Herman Melville

Omoo

A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas

Warsaw 2019

Contents

PART I

CHAPTER I. MY RECEPTION ABOARD

CHAPTER II. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE SHIP

CHAPTER III. FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE JULIA

CHAPTER IV. A SCENE IN THE FORECASTLE

CHAPTER V. WHAT HAPPENED AT HYTYHOO

CHAPTER VI. WE TOUCH AT LA DOMINICA

CHAPTER VII. WHAT HAPPENED AT HANNAMANOO

CHAPTER VIII. THE TATTOOERS OF LA DOMINICA

CHAPTER IX. WE STEER TO THE WESTWARD—STATE OF AFFAIRS

CHAPTER X. A SEA-PARLOUR DESCRIBED, WITH SOME OF ITS TENANTS

CHAPTER XI. DOCTOR LONG GHOST A WAG—ONE OF HIS CAPERS

CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW

CHAPTER XIII. OUR DESTINATION CHANGED

CHAPTER XIV. ROPE YARN

CHAPTER XV. CHIPS AND BUNGS

CHAPTER XVI. WE ENCOUNTER A GALE

CHAPTER XVII. THE CORAL ISLANDS

CHAPTER XVIII. TAHITI

CHAPTER XIX. A SURPRISE—MORE ABOUT BEMBO

CHAPTER XX. THE ROUND ROBIN—VISITORS FROM SHORE

CHAPTER XXI. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONSUL

CHAPTER XXII. THE CONSUL'S DEPARTURE

CHAPTER XXIII. THE SECOND NIGHT OFF PAPEETEE

CHAPTER XXIV. OUTBREAK OF THE CREW

CHAPTER XXV. JERMIN ENCOUNTERS AN OLD SHIPMATE

CHAPTER XXVI. WE ENTER THE HARBOUR—JIM THE PILOT

CHAPTER XXVII. A GLANCE AT PAPEETEE—WE ARE SENT ABOARD THE FRIGATE

CHAPTER XXVIII. RECEPTION FROM THE FRENCHMAN

CHAPTER XXIX. THE REINE BLANCHE

CHAPTER XXX. THEY TAKE US ASHORE—WHAT HAPPENED THERE

CHAPTER XXXI. THE CALABOOZA BERETANEE

CHAPTER XXXII. PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRENCH AT TAHITI

CHAPTER XXXIII. WE RECEIVE CALLS AT THE HOTEL DE CALABOOZA

CHAPTER XXXIV. LIFE AT THE CALABOOZA

CHAPTER XXXV. VISIT FROM AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE

CHAPTER XXXVI. WE ARE CARRIED BEFORE THE CONSUL AND CAPTAIN

CHAPTER XXXVII. THE FRENCH PRIESTS PAY THEIR RESPECTS

CHAPTER XXXVIII. LITTLE JULIA SAILS WITHOUT US

CHAPTER XXXIX. JERMIN SERVES US A GOOD TURN—FRIENDSHIPS IN POLYNESIA

PART II

CHAPTER XL. WE TAKE UNTO OURSELVES FRIENDS

CHAPTER XLI. WE LEVY CONTRIBUTIONS ON THE SHIPPING

CHAPTER XLII. MOTOO-OTOO A TAHITIAN CASUIST

CHAPTER XLIII. ONE IS JUDGED BY THE COMPANY HE KEEPS

CHAPTER XLIV. CATHEDRAL OF PAPOAR—THE CHURCH OF THE COCOA-NUTS

CHAPTER XLV. MISSIONARY'S SERMON; WITH SOME REFLECTIONS

CHAPTER XLVI. SOMETHING ABOUT THE KANNAKIPPERS

CHAPTER XLVII. HOW THEY DRESS IN TAHITI

CHAPTER XLVIII. TAHITI AS IT IS

CHAPTER XLIX. SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

CHAPTER L. SOMETHING HAPPENS TO LONG GHOST

CHAPTER LI. WILSON GIVES US THE CUT—DEPARTURE FOR IMEEO

CHAPTER LII. THE VALLEY OF MARTAIR

CHAPTER LIII. FARMING IN POLYNESIA

CHAPTER LIV. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE WILD CATTLE IN POLYNESIA

