to be desired, we sighted the Northernmost Island of the Samoan
group, which are famous by reason of the destruction of a fleet of
United States cruisers anchored in one of the harbors by a tornado, a
native insurrection that threatened to bring about war between the
United States and Germany, and as the home and burial place of Robert
Louis Stevenson, the famous writer. Ed Crane and several others of the
party and myself were sitting on deck and under the shelter of an awning
watching for a glimpse of the land that we all knew was not far away,
when a little after 11 o'clock we ran suddenly under the lee of a
mountainous ridge of land that loomed up like a huge shadow in the
uncertain light, and almost immediately found ourselves in smooth water.

Walking toward the bow of the boat we reached there just as a green
signal light was flashed from the bridge. Before us lay the land, and as
we watched, a light twinkled on the shore nearly five miles away in
answer to our signal. Slowly we steamed toward it, the signal lights
flashing their messages at short intervals through the darkness until we
reached the harbor, where we lay about half a mile from the land until a
sloop and a dory reached us with the mail and passengers for Auckland.
Of both the land and the natives we had but a glimpse, one of the
latter, a red-headed and stalwart specimen of his race, clambering to
the steamer's deck in order to get a receipt for the mail and a glassful
of gin, both of which were given him by the purser. The former he stowed
away somewhere in his scanty clothing and the latter he gulped down as
though it were water, after which he swung himself over the rail and
disappeared from sight in the darkness. A few moments later we had left
Samoan Islands behind us and were again tossing on the foam-topped
waves. Samoa was left not far behind, however, when the weather turned
colder and before many hours had passed we were all glad to change our
clothing of a tropical weight for garments that were much heavier, and
to seek comfortable places in the cabin at night rather than the open
deck. Even the cricket practice had begun to get monotonous, and we were
all looking forward with pleasure to the time when we might once more
feel the solid land beneath our feet.

It was with feelings of delight therefore that we heard early on the
morning of December 9th that we were within sight of our destination and
that we should be on shore, barring acci