! ye state-room sailors, who
make so much ado about a fourteen days' passage across the
Atlantic; who so pathetically relate the privations and hardships
of the sea, where, after a day of breakfasting, lunching, dining
off five courses, chatting, playing whist, and drinking champaignpunch,
it was your hard lot to be shut up in little cabinets of mahogany
and maple, and sleep for ten hours, with nothing to disturb
you but “those good-for-nothing tars, shouting and tramping over
head,”—what would ye say to our six months out of sight of land? Returning health and peace of mind gave a new interest to everything
around me. I sought to diversify my time by as many
enjoyments as lay within my reach. Bathing in company with
troops of girls formed one of my chief amusements. We sometimes
enjoyed the recreation in the waters of a miniature lake,
into which the central stream of the valley expanded. This
lovely sheet of water was almost circular in figure, and about
three hundred yards across. Its beauty was indescribable. All
around its banks waved luxuriant masses of tropical foliage,
soaring high above which were seen, here and there, the symmetrical
shaft of the cocoa-nut tree, surmounted by its tuft of
graceful branches, drooping in the air like so many waving ostrich
plumes. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
|
