othing but
a midsummer-night's dream. And was it nothing to see a pit full of
Kanakas, black, brown, and whitey-brown (till lately cannibals),
showing their white teeth, grinning and enjoying 'Patter _v._ Clatter'
as much as a few years ago they would have enjoyed the roasting of a
missionary or the baking of a baby? It was certainly a page in one's
life never to be forgotten."]

CHAPTER XXII.

HONOLULU TO SAN FRANCISCO.

DEPARTURE FROM HONOLULU--WRECK OF THE 'SAGINAW'--THE 'MOSES
TAYLOR'--THE ACCOMMODATION--THE COMPANY ON BOARD--BEHAVIOUR OF THE
SHIP--DEATH OF A PASSENGER--FEELINGS ON LANDING IN A NEW
PLACE--APPROACH THE GOLDEN GATE--CLOSE OF THE PACIFIC LOG--FIRST SIGHT
OF AMERICA.

The departure of the 'Moses Taylor' was evidently regarded as a great
event at Honolulu. At the hour appointed for our sailing, a great
crowd had assembled on the wharf. All the notabilities of the place
seemed to be there. First and foremost was the King of the Sandwich
Islands himself, Kamehameha V.--a jolly-looking, portly old fellow,
standing about six feet high, and weighing over five-and-twenty
stone--every inch and ounce a king. Then there were the chief
ministers of his court, white, yellow, and dusky. There were also
English, Americans, and Chinese, with a crowd of full-blooded
Kanakas--all very orderly and admiring. And round the outskirts of the
throng were several carriages filled with native ladies.

Punctually at half-past 4 P.M., we got away from our moorings, with
"three cheers for Honolulu," which were raised by a shipwrecked crew
we had on board. Leaving the pier, we shortly passed through the
opening in the reef which forms the entrance to the harbour, and
steamed steadily eastward in the direction of San Francisco.

I must explain how it was that the "three cheers for Honolulu" were
raised. The 'Saginaw' was an American war-ship that had been sent with
a contract party to Midway Island in the North Pacific--some fifteen
hundred miles west-north-west of the Sandwich Islands--to blast the
coral-reef there, in order to provide a harbourage for the line of
large steamers running between San Francisco and China. The money
voted for the purpose by the Government having been spent, the
'Saginaw' was on its return voyage from the island, when the captain
determined to call at Ocean Island to see if there were any
shipwrecked crews there; but in a fog, the ship ran upon a coral-reef,
and was itself wrecked. The