Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1848-08-03
Swimming in the Pacific.

The grand recreation of the Sandwich
Islanders is the constant habit of swimming.
In TACT, the natives are all but amphibious
and seem to be as much at home in the wa
ter as on the land and, at all times of the
day, men, women. and children are sporting
about in the harbor, or even beyond the
reef, with shoals of sharks, perhaps, as their
payiellows These voracious creatures,
however, are far less likely to NEEDLE with
the aborigines than with foreigners, not that
they prefer white men to brown, but be-
cause they have been taught by experience
that one Hawaiian has more of the Tartar
in him than score of Europeans There
is scarcely an instance on record in which
native has suffered any serious injury from
shark. If, at any time, the latter take
the preliminary step of turning over on his
side TO get mouthful the former is sure at
least TO eude the attack by diving below
the monster, while if he has a knife or SINH
lar weapon, he seldom fails to destroy the
enemy by carrying the war into his inter-
or.
To return to the swimming; it was a
part OF our daily amusement to watch the
rapid and elegant revolutions of the perlor-
mers, more particularly the ladies', who, in
the great majority of cases, excel their lords
and masters in agility and science. Even
In the point of strength and endurance one
woman, short time before our arrival, had
carried off the palm from her husband
The whole story is well worth telling, as il
Illustrative of something better than tough
ness of muscle, or suppleness of limb. A
man and his wife, both Christians, were
passengers in schooner, which foundered
at considerable distance from the land
All the natives on board promptly took re-
fuge in the sea- and the man in question.
VINO had Just cciiebrued uf-ine service rfr
the Inflated vessel called his fellows, some
of them being converts as well as himself,
around him to offer up another tribute of
praise and suppIcation from the deep in
which they were struggling to tarry, with
combination of courage and humility per-
haps unequalled in the worlds history in
order deliberately to worship God in that
universal temple under whose restless pave
ment the speaker and most of his hearers
were destined to find their graves
| The man and his wife had each succeed
cd in procuring the support Of covered
bucket by way of buoy; and away they
StrucK WIN tue rest 1Or hanOOlAWe, llndlng
themselves next morning alone in the ocean,
after a whole afternoon and night of priva-
ton and toll. TO aggrava;e their misior-
tunes, his wife's bucket went to pieces soon
after daylight, so that she had to make the
best of her way without assistance or relief:
and in the course Of the afternoon, the man
became too weak to proceed, till his wife to
a certain extent restored his strength by
shampooing him in the water. They now
had Kahoolawe in full view, after having
been about four and twenty hours on the
dreary voyage. In spite, however of the
cheering sight, the man fell into such
state of exhaustion that the woman took the
bucket for herself, giving him, at the same
time, the hair Of her head as towing line.
And, when even this exertion proved too
much for him, the faithful creature, after
trying in vain to rouse him to prayer, took
his arms rouud her neck, holding them to-
gether with one hand, and making with the
other for the shore. When tridng dis
lance remained to be accomplished she dis
covered that he was dead, aud, dropping his
corpse, reached tine land before night, hav-
ing passed over upward of twenty-five miles
during an exposure of nearly thirty-eight
hours.-SimpSOn'S Overland Journal Round
/ tie IPrM.