The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1916-05-04
CONTINUED from last week.
BY Mr.. NJ.

testing at her expense. She played the
piece of music before the party broke up,
however, and was profusely thanked by the
lieutenant.
That nigh, we had the pleasure of listen
ing to a band on board the French cruiser.
Music coming over the water always seems
to have richer sound than when it is play
ed ashore. And that band certainly could
play; they must have played at least ten
different pieces all of which were fine.
Next morning boat put off from the
cruiser and came over to the yacht. In it was
one of the officers who had been our guest
the day before, and the ship surgeon. The
surgeon, by the way, had been treating
Jackson's wound. the seamen who rowed
the boat were ordered to unload several
boxes they had in the boat. The boxes
contained some medical stores, books and
charts. These the lieutenant presented in
behalf of the officers of the cruiser. After
luck we broke out our anchors and hoisted
them on deck. The yacht was swung
around and headed for the harbor entrance
and in passing the cruiser we dipped our
colors in a farewell salute. Once outside
| the harbor course was set for Raoul Is.
land which was 400 miles west southwest
from Papeete.
A run of four DAYS brought us to Raoul
Island. The island was sighted while we
were still As miles away. The ladies began
| to make preparations to land as soon as the
island was in sight, thinking that they
| would be there in short time. Mrs.
Smith said that she thought we ought to
get there in half hour as she could see the
land and it did not seem very far away.
chart of the island the highest point of
which was ,635 feet above the sea level. 1t
was then pointed out to her that an object
=. II height was visible at distance of
nny-two miles when observed from the sea
level and with our own height above the
sea, it would be visible for hfty-seven miles.
Ncl III Will TAKE US lOuI UOuIS ~ IcdCH
| there from our present postion?"
"Oh, no, was the reply, " we will be
there in at least three hours. The island
has been in sight for an hour, but we re I'M
able to see it because the sun is not high
enough above the horizon.
Those last three hours seemed like days
to US, but we finally reached Denham Bay
on the west side of the island and as the anch-
| orage shown on the chart would have forced
US to row mile and half to reach the
| shore, we decided to run in close to the
land as there was holding bottom for our
anchors. We ran in to within FIVE hundred
yards of the shore and dropped oar anchors;
then it was a toss-up to see who was to
stay aboard the boat as anchor watch
Smith and | drew unlucky numbers and
had to stay aboard while the the others
went ashore.
Now Denham Bay, is not what its name
implies, it is simply shore line curved |
slightly inward between Hutchinson Bluff
On the north and Smith Bluff three and half
miles to the south. There is nothing about
it to suggest bay, for the anchorage is
not at all protected from westerly gales.
There is but one place on the west side of
the island, or on what is called Denham
Bay, where small boat can be safley !
beached. This spot is known as "The
Landing Corner and is really small bay.
The remainder of the west coast is lined
with large boulders.
The Landing Corner, however, offered a
very good landing place and with little
work later on we were able to improve il so
that we could run the yacht in close to the
beach, where it was well sheltered and
easily accessible. Those who had gone
ashore returned TO the yacht after few
hours spent in rambling around and were
all very enthusiastic over the idea of making
their home on the island. Arrangements
were made to land some of the things we
had on the yacht and the work of landing
our few possessions began the following
| morning.
AS 1t was necessary for some of US to go
to Auckland and notify the colonization
officials of the New Zealand government
that we were going to settle on the island, |
we left enough food and other stores aboard
the yacht to last until we reached Auckland.
Tents were pitched, and several days spent
| making things comfortable. The matter
of which one of the men was to be left be-
| hind then came up, and after considerable
| discussion it was agreed that Babcock should
| remain on the island with the ladies and
tta other four of us were to make the trip
- auckland. After everything had been
/ do IL.