{"id":"01KG8AM3B883Z56XMKVFXENPJX","cid":"bafkreidyi5f6jjohn3txv67vqh7ybopspdycpttjq7va2sxibfkgovszui","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":788,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":725,"text":"later, to meet the fate of all thy race; and if putting a period to\r\nthy existence is to be the signal for our deliverance, why--truth to\r\nspeak--I wish thy throat cut this very moment; for, oh! how I wish to\r\nsee the living earth again! The old ship herself longs to look out upon\r\nthe land from her hawse-holes once more, and Jack Lewis said right the\r\nother day when the captain found fault with his steering.\r\n\r\n‘Why d’ye see, Captain Vangs,’ says bold Jack, ‘I’m as good a helmsman\r\nas ever put hand to spoke; but none of us can steer the old lady now. We\r\ncan’t keep her full and bye, sir; watch her ever so close, she will fall\r\noff and then, sir, when I put the helm down so gently, and try like to\r\ncoax her to the work, she won’t take it kindly, but will fall round off\r\nagain; and it’s all because she knows the land is under the lee, sir,\r\nand she won’t go any more to windward.’ Aye, and why should she, Jack?\r\ndidn’t every one of her stout timbers grow on shore, and hasn’t she\r\nsensibilities; as well as we?\r\n\r\nPoor old ship! Her very looks denote her desires! how deplorably she\r\nappears! The paint on her sides, burnt up by the scorching sun, is\r\npuffed out and cracked. See the weeds she trails along with her, and\r\nwhat an unsightly bunch of those horrid barnacles has formed about her\r\nstern-piece; and every time she rises on a sea, she shows her copper\r\ntorn away, or hanging in jagged strips.\r\n\r\nPoor old ship! I say again: for six months she has been rolling and\r\npitching about, never for one moment at rest. But courage, old lass, I\r\nhope to see thee soon within a biscuit’s toss of the merry land, riding\r\nsnugly at anchor in some green cove, and sheltered from the boisterous\r\nwinds.\r\n\r\n        . . . . . .\r\n\r\n‘Hurra, my lads! It’s a settled thing; next week we shape our course to\r\nthe Marquesas!’ The Marquesas! What strange visions of outlandish things\r\ndoes the very name spirit up! Naked houris--cannibal banquets--groves\r\nof cocoanut--coral reefs--tattooed chiefs--and bamboo temples; sunny\r\nvalleys planted with bread-fruit-trees--carved canoes dancing on\r\nthe flashing blue waters--savage woodlands guarded by horrible\r\nidols--HEATHENISH RITES AND HUMAN SACRIFICES.\r\n\r\nSuch were the strangely jumbled anticipations that haunted me during our\r\npassage from the cruising ground. I felt an irresistible curiosity to\r\nsee those islands which the olden voyagers had so glowingly described.\r\n\r\nThe group for which we were now steering (although among the earliest of\r\nEuropean discoveries in the South Seas, having been first visited in\r\nthe year 1595) still continues to be tenanted by beings as strange\r\nand barbarous as ever. The missionaries sent on a heavenly errand, had\r\nsailed by their lovely shores, and had abandoned them to their idols of\r\nwood and stone. How interesting the circumstances under which they were\r\ndiscovered! In the watery path of Mendanna, cruising in quest of some\r\nregion of gold, these isles had sprung up like a scene of enchantment,\r\nand for a moment the Spaniard believed his bright dream was realized.\r\n\r\nIn honour of the Marquess de Mendoza, then viceroy of Peru--under whose\r\nauspices the navigator sailed--he bestowed upon them the name which\r\ndenoted the rank of his patron, and gave to the world on his return\r\na vague and magnificent account of their beauty. But these islands,\r\nundisturbed for years, relapsed into their previous obscurity; and it is\r\nonly recently that anything has been known concerning them. Once in the\r\ncourse of a half century, to be sure, some adventurous rover would break\r\nin upon their peaceful repose, and astonished at the unusual scene,\r\nwould be almost tempted to claim the merit of a new discovery.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPE93M26D0Z4NV0CNQ80","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM3B85XWBHG8EZ1NFWZR4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM3B8K01YVV61Z3XCNQFM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.960Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.659Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}