San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-07-16
A LETTER THAT CAME NOT.

In July, lSiJ, was ordered 10 duty on
board the United States ship Alert, bound for
the China stsrtioA, with orders to visit the
South Pacific islands Ell route. We left San
Francisco on the Sd of August, and as | recall
the first part of the voyage out we had strong
favorable winds that carried us to the line,
distance of over two thousand miles, in six
teen days, very fair average for a small
steam corvette under sail alone. We slipped
through the Doldrum regions at the rate Of
hundred miles a day, and took up the south
east trades without being conscious of having
lost the northeast. The morning watch would
trim the sails, steady taut the braces, and
Sweat hOmeA the sheets, an hour would be
devoted to routine drills, and then the balance
of the day would be given up to delicious
idling, the officers with pipes and books, and
the men with clothingand ditty boxes. A cool
ing breeze swept through the fattened wind
sails; the royals and Airport stern sails gave
her comfortable list, and day after day
rolled over and under us until the page of the
nautical almanac showed that one whole
month had been crossed off. Then came q
few days of tiresome calm.
We were in latitude "a degs south, longi-
tude l2S degs. west. If you will take the
trouble to look on a map of the South Pacific
ocean at about that latitude and longitude,
you will find tiny speck, not larger than
that made by a needle point, Indicating an
island. There are hundreds of such specks
in the Pacific ocean, many of them without
names, and all of more or less uncertain loca-
ton. This one, however, bears the of
Elizabeth or Henderson Island l have never
been able to learn anything about it-when
it was discovered or who gave it its name.
Some of the early English adventures, posi-
bly, one of the ships of the Wilkes expedition
or some whaler, may have run across it,
taken a rough set of sights, pricked it on
their charts, named it after their sweet
hearts or themselves and then squared away
for new bits of worlds. Maritime history is
wonderfully silent on many such points. All
l know is that early on the morning of Sept.
s the mast head lookout reported Land hol"
and the next day we drifted sufficiently near
it to warrant the captain sending an officer
in boat with seXtant, chronometer and
artificial horizon to get a careful set of
sights and 30 give it married exploration.
Many an addition to accurate geography
has been made in just such way, and felt
quite fattered when the detail fell tome to 90
,
limbs which the solid earth promised, there
was the feeling that this strange bit of land
had perhaps never been trodden by the foot
of man before. Perhaps it was Mountain
Peak of the lost Atlantis, silent witness to
some terrific CONFUSION that sunk it beneath
the wave. Who could tell? Here it lay, how
ever, indefinitely charted and liable to bring
some unsuspecting mariner to grief unless
Ill
the fame Of having made known an unknown
corner of the world, and was pleased as well
as fattered. We left the ship in a whale boat,
six strong oarsmen, coXswain, a midShip-
man to marx time for the observations, and
myself. An easy swell lifted us gently to its
crest, and then lowered us with mild taste
of tobogganing to its hollow, while the spark
ling wake behind Us showed line of babbles
far down through the shimmering blue. The
land was fully five miles off, but the men bent
to long, steady stroke, and in an hours time
we were near enough to see an unbrolen line
of white breakers POLLING and tumblng over
the narrow strip of beach. The sides of the
island seemed nearly perpendicular, while the
lead failed to give bottom at ghirty fathons,
close as we were | turned to the southwark
in hopes of finding an opening in the breakers
there that would permit me to land, but the
same threatening wall Of blue with its crest
Of Kissing white roared a defiance at me.
began to despair of ever eifecting landing,
when on turning TO the uorthward ON the west
side found the clasp of this white necklace,
a patch Of blue that told of break in the
Beef and a passage through to the tiny inlet
beyond il. Such breaks IN the coral reefs that
encirele these lonely islands are very com-
mon, and their explanation sihple.
The raiafalLs find their way to tho sea
through some depression. Where the trash