hat my two companions should be eager to learn what impression
a nearer view of the island had produced upon me, although I could not
help thinking that there was a something suggestive of apprehension or
distaste in the questions which the girl put to me. I took but little
notice of it at the moment, however; for I was thinking more about the
task of moving the ship than of satisfying the curiosity of my
companions, who, I considered, would doubtless have an opportunity on
the morrow to learn for themselves all that they desired to know.

I had so completely made up my mind that there was no reason why the
ship should not at once be taken into the basin, that as soon as dinner
was over I gave the carpenter instructions to muster the hands and heave
short, the news that the ship was about to enter the basin producing a
sufficient number of voluntary helpers from among the emigrants to
render the task of walking the ship up to her anchor an easy one,
despite the fact that the exploring party left us five seamen short.
Then, the seamen who remained on board having loosed and set the three
topsails, jib, and spanker, we broke out the anchor, cast the ship with
her head to the southward for a short stretch in the lagoon, in order to
get a fair run in between the Heads, then roused the anchor up to the
bows, and catted it.

By the time that this was done we were far enough to the southward to
enable us to point our jibboom straight for the fairway between the
Heads--the northernmost of which slightly overlapped the other--when we
tacked ship and bore away for the entrance, with the emigrants crowding
the waist, on both sides of the ship, eager to see their new home at
somewhat closer quarters. A quarter of an hour later we swept in
between the two towering headlands, with sufficient way on the ship to
carry us through the belt of calm under the lee of the northernmost
Head, and the interior of the Basin, in all its beauty, lay spread out
like a picture before us. Loud ejaculations of delight proclaimed the
pleasure which the sight gave to the emigrants, several of whom turned
their faces toward the poop, and in unmistakable language hinted the
hope that they would now be allowed to go ashore without further delay.
Once fairly inside the Head, the helm was starboarded and the ship was
headed for a sort of bay in the southern extremity of the basin, the
topsail halyards were let go, the jib hauled down, and the spanker
bra