Twenty years before the mast

by Charles Erskine

I rejoice and am made glad; aye! and I thank God that in my day my country’s flag, the Stars and Stripes, "Old Glory," has been borne by brave men, north, south, east and west, and by them waved in as high an altitude as any nation’s colors.

Mr. Charles Erskine,
The Author.
Photograph taken by F. Gutekunst, Philadelphia, in 1892.

TWENTY YEARS BEFORE THE MAST

WITH THE MORE THRILLING SCENES AND INCIDENTS
WHILE CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE GLOBE UNDER
THE COMMAND OF THE LATE ADMIRAL
CHARLES WILKES 1838-1842

by
CHARLES ERSKINE

With Numerous Illustrations

PHILADELPHIA:
George W. Jacobs & Co.
103 South Fifteenth St.
1896

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1890,
By Charles Erskine,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

To the Crew of the
Ship Universal
THIS BOOK IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY ONE OF THEIR SHIPMATES
THE AUTHOR

Every man is a valuable member of society who, by his observations, researches, and experience, procures knowledge for men. ⁠—Smithson.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

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		PAGE
	Old Glory	Frontispiece.
	Boundary Stone,	1
	Departure of the Expedition,	15
	Slaves Sleeping,	40
	Group of Patagonians,	41
	Patagonian Beauty,	42
	Terra del Fuegian,	46
	Diagram of Wave,	47
	Mock Suns,	51
	Mirage — the Peacock,	52
	Mirage — the Vincennes,	53
	Island of San Lorenzo,	56
	Southern Cross,	63
	Tahitian Girl,	72
	Native with Cocoanuts,	77
	Pago Pago Bay,	82
	A "Devil" Man,	86
	Native Throwing the Boomerang,	100
	Native Dance,	101
	The First Icebergs,	105
	Tabular Iceberg,	108
	The Vincennes in a Gale,	109
	Aurora Australis,	117
	The Albatross in the Hollow of a Wave,	125
	Inclined Iceberg,	127
	New Zealand Chieft	139
	A Fiji Beauty, One of Tanoa’s Daughters,	146
	Upper Town or Somer-Somer	149
	One of Paddy Connell’s Five Wives	149
	Cannibal Chief Vendovi,	152
	Fiji Chief Tui Levuka,	154
	Fiji Major Drummer,	159
	Fiji Drummer,	187
	Queen Emma, One of Tanoa's Wives,	191
	Kingsmill Idol,	199
	The Seaman's Bethel, Honolulu,	206
	Camp on Pendulum Peak,	223
	Hawaiian Temples and Gods,	226
	Flat-headed Squaw and Child,	234
	Celebration of the Fourth of July,	237
	Loss of the Peacock,	241
	The Vincennes on the Bar	246
	Eating Poe,	247
	Hawaiian Idol,	250
	The House Where I was Born,	303
	End-off	311
	FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
		BETWEEN PAGES.
	Mr. Charles Erskine	Frontispiece.
	Charlie Erskine,	6—7
	Map of the World	16—17
	Tahiti, the Gem of the Pacific	70—71
	Maleitoa, the Christian Chief	86—87
	Emma, Daughter of Maleitoa	88—89
	Natives Hailing the Re appearance of the Pleiades	90—91
	Corrobory Dance	100—101
	The Vincennes in Disappointment Bay	106—107
	Fiji Club Dance	144—145
	Massacre of Lieutenant Underwood and Midshipman Wilkes Henry	174—175
	Tanoa, King of the Fiji Islands	186—187
	Missionary Preaching to Natives	212—213