Journey to Oxford

Description

"The ship was now drawing away from the land and pointing out across the round curve of the Pacific, behind us the last of the Gulf islands with the sun shining on its high bush hills and steep cliffs, beyond that again the blue line of the land, well down in the sea. I knew that last island and had sailed round it on a still summer day, a wild fearful place with a toll of two shipwrecks, and the break of seas on it day after day. It had been very warm and peaceful then, and the sail had hardly moved with the wind, and now it all looked very wonderful and beautiful. There are few people that have seen this country that do not want to look on it again."

John Mulgan (1911-1945) was a New Zealand writer, journalist, and editor. He is the author of Man Alone. Peter Whiteford is an associate professor of English at Victoria University-Wellington. He lives in Wellington, New Zealand.