CHAPTER LV. A HUNTING RAMBLE WITH ZEKE

CHAPTER LVI. MOSQUITOES

CHAPTER LVII. THE SECOND HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS

CHAPTER LVIII. THE HUNTING-FEAST; AND A VISIT TO AFREHITOO

CHAPTER LIX. THE MURPHIES

CHAPTER LX. WHAT THEY THOUGHT OF US IN MARTAIR

CHAPTER LXI. PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY

CHAPTER LXII. TAMAI

CHAPTER LXIII. A DANCE IN THE VALLEY

CHAPTER LXIV. MYSTERIOUS

CHAPTER LXV. THE HEGIRA, OR FLIGHT

CHAPTER LXVI. HOW WE WERE TO GET TO TALOO

CHAPTER LXVII. THE JOURNEY ROUND THE BEACH

CHAPTER LXVIII. A DINNER-PARTY IN IMEEO

CHAPTER LXIX. THE COCOA-PALM

CHAPTER LXX. LIFE AT LOOHOOLOO

CHAPTER LXXI. WE START FOR TALOO

CHAPTER LXXII. A DEALER IN THE CONTRABAND

CHAPTER LXXIII. OUR RECEPTION IN PARTOOWYE

CHAPTER LXXIV. RETIRING FOR THE NIGHT—THE DOCTOR GROWS DEVOUT

CHAPTER LXXV. A RAMBLE THROUGH THE SETTLEMENT

CHAPTER LXXVI. AN ISLAND JILT—WE VISIT THE SHIP

CHAPTER LXXVII. A PARTY OF ROVERS—LITTLE LOO AND THE DOCTOR

CHAPTER LXXVIII. MRS. BELL

CHAPTER LXXIX. TALOO CHAPEL—HOLDING COURT IN POLYNESIA

CHAPTER LXXX. QUEEN POMAREE

CHAPTER LXXXI. WE VISIT THE COURT

CHAPTER LXXXII. WHICH ENDS THE BOOK

PART I

CHAPTER I

MY RECEPTION ABOARD

IT WAS the middle of a bright tropical afternoon that we made good our escape from the bay. The vessel we sought lay with her main-topsail aback about a league from the land, and was the only object that broke the broad expanse of the ocean.

On approaching, she turned out to be a small, slatternly-looking craft, her hull and spars a dingy black, rigging all slack and bleached nearly white, and everything denoting an ill state of affairs aboard. The four boats hanging from her sides proclaimed her a whaler. Leaning carelessly over the bulwarks were the sailors, wild, haggard-looking fellows in Scotch caps and faded blue frocks; some of them with cheeks of a mottled bronze, to which sickness soon changes the rich berry-brown of a seaman’s complexion in the tropics.

On the quarter-deck was one whom I took for the chief mate. He wore a broad-brimmed Panama hat, and his spy-glass was levelled as we advanced.

When we came alongside, a low cry ran fore and aft the deck, and everybody gazed at us with inquiring eyes. And well they might. To say nothing of the savage boat’s crew, panting with excitement, all gesture and vociferation, my own appearance was calculated to excite curiosity. A robe of the native cloth was thrown over my shoulders, my hair and beard were uncut, and I betrayed other evidences of my recent adventure. Immediately on gaining the deck, they beset me on all sides with questions, the half of which I could not answer, so incessantly were they put.

As an instance of the curious coincidences which often befall the sailor, I must here mention that two countenances before me were familiar. One was that of an old man-of-war’s-man, whose acquaintance I had made in Rio de Janeiro, at which place touched the ship in which I sailed from home. The other was a young man whom, four years previous, I had frequently met in a sailor boarding-house in Liverpool. I remembered parting with him at Prince’s Dock Gates, in the midst of a swarm of police-officers, trackmen, stevedores, beggars, and the like. And here we were again:–years had rolled by, many a league of ocean had been traversed, and we were thrown together under circumstances which almost made me doubt my own existence.

