THE VOLCANO.
We must have been still fifty miles from our destination, when the
bright and continued light to the northward made it evident that the
volcanic mountain of the Sandwich Islands was in active operation.
No one was especially apprehensive of this, for chances to witness
volcanoes are not to be met with every day in the year.
As night came on, the light to the northward became more and more vivid,
and as we neared the islands, we could hear the roar of the volcano,
resembling the rumble of distant thunder.
We drew within ten knots of the scene, and then came to anchor on a
coral foundation--in water about twelve fathoms deep.
The scene of a great volcano, in process of eruption, is an event to be
remembered throughout one's immortality. Words can but faintly express
its grandeur, its terrible splendor. The painter's brush is powerless
here, even if wielded by the hand of genius.
The noise of the eruption was terrible as we cast anchor, and the waves
were running high, although there was but little wind. From this
circumstance we judged that the eruption was accompanied by an
earthquake of no ordinary character.
Imagine to yourselves a lofty mountain-peak, surrounded by many others
of lesser hight and magnitude, piled around, with their clothing of dark
and somber trees. Then fancy this central peak to become an instrument
for flooding the world with the original fire, and you may have some
faint conception of the grandeur of the scene we witnessed.
The stars, except at the horizon's edge, were completely dimmed by the
mighty effulgence of the blazing peak, or blotted out by the dense
volumes of smoke which drifted in the light breeze between the sea and
the heavens like a pall for the world.
The whole of that side of the peak presented to our view was a liquid
mass of red-hot lava. It rolled down the smooth slopes, or plunged from
the cliffs in cataracts of living flame. We could see the ocean boiling
along the horses as the hot rivers found their way to the water; and
millions of dead fishes floated by the ship on the surface of the sea.
The sides and rigging of the Queer Fish were thronged with the crew, who
gazed long upon the terrible but fascinating scene.
The smoke which poured in black volumes from the crater of the mountain
was usually intermingled with sheets of flame in about equal quantity;
but sometimes the smoke would preponderate so much as almost to shut out
the fire, while at others the crater would vomit flame alone, when the
glare would be so distressingly vivid that we were compelled to shield
our eyes with our hands.
The gray ashes emitted by the eruption must also have been very great,
for the deck of the ship was covered with a thin coating of it as it
drifted aboard like snow, being so fine and dense as to render the air
difficult to breathe.
The eruption continued all night, and as there appeared no evidence that
it would be likely soon to abate we hoisted anchor and sailed for
California on the following morning.