{"id":"01KG8AM41RG5HEFZ8PV1HWMG4B","cid":"bafkreidbdtrvzqxqxj3otpdgguthtnfnldnnmqb2p4rczlvug32ut2sphi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1510,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":1445,"text":"led to the capstan or windlass, so that not a yard was braced or a sail\r\nset without the assistance of machinery.\r\n\r\nHer hull was encrusted with barnacles, which completely encased her.\r\nThree pet sharks followed in her wake, and every day came alongside to\r\nregale themselves from the contents of the cook’s bucket, which were\r\npitched over to them. A vast shoal of bonetas and albicores always kept\r\nher company.\r\n\r\nSuch was the account I heard of this vessel and the remembrance of it\r\nalways haunted me; what eventually became of her I never learned; at\r\nany rate: he never reached home, and I suppose she is still regularly\r\ntacking twice in the twenty-four hours somewhere off Desolate Island, or\r\nthe Devil’s-Tail Peak.\r\n\r\nHaving said thus much touching the usual length of these voyages, when I\r\ninform the reader that ours had as it were just commenced, we being only\r\nfifteen months out, and even at that time hailed as a late arrival and\r\nboarded for news, he will readily perceive that there was little to\r\nencourage one in looking forward to the future, especially as I had\r\nalways had a presentiment that we should make an unfortunate voyage, and\r\nour experience so far had justified the expectation.\r\n\r\nI may here state, and on my faith as an honest man, that though more\r\nthan three years have elapsed since I left this same identical vessel,\r\nshe still continues; in the Pacific, and but a few days since I saw\r\nher reported in the papers as having touched at the Sandwich Islands\r\nprevious to going on the coast of Japan.\r\n\r\nBut to return to my narrative. Placed in these circumstances then, with\r\nno prospect of matters mending if I remained aboard the Dolly, I at once\r\nmade up my mind to leave her: to be sure it was rather an inglorious\r\nthing to steal away privily from those at whose hands I had received\r\nwrongs and outrages that I could not resent; but how was such a course\r\nto be avoided when it was the only alternative left me? Having made\r\nup my mind, I proceeded to acquire all the information I could obtain\r\nrelating to the island and its inhabitants, with a view of shaping my\r\nplans of escape accordingly. The result of these inquiries I will now\r\nstate, in order that the ensuing narrative may be the better understood.\r\n\r\nThe bay of Nukuheva in which we were then lying is an expanse of\r\nwater not unlike in figure the space included within the limits of a\r\nhorse-shoe. It is, perhaps, nine miles in circumference. You approach\r\nit from the sea by a narrow entrance, flanked on each side by two small\r\ntwin islets which soar conically to the height of some five hundred\r\nfeet. From these the shore recedes on both hands, and describes a deep\r\nsemicircle.\r\n\r\nFrom the verge of the water the land rises uniformly on all sides, with\r\ngreen and sloping acclivities, until from gently rolling hill-sides\r\nand moderate elevations it insensibly swells into lofty and majestic\r\nheights, whose blue outlines, ranged all around, close in the view. The\r\nbeautiful aspect of the shore is heightened by deep and romantic\r\nglens, which come down to it at almost equal distances, all apparently\r\nradiating from a common centre, and the upper extremities of which are\r\nlost to the eye beneath the shadow of the mountains. Down each of these\r\nlittle valleys flows a clear stream, here and there assuming the form\r\nof a slender cascade, then stealing invisibly along until it bursts\r\nupon the sight again in larger and more noisy waterfalls, and at last\r\ndemurely wanders along to the sea.\r\n\r\nThe houses of the natives, constructed of the yellow bamboo, tastefully\r\ntwisted together in a kind of wicker-work, and thatched with the long\r\ntapering leaves of the palmetto, are scattered irregularly along these\r\nvalleys beneath the shady branches of the cocoanut trees.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPEC9ESE5GQQSYRWJRGQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM41DDTM9RAQMFNAE6R2V","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM41TAGX3YCHZBVR3Y9SM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.680Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:33.504Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}