{"id":"01KG8AKWA45ETETF92QTHGEK5N","cid":"bafkreiaff4tz3q6orazky27px55ddxasfjjmv7b5x72fwssjrj4jzyuxbe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":526,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.534Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":474,"text":"CHAPTER III.\r\nA King For A Comrade\r\n\r\n\r\nAt the time I now write of, we must have been something more than sixty\r\ndegrees to the west of the Gallipagos. And having attained a desirable\r\nlongitude, we were standing northward for our arctic destination:\r\naround us one wide sea.\r\n\r\nBut due west, though distant a thousand miles, stretched north and\r\nsouth an almost endless Archipelago, here and there inhabited, but\r\nlittle known; and mostly unfrequented, even by whalemen, who go almost\r\nevery where. Beginning at the southerly termination of this great\r\nchain, it comprises the islands loosely known as Ellice’s group; then,\r\nthe Kingsmill isles; then, the Radack and Mulgrave clusters. These\r\nislands had been represented to me as mostly of coral formation, low\r\nand fertile, and abounding in a variety of fruits. The language of the\r\npeople was said to be very similar to that or the Navigator’s islands,\r\nfrom which, their ancestors are supposed to have emigrated.\r\n\r\nAnd thus much being said, all has been related that I then knew of the\r\nislands in question. Enough, however, that they existed at all; and\r\nthat our path thereto lay over a pleasant sea, and before a reliable\r\nTrade-wind. The distance, though great, was merely an extension of\r\nwater; so much blankness to be sailed over; and in a craft, too, that\r\nproperly managed has been known to outlive great ships in a gale. For\r\nthis much is true of a whale-boat, the cunningest thing in its way ever\r\nfabricated by man.\r\n\r\nUpon one of the Kingsmill islands, then, I determined to plant my foot,\r\ncome what come would. And I was equally determined that one of the\r\nship’s boats should float me thither. But I had no idea of being\r\nwithout a companion. It would be a weary watch to keep all by myself,\r\nwith naught but the horizon in sight.\r\n\r\nNow, among the crew was a fine old seaman, one Jarl; how old, no one\r\ncould tell, not even himself. Forecastle chronology is ever vague and\r\ndefective. “Man and boy,” said honest Jarl, “I have lived ever since I\r\ncan remember.” And truly, who may call to mind when he was not? To\r\nourselves, we all seem coeval with creation. Whence it comes, that it\r\nis so hard to die, ere the world itself is departed.\r\n\r\nJarl hailed from the isle of Skye, one of the constellated Hebrides.\r\nHence, they often called him the Skyeman. And though he was far from\r\nbeing piratical of soul, he was yet an old Norseman to behold. His\r\nhands were brawny as the paws of a bear; his voice hoarse as a storm\r\nroaring round the old peak of Mull; and his long yellow hair waved\r\nround his head like a sunset. My life for it, Jarl, thy ancestors were\r\nVikings, who many a time sailed over the salt German sea and the\r\nBaltic; who wedded their Brynhildas in Jutland; and are now quaffing\r\nmead in the halls of Valhalla, and beating time with their cans to the\r\nhymns of the Scalds. Ah! how the old Sagas run through me!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJP4CARPVXNZAJMVTY89B","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKWA0N4WDV4KJS71JAHJ4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.756Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.627Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}