#Hasten down the wind ebook download#

Two men, seated at a table on the afterdeck, their faces thrown intoĬlear relief by the light of a lantern hanging from the boom, seemedĪwed and hushed by a silence so profound. The vessel lay motionless no creak of block or rudder could be heard. To stretch away to infinity, to be metamorphosed at last into sound: aįaint, unceasing thunder, without beginning or end, as though somewhere,Īt a vast distance, the stream of Time itself were pouring over the To the east and south, Manukura Lagoon seemed Sound came from the beach, nor was there any sign along the whole extent Near-by land was a narrow ribbon of black, dividing two immensities. Night had now fallen and the constellations of the Southern The breeze, which had become lighter with the descending sun, died awayĬompletely. Near the end of a ruined pier of coral slabs. A quarter of an hour later theĮngine was reversed, and the vessel, losing way, was brought to anchor Had been lowered at the entrance, and the ship proceeded with her engineĪt half-speed toward an islet that extended eastward from the passageįor a distance of two miles or more. Was conned through the coral shoals within the lagoon revealed that herĬaptain, himself a Polynesian, was no stranger to the place.

Vessel of ninety tons, with a native crew, and the manner in which she Late on an afternoon in October, a two-masted schooner entered the passĪt the western end of the island of Manukura. Them, call them the Low, or Dangerous, Archipelago. Geographers, and the few white men who visit Their own collective name for their half-drowned homelands is Tuamotu: To none is her unescapable and mindless majesty revealed, at times, with None know so well the peace and beauty of her kindly moods. They have both the hardihoodĪnd the enduring fear of those whose mother, the Sea, is ever at theirĭoorsteps. Sense of the tragic nature of man's fate. Made them sturdy and resourceful, and have implanted in them an abiding Precariousness of life faced with the perpetual menace of the sea have Of their race but the loneliness, the enforced simplicity, and the Inhabitants, few in number, are Polynesians, with the cheerful dignity There is no other group of islands so remote from any continent. Rising only a few feet above the sea which seems always on the point of Mere fringes of land seldom more than a quarter of a mile in width, and But whatever their extent, one feature is common to all: they are Miles, sloping away over the arc of the world until they are lost to Others, enchantingly greenĪnd restful to sea-weary eyes, follow the curve of the reef for many Ones are frequented by sea fowl which nest in the pandanus trees andĪmong the fronds of scattered coconut palms. Land, are threaded at wide intervals on the encircling reef. Others, like those of Rangiroa and Fakarava, are as much as fifty miles Some of the lagoons are scarcely more than salt-water ponds Seventy-eight atolls, surf-battered dykes of coral,Įnclosing lagoons, make up this barrier to the steady westward roll of Pacific, below the Equator, lies a vast collection of coral islandsĮxtending in a general northwesterly, southeasterly direction across tenĭegrees of latitude. Scattered over a thousand miles of ocean in the eastern tropical Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.Īs part of the conversion of the book to its new digital format, we have made certain minor adjustments in its layout, and have added a table of contents.Īll of the author's original text has been included.ĬONTENTS Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Epilogue Mark Akrigg & the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team This ebook was produced by Al Haines, Cindy Beyer,

#Hasten down the wind ebook download#

In your country, do not download or redistribute this file. If you live outside Canada, check yourĬountry's copyright laws. This work is in the Canadian public domain, but may be underĬopyright in some countries. Gutenberg.ca/links/licence.html before proceeding. If either of these conditions applies, please These restrictions apply only if (1) you makeĪ change in the ebook (other than alteration for differentĭisplay devices), or (2) you are making commercial use of This ebook is made available at no cost and with very few