{"id":"01KG8AKT6WS131NYF5C1VPVKQ7","cid":"bafkreibuvhiglgijsdqrylh4empnzybf6nlwv5ovultlyhhjkzrs2qnn6u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7857,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":7779,"text":"CHAPTER LVI.\r\nMOSQUITOES\r\n\r\n\r\nThe night following the hunting trip, Long Ghost and myself, after a\r\nvaliant defence, had to fly the house on account of the mosquitoes.\r\n\r\nAnd here I cannot avoid relating a story, rife among the natives,\r\nconcerning the manner in which these insects were introduced upon the\r\nisland.\r\n\r\nSome years previous, a whaling captain, touching at an adjoining bay,\r\ngot into difficulty with its inhabitants, and at last carried his\r\ncomplaint before one of the native tribunals; but receiving no\r\nsatisfaction, and deeming himself aggrieved, he resolved upon taking\r\nsignal revenge. One night, he towed a rotten old water-cask ashore, and\r\nleft it in a neglected Taro patch where the ground was warm and moist.\r\nHence the mosquitoes.\r\n\r\nI tried my best to learn the name of this man; and hereby do what I can\r\nto hand it down to posterity. It was Coleman—Nathan Cole-man. The ship\r\nbelonged to Nantucket.\r\n\r\nWhen tormented by the mosquitoes, I found much relief in coupling the\r\nword “Coleman” with another of one syllable, and pronouncing them\r\ntogether energetically.\r\n\r\nThe doctor suggested a walk to the beach, where there was a long, low\r\nshed tumbling to pieces, but open lengthwise to a current of air which\r\nhe thought might keep off the mosquitoes. So thither we went.\r\n\r\nThe ruin partially sheltered a relic of times gone by, which, a few\r\ndays after, we examined with much curiosity. It was an old war-canoe,\r\ncrumbling to dust. Being supported by the same rude blocks upon which,\r\napparently, it had years before been hollowed out, in all probability\r\nit had never been afloat.\r\n\r\nOutside, it seemed originally stained of a green colour, which, here\r\nand there, was now changed into a dingy purple. The prow terminated in\r\na high, blunt beak; both sides were covered with carving; and upon the\r\nstern, was something which Long Ghost maintained to be the arms of the\r\nroyal House of Pomaree. The device had an heraldic look,\r\ncertainly—being two sharks with the talons of hawks clawing a knot left\r\nprojecting from the wood.\r\n\r\nThe canoe was at least forty feet long, about two wide, and four deep.\r\nThe upper part—consisting of narrow planks laced together with cords of\r\nsinnate—had in many places fallen off, and lay decaying upon the\r\nground. Still, there were ample accommodations left for sleeping; and\r\nin we sprang—the doctor into the bow, and I into the stern. I soon fell\r\nasleep; but waking suddenly, cramped in every joint from my constrained\r\nposture, I thought, for an instant, that I must have been prematurely\r\nscrewed down in my coffin.\r\n\r\nPresenting my compliments to Long Ghost, I asked how it fared with him.\r\n\r\n“Bad enough,” he replied, as he tossed about in the outlandish rubbish\r\nlying in the bottom of our couch. “Pah! how these old mats smell!”\r\n\r\nAs he continued talking in this exciting strain for some time, I at\r\nlast made no reply, having resumed certain mathematical reveries to\r\ninduce repose. But finding the multiplication table of no avail, I\r\nsummoned up a grayish image of chaos in a sort of sliding fluidity, and\r\nwas just falling into a nap on the strength of it, when I heard a\r\nsolitary and distinct buzz. The hour of my calamity was at hand. One\r\nblended hum, the creature darted into the canoe like a small swordfish;\r\nand I out of it.\r\n\r\nUpon getting into the open air, to my surprise, there was Long Ghost,\r\nfanning himself wildly with an old paddle. He had just made a noiseless\r\nescape from a swarm which had attacked his own end of the canoe.\r\n\r\nIt was now proposed to try the water; so a small fishing canoe, hauled\r\nup near by, was quickly launched; and paddling a good distance off, we\r\ndropped overboard the native contrivance for an anchor—a heavy stone,\r\nattached to a cable of braided bark. At this part of the island the\r\nencircling reef was close to the shore, leaving the water within\r\nsmooth, and extremely shallow.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM0KMK055YKTZVXGJ5YT","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTS09JMYA6BTDPQGB9QN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.604Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.285Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}