But a few moments passed ere I was sent for into the cabin by the captain.

He was quite a young man, pale and slender, more like a sickly counting-house clerk than a bluff sea-captain. Bidding me be seated, he ordered the steward to hand me a glass of Pisco. In the state I was, this stimulus almost made me delirious; so that of all I then went on to relate concerning my residence on the island I can scarcely remember a word. After this I was asked whether I desired to “ship”; of course I said yes; that is, if he would allow me to enter for one cruise, engaging to discharge me, if I so desired, at the next port. In this way men are frequently shipped on board whalemen in the South Seas. My stipulation was acceded to, and the ship’s articles handed me to sign.

The mate was now called below, and charged to make a “well man” of me; not, let it be borne in mind, that the captain felt any great compassion for me, he only desired to have the benefit of my services as soon as possible.

Helping me on deck, the mate stretched me out on the windlass and commenced examining my limb; and then doctoring it after a fashion with something from the medicine-chest, rolled it up in a piece of an old sail, making so big a bundle that, with my feet resting on the windlass, I might have been taken for a sailor with the gout. While this was going on, someone removing my tappa cloak slipped on a blue frock in its place, and another, actuated by the same desire to make a civilized mortal of me, flourished about my head a great pair lie imminent jeopardy of both ears, and the certain destruction of hair and beard.

The day was now drawing to a close, and, as the land faded from my sight, I was all alive to the change in my condition. But how far short of our expectations is oftentimes the fulfilment of the most ardent hopes. Safe aboard of a ship–so long my earnest prayer–with home and friends once more in prospect, I nevertheless felt weighed down by a melancholy that could not be shaken off. It was the thought of never more seeing those who, notwithstanding their desire to retain me a captive, had, upon the whole, treated me so kindly. I was leaving them for ever.

So unforeseen and sudden had been my escape, so excited had I been through it all, and so great the contrast between the luxurious repose of the valley, and the wild noise and motion of a ship at sea, that at times my recent adventures had all the strangeness of a dream; and I could scarcely believe that the same sun now setting over a waste of waters, had that very morning risen above the mountains and peered in upon me as I lay on my mat in Typee.

Going below into the forecastle just after dark, I was inducted into a wretched “bunk” or sleeping-box built over another. The rickety bottoms of both were spread with several pieces of a blanket. A battered tin can was then handed me, containing about half a pint of “tea”–so called by courtesy, though whether the juice of such stalks as one finds floating therein deserves that title, is a matter all shipowners must settle with their consciences. A cube of salt beef, on a hard round biscuit by way of platter, was also handed up; and without more ado, I made a meal, the salt flavour of which, after the Nebuchadnezzar fare of the valley, was positively delicious.

While thus engaged, an old sailor on a chest just under me was puffing out volumes of tobacco smoke. My supper finished, he brushed the stem of his sooty pipe against the sleeve of his frock, and politely waved it toward me. The attention was sailor-like; as for the nicety of the thing, no man who has lived in forecastles is at all fastidious; and so, after a few vigorous whiffs to induce repose, I turned over and tried my best to forget myself. But in vain. My crib, instead of extending fore and aft, as it should have done, was placed athwart ships, that is, at right angles to the keel, and the vessel, going before the wind, rolled to such a degree, that-every time my heels went up and my head went down, I thought I was on the point of turning a somerset. Beside this, there were still more annoying causes of inquietude; and every once in a while a splash of water came down the open scuttle, and flung the spray in my face.

At last, after a sleepless night, broken twice by the merciless call of the watch, a peep of daylight struggled into view from above, and someone came below. It was my old friend with the pipe.

“Here, shipmate,” said I, “help me out of this place, and let me go on deck.”

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