At eleven o'clock we had the Communion Service and two hymns. At
midday the week's work was made up, with the following result. Our
position was in lat. 15 deg. 38' S., long. 117 deg. 52' W.; we were 3,057
miles from Valparaiso,--1,335 of which had been accomplished since
last Sunday,--and 1,818 miles from Tahiti.
To-day we were not far from Easter Island, the southernmost island of
Polynesia. Here as in the Ladrones, far away in the north-west quarter
of the Pacific, most curious inscriptions are sometimes found carved
in stone. Annexed is a photograph taken from one I saw at a later
stage of the voyage.
[Illustration: Inscription from Easter Island]
The sails had been flapping, more or less, all day, and at the change
of the dog-watches, at six o'clock, Tom ordered the men aft to stow
the mizen. This they had scarcely begun to do when a light breeze
sprang up, and in a few minutes increased to a strong one, before
which we bowled along at the rate of nine knots. These sudden changes
are of constant occurrence, and, coming as they do without the
slightest warning, are quite inexplicable. If only we had our old
square sails, and our bigger yards and topmast, we should have saved a
good deal of time already; for one or two knots an hour extra amount
to from 25 to 50 miles a day, and in a month's run the difference
would not be far short of 1,500 miles.
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