United States or Peru ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I cannot describe how I managed to pass the many dreary days I was destined to spend in solitude on that island, or how I was at length rescued by a South-Sea whaler, and ultimately fell in with my own ship, on board which I was heartily welcomed, having long been given up as lost. Owen's death excited universal horror.
"A country-girl, and from Scotland!" said the Duke; "what can have brought the silly fool to London? Some lover pressed and sent to sea, or some stock sank in the South-Sea funds, or some such hopeful concern, I suppose, and then nobody to manage the matter but MacCallummore, Well, this same popularity has its inconveniences.
That fan is the flag and symbol of the society giving us our so-called Comedy of Manners, or Comedy of the manners of South-sea Islanders under city veneer; and as to Comic idea, vacuous as the mask without the face behind it.
The paper mulberry is so called because in China and Japan of which it is a native its bark is manufactured into paper. In the South-Sea Islands, where it is also found, the bark is made into the curious dresses which we sometimes see imported thence. It is a low, thick-branched tree with large light-colored downy leaves and dark-scarlet fruit."
We saw no difference in the colour of rich and poor, though in the South-Sea islands those that were exposed to the weather were almost as brown as the New Hollanders, and the better sort nearly as fair as the natives of Europe.
The fight is described as follows: "In the afternoone we gat vp vnto them, giuing them the broad side with our great ordnance, and a volee of small shot, and presently laid the ship aboord, whereof the King of Spaine was owner, which was Admirall of the South-sea, called the S. Anna, and thought to be seuen hundred tvnnes in burthen.
Cook says that he could not commend the flavour of their fowls, but he and his crew unanimously agreed that a South-Sea dog was little inferior to English lamb! He conjectured that their excellence was owing to the fact that they were fed exclusively upon vegetables. Like everything else in Tahiti, the art of cooking was somewhat peculiar. The preparation of a dog for dinner is thus described:
I can look upon these defunct dragons with complacency. The pounce-boxes of our days have gone retrograde. The very clerks which I remember in the South-Sea House I speak of forty years back had an air very different from those in the public offices that I have had to do with since. They partook of the genius of the place! Old-fashioned, for a reason mentioned before.
The court of Madrid, however, started some new difficulties, and for some time would not consent to the restitution of the South-Sea ship, which had been detained at La Vera-Cruz, in the West Indies; so that sir Charles Wager continued to cruise on the coast of Spain: but these objections were removed in the sequel.
A committee of secrecy was chosen by ballot, to examine all the books, papers, and proceedings relating to the execution of the South-Sea act. The lords were not less eager than the commons to prosecute this inquiry, though divers members in both houses were deeply involved in the guilt and infamy of the transaction.
Word Of The